Health & Science

• Thursday, November 25th 2010 - 04:29 UTC

  First possible suspected case of “mad cow” in humans sounds alarm bells in Brazil

  

  Brazilian health officials said this week that a suspected case of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a fatal illness that destroys brain tissue, probably wasn’t caused by eating beef of an animal infected with the mad cow sickness.

• Friday, November 12th 2010 - 18:38 UTC

  Brazilian health officials say anti-biotics KPC bacteria situation is “under control”

  

  Four more people have died from the KPC bacteria in Brazil's capital, bringing the death toll so far this year to 22, health officials in Brasilia said earlier this week, adding that the situation has begun to be brought “under control.”

• Friday, November 12th 2010 - 00:35 UTC

  Alarming obesity levels in the world’s developing countries

  

  A new report by one of the major economic organisations has found that obesity levels in the world’s developing countries are rising at an alarming pace – and that countries should act now to stop a major ‘epidemic’.

• Friday, October 29th 2010 - 04:04 UTC

  With “Milky Way” China claims top of the list of world supercomputers

  

  China has claimed the top spot on the list of the world's supercomputers. The title has gone to China's Tianhe-1A supercomputer that is capable of carrying out more than 2.5 thousand trillion calculations a second.

• Tuesday, October 26th 2010 - 02:30 UTC

  Unasur begins shipping medicines and aid to fight outbreak of cholera in Haiti

  

  The Union of South American nations, Unasur agreed to ship to Haiti medicines, drinking water and other needed aid to help combat the outbreak of cholera in the Caribbean island.

• Monday, October 25th 2010 - 03:18 UTC

  Haiti: A devastated country in the time of cholera

  

  With few signs of recovery nine months after Haiti’s earthquake, the country’s government and its main foreign-aid donors were forced to tout a rather underwhelming achievement—the absence of water-borne diseases like typhoid, diphtheria and cholera—as evidence of progress.

• Saturday, October 23rd 2010 - 03:03 UTC

  Radar system in the Falklands to monitor the “Southern Lights”

  

  Physicists and engineers at the University of Leicester and the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) have installed a radar system on the Falkland Islands to monitor the upper atmosphere activity which creates the ‘Southern Lights’.

• Saturday, October 9th 2010 - 00:32 UTC

  Tuesday, should be Rescue Day for the 33 Chilean trapped miners

  

  Chilean rescue teams hope to start evacuating next Tuesday the 33 miners who have been trapped 700 metres underground for two months in a survival story that has gripped the world.

• Wednesday, October 6th 2010 - 22:51 UTC

  Strong controversy in US over possible approval of genetically modified salmon

  

  The possible approval of genetically modified salmon has led to vigorous dispute in the USA. The recommendation by experts that that further testing should be conducted for the time being was the conclusion of a hearing arranged by the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and echoed broadly in the media. The salmon would have been the first genetically modified animal approved for human consumption.

• Wednesday, October 6th 2010 - 19:15 UTC

  Japan requests OIE free of FMD status; Korea de-listed resumes pork exports

  

  Japan formally requested the World Organization for Animal health, OIE, to declare the country free of foot and mouth disease do it can resume beef exports. Japan suffered an outbreak of FMD which forced the termination of 289.000 livestock.