Hard-to-cure TB poses new global health threat

BEIJING (AP) — The Beijing Chest Hospital was packed with people on a recent weekday morning. In the waiting area, Wang Chong, a migrant worker who has been fighting tuberculosis for several months, was facing a dilemma: Does he continue treatment that has already cost him more than $5,000 or stop before his savings are wiped out?

It's not only his health at stake. If Wang stops treatment prematurely, his tuberculosis is likely to morph into one of the new, hardier strains that resist the drugs he has been using and that pose a growing threat to global public health. Countries as diverse as China, Russia and South Africa are vulnerable, and the new strains have also appeared in the United States.

"TB is now taking on a deadly new form — one that will spread further," said Cornelia Hennig, the World Health Organization's TB program coordinator for China. "We can choose: Either we act now with rational and proven approaches, or we pay later with a worsening epidemic."

The WHO is trying to bring renewed vigor to the fight with a three-day meeting of health ministers from the worst-affected countries in Beijing starting April 1. Also attending are WHO Director-General Margaret Chan and Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a major contributor to research on global health problems. Countries are expected to draw up five-year plans to prevent and control the spread of drug-resistant TB.

TB is caused by germs that spread when a person with active TB coughs, sneezes or speaks. It's ancient and treatable but now has evolved into stronger forms: multidrug-resistant TB, which does not respond to two top drugs, and extensively drug-resistant TB, which is virtually untreatable. TB is usually treated in six months with a $20 cocktail of four antibiotics, but its drug-resistant form takes up to two years to fight. CONTINUE

Spanish Mad Cow Disease Expert Dies Of Mad Cow Disease

(CNN) -- A Spanish pathologist who specialized in a human strain of mad cow disease died Saturday, and officials suspect the disease played a role in his death, officials said.

The doctor was head of the anatomy pathology section at the University Hospital Principe de Asturias in Alcala de Henares, outside of Madrid, according to the Madrid regional government's health office. He died Saturday night, at the hospital where he worked, officials said. The doctor's name was not released at the request of his family.

Several samples have been sent off for testing, the office said, but results are expected to take a month.

The doctor was well known both in and outside Spain for his work in the pathology field. His speciality was the human strain of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

It is not known how the doctor might have contracted the disease, but the health office said it was not thought to be through ingestion of contaminated meat. Authorities are investigating whether the doctor had been exposed to contaminated human tissue through his work.

Since 2001, 702 Creutzfeldt-Jakob cases have been reported in Spain, of which 87 have been reported in Madrid. Five people have died.

Big global wheat supplies to buffer U.S. flood threat

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The threat of severe flooding in the upper reaches of the United States cutting spring wheat plantings by 500,000 acres will be overwhelmed by plentiful global supplies that will keep the pressure on prices.

The Red River Valley, a top spring wheat growing area stretching from western Minnesota to eastern North Dakota and north into Manitoba, Canada, is braced for flooding as the Red River rose to its highest level in 112 years.

"Wheat is a world production," said Shawn McCambridge, grain market analyst with Prudential Bache Commodities. "There are a lot of places that grow wheat. You have to have (problems in) more than one region to really affect the balance sheet. There is a good production elsewhere."

The benchmark Chicago Board of Trade hard red winter wheat futures contract has fallen about 8 percent this week. Minneapolis Grain Exchange's nearby spring wheat contract was down 5 percent for the week.

Wheat prices continued to fall on Friday even as residents in Fargo, North Dakota, were forced to evacuate their homes. The river is expected to crest by Saturday at 42 feet.

Storms around the U.S. Plains region would likely boost prospects for the total wheat crop by improving conditions for the hard red winter wheat crop. Winter wheat accounts for about three-fourths of total U.S. wheat production and has suffered from dry conditions during the past few months.

"Any wheat they lose in the spring wheat belt they are going to more than make up in the hard red winter wheat belt," said Vic Lespinasse of GrainAnalyst.com. "We grow a lot more wheat in the Southwest that we do up in the northern Plains."

The rains were coming at a crucial time for the winter wheat crop, most of which has emerged from dormancy during the past few weeks.

WORLDWIDE PRODUCTION CUT BUT SUPPLIES ABOUND

Total worldwide wheat production was forecast to fall this year but there were still plenty of supplies leftover from last year's record crop.

The International Grains Council said earlier this week that world wheat production would fall 5.4 percent to 651 million tonnes in the 2009/10 crop year. But global carryover stocks were expected to rise 6.9 percent.

Analysts were expecting an upcoming U.S. Agriculture Department report to put U.S. wheat ending stocks at 1.062 billion bushels, up from 709 million bushels in March 2008.

Light demand around the world for U.S. wheat also was allowing traders to shrug off expectations of damage to crop land in key areas of the spring wheat growing region. CONTINUE

At least 50 dead in 'mini tsunami' after dam bursts in Jakarta

Sophie Tedmanson

A 10-foot high “mini tsunami” crashed through a neighbourhood in Jakarta, killing scores of people and leaving hundreds of homes submerged in the Indonesian capital after a dam wall burst in the early hours of Friday morning.

The wall of water tore through the crowded neighbourhood in Cirendeu, an industrial area on the outskirts of south Jakarta, killing at least 50 people, including four children.

An official said most of the dead had drowned in the flash flood, and the death toll was expected to rise as many people were sleeping when the disaster occurred and were unable to escape.

"Hundreds of houses are flooded, tens of houses damaged, it was like a small tsunami," Rustam Pakaya, an official at the health ministry, said. CONTINUE

Fargo: Flood forecast worsens

Flood forecast worsens in tired Fargo
Red River could crest at 43 feet on Saturday; sandbaggers try to go higher

Volunteers get a ride out Thursday after sandbagging around a home in Fargo, N.D.

FARGO, N.D. - North Dakota's largest city moved to the brink of potentially disastrous flooding Thursday, with earlier optimism fading as officials issued an updated forecast with an even higher crest by the weekend.

The National Weather Service raised its Red River crest forecast at Fargo to as much as 43 feet. The service had been predicting a crest of 41 feet by Saturday afternoon. The new guidance is for the city to expect between 41 and 42 feet, but not to rule out 43 feet.

On top of that, the crest could run at that level for three to seven days, the service said. CONTINUE

Salton Sea is swarming with earthquake data

Email Picture

Broadband Seismic Data Collection Center (ANZA), Institute of Geophysics & Planetary Physics, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego
Image of Google map showing earthquake clusters. Click here to open map.

As seismologists sharpen their focus on the desert region, which has had more than 200 temblors since Saturday, they're learning more about how quakes in one area can affect activity on nearby faults.
It's one of the great mysteries of Southern California seismology: Every couple of years, the remote desert area around the Salton Sea is shaken by swarms of small to moderate earthquakes that often last several days.

The swarms returned this week, with the area recording more than 200 temblors since Saturday -- including several that were felt Wednesday. But this time, scientists had sophisticated instruments in the ground to record the activity, helping them to better understand the swarms and how they can affect seismic risk elsewhere.

Scientists have noticed that the quakes appear to have a pattern, moving southeast as the days progress. But a bigger question remains: Can the quakes trigger larger -- and potentially more destructive -- quakes along the San Andreas fault, which terminates at the shore of the Salton Sea?

CONTINUE

Astronomers track asteroid's collision with Earth

Astronomers have for the first time spotted an asteroid on a collision course with Earth in enough time to track it as it reached the atmosphere and exploded in a huge fireball.

The 4-metre long asteroid was detected 19 hours before it reached Earth giving scientists an unprecedented opportunity to observe its final trajectory and demise.

