Fewer days for the slumdog

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Science & Technology - Briefs

health The Wnt pathway

Asia's sooty air

Health effects of air pollutants worse in Asian cities

For the Marginalized

www.asianborderlands.net

Buoyant wind market India and China are among top five growing markets for wind energy

Worldwide wind energy Total installed capacity 2007 93.9 GW

New stick to beat developing countries on GHGs

until now, it was believed that methane, from cattle dung and paddy cultivation, was the second biggest contributor to global warming after carbon dioxide. A recent review says soot is the second biggest contributor. Soot has 60 per cent of the effect of carbon dioxide on global warming, and China and India contribute 25-35 per cent of the total soot emissions, the paper says.

Influenza on the move

East and Southeast Asia are probably the breeding grounds for influenza viruses. A study has shown that the virus spreads through densely-packed cities in the region before hitching a ride on human hosts to other parts of the world.

Chinese caves throw light on Asian monsoons

deposits in Sanbao cave in Central China tell the story of the region's climate more than 200,000 years ago. They also reveal the working of the East Asian monsoon over timescales that range over thousands of years. The information was brought out in a paper in the February 28 issue of Nature.

Asia should spend more to tackle AIDS, says UN

a un report says Asian countries should spend more on tackling aids or the disease may kill over 500,000 in the continent. The un commission on aids in Asia which submitted its report to the un secretary general Ban Ki-moon on March 23, says at present 440,000 people die of aids each year in Asia.

South Asia

wheat fungi may have reached pakistan: A fungus, deadly for wheat, may have reached Pakistan two years earlier than predicted, said researchers at a recent meeting in Syria. The meeting was to decide on emergency measures to track the progress of the fungus, Ug99, which is a virulent strain of black stem rust (Puccinia graminis).