Drones han matado a 3 mil paquistaníes

Islamabad. Unas 3 mil personas han perdido la vida en los pasados nueve años en ataques de aviones no tripulados (drones) estadunidenses en territorio paquistaní fronterizo con Afganistán, informó el secretario de Estado de Asuntos Exteriores de Pakistán, Jalil Abbas Jilani. Este viernes nueve presuntos combatientes del talibán paquistaní y Al Qaeda fallecieron a causa de un bombardeo de drones en los límites de las provincias de Waziristán del Sur y Waziristán del Norte.

Explosão em Maputo deixa sul de Moçambique às escuras

Uma explosão ocorrida na madrugada de hoje na Central Térmica de Maputo deixou vastas regiões do sul de Moçambique às escuras, incluindo muitos dos bairros da capital e maior cidade do país.

French firm supplying horse meat was previously at centre of E.coli scare

Owen Paterson, Environment Secretary, warns of a possible "international criminal conspiracy" being behind the scandal.

Oman raises minimum wage to avert future protests

MUSCAT (Reuters) - Oman's parliament, the Shura Council, approved a much higher minimum wage and curbs on the employment of foreigners on Saturday, aiming to prevent joblessness again becoming a source of anger for Omani citizens.

Bovine TB in Ethiopia 'threatens health and farm incomes'

High infection rates discovered in central Ethiopian dairy farms could be harming production and putting local people at risk, says study.

Chinese scientists develop cheap e-notebook for the blind

A portable e-notebook that blind people can use to write and translate Braille and make voice memos could go on sale in China later this year.

Climate change could impact wave height, says study

Average wave size will increase in many parts of the southern hemisphere over the twenty-first century, but decrease in the north, according to an international study on the impact of climate change on oceanic activity. The study, published in Nature Climate Change last month (13 January), predicts a wave height increase of between 20 and 30 centimeters in an area covering at least seven per cent of the surface of the world's oceans. This is due to the poleward intensification of the westerly winds in the southern hemisphere, resulting from climate change.

Minnesota moose population plummets, activists blame climate

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The population of moose in northeastern Minnesota dropped by 35 percent since last year, prompting state officials to cancel this year's fall hunt and conservationists to blame warming temperatures for the massive creature's decline.

Do Chinese Readers Follow the National Standard Rules for Word Segmentation during Reading?

by Ping-Ping Liu, Wei-Jun Li, Nan Lin, Xing-Shan Li

We conducted a preliminary study to examine whether Chinese readers’ spontaneous word segmentation processing is consistent with the national standard rules of word segmentation based on the Contemporary Chinese language word segmentation specification for information processing (CCLWSSIP). Participants were asked to segment Chinese sentences into individual words according to their prior knowledge of words. The results showed that Chinese readers did not follow the segmentation rules of the CCLWSSIP, and their word segmentation processing was influenced by the syntactic categories of consecutive words. In many cases, the participants did not consider the auxiliary words, adverbs, adjectives, nouns, verbs, numerals and quantifiers as single word units. Generally, Chinese readers tended to combine function words with content words to form single word units, indicating they were inclined to chunk single words into large information units during word segmentation. Additionally, the “overextension of monosyllable words” hypothesis was tested and it might need to be corrected to some degree, implying that word length have an implicit influence on Chinese readers’ segmentation processing. Implications of these results for models of word recognition and eye movement control are discussed.

Working Memory and Its Relation to Deterministic Sequence Learning

by Markus Martini, Marco R. Furtner, Pierre Sachse

Is there a relation between working memory (WM) and incidental sequence learning? Nearly all of the earlier investigations in the role of WM capacity (WMC) in sequence learning suggest no correlations in incidental learning conditions. However, the theoretical view of WM and operationalization of WMC made strong progress in recent years. The current study related performance in a coordination and transformation task to sequence knowledge in a four-choice incidental deterministic serial reaction time (SRT) task and a subsequent free generation task. The response-to-stimulus interval (RSI) was varied between 0 ms and 300 ms. Our results show correlations between WMC and error rates in condition RSI 0 ms. For condition RSI 300 ms we found relations between WMC and sequence knowledge in the SRT task as well as between WMC and generation task performance. Theoretical implications of these findings for ongoing processes during sequence learning and retrieval of sequence knowledge are discussed.

Hidden Incan City Discovered Under Santiago

Aerial view of Santiago, Chile, on Jan. 29, 2013. Researchers have found new evidence of the existence of an important Incan city at the site of Chile's current capital, suggesting Spanish colonizers did not build Santiago from the ground up, but rather conquered a previously existing urban center. (Pablo Porciuncula/AFP/Getty Images)

Chilean investigators have recovered archaeological objects, maps, and writings that demonstrate the Chilean capital of Santiago was founded on an Incan urban center.
This theory has existed for decades, but evidence was lacking to prove it. Archaeologist at the National Museum of Natural History of Chile Rubén Stehberg and researcher Gonzalo Sotomayor at the Universidad Andrés Bello (University Andres Bello) set out to find that evidence.

The researchers unearthed published and unpublished colonial documents and maps that provide strong evidence of an important center of Incan civilization already existing in the place of Santiago when the Spanish arrived.
Stehberg and Sotomayor tip the scales in favor of the view of Santiago as a previously established, Incan center, rather than a relatively undeveloped land built up by Spanish settlement.
Not far off the Mapocho River was a public square flanked by signs of a thriving civilization—homes, warehouses, ditches, and canals—the seat of power from which Gov. Inca Quilicanta ruled in protohistoric (the time just prior to earliest recorded history of a culture) times. This is the vision brought to life by Stehberg and Sotomayor’s report published in January.
In 1541, the expedition lead by Pedro de Valdivia staked a claim here and established the Spanish settlement of Santiago.
“The existence of this important Inca settlement on the banks of the Mapocho River [Santiago] had an advanced irrigation system and an abundant indigenous population,” reads the report published in the National Museum of Natural History of Chile. “This quickly convinced Pedro de Valdivia and his men to establish themselves in the area,” which they later called, “Santiago of New Extremadura.”
The researchers also add to the decades-long debate a new historical reference to a “big tambo, which is next to the square of this city,” tambo being an Incan term for an administrative building. This would be in the same place the Europeans established their main square, the Plaza de Armas.
The report acknowledges that it is possible the Spanish did build this “tambo” and the Incan reference is to a Spanish structure—but it could also be read as an Incan structure taken over by the Europeans.

The existence of this important Inca settlement on the banks of the Mapocho River [Santiago] had an advanced irrigation system and an abundant indigenous population.

—National Museum of Natural History of Chile report

Archaeological evidence has been found under of the surface of the southern half of the Mapocho River basin.
Some of the findings are from a site at the corner of Cathedral and Matucana streets in Santiago. Five funerary sites, with 22 ceramic Incan vessels were exhumed in 2001.
Cited chroniclers explained the Incan funerary rites: the dead are dressed in “the most private clothes that they had,” and in their hands are placed corn, beans, pieces of pumpkin, and seeds. They are bundled with rope and placed in the ground with pitchers, pots, and bowls.
Dating the tombs, archeologists have found they provide strong evidence of the Incan city’s existence before the European arrival in the area, according to the report.

Nearly 5,000 flights canceled

Blizzard causes ripple effect as airlines cancel flights around the country and world. CNN's Brian Todd reports.

U.S. Use of Mexican Battery Recyclers Is Faulted

An environmental agency’s report says United States companies send spent lead batteries to recycling plants in Mexico that do not meet American standards.

World Briefing | Asia: China: Uighur Scholar Monitored

Ilham Tohti, a scholar at a Beijing university who has been prevented from going to the United States, says that he is being closely watched by China’s security forces.

French-led forces seize Mali town

French-led forces battling Islamist rebels seized the town of Tessalit in northern Mali on Friday, France's defense ministry said.

Argentine Jewish groups oppose president's deal with Iran

Argentine Jewish leaders are opposing a deal with Iran concerning an investigation into the South American country's worst terrorist attack - the 1994 bombing that killed 85 people at a Jewish center.

Revelan conato de incendio en B2 previo a explosión

Los Pinos informa que ese inmubele, donde una explosión mató a 37 trabajadores de Pemex, no se volverá a ocupar

Rogue ex-cop is armed, trained, out there somewhere

The ex-cop suspected in the killings of an officer and two others remained at large as darkness fell over a mountain forest and police suspended their manhunt.

Curiosity photographs mysterious metal object on Martian rock

Shiny 'flower' sets Mars-watchers aflutter
Image analysis of shots taken by the Curiosity rover's MastCam last month appears to have revealed a shiny metal object sticking out of a rock on the Martian surface.…

The Effect of Exercise on Visceral Adipose Tissue in Overweight Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

by Dirk Vissers, Wendy Hens, Jan Taeymans, Jean-Pierre Baeyens, Jacques Poortmans, Luc Van Gaal

Excessive visceral adipose tissue appears to trigger a cascade of metabolic disturbances that seem to coexist with ectopic fat storage in muscle, liver, heart and the ß-cell. Therefore, the reduction of visceral adipose tissue potentially plays a pivotal role in the treatment of the metabolic syndrome. The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to describe the overall effect of exercise on visceral adipose tissue and to provide an overview of the effect of different exercise regimes, without caloric restriction, on visceral adipose tissue in obese persons. A systematic literature search was performed according to the PRISMA statement for reporting systematic reviews and meta-analyses. The initial search resulted in 87 articles after removing duplicates. After screening on title, abstract and full-text 15 articles (totalling 852 subjects) fulfilled the a priori inclusion criteria. The quality of each eligible study was assessed in duplicate with “The Critical Review Form for Quantitative Studies”. Using random-effects weights, the standardized mean difference (Hedge's g) of the change in visceral adipose tissue was −0.497 with a 95% confidence interval of −0.655 to −0.340. The Z-value was −6.183 and the p-value (two tailed) was <0.001. A subgroup analysis was performed based on gender, type of training and intensity. Aerobic training of moderate or high intensity has the highest potential to reduce visceral adipose tissue in overweight males and females. These results suggest that an aerobic exercise program, without hypocaloric diet, can show beneficial effects to reduce visceral adipose tissue with more than 30 cm² (on CT analysis) in women and more than 40 cm² in men, even after 12 weeks.

