Iraq investigating IS chief's fate after air strikes
Baghdad (AFP) Nov 09, 2014 -
Iraq was on Sunday investigating whether Islamic State jihadist group chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in air strikes by US-led coalition warplanes targeting the group's leaders.
The death of the elusive Baghdadi would be a major victory for the coalition of countries carrying out air strikes against IS and providing assistance to Iraqi forces fighting to regain large areas of Iraq that ...
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Rising China, geopolitical tensions take stage at APEC
Beijing (AFP) Nov 10, 2014 -
World leaders including Barack Obama arrived in Beijing Monday for an Asia-Pacific summit hosted by China's Xi Jinping and including Russia's Vladimir Putin, against a backdrop of growing big-power rivalries.
Obama arrives wounded by the Democrats' defeat in the mid-term US elections and with US-Russian relations in the deep freeze, while Moscow warms to an increasingly assertive China.
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New joust over sea dispute expected at ASEAN
Yangon (AFP) Nov 10, 2014 -
Fresh diplomatic sparring over who owns what in the South China Sea is likely to break out this week at a major regional summit in Myanmar, after a year in which China jacked up tensions in the resource-rich waters.
Rival claims have gnawed away at ties between Southeast Asian nations including Vietnam and the Philippines and regional powerhouse China, which claims nearly all of the sea, inc ...
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Japan-China summit 'first step' to better ties: Abe
Beijing (AFP) Nov 10, 2014 -
Japan and China have taken the "first step" on the road to improving badly strained relations, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Monday after a half-hour summit with President Xi Jinping in Beijing.
The two men held their first face-to-face meeting since coming to power and after presiding over two years of animosity that some observers have warned was leaning perilously close to military confl ...
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The dragon and the bear: Xi, Putin form power duo at APEC
Beijing (AFP) Nov 08, 2014 -
China's authoritarian President Xi Jinping and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin share similar views on issues from human rights to Mikhail Gorbachev, in an increasingly close personal relationship that mirrors their countries' converging interests.
Putin arrives in Beijing Sunday for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit and his 10th meeting with Xi since the Chinese presiden ...
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Iran, Russia to sign nuclear plants deal Tuesday: media
Tehran (AFP) Nov 09, 2014 -
The head of Iran's atomic energy agency will travel to Russia Tuesday to sign a construction deal for two nuclear power plants on Iran's southern Gulf shores, media reported.
Ali Akbar Salehi's visit will cap months of negotiations between Iran and Russia, and comes as the Islamic republic faces a November 24 deadline for a long-term nuclear agreement with world powers.
"I am going to Mo ...
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US, Iran seek nuclear breakthrough amid domestic pressures
Muscat (AFP) Nov 09, 2014 -
US Secretary of State John Kerry will Sunday seek a breakthrough in nuclear talks with Iran, with domestic pressures in both countries now weighing heavily on hopes for a deal.
Kerry will meet Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Muscat, Oman, seeking to close substantial gaps that in recent months have blocked efforts to turn an interim agreement into a comprehensive settlement. ...
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Obama warns Iran nuclear deal may not be reached
Muscat (AFP) Nov 10, 2014 -
The US and Iran will hold a second day of high-level talks in Oman Monday after a warning from President Barack Obama that there may be no nuclear accord as a deadline looms.
US Secretary of State John Kerry met Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in the Gulf sultanate on Sunday, seeking to resolve key disputes that have left the West's negotiations with the Islamic republic close t ...
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S. Korea fires warning shots at North border patrol
Seoul (AFP) Nov 10, 2014 -
South Korean troops fired warning shots Monday as a North Korean patrol approached the border inside the heavily fortified Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) that separates the rivals.
There was no exchange of fire and the North Korean patrol eventually moved away from the military demarcation line (MDL) marking the border, a defence ministry spokesman said.
The spokesman said the incident - the ...
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Five nuclear engineers murdered near Damascus: monitor
Beirut (AFP) Nov 09, 2014 -
Unknown assailants killed five nuclear engineers Sunday while they were on a bus just north of Damascus, near the research centre where they worked, a monitor said on Sunday.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of sources on the ground for its reports, later told AFP four of the engineers were Syrian, while one was Iranian.
"Unidentified attac ...
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From earphones to jet engines, 3D printing takes off
New York (AFP) Nov 09, 2014 -
Many manufacturers are at an early stage of discovering the benefits of 3D printing, but one of the clearest strengths is customization.
At Normal, consumers can use a mobile app to photograph their ear, transmit the shots to the New York startup's 3D printing facility and then receive customized earphones within 48 hours.
The process marries today's click-and-go speed with a made-to-ord ...
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Amazon debuts Siri-style virtual assistant in speaker
San Francisco (AFP) Nov 06, 2014 -
Internet retail titan Amazon on Thursday introduced a home virtual assistant always at the ready to answer questions, fetch news, play music or help with to-do lists.
Cloud-based brains referred to as "Alexa" were built into Echo speakers and were seen as a challenge to "Siri" virtual assistants in Apple's coveted mobile devices.
Echo became available on an invitation-only basis at a pri ...
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Live Images from the Nano-cosmos
Hamburg, Germany (SPX) Nov 06, 2014 -
Many pollutants with the potential to meddle with hormones - with bisphenol A (BPA) as a prime example - are already common in the environment. In an effort to clean up these pollutants found in the soil and waterways, scientists are now reporting a novel way to break them down by recruiting help from nanoparticles and light.
