Science News-Family History of Alzheimer’s May Alter Metabolic Gene That Increases Risk for Disease

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Medical News Family History of Alzheimer’s May Alter Metabolic Gene That Increases Risk for Disease A new Iowa State University study may have identified the link that explains years of conflicting research over a mitochondrial gene and the risk for Alzheimer’s disease. – Iowa State University Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association Embargo expired on 23-May-2017 at 00:05 ET includes video New Report: Just One Alcoholic Drink a Day Increases Breast Cancer Risk, Exercise Lowers Risk Drinking just one glass of wine or other alcoholic drink a day increases breast cancer risk, finds a major new report by the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) and the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF). – Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Embargo expired on 23-May-2017 at 00:05 ET Severe Pediatric Sleep Apnea in Washington, DC Most Common in Inner City African-American Children From Low Income Families; Diagnosis Often Delayed Pediatric severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in the Washington, DC metropolitan area is most common among inner city African-American children from low income families, according to a new study presented at the 2017 American Thoracic Society Intern... – American Thoracic Society (ATS) Embargo expired on 22-May-2017 at 16:45 ET High Levels of Prenatal Air Pollution Exposure and Stress Increase Childhood Asthma Risk A new study has found that children, especially boys, whose mothers were exposed to higher levels of outdoor particulate air pollution at the same time that they were very stressed were most likely to develop asthma by age six. The study was presente... – American Thoracic Society (ATS) Embargo expired on 22-May-2017 at 14:15 ET Patients with Lung Disease Say Current Home Oxygen Delivery Systems Do Not Meet Their Needs, Increase Their Isolation According to a new survey, patients with lung disease report that they are unable to obtain home oxygen equipment that meets their needs thereby forcing them to become isolated. The study was presented at the 2017 American Thoracic Society Internatio... – American Thoracic Society (ATS) Embargo expired on 22-May-2017 at 14:15 ET Viral Acute Respiratory Infections in Infants May Lead to Recurrent Childhood Wheezing Through Inducing Oxidative Stress Viral acute respiratory infections (ARIs) may lead to oxidative stress in some infants, and play a major role in the development of recurrent wheezing in early childhood, according to a new study presented at the 2017 American Thoracic Society Intern... – American Thoracic Society (ATS) Embargo expired on 22-May-2017 at 09:15 ET Sleep Apnea May Increase Risk of Pregnancy Complications Women with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) appear to be at greater risk for serious pregnancy complications, longer hospital stays and even admission to the ICU than mothers without the condition, according to a new study of more than 1.5 million pregn... – American Thoracic Society (ATS) Embargo expired on 22-May-2017 at 09:15 ET Sleep Apnea May Increase Atrial Fibrillation Risk Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) may increase the risk of developing atrial fibrillation (AF), according to new research presented at the ATS 2017 International Conference. – American Thoracic Society (ATS) Embargo expired on 22-May-2017 at 15:15 ET Investigational Biologic Appears to Reduce Oral Corticosteroid Use in Severe Asthma An investigational biologic may reduce the need for adults with severe asthma to take an oral corticosteroid to control their asthma, according to a randomized controlled trial presented at the ATS 2017 International Conference. Study findings are be... – American Thoracic Society (ATS) Embargo expired on 22-May-2017 at 14:15 ET 3.3 Million-Year-Old Fossil Reveals Origins of the Human Spine Analysis of a 3.3 million-year-old fossil skeleton reveals the most complete spinal column of any early human relative, including vertebrae, neck and rib cage. The findings, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, ... – University of Chicago Medical Center Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Embargo expired on 22-May-2017 at 15:00 ET Intestinal Fungi Worsen Alcoholic Liver Disease Liver cirrhosis is the 12th leading cause of mortality worldwide and approximately half of those deaths are due to alcohol abuse. Yet apart from alcohol abstinence, there are no specific treatments to reduce the severity of alcohol-associated liver d... – University of California San Diego Health Journal of Clinical Investigation Embargo expired on 22-May-2017 at 16:00 ET Starting Statins in Older Patients Not Effective as Preventive Care A study from NYU Langone Medical Center researchers published in JAMA Internal Medicine finds that initiating statins in heart-healthy older adults may not extend lifespan. – NYU Langone Medical Center JAMA Internal Medicine, May-2017 Embargo expired on 22-May-2017 at 11:00 ET Experimental Therapy for Immune Diseases Hits Achilles Heel of Activated T cells Immune diseases like multiple sclerosis and hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis unleash destructive waves of inflammation on the body, causing death or a lifetime of illness and physical impairment. With safe and effective treatments in short supply, ... – Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center PNAS Early Edition May 22-26, 2017 Embargo expired on 22-May-2017 at 15:00 ET Dentists in Good Compliance with American Heart Association Guidelines, According to Rochester Epidemiology Project In the first study examining dental records in the Rochester Epidemiology Project, results show that dentists and oral surgeons are in good compliance with guidelines issued by the