Science
News This Week:
1) Long
before Columbus, seals brought tuberculosis to South America:
Marine
mammals may have carried TB bacterium across the ocean. Seals brought
tuberculosis to South America long before Columbus sailed to the New World, a
new study shows.
An
analysis of tuberculosis DNA recovered from three 1,000- to 1,300-year-old
Peruvian skeletons reveals that the strain of TB in the ancient bones doesn’t
match the strain brought to the New World by European explorers. Instead, it
closely resembles one that infects seals in the Southern Hemisphere, an
international group of researchers reports August 20 in Nature.
Researchers
had long thought that Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes TB,
originated in cattle as M. bovis, jumped to humans after dairy cows were
domesticated and then came to the Americas with Europeans.
2)
Hot-spring bacteria reveal ability to use far-red light for photosynthesis:
Bacteria
growing in near darkness use a previously unknown process for harvesting energy
and producing oxygen from sunlight, a research team led by a Penn State
University scientist has discovered. The discovery lays the foundation for
further research aimed at improving plant growth, harvesting energy from the
Sun, and understanding dense blooms like those now occurring on Lake Erie and
other lakes worldwide. A paper describing the discovery will be published in
the Science Express edition of the journal Science on 21 August 2014.
"We
have shown that some cyanobacteria, also called blue-green algae, can grow in
far-red wavelengths of light, a range not seen well by most humans," said
Donald A. Bryant, the Ernest C. Pollard Professor of Biotechnology and a
professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Penn State. "Most
cyanobacteria can't 'see' this light either. But we have found a new subgroup
that can absorb and use it, and we have discovered some of the surprising ways
they manipulate their genes in order to grow using only these
wavelengths," he said.The scientists discovered that the cyanobacterial
strain, named Leptolyngbya, completely changes its photosynthetic apparatus in
order to use far-red light, which has wavelengths longer than 700 nanometers --
a little longer than the range of light that most people can see. The
experiments by Bryant's team revealed that these cyanobacteria replace
seventeen proteins in three major light-using complexes while also making new
chlorophyll pigments that can capture the far-red light, and while using
pigments called bilins in new ways. The scientists also discovered that the
organisms accomplish this feat by quickly turning on a large number of genes to
modify cellular metabolism and simultaneously turning off a large number of
other genes -- a process that they have named Far-Red Light Photoacclimation
(FaRLiP).Because the genes that are turned on are the genes that determine
which proteins the organism will produce, this massive remodeling of the
available gene profile has a dramatic effect. "Our studies reveal that the
particular cyanobacterium that we studied can massively change its physiology
and metabolism, and its photosynthetic apparatus," Bryant said. "It
changes the core components of the three major photosynthetic complexes, so one
ends up with a very differentiated cell that is then capable of growing in
far-red light. The impact is that they are better than other strains of
cyanobacteria at producing oxygen in far-red light, and they are better even
than themselves. Cells grown in far-red light produce 40 percent more oxygen
when assayed in far-red light than cells grown in red light assayed under the
same far-red light conditions."
To make
these discoveries, Bryant's team used a variety of biological, genetic,
physical, and chemical experiments in order to learn how this unusual
photosynthesis system works as a whole. The team's investigations includes
biochemical analyses, spectroscopic analyses, studies of the structures and
functions of proteins, profiles of gene-transcription processes, and sequencing
and comparisons of cyanobacteria genomes. "Our genome-sequence analyses of
different cyanobacteria strains revealed 13 additional strains that also appear
to be able to use far-red light for photosynthesis," Bryant said.
The
Leptolyngbya cyanobacterial strain that Bryant's team studied is one that was
collected at LaDuke hot spring in Montana, near Yellowstone National Park. This
strain was living on the underside of a 2-milimeter-thick mat that is so dense
with bacteria that only the far-red wavelengths of light can penetrate to the
bottom. Another environment where understanding photosynthesis in far-red light
may have important implications is in the surface crusts of deserts and other
soils, which cover a large percentage of Earth's surface. "It is important
to understand how this photosynthetic process works in global-scale
environments where cyanobacteria may be photosynthesizing with far-red light,
in order to more fully understand the global impact of photosynthesis in oxygen
production, carbon fixation, and other events that drive geochemical processes
on our planet," Bryant said.
