Another human footprint in the ocean
Manoa HI (SPX) Nov 28, 2014 -
Human-induced changes to Earth's carbon cycle - for example, rising atmospheric carbon dioxide and ocean acidification - have been observed for decades. However, a study published this week in Science showed human activities, in particular industrial and agricultural processes, have also had significant impacts on the upper ocean nitrogen cycle.
The rate of deposition of reactive nitrogen ...
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Circumstances are right for weed invasion to escalate
Blacksburg VA (SPX) Nov 28, 2014 -
Few agribusinesses or governments regulate the types of plants that farmers use in their pastures to feed their livestock, according to an international team of researchers that includes one plant scientist from Virginia Tech.
The problem is most of these so-called pasture plants are invasive weeds.
In a Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences study this month, the scientists ...
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Game theory analysis shows how evolution favors cooperation's collapse
University Park PA (SPX) Nov 28, 2014 -
Last year, University of Pennsylvania researchers Alexander J. Stewart and Joshua B. Plotkin published a mathematical explanation for why cooperation and generosity have evolved in nature. Using the classical game theory match-up known as the Prisoner's Dilemma, they found that generous strategies were the only ones that could persist and succeed in a multi-player, iterated version of the game o ...
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International team investigates Laguna del Maule volcanic field
Boulder CO (SPX) Nov 28, 2014 -
The Laguna del Maule Volcanic Field, Chile, includes a record of unusually large and recent concentration of silicic eruptions. Since 2007, the crust there has been inflating at an astonishing rate of 25 centimeters per year.
This unique opportunity to investigate the dynamics of a large rhyolitic system while magma migration, reservoir growth, and crustal deformation are actively under wa ...
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CT scans of coral skeletons reveal ocean acidity increases reef erosion
Honolulu HI (SPX) Nov 28, 2014 -
Coral reefs persist in a balance between reef construction and reef breakdown. As corals grow, they construct the complex calcium carbonate framework that provides habitat for fish and other reef organisms.
Simultaneously, bioeroders, such as parrotfish and boring marine worms, breakdown the reef structure into rubble and the sand that nourishes our beaches. For reefs to persist, rates of ...
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Toolkit for ocean health
Perth WA (SPX) Nov 28, 2014 -
The ocean is undergoing global changes at a remarkable pace and we must change with it to attain our best possible future ocean, warns the head of The University of Western Australia's Oceans Institute.
One of the global leaders in ocean science, Professor Carlos Duarte has shared his insights on the future of the world's oceans in a paper published in the international open-access journal ...
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Diverting Chinese river from ecological disaster offers sustainable model
Lanzhou, China (SPX) Nov 28, 2014 -
For tens of thousands of years, modern humans have used the waterways to spread out across the surface of the planet. Major civilizations developed along massive rivers like the Nile in Egypt and the Yellow River in China, and massive water channels propelled the expansion of economies around the world.
But in recent decades, according to a team of scientists at the Cold and Arid Regions E ...
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Ultrafast, low-cost DNA sequencing moves a step closer to reality
Tucson AZ (SPX) Nov 28, 2014 -
A team of scientists from Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute and IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center have developed a prototype DNA reader that could make whole genome profiling an everyday practice in medicine.
"Our goal is to put cheap, simple and powerful DNA and protein diagnostic devices into every single doctor's office," said Stuart Lindsay, an ASU physics professor and di ...
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Prehistoric conflict hastened human brain's capacity for collaboration
Knoxville TN (SPX) Nov 28, 2014 -
Warfare not only hastened human technological progress and vast social and political changes, but may have greatly contributed to the evolutionary emergence of humans' high intelligence and ability to work together toward common goals, according to a new study from the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS).
How humans evolved high intelligence, required for ...
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Afghan senate approves foreign troops staying on
Kabul (AFP) Nov 27, 2014 -
Afghanistan's upper house of parliament on Thursday approved two agreements with the US and NATO allowing about 12,500 troops to remain in the country next year as concerns grow over the worsening insurgency.
The Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) with the United States, and a similar pact with NATO, were approved by the lower house of parliament on Sunday before being sent to the senate. ...
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China says in talks with Russia over 2015 military drills
Beijing (AFP) Nov 27, 2014 -
China's defence ministry said Thursday that it was in talks with Russian counterparts about joint military exercises next year, after Moscow announced drills were planned for the Mediterranean Sea and Pacific Ocean.
Chinese defence ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng told reporters at a monthly briefing that China and Russia were "conducting consultation" over next year's joint military exercis ...
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Iraqi forces hold off jihadist attack on Ramadi
Baghdad (AFP) Nov 27, 2014 -
Iraqi forces held off a jihadist assault on the government headquarters in the capital of Anbar province, deploying reinforcements in the key battleground against the Islamic State group, officers said Thursday.
Security forces, backed by tribesmen, managed to defend the complex in Ramadi, which lies 100 kilometres (60 miles) west of the Iraqi capital and is one of the last major urban areas ...
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China has no overseas bases: defence ministry
Beijing (AFP) Nov 27, 2014 -
China's defence ministry said Thursday that the country has no military bases overseas, despite speculation that its armed forces seek to eventually establish facilities abroad.
"Currently, China has constructed no military base overseas," ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng told reporters at a monthly briefing.
Geng was responding to a question about China's policy toward overseas bases an ...