Optimizing Wind Power Generation while Minimizing Wildlife Impacts in an Urban Area

by Gil Bohrer, Kunpeng Zhu, Robert L. Jones, Peter S. Curtis

The location of a wind turbine is critical to its power output, which is strongly affected by the local wind field. Turbine operators typically seek locations with the best wind at the lowest level above ground since turbine height affects installation costs. In many urban applications, such as small-scale turbines owned by local communities or organizations, turbine placement is challenging because of limited available space and because the turbine often must be added without removing existing infrastructure, including buildings and trees. The need to minimize turbine hazard to wildlife compounds the challenge. We used an exclusion zone approach for turbine-placement optimization that incorporates spatially detailed maps of wind distribution and wildlife densities with power output predictions for the Ohio State University campus. We processed public GIS records and airborne lidar point-cloud data to develop a 3D map of all campus buildings and trees. High resolution large-eddy simulations and long-term wind climatology were combined to provide land-surface-affected 3D wind fields and the corresponding wind-power generation potential. This power prediction map was then combined with bird survey data. Our assessment predicts that exclusion of areas where bird numbers are highest will have modest effects on the availability of locations for power generation. The exclusion zone approach allows the incorporation of wildlife hazard in wind turbine siting and power output considerations in complex urban environments even when the quantitative interaction between wildlife behavior and turbine activity is unknown.

The Effect of Perceived Risks on the Demand for Vaccination: Results from a Discrete Choice Experiment

by Md Z. Sadique, Nancy Devlin, William J. Edmunds, David Parkin

The demand for vaccination against infectious diseases involves a choice between vaccinating and not vaccinating, in which there is a trade-off between the benefits and costs of each option. The aim of this paper is to investigate these trade-offs and to estimate how the perceived prevalence and severity of both the disease against which the vaccine is given and any vaccine associated adverse events (VAAE) might affect demand. A Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE) was used to elicit stated preferences from a representative sample of 369 UK mothers of children below 5 years of age, for three hypothetical vaccines. Cost was included as an attribute, which enabled estimation of the willingness to pay for different vaccines having differing levels of the probability of occurrence and severity of both the infection and VAAE. The results suggest that the severity of the health effects associated with both the diseases and VAAEs exert an important influence on the demand for vaccination, whereas the probability of these events occurring was not a significant predictor. This has important implications for public health policy, which has tended to focus on the probability of these health effects as the main influence on decision making. Our results also suggest that anticipated regrets about the consequences of making the wrong decision also exert an influence on demand.

NASA to launch Earth-watching satellite

NASA is gearing up for the Monday launch of an Earth-observation satellite that will continue a celebrated 40-year project to monitor our planet's surface from space. The Landsat Data Continuity Mission is slated to blast off Monday at 1:02 p.m. EST (1802 GMT/10:02 a.m. PST) from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Blizzard Brings Travel Nightmare for New England

Two storms have joined forces to bring a major blizzard to New England Friday night into Saturday. There are already airline and rail delays. Roads may become impassable in many areas.
[More]

My chemical romance: can medicine cure divorce?

