NASA’s Curiosity rover has detected the highest ever levels of methane in the course of its mission on Mars, an exciting discovery because the gas could point to the existence of microbial life. But the methane could also be produced as a result of interactions between rocks and water. Curiosity’s
A senior Sri Lankan conservation official was among eight people charged Tuesday in a landmark case over the capture and sale to the wealthy of dozens of baby elephants as status symbols. Wildlife experts say about 40 calves may have been stolen from their herds during a 10-year period and sold
South Korean automaker Kia has unveiled its new Seltos compact SUV, the series version of its SP Signature concept shown at the Seoul Motor Show in March 2019. It will make its formal debut at the International Motor Show Germany in Frankfurt in September, ahead of its global launch, by
Five critically endangered eastern black rhinos were on Monday successfully relocated to Rwanda’s Akagera National Park after a long journey from the Czech Republic, park officials said. The arrival of the rhinos marks the second translocation to Rwanda after South Africa donated 17 rhinos in 2017, reintroducing the species after
Alarmed French beekeepers and farming groups warned Tuesday of a “catastrophic” honey harvest this year due to adverse weather. “For honey producers the season risks being catastrophic. Bees are collecting nothing!” French farming union MODEF said in a statement. “In the hives, there is nothing to eat, beekeepers are having
The women embroiderers of the remote Mexican mountain village of Tenango de Doria made worldwide headlines this week when their government went to war with an American designer for “plagiarising” their patterns. Wes Gordon, the artistic director of the New York label founded by Venezuelan designer Carolina Herrera, found himself
SEOUL: US President Donald Trump will visit South Korea at the weekend after the G20 summit to discuss deadlocked nuclear talks with the North with President Moon Jae-in, Seoul’s presidential office said yesterday. Trump will fly to the South Korean capital on Saturday after attending the G20 summit in Japan,
HANOI: A US citizen was sentenced yesterday to 12 years in Vietnamese prison for “attempting to overthrow the state”, a lawyer and state media said, as the one-party country squeezes dissent. Vietnamese-American Michael Nguyen was detained in July last year while travelling in the country with two activists, who were
HONG KONG: More than 100 people blocked a Hong Kong government building yesterday in protest against proposed legislation allowing extraditions to mainland China that they want scrapped. Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam, saying she had heard the protesters “loud and clear”, this month postponed the bill that would allow criminal
TEHRAN: The new economic sanctions that the United States is preparing to impose on Iran will have no “impact”, a spokesman for the Islamic republic’s foreign ministry said yesterday. “We really do not know what (the new sanctions) are and what they want to target anymore, and also do not
