Author: RT

‘A historic announcement’: 2020 US census to tally Sikhs as separate ‘ethnicity’ for first time The Sikh community in the US will be counted as a separate ethnic group for the first time ever in this year’s census, a long sought goal of a number of Sikh organizations in the country. While the total number of adherents of the religious community living in the US remains something of a mystery – ranging between fewer than 100,000 and 1 million depending on who one asks – the traditionally “hard to count” population will now be explicitly tallied in the upcoming census. “It's clear that a separate code is needed to ensure an accurate count of Sikhs in the United States, recognizing a unique identity,” US Census Deputy Director Ron Jarmin told PTI. Hail...

From microbes to man: Muck-dwelling organism found off Japanese coast could help explain how complex life arose on Earth A strange microbe found buried deep in the mud off of Japan’s southern coast may finally unravel one of evolution’s most pressing mysteries, helping scientists understand how complex life forms emerged from the primordial ooze. Taking its name from Prometheus – the Greek titan who fashioned mankind from a slab of clay – the newly discovered Prometheoarchaeum syntrophicum was found embedded over a mile under the ocean surface in the muddy seabed near Japan’s Kii Peninsula. The team behind the discovery published their findings in Nature on Wednesday. ©  Nature / Imachi, H., Nobu, M.K., Nakahara, N. et al....

‘Negative’: Audio suggests Delta flight crew told controls it WON’T NEED to dump fuel before dousing school kids outside LA The crew of the Boeing 777 that showered schools outside Los Angeles with jet fuel on Tuesday apparently told controllers they were not going to release the toxic liquid right before they did so, newly-released audio implies. The plot has thickened in the highly unusual mishap, which saw Delta Airlines Flight 89 dump thousands of gallons of volatile jet fuel on unsuspecting students and staff in five elementary schools and one high school outside Los Angeles on Tuesday. An audio recording of communications between the LAX airport control tower and the pilots of the Delta flight reveals that air traffic controllers asked the cre...

IT expert, hockey fan & piano player: Meet Russia’s Prime Minister candidate Mikhail Mishustin Mikhail Mishustin managed to stay out of the spotlight as Federal Tax Service boss, yet his high-profile colleagues now describe the PM candidate as not just a true professional, but a colorful personality to boot. The parliament will decide if Mishustin is fit for the job on Thursday, after President Putin suggested him for the PM role on the heels of a surprise resignation of Dmitry Medvedev’s government. The candidate already held hour-long talks with top MPs at the State Duma, after which speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said that Mishustin was well-known to lawmakers. “He’s a man who has made a reputation for himself by creating a high-tech Federal Tax ...

Croatian fisherman discovers suspicious orange cube that belongs to the US military When a crew of Croatian fishermen netted a mysterious orange cube in the waters of the Adriatic, they had no idea that the device was connected with a puzzling US Navy operation in the area. Spoiler alert: it’s about Russia. Trawling between the islands of Mljet and St. Andrew last week, the crew of the Marian II, a Croatian fishing boat, pulled something unusual out of their nets: an orange cube, weighing 100 kilos and measuring 130cm wide, with an anchor underneath. Fisherman Darko Kunac Bigava took the cube ashore, and local media began to speculate as to what exactly it was. It didn’t take long for internet sleuths to link its appearance with the activity of a US...

No Nike, no records? Controversial running shoes 'set to be banned for handing unfair advantage to athletes' Nike’s controversial Vaporfly ZoomX running shoes – versions of which have been worn by record-breaking athletes in recent months – could be banned in official competition for giving an unfair advantage The scandal surrounding the specially-designed shoes has grown steadily after several top marathon runners broke long-standing records while wearing the Nike shoes. Last October, Kenyan legend Eliud Kipchoge set what was hailed as an incredible marathon landmark, becoming the first man to beat the two-hour mark barrier at a special event in Vienna, Austria. READ MORE: ‘Fiery conditions’: Nike changes Australian Open outfit ad after bushfire ba...