'Lost world' discovered in remote Australia
An expedition to a remote part of northern Australia has uncovered three new vertebrate species isolated for millions of years, with scientists Monday calling the area a "lost world". The virtually impassable mountain range is home to millions of black granite boulders the size of cars and houses piled hundreds of metres high, eroded in places after being thrust up through the earth millions of years ago. (Phys.org)
Tiananmen car crash may have been suicide attack, officials claim
Police investigating incident at Forbidden City in which five people died say they are seeking two Muslim Uighur suspects. Radicals among the Muslim Turkic Uighurs have been fighting a low-intensity insurgency against Chinese rule for years. This summer saw an unusually large number of violent incidents and Chinese security forces say they have been guarding against attacks outside Xinjiang. (Guardian)
Thirteen die as storm crosses Europe
A storm battering north-western Europe has killed at least 13 people - six of them in Germany. Record gusts of 191 km/h (119mph) were measured over the North Sea. In the UK as many as 600,000 homes suffered power cuts, though many were later reconnected. (BBC)
Judge derails Texas law restricting women's access to abortion
America's abortion wars took a new turn after a district judge in Texas overturned a key portion of a controversial law passed by the state’s Republican-controlled legislature earlier this year that threatened severely to curtail the access of women in the state to doctors able to carry out terminations. The law was approved by the Texas legislature after fierce debate earlier this year; and after a state Democratic senator, Wendy Davis, made national and even international headlines trying to block it with a 24-hour-long filibuster. Although Davis' effort failed, the law will now most likely end at up at the United States Supreme Court. (Independent)
Nasa gears up for mission to Mars
Nasa is preparing to launch its Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (Maven) spacecraft next month to probe the atmosphere on the Red Planet. Maven will study Mars to help scientists work out how it managed to lose an atmosphere that was once believed to be thicker than that of Earth. (BBC)