Remnants of the 83 tonne asteroid, to the surprise of astronomers, escaped being entirely burnt up during entry into the atmosphere and landed over an 18-mile stretch of the Nubian Desert in northern Sudan.

Searches yielded 47 fragments of the asteroid ranging from 1.5 to 283 grams. The meteorites weighed a total of 3.95 kilograms.

Dr Peter Jenniskens, of the SETI Institute in California, United States, described the project to follow the asteroid as "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity”.

Calculations showed the space rock was travelling at 27,739 mph when it reached Earth in the early hours of October 7 last year.

As it hurtled through the planet's atmosphere the air density rose to the point that the pressure became too high for the asteroid and it exploded. "It was like running into a brick wall," Dr Jenniskens said.

Eyewitnesses at the Station 6 train stop in the Nubian Desert, northern Sudan, and in the town of Wadi Halfa reported seeing a "rocket-like fireball" and the pilot of a KLM flight over Africa also reported seeing flashes over the horizon. CONTINUE

Melting glaciers force Italy, Swiss to redraw border

ROME, Italy (CNN) -- Melting glaciers in the Alps may prompt Italy and Switzerland to redraw their borders near the Matterhorn, according to parliamentary draft legislation being readied in Rome.

Glaciers in the Alps near the Matterhorn are receding, forcing the border to be redrawn.

Franco Narducci of Italy's opposition Democratic Party is preparing a bill to redefine the frontier with neighboring Switzerland, his office said Wednesday.

Narducci is a member of the foreign affairs panel in Italy's lower Chamber of Deputies. Foreign Minister Franco Frattini has authorized the bill.

Switzerland also has cooperated with Italy on the matter.

The Italian Military Geographic Institute says climate change is responsible for the Alpine glaciers melting.

"This draft law is born out the necessity to revise and verify the frontiers given the changes in climate and atmosphere," Narducci said. "The 1941 convention between Italy and Switzerland established as criteria [for border revisions] the ridge [crest] of the glaciers. Following the withdrawal of the glaciers in the Alps, a new criterion has been proposed so that the new border coincides with the rock."

The border change only affects uninhabited mountaintop terrain. The deputy excludes the possibility of any family having to change citizenship.

The border between Italy and Switzerland was fixed 1861, when Italy became a nation, but it has been occasionally modified, the Military Geographic Institute said. The border was last modified in the 1970s when the Switzerland-Italy highway was built at the Brogeda crossing.

The bill is expected to become law by the end of April, Narducci said.

Unlike Switzerland, Italy can change its border only with new laws approved by parliament.

Narducci said the same negotiation will be proposed to France and Austria

"Once upon a time, the border line demarcation between two nations was synonymous to war and bloodshed," he said. "Instead , today we proceed with photograms."

U.N.: One million people at risk in Darfur

UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- More than one million people in Darfur are at risk of losing food, water and shelter in coming months, following the expulsion of international aid groups by Sudan's government, the United Nations' chief humanitarian coordinator said Tuesday.

A Doctors without Borders medic helps a sick child in a Darfur refugee camp.

The statement by coordinator John Holmes comes after a joint U.N.-Sudanese assessment of the situation.

The information was gathered from March 11-18 in hopes of stemming further troubles in Darfur after Sudan's government expelled 13 international relief organizations from the wartorn region.

The announcement came on the same day that President Omar al-Bashir, now an indicted war criminal, ignored the threat of arrest by traveling abroad to Eritrea. Also Tuesday, a Sudanese staffer working for a Canadian relief group was shot dead in Darfur.

A full report of the assessment will be released soon, according to the U.N., but an executive summary and recommendations were made available on Tuesday.

"While a significant effort is being made by the government, by the U.N., by the NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] which are left, to plug some of the immediate gaps in these areas, these are at the same time, 'Band-Aid' solutions, not long term solutions," Holmes said.

The U.N. estimates that 1.5 million people in Darfur are dependent on healthcare support, 1.1 million need regular food aid, and another 1 million are in need of clean drinking water.CONTINUE

Space storm alert: 90 seconds from catastrophe

A fierce solar storm could lead to a global disaster on an unprecedented scale

IT IS midnight on 22 September 2012 and the skies above Manhattan are filled with a flickering curtain of colourful light. Few New Yorkers have seen the aurora this far south but their fascination is short-lived. Within a few seconds, electric bulbs dim and flicker, then become unusually bright for a fleeting moment. Then all the lights in the state go out. Within 90 seconds, the entire eastern half of the US is without power.

A year later and millions of Americans are dead and the nation's infrastructure lies in tatters. The World Bank declares America a developing nation. Europe, Scandinavia, China and Japan are also struggling to recover from the same fateful event - a violent storm, 150 million kilometres away on the surface of the sun. CONTINUE

Scilly Isles could have to be abandoned because of global warming

One of Britain's most beautiful locations - described as the Maldives of the Atlantic - may have to be abandoned because global warming could make it uninhabitable, experts have warned

The Scily Isles are under threat from global warming Photo: GETTY IMAGES

The Scilly Isles is so exposed that a combination of rising sea levels and more frequent and violent storms could mean it becomes inundated.

A conference of global scientific experts has predicted a one metre-plus rise in sea levels this century and, according to experts, because the Scillies are perched precariously 28 miles out in the Atlantic they could be the worse affected place in Britan

The combination of the two factors could spell disaster for the islands which feel the full brunt of Atlantic storms more than any other.

Craig Dryden, Scillies chief planning and development officer, said: "We are the Maldives of the Atlantic Ocean.

"Rising sea levels will certainly hit these islands -which is nothing new, they've been through it before."

The islands are surrounded by submerged ancient trackways and field patterns stretching across a now-submerged landscape that once joined four of the five inhabited islands. CONTINUE

North Dakota, Minn. Prepare For Record Flood

Sandbags are lined up outside a city utility building in Fargo, N.D., Saturday, March 21, 2009, in preparation for what could be record flooding in the Red River Valley. The race to fill 1.5 million sandbags has shifted into high gear with the addition of 225 National Guard soldiers and more cutting-edge equipment.

(CBS/AP) The race to fill 1.5 million sandbags to fight what could be record flooding has shifted into high gear with the addition of 225 National Guard soldiers and more cutting-edge equipment.

Volunteers were being bused in to Fargo's "Sandbag Central," a city utility building the size of a football field normally used for housing garbage trucks. About 130,000 sandbags were produced on Friday, and the operation went into 24-hour mode on Saturday.

"The first three hours this morning we produced 40,000 bags, which is ahead of yesterday's pace," said Bruce Grubb, Fargo's enterprise director. "So I'm extremely happy with that."

The city on Saturday also was closing the First Avenue North bridge over the Red River for dike construction.

The latest projections from the National Weather Service say the Red River is expected to crest between 37 feet and 40 feet sometime between March 28 and April 1. Officials are nervous about a storm that's expected to drop an inch or two of rain in the Red River Valley beginning on Sunday.

A 40-foot crest is 22 feet above flood stage and about a half-foot higher than the historic 1997 spring flood that left several Fargo residents scrambling to save their homes. CONTINUE

Bat disease poses unforeseen problems

At Mine Hill in Roxbury, bats gather in the fall by the thousands to hibernate in the shaft of an old iron mine there.

This winter, it became a graveyard.

Because of a catastrophic mysterious illness -- called white-nose syndrome -- bats throughout the Northeast have been dying in numbers unimaginable a few years ago.

