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Bush Remains Lie in State As Tributes Pour In 06 WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2018 world Moldy food postpones SpaceX launch AFP | Tampa paceX has postponed its Bush remains lie in Scargo launch to the In- ternational Space Station until today after mold was found on food bars for a mouse experiment bound for the orbiting outpost, state as tributes pour in NASA said. The launch was initially set for yesterday. The new President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump visited the US Capitol rotunda to pay their respects time is 1:16 pm (1816 GMT) today. the president was driven from “The launch was moved George HW Bush the White House up to Capitol to Wednesday after mold • Hill. was found on food bars for saluted at Capitol With first lady Melania at his a rodent investigation pri- with tributes to his side, Trump saluted, and they or to handover to SpaceX,” service and decency stood at Bush’s casket for about a NASA said. minute. They exited the rotunda “Teams will use the ex- AFP | Washington with little fanfare. tra day to replace the food Bush never warmed to Trump, bars.” and he had let it be known that Some 40 mice are part he remains of George he did not vote for him in 2016. of the experiment aimed at HW Bush lay in state yes- Trump himself has criticized the studying the effects of mi- Tterday at the US Capitol elder Bush on campaign trail. crogravity in the immune amid a groundswell of tributes But on Monday, Trump wrote system. honouring the 41st US president. members of Congress to hail The launch will be the Since Monday evening Amer- Bush as a man who “led a life 16th for SpaceX, as part of icans have been quietly filing that exemplified what is truly an ongoing contract with past the flag-draped coffin in great about America.” NASA to send supplies to the Capitol rotunda to pay their “President Bush worked self- the astronauts living at the respects to Bush, who died lessly throughout his long life space station. Friday aged 94 at his home in US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump arrive to pay their respects to former US President George HW to bring about a world of justice Some 2,500 kilograms of Houston. Bush as he lies in state in the US Capitol’s rotunda and lasting peace,” he wrote. food, experiments and oth- His passing has led Americans The White House also extend- er gear is packed onto the to reflect on his life of duty and see his son follow him to the in Texas, where he will be bur- National Cathedral -- the first ed an invitation to Bush’s family unmanned Dragon cargo service to country as a leader Oval Office, the Republican stal- ied Thursday. presidential funeral since Ger- to stay at Blair House -- the pres- ship, which will blast off on of the so-called “Greatest Gen- wart is being honoured with President Donald Trump ald Ford died in 2006. ident’s guest house -- while they a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape eration.” four days of commemorations is scheduled to attend a state Late Monday, after Bush rel- are in Washington for events Canaveral, Florida. Only the second president to and services in Washington and funeral today at Washington atives and dignitaries had gone, surrounding to his funeral. Soldier killed as Indonesia Macron retreats on fuel tax hikes in bid to calm protests probes mass shooting reports AFP | Paris electricity and gas prices will AFP | Wamena, Indonesia of Australia. also be frozen during the winter. Police and military teams he French government Pressure has been mounting n Indonesian soldier was were sent to the area on Mon- Tyesterday backed down on on the government after pro- Akilled while investigating day when they came under planned fuel tax hikes in a bid tests degenerated into the worst reports that more than two rebel gunfire with one soldier to draw the heat out of fierce street clashes in central Paris dozen construction workers killed and another wounded in protests that have escalated into in decades, leading to scores of were shot dead by separatist the firefight, authorities said. the deepest crisis of Emmanuel injuries and arrests. rebels in restive Papua prov- The employees of state- Macron’s presidency. For weeks Macron held his ince, officials said yesterday. owned contractor Istaka Kar- The concessions, coming af- ground on the fuel taxes, which If confirmed, the killings ya were building bridges and ter an earlier 500-million-euro finance anti-pollution policies would mark the deadliest bout roads as part of efforts to boost ($570 million) relief package for but which critics say unfairly of violence in years to hit a infrastructure in the impover- poorer households, mark the weigh on drivers in rural and far-flung region wracked for ished region. first time 40-year-old Macron small-town France. decades by a low-level inde- All construction work in has given ground in the face of ‘Gilets jaunes’ protesters block the road leading to the Frontignan oil depot in Rescinding the January in- pendence insurgency. the area would be temporarily public opposition. the south of France on Monday crease -- three euro cents for Citing local police, Indone- suspended, the public works Prime Minister Edouard weekend. “No tax merits putting the unleaded and six cents for sian media reported late Mon- ministry said. Philippe announced rollbacks “This anger, you would have unity of the nation in danger,” diesel -- was a core demand of day that the workers were shot More than a dozen coffins on fuel taxes and electricity to be deaf and blind not to see it, he said. the demonstrators, alongside dead on Sunday in Nduga, a were being readied in Wame- price increases in a rare tele- nor hear it,” Philippe said after Planned tax increases on pet- a higher minimum wage and district in the centre of the na, the nearest major town vised address after France was more than a fortnight of demon- rol and diesel on January 1 will the return of a wealth tax on region on the western half of to where the alleged killings rocked by intense street clashes strations by so-called “yellow be suspended for six months, he high-earners which was abol- New Guinea island, just north happened. and vandalism in Paris over the vest” protesters. said, while hikes in regulated ished last year. Galapagos giant tortoise gene study hints at longevity secrets AFP | Quito, Ecuador and fauna studied by Charles Darwin as he developed his theory of evolu- alapagos giant tortoises possess tion. Twelve giant tortoise species still Ggenetic variants linked to DNA inhabit it. repair, immune response and cancer Galapagos National Park director suppression -- providing clues into Jorge Carrion said uncovering the se- their longevity, according to a study KNOW WHAT crets of Lonesome George’s longevity published Monday. will help with efforts to restore giant A team of international researchers tortoise populations in the archipelago. sequenced the genomes of two such Giant tortoises, which can live Giant tortoises, which can live for tortoises, including Lonesome George for over 100 years in captivity, over 100 years in captivity, arrived in -- the last known member of the sub- arrived in the volcanic Gal- the volcanic Galapagos region three to species Geochelone nigra abingdoni, apagos region three to four four million years ago. who died in captivity on the Galapa- million years ago It is believed that ocean currents gos’s Santa Cruz Island in 2012. dispersed them around the islands, They detected “lineage-specific vari- creating 15 different species -- three of ants affecting DNA repair genes, inflam- which are extinct. matory mediators and genes related to Ecology & Evolution. The second giant tortoise studied was cancer development,” according to the A Santa Cruz Island adult giant tortoise (Chelonoidis Donfaustoi) is measured by a park ranger on The Pacific island chain off mainland a member of a species found on islands study published in the journal Nature Santa Cruz Island, in the remote Ecuadorean archipelago 1000 km off South America’s Pacific coast Ecuador is famous for its unique flora of the Aldabra Atoll in the Seychelles..
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