Customs officers have rescued 56 puppies which were found in a van (фургон) at Dublin Port. The van was stopped and searched on Thursday in a joint operation between Irish police, customs and the Dublin Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (DSPCA) ... Read more »
Summer is still fresh in the memory, and yet Christmas shopping in the US and the UK is already under way. But is September just too soon? Leaving the warm Virginia sunshine outside and walking into the bulk-buy Costco store in Pentagon City, it's easy to spot the Christmas aisles. They'r
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Kate Winslet and Gary Barlow receive royal honours
Actress Kate Winslet has been made a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire - капитан Ордена Британской Империи) for services to drama by The Queen at Buckingham Palace. The Reading-born star said it was "a completely different kind of honour" to h
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Sitting for long periods increases (увеличивать) the risk of diabetes, heart disease and death, researchers suggest. The scientists from Leicester and Loughborough Universities say harm is done even if people also exercise. The study, published in Diabetologia, analysed 18 existing studies involving (включающий, ох
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Jersey dog Harvey wins top prize at UK Labrador show
A Jersey dog has beaten 316 dogs to win top prize at a UK championship show. Harvey was named Best in Show at the Yellow Labrador Club Championship Show, which featured dogs from the UK, USA, Canada, Norway and Sweden. Harvey, who is nearly five years old, al
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George Lucas to make 'little personal films' Star Wars creator George Lucas says he plans to make "little personal films" now that he has sold his Lucasfilm empire to the Disney studio. His declaration follows the release of this year's Red Tails, a World War II drama about a black fighter pilot unit that he executive produced. "I barely got Red Tails into theatres," he said. "The ones I'm working on now will never get into the theatres." ... Read more »
Lion Lions are the only truly social cats, with related females living together in prides overseen by male coalitions that compete for possession in fierce(Жестокий) and often fatal battles. These magnificent(великолепные) beasts(звери) are found in sub-Saharan Africa, and there is also a small isolated population of Asiatic lions to be found in the Gir Forest
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DNA samples have been taken from a pair of seals thought to be the first twins born on the Farne Islands, off the Northumberland coast. The grey seal pups were spotted in October by National Trust ranger David Steel, who had been monitoring a pregnant seal. Multiple births in grey seals are rare and no records existed of any having been born on the islands before. DNA samples have now been taken by the Sea Mammal Research Unit. Mr Steel said: "Both are doing well and are close to
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The Paris coffee revolution France, a country with both a history of revolution and a history of coffee drinking, is currently experiencing a paradigm shift in its coffee scene. Coffee arrived in France at the beginning of the 17th Century, but the enjoyment of its complexities has been lost over the years and it still lags about 10
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Gotye's Somebody That I Used To Know is the UK's biggest selling single of 2012 so far. The Official Charts Company says the track, which also features New Zealand singer Kimbra, has sold 1.28m copies. Carly Rae Jepsen's Call Me Maybe is the second biggest song of the year, f
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Italy's specialist art theft police have tracked down and brought home a 400-year-old copy of a lost Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece - an incomplete fresco painting of the Battle of Anghiari.
It once decorated a wall of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, the Tuscan city's monumental town hall.
The copy is temporarily on show until the New Year at the Quirinal Palace in Rome, the official residence of the president of Italy.
America's controversial rap rockers, Hollywood Undead, have announced details of a six-date winter UK tour. The Californian six-piece will begin a six-date winter jaunt at Birmingham's O2 Academy 2 on 30 November. They will also visit Glasgow, Leeds, London, Manchester and Norwich. The masked rockers released debut album Swan Songs in May and also opened the main stage at this year's Download festi
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Forget diets and detoxes, Londoners are cheerfully indulging in the latest culinary trend of gourmet fast food -- and Bubbledogs, a new restaurant serving hotdogs and Champagne, is the latest place to find it.
The trend started in 2010 with food truck vendors like Lucky Chip and th
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Facebook and Zynga have amended an agreement that gave the games developer strong access to the social network's one billion users. Zynga is the developer behind Farmville, a game once mostly played on Facebook, which at its peak attracted 82 million players a month. Zynga now has its own games platform, but players will no longer be able to
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The geography of American barbecue To enthusiasts, true American barbecue is made by slow-cooking meat over low heat from a wood fire. The meat can vary, with pork, beef, chicken and lamb being most common, and when done right, the result is succulent, juicy and tender with a nuanced and robust flav
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Charles Dickens is much loved for his great contribution to classic English literature. He was the quintessential Victorian author. His epic stories, vivid characters and exhaustive depiction of contemporary life are unforgettable.
