Surprise of Tanzania's albino MP

Tanzania's first albino MP has told the BBC of her surprise at being nominated by the president - and her determination to fight the discrimination that she and other people with albinism suffer.

Twenty people with albinism have been murdered in the past year in Tanzania, where there is a widespread belief that the condition is the result of a curse.

But a crackdown on the witchdoctors who encourage the killing of people with albinism was recently announced - and as part of this, 48-year-old Al-Shymaa Kway-Geer was appointed.

Al-Shymaa Kway-Geer (right) is a former airline clerk

"It was something very great for me - I didn't expect it," Ms Kway-Geer told BBC World Service's Outlook programme.

"I think the president chose me because he believed in me - I'm a very hard-working woman.

"The president chose me at this time, when albinos are being killed and abused."

The BBC's Vicky Ntetema in Dar-es-Salaam said that people were "amazed" when the president made the surprise announcement of Ms Kway-Geer's appointment.



'Zeru'

Instead of having dark skin and black hair, people with albinism are blond with pale skin, because their skin lacks pigment.

As well as the belief that albinism is a curse, witchdoctors in the country use body parts from albinos in magic potions they claim will bring people good luck or fortune.

Ms Kway-Geer was herself victimized when young.

"When I was at primary school, people used to laugh at me, tease me - some didn't even like to touch me, saying that if they touched me they would get this colour," she said.

"People used to abuse me on the road when I took the buses to school. They would run after me - crowds of kids following me - shouting 'zeru, zeru'."

"Zeru" is a Swahili word for albino. Tanzania's albino society says that traditionally, this is a word for ghost-like creatures and is derogatory.

Since the beginning to 2000, the word has been banned.

Ms Kway-Geer says she hopes to educate people about albinism to end the discrimination, and called for a census of albino people.

"First we must find out how many albinos there are all over Tanzania, so that they get education and health," she said.

Albinos are at particular risk from skin cancer and often suffer from poor eyesight.

"Many albinos are poor, and therefore they need help from the government," said the new MP.

Arrests

Our correspondent says that in some parts of the country, people think albinos bring bad luck to the whole community.

While there have not yet been any prosecutions regarding the recent spate of murders, 172 were last month arrested in connection to the cases - 71 of whom said they had been told by witchdoctors to bring them albino body parts.

They remain in custody.

"We are still waiting to find out how far these arrests will go, and how many people will be brought to book," our correspondent says.

She adds that the police don't want to talk about the case for fear of jeopardising their enquiries.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7348528.stm

Identity 'at risk' on Facebook

Facebook has millions of users throughout the world

Personal details of Facebook users could potentially be stolen, the BBC technology programme Click has found.

The popular social networking site, allows users to add a variety of applications to their profile.

But a malicious program, masquerading as a harmless application, could potentially harvest personal data.

Facebook says users should exercise caution when adding applications. Any programs which violate their terms will be removed, the network said.

Stealing details

Facebook is the darling of the moment, allowing friends to stay in touch, post photos, and share fun little games and quizzes. And it also lets you keep your details private from the rest of the world. Or at least that is the implication.

We have discovered a way to steal the personal details of you and all your Facebook friends without you knowing.

We made up the fictitious profile of Bob Smith. He keeps most of his details on his profile private from non-friends.

While we could not get all details, what we did get, included his name, hometown, school, interests and photograph, would certainly help us to steal someone's identity.

Mining data

So how did we do it?

Using a couple of laptops and our resident coder Pete, we created a special application for Facebookers to add.

One of the reasons Facebook has become so popular so quickly is because of the wealth of applications users can add to their profile pages.

Little games, quizzes, IQ tests, there are thousands of them available. And once you have added an application, your friends are encouraged to add it too.

Anyone with a basic understanding of web programming can write an application.

We wrote an evil data mining application called Miner, which, if we wanted, could masquerade as a game, a test, or a joke of the day. It took us less than three hours.

But whatever it looks like, in the background, it is collecting personal details, and those of the users' friends, and e-mailing them out of Facebook, to our inbox.

When you add an application, unless you say otherwise, it is given access to most of the information in your profile. That includes information you have on your friends even if they think they have tight security settings.

Did you know that you were responsible for other people's security?

Security

Now, many applications do need access to your details, in order to work properly.

We do not know of any specific application which abuses user information, apart from ours.

But the ease with we created our application has many people worried. If it is being used you would not even have to use the application we created to become a victim, you would just have to be a friend of someone who has.

Because these applications run on third-party servers, not run by Facebook - it is difficult for the company to check what is going on, whether anything has changed, and how long applications store data for and what they do with it.

Although Facebook's terms and conditions contain a warning that this could in theory happen, and offer the option to stop an application from accessing your details, many games and quizzes would not work if this option is engaged.

In fact, the only way we can see of completely protecting yourself from applications skimming information about you and your friends is to erase all the applications on your profile and opt to not use any applications in the future.

So has Facebook done enough to protect its users from identity theft?

Paul Docherty is the Technical Director of Portcullis Security, which advises several governments on IT security matters including British government.

He told us he believed that Facebook's terms and conditions stated on the site meant that Facebook had legally covered itself from any liability.

But he added: "Morally, Facebook has acted naively."

He said: "Facebook needs to change its default settings and tighten up security."

He also believes it would be difficult to secure the current system because so many third party applications are now in circulation.

Removal team

We put these concerns to Facebook.

It told us that it has an entire investigations team watching the site, and removing applications that violate its terms of use which would include our Miner application.

It also advises users to use the same precautions while downloading software from Facebook applications that they use when downloading software on their desktop.

Now, all this comes in the month that competitor MySpace opened up its application platform. However, it handles them differently - here all applications run on its own servers so it can see what they are up to.

MySpace also manually checks all submissions and rechecks them if authors wish to change the code. We were unable to create a similar threat to users' security using the MySpace system.

It certainly seems that Facebook's standard security settings are not sufficient to protect your personal information, and those of your friends.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/7375772.stm

Italian tax details posted on web

Privacy watchdogs have ordered the Italian authorities to block access to every Italian's personal tax details.

This comes after they were published on the internet and made available for almost 24 hours.

The move to release the information was one of the last acts of the outgoing centre-left government - and has shocked many tax-shy Italians.

Without warning, the tax authority posted on its website every tax payer's declared earnings and tax paid.

With just a couple of mouse clicks Italians were able to see just how much their favourite footballer, TV star or singer earned and paid in tax.

The idea was also an open invitation to nosey neighbours, making it just as simple to see how much the couple next door earned, or how much your local doctor or priest paid in tax.

The site proved a massive hit. Within hours it was overwhelmed and impossible to reach.

The finance ministry described the move as a bid to improve transparency. Critics condemned it as an outrageous breach of privacy.

The timing of the move, just days before the current administration hands over to Silvio Berlusconi, was intriguing too.

The outgoing government came to power promising to tackle Italians' notoriously lax approach to paying tax - prompting some sceptics to see the move as just end of term sour grapes.

Mr Prodi's coalition cracked down on tax evasion

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7376608.stm

Iran calls for ban on Barbie doll

Iran's top prosecutor has called for restrictions in the import of Western toys, saying they have a destructive effect on the country's youth.

Iran is the world's third largest importer of toys, such as Barbie dolls

The Prosecutor General, Ghorban Ali Dori Najafabadi, said that toys such as Barbie, Batman, and Harry Potter would have negative social consequences.

Mr Najafabadi wants measures taken to protect what he called Iran's Islamic culture and revolutionary values.

Correspondents say Western culture is becoming increasingly popular in Iran.

Mr Najafabadi's comments were made in a letter addressed to Iranian Vice President Parviz Davoudi, and quoted in several Iranian newspapers.

"The displays of personalities such as Barbie, Batman, Spiderman and Harry Potter... as well as the irregular importation of unsanctioned computer games and movies are all warning bells to officials in the cultural arena," he wrote, according to a copy of the letter seen by Associated Press.

