Quarter of Djibouti population desperate for drought aid: UN
Geneva (AFP) June 12, 2014 -
Nearly a quarter of the population in drought-hit Djibouti is in desperate need of aid, with malnutrition and a dramatic lack of water causing a mass exodus from rural areas, the UN said on Thursday.
"Persistent and recurring droughts have resulted in a general lack of water for both people and livestock," said the UN's Djibouti coordinator Robert Watkins.
The crisis, which has dragged o ...
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Water found to provide blueprints for root architecture
Stanford CA (SPX) Jun 16, 2014 -
Soil is a microscopic maze of nooks and crannies that hosts a wide array of life. Plants explore this environment by developing a complex branched network of roots that tap into scarce resources such as water and nutrients. How roots sense which regions of soil contain water and what effect this moisture has on the architecture of the root system has been unclear.
New research from a team ...
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Findings may advance iron-rich, cadmium-free crops
Ithaca NY (SPX) Jun 16, 2014 -
With news reports of toxic, cadmium-tainted rice in China, a new study describes a protein that transports metals in certain plants and holds promise for developing iron-rich but cadmium-free crops.
Iron and cadmium are both found in soil and are interchangeably taken up by iron transporters in plants. Pollution and heavy fertilizer use have increased soil cadmium levels in China, for exam ...
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US hosts talks to save oceans under 'siege'
Washington (AFP) June 15, 2014 -
US Secretary of State John Kerry launches an unprecedented global effort Monday to save the world's oceans under siege from overfishing, climate change and pollution.
Heads of government and state as well as ministers from some 80 countries will gather with researchers and experts from the fishing, plastics and farming industries for the two-day conference aiming to find ways to protect the ...
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India authority orders Coke plant closed
Lucknow, India (AFP) June 18, 2014 -
Authorities in northern India have ordered the closure of a Coca-Cola bottling plant at the centre of protests that it is extracting too much groundwater, an official said Wednesday.
An anti-pollution official said the Mehdiganj plant in Varanasi in the state of Uttar Pradesh had breached the conditions of its operating licence, prompting the order closure earlier this month.
"The plant ...
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Fighting hits water supply in east Ukraine city
Donetsk, Ukraine (AFP) June 19, 2014 -
Up to one million people face water shortages in eastern Ukraine as workers battle to repair pipes damaged by fighting in rebel-held Donetsk, a city spokesman said on Thursday.
"Today the water supply is limited and a full supply is being provided only at certain times," Maxim Rovinsky, spokesman for Donetsk mayor Oleksandr Lukyanchenko, told AFP.
The city is the largest rebel stronghold ...
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Stanford breakthrough provides picture of underground water
Stanford CA (SPX) Jun 20, 2014 -
Superman isn't the only one who can see through solid surfaces. In a development that could revolutionize the management of precious groundwater around the world, Stanford researchers have pioneered the use of satellites to accurately measure levels of water stored hundreds of feet below ground. Their findings were published recently in Water Resources Research.
Groundwater provides 25 to ...
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Scientists take first dip into water's mysterious 'no-man's land'
Stanford CA (SPX) Jun 20, 2014 -
Scientists at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have made the first structural observations of liquid water at temperatures down to minus 51 degrees Fahrenheit, within an elusive "no-man's land" where water's strange properties are super-amplified.
The research, made possible by SLAC's Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray laser and reported June 18 in Natu ...
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