Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Mid Day International News

Mid Day International News

Device to tell cancer patients how long they will live

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Terminal cancer patients could soon be offered a simple and accurate diagnosis of how much time they have left to spend with loved ones.

Scientists have developed a technique based on factors such as breathing, pulse rate, weight loss and blood cell count which they hope to incorporate into a hand-held device.

It would enable sufferers to plan the final stages of their life, dedicating time for travel, making will arrangements and saying goodbye to those close to them.

Doctors currently find it difficult to know how long patients have left to live because cancer can advance more quickly in some people than others, reports the Daily Mail.

Sometimes they are too optimistic and tell patients they will survive several months, after which their condition rapidly deteriorates and they die within a few weeks.

But researchers at St George's Hospital in London and Manchester University have devised a technique to work out life expectancy based on a patient's breathing, pulse rate, weight loss, appetite and red and white blood cell count.

They have developed a computer model which takes into account all of these factors and gives an accurate estimate of how long the sufferer has left.

The scientists presented their findings at the National Cancer Research Institute Conference in Liverpool, Britain.

Professor Chris Todd from the University of Manchester said: "This technique would help patients decide when and whether they would need hospice care or need to arrange having support at home."

The researchers studied 1,000 terminally ill cancer patients to find the most important factors indicating how long they had to live.

Woman kills daughter to save her from being sex slave

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A US woman, accused of murdering her four-year-old daughter, told police that she killed the child to save her from being sold as a sex slave on the internet, it was reported here on Tuesday.

Marci Webber, a mother of three, drugged her daughter Magdalene with sleeping pills before butchering with such ferocity that she almost severed her head, the Daily Mail reported.

She then wrote the words "divine mercy" in her daughter's blood on a bathroom wall.

Webber, 43, gave a bizarre explanation for the murder, prosecutors in Chicago said.

Assistant State's Attorney Joseph Lindt said Webber had wanted to stop her daughter from being raped and exploited on the internet.

"She said she wanted to keep her daughter from being an internet sex slave," Lindt said.

Webber, who has two other daughters aged 10 and 18, was visiting her mother in Chicago from her home in Long Island, New York.

Webber was found at the murder scene with self-inflicted injuries on her throat and wrist, the report said.

She is being held on $5 million bond after making an initial court appearance before DuPage County Judge Richard Russo by video link from prison.

Court records show that Webber has been involved in a custody dispute with the four-year-old girl's father. In 2001, she founded a group called Reform Our Courts 4 Kids to focus on child custody issues.

Bush turned against abortion after mum showed him 'dead foetus'

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George bush has revealed that he turned against abortion and stem cell therapy the day his mother showed him a foetus in a jar, which was a result of miscarriage she had when Bush was a teenager.

In an interview the former President said Barbara Bush, former first lady of George H W regime, asked doctors to save the dead baby so she could show it to her son.

On a subsequent hospital visit she calmly motioned to the jar and told him, "Here's the foetus."

The astonishing episode left a huge impact on the young Bush and hardened his pro-life stance, causing him to lean further to the right on issue of abortion and stem cell therapy.

"There''s no question that affected me, a philosophy that we should respect life. There was a human life, a little brother or sister," the Daily Mail quoted him as saying.

He recalled his mother showed him the foetus while he was driving her to hospital for an appointment following the miscarriage.

Bush said that the episode was so sensitive he had to ask the permission of his mother to put it into his memoir, and she approved.

Man poses as immigration officer, asks tourist to perform sexual favours

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A man posing as an immigration officer handcuffed a tourist in Hyde Park and asked her to perform sexual favours on him.

Police said the Ecuadorian woman, 26, was walking along Liverpool Street when the man approached her on October 16 just before 8pm, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.

She has told police the man, who was wearing a black business suit and a blue shirt, showed her an identification card and told the woman he was an immigration officer.

He walked her to the southern end of Hyde Park, handcuffed her and made her get to her knees.

Police said he then repeatedly demanded the woman perform sexual favours and give him money, keeping her in the same spot for more than hour.

"Eventually the man took the handcuffs off the woman before he pushed her up against a tree and indecently assaulted her," according to the police.

The woman eventually escaped and told a passer-by what had happened.

The man is described as being of Mediterranean or Middle Eastern appearance, about 180 centimetres tall, with a slim to medium build, olive complexion and short black hair.

He was wearing black shoes and he was carrying a black backpack, police said.

'Sperminator' who donates sperm by having sex for just �17!

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Meet John McManus, a 'sperminator' who is ready to donate his sperm to childless mothers for just 17 pounds - the only catch is that he insists on the 'natural impregnation'.

McManus, 33, from Galway, Ireland, insists on impregnating "the natural way" as he finds artificial insemination "too weird".

His services are targeted at those who can't afford IVF.

McManus tells potential clients he advises plenty of "hugging, touching, kissing and foreplay" before the act, so the climax-for-cash seems completely natural, reports The Sun.

