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  Rome (AFP) Feb 21, 2019 The UN food agency on Friday warned about the threat to the future of the world's food production from a lack of biodiversity in the environment. In a report, the first of its kind by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), it said there was "mounting evidence that the biodiversity that underpins our food systems, at all levels, is declining around the world." That is putting food production and the environment "under severe threat," the FAO warned. "Once lost, plant, animal and micro-o ... read more |
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Germany launches push to halve food waste by 2030Berlin (AFP) Feb 20, 2019 Germany launched a drive Wednesday to halve food waste by 2030 as research shows every consumer on average throws away 55 kilogrammes (120 pounds) of edibles a year. ... more 
Cuban cigars hit record sales thanks to increasing Chinese demandHavana (AFP) Feb 18, 2019 Boosted by growing demand from China, sales of Cuban cigars reached a record $537 million in 2018, a seven percent increase over the previous year despite global laws against tobacco, the partially state-owned Habanos said Monday. ... more  
The race to save Myanmar's Inle LakeNyaung Shwe, Myanmar (AFP) Feb 19, 2019 Myanmar's famed Inle Lake has enchanted tourists for decades with its floating gardens and the graceful leg-rowing style of its fisherman, but experts warn the lake is drying up and urgent action is needed to avoid disaster. ... more 
Japan upgrades downpour forecasts before Tokyo 2020Tokyo (AFP) Feb 18, 2019 With an eye on the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Japanese researchers are developing a new system to accurately forecast torrential downpours - known in Japan as 'guerilla rainstorms' - 30 minutes before they strike. ... more |
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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 Philippines evacuates one million, woman dead as super typhoon nears Japan observes tiny tsunami following 6.7 magnitude quake Philippines evacuates hundreds of thousands as super typhoon nears Tornado kills six, injures 750 as it wrecks southern Brazil town Winds, rain lash Philippines as super typhoon nears Tornado kills six, wrecks town in Brazil |
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| Previous Issues | Feb 21 | Feb 20 | Feb 19 | Feb 18 | Feb 15 |
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After deadly clashes, Ivorian farmers and herders try dialogueBouna, Cate D'Ivoire (AFP) Feb 17, 2019 Gathered under the spreading baobab tree in Danoa town square, farmers and herders in a remote corner of Ivory Coast are finally talking about a dispute that has poisoned relations and destroyed lives. ... more 
Prickly pears: 'humble' cactus brings hope to AlgeriaSidi Fredj, Algeria (AFP) Feb 15, 2019 For generations Algerians like the Gueldasmi family have barely eked out a living growing prickly pear fruits, but thanks to the cactus's new found virtues their lives are steadily improving. ... more
Prickly pears: 'humble' cactus brings hope to AlgeriaSidi Fredj, Algeria (AFP) Feb 15, 2019 For generations Algerians like the Gueldasmi family have barely eked out a living growing prickly pear fruits, but thanks to the cactus's new found virtues their lives are steadily improving. ... more 
China imposes anti-dumping tariffs on Brazilian chickenBeijing (AFP) Feb 15, 2019 China announced anti-dumping duties on Brazilian chicken Friday, saying investigations had revealed that poultry imports had done "substantive damage" to the domestic broiler industry. ... more 
Tracking pollen with quantum dotsStellenbosch, South Africa (SPX) Feb 15, 2019 A pollination biologist from Stellenbosch University in South Africa is using quantum dots to track the fate of individual pollen grains. This is breaking new ground in a field of research that has ... more |
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 Carbonaceous chondrites provide clues about the delivery of water to Earth 
Scientists developed a method that allows removal of antibiotic residue from waste waterTallin, Estonia (SPX) Feb 14, 2019 In February the article "Metal-doped organic aerogels for photocatalytic degradation of trimethoprim" written by the researchers of two research groups (nanoporous materials and environmental techno ... more  |
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NASA is Everywhere: Farming Tech with Roots in SpaceWashington DC (SPX) Feb 13, 2019 Growing plants can be tough, whether you're on a spaceship or Earth. A special fertilizer made it easier for astronauts on the International Space Station and farmers down below, resulting in just o ... more 
Researchers provide new definition for major Indian monsoon seasonTallahassee FL (SPX) Feb 11, 2019 Toward the end of every year, the Northeast Indian Monsoon (NEM) batters southern India with torrents of driving rain, but climatologists have never precisely defined when the monsoon begins and end ... more 
Australia cattle giant warns of 'extreme losses' from floodsSydney (AFP) Feb 12, 2019 Australia's largest cattle company has warned of "extreme losses" after record-breaking floods, as producers said more than 300,000 cows were drowned or washed away in the vast continent's northeast. ... more 
On Lake Victoria, a green stain spreads across Africa's blue heartKisumu, Kenya (AFP) Feb 8, 2019 With nets piled onto wooden boats, a group of fishermen joke while gazing out across Lake Victoria and the vast green weed clogging up the waterway. But their laughter has a worried edge as the sun sets. ... more 
'Hundreds of thousands' of cattle feared dead after Australia floodsTownsville, Australia (AFP) Feb 8, 2019 Hundreds of thousands of cattle weakened from a severe drought are feared to have died in record-breaking floods in northeastern Australia, authorities said Friday, as they stepped up efforts to feed surviving livestock. ... more |
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 Greenbelt MD (SPX) Feb 22, 2019 
Work has begun on a new CubeSat mission that will demonstrate for the first time a new, highly promising technique for measuring soil moisture from space - data important for early flood and drought warnings as well as crop-yield forecasts.
