Polls open in historic Scotland vote |
Excitement mounts as Scots vote in referendum on whether to break away from the UK and become independent.
Last updated: 18 Sep 2014 08:41
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Both excitement and anxiety are mounting as Scotland starts voting in knife-edge referendum to determine whether to break away from the UK and become independent.
As polls open in Scotland, most opinion polls and experts say it is a vote too tight to predict. The voting is going to continue until 21 GMT on Thursday.
In its final hours, the battle for Scotland had all the trappings of a normal election campaign: "Yes Scotland'' and "No, Thanks'' posters in windows, buttons on jackets, leaflets on street corners and megaphone-topped campaign cars cruising the streets blasting out Scottish songs and "Children of the Revolution."
The gravity of the imminent decision was hitting home for many voters as political leaders made passionate, final pleas for their sides.
Influenza 'takes the academic community to school' and can help with Ebola
Ebola is an episodic disease. But that doesn't mean we can't learn from seasonal viruseslike influenza on how to deal with Ebola. Infectious diseases expert Dr. Abdullah Brooks how this might be possible.
DW: You're one of the speakers at a major conference convened by the European Scientific Working Group on Influenza. The conference comes at a time when we're all focused on the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa. How do you see influenza in this context - in terms of infectious diseases that we are having to combat on a regular basis and, to some extent, are struggling to combat?
Abdullah Brooks: One has to look at these regular infectious diseases, such as influenza - which also has pandemic potential - as well as new and emerging infections such as Ebola - which are more episodic - and take lessons and learn from each of these, because they are not independent. They are instructive as to how something [can be] a standing infection, whether in a zoonotic or animal host that crosses over into humans, or a human infection that can mutate and become something different and take on a pandemic or epidemic potential.
Astronomers find tiniest galaxy ever to contain a supermassive black hole
September 18, 2014 - 1:48PM
Rachel Feltman A supermassive black hole has been spotted in the tiniest galaxy yet — an ultracompact dwarf galaxy — which suggests that black holes could be in places we haven't even thought to look yet.
The galaxy, named M60-UCD1 and reported in a new Nature study, is 0.2 per cent the size of the Milky Way, but contains a black hole with the mass of 21 million suns. That's 15 per cent of the galaxy's total mass, which is pretty staggering compared to the less than .01 per cent taken up by the Milky Way's personal black hole.
Astronomers believe that the galaxy, which is a ball of about 100 million stars, used to be much bigger - with a more sensible star-to-black-hole ratio. But as M60-UCD1 orbited a much larger galaxy, the force of it stripped all of its outer parts away. The little dwarf with a big black hole was left behind, still orbiting its larger neighbour.
South Sudan backtracks on foreign worker policy
The government has reversed its announcement that only nationals can work in the country, saying employment regulations "will be discussed later".
The South Sudanese government said on Wednesday that it will not be expelling any foreign workers, reversing a policy announcement made a day earlier that met with protests from aid agencies and neighbouring countries.
“We would like to make a clear statement that there is no statement in the Republic of South Sudan saying that they are expelling foreign workers in this country. The government of South Sudan is not expelling any foreign worker in South Sudan,” said Foreign Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin.
“I can assure the fellow Kenyans in this country, not only Kenyans alone but Ugandans, Eritreans, Ethiopians andall the other neighbouring countries who are here, they are all very much welcome to this country.”
Aid volunteers in flooded Kashmir Valley ask: Where is the Indian Army? (+video)
Volunteers from across India are traveling to the Kashmir Valley to join flood relief efforts. But they are finding a big difference between the official relief efforts shown on television, and what's happening on the ground.
SRINAGAR, INDIA-ADMINISTERED KASHMIR — When Mohammad Muneem, a singer and songwriter in southwestern India saw images on television of the flooded Kashmir Valley, he panicked.
Mr. Muneem's family lives in Srinagar, the capital of India-administered Kashmir, and he'd seen shots of water rising close to the neighborhood where his parents live. His parents were alone at home and he had lost communication. He flew to Srinagar the next day, catching a flight to the still-dry regional airport.
Dozens of volunteers from New Delhi and elsewhere in India have traveled to the Kashmir Valley in the past week to join flood relief efforts, spurred by concern for family members or images of destruction on television.
The Extraordinary Makers Of India's Most Expensive Tea
A 155-year-old tea estate in India's Darjeeling district recently sold the most expensive tea ever made in the country.
Buyers in Japan, the U.S. and the U.K. bought the specialty tea, named Silver Tips Imperial, for $1,850 per kilo from the Makaibari Tea Estate. The Japanese buyer told the Times of India that the tea will be served for $45 a pot at the Ritz Carlton Tokyo Roppongi Hotel.
Around 500 women picked the tea in June on the eve of the summer solstice between 12:01 a.m. and 3 a.m., Makaibari chairman Rajah Banerjee told the newspaper.
"Leaves plucked during a full moon night make for excellent tea," he said. "This full moon night of June 13 presented a unique planetary configuration that comes once in 108 years."
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