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A microscopic animal has been revived after slumbering in the Arctic permafrost for 24,000 years. Bdelloid rotifers typically live in watery environments and have an incredible ability to survive. Russian scientists found the creatures in a core of frozen soil extracted from the Siberian permafrost using a drilling rig.
Source: cnn.com
A 65-year-old Connecticut man was killed when his motorcycle hit a bear, police said. Thomas Kovalik, of Plymouth, was driving a 1995 Harley-Davidson on Route 222 in Harwinton when he crashed into a bear at about 10:30 p.m. Saturday, Connecticut state police said. Kovalik was thrown from the motorcycle and landed in the road, police said. He was taken to Charlotte Hungerford Hospital in Torrington, where he was pronounced dead.
Source: boston.com
The death toll from a horrific collision of two trains in southern Pakistan rose to 63 on Tuesday after rescuers pulled 12 more bodies from crumpled cars a day after the crash, officials said. The collision took place on a dilapidated railway track in Ghotki, a district in the southern Sindh province, when an express train barreled into another that had derailed minutes earlier before dawn on Monday.
Source: apnews.com
Germany has announced it will fly more than 22,500 litres of beer home from Afghanistan, as Nato forces prepare to withdraw. Commanders had recently banned soldiers from drinking amid growing violence in Afghanistan ahead of the withdrawal. Local forces were unable to sell the alcohol due to religious and cultural differences in Afghanistan. A defence ministry spokeswoman said on Monday that they had found a civilian contractor to repatriate the drinks.
Source: bbc.com
A replica of Leonardo da Vinci's famous Mona Lisa painting is going on sale in Paris, where it is expected to fetch up to €300,000. Said to have been created by a follower of da Vinci in the early 17th Century, it is widely known as the Mona Lisa Hekking after ex-owner Raymond Hekking. Hekking, who died in 1977, cast doubt on the authenticity of the original masterpiece now at the Louvre museum. The early replica will be sold at Christie's auction house in Paris. Hekking acquired the canvas in the 1950s from an art dealer in Nice.
Source: bbc.com
A scaled-down replica of the Statue of Liberty began its trip from France to the United States on the back of a flat-bed truck on Monday, retracing the journey made over a century ago by its big sister, which now looks out over New York Harbour. The replica, which stands at 2.83 metres (9.3 ft) tall, is being loaned by a Paris museum to the United States for 10 years to cement Franco-American friendship.
Source: reuters.com
The oldest male chimpanzee living in an accredited North American zoo died Saturday at the San Francisco Zoo & Gardens. He was 63. The chimpanzee, named Cobby, had been a hand-reared performing chimpanzee before he was brought to the San Francisco zoo in the 1960s. Although the zoo said in a news release that the chimpanzee’s cause of death had not been determined, the animal had recently been ill and zoo officials believe old age was a factor.
Source: apnews.com
Venice has long been in peril from the waves that motor boats create along its canals, eroding the foundations of historic buildings and threatening them with collapse. A new electric boat that flies above the water might be a solution. Erosion - a problem known as "moto ondoso" - is caused by the wakes of motor boats, water buses and ferries washing against the walls of buildings along the canals. Swedish company Candela's electric boat, the Candela C-7, runs on computer-controlled hydrofoils, or underwater "wings", that lift the hull into the air and make it appear to fly over the water. Candela says its technology significantly reduces "moto ondoso" damage.
Source: reuters.com
A new drug for Alzheimer’s disease, the first in nearly 20 years, may be approved in the US on Monday, which would trigger pressure to make it available worldwide. Usefulness of aducanumab is disputed but US approval will trigger push to make it available globally.
Source: theguardian.com
The Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has said he will fly to space with his brother on the first human flight launched by his space company, Blue Origin. Bezos said space flight was something he had wanted to do "all my life". Blue Origin is also auctioning off a seat in the capsule, for someone who will join the pair on the inaugural manned flight. "On July 20th, I will take that journey with my brother," he wrote in the Instagram post. "The greatest adventure, with my best friend."
Source: bbc.com
Final results Monday confirmed a larger-than-expected win for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party in the last German state election before a national vote in September. The outcome offers a boost to Merkel’s would-be successor on the center-right, though it was first and foremost a triumph for the popular state governor. Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union won Sunday’s election in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt with 37.1% of the vote, far ahead of the far-right Alternative for Germany with 20.8%.
Source: apnews.com
Archaeologists have found rare evidence of slavery in Roman Britain in the form of a man buried in a ditch with a locked set of iron fetters around his ankles. The discovery in Rutland, of a man thought to have been aged in his late 20s or mid 30s, is the first known burial of a person shackled in this form of restraint dating from the Roman occupation of Britain. Builders working on a home extension in Great Casterton found the skeleton and radiocarbon dating undertaken by Leicestershire Police it dated from AD 226-427.
Source: independent.co.uk
Days after Boston officials announced the death of a mother swan on the city's Charles River Esplanade, amateur photographer Matthew Raifman captured a bittersweet photo of the father swan carrying its babies - known as cygnets - on its back.
Production for Tesla Inc’s (TSLA.O) longest-range Model S Plaid+ is canceled, CEO Elon Musk said in a tweet on Sunday. "Plaid+ is canceled. No need, as Plaid is just so good." Musk tweeted. Model S Plaid+, which would have been Tesla's highest-end model with a driving range of 520 miles, was unveiled at a battery event last year and Musk said it would adopt its next generation 4680 battery cells. But production was pushed back to 2022 from the end of 2021.
Source: reuters.com
The leader of the Nigerian militant group Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, has killed himself, rival Islamist militants said in an audio recording. In audio obtained by news agencies, the Islamic State West Africa Province (Iswap) said Shekau died detonating explosives on himself after a battle between the two groups. Shekau was reported dead last month and has been reported killed before. Neither Boko Haram nor the Nigerian government have confirmed his death.
Source: bbc.com
A collision between two passenger express trains in southern Pakistan killed at least 30 people on Monday, and the death toll was likely to rise as rescuers were still trying to access several mangled coaches, a police official told media. The accident in the Ghotki district of the southern Sindh province occurred after the coaches of one train, the Millat Express, derailed and fell across the opposite track, where they were hit by another train, the Sir Syed Express, a spokesperson for Pakistan Railways said in a statement. Rescuers were still trying to access a coach where some 25 people were believed to be trapped.
Source: reuters.com
Polls have closed in Mexico's mid-term elections after one of the country's bloodiest campaigns in recent history. Early results suggest President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's governing Morena party and its allies will win a reduced majority in Congress. The elections have been marred by violence with dozens of politicians killed in the build up to the vote. On Sunday, a severed head was lobbed into a polling station and five election workers shot dead.
Source: bbc.com
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have announced the birth of a daughter they have named Lilibet “Lili” Diana Mountbatten-Windsor. Harry and Meghan’s daughter, who was born in hospital in California on Friday, weighed 7lb 11oz (3.4kg) and has been named after the family nickname for the Queen, the baby’s great-grandmother. Her middle name was chosen to honour her late grandmother Diana, Princess of Wales, the couple said. The baby is the Queen’s 11th great-grandchild and is eighth in line to the throne.
Source: theguardian.com
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