Category: News

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A spacecraft blasted off Monday to investigate the scene of a cosmic crash.  The European Space Agency's Hera spacecraft rocketed away on a two-year journey to the small, harmless asteroid rammed by NASA two years ago in a dress rehearsal for the day a killer space rock threatens Earth. Launched by SpaceX from Cape Canaveral, it's the second part of a planetary defense test that could one day help save the planet.  The 2022 crash by NASA's Dart spacecraft shortened Dimorphos' orbit around its bigger companion, demonstrating that if a dangerous rock was headed our way, there's a chance it could be knocked off course with enough advance notice.  Scientists are eager to examine the impact's aftermath up close to know exactly how effective Dart was and…

Washington — The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear a bid by President Joe Biden's administration to enforce in Texas federal guidance requiring hospitals to perform abortions if needed to stabilize a patient's emergency medical condition.   The justices turned away the Justice Department's appeal of a lower court's decision that halted enforcement of the guidance in Texas, where a Republican-backed near-total ban on abortion is in effect, and against members of two anti-abortion medical associations.   The Biden administration issued the guidance in July 2022 to protect access to abortion after the Supreme Court's conservative majority the previous month overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that had legalized abortion nationwide.   The guidance reminded healthcare providers across the country of their obligations under a 1986 federal…

Washington — SpaceX's workhorse Falcon 9 rocket can return to flight for a mission planned for Monday to launch the European Space Agency's Hera spacecraft from Florida, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said Sunday. Elon Musk's company, which has engaged in a public quarrel with the FAA in recent weeks, said Sunday it is planning the liftoff for 10:52 a.m. ET (1452 GMT) from Cape Canaveral. "The SpaceX Falcon 9 vehicle is authorized to return to flight only for the planned Hera mission scheduled to launch on Oct. 7 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida," the FAA said Sunday. The agency said it has "determined that the absence of a second stage reentry for this mission adequately mitigates the primary risk to the public in the event of a…

KIGALI — Rwanda said Sunday it had begun administering vaccine doses against the Marburg virus to try to combat an outbreak of the Ebola-like disease in the east African country, where it has so far killed 12 people.  "The vaccination is starting today immediately," Health Minister Sabin Nsanzimana said at a news conference in the capital Kigali.  He said the vaccinations would focus on those "most at risk, most exposed health care workers working in treatment centers, in the hospitals, in ICU, in emergency, but also [in] the close contacts of the confirmed cases."  The country has already received shipments of the vaccines including from the Sabin Vaccine Institute.  Rwanda's first outbreak of the viral hemorrhagic fever was detected in late September, with 46 cases and 12 deaths reported since then.…

GOMA, Congo — Congolese authorities on Saturday began vaccinations against mpox, nearly two months after the disease outbreak that spread from Congo to several African countries and beyond was declared a global emergency by the World Health Organization. The 265,000 doses donated to Congo by the European Union and the United States were rolled out in the eastern city of Goma in North Kivu province, where hospitals and health workers have been overstretched, struggling to contain the new and possibly more infectious strain of mpox. Congo, with about 30,000 suspected mpox cases and 859 deaths, accounts for more than 80% of all the cases and 99% of all the deaths reported in Africa this year. All the Central African nation's 26 provinces have recorded mpox cases. Although most mpox infections and…

wellington, new zealand — A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck near New Zealand's capital city of Wellington, government seismic monitor GeoNet said on Sunday, but initial reports indicated there were no injuries or significant damage.  The quake hit at 5:08 a.m. on Sunday (1608 GMT on Saturday) striking 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) west of Wellington at a focal depth of 30 km (19 miles).  GeoNet said more than 37,000 people had reported feeling the shake, some as far north as Auckland in the North Island.  GeoNet said there was no tsunami warning as a result of the quake.  A spokesperson for Fire and Emergency New Zealand said the service had not received any calls for assistance.  Government-owned Radio New Zealand said there were no reports of significant damage or reports of injury. …

KAMITUGA, Congo — It's been four months since Sifa Kunguja recovered from mpox, but as a sex worker, she said, she's still struggling to regain clients, with fear and stigma driving away people who've heard she had the virus.  "It's risky work," Kunguja, 40, said from her small home in eastern Congo. "But if I don't work, I won't have money for my children." Sex workers are among those hardest-hit by the mpox outbreak in Kamituga, where some 40,000 of them are estimated to reside — many single mothers driven by poverty to this mineral-rich commercial hub where gold miners comprise the majority of the clientele. Doctors estimate 80% of cases here have been contracted sexually, though the virus also spreads through other kinds of skin-to-skin contact. Sex workers say the…

