Environment news

• Rainforest greener during 'dry' season

  26-07-2016 23:28 via feedproxy.google.com
  Although the Amazon Jungle may appear to be perpetually green, a University of Illinois researcher believes there are actually seasonal differences of photosynthesis, with more occurring during the dry season and less during the wet season. Understanding how a rainforest that occupies 2.7 million square miles of South America functions is crucial to the future health of the entire planet."With the potential negative effects of climate change, one key question we are trying to answer in the study
  
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• Peruvian fishermen rescue baby whale from net

  26-07-2016 23:28 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Fishermen in the Plura region of Peru have rescued an exhausted whale calf that had become trapped in a net.
  
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• How have Dolly the Sheep's 'siblings' fared?

  26-07-2016 22:58 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The prospect of using cloning to treat humans has been boosted by new evidence suggests that it can be used safely in animals.
  
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• Silicon-air battery achieves running time of over 1,000 hours for the first time

  26-07-2016 22:48 via feedproxy.google.com
  Silicon-air batteries are viewed as a promising and cost-effective alternative to current energy storage technology. However, they have thus far only achieved relatively short running times. Jülich researchers have now discovered why.In theory, silicon-air batteries have a much higher energy density and are also smaller and lighter than current lithium-ion batteries. They are also environmentally friendly and insensitive to external influences. Their most important advantage, however, is th
  
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• Goodbye, Weasels! New Zealand to Wipe Out Its Invasive Predators

  26-07-2016 22:06
  The clock is ticking for the rats, possums and weasels that have invaded New Zealand over the past few hundred years. Before humans landed in New Zealand less than 800 years ago, precious few mammals lived on the islands — a vibrant archipelago that provided a home for flightless birds, such as the kiwi, takahe­ and kakapo parrot, as well as geckos and lizard-like tuataras. "While once the greatest threat to our native wildlife was poaching and deforestation, it is now introduced preda
  
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• Biological wizardry ferments carbon monoxide into biofuel

  26-07-2016 21:27 via feedproxy.google.com
  Cornell University biological engineers have deciphered the cellular strategy to make the biofuel ethanol, using an anaerobic microbe feeding on carbon monoxide - a common industrial waste gas."Instead of having the waste go to waste, you make it into something you want," said Ludmilla Aristilde, assistant professor in biological and environmental engineering. "In order to make the microbes do our work, we had to figure out how they work, their metabolism."Aristilde collaborated with her colleag
  
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• Corporate ownership of our power and skies | Letters

  26-07-2016 19:59 via theguardian.com
  
  Amazon want to fill the skies immediately above our heads with buzzing, swishing drones carrying packages (Amazon to test drone delivery in partnership with UK government, theguardian.com, 26 July). It is reported that the government’s transport ministry is happy to be a partner; and they see this mainly as a matter of sorting out safety issues (we look forward to hearing their plans to deal with terrorists’ use of this technology once the skies are full of “legitimate” d
  
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• Inside the access economy: Amazon and Nimber forge different paths to optimise logistics

  26-07-2016 18:48
  
  EXCLUSIVE: As Amazon and Sainsbury's ramp up efforts to improve delivery times, the chief executive of 'social delivery' service Nimber has claimed that the next few years will be a defining era for crowd logistics and the sharing economy.
  
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• Royal Society head calls for 'underwriting' of research

  26-07-2016 18:31 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The president of the Royal Society has called for the UK government to underwrite the research of all UK-based researchers who apply for EU funding now.
  
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• Lonely atoms, happily reunited

  26-07-2016 18:28 via feedproxy.google.com
  At first glance, magnetite appears to be a rather inconspicuous grey mineral. But on an atomic scale, it has remarkable properties: on magnetite, single metal atoms are held in place, or they can be made to move across the surface. Sometimes several metal atoms on magnetite form small clusters. Such phenomena can dramatically change the chemical activity of the material. Atomic processes on the magnetite surface determine how well certain metal atoms can serve as catalysts for chemical reactions
  
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• Luc Hoffman, Swiss ornithologist and naturalist, dead at 93

  26-07-2016 18:23
  
  GENEVA (AP) — Dr. Luc Hoffmann, a Swiss ornithologist and naturalist with a passion for wetlands who helped create the World Wildlife Fund for Nature and many other conservation groups, has died, wildlife groups said. He was 93.
  
