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World Bank funds fight against Baghdad water woes![]() Baghdad (AFP) Feb 1, 2018 The Iraqi capital's decrepit water network will be overhauled under a $210 million World Bank project aimed at tackling chronic supply shortages and outbreaks of disease. Five million people are expected to benefit from the work, which includes steps to stop leaking sewer pipes contaminating Baghdad's water supply, the Bank said in a statement Wednesday. A 135,000 cubic metre reservoir will help the city cope with climate-induced droughts. Sewerage pumping stations will be modernised to redu ... read more |
EU seeks to give millions better access to drinking waterBrussels (AFP) Feb 1, 2018 The European Union proposed Thursday giving millions of people in the 28-nation bloc better access to safe tap water and reduce water consumption via wasteful plastic bottles. ... more
Vines from Napa, Bordeaux tough against heat, droughtWashington (AFP) Feb 1, 2018 Worry not, wine drinkers. Some of the world's most popular wines, grown in California's Napa Valley and the Bordeaux region of France, are more resistant to drought than previously believed, researchers have concluded. ... more
Learn to value your food, says Brazil's top chefSao Paulo (AFP) Jan 31, 2018 Brazil may produce much of the world's food as a commodities exporter but needs to pay more attention to its own taste buds, the country's top chef Alex Atala says. ... more
Tempers flare at Cape Town water collection pointCape Town (AFP) Jan 31, 2018 Tensions are mounting at a natural spring in Cape Town that is popular with residents forced to contend with water restrictions due to severe drought, the city council said Wednesday. ... more |
Death toll tops 100 as Philippines digs out after typhoon
Typhoon death toll soars past 90 in the Philippines Typhoon death toll climbs to 66 in the Philippines CORRECTED: Typhoon Kalmaegi kills 66 in Philippines: civil defence office Reeling from earthquakes, Afghans fear coming winter Typhoon flooding kills over 40, strands thousands in central Philippines Indonesia floods kill 15 Afghan govt says quake death toll rises to 27 Fierce mountain storms kill nine in Nepal Typhoon flooding kills 26, strands thousands in central Philippines |
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| Previous Issues | Feb 01 | Jan 31 | Jan 30 | Jan 29 |
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Fearless Philippine farmers defy volcano angerGuinobatan, Philippines (AFP) Jan 29, 2018 As blistering lava spews from the seething volcano nearby, Philippine farmer Jay Balindang leads his buffalo through the ash-strewn paddy fields of the no-go zone, creeping closer to danger in a desperate bid to support his family. ... more
Dairy sector trembles at EU powdered milk mountainHerstal, Belgium (AFP) Jan 25, 2018 Hundreds of thousands of sacks of powdered milk lie stacked on pallets in a warehouse on a nondescript industrial estate in eastern Belgium: part of a vast EU stockpile that is causing dairy producers sleepless nights. ... more
Panic and blame as Cape Town braces for water shut-offCape Town (AFP) Jan 24, 2018 For some residents of drought-stricken Cape Town, the prospect of the taps running dry is almost too much to bear. ... more
NOAA research helps predict snowpack before the snow even fallsWashington DC (SPX) Jan 24, 2018 As farmers in the American West decide what, when and where to plant, and urban water managers plan for water needs in the next year, they want to know how much water their community will get from m ... more
Ancient rice heralds a new future for rice productionBrisbane, Australia (SPX) Jan 25, 2018 Wild rice growing in northern Australia's crocodile-infested waters could help boost global food security, say University of Queensland researchers who have mapped its genetic family tree. Val ... more |
![]() Researchers reveal how microbes cope in phosphorus-deficient tropical soil
Root discovery may lead to crops that need less fertilizerUniversity Park PA (SPX) Jan 25, 2018 Bean plants that suppress secondary root growth in favor of boosting primary root growth forage greater soil volume to acquire phosphorus, according to Penn State researchers, who say their recent f ... more |
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Cape Town now faces dry taps by April 12Cape Town (AFP) Jan 23, 2018 As Cape Town suffers its worst drought in a century, residents were warned Tuesday that they face losing piped water to their homes on April 12 - a whole nine days earlier than predicted. ... more
