Miscellaneous

16-year-old survives California-to-Hawaii flight in plane's wheel well

2014-05-07T23:01:00.001-07:00

HAWAII - A 16-year-old hopped the fence at San Jose International Airport after an argument with his family and squeezed into the wheel well of a Hawaiian Airlines flight bound for Maui, where he emerged confused but unharmed some five hours later

Federal investigators and airline authorities are baffled after a 16-year-old boy survived in the wheel well of a flight from San Jose, California, to Maui, in Hawaii, on Sunday.

According to officials, the teenager had fled his home in Santa Clara, California, after quarreling with his family and jumped the fence at San Jose International Airport, where he slipped into the wheel well of the Maui-bound Hawaiian Airlines flight.

Despite the icy temperatures and lack of oxygen, the boy survived the trip and was found wandering around the airport grounds in Maui more than five hours later when the aircraft landed.

“Kid’s lucky to be alive,” FBI spokesman Tom Simon told the Associated Press. “He was unconscious for the lion’s share of the flight.”

The teenager was later released to child-protective services. No criminal charges have been filed. - AP

'Cherry tree from space' mystery baffles Japan

2014-04-11T22:59:00.000-07:00

By Shigemi Sato

TOKYO, April 11, 2014 (AFP) - A cosmic mystery is uniting monks and scientists in Japan after a tree grown from a cherry stone that orbited the Earth for eight months bloomed years earlier than expected -- and with very surprising flowers.

The four-year-old sapling -- grown from a cherry pit that spent time onboard the International Space Station (ISS) -- burst into blossom on April 1, possibly a full six years ahead of Mother Nature's normal schedule.

Its early blooming turned on its head the received wisdom of the Buddhist brothers at the ancient temple in central Japan where the tree is growing.

"We are amazed to see how fast it has grown," Masahiro Kajita, chief priest at the Ganjoji temple in Gifu, told AFP by telephone.

"A stone from the original tree had never sprouted before. We are very happy because it will succeed the old tree, which is said to be 1,250 years old."

The wonder pip was among 265 harvested from the celebrated "Chujo-hime-seigan-zakura" tree, selected as part of a project to gather seeds from different kinds of cherry trees at 14 locations across Japan.

The stones were sent to the ISS in November 2008 and came back to Earth in July the following year with Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata after circling the globe 4,100 times.

Some were sent for laboratory tests, but most were ferried back to their places of origin, and a selection were planted at nurseries near the Ganjoji temple.

By April this year, the "space cherry tree" had grown to around four metres (13 feet) tall, and suddenly produced nine flowers -- each with just five petals, compared with about 30 on flowers of the parent tree.

It normally takes about 10 years for a cherry tree of the similar variety to bear its first buds.

Exposure to cosmic rays?

"It was an educational and cultural project to let children gather the stones and learn how they grow into trees and live on after returning from space," said Miho Tomioka, a spokeswoman for the project's organiser, Japan Manned Space Systems (JAMSS).

"We had expected the tree to blossom about 10 years after planting when the children come of age," she said.

Kaori Tomita-Yokotani, a researcher at the University of Tsukuba, who took part in the project, told AFP she was stumped by the extra-terrestrial mystery.

"We still cannot rule out the possibility that it has been somewhat influenced by its exposure to the space environment," she said.

Tomita-Yokotani, a plant physiologist, said it was difficult to explain why the temple tree has grown so fast because there was no control group to compare its growth with that of other trees.

She said cross-pollination with another species could not be ruled out, but a lack of data was hampering an explanation.

"Of course, there is the possibility that exposure to stronger cosmic rays accelerated the process of sprouting and overall growth," she said.

"From a scientific point of view, we can only say we don't know why."

Romania keeps ancient tradition of bee medicine alive

2014-04-11T19:58:00.000-07:00

A Romanian village where bee honey is produced

BUCHAREST, April 10, 2014 (AFP) - Bee venom to combat multiple sclerosis, pollen for indigestion, honey to heal wounds -- the humble bee has been a key source of alternative medicines since ancient times, and Romania is working to keep the tradition of "apitherapy" alive.

The tradition goes back to ancient Greece when Hippocrates applied honey to treat wounds, and the Romans saw pollen as "life-giving".

In the past of India, China and Egypt, a resinous substance collected by bees from the buds of certain trees, known as "propolis", was popular as an antiseptic.

"The hive is the oldest and healthiest natural pharmacy," said Cristina Mateescu, director general of the Institute for Apicultural Research and Development in Bucharest.

Today in the wilderness of Romania's Carpathian mountains, honey bee products are still a familiar part of traditional medicine.

"In my village, my great-grandmother was a healer and used products from beehives. She inspired me," Dr Mariana Stan told AFP.

Having spent years as a conventional doctor, Stan now practises in Bucharest as a "apitherapist" -- using bee products "which give slower but longer lasting and more profound results".

In a country still infused with folk culture, several families continue to use propolis against sore throats, as well as honey and pollen to boost the immune system.

A bee farm in Romania

Every town in Romania has its "plafar" -- natural pharmacies selling products made from plants, honey, beeswax and propolis.

"Romania is a pioneer of apitherapy, which it recognized very early as a component of scientific medicine," said US professor Theodor Charbuliez, head of the Apimondia Commission of Apitherapy, a group that brings together thousands of practitioners from around the world.

Modules on apitherapy have started to work their way into more conventional medical classes and extracts from propolis developed by the Apicultural institute into recognized medicines.

Founded in 1974, the institute employs 105 people who look after local bee colonies and sell around 30 approved products.

A new range even seeks to treat cats and dogs with bee-related products.

Bucharest also boasts an Apitherapy medical centre, the world's first, which opened in 1984.

A bee farm in Palestine

Skepticism remains among the regular medical community in the absence of scientific studies about the effects of bee venom, but many users are full of praise and welcome the cheap costs and environmentally friendly approach.

Doina Postolachi comes twice a week to the medical center to receive injections of bee venom, or "apitoxin".
The 34-year-old poet says the injections have allowed her to "rediscover hope" in her fight against multiple sclerosis.

"For a year, I could no longer walk or get into my bath. My feet were stuck to the ground. Bu t today, the venom treatment has given me back strength in my legs. I walk, I can take baths," she said.

She said she has never wanted any regular pharmaceutical treatments "which come with numerous side effects".

There has been mounting interest across the world in apitherapy.

In 2013, Washington University in the US city of St Louis published a study on the efficacy of milittine, a toxin contained in bee venom, in countering the AIDS virus.

In France, thousands of patients have benefited from bandages treated with honey at the abdominal surgery department of Limoges hospital.

Bee products are also infiltrating the cosmetics industry, used in skin-toning and anti-wrinkle creams.
Part of the appeal rests with the natural and organic image of bee products.

"In Romania, we have the chance to maintain an unspoiled nature," said Cornelia Dostetan, a member of the National Apitherapy Society.

Under Communism, poverty meant that pesticides were rarely used and the country has never shifted to large-scale monoculture forms of agriculture. The result is that Romania retains a great diversity of flora, said Dostetan.

Certified organic, the Romanian brand Apiland, a specialist in raw pollen, has launched its products in France and Italy.

According to the last agricultural census in 2010, Romania counted 42,000 beekeepers and more than 1.3 million colonies of bees.

Postolachi says she looks on the bees with "immense gratitude".

"These miniscule beings do wonders."

