Category Archives: Seychelles

Cryptocurrency markets have recovered 5% over the past week, led by ether (ETH) alternatives solana (SOL) and polkadot (DOT).

Both blockchains native tokens outperformed the top 10 by market capitalization (excluding stablecoins). SOL gained roughly 22% in the past seven days while DOT rose 19%.

In fact, half of the top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies jumped more than 10% binance coin (BNB) by 15%; cardano by 13%; and XRP by 11%.

Bitcoin (BTC) and ETH were also in the green, up around 7% and 6% respectively. The total crypto market is now valued at over $1.27 trillion, up from $1.20 trillion last Thursday.

Despite the gains made by top altcoins, bitcoin dominance (which measures how much of the cryptocurrency market is BTC) has once more surpassed 45% its highest point since October when BTC was worth $61,000. At press time, BTC was changing hands for around $30,200. Ether has hovered around $2,000.

Other native tokens of crypto exchanges continue to stage impressive rallies alongside BNB. Platforms issue these tokens to reward holders. Seychelles-headquartered KuCoins (KCS) has done particularly well, up 42% over the past week, thanks to a hearty bounce on Wednesday.

KCSs price had nearly halved over the past month, dropping from almost $21 to $11.28. It now trades for $15. Meanwhile, Singapore-based Crypto.coms CRO token returned 15% in the past seven days.

Gains made by FTXs FTT and OKCoins OKB were more modest at 6%. Huobis HT traded flat while Bitfinexs Unus Sed Leo (LEO) bucked the trend and dropped 3%.

LEO is still up 30% year-to-date thanks to an advantageous seizure earlier this year of $3.6 billion BTC stolen from the platform in 2016. Cryptocurrency markets collectively lost 42% in that time.

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Markets Recover as Ether Alternatives SOL and DOT Outperform Top Tokens - Blockworks

VICTORIA, Seychelles--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The global cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin has released an extensive review of the platforms performance in the period of Q1 of 2022. The document outlines some of the major milestones the exchange achieved and highlights some general performance statistics.

The report indicates that KuCoins cumulative trading volume exceeded $1 trillion for spot and futures trading, with an average daily volume of over $11 billion. In terms of the daily peak trading volume, KuCoin Spot exceeded $9 billion, and Futures reached nearly $15 billion.

The exchange attracted nearly 6 million new registered users in 2022 Q1, up 491% year-over-year. Asia, the Middle East & Africa and Europe ranked the top 3 in terms of user growth. Asia led the statistics with user registrations up 1,503% year-over-year. The Middle East & Africa and Europe are up 300% and 219%, respectively. User activity has also increased significantly in 2022 Q1, with the number of active users increasing by nearly 451% year-over-year.

The KuCoin community has seen a considerable boost, with the Twitter channel gaining over 320,000 new followers, reaching a total of 1.6 million. KuCoin increased the number of its global communities to 23, including 580,000 community fans.

The release of the KCS Whitepaper on March 29 is stated to have heralded a new era in the development of the exchange. The KCS Whitepaper outlined token distribution percentages, the deflationary mechanisms involved, and the essence of the self-circulating ecosystem. The development of the KuCoin Community Chain, or KCC, will become an important booster for KCS. KCC, a decentralized public chain built by the fans of KCS and KuCoins fan communities, will expand the decentralized use case for KCS, including paying KCS as gas fees or resource consumption fees, staking KCS to empower liquidity mining, and more.

On the user experience frontier, KuCoin Earn has added stablecoins, major coins and new projects in 35 assets options. KuCoin has listed 44 promising crypto gems and 59 trading pairs in Q1 of 2022, 19 of them being world premieres.

KuCoin has also achieved traction in partnerships, establishing relations with the Xangle virtual asset information disclosure and data research platform. The exchange partnered with Blocktopia, founding its first virtual office in the metaverse. KuCoin Labs has been expanding its investment footprint in Q1, including investments in nine crypto-native projects and the subscription of two crypto private equity funds amounting over ten million. KuCoin Labs also announced a strategic investment in MojitoSwap, the biggest DEX build on KCC.

