A snake has been found on a South Auckland construction site where contractors were flushing out a new pipe.The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) said the snake was dead and there was “no evidence of any further snakes and there…

Tesla turned heads last month when it revealed that it had invested big in bitcoin. Now a Chinese company is jumping on the cryptocurrency bandwagon, too.

Meitu, a tech firm known for a popular photo-editing app, said Sunday that it bought some US$40 million ($52 million) worth of cryptocurrency.

That includes about $23.48 million worth of Bitcoin and more than $28.7 million worth of Ethereum.

READ MORE: Bitcoin uses more electricity than Argentina, Norway, study finds

"Cryptocurrencies have ample room for appreciation in value," the company said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange.

Meitu added that buying the cryptocurrencies helps the company diversify its cash holdings, and said it showed that the firm wants to "embrace technological evolution, and hence prepare its foray into the blockchain industry."

It added that the company's board has approved it to buy as much as US$100 million ($130 million) worth of cryptocurrency.

Both currencies rose early Monday, but soon reversed gains.

READ MORE: Bitcoin has hit a fresh historic high. Here's why experts believe it will grow more

Bitcoin was last down 2.4 per cent to trade at US$49,560 per coin. Ethereum was down 0.3 per cent to US$1,676.

Meitu's stock, meanwhile, was volatile in Hong Kong. It surged as much as 14 per cent, but closed down more than 6 per cent, as tech stocks sold off.

Meitu, which means "beautiful pictures" in Chinese, makes selfie image-enhancing apps that allow users to make their eyes look wider, skin lighter, and faces slimmer.

It has nearly 300 million monthly active users, according to its most recent financial report.

READ MORE: Bitcoin hits fresh high on Mastercard decision

Prices of cryptocurrencies have surged in recent months, benefiting from a weaker US dollar and expectations that a prolonged period of super low interest rates would create inflation.

Cryptocurrencies have also been getting validation from big names in Corporate America.

Bitcoin recently saw its market value shoot past US$1 trillion ($1.3 trillion) — largely thanks to Tesla, which said last month that it had bought US$1.5 billion ($1.96 billion) worth of bitcoin.

Elon Musk's carmaker also said it was looking at letting consumers use Bitcoin to buy its cars and SUVs.

READ MORE: Tesla buys $1.9B in Bitcoin, will accept digital currency as payment soon

Payments giants Square and PayPal recently began allowing customers to trade bitcoin. Credit card processing behemoths Visa and Mastercard are also embracing cryptocurrencies.

But there are some risks.

Bitcoin has pulled back a bit from its February peak, with a current market value of about US$930 billion ($1.2 trillion), according to Coinbase.

Meitu acknowledged in its company filing Sunday that crypto prices "in general" are "highly volatile," leading it to focus on just the two market leaders.

READ MORE: How Elon Musk is pumping 'Dogecoin'

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, meanwhile, expressed worries last month about Bitcoin's wild price fluctuations.

Bitcoin has fallen 15 per cent in the past two weeks, but is still up more than 70 per cent since the start of this year.

"It is a highly speculative asset, and I think people should beware. It can be extremely volatile, and I do worry about potential losses that investors in it could suffer," Yellen said at a conference in New York.

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A top student from Auckland’s Pinehurst College says embracing time in lockdown helped her get into her “dream medical course” at one of the world’s most elite universities.Pinehurst College principal Kieran Verryt says Linda Tang,…

An aged care worker was buried in a shallow grave more than 400 kilometres from where she was last seen leaving work in Adelaide.

A man – who legally cannot be named – fronted Port Augusta Magistrates Court via videolink today charged with Jasmeen Kaur's murder after spending two nights in police cells.

He led detectives to Ms Kaur's body on Sunday, where they found her remains in a shallow grave near Moralana Creek.

READ MORE: Murder investigation launched after man shot dead in Adelaide

https://twitter.com/9NewsAdel/status/1369157898970886146?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Ms Kaur, 21, was reported missing on Saturday by her aunt, and last seen leaving her North Plympton workplace on Friday night.

Police are yet to determine how and where she was allegedly killed.

A motive has also not yet been determined.

The man has denied killing the aged care worker.

READ MORE: Loved ones mourn 'bright, kind' teen killed in South Australia crash

https://twitter.com/katelambe_/status/1369135015859089409?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

He was initially charged with failing to report a death to the coroner, but the charge was upgraded to murder last night after Major Crime detectives arrived on the scene.

The court has suppressed the accused's identity while the investigation is ongoing.

The 20-year-old did not apply for bail so will stay in custody until he next faces court in December.

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A woman has been charged following the alleged murder of an elderly man in Melbourne last year.

Kon Kritikos was found bashed in his Coburg home about 11pm on November 11 last year.

Investigators arrested a 45-year-old woman from Kurunjang this morning.

READ MORE: Man assaulted as knife-wielding intruders storm Bulleen home

She was interviewed by detectives charged with one count of murder.

The 45-year-old appeared at Melbourne Magistrates' Court this afternoon, and will return in July.

The 87-year-old victim as rushed to hospital after the alleged attack but died two weeks later on November 24.

Scientists have discovered the ultimate case of regeneration: Some decapitated sea slugs can regrow hearts and whole new bodies.

This “wonder of nature,” reported in a biology journal on Monday, could eventually help scientists better understand and tackle regeneration of human tissue.

Biology researcher Sayaka Mitoh said she loves studying Japanese sea slugs because they are small, cute and weird.

They can even briefly photosynthesise like a plant drawing food from the sun.

READ MORE: How the 'cold blob' is slowing down our oceans – and what it means

One day in the lab, she saw something bizarre: A sea slug had decapitated itself and the head kept on moving and living.

Then a couple more did the same, according to a study in Current Biology.

So the doctoral student and Nara Women’s University aquatic ecology professor Yoichi Yusa tried it themselves, cutting the heads off 16 sea slugs.

Six of the creatures started regeneration, with three succeeding and surviving.

One of the three even lost and regrew its body twice. Two different species of Japanese sea slugs did this regeneration trick.

Other creatures can cast off body parts when needed, like when some lizards drop their tails to get away from a predator, in a biological phenomenon called autotomy.

“We think that this is the most extreme case of autotomy,’’ Professor Yusa said.

“Some animals can autotomise their legs or appendages or tails, but no other animal shed their whole body.”

Scientists had thought that such a relatively large animal — one of the sea slug species can grow to 15 centimetres long — couldn't survive without a heart to pump blood and nutrients to the brain, said Canadian marine biologist Susan Anthony, who wasn’t part of the study.

But the same thing that makes this species spectacular is probably what helps it pull off the trick, said Ms Anthony and Professor Yusa.

When these sea slugs eat a certain type of algae they can photosynthesise their food from sunlight and oxygen, just like a plant, for about 10 days, Professor Yusa said.

What’s probably happening after decapitation is that the head sort of acts like a plant, he said. It turns a shade of green and gets its energy from oxygen and sunlight. The fact that it becomes tiny helps, he said.

These species probably developed the feat as a way of fighting off parasites, Ms Mitoh and Professor Yusa said.

Humans may be able to learn something useful from the sea creatures, several scientists said. What’s especially intriguing is that these sea slugs are more complex than flatworms or other species that are known to regenerate, said Nicholas Curtis, a biology professor at Ave Maria University who wasn’t part of the study.

“It is of course a wonder of nature, but understanding the underlying molecular mechanisms involved could help us to understand how our cells and tissues can be used to repair damage,” Professor Curtis said in an email.