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| January 09, 2014 |
 Ice rescue sparks Antarctic tourism debate Wellington (AFP) Jan 09, 2014 - The challenging rescue operation launched after a Russian ship became trapped in Antarctic pack ice last month shows the inherent risks facing the frozen continent's burgeoning tourist industry, experts say. Antarctica represents one of the last frontiers for adventurous travellers, an icy wonderland of glaciers, emperor penguins and seemingly endless white expanses. But, as those aboard ... more |  |
 To curb China's haze and air pollution, use water Heidelberg, Germany (SPX) Jan 07, 2014 - A new idea to cut back on air pollution: spray water into the atmosphere from sprinklers atop tall buildings and towers, similar to watering a garden. This suggestion comes from Shaocai Yu of Zhejiang University in China, and North Carolina State University in the US. In an article published in Springer's journal Environmental Chemistry Letters, Yu suggests this course of action as a novel ... more |  |
 As US shivers, northern Europe waits for winter to arrive Oslo (AFP) Jan 08, 2014 - While part of North America is suffering through a record freeze, northern Europe is enjoying unusually balmy temperatures that are disturbing wildlife, traffic and the winter sports season. The month of December was one of the mildest in a century in the Nordic countries, according to meteorologists, with temperatures exceeding their normal seasonal average by four to five degrees Celsius ( ... more |  |
Relief on the way for shivering Americans Chicago (AFP) Jan 08, 2014 - After days of an arctic chill so cold that a Chicago zoo brought their polar bear inside, the United States woke up to a break in the weather Wednesday. The National Weather Service said "a much anticipated warm up" was expected over the eastern two-thirds of the United States which had shivered through a week of record-breaking cold and two massive snowstorms. But it will still be long- ... more |  |
 British landmarks damaged by storms as PM suspects climate change London (AFP) Jan 08, 2014 - Fierce storms have destroyed several ancient landmarks on Britain's coastline with Prime Minister David Cameron saying Wednesday he suspects climate change is to blame for the extreme weather. A giant rock arch and a huge pillar of stone on the south coast of England both simply crumbled away under the onslaught of massive waves, strong winds and high tides battering the island nation in rec ... more |  |
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 For sharks, old age may be 70 or more: study Washington (AFP) Jan 08, 2014 - Great white sharks may live until their 70s, more than three times as long as previously thought, according to a new analysis of the marine predator's backbones out Wednesday. Using radiocarbon dating technology, researchers analyzed vertebrae from four male and four female adult white sharks from the northwestern Atlantic Ocean. The largest male was 73 years old and the largest female w ... more |  |
Melanin in marine fossils offers clues about where they could survive Lund, Sweden (UPI) Jan 8, 2013 - The existence of melanin in extinct marine organisms helps provide clues about the environments in which they lived, Swedish researchers found. Dark traces on the well-preserved fossilized skin from three distantly related marine reptiles - a 55-million-year-old leatherback turtle, an 86-million-year-old mosasaur and a 190-million to 196-million-year-old ichthyosaur - had melanin, all ... more |  |
 Texas to hire seismologist to study if quakes, energy production tied Austin, Texas (UPI) Jan 8, 2013 - The Texas Railroad Commission said it will hire a seismologist to explore whether earthquakes and energy production are linked. The decision Tuesday followed a meeting last week in which many of the 800 participants told commissioners and other officials about damage done by a spate of quakes recently, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported Wednesday. The U.S. Geological Survey re ... more |  |
 Hong Kong reports first H7N9 case of the year Hong Kong (AFP) Jan 08, 2014 - Hong Kong health authorities on Wednesday confirmed the territory's third human case of the deadly H7N9 bird flu, the city's first of 2014. A 65-year-old man has been infected with the virus and is in a critical condition, Hong Kong Centre for Health Protection controller Leung Ting-hung told reporters at a press conference late Wednesday. "The man with underlying medical conditions...p ... more |  |
Canada reports first H5N1 bird flu death in North America Ottawa (AFP) Jan 09, 2014 - Canada announced Wednesday the first H5N1 avian flu death in North America, of a patient who had just returned from China, and said it was urgently contacting airline passengers on the victim's flights. It was also the first known instance of someone in North America contracting the illness, Canada Health Minister Rona Ambrose told a press conference, stressing it was an "isolated case." ... more |  |