The study appears in the journal ACS Applied Materials and Inter ...
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Clearing a path for electrons in polymers: Closing in on the speed limits
Cambridge, UK (SPX) Nov 06, 2014 -
Researchers from the University of Cambridge have identified a class of low-cost, easily-processed semiconducting polymers which, despite their seemingly disorganised internal structure, can transport electrons as efficiently as expensive crystalline inorganic semiconductors.
In this new polymer, about 70% of the electrons are free to travel, whereas in conventional polymers that number ca ...
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Measuring nano-vibrations
Barcelona, Spain (SPX) Nov 06, 2014 -
In a recent paper published in Nature Nanotechnology, Joel Moser and ICFO colleagues of the NanoOptoMechanics research group led by Prof. Adrian Bachtold, together with Marc Dykman (Michigan University), report on an experiment in which a carbon nanotube mechanical resonator exhibits quality factors of up to 5 million, 30 times better than the best quality factors measured in nanotubes to date. ...
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Transitions between states of matter: It's more complicated, scientists find
New York NY (SPX) Nov 07, 2014 -
The seemingly simple process of phase changes--those transitions between states of matter--is more complex than previously known, according to research based at Princeton University, Peking University and New York University.
Their study, which appears in the journal Science, reveals the need to rethink one of science's building blocks and, with it, how some of the basic principles underly ...
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'Direct writing' of diamond patterns from graphite a potential technological leap
West Lafayette IN (SPX) Nov 07, 2014 -
What began as research into a method to strengthen metals has led to the discovery of a new technique that uses a pulsing laser to create synthetic nanodiamond films and patterns from graphite, with potential applications from biosensors to computer chips.
"The biggest advantage is that you can selectively deposit nanodiamond on rigid surfaces without the high temperatures and pressures no ...
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The Peres conjecture is false!
Geneva, Switzerland (SPX) Nov 06, 2014 -
Since 1999, the conjecture by Asher Peres, who invented quantum teleportation, has piqued the interest of many scientists in the field. According to his hypothesis, the weakest form of quantum entanglement can never result in the strongest manifestation of the phenomenon.
Today, a team of researchers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences ...
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This robot makes you feel like a 'ghost' is in the room
Lausanne, Switzerland (SPX) Nov 07, 2014 -
People don't really tend to see ghosts or guardian angels as much as "feel" them, and now researchers reporting in the Cell Press journal Current Biology think they know where that "feeling of a presence" (FoP) phenomenon comes from, based on studies of 12 patients with various neurological conditions.
The researchers have also successfully devised a robot capable of giving otherwise healt ...
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Spent Fuel Removed From One Fukushima Reactor
Moscow (RIA Novosti) Nov 06, 2014 -
The firm operating the incapacitated Fukushima nuclear power plant today announced its success in removing all the spent uranium fuel from one of the wrecked plant's reactor buildings, completing one part of the second phase of the plant's decades-long decommissioning process.
"The removal of the spent fuel assemblies was completed," reads today's statement by Tepco on its webpage, continu ...
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NASA Rocket Experiment Finds the Universe Brighter Than We Thought
Washington DC (SPX) Nov 10, 2014 -
A NASA sounding rocket experiment has detected a surprising surplus of infrared light in the dark space between galaxies, a diffuse cosmic glow as bright as all known galaxies combined. The glow is thought to be from orphaned stars flung out of galaxies.
The findings redefine what scientists think of as galaxies. Galaxies may not have a set boundary of stars, but instead stretch out to gre ...
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Alexander's rollercoaster ride from space to Germany
Paris (ESA) Nov 10, 2014 -
ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst has spent almost six months on the International Space Station running experiments and maintaining the weightless research outpost with his crewmates. After landing in Kazakhstan, he will become ESA's first astronaut to return directly to Europe for rehabilitation.
Alexander will climb into the Soyuz spacecraft with Roscosmos cosmonaut Max Suraev and NASA astr ...
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European satellite could discover thousands of planets in Earth's galaxy
Princeton NJ (SPX) Nov 10, 2014 -
A recently launched European satellite could reveal tens of thousands of new planets within the next few years, and provide scientists with a far better understanding of the number, variety and distribution of planets in our galaxy, according to new research.
Researchers from Princeton University and Lund University in Sweden calculated that the observational satellite Gaia could detect as ...
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Jets, bubbles, and bursts of light in Taurus
Washington DC (SPX) Nov 10, 2014 -
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has snapped a striking view of a multiple star system called XZ Tauri, its neighbour HL Tauri, and several nearby young stellar objects. XZ Tauri is blowing a hot bubble of gas into the surrounding space, which is filled with bright and beautiful clumps that are emitting strong winds and jets. These objects illuminate the region, creating a truly dramatic scen ...
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Fast internet connection a luxury in rural Kenya
Nairobi (XNA) Nov 10, 2014 -
It was a simple exercise that was supposed to take jobseeker Grace Muyale of Kenya less than two minutes, but she did not accomplish it in three hours. Muyale, who lives in Busia, western Kenya, was applying for a job at an nongovernment organization in Nairobi, Kenya. The firm had asked candidates to send their curriculum vitae (CV) and scanned certificates through email.
The 26-year-old ...
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