In Greenland, climate change isn't just a danger to ecosystems but also a threat to history, as global warming is affecting archeological remains, according to a study published Thursday.
There are more than 180,000 archaeological sites across the Arctic, some dating back thousands of years, and previously these were protected by the characteristics of the soil.
"Because the degradation rate is directly controlled by the soil temperature and moisture content, rising air temperatures and changes in precipitation during the frost-free season may lead to a loss of organic key elements such as archaeological wood, bone and ancient DNA," the report, published in the scientific journal Nature, stated.
The team behind the study, led by Jorgen Hollesen, has been examining seven different sites around the vast Arctic territory's capital Nuuk, since 2016.
In addition to organic elements, such as hair, feathers, shells and traces of flesh, some of the sites contain the ruins of Viking ...

Climate change threatens Greenland's archeological sites: study

PTI Automatic

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Thursday they had killed five "terrorists" in clashes near the western border with Iraq.
"A terrorist team that intended to infiltrate into our country from the western borders yesterday (Wednesday)... was completely destroyed," the Guards said in a statement published by their official website Sepahnews.
The clashes occurred in the vicinity of the city of Javanrud, located 460 kilometres (285 miles) west of Tehran in Kermanshah Province.  The statement did not say whether the dead were from Kurdish opposition or jihadist groups, both of which have previously entered from neighbouring Iraq.
The Islamic republic has been battling for most of its 40-year history with militant Kurdish opposition groups who use their bases in Iraq's Kurdistan region to stage attacks against the Guards and state institutions inside Iran.
On Tuesday Sepahnews reported that three members of the Guards had been killed and another wounded in an attack on their vehicle by ...

Iran Guards say 5 'terrorists' killed near western border

British consumer health giant Reckitt Benckiser announced Thursday it will pay up to USD1.4 billion (1.2 billion euros) to settle a dispute with US authorities over the sale and marketing of an opioid addiction treatment.
The case concerns the pharmaceutical company Indivior, which was an RB subsidiary before demerging in 2014.
The US authorities criticised Indivior for having sought to take advantage of the opioid addiction crisis in the United States by exaggerating the safety of its drug Suboxone.
RB said it had reached agreements with the US Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission to resolve the long-running investigation.
"RB will pay a total of up to $1.4 billion to fully resolve all federal investigations into RB in connection with the subject matter," the firm said in a statement.
The agreements cover the Indivior indictment and claims relating to state Medicaid programmes for those states choosing to participate in the settlement, said the group.
"While RB has .

Reckitt pays USD1.4bn to settle opioid treatment spat

Russia on Thursday blamed Washington for the escalation in tensions with Tehran after Britain said Iranian ships had attempted to impede a British oil tanker in Gulf waters.
"The situation is very concerning," said Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, quoted by news agency RIA Novosti.
"The reasons for this are clear. This is Washington's deliberate, premeditated course to exacerbate tensions."
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists he was aware that "such an incident allegedly took place" but also of Tehran's denial.
"As before, we call on everyone to behave with restraint in the Persian Gulf in order not to exacerbate the situation," he said, calling for dialogue.
Britain said the confrontation on Wednesday saw three Iranian boats attempt to "impede the passage" of a commercial vessel called British Heritage, which is owned by British energy giant BP.
This led a British warship moving between the three boats and warning them off, UK defence ministry officials ..

Russia blames US over Gulf tanker incident

A huge blaze broke out Thursday at a gas-fired power station just outside Moscow sending a plume of smoke and flames 50 metres into the sky, Russian television showed.
The fire at Power Station No. 27 broke out around 11:00 am on Thursday around 20 kilometres from Moscow.
The emergencies ministry said that 11 people received medical treatment including five people with minor burns but no one was hospitalised. There was no risk of the fire spreading to nearby residential areas, it said.
The energy ministry said a high-pressure gas pipe supplying fuel was burning outside the power station itself.
Russian television reported that the cause of the fire "could have been an explosion".
The smoke and flames were visible from the capital and the emergencies ministry said that the fire blazed over an area of 800 square metres.
The plume of fire subsided after authorities switched off the gas supply but black smoke continued to billow as gas already released continued to burn.
The emergencies ..

