Space: Astronomers have spotted the farthest known object in our solar system — and they've nicknamed the pink cosmic body "Farout". The International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Centre announced the discovery today. "Farout" (pronounced far-out) is about 120 astronomical units away — that's 120 times the distance between Earth and the sun, or 17 billion kilometres. The previous record-holder was the dwarf planet Eris at 96 astronomical units. The Carnegie Institution's Scott Sheppard says the object is so far away and moving so slowly it will take a few years to determine its orbit. At that distance, it could take more than 1000 years to orbit the sun. The astronomers spied the dwarf planet in November using a telescope in Hawaii. It's an estimated 500km across.
Balkans: Three men reportedly froze to death in Serbia as a cold spell throughout the Balkan region slowed traffic, disrupted power supplies and closed schools in some areas. Serbian state TV reported that the body of a 48-year-old man who apparently died overnight was found in the snow in a northern village. The broadcaster also said a 61-year-old man whose body was found in the northwestern town of Sid, also succumbed to the cold. The third victim was a homeless man whose body was found in an abandoned house in southwestern Serbia, state TV said. In central Serbia, several villages have been left without electricity. In Bosnia, schools closed down for two days in the central municipalities of Konjic and Jablanica, while trucks and heavy vehicles have been banned from some snow-covered roads.
United States: A lucky diner says he happened upon a pearl while eating an oyster dish at a famous New York City restaurant. Rick Antosh was out to lunch with a friend and ordered his usual at the Grand Central Oyster Bar on December 5 — the US$14.75 pan roast, a stew-like dish that includes six oysters. The 66-year-old tells the New York Post that he felt a small object rolling around his mouth after diving into the dish. "For a fraction of a second, there was terror," Antosh told the Post. "Is it a tooth? Is it a filling?" The Edgewater, New Jersey, resident says it turned out to be a pea-sized pearl. He has not had the prize appraised. "I've been here 28 years," said Sandy Ingber, the restaurant's executive chef. "This is only the second time I've seen this happen. And we sell over 5,000 oysters on the half shell every day." The occurrence of natural pearls in oysters is not well understood, but anecdotally it has been estimated at one in 10,000, according to Matthew W. Gray, an oyster physiologist at the University of Maryland.
Vatican: A prominent US archbishop is asking the Vatican for answers about the status of an investigation into alleged sexual misconduct by his predecessor, who was forced to resign in 2015. St Paul and Minneapolis Archbishop Bernard Hebda wrote a remarkable letter to his flock in which he revealed he sent the Vatican in 2016 a new allegation of improprieties with minors against retired Archbishop John Nienstedt. Nienstedt was one of the first US bishops known to have been forced from office for botching sex abuse investigations. He denied misconduct, and the archdiocese hired two law firms to investigate, but the results were never made public. Hebda said as far as he knew, the Vatican suspended the 2014 investigation when Nienstedt resigned.