With its team of talent nearing 1,000 personnel distributed across the world, up by over 200, KuCoin has performed well throughout Q1 of 2022. The data evidenced in the recent Into The Cryptoverse Reports released by KuCoin covering Germany, Turkey, and Africa also suggests that the exchange expects higher adoption and user engagement rates for the rest of 2022, despite the onset of the crypto winter.

About KuCoin

Launched in September 2017, KuCoin is a global cryptocurrency exchange with its operational headquarters in Seychelles. As a user-oriented platform with focus on inclusiveness and community action reach, it offers over 700 digital assets, and currently provides spot trading, margin trading, P2P fiat trading, futures trading, staking, and lending to its 18 million users in 207 countries and regions.

In 2022, KuCoin raised over $150 million in investments through a pre-Series B round, bringing total investments to $170 million with Round A combined, at a total valuation of $10 billion. KuCoin is currently one of the top 5 crypto exchanges according to CoinMarketCap. Forbes also named KuCoin one of the Best Crypto Exchanges in 2021. In 2022, The Ascent named KuCoin the Best Crypto App for enthusiasts.

To find out more, visit https://www.kucoin.com.

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KuCoin Reports 491% YoY New Users Growth in Its Q1 2022 Review - Business Wire

The 9th edition of the Africities Summit has been launched today in Kisumu by His Excellency, Uhuru Kenyatta, President of the Republic of Kenya.Former Seychelles head of state, His Excellency Danny Faure also took part in the official ceremony in the presence of 3500 delegates from around the world and more than 2000 local authorities. For this event, Kisumu has set up an Africities Village at the Jomo Kenyatta Stadium and its surrounding areas in order to welcome participants and exhibitors from the four corners of the world.

During the 5 days, discussions will be held around the theme of the summit: The role of intermediary cities in Africa in the implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda and the African Union Agenda 2063. In line with the theme, Kisumu is the first intermediary city to host the event.

His Excellency, President Uhuru Kenyatta in his speech called on the participants of the summit to make it a questioning forum for the summit to be successful. He proposed a 12-point questioning framework based on how national central governments can support a mobilization of resources to unlock effective delivery service in intermediary cities. what strategies and policies are required to combat the threats of radicalization and terrorism especially in the urban areas including our intermediary cities and what legal and policy frameworks should be established so as to foster the robust and sustainable development of intermediary cities among other questions.

Time is ripe for scaling up the role of intermediary cities as the next frontiers of African urbanization and development. An unprecedented rate of urbanization has seen 1086 intermediary cities become home to 174 million people representing 36% of our continents total urban population and contributing about 40% of our continents GDP. As we convene to deliberate on how we can establish a shift towards a new urban paradigm and unleash the potential of intermediary cities in fostering inclusive development and the realization of our SDGs and all other socio economic development initiatives we must keep in mind that Africa is becoming increasingly urbanized. The traditional rural focus within development plans risks marginalizing a growing section of our population which will soon be the majority,said His Excellency Uhuru Kenyatta, President of Kenya.

Local governments play a key role in the achievement of Agenda 2030 and SDG 13 through ensuring a paradigm shift towards low-emission and climate-resilient development pathways. Cities produce between 71% and 75% of total greenhouses gas emissions (GHG). In this regard, despite increasing levels of attention and action on climate change at city scales, much of this activity is largely decoupled from national policy framework. UCLG Africa position on climate is that the battle against climate change will be lost or won in cities and territories. UCLG Africa advocates for territorialization of NDCs and the adoption of a bottom-up approach to their definition, starting from locally determined contributions (LDCs).

The reality of our continent is reflected in the way we treat our intermediary cities. Intermediary cities are your key target of governance. Treat them well and they will treat African citizens well, treat them bad and we will fail in our progress,said Jean Pierre Elong Mbassi, Secretary General of UCLG Africa.

