UN summit urges ambitious climate deal
United Nations, United States (AFP) Sept 23, 2014 -
World leaders on Tuesday urged ambitious action to combat climate change and promised to make greater efforts, but a tough road lay ahead with a year to go for an accord.
At a UN summit held after tens of thousands rallied around the world, France promised $1 billion to the Green Climate Fund - making it the only contributor other than Germany to the new institution that would help the wors ...
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OSI laying off hundreds from troubled China food plant
Shanghai (AFP) Sept 22, 2014 -
US food supplier OSI Group said Monday it had begun laying off more than 300 workers at a Shanghai plant shut down by Chinese authorities over expired meat sold to fast food giants.
OSI said 340 people would be made redundant, both direct employees and contract workers, at Shanghai Husi Food Co., a statement said.
The unit operated a facility closed by Shanghai officials more than two mo ...
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World urged to change course at UN climate summit
United Nations, United States (AFP) Sept 23, 2014 -
World leaders at a UN summit billed as the largest-ever gathering on climate change faced calls Tuesday to take bold action to reverse global warming.
"Today, we must set the world on a new course," United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said at the opening of the summit at UN headquarters in New York. "I am asking you to lead."
The meeting is the first of its kind since the Copenh ...
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Military should acknowledge rights abuses: Brazil
Brasilia (AFP) Sept 23, 2014 -
The truth commission investigating abuses under Brazil's military dictatorship Tuesday branded as "insufficient" the armed forces' acknowledgement of possible rights abuses, calling for greater transparency.
The Commission had demanded in August that all branches of the armed forces either confirm or deny involvement in "cases of torture, death and disappearance" during military rule between ...
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Scuffles as Hong Kong students escalate democracy strike
Hong Kong (AFP) Sept 23, 2014 -
Hong Kong students mobbed the city's leader Tuesday in angry scenes as they took their anti-Beijing strike to government headquarters, where more than 1,000 protested against China's refusal to grant full democracy.
Organisers said 13,000 university students massed at a campus in the north of the semi-autonomous city on Monday to launch a week-long boycott of classes, a strong showing that b ...
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US tests for toxic spill from Mexico mine
Los Angeles (AFP) Sept 23, 2014 -
US authorities are testing a river in Arizona for possible cross-border contamination from a toxic mine spill in northwestern Mexico, an official said Tuesday.
The checks came after a recent massive acid spill in the Sonora River from the Buenavista copper mine which turned a 60-kilometer (40-mile) stretch of the waterway orange, causing Mexican authorities to shut off the municipal water su ...
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Alarm over fate of monarch butterfly
Mexico City (AFP) Sept 23, 2014 -
The migration of monarch butterflies from Canada to Mexico is threatened by the use of pesticides that have reduced food sources for their epic journey, Mexican experts warned Tuesday.
The orange-and-black butterflies consume milkweed as they fly across the United States on their way to their winter grounds in the forests of central and western Mexico.
But the availability of the plant h ...
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Kurdish refugees in Turkey adjust to harsh new reality
Suruc, Turkey (AFP) Sept 23, 2014 -
When he finally managed to cross the Turkish border to find sanctuary from jihadists in Syria, Abdelaziz Temo looked for shade to find refuge from the sun and water to refresh himself.
He stopped in a small mosque in the Turkish border town of Suruc. But three days later, he has still not left the building as Turkey struggles to accommodate the influx of almost 140,000 Kurdish refugees.
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White tiger kills youth at New Delhi zoo
New Delhi (AFP) Sept 23, 2014 -
A white tiger on Tuesday attacked and killed a youth who apparently jumped into its enclosure at a zoo in the Indian capital.
Witnesses said the tiger grabbed the young man by the neck as horrified onlookers at the National Zoological Park in New Delhi screamed and threw sticks and stones to try to save him.
One witness said he raced to the enclosure after hearing screams to see the vict ...
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Sensing Neuronal Activity With Light
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Sep 24, 2014 -
For years, neuroscientists have been trying to develop tools that would allow them to clearly view the brain's circuitry in action-from the first moment a neuron fires to the resulting behavior in a whole organism. To get this complete picture, neuroscientists are working to develop a range of new tools to study the brain.
Researchers at Caltech have developed one such tool that provides a ...
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2014 Arctic Sea Ice Minimum Sixth Lowest on Record
Washington DC (SPX) Sep 24, 2014 -
Arctic sea ice coverage continued its below-average trend this year as the ice declined to its annual minimum on Sept. 17, according to the NASA-supported National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Over the 2014 summer, Arctic sea ice melted back from its maximum extent reached in March to a coverage area of 1.94 million square miles (5.02 million squ ...
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Insects' fear limits boost from climate change
Hanover NH (SPX) Sep 24, 2014 -
Scientists often measure the effects of temperature on insects to predict how climate change will affect their distribution and abundance, but a Dartmouth study shows for the first time that insects' fear of their predators, in addition to temperature, ultimately limits how fast they grow.
"In other words, it's less about temperature and more about the overall environmental conditions that ...
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Answer to restoring lost island biodiversity found in fossils
Gainesville FL (SPX) Sep 24, 2014 -
Many native species have vanished from tropical islands because of human impact, but University of Florida scientists have discovered how fossils can be used to restore lost biodiversity.
