News 360

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SATURNINE MYSTIQUE Infrared aurora, illuminating Saturn's north pole, has not been seen on any planet in the solar system. Cassini orbiter, studying the ringed planet, recently captured this image. Scientists at NASA said the aurora constantly changes and even disappears within 45 minutes. It will help them understand Saturn's atmosphere better.

Half the world's 700 mountain gorillas in Congo's Virunga National Park are at risk as more than 50 forest rangers fled following the conflict between the army and rebels.

Comoros plans to tame Karthala, one of the world's largest active volcanoes, and use its geothermal energy to boost the African archipelago's economy.

Six tribes in Uganda have declined by 95 per cent since 2002. Thirty per cent of its 61 tribes could be wiped out by 2015, said the country's latest population report.

Ghana declared a meningitis outbreak after 10 people died in the Ashanti region in early November. who said 5.5 million Ghanaians are at risk.

Landslides and heavy floods affected over 300,000 people in Kenya's conflict-battered northeast region. Unusual warming of the Indian Ocean in October triggered heavy rains, said met officials.

Flash floods affected about 76,000 people across six districts in Sri Lanka in the first week of November. Met officials blamed it on filled up low-lying areas and blocked drains.

Sri Lanka will build water tanks in elephant habitats to prevent them from straying into settlements. Thirty people and 130 elephants were killed in human-elephant conflicts in 2007.

Indonesia, a seismically active archipelago, launched a high-tech early warning system to detect a potential tsunami and send faster alerts. The system will use sensors placed on the seabed and shore.

I srael denied entry to convoys carrying humanitarian supplies to Gaza Strip in mid-November. A UN aid agency said that it had run out of food for 750,000 Palestinians in the region.

Injectible polio vaccines will soon be introduced in nine districts of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, considered India's polio hotbed.

Europe's energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs backed the controversial carbon capture and storage technology and supported a proposed amendment that would divert funds from emissions trading to 12 demonstration plants.

Over 120 tonnes of radioactive waste arrived at a dump site in northern Germany on November 12 amid fierce protests. Activists pressured the government to do away with nuclear energy.

Cuba became the only country to meet the criterion for sustainable development, said conservation group wwf. Concern, however, persists for Caribbean marine turtles whose population fell by 99 per cent.

Brazil plans to use a plane equipped with body-heat sensors to locate uncontacted Indian tribes in the Amazon. Officials said the method will help protect the communities without disrupting their way of life.

Peru will sue the us university Yale for going back on its agreement to hand over 40,000 Inca relics excavated by an American explorer at the ruins of Machu Picchu in 1911.

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Argentine researchers generated biogas from papaya, produced abundantly in the country. Papaya wastes from food processing industry was decomposed in the absence of oxygen to produce the gas.

Mini nuclear power plants, which can power 20,000 houses for 10 us cents a kilowatt-hour, will be on sale within five years, said scientists at Los Alamos National Lab in the us.

Barack Obama, as us president, should force the country to switch to 100 per cent renewable energy within 10 years, said Al Gore, a former vice president and environmental activist.

Wildfires, whipped up by dry seasonal winds, raged through more than 14,000 hectares and evacuated 10,000 residents from Orange, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Riverside counties in mid-November.

Phoenix Lander, the spacecraft which found proof of water on Mars, lost contact on November 2 following a dust storm in Mars.

Endeavor, the us space shuttle, was launched on November 14 with an odd assortment of cargo--live spiders, butterflies and new technology to turn urine into drinking water.

Crude oil price came down to us $45.89 a barrel on November 19, the lowest since May 2005, as global recession undermines worldwide demand for oil.