American Heart Association (AHA) in 2007, describing prophylactic ant... – Mayo Clinic Embargo expired on 23-May-2017 at 00:05 ET Student-Run Free Clinic Project at UC San Diego Honored by American Psychiatric Association On Sunday, May 21, the Student Run Free Clinic Project at UC San Diego was recognized by the American Psychiatric Association for excellence in caring for the community. For two decades, the Student-Run Free Clinic Project has helped people of all ag... – University of California San Diego Health Embargo expired on 22-May-2017 at 13:00 ET Probing Problems with Bariatric Surgery: Reoperations, Variation Are Common Every year, nearly 200,000 Americans turn to surgeons for help with their obesity, seeking bariatric surgery to lose weight and prevent life-threatening health problems. But after more than two decades of steadily increasing numbers of operations, A... – Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan Annals of Surgery, doi: 10.1097/SLA.0000000000001980; JAMA Surgery, doi:10.1001/jamasurg.2017.0542; JAMA Surgery, doi:10.1001/jamasurg.2017.1093 New Bladder Cancer Drug, Skin Cancer Facts, Advanced Stage Colorectal Cancer, and More in the Cancer News Source Click here to go directly to the Cancer News Source – Newswise Early Epigenetic Switches Associated with Childhood Bone Health The health of children’s bones could be determined before they are born, a new University of Southampton study has shown. – University of Southampton Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, DOI: 10.1002/jbmr.3153 Johns Hopkins Study Shows One of the Deadliest Hospital-Acquired Infections Is Preventable In a recent paper published online in the journal Critical Care Medicine, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute of Patient Safety and Quality led a study that demonstrated that health care providers can take steps to curb ventilator-as... – Johns Hopkins Medicine Critical Care Medicine; HHSA29032002T, 1R01HL105903 Study Shows Navigation Program Improves Longevity of Care for Youth with HIV in America Adherence to care improves when youth with HIV receive education and help navigating the system, according to study out of UAB. – University of Alabama at Birmingham JAMA Peds New Heart Disease Risk Genes Point to Flaws in Blood Vessel Walls Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a leading cause of death worldwide. Despite dozens of regions in the genome associated with CAD, most of the genetic components of heart diseases are not fully understood, suggesting that more genes are out there to b... – Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute RC2HL101834, RC1TW008485, RC1TW008485 Extreme Preterm Infant Death or Disease May Be Predicted by Biomarker Tests of cells collected from the umbilical cord blood vessel walls at birth can predict death or poor pulmonary outcomes in extremely preterm infants, say researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. – University of Alabama at Birmingham HL129907; DK079626; HL007918 Report Sheds New Insights on the Spin Dynamics of a Material Candidate for Low-Power Devices In a report published in Nano LettersArgonne researchers reveal new insights into the properties of a magnetic insulator that is a candidate for low-power device applications; their insights form early stepping-stones towards developing high-speed, l... – Argonne National Laboratory Nano Letters, Nov-2016 A Possible Alternative to Antibiotics Technion researchers say a combination of metals and organic acids is an effective way to eradicate cholera, salmonella, pseudomonas, and other pathogenic bacteria. The combination also works on bacteria that attack agricultural crops. – American Technion Society Nature Scientific Reports, Mar 15-2017 DNA Vaccine Protects Against Toxic Proteins Linked to Alzheimer’s A new DNA vaccine when delivered to the skin prompts an immune response that produces antibodies to protect against toxic proteins associated with Alzheimer’s disease – without triggering severe brain swelling that earlier antibody treatments cau... – UT Southwestern Medical Center Intensive Blood Pressure Can Reduce Risk of Harm to Heart Muscle A new study by researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center has shown that aggressive lowering of blood pressure in people with hypertension reduced the risk of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH). This condition, the enlargement and thickening o... – Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center Circulation, May-2017 Scientists Develop Test to Identify Best Treatment for Gonorrhea Researchers from UCLA have developed a laboratory test that helps physicians determine which people with gonorrhea may be more treatable with an antibiotic that has not been recommended since 2007 because of concerns that the resistance to the drug w... – University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Health Sciences Clinical Infectious Diseases Seattle Children’s Brings First-of-its-kind Precision Medicine Clinical Trial to Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Bone Marrow Transplant Patients In an effort to find new strategies to personalize treatment for pediatric patients, Seattle Children’s has opened the first clinical trial applying precision medicine to better understand how the immune system drives both inflammatory bowel diseas... – Seattle Children's Hospital Capturing the “Patient Voice” in Health Care ISPOR hosted a session at its 22nd Annual International Meeting that explored what methods researchers and health technology assessors should employ to best capture the patient voice in HEOR research. – International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) ISPOR Annual International Meeting, May-2017 Assessment of Value in Health Care ISPOR held two scientific sessions on value assessment frameworks this afternoon at its 22nd Annual International Meeting in