Honeybees are dying off

Honeybees are dying off, and scientists aren't entirely sure why. Since we depend on the bees to pollinate our crops, their disappearance could be catastrophic, exacerbating a worsening food

crisis. Researchers at Canada's University of Manitoba are trying to help by creating super-bees that can survive conditions normal bees can't. Here, a brief guide:

Bees are dying off?
Big time. A baffling phenomenon known as "Colony Collapse Disorder" began decimating honeybee populations in 2006. Mites and viruses have contributed to the die-off, but scientists cite plenty of other culprits, including pesticides, climate change, and even cell phone use.

How many dead bees are we talking about?
Scientists have tallied the disappearance of 85 percent of all bees in the Middle East, up to 30 percent of those in Europe, and more than 30 percent of American bees.

So how exactly does one create a super-bee?
First, the researchers are collecting queen bees from hives that have proven exceptionally resistant to mites. The queens taken from these hives are then placed in new hives, exposing them to even more "disease pressure." The theory is that each generation of survivors will be hardier than the last.

 
Does this really work?
It is certainly an effective way to separate strong bees from the weak ones. The mite-resistant super-bees are also less susceptible to other threats, such as cold. Only 46 percent of normal European honeybees typically survive through winter, but the supercharged bees have a 75 percent survival rate.

Why is it this so important?
Of the 100 crops that provide nearly all of the world's food, bees pollinate 70. That amounts to $83 billion worth of fruits and vegetables a year. High fuel costs and other factors have already driven up food prices enough to provoke riots in 2008. The prospect of a drop in the food supply due to the bee die-off could make matters far, far worse.

So will super-bees save us from disastrous food shortages?
"Mite-resistant bees are probably not the panacea to our bee crisis," says Ariel Schwartz at Fast Company. But "at the very least," Schwartz says, "breeding better bees may give us time to figure out more of the reasons that the pollinators are disappearing — before it's too late."
The almond trees are blooming and the bees are dying, and nobody knows why. All up and down California's vast San Joaquin Valley, nearly 2,500 square kilometres of small nut trees arranged in laser-straight rows are shaking off the cobwebs of winter. They're gearing up once again to produce nearly half a billion kilograms of nuts, worth US$3 billion to the U.S. economy.
The trees cannot produce the bounty on their own, however. They need bees - a million hives worth - trucked in from nearly forty U.S. states to move pollen from one tree to another, fertilising the blooms in the largest managed pollination event on Earth.

But even as the beekeepers reap record fees for renting their hives, their livelihood is now threatened by the largest loss of honey bees in the history of the industry.
Since October 2006, 35 per cent or more of the United States' population of the Western honey bee (Apis mellifera) - billions of individual bees - simply flew from their hive homes and disappeared.
When the almonds were being plucked from the trees late last year, Gene Brandi of Los Banos, California had 2,000 hives, but by late February he had just 1,200 - a loss of 40 per cent.
And Brandi is one of the more fortunate. Across the 24 U.S. states affected by the mysterious phenomenon, losses have ranged up to 90 per cent. "I've had a couple of yards where I've had 200 hives and they're down to 10 hives that are alive," says David Bradshaw of Visalia, about 180 kilometres southeast of Los Banos along California's Route 99.

What's causing the carnage, however, is a total mystery; all that scientists have come up with so far is a new name for the phenomenon - Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) - and a list of symptoms.
In hives hit by CCD, adult workers simply fly away and disappear, leaving a small cluster of workers and the hive's young to fend for themselves. Adding to the mystery, nearby predators, such as the wax moth, are refraining from moving in to pilfer honey and other hive contents from the abandoned hives; in CCD-affected hives the honey remains untouched.

The symptoms are baffling, but one of the emerging hypotheses is that the scourge is underpinned by a collapse of the bees' immune systems. Stressed out by cross-country truck journeys and drought, attacked by viruses and introduced parasites, or whacked out by harmful new pesticides, some researchers believe the bees' natural defences may have simply given way. This opens the door to a host of problems that the bees can normally suppress.
What's surprising is that mysterious declines are nothing new. As far back as 1896, CCD has popped up again and again, only under the monikers: 'fall dwindle' disease, 'May dwindle', 'spring dwindle', 'disappearing disease', and 'autumn collapse'.
Even the current outbreak has possibly been going on undetected for two years, according to the CCD Working Group - a crack group of U.S. researchers from institutes including the Pennsylvania State University and University of Montana, who are trying to unravel the mystery.
What has made the members of the Working Group - as well as conservationists, beekeepers, and farmers - really sit up and notice is the scale of this year's decimation; something in the environment has allowed CCD to reach an unprecedented scale that threatens the very survival of the pollination industry.
"We have never seen a die-off of this magnitude with this weird symptomology," says Maryann Frazier, a bee researcher at Pennsylvania State University. "We've seen bees disappear over time and dwindle away, but not die-off so quickly."