A dialogue between former head of states followed the official opening on financing infrastructure and urbanization in Africa to achieve the SDGs and the UN 2030 Agenda and the Africa Union Agenda 2063.

African Union High Representative For Infrastucture Development, Rt. Hon. Raila Odinga called for the establishment of an African Infrastucture Fund to fund the monetary deficit needed to build Africas infrastructure.

Africa needs 170 billion dollars per annum to be able to meet its infrastructure needs but has a deficit of about 110 billion dollars. We can work with several institutions to establish this fund because we have identified that Africa has idle capital such as sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and insurance funds. We are working towards tapping these resources to enable Africa fund its own development,he said.

Former President of Seychelles, His Excellency Danny Faure highlighted the need for bankable strategic infrastructure based on data.

It is important that we back up our interventions based on facts and data that shows us where we are in terms of development. The next step is to strategically choose the right infrastructure that will have the most effective impact on the continent and whose outcomes will be beneficial to our nations and populations. The approach on the continent concerning infrastructure needs to be co-ordinated and not fragmented,he said.

This first day of the summit was also dedicated to Diaspora. The African diaspora accounts for around 150 million people of African descent located in all the regions of the world. The African Union considers Africas Diaspora as the sixth region of Africa. Consolidating the relations between the Africa Motherland and its Diaspora and all the dimensions to give to these relations was at the heart of the discussions of the Diaspora Day. It is a key agenda to ensure the realization of the United Nations 2030 agenda and the African Union Agenda 2063. Its contribution to economic development is greater than public aid from international institutions. Also, a certain form of transmission of the Afro-descendant history gives rise to a great involvement of the new generations for a better knowledge of its identity but also an active participation in the emergence of this continent.

Synergy needs to be developed between the diaspora and the local population and local authorities need to set up programs in which the diaspora can concretely participate in for the development of the continent at local, national and continental level to make the continent shine internationally.

One of the best illustrations of the reality and weight of African Diaspora, is Ms Lupita Nyongo, who is the first Goodwill Ambassador of Africities. In her official video, Ms Nyongo expressed how honored she felt to be the Africities Goodwill Ambassador for this Year Kisumu is my ancestral home and I have witnessed its potential first hand. It has so much to offer and I can finally see its vibrant energy being tapped with the radical leadership of its governor, my father Professor Peter AnyangNyongo. I could not think of a better place to come together to discuss tangible solutions for the challenges facing Africa and its intermediary cities than the Africities Summit. Over the next 5 days, you will participate in interactive sessions, you will hear from inspirational speakers, take workshops, implement projects and dream up the Africa we want to see. One where everyone has access to food, healthcare, education, housing, public safety and peace.

Tomorrow the main sessions will include Africities Trade and invest forum, Digital Day, Culture Day, and a series of assemblies of UCLG Africa Networks to elect their office bearers. These include: the General Assembly of The Network for Locally Elected Women of Africa (REFELA), the General Assembly of Network of young local elected officials (YELO), the Assembly of Territorial Coaches, the Assembly of Permanent Secretaries/ Executive Directors of National Association Of Local Authorities, the Assembly of the network of City Managers (Africa MAGNET); the Assembly of the network of City Chief Finance Officers (Africa FINET);the Assembly of the network of City Chief Technical Officers (Africa TECHNET) and the Assembly of the network of Human Resource Managers of African Local and Regional Governments (Local Africa HR-Net); the Assembly of Territorial Managers in charge of Decentralized Cooperation; the Assembly of the African Media For Development (MADEL).

PS: Dont miss the daily press conference at the venue at 8:30 AM. Venue: Africities Media Centre

Find all the information: Presentation / Program / Speakers on: http://www.Africities.org

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of United Cities and Local Governments of Africa (UCLG Africa).