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• ASEAN in discord ahead of meeting with top China, U.S. diplomats

  26-07-2016 17:58
  By Simon Webb and Manuel Mogato VIENTIANE (Reuters) - Southeast Asian nations were thrown into disarray after Cambodia on Saturday blocked them from issuing a statement referring to an international court ruling against China's territorial claims in the South China Sea, diplomats said. The U.N.-backed Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague handed an emphatic legal victory to the Philippines in the maritime dispute earlier this month, denying China's sweeping claims in the strategic seaway.
  
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• Researchers printed energy producing photographs

  26-07-2016 17:52 via feedproxy.google.com
  Solar cells have been manufactured already for a long from inexpensive materials with different printing techniques. Especially organic solar cells and dye-sensitized solar cells are suitable for printing.-We wanted to take the idea of printed solar cells even further, and see if their materials could be inkjet-printed as pictures and text like traditional printing inks, tells University Lecturer Janne Halme.When light is absorbed in an ordinary ink, it generates heat. A photovoltaic ink, howeve
  
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• Leslie Stocker obituary

  26-07-2016 17:45 via theguardian.com
  
  Campaigner who founded Tiggywinkles, the UK’s first wildlife hospital, and championed new approaches to helping injured and sick animalsLeslie Stocker, who has died aged 73, was an important friend to Britain’s wildlife, and to hedgehogs in particular. He began the process of giving wildlife care a solid foundation in this country, and founded the first wildlife hospital, Tiggywinkles, in Haddenham, Buckinghamshire.Before Les began his work in the 1970s, the most common reaction of t
  
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• Les Stocker obituary

  26-07-2016 17:45 via theguardian.com
  
  Campaigner who founded Tiggywinkles, the UK’s first wildlife hospital, and championed new approaches to helping injured and sick animalsLes Stocker, who has died aged 73, was an important friend to Britain’s wildlife, and to hedgehogs in particular. He began the process of giving wildlife care a solid foundation in this country, and founded the first wildlife hospital, Tiggywinkles, in Haddenham, Buckinghamshire.Before Les began his work in the 1970s, the most common reaction of the
  
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• Oil dips on oversupply worries; U.S. crude hits April lows

  26-07-2016 17:33
  By Barani Krishnan NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices dipped on Tuesday, with U.S. crude hitting three-month lows, as oversupply concerns weighed on the petroleum complex ahead of data likely to show unseasonably high gasoline stocks despite the peak U.S. summer driving period. Oil prices are still up more than 60 percent from 12-year lows of around $27 a barrel hit by Brent and about $26 struck by U.S. crude in the first quarter. "Our shift to a bearish stance that was initiated more than three we
  
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• Solar Impulse Just Completed Its Momentous Flight Around the World

  26-07-2016 17:28 via feedproxy.google.com
  Solar Impulse 2 touched down in Abu Dhabi today, becoming the first fuel-free plane to successfully circumnavigate the globe. OK, so the 22,000-mile trip took a minute: The solar-powered bird lifted off from the same city in March 2015. But despite a few setbacks, the plane and Swiss pilot Bertrand Piccard (who took shifts with fellow flyer André Borschberg) touched down without incident.Solar Impulse 2 is a seriously nifty machine. Its 236-foot wingspan makes it wider than a Boeing
  
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• Dolly the sheep's siblings 'healthy'

  26-07-2016 17:06 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Dolly the sheep's "siblings" are generally healthy, a study has shown, providing hope that cloning can yield animals free from degenerative illness.
  
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• This year's wildfires are bad. Climate change will make future ones worse | Anthony LeRoy Westerling

  26-07-2016 16:53 via theguardian.com
  
  Warming temperatures dry out land, making it all more flammableOnce again, it is fire season in the western United States. This month, the extreme fire that seems to test the bounds of our recent, place-based memory of how fires behave is the Sand Fire burning north of Los Angeles.Continue reading...
  