New 'Buck' naked barley: Food, feed, brewWashington DC (SPX) Jan 19, 2018 Researchers at Oregon State University (OSU) are giving an ancient grain a new life: this barley is naked, but not in an indecent way. Most barley grains are covered rather than naked. Covered ... more
Egypt, Ethiopia united against 'conflict' over Nile watersCairo (AFP) Jan 18, 2018 Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said Thursday at talks in Cairo they were opposed to any "conflict" over the sharing of Nile waters. ... more
Clean and green: A moss that removes lead from waterTokyo, Japan (SPX) Jan 19, 2018 Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science (CSRS) in Japan have demonstrated that that moss can be a green alternative for decontaminating polluted water and soil. Published in ... more
Malaysia protest against EU push to ban palm oil in biofuelsKuala Lumpur (AFP) Jan 16, 2018 Hundreds of Malaysian palm oil farmers protested Tuesday against a push by the European Parliament to ban the use of the commodity in biofuels, saying it would devastate rural people's livelihoods. ... more |
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NASA's small spacecraft produces first 883-gigahertz global ice-cloud map Greenbelt MD (SPX) Jan 31, 2018
A bread loaf-sized satellite has produced the world's first map of the global distribution of atmospheric ice in the 883-Gigahertz band, an important frequency in the submillimeter wavelength for studying cloud ice and its effect on Earth's climate.
IceCube - the diminutive spacecraft that deployed from the International Space Station in May 2017- has demonstrated-in-space a commercial 883 ... more |
Airbus selected by ESA for EGNOS V3 program Paris, France (SPX) Jan 30, 2018
Airbus has been selected by the European Space Agency (ESA) as the prime contractor to develop EGNOS V3, the next generation of the European Satellite Based Augmentation System (SBAS) planned to provide the aviation community with advanced Safety of Life services and new services to Maritime and Land users.
Developed by ESA on behalf of the European Commission and the European GNSS Agency ... more |
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Three gunned down on Cambodian forest patrol: officials Phnom Penh (AFP) Jan 31, 2018
Three Cambodians patrolling a protected forest in the remote east were gunned down after seizing a chainsaw from illegal loggers, authorities said Wednesday, in violence highlighting the murky world of the country's timber trade.
A military officer, a park ranger and an employee of the prominent NGO Wildlife Conservation Society were shot dead on Tuesday as they were leaving Keo Seima Wildli ... more |
Bio-renewable process could help 'green' plastic Madison WI (SPX) Jan 29, 2018
When John Wesley Hyatt patented the first industrial plastic in 1869, his intention was to create an alternative to the elephant tusk ivory used to make piano keys. But this early plastic also sparked a revolution in the way people thought about manufacturing: What if we weren't limited to the materials nature had to offer?
Over a century later, plastics are an abundant part of daily life. ... more |
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Kyocera TCL Solar completes 21MW solar plant on repurposed land Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Feb 02, 2018
Kyocera Corporation and Tokyo Century Corporation report that Kyocera TCL Solar LLC has completed construction of a 21.1 megawatt (MW) utility-scale solar power plant in Hagi City, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. 78,144 Kyocera solar modules were installed on approximately 1km2 of land originally planned for the construction of an industrial waste disposal facility which was abandoned, then repurpo ... more |
Ireland pushing for greener economy Washington (UPI) Jan 31, 2018
The Irish government, despite what happens for Great Britain, is committed to the European Union's energy and renewable policies, the environment minister said.
"Ireland is now a world leader in integrating renewables onto the electricity grid," Irish Environment Minister Denis Naughten said in comments emailed Wednesday from a renewable energy conference in Dublin. "Whatever the final ... more |
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New York unveils plans for fossil fuel divestment New York (AFP) Jan 10, 2018 New York announced plans Wednesday to sell off $5 billion in fossil fuel investments from city pension funds after suing for billions of dollars in damages from oil companies to help fund protection against climate change.