Huge fire erupts at power station outside Moscow

A car bomb near a checkpoint manned by Turkey-backed rebels in the northern Syrian city of Afrin killed 13 people including eight civilians Thursday, a war monitor said.
Turkish troops and their Syrian proxies took control of Afrin from Kurdish forces in March last year after a two-month air and ground offensive.
"The car bomb exploded near the checkpoint at the entrance to the town where vehicles were gathering to be checked," the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Those killed also included four fighters and an unknown person, the Observatory said.
"Among the victims, at least six are originally from Eastern Ghouta", a former rebel stronghold outside Damascus retaken by the regime last year, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.
There was no immediate claim for the blast, which is the latest deadly explosion to rock the city.
In January, a bomb placed on a bus killed three people.
In December, a car bomb took the lives of nine people.
Since Turkish troops ...

Car bomb at rebel checkpoint in Syria's Afrin kills 13: monitor

British far-right figurehead Tommy Robinson was jailed for contempt of court on Thursday, having live-streamed a confrontation with defendants in a criminal trial that was subject to reporting restrictions.
Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was sentenced to nine months in jail, minus the time he has already spent in prison, reducing his term to 19 weeks, of which he will serve half before being released.
"Nothing less than a custodial penalty would properly reflect the gravity of the conduct we have identified," judge Victoria Sharp said at the Old Bailey in London, England's central criminal court.
"The respondent cannot be given credit for pleading guilty. He has lied about a number of matters and sought to portray himself as the victim of unfairness and oppression."
Sharp and fellow judge Mark Warby last Friday found Robinson had acted in contempt when broadcasting footage of defendants arriving at Leeds Crown Court in northern England in May 2018.
He ...

UK far-right activist jailed for contempt of court

The mystery surrounding the disappearance of an Italian teenager 36 years ago deepened Thursday after two graves at the Vatican thought to possibly hold her remains were discovered to be empty.
Not only was Emanuela Orlandi's body not found, the tombs did not even hold the skeletons of the two princesses supposed to be buried there.
"The last thing I expected was to find empty tombs," said her brother Pietro Orlandi, 60, who has never stopped hoping to find his sister alive.
The dig followed an anonymous tip-off that the Teutonic Cemetery in the tiny city state may be the last resting place of Orlandi, the daughter of a Vatican employee.
She was last seen leaving a music class aged 15.
Theories have circulated for decades about who took her and where her body may lie.
"We're frankly astonished," said Laura Sgro, the Orlandi family lawyer.
"The family has a right to know what happened. Thirty-six years have passed, there have been three different popes at the Vatican," she ...

Missing teen mystery deepens as Vatican dig reveals empty graves

Angela Merkel remained seated during national anthems at an official ceremony on Thursday, as the German chancellor apparently sought to prevent a repeat of uncontrollable shaking with a rare change of protocol.
With questions swirling about Merkel's health after she suffered three episodes of shaking in public in less than a month, the veteran leader opted to play safe.
After greeting Denmark's new Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen at the portico of the chancellery, a smiling Merkel walked her over to a podium where both leaders took their seats.
The unusual move came a day after a similar ceremony when the German chancellor was seen shaking involuntarily for the third time.
On Wednesday, Merkel began trembling as national anthems were being played at the reception of Finnish Prime Minister Antti Rinne.
Just over an hour later, she attended a press conference as planned and told journalists that her health was no cause for concern.
She explained that she was simply still in a phase of 

Merkel sits through anthems after shaking spells

The UN on Thursday called on Malawi authorities to free two organisers of protests against alleged election fraud who were arrested on suspicion of stealing money from AIDS programmes.
"UNAIDS respectfully requests the immediate release of the two members of the Mango Network, Mr Gift Trapence and Mr Macdonald Sembereka, from police custody," the UN programme to end AIDS said in a statement.  Mango is a network of non-profit groups in Malawi.
Trapence and Sembereka are members of the Human Rights Defenders Coalition that has organised countrywide protests since the disputed May 21 election, alleging the vote was tainted by fraud.
They were arrested on Tuesday for alleged misuse of UNAIDS funds.
Their arrest came just days after Mutharika claimed the protests were aimed at unseating his government and warned that the organisers would be dealt with.
According to a letter from the UN offices in Malawi, a UNAIDS staff member had on July 5 reported an alleged incident to the ...

UN calls on Malawi to free protest organisers

The UN Human Rights Council was due to vote Thursday on a resolution mandating a "comprehensive" international review of the Philippines drug war, which watchdogs say has killed more than 20,000 people.
The resolution has faced strong pushback from President Rodrigo Duterte's government, which counters that the crackdown on narcotics has left just 5,300 people dead while retaining the strong support of many Filipinos.
The text to be voted on in the 47-member rights council requires the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, to conduct "a comprehensive written report on the situation of human rights in the Philippines," over the coming year.
Activists said they had initially hoped the resolution would call for a formal "inquiry," but compromised on a "report" to raise the prospects of winning a majority.
Duterte called the former UN rights chief, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, an "idiot" after Zeid raised concern about the drug war, which has reportedly included nightly ...

