News Headlines - 21 January 2014
▽Japan Defends Dolphin Hunt After Criticism From U.S. Ambassador - NYTimes.com
The Japanese government Monday defended the practice of dolphin hunting off its coastline, taking issue with the new American ambassador, Caroline Kennedy, who pointedly criticized its “inhumaneness” in a recent Twitter post.
Ms. Kennedy objected to a form of fishing called “drive hunt” killing, in which dolphins are herded together by boats into an area they cannot escape, resulting in the capture of scores, if not hundreds, of dolphins. Critics have called the practice inhumane for the sheer number of dolphins killed and the threat it poses to the animal’s populations.
Tony Blair was targeted in an attempted citizen's arrest last week as he dined with family and friends in a London restaurant.
The former Prime Minister was reportedly confronted by a staff member who accused him of being a war criminal as he ate at the Tramshed restaurant in Shoreditch on Friday evening.
▽Oxfam: 85 richest people as wealthy as poorest half of the world | Business | theguardian.com
The world's wealthiest people aren't known for travelling by bus, but if they fancied a change of scene then the richest 85 people on the globe – who between them control as much wealth as the poorest half of the global population put together – could squeeze onto a single double-decker.
▽Brains of elderly slow because they know so much - Telegraph
Older people do not decline mentally with age, it just takes them longer to recall facts because they have more information in their brains, scientists believe.
Much like a computer struggles as the hard drive gets full up, so to do humans take longer to access information, it has been suggested. Researchers say this slowing down it is not the same as cognitive decline.
▽Britain's first wild beaver for 500 YEARS is recorded gnawing a tree
These amazing night vision photos show Britain’s first wild beaver for 500 years in action gnawing on a tree – beside the River OTTER.
The rare sight was captured on an infrared camera as the beaver – native to North America – sank his teeth into a trunk, possibly for a dam.
The remarkable sequence of images were shot by a retired scientist after a string of sightings around Ottery St Mary, near Exeter, Devon.
