Abidjan (AFP) Oct 7, 2022 Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara on Friday hinted at a possible breakthrough in a bitter dispute with Mali, which has held 46 Ivorian soldiers for three months and branded them mercenaries. “Things are moving along well… we think we will probably have a positive outcome very swiftly,” Ouattara said after meeting President Umaro Sissoco Embalo of Guinea-Bissau, whose country chairs … Continue reading I.Coast president sees progress in Mali troop spat

Moscow (AFP) Oct 7, 2022 Ales Bialiatski, the head of Belarus rights group Viasna, has battled against repression for a quarter of a century and spent years in jail for his efforts. He spent his 60th birthday in prison on September 25, as he did his 50th, but won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in the wake of historic demonstrations and a severe crackdown … Continue reading Bialiatski: veteran rights defender in authoritarian Belarus

Hong Kong (AFP) Sept 22, 2022 Hong Konger Kitty Chan pivoted to takeout to help her restaurant survive the pandemic, but she has since opened a second shop as demand for cheap mealboxes surges in a city enduring economic woes. Small shops selling inexpensive two-dish mealboxes have mushroomed across one of the world’s least affordable cities, cropping up in working-class and white-collar areas alike as … Continue reading Cheap mealboxes a taste of Hong Kong’s economic woes

Herndon VA (SPX) Sep 21, 2022 BlackSky Technology Inc. (NYSE: BKSY) has received a combined total of $13.8 million of orders to date within the first year of a five-year National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) contract to monitor global economic activity. “These awards underscore the growing demand for commercial real-time, AI-driven monitoring services that reveal economic activity at manufacturing hubs, major mhttp://dlvr.it/SYpZsP Continue reading BlackSky gets $14M in new orders to monitor critical global economic activity

Leipzig, Germany (SPX) Sep 22, 2022 During fieldwork aimed at documenting the stone tool use of a group of wild chimpanzees in the Tai Forest in Cote d’Ivoire in early 2022, the researchers identified and 3D scanned a variety of stone tools used to crack different nut species. It has long been shown that various chimpanzee groups possess different tool use cultures involving wooden and … Continue reading Chimpanzee stone tool diversity

Madrid (AFP) Sept 21, 2022 Spain granted personhood status Wednesday to a large saltwater lagoon to give its threatened ecosystem better protection, the first time such a measure has been taken in Europe. The initiative to grant the status to the Mar Menor – one of Europe’s largest saltwater lagoons – was debated in parliament after campaigners collected over 500,000 signatures backing it. It now … Continue reading Spain grants personhood status to threatened lagoon

Riverside CA (SPX) Sep 22, 2022 Researchers have identified a new reason to protect mangrove forests: they’ve been quietly keeping carbon out of Earth’s atmosphere for the past 5,000 years. Mangroves thrive in conditions most plants cannot tolerate, like salty coastal waters. Some species have air-conducting, vertical roots that act like snorkels when tides are high, giving the appearance of trees floating on stilts.http://dlvr.it/SYpZrV Continue reading Mexican mangroves have been capturing carbon for 5,000 years

New York (AFP) Sept 21, 2022 Pacific atoll nations on Wednesday launched a new global partnership to preserve their sovereignty and heritage as their countries disappear under rising seas triggered by climate change. The Rising Nations Initiative was announced at an event on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly by Tuvalu Prime Minister Kausea Natano and President David Kabua of the Marshall Islands, with … Continue reading Pacific atoll nations launch global plan to preserve heritage

Paris (AFP) Sept 21, 2022 With a sunny smile to the camera Alaina Wood delivers a burst of “good climate news” to her young TikTok audience, trying to reassure them that it is not too late for action on global warming. This cheerfulness is not because Wood has somehow failed to notice the litany of storms, floods and heatwaves battering the world and the dire … Continue reading Looking for reasons to be cheerful about climate action

Sydney (AFP) Sept 21, 2022 A pod of 230 pilot whales was found stranded on the rugged west coast of Tasmania Wednesday, with Australian officials saying only half appeared to be alive. Aerial images showed a devastating scene of dozens of black glossy mammals strewn across a long beach, stuck on the waterline where the frigid southern ocean meets the sand. Locals covered survivors with … Continue reading 230 pilot whales stranded in Australia, ‘about half’ feared dead