Kremlin admits TV stations showed 'secret' nuclear torpedo plan
Moscow (AFP) Nov 11, 2015 -
The Kremlin admitted Wednesday that Russian television had accidentally shown secret plans detailing a nuclear torpedo system in development.
Two Kremlin-controlled channels, NTV and Channel One, showed a military official looking at a confidential document containing drawings and details of a weapons system called Status-6, designed by Rubin, a nuclear submarine construction company based i ...
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Syria army takes Aleppo rebel town in new advance
Damascus (AFP) Nov 12, 2015 -
Syria's army, backed by allied forces and Russian air strikes, seized a key rebel town south of Aleppo on Thursday, scoring its second major advance in the province this week.
State television announced the capture of Al-Hader, a former opposition bastion near the key Aleppo-Damascus highway, just 48 hours after regime forces broke a siege by the Islamic State group of the Kweyris air base i ...
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Taiwan's president on defensive after China summit
Taipei (AFP) Nov 12, 2015 -
Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou has hit back at opponents who have accused him of selling out by holding a historic summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Ma said he had not shied away from referring to Taiwan as the Republic of China (ROC) - its official name, which China does not recognise.
"I stated it so clearly," he told broadcaster TVBS in an interview aired on Wednesday.
"No ...
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Pentagon to unveil Guantanamo closure plan
Washington (AFP) Nov 12, 2015 -
The Pentagon is poised to release a much-anticipated report on shutting down Guantanamo Bay, even as Congress battles to block the transfer of the military prison inmates from Cuba to US soil.
Officials have said the report on US prison sites that could house the last Guantanamo detainees - enabling President Barack Obama to fulfil a key election pledge - would be published in the coming d ...
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3D printed UAV makes debut
Minneapolis (UPI) Nov 12, 2015 -
A jet-powered, 3D-printed unmanned aerial vehicle has been unveiled this week by Stratasys Ltd and Aurora flight sciences.
The UAV has a nine-foot wingspan, weighs just 33 pounds and has a speed of more than 150 miles per hour, according to Stratasys Ltd., which is headquartered in Minnesota.
"A primary goal for us was to show the aerospace industry just how quickly you can go fr ...
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Okinawa governor refuses order on US base landfill work
Tokyo Nov 11, 2015 -
The governor of the southern Japanese island of Okinawa on Wednesday rejected a state order to proceed with landfill work on a new US military base in the latest move in a nearly 20-year battle over the controversial project.
Outspoken governor Takeshi Onaga told reporters he will "do his best" to prevent the government from building the base.
The dispute is over a proposal, first mooted ...
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New York City turns tide on homeless vets
New York (AFP) Nov 11, 2015 -
Four years ago Craig Hinds was homeless. A US Navy vet who served back-to-back tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, he had no job and was suffering from PTSD.
His life turned around when he moved into a veterans-only housing unit in New York City. He is one of thousands who have been saved from living on the streets in a US push to end homelessness among ex military.
The homeless population ma ...
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Coalition strikes, fighting kill 24 Yemen rebels
Aden (AFP) Nov 12, 2015 -
Saudi-led coalition air strikes and attacks by pro-government forces killed at least 24 rebels Thursday in Yemen's south, where the insurgents have been pushing to regain lost ground, military sources said.
Warplanes bombed two rebel troop transports north of Damt, the Daleh province's second-largest city, which the Iran-backed Huthi rebels and their allies recaptured on Saturday, a military ...
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Chinese plane to arrive, six years late: report
Shanghai (AFP) Nov 10, 2015 -
China's main commercial aircraft maker will deliver its long-delayed first homegrown regional jet by the end of 2015, state media reported Tuesday, years behind the originally announced deadline.
State-owned Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China (COMAC) will deliver a 78-90 seat ARJ21 to domestic carrier Chengdu Airlines in late November or early December, the official Xinhua news agency said. ...
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Diving Deep: Inside Russia's Next-Gen Nuclear Submarines
Moscow (Sputnik) Nov 11, 2015 -
Russia is developing two new types of nuclear submarines to replace its Project 949A Oscar-class and Project 945 Sierra-class vessels.
The new vessels are the next generation of Russia's Project 955 Borei-class ballistic missile submarine and Project 855M Yasen-class guided-missile submarines, which are late-Soviet-era designs, reported international affairs magazine the National Interest. ...
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At least 8 killed in Iran flash flooding: state TV
Tehran (AFP) Nov 12, 2015 -
At least eight people, including five children, have died in flash floods in south Iran, state television reported Thursday.
Heavy rain hit Iran this week, causing casualties and damage in the southern provinces of Fars, Hormozgan and Kerman.
Three children died in the floods in Fars province, where torrents washed away some 400 kilometres (250 miles) of pathways used by local tribes. ...
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Pakistan asks Supreme Court to overturn ban on hunting rare bird
Islamabad (AFP) Nov 12, 2015 -
Pakistan on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to review its ban against hunting a rare desert bird whose meat is prized among Arab sheikhs as an aphrodisiac, saying controlled hunting could be a tool for preservation.
Wealthy hunting parties from the Gulf travel to Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan province every winter to kill the houbara bustard using hunting falcons, a practice that has ...
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Police torture rife in China despite reforms: Amnesty
Beijing (AFP) Nov 12, 2015 -
Torture of suspects in police detention is widespread in China, Amnesty International said Thursday, citing interviews with nearly 40 lawyers, some of whom said they themselves had been beaten while attempting to protect their clients.
