A heroic pig that survived more than a month buried under rubble after the 2008 earthquake in China’s Sichuan province has been successfully cloned.
Scientists in Shenzhen performed the experiment on Zhu Jianqiang, or “Strong-Willed Pig”, and produced six offspring with DNA identical to their dad, that was hailed as a national hero following the harrowing ordeal.
The births over the past few weeks of six piglets happened even though Zhu had suffered severe trauma from being buried for 36 days, and is five years old – or about 60 in human terms. The 150-kilo hog reportedly survived in the ruins of its sty by chewing charcoal and drinking rainwater. Its offspring reportedly bear a striking resemblance to their dad, including a birthmark between their eyes.
The piglets will likely be paired off and sent to a museum and a genetic institute.
An 8.0-magnitude quake rocked Sichuan and parts of neighbouring Shaanxi and Gansu provinces on May 12, 2008, killing tens of thousands and flattening swathes of the province. (AFP)
War shipwreck
The skeletons of three sailors who were aboard an Iraqi commercial vessel sunk by Iran’s air force in 1988 were found during the dredging of a southern waterway, an official said yesterday.
“While the Khor Zubair waterway was being dredged by a Turkish company working with the Iraqi ports company, an Iraqi-owned shipping vessel known as the Ramadi was found,” said the Basra ports official. He added that the ship had been sunk by the Iranian air force in 1988, towards the end of the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran war.
“The discovery was made in August and in the interior of the ship, three skeletons were found,” the official said.
The Iran-Iraq war left around one million people dead and thousands missing on both sides. (AFP)
Violin record
More than 4,600 Taiwanese schoolchildren came together for a mass violin-playing session yesterday, breaking a world record that had stood for 86 years.
An official from Guinness World Records witnessed the event that brought together 4,645 children aged under 18 at a stadium in central Changhua county.
The performance was 30 seconds longer than the required minimum of five minutes.
The previous world record was set in 1925 in London when 4,000 violinists performed. (AFP)
Back-breaking run
A grandfather ran the Great North Run in the UK with a fridge strapped to his back.
Veteran Great North Runner Tony Phoenix-Morrison, 47, has already run the famous half marathon 15 times and feared people may not sponsor him this year unless he did something different.
The fridge was fitted with a set of speakers powered by a car battery, weighing about 40 kilos in total. (PA)
Hot issue
Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev, the owner of Britain’s Independent and Evening Standard newspapers, punched a man in the face during a TV debate yesterday.
A clip on the NTV television channel’s website shows Mr Lebedev, a former KGB agent who made a fortune in banking, landing a right jab to the face of ex-real estate baron Sergei Polonsky.
Mr Lebedev knocked Mr Polonsky off his chair, and threw another punch as Mr Polonsky tumbled off the studio’s elevated platform. Just before Mr Lebedev pounced, Mr Polonsky has said he wanted to “stick one in the mouth.”
“In a critical situation, there is no choice. I see no reason to be hit with the first shot. I neutralised him,” said Mr Lebedev. (AFP)
Flower power
A celebrity scientist suffered blinding headaches after sealing himself in an airtight foliage filled chamber in a harrowing test designed to show the power of plants.
Professor Iain Stewart revealed the side effects after spending two days locked inside the see-through container for an experiment linked to a new BBC2 series.
The TV presenter and geologist is fronting the first programme in the channel’s How Plants Made The World series. The experiment took place at the Eden Project in St Austell, Cornwall. (PA)
Facebook thief
A man is accused of stealing a woman’s mobile phone and then sending her a friend request on Facebook.
The Greeley Tribune reported that the victim awoke early to see a man standing over her bed.
When she screamed, the man grabbed her mobile phone and fled. She said she later received a Facebook friend request from a man she identified astheintruder. Police said they located the man by tracking signals from the phone . (PA)