Life

Pangolin

Shy pangolins need world spotlight to survive

Johannesburg, South Africa (AFP) by Susan NJANJI Reclusive, gentle and quick to roll up into a ball, pangolins keep a low profile. But they are also the world’s most heavily trafficked mammal, and experts at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) conference this week are ringing alarm bells over their survival. Demand for pangolin meat and body parts has fuelled a bloodbath, and driven the scale-covered, ant-eating mammal towards extinction. More than […]

NASA to reveal ‘surprising’ activity on Jupiter’s moon

Miami, United States (AFP) by Kerry SHERIDAN There’s something going on beneath the surface of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa. But what? NASA teased a “surprising” announcement for Monday, based on Hubble Space Telescope images of the celestial body, which many experts believe could contain a subsurface ocean, even possibly some form of life. The US space agency has already proclaimed that Europa has “strong evidence for an ocean of liquid water beneath its crust and […]

Firefighting: Samsung recall threatens reputation, bottom line

Seoul, South Korea (AFP) by Jung Ha-Won Exploding batteries and an embarrassing recall of a flagship gadget during a controversial, closely-watched leadership transition — it’s been a bad year for Samsung, and analysts warn the trouble isn’t over yet. With ever-fiercer competition in the saturated smartphone market, South Korea’s biggest firm is desperate to avoid a full-blown disaster that could cost billions, hammer its reputation and taint its new leadership. Just weeks after the early […]

Russia? China? Who hacked Yahoo, and why?

PARIS, France (AFP) – by Guy JACKSON Laurence BENHAMOU Yahoo’s claim that it is the victim of a gigantic state-sponsored hack raises the question of whether it is the latest target for hackers with the backing of Russia, China or even North Korea, experts say. The US internet giant was under pressure Friday to explain how it sustained such a massive breach in 2014, which possibly affected 500 million accounts. Yahoo said the stolen information […]

Chinese outrage over ‘ugly’ restoration of Great Wall

BEIJING, China (AFP) — Chinese social media users were in an uproar Friday over restoration of a 700-year-old section of the Great Wall that has been covered in concrete, turning it into a smooth, flat-topped path. Known as one of the most beautiful portions of the “wild”, unrestored wall, the eight-kilometer (five-mile) Xiaohekou stretch in northeast Liaoning province was built in 1381 during the Ming Dynasty. Photos posted online showed that its uneven, crumbling steps and […]

Gucci stages a kaleidoscopic fairytale at Milan fashion week

MILANY, Italy (Reuters) — Italy’s Gucci staged a kaleidoscopic fairytale on Monday (September 21) in one of the first catwalks showcasing women’s spring and summer 2017 collections in Milan’s fashion week. In the magic lanterns collection, layered and ruffled gowns, gold decorations and outfits echoing a hippy style took centre stage. Dragons, jelly fish, tigers, herons and parrots decorated coats and dresses and two zebras stood on a big orange fur coat. To the beat […]

Greenland ice melting faster than thought

MIAMI, United States (AFP) — Greenland’s highly unstable ice sheet is melting more than seven percent faster than previously thought, scientists said this week after discovering a hotspot beneath the Earth’s crust that was distorting their calculations. The study in the journal Science Advances raises concern about the increasing impact of melting ice on sea level rise, since Greenland is the second largest ice sheet in the world after the one in Antarctica. From 2003-2013 […]

Boracay’s Touch of a Millennial Dutch

  By Caesar Vallejos Millennials change how the world travels. With their constant connection and love for technology, these digital natives have shaped new desires and expectations that redefine how the hospitality industry creates unique, shareable and memorable experiences that impact even on the mainstream travellers. In Boracay, the freshest change has come. Not necessarily the influx of younger visitors in the Philippine’s top tourist draw, but the new rule of a millennial in one […]

Coral fish stress out if separated from ‘shoal-mates’

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Coral fish become stressed and lose weight if they are separated from each other, hampering their chances of survival, an Australian study revealed Thursday. Scientists from James Cook University in Queensland state monitored blue-green damselfish from the Great Barrier Reef, isolating some, while allowing others to remain in their shoals to better understand why they prefer to socialise. Lauren Nadler, lead author of the study published in the Journal of Experimental […]

Chan Zuckerberg Initiative pledges $3 billion to fight disease

By Deborah M. Todd SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan on Wednesday pledged more than $3 billion toward a plan to “cure, prevent or manage all disease within our children’s lifetime.” Speaking through tears at a San Francisco event to announce the initiative, Chan said she hoped to spare parents the pain she had seen while delivering difficult news as a pediatrician. “In those moments and in […]

China aquarium refuses to deliver sad bear Pizza to UK

BEIJING, China (AFP) — A Chinese aquarium holding a forlorn-looking polar bear named Pizza said Tuesday it has “no need” for foreign interference, after activists offered to move the animal to a British zoo. Animals Asia, a Hong Kong-based organisation, created a petition calling for the closure of the Grandview aquarium in the Chinese city of Guangzhou that attracted half a million signatures. Photos of Pizza shared widely on social media show the bear lying listlessly […]