 
Asian mites and latent viruses
A problem preventing clear identification of CCD is that honey bees are already under threat from manifold foes.
Even without CCD, the number of managed hives in the U.S. has dwindled by nearly 50 per cent since the industry's peak in the 1970s. The main culprit for the die-offs is a tiny Asian mite. Known as Varroa destructor to scientists and the 'vampire mite' to beekeepers, these tiny parasites - circular, crab-like arachnids about the size of a bee's eyeball - have been quietly parasitising the Asiatic honey bee (Apis cerana) in Southeast Asia for millennia.
Some time in the early 1980s, though, the mites hitched a ride to America and hopped on new hosts - spreading like wildfire throughout the defenceless Western honey bee population with the help of migratory beekeepers who obligingly trucked them around the country. The mites suck the vital juices out of both developing and adult bees, and left unchecked can kill a hive within 12 months.
In addition to the damage that the mites do themselves, they also spread viruses. Furthermore, the mites appear to assist the viruses by somehow sabotaging the bees' immune system.
"There's something about a mite feeding on a bee that just knocks its immune system out. [Then] the viruses can take over," says Eric Mussen, a bee researcher at the University of California, Davis.
But mites and their viruses have been infecting U.S. honey bees for nearly 30 years. What has experts worried is that CCD kills bees even more efficiently than mites - destroying a healthy colony in a matter of weeks.

Nude woman waving gun

The California town of Vacaville woke up to some strange news on Sunday morning when residents learned that Patricia Wright of nearby Fairfield had stormed a Super 8 Motel, taking control of its lobby for nearly 20 minutes.
Staying at the motel with a man, the Sacramento Bee reports that Patricia Wright entered the Super 8 lobby just after 2:40 a.m.
Sunday morning, wearing no clothing and waving a gun.  The front desk clerk called 911, and managed to talk Wright into surrendering about 20 minutes later. 
Upon arrest, she admitted that she had ingested marijuana, prescription medications, and ecstasy.  Prosecutors have now charged Patricia Wright with brandishing a firearm, possession of a loaded firearm in public, and possession of a firearm with a removed serial number .
  Because it's obvious that pointing a loaded weapon at a motel clerk is illegal in the many states of the Union, let's focus on the legal implications of firearms with missing serial numbers.
 
Like in most states, in California it is against the law to change or remove a manufacturer's name, model, or number from any firearm. It is also a misdemeanor to knowingly possess a firearm that has been altered in this way.
So, at the very least, Patricia Wright is going to spend a few years behind bars, unless the prosecutor decides to take her drug-induced state into consideration.

Robber become sex slave

A Russian man who tried to rob a hair salon got more than what he had bargained for when the female shop owner, a karate black belt, overpowered him, stripped him naked, and for the next three days, used him as a sex slave to ''teach him a lesson'' - force feeding him Viagra to keep the lesson going.  Viktor Jasinski, 32, admitted to police that he had gone to the salon in Meshchovsk, Russia, with the intention of robbing.

But the tables were turned dramatically when he found himself overcome by owner Olga Zajac, 28, who happened to be a black belt in karate.

She allegedly floored the would-be robber with a single kick.


Then, in a scene reminiscent of Quentin Tarantino''s Pulp Fiction, police say Zajac dragged the semi-conscious Jasinski to a back room of the salon and tied him up with a hair dryer cable.

She fed him Viagra and had sex with him for three days before releasing him, telling him that he''d "learned his lesson."

Jasinski went straight to the police and told them of his back-room ordeal, saying that he had been held hostage, handcufffed naked to a radiator, and fed nothing but Viagra.

When police arrived to question Zahjac, she said: ''What a bastard. Yes, we had sex a couple of times. But I bought him new jeans, gave him food and even gave him 1,000 roubles when he left."

Both have now been arrested.

China's longest river Nike, Adidas

Environmental campaigners Wednesday accused suppliers to major clothing brands including Adidas and Nike of poisoning China's major rivers with hazardous chemicals linked to hormonal problems.
Greenpeace said eight samples of waste-water discharge from two factories in the Yangtze and Pearl River deltas, identified as suppliers for the brands, contained "a cocktail of hazardous chemicals".
The Yangtze - China's longest river - and the Pearl River Delta serve as a source of drinking water for about 67 million people, including those in Hong Kong, according to Greenpeace.
"Our tests of the wastewater found toxic chemicals that have no place in our natural environment," Greenpeace campaigner Vivien Yau told a news conference in Hong Kong.
"We are calling on trendsetting brands that have major influence on their supply chains, such as Adidas, Nike and Li Ning to take the lead."
Li Ning is a popular Chinese sportswear brand.
"These brands have the ability and responsibility to work with their suppliers to provide products that do not irrevocably damage the environment and public health," added Yau.
Adidas offices in Hong Kong and Beijing could not be reached for comment by Agencies, while Nike disputed the environmental group's claims.


"To the best of our knowledge we are not contributing to pollution of the Yangtze Delta through our factory partners," Nike said in a statement to Agencies, denying the use of the chemicals claimed by Greenpeace.
The Greenpeace report said laboratory testing found the wastewater samples contained nonylphenols and perfluorinated chemicals, which are used to make materials stain and stick resistant, among other uses.
The chemicals, which are restricted in European countries, could move up the food chain through fish and other marine life which have consumed the contaminated water, Greenpeace said. It said the chemicals could disrupt the hormone balance in humans even at low levels.
"We are not focusing on just the two companies identified in the report. We are saying this is just the tip of the entire iceberg," Greenpeace campaign manager Gloria Chang told Agencies, urging Beijing to speed up regulatory reforms.