Earlier this month, when Jennie Dickson, a wildlife biologist with the state Department of Environmental Protection inspected the site, she was expecting to find 60 percent of the bats dead of the disease.

Instead, it was close to 90 percent, with the bodies of dead bats heaped in piles on the mine shaft's ledges.

"There's a pool of water in the mine,'' she said. "It was filled with the bodies of bats bobbing in the water.''

If the disease was just found in Connecticut, it would be bad enough. But in New York State, where there are big hibernating sites in the Adirondacks, biologists are finding the same rate of mortality -- 80 to 90 percent. Those are the bats that usually head east in summer to zip through the summer nights in Connecticut.

And more alarmingly, white-nose syndrome is spreading south, down to Virginia and West Virginia.

"If in Connecticut we have caves with thousands of bats, and in New York, there are hundreds of thousands of bats, in the South, we're talking millions of bats,'' Dickson said.

Right now, biologists have no idea what's causing the bat die-off -- they don't know

whether the fungus is the cause of the disease, or merely a symptom.

And no one knows the implications of a landscape without bats, which are our greatest predators of flying insects.

"Everyone talks about there being more mosquitoes,'' Dickson said. "But bats eat a lot of different insects. We could see an increase in a lot of moths that are agricultural pests or forest pests.''

There is now a concerted attempt in many places in the United States to figure out white-nose syndrome. But one manifestation of the syndrome is bats leaving their hibernating sites far too early -- sometime in mid-winter.

Therefore, Dickson, said ordinary citizens -- especially those in Litchfield County -- can help. If they see a bat in the sky during the next month, she said, they should call the DEP's wildlife division at (860) 675-8130.

"Bats should really should be hibernating until late April,'' Dickson said. "If you see one now, let us know.''

Multiple threats mounting to world food supply

Global demand is forecast to rise by 50 per cent by 2030

Soaring demand and rising prices threaten to create a "perfect storm" in the global food industry, experts warned on Thursday.

In a report, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations warns of a growing food crisis, as low-income people in the developing world feel the pinch of food prices that have yet to fall despite a global recession.

A field of wheat is harvested south of Columbus, Ohio, last year. Food experts warn the Western world's over-reliance on a few key crops could threaten the food supply. (Eric Albrecht/Associated Press)

After sharp spikes last year, "food prices have fallen internationally," the agency said Thursday. "But in developing countries they have not fallen so fast, or at all."

Food price inflation hits the poor hardest, as the share of food in their total expenditures is much higher than that of wealthier populations. Food represents about 10 to 20 per cent of consumer spending in industrialized nations, but as much as 60 to 80 per cent in developing countries.

As it stands, 963 million people, or around 15 per cent of the world's population, are suffering from hunger and malnutrition, the FAO says.

In London, Britain's chief scientist warned on Thursday that demand for food and energy is set to jump 50 per cent by 2030, and the world is not prepared for the unrest that will cause.

"It's a perfect storm," Prof. John Beddington told the GovNet Communications Sustainable Development 09 conference in London.

"We're not growing enough food, so we're not able to put stuff into the reserves," he said, noting that the price of crops such as rice spiked more than 400 per cent last year.

Food reserves at 50-year low CONTINUE

Pink elephant is caught on camera

The little pink calf was spotted in amongst an 80-strong elephant herd

A pink baby elephant has been caught on camera in Botswana.

A wildlife cameraman took pictures of the calf when he spotted it among a herd of about 80 elephants in the Okavango Delta.

Experts believe it is probably an albino, which is an extremely rare phenomenon in African elephants.

They are unsure of its chances of long-term survival - the blazing African sunlight may cause blindness and skin problems for the calf.

Mike Holding, who spotted the baby while filming for a BBC wildlife programme, said: "We only saw it for a couple of minutes as the herd crossed the river.

The baby elephant seems to be sheltering under its mother to protect itself from the sun
CONTINUE

US birds in 'widespread decline'

The number of western meadowlarks has declined sharply in recent years

Almost one third of the 800 species of birds found in the US are "endangered, threatened or in significant decline", a report has concluded.

Described as the most comprehensive assessment of its kind, the study listed habitat loss and invasive species as being the main threats.

But where conservation measures had been taken, some bird populations had shown signs of recovery, it added.

The US State of Birds report was commissioned by President Bush in 2007.

It was compiled by a partnership of organisations, including the US Geological Survey and the American Bird Conservancy, from three long-running bird censuses stretching back 40 years. CONTINUE

Undersea volcano erupts near Tonga island

Inspectors head to undersea volcano in Tonga

Eruption in South Pacific not presently a threat to islanders, authorities say

Matangi Tonga Online via Reuters

Smoke rises from an underwater volcano near Hunga Ha'apai, Tonga, on Thursday.

NUKU'ALOFA, Tonga - Scientists sailed Thursday to inspect an undersea volcano that has been erupting for days near Tonga — shooting smoke, steam and ash thousands of feet into the sky above the South Pacific ocean.

Authorities said Thursday the eruption does not pose any danger to islanders at this stage, and there have been no reports of fish or other animals being affected.

Spectacular columns are spewing out of the sea about 6 miles from the southwest coast off the main island of Tongatapu — an area where up to 36 undersea volcanoes are clustered, geologists said.

Trade winds continued to blow gas and steam away from the island Thursday. CONTINUE

New Microorganisms Discovered In Earth's Stratosphere

The balloon carrying the scientific instrumentation that India launched into the stratosphere, where new UV-resistant bacteria were discovered. (Credit: Image courtesy of Indian Space Research Organization)

ScienceDaily (Mar. 18, 2009) — Three new species of bacteria, which are not found on Earth and which are highly resistant to ultra-violet radiation, have been discovered in the upper stratosphere by Indian scientists.

One of the new species has been named as Janibacter hoylei, after the distinguished astrophysicist Fred Hoyle, the second as Bacillus isronensis recognising the contribution of ISRO in the balloon experiments which led to its discovery and the third as Bacillus aryabhata after India’s celebrated ancient astronomer Aryabhata and also the first satellite of ISRO.

The experiment was conducted using a 26.7 million cubic feet balloon carrying a 459 kg scientific payload soaked in 38 kg of liquid neon, which was flown from the National Balloon Facility in Hyderabad, operated by the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR). The payload consisted of a cryosampler containing sixteen evacuated and sterilised stainless steel probes. CONTINUE

Antarctic ice sheet could collapse due to global warming

Global warming could cause the collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet, leading to a catastrophic rise in sea levels, scientists have warned.

New evidence has been found of the Antarctic ice sheets collapsing in relatively short periods of time in the past.

Scientists have known for a long time that a rise in temperature in the oceans could cause the South Pole to start melting.

However two studies published in the journal Nature have found new evidence of the Antarctic ice sheets collapsing in relatively short periods of time in the past.

They predict that if there is a rise in temperature of five degrees Celsius or more in the oceans by the end of the century, the huge West Antarctic Ice Sheet would begin melting. This could cause sea levels to rise by up to seven metres within one to three thousands years wiping out wildlife, flooding low lying islands and coastal areas and even changing weather patterns by releasing so much fresh water into the sea. CONTINUE

Cosmic Log: Galactic smash-up caught on camera

Galaxies in gridlock

This image of a pair of colliding galaxies called NGC 6240 shows them in a

rare, short-lived phase of their evolution just before they merge into a
single, larger galaxy. Click on the image for a larger version.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / STScI / ESA

Nothing draws a crowd like a spectacular crash - whether it's a NASCAR auto race or a galactic collision. Over the past month, Internet users voted for a cosmic smash-up as their favorite target for a future close-up from the Hubble Space Telescope, and this week you can feast your eyes on two fantastic images of galaxies in gridlock.

