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  Longyearbyen (AFP) March 2, 2018 Designed to withstand a nuclear missile hit, the world's biggest seed vault, nestled deep inside an Arctic mountain, is undergoing a makeover as rising temperatures melt the permafrost meant to protect it. Dubbed the "Noah's Ark" of food crops, the Global Seed Vault is buried inside a former coal mine on Svalbard, a remote Arctic island in a Norwegian archipelago around 1,000 kilometres (650 miles) from the North Pole. Opened in 2008, the seed bank plays a key role in preserving the world's gene ... read more |
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Cuban cigars: a treasure from Havana to BeijingPinar Del Rio, Cuba (AFP) March 2, 2018 When they rip the big green leaves from the tobacco plant, Cuban farmers know they're touching gold. ... more  
Hidden 'rock moisture' could be key to understanding forest response to droughtAustin TX (SPX) Mar 01, 2018 Research conducted by The University of Texas at Austin and University of California, Berkeley has found that a little-studied, underground layer of rock can hold significant amounts of water that m ... more  
Italy, China propose solution to Lake Chad's water problemAbuja (AFP) Feb 28, 2018 It sounds like something from Wakanda, the futuristic African kingdom of the hit movie "Black Panther". ... more 
'Noah's Ark' seed vault chalks up a million crop varietiesLongyearbyen (AFP) Feb 26, 2018 Norway's 'doomsday' seed bank, which seeks to protect the world's crops from natural disasters, on Monday said it had gathered more than a million varieties as it marked its 10-year anniversary. ... more |
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IMF approves $206 mn aid to Sri Lanka after Cyclone Ditwah
Flights cancelled, roads flooded as rare storm soaks UAE Sri Lanka plans $1.6 bn in cyclone recovery spending in 2026 Brazil megacity Sao Paulo struck by fresh water crisis Indonesians reeling from flood devastation plea for global help Levee break near Seattle prompts evacuation order Flash flood kills dozens in Morocco town At least 20 dead in eastern Bolivia floods Press Release from Business Wire: Textron Inc. Flash floods kill 37 in Moroccan coastal town |
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| Previous Issues | Mar 03 | Mar 02 | Mar 01 | Feb 28 | Feb 27 |
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Berlin films journey into agribusiness wastelandsBerlin (AFP) Feb 24, 2018 From bulldozers ripping through virgin forests to planes spraying pesticides on village schools, documentary film-makers in Berlin are showing the high toll of modern industrial agriculture. ... more 
Combating sulphuric acid corrosion at wastewater plantsStyria, Austria (SPX) Feb 26, 2018 Wastewater systems are integral to infrastructure in every community. In an ideal world, they operate smoothly and are long-lasting. But biogenic transformation processes in sewage and water treatme ... more 
Chinese billionaire sees baguette goldmine in French fieldsThiel-Sur-Acolin, France (AFP) Feb 25, 2018 In the peaceful French village of Thiel-sur-Acolin, retired farmer Marc Bernardet is ambivalent about having a Chinese billionaire for a neighbour. ... more 
Crop-saving soil tests now at farmers' fingertipsPullman WA (SPX) Feb 26, 2018 Soil pathogen testing - critical to farming, but painstakingly slow and expensive - will soon be done accurately, quickly, inexpensively and onsite, thanks to research that Washington State Universi ... more 
Land use change has warmed the Earth's surfaceMunich, Germany (SPX) Feb 21, 2018 Natural ecosystems play a crucial role in helping combat climate change, air pollution and soil erosion. A new study by a team of researchers from the Joint Research Centre, the European Commission' ... more |
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 Macron eyes action against Chinese farm buyers  
Five dead, 15 missing in Indonesia landslideJakarta (AFP) Feb 22, 2018 At least five people have been killed and 15 are still missing after a landslide cascaded down the terraced slopes of a rice field on the Indonesian island of Java on Thursday, officials said. ... more  |
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Eleven missing, 14 injured in Indonesia landslideJakarta (AFP) Feb 22, 2018 Eleven people are missing and 14 have been injured following a landslide Thursday that cascaded down the terraced slopes of a rice field on the Indonesian island of Java, officials said. ... more 
Global grazing lands increasingly vulnerable to a changing climateMinneapolis MN (SPX) Feb 21, 2018 Some 800 million people around the world depend on livestock that graze on natural vegetation for their livelihoods and food security. In a good season, grasses and other plants flourish, supporting ... more
Farming crops with rocks to reduce CO2 and improve global food securitySheffield UK (SPX) Feb 21, 2018 Farming crops with crushed rocks could help to improve global food security and reduce the amount of CO2 entering the atmosphere, a new study has found. The pioneering research by scientists a ... more 
Pesticide traces in three-quarters of French fruit: reportParis (AFP) Feb 20, 2018 Almost three- quarters of fruit and more than two-fifths of non-organic vegetables contain traces of pesticide in France, with grapes and celery the most affected, a report said Tuesday. ... more 
Cape Town now faces dry taps by July 9Cape Town (AFP) Feb 20, 2018 Residents of drought-stricken Cape Town received good news Tuesday when city officials said they now face losing piped water to their homes by July 9 - a month later than last forecast. ... more |
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 Cape Canaveral AFS FL (SPX) Mar 03, 2018 
A newly launched satellite will augment the GOES-16 weather satellite and provide broad coverage with powerful new weather monitoring technology for meteorologists to provide life and property-saving forecasts. On Thursday, at 5:02 p.m. ET, NOAA's GOES-S weather satellite was launched aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 541 rocket and has successfully established communications.