Male models to develop dangerous eating disorders

The pressure to look like a male model is driving more men to develop dangerous eating disorders, experts warned today.

GPs have been warned to be on the lookout for the potentially fatal conditions, which include anorexia and bulimia, after a rise in the number of those affected.

Men may be reluctant to admit they have a problem as the issue has until now been seen as something affecting mainly teenage girls.
Medical experts blame the surge on an obsession with looking good by having bulging biceps and a six-pack stomach.
NHS figures have shown a 66 per cent increase in hospital admissions in England for male eating disorders over the last decade.

A spokesman for the charity beat said the rise could be attributed to the struggle to attain a 'perfect' body shape.
She said: 'Sufferers can become obsessed with their weight or they can obsess over exercise and with how many calories they are eating.

'Exercise is a major factor with eating disorders in men in particular. They become obsessed with exercising every single day, if not more, and it can take over their life without them realising there may be a more deep-seated reason behind it.

'That is when it becomes an eating disorder.

'The pressure these days on guys to have the perfect figure is very similar to that which has and continues to affect women.

'It's all about losing body fat and getting a six pack, and it comes from the way the male shape is portrayed.

'That perfect figure can be a healthy body image for a man to aspire to; it is when it gets taken to an extreme that we see problems.'
Bulimia affects three times as many people as anorexia, but it can be more difficult to spot as the sufferer may not lose weight in the same way.
Diagnosing the condition is made difficult by men's reluctance to talk about their health, she said.

'We need GPs to be much more aware of the fact that males also these days are experiencing problems with eating disorders. They are not as good at recognising the symptoms in men as they should be.

'It can be because men are much more reluctant to talk about these issues or to admit there is a problem.

'There is a stigma about it - it is seen as a teenage girls' disease. But eating disorders are serious psychological conditions which can kill.'
The charity estimates that 1.6 million people in the UK have an eating disorder. It is thought that one in five sufferers is male.
A GP seeing a man who is thin is more likely to think that he is depressed, a spokesman for the Royal College of General Practitioners said.


The Department of Health does not keep records which show how many sufferers there are in the England. It only keeps records of hospital admissions, so it can be hard to judge the scale of the problem.

Ben Porter, 20, from Kent, has suffered with anorexia and bulimia since the age of 14.

He became seriously ill when his weight dropped to seven stone.
He told the BBC: 'I didn't realise what I was doing to myself and was abusive to my body at the time. The point was to look good and pursue a perfect image but I was doing the opposite.

'I fell into a cycle that continued until it became unbearable for everybody.
'I just felt very inadequate about the way that I looked and felt I wasn't fitting in at school.'

Noodles to vote in bangkok

 
Newly elected Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra was accused of buying votes with noodles,a media report said Saturday. The Election Commission has launched a probe into a complaint that Yingluck was handing out dishes with noodles she helped to cook,which can be classified as vote-buying,the Bangkok Post said.

There was no distribution of free food nor any attempts to buy votes as alleged, the Nation Thai daily quoted Yinglucks Pheu Thai Party spokesman Prompong Nopparit as saying. He added that cooking was organized to attract the crowd and not be construed as a vote-buying.

Preliminary results from the investigation show it was not an act of intending to cook the noodles to give them to supporters because a noodle vendor was cooking when Yingluck arrived and she asked if she could help her with the cooking, the Commissions secretary-general Suthipol Thaweechaikarn told Bangkok Post. Yingluck,44,is the first woman elected for a premier post in Thailand. Puea Thai won 265 of parliaments 500 seats,but later smaller parties announced they were joining Puea Thai,giving it control of 300 seats.

Asterix turns 50 /asterix books /asterix and obelisk

Comic book hero Asterix, the indomitable Gaul who with his friend Obelix, has been keeping the Romans at bay, turns 50 this week and the creators have something for millions of their readers throughout the world - a special issue containing many of their exploits including in India.

Created by Rene Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo, Asterix le Gaulois, as he is known in France, first appeared in the 'Pilote' magazine on October 29, 1959. After Goscinny's death, Uderzo has been writing as well as illustrating the stories of Asterix and Obelix, whose favourite pastime is wild boar hunting.


Asterix series is one of the most popular Franco-Belgian comics in the world and has been translated into 107 languages. The stories, which are exploits of a village of ancient Gauls as they resist Roman occupation, have been adapted for 11 films, three of them being non-cartoon. The Gauls are aided by a magic potion prepared by their druid Getafix which gives them superhuman strength.

In the 28th volume of the comics named 'Asterix and the Magic Carpet', the two Gauls with their dog and village bard Cacofonix visit India and save princess Orinjade, daughter of Rajah Wotzit, from being sacrificed on the altar.


To celebrate the occasion, Uderzo created drawings to illustrate a hitherto unpublished text written by Goscinny and came out with a 56-page comic book "Asterix and Obelix's Birthday - The Golden Book" on October 22.

According to the publishers, Uderzo's exceptional gift is a homage to his Gaul heroes and to the millions of their readers throughout the world. The new book contains brand-new, never-before-published cartoons and includes parodies of famous masterpieces that seem to indicate that the indomitable Gauls have influenced the greatest masters of the art world.


