KATHMANDU, Dec 23 (IPS) - Just 40 kms away from the capital Kathmandu, in Thasingtole, Lalitpur District, Kalli Kumari B.K., 46, a local Dalit woman, was mercilessly beaten up. She was accused of being a 'witch', imprisoned in a shed and forced to eat her own excretaThe headmistress of a local school along with a local shaman accused her of practicing witchcraft and tortured her for two days. "They kept hitting my head and my bruises. They fed human excreta and then they took a blade out and started cutting my skin. I couldn't bear it anymore and was forced to admit that that I am a witch so they would stop giving me so much pain," said B.K. in a public forum here in Kathmandu. They let her go when she accepted that it was because of her that the village cattle was dying and signed a paper, which said that if any more animals died it was her responsibility. After being freed, she rushed to the police and filed a complaint at the area police office. For days the administration did nothing. After pressure from local rights group the police finally apprehended the local headmistress. However, the accused was let off after she paid a fine. Now she has been reinstated at the school and lives in the same village as B.K. "I live in fear, the people who tortured me are still in this village, what if they come at night and take me away again?" said B.K.
PARIS, Dec 20 (IPS) - They huddle in the doorways of buildings with their few belongings, trying to keep warm. Or they sleep in covered shopping centres, accompanied by their pets - usually dogs. Some, reluctantly, make their way to government-run shelters. These are France's homeless people (or SDFs as they're called from the French sans domicile fixe), an estimated 200,000 of whom live on the streets throughout the country. Their plight, often ignored by both officials and citizens going about their business, is now arousing concern as freezing weather sets in, blanketing the country in snow. Already one homeless man in Bordeaux has died of the cold, raising to 326 the number of people who have died this year as a consequence of living on the street, according to Les Morts de la Rue (The Dead on the Street), a collective pressure group. "It's unacceptable for people to be living on the streets and for them to be dying there," says Christophe Louis, president of the group, which comprises 40 associations working to help the homeless. "The government needs to provide long-term shelters. Temporary solutions aren't working."
Schools across France are facing revolts from students demanding the right to wear raunchy clothing banned by educators. The protests, which some observers say signals a new sexualisation of French teenage life, began at Lycée Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire in Essonne, south of Paris, where teenagers protested by coming into school for two days running in skimpy clothes. At Lycée Condorcet d'Arcachon in Gironde, 200 students recently took to the town to protest against a new dress code, which stated that students could not wear low-slung trousers, short garments or piercings. "We're at school, we don't want to feel like we are in a prison," one student said. The protest in Essonne was in retaliation to the rules imposed by a new headteacher, who banned holes in trousers and in garments above the knee. Léa Dedieu, 17, persuaded 300 of the 2,100 students to come to school wearing revealing shorts or mini-skirts for the girls and Bermuda shorts for the boys. She said the protest was intended to make a philosophical point about freedom rather than to "draw attention to ourselves".
Schools across France are facing revolts from students demanding the right to wear raunchy clothing banned by educators.
The protests, which some observers say signals a new sexualisation of French teenage life, began at Lycée Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire in Essonne, south of Paris, where teenagers protested by coming into school for two days running in skimpy clothes. At Lycée Condorcet d'Arcachon in Gironde, 200 students recently took to the town to protest against a new dress code, which stated that students could not wear low-slung trousers, short garments or piercings. "We're at school, we don't want to feel like we are in a prison," one student said.
The protest in Essonne was in retaliation to the rules imposed by a new headteacher, who banned holes in trousers and in garments above the knee.
Léa Dedieu, 17, persuaded 300 of the 2,100 students to come to school wearing revealing shorts or mini-skirts for the girls and Bermuda shorts for the boys. She said the protest was intended to make a philosophical point about freedom rather than to "draw attention to ourselves".
On the other hand, I'm all for the rights of young people to dress in skimpy and revealing clothes.
I'm only partly joking. I've used the noose argument several times with students complaining about Japanese uniform rules.
