التصنيف: أخبار

Bobi, who was crowned the world’s oldest dog, has had his title stripped from him following controversy around his real age.

Bobi, who lived in Portugal, was said to have been 30 years and 268 days old when he was named the world’s oldest by Guinness World Records (GWR) last February.

In October 2023, he died at the reported age of 31 years and 165 days.

But last month the GWR launched an investigation into the Portuguese canine after doubts were raised over his real age.

The probe came despite his birth apparently being confirmed by the Portuguese government’s pet database and the National Union of Veterinarians.

Bobi was a purebred Rafeiro do Alentejo, a breed of livestock guardian dog with an average life expectancy of 12 to 14 years.

When Bobi was crowned the world’s oldest canine, it broke a record held since 1939 by an Australian cattle dog that died at 29 years and five months.

The GWR has now said it has no conclusive evidence that Bobi lived that long.

Read more from Sky News:
Venomous snakes among deadly animals kept as pets
Mystery over whales’ singing uncovered
70 coins removed from rare alligator’s stomach

Mark McKinley, director of records at GWR, said in a statement that microchip data sourced from the official Portuguese database had been central to Bobi’s evidence, but it turned out the chipping did not require proof of age for dogs born before 2008.

“With the additional veterinary statement provided as evidence for Bobi’s age also citing this microchip data, we’re left with no conclusive evidence which can definitively prove Bobi’s date of birth,” he wrote.

“Without any conclusive evidence available to us right now, we simply can’t retain Bobi as the record holder and honestly claim to maintain the high standards we set ourselves.”

Bobi lived his entire life with Leonel Costa and his family in the rural village of Conqueiros in Portugal.

Mr Costa did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

In an emailed statement in January, his owner defended the title, saying Guinness World Records had spent a year checking the record claim.

Alexei Navalny’s mother has said she has seen the body of her son – and that officials are trying to force her to hold a private burial ceremony without mourners.

Lyudmila Navalnaya, speaking in a video published on YouTube, said officials had told her “time is not working for you” and that suggested her son’s body was “decomposing”.

She said officials had threatened to “do something” with the body if she didn’t agree to a secret funeral.

“I’m recording this video because they started threatening me,” she said.

“Looking into my eyes, they say that if I do not agree to a secret funeral, they will do something with my son’s body.”

Follow the latest news: Russia-Ukraine updates

She also quoted an investigator as telling her: “Time is not working for you, corpses are decomposing.”

There was no immediate response from Russian investigators.

Mr Navalny – a vocal critic of President Vladimir Putin and a leading face in Russian opposition to his leadership – died in an Arctic penal colony.

His death was announced last Friday.

Ms Navalnaya has been calling on authorities to release his body to the family since then.

It came as Mr Navalny’s team said his death certificate showed he had died from “natural causes”.

Mr Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, on Monday accused Vladimir Putin of being responsible for the death of her husband and claimed he had died as a result of the nerve agent, novichok.

Read more from Sky News:
Who is Alexei Navalny’s wife Yulia?
Donald Trump breaks silence on Alexei Navalny’s death

She also accused authorities of hiding his body so traces of the poison would disappear. Mr Navalny was previously poisoned with the nerve agent in August 2020, but survived.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitriy Peskov said the Russian president did not watch the video and would not comment given Mrs Navalnaya had recently been widowed, but he denied the novichok allegations.

Click to subscribe to the Sky News Daily wherever you get your podcasts

According to Russia’s prison service, Mr Navalny fell unconscious and died suddenly on Friday after a walk at the “Polar Wolf” penal colony above the Arctic Circle where he was serving a three-decade sentence.

His body was reportedly taken to the Salekhard District Clinical Hospital morgue, but Mr Navalny’s mother Lyudmila and his lawyers were “not allowed to go in”.

Five people have been killed in China after a barge hit a bridge, which led to part of the structure breaking off, and vehicles plunging into the water below.

A bus and an electric motorbike were among five vehicles that fell off the Lixinsha Bridge over a waterway, said China Central Television (CCTV).

The bus, with only its driver on board, and one of the vehicles hit the water, while the other three ended up on the vessel.

The bus driver, the motorcycle rider and three people in a van died in Thursday’s incident which happened at about 5.30am local time near Guangzhou city, in Guangdong province, according to the state-owned broadcaster.

Pictures on CCTV showed an empty container barge trapped between two columns of the bridge over the Hongqili Waterway, with part of the bridge’s two-lane road deck missing.

All road traffic on the bridge was stopped as more than 100 emergency staff, including six divers, and about 15 boats and salvage vessels, worked to rescue the vehicles, local officials said.

The vehicles and three of the bodies were recovered from the water, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) said, quoting city authorities. There was no word on the other two bodies.

Two people were treated in hospital and their condition was described as stable. They included one of the barge’s crew members who suffered minor injuries.

Authorities were still investigating the cause of the accident, the Guangzhou administration said on its WeChat social media account, but authorities blamed the vessel’s crew, accusing them of “operational mishandling”, reported SCMP.

The captain of the barge, which was travelling from Foshan city to Guangzhou, has been detained, according to a Beijing News report, citing a local member of the Chinese legislature, the SCMP added.

Read more:
Ukraine-Russia latest: Navalny’s mother ‘has seen son’s body’
Messi explains Hong Kong no-show
Censorship ‘now like Mao’s time’ – Ai Weiwei

Local people were told to leave the area and the owner of the vessel was detained by officials, according to the Global Times.

Guangzhou is among the busiest seaports in mainland China.

Repairs to the bridge started in 2022 due to safety concerns, but because of delays, work was not expected to be completed until the end of August this year.

The father of an Italian woman who appeared in chains in a Hungarian court has said no one deserves to be treated like she has and that “it’s a disaster” if her case becomes political.

Ilaria Salis, an anti-fascist activist, was arrested in Budapest last year on suspicion of a serious assault on two far-right supporters at Hungary‘s Day of Honour commemorations.

At a hearing last month she appeared with legs shackled together, handcuffed, and with a guard walking behind her holding a chain.

There have also been reports in Italian media that at one point in her detention she was bound by the neck in a cell with mice and cockroaches.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has reportedly spoken to her Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orban about Salis’s detention.

The Italian government called the court appearance “humiliating” and the foreign ministry summoned Hungary’s deputy ambassador in protest.

Speaking to Sky’s Yalda Hakim, her father said the situation was becoming “very dangerous” for his daughter.

“If it’s turning political, it’s a disaster,” said Roberto Salis.

“Nobody can treat a human being like she was treated, particularly at the beginning of this story,” he said.

Hungary’s international spokesman, Zoltan Kovacs, denied Salis’s treatment in court was inhumane.

He said her case was simply being “taken seriously due to the severity of the crime she’s charged with”.

Read more from Sky News:
Huge fire engulfs block of flats in Valencia
Biden calls Putin a ‘crazy SOB’ – and Kremlin reacts

Mr Salis told Sky News he hoped his daughter, 39, would be released to house arrest “as soon as possible”.

“We’ve been told the first step has to be in Hungary, but even if it’s very difficult – for instance to find an apartment there to rent – we hope this will be done shortly.

“Then the second step is in Italy for the house arrest and then we will carry on with the process.”

“Ilaria keeps saying that she’s innocent,” he added. “So we will fight to demonstrate her innocence.”