Nasa is using the Hubble space telescope to hunt for desirable locations to build a human base on the moon. The agency is scouting a variety of sites on the lunar surface for large deposits of useful minerals that astronauts could turn into air and power to help humans live in space.
Imagine a world where farmers greet the dawn from their beds and cows milk themselves. An Australian research consortium said on Tuesday that such a nirvana was not such a distant dream. They are working on a system that attracts cows to the milking shed and milks them with automated equipment while they feed.
Former apartheid-era security police colonel Gideon Nieuwoudt died in Port Elizabeth on Friday after a battle with cancer, his lawyer Jan Wagener said. Nieuwoudt had been waiting for the outcome of his application for amnesty for the 1989 car-bomb killing of three police officers and an askari in Motherwell.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) in KwaZulu-Natal on Tuesday joined the South African Communist Party’s call for a one-off credit-bureau amnesty for all. ”Many people who committed serious crimes were granted amnesty in this country. Why can’t poor people enjoy the same privileges?” asked Cosatu’s provincial secretary.
A troika of laws under government review seek to further centralise political power by strengthening the government’s hold over its lower tiers. The Intergovernmental Relations Bill, amendments to the Public Service Act and the draft Municipal Employees Bill will enable the national government to set goals from the centre, monitor administration and exercise overall supervision of provincial government and local councillors.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) says it remains committed to pursue its rolling mass action in support of the jobs and poverty campaign, which runs until February next year and includes periodic national stayaways as well as sectoral action.
Nearly 3 000 firefighters and soldiers on Tuesday battled dozens of wildfires that continued to rage in parched Portugal as police found the charred body an elderly woman near her rural home, emergency services said. Eleven fires were raging out of control in the centre and north of the country.
Just what is a bureaucrat to wear? Months after Japanese government staff were told to dress down for summer they are now being warned to wrap up for the autumn and winter in the country’s latest bid to save energy and cut greenhouse gas emissions.
At a forest shrine lined with incense-burning urns, Japanese pilgrims enter a small cave where they stoop to wash coins and notes in trickling spring water. Cleanse your money here, the tradition goes, and it will multiply. The ritual dates back perhaps 700 years, and it says something about the Japanese view of money: an attitude far different from that of many Americans.
Computer wizards on Monday launched an online battle of the brains for cash and a chance at a career with United States internet search powerhouse Google, the company said. The qualification round of ”Code Jam 2005” commenced with geeks testing their programming prowess in a virtual tournament designed to uncover brilliant minds, said a Google official.