World's youngest snowboarder hits slopes at just 11 months

2014-04-09T02:21:00.000-07:00

By Sarah Ann Harris

11-month-old Aspen Haight

COLORADO, April 8, 2014 (Express) - AT 18 months old, most children have just about got the hang of walking but one little girl is already shooting down the ski slopes.

Aspen Haight, the world's youngest snowboarder, began learning to board at just ten months old and it's been downhill since then.

Aspen, from Colorado, USA, has her own custom-made snowboard and even got the chance to test out the world's smallest pair of ski boots.

Her parents Jill and Dominic, both 34, are keen snowboarders and had always hoped their daughter might enjoy the sport too – but they had no idea just how skilled the tot would be.

As soon as she was able to walk at 10 months they tried dragging her around the house on a board and she quickly got the hang of it, progressing to the slopes at 14 months.

Jill said: "We are very proud of her. I was a competitive snowboarder when I was younger, and my husband was my coach, so snowboarding is in her blood.

"Aspen was 10 months old when we put her on a snowboard without bindings, as soon as she could walk.

With parents Jill and Dominic

"There's a great system in place here for little kids as the smallest boards come equipped with traction pads and "riglet reels".

"Aspen started out just standing on the board and we would pull her around the house, this helped tremendously in her having outstanding balance once we put her in bindings and on the snow at 14 months.

"We try and get her out riding at least twice a week or as often as we can."

Aspen's parents posted videos of their daughter's amazing boarding on YouTube and they soon began to receive messages from people who were amazed by her skills.

Jill said: "She's becoming something of an internet star and it's amazing that people around the world are seeing Aspen snowboard.

"She gets so much attention locally as well. We can't take her riding without people recognising her and stopping us to take her picture.

"Every parent thinks their kid is special, but when you have people around the world confirming that, its quite an incredible feeling.

Click link below for vidoe:

http://bcove.me/2fm1qjnv

Two-headed snake spotted in Indian village

2014-04-07T09:00:00.000-07:00

A two-headed snake has been spotted in an Indian village, the Express online news has reported.

The snake, believed to be a checkered keelback, was seen crawling past a house in West Bengal before it dashed into the bushes.

The Express did not say when the snake was spotted but it posted the story on April 4, 2014.

A local resident named Apurba Ghosh was reported to have captured the unusual serpent on his camera phone.

"It happened at the blink of an eye. The snake came across and was gliding along the surface," said Gosh, who was said to have seen the snake in the village of Burdwan where he lives and where sightings of snakes, including the mighty King Cobra, were known.

"Snakes are sighted here very often because of close proximity to the forests. But they don't attack humans," said Gosh. "Some animals, mostly dogs and other pets, are bitten once in a while."

He said some villagers worship snakes because they are regarded as highly auspicious in the Hindu religion.

According to Hindu mythology, a five-headed cobra called Sheshnag, is holding the world up on its "hoods" - the flap of skin behind the head that the cobra puffs out when wanting to scare off potential threats.

Though nobody has seen a five-headed reptile so far, two-headed snakes have been seen on several occasions over the years.

Dog called as star witness in French murder trial

2014-04-06T22:55:00.000-07:00

TOURS, April 4, 2014 (Express0 - A dog has been called this week as a star witness during a murder trial in a French court.

Tango, a nine-year-old Labrador, is believed to have witnessed his master being killed during a fight in the city of Tours in the Loire Valley.

As a means of identifying the alleged murderer, Tango was called to the stand, where the suspect threatened him with a bat.

The idea was that Tango would start barking, or show some other sign that he recognized the killer.

In a preliminary hearing earlier this month, a second dog of the same breed and age called Norman was also summoned to undergo the same test.

It led to protests from the suspect's lawyer, Gregoire Lafarge, who said: "So if Tango lifted his right paw, moved his mouth or his tail, is he recognizing my client or not?

"I find it very troubling for the French legal system. If a judge ignores the demands of reason and surrounds himself with experts who are unreasonable, well the system becomes very dangerous."

However, the entire episode turned out to be a total failure, with neither Tango nor Norman showing any interest in the man with the bat, or in the rest of the court proceedings.

The idea was that Tango would start barking, or show some other sign that he recognized the killer

It is not the first time a dog has been called as a court witness in the country.

In 2008, a dog named Scooby created legal history by appearing as a witness in a murder case.

The animal's 59-year-old owner had been found hanging from the ceiling of her Paris flat.

Police believed it was suicide but her family say that it was murder, and Scooby was in the flat at the time of the death.

During a preliminary hearing in the city, the pet was led into the witness box by a vet, but his barking proved inconclusive.

Despite this, French judge Thomas Cassuto praised the animal for his "exemplary behaviour and invaluable assistance".- Express, April 4, 2014

Spring brings beautiful blossoms and hay fever misery in Japan

2014-04-05T09:27:00.000-07:00

TOKYO, April 03, 2014 (AFP) -Spring in Japan brings explosions of pink and white cherry blossoms that provide a beautiful backdrop for picnics across this nature-loving country.

But it also heralds a mass outbreak of face masks and specialty goggles intended to fend off clouds of pollen that make noses stream and eyes itch.

"I want to take my eyeballs out and wash them," websites blare as they advertise eye clinics and remedies for hay fever sufferers.

For many, the runny nose and sneezing are a minor inconvenience, but for some, the allergy to pollen causes nasty congestion, headaches and a racking coughing. For the unlucky few, asthma and bronchitis can follow.

According to surveys, up to one out of every four people among Japan's 128-million-strong population suffers from "kafun-sho" -- literally "pollen illness".

Pharmacies are stacked with surgical masks to meet demand that has swelled five-fold over the last decade, alongside glasses, tissues and a bevvy of medicines.

Air purifiers, bed cleaners, pollen-absorbing sprays and trench coats that repel pollen and water are also among "kafun-sho" goods, a market worth an estimated $1.5 billion annually, according to the Nikkei business daily.

The latest hit is the battery-powered "Kafun Blocker" a beekeeper-like nylon hood, that its maker claims "shuts out 99.99 percent of pollen" by taking air through a fan and a filter on its top.

Tokyo novelty electronics shop Thanko has sold the $40 gear "by the thousands" this year, manager Takahiro Sasaki said. "It is really popular among people who work outdoors, such as farmers."

Weather presenters commiserate with viewers as they show special pollen maps, warning of the density of airborne particles at different locations, before they move on to graphics showing the spread of the celebrated cherry blossoms.

While these delicate blooms might appear to be at the root of hay fever-sufferers' misery, they are relatively benign compared with pollen from ragweed, birch, grasses or other wild plants.

But by far the largest source of the irritant is the swathes of man-made woodland that sprang from the nationwide program of tree planting as Japan rebuilt after World War II.

Pollen from "sugi" -- Cryptomeria japonica -- an indigenous cedar-like Japanese evergreen, is held responsible for 70 percent of pollen allergies, and is at its most rampant in March and April.

A month later, "hinoki" -- Japanese cypress -- adds to the suffering, releasing clouds of pollen across the country.

Sugi -- light, soft, fragrant and with a delicate patina -- has been systematically planted as building material for centuries in Japan.

In the aftermath of WWII, the government led a drive to plant sugi and hinoki trees to meet surging demand for fast-growing, high-quality timber.

But the 1964 liberalization of timber imports started to squeeze domestic sugi products out of the market.

Many sugi forests were abandoned over the following decades without being logged or replanted, and, says Kimihiro Okubo of Nippon Medical School, that has led to a rise in pollen, which can travel 300 kilometers (190 miles).