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• Special Report - In Venezuela's murky oil industry, the deal that went too far

  26-07-2016 16:26
  By Alexandra Ulmer and Girish Gupta CARACAS/BOGOTA (Reuters) - Even for Venezuela's notoriously opaque economy, it was a sweetheart deal that went too far. Last August, state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA issued one of its largest tenders in recent years: a multi-billion dollar project in the Orinoco Belt, the world's largest crude reserve. Then, out of the blue, a tiny Colombian trucking and trading firm with no relevant experience beat global industry leaders to win the contract, worth
  
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• Pokémon Go players urged not to venture into Fukushima disaster zone

  26-07-2016 16:05 via theguardian.com
  
  Tepco requests Niantic to remove Pokémon character from nuclear plant meltdown areas and evacuation zoneJapan is asking for the Fukushima nuclear exclusion zone to be classified as a no-go area for Pokémon after the discovery of at least one of the game’s characters on a power station’s site.Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (Tepco) has requested that Pokémon Go developer Niantic and the Pokémon Company prevent Pokémon appearing in and around ar
  
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• Russia, Turkey reach 'political decision' on TurkStream, nuclear power plant - agencies

  26-07-2016 15:56
  MOSCOW (Reuters) - A political decision has been taken to continue work on the TurkStream natural gas pipeline project and the Akkuyu nuclear power plant in Turkey, Russian news agencies cited Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci as saying on Tuesday. A meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan, due to take place in St. Petersburg on Aug. 9, is set "to give the final impetus" to TurkStream, Zeybekci said during a visit to Moscow. (Reporting by
  
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• MPs launch enquiry into Britain's implementation of the SDGs

  26-07-2016 15:05
  
  An inquiry has been launched by the Environmental Audit Committee concerning the speed of implementation of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the UK.
  
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• Great White Shark Dangles Seal Meal from Its Maw

  26-07-2016 14:55
  
  The predator, with a partially eaten seal carcass hanging from her teeth, was caught on video by biologist Greg Skomal of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries (MA DMF), working with the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy (AWSC). Measuring an estimated 11 feet (3.4 meters) in length, the shark — and its gruesome mouthful — was spied in Atlantic waters near Massachusetts, approximately 300 yards from the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge. Researchers are currently conducting a f
  
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• Vibrantly Colored 'Starburst' Scorpionfish Discovered in the Caribbean

  26-07-2016 14:53
  
  A riotously colorful new species of scorpionfish has been found deep in the Caribbean near Curaçao. Its scientific name is Scorpaenodes barrybrowni, after nature photographer Barry Brown, who works with the Smithsonian Institution mission that discovered the deep-sea-living fish. Researchers discovered the new species during the Deep Reef Observation Project (DROP), a Smithsonian Institution mission to explore reefs deeper than scuba divers can go.
  
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• Low Zika risk for travelers to Olympics in Brazil, study finds

  26-07-2016 14:23 via feedproxy.google.com
  The Zika virus poses a negligible health threat to the international community during the summer Olympic Games that begin next month in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, according to researchers at Yale School of Public Health (YSPH).In a worst-case scenario, an estimated 3 to 37 of the thousands of athletes, spectators, media, and vendors traveling to Rio for the Olympics will bring the Zika virus back to their home countries, the researchers concluded.
  
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• EPA ruling on aircraft emissions paves way for new regulations

  26-07-2016 14:15 via theguardian.com
  
  US agency’s declaration that jet engine exhaust endangers public health represents key milestone, reports Climate CentralThe Environmental Protection Agency on Monday declared that jet engine exhaust endangers public health by contributing to climate change, a key milestone as it works to develop regulations that will cut carbon emissions from commercial aircraft.Large commercial jets account for 11% of all emissions from the global transportation sector. Aircraft emissions are expected to
  
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• New transparency toolkit puts emphasis on investors to combat deforestation

  26-07-2016 13:39
  
  A new online tool has been launched today (26 July) to highlight which global mutual funds and investment portfolios contain links associated to deforestation and palm oil holdings.
  
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• Hugh's War on Waste: The battle continues with coffee cup recycling in the spotlight

  26-07-2016 13:39
  
  Celebrity chef-turned-eco-warrior Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is reigniting his 'War on Waste' TV series this week, with attention shifting from food waste to coffee cup recycling.
  
