Life

Camiguin could hit 1M tourists, bolstered by Skyjet’s game-changing direct flights to the “island born of fire”

By Caesar Vallejos OPEN FOR BUSINESS, Eagle News Service Foreign and local tourists can now easily “come again” to Camiguin with Skyjet Airlines’s first-ever direct flight to the island in the coast of Southern Philippines whose volcanic origins and eruptions got its brand as the “island born of fire.” From its inaugural flight last May 6, Skyjet flies to Camiguin daily (except Tuesdays and Wednesdays).  “Right now, we wanted to do a daily flight but […]

New space race to bring satellite internet to the world

by Ivan Couronne WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Anxiety has set in across the space industry ever since the world’s richest man, Jeff Bezos, revealed Project Kuiper: a plan to put 3,236 satellites in orbit to provide high-speed internet across the globe. Offering broadband internet coverage to digital deserts is also the goal of the company OneWeb, which is set to start building two satellites a day this summer in Florida, for a constellation of […]

DR Congo: Ebola claims over 1,000 lives, Guterres commits ‘whole’ UN system, to help ‘end the outbreak’

Now in its tenth month, the Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has claimed more than a thousand lives, prompting Secretary-General António Guterres to throw the support of “the whole United Nations system” into stemming the spread of the deadly virus. Mr. Guterres expressed concern over the number of new Ebola cases in the east of the DRC on Wednesday, reiterating UN support “for efforts to end the outbreak”. “With important […]

Scientists develop device to detect bacteria in minutes, not days

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) – The era of doctors prescribing patients powerful antibiotics while they wait for lab reports could soon be numbered, with a new device returning results within minutes instead of days. It was invented by a team at Penn State University and described in a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday. Co-developed by Pak Kin Wong, a professor of biomedical engineering and mechanical engineering, the […]

Alaska’s thaw threatens prehistoric sites once frozen in time

  by Jocelyne Zablit Agence France Presse QUINHAGAK, United States (AFP) — The first artifact — a wooden mask — was discovered in 2007 by a child who stumbled upon it while playing on the beach near his home in Quinhagak, a village in western Alaska that sits by the Bering Sea. Over the following months, hundreds of similar objects — baskets, finely carved harpoon shafts, lip plugs, wooden dolls, ivory tattoo needles — emerged […]

Scars of torture at US reform school for boys won’t go away

  by Leila Macor Agence France Presse FORT MYERS, United States (AFP) — Jerry Cooper says he endured torture and cruelty that were everyday things for decades at a reform school in Florida, turning him into something horrible. As authorities prepare to investigate a possible new set of unmarked graves on the school grounds after dozens were found a few years ago, apologies are finally coming in. But 60 years after he was abused, Cooper […]

Two die from measles in Switzerland as cases rise

GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — Switzerland has registered two deaths from measles this year, health authorities said Thursday, stressing the importance of vaccinating against the highly contagious disease. The health ministry warned that the number of measles cases was on the rise this year, with 155 people infected, including two who had died. A man in his thirties, who had never been vaccinated against the disease, died after being infected by a family member, it said. […]

Rangers find three-eyed snake in Australia’s Humpty Doo

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — A three-eyed snake found slithering down a road in the northern Australian town of Humpty Doo has sparked amusement in a country already accustomed to unusual wildlife. Rangers dubbed the unusual serpent “Monty Python” after finding it on a highway in late March. X-rays showed all three of its eyes were functioning and the extra socket likely developed naturally while the snake was an embryo, the Northern Territory Parks and Wildlife […]

Climate change forcing Alaskans to hunt for new ways to survive

  by Jocelyne ZABLIT Agence France Presse QUINHAGAK, United States (AFP) — As far back as he can remember, Willard Church Jr. has gone out ice fishing well into the month of April, chopping holes that were easily four feet deep into the Kanektok River near his home. But the waterway that runs along the village of Quinhagak, in southwest Alaska, barely freezes now, a testament to the warming temperatures wreaking havoc on the state’s […]

Mandela prison drawing sells for $112,575 in New York

NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — A drawing by late South African president Nelson Mandela of the door of his prison cell on Robben Island — where he was held for 18 years — sold on Thursday in New York for $112,575. “The Cell Door, Robben Island” — completed in 2002 by the Nobel peace laureate — exceeded the top end of the estimated range provided by Bonhams, which put its value at $60,000 to […]

Alaska’s indigenous people feel the heat of climate change

by Jocelyne ZABLIT NAPAKIAK, United States (AFP) — The cemetery has already been moved twice, the old school is underwater and the new one is facing the same fate as erosion constantly eats away at the land in Napakiak. The tiny village located in southwestern Alaska, along the meandering Kuskokwim River, is one of dozens of coastal indigenous communities across the state that are on the front lines of climate change, their very existence and […]

Like Uber, but for organs: first kidney delivered by drone

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — A kidney needed for transplantation has been delivered by a drone for the first time ever, the University of Maryland Medical Center said, a development that could herald faster and safer organ transport. The specially designed high-tech drone was fitted with equipment to monitor the kidney along its three-mile (five kilometers) journey to its recipient: a 44-year-old woman from Baltimore who had spent eight years on dialysis before the procedure. […]