Could a new love drug help us beat the divorce statistics?
We were newly engaged and lying on Curl Curl beach on the coast of New South Wales, Australia, when we experienced one of those rare moments of lucidity. "I hope we do stay together for ever," I said to my fiancee, Farrah. "But, you know, we might not."
I looked at the sky.
"I know," Farrah said. "What do you think the chance is? Fifty-fifty?"
"Maybe," I said. "Seventy-thirty?"
Another silence.
"Maybe."
Eight months later, in Marylebone register office, we made a 100% promise. We did it confidently, legally and in the witness of many. But every now and again, we'll have the conversation once more. "…I hope so…"; "…so do I…"; "…I don't know…"
I've read the brutal figures – nearly half of all UK marriages end in divorce – and every serious relationship I've had, prior to this one, has failed. We've both had broken hearts (Farrah, once; me, too many times to admit). Most of all, we're realists. We may be newly married, but we've been together for nine years, cohabiting for eight. It's long enough to have pushed through periods of domestic hostility and to know what happens to all that sex. It's long enough for us to understand that, as solemn as our oath might have appeared, "Till death do us part" is the sound not of guarantee, but of hope. As happy as we might be today, in 10 years – five years, three! – our relationship could end because… well, that's just what happens, isn't it?
Then, a couple of months ago, I heard some hopeful news. Scientists at the University of Oxford had published a paper that described an incredible idea. At some point in the life of my marriage, it suggested, a new breed of "love drug"  might become available – a medication that could heal wounded relationships. It will likely be delivered as an inhaler and prescribed by a relationship counsellor. You'd sniff up a dose in the presence of your loved one and, as the chemical entered your bloodstream, it would strengthen your bond.
I find the men responsible in a nondescript office block behind a branch of LA Fitness. Dr Anders Sandberg welcomes me into his room: Suite 8 of the University of Oxford's Future of Humanity Institute. He has blond hair, a rain-grey shirt and a medallion around his neck engraved with instructions for the cryonic preservation of his body in the event of his death. Across two whiteboards behind him is a map of calculations.
"That's about escaping dust while travelling in a spaceship." He gestures at it dismissively. The remit of Sandberg and his colleagues is, he says, "to think really big and really long term, especially about the fate of humanity. How can we make sure that we don't have an unhappy ending?"
Sandberg became interested in the future of love after his colleague, Professor Julian Savulescu, who leads the science and ethics division, became divorced from his first wife, Hilary, in 2005. "I saw how difficult relationships are, how they change and how powerless you are," Savulescu says, as he joins us. "The experience made me think, how can intelligent people, very confident people, end up in these situations? I said to Anders, 'Let's see what science and psychology have to tell us about love and relationship break-up.'"
Both men were shocked by how little good science there was. "It's quite telling," Sandberg says. "There's a monthly journal about coughing, there are three or four about sleeping, but none about love."
"This is one of the most important areas of our life," Savulescu adds, "and the amount of usable information science had was infinitesimally small." But, as little as it was, it wasn't nothing. A key insight was that love has three distinct modes or phases: attraction, lust and attachment. "The first one, the attraction phase, we don't know much about," Sandberg says.
Leaning towards him, Savulescu whispers, "No, Anders, the first one's lust."
Sandberg smiles. "Well, maybe I'm a romantic. But, anyway, humans are messy: the attraction, lust and attachment phases get blended together."
Every loving relationship, then, can be seen as a unique combination of these three modes. In their paper, the pair describe them as "evolutionary systems [that] form a ground on top of which the cultural and individual variants of love are built". This is the simple but rather melancholy observation that, when you knock away thousands of years of ritual, poetry, myth and song, love is just another neurobiological process, like sweating. But there's an upside. If love is reducible to physical systems, then these systems can, theoretically, be manipulated. Strengthened. For Savulescu, this was an emboldening possibility. "In my previous relationships, I'd been a passive passenger of the emotions," he says. "And I realised, you can be an active participant."
They had to decide: on which of the three modes would they focus their futuristic thinking? A drug that boosted lust, Sandberg says, would not have been terribly interesting, while something that made you fall in love with the next person who walked through the door would, he admits, "be, ethically, a very stupid thing". They would examine the possibility, then, of strengthening attachment, the long-term bonding that keeps people together.
Long-term relationships are problematic for modern humans, they argue, because we aren't built for them. We've evolved to successfully procreate, not to enjoy deathless romance. During our long Pleistocene hunter-gatherer existence, life expectancy is thought to have been about 30 years. This means that, assuming we coupled off as teenagers, for the great majority of our species' history, at least half of all relationships would have ended within 15 years.
Of course, humanity has undergone spectacular developments since it roamed the African savannah. But evolution works slowly. Today we are, they argue, ancient apes living ultra-modern lives. The median length of a marriage is about 11 years which, they point out, fits "surprisingly well" with the Pleistocene 15. As we're living ever longer, we're outlasting the possibilities of love. "Once a couple gets together, they're on borrowed time," Savulescu says. "Our biology wasn't constructed to keep people together for that long. I think we should use our knowledge to give love a helping hand."
Although many relationships end for good reasons, Sandberg says, for some "it might be that the systems underpinning the pair's bond are giving up for completely biological reasons. Nothing to do with you or your partner." So we can fall out of love for physical reasons? "Yes, that's what we're suspecting, although I don't think we're ever going to be able to prove that one particular divorce was biological and another wasn't." In theory, however, we'll be able to counter this evolutionary handicap by engineering our marriages with drugs.
Such a drug would likely contain doses of two structurally similar hormones: oxytocin and vasopressin. Scientists know this, in part, because of the study of voles. It happens that prairie voles tend to be monogamous while their rogue cousins, the mountain voles, are usually not. This neat contrast makes them valuable subjects for research. According to Professor Sue Carter, of Chicago's University of Illinois, "In prairie voles, a combination of oxytocin and vasopressin is necessary in order for a pair bond to form. Not one or the other, both." But, if – as Sandberg and Savulescu are – we're talking about using them to manipulate humans, there's a problem, she says. "We're walking a razor's edge in the body's use of these hormones."
Of the two, oxytocin is the more famous and misunderstood. Sometimes known as the "cuddle chemical", its positive role in experiences such as orgasm and childbirth seems to have led some to imagine it as an inhalable happy drug. Sadly, neurochemicals don't work like this. They tend to serve different functions in different regions of the brain, and can have a range of effects depending on an individual's personality and psychological state. Professor Jennifer Bartz, of McGill University in Montreal, explains: "Even if oxytocin is doing something at a very basic level to increase someone's desire to connect with another person, you may get a very different response depending on their expectations of that connection and the ways in which they usually connect with other people."
Vasopressin brings its own complications. "Whilst oxytocin is important for passive behaviours [such as hugging], vasopressin is part of the active coping system," Carter says. "It's been implicated in an animal defending its babies. It's there to protect us and those we love. If that system gets driven too far, it can possibly create an overly defensive, hypervigilant state and under those conditions we have what humans might call jealousy. Jealousy tends to be destructive, both to the lover and the loved one."
Further confusion comes from the fact that the doses Sandberg and Savulescu suggest would likely have a short-term effect, and that the sheer quantity of neurochemicals might be less important than the way in which your brain happens to receive them. You might have a lot of receptors for these chemicals, or you might have a few. "If you have a small number, presumably there's a bottleneck," says Robin Dunbar, professor of evolutionary psychology at Oxford. "You can pump as much vasopressin in as you like and it may or may not have a big effect." Even the kind of receptor you have is important, he says. One vasopressin receptor variant, for example, "seems to be very strongly associated with males who are poor at maintaining romantic relationships. They're very prone to having affairs, and so on." How would extra vasopressin affect these men? "That remains a mystery."
Love drugs will not be easy, then. But Sandberg and Savulescu aren't suggesting we're ready to manufacture them now (Sandberg gives it a rough estimate of about 10 years). Even if we were, it would not be a case of simply inhaling the chemical and living happily ever after. "A drug by itself doesn't contain much information," Sandberg explains. "Most likely you'd need to give the couple the drug, put them in the same room and make sure they interact. One of the strongest indicators that a marriage is working is that the partners do things together."
"Any of this stuff would have to be coupled with social interventions," Savulescu agrees. "You would still have to do the work. The drug would just enhance that."
Enhanced or not, I'm not sure how I'd feel if Farrah had to take drugs to love me. Actually, that's not true. I know exactly how I'd feel. Rejected. Emasculated. A failed lover, unable to provoke affection even in my own wife. And if the treatment worked, the resulting love would seem suspicious and inauthentic. Even if it felt to her like real love, it would surely be missing some crucial element.
"Some people say if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck," says Dr James Garvey, of the Royal Institute of Philosophy. "But things are what they are because of their history. The Mona Lisa and a fake might look the same, but one's worth a lot more than the other, because of its history."
As long as the drug isn't the primary cause of love, Garvey has no philosophical objection. Nevertheless, he adds, "People under the spell of neuroscience might talk about the neural correlates of love, brain states and chemicals – as if that's what we've discovered love to be, just as we've discovered that water is really H2O. I'm not sure love has a fixed nature, like water does. Maybe I'm with Socrates, who thought love is not the sort of thing we're able to understand completely."
Savulescu dismisses the authenticity complaint by claiming it to be a product of "over-idealised, over-romanticised concepts. Take a couple in India who are entering into an arranged marriage. They don't love each other in the western sense. If they're given something that makes each other more attractive, why not? Just because it's a drug that's doing it – well, everything that operates in your brain is effectively chemicals and you're just influencing what could've gone on anyway. You're not creating something."
But Professor Bartz has another reason to be concerned. Even if the stories we tell about human love are over-romanticised fantasies, it might still be important that we fall for them. Our beliefs about our relationship can be crucial to its success. "There's some famous research that looks at 'attribution theory' in marriage and close relationships," she explains. "When you're assessing your partner's positive behaviour, it's critical that you attribute it to their disposition and not to some state such as, 'They got a raise that day.' Whereas for negative behaviours, it's important that you make an external attribution – so it's, 'They had a bad day at work' and not 'They're a terrible person.'"
If love is an illusion, it's a fantasy that's formed, in part, by these biased attributions, which seem to occur naturally in most happy relationships. Similarly, many of us will be familiar with what happens towards the end of a relationship, when behaviour that previously appeared charming or endearing becomes the opposite. What happens, then, if our marriage is in trouble, we start taking love drugs and begin to feel better? "The problem is, you might begin to attribute your desire to maintain the relationship not to your partner, but to this substance," Bartz says.
A confession. I have another fear, related to all this, that murmurs in the background. I'm scared of my marriage ending, but I'm also scared of it succeeding. Monogamy just seems so endless. It means the same fights and disappointments until one of us is dead. It means decades of faithfulness.
Monogamy is, of course, hard. Among many other things, it requires the wisdom to swap short-term gain for the hope of more distant reward: the ability to inhibit "your natural tendency to want to reach out and grab the big cake in front of you", as Professor Dunbar puts it. "That ability is correlative of brain size in primates. We do it better than other primates because we have a bigger bit of the brain that handles that."
Monogamy's purpose, he believes, is the successful rearing of young. "This becomes blatantly obvious in the case of birds who are ferrying food to the nest as busily as they can," he says. "It really takes two adults to keep the nest fully provisioned, so you have to be able to anticipate what the different requirements are for the two of you in this joint enterprise and, because everybody's interest is slightly different, negotiate compromise."
So perhaps we don't need monogamy after all? Once our children pass into the adult world, could we just let love die? Dunbar says that societies with a tradition of lifelong coupledom do so only because of "imposition by religions, particularly the Abrahamic ones". Savulescu agrees. "I'm not some crazy moralist who has a particular view of how relationships should be," he says. He compares marriage to communism, in that it's "an ideology that's been dreamed up by someone as being fit for human beings without them having any knowledge of what the human animal is actually like, what it needs, what it can and can't do."
Nevertheless, the great majority of us fall for the dream of endless coupledom. "It's a bit like a modern religion," he says. "Everyone must be in love. It's the highest goal of human experience. It's something sacred, we can't question it, and if you fail at it, you're an inferior human being. People always cite high divorce rates as a terrible problem. But who knows what the right divorce rate is? Maybe it should be higher."
Sandberg believes that we might, one day, be able to manufacture an "anti-love" drug for heartbreak, "whatever heartbreak actually is. I think it's extremely complicated. A lot of break-ups seem to have an element of bereavement and we don't know very much about grief in the brain. Again this annoys me deeply as a neuroscientist. Why haven't we been studying the stuff that actually matters?"
The practical lesson from all of this is that marriage is a version of friendship and, as such, requires social nutrients. All the scientists I spoke with agreed that spending time together, and having fun, would naturally encourage production of oxytocin and vasopressin (as well as affecting the uptake of vitally important endorphins), no inhalers required.
That's easy to say, of course, but you can't simply summon fun. To be an adult is often to be the ringmaster of a joyless circus of problems and pressures. Love becomes a low priority. For almost half of us, it disappears completely. And if a few sessions with an inhaler and my wife might help to prevent that from happening, then maybe I will be seeking out a prescription one day. I might lose some self-respect, and a romantic notion or two, but I'd take that if I could nudge 50-50 into 80-20 and turn "maybe" into "probably", or even "definitely".

Protests force Georgia president to change speech venue

TBILISI (Reuters) - Hundreds of protesters who accuse Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili of flouting human rights and stifling dissent forced him to change the venue of his annual address to the nation on Friday.

The most wanted man in America

In a police tale attracting national attention, fired police officer Christopher Jordan Dorner may now be in hiding in California's snowy mountains -- plotting his next move after allegedly killing three people. Officers toting high-powered weapons fanned out Friday across thousands of square miles, searching for an ex-cop who's declared war on police.

Diets through history: Good, bad and scary

Fad diets come and go, but the idea of dieting itself has been around for centuries. From President Taft to Victoria Beckham, and the Grapefruit Diet to Slim-Fast, here's a look at some of the most famous (and infamous) moments in dieting history.

Downing St calls ‘horsemeat’ summit

French anti-fraud agency believe that suppliers to British retailers may have deliberately substituted beef for horsemeat in several products

Psychiatry by Numbers

"And if ever, by some unlucky chance, anything unpleasant should somehow happen, why, there's always soma to give you a holiday from the facts. And there's always soma to calm your anger, to reconcile you to your enemies, to make you patient and long-suffering. In the past you could only accomplish these things by making a great effort and after years of hard moral training. Now, you swallow two or three half-gramme tablets, and there you are. Anybody can be virtous now. You can carry at least half your mortality about in a bottle." -Aldous Huxley, Brave New World In reply to Yet Another Harrowing Tale of White Collar Addiction , a friend and fellow journalist wrote me a letter detailing her personal history with psychiatric diagnosis and some of her thoughts on the process, which she has graciously allowed me to share here. In my post, I suggested that the problems with psychiatric diagnosis are not specific to ADHD. Camille's case illustrates this well. [More]

ScienceShot: First Evidence of Life Under Antarctic Ice

U.S. team recovers microbes from sediment of Lake Whillans

Unconsciously Triggered Emotional Conflict by Emotional Facial Expressions

by Jun Jiang, Kira Bailey, Antao Chen, Qian Cui, Qinglin Zhang

The present study investigated whether emotional conflict and emotional conflict adaptation could be triggered by unconscious emotional information as assessed in a backward-masked affective priming task. Participants were instructed to identify the valence of a face (e.g., happy or sad) preceded by a masked happy or sad face. The results of two experiments revealed the emotional conflict effect but no emotional conflict adaptation effect. This demonstrates that emotional conflict can be triggered by unconsciously presented emotional information, but participants may not adjust their subsequent performance trial-by trial to reduce this conflict.

