PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AFP) — An elephant has been found dead with its tusks and tail sliced off in a wildlife sanctuary in Cambodia, where wild elephant numbers have dwindled to just a few hundred due to poaching and deforestation. The Southeast Asian nation has emerged in recent years as a key transit hub for the multi-billion dollar illicit wildlife trade, with demand for products made from tusks, pangolin scales and rhino horns high in […]
Life
Touchdown: Japan probe Hayabusa2 lands on distant asteroid
by Kyoko HASEGAWA Agence France-Presse TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — A Japanese probe sent to collect samples from an asteroid 300 million kilometers away for clues about the origin of life and the solar system landed successfully on Friday, scientists said. Hayabusa2 touched down briefly on the Ryugu asteroid, fired a bullet into the surface to puff up dust for collection and blasted back to its holding position, said officials from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency […]
#EBC Photography: Appreciating nature’s beauty
(Eagle News) — Close-up shots of different plants and flowers. (Photo by Eagle News Service M.R. Faith Bonalos)
Israel aims for the Moon with its first lunar mission
TEL AVIV, Israel (AFP) — Israel is to launch its first moon mission next night from Cape Canaveral. Videographic on the mission.
Moviegoers react to French film on priest’s abuse of boy scouts
French director François Ozon’s “By the Grace of God,” about the real-life story of a priest accused of sexually abusing boy scouts, hits Paris cinemas, a day after its controversial release was approved by the courts. Moviegoers who saw the film reacted to the controversial movie that touches on a subject that has stirred wounds of sex abuse victims of the Catholic clergy, and also created awareness about the issue. Marcel Benbassat, one of those […]
FAO warns food supply threatened by declining biodiversity
ROME, Italy (AFP) — The UN food agency on Friday warned about the threat to the future of the world’s food production from a lack of biodiversity in the environment. In a report, the first of its kind by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), it said there was “mounting evidence that the biodiversity that underpins our food systems, at all levels, is declining around the world.” That is putting food production and the environment […]
Israeli spacecraft aims to make history by landing on Moon
by Ivan Couronne Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — A rocket will take off from Cape Canaveral in Florida on Thursday night carrying Israel’s Beresheet spacecraft, which aims to make history twice: as the first private-sector landing on the Moon, and the first from the Jewish state. The 585-kilogram (1,290-pound) Beresheet, which means “Genesis” in Hebrew, is to lift off at 8:45 pm (0145 GMT Friday) atop a Falcon 9 rocket from the […]
‘Flying bulldog’: world’s largest bee refound
PARIS, France (AFP) — The world’s largest bee — a giant insect roughly the size of a human thumb — has been rediscovered in a remote part of Indonesia in its first sighting in nearly 40 years, researchers said Thursday. Despite its conspicuous size, no one had observed Wallace’s giant bee — discovered in the 19th century by British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace and nicknamed the “flying bulldog” — in the wild since 1981, the […]
Japan probe Hayabusa2 set for asteroid landing
by Kyoko HASEGAWA Agence France Presse TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — A Japanese probe is expected to land on a distant asteroid Friday, aiming to blast a “bullet” into the surface to collect clues about the origins of Earth and the solar system. The Hayabusa2 probe is scheduled to touch down at 8:25 am local time (2325 GMT Thursday) on the Ryugu asteroid, some 300 million kilometers from the Earth, according to officials at the Japan […]
Giant tortoise thought to be extinct discovered in Galapagos
SANTA CRUZ, Ecuador (AFP) — A tortoise thought to be a Chelonoidis phantasticus, a species believed to have gone extinct about a century ago, has been discovered during an expedition to Fernandina Island in Ecuador’s Galapagos archipelago.
Vanuatu moves to ban disposable diapers to significantly reduce plastic waste
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AFP) — The Pacific nation of Vanuatu has announced plans to ban disposable diapers in a move it says will significantly reduce pollution. Foreign Minister Ralph Regenvanu announced the ban at a conference in Port Vila this week, saying plastic cutlery, polystyrene cups, plastic drinks stirrers and types of food packaging would also be outlawed. He said research showed disposable diapers — or nappies as they are known outside North America — […]
Ahoy! Reed raft to set sail across the Pacific
ARICA, Chile (AFP) — A raft entirely made of reeds, inspired by ancient Andean indigenous techniques, is set afloat in the Pacific in northern Chile after more than three years of construction. The “Viracocha III” will attempt to sail 10,000 nautical miles to Sydney. https://youtu.be/akZRtSdbxpY