Download more images:https://bit.ly/3wl5QCy

Press contact: [emailprotected]

This Press Release has been issued by APO. The content is not monitored by the editorial team of African Business and not of the content has been checked or validated by our editorial teams, proof readers or fact checkers. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

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9th Africities Summit: Official Opening of the 9th Edition of the Africities Summit - African Business

KuCoin, a leading cryptocurrency exchange, has raised $150 million in a pre-Series B funding round led by Jump Crypto, the investment arm of US proprietary trading firm, Jump Trading, to further its Web3 presence and offerings.

This funding round also saw the participation of other investment funds, including Circle Ventures, IDG Capital, and Matrix Partners. This is the exchanges second funding round since its $20 million series A round. With this current new funding, KuCoin reaches a valuation of $10 billion.

KuCoin provides a comprehensive platform of crypto services to a global audience, which is one of the many reasons were proud to lead this round. We are pleased to support the company as it continues to grow and expand its offerings in futures and margin trading, lending, staking, and passive yield generation to support the growth of Web 3.0 and the crypto markets, said Tak Fujishima, Head of Asia, Jump Crypto.

The 4-year-old exchange with its operational headquarter in Seychelles has been on a steady rise since its inception, going from being the 49th largest exchange in 2018 to now being the 5th largest exchange based on trade volume, according to CoinMarketCap. It has also amassed 18 million users in over 200 countries and regions.

Growing from being just an exchange platform, KuCoin has also expanded into 2 financial investment arms called KuCoin Labs and KuCoin Ventures.

According to the exchange, this new funding will be used to expand its services beyond centralized trading and grow its presence in Web3 and its decentralized ecosystem. With this funding, it will broaden its portfolio with crypto wallets, GameFi, DeFi, NFT platforms, and DAOs through its investment arms.

With growing interest in Web3, metaverses, and blockchain technology, KuCoin is further staking its claim in the future of the decentralized web with this latest funding and intended projects. This comes months after the exchange, through its NFT marketplace, Windvane, launched a $100 million Creators Fund to support and incubate early-stage NFT projects.

KuCoin prides itself on being the peoples exchange, offering over 700 cryptocurrencies on its exchange, listing tokens with small to mid-sized market cap and with low trading fees. With this current push into Web3, itll live up to this reputation by banking on Web3s decentralization and openness to further its goal to make crypto and DeFi services available to anyone, anywhere.

According to KuCoins CEO, Johnny Lyu, The vote of confidence from prominent investors, including Jump Crypto and Circle Ventures, solidifies our vision that one day, everyone will be with crypto. KuCoin is built for all classes of investors, and we believe these new investors and partners will contribute to making KuCoin synonymous with a reliable and trustworthy gateway into the crypto space.

KCC, the public chain jointly built by members of the KuCoin community and KCS fans, will be a useful infrastructure to deploy resources towards these new Web3 projects and create a decentralized ecosystem.

KuCoin also plans to leverage this pre-series B funding to improve its global regulation efforts, build its core trading system for better performance, and enhance its security and risk management systems to make the platform more secure and accessible for users. It expects to launch decentralized wallet products later in the second quarter of 2022.

About KuCoin

Launched in September 2017, KuCoin is a global cryptocurrency exchange with its operational headquarters in Seychelles. As a user-oriented platform with a focus on inclusiveness and community action reach, it offers over 700 digital assets, and currently provides spot trading, margin trading, P2P fiat trading, futures trading, staking, and lending to its 18 million users in 207 countries and regions.

In 2022, KuCoin raised over $150 million in investments through a pre-Series B round, bringing total investments to $170 million with Round A combined, at a total valuation of $10 billion. KuCoin is currently one of the top 5 crypto exchanges according to CoinMarketCap. Forbes also named KuCoin one of the Best Crypto Exchanges in 2021. In 2022, The Ascent named KuCoin the Best Crypto App for enthusiasts.

To find out more, visit the website.

