Feds Halt New Tests on Aging Lab Chimps

Girl chimps treat sticks like infants, boy treat them like weapons

(NEWSER) - If you have any juvenile chimps on your Christmas list, a new study has made your shopping a breeze. Researchers have observed wild chimps using sticks as toys, and boy and girl chimps treat the sticks very differently, CNN reports. Young female chimps appeared to treat the sticks like dolls, mimicking how their mothers care for infants. Male chimps also sometimes treated their sticks like dolls, but were more inclined to use them as weapons. More»

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson will decide by year's end

(NEWSER) - One of Bill Richardson’s last acts as New Mexico governor could be pardoning Billy the Kid . He’s reviewing a petition to pardon the famed outlaw—killed in 1881 after reportedly killing 21 men—which is based on the claim that Governor Lew Walllace promised the Wild West folk hero a pardon in exchange for testifying at a murder trial. More»

Deforestation, hunting threaten man's closest kin

(NEWSER) - Nearly half of all primate species on the planet are in danger of extinction, warns a shocking report by a world conservation organization. Destruction of tropical forests, illegal wildlife trade and commercial bush meat hunting are the key threats to man's closest relatives, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. More»

Ardipithecus ramidus lived in trees and walked upright

(NEWSER) - A primate fossil found in Africa in 1994 predates the famous “Lucy” skeleton by 1 million years and offers clues to human evolution, researchers say. “This is huge,” a paleoanthropologist tells the Washington Post. “This is the biggest discovery really since” Lucy. The researchers believe “Ardi”—Ardipithecus ramidus—lived in trees but could walk upright to forage for food on the ground. More»

(AP) - New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and former members of his administration will not face charges in a yearlong pay-to-play investigation, a source tells the AP. A federal grand jury has been probing whether lucrative work on state bond deals was improperly awarded to a Richardson donor—derailing his nomination as Commerce secretary in the Obama administration. Top Justice Department officials made the call, says an insider: "It's over. There's nothing. It was killed in Washington." More»