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Friday, July 26, 2013

Italian president warns against early elections

ROME (Reuters) - Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, speaking before a parliamentary confidence vote on Wednesday, warned squabbling politicians not to precipitate early elections, saying uncertainty would endanger Italy.

Italy's awkward coalition, patched together from traditional rivals, has been racked by disagreements since Napolitano pushed the center-left and center-right parties in April to rule together to end a two-month deadlock after polls in February.

"The president has the duty to warn the country and the political parties of the very serious risks and repercussions...that further destabilization and uncertainty in the political-institutional framework would bring for Italy," the 88-year-old head of state said in a letter to daily Corriere della Sera.

"I consider the frequent and easy recourse to early elections as one of the most dangerous Italian maladies," he said, referring to the endemic instability that has given Italy 64 governments since World War Two.

Napolitano, who reluctantly agreed to serve a second term as president when the parties could not agree on anybody else, has repeatedly used his power and prestige to defend the government led by center-left politician Enrico Letta against maneuvers by party factions.

Wednesday's confidence vote was called to speed up the passage of a package of growth measures and is unlikely to topple the government, but the coalition's stability is threatened by disputes over economic policy and the legal problems of center-right leader Silvio Berlusconi.

A final verdict due next week in an appeal against the former prime minister's conviction for complicity in tax fraud could bar the billionaire media tycoon from public office, with unpredictable consequences for the government.

Hawks in his center-right People of Freedom Party are urging him to force an election if he loses the appeal, but Berlusconi has so far urged moderation and caution, saying Italy needs a stable government to face the longest recession since the war.

(Reporting by Naomi O'Leary; editing by Barry Moody and Alistair Lyon)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/italian-president-warns-against-early-elections-100121648.html

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Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Shedding new light on the brightest objects in the universe

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Astrophysicists have documented the immense power of quasar radiation, reaching out for many thousands of light years to the limits of the quasar's galaxy.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/v_hQ9k6odLQ/130724200605.htm

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Spain passenger train derails, killing at least 40

Emergency personnel respond to the scene of a train derailment in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, on Wednesday, July 24, 2013. A train derailed in northwestern Spain on Wednesday night, toppling passenger cars on their sides and leaving at least one torn open as smoke rose into the air. Dozens were feared dead, with possibly even more injured. (AP Photo/ El correo Gallego/Antonio Hernandez)

A woman is evacuated by emergency personnel at the scene of a train derailment in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, on Wednesday, July 24, 2013. A train derailed in northwestern Spain on Wednesday night, toppling passenger cars on their sides and leaving at least one torn open as smoke rose into the air. Dozens were feared dead, with possibly even more injured. (AP Photo/ El correo Gallego/Antonio Hernandez)

MADRID (AP) ? A passenger train derailed Wednesday night on a curvy stretch of track in northwestern Spain, killing at least 40 people caught inside toppled cars and injuring more than 140 in the country's worst rail accident in decades, officials said.

Bodies were covered in blankets next to the tracks and rescue workers tried to get trapped people out of the train's cars, with smoke billowing from some of the wreckage. Some passengers were pulled out of broken windows, and one man stood atop a carriage lying on its side, using a pickaxe to try to smash through a window. Images showed one car pointing up into the air with one of its ends twisted and disfigured, and another severed in two.

Officials gave differing death tolls in the immediate aftermath of the crash just outside Santiago de Compostela, on the eve of the city's annual religious festival that attracts tens of thousands of Christian pilgrims from around the world.

Alberto Nunez Feijoo, president of the region of Galicia where Santiago de Compostela is the capital, said at least 40 people died. But the president of Galicia's main court, Miguel Angel Cadenas, was quoted from the scene by the Cadena Ser radio station saying 56 died. Rescue workers were still searching through the smoldering wreckage of the train's cars Thursday morning in the pre-dawn darkness.

State-owned train operator Renfe said in a statement that 218 passengers and an unspecified number of staff were on board the eight-carriage train during the 8.41 p.m. (1841 GMT) crash on a section of tracks about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) from Santiago de Compostela that came online two years ago .

Renfe and track operator Adif were cooperating with a judge who has been appointed to investigate the accident, Renfe said.

A regional Galicia health official, Rocio Mosquera, told reporters early Thursday morning that more than 140 passengers from the train had been treated at area hospitals, with their conditions ranging from light injuries to serious and some still in surgery hours after the crash.

Officials in Santiago de Compostela canceled ceremonies planned for Thursday, when Catholic pilgrims converge on the city to celebrate a festival honoring St. James, the disciple of Jesus whose remains are said to rest in a shrine. The city is the main gathering point for the faithful who make it to the end of the El Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route that has drawn Christians since the Middle Ages.

