Latest Queensland Stories

Farmers in eastern Australia are battling a plague of locusts, which have infested a 190,000 square mile stretch from central Queensland all the way south to the capital of Melbourne."What we've got certainly is a very large and widespread infestation," Australian Plague Locust Commission (APLC) chief Chris Adriaansen told AFP reporters on Wednesday. "It's simply a reflection of the fact that we've had widespread rain across that entire area."According to Adriaansen,...

HIV accounts for a large percentage of deaths, with most deaths concentrated in 6 countriesThe number of women dying from pregnancy-related causes has dropped by more than 35 percent in the past 30 years "“ from more than a half-million deaths annually in 1980 to about 343,000 in 2008, according to a new study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington and collaborators at the University of Queensland.IHME's research shows that deaths have been...

A Chinese coal carrier that has run aground in northeastern Australia has officials scrambling to prevent a major oil leak from pouring into the Great Barrier Reef.The Shen Neng 1 was moving at full speed when it struck Douglas Shoals in Queensland on Saturday, and according to various reports, it suffered a breach of its fuel tank and has started spilling oil.In a statement released Monday morning, Maritime Safety Queensland (MSQ) noted that the ship has already lost two of the 1,000 tons of...

The rise in human emissions of carbon dioxide is driving fundamental and dangerous changes in the chemistry and ecosystems of the world's oceans, international marine scientists warned today."Ocean conditions are already more extreme than those experienced by marine organisms and ecosystems for millions of years," the researchers say in the latest issue of the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution (TREE)."This emphasizes the urgent need to adopt policies that drastically reduce CO2...

NASA and the Japanese Space Agency's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite can estimate rainfall from space. TRMM is used to monitor tropical rainfall around the world, and can also calculate flood potential. TRMM data was used to create an animation of Tropical Cyclone Ului's track as it approached and made landfall in Queensland, Australia this weekend.The TRMM animation of rainfall indicated that between 130 mm and 179 mm (5.1 and 7.0 inches) of rainfall fell in areas west...

HOUSTON, March 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Endeavour International Corporation (NYSE-Amex: END) (LSE: ENDV) announced today that its board of directors has approved a review of strategic alternatives for its North Sea assets. In an effort to unlock the value of its underlying North Sea assets, Endeavour will study a full range of options, including: Continuing to execute current operations planEntering into a joint venture to accelerate activities in the North SeaSelling specific assets or...

Fossil corals, up to half a million years old, are providing fresh hope that coral reefs may be able to withstand the huge stresses imposed on them by today's human activity.Reef ecosystems were able to persist through massive environmental changes imposed by sharply falling sea levels during previous ice ages, an international scientific team has found. This provides new hope for their capacity to endure the increasing human impacts forecast for the 21st century.In the world's first study of...

Two species of damselfish may look identical"”not to mention drab"”to the human eye. But that's because, in comparison to the fish, all of us are essentially colorblind. A new study published online on February 25th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, reveals that the fish can easily tell one species from another based entirely on the shape of the ultraviolet (UV) patterns on their faces.Although scientists have long known that some animals have UV vision, the new findings...

Facebook is being asked to be more accountable for its users after recent cyber attacks on memorial pages set up to pay tribute to two murdered Australian children were brought to light, Reuters reported.It is natural that people who use sites like Facebook or MySpace as a major form of communication would turn to those sites with personal tragedies, according to social media experts.Such is the case with the pages set up after the deaths this month of 12 year-old Elliott Fletcher and 8...

GEORGE TOWN, Grand Cayman, Feb. 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Endeavour Financial Corporation (EDV) announces the following Webcast: What: Endeavour acquires 37.88% interest in Crew Gold When: February 3, 2010 @ 11:00 AM Eastern http://www.investorcalendar.com/ Where: ClientPage.asp?ID=154985 Live over the Internet --Simply log on to the web at How: the address above. Contact: Danny Koo, 202-629-4535 ,...