"The irregular importation of such toys, which unfortunately arrive through unofficial sources and smuggling, is destructive culturally and a social danger," he said.

The BBC's Pam O'Toole in Tehran says the increasing popularity of Western culture has been causing concern in Iran's clerical establishment for years.

Revealing

Mr Najafabadi, a high-ranking cleric, said Iran was the world's third biggest importer of toys, with many more being smuggled into the country.

In the past, Barbie dolls have been targeted by Iranian authorities bridling at their revealing dress.

In public Iranian women must cover their bodily contours - a rule, correspondents point out, that Barbie conspicuously fails to follow.

"We need to find substitutes to ward off this onslaught, which aims at children and young people whose personality is in the process of being formed," Mr Najafabadi said.

Iran has made previous, unsuccessful, attempts to find substitutes for such toys.

A modestly-dressed version of Barbie and her partner Ken - named Sara and Dara - launched by Iran did not manage to counter the popularity of the Western version.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7371771.stm

Austrian police quiz 'sex captor'

Austrian police are continuing to question an elderly man who admitted holding his daughter in a cellar for 24 years and fathering her seven children.



Police said Josef Fritzl also admitted burning the body of a baby who died at the house in Amstetten, Lower Austria.

Mr Fritzl, 73, remains in custody. His daughter, now 42, and her six surviving children have been taken into care.

A lawyer for the victims said the case showed no sign of institutional failure on behalf of the Austrian authorities.

"Up until now there is no sign that there was any mistake by officials," the lawyer, Christoph Herbst, was quoted as saying by the Austrian Press Agency (APA).

"If there had been such a mistake we would obviously have to talk about it."

However, Austrian media are questioning how such grave crimes went undetected for so long.

Lured into cellar

Photos of Mr Fritzl's basement show a concealed network of tiny windowless chambers which were soundproofed.

Prosecutors say Mr Fritzl is expected to be taken into protective custody after appearing before a magistrate.


His daughter, Elisabeth, disappeared aged 18 on 28 August 1984 when, according to her testimony to police, her father lured her into the cellar, drugging and handcuffing her before locking her up.

She is reported to have been made to write a letter which made it look as if she had run away from Amstetten, a small town about 130km (80 miles) west of Vienna.

The head of the criminal affairs bureau in Lower Austria, Franz Polzer, said Mr Fritzl had admitted sexually abusing his daughter repeatedly during the time he imprisoned her.

Mr Polzer said Mr Fritzl told investigators Elisabeth had given birth to seven children, including twins in 1996, but one died shortly after being born and that he had thrown the body into an incinerator in the building.

The surviving children are now aged between five and 19 years.

Wife 'unaware'

The cellar rooms, covering an area of approximately 60 sq m (650 sq ft), were equipped for sleeping and cooking, and with sanitary facilities.

A reinforced concrete door was built into the wall that separated the "dungeon" from the house and electronically locked - the code known only to the suspect, who provided his captives with food and necessities, police said.

Pictures of Josef Fritzl's house and cellar

Three of the children were kept in the cellar with their mother and had never seen daylight, police told a news conference.

The other three children were adopted or fostered by the suspect, after he forced Elisabeth to write a letter saying she could not look after the baby, according to police.

His wife, Rosemarie, with whom he had seven of their own children, appears to have been unaware of the alleged crimes, police said.

The security chief for Lower Austria, Franz Prucher, said he had been down into the cellar where it was easy to understand how the abuse was not discovered.

"The cellar is very deep," he said. "There you can cry and nobody will hear, nobody. There you can cry as loud as you can, you can hear nothing."

The alleged abuse and Mr Fritzl's apparent double life came to light when the eldest of the children in the cellar, 19-year-old Kerstin, became seriously ill earlier this month and had to be taken to hospital.

Kerstin is said to be in a coma in hospital.

The media were told the other children who had been kept in the cellar were in surprisingly good physical health, but very pale.

The BBC's Bethany Bell says the case is reminiscent of that of Natascha Kampusch, the Austrian teenager held captive in a cellar in a house in a Vienna suburb for eight years, who ran to freedom in 2006.

Our correspondent says the people of Amstetten are in a state of shock over the events in their town, compounded by the sudden worldwide media interest.


Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7372477.stm

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Timeline: Austrian cellar case

A timeline of events in the case of a woman in Amstetten, Austria, whose father apparently confessed to holding and sexually abusing her for 24 years in his cellar, during which time she is believed to have given birth to seven of his children.

The events included are based on Austrian police statements issued after the arrest of the 73-year-old father.

28 AUGUST 1984
The suspected abductor, Josef F, allegedly lures his daughter Elisabeth into the cellar of their house, drugging and handcuffing her before locking her up.

DATE UNKNOWN
Josef and his wife Rosemarie receive a letter in Elisabeth's handwriting saying they should not try to look for her. Rosemarie is unaware of the truth, Elisabeth later tells police.

1988-89 (APPROXIMATELY)
Kerstin, the first of seven reported children, is secretly born (exact date unknown) and raised in the cellar. She is followed shortly by a brother.

1993
A baby is discovered outside the family home along with a letter from Elisabeth saying she cannot care for it. It is taken in by Josef and his wife. A second infant appears in 1994. Both are either fostered or adopted, and are raised by their grandparents.

1996
Twins are born to Elisabeth but one dies shortly after birth and is allegedly taken away and burnt by Josef. The following year, a third infant appears at the house, and is taken in like the previous two, to be raised by grandparents.

2003
A letter arrives from Elisabeth to say she had another baby in December 2002. This child is believed to have been brought up in the cellar along with Kerstin and her brother.

SATURDAY 19 APRIL 2008
Police issue an appeal to missing person Elisabeth F to contact them about her daughter Kerstin, who has been admitted to hospital in Amstetten with a serious illness.

19-26 APRIL 2008
At some point during the week, according to the police statement, Josef releases Elisabeth and the two other children from the cellar, telling his wife Rosemarie she has chosen to return home.

SATURDAY 26 APRIL 2008
Police pick up Josef and Elisabeth near the Amstetten hospital where Kerstin is being treated. Elisabeth's children are found at the house.

SUNDAY 27 APRIL 2008
Police announce the arrest of Josef on suspicion of incest and abduction. All the children are placed in care and Elisabeth is given medical and psychological treatment.

Josef gives police the code to unlock a hidden door to a basement living space made up of a network of tiny windowless chambers.

MONDAY 28 APRIL 2008
Josef confesses to imprisoning Elisabeth in a cellar for 24 years and fathering her seven children. He confirms to investigators that one of their children died in infancy and that he had taken the dead body and thrown it into an incinerator.

Police search Josef's basement. Kerstin remains in hospital, in a serious but stable condition.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7370208.stm

Bird flu: Indonesia's trial run

In the backstreets of a Bali village, all hell has broken loose.

The Balinese rural calm has been invaded by men with megaphones and masks, there are sirens wailing down the main street, and at the centre of it all, Putu Arini sits quietly on the porch of her house, waiting for the police.

Parts of Bali have looked like the set of a germ-warfare film

A few hours ago, her husband was taken to the local health clinic, with bird flu-like symptoms, and now investigators have told her she is being quarantined.

Luckily, all this comes as no surprise to Putu Arini. In fact the village has been planning this for months.

Indonesia has spent the past few days simulating a human bird flu pandemic - according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the largest ever such simulation in the world - and Putu Arini is one of the star players.

And now, as detailed in the script, police are on their way to rope off her house, and stop anyone from entering. Not that anyone would want to, she says.

"Everyone is scared," she told me, getting into character.

"Only a few people are brave enough to go outside their houses. Even my relatives are too scared to visit me here, and I can't leave the house either."

Countries around the world are watching for signs of a human bird flu pandemic, and they are watching Indonesia closest of all. Almost half the world's total human deaths from bird flu died here - 107 people.

And every time someone gets infected, it gives the virus another chance to switch from a disease we catch from poultry, to a disease we catch from each other.

