Soft drinks condemned
SUGARY soft drinks should ultimately be banished from US schools to stem the tide of childhood obesity, the American Academy of Pediatrics warned on Monday. Over the past 20 years obesity rates in American children have doubled, while consumption of soft drinks has quadrupled. Each serving contains the equivalent of 10 teaspoons of sugar, and as well as aggravating obesity, the drinks are linked to tooth decay and displace healthier foods and nutrients such as calcium in milk, the doctors say.
China’s giant conduit
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On 30 December China began building the central section of its ambitious project to channel water over 1200 kilometres from the Yangtze river to Beijing. The project will carry around 45 billion cubic metres of water annually – around one-tenth the flow of the Mississippi – and should start delivering in 2007.
Crash plane was cleared
The Boeing 737 operated by charter company Flash Airlines that crashed into the Red Sea on 3 January was one of two inspected and cleared in October and November last year by the French civil aviation authority, DGAC. All 148 people aboard the plane, most of them French, died in the crash.
Partners in space
China and Europe have launched their first partnership in space. On 29 December, a rocket carrying the first of the two satellites that make up the Double Star joint mission blasted off from Xichang in China. The satellites will help study geomagnetic storms.
Deer clone is born
Researchers at Texas A&M University announced the birth of what they say is the first cloned deer. Dewey, a white-tailed deer born in May 2003, was cloned using skin cells from a dead animal sent in by a hunter. But critics reject the claim that cloning could help with conservation.