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Big ideas in the news from around the web
Golfer Tiger Woods may well be spending the Christmas holidays alone after reports that his wife Elin is moving out of his den following revelations that the pro has been cheating. The Miami Herald reports: “Elin plans on going somewhere ‘warm and Tiger-free,’ according to a source, who added that ...
The Hubble Space Telescope has captured festive-looking images of the cosmos (resembling a starry Christmas wreath) just in time for the holidays. “The spacecraft observed a group of young stars called R136, which is only a few million years old and inhabits the 30 Doradus Nebula, part of a ...
“Researchers have completed the genetic sequences of two types of cancer — skin cancer and small-cell lung cancer — revealing that the genomes bear the hallmarks of their respective carcinogens: sun and smoke. Worldwide, the two diseases kill a total of nearly 250,000 people each year, despite the ...
Planetary scientist Francis Nimmo says evidence from recent NASA expeditions suggests that conditions necessary for life may exist on the icy satellites of Saturn and Jupiter. “’If these moons are habitable, it changes the whole idea of the habitable zone,’ said Nimmo, a professor of Earth and ...
“With just two days remaining in historic and contentious climate talks here, China signaled overnight that it sees virtually no possibility that the nearly 200 nations gathered would find agreement by Friday. An official in the American delegation said that China would agree only to a brief ...
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has sparked outrage for hosting an online debate on the “Have Your Say” website asking people if homosexuals in Uganda should face execution. The debate, original entitled “Should homosexuals face execution”, changed its headline to “Should Uganda debate ...
Surgeons in Brazil are attempting to remove up to 50 sewing needles from a 2-year-old boy. “Brazilian media reported that a former stepfather of the toddler has been detained and he told police that he inserted the needles into the boy with the help of two unidentified women. The police inspector in ...
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has announced that the Western military bloc was not prepared to compromise with Russia over Georgia. “When asked by journalists whether his talks with Russian leaders meant the alliance had changed its position on the August 2008 war between Russia and ...
The US government has agreed to forgo billions in tax payments from Citigroup as part of a deal to help the company repay the massive taxpayer bailout which helped it weather the crisis. “The Internal Revenue Service on Friday issued an exception to long-standing tax rules for the benefit of ...
A new study suggests that 15 per cent of teenagers have received explicitly sexually text messages, dubbed “sext messages”. “Remember when we were all crying about the fact that AT&T delayed the rollout of multimedia messaging on the iPhone? Well, some parents may now be wishing the feature wasn't ...
“The graceful arc of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner's upwardly swept wings wowed the large crowd of Boeing employees and spectators at Paine Field in Everett on Tuesday and underscored that this was no conventional airliner. Viewed from behind as the plane took off on its first flight, the slender ...
The sense of touch is more pertinent for women because their hands are smaller, a new study by the McMaster University in Ontario, Canada suggests. “The fingertip touch receptors, which cluster around sweat pore bases, were therefore more tightly packed, they told the Journal of Neuroscience. Higher ...
It was only a matter of time before internet users used their “collective energy” to make a collaborative work of literature, writes The Independent. “The World According to Twitter: Crowd-sourced Wit and Wisdom from David Pogue (and His 350,000 Followers) is the work of The New York Times ...
“The Obama administration announced Tuesday it supports loosening international copyright protections to enable cross-border distribution of special-format reading materials for the blind, a move that puts it at odds with nearly all of U.S. industry. The government announced its support for the ...
“Yegor Gaidar, one of the architects of Russia’s ‘shock therapy’ transition from Communism to capitalism, has died aged just 53. The former Prime Minister was found dead at his home in Moscow’s Odintsovo district this morning. Interfax news quoted police sources saying that he appeared to have ...