Boston, MA, USA. – International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) ISPOR Annual International Meeting, May-2017 ISPOR and ISPE Collaborate to Advance Good Practices for Use of Real-World Evidence ISPOR and ISPE have joined forces to collaborate on a Special Task Force on real-world evidence in regulatory decision making. This initiative was the focus of an invited issue panel this morning at the ISPOR 22nd Annual International Meeting in Bost... – International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) ISPOR Annual International Meeting, May-2017 Opening Plenary Session Explores Direction of US Health Policy Changes ISPOR opened its 22nd Annual International Meeting in Boston, MA, USA this morning with its first plenary session, Where Is US Health Policy Going?. – International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) ISPOR Annual International Meeting, May-2017 NYU Lutheran Experts Use Robotic Surgery to Successfully Treat Kidney Cancer Incidental discovery of a kidney tumor in a chest scan leads to robotic surgery for kidney cancer. – NYU Lutheran Medical Center Temple Study Shows Baby Boxes, Personalized Sleep Education Reduced Bed-Sharing in First Week of Infancy A research team at Temple University Hospital has found that face-to-face postpartum education about safe infant sleep, combined with the distribution of a baby box, which is a cardboard bassinet, reduced the rates of bed-sharing during babies’ fir... – Temple University Don’t Be Salty About Your Health The average American consumes nearly 2,000 mg a day over most adults’ ideal amount of sodium intake, excluding salt added at the table. Sodium found in restaurant, pre-packaged and processed foods, and foods like canned vegetables can increase hear... – University of Alabama at Birmingham ATS 2017: New COPD Action Plan Outlines Strategies for Improved Care One Michigan Medicine researcher is a part of the National Institutes of Health’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute group that recently created a new COPD National Action Plan. Released at the American Thoracic Society’s International Conf... – Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan American Thoracic Society, May 2017 SAEM 2017: EM Physicians Should Stay Current on Studies to Up Their Critical Care Game Reviewing studies can be a tedious task, but a Michigan Medicine physician explains the importance of staying up to date on medical literature, even outside of one’s primary field of medicine. – Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Annual Meeting, May 2017 Protest New York City's Lack of Diabetes Prevention at de Blasio Bronx "Visit" Tuesday May 23 at 9AM Bronx residents impacted by diabetes, led by Health People, will protest the city's complete failure to implement effective diabetes prevention at Mayor de Blasio's Bronx visit at 9am at the Bronx County Courthouse at 161 Street and Grand Concourse.... – Health People SAVE THE DATE: May, 23, 2017ATS Rally to Highlight Recent Proposals That Would Significantly Impact Research Funding and Public Health Priorities Tomorrow, Tuesday, May 23, 2017, the American Thoracic Society will lead ATS members, pulmonary clinicians, researchers, and patient advocates in the ATS Rally on Capitol Hill: Lab Coats for Lungs. – American Thoracic Society (ATS) Nation’s First Pipeline Program Provides Accelerated Pathway from High School into Medical School “FAU High School M.D. Direct” is the first-of-its-kind pipeline program to be launched in the U.S. and places high school students from FAU High School directly in-line for medical school at FAU, jumpstarting their careers as young, aspiring phys... – Florida Atlantic University NYITCOM Salutes New Physicians at 36th Hooding Ceremony NYIT’s newest osteopathic medical graduates receive their doctoral hoods. – New York Institute of Technology Science News Effect of Internal Curing as Mitigation to Minimize Alkali-Silica Reaction Damage With partial replacement of aggregate, it may be possible to mitigate ASR and associated damage when high cement content and potentially reactive aggregates are used. – American Concrete Institute (ACI) ACI Materials Journal May/June 2017 Embargo expired on 23-May-2017 at 09:00 ET Wolves Need Space to Roam to Control Expanding Coyote Populations Wolves and other top predators need large ranges to be able to control smaller predators whose populations have expanded, according to a study appearing May 23 in Nature Communications. The results were similar across three continents, showing that a... – University of Washington Nature Communications, May-2017 Embargo expired on 23-May-2017 at 05:00 ET New Clues Emerge About How Fruit Flies Navigate Their World Janelia Research Campus scientists have uncovered new clues about how fruit flies keep track of where they are in the world. Understanding the neural basis of navigation in flies may reveal how humans accomplish similar feats. – Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) eLife, May 22 Embargo expired on 22-May-2017 at 11:00 ET includes video Researchers Discover Hottest Lavas That Erupted in Past 2.5 Billion Years From Earth’s Core-Mantle Boundary Researchers led by the Virginia Tech College of Science discovered that deep portions of Earth’s mantle might be as hot as it was more than 2.5 billion years ago. – Virginia Tech Nature Geoscience Embargo expired on 22-May-2017 at 11:00 ET Smoke From Wildfires Can Have Lasting Climate Impact Researchers have found that carbon particles released into the air from burning trees and other organic matter are much more likely than previously thought to travel to the upper levels of the atmosphere, where they can interfere with rays from the s... – Georgia Institute of Technology Nature Geoscience; NNX14AP74G ; NNX12AB80G; NNX12AC03G; NNX15AT96G Embargo expired on 22-May-2017 at 11:00 ET Two Missing World War Ii B-25 Bombers Documented by Project