Fakhra Younus, a former Pakistani dancer, suffered a horrific acid back in 2000 and the man accused of attacking her inside her mom’s house was actually her ex-husband Bilal Khar. The acid burned through her skin and left her disfigured as it melted her nose almost completely, fused her lips together, blinded one of her eyes, destroyed her left ear as well as burned her chest and hands.
After the victim moved to Rome, Italy to receive treatment for the injuries and has lived there for 12 years, undergoing 39 surgical interventions, but it seems that Ms.Younus decided on March 17th to end her life by leaping to her death from the sixth floor of her apartment in Rome.
Apparently Fakhra Younus left a message explaining her decision to end her life and it seems that the decision of the Pakistani law, which apparently cleared her alleged attacker of the crime he was accused of doing in 2000, was unbearable for the victim. Mr Bilal Khar was arrested in 2002 and was charged with attempted murder for Fakhra Younus’s attack, but was released on bail 5 months later and was eventually cleared of any guilt concerning the attack.
According to DailyMail, after the announcement of the tragic death suffered by Fakhra Younus, her ex husband who claimed his innocence in the past stated in an interview that a different man with the same name was to blame for his ex-wife’s attack.
There have been numerous acid attacks signalled in Pakistan over the years and this is only one case that should trigger a serious alarm signal over such cruel attacks.
Scientists have discovered a fossilized foot in eastern Africa belonging to an unknown human related species. Apparently the foot belongs to a species that walked on the Earth’s surface about 3.5 million years ago and the characteristics show that the ‘hominin’ had the capacity to grasp thus had the ability to climb trees and move much more efficiently throughout the forest land.
The fossilized foot, which is quite a find as the limbs are more prone to decomposition due to their fragility as well as more susceptible to being removed by predators, shows that this particular ‘hominin’ had an opposable big toe, which is different from other ‘hominins’ that have been discovered until now. This means that this species was still able to climb trees to feed, to nest or to escape predators. The new species is different from the Australopithecus afarensis hominoid species which also lived on Earth about the same period of time and which has a foot relatively similar to the human foot, but appears to be more similar to a species that raided the Earth about 4.4 million years ago, the Ardipithecus ramidus. According to DailyMail, Dr. Yohannes Haile-Selassie, currator of physical anthropology at the Cleveland Museum on Natural History said about the extraordinary discovery that:
“The fossil foot skeleton represents a hominin that, unlike the contemporaneous Australopithecus afarensis, retained a grasping capacity that would allow it to climb trees and move through the forest canopy more effectively. This specimen is the first strong evidence indicating multiple hominin lineages, adaptively separated, at least in the foot skeleton, in the three to four million year-ago time interval.”
Professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University, Daniel Lieberman, said that this discovery shows that human ancestors that were able to climb trees and walk on two feet existed until 3.4 million years ago. He said:
“The limitations of the fossil record leave ample room for debate about human origins. But most palaeoanthropologists agree selection for bipedalism was instrumental in setting the human lineage on its separate evolutionary path from the chimpanzee lineage. Human evolution is often portrayed as a triumph of bipedalism, but who among us has not occasionally regretted our species’ comparative clumsiness in trees?
I, for one, am pleased to know that some hominins retained feet well adapted for arboreality millions of years after we started to walk on two feet.”
The new strain of tuberculosis that hit India has caused a lot of stir and concern internationally. Health activist have been trying to find out the cause of the breakout especially since today is the World Tuberculosis Day and the findings have heightened potential for raising awareness on the disease. It appears that in the latest case of drug resistant TB strains the way the Indian government has handled the TB treatment.
In order to be effective, the treatment must be administrated continuously over a six or nine months period. It appears that the alternating the days in which patient received antibiotics is the most likely cause that determined the mutations in the bacterial strain which cannot be cured with current antibiotics.
Piero Gandini, head of Doctors Without Borders in India states that the findings mean that “There is an urgent need for regulatory control of sale and administration of TB drugs in the private sector” in order to prevent similar consequences in the future. The latest findings are extremely worrisome especially since 20% of the multi drug resistant TB strains are found in India.
Apparently the consumption of e-cigarettes is on the rise as more and more people are switching from traditional, tobacco smoking to e-cigarette smoking, although the controversy surrounding the electrical device still persists. The device that aims to bring the same satisfaction as smoking, without the negative effects of carbon monoxide, tar, odor and other chemicals that are associated with tobacco smoking, through the use of a mix of water, propylene glycol or glycerin-based liquid, liquid nicotine and flavor, seems to have attracted plenty of attention from consumers.
