Montenegro PM optimistic over bid to join NATO this year
Podgorica, Montenegro (AFP) Oct 15, 2015 -
Montenegro's premier expressed optimism Thursday that the tiny Balkan country would join NATO by the year's end, after the chief of the military alliance visited Podgorica and commended its reforms.
At the end of a two-day visit by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic said he was "full of optimism... that Montenegro hopefully will be invited to join NATO as ...
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Britain's Charles to skip banquet with Chinese president
London (AFP) Oct 14, 2015 -
Britain's Prince Charles is to skip a state banquet during a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping next week, the office of the heir to the throne said on Wednesday.
The Prince of Wales will hold "one-to-one talks" with the president but will not attend the banquet, to be hosted by Queen Elizabeth II.
Charles is a supporter of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader whom Chin ...
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China orders academics to push Communist doctrine online
Beijing (AFP) Oct 15, 2015 -
Chinese academics will be required to promote Communist party doctrine on the Internet, state-run media said Thursday, with promotions dependent on their ability to guide political discussions online.
New guidelines from the country's education ministry call on teachers of political doctrine to promote "core socialist values" on social media, the state-run Global Times said.
The move is ...
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Advanced Airborne Networking Capabilities Sought for Hostile Environments
Washington DC (SPX) Oct 16, 2015 -
Modern airborne warfare is becoming increasingly complex, with manned and unmanned systems having to rapidly share information in a volatile environment where adversaries use advanced, commercially available electronic systems to disrupt U.S. and allied communications.
Complicating the communications challenge for allied warfighters, many current airborne radio networks are incompatible wi ...
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SMC Stands Up New Launch Systems Enterprise Directorate
Los Angeles AFB CA (AFNS) Oct 16, 2015 -
The Space and Missile Systems Center's newest directorate, the Launch Systems Enterprise Directorate (SMC/LE), stood up at a ceremony held at Los Angeles Air Force Base on Oct. 14. Under the leadership of Dr. Claire Leon, the new directorate brings together the Launch Systems Directorate and the Rocket Systems Launch Program (which formerly fell under SMC's Advance Systems and Development Direct ...
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Russian Rocket Engine Delivery to China May Be Agreed by December
Harbin, China (Sputnik) Oct 13, 2015 -
Russia may sign a rocket engine delivery agreement with China during Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's visit in mid-December, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said Monday.
"We are talking about an agreement to deliver Russian rocket engines to China, as well as counter deliveries of Chinese microelectronics we need in spacecraft development," Rogozin said after meeting Chinese V ...
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Russia, US nearing deal on crowded Syria skies
Beirut (AFP) Oct 14, 2015 -
Russia and the United States said Wednesday that they were close to agreeing a deal to avoid clashes between their warplanes over Syria, as regime forces bombarded rebels near Damascus.
Fighting was also reported on the ground in the northern city of Aleppo, where jihadists from the Islamic State group were advancing against rebels.
Talks by videoconference Wednesday came after US and Ru ...
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Chinese admiral in Iran calls for closer defence ties
Tehran (AFP) Oct 15, 2015 -
China wants to strengthen military ties with Iran, a senior Chinese admiral said Thursday, three months after Tehran sealed a deal with world powers over its nuclear programme.
Sun Jianguo made the remarks to Iranian Defence Minister Hossein Dehghan during a visit to Tehran, China's defence ministry said in statement, noting that he hoped to continue pushing forward military relations betwee ...
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Japan, China must move on from 'excessive focus' on past: Abe
Tokyo (AFP) Oct 14, 2015 -
Japan's premier Wednesday said his country's relationship with China must move away from an "excessive focus" on the past during a meeting with a top Beijing envoy.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made the remarks to State Councillor Yang Jiechi, the highest-ranking Chinese diplomat to make an official trip to Tokyo for several years, a senior Japanese government official said.
His visit signa ...
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Beijing warns against US South China Sea move
Beijing (AFP) Oct 15, 2015 -
Beijing warned Thursday that it would "firmly oppose" infringement of its sovereignty after indications Washington will soon send warships close to its artificial islands in the South China Sea.
Tensions have mounted since China transformed reefs in the area - also claimed by several neighbouring countries - into small islands capable of supporting military facilities, a move that the US s ...
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Can a crystal ward off climate change?
Stockholm, Sweden (UPI) Oct 15, 2015 -
Carbon-absorbing crystals probably won't stave off global warming, but they could help put a dent in carbon emissions.
Carbon capturing technologies are mostly too expensive, but a new discovery could change that.
Scientists in Sweden have developed a new type of synthetic crystal with carbon-capturing micropores. Researchers say the crystal can capture carbon dioxide more effici ...
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Dibblers get a second chance on Australian island
Perth, Australia (UPI) Oct 15, 2015 -
Pushed to the brink of extinction by land clearing and growing populations of feral cats and foxes, a rare marsupial in Western Australia is trying to make a comeback - with a little help from their human friends.
Recently, 29 dibblers were reintroduced to Gunton Island, a remote spot off the coast of the southern tip of Western Australia, part of the Recherche Archipelago. The small, ...
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Did Homo sapiens colonize Asia before Europe?
Daoxian, China (UPI) Oct 15, 2015 -
A cave in Southern China, near the small village of Daoxian, has yielded 47 human teeth, dated between 80,000 and 120,000 years ago - the earliest evidence of Homo sapiens presence outside of Africa.
