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Scientists have been given an unprecedented glimpse into the birth of stars and the early stages of the universe, after a new image showing a cluster more than 10bn years ago was released by the James Webb space telescope.

The image shows a young cluster of stars, known as NGC 346, which is more than 200,000 light years from Earth.

Scientists have taken a particular interest in the cluster, which is in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), because it resembles the conditions of the early universe when star formation was at its peak.

Astronomers hope that studying the region could give more answers as to how the first stars formed during the “cosmic noon”, only 2 or 3 billion years after the big bang.

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Ukraine troops were hanging on in battered Soledar on Wednesday as Russian leaders claimed the crucial city in the hotly contested Donetsk region would be overrun by week's end.

Ukraine Deputy Defense Minister Anna Malyar said heavy fighting continued to rage late Wednesday against soldiers mostly from the private Russian mercenary contractor Wagner Group.

"The enemy once again replaced its units ... and tried to break through the defense of our troops and completely capture the city, but was unsuccessful," Malyar said in a Telegram post.

Wagner Chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said the group's troops controlled the city and were clearing out the last of the Ukrainian fighters. The salt mining town of about 10,000 people a year ago is nearly deserted now, most of its buildings damaged or destroyed by the fighting.

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The world of motorsport paid tribute to American Ken Block, the professional rally driver whose daring stunts made him an internet sensation, after his death aged 55 in a snowmobile accident.

Block's Hoonigan Racing team confirmed his death in a statement on Instagram on Monday.

"Ken was a visionary, a pioneer and an icon. And most importantly, a father and husband. He will be incredibly missed," it said.

The accident occurred in Utah's Wasatch County and the Sheriff's Office said that Block was riding on a steep slope when the snowmobile upended and landed on top of him.

"He was pronounced deceased at the scene from injuries sustained in the accident," it said, adding that he was riding in a group but was alone when the accident occurred.

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Tennis great Martina Navratilova said Monday that she has been diagnosed with throat cancer and breast cancer.

Jeremiah Green, the founding drummer for the rock band Modest Mouse, has died just days after the band announced he had been diagnosed with cancer. He was 45.

Lawmakers around the United States have tried to grant justice to victims of decades-old incidents of child sexual abuse by giving them extra time to file lawsuits. Now some of the defendants in these cases, including church and youth organizations, are finding a safe haven: America’s bankruptcy courts.

In New York, nearly 11,000 cases flooded state courts, many seeking to hold Catholic dioceses responsible for sexual abuse by clergy, after a 2019 law suspended statutes of limitations that would have otherwise barred many of the lawsuits. In response, four New York dioceses that collectively faced more than 500 sexual-abuse claims filed for bankruptcy. That halted the cases — and blocked those from anyone who might sue later — and forced the plaintiffs to negotiate a one-time settlement for all abuse claims in bankruptcy court.

The pattern has taken hold across the United States, a Reuters review of bankruptcies precipitated by mass child   sexual-abuse litigation found.

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On weekdays, when most kids around the world are at school, 12-year-old Mansour is in the middle of a grueling shift at the coal mines.

Deep inside a tunnel carved into the side of a blackened mountain, the young boy waits under the flickering glow of his headlamp as older boys pry coal out of the earth by pickaxe and hand, while others shovel the piles into sacks strapped onto the backs of donkeys.

From there, it is Mansour's job — from dawn until dusk — to lead the coal-laden donkeys out of a labyrinth of crumbling tunnels down the mountain in this remote part of Baghlan province, 180 miles north of Kabul. Here, the so-called black gold is bagged and loaded onto trucks, mostly bound for neighboring countries.

"My family sent me to work here last year," he says. He's wearing no protective equipment — no mask, no goggles, just a pair of cheap rubber shoes he's sliced open to let his feet breathe, with toes blackened by coal dust peeking out. "What they pay me goes directly to my family."

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The has rapidly spread to become the dominant COVID-19 mutation in the U.S., now accounting for 40.5 percent of all cases.

The XBB.1.5 omicron subvariant as of this week has pushed out the BQ.1 and the BQ.1.1 subvariants from their previous positions as the most detected coronavirus mutations, according to surveillance conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The XBB subvariant, from which XBB.1.5 descends, is a recombinant of two subvariants that descended from the BA.2 omicron subvariant. That means it carries genetic data from two versions of the coronavirus that originated from the BA.2 subvariant.

Regionally, XBB.1.5 now accounts for the majority of COVID-19 cases in the northeast, identified as causing 75 percent of cases in New England and in the New York tri-state area.

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