A "lost" type of deer has been found on a remote mountainside in Indonesia's Sumatra island 80 years after the last confirmed sighting, experts said yesterday.
The Sumatran muntjac, about the size of a large dog, was photographed and rescued from a hunter's snare 1,951 metres high in mountains of the Kerinci-Seblat National Park.
The species was originally discovered in 1914 but had not been seen since 1930, Flora & Fauna International, whose experts found the deer along with park officials, said in a statement.
Two more of the deer were later photographed elsewhere in the park.
The snared deer was photographed in 2002 but only recognised as a Sumatran muntjac this year, in a 2008 international "Red List" of endangered species, after scientists confirmed that it was a different species from the related red muntjac.
Bicycle test serves as crime guage
How long will an unchained bicycle last on a city street before someone steals it? Using hidden cameras and cheap bicycles as bait, an Argentine publicist set out to gauge crime in different neighbourhoods of Buenos Aires. The longer it takes for the bike to be stolen the safer the area, is his hypothesis.
"It's not a statistic but in a way it shows that the places where the bicycle gets robbed really quickly perhaps the quality of life is poorer," said Mariano Pasik, 37.
Mr Pasik speeds up the videos, sets them to music and puts them on a website (www.lapruebadela bicicleta.com). He hopes other videographers will join his non-profit "Bicycle Test" project and create a worldwide insecurity index.
Mr Pasik said the project is definitely not vigilantism. Pasik blurs the thieves' faces and was shocked at comments on his website where people have called for the death penalty for thieves.
Iceland for sale - collect in person
Great scenery and wildlife but financial situation in need of repair - collect in person.
Iceland, which is going cap in hand to Russia for a €4 billion loan to bail out its failed banks, was offered for sale as a wholesale lot on eBay yesterday. Bidding started at 99 pence but had reached £10 million (€12.78 million) by mid-morning.
Globally renowned singer Bjork was "not included" in the sale, according to the notice, but there were nonetheless 26 anonymous bidders and 84 bids.
"Located in the mid-Atlantic ridge in the North Atlantic Ocean, Iceland will provide the winning bidder with - a habitable environment, Icelandic Horses and admittedly a somewhat sketchy financial situation," the notice read.
Kazakh bloggers say website is censored
Internet users in Kazakhstan complained of censorship yesterday after being unable to access the popular blogging service Livejournal, but the state-owned telecoms company denied it was blocking it.
Associates of Rakhat Aliyev, the former son-in-law of President Nursultan Nazarbayev who fell out with the veteran leader last year, started their own blog on Livejournal in June which often contains critical comments about the government.
"This is outrageous. They used to shut down papers and television channels, now they are shutting down the internet," a Livejournal blogger wrote in a posting.
A spokesman for Russian company SUP, which owns the website, said Livejournal itself was not blocking Kazakh users.
Swatch chairman loses billions in crisis
Nicolas Hayek, chairman of Swiss watchmaker Swatch Group, says he has personally lost about three to four billion Swiss francs on paper as a result of the financial crisis and is "furious" but not worried.
"I am unhappy and furious and feel like putting a lot of people in prison, but I'm not worried," Mr Hayek said in an interview on Swiss television. "The value of my shares has fallen by three or four billion (francs) (€1.97-€2.63 billion). But I'm not crying, on the contrary, because the value of the company still remains very high, very strong," he said.
Swatch is the world's largest watchmaker and served as official timekeeper at the Beijing Olympics.
Mr Hayek said that sales of the group's mid-range watches including Breguet, Omega and Blancpain were "much higher" at the end of September than for the same nine-month period a year ago.