The first "train wreck" comes from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. This is a biggie: Two huge galaxies, each anchored by a central black hole that's millions of times as massive as the sun, are moving toward an imminent pile-up. Exactly how imminent? Millions of years from now, which is a mere blink of the eye on the cosmic time scale.

"One of the most exciting things about the image is that this object is unique," Stephanie Bush of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, says in a news release about the observations. "Merging is a quick process, especially when you get to the train wreck that is happening. There just aren't many galactic mergers at this stage in the nearby universe." CONTINUE

Night inferno on Table Mountain lights up Cape Town

Seven people have been hurt and at least 80 evacuated from their homes in a massive fire on South Africa’s iconic Table Mountain that lit up the city of Cape Town last night.

Two homeless people sleeping rough were today in hospital after suffering third degree burns in the blaze, thought to have broken out at about 8pm last night near the Rhodes Memorial.

"The fire is still burning, but what has been in our favour is that we've had a moderate wind," said Greg Pillay, head of the city’s disaster risk management centre.

"We did come across two vagrants who sustained third degree burn wounds. They've been hospitalised.

"We've also had five firefighters sustaining minor injuries.”

This morning the fire was said to be under control, but still ablaze in five places.

Four helicopters, including one military chopper, were waterbombing the flames as they licked along the ridge of Devil's Peak. One helicopter airlifted a team of firefighters onto the Saddle between Devil's Peak and Table Mountain. CONTINUE

90,000 tonnes of garbage found on Greek beaches

Athenians play racquets on a beach near Athens centre

ATHENS (AFP) — Touted among the most pristine in the world, Greek beaches were nevertheless covered in more than 91,000 tonnes of garbage last year, a leading local environmental organisation said on Wednesday.

The trash picked up over the year by volunteers included plastic bottles and bags, bottle caps, food containers and discarded fishing equipment, an official at the Hellenic Marine Environment Protection Association told AFP.

But the 'king of garbage' in Greece is the cigarette -- more than 35,000 butts were picked up in the course of last year, Ta Nea daily commented Wednesday.

In comparison, similar campaigns picked up around 16,000 tonnes of rubbish in Italy, 14,000 in Spain and 3,000 in Portugal.

The cleanup was part of a campaign in 104 countries organised by US-based environment group Ocean Conservancy.

Few beaches along Greece's 18,400-kilometre (11,433-mile) rugged coastline have garbage bins -- and among those present even fewer are serviced.

The findings are consistent with poor environmental practice seen elsewhere in Greece.

Only around 25 percent of waste is recycled and the government has spent years trying to close down thousands of illegal dumps across the country.

The Greek economy is heavily reliant on tourism revenue, which in 2007 amounted to 11.4 billion euros (14.8 billion dollars).

Flies may be spreading MRSA from fowl feces

Researchers: Superbugs on insects match strains from poultry barns’ litter

WASHINGTON - Flies, already blamed for spreading disease, may help spread drug-resistant superbugs from chicken droppings, researchers reported on Monday.

They matched antibiotic-resistant enterococci and staphylococci bacteria from houseflies and the litter found in intensive poultry-farming barns in the Delmarva Peninsula region of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.

The findings, reported in the journal Science of the Total Environment, may help explain some of the spread of drug-resistant bacteria.

"Flies are well-known vectors of disease and have been implicated in the spread of various viral and bacterial infections affecting humans, including enteric fever, cholera, salmonellosis, campylobacteriosis and shigellosis," said Jay Graham of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, who led the research. CONTINUE

GM key to food shortage

Hunger pain: the world will need an extra 10 billion tonnes of food by 2025, according to some forecasts.

GENETICALLY modified crops have a key role in meeting a massive surge in world demand for food over the next 15 years, a leading plant scientist says.

CSIRO's deputy chief of plant industries, Dr T. J. Higgins, says population growth and rising wealth could mean an extra 10 billion tonnes of food consumed each year by 2025.

Responding to that extra demand was a "mammoth task" which would require "many tools" including the use of GM crops, Dr Higgins said.

"The challenge is to boost yields and quality, while protecting the environment and producing affordable food and renewable energy," he said.

Dr Higgins said GM crops and plants had the potential to deliver better protection against pests and diseases, better food nutrition and quality, and help farmers adapt to climate change. CONTINUE

Sea Level Rise Due to Global Warming Poses Threat to New York City

(PhysOrg.com) -- Global warming is expected to cause the sea level along the northeastern U.S. coast to rise almost twice as fast as global sea levels during this century, putting New York City at greater risk for damage from hurricanes and winter storm surge, according to a new study led by a Florida State University researcher.

Jianjun Yin, a climate modeler at the Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies (COAPS) at Florida State, said there is a better than 90 percent chance that the sea level rise along this heavily populated coast will exceed the mean global sea level rise by the year 2100. The rising waters in this region -- perhaps by as much as 18 inches or more -- can be attributed to thermal expansion and the slowing of the North Atlantic Ocean circulation because of warmer ocean surface temperatures. CONTINUE

Bird flu hits Darjeeling, culling begins

Siliguri, March 14: With a fresh outbreak of avian flu reported from West Bengal's Darjeeling district, the administration Saturday evening began three days of culling poultry.

"Culling will take place within a three kilometre radius of Naxalbari. The areas from where avian flu was detected are Panighata and Chengapani," sub-divisional officer Dibyendu Das said in Kurseong, 480 km from Kolkata.

In the last 15 days, around 150 birds died due to avian flu, Das told reporters.

Buying and selling of chicken have been banned within 10 km of the affected area to avoid further spread of the disease. About 14,000-15,000 chicken will be culled.

The samples of the affected birds were tested at Bhopal's High Security Animal Diseases Laboratory, which confirmed avian flu.

Bird seed prices soar

Gardeners who feed the birds have probably been wondering what’s up with the price of bird seed this year? Prices soar, then retreat a bit, then climb higher. There are a couple of reasons.

Last fall, black-oil sunflower seed (the most popular kind) becamse quite expensive for bird feeders because it was actually being turned into oil. Due to the high prices of corn and soy-based oils, restaurants and snack-food manufacturers turned to lower-priced sunflower oil for their frying needs.

The price has since declined, but it’s still at the high end of its normal range.

But if you buy nyjer – sometimes called thistle - seed to entice finches to your yard, you’ve really been suffering sticker shock. Its price has doubled and supply has shrunk.

It all started in India, where much of the nyjer seed used in America bird feed mixes originates. Excessive rains last January washed out a third to a half of the crop. Then nyjer suppliers in Ethopia — the other big source — decided to withhold their seed from the market to earn higher prices, according to The Associated Press. CONTINUE

Mars has liquid water, scientists assert

Almost two dozen researchers point to photos of globules as strong evidence of water, not just ice, on Mars. But the findings are controversial.

A team of scientists believes it has found strong evidence of liquid water on Mars, a discovery that would greatly increase the likelihood that some form of life may exist on the Red Planet.

The findings are controversial because there is disagreement among researchers over the evidence, which came from the Phoenix Mars lander's mission last year to the planet's north pole.

Phoenix was dispatched to Mars in search of ice and found it only a few centimeters under the surface of the northern polar region. But researchers generally believed that the chilly temperatures on Mars, reaching minus 200 degrees Fahrenheit at the poles in winter, ruled out the formation of liquid water. They believed that ice exposed to the atmosphere would not melt, but sublimate directly to a vapor. CONTINUE

Kenya: Alert over fears of possible Bird Flu outbreak

Kenya has been put on the alert over a possible outbreak of Avian Influenza, also known as Bird Flu.