Pollen production peaks when trees reach maturity at 30 years old, he said, with around 70 percent of sugi trees planted after the war now that age or older.

According to the Forestry Agency, planted sugi trees -- both state and privately owned -- account for 18 percent of all man-made and natural forests in Japan. Hinoki accounts for 10 percent.

Methods of treating sugi pollen allergy have improved since the first case was reported in 1963, said Okubo, an ear, nose and throat specialist.

Leading the way is "sublingual immunotherapy", in which drops of allergen extracts are put under the tongue to be absorbed. Around a third of patients get rid of almost all symptoms through this method and 50 percent see their problems ease.

The government for its part has been reluctant to help stop planting sugi trees or cut them down.

But it has led projects since 1999 to plant saplings of sugi varieties which produce little pollen -- as little as one percent of that produced by ordinary trees.

Sugi forests "serve a variety of public purposes such as national land conservation, prevention of global warming and cultivation of water sources," said a Forestry Agency publication. "It is not desirable to log them at once."

"Air pollutants, stress and the westernization of lifestyle including eating habits have combined to worsen symptoms of pollen allergy," the ministry said in a 2009 report, a view shared by many experts.

Forestry Agency official Kiyohito Onuma said the ratio of sugi saplings of varieties which produce little pollen had constantly risen to reach 10.4 percent in 2012. About 15.2 million sugi saplings were planted in that year.

He added that experiments are under way at laboratories to develop saplings that produce no pollen at all, partly by genetic engineering.

"Sugi grows fast and it is so straight that it can be easily utilized as building material," said Onuma, himself a hay fever-sufferer. "I don't think production of sugi will ever be stopped."

Airborne sugi pollen is now several times higher than in 1965, the Sagamihara National Hospital has estimated.

"The amount of airborne sugi pollen may probably peak in 2050" along with the number of patients, said Okubo. "I believe sugi pollen allergy will be definitely eliminated in 100 to 200 years."

AirAsia withdraws inflight magazine, apologizes for 'inappropriate' article

2014-04-05T07:53:00.000-07:00

KUALA LUMPUR, April 5 (AP) — Southeast Asia's top budget carrier AirAsia on Saturday withdrew its latest inflight magazine and apologized for an offending article boasting that its well-trained pilots would never lose a plane.
AirAsia Executive Chairman Kamarudin Meranun expressed "deep regret and remorse," saying the latest issue of "travel 3Sixty" magazine was printed before the Malaysia Airlines plane carrying 239 people disappeared March 8 while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Kamarudin said the article was a monthly aviation column prepared well in advance by a retired pilot, who had worked for both AirAsia and Malaysia Airlines.
"This is a truly difficult time for the nation and words cannot describe how I personally feel of this incident," Kamarudin said in a statement. "It truly saddens me that this article was released at such an inopportune moment. Again, I repeatedly offer my sincere apologies for any discomfort this may have caused."
The article sparked anger on social media after an AirAsia passenger posted a photograph of the text on Twitter late Friday.
The last paragraph read: "Pilot training in AirAsia is continuous and very thorough. Rest assured that your captain is well prepared to ensure your plane will never get lost."
AirAsia group CEO Tony Fernandes also echoed the apology.
"As soon as we were informed on Twitter, we withdrew. Once again, apologies. It has been a difficult time for all in the industry," he tweeted.
Kamarudin said disciplinary action would be taken against the magazine's editorial team.
The fate of the Malaysian airline remained a mystery nearly a month after it vanished. A multinational search team is racing against time to find the flight recorders in the Indian Ocean where it was believed to have crashed. No floating wreckage has been found in the water so far.
It wasn't the first faux pas for AirAsia.
On the day the plane went missing, Fernandes said on Twitter that the aircraft's radio had failed and that all were safe, but later deleted the tweet.

California court revives suit claiming woman frozen alive in morgue

2014-04-04T21:49:00.000-07:00

LOS ANGELES, March 4, 2014 (Reuters) - A California appeals court has revived a malpractice suit brought by the family of an 80-year-old grandmother they claim was prematurely declared dead by doctors then frozen alive inside a body bag in the hospital's morgue.

A lower-court judge had dismissed the lawsuit brought in May 2012 by relatives of Maria de Jesus Arroyo against White Memorial Hospital in Los Angeles over the woman's 2010 death, on grounds that the statute of limitations had lapsed.

But a three-judge panel of a state appeals court sided with the family on Wednesday in agreeing they could not have known how Arroyo was alleged to have died until it was brought to light by a pathologist in an expert opinion he gave in December 2011.

"Plaintiffs had absolutely no reason to suspect that the decedent was alive rather than dead when placed in the hospital morgue," the court said in its 27-page opinion. The lawsuit now goes back to Los Angeles Superior Court.

The origins of the case date to July 26, 2011, when doctors at the hospital pronounced Arroyo dead from cardiac arrest shortly after she was brought there by ambulance.

Employees of a funeral home chosen by the family to pick up the woman's remains from the hospital morgue later discovered her lying face down in a body bag half-unzipped, with bruises and gashes to her face and a broken nose, according to the court record.

Informed by the mortuary of the body's condition, family members who had seen Arroyo's face without injuries just after she was pronounced dead assumed her corpse had been mishandled by hospital morgue workers.

The family went on to file a negligence suit in January 2011 claiming the hospital was to blame for mutilating their loved one's body.

But Dr. William Manion, a New Jersey pathologist, retained by the family as an expert witness reviewed medical records and sworn statements of hospital personnel and reached a far more horrific conclusion.

He said Arroyo had been prematurely declared dead and was placed alive in the freezer of the hospital morgue where she eventually regained consciousness due to the extreme cold and "damaged her face and turned herself face down as she struggled unsuccessfully to escape her frozen tomb."

As a result, the family dropped its original lawsuit and filed a new claim accusing the hospital of malpractice and wrongful death.

"It really has to be your worst nightmare to wake up like that, the worst way to die," the family's lawyer, Scott Schutzman, said on Thursday. "Can you imagine trying to get out of a zippered bag?"

The hospital declined in a brief statement to comment on the case, except to say that "we continue to disagree with the allegations being made."

"We followed all proper protocols in the matter, and are confident that once the facts of the case are reviewed we will prevail in court," the statement said.

Schutzman said the family has "no choice" but to go to trial, as "there has never been a settlement offer in this case." He said he expects the case to reach trial within a year.

Gasoline-loving spiders cause Mazda recall for the second time

2014-04-04T21:15:00.001-07:00

WASHINGTON, March 4, 2014 (Reuters) - For the second time in three years, Mazda Motor Corp has issued a recall for Mazda6 sedans in North America because of a spider that likes the smell of gasoline and weaves a web that blocks a vent in the engine.

Mazda told US regulators that it is recalling 42,000 sedans with 2.5-liter engines from model years 2010 to 2012 in the United States. Mazda officials were not immediately available to report recalls outside of the United States.

Three years ago, Mazda recalled about 65,000 M

azda6 sedans in North America from model years 2009 and 2010, also because of spider webs blocking evaporative canister vent lines. The same issue caused the most recent recall, Mazda told the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The web weaved by a spider can lead to a restriction of fuel flow, which in turn can reduce fuel tank pressure when the emission control system purges vapors from the evaporative canister. This can put stress on the fuel tank, which may crack and leak fuel, increasing the risk of a fire, a report filed with NHTSA says.

