วันศุกร์ที่ 4 มิถุนายน พ.ศ. 2553
Disappointing Jobs Report Sends Stocks Sliding.
Stocks fell to their lowest level in four months Friday after the government said hiring remains weak and another European country warned its economy was in trouble. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 323 points to close below 10,000. It was the lowest finish since February and the third-worst slide of the year. Major indexes all lost more than 3 percent. The drop pushed the market back into what's called a "correction," or a decline of at least 10 percent from its April high. Interest rates slid after traders shoveled money into the safety of Treasurys and the dollar. Retailers were among the hardest-hit stocks after investors bet that a weak job market would discourage consumers from spending. Macy's fell 6.5 percent. Financial stocks also fell sharply on concerns that borrowers would continue having problems paying their bills. Banks were hurt by more worries about their exposure to Europe's debt crisis. American Express lost 5.3 percent. The government's May jobs report came as an unpleasant surprise for investors who had grown a little more upbeat about the domestic economy the past few days. The Labor Department said private employers hired just 41,000 workers in May, down dramatically from 218,000 in April and the lowest number since January. The news made it clear that the economic recovery isn't yet picking up the momentum that investors have been looking for. The government said 431,000 jobs overall were created last month, but most of those them, 411,000, came from government hiring of temporary census workers. The overall number also fell short of expectations. Economists polled by Thomson Reuters had forecast employers would add 513,000 jobs. "People are looking for one turning point," Daniel Penrod, senior industry analyst for the California Credit Union League, said of the monthly jobs report. "That's not realistic. This growth will be much slower and more gradual than in the past." I have copy this news from ABC News On Line.
Millionaire's Test Rocket Reaches Orbit on 1st Try.
A multimillionaire's test rocket blasted off on its maiden voyage Friday and successfully reached orbit in a dry run for NASA's push to go commercial. SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket achieved Earth orbit nine minutes into the flight as planned, drawing praise from NASA, the White House and others eager for the company to start resupplying the International Space Station. "This has really been a fantastic day," said an exuberant Elon Musk, SpaceX's founder. He said Friday's launch helps vindicate President Barack Obama's plan to give private companies the job of ferrying cargo and ultimately people to the space station, freeing up NASA to aim for true outer space. "This bodes very well for the Obama plan," said Musk, the co-founder of PayPal. "It shows that even a sort of small new company like SpaceX can make a real difference." In a telephone news conference, Musk said celebratory margaritas were on his immediate radar. But he's already looking ahead to the next Falcon 9 launch this summer and, hopefully, the first cargo run to the space station next year. Astronauts could follow within three years of the company getting a contract from NASA, he said, and quite possibly average citizens in five to six years. "This is the dawn of a new era in space exploration, I think a very exciting era and one which I think will lead to the democratization of space, making space accessible to everyone eventually," Musk said. "Yeah, I think this is really a historic moment." SpaceX's brand new rocket soared off its launch pad into thin clouds at mid-afternoon, carrying a test version of the company's spacecraft, named Dragon. The goal was to put the capsule into a 155-mile-high orbit, which it did. The capsule will remain in orbit for a year before descending and burning up in the atmosphere. "A near bull's-eye," Musk said. The first attempt to launch the 158-foot rocket was aborted in the final few seconds earlier in the afternoon because of questionable readings with the engine-ignition system. I have copy this news from ABC News Online.
SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches.
Friday's test launch of the Falcon 9 rocket was "essentially a bullseye," SpaceX officials said after the rocket successfully pushed past the earth's atmosphere and deposited a mock-up of its Dragon space capsule in orbit. The successful launch is the latest step toward commercial space ventures that could eventually ferry astronauts and cargo to the international space station. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, co-founder of PayPal, sent out the technical details of the successful launch, which he said performed its mission to deposit the Dragon mock-up into a 155-mile (250-km) orbit to near perfection. "Nominal shutdown and orbit was almost exactly 250 km," Musk said in a written statement. "Telemetry showed essentially a bullseye: 126;0.2% on perigee and 126;1% on apogee." The capsule is expected to orbit for about a year and eventually burn up in the atmosphere. NASA administrator Charles Bolden congratulated the SpaceX team. "Space X's accomplishment is an important milestone in the commercial transportation effort and puts the company a step closer to providing cargo services to the International Space Station," he said. Former Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweickart was high on the launch's possibilities. "As a former Apollo astronaut, I think it's safe to say that SpaceX and the other commercial developers embody the 21st century version of the Apollo frontier spirit. It's enormously gratifying to see them succeed today," he said. NASA hopes companies such as SpaceX can take over transportation to the international space station. "It's time for NASA to hand that over to commercial industry who can then optimize the technology and make it more reliable, make it much lower cost and make it much more routine," said Musk in an interview with CNN last month. Musk says he believes the United States is at the beginning of a profound, fundamental renaissance in space exploration, perhaps greater than when President Kennedy declared the United States was going to the moon during the infancy of the space program. "If the country executes and the administration and Congress execute in that direction, the impact of these changes will be on par, perhaps even greater, than ... the task that Kennedy put us on to," he said. This push toward the privatization of space is part of President Obama's blueprint to allow NASA to do bigger and better things with its budget, such as a mission to Mars. NASA has been flying shuttles in low Earth orbit and going to and from the space station for 30 years. The administration would like to see whether private companies can do it cheaper and more efficiently, as the shuttle program is about to fly into retirement.
NASA selected SpaceX and another company, Orbital Sciences, to each develop an orbital vehicle because the United States will not have its own way to get to the space station. The United States will be renting space from the Russians aboard their Soyuz spacecraft. "They're standing on NASA's shoulders, so they're designing rockets based on the experience we've had for 50 years or more, going into space," said George Musser, editor of the Scientific American.
"And any enterprise that learns from past experience will hopefully do better," he said.
But the competition is rabid. SpaceX is the first company to reach the launchpad. So far, its spent almost $400 million to get there. "They probably hate each other's guts, but the competition is really good for space and for all of us," said Musser. "Ultimately, what do we want from this? We want to get into space cheaply, so our kids and grandkids someday can go into space and explore the planets," he said. But SpaceX acknowledges there will be failures, as there have been since the the beginning of aviation. "This is an all-new rocket. There's a lot that can go wrong, and during the test phase -- that's why you have a test phase, because things may go wrong," he said. Ken Bowersox is a vice president for SpaceX. In his previous life, he flew five space shuttle missions as a commander and pilot. He also lived on the space station for more than five months as its commander. "Either way, we're going to learn something," he said. "If we have a problem, we can move forward accepting a higher level of risk. That's how we can be more cost-effective. If all goes as planned after a series of test flights, Musk says SpaceX will be ready to begin flying cargo to the space station next year. If NASA awards SpaceX a contract, Musk says they can begin ferrying astronauts to the space station within three years. He says his company is profitable, but his motivations go beyond dollars. "We want to see a future where we are exploring the stars, where we're going to other planets, where we're doing the great things that we read about in science fiction and in the movies," Musk said. I have copy this news from CNN News Online.
NASA selected SpaceX and another company, Orbital Sciences, to each develop an orbital vehicle because the United States will not have its own way to get to the space station. The United States will be renting space from the Russians aboard their Soyuz spacecraft. "They're standing on NASA's shoulders, so they're designing rockets based on the experience we've had for 50 years or more, going into space," said George Musser, editor of the Scientific American.
"And any enterprise that learns from past experience will hopefully do better," he said.
But the competition is rabid. SpaceX is the first company to reach the launchpad. So far, its spent almost $400 million to get there. "They probably hate each other's guts, but the competition is really good for space and for all of us," said Musser. "Ultimately, what do we want from this? We want to get into space cheaply, so our kids and grandkids someday can go into space and explore the planets," he said. But SpaceX acknowledges there will be failures, as there have been since the the beginning of aviation. "This is an all-new rocket. There's a lot that can go wrong, and during the test phase -- that's why you have a test phase, because things may go wrong," he said. Ken Bowersox is a vice president for SpaceX. In his previous life, he flew five space shuttle missions as a commander and pilot. He also lived on the space station for more than five months as its commander. "Either way, we're going to learn something," he said. "If we have a problem, we can move forward accepting a higher level of risk. That's how we can be more cost-effective. If all goes as planned after a series of test flights, Musk says SpaceX will be ready to begin flying cargo to the space station next year. If NASA awards SpaceX a contract, Musk says they can begin ferrying astronauts to the space station within three years. He says his company is profitable, but his motivations go beyond dollars. "We want to see a future where we are exploring the stars, where we're going to other planets, where we're doing the great things that we read about in science fiction and in the movies," Musk said. I have copy this news from CNN News Online.
Source: Retired general is pick for new intelligence chief.
President Obama plans to nominate retired Air Force Lt. Gen. James Clapper to be the new director of national intelligence, a senior U.S. defense official confirmed to CNN Friday.
Clapper, now a top Pentagon intelligence official, would replace Dennis Blair, who resigned at the end of last month. The announcement will be made Saturday at the White House, the official said. If confirmed, Clapper will become the nation's fourth DNI in the last five years. The position was created after the September 2001 terrorist attacks to oversee the 16 agencies of the U.S. intelligence community. Clapper, who retired from the Air Force in 1995 after a 32-year career, served as head of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency from September 2001 to June 2006. He has served as the under secretary of defense for intelligence since April 2007. Some political observers have indicated that Clapper's prospects for confirmation on Capitol Hill, however, are questionable. California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the Democratic head of the Senate Intelligence Committe, recently said the "best thing for the U.S. intelligence community is to have someone with a civilian background in charge." The ranking Republican on the Intelligence Committe, Missouri Sen. Kit Bond, said he has reservations about Clapper. "I believe he is too focused on the Defense Department issues and he has tried to block out efforts to give more authority to the DNI," Bond said. Bond's counterpart on the House side, Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Michigan, also said he believes Clapper is the wrong person, because he is "not forthcoming, open or transparent" with Congress. Blair, a retired admiral, was pressured to resign as DNI because of differences with the White House over the scope of his role and turf wars with CIA Director Leon Panetta and other members of the intelligence community. One source familiar with Blair's situation said that from the very beginning, "the White House did not have the same view (as Blair) of what the DNI should be." That might be the crux of the problem. The law that created the position of DNI after the 9/11 terrorist attacks is too "ambiguous," said Lee Hamiliton, a former congressman who pushed Congress for intelligence reform. Hamilton, the co-chairman of the 9/11 Commission, recently told a congressional hearing that "the role of the DNI is not clear ... and as long as you have the ambiguity, you're going to have these agencies fighting for jurisdiction and power." The DNI needs to be empowered with the budget and personnel authorities to lead the community, otherwise, the director is merely a coordinator, Hamilton said. Some question whether it is possible to change the law, considering the difficulty Congress had in getting the original agreement. Bond said Congress must act to give the DNI clear budget authority and chain of command within the intelligence community. Feinstein has called on the president to define the DNI role and then work with Congress to make it law. Hamilton said a fix is needed now, that it can't wait for the longer-term legislative correction. Hoekstra says changing the law is not the answer. "If you have great people working together, even in a mediocre structure, they can make things happen. More strengths and authorities in the law doesn't guarantee success," he said. here does seem to be widespread agreement on one needed component: presidential action in support of the DNI. Hamilton said the "burden is on the president now to clarify who is in charge of the intelligence community -- where the final authority lies on the budget, personnel and other matters." Rep. Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, recently wrote a letter to Obama urging him "to remove obstacles which may have formed a stumbling block for others who held the DNI position." John Brennan, the president's chief counterterrorism adviser in the White House, recently said the administration is trying to ensure the intelligence community is "integrated well and orchestrated well" by the DNI.
"We want to make sure the DNI's role is clear and is able to optimize the contributions that the intelligence community makes on a daily basis," Brennan said. I have copy this news from CNN News Online.
Clapper, now a top Pentagon intelligence official, would replace Dennis Blair, who resigned at the end of last month. The announcement will be made Saturday at the White House, the official said. If confirmed, Clapper will become the nation's fourth DNI in the last five years. The position was created after the September 2001 terrorist attacks to oversee the 16 agencies of the U.S. intelligence community. Clapper, who retired from the Air Force in 1995 after a 32-year career, served as head of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency from September 2001 to June 2006. He has served as the under secretary of defense for intelligence since April 2007. Some political observers have indicated that Clapper's prospects for confirmation on Capitol Hill, however, are questionable. California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the Democratic head of the Senate Intelligence Committe, recently said the "best thing for the U.S. intelligence community is to have someone with a civilian background in charge." The ranking Republican on the Intelligence Committe, Missouri Sen. Kit Bond, said he has reservations about Clapper. "I believe he is too focused on the Defense Department issues and he has tried to block out efforts to give more authority to the DNI," Bond said. Bond's counterpart on the House side, Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Michigan, also said he believes Clapper is the wrong person, because he is "not forthcoming, open or transparent" with Congress. Blair, a retired admiral, was pressured to resign as DNI because of differences with the White House over the scope of his role and turf wars with CIA Director Leon Panetta and other members of the intelligence community. One source familiar with Blair's situation said that from the very beginning, "the White House did not have the same view (as Blair) of what the DNI should be." That might be the crux of the problem. The law that created the position of DNI after the 9/11 terrorist attacks is too "ambiguous," said Lee Hamiliton, a former congressman who pushed Congress for intelligence reform. Hamilton, the co-chairman of the 9/11 Commission, recently told a congressional hearing that "the role of the DNI is not clear ... and as long as you have the ambiguity, you're going to have these agencies fighting for jurisdiction and power." The DNI needs to be empowered with the budget and personnel authorities to lead the community, otherwise, the director is merely a coordinator, Hamilton said. Some question whether it is possible to change the law, considering the difficulty Congress had in getting the original agreement. Bond said Congress must act to give the DNI clear budget authority and chain of command within the intelligence community. Feinstein has called on the president to define the DNI role and then work with Congress to make it law. Hamilton said a fix is needed now, that it can't wait for the longer-term legislative correction. Hoekstra says changing the law is not the answer. "If you have great people working together, even in a mediocre structure, they can make things happen. More strengths and authorities in the law doesn't guarantee success," he said. here does seem to be widespread agreement on one needed component: presidential action in support of the DNI. Hamilton said the "burden is on the president now to clarify who is in charge of the intelligence community -- where the final authority lies on the budget, personnel and other matters." Rep. Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, recently wrote a letter to Obama urging him "to remove obstacles which may have formed a stumbling block for others who held the DNI position." John Brennan, the president's chief counterterrorism adviser in the White House, recently said the administration is trying to ensure the intelligence community is "integrated well and orchestrated well" by the DNI.
"We want to make sure the DNI's role is clear and is able to optimize the contributions that the intelligence community makes on a daily basis," Brennan said. I have copy this news from CNN News Online.
BP lowers cap on to leaking Gulf of Mexico oil well.
