Villagers in Zimbabwe skip meals to save scant food
Bindura, Zimbabwe (AFP) Sept 24, 2015 -
Villagers in Zimbabwe are skipping meals and foraging for wild fruit as food stocks run out after a poor harvest blamed on drought and controversial land reforms.
"Even if the children complain of hunger there is nothing we can do about it," says Rabian Chidamba, 40, a mother of four who lives in Musana district northwest of the capital Harare.
She has cut the family's meals to two a day ...
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Can vinegar save the Great Barrier Reef?
Cairns, Australia (UPI) Sep 23, 2015 -
Researchers at Australia's James Cook University have found a cheap and readily available antidote for the plague of reef-eating starfish invading the Great Barrier Reef.
Vinegar, scientists say, works just as well as conservationists' current weapon of choice, a drug that's expensive and hard to procure.
In recent years, populations of crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS), Acanthaste ...
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Singapore schools in emergency shutdown as air quality worsens
Singapore (AFP) Sept 24, 2015 -
Singapore late Thursday ordered emergency school closures as air pollution reached "hazardous" levels due to suffocating smoke from agricultural fires raging on a nearby Indonesian island.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong also said face masks will be distributed at community centres across the island on Friday for needy and elderly citizens.
"There is no national shutdown of work, but empl ...
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India to 'hike green energy targets' to combat climate change
New Delhi (AFP) Sept 24, 2015 -
India promises to hike renewable energy targets to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, in long-awaited pledges to be announced next week for upcoming UN climate change talks, a newspaper report said Thursday.
India, a major CO2 polluter, will increase solar and wind energy capacity but it's unclear whether it will commit to a timeline for reducing its overall carbon emissions blamed for cli ...
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New Zealand deports would-be 'climate change refugee'
Wellington (AFP) Sept 24, 2015 -
New Zealand has deported a Pacific islander who launched a failed bid to become the world's first climate change refugee, the man's supporters said Thursday.
Ioane Teitiota was sent to Kiribati on Wednesday after exhausting all avenues of appeal in his four-year battle to stay in New Zealand.
Teitiota, 39, had argued that he should not be sent back to Kiribati as rising seas threaten to ...
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Pope urges US Congress to action on refugees, climate
Washington (AFP) Sept 24, 2015 -
Pope Francis on Thursday urged the US Congress to help those fleeing war and poverty, and work to combat climate change, in a historic address to lawmakers that touched on many hot-button issues in US and global politics.
The historic speech to lawmakers at the Capitol was keenly anticipated and warmly received - but will have been uncomfortable listening for some there who are skeptical ab ...
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6.6-magnitude quake sparks panic in Indonesia's Papua
Sorong, Indonesia (AFP) Sept 24, 2015 -
A powerful 6.6-magnitude earthquake struck the eastern Indonesian region of Papua on Friday, US seismologists said, causing panicked people to run screaming out of their homes.
No tsunami warning was issued and there were no reports of casualties or damage after the undersea quake hit at about 1:00 am (1600 GMT), some 30 kilometres from the coastal city of Sorong, in West Papua province. ...
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