Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert

 

media captionThe crew found the unusual object while conducting a count of big horn sheep in the area

A strange metal monolith has been discovered in the Utah desert by a helicopter crew, leaving local authorities baffled.

Wildlife officials spotted the "unusual" object while counting sheep during a flyover in a remote south-eastern area of the US state.

They said the structure had been planted in the ground between red rock.

There was no indication who installed the monolith, which was about 10 to 12ft (3.6m) tall.

In an interview with local news channel KSLTV, the helicopter pilot, Bret Hutchings, said: "That's been about the strangest thing that I've come across out there in all my years of flying."

IMAGE COPYRIGHTUTAH DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY

image captionThere was speculation that the monolith was installed by an artist

Mr Hutchings said a biologist counting big horn sheep in the helicopter was the first one to spot the structure from the sky.

"He was like, 'Whoa, whoa, whoa, turn around, turn around!'. And I was like, 'What?'. And he's like, 'There's this thing back there - we've got to go look at it!'," Mr Hutchings said.

IMAGE COPYRIGHTUTAH DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY

image captionLocal authorities appealed for information about the monolith on social media

Mr Hutchings speculated that the monolith may have been installed by "some new wave artist", or a fan of 2001: A Space Odyssey, the 1968 film directed by Stanley Kubrick.

Imposing black monoliths created by an unseen alien species appear in the movie, based on the writing of novelist Arthur C Clarke.

IMAGE COPYRIGHTUTAH DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY

image captionBig horn sheep are native to southern parts of Utah

The Utah Department of Public Safety Aero Bureau released images of the rectangular-shaped metal object in a news release last week.

It said authorities would determine if "they need to investigate further".

"It is illegal to install structures or art without authorisation on federally managed public lands, no matter what planet you're from," the department said.

The department has not disclosed the exact location of the monolith, fearing explorers may try to seek it out and "become stranded". The big horn sheep wildlife officials were counting are native to many parts of southern Utah, where the terrain is rugged.

As yet, no one has claimed responsibility for installing the structure.

Looking for answers, Utah's highway patrol turned to social media, writing in a post on Instagram: "Inquiring minds want to know, what the heck is it? Anyone?"

Most observers presumed it was an installation left by a sculptor, with some saying it resembled the work of late minimalist artist John McCracken.

Covid: India's festival season doesn't stop for coronavirus

 Millions of people are marking the Hindu festival of Diwali in India, but as shoppers pack markets in the capital, Delhi, there are concerns over rising coronavirus cases.

Doctors say they’re fearful of a medical emergency.

India already has the second highest number of Covid cases worldwide, but a relatively low death rate.

The country’s prime minister has so far ruled out a second lockdown.

Covid: Children more likely to be infected in second wave

 

IMAGE COPYRIGHTGETTY IMAGES

The number of school-age children with coronavirus has risen "significantly" in the second wave compared with the first, according to the government's scientific advisers.

Children are now more likely than adults to be the person bringing a Covid infection into a household.

But families with children are at no higher risk of severe illness.

The National Education Union (NEU) said it was "troubled" by the number of children testing positive.

The exact role children play in transmitting coronavirus has long been an open question.

It's clear young people as a group are at very low risk of becoming seriously ill from the virus themselves.

• R number for UK has fallen closer to 1

There is also some evidence younger children are less likely to even contract it in the first place.

But when it comes to older children, their role in passing on the virus has been much less clear.

A review presented to government and published on 13 November outlines the growing evidence older children can catch and transmit Covid-19 at similar rates to adults.

From around the time schools reopened in September, a rising number of children have been testing positive for coronavirus, according to the advisory group.

But the paper said the extent to which transmission was occurring in schools was "unproven and difficult to establish".

Two major surveillance studies by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and Imperial College London show infections among people aged 16-24 were increasing in September.

By October increases could be seen throughout the 2-24-year-old age bracket.

There were signs of rising infection in the wider population before schools went back, however.

The government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) has previously said reopening schools was likely to increase transmission of the virus.

Chief Medical Officer for England Chris Whitty also acknowledged this, but said trade-offs would have to be made to allow schools to remain open while controlling the virus.

The 13 November advisory paper said there were "significant educational, developmental and mental health harms from schools being closed".

Schoolchildren and young adults have experienced a much faster rise in infections than other age groups in the second wave.

Prof Mark Woolhouse at the University of Edinburgh said this was "not surprising given that schools are operating much closer to normality than most other parts of society".

The review made clear it was not possible to separate contacts in school from contacts around school including travelling to and from, and socialising afterwards.

• UK coronavirus cases up by 27,301 on Friday

However, teachers were no more likely to test positive for coronavirus than other workers, according to ONS data.

Dr Sarah Lewis, an epidemiologist at the University of Bristol, said this was "reassuring" and suggested "the measures in place to reduce transmission in schools are working".

People living with secondary-school-age children were 8% more likely to catch the virus.

But research by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the University of Oxford found that people living with under-18s had no increased risk of becoming seriously ill from Covid.

The NEU said it was concerned by the "finding that children aged 12-16 played a 'significantly higher role' in introducing infection into households in the period after schools reopened their doors to all students".

The union suggested this was down to "the difficulty of social distancing, the absence of face masks inside classrooms, the problems of ventilation, the size of 'bubbles' and the cross mixing on school transport, as well as of secondary pupils mixing outside school".

