US could 're-examine' its military presence in Europe
Washington (AFP) April 08, 2014 -
Russia's takeover of Crimea could prompt a review the US military presence in Europe, which has declined steadily since the end of the Cold War, a senior Pentagon official said Tuesday.
"While we do not seek confrontation with Russia, its actions in Europe and Eurasia may require the United States to re-examine our force posture in Europe and our requirement for future deployments, exercise ...
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British defence minister in Saudi talks
Riyadh (AFP) April 08, 2014 -
British defence minister Philip Hammond held talks in Riyadh Tuesday, just weeks after BAE Systems announced an agreement with Saudi authorities on the spiralling costs of a multi-billion-dollar fighter deal.
Saudi state media gave very few details of what was discussed in Hammond's meetings with his counterpart Crown Prince Salman and National Guard Minister Prince Mitab bin Abdullah.
H ...
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Pacifists rally as poll shows Japan uneasy over military
Tokyo (AFP) April 08, 2014 -
Some 3,000 people rallied Tuesday in a Tokyo park against government plans to soften Japan's constitutional commitment to pacifism and give its military a more active role.
The protest came after a national opinion poll showed growing public opposition to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's push to bolster his nation's military.
He has argued that Japan needs to reinterpret its post-war pacifist ...
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Iran's Zarif says legal experts advising nuclear negotiators
Tehran (AFP) April 08, 2014 -
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Tuesday that Tehran's negotiators were being assisted by experts in international law during the "difficult" nuclear talks being held in Vienna.
The Vienna meeting, which began on Tuesday, is aimed at reaching a lasting accord to end a decade-long standoff over Iran's nuclear programme.
"In the next round, we will start writing the te ...
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US says open to N.Korea talks, cites Iran
New York (AFP) April 08, 2014 -
The United States on Tuesday asked North Korea to look at Iran's example, saying it was willing to negotiate with a hostile nation when it is "serious" about its promises.
Amid high tensions between North Korea and its neighbors, Deputy Secretary of State William Burns said that the United States remained firmly opposed to North Korea's nuclear weapons program but was open to diplomacy.
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Iran, world powers try to move nuclear talks up a gear
Vienna (AFP) April 08, 2014 -
Iran and world powers held a new round of nuclear talks Tuesday hoping to move to the next level and start drafting a historic and highly ambitious final deal next month.
Threatening to drive a wedge between the powers, however, is the crisis over Ukraine, which has led to the biggest standoff between Russia and the West since the Cold War.
Iran and the five UN Security Council permanent ...
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Pentagon chief's visit exposes US-China divide
Beijing (AFP) April 08, 2014 -
Visiting US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Chinese military chiefs traded warnings and rebukes Tuesday as they clashed over Beijing's territorial disputes with its neighbours, North Korea's missile programme and cyber espionage.
Both sides were clearly at odds over a litany of issues, despite Hagel and his counterpart General Chang Wanquan calling for more dialogue between the world's st ...
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Ukrainian situation won't change Russian-Kazakh Baiterek project
Moscow (Voice of Russia) Apr 07, 2014 -
The Baiterek space project will not undergo adjustments over the Ukrainian situation, the foreign ministers of Russia and Kazakhstan pledged, the Voice of Russia correspondent Kira Kalinina reports.
"We have discussed the issue today in the context of Baikonur as a whole and the Baiterek project. Neither Russia nor Kazakhstan are planning to alter the Baiterek project, including its shift ...
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China won't 'stir up troubles' in Japan dispute: minister
Beijing (AFP) April 08, 2014 -
Beijing will not act first to "stir up troubles" over island disputes with neighbours, China's defence minister said Tuesday at a meeting with American counterpart Chuck Hagel that was overshadowed by regional tensions.
China and Japan are embroiled in a bitter row over disputed islands controlled by Tokyo in the East China Sea, raising concerns about the possibility of a clash between the A ...
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Satellite Navigation Failure Confirms Urgent Need for Backup
Canberra, Australia (SPX) Apr 08, 2014 -
The world's global positioning industry watched in disbelief on April 2, 2014, as all of the 24 GLONASS satellites that make up Russia's equivalent of the GPS system failed at once. This unprecedented and deeply worrying total disruption of what is one half of the world's operational global navigation satellite constellations shook the industry, and unequivocally confirmed the public warnings th ...
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Anti-corruption activists back on trial in China
Beijing (AFP) April 08, 2014 -
Two Chinese anti-corruption activists went on trial under heavy security Tuesday, in Beijing's latest strike against a burgeoning rights movement.
Ding Jiaxi and Li Wei appeared at a court in Beijing's Haidian district, their lawyers said. Scores of uniformed and plain-clothes police were deployed in various locations around the building, with at least 20 police vehicles.
Both men are me ...
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Cyprus opens sewage plant in rare cross-communal effort
Nicosia (AFP) April 08, 2014 -
The mayors of north and south Nicosia opened a new sewage plant for Europe's last divided capital on Tuesday, renewing a rare joint infrastructure project between the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities.
The high-tech plant, which can handle up to 30,000 cubic metres (1.1 million cubic feet) of waste water a day and serve 270,000 people - around a quarter of the island's population - has ...
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Fox News leads all TV news in misleading climate change coverage
Washington (UPI) Apr 8, 2013 -
No one gets it right all the time. But when it comes to reporting on climate science, Fox News gets it wrong more often than not - that according to a new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists.