His own story is one of rags to riches. He was born in Portsmouth on 7 February 1812, to John and Elizabeth Dickens. The good fortune of being sent to school at the age of nine was short-lived because his father, inspiratio
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Researchers say a baby's chance of being obese in childhood can be predicted at birth using a simple formula. The formula combines several known factors to estimate the risk of obesity. The authors of the study, published in PLos One, hope it will be used to identify babies at risk. Childhood obesity can lead to many health problems, i
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Blue whales perform underwater acrobatics to attack their prey from below, scientists have found. The massive mammals are known for lunge-feeding; gulping up to 100 tonnes of krill-filled water in less than 10 seconds. Using suction cup tags, US researchers have recorded the surprising manoeuvrability of the giants. They found that the whales roll 360 degrees in order to orientate themselves for a surprise
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Reading Children are reading less as their lives become more crowded with other activities, new research suggests. They are reading fewer novels, comics, magazines and websites, according to a National Literacy Trust study of 21,000 children and teenagers. While many enjoyed reading, some 17% said they would be embarrassed if a friend saw them with a book. A government spokesman said the findings showed the need to help young people develop a
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Bats may be the source of a new Sars(атипичная пневмония)-like virus which killed a man in Saudi Arabia, according to an analysis of the coronavirus' genome.
Two other people have been infected and one, who was flown to the UK for treatment in September, is still in intensive care.
Experts, writing in the journal mBio, said the virus was closely related to other viruses in bats.
It is thought the virus does not pass readily f
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Two baby giant otters - the first to be born at Chester Zoo's new breeding centre - have made their first public appearance. The pups were born in September, six months after the zoo opened the UK's first underwater viewing zone for the species. They are now being individually taught how to swim by their parents. Curator of mammals Tim Rowlands said: "They are such a charming and charismatic species." "It might surprise some to learn that a species so well adapted to living aroun
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Eating more chocolate improves a nation's chances of producing Nobel Prize winners - or at least that's what a recent study appears to suggest. But how much chocolate do Nobel laureates eat, and how could any such link be explained?
The study's author, Franz Messerli of Colombia University, started wondering about the power of chocolate after reading that cocoa was good for you.
Tom Cruise highest paid actor in Hollywood, says Forbes
Tom Cruise has topped a list of the highest paid actors in Hollywood. The star, who is getting divorced from wife Katie Holmes, made nearly twice as much as second-placed Leonardo DiCaprio in the Forbes Magazine rundown(краткое изложение). It's after the 50-year-old's appearance in the latest Mission: Impossible film - Ghost Protocol - which made more than $7
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Related Stories Researchers in the US have been shocked to discover a beluga whale whose vocalisations were remarkably close to human speech. While dolphins have been taught to mimic(имитировать) the pattern(шаблон) and durations(продолжительность) of sounds in human speech, no animal has spontaneously
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British people - and many others across the world - have been brought up on the idea of three square meals a day as a normal eating pattern, but it wasn't always that way.
People are repeatedly told the hallowed family dinner around a table is in decline and the UK is not the only country experiencing such change.
The case for breakfast, missed by many with deleterious effects, is that it makes us more alert, helps keep us trim and improves children's work and behaviour
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Fifty children aged four to six years old and the driver of the school bus they were on were killed when their vehicle was hit by a train in central Egypt on Saturday, officials said. The transport minister resigned in the wake of the crash near Manfalut, 350km (230 miles) south of Cairo. The provincial governor said the man in charge of the c
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Lumbini, the birthplace of the Lord Buddha and a place of pilgrimage(паломничество) for Buddhists worldwide, is under threat of development. This winter, Buddhist monks(монах) began peacefully organizing in Nepal to protest against the formation of the Lumbini Development National Steering Committee, which Buddhists fear will bring industrialization and commercialization to this spiritual destination. Alm
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A slice of cake Once it was a luxury to eat a slice of cake, but that indulgence is now a more affordable treat. We eat it when we celebrate, reward ourselves, or when we seek solace from the realities of life. "Cake is a very comforting thing to make, eat and smell," says Jessica Simmons, who has penned a book on Women's Institute vintage teatime. But with tea and coffee prices rising, and ingredients like milk, eggs and butter all affe
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Wellingborough horse owners warned to leave public land
Related Stories Owners who graze(пасти) their horses on public land in a Northamptonshire town have been given seven days to remove them.Wellingborough Council has issued (выдал) an ultimatum that any horses on the land after the weekend would be removed.Graham Lawman from the council said residents had complained about horses roam
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Wildlife conservationists believe it is likely to become the way to control South Africa's ever-expanding elephant population.
