Washington DC (UPI) Sep 30, 2021 It’s good to talk about more than just the weather. Conversations with strangers or acquaintances rarely evolve beyond small talk, but psychology researchers suggests it doesn’t have to – and perhaps, shouldn’t – be that way. According to a new study, published Thursday in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, people overestimate the awkwardness of deeper conversatihttp://dlvr.it/S8tNfV Continue reading Strangers less awkward, more interested in deep conversation than people think

Colombo (AFP) Sept 29, 2021 Sri Lanka halted a 96,000-tonne shipment of fertiliser from China on Wednesday citing quality issues, undermining the island’s plans for the world’s first fully organic farming sector. Agriculture minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage stopped the cargo of organic fertiliser as samples showed harmful bacteria, his office said in a statement. In May, the government banned the import of chemicahttp://dlvr.it/S8tNdW Continue reading Sri Lanka stops ‘tainted’ fertiliser import from China

Muscat (AFP) Oct 3, 2021 At least nine people were killed in Oman and Iran on Sunday as tropical Cyclone Shaheen pummelled parts of their coastlines, authorities said. In Oman, two people died in a landslide and a child in flash flooding, officials said. Rescue teams pulled the bodies of two Asian workers from their home hit by a landslide in the Rusayl industrial area … Continue reading At least 9 dead as cyclone lashes Oman, Iran

El Paso, Spain (AFP) Oct 3, 2021 Just a few weeks ago, Ruediger Wastel was living an idyllic life with his wife and their baby boy in the Spanish Canary island of La Palma. Everything changed when the island’s Cumbre Vieja volcano began erupting on September 19. Wastel, 52, shares photos of what was once his home – one of the first to be engulfed … Continue reading Canary volcano zone residents flee danger but want to stay on

Ostend, Belgium (AFP) Oct 1, 2021 Off Belgium’s coast, a small twin-propeller plane swoops above giant freight ships, picking up traces of their exhausts and subjecting them to on-the-spot analyses of sulphur and nitrogen levels. Ships risk a fine if the reading comes out too high. The Coast Guard aircraft is fitted with an atmospheric pollution sensor that crews call the “sniffer”. Developed by researchers … Continue reading ‘Pollution-sniffing’ plane scours Belgium’s coast

Nairobi (AFP) Oct 1, 2021 At least 2.4 million people in Kenya risk going hungry by November as drought ravages the north and east of the country, a nearly threefold increase from last year, the World Food Programme warned Friday. The East African country has been hit by an accumulation of calamities in recent years, including a months-long locust invasion from December 2019 and poor … Continue reading Kenya drought leaves 2.4 million at risk of hunger by November: WFP

Tazacorte, Spain (AFP) Oct 1, 2021 Residents of the Canary Island village of Tazacorte had a ringside seat but were shocked and unwilling onlookers on Friday, contemplating a too-close-for-comfort spectacular eruption of La Palma’s Cumbre Vieja volcano. “There’s nothing beautiful about it,” grumbled Jose Carlos Bautista Martin, a pensioner of 70 who looked on agog with fellow villagers as the volcano continued to spew waves … Continue reading Ringside seat for fearful villagers as Canaries volcano spews fire

Washington DC (UPI) Oct 1, 2021 Researchers with the United Nations have developed a new tool that generates instant, accurate street-level resolution maps of floods worldwide since 1985, the agency announced Friday. The free online World Flood Mapping Tool is designed to help countries – particularly those in the Global South, where flood risk maps are rare and often badly out of date – prepare … Continue reading New U.N. tool designed to enhance flood prediction, disaster planning

Bamako (AFP) Oct 2, 2021 A peacekeeper died Saturday and four others were seriously injured in Mali’s volatile north near the Algerian border when an improvised explosive device went off, the UN said. “One dead and three seriously injured after one of our teams hit an improvised explosive device near Tessalit”, close to the Algerian border, the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, Minusma, said. “This … Continue reading Peacekeeper killed in blast in Mali’s troubled north: UN

Toronto, Canada (SPX) Sep 28, 2021 MDA Ltd has released new details about its next industry leading Earth observation (EO) mission. Leveraging legendary RADARSAT heritage, the new system will include a large C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite operating in a mid-inclination orbit. Capable of covering a 700 km swath in a single pass, the new system will provide the broadest area coverage on the … Continue reading MDA releases first details of its next generation commercial earth observation mission