Spacewalking astronauts from the shuttle Atlantis tried yesterday to revive a defective instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope used to discover black holes and other galactic phenomena.
The device, known by the acronym STIS, splits light into its component wavelengths. It was shut down in 2004 after electronics problems cut off its power.
The astronauts floated out of Atlantis' airlock just before 10 a.m. EDT/1400 GMT with high hopes of repairing STIS. Yesterday's foray was the fourth of five spacewalks to upgrade the world-famous telescope for another five to 10 years of operation. Atlantis' mission is the fifth and final servicing call to Hubble before the shuttle fleet is retired next year.
Atlantis' crew have already installed two new science instruments, replaced Hubble's steering system and half its batteries, and repaired the advanced camera. (Reuters)
Putin shows off Lada 4X4
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin tried to give a boost to Russia's struggling car industry last weekend by driving his four-wheel-drive Lada Niva, painted in camouflage colours.
Mr Putin in March told workers at AvtoVAZ, in which France's Renault owns 25 per cent, that he had bought a Niva car, which is made by AvtoVAZ.
The car also featured in Mr Putin's tax declaration in contrast to many other government ministers who declared expensive Mercedes or Porsche cars.
Mr Putin said he was driving the car for the first time that he might go fishing with it. He said the price he paid for the car was "a secret". (Reuters)
Taiwan pageant organisers caught in hoax
The organisers of a Taiwanese beauty pageant have claimed they were conned by a modelling agency when it sent Australian women posing as international contestants.
Models claiming to be from 24 different countries took part in The World Supermodel Pageant co-hosted this week in Taichung by the city's tourism association TMTA and an Australian modelling organisation, the Apple Daily said.
Esma Voloder of Bosnia was crowned the winner but Taiwanese organisers later found that nine women, including Ms Voloder, were all Australian models claiming to represent countries including Croatia, France, and Sri Lanka.
"I was conned by the Australians... I had no idea about this. I feel so foolish," organiser Huang Chih-hui was quoted by the paper as saying. Ms Huang said she had entrusted an Australian modelling organisation to recruit the contestants and admitted she did not check the women's passports to verify their nationalities. (AFP)
Nude cyclists compete with Cannes red carpet
Crowds hoping to glimpse the stars on the Cannes festival's red carpet got an eye-popping surprise last Saturday as a team of nude Belgian cyclists paraded down the Riviera seafront.
Director Felix van Groeningen and four of his actors straddled bicycles and careened down the croisette and back under warm spring sunshine, in a remake of a scene from La Merditude des Choses (The Misfortunates).
The comedy, which tells the story of a family of drunkard brothers, seen through a teenagers' eyes, premiered last Saturday at the Directors' Fortnight, one of two high-profile sidebars to the main Cannes film festival. (AFP)
Tall people at top of wages ladder
Tall people earn higher wages than their vertically-challenged counterparts while being obese does not mean a slimmed-down pay packet, according to a new study in Australia.
The researchers found a strong link between wages and height, particularly for men, with each additional 10 centimetres of height adding three per cent to hourly wages.
The "height premium" was two per cent per 10 centimetres for women, researchers from the University of Sydney and Canberra's Australian National University (ANU) found.
They calculated that every five centimetres above the average height of 178 centimetres boosted a male's wages by the equivalent of an extra year's experience in the labour force.
"This result holds constant across a number of other factors that also affect wages, such as age, race, family background, experience and education," said ANU professor Andrew Leigh.
The researchers also found that being overweight did not mean a lighter pay packet. (AFP)