Oil firm BP has lowered a cap on to a leaking oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, in the hope of piping some of the oil to ships on the surface. Video footage showed the cap lowered into place against pressure from escaping oil and gas. BP said some oil had started flowing up the pipe attached to the cap, but it could take the rest of the day to determine how much. The US Coast Guard said the cap would only be a temporary, partial fix. Live underwater video footage from the site on Friday showed quantities of oil still escaping into the sea. BP's latest attempt to cap the well followed mounting criticism from US President Barack Obama. He told CNN that he had not seen "the kind of rapid response" to the disaster that he would have liked and that BP had already "felt his anger" over the spill. BP lowers cap on to leaking Gulf of Mexico oil well.
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The BBC's David Shukman: "There's no guarantee this thing will work" Oil firm BP has lowered a cap on to a leaking oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, in the hope of piping some of the oil to ships on the surface.
Video footage showed the cap lowered into place against pressure from escaping oil and gas.
BP said some oil had started flowing up the pipe attached to the cap, but it could take the rest of the day to determine how much.
The US Coast Guard said the cap would only be a temporary, partial fix.
Live underwater video footage from the site on Friday showed quantities of oil still escaping into the sea. BP's latest attempt to cap the well followed mounting criticism from US President Barack Obama. He told CNN that he had not seen "the kind of rapid response" to the disaster that he would have liked and that BP had already "felt his anger" over the spill. Oil from the top of the blowout preventer (BOP), the set of failed valves on the seabed. The operation involves lowering a cap onto the top section of the BOP known as the lower marine riser package (LMRP). The damaged riser - the pipe which takes oil from the well - was cut where it nears the seabed using a remotely-operated shear. This was completed at 1930 CDT on 1 June (0030 GMT 2 June). The next stage was for a diamond wire cutter to saw through the riser close to the LMRP. The blade got stuck and had to be removed but BP eventually cut through the pipe using giant shears manipulated by undersea robots (ROV). After removing the pipe, a cap was lowered onto the LMRP. The aim is for oil to be funneled through the cap to the surface. A previous attempt with a larger funnel was blocked by frozen hydrates so this time methanol is being used as "anti-freeze". BACK {current} of {total} NEXT He said was "furious at this entire situation". Mr Obama has for the second time postponed a trip to Australia, Indonesia and Guam, in order to deal with the crisis. He is due to visit the gulf later on Friday - his third trip to the area since the leak began six weeks ago. BP's share price rose 4% in early European trading. Chief executive Tony Hayward is to hold a conference call with investors, which will be available to the public on the company's website, from 1400 BST (1300 GMT). Mr Hayward is expected to try to reassure investors. I have copy this news from BBC News Online.
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The BBC's David Shukman: "There's no guarantee this thing will work" Oil firm BP has lowered a cap on to a leaking oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, in the hope of piping some of the oil to ships on the surface.
Video footage showed the cap lowered into place against pressure from escaping oil and gas.
BP said some oil had started flowing up the pipe attached to the cap, but it could take the rest of the day to determine how much.
The US Coast Guard said the cap would only be a temporary, partial fix.
Live underwater video footage from the site on Friday showed quantities of oil still escaping into the sea. BP's latest attempt to cap the well followed mounting criticism from US President Barack Obama. He told CNN that he had not seen "the kind of rapid response" to the disaster that he would have liked and that BP had already "felt his anger" over the spill. Oil from the top of the blowout preventer (BOP), the set of failed valves on the seabed. The operation involves lowering a cap onto the top section of the BOP known as the lower marine riser package (LMRP). The damaged riser - the pipe which takes oil from the well - was cut where it nears the seabed using a remotely-operated shear. This was completed at 1930 CDT on 1 June (0030 GMT 2 June). The next stage was for a diamond wire cutter to saw through the riser close to the LMRP. The blade got stuck and had to be removed but BP eventually cut through the pipe using giant shears manipulated by undersea robots (ROV). After removing the pipe, a cap was lowered onto the LMRP. The aim is for oil to be funneled through the cap to the surface. A previous attempt with a larger funnel was blocked by frozen hydrates so this time methanol is being used as "anti-freeze". BACK {current} of {total} NEXT He said was "furious at this entire situation". Mr Obama has for the second time postponed a trip to Australia, Indonesia and Guam, in order to deal with the crisis. He is due to visit the gulf later on Friday - his third trip to the area since the leak began six weeks ago. BP's share price rose 4% in early European trading. Chief executive Tony Hayward is to hold a conference call with investors, which will be available to the public on the company's website, from 1400 BST (1300 GMT). Mr Hayward is expected to try to reassure investors. I have copy this news from BBC News Online.
Microsoft chief defends Windows' future.
Steve Ballmer, chief executive of Microsoft, on Thursday gave a spirited defence of the software company's strategy and the future of its Windows operating system, following an assertion from Steve Jobs earlier in the week that personal computers that run it are in permanent decline.
Responding to the declaration made on Tuesday by the Apple founder, that the PC era was drawing to a close, Mr Ballmer admitted that the world of computers was changing rapidly, but said there would continue to be general purpose computers for many years: "They will continue to be the mass populariser of things people want to do with their information. "The PC as we know it will continue to morph," Mr Ballmer said during an on-stage interview. "Some will have a keyboard, some won't have a keyboard." Mr Ballmer's comments at the D: All Things Digital conference outside Los Angeles were delivered on the same stage where Mr Jobs struck a responsive chord among those attending when he contended that the iPad tablet computer, powerful smartphones and other devices would far surpass desktop and laptop PCs. Mr Ballmer, who also conceded that Microsoft had "missed a cycle" on mobile phones, sought to broaden the definition of a PC to include tablets. He added that Windows would be increasingly modified and optimised for various functions and different types of hardware. "To a man with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail," he said. "We have our hammer [with Windows]," while Apple had its own hammer with the iPhone operating system that it was expanding to support the iPad. In fact, he argued that Apple's push for that operating system meant that its own Mac computer would fade away. "It's not about Mac and PC any more, it will be about the thing that replaces the Mac," he said. "The race is on." Mr Ballmer said he was disappointed that his company's software was only the fifth most popular for smartphones, but said the rapid changes in leadership in that industry meant that Microsoft had a good opportunity to come back. The next mobile version of Windows is to be released for the holiday season, and Mr Ballmer said last month he would assume direct supervision of the company's phone and entertainment divisions. Mr Ballmer also took a swing at Google's dual efforts to expand in phones with its Android operating system, and to more powerful devices with the nascent Chrome operating system. "Having two things is not an aid" to developers, he said. "Make a bet, tell people what you believe in and go do it." I have copy this news from CNN News Online.
Responding to the declaration made on Tuesday by the Apple founder, that the PC era was drawing to a close, Mr Ballmer admitted that the world of computers was changing rapidly, but said there would continue to be general purpose computers for many years: "They will continue to be the mass populariser of things people want to do with their information. "The PC as we know it will continue to morph," Mr Ballmer said during an on-stage interview. "Some will have a keyboard, some won't have a keyboard." Mr Ballmer's comments at the D: All Things Digital conference outside Los Angeles were delivered on the same stage where Mr Jobs struck a responsive chord among those attending when he contended that the iPad tablet computer, powerful smartphones and other devices would far surpass desktop and laptop PCs. Mr Ballmer, who also conceded that Microsoft had "missed a cycle" on mobile phones, sought to broaden the definition of a PC to include tablets. He added that Windows would be increasingly modified and optimised for various functions and different types of hardware. "To a man with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail," he said. "We have our hammer [with Windows]," while Apple had its own hammer with the iPhone operating system that it was expanding to support the iPad. In fact, he argued that Apple's push for that operating system meant that its own Mac computer would fade away. "It's not about Mac and PC any more, it will be about the thing that replaces the Mac," he said. "The race is on." Mr Ballmer said he was disappointed that his company's software was only the fifth most popular for smartphones, but said the rapid changes in leadership in that industry meant that Microsoft had a good opportunity to come back. The next mobile version of Windows is to be released for the holiday season, and Mr Ballmer said last month he would assume direct supervision of the company's phone and entertainment divisions. Mr Ballmer also took a swing at Google's dual efforts to expand in phones with its Android operating system, and to more powerful devices with the nascent Chrome operating system. "Having two things is not an aid" to developers, he said. "Make a bet, tell people what you believe in and go do it." I have copy this news from CNN News Online.
Japan's parliament elects new prime minister.
Both the upper and lower houses of Japan's parliament elected Finance Minister Naoto Kan to be the nation's new prime minister Friday, following the resignation of Yukio Hatoyama from the post earlier this week. Kan is the country's fifth prime minister since 2006. The Diet, Japan's parliament, voted after the Democratic Party of Japan tapped Kan to lead the party earlier Friday. "The very first thing we must do is to regain the trust of the people," Kan said in a speech to party members before their vote Friday. Kan promised transparent government and pledged improved policies to boost jobs and reinvigorate society. "I have confidence that economic growth and social welfare can be realized together," he said. In the lower house of the Diet, Kan garnered 313 out of 480 votes Friday. In the upper house, he won by a narrower margin, getting 123 of 242 votes. In addition to serving as finance minister in the Hatoyama administration, Kan served as deputy prime minister. But Kan will be a rare political breed for a Japanese premier: His family has not produced another prime minister or state minister, which could play well with a Japanese public that has seen several sons and grandsons of former ministers in the past year ascending to the premiership only to step down again a few months later. As a former health minister, Kan gained popularity with voters after exposing a government cover-up of HIV-tainted blood products that caused thousands of hemophilia patients to contract the virus that causes AIDS. As a state minister for economy, he was not shy to talk about the foreign currency exchange rate. In January, he was supportive of a weaker yen to help the export-driven Japanese economy. Eight months ago, Hatoyama 's Democratic Party of Japan won a sweeping victory, an outcome hailed by many as a revolution in Japanese politics. With promises of a cleaner government, Hatoyama worked to shift the political dynamics in Japan by taking away power from the bureaucrats and granting more power to politicians and local governments. But allegations of illegal campaign financing soon tarnished his administration's image. Some of his cabinet members were investigated for corruption.
His approval rating took further hits over his failed promise to move a major U.S. Marine base off Okinawa to ease the burden of the island, which hosts the majority of the United States military presence in Japan. Earlier this month, calling his decision "heartbreaking," he announced that the base would remain on Okinawa, although relocated to a different part of the island. Hatoyama's critics claimed he gave in to U.S. pressure, and his government coalition broke up. I have copy this news from CNN News Online.
His approval rating took further hits over his failed promise to move a major U.S. Marine base off Okinawa to ease the burden of the island, which hosts the majority of the United States military presence in Japan. Earlier this month, calling his decision "heartbreaking," he announced that the base would remain on Okinawa, although relocated to a different part of the island. Hatoyama's critics claimed he gave in to U.S. pressure, and his government coalition broke up. I have copy this news from CNN News Online.
Can Low-Dose Avandia for Diabetes Avoid Lethal Side Effects?
Testing a Low-Dose Avandia 'Cocktail' Shows Promise, but Some Doctors Say Pull Drug From Market.
Amid calls to pull the controversial diabetes drug Avandia from the market, new research suggests that a low dose of this GlaxoSmithKline drug may help prevent diabetes without undue risk. Though the study, published Wednesday in the Lancet, showed few adverse side effects for a low-dose treatment, diabetes experts say Avandia has a history of potentially lethal side effects, and that further testing and use of this dangerous drug is questionable.
"This is a desperate attempt to salvage a dangerous drug," Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group, says of the study. Wolfe urges that trials on Avandia, known clinically as rosiglitazone, be halted due to the mounting evidence that the drug brings with it significant risk of heart attack, weight gain, and other health risks. In the study, test subjects were given a half-dose of Avandia paired with another diabetes drug, metformin , over a four-year period. They saw "very little in the way of adverse side effects," says study author Dr. Bernard Zinman of the University of Toronto. The study was not designed to test cardiovascular safety however, and the results cannot speak to the controversy surrounding the drug, Zinman says. "I can't say that this is strong evidence that [Avandia] is safe, but it implies that at this dose it is much better," Zinman says. Given Avandia's troubled history, complete with thousands of patient law suits and FDA recognition of its added risks, however, diabetes experts question the motivation for continuing research on this drug. Avandia's competitor, pioglitazone (Actos), works just as well with fewer risks, and intensive lifestyle counseling has been shown to work as well with no side effects, so, Wolfe asks, why continue to play with fire?
A Safe Future for Avandia? The drug combination in the Lancet study reduced the relative risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 66 percent among those patients at risk when compared to placebo. Past studies have shown that intensive lifestyle counseling can reduce diabetes risk by nearly 60 percent, but Zinman says that this type of regular coaching is difficult to implement without society-wide changes in diet and exercise habits. While all participants in the study received one-on-one coaching on diet and exercise changes in the first year, nearly forty percent of those who received only this counseling and a placebo went on to develop diabetes while only 14 percent of those treated with drugs did. I have copy this news from ABC News Online.
Amid calls to pull the controversial diabetes drug Avandia from the market, new research suggests that a low dose of this GlaxoSmithKline drug may help prevent diabetes without undue risk. Though the study, published Wednesday in the Lancet, showed few adverse side effects for a low-dose treatment, diabetes experts say Avandia has a history of potentially lethal side effects, and that further testing and use of this dangerous drug is questionable.
"This is a desperate attempt to salvage a dangerous drug," Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group, says of the study. Wolfe urges that trials on Avandia, known clinically as rosiglitazone, be halted due to the mounting evidence that the drug brings with it significant risk of heart attack, weight gain, and other health risks. In the study, test subjects were given a half-dose of Avandia paired with another diabetes drug, metformin , over a four-year period. They saw "very little in the way of adverse side effects," says study author Dr. Bernard Zinman of the University of Toronto. The study was not designed to test cardiovascular safety however, and the results cannot speak to the controversy surrounding the drug, Zinman says. "I can't say that this is strong evidence that [Avandia] is safe, but it implies that at this dose it is much better," Zinman says. Given Avandia's troubled history, complete with thousands of patient law suits and FDA recognition of its added risks, however, diabetes experts question the motivation for continuing research on this drug. Avandia's competitor, pioglitazone (Actos), works just as well with fewer risks, and intensive lifestyle counseling has been shown to work as well with no side effects, so, Wolfe asks, why continue to play with fire?
A Safe Future for Avandia? The drug combination in the Lancet study reduced the relative risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 66 percent among those patients at risk when compared to placebo. Past studies have shown that intensive lifestyle counseling can reduce diabetes risk by nearly 60 percent, but Zinman says that this type of regular coaching is difficult to implement without society-wide changes in diet and exercise habits. While all participants in the study received one-on-one coaching on diet and exercise changes in the first year, nearly forty percent of those who received only this counseling and a placebo went on to develop diabetes while only 14 percent of those treated with drugs did. I have copy this news from ABC News Online.
