Life

US performs first kidney transplant from living donor with HIV

by Ivan Couronne WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The kidney of a 35-year-old HIV-positive woman has been transplanted into another patient with the virus that causes AIDS, US surgeons announced Thursday, in a major medical breakthrough. The surgeons at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore performed the operation on Monday, calling it the first in the world of its kind. “I’m feeling good,” said the donor, Nina Martinez, at a news conference on Thursday following the […]

New close-ups of the mini-moons in Saturn’s rings

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Nestled between Saturn’s rings are a collection of mini-moons that NASA’s Cassini spacecraft skimmed past in 2017. On Thursday, for the first time, astronomers and scientists are detailing their findings of the moons in the US journal Science. Pan, Daphnis, Atlas, Pandora and Epimetheus each measure between eight and 116 kilometers (five to 72 miles) in diameter. They are either round, shaped like flying saucers or resemble potatoes. They are […]

US to speed up astronaut return to Moon: target 2024

by Ivan Couronne WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Donald Trump’s administration announced Tuesday it was speeding up plans to send US astronauts back to the Moon, from 2028 to 2024, calling for a “spark of urgency” to prevail over delays that have plagued NASA’s lunar return plans. “It is the stated policy of this administration and the United States of America to return American astronauts to the Moon, within the next five years,” Vice President […]

US county declares state of emergency amid measles outbreak

NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — A New York county hit by a measles outbreak declared a state of emergency Tuesday and banned non-vaccinated minors from public places in a bid to prevent the once-eliminated disease from spreading. The measure, which defines a public place as anywhere “more than 10 persons are intended to congregate” — including public transport — was announced by officials in Rockland County, 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of New York […]

NASA scraps all-women space walk for lack of well-fitting suits

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The US space agency NASA scrapped Monday a planned historic spacewalk by two women astronauts, citing a lack of available spacesuits that would fit them at the International Space Station. Christina Koch will now perform tasks in space Friday with fellow American Nick Hague — instead of Anne McClain as originally planned. Had Koch and McClain done their spacewalk together, it would have been the first ever by two women […]

No quiet rules at Indonesia’s flyover library

by Harry PEARL SOUTH TANGERANG, Indonesia (AFP) — Singing and laughter briefly drown out the roar of cars under a Jakarta flyover, where an unlikely library for kids is thriving despite choking fumes — and opposition from menacing gangsters. There’s no quiet rule at this open-air reading park wedged between two lanes of traffic just outside Indonesia’s capital, a city of some 30 million that is notorious for having some of the world’s worst traffic […]

Many sharks closer to extinction than feared: Red List

by Marlowe HOOD Agence France Presse Human appetites are pushing makos and other iconic sharks to the brink of extinction, scientists warned in a new assessment of the apex predator’s conservation status. Seventeen of 58 species evaluated were classified as facing extinction, the Shark Specialist Group of the International Union for the Conservation (IUCN) said late Thursday in an update of the Red List of threatened animals and plants. “Our results are alarming,” said Nicholas […]

Nominasyon para sa “Mga bagong Rizal: Pag-asa ng Bayan” binuksan na para sa mga ulirang kabataan

Ni Mylene Mariano-Rivera Eagle News Service Eagle News – Inanunsyo ng Philippine Center for Gifted Education, Inc. (PCGE) na pwede nang magsumite ng nominasyon para sa  nationwide search ng  “Mga bagong Rizal: Pag-asa ng Bayan”. Layon nito na makapili ng mga kabataang naniniwala at nagtataguyod  sa mga prinsipyo ng ating Pambansang Bayani na si Dr. Jose Rizal, gaya ng pagmamahal sa Diyos at sa bansa, may integridad, tapang at pagiging mahusay sa kani-kanilang talento at […]

Facebook admits storing passwords in plain text

By Glenn Chapman Agence France-Presse (AFP) — Facebook on Thursday admitted that millions of passwords were stored in plain text on its internal servers, a security slip that left them readable by the social networking platform’s employees. “To be clear, these passwords were never visible to anyone outside of Facebook and we have found no evidence to date that anyone internally abused or improperly accessed them,” Pedro Canahuati, the company’s vice president of engineering, security, […]

Boulder-sized sunfish washes ashore in Australia

  SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — A boulder-sized fish of a kind known to “sink yachts” has washed up on an Australian beach. The 1.8 metre (six feet) specimen — believed to be a Mola Mola, or ocean sunfish — came ashore near the mouth of the Murray River in South Australia at the weekend. The enormous creature is distinct for both its size and peculiar shape featuring a flattened body and fins. The fish can […]

US woman sues Harvard over ‘slave ancestor’ pictures

  by Agence France Presse A US woman who says she is descended from slaves who were photographed in 1850 by a racist Harvard University professor on Wednesday sued the university over the “exploitation” of the images of her ancestors. Tamara Lanier filed suit in the northeastern state of Massachusetts over the photographs taken in South Carolina of a slave and his daughter, known only by their first names: Renty — the patriarch of her […]

Canned air and water-spraying drones: Smog remedies

by Catherine LAI HONG KONG, China (AFP) — As millions of people in Asia choke under polluted skies, authorities have turned to water-dispersing drones and outdoor air purifiers to improve air quality, while companies have tried to cash in by selling everything from canned air to lung-purifying teas. According to the World Health Organisation, 92 percent of the population in the Asia Pacific region are exposed to levels of air pollution that pose a significant […]