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S.Africa lifts state of disaster over drought![]() Johannesburg (AFP) June 13, 2018 The South African government said Wednesday that the national state of disaster it declared in March over a drought that ravaged parts of the country had lapsed after significant rainfall. The three-year drought hit Cape Town particularly hard, threatening to leave residents of the country's second largest city without drinking water. The government said it had conducted assessments which showed that the severe phase of the drought that affected agricultural production in a number of provinces w ... read more |
New system recovers fresh water from power plantsBoston MA (SPX) Jun 12, 2018 A new system devised by MIT engineers could provide a low-cost source of drinking water for parched cities around the world while also cutting power plant operating costs. About 39 percent of ... more
Organic insect deterrent for agricultureMunich, Germany (SPX) Jun 12, 2018 Traditional insecticides are killers: they not only kill pests, they also endanger bees and other beneficial insects, as well as affecting biodiversity in soils, lakes, rivers and seas. A team from ... more
Unusual Supreme Court tie hands victory to Native Americans, salmonWashington (AFP) June 11, 2018 A rare US Supreme Court deadlock on Monday is being hailed as a victory for the Pacific salmon and Native American fishing rights. ... more
Global warming will make veggies harder to findTampa (AFP) June 11, 2018 Global warming is expected to make vegetables significantly scarcer around the world, unless new growing practices and resilient crop varieties are adopted, researchers warned on Monday. ... more |
Philippines digs out from Typhoon Fung-wong as death toll climbs
Philippines digs out from Typhoon Fung-wong as death toll climbs to 18 Three Vietnam men survive 40 hours at sea after typhoon Typhoon Fung-wong floods Philippine towns, leaves 5 dead in its wake Typhoon Fung-wong leaves flooded Philippine towns in its wake Typhoon exposes centuries-old shipwreck off Vietnam port Weakening Typhoon Fung-wong exits Philippines after displacing 1.4 million Super Typhoon Fung-wong makes landfall in Philippines Over 1 million evacuate as deadly Super Typhoon Fung-wong nears Philippines Dam reservoir levels drop below 3% in Iran's second city: media |
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| Previous Issues | Jun 12 | Jun 11 | Jun 10 | Jun 08 | Jun 07 |
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Five things to know about the Bayer-Monsanto megadealFrankfurt Am Main (AFP) June 7, 2018 Bayer may have finally completed its hard-fought takeover of US seeds and pesticide maker Monsanto, but that is unlikely to silence critics who have dubbed the tie-up a "marriage made in hell". ... more
French beekeepers accuse Bayer after glyphosate found in honeyLyon (AFP) June 8, 2018 A beekeeping cooperative in northern France has filed a legal complaint against German chemicals giant Bayer after traces of the controversial weedkiller glyphosate were detected in batches of honey, officials said Friday. ... more
Hope and indifference in the shadows of Korean DMYeoncheon, South Korea (AFP) June 8, 2018 The way to rice farmer Choi Ki-joong's paddy fields goes through a military checkpoint where soldiers stand guard against nuclear-armed North Korea only a few kilometres away, a legacy of the war that stopped in 1953. ... more
'Water is life': Ivory Coast city struggles with crippling droughtBouake, Ivory Coast (AFP) June 6, 2018 "All that comes out of the tap right now is cockroaches," said Honorine Babalou, a 20-year-old textile worker. ... more
Tempers fray, fists fly in India's daily battle for waterNew Delhi (AFP) June 8, 2018 When the water truck finally chugged into the Delhi slum, there was a stampede. It is a scene repeated daily across India as temperatures rise and the vital resource gets ever scarcer. ... more |
![]() Nigeria's military urged not to add to oil pollution
Study suggests scientists can use microbial measurements to gauge river flowCorvallis OR (SPX) Jun 05, 2018 Oregon State University scientists have created a tool that can predict the flow rate of Arctic rivers with a surprising degree of accuracy based on the makeup and abundance of bacteria in the water ... more |
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Bayer to ditch Monsanto name after mega-mergerFrankfurt Am Main (AFP) June 4, 2018 German chemicals and pharmaceuticals giant Bayer on Monday said it will discard the name Monsanto when it takes over the controversial US seeds and pesticides producer this week, as environmental groups kept up their criticism of the mega-merger. ... more
