August 18, 2007 | ![]() |
packed with life |
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The new public enemy number one: bottled water![]() It's a hugely beneficial liquid in a slim cylinder of plastic, but for US environmentalists, it is the new public enemy number one: bottled water. With US bottled water sales growing nearly 10 percent annually -- and the trash from tossed containers climbing just as quickly -- calls for Americans to go back to drinking tap water have surged since the beginning of summer. ... more Egyptian villages fight water war ![]() The land of the Nile is seeing a rising tide of protests at a shortage of drinking water amid accusations the government would rather irrigate golf courses than slake the thirst of villages. A wave of demonstrations and ensuing clashes with police in recent weeks has left dozens injured in a country where the Nile River provides 95 percent of fresh water and irrigation uses up 80 percent of ... more Rights group praises Yar'Adua ![]() A Nigerian rights group is praising President Umaru Yar'Adua for tackling corruption and violence in the oil-rich but chronically impoverished Niger Delta. The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, representing one of Nigeria's most dominant tribes, said that Yar'Adua recognizes the need to address economic injustices in the delta as a means of curtailing the violence there. ... more UN leads world help for quake-ravaged Peru ![]() The UN pledged one million dollars (750,000 euros) of relief for Peru on Thursday as governments and aid agencies around the world rushed to help the quake-ravaged South American nation. "The United Nations is in close contact with the government of Peru and stands ready to support relief efforts with measures including the release of emergency funds and the deployment of a team of disaster ... more Moment magnitude: the way to measure really large quakes ![]() The "moment magnitude" scale signified by the Mw sign, now a quarter-century old, was conceived to remedy shortcomings in the Richter scale, considered ineffective in measuring extremely large quakes. It was used by the US Geological Survey to measure Wednesday's devastating earthquake that rocked Peru, leaving at least 500 dead. The earthquake reached an 8.0 magnitude, an exceptionally ... more |
interndaily:
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![]() ![]() The death toll from the worst floods in decades across South Asia rose above 2,600 Thursday, as officials were still trying to find dozens missing and feared drowned in India. Heavy monsoon rains and snow melt since late July have caused the flooding in Nepal, India and Bangladesh, with losses estimated at nearly one billion dollars and major outbreaks of water-borne disease. ... more Irrigation May Not Cool The Globe In The Future ![]() Expansion of irrigation has masked greenhouse warming in California's Central Valley, but irrigation may not make much of a difference in the future, according to a new study in the Aug. 13 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Irrigation's influence on climate is often overlooked when studying the human effect on regional climate change. Yet, irrigation has expanded r ... more Thousands homeless following Burkina Faso floods ![]() Thousands of people were homeless and more than a dozen villages remained under water on Thursday in northern Burkina Faso following heavy rains, officials said. Some 6,204 people were without homes in the Loroum province after the August 4 and 5 storms, according to authorities in the province. In the village of Banh, the hardest-hit area, 588 houses were destroyed and 2,995 were homele ... more US still mulling aid for NKorea ![]() The United States is still weighing a possible aid package for flood-stricken North Korea, White House national security spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Thursday. "We're in the process of assessing what is going on, on the ground now: What is the damage and what are their needs? And so that process is still ongoing. But we may have more for you on that later," Johndroe told reporters. ... more Taiwan braced for powerful typhoon ![]() The powerful typhoon Sepat was heading for Taiwan Thursday after paralysing the Philippine capital Manila, Taiwanese meteorologists said. Sepat was packing winds of up to 191 kilometres (119 miles) per hour and could hit Taiwan some time between late Friday night and early Saturday morning given its current course, the Central Weather Bureau said. ... more |
nuclear-civil:
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![]() ![]() Politicians in Kiev are busy looking for an alternative to Russia as a builder of nuclear power plants. At any rate, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk hastened to announce after a meeting last week with his Canadian counterpart, Peter Gordon MacKay, that Ukraine was resuming talks with Canadian companies on the construction of CANDU -- Canada Deuterium Uranium -- nuclear reac ... more China Develops Beidou Satellite Monitoring System ![]() China has developed its Beidou satellite monitoring system for dangerous chemicals transportation, the Beijing Times reported here Monday. The system, which has passed experts review, provides all-day data of dangerous chemicals transportation to Beidou navigation satellite and gives corresponding operational order, the paper said. Scores of sensors, equipped on every vehicle transporting danger ... more First Glimpses From The Perseid Meteor Shower ![]() Enthusiastic observers were rewarded by a nice display of the Perseid meteor shower that was visible at its best in the night between 12 and 13 August 2007. We present glimpses of the spectacle and the scientific rewards of staying up all night. The comet Swift-Tuttle orbits the Sun with a period of about 130 years. Whenever the comet comes close to the Sun in its orbit, it ejects a stream of ... more China And The Dollar Crisis ![]() Bouncing up and down like a yo-yo, the world's stock markets continue their strange gyrations. Japan's Nikkei recovers at dawn after it wakes to a rising Dow Jones index, and London and Frankfurt breathe an audible sigh of relief but then New York plunges again. Worries about home loans in Detroit and Houston make French banks close their funds and push Germans toward bankruptcy, in a g ... more Shanghai Cooperation Organization: Territory Of Partnership ![]() Developing as an international agency, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has been responding to the geopolitical situation in Europe, Asia and the rest of the world. Former Soviet republic made repeated attempts to streamline integration by setting up different associations, but they were not destined to live for many reasons. Experts are unanimous that the SCO is a success. Many call ... more
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