Flying prehistoric species named after 9-year-old girl
The name of a newly discovered prehistoric species of pterosaurs, a flying reptile, was confirmed last week. It will be named vectidraco daisymorrisae, after 9-year-old Daisy Morris, who discovered the fossil when she was 4, according to National Geographic. According to BBC News, the Isle of Wight, U.K. native said she found the creature’s blackened fossils “sticking out of the sand.” The fossils turned out to be a new genus and species of a small pterosaur. Morris’ mother, Sian Morris, said her daughter started fossil hunting when she was 3. The pterosaur remains were donated to the Natural History Museum, which recently named the Isle of Wight the “dinosaur capital of Great Britain.”
Venezuelan woman arrested for mocking Hugo Chavez on Twitter
A Venezuelan woman, Lourdes Alicia Ortega Perez, was released from police custody last week after she was arrested for mocking Hugo Chavez on Twitter, according to Global Voices Advocacy blog. She was arrested on charges of spreading false information and committing fraud, Global Voices reported. Authorities said her tweet was “destabilizing the country.” The “offending” tweet was posted on March 9—four days after Chavez’s death—as a response to a Twitter user who had asked if Chavez had died. Ortega Perez tweeted, “I don’t know, but he has become a wax doll.” Global Voices reported the court’s requirement indicates that her online behavior will be watched closely. Ortega Perez has not tweeted since her detention.
TV ad promoting contraceptives pulled in Kenya after religious uproar
A TV spot promoting condom use to prevent the spread of HIV and other diseases was pulled from airwaves in Kenya after Christian and Muslim clergy condemned the commercial as encouraging infidelity. According to BBC News U.K., the ad shows a woman advising her married friend to use condoms when engaging in an extramarital affair. Kenyan Health official Peter Cherutich said the spot was created because as many as 30 percent of married couples have partners outside of their marriages, Cherutich said. The spot was sponsored by Kenya’s health ministry and foreign assistance agencies, USAid and U.K. Aid. The U.N. estimated about 1.6 million people, of Kenya’s 41.6 million population, have HIV.
