Jakarta (AFP) Nov 30, 2016 -
Multinational companies are selling consumer products containing palm oil from Indonesian plantations where workers suffer rights abuses, Amnesty International warned Wednesday, listing problems including child labour and exposure to toxic chemicals.
The edible vegetable oil is a key ingredient in many everyday goods, from biscuits to shampoo and make-up, and growing demand has led to a boom ...
more
Johannesburg (AFP) Nov 30, 2016 -
South Africa on Wednesday launched a major clinical trial of an experimental vaccine against the AIDS virus, which scientists hope could be the "final nail in the coffin" for the disease.
More than 30 years of efforts to develop an effective vaccine for HIV have not borne fruit, but for the first time since the virus was identified in 1983, scientists think they have found a promising candid ...
moreS.Africa launches major new trial of AIDS vaccine
Johannesburg (AFP) Nov 30, 2016 -
South Africa on Wednesday launched a major clinical trial of an experimental vaccine against the AIDS virus, which scientists hope could be the "final nail in the coffin" for the disease.
More than 30 years of efforts to develop an effective vaccine for HIV have not borne fruit, but for the first time since the virus was identified in 1983, scientists think they have found a promising candid ...
more | |
Companies using Indonesian palm oil tainted by abuse
Jakarta (AFP) Nov 30, 2016 -
Multinational companies are selling consumer products containing palm oil from Indonesian plantations where workers suffer rights abuses, Amnesty International warned Wednesday, listing problems including child labour and exposure to toxic chemicals.
The edible vegetable oil is a key ingredient in many everyday goods, from biscuits to shampoo and make-up, and growing demand has led to a boom ...
more | |
Baghdad (AFP) Nov 30, 2016 -
Up to 500,000 civilians in Mosul face a "catastrophic" drinking water shortage as Iraqi forces advance on the Islamic State group in the city, the United Nations warned on Wednesday.
"Nearly half a million civilians, already struggling to feed themselves day to day, are now without access to clean drinking water. The impact on children, women and families will be catastrophic," said Lise Gra ...
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Bochum, Germany (UPI) Nov 30, 2016 -
Scientists believe a new sensor will enable them to conduct the first comprehensive survey of the insides of an avalanche.
"We don't know what exactly happens when an avalanche moves down a mountain, because avalanches have only ever been observed from the outside," Christoph Baer, a researcher at Ruhr-University Bochum, said in a news release.
The new radar sensor developed by B ...
more
Seoul (AFP) Nov 30, 2016 -
South Korea Wednesday revealed new cases of a deadly strain of bird flu as authorities said they had slaughtered two million chickens and ducks in a bid to control the outbreak.
The H5N6 virus was first confirmed on November 18 at a farm in central South Korea and it has since spread to farms around the country, with the total number of cases now standing at 46.
Authorities have stepped ...
more
State College, Pa. (UPI) Nov 30, 2016 -
New research suggests coral colonies can persist for thousands of years, much longer than previously thought. Scientists discovered 5,000 year-old genotypes of elkhorn corals, Acropora palmata, in Florida and the Caribbean.
For conservationists, the research - detailed in the journal Molecular Ecology - offers both good and bad news.
"Our study shows, on the one hand, that some ...
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London (AFP) Nov 30, 2016 -
Tobacco giant Philip Morris is aiming to stop selling conventional cigarettes and replace them with a less harmful product, its chief executive said Wednesday.
As the firm launched its smokeless iQOS cigarette in Britain, Andre Calantzopoulos told BBC radio that the company would try to move smokers over to the new product.
The iQOS heats tobacco rather than burns it and it is claimed th ...
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