Life

NASA set to journey to a metal-rich asteroid

By Chandan Khanna with Issam Ahmed in Washington KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, United States, Oct 12, 2023 (AFP) – It’s a world like no other: a metal-rich asteroid that could be the remnants of a small planet, or perhaps an entirely new type of celestial body unknown to science. A NASA probe is set to blast off Friday bound for Psyche, an object 2.2 billion miles (3.5 billion kilometers) away that could offer clues about the […]

Over 40% of Antarctica’s ice shelves lost mass in 25 years: study

PARIS, Oct 12, 2023 (AFP) – More than 40 percent of Antarctica’s ice shelves lost volume in 25 years, increasing the risk of sea levels rising and with human-induced warming the likely cause, scientists said on Thursday. Ice shelves are freshwater extensions of the ice sheets that cover much of Antarctica, floating on the seas that surround the vast and ecologically fragile continent. They act as giant “plugs” stabilising massive glaciers, slowing down the flow […]

NASA asteroid sample contains life-critical water and carbon

By Moises Avila with Issam Ahmed in Washington HOUSTON, Oct 11, 2023 (AFP) – A sample collected from the asteroid Bennu contains abundant water and carbon, NASA revealed on Wednesday, offering more evidence for the theory that life on Earth was seeded from outer space. The discovery follows a seven-year-round-trip to the distant rock as part of the OSIRIS-REx mission, which dropped off its precious payload in the Utah desert last month for painstaking scientific […]

The village at the end of the world

By Olivier MORIN ITTOQQORTOORMIIT, Denmark, Oct 11, 2023 (AFP) – The last Inuit hunters of Ittoqqortoormiit are a resilient bunch. Surviving among the icebergs of Greenland’s Scoresby Sound, one of the toughest and most remote places on the planet, has never been easy. But their unique way of life is now in grave danger from galloping climate change. The ice cut them off from the rest of the world for 11 months of the year, […]

NASA to unveil first images of historic asteroid sample

By Moises Avila with Issam Ahmed in Washington HOUSTON, Oct 11, 2023 (AFP) – NASA is set to reveal on Wednesday the first images of the largest asteroid sample ever collected in space, something scientists hope will yield clues about the earliest days of our solar system and perhaps the origins of life itself. The OSIRIS-REx mission collected rock and dust from the asteroid Bennu in 2020, and a capsule containing the precious cargo successfully […]

Russian ISS segment springs third leak in under a year

The Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS) sprung its third coolant leak in under a year Monday, raising new questions about the reliability of the country’s space program even as officials said crew members were not in danger. Flakes of frozen coolant spraying into space were seen in an official live feed of the orbital lab provided by NASA around 1:30 pm Eastern Time (1730 GMT), and confirmed in radio chatter between US […]

UNESCO mission in Libya to inspect damaged heritage sites

TRIPOLI, Oct 9, 2023 (AFP) – Experts from the United Nations cultural agency on Monday arrived in Libya to inspect ancient sites hit by last month’s flooding that devastated parts of the country’s east. Extreme rainfall from hurricane-strength Storm Daniel hit eastern Libya on September 10, flooding the city of Derna and other neighbouring towns and regions. UNESCO experts are expected to visit Cyrene, a World Heritage Site that is threatened with collapse after the […]

Philippines health insurer hacked: What we know

By Pam Castro, with Qasim Nauman in Seoul MANILA, Oct 9, 2023 (AFP) – Hackers have stolen the personal data of potentially millions of people from the Philippines’s national health insurer, which has urged members to change their passwords after the “staggering” cyberattack. The hackers have started releasing files including confidential memos from the stolen data to pressure the government into paying a $300,000 ransom. Here is what we know so far about the attack, […]

Virgin Galactic carries first Pakistani into space

WASHINGTON, Oct 6, 2023 (AFP) – Adventurer Namira Salim became the first Pakistani to travel into space on Friday, riding aboard Virgin Galactic’s fifth successful flight in five months, the US company announced. Salim, who previously traveled to both poles and has also parachuted over Mount Everest, was among the first customers to buy a ticket with billionaire Richard Branson’s space company after it was founded almost two decades ago. “I love my title ‘first […]

Japan climate group urges ban on power company’s ‘CO-2 free’ ads

TOKYO, Oct 6, 2023 (AFP) – A Japanese climate group has filed a petition to stop advertisements by the nation’s biggest power company using the phrases “zero-emissions thermal power” and “CO2-free fire.” Jera, Japan’s largest coal-fired power generation company, plans to use ammonia alongside fossil fuels to generate power at its existing plants and reduce its carbon emissions. But NGO Kiko Network has said the company’s ad campaign fails to mention that the production of […]

Social media giants removed ‘anti-state’ posts in Vietnam: state media

  HANOI, Oct 6, 2023 (AFP) – Social media giants YouTube, TikTok and Facebook removed nearly 800 “anti-state” or “false” posts in Vietnam over the course of a month at the request of the communist government, state media said Friday. Around 380 YouTube videos, 364 Facebook posts and 33 TikTok links were taken down or blocked between mid-August and mid-September, state-controlled Thanh Nien newspaper said in a report, quoting the Ministry of Information and Communications […]

Sugar prices hit 13-year high due to El Nino fallout: FAO

Global sugar prices soared to their highest level in almost 13 years in September as the El Nino weather phenomenon hit production in India and Thailand, the Food and Agriculture Organization said Friday. While world food prices steadied as a whole last month, the FAO’s Sugar Price Index jumped by 9.8 percent compared to August, the highest point since November 2010, the UN agency said. El Nino, a climate pattern that occurs on average every […]