Mazda said it is not aware of any fires because of this risk.

In 2011, Reuters reported that the Yellow Sac spider was the culprit in that year's recall. It just likes the smell of gasoline, an auto analyst told Reuters at the time.

Mazda attempted to remedy the problem by adding a spring to the canister vent line to keep spiders from crawling inside.

For the most part, that solution worked, but after several reports of cracked fuel tanks in sedans equipped with the spring, Mazda engineers tried to figure out the spider's route to the canister.

After learning of nine cases in which tanks were damaged even though a spring was loaded, engineers determined that a change in the car's software would keep tanks from cracking even if a spider web blocks a vent.

Mazda will inform owners in the recall campaign to bring cars to dealers, where the evaporative canister vent line will be checked and cleared if necessary. Also, the dealerships will reprogram software.

The blockage is not present on other models made by Mazda and occurs only in cars made a plant in Flat Rock, Michigan, at which Mazda once produced cars jointly with Ford Motor Co. Mazda stopped production of cars at Flat Rock in August 2012.

Russian workers bathe in milk at cheese factory

2014-04-04T13:57:00.000-07:00

MOSCOW, April 04, 2014 (AFP) - Russia on Friday launched a criminal investigation into breaches of hygiene at a cheese factory after footage of bare-chested workers bathing in vats of milk went viral on the Internet.
The Investigative Committee announced it was probing the factory in the Siberian city of Omsk for producing food that could cause harm to health after photographs of grinning workers bathing in foaming milk horrified Russians.
"It has already been established that the liquid that the factory workers were bathing in was the raw milk that was used for making the cheese," the investigators said in a statement.
The scandal broke after a worker at the Omsk Cheeses factory posted the photographs on a social networking site with the caption: "Actually our work is pretty boring."

One photo shows six workers posing in a vat, several wearing only shorts, and raising

victory signs.

Video footage also emerged showing factory workers kneading the cheese bare-chested

in a dirty-looking production area, gaining more than 300,000 views on YouTube.

Russia's food watchdog banned the factory's cheese late last month and a court on

Thursday closed down the factory for 40 days.

The factory had sold more than 49 tons of its cheese this year in 14 cities, the Investigative

Committee said. It specialises in string cheese.

If charged and found guilty of producing food that was unsafe for human consumption,

the factory's managers could be jailed for up to two years.

Life is good in Chilean Antarctica

2014-04-04T06:55:00.000-07:00

Villa Las Estrellas in Chile's Frei base in Antartica where 64 families live.
Photo taken on March 11, 2014. — AFP

The Commander Ferraz Station in Brazil's side of Antarctica..

A cute penguin

Good pay, no crime, no traffic

VILLA LAS ESTRELLAS, Antarctica, April 04, 2014 (AFP) -There is no crime or traffic and in this Antarctic hamlet paychecks can be much higher than on the Chilean mainland. Plus, the penguins are very cute.
But residents of Villa Las Estrellas also have to endure winters with howling blizzards and temperatures that plunge to -40 Celsius in winter, making it painful to even breathe outdoors.
And they don't get many visitors.
"Living here is entertaining compared with the continent," said Jose Carrillan Rosales, principal of the tiny Las Estrellas school.
"The hard part is spending many days indoors. For example, last winter we spent eight days without leaving home because of the wind and snow," he told AFP.
Villa Las Estrellas is located at Fildes Bay on King George Island on the northernmost tip of the Antarctic peninsula.
The 30-year-old hamlet, population 64, has a post office, a bank, 10 houses, a miniature mall, a gym and a school for the six children who live there. It is part of the Presidente Eduardo Frei Chilean Air Base.
Most of the residents are relatives of the military personnel on the air base.
One attraction of living so far south is the exotic fauna, especially the long tailed Gentoo Penguins, which have bright orange bills and white stripes between their eyes across the top of their heads.
To survive in this remote town one must be highly organized: the local market opens just twice a week and stock is limited. Locals stockpile their own soap, toothpaste and shampoo.
Rosales, originally from a mainland town south of Santiago, has been in Las Estrellas for two years along with his wife — also a teacher at the school — and his two children.
He's happy living in the remote outpost.
"Life here is tranquil, you're not worried about theft, or with traffic," he said. He's also happy that he can be with his children "all day".
Life in Antarctica might be bleak, but plenty of Chileans would like Rosales's job. For a teacher, the pay can be five times higher than on the mainland.
"To come here, there is a nationwide contest," said Rosales's wife Maria Cristina Hernandez.
"The first requirement is for both applicants to be teachers and married to each other," she said.
Other requirements include a master's degree and at least one year of work experience.
Single candidates need not apply, she said, because there is only one house to live in.
The school opened in 1985, and since then 290 children — sons and daughters of Chilean air force members and base support personnel — have spent time in its classrooms.
Nine year old Josefina Opaso's father is an air force officer, and her mother works at the small shopping center.
"It's fascinating to live in a place that almost nobody can come to see," she told AFP.
"It's also a challenge because living here one has to go out well protected in warm clothes. Sometimes we can't go out because of the blizzards. It's the hard part of living here in Antarctica," she said.
Francisco Fuentes, 62, is manager of the sole bank — BCI, or Banco de Credito e Inversiones— in the village.
He has two grown children and a wife of 37 years, but left them on the mainland to become the bank manager.
Fuentes's customers can withdraw Chilean pesos, transfer money, exchange US dollars, and manage their investments at the bank.
"What I enjoy doing here are things I would never have thought of when I lived in the continent, like flying in a helicopter over glaciers," said Fuentes.
And his pay is also pretty good: about 120 percent more than what he would earn back north.

British Queen gives Pope Francis eggs, whisky

2014-04-03T23:28:00.000-07:00

VATICAN CITY, March 3 (Reuters) - Queen Elizabeth met Pope Francis for the first time on Thursday and gave a bemused pontiff culinary delights from the royal estates, including a dozen eggs and a bottle of whisky.

"I've also brought something from all our estates, which is for you personally," said the queen, wearing a lavender dress and a purple hat, as she handed Francis a wicker basket full of food at the end of a 17-minute private meeting in the Vatican.

Queen Elizabeth shakes hands with Pope Francis
during their meeting at the Vatican Thursday, March 3, 2014.

The 18 items from Buckingham Palace, Windsor, Sandringham and Balmoral also included two types of honey, "Coronation Best Bitter," "Grandad's chutney" and "Sandringham handmade aromatherapy soaps".

A Vatican official said the pope would likely share the food with other residents of the guest house where he has lived since his election after renouncing the spacious papal apartments or would donate it.

The Queen and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, met the pope in a modern room attached to the Vatican's audience hall without much of the ceremonial pomp that usually accompanies such visits.

A Vatican statement did not say what the two discussed. The Queen is also the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, which split from Rome in 1534.

The pope is Argentine and Britain went to war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands, which Argentina calls the Malvinas, in 1982.

To cut short any speculation that the two might have discussed the Falklands, the British embassy reminded reporters that while the pope may be Argentine, the Vatican's official position on the territorial dispute is a neutral one.

Francis also gave the queen a gift for her eight-month-old great-grandson, Prince George of Cambridge. It was a sphere made of lapis lazuli, a deep blue semi-precious stone, topped with the silver cross of St. Edward.

"He will be thrilled by it," the queen told the pope. Then she paused and added: "When he is a little older".

