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| December 31, 2013 |
 Antarctic ship passengers to be evacuated by Chinese helicopter: Russia Sydney (AFP) Dec 30, 2013 - Most passengers and some crew from a scientific expedition ship stranded off Antarctica will be evacuated by helicopter to a Chinese icebreaker if weather conditions improve, Russia said Monday. Authorities decided to resort to the helicopter evacuation after the Aurora Australis rescue icebreaker was forced to retreat in the face of freezing winds and snow showers 10 nautical miles from the ... more |  |
 Poll: Fewer Republicans, more Democrats say they believe in evolution Washington (UPI) Dec 30, 2013 - Fewer U.S. Republicans believe in evolution now than five years ago, with a Pew Research poll finding an 11 percentage point drop. In a poll of almost 2,000 Americans, 43 percent of Republican respondents said they believe humans have evolved over time, a drop from 54 percent in 2009, a Pew release said Monday. Sixty-seven percent of Democratic respondents said they believe in ev ... more |  |
 Chinese director blames tradition for breaking one-child rule Beijing (AFP) Dec 30, 2013 - China's top film director Zhang Yimou has said he violated the country's one-child policy because of the traditional belief that having multiple children would lead to greater prosperity, state media said. After months of rumours that he had fathered as many as seven children with several different women, Zhang issued an apology on December 1 acknowledging that he has two sons and a daughter ... more |  |
Major upsurge in Tanzania elephant poaching: official Dar Es Salaam (AFP) Dec 30, 2013 - Tanzania has been hit by a sharp upsurge in poaching, with at least 60 elephants killed in the two months since the government was forced to halt a controversial crackdown, a senior official said. This month Tanzania's President Jakaya Kikwete sacked four top ministers amid accusations that the anti-poaching drive - codenamed 'Operation Tokomeza', or 'Operation Terminate' - had led to secu ... more |  |
 Powerful cyclone bears down on western Australia Sydney (AFP) Dec 30, 2013 - A powerful cyclone packing expected winds of more than 200 kilometres an hour was threatening Australia's west coast Monday, forcing towns into lockdown and shutting iron ore operations. A red alert was issued for Port Hedland and South Hedland on Western Australia state's resource-rich but sparsely-populated Pilbara coast as the category three cyclone intensified offshore, forcing residents ... more |  |
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 Bird flu subtype re-emerges in Hong Kong: official Hong Kong (AFP) Dec 30, 2013 - An elderly man has contracted a mild form of bird flu in the first case of its type for four years, Hong Kong officials said on Monday. "We are now investigating a confirmed human case of influenza A H9N2, affecting a man aged 86," Leung Ting-hung, controller of the city's Centre for Health Protection, told reporters. H9N2 is an avian flu subtype that mainly affects ducks and chickens b ... more |  |
Flood displaces 18,000 in Indonesia Jakarta (AFP) Dec 30, 2013 - Around 18,000 people in western Indonesia have had to leave their homes after two rivers burst their banks and flooded thousands of houses, an official said Monday. More than 4,500 houses and 500 shops in the coastal town of Tebing Tinggi on Sumatra island have been inundated since Saturday, when the Padang and Bahilang rivers swelled after days of torrential rain, said National Disaster Man ... more |  |
Thousands evacuated as El Salvador volcano spews ashes San Salvador (AFP) Dec 30, 2013 - Some 2,000 people were evacuated in eastern El Salvador Sunday when the Chaparrastique volcano belched and spewed a column of ashes high into the sky. The 2,330 meter high volcano began erupting around 1630 GMT, and authorities suspended scores of flights across parts of the small Central American country. No victims were reported. The volcano belched for about 2.5 hours, the environment ... more |  |
 Mangrove forests march up Florida coast as killing frosts decrease Baltimore (UPI) Dec 30, 2013 - Mangroves, known to be sensitive to cold, have expanded dramatically on Florida's Atlantic Coast as the frequency of killing frosts has dropped, scientists say. Between 1984 and 2011, the Florida Atlantic coast from the Miami area northward gained more than 3,000 acres of mangrove forests, researchers from the University of Maryland and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in E ... more |  |
 Earth's crust was unstable in the Archean eon and dripped down into the mantle Mainz, Germany (SPX) Dec 31, 2013 - Earth's mantle temperatures during the Archean eon, which commenced some 4 billion years ago, were significantly higher than they are today. According to recent model calculations, the Archean crust that formed under these conditions was so dense that large portions of it were recycled back into the mantle. This is the conclusion reached by Dr. Tim Johnson who is currently studying the evo ... more |  |
