Life

Taliban ban university education for Afghan girls

by Jay Deshmukh and Qubad Wali Agence France-Presse KABUL, Afghanistan (AFP) — Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers on Tuesday banned university education for women nationwide, as the hardline Islamists continue to crush their right to education and freedom. Despite promising a softer rule when they seized power last year, the Taliban have ratcheted up restrictions on all aspects of women’s lives, ignoring international outrage. “You all are informed to immediately implement the mentioned order of suspending education […]

Continue Reading →

UK ambulance workers ready to join widening strikes

by Helen ROWE / Joe JACKSON Agence France-Presse LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — UK ambulance workers readied to walk out on Wednesday, a day after nurses staged their second stoppage, in a widening dispute with the government which is refusing to cede to above-inflation demands on pay. The series of walkouts has intensified, with industrial action by railway workers and passport control officers threatening to ruin festive holiday getaways. On Wednesday, ambulance staff including paramedics […]

Continue Reading →

Russian space chief praises US after ISS coolant leak

  Moscow, Russia (AFP) The head of Russian space agency Roscosmos on Tuesday praised Russia-US cooperation at the International Space Station following a major coolant leak from a Soyuz crew capsule. “Say hello to the entire American team. They proved themselves to be very worthy in this situation and lent us a helping hand,” Borisov said, speaking to the Russian crew on board the ISS. “But I hope we will manage on our own” in […]

Continue Reading →

East DR Congo rebel crisis threatens endangered mountain gorillas

  Goma, DR Congo (AFP) M23 rebel activity in volatile eastern DR Congo is threatening mountain gorillas in Virunga National Park and leaving the endangered species vulnerable to poachers, a spokesman said on Tuesday. About a third of the global population of mountain gorillas lives in the park, a renowned wildlife reserve spanning 7,800 square kilometres (3,000 square miles) on the border with neighbouring Uganda and Rwanda. But M23 rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of […]

Continue Reading →

Twitter users vote to oust Elon Musk as CEO

  SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Twitter users voted on Monday to oust owner Elon Musk as CEO in a highly unscientific poll he organized and promised to honor, just weeks after he took charge of the social media giant. A total of 57.5 percent of more than 17 million accounts voted for him to step down. Musk, who is also the boss of car maker Tesla and rocket firm SpaceX, has not yet […]

Continue Reading →

Global ‘peace pact’ signed to protect nature

by Issam Ahmed and Roland Lloyd Parry  Agence France-Presse MONTREAL, Canada (AFP) — Countries reached a historic deal on Monday to reverse decades of environmental destruction threatening the world’s species and ecosystems, in what the UN chief hailed as “a peace pact with nature.” After the marathon COP 15 biodiversity summit in Montreal ran into the small hours, chair Chinese Environment Minister Huang Runqiu, declared the deal adopted and banged his gavel, sparking loud applause. […]

Continue Reading →

Temperature rising on Soyuz, crew not in danger

  Moscow, Russia (AFP) The temperature on the Soyuz capsule docked at the International Space Station has risen but the crew are not in danger, the Russian space agency said Friday as it assesses a leak. Roscosmos said a number of tests had been conducted following the discovery of a coolant leak on the Soyuz MS-22, and the temperature in the capsule had increased to 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit). On Wednesday, the leak […]

Continue Reading →

Tiny meteorite may have caused leak from Soyuz capsule

by Lucie Aubourg and Chris Lefkow in Washington with Ola Cichowlas in Moscow Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Russian and NASA engineers were assessing a coolant leak on Thursday from a Soyuz crew capsule docked with the International Space Station (ISS) that may have been caused by a micrometeorite strike. Dramatic NASA TV images showed white particles resembling snowflakes streaming out of the rear of the vessel for hours. The coolant leak forced […]

Continue Reading →

Claudine Gay named first Black president of Harvard

NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — Harvard University named Claudine Gay, a dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science, as its new president on Thursday, the first African American to hold the post at the prestigious university. Gay, 52, is just the second woman to be elected to head the school in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard said that Gay, the daughter of Haitian immigrants, will take over as the university’s 30th president on July 1, […]

Continue Reading →

WHO eyes end to Covid emergency in 2023

GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) – The World Health Organization said Wednesday it hoped that Covid-19 would no longer be a public health emergency in 2023, as it urged China to share information that could pinpoint how the pandemic started. As the third anniversary of the original outbreak rolls around, the WHO said the virus was here to stay but would need managing alongside other respiratory illnesses. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the weekly Covid death toll […]

Continue Reading →

Release set for animator Miyazaki’s first film in 10 years

Tokyo, Japan (AFP) — Oscar-winning Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki’s first feature film in a decade will be released in July next year, its distribution company has said. The 81-year-old Miyazaki, who co-founded celebrated anime house Studio Ghibli, came out of retirement to make the movie, titled “How Do You Live?” It has been in production for years with details kept tightly under wraps, and will now be released in Japan on July 14, according to […]

Continue Reading →

Rich nations oppose new biodiversity fund

by Benjamin LEGENDRE Agence France-Presse MONTREAL, Canada (AFP) — Creating a new global fund for biodiversity — a core demand of developing countries at UN talks in Montreal — “would take years” and be less effective than reforming existing financial mechanisms, Canada’s environment minister said Tuesday. Ottawa’s position reflects the consensus among developed nations on the thorny issue, which has emerged as a key sticking point in negotiations to hammer out a new global pact […]

Continue Reading →
1 … 101 102 103 104 105 … 729