Scientists boost crop production by 47 percent by speeding up photorespirationUrbana IL (SPX) Jun 05, 2018 Plants such as soybeans and wheat waste between 20 and 50 percent of their energy recycling toxic chemicals created when the enzyme Rubisco - the most prevalent enzyme in the world - grabs oxygen mo ... more
Alibaba shows off automated wine store in Hong KongHong Kong (AFP) May 29, 2018 With no shop workers or cash tills and payments made using facial recognition, China's largest e-commerce platform Alibaba created a fully automated wine store at Hong Kong's Vinexpo fair Tuesday. ... more
EU top court fines Italy over failure to treat sewageLuxembourg (AFP) May 31, 2018 The European Union's top court on Thursday fined crisis-ridden Italy 25 million euros for years of failure to treat urban sewage, warning of steeper fines with more delays. ... more
Food security in Cambodia faces threat due to hydropowerWashington (UPI) May 31, 2018 New dams for hydroelectricity are altering Cambodia's Mekong River, and could threaten fish migration, livelihoods and regional food security - and the predictable seasonal patterns that farmers and anglers depend on. ... more |
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GRACE-FO turns on 'range finder,' sees mountain effects Pasadena CA (JPL) Jun 13, 2018
Less than three weeks after launch, the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On (GRACE-FO) mission has successfully completed its first mission phase and demonstrated the performance of the precise microwave ranging system that enables its unique measurements of how mass migrates around our planet.
The twin spacecraft launched May 22 from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base. N ... more |
Woman drowns in Prague drains playing GPS treasure hunt Prague (AFP) June 10, 2018
A young woman drowned and a man is missing after they were caught inside Prague's drain system by torrential rains while participating in a global GPS-based treasure hunt, police said Sunday.
They were among a group of four people "geocaching" - using their smartphone's GPS to search for little treasures hidden all over the world - when the rapidly rising water from the storm trapped them ... more |
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'Shocking' die-off of Africa's oldest baobabs Paris (AFP) June 11, 2018
Some of Africa's oldest and biggest baobab trees - a few dating all the way back to the ancient Greeks - have abruptly died, wholly or in part, in the past decade, researchers said Monday.
The trees, aged between 1,100 and 2,500 years and some as wide as a bus is long, may have fallen victim to climate change, the team speculated.
"We report that nine of the 13 oldest... individuals ha ... more |
How to suck carbon dioxide from the sky for fuels and more Washington DC (SPX) Jun 11, 2018
Someday, the gasoline you buy might trace its heritage to carbon dioxide pulled straight out of the sky rather than from oil pumped out of the ground. By removing emitted carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and turning it into fresh fuels, engineers at a Canadian firm have demonstrated a scalable and cost-effective way to make deep cuts in the carbon footprint of transportation with minimal disru ... more |
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Flexible solar cells: Will they someday power your devices? Montreal, Canada (SPX) Jun 07, 2018
Will you ever be able to charge your mobile device, car and even clothing with flexible solar cells? Researchers at Aalto University in Finland and Universite de Montreal are studying whether the now-experimental technology could someday be mass-produced and commercialized, and some of the issues that have to be resolved, including the environmental impact.
For the electronic cells to be v ... more |
Cryptocurrency blowing in the wind as mine opens in Estonia Tallinn (AFP) June 1, 2018
A state-owned Estonian wind farm launched a cryptocurrency mine on Friday, hoping to cash-in on Mother Nature's unlimited supplies of power on a windswept Baltic Sea island, a company official said.
Mining virtual currencies, like bitcoin, ethereum or ripple, requires powerful computers that are voracious users of electricity, making it uneconomical to mine without a cheap source of energy l ... more |
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Rescuers save 23 workers trapped in China mine, 11 others dead Beijing (AFP) June 6, 2018
Rescuers pulled 23 workers out of a mine in northeast China on Wednesday, hours after they were trapped underground by an explosion that killed 11 and left two others missing, state media reported.