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• Mangroves and incomes flourish as Sri Lanka's women promote conservation – in pictures

  26-07-2016 13:37 via theguardian.com
  
  A new project in Sri Lanka offers training and loans to women to start sustainable businesses as an alternative to cutting mangroves, and commits them to help replant degraded areas of the mangrove forestsContinue reading...
  
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• Oil major BP pursues new projects despite profit miss

  26-07-2016 13:36
  Tuesday's results missed expectations, with analysts surprised by higher corporate charges, including administrative costs relating to Gulf of Mexico oil spill liabilities, and a lower contribution from BP's stake in Russian oil producer Rosneft . Rivals Shell , Statoil , Total and Eni also report second-quarter numbers this week, sharpening the focus on Tuesday's drop in crude oil prices towards $44 a barrel, well short of the $60 previously cited as the level at which oil majors can break even
  
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• Solar Impulse 2 completes record-breaking round-the-world trip

  26-07-2016 12:16
  
  A solar-powered plane, equipped with 17,248 solar cells, completed the final leg of its record-breaking circumnavigation journey around the world last night (25 July).
  
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• The green deal is dead: time to revive the great British energy refurb

  26-07-2016 11:35 via theguardian.com
  
  Convincing people to make their homes energy efficient needs grand designers, cheaper loans and new standardsThe recent Commons report on the failure of the government’s green deal campaign, lambasted as abysmal by MPs, has highlighted the urgent need for the government to learn from its mistakes and implement a comprehensive UK energy efficiency scheme.It’s high time for the government to use both carrot and stick – inspiration and legislation – to make UK homes warmer a
  
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• Oil falls towards $44, lowest since May, on glut worries

  26-07-2016 11:16
  By Alex Lawler LONDON (Reuters) - Oil on Tuesday hit its lowest since May, falling towards $44 a barrel, pressured by concerns that a long-awaited rebalancing of the market would be delayed due to excess supply. Brent crude is still up more than 60 percent from a 12-year low near $27 in January, but the rally has petered out on signs that the supply glut will persist and as economic jitters raised concern about the strength of oil demand. Global benchmark Brent was trading at $44.49 a barrel at
  
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• U.S. says backs resumption of China-Philippines talks on South China Sea

  26-07-2016 10:03
  By Simon Webb and Manuel Mogato VIENTIANE (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday he supported the resumption of bilateral talks between China and the Philippines over the South China Sea, following a ruling against Beijing over the dispute earlier this month. China did not participate in and has refused to accept the July 12 ruling by the U.N.-backed Permanent Court of Arbitration, in which U.S. ally Manila won an emphatic legal victory. China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi h
  
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• How to catch a poacher: Breaking Bad and fake eggs

  26-07-2016 09:54 via theguardian.com
  
  Conservationists and law enforcement have struggled to catch the Walter Whites behind wildlife trafficking. But could some plastic eggs and GPS trackers change the game?Sometimes life really does imitate art. In the fourth season of the hit TV show, Breaking Bad, police put GPS devices on barrels of methylamine to try and track the show’s protagonists to their meth lab. Inspired by the episode, Kim Williams-Guillen, a conservationist with Paso Pacifico, decided to take the concept one step
  
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• Solar-powered plane completes historic round-the-world trip – video

  26-07-2016 09:26 via theguardian.com
  
  Solar Impulse 2 completes the first round-the-world flight powered by a renewable energy, landing in Abu Dhabi early on Tuesday. Piloted by Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg, the solar-powered plane began its circumnavigation in March 2015 and has made 16 stops across the world without using any fuel Continue reading...
  
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• Kerry says raised Democrat email hack with Russia's Lavrov

  26-07-2016 09:09
  VIENTIANE (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday he raised the issue of the hacking of Democratic Party emails in a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Lavrov brushed off accusations that Moscow was behind the hacking ahead of the meeting. Kerry also said he would encourage the Philippines to engage in bilateral negotiations with China to resolve their dispute over rival claims in the South China Sea. Kerry is due to travel to the Philippines later on Wed
  
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• BP misses quarterly profit expectations, cuts investment again

  26-07-2016 09:05
  By Karolin Schaps LONDON (Reuters) - British oil major BP reported a lower than expected profit for the second quarter due to weak refining margins and oil prices, prompting another cut to its 2016 investment budget to below $17 billion (12.96 billion pounds). The London-listed energy company said second-quarter underlying replacement cost profit, its definition of net income, was $720 million, down from $1.3 billion in the same quarter last year and $120 million below an analyst consensus provi
  