While other cities in Europe and the United States have already taken similar steps, New York hailed its move as significant as it is the biggest metropolis in the country ... more |
Hong Kong democracy candidate cleared to run in fraught vote Hong Kong (AFP) Jan 29, 2018
A Hong Kong pro-democracy candidate has been given last-minute clearance to stand for election after public anger at government meddling in vote nominations, as Beijing increases pressure on the city's activists.
The decision to approve the nomination of Edward Yiu on Monday, hours before the deadline, came two days after fellow pro-democracy candidate Agnes Chow, 21, was barred from standi ... more |
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Let's make a deal: Could AI compromise better than humans? Provo, UT (SPX) Jan 23, 2018
Computers can play a pretty mean round of chess and keep up with the best of their human counterparts in other zero-sum games. But teaching them to cooperate and compromise instead of compete?
With help from a new algorithm created by BYU computer science professors Jacob Crandall and Michael Goodrich, along with colleagues at MIT and other international universities, machine compromise an ... more |
These bacteria produce gold by digesting toxic metals Halle, Germany (SPX) Feb 01, 2018
High concentrations of heavy metals, like copper and gold, are toxic for most living creatures. This is not the case for the bacterium C. metallidurans, which has found a way to extract valuable trace elements from a compound of heavy metals without poisoning itself. One interesting side-effect: the formation of tiny gold nuggets.
A team of researchers from Martin Luther University Halle-W ... more |
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NASA Covers Wildfires from Many Sources Greenbelt MD (SPX) Jan 25, 2018
NASA's satellite instruments are often the first to detect wildfires burning in remote regions, and the locations of new fires are sent directly to land managers worldwide within hours of the satellite overpass. Together, NASA instruments, including a number built and managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, detect actively burning fires, track the transport of smoke ... more |
Navy turns to ERAPSCO for sonobuoy support Washington (UPI) Jan 30, 2018
ERAPSCO has been awarded a contract for engineering support for the Navy's underwater active sonobuoys.
The deal, announced Wednesday by the Department of Defense, is valued at more than $9.6 million under the terms of a cost-plus-fixed-fee delivery and is a modification on a previously awarded contract.
The contract taps ERAPSCO for the procurement of engineering support service ... more |
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Reflective surfaces alleviate heatwaves Zurich, Switzerland (SPX) Feb 01, 2018
Climate change will make heatwaves more common, and continental areas and urban regions that become significantly warmer in summer will be particularly affected. Together with colleagues from Australia and the US, ETH researchers have now detailed a practical approach that combines clever land use and urban radiation management to help cool extreme summer temperatures locally. Their study has ju ... more |
British PM to visit China as Brexit looms Beijing (AFP) Jan 25, 2018
British Prime Minister Theresa May will visit Beijing next week, China said Thursday, as her country looks to bolster trade links ahead of its departure from the European Union.
The relationship between the two countries has grown in importance as London contemplates its economic future after it officially leaves the EU in March 2019.
May will be in China from January 31 to February 2 in ... more |
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What's behind the most brilliant lights in the sky Madison WI (SPX) Feb 01, 2018
Space physicists at University of Wisconsin-Madison have just released unprecedented detail on a bizarre phenomenon that powers the northern lights, solar flares and coronal mass ejections (the biggest explosions in our solar system). The data on so-called "magnetic reconnection" came from a quartet of new spacecraft that measure radiation and magnetic fields in high Earth orbit.
"We're lo ... more |
Indonesian orangutan 'beheaders' claim self-defence: police Jakarta (AFP) Feb 1, 2018 Two Indonesian men arrested for shooting an orangutan multiple times and then decapitating it before tossing the corpse into a river, have told investigators they acted in self-defence, police said Thursday.
The suspects, both rubber plantation workers on the island of Borneo, admitted they killed the critically endangered male Bornean orangutan whose headless body was found last month.
... more |
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