Is Indonesia prepared for an outbreak of bird flu?

The simulation - which lasted from Friday morning until Sunday night - involved 1,000 people and 20 different institutions, from the armed forces to medics, to the foreign and trade ministries. The airport was affected, as was the district's main hospital.

The aim, said Nyoman Kandun of Indonesia's health ministry, was to "examine the government's readiness to quickly cut off a pandemic".

"We want to show the world we are prepared," he said, "ready to contain and stop the virus if a pandemic happens."

The head of the WHO here, Subhash Salunke, admits the simulation was also about learning where the gaps are.

"The world is looking at this as an experiment," he said.

"The plan is very scientific. Implementation is the critical issue. And that's what we're going to learn from the simulation exercise: which are the gaps, what are the holes, and how do we really breach them when it really strikes."

For the past three days, the hospital where Putu Arini's husband was taken has looked like the set of a germ-warfare movie. Medics clothed head to foot in white protective clothing - goggles, gloves and masks - moved like ghostly astronauts around the field hospital tents set up outside the main building.

But this is wealthy, well-connected Bali, and they have been preparing for this for months. Every event was tightly scripted, and the virus emerged in an easily-contained village. Would it look like this for real?

One of those watching the simulation was Ibu Irma from Jakarta's Centre for Disease Control. Indonesia she hinted, wasn't ready to tackle an epidemic in a city.

The simulation had to be as realistic as possible

"We've started with the simple one," she explained. "If we start with the big city? Well, I don't know."

Here at least, she said, houses had large backyards and were well-spaced. If the pandemic starts in the densely packed alleyways of Java's big cities, it could be much harder to handle.

Of course, it is the human story that grabs the headlines, but with bird flu all roads lead back to the same place - the birds that carry it.

Indonesia has been heavily criticised for not containing the virus in its poultry population - it is endemic across most of the country.

It wants to show the world it will do better should a human pandemic emerge here. And whether or not it can does not just matter here - it matters right around the world.

Source:

Mind's Limit Found: 4 Things at Once

I forget how I wanted to begin this story. That's probably because my mind, just like everyone else's, can only remember a few things at a time. Researchers have often debated the maximum amount of items we can store in our conscious mind, in what's called our working memory, and a new study puts the limit at three or four.

Working memory is a more active version of short-term memory, which refers to the temporary storage of information. Working memory relates to the information we can pay attention to and manipulate.

Early research found the working memory cut-off to be about seven items, which is perhaps why telephone numbers are seven digits long (although some early telephone dialing started with a two- or three-letter "exchange," often the first letters of a community name, followed by four or five figures, e.g. PEnnsylvania 6-5000). Now scientists think the true capacity is lower when people are not allowed to use tricks like repeating items over and over or grouping items together.

"For example, when we present phone numbers, we present them in groups of three and four, which helps us to remember the list," said University of Missouri-Columbia psychologist Nelson Cowan, who co-led the study with colleagues Jeff Rouder and Richard Morey. "That inflates the estimate. We believe we're approaching the estimate that you get when you cannot group. There is some controversy over what the real limit is, but more and more I've found people are accepting this kind of limit."

The study was published April 14 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Masters of memory

To prevent subjects from grouping or using other memory-aids, the researchers presented people with arrays of different-colored squares. The subjects were then shown an array of the same squares without the colors. Afterward, they were shown a single colored square in one location, and asked if the color matched that of the square in the same position at the beginning.

"What's nice about this visual task that they used is that it really makes it difficult to use some of those common strategies that are helpful with verbal lists," said Michael Kane, a psychologist at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, who was not involved in the new study. "I think Cowan's work has really been convincing in this."

While the average person may only be able to hold three or four things in mind at once, some people have achieved amazing feats of working memory. Contestants at the World Memory Championships (most recently held in Bahrain in September 2007) often recall hundreds of digits in order after only five minutes. But even these masters of memory seem to start with the same basic capacities as everyone else, and improve their abilities with strategies and tricks.

"A very famous study was a test done of a long-distance runner who learned to associate digits together in ways that were meaningful to him with respect to running times," Kane said. "He could repeat back lists of up to 80 digits in the right order, but if you gave him a list of words, he was at seven plus-or-minus two like everyone else."

The new working memory study builds on previous research, but provides the most rigorous mathematical test of the three- to four-item estimate, Cowan said. The team used a mathematical model that assumed people have a fixed number of slots in their working memory, each one of which can only hold one item. When those slots are filled, the model predicted, people would make random guesses. Based on this assumption, the model was able to forecast the various results of the trials with impressive accuracy.

"It is a pretty simple mathematical model but it predicted a very exquisite pattern of data," Cowan told LiveScience. "The results really were simple. With a single value of working memory capacity we could really account for all those different scenarios."

Working memory and intelligence

Although there seems to be a cap on the average number of things a person can remember at once, basic working memory capacity does vary among individuals. Interestingly, those that test well on working memory tasks also seem to do well at learning, reading comprehension and problem solving.

"People accept that intelligence seems to be related to working memory," Cowan said. "The information you can hold in your mind at one time is the information you can interrelate. If you have a better working memory we believe that your problem-solving abilities are better."

Researchers don't know what causes these variations in working-memory abilities - perhaps they are genetic, perhaps they arise from differences in early childhood environments or education.

The good news is people can improve their performance on certain working-memory tasks with training. When children practice these tasks, over time they get better. And not only do their scores on the memory tasks improve, but their scores on tests of attention and reasoning can also rise.

"The jury is still out on how useful this will be, but it's at least suggestive that you can train skills at these tasks, and that this improvement can affect other things," Kane said. "We don't know quite how they work together, but attention and working memory seem to be very close cousins."

It's all in there

Researchers debate the relationship between working memory and long-term memory. While some hold that the two are independent storage facilities, others say working memory is simply the part of long-term memory that we can currently access.

Many scientists believe that almost all of our experiences are encoded into long-term memory, and that forgetting is simply a matter of not being able to access that memory.

"It's in there somewhere, the problem is just getting to it," Cowan said. "Everything gets encoded into long-term memory almost immediately, but it gets encoded in a way that may not be distinct enough to be retrieved."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20080428/sc_livescience/mindslimitfound4thingsatonce

Hackers warn high street chains

High street chains will be the next victims of cyber terrorism, some of the world's elite hackers have warned.

They claim it is only a "matter of time" before the likes of Tesco and Marks & Spencer are targeted.

Criminals could use the kind of tactics which crippled Estonia's government and some firms last year, they warned.

The experts were members of the infamous "Hackers Panel" which convened in London this week at the InfoSecurity Europe conference.

The panel includes penetration testers and so-called "white hat" hackers, who help companies tighten up their digital security by searching for flaws in their defences.

Previous panellists include Gary McKinnon, known as Solo, alleged by the US government to have hacked into dozens of US Army, Navy, Air Force, and Department of Defense computers.

The "hackers" usually remain anonymous, "for security reasons", but this year's panellists agreed to break cover.

Notorious hacker Gary McKinnon has previously taken part in the panel

Common cause

First up was Roberto Preatoni, the founder of the cyber crime monitoring site, Zone-H, and WabSabiLabi, a trading site for security researchers.

His appearance came just a few months after he was arrested by Italian authorities on charges of hacking and wiretapping, as part of the ongoing investigation into the Telecom Italia scandal.

Mr Preatoni told the audience that the attacks in Estonia were a harbinger for a new era of cyber warfare.

"I'm afraid we will have to get used to this," said Mr Preatoni, also known as SyS64738. "We had all been waiting for this kind of attack to happen.

"Estonia was just unfortunate to be the first country to experience it. But very soon, our own [western] companies and countries will be getting attacked for political and religious reasons.

"This kind of attack can happen at any time. And it will happen."

During the two week "cyber war" against Estonia, hackers shut down the websites of banks, governments and political parties using "denial-of-service" (DoS) attacks, which knock websites offline by swamping servers with page requests.

