Fossils

Scientists discovered three new dinosaur species in Australia.

Las Palmas

Plotters planned to use a 13-foot zeppelin to help a detainee escape from prison.

Dinosaur Skin

NPR: "A rare discovery in North Dakota offers a peek at the skin of a dinosaur."

Belarus

RIA Novosti:

Belarus plans to create a gambling zone near its international airport in Minsk to attract foreign visitors as neighboring Russia and Ukraine have banned casinos, an official said on Thursday.

Black Bear

New York Post: "A New Jersey man packing his car for a business trip was waylaid by a hungry black bear who knocked him unconscious and stole his Italian sub sandwich, police said yesterday."

Yard Dogs

RIA Novosti:

Police in Russia's Far East said that they have found another child that has been raised by dogs, Ren TV reported on Thursday.

The police found 6-year-old Veronika Tishchenko in a house along with three adults in the town of Vyazemsky, Khabarovsk Territory, several days ago.

The girl was unable to speak and had spent her time playing with dogs in the yard of her home. Two years ago Veronika's brother was tragically killed by the yard dogs.

Previous: It's a Dog's Life

Poland

Polish customs officers found scorpions in a parcel from Hong Kong.

Bangladesh

ABC Online, Australia: "Police in southeastern Bangladesh arrested a man for beating an endangered Bengal tiger to death after it strayed into a village, a forest official said."

Thailand

An elephant killed a man and two women in three separate attacks at rubber plantations in southern Thailand.

Dangerous Pet

In Florida a Burmese python strangled a 2-year-old child.

Empire of the Ants

Matt Walker of the BBC:

A single mega-colony of ants has colonized much of the world, scientists have discovered.

Argentine ants living in vast numbers across Europe, the U.S. and Japan belong to the same interrelated colony, and will refuse to fight one another.

The colony may be the largest of its type ever known for any insect species, and could rival humans in the scale of its world domination.

Chocolate

RIA Novosti: "The world's first monument to chocolate, depicting a bronze fairy holding a bar of chocolate, was unveiled in Central Russia's Vladimir Region on Wednesday."

Ancestor

Carnegie Museum of Natural History:

A new fossil primate from Myanmar suggests that the common ancestor of humans, monkeys and apes evolved from primates in Asia, not Africa as many researchers believe.

Previous: Landmark Scientific Find

Camel

Via Independent Online: "Spanish researchers said Monday they have discovered evidence of a previously unknown type of camel which lived in Europe six million years ago."

Biological Fountain of Youth

FASEB Journal: "Scientists from Texas are batty over a new discovery which could lead to the single most important medical breakthrough in human history — significantly longer lifespans."

Pirate Fighters

RIA Novosti:

Eleven littoral states of the Persian Gulf and Red Sea have agreed to create an all-Arab naval task force to prevent the spread of sea piracy in the region, a Yemeni newspaper said on Tuesday.

DNA

Jessica Berman, Voice of America: "Scientists are using DNA to trace illegal ivory from slaughtered elephants to its countries of origin in an effort to nab poachers."

Food

A major group of dinosaurs had unique way of eating.

Italy

IOL: "Nearly 18 percent of the Italian population — 11 million people — trusts self-styled sorcerers and healers, a consumer watchdog said in a report on Monday."

Lion Prides

Matt Walker of the BBC:

Lions form prides to defend territory against other lions, not to improve their hunting success, a study reveals.

In doing so, they act much like street gangs, gathering together to protect their turf from interlopers, says a leading lion expert.

Tokyo Bay

Mark Willacy at ABC Online, Australia:

Japanese police have found a number of severed hands and other body parts in Tokyo Bay.

Investigators believe the Yakuza, or Japanese Mafia, could be behind the killings.

Paul the Apostle

Voice of America:

Pope Benedict XVI says bone fragments found in a tomb beneath the floor of Rome's Basilica of St. Paul Outside-The-Walls are probably remains of the Apostle Paul.

The pontiff announced Sunday that carbon dating tests run on the fragments, which were found inside a stone sarcophagus discovered beneath the floor of the basilica, confirm that they date from first or second century.

"This seems to confirm the unanimous and uncontested tradition that they are the mortal remains of the Apostle Paul," Benedict said, speaking Sunday at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside-The-Walls.

Christians have traditionally believed St. Paul was buried beneath the main altar of the basilica, which was built in the late fourth century. The 8-foot-long sarcophagus containing the bone fragments was discovered in 2002.

The pope's announcement came on the eve of the Feasts of St. Peter and St. Paul, a major feast day for the Roman Catholic Church.

Paul and Peter are regarded by the faithful as the greatest early Christian missionaries.

Russian Casinos

Clifford J. Levy of the New York Times reports from Moscow:

One of the largest mass layoffs in recent Russian history is to occur on Wednesday, and the Kremlin itself is decreeing it, economic crisis or not.

The government is shutting down every last legal casino and slot-machine parlor across the land, under an antivice plan promoted by Vladimir V. Putin that as recently as a few months ago was widely perceived as far-fetched.

Venice

IOL: "Nine centuries of male monopoly on the canals of Venice came to an end on Friday when the first woman passed the test to become a trainee gondolier."

Tribal Clashes

Voice of America:

Tribal clashes in northwest Tanzania have killed at least 12 people, with many others injured or displaced from their homes.

The fighting between the Kurya and Luo tribes broke out on Thursday, in the Rorya district, when Kurya cattle rustlers invaded a Luo village and stole some cows.

Local officials say many people have been seriously injured in the fighting, and that dozens of homes and properties have gone up in flames.

Police are in the area and have been collecting the bodies.

Tanzanian newspapers report the government plans to send a larger force to the region to restore security.

Australia

A shark bit an Australian surfer.

Tuscany

Via Australian Broadcasting Corp.: "Nine former SS soldiers aged 84 to 90 have been sentenced to life imprisonment in their absence by a Rome military tribunal for the massacres of 350 civilians in Tuscany in 1944."