At least four die in US floods

Several people were killed in the US after drenching thunderstorms moved through Louisiana and Mississippi at the weekend, triggering flooding across the lower Mississippi valley, authorities said.
Rainfall killed three people in Louisiana and one in Oklahoma. Two fishermen were missing in Mississippi on Sunday, according to emergency management officials.

President Barack Obama declared flooding in Louisiana a major disaster on Sunday, providing aid for victims.
Louisiana's emergency management office warned in a statement "the crisis is not over." It said 5,000 homes had already been damaged.

The National Weather Service (NWS) warned on Sunday night of a tornado threat and potential for hail and damaging winds across eastern Arkansas and northern Louisiana.
Portions of the lower Mississippi Valley were at risk for severe thunderstorms through Monday morning, the NWS said, which could trigger flash flooding. River levels were expected to remain high in the region as excessive rain water drains, it said.

The Louisiana National Guard, working around the clock for several days, said it had rescued more than 3,200 citizens and 300 pets.

Authorities and meteorologists described the flooding as historic and the worst seen in the region apart from that spawned by hurricanes.

Scores of roads and bridges were closed throughout the region at the weekend. In Mississippi, almost 400 homes suffered damage from the rainfall and flooding, the state emergency agency said.

Spacecraft to look for life on Mars

Russian rocket to search for life on Mars
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AAP

Spacecraft to look for life on Mars

Europe and Russia launched a spacecraft in a joint mission on Monday to sniff out signs of life on Mars and bring humans a step closer to flying to the red planet themselves.

The craft, part of the ExoMars programme, blasted off from the Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan on board a Proton rocket, starting a seven-month journey through space.

It carries an atmospheric probe that is to study trace gases such as methane - a chemical that on Earth is strongly tied to life - that previous Mars missions have detected in the planet's atmosphere.

Also, it will deploy a lander that will test technologies needed for a rover due to follow in 2018.

The cost of the ExoMars mission to the European Space Agency, including the second part due in 2018, is expected to be about 1.3 billion euros ($A1.92 billion).

HIV treatment may have other benefits

HIV treatment may have other benefits

An HIV treatment could bring experts "one step closer" to preventing skin cancer from becoming drug resistant, a study suggests.
Cancer cells transform themselves to withstand drugs, researchers found, but the anti-HIV drug nelfinavir blocks the transformation.

The study carried out on mice shows that when used in combination with standard cancer treatments it can delay the effects of drug resistance, making available treatment effective for a longer period of time.
Professor Claudia Wellbrock, who led the study from the University of Manchester, said cancer cells become stronger and more robust against treatment during the first few weeks.

"But if we can target skin cancer cells before they become fully resistant, we would have a much better chance of blocking their escape," she said.
"And we think this research has brought us one step closer to making this a reality."

Professor Nic Jones, Director of Cancer Research UK's Manchester Institute, said the findings could a step toward being able to fight back against resistance.
"Drug resistance in late stage skin cancer is still a big problem and something we need to tackle," he said.
"We've seen big steps forward recently with the development of immunotherapies, but this exciting approach could stop skin cancer developing resistance at an earlier point."
The study is funded by Cancer Research UK and the results are expected in August 2016.

Britain to test driverless cars on motorways from next year

A researcher fromm the Intelligent Vehicle IT Research Center at Seoul National University shows the smartphone application for the driverless car called Snuber with a fixture on its roof with devices that scan road conditions at Seoul National University’s campus in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016. The South Korean university is testing the sedan that can pick up and transport passengers without a human driver, giving a glimpse into the future of autonomous public transport. | AP
"Naturally we need to ensure safety, and that's what the trials we are introducing will test," Mr. Osborne said in a statement ahead of his annual budget presentation.

Britain said it will begin trialling driverless cars on motorways for the first time in 2017, as it moves towards its goal of allowing autonomous cars to take to the streets by 2020.
The government said last year there were no legal barriers to the technology being tested and gave the go-ahead for vehicle trials to start on some local roads.

Finance Minister George Osborne will announce plans on Wednesday to test vehicles on motorways and say the government will bring forward proposals to remove regulatory barriers to the technology, the Treasury said.
"Naturally we need to ensure safety, and that's what the trials we are introducing will test," Mr. Osborne said in a statement ahead of his annual budget presentation.
"If successful, we could see driverless cars available for sale and on Britain's roads, boosting UK jobs and productivity."
The market for autonomous driving is worth 900 billion pounds ($1.29 trillion) worldwide, according to the government, but needs to overcome legal obstacles including determining who would be responsible in the event of an accident.
Driverless car testing will be restricted to vehicles with a person present and able to take control should the need arise, Britain's Department for Transport has previously said.
On Friday, the top U.S. safety agency said there were still significant legal hurdles to be cleared before self-driving cars without steering wheels and gas pedals could be sold in the United States.
Alphabet Inc unit Google wants to eventually be able to deploy fully autonomous vehicles without human controls, and major automakers are racing to develop vehicles that can drive themselves at least part of the time.

Nigerians are reacting furiously to Saraki cars scandal

– The Nigerian public cannot get enough of the Saraki cars scandal.
– Senate president Bukola Saraki has received luxury cars with N330 million.
– Nigerians across the country are reacting furiously on social media.
Nigerians across the country are reacting to the massive controversy surrounding the Senate President Bukola Saraki’s purchase of luxury vehicles.