But the plans have provoked considerable controversy (значительное противоречие).
Some of the country's most eminent elephant experts are completely opposed to the contraception programme. Elephants eat an estimated(оценивать) 270kg (600lbs) of food a day and can be extremely destru
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Insulin availability INSULIN 90 years after the first ever insulin injection was given to a diabetic to help control their faulty sugar levels, a campaign has been launched to improve access to the life-saving medication. In countries like Mali insulin costs are as high as 40% of annual income. David Beran, who’s an Adviser to the International Insulin Foundation, is behind the 100 Campaign which aims to stop children with diabetes dying from a lack of ins
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Each week a global thinker from the worlds of philosophy, science, psychology or the arts is given a minute to put forward a radical, inspiring or controversial idea – no matter how improbable – that they believe would change the world.
“I think that language is overrated; some people even claim that you cannot think without language. ... Read more »
SWEETS The number of traditional sweet shops has by 15% over the last year, in spite of overall falls in sales of confectionery(кондитерские изделия) and high street footfall. What is it that has people hooked?
"The sweet shop is a pilgrimage(поломничество)," says Alex Hutchinson, archivist at Nestle's York headquarters(центр).
Each week a global thinker from the worlds of philosophy, science, psychology or the arts is given a minute to put forward a radical, inspiring or controversial idea – no matter how improbable – that they believe would change the world.
This week, American biologist Stuart Firestein says that instead of a happy hour, we should just have a happy minute. “In America, at least, we have something happy
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Death rituals in the animal kingdom We know humans find some form of value in guarding or watching the bodies of the deceased, but in the first article for his new column, Jason Goldman explains how we are beginning to discover that animals may have similar needs. When a Jewish person dies, according to tradition, a member of a group called the chevra kadisha stays with the body from death until burial, continually reciting passages from the book of P
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Elks The elk or wapiti (Cervus canadensis) is one of the largest species of deer in the world, and one of the largest land mammals in North America and eastern Asia. It was long believed to be a subspecies(подвид) of the European red deer (Cervus elaphus), but evidence(данные) from a 2004 study of the mitochondrial DNA (митохондриальная ДНК)indicates ... Read more »
The Hobbit producers sue 'mockbuster' film company
The film studios behind The Hobbit films are suing low-budget company The Asylum for trademarkinfringement(нарушение), over its new film Age of the Hobbits.
Warner Bros, New Line Cinema, MGM and The Hobbit producer Saul Zaentz want to stop them using the word Hobbit in the title of the "knockoff film".
A hitherto unknown polar bear sanctuary in the Arctic has been discovered by the makers of a BBC documentary. An estimated 20 of the bears were seen on the Peterman Iceberg in Baffin Bay, 50km off the Canadian coast. For most of the year, polar bears live on the frozen sea water where they hunt seals. So the finding challenges received wisdom about where polar bears spend the summer months, when the sea ice melts. The sanctuary
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The Beatles' Liverpool See Completed in 1978, Liverpool Cathedral is a place of superlatives – it is Britain’s biggest church and the biggest Anglican cathedral in the world. It also has what’s probably the world’s largest operational organ, and the third-largest bell in the world (St James’ Mount; admission £5). Tate Liverpool is regarded as the home of modern art in the north of England. The gallery features a substantial checklist of 20thc
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A real fairytale city, with its castle on the hill and famous statue-covered bridge, Prague has starred in everything from moody music videos to real-life revolutions. Its glorious architecture and rich cultural and historical heritage (наследие) make it a permanent draw (притягательная сила) for tourists, and the excellent public transport and cosmopolitan and artistic life is
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