Dead candidate wins election in North Dakota

A candidate who died in October appears to have been elected to the North Dakota House of Representatives on Tuesday. Weeks before the polls closed, David Andahl, 55, died of Covid-19. But his name was left on the ballot paper and he received 35% of the vote. “He had a lot of feelings for his county,” his mother said.

Kentucky elects French bulldog

A Kentucky town has elected a French bulldog. The Rabbit Hash Historical Society, which holds elections for a canine “mayor” every three years, said the dog, named Wilbur, took the office with 13,143 votes, the highest total since the elections began in 1998. There are no reports of the other canine candidates disputing the result.

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Astronomers detect radio signals from space

Astronomers say they have detected mysterious blasts of radio energy from within our own galaxy. Fast radio bursts (FRBs) last only a fraction of a second, but can be 100 million times more powerful than the Sun. Speculation is afoot over the source of the signals but most experts say they appear to have come from a magnetar, a star with a very powerful magnetic field.