Suspects received electric shocks, were punched, kicked, hit with shoes or bottles filled with water, denied sleep and locked in iron chairs forcing them int ...
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France, US clash on legal status of future climate deal
Paris (AFP) Nov 12, 2015 -
France and the United States appeared to clash Thursday over the legal status of a global pact to be agreed in Paris in December to stave off dangerous climate change.
"If there is not a binding accord, there will not be an accord," French President Francois Hollande said in Malta while attending a European Union-Africa summit.
A day earlier US Secretary of State John Kerry made it clear ...
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East Africa hunger to worsen as El Nino strikes: UN
Nairobi (AFP) Nov 12, 2015 -
Conflicts, floods and failed rains caused by El Nino have sparked a dramatic rise in the number of people going hungry in east Africa, especially in drought-hit Ethiopia, the United Nations said Thursday.
El Nino, a global weather pattern that periodically wreaks havoc, is expected to last until early 2016.
"Due to El Nino, food insecurity is forecast to worsen over the coming months, es ...
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GBissau releases ex-military chief charged over coup bid
Bissau (AFP) Nov 12, 2015 -
Guinea-Bissau's highest court has ordered the release of a former armed forces chief detained for more than three months over suspected involvement in a failed 2012 coup attempt.
Jose Zamora Induta, a rear-admiral who was ousted as military chief of staff in 2010, was placed under house arrest after returning from exile in Portugal in July and transferred to an army barracks in September. ...
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EU downplays cancer risk from weedkiller in win for Monsanto
Brussels (AFP) Nov 12, 2015 -
A highly sensitive EU report on Thursday claimed one of the world's most popular weedkillers is "unlikely" to cause cancer, countering the UN and handing a victory to agri-business giant Monsanto.
The report by the European Food Safety Agency concerned glyphosate, first used in the 1970s as the key ingredient in the Monsanto-made herbicide Roundup, and now made generically around the world. ...
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Armero eruption haunts Colombia 30 years on
Armero, Colombie (AFP) Nov 12, 2015 -
Thirty years after a volcanic eruption wiped out the city of Armero, Colombia is still haunted by the tragedy, and by the wide black eyes of its most iconic victim.
The image seared into collective memory from the 1985 eruption and the deadly mudslide it triggered is that of Omayra Sanchez, a 13-year-old girl trapped in the debris who died after three days of futile efforts to save her.
...
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Russia bans burning of dry fields after wildfires
Moscow (AFP) Nov 12, 2015 -
The Russian government said Thursday it had banned the burning of dry farmland and fields adjacent to roads and infrastructure in an effort to reduce the risk of hugely destructive wildfires.
The measures - which expands an earlier ban of stubble burning - apply to the burning of dry land located on farms, near roads, railways and pipelines.
Earlier this year, huge wildfires engulfed ...
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Senior US lawmaker tours Tibet six years after Beijing 'refusal'
Beijing (AFP) Nov 12, 2015 -
Senior US lawmaker Nancy Pelosi led a congressional delegation on a rare visit to Tibet, China confirmed Thursday, more than six years after reportedly being forbidden from visiting the region.
Beijing rejected a request by the Democratic party leader to visit the sensitive Himalayan area during her last trip to China in 2009, according to US diplomatic cables from the time released by Wikil ...
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Ancient brains turn paleontology on its head
Tucson AZ (SPX) Nov 13, 2015 -
Science has long dictated that brains don't fossilize, so when Nicholas Strausfeld co-authored the first ever report of a fossilized brain in a 2012 edition of Nature, it was met with "a lot of flack."
"It was questioned by many paleontologists, who thought - and in fact some claimed in print - that maybe it was just an artifact or a one-off, implausible fossilization event," said Strausfe ...
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An arms race among venomous animals
Jerusalem (SPX) Nov 13, 2015 -
In a new study published in the journal PLOS Genetics, scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have revealed new discoveries about how animal venom evolves. Venom is a complex mixture of proteins and other toxic chemicals produced by animals such as snakes and spiders, either to incapacitate their prey or to defend against predators.
The influence of positive selection (the proces ...
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New drought atlas maps 2,000 years of climate in Europe
New York NY (SPX) Nov 13, 2015 -
The long history of severe droughts across Europe and the Mediterranean has largely been told through historical documents and ancient journals, each chronicling the impact in a geographically restricted area. Now, for the first time, an atlas based on scientific evidence provides the big picture, using tree rings to map the reach and severity of dry and wet periods across Europe, and parts of N ...
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A giant fullerene system inhibits the infection by an artificial Ebola virus
Madrid, Spain (SPX) Nov 13, 2015 -
Different studies have demonstrated that the ebola virus infection process starts when the virus reaches the cellular DC-SIGN receptor to infect the dendritic cells (of the immune system). European researchers have designed a "giant" molecule formed by thirteen fullerenes covered by carbohydrates which, by blocking this receptor, are able to inhibit the cell infection by an artificial ebola viru ...
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Managed bees spread and intensify diseases in wild bees
Riverside CA (SPX) Nov 13, 2015 -
For various reasons, wild pollinators are in decline across many parts of the world. To combat this, managed honey bees and bumblebees are frequently shipped in to provide valuable pollination services to crops. But does this practice pose any risk to the wild bees?
An entomologist at the University of California, Riverside has examined the evidence by analyzing the large body of research ...
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