UbuneBlog

A 10-YEAR-OLD Canadian girl has become the youngest person ever to discover a supernova, or exploding star, according to the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. Eagle-eyed Kathryn Aurora Gray, from Fredericton in the eastern province of New Brunswick, made the rare find on Sunday as she combed dozens of telescopic images of star fields in […]

MANY civilian survivors of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center were still suffering from symptoms of post-traumatic stress several years after the 2001 disaster, according to a study. The study, the first to focus on the long-term mental health of people who were actually in the Twin Towers on the morning of […]

ANGELINA Jolie and Brad Pitt are donating US$2 million (S$2.57 million) to the Namibian sanctuary where they spent Christmas with their kids. The donation to the Naankuse Lodge and Wildlife Sanctuary was made through the Jolie-Pitt Foundation in the name of their daughter Shiloh, who was born in Namibia. In a statement released late on […]

AFTER sailing and running around the planet for the past two years, Japanese comedian Kanpei Hazama, 61, set foot on native soil again on Tuesday, proclaiming that ‘the Earth really is round’. Thousands of well-wishers greeted the television personality as he sailed from China to dock at Japan’s south-western Fukuoka harbour in cold rain, completing […]

AL-QAEDA would seem to have found an easy target in Middle Eastern Christians who have a limited ability to respond, but such attacks could easily escalate into sectarian clashes, analysts say. Responsibility for the apparent suicide bombing early on New Year’s Day at a Coptic church in Alexandria in which 21 people were killed and […]

US SECRETARY of State Hillary Clinton expressed condolences on Monday for the loss of life in floods in Australia and said Washington was prepared to provide assistance to its close ally. Up to 200,000 people are estimated to have been hit by the fast-flowing waters that have inundated 22 rural towns in the country’s north-east, […]

NEW ZEALAND is to send an emergency response team to Australia to help the flood-devastated state of Queensland cope with its crisis, Foreign Minister Murray McCully announced on Tuesday. The floods, following weeks of heavy rain, are affecting 200,000 people in an area the size of France and Germany combined. Ten people have died trying […]

NEARLY 70 per cent of the Chinese public do not feel confident about food safety, a national survey has found. Insight China, a magazine, and Tsinghua Media Survey Lab conducted the survey, released over the weekend, against the backdrop of the government trying to restore public confidence damaged by a series of food safety incidents. […]

TAIWAN is planning to offer more than US$1 billion (S$1.28 billion) a year in a fresh bid to boost its dwindling birth rate, one of the world’s lowest, a report said on Tuesday. The Council for Economic Planning and Development is proposing an annual budget of NT$38 billion (S$1.68 billion) for birth incentives and child-care […]

Okuno Island in the Seto Inland Sea, known as the site of chemical weapon plants before and during World War II, now attracts tourists aiming to see rabbits living in the wild as 2011 marks the Year of the Rabbit in the Chinese zodiac. Visitors may spot rabbits as they walk around sites where chemical […]