The crash happened about an hour before sunset after the train emerged from a tunnel and derailed on the curve ? sending cars flying off the tracks. At least one caught fire in a scene that Feijoo said was "Dante-esque."

"The train travelled very fast and derailed and turned over on the bend in the track," passenger Sergio Prego told Cadena Ser. "It's a disaster. I've been very lucky because I'm one of the few be able to walk out."

Another passenger, Ricardo Montero, told the radio station that "when the train reached that bend it began to flip over, many times, with some carriages ending up on top of others, leaving many people trapped below. We had to get under the carriages to get out."

Xabier Martinez, a photographer who arrived at the scene as rescue workers were removing dozens of bodies, said two injured train passengers told him they felt a strong vibration just before the train's wagons jumped the tracks.

Officials said they believed the crash was an accident but declined to offer more details, saying an investigation was under way into the cause. There was no speculation by officials that it might be a possible act of terror, like the commuter train bombing attacks in Madrid in 2004 that killed 191 people.

The train, which belongs to the state-owned Renfe company, started from Madrid and was scheduled to end its journey at El Ferrol, about 95 kilometers (60 miles) north of Santiago de Compostela. Although it was not one of Spain's highest speed bullet trains called AVEs, it was a relatively luxurious version that uses the same kind of track as Spain's fastest expresses.

It was Spain's deadliest train accident since 1972, when an accident on a track heading to the southwestern city of Seville killed 77 people, the Europa Press news agency reported. A train traveling from Madrid to the Galicia region in 1944 crashed and killed 78 people. A subway crash in the southern city of Valencia killed 43 people in 2006 and was blamed on excessive speed.

King Juan Carlos and Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy both offered their condolences to the victims in Santiago de Compostela. Rajoy, who was born in the city, announced he would visit the crash site Thursday.

___

Associated Press writer Alan Clendenning contributed to this story.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-07-24-Spain-Train%20Derailment/id-5606aa331dfe43c4818b683e88674043

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Ratlike Creature's Bizarre Backbone Baffles Scientists

The hero shrew ? a small, ratlike animal with a bizarrely strong and oddly shaped backbone ? has mystified scientists since it was first described more than 100 years ago. Now, a newly discovered species of hero shrew may help researchers piece together why the animal evolved to have such a peculiar spine and what purpose the hardy backbone serves now.

The hero shrew's unique backbone gives the animal extraordinary strength, said lead study author William Stanley, collections manager of mammals at The Field Museum in Chicago. The animal's lower back has 10 to 11 lumbar vertebrae (the bones that make up the lower spine) that jut out and interlock with one another, he added. In comparison, humans have five lumbar vertebrae between the rib cage and the pelvis that help support the weight of the body.

"The hero shrew has the most bizarre mammalian backbone in the world," Stanley told LiveScience.

For more than 100 years, the hero shrew was classified as only one species, but a new species has been discovered in central Africa that has an expanded backbone and only eight lumbar vertebrae. Although the spine appears to be slightly different from that on the original hero-shrew species, molecular evidence indicated the two are closely related, the researchers said. [In Photos: Mammals Through Time]

Where did it come from?

Regular shrews do not have the same strong backbone as the heroes do, and scientists have been unable to explain when or why the hero shrew developed such a strange spine. The newly discovered species of hero shrew could represent an evolutionary stepping stone, Stanley said.

"Often, when we see such bizarre morphology and there's nothing in between that morphological change and everything else, people hypothesize that this change happened very quickly and was very significant in a short amount of time," he explained. "Our discovery has characteristics that suggest it is a transitional form ? an intermediate between the standard shrew and the hero shrew."

Even if this discovery does not solve the hero-shrew mystery, the new species may shed light on how the animal's expanded backbone developed, Stanley said. [That's Odd! The 10 Weirdest Animal Discoveries]

Researchers are unsure precisely how strong the hero shrew's spine is, but a local resident once demonstrated the creature's unusual strength by standing and balancing on its back. When the man stepped off, the shrew reportedly walked away completely unharmed, said study co-author Lynn Robbins, a professor of biology at Missouri State University in Springfield, Mo.

"So, a 140-pound person, at least, could stand on the shrew and not damage it," Robbins told LiveScience.

A shrew's gotta eat

In the 1970s, Robbins spent time in central Africa, where hero shrews are typically found. When he was there, he tried to glean details about the animal's habitat and behavior.

Explorers first noticed the hero shrew in the eastern Congo in the early 1900s, Stanley said. At the time, local residents spoke about the animal's almost mythical status, and claimed that they wore pieces of hero-shrew fur or bone as a protective talisman when they would go into battle.