Obama Scraps Asia Trip, Second Time This Year.
For the second time this year, President Obama has scrubbed a planned trip to Indonesia and Australia. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs announced the cancellation in a written statement released at midnight Eastern Time. Gibbs wrote that Obama spoke with the leaders of both countries Thursday night and that he “expressed his deep regret that he has to postpone his trip to Asia that was scheduled for later this month. The President looked forward to rescheduling so that he can visit both countries soon." Gibbs and other Administration officials have been asked several times in recent days about a possible postponement because of the BP oil spill fiasco that has devastated the Gulf of Mexico. Gibbs and his deputies had said repeatedly only that the trip was “still on the schedule.”
Until tonight.
The trip had previously been scheduled this past March. It was scrubbed then and rescheduled for June because of the heath care reform vote in Congress at the time. There is no word yet on when the trip will be rescheduled but Obama plans to meet with the leaders of both countries at the G-20 Summit later this month in Canada. I have copy this news from ABC News Online.
Until tonight.
The trip had previously been scheduled this past March. It was scrubbed then and rescheduled for June because of the heath care reform vote in Congress at the time. There is no word yet on when the trip will be rescheduled but Obama plans to meet with the leaders of both countries at the G-20 Summit later this month in Canada. I have copy this news from ABC News Online.
วันจันทร์ที่ 31 พฤษภาคม พ.ศ. 2553
'World News' Political Insights: President Obama's Change Looking Like More of the Same.
President Battles Perceptions on Gulf Oil Spill, Sestak Job Offer.
For a president who promised change, the danger now is more of the same. The environmental calamity stemming from the BP oil spill is challenging President Obama's leadership in a fundamental way, threatening to undermine the sense of competence the president has sought to project. Meanwhile, the fallout from the White House's purported job offer to Rep. Joe Sestak , D-Pa., to keep him out of a Senate race is gnawing at Obama from another direction, depicting him as a business-as-usual politician who was slow to own up to an uncomfortable truth.
Oil Stains
The chorus of critics of the president's handling of the Gulf Coast crisis is only growing, with leading voices on the left leading the way -- and, increasingly, invoking comparisons to President Bush's handling of Hurricane Katrina. This is more than anger at Obama for not acting more quickly, or with more emotional power. It reflects a growing concern among the president's allies that a key attribute that fueled his political rise is leaking along with the oil spilling into the ocean. On the BP disaster, the president risks looking like part of the problem -- the head of an unfeeling and red-tape-wrapped federal government that has a cozy relationship with a tarnished oil company -- instead of the leader who promised "never again" to these same residents of the Gulf. His challenge will be to show both emotion and firm leadership in the weeks and months ahead, even with no end in sight to the leak and a clean-up that will last decades. It won't be enough to be seen as effectively marshaling the resources of the federal government, though that would be a start. With fingers pointing in every direction, the president will need to show that he's not just in charge but also on the side of the people of the Gulf. That's no easy task, given the growing frustrations of local officials in the region, and the hardening political storyline of a president who seemed not to grasp the urgency of the moment.
Toss in a president whose resting heart-rate is just different than your usual human being -- we're talking about "no-drama Obama" here -- and the political path is messy indeed. I have copy this news from ABC News Online.
For a president who promised change, the danger now is more of the same. The environmental calamity stemming from the BP oil spill is challenging President Obama's leadership in a fundamental way, threatening to undermine the sense of competence the president has sought to project. Meanwhile, the fallout from the White House's purported job offer to Rep. Joe Sestak , D-Pa., to keep him out of a Senate race is gnawing at Obama from another direction, depicting him as a business-as-usual politician who was slow to own up to an uncomfortable truth.
Oil Stains
The chorus of critics of the president's handling of the Gulf Coast crisis is only growing, with leading voices on the left leading the way -- and, increasingly, invoking comparisons to President Bush's handling of Hurricane Katrina. This is more than anger at Obama for not acting more quickly, or with more emotional power. It reflects a growing concern among the president's allies that a key attribute that fueled his political rise is leaking along with the oil spilling into the ocean. On the BP disaster, the president risks looking like part of the problem -- the head of an unfeeling and red-tape-wrapped federal government that has a cozy relationship with a tarnished oil company -- instead of the leader who promised "never again" to these same residents of the Gulf. His challenge will be to show both emotion and firm leadership in the weeks and months ahead, even with no end in sight to the leak and a clean-up that will last decades. It won't be enough to be seen as effectively marshaling the resources of the federal government, though that would be a start. With fingers pointing in every direction, the president will need to show that he's not just in charge but also on the side of the people of the Gulf. That's no easy task, given the growing frustrations of local officials in the region, and the hardening political storyline of a president who seemed not to grasp the urgency of the moment.
Toss in a president whose resting heart-rate is just different than your usual human being -- we're talking about "no-drama Obama" here -- and the political path is messy indeed. I have copy this news from ABC News Online.
South Korea takes battle over sunken warship to Twitter.
South Korea's defense ministry will show wreckage of a sunken ship to a group of Twitter users in an effort to dispel doubts among young skeptics about its investigation blaming North Korea for attacking the vessel, state media said Monday. Twenty users of the microblogging site will have a chance to review the evidence Friday after applying through the defense ministry's Twitter page, the Yonhap news agency reported. A group of college reporters and defense bloggers will also be invited to the presentation, which is part of a push to win over younger skeptics, Yonhap said. A South Korean report written by an international team of investigators accuses North Korea of firing a torpedo that sank the Cheonan warship in March, killing 46 sailors. North Korea has denied any involvement in the sinking and criticized the report's accuracy, claiming people who disagreed with the investigators' assertions were expelled from the investigation team, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported. Questions about the report have also surfaced online, Yonhap said. Police are investigating online rumors about the ship's sinking, according to Yonhap, and have said they will reprimand those responsible for spreading unfounded allegations. On Friday, Twitter users will be briefed about the investigation's results and allowed to take photographs of the wreckage, Yonhap reported. The ship's sinking and ensuing report have escalated tensions throughout the region.
After the report's release, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said that South Korea was suspending trade with North Korea, closing its waters to the North's ships and adopting a newly aggressive military posture toward its neighbor. North Korea reacted to a South Korean anti-submarine exercise Thursday by saying it would meet "confrontation with confrontation" and war with "all-out war," according to North Korean state-run media. Lee has said South Korea plans to bring the issue before the United Nations Security Council. I have copy this news from CNN News Online.
After the report's release, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said that South Korea was suspending trade with North Korea, closing its waters to the North's ships and adopting a newly aggressive military posture toward its neighbor. North Korea reacted to a South Korean anti-submarine exercise Thursday by saying it would meet "confrontation with confrontation" and war with "all-out war," according to North Korean state-run media. Lee has said South Korea plans to bring the issue before the United Nations Security Council. I have copy this news from CNN News Online.
Agatha leaves 82 dead in Guatemala, El Salvador.
The remnants of Tropical Storm Agatha were headed into the Caribbean Sea late Sunday after leaving behind more than 80 dead in Guatemala and El Salvador, authorities in those countries reported. Most of the dead were in Guatemala, where heavy rains triggered mudslides that collapsed homes and forced thousands to evacuate. The country's preliminary death toll was 73 on Sunday, with 49 of those reported in the province of Chimaltenango, said David de Leon, Spokesperson for the National Commission for the Reduction of National Disasters. That toll was expected to rise, he said. And El Salvador reported nine deaths from the storm. The government issued a red alert, the highest warning level, which shut down schools and opened up shelters for families in the affected areas, President Mauricio Funes said. Agatha, an Eastern Pacific storm, struck land Saturday and was downgraded from a tropical depression to a remnant storm on Sunday. It was last reported moving toward the western Caribbean on Sunday afternoon, but was expected to keep producing heavy rains through Monday, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. In Guatemala, the storm damaged more than 3,500 homes and forced the evacuation of more than 61,000 people, the nation's emergency office said Sunday. And in Mexico, the government's National Meteorological Service predicted torrential rain for Chiapas state, intense downpours in Tabasco and strong showers in Quintana Roo.
Four other Mexican states were predicted to receive moderate rain. Strong winds also were forecast. Swollen rivers and mudslides were a concern. In Guatemala, four children were buried in a landslide outside Guatemala City, the nation's capital. Four adults were killed in the capital, disaster officials said. Another two children and two adults were killed when a boulder, dislodged by heavy rains, crushed a house in the department of Quetzaltenango, 125 miles (200 km) west of Guatemala City, officials said. Guatemala is already under a 15-day state of calamity because of Thursday's eruption of the Pacaya volcano, which killed at least three people. At least 1,800 people had already been evacuated to shelters. The volcano also shut down the capital's international airport. Ash from the volcano that covered city streets and other areas mixed with the heavy rain, forming a goo that caused many drainage systems to clog. Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom said damage from Agatha was probably worse than the destruction caused by Hurricanes Mitch in 1998 and Stan in 2005, both of which devastated the Central American country. "The country is suffering a great tragedy, this attack by nature," Colom said from the Guatemalan emergency agency center. Emergencies were reported in all of Guatemala's 22 states, called departments. The worst, Colom said, was the Pacific Ocean port of Champerico, which is isolated. "We have no way of getting there to help the public, which is in danger because of flooding," Colom said. The president said he has asked the international community for help. Agatha is the first named storm of the Pacific hurricane season. The Atlantic hurricane season starts June 1. I have copy this news from CNN News Online.
Four other Mexican states were predicted to receive moderate rain. Strong winds also were forecast. Swollen rivers and mudslides were a concern. In Guatemala, four children were buried in a landslide outside Guatemala City, the nation's capital. Four adults were killed in the capital, disaster officials said. Another two children and two adults were killed when a boulder, dislodged by heavy rains, crushed a house in the department of Quetzaltenango, 125 miles (200 km) west of Guatemala City, officials said. Guatemala is already under a 15-day state of calamity because of Thursday's eruption of the Pacaya volcano, which killed at least three people. At least 1,800 people had already been evacuated to shelters. The volcano also shut down the capital's international airport. Ash from the volcano that covered city streets and other areas mixed with the heavy rain, forming a goo that caused many drainage systems to clog. Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom said damage from Agatha was probably worse than the destruction caused by Hurricanes Mitch in 1998 and Stan in 2005, both of which devastated the Central American country. "The country is suffering a great tragedy, this attack by nature," Colom said from the Guatemalan emergency agency center. Emergencies were reported in all of Guatemala's 22 states, called departments. The worst, Colom said, was the Pacific Ocean port of Champerico, which is isolated. "We have no way of getting there to help the public, which is in danger because of flooding," Colom said. The president said he has asked the international community for help. Agatha is the first named storm of the Pacific hurricane season. The Atlantic hurricane season starts June 1. I have copy this news from CNN News Online.
วันอาทิตย์ที่ 30 พฤษภาคม พ.ศ. 2553
Kicking up a storm: From Henry VIII to Cristiano Ronaldo.
From the original celebrity endorser King Henry VIII to modern-day superstars such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, the humble football boot has come a long way.
Britain's notorious wife-beheading royal paid four shillings -- the equivalent of $1,350 in today's money -- for his custom-made leather pair that were in an inventory of his wardrobe when he died in 1547. By comparison, Nike's new Mercurial Vapor Superfly II is the most expensive boot on the modern retail market, coming in at around $400. Henry VIII's boots would have been sturdy models made from tough leather to cope with the violent, no-rules, all-in-brawl approach to the game of the 16th century, a far cry from the streamlined and lightweight shoes designed for today's game. "We have a revolutionary technology which has a stud that adapts to different pitch conditions," Nike design director Andy Caine told CNN. "This will make the fastest player even faster whatever the pitch conditions might be. For a modern footballer who's really fast, this is really going to change his game." The birth of boot-making giants from workers knocking about in brutal steel-caps, the evolution of boots really kicked off in the late 1880s when nailed-in leather studs helped with traction in muddy fields. In 1948, a falling-out between the two German siblings behind the Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory led to the creation of Adidas and Puma -- the two most influential boot makers until the emergence of Nike in the 1980s. Both companies laid claim to the invention of the screw-in synthetic stud. are trying hard to sign the world's best football players to endorse their products--Consultant Stephanus Tekle
South Africa
Adolf ("Adi") Dassler's company said his firm's innovation helped Germany win the 1954 World Cup when treacherously wet weather struck before the final against Hungary, but brother Rudolph insisted Puma's Super Atom boot featured interchangeable studs years previously.
Two decades later, Puma struck an important blow by signing up the world's greatest player, Pele, for $125,000, according to a book by Dutch author Barbara Smit. At the opening game of the 1970 World Cup, the Brazil legend asked the referee to delay starting the match so he could tie up his laces -- meaning valuable exposure for Puma as the world's television cameras focused in on the player's feet, Smit wrote in "Three Stripes Versus Puma." Pele's Puma King range was also worn in the 1980s by Argentina superstar Diego Maradona, giving the company an association with two of the best players to have graced the sport, says Alan Spurgeon of specialist Web site www.Footy-Boots.com.
Enter the Predator
But Adidas consolidated their position at the top of the boot market thanks to a much lesser-known player. Craig Johnston, born in South Africa and raised in Australia, made his name with English club Liverpool in the 1980s. After retiring at the relatively young age of 27 to look after his ill sister, Johnston came up with the novel idea of adding rubber patches to the outside of boots, which boosted control of the ball and gave added swerve when kicking it. "I was coaching kids in Australia and I was telling them that they had to grip and bite into the ball like a table tennis bat to swerve it. 'That's fine Mr Johnston,' they said, 'but our boots are made of leather and not rubber, it's raining and they are slippery,' " he told Britain's Design Museum Web site. "I went home and took the rubber off a table tennis bat and stuck it on my boots with super glue. Immediately I went outside again and kicked the ball, I could hear a squeak when the rubber engaged with the polyurethane of the ball." The result, after years of development, was the Predator. Launched in 1994, it has been worn by superstar names such as Zinedine Zidane and David Beckham -- both of whom had customized versions. Johnston, ironically, has recently been a critic of modern boots, saying they contribute to injuries suffered by players. "People say that the boots don't provide enough protection. In fact, the opposite is true," he told FootyBoots in 2009. "The problem is that the boots are so well made there is no give at all in the materials -- especially the cheaper synthetics. "The pitches are now so well-maintained and even woven with synthetic materials that the players' studs engage like they should do, but they don't release enough, causing injury. Also, the studs are far too long and give far too much grip."
A new major player in the market
The next most significant boot was Nike's Mercurial Vapor, Spurgeon said, launched in 1998 with the endorsement of Brazilian World Cup winner Ronaldo. That range's popularity is expected to continue with the Superfly II, worn by Portugal's Real Madrid superstar Cristiano Ronaldo -- the planet's most expensive player at $130 million -- at the World Cup in South Africa. Caine said the design took a painstaking three years. "We really started from scratch on this boot," he said. "It's a long process. Every change you make, you have to make a sample then you have to test it on the pitch, test it in a lab, and make sure it provides a benefit."
