“Microplastics are a particular threat to organisms due to their small size and their capacity to absorb persistent organic pollutants,” said the report, led by Shi Huahong of the university’s Institute of Estuarine and Coastal Research and peer-reviewed in Environmental Science and Technology. Although the oceans close to China appear to be a “hotspot” for microplastic pollutants, it is unlikely Chinese table salt is the only salt that is contaminated with plastics.

“Plastics have become such a ubiquitous contaminant, I doubt it matters whether you look for plastic in sea salt on Chinese or American supermarket shelves,” Sherri Mason, an environmental science researcher at the State University of New York Fredonia told Scientific American. “I’d like to see some ‘me-too’ studies,” she added.

The TEC recommends an indefinite moratorium on the field trials of GM crops until the government devises a proper regulatory and safety mechanism. Prominent campaigner Aruna Rodrigues argues that official regulators have hidden all data about GM mustard from the public and the independent scientific community, which is against constitutional provisions and the orders of the Supreme Court. She concludes this means one thing: mandatory rigorous biosafety protocols have not been carried out and the data pertaining to ‘mustard DMH 11’ therefore needs to be concealed.

Rodrigues asserts that the secrecy surrounding GM mustard exemplifies the appalling state of regulation and smacks of corruption. She concludes the Indian government is using underhand means to introduce GM crops into Indian agriculture and that there appears to be no place for science or transparency in this process.

Marcus Söder, the Bavarian finance minister and a potential future CSU chief, called the party strife “the most difficult situation in decades” in an interview published on Thursday.

Horst Seehofer, the CSU chairman — whose hard line on immigration has challenged the chancellor’s more welcoming policy — declined to comment on reports that he is considering pulling the three CSU ministers out of her cabinet. But he has done little to temper speculation by telling the German media: “Anything is possible.”

The CSU’s ties with the CDU have been strained before, notably in 1976, when the party briefly left its alliance in a row over parliamentary speaking time. But the two partners have always made up; knowing that their grip on power is stronger for staying together — a reality Mr Seehofer and Ms Merkel will have to weigh against their deep differences in a historic crisis.

"There is once again, the German arrogance – and it is still that, even if the fight is for a noble goal," wrote Christoph Hasselbach, warning that the authority built by the German Chancellor during the Greek debt crisis was then spent by poor handling of the migrant crisis.

"Everybody is trying to save himself, even at the expense of others," says Hasselbach, warning that the German encouragement of refugees to come to Europe has dealt a critical blow to unity on the continent.

Fire struck a facility for refugees in the central Swedish town of Höör on Thursday in a suspected arson attack that became the latest in a series of such incidents in Sweden in the past few weeks, the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet reported.

According to police, someone splashed flammable liquid through the window of the refugee building in Höör, and then set it on fire. The staff reportedly managed to tackle the blaze with a fire extinguisher and there was no immediate word on injuries.

More than 10 arson attacks have occurred in Sweden in the past four weeks, all of them targeting migrant workers; meanwhile, the number of foreigners seeking asylum in the country has risen with each passing day. Europe is currently struggling to manage a major migration crisis. Over 710,000 migrants arrived in the European Union during the first nine months of 2015, according to the EU border agency Frontex.

And the situation is being aggravated by the following: firstly the people's weariness with austerity. Although we are still far from having implemented the reform programme the country feels it has done its duty and now deserves a reprieve. Secondly, there are the express pledges of all the parties to ease the austerity policy.

Whatever lies in store for the government, its future doesn't look rosy. If it keeps its promises the troika will soon be knocking on the door again. But if it shows good sense and acts as the situation demands, it will be crucified for betraying the voters.

“As I have stated publicly on many occasions, there is no definitive scientific proof, through real-world observation, that carbon dioxide is responsible for any of the slight warming of the global climate that has occurred during the past 300 years, since the peak of the Little Ice Age. If there were such a proof through testing and replication it would have been written down for all to see.

The contention that human emissions are now the dominant influence on climate is simply a hypothesis, rather than a universally accepted scientific theory. It is therefore correct, indeed verging on compulsory in the scientific tradition, to be skeptical of those who express certainty that ‘the science is settled’ and ‘the debate is over’.

But there is certainty beyond any doubt that CO2 is the building block for all life on Earth and that without its presence in the global atmosphere at a sufficient concentration this would be a dead planet. Yet today our children and our publics are taught that CO2 is a toxic pollutant that will destroy life and bring civilization to its knees.

To conclude, carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels is the stuff of life, the staff of life, the currency of life, indeed the backbone of life on Earth.”

"This is now possible for the first time in the history of UFO research as a result of an unprecedented convergence of high resolution digital camera technologies, off-the shelf scientific instrumentation, powerful low-cost computing platforms, and ubiquitous high-speed internet access."

