USA – Three structures donated to homeless residents and once set to be dismantled or destroyed by the city of Los Angeles were returned to the man who built them Friday.

The tiny homes, which were impounded for obstructing city streets in February, were returned to Elvis Summers on the condition they be kept on private property, Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation spokesperson Elena Stern confirmed to Mashable.

“If they are put out on LA City public sidewalks or streets they will be tagged and removed again,” Stern said. Summers, who used to be homeless himself, built the tiny houses to provide free shelter for those in need.  “They paid their ticket,” Summers said, of homeless veterans kicked out of their tiny houses. “They shouldn’t be homeless.” (latimes)…[+]

SPAIN – Tourism chiefs in the Balearic Islands could ban cars from the smaller islands during the summer months as the region braces for a record number of visitors.

The islands of Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera, which have a population of 1.1 million, are expecting 13.5 million visitors this year. Officials in Ibiza and Formentera say they may have to stop tourists arriving in cars to avoid gridlock, following the example of the Italian resort island of Capri. In peak season there are as many as 20,000 cars on Formentera, which is 19km long.

Last year 65 million people visited Spain, 20 million more than the number of inhabitants. Numbers are already up on 2015 as terrorist attacks in Tunisia and Egypt have driven tourists back to European destinations. Traffic jams are not the only problem.(theguardian)…[+]

BRAZIL – Scientists struggling to unravel the mysteries of a Zika epidemic in Brazil hope they can learn from cases of women giving birth to twins in which only one child is afflicted by the microcephaly birth defect associated with the virus. Jaqueline Jessica Silva de Oliveira hoped doctors were wrong when a routine ultrasound showed that one of her unborn twins would be born with the condition, marked by stunted head size and developmental issues.

“When I found out one of them had microcephaly, the ground fell out from beneath me,” the 25-year-old said as she sat on the sofa of her home in the city of Santos. “You always hope that they will be born well, thinking that it could be a mistake by the doctor or in the ultrasound.” Her son Lucas, who she holds in her arms, was born healthy in November. His twin sister Laura, whose head is visibly much smaller, requires regular treatment by a team of neurologists and physiotherapists in nearby Sao Paulo. (Reuters)…[+]