NOAA's ... more |
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 Moscow (Sputnik) Feb 12, 2018 
The Pentagon and Israel's Defense Ministry have launched 'Urban Navigation Challenge', a startup competition to create advanced 'counter-terror' navigation systems which don't use GPS. The project makes no mention of officially designated US "rivals" like Russia or China, but according to Russian experts, it would make no difference even if it did.
The project, officially dubbed the Combat ... more |
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 La Esperanza, Honduras (AFP) March 4, 2018 
Honduran authorities said they have arrested an energy company executive allegedly behind the high-profile 2016 murder of prominent environmental activist Berta Caceres.
Police detained electrical engineer Roberto David Castillo Mejia "as the intellectual perpetrator" behind Caceres's murder, the prosecutor's office said in a statement Friday.
Officials said Castillo had served as CEO of ... more |
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 Durham NC (SPX) Feb 28, 2018 
Researchers at Duke University have created a framework for helping bioengineers determine when to use multiple lines of cells to manufacture a product. The work could help a variety of industries that use bacteria to produce chemicals ranging from pharmaceuticals to fragrances.
The research was published online the week of February 19, 2018 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sc ... more |
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 Lucknow, India (SPX) Feb 28, 2018 
Avaada Power Pvt. Ltd, India's leading clean energy company, has signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Uttar Pradesh to invest USD 1.55 billion in the state for developing 1,600 MW Solar Projects. The projects will be developed across Mirzapur, Badun, Gorakhpur and Bundelkhand districts.
With this investment, nearly 3,700 employment opportunities will be create ... more |
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 Sydney, Australia (SPX) Mar 02, 2018 
Windlab Limited has released its annual results for the 2017 year. Windlab delivered a strong financial result for 2017, and in doing so met its prospectus revenue forecast and exceeded its Net Profit Before Tax (NPBT) statutory prospectus forecast.
The Company achieved strong revenue and earnings growth. Revenue for the year grew 36% to $23.3M, excluding equity accounted profits from asso ... more |
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 Washington (UPI) Feb 20, 2018 
Coal will no longer be used as an energy source for Michigan residents as more renewables come on stream in the decades ahead, a utility company said.
Public utility company Consumers Energy, which provides gas and electricity to about 60 percent of the state population, said it would no longer be using coal as a power source by 2040. By then, the company said it expects more than 40 pe ... more |
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 Rebkong County, China (AFP) March 4, 2018 
Despite a few elbows to the face, Tsering pushed through the broil of Tibetan worshippers and lifted her bawling two-year-old over the mad crush, briefly pressing the girl's forehead to a passing sacred scroll.
Scores of monks and men heaved the enormous thangka - an image of Buddha painted on silk, rolled up in a tight cylinder while in transit - through the packed streets around Rongwo M ... more |
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 Barcelona (AFP) March 1, 2018 
Artificial intelligence could emulate human bias, including sexism, if there is no oversight on data used to create it, experts at the world's largest mobile phone fair in Barcelona warned Thursday.
"We're all very aware the machines will learn the same bias as those who coded them," Emma McGuiguan, in charge of technology at consultants Accenture, said at the Mobile World Congress.
AI i ... more |
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 Libreville (AFP) Feb 27, 2018 
Gabon on Tuesday accused Veolia of pollutingthe country as the government and the French company wage an increasingly bitter dispute in public over the cancellation of a contract for water and electricity distribution.
"There is considerable environmental damage at almost all of the sites exploited by SEEG," Communication Minister Alain-Claude Bilie By Nze told journalists, referring to the ... more |
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 Pekanbaru, Indonesia (AFP) Feb 21, 2018 
Indonesia was battling a rash of forest fires Wednesday as it raised an alert over the blazes which occur every year and emit choking smog that can envelop neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia.
Fires have broken out in four provinces - South Sumatra, Riau, West Kalimantan and Central Kalimantan - prompting them to declare "alert emergency" status, one notch below the most severe warning. ... more |
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 Abuja (AFP) Feb 28, 2018 
It sounds like something from Wakanda, the futuristic African kingdom of the hit movie "Black Panther".
But "Transaqua" is a very real proposal for a very real problem - how to replenish the shrinking waters of Lake Chad.
It imagines a 2,600-km (1,600-mile) canal from the Democratic Republic of Congo across the Central African Republic to meet the Chari River that feeds into the freshw ... more |
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 Boston MA (SPX) Feb 26, 2018 
The arrangement of a city's streets and buildings plays a crucial role in the local urban heat island effect, which causes cities to be hotter than their surroundings, researchers have found. The new finding could provide city planners and officials with new ways to influence those effects.
Some cities, such as New York and Chicago, are laid out on a precise grid, like the atoms in a cryst ... more |
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 Berlin (AFP) Feb 27, 2018  Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday said she saw "no violations" in a major investment by a Chinese billionaire in German car giant Daimler which has reignited concern over Chinese influence on European firms.
"We are open to trade partners and at first glance do not see any violations," Merkel told reporters in Berlin, days after Chinese billionaire Li Shufu bought a near 10-percent stake i ... more |
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 Greenbelt MD (SPX) Feb 26, 2018  A dramatic magnetic power struggle at the Sun's surface lies at the heart of solar eruptions, new research using NASA data shows. The work highlights the role of the Sun's magnetic landscape, or topology, in the development of solar eruptions that can trigger space weather events around Earth.
The scientists, led by Tahar Amari, an astrophysicist at the Center for Theoretical Physics at th ... more |
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 Washington (UPI) Mar 1, 2018 
Just when you thought tardigrades couldn't get any weirder, scientists discover an algae-eating water bear that lays tentacled eggs.
Tardigrades are the eight-legged micro-animals that appear both adorable and freakish, and have earned a reputation as the toughest animals on planet Earth.
Kazuharu Arakawa, a molecular biologist at Japan's Keio University, found the new tardigrade ... more |
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