The process starts with a small core team who focus on what needs improving from the previous boot, Caine said, gathering input from players and seeking out the latest technical innovations.
"Once you get onto the manufacturing side there's obviously larger development teams that come into it," he said. "A lot of people touch it through its life cycle, but there's quite a small core team who work on the real essence of the design and what it's about." While Caine is proud of the Superfly's new adaptable retraction system, which can change and extend automatically, Adidas have also unleashed an innovative new product before the World Cup -- even daring to revamp the traditional three-stripe design in a boot that changes color in different light.
The AdiZero is the lightest football boot on the market, Spurgeon says, with 2009 world player of the year Lionel Messi's F50 spearheading the range. "It's the fastest and lightest football shoe that we've ever created," Adidas senior product manager for footwear Aubry Dolan told CNN. "We've talked to the players, professionals and amateurs, and their message was very simple: make me faster. "The goal was simple, the challenge was very difficult. Never before have so many players felt, touched, tested, seen and thought about the product."
Who rules the roost?
The leading companies are coy about releasing boot market figures, but Spurgeon believes Adidas is a clear leader from Nike -- last year the firm claimed it had a 50 percent share in North America and Germany. United States-based Nike, however, is regarded the No. 1 sportswear company, he said. And it may be team shirts and balls, rather than boots, which prove to be the biggest money-earner at the World Cup, according to Germany-based marketing consultancy SPORT+MARKT. "As the sale of boots is still the core business, both companies are trying hard to sign the world's best football players to endorse their products," consultant Stephanus Tekle told CNN. "However, although boots are the right tool to promote the reliability and the technology of the brands, in terms of sales the World Cup shows a different trend. "During the event, fans tend to show commitment to their own national teams by purchasing the official jersey and the official ball rather than the boots of their favorite football players. This is probably the most profitable line of business during the World Cup for both Adidas and Nike."
New avenues: The Internet
Adidas has guaranteed maximum exposure in South Africa by buying up exclusive sponsorship rights, forcing Nike to continue the more innovative tactics it started with 2006's "Joga Bonito" social networking-style Web site. "Now Nike is trying to pursue a long-term strategy: no more single campaigns but the activation of more comprehensive marketing, especially via the Internet," Tekle said. "For instance, Nike is deeply involved in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) activities with the latest campaign, "Lace Up, Save Lives," endorsed by important athletes. The aim is to lend more credibility and reliability to the brand. "The Internet is soon going to be a major resource for the kit suppliers more and more, and new innovative campaigns should be expected on the web." I have copy this news from CNN News Online.
Britain's notorious wife-beheading royal paid four shillings -- the equivalent of $1,350 in today's money -- for his custom-made leather pair that were in an inventory of his wardrobe when he died in 1547. By comparison, Nike's new Mercurial Vapor Superfly II is the most expensive boot on the modern retail market, coming in at around $400. Henry VIII's boots would have been sturdy models made from tough leather to cope with the violent, no-rules, all-in-brawl approach to the game of the 16th century, a far cry from the streamlined and lightweight shoes designed for today's game. "We have a revolutionary technology which has a stud that adapts to different pitch conditions," Nike design director Andy Caine told CNN. "This will make the fastest player even faster whatever the pitch conditions might be. For a modern footballer who's really fast, this is really going to change his game." The birth of boot-making giants from workers knocking about in brutal steel-caps, the evolution of boots really kicked off in the late 1880s when nailed-in leather studs helped with traction in muddy fields. In 1948, a falling-out between the two German siblings behind the Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory led to the creation of Adidas and Puma -- the two most influential boot makers until the emergence of Nike in the 1980s. Both companies laid claim to the invention of the screw-in synthetic stud. are trying hard to sign the world's best football players to endorse their products--Consultant Stephanus Tekle
South Africa
Adolf ("Adi") Dassler's company said his firm's innovation helped Germany win the 1954 World Cup when treacherously wet weather struck before the final against Hungary, but brother Rudolph insisted Puma's Super Atom boot featured interchangeable studs years previously.
Two decades later, Puma struck an important blow by signing up the world's greatest player, Pele, for $125,000, according to a book by Dutch author Barbara Smit. At the opening game of the 1970 World Cup, the Brazil legend asked the referee to delay starting the match so he could tie up his laces -- meaning valuable exposure for Puma as the world's television cameras focused in on the player's feet, Smit wrote in "Three Stripes Versus Puma." Pele's Puma King range was also worn in the 1980s by Argentina superstar Diego Maradona, giving the company an association with two of the best players to have graced the sport, says Alan Spurgeon of specialist Web site www.Footy-Boots.com.
Enter the Predator
But Adidas consolidated their position at the top of the boot market thanks to a much lesser-known player. Craig Johnston, born in South Africa and raised in Australia, made his name with English club Liverpool in the 1980s. After retiring at the relatively young age of 27 to look after his ill sister, Johnston came up with the novel idea of adding rubber patches to the outside of boots, which boosted control of the ball and gave added swerve when kicking it. "I was coaching kids in Australia and I was telling them that they had to grip and bite into the ball like a table tennis bat to swerve it. 'That's fine Mr Johnston,' they said, 'but our boots are made of leather and not rubber, it's raining and they are slippery,' " he told Britain's Design Museum Web site. "I went home and took the rubber off a table tennis bat and stuck it on my boots with super glue. Immediately I went outside again and kicked the ball, I could hear a squeak when the rubber engaged with the polyurethane of the ball." The result, after years of development, was the Predator. Launched in 1994, it has been worn by superstar names such as Zinedine Zidane and David Beckham -- both of whom had customized versions. Johnston, ironically, has recently been a critic of modern boots, saying they contribute to injuries suffered by players. "People say that the boots don't provide enough protection. In fact, the opposite is true," he told FootyBoots in 2009. "The problem is that the boots are so well made there is no give at all in the materials -- especially the cheaper synthetics. "The pitches are now so well-maintained and even woven with synthetic materials that the players' studs engage like they should do, but they don't release enough, causing injury. Also, the studs are far too long and give far too much grip."
A new major player in the market
The next most significant boot was Nike's Mercurial Vapor, Spurgeon said, launched in 1998 with the endorsement of Brazilian World Cup winner Ronaldo. That range's popularity is expected to continue with the Superfly II, worn by Portugal's Real Madrid superstar Cristiano Ronaldo -- the planet's most expensive player at $130 million -- at the World Cup in South Africa. Caine said the design took a painstaking three years. "We really started from scratch on this boot," he said. "It's a long process. Every change you make, you have to make a sample then you have to test it on the pitch, test it in a lab, and make sure it provides a benefit."
The process starts with a small core team who focus on what needs improving from the previous boot, Caine said, gathering input from players and seeking out the latest technical innovations.
"Once you get onto the manufacturing side there's obviously larger development teams that come into it," he said. "A lot of people touch it through its life cycle, but there's quite a small core team who work on the real essence of the design and what it's about." While Caine is proud of the Superfly's new adaptable retraction system, which can change and extend automatically, Adidas have also unleashed an innovative new product before the World Cup -- even daring to revamp the traditional three-stripe design in a boot that changes color in different light.
The AdiZero is the lightest football boot on the market, Spurgeon says, with 2009 world player of the year Lionel Messi's F50 spearheading the range. "It's the fastest and lightest football shoe that we've ever created," Adidas senior product manager for footwear Aubry Dolan told CNN. "We've talked to the players, professionals and amateurs, and their message was very simple: make me faster. "The goal was simple, the challenge was very difficult. Never before have so many players felt, touched, tested, seen and thought about the product."
Who rules the roost?
The leading companies are coy about releasing boot market figures, but Spurgeon believes Adidas is a clear leader from Nike -- last year the firm claimed it had a 50 percent share in North America and Germany. United States-based Nike, however, is regarded the No. 1 sportswear company, he said. And it may be team shirts and balls, rather than boots, which prove to be the biggest money-earner at the World Cup, according to Germany-based marketing consultancy SPORT+MARKT. "As the sale of boots is still the core business, both companies are trying hard to sign the world's best football players to endorse their products," consultant Stephanus Tekle told CNN. "However, although boots are the right tool to promote the reliability and the technology of the brands, in terms of sales the World Cup shows a different trend. "During the event, fans tend to show commitment to their own national teams by purchasing the official jersey and the official ball rather than the boots of their favorite football players. This is probably the most profitable line of business during the World Cup for both Adidas and Nike."
New avenues: The Internet
Adidas has guaranteed maximum exposure in South Africa by buying up exclusive sponsorship rights, forcing Nike to continue the more innovative tactics it started with 2006's "Joga Bonito" social networking-style Web site. "Now Nike is trying to pursue a long-term strategy: no more single campaigns but the activation of more comprehensive marketing, especially via the Internet," Tekle said. "For instance, Nike is deeply involved in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) activities with the latest campaign, "Lace Up, Save Lives," endorsed by important athletes. The aim is to lend more credibility and reliability to the brand. "The Internet is soon going to be a major resource for the kit suppliers more and more, and new innovative campaigns should be expected on the web." I have copy this news from CNN News Online.
Thai prime minister says state of emergency may be lifted.
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said the country was calm Sunday morning after the first night without a government-imposed curfew in 10 days, state media said. In his weekly television address, Abhisit said the state of emergency could be lifted, but did not say when a relaxation or removal of emergency regulations would take place, the Thai News Agency reported. Officials implemented the state of emergency on April 7 in Bangkok and nearby provinces, when thousands of anti-government protesters had amassed in the capital's central shopping district. They imposed a curfew in Bangkok and 23 provinces May 19. Violent clashes between the demonstrators and government troops broke out earlier this month, killing at least 50 people and injuring nearly 400, government officials said.
Thai PM lifts curfew
More than 30 buildings -- including a bank, a police station, a local television station and Thailand's biggest shopping mall -- were set ablaze. Abhisit said an independent committee would be established this week to examine the political unrest. Thai investigators claim former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a bloodless military coup in 2006, helped mastermind and fund the Red Shirt anti-government protests, Thailand's state news agency said this week. A Thai court issued an arrest warrant for Thaksin this week on terrorism charges connected to the clashes, the news agency said. Thaksin has denied he was a leader of the Red Shirt demonstrations and said the charges in the arrest warrant show the government lacks legitimacy. I have copy this news from CNN News Online.
Thai PM lifts curfew
More than 30 buildings -- including a bank, a police station, a local television station and Thailand's biggest shopping mall -- were set ablaze. Abhisit said an independent committee would be established this week to examine the political unrest. Thai investigators claim former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a bloodless military coup in 2006, helped mastermind and fund the Red Shirt anti-government protests, Thailand's state news agency said this week. A Thai court issued an arrest warrant for Thaksin this week on terrorism charges connected to the clashes, the news agency said. Thaksin has denied he was a leader of the Red Shirt demonstrations and said the charges in the arrest warrant show the government lacks legitimacy. I have copy this news from CNN News Online.
Mexican prison warden abducted, dismembered.
A prison warden in the Mexican state of Morelos was abducted as he reported to work Saturday morning and his dismembered body was found later in four locations in the city of Cuernavaca, the government-run Notimex agency reported. The warden was identified as Luis Navarro Castaneda, director of the Atlacholoaya prison. Written messages were left with the body remains, Notimex said. The news agency did not report what the messages said. Navarro's abandoned Toyota truck was found near the prison, Notimex said. No arrests had been announced as of Sunday morning.
Mexican prison warden abducted, dismembered.
A prison warden in the Mexican state of Morelos was abducted as he reported to work Saturday morning and his dismembered body was found later in four locations in the city of Cuernavaca, the government-run Notimex agency reported. The warden was identified as Luis Navarro Castaneda, director of the Atlacholoaya prison. Written messages were left with the body remains, Notimex said. The news agency did not report what the messages said. Navarro's abandoned Toyota truck was found near the prison, Notimex said. No arrests had been announced as of Sunday morning.
Choosing the Best Sunscreen.
Over Memorial Day Weekend, Avoid Damaging Sun Rays by Splattering, Spraying Sunscreen.
If you're heading to the beach this Memorial Day weekend, bring sunscreen. But with so many choices on the shelves, how can you choose which one is best for you and your family?
Sunscreen spray has become the most user-friendly these days, but many still cling to their lotions. "It's all about personal preference," said Frances Largeman-Roth, a senior editor for Health magazine. She tested sunscreen products and compiled a list that will keep you and your family safe from the sun's rays. Largeman-Roth said, "The Banana Boat Ultra Defense SPF 85, we loved it because it absorbs on contact and it's a continuous spray. So if you have little kids who love to run away from you when you put the sunscreen on, just grab them, spray them down, and it absorbs on contact. And it's non-greasy." As far as sunscreen lotion, Largeman-Roth recommends Neutragena Spectrum+ Advanced SPF 55. "It will not clog your pores," she said. "It's all about finding one that works for you, one that you like the scent of, or maybe you're looking for fragrance-free. This is a fragrance-free product. Whatever works for you, you'll use. If you hate it, you're not going to put it on." Many are making sure that they are choosing the right SPF to penetrate the skin to protect against UVA rays. In the fall, there will be new regulations, Largeman-Roth said, "But for now, you can still get up to 85, up to 100, but really over 50. They can't guarantee how much extra protection it will give you, but dermatologists always say at least 30." There are a few products that work best for kids, such as Aveeno Baby Continuous Protection, SPF 50. "This one is really great because it locks in moisture on a baby's skin," Largeman-Roth said. "Babies lose moisture more easily, and of course, they have more sensitive skin." This Memorial Day weekend may see a lot more people getting active outdoors. For "athletes," Mission Skincare is a fast-drying spray, Largeman-Roth said, pointing to well-known athletes who use the product such as soccer champ Mia Hamm and tennis star Serena Williams. "It is sweat-proof, waterproof, and it also won't stain your clothes. A lot of them will get on your clothes and leave an oily-slick stain," Largeman-Roth said. I have copy this news from ABC News Online.
If you're heading to the beach this Memorial Day weekend, bring sunscreen. But with so many choices on the shelves, how can you choose which one is best for you and your family?
