Elephant ivory smuggling 'kingpin' arrested in Tanzania
Mombasa, Kenya (AFP) Dec 23, 2014 -
A suspected organised crime boss alleged to be a leading figure in the illegal ivory trade has been arrested by Interpol agents in Tanzania, officials said Tuesday.
The international police organisation last month put Kenyan national Feisal Ali Mohammed on a list of nine most wanted suspects linked to crimes against the environment.
"Feisal Ali Mohammed was arrested by Interpol officers ...
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Australian bushfire survivors win record class action
Sydney (AFP) Dec 23, 2014 -
Survivors of a devastating 2009 bushfire in Australia won final court approval Tuesday for a nearly Aus$500 million (US$407 million) payout - the biggest class action settlement in the nation's history.
The Kilmore East blaze was the largest of the "Black Saturday" February 2009 fires in southern Victoria state that left 173 dead and razed more than 2,000 homes, the nation's worst natural d ...
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Hong Kong tycoon and former senior official face jail for graft
Hong Kong (AFP) Dec 22, 2014 -
Lawyers for Hong Kong property tycoon Thomas Kwok and the government's former deputy leader Rafael Hui pressed for leniency Monday as their clients faced seven years in prison after being convicted of corruption.
Kwok, 63, and Hui, 66, were found guilty Friday in a trial which has shocked the city known for clean governance.
Hui is the most senior official to be convicted of graft in Hon ...
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US to lift lifetime ban on blood donations from gay men
Washington (AFP) Dec 23, 2014 -
The US Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday it will move to ease a lifetime ban on blood donations from homosexual men, allowing them to give after a year of abstaining from sexual activity.
The FDA said it made decision after reviewing scientific evidence in recent years regarding its blood donor policy for homosexual males.
"The agency will take the necessary steps to recommend a ...
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Hong Kong tycoon and ex-deputy leader jailed for graft
Hong Kong (AFP) Dec 23, 2014 -
Hong Kong property tycoon Thomas Kwok and its former deputy leader were jailed for corruption Tuesday after a blockbuster trial that shocked the city and deepened anger at cosy ties between officialdom and big business.
Hui, 66, was jailed for seven and a half years after being convicted on five graft charges, including misconduct in a public office, making him the highest-ranking official i ...
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Tibetan woman burns herself to death in China: reports
Beijing (AFP) Dec 23, 2014 -
A Tibetan woman died Tuesday after setting herself on fire in protest at China's rule of the Himalayan region, rights groups and media said.
Tsepe Kyi set herself alight in the centre of a town in Aba county, known in Tibetan as Ngaba county, in southwest Sichuan province, Free Tibet and US-funded Radio Free Asia (RFA) said.
The 20-year-old set fire to herself in "protest against China's ...
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Premature death more likely in areas with lots of alcohol outlets
Toronto (UPI) Dec 23, 2014 -
There are literally thousands of books filled with thousands of pieces of advice on how to avoid premature death - eat more brussels sprouts, up your omega-3 fatty acid, wear a bike helmet. Also, avoid neighborhoods with lots of check-cashing stores and alcohol outlets.
According to a new study by researchers at Toronto's St. Michael's Hospital, ready access to cash and alcohol makes f ...
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The fine-tuning of human color perception
Atlanta GA (SPX) Dec 24, 2014 -
The evolution of trichromatic color vision in humans occurred by first switching from the ability to detect UV light to blue light (between 80-30 MYA) and then by adding green-sensitivity (between 45-30 MYA) to the preexisting red-sensitivity in the vertebrate ancestor. The detailed molecular and functional changes of the human color vision have been revealed by Shozo Yokoyama et al. Emory Unive ...
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Lightweight skeletons of modern humans have recent origin
New York, NY (SPX) Dec 24, 2014 -
New research shows that modern human skeletons evolved into their lightly built form only relatively recently--after the start of the Holocene about 12,000 years ago and even more recently in some human populations. The work, based on high-resolution imaging of bone joints from modern humans and chimpanzees as well as from fossils of extinct human species shows that for millions of years extinct ...
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New technology makes tissues, someday maybe organs
Providence RI (SPX) Dec 24, 2014 -
A new instrument could someday build replacement human organs the way electronics are assembled today: with precise picking and placing of parts. In this case, the parts are not resistors and capacitors, but 3-D microtissues containing thousands to millions of living cells that need a constant stream of fluid to bring them nutrients and to remove waste. The new device is called 'BioP3' for pick, ...
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Commensal bacteria were critical shapers of early human populations
Washington DC (SPX) Dec 24, 2014 -
Using mathematical modeling, researchers at New York and Vanderbilt universities have shown that commensal bacteria that cause problems later in life most likely played a key role in stabilizing early human populations. The finding, published in mBio, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology, offers an explanation as to why humans co-evolved with microbes that can ...
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Methane is leaking from permafrost offshore Siberia
Oslo, Norway (SPX) Dec 24, 2014 -
Yamal Peninsula in Siberia has recently become world famous. Spectacular sinkholes, appeared as out of nowhere in the permafrost of the area, sparking the speculations of significant release of greenhouse gas methane into the atmosphere.
What is less known, is that there is a lot of greenhouse gas methane released from the seabed offshore the West Yamal Peninsula. Gas is released in an are ...
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New class of synthetic molecules mimics antibodies
New Haven CT (SPX) Dec 24, 2014 -
A Yale University lab has crafted the first synthetic molecules that have both the targeting and response functions of antibodies. The new molecules - synthetic antibody mimics (SyAMs) - attach themselves simultaneously to disease cells and disease-fighting cells.
The result is a highly targeted immune response, similar to the action of natural human antibodies.
"Unlike antibodies, h ...
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