AUDIO: 'No practical use' for prime number

Curtis Cooper, who has discovered what is thought to be the largest prime number ever identified, admits he's not aware of "any practical application" for it.

The Joy of Fungal Sex: Penicillin Mold Can Reproduce Sexually, Which Could Lead to Better Antibiotics

 By turning off the lights, setting up an oatmeal-based bed and slipping some extra vitamins into their food, researchers have persuaded the supposedly asexual mold that makes penicillin to have sex. The fungi's ability to switch it up sexually could help industrial scientists breed more efficient antibiotic-producing strains or even lead to the discovery of new, useful compounds.
[More]

Swedes Debate Meat Tax Proposal

A stock photo of a cattle farm in Vasteras, Sweden on March 3, 2006. As meat consumption rises in Sweden, along with associated carbon emissions, officials debate the best way to keep meat production environmentally sustainable. (Fredrik Sandberg/AFP/Getty Images)

STOCKHOLM—Meat consumption in Sweden has risen 50 percent in the past 20 years, making it one of the leading meat consumers in Europe—but concern for the environmental impact of meat production is also prevalent in the nation.
When the Swedish Board of Agriculture (SBA) recommended a meat tax last month, a great debate ensued in the Swedish media. The SBA has since said that the tax would have to be implemented across at least several European nations to have a significant impact.
It maintains that public policy and consumer habits must change to decrease meat consumption and promote sustainable meat production—not just in Sweden, but globally.
Asia and Africa are the only regions in the world that do not require a decrease in meat consumption, according to a report released by Sweden’s Lund University last year.

“In agriculture, it is not just about carbon, but also methane and nitrous oxide,” says Ragni Andersson of the SBA. European levels of emissions associated with meat production are already comparatively low—30–40 percent lower than in Brazil, for example—but still far beyond what the world’s ecosystems can handle.
The planet can sustain emissions of up to 2.20 tons of greenhouse gases per person annually. According to the Swedish University of Agricultural Science, Sweden’s emissions average 11.02 tons per person. Food production alone produces 2.20 tons per person.
The proposed meat tax would differentiate between meat produced in high-emission facilities and meat produced in low-emission facilities.
Though a carbon tax on meat would have to be implemented at least on the European Union level to be effective, according the SBA, the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC) maintains it is a good idea in Sweden.
“Consumers have a responsibility based on the knowledge they have to make decisions in everyday life, to reduce their own consumption of meat. But, a great responsibility also rests on the policy to design instruments that drive development in the right direction,” says Johanna Sandahl, SSNC spokeswoman for agricultural issues.
SSNC says a carbon tax on meat is a step in the right direction, but it is important that the tax be supplemented by other means to reduce the environmental impact of agriculture in general.
Those who are critical of the proposed tax believe it could inadvertently contribute to deteriorating animal welfare. The most industrialized conditions for keeping livestock are also often most conducive to low emissions.
Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg told Scandinavia Today, “I think you should be careful about how to use the tax system. We have a carbon tax and it works well. We’ll do a reconciliation of climate policy after 2015 and we have already said that we are prepared to take away some of the exceptions contained in the carbon dioxide tax. … To then have a special arrangement [for the] meat area, I do not think is good.”
At the same time the SBA published its report, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences published a guide on how to choose meat for reduced environmental impact. Both the SBA and the university recommend Swedish meat.
About half the meat consumed in Sweden is imported. Transport contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, and production in Sweden creates lower emissions itself than some other countries around the world.
North Trade, a company that imports meat, is critical of the meat guide.
“As the issue of meat and the environment is extremely complex, we do not believe that it is possible to even make a foreseeable meat guide,” says Calle Ramvall, quality and environmental manager at North Trade. “Our main argument is that you cannot focus on country or continent when giving advice.”
Andersson says SBA will continue to try educating all involved in the industry

Japan Says Russian Fighter Planes Entered Its Airspace

The episode underscores the two nations’ tangled territorial claims related to an island chain near the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido that have been controlled for decades by the Soviet Union and then Russia.

Japan Says Russian Fighter Planes Entered Its Airspace

The episode underscores the two nations’ tangled territorial claims related to an island chain near the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido that have been controlled for decades by the Soviet Union and then Russia.

Desert bacteria could help boost crop yields

Desert soil microbes could help halt desertification and boost agriculture in arid regions of the Middle East and North Africa, according to a study. Scientists from the United Arab Emirates [UAE] have isolated local salt- and drought-tolerant strains of Rhizobia, soil bacteria that fix nitrogen when they become established inside the root nodules of legumes.

Tests ordered on UK beef products

Food retailers are ordered to carry out tests on all processed beef products after meat in some Findus lasagnes was found to be up to 100% horsemeat.

Canadian University Closes Confucius Institute

Sonia Zhao gives a speech about the persecution of Falun Gong in China at a rally in Toronto in August 2011. Zhao, a former instructor at the Confucius Institute at McMaster University, had to sign a statement promising not to practice Falun Gong when she was in China before joining the institute. McMaster has now decided to close the institute over concerns about its hiring practices. (Gordon Yu/The Epoch Times)

McMaster University has decided to close the Confucius Institute that it has hosted since 2008, the Hamilton, Ontario-based university announced Feb 7.
The decision was made because of the hiring practices of the Beijing-linked Confucius Institute (CI), which recruits its instructors in China.
“Hiring decisions in China were not being done the way we would want to do the hiring,” Andrea Farquhar, assistant vice president of public and government relations at McMaster, told The Epoch Times.

We are very encouraged to see that McMaster University is attempting to correct a mistake they made when they invited the Confucius Institute to their university.

—Lucy Zhou, Falun Dafa Association of Canada.

The Epoch Times reported in 2011 that Sonia Zhao, a Chinese woman who came to work at the McMaster CI, was required to sign a statement promising not to practice Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa), a spiritual meditation discipline persecuted by the communist regime in China.

Farquhar would not confirm that the university’s decision to close the CI was made because of the Zhao’s case, but said it was based on the “overall situation.”
“We had raised some concerns that the hiring practice is not how we act as a university,” she said.
As an example, she said, “anyone who has a certain point of view should be respected. … We respect the right of people who hold various points of view.”


‘Very Encouraged’

Lucy Zhou, a spokesperson with the Falun Dafa Association of Canada, says she is happy with the university’s decision to close the CI.
“We are very encouraged to see that McMaster University is attempting to correct a mistake they made when they invited the Confucius Institute to their university without realizing their discriminatory practices against Falun Gong in their hiring practices,” Zhou says.

Hiring decisions in China were not being done the way we would want to do the hiring.

—Andrea Farquhar, McMaster University

“The illegal persecution of Falun Gong is ruthless and permeates all facets of the society in China, including the education system. This kind of discrimination imported into Canada is a serious violation of human rights.”
Sonia Zhao, who has since been granted refugee status in Canada, was also pleased with McMaster’s decision.
“It is great news and it is encouraging. The persecution of Falun Gong should not happen in China, and of course not in Canada,” she says.
“I hope other universities will take similar steps.”
Funded by the communist regime in China, the CIs are branded as promoting Chinese language and culture, with hundreds of branches worldwide. They have been cited by intelligence agencies as organizations used by the regime to extend its “soft power.”
Richard Fadden, the head of Canada’s intelligence agency CSIS, has said that CIs are under the control of Chinese embassies and consulates and has linked them with some of the regime’s other efforts to influence Canada’s China policy.


Discriminatory Hiring Stipulation

The Epoch Times first reported in 2011 that a stipulation published in English on CI’s main website requires that instructors must have “no record of participation in Falun Gong.”
Rights activists and lawyers have said that the requirement violates human right codes in Canada, especially if the instructors are recruited to come and work in Canada.

The persecution of Falun Gong should not happen in China, and of course not in Canada.

— Former Confucius Institute teacher Sonia Zhao

The Falun Dafa Association of Canada first took its concerns about the CI’s hiring practices and Zhao’s case to McMaster. According to the association, they received a letter from the university president acknowledging the severity of the concerns.
As the university did not take any further steps at that time, Zhao, who left the CI in 2011, filed a case with the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal (OHRT) last September.
In its response to the OHRT case, McMaster had argued that since Zhao signed the agreement with Hanban, the organization overseeing CIs in China, the tribunal has no jurisdiction over the issue.
Human rights lawyer David Matas, who represents Zhao in the case, said that argument doesn’t hold as the CI is not an autonomous entity.
“The reality is that the Confucius Institute is part of McMaster,” Matas said. “Hanban isn’t really running—what they’re doing is just tying [down the instructors].”


