Hackers selling stolen Twitter log-in data
San Francisco (AFP) June 9, 2016 -
Tens of millions of stolen Twitter credentials evidently lifted from web browser programs were put up for sale online, according to a search engine devoted to leaked data.
Twitter on Thursday was adamant that its computer systems had not been broken into by hackers, and that it was not the source of any account information being hawked on the Internet.
"We are confident that these userna ...
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Australian military, Raytheon in strategic alliance
Canberra, Australia (UPI) Jun 8, 2016 -
Australia's Defense Science and Technology Group and Raytheon Australia are strengthening their collaboration on defense technologies.
A strategic agreement between them was signed by DST Chief Defense Scientist Dr. Alex Zelinsky and Michael Ward, managing director of Raytheon Australia during DST's Partnership Week activities.
DST is part of the Australian Department of Defense. ...
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Pentagon 'encouraged' by anti-IS developments in Libya
Washington (AFP) June 9, 2016 -
The US military is pleased with developments in Libya, where government forces are battling to wrest control of the coastal city of Sirte from the Islamic State group, an official said Thursday.
"We certainly are encouraged by the progress we see those government forces making and we will continue to watch it very closely," Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said.
"The fact that they a ...
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NATO chief presses allies on defence spending vows
The Hague (AFP) June 9, 2016 -
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday called on allies to meet commitments made two years ago and boost defence spending as the alliance deals with a "challenging security environment."
He spoke after talks with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in The Hague and ahead of what he said would be a "landmark" leaders summit in Warsaw next month.
The Netherlands has already increased defence ...
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Abandonment of Russian rocket engines may ground Pentagon's space plans
Moscow (Sputnik) Jun 09, 2016 -
The Pentagon is becoming more and more vocal in its warning about national security and budget risks that may result from ending the use of Russian-made RD-180 rocket engines, an article in The Wall Street Journal read.
The RD-180 has been used to power the Atlas V rocket used by the US Air Force to launch its probes as well as in NASA research programs. Earlier, the Pentagon said that it ...
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Russia to expand drone exports
Moscow (UPI) Jun 9, 2016 -
Russia's Rosoboronexport says it aims to bolster Russia's position in the unmanned aerial systems market by promoting new aircraft.
Among them are the Takhion and Granat-4E tactical surveillance, reconnaissance and intelligence drones.
"For many years, we have been trying to catch up with the world's leading manufacturers of unmanned aircraft systems," said Sergey Goreslavsky, Ro ...
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West Africa marks end of deadly Ebola outbreak
Monrovia (AFP) June 9, 2016 -
Liberia said Thursday it was free of Ebola, meaning there are now no known cases in west Africa of the tropical virus that has left more than 11,300 people dead in the region since late 2013.
Liberia was the country worst hit with more than 4,800 Liberians killed by the virus, and was awaiting the all-clear following the discharge of its last known patients in May.
"Liberia is again free ...
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Study: Grasslands served as setting for early human evolution
New York (UPI) Jun 9, 2016 -
New geologic evidence supports the theory that the transition from forest to grassland encouraged key adaptations during early human evolution.
Genetic analysis suggests the first hominins split from chimpanzees roughly 6 to 7 million years ago. During that time, scientists believe climate change precipitated a shift in the vegetation of East Africa, from dense forest to savanna.
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Video hints Japan abetting illegal ivory trade: conservationists
Tokyo (AFP) June 9, 2016 -
Conservation activists on Thursday showed undercover video they say suggests that a "huge loophole" in Japanese law enforcement is hindering efforts to rein in illegal ivory trading.
Experts say most illegal ivory heads for China, where it is seen as a status symbol. By some estimates the country accounts for as much as 70 percent of global demand.
The Convention on International Trade i ...
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Scientists find 5,000-year-old livestock pens in Spain
Barcelona, Spain (UPI) Jun 9, 2016 -
The excavation of an ancient rock shelter in northern Spain has yielded evidence of 5,000-year-old livestock pens. The ancient structures offer some of the earliest evidence of the use of rock walls to secure livestock in the region.
Scientists have previously documented livestock enclosures among ancient settlements of Sierra de Cantabria, the mountain range in the Spanish province of ...
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Too soon to release GM mosquitoes to fight Zika: US study
Washington (AFP) June 9, 2016 -
Releasing genetically-modified mosquitoes into the wild to fight malaria, Zika or other insect-borne diseases is premature and could have unintended consequences, researchers said in a new report.
"Our committee urges caution - a lot more research is needed to understand the scientific, ethical, regulatory and social consequences of releasing such organisms," said Arizona State University p ...
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Universe's first life might have been born on carbon planets
Boston MA (SPX) Jun 09, 2016 -
Our Earth consists of silicate rocks and an iron core with a thin veneer of water and life. But the first potentially habitable worlds to form might have been very different. New research suggests that planet formation in the early universe might have created carbon planets consisting of graphite, carbides, and diamond. Astronomers might find these diamond worlds by searching a rare class of sta ...
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Sierra Leone war criminal dies in Rwanda
Freetown (AFP) June 9, 2016 -
A war criminal from Sierra Leone convicted of "the most heinous, brutal and atrocious crimes in human history" has died in Rwanda while serving a 50-year sentence, the court that convicted him said Thursday.
The Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone said an enquiry would be opened after Alex Tamba Brima, 44, died at King Faisal hospital in Kigali following a "serious illness".
As a lea ...
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Lake Michigan turtles used as pollution barometer
Notre Dame, Ind. (UPI) Jun 9, 2016 -
Researchers monitoring the ecological health of the Great Lakes are looking to turtles for help.
The long lifespans of painted turtles and snapping turtles - which can live as long as 20 and 50 years, respectively - make the species ideal barometers of environmental health.
Turtles are relatively high on the food chain, which means toxins accumulate in turtles in measurable amo ...
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Lagos floating school collapses in heavy rains
Lagos (AFP) June 9, 2016 -
A landmark floating school that provided classes to children on a lagoon in Nigeria's biggest city, Lagos, has collapsed during heavy rains, its headteacher said on Thursday.
"The structure collapsed at around 10:00 am (0900 GMT) on Tuesday following a rainstorm," the school's director, Noah Shemede, told AFP.
Shemede and the Amsterdam-based architects NLE said there were no casualties a ...
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Airbus Defence and Space has completed PeruSAT-1 in less than 24 months
Paris, France (SPX) Jun 10, 2016 -
Airbus Defence and Space, the world's second largest space company, has completed integration of PeruSAT-1, Peru's first Earth observation satellite. It was built in less than 24 months.
PeruSAT-1 was ordered by the Peruvian government for its national space agency, CONIDA, in 2014. PeruSAT-1, based on the highly flexible, compact AstroBus-S platform, will observe Earth via a revolutionary ...
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Plant lignin improves efficacy of sunscreen
Hamilton, Ontario (UPI) Jun 8, 2016 -
In a new study, scientists point to the potential of lignin to bolster sunscreen performance.
Lignin is an organic polymer found in the cell walls of many plants. It offers structural integrity and rigidity and is found in high concentrations in wood and bark. It's also one of the paper industry's biggest waste products.
Most sunscreens use synthetic compounds to block ultraviole ...
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A surprising variety of bioluminescent ocean fish
Lawrence KS (SPX) Jun 10, 2016 -
A study appearing in the journal PLOS ONE this week shows that bioluminescence - the production of light from a living organism - is more widespread among marine fishes than previously understood.
Most people are familiar with bioluminescence in fireflies, but the phenomenon is found throughout the ocean, including in fishes. Indeed, the authors show with genetic analysis that bioluminesce ...
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Greenland's 2015 melt records consistent with 'Arctic amplification'
New York NY (SPX) Jun 10, 2016 -
Following record-high temperatures and melting records that affected northwest Greenland in summer 2015, a new study provides the first evidence linking melting in Greenland to the anticipated effects of a phenomenon known as Arctic amplification.
Arctic amplification, in the simplest terms, is the faster warming of the Arctic compared to the rest of the Northern Hemisphere as sea ice disa ...
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Sea snakes have extra sense for water living
Adelaide, Australia (SPX) Jun 10, 2016 -
The move from life on land to life in the sea has led to the evolution of a new sense for sea snakes, a University of Adelaide-led study suggests. The international team, led by researchers in the University's School of Biological Sciences, studied tiny and poorly understood structures on the heads of snakes called 'scale sensilla'. The research has been published in the Royal Society journal Op ...
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Study finds link between 2015 melting Greenland ice, faster Arctic warming
Athens GA (SPX) Jun 10, 2016 -
A new study provides the first evidence that links melting ice in Greenland to a phenomenon known as Arctic amplification - faster warming of the Arctic compared to the rest of the Northern Hemisphere as sea ice disappears.
The findings show that the predicted effects of Arctic amplification, as described in previous studies, occurred over northern Greenland during summer 2015, including a ...
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Camouflage influences life-and-death decisions that animals make
Exeter, UK (SPX) Jun 10, 2016 -
Nesting birds time their escape from an approaching predator depending on how well camouflaged their eggs and their own bodies are, researchers from the University of Exeter and the University of Cambridge have discovered. This is the first study to show that the camouflage of an animal or that of its offspring can explain the variation in risk-taking behaviour when approached by a predator.
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New fossils shed light on the origin of 'hobbits'
Brisbane, Australia (SPX) Jun 10, 2016 -
Griffith University researchers are part of an international team of scientists that has announced the discovery of ancestors of Homo floresiensis - the enigmatic species of pygmy-like humans discovered more than a decade ago on the Indonesian island of Flores.
In September 2003, the partial skeleton of a primitive human adult female was excavated from Liang Bua, a limestone cave in the we ...
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An eco-friendly approach to reducing toxic arsenic in rice
Newark DE (SPX) Jun 10, 2016 -
A team of researchers at the University of Delaware has found that incorporating rice husk to soil can decrease toxic inorganic arsenic levels in rice grain by 25 to 50 percent without negatively affecting yield.
This research could have important implications for developing countries whose populations rely on rice as a staple of their diets and are in need of cheap, readily available mate ...
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How 'super organisms' evolve in response to toxic environments
Bar Harbor ME (SPX) Jun 10, 2016 -
Scientists have long known that many diseases have a strong genetic component, but they are only recently paying more attention to the role played by the relationship between genetics and the environment.
The study of how genetic function is influenced by manmade environmental stress at a population level is the subject of a course entitled Environmental Genomicsa to be held at the MDI Bio ...
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