World Briefs

There are few events that match the complexity of RoboCup. It is both a venue for artificial intelligence and intelligent robotics research and a display of the advancements in a format visible for people who are not experts, and allows them to share the enthusiasm of the researchers.

RoboCup is the largest and most prestigious robotics event.

Initially with a focus on robotic soccer and a goal of having a team of robots having a match with a human team in 2050 and winning, the competition now has leagues also for rescue, @home, and logistics. Seeing the advancements in the leagues each year as 2050 becomes a closer date, the hope in meeting the challenge increases more.

Picture shows a goalkeeper robot in action during a test before the RoboCup 2011 being held in Istanbul, Turkey. (AFP)

Helium leak

Swedish scientists were forced to halt a groundbreaking project yesterday to test the impact of stars when a balloon carrying an X-ray telescope began leaking helium, a space centre said yesterday.

“We sent it up without any problems, but then we were forced to take it down. It was leaking, and when a balloon leaks it loses height,” said Johanna Bergstroem-Roos of the Esrange Space Centre, near Kiruna in northern Sweden.

“These things happen,” she said.

The PoGOLite (Polarised Gamma-ray Observer), a two-tonne telescope dangling from an enormous balloon filled with one million cubic metres of helium was launched at 1.57 a.m. (2357 GMT Wednesday) from Esrange and was brought back to earth shortly after 7 a.m. (AFP)

Grizzly kills hiker

A female grizzly bear killed a man who was hiking with his wife in Yellowstone National Park after the couple apparently surprised the animal and its cubs.

It was the park’s first fatal grizzly mauling since 1986, but the third in the Yellowstone region in just over a year amid ever-growing numbers of grizzlies and tourists roaming the same wild landscape of scalding-hot geysers and sweeping mountain vistas.

Yesterday’s attack happened just two days after the peak weekend for tourism in the park all year, on a trail close to Canyon Village, Wyoming, near the middle of Yellowstone.

Park officials said the bear attacked to defend against a perceived threat. They said the wife of the 57-year-old victim called emergency services on her mobile phone and other hikers in the area responded to her cries for help. (PA)

Candid camera

British police have issued a CCTV image of a bungling suspect as he shinned up a pole before disabling the camera. Instead of covering his tracks, he gave officers a clear shot of his face when he reached up to nobble the camera in a boatyard in Blyth, North­umberland. Two men broke into the Factory Point premises between 4.20am and 4.30 a.m. on June 19 and stole a dinghy which was later dumped across the River Blyth on the Cambois side.

Honest motorist

An honest German motorist who stumbled across more than a million euros accidentally dumped on a motorway, handed the cash over to police on Wednesday.

The money was dropped two days earlier by a cash transit van on a slip road near Bad Kissingen in Bavaria. It was discovered by a 41-year-old military worker who handed three suitcases of cash to police. (AFP)

Rabbit reprieve

The Royal Shakespeare Company has dropped the idea of skinning a rabbit on stage in New York after an outcry from animal rights activists. In Britain the RSC had an actor skin a dead rabbit as part of a dinner scene in As You Like It. (PA)

Sour taste

Children who set up a street lemonade stall in Cleveland, Ohio, say they were robbed by five teenagers who pulled up in a rusty old car and threatened to beat them up. Eleven-year-old Omar Schpeb says he chased the car as it drove away and the teenagers tossed back some of the cash. The children estimate they lost at least $13.50 to the thieves. Parents of the children say a kind person donated $20 at a police station in Strongsville to make up for the theft. (PA)