Life

France evacuates 3,000 near Spanish border over fire

French authorities evacuated more than 3,000 people from holiday campsites near the Spanish border on Monday after a fire broke out, officials said. “The villages of Saint-Andre, Sorede and the town of Argeles are at risk,” fire authorities said. The fire had spread over about 500 hectares in the Pyrenees-Orientales region, local officials said. About 550 firefighters had been deployed, along with several aircraft, they added. Authorities warned the number of evacuations could increase. Bordering […]

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Musk says cage fight with Zuckerberg will be in Italy

WASHINGTON, Aug 12, 2023 (AFP) – Elon Musk said Friday that his much-hyped cage fight with Mark Zuckerberg would take place in Italy, as authorities there confirmed talks about hosting a “great charity event.” While any showdown between the two tech titans has yet to be officially confirmed, Musk said on his X social media platform — formerly known as Twitter — that arrangements were advancing. “I spoke to the PM of Italy and Minister […]

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Archaeologists uncover Europe’s oldest stilt village

By Briseida MEMA LIN, Albania, Aug 11, 2023 (AFP) – Beneath the turquoise waters of Lake Ohrid, the “Pearl of the Balkans”, scientists have uncovered what may be one of Europe’s earliest sedentary communities, and are trying to solve the mystery of why it sheltered behind a fortress of defensive spikes. A stretch of the Albanian shore of the lake once hosted a settlement of stilt houses some 8,000 years ago, archaeologists believe, making it […]

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K-pop to the rescue? S. Korea all-in for scout jamboree closing concert

Tens of thousands of scouts are set to gather for a massive K-pop festival in Seoul on Friday, as South Korea seeks to salvage a problem-plagued jamboree with “the power of Korean culture”. But even as the government throws millions of dollars in emergency funding into fixing an event that has been a public relations disaster, criticism — from K-pop fans to public sector employees — is mounting over Seoul’s approach. The quadrennial world jamboree […]

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Virgin Galactic rockets its first tourist passengers into space

By Lucie AUBOURG Virgin Galactic launched its first tourist passengers into the weightlessness of space Thursday, the culmination of a nearly two-decade commercial pursuit, the company said. The three passengers — Jon Goodwin, Keisha Schahaff, and her teenage daughter Anastatia Mayers — floated gravity-free through the Virgin spacecraft about 45 minutes after taking off. “They are officially astronauts. Welcome to space,” said Virgin Galactic announcer Sirisha Bandla as the spacecraft pushed above 80 kilometers (50 […]

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Russia launches first Moon mission in nearly 50 years

Russia launched its first probe to the Moon in almost 50 years on Friday, a mission designed to give fresh impetus to its space sector, which has been struggling for years and become isolated by the conflict in Ukraine. The launch of the Luna-25 probe is Moscow’s first lunar mission since 1976, when the USSR was a pioneer in the conquest of space. The rocket with the Luna-25 probe lifted off at 02:10 am Moscow […]

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Japan’s second-oldest museum forced to crowdfund to pay bills

TOKYO, Aug 9, 2023 (AFP) – Japan’s second-oldest museum has raised $3.4 million through crowdfunding after reportedly being denied additional financial support to cover soaring utility bills to preserve its collection of animal and plant specimens. More than 30,000 people have donated a total of 480 million yen to the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo, easily surpassing the 100-million-yen target, campaign platform READYFOR said on Wednesday. The head of the 146-year-old museum, […]

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Bright flashes over Australia likely Russian rocket: space agency

https://youtu.be/PGDFGieOuGI   SYDNEY, Aug 8, 2023 (AFP) – Flashes of light seen across the sky over south-eastern Australia on Monday night were likely to have been remnants of a Russian rocket, the country’s space agency said. The dazzling display was spotted over the southern states of Victoria and Tasmania, captivating stargazers who thought it might be a meteor. But the Australian Space Agency said it was more likely to have been a Russian Soyuz-2 rocket […]

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Musk says his cage fight with Zuckerberg will stream on X

Elon Musk said Sunday that a “cage match” he and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg have seemingly agreed to as a fund-raiser will be carried live on X, formerly known as Twitter, which he owns. “Zuck v Musk fight will be live-streamed on X,” Musk posted. “All proceeds will go to charity for veterans.” Zuckerberg soon hit back on Threads, the new app he launched last month in a direct challenge to what was then still […]

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Relief and despair: repeal of logging ban divides Kenya

By Nick Perry But conservationists were dismayed at the announcement in July by President William Ruto, who had cast himself as a champion of the environment, and made planting 15 billion trees a centrepiece of his climate change agenda. The government defended lifting the ban, insisting that only mature trees in state-run plantations would be felled, and that Kenya’s most biodiverse and carbon-rich wild forests would remain untouched. The explanation did little to quash charges […]

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Belgium canal city of Bruges hits ‘red line’ with tourist crowds

BRUGES, Belgium, Aug 5, 2023 (AFP) – Inhabitants of Belgium’s cobblestone-and-canal city of Bruges are clear: summertime tourism has hit capacity. “It’s really reached a red line now,” says one, 55-year-old architect Arnout Goegebuer, as he sits inside a cafe, peering out a window across a packed outside terrace. “We don’t need more tourists anymore, it’s enough — maybe a little bit less” is needed, he says. It’s a sentiment reiterated by other residents of […]

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‘Shattered Souls’ art installation shines light on Catholic church scandals

Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany : This photo taken on August 4, 2023 shows the art installation ‘Shattered Souls … in a Sea of Silence’ by German artist Dennis Josef Meseg in front of Cologne Cathedral, western Germany. With his installation, the artist wants to make the public aware of the desperate, silent cry of abused children for justice for their maltreated souls. 333 small mannequins, draped in the colours of innocence and the Curia, will […]

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