Month: April 2018

It’s a punchline that sends every 12-year-old boy into a fit of giggles. Now it has been proven to be true. Uranus stinks! Scientists using a huge telescope on Hawaii’s Mauna Kea volcano found the seventh planet from the sun is surrounded by clouds made up of hydrogen sulfide, the gas that smells like rotten eggs and bad flatulence. The study by scientists from the California Institute of Technology, University of Oxford and the University of Leicester was published in the journal Nature Astronomy. “If an unfortunate human were ever to descend through Uranus’ clouds they would be met with very unpleasant and odiferous conditions,” Patrick Irwin of the University of Oxford wrote. Not that they would live long enough to sniff it. “Suffocation and exposure in the negative 200 degrees Celsius atmosphere made of mostly hydrogen, helium and methane would take its toll long before the smell,” Irwin wrote. Despite previous observations by ground telescopes and the Voyager 2 spacecraft, scientists had failed to determine the composition of Uranus’ atmosphere. The new data was obtained by using a spectrometer on the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii. It should help scientists better understand the formation of Uranus and other outer planets. …

Study: Farming Legacy a Factor in Present-Day Behavior

A customer from Beijing and one from Hong Kong walk into Starbucks. A chair blocks the path between the counter and their seats. Who of the two moves the chair? It’s not a joke. It’s a psychology experiment, designed to test the long-lasting imprints of a culture’s agrarian past. A new study in the journal Science Advances says that over thousands of years, rice farmers in southern China have evolved a culture of interdependence not found in northern, wheat-growing parts of the country. The authors say those influences persist even in China’s modern, relatively wealthy cities, among people who have never farmed. And they show up in how people behave in their daily lives — even as they navigate their local coffee shop. Rice theory The study found people were much less likely to move the Starbucks chair in southern China, where rice has been the staple crop for thousands of years, than those in the wheat-farming north. According to what the researchers call the “rice theory of culture,” growing rice demands more cooperation than growing most other crops. Neighbors in rice-farming villages have to coordinate when they will flood and drain their paddies, for example. And since rice requires about twice as much labor as wheat, rice-growing villagers often share the workload. Over the centuries, people developed “folkways and habits of thoughts and behavior norms that, once they’re established, you’re not even thinking, ‘I’m doing this because I’m a rice farmer.’ If you’re thinking about it at all, you’re thinking about it as, …

ConocoPhillips Wins $2 Billion Arbitration Against Venezuela

ConocoPhillips says it won a $2 billion arbitration award against Venezuela’s state oil company over the seizure a decade ago of investments in two projects in the OPEC nation. The award represents the equivalent of more than 20 percent of the cash-strapped Venezuelan government’s foreign currency reserves. The Houston-based company said in a statement the ruling against PDVSA was made by an international tribunal constituted under the rules of the International Chamber of Commerce. It said the award is final and binding and that it intends to seek financial recovery of the award to the full extent of the law. ConocoPhillips is pursuing a separate legal against Venezuela’s government under the auspices of the World Bank’s investment dispute mechanism. …

World Bank Disputes US Audit of Afghan Reconstruction Program

The World Bank has disputed U.S. government findings that billions of dollars of donor funds flowing into Afghanistan are at risk due to lack of oversight and transparency. The project in question is called Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund, or ARTF, and is being administered by the World Bank. It is one of the largest sources of funding to Afghan government operations outside the security sector. The U.S. has paid about $3 billion of the total $10 billion in direct assistance to Kabul since 2002, making it the largest contributor. On Wednesday, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, released its audit of the project, saying that once the U.S. or any donor provides its contributions to the fund, neither the World Bank nor USAID can account for where and how the funds are being spent. SIGAR noted in its audit report that the World Bank is unable to accurately measure ARTF sector-level performance. “Without an accurate, reliable evaluation, the World Bank will be unable to determine the impact the roughly $10 billion in donor funding has had in improving Afghan development,” said the U.S. government watchdog. SIGAR is tasked with auditing U.S.-funded reconstruction programs and providing recommendations for preventing waste and corruption. In its quarterly reports submitted to the U.S. Congress, the agency has been critical of the mismanagement of reconstruction funds, and it disclosed massive corruption in certain areas, including Afghanistan’s security sector. While the World Bank swiftly questioned the report, it welcomed the watchdog’s recommendations …