The warning was given by the Kenya Veterinary Department, Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) and Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) officials during an East African region sensitisation workshop in Nairobi, yesterday.

The warning was given by the Kenya Veterinary Department, Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) and Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) officials during an East African region sensitisation workshop in Nairobi, yesterday.

The announcement comes after an Egyptian girl was reported to have contracted the virus.

A veterinary official, Mr Michael Cheruiyot said Kenya was taking measures in case the disease is reported in the country.

Migratory path

"Kenya is vulnerable since we fall on the wild bird migratory path to and from Asia and Europe," he said.

The head of veterinary services at KWS, Mr Francis Gakuya said they were monitoring the situation.

Kemri’s Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease Specialist, Ms Monique Wasunna, asked Kenyans to avoid eating poultry meat that is not inspected. Transporting or sleeping in the same room with birds should also be avoided.

Since 2003, the H5N1 avian influenza virus has infected at least 410 people in 15 countries and killed 254 of them. It has also killed or forced the culling of more than 300 million birds in 61 countries in Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa.

While H5N1 rarely infects people, experts fear it could mutate into a form that people could easily pass to each other. Although it is suspected those who have died from the strain caught it from birds, scientists believe there are cases of human-to-human transmission.

In April, Ivory Coast detected its first outbreaks in birds, the sixth African nation to confirm the virus after Nigeria, Niger, Egypt, Burkina Faso and Cameroon.

Thousands stranded in Angolan floods

Weeks of continuous downpour in Angola have forced thousands out of their homes, raising fears of a national cholera outbreak.

The Angolan Red Cross estimated that about 125,000 people have been affected across the Cunene by floods, which are now spreading south into Namibia.

Homes and livestock have been destroyed in the flood-hit areas. Many people have been stranded as water covered roads and fields.

Flooding is not an unusual phenomenon as the region is hit by annual floods, caused by torrential rains between December and April.

However, the extensive flooding has raised the fear of cholera and malaria epidemics, alarming the nation.

Valter Quifica, secretary general of the Angolan Red Cross, described the situation as "drastic" and said that the government is making efforts to construct some latrines.

He added that the Red Cross was distributing "water purification tables, oral rehydration sachets and jerry cans."

Five tones of health care kits have already been delivered by the World Health Organization (WHO) to help prevent a catastrophe in the African nation.

Warming Climate Impacts Base of Food Web in Western Antarctic Peninsula

A paper published this week in Science shows for the first time that the warming climate is changing the numbers and composition of phytoplankton—the base of the food web—along the western shelf of the Antarctic Peninsula.

Summertime levels of phytoplankton have decreased by 12 percent over the past 30 years off the Western Antarctic Peninsula, reports the team, which was led by Martin Montes-Hugo of the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University.

The climate of the western shelf of the Antarctic Peninsula is undergoing rapid physical climate change. Over the past half-century, winter air temperatures warmed at almost five times the global average rate—the most rapid warming of the past 500 years. In addition, seasonal sea ice in this region now arrives later in autumn and leaves earlier in spring, a trend that has displaced populations of sea ice-dependent animals.

Populations of adelie penguins, whose lifestyle requires an Antarctic climate, have dropped sharply in recent years in parts of the peninsula. The climate of the western shelf of the Antarctic Peninsula is undergoing rapid physical climate change. Over the past half-century, winter air temperatures warmed at almost five times the global average rate—the most rapid warming of the past 500 years. In addition, seasonal sea ice in this region now arrives later in autumn and leaves earlier in spring, a trend that has displaced populations of sea ice-dependent animals. (Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) CONTINUE

Australia beaches 'disaster zone'

Experts fear the toxic chemicals will suffocate fish and kill natural habitats

Australia has declared nearly 40 miles (60km) of beaches along its east coast as a disaster zone, following a massive oil and chemical spill.

More than 30 tonnes of oil are thought to have leaked from a Hong-Kong registered cargo ship, when it shed its load in stormy weather early Wednesday.

Queensland state officials say beaches along the Sunshine Coast, and Moreton and Bribie Islands are worst hit.

An investigation is under way into the state's worst oil spill in decades.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd pledged full government support for the clean-up effort, which could run into millions of dollars.

Queensland state Premier Anna Bligh said the ship's operators would be liable for the costs.
CONTINUE

Ozone Pollution Taking Toll on American Lives

Ozone pollution amplifies risk of fatal respiratory illnesses

Los Angeles had the second highest ozone level among 96 metropolitan areas studied over an 18-year period by a California researcher. USA TODAY file photo

For the first time, a large study shows the deadly effects of chronic exposure to ozone, one of the most widespread pollutants in the world and a key component of smog, according to a study in today's New England Journal of Medicine.

Doctors have long known that ground-level ozone — which is formed when sunlight interacts with pollution from tailpipes and coal-burning power plants — can make asthma worse. This study, which followed nearly 450,000 Americans in 96 metropolitan areas for two decades, also shows that ozone increases deaths from respiratory diseases. CONTINUE

"Mad" microplants show Antarctic climate change

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - You just don't want to make phytoplankton mad.

These microscopic sea plants are at the bottom of the food chain in the waters that surround the Antarctic peninsula, and when they're unhappy, everything that depends on them suffers, including fish, penguins and possibly, eventually, people.

A new study published on Thursday in the journal Science indicates that some of these Antarctic phytoplankton have become increasingly grumpy over the last 30 years.

Like most plants, phytoplankton need food and sunlight to survive. For some that live off the west coast of the Antarctic peninsula, getting these essentials has been an increasing challenge, with a 12 percent decrease in phytoplankton populations seen in the last three decades.

CONTINUE

Fast-growing Western U.S. cities face water crisis

Bill Rohret, golf course superintendent for Angel Park in Las Vegas, Nevada, resets a sign that states the water pond feature is made from recycled water February 10, 2009.

LAS VEGAS/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Desert golf course superintendent Bill Rohret is doing something that 20 years ago would have seemed unthinkable -- ripping up bright, green turf by the acre and replacing it with rocks.

Back then "they came in with bulldozers and dynamite, and they took the desert and turned it into a green oasis," Rohret said, surveying a rock-lined fairway within sight of the Las Vegas strip. "Now ... it's just the reverse."

The Angel Park Golf Club has torn out 65 acres of off-course grass in the last five years, and 15 more will be removed by 2011, to help conserve local supplies of one of the most precious commodities in the parched American West -- fresh water. CONTINUE

Fate of the rainforest is 'irreversible'

A third of the Amazonian 'carbon sink' is doomed whether or not emissions are cut, Copenhagen conference is told

The impact of climate change on the Amazon rainforest could be much worse than previously predicted, new research suggests.

Even if emissions were reduced and governments managed to limit temperature rises to C – the current aim of international climate policy – between 20 and 40 per cent of the forest could die because of warming, a British scientist told a conference on climate change in Copenhagen yesterday.

Dr Chris Jones, of the Met Office's Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research, said the Amazon may become "committed" to substantial change by rising temperatures long before any such change is apparent elsewhere. CONTINUE

Sea-level rise poses new flood risk to California

California's farms and cities may be left high and dry by prolonged drought, but climate change is expected to leave much of the state's fabled shoreline awash in excess seawater before too long.

Nearly 500,000 people and $100 billion worth of property in coastal California are at risk of severe flooding from rising sea levels this century unless new safeguards are put in place, researchers reported on Wednesday.