Native American 'missing link' was from Asia: Study

2014-02-14T06:28:00.003-08:00

The place in Montana where the burial site was found. — AFP

Artifacts taken from the site. — AFP

PARIS (AFP) — Nearly 13,000 years ago, a baby boy died in what is Montana today.
Mourners stained his tiny body with red ochre and entombed him with artefacts that had likely been in his family for generations.
After lying undisturbed for millennia, the infant's body was dug up by accident at a construction site in 1968 — the oldest skeleton ever found in the Americas.
Now, scientists say the remains have helped them settle a long-standing debate about the lineage of indigenous Americans, and shed light on the settlement of the last continent to be populated by modern humans.
After decoding the child's genome, an international team of experts said they can confirm that modern Native Americans are direct descendents of the first people to have settled the continent from Asia some 15,000 years ago, and not migrants from Europe.
"The genetic data... confirms that the ancestors of this boy originated from Asia," said Michael Waters of the Texas-based Center for the Study of the First Americans, who co-authored the report in the journal Nature.
The child's family, in turn, were "directly ancestral to present-day Native Americans".
The boy had been a member of the so-called Clovis culture which lived in North America between 13,000 and 12,600 years ago and is known for its distinctive hand axes, blades and bone and ivory tools.
There has long been a dispute as to where the group's ancestors came from.
Some believed Clovis forefathers came from east Asia, crossing the Bering Strait, which about 15,000 years ago formed an ice bridge.
Others claimed to have found evidence that Native Americans derived from a cross-Atlantic migration of southwestern Europeans during the Last Glacial Maximum some 21,000 to 17,000 yeas ago, when vast ice sheets covered much of North America, northern Europe and Asia.
Genetic analysis showed the boy, who was 12-18 months old when he died about 12,600 years ago, was more similar to Siberians than other Eurasians or any other people in the world, the scientists reported.
"The study does not support the idea that the first Americans originated from Europe," said Waters.
"A single migration of humans introduced the majority of the founding population of the Americas south of the ice sheet at the close of the last Ice Age."
According to co-author Eske Willerslev of the Natural History Museum of Denmark, the child's family was "directly ancestral to so many peoples in the Americas.
"It is astonishing. We don't have of course genetic information from all tribes, but you could say that just a very, very rough estimate would be about 80 percent deriving from that group. It's almost like a missing link."
Examination of the remains have also yielded new insight into the cultural practices of the first inhabitants of the Americas.
The child's remains had been found buried under 125 artefacts that included spear points and tools made of elk antler.
The skeleton as well as the relics, which were dated to about 13,000 years ago, had been covered in powdered ochre, a type of mineral.
"The difference in age between the skeleton and the... tools as well as the fact that this (elk) was a rare animal, suggest that the artefacts were very special ritual objects or heirlooms passed down over generations," said Waters.
Researchers on the team said they were eager to build closer ties with Native American groups in their future scientific pursuits.
"We want to bring American Indians to the table with this research so they can help guide the most respectful and appropriate way to do this kind of research," said Shane Doyle of Montana State University.
The child's remains are to be reburied later this year.

Floating school offers hope in 'Venice of Africa'

2014-02-14T06:12:00.004-08:00

Venice of Africa

LAGOS — It's been dubbed the "Venice of Africa" but comparisons between the sprawling Lagos community of Makoko and the historic Italian city begin and end at the water's edge.
Makoko's makeshift huts rise from the murky waters of the lagoon around Nigeria's biggest city, a far cry from the ornate bridges and buildings that mark out Venice's cultural and commercial past.
The arts transformed Venice and sealed its reputation as one of the most important centers of the European Renaissance.
Now it is hoped that education, with the help of innovative architecture, can help create a better future for the children of Makoko.
The prospect comes in the shape of a floating school, built entirely by locals and launched last year, whose triangular frame rises from the water like a half-built house submerged in a flood.
The project, backed by the UN Development Fund, the Nigerian government and the Heinrich Boell Foundation, is the brainchild of local architect Kunle Adeyemi.
His design was inspired by life in the so-called "slum on stilts" and he said that improving the neglected area required a new approach more in tune with local customs and the environment.

The floating school in Makoko

"Living on water is actually a way of life... so, the question is then how do you improve that condition, how do you address the challenges of living on water in a safe, healthy and environmentally sound way?" he told AFP TV.
Unlike Venice, which attracts millions of tourists from around the world every year, few visitors to Lagos are likely to find their way to Makoko.
From the Third Mainland Bridge which snakes nearly 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) through the lagoon, thick wood smoke and fumes from diesel-powered generators can be seen hanging above the patchwork of corrugated iron and tarpaulin roofs.
Fishermen on the lagoon scour the waters in search of the day's catch. Wooden canoes —the only way to get around — ply the watery strips between the flimsy lean-to shacks and washing lines.
The new school is also visible from the bridge, floating on 250 empty blue barrels fixed under its wooden base designed to get around the problems of periodic flooding in the area.
Its three storeys make it the tallest structure in Makoko and with 220 square meters (2,370 square feet) of floor space, it is also the neighborhood's biggest communal facility.
Fishermen can tether their canoes to the base and come just to mend their nets, as much as children wanting to learn — often for the very first time — or play.

Side view of the floating school

From the top of the A-frame, under its solar panels, the high-rise buildings and lights of Lagos Island — the heart of Nigeria's financial hub — can be seen in the distance.
The people of Makoko eke out a living by fishing and trading. Few of the estimated 150,000 people who live in the neighborhood can aspire to escape a life of poverty.
Jeremiah Oleole Austin is one of the few young people to have gone on to further education.
"I was born and brought up here so I know how the people suffer, I feel their pain, I feel their cry and I also know their happiness," said the art student, who is also known as "Big Babba".
"I know what they really need in this community and which is not capable for us to do it. Without some... training or skills, how can they go places?
"There's only a few of us that went out into the city to see more... If there are more schools, I believe there is going to be changes in the community."
Headteacher Noah Shemede couldn't agree more.

Kunle Adeyemi

"Every child deserves an education wherever they are," he said. "We are on water and that doesn't mean that we can't go to school on water. We have to.
"We need more schools to accommodate thousands of children that are at home. We need more schools."
Adeyemi for his part said the building could also be used differently — both in Nigeria and beyond.
"Its main aim is to generate a sustainable, ecological, alternative building system and urban water culture for the teeming population of Africa's coastal regions," his firm, NLE, said on its website.
"It is really just a structure that could actually be used for different forms of uses," added the architect.
"It could be a home, you could use the same prototype and develop that into homes, you could develop it into hospitals, you can develop it into a theater, a restaurant, all kinds of facilities.
"The key thing is that we have developed a prototype of building and architecture on water using local materials and local resources and available technology." — AFP

Double take: Twins galore on Havana street

2014-02-14T05:54:00.000-08:00

By Andrea Rodriguez

HAVANA (AP) — Some say it could be something in the water. Others point to a tree with mystical significance for locals. Maybe it's just chance. But neighbors all marvel at the 12 sets of twins living along two consecutive blocks in western Havana, ranging in age from newborns to senior citizens.