When asked to explain the process, John wrote, "Ideally we would try three days per month in a row - the two days before you ovulate, and the day itself. Ideally we would try twice per day. The more sperm you have inside you, the better chance of you getting pregnant."

"I will need a week''''s notice before you want to try. This is so that I can save up my sperm before the first donation," he added.

McManus assures clients that he is STD-free too.

"I was last STD tested in March. Last year I also had three STD tests which all came back negative. I take my sexual health very seriously."

McManus told how he initially became a donor in 2007 because of a sperm shortage in the UK.

"I watched a documentary about an infertile couple who could not afford IVF and I felt I should do something. Creating a life is the most special thing you can do. It is the greatest gift you can give," he said.

"I don''''t go around doing this all the time. Women see my ad and if they are looking for a donor they get in touch. Once the baby is born I don''''t want any contact. I just go on with my life and you go on with yours."

MJ was 'addicted to surgery'

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Late King of Pop Michael Jackson's mother has revealed that her son was addicted to plastic surgery.

On ''The Oprah Winfrey Show,'' Katherine Jackson said she even once asked her son's surgeon to pretend that he had operated on the pop singer''s nose if he ever asked for another surgery, reports the Telegraph.

Katherine said that her son found himself ugly when he was an adolescent and later "one-day made up his mind to get his nose done."

She said she spoke to the surgeon because MJ''s nose was getting smaller from repeated operations and looked "like a toothpick at one time."


Carla Bruni feared to be on 'Al Qaeda's hit list'

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Security around France's First Lady Carla Bruni Sarkozy has been tightened up amid fears that she may be the "priority target" of a terrorist assassination plot.

Security services believe President Nicolas Sarkozy's wife is now "high up" on Al Qaeda''s hitlist of potential VIP victims in France, it was revealed.

Fears for Bruni's safety come after Osama bin Laden issued a chilling personal threat to kill French citizens in revenge for France backing the war in Afghanistan and their new law banning the burqa.

The Al Qaeda terror chief released an audio tape last week warning, "It is a simple equation, If you kill, you will be killed."

France's Pure People website said it had information that the Presidential Protection Team had now received further ''credible intelligence'' that the threat to the couple had increased.

"Security has always been high around the First couple, but we have learned that it has now been heavily increased around Ms Bruni herself," the Daily Mail quoted the website as saying.

"There is no question of her ever going out without an armed escort and details of all her movements are being kept secret until the very last moment.

"Her schedule is randomly changed and even her family and friends are not being told where she is going until she arrives. From now on, neither will she travel in the same car or other means of transport as her husband," the website added.

Bruni's immediate family were also being given extra security details, the website said.

It added, "Their movements and whereabouts are being kept secret at all times.

"It is inconvenient for Ms Bruni and her loved ones, but the security services believe these drastic measures are currently necessary for their safety."

The security alert comes a month after France's domestic intelligence cheif Bernard Squarcini warned that the recent burqa ban had ''seriously increased'' the threat of a major terrorist attack on French soil and that ''all the red lights were flashing''.

Earthquake blamed for rise in divorce cases in China

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More people are getting divorced in China's Sichuan province than in other areas of the country and experts blame a devastating earthquake for this.

The civil affairs ministry said some 1.3 million couples got divorced nationwide in the first nine months of this year, and Sichuan topped the list of divorcees with 102,596 couples untying the knot, China Daily reported Monday.

Last year, Sichuan ranked seventh in the number of divorcees nationwide. In Chengdu, the provincial capital, the number of divorced couples rose for seven consecutive years from 2003, when the revised rule on Marriage Registration came into effect.

The number has increased from 13,525 in 2003 to 39,020 last year. The revised regulation has to some extent facilitated divorces, according to Xu Anqi, director of the Chinese Association of Marriage and Family Studies.

Before 2003, couples had to first produce letters of introduction from neighborhood committees if they decide to part ways.

Now, they only have to show their identification cards, marriage certificates and divorce agreements to get divorce.

Social mobility has played a role in the jump in the province's divorce rate, according to Chen Kefu, deputy chief of the Sichuan provincial department of civil affairs.

Each year, millions of young migrant workers from Sichuan leave the province in search of better job opportunities, leaving behind their spouses, which causes rifts among them, Chen said.

Guang Wei, a sociology expert with the Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences, blamed the May 12, 2008 earthquake in the province, for the rise in the divorce rate.

After experiencing the 8-magnitude earthquake, which killed more than 69,000 people and left 18,000 missing, many Sichuan residents began thinking life was short and unpredictable, and decided to live each day to the fullest, Guang said.

If they do not get along with their spouses, they decide to part ways, he said.


Seven dogs kill two women in Chile

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A 56-year-old woman and her 25-year-old daughter died in Chile after being attacked by seven dogs.

According to Chilean police, the two women stepped out Monday onto the garden of their home in the town of Talagante, about 40 km outside Santiago, where three St Bernard dogs were fighting four mixed breed dogs.

The women were then attacked by the seven animals, which caused them serious injuries that led to their deaths on the way to hospital.