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Azerbaijan boosts army spending as Armenia tensions soar
Baku (AFP) Nov 28, 2014 -
Azerbaijan's parliament on Friday approved a 2015 budget that sharply boosted military spending in apparent response to rising tensions with neighbour Armenia over the disputed Nagorny Karabakh region.
The oil-rich Caucasus country's defence outlays will rise by 8.6 percent to more than 1.78 billion Azerbaijani manats ($2.3 billion, 1.8 billion euros).
The budget also expects the economy ...
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Israel should pay Arabs to leave: Lieberman
Jerusalem (AFP) Nov 28, 2014 -
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman suggested Friday that Israel should offer "economic incentives" to encourage Arab Israelis to leave the country and relocate to a future Palestinian state.
Arab Israelis "who decide their identity is Palestinian can relinquish their Israeli citizenship and become citizens of the future Palestinian state," Lieberman said in manifesto of his Israel Beitenu pa ...
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Gunmen shoot dead Egypt army general in Cairo
Cairo (AFP) Nov 28, 2014 -
Gunmen in a car shot dead an Egyptian army brigadier general and wounded two soldiers in eastern Cairo on Friday, the military said.
The attack came hours ahead of planned Islamist protests that have prompted the police and military to boost their presence in the capital and other cities.
The identity of the assailants was not clear, but militants have killed scores of policemen and sold ...
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Fifteen killed in "terrorist attack" in China's Xinjiang: state media
Beijing (AFP) Nov 29, 2014 -
Fifteen people have been killed and 14 others wounded in a "terrorist attack" in China's mostly Muslim Xinjiang region, the official Chinese news agency said Saturday.
A group of "terrorists" launched an attack on civilians Friday in Shache county, leaving four people dead and 14 wounded. Eleven "terrorists" were also shot dead during the violence, according to CCTV, China's state broadcaste ...
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India still searching for 39 workers abducted in Iraq: minister
New Delhi (AFP) Nov 28, 2014 -
India said Friday it was still searching for 39 construction workers abducted in Iraq in June, denying a report claiming they had been executed by the Islamic State group.
Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj urged the workers' families not to lose hope, despite not knowing the whereabouts of the men who were rounded up by jihadists in Mosul city.
In a speech to parliament, Swaraj said "six so ...
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Syria says US-led strikes haven't weakened IS group
Beirut (AFP) Nov 29, 2014 -
US-led strikes against the Islamic State group in Syria have failed to weaken the jihadist organisation, according to Syria's Foreign Minister Walid Muallem.
Speaking on Friday night to two Middle Eastern television stations, Muallem also said "more time" was needed before a dialogue between the Syrian government and opposition could begin.
"Is Daesh weaker today after two months of coal ...
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From shoe banging to Ukraine, archives comb Khrushchev past
Moscow (AFP) Nov 29, 2014 -
Why did Moscow hand Crimea to Soviet Ukraine in 1954? Was the "red phone" hotline linking the Kremlin and Washington after the Cuban missile crisis an actual telephone?
A new exhibition hopes to answer both questions, and more, by probing the past of Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet leader who notoriously brandished a shoe at the United Nations - and sowed the seeds of today's standoff with th ...
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Iraq army, tribal fighters battle jihadists in Ramadi
Baghdad (AFP) Nov 29, 2014 -
Iraqi forces battled Islamic State (IS) group fighters Saturday in Ramadi, where a fierce jihadist offensive threatens one of the last pockets in Anbar province still under government control.
"Fierce fighting pitting security forces and tribal units against IS is taking place in the Al-Hoz, Muallimin and Bakr neighbourhoods," a police major told AFP.
"The clashes have been going on for ...
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Taiwan votes in key test for China-friendly government
Taipei (AFP) Nov 29, 2014 -
Taiwan's Beijing-friendly ruling party was facing a rout Saturday as voters went to the polls for the island's biggest ever local elections, a key test ahead of the 2016 presidential race.
Opinion polls suggest the Kuomintang (KMT) are heading for heavy losses as they struggle with growing fears over Chinese influence, a slowing economy and a string of food scandals.
The local vote is se ...
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Jihadist suicide bombers hit Syria-Turkey border post
Beirut (AFP) Nov 29, 2014 -
Islamic State group jihadists launched a double attack Saturday on a Kurdish-controlled post on the Syrian-Turkish border for the first time, prompting fierce clashes in the adjacent town of Kobane.
Kurdish officials and a Britain-based monitor said the two IS suicide attacks targeting the border post were launched from Turkish soil, claims that Turkish officials dismissed as "lies".
The ...
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More than 500 dead in Syria regime raids since Oct: monitor
Beirut (AFP) Nov 28, 2014 -
More than 500 people have been killed in 2,000 air strikes across Syria by regime forces over the past 40 days, a monitoring group said Friday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights accused President Bashar al-Assad's government of "war crimes", saying it ought to be "listed in the Guinness Book of World Records" for the large number of strikes since October 20.
The Britain-based group ...
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Sony sees possible North Korea link to hack attack: report
Washington (AFP) Nov 29, 2014 -
Sony Pictures Entertainment is looking into whether North Korea may have been behind a major cyberattack on the studio last week, a news website reported.
The website re/code noted that the attack came as the studio neared release of a comedy about a CIA plot to assassinate its leader Kim Jong-Un.
"The Interview," which stars Seth Rogen and James Franco as two journalists recruited by th ...
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