RecoverOff Papua New Guinea Two B-25 bombers associated with American servicemen missing in action from World War II were recently documented in the waters off Papua New Guinea by Project Recover—a collaborative team of marine scientists, archaeologists and volunteers who hav... – University of California San Diego Embargo expired on 23-May-2017 at 09:00 ET Immunotherapy Data from the Cancer Research Institute Clinical Accelerator to Be Presented at ASCO Annual Meeting data from four early-phase immunotherapy combination trials will be presented at the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual meeting in Chicago on June 5, 2017. – Cancer Research Institute Sunflower Genome Sequence to Provide Roadmap for More Resilient Crops University of Georgia researchers are part of an international team that has published the first sunflower genome sequence. – University of Georgia Study Challenges Understanding of Climate History UNLV research in Russia challenges widely held understanding of past climate history; study appears in latest issue of top journal Nature Geoscience. – University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) Nature Geoscience Researchers Find Computer Code That Volkswagen Used to Cheat Emissions Tests An international team of researchers has uncovered the mechanism that allowed Volkswagen to circumvent U.S. and European emission tests over at least six years before the Environmental Protection Agency put the company on notice in 2015 for violating... – University of California San Diego Kepler Telescope Spies Details of TRAPPIST-1 System's Outermost Planet A University of Washington-led international team of astronomers has used data gathered by the Kepler Space Telescope to observe and confirm details of the outermost of seven exoplanets orbiting the star TRAPPIST-1. – University of Washington Nature Astronomy includes video Weathering of Rocks a Poor Regulator of Global Temperatures Observations from the age of the dinosaurs to today shows that chemical weathering of rocks changes less with global temperatures than believed. The results upend the accepted idea for how rocks regulate a planet's temperature over millions of years.... – University of Washington Nature Communications Combination of Features Produces New Android Vulnerability A new vulnerability affecting Android mobile devices results not from a traditional bug, but from the malicious combination of two legitimate permissions that power desirable and commonly-used features in popular apps. The combination could result in... – Georgia Institute of Technology 38th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy; CNS-1017265; CNS-0831300; N000140911042 includes video Two Simple Building Blocks Produce Complex 3-D Material Northwestern University scientists have built a structurally complex material from two simple building blocks that is the lowest-density metal-organic framework ever made. – Northwestern University DE-FG02-08ER155967 UF Experts Suggest Ways to Save Water During Drought Extension experts can provide an irrigation audit, which will help you troubleshoot spots where perhaps the sprinklers are not wetting the soil uniformly. It may be tempting to run the sprinklers more often when we see dry spots in the lawn, but the ... – University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Student Mission Control Since the 1950s, University of Iowa undergraduates have designed and built instruments that have travelled throughout our solar system and beyond. – University of Iowa Ithaca College Physics Professor Making Digital Replica of Historic Revolutionary War-Era House Using state-of-the-art 3D laser technology, Ithaca College Professor Michael “Bodhi” Rogers is helping to preserve the historic Schuyler House — once a home of Alexander Hamilton’s father-in-law – in upstate New York. – Ithaca College Researchers Suppress Fibrosis Chemical Signal to Block Haywire Healing ROCHESTER, Minn. ─ An injured body always seeks to heal. But that process is far from simple. A host of cells organize to restore what was damaged. Then, critically, the process tapers off. And when it doesn’t, the effects can be disastrous. Fibr... – Mayo Clinic Lifestyle & Social Sciences Despite Partisanship Surrounding Voter ID, Most Voters Don't Believe It Suppresses Turnout Most Americans — even average Democrats — do not accept the argument that voter identification laws can suppress voter turnout, according to a new study that includes a University of Kansas professor. – University of Kansas Social Science Quarterly Depression Risk Following Natural Disaster Can Be Predicted via Pupil Dilation Pupil dilation could identify which individuals are at greatest risk for depression following disaster-related stress, and help lead to targeted interventions, according to new research from Binghamton University, State University of New York. – Binghamton University, State University of New York Clinical Psychological Science, May 2017 Study: Awareness of Controversial Arizona Immigration Law Influenced Male Students' Classroom Behavior U.S.-born Latino male middle school students who had familiarity with a controversial Arizona immigration enforcement bill had more difficulty exhibiting proper behavior in the classroom, such as following instructions and staying quiet, according to... – University of Kansas Ethnic and Racial Studies Youth’s Use of Technology Drives Home Need for Evolution in Distracted Walking, Bicycling and Driving Policies Distractions from technology have a detrimental effect on children’s crash risk as pedestrians and drivers. – University of Alabama at Birmingham Child Development, May 2017 ‘Cold Calling Is Dead’ and More Digital Marketing Insights From the Theory + Practice Marketing Conference Compare.com CEO Andrew Rose presents to marketing researchers at the 2017 Theory + Practice in Marketing conference hosted by UVA Darden School of Business.

