Scientists have calculated for the first time how much of a country's electricity needs could be provided from the manure of cattle and other livestock.
They estimate that 3 per cent of America's total electricity demand could be created from animal waste, enough to power millions of homes and businesses.
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Broken down and then burnt, the scientists estimate that the manure from hundreds of millions of livestock in America could produce approximately 100 billion kilowatt hours of electricity a year.
Bengal farmers in potato protest
Angry farmers in the Indian state of West Bengal have been dumping their potato crop on roads in protest against poor prices.
Farmers say they are selling at a loss because a bumper crop and lack of storage facilities has led to a dramatic fall in prices.
The West Bengal government is asking neighbouring Indian states to purchase potatoes from them.
The move comes as prices for other foods in Asia have soared.
Locusts in Zimbabwe
THE Department of Agricultural Technical Extension Services (Agritex) has urged farmers to guard against red locusts following an outbreak in some parts of the country.
In an interview with Sunday Business last Wednesday, Matabeleland North province Agritex officer, Mr Adolf Dube, said all the department provincial offices received correspondence instructing them to be on guard against red locust following reports of an outbreak in Mudzi and some parts of Mashonaland West.
Locusts Threaten to Inflict More Misery on Australian Farmers
Locusts are threatening to inflict more pain on some of the most drought-ravaged parts of eastern Australia. Hundreds of farmers have found beds of locust eggs and officials fear that many more have not been reported. Officials have said that recent wet weather has increased the risk of devastating locust activity. From Sydney, Phil Mercer reports.
Australia's last major locust outbreak occurred in 2004, when billions of these voracious creatures were hatched. They formed a 1,000-kilometer front that devastated huge areas of farmland, mainly in central parts of New South Wales.
There are fears that the start of this year's locust season in late September could bring more grief to farmers, who have endured a long-standing drought.The insects can inflict widespread and severe damage to pastures and cereal crops.
Al-Qaeda Terrorist Accuses Saudi King of Trying to 'Spawn a New Religion'
One of al-Qaeda’s more prominent members took a shot at Saudi Arabia’s king Monday, accusing him of wanting to “spawn a new religion” and issuing a call to kill him for having betrayed Islam.
In a video message posted on several Islamic websites, Afghanistan terrorist Abu Yahya al-Libi strongly criticized the recently-held inter-faith meeting that drew Islamic, Jewish, and Christian leaders to the city of Madrid.
"The Prophet (Muhammad) ordered us to drive unbelievers from the Arabian Peninsula,” he said, according to Italy-based Adnkronos International. “Today, the Saudi royal family is destroying our Islamic tenets by showing Muslims it is possible to spread Christian principles.
"By sitting side by side in public, they are taking part in the Crusader campaign,” Libi added.
Suspected Abu Sayyaf bandits kidnap 3 in Basilan
07/20/2008 07:00 PM
3 kidnap victims freed in Zamboanga
First Posted 00:03:00 07/29/2008
ZAMBOANGA CITY – After more than a week in captivity, three kidnap victims were freed in Albarkah town on Sunday night after payment of a “board and lodging fee.”
Basilan police chief Senior Supt. Salik Macapantar said Ronillo Ando, 41, a passenger jeepney driver; Wilma Sumergido, 50, an employee of the Tumahubong Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Development Inc.; and her son, Michael, 15, were freed Sunday night to negotiator Atsby Alki, a village official of Bulating in Lamitan City.
Macapantar said the three captives were handed over to the negotiator in Barangay Magkawa in Albarkah town at around 11 p.m.
Bombs defused in Indian city
Police in India say they have defused at least 14 small bombs in the city of Surat in the western state of Gujarat.
The bombs, none of which had timers attached, were found in various locations around Surat, the hub of India's textile and diamond trade.
Cities across India have been on high alert since a series of bombings in the southern city of Bangalore on Friday and Ahmedabad in Gujarat a day later.
At least 50 people were killed and more than 100 injured in the blasts.
PAKISTAN: Schoolgirls Lured To Suicide Bombing
PESHAWAR, Jul 18 (IPS) - "I was able to save my daughter from becoming a suicide bomber. She had been lured by her teacher at the religious school," said Jamilur Rehman, a Pakistani schoolteacher, whose 13-year-old daughter was taken away by a Taliban group to be trained as a suicide bomber in North Waziristan, a lawless border area.