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With few hard frosts, tropical mangroves push north College Park, MD (SPX) Dec 31, 2013 - Cold-sensitive mangrove forests have expanded dramatically along Florida's Atlantic Coast as the frequency of killing frosts has declined, according to a new study based on 28 years of satellite data from the University of Maryland and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, Maryland. Between 1984 and 2011, the Florida Atlantic coast from the Miami area northward gained ... more |  |
Field trial with lignin modified poplars shows potential for bio-based economy Zwijnaarde, Belgium (SPX) Dec 31, 2013 - The results of a field trial with genetically modified poplar trees in Zwijnaarde, Belgium, shows that the wood of lignin modified poplar trees can be converted into sugars in a more efficient way. These sugars can serve as the starting material for producing bio-based products like bio-plastics and bio-ethanol. The results of the field trial have been published in a scientific article in ... more |  |
Anxious wait for stranded Antarctic ship Sydney (AFP) Dec 29, 2013 - Passengers on a Russian research ship trapped in thick Antarctic ice faced an uncertain wait Sunday for one last icebreaking attempt with no guarantees of success. The MV Akademik Shokalskiy has been marooned by heavy ice since Tuesday about 100 nautical miles east of the French Antarctic base Dumont d'Urville, with two icebreaking ships so far failing in attempts to reach it. China's S ... more |  |
Final amnestied foreign Greenpeace activist leaves Russia Saint Petersburg (AFP) Dec 29, 2013 - The last of the 26 foreign Greenpeace activists who were detained after an Arctic protest left Russia on Sunday, the group announced, finally ending a saga that had caused global concern. Polish national Tomasz Dziemianczuk, 37, flew out from Saint Petersburg to Warsaw, Greenpeace said in a statement, following 25 other foreign activists who had all left by Saturday following a Kremlin amnes ... more |  |
5,000 polar bears expected to be born around New Year's Moscow (UPI) Dec 28, 2013 - The World Wildlife Fund for Nature says about 5,000 polar bears are expected to be born in the Arctic around New Year's. New Year's is the time of year when polar bears give birth in the Arctic, RIA Novosti reported. Every year on Dec. 29, the World Wildlife Fund for Nature celebrates a polar bear birthday to mark the period between December and January when polar bear cubs are b ... more |  |
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 Genetic discovery points the way to much bigger yields in tomato, other flowering food plants Cold Spring Harbor, NY (SPX) Dec 28, 2013 - Every gardener knows the look of a ripe tomato. That bright red color, that warm earthy smell, and the sweet juicy flavor are hard to resist. But commercial tomato plants have a very different look from the backyard garden variety, which can grow endlessly under the right conditions to become tall and lanky. Tomatoes that will be canned for sauces and juice are harvested from plants that s ... more |  |
500 local Chinese lawmakers resign in fraud scandal Hong Kong Dec 28, 2013 - More than 500 municipal lawmakers in one Chinese province have stood down following an electoral fraud scandal, as Beijing ramps up its sweeping anti-corruption crackdown, state media reported Saturday. The 512 municipal officials in China's central Hunan province resigned, were disqualified or dismissed after being caught taking bribes from 56 representatives of the provincial People's Cong ... more |  |
Debate erupts over plans to harvest burned timber in California San Francisco (UPI) Dec 27, 2013 - A proposal to salvage burned timber from a massive fire on 257,000 acres in California, including portions of Yosemite National Park, has ignited a debate. The U.S. Forest Service has submitted a plan to harvest dead trees on 29,648 acres of the Stanislaus National Forest, a move criticized by environmentalists who say salvage logging would disrupt the development of a complex post-fire ... more |  |
Extinction risk prompts ban on fishing for caviar-producing sturgeon Moscow (UPI) Dec 27, 2013 - Russia and other countries bordering the Caspian Sea say they've agreed to stop fishing black-caviar-producing sturgeon because the fish is close to extinction. Russia's Federal Fisheries Agency announced the ban, also agreed to by Kazakhstan, Iran, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, will begin Jan. 1 for one year and may be extended for as long as five years, RIA Novosti reported Friday. ... more |  |
China eases one-child policy, abolishes labour camps Beijing (AFP) Dec 28, 2013 - China's top legislative committee formally approved a loosening of the country's hugely controversial one-child policy on Saturday and abolished "re-education through labour" camps, state media reported. The decisions were taken by the standing committee of the National People's Congress, China's rubber-stamp parliament, at the conclusion of a six-day meeting, according to Xinhua news agency ... more | |
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