The series of short stories details the adventures of the many characters from the Asterix universe as they secretly prepare a special, unforgettable birthday party.

Meanwhile, not suspecting a thing, Asterix and Obelix have gone into the forest to hunt for wild boar. Each guest brings gifts for Asterix and Obelix. Those who live too far away sends birthday wishes which are delivered by the postman Postaldistrix.

Man urinating in reservoir

Call it the big flush. Because a 21-year-old man was caught on a security camera urinating into a city reservoir, Oregon's biggest city is sending 8 million gallons of treated drinking water down the drain.

Portland officials defended the decision Monday, saying they didn't want to send city residents water laced, however infinitesimally, with urine.

Public health officials say, however, that urine is sterile in healthy people and that the urine in the reservoir was so diluted _ perhaps a half pint in millions of gallons _ that it posed little risk.

Some people in the city, in the suburbs and around the world called the flush an overreaction, especially since animals such as ducks contribute waste routinely and, sometimes, die in the water.

``More than 1 billion people worldwide do not have reliable access to clean drinking water, and here we are tossing away nearly 8 million gallons of water just to appease the ignorant residents who believe their tap water will otherwise turn yellow,''.

Water from the city's five open air reservoirs, all in parks, goes directly to customers. The reservoirs are due to be replaced by underground storage within a decade, a result of federal requirements.

The reservoirs distribute water that flows from glaciers on Mount Hood. It is treated before it goes to the reservoirs for distribution, and then goes directly to consumers.

The reservoirs are drained twice a year for cleaning, and workers have found animal carcasses, paint cans, construction material, fireworks debris and even the plastic bags people use to scoop up after their dogs, said David Shaff, administrator of the city water bureau.

Even so, Shaff said, the yuck factor was the primary reason for the decision to drain the 8 million gallons, at a cost of less than $8,000 to treat it as sewage.


``Nobody wants to drink pee, and I don't want to deal with the 100 people who would be unhappy that I'm serving them pee in their water,'' he said. Shaff said the security cameras also showed something that's still unidentified was thrown in the water, heightening concern about potential risks.

City Commissioner Randy Leonard, who is in charge of the water bureau, defended the decision, citing a potential public health risk. He said he worried about the possibility of chlamydia or AIDS from blood in urine.

``I'm for taking the most conservative approach,'' he said.

Dr. Gary Oxman, the county health officer, said the risk was so close to nil that it falls in the ``never say never'' range. Even with the uncertainty over an object thrown in the water, ``that's still a very small risk,'' he said.

The young man, Josh Seater, told KATU-TV he'd been drinking, was with friends and thought that the reservoir was a sewage treatment plant. He said he felt guilty instantly, and then security guards arrived.

``I knew I did wrong when I did it,'' he told the station.


Besides the sewage charge, Shaff said, the flushed water is worth $28,000.

The Mount Hood watershed that supplies the city is brimming this spring, with 8 million gallons (30.3 million liters) flowing through it about every half hour.

the rape on his wife

In the first order of its kind, a man has been convicted on charges of rape, cruelty and harassment against his wife. Though, as per law, there is no penal provision for charging a man with the rape of his wife, the court held that the accused and the victim were first cousins and he had committed rape on her even before marriage, making it "incestuous".

While sentencing the man to a seven-year jail term for rape, the court said the man not only tortured the woman after marriage but also raped her — his first cousin — for more than 12 years before marriage, and forced her to marry him. "This is not a case where the accused has been accused of raping of his own wife for over 12 years but a case where he had been accused of raping his first cousin when she was a minor below the age of 15 years and was compelled to marry the accused on account of long term physical relations which he had made with the prosecutrix," Additional Sessions Judge Kamini Lau said while holding Inderpreet Singh guilty under Section 376 (rape) of IPC.


Even as the accused raised the objection that he cannot be convicted under Section 498A (cruelty and harassment against a woman by her husband or any member of matrimonial home) as their marriage was void as per the Hindu Law, the court justified its conviction under the penal provision saying, "this court has been informed that a petition has been moved for declaring the marriage between the accused and the victim as nullity which is pending before the competent court but that in itself will not mitigate the offence committed by the accused. The marriage between the prosecutrix and the accused being void is yet to be declared nullity by the competent court of law, the provisions of Section 498-A Indian Penal Code would hereby apply".

While sentencing him to a three-year jail term for harassment, the court also imposed a fine of Rs 1.05 lakh on Singh, stipulating that the amount should be given to the victim.

In its order, the court took a stern view of child abuse as the victim was raped even as a minor. "Crime against women has increased in recent years, most of the offenders being previously known to the victim or enjoying some kind of a fiduciary, family or trust relationship which they betray. It is for the Courts to meet these challenges by moulding the sentencing system to ensure that public confidence in the efficacy of law is not undermined," the court said.

The victim told the court that she was compelled to marry her cousin in March 2008 after she became pregnant. After the marriage, her husband began physically assaulting and subjecting her to mental cruelty. She alleged that Singh had been raping her since 1996 when she was just 15. As per the prosecution, Singh, 37, and the victim were living in a joint family and he used to teach her when she was preparing for her class 10 board exams.