These e-cigarettes seem to have caused a stir due to the fact that they have yet to receive FDA approval despite the fact that they are using FDA approved ingredients that give away vapor to mimic smoking. E-cigarettes have been considered an alternative to smoking by some, a way to avoid about 4000 chemicals that are associated with tobacco smoking and a cessation device by others although most manufacturers do not label e-cigarettes as being smoking cessation devices.
The fact that most manufacturers claim that e-cigarettes pose no second-hand smoke threats and that they can be smoked indoors, in public areas as well as in planes has also helped raise the popularity of the devices, but before vaping away keep in mind that some airlines have a strict policy against smoking whether it’s traditional or e-cigarette smoking. There are pros and cons that go hand in hand with e-cigarettes, but it seems that more and more people are considering them as a better alternative to traditional tobacco smoking, meaning you’ll probably run into the product more and more often now.
Celebs have also helped with the popularity of the e-cigs as numerous celebrities have spoken openly about their decision to switch to e-smoking or have been spotted puffing on an e-cig, celebs such as Katherine Heigl, Johnny Deep, Leonardo DiCaprio, Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, Charlie Sheen.
Two earthquakes, one a magnitude 6.8 and the other 6.1 have struck the east coast of Honsu, Japan, U.S. Geological Survey reports, causing panic and distress to inhabitants who are still trying to recover from the past year disasters.
The first earthquake off Hokkaido island struck at 6 p.m local time and prompted some communities to evacuate the area while tsunami advisories were issued for residents nearest to the coast.
The second earthquake had the epicenter epicenter about 151 miles south of Kushiro and 447 miles northeast of Tokyo. For the second earthquake no tsunami warnings were issue.
Fortunately, no damage or injuries were reported following the two incidents, prefectural disaster management official Shinichi Motoyama declared.
The country has just marked the first anniversary of the catastrophic 9.0 earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011 which had 19,000 people dead or missing as consquence.
The woman that was disfigured by her ex-lover after he allegedly threw sulphuric acid in her face has decided to appear in court to show the jury the extent of her injuries. The victim, Patricia Lefranc spoke on the first day of the defendant’s, Richard Remes, attempted murder trial, where she said, according to Daily Mail that she was ‘determined to look him in the eye and show the jury what he has done to me’.
The 48 year old mother and victim, Patricia Lefranc has endured 86 surgical interventions since her horrific attack but still her injuries are hard to ignore. The facts that she was in a coma for three months after the attack, underwent many operations and she has lost her sight in her left eye, part of her nose which will have to be replaced by a prosthetic, her hearing in one ear, her ring finger and suffers from sever burned skin on her upper body, has driven the victim to court in the hope that she will determine the jury to convict her aggressor of attempted murder.
According to DailyMail, Ms. Lefranc said that:
“I hope Remes is convicted of attempted murder, and not just for assault and battery with torture. He did not just want to hurt me, he wanted me out of the way. I just hope that I get to tell the court what I experienced, and how it hurt.
I would also appeal to his wife. She paints me as a manipulator who hooked her husband. I think that’s an insult – a dagger in my back. He made the first step in starting a relationship, and I had to bring it to a close. Let’s reverse the roles, but don’t tell me how seriously he should be punished. I leave that to the court, but while working out the punishment don’t lose sight of the fact that he condemned me to pain, both physical and psychological, for life. Remes has also ruined my life as a woman. Who once to deal with the monster that he made me?”
Apparently Mr. Remes has apologised for what he did and denied that he wanted to disfigure her. His excuse for his action was that he did not realize that the substance he spayed on her would have such horrific and devastating effects.
There is a real possibility that at one point in time an asteroid will be headed towards a collision course with Earth, so it’s no surprise that scientists are trying to develop the necessary technology to allow them to counter-act the collision by destroying threatening asteroids. A hit taken by Earth in case of a massive asteroid impact would have catastrophic results, and although this seems like a story depicted out of a Hollywood movie, scientists are not willing to sit and wait for that moment to come without preparing ahead.
Apparently scientists based at Los Alamos National Laboratory, a United States Department of Energy facility in New Mexico, turned towards virtual testing, a simulation of their ideas to determine whether nuclear bombs sent out into space to prevent asteroids heading for Earth, would be effective. To achieve accurate data scientists turned to a super-computer (32 000 processors) that ran the program to determine if a one-magatone nuclear bomb would be sufficient to destroy a 1,650 foot-long or 500-meters long asteroid.