WHO Joins Urgent Call to Stop Malaria’s Resurgence

The World Health Organization is joining a worldwide call to stop a resurgence of malaria that threatens much of the progress made over the past decade. To mark World Malaria Day, WHO is pushing for urgent action – and money – to get the global fight against this ancient scourge back on track. For many years, World Malaria Day has been a cause for celebration, but not this year. World Health Organization data show that starting in 2016 progress has been at a standstill and hopes of ending the global epidemic by 2030 are slipping away. Watch: Fears Grow Over Malaria Resurgence, London Summit Urges Global Action Director of WHO’s Global Malaria Program, Pedro Alonso, says some of the gains made in reducing the number of cases and deaths in countries across all regions of the world are being reversed. “As a consequence, we now have about 260 million cases of malaria every year, in excess of 440,000 deaths every year…13:52…History has told us very clearly that when we stop making progress, it is not that we just stand still, but we go backwards and then malaria comes back, and comes back with a vengeance,” Alonso said. About 90 percent of all malaria cases and deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa. Children under the age of five, pregnant women and patients with HIV-AIDS are most at risk. Alonso says global political commitment must be renewed and donors and affected countries must increase the financial resources needed to successfully tackle malaria. “And, …

НБУ ввів у обіг пам’ятну монету, присвячену Криму

04/25/2018 sellbiz

Національний банк України сьогодні ввів у обіг пам’ятну монету «Автономна Республіка Крим». Як повідомляє прес-служба НБУ, монета має номінал 5 гривень, тираж цієї біметалевої монети – 45 тисяч штук. Ціна НБУ цієї пам’ятної монети становить 44 гривні, придбати її можна у регіональних відділах Нацбанку та банків-дистриб’юторів «Ощадбанк» і «Укргазбанк». На лицьовому боці монети зображений державний герб України і композиція, що символізує Крим, на звороті – карта України. Днями Монетний двір України заявив, що за 20 років існування викарбував майже 10 мільярдів розмінних та обігових монет. Верховна Рада України офіційно оголосила датою початку тимчасової окупації Криму і Севастополя Росією 20 лютого 2014 року. Міжнародні організації визнали окупацію і анексію Криму незаконними і засудили дії Росії. Країни Заходу запровадили низку економічних санкцій. Росія заперечує окупацію півострова і називає це «відновленням історичної справедливості». …

Kenya Economy Seen Rebounding After Election Slowdown

Kenya’s economy is expected to rebound to 5.8 percent growth in 2018 after electoral uncertainty and drought cut last year’s expansion to the lowest level in more than five years, Finance Minister Henry Rotich said Wednesday. The economy will benefit from increased investment in key areas like manufacturing, farming, housing and health care, he said. President Uhuru Kenyatta won re-election in November in a second vote after the first in August was annulled by the Supreme Court citing irregularities. Around 100 people, mainly opposition supporters, were killed mainly by police during the prolonged election season. “Despite the slowdown in 2017 our outlook is bright,” Rotich said at the launch of the annual economic survey. “We expect growth to recover to 5.8 percent in 2018, and over the medium term the growth is projected to increase by more than 7 percent.” Growth slowed to 4.9 percent last year from a revised 5.9 percent in 2016, the statistics office said. Kenya’s diversified economy is better able to withstand shocks like the commodity price drop that started in 2014 and hit oil-producing African countries such as Nigeria and Angola. But its economy was hobbled by a severe drought in the first quarter of last year that was followed by poor rainfall. The services sector including tourism grew strongly last year and that helped to offset the slowdown in farming and manufacturing, said Zachary Mwangi, director general of the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics. Tourism is vital for hard currency and jobs and grew …