For more than 40 years, Hungary has been fighting to have the Tokaj wine region recognized as a protected designation of origin (PDO). Having battled with the Soviet Union, France and Italy, it is now in dispute with neighbouring Slovakia, which is putting up stiff resistance. The French monarch Louis XV dubbed the most famous of the Tokaji sweet wines vinum regum et rex vinorum (the wine of kings and the king of wines). Along with France's Saint-Émilion (Bordeaux) and Portugal's Alto Douro and Pico island regions (Port), the narrow 87-km long area in the Tokaj hills is one of the few wine regions to feature on the UNESCO World Heritage List--a fact which reflects Hungarian pride in the Tokaj name which it has sought to protect against forgery and imitation. Quarrel with the USSR The international career of sweet Tokaji Aszu wine, often referred to as Tokay in English, began in the 16th century when Polish merchants began exporting it on a grand scale. The Russian Tsar was extremely fond of Węgrzyn (Wegry meaning "Hungary" in Polish) and made sure he had adequate supplies by purchasing several acres of vines in the Tokaj hills and sending special convoys of Cossacks to transport casks of Tokaji to Moscow. After the Russian Revolution, these deliveries continued by train until communist nationalization of vineyards in the wake of the Second World War resulted in a diplomatic crisis, which was only resolved when the Hungarian government gave Moscow back its vineyards. Tokaji was very popular in the Kremlin: Stalin liked it almost as much as Georgian Tsinandali--which he claimed had great medicinal properties-- and his successor Nikita Khrushchev even had Tokaj vine stocks planted on the basaltic hills of Crimea, but they soon fell victim to rot and the wine bore no resemblance to the Hungarian vintage.
For more than 40 years, Hungary has been fighting to have the Tokaj wine region recognized as a protected designation of origin (PDO). Having battled with the Soviet Union, France and Italy, it is now in dispute with neighbouring Slovakia, which is putting up stiff resistance.
The French monarch Louis XV dubbed the most famous of the Tokaji sweet wines vinum regum et rex vinorum (the wine of kings and the king of wines). Along with France's Saint-Émilion (Bordeaux) and Portugal's Alto Douro and Pico island regions (Port), the narrow 87-km long area in the Tokaj hills is one of the few wine regions to feature on the UNESCO World Heritage List--a fact which reflects Hungarian pride in the Tokaj name which it has sought to protect against forgery and imitation.
Quarrel with the USSR
The international career of sweet Tokaji Aszu wine, often referred to as Tokay in English, began in the 16th century when Polish merchants began exporting it on a grand scale. The Russian Tsar was extremely fond of Węgrzyn (Wegry meaning "Hungary" in Polish) and made sure he had adequate supplies by purchasing several acres of vines in the Tokaj hills and sending special convoys of Cossacks to transport casks of Tokaji to Moscow. After the Russian Revolution, these deliveries continued by train until communist nationalization of vineyards in the wake of the Second World War resulted in a diplomatic crisis, which was only resolved when the Hungarian government gave Moscow back its vineyards. Tokaji was very popular in the Kremlin: Stalin liked it almost as much as Georgian Tsinandali--which he claimed had great medicinal properties-- and his successor Nikita Khrushchev even had Tokaj vine stocks planted on the basaltic hills of Crimea, but they soon fell victim to rot and the wine bore no resemblance to the Hungarian vintage.
In an effort to calm growing tensions with Jewish groups, the Vatican said Wednesday that Pope Benedict XVI had not moved the wartime Pope Pius XII closer to sainthood as an "act of hostility" against those who believe Pius did not do enough to stop the Holocaust. The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, issued a statement saying that the beatification process evaluated the "Christian life" of Pius, who ruled from 1939 to 1958, and not "the historical significance of his choices." Moving Pius toward sainthood "should not in any way be read as a hostile act against the Jewish people, and we hope it will not be considered an obstacle in the path of dialogue between Judaism and the Catholic Church," Father Lombardi wrote.
The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, issued a statement saying that the beatification process evaluated the "Christian life" of Pius, who ruled from 1939 to 1958, and not "the historical significance of his choices."
Moving Pius toward sainthood "should not in any way be read as a hostile act against the Jewish people, and we hope it will not be considered an obstacle in the path of dialogue between Judaism and the Catholic Church," Father Lombardi wrote.
ScienceDaily (Dec. 23, 2009) -- The use and control of fire are behavioral characteristics that distinguish humans from other animals. Now, a new study by Iowa State University anthropologist Jill Pruetz reports that savanna chimpanzees in Senegal have a near human understanding of wildfires and change their behavior in anticipation of the fire's movement.
Vervet monkeys have very human understanding of piña coladas
On the last day, they gathered for a group photo. They were videogame programmers, artists, level builders, artificial-intelligence experts. Their team was -- finally -- giving up, declaring defeat, and disbanding. So they headed down to the lobby of their building in Garland, Texas, to smile for the camera. They arranged themselves on top of their logo: a 10-foot-wide nuclear-radiation sign, inlaid in the marble floor. To videogame fans, that logo is instantly recognizable. It's the insignia of Duke Nukem 3D, a computer game that revolutionized shoot-'em-up virtual violence in 1996. Featuring a swaggering, steroidal, wisecracking hero, Duke Nukem 3D became one of the top-selling videogames ever, making its creators very wealthy and leaving fans absolutely delirious for a sequel. The team quickly began work on that sequel, Duke Nukem Forever, and it became one of the most hotly anticipated games of all time.
