Sialkot’s Hindu temple re-opens after 72-year gap
Sialkot (Pakistan): A 1,000-year old Hindu temple located in Pakistan’s Sialkot, which was sealed for the last 72 years, has been re-opened for people. Shawala Teja Singh Temple built by Sardar Teja Singh was closed during partition. The Hindu stopped visiting the temple after a mob damaged it in 1992 while protesting against the demolition of Babri Mosque in India. The Samaa news reported that the step was taken on the direction of Prime Minister Imran Khan. “People are free to visit anytime,” said Deputy Commissioner Bilal Haider. The government also said that the work to preserve and restore the temple will start soon. (ANI)
World’s smallest fossil monkey found in Amazon
Washington: Scientists have uncovered remains of the smallest fossil monkey – no heavier than a hamster – ever found in Peru’s Amazon jungle. A team led by Duke University in the US and the National University of Piura in Peru found an 18-million-year-old fossilised tooth belonging to a new species of tiny monkey. The specimen is important because it helps bridge a 15-million-year gap in the fossil record for New World monkeys, according to research published in the Journal of Human Evolution. The new fossil was unearthed from an exposed river bank along the Río Alto Madre de Dios in southeastern Peru. The researchers dug up chunks of sandstone and gravel, put them in bags, and hauled them away to be soaked in water and then strained through sieves to filter out the fossilised teeth, jaws, and bone fragments buried within. The team searched through some 2,000 pounds of sediment containing hundreds of fossils of rodents, bats and other animals before they spotted the lone monkey tooth. Paleontologists can tell a lot from monkey teeth, particularly molars. Based on the tooth’s relative size and shape, the researchers think the animal likely dined on energy-rich fruits and insects, and weighed in at less than half a pound — only slightly heavier than a baseball. The team dubbed the animal Parvimico materdei, or “tiny monkey from the Mother of God River.” Now stored in the permanent collections at Peru’s National University of Piura, the find is important because it’s one of the few clues scientists have from a key missing chapter in monkey evolution. (PTI)
Mexico auctions seized jewelry to fund road building
Mexico City: The Mexican tax authority is auctioning 2,000 pieces of jewelry seized from criminals and tax cheats to raise money for building rural roads in western Mexico. Ricardo Rodriguez Vargas is head of Mexico’s Institute to Return the Stolen to the People. He said the goal of Sunday’s sale is to raise 21 million pesos (USD 1.1 million) from the 148 lots of jewelry. The auction took place outside Los Pinos, a mansion in the capital’s Chapultepec Park that served as the official presidential residence until Dec. 1, when President Andrés Manuel López Obrador took office and turned the property into a cultural center open to the public. It’s the third such auction of luxury goods organized by López Obrador, who has sought to set a tone of austerity in his administration. (AP)