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| January 19, 2014 |
 Next 15 years vital for taming warming: UN panel Paris (AFP) Jan 17, 2014 - The next 15 years will be vital in determining whether global warming can be limited to 2C (3.6F) by 2100, with energy and transport presenting the heftiest challenges, according to a draft UN report. "Delaying mitigation through 2030 will increase the challenges.... and reduce the options," warns a summary of the report seen by AFP. The draft is the third volume in a long-awaited trilog ... more |  |
California declares drought emergency Los Angeles (AFP) Jan 17, 2014 - California Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency Friday due to what could be the western US state's worst drought in a century, which has sparked wildfires and hurt farmers. The declaration allows authorities to access federal help to battle the dry spell that has left huge swaths of tinder-dry forest vulnerable to going up in flames. On Thursday, a massive blaze raged just ... more |  |
 Easing conditions help Australian fire crews Sydney (AFP) Jan 19, 2014 - Easing conditions Sunday helped Australian fire crews battling major wildfires that destroyed 25 homes in the nation's southeast following a week-long heatwave, with warnings of a long and dangerous season ahead. Firefighters in South Australia and Victoria states said they had gained the upper hand over a series of blazes which started this week during a scorching heatwave that brought temp ... more |  |
 Cyclone June takes aim at New Caledonia, New Zealand Wellington (AFP) Jan 18, 2014 - A fresh tropical cyclone has formed in the Pacific region and was gathering strength as it headed south towards New Caledonia and New Zealand, forecasters said Saturday. A warning has gone out to all shipping in the path of Cyclone June to expect heavy swells and gale force winds. June, which formed in the Coral Sea near the Solomon Islands as a category one cyclone, was expected to ha ... more |  |
 Uruguay farmers set against open-pit iron ore mine Montevideo, Uruguay (UPI) Jan 16, 2013 - Uruguayan miners and environmentalists are increasingly set against President Jose Mujica going ahead with an open-pit iron ore mine's development, which they want scrapped. The 78-year-old former guerrilla leader, who sees the Valentines iron ore mine as a crowning legacy of his presidency, has angered traditional constituencies of supporters with moves critics say are neither fair nor ... more |  |
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 Study: Chimps can use gestures to achieve specific goals cooperatively Atlanta (UPI) Jan 17, 2013 - Chimpanzees are capable of using gestures to communicate with each other as they pursue goals such as finding a hidden piece of food, U.S. researchers say. Researchers at Georgia State University's Language Research Center examined how two language-trained chimpanzees communicated with a human experimenter to find food, and found the most compelling evidence to date primates can use ges ... more |  |
 South Africa says over 1,000 rhinos poached in 2013 Johannesburg (AFP) Jan 17, 2014 - More than 1,000 rhinos were poached in South Africa last year, the government said Friday, as strong demand from Asia fuelled a 50 percent jump in the illegal slaughter from 2012. "The total number of rhino poached in South Africa during 2013 increased to 1,004," the environment ministry said in a statement. Rhino horns are prized as a status symbol in Asia and mistakenly thought to poss ... more |  |
 Death toll from Philippines storm climbs to 40 Manila (AFP) Jan 19, 2014 - The death toll from the first storm to batter the disaster-prone Philippines this year has climbed to 40, officials said Sunday, as forecasters warned more heavy rain was on its way. "Lingling" - a tropical depression - has wreaked havoc across the southern island of Mindanao, affecting more than 580,000 people, 161,000 of whom have been displaced and moved to evacuation centres. Man ... more |  |
 Japanese fishermen capture dolphins ahead of slaughter Tokyo (AFP) Jan 18, 2014 - Fishermen and divers caught at least 25 dolphins in a controversial Japanese fishing village Saturday, according to environmentalists, who said the process was captive selection ahead of a mass slaughter. Activists from the militant environmental group Sea Shepherd streamed live footage of the dolphin capture in the village of Taiji, which drew worldwide attention in 2010 when it became the ... more |  |
 China starts relaxing one-child policy Beijing (AFP) Jan 17, 2014 - China began to implement the loosening of its controversial one-child policy Friday when a province announced it has made it legal for couples to have two children if one parent is an only child. Legislators in Zhejiang in eastern China Monday passed a revision to the local rules on Monday making the change, the provincial legislature said in a statement. China's National Health and Fami ... more |  |
