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by Fred Ooko SAIYA, Kenya (AFP) — Lucy Akinyi’s three children were infected with malaria so often she would be at their local health clinic in western Kenya every other week getting them treated. When offered the chance to protect her children with the world’s first vaccine against the deadly parasitic disease, Akinyi jumped at the chance. More than 100,000 children in malaria-endemic western Kenya have received the new vaccine against the disease, which kills […]
by Daniel ARONSSOHN Agence France-Presse BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP) – The European Commission on Wednesday defied angry dissent from EU governments and protests from green campaigners to give a sustainable finance label to investments in both gas and nuclear power. Austria warned it will go to court to try to halt the measure, while Germany — which backed the inclusion of gas — called extending the labelling to nuclear “unacceptable”. Critics of nuclear energy point to […]
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AFP) – Extreme weather events such as heatwaves and floods have cost Europe almost 510 billion euros and around 142,000 lives over the past 40 years, according to a new report published Thursday. In its study, the European Environment Agency (EEA) called for continued adaptation measures at both individual and state level. A small number of extreme events, about three percent of the total, were alone responsible for about 60 percent of the […]
ATHENS, Greece (AFP) – A young whale that washed up near Athens last week was found dead on a nearby island Wednesday despite “superhuman” efforts to save the wounded animal, the Greek government said. The male Cuvier’s beaked whale was first found on a beach south of the Greek capital late last week. Experts quickly gave it hydration and antibiotics before returning it to the sea on Friday evening. The dolphin-like whale had a badly […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — A US intelligence agency said Wednesday that its newest spy satellite successfully launched into orbit atop a reusable SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The rocket took off at 12:27 pm local time (2027 GMT) from the Vandenberg Air Force base in California, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), which is in charge of the US Space Force, said in a statement. After releasing the satellite, dubbed NROL-87, into orbit, the Falcon 9 […]
THE HAUGE, Netherlands (AFP) – The Dutch port city of Rotterdam said Wednesday it would temporarily dismantle an historic bridge to allow a superyacht built for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to pass. Bezos’s gigantic, 430-million-euro ($485 million) yacht is too big for the iconic Koningshaven Bridge, which dates from 1878 and was rebuilt after being bombed by the Nazis in 1940 during World War II. The shipyard building the three-masted mammoth in Alblasserdam, near Rotterdam, has […]
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) – Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon set a new record for January just three weeks into the year, according to data released Wednesday, a worrying sign of the surging destruction of the world’s biggest rainforest. Nearly 360 square kilometers (140 square miles) of forest cover — an area more than six times the size of Manhattan — were destroyed in the Brazilian Amazon from January 1 to January 21, said […]
QUITO, Ecuador (AFP) – An oil spill caused by a ruptured pipeline in Ecuador’s Amazon region leaked almost 6,300 barrels into an environmental reserve, according to information provided Wednesday by the company that owns the conduit. The firm OCP said it had “collected and reinjected 5,300 barrels of crude into the system” since the accident on Friday when heavy rains caused a boulder to fall on the pipeline in a mountainous region. OCP said the […]
VIENNA, Austria (AFP) – Austria will challenge a European Commission decision to give a sustainable finance label to investments in nuclear power, the environment minister said Wednesday. The European Commission defied protests from green campaigners and dissent in its own ranks to give a sustainable finance label to investments in both gas and nuclear power on Wednesday. The EU argues that both have a role to play as cleaner power sources during the transition to […]
By Monika Todoc Always packaged safely in our nearly oversized luggage was the family’s yearly sense of fleeting closure alongside two weeks’ worth of clothes and toiletries. Every December, we were to haul the gifts all the way to Bicol in the Philippines, where my lolo and lola lived. There, we would often share the celebration of welcoming the New Year. December meant the immediacy of our reunion, and of our parting. “Punta kayo ulit […]
by Peter Martell Agence France-Presse VARISEIA, Cyprus (AFP) – In a long-abandoned village in the UN buffer zone that divides Cyprus, an endangered curly-horned wild sheep offers hope not only for wildlife but that bitter ethnic divisions might slowly be healed. The mouflon, a majestic breed endemic to the Mediterranean island, is one of many species flourishing in the no-man’s-land created when inter-communal strife sliced Cyprus in two in the 1960s. “Without human influence, the […]
by Alex PIGMAN Agence France-Presse BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP) – The EU will face the fury of opponents to nuclear and gas energy on Wednesday when it proposes new criteria for a “green label” for investment projects intended to help fight climate change. The fight over the European Union’s classification of power sources is the latest dust-up in discussions between the 27 member states on how to achieve a net zero-carbon economy by 2050. Brussels had […]