As many of the attacks originated from Russia, the Estonian government pointed the finger at the Kremlin. But Mr Preatoni said that, having spoken to contacts in the hacking community, he was clear that "Putin was not involved".

"In my opinion, this was a collection of private individuals who spontaneously gathered under the same flag.

"Even though Estonia is one of the world's most advanced countries in IT technology, the whole economy was brought to its knees.

"That's the beauty of asymmetric warfare. You don't need a lot of money, or an army of people. You can do it from the comfort of your living room, with a beer in your hand.



Gate control

His warning was echoed by Steve Armstrong, who teaches seminars in hacking techniques, at the SANS Institute for information security training.

"If someone wants to have a pop at the UK, they are unlikely to go for the government web servers. They will go for the lower hanging fruit - companies which are seen as good representatives of the country.

"The likes of Tesco, Marks & Spencer and B&Q can be seen as legitimate targets.

"We have to get the message across to companies [to invest in information security].

"At the moment Chief Executives are only interested in the bottom line. But remember - if tesco.com goes down, that's a lot of shopping."

Mr Preatoni said that the Estonian government's repeated failure to thwart the attacks was proof that we still have "no good solutions" for denial of service attacks.

The panellists then argued over whether Internet Service Providers should do more to tighten security, by helping customers' protect their computers from being "zombified" by hackers for use in distributed DoS attacks.

"Actually, I don't think the ISPs should have any role in security," said Preatoni.

"In my opinion, that's like asking the Royal Mail to be responsible for the quality of your post."

But his view was immediately challenged by the third panellist, Jason Creasey, head of research at the independent Information Security Forum.

"I believe ISPs can play a phenomenal role in security, with a little bit of legal pressure," he claimed.

Net weakness

He was backed by an audience member, Angus Pinkerton, of Lynks Security Consulting. "The only way to defend against a distributed attack is with a distributed defence," he argued.

"I think it's unacceptable that ISPs are content to let their customers be part of bot-nets."

He challenged Steve Armstrong's view that asking ISPs to perform security duties was "fundamentally, censorship."

"This is not about free speech," said Mr Pinkerton. "Free speech does not entitle you to shout fire in a crowded theatre."

In the meantime, Mr Preatoni warned the audience it is "only going to get easier" to carry out a DoS attack, because he claimed the latest net address system, known as Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6), is actually more amenable to DoS.

Later, he told the BBC that the rise in cyber attacks originating in China was a convenient cloak for western countries to disguise their own cyber espionage activities.

"It's too easy to blame China," he said. "In fact, legitimate countries are bouncing their attacks through China. It's very easy to do, so why not?

"My evil opinion is that some western governments are already doing this."

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7366995.stm

Web 2.0 debates internet's future

San Francisco's Web 2.0 Expo conference brought together thousands of people responsible for crafting the future direction of the internet, and the world of applications - or apps - was front and centre.

Opening up internet programming was a central theme of Web 2.0

Everyone from Microsoft to Yahoo to MySpace was on a mission to woo developers to create exciting applications for their devices.

Jennifer Pahlka of Techweb, one of the conference's co-chairs, said the carrot these big Silicon Valley companies were dangling to entice developers to get involved was that of openness and allowing people to devise programmes without constraints.

"Yahoo was talking about opening up advertising platforms, Mozilla was talking about opening up the mobile web and John Zittrain from Oxford University was talking about openness to drive innovation and creativity so we don't go into this closed system where every application has to be approved by someone else," said Ms Pahlka.

"So I think open versus closed and who gets to define what is open and what isn't is a big theme that dominated the week at Web 2.0."

Throwing down the gauntlet

For Charlene Li, principal analyst at Forrester Research, this over-arching principle of openness was at the heart of two of the week's major announcements.

"I think the combination of Microsoft's Live Mesh and the Yahoo! Open Strategy are throwing down the gauntlet to everybody else to open up as well," he said.

Live Mesh aims to synchronise and unite a multiplicity of devices and applications online.

Yahoo! Open Strategy is about stitching together its online services under the social profile concept for ultimate access.

Ms Li told BBC News: "All this then says that whoever has the best experience, if I can make your connection to the web better than anyone else, you will be loyal to me."

Web 2.0 intersection

The point of delivery was a hot topic throughout the Web 2.0 conference and the focus was undoubtedly on the mobile web.

Mozilla's chairwoman Mitchell Baker is banking on the Firefox browser as being one of the more important platforms for developers who are working on mobile devices.

"I think that Web 2.0 is at an intersection and the software on which it is based and the involvement of Mozilla demonstrates that by being open and allowing interoperability you get more innovative and better efforts," she said.

For the last six months, Firefox has been working on a browser that operates on mobiles and the organisation is already testing its prototype, she said.

To some degree, that takes care of the here and right now, but turning to the next stage in the world of the internet, at Web 2.0 chatter about Web 3.0 was bubbling under the surface.

While largely thought of as the semantic web - where machines understand what is being written - not everyone at this conference was ready to embrace Web 3.0.

Forrester analyst Josh Bernoff described it as "a load of baloney".

"It just shows people can count and it's some piece of marketing flim-flam dreamed up by companies pushing their products," he said.

Opening up

Dean Takahashi of Venture Beat said if you want to find out what the next big thing is, follow the big money.

For the moment that is not happening in the so-called world of Web 3.0.

"The semantic web is a longer term play and so far I don't see highly valued companies popping up there," said Mr Takahashi.

"They are all start ups digging the earth right now and their pay-off will maybe come later."

For the moment, Mr Takahashi said the venture capital landscape is being dominated by the mobile world, social networks and applications.

With a plethora of companies embracing open social networks and the demand for applications increasing, this, he said, is where there real growth will be.

"Starting a plain old application company for something like Facebook, that's like a one or two person company," said Mr Takahashi.

"What you are going to see is other businesses acquiring those small app companies so that they can have a big collection of Facebook apps that will eventually be worth something.

"That's potentially where the money will be."

Get connected

For the moment, Jennifer Pahlka advised users to enjoy the ride that is Web 2.0.

"There is still a really long way to go with Web 2.0," she said.

People were still trying to find ways of "exploiting all those principles of collective intelligence", she added.

"The fundamental aspect of what is gong on just now is more personal and that resonates more with me than the semantic web," said Ms Pahlka.

"I am just more interested in applications that connect me with other people than with a computer that says it can understand what I just wrote."

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7368387.stm

Playboy cushion robbery in France

A goods train in southern France has been attacked by robbers who made off with cushions bearing the Playboy logo.


The attack happened in the northern suburbs of Marseille, the regional newspaper La Provence reports.

It says the thieves blocked the track with sleepers, causing the 700m (760-yard) train to screech to a halt, and forced open a number of containers.

Apart from the Playboy cushions, police said it was not clear what else was taken. The train driver was not harmed.

The car used in the robbery was later found burnt.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7368978.stm

Massive gunbattles break out in Tijuana; 13 dead, 9 wounded

TIJUANA, Mexico - Massive gunbattles broke out between suspected drug traffickers who fired at each other while speeding down heavily populated streets of this violent border city early Saturday, killing 13 people and wounding nine.

All of the dead were believed to be drug traffickers, possibly rival members of the same cartel who were trying to settle scores, said Rommel Moreno, the attorney general of Baja California state, where Tijuana is located.

"Evidently this is a confrontation between gangs," Moreno told reporters.

Eight suspects and one federal police officer were injured in the pre-dawn shootings, none gravely, said Agustin Perez Aguilar, a spokesman for the state public safety department. The suspects are being held on suspicion of weapons possession among other possible charges.

Police recovered 21 vehicles, many with bullet holes or U.S. license plates; a total of 54 guns; and more than 1,500 spent shell casings at various points in the city where the battles broke out, Perez Aguilar said.

At one point, the alleged traffickers fired at one another as their sport utility vehicles sped down a busy six-lane boulevard lined with restaurants, car repair shops, medical offices and strip malls.