Institute to Be Closed This Summer

According to a McMaster statement, the university has given official notice that the CI will be closed once the current term is completed this summer.
The CI at McMaster was developed in conjunction with the Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU). The statement said McMaster had held “numerous discussions” with BLCU officials to achieve a possible solution to its concerns. However, no satisfactory resolutions were found.
“Both senate and the board of governors have been updated on the university’s intention to withdraw from the agreement as of July 31, 2013.This will ensure that no further instructors are selected for McMaster and that students who take programs through the Institute are able to complete their current sessions,” the statement said.
“The University is looking at options to gauge ongoing community interest in Chinese language courses at the postsecondary level.”
Other schools and organizations hosting Confucius Institutes in Canada include Brock University, British Columbia Institute of Technology, University of Sherbrooke (in partnership with Dawson College), University of Waterloo, the Toronto District School Board, University of Regina, Edmonton Public Schools, and the New Brunswick Department of Education.

VIDEO: Fee offered to kill sharks in Brazil

After a spate of deadly shark attacks off the coast of Recife in north-eastern Brazil, locals are paying fishermen to catch and kill sharks.

Dozens missing as Bangladesh ferry sinks

DHAKA (Reuters) - A ferry carrying more than 50 people sank on Bangladesh's giant Meghna River on Friday after colliding with a sand barge and dozens were missing, officials said.

China Denies Directing Radar at Japanese Military

The denial was China’s first substantial response to the claim that it had aimed radar capable of aiding weapon strikes at a Japanese naval vessel and helicopter near disputed islands.

Survive the first ten years and marriage stays strong

Young couples who get through the first 10 years of marriage have the same chance of staying together as their grandparents' generation, a study of divorce patterns over the last 50 years suggests.

Powerful blizzard takes aim at Northeastern United States

BOSTON (Reuters) - The Northeastern United States braced on Friday morning for a possibly record-setting blizzard bearing down on the region, which forecasters warned could drop up to 2-1/2 feet of snow and bring travel to a halt.

The sky as a ‘sewer’

Society treats the sky as an “open sewer,” pumping carbon waste into the air much as it used to dump bodily waste into waterways, and with the same results. People are getting sick, Al Gore, the former vice president and climate activist, told a packed Memorial Church crowd on Wednesday.
Gore ’69 compared the climate crisis to 19th-century cholera epidemics, including one in London where the outbreak was traced to a single water pump whose source was infected by feces containing the cholera bacterium. The understanding of disease transmission that resulted prompted changes in handling human waste. Dumping carbon waste into the atmosphere needs curbing, Gore said.
The climate change resulting from carbon dumping practices harms human health, Gore said. Not only are people adversely affected by droughts, heat waves, and stronger storms, but a warming Earth will see expansion of the range of disease-carrying insects, bacteria, and parasites, Gore said. Last year, the warmest on record in the United States, also saw the worst outbreak of West Nile virus, which is carried by mosquitoes.
“We’re using the atmosphere as an open sewer. It’s functionally insane. It traps heat,” Gore said. “A lot of communities experience one in 100-year events, one in 1,000-year events … every few years.”
Gore delivered the inaugural Paul R. Epstein Memorial Lecture in honor of the former Harvard Medical School instructor and authority on the links between climate change and human health. Epstein, who died of cancer in 2011, was the founder and associate director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment, which sponsored the event.
The session included comments from Jonathan Walton, the Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church; Dean Julio Frenk of the Harvard School of Public Health; John Spengler, director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment and Akira Yamaguchi Professor of Environmental Health and Human Habitation; and Eric Chivian, co-founder of the Center for Health and the Global Environment and assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
Several speakers praised Epstein as a pioneer in understanding the potential health effects of climate change and as a tireless advocate for raising awareness of the danger that climate change poses to human health. Gore called Epstein a friend as well, and an adviser to Gore’s presentations on climate change and the resulting film, “An Inconvenient Truth.”
Referring to last year’s West Nile virus outbreak, Gore said, “Lots of people died. These kinds of events were ones Paul warned us about.”
Though the situation is “almost unimaginably dire,” Gore said there’s still cause for hope. President Barack Obama mentioned climate change in his inaugural address, which Gore said means federal action may be coming, though it’s unlikely that any significant climate legislation can pass this Congress. Still, Gore said, there are things the president can do without Congress to regulate carbon emissions from existing power plants.
“I believe we’re going to see inspiring action,” Gore said. “I’m hopeful, but I’m also worried. And that’s a healthy attitude.”
Even absent federal action, there is hopeful movement in other places. Cap-and-trade programs are taking effect in California and British Columbia. And China, the world’s biggest carbon dioxide emitter, is beginning two pilot cap-and-trade programs to regulate carbon emissions, with a plan to move eventually to a nationwide program.
Gore praised Harvard’s efforts on energy issues, highlighting the founding of the Office for Sustainability and the enthusiasm of today’s students. He mentioned the student-led drive to convince the University to divest fossil fuel-related stocks from its investments.
Though the problems posed by climate change may seem insurmountable, Gore said students should feel it a “privilege” to work in a great cause. The problem is so broad and touches so many aspects of human life that students should take on whatever part of it appeals to them.
“Pick any aspect that you feel strongly about and follow that passion,” Gore said. “Just pour your best efforts into it.”
Gore called for reforms to the capitalist system and to democracy. Though he called democracy the best way to govern people and capitalism the best way to manage economies, he said both systems are both flawed in important ways.
Democracy has become poisoned by money and the need for constant fundraising by elected officials to finance increasingly expensive campaigns. As for capitalism, Gore questioned the focus on growth as a measure of a health economy, and specifically how that growth is measured. If incomes rise, but that most benefits the rich, is that desirable growth? Similarly, if growth is defined as a rising gross domestic product (GDP), which doesn’t include the costs of pollution, resource depletion, and other “externalities,” is that the best measure, he asked?
“GDP as an economic compass is driving us off a cliff,” Gore said.

‘Light’ sodas may hike diabetes risk: study

Paris: Artificially sweetened sodas have been linked to a higher risk of Type 2 diabetes for women than sodas sweetened with ordinary sugar, a French study unveiled on Thursday found. “Contrary to conventional thinking, the risk of diabetes is higher with ‘light’ beverages compared with ‘regular’ sweetened drinks,” the National Institute of Health and Medical [...]

Seafloor volcanic vent discovered near Antarctica

A research vessel towing an underwater camera has discovered a volcanic vent in the Southern Ocean north of Antarctica.

Monster blizzard could slam Northeast

Two ferocious storm systems are expected to converge overnight, resulting in what could be a historic blizzard for parts of the Northeast.

Propone PAN cárcel por endeudamientos

El PAN en el Senado propondrá castigar con inhabilitaciones, juicio político y hasta cárcel a Mandatarios y ediles ligados al manejo ilegal de deudas.

Bélgica registou 1432 eutanásias. Um número recorde

A Bélgica registou em 2012 um número recorde de casos de eutanásia, indicou hoje a comissão responsável pelo acompanhamento desta prática, legalizada pelas autoridades belgas há 10 anos.

60 years on, cities still struggle with smog

In big cities around the world, from China to Afghanistan, authorities are still fighting the battle against smog. This, despite the fact that 60 years ago, Londoners suffered from a dramatic air pollution event.

Fujitsu says sayonara to semiconductor biz, thousands of staff

Dividend killed as conquering European IT proves tough
Japanese IT giant Fujitsu has been trying to eject its semiconductor business for a number of years, and has finally had enough of the drag it puts on its revenues and earnings.…

There's Been A Big Shift In America's Foreign-Born Population Since 1960

The US Census Bureau just published this great infographic showing the evolution of America's foreign-born population.  Check it out.

[Perspective] Ecology: Pollution, Politics, and Vultures

The catastrophic collapse of south Asia's vultures may at last be coming to an end, thanks to a ban on the veterinary drug responsible.

Author: Andrew Balmford

[Perspective] Geochemistry: Impact and Extinction

Precise dating shows that the Chicxulub impact coincided with the mass extinction at the K-Pg boundary 66 million years ago. [Also see Report by Renne et al.]

Author: Heiko Pälike

Enterprises dropping BlackBerry support in favor of the iPhone

The iPhone has supplanted the BlackBerry as the mobile-device darling of the enterprise, according to a new study from iPass and MobileIron. Researchers found that the iPhone now enjoys IT support at 74 percent of enterprises, up from 52 percent a year ago. By contrast, BlackBerry is now supported in 62 percent of enterprise companies, down from 77 percent the previous year.

Findus beef lasagne was 60 per cent horse meat

Testing on Findus beef lasagne has revealed the meals contain more than 60 per cent horse meat, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) has said.

CIA nominee faces drone questions

The Obama administration's classified rationale for using drones to kill Americans working for al Qaeda and other terror groups is a pressing concern of Senate lawmakers ready to grill CIA nominee John Brennan at his confirmation hearing.

Bandeira de Portugal tinha pagodes em vez de castelos

A bandeira de Portugal na entrada da sede do Conselho Europeu, em Bruxelas, foi substituída antes da cimeira de líderes de hoje, depois de ter sido constatado que continha pagodes em vez dos tradicionais...

Unhealthy Glow: Fluorescent Tadpoles Expose Chemical Contamination

In cartoons glowing goo signals that there is bad stuff in the water. Now life imitates art: A French biotechnology company has created a transgenic tadpole that fluoresces when it encounters chemical contaminants in water that disrupt thyroid functioning. The test promises to shine a light on a class of endocrine-disrupting pollutants, which pollution regulators have in their crosshairs. [More]

Drugs used to boost the chances of a baby are causing a rise in multiple pregnancies: experts

Women using drugs to boost the chances of conception have driven continuing high rates of multiple births, figures suggest.

Will California Get Fracked?

Forget Pennsylvania. California could become the next state to get fracked.

