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Sunday, November 01, 2009 HAVANA: Fidel Castro has found something to sneeze at in Washington's decision to ease visits by Cuban-Americans to his island: He says more Americans mean more swine flu.The 83-year-old ex-president wrote in state-controlled newspapers on Saturday that many of Cuba's early cases of the virus were visitors from the United States and he used the occasion to take a jab at the U.S. embargo."We had the strange case where the United States on one hand authorized more trips for a large number of people carrying the virus, and on the other prohibited us from obtaining equipment and medicine to combat the virus," Castro said.He added, however, that President Barack Obama was not plotting to infect Cubans with the flu when, in April, he eased restrictions on Cuban-Americans who want to travel or send money to Cuba.

Sunday, November 01, 2009 SANAA: A Yemeni court on Saturday sentenced to death eight men involved in a Shi'ite rebellion, who were arrested last year for fighting government troops north of the country's capital, Geo news reported.A Yemeni court on Saturday also handed out jail sentences and writing bans to two journalists for defaming the president.Seven rebels received prison sentences of 12 years, three three-year sentences, one an eight-year sentence and one a five-year sentence. Two were found not-guilty.The Houthi rebels were arrested last year for fighting troops for around a month at Bani Husheish, 30 km (19 miles) north of Sanaa. Houthi rebels first took up arms against President Ali Abdullah Saleh's rule in 2004, citing political, economic and religious marginalization by the Saudi- and Western-backed government.But the conflict intensified in August when the army unleashed Operation Scorched Earth. Aid groups, who have been given limited access to the northern pr...

Sunday, November 01, 2009 KABUL: Abdullah Abdullah is to announce Sunday whether he will run in next weekend's Afghan presidential election run-off after the incumbent Hamid Karzai snubbed a series of demands laid down by his challenger. Abdullah, a former foreign minister, is due to reveal his decision at a meeting of supporters at around 09:30 am (0500 GMT) amid expectations he will either call a boycott of the November 7 ballot or that he has reached some form of power-sharing agreement with his rival. Following widespread fraud in the August first round, Abdullah had demanded Karzai sack the head of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) Azizullah Ludin and suspend four ministers who campaigned for the incumbent. Abdullah's camp had set a deadline of Saturday for Karzai to bow to his demands and supporters say that he will not take part in a contest that will not be free and fair.But the demands have so far received short shrift, with the IEC saying Ludin can only be di...

Saturday, October 31, 2009 DUBLIN: Scientists in Ireland have found eating Indian food can help prevent esophageal cancer. Cancer cells studied in a laboratory started to die within 24 hours of exposure to curcumin, a chemical in the tumeric spice widely used in curry dishes to give it that bright yellow color, revealed the Cork Cancer Research Center in Ireland. The study on esophageal cancer was published in the British Journal of Cancer on Wednesday. “The cells also began to digest themselves. The results additionally showed that curcumin kills cells by triggering lethal cell death signals,” Cork’s Web site states. Suicide to cancer cells.Cancers of the esophagus kill more than 500,000 people across the world each year, reports Reuters.In the US, esophageal cancer will kill 14,530 people in 2009, reads the National Cancer Institute site. These numbers aren’t staggering when you compare them to the 69,078 people every year who die of lung cancer, or the 41,116 deaths of breast cancer...

Saturday, October 31, 2009 NEW YORK: This weekend is the 12th annual chocolate show in New York -- billed as the world's largest.There are more than 800 exhibits, including a chocolate bookstore, where famous chefs are signing chocolate cookbooks. There's also a chocolate lounge, featuring chocolate flavored liqueurs, coffees and snacks and a chocolate beauty pavilion that features products based on the cocoa bean.Hakan Martensson has a chocolate carving exhibit. He says it takes anywhere from one hour to a couple of months to carve a chocolate sculpture.One unusual offering at the show is a weeklong vacation at a lodge in the Belize rain forest, where one can learn to make chocolate.The chocolate show ends on Sunday.

Saturday, October 31, 2009 LONDON: A young woman who was rushed to hospital with agonizing burns following an extreme reaction to a home hair dye kit has told of her frightening experience.Zoe Vernon, 22, was put on a drip and told by medics she had some of the worst burns they had ever seen caused by hair dye.The call centre worker from Didsbury, Manchester, had dyed her hair previously but not with the kit in question, which was a Boots Colour kit.The morning after she coloured her hair she woke up with a red and swollen face and developed more blisters and pains over the following days.Nurses feared her swollen neck would affect her breathing and called an ambulance to rush Miss Vernon to hospital.At the burns unit at Manchester’s Wythenshawe Hospital she was placed on a drip and spent three days recovering.She is now back home but suffers blurred vision in one eye and has to take medication, including steroids.