Fears Grow Over Malaria Resurgence, London Summit Urges Global Action

The theme of this year’s World Malaria Day, Wednesday April 25th, is Ready to Beat Malaria. Along with medical advances, beating the disease will take money. After sixteen years of steady decline, malaria cases are on the rise again globally, and experts warn that unless efforts to tackle the disease are stepped up, the gains could be lost. Henry Ridgwell reports from a malaria summit earlier this month in London, where delegates called for a boost in funding for global anti-malarial programs. …

US Pecan Growers Seek to Break Out of the Pie Shell

The humble pecan is being rebranded as more than just pie. Pecan growers and suppliers are hoping to sell U.S. consumers on the virtues of North America’s only native nut as a hedge against a potential trade war with China, the pecan’s largest export market. The pecan industry is also trying to crack the fast-growing snack-food industry. The retail value for packaged nuts, seeds and trail mix in the U.S. alone was $5.7 billion in 2012, and is forecast to rise to $7.5 billion by 2022, according to market researcher Euromonitor. The Fort Worth, Texas-based American Pecan Council, formed in the wake of a new federal marketing order that allows the industry to band together and assess fees for research and promotion, is a half-century in the making, said Jim Anthony, 80, the owner of a 14,000-acre pecan farm near Granbury, Texas. Anthony said that regional rivalries and turf wars across the 15-state pecan belt — stretching from the Carolinas to California — made such a union impossible until recently, when demand for pecans exploded in Asian markets. Until 2007, most U.S. pecans were consumed domestically, according to Daniel Zedan, president of Nature’s Finest Foods, a marketing group. By 2009, China was buying about a third of the U.S. crop. The pecan is the only tree nut indigenous to North America, growers say. Sixteenth-century Spanish explore Cabeza de Vaca wrote about tasting the nut during his encounters with Native American tribes in South Texas. …

Beijing Auto Show Highlights E-cars Designed for China

Volkswagen and Nissan have unveiled electric cars designed for China at a Beijing auto show that highlights the growing importance of Chinese buyers for a technology seen as a key part of the global industry’s future. General Motors displayed five all-electric models Wednesday including a concept Buick SUV it says can go 600 kilometers (375 miles) on one charge. Ford and other brands showed off some of the dozens of electric SUVs, sedans and other models they say are planned for China. Auto China 2018, the industry’s biggest sales event this year, is overshadowed by mounting trade tensions between Beijing and U.S. President Donald Trump, who has threatened to hike tariffs on Chinese goods including automobiles in a dispute over technology policy. The impact on automakers should be small, according to industry analysts, because exports amount to only a few thousand vehicles a year. Those include a GM SUV, the Envision, and Volvo Cars sedans made in China for export to the United States. China accounted for half of last year’s global electric car sales, boosted by subsidies and other prodding from communist leaders who want to make their country a center for the emerging technology. “The Chinese market is key for the international auto industry and it is key to our success,” VW CEO Herbert Diess said on Tuesday. Volkswagen unveiled the E20X, an SUV that is the first model for SOL, an electric brand launched by the German automaker with a Chinese partner. The E20X, promising a 300-kilometer …

US Visits to Cuba Plunge Following Trump Measures

A steep drop in U.S. travelers to Cuba after a tightening of travel restrictions by President Donald Trump helped drive a 7 percent slide in foreign visitors to the Caribbean island in the first three months of 2018, Cuban official data showed on Tuesday. The U.S. restrictions and warning on travel to the Communist-run island were to blame for the lower number of U.S. arrivals from the same period a year ago, the Cuban Tourism Ministry’s commercial director, Michel Bernal, told a news conference in Havana. Another issue affecting Cuba’s tourism sector is unjustified worries about the devastation wrought by Hurricane Irma last September, he said, given that the country had long since fixed its tourist installations. “The total of U.S. clients is only 56.6 percent of what it was in 2017,” Bernal said. The state-run Cuban News Agency published the percentage decline in overall foreign visits separately, citing tourism authorities. The number of Americans traveling to Cuba surged after former U.S. President Barack Obama reached a landmark detente with then-Cuban President Raul Castro in 2014 and eased travel restrictions while maintaining a ban on tourism. Increased U.S. arrivals to Havana in particular fostered the rapid growth of the country’s fledgling private sector, with many Cubans rushing to open bed-and-breakfasts and restaurants. Tourism became one of the few bright spots in an economy struggling with heavy state controls, a difficult market reform process, a decline in aid from ally Venezuela and lower global commodity prices. But Trump last year made …

