| New Virus Responsible For Deaths Of Transplant Recipients In Australia ...
ScienceDaily (Feb. 11, 2008) In the first application of high throughput DNA sequencing technology to investigate an infectious disease outbreak, scientists from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory (VIRDL) in Melbourne, Australia, the Centers for Disease Control and 454 Life Sciences link the discovery of a new arenavirus to the deaths of three transplant recipients who received organs from a single donor in Victoria, Australia in April 2007. .
Deadline approaches for quarry appeal responses
Ian Southcott, UK community affairs manager for Cemex, said as well as lodging the appeal the company had also submitted a revised application, seeking permission to operate the coating plant round the clock on no more than 60 days a year. He said: "Although this will reduce flexibility, the company believes it represents a reasonable compromise. It should be remembered that the original application never envisaged round the clock operations throughout the year but was so presented to provide the flexibility to meet demand when it arose." Mr Southcott also said if the revised application was successful, the appeals would be withdrawn. A fourth application by Cemex to extend the existing limestone quarry towards Charfield is yet to be discussed by the council's planning committee.
Armenians vote in presidential election
Armenian Prime Minister and presidential candidate Serzh Sarkisian casts his ballot at a polling station in Yerevan, Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2008. Armenians vote for a new president on Tuesday in a race that pits the incumbent prime minister against the country's first president. .
2ND UPDATE: Toy Fair Notebook: Toy Makers Enter Virtual World
Mattel is making Barbie more virtual, while Jakks and Hasbro are pushing further into the pet kingdom. Mattel's Barbie iDesign is a CD-ROM game, where girls can dress Barbie in hundreds of outfits, creating a runway show and a magazine layout that can be emailed to their friends. Barbie made her first foray onto the web last April, when Mattel launched BarbieGirls.com, a Web site that allows girls to combine fashion, music, and social networking. Its core audience is 10 and 11 year olds. Since the launch, the site has accumulated 10.5 million registered users, said Mattel senior brand manager Rosie O'Neill, who spearheaded the site's development. 'It's a way to extend the Barbie franchise,' O'Neill said in an interview. Mattel is targeting boys with Hot Wheels Turbo Driver, a game controller that opens up eight different terrains online.
Oxygen bars pop up across France
PARIS: As oxygen bars begin to pop up across France, health authorities are beginning to question the merits or otherwise of sniffing O2.
Supposed to improve health and well-being, oxygen bars date back to the late
1990s, spreading from Canada to California and to Britain and Japan, in nightclubs, health clubs, airports or even trade fairs.
But Paris' first oxygen bar opened only last week. Flagged as "a revolutionary anti-fatigue, anti-stress and anti-depression concept", the city's maiden O2 bar is housed in an up-market beauty institute owned by no less than the wife of top French publicist and political "kingmaker" Jacques Seguela.
Seguela has been very much in the news recently for bringing together President Nicolas Sarkozy and his new wife Carla Bruni around a dinner table, a coup that comes almost three decades after helping propel leftwing leader Francois Mitterrand to the country's highest public office.
Honours: Order of the British Empire, Civil - OBE Adams to Lennon
Adams, Mrs Pauline Ann, Chair, Crossroads Wales. For serv Carers. Adkin, Nicholas John, Tobacco Programme mgr, Dept of Health. Ahmad, Mushtaq, Lately Provost, South Lanarkshire Ccl. For serv Local Govt. Akomfrah, John, Dir. For serv the Film ind. Alagiah, George Maxwell, Broadcaster and Author. For serv Journalism. Ashmore, Graham, Head of European and Cluster Policy, UK Trade and Investment, West Midlands Region. For serv Internat Trade. Atkinson, Christopher John, JP, DL, For serv the Administration of Justice in Sheffield. Atkinson, Dr Michael Richard, For serv the commty in Balsall Heath, Birmingham. Azah, John, Vice-Chair, Independent Advisory Group, Met Pol Service. For serv commty Relations in London. Barnardo, Dr David Eric, Vice-pres and ltly Chair, Barnardo's. For serv Social Care for Children.
Japanese veteran haunted by WWII surgical killings in Mindanao
The combat doctor would tell him to watch as he sliced open a hostage's stomach, a scene that Makino says made him so ill he couldn't eat or drink for days afterwards. "When cooking chicken, the doctor would get amused and say, 'Oh, this is just like human intestines,'" he said. But Makino said he eventually became accustomed to what he had to do. "I was desperate," he said. "I didn't want to do anything like that if possible. But I had to follow the orders of my superior as a military man, otherwise I'd have been beaten up." He could not put a definitive number on how many of the 50 people the unit killed were vivisected or how many of the operations he took part in. He did say he could never forget those days on the tropical island and even six decades later he could barely talk about his experiences without breaking down.
|