Addition of External Organic Carbon and Native Soil Organic Carbon Decomposition: A Meta-Analysis

by Weidong Zhang, Xiaofeng Wang, Silong Wang
Background
Extensive studies have been conducted to evaluate the effect of external organic Carbon on native soil organic carbon (SOC) decomposition. However, the direction and extent of this effect reported by different authors is inconsistent.
Objective
The objective was to provide a synthesis of existing data that comprehensively and quantitatively evaluates how the soil chemical properties and incubation conditions interact with additional external organic C to affect the native SOC decomposition.
Data Source
A meta-analysis was conducted on previously published empirical studies that examined the effect of the addition of external organic carbon on the native SOC decomposition through isotopic techniques.
Results and Conclusions
The addition of external organic C, when averaged across all studies, enhanced the native SOC decomposition by 26.5%. The soil with higher SOC content and fine texture showed significantly higher priming effects, whereas the soil with higher total nitrogen content showed an opposite trend. The soils with higher C:N ratios had significantly stronger priming effects than those with low C:N ratios. The decomposition of native SOC was significantly enhanced more at early stage of incubation (<15d) than at the later stages (>15d). In addition, the incubation temperature and the addition rate of organic matter significantly influenced the native SOC decomposition in response to the addition of external organic C.

Air pollution linked to low birth weight: study

Washington (AFP) Feb 6, 2013



For pregnant women, breathing in air pollution from vehicles, heating and coal power plants increases the risk of having a low birth weight baby, an international study said Wednesday.

The research, the most extensive of its kind on the link between air pollution and fetal development, found that the higher the pollution, the greater the rate of children born with a low weight. It was ....

2 Great Lakes at record low levels

Milwaukee (UPI) Feb 6, 2013



Record low water levels have been measured in two of the Great Lakes, Michigan and Huron, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says.
The water levels, the lowest since modern record-keeping began in 1918, are tracked by gauges placed around Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, which are technically considered one body of water connected by the Straits of Mackinac.
The relatively warm and ....

Solomons quake shows might of 'Ring of Fire'

Sydney (AFP) Feb 6, 2013



A huge earthquake that struck off the Solomons Islands Wednesday was another reminder of the power of the volatile "Ring of Fire", a vast zone of volcanic instability that encircles the Pacific Ocean.

The 8.0-magnitude earthquake was feared to have flattened villages in the Solomons, and generated small tsunami waves that reached Pacific nations' coasts, triggering emergency sirens and .....

Fighting female genital mutilation in Africa

Tuesday (06.02.2013) is the International Day of Zero Tolerance on Female Genital Mutilation. Every eleven seconds, a girl is subjected to the brutal practice. But Togo has outlawed the practice.

Daimler group profits up in "mixed" 2012

German automaker Daimler posted record sales and revenues in all of its units in 2012. However, despite selling more busses, trucks and cars, growth in group profit was primarily achieved through an asset sale.

Swedish women break the silence on online threats

A string of female journalists, opinion makers and bloggers have spoken out about the vitriol they face on the web, with a slew of hate mail, death threats and insults published in comment fields, on social media platforms and in private emails.

Credit Suisse sees overhaul bearing fruit this year

ZURICH (Reuters) - Credit Suisse said it expects steps taken to overhaul its business will bear fruit this year, after fourth-quarter profit missed forecasts because of weak results at its investment bank.

Toman por asalto sede de los CCH

Para rechazar una reforma al plan de los CCH, que incluye el inglés como materia obligatoria, jóvenes tomaron a la fuerza la dirección central, en CU.

Statoil to boost spending by $1bn

Norwegian oil major continues to invest heavily in exploration to lift production by 25% as fourth-quarter earnings beat analysts’ expectations

Iran airs footage it says is from downed U.S. drone

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran released what it said was the decoded footage taken by a US reconnaissance drone plane that it captured more than a year ago, Iranian media reported.

Spain scandal, weak economy push up yields at triple auction

MADRID (Reuters) - Political uncertainty over a corruption scandal and revived concerns over the economic health of the euro zone forced the Spanish Treasury to pay more to borrow at a triple-bond auction on Thursday.

Police investigate death of elderly woman left to die in 'agony' by care home

An elderly woman who died after she was left without care in her own home for nine days must have been in ''agony'', a friend said today, as police launch investigation.

Benchmarking Human Protein Complexes to Investigate Drug-Related Systems and Evaluate Predicted Protein Complexes

by Min Wu, Qi Yu, Xiaoli Li, Jie Zheng, Jing-Fei Huang, Chee-Keong Kwoh

Protein complexes are key entities to perform cellular functions. Human diseases are also revealed to associate with some specific human protein complexes. In fact, human protein complexes are widely used for protein function annotation, inference of human protein interactome, disease gene prediction, and so on. Therefore, it is highly desired to build an up-to-date catalogue of human complexes to support the research in these applications. Protein complexes from different databases are as expected to be highly redundant. In this paper, we designed a set of concise operations to compile these redundant human complexes and built a comprehensive catalogue called CHPC2012 (Catalogue of Human Protein Complexes). CHPC2012 achieves a higher coverage for proteins and protein complexes than those individual databases. It is also verified to be a set of complexes with high quality as its co-complex protein associations have a high overlap with protein-protein interactions (PPI) in various existing PPI databases. We demonstrated two distinct applications of CHPC2012, that is, investigating the relationship between protein complexes and drug-related systems and evaluating the quality of predicted protein complexes. In particular, CHPC2012 provides more insights into drug development. For instance, proteins involved in multiple complexes (the overlapping proteins) are potential drug targets; the drug-complex network is utilized to investigate multi-target drugs and drug-drug interactions; and the disease-specific complex-drug networks will provide new clues for drug repositioning. With this up-to-date reference set of human protein complexes, we believe that the CHPC2012 catalogue is able to enhance the studies for protein interactions, protein functions, human diseases, drugs, and related fields of research. CHPC2012 complexes can be downloaded from http://www1.i2r.a-star.edu.sg/xlli/CHPC2012/CHPC2012.htm.

Dan con base secreta de CIA en Arabia Saudita

Desde hace dos años, la CIA realiza operaciones desde ahí contra terroristas vinculados a Al Qaeda en la Península Arábiga; se había mantenido en secreto

'Wish you weren't here' - Migration to the UK

Cutting migration is the UK government's mantra, but at the end of the year, it will have to throw its borders open to two more full EU members, Romania and Bulgaria. So how will it proceed?

Credit Suisse raises cost-cutting targets

Switzerland’s second-largest bank by assets seeks further savings as its fourth-quarter profits fall short of analysts’ expectations

MEXIQUE • Ciudad Juarez redevient vivable

De nouvelles statistiques concernant cette dangereuse ville frontalière entre le Mexique et les Etats-Unis ont de quoi redonner espoir, note USA Today.

¿Pollution threat¿ to mums-to-be: One in every 20 cases of pre-eclampsia blamed on higher levels of air pollution

Air pollution could be a factor in up to 2,000 cases of potentially fatal pre-eclampsia each year in the UK, a new study has indicated.
After taking account of various factors, they calculated that one in every 20 (five per cent) cases of pre-eclampsia were linked to ozone levels during early pregnancy.
Lead researcher David Olsson, of the department of public health and clinical medicine at Umea University, said the findings should lead to improved monitoring of women with asthma during pregnancy.

Girl, nine, gives birth in Mexico

A nine-year-old girl has given birth in western Mexico and police say they are looking for the alleged father, a 17-year-old. Jalisco state police spokesman Lino Gonzalez said the baby girl was born last week at a hospital in the city of Guadalajara. He said the girl and her baby are doing well. Mr Gonzalez said the girl's family alerted authorities after she gave birth and the alleged father has not been seen since in the neighbourhood they both live in. He says that if the teenager's paternity is proved he could face child sex abuse charges. Mr Gonzalez says the girl told authorities the teenager was her boyfriend.

Doping ‘widespread’ in Australian sport

Government probe finds the use of banned substances by a number of sporting clubs and links to criminal syndicates ‘trafficking’ performance-enhancing drugs

No anonymity for sperm donors, court rules

The decision of a regional appeals court in Hamm that the children of sperm donors have the right to know who their fathers are could have a wider impact – some 100,000 children in Germany were born to sperm donors.

Asignación en Sedena fue de Peña, reitera Chong

El secretario de Gobernación reafirmó que la decisión de que el General Moisés García Ochoa fuera el titular de la Sedena no fue un imposición de los Estados Unidos

UK attracts most immigrants in whole of EU

In 2010, 591,000 people moved to Britain - more than double the number who migrated to France, which received 251,200, figures show.

Solar undercuts coal in New Mexico

Pennies per kilowatt-hour
Bloomberg is reporting something of a world first: a solar facility in Macho Springs, New Mexico, is planning to sell its energy to the grid substantially below the price of coal-fired power.…

Twitter spends $70m to juice your tweets, tell biz what you want - report

Said to have bought out social TV analytics upstart
Twitter has reportedly spent big on acquiring social media analytics startup BlueFin Labs.…

Will Loreto, Mexico Be One Of The World's Most Sustainable Urban Destinations?

In 2003, Canadian developers partnered with the Mexican government to embark on a $3 billion project, aiming to build a series of eco-friendly villages along the seaside of Loreto Bay, Mexico.

Tech jobs account for up to 14 percent of hiring in January

Tech employment posted a large increase last month, despite a generally soft employment gain overall, according to two separate reports. The U.S. economy added 157,000 jobs in January, but IT accounted for 22,100 of those jobs, according to Foote Partners, an IT labor analyst and research firm.