On the last day, they gathered for a group photo. They were videogame programmers, artists, level builders, artificial-intelligence experts. Their team was -- finally -- giving up, declaring defeat, and disbanding. So they headed down to the lobby of their building in Garland, Texas, to smile for the camera. They arranged themselves on top of their logo: a 10-foot-wide nuclear-radiation sign, inlaid in the marble floor.
To videogame fans, that logo is instantly recognizable. It's the insignia of Duke Nukem 3D, a computer game that revolutionized shoot-'em-up virtual violence in 1996. Featuring a swaggering, steroidal, wisecracking hero, Duke Nukem 3D became one of the top-selling videogames ever, making its creators very wealthy and leaving fans absolutely delirious for a sequel. The team quickly began work on that sequel, Duke Nukem Forever, and it became one of the most hotly anticipated games of all time.
Water is turning up in unexpected places on the moon, controversial new observations suggest. According to theory, water is not stable on the moon's surface above -167 °C. As a result, ice should be concentrated in "cold traps" near the lunar poles, in craters that never get any sunlight. NASA's LCROSS spacecraft found water when it crashed into one such crater, called Cabeus, in October. But new observations from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) suggest that many of the permanently shadowed regions near the south pole are dry and several potentially wet regions are sunlit. The observations come from the Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector (LEND) experiment, which looks for possible water deposits by measuring neutrons emitted from the moon. Water or other hydrogen-bearing compounds reduce the number of fast neutrons. LEND examined 37 permanently shadowed craters near the south pole and found that only three of them - Cabeus, Faustini, and Shoemaker - showed significant amounts of hydrogen. Several illuminated regions also appear to be hydrogen rich. "I think we have a paradigm-busting set of observations here," says Jim Garvin, the chief scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
According to theory, water is not stable on the moon's surface above -167 °C. As a result, ice should be concentrated in "cold traps" near the lunar poles, in craters that never get any sunlight. NASA's LCROSS spacecraft found water when it crashed into one such crater, called Cabeus, in October.
But new observations from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) suggest that many of the permanently shadowed regions near the south pole are dry and several potentially wet regions are sunlit. The observations come from the Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector (LEND) experiment, which looks for possible water deposits by measuring neutrons emitted from the moon. Water or other hydrogen-bearing compounds reduce the number of fast neutrons.
LEND examined 37 permanently shadowed craters near the south pole and found that only three of them - Cabeus, Faustini, and Shoemaker - showed significant amounts of hydrogen. Several illuminated regions also appear to be hydrogen rich.
"I think we have a paradigm-busting set of observations here," says Jim Garvin, the chief scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
Medications frequently prescribed for depression may not lighten a person's mood until they brighten his or her personality. A new study suggests that the antidepressant medication paroxetine, or Paxil, fights depression most effectively when it first modifies two personality traits that predispose people to this mood disorder. The two traits, high neuroticism and low extraversion, have already been linked to depression. Depressed patients taking Paxil reported much greater change in these traits, as assessed via scores on personality tests, than patients given placebo pills. The difference was notable even after accounting for the extent to which each treatment diminished standard measures of depression, says psychologist Tony Tang of Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. Patients who experienced especially pronounced personality change during four months of Paxil treatment displayed a particularly low depression relapse rate over the next year of treatment, Tang's team reports in the December Archives of General Psychiatry. "We propose that modern antidepressants work partly by correcting the long-term personality risk factors for depression," Tang says. Like many other researchers and clinicians, Tang's group initially suspected that personality changes observed during treatment with SSRIs (short for selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) such as Paxil occur as a result of alleviating depression. But the new findings suggest that Paxil exerts an independent effect on personality that contributes to the lessening of depression. "This is more evidence than I've seen before that personality changes drive antidepressant responses, but it's still a small study," remarks psychiatrist Andrew Leuchter of the University of California, Los Angeles.
The two traits, high neuroticism and low extraversion, have already been linked to depression. Depressed patients taking Paxil reported much greater change in these traits, as assessed via scores on personality tests, than patients given placebo pills. The difference was notable even after accounting for the extent to which each treatment diminished standard measures of depression, says psychologist Tony Tang of Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. Patients who experienced especially pronounced personality change during four months of Paxil treatment displayed a particularly low depression relapse rate over the next year of treatment, Tang's team reports in the December Archives of General Psychiatry.
"We propose that modern antidepressants work partly by correcting the long-term personality risk factors for depression," Tang says.
Like many other researchers and clinicians, Tang's group initially suspected that personality changes observed during treatment with SSRIs (short for selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) such as Paxil occur as a result of alleviating depression. But the new findings suggest that Paxil exerts an independent effect on personality that contributes to the lessening of depression.
"This is more evidence than I've seen before that personality changes drive antidepressant responses, but it's still a small study," remarks psychiatrist Andrew Leuchter of the University of California, Los Angeles.
