Life

Hong Kong pets face coronavirus quarantine after dog tests positive

  HONG KONG, China (AFP) — All pets of people in Hong Kong infected with the coronavirus will be quarantined, with one dog already in isolation, the city’s authorities said Friday. The move is the first reported case anywhere in the world of a government quarantining pets over the outbreak and was prompted by a positive test in the pet of an infected patient. The canine has been placed in quarantine for 14 days as […]

Refugee restaurant seeks to win Spanish hearts

by Diego URDANETA Agence France-Presse MADRID, Spain (AFP) — Hala and Alex learned to cook with their mothers, Yoli learnt while preparing meals for her large family. The trio, who were forced to flee Syria, Sudan and Venezuela respectively, are now the chefs at a unique Madrid restaurant that aims to change the lives of refugees and alter how people see them, at a time when the arrival of large numbers of migrants fleeing poverty […]

Emaciated lion Jupiter returning home to ‘mother’

CALI, Colombia (AFP) — Emaciated with a vacant gaze and without the strength to stand upright, 20-year-old lion Jupiter’s life is in danger. But authorities are acting to try to save him after he was discovered in a “critical state.” Leading attempts to restore Jupiter to full health is the woman who rescued him from the circus where he was born and brought him up as her “son” from the age of three months. Ana […]

Earth captures new ‘mini moon’

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Earth has acquired a second “mini-moon” about the size of a car, according to astronomers who spotted the object circling our planet. The mass — roughly 1.9-3.5 meters (6-11 feet) in diameter — was observed by researchers Kacper Wierzchos and Teddy Pruyne at the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona on the night of February 15. “BIG NEWS. Earth has a new temporarily captured object/Possible mini-moon called 2020 CD3,” likely […]

EBC Films’ Make it Reel – Mise en place

By: Alexandra Megia Eagle News QUEZON CITY, Philippines — Mise en place—A common practice in the culinary world meaning “putting in place” or “everything in its place.” A French term for having all your ingredients measured, cut, peeled, sliced, grated, etc. before you start cooking. And that’s how you make a movie!  Not really, but that’s the overall idea of making a movie. Careful planning and strategy. Making sure everything is in its place before […]

Pandemic: what does it mean and does it matter?

PARIS, France (AFP) — When does an epidemic become a pandemic? As the novel coronavirus continues its spread across the globe, what does the designation mean to world healthcare systems as they try to rein in the deadly disease? The World Health Organization has yet to declare the current outbreak, which originated in central China last month, a pandemic. It has indicated however that we should prepare ourselves for one. The WHO defines a pandemic […]

Katherine Johnson, black NASA mathematician, dies at 101

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Katherine Johnson, a ground-breaking black NASA mathematician whose life was portrayed in the movie “Hidden Figures,” died on Monday aged 101, the space agency said. Johnson’s calculations helped put the first man on the Moon in 1969, but she was little known until the Oscar-nominated 2016 movie that told the stories of three black women who worked at NASA. “She was an American hero and her pioneering legacy will never […]

Bangladesh’s biggest zoo calls time on elephant rides

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AFP) — Bangladesh’s biggest zoo has called time on elephant rides following a long-running campaign by activists. The ban was quietly introduced last month, Dhaka zoo curator Nurul Islam told AFP, adding it would never been lifted. “We agree that these rides were not good for the animals,” Islam said, acknowledging the efforts of animal rights groups. “Elephant rides are a kind of animal abuse and cruelty towards the animal.” The zoo in […]

NGOs take Norway to Supreme Court over Arctic oil

OSLO, Norway (AFP) — Two environmental groups said on Monday they were trying to take the Norwegian state to the Supreme Court for granting oil licenses in the Arctic. Greenpeace and Natur og Ungdom (Nature and Youth) say oil drilling licenses granted to companies in 2016 should be cancelled because they violate Norway’s constitution, which includes a right to a healthy environment. They say emissions from oil activities and fossil fuels jeopardize the objectives of […]

Micro-pollution ravaging China and South Asia: study

by Marlowe HOOD PARIS, France (AFP) — Nearly 90 percent of the 200 cities beset by the world’s highest levels of deadly micro-pollution are in China and India, with most of the rest in Pakistan and Indonesia, researchers reported Tuesday. Taking population into account, Bangladesh emerged as the country with the worst so-called PM2.5 pollution, followed by Pakistan, Mongolia, Afghanistan, and India, according to the 2019 World Air Quality Report, jointly released by IQAir Group […]

Trembling Mars gives up more seismic secrets

  PARIS, France (AFP) — Mars is a constantly tremoring “living” body, researchers said Monday as they unveiled measurements of seismic activity on the red planet showing similar tremble rates to Earth or the Moon. For 15 months NASA’s InSight robot craft scoured the surface of Earth’s neighbour, and measured hundreds of so-called “Marsquakes”. These included several tremors that contained the same frequency patterns as tremors caused by the movement of Earth’s own tectonic plates. […]

Tearful Michael Jordan commemorates ‘little brother’ Kobe Bryant

  by Jocelyne ZABLIT Agence France Presse LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — A tearful Michael Jordan on Monday remembered his “little brother” Kobe Bryant at a star-filled memorial in Los Angeles for the basketball great and his daughter Gianna, who died with seven others in a helicopter crash last month. “When Kobe Bryant died, a piece of me died, and as I look in this arena, across the globe, a piece of you died,” […]