Bullet holes could be seen in the walls of a factory building and on the perimeter wall of a housing complex along the road, but no bystander deaths were reported. It was not clear how long the gunbattles lasted.

A mall security guard who did not want to give his name for fear of reprisals said he heard hundreds of gunshots fired, some of which passed near him.

"I hit the ground," the guard said. When he got up again, he said he saw bullet holes in the wall behind him, a dead man lying in a pool of blood and 11 abandoned, bullet-ridden SUVs on the street.

The first shootout claimed seven victims. Three subsequent gunbattles — one outside a hospital — claimed five more, police said. The body of a man police believe to be the 13th victim turned up at a city hospital.

Tijuana, a sprawling metropolis just across the border from San Diego, California, is pervaded by frequent violence, much of it blamed on drug cartels battling for control of lucrative trafficking routes. The city is home to the Arellano-Felix drug cartel.

In January, eight people died in a gunbattle at a Tijuana safe-house apparently used by drug hit men to hold kidnapped rivals. In that confrontation, hit men holed up inside the house battled police and soldiers with automatic weapons for three hours.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080427/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/mexico_tijuana_shootout

Reno urged to prepare for worse as earthquakes continue

RENO, Nev. - Scientists urged residents of northern Nevada's largest city to prepare for a bigger event as the area continued rumbling Saturday after the largest earthquake in a two-month-long series of temblors.

More than 100 aftershocks were recorded on the western edge of the city after a magnitude 4.7 quake hit Friday night, the strongest quake around Reno since one measuring 5.2 in 1953, said researchers at the seismological laboratory at the University of Nevada, Reno.

The latest quake swept store shelves clean, cracked walls in homes and dislodged rocks on hillsides, but there were no reports of injuries or widespread major damage.

Seismologists said the recent activity is unusual because the quakes started out small and continue to build in strength. The normal pattern is for a main quake followed by smaller aftershocks.

"A magnitude 6 quake wouldn't be a scientific surprise," John Anderson, director of the seismological lab, said Saturday. "We certainly hope residents are taking the threat seriously after last night."

But Anderson stressed there was no way to predict what would happen, and said the sequence of quakes also could end without a major one.

Reno's last major quake measured 6.1 on April 24, 1914, and was felt as far away as Berkeley, Calif., said Craig dePolo, research geologist with the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology.

A rockslide triggered by Friday night's quake was blamed for causing a 125-foot breach in a wooden flume that carries water to one of two water treatment plants in Reno, a city of about 210,000.

A backup pump was used to divert water to the plant, and the breach was not expected to cause any water shortages, said Aaron Kenneston, Washoe County emergency management officer.

The U.S. Geological Survey said Friday night's quake was centered around Mogul, just west of Reno. The area of upscale homes along the eastern Sierra was rattled by more than 100 quakes the day before, the strongest a magnitude 4.2 that caused high-rise casinos to sway in downtown Reno.

The strongest aftershock measured 3.7 and was recorded early Saturday.

Mike Lentini of Reno said Friday night's quake felt "like a big truck hit the building" and awakened his family.

"It's the unknown. It's shaking, and when's it going to stop?" he said Saturday. "And when stuff starts falling off the shelves it's a whole other ballgame."

Jars of mayonnaise and bottles of ketchup and shampoo fell from shelves at a Wal-Mart store in northwest Reno. Overhead televisions swayed at a sports bar in neighboring Sparks, 11 miles east, where bartender Shawn Jones said the rumble was significantly stronger than Thursday's event.

"The bottles were shaking, so I sent everybody outside," he said.

Hundreds of mostly minor quakes have occurred along one or possibly more faults since the sequence began Feb. 28, said Ken Smith, a seismologist at the Reno laboratory. The quakes have occurred along an area about 2 miles long and a half-mile wide.

"We can't put a number on it, but the probability of a major earthquake has increased with this sequence," Smith said Saturday. "People need to prepare for ground shaking because there's no way to say how this will play out."

Among other things, scientists urged residents to stock up on water and food, to learn how to turn off water and gas, and to strap down bookshelves, televisions and computers.

"It's getting a little bit frightening," Daryl DiBitonto of Reno told the Reno Gazette-Journal. "I'm very concerned about this increase in not only activity, but also in magnitude."

The quakes around Reno began a week after a magnitude 6 temblor in the northern Nevada town of Wells, near the Utah border. The Feb. 21 quake caused an estimated $778,000 in damage to homes, schools and historic downtown buildings, dePolo said.

Scientists said they're unsure whether the seismic activity at opposite sides of Nevada is related.

Nevada is the third most seismically active state in the U.S. behind California and Alaska. The Wells quake was the 15th of at least magnitude 6 in the state's 143-year history.

A magnitude-7.4 quake south of Winnemucca in 1915 is the most powerful in state history.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080426/ap_on_re_us/reno_earthquake

America's Worst-Selling Housing Markets

Miami-area home sellers looking to unload their properties might want to make sure they have comfortable couches.

It looks like they're going to be there a while.

That's because Miami tops our list of the nation's most sedentary housing markets. These 10 spots feature a potent mix of dropping prices and sluggish sales rates. Also on the list: Denver, San Diego, Baltimore and Chicago.

In compiling our list, we looked at price growth and sales rates in the country's 40 largest metropolitan statistical areas. We took the cities in the midst of year-over-year price declines, based on National Association of Realtors data, then calculated how quickly these cities are shedding inventory from their peaks, which occurred between four and six months ago, based on data from ZipRealty, an aggregator of multiple listing service data. Atlanta, a likely contender for the top ten, was not considered due to irregularities in inventory reporting.

By using sales rate, instead of the months remaining of inventory, we wind up with a figure that shows how quickly homes have been leaving the market from its most saturated point, the most straightforward indicator for measuring sedentary vs. active sales.

In Chicago, for example, where the median home sale price in the fourth quarter of 2007 was $261,000, a 2.6% drop from the previous year, there were 72,842 homes on the market, with 2.2% of them selling each month.

While this sales rate alone isn't extraordinary, it matters because Chicago's housing supply is overstocked, with 50% more houses on the market than two years ago. Prices, as a result, are continuing to sink.
Behind The Numbers

It's important to note that housing markets never contract to zero inventory. Their inventory cushions also differ. From 2002 to 2006, New York had an average unsold inventory rate of 1.7%. But another healthy market during that time, Charlotte, N.C., maintained a 2.9% unsold housing inventory rate.

"Every market is a little bit different," says Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel, a Manhattan-based real estate appraisal company. "But while faster sales don't necessarily mean a bottom is around the corner, it is a significant reversal." That's because prices typically go up after inventory goes down.

Another important point is that the country's most sedentary housing markets are not the ones with free-falling prices.

Some of the country's more active markets are Las Vegas and Sacramento, Calif., where houses are moving off the listing pages at monthly rates of 3.4% and 4.2%, respectively, from their peak inventory gluts.

But both those markets were dramatically overbuilt during the boom, and sales are largely a result of homeowners slashing prices. In Sacramento, 50% of area homes have been marked down from their original listing prices; it’s 48% in Las Vegas, according to ZipRealty.

Chicago-area sales are more sluggish, but even though prices have declined (they are down 2.6% for the year), they're nowhere near the double-digit falls seen in Las Vegas and Sacramento.

The markets that are really in trouble are those in Florida, which have experienced all the overbuilding and lending problems of Las Vegas and Sacramento but are experiencing flat sales. In September 2007 in Orlando, No. 2 on our list, there were 35,365 homes on the market. Since then, available inventory has shrunk at the excruciatingly slow monthly rate of 0.6% per month. It's the same story in Miami, where homes have been selling at an underwhelming rate of 0.2% per month.

Miller says there's generally a three to six month lag between when a city starts putting a serious dent into its inventory and when prices start to improve.

For these 10 markets, that moment can't come soon enough.

