Mid Day International News |
- Now, a law that allows HIV tests on corpses
- Nano bathtub heats water with laser
- Obama's Indian envoy will be balm for Muslims
- To save themselves, cops can now bite attackers
- 17 held for child pornography
- Woman rescued from prostitution, two held
- Reptiles were first animals to conquer dry land
- Apple iPhone 4 users can now chat with X-rated stars
- Women prefer macho men, says study
- Chelsea Clinton gets married
- Corporate Taliban in UK
| Now, a law that allows HIV tests on corpses Posted: The state of New York has passed a law that allows HIV tests on corpses and people in coma. New York Governor David Paterson has signed a bill into law that will permit the tests, Fox News reported. The law also allows anonymous testing for citizens of the state. It also means New Yorkers can give permission to get tested for HIV as a part of their general signed consent to medical care. It also allows people to give verbal consent for a rapid HIV test, officials said. "The enactment of this bill represents a significant step forward in combating the HIV/AIDS epidemic," Paterson said. "By making HIV testing a routine part of healthcare, this legislation will increase HIV testing rates, letting people learn their status and begin treatment at an earlier stage, which can significantly improve the length and quality of life and help reduce transmission of the disease," he said. The legislation also means that the blood of a dead person, someone in a coma, or a person unable to give consent can be anonymously tested for HIV if that person's blood has exposed someone, such as a healthcare worker, and no one with the authority to give consent to test can be found in time for the exposed worker to start HIV treatment.
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| Nano bathtub heats water with laser Posted: Researchers have demonstrated the use of infrared laser light to quickly and precisely heat the water in 'nano bathtubs' Scientists at the US Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (JILA), Boulder, USA, have demonstrated the use of infrared laser light to quickly and precisely heat the water in "nano bathtubs" -- tiny sample containers -- for microscopy studies.  Infrared laser light heats the water in 'nano bathtub' for JILA research on individual DNA molecules. Pic/JILA The JILA "bathtubs" consist of about 35 picoliters (trillionths of a litre) of water on a glass slide. Gently focused infrared laser light is used to heat a nanoscale column of water. "Exact sizes of the laser beam and sample area don't matter. What's important is having time and temperature control over volumes of fluid small enough to be able to look at single molecules," says NIST/JILA Fellow David Nesbitt, senior author of the paper.
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| Obama's Indian envoy will be balm for Muslims Posted:
Hussain's father, a mining engineer, moved from Bihar to Wyoming in the late 1960s. A few years later, during a visit to India, he married Hussain's mother, now an obstetrician in Plano. Hussain will visit Aligarh, Mumbai, Hyderabad, New Delhi, and Patna, where he will meet local university faculty and students, Muslim leaders, and government officials, the State Department announced Friday. As special envoy Hussain, both, a Quran scholar and an ardent North Carolina Tar Heels basketball fan, is charged with helping bridge the cultural divide in US relations with Muslims inside and outside America's borders as part of President Obama's new approach to engage the Islamic world. After the 2008 election, Hussain was recruited to the White House counsel's office where he has worked on national security and new media issues.
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| To save themselves, cops can now bite attackers Posted: Police in New Zealand have been allowed to do anything to protect themselves from attackers - including bite, gouge out eyes or even growl at offenders. Policemen are being told "anything goes", and whatever action they choose to take - as long as it saves their lives - they will be backed by police bosses, the New Zealand Herald reported. The move came after a senior constable, Bruce Lamb, and a constable, Mitchel Alatalo, were shot at by a gunman while on a routine check in Christchurch. Lamb was shot in the jaw and Alatalo in the leg, while Lamb's police dog named Gage was shot to death. Superintendent Dave Cliff, district commander of Canterbury, said if officers were in such a situation where they feared for their lives, they could use whatever means necessary to get away safely. "If there is someone with a knife, or someone comes at them with a baseball bat - there are no rules," he said. "You've got to do everything possible to save your own life. In that scenario, you'd bite, scream, do whatever you had to do."
