New laser technique promises super-fast, secure quantum cryptography
Cambridge, UK (SPX) Apr 06, 2016 -
Researchers have developed a new method to overcome one of the main issues in implementing a quantum cryptography system, raising the prospect of a useable 'unbreakable' method for sending sensitive information hidden inside particles of light.
By 'seeding' one laser beam inside another, the researchers, from the University of Cambridge and Toshiba Research Europe, have demonstrated that i ...
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Myanmar's Suu Kyi meets China counterpart in FM debut
Yangon (AFP) April 5, 2016 -
Myanmar's foreign minister Aung San Suu Kyi met her Chinese counterpart Tuesday in the first diplomatic foray of her new pro-democracy government, underscoring the importance of relations with Beijing.
The nation sees its giant neighbour - and largest trading partner - as its biggest foreign policy preoccupation, with border wars and controversial China-backed mega-projects topping the ag ...
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U.S. Navy's new unmanned sub-hunter to hit the seas this month
Washington (UPI) Apr 5, 2016 -
The U.S. Navy's newest sub-hunting maritime drone successfully completed preliminary speed and maneuverability testing in preparation for its christening into the fleet this month.
A technology demonstration version of the Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel, or ACTUV, completed the open water drills near Portland, Ore., according to a Defense Department fact s ...
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US military cyber head questions Beijing's spying activities
Washington (AFP) April 5, 2016 -
Six months after Washington and Beijing agreed not to conduct cyber attacks on each other's private sector for commercial gain, a top US spy questioned Tuesday whether China has cut such activities.
In September 2015, President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping announced an accord under which neither the United States nor the Chinese government would conduct cyber-enabled t ...
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Glonass navigation system's ground infrastructure successfully completed
Moscow (Sputnik) Apr 05, 2016 -
The testing of the ground control system of the Glonass satellite navigation system has been completed, Nikolay Testoyedov, the Head of the Reshetnev Information Satellite Systems Company told Izvestia newspaper.
The testing of the Glonass system started in 2011. In December 2015, the Russian Defense Ministry was put in charge of the systems' final tests.
"The tests ended successfu ...
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Russian Glonass Satellite Scheduled for Launch on May 21
Moscow (Sputnik) Apr 05, 2016 -
Russia's Glonass-M navigation satellite will be launched via Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket from the Plesetsk space center in northern Russia on May 21, according to the Russian Federal Space Agency's (Roscosmos) April-June schedule released on Friday.
"May 21: Soyuz 2.1b carrier rocket and Glonass-M satellite vehicle - Plesetsk Cosmodrome," the released schedule says.
Glonass, a global n ...
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Washington insists Iran gets no access to US finance
Washington (AFP) April 5, 2016 -
A senior official dismissed reports Tuesday that Washington plans to allow Iran access to the US financial system or to buy the latest Russian warplanes.
Responding to skeptical US lawmakers, Undersecretary of State Thomas Shannon insisted that the United States would maintain sanctions pressure on the Islamic republic.
But he confirmed that the State Department is attempting to "clarify ...
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China restricts N. Korea exports: ministry
Beijing (AFP) April 5, 2016 -
China on Tuesday imposed restrictions on imports of North Korean coal and iron, Beijing's commerce ministry said, in line with United Nations sanctions on the country following its nuclear and missile tests.
The coal trade between the neighbours was worth $1 billion last year, Chinese Customs figures show, but the announcement allowed for trade to continue if the proceeds were for livelihood ...
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Pentagon chief outlines reforms reflecting new global threats
Washington (AFP) April 5, 2016 -
Defense Secretary Ash Carter outlined Tuesday several broad changes he envisions to make the Pentagon more efficient in combating global threats such as the Islamic State group.
Speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, Carter suggested updates to parts of the Goldwater-Nichols Act, a sweeping 1986 Pentagon reform law that restructured America's ...
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Lockheed tests mini-missile interceptor
White Sands Missile Range, N.M. (UPI) Apr 5, 2016 -
Lockheed Martin reports that its miniature hit-to-kill missile was successfully fired by a multi-mission launcher in an engineering demonstration.
The launch, which showed the agility and aerodynamic capability of the MHTK missile, took place on Monday at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
"Today's global security environment demands agile, close-range solutions that protec ...
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China arrests six over fake infant formula: government
Shanghai (AFP) April 5, 2016 -
Chinese authorities have arrested six people for making and selling fake infant formula as the popular US brand "Similac", marketing the counterfeit product across seven provinces, a Shanghai government body said.
Abbott, maker of Similac, said separately on Tuesday that the case came to light in December and the fake goods had been traced and seized by the end of last year, according to a s ...
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Green sea turtles of Florida, Mexico no longer 'endangered'
Miami (AFP) April 5, 2016 -
Green sea turtles of Florida and the Pacific coast of Mexico are no longer considered "endangered," US officials said Tuesday, hailing decades of conservation work for saving the long-imperiled creatures.
Breeding populations on the beaches of Florida and the west coast of Mexico are now described as "threatened" and still merit protection under the Endangered Species Act, but do not face an ...
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Former top Chinese military leader confesses to graft: Xinhua
Beijing (AFP) April 5, 2016 -
Former top Chinese military leader Guo Boxiong has confessed to bribe-taking, the official Xinhua news agency reported Tuesday, citing military prosecutors who described the sums as "extremely huge".