Court held that the accused and the victim were first cousins and he raped her for 12 years before marriage, making it "incestuous". She was a minor below 15 years then and was forced to marry him.

Museum in China

A museum in China has decided to duplicate renowned painter and sculptor Michelangelo's four masterpieces of bronze statues.
The statues - Day, Night, Twilight and Dawn - collected by the house of Medici, who ruled over Florence in the 15th and 16th century, will be replicated by the Heng Yuan Xiang Art Museum for the first time in China.

These masterpieces were sculpted between 1520-1534 when Michelangelo was in his 40s and 50s. It took him almost 15 years to accomplish this work.

The original sculptures are now displayed at the San Lorenzo Church of the Medicci family in Florence in Italy.

Michelangelo (1475-1564), a rennaissance painter, sculptor, architect and poet, left only a few sculptures in the world. It is thus very rare to find his works.

Museum spokesman Guo Jianchen said they will make six replica sets of Michelangelo's four sculptures. The first set will come out in August. But Guo did not reveal who will buy these replicas and at what prices.


The replication project is part of the "Italian Year in China" programme this year.

A few years ago, Thinker, a statue made by French sculptor Auguste Rodin, was also copied and acquired by a Chinese real estate company in Shanghai.

Kissed her to calm

"She had actually been injured," Brett Jones told the Star Friday morning from his home in Perth, Australia. "She had been knocked down by a shield" from the riot police.

"He lay down next to her to comfort her. She was crying and he just kissed her to calm her down."

Even as a young boy, said Brett Jones, Scott demonstrated his "gentle side for other people. I'm not surprised he would comfort Alex."

Thomas graduated with a degree in environmental engineering from the University of Guelph.

The couple had been to the Stanley Cup final earlier that night on which the Vancouver Canucks lost to the Boston Bruins. Within minutes, the city erupted into a riot.

Brett, who with his wife runs life coaching firm Cre8, has spoken to his second eldest son, one of six Jones children, about the couple's new-found international fame.

"I don't think he's come to grips with it. The full force of it is going to hit him today."

Dad's advice "would be to take it in his stride and enjoy it while he's got it."

Scott and Alex started dating shortly after the young Australian actor arrived in Vancouver on a working holiday. Since leaving acting school in Melbourne, Scott has mostly been bartending, as he has been in Vancouver, but he did get one standup comedy gig in the city.


Comedy performance is "his passion," said Brett Jones. "He has a natural ability to make people laugh."

Scott Jones plans to leave Canada next week for California and then home.

Alex, who lists "going new places" as an interest on her Facebook page, will travel with him at least as far as California, Brett Jones said. She was born in Coquitlam and lives in Vancouver.

Jones senior can see that the couple's now-iconic photograph may follow them for the rest of their lives, for good or ill.

"Relationships do buckle under that pressure unless you have the ability to be very centred. Even if it wasn't Scott, the guy who took the picture captured a moment in time that is iconic."

Brett Jones has also counselled Scott not to buckle to the doubters, rampant on the skeptical, know-it-all Internet, who say the photograph was staged.

"Tell your story as it happened and there's nothing you can do about them," he told his son. "I think it's amazing."


Scott's sister, Hannah, first identified her brother to an Australian news network.

"It is something he would do, that's our boy," Scott's mother Marie told ninemsn in Australia. "He has always lived in his own world, he's special like that. He doesn't always connect with what's going on around him.

"I knew it was him because he doesn't have a lot of clothes with him and he always puts on the same thing."

He said he is "very surprised" the picture has received so much attention because he did not even realize the couple was kissing until hours later.

"The riot police made a charge, so we were running. I looked back and there were two people lying on the street. At first I thought she was hurt," he told the Star's Jenni Dunning.

Making Air travel safe.

Heeding to calls for a less intrusive way to screen passengers at the airport, transportation authorities have proposed a high tech solution that includes eye scanners, x-rays, metal and liquid detectors.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) demoed the first mock-up of a Checkpoint of the Future at the the Association's 67th Annual General Meeting (AGM) and World Air Transport Summit, in Singapore.
"We spend $7.4 billion a year to keep aviation secure. But our passengers only see hassle. Passengers should be able to get from curb to boarding gate with dignity," said Giovanni Bisignani, IATA's Director General and CEO. "That means without stopping, stripping or unpacking, and certainly not groping."
The system was developed to address invasion of privacy concerns, make better use of available background information and ensure that most travelers can get through the procedure with minimal hassle or delays.
"Today's checkpoint was designed four decades ago to stop hijackers carrying metal weapons," said Bisignani. "We need a process that responds to today's threat. It must amalgamate intelligence based on passenger information and new technology. That means moving from a system that looks for bad objects, to one that can find bad people."
To ensure that the security screening is as hands-off and efficient as possible, passengers will be directed to one of three scanner-equipped tunnels. Each tunnel is tiered as 'known traveler', 'normal', and 'enhanced security,' with each offering a different level of scrutiny. The system designates which tunnel each passenger must go through depending on how much of a security threat the person poses, a determination that's made using results of an internal risk assessment conducted by the government before the passenger arrives at the airport.
A passenger can speed through the "known traveler" tunnel if the person had completed background checks with government authorities while the majority will likely walk through the "normal" tunnel. Also, a passenger may be required to pass through an additional "elevated-risk" tunnel if the system detects something suspicious during the walk-through screening.
Perhaps the system's biggest selling point is that the screening technology should allow passengers to walk through the checkpoint without having to remove clothes or unpack their belongings.
The IATA is hoping to have these checkpoints installed in airports within five to seven years, a process that will require the cooperation of government agencies to define what standards to use and also agreement on how the data would be shared.
"We have the ability to move to the biometric scanning and three-lane concept right now. And while some of the technology still needs to be developed, even by just re-purposing what we have today, we could see major changes in two or three years time," said Bisignani.