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| Posted: In a massive crackdown against paedophile nexus in Poland, 17 people have been arrested for distributing child pornography via internet, Polish Radio External Service reported. Warsaw police spokesman Mariusz Sokolowski said the suspects were found searching for pornographic materials by the interpol Office in Wiesbaden, Germany via a P2P social networking programme. They could face up to eight years in prison if convicted. In an operation carried out in 12 Polish provinces, the police raided 17 households and companies, seizing 21 computers and laptops, removable disc drives and over 1,300 DVDs. This is the fifth raid conducted by law enforcement agencies in Poland so far this year, with 120 detentions recorded in January.
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| Woman rescued from prostitution, two held Posted: Two people accused of trafficking women have been arrested and a 20-year-old victim rescued, police Saturday said. Naushad, 26 and Gopal, 26, used to lure innocent women on the pretext of marriage and then rape them before forcing them into prostitution. They were arrested Friday from a house in Mangolpuri in west Delhi, police said. "The 20-year-old woman was beaten mercilessly and forced into prostitution," said a police official. The woman was from the northeast region.
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| Reptiles were first animals to conquer dry land Posted: Ancient footprints made by reptiles 318 million years ago prove they were the first animals to conquer dry land, a media report has said. The fossilised reptile footprints were found in sea-cliffs on the Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick, Canada by Howard Falcon-Lang of Royal Holloway, University of London, Daily Mail reported on its website Friday. Experts say the find is proof that reptiles were the first vertebrates to conquer dry land. The discovery proves the theory that reptiles were the first to make the continental interiors their home. This is because reptiles do not need to return to water to breed unlike their amphibian cousins. The rocks in which they occur show that the reptiles lived on dry river plains hundreds of miles from the sea. These pioneers then paved the way for the diverse ecosystems that exist on land today, the study showed The study, undertaken with professor Mike Benton of the University of Bristol and Canadian colleagues, was published in journal Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. Benton said: "The footprints date from the Carboniferous Period when a single supercontinent (Pangaea) dominated the world. "At first life was restricted to coastal swamps where lush rainforest existed, full of giant ferns and dragonflies. "However, when reptiles came on the scene they pushed back the frontiers, conquering the dry continental interiors." The same team reported the oldest known reptile footprints from a different site in New Brunswick in 2007. The new discovery is of similar age, and may be even older. Falcon-Lang added: "The Bay of Fundy is such an amazing place to hunt for fossils. "The sea-cliffs are rapidly eroding and each rock-fall reveals exciting new fossils. You just never know what will turn up next."
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| Apple iPhone 4 users can now chat with X-rated stars Posted: The porn industry is developing video-sex chat services for Apple iPhone 4 users so they can make live sex chats with X-rated stars. Using the iPhone 4's Face Time, firms are developing video-sex chat services and are hiring girls through internet adverts in the US, Daily Mail reported on its website Friday. Face Time lets people call another iPhone 4 user and have live video chats over a Wi-Fi connection through the phone's camera and screen. But the adult industry wants its customers to share moments of an entirely different kind with its stars. "A phone is such an intimate thing, you usually don't lend it out or have someone else use it," said Quentin Boyer, of Pink Visual, an adult production company. He said his company began planning for iPhone 4 video services almost as soon as the device came out. They should be ready in a matter of weeks. He said the company will offer Face Time sessions with some of the same women who appear in its videos. "It has a very personal feel - your mobile phone to hers." The rise of Face Time porn puts Apple in an awkward position. Its competitors have products that allow video chat, too - HTC's Evo 4G phone, for one. But Apple has made a point of keeping applications sold in its iTunes store clean. Apple has rejected book apps for featuring sexual content and political satires for their potential to offend. And last week it was accused of censoring its iBookstore by removing the risque short stories from its top 10 list. Face Time is not even an outside developer's app, but a main feature of the phone. Watchdogs worry that Face Time could connect children to pornography or predators. Parents can put computers in public areas of the home to supervise internet usage, but mobile phones go anywhere. "Unfortunately, both children and sexual predators are often ahead of parents when comes to technology," says Donna Rice Hughes, president of Enough Is Enough, a child safety group. Apple said that people can choose whom they chat with and parents can turn off the Face Time feature.