US-China Trade Fight Reaches Top American Court in Antitrust Case

President Donald Trump’s trade fight with China moved inside the white marble walls of the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, where lawyers for both countries faced off over whether Chinese companies can be held liable for violating U.S. antitrust laws. The nine justices heard arguments in an appeal by two American companies of a lower court ruling that threw out claims of price fixing against two Chinese vitamin C manufacturers based on submissions by China’s government explaining that nation’s regulations. The arguments provided both countries an opportunity to air their differences over an aspect of their trade relationship. The Supreme Court took the unusual step on April 13 of granting China the ability to present arguments even though it is not an official party in the case. Typically, only the U.S. government is reserved that privilege. The world’s two economic superpowers are engaged in an escalating trade fight. The United States, accusing China of unfair trade practices and theft of intellectual property, has threatened to impose tariffs on up to $150 billion of Chinese industrial and other imports. China has threatened comparable retaliation against U.S. exports if Washington pushes ahead with the tariffs. None of the heated rhetoric over tariffs trickled into Tuesday’s arguments, which remained respectful. The lawyer representing China, Carter Phillips, urged the justices to defer to China’s explanation about Chinese regulations. A U.S. Justice Department lawyer said that such deference comes with limits. …

Egypt’s Rice Farmers See Rough Times Downstream of Nile Mega-dam

Rice farmers in Kafr Ziada village in the Nile River Delta have ignored planting restrictions aimed at conserving water for years, continuing to grow a medium-grain variety of the crop that is prized around the Arab world. A decision thousands of kilometers to the south is about to change that, however, in another example of how concern about water, one of the world’s most valuable commodities, is forcing change in farming, laws and even international diplomacy. Far upstream, close to one of the sources of the Nile, Ethiopia is preparing to fill the reservoir behind its new $4 billion Grand Renaissance Dam, possibly as soon as this year. How fast it does so could have devastating consequences for farmers who have depended on the Nile for millennia to irrigate strategic crops for Egypt’s 96 million people, expected to grow to 128 million by 2030. Safeguarding Egypt’s share of the Nile, on which the country relies for industry and drinking water as well as farming, is now at the top of President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi’s agenda as he begins a second term. At the same time, authorities are finally tackling widespread illegal growing of the water-intensive rice crop, showing a sense of urgency that even climate change and rapid population growth has failed to foster. The crackdown means Egypt will likely be a rice importer in 2019 after decades of being a major exporter, rice traders say. Cairo has decreed that 724,000 feddans (750,000 acres) of rice can be planted this …

EPA Proposes to Bar Use of Confidential Data in Rulemaking

The Environmental Protection Agency announced a new rule Tuesday that would stop it from relying on scientific research underpinned by confidential data in its making of regulations. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt billed the measure as a way to boost transparency for the benefit of the industries his agency regulates. But scientists and former EPA officials worry it will hamstring the agency’s ability to protect public health by putting key medical and industry data off limits. “The science that we use is going to be transparent, it’s going to be reproducible,” Pruitt told a gathering at the EPA. “It’s going to be able to be analyzed by those in the marketplace, and those that watch what we do can make informed decisions about whether we’ve drawn the proper conclusions or not,” said Pruitt, who has been pursuing President Donald Trump’s mission to ease the regulatory burden on business. The EPA has for decades relied on scientific research that is rooted in confidential medical and industry data as a basis for its air, water and chemicals rules. While it publishes enormous amounts of research and data to the public, the confidential material is held back. Business interests have argued the practice is tantamount to writing laws behind closed doors and unfairly prevents them from vetting the research underpinning the EPA’s often costly regulatory requirements. They argue that if the data cannot be published, the rules should not be adopted. But ex-EPA officials say the practice is vital. “Other government agencies also use studies …

