Man shot dead attacking Paris police on Charlie Hebdo anniversary
An Islamic extremist wielding a meat cleaver was shot dead as he tried to attack a police station in Paris claiming to avenge French military action in Syria, a year to the day since the Charlie Hebdo massacre.
The youth, who was apparently of Moroccan origin and aged around 20, tried to enter the building in the northern 18th district of the French capital wearing what was at first thought to be an explosives vest, but was later found to be a fake.
Describing the attack, a source said the man pulled out a cleaver from his inside coat pocket as he ran towards the officers. He "did not heed the warnings" and police opened fire.
Congolese boy attacked by chimps getting rare face surgery in New York
An eight-year-old boy whose lips were torn off during an attack by chimpanzees as he played near a river in his native Democratic Republic of Congo will undergo a rare double-lip reconstruction at a New York hospital next week.
Doctors at Stony Brook Children's Hospital on Long Island will perform the first of several surgeries on Dunia Sibomana on Monday.
Sibomana's younger brother was killed in the chimp attack.
New Year's Eve sex assaults also reported in Zurich and Helsinki
Several women were allegedly robbed and sexually assaulted in Zurich on New Year's Eve, Swiss police said on Thursday, saying the attack method appeared "a little bit similar" to that used in a spate of assaults in Germany.
Finnish police, meanwhile, also reported an unusually high level of sexual harassment in Helsinki on New Year's Eve and said they had been tipped off about plans by groups of asylum seekers to sexually harass women.
Helsinki deputy police chief Ilkka Koskimaki told AFP: "There hasn't been this kind of harassment on previous New Year's Eves or other occasions for that matter... This is a completely new phenomenon in Helsinki."
Human imprint has thrust Earth into new geological epoch: Study
The indelible imprint left by human beings on Earth has become so clear that it justifies naming a new geological epoch after mankind, experts say.
The dawn of the "Anthropocene" would signal the end of the Holocene epoch, considered to have begun 11,700 years ago at the end of the Ice Age.
The Anthropocene start date could be around the mid-20th century, the authors wrote. They said the atomic age, starting with a bomb test in New Mexico in the United States on July 16, 1945, and the post-war leap in mining, industry, farming and use of manmade materials such as concrete or plastics all left geological traces.
Monkey cannot own copyright to 'selfie' - US judge
A rare crested macaque that took a now internationally famous "selfie" cannot own the copyright to the photograph because he is not human, a US judge ruled in a suit brought by animal rights group Peta on behalf of the monkey.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals brought the case in September on behalf of the seven-year-old monkey Naruto against British photographer David Slater, who self-published the photo in a wildlife book.
Naruto, who resides on a reserve in Indonesia, took the image and several others in 2011 using a camera left unattended by Slater, the suit said.