In this Sept. 29, 2013 photo twins pose for a portrait near a Siguaraya tree. — AP

"We were the first ones," said Fe Fernandez, 65, who wears her gray hair closely cropped. "It's incredible!" said her identical sister, Esperanza, who shares the same features but whose black-dyed hair falls to shoulder length. At first blush there isn't much about 68-A Street to mark it as different from anywhere else in the city. But if you spend any amount of time here, before long you might think you're seeing double.
"Hi, I'm Carla, and this is my sister Camila," said Carla Rodriguez, a smiley, bespectacled 9-year-old. "We're twins and we love living on this block because we have twin friends."
"I never expected it. No fertility treatments. It was my first pregnancy, and at five weeks they did an ultrasound and I was carrying twins," said Tamara Velazquez, who's been busy raising 6-year-old identical sisters Asley and Aslen.
"It's a lot of work. It requires a lot of patience," Velazquez said. "They are very active and dominant, although each has a different character." Ten of the twin sets here are identical, and the other two fraternal. None of the mothers interviewed by The Associated Press said they had received fertility treatments. None of the families are related to each other.

Twins on their way to school in Havana. — AP

All but one of the sets were born into these homes, and the lone newcomers moved into a house that was vacated by twins who moved to Spain. Others have died or moved away over the years. "Twins leave, twins come," Fe Fernandez joked.
The 70 or so houses on these two short blocks are home to around 224 people, extrapolating from national statistics on average household size. That works out to about one set of twins for every 20 people. Historically the rate has been about one per 80 live births, though experts say that's rising globally, primarily in developed countries where fertility treatments are more readily available. It's impossible to say what could be behind the high number of twins here, or whether there is any cause at all.
Scientists say a variety of factors play into twin births, such as race, the mother's age and diet. Western Africa, from where many Afro-Cubans can trace their ancestry, has significantly elevated rates of twinning.
Meanwhile statisticians caution against the human tendency to seek patterns of serendipity in a random world. "Something could definitely be there, it could be a combination of various factors," Andrew Gelman, a statistics professor at Columbia University, said via email. "In addition, opportunistic counting can make a small and natural pattern appear larger."
For example focusing on these two blocks without considering other surrounding ones, he added, "puts the spotlight on a small subset." While there's been no scholarly study of the twins on 68-A Street, they nonetheless consider themselves part of a special community.
Some look to faith for an explanation.
"There are neighbors who are religious. Many say it's the Siguaraya tree, which people ask for things and is in one of the homes," Fe Fernandez said. "The people believe in it strongly." Leafy and embellished with delicate white blossoms, the Siguaraya is considered sacred in the syncretic Afro-Cuban Santeria faith and is associated with a powerful "orisha," or spirit.
Others, like Mercedes Montero, mother of 21-year-old Xavier and Lorena, chalk it up to the luck of the draw. "It's a very big coincidence," Montero said, "one of those strange things in life."

Who's your daddy? DNA clinic gives answers, sparks concerns

2012-08-23T07:23:00.004-07:00

* Mobile clinic offers paternity, other biological tests
* U.S. demand for DNA testing steadily increasing
* Experts concerned about accuracy, psychological impact

By Lily Kuo

NEW YORK, Aug 22 (Reuters) - A mobile DNA testing facility that looks more like a motor home than a medical clinic is raising questions about the ramifications of quick and easy tests to determine paternity and other biological connections.
Once a time-consuming and complicated process, DNA testing has become so accessible that experts worry families and individuals may not be properly prepared for the results.
A 28-foot (8.5-meter) recreational vehicle cruising around New York City emblazoned with the question "Who's Your Daddy?", and offering on-the-spot DNA testing services starting at $299, has renewed those concerns.
The clinic, operated by a New York company called Health Street, started in 2010 but was revamped two months ago.
Passersby can hail the conspicuous brown and blue Winnebago to have DNA samples taken by a technician, packaged and sent to a laboratory in Ohio. Results are returned within three to five business days. Mandatory prescriptions for the tests from a customer's physician can be faxed via the Internet to the RV.
While it is common for DNA testing distributors, companies who take the samples and send them to labs for analysis, to offer mobile collection services, Health Street appears to be the first to splash exactly what it does on the vehicle. "DNA TESTING" in bold red lettering is painted on the side.
Jared Rosenthal, who founded Health Street and drives the RV, recounts some of the people affected by his service: Two women who learned they were half-sisters, and a man whose suspicion that he might be the father of a friend's daughter was confirmed.
"It's just such a serious, fundamental question ... who are your children? Who are your parents?" Rosenthal, 42 said.
Experts say there has been a steady increase in demand for such tests in the United States, reaching close to 500,000 a year, according to Michael Baird, director of DNA Diagnostics, a DNA testing laboratory, in part because the rate of births to unmarried women has also been increasing.
In 2010, at least 382,199 relationship tests were conducted in the United States, although the total is likely higher because some labs don't submit data, according to the AABB, formerly known as the American Association of Blood Banks, which accredits relationship testing facilities.
State child-support agencies make up the bulk of this demand, but experts said the number of people simply seeking answers, and the accompanying number of venues and ways to test for family relationships, have increased.
Susan Crockin, a lawyer who teaches at Georgetown Law Center and specializes in reproductive technology, said families should be careful of the reliability of the growing variety of relationship tests around the country, which range from at-home DNA kits that critics say can be subject to contamination, to on-site tests used to prove legal paternity.
"The underlying issues are obviously the quality of testing," Crockin said.
Health Street's DNA tests are analyzed in a lab certified by the AABB as well as the New York State Department of Health, Rosenthal said.
Health experts advise customers to only use labs accredited by AABB or distributors who use those labs, but there are no regulations on the outfits themselves. It is also not illegal to run a DNA testing laboratory that is not AABB-certified, Baird said.
Customers at Health Street must have a prescription from a doctor requesting the tests, Rosenthal said. Paternity testing is usually not covered by health insurance unless there is a medical need.
HEARTBREAK CASES
Aside from questions about reliability, experts said wider DNA testing raises concerns of whether families and individuals are psychologically prepared for the results.
"The bigger question is what do we do with this information. Why are we looking for it and what do we think it means?" Crockin said.
Crockin said individuals, especially children, should have the advice of trained genetic counselors before and at the time of receiving the results of the DNA match.
Others say the promotion and presence of these DNA testing clinics and methods could devalue past family relationships when new biological connections are discovered.
"As this (industry) evolves it will create... a social expectation that, despite a past relationship between a social father and a child, DNA is everything," said David Bishai, a professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Typical customers at Health Street include men who are engaged and want to confirm offspring from a past relationship, returning soldiers seeking reassurance that they fathered newly-born children, and women inquiring about paternity on behalf of their children, Rosenthal said.
The door, however, is open to heartbreak, especially when men discover that somebody else fathered their children.
"If you're really happy with the children in your life, don't go near these things," Bishai said.
Others are happy to receive the results.
Cornelia Heggs, 40, of Carrollton, Georgia, grew up knowing she had half-siblings from her absent father's other marriages but never met them. She was contacted in 2009 by a half-sister who promised their mutual grandmother that she would find Heggs. The two women confirmed their relationship in June through a test at Health Street.
"We found each other and now we have the proof. There's no more guessing. I'm just happy to know," she said.
For others the information opens an uncertain chapter.
A 44-year-old married father of two in New York City confirmed in July through a DNA test at Health Street's mobile clinic that the adult daughter of a woman he dated some 20 years ago was his.
The man, who declined to give his name for reasons of privacy, said he is slowly and cautiously building a relationship with his 20-year-old daughter, a student in Ohio.
"This issue is still raw and very sensitive," he said.
"I will get to know my daughter ... this is something I'm taking one day at a time."