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KuCoin Raises $150 Million to Further its Exploration into Web3. - TechCabal

In partnership with Island Innovation, Clinton Global Initiative named the USVI-based nonprofitIsland Green Living Associationthe Sustainable Company of the Year during the inauguralIsland Innovation Awardsceremony held recently (view recordinghere, 46.45-minute mark).

Chosen from among hundreds of entrants in 12 categories, the award was presented to Harith Wickrema, president of Island Green Living, by James Robinson, program manager for Clinton Global Initiative.

The Sustainable Company of the Year award recognizes an island-based organization that promotes sustainable solutions for their island and has introduced new and/or improved ecological goods, services, or strategies to help island communities become more sustainable, according to a press release announcing the award.

Judges include former President of the Republic of Seychelles James Michel; UN Secretary-General Special Envoy for the Ocean Peter Thompson; former President of the Republic of Kiribati Anote Tong; and a host of leaders in the academic, environmental, political and nonprofit worlds.

We are grateful to have this platform to extend our toxic sunscreen and other sustainable messages to a global audience. Being chosen as Sustainable Company of the Year from among the very deserving nominees is a testament to our amazing and committed staff, volunteers, and board members, said Wickrema in the press release. We thank Clinton Global Initiatives and Island Innovation for the recognition. It is our hope that our achievements will serve as inspiration to others to preserve our Earth.

When presenting the award, the Clinton Global Initiative representative cited Island Green Livings 18-year mission of turning what many would consider waste into a resource. The nonprofit got its start as Island Green Building Association with the mandate to promote green building and salvage used construction material to ensure sustainable development. In 2014, due to many environmental challenges such as overflowing landfills, accelerated coral damage due to toxic sunscreen, lack of recycling, etc., its scope was expanded to encompass all aspects of sustainable living and was rebranded Island Green Living Association.

Most recently, Island Green Living introduced the Ocean-Bound Plastics Recycling Program through a partnership with PADNOS, a Michigan-based, family-owned recycling company, the first such program on St. John, which has so far crushed 3,400 pounds of plastics since late February. It complements the organizations aluminum can recycling program, which has crushed 1.3 million cans to date; brush chipping program, which has processed 4,500 cubic yards of green and brown debris; and ReSource Depot thrift shop, which has kept nearly 700,000 pounds of material from the overburdened landfill.

The organizations advocacy campaigns have successfully banned toxic sunscreen containing the Toxic 3 Os of oxybenzone, octinoxate, octocrylene, plastic bags, straws, and the burning of vegetative debris in the territory while advancing awareness and education about these vital issues. The Ban the Burn campaign has contributed to the territorys excellent air quality, among only three places in the world meeting the WHOs clean air standards. In addition to the Sustainable Company of the Year award, Island Green Livings efforts have earned numerous accolades, including an EPA Environmental Champion Award in 2017 and a Clinton Global Initiative Commitment to Action designation in 2020.

Island Green Livings programs are made possible through the generous support of donations. Tax-deductible contributions can be made at https://islandgreenliving.org/donate/or by mail at 5000 Estate Enighed PMB #38, U.S. Virgin Islands, 00830. Phone: 340-473-7870;info@islandgreenliving.org.

Established in 2004, Island Green Living Association is a registered 501 (c)(3) not-for-profit organization on St. John dedicated to sustainability throughout the USVI. Visit http://www.islandgreenliving.org.

Continued here:

Island Green Living Named Sustainable Company of the Year by Clinton Global Initiative & Island Innovation - St, Thomas Source

I grew up listening to stories about my mum's childhood in the Seychelles Islands. I loved hearing about the gardens filled with mango trees, gigantic tortoises and fish caught from the verandah, just as much as I loved listening to the loud and joyful creole language that flowed through the house when family came to stay. But most of all, I loved sitting down to the big pot of red-lentil dahl that my mum cooked for us every week.