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 China reports new H7N9 bird flu death Beijing (AFP) Jan 17, 2014 - China has reported a new death from the H7N9 bird flu virus, state media said Friday, bringing the toll this year to at least four as the disease returns following its 2013 outbreak. The unnamed patient in Yangjiang in the southern province of Guangdong died on Wednesday from respiratory failure, the official Xinhua news agency said, citing local health authorities. It was at least the f ... more |  |
 A world without antibiotics? The risk is real: experts Paris (AFP) Jan 19, 2014 - Humans face the very real risk of a future without antibiotics, a world of plummeting life expectancy where people die from diseases easily treatable today, scientists say. Experts tracking the rise of drug resistance say years of health gains could be rolled back by mutating microbes that make illnesses more difficult and expensive to cure and carry a higher risk of death. Some say the ... more |  |
 China's pollution seen from space Paris (AFP) Jan 17, 2014 - Scientists said Friday they had mapped ground-level air pollution in China from space for the first time, a feat that should help the fight against a notorious health hazard. French and Belgian atmospheric scientists used an infrared sensor aboard a European MetOp weather satellite to map plumes of particles and carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide and ammonia over the north China plain, blanketi ... more |  |
AIDS infections down by a third in S.Africa: UNAIDS Johannesburg (AFP) Jan 17, 2014 - New cases of HIV and AIDS fell sharply in South Africa since ten years ago, a testimony to successful treatment, according to a report by the UN Aids body released Friday. In 2004 around 540,000 South Africans contracted HIV, but the number dropped by a third to 370,000 in 2012, UNAIDS said. "The general message is that it's good news," said the body's country coordinator Catherine Sozi. ... more |  |
China sets dissident trial date as EU envoy criticises rights record Beijing (AFP) Jan 17, 2014 - China will next week hold the trial of Xu Zhiyong, a long-time campaigner for legal-reform, prosecuted as part of what is seen as a government-led crackdown on dissent, his lawyer said Friday. The announcement came as the European Union's outgoing ambassador to China criticised growing curbs on human rights in the country, raising several individual cases including Xu's and a Uighur academic ... more |  |
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 UK charity expands Philippine anti-trafficking work Manila (AFP) Jan 17, 2014 - A UK-based children's charity said Friday it will expand an anti-human trafficking project in the Philippines, as fears grow that young survivors of Super Typhoon Haiyan are becoming easy prey. Haiyan left nearly 8,000 people dead or missing in one of the worst natural disasters to hit the Philippines, flattening entire towns and displacing more than four million people. "Experiences fro ... more |  |
Google making sugar-sensing contact lens for diabetics San Francisco (AFP) Jan 17, 2014 - The Google lab known for working on unusual projects like self-driving cars is crafting a contact lens that could help diabetics manage blood sugar levels. "We're now testing a smart contact lens that's built to measure glucose levels in tears," project co-founders Brian Otis and Babak Parviz said Thursday in a blog post. The lens works "using a tiny wireless chip and miniaturized glucos ... more |  |
 Large landmasses existed 2.7 billion years ago Cologne, Germany (SPX) Jan 17, 2014 - A Cologne working group involving Prof. Carsten Munker and Dr. Elis Hoffmann and their student Sebastian Viehmann (working with Prof. Michael Bau from the Jacobs University Bremen) have managed for the first time to determine the isotope composition of the rare trace elements Hafnium and Neodymium in 2,700 million year-old seawater by using high purity chemical sediments from Temagami Banded Iro ... more |  |
 Oldest trees are growing faster, storing more carbon as they age Corvallis OR (SPX) Jan 17, 2014 - In a finding that overturns the conventional view that large old trees are unproductive, scientists have determined that for most species, the biggest trees increase their growth rates and sequester more carbon as they age. In a letter published in the journal Nature, an international research group reports that 97 percent of 403 tropical and temperate species grow more quickly the older t ... more |  |
 Key species of algae shows effects of climate change over time Chicago IL (SPX) Jan 17, 2014 - A study of marine life in the temperate coastal waters of the northeast Pacific Ocean shows a reversal of competitive dominance among species of algae, suggesting that increased ocean acidification caused by global climate change is altering biodiversity. The study, published online January 15, 2014, in the journal Ecology Letters, examined competitive dynamics among crustose coralline alg ... more |  |
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