Sweden ends military ties with Saudi Arabia over human rights issues: official
Stockholm (AFP) March 10, 2015 -
Sweden announced Tuesday it will not renew a military cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia, effectively ending defence ties due to mounting concerns over rights issues.
"It will be broken off," Prime Minister Stefan Loefven said on public radio of a 2005 Saudi-Swedish agreement.
The Social-Democrat premier spoke a day after Sweden's Foreign Minister Margot Wallstroem accused Saudi Ar ...
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CIA worked to break Apple encryption: report
Washington (AFP) March 10, 2015 -
The Central Intelligence Agency has been working for years to break encryption on Apple devices, to spy on communications of iPhone and iPad users, a report said Tuesday.
Investigative news site The Intercept, citing leaked secret documents, said the effort began in 2006 as Apple was preparing to launch its first iPhone.
The report said the researchers were based at Sandia National Labor ...
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PayPal buys cybersecurity firm, creates Israel hub
Washington (AFP) March 10, 2015 -
Online payments group PayPal announced Tuesday it was acquiring Israeli cybersecurity firm CyActive and establishing a new security hub in Israel.
The terms of the deal were not announced, but some reports this week said PayPal, which is being spun off by online giant eBay, was paying $60 million for CyActive.
"Our goal is to extend our global security leadership, and bolster our efforts ...
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Mideast peace needed to defeat extremists: Jordan king
Strasbourg, France (AFP) March 10, 2015 -
King Abdullah II of Jordan warned Tuesday that an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal was essential for combating Islamic extremists, saying the conflict served as a rallying cry for jihadists.
Abdullah told the European Parliament that the battle against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria was "first and foremost" a fight for Muslim nations to carry out.
Jordan has stepped up its role ...
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Clinton slams Republican letter to Iran
New York (AFP) March 10, 2015 -
Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday lashed out at Republican senators for sending a letter to Iran over ongoing nuclear talks, accusing them of attempting to either sabotage President Barack Obama or help Tehran.
Clinton, widely seen as the eventual frontrunner to lead the Democrats' challenge in the 2016 presidential election, lambasted signatories who included several p ...
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Chinese HD earth observation satellite comes into service
Beijing (XNA) Mar 09, 2015 -
China's most advanced earth observation satellite, the Gaofen-2, was put into service on Friday after being launched in August.
The services provided by the satellite will help boost development of the country's data application and spatial information sectors, said Xu Dazhe, head of the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense.
The Gaofen-2 is th ...
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Russia quits arms treaty consulting group amid tensions with West
Moscow (AFP) March 10, 2015 -
Russia said Tuesday it was suspending its participation in a consulting group on a conventional arms treaty for Europe, the latest sign of deep tensions with the West.
Russia had already suspended its participation in the Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) in 2007. It had however continued to take part in the consulting group related to the treaty, which was signed in 1990.
Mo ...
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China holds man who 'sold 500 aircraft carrier images'
Beijing (AFP) March 10, 2015 -
A Chinese man who sold 500 pictures of the country's first aircraft carrier has been detained in a spying investigation, local media reported, the latest web user allegedly exploited by foreign intelligence agencies.
The man, surnamed Zhang, began taking pictures of the Liaoning - a Soviet-era vessel bought from Ukraine - after he was contacted online by an individual claiming to be a "mag ...
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Poland and Latvia sceptical over EU army idea
Warsaw (AFP) March 10, 2015 -
Polish and Latvian officials on Tuesday voiced scepticism over calls for a European Union army to counter a militarily resurgent Russia.
"It's a very risky idea," Polish Foreign Minister Grzegorz Schetyna told Poland's private Radio Zet in reaction to Sunday's proposal by European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker.
Juncker, a former Luxembourg prime minister, called for the creation of ...
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Letter inflames US feud over Iran talks
Washington (AFP) March 10, 2015 -
Barack Obama pilloried Republicans Monday over an incendiary letter to Iran's leaders that warned a nuclear deal with the United States could be scrapped by the next president.
Forty-seven Senate Republicans - including several potential 2016 presidential candidates - made the unprecedented move of directly and publicly addressing leaders of the Islamic Republic in a bid to scupper the sen ...
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Ethiopia's 'Iron Lion Zion' cats fading fast
Holeta, Ethiopia (AFP) March 10, 2015 -
Ethiopia's black-maned lions once represented a former emperor, "Lion of Judah" Haile Selassie, and were immortalised in a song by reggae legend Bob Marley. Today, they struggle for survival.
A booming human population, widespread habitat destruction and growing livestock numbers mean the animal that once graced Ethiopia's flag - and is still a potent symbol for Rastafarians through the son ...
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Praising a child too much might make them a narcissist later in life
Columbus, Ohio (UPI) Mar 9, 2015 -
A new study from Ohio State University finds that praising a child too much can turn them into a narcissist.
Researchers checked in with 565 children and their parents four times over a year and a half. The children's ages ranged from 7 to 11. They surveyed the parents and children when they visited, and parents who thought their child was "more special than other children" tended to ha ...
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Doubts over China prisoner organ harvesting ban
Beijing (AFP) March 10, 2015 -
China has banned the harvesting of transplant organs from executed prisoners, a senior official said, but international medical practitioners warn that inmates' body parts may simply be reclassified as "donations" instead.
