31 October 2016

2 billion children breathe toxic air worldwide, UNICEF says

In this photo taken Friday, Oct. 28, 2016, an Indian national flag flies as a thin layer of smog envelops the city skyline before Diwali festival in New Delhi, India. As north Indian cities enter the season of high air pollution, a new report is warning about the dangers to children.
As Indians awoke Monday to smoke-filled skies from a weekend of festival fireworks, New Delhi's worst season for air pollution began — with dire consequences.
A new report from UNICEF says about a third of the 2 billion children in the world who are breathing toxic air live in northern India and neighboring countries, risking serious health effects including damage to their lungs, brains and other organs. Of that global total, 300 million kids are exposed to pollution levels more than six times higher than standards set by the World Health Organization, including 220 million in South Asia.

23 October 2016

Junko Tabei, 1st woman to climb Everest, dies at 77

In this May 27, 2003, file photo, Junko Tabei, the first woman to summit Mount Everest in 1975, receives a gift from a Kathmandu city official during ceremonies in Kathmandu, Nepal. Tabei, who died Thursday, Oct. 20, 2016, at 77, devoted her adult life to scaling peaks, climbing the tallest mountains in more than 70 countries.
The first woman to climb Mount Everest didn't stop there.
Japanese mountaineer Junko Tabei, who died Thursday at 77, devoted her adult life to scaling peaks, climbing the tallest mountains in more than 70 countries.
Her philosophy was to live life to the fullest. "I want to climb even more mountains," she said in a 1991 interview with The Associated Press, 16 years after conquering Everest. "To think, 'It was great,' and then die."

22 October 2016

India launches phone app to monitor New Delhi's pollution

A heap of grass and garbage burns in a field on the outskirts of New Delhi, India, Saturday, Oct. 22, 2016. The Indian capital, laboring under the label of being the world's most polluted city, is trying something new to help clean up its air. A smartphone application that allows citizens to report the presence of construction dust or the burning of leaves and garbage in public parks to authorities was launched Friday.
India's capital, laboring under the label of being the world's most polluted city, is trying something new to help clean up its air.
A smartphone application that allows residents to report the presence of construction dust or the burning of leaves and garbage in New Delhi's public parks to authorities was launched Friday.

21 October 2016

Indian bank authorities say 3.2 million debit cards hacked

An Indian woman uses an ATM in New Delhi, India, Friday, Oct. 21, 2016. Indian banks are scrambling to contain the damage after more than 3.2 million debit cards were feared to have been hacked.
Indian banks scrambled Friday to contain the damage after finding that more than 3.2 million debit cards may have been hacked.
Several banks, including the government-run State Bank of India, advised customers to change their personal identification numbers. The banks have recalled thousands of debit cards and blocked others that they fear have been hacked.

19 October 2016

New Delhi zoo closed temporarily after birds die of bird flu

A sweeper cleans a road inside the closed premises of the National Zoological Park in New Delhi, India, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2016. The zoo has been closed temporarily after nine birds died from suspected bird flu last week, according to a zoo official.
New Delhi's zoo has been closed temporarily after nine birds died from suspected bird flu last week, a zoo official said Wednesday.
Autopsies conducted on the birds confirmed that at least two of them died from H5N1 avian influenza, said Riaz Ahmed Khan, the National Zoological Park's curator.
"We decided to close the zoo for a few days as a precautionary measure," Khan said, adding that the zoo would reopen next week.

7 October 2016

How a patient's 'crazy' request for a new womb made history

In this photo taken Monday, Sept. 19, 2016, professor Mats Brannstrom talks about the revolutionary womb transplant he led that links three generations of a Swedish family at Stockholm IVF fertility clinic in Stockholm, Sweden. Brannstrom has made medical history by becoming the first doctor to deliver babies, five so far, from women with donated wombs, in a stunning advance that could lead to new insights into reproductive medicine and beyond.
When the young Australian cervical cancer patient learned she had to lose her womb in order to survive, she proposed something audacious to the doctor who was treating her: She asked if she could have a womb transplant, so she could one day carry her own baby.
This was nearly two decades ago, when the Swedish doctor Mats Brannstrom was training to be a physician abroad.
"I thought she was a bit crazy," Brannstrom said.

5 October 2016

Weird science: 3 win Nobel for unusual states of matter

A overhead projector displays the photos of the winners of the Nobel Prize in physics, at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, in Stockholm, Sweden, Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2016. David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz have won the Nobel physics prize. Nobel jury praises physics winners for 'discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter'.
How is a doughnut like a coffee cup? The answer helped three British-born scientists win the Nobel prize in physics Tuesday.
Their work could help lead to more powerful computers and improved materials for electronics.
David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz, who are now affiliated with universities in the United States, were honored for work in the 1970s and '80s that shed light on strange states of matter.

3 October 2016

Indian police say gun battle has ended at Kashmir army camp

An Indian army soldier guards as Kashmiri villagers pass on horse cart outside the base camp which was attacked by suspected militants at Baramulla, northwest of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Monday, Oct. 3, 2016. A gun battle with a group of militants who attacked an Indian army camp in the Indian portion of Kashmir has ended early Monday morning, police said.
A gun battle with a group of militants who attacked an Indian army camp in the Indian portion of Kashmir that killed one Indian paramilitary soldier and wounded another has ended early Monday morning, police said.
A senior police official speaking on customary condition of anonymity said search operations were on at the base which was attacked late Sunday by an unspecified number of militants firing grenades and guns.