Police said the dogs belonged to a neighbour, against whom complaints had previously been filed over the animals' behaviour.

The owner was arrested and is expected to be charged with the double homicide pending further investigation, the authorities said.

Google's holiday gift: free in-flight Wi-Fi

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Google is offering free in-flight Wi-Fi access to an estimated 15 million passengers this holiday season, the company announced Monday.

The gesture by the web-search giant will be offered on all internal US flights operated by Delta, Virgin America and Air-Tran. The three carriers recently outfitted their fleets with airborne Wi-Fi capabilities offered by the company Gogo Inflight Wi-Fi, which usually charges between $11 and $13 for 24 hours of airborne Wi-Fi access.

Last year Google sponsored free Wi-Fi in 50 US airports. This year the gift will be sponsored by the company's Chrome browser and will be available on all AirTran, Delta and Virgin America flights from Nov 20 through Jan 2, 2011.

Pakistan customs seize goods worth Rs 300 mn

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The customs department in Pakistan recovered smuggled goods worth Rs 311 million in the month of October, an official statement said here.

The department - officially known as the Directorate General Intelligence and Investigation of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) - said it made 98 seizures of smuggled goods during the month, according to Online news agency.

The seized goods include 3,740 kg narcotics having a market value of Rs.147 million, 269,000 litres of high-speed diesel valued at Rs.18.5 million, around 1,900 foreign-brand tyres valued at Rs.6.4 million, 49 vehicles valued at Rs.60 million and 15 tonnes of tea valued at Rs.3.3 million, the statement said.

Living life like the 'Cullens'

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Brothers have vampire-like syndrome that makes them sensitive to sun

They have sharp fang-like teeth, try to avoid sunlight and are called Cullen.

But this isn't a Twilight film. It is the every day reality for Simon Cullen (13), and his brother George (11).
The boys, from Sudbury, Suffolk, suffer from a rare genetic condition known as Hypohidrotic Ectodermal Dysplasia (HED).

This means the boys cannot sweat, and must avoid too much light to stop them overheating.

Fangilicious
They will never grow a full set of teeth, and the ones they have are sharp fangs.

"People can be horrible. Kids make fun of the way we look. But our mates think it is cool. My friends keep trying to get me to change my name to Edward like the character in the Twilight film," said Simon.

HED is incredibly rare and only 7,000 people in the world have the condition.

Their mother Mandy Cullen, said: "People stare because they're so pale. One lady asked me if they had leukaemia."

She added, "After the Twilight film came out, people thought it was amusing that we're called Cullen."
Mandy and father John, (45), a fleet manager, first noticed something was wrong when Simon was just a few hours old.

"It was a normal pregnancy and labour," said Mandy, a cashier.

"But when he was a few hours old, Simon's body temperature dropped. A nurse placed him under a heat lamp to keep him warm. But after a few minutes blisters started forming on his arms and near his eyes."

Mandy added that when Simon was four months old, he caught a cold, which is potentially deadly for HED sufferers.

Doctors at the West Sussex Hospital suspected it was HED, and when he was six months old and had not grown any teeth, the diagnosis was confirmed.

Second diagnosis
When Mandy fell pregnant with George 18 months later, the couple were warned he may have HED too.
"Simon was doing so well with his condition so we didn't really worry about it," she said. When George was diagnosed we already knew how to deal with his HED."

No sports!
The boys cannot take part in sport because of the dangers of overheating and spend their days playing video games indoors.

Simon, who did not grow any teeth at all until he was five, struggles to chew many foods and the only meat he can eat is sausages.

7,000, the number of people who suffer from HED in the world

What is HED?
Hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia is an extremely rare genetic condition, affecting around 7,000 people.
Sufferers have light and sparse scalp and body hair, a reduced ability to sweat and the congenital absence of teeth. These features become obvious during childhood.
As sufferers find it difficult to sweat the condition can cause hyperthermia unless the temperature of their environment is carefully controlled. There are no cures for the condition.


Pamela in Israel to protest fur

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Baywatch babe Pamela Anderson has sent leaders in Israel an horrific video showing the slaughter of animals in a bid to urge them to back an anti-fur law.

The former Baywatch star is calling on the country's leaders to stop blocking legislation which could halt fur being imported into the country.

The Ultra-Orthodox parties oppose a ban because it would affect the wearing of the streimel, a fur-ringed hat traditionally worn by married men on the Sabbath and Jewish holidays.

The actress claims the use of fur "violates Jewish principles" and the blonde beauty has penned a letter to Israel's Minister of Religious Services, Yakov Margi -- who has delayed legislation calling for a total ban on the fur trade -- to encourage him to outlaw the practice.

Anderson says, "I urge you to support this historic bill and speak up for the millions of animals who are bludgeoned, electrocuted, and skinned alive for their pelts each year."

She also included a video of animals being killed for their furs, and added in the note: "Surely you will agree that the ways in which animals suffer and die in the fur trade violates Jewish principles, which strictly prohibit causing unnecessary suffering to animals."


Posted by Harshad at 7:23 AM

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