The
research raises questions about the possibility of introducing into plants the
capacity to use far-red wavelengths for photosynthesis. But Bryant said much
more basic research is required first. "Our research already has shown
that it would not be enough to insert a new far-red-light-absorbing pigment
into a plant unless you also have the right protein scaffolds to bind it so
that it will work efficiently. In fact, it could be quite deleterious to just
start sticking long-wavelength-absorbing chlorophylls into the photosynthetic
apparatus," he said."We now have clearly established that
photosynthesis can occur in far-red light, in a wavelength range where people
previously did not think that oxygenic photosynthesis could take place, and we
have provided details about many of the processes involved. Now there are a
whole set of associated scientific questions that need to be answered about
more of the details before we can begin to investigate any applications that
may or may not be possible," Bryant said. "Our research has opened up
many new questions for basic scientific research."
3)
Experimental drugs and vaccines poised to take on Ebola:
As the
Ebola virus outbreak continues to run amok in West Africa, scientists are
looking ahead to the possibly pivotal use of experimental drugs and vaccines
against the disease. It will take months to test, produce and deploy the
therapies. But researchers hold out hope that these products — even
incompletely vetted — might help to turn the tide against an illness that has
defied public health efforts to bring it under control.The treatments’ use
could engender enough hope to encourage people with symptoms — and their close
contacts — to come to hospitals, which researchers say would limit the spread
of the lethal virus. Having experimental drugs and especially vaccines in hand
could also help in recruiting and maintaining adequate levels of hospital
staff, who are at high risk of catching the virus.
Using
still-experimental drugs has downsides: Even if the treatments help some
patients, it will be hard to determine their true effectiveness. And failed treatments could exacerbate the
despair and distrust already hampering public health efforts.
Still,
public health officials and bioethics experts say the situation in West Africa
is dire enough to warrant putting candidate therapies into use after minimal
human safety testing. As of August 19, more than 2,200 people have been
infected and more than 1,200 have died, the World Health Organization reports.
Earlier this month, WHO declared the outbreak an international public health
emergency that is not under control.The outbreak has hit a thickly populated
part of West Africa and spread among the contiguous countries Liberia, Guinea
and Sierra Leone. None have encountered Ebola before, and the region has been
racked by poverty, civil wars, corrupt government and upheaval. All of the
countries have deficient health systems that have suffered even more during the
outbreak as some workers abandon their posts. Daniel Bausch, an infectious
disease physician at Tulane University in New Orleans, relates an incident in
Kenema, Sierra Leone. Dressed in biohazard gear, he and a WHO doctor entered
the hospital there in July and were stunned to find only two workers amid 55
patients. The nurses were gone. Some were demanding higher wages for hazardous
work, but many had simply left after seeing their colleagues become sick, he
says. Patients were in beds and on the floor, the hospital contaminated.
Turning
to drugs
In an
opening salvo against the Ebola virus, six people have received a test drug
called ZMapp, made by Mapp Pharmaceuticals of San Diego. But supplies of that
compound are exhausted and making more will take months. So WHO and the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services have pulled together experts to pore
over research on other candidate drugs and vaccines. The goal is to decide
which products to put into rapid safety tests, says Bausch, who is among those
advising WHO. In the best-case scenario, WHO officials say, some of these test
drugs could reach the field later this year — after safety testing in human
volunteers. All have so far been tested only in monkeys and other animals.
While ZMapp uses antibodies, other approaches combine that strategy with other
antiviral agents or use RNA interference to thwart the virus.
Having a
drug, even an imperfect one, would have an impact beyond the individuals
receiving it, Bausch says. A drug could change the mindset of people who have
been in contact with patients but who are not themselves sick. Many hesitate to
get tested because hospitals have no way to treat Ebola, he says. Refusal to
get tested extends disease transmission if these contacts turn out to harbor
the virus and develop an infection. Word of a drug could induce people to come
in for testing. “Getting them out of circulation,” he says, “could end the
outbreak.”
While
giving experimental drugs such as ZMapp to patients has passed muster with
bioethicists, the use of such drug candidates would still leave scientists with
a poor understanding of how effective they are. About half of Ebola patients in
West Africa survive without treatment, says physician Kevin Donovan of
Georgetown University, making it difficult to distinguish whether a survivor who
received a trial drug benefited from it.