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Agony of Mother Earth (II) World’s Forests Depleted for Fuel

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This is the second of a two-part series on how humankind has been systematically destroying world’s forests—the real lungs of Mother Earth. Part I dealt with the relentless destruction of forests.

Forests play a critical role for many countries in their ability to mitigate climate change. Credit: FAO/Rudolf Hahn

ROME, May 19 2017 (IPS) - Humankind is the biggest ever predator of natural resources. Just take the case of forests, the real lungs of Mother Earth, and learn that every 60 seconds humans cut down 15 hectares of trees primarily for food or energy production. And that as much as 45,000 hectares of rainforest are cleared for every million kilos of beef exported from South America.

Should these figures not be enough, Monique Barbut, the executive-secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), also drew world’s attention to the fact that “when we take away the forest it is not just the trees that go… The entire ecosystem begins to fall apart… with dire consequences for us all…”

Barbut, who provided these and other figures on the occasion of this year’s International Day of Forests –marked under the theme “Forestry and Energy”— also reminded that deforestation and forest degradation are responsible for over 17 per cent of all man-made greenhouse gas emissions.

UNCCD’s chief is far from the only expert to sound the alarm–the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned that up to seven per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions caused by humans come from the production and use of fuel-wood and charcoal.

This happens largely due to unsustainable forest management and inefficient charcoal manufacture and fuel-wood combustion, according to The Charcoal Transition report published on the Day (March 21).

Right – but the other relevant fact is that for more than two billion people worldwide, wood fuel means a cooked meal, boiled water for safe drinking, and a warm dwelling, as this specialised body’s director-general José Graziano da Silva timely recalled.

Forest loss contributes to 1/6 of annual greenhouse gas emissions. Credit: FAO/Joan Manuel Baliellas

Poor People in Rural Areas

This is especially important for poor people in rural areas of developing countries, where wood is often the only energy source available.

Regions with the greatest incidence of poverty, most notably in Sub-Saharan Africa and low income households in Asia, are also the most dependent on fuel-wood: “Nearly 90 per cent of all fuel wood and charcoal use takes place in developing countries, where forests are often the only energy source available to the rural poor,” said Manoel Sobral Filho, Director of the UN Forum on Forests Secretariat.

However, much of the current production of wood fuel is “unsustainable,” contributing significantly to the degradation of forests and soils and the emission of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, said Graziano da Silva. “In many regions the conversion to charcoal is often done using rudimentary and polluting methods.”

He urged countries to reverse these negative trends in wood energy production and use. “We need, for instance, to adopt improved technologies for energy conversion.” Currently the organisation he leads while is participating in several programmes to deliver fuel-efficient stoves, especially for poor people in Latin America and Africa.