With global warming expected to lift ocean levels along the California shore by 1 to 1.4 meters (1 to 1.4 yards) before the year 2100, large tracts of the picturesque Pacific coast also will be lost to accelerated erosion, their study found.

The report suggests that the heightened flood risk could be minimized by investing about $14 billion in a system of newly built or upgraded sea walls, levees and offshore breakwaters to reinforce some 1,100 miles of coast.

But such coastal "armoring" structures come with their own cost, the loss of beaches. CONTINUE

World to face water shortage by 2025

ISTANBUL, Turkey, March 7 (UPI) -- More than 25,000 conservationists and international policy makers are preparing to meet in Istanbul this month to discuss world water challenges.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature says two-thirds of the world's population will face water shortages by 2025.

Policy makers at the World Water Forum must understand that investing in good water governance is critical for a sustainable water future, the group said.

"Climate change will be felt first and foremost through water, whether it be drought, floods, storms, ice melting or sea-level rise," Mark Smith, head of IUCN's Water Program, said Thursday in a release.

Smith said the world needs systems for governing water "based on a balance of policy, good water law and participatory institutions."

Population growth, climate change sparking water crisis: UN

The UN warns that limited access to water results in poverty and deprivation

PARIS (AFP) — Surging population growth, climate change, reckless irrigation and chronic waste are placing the world's water supplies at threat, a landmark UN report said on Wednesday.

Compiled by 24 UN agencies, the 348-page document gave a grim assessment of the state of the planet's freshwater, especially in developing countries, and described the outlook for coming generations as deeply worrying.

Water is part of the complex web of factors that determine prosperity and stability, it said.

Lack of access to water helps drive poverty and deprivation and breeds the potential for unrest and conflict, it warned.

"Water is linked to the crises of climate change, energy and food supplies and prices, and troubled financial markets," the third World Water Development Report said.

"Unless their links with water are addressed and water crises around the world are resolved, these other crises may intensify and local water crises may worsen, converging into a global water crisis and leading to political insecurity at various levels."

The report pointed to a double squeeze on fresh water. CONTINUE

Tidal wave of trash threatens world oceans

Thousands of animals, including marine mammals, sea turtles, seabirds and others, choked or were poisoned each year by eating trash, or drowned when they became entangled in bags, ropes and old fishing gear.

MIAMI (Reuters) - A tidal wave of man-made trash is threatening world oceans, damaging wildlife, tourism and seafood industries and piling additional stress on seas already hit by climate change, conservationists said on Tuesday.

A report by U.S.-based Ocean Conservancy detailed what it called a "global snapshot of marine debris" based on itemized records of rubbish collected by nearly 400,000 volunteers in 104 countries and places in a single day in September 2008.

Close to 7 million pounds (3.2 million kg) of trash -- the weight of 18 blue whales -- was collected from oceans, lakes, rivers and waterways in the 2008 cleanup, the group said in its report "A Rising Tide of Ocean Debris and What We Can Do About It". CONTINUE

Antarctic ice melt could shift Earth's rotation:

A nearly collapsing, 20 metre-high ice cliff forms the edge of the Wilkins Ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula

Scientists say the collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet would have such profound effects it would shift the planet's rotation, sending a bulge of water into the Northern Hemisphere.

The enormous ice sheet, which many experts believe could collapse as the climate warms, is so heavy that as it melts it "will actually cause the Earth's rotation axis to shift rather dramatically," reports a team led by geophysicist Jerry Mitrovica, at the University of Toronto. The scientists say the North and South poles would move about half a kilometre if the entire ice sheet collapses and shifts more water north. CONTINUE

Jupiter's Great Red Spot Is Shrinking

On Earth, hurricanes form and dissipate in a matter of days. On Jupiter, storms can rage for years or even centuries. The Great Red Spot, a colossal storm twice the diameter of our planet, has lasted at least 300 years.

But now that mother of all storms is shrinking just as other spots emerge to challenge its status.

Observations of cloud cover over the past decade or so have suggested the huge, oval tempest was getting smaller as Jupiter's climate changes. But such observations are tricky because it's hard to find the edges of the storm compared with nearby clouds on the visible surface of a gas planet that is entirely shrouded in colorful clouds. Nearby storms can nip off parts of the giant storm, and in turn the Great Red Spot can consume nearby clouds.

However, wind velocity data collected from 1996 to 2006 has allowed scientists to size up the storm more accurately by analyzing wind speeds and directions. CONTINUE

Scientists to Issue Stark Warning Over Dramatic New Sea Level

Rising sea levels pose a far bigger eco threat than previously thought. This week's climate change conference in Copenhagen will sound an alarm over new floodings - enough to swamp Bangladesh, Florida, the Norfolk Broads and the Thames estuary

Scientists will warn this week that rising sea levels, triggered by global warming, pose a far greater danger to the planet than previously estimated. There is now a major risk that many coastal areas around the world will be inundated by the end of the century because Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets are melting faster than previously estimated.

With much of the country already below sea level, even a small rise would be devastating for the Dutch. (Photograph: Peter Dejong/AP)

Low-lying areas including Bangladesh, Florida, the Maldives and the Netherlands face catastrophic flooding, while, in Britain, large areas of the Norfolk Broads and the Thames estuary are likely to disappear by 2100. In addition, cities including London, Hull and Portsmouth will need new flood defences.

"It is now clear that there are going to be massive flooding disasters around the globe," said Dr David Vaughan, of the British Antarctic Survey. "Populations are shifting to the coast, which means that more and more people are going to be threatened by sea-level rises."

The issue is set to dominate the opening sessions of the international climate change conference in Copenhagen this week, when scientists will outline their latest findings on a host of issues concerning global warming. The meeting has been organised to set the agenda for this December's international climate talks (also to be held in Copenhagen), which will draw up a treaty to replace the current Kyoto protocol for limiting carbon dioxide emissions. CONTINUE

05 March 2009

Salmon Shortage Squeezes California as Second Fishing Ban Looms

March 5 (Bloomberg) -- Duncan MacLean is worried about losing the work he has done for 35 years, as the salmon population declines so precipitously that fishing off the California coast may be banned for the second year in a row.

“It’s the only thing I’ve ever known since I delivered newspapers in high school,” said MacLean, 59, who lives in Half Moon Bay, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of San Francisco. “There will be a lot of people who won’t come back to fishing when the season opens up again.”

Fishermen, river guides, charter boat companies, wholesalers and processors will lose income or may even drop out of the industry if the May-to-October salmon season is canceled. The Pacific Fishery Management Council, which regulates marine fishing off the coasts of California, Oregon and Washington, is to decide in April after holding public hearings this month.

“This is grim news for the state of California,” Don Hansen, chairman of the council, said in a statement. “We won’t be able to talk about this without using the word ‘disaster.’”CONTINUE

Dancing black hole twins spotted

Astronomers believe they have seen the first pair of black holes orbiting each other at the centre of a distant galaxy. Black holes 'preceded galaxies'

Reseachers have seen the best evidence yet for a pair of black holes orbiting each other within the same galaxy.

While such "binary systems" have been postulated before, none has ever been conclusively spotted.

The new black hole pair is dancing significantly closer than the prior best binary system candidate.

The work, published in the journal Nature, is in line with the theory of growth of galaxies, each with a black hole at its centre. CONTINUE

04 March 2009

Foreign birds invade Britain as native species flee north

Britain faces an invasion of exotic birds as climate change forces native species further north, scientists have warned.

Hoopoe: Those species expected to come across the channel in the next few decades include the hoopoe and bee eater

A report compiled by a team of scientists from across Europe found birds are already being forced to fly north because of global warming.

