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PENGUINS IN PERIL

A mystery epidemic is devastating penguin populations in the Falkland Islands. Over the past three weeks, several thousand gentoo and magellanic penguins have been found dead on beaches, or paralysed and unable to return to their colonies, according to the charity FalkLands Conservation. Scientists are testing water samples to see if the cause is a red tide – a toxic ocean bloom of a microscopic red phytoplankton.

EURO ROCKET GLOOM

Problems with the cooling system in an advanced new engine look likely to have caused the failure of the new heavy-lifting version of the Ariane 5 space rocket…

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