ASHEVILLE, North Carolina — Nearly a week after Hurricane Helene brought devastation to western North Carolina, a shiny stainless steel tanker truck in downtown Asheville attracted residents carrying 19-liter containers, milk jugs and buckets to fill with what has become a desperately scare resource — drinking water. Flooding tore through the city's water system, destroying so much infrastructure that officials said repairs could take weeks. To make do, Anna Ramsey arrived Wednesday with her two children, who each left carrying plastic bags filled with 7.6 liters of water. "We have no water. We have no power. But I think it's also been humbling," Ramsey said. Helene's path through the Southeast left a trail of power outages so large the darkness was visible from space. Tens of trillions of liters of rain…

HANOI, Vietnam — More than a dozen tigers were incinerated after the animals died after contracted bird flu at a zoo in southern Vietnam, officials said. State media VNExpress cited a caretaker at Vuon Xoai zoo in Bien Hoa city saying the animals were fed raw chicken bought from nearby farms. The panther and 20 tigers, including several cubs, weighed between 10 and 120 kilograms when they died. The bodies were incinerated and buried on the premises. "The tigers died so fast. They looked weak, refused to eat and died after two days of falling sick," said zoo manager Nguyen Ba Phuc. Samples taken from the tigers tested positive for H5N1, the virus that causes bird flu. The virus was first identified in 1959 and grew into a widespread and highly…

chicago — California is investigating a possible case of bird flu in a dairy worker who had contact with infected cattle, the state's public health department said Thursday.  The virus' jump to cattle in 14 states and infections of 13 dairy and poultry farmworkers this year have concerned scientists and federal officials about the risks to humans from further spread.  The worker had a "presumptive positive" result to a test for bird flu, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will do further testing to confirm the finding, the California Department of Public Health said in a statement.  The person, who was not identified, suffered only conjunctivitis, or pink eye, the department said in a statement. The person is being treated with antiviral medication and staying home, it added. …

GENEVA  — The World Health Organization launched a global plan Thursday to address the growing threat of dengue and other deadly arboviruses, which have affected millions of people around the world and put billions more at risk.   “The rapid spread of dengue and other arboviral diseases in recent years is an alarming trend that demands a coordinated response across sectors and across borders,” said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.  An arbovirus is a virus that is transmitted to humans by mosquitoes, ticks, or other arthropods, such as crustaceans, insects and arachnids.    Dengue has emerged as the most problematic arbovirus disease. The WHO notes the number of cases has nearly doubled each year since 2021, with over 12.3 million cases at the end of August of this year, including more than…

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A new exhibit in Washington sheds some light on a little-known layer of the sea and the strange creatures that live there. Artechouse art center and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution collaborated on the spectacle, called Twilight Zone: Hidden Wonders of the Ocean. Maxim Adams has the story. ...

Abuja — Hundreds gathered in Abuja, Nigeria for the 2024 Childhood Cancer Awareness Walk, raising awareness and support for pediatric cancer. Despite progress in cancer care, Nigerian children face high costs and delayed diagnoses, which the walk aims to address. Titilayo Adewumi joined the walk with her 13-year-old son Shittu, diagnosed with leukemia at age 5. With support from the Okapi Children Cancer Foundation, Shittu is now cancer-free. Adewumi recounts the toll her son's cancer diagnosis took on her family. "I had to stop working for like 4 - 5 years so I could concentrate on him," she said. "We went out of cash, we didn't have money, that is when the Okapi visited us ... I was so excited when the doctor told me that he was free of cancer,…

Cape Canaveral, Florida — The two astronauts stuck at the International Space Station since June welcomed their new ride home with Sunday's arrival of a SpaceX capsule. SpaceX launched the rescue mission on Saturday with a downsized crew of two astronauts and two empty seats reserved for Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who will return next year. The Dragon capsule docked in darkness high over Botswana as the two craft soared 420 kilometers above Earth. NASA switched Wilmore and Williams to SpaceX following concerns over the safety of their Boeing Starliner capsule. It was the first Starliner test flight with a crew, and NASA decided the thruster failures and helium leaks that cropped up after liftoff were too serious and poorly understood to risk the test pilots' return. So Starliner returned…