Sunscreen spray has become the most user-friendly these days, but many still cling to their lotions. "It's all about personal preference," said Frances Largeman-Roth, a senior editor for Health magazine. She tested sunscreen products and compiled a list that will keep you and your family safe from the sun's rays. Largeman-Roth said, "The Banana Boat Ultra Defense SPF 85, we loved it because it absorbs on contact and it's a continuous spray. So if you have little kids who love to run away from you when you put the sunscreen on, just grab them, spray them down, and it absorbs on contact. And it's non-greasy." As far as sunscreen lotion, Largeman-Roth recommends Neutragena Spectrum+ Advanced SPF 55. "It will not clog your pores," she said. "It's all about finding one that works for you, one that you like the scent of, or maybe you're looking for fragrance-free. This is a fragrance-free product. Whatever works for you, you'll use. If you hate it, you're not going to put it on." Many are making sure that they are choosing the right SPF to penetrate the skin to protect against UVA rays. In the fall, there will be new regulations, Largeman-Roth said, "But for now, you can still get up to 85, up to 100, but really over 50. They can't guarantee how much extra protection it will give you, but dermatologists always say at least 30." There are a few products that work best for kids, such as Aveeno Baby Continuous Protection, SPF 50. "This one is really great because it locks in moisture on a baby's skin," Largeman-Roth said. "Babies lose moisture more easily, and of course, they have more sensitive skin." This Memorial Day weekend may see a lot more people getting active outdoors. For "athletes," Mission Skincare is a fast-drying spray, Largeman-Roth said, pointing to well-known athletes who use the product such as soccer champ Mia Hamm and tennis star Serena Williams. "It is sweat-proof, waterproof, and it also won't stain your clothes. A lot of them will get on your clothes and leave an oily-slick stain," Largeman-Roth said. I have copy this news from ABC News Online.
Tropical Storm Kills 15 in Guatemala, El Salvador.
Torrential rains brought by the first tropical storm of the 2010 season pounded Central America and southern Mexico, triggering deadly landslides. The death toll stood at 15 Sunday but authorities said the number could rise. Tropical Storm Agatha made landfall near the border of Guatemala and Mexico on Saturday with wind speeds of up to 45 mph (75 kph), then weakened into a tropical depression before dissipating over the mountains of western Guatemala. Although no longer even a tropical depression, Agatha still posed trouble for the region: Remnants of the storm were expected to deliver 10 to 20 inches (25 to 50 centimeters) of rain over southeastern Mexico, Guatemala and parts of El Salvador , creating the possibility of "life-threatening flash floods and mudslides," the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said in an advisory Sunday. Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom said Saturday night that the rivers in the country's south were flooding or close to it. Colom said 4.3 inches (10.8 centimeters) of rain had fallen in Guatemala City's valley in 12 hours, the most since 1949. As of Saturday night, 4,300 people were in shelters and authorities said the number could rise as figures come in from around the country. Earlier Saturday, Agatha's rains caused a landslide on a hillside settlement in Guatemala City that killed four people and left 11 missing, Guatemalan disaster relief spokesman David de Leon said. Most of the city was without electricity at nightfall, complicating search efforts. Four children were killed by another mudslide in the town of Santa Catarina Pinula, about six miles (10 kilometers) outside the capital. And in the department of Quetzaltenango, 125 miles (200 kilometers) west of Guatemala City, a boulder loosened by rains crushed a house, killing two children and two adults, de Leon said. Calls to local radio stations told of many more landslides and possible deaths, but those reports could not be immediately confirmed. I have copy this news from ABC News Online.
วันเสาร์ที่ 29 พฤษภาคม พ.ศ. 2553
Brush teeth to 'prevent' heart disease.
People who fail to brush their teeth twice a day are putting themselves at risk of heart disease, research suggests. The Scottish study of more than 11,000 adults backs previous research linking gum disease with heart problems. The researchers said more work is needed to confirm if poor oral health directly causes heart disease or is a marker of risk.
A charity added that oral hygiene was just one factor in good heart health. It is known that inflammation in the body, including in the mouth and gums, has an important role in the build up of clogged arteries, which can lead to a heart attack. But this is the first time that researchers have looked at whether the frequency of teeth brushing has any bearing on the risk of developing heart disease.
Data, published in the British Medical Journal was collected on lifestyle behaviours, such as smoking, physical activity and oral health routines. Participants were also asked how often they visited the dentist and how often they brushed their teeth. Then nurses collected information on medical history and family history of heart disease, took blood pressure and blood samples.
Overall, six out of 10 people said they visited the dentist every six months and seven out 10 reported brushing their teeth twice a day. Over the eight-year study there were 555 "cardiovascular events" such as heart attacks, 170 of which were fatal.
Taking into account factors that affect heart disease risk, such as social class, obesity, smoking and family history, the researchers found those with the worst oral hygiene had a 70% increased chance of developing the condition compared with those who brush their teeth twice a day.
Those with poor oral hygiene also tested positive in blood samples for proteins which are suggestive of inflammation.
Cause and effect
Study leader Professor Richard Watt, from University College London, said future studies will be needed to confirm whether the link between oral health behaviour and cardiovascular disease "is in fact causal or merely a risk marker".
Judy O'Sullivan, senior cardiac nurse at British Heart Foundation, said: "If you don't brush your teeth, your mouth can become infected with bacteria which can cause inflammation. "However, it is complicated by the fact that poor oral hygiene is often associated with other well known risk factors for heart disease, such as smoking and poor diet." She added: "Good personal hygiene is a basic element of a healthy lifestyle. "But if you want to help your heart, you should eat a balanced diet, avoid smoking and take part in regular physical activity."
Professor Damien Walmsley, scientific adviser to the British Dental Association, added it was still unclear whether there was a definite cause and effect between oral hygiene and heart disease.
"Whatever the true position is, we can say with certainty that if people brush teeth twice a day with fluoride toothpaste, visit the dentist regularly and restrict sugary snacks to mealtimes; that this will go a long way towards keeping the teeth and gums in a healthy state for life." I have copy this news from BBC News Online.
A charity added that oral hygiene was just one factor in good heart health. It is known that inflammation in the body, including in the mouth and gums, has an important role in the build up of clogged arteries, which can lead to a heart attack. But this is the first time that researchers have looked at whether the frequency of teeth brushing has any bearing on the risk of developing heart disease.
Data, published in the British Medical Journal was collected on lifestyle behaviours, such as smoking, physical activity and oral health routines. Participants were also asked how often they visited the dentist and how often they brushed their teeth. Then nurses collected information on medical history and family history of heart disease, took blood pressure and blood samples.
Overall, six out of 10 people said they visited the dentist every six months and seven out 10 reported brushing their teeth twice a day. Over the eight-year study there were 555 "cardiovascular events" such as heart attacks, 170 of which were fatal.
Taking into account factors that affect heart disease risk, such as social class, obesity, smoking and family history, the researchers found those with the worst oral hygiene had a 70% increased chance of developing the condition compared with those who brush their teeth twice a day.
Those with poor oral hygiene also tested positive in blood samples for proteins which are suggestive of inflammation.
Cause and effect
Study leader Professor Richard Watt, from University College London, said future studies will be needed to confirm whether the link between oral health behaviour and cardiovascular disease "is in fact causal or merely a risk marker".
Judy O'Sullivan, senior cardiac nurse at British Heart Foundation, said: "If you don't brush your teeth, your mouth can become infected with bacteria which can cause inflammation. "However, it is complicated by the fact that poor oral hygiene is often associated with other well known risk factors for heart disease, such as smoking and poor diet." She added: "Good personal hygiene is a basic element of a healthy lifestyle. "But if you want to help your heart, you should eat a balanced diet, avoid smoking and take part in regular physical activity."
Professor Damien Walmsley, scientific adviser to the British Dental Association, added it was still unclear whether there was a definite cause and effect between oral hygiene and heart disease.
"Whatever the true position is, we can say with certainty that if people brush teeth twice a day with fluoride toothpaste, visit the dentist regularly and restrict sugary snacks to mealtimes; that this will go a long way towards keeping the teeth and gums in a healthy state for life." I have copy this news from BBC News Online.
Long Lines in Europe, Asia to Buy Apple's iPad.
Technophiles mobbed Apple Stores in Europe and Asia on Friday in a quest to snatch up the hottest gadget of the moment - the iPad. Long lines snaked down streets in London, Paris , Frankfurt and Tokyo as eager buyers vied to wield their credit cards. Screams and cheers rose from the crowd in central London as students, professionals and self-proclaimed computer geeks clutched boxes containing the slim black device.
"If I was a music fan, it would be like the launch of a Lady GaGa album in the U.S.," said comedian Stephen Fry, known in Britain as a champion Tweeter. Apple Inc., based in Cupertino, California, said earlier this month that it had sold 1 million of the devices in the United States in just 28 days. The company started taking orders for the iPad abroad on May 10 after pushing back its international delivery target amid extreme demand at home.
The computer looks like a larger version of Apple's iPhone and can be used to send e-mails, draw pictures and play games. It is also seen as a potential savior of the struggling newspaper industry, because it can be used as an electronic reader. Publishers have seized upon the device as an opportunity to finally make large numbers of readers pay for online content.
In hopes of better times, Britain's Financial Times newspaper launched its iPad version at a swank press event at a hotel overlooking Lake Geneva in Switzerland, claiming the app has already been downloaded over 100,000 times in the United States.
Rob Grimshaw, managing director of FT.com. said 20 percent of new digital subscriptions to the paper came from iPad users last week. "I think it's going to be an extremely lucrative device for us," he said.
In Britain, prices for versions of the iPad range from 429 pounds to 699 pounds ($624 to $1,017). But the rollout has not been without its problems. A string of suicides at a Chinese factory that churns out iPads and other high-tech items has raised concerns about conditions for workers who face tremendous time pressures and harsh discipline for mistakes. I have copy this news from ABC News Online.
"If I was a music fan, it would be like the launch of a Lady GaGa album in the U.S.," said comedian Stephen Fry, known in Britain as a champion Tweeter. Apple Inc., based in Cupertino, California, said earlier this month that it had sold 1 million of the devices in the United States in just 28 days. The company started taking orders for the iPad abroad on May 10 after pushing back its international delivery target amid extreme demand at home.
The computer looks like a larger version of Apple's iPhone and can be used to send e-mails, draw pictures and play games. It is also seen as a potential savior of the struggling newspaper industry, because it can be used as an electronic reader. Publishers have seized upon the device as an opportunity to finally make large numbers of readers pay for online content.
In hopes of better times, Britain's Financial Times newspaper launched its iPad version at a swank press event at a hotel overlooking Lake Geneva in Switzerland, claiming the app has already been downloaded over 100,000 times in the United States.
Rob Grimshaw, managing director of FT.com. said 20 percent of new digital subscriptions to the paper came from iPad users last week. "I think it's going to be an extremely lucrative device for us," he said.
In Britain, prices for versions of the iPad range from 429 pounds to 699 pounds ($624 to $1,017). But the rollout has not been without its problems. A string of suicides at a Chinese factory that churns out iPads and other high-tech items has raised concerns about conditions for workers who face tremendous time pressures and harsh discipline for mistakes. I have copy this news from ABC News Online.
Volcano Chasers Have a Red-Hot Passion for Eruptions.
Common sense might dictate that when a volcano starts erupting, the best thing to do is run away. But for a small and somewhat obsessed band of photographers, news of a new lava-spewing giant somewhere in the world means one thing: It's time to book a flight.
In early April, Martin Rietze spent three sleepless nights huddled next to a large boulder about 1,600 feet from the mouth of Iceland's recently reawakened Eyjafjallajökull volcano, having the time of his life. Sleepless because when a volcano is throwing car-sized pieces of rock into the air, you can't close your eyes for a second. "It's too dangerous to sleep, so you have to stay up," he says from his home in Eichenau, Germany.
Rietze, an engineer who builds delicate electronics for planetariums, is part of a very small group of mostly men worldwide who spend vacations racing to be as near as possible to molten magma, choking ash clouds and poisonous gases, not to mention a rain of smoking-hot boulders.
Volcanophiles exist all over the world, though there are at best only a couple hundred of them, they estimate. There are groups and individuals in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, France, the USA and Japan.
They seem to include a high percentage of engineers, computer, electrical, chemical and mechanical. Though it once was a solitary pursuit, the Internet has allowed them to share their work — and tips. It's a labor of love, because they all know they can't make a living at it, says Richard Roscoe, an Englishman who works as a patent examiner in the European Patent Office. He's spending this week in Vanuatu to shoot the Yasur volcano.
"One always hopes that one will get the really big shot and get that contract with National Geographic, but the likelihood is very minimal," he says. But professionals urge a large dose of caution. Volcanoes are astoundingly alluring; far too many people take far too many chances around them, say Donna and Steve O'Meara, a husband-and-wife team who shoot for National Geographic. "They put fire in people's eyes and their brain is left behind," Donna says. I have cppy this news from ABC News Online.
In early April, Martin Rietze spent three sleepless nights huddled next to a large boulder about 1,600 feet from the mouth of Iceland's recently reawakened Eyjafjallajökull volcano, having the time of his life. Sleepless because when a volcano is throwing car-sized pieces of rock into the air, you can't close your eyes for a second. "It's too dangerous to sleep, so you have to stay up," he says from his home in Eichenau, Germany.
Rietze, an engineer who builds delicate electronics for planetariums, is part of a very small group of mostly men worldwide who spend vacations racing to be as near as possible to molten magma, choking ash clouds and poisonous gases, not to mention a rain of smoking-hot boulders.
Volcanophiles exist all over the world, though there are at best only a couple hundred of them, they estimate. There are groups and individuals in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, France, the USA and Japan.
They seem to include a high percentage of engineers, computer, electrical, chemical and mechanical. Though it once was a solitary pursuit, the Internet has allowed them to share their work — and tips. It's a labor of love, because they all know they can't make a living at it, says Richard Roscoe, an Englishman who works as a patent examiner in the European Patent Office. He's spending this week in Vanuatu to shoot the Yasur volcano.
"One always hopes that one will get the really big shot and get that contract with National Geographic, but the likelihood is very minimal," he says. But professionals urge a large dose of caution. Volcanoes are astoundingly alluring; far too many people take far too many chances around them, say Donna and Steve O'Meara, a husband-and-wife team who shoot for National Geographic. "They put fire in people's eyes and their brain is left behind," Donna says. I have cppy this news from ABC News Online.
Thai prime minister lifts curfew.
Thailand's prime minister said Saturday that the curfew imposed during anti-government protests has been lifted. Emergency law was still in place in 24 of Thailand's 76 provinces, including Bangkok, said Maj. Gen. Prawut Thavornsiri of the police. Officials imposed the curfew last week after government troops moved to quell the protests by Red Shirt demonstrators. They extended the curfew this week.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said last weekend that "everything is calm and returning to normalcy" following the weeks of protests, which were called off after troops surged in.
At least 50 people were killed in clashes between the demonstrators and government troops and nearly 400 people injured, government officials said. More than 30 buildings -- including a bank, a police station, a local television station and Thailand's biggest shopping mall -- were set ablaze.
Thai investigators claim former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a bloodless military coup in 2006, helped mastermind and fund the Red Shirt protests, Thailand's state news agency said this week.
A Thai court issued an arrest warrant for Thaksin this week on terrorism charges connected to the clashes, the news agency said. Thaksin has denied he was a leader of the Red Shirt demonstrations and said the charges in the arrest warrant shows the government lacks legitimacy. I have copy this news from CNN News Online.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said last weekend that "everything is calm and returning to normalcy" following the weeks of protests, which were called off after troops surged in.
