American Illegals in Mexico

There is often news stories about the number of Mexican illegal immigrants living in the US. However, there is very little said about the growing number of US illegal immigrants living in Mexico. Last year over 1000 US citizens were questioned about their status in Mexico and fined up to $400. According the Mexican status over 730,000 US born citizens live in Mexico. Some are tourists who have overstayed, other have fallen in love with the country and retire others are working illegally and unregistered.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-radio-and-tv-17098719

The American Bus Revival

Coaches are currently the fastest growing form of long distance transport in the US. The coach long out of favour in the UK is making a comeback due to budget fares making coach travel very competitive. As well as offering cut price tickets between major cities, companies also offer wifi on board and pick up on the roadside rather than in bus terminals which are seen as dangerous. In 2011 intercity coach travel rose by 7.1%.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16881957

Is the building boom helping everyone in Sierra Leone?

Since the end of the civil war ten years ago, Sierra Leone is experiencing a building boom. Once such project is Bumbuna Dam which produces 40 MW of electricity, however, the poor state of the national grid mean that not all of this electricity can be used. Railways lines and raids have also been improved and mines opened. However, many jobs are temporary and much of the profits have gone to a limited few. In addition despite growth adult literacy is still low and infant mortality high.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-17160679

Ship's Anchor Slows Internet

East Africa's high speed internet access has been severely disrupted because a ship has dropped its anchor on fibre optic cables off the coast of Kenya. Since 2009 East Africa has been connected with three undersea cables. The damage to this one, which could take 14 days to repair is going to slow speeds across the region. The arrival of the cables has seen internet usage increase in Kenya from 1.8 million users to 3.1 million users.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-17179544

Japan Tsunami Debris Mapped

Nearly a year after the devastating Japan earthquake and tsunami the debris washed out to see is still being tracked by the International Pacific Research Center based in Hawaii. The mapping is mainly done on computer projections but debris has spread nearly 4000km into the Pacific and the debris field is close to 2000km across. It is estimated that there could be millions of tonnes of debris floating around which could pose a threat to shipping and wildlife.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17122155

UK Sumbarines Help in Recording Climate Change

The UK Ministry of Defence has decided to de-classify some of its data to help shed light on climate change in the Arctic. Navy vessels regularly collect data like water temperature and salt content, but data is very rarely released because it would show the location of vessels. The data being released will give a snapshot of changes, but the exact location of readings will not be released.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17129988

Thawing Ice Causes Chaos in Serbia

Melting ice along the Danube River is causing chaos in the Serbian capital Belgrade. The quick freeze trapped boats, pontoons and floating restaurants. Now the ice is thawing the damaged property is floating around and crashing into each other causing further damage and creating potentially dangerous floating objects.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17100001

Mexico's Bike Revolution

Mexico City is encouraging bike use by building bike lanes, starting a bike hire scheme and closing areas of the capital to traffic on Sundays. Mexico City is one of the World's most populated cities with over 4 million cars is trying to encourage more people onto bikes - currently only 3% of journeys are taken by bike. Increased bike usage will reduce pollution, reduce and congestion and hopefully improve health.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-radio-and-tv-16833168

Drought Fears in UK

 A summit has been held in the UK amid fears that the UK is facing its worst drought since 1976. The Environment Secretary along with water companies, farmers and environmentalists met to discuss issues. It is believed if there is no prolonged rainfall before April then water restrictions may have to be introduced. The drought has come about after the second relatively dry winter in a row.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17054866

Crime Chiefs Aim To Protect Remaining Tigers

Countries with populations of wild tigers have agreed to work together to try and protect the estimated 4,000 remaining. Tiger parts are commonly used in Chinese medicine and skins regularly sold as house decorations. Crime chiefs have agreed to tighten customs and improve cross-border cooperation.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17041183

Cyclone Giovanna Hits Madagascar

A cyclone with winds up to 194km has hit the African island of Madagascar. The cyclone that has already damaged communications and electricity supplies is expected to cause more damage especially if the expected storm surge materialises. Some predict that the cyclone could be as bad as the 1994 cyclone which killed over 200 and left 40,000 homeless.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-17025328

Poverty in Nigeria Rises

The number of people suffering from absolute poverty in Nigeria is one the rise. Anyone living on less than $1 a day is considered to be absolutely poor. The percentage of Nigerians living on less than $1 a day has risen from 55% in 2004 to nearly 71% in 2010 (nearly 100 million people). Nigeria is Africa's biggest oil producer, but lack of oil refineries and corruption mean many Nigerians do not benefit from the country's riches.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-17015873

Volcanic Hazard Becomes Energy Source?

