|
|
|
WEEKLY UPDATE
Dinosaur fossil points to later date of continental drift
CHICAGO: The discovery of a dinosaur fossil in the African Sahara suggests that the continental drift that separated Africa from other continents occurred more recently than previously thought, according to a study released.
Paleontologists who unearthed the dinosaur skull from the Niger desert say the find indicates that the landmasses of Africa, South America, India and Madagascar were connected in some form until about 100 million years ago.
Until now the assumption was the fragmentation of the single supercontinent known as Gondwana, and comprising modern-day South America, Africa, Antartica, India and Australia, occurred about 120 million years ago.
But the discovery of the 95-million-year-old dinosaur fossils in Niger, similar to dinosaur fossils recovered from Patagonia in Argentina, and Madgascar, contradicts that theory.
“It strongly suggests there was traffic across a narrow land bridge that connected modern-day Brazil to West Africa,” said University of Chicago paleontologist Paul Sereno, who uncovered the skull during an expedition to Niger in 2000.
“We have a dinosaur here that provides the missing link between South America and Africa.” — AFP
Elderly Taiwanese man survives 12-storey fall
TAIPEI: An elderly Taiwanese man who plummeted 12 storeys to the ground after he fell from his apartment balcony while changing a lightbulb survived with only minor bruises, reports said.
Chang Shih-chi, 68, told cable network CTiTV he had overbalanced after suffering an electric shock, but his fall to earth was broken as he bounced off a canvas awning, electric wiring and a parked car.
“The patient had fallen from the 12th floor to the ground without suffering major injuries. This is a miracle,” said the doctor who treated Chang. — AFP
Poisonous cobra spotted in downtown Hong Kong park
HONG KONG: A highly poisonous Chinese cobra mysteriously turned up in a downtown Hong Kong park and set off an emergency search before it was later found dead. A zoologist said the snake, which is treated as a delicacy by local gourmets, may have escaped from a restaurant.
Authorities called in experts after a man spotted the snake on Monday in downtown Victoria Park, said a police spokeswoman, who identified herself as Chan.
The area was cordoned off before the reptile was discovered dead, the South China Morning Post reported. It was not clear how the snake died.
Gary Ades, senior manager of Kadoorie Farm & Botanic Garden research institute, told the Post it is unusual to find such snakes “in the center of the concrete jungle,” and said it could have escaped from a restaurant.
“Most of the snakes that appear in the city are either escapees from nearby snake restaurants or abandoned pets,” Ades was quoted as saying. “I am sure they get plenty of rodents in the park, and the snake would have come in looking for mice and rats to feed on.” — APP
Celebrated biographer dies at 82
HARTFORD, Connecticut: Historian William Manchester, who brought a novelist’s flair to his stirring biographies of such 20th century giants as Winston Churchill, Douglas MacArthur and John F. Kennedy, has died of cancer at age 82.
Manchester wrote 18 books, including two novels, but was best known in recent years for his magisterial, multivolume biography of Churchill, “The Last Lion.” Two strokes prevented Manchester from completing the much-anticipated third volume, covering most of the World War II years.
His wife, Julia, died in 1998. He is survived by three children, three grandchildren and a brother. — APP
China cracking down on high-tech vice
BEIJING: New technologies like cellphones and the Internet have meant a boom in crime in China, and the authorities are now taking steps to curb high-tech vice, state media said.
A growing number of Chinese criminals send text messages or emails with the sole purpose of hoodwinking people into parting with their money, the Xinhua news agency reported.
High-tech fraud started in the free-wheeling Fujian province in the southeast, but has now spread to many other parts of China, Xinhua said. — APP
The world’s oldest woman dies at 114
SAN JUAN: Ramona Trinidad Iglesias Jordan, who was the world’s oldest woman, has died in her sleep at age 114, reports here said Tuesday.
Her nephew Jorge Iglesias said she died of respiratory failure in the nursing home where she had lived for the last 11 years.
She was born August 31, 1889 in the Puerto Rican town of Utuado. In an interview she with the newspaper El Vocero in March, Iglesias Jordan recalled some of the most notable events that occurred in Puerto Rico at the end of the 19th century.
“Yes, I remember when the Americans marched in” she said about the 1898 Spanish-American War. “School classes were in Spanish and there were no American teachers at that time.”
On March 29, the Guinness Book of World Records certified her as the oldest living woman at 114 years and 211 days, after family members presented the organization with proof of her birth and baptismal records.
Last month, the Puerto Rican legislature honored her during a ceremony.
Iglesias Jordan, who married once, had no children. —AFP
Hoarders show unique brain pattern
WASHINGTON: New research into the brain patterns of compulsive hoarders shows the disorder may have been misclassified and victims could be getting the wrong treatment, US scientists reported on Tuesday.
Brain scans show the biology of America’s estimated 1 million compulsive hoarders is significantly different to that of other people diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder, the team at the University of California Los Angeles found.
Hoarding is usually classified as obsessive-compulsive disorder. “Our work shows that hoarding and saving compulsions long associated with OCD may spring from unique, previously unrecognized neurobiological malfunctions that standard treatments do not necessarily address,” Dr Sanjaya Saxena, who led the study, said in a statement. — Reuters
|
|
|
|
