No human rights for chimps
An Austrian court has refused to grant Hiasl the chimpanzee basic human rights, such as protection from being owned. Hiasl鈥檚 supporters were worried that the Vienna animal shelter where he lives might not be able to keep him, and a UK citizen living in Austria wanted to be appointed his legal guardian to safeguard his future.
Animal extremists raid
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Police in Europe arrested 30 suspected animal rights extremists on Tuesday in the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands. About 300 officers were involved in raids at 30 addresses 鈥渁s part of an ongoing investigation into criminal activity associated with animal rights extremism鈥�, a police spokesman told the BBC.
Telescope airborne
NASA鈥檚 Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) completed a successful test flight on 24 April. The heavily modified Boeing 747 was being tested to see how it would cope with the 20-tonne telescope on board. SOFIA could start observing by late 2008.
Slip slidin鈥� away
Arctic ice is melting nearly three times faster than computer models predicted. Julienne Stroeve of the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, and colleagues came to this conclusion after comparing past predictions with actual measurements of ice loss in the Arctic (Geophysical Research Letters, vol 34, p L09501).
Gulf war brain drain
People with Gulf war syndrome have a brain cortex around 5 per cent smaller than that of healthier soldiers who also served in the 1991 conflict, a small study suggests. Roberta White of the Boston University School of Public Health in Massachusetts and colleagues say their findings, drawn from 18 veterans with the syndrome and 18 controls, provide hard biological evidence that the controversial syndrome is real.