Khartoum (AFP) Dec 22, 2020 A senior Sudanese army officer was the first to be questioned by a committee investigating a deadly crackdown last year on pro-democracy protesters, a source linked to the probe said Tuesday. “The first hearing of a member of the Transitional Military Council took place on Monday,” an associate of committee head Nabil Adib told AFP, without revealing the name of … Continue reading Sudan probes ‘first’ senior officer over deadly protest crackdown

Walmart has raised the bar for service by an online retailer with its announcement of free home pickup of customer returns. Called “Carrier Pickup by Fedex,” the program allows items bought at Walmart’s online store to be returned with a minimum of hassle by scheduling a home pickup from the store and printing a return label for the item.http://dlvr.it/RpGlDr Continue reading Walmart Tackles Return Issues With New Home Pickup Service

Washington DC (SPX) Dec 23, 2020 In the far north, the swelling Arctic Ocean inundated vast swaths of coastal tundra and steppe ecosystems. Though the ocean water was only a few degrees above freezing, it started to thaw the permafrost beneath it, exposing billions of tons of organic matter to microbial breakdown. The decomposing organic matter began producing CO2 and CH4, two of the most … Continue reading Subsea permafrost is still waking up after 12,000 years

Moscow, Russia (SPX) Dec 23, 2020 A team of scientists from RUDN University and the Dokuchyaev Soil Science Institute developed a method for identifying the color of soil at different depths and the structure of soil profile using ground-penetrating radar. With this methodology, scientists can identify the chemical composition of the soil and classify it for potential use in construction, agriculture, or mining without dighttp://dlvr.it/RpCD64 Continue reading Scientists suggested a way to measure soil properties at any depth without digging

Baghdad (AFP) Dec 22, 2020 Iraq has signed a preliminary deal to receive 1.5 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine in early 2021, the health ministry said. The country has been among the hardest-hit in the Middle East, with more than 580,000 reported cases although numbers have dropped dramatically in recent weeks. Health ministry spokesman Seif al-Badr told state television late Monday that Irhttp://dlvr.it/RpCD2q Continue reading Iraq inks preliminary deal for Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine

Sousse, Tunisia (AFP) Dec 21, 2020 Tunisia arrested a dozen people including its environment minister Monday in a scandal over hundreds of containers of household waste shipped from Italy to the North African country. The 282 containers were seized this summer by Tunisian customs officials in the Mediterranean port city of Sousse. They were declared to be carrying plastic scraps for industrial recycling – but … Continue reading Tunisia cracks down with arrests in Italy hazardous waste scandal

Weibern, Austria (AFP) Dec 22, 2020 As Katharina and Reinhard Bauer show off cosseted turkey chicks they highlight standards that they – and the Austrian government – would like the rest of the EU to adopt as well. “On our farm the birds have lots of space,” Katharina explains on the organic farm the pair run together in Weibern, northern Austria. They stress how delicate … Continue reading Austrians press EU to talk turkey, raise farm standards

Pampore, India (AFP) Dec 22, 2020 On sweeping fields once blanketed in lush purple, a thin and bedraggled crop of flowers is all farmers in Indian-administered Kashmir’s saffron-growing region Pampore have to show for this year’s harvest. Dry conditions blamed on climate change have seen yields of the world’s most expensive spice halved in the past two decades, threatening the future of a cash crop … Continue reading Climate change ravages Kashmir’s ‘red gold’ saffron crop

Chelmsford UK (SPX) Dec 16, 2020 Teledyne e2v, a part of the Teledyne Imaging Group, will supply image sensors to the recently announced grouped proposal of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) industrial policy committee to place six Copernicus Sentinel satellite missions in space. As the sensor partner for Thales Alenia Space, the UK team will develop, manufacture and supply variants of their Capella CMOS visible … Continue reading Teledyne e2v signs detector supply contract for Copernicus Sentinel MAP instrument

Manila (AFP) Dec 20, 2020 Nearly 10,000 people were evacuated from their homes in the northeastern Philippines as heavy rain across the country left at least eight people dead, authorities said Sunday. The storm – which has inundated villages and destroyed scores of houses in recent days – is the latest to batter the disaster-prone archipelago. Floodwaters reached waist-deep in 14 towns in the Cagayan … Continue reading Eight dead in Philippine floods as thousands flee homes