Earlier today, Premium Times reported that members of the Senate and House of Representatives will receive a fleet of 400 top of the line cars, with Saraki set to receive 10 cars worth N330 million.
The fancy cars include Mercedes and Toyotas, and given that Saraki’s personal car budget is now bigger than that of most government schools, the grant shocked many Nigerians.
Saraki’s office swiftly released a statement to react to the media storm, explaining that the cars are necessary as his current fleet is old and falling apart, condemning the media for breaking the story.
Two of the exotic cars the senators will receive
“The press should avoid deliberately inciting members of the public against public officials,” the statement said.
“The Senate president and his colleagues are conscious of the economic situation in the country and will continue to act responsibly and responsively.”

Saraki’s comments have not calmed the media furore and Nigerians are venting their feelings online and on social media sites.
Many members of the public are furious at the lavish purchases at a time when many ordinary Nigerians are struggling to make ends meet, and some really did not mince their words!
Some compatriots took to the internet to call out the politicians’ hypocrisy amid the calls for Nigerians to buy locally made goods.

Several Nigerians made their anger at Saraki and other politicians easy for everyone to see.
The Senate president is not without his supporters though, apparently his point about the press hit home.
One thing is for sure, this media firestorm doesn’t look likely to end anytime soon!

My memory can't remember the charges against me - Saraki

Map pNi No– Senator Bukola Saraki said he has lost his memory
– The Senate president said he is finding it difficult to remember all the charges brought against him by the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT)
– Nigeria’s number three citizen will be at the CCT for the continuation of the hearing of the alleged corrupt case against him on Friday, March 18

Bukola Saraki said his memory is failing him, as he can not specifically recollect all the number of charges of false assets declaration leveled against him by the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
Dr Bukola Saraki, the Senate president during his trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal

The Senate president stated he could not take count of the charges, which he was alleged to have committed between five and more than 13 years ago, while he was the governor of Kwara state.

The challenges the embattled leader of the upper chambers is facing, was written in an affidavit, which he himself attested to, in a fresh application, urging that all charges against him by the CCT, should be rendered null and avoid. Ditto, he said he should be discharged of all the alleged offenses against him.

As written in the affidavit, Saraki states: “The facts relating to these matters are no longer fresh in my memory quite apart from the fact that I have lost many of my records pertaining to them.”

Saraki’s affidavit was dated Friday, March 4. The fresh application tried to stop the Supreme Court judgement of Saturday, March 5, which directed the CCT to continue his trials.

The Senate president was initially arraigned on Tuesday, September 22, 2015 for a 13-count charge of false asset declaration .
Senator Saraki, who said he declared his assets twice, while he served as Kwara state governor between 2003 and 2007, as well as 2007 and 2011, said: “I am not aware of any petitions challenging my declarations, and the bureau (CCB) has never drawn my attention to any.

I would promptly have corrected or explained (the reason for) any alleged discrepancies or inconsistencies in my asset declaration had my attention been drawn to them.”

The are calls from some quarters that, the Senate president should save his face now, by resigning, in order to imprint his name on the minds of Nigerians as a credible political leader.

New snake species discovered in Gujarat

The new snake genus, Wallaceophis is named after Alfred Russel Wallace for his pioneering work on biogeography, and for co-discovering the theory of natural selection. The species has been named gujaratensis.
The find is one of the rarest of moments in the recent reptile history of India.
Nine years after they first saw it in a photograph, two researchers from Mumbai and three others from Gujarat have confirmed the discovery of a new snake species. The find is one of the rarest of moments in the recent reptile history of India.
The new snake genus,
Wallaceophis is named after Alfred Russel Wallace for his pioneering work on biogeography, and for co-discovering the theory of natural selection. The species has been named gujaratensis. The findings were published in the journal Plos One .
Mumbaikar researchers Zeeshan A. Mirza and Rajesh Sanap, along with three wildlife enthusiasts from Gujarat; Raju Vyas; Harshil Patel and Jaydeep Maheta were instrumental in the discovery.
Mr. Mirza, a herpetologist from National Centre for Biological Science, Bangalore, and the lead author of the study, came across an image of this snake in a paper published by Mr. Vyas back in 2007.
‘Odd-looking’
“The snake was odd-looking, and I called Mr. Vyas to seek his opinion on the identity of the snake, but he just had an image,” said Mr. Mirza. “Seven years later, Harshil Patel, a researcher from Gujarat studying reptiles and amphibians of southern Gujarat, informed me that the snake has been found by snake rescuer Jaydeep Maheta.”
Rajesh Sanap, a research associate with the National Centre for Biological Sciences, aided with the lab work. While Mr. Patel compared specimens from the collection of the Bombay Natural History Society, Mr. Mirza studied the snake with literature available.
In the meantime, Mr. Vyas collected data on 12 individuals of the same species from several locations in Gujarat.
Based on scalation, tooth number, bone morphology and DNA, the snake was identified as belonging to a group of colubrid snakes that include racers, royal snakes and whip snakes. “A paper jointly written by us was submitted last year July to Plos One , which finally got accepted later this January,” said Mr. Sanap.
Colubrid snakes (Family Colubridae) are represented across the world with more than 1,800 species, and it is likely this number will grow with advanced techniques in species delimitation.
Wallaceophis gujaratensis has until now been found in seven locations