High demand for organs in China and a chronic shortage of donations mean that death row inmates have been a key source for years, generating heated controversy.
Since ...
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Botswana warns over elephant deaths ahead of anti-poaching summit
Gaborone, Botswana (AFP) March 10, 2015 -
Botswana warned Tuesday that elephants were being killed at an "unsustainably high" rate as it prepared to host conferences on poaching of the animals later this month.
"Although the statistics from 2013 and 2014 show a levelling off of poached animals, the numbers are still unsustainably high and if maintained could result in elephants becoming extinct in much of their range," said environm ...
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Ancient tooth enamel undermines history of African cattle herding
Nairobi, Kenya (UPI) Mar 10, 2015 -
When the Sahara desert began expanding 5,500 years ago, cattle herders were forced to migrate southward, following and the grasslands southward. But around 2,000 years ago, archaeological evidence suggests the herders' ended north of Lake Victoria, where new bushland habitat introduced the tsetse fly.
Previously, archaeologists have surmised that the tsetse - and the sometimes deadly d ...
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Experts hike risk of big California quake in next 30 years
Los Angeles (AFP) March 10, 2015 -
The risk of a major earthquake hitting California in the next 30 years has risen dramatically, US scientists said Tuesday, using improved forecasting techniques.
Earthquakes are notoriously hard to predict and while seismic activity in California has stayed mild in the last century, experts expect a big one to strike some time in the future - they just don't know when.
"The likelihood t ...
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Mouse-tailed bat first mammal discovered hibernating at warm temps
Tel Aviv, Israel (UPI) Mar 10, 2015 -
Until now, hibernation was thought to be a biological strategy used exclusively during cold winter months. As such, places like the Middle East, where winter months are mild, aren't ideal for discovering hibernating mammals.
But researchers from Tel Aviv University recently found two species of the mouse-tailed bat hibernating in caves in Israel's Great Rift Valley. The bats' sleeping q ...
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Protests mark Tibet Uprising Day in India, Nepal
New Delhi (AFP) March 10, 2015 -
Baton-wielding riot police Tuesday hauled Tibetan protesters into waiting buses after they tried to storm the Chinese embassy in New Delhi on the anniversary of the 1959 uprising against Beijing's rule.
With Tibet flags painted on their cheeks and bodies, the activists, some of whom were bare-chested and wore black masks, shouted independence slogans and unfurled anti-China banners before be ...
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Two dead in severe Bulgaria snowstorms
Sofia (AFP) March 10, 2015 -
Two men have died in heavy snowstorms in Bulgaria that have left tens of thousands of people without electricity for days, authorities said Tuesday.
The frozen body of an elderly man was found near a bus stop in the southern region of Krumovgrad while another man died from a heart attack while clearing snow in the central Stara Planina mountain range.
More than 600 small towns and villag ...
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Methane in Arctic lake traced to groundwater from seasonal thawing
Santa Cruz CA (SPX) Mar 11, 2015 -
Global warming may ramp up the flow of methane from groundwater into Arctic lakes, allowing more of the potent greenhouse gas to bubble out into the atmosphere, according to a new study led by researchers at UC Santa Cruz.
Scientists have long known that Arctic lakes emit methane, which comes primarily from the action of microbes in the water and lake sediments. Although numerous studies h ...
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The tides they are a changin'
Southampton, UK (SPX) Mar 11, 2015 -
Scientists from the University of Southampton have found that ocean tides have changed significantly over the last century at many coastal locations around the world.
Increases in high tide levels and the tidal range were found to have been similar to increases in average sea level at several locations. The findings of the study are published online in the journal Earth's Future.
It ...
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How rain is dependent on soil moisture
Zurich, Switzerland (SPX) Mar 11, 2015 -
The water content of soil has a great impact on the regional climate, but many of the connections are still not clear. Researchers at ETH Zurich's Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, together with colleagues from Belgium and the Netherlands, examined when and where it rains most frequently on summer afternoons. They wanted to clarify whether more rain fell on days when the soil was dr ...
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Interdependence explained
Santa Barbara CA (SPX) Mar 11, 2015 -
The relationship between human disease and environmental management has been the subject of extensive research, especially given the recent outbreaks of Ebola, SARS and other zoonotic infectious diseases that transmit from animals to humans.
The fieldwork of UC Santa Barbara community ecologist Hillary Young is a good example of researchers' continuing effort to understand exactly how envi ...
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More study needed to clarify impact of cellulose nanocrystals on health
Blacksburg VA (SPX) Mar 11, 2015 -
Are cellulose nanocrystals harmful to human health? The answer might depend on the route of exposure, according to a review of the literature by a Virginia Tech scientist, but there have been few studies and many questions remain.
Writing in the journal Industrial Biotechnology, Maren Roman, an associate professor of sustainable biomaterials in the College of Natural Resources and Environm ...
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Ancient Africans used 'no fly zones' to bring herds south
St. Louis MO (SPX) Mar 11, 2015 -
Once green, the Sahara expanded 5,500 years ago, leading ancient herders to follow the rain and grasslands south to eastern Africa. But about 2,000 years ago, their southward migration stalled out, stopped in its tracks, archaeologists presumed, by tsetse-infested bush and disease.
As the theory goes, the tiny tsetse fly altered the course of history, stopping the spread of domesticated an ...
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