UN rights council to vote on Philippine drug war text

NASA has replaced the head of its human space exploration directorate in a major shake-up, US media reported Wednesday, as the agency scrambles to meet President Donald Trump's ambitious deadline to return astronauts to the moon by 2024.
The project -- named Artemis -- would be the first attempt to return humans to the lunar surface since the last Apollo landing in 1972, but some experts doubt if the deadline is realistic given budgetary constraints and delays in developing the next-generation rockets and equipment needed for the journey.
To meet this "bold challenge", NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said in an email to employees that Bill Gerstenmaier, head of the agency's Human Exploration and Operations (HEO) missions directorate, has been removed from his position and assigned an advisory role, the Washington Post and other US news outlets.
The widely-respected Gerstenmaier is a NASA veteran who joined the agency in 1977, rising to become one of its top managers, overseeing the 

Major shuffle at NASA in rush to meet Trump's moon deadline

Regime and jihadist-led forces were locked in clashes Thursday on the edge of an opposition bastion in northwest Syria after a jihadist-led advance that killed 56 fighters overnight, a war monitor said.
Russian and regime aircraft have ramped up their deadly bombardment of the Idlib region -- administered by Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, and home to some three million people -- since late April, despite a months-old international truce deal.
Clashes have also raged on the edges of the region, including in the north of Hama province.
Late Wednesday, HTS and allied rebels took control of Hamameyat village and hilltop, in clashes that killed 32 regime fighters and 24 fighters within the insurgents' own ranks, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
"The fighting is ongoing as regime planes and artillery pound the area," the head of the Britain-based monitor Rami Abdel Rahman said on Thursday morning.
HTS spokesman Abu Khaled al-Shami said the jihadist and .

Clashes kill 56 fighters in northwest Syria: monitor

Iran's Revolutionary Guards denied on Thursday that they had impeded a British oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, the force's Sepah news agency said.
"There has been no confrontation in the last 24 hours with any foreign vessels, including British ones," the Revolutionary Guards said in a statement.
Britain said Thursday three Iranian boats had attempted to "impede the passage" of a British oil tanker in Gulf waters, forcing UK warship HMS Montrose to intervene.
The Guards' statement said that if they were ordered to seize foreign vessels they would do so "immediately, decisively and speedily." The incident follows the detention of an Iranian oil tanker by Britain on July 4 off the coast of Gibraltar, a tiny British overseas territory on Spain's southern tip.
The 330 metre (1,000 feet) Grace 1 tanker, capable of carrying two million barrels of oil, was halted by police and customs in Gibraltar with the aid of a detachment of British Royal Marines.
Iran condemned the detention as an ..

Iran Revolutionary Guards deny impeding British tanker

A man has been arrested after scaling the gates of Buckingham Palace, where Queen Elizabeth II is currently in residence, officials said on Thursday.
The 22-year-old, who was unarmed, was arrested at around 2:00am (0100 GMT) on Wednesday and the incident is not being treated as terror-related, the police said.
The Sun reported that the intruder was on the loose in the palace grounds for around four minutes before the arrest.
A palace spokeswoman confirmed that Queen Elizabeth, who held her regular weekly meeting with Prime Minister Theresa May later on Wednesday, was staying at the palace.
There have been several security breaches in and around the palace over the years.  Most famously, in 1982, Michael Fagan got inside Queen Elizabeth's private chambers while she was in bed.
Last year, a homeless man scaled the walls and bedded down for the night in the grounds before being apprehended.

Man arrested after scaling Buckingham Palace gates

US authorities said Wednesday they are investigating allegations of abuse of migrant children by border agents, including the groping of a Honduran teenage girl, at a facility near the southern border with Mexico.
The allegations were reported by NBC News, which cited official reports of the incidents -- including the children's accounts -- at a Customs and Border Protection facility in Yuma, Arizona, where the migrants were held.
One incident involved a 15-year-old girl from Honduras, who alleged that a border agent put his hand inside her bra, then pulled down her underwear and groped her in front of other migrants and officials during what NBC News said should have been a routine pat-down.
The girl said in her account that "she felt embarrassed as the officer was speaking in English to other officers and laughing," NBC reported.
The US Customs and Border Protection agency (CBP), which has faced severe criticism over its treatment of detained migrants, said it takes "all allegations 