My granddad moved his family to the Seychelles in the late 1960s after learning about the African archipelago from one of his taxi passengers back in Perth. A childhood on the islands ensured that my mum left with some essential Seychelles skills: the local Creole language, the ability to crack open coconuts on rocks and the perfect recipe for Seychellois dahl.

In the Seychelles, red-lentil dahl, orlantiy,usually accompanies a spread of grilled fish, rice and salad. The dish is prepared by cooking red split lentils down until they almost resemble a puree. The flavour is enhanced with garlic, ginger and a generous pinch of salt. Sometimes, a bit of fresh coconut is grated on top. Like most Seychellois dishes, the dahl is born of the island's colourful heritage, being an amalgamation of French, East African and Indian cuisines.

For my mum, red-lentil dahl brings up memories of weeknight dinners in the Seychelles that involved buying packets of fish strung together with palm leaves from the local fishermen on the beach. The fish, usuallykarang(trevally),bourzwa(red-emperor snapper) ormakro(mackerel), were stuffed with garlic, chilli and ginger, and grilled whole. A green-mango salad dressed with lime juice, some rice and a helping of dahl completed the spread.

"Most of all, I loved sitting down to the big pot of red lentil dahl that my mum cooked for us every week."

In Perth, we ate red-lentil dahl with fish caught by my dad on the other side of the same ocean. I eagerly mixed heaped spoonfuls of dahl into my rice and forgot about the freshly caught whiting on the table. Years later, I learnt how to cook the dahl myself and slowly began varying the dish.

For my mum, the best version of the dahl is the simplest, but I enjoy adding a few extra ingredients to the meal: chopped-up potatoes, a handful of cherry tomatoes, lots of spinach, coriander and a dollop of Greek yoghurt on top turns the dish into something more than just a side dish. This version of the dahl travelled with me to France where, with my last few euros, I made pots of it in tiny hostel kitchens and served it with thick slices of bread from the boulangerie. When I moved out of home and began hosting dinner parties, my friends quickly came to expect a big pot of dahl to be waiting for their arrival.

My mum's family fled the Seychelles Islands during the 1979 coup d'etat, and while her father and brother eventually returned to make a life there, she did not. Our family has visited the islands over the years, but I know that she would've liked my brother and me to experience more of her childhood home than we did. However, her weekly pot of dahl has been enough to transport us all back to the Seychelles.

These days, I make the dahl more than my mum does, but it's become a meal that means a lot to us both.

Love the story? Follow the author here:@tenealzuvelawriter

Photographs by Teneal Zuvela

This red-lentil dahl is a traditional Seychellois side dish that's served with fish, rice and salad. Every family will make their red-lentil dahl slightly differently, and this is the way that my family makes theirs.

Serves4-5

Ingredients

Method

Note

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Seychelles dahl: The Creole recipe that is a family favourite - SBS

The Commission of the European Union has recognized the digital COVID-19 certificates of Indonesia, Seychelles and Vietnam as equivalent to the EU COVID Certificates issued by authorities in EU countries.

Such a decision has been confirmed through a statement published by the Commission of the European Union and comes in an effort to ease the travel process further, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

The new changes mean that passengers from these three countries mentioned above will be permitted to enter the bloc under the same rules as those who hold EU Digital COVID-19 certificates.

With the accession of Indonesia, Seychelles and Vietnam, the number of countries and territories connected to the EU system has increased to 67. Moreover, in view of the summer, the EU certificate will facilitate the movement of Europeans within the EU and beyond. Therefore, while we are happy to see that the situation is improving, the certificate remains a useful tool for many destinations, for example, in case of testing requirements, the European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, pointed out in this regard.

According to the announcement published by the European Commission, the decision will take effect starting tomorrow, May 11.

Last month, the Commission of the European Union announced that it decided to accept the COVID-19 certificates issued by authorities in Colombia and Malaysia as equivalent to the EU Digital COVID Certificate.