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• BP misses second quarter profit expectations as weak refining margins, oil price bite

  26-07-2016 08:26
  British oil major BP reported lower-than-expected profit for the second quarter due to weak refining margins and oil prices, prompting another cut to its 2016 investment budget to below $17 billion. BP reported a second-quarter underlying replacement costprofit, the company's definition of net income, of $720 million, down from $1.3 billion in the same quarter last year and $120 million below an analyst consensus provided by the company.
  
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• Lovely, dark and deep: Ellie Davies' forest photography – in pictures

  26-07-2016 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The British photographer draws on a childhood playing in the New Forest for her images, and reminds us of a lost, near-mythical England Continue reading...
  
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• White humpback Migaloo spotted off Australia's Byron Bay

  26-07-2016 07:39 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A rare white humpback whale has been spotted off Australia's east coast travelling at a leisurely pace not far from the famous holiday town Byron Bay.
  
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• Weaker dollar lifts oil prices, but mood remains bearish

  26-07-2016 07:03
  By Henning Gloystein SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices rebounded from over three-month lows on Tuesday, lifted by a drop in the dollar, but concerns of ongoing oversupply weighed on markets and many traders are raising their bets on further price falls. International Brent crude oil futures were trading at $44.93 per barrel at 0501 GMT, up 21 cents from their last close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was at $43.23, up 10 cents per barrel.
  
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• History in a remote graveyard

  26-07-2016 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Thockrington, Northumberland Once, the church stood above a village; now there is just the church and a farm. A returning sailor brought cholera in 1847 and the village was wiped out, its houses burntFrom a distance the tiny buttressed church appears as a rocky outcrop, a crag jutting up from the hard dolerite of the Whin Sill. Behind its skyline silhouette, over the shoulder of the hill, the three-pointed stars of wind turbines swivel in the wind. I’m high up here, the view reaching far i
  
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• Sri Lanka prime minister: Mangroves curb climate threat

  26-07-2016 06:09 via bbc.co.uk
  
  On World Mangrove Day, Sri Lanka's prime minister says mangroves' ability to swiftly absorb carbon make them vital in the fight to curb climate change.
  
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• Solar Impulse completes historic round-the-world trip

  26-07-2016 05:26 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The first round-the-world solar powered flight has been completed.
  
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• Oil prices edge away from three-month lows, but mood remains bearish

  26-07-2016 03:52
  By Henning Gloystein SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices edged away from three-month lows on Tuesday, supported by a weaker dollar, but concerns of ongoing oversupply weighed on markets and many traders are raising their bets on further price falls. International Brent crude oil futures were trading at $44.80 per barrel at 0134 GMT, up 8 cents from their last close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude were at $43.16, up just 3 cents per barrel.
  
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• China asks U.S. to support resumption of talks with Philippines

  26-07-2016 03:23
  China's foreign minister has asked the U.S. secretary of state John Kerry to support the resumption of talks between China and the Philippines over the South China Sea, following a ruling against Beijing over the dispute earlier this month. China did not participate in and has refused to accept the July 12 ruling by the U.N.-backed Permanent Court of Arbitration, in which U.S. ally Manila won an emphatic legal victory. Meeting in the Laos capital Vientiane on Monday during a summit of the Associ
  
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• Solar plane makes history after completing round-the-world trip

  26-07-2016 02:06 via theguardian.com
  
  Solar Impulse 2, which landed in Abu Dhabi, is first plane powered by the renewable energy source to tour the globeSolar Impulse 2 has completed the first round-the-world flight by a solar-powered aeroplane, after touching down in Abu Dhabi early on Tuesday.The final leg of the feat, aimed at showcasing the potential of renewable energy, was a bumpy one, with turbulence driven by hot desert air leaving the solo pilot, Bertrand Piccard, fighting with the controls. Continue reading...
  
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• Dutch men revealed as world's tallest

  26-07-2016 01:39 via bbc.co.uk
  
  When it comes to height, Dutch men and Latvian women tower over all other nationalities, a study reveals.
  
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