The website says: "Our goal is to exploit this technological convergence by building a large network of automated surveillance stations with sophisticated sensors that will monitor the skies 24/7 looking for aerial anomalies.

Such a science is needed because of misplaced certainties on both sides of the UFO debate: “believers” convinced that UFOs are extraterrestrials, and “skeptics” equally convinced that UFOs do not even exist. "Our own view is that humanity knows very little about the true nature of unexplained UFO reports, and that the only way to resolve this lack of understanding is through serious scientific study."

NASA satellites have pinpointed 358 fire hotspots in the last week alone as the flames rage through fields, scrub and into the precious rainforests. By the day the death toll of fire-fighters rises. At least 19 have been killed by blazes that move faster than a man can run. Indonesia’s tragedy is the horrifying consequence of slash-and-burn farming and the impacts of an El Niño weather system that has turned the land into a tinderbox.

Together, they have created an unstoppable fire storm that has coated thousands of square miles in a deadly shroud of smoke that is impacting on millions of lives. Warships have been put on alert to evacuate children from the worst areas where the toxic smoke hovers and schools and offices are being shutdown.

Flights have been cancelled and it is predicted that Indonesia’s faltering economy could suffer £32 billion losses, around four per cent of its GDP. For Indonesia, an emerging Far East powerhouse, the fires are also creating diplomatic friction with neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia.

"It's been a long time since there was any water here," said a security guard walking up the dry bed to order AFP journalists away on Friday. The scene at Saracuruna is repeated across much of eastern Brazil between Rio and the megacity of Sao Paulo, with reservoirs and rivers running dry and authorities scrambling to avoid having to impose rationing. Rio de Janeiro state's environmental department blames "the worst drought in 85 years" for the crisis, while independent activists say decades of bad policy is equally culpable.

Although the southern tropical rainy season is just beginning, scientists fear that the El Nino weather phenomenon active this year may disrupt that hoped for relief from the sky, leaving tens of millions of people at risk. Daily water access, potential disruption of the 2016 Rio Olympics, crop irrigation, and the running of Brazil's hydroelectric industry, which provides for 75 percent of the country's power, are all at stake.

“The lack of rainfall in Gauteng is exacerbating the situation. The high water demand will cause localised problems in the City of Johannesburg, City of Tshwane and the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality.” The restrictions are being implemented until further notice and mean no excess outside use of water is permitted between 6am and 6pm.

The announcement comes as the entire country moves into the grips of the worst drought in 23 years. The past two droughts coincided with El Niño weather patterns in the Pacific Ocean, which warms the world’s largest body of water and creates drought in much of the southern hemisphere. Its appearance in 1982 and 1991 led to two year-long droughts across South Africa.

Jorgensen was in her third trimester when the car accident occurred in May 2008. Her daughter was delivered by C-section after the head-on collision and died six days later, according to the report. In October, the New York Court of Appeals reversed Jorgensen’s conviction, ruling that she was not guilty because she fatally injured her daughter before she was born. Not all of the judges agreed on the ruling. In a dissent, Judge Eugene Fahey wrote, “I cannot join in a result that analyzes our statutes to determine that a six-day-old child is not a person.”

Warner Todd Huston notes that as outrageous as the ruling may seem, the court is right that current state laws do not recognize unborn babies as “persons.” Jorgensen is no longer being held accountable for her baby’s death because, in the eyes of the state, her unborn daughter did not have the rights of personhood when her reckless behavior fatally injured her child.

After about four hours downtown, I went home with a great feeling about this year’s Halloween celebration. Our Daily Sun News “Pirates of Publication” entry was a hit. My staff and I had a lot of fun. And children had a safe venue to celebrate.

But when I got home and turned on the TV, I heard a clip of an evangelist preaching about the evils of participating in Halloween. In this day and age, to him, it was evil. But if you were downtown last night, you’d know there was nothing evil about All Hallow’s Eve in Sunnyside. I just can’t believe people are still that uneducated about Halloween — which, incidentally, is my favorite holiday. So to set the record straight, let’s talk about Halloween and its history for a little bit.

In case you didn’t know, Halloween is a mixture of Christian and pagan celebrations. And while some of you may be aghast about some of the pagan traditions in today’s modern Halloween, they were actually designed to ward off evil. Our modern celebration isn’t about Satan. It’s about having a safe, fun evening. It’s about dressing up. It’s about feasting. And it’s still about warding off evil, no matter how religious you are.

The figures also found while 57% classified themselves as Christian, fewer than 10% actually go to church. Many scholars agree that Jesus was a real man, who lived in Galilee over two thousand years ago, although many details surrounding his life are still debated.

But, the Church of England survey found that four in 10 people did not realise Jesus was a real person, with a quarter of 18 to 34 year olds believing he was a mythical or fictional character.