With temperatures set to rise even further, they warned that many well loved species in the UK, that are unable to find a new habitat are in danger of dying out completely. Birds under threat include the red grouse, lesser spotted woodpecker and meadow pipit.

At the same time new species from France and central Europe will migrate to the UK, putting native birds under even more strain as they compete for food sources.

Those species expected to come across the channel in the next few decades include the hoopoe and bee eater, colourful birds currently only found in Europe, Africa and parts of Asia. CONTINUE

Earth's Hotspots Most at Risk Of Getting Hit by an Asteroid

“The threat of the Earth being hit by an asteroid is increasingly being accepted as the single greatest natural disaster hazard faced by humanity,” according to Nick Bailey of the University of Southampton's School of Engineering Sciences team, who developed the identifying program.

The team used raw data from multiple impact simulations to rank each country based on the number of times and how severely they would be affected by each impact. The software, called NEOimpactor (from NASA's "NEO" or Near Earth Object program), has been specifically developed for measuring the impact of 'small' asteroids under one kilometer in diameter. CONTINUE

03 March 2009

Asteroid passes close to Earth

(CNN) -- You had a close encounter with a 40-yard-wide asteroid this week, but the astronomer who first spotted the large rock said it's nothing to worry about.

An asteroid (inside circle) passed within 38,000 miles of Earth on Monday.

Asteroid 2009 DD45 on Monday passed within 38,000 miles of Earth, less than twice the height of the geostationary satellites we depend on for communications, according to Robert McNaught of the Australian National University.

McNaught, who watches for asteroids with his telescope 250 miles northwest of Sydney, Australia, discovered the approaching rock last week.

"It's not something to worry about, but something to be aware of," he said.

While a direct hit on Earth could be a devastating natural disaster, McNaught said keeping track of asteroids can make a hit "potentially preventable."

"If discovered in advance and with enough lead time, there is the possibility of pushing it off course, if you have decades of advance warning," McNaught said. "If you have only a few days, you can evacuate the area of impact, but there's not a great deal [else] you can do."CONTINUE

02 March 2009

Landslide buries Peru village

People stand around houses almost completely covered by mud and stones, after a landslide swept a hamlet of Chanchamayo, some 350 km northeast of Lima, Peru, in 2007. At least eight people were killed Monday and 22 others were missing after a landslide buried a tiny remote Peruvian mining village, the manager of the local mining company said.

At least eight people were killed Monday and 22 others were missing after a landslide buried a tiny remote Peruvian mining village, the manager of the local mining company said.

"We have found eight bodies and are searching for 22 other people who are missing," Carlos Martin, manager and legal adviser of the Huanchumay mine, told RPP radio station.

The landslide, which took place between 6:00 and 7:00 am (1100 and 1200 GMT), "has buried everything in its path. There is no shelter. The whole town is covered with rocks," he added.

The village has only a small population of about 50 people, most of them miners, and is located in a remote part of the Ayapata district, about 1,300 kilometers (808 miles) southeast of the capital Lima.

Extinction Looms Over One in Every Four Antelope Species

Some of the few remaining Addax (Photo by Philippe Chardonnet courtesy Fondation IGF)

GLAND, Switzerland, March 6, 2009 (ENS) - A quarter of all antelope species are threatened with extinction, according to a newly published report by antelope experts who work with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and its authoritative IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

The results, compiled by the Antelope Specialist Group of IUCN's Species Survival Commission, show that out of 91 species of antelope, 25 are threatened with extinction. The status of several species has become worse since the last complete assessment of all antelopes in 1996.

"Unsustainable harvesting, whether for food or traditional medicine, and human encroachment on their habitat are the main threats facing antelopes," says Dr. Philippe Chardonnet, co-chair of the IUCN Antelope Specialist Group. CONTINUE

Drought threatens Amazon, speeds global warming

Base of a 100-year-old tree in the jungle near Belem

PARIS (AFP) — Drought is killing off trees in Brazil's fragile Amazon rain forest and depleting the region's carbon reservoirs -- an ecological double-whammy with devastating implications, according to a study published Thursday.

The Amazon's lush vegetation in a typical year absorbs nearly two billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, one of the chief culprits causing climate change.

But a 30-year study published by the journal Science found that the world's largest tropical rain forest is surprisingly sensitive to drought, and that the resulting loss of vegetation will have a greater-than-anticipated effect in causing a sharp spike in greenhouse gases.

The Amazon tree canopy which absorbs massive amounts of greenhouse gases often succumbs to the effects of dryness, thereby accelerating global warming by not absorbing CO2, scientists said.

Drought also accelerates the depletion of the region's carbon sinks, natural reservoirs that accumulate and store the chemical compound for an indefinite period. CONTINUE

The lost world beneath the Antarctic ice

Scientists start explorations in the two-mile-thick ice sheet above Lake Ellsworth in AntarcticaBritish scientists are about to mount one of the boldest-ever missions, to search for life forms that have survived for possibly millions of years in a frozen "lost world" beneath an ancient ice sheet.

This week, a team of Antarctic scientists has been given the go-ahead to drill through a two-mile-thick sheet of ice that has sealed a sub-glacial lake from the rest of the biosphere for at least as long as Homo sapiens has walked the Earth.

They hope to find species that have survived below the ice sheet since it formed between 400,000 and two million years ago. Finding life in such an extreme environment would be one of the most important discoveries of the century, raising the prospect of searching for extra-terrestrial life on Europa, a moon of Jupiter where life is thought to exist beneath a frozen ocean. The scientists plan to use sophisticated ice-drilling technology developed in the UK to penetrate the ice cap and enter the liquid-water world of Lake Ellsworth in West Antarctica, one of about 150 sub-glacial lakes scientists have recently mapped with ice-penetrating radar. CONTINUE

Drought conditions spreading across Texas

As if the economy weren’t bad enough, it appears that Texas will have to deal with a growing drought this year.

The latest U.S. drought monitor came out Thursday, and it shows the debilitating dry conditions slowly spreading across the state.

Locally, Tarrant and Dallas counties remain in a moderate drought, but areas west of Fort Worth are classified as severe.

Texas will face more agricultural losses, a growing wildfire risk and possibly water restrictions this summer if the drought persists. And the exceptional drought that has gripped Austin, San Antonio and Corpus Christi appears to be spreading closer to North Texas.

"It’s migrating this way," said meteorologist Joe Harris of the National Weather Service. "We could move to the next stage next month if we don’t get significant rainfall."

But the prospects don’t look good. CONTINUE

Mars Volcano Could Harbor Life

AFP/NASA-HO/File – This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image shows Mars in 2005. The European Space Agency (ESA) on Friday …

Ancient water may lie hidden within the largest volcano on Mars, researchers now say, and they speculate that such a setup could also harbor life.

While there is no firm evidence that Mars does or ever has hosted life, one of the prerequisites would be water. The surface of the red planet is bone dry, but several studies have shown liquid water may once have flowed on Mars and could still exist in pockets below the surface.

The Martian volcano Olympus Mons is about three times the height of Mount Everest, with gentle slopes that sprawl across more than 150 miles of the planet surface. The widespread volcanic material suggests the presence of water-formed clay which can reduce friction — an effect seen on Earth at volcanoes in Hawaii.

"What we were analyzing was the structure of Olympus Mons, why it's shaped the way it is," said Patrick McGovern, a geophysicist at the NASA-affiliated Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston. "What we found has implications for life — but implications are what go at the end of a paper." CONTINUE

Dozens of dolphins wash up on Pakistani beach

KARACHI (Reuters) - Dozens of dolphins washed up on a Pakistani beach on Friday to the amazement of villagers who frolicked with them in the shallows, but wildlife officials warned that mishandling the mammals could endanger them.

