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South Sudan facing chronic food shortages, U.N. agencies say

U.N. agencies, including the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP), are warning that South Sudan, the world's newest nation, "will face chronic food shortages next year due to internal and border insecurity, erratic rains and a huge influx of returnees from the North," IRIN reports.

29 Sep 2011

U of A researchers discover active environmental catalyst

University of Alberta chemistry researchers have discovered an active catalyst that has the potential to improve the efficiency and environmental impact of manufacturing processes used to make products such as agrochemicals and pharmaceuticals.

28 Sep 2011

Gates Foundation report for G20 supports taxing financial transaction, tobacco, fuel to aid poor

A report by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that was commissioned by the G20 chair "proposes raising new funding for poorer countries by taxing financial transactions, tobacco, and shipping and aviation fuels, according to details of a G20 report obtained by Reuters," the news service reports.

27 Sep 2011

McDonald’s loses heart health ‘tick’ of approval

McDonald's will lose the right to display the National Heart Foundation of Australia's Tick on foods marketed as healthy options. The fast food giant pays about $300,000 a year so it can put the trademarked Tick next to fish burgers, salads and chicken wraps. But the Heart Foundation has told McDonald's it is removing the company's right to use the Tick, which has been used to promote its foods over the past five years.

21 Sep 2011

Sperm bank spurns potential redhead donors

Cryos International, one of the world's largest sperm banks is refusing potential donors who have red hair. The bank's director told the Danish newspaper Ekstrabladet that there simply wasn't much demand for sperm from red-headed men.

20 Sep 2011

Conference to discuss how research, technology and innovation can contribute to food for all

The conference, hosted by the European Commission's in-house science service, the Joint Research Centre (JRC), will discuss how research, technology and innovation can contribute to food for all. It will look at the best way to foster sustainability of food supply on a global scale.

20 Sep 2011

Drug overdose deaths surpass road traffic accident deaths in U.S.

According to newly released figures, drug-related deaths now outnumber traffic fatalities in the U.S., with the rise driven by an increase in prescription narcotic overdoses.

19 Sep 2011

OU student to receive 2011 EPA's STAR Fellowship for research on safe drinking water

A University of Oklahoma environmental science graduate student is the recipient of the 2011 EPA Science to Achieve Results Fellowship for research on safe drinking water with a focus on the Rift Valley area of Ethiopia.

19 Sep 2011

World should provide funding for peacekeeping troops to ensure humanitarian aid routes in Somalia

With the retreat of the Islamist extremist group al-Shabab out of the Somali capital of Mogadishu, where famine is threatening the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, "the U.N.-backed peacekeeping force can and should be quickly expanded," according to Somalia's prime minister and the U.N. envoy to the nation, in order to "allow the force to move out from the capital to secure routes for aid," a Washington Post editorial states.

17 Sep 2011

Dr. Oz and apple juice – FDA and experts fume at arsenic false alarm

Television's Dr. Mehmet Oz is being questioned by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and others for sounding what they say is a false alarm about the dangers of apple juice.

16 Sep 2011

Horn of Africa: Fighting food insecurity with forests and trees

Restoring and preserving dryland forests and planting more trees to provide food, fodder and fertilizer on small farms are critical steps toward preventing the recurrence of the famine now threatening millions of people in the Horn of Africa, according to forestry experts from the CGIAR Consortium.

16 Sep 2011

UN report on illicit drug use worldwide

According to a new United Nations report the use of stimulant drugs of abuse like amphetamine, ecstasy and meth is increasing worldwide. The report adds that the growing trade in these illegal drugs and the high profits they bring to criminals are posing an increasing threat to health and security.

14 Sep 2011

Gay blood donations to be allowed soon in UK

Soon the lifetime ban on blood donations by homosexual and bisexual men will be lifted in England, Scotland and Wales. Ministers have agreed to let men who have not had sex with another man in the past 12 months to donate from November.

12 Sep 2011

National forests might provide health benefits for public

Each year, more than 170 million people visit national forests for recreation. And the physical activity associated with these visits burns 290 billion food calories. That equals enough french fries laid end to end to reach the Moon and back-twice-according to a recent study in the Journal of Forestry.

9 Sep 2011

Devoting work time to physical activity can lead to higher productivity

Devoting work time to physical activity can lead to higher productivity. This is shown in a study performed by researchers at Stockholm University and Karolinska Institutet that is being published in Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

7 Sep 2011

U.S. smoking rates on slow decline: CDC report

Roughly 45 million adult Americans smoke and this is much lesser than the figures a few years back. Even those who still smoke have cut back on the number of cigarettes they smoke, but the rate of decline has begun to slow, U.S. health experts said on Tuesday. Smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke is the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the United States, killing an estimated 443,000 Americans each year.

6 Sep 2011

McDonald’s menus to include calorie counts in Britain

In an advancement against rising rates of obesity nearly 1,200 McDonald's restaurants in the U.K. will this week begin displaying the calorie count of each food and drink item on their wall-mounted menu boards.

5 Sep 2011

Study sheds new light on the ways in which languages ensure efficient communication of information

A recent study of the speech information rate of seven languages concludes that there is considerable variation in the speed at which languages are spoken, but much less variation in how efficiently languages communicate the same information.

3 Sep 2011

Tobacco industry goes after confidential smoking data from UK’s Department of Health

The tobacco giants are urging the UK’s Department of Health to extract information about meetings between government officials and researchers who are investigating the public-health implications of new smoking policies.

2 Sep 2011

Governor Perry attacked for choosing new medical treatment

Recently, the governor of Texas and presidential hopeful had a bad back treated by injecting some of his very own fat cells, after they had been cultured and treated in a laboratory. The innovative use of a patient’s own adult stem cells is showing great promise in many conditions, including damaged joints.

29 Aug 2011