Found at: http://promo.realestate.yahoo.com/promo/americas-worst-selling-housing-markets.html

High-calorie diet linked to boys

A woman's diet around the time of conception may influence the gender of her baby, research suggests.

The study suggests a high-calorie diet at this time - and regular breakfasts - might increase the odds of a boy.

The researchers say the modern trend to opt for low calorie diets might explain why the proportion of boys is falling in developed countries.

The study, by the Universities of Exeter and Oxford, appears in the Royal Society journal Biological Sciences.

The study focused on 740 first-time pregnant mothers in the UK, who were asked to provide records of their eating habits before and during the early stages of pregnancy.


Influencing a baby's sex

The researchers found 56% of women with the highest energy intake around the time of conception had boys, compared to just 45% among women with the lowest energy intake.

The average calorie intake for women who had sons was 2,413 a day, compared to 2,283 calories a day for women who had girls.

Women who had sons were also more likely to have eaten a higher quantity and wider range of nutrients, including potassium, calcium and vitamins C, E and B12.

They were also more likely to have eaten breakfast cereals.

Fewer boys

Over the last 40 years there has been a small but consistent decline, of about one per 1,000 births annually, in the proportion of boys being born in industrialised countries, including the UK.

Previous research has also shown a reduction in the average energy intake in the developed world, and there is also evidence that more people now skip breakfast.

Scientists already know that in many animals, more males are produced when a mother has plentiful resources or is high ranking.

The phenomenon has been most extensively studied in invertebrates, but is also seen in horses, cows and some species of deer.

The explanation is thought to lie with the evolutionary drive to produce descendants.

Lead researcher Dr Fiona Mathews said: "Potentially, males of most species can father more offspring than females, but this can be strongly influenced by the size or social status of the male, with poor quality males failing to breed at all.

"Females, on the other hand, reproduce more consistently.

"If a mother has plentiful resources then it can make sense to invest in producing a son because he is likely to produce more grandchildren than would a daughter.

"However, in leaner times having a daughter is a safer bet."

Glucose levels

It is known from IVF research that high levels of glucose encourage the growth and development of male embryos while inhibiting female embryos.

In humans, skipping breakfast depresses glucose levels and so may be interpreted by the body as indicating poor environmental conditions and low food availability.

Dr Allan Pacey, an expert in fertility at the University of Sheffield, said there was good evidence that nature had subtle ways of changing the sex ratio of a population in response to a variety of circumstances.

However, he said: "I would urge women to not to start starving themselves in order to try influence the sex of their baby.

"It has been observed in some animal studies that even small changes in female diet can affect the life long health of the offspring, so it is important that the mother has appropriate nutrition at the time of conception and throughout her pregnancy."

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7358384.stm

Can you influence a baby's sex?

There are a variety of theories about influencing the sex of a baby.

But do they have any scientific merit or are they just old wives' tales?

Recent polls are clear. Many parents, given the chance, would love to influence the sex of their baby.

Four out of 10 say they would like to choose whether they have a boy or girl, with one in five even claiming they would pay £1,000 for the opportunity.

But why are parents so obsessed about it?

Annette Briley, a consultant midwife at Tommy's baby charity, believes it is linked to the ever-shrinking size of the family unit.

She points out whereas it was not uncommon for the post-war generation to have four or five children, most parents now opt for just two.

Control

"When our grandparents were having lots of children, there was always a good chance that they would have a mix of boys and girls.

"But now we have fewer that is not so likely.

"I guess it is also related to the nature of our society where we have so much control and I think that extends to choosing the make-up of our family."

And for couples wanting to influence their child's sex, there is no shortage of advice.

Fertility doctors already have the know-how to be able to decide the sex of a baby through embryo selection, but that is banned in the UK except for medical reasons.


There is very little scientific evidence that any of these lifestyle factors really have an impact
Dr Simon Fishel, fertility expert

As a result, parents are left to sift through a selection of what some dub old wives' tales.

Many of them relate to the environment of the vagina at the time of sex.

The theory goes that male sperm struggle more than female sperm in the naturally acidic conditions.

In the 1980s, douching, flooding the vagina with an alkaline solution such as baking soda before sex, was used.

This environment theory has also been used to lend support to the suggestion sexual positions can influence the reproduction process.

Since the vagina is known to be less acidic closer to the cervix, it has been claimed that having sex with the woman on top or the man behind, during which penetration is deeper, is more likely to lead to a boy.

Another theory is that as X-chromosome carrying sperm, which produce females, live longer, but swim slower than their Y-chromosome - male-producing - counterparts, it may increase the odds of a girl by having sex several days before ovulation and then abstaining so that the male sperm die.

This certainly seems to have gained some credence in the 21st century if the booming sales of ovulation sticks are anything to go by.

And then there is diet. Previous research has suggested potassium, found in the likes of meat and bananas, helps Y-chromosome sperm thrive, while the magnesium in nuts, soya beans and green leafy vegetables is good for X-chromosome sperm.

The latest study takes this a step further, suggesting a high calorie diet increases the odds of a boy.

But despite some parents swearing by these techniques, experts remain unconvinced.

Odds

Dr Simon Fishel, a leading fertility doctor and head of the CAREfertility group of clinics, said: "There is very little scientific evidence that any of these lifestyle factors really have an impact. At most they will only alter the odds slightly.

"But that is not to say people don't believe them. I get one or two emails each month with parents asking me about how they can have a boy or a girl.

"In the end I don't think we should decry this too much as long as every child is loved and cherished."

And no matter how silly some of these techniques seem, spare a thought for the French in the 18th century.

It was widely believed that if a man tied off his left testicle, a boy would be more likely.

The theory was based on the mistaken belief that sperm from each testicle were sex-specific.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7362541.stm

Dull jobs really do numb the mind

Boring jobs turn our mind to autopilot, say scientists - and it means we can seriously mess up some simple tasks.

Monotonous duties switch our brain to "rest mode", whether we like it or not, the researchers report in Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences.

They found mistakes can be predicted up to 30 seconds before we make them, by patterns in our brain activity.

The team hopes to design an early-warning brain monitor for pilots and others in "critical situations".

The scientists say the device would be particularly suitable for monotonous jobs where focus is hard to maintain - such as passport and immigration control.

Mistakes 'foreshadowed'

"We might be able to build a device (that could be placed) on the heads of people that makes these easy decisions," said Dr Eichele, of the University of Bergen, Norway.

"We can measure the signal and give feedback to the user that your brain is in the state where your decisions are not going to be the right one."

headset for EEG
Headsets could be designed to offer "early warning" of mistakes

In the study, Dr Eichele and his colleagues asked participants to repeatedly perform a "flanker task" - an experiment in which individuals must quickly respond to visual clues.

As they did so, brain scans were performed using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

They found the participants' mistakes were "foreshadowed" by a particular pattern of brain activity.

"To our surprise, up to 30 seconds before the mistake we could detect a distinct shift in activity," said Dr Stefan Debener, of Southampton University, UK.

"The brain begins to economise, by investing less effort to complete the same task.

"We see a reduction in activity in the prefrontal cortex. At the same time, we see an increase in activity in an area which is more active in states of rest, known as the Default Mode Network (DMN)."

Workplace safety

This is not a sign of the brain going to sleep, says Debener.

"Autopilot would be a better metaphor," he explains. "We can assume that the tendency to economise task performance leads to an inappropriate reduction of effort, thus causing errors."

plane at air traffic control tower
Device could help pilots and air traffic controllers maintain focus

Since this state begins about 30 seconds prior to a mistake being made, it could be possible to design an early-warning system that alerts people to be more focused or more careful, said the researchers.

That could significantly improve workplace safety and also improve performance in key tasks, such as driving, analysis of X-rays, or airport security screening.

But MRI scanners are neither portable enough nor fast enough to be practical for these real life scenarios, so the next step is to see if more mobile EEG devices are able to detect the phenomenon.