Remote access to the user’s computer

A computer repairman was arrested Wednesday for allegedly planting spyware on dozens of computers he fixed and remotely taking hundreds of photos of women in their homes partially clothed or naked.
Trevor Harwell, 20, a technician for Rezitech Inc., provided home computer services to users with Macintosh computers, said Fullerton Police Sgt. Andrew Goodrich.
Harwell went to elaborate lengths to ensure that he got lurid images, even convincing users through system messages that they needed to take their computers into steamy environments, such as near their showers, Goodrich said.
"While he had physical access to the computers, he would install a spyware-type application that allowed him remote access to the user's computer and webcam," Goodrich said.
He also would work on friends' computers.
"Once he had access, he would take photographs of the users, usually women," Goodrich said. "Often, the female victims were undressed or changing clothes."

He said Harwell then stored the photos on a remote server and eventually downloaded them to his own computer.
The department estimated that hundreds of thousands of images were collected as part of the investigation, and they are seeking out victims.
The lurid repair ploy first came to light last summer when a Fullerton resident contacted police about suspicious messages appearing on his daughter's computer, Goodrich said.
One message mimicked the appearance of a system message and read: "You should fix your internal sensor soon. If unsure what to do, try putting your laptop near hot steam for several minutes to clean the sensor."
The message led many victims to take their laptops into the bathroom while taking a shower, Goodrich said.

Harwell serviced computers in Los Angeles and Orange counties. Fullerton police say they have documented numerous victims, all of them women.
Still images, videos and cellphone videos of women taken surreptitiously were all seized from Harwell's computer.
Harwell was a student at Biola University at the time but no longer attends the school. Goodrich said many of the victims attended the university.
Harwell used a program called Camcapture that was installed on the victims' hard drives, Goodrich said.
Detectives also believe Harwell may have exploited Macintosh computers that were connected to Biola's internal network. The sergeant said potential victims should search the "/Library/WebServer Documents" directory for the Camcapture program.

Pick Up Language

After the anesthesia wore off, the Indiana-native-turned-Oregon-resident was perplexed to hear her American English suddenly shift to a hodgepodge of British, Irish and European pronunciations, according to a National Public Radio piece.

Considering her speech change temporary, Butler's doctor suggested it would go away after the swelling in her mouth reduced. But the accent stayed well after she recovered.

Newborns Pick Up Language in the Womb

Doctors hypothesize Butler experienced a small stroke while under anesthesia, resulting in her developing foreign accent syndrome (FAS), a neurological disorder that alters the intonation and pitch of a person's speech.

To listeners, people with FAS sound like non-natives producing another culture's take on a given language. But evidence suggests the ears of others might make new pronunciations seem more foreign than they really are. In essence, a woman with FAS who seems to speak English in a Scottish accent is unlikely to sound so to linguists.

It's also false to assume someone with FAS suddenly knows a foreign language, as the condition has nothing to do with acquiring new languages, but rather modifying existing ones.

In the past, FAS was thought to originate from mental problems, which delegitimized people's symptoms and gave rise to fewer treatment options. One high-profile case of FAS surfaced during World War II when a Norwegian woman recovered from a head injury to realize she spoke her native tongue with an uncontrollable German accent, resulting in her community shunning her, as recounted in a Chronicle of Higher Education article.

But research shows a neurological basis for the condition, specifically from anterior lesions in the left hemisphere of the brain associated with language, according to one research analysis. The same article concluded that FAS is a "disruption of automatized speech control processes," or a form of apraxia that restricts speech.


Language Style Predicts Romantic Chemistry

Other researchers agree that physical, not mental, impairment is most likely to blame. They argue that altering the physical production of speech -- the movements of the tongue, lips and mouth -- makes the pronunciation of vowels and consonants sound foreign. There's also research suggesting damage to the cerebellum might affect FAS, too.

Brought about by brain damage from stroke, head injuries or disease, FAS might be reversible with intensive speech therapy.

But for Butler, who has grown fond of her strange accent, FAS has given her a new identity she now embraces.

Temples in Goa have dress code

A few of the important temples in Goa have recently laid down a strict dress code for visitors, aimed at, especially, those from the foreign countries; while one prominent temple has banned foreigners altogether.

Why a dress code? Temple authorities say that the devotees were upset over 'scantily dressed' tourists in 'beach-wear' entering the temples.

Mahalasa Narayani Temple at Mardol, 20 km from Panaji, has put up a board: "Entry Restricted for Foreign Tourists".

Mangueshi temple at Mangueshi village, and Ramnathi temple at Ponda have put a dress code in place.

