Yangon (AFP) Feb 15, 2021 Myanmar’s junta deployed extra troops around the country and choked the internet for the second night in a row as it intensified a crackdown on anti-coup protests, but defiant demonstrators again took to the streets on Monday. The military has steadily escalated efforts to quell an uprising against their seizure of power two weeks ago, which saw civilian leader Aung … Continue reading More protests after Myanmar junta cuts internet, deploys troops

Baghdad (AFP) Feb 15, 2021 Iraq will re-impose partial lockdown measures until early March after detecting a new strain of the coronavirus, including among children, its health minister announced on Monday. “Unfortunately, government labs showed genetic mutations in the Covid-19 strain, detecting the new fast-spreading strain in Iraq,” Hassan al-Tamimi told reporters. He referred to the strain as the one “which shttp://dlvr.it/RsnsNf Continue reading Iraq detects new UK-based strain, reimposes partial lockdown

Jakarta (AFP) Feb 15, 2021 At least nine people have died and 10 are missing after a landslide caused by torrential rains swept away several homes in Indonesia, officials said Monday, with hundreds forced to flee their flooded homes. Twenty-one people were initially reported missing after the disaster struck Sunday evening in a rural part of East Java. Indonesia’s Search and Rescue Agency said it … Continue reading Indonesian landslide kills nine with 10 missing

Houston (AFP) Feb 16, 2021 Much of the United States was in the icy grip of an “unprecedented” winter storm Monday as frigid Arctic air sent temperatures plunging, forcing hundreds of flight cancellations, making driving hazardous and leaving millions without power in Texas. Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration for the southern state, and the National Weather Service (NWS) said more than 150 … Continue reading Frigid Arctic air, winter storms grip much of US

Kaua’i HI (SPX) Feb 15, 2021 Woolpert has been awarded a task order under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Shoreline Mapping Services Contract to provide topographic and bathymetric lidar data and imagery for islands in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands chain, mostly within the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument. This contract is administered by NOAA’s National Geodetic Survey Remote Sensing Divisihttp://dlvr.it/Rsh1jQ Continue reading NOAA selects Woolpert to collect Topo-Bathy Lidar, imagery over Hawaiian islands

Washington (AFP) Feb 13, 2021 The United States and a WHO expert demanded more data from Beijing on Saturday about the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, after a WHO mission to China struggled to make headway. A team of World Health Organization experts and Chinese counterparts visited key sites around the city of Wuhan, where Covid cases were first detected, but said they had not … Continue reading US, WHO push China for data from early days of contagion

Tapovan, India (AFP) Feb 12, 2021 A newly formed Himalayan lake raised fears Friday of another flash flood above a disaster-hit valley in northern India, prompting authorities to conduct helicopter surveys and send a team on a 16-hour climb to investigate. Thirty-eight people died and 166 are still missing, state disaster officials said, after a barrage of water and debris hurtled down the valley in … Continue reading India fears another flash flood from new Himalayan lake

Washington DC (UPI) Feb 11, 2021 Pigs are known to be smart – but the ability to play video games requires more than just brain power, and researchers were surprised they could handle the challenge. When researchers at Purdue University trained four pigs to play a simple joystick video game, they were surprised how quickly the animals took to the game, despite their limited dexterity. … Continue reading Scientists teach pigs to play video game, showing behavioral, mental flexibility

Moscow (AFP) Feb 10, 2021 Moscow was bracing Wednesday for record snowfalls over the weekend, as weather experts predicted a record-breaking “snow apocalypse” in the Russian capital. Top expert of the Fobos weather centre Yevgeny Tishkovets said that the snowstorm would strike Moscow with “very high intensity” from the early hours of Friday and last for the next 36 hours. He added that winds would … Continue reading Moscow braces for record-breaking ‘snowpocalypse’

Tangiers, Morocco (AFP) Feb 10, 2021 Authorities in Morocco faced mounting questions and calls for accountability Wednesday, two days after 28 people died when heavy rain flooded a basement factory in the port city of Tangiers. “The victims were trapped with no way to get out” and drowned, senior fire and rescue service official Abderrahim Kabajj told Morocco’s 2M television station. An official statement on … Continue reading Morocco faces questions over factory drownings