Thousands of PCs internet access cut

Thousands of computers running Microsoft's Windows XP operating system are unable to connect to the internet after installing an anti-virus update.

Yelp Defeats Legal Challenge to Its User Review Filter

Yelp ($YELP) uses an automated review filter to suppress some user reviews of businesses.  The review filter's criteria aren't publicly disclosed, and some businesses feel that legitimate positive reviews from happy customers are unfairly hidden.  One business owner, an operator of three restaurants in Mammoth Lakes, California and a Yelp advertiser, got so frustrated with the review filter that he challenged Yelp's review filter in court.  Recently, the court ruled decisively in favor of Yelp, confirming that Yelp isn't legally liable for filtering users' reviews as it sees fit.

Patent Approval Paves Way For Apple To Fire Up Solar Powered iPhone

PIn the negative hoopla surrounding Apple these days, it is a common lament that Apple is no longer innovating.  A newly approved patent suggests otherwise .

Chinese are 'still hacking' WSJ

Rupert Murdoch tweets that the Wall Street Journal newspaper is still being attacked by Chinese hackers.

Was Palm Oil to Blame for the Poisoning of 14 Pygmy Elephants?

When wildlife officials in Borneo first encountered a three-month-old pygmy elephant on January 25, he was surrounded by death. Four members of his herd lay on the ground around him, their bodies cold and bloody. The baby was nudging his dead mother with his trunk, trying to get her to rise and feed him.Tragically, the four dead elephants were not the first, nor were they the last. Six bodies had already been found that month, rotting carcasses away in the Gunung Rara Forest Reserve in northeastern Borneo. Four more were found in the days to come. Initial investigations revealed that the dead elephants were all suffering from severe bleeding and gastrointestinal ulcers, most likely caused by poisoning. [More]

In Australia, Record Weather Fuels Climate Policy Process

Research groups weigh in on Senate inquiry into extreme weather

Pictures preview the 'Comet of the Century'

Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: Comet ISON is still too dim to be seen with the naked eye, but fresh images track what skywatchers hope will become the "Comet of the Century" nine months from now.

Elephants 'try to avoid' humans

African elephants 'know' when they are in safe areas and become stressed when they leave them, according to a study.

Funding for shark drug research

A team developing anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory drugs from research based on the immune systems of sharks receives a £1.5m funding boost.

First-Time Reports from Oil and Gas Industry Reveal Massive Methane Emissions

U.S. EPA's addition of oil, gas and coal methane emissions to its online greenhouse gas tracking tool revealed an 82.6-million-metric-ton increase in carbon dioxide equivalents over numbers from the previous year, when those figures were not available.
[More]

Why Norway Is Paying a South American Country To Not Cut Down Its Trees

By Ariel Schwartz

As part of a landmark deal, the Scandinavian country is investing in deforestation-prevention efforts in Guyana, in the hopes that it might help slow climate change around the world.

It's an odd arrangement at first glance: Norway is sinking hundreds of millions of dollars into Guyana, in the hopes that the latter country will slow deforestation and subsequently help stall climate change. [More]

Study Suggests Plants Can Be Altruistic Too

Altruism is the behavior that exudes the selfless concern of one to benefit the well being of another at one's own expense. In the animal kingdom, some of these altruistic notions can be when a dog raises orphaned cats or squirrels or when Vervet monkeys will warn fellow monkeys of the presence of predators even though their alarm call will increase their own chances of being attacked. However, altruism is not only linked to humans and members of the animal kingdom - according to a study from the University of Colorado Boulder, research suggests that some plants may also have an altruistic side.

Boston mayor calls on city to prepare for climate change

BOSTON (Reuters) - In the wake of Superstorm Sandy, which brought historic flooding to the greater New York area, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino said on Tuesday his coastal city will step up efforts to prepare for the effects of rising sea levels

VOC Contamination in Hospital, from Stationary Sampling of a Large Panel of Compounds, in View of Healthcare Workers and Patients Exposure Assessment

by Vincent Bessonneau, Luc Mosqueron, Adèle Berrubé, Gaël Mukensturm, Sylvie Buffet-Bataillon, Jean-Pierre Gangneux, Olivier Thomas
Background
We aimed to assess, for the first time, the nature of the indoor air contamination of hospitals.
Methods and Findings
More than 40 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) including aliphatic, aromatic and halogenated hydrocarbons, aldehydes, alcohols, ketones, ethers and terpenes were measured in a teaching hospital in France, from sampling in six sampling sites – reception hall, patient room, nursing care, post-anesthesia care unit, parasitology-mycology laboratory and flexible endoscope disinfection unit – in the morning and in the afternoon, during three consecutive days. Our results showed that the main compounds found in indoor air were alcohols (arithmetic means ± SD: 928±958 µg/m³ and 47.9±52.2 µg/m³ for ethanol and isopropanol, respectively), ethers (75.6±157 µg/m³ for ether) and ketones (22.6±20.6 µg/m³ for acetone). Concentrations levels of aromatic and halogenated hydrocarbons, ketones, aldehydes and limonene were widely variable between sampling sites, due to building age and type of products used according to health activities conducted in each site. A high temporal variability was observed in concentrations of alcohols, probably due to the intensive use of alcohol-based hand rubs in all sites. Qualitative analysis of air samples led to the identification of other compounds, including siloxanes (hexamethyldisiloxane, octamethyltrisiloxane, decamethylcyclopentasiloxane), anesthetic gases (sevoflurane, desflurane), aliphatic hydrocarbons (butane), esters (ethylacetate), terpenes (camphor, α-bisabolol), aldehydes (benzaldehyde) and organic acids (benzoic acid) depending on sites.
Conclusion
For all compounds, concentrations measured were lower than concentrations known to be harmful in humans. However, results showed that indoor air of sampling locations contains a complex mixture of VOCs. Further multicenter studies are required to compare these results. A full understanding of the exposure of healthcare workers and patients to complex mixtures of chemical compounds can then be related to potential health outcomes.

A Method for Comparing Multivariate Time Series with Different Dimensions

by Avraam Tapinos, Pedro Mendes

In many situations it is desirable to compare dynamical systems based on their behavior. Similarity of behavior often implies similarity of internal mechanisms or dependency on common extrinsic factors. While there are widely used methods for comparing univariate time series, most dynamical systems are characterized by multivariate time series. Yet, comparison of multivariate time series has been limited to cases where they share a common dimensionality. A semi-metric is a distance function that has the properties of non-negativity, symmetry and reflexivity, but not sub-additivity. Here we develop a semi-metric – SMETS – that can be used for comparing groups of time series that may have different dimensions. To demonstrate its utility, the method is applied to dynamic models of biochemical networks and to portfolios of shares. The former is an example of a case where the dependencies between system variables are known, while in the latter the system is treated (and behaves) as a black box.

Effect of Fasting on the Metabolic Response of Liver to Experimental Burn Injury

by Mehmet A. Orman, Marianthi G. Ierapetritou, Ioannis P. Androulakis, Francois Berthiaume

Liver metabolism is altered after systemic injuries such as burns and trauma. These changes have been elucidated in rat models of experimental burn injury where the liver was isolated and perfused ex vivo. Because these studies were performed in fasted animals to deplete glycogen stores, thus simplifying quantification of gluconeogenesis, these observations reflect the combined impact of fasting and injury on liver metabolism. Herein we asked whether the metabolic response to experimental burn injury is different in fed vs. fasted animals. Rats were subjected to a cutaneous burn covering 20% of the total body surface area, or to similar procedures without administering the burn, hence a sham-burn. Half of the animals in the burn and sham-burn groups were fasted starting on postburn day 3, and the others allowed to continue ad libitum. On postburn day 4, livers were isolated and perfused for 1 hour in physiological medium supplemented with 10% hematocrit red blood cells. The uptake/release rates of major carbon and nitrogen sources, oxygen, and carbon dioxide were measured during the perfusion and the data fed into a mass balance model to estimate intracellular fluxes. The data show that in fed animals, injury increased glucose output mainly from glycogen breakdown and minimally impacted amino acid metabolism. In fasted animals, injury did not increase glucose output but increased urea production and the uptake of several amino acids, namely glutamine, arginine, glycine, and methionine. Furthermore, sham-burn animals responded to fasting by triggering gluconeogenesis from lactate; however, in burned animals the preferred gluconeogenic substrate was amino acids. Taken together, these results suggest that the fed state prevents the burn-induced increase in hepatic amino acid utilization for gluconeogenesis. The role of glycogen stores and means to increase and/or maintain internal sources of glucose to prevent increased hepatic amino acid utilization warrant further studies.

New device traps particulates, kills airborne pathogens

Washington DC (SPX) Feb 06, 2013



A new device called a soft x-ray electrostatic precipitator protected immunocompromised mice from airborne pathogenic bacteria, viruses, ultrafine particles, and allergens, according to a paper published online ahead of print in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

This device, known for short as a SXC ESP, is highly versatile, with multiple potential uses, and Washington ...

Birds may need a hand to weather climate change

Durham, UK (SPX) Feb 06, 2013



A new study led by Durham University and BirdLife International, shows that many bird species are likely to suffer under future climate change, and will require enhanced protection of important sites, better management of the wider countryside, and in some of the most extreme cases may need to be physically moved to climatically suitable areas to help them survive.

The priority, the ...

How plants sense gravity - a new look at the roles of genetics and the cytoskeleton

Washington DC (SPX) Feb 06, 2013



Gravity affects the ecology and evolution of every living organism. In plants, the general response to gravity is well known: their roots respond positively, growing down, into the soil, and their stems respond negatively, growing upward, to reach the sunlight.

