By Peter Foster in BeijingPublished: 11:35AM BST 02 Jun 2010 China is to further tighten its stranglehold on the mining of rare earth metals essential for the manufacture of high-tech products from iPods to wind turbines and military missiles. Mining rights for the 17 rare earth elements will now be restricted to only a […]
By Jason Burkewww.guardian.co.uk, Sunday 30 May 2010 16.32 BST Record temperatures in northern India have claimed hundreds of lives in what is believed to be the hottest summer in the country since records began in the late 1800s. The death toll is expected to rise with experts forecasting temperatures approaching 50C (122F) in coming weeks. […]
By Manzar Shigri; additional reporting/writing by Kamran Haider; editing by Chris Allbritton and Bill TarrantKARIMABADSat May 29, 2010 4:15am EDTKARIMABAD Pakistan (Reuters) – Water began seeping out from a lake formed by a landslide in north Pakistan into a spillway Saturday, officials said, who added that the next one or two days are critical to […]
24 May 2010 13:28:16 GMT Thousands are fleeing their homes amidst fears of flooding as a breach of the Attabad Lake in northern Pakistan looks imminent. An estimated 13,935 people (1,747 families) from 39 villages have been displaced following an avalanche which blocked the Hunza River farming a19km by 80-metres deep artificial lake in Attabad, […]
As glaciers disappear in the rain shadow of the Himalayas, one man is helping farmers irrigate their fields by storing water in an innovative way By Gaia Vince LEH, INDIA—In the high-altitude desert of the Indian trans-Himalayas, one man is buying time for villagers suffering from global warming by creating artificial glaciers. The ancient kingdom […]
By ANDREW JACOBSPublished: May 19, 2010 SOUTH HANGAY PROVINCE, Mongolia — They call it the zud, a prolonged period of heavy snows and paralyzing cold that adds to the challenges of living on a treeless expanse nearly the size of Alaska. But this year’s zud followed a punishing summer drought that stunted the grass and […]
BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 14, 2010 (ENS) – Clean drinking water is an increasingly scarce resource for millions of people in Iraq, according to a new report released today by the International Committee of the Red Cross. The agency says its engineers are doing their best to improve access to safe water in the face of […]
SANAA (Reuters) – Two people died in a southern Yemeni village where the military intervened to end a dispute over water rights, underscoring tensions sparked by a looming water crisis in the impoverished Arabian peninsular state. Twenty homes were damaged and unarmed residents were forced to flee Shara’ab, in the southern province of Taiz, during […]
By Mohammad Saber HERAT, Afghanistan, May 13, 2010 (ENS) – Mullah Samandar finds it hard to control his emotions as he swings his axe at the trunk of the pistachio tree. “When I cut down pistachio trees, I cry and my tears don’t stop,” the 55-year-old said, explaining that he has no other way to […]
By Richard Wolf, USA TODAY WASHINGTON — The monthly cost of the war in Afghanistan, driven by troop increases and fighting on difficult terrain, has topped Iraq costs for the first time since 2003 and shows no sign of letting up. Pentagon spending in February, the most recent month available, was $6.7 billion in Afghanistan […]