In conflict and famine-struck South Sudan, the organisation and partners have already distributed more than 30,000 improved stoves.

For his part, Fiji’s president, Jioji Konousi Konrote, stressed, “We need to turn our attention to scaling up the transfer of renewable energy technologies, particularly for forest biomass, in order to ensure that developing countries are making use of these technologies and keep pace with growing energy demands in a sustainable manner.”

The government of Fiji is poised to assume the presidency of the next Conference of Parties of the UN Climate Agreement scheduled to take place in in Bonn, Germany, in November.

Related IPS Articles

• Agony of Mother Earth (I) The Unstoppable Destruction of Forests
• The vital link between forests and energy
• Forests and Crops Make Friendly Neighbors in Costa Rica
• Forests: To Farm or Not to Farm? This Is the Question!
• Forests Help Quench Urban Thirst
• Kenyan Pastoralists Fighting Climate Change Through Food Forests
• Battle of the Desert (I): To Fight or to Flee?
• War on Climate Terror (I): Deserts Bury Two Thirds of African Lands
• The Time is Ripe to Act against Drought
• Arable Lands Lost at Unprecedented Rate: 33,000 Hectares… a Day!

1 in 3 People Wood-Fuel Dependent

The challenge is huge knowing that more than 2.4 billion people –about one-third of the world’s population– still rely on the traditional use of wood-fuel for cooking, and many small enterprises use fuel-wood and charcoal as the main energy carriers for various purposes such as baking, tea processing and brickmaking.

Of all the wood used as fuel worldwide, about 17 per cent is converted to charcoal, according to The Charcoal Transition report. The point is when charcoal is produced using inefficient technologies and unsustainable resources, the emission of greenhouse gases can be as high as 9 kg carbon dioxide equivalent per 1 kg charcoal produced.

The report highlights that in the absence of realistic and renewable alternatives to charcoal in the near future, in particular, in sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia and South America, greening the charcoal value chain and applying sustainable forest management practices are essential for mitigating climate change while maintaining the access of households to renewable energy.

Changing the way wood is sourced and charcoal is made offers a high potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, it says, adding that a shift from traditional ovens or stoves to highly efficient modern kilns could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent. At the end-use level, a transition from traditional stoves to improved state-of-the-art stoves could reduce emissions by around 60 per cent.

“Wood based energy accounts for 27 per cent of the total primary energy supply in Africa, 13 per cent in Latin America and the Caribbean and 5 per cent in Asia and Oceania,” according to FAO estimates.

Forests continue to be under threat from unsustainable use, environmental degradation, rapid urbanisation, population growth, and the impacts of climate change. Between 2010 and 2015, global forest area saw a net decrease of 3.3 million hectares per year.

This is Part II of a two-part series on how humankind has been systematically destroying world’s forests—the reall lungs of Mother Earth. Read Part I: Agony of Mother Earth (I) The Unstoppable Destruction of Forests.

Germany, France pledge new efforts to strengthen eurozone

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BERLIN (AP) — Germany and France pledged Monday to seek ways to strengthen the 19-nation eurozone, with harmonizing corporate taxes among the possible measures they will mull over in the coming weeks.

(1 of 6) German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, left, and Bruno Le Maire, economy minister of France, right, arrive for a joint press conference after a meeting in Berlin, Germany, Monday, May 22, 2017.

May 22, 2017

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble and new French counterpart Bruno Le Maire said they are setting up a panel to produce proposals for a bilateral summit in July. "We've been talking for years about progress in the integration of the eurozone, but things aren't advancing quickly enough or far enough," Le Maire said. "We are determined to get things moving faster and further, in a very concrete way."

Germany and France could either propose a joint corporate tax system of their own or concentrate on pushing efforts for a harmonized assessment of corporate taxes at the European Union level, Schaeuble said.

"Both are ambitious," he conceded, noting that wider tax harmonization is difficult because it would require consensus among EU leaders. Le Maire said there needs to be better coordination of economic policy. He said investment will also be considered. He stressed France's willingness to consider deeper reforms such as creating a finance minister for the 19-nation eurozone or a "European monetary fund," an idea that Schaeuble has periodically backed.

He offered assurances that "France will respect its European obligations in terms of (budget) deficit reduction." The latest German-French drive to strengthen the EU's economic coherence come as Britain, the bloc's No. 2 economy after Germany, prepares to leave the EU.

"We see in Brexit an opportunity for our financial companies to be more attractive than they were before," Le Maire said. "Our role is to create wealth for our country, to create jobs for our country. With Brexit, there is this opportunity, and we expect to seize this opportunity."

