At least 235 types of cold-loving creatures thrive in both Arctic and Antarctic seas, puzzling scientists about how they got to both ends of the earth, a study showed yesterday.
Until now, the warm tropics have been seen as a barrier keeping polar bears in the Arctic separate from penguins in the Antarctic. Only a few creatures have been known from both polar regions, such as long-migrating grey whales or Arctic terns.
"At least 235 species live in both polar seas despite an 11,000-kilometre distance in between," according to the Census of Marine Life.
Species living at both poles include cold-water worms, crustaceans, sea cucumbers and snail-like pteropods. They make up two per cent of the 7,500 Antarctic and 5,500 Arctic animals known to date, out of a global total estimated at up to 250,000.
Among bizarre creatures, one of the Antarctic ice fish known as Chionodraco hamatus can withstand temperatures that would freeze the blood of other fish.
China launches sex education campaign
China yesterday launched a national sex education campaign aimed at breaking traditional taboos and getting more people to seek treatment for sexually transmitted diseases and infertility.
Just seven per cent of women and slightly more than eight per cent of men seek immediate medical help for sexual problems, while more than a third of people never seek help, said one of the campaign's advisers.
The campaign, called "The sunshine project to care for gender health", will feature posters, competitions and sponsorship of an international sex toy fair in Beijing. It will be fronted by Hong Kong starlet Yvonne Yung and her husband Will Liu, who will be the campaign's "image ambassadors".
China reported a one-fifth rise in syphilis last year, with a total of 257,474 cases, according to the Health Ministry. HIV/AIDS in China is also now mainly sexually transmitted. In the past, most infections were caused by intravenous drug use.
German minister shortens name
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who hopes to defeat Chancellor Angela Merkel in a September election, has shortened his first name for the campaign to "Frank".
To make the Social Democrat's name shorter, sound more modern and down to earth, his campaign has dropped the "-Walter" at rallies, on websites and in election literature. "The name in my passport is 'Frank-Walter' and my friends call me 'Frank'," Mr Steinmeier told the Bild am Sonntag, newspaper. "But I think there are more important problems facing our country right now."
Mr Steinmeier's centre-left SPD, which relies heavily on support from unions and working class voters, trails Mrs Merkel's CDU by 10 percentage points before the September 27 election.
Saving seeds from extinction
Farmers and plant breeders around the globe are planting thousands of endangered seeds as part of an effort to save 100,000 varieties of food crops from extinction.
In many cases, only a handful of seeds remain from rare varieties of barley, rice and wheat whose history can be traced back to the Neolithic era, , who was speaking yesterday at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Chicago.
"If we don't do the job right, they are gone," said Carey Fowler of the Global Crop Diversity Trust yesterday.
The effort is aimed at rescuing seeds stored under less-than-optimal conditions in underfunded seed banks as well as those threatened by human and natural disasters. The rescuers hope to preserve seed samples that might provide genetic traits needed to fight disease or address climate change.
The deals cover some 53,000 of the 100,000 varieties that researchers believe are endangered, including rare varieties of bananas and plantains, potatoes, chickpeas, corn, coconuts, breadfruit, cowpeas and yams.
Grief after false rumour of ex-PM's death
A false rumour of the death of former Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee led to the cancellation of a public function and removal of garlands on a ministerial car, a newspaper reported over the weekend.
Mr Vajpayee, 84, who governed India between 1996 and 2004 for the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is undergoing treatment for a chest infection at a New Delhi hospital.
A government official in the central state of Madhya Pradesh was about to launch a public function when a call from an unknown source pronounced Mr Vajpayee dead, the paper said. He promptly announced a moment of silence in memory of the leader and cancelled the function without verifying the information, the paper said.
The Chief Minister of the BJP-led state, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, received another such call and ordered decorations removed from his car. He later checked the information and found it to be false, the paper said.
Teachers caned for seeking salaries
A government official in northwest Tanzania ordered the caning of 32 teachers for pursuing salary arrears, drawing protests from their union, Tanzanian media reported.
The punishment was carried out in Bukoba district after the teachers went to the district commissioner's office to seek their dues, private newspaper This Day reported.
The Tanzania Teachers Union was outraged.
Corporal punishment for students is common in the east African nation of 40 million, and courts too have sometimes sentenced offenders to be caned.