Month: November 2022

Delegates at a global summit on trade in endangered species were scheduled to decide Thursday whether to approve a proposal to protect sharks, a move that could drastically reduce the lucrative and often cruel shark fin trade. The proposal would place dozens of species of…

Canadian-American eco-warrior Paul Watson, ousted from the Sea Shepherd conservationist organization he founded, says he is back in business with a new ship and crew and is ready to resume tormenting the world’s whalers and others he sees as despoilers of the world’s oceans.  “After…

Abbas Hashem fixed his worried gaze on the horizon — the day was almost gone and still, there was no sign of the last of his water buffaloes. He knows that when his animals don't come back from roaming the marshes of this part of…

Every few minutes, 14-month-old Awa coughs, the phlegm rising from deep within her chest. Her mother, Meta Ba, says Awa's been coughing that way for as long as she can remember. Ba, who suffers from chronic migraines, works as an artisanal gold miner in Senegal's…

China's daily COVID cases have climbed to the highest since the pandemic began, official data showed Thursday, despite the government persisting with a zero-tolerance approach involving grueling lockdowns and travel restrictions. The numbers are relatively small when compared with China's vast population of 1.4 billion…

More than 40 million children missed getting vaccinated against measles last year, prompting a significant setback in global efforts to eradicate the highly contagious disease worldwide, the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a joint report Wednesday.…

A 5.6 magnitude earthquake left more than 260 dead and hundreds injured as buildings crumbled and terrified residents ran for their lives on Indonesia's main island of Java. Bodies continued to be pulled from the debris on Tuesday morning in the hardest-hit city of Cianjur,…

The White House brought out two of the nation's top doctors Tuesday to urge all Americans to update their COVID-19 and influenza vaccinations in the next six weeks as the holiday season approaches. The nearly $500 million effort will focus on reaching older Americans and…

A few weeks ago, Lebanon detected its first cases of cholera in 30 years. The highly contagious disease has since spread and officials in the cash-strapped country fear there is a high risk of it becoming endemic if they are unable to tackle the root…

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. health official celebrated and vilified as the face of the country's COVID-19 pandemic response, used his final White House briefing on Tuesday to denounce division and promote vaccines. Fauci, who plans to retire soon as President Joe Biden's top medical…

Botswana has approved the use of injectable anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs to improve adherence to HIV treatment. Minister of Health Edwin Dikoloti says the injections, given every two months, are more convenient than daily pills, which patients sometimes skip.  Health Minister Edwin Dikoloti said the use…

Five months after Thailand became the first country in Asia to legalize cannabis, boosters of the hot-button herb are fighting to keep it that way amid mounting calls to re-list the plant as a narcotic. Cannabis sellers, growers and smokers rallied outside the national government’s…

Bacterial infections are the second leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for one in eight of all deaths in 2019, the first global study of their lethality revealed on Tuesday. The massive new study, published in The Lancet journal, looked at deaths from 33 common…

The World Health Organization said Monday it was thrashing out a new list of priority pathogens that risk sparking pandemics or outbreaks and should be kept under close observation.  The WHO said the aim was to update a list used to guide global research and…

NASA’s Orion capsule reached the moon Monday, whipping around the back side and passing within 80 miles (128 kilometers) on its way to a record-breaking lunar orbit.  The close approach occurred as the crew capsule and its three test dummies were on the far side…

Beijing's most populous district urged residents to stay at home Monday, extending a request from the weekend as the city's COVID-19 case numbers rose, with many businesses shut and schools in the area shifting classes online. Nationally, new case numbers held steady on Sunday near…

U.S. Army veteran Matt Schermerhorn couldn’t give blood for years because he was stationed in Europe during a deadly mad cow disease scare there. Now, he’s proud to be back in the donor’s chair. Schermerhorn, 58, is among thousands of people, including current and former…

Negotiators early Sunday approved a historic deal that would create a fund for compensating poor nations that are victims of extreme weather worsened by rich countries’ carbon pollution, but an overall larger agreement still was up in the air because of a fight over emission…

What is bigger: A ronna or a quetta? Scientists meeting outside of Paris on Friday — who have expanded the world’s measuring unit systems for the first time this century as the global population surges past 8 billion — have the answer. Rapid scientific advances…

A last-minute fight over emissions cutting and the overall climate change goal is delaying a potentially historic deal that would create a fund for compensating poor nations that are victims of extreme weather worsened by rich countries' carbon pollution. "We are extremely on overtime. There…

Wildlife conservationists are heartened by a rare sighting of a snow leopard in what they say is the first member of the endangered species to be captured on camera in Indian-administered Kashmir. The adult animal was identified from images taken last month using infrared camera…

China’s zero-COVID policy prompted hundreds of Chinese citizens to march in the streets in Guangzhou this week after hearing that ongoing lockdowns had been extended. In videos shared on Chinese social media and later on Twitter, demonstrators were seen tearing down COVID lockdown barriers in…

Pfizer said Friday that its updated COVID-19 booster may offer some protection against newly emerging omicron mutants, even though it's not an exact match. Americans have been reluctant to get the updated boosters rolled out by Pfizer and rival Moderna, doses tweaked to target the…

As Americans head into the holiday season, a rapidly intensifying flu season is straining hospitals already overburdened with patients sick from other respiratory infections.  More than half the states have high or very high levels of flu, unusually high for this early in the season,…

NASA's Webb Space Telescope is finding bright, early galaxies that until now were hidden from view, including one that may have formed a mere 350 million years after the cosmic-creating Big Bang. Astronomers said Thursday that if the results are verified, this newly discovered throng…

A global wildlife summit in Panama took an important step Thursday toward upgrading protection for sharks, the ancient ocean vertebrates targeted for their fins used in a status-symbol soup.  A committee voted to approve a proposal to include requiem and hammerhead sharks on Appendix II…