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Israel's Sea of Galilee to get desalinated seawater top-up![]() Jerusalem (AFP) June 11, 2018 The shrinking Sea of Galilee, the inland lake where Christians believe Jesus walked on water, is to be topped up with desalinated seawater, a government official said on Monday. A plan given cabinet approval on Sunday will pump 100 million cubic metres of water annually by 2022 into the lake in northern Israel's Galilee region, Yechezkel Lifshitz, deputy director general of Israel's energy and water ministry, told AFP. Last year Israel's water authority said the body of water, hit by years of dr ... read more |
Complex river networks sustain more resilient, diverse animal populationsWashington (UPI) Jun 13, 2018 River networks are dynamic places where change is a constant, but some networks are more complex and dynamic than others. New research suggests complexity works to the advantage of animal populations. ... more
S.Africa lifts state of disaster over droughtJohannesburg (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. ... 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 |
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 13 | Jun 12 | Jun 11 | Jun 10 | Jun 08 |
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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
Dogs can detect agricultural diseases earlyWashington DC (SPX) Jun 11, 2018 A study out of Florida International University evaluates the use of scent-discriminating canines for the detection of laurel wilt-affected wood from avocado trees. Julian Mendel, Kenneth G. Furton, ... 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
The Cambodian village on stiltsSiem Reap, Cambodia (AFP) June 5, 2018 Each monsoon the soaring stilts that hold up the houses of Kampong Phluk prove their worth, as the dusty Cambodian village is transformed into a deep waterway. ... 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 drought
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 |
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Nigeria's military urged not to add to oil pollutionWarri, Nigeria (AFP) June 7, 2018 Like many communities in southern Nigeria, the people of Okpare rely on the waters of the creeks that surround them for fishing and farming to survive. ... more
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
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 |
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Decades of satellite monitoring reveal Antarctic ice loss College Park MD (SPX) Jun 14, 2018
Scientists from the University of Maryland, the University of Leeds and the University of California, San Diego, have reviewed decades of satellite measurements to reveal how and why Antarctica's glaciers, ice shelves and sea ice are changing.
Their report, published in a special Antarctica-focused issue of the journal Nature on June 14, 2018, explains how ice shelf thinning and collapse h ... more |
What exclusion from Galileo could mean for UK Moscow (Sputnik) Jun 11, 2018
With the Brexit talks underway, the EU has recently announced its decision to exclude UK firms out of the Galileo satellite navigation system, citing legal issues about sharing sensitive information with a non-member state.
Reacting to the European Union's move, UK Brexit Secretary David Davis lashed out the European Commission, saying that it was "shooting itself in the foot just to prove ... 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 |
Scientists sustainably 3D print large objects out of cellulose Washington DC (SPX) Jun 06, 2018
Scientists have developed a way to sustainably 3D print large objects using cellulose, a feat previously complicated by a variety of scaling issues and environmental concerns.
Because cellulose is one of the most abundant commercially available compounds, material scientists have been trying to find ways to use it in additive manufacturing. But previous methods yielded too many toxic by ... 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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Self-healing material a breakthrough for bio-inspired robotics Pittsburgh PA (SPX) Jun 12, 2018
Many natural organisms have the ability to repair themselves. Now, manufactured machines will be able to mimic this property. In findings published this week in Nature Materials, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have created a self-healing material that spontaneously repairs itself under extreme mechanical damage.
This soft-matter composite material is composed of liquid metal dro ... 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 |
Samurai wasps could help orchard growers battle stink bug invasion Washington DC (UPI) Jun 06, 2018 For homeowners, the brown marmorated stink bug can be a smelly nuisance. For orchard growers, the invasive insects are a very expensive problem.
Researchers are hopeful they're close to a natural remedy: the samurai wasp, Trissolcus halyomorphae.
Thanks to the work of Hillary Peterson, a Penn State doctoral student, researchers in Pennsylvania are beginning to test the wasp's pot ... more |
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The true power of the solar wind Vienna, Austria (SPX) Jun 14, 2018
The planets and moons of our solar system are continuously being bombarded by particles hurled away from the sun. On Earth this has hardly any effect, apart from the fascinating northern lights, because the dense atmosphere and the magnetic field of the Earth protect us from these solar wind particles. But on the Moon or on Mercury things are different: There, the uppermost layer of rock is grad ... more |
'Monstrous' new Russian saber-tooth fossils clarify early evolution of mammal lineage Raleigh NC (SPX) Jun 12, 2018
Fossils representing two new species of saber-toothed prehistoric predators have been described by researchers from the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences (Raleigh, USA) and the Vyatka Paleontological Museum (Kirov, Russia). These new species improve the scientists' understanding of an important interval in the early evolution of mammals - a time, between mass extinctions, when the roles ... more |
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