New data published by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) reveals that the overall 2023 air pollution levels in Jakarta were arguably the worst since 2019. Despite improvements between
DENILIQUIN, Australia: Lindsay Renwick, the mayor of this dusty southern Australian town, remembers the constant whir of the rice mill. "It was our little heartbeat out there, tickety-tick-tickety," he said, imitating the giant fans that dried the rice, "and now it has stopped." The Deniliquin mill, the largest rice mill in the Southern Hemisphere, once processed enough grain to satisfy the daily needs of 20 million people. But six long years of drought have taken a toll, reducing Australia's rice crop by 98 percent and leading to the mothballing of the mill last December.
About 600 people have been evacuated in eastern Indonesia after a volcano began spewing ash, a vulcanologist said on Wednesday. Mount Egon on Flores Island started to erupt late on Tuesday, emitting grey ash up to 4,000 metres (13,000 feet) above the crater, said Muhammad Hendrasto, head of monitoring at the volcanology office in Bandung on Java island. Authorities immediately raised the alert to orange, one notch below the highest level, and evacuated people living about 1.8 km (1 mile) from the peak of the volcano, he said.
Projected to be the fifth-largest city in the world by 2015, Jakarta, Indonesia has faced growing challenges in the traffic congestion and harmful pollution that result from the increasing use of cars and motorcycles.
Indonesia Says To Launch Bird Flu Pandemic Plan INDONESIA: April 15, 2008 JAKARTA - Indonesia, which has the highest death toll from bird flu of any country, will launch a plan later this week to deal with a possible influenza pandemic, officials said on Monday. Heru Setijanto, head of surveillance and monitoring at the national commission for bird flu control, said the plan would be followed up a week later by a three-day pandemic simulation involving several villages on the resort island of Bali.
THE World Bank has issued an urgent call to rich nations to help stem rising food prices, warning that social unrest in poor countries is spreading and that 100 million people are at risk of being plunged deeper into poverty. "We have to put our money where our mouth is now, so that we can put food into hungry mouths. It is as stark as that," said World Bank president Robert Zoellick, as he called for more contributions to the $500 million World Food Program.
When all goes well, thunderheads tower above India's southwestern state of Kerala in early June, drenching the region's vital rice fields and ensuring a bountiful harvest. From there the summer monsoon plods northward to soak the baking plains and irrigate vital breadbasket regions that feed 1.1 billion people before arriving at the foot of the Himalayas in August.
Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will meet the top US health official on Monday to discuss the bird flu crisis that has killed 107 people here, his spokesman said. US Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt is in Indonesia on a one-day visit, the president's spokesman said. "He will meet the president this afternoon to discuss cooperation in health, with the bird flu issue high on the agenda," said spokesman Dino Patti Djalal. Indonesia is the country worst hit by bird flu, with 107 people known to have died from the disease, 13 of them this year.
A University of Washington professor says a recently discovered fish that crawls instead of swimming and has forward-looking eyes like humans could be part of an entirely unknown family of fishes. The creature sighted in Indonesian waters off Ambon Island has tanand peach-colored zebra-stripping. It uses its leglike pectoral fins to burrow into cracks and crevices of coral reefs in search of food. UW professor Ted Pietsch says this relative of the anglerfish will have to undergo DNA scrutiny to verify that it is unique. But he says he's never seen anything like it.
A fish that would rather crawl into crevices than swim, and that may be able to see in the same way that humans do, could represent an entirely unknown family of fishes, says a University of Washington fish expert.
Bird Flu's Spread Around The Globe UK: April 3, 2008 LONDON - The World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed on Wednesday that two Indonesians, an 11 year-old female and a 15-year-old male, have died from the H5N1 strain of bird flu. The outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian flu began in Asia in 2003. Following are some facts about the virus and its spread: >br> * Since the virus re-emerged in Asia, outbreaks have been confirmed in about 60 countries and territories, according to data from the World Organisation for Animal Health.