Locals told Robbins that hero shrews had been seen in swampy areas with palm trees, where the residents went to collect palm nuts. When he visited these sites, he watched as the residents pulled back the tough, leafy bases of the palm trees to gather the seeds. He hypothesizes that hero shrews use their bodies to perform similar maneuvers in order to reach the grub that's concentrated in these areas. (Previously, scientists hypothesized that the hero shrew's strong spine protects it from falling rocks or logs.)

"I describe the possibility that they use their body as a lever to push up these leaf bases, bending and prying them apart so they can access all the invertebrates and grubs there," Robbins said. "There's a large muscle attachment that goes on their head and across the spine that could explain how they can get into these tight situations and not be crushed by the pressure as they exit the feeding area."

Robbins and Stanley stress that they have no definitive proof that hero shrews feed in this way, and scientists have yet to witness the animals scavenge in the wild. Nonetheless, the scientists hope their work will inspire future studies of the peculiar creature.

On a larger scale, the new finding demonstrates how little is known about the animals that inhabit the planet, Stanley said.

"People think the age of discovery is over ? that we might discover new species of bacteria but when it comes to mammals and vertebrates, we've pretty much got it figured out," he said. "That is absolutely not the case. We are finding new species all the time."

The detailed findings of the study were published online today (July 23) in the journal Biology Letters.

Follow Denise Chow on Twitter @denisechow. Follow LiveScience @livescience, Facebook?& Google+. Original article on?LiveScience.com.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ratlike-creatures-bizarre-backbone-baffles-scientists-230916909.html

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Embassy of Japan gives Adamsu R/C school classroom block

[unable to retrieve full-text content]

Source: www.modernghana.com --- Tuesday, July 23, 2013
ASix-unit classroom block constructed for the Adamsu Roman Catholic R/C Primary School, with funds from the Embassy of Japan in Ghana, in collaboration with the Jaman South District Assembly in the Brong Ahafo Region, at a cost of GH150,000 has been inuaguration.Attached to the school block is an office for the head teacher, a staff common ... ...

Source: http://www.modernghana.com/news/477164/1/embassy-of-japan-gives-adamsu-rc-school-classroom-.html

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Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Montenegro to hold its first gay pride parade

By Agence France-Presse
Monday, July 22, 2013 20:06 EDT

Traditionally conservative Montenegro is to hold its first ever gay pride parade later this week in the coastal town of Budva, organisers said Monday.

?The first Montenegrin gay parade will be held on Wednesday, July 24, in front of the walls of Budva?s old town,? a centuries-old tourist resort on the Adriatic Coast, said Aleksandar Zekovic of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) forum Progress.

?This is a good opportunity to test political will, police capabilities and the LGBT community itself,? Zekovic told reporters.

Human Rights Minister Suad Numanovic said the government would send a representative to show its support for the event but could not confirm he would attend personally.

The LGBT forum tried to organise a gay pride parade two years ago, but eventually cancelled it blaming a lack of backing from the government.

Since then, under EU pressure, the Montenegrin government has adopted a strategy to protect the LGBT community and improve their rights.

In a highly patriarchal society, surveys show 70 percent of Montenegrins still consider homosexuality an illness, while 80 percent believe it should be kept private.

Sexual minorities are largely invisible in the tiny Adriatic state with some 650,000 inhabitants.

Gays and lesbians live in isolation, in permanent fear of hate attacks and do not trust the authorities to protect their rights.

There are few openly gay-friendly bars, restaurants and hotels and they mostly meet in private homes or in the offices of the rare NGOs that deal with gay rights.

On the coast, there are several gay beaches which are largely avoided by other visitors.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheRawStory/~3/khwBEoIsc2w/

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AP PHOTOS: Francis begins first trip home as pope

Pope Francis arrived in Rio de Janeiro to begin a weeklong visit to participate in the World Youth Day festival.

After making a no-frills flight on a charter jet from Italy on Monday, the pontiff got a rousing, and sometimes alarming, welcome on his first trip back to his home continent since becoming the leader of the Roman Catholic Church.

Throngs of people surrounded the pope's car several times as he made his way into the city from the airport, and outnumbered security officers struggled to push the surging crowds back.

While others worried about his security, Francis was all smiles, even rolling down his window in the car to wave and shake hands. He later transferred to an open vehicle for a spin through downtown on his way to an official welcoming ceremony.

Here's a gallery of images from the pope's arrival.

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AP photographers and photo editors on Twitter: http://apne.ws/15Oo6jo

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ap-photos-francis-begins-first-trip-home-pope-032446066.html

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