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by Jenny Vaughan and Asia bureaus © Agence France-Presse THANH HOA, Vietnam (AFP) — A Vietnamese mangrove draped with polythene, a whale killed after swallowing waste bags in Thai seas and clouds of underwater trash near Indonesian “paradise” islands — grim images of the plastic crisis that has gripped Asia. About eight million tonnes of plastic waste are dumped into the world’s oceans every year, the equivalent of one garbage truck of plastic being tipped into […]
BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — A whale has died in southern Thailand after swallowing more than 80 plastic bags, officials said, ending an attempted rescue that failed to nurse the mammal back to health. Thailand is one of the world’s largest consumers of plastic bags, which kill hundreds of marine creatures living near the country’s popular beaches each year. The small male pilot whale became the latest victim after it was found barely alive in a […]
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AFP) — The world’s largest known freshwater pearl, which once belonged to Catherine the Great, was sold Thursday in the Netherlands for 320,000 euros ($374,000), auction house Venduehuis said. Known as the Sleeping Lion pearl due to its distinctive shape, the pearl was likely formed in the first half of the 18th century in Chinese waters, possibly even the Pearl River. The auctioneers said the jewel weighs some 120 grams (around 4.2 […]
QUITO, Ecuador (AFP) — Six land iguanas, endemic to the Galapagos Islands, have been relocated within the Pacific archipelago due to food shortages and overpopulation on the islet where they lived, Ecuador’s Galapagos National Park said Tuesday. The reptiles were moved from the islet of Venice to Dragon Hill, on the neighboring island of Santa Cruz. “The shortage of rain, little food and the high number of land iguanas on the islet of Venice” forced […]
(AFP) — Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, under severe stress in a warmer, more acidic ocean, has returned from near-extinction five times in the past 30,000 years, researchers said Monday. And while this suggests the reef may be more resilient than once thought, it has likely never faced an onslaught quite as severe as today, they added. “I have grave concerns about the ability of the reef in its current form to survive the pace of […]
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AFP) — A four-month-old panda cub made her first public appearance Saturday at the Malaysian zoo where she was born, to the delight of visitors. The fluffy little cub was the second born to Liang Liang, who has been on loan to Malaysia since 2014, aong with a male panda, a rare success story for natural reproduction among giant pandas which are notoriously clumsy at mating on the rare occasions they are […]
https://youtu.be/axUOKaHzOLM by Hamza Mekouar Agence France Presse ZAGORA, Morocco (AFP) — They roam Morocco’s southern desert, braving the searing heat to scour the undulating sands for bounty fallen from the sky. These celestial treasure hunters are searching for meteorites to sell on a burgeoning international market. Equipped with a “very strong” magnet and magnifying glass, retired physical education teacher Mohamed Bouzgarine says that discoveries “can be more valuable than gold”. The price “depends on […]
by Kerry Sheridan Agence France Presse TAMPA, United States (AFP) — As carbon dioxide rises due to the burning of fossil fuels, rice will lose some of its protein and vitamin content, putting millions of people at risk of malnutrition, scientists warned on Wednesday. The change could be particularly dire in southeast Asia where rice is a major part of the daily diet, said the report in the journal Science Advances. “We are showing that […]
KARACHI, Pakistan (AFP) — Dozens of people are feared to have died in a heatwave gripping Pakistan’s largest city Karachi this week, a charity in the sprawling metropolis said Tuesday, as temperatures hit 42 degrees Celsius (108 degrees Fahrenheit). The non-profit Edhi Foundation said scores may have been killed by the sweltering weather, with double the usual number of bodies sent to the city’s morgues in recent days. “We have received 180 dead bodies in […]
by Marlowe Hood Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Animal and plant species are vanishing at an accelerating pace around the world — sometimes even before we know that they exist — but conservationists are pushing back against the juggernaut of mass extinction. From captive breeding to satellite tracking; restoring habitats to removing predators; shaming multinationals to nursing baby pandas and orangutans — in all these ways, scientists and others have given a […]
(Timelapse images from the Gemini telescope showing lightning and ash cloud at summit of the Kilauea volcano in Hawai) Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano erupted from its summit early Thursday, shooting a huge plume of ash miles into the sky and prompting authorities to urge area residents to take cover. The Hawaii Volcano Observatory said the explosion within Kilauea’s Halemaumau crater had produced a volcanic cloud that reached as high as 30,000 feet (9,000 meters) and […]
Armed with their brooms, trash bags, and other cleaning materials, young Iglesia Ni Cristo (Church Of Christ) members in Hamamatsu, Kawasaki, Okinawa, Shinagawa and Yokota, along with all the other young members of the INC in Japan, worked in groups as they picked up litter and cleaned up the streets, parks and other public areas all over Japan. The youth members, belonging to the BINHI organization (for INC members aged 12 to 17) in […]
