ESTONIA
Scientists plan peat batteries
Peat, plentiful in bogs in northern Europe, could be used to make sodium-ion batteries cheaply for use in electric vehicles, scientists at an Estonian university said. Sodium-ion batteries, which do not contain relatively costly lithium, cobalt or nickel, are one of the new technologies that battery makers are looking at as they seek alternatives to the dominant lithium-ion model.
ALGERIA
Said Bouteflika sentenced
Said Bouteflika, the younger brother of deposed late president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, was sentenced on Tuesday to two years in prison for “obstructing the course of justice,” the Algeria Press Service reported. The prosecution had called for seven years’ jail for Said Bouteflika, who was charged with other former officials for “abuse of office,” “inciting the falsification of official documents,” “obstruction of justice” and “contempt of court.”
UNITED STATES
Land borders to reopen
Land borders are to reopen to nonessential travel next month, ending a 19-month freeze due to the COVID-19 pandemic as the country moves to require all international visitors to be vaccinated against the disease. Vehicle, rail and ferry travel between the nation, and Canada and Mexico has been largely restricted to essential travel since the earliest days of the pandemic. The new rules are to allow fully vaccinated foreign nationals to enter regardless of the reason for travel starting early next month, when a similar easing of restrictions is set to start for air travel.
UNITED STATES
Fire evacuations rise
Evacuation orders on Tuesday were expanded for a growing wildfire driven by intense winds that has shut down a southern California highway for more than a day. At least 200 firefighters battled the Alisal fire, which had scorched 31km2 along coastal Santa Barbara County. “The fire is burning in dense chaparral and is being pushed by strong winds and growing at a rapid rate,” a fire update said on Tuesday.
UNITED STATES
‘Peppa Pig’ park to open
A standalone Peppa Pig theme park at the Legoland Florida Resort is to open on Feb. 24 next year, park officials announced on Tuesday. A one-day ticket for the central Florida park is to be US$34.99 at the gate and US$30.99 online. An annual pass is to cost US$79.99. Based on the preschool animated television series, the new park is near the main Legoland theme park, but will be separately ticketed, a news release said. The Peppa Pig theme park is to feature rides, interactive attractions, themed playscapes, water play areas and live shows, mostly designed for small children and their parents, officials said.
FRANCE
Resistance fighter dies
Hubert Germain, the last of an elite group of decorated French Resistance fighters who helped liberate France from Nazi control in World War II, has died. He was 101. The office of President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday said that Germain “embodied a century of freedom.” It did not divulge details of his death. Born in Paris on Aug. 6, 1920, Germain was taking his entry exam for France’s Naval Academy in June 1940, just after the French state capitulated to the Nazis. “Rising from his examination table, he preferred to hand in a blank paper rather than give a blank check to the France that had gone to bed, that had given in to resignation and renunciation,” the office said.
HIGH HOPES: The power source is expected to have a future, as it is not dependent on the weather or light, and could be useful for places with large desalination facilities A Japanese water plant is harnessing the natural process of osmosis to generate renewable energy that could one day become a common power source. The possibility of generating power from osmosis — when water molecules pass from a less salty solution to a more salty one — has long been known. However, actually generating energy from that has proved more complicated, in part due the difficulty of designing the membrane through which the molecules pass. Engineers in Fukuoka, Japan, and their private partners think they might have cracked it, and have opened what is only the world’s second osmotic power plant. It generates
Showcasing phallus-shaped portable shrines and pink penis candies, Japan’s annual fertility festival yesterday teemed with tourists, couples and families elated by its open display of sex. The spring Kanamara Matsuri near Tokyo features colorfully dressed worshipers carrying a trio of giant phallic-shaped objects as they parade through the street with glee. The festival, as legend has it, honors a local blacksmith in the Edo Period (1603-1868) who forged an iron dildo to break the teeth of a sharp-toothed demon inhabiting a woman’s vagina that had been castrating young men on their wedding nights. A 1m black steel phallus sits in the courtyard of
JAN. 1 CLAUSE: As military service is voluntary, applications for permission to stay abroad for over three months for men up to age 45 must, in principle, be granted A little-noticed clause in sweeping changes to Germany’s military service policy has triggered an uproar after it emerged that the law requires men aged up to 45 to get permission from the armed forces before any significant stay abroad, even in peacetime. The legislation, which went into effect on Jan. 1 aims to bolster the military and demands all 18-year-old men fill out a questionnaire to gauge their suitability to serve in the armed forces, but stops short of conscription. If the “modernized” model fails to pull in enough recruits, parliament will be compelled to discuss the reintroduction of compulsory service, German
When a hiker fell from a 55m waterfall in wild New Zealand bush, rescuers were forced to evacuate the badly hurt woman without her dog, which could not be found. After strangers raised thousands of dollars for a search, border collie Molly was flown to safety by a helicopter pilot who was determined to reunite the pet and the owner. A week earlier, an emergency rescue helicopter found the woman with bruises and lacerations after a fall at a rocky spot at the waterfall on the South Island’s West Coast. She was airlifted on March 24, but they were forced to
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