ANTARCTIC temperatures have cooled over the past six years, according to US space agency NASA. An intensive scientific study of both Earth’s poles has found that from 2009 to 2016 overall temperature has dropped in the southern polar region. NASA’s Operation IceBridge is an airborne survey of polar ice and has finalised two overlapping research…
The world’s second-largest gem quality diamond has been discovered in Botswana, the Lucara Diamond firm says. The 1,111-carat stone was recovered from its Karowe mine, about 500km (300 miles) north of the capital, Gaborone. It is the biggest diamond to be discovered in Botswana and the largest find in more than a century. The 3,106-carat…
Astronomers have discovered a new Venus-like rocky exoplanet 39 light years away, which may be cool enough to potentially host an atmosphere. If it does, it is close enough that we could study that atmosphere in detail with the Hubble Space Telescope and future observatories like the Giant Magellan Telescope, researchers said. “Our ultimate goal…
Voting began on Friday in New Zealand’s referendum on a potential replacement for their national flag. New Zealanders have just under a month to send in a postal ballot on which of five potential new flags they prefer. A second vote in 2016 will ask whether they want to replace the existing flag, which features…
The acting chairman of Myanmar’s ruling party conceded defeat to Aung San Suu Kyi’s opposition on Monday and said he would accept the result of the country’s first free national election in 25 years. “We lost,” Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) leader Htay Oo told Reuters in an interview. The vote count is still…
LONDON: It was once the world’s largest-known diamond, is worth a reported £100m and is currently part of Britain’s crown jewels. But India wants it back. Bollywood stars and businessmen have united to instruct lawyers to begin legal proceedings in London’s High Court to return the Kohinoor diamond. The diamond was in the crown worn…
Over 1,000 aspirants, including 62 from India, have been shortlisted for an ambitious private mission to send four men and women on a one-way trip to Mars in 2024 to establish a permanent colony on the red planet. The Netherlands-based non-profit organisation Mars One announced the selection of 1,058 candidates from the applicant pool of…
BERLIN: A World War II bomb was destroyed in a controlled explosion on Monday at the main international airport in the western German city of Duesseldorf, briefly halting air traffic. Flights at the hub, Germany’s third busiest in terms of passengers, were interrupted for an hour in the morning while the 125-kilogramme bomb was neutralized,…
SANA’A/CAIRO—The numbers vary, but the story they tell is clear: The cyclone in Yemen has destroyed almost everything in its path. And some residents say between the ongoing war and the abject poverty that dominates the nation, they are growing terrified of the future. “All people here are very scared because the situation was already…
Alphabet, parent company of tech giant Google, has announced tie-ups with three major Indonesian telecom operators to expand web connectivity in the country’s remote areas using hundreds of net-beaming balloons. The initiative is part of Project Loon by Google X, Alphabet’s research division, which works on ambitious ideas, including self-driven cars, EFE news reported. …