At least 50 people were killed in clashes between the demonstrators and government troops and nearly 400 people injured, government officials said. More than 30 buildings -- including a bank, a police station, a local television station and Thailand's biggest shopping mall -- were set ablaze.
Thai investigators claim former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a bloodless military coup in 2006, helped mastermind and fund the Red Shirt protests, Thailand's state news agency said this week.
A Thai court issued an arrest warrant for Thaksin this week on terrorism charges connected to the clashes, the news agency said. Thaksin has denied he was a leader of the Red Shirt demonstrations and said the charges in the arrest warrant shows the government lacks legitimacy. I have copy this news from CNN News Online.
Death toll rises to 98 in India train crash.
Investigators were searching for bodies in a mangled wreck Saturday, a day after two trains crashed and killed at least 98 people in eastern India, officials said. Maoist rebels are suspected of causing the crash by removing the fasteners securing the tracks, police said.
Authorities identified some suspects, but had not yet made any arrests, said Bhupinder Singh, police chief in West Bengal state. He said "quite a few" people were involved.
At least 115 passengers were injured when 13 cars of the Mumbai-bound Lokmanya Tilak Gyaneshwari Express derailed, capsized on a parallel track and were slammed by a cargo train, authorities said. More than a dozen bodies may still be trapped inside the wreckage, said N.S. Nigam, West Midnapore district magistrate.
Singh told reporters Friday that officers had found Maoist posters claiming responsibility for the attack.
"It appears to be a case of sabotage where a portion of the railway track was removed. Whether explosives were used is not yet clear," Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram said in a statement Friday.
Manoj Verma, the district police superintendent, said Friday that investigators were looking into the possibility that "fishplates," which secure rail joints, were missing from the track.
The role of Maoists "cannot be ruled out," Verma said.
India regards Maoists as its gravest internal security threat.
More than 70 officers were killed in a suspected Maoist ambush in Chhattisgarh state last month in what was seen as one of the most daring attacks by the left-wing guerrillas on Indian security forces. The insurgents, on the other hand, have claimed since the 1960s to be fighting for the dispossessed.
In February, Chidambaram said that more than 900 people, including almost 600 civilians, were killed in Maoist-related incidents in 2009. About 200 suspected rebels were also slain as forces moved into areas under insurgent control, he said. I have copy this news from CNN News Online.
Authorities identified some suspects, but had not yet made any arrests, said Bhupinder Singh, police chief in West Bengal state. He said "quite a few" people were involved.
At least 115 passengers were injured when 13 cars of the Mumbai-bound Lokmanya Tilak Gyaneshwari Express derailed, capsized on a parallel track and were slammed by a cargo train, authorities said. More than a dozen bodies may still be trapped inside the wreckage, said N.S. Nigam, West Midnapore district magistrate.
Singh told reporters Friday that officers had found Maoist posters claiming responsibility for the attack.
"It appears to be a case of sabotage where a portion of the railway track was removed. Whether explosives were used is not yet clear," Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram said in a statement Friday.
Manoj Verma, the district police superintendent, said Friday that investigators were looking into the possibility that "fishplates," which secure rail joints, were missing from the track.
The role of Maoists "cannot be ruled out," Verma said.
India regards Maoists as its gravest internal security threat.
More than 70 officers were killed in a suspected Maoist ambush in Chhattisgarh state last month in what was seen as one of the most daring attacks by the left-wing guerrillas on Indian security forces. The insurgents, on the other hand, have claimed since the 1960s to be fighting for the dispossessed.
In February, Chidambaram said that more than 900 people, including almost 600 civilians, were killed in Maoist-related incidents in 2009. About 200 suspected rebels were also slain as forces moved into areas under insurgent control, he said. I have copy this news from CNN News Online.
วันเสาร์ที่ 15 พฤษภาคม พ.ศ. 2553
Death toll climbs in Bangkok as Thai PM warns of civil war
At least eight people have been killed as Thai security forces declared a "live firing zone" in downtown Bangkok on Saturday following days of deadly clashes with anti-government protesters.
Saturday's fatality takes the total number of deaths to 25 since a government-backed clampdown on protesters exploded into violence on Thursday. More than 150 people have been wounded, according to emergency officials.
In a televised address, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said a small group of protesters among the opposition "Red Shirts" was trying to foment civil war. The prime minister urged the citizenry to understand and embrace the government's stance. The country couldn't allow the rule of law to fail, he said, warning that the longer the protests continued, the higher the risk for the public.
"The government proposed a reconciliation plan but it was rejected," Abhisit said. "This benefits no one. It only benefits a small group which wants to harm the country and lead it to civil war. It is unbelieveble that they use peoples lives for political advantage."
Thousands of Red Shirts, who support ousted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, have been occupying a central area of the city for weeks in a show of opposition to Abhisit.
The escalating unrest prompted the U.S. Embassy to issue a travel warning Saturday advising Americans to defer travel to Bangkok, spokeswoman Cynthia Brown told CNN.
Several other western embassies, including the UK, Japan, Canada, New Zealand and the Netherlands have also advised against travel to Bangkok. Tensions remained high Saturday, with protesters yelling and screaming as they stood behind barricades of tires, spikes and bamboo poles.
But a military spokesman said security forces planned to put the protesters under more pressure Saturday as they cordoned off an area of several square kilometers, CNN's Sara Sidner reported.
"In the next few days, they will be stepping up their security measures," said Panitan Wattanayagorn, the acting Thai government spokesman.
Security forces rolled out razor wire and erected warning signs as they surrounded the area where the protesters have been clustered, CNN's Dan Rivers reported. He said Thai troops had also come under fire although it was unclear who was shooting at them.
"There's been quite a fierce gunfight where we are in the northwest corner of this zone that they have tried to surround a Ratchaprarop Road which has been declared a live fire zone by the army," said Rivers.
"There are signs up all along it warning residents to stay indoors, that there is live ammunition being used. We've been effectively pinned down while the army tries to deal with incoming fire. We're not sure who's firing on them but it's certainly been a very volatile situation with lots of explosions and gunfire going on."
Sidner, a few kilometers away inside the security force's cordon reported witnessing two people shot. Both appeared to be unarmed she said. Those present at the scene claimed rooftop snipers were responsible for the shootings, she said. "The protesters clearly blame the army for the deadly force," said Sidner. "There is no way to know for sure who exactly is doing the shooting but neither of the people we saw injured were armed."
The Thai capital has been in chaos since Thursday, beset by gunfire, tear gas and stone-throwing that boiled over after Thai authorities set a new deadline to seal off the Bangkok intersection where protesters have gathered by the thousands for the past month.
A government official said Thai forces were slowly getting control of the downtown area, with video footage showing soldiers shooting rounds toward the area with protesters. Among those wounded on Friday was a journalist from a French television station who was shot in the leg.
The government said it was forced to take action after demonstrators disregarded an ultimatum by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to vacate the intersection by Wednesday.
Wattanayagorn said Friday that security forces who have been the objects of attacks have no choice but to respond.
He told reporters that forces have been dutifully following the rules of engagement, which allow them to use live ammunition to protect themselves and their comrades. He assured Bangkok residents and foreigners that the forces have no intention of harming anyone.
The government, he said, is "very confident" it will be able to "stabilize the situation" and get it "under control very soon." Also, he said the prime minister is looking forward to working with others in hammering out reforms.
The United Front for Democracy, the formal name of the Red Shirt opposition, has been demanding that Abhisit dissolve the lower house of Parliament and call new elections. The Red Shirts support former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a bloodless military coup.
Tensions ramped up when Maj. Gen. Khattiya Sawasdipol -- a renegade general better known as Seh Daeng, which means Red Commander -- was shot and wounded by a sniper's bullet Thursday, leaving him in critical condition.
Brown, of the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok, said that family members of embassy personnel had been offered voluntary departure. She said the embassy would remain closed on Monday and that staff were assessing the situation "day to day." I have copy this news from CNN News Online.
Saturday's fatality takes the total number of deaths to 25 since a government-backed clampdown on protesters exploded into violence on Thursday. More than 150 people have been wounded, according to emergency officials.
In a televised address, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said a small group of protesters among the opposition "Red Shirts" was trying to foment civil war. The prime minister urged the citizenry to understand and embrace the government's stance. The country couldn't allow the rule of law to fail, he said, warning that the longer the protests continued, the higher the risk for the public.
"The government proposed a reconciliation plan but it was rejected," Abhisit said. "This benefits no one. It only benefits a small group which wants to harm the country and lead it to civil war. It is unbelieveble that they use peoples lives for political advantage."
Thousands of Red Shirts, who support ousted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, have been occupying a central area of the city for weeks in a show of opposition to Abhisit.
The escalating unrest prompted the U.S. Embassy to issue a travel warning Saturday advising Americans to defer travel to Bangkok, spokeswoman Cynthia Brown told CNN.
Several other western embassies, including the UK, Japan, Canada, New Zealand and the Netherlands have also advised against travel to Bangkok. Tensions remained high Saturday, with protesters yelling and screaming as they stood behind barricades of tires, spikes and bamboo poles.
But a military spokesman said security forces planned to put the protesters under more pressure Saturday as they cordoned off an area of several square kilometers, CNN's Sara Sidner reported.
"In the next few days, they will be stepping up their security measures," said Panitan Wattanayagorn, the acting Thai government spokesman.
Security forces rolled out razor wire and erected warning signs as they surrounded the area where the protesters have been clustered, CNN's Dan Rivers reported. He said Thai troops had also come under fire although it was unclear who was shooting at them.
"There's been quite a fierce gunfight where we are in the northwest corner of this zone that they have tried to surround a Ratchaprarop Road which has been declared a live fire zone by the army," said Rivers.
"There are signs up all along it warning residents to stay indoors, that there is live ammunition being used. We've been effectively pinned down while the army tries to deal with incoming fire. We're not sure who's firing on them but it's certainly been a very volatile situation with lots of explosions and gunfire going on."
Sidner, a few kilometers away inside the security force's cordon reported witnessing two people shot. Both appeared to be unarmed she said. Those present at the scene claimed rooftop snipers were responsible for the shootings, she said. "The protesters clearly blame the army for the deadly force," said Sidner. "There is no way to know for sure who exactly is doing the shooting but neither of the people we saw injured were armed."
The Thai capital has been in chaos since Thursday, beset by gunfire, tear gas and stone-throwing that boiled over after Thai authorities set a new deadline to seal off the Bangkok intersection where protesters have gathered by the thousands for the past month.
A government official said Thai forces were slowly getting control of the downtown area, with video footage showing soldiers shooting rounds toward the area with protesters. Among those wounded on Friday was a journalist from a French television station who was shot in the leg.
The government said it was forced to take action after demonstrators disregarded an ultimatum by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to vacate the intersection by Wednesday.
Wattanayagorn said Friday that security forces who have been the objects of attacks have no choice but to respond.
He told reporters that forces have been dutifully following the rules of engagement, which allow them to use live ammunition to protect themselves and their comrades. He assured Bangkok residents and foreigners that the forces have no intention of harming anyone.
The government, he said, is "very confident" it will be able to "stabilize the situation" and get it "under control very soon." Also, he said the prime minister is looking forward to working with others in hammering out reforms.
The United Front for Democracy, the formal name of the Red Shirt opposition, has been demanding that Abhisit dissolve the lower house of Parliament and call new elections. The Red Shirts support former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a bloodless military coup.
Tensions ramped up when Maj. Gen. Khattiya Sawasdipol -- a renegade general better known as Seh Daeng, which means Red Commander -- was shot and wounded by a sniper's bullet Thursday, leaving him in critical condition.
Brown, of the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok, said that family members of embassy personnel had been offered voluntary departure. She said the embassy would remain closed on Monday and that staff were assessing the situation "day to day." I have copy this news from CNN News Online.
Death sentence over China kindergarten attack
A court in eastern China sentenced a man to death Saturday for attacking 29 kindergarten students and three teachers with a knife, state-run media said. The Taixing Intermediate People's Court found Xu Yuyuan, 47, guilty of intentional homicide after a half-day trial, Xinhua news agency said.
Xu told the court that his rage against society motivated him in the April 29 attacks, according to Xinhua. But he appealed the death sentence, arguing that the punishment was too severe since no one died in the attacks, Xinhua said. Chinese penal code says a person can be convicted of intentional homicide for acting on an intent to kill, the news agency reported.
A police probe found Xu had been unemployed since 2001, when he was fired by a local insurance company. He told police he carried out the attack because he was angry about a series of business and personal humiliations, Xinhua said. About 300 people attended Saturday's open trial, according to Xinhua.
Xu's sentence was the second death penalty conviction after a recent spate of school attacks that have prompted public outrage across China.
Zheng Minsheng, 42, was sentenced to death and executed on April 28 for attacking students in front of an elementary school in Fujian province, killing eight and wounding several others. Zheng also used a knife in the attacks, Xinhua reported.
Authorities said Zheng carried out the attack because he was frustrated at "failures in his romantic life," the news agency said.
At least four other such attacks on school children in China have been reported since March.
Guns are strictly regulated in China, but until recently large knives were not. Chinese authorities have recently issued a regulation requiring people to register with their national ID cards when they buy knives longer that 15 centimeters.
Other measures have been put in place. In April, the Ministry of Education ordered kindergartens, elementary and secondary schools to restrict strangers from entering the campuses. The ministry instructed schools across the country to hire security guards, install security facilities and ensure that pupils were escorted home. Schools were also urged to teach pupils to how to protect themselves. In some schools, security guards have been armed with "forks," long poles with semi-circular prongs that can be used to fight assailants. I have copy this news from CNN News Online.
Xu told the court that his rage against society motivated him in the April 29 attacks, according to Xinhua. But he appealed the death sentence, arguing that the punishment was too severe since no one died in the attacks, Xinhua said. Chinese penal code says a person can be convicted of intentional homicide for acting on an intent to kill, the news agency reported.
A police probe found Xu had been unemployed since 2001, when he was fired by a local insurance company. He told police he carried out the attack because he was angry about a series of business and personal humiliations, Xinhua said. About 300 people attended Saturday's open trial, according to Xinhua.
Xu's sentence was the second death penalty conviction after a recent spate of school attacks that have prompted public outrage across China.
Zheng Minsheng, 42, was sentenced to death and executed on April 28 for attacking students in front of an elementary school in Fujian province, killing eight and wounding several others. Zheng also used a knife in the attacks, Xinhua reported.
Authorities said Zheng carried out the attack because he was frustrated at "failures in his romantic life," the news agency said.
At least four other such attacks on school children in China have been reported since March.
Guns are strictly regulated in China, but until recently large knives were not. Chinese authorities have recently issued a regulation requiring people to register with their national ID cards when they buy knives longer that 15 centimeters.
