Science

By Alfath Asmunda with Amal Jayasinghe in Colombo Banda Aceh, Indonesia (AFP) Dec 2, 2025 Governments and aid groups in Indonesia and Sri Lanka worked Tuesday to rush aid to hundreds of thousands stranded by deadly flooding that has killed more than 1,300 people in four countries. Torrential monsoon season deluges paired with two separate

by AFP Staff Writers Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka (AFP) Dec 2, 2025 In the mist-draped mountains of Sri Lanka’s tea country, rescuers were still plucking bodies from the reddish-brown mud on Tuesday after last week’s cyclone, the island’s worst natural disaster in decades. At least 465 people were killed, according to disaster officials, with another

by AFP Staff Writers Lucknow, India (AFP) Nov 30, 2025 Forest rangers in India have deployed drones to track man-eater wolves after nine people, mostly children, were killed by the animals in recent weeks, officials said Sunday. The latest victim was a 10-month-old girl who was snatched by a wolf in Bahraich district of northern

by AFP Staff Writers New Delhi (AFP) Dec 3, 2025 New Delhi recorded more than 200,000 cases of acute respiratory illnesses at six state-run hospitals between 2022 and 2024, government numbers showed, highlighting the adverse effects of toxic air on health. Delhi, with its sprawling metropolitan region of 30 million residents, is regularly ranked among

By Amal JAYASINGHE Kandy, Sri Lanka (AFP) Dec 4, 2025 Electrician V. K. Muthukrishnan ran to help when a lightning-fast mudslide flattened his neighbour’s home in rural Sri Lanka — only to see his own house swept away minutes later. A friend whom he directed to the disaster site to aid rescue efforts was also

By Aishwarya KUMAR with Anuj SRIVAS in Mumbai Bengaluru, India (AFP) Nov 27, 2025 In India’s tech capital Bengaluru, the morning “rush hour” lasts so long it devours half the workday, throttling productivity in a city often viewed as the poster child of a booming economy. Entrepreneur RK Misra, co-founder of a multimillion-dollar start-up, avoids

by AFP Staff Writers Mumbai, India (AFP) Nov 27, 2025 India has approved a more than $800 million plan to boost production of rare earth magnets in an effort to secure supplies and cut its dependence on imports from countries like China. Rare earth permanent magnets (REPMs), some of the strongest types of permanent magnets

by AFP Staff Writers Bengaluru, India (AFP) Nov 26, 2025 A joint venture between India’s Reliance Industries and Canadian and US companies will invest $11 billion to develop an artificial intelligence data centre in southeastern India, the state government said on Wednesday. The five-year investment is for a one-gigawatt AI data centre in Visakhapatnam in

by AFP Staff Writers Rio De Janeiro, Brazil (AFP) Nov 26, 2025 Brazilian authorities on Wednesday approved the world’s first single-dose dengue vaccine, which they hailed as a “historic” achievement as cases of the mosquito-borne disease soar globally due to rising temperatures. Dengue, known for intense flu-like symptoms, crushing fatigue and body aches, reached record

by Sophie Jenkins London, UK (SPX) Nov 26, 2025 A global review of mountain regions over the last four decades finds accelerated shifts in temperature, rainfall, and snowfall. Researchers report that over one billion people rely on these regions for water, including China and India. As higher temperatures cause snowfall to become rain, the result