The missing piece of an eight-year jigsaw puzzle

An elderly man who spent the past eight years working on a jigsaw puzzle has discovered that the final piece is missing. Jack Harris, 86, has filled the dining room of his home, in Shepton Mallet, in the west of England, with the 5,000-piece puzzle, a reproduction of a 19th-century oil painting by James Tissot, called The Return Of The Prodigal Son. Mr Harris and his family have searched the house but without success. They now believe that the dog may have eaten the missing piece.

Police in Germany are training vultures to track down dead bodies. They plan to attach global positioning devices to the birds in an attempt to recover corpses of people who have gone missing in remote areas. Vultures are said to be able to detect the scent of decomposition from nearly 1,000 metres. The first bird, called Sherlock, is currently being taught to recognise the smell of human flesh.

A finance minister in Britain's new government arrived at his desk to discover that his predecessor had left a hand-written note saying that all the money was gone. David Laws, the new chief secretary to the treasury, discovered the note on his desk from the previous holder of the office, Liam Byrne of the Labour party. It read: "Dear Chief Secretary, I'm afraid to tell you there is no money. Kind regards and good luck!" Normally, government officials leaving office are meant to leave detailed advice for their successors. Although Britain's budget deficit is said to be approaching £200 billion (Dh105bn), Mr Byrne later said the note had been a joke.

A security alert at the White House was caused by a swarm of thousands of honey bees. The bees are reported to have hovered around a bush near the north-west security gate of the White House, where TV crews traditionally gather. They arrived as President Obama was attempting to leave the building to play basketball at Fort McNair. Secret service agents called a White House carpenter, who is also a beekeeper, to remove the insects.

Pizza restaurants in Naples were found to be using wood from stolen coffins to fuel their ovens. Police believe the wood was offered by a gang of coffin thieves operating in the city, which is notorious for its links with the mafia and organised crime. Il Giornale, the local newspaper reported: "A real suspicion hangs over pizza, one of the few remaining important symbols of the city, that it could be cooked with wood coffins. Not only the pizza, the bread, too, may have been cooked with the wood." Andrea Santoro, the president of the city's cemetery commission, said: "It's no wonder these things are happening given the state of the cemeteries. There are graves uncovered, thefts and vandalism."

Conservationists expressed outrage at plans by the government of Zimbabwe to sell an "ark" of endangered animals to North Korea. A pair of young African elephants has already been collected, while members of the Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe's staff are reported to be searching game reserves for giraffes, monkeys, antelopes, hyenas, zebras and birds. Mr Mugabe regards Kim Jong-il as a close ally, with the Zimbabwean authorities calling the deal a "legitimate business trade". However, the Born Free Foundation called the arrangement "a substantial threat to the welfare of the individual animals involved".

jlangton@thenational.ae

How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE

When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.

How Apple's credit card works

The Apple Card looks different from a traditional credit card — there's no number on the front and the users' name is etched in metal. The card expands the company's digital Apple Pay services, marrying the physical card to a virtual one and integrating both with the iPhone. Its attributes include quick sign-up, elimination of most fees, strong security protections and cash back.

What does it cost?

Apple says there are no fees associated with the card. That means no late fee, no annual fee, no international fee and no over-the-limit fees. It also said it aims to have among the lowest interest rates in the industry. Users must have an iPhone to use the card, which comes at a cost. But they will earn cash back on their purchases — 3 per cent on Apple purchases, 2 per cent on those with the virtual card and 1 per cent with the physical card. Apple says it is the only card to provide those rewards in real time, so that cash earned can be used immediately.

What will the interest rate be?

The card doesn't come out until summer but Apple has said that as of March, the variable annual percentage rate on the card could be anywhere from 13.24 per cent to 24.24 per cent based on creditworthiness. That's in line with the rest of the market, according to analysts

What about security?

The physical card has no numbers so purchases are made with the embedded chip and the digital version lives in your Apple Wallet on your phone, where it's protected by fingerprints or facial recognition. That means that even if someone steals your phone, they won't be able to use the card to buy things.

Is it easy to use?

Apple says users will be able to sign up for the card in the Wallet app on their iPhone and begin using it almost immediately. It also tracks spending on the phone in a more user-friendly format, eliminating some of the gibberish that fills a traditional credit card statement. Plus it includes some budgeting tools, such as tracking spending and providing estimates of how much interest could be charged on a purchase to help people make an informed decision.

* Associated Press

In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe

Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010

Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille

Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm

Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year

Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”

Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners

TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013

Company profile

Name: Infinite8

Based: Dubai

Launch year: 2017

Number of employees: 90

Sector: Online gaming industry

Funding: $1.2m from a UAE angel investor

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets

Zombieland: Double Tap

Director: Ruben Fleischer

Stars: Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone

Four out of five stars

Elvis

%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Baz%20Luhrmann%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Austin%20Butler%2C%20Tom%20Hanks%2C%20Olivia%20DeJonge%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%204%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A

How green is the expo nursery?

Some 400,000 shrubs and 13,000 trees in the on-site nursery

An additional 450,000 shrubs and 4,000 trees to be delivered in the months leading up to the expo

Ghaf, date palm, acacia arabica, acacia tortilis, vitex or sage, techoma and the salvadora are just some heat tolerant native plants in the nursery

Approximately 340 species of shrubs and trees selected for diverse landscape

The nursery team works exclusively with organic fertilisers and pesticides

All shrubs and trees supplied by Dubai Municipality

Most sourced from farms, nurseries across the country

Plants and trees are re-potted when they arrive at nursery to give them room to grow

Some mature trees are in open areas or planted within the expo site

Green waste is recycled as compost

Treated sewage effluent supplied by Dubai Municipality is used to meet the majority of the nursery’s irrigation needs

Construction workforce peaked at 40,000 workers

About 65,000 people have signed up to volunteer

Main themes of expo is ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’ and three subthemes of opportunity, mobility and sustainability.

Expo 2020 Dubai to open in October 2020 and run for six months

Section 375

Cast: Akshaye Khanna, Richa Chadha, Meera Chopra & Rahul Bhat

Director: Ajay Bahl

Producers: Kumar Mangat Pathak, Abhishek Pathak & SCIPL

Rating: 3.5/5

How to donate

Text the following numbers:

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6025 - Dh 20

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%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20myZoi%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202021%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Syed%20Ali%2C%20Christian%20Buchholz%2C%20Shanawaz%20Rouf%2C%20Arsalan%20Siddiqui%2C%20Nabid%20Hassan%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20UAE%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20staff%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2037%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Initial%20undisclosed%20funding%20from%20SC%20Ventures%3B%20second%20round%20of%20funding%20totalling%20%2414%20million%20from%20a%20consortium%20of%20SBI%2C%20a%20Japanese%20VC%20firm%2C%20and%20SC%20Venture%3C%2Fp%3E%0A