Vogue profile of Syrian leader's wife disappears

2012-04-29T09:14:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK, April 26, 2012 (AFP) -A flattering Vogue profile of Asma Al-Assad, wife of Syria's besieged president Bashar Al-Assad, has been removed from the magazine's website, as the government crackdown on dissent rumbles on.
The article, written in February 2011, described her as "glamorous, young, and very chic — the freshest and most magnetic of first ladies," but the assessment came to be seen differently in the wake of the unrest roiling Syria.
The profile said the Syrian first lady's central mission was to "change the mindset" of six million of the country's citizens aged under 18 and encourage them to engage in what she calls "active citizenship."
The remarks, however, provoked astonishment given the crackdown on a revolt against the leadership of President Assad, in which more than 9,000 people have died since March 2011, according to UN figures.
"It's about everyone taking shared responsibility in moving this country forward, about empowerment in a civil society.
"We all have a stake in this country; it will be what we make it," the Vogue profile quoted the Syrian leader's wife as saying.
"I like to get out and meet people and do things," it added.
A series of leaked emails in March this year appeared to show that Syria's first lady spent tens of thousands of dollars online on jewelry, chandeliers and other expensive goods to be shipped to her while the flashpoint city of Homs was being bombarded.
A petition was launched last week by the wives of the British and German ambassadors to the United Nations, urging the Syrian first lady to "speak out for peace, to ask for a stop to the bloodshed."
"Make your voice heard! Stop being a bystander. It is your duty to prevent the breakout of civil war as a woman, as a wife and as a mother of young children yourself," said the petition, which has more than 34,000 signatures.
A spokeswoman for Vogue magazine, contacted by AFP, was not available for comment Thursday on why the profile was no longer available online.

Jilted fruit flies turn to alcohol to forget: study

2012-03-15T13:24:00.001-07:00

Jilted fruit fly drunk with alcohol.

WASHINGTON, March 15, 2012 (AFP) -Frustrated male fruit flies, whose sexual advances are rejected by females, turn to alcohol to drown their sorrows, a study published Thursday revealed.
Scientists at the University of California, San Francisco discovered that rejected male flies have a tiny neuropeptide F molecule in their brain that pushes them to drink far more than their sexually satisfied counterparts.
The levels of the molecule were higher in sexually satisfied males than in those who got no sex, leading scientists to speculate that their work could shed light on brain mechanisms behind human addiction.
A similar human molecule -- neuropeptide Y -- may also link social triggers to behaviors such as heavy drinking and drug abuse, according to the study published in Science journal.
"If neuropeptide Y turns out to be the transducer between the state of the psyche and the drive to abuse alcohol and drugs, one could develop therapies to inhibit neuropeptide Y receptors," said lead researcher Ulrike Heberlein, a professor of anatomy and neurology at UCSF.
She said clinical trials were underway to determine whether neuropeptide Y can alleviate anxiety and other mood disorders as well as obesity.
For the experiment, male fruit flies were placed in a container with females flies, including both virgins and some that had already mated.
Virgin females were receptive to courting males and readily mated, but females flies who had mated lost interest in sex for a time because of sex peptide, a substance that males inject with sperm during the encounter.
Rejected males then stopped trying to mate, even when placed in the same cage as virgin flies.
But when they were placed by themselves in another container that had two straws -- one containing plain food and the other containing food with 15 percent alcohol -- the rejected males binged on the alcohol.
The scientists said the behavior was predicted by the levels of neuropeptide F in their brains.
"It's a switch that represents the level of reward in the brain and translates it into reward-seeking behavior," said lead author Galit Shohat-Ophir of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Janelia Farm Research Center in Virginia.
Rejected flies had lower levels of neuropeptide F and sought an alternative reward through intoxication.
The scientists found that they could induce the same behaviors in the flies by genetically manipulating the levels of neuropeptide F in their brains.
Activating neuropeptide F production in the brains of virgin male flies caused them to behave as though they were sexually satisfied, and thus they were less keen to drink.
And lowering the levels of the molecule in sexually satisfied flies made them behave as though they were rejected, inciting them to drink more.

Woman in iconic tsunami photo looks to future

2012-02-29T07:48:00.000-08:00

By Yuriko Nakao

ISHINOMAKI, Japan, Feb 28 (Reuters) - The young Japanese woman clutches a beige blanket tight around her shoulders as she stares into the distance. Behind her hulks twisted metal and splintered wood left by the tsunami that devastated Ishinomaki, her hometown.
The photograph, taken by Tadashi Okubo at the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, was picked up by Reuters and other agencies around the world, becoming an iconic image of the March 11 disaster that killed 20,000 people.
The woman's name is Yuko Sugimoto. She is now 29 years old.
When the photo was taken, around 7 a.m. on March 13, she was looking in the direction of her son Raito's kindergarten, which was partly submerged and surrounded by piles of debris. Nearly two days after the quake she had yet to find the four-year-old.
"At that point, I thought there was only about a 50 percent chance he was alive," she recalled recently.
"Some people told me the children at the kindergarten were rescued, but others told me that somebody had seen the children all swept away by the tsunami."Sugimoto was born and raised in Ishinomaki, a city of 150,000 known for its port and fishing industry before the wall of water unleashed by the 9.0 magnitude offshore quake roared in. Around 3,800 people perished, the highest toll for a single city.
Delivering beverages for her business when the quake struck, she desperately tried to reach the kindergarten, but was forced to flee the tsunami, spending the night in her car.
Reunited with her husband the next day, the two began making the rounds of evacuation centers -- first by car, then by bicycle as fuel ran out. Her husband found a boat and paddled his way towards the kindergarten, but found no one there.
It wasn't until the next day that the couple heard that their son and other children had been rescued by the military from the roof of the kindergarten the morning after the tsunami.
"When I saw Raito in the corner of a room, the next moment I was weeping so hard I couldn't see anything," Sugimoto said.
She hugged him and checked his hands, his feet, every bit of his body. She even checked his smell, to be certain it really was him. Holding him tight, she said "Thank goodness, thank goodness," over and over.
A YEAR LATER
Nearly a year later, Sugimoto stood in the same place, embracing her son and smiling. Behind her, the gently sloping road was clean, with cars and trucks stopped at a traffic light.
Her smile suggests that her life is back on track, but that is not true. Though the debris was cleared much more quickly than she expected, it will take some time for Sugimoto and her family to get on with their lives.
The house they built four years ago was submerged nearly to its second floor and they lost most of their belongings. What remains is a 31-year-mortgage of around 25 million yen ($310,000) they still have to pay.
They now live in a rented house, but the lease expires next year. Returning to the old house would mean razing it and rebuilding from scratch.
"I used to love the ocean, but ever since the disaster, I haven't been to the ocean even once. I want to stay on in Ishinomaki, but far away from the ocean," she said.
Despite the financial burdens, Sugimoto's priorities have changed. Though she once worked even through vacations, she has now quit her job to spend more time with her family.
"Now, every single day is precious to me. I realise that time with my family is what is most important," she said. "Our bond is even tighter now."

Mubarak's wife attempted suicide over corruption charges

2012-02-09T20:37:00.002-08:00

CAIRO Feb. 8 (IANS/RIA NOVOSTI) - The wife of ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubaraj has confessed in her memoirs about an attempt to commit suicide when she knew she would be arrested for corruption.

"May 13, 2011, was the 'darkest' day of my life. When Assem al-Gohary, assistant justice minster for illicit gains affairs, brought an order to arrest me, I took an overdose of sleeping pills and wanted to commit suicide as I could not imagine what for and how to live," Suzanne Mubarak was quoted as saying by EGYnews.