Nine other workers were injured in Tuesday's blast at the iron ore mine owned by Huamei Group, a subsidiary of China National Coal Group Co, in Benxi, Liaoning province.
The blast took place w ... more |
Tight squeeze for Hong Kong's young professionals Hong Kong (AFP) June 13, 2018
As housing prices spiral in Hong Kong, young professionals are living in ever-shrinking spaces, with box-like "nano-flats" and co-shares touted as fashionable solutions.
Blocks of sleek miniature apartments packed with mod cons are springing up around the densely packed city, pitched as an attractive and more affordable lifestyle choice, but still at an eye-watering cost.
Finance worker ... more |
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Cometh the cyborg: improved integration of living muscles into robots Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Jun 12, 2018
The new field of biohybrid robotics involves the use of living tissue within robots, rather than just metal and plastic. Muscle is one potential key component of such robots, providing the driving force for movement and function. However, in efforts to integrate living muscle into these machines, there have been problems with the force these muscles can exert and the amount of time before they s ... more |
EU Parliament to phase out plastic water bottles Strasbourg, France (AFP) June 12, 2018 The European Parliament has told its lawmakers and staff to set an example for EU citizens by no longer drinking water from plastic bottles by next year.
The European Parliament bureau headed by Antonio Tajani and 14 vice presidents adopted a measure late Monday to phase out the plastic bottles and build a network of drinking fountains.
"Happy to announce that the EP bureau has decided t ... more |
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Climate change increasing risks of lightning-ignited fires, study finds Portland OR (SPX) Jun 04, 2018
Fires ignited by lightning have and will likely continue to increase across the Mediterranean and temperate regions in the Southern Hemisphere under a warmer climate, according to a new study co-led by a Portland State University researcher.
The study, published online in May in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, examined the observed and forecasted relationship between lightning-ig ... more |
Gulf of Mexico 'dead zone' forecasted to exceed the size of Connecticut Baton Rouge LA (SPX) Jun 12, 2018
Scientists have predicted the dead zone, or area with little to no oxygen in the northern Gulf of Mexico, will become larger than the state of Connecticut by the end of July. The dead zone will cover about 6,620 square miles of the bottom of the continental shelf off Louisiana and Texas.
While there are more than 500 dead zones around the world, the northern Gulf of Mexico dead zone is the ... more |
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Landslide kills Rohingya boy as monsoon hits refugee camps Dhaka (AFP) June 11, 2018
A landslide triggered by heavy rain killed a three-year-old Rohingya refugee in Bangladesh, police said Monday, the first casualty of the monsoon as wild storms wreak havoc in the crowded camps.
The young child was crushed in his sleep early Monday when a mud wall collapsed onto his family's shanty in Kutupalong refugee settlement, local police chief Abdul Khaer told AFP.
"It was trigger ... more |
US launches another trade case against China Washington (AFP) June 12, 2018
US President Donald Trump's Commerce Department on Tuesday announced another trade action involving Chinese imports, with producers of steel propane tanks accused of dumping and unfair subsidies.
It is the latest in a series of disputes the Trump administration has taken up against Beijing, the largest of which are the looming 25 percent tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese goods amid complaint ... more |
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Expedition Measures Solar Motions Seen During Last Summer's Total Eclipse Williamstown MA (SPX) Jun 07, 2018
"During the August 21, 2017, solar eclipse, our dozens of telescopes and electronic cameras collected data during the rare two minutes at which we could see and study the Sun's outer atmosphere, the corona," reported solar astronomer Jay Pasachoff to the American Astronomical Society, meeting in Denver during June 4-7. Pasachoff, Field Memorial Professor of Astronomy at Williams College, discuss ... more |
Adding herbs to bird nests makes starlings better parents Washington DC (SPX) Jun 06, 2018
Starlings with aromatic herbs in their nest exhibit improved parenting behaviors, according to a new study by researchers at North Carolina State University.
For the study, scientists swapped out 36 natural starling nests for artificial nests. Half of the nests featured dry grasses and a combination of aromatic herbs, including milfoil, hogweed, cow parsley, black elder, goutweed and wi ... more |
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