World Bank helps out China
The World Bank said last week it would lend China US$87 million to help expand the supply of renewable electricity in Asia's economic powerhouse and giant energy consumer. "China's abundant undeveloped resources of small hydropower, wind, biomass, geothermal and solar energy ... could help the country reduce some of the environmental damage from its overwhelming dependence on coal for large-scale, grid-based power generation," the global lender said.
Africans flood to cities
Sub-Saharan Africa's traditionally rural-based society is fast disappearing, with more than half its roughly 700 million people seen living in urban areas by 2030, the United Nations said Friday. The head of the UN housing project Habitat said Africa's "chaotic urbanization" was -- together with the HIV/AIDS pandemic -- the biggest threat to the world's poorest continent.
More tsunamis predicted
Scientists are convinced another giant tsunami will one day sweep across the Indian Ocean -- what they are not sure about is when. Almost six months after the deadly Dec. 26 tsunami, triggered by a magnitude 9.15 earthquake, scientists are keeping a close eye on aftershocks and the increased earthquake activity around Indonesia as they try to work out when the next big one will hit.
Blair caught in climate dilemma
British Prime Minister Tony Blair is trapped in a dilemma of his own creation over saving the planet from global warming, analysts say. Blair has put climate change at the heart of his year-long presidency of the Group of Eight industrial nations, but his efforts to get action agreed at next month's G8 summit in Scotland are being repeatedly torpedoed by the US.
Desertification a global threat
Desertification threatens to drive millions of people from their homes in coming decades while vast dust storms will damage the health of people continents away, an international report said last week. "Desertification has emerged as a global problem affecting everyone," said Zafar Adeel, assistant director of the UN University's water academy and a lead author of a report drawing on the work of 1,360 scientists in 95 nations.
Brazilians uncover `Michelangelo code'
Two Brazilian doctors and amateur art lovers believe they have uncovered a secret lesson on human anatomy hidden by Renaissance artist Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel's ceiling. Completed nearly 500 years ago, the brightly colored frescoes painted on the Vatican's famous sanctuary are considered some of the world's greatest works of art. They depict Biblical scenes such as the Creation of Adam in which God reaches out to touch Adam's finger.
Scientists look for new blood
Australian scientists say they have found a way to make blood cells in volume out of human master cells, which could eventually lead to production of safe blood cells for transfusions and organ transplants. Synthetically produced red blood cells would, in theory, overcome the concerns about dangerous infections that can be transmitted from blood donors to patients worldwide.
Three big changes have transformed the landscape of Taiwan’s local patronage factions: Increasing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) involvement, rising new factions and the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) significantly weakened control. GREEN FACTIONS It is said that “south of the Zhuoshui River (濁水溪), there is no blue-green divide,” meaning that from Yunlin County south there is no difference between KMT and DPP politicians. This is not always true, but there is more than a grain of truth to it. Traditionally, DPP factions are viewed as national entities, with their primary function to secure plum positions in the party and government. This is not unusual
Mongolian influencer Anudari Daarya looks effortlessly glamorous and carefree in her social media posts — but the classically trained pianist’s road to acceptance as a transgender artist has been anything but easy. She is one of a growing number of Mongolian LGBTQ youth challenging stereotypes and fighting for acceptance through media representation in the socially conservative country. LGBTQ Mongolians often hide their identities from their employers and colleagues for fear of discrimination, with a survey by the non-profit LGBT Centre Mongolia showing that only 20 percent of people felt comfortable coming out at work. Daarya, 25, said she has faced discrimination since she
More than 75 years after the publication of Nineteen Eighty-Four, the Orwellian phrase “Big Brother is watching you” has become so familiar to most of the Taiwanese public that even those who haven’t read the novel recognize it. That phrase has now been given a new look by amateur translator Tsiu Ing-sing (周盈成), who recently completed the first full Taiwanese translation of George Orwell’s dystopian classic. Tsiu — who completed the nearly 160,000-word project in his spare time over four years — said his goal was to “prove it possible” that foreign literature could be rendered in Taiwanese. The translation is part of
April 21 to April 27 Hsieh Er’s (謝娥) political fortunes were rising fast after she got out of jail and joined the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in December 1945. Not only did she hold key positions in various committees, she was elected the only woman on the Taipei City Council and headed to Nanjing in 1946 as the sole Taiwanese female representative to the National Constituent Assembly. With the support of first lady Soong May-ling (宋美齡), she started the Taipei Women’s Association and Taiwan Provincial Women’s Association, where she
RSS