As a result, these two countries are now being connected to the EUs system, and the EU will accept their COVID certificates under the same conditions as the EU Digital COVID Certificate. This also means that holders of certificates issued by Colombia and Malaysia will be able to use them under the same conditions as holders of an EU Digital COVID Certificate do, the Commission notes in a statement.

Previously, in two separate decisions, the Commission of the EU announced that it decided to recognize the COVID-19 certificates issued by Benin and Jordan as equivalent to the EU Digital COVID Certificate, permitting holders of such documents to enter the EU Member States under the same rules as those who hold the EU Digital COVID Certificate.

Authorities in the EU countries created the EU Digital COVID certificate in order to facilitate the travel process amid the COVID-19 situation in order to ease the travel process for holders of such documents.

Previously, it has been confirmed that over 1.7 million EU COVID Certificates have been issued by EU countries since June 2021.

Originally posted here:

EU Accepts COVID Certificates of 3 More Third Countries as Equivalent to the EU Digital COVID Certificate - SchengenVisaInfo.com -...

Culinary traditions of Seychelles

Seychellois cuisine is the cuisine of the Republic of Seychelles, an archipelago country consisting of 115 islands. Fish plays a prominent part in country's cuisine[1] because of its location in the Indian Ocean. The Seychelles's cuisine has been influenced by African, British, French, Spanish, Indian and Chinese cuisines.[2][3]

The use of spices such as ginger, lemongrass, coriander and tamarind are a significant component of Seychellois cuisine.[3] Fresh fish and fruits are sold by street vendors in various places.[1]

Staple foods include fish, seafood and shellfish dishes, often accompanied with rice.[1][3] Fish dishes are cooked in several ways, such as steamed, grilled, wrapped in banana leaves, baked, salted[4] and smoked.[1] Curry dishes with rice are also a significant aspect of the country's cuisine.[3][5]

Additional food staples include shark, breadfruit, mangoes and fish.[2]

Coconut water and fresh juices are some of the beverages in Seychellois cuisine.[1] Alcoholic drinks include the palm wine calou (or kalou), bakka rum and beers produced in the country such as Seybrew and Eku.[1][2] Wine is obtainable at most Seychelles restaurants.[1]

There are a multitude of restaurants in the Seychelles with a diverse variety of styles, from casual to fine dining.[1][2]

The Indian Ocean Tuna company's processing plant is one of the largest tuna canneries in the world.[1] It is located in Victoria, Seychelles.[1]

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Seychellois cuisine - Wikipedia

By Shaun HurrellHeader image: With its pole-to pole migration, the Arctic Tern is a symbol of BirdLifes international collaboration Agami/Shutterstock

Every organisation has milestone moments that mark when its ideas first took flight, and BirdLife is no exception. Some may live on as golden anecdotes in the memories of long-term staff who have seen action on the frontline of conservation, but others may now only be documented in old newspapers and history books but even the foreword of the Handbook of the Birds of the World, a full 62 pages that narrate the growth of BirdLife from a council of experts to everybodys global partnership, doesnt quite capture all of BirdLifes history.

Last issue we told the story of how BirdLife was born exactly one century ago. Back then, the visionary conservationists that came together to found the International Committee for Bird Preservation (ICBP) may not have quite imagined the international movement BirdLife would become and what it would achieve for birds, habitats and people. BirdLifes conservation work today can be split into four pillars: species, sites, systems and society key approaches to preserving nature that have been the heart and soul of our conservation work since 1922.

Underlying these are the principles that conservation action must be informed by scientific insight, and that birds see no borders thus international collaboration is key to their protection. And so over the years BirdLife has perfected the art of local-to-global impact with a suite of extraordinary projects and programmes that work towards a vision of a world in harmony with nature.