The tests seem to have been a success as the data registered determined that the blast will help break down the massive rock into smaller pieces that would not pose such a great danger. According to a video released by the lab, scientist Bob Weaver said that:
“Ultimately this one-megaton blast will disrupt all of the rocks in the rockpile of this asteroid, and if this were an Earth-crossing asteroid, would fully mitigate the hazard represented by the initial asteroid itself the calculations I’m running now in 3D are state of the art calculations on 32 000 processors..”
This is one of an array of other methods that are being tested and is considered as a last resort to turn towards in case any asteroids become a threat to Earth.
With the awareness concerning global warming and the potential loss of habitat for polar bears, these animals have received a lot of attention lately. However, another kind of attention is also being placed on these iconic animals as impressive sums of money are being payed for the permission to hunt them in Canada.
It seems that the bears became a hot commodity after several businessmen, mostly Chinese agreed to pay approximately $80,000 for the privilege. In the price are included: airfare, accommodations, foreign hunting permits, tracking guides to help find a bear, a bow and arrow or rifle to kill it with, taxidermy services for those who want to make rugs and even a DVD to be able to better recall the experience, Daily Mail reports.
The owner of the club offering this service, Scott Lupien claims the prospect of making rugs and states that he caters to both experienced hunters and those seeking a thrill. Furthermore, he states that he teaches conservation and that hunting can actually be helpful in this regard: ‘If a male runs into a female with cubs, it attacks the cubs. Hunting males actually helps the young population survive,’ he explains, which is why only hunting male bears is allowed”.
Unexpected spikes in food prices, price changes independent of supply and demand and other abrupt changes in the price of commodities have taken everyone by surprise. Economists have tried to uncover the causes and influences that have led to these unpredictable changes. Specialists have analyzed data starting with 2007 and found that since then food prices rose by a staggering 50 percent in less than a year putting poor countries at risk for starvation and other social anxieties.
While several economists have argued over the cause of changes the Bar Yam group was the one which accurately pinpointed the main causes of the changes. According to the group, the mathematical models highlighted two main factors: one was the replacement of food crops with biofuel ones and the other one was the speculators’ behavior which proved to be much more influential compared to the first cause.
An abrupt shift in the percentage of speculators in the market are to blame for the changes. It used to be“70 percent commercial hedgers and 30 percent speculators. The speculators are there to provide liquidity. In the summer of 2008, it was discovered that it’s now 70 percent speculation and 30 percent commercial. Now reports are coming out that it’s 85 percent speculation and 15 percent commercial. You have markets dominated by people with no real interest in the economics of supply and demand, but who are taking advantage of bets authored by Wall Street that prices will go up.” Michael Greenberger, former director of the CFTC’s Division of Trading and Markets stated.
These findings are enough to spark numerous debates as to whether government intervention is needed to regulate the percentage of speculators allowed in the market in order to avoid artificial price increases.
The results of the latest Russian presidential elections are out! News reports reveal the fact that Vladimir Putin Declares Victory In Russian Election. The ceremony was crowned with the appearance of the new president outside the Kremlin. Vladimir Putin claimed that he was selected after fighting an “open and honest battle”. In spite of the cheerful celebration of Putin fans numerous protests were launched on the streets which revealed no less than 4,000 cases of vote-rigging and malpractice. The new president also added that, “We showed that no one and nothing can tell us what to do. We were able to save ourselves from political provocations that have just one aim: to overturn the Russian state and usurp power. Such attempts will not succeed on our land. They won’t succeed!”.
According to various media sources the results of 30 per cent of the polling stations revealed that Putin was about to win the elections with 63.42 per cent. Another candidate the Communist party leader Gennady Zyuganov had 17.25 per cent and the rich playboy Gennady Zyuganov landed on the third place with 7.29 per cent. Another candidate of the populist party earned 7.19 per cent of the votes and last but not least Sergei Mironov had 3.72 per cent of the votes.
A popular leader of the opposition who succeeded in bringing tens of activists to the streets claimed that, “There was a hypothesis that the authorities would this time allow honest elections in Moscow because of the scandal with violations during the Duma elections in December, but this is being disproved. The scale of the falsification we are seeing will destroy the last vestiges of trust between government and the people. Tomorrow we will be on the streets.”.
Undoubtedly numerous falsification reports remain unconfirmed in spite of the fact that numerous images appeared in the media showing large groups of people who arrived at different stations to vote simultaneously.