The technology-demonstration mission, SigNals of Opportunity: P-band Investigation, will validate a remote-sensing technique called signals of opportun ... more |
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 Oslo (AFP) Feb 11, 2019 
Norway's foreign intelligence unit on Monday expressed renewed concerns that its GPS signals in the country's Far North were being jammed, as Oslo again blamed Russia for the "unacceptable" acts.
In its annual national risk assessment report, the intelligence service said that in repeated incidents since 2017, GPS signals have been blocked from Russian territory in Norwegian regions near the ... more |
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 Birmingham UK (SPX) Feb 20, 2019 
More than half of the carbon sink in the world's forests is in areas where the trees are relatively young - under 140 years old - rather than in tropical rainforests, research at the University of Birmingham shows.
These trees have typically 'regrown' on land previously used for agriculture, or cleared by fire or harvest and it is their young age that is one of the main drivers of this car ... more |
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 Gent, Belgium (SPX) Feb 11, 2019 
Besides the obvious longitudinal growth, plants also enlarge in the radial sense. This thickening of plant stems and roots provides physical support to plants, provides us with wood and cork, and plays a major role in sequestering atmospheric carbon into plant biomass.
The tissues responsible for this radial expansion are the vascular tissues which transport water and nutrients around plan ... more |
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 Manchester UK (SPX) Feb 12, 2019 
Scientists have created flags that can generate electrical energy using wind and solar power.
The novel wind and solar energy-harvesting flags have been developed using flexible piezoelectric strips and flexible photovoltaic cells.
Piezoelectric strips allow the flag to generate power through movement, whilst the photovoltaics is the best known method of harnessing electric power by ... more |
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 Zurich, Switzerland (SPX) Feb 07, 2019 
Sulzer and Schmid Laboratories AG reports it has launched a new highly competitive inspection platform. The company's new 3DX HD product has been developed as a cost-effective solution to cope with large volumes of high definition blade inspections.
Based on the compact and flexible DJI M-210 drone, Sulzer Schmid's latest innovation delivers high performance and fully autonomous drone insp ... more |
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 Zurich (AFP) Feb 20, 2019 
Mining giant Glencore pledged Wednesday to limit coal production and instead prioritise investment in other commodities as part of a move towards cleaner energy and transportation.
The decision by the one of the world's biggest coal producers comes as activist shareholder groups try to pressure companies to cut back on the major producer of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, a key driver of glo ... more |
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 Beijing (AFP) Feb 20, 2019 
Hundreds of mourners paid their last respects to Mao's former secretary Li Rui on Wednesday at a funeral that went against the final wishes of a man who became a bold critic of the ruling Communist Party.
Despite the dearth of public information on the time and place of the funeral, crowds lined up to see Li's casket, which was draped under the red Communist hammer-and-sickle flag at the Bao ... more |
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 Boston MA (SPX) Feb 20, 2019 
A novel system developed at MIT uses RFID tags to help robots home in on moving objects with unprecedented speed and accuracy. The system could enable greater collaboration and precision by robots working on packaging and assembly, and by swarms of drones carrying out search-and-rescue missions.
In a paper being presented next week at the USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Im ... more |
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 Wellington (AFP) Feb 21, 2019  The Pacific nation of Vanuatu has announced plans to ban disposable diapers in a move it says will significantly reduce pollution.
Foreign Minister Ralph Regenvanu announced the ban at a conference in Port Vila this week, saying plastic cutlery, polystyrene cups, plastic drinks stirrers and types of food packaging would also be outlawed.
He said research showed disposable diapers - or n ... more |
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 Seville, Spain (SPX) Feb 20, 2019 
Great forest fires are ever more frequent globally and their consequences more severe and destructive. Climate change and human activity are influencing the capacity of ecosystems and the life forms that inhabit them to recover from forest fires. However, the actions to recover the affected environment can be an opportunity to recover lost natural values.
It is estimated that globally ther ... more |
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 Washington DC (SPX) Feb 18, 2019 
Goliath grouper, black sea bass, and snapping shrimp, along with bioluminescent plankton and other microorganisms, are set to be the unlikely heroes of DARPA's Persistent Aquatic Living Sensors (PALS) program.
Five teams of researchers are developing new types of sensor systems that detect and record the behaviors of these marine organisms and interpret them to identify, characterize, and ... more |
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 Havana (AFP) Feb 4, 2019 
The number of people killed in the powerful tornado that ripped through part of Havana last week has risen to six, authorities said Sunday.
Public Health Minister Jose Angel Portal Miranda said in state media that "sadly, two people have died among the 13 who were in critical condition." The earlier death toll was four.
The storm which hit Havana area towns including Regla, Guanabacoa, ... more |
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 Sydney (AFP) Feb 19, 2019 
Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP on Tuesday reported a lower-than-expected US$3.73 billion half-yearly profit, as it warned of a softening Chinese market and growing trade rows.
The underlying profit for the six months to December 31 was eight percent lower than the US$4.05 billion recorded in the previous corresponding period, missing market expectations after a series of operational probl ... more |
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 Helsinki, Finland (SPX) Feb 20, 2019 
An international team of scientists led by a researcher from Trinity College Dublin and University of Helsinki announced a major discovery on the very nature of solar storms in the journal Nature Astronomy.
The team showed that solar storms can accelerate particles simultaneously in several locations by combining data from the Low Frequency Array, LOFAR, with images from NASA, NOAA and ESA ... more |
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 Frankfurt Am Main (AFP) Feb 17, 2019 
Germany plans an insect protection law to slash use of pesticides and pump tens of millions of euros (dollars) into research, a minister said Sunday, as global concern grows over mankind's impact on the crucial invertebrates.
"We human beings need insects, they deserve to be protected with their own law," Environment Minister Svenja Schulze told weekly Bild am Sonntag.
Her "action plan f ... more |
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