Whatever happened to bird flu? Is bird flu affecting fewer people now? Yes and no. The 88 cases and 59 deaths reported last year are lower than the 2006 peak of 115 cases and 79 deaths, when the virus first arrived in Turkey and Egypt and sparked a large number of cases there. Thirty-four cases have been reported so far this year.
Mercy killing evokes debate Mercy killing is legal only in Belgium, Luxemburg, The Netherlands, Switzerland, the US state of Oregon and Thailand.
George keeps them guessing Lonesome George, the conservation icon of the Galapagos islands and last surviving tortoise of his kind, may finally become a father, after keepers recovered a clutch of eggs from his enclosure.
Picture of Lonesome George, a giant Galapagos tortoise, taken on Monday at the Breeding Centre Fausto Llerena of the Charles Darwin station in the Galapagos’ Santa Cruz Island, in the Pacific Ocean, some 1,000 km off the coast of Ecuador. AFP