Kenya wildlife officials suspended over poaching crisis
Nairobi (AFP) April 11, 2014 -
Five officials working for Kenya's state-run wildlife service have been suspended as part of a probe into allegations of mismanagement and an upsurge in poaching, the government said Friday.
The purge comes just weeks after the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) was forced to counter accusations from wildlife activists that it was losing the fight against the booming elephant ivory and rhino horn ...
more
UN climate goal feasible but energy reform vital: panel
Berlin (AFP) April 13, 2014 -
The world has a likely chance of meeting the UN's warming limit of two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) if it cuts annual greenhouse gas emissions 40-70 percent by 2050, especially from energy, a top expert panel said Sunday.
The longer it takes to switch from carbon-polluting fuels to cleaner energy sources, the harder and more expensive the target will become to reach, it said.
...
more
Magnitude 7.5 quake strikes off Solomon Islands: USGS
Sydney (AFP) April 13, 2014 -
A powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 7.5 struck off the Solomon Islands on Sunday night, hours after a 7.6 tremor, the US Geological Survey said.
A tsunami warning was issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center for the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea, but it later cancelled the alert for all three areas.
The USGS said the quake - which it had initially assessed at 7 ...
more
Cyclone warning lifted on Australia's Barrier Reef coast
Sydney (AFP) April 13, 2014 -
Cyclone Ita rolled out into the Coral Sea on Monday leaving thousands of homes without power and floods down Australia's Barrier Reef coast, officials said, as danger warnings were lifted.
Downgraded from a category four to a category one storm after making landfall late Friday, Ita swept off the coast with gales and torrential rain trailing in its wake.
Electricity was slowly being rest ...
more
SU geologists prove early Tibetan Plateau was larger than previously thought
Syracuse NY (SPX) Apr 14, 2014 -
scientists in Syracuse University's College of Arts and Sciences have determined that the Tibetan Plateau-the world's largest, highest, and flattest plateau-had a larger initial extent than previously documented.
Their discovery is the subject of an article in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters (Elsevier, 2014).
Gregory Hoke, assistant professor of Earth sciences, and Gr ...
more
Japan orders chicken cull after bird flu outbreak in south
Tokyo (AFP) April 13, 2014 -
Japan has ordered the slaughter of some 112,000 chickens after officials confirmed Sunday bird flu infections at a poultry farm in the south.
DNA tests confirmed the H5 strain of the virus at a farm in Kumamoto prefecture that kept 56,000 birds, after its owner reported Saturday a lot of sudden deaths among his poultry, the agriculture ministry said in a statement.
Officials also ordered ...
more
Oil company blamed for toxic tap water in China: Xinhua
Beijing (AFP) April 12, 2014 -
A Chinese oil giant was to blame for a toxic leak that contaminated tap water in a northwestern city, leading panicked residents to clear stores of bottled water, state media said Saturday.
Tests conducted on Thursday and Friday showed that tap water in Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu province, had as much as 200 micrograms of the toxic chemical benzene per litre - 20 times the national limit ...
more
