Two separate auroras are seen crossing each other

In this extremely rare photograph taken on Nov. 27, 2011, two separate auroras are seen crossing each other in Alaska, in the United States.

Art exhibit draws attention to filthy Indian river

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Associated Press News

The fetid, sewage-filled Yamuna River is an unlikely setting for a large-scale art installation. But organizers of Project Y are hoping their works will attract art lovers who rarely venture onto its filthy banks and draw attention to the chronic pollution of a river worshiped as holy by Hindus. The public art initiative, with works by four Indian artists and five Germans, aims to raise awareness of the sad state of the Yamuna by linking it with Germany's far cleaner Elbe - where a similar exhibition is being mounted.

"Everyone here knows the river is polluted and dirty, but I want to re-awaken the idea of ecology for it. We want people to come and see what the river is all about for themselves," said Ravi Agarwal, a co-curator of the project.

So near the rusting Loha Pul Bridge, where locals wash their clothes, floats a sculpture of the female form below the waist. Its legs trap the Yamuna's bounty: discarded plastic bottles, marigold garlands thrown in the river by worshipers and a pig carcass. Among other installations are Gigi Searia's Fountain of Purification, which pumps water from the river through five levels of a tower before spurting "pure water" from the top. Even that purified water is still brown and putrid.

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Great white shark kills American diver

A great white shark killed an American diver Saturday in the second fatal shark attack off Western Australia state in 12 days. A witness on a dive boat saw “a large amount of bubbles” before the 32-year-old man surfaced with obviously fatal injuries, Western Australia Police Sgt. Gerry Cassidy said. Two people on the boat described the shark as a 10-foot (3-meter) great white, Cassidy said.

The shark struck 500 yards (meters) north of the picturesque tourist haven of Rottnest Island which is 11 miles (18 kilometers) from a popular Perth city mainland beach where a 64-year-old swimmer is believed to have been taken by a great white on Oct. 10.

Authorities cannot say whether he was killed by the same shark that is believed to have taken Bryn Martin as he made his regular morning swim from Perth’s premier Cottesloe Beach toward a buoy about 380 yards (350 meters) offshore. But analysis of Martin’s torn swimming trunks recovered from the seabed near the buoy pointed to a great white shark of the same size being the culprit. No other trace of Martin has been found.

“It’s a cloudy old day today which is the same as we had the other day with Cottesloe, and they’re the conditions that sharks love,” Cassidy said.

It is the fourth fatal shark attack off Western Australia in 14 months. Great whites can grow to more than 20 feet long (6 meters) and 5,000 pounds (2,300 kilos). They are protected in Australia, a primary location for the species.