IN BRIEF

Published: March 27, 2013 (Issue # 1752)

Record Cold Spring

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Russia’s meteorological service has said this March has turned out to be the coldest in the last 60 years.

The European part of Russia has not experienced such cold March weather since the early 1950s, said Roman Vilfand, head of Russia’s Hydrometeorological Center.

“We registered such cold temperatures only in 1942 and the early 1950s. According to our information, such cold weather happens once in 30-40 years,” Vilfand said on the Rossia 24 news channel earlier this week.

In the past few weeks meteorologists have registered unusually low temperatures, especially in the central regions of the European part of Russia. On Sunday night, temperatures dropped to minus 20 degrees Celsius.

Owl Lives in City Park

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — An undetermined species of owl has taken up residence in St. Petersburg’s Park Pobedy, Interfax reported.

The bird has chosen to nest in one of the fir trees next to the bust of Alexei Kosygin in the park’s Heroes’ Alley. During the day it sits motionless on one of the highest branches of the tree.

The owl has been living in Park Pobedy for several weeks already and has become something of a local attraction. Passers-by stop and take pictures of the bird on their cell phones.

The majority of owls are nocturnal and many of them fly at night. The flight of owls is soundless and they can approach other sleeping birds unseen. Owls typically feed on different kinds of mice or even insects. The majority of owls live in forests.

Rifles in Gatchina

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — An exhibition consisting of just one exhibit opened at the Gatchina State Museum on Saturday. The exhibition, titled “The Rifle and The Manuscript,” features a unique rifle from the museum’s collection in which museum employees found fragments of a parchment manuscript dating back to the 14th century. The manuscript bears text from the Bible in Latin.

The rifle was made in Germany in the early 17th century, clearly for a rich client. At a later point the rifle was taken to Russia, where it found a home at Gatchina Palace.

In December 2009, the custodian of the palace’s weapons collection, Yevgeny Rodionov, who studied the rifle in detail, discovered that the inner surface of the gun’s barrel was pasted with the fragments of a manuscript with text from the Bible.