Kazakhstan has stepped up border controls with neighboring Kyrgyzstan, while China has refused to send its athletes to a meet there following news of a Kyrgyz teenager having died from bubonic plague, allegedly getting infected by a local rodent. Kazakhstan has issued a travel warning, urging its citizens not to go to Kyrgyzstan’s Issyk-Kul Lake resorts because of the recently-registered bubonic... 

The long awaited 3rd installment from the Galaxy Note series is set to change not only the phablet market but the smartphone market as-well. As some of us already know, Samsung Galaxy Note isn’t exactly a phone because it’s simply too big to fit in a pocket but its not that big because it would have been called a tablet. So what is it? It’s a hybrid between a phone and a tablet,... 

Scientists have pinpointed that photographing the retina can provide information which help predicting the potential for stroke in people with high blood pressure. According to a new study conducted at the National University of Singapore, the eye examination mainly retinal imaging explores symptoms on the status of blood vessels in the brain. While high blood pressure is the most important risk factor... 

A new research carried out by an international team suggests that regular consumption of coffee and tea can reduce fatty liver in people with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Headed by Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School and the Duke University of Medicine, the study demonstrates that daily consumption of four cups of coffee or tea shares a health benefit due to the caffeine present in both... 

Another tank with highly radioactive water at the devastated Fukushima nuclear power plant has leaked, reported operator TEPCO. The contaminated water contains an unprecedented 80 million Becquerels of radiation per liter. The norm is a mere 150 Bq A spokesman for the Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said on Tuesday that 300 tons of highly radioactive water has leaked from a stainless steel tank on... 

Even the tiniest mistake during an operation to extract over 1,300 fuel rods at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan could lead to a series of cascading failures with an apocalyptic outcome, fallout researcher Christina Consolo told RT. Fukushima operator TEPCO wants to extract 400 tons worth of spent fuel rods stored in a pool at the plant’s damaged Reactor No. 4. The removal would... 

A flooded house in Blagoveschensk, Russia’s Amur region Five regions in eastern Russia have declared a state of emergency amid flooding assessed by the national weather center as the worst in the country’s history. With thousands already affected, the flooding in Russia’s Far East is expected to reach its peak next week as emergency workers and local residents step up efforts to tackle the disaster,... 

Rescuers struggling to repair the damaged protective wall of a canal broken due to flash floods in Punjab Province. Senior Pakistani officials say heavy rains and flash floods over the past two weeks have claimed the lives of at least 98 people across Pakistan. According to government officials, 98 people died in flood-related accidents over the past fortnight, mainly in urban areas of the country. The... 

Chinese consumers’ spending has surged in recent years Even with the ongoing slowdown of China’s economic growth, the world’s No 2 economy is expected to overtake the US to become the world’s largest consumer market in the next five years, according to a new report by Standard & Poor’s (S&P). The report – entitled Financial Risks Are Rising as Retail and... 

India’s indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant is docked at the Cochin Shipyard Limited in Kerala, August 11, 2013. India has launched its first domestically built aircraft carrier on Monday, joining the world’s military elite. It comes two days after the activation of India’s first nuclear submarine, a move hailed as a “giant stride in technological capabilities.” The INS Vikrant will... 

A diplomatic scandal broke out between the Republic of Singapore and Malaysia after Singapore newspaper New Paper published an article entitled “Welcome to Malaysia, where it is easy to die and expensive to stay alive.” The Malaysian Government decided that the article may have inflicted a severe material damage on its tourism industry. The author of the article listed recent high-profile... 

Contaminated groundwater accumulating under the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant has risen 60cm above the protective barrier, and is now freely leaking into the Pacific Ocean, the plant’s operator TEPCO has admitted. The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), which is responsible for decommissioning the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, on Saturday said the protective barriers that were... 

Japan’s national debt exceeded 1,000 trillion yen, or $10.46 trillion, for the first time. It’s now well above 200% of the country’s GDP and is larger than that of Germany, France and the UK combined. Japan has increased borrowing this year to spend more on the country’s infrastructure as part of an ambitious program of economic stimulus aimed at ending 20 years of stagnation and falling... 

Bad news from Fukushima. Over two years since the nuclear explosion which wrecked the facility after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, the Pacific Ocean is being poisoned daily with lethal doses of highly toxic substances. This has been going on for over two years and according to some analysts, millions of people are at risk. Including in the USA. Michael Snyder is among many researchers investigating... 

The Chinese Indo-Pacific pink dolphins are rare, are getting rarer and are in line for extinction, thanks to Humankind. Welcome to the twenty-first century. These beautiful sea creatures start their lives grey, and gradually turn pink. Soon, this will not matter, will it? The pink dolphin is native to the coasts off Taiwan and Hong Kong. Industrial expansion and sea pollution are creating the conditions...