Zoo news

Credit: CHINA DAILY/REUTERS

Vets at an animal research centre in China's Shaanxi province have called for their panda Niu Niu, who lost two-thirds of a leg in a fight last year, to be fitted with a fake limb to allow her to mate without toppling over.

Overhyped

Is nothing safe from the perils of global warming? Apparently, the latest victim is the sex trade in Bulgaria, where brothel owners are claiming that their best girls have headed for the hills to entertain snowless skiers.

Scorecard

Pluto

New Mexico has declared that the beleaguered rock should be re-declared as a planet...at least while in the skies over New Mexico.

Space return flights

Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, has marked her 70th birthday by declaring herself ready to fly to Mars “without coming back”.

Robot news

South Korea is doing its bit to prevent future dystopia by drawing up a Robot Ethics Charter, one of the key points of which is that humans should maintain control over our electronic counterparts.

Sources: Reuters, Metro, FPSpace, BBC