Six-year-old girl sets Rubik’s Cube world record

Six-year-old Chinese speedcuber Lian Yunzhi has set a women’s world record for solving a 3x3 Rubik’s Cube, with an average time of 4.27 seconds.

Lian, from Chengdu, broke the record twice this month at World Cube Association competitions in Wuhan and Guangzhou, recording averages of 4.52 and 4.27 seconds. She is the first female speedcuber to average under 4.5 seconds.

Nicknamed “Zhizhi”, Lian began cubing after joining a class as a child. She now knows more than 1,300 solving algorithms and practises for two to three hours a day.

Woman falls into sinkhole

A New York woman had a terrifying 47th birthday when the ground suddenly gave way beneath her, dropping her 8 feet into a water-filled sinkhole in her backyard in Bohemia, Long Island.

Danielle Tammone struggled to climb out as the ground around her crumbled. Two neighbours heard her cries, found her in the hole and called 911. Emergency responders lowered a ladder to help her out and then sang “Happy Birthday” to her.

Tammone suffered minor injuries, including whiplash and pulled muscles.

“Thank God I didn’t land on stone. It was just sod and water, but still scary,” she said.

Rare Odyssey fragment found in a library

A damaged parchment fragment containing part of Homer’s Odyssey has been discovered in a university library in the Netherlands after being overlooked for decades.

Professor Mark de Kreij identified it while studying Greek manuscripts at Utrecht University. The fragment contains passages from Book 12 and is believed to date to the third or fourth century AD.

Only about 30 similar fragments are known worldwide. Researchers believe it was once owned by a reader in Egypt’s Fayum Oasis.

Experts are unsure whether it came from a complete copy of the Odyssey or an anthology of excerpts. The discovery also shows how widely Homer’s works were read and used to teach Greek in the ancient world.

$30 painting could sell for $250,000

A painting bought for just $30 at a Michigan estate sale is now expected to fetch up to $250,000 after being identified as a lost work by Chicago surrealist Gertrude Abercrombie.

The buyer noticed “Abercrombie, ’51” written on it and later spotted a photo of the painting in its original frame at an Abercrombie exhibition. Art historian Susan Weininger authenticated it as a 1951 work depicting seashells from the collection of Chicago alderman Robert Merriam.

Abercrombie had given the painting to doctor John Reynolds in 1952 in exchange for a medical procedure. It remained with his family for about 75 years before being sold at the estate sale.

Titled Alderman Merriam’s Shells, the painting will be auctioned by Freeman’s and is expected to sell for $150,000 to $250,000.

Published in Dawn, Young World, October 3rd, 2026