Iceland’s Reykjavik Tops Index for Green City Getaways

Iceland’s small, snowy capital, Reykjavik, has been crowned the greenest city for travelers, with the most green space per head of 50 cities surveyed, a travel agency said Tuesday. Auckland in New Zealand came in second, followed by the Slovakian capital Bratislava and Sweden’s Gothenburg, with Sydney in Australia taking fifth place in the Green Cities Index published by TravelBird, a Dutch online holiday provider. “Many popular city destinations around the world have made significant strides towards both preserving and manufacturing green spaces,” Fiona Vanderbroeck, chief traveler officer at TravelBird, said in a statement. “We aim to inspire travelers to see city trips differently — inviting them to connect with nature whilst also enjoying the vibrancy, culture and liveliness they look for in a city.” The United Nations estimates that by 2050 more than two-thirds of the world will live in urban areas and has called for a radical rethink of urban planning. Green spaces cool down cities, encourage physical activity and can provide stress relief, increase social interaction and improve mental well-being, the World Health Organization says. The index analyzed mapping data from 50 popular city break destinations, evaluating the types and number of green spaces such as parks, golf courses, meadows, vineyards and farms. It found that coastal Reykjavik, home to about 120,000 people, has 410 square meters (4,413 square feet) of greenery per inhabitant, boosted by its large national parks. At the other end Tokyo was the least green city, followed by Turkey’s Istanbul, Athens in Greece, Lyon in France and Chile’s Santiago, all with less than 8 square meters of greenery per resident. Edinburgh ranked the …

Malaria on Rise in Crisis-hit Venezuela, WHO Says

Malaria is spreading rapidly in crisis-hit Venezuela, with more than an estimated 406,000 cases in 2017, up roughly 69 percent from a year before, the largest increase worldwide, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Tuesday. Venezuelan migrants fleeing the economic and social crisis are carrying the mosquito-borne disease into Brazil and other parts of Latin America, the U.N. agency said, urging authorities to provide free screening and treatment regardless of their legal status to avoid further spread. “In the Americas, it’s not just Venezuela. We’re actually reporting increases in a number of other countries. Venezuela, yes this is a significant concern, malaria is increasing and it’s increasing in a very worrying way,” Pedro Alonso, director of WHO’s global malaria program, told a news briefing. Venezuela is slipping into hyperinflation with shortages of food and medicines during a fifth year of recession that President Nicolas Maduro’s government blames on Western hostility and falling oil prices. Venezuelan officials reported 240,613 malaria cases in 2016, many in the gold-mining state of Bolivar bordering Guyana, with an estimated 280 deaths, according to the WHO. ‘Massive increase’ The 2017 estimate has leaped to 406,000 cases — five times higher than in 2013. “What we are now seeing is a massive increase, probably reaching close to half a million cases per year. These are the largest increases reported anywhere in the world,” Alonso said. A lack of resources and ineffective anti-malaria campaigns were to blame, he said. WHO and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) are working with Venezuelan authorities to address the situation, he added. “We are seeing, indeed because of population movement, cases among Venezuelan migrants …

На Харківщині запустили найпотужніший у країні асфальтобетонний завод – Укравтодор

У селищі Дергачі Харківської області ввели в експлуатацію найпотужніший в Україні асфальтобетонний завод, повідомляє сайт Державного агентства автомобільних доріг України. «Завод став виробничою базою для виконання робіт на об’єкті поточного середнього ремонту автомобільної дороги державного значення Р-46 Харків – Охтирка у Харківській області», – зазначає агентство. Крім того, за повідомленням відомства, дорожньо-будівельний матеріал, вироблений на новому заводі, буде спрямований і на влаштування асфальтобетонного покриття на трасах М-03 Київ-Харків-Довжанський та Т-2104 Харків-Вовчанськ. За словами керівника Укравтодора Славомира Новака, нова виробнича база дозволить здійснювати будівництво та ремонт доріг з використанням найсучасніших технологій, найкращих матеріалів, причому в умовах досить обмежених термінів реалізації проектів. 14 квітня прем’єр-міністр Володимир Гройсман заявив, що в найближчі п’ять років на ремонт і будівництво українських доріг виділять 300 мільярдів гривень. У держбюджеті на 2018 рік на ремонт доріг заклали 44 мільярди гривень (з яких 32,6 мільярда гривень – бюджет Державного дорожнього фонду). …

