Strauss' 'Blue Danube' waltz launching into space to mark his 200th birthday

Strauss' "Blue Danube" is heading into space this month to mark the 200th anniversary of the waltz king's birth. The classical piece will be beamed into the cosmos as it's performed by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. The celestial send-off on May 31 - livestreamed with free public screenings in Vienna, Madrid and New York - also will celebrate the European Space Agency's founding 50 years ago. Although the music could be converted into radio signals in real time, according to officials, ESA will relay a pre-recorded version from the orchestra's rehearsal the day before to avoid any technical issues. The live performance will provide the accompaniment.

The radio signals will hurtle away at the speed of light, or a mind-blowing 670 million mph (more than 1 billion kph). That will put the music past the moon in 1 ½ seconds, past Mars in 4 ½ minutes, past Jupiter in 37 minutes and past Neptune in four hours. Within 23 hours, the signals will be as far from Earth as Nasa's Voyager 1, the world's most distant spacecraft at more than 24 billion km in interstellar space.

Suspected arson causes second major power outage in south of France

A second major power outage hit southeastern France early Sunday, this time in the city of Nice, after a suspected arson damaged an electrical facility.

Police currently have not established a link between the blackout that affected parts of Nice as well as nearby cities of Cagnes-sur-Mer and Saint-Laurent-du-Var, and a power outage on Saturday that disrupted the city of Cannes during the closing day of its renown film festival. The Nice blackout started around 2am and left some 45,000 households without electricity.