But how do plants sense gravity and how do they direct or signal their cells to grow in response to it? Although botanists ....

New study shows that gases work with particles to promote cloud formation

New York NY (SPX) Feb 06, 2013



Researchers at Columbia Engineering and Georgia Institute of Technology have published a study in the online Early Edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) showing-for the first time-that certain volatile organic gases can promote cloud formation in a way never considered before by atmospheric scientists. The study will be published the week of February 4, 2013.

3D printing breakthrough with human embryonic stem cells

London, UK (SPX) Feb 06, 2013



A team of researchers from Scotland has used a novel 3D printing technique to arrange human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) for the very first time.

It is hoped that this breakthrough, which has been published in the journal Biofabrication, will allow three-dimensional tissues and structures to be created using hESCs, which could, amongst other things, speed up and improve the process of .....

U.S. government rejects road through Alaska wildlife refuge

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - A U.S. government agency on Tuesday rejected a land trade that would have allowed a controversial road to cut through a remote Alaska wildlife refuge and, scientists said, threaten to irreparably damage sensitive habitats.

Poachers kill 11,000 Gabon elephants in under a decade

LIBREVILLE (Reuters) - Poachers have killed more than 11,000 elephants in Gabon's Minkebe National Park rainforest since 2004, Gabon's government said on Wednesday, with the massacre fuelled by increasing demand for ivory in Asia.

Natural Gas and Pure Water

Water is always precious. Increased natural gas production is happening ion the US. But natural gas wells have problems: Large volumes of deep water, often heavily laden with salts and minerals, flow out along with the gas. That so-called produced water must be disposed of, or cleaned. Once cleaned it has beneficial reuse in often arid regions

Argentina: we will prosecute Falkland energy firms

LONDON (Reuters) - Argentina will continue legal action against energy firms working on the disputed, British-controlled Falkland Islands, Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman said on Wednesday.

Budget airline unveils child-free zones

A Malaysian airline has launched "quiet zones" on selected flights, where children under 12 are not permitted to sit

China cracks down on adverts promoting luxury gifts

The Chinese government has outlawed television and radio adverts that promote buying expensive and luxury gifts, amid an ongoing crackdown on graft and excess.

Plagiarism charges cost German minister her PhD

German Education Minister Annette Schavan lost her PhD on Tuesday after a committee at the University of Düsseldorf found sufficient evidence to support claims of plagiarism.

Profits plummet at Swedish automaker Volvo Group in Q4 2012; year-end results down compared to 2011 - @TheLocalSweden

Profits plummet at Swedish automaker Volvo Group in Q4 2012; year-end results down compared to 2011 - @TheLocalSweden

On Wednesday, Volvo reported pre-tax profits of 660 million kronor ($103.8 million) for the fourth quarter 2012, down from 6.39 billion kronor for the same period the year before.

EUA defende uso de 'drones' contra suspeitos de terrorismo

A Presidência dos EUA defendeu na terça-feira a realização de ataques com aviões não tripulados ('drones') contra cidadãos norte-americanos no estrangeiro suspeitos de terrorismo, considerando-os "legais...

Mira apontada a barco japonês foi ato "provocatório"

O primeiro-ministro do Japão, Shinzo Abe, considerou hoje de "perigoso" e "provocatório" o facto de um navio de guerra chinês ter 'trancado" a mira para disparar contra um barco japonês.

Merkel e Hollande acertam orçamento comunitário

A chanceler alemã, Angela Merkel, e o Presidente francês, François Hollande, reúnem-se hoje em Paris para acertar a estratégia e as respetivas posições sobre orçamento comunitário 2014-2020, cujas negociações...

Pensioner starved to death after being left alone for nine days

Woman in her 80s died of hunger and dehydration after mix-up between UK Border Agency and Surrey county council
An MP has called for an investigation into the death of an elderly woman from hunger and dehydration after bureaucratic confusion between the UK Border Agency and Surrey county council.
Gloria Foster, who was in her 80s, was alone for nine days after the company that she paid to take care of her was closed by the UKBA for employing illegal immigrants. The council was given the company records but apparently failed to go to Foster's aid. Foster's MP, Crispin Blunt, described her ordeal as "horrific".
He said: "Clearly there are questions to answer and I would expect a comprehensive investigation between all of the agencies involved. I said last week that I would certainly not like to pre-judge any more of the narrative before it is formally established. Yesterday's desperately sad developments can only increase the salience of that need."
The former secretary, who had no children and whose husband died 30 years ago, was incapacitated after a stroke and relied on four visits a day for basic needs. She had been receiving care at her home in Banstead from Carefirst24 until it was closed after a raid by the UKBA. The company's books were then passed on to the Metropolitan police and the council, which would have assumed responsibility for her care.
Ann Penston, a close friend and legal guardian of Foster, said that she was amazed no one notified her about the withdrawal of care for her friend.
"Somebody could have left a message. My name would have been plastered all over the books of Carefirst24," she told ITV News. "She was just lying there and her medical condition collapsed. She must have gone into a great deal of pain and agony and it was so unnecessary."
Foster was discovered by a district nurse and she was taken to Epsom hospital. She died on Monday.
A council spokeswoman said they were investigating the incident: "We're very sad to hear about Mrs Foster's death, and our thoughts are with her family and friends at this difficult time. The safety of vulnerable adults is our top priority, which is why this tragic event is already being urgently looked at by the Surrey Safeguarding Adults Board."
A spokesman for the UKBA said it had met local authorities to warn them of the raid so they could arrange alternative care for the company's clients.
Six people were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and conspiracy to assist foreign nationals at Carefirst24's office in Sutton on January 15. All were bailed until various dates in April.

Fighting erupts in Damascus as rebels launch attacks

AMMAN (Reuters) - Heavy fighting erupted in Damascus on Wednesday after opposition fighters launched a coordinated offensive from the suburbs against President Bashar al-Assad's forces, breaking a lull in the capital, opposition campaigners said.

Cabin crew fight for right to wear trousers

South Korea's second largest airline urged to abandon its policy of only permitting its female cabin crew to wear skirts.

'CIA drone base' in Saudi revealed

The US Central Intelligence Agency has been operating a secret airbase in Saudi Arabia for unmanned drones for the past two years, US media reveal.

'CIA drone base' in Saudi revealed

The US Central Intelligence Agency has been operating a secret airbase in Saudi Arabia for unmanned drones for the past two years, US media reveal.

China says extremely concerned after latest North Korea threats

BEIJING (Reuters) - China expressed serious concern on Wednesday after North Korea stepped up its bellicose rhetoric and threatened to go beyond a third nuclear test in response to what it sees as "hostile" sanctions imposed after a December rocket launch.

Mexico hunts Acapulco rape gang

Mexican authorities say they are determined to catch a gang who raped six Spanish tourists in the holiday resort of Acapulco.

Analysis: Euro overshoot will rekindle bloc-wide tensions

LONDON (Reuters) - If the euro zone loses the global 'currency war', the price will be paid in growth and jobs and fresh tensions about the future of the bloc.

Ally of Iran's Ahmadinejad freed from prison: official

DUBAI (Reuters) - A once-feared prosecutor at the center of a row between two of Iran's most powerful figures was freed from two days' detention on Wednesday, adding a new twist to a political drama Iran watchers expect to intensify before presidential polls in June.

Dozens in China hepatitis scare

Dozens of people are treated for suspected hepatitis in China's Liaoning province after receiving injections at the same clinic.

Hollande warns against austerity

French President Francois Hollande tells the European Parliament the eurozone has largely put its crisis behind it but cannot afford "endless austerity".

Merkel challenger suggests Greece should be given more time

LONDON (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel's main challenger in this year's federal election said on Monday that recession-struck Greece should be given more time to implement its reforms even though this would cost more money.

Obama to lobby for immigration reform amid citizenship dispute

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will seek to build momentum for immigration reform this week ahead of his State of the Union address, which is expected to challenge Republicans to take up an overhaul amid an increasingly contentious debate in Washington.

UBS private bank inflows weak as reports big loss

ZURICH (Reuters) - UBS saw weak client inflows at its flagship private bank in the fourth quarter as it reported a hefty net loss due to a $1.5 billion fine for rigging benchmark interest rates and restructuring costs.

Arctic oil spill plan 'useless'

Environmental campaigners say that a draft plan to respond to an oil spill in the Arctic ocean is inadequate and vague.

Bacteria Found to Thrive on Gold

Gold prospectors may one day use Petri dishes to help with their quests. A species of bacterium forms nanoscale gold nuggets to help it to grow in toxic solutions of the precious metal, reports a paper published online today in Nature Chemical Biology .
[More]

Tuberculosis vaccine hopes dashed

A major trial of a new booster vaccine ends in failure, marking a major setback in the fight against tuberculosis.

Human Health Impacts of Climate Change Demand Attention

When they picture the adverse effects of climate change, public health scientists hope the American public won't think of them as something that happens to glaciers or polar bears, but turn the focus more on themselves.
[More]

Chemicals Linked to Obesity in Black Children

Black children with high levels of hormone-altering chemicals used in some shampoos and lotions are more likely to be obese, according to research published today.
[More]

Bats Reveal Clues to Viral Immunity

Bats can harbor some of the world's most deadly viruses without ever getting sick and researchers in Singapore are trying to find out how they do it.

Earth safe from asteroid's close flyby next week

An asteroid will give Earth a historically close shave next week, but there's no chance that the space rock will slam into our planet on this pass, experts say.