COLUMN

NEW JERSEY: Microbes locked in Antarctic ice for as much as eight million years have been “resuscitated” in a laboratory. Researchers melted five samples of ice from the debris-covered glaciers of Antarctica which range in age from 100,000 years to eight million years. When given nutrients and warmth, the microbes resumed their activity – although younger microorganisms grew more successfully than the older ones. Details appear in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The findings raise the possibility that ancient bugs, long frozen in ice, will return to life as climate change causes the glaciers to melt, flushing their genetic material into the oceans. However, experts say this process has been going on for billions of years, and is unlikely to cause human disease. – BBC
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BERLIN: Three hundred chickens died in panic early on Sunday when a drunken German teenager on a joyride crashed a van into their shed, police said. “Apparently some of the chickens were so desperate to get away that they ran into the wall and died,” the spokesman said. “Others suffered heart attacks.” The 17-year-old from the western city of Kassel crashed the van through the wall of a shed containing around 1,000 birds and then returned to a nearby fairground where he was staying, according to a spokesman for the local police. The youth was arrested. – Reuters
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PARIS: Jet setters in St Tropez may be grounded after French authorities limited helicopter flights to the exclusive resort following complaints about the noise. The decision to close a helipad accounting for about 30% of helicopter traffic to St Tropez came after abuses of an agreement to limit flights, Francoise Souliman, an official in the regional administrative centre of Draguignan, said. A byword for international glamour since its discovery by film stars like Brigitte Bardot in the 1950s, St Tropez remains a magnet for the rich and status-conscious. Helicopters ferry passengers over the traffic jams into the town, and to other villages and marinas along the coast. – Reuters
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PARIS: A French teenager who was arrested for publishing his own complete translation of the latest Harry Potter novel online will not be prosecuted. The decision to not sue for damages was made in agreement with JK Rowling, the book’s French publisher, Gallimard, said. “The aim was never financial, it only aimed to protect author’s rights,” a spokeswoman said. The official French version of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is scheduled for release on Oct 26. – BBC

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