Golden mole not seen for 80 years found again in South Africa
Maui officials try to stop ash from flowing into storm drains
LAHAINA, Hawaii – Maui officials were on standby Wednesday to prevent ash from August’s deadly wildfire in Lahaina, Hawaii, from flowing into storm drains after forecasters said a winter storm could bring heavy rain and strong winds to the island.
The National Weather Service said rain falling at a rate of more than 1 inch per hour could trigger localized flooding over burn scars in Lahaina and in Kula, a mountainous area where wildfires also spread three months ago.
Maui County said it placed 40 pallets of straw barriers around Lahaina and that 25 staff members were on standby.
Forecasters said up to 5 inches of snow could fall on the summits of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, two Big Island mountains that rise 13,000 feet above sea level. The peaks often get snow during the winter months.
Pope says he has bronchitis, doctors say he shouldn’t travel
ROME – Pope Francis said on Thursday that he is suffering from acute, infectious bronchitis and that doctors recommended he cancel his planned visit to Dubai this weekend to avoid the quick changes in temperature that would be involved.
“As you can see, I’m alive,” Francis quipped at the start of an audience with participants of a symposium on health care ethics.
Francis, 86, came down with the flu last week and is on antibiotics. On Tuesday, the Vatican announced he was canceling his planned participation in the U.N. climate conference on doctors’ orders.
“The reason is that it’s very hot there, and you go from heat to air conditioning,” Francis told the health care workers. “Thank God it wasn’t pneumonia. It’s a very acute, infectious bronchitis.”
African company to make vaginal rings that protect against HIV
A South African company will make vaginal rings that protect against HIV, which AIDS experts say should eventually make them cheaper and more readily available.
The Population Council announced Thursday that Kiara Health of Johannesburg will start making the silicone rings in the next few years, estimating that 1 million could be produced annually. The devices release a drug that helps prevent HIV infections and are authorized by nearly a dozen countries and the World Health Organization.
The nonprofit council owns the rights to the rings, which are now made by a Swedish company
The ring releases the drug dapivirine in slow doses over a month. It currently costs $12 to $16, but experts expect the price to drop once it is widely produced in Africa.
CAPE TOWN, South Africa – Researchers in South Africa say they have rediscovered a species of mole with an iridescent golden coat and the ability to almost “swim” through sand dunes after it hadn’t been seen for more than 80 years and was thought to be extinct.
The De Winton’s golden mole – a small, blind burrower with “super-hearing powers” that eats insects – was found to be still alive on a beach in Port Nolloth on the west coast of South Africa by a team of researchers from the Endangered Wildlife Trust and the University of Pretoria.
It had been lost to science since 1936, the researchers said.