US to probe alleged abuse of migrant children by border agents

A French man at the centre of a bitter row over right-to-die legislation passed away in hospital on Thursday more than a week after doctors removed his hydration and nutrition tubes, his family told AFP.
"Vincent died at 8:24 am (0624 GMT) this morning," his nephew Francois Lambert told AFP.
Lambert, 42, was involved in a near-fatal car crash in 2008 that left him a quadriplegic with severe brain damage which doctors had long said was irreversible.
Left in a vegetative state, the question of whether to continue keeping him alive artificially divided his family and the nation.
Doctors at a hospital in the northern city of Reims began removing the tubes on July 2 while keeping him heavily sedated following a years-long legal battle that has raged in the highest courts in France and Europe.
The case rekindled a charged debate over France's right-to-die laws, which allow so-called "passive" euthanasia for severely ill or injured patients who are being kept alive artificially with no ...

Brain-damaged French patient dies after doctors remove life support: family

Australia off-spinner Nathan Lyon has tried to ramp up the pressure on England by insisting "it's their World Cup to lose" ahead of a hugely anticipated semi-final clash between the arch rivals on Thursday.
Reigning champions Australia were denied top spot in the group stage after a dramatic 10-run defeat by South Africa at Old Trafford on Saturday.  That result means they will face Ashes foes England in Birmingham for the right to play in the final at Lord's on July 14.
Australia beat England by 64 runs in a group match and finished above Eoin Morgan's men in the table.
But off-spinner Lyon, who controversially said he wanted to end the Test careers of some England players ahead of Australia's 4-0 home Ashes win of 2017/18, insisted the burden of expectation was on the tournament hosts, even though England have never won the World Cup.
"They're full of world-class players and they've been the number one team for a couple of years now," Lyon said after Saturday's match.
"They should ..

Australia's Lyon says World Cup is 'England's to lose'

The sweltering heat of the Venezuelan forest makes no difference to Jose Gregorio, who trembles with a cold chill.
"I have pain everywhere, fever," he stammers.
Gregorio has the classic symptoms of malaria, a disease eradicated years ago among his Yukpa indigenous people, but it's back with a vengeance all across crisis-struck Venezuela.
"He had sore joints and then started vomiting, and it's been four or five days since he's eaten anything," says his worried wife Marisol.
Their four-month-old baby babbles beside his father on the bed.
"The baby and I also had malaria," says Marisol.
"Before, that was not the case here, there was only chikungunya and dengue, malaria came back here last year."
She doesn't bat an eyelid at the mention of either of the other mosquito-borne viruses, whose spread has been fuelled by the collapse of Venezuela's health system.
"Here" is El Tucuco, a small village at the foot of the mountains that form the border with Colombia, a three-hour drive from ...

Malaria surges back in crisis-hit Venezuela

Monsoon-triggered landslides in Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh have killed one person and left more than 4,500 homeless, aid officials said Sunday.
About 35 centimetres (14 inches) of rain fell in 72 hours before the landslides started Saturday in camps around Cox's Bazar that house more than 900,000 of the Muslim minority who fled Myanmar, the UN said.
Twenty-six landslides were reported in makeshift camps built on hills near the border with Myanmar.
Trees there have been torn up to build huts and for firewood, leaving the terrain unstable.
UN refugee agency official Areez Rahman said about 30 shanty camps have been affected by the storms. One woman in her 50s died after being hit by a wall that collapsed, he told AFP.
Nur Mohammad, a 40-year-old Rohingya in the main Kutupalong camp, said 12 relatives had fled their tarpaulin-clad huts on the hills to take shelter with him.
"My home is already overcrowded. I'm worried how I will feed all these people," he said.
Officials said ..

One killed, thousands displaced in Rohingya camp landslides

Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters rallied outside a controversial train station linking the territory to the Chinese mainland on Sunday, the latest mass show of anger as activists try to keep pressure on the city's pro-Beijing leaders.
The rally was the first major large-scale protest since last Monday's unprecedented storming of parliament by largely young, masked protesters -- which plunged the international financial hub further into crisis.
Hong Kong has been rocked by a month of huge marches as well as a series of separate violent confrontations with police, sparked by a law that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China.
The bill has since been postponed in response to the intense backlash but that has done little to quell public anger, which has evolved into a wider movement calling for democratic reforms and a halt to sliding freedoms in the semi-autonomous city.
Organisers said some 230,000 people snaked their way through streets in the harbour-front ...

AFP

AFP

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