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DOG MEAT-NOT TRUE

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles restaurant does not have permission to kill as many as three dogs a day and serve the meat to customers. A post that has appeared online in various forms since at least 2014 came up again on the site quotes-news. But it isn’t true. Health officials say the restaurant doesn’t exist. And it says even if there were such a place, the sale of dog meat for human consumption is illegal in California. The false story quotes World Animal Protection as being “shocked” about the restaurant but a spokeswoman for that group said it was never asked to comment. A photo linked to the story is from a 2014 New York Times story about a dog meat festival in China.

AUTISM-TV STORY-FALSE

WASHINGTON (AP) — There is no Harvard study that says a British children’s television cartoon causes autism, despite what a social media post claims. In fact, there’s at least one peer-reviewed study that hints that a children’s television show may help autistic kids. The post on the newsely site, and others that have circulated in recent months, claims that a group of Harvard experts did a study that revealed Peppa Pig “is one of the main causes of autism among children.” The piece describes other complaints about the British animated series and does not name the authors of the so-called study or where it was published. Autism experts say that’s because it doesn’t exist. But when autism researcher Dr. Susan Hyman, a professor of behavioral pediatrics at the University of Rochester Medical Center, searched the scientific literature, she found one relevant study in the journal Behavior Analysis in Practice. That 2017 study of only two autistic five-year-olds found that their behavior improved after watching the PBS children’s show Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood.

CHICKEN SHORTAGE CAUSES FLAP

LONDON (AP) — Fast-food fans were in a flutter yesterday after most of the 900 KFC outlets in the U.K. and Ireland were forced to close because there wasn’t enough chicken. The company apologized to customers, blaming “teething problems” with its new delivery partner, DHL. KFC first apologized for the problems on Saturday. An update yesterday said about a third of the stores were back open, but with limited menus and shortened hours. The company statement said: “We know that this might have inconvenienced some of you over the last few days, and disappointed you when you wanted your fried chicken fix — we’re really sorry about that.”

PIRATE SHIP TREASURE

YARMOUTH, Mass. (AP) — Researchers are working to use DNA to identify whether a human bone recovered from a Cape Cod shipwreck belongs to the infamous pirate Samuel “Black Sam” Bellamy. The Whydah (WIH’-duh) Pirate Museum in Yarmouth, Massachusetts, publicly displayed the bone yesterday. It was found near what’s believed to be Bellamy’s pistol. The objects were pulled from the Whydah Gally (GAH’-lee) shipwreck several years ago. The museum has enlisted forensic scientists to extract DNA and compare it with DNA from a living Bellamy descendant. The Whydah sank in 1717. The wreck was discovered in 1984. Most of its treasure is thought to remain on the ocean floor. Forbes listed Bellamy as the highest-earning pirate ever, plundering about $120 million worth of treasure in a little over a year.

SHARP PORTRAIT

UNDATED (AP) — A cartoonist who lampoons Thailand’s military government has sold a caricature of a historian critical of the nation’s monarchy to raise money for legal aid for political dissidents. The portrait depicts Somsak Jeamteerasakul with the Eiffel Tower in the background. Somsak fled from Thailand to France in 2014 after a coup by the country’s royalist military, fearing for his safety and freedom. Insulting the monarchy is punishable by three to 15 years’ imprisonment per offense. The cartoonist known as Kai Maew – Cat’s Egg – publishes minimalistic but biting four-panel cartoons on his Facebook page.

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