
-
Protest as quake-hit Myanmar junta chief joins Bangkok summit
-
EU leaders push for influence at Central Asia summit
-
Asian stocks extend global rout after Trump's shock tariff blitz
-
Lewandowski, Mbappe duel fuelling tight La Liga title race
-
South Korea court upholds President Yoon's impeachment, strips him of office
-
Liverpool march towards title as Man City face Man Utd
-
Finland's colossal bomb shelters a model for jittery Europe
-
Athletes frustrated as France mulls Muslim headscarf ban in sport
-
Korda downs Kupcho to stay alive at LPGA Match Play
-
German industry grapples with AI at trade fair
-
Irish school trains thatchers to save iconic roofs
-
'Frightening': US restaurants, producers face tariff whiplash
-
Cuba looks to sun to solve its energy crisis
-
Experts warn 'AI-written' paper is latest spin on climate change denial
-
PSG eye becoming France's first 'Invincibles'
-
Late birdie burst lifts Ryder to Texas Open lead
-
Five potential Grand National fairytale endings
-
Trump purges national security team after meeting conspiracist
-
More work for McIlroy even with two wins before Masters
-
Trump hopeful of 'great' PGA-LIV golf merger
-
No.1 Scheffler goes for third Masters crown in four years
-
Where Trump's tariffs could hurt Americans' wallets
-
Trump says 'very close to a deal' on TikTok
-
Trump tariffs on Mexico: the good, the bad, the unknown
-
Postecoglou denies taunting Spurs fans in Chelsea defeat
-
Oscar-winning Palestinian director speaks at UN on Israeli settlements
-
With tariff war, Trump also reshapes how US treats allies
-
Fernandez fires Chelsea into fourth as pressure mounts on Postecoglou
-
South Korea court to decide impeached president's fate
-
Penguin memes take flight after Trump tariffs remote island
-
E.T., no home: Original model of movie alien doesn't sell at auction
-
Italy's Brignone has surgery on broken leg with Winter Olympics looming
-
Trump defiant as tariffs send world markets into panic
-
City officials vote to repair roof on home of MLB Rays
-
Rockets forward Brooks gets one-game NBA ban for technicals
-
Pentagon watchdog to probe defense chief over Signal chat row
-
US tariffs could push up inflation, slow growth: Fed official
-
New Bruce Springsteen music set for June 27 release
-
Tom Cruise pays tribute to Val Kilmer
-
Mexico president welcomes being left off Trump's tariffs list
-
Zuckerberg repeats Trump visits in bid to settle antitrust case
-
US fencer disqualified for not facing transgender rival
-
'Everyone worried' by Trump tariffs in France's champagne region
-
Italy's Brignone suffers broken leg with Winter Olympics looming
-
Iyer blitz powers Kolkata to big IPL win over Hyderabad
-
Russian soprano Netrebko to return to London's Royal Opera House
-
French creche worker gets 25 years for killing baby with drain cleaner
-
UK avoids worst US tariffs post-Brexit, but no celebrations
-
Canada imposing 25% tariff on some US auto imports
-
Ruud wants 'fair share' of Grand Slam revenue for players

Kazakhstan says part of Aral Sea has nearly doubled in volume
Kazakhstan said on Monday the northern part of the Aral Sea had nearly doubled in volume since 2008, a rare environmental success story in a region plagued by pollution.
The Aral Sea between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan was once the fourth largest lake in the world, before Soviet irrigation projects caused most of it to dry up.
The transformation of the freshwater sea -- once 40 metres (130 feet) deep and spanning 68,000 square kilometres (176,000 square miles) -- has been dubbed one of the world's worst environmental catastrophes.
Since 2008, the volume of water in the northern, smaller part of the sea has "increased by 42 percent and reached 27 billion cubic metres (950 billion cubic feet)", the Central Asian republic's water resources ministry said.
This was "thanks to the implementation of Phase One of the (Northern) Aral Sea conservation project", the ministry told AFP.
The scheme, funded jointly by the Kazakh government and the World Bank, has involved constructing new infrastructure to prevent water flowing out of the sea.
In 2024 alone, authorities directed 2.6 billion cubic metres of water from the Syr Darya river into the northern part, reducing the salinity of the water by a factor of almost four and promoting aquatic life, it said.
Efforts to save the Aral Sea have required close cooperation between the five former Soviet republics of Central Asia, who set annual water quotas for the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, the two rivers that feed the Aral.
Under the Soviet Union, the rivers were diverted to use for agriculture -- mainly for cotton and rice cultivation, causing the sea to shrink by up to 90 percent in size from the 1960s to the 2010s.
By the late 1980s, the sea had split into two sections -- a larger section on the Uzbek side that has mostly dried out and a smaller section in the northern Kazakh side which has become the focus of conservation efforts.
The drying of the Aral Sea has caused multiple animal species to go extinct and virtually ended human activity in the area.
In addition, winds have carried tens of millions of tonnes of salt and toxic dust from the dried-up lake bed across Central Asia, causing cancer and respiratory diseases.
O.Gutierrez--AT