Priboj, Serbia (AFP) Jan 22, 2021 Framed by rolling hills and farmhouses, the emerald waters of Potpecko lake were once a picturesque fishing spot in western Serbia. But recently, the smell itself was enough to turn away visitors from a reservoir filled with a sprawling mass of trash – one of several enormous build-ups in the region that have brought the Balkans’ garbage crisis into … Continue reading Trash islands bring Balkan waste crisis to the surface

Wuhan, China (AFP) Jan 23, 2021 The Chinese city of Wuhan marked one year since the start of its traumatic 76-day coronavirus lockdown Saturday while the pandemic continued to rage elsewhere, with US President Joe Biden warning America’s death toll could pass 600,000. Traffic hummed, sidewalks bustled, and citizens packed parks and public transport in Wuhan, underscoring the scale of the recovery in the metropolis … Continue reading Wuhan marks a year since lockdown as Biden warns of 600,000 dead

Islamabad (AFP) Jan 21, 2021 China will donate 500,000 doses of its Covid-19 vaccine to Pakistan, the country’s foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said Thursday. It comes as the number of coronavirus cases surged to 527,146 in Pakistan, with over 11,000 deaths since the virus was first detected in February last year. “Pakistan greatly appreciates the 500,000 doses of the vaccine gifted by China,” foreign … Continue reading China to donate 500,000 Covid-19 vaccines to Pakistan

Houston TX (SPX) Jan 20, 2021 Microscopic bubbles can tell stories about Earth’s biggest volcanic eruptions and geoscientists from Rice University and the University of Texas at Austin have discovered some of those stories are written in nanoparticles. In an open-access study published online in Nature Communications, Rice’s Sahand Hajimirza and Helge Gonnermann and UT Austin’s James Gardner answered a longstanding quehttp://dlvr.it/Rr9D9v Continue reading Research finds tiny bubbles tell tales of big volcanic eruptions

While it was already underway prior to the pandemic, the worldwide shift to digital payments has been accelerated by the crisis. This new cashless concept and the related back-end changes by banks to adopt real-time payments are becoming increasingly popular; and have set into motion the potential for a ripple effect throughout the e-commerce ecosystem.http://dlvr.it/Rr9D3k Continue reading The New Era of Cashless, Invisible Payments

Geneva (AFP) Jan 20, 2021 China confirmed Wednesday that it had detected the UK variant of the coronavirus, joining at least 60 other countries, as US President-elect Joe Biden’s incoming administration committed to rejoining the World Health Organisation. Covid-19 has claimed more than two million lives globally since it was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan more than a year ago, while the … Continue reading China latest of 60 nations with UK virus strain as US to rejoin WHO

Beijing (AFP) Jan 20, 2021 China said Wednesday it was sanctioning more than two dozen members and ex-officials in former president Donald Trump’s government, including his secretary of state Mike Pompeo, for violating the country’s “sovereignty” by making “crazy” policy moves. The move came as US President Joe Biden took the oath of office in Washington, ushering in a new administration that is expected to … Continue reading China sanctions Pompeo, Trump officials for violating ‘sovereignty’

Norwich UK (SPX) Jan 20, 2021 Genetic rewiring could have driven an evolutionary explosion in the shapes, sizes and adaptations of cichlid fish, in East Africa’s answer to Darwin’s Galapagos finches. Published in BMC Genome Biology, an Earlham Institute (EI) study, with collaborators at the University of East Anglia (UEA) and Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, shows that ‘genetic rewiring’ at non-coding regions – rathehttp://dlvr.it/Rr5Xg3 Continue reading Genetic rewiring behind spectacular evolutionary explosion in East Africa

Milan (AFP) Jan 20, 2021 “It’s about time they passed this law. We’re fed up with this smoke!” declared Massimo Gabbiadini, a shopkeeper in Piazza del Duomo, after Milan banned smoking in many outdoor places. “But I will wait and see if the rules are enforced. In the north of Europe people respect the law, but in Italy?” the 54-year-old told AFP. Italy’s financial and … Continue reading Choked-up Milan takes smoking ban outside

Washington (AFP) Jan 21, 2021 President Joe Biden committed the United States to rejoining the Paris climate accord, blocked an oil pipeline project and froze Arctic drilling in a raft of executive orders signed hours after taking office Wednesday. But for the Democrat who has pledged to roll back four years of environmental harm done by his predecessor Donald Trump, that’s just the start. Experts … Continue reading Biden to roll back Trump policies, remake US role in climate crisis