Rehman said that his daughter Sameena took religious lessons in a seminary in Tank district of the North Western Frontier Province (NWFP), where she was shown videos of the suicide bombing. "She was motivated to the extent that she became ready to be trained as a suicide bomber and destroy the enemies of Islam," he told IPS in a phone interview.
According to Sameena, she and another student, Mushtari Begum, 15, were handed over by her teacher to two men, but they were seized by political authorities in the Mir Ali area of North Waziristan, part of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) who handed them over to the Tank police.
"The situation is extremely bad. We have saved the two girls from becoming suicide bombers, but indications are that the trend of women training as suicide bombers has gained currency," said police officer Ahmad Jamal, in Tank district, which adjoins North Waziristan.
Iraq's growing female bomber fear
Monday's triple suicide attack against Shia pilgrims in Baghdad highlighted what seems to a growing phenomenon - the use by Sunni-based radical Islamist insurgents of women to carry out suicide attacks.
Police said all three of the attackers in the bombings, which claimed the lives of about 25 pilgrims, were women.
Eyewitnesses in the city of Kirkuk - where at least 22 people were reported to have been killed by a suicide bomb attack on a crowd of protesting Kurds - said the attacker there was also a woman.
American military figures indicate that there have been at least 27 suicide bombings carried out by women in Iraq this year, a sharp jump from only eight in 2007.
Buddhist Monks Destroy Church in Sri Lanka, Attack Pastor
A group of Buddhist monks and a mob of locals destroyed a church in Sri Lanka and attacked the pastor earlier this month, adding to the already escalating anti-Christian violence in the south Asia country.
Calvary Church in Thalahena, Malabe, northeast of the capital Colombo, was destroyed after a rumor spread that Christians had attacked a local Buddhist temple. A mob of some 500 villagers had descended on Calvary church and surrounded it as Sunday service was about to take place on July 6, persecution watchdog group Release International recently reported.
The 100 church members in attendance were told to leave by the pastor and police, who were called in earlier by the pastor when he noticed that the church’s cross was damaged.
"Fearing violence, the pastor and the police sent away the congregation. Soon after the mob – including the monks – entered the church and completely destroyed everything within, leaving only the walls standing,” said the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL), a partner of Release International.
"The mob then turned on the pastor and five workers, beating them with clubs and rods. A police officer who attempted to shield the pastor also received blows."
According to the NCEASL, the pastor and his father were both injured and were taken to the hospital.
Thousands of Korean Missionaries Lauded at Major Conference
WHEATON, Ill. – Thousands of missionaries from the second largest missionary-sending country packed Edman Memorial Chapel at Wheaton College on Monday for the 6th Korean World Mission Council for Christ conference.
Korean missionaries who have been serving in countries around the globe were welcomed with a standing ovation Monday night as the five-day conference, themed “The World is Calling Korean Churches to be the Last Runners to Finish Unfinished Tasks,” opened. They convened to discuss mission strategies, especially for the 21st century, and to strengthen one another for world missions.
“God is working in this very conference to call the people, the Koreans of America, to go to the ends of the Earth,” said Dr. Avery Willis, a former missionary of Southern Baptist Convention, in his congratulatory remarks. “We waited 2,000 years and 2,100 years to see the Great Commission fulfilled and God wants to know ‘Will you fulfill it in your generation?’ I can imagine the last unreached people group that never heard the Gospel and looks up and sees missionaries coming and it’s a Korean missionary.”
Zimbabwe to remove 'zeros' from currency
HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe's bank chief plans new currency reforms -- removing "more zeros" from the plummeting Zimbabwe dollar and raising the limit on cash withdrawals -- to tackle the country's runaway inflation and cash shortages, state media reported Sunday.
Previous currency reforms have failed to tame Zimbabwe's inflation --officially pegged at 2.2 million percent a year but estimated by independent analysts to be closer to 12.5 million percent. It also has become virtually impossible to get access to cash as the country's economic collapse worsens.
Authorities last week released a new 100 billion dollar bank note. By Sunday it was not enough even to buy a scarce loaf of bread in what has become one of the world's most expensive -- and impoverished -- countries.
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