Tampa, United States | AFP | Should healthy people take aspirin to ward off heart disease? The notion has been controversial, and the medical advice mixed. But a review of scientific data on the topic Tuesday showed that any benefits are slight, and are counterbalanced by a matching rise in …
Read More »Construction without coordination: how ants build megaprojects
Paris, France | AFP | Leaf-cutter ants build super highways to transfer food and building materials hundreds of metres without communicating with each other, scientists claimed Wednesday, in findings that could prompt a rethink about how some insect communities organise themselves. Each leaf-cutter colony can carve out nearly three kilometres of …
Read More »In China, unhappiness tracks poor air quality
Paris, France | AFP | Eye-watering, throat-scratching air pollution is a major driver of big city blues in China, according to a study published Monday that matched social network chatter with fine-particle pollution levels. “The take-away is simple,” lead author Siqi Zheng, an associate professor at MIT and director of the …
Read More »Endangered in Ivory Coast: traditional priestesses
ANIANSUE, Ivory Coast | AFP | A dozen women, their bodies coated with clay, sway to beating drums as if in a trance, ankle bells jingling as they stamp their feet, in the eastern Ivorian town of Aniansue. They are training to become certified “komians”, or priestesses, steeped in traditional …
Read More »China’s second gene-edited foetus is 12-14 weeks old: scientist
Beijing, China | AFP | The second woman carrying a gene-edited foetus in China is now 12 to 14 weeks into her pregnancy, according to a US physician in close contact with the researcher who claimed to have created the world’s first genetically-modified babies last year. Chinese scientist He Jiankui …
Read More »Toyota, Panasonic announce electric car battery tie-up
Tokyo, Japan | AFP | Toyota announced on Tuesday it was creating a joint venture with Panasonic to develop batteries for electric cars, as the Japanese auto giant ramps up its ambitions for electric-powered vehicles. The firm will be set up by 2020 and controlled 51-49 percent by Toyota, the Prius …
Read More »Buganda wants autonomy and self-determination
The voluminous 520-page book, `Protection, Patronage or Plunder? British Machinations and (B)uganda’s Struggle for Independence’, by Apollo Nelson Makubuya; the 3rd Deputy Prime Minister (Katikkiro) and Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs of the kingdom of Buganda, has attracted a lot of attention. He spoke to The Independent’s Agnes E …
Read More »China’s ageing elite live golden years in style
?: Do you still want to love me, for better or for worse? ?: I DO. An 85-yr-old man in Xi'an, China's Shaanxi Province, was captured on camera giving his wife a leg massage. pic.twitter.com/MCJVBGKrVG — People's Daily, China (@PDChina) January 10, 2019 Beijing, China | AFP | …
Read More »21 Cholera patients discharged from Naguru isolation unit
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | 21 people have so far been discharged from the Cholera Isolation unit in Naguru, since the reported outbreak of the deadly disease in parts of Kampala last month. These are part of the group that had been referred to the facility from Kabowa, in …
Read More »Cholera’s wakeup call
CHOLERA: Why the unexpected outbreak happened Kampala, Uganda | FLAVIA NASSAKA | Emma Tagobya; the Local Council Chairman of Sembule B Zone of Kabowa Parish, Rubaga Division has been quite busy lately – battling a cholera outbreak in his area. Sembule B Zone is right on the edge of …
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