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 System of phone alerts could warn of extreme weather in India New Delhi (UPI) Jan 7, 2013 - Computer scientists in India have created image-based mobile phone alerts for extreme weather they say could prevent casualties in cyclones. When Cyclone Phailin hit India in late 2013 it was the largest storm to batter the subcontinent in over a decade, affecting more than 12 million people in India and neighboring countries and requiring mass evacuations. The scale of the evacu ... more |  |
Norway says working to end Russian boycott on fish exports Oslo, Norway (UPI) Jan 8, 2013 - Norway is working to end a limited Russian boycott of Norwegian fish exports that took effect Jan. 1, Fisheries Minister Elisabeth Aspaker said this week. Under a move announced last month by Rosselkhoznadzor, the Russian Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance, Moscow has banned Norwegian exports of deep-sea whitefish such as cod and pollock and so-called pelagic ... more |  |
 Chinese Good Samaritan kills himself over accusations Beijing (AFP) Jan 08, 2014 - A man who aided a senior citizen only to be accused of knocking him down has committed suicide in the face of demands for compensation, Chinese media reported Wednesday. The story is an extreme case of a Good Samaritan tale gone sour in China, where recent reports of helpers facing huge financial demands have triggered a heated debate over the country's law and morals. Wu Weiqing, 46, fr ... more |  |
 Hong Kong mulls following China to destroy ivory stockpile Hong Kong (AFP) Jan 08, 2014 - Hong Kong's government is considering destroying its stockpile of over 30 tonnes of ivory obtained through seizures of elephant tusks, it said Wednesday. The Chinese government crushed a pile of ivory weighing more than six tonnes on Monday, its first public destruction of ivory, to discourage illegal trade. "The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department is aware of the steps ta ... more |  |
 Turkey's under-fire Erdogan sidles up to military Ankara (AFP) Jan 08, 2014 - Turkey's embattled Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan appears willing to mend fences with the once all-powerful army which he fought hard to rein in, as he seeks to defeat an influential organisation accused of trying to topple his government. In what is billed by observers as a dramatic turnaround, Erdogan said on Sunday he favoured fresh trials for hundreds of military officers jailed fo ... more |  |
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Antarctic mission over as ships clear ice field Sydney (AFP) Jan 08, 2014 - A complex international operation to free a Russian ship trapped in Antarctica ended Wednesday when the vessel cleared the ice field, as officials released a United States icebreaker from the rescue. The Russian-flagged Akademik Shokalskiy became stuck on December 24, triggering a rescue operation coordinated by Australian authorities which included French, Chinese, American and German agenc ... more |  |
Four arrested over Italy quake contract bribes Rome (AFP) Jan 08, 2014 - Four people were placed under house arrest on Wednesday for alleged bribery linked to reconstruction contracts following the 2009 earthquake in L'Aquila in central Italy which killed 309 people, police said. Four more people have been notified they are under investigation, including the quake-struck city's deputy mayor, Roberto Riga, and a local official in charge of restoring damaged monume ... more |  |
 Development ravages Malaysia's 'Little England' Tanah Rata, Malaysia (AFP) Jan 08, 2014 - On a Malaysian ridge-top, R. Ramakrishnan scans a rugged landscape famed in British colonial times as a fresh-aired slice of England in the tropics, but he sees a paradise lost. Illegal farms covered in unsightly plastic sheeting stretch into the distance along the steep slopes of the Cameron Highlands as bulldozers mow down nearby forests. "Everyone is grabbing land. There is a free-for ... more |  |
 'Exceptionally rare' conjoined whales found in Mexico La Paz, Mexico (AFP) Jan 07, 2014 - Fishermen have found two conjoined gray whale calves in a northwestern Mexican lagoon, a discovery that a government marine biologist described as "exceptionally rare." The four-meter (13-foot) long siamese whales were dead when they were found in the Ojo de Liebre lagoon, which opens to the Pacific Ocean in the Baja California peninsula. Officials from the National Natural Protected Are ... more |  |
Torrential rains in Honduras strand 20,000 people Tegucigalpa (AFP) Jan 08, 2014 - Rivers swollen by torrential rains have left some 20,000 people cut off in Honduras, the government said Tuesday. Evacuations were ordered in the western department of Atlantida, the emergency situations commission called COPECO said. The department's capital city La Ceiba, the country's third largest, 400 km (250 miles) north of the capital Tegucigalpa, was particularly hard hit. Co ... more |  |
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