"We are not against the foreigners, but their dresses and conduct in the temple is highly objectionable, so the management has decided to ban them," said Vinod Kamat, President, Mahalasa Narayani Temple.

The locals were recently outraged after some foreigners, out of ignorance, wore garlands. The garlands were supposed to be offered to the deity.


"They would wear garlands themselves, and later dump them before the deity, which was highly objectionable," Kamat said.

"There has to be some discipline." Before the ban, on an average a hundred foreigners visited the temple every day.

Mangueshi Temple, located next to Mahalsa Temple, has imposed dress restrictions. The temple president, Jayant Mandurkar, said the dress code was same for both domestic as well as foreign tourists.

Bangladeshi woman ,he tried to rape

 
A 40-year-old Bangladeshi woman cut off a man's penis during an alleged attempted rape and took it to a police station as evidence, police in a remote part of Bangladesh said on Monday.

The woman, a married mother of three, was attacked while she was sleeping in her shanty in Jhalakathi district, some 200 kilometres (120 miles) south of Dhaka, on Saturday night, officers said.

"As he tried to rape her, the lady cut his penis off with a knife. She then wrapped up the penis in a piece of polythene and brought it to the Jhalakathi police station as evidence of the crime," police chief Abul Khaer told AFP.

The woman has filed a case accusing the man -- who is also 40 and a married father of five -- of attempted rape, saying that he had been harassing her for six months.

The severed penis has been kept at the police station and the rape suspect was undergoing treatment in hospital.

"We shall arrest him once his condition gets better," Khaer added.

Gurkha soldier who single-handedly defeated Taliban fighters

 
A Gurkha soldier who single-handedly defeated more than 30 Taliban fighters has been awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross by the Queen.
Corporal Dipprasad Pun, 31, described how he was spurred on by the belief that he was going to die and so had nothing to lose in taking on the attackers who overran his checkpoint in Afghanistan.
His gallantry award is second only to the Victoria Cross - the highest honour for bravery in the face of the enemy.
Cpl Pun, from the 1st Battalion the Royal Gurkha Rifles, was presented with the CGC during an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace, during which a number of other soldiers were recognised for their bravery.
Speaking after receiving the honour from the Queen, the Gurkha said: 'I'm very excited and happy to here in the Palace to receive the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross. This will be a great memory for the future.'
The soldier fired more than 400 rounds, launched 17 grenades and detonated a mine to thwart the Taliban assault on his checkpoint near Babaji in Helmand Province, southern Afghanistan, last September.
At one point, after exhausting all his ammunition, he had to use the tripod of his machine gun to beat away a militant who was climbing the walls of the compound.
After the ceremony, Cpl Pun was congratulated by investiture guests who queued up to shake his hand.
Speaking about the actions which earned him the CGC, he said: 'At that time I wasn't worried, there wasn't any choice but to fight. The Taliban were all around the checkpoint, I was alone.

'I had so many of them around me that I thought I was definitely going to die so I thought I'd kill as many of them as I could before they killed me.
'That incident happened in the middle of my tour and after that I thought nobody can kill us now - when we met the enemy I wasn't scared.
'I thought the Taliban did not have the capacity to fight with us.'
Cpl Pun, an acting sergeant during his Afghan deployment, was on sentry duty at the time of the attack when he heard a clinking noise outside the small base.
At first he thought it might be a donkey or a cow, but when he went to investigate he found two insurgents digging a trench to lay an improvised explosive device (IED) at the checkpoint's front gate.
He realised that he was completely surrounded and that the Taliban were about to launch a well-planned attempt to overrun the compound.
The enemy opened fire from all sides, destroying the sentry position where the soldier had been on duty minutes before.
Defending the base from the roof, the Gurkha remained under continuous attack from rocket-propelled grenades and AK47s for more than a quarter of an hour.
Most of the militants were about 50ft away from him, but at one point he turned around to see a 'huge' Taliban fighter looming over him.
The soldier picked up his machine gun and fired a long burst at the man until he fell off the roof.
When another insurgent tried to climb up to his position, the Gurkha attempted to shoot him with his SA80 rifle. But it did not work, either because it had jammed or because the magazine was empty.
He first grabbed a sandbag but it had not been tied up and the contents fell to the floor.
Then he seized the metal tripod of his machine gun and threw it at the approaching Taliban militant, shouting in Nepali 'Marchu talai' ('I will kill you') and knocking him down.
'I thought the Taliban did not have the
Two insurgents were still attacking by the time the heroic Gurkha had used up all his ammunition, but he set off a Claymore mine to repel them.
At this point his company commander, Major Shaun Chandler, arrived at the checkpoint, slapped him on the back and asked if he was OK.
In total he fired off 250 general purpose machine gun rounds, 180 SA80 rounds, six phosphorous grenades, six normal grenades, five underslung grenade launcher rounds and one Claymore mine.
The only weapon he did not use was the traditional Kukri knife carried by Gurkhas because he did not have his with him at the time.
The married soldier, whose father and grandfather were also Gurkhas, is originally from the village of Bima in western Nepal but now lives in Ashford, Kent.
His medal citation said he saved the lives of three comrades at the checkpoint at that time and prevented the position being overrun.
It read: 'Pun could never know how many enemies were attempting to overcome his position, but he sought them out from all angles despite the danger, consistently moving towards them to reach the best position of attack.'
Major General Nicholas Carter, who was commander of combined forces, including British troops, in southern Afghanistan during Cpl Pun's deployment, praised the soldier and those from the Mercian Regiment receiving gallantry awards today.
The senior officer, who received the Distinguished Service Order from the Queen for his leadership in the Middle East country, said: 'Their efforts have been tremendous. It was a privilege to have members of the 1st Battalion Royal Gurkha Rifles and the Mercian Regiment under my command.
'The Conspicuous Gallantry Cross does not get handed out lightly, it was a most remarkable achievement by that particular young Gurkha.'

