Tunisian blogger jailed for defaming army
Tunis (AFP) Jan 20, 2015 -
A Tunisian military court sentenced blogger Yassine Ayari to a year in prison Tuesday for defaming the military, in a case that has been criticised by human rights groups.
The 33-year-old was arrested on December 25 on his return from Paris, following an initial three-year sentence handed down the previous month in his absence.
Ayari told the court before the new ruling that the charges ...
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AIDS crisis brewing in Crimea and east Ukraine says UN
Paris (AFP) Jan 21, 2015 -
A lethal health crisis is brewing in Russian-annexed Crimea and war-torn eastern Ukraine, where injecting drug users have lost access to therapy to wean them off heroin, the UN's AIDS envoy said Wednesday.
Out of 805 people in Crimea who before annexation were receiving opioid substitution therapy (OST) - a tried and tested UN-backed treatment - "between 80 and 100" have now died, Michel K ...
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Two Nigerian cities hit by bird flu: authorities
Lagos (AFP) Jan 20, 2015 -
Thousands of chickens have been culled in southern Nigeria after the discovery of bird flu in some poultry farms, the local health authorities said on Tuesday.
State government officials in the financial capital, Lagos, and the oil city of Port Harcourt, said they had ordered the cull to prevent the spread of the disease.
Lagos State agriculture commissioner Gbolahan Lawal said birds wer ...
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Giant atmospheric rivers add mass to Antarctica's ice sheet
Leuven, Belgium (SPX) Jan 21, 2015 -
Extreme weather phenomena called atmospheric rivers were behind intense snowstorms recorded in 2009 and 2011 in East Antarctica. The resulting snow accumulation partly offset recent ice loss from the Antarctic ice sheet, report researchers from KU Leuven.
Atmospheric rivers are long, narrow water vapour plumes stretching thousands of kilometres across the sky over vast ocean areas. They ar ...
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Atmospheric rivers, aerosol particles, and California reservoirs
San Diego CA (SPX) Jan 21, 2015 -
In the midst of the California rainy season, scientists are embarking on a field campaign designed to improve the understanding of the natural and human-caused phenomena that determine when and how the state gets its precipitation. They will do so by studying atmospheric rivers, meteorological events that include the famous rainmaker known as the Pineapple Express.
CalWater 2015 is an inte ...
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Transgenic crops: Multiple toxins not a panacea for pest control
Tucson AZ (SPX) Jan 21, 2015 -
Strategies for delaying insect resistance to transgenic crops rely on assumptions that often are overly optimistic, a new study led by UA scientists shows. Published as an advance online publication by the journal Nature Biotechnology, the findings could improve management practices for current biotech crops and promote development of new varieties that are more effective and more durable.
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Wearable sensor clears path to long-term EKG, EMG monitoring
Raleigh NC (SPX) Jan 21, 2015 -
Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new, wearable sensor that uses silver nanowires to monitor electrophysiological signals, such as electrocardiography (EKG) or electromyography (EMG). The new sensor is as accurate as the "wet electrode" sensors used in hospitals, but can be used for long-term monitoring and is more accurate than existing sensors when a patient is ...
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