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Long queues formed at petrol stations in Tehran on Tuesday after the United States announced fresh sanctions aimed at pressuring Iran into submission.
Washington has turned to pulling economic levers six months into a war on Iran that has ground to a stalemate militarily, with peace talks stalled and most traffic through the crucial Strait of Hormuz blocked.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday laid out plans for the “economic asphyxiation” of Iran, saying the “objective is to sever…

AdvertisementAccidents and personal safetyHong KongSocietyCabby killed, 9 others injured after taxi hits bus, truck on Lantau IslandPolice receive reports of crash along Cheung Tung Road involving taxi, truck and bus heading from Discovery Bay to Sunny Bay MTR station
1-MIN READ1-MIN1 ListenDanny MokPublished: 10:14pm, 25 Aug 2026A cab driver was killed and at least nine other people were injured after his taxi collided with a bus and a truck on Hong Kong’s Lantau Island on Tuesday night.
Police said at around 8pm that they had received reports of a crash on Cheung Tung Road involving a taxi, a truck and a DB03P bus heading from Discovery Bay to Sunny Bay MTR station.
The taxi driver was knocked unconscious and became trapped in the wreckage of his vehicle, while his passenger was seriously injured but remained conscious.
Eight people aboard the bus also sustained minor injuries.
The cabby and several other injured passengers were taken to North Lantau Hospital, where he was certified ..

Dr. Savannah Ulalian Bishop photographs an archaeological amphora (Picture: KOC University) Imagine an ancient amphora recovered from the seabed after centuries underwater. It may be cracked, covered with deposits or missing large sections. Restoring such an object is difficult without causing further damage.To overcome this problem, researchers at Koc University in Turkiye have developed a conservation method that combines photogrammetry, digital modelling, 3D printing and embedded sensors, Phys.org reported. It is designed to replace missing parts of archaeological ceramic objects while also helping conservators monitor changes that could affect their condition.The approach was described in a study published in the Journal of Cultural Heritage. It was developed by archaeologists and engineers from Koc University’s Mustafa V Koc Maritime Archaeology Research Center (KUDAR) and Manufacturing and Automation Research Center (MARC).3D repairing of potteryThe process begins by photographin..

Representative Image (Canva) Some stars can make repeated close passes around supermassive black holes, losing part of their material each time while surviving to return again. These encounters produce bursts of light, or flares, that can recur months or even years apart. But astronomers have been puzzled by a pattern seen in some of these systems: each successive flare becomes dimmer. According to a study published in The Astrophysical Journal, researchers now think the answer may lie in how fast the star was spinning before its first encounter with the black hole. The research suggests that an unusually rapid initial spin can reproduce the progressively fading flares seen in some systems.A star that survivesWhen a star ventures too close to a supermassive black hole, the difference in the black hole's gravitational pull across the star can become so extreme that it is torn apart. This is known as a tidal disruption event, or TDE. However, not every encounter results in complete ..

The French government said on Monday it would press ahead with a ban on mobile phones in high schools from next month, but trade unions warned that the measure might be hard to implement quickly.
In July, France’s parliament approved legislation banning both social media access for children under 15 and mobile phone use in high schools.
It is part of a push by President Emmanuel Macron for children to spend less time in front of screens, which the government fears is arresting their…

Mainland Chinese government vessel sightings around Taiwan have reached record levels for a third straight month, as Beijing expands its law enforcement footprint east of the island following the announcement in late May of Tokyo-Manila maritime boundary talks over the area.
Taiwan’s defence ministry said that in the first 24 days of August it detected mainland coastguard, survey and other official vessels a total of 118 times, surpassing the 117 reported in July and 111 in June.
Those numbers…

Michael and Lynne carried out much of the renovation themselves. (Pictures: Homes.com) A former bank building in Detroit, Michigan that sat vacant for about a decade has been turned into a two-bedroom home after a couple spent years restoring it by hand. The unusual property, built in 1925, is now on the market for $1.3 million.Lynne Savino and her husband, Michael, bought the abandoned building in 2013 through an estate sale, according to Homes.com. The purchase price was $66,000 and included the neighbouring property, a former bar at 3415 Michigan Ave. The couple had sold their home in Detroit’s Green Acres area to fund the purchase and the work that followed.The former People’s State Bank had already gone through several changes before the couple bought it. It was later used as an after-hours club, and the building had suffered from scrapping and graffiti. Still, Savino saw potential in the structure and wanted to turn it into a home.The renovation became a major project. The couple..

Portsmouth Island When the federal government began bringing the windswept barrier islands of eastern North Carolina under protected parkland, a quiet property deal near Pamlico Sound helped bring the story of a once-thriving coastal community to an end. In 1967, Henry Pigott agreed to sell his property on Portsmouth Island to help create Cape Lookout National Seashore. As part of the deal, he received a life estate, allowing him to remain in his ancestral home for the rest of his life. The land purchase, recorded in historical narration scripts and administrative records published by the National Park Service (NPS), marked an important step in creating the national seashore. It also made Pigott the last male resident of Portsmouth Village, an isolated 18th-century settlement that was already slowly disappearing.Portsmouth Village was established by the North Carolina Colonial Assembly in 1753 as an important “lightering” port. Heavy ocean-going ships would unload their cargo onto smal..

Chinese archaeologists will carry out their first joint field project in South America by exploring sites dating back thousands of years in Peru as Beijing steps up its efforts to deepen cultural ties with the region.
The Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said it had signed a cooperation agreement with the Caral Archaeological Zone of the Peruvian Ministry of Culture and the Professional School of Archaeology at the National University of San Marcos to explore…

Indonesian authorities arrested 72 people suspected of starting some of the forest and peatland fires as huge blazes in central and west Indonesia triggered choking haze.
Indonesia has been battling fires driven by an intensifying El Nino pattern and a prolonged dry season, generating dense smoke that crossed into Malaysia, according to Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency, or BNPB.
Fires are a regular problem in Indonesia that strain relations with neighbouring countries.
Plantation…