A prototype of a wireless, mobile, and lightweight EEG amplifier is currently in development and could be ready for the market in "10 to 15 years", says Dr Debener, who is based at the MRC Institute of Hearing Research, at Royal South Hants Hospital.

"But first, we must establish what is causing these mistakes," he adds.

"We do not know whether the change in brain activity we see has a causal link to the mistakes. After we establish that, we can try to develop monitoring devices."

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7358863.stm

US military recruits more ex-cons

The US Army and Marine Corps recruited significantly more people with criminal records last year than in 2006, amid pressure to meet combat needs.

Statistics released by a congressional committee show 861 people were granted waivers to enlist, up from 457 in 2007.

The crimes included assault, sex crimes, manslaughter and burglary.

The Army says waivers are only granted after careful review and are in response to the challenges of recruiting in a changing society.

The number of people granted waivers are just a small fraction of the more than 180,000 people who entered active duty in the armed forces during the fiscal year that ended in September 2007.

But the perceived lowering of standards is causing concern in some quarters.

"The significant increase in the recruitment of persons with criminal records is a result of the strain put on the military by the Iraq war," said Democratic Representative Henry Waxman.

Mr Waxman chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that released the figures drawn up by the US Department of Defense.

These show that:

* The Army granted 511 felony waivers in 2007, up from 249 the year before

* Some 350 people with convictions joined the Marine Corps, up from 208 in 2006

* The Navy actually recruited fewer people with convictions, down from 48 to 42

* The Air Force did not recruit anyone with a felony conviction

Among the convictions, many were for stealing, including burglary and car thefts, and drug offences.

Waivers were also granted to three people convicted of manslaughter, nine guilty of sex crimes, and nine convicted of making terror threats, including bomb threats.

In addition, the Army and Marine Corps granted 27,671 "conduct waivers" covering what are regarded as serious misdemeanours , up from 25,098 in 2006.

Pentagon officials say that the need to recruit troops for continuing operations abroad, low unemployment at home, and declining interest in serving pose a challenge.

"We're digging deeper into the barrel than we were before," an official told the Washington Post.

The Army also argues that its ranks reflect the society they are drawn from.

Only three in 10 Americans of military age meet the army's medical, moral, aptitude, or administrative requirements, army officials point out.

"We're growing the army fast, and there are some waivers - we know that," said Army Lt Gen James Thurman, deputy chief of staff for operations.

"It hasn't alarmed us yet."

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7360157.stm

Ovary problem 'may aid athletes'

A common cause of menstrual disorders in women may offer a significant advantage to some athletes, according to a Swedish scientist.

Some leading female athletes have either no periods or irregular periods, normally thought to be due to tough training regimes and restricted diets.

But in some cases polycystic ovary syndrome may be the cause, said Magnus Hagmar, of the Karolinska Institute.

This raises male sex hormone levels and may help sufferers in sport, he said.

Many women have polycystic ovaries without any outward symptoms, although it can lower fertility and cause problems such as excess body hair and acne.

Power sports

While the precise cause is unknown, there seems to be a genetic link to the condition.

Mr Hagmar, from the Karolinska Institute, believes that having polycystic ovaries could explain some of the menstrual disorders found in "elite athletes".

He found polycystic ovaries were much more common in athletes training for the Olympics compared with the average woman - 37% of the athletes had them, compared with one in five women in the general population.


What we're dealing with is just a tiny increase in levels, which can make it easier for the women to build muscle mass and absorb oxygen
Magnus Hagmar
Karolinska Institute, Sweden
Polycystic ovaries were also more common in "power sports" such as ice hockey and wrestling, compared with technical sports such as archery or curling.

This could mean that the slight increase in production of the male sex hormone testosterone which accompanies polycystic ovaries is offering a competitive advantage.

He said: "What we're dealing with is just a tiny increase in levels, which can make it easier for the women to build muscle mass and absorb oxygen.

"This means that they might have got quicker results from their training and therefore been encouraged to train harder and more often."

Stronger bones

He said the results suggested a smaller influence for the conventional view that links eating disorders and heavy training with the loss of periods and an increase in brittle bone risk caused by the suppression of female hormones, as none of the athletes he tested had weak bones.

However, Professor Stephen Franks, an expert on reproductive biology from Imperial College London, said that while the research was "interesting", it did not offer proof that polycystic ovaries were a significant factor in menstrual disorders in athletes.

"It's pretty well established that, at least in endurance athletes, such as marathon runners, menstrual disorders are related to the effect of heavy exercise on the pituitary gland.

"It is possible that in 'power' sports that women who generally have slightly higher levels of testosterone may be better off."

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7354882.stm

DNA tests on Texas sect children

A Texas judge has ordered that 416 children, removed from a polygamous breakaway Mormon sect by police, remain in state custody for genetic testing.

Welfare officers had told the judge they had been unable to determine which parents the children were related to.

The ruling comes after officials said some of the girls may have had babies when they were just 13 years old.

The closed community was first raided amid reports that a 16-year-old girl was physically and sexually abused.

Detectives are looking for evidence of a marriage between the girl and a 50-year-old man.

She is reported to have been beaten and raped by her older husband and to be pregnant again eight months after giving birth to her first child when she was 15.

The legal age of sexual consent in Texas is 17.

The girl has not yet been identified, but all children living on the isolated Yearning for Zion ranch aged between six months and 17 years of age were placed in emergency state custody.


'Persecution'

The adults in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) group, which broke away from the mainstream Mormon Church more than a century ago when polygamy was banned, say they are being persecuted for their religious beliefs.

Church built at the FLDS's compound in Texas (2005)
The sect has built a large church at the Yearning For Zion ranch

Members believe a man must marry at least three wives in order to ascend to heaven. Women are taught that their path to heaven depends on being subservient to their husband.

Group members live in large extended families, and the sect has been accused of forcing young girls into polygamous marriages, a claim it denies.

Child protection officials said group members were evasive when questioned, making it hard to determine exact parenthood, and that DNA testing was necessary.

'Indoctrination'

Child Protective Services supervisor Angie Voss, testifying in Friday's custody hearing, told the court there was a "culture of young girls being pregnant by older men" at the YFZ ranch.

Ms Voss said the girls were in danger of sexual abuse and the boys were being "groomed" to become perpetrators, AFP news agency reports.

An expert on children in cults told the court that the girls may have believed that marrying much older men was their free choice because they had been raised in that belief.

"Obedience is a very important part of their belief system," said Bruce Perry.

Although many of the adults and children at the YFZ ranch seemed emotionally healthy, the sect's belief system was "abusive", he added.

"The culture is very authoritarian."

Polygamy is illegal in the US, but the authorities have reportedly been reluctant to confront the FLDS for fear of sparking a tragedy similar to the 1993 siege of the Branch Davidian sect in Waco, Texas, which led to the deaths of about 80 members.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7355779.stm

Villages 'discovered' in DR Congo

Hundreds of villagers are helping to map parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo where thick forest and conflict have prevented effective mapping.

So far about 190 villages have been found in one area of Bandundu province where old maps show only 30, UK-based charity The Rainforest Foundation says.

Most maps are produced from satellite images taken from above, but this project is using handheld GPS units.

The map is intended to aid post-war planning and timber permit allocations.

A five-year conflict in DR Congo ended in 2003.


Resource-rich

"In one of the sectors of the territory that the groups are mapping at the moment, there are something like 190 villages but on the official map there are about 30," Cath Long of the Rainforest Foundation which is organising the project told the BBC's Network Africa.

She said millions of Congolese depend on the forest for their existence.

"The real worry is that permits to cut timber, permits to extract resources will be given to external companies without recognising the fact that people are already there and already using the forest," she said.

The charity hopes the map will be ready for a government meeting in May on forest and land.

The government has already allocated parts of the territory to 11 logging concessions, it says.

DR Congo is home to one of the word's largest rainforests and has huge reserves of gold, diamonds, copper and coltan, used to make mobile phones.

