The first men on the moon had to use a pen to fix a broken switch on their lunar module and return home to earth, British newspaper the <i>Daily Mirror</i> reported on Monday. Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, and Buzz Aldrin, his fellow astronaut, accidentally snapped off the switch of a circuit breaker, and found they could not take off without it.
Forget about Japanese technology. Japan’s latest contribution to the war on terrorism is tiny fish, which will be deployed to detect contamination of water supplies. Light-orange rice fish, which are about 4cm long and are commonly kept as pets in Japan, will alert authorities if their movement is irregular.
Last ditch talks to keep hopes alive of a global free deal faced a deepening crisis on Monday after trading powers failed to achieve a breakthrough at a marathon first session, diplomats said. The so-called G6 — Australia, Brazil, India, Japan, the European Union and the United States — must reach agreement on how to boost trade in farm and industrial goods.
An oil-driven economic boom has made Angola the toast of the town in boardrooms from Houston to Beijing. But on the outskirts of the African nation’s bustling capital of Luanda, the talk is not of a more prosperous future but rather of a stolen one.
Tens of thousands of New Yorkers remained without electricity for a sixth day on Sunday, with no end in sight to a power cut that the city’s authorities were at a loss to explain. Electrical engineers were drafted in from other states to try to return power to an estimated 80 000 people in Queens, New York’s geographically largest borough.
Pakistan is building a reactor that could produce enough plutonium for 40 to 50 nuclear weapons in what would be a major expansion of its nuclear programme and an intensified arms race in South Asia. Satellite photos show what appears to be the construction site for a larger nuclear reactor adjacent to Pakistan’s only plutonium production reactor, according to an analysis by nuclear experts.
Injury-hit South Africa were on Monday boosted by the news that veteran all-rounder Shaun Pollock will arrive in Sri Lanka later this week following the birth of his second child. The 33-year-old will reach Colombo on Thursday, missing the first of the two Test matches which starts at the Sinhalese sports club.
A growing number of Americans are setting up mini-refineries in their homes to produce biodiesel, a fuel made from waste cooking oil which is cleaner and cheaper than the petrol sold in gas stations. The sky-high price of crude oil is scaring everyone.
Floyd Landis’s thrilling Tour de France victory did much to dispel the air of gloom hanging over cycling’s showpiece event after it began engulfed by another doping controversy. ”Our only favourite is named suspense,” said outgoing Tour director Jean-Marie Leblanc, dreaming of a wide-open race after the retirement of Lance Armstrong.
The ambulanceman gave Ali the job of keeping his mother alive. The 12-year-old did what he could. "Mama, mama, don’t go to sleep," he sobbed, gently patting her face beneath her chin. Behind her black veil, her eyelids were slowly sinking. "I’m going to die," she sighed. "Don’t say that, mama," Ali begged, and then slid to the ground in tears.