Amazonie : la sécheresse accélère le changement climatique. 1,8. C’est, en milliards de tonnes, la quantité de monoxyde de carbone dégagée par la forêt amazonienne du fait de la sécheresse de 2010, qui a affecté 3 millions de kilomètres carrés. Soit autant que les émissions de CO2 de l’Inde en un an (!). Un phénomène qui, en 2005, avait déjà inquiété plusieurs scientifiques réunis au sein de l’International Amazon Forest Inventory Network (réseau « Rainfor »), qui rassemblait les Universités de Leeds (Angleterre) et Paul Sabatier, le CIRAD (Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement) et l’INRA (Institut national de la recherche agronomique).
Cruciale pour la régulation naturelle du climat, la forêt amazonienne s’étend sur 6 milliards de km2 et neuf pays d’Amérique du Sud. En 2005, le réchauffement des eaux de l’Atlantique Nord avait apporté un courant d’air chaud sur l’Amazonie et engendré par là-même une raréfaction des précipitations. Crédits photos : flickr - Gidsicki / Wilson Dias. Former Botswana president calls for legalisation of homosexuality. Festus Mogae, the former president of Botswana, has said that homosexuality should be decriminalised to help tackle HIV rates.
Speaking to the BBC’s Africa Network, Mr Mogae said that while he does not “understand” homosexuality, gays and lesbians should not be arrested. He said: “I don’t understand it [homosexuality]. I am a heterosexual. “I look at women. “To protect them and their clients from being infected [with HIV], you have to assist them to protect themselves. Mr Mogae, the head of the government-backed Aids Council, added that the government’s refusal to hand out condoms to prisoners was making the problem of HIV worse. “If people can go to prison HIV negative and come out of it HIV positive, it means that prisons, whatever the law says, are one of the sources of infection,” he said. Homosexuality for men and women is illegal and Botswana and gay relationships are considered taboo in a society which sees being gay as “un-African”. Seventeen per cent of the population have HIV. German satellite the size of a car to crash to Earth 'at the weekend'
The x-ray observatory, named ROSAT, is expected to return to Earth between October 22 and 23, travelling at a speed of around 17,000 miles per hour, the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) said in a statement. Nevertheless, the space debris could arrive two days before or after the currently expected time, the DLR said. "The largest single fragment will probably be the telescope's mirror, which is very heat resistant," the centre said. However, statistically speaking, there is very little danger to humans from space junk, the experts said. The debris will almost certainly fall in the sea or on an uninhabited piece of land. Last month, a bus-sized US satellite that hurtled unpredictably toward Earth crossed over Africa and the northern Atlantic before plunging into the Pacific Ocean off California, NASA said.
There were no sightings or reliable accounts of damage as the six-tonne Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) fell from the sky. L'à-Côté de l'Actu (19 octobre) Swedish journalists accused of terrorism face trial in Ethiopia | World news. Two Swedish journalists charged with terrorism in Ethiopia after being arrested during a battle between government troops and rebels will go on trial on Thursday. The reporter Martin Schibbye and photojournalist Johan Persson, both freelancers, were detained in July while travelling with the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), a outlawed separatist movement. Ethiopia's government insists the Swedes are terrorists, not journalists, and claims to have video footage of the two men training with the rebels. The case has drawn criticism from press watchdog groups, and has prompted outrage in Sweden. Media organisations there claim that the journalists were investigating human rights violations by Ethiopian troops in the restive Ogaden region, where foreign companies, including the Swedish firm Lundin Petroleum, are looking for oil and gas.
The trial was due to start on Tuesday, but was delayed because two rebels accused alongside the journalists did not have court-appointed lawyers. What Percent Are You? - Real Time Economics.