Correspondents say these riches have been a key factor in the civil wars, instability and bad government the country has known since independence.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7355335.stm

Bank to detail £50bn bonds plan

The Bank of England is to announce details later of a plan to help prevent the credit crisis causing more damage to the UK banking system and economy.

Banks will be given the chance to swap their mortgages for about £50bn worth of government bonds to enable them to operate during the credit squeeze.

Ministers hope the plan will alleviate problems in the mortgage markets.

BBC business editor Robert Peston said the move could be seen as a "U-turn" by the usually conservative lender.

'Ambitious plan'

Our correspondent said under the scheme banks would be allowed to swap their mortgages for government securities.

He said the scheme could be the world's most generous plan to pump money into the banking system.

This was especially so because the Bank of England was regarded as more conservative in its financial support for banks than the Federal Reserve in the US and the European Central Bank, he added.

The Bank is expected to say later that it expects around £50bn of these securities to be issued to banks in the first instance, but that it would be prepared to provide more help if required.

On Sunday, Chancellor Alistair Darling said that without the Bank of England's intervention, there was "every chance" the UK's financial crisis would get worse.

He confirmed the Bank would be setting up a scheme to help banks operate during the credit squeeze but insisted the loans would have to be paid back.

Sub-prime problems

Mr Darling will reveal the full details of the rescue plan to MPs in the House of Commons after the announcement by the Bank.

British banks have become increasingly unwilling to lend to one another as a result of the credit crisis, which was sparked by massive losses for banks who lent in the US sub-prime sector.

Many investors, concerned about what happened to sub-prime mortgages in the US, no longer want UK mortgage-based assets and the disappearance of this market has deprived banks of tens of billions of pounds of finance for mortgage lending.

It is one of the main reasons why the cost of mortgages for many homeowners has been rising, even though the Bank of England has been cutting its base lending rate.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7357880.stm

Is it her genes? Oldest known person turns 115 on Sunday

SHELBYVILLE, Ind. - Maybe it was a lifetime of chores on the family farm that accounts for Edna Parker's long life. Or maybe just good genes explain why the world's oldest known person will turn 115 on Sunday, defying staggering odds.

Scientists who study longevity hope Parker and others who live to 110 or beyond — they're called supercentenarians — can help solve the mystery of extreme longevity.

"We don't know why she's lived so long," said Don Parker, her 59-year-old grandson. "But she's never been a worrier and she's always been a thin person, so maybe that has something to do with it."

On Friday, Edna Parker laughed and smiled as relatives and guests released 115 balloons into sunny skies outside her nursing home. Dressed in pearls, a blue and white polka dot dress and new white shoes, she clutched a red rose during the festivities.

Two years ago, researchers from the New England Centenarian Study at Boston University took a blood sample from Parker for the group's DNA database of supercentenarians.

Her DNA is now preserved with samples of about 100 other people who made the 110-year milestone and whose genes are being analyzed, said Dr. Tom Perls, an aging specialist who directs the project.

"They're really our best bet for finding the elusive Holy Grail of our field — which are these longevity-enabling genes," he said.

Only 75 living people — 64 women and 11 men — are 110 or older, according to the Gerontology Research Group of Inglewood, Calif., which verifies reports of extreme ages.

Parker, who was born April 20, 1893, was recognized by Guinness World Records as the oldest of that group last August after the death of a Japanese woman four months her senior.

A widow since her husband, Earl, died in 1938 of a heart attack, Parker lived alone in their farmhouse until age 100, when she moved into her son Clifford's home. She cheated death a few months later.

One winter night, Clifford and his wife returned home from a high school basketball game to find her missing. Don, their son, says he discovered his grandmother in the snowy darkness near the farm's apple orchard. He scooped up her rigid body and rushed back to the house.

"She was stiff as a 2-by-4. We really thought that was the end of her," he said.

But Parker recovered fully, suffering only frostbitten fingertips.

Fifteen years later, her room at the Heritage House Convalescent Center in Shelbyville, Ind., about 25 miles southeast of Indianapolis, is adorned with teddy bears and photos of her five grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren and 13 great-great grandchildren. She's outlived her two sons, Clifford and Earl Jr.

During a visit this week, Parker was captivated by a new album of photos and documents from her life that Don's wife, Charlene, had assembled.

"That's the boys," she said hoarsely, tapping a photo of her two late sons in their youth. "Clifford and Junior."

Her two sisters also are deceased. Georgia lived to be 99, while her sister Opal was 88 when she died.

Parker's long-lived sisters are typical of other centenarians, according to Dr. Nir Barzilai, director of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine's Institute for Aging Research in New York. Nearly all of them have a sister, mother or other relative who lived a long life, he said.

"Longevity is in the family history," Barzilai said.

He and other scientists have found several genetic mutations in centenarians that may play a role in either slowing the aging process or boosting resistance to age-related diseases.

Perls said the secret to a long life is now believed to be a mix of genetics and environmental factors such as health habits. He said his research on about 1,500 centenarians hints at another factor that may protect people from illnesses such as heart attacks and stroke — they appear not to dwell on stressful events.

"They seem to manage their stress better than the rest of us," he said.

Found at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080418/ap_on_he_me/oldest_human_research

EU push to widen US visa waiver

EU interior ministers have agreed to give the European Commission the green light to negotiate terms for visa-free travel to the US for all EU states.

EU officials have been unhappy about deals being done individually, as has already happened in some cases.

Most older EU states are already in the US visa waiver scheme, but Greece and most of the 12 newer members are not.

Access to personal data is a key issue in the talks. Since the 2001 terror attacks the US has tightened the rules.

The ministers, meeting in Luxembourg on Friday, want the Commission to address concerns that US security demands could contravene EU laws on data protection.

Washington wants access to passenger data and to the database used by EU countries in the Schengen zone of border-free travel.

Only 15 EU states are covered by the current visa-waiver scheme. They are Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK.

Citizens from Greece and 11 of the 12 newest EU states - Slovenia is the exception - need visas for travel to the US.

Source:

Action urged to keep net neutral

Tough action is required by US regulators to protect the principles that have made the net so successful, a leading digital rights lawyer has said.

Professor Lawrence Lessig was speaking at a public meeting to debate the tactics some net firms use to manage data traffic at busy times.

He said the Federal Communications Committee (FCC) should act to keep all net traffic flowing equally.

The FCC said net firms had a duty to tell customers about data management.

No more rules

The seven-hour public meeting was held at Stanford University and featured presentations from Prof Lessing, songwriters, network administrators and net engineers.

Prof Lessig said one of the principles that guided the foundation of the net was that all traffic should flow equally across it.

This principle of net neutrality, he said, was being eroded as net firms manage traffic and place restrictions on what their domestic broadband customers can do.


Consumers must be fully informed of the exact nature of the service they are purchasing
Kevin Martin, FCC

The meeting was called by the FCC in reaction to the news that US net firm Comcast had been exposed as managing traffic by stopping some of its 13m customers uploading files to BitTorrent and other peer-to-peer networks.

The FCC has started a formal investigation to see if Comcast merits a fine for its actions.

In response to the publicity surrounding its actions, Comcast has said it would change its policy.

In the UK many net firms manage traffic at peak times in a bid to ensure that everyone gets the highest broadband speed possible.

Prof Lessig said there had to be clear rules, perhaps involving financial incentives, to force net firms to respect net neutrality. Current rules, he warned, meant that many firms were tempted to manage traffic to protect profits.

At the meeting the two Democrats who sit on the five-strong FCC board said it needed new powers to make sure net firms complied with net neutrality principles.

But the two Republican commissioners on the board warned against over-burdening net firms with more rules.

Summing up, FCC chairman Kevin Martin said its net policies were powerful enough but just needed to be properly enforced.

He said there was nothing wrong with net firms managing traffic as long as they kept customers fully informed.

"There must be adequate disclosures of the particular traffic management tools," said Mr Martin. "Consumers must be fully informed of the exact nature of the service they are purchasing."

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7354133.stm