Other measures have been put in place. In April, the Ministry of Education ordered kindergartens, elementary and secondary schools to restrict strangers from entering the campuses. The ministry instructed schools across the country to hire security guards, install security facilities and ensure that pupils were escorted home. Schools were also urged to teach pupils to how to protect themselves. In some schools, security guards have been armed with "forks," long poles with semi-circular prongs that can be used to fight assailants. I have copy this news from CNN News Online.
Man charged over missing teen's murder
A man has been charged with murder by police investigating the disappearance of a Sydney teenager this week. Eighteen-year-old Nona Belomesoff left her Cecils Hill home on Wednesday morning to meet two men she had befriended on Facebook. Her body has been found in a creek bed near Warminda Oval at Campbelltown in Sydney's south-west.
Detective Russell Oxford says the teenager believed she was going on a trip to work with an animal welfare organisation. "She was obviously excited to perhaps start work in an area with animals, which she loved," he said. He says police have been shaken by the murder and that the scene was devastating.
"I've been doing this for a long time and we all got very upset with what we found last night," he said. "We go out in the dark with torches and we find this young girl, 18 years old lying in a creek bed - it's just terrible."
Last night 20-year-old Chris Dannevig was charged with her murder. He has been refused bail and will appear at Campbelltown Local Court in the next week. Police say they will allege that the second man Ms Belomesoff believed she was meeting did not exist. I have copy this news from ABC News Online.
Detective Russell Oxford says the teenager believed she was going on a trip to work with an animal welfare organisation. "She was obviously excited to perhaps start work in an area with animals, which she loved," he said. He says police have been shaken by the murder and that the scene was devastating.
"I've been doing this for a long time and we all got very upset with what we found last night," he said. "We go out in the dark with torches and we find this young girl, 18 years old lying in a creek bed - it's just terrible."
Last night 20-year-old Chris Dannevig was charged with her murder. He has been refused bail and will appear at Campbelltown Local Court in the next week. Police say they will allege that the second man Ms Belomesoff believed she was meeting did not exist. I have copy this news from ABC News Online.
Australians trapped in hotel amid Thai clashes
A group of Australians is trapped in an area of central Bangkok that is now locked down by fighting between protesters and government forces. The tourists are trapped in the Pan Pacific Hotel which is now in an area that has been locked down by soldiers.
There is heavy fighting in the street in front of the hotel which is adjacent to the red shirts' rally site in the city centre. The group can not leave due to shooting and explosions. The current official death toll is 16 with 141 injured, but that will rise. One child has been killed. There is increasing fear about snipers shooting people from above.
Red shirt leaders have called on their supporters in rural areas to come into the city. They say they want to re-open negotiations, but the government says it will not talk until the protestors end their rally.
Prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has not been seen in the media since before the army moved in.
Meanwhile, Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) continues to advise those planning trips to Thailand to reconsider, due to the volatile political situation in the country. I have copy this news from ABC News Online.
There is heavy fighting in the street in front of the hotel which is adjacent to the red shirts' rally site in the city centre. The group can not leave due to shooting and explosions. The current official death toll is 16 with 141 injured, but that will rise. One child has been killed. There is increasing fear about snipers shooting people from above.
Red shirt leaders have called on their supporters in rural areas to come into the city. They say they want to re-open negotiations, but the government says it will not talk until the protestors end their rally.
Prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has not been seen in the media since before the army moved in.
Meanwhile, Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) continues to advise those planning trips to Thailand to reconsider, due to the volatile political situation in the country. I have copy this news from ABC News Online.
วันศุกร์ที่ 14 พฤษภาคม พ.ศ. 2553
Reporter: Bangkok sniper bullet 'felt like it grazed my head'
A journalist who was interviewing a key political protest leader in Bangkok said the sniper bullet that struck the man came so close that it "felt like it grazed my head."
Describing a chaotic scene on the streets of the Thai capital Thursday night, Thomas Fuller of the International Herald Tribune described to CNN how Maj. Gen. Khattiya Sawasdipol was shot in the head as he was interviewing the opposition figure. "I was facing him, he was answering my questions, looking at me and the bullet hit him in the forehead, from what I could tell," Fuller told CNN's Michael Holmes. "It looks like the bullet came over my head and struck him. I don't have any way of confirming this beyond what I remember from the scene but it felt like it grazed my head."
Thomas Fuller describes scene in Bangkok.
Fuller and other journalists were interviewing the general -- better known as Seh Daeng -- in makeshift barricades that protesters have set up in downtown Bangkok. The United Front for Democracy (UDD) has turned the posh commercial center of Bangkok into a makeshift fortress as they continue to demand that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva dissolve the lower house of Parliament and call new elections. The protesters' barricades appear as a combination "of 'Mad Max' and some medieval scene," Fuller said. Bamboo pikes and rubber tire barricades have been formed as a makeshift camp by the protesters, Fuller said.
iReport: Are you there? Send your images, video.
Fuller said he was just inside the barricades when he was interviewing Seh Daeng. The opposition figure was facing out of the barricades and into Bangkok's business district of tall office buildings. "He was standing in the same location for a while when I was talking to him but he was moving around, he was gesticulating," Fuller said. "He wasn't standing still, he was bobbing his head." Seh Daeng did not appear to be armed or have bodyguards, but was dressed in camouflage jacket and a floppy hat, Fuller said. The opposition leader was listed in critical condition from the shooting, his guards said. Violence erupted after Thai authorities set a new deadline to seal off the Bangkok intersection where protesters have gathered by the thousands for the past month.
Escalating violence in Bangkok.
The government said it has been forced to take action after demonstrators disregarded an ultimatum by Abhisit to vacate the intersection by Wednesday. The Red Shirts support former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a bloodless military coup in 2006.
What are the protests about?
Seh Daeng -- or Red Commander -- is a controversial public figure, even within the protest movement, Fuller said. Some Thai opposition leaders see him as an impediment to a peaceful resolution to the political stalemate that has gripped Thai politics, Fuller said.
"He's a renegade in all sense," Fuller said. "He's a renegade from the army, a hardliner within the protest movement. He told me today he thought they (other opposition leaders) were being cowardly and he wanted to carry on."More than two dozen civilians and military personnel have died in police-protester clashes in the ongoing unrest. I have copy this news from CNN News Online.
Describing a chaotic scene on the streets of the Thai capital Thursday night, Thomas Fuller of the International Herald Tribune described to CNN how Maj. Gen. Khattiya Sawasdipol was shot in the head as he was interviewing the opposition figure. "I was facing him, he was answering my questions, looking at me and the bullet hit him in the forehead, from what I could tell," Fuller told CNN's Michael Holmes. "It looks like the bullet came over my head and struck him. I don't have any way of confirming this beyond what I remember from the scene but it felt like it grazed my head."
Thomas Fuller describes scene in Bangkok.
Fuller and other journalists were interviewing the general -- better known as Seh Daeng -- in makeshift barricades that protesters have set up in downtown Bangkok. The United Front for Democracy (UDD) has turned the posh commercial center of Bangkok into a makeshift fortress as they continue to demand that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva dissolve the lower house of Parliament and call new elections. The protesters' barricades appear as a combination "of 'Mad Max' and some medieval scene," Fuller said. Bamboo pikes and rubber tire barricades have been formed as a makeshift camp by the protesters, Fuller said.
iReport: Are you there? Send your images, video.
Fuller said he was just inside the barricades when he was interviewing Seh Daeng. The opposition figure was facing out of the barricades and into Bangkok's business district of tall office buildings. "He was standing in the same location for a while when I was talking to him but he was moving around, he was gesticulating," Fuller said. "He wasn't standing still, he was bobbing his head." Seh Daeng did not appear to be armed or have bodyguards, but was dressed in camouflage jacket and a floppy hat, Fuller said. The opposition leader was listed in critical condition from the shooting, his guards said. Violence erupted after Thai authorities set a new deadline to seal off the Bangkok intersection where protesters have gathered by the thousands for the past month.
Escalating violence in Bangkok.
The government said it has been forced to take action after demonstrators disregarded an ultimatum by Abhisit to vacate the intersection by Wednesday. The Red Shirts support former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a bloodless military coup in 2006.
What are the protests about?
Seh Daeng -- or Red Commander -- is a controversial public figure, even within the protest movement, Fuller said. Some Thai opposition leaders see him as an impediment to a peaceful resolution to the political stalemate that has gripped Thai politics, Fuller said.
"He's a renegade in all sense," Fuller said. "He's a renegade from the army, a hardliner within the protest movement. He told me today he thought they (other opposition leaders) were being cowardly and he wanted to carry on."More than two dozen civilians and military personnel have died in police-protester clashes in the ongoing unrest. I have copy this news from CNN News Online.
DNA clue to life at high altitude
The ability of Tibetans to live on the "roof of the world" may be down to their DNA, US researchers say. University of Utah researchers found 10 genes which help Tibetans thrive at heights where others get sick. Two of the genes are linked to haemoglobin - the substance in blood that transports oxygen round the body.
Doctors say the research, published in Science, could lead to treatments for severe forms of altitude sickness and other illnesses. Altitude sickness is the name given to ill-effects caused by the body's struggle to deal with a lack of oxygen at high altitude.
It can lead to brain and lung complications, which can threaten even the fittest mountaineers.
People native to high altitudes appear to be immune to such effects, through thousands of years of genetic selection. Tibetans have evolved genes that others living at high altitudes - such as in the Andes - have not. Professor Lynn Jorde, of the University of Utah School of Medicine, said: "For the first time, we have genes that explain that adaptation."
Therapies
The study looked at DNA extracted from blood samples taken from 75 villagers living at 15,000ft (4,500m). The Utah team, in collaboration with the Qinghai University Medical School, China, compared stretches of their genetic code with that of lowland Chinese and Japanese populations. A handful of genes turned up, including 10 unique oxygen-processing genes.
Two appear to contribute to lower levels of haemoglobin in the blood, which may help the body fight altitude sickness. Prof Josef Prchal of the University of Utah said the work could help in developing treatments for illnesses that affect people everywhere. He said: "What's unique about Tibetans is they don't develop high red blood cells counts. "If we can understand this, we can develop therapies for human disease."
Darwinism
Professor Hugh Montgomery is a geneticist and director of the UCL Institute for Human Health and Performance at University College London. He said the study helped in the understanding of how patients with the likes of heart failure and lung disease cope with low oxygen in the blood. He told the BBC: "It's important clinically because it helps us understand how patients cope with low oxygen levels. "There are opportunities here for developing new drug therapies."
He said the work was also important scientifically, by showing how Darwin's science coupled with modern technology could be used to identify beneficial genes. "It's a lovely example of Darwinism," he added. I have copy this news from BBC News Online.
Doctors say the research, published in Science, could lead to treatments for severe forms of altitude sickness and other illnesses. Altitude sickness is the name given to ill-effects caused by the body's struggle to deal with a lack of oxygen at high altitude.
It can lead to brain and lung complications, which can threaten even the fittest mountaineers.
People native to high altitudes appear to be immune to such effects, through thousands of years of genetic selection. Tibetans have evolved genes that others living at high altitudes - such as in the Andes - have not. Professor Lynn Jorde, of the University of Utah School of Medicine, said: "For the first time, we have genes that explain that adaptation."
Therapies
The study looked at DNA extracted from blood samples taken from 75 villagers living at 15,000ft (4,500m). The Utah team, in collaboration with the Qinghai University Medical School, China, compared stretches of their genetic code with that of lowland Chinese and Japanese populations. A handful of genes turned up, including 10 unique oxygen-processing genes.
Two appear to contribute to lower levels of haemoglobin in the blood, which may help the body fight altitude sickness. Prof Josef Prchal of the University of Utah said the work could help in developing treatments for illnesses that affect people everywhere. He said: "What's unique about Tibetans is they don't develop high red blood cells counts. "If we can understand this, we can develop therapies for human disease."
Darwinism
Professor Hugh Montgomery is a geneticist and director of the UCL Institute for Human Health and Performance at University College London. He said the study helped in the understanding of how patients with the likes of heart failure and lung disease cope with low oxygen in the blood. He told the BBC: "It's important clinically because it helps us understand how patients cope with low oxygen levels. "There are opportunities here for developing new drug therapies."
He said the work was also important scientifically, by showing how Darwin's science coupled with modern technology could be used to identify beneficial genes. "It's a lovely example of Darwinism," he added. I have copy this news from BBC News Online.
วันพฤหัสบดีที่ 13 พฤษภาคม พ.ศ. 2553
Quarter of U.S. women ambivalent toward pregnancy
Nearly one in four women of childbearing age in the United States are unconcerned about getting pregnant -- but aren't trying either -- and would be happy either way, according to a recent study. "This finding dramatically challenges the idea that women are always trying, one way or another, to either get pregnant or not get pregnant," said Julia McQuillan, professor of sociology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the study's lead author.
About 71 percent questioned in the study of nearly 4,000 women ages 25 to 45 who were sexually active said they were not trying to get pregnant, while 6 percent said they were. But nearly one in four, or 23 percent, told researchers they were "OK either way," meaning they were neither trying to conceive, nor trying to prevent a pregnancy. "If health-care providers only ask women if they are currently trying to get pregnant and women say no, then the assumption is that they are trying not to get pregnant," McQuillan said. "Clearly, many women are less intentional about pregnancy. Yet this group should be treated as if they will likely conceive and should therefore get recommendations such as ensuring adequate folic acid intake and limiting alcohol intake."
The study comes at a time when the demography of motherhood in the United States has shifted dramatically over the last 20 years. The mothers of today's newborns are older and better educated than they were in 1990, a separate Pew Research Center study shows. They also are less likely to be white and less likely to be married.
The average age for a first-time mother in the United States was 25 in 2008, the study says, a year older than in 1990. Among all women who had a baby in 2008, the average age was 27, also up a year from 1990. "In 2008, a record 41 percent of births in the United States were to unmarried women, up from 28 percent in 1990," the Pew study said. The share of births outside of marriage was highest for black women at 72 percent, followed by Hispanics at 53 percent, whites at 29 percent and Asians at 17 percent. The rate of increase over that timeframe was highest for white and Hispanic women.
When asked the various reasons why they decided to have their first child, the vast majority of parents -- 87 percent -- answered, "The joy of having children," was important or very important, the Pew study says. But nearly half also said there was no particular reason -- "It just happened." I have copy this news from CNN News.
About 71 percent questioned in the study of nearly 4,000 women ages 25 to 45 who were sexually active said they were not trying to get pregnant, while 6 percent said they were. But nearly one in four, or 23 percent, told researchers they were "OK either way," meaning they were neither trying to conceive, nor trying to prevent a pregnancy. "If health-care providers only ask women if they are currently trying to get pregnant and women say no, then the assumption is that they are trying not to get pregnant," McQuillan said. "Clearly, many women are less intentional about pregnancy. Yet this group should be treated as if they will likely conceive and should therefore get recommendations such as ensuring adequate folic acid intake and limiting alcohol intake."
