BAN LOOMING
Fishing fleets in Europe have been warned by fisheries commissioner Franz Fischler to expect prolonged closures of cod, haddock and whiting fisheries. Fischler鈥檚 warnings come after research by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea showing that breeding stocks of whitefish, especially cod, are at record lows and won鈥檛 recover unless fishing is banned in the North Sea, Irish Sea, Skagerrak and west of Scotland. Europe鈥檚 fisheries ministers will make a final decision in December.
HISTORY REVISED
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Instead of surviving a week, the world鈥檚 first space traveller, Laika the dog, died of overheating a few hours after being launched into space in 1957 aboard Sputnik 2. Dimitri Malashenkov of the Institute for Biomedical Problems in Moscow told the World Space Congress in Texas that sensors showed the cabin was heating up before communications failed after five hours.
SMALLPOX ALL-CLEAR
Russia鈥檚 smallpox research labs passed a routine inspection by biosafety experts last week. They visited the State Research Centre of Virology and Biotechnology labs in Koltsovo, Novosibirsk, as part of routine periodic checks carried out by the World Health Organization. The WHO team is due early next year to check the world鈥檚 only other smallpox research lab, at the US Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia.