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| DOLPHINS STRANDED Fishers in the Philippines guided about 200 dolphins stranded in the shallow waters of Manila Bay back to the sea. Beached dolphins are not uncommon in the Philippines but rarely occur in such large numbers. The Bureau of Fisheries said the cetaceans could be reacting to a heat wave or some disturbance, such as underwater earthquake. |
Half the children in Mali who completed primary school could not get admission in secondary schools this academic year due to shortage of teachers and classrooms. West African countries joined forces to fight Achaea catocaloides caterpillars, earlier believed to be armyworms, that are fast spreading after ravaging crops in Liberia and Guinea. Experts were clueless about the outbreak. Fifty Nigerian children have died after taking tainted teething syrup My Pikin since the government imposed a ban on the medicine in December 2008, said the health ministry. Kenya's drought-hit Isiolo district announced an outbreak of kala-azar, or leishmaniasis, after six people died of the disease. Vietnam reported the second human bird flu case in a month. Ly Tai Mui, 23, from the northern Quang Ninh Province, fell sick after eating a chicken. Earlier, an eight-year-old girl had tested positive for the H5N1 virus strain. She has recovered. Decommissioned French warship Le Clemenceau that was turned back from India after protests over dumping hazardous waste at Alang in Gujarat has docked at UK's Hartlepool for scrapping. Sweden plans to overturn a 30-year-old decision to phase out nuclear power and allow new nuclear reactors to replace its 10 ageing reactors. The government says this will help combat climate change and secure the nation's energy supply. Environmental groups asked Northern Ireland's environment minister to resign after he banned a climate change ad campaign, saying it was "nonsense" to suggest people could save the world by turning off their lights. Britons eat 20 per cent more saturated fat than they should, said UK's Food Standards Agency as it launched a campaign to promote healthier diets. Cutting saturated fat from food can prevent up to 3,500 premature deaths a year, it said.| HEAT EXCHANGE | |
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Large Hadron Collider, the Big Bang machine, will not restart until late 2009 because repairs to an electrical glitch that occurred days after it was switched on in September 2008 are taking longer, said scientists. Drilling has begun north of Paris to tap hot water from two km below the earth's surface. The geothermal energy will supply hot water to 12,000 apartments and help reduce 14,000 tonnes of CO2 a year. The Year of Darwin got off to a bad start in the Netherlands, where Leiden University sacked classical evolutionary-biology staff due to budget crunch. The Galapagos Islands' unique ecology will face irreversible damage unless tourism is curbed soon, said Darwin Foundation. About 173,000 tourists visited the island in 2008. Strong winds and rains triggered mudslides in northwestern Argentina that killed at least 12 people and left 10,000 homeless. Green groups linked the mudslide to the increasing deforestation of mountaintops to expand crop areas. A male jaguar was spotted in Mexico for the first time in 100 years when a camera trap caught its pictures in Sierra Nanchititla Natural Reserve. Scientists also found 132 faecal samples. Andean volcano Galeras in Colombia erupted on February 14, prompting the government to issue a red alert and evacuate 7,000 people. Galeras has been erupting frequently since 1989. The US interior department cancelled leases issued under the Bush administration allowing oil and gas drilling on 40,500 ha of eco-sensitive areas in Utah state. Attorneys General from 18 US states asked the environmental protection agency to enforce laws to curb greenhouse gas emissions. A French space telescope has detected a rocky planet outside the solar system; most such exo-planets are gaseous. Named Corot-Exo-7b, it orbits its sun once every 20 hours and its temperature is about 1,500oC. The collision between the US Iridium commercial satellite and a defunct Russ-ian satellite 800 km above Siberia on February 10 produced debris that scientists say could circle the earth for tens of thousands of years. Oil cartel opec has postponed 35 oil drilling projects saying low crude prices deter investment. To check prices from falling further, it plans more production cuts. We are a voice to you; you have been a support to us. Together we build journalism that is independent, credible and fearless. You can further help us by making a donation. This will mean a lot for our ability to bring you news, perspectives and analysis from the ground so that we can make change together.
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