The study comes at a time when the demography of motherhood in the United States has shifted dramatically over the last 20 years. The mothers of today's newborns are older and better educated than they were in 1990, a separate Pew Research Center study shows. They also are less likely to be white and less likely to be married.
The average age for a first-time mother in the United States was 25 in 2008, the study says, a year older than in 1990. Among all women who had a baby in 2008, the average age was 27, also up a year from 1990. "In 2008, a record 41 percent of births in the United States were to unmarried women, up from 28 percent in 1990," the Pew study said. The share of births outside of marriage was highest for black women at 72 percent, followed by Hispanics at 53 percent, whites at 29 percent and Asians at 17 percent. The rate of increase over that timeframe was highest for white and Hispanic women.
When asked the various reasons why they decided to have their first child, the vast majority of parents -- 87 percent -- answered, "The joy of having children," was important or very important, the Pew study says. But nearly half also said there was no particular reason -- "It just happened." I have copy this news from CNN News.
Thai red-shirt supporter Gen Khattiya 'shot'
A renegade Thai general who backs anti-government protesters has been shot, shortly after a deadline for troops to seal their Bangkok protest camp passed. Khattiya Sawasdipol, better known as Seh Daeng (Commander Red), was seriously injured, according to an aide quoted by AP news agency. The military had said it would start surrounding the protest camp at 1800 (1100 GMT) and advised people to leave.
Gunfire and an explosion were heard and there were reports of casualties. It was not clear where the firing was coming from. Earlier, a BBC reporter saw trucks unloading heavily-armed soldiers several blocks from the encampment. Shops and businesses near the encampment were urged to close before the deadline and transport was suspended. The protesters - who have been occupying parts of Bangkok for more than two months - want Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to dissolve parliament and call fresh elections.
The BBC's Rachel Harvey in Bangkok says a column of about 200 soldiers had been seen moving towards the camp. Street lights have been switched off in the camp, plunging parts of it into darkness, but protesters continue to defiantly blast out music, our correspondent says.
Gen Khattiya is a suspended army officer who advised the red-shirts on military strategy.
He was part of the protesters' more radical wing and had accused red-shirt leaders of not being hard-line enough.
Mr Abhisit had offered polls on 14 November - but the two sides failed to agree a deal because of divisions over who should be held accountable for a deadly crackdown on protests last month.
On Wednesday, the government announced and then cancelled a plan to cut off water and power supplies to the protesters. I have copy this news from BBC News.
Gunfire and an explosion were heard and there were reports of casualties. It was not clear where the firing was coming from. Earlier, a BBC reporter saw trucks unloading heavily-armed soldiers several blocks from the encampment. Shops and businesses near the encampment were urged to close before the deadline and transport was suspended. The protesters - who have been occupying parts of Bangkok for more than two months - want Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to dissolve parliament and call fresh elections.
The BBC's Rachel Harvey in Bangkok says a column of about 200 soldiers had been seen moving towards the camp. Street lights have been switched off in the camp, plunging parts of it into darkness, but protesters continue to defiantly blast out music, our correspondent says.
Gen Khattiya is a suspended army officer who advised the red-shirts on military strategy.
He was part of the protesters' more radical wing and had accused red-shirt leaders of not being hard-line enough.
Mr Abhisit had offered polls on 14 November - but the two sides failed to agree a deal because of divisions over who should be held accountable for a deadly crackdown on protests last month.
On Wednesday, the government announced and then cancelled a plan to cut off water and power supplies to the protesters. I have copy this news from BBC News.
วันพุธที่ 12 พฤษภาคม พ.ศ. 2553
60 dead in Russian mine blasts
The death toll from a Russian coal mine accident has reached 60, with 30 people still missing, the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said Wednesday.
Rescue teams have combed more than 75 percent of the mine's labyrinth of underground tunnels looking for survivors and the dead.
"We have about 24 hours left to rescue miners (who are alive), if they are still there," emergency Minister Sergei Shoigu said on the ministry's website.
The gas explosion in the Raspadskaya mine occurred at 8:55 p.m. Saturday (12:55 p.m. ET), when 359 people were working at the time. The mine is located near the western Siberian town of Mezhdurechensk, more than 2,300 miles east of Moscow. Nearly 300 people were evacuated shortly after the explosion.
More than 50 rescue workers had gone into the mine to recover the rest of the victims when a second gas explosion rocked the structure about four-and-a-half hours later, causing more fatalities and destruction, officials said. Dozens of miners and rescue workers were trapped as a result of that second, much more powerful explosion, and all communications with them were disrupted.
Thick smoke and high methane concentrations in the mine prevented active rescue operations underground on Sunday and most of Monday morning, Russian officials said.
The operation was further complicated by the very size of the mine: Raspadskaya is one of the largest in Russia's mining industry. It has dozens of underground tunnels with a total length of almost 200 miles, according to Kemerovo Gov. Aman Tuleyev.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Russian state television Tuesday that the investigation is closely analyzing all possible clues to determine the cause of the blasts.
The victims' families will be paid 1 million rubles (more than $33,000) in moral damages, and underage children of those killed in the accident will be paid a pension of 10,000 rubles (more than $330) every month until they reach the age of 18, the Russian government decided Tuesday. I have copy this news from CNN News.
Rescue teams have combed more than 75 percent of the mine's labyrinth of underground tunnels looking for survivors and the dead.
"We have about 24 hours left to rescue miners (who are alive), if they are still there," emergency Minister Sergei Shoigu said on the ministry's website.
The gas explosion in the Raspadskaya mine occurred at 8:55 p.m. Saturday (12:55 p.m. ET), when 359 people were working at the time. The mine is located near the western Siberian town of Mezhdurechensk, more than 2,300 miles east of Moscow. Nearly 300 people were evacuated shortly after the explosion.
More than 50 rescue workers had gone into the mine to recover the rest of the victims when a second gas explosion rocked the structure about four-and-a-half hours later, causing more fatalities and destruction, officials said. Dozens of miners and rescue workers were trapped as a result of that second, much more powerful explosion, and all communications with them were disrupted.
Thick smoke and high methane concentrations in the mine prevented active rescue operations underground on Sunday and most of Monday morning, Russian officials said.
The operation was further complicated by the very size of the mine: Raspadskaya is one of the largest in Russia's mining industry. It has dozens of underground tunnels with a total length of almost 200 miles, according to Kemerovo Gov. Aman Tuleyev.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Russian state television Tuesday that the investigation is closely analyzing all possible clues to determine the cause of the blasts.
The victims' families will be paid 1 million rubles (more than $33,000) in moral damages, and underage children of those killed in the accident will be paid a pension of 10,000 rubles (more than $330) every month until they reach the age of 18, the Russian government decided Tuesday. I have copy this news from CNN News.
Thai government gives protesters Thursday deadline
Thai authorities vowed to shut off power, cut supplies and seal off at midnight Thursday a central Bangkok intersection where anti-government protesters have amassed by the thousands for the last month.
The government's decision comes after demonstrators disregarded an ultimatum by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajjiva to vacate the Ratchaprasong intersection by Wednesday.
The anti-government United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) has turned the posh commercial center into a fortress of tires and bamboo sticks as they continue their demand that Abhisit dissolve the lower house of the parliament and call new elections.
The government said that starting at 12 a.m., it will cut off water, power, telephone lines and transportation services in the area.
Army spokesman, Col. Sansern Kaewkumnerd, said all non-protesters should avoid the area. If they have business there, they have to show proof, such as ID cards.
The government announcement was immediately met with defiance by the UDD, whose supporters are called the "Red Shirts" because of the clothes they wear.
"The Red will continue staying in the area," said a party leader, Weng Tojirakarn. He cautioned the government against acting rashly, warning it could lead to "bloodshed."
The Red Shirts are supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a bloodless military coup in 2006. More than two dozen civilians and military personnel have died in deadly police-protester clashes in the ongoing unrest.
Over the weekend, two Thai police officers were killed and eight people injured in violence that began Friday night and lasted into early Saturday. I have copy this news from CNN News.
The government's decision comes after demonstrators disregarded an ultimatum by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajjiva to vacate the Ratchaprasong intersection by Wednesday.
The anti-government United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) has turned the posh commercial center into a fortress of tires and bamboo sticks as they continue their demand that Abhisit dissolve the lower house of the parliament and call new elections.
The government said that starting at 12 a.m., it will cut off water, power, telephone lines and transportation services in the area.
Army spokesman, Col. Sansern Kaewkumnerd, said all non-protesters should avoid the area. If they have business there, they have to show proof, such as ID cards.
The government announcement was immediately met with defiance by the UDD, whose supporters are called the "Red Shirts" because of the clothes they wear.
"The Red will continue staying in the area," said a party leader, Weng Tojirakarn. He cautioned the government against acting rashly, warning it could lead to "bloodshed."
The Red Shirts are supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a bloodless military coup in 2006. More than two dozen civilians and military personnel have died in deadly police-protester clashes in the ongoing unrest.
Over the weekend, two Thai police officers were killed and eight people injured in violence that began Friday night and lasted into early Saturday. I have copy this news from CNN News.
วันอังคารที่ 11 พฤษภาคม พ.ศ. 2553
Tiger's swing coach quits
Tiger Woods' troubled career took another blow Monday, when one of his coaches said he would no longer be working with golf's No. 1 player. "Just so there is no confusion, I would like to make it clear that this is my decision," Hank Haney, Woods' swing coach, said in a statement posted to his website. "Tiger Woods and I will always be friends, but I believe that there is a time and place for everything, and I feel at this time and at this place in my life I want to move forward in other areas."
The announcement came a day after Woods dropped out of the final round of The Players Championship in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, complaining of "a bulging disk" in his neck.
"I'm having a hard time with the pain," Woods said at a news conference Sunday. "There's tingling down my fingers, just the right side. Setting up over the ball is fine but once I start making the motion, it's downhill from there."
Woods said anti-inflammatory drugs have been ineffective and plans to have an MRI. Woods has been at the white-hot center of controversy since revelations of extramarital affairs arose following a car accident in late November. In the ensuing months, several alleged lovers have come forth, and Woods spent 45 days at a rehabilitation center for what the golfer called "personal" issues.
He returned to competition in early April for the Masters tournament in Augusta, Georgia, in which Woods placed fourth. "As we all know, Tiger has been through a lot in the last six months, and I really believe that given the chance, mind free and injury free, we will all see Tiger Woods play once again like we all know he can," Haney said.
"I wish Tiger well, not only with his golf, but in finding peace and happiness in all aspects of his life. Tiger knows that if he ever needs me in anyway, whether it be with his golf or just as a friend he can always call," he added. "I will always, as I have been in the past, be there for him." I have copy this news from CNN News online.
The announcement came a day after Woods dropped out of the final round of The Players Championship in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, complaining of "a bulging disk" in his neck.
"I'm having a hard time with the pain," Woods said at a news conference Sunday. "There's tingling down my fingers, just the right side. Setting up over the ball is fine but once I start making the motion, it's downhill from there."
Woods said anti-inflammatory drugs have been ineffective and plans to have an MRI. Woods has been at the white-hot center of controversy since revelations of extramarital affairs arose following a car accident in late November. In the ensuing months, several alleged lovers have come forth, and Woods spent 45 days at a rehabilitation center for what the golfer called "personal" issues.
He returned to competition in early April for the Masters tournament in Augusta, Georgia, in which Woods placed fourth. "As we all know, Tiger has been through a lot in the last six months, and I really believe that given the chance, mind free and injury free, we will all see Tiger Woods play once again like we all know he can," Haney said.
"I wish Tiger well, not only with his golf, but in finding peace and happiness in all aspects of his life. Tiger knows that if he ever needs me in anyway, whether it be with his golf or just as a friend he can always call," he added. "I will always, as I have been in the past, be there for him." I have copy this news from CNN News online.
Investigators prepare to exhume mass graves in Serbia
Investigators are preparing to exhume a possible mass grave site in Serbia where witnesses say the bodies of 250 ethnic Albanians are buried, prosecutors said.
The potential graves are beneath a company building and a parking lot in the town of Rudnica, a few miles north of Kosovo's border, the Office of the Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor said Monday.
Prosecutors said bodies may have been originally buried in Kosovo and later exhumed and transferred to Serbia. At least five mass graves have been discovered in Serbia in the past decade, the prosecutor's office said.
Prosecutors are working with investigators from the European Union Rule of Law Mission Kosovo to search the site. "We have been working on this particular case for some time. We have provided information and intelligence relating to the possible site of a mass grave ... But we are still waiting for confirmation if this site has indeed been located," EULEX Kosovo spokeswoman Kristiina Herodes said in a statement.
Prosecutors said the building at the site was built after 1999. Cases presented to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia have alleged that military forces of the former Republic of Yugoslavia and Serbia systematically shelled towns and villages, burned homes and farms, killed Kosovo Albanian civilians and sexually assaulted Kosovo Albanian women during a 1999 campaign.
Vlastimir Djordjevic, a top official in Serbia's Ministry of Internal Affairs at the time, is currently on trial before the tribunal for alleged offenses in Kosovo. Other former high-ranking Serbian officials have been tried and found guilty of war crimes in Kosovo.
Former Serbian President Slobodan Milosovic was on trial between 2002 and 2006 for alleged crimes in Kosovo, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. He died from natural causes in March 2006, before the trial ended and before a judgment was made. I have copy this news from CNN News online.
The potential graves are beneath a company building and a parking lot in the town of Rudnica, a few miles north of Kosovo's border, the Office of the Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor said Monday.
Prosecutors said bodies may have been originally buried in Kosovo and later exhumed and transferred to Serbia. At least five mass graves have been discovered in Serbia in the past decade, the prosecutor's office said.
Prosecutors are working with investigators from the European Union Rule of Law Mission Kosovo to search the site. "We have been working on this particular case for some time. We have provided information and intelligence relating to the possible site of a mass grave ... But we are still waiting for confirmation if this site has indeed been located," EULEX Kosovo spokeswoman Kristiina Herodes said in a statement.
Prosecutors said the building at the site was built after 1999. Cases presented to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia have alleged that military forces of the former Republic of Yugoslavia and Serbia systematically shelled towns and villages, burned homes and farms, killed Kosovo Albanian civilians and sexually assaulted Kosovo Albanian women during a 1999 campaign.
Vlastimir Djordjevic, a top official in Serbia's Ministry of Internal Affairs at the time, is currently on trial before the tribunal for alleged offenses in Kosovo. Other former high-ranking Serbian officials have been tried and found guilty of war crimes in Kosovo.
Former Serbian President Slobodan Milosovic was on trial between 2002 and 2006 for alleged crimes in Kosovo, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. He died from natural causes in March 2006, before the trial ended and before a judgment was made. I have copy this news from CNN News online.
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