WASHINGTON — The first rocky planet ever spotted orbiting a burned out star called a white dwarf offers a glimpse of what may be in store for Earth billions of years from now -- showing it is possible our planet might survive the death of the sun, albeit as a cold and desolate outpost in space. The planet, with a mass about 1.9 times that of Earth, is orbiting the white dwarf about 4,200 light-years away from our solar system near the bulge at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, according to a study using data from Hawaii-based telescopes. A light year is the distance light travels in a year, about 9.5 trillion kilometers. The white dwarf began as an ordinary star one or two times the mass of the…

new york — U.S. suicides last year remained at about the highest level in the nation's history, preliminary data suggests.  A little more than 49,300 suicide deaths were reported in 2023, according to provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That number that could grow a little as some death investigations are wrapped up and reported.  Just under 49,500 were reported in 2022, according to final data released Thursday. The numbers are close enough that the suicide rate for the two years are the same, CDC officials said.  U.S. suicide rates have been rising for nearly 20 years, aside from a two-year drop around the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. So "a leveling off of any increase in suicide is cautiously promising news," said Katherine Keyes, a Columbia…

MUNICH — The head brewmaster for Weihenstephan, the world's oldest brewery, has a secret: He really likes alcohol-free beer. Even though he's quick to say he obviously enjoys real beer more, Tobias Zollo says he savors alcohol-free beer when he's working or eating lunch. It has the same taste but fewer calories than a soft drink, he said, thanks to the brewery's process of evaporating the alcohol. "You can't drink beer every day — unfortunately," he joked last week at the Bavarian state brewery in the German town of Freising, about 30 kilometers north of Munich. Zollo isn't alone in his appreciation for the sober beverage. Alcohol-free beer has been gaining popularity in recent years as beer consumption shrinks. At Weihenstephan, which was founded as a brewery in 1040 by Benedictine…

WASHINGTON — Fall means it's time for just about everybody to get up to date on their flu and COVID-19 vaccines – and a lot of older adults also need protection against another risky winter virus, RSV. Yes, you can get your flu and COVID-19 shots at the same time. Don't call them boosters — they're not just another dose of last year's protection. The coronavirus and influenza are escape artists that constantly mutate to evade your body's immune defenses, so both vaccines are reformulated annually to target newer strains. "Right now is the best time" to get all the recommended fall vaccinations, said Dr. Mandy Cohen, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as she got her flu shot Wednesday. She has an appointment for her COVID-19 shot,…

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — SpaceX launched a rescue mission for the two stuck astronauts at the International Space Station on Saturday, sending up a downsized crew to bring them home but not until next year.  The capsule rocketed into orbit to fetch the test pilots whose Boeing spacecraft returned to Earth empty earlier this month because of safety concerns. The switch in rides left it to NASA's Nick Hague and Russia's Alexander Gorbunov to retrieve Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.  Because NASA rotates space station crews approximately every six months, this newly launched flight with two empty seats reserved for Wilmore and Williams won't return until late February. Officials said there wasn't a way to bring them back earlier on SpaceX without interrupting other scheduled missions.  By the time they return,…

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KIGALI, Rwanda — Rwanda has confirmed six deaths and 20 cases of Marburg disease, the country's health minister Sabin Nsanzimana said late on Saturday. The majority of victims are health workers in the intensive care unit, Nsanzimana said in a video statement posted on X. "We are counting 20 people who are infected, and six who have already passed away due to this virus. The large majority of cases and deaths are among healthcare workers, mainly in the intensive care unit," the health minister said. Marburg disease, a viral hemorrhagic fever, can cause death among some patients, with symptoms including severe headache, vomiting, muscle aches and stomach aches, the ministry has said. Institutions and partners are working to trace those who have been in contact with the virus-affected individuals, the minister…

PERRY, Florida — Hurricane Helene caused dozens of deaths and billions of dollars of destruction across a wide swath of the southeastern United States, and more than 3 million customers went into the weekend without power and, for some, a continued threat of floods. Helene blew ashore in Florida's Big Bend region as a Category 4 hurricane late Thursday packing winds of 225 kilometers per hour and then quickly moved through Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee. The storm uprooted trees, splintered homes and sent creeks and rivers over their banks and straining dams. Western North Carolina was essentially cut off because of landslides and flooding that forced the closure of Interstate 40 and other roads. There were hundreds of water rescues, none more dramatic than in rural Unicoi County in eastern…