WORLD
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — Even people who think caviar is to die for might lose their appetite when it's stored in a hospital morgue.
But that's where St. Petersburg police found a huge stash of the delicacy this week — 385 pounds stored in the refrigerated space where cadavers are kept.
A morgue employee and a businessman were arrested after the Wednesday discovery, but police said today the matter is still being investigated and it is unclear if the men will be charged.
The arrested men said the caviar, or salted fish eggs, was to be a treat for hospital employees at a New Year's party.
BEIJING — China has released its next five-year space plan to help it on its way to its eventual goals of building a space station and putting a man on the moon.The white paper released Thursday says that by the end of 2016, China will launch space laboratories, manned spaceships and ship freighters, and make technological preparations for the construction of space stations.It says the country will carry on exploring the moon using probes, start gathering samples of the moon's surface, and “push forward its exploration of planets, asteroids and the sun.”China places great emphasis on the development of its space industry, which is seen as a symbol of national prestige.
ROME — Italy's culture ministry said Wednesday that it is investigating reports that bits of rock have fallen from the Colosseum.Witnesses reported seeing the fallen masonry Sunday. Italian news agency ANSA reported another bit fell Tuesday, but Colosseum director Rossella Rea denied it and blamed the false report on a “psychosis” that occurs every so often that Rome's iconic stadium is crumbling.Italian environmental group Legambiente has frequently raised the alarm about the precarious state of the Colosseum, charging that auto exhaust fumes and vibrations from vehicles and a nearby subway are damaging the Colosseum's travertine exterior and brick and tufa interior.