Lake Kivu in Rwanda is a potential volcanic hazard because an estimated 256 cubic kilometres of carbon dioxide and an estimated 65 cubic kilometres of methane sits on its bed. Th gas is currently held at the bottom under pressure from above. However, the water is reaching saturation point an underground volcano or earthquake could disturb forcing it to the surface and triggering explosions. To try and prevent an explosion and to produce energy the Rwandan government is planning to pump the gas to the surface and burn it to create electricity.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16394635

Overfishing costs EU billions

Overfising is costing the EU nearly 100,000 jobs and close to $5 billion a year. The report basically says that by allowing overfishing to happen, stocks are being depleted and fisheries are no longer economically sustainable so people are losing there jobs.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16979976

Laser Radar Spots Quake Changes

Scientists have released this image of the site of a 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Mexico. The technique of using a laser radar can spot minute changes in the height of the land. Areas in blue show where the land sunk and areas in red where the land rose because of the quake.

Will the Earth become a Supercontinent again?

Scientists at Yale University have predicted that in 50-100 million years North America and Europe will crash into each other over the Nort Pole. The last time all the continents came together was over 300 million years ago when they were joined in the supercontinent 'pangaea'.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16934181

China Suffers From Further River Pollution

Panic buying of bottled water was triggered gain in China after a chemical leak from a cargo ship in the Yangtse River. Chinese officials now claim that chemical levels in the river have returned to normal.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-16940407

Queensland Threatened By Floods Again

A year after the devastating floods that hits Queensland and New South Wales, the same areas are again being hit by floods. The Balonne River is expected to peak at up to 15 metres above normal. Thousands have been forced to evacuate, but other are choosing to stay to try and protect their property.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16901378
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16481043

Philippines Hit by Deadly Quake

Central Philippines has been hit by a 6.7 magnitude (Richter scale) earthquake. The earthquake was relatively shallow at only 20km, triggered a tsunami warning that has now been lift. At least 15 people have been confirmed dead with many more missing. A series of aftershocks have been reordered, one of them registering 6.2.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16901385

China Bans its Airlines from EU Carbon Scheme

The Chinese government has banned all of its airlines from joining the EU's carbon trading scheme and banned them from raising prices to pay for the scheme. China claims that the scheme could cost their airlines $124 a year and that this is not possible in the current economic climate. However, the Eu claim that the charges are necessary to pass the cost of polluting onto the consumer.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16901106

Calls to cut Wind Farm Subsidy

More than 100 Conservative MPs have called of rthe government to cut subsidies to wind farms in an attempt to save money. However, the UK PM David Cameron has refused to make cuts say that the UK aims to obtain 15% of it's energy from renewable sources by 2015. There are currently 309 wind farm projects in the UK while another 252 have got planning permission. Wind farms often receive protests from local residents who say they are noisy and unsightly.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-16893018

Are there more dead or alive?

Now that the world's population has past 7 billion, experts at the world population bureau have attempted to estimate if there are more people alive today, than have died since humans starting walking the earth. The start point taken was 50,000 years ago. Wendy Baldwin from the World Population Bureau said that this posed a problem because for 99% of human history, no record were kept, so they were relying on estimates. In their research the World Population Bureau believed that previous estimates had underestimated the number of births and deaths and that the ration of living to dead is actually 1 to 30.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16870579

Prince Charles's Optimisim Over Fisheries

Despite fish stocks declining globally, the Prince of Wales said that  there were some reasons to be optimistic. A report by Fisheries i8n Transition highlighted 50 examples from around the world where sustainable fishing had been introduced successfully.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16875215

Will London Win A Green Medal?

With London aiming to be the greenest Olympics ever, judgement day is approaching. Some progress is already evident, many derelict buildings have been removed, the River Lea has been opened up, with the hope of otters returning and over 2 million tonnes of soil has been cleaned of contaminants. Water in underground aquifers is being pumped out, cleaned and returned, the amount of building materials used has been reduced and grey water recycling will take place e.g. swimming pool water used to flush toilets. However, not everything has gone smoothly so far, plans for a giant turbine did not materialise and now only 11% of all energy will be renewable (as apposed to the planned 20%).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16853201

Malaria Deaths Underestimated

A recent study suggests that malaria deaths might be twice as high as actually reported. A report by the British medical journal Lancet suggest that there were 1.24 million deaths caused by mosquito borne diseases compared to only 655,000 reported by the WHO. Some of the report was compiled using estimates because of the lack of accurate and up to date information in many of the most malarial infested regions of the world.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16854026

Seven Arrested Over River Pollution

Seven chemical company officials have been arrested in China after cadmium polluted the Longjiang River in Guangxi province. Cadmium levels in the river were  discovered to be 80 times over the legal limit. Officials in the province have been adding neutralising agent to the river to prevent further environmental damage.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-16804833

Can Tripadvisor be Trusted?

The UK Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) has forced Tripadvisor to remove statements from their website saying that reviews made on their website can be trusted. The site which has over 50 million users every month has been accused of hosting fraudulent reviews because they do not ask for identification or verification from people posting reviews. Tripadviosr has become increasingly popular by the growing number of individuals booking there holidays independently, rather than booking packages.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16823012

Snow Posing a Hazard in Europe

Snow sweeping across Europe has been blamed for at least 80 deaths. The snow has caused people to die of hypothermia as well as disrupting transport and sporting fixtures. Most of the deaths have been reported in Poland and the Ukraine, but Bulgaria has experienced some of the coldest temperatures falling to minus 29 degrees Celsius.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16830034