In brief Navalny ally: Kremlin to bury him on grounds

An ally of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny says that Russian authorities have given his mother a deadline to agree to forgo a public funeral or else they’ll bury him immediately on prison grounds.

Navalny’s close associate Ivan Zhdanov says Lyudmila Navalnaya was given three hours to accept a proposal for a private funeral outside the public eye, in what appears to be another dark twist in the almost week-long standoff with the authorities to retrieve the politician’s body.

Navalny, 47, Russia’s most well-known opposition politician, unexpectedly died last Friday in an Arctic penal colony.

Russian authorities have sought to suppress any outpouring of sympathy for President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest foe.

Native American tribes to stop water projects

The U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has rejected several proposed hydropower projects on the largest Native American reservation in the U.S. The commission has also created a policy that essentially gives tribes early veto power over such projects.

The Navajo Nation says the move recognizes the inherent authority of tribes to govern themselves.

But some developers say consulting with the Navajo Nation can be confusing. Environmental groups have raised concerns about dams as a power source in areas where water is scarce.

The dramatic landscapes of the region are ideal for pumped hydropower systems, which act like big batteries, releasing water to meet high demand and pumping it back when demand is low.

Astronomers spot new tiny moons

WASHINGTON—The moon count in our solar system just went up by three.

Astronomers have found two previously unknown moons circling Neptune and one around Uranus.

The distant tiny moons were spotted using powerful land-based telescopes in Hawaii and Chile.

The discovery was announced Friday by the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center.

The latest tally puts Neptune at 16 known moons and Uranus at 28.

Scientists say the new moon around Uranus is likely the smallest of the planet’s moons.

One of Neptune’s new moons takes around 27 years to complete one lap around the planet.