UCS analyzed the factual accuracy of statements made during the climate change coverage of three major news networks: Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC. The quality of coverage, from worst to bes ...
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Web satire fosters change in communist Vietnam
Ho Chi Minh City (AFP) April 08, 2014 -
A critical blog post could land you in jail in communist Vietnam, but a satirical image of Cinderella which mocks the ruling elite? Likely to slip past the censors.
The country's roughly 33 million Internet users, armed only with laptops and a sense of humour, are driving broader social change in the authoritarian nation than scores of imprisoned firebrand bloggers, experts say.
From the ...
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Obama to visit US landslide site as death toll rises
Los Angeles (AFP) April 08, 2014 -
The official death toll from a huge US landslide rose to 34 on Tuesday as the White House announced that President Barack Obama will visit the scene later this month.
Up to 12 people are still believed missing after a wall of mud and debris crashed down on the small town of Oso in the forests of Washington state on March 22.
Of the 34 bodies recovered, 30 have been identified, according ...
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UN warns of drought crisis in Syria
Geneva (AFP) April 08, 2014 -
The UN's food aid agency warned on Tuesday that Syria was facing a drought that could put millions of people's lives at risk, compounding the impact of years of war.
"WFP is concerned about the impact of a looming drought hitting the northwest of the country - mainly Aleppo, Idlib, and Hama - with rainfall less than half of the long-term average and potentially major impacts on the next ce ...
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Ming-era 'chicken cup' breaks record for Chinese porcelain
Hong Kong (AFP) April 08, 2014 -
A Ming Dynasty wine cup broke the world auction record for Chinese porcelain in Hong Kong on Tuesday, after it was bought for $36.05 million (HK$281.24 million) by Shanghai tycoon Liu Yiqian, Sotheby's said.
The tiny white porcelain cup, decorated with a colour painting of a rooster and a hen tending to their chicks, was made during the reign of the Chenghua Emperor between 1465 and 1487. ...
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Kayakers captures video of elusive oarfish
Baja, Mexico (UPI) Apr 8, 2013 -
Oarfish, a long eel-like fish, or lamprid, populate temperate to tropical oceans but are rarely seen, preferring to stick to the deeper, murkier depths - between 650 and 3,000 feet.
But two kayakers paddling through the coastal waters of Baja, Mexico, happened upon two oarfish swimming in the crystal clear shallows of the Sea of Cortés. Luckily, they had their camera ready.
A m ...
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Slowdown of global warming fleeting
Philadelphia PA(SPX) Apr 09, 2014 -
The recent slowdown in the warming rate of the Northern Hemisphere may be a result of internal variability of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation - a natural phenomenon related to sea surface temperatures, according to Penn State researchers.
"Some researchers have in the past attributed a portion of Northern Hemispheric warming to a warm phase of the AMO," said Michael E. Mann, Disting ...
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The tiniest greenhouse gas emitters
Vienna, Austria (SPX) Apr 09, 2014 -
Climate feedbacks from decomposition by soil microbes are one of the biggest uncertainties facing climate modelers. A new study from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and the University of Vienna shows that these feedbacks may be less dire than previously thought.
The dynamics among soil microbes allow them to work more efficiently and flexibly as they break ...
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Climate Models Underestimate Costs to Future Generations
Gothenburg, Germany (SPX) Apr 09, 2014 -
Future generations will have to pay more for today's carbon emissions than what governments across the world currently understand. The climate models used by policymakers around the world to estimate the economic and social costs of CO2 emissions have to be improved according to Thomas Sterner, professor of Environmental Economics at the School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothe ...
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Scientists find missing piece of air particle equation hiding in the walls
Davis CA (SPX) Apr 09, 2014 -
Laboratory chamber walls have been stealing vapors, causing researchers to underestimate the formation of secondary organic aerosol in the atmosphere.
A study published April 7 in PNAS Online Early Edition describes how a team of scientists, including researchers from the University of California, Davis, showed that vapor losses to the walls of laboratory chambers can suppress the formatio ...
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A Few Winners, But Many More Losers In Climate Change
Reston VA (SPX) Apr 09, 2014 -
Dramatic distribution losses and a few major distribution gains are forecasted for southwestern bird and reptile species as the climate changes, according to just-published research by scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey, the University of New Mexico, and Northern Arizona University.
Overall, the study forecasted species distribution losses - that is, where species are able to live ...
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Researchers find arid areas absorb unexpected amounts of atmospheric carbon
Pullman WA (SPX) Apr 09, 2014 -
Researchers led by a Washington State University biologist have found that arid areas, among the biggest ecosystems on the planet, take up an unexpectedly large amount of carbon as levels of carbon dioxide increase in the atmosphere. The findings give scientists a better handle on the earth's carbon budget-how much carbon remains in the atmosphere as CO2, contributing to global warming, and how ...
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New method confirms humans and Neandertals interbred
Bethesda MD (SPX) Apr 09, 2014 -
Technical objections to the idea that Neandertals interbred with the ancestors of Eurasians have been overcome, thanks to a genome analysis method described in the April 2014 issue of the journal GENETICS. The technique can more confidently detect the genetic signatures of interbreeding than previous approaches and will be useful for evolutionary studies of other ancient or rare DNA samples.
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