Deep-sea explorers

Florida deep-sea explorers have asked a federal appeals court to overturn an earlier ruling that 17 tonnes of treasure recovered from a sunken Spanish galleon belongs to Spain, deepening a long-running battle over a trove worth an estimated $500 million that has unfolded not on the high seas but in federal courtrooms.

Attorneys for Odyssey Marine Exploration asked the three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold the "finders keepers" rule that would give the treasure hunters the rights to silver coins, copper ingots, gold cufflinks and other artifacts salvaged about four years ago from the galleon off the coast of Portugal.

Spain's lawyers countered that US courts are obligated by international treaty and maritime law to uphold Spain's claim to the haul.

The ship, called the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, was sunk by British warships in the Atlantic in 1804 while sailing back from South America with more than 200 people on board. Odyssey created an international splash in May 2007 when it announced that it raised more than 500,000 silver coins and other artifacts from the wreck and flew the treasure back to Tampa.


Spain went to the US district court in Tampa, claiming ownership while Odyssey disputed the Spanish government's ownership of the valuable cargo. A federal judge sided with Spain in June 2009.

Italian father

A Italian toddler died after her father forgot to drop her off at day-care and left her in his hot car for five hours.

Doctors at Ancona's Salesi pediatric hospital on the Adriatic coast declared the 22-month-old brain dead late on Saturday, three days after her father returned from his university teaching job to find her barely breathing.

The child, identified only as Elena, had surgery to relieve swelling on the brain, but doctors said it was too extensive to save her. An autopsy is planned for Tuesday.

Francesca De Pace, coordinator for transplants in the Ancona area, expressed gratitude to the parents for giving permission for Elena's heart, liver and kidneys to be transplanted. Officials said a 2-year-old boy in a Bergamo hospital received Elena's heart on Sunday, while the liver recipient was a young boy in Turin.

The kidneys were being checked to see if they were suitable for transplant. Prosecutors will decide whether to charge the father, Lucio Petrizzi, with manslaughter. The distraught Petrizzi has told investigators his memory went blank and that he inexplicably thought he had dropped the child off at day-care on his way to his job.

pole dancing primary school teachers

Drinking and pole dancing, a group of primary school teachers pose for a series of unsavoury images they saw fit to publish on Facebook.
Six female teachers, including  the deputy head, are pictured in Army gear at a raucous hen  party which parents have described as 'shocking'.
In one image one of the women, wearing a skimpy skirt, is seen with her leg wrapped provocatively around a pole.

Other photos show them flashing their knickers, downing cocktails, smoking and flicking V-signs.
Because the teachers' Facebook profiles were not set to private, the images could be seen by anyone.
A parent of one pupil at the school spotted the pictures, printed off five pages of them and posted them through neighbours' front doors.
She included a letter which read: 'If you are as appalled as I am by these images which these tramps post freely for the world to see, how safe are our children?
'Answer, not very! Children might be seeing these images.
'What does this tell you about this school and how it is being run?

'These women teach my children, but not for much longer. I  say remove the scum and get Mr Pickard [the previous head] back in to sort out this mess before it gets any worse.'
The teachers, from Langland  Community School in Milton Keynes, were on a night out in the city where they teach.
Mother-of-four Janette Bobey, 50, who received the pictures through her letter box last week, described them as shocking.
'I spoke to the school and they were aware of it and the head has spoken to the teachers and told them to be more careful,' she said.
'The majority of people I have spoken to say it was not right that those sorts of pictures were up on Facebook.
'My children have left school now, but other young children on the estate have seen the pictures.'
Four of the women have been named. They are class teacher Victoria Courtis, Key Stage 2 manager Rebecca Gilbert, foundation manager Jenna Austin and deputy head Donna Christy.
It is not known who the other two members of staff are.
One of the more explicit photos on Facebook shows Austin pole dancing.  She later commented on Facebook: 'Oh dear! Should have worn bigger  pants! Shame!'
One parent claims that when he showed the images to head Kate  Stuart he was told to 'mind his  own business'.
The father, who did not want to be named, said: 'She said what she  and her staff did out of school was up to them.
'I disagree with this as teachers are supposed to be setting a good example and they are clearly not.'
The teachers have now removed the images from Facebook and made their profiles private.
The school yesterday refused  to comment.
A spokesman for the governing body said: 'The photos in  question were taken at a private hen night attended by a small group of school staff.
'Any images posted on Facebook were only intended to be viewed among a select group of friends.
'Although these photographs were taken out of school time, it is regrettable they were published and circulated through a social networking site.'