Vaccines
could play a role as well. WHO Assistant Director-General Marie-Paule Kieny
said at an August 12 news briefing that safety testing of two experimental
Ebola vaccines could start in late September. One comes from Canada’s National
Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, which announced last week that it will
make available 800 to 1,000 doses of a vaccine that tested well in monkeys.
Another vaccine is being readied by U.S. federal labs and GlaxoSmithKline. WHO
will oversee who gets any test vaccines, with distribution unlikely until 2015.
4) X-ray
laser probes tiny quantum tornadoes in superfluid droplets:
An experiment at the Department of Energy's
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory revealed a well-organized 3-D grid of
quantum "tornadoes" inside microscopic droplets of supercooled liquid
helium -- the first time this formation has been seen at such a tiny scale.The
findings by an international research team provide new insight on the strange nanoscale
traits of a so-called "superfluid" state of liquid helium. When
chilled to extremes, liquid helium behaves according to the rules of quantum
mechanics that apply to matter at the smallest scales and defy the laws of
classical physics. This superfluid state is one of just a few examples of
quantum behavior on a large scale that makes the behavior easier to see and
study.
The
results, detailed in the Aug. 22 issue of Science, could help shed light on
similar quantum states, such as those in superconducting materials that conduct
electricity with 100 percent efficiency or the strange collectives of
particles, dubbed Bose-Einstein condensates, which act as a single
unit."What we found in this experiment was really surprising. We did not
expect the beauty and clarity of the results," said Christoph Bostedt, a
co-leader of the experiment and a senior scientist at SLAC's Linac Coherent
Light Source (LCLS), the DOE Office of Science User Facility where the
experiment was conducted.
"We
were able to see a manifestation of the quantum world on a macroscopic
scale," said Ken Ferguson, a PhD student from Stanford University working
at LCLS.While tiny tornadoes had been seen before in chilled helium, they
hadn't been seen in such tiny droplets, where they were packed 100,000 times
more densely than in any previous experiment on superfluids, Ferguson said.
Studying
the Quantum Traits of a Superfluid
Helium
can be cooled to the point where it becomes a frictionless substance that
remains liquid well below the freezing point of most fluids. The light, weakly
attracting atoms have an endless wobble -- a quantum state of perpetual motion
that prevents them from freezing. The unique properties of superfluid helium,
which have been the subject of several Nobel prizes, allow it to coat and climb
the sides of a container, and to seep through molecule-wide holes that would
have held in the same liquid at higher temperatures.In the LCLS experiment,
researchers jetted a thin stream of helium droplets, like a nanoscale string of
pearls, into a vacuum. Each droplet acquired a spin as it flew out of the jet,
rotating up to 2 million turns per second, and cooled to a temperature colder
than outer space. The X-ray laser took snapshots of individual droplets,
revealing dozens of tiny twisters, called "quantum vortices," with
swirling cores that are the width of an atom.The fast rotation of the chilled
helium nanodroplets caused a regularly spaced, dense 3-D pattern of vortices to
form. This exotic formation, which resembles the ordered structure of a solid
crystal and provides proof of the droplets' quantum state, is far different
than the lone whirlpool that would form in a regular liquid, such as briskly
stirred cup of coffee.
More
Surprises in Store
Researchers
also discovered surprising shapes in some superfluid droplets. In a normal
liquid, droplets can form peanut shapes when rotated swiftly, but the
superfluid droplets took a very different form. About 1 percent of them formed
unexpected wheel-like shapes and reached rotation speeds never before observed
for their classical counterparts.Oliver Gessner, a senior scientist at Lawrence
Berkeley Laboratory and a co-leader in the experiment, said, "Now that we
have shown that we can detect and characterize quantum rotation in helium
nanodroplets, it will be important to understand its origin and, ultimately, to
try to control it."Andrey Vilesov of the University of Southern
California, the third experiment co-leader, added, "The experiment has
exceeded our best expectations. Attaining proof of the vortices, their
configurations in the droplets and the shapes of the rotating droplets was only
possible with LCLS imaging."He said further analysis of the LCLS data
should yield more detailed information on the shape and arrangement of the
vortices: "There will definitely be more surprises to come."
5) Earlier
dates for Neandertal extinction cause a fuss:
Neandertals
died out in Western Europe earlier than many scientists thought, between about
41,000 and 39,000 years ago, after interbreeding with modern humans and picking
up toolmaking pointers from them for a few thousand years, a new study
suggests