Some flagship achievements stand out in this ever-evolving story, including BirdLifes first land acquisition in Seychelles, the formation of the European Unions Natura 2000 network (which was in significant part based on BirdLifes inventories of Important Bird & Biodiversity Areas, or IBAs), the launch of the Preventing Extinctions Programme and its pivotal projects to save species, the creation of the Albatross Task Force as a response to seabirds drowning in fishing gear, and the establishment of completely new NGOs such as Asity Madagascar, Burung Indonesia, SAVE Brasil and NatureLife Cambodia, thanks to our capacity building work. It would be impossible to mention all of BirdLifes top moments, so here are just a few that really capture the aforementioned principles, or the spirit of the organisation.

Read more:

The Spirit of BirdLife - BirdLife International

Satellite images capture twin Cyclonic Storm over the Indian Ocean

Monday, May 09: Last week, as a cyclonic circulation started to take shape near the Andaman Sea, meteorologists began to warn the potential impacts on the eastern coast of India. On Sunday, the system intensified into a Severe Cyclonic Storm! Still, the threat to the coast appears minimal as it is expected to weaken into a deep depression by Wednesday while recurving along and off the Odisha coast.

Meanwhile, its twin has emerged over the southern parts of the Indian Ocean over the weekend. The storm has been named Cyclone Karim, based on the suggestion from the East African country Seychelles. The cyclone is currently a category two hurricane with a wind speed of 112 kmph gusting at nearly 140 kmph.

On the other hand, Cyclone Asani has remained a Severe Cyclonic Storm on Monday with wind speeds of 100-110 kmph gusting to 120 kmph, as per the India Meteorological Department (IMD). It lies roughly 500 km southeast of Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and is expected to move towards the Odisha coast by Tuesday. By Wednesday, it will recurve and move along the Odisha coast while weakening into a cyclonic storm.

Twin tropical cyclones spinning in opposite directions north and south of the equator are not new!

Cyclone Fani formed over the Bay of Bengal in April 2019 along with Tropical Cyclone Lorna over the southern Indian Ocean. While Fani turned into an extremely severe cyclonic storm with a maximum wind speed of 250 kmph, Lorna was a Category 1 hurricane and could attain a maximum of 70 kmph.

Such twin tropical cyclones resemble mirror images of each other, spinning at roughly the same longitude but in opposite directions, as seen in the satellite images. Such events are also common in the western Pacific Ocean. They don't happen in the eastern Pacific or Atlantic Basins because tropical cyclones do not occur in lower latitudes south of the equator there.

Winds around low-pressure systems spin clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere but counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere due to the Coriolis effect a force caused by Earth's rotation that deflects winds to the left in the Southern Hemisphere and to the right in the Northern Hemisphere.

Similar to 2019, the instigator of this pair of cyclones was the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO), a disturbance near the tropics that moves east around the globe every 30 to 50 days. Westerly winds over the equator line on the Indian Ocean have been strong past several days, likely due to MJO. Such strong westerly winds over the equator line can sometimes induce cyclonic circulations and lead to the simultaneous formation of cyclones over the Northern hemisphere and Southern hemisphere, called Twin Cyclones.

"We usually see the twin cyclones develop following the passage of the convectively-active phase of the MJO," explains Dr Michael Ventrice, an atmospheric scientist at The Weather Company, an IBM Business. Ventrice said the MJO primes the environment for tropical cyclone development thanks to large gyres of low-pressure left behind from enhanced thunderstorms near the equator and enhanced areas of spin north and south of the equator from low-level westerly winds.

When these twin storms are close to each other, i.e., within 1000 km, they even interact with each other. However, Asani and Karim are unlikely to interact because the distance between them is more than 2800 km.

The Indian Ocean has a year-round Cyclone Season. The tropical cyclone season in the northern Indian Ocean, which includes the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea, is quite unusual, with two peaks one from April to June and the second from September to December. However, the cyclone season over the southwest Indian Ocean basin peaks between November and April, making Karim quite an exception.

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Originally posted here:

Twin Cyclones Asani and Karim Form Over Indian Ocean; Satellite Images Capture Twins on Opposite Sides of Equator | The Weather Channel - Articles...