“I feel so happy. It’s my birthday today and this is like a gift to Africa. There is a 90 percent chance they will reproduce and I hope that we will start a new group of Northern White rhinos in Africa.”

Dana Holeckova, director of the Dvur Kralove zoo, comments on the arrival of four Northern White rhinos in Kenya from Czechoslovakia. There are only eight of these animals left worldwide (AFP).

“We often worry about deforestation and hunting as the two main factors threatening the extinction of primate populations, but these results suggest that even if we find ways to solve these problems, it may not save some species of monkeys and apes from extinction.”

Robin Dunbar, of the University of Oxford, warns that a number of species of primate are under threat due to global warming (Daily Telegraph).

“Everyone feels great, no problems.”

Soyuz commander Oleg Kotov is one of three astronauts who took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan earlier today (CNET).