The key lies in organic materials found in fossil bones, which contain evidence for how ancient ecosystems functioned, according to a new study available online and in the September issue of the Journal o ...
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Do wearable lifestyle activity monitors really work?
Galveston TX (SPX) Sep 24, 2014 -
Wearable electronic activity monitors hold great promise in helping people to reach their fitness and health goals. These increasingly sophisticated devices help the wearers improve their wellness by constantly monitoring their activities and bodily responses. This information is organized into companion computer programs and mobile apps.
Given the large and quickly growing market for thes ...
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UTSA microbiologists discover regulatory thermometer that controls cholera
San Antonio TX (SPX) Sep 24, 2014 -
Karl Klose, professor of biology and a researcher in UTSA's South Texas Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases, has teamed up with researchers at Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany to understand how humans get infected with cholera. Their findings were released this week in an article published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Cholera is an acute infection caused by ...
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Microplastic pollution discovered in St. Lawrence River sediments
Montreal, Canada (SPX) Sep 24, 2014 -
Previously undocumented in North American rivers, concentrations of microplastic particles in the St. Lawrence are as high as has been observed in the world's most contaminated marine sediments.
A team of researchers from McGill University and the Quebec government have discovered microplastics (in the form of polyethylene 'microbeads', 2 mm diameter) widely distributed across the bottom ...
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Microplastic pollution discovered in St. Lawrence River
Montreal, Canada (SPX) Sep 24, 2014 -
A team of researchers from McGill University and the Quebec government have discovered microplastics (in the form of polyethylene 'microbeads,' less than 2 mm in diameter) widely distributed across the bottom of the St. Lawrence River, the first time such pollutants have been found in freshwater sediments.
The microbeads likely originate from cosmetics, household cleansers, or industrial c ...
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Study assess impact of temperature on soil decomposition
Hilo HI (SPX) Sep 24, 2014 -
The Earth's soils store four times more carbon than the atmosphere and small changes in soil carbon storage can have a big effect on atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. A new paper in the journal Nature Climate Change concludes that climate warming does not accelerate soil organic carbon decomposition or affect soil carbon storage, despite increases in ecosystem productivity.
The re ...
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Genetic switch regulates a plant's internal clock based on temperature
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Sep 24, 2014 -
Scientists have discovered a key molecular cog in a plant's biological clock - one that modulates the speed of circadian (daily) rhythms based on temperature.
Transcription factors, or genetic switches, drive gene expression in plants based on external stresses - such as light, rain, soil quality, or even animals grazing on them. A team of researchers at USC has isolated one, called FBH1, ...
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The Fickle El Nino of 2014
Pasadena CA (JPL) Sep 24, 2014 -
Prospects have been fading for an El Nino event in 2014, but now there's a glimmer of hope for a very modest comeback. Scientists warn that unless these developing weak-to-modest El Nino conditions strengthen, the drought-stricken American West shouldn't expect any relief.
The latest sea-level-height data from the NASA/European Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM)/Jason-2 satellite miss ...
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Damascus says was informed by US of air strikes on IS
Damascus (AFP) Sept 23, 2014 -
The Damascus government said it had been informed by Washington of the air strikes it began early Tuesday on Islamic State group (IS) targets on Syrian soil.
"Yesterday (Monday), the Americans informed the Syrian representative at the United Nations that strikes would be carried out against the terrorist IS organisation in Raqa," the group's Syrian stronghold, a foreign ministry statement qu ...
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British PM to hold first direct talks with Iran's president since 1979
London (AFP) Sept 23, 2014 -
British Prime Minister David Cameron will hold face-to-face talks with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, the premier's office said on Tuesday, in what would be the first such high-level meeting between the two countries since 1979.
During the meeting at the sidelines of the United Nations summit in New York, Cameron will urge Rouhani to join an international campaign against Islamic State (I ...
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US, Arab allies bomb IS jihadists in Syria
Washington (AFP) Sept 23, 2014 -
US and Arab warplanes hammered Islamic State militants in eastern Syria early Tuesday, opening a new front in the fight against the jihadist group, defense officials said.
Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates took part in the bombing raids, US media reported, in an extraordinary show of Arab solidarity against the IS group that has rampaged through Syria and Iraq ...
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Poland, Pakistan, Lebanon seek U.S. military hardware
Washington (UPI) Sep 23, 2014 -
The U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency says U.S. allies are seeking to buy more than $800 million worth of missiles, helicopters and armored vehicles.
The three possible sales packages under the U.S. Foreign Military Sales program would be for Poland, Lebanon and Pakistan.
All three possible sales have already been approved by the U.S. State Department, the agency said in i ...
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Airbus Defense and Space helps secure Saudi border
Unterschleissheim, Germany (UPI) Sep 23, 2014 -
The final stage of a program to help secure Saudi Arabia's border with Iraq has been officially inaugurated.
Airbus Defense and Space, working with its civil works partner, was the principle contractor for the Northern Border Project that covers about 559 miles of frontier.
"I am proud to be responsible of this final stage of the project and to see all our years of hard work and ...
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