Iran denies al-Qaeda leader was killed in Tehran

 

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image captionTwo attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania by al-Qaeda killed hundreds in 1998

Iran has denied a report that a leader of militant group al-Qaeda was killed in its capital Tehran in August.

The New York Times newspaper reported that Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, al-Qaeda's second-in-command, was shot dead in the street by Israeli agents following a request from the US.

Iran said it had no al-Qaeda "terrorists" living in its country.

Abdullah is accused of planning the deadly attacks on American embassies in Africa in 1998.

Abdullah, who is more commonly known by his alias Abu Muhammad al-Masri, was gunned down along with his daughter by two assassins on a motorbike on 7 August, the New York Times reports, citing anonymous US intelligence officials.

The report claimed that Iran had initially sought to cover up al-Masri's death, with Iranian and Lebanese media reports describing the victims of the 7 August shooting as a Lebanese history professor and his daughter.

However, Iran's foreign ministry denied the report on Saturday, saying: "From time to time, Washington and Tel Aviv try to tie Iran to such groups by lying and leaking false information to the media in order to avoid responsibility for the criminal activities of this group and other terrorist groups in the region."

There was no immediate comment from either US or Israeli officials.

• What's happened to al-Qaeda?
• Africa's Sahel becomes latest al-Qaeda battleground

Al-Masri was one of the founding members of the jihadist group which has wreaked devastation across the Middle East and parts of Africa and carried out the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US.

He was accused of being behind the bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed 224 people in 1998.

He had been in Iran since 2003, initially under house arrest but later living freely, American intelligence officials quoted in the New York Times said.

Any link between Iran and al-Qaeda would be highly unusual - the two sides have fought each other in conflicts, and represent the two main and sometimes opposing groups of Islam - Iran is largely Shia Muslim, while al-Qaeda is a Sunni jihadist group.

Al-Masri still appears on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist list, where a $10 million reward is offered for information leading to his arrest.

Ethiopia Tigray crisis: Conflict worsens as airports attacked

 orces in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region have fired rockets at airports in a neighbouring state, as their conflict with the government grows.

The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which controls Tigray, said it had targeted the two sites in Amhara state and warned of further strikes.

Tension between Ethiopia's government and the TPLF has escalated into military clashes in the past month.

Hundreds have died, with reports of a civilian massacre emerging this week.

Human rights group Amnesty International said it had confirmed that "scores, and likely hundreds, of people were stabbed or hacked to death" in the town of Mai-Kadra (May Cadera) on 9 November.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has accused forces loyal to Tigray's leaders of carrying out the mass killings, while the TPLF has denied involvement.

• How Ethiopia's conflict could destabilise its neighbours
• Marooned by conflict: 'My little brother needs medicine'

Mr Abiy ordered a military operation against the TPLF earlier this month after he accused them of attacking a military camp hosting federal troops - claims the TPLF deny. There have since been a number of clashes and air strikes in the region.

The fighting has forced at least 17,000 civilians to cross the border into Sudan, according to the UN.

Getting independently verified information about the situation in Tigray is difficult because phone lines and internet services are down.

Kalkidan Yibeltal, the BBC correspondent in Addis Ababa, says the conflict "is escalating and things are getting worse".

"In addition to killings, we are also seeing an increase in refugees to neighbouring Sudan and also internally displaced people. Humanitarian agencies are not able to provide assistance because of the fighting and since transport has been interrupted. So we're seeing more and more dire reports of the human cost of this conflict."

What do we know about the rocket attack?

The Ethiopian government's emergency task force said rockets were fired towards the cities of Bahir Dar and Gondar, in Amhara state, late on Friday.

IMAGE COPYRIGHTAFP

image captionThe conflict has forced thousands of civilians to cross the border into Sudan

An official told Reuters news agency that one rocket hit the airport in Gondar and partially damaged it, while a second fired simultaneously landed just outside of the airport in Bahir Dar.

Details on casualties were not immediately clear. Both airports are used by military and civilian aircraft.

Forces from Amhara have been fighting alongside their federal counterparts against Tigray fighters.

The TPLF said the rocket attacks were retaliation for recent air strikes conducted by Mr Abiy's forces.

"As long as the attacks on the people of Tigray do not stop, the attacks will intensify," spokesman Getachew Reda said in a Facebook post.

Speaking later on Tigray TV, the spokesman warned of further strikes. He said Asmara in Eritrea could be targeted too, stoking fears of the fighting spreading to the neighbouring country.

Ethiopia's prime minister has predicted a swift military victory in Tigray, but he may have underestimated his enemy, says the BBC's African regional editor Will Ross.

Tigrayan troops are experienced and know the mountainous terrain well, he says. There are fears that a drawn-out regional conflict would have horrific consequences for civilians in Ethiopia and the wider Horn of Africa.

Were there mass killings in Tigray?

Amnesty said evidence showed that "scores" of people were killed and wounded in knife and machete attacks in Mai-Kadra.

It said it had seen and "digitally verified gruesome photographs and videos of bodies strewn across the town or being carried away on stretchers".

Amnesty said the victims appeared to be labourers not involved in the conflict. It is not clear where they came from.

media captionFour things that explain the crisis in the Tigray region of Ethiopia.

Some witnesses said the attacks were carried out by forces loyal to the TPLF after they had been defeated by federal troops in an area called Lugdi.

• Why there are fears of civil war in Ethiopia
• Fake news being shared over Ethiopia conflict

Tigray leader Debretsion Gebremichael told AFP news agency that the accusations were "baseless".

Ethiopia's human rights commission said it would send a team to investigate.