The dolphins came ashore at Gadani beach, about 40 km (25 miles) west of the city of Karachi, on the Arabian Sea.

"They were most probably pushed toward the beach by a high tide," wildlife official Hussain Baksh Bhagat told Express News television.

"We'll try to send these innocent animals back to sea as soon as possible as the longer they stay at the shore the more their lives will be at risk," he said.

Excited villagers picked up the animals to pose for television cameras while men pulled some by the their tails through the surf.

Some boys tried riding dolphins in knee-deep water.

"This is dangerous for the dolphins. It could create stress and lead to heart failure," wildlife expert Ghulam Akbar told the Samaa television channel.

Hours after the animals first came ashore most had returned to sea but about six were still trapped, witnesses told television channels.

Salmon Shortage Squeezes California as Second Fishing Ban Looms

March 5 (Bloomberg) -- Duncan MacLean is worried about losing the work he has done for 35 years, as the salmon population declines so precipitously that fishing off the California coast may be banned for the second year in a row.

“It’s the only thing I’ve ever known since I delivered newspapers in high school,” said MacLean, 59, who lives in Half Moon Bay, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of San Francisco. “There will be a lot of people who won’t come back to fishing when the season opens up again.”

Fishermen, river guides, charter boat companies, wholesalers and processors will lose income or may even drop out of the industry if the May-to-October salmon season is canceled. The Pacific Fishery Management Council, which regulates marine fishing off the coasts of California, Oregon and Washington, is to decide in April after holding public hearings this month.

“This is grim news for the state of California,” Don Hansen, chairman of the council, said in a statement. “We won’t be able to talk about this without using the word ‘disaster.’”CONTINUE

Dancing black hole twins spotted

Astronomers believe they have seen the first pair of black holes orbiting each other at the centre of a distant galaxy. Black holes 'preceded galaxies'

Reseachers have seen the best evidence yet for a pair of black holes orbiting each other within the same galaxy.

While such "binary systems" have been postulated before, none has ever been conclusively spotted.

The new black hole pair is dancing significantly closer than the prior best binary system candidate.

The work, published in the journal Nature, is in line with the theory of growth of galaxies, each with a black hole at its centre. CONTINUE

Foreign birds invade Britain as native species flee north

Britain faces an invasion of exotic birds as climate change forces native species further north, scientists have warned.

Hoopoe: Those species expected to come across the channel in the next few decades include the hoopoe and bee eater

A report compiled by a team of scientists from across Europe found birds are already being forced to fly north because of global warming.

With temperatures set to rise even further, they warned that many well loved species in the UK, that are unable to find a new habitat are in danger of dying out completely. Birds under threat include the red grouse, lesser spotted woodpecker and meadow pipit.

At the same time new species from France and central Europe will migrate to the UK, putting native birds under even more strain as they compete for food sources.

Those species expected to come across the channel in the next few decades include the hoopoe and bee eater, colourful birds currently only found in Europe, Africa and parts of Asia. CONTINUE

Earth's Hotspots Most at Risk Of Getting Hit by an Asteroid

“The threat of the Earth being hit by an asteroid is increasingly being accepted as the single greatest natural disaster hazard faced by humanity,” according to Nick Bailey of the University of Southampton's School of Engineering Sciences team, who developed the identifying program.

The team used raw data from multiple impact simulations to rank each country based on the number of times and how severely they would be affected by each impact. The software, called NEOimpactor (from NASA's "NEO" or Near Earth Object program), has been specifically developed for measuring the impact of 'small' asteroids under one kilometer in diameter. CONTINUE

Asteroid passes close to Earth

(CNN) -- You had a close encounter with a 40-yard-wide asteroid this week, but the astronomer who first spotted the large rock said it's nothing to worry about.

An asteroid (inside circle) passed within 38,000 miles of Earth on Monday.

Asteroid 2009 DD45 on Monday passed within 38,000 miles of Earth, less than twice the height of the geostationary satellites we depend on for communications, according to Robert McNaught of the Australian National University.

McNaught, who watches for asteroids with his telescope 250 miles northwest of Sydney, Australia, discovered the approaching rock last week.

"It's not something to worry about, but something to be aware of," he said.

While a direct hit on Earth could be a devastating natural disaster, McNaught said keeping track of asteroids can make a hit "potentially preventable."

"If discovered in advance and with enough lead time, there is the possibility of pushing it off course, if you have decades of advance warning," McNaught said. "If you have only a few days, you can evacuate the area of impact, but there's not a great deal [else] you can do."CONTINUE

Landslide buries Peru village

People stand around houses almost completely covered by mud and stones, after a landslide swept a hamlet of Chanchamayo, some 350 km northeast of Lima, Peru, in 2007. At least eight people were killed Monday and 22 others were missing after a landslide buried a tiny remote Peruvian mining village, the manager of the local mining company said.

At least eight people were killed Monday and 22 others were missing after a landslide buried a tiny remote Peruvian mining village, the manager of the local mining company said.

"We have found eight bodies and are searching for 22 other people who are missing," Carlos Martin, manager and legal adviser of the Huanchumay mine, told RPP radio station.

The landslide, which took place between 6:00 and 7:00 am (1100 and 1200 GMT), "has buried everything in its path. There is no shelter. The whole town is covered with rocks," he added.

The village has only a small population of about 50 people, most of them miners, and is located in a remote part of the Ayapata district, about 1,300 kilometers (808 miles) southeast of the capital Lima.

Mars had 'recent' running water

The gullies may extend the history of running water on the surface of Mars

Mars appears to have had running water on its surface about one million years ago, according to new evidence.

Images from a Nasa spacecraft orbiting the Red Planet show fan-shaped gullies on the surface which seem to be about 1.25 million years old, the study says.

They believe the channels were sculpted by surface water from melting ice.

It may represent the most recent period when water flowed on the planet, a team from Brown University in Rhode Island, US, report in the journal Geology.

Gullies on the Red Planet are known to be young features, but scientists have found it difficult to pin down their precise ages. CONTINUE

Farmers worry as parts of Texas are driest in US

LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — Central Texas cattle raiser Gerry Shudde remembers Texas' drought of record in the 1950s when his family's ranch sometimes got a couple of 4-inch rainfalls a year.

But the drought ongoing now is far different.

"This is just cut off completely," the 74-year-old rancher said. "In a lot of ways, it's worse."

Across the nation's No. 2 agricultural state, drought conditions are evaporating stock tanks, keeping many crop farmers from planting, forcing cattle producers to cull their herds, and dropping water levels in state lakes. CONTINUE

Nearly 200 whales beached in Australia

Tasmanian wildlife officers and volunteers attempting to refloat a pilot whale after a mass beaching

SYDNEY (AFP) — Nearly 200 whales and several dolphins have beached themselves on an island off southern Australia and a race is on to save the dozens of survivors, officials said Monday.

About 50 of 194 pilot whales and seven dolphins stranded on King Island between the mainland and Tasmania were still alive, Tasmania's Parks and Wildlife Service spokesman Chris Arthur said.

Although around 140 whales had already died, Arthur told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation he hoped some could be saved.

"These are fairly robust animals, pilot whales. We've experienced that in the past," he said.

Local residents have been at the scene since the whales began stranding themselves late Sunday, and rescuers were headed to the island in the Bass Strait, Arthur said. CONTINUE