Researchers don't think modern humans left Africa for Europe until roughly 60,000 years ago. If they're right, the new evidence suggests Homo sapiens left for Asia first.
"This is s ...
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Hong Kong police, 'beaten' protester, all face charges
Hong Kong (AFP) Oct 15, 2015 -
Seven Hong Kong police officers were charged Thursday with assaulting a pro-democracy protester in a beating captured on video - but the victim was also charged in the heavily-criticised case.
It comes one year to the day since the attack on Civic Party activist Ken Tsang, footage of which was beamed around the world at the height of mass protests for free leadership elections in Hong Kong. ...
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Heavy air pollution in 80% of Chinese cities: Greenpeace
Beijing (AFP) Oct 15, 2015 -
Pollution in nearly 80 percent of Chinese cities surveyed by Greenpeace "greatly exceeded" national standards over the first nine months of this year, the advocacy group said on Thursday.
The average level of PM2.5 particulates - small enough to deeply penetrate the lungs - in the 367 cities tested was also more than four times the maximum recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) ...
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Cyprus blasts 'illegal' pipeline from Turkey
Nicosia (AFP) Oct 15, 2015 -
Cyprus on Thursday slammed as illegal a water pipeline connecting Turkey to the Turkish-held north of the divided island, saying it undermined ongoing peace talks.
Nicosia's foreign ministry said the construction of a 106-kilometre (65 mile) underwater pipeline taking water from a damn near the Turkish port of Mersin to breakaway northern Cyprus "violates international law".
Cyprus has ...
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New study questions long-held theories of climate variability in the North Atlantic
Miami FL (SPX) Oct 16, 2015 -
A University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric-led study challenges the prevailing wisdom by identifying the atmosphere as the driver of a decades-long climate variation known as the Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation (AMO). The findings offer new insight on the causes and predictability of natural climate variations, which are known to cause wide-ranging global weather i ...
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2015 Antarctic maximum sea ice extent breaks streak of record highs
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Oct 16, 2015 -
The sea ice cover of the Southern Ocean reached its yearly maximum extent on Oct. 6. At 7.27 million square miles (18.83 million square kilometers), the new maximum extent falls roughly in the middle of the record of Antarctic maximum extents compiled during the 37 years of satellite measurements - this year's maximum extent is both the 22nd lowest and the 16th highest.
More remarkably, th ...
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Prehistoric mammal likely suffered from hair disease
Bonn, Germany (SPX) Oct 15, 2015 -
An international team of researchers, together with participation from the University of Bonn, has investigated a stunning fossil finding from the Cretaceous period. The 125-million-year-old mouse- to rat-sized mammal is preserved so well that even detailed analyses of its fur are possible. An astounding finding: The animal may have suffered from a fungal infection of the hair which also strikes ...
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Shift in weaning age supports hunting-induced extinction of Siberian woolly mammoths
Ann Arbor MI (SPX) Oct 16, 2015 -
Chemical clues about weaning age embedded in the tusks of juvenile Siberian woolly mammoths suggest that hunting, rather than climate change, was the primary cause of the elephant-like animal's extinction.
Woolly mammoths disappeared from Siberia and North America about 10,000 years ago, along with other giant mammals that went extinct at the end of the last glacial period. Current competi ...
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Researchers learn how to keep pathogens, pests from traveling with grain
Gainesville FL (SPX) Oct 15, 2015 -
University of Florida researchers say new research can help grain handlers and grain inspectors find key locations for pathogens and pests along rail routes in the United States and Australia. The new knowledge could help make the food supply safer and address stored grain problems that cost hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
In a new analysis in the journal BioScience, researchers ...
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New concept to help set priorities in water management
Magdeburg, Germany (SPX) Oct 15, 2015 -
The basic principle behind most strategies aimed at renaturalising ecosystems is to increase biodiversity by restoring natural habitat structure, which should lead to improved ecosystem services in the process. These projects often do not result in the success researchers had hoped for because the complexity of ecological relationships is so vast that it is difficult to detect the precise ecolog ...
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Rising seas will drown mangrove forests
Brisbane, Australia (SPX) Oct 15, 2015 -
Mangrove forests around the Indo-Pacific region could be submerged by 2070, international research published this week says. Even with relatively low sea-level rises, many mangrove forests had a poor outlook said Professor Catherine Lovelock, a University of Queensland ecologist.
"Mangrove forests are particularly vulnerable," she said. "Mangroves are predicted to be submerged in parts of ...
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Rise and fall of agrarian states influenced by climate volatility
University Park PA (SPX) Oct 16, 2015 -
Climate variability is one of the major forces in the rise and fall of agrarian states in Mexico and Peru, according to a team of researchers looking at both climate and archaeological records.
"We are arguing that the climate information in both areas is good enough to establish that climate is playing some role in the rise and fall of these city states," said Douglas Kennett, professor o ...
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Study shows new potential indirect effects of humans on water quality
Minneapolis MN (SPX) Oct 16, 2015 -
A study published this week shows that a newly studied class of water contaminants that is known to be toxic and hormone disrupting to marine animals is present likely due in part to indirect effects of human activity. The contaminants are more prevalent in populated areas in the San Francisco Bay, suggesting that human impacts on nutrient input or other changes in water quality may enhance natu ...
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