Saturday, October 31, 2009 BEIJING: It should be busy with families having fun and hordes of shoppers seeking out bargains - but the largest mall in the world stands empty. Shops and, more importantly, shoppers, have steered clear of the 890,000sq m 9.6million sq ft) New South China Mall. It has space for more than 1,500 stores, as well as fun fairs, hotels and luxury apartments. The mall was even heralded by The New York Times as part of 'China's astonishing new consumer culture'. But the global depression has hit China hard and the Asian powerhouse is now struggling to perform anywhere near as well as during the past few decades of rapid economic growth. On the ground, this means 99 per cent of the stores in the huge mall have remained empty since its opening in 2005, collecting dust as paint peels from the walls. The only occupied areas are near the entrance, where several Western fast food chains sell burgers next to an abandoned go-kart track. The mall was built in a ...

Saturday, October 31, 2009 LONDON: Zoe Vernon, 22, was put on a drip and told by medics she had some of the worst burns they had ever seen caused by hair dye.The call centre worker from Didsbury, Manchester, had dyed her hair previously but not with the kit in question, which was a Boots Colour kit.Before using the dye, she said she performed an allergy patch test and had no reaction. But the morning after she coloured her hair she woke up with a red and swollen face and developed more blisters and pains over the following days.Miss Vernon said: "It was terrifying; I was so scared because it was really painful. I thought if I stayed at home it would get better on its own but it just kept getting worse."My boyfriend came back from working away and was shocked by my appearance and took me to the walk-in centre."Nurses feared her swollen neck would affect her breathing and called an ambulance to rush Miss Vernon to hospital.At the burns unit at Manchester’s Wythenshawe Hos...

Saturday, October 31, 2009 LONDON: A new discovery about the health benefits of fish oil could pave the way to new treatments for life-threatening conditions such as sepsis and stroke, say scientists.Researchers found that the body converts a fatty acid in fish oils into a powerful anti-inflammatory biochemical called resolvin D2.It was this chemical that accounted for the ability of fish oil to combat diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis.The British and American scientists believe resolvin D2 could provide the basis of new treatments for a range of serious diseases which involve inflammation. The list includes sepsis - a potentially deadly reaction to infection which causes inflammation to rage through the body - stroke, and arthritis.Laboratory experiments showed how the body converts the fish oil fatty acid DHA into resolvin D2, and revealed the chemical's structure.Professor Mauro Perretti, from Queen Mary, University of London, who led the UK team, said: "We have known ...

Saturday, October 31, 2009 NEW YORK: Google and their doodles, we all knew Google would come up with some sort of new doodle for Halloween2009 but who knew they would give us four different doodles to celebrate Halloween?The new Halloween “doodles” are already showing in the Google Australia homepage, New Zealand and some parts of Asia.Are you wondering how they can have four doodles in the one spot?Well, as you come to the homepage you will see one doodle, this first doodle is a simple doodle with a “Halloween pumpkin lolly head” which replaces the letter “e”, by clicking on it the doodle will change to a few delicious looking lollies, click once again and it will give you even more lollies, click again and it will give you only the lolly wrappers, finally you click on it again and it take you to the google search results for halloween 2009.

Saturday, October 31, 2009 VIENNA: This breathtaking new bridge linking two mountains in the Austrian Alps isn't for the faint-hearted.Engineers have constructed a transparent mesh floor so walkers and skiers can see the valley floor hundreds of feet beneath them.The 462-feet long bridge - now the highest in Europe - near Bad Gastein in Salzburg will officially open in December after final safety checks.The pathway - just one metre wide - is designed to cope with winter winds of up to 150 mph at the mountain peaks.One local skier told the newspaper: "It's an astonishing piece of engineering but it will take a lot of nerve to walk over it."

Saturday, October 31, 2009 SHREVEPORT, La.: One man is dead and a landmark church steeple toppled onto a car in Louisiana after a line of thunderstorms spawned several tornadoes there and in neighboring Arkansas, Geo news reported Saturday.Authorities said an unnamed 20-year-old driver died when his car hit a tree felled by the storms Thursday near Shreveport. At least three tornadoes touched down in northwest Louisiana.The storms blew the signature steeple off a church in downtown Shreveport. The falling tower hit a car and the 57-year-old driver, Michael Williams, had to be pulled out by rescuers. He suffered broken bones.The storms brought heavy rain and at least two tornadoes in Arkansas, but there were no reports of injuries in that state. Roads were flooded in parts of southwest Arkansas.

Saturday, October 31, 2009 DOHA: Defending champion Venus Williams reached the semi-finals of the WTA hampionships without hitting a ball on Friday as organisers avoided potential embarrassment over the event's scoring system.Williams reached the last four - along with Jelena Jankovic and Caroline Wozniacki - despite losing two of her three round-robin group matches.The American was assured of joining sister Serena in the semi-finals when Svetlana Kuznetsova defeated Elena Dementieva 6-3, 6-2 in the concluding Maroon Group match.On Saturday, Serena will face Wozniacki while Venus tackles Jankovic for places in the final of the 4.55 million dollar tournament.Under a complicated qualifying system, Venus pipped Dementieva for a last four place despite both players having a win apiece and with the Russian having defeated the American when they met on Tuesday.Venus went through having won more sets.In the White Group, Jankovic also made the last four, comfortably defeating US Open runn...