News in brief

Obama off to memorial service

WASHINGTON (AP):

President Barack Obama has taken off for South Africa to attend a national memorial service for anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela. Obama and his wife, Michelle, boarded Air Force One under cold, rainy skies yesterday morning for the long flight. The occasion presented an opportunity for a rare get-together of American presidents. Former president, George W. Bush, was already on board the plane, along with former first ladies Laura Bush and Hillary Clinton.

NEW YORK (AP)The High Line, a park that turned a dilapidated stretch of elevated railway on Manhattan's West Side into one of New York's newest tourist attractions, may have brought a different kind of visitor: a cockroach that can withstand harsh winter cold and never seen before in the U.S.Rutgers University insect biologists Jessica Ware and Dominic Evangelista said the species Periplaneta japonica is well documented in Asia but was never confirmed in the United States until now. The scientists, whose findings were published in the Journal of Economic Entomology, say it is too soon to predict the impact but that there is probably little cause for concern. "Because this species is very similar to cockroach species that already exist in the urban environment," Evangelista said, "they likely will compete with each other for space and for food."

Cockroach that can endure cold moves into NYC

NEW YORK (AP):

The High Line, a park that turned a dilapidated stretch of elevated railway on Manhattan's West Side into one of New York's newest tourist attractions, may have brought a different kind of visitor: a cockroach that can withstand harsh winter cold and never seen before in the US.

Rutgers University insect biologists, Jessica Ware and Dominic Evangelista, said the species, Periplaneta japonica, is well documented in Asia but was never confirmed in the United States until now.

The scientists, whose findings were published in the Journal of Economic Entomology, say it is too soon to predict the impact but that there is probably little cause for concern. "Because this species is very similar to cockroach species that already exist in the urban environment," Evangelista said, "they likely will compete with each other for space and for food."