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| Women prefer macho men, says study Posted: Women are attracted to macho men and see modesty as a sign of weakness, says a study. The "modest" man is a big turn-off for the opposite sex, who prefer partners who are rugged and "manly", express.co.uk reported quoting the study. Psychologist Corinne Moss-Racusin, who conducted the study, explored the consequences for men and women when they acted modestly in staged job interviews. The applicants, played by actors, were judged equally competent. But the modest men were less liked - a sign of social backlash, said the study.
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| Posted: Former first daughter Chelsea Clinton married her longtime beau Marc Mezvinsky "in a beautiful ceremony" on a perfect summer Saturday night. In what was billed as the "wedding of the century". The bride's parents, former president Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, issued a statement shortly after the lavish ceremony in upstate Rhinebeck, New York, where family and friends gathered at a 50-acre estate for the ultra-private nuptials. "Today, we watched with great pride and overwhelming emotion as Chelsea and Marc wed in a beautiful ceremony at Astor Courts, surrounded by family and their close friends," the Clintons said in an e-mail at 7:23 p.m. "We could not have asked for a more perfect day to celebrate the beginning of their life together, and we are so happy to welcome Marc into our family." No details around the ceremony were released, and the media was kept at bay as the 30-year-old former first daughter exchanged her vows with Mezvinsky, 32, a Manhattan investment banker and her boyfriend of four years. Hundreds of curious onlookers -- along with hordes of reporters and cameramen -- gathered Saturday at the main intersection of the tiny New York town in hopes of catching a glimpse of celebrities and dignitaries attending the wedding, CNN reported. Well-heeled wedding guests wearing floor-length gowns and tuxedos were seen boarding shuttles to take them to what one event planner billed as "the wedding of the century." The entire town had been sworn to secrecy, but many storefront windows displayed signs reading "Congratulations Marc & Chelsea" and similar messages. One store had a live model in a wedding dress having her makeup done. A man dressed up as a raccoon paraded through town with a sign asking Chelsea to marry him, the New York Times said. "Teenage boys chased after former secretary of state Madeleine Albright, seeking autographs. Young women passed out slices of pizza with 'I do' written in pepperoni." "Caravans of guests sped by reporters who waited forlornly in a pen on the road leading to the wedding site, while, just beyond, a dozen brown milk cows chewed on dinner," the Times said. Chelsea wore a gown designed by Vera Wang, who caused a commotion of her own when she showed up in town on Saturday. The mother of the bride wore Oscar de la Renta. The interfaith ceremony was conducted by Rabbi James Ponet and the Reverend William Shillady. Clinton is Methodist, and Mezvinsky is Jewish. It included elements from both traditions: friends and family reading the Seven Blessings, which are typically recited at traditional Jewish weddings following the vows and exchange of rings, according to the Times. A friend of the couple read the poem "The Life That I Have" by Leo Marks. Many of the guests were friends of the bride and groom from college and work; they both attended Stanford University, and Chelsea Clinton recently received her master's degree from Columbia University's Joseph L. Mailman School of Public Health. Family flew in, too. The president's half-brother, Roger Clinton, was spotted in town in a T-shirt and track pants hours before the wedding. While the media and local residents have been buzzing for months about celebrities who were expected here - including Oprah Winfrey, Barbra Streisand, Steven Spielberg and John Major, the former British prime minister - none of those particular bold-faced names were invited, the Times said.
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| Posted:
An order released by bosses at Southampton City Council, in southern England, has asked the council's 400 staff members to "dress suitably" to work. Social workers, youth workers and other employees in the council's children's services department have been asked to "carefully consider" their work attire. Women have been advised to wear trousers or skirts of "reasonable length" and "not mini-skirts". The leaked email said that council bosses would in the coming weeks "be speaking to staff about the clothes they wear to work". It added: "Please try to dress smartly and thoughtfully, in line with other professionals you come across in your day-to-day work, and in a way that shows respect to children and families." Staff are reportedly outraged by the email. "I would have thought the council has got better things to do than impose a regimented approach to what people wear," the Daily Telegraph quoted Mike Tucker, the council's union secretary.
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