China sets up 21 new national nature reserves
Beijing: China has set up 21 new state-level nature reserves, increasing the country’s total conservation area to nearly 10 percent of the country’s land territory.
A circular approving the new reserves was issued Tuesday by the State Council General Office, Xinhua reported. The newly-established nature reserves, with a total area of more than 6,200 sqkm, are scattered across 15 provinces and autonomous regions, including Liaoning, Fujian and Henan provinces and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The reserves will become sanctuaries of 35 state-level endangered animal species, such as the Manchurian tiger, giant panda and golden monkey, as well as 12 kinds of rare wild plants. The number of national nature reserves has now reached 428, covering 930,000 sq km. The reserves are important in protecting biodiversity and implementing international conventions, the circular said. (IANS)
Nepal to hold elephant festival
Kathmandu: Nepal is going to hold an elephant festival in the town of Sauraha Dec 26-30 to raise public awareness about the decreasing number of the animal in the country. The Nepal Tourism Board Tuesday said that the 11th edition of the annual festival is being organised by Chitwan district’s Regional Hotel Association in Nepal (RHAN), Xinhua reported.
“From its earlier editions, the festival has already introduced itself in global tourism arena,” the board said in a statement.
“This festival reminds us of our responsibilities towards wildlife.”
“This edition of festival will see some 100 elephants in action, ” RHAN president Gyanendra Kumar Bista said.
According to Bista, 20 elephants will take part in a race, eight elephant calves will play football and five will compete in a beauty pageant.
According to official data, only about 125 elephants remain in Nepal and they have been categorised as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). (IANS)
Chinese surgeons punished for taking photos with patient
Beijing: Several surgeons and nurses of a hospital in China have been punished with a three months salary cut and warnings after they posted pictures posing alongside a patient undergoing surgery. Public anger was sparked when one of the doctors posted five of the pictures from the hospital in Xian, Shannxi Province, online, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.
In one of the snaps, doctors and nurses linked arms next to the unconscious patient and grin behind their masks, while two others continue to finish the procedure.
Another one shows the group making “V for victory” signs, while a third clearly shows the unconscious patient, with one of the snap-happy doctors holding up an intravenous drip bag. Following the online anger, Chinese health officials launched investigation and identified the medical staff at the private Fengcheng Hospital.
All of the hospital’s management staff and the doctors and nurses involved were deducted three months’ salary and given official warnings by the municipal health bureau, the Post report said. The hospital’s management made a public apology on Sunday night, saying that staff had taken the pictures as souvenirs of their old operating room, which was due to be closed in favour of new facilities. (PTI)
Our ancestors used olive oil for cooking
London: Excavation experts have unearthed nearly 8,000-year-old ancient clay pots in the Lower Galilee region of northern Israel with olive oil residues in them, driving home the point that our ancestors were aware about the oil’s health benefits.
The findings suggest that people first domesticated the olive tree about 8,000 to 6,000 years ago.
“This is the earliest evidence of the use of olive oil in the country and perhaps the entire Mediterranean basin,” Ianir Milevski and Nimrod Getzov, excavation directors at the Israel Antiquities Authority, were quoted as saying in a LiveScience report. The detailed analyses of 20 pottery vessels showed that the pottery containing olive oil dates back to the Early Chalcolithic period, a phase of the Bronze Age. The olive oil was well preserved inside the vessels for almost 8,000 years, said the study that appeared in the Journal of Plant Sciences. (IANS)
Google ready to test first self-driving car prototype
Washington: Google has finished its work on the first complete prototype of its own self-driving car and is now ready to try it on the test track.
The company”s latest prototype apparently has all the parts that a self-driving car requires to function and is said to hit the roads in 2015.
According to The Verge, the prototype that Google originally unveiled back in May was just an “early mockup” that even lacked headlights.
The makers have not made many changes in the design of the car.
However, the LIDAR system mounted on top of the vehicle to help it see the world has been cut down in size and it”s shrunk from a strange-looking mount to a sleek, black cap, the report said. (ANI)