Befriended

Seventeen hundred years ago, a female spider monkey was presented as a treasured gift – and later brutally sacrificed – to strengthen ties between two major powers of pre-Hispanic America, according to a new study.The paper, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), compared the offering by Maya elites to Teotihuacan to China's panda diplomacy that accompanied the normalization of Sino-US relations in the 1970s.By using multiple techniques – including extraction of ancient DNA,…

​​​​​​R Kelly has befriended Frank James, the accused Brooklyn subway shooter, in jail, according to a new report from the New York Daily News. The disgraced R&B singer, who is awaiting sentencing after being found guilty in September of sex trafficking and federal racketeering, has reportedly hit it off with James at Metropolitan Detention Center in Sunset Park. James is currently awaiting trial in the April mass shooting on the subway, which has him facing charges of committing a terrorist attack or other violence…