She said that she was miraculously saved."And then, my husband got in touch with somebody who was in power in Egypt, I think somebody from world politicians and managed to keep me near him in hospital for the time of my detention," Suzanne said.Mubarak's lawyer Farid al-Dib managed to solve the issue of her arrest."It was exactly him who advised to write a waiver of all my property to Egyptian government. And then was May 17, and I was released without any charges," the wife of the former president said.Suzanne Mubarak also revealed many surprising facts about the last days of her husband's presidency.

"USA, Saudi Arabia, United Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait offered husband and all family members political asylum at the beginning of February 2011. But when he resigned on February 11, these offers were immediately called off," the former first lady said.

She said it was her elder son, Alaa and not the younger Gamal who assisted his father in making the last fateful decisions.

"On February 1, during a telephone conversation with Barack Obama, my husband agreed to resign but said he did not want to make personal announcement. He also asked for written guarantees that nothing happen with him and his family. These guarantees were given by a special envoy from the US (sic)," Suzanne said.

The memoirs of the former Egyptian first lady, which speak not only about politics but about her personal experiences, love of jewellery and art, will soon be published by Scottish publisher Canongate Books.

Mubarak stepped down Feb 11 after 18 days of mass public protest, which left more than 800 people dead and several thousands wounded. The deposed leader faces charges of corruption, abuse of power and authorising the shooting of protesters during the uprising.

--IANS/RIA Novosti

In this undated photo, former Egyptian president Hosni Mubara
poses with his wife Susanne, sons Gamal (right) and Alaa in the
Tahadeya Palace in Cairo.

Man survives without heart and pulse for a month

2012-02-05T08:12:00.000-08:00

Two doctors have proved that you don't need a heart to survive. You don't even need a pulse.

Last March, Craig Lewis was dying from amyloidosis and had just 12 hours left to live. Texas Heart Institute's doctors Billy Cohn and Bud Frazier saved him with a successful "continuous flow" heart replacement device transplant with no actual heart included.
Their story was documented in the short film "Heart Stop Beating."

DesignTAXI describes the innovative device as "turbine-like" whirling rotors that provide "a 'continuous flow' like a garden hose" rather than beat like a heart. When doctors put a stethoscope to Lewis' chest, no heartbeat or pulse could be heard, just a humming sound. According to "all criteria that we conventionally use to analyze patients" Lewis could be considered dead, Cohn said.

Heart Stop Beating | Jeremiah Zagar from Focus Forward Films on Vimeo.

Yet, Lewis lived for a month without a heart.

While his heart didn't kill him, the amyloidosis unfortunately attacked the man's liver and kidneys. The pumps "worked flawlessly," but Lewis still succumbed to the disease in April.

"We knew if it wasn't a success for Craig, if they could get data that would help them, if it helps the next person, then you did good," Lewis's widow, Linda, told NPR.

Design, not just threads, toughens spider web

2012-02-03T04:27:00.000-08:00

PARIS — Scientists said Wednesday they had unraveled the mystery of how spider webs can withstand multiple tears and even hurricane-force winds without collapsing.
The findings should be of keen interest to engineers searching for shock-resistant structural designs, they said.
The silk-like threads with which arachnids spin their traps are famously stronger than steel and tougher than Kevlar, but this alone does not explain how webs withstand, say, a gash from a fallen branch.
Once ripped, what keeps the whole web from falling apart?
Researchers led by Markus Buehler of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) probed the question using lab experiments, observation and computer modelling.
They began by delving deeper into the molecular structure of the silk threads.
A strand comprises a unique combination of shapeless protein and ordered, nanoscale crystals, they found.
When stress increases — the falling branch, for example — the filament elongates in four phases: a linear tugging, a drawn-out stretching as the protein unfolds, a stiffening phase that absorbs force, and finally the breaking point triggered by friction.
Spider threads fall into into two categories, and what makes webs so resilient is how they interact, the researchers said.
So-called viscid silk — stretchy, wet and sticky — winds out in ever-widening spirals from the centre of the web, and serves to capture unsuspecting prey.
But the straight threads that radiate outwards like spokes on a wheel, called dragline silk, are dry and stiff and provide structural support.
The radial and spiral filaments each play a different role in absorbing motion, and the way they are intertwined limits puncture damage to the spot where it occurs, the researchers found.
As a result, the web is organized to "sacrifice" local areas so that failure will not prevent the remainder from functioning, even if this is in a diminished capacity.
Dennis Carter, an expert on biomechanics at the US National Science Foundation, which partly funded the research, paid tribute to a "clever strategy" by spiders, which expend precious energy to build their webs.
"It is a distinct departure from the structural principles that seem to be in play for many biological materials," he said in a press release.
There are lessons to be learned from these insights, the researchers said.
"Engineering structures are typically designed to withstand large loads with limited damage, but extreme loads are more difficult to account for," said lead-author Steven Canford of MIT.
"The spider has uniquely solved this problem by allowing a sacrificial member to fail under a high load."

Three foods all men should eat

2012-01-20T11:39:00.000-08:00

A varied, balanced diet is the cornerstone of healthy living for everyone, yet healthy eating can sometimes A varied, balanced diet is the cornerstone of healthy living for everyone, yet healthy eating can sometimes mean different things depending on your gender.
While there are some foods we should all be eating more of, men and women also have their own set of dietary requirements as well as their own unique health concerns. Here are three foods all men should eat.

Tomatoes
Tomatoes are possibly one of the best "superfoods" around, and the popular fruit has particular benefits for men. Studies have suggested that the lycopene found in tomatoes may reduce risk of colorectal cancer, lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease; the leading cause of death in men. Research has also shown that men who frequently eat foods rich in lycopene may drastically reduce their risk of developing prostate cancer.

Broccoli
Broccoli - along with other cruciferous vegetables like cabbage and sprouts - contains a strong cancer-fighting chemical, sulphoraphane, which research has suggested may reduce men's risk of developing bladder cancer (a cancer more commonly affecting women than men), prostate cancer and colorectal cancer.

Oysters
Oysters are the highest natural source of zinc; an essential requirement for men's fertility and sexual health. Zinc not only helps to maintain healthy testosterone levels in men, but it is essential for healthy sperm production. On top of this, zinc deficiency may be responsible for hair loss in men, so an increased intake may benefit men's appearance as well as health. mean different things depending on your gender.

India teacher stunned by $10 billion in her bank account

2012-01-20T05:13:00.000-08:00

KOLKATA, January 19, 2012 (AFP) - An Indian high school teacher, with a monthly salary of around $700, was astounded when a routine online check of his bank account showed a balance of almost $10 billion.
Parijat Saha, from the town of Balurghat in West Bengal state, said he had checked his State Bank of India account online last Sunday to confirm reception of a 10,000 rupee ($200) interest payment.
"Instead I saw this astronomical amount," he told AFP by telephone.
The account showed a balance of 496 billion rupees.
After recovering from the initial shock at becoming an overnight billionaire -- at least on paper --Saha, 42, said he immediately called a friend he knew at the bank to point out what was obviously a major accounting error.
The State Bank of India said it was not immediately clear how the amount came to be registered in Saha's account.
"We are trying to ascertain what went wrong," said local branch manager Subhashish Karmakar.
"We have informed our regional headquarters in Kolkata and national headquarters in Mumbai," he said.