Port Moresby (AFP) Jan 11, 2024 Papua New Guinea’s prime minister pledged to crack down on “lawlessness” Thursday, following riots in which 15 people were killed as angry crowds torched buildings and ransacked shops. Violence erupted in the capital Port Moresby on Wednesday evening after a group of soldiers, police officers and prison guards launched protests against the government. Within hours riots had also taken … Continue reading Papua New Guinea vows crackdown after 15 killed in riots

Thimphu, Bhutan (AFP) Jan 9, 2024 The man set to become Bhutan’s new prime minister is a passionate environmental advocate and sportsman, a veteran politician in a mountain kingdom where parliamentary democracy is still young. Tshering Tobgay, who is expected to become premier for a second time after his party won nearly two-thirds of seats in elections on Tuesday, served as prime minister from 2013 … Continue reading Bhutan’s Tobgay, environmental advocate facing economic headwinds

Astana, Kazakhstan (AFP) Jan 9, 2024 Hundreds of swans have been found dead at a nature reserve in the Central Asian country of Kazakhstan, environmental officials said Tuesday. The nature reserve is based around Lake Karakol, near the shores of the Caspian Sea, and is home to a variety of rare and endangered species. “Between 21 December and 8 January, a total of 675 swan … Continue reading Hundreds of swans found dead in Kazakh nature reserve

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Jan 10, 2024 In a remarkable feat of marine biology, scientists from the Sanya Institute of Deep-sea Science and Engineering in China have successfully sequenced the complete genome of an extraordinary sea cucumber, Chiridota heheva, thriving in the inhospitable realms of hydrothermal vents. Published in the journal GigaScience, this research represents a significant milestone in understanding how complex orhttp://dlvr.it/T19wjh Continue reading Scientists decode genome of sea cucumber thriving in hydrothermal vents

Davis CA (SPX) Jan 10, 2024 The Santa Barbara Channel’s kelp forests and its sandy beaches are intimately connected. Giant kelp, the foundation species of rocky reefs, serves as a major part of the beach food web as fronds of the giant seaweed break away from the forest and are transported to the beach. But the relationship goes deeper. In a paper published this week … Continue reading The choreography connecting kelp forests to the beach

Paris (AFP) Jan 9, 2024 The year of 2023 was the hottest on record, with the increase in Earth’s surface temperature nearly crossing the critical threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius, EU climate monitors said Tuesday. Climate change intensified heatwaves, droughts and wildfires across the planet, and pushed the global thermometer 1.48 C above the preindustrial benchmark, the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) rephttp://dlvr.it/T19wj4 Continue reading Warming world nears critical 1.5C limit in 2023: monitor

Noia, Spain (AFP) Jan 9, 2024 Dozens of volunteers used strainers to sift sand at beaches in northwestern Spain on Tuesday to collect millions of tiny plastic pellets that have washed up in recent days, endangering wildlife. The minuscule pellets, called nurdles, began arriving on the coast of Spain’s Galicia region after six containers fell from a Liberia-registered ship on December 8 as it headed … Continue reading Spain politicians bicker as plastic ‘nurdle’ spill swamps beaches

Washington DC (UPI) Dec 21, 2021 People in Gaza with Canadian relatives will be able to apply for temporary residency, Ottawa announced Thursday, as the death toll in the Palestinian enclave amid Israel’s offensive reaches nearly 20,000 with the vast majority of those who live there having been displaced. Ottawa will work with its partners in the region to help those eligible to leave Gaza … Continue reading Ottawa offers 3-year visas to those in Gaza with Canadian relatives

Jishishan, China (AFP) Dec 21, 2023 Chinese authorities are facing a “race against time” to ensure victims of the deadliest earthquake in years can be sheltered from freezing winter temperatures, a local official told AFP on Thursday. The quake, which struck just before midnight on Monday on the border between northwestern Gansu and Qinghai provinces, killed at least 135 people. The crippling December weather has … Continue reading China in ‘race against time’ to house quake victims for winter

Hwange, Zimbabwe (AFP) Dec 21, 2023 Storm clouds are finally gathering over Zimbabwe’s biggest animal reserve, but it has come too late for more than 110 elephants that have died in a searing, extended drought. There is little that Simba Marozva and other rangers at the Hwange National Park can do except cut the tusks off the rotting corpses before poachers find them. With the … Continue reading Heartbreak in Zimbabwe park: elephants’ desperate hunt for water