Вартість проїзду в наземному транспорті в Києві хочуть підняти до 8 гривень – ЗМІ

«Київпастранс» має намір підняти вартість проїзду в наземному комунальному транспорті до 8 гривень, повідомляють «Українські новини», посилаючись на фінансовий план комунального підприємства на 2018 рік. За даними інформаційного агентства, згадані нововведення планують упровадити з 15 липня після громадських обговорень проекту рішення, який буде розроблений КМДА. «У результаті «Київпастранс» прогнозує одержати 1 117,4 мільйонів гривень доходів від перевезення пасажирів за підсумками 2018 року, що на 59,1% більше, ніж у планах на 2017 рік, і на 53,7% більше від фактичних показників за 2017 рік», – йдеться в повідомленні. Наразі вартість проїзду в столичних автобусах, трамваях, тролейбусах, фунікулерах становить 4 гривні за поїздку, міських електричках – 5 гривень, а єдиний разовий квиток на перевезення пасажирів у міській електричці та трамваях на маршрутах № 4, 5 або в автобусах № 59, 60, 61 коштує 7 гривень. …

Вартість проїзду у наземному транспорті в Києві хочуть підняти до 8 гривень – ЗМІ

«Київпастранс» має намір підняти вартість проїзду у наземному комунальному транспорті до 8 гривень, повідомляють «Українські новини», посилаючись на фінансовий план комунального підприємства на 2018 рік. За даними інформаційного агентства, згадані нововведення планують упровадити з 15 липня після громадських обговорень проекту рішення, який буде розроблений КМДА. «У результаті «Київпастранс» прогнозує одержати 1 117,4 мільйонів гривень доходів від перевезення пасажирів за підсумками 2018 року, що на 59,1% більше, ніж у планах на 2017 рік, і на 53,7% більше від фактичних показників за 2017 рік», – йдеться у повідомленні. Наразі вартість проїзду у столичних автобусах, трамваях, тролейбусах, фунікулерах становить 4 гривні за поїздку, міських електричках – 5 гривень, а єдиний разовий квиток на перевезення пасажирів у міській електричці та трамваях на маршрутах № 4, 5 або в автобусах № 59, 60, 61 коштує 7 гривень. …

Одеський припортовий завод зупинив виробництво карбаміду – Щуріков

Одеський припортовий завод (ОПЗ) зупинив виробництво карбаміду на обох наявних на підприємстві агрегатах, повідомив перший заступник директора ОПЗ Микола Щуріков. «Причина зупинки – брак складських площ для зберігання виробленого карбаміду», – вказав Щуріков у Facebook. У коментарях до свого повідомлення керівник додав, що для зниження відпускної ціни на продукцію «потрібно знизити ціну на газ». Він додає, що «у випадку з ОПЗ це питання більше до уряду, який не створює умов для бізнесу, і газ у газовидобувній Україні на порядок дорожчий, ніж у більшості європейських країн, які газ не видобувають». «Завод давно працює виключно за давальницькими договорами. Ми не знаємо, за якою ціною бере газ давалець, але якщо взяти ціну газу у НАКу («Нафтогаз України» – ред.), то собівартість виробництва однієї тонни карбаміду буде далеко за 250 доларів, тоді як сьогодні реальна експортна ціна карбаміду в нашому регіоні в районі 225 доларів», – вказав Микола Щуріков. Одеський припортовий завод є одним із найбільших підприємств хімічної галузі як в Україні, так і в Європі. Кількість працівників перевищує 4 тисячі осіб. Він спеціалізується на виробництві та реалізації хімічної продукції – аміаку та карбаміду, – а також перевантажує на експорт продукцію інших підприємств України та Росії. …

Nano-Drops Bring Simple Eye Fix into View