Guo was for a decade one of the two vice chairmen of the Central Military Commission, second only to the Chinese president in the top body of the People's Liberation Army (PLA). He retired in 20 ...
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What's in a name? China paper blasts foreign nomenclature
Beijing (AFP) April 5, 2016 -
For many aspiring Chinese, living in a chateau would be a dream come true. But bourgeois apartments with foreign names are the latest victims of a wide-ranging crackdown on "Western values" by Communist authorities.
A state-run newspaper lashed out Tuesday at the widespread adoption of foreign names in China.
Many traditional local place names, such as those for streets, fell out of favo ...
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Sumatran rhino dies weeks after landmark discovery
Jakarta (AFP) April 5, 2016 -
A critically endangered Sumatran rhino has died weeks after its chance discovery on the Indonesian part of Borneo island was hailed as a landmark conservation success, an official said Tuesday.
The rare rhino was caught in a pit trap last month in East Kalimantan province in an area close to mining operations and plantations, where it was struggling to survive.
It was the first physical ...
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Primate populations suffer as a result of Congolese warfare
Kinshasa, Democratic Republic Of Congo (UPI) Apr 4, 2016 -
Since the 1990s, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been plagued by a succession of bloody civil wars. The human cost, of course, has been tragic and tremendous. Some estimates put the death toll at upwards of 5 million.
The violence has also had ecological consequences. New research suggests the nation's population of Grauer's gorillas has been decimated by the ongoing human conf ...
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New type of dinosaur egg found in China
Beijing (UPI) Apr 5, 2016 -
Researchers have found a new type of dinosaur egg from the Lower Cretaceous, or Early Cretaceous, in northwest China. The strata encompasses fossils dated between 100 million and 145 million years old.
Dinosaur eggs from the Lower Cretaceous are hard to find. Eggs from the Upper Cretaceous - a bit younger at 66 million to 100 million years old, and typically closer to the surface - ar ...
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Plant gases can counteract Arctic climate change
Copenhagen, Denmark (SPX) Apr 06, 2016 -
Plant gasses possibly dampen the temperature rise in Greenland. Plants emit compounds to deter pests or attract pollinators, and as a side effect particles are formed when the compounds interact in the air. These particles can contribute to the formation of clouds, which reflect incoming solar radiation, and thus prevent solar heat from reaching the ground and warming it additionally.
Rese ...
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Fossil discovery suggests size poor predictor of maturity in ancient reptiles
Blacksburg VA (SPX) Apr 06, 2016 -
Paleontologists at Virginia Tech have found that muscle-scarred fossil leg bones of one of the closest cousins of dinosaurs that lived approximately 240 million years ago can shine new light on a large unknown: How early dinosaurs grew from hatchlings to adults.
Published this month in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, the findings are surprising: dinosaurs and their close relatives ...
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Study: Ritual human sacrifice maintained social stratification
Auckland, New Zealand (UPI) Apr 5, 2016 -
New research suggests a strong link between ritual human sacrifice and social hierarchy.
Researchers from the University of Auckland confirmed the correlation while analyzing the traditional cultures of Austronesia - a region encompassing dozens of islands, including those of Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia.
The scientists used prior ethnographic research to plot the changes ...
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California drought patterns becoming more common
Washington DC (SPX) Apr 06, 2016 -
Atmospheric scientists have found that California's highest temperatures are almost always associated with blocking ridges, regions of high atmospheric pressure than can disrupt wind patterns - including one known as the Ridiculously Resilient Ridge. The Triple R, as it's called, is also linked with California's drought.
In new research published online this week in the journal Science Adv ...
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Canada must establish new Arctic shipping policies: report
Montreal (AFP) April 5, 2016 -
The Canadian government needs to establish ecologically and socially sound policies for Arctic Ocean shipping amid an increase in traffic through the fragile area caused by melting sea ice, a new report Tuesday said.
The report from The Pew Charitable Trusts proposed a "comprehensive system of tiered shipping routes that will benefit Canada, the shipping industry and northern communities." ...
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Cold mountain streams offer climate refuge
Bolder CO (SPX) Apr 06, 2016 -
A new study offers hope for cold-water species in the face of climate change. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, addresses a longstanding paradox between predictions of widespread extinctions of cold-water species and a general lack of evidence for those extinctions despite decades of recent climate change.
The paper resulted from collaborative res ...
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Hard whale heads sink ships - or can they?
Brisbane, Australia (SPX) Apr 06, 2016 -
The idea that a sperm whale can use its massive head as a battering ram to sink ships has been hotly debated at least since Moby Dick was published in 1851. University of Queensland researcher Dr Olga Panagiotopoulou, part of an international team researching the theory, says scientific evidence about the phenomenon remains scarce.
"The forehead of the sperm whale is one of the strangest s ...
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West Coast scientists sound alarm for changing ocean chemistry
Corvallis OR (SPX) Apr 06, 2016 -
The ocean chemistry along the West Coast of North America is changing rapidly because of global carbon dioxide emissions, and the governments of Oregon, California, Washington and British Columbia can take actions now to offset and mitigate the effects of these changes.
That is the conclusion of a 20-member panel of leading West Coast ocean scientists, who presented a comprehensive report ...
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