New French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, also making his first trip to Berlin since President Emmanuel Macron's new government was appointed last week, met separately with his German counterpart Sigmar Gabriel.

Le Drian promised to keep up Franco-German diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine that has cost almost 10,000 deaths since fighting broke out in 2014 between Russia-backed separatists and the government.

"France and Germany are not Europe, but without France and Germany, Europe won't be able to move forward," Gabriel said. "We want to use this historic window of opportunity that opened up with the election in France."

UN health agency slammed for high travel costs

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LONDON (AP) — Dr. Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization, traveled to Guinea earlier this month to join the country's president in celebrating the world's first Ebola vaccine.

(1 of 6) Margaret Chan, left, General Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) and Bruce Aylward, right, Executive Director of WHO and Health Emergencies Director-General's Special Representative for the Ebola Response, speak to the media after The International Health Regulations Emergency Committee on Ebola, during a press conference, at the WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The World Health Organization routinely spends about $200 million a year on travel, far more than what it doles out to fight some of the biggest problems in public health including AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, according to internal documents obtained by The Associated Press, published Sunday, May 21, 2017. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP, File)

May 22, 2017

After praising health workers in West Africa for their triumph over the lethal virus, Chan spent the night in the presidential suite at the beach-side Palm Camayenne hotel. The suite, equipped with marble bathrooms and a dining room that seats eight, has an advertised price of 900 euros ($1,008) per night.

Some say such luxurious accommodations send the wrong message to the rest of WHO's 7,000 staffers — and may hurt the cash-strapped health agency's fundraising efforts to fight diseases worldwide. According to internal documents obtained by The Associated Press, the U.N. health agency routinely has spent about $200 million a year on travel expenses, more than what it doles out to fight some of the biggest problems in public health, including AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined.

Last year, WHO spent about $71 million on AIDS and hepatitis. It devoted $61 million to malaria. To slow the spread of tuberculosis, WHO invested $59 million. Still, some health programs do get exceptional funding — the agency spends about $450 million trying to wipe out polio every year.

WHO declined to say if it paid for Chan's stay at the Palm Camayenne in Conakry, but noted that host countries sometimes pick up her hotel tabs. At a time when the health agency is pleading for more money to fund its responses to health crises worldwide, it has struggled to get its travel costs under control. Senior officials have complained internally that U.N. staffers break new rules aimed at curbing its expansive travel costs, booking perks like business class airplane tickets and rooms in five-star hotels with few consequences.

"We don't trust people to do the right thing when it comes to travel," Nick Jeffreys, WHO's director of finance, said during a September 2015 in-house seminar on accountability — a video of which was obtained by the AP.

Despite WHO's numerous travel regulations, Jeffreys said the agency couldn't be sure its staffers always booked the cheapest fares or that their travel was even warranted. Ian Smith, executive director of Chan's office, said the chair of WHO's audit committee said the agency often did little to stop misbehavior.

"We, as an organization, sometimes function as if rules are there to be broken and that exceptions are the rule rather than the norm," Smith said. Earlier that year, a memorandum was sent to Chan and other top leaders with the subject line "ACTIONS TO CONTAIN TRAVEL COSTS" in capital letters. The memo reported that compliance with rules requiring travel to be booked in advance was "very low." The document also pointed out that WHO was under pressure from its member countries to save money.

Travel would always be necessary, the memo said, but "as an organization we must demonstrate that we are serious about managing this appropriately." In a statement to the AP, the U.N. health agency said "the nature of WHO's work often requires WHO staff to travel" and that costs were reduced 14 percent last year compared to the previous year — although the 2015 total was exceptionally high due to the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

But staffers still are openly ignoring the rules. An internal analysis in March, obtained by the AP, found that only two of seven departments at WHO's Geneva headquarters met their budget targets and concluded that the compliance rate for booking travel in advance was only between 28 and 59 percent.

Since 2013, WHO has paid $803 million for travel. WHO's approximately $2 billion annual budget is drawn from the taxpayer-funded contributions of its 194 member countries; the United States is the largest contributor.

After he was elected, U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted : "The UN has such great potential," but had become "just a club for people to get together, talk, and have a good time. So sad!" WHO said Sunday that nearly 60 percent of its travel costs were spent on sending outside experts to affected countries and for national representatives to attend WHO meetings.

During the Ebola disaster in West Africa, WHO's travel costs spiked to $234 million. Although experts say on-the-ground help was critical, some question whether the agency couldn't have shaved its costs so more funds went to West Africa . The three countries that bore the brunt of the outbreak couldn't even afford basics such as protective boots, gloves and soap for endangered medical workers.

Dr. Bruce Aylward, who directed WHO's outbreak response, racked up nearly $400,000 in travel expenses during the Ebola crisis, sometimes flying by helicopter to visit clinics instead of traveling by jeep over muddy roads, according to trip reports he filed.

Chan spent more than $370,000 in travel that year, as documented in a confidential 25-page analysis of WHO expenses that identified the agency's top 50 spenders. Aylward and Chan were first and second. WHO declined requests for an interview with Chan; Aylward did not respond to a request for comment.

Three sources who asked not to be identified for fear of losing their jobs told the AP that Chan often flew in first class. WHO said its travel policy, until February, permitted its chief "to fly first class." It said Chan now flies business class, at her request.

Devi Sridhar, a global health professor at the University of Edinburgh, described WHO's travel costs as "extremely high" but said the problems at WHO probably stretched across the whole United Nations.

"People know these U.N. jobs can be cushy and come with perks, that you get to travel business class and stay at nice hotels," she said, adding that the lack of scrutiny of U.N. finances was a problem.

Other international aid agencies, including Doctors Without Borders, explicitly forbid their staff from traveling in business class. Even the charity's president must fly in economy class. With a staff of about 37,000 aid workers versus WHO's 7,000 staffers, Doctors Without Borders spends about $43 million on travel a year.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would not provide its travel costs, but said staffers are not allowed to fly business class unless they have a medical condition. The U.N. children's agency UNICEF, which has about 13,000 staffers, said it spent $140 million on global travel in 2016.

"When you spend the kind of money WHO is spending on travel, you have to be able to justify it," said Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Global Health Institute at Harvard University. "I can't think of any justification for ever flying first class."

Jha warned that WHO's travel spending could have significant consequences for fundraising. Several weeks ago, WHO asked for about $100 million to save people in Somalia from an ongoing drought. In April, it requested $126 million to stop the humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen .

"If WHO is not being as lean as possible, it's going to be hard to remain credible when they make their next funding appeal," Jha said.

World Health Assembly kicks off in Geneva

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GENEVA, May 22 (Xinhua) -- The 70th World Health Assembly (WHA), the main decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO), opened at Geneva-based UN headquarters on Monday.

"Our joint work at the global level aims for the central objective of promoting health through the life course, as enshrined in the Sustainable Development Goals adopted at the very highest political level in 2015," said WHA's newly-elected president Veronika Skvortsova.

"The achievement of this central objective necessitates the creation of an integrated health-preserving environment that amalgamates all national, regional and global mechanisms in the public, intersectoral and official spheres, professional medical bodies, patients' associations and the business community," she added.

This year's assembly will determine policies on a range of health issues, including medicines and health products, noncommunicable diseases, health emergencies, as well as maternal, new-born, child and adolescent health.

A new WHO Director-General will also be elected as incumbent head Margaret Chan's mandate comes to an end.

In her final opening address to the assembly as Director-General, Chan called on the assembly to make "reducing inequalities" a guiding ethical principle.

"WHO stands for fairness," she said, adding that countries should also work to improve collection of health data and make health strategies more accountable.

Chan stressed the importance of continued innovation, noting that "meeting the ambitious targets in the Sustainable Development Goals depends on innovation."

The assembly will last until May 31.

At least 24 injured in hospital explosion in Bangkok

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Investigators work on the site of explosion in Phramongkutklao Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand, on May 22, 2017. An explosion hit Phramongkutklao Hospital in Bangkok at about 10:00 a.m. local time (0300 GMT) on Monday, injuring at least 24 people. (Xinhua)

BANGKOK, May 22 (Xinhua) -- An explosion hit Phramongkutklao Hospital in Bangkok at about 10:00 a.m. local time (0300 GMT) on Monday, injuring at least 24 people.

Initial reports said the blast went off at a reception room of retired officials and about 24 people were injured, mostly from being showered with broken window glass, according to Saroch Kheawkhajee, chairman of the Army Medical Department.

Three people of the 24 needed further examination, Saroch added.

It is believed that a gas leak and an air compressor may have caused the explosion, Bangkokbiznews reported.

However, Metropolitan Police Bureau Commissioner Lt-General Srivara Rangsi-prammanaku told media that it is still unclear what led to the explosion, and whether the incident is connected with a previous explosion in front of the National Theater a few days ago.