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| May 30, 2014 |
 Storm Amanda blamed for three deaths in Mexico Morelia, Mexico (AFP) May 29, 2014 - Torrential rains from tropical storm Amanda claimed the lives of three people in Mexico, authorities said Wednesday. Waters rushing down mountainsides caused flash floods that swept away two people in the town of Zitacuaro in the western state of Michoacan, said the state's director of civil protection, Nicolas Alfaro. The fatalities were a 50-year-old man and a girl of eight. Roads ... more |  |
Super typhoon cools Philippine economy Manila (AFP) May 29, 2014 - The Philippines' roaring economy cooled in the first quarter of the year as the impacts of Super Typhoon Haiyan and other natural disasters hit harder than expected, official data showed Thursday. Economic growth slowed to 5.7 percent in January-March, compared with 7.7 percent in the same period last year, the government said. "The relatively slow growth is expected given the magnitude ... more |  |
 Australia rules out swathe of ocean as MH370 crash zone Sydney (AFP) May 29, 2014 - Australia Thursday ruled out a large swathe of Indian Ocean as Malaysian Flight MH370's final resting place, compounding the frustration of passengers' relatives who are still without answers almost three months on. The Joint Agency Coordination Centre said a lengthy underwater search of an area where acoustic transmissions were detected in early April was now complete, as a US Navy official ... more |  |
 After 8,000 cholera deaths, Haiti faces new epidemic Port-Au-Prince (AFP) May 28, 2014 - Hard-hit by a cholera epidemic that started in 2010, Haiti now faces a new threat in the expanding chikungunya virus, authorities said Wednesday. "We have had 8,561 deaths from cholera since its reappearance in Haiti in 2010, while 702,892 cases have been confirmed," said Health Minister Florence Duperval. Now, the chikungunya virus that has been spreading in the Caribbean has emerged as ... more |  |
Be prepared for hurricanes, despite calm forecast, NOAA warns Miami (AFP) May 29, 2014 - Despite the quiet forecast for this year's hurricane season, the director of the Miami-based National Hurricane Center warned Thursday not to let guards down completely. Rick Knabb, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's NHC, emphasized that even a single storm that hits land can have a huge impact. He cautioned residents of all hurricane-prone areas, from the ... more |  |
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Flood damage to Serbia, Bosnia around 3 bln euros: EBRD Belgrade (AFP) May 29, 2014 - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) estimated Thursday that the damage from record floods in Serbia and Bosnia could cost some 3 billion euros ($4 billion). "No official estimates as to the cost of this natural disaster are available as yet. However, some very rough preliminary estimates put the damage at around EUR1.5-2 billion in Serbia, and about EUR1.3 billion in ... more |  |
 To Xi or not to Xi? Madame Tussauds launches in Beijing Beijing (AFP) May 29, 2014 - Waxworks company Madame Tussauds on Thursday launched its latest outpost in Beijing, with models of Chinese political leaders conspicuous by their absence. US President Barack Obama was on display, along with a grim-looking Vladimir Putin of Russia, and Britain's Queen Elizabeth II. Even Karl Marx, founding father of Communism, was included. But there was no sign of Mao Zedong, Deng Xia ... more |  |
Beijing flaunts security might ahead of Tiananmen anniversary Beijing (AFP) May 29, 2014 - Police officers and commandos in Beijing showed off their anti-terrorist prowess Thursday, days ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown and following a string of separatist attacks. At an event open only to Chinese domestic media, Beijing police officers - including the elite Snow Leopard Commando Unit - flaunted their skills at handling attempted terror attacks, hijacking ... more |  |
 US city drops threat to close 'smelly' hot sauce factory Los Angeles (AFP) May 29, 2014 - A California city has dropped its threat to close a factory that makes famed Sriracha hot sauce, after months of haggling over residents' complaints about pungent smells. The city of Irwindale outside Los Angeles took legal action in October to close Huy Fong Food's facility, saying the company should be forced to improve odor-filtering measures. In November, a judge ordered the hot sauc ... more |  |
 Video shows how wasp uses zinc-tipped drill to penetrate fruit Bangalore, India (UPI) May 29, 2013 - Despite what some environmental advocates might say, humans are not parasites; humans don't rely on another organism for habitat or reproduction purposes. Parasitic wasps - as their name implies - aren't so lucky. Parasitic wasps must bore into unripe fig fruit in order to lay their eggs - eggs that then look for other larvae to attach themselves to. To do so - scientists from India ... more |  |
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Fish more inclined to crash than bees Lund, Sweden (SPX) May 29, 2014 - Swimming fish do not appear to use their collision warning system in the same way as flying insects, according to new research from Lund University in Sweden that has compared how zebra fish and bumblebees avoid collisions. The fish surprised the researchers. All animals need some form of warning system that prevents them colliding with objects in their surroundings. The warning system hel ... more |  |
 Melting Arctic opens new passages for invasive species Washington DC (SPX) May 29, 2014 - For the first time in roughly 2 million years, melting Arctic sea ice is connecting the north Pacific and north Atlantic oceans. The newly opened passages leave both coasts and Arctic waters vulnerable to a large wave of invasive species, biologists from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center assert in a commentary published May 28 in Nature Climate Change. Two new shipping routes h ... more |  |
 Panama saves whales and protects world trade Panama City, Panama (SPX) May 29, 2014 - The Republic of Panama's proposal to implement four Traffic Separation Schemes for commercial vessels entering and exiting the Panama Canal and ports was approved unanimously by the International Maritime Organization in London, May 23. Based on studies by Smithsonian marine ecologist Hector Guzman, the new shipping lanes are positioned to minimize overlap between shipping routes and humpb ... more |  |
Weather Impacts on Food: A QandA with NASA's Molly Brown Greenbelt MD (SPX) May 29, 2014 - When floods, droughts, and other natural disasters hit isolated and poor regions of the world, it can have devastating impacts on the local price of food. Research scientist Molly Brown from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is using satellite data to investigate and model the relationship between weather shocks and food prices - an ambitious endeavor in light of a chang ... more |  |
NASA IceBridge Concludes Arctic Field Campaign Pasadena CA (JPL) May 29, 2014 - Researchers with NASA's Operation IceBridge have completed another successful Arctic field campaign. On May 23, NASA's P-3 research aircraft left Thule Air Base, Greenland, and returned to Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia marking the end of 11 weeks of polar research. During this campaign, researchers collected data on Arctic sea and land ice - both repeating measurements on rapidly cha ... more |  |
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Large muskies lured by the moon Washington DC (SPX) May 29, 2014 - The lunar cycle may synchronize with feeding activity, luring large muskies to take angler bait, according to results published in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Mark Vinson from U.S. Geological Survey and Ted Angradi from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Previous studies have suggested a relationship between the moon and fish behavior. To investigate this further, scientists ana ... more |  |
New study finds Antarctic Ice Sheet unstable at end of last ice age Corvallis OR (SPX) May 29, 2014 - A new study has found that the Antarctic Ice Sheet began melting about 5,000 years earlier than previously thought coming out of the last ice age - and that shrinkage of the vast ice sheet accelerated during eight distinct episodes, causing rapid sea level rise. The international study, funded in part by the National Science Foundation, is particularly important coming on the heels of rece ... more |  |
Antarctic ice-sheet less stable than previously assumed Honolulu HI (SPX) May 29, 2014 - The first evidence for massive and abrupt iceberg calving in Antarctica, dating back 19,000 to 9,000 years ago, has now been documented by an international team of geologists and climate scientists. Their findings are based on analysis of new, long deep sea sediment cores extracted from the region between the Falkland Islands and the Antarctic Peninsula. The study in Nature bears witness t ... more |  |
 Ishihara's opposition party splits into two in Japan Tokyo (AFP) May 28, 2014 - A minor Japanese opposition party, led by former nationalist Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara, split into two Wednesday as his drive to change the country's pacifist constitution backfired. Ishihara met flamboyant Osaka city mayor Toru Hashimoto, who had shared the chair of the conservative Japan Restoration Party, and they agreed to part company. An attempt by Hashimoto to merge with an ... more |  |
Mothers of Tiananmen dead fight to keep truth alive Beijing (AFP) May 28, 2014 - The last thing Zhang Xianling told her son was not to go to Tiananmen Square. But in the 25 years since he was shot and left to die she has taken up his activist mantle. The crackdown that ended on June 4, 1989, left hundreds dead - by some estimates, more than 1,000 - and a nation stunned that its leaders had deployed troops, tanks and real bullets against student-led protesters in the v ... more |  |
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