Life

Breakthrough treatment helps paralysed patients walk

by Sara HUSSEIN Agence France Presse TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — A breakthrough treatment involving electrical stimulation of the spine has enabled paralyzed patients to walk again, apparently reactivating nerve connections and providing hope for people even years after accidents. A team including neurosurgeons and engineers used targeted electrical pulses to achieve the results, triggering individual muscles in a sequence, the way the brain would. The pulses are produced by an implant placed over the spine […]

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Handful of states hold fate of world’s vanishing wilderness

by Patrick GALEY Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — More than 70 percent of Earth’s last untouched wilderness lies in the territories of just five countries, scientists said Wednesday — mostly nations that alarm environmentalists with their lukewarm response to climate change. True wild spaces — land and sea areas mostly unaffected by mankind’s explosive expansion and insatiable appetite for food and natural resources — now cover just a quarter of the planet. They […]

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EU countries back single-use plastics ban

  BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP) — EU countries on Wednesday backed the outlawing of certain single-use plastics, bringing the bloc a step closer to an outright ban on the products which account for huge quantities of waste in the world’s oceans. The approval by the 28 member states follows an overwhelming vote in the European Parliament last week to ban single-use plastic items such as straws, cutlery, cotton buds and balloon sticks. Work will begin next […]

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Apple unveils new Macs, iPad Pro

  NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — Apple has unveiled a new version of its MacBook Air laptop, this time made of recycled aluminum, as well as a new Mac Mini and an iPad Pro, all pricier than their predecessors. Nearly 10 years after the launch of the first MacBook Air by the late Steve Jobs, his successor Tim Cook presented on Tuesday the latest version of this PC, just 1.56 cm thick, compared to […]

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Japan doctors warn heat could make 2020 Olympic marathon ‘deadly’

TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — A group of Japanese doctors on Wednesday urged Olympic organizers to start the Tokyo 2020 marathon as early as 5:30am, saying failure to do so could “lead to deaths” from heatstroke. The warning is the latest in a chorus of concern about how extreme heat could affect several sporting events at the Olympic games, particularly after Tokyo sweltered through a record heatwave this year. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Tokyo […]

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Entertaining twists as EBC Films’ “Hapi ang Buhay,The Musical” imparts lesson on “fake news”

by Emily Manuel Contributor Eagle News and Features NET 25’s “Hapi ang Buhay” takes to the big screen with “Hapi ang Buhay, the Musical,” the second movie release of Eagle Broadcasting Corporation’s film outfit (EBC Films). Originally developed as a sitcom, the musical features the original cast joined by veteran actors Victor Neri, Antonio Aquitania, and Mike Magat. The movie is written and directed by acclaimed director Carlo Jay Ortega Cuevas who has won international awards […]

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Typical tweet shorter since character length doubled

SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Twitter on Tuesday confirmed that a year after doubling the character limit for tweets, the average length of messages fired off in English actually got a smidge shorter. The news promised to allay concerns that raising the character limit from 140 to 280 last year would ruin Twitter’s succinct comment style and lead to rants, rambles and diatribes. “We made this change because we want every person around the […]

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Japan’s ‘usho’ keep alive the ancient art of cormorant fishing

by Anne BEADE Agence France Presse GIFU, Japan (AFP) — In the pitch black night, fires burn alongside a river in Japan’s Gifu as a handful of men prepare for a ritual that dates back over 1,300 years: fishing with cormorants. Dressed in traditional clothes, they look like they come from another time. They wield their cormorants, tied together with strings, like puppeteers. Their profession, known as “ukai,” was once common in waterside villages and […]

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Neil Armstrong’s huge souvenir collection to be auctioned

NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — Talk about a pack rat: thousands of things that Neil Armstrong saved over the course of a career that saw him become the first man to walk on the moon will be auctioned off this week. Nobody really knew the extent of the stuff Armstrong amassed during his 82 years on earth, not even the children of the man who made history with his feat on July 20, 1969. […]

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NASA’s planet-hunter telescope, Kepler, runs out of fuel

by Kerry SHERIDAN Agence France Presse TAMPA, United States (AFP) — The US space agency’s Kepler space telescope has run out of fuel and is being retired after nine and a half years, having helped discover more than 2,600 planets, some of which may hold life, officials said Tuesday. The unmanned space telescope, which launched in 2009, revealed that billions of hidden planets are in space and revolutionized humanity’s understanding of the universe, experts said. […]

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Crouching tigers, hidden cameras: Nepal counts its big cats

BARDIA, Nepal (AFP) — Thousands of camera traps help conservationists track Nepal’s wild tiger population, which has nearly doubled in recent years as the big cats claw back from the verge of extinction. On the front-line of the painstaking survey are trained locals in western Nepal’s Bardia National Park where tiger numbers have grown nearly five-fold.

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OPM legend Rico Puno passes away at 65

(Eagle News) — Filipino singer and OPM legend Rico Puno passed away Tuesday morning, Oct. 30, at the age of 65. Puno underwent open heart surgery in 2015, and underwent angioplasty in December last year. His sister-in-law, Anna Puno, expressed her grief in an Instagram post. “Numbed with grief, I would like to call on all entertainers in the OPM Industry as well as his worldwide fans to stop for a moment and say a […]

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