Nepal earthquake: Woman pulled alive from rubble after five days

Rescue workers on Thursday pulled a second survivor from the rubble of a collapsed hotel in Nepal's capital, five days after a massive earthquake that killed nearly 6,000 people.

Rescuers worked into the night to pull the woman, a kitchen worker in her 30s, to safety, the second such rescue in a day after that of a 15-year-old boy in another hotel just streets away.

Nepalese soldiers and a huge team of experts from France, Norway and Israel who had worked on the rescue cheered and clapped as the woman - a rare survivor - was carried by stretcher to a waiting ambulance.

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Search of Ukraine MH17 crash site is over: Dutch team

Dutch and international investigators have finished recovering human remains and wreckage from the MH17 plane crash site in eastern Ukraine, the mission's head said on Thursday.

All 298 passengers and crew on board the Malaysia Airlines jetliner - the majority of them Dutch - died when it was shot down over rebel-held eastern Ukraine last year.

"We have done everything humanly possible," in the recovery process, mission head Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg said at a press conference in The Hague.

A final flight with seven coffins filled with human remains is expected to arrive in the Netherlands on Saturday.

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Football: Messi to become a father for second time

Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi announced on Thursday he is to be a father again by posting a picture of his pregnant partner on social media.

The four-time Ballon d'Or, 27, took to Instagram to post a picture (see story) of his son, Thiago, kissing Antonella Roccuzzo's stomach with the message: "Can't wait to welcome you into our world!!! We love you! Thiagui, mum and dad."

Messi and Roccuzzo's first son (above) was born in November 2012.

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Nasa's Messenger spacecraft makes crashing finale into Mercury

Nasa's pioneering Messenger spacecraft ended its four-year study of the planet Mercury on Thursday by crashing into the planet's surface, scientists said.

Flight controllers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland earlier estimated that Messenger, travelling at more than 14,000 kmh, would hit the ground near Mercury's north pole at 3.26pm EDT (3.26am on Friday Singapore time).

During its final weeks in orbit, Messenger relayed more details about the innermost planet of the solar system, which turns out to have patches of ice inside some of its craters, despite its sizzling location more than twice as close to the sun as Earth.

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Dark tattoos daunt Apple Watch

Apple aficionados who are also fans of body art are finding out that dark tattoos can daunt the iconic company's hot new smartwatch.

An online Apple support page on Thursday warned that "ink, pattern, and saturation of some tattoos can block light from the sensor, making it difficult to get reliable readings."

Sensors on the back of Apple Watch wrist wear use LED light to detect blood flow and track heart rates of wearers to provide information such as calories burned or workout intensity.

After release of the Apple Watch on April 24, some users went online with tales of the gadgets acting oddly when adorning tattooed wrists.

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