A two-day conference to highlight the key environmental role and value of the world's rainforests got underway in Gabon Wednesday, backed by several leaders of tropical countries.. The conference will give a push to advancing scientific knowledge about the ecological value of rainforest and fostering "sustainable value chains" in forestry.
Under the green canopy of the ancient Massaha forest in northeastern Gabon, Arsene Ibaho leads a group of visitors towards a tree that he says is sacred and speaks to his people. . The sacred tree is also embedded in folklore as the bringer of good luck for fishermen during the mid-year dry season, said Ibaho.
The coastline of Cedeno, a fishing village in southern Honduras, looks like it was hit by an earthquake.. Inhabitants of Cedeno and other fishing villages on the Gulf of Fonseca -- shared by Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua -- are at the forefront of one of the more visible symptoms of climate change: sea level rise caused by melting glaciers and ice sheets.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said Tuesday his agency believes the Covid-19 pandemic was "most likely" caused by an incident in a laboratory in Wuhan, China.. "The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan," Wray said in an interview with Fox News.
One in 10 early deaths could be prevented if everyone engaged in a small amount of daily exercise such as a brisk 11-minute walk, a large study said on Wednesday.. But even half that amount -- 75 minutes a week, or less than 11 minutes a day -- could prevent one in 10 of those deaths, according to the meta-analysis published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
The UN nuclear watchdog confirmed on Tuesday it had detected particles of uranium enriched up just under the 90 percent needed to produce an atomic bomb.. "The presence of a particle or particles of uranium above 60 percent in the enrichment process does not mean enrichment above 60 percent," said the spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, Behruz Kamalvandi.
Police in Peru have seized a mummified human, between 600 and 800 years old, from a former food delivery man who claimed to have had it at his home for three decades. . The mummy was in the isothermal bag the man had once used to deliver food to people's homes.
Snow blanketed Spain's holiday island of Mallorca on Tuesday as a winter storm brought strong winds and freezing temperatures to large parts of the country.. The snow was accompanied by strong winds, with gusts of up to 117 kilometres (73 miles) per hour, according to the weather office, and heavy rains.
New Yorkers woke Tuesday to something they have barely seen this winter: snow. . Several school districts closed Tuesday as the city geared up for its first substantial snowfall of the season.
Forests are central to biodiversity and the fight against climate change, as well as being a big money spinner for national economies. . Deforestation and climate change have had some impact on that function, though replanting and better forest management have helped.
