Kampala. Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Here’s why you should never end your text messages with a full stop. That answers one of the manners questions of the modern age: should you punctuate texts ‘properly’ or be free and easy and pepper them with emoji? In a piece of bad news …
Read More »Eating variety of nuts linked to lower heart disease risk
Washington, United States | AFP | People who regularly snack on a variety of nuts may face a lower risk of heart disease than people who don’t, said the largest study of its kind, which was released this week. Eating five weekly servings of walnuts, peanuts or other kinds of tree …
Read More »Deadly heat from climate change may hit slums hardest
Miami, United States | AFP | With sheet metal roofs, concrete floors, poor ventilation and spotty electricity, crowded urban slums in Africa can expect to get even hotter and deadlier due to global warming, US researchers said Monday. Scientists at Johns Hopkins University analyzed three informal settlements in Nairobi, including the …
Read More »Zika virus mutated around 2013, leading to birth defects: study
Miami, United States | AFP | Zika has been around for decades but only recently began to cause birth defects due to a single mutation the mosquito-borne virus likely acquired in 2013, researchers said Thursday. The report in the US journal Science explains for the first time how this once relatively …
Read More »Today’s US teens about three years behind ’70s generation
Miami, United States | AFP | Teenagers in America today are about three years behind their counterparts from the 1970s when it comes to taking up sex, drinking alcohol and working for pay, researchers said Tuesday. The findings in the journal Child Development were based on an analysis of seven …
Read More »Smoking changes lung cells, primes them to develop cancer
Washington, United States | AFP | Chronic exposure to cigarette smoke can change lung cells over time, making them more vulnerable to disease and priming them to develop cancer, US researchers said Monday. The report in the journal Cancer Cell is based on lab experiments on lung cells that were …
Read More »Candidate AIDS vaccine passes early test in Uganda, Rwanda
Paris, France | AFP | The three-decade-old quest for an AIDS vaccine received a shot of hope Monday when developers announced that a prototype triggered the immune system in an early phase of human trials. Tested in 393 people in the United States, Rwanda, Uganda, South Africa and Thailand, the …
Read More »WHO hails major gains against once ‘neglected’ tropical diseases
Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | The World Health Organization on Wednesday hailed “unprecedented progress” in the fight against 18 neglected tropical diseases — including dengue fever and sleeping sickness — which kill 170,000 people and disable millions each year. The UN’s health agency, pharmaceutical companies and civil society groups led …
Read More »RESEARCH: Study shows African ants rescue their wounded soldiers
Washington, United States | AFP | Africa’s Matabele ants, fierce predators of termites, rescue their wounded soldiers and bring them back to the nest where they are “treated,” a new study showed Wednesday. This helping behavior for the injured is the first to be detected in the insect world, according to …
Read More »Elephants are insomniacs, sleeping just 2 hours a night
Miami, United States | AFP | Elephants hardly ever sleep in the wild, getting around two hours of shut-eye per night and only in the wee hours of the morning, researchers said Wednesday. The findings in the journal PLOS ONE are based on two female wild African elephants — living …
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