Researchers film fish at record-setting depth
Aberdeen, Scotland (UPI) Dec 19, 2014 -
Researchers at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland recently broke their own record for deepest recorded fish twice in one expedition.
While exploring the Mariana Trench - the deepest place on Earth at nearly seven miles beneath the ocean surface - scientists observed two new species of snailfish. The first, seen between the depths of 6,000 and 8,000 meters, momentarily broke their ...
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Warming leads to more run-ins with polar bears
Kuujjuarapik, Canada (AFP) Dec 19, 2014 -
Word spread quickly: a polar bear, then two, were spotted near this remote Inuit village on the shores of Hudson Bay, about 1,800 kilometers (1,120 miles) north of Montreal.
Children were whisked indoors. Hunters armed with rifles set out from Kuujjuarapik on snowmobiles in a blizzard to kill the intruders, before the bears could get close enough to take a bite out of any of the town's 1,500 ...
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More research links pollution exposure during pregnancy to autism
Cambridge, Mass. (UPI) Dec 19, 2014 -
For the second time this year, a scientific paper has linked air pollution and autism. The latest study, carried out by researchers at Harvard School of Public Health, suggests exposure to air particulates during pregnancy - especially the third trimester - may increase a woman's child developing autism.
"Our data add additional important support to the hypothesis that maternal exposu ...
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A series of tremors has Florence concerned for its 'David'
Rome (AFP) Dec 20, 2014 -
More than 250 minor tremors have rattled the Florence region over the past three days, sparking alarm in Italy over the safety of Michelangelo's "David" statue.
According to the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, the two strongest shocks in the Chianti region between Florence and Siena Friday measured 3.8. and 4.1 on the Richter scale, though many others recorded early Saturda ...
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Umbrellas banned during China's Presidential visit to Macau
Macau, Macau (AFP) Dec 19, 2014 -
President Xi Jinping visited a drizzly Macau on Friday for the 15th anniversary of the gambling hub's return to Chinese rule, with onlookers barred from using umbrellas - the emblem of democracy protests in nearby Hong Kong.
The two-day trip to the former Portuguese enclave comes just days after Hong Kong police cleared the last of three camps where protesters had spent nearly three months ...
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Major U.S. cities have passed the 'tipping point' for sea level rise, according to a new study
Washington (UPI) Dec 20, 2014 -
Washington, D.C. and Annapolis, Md. are already past a "tipping point" for frequent flooding caused by sea level rise, a new study finds.
Using tide-gauge data and sea level rise projections, researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) found Washington, D.C., Annapolis and Wilmington, N.C. have already reached a point where the cities will receive over 30 ...
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Ecuador returning German money in environment row
Quito (AFP) Dec 20, 2014 -
Ecuador's President Rafael Correa said Saturday that Quito would be giving back about $8.5 million donated by Germany last year, in an environmental row.
"Go ahead, take your seven million euros. If you like, we will give you another seven million euros for training programs in respect, on sovereignty and on international law," Correa, a leftist economist by training, fumed in his weekly ad ...
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Lives of danger, poverty on Philippines' typhoon coast
Taft, Philippines (AFP) Dec 20, 2014 -
Life is a constant throw of the dice for farmer Nilo Dilao and other residents of the Philippine island of Samar, the ground zero for many of East Asia's deadliest storms.
Homes, boats, crops, livestock and jobs are all on the line each time the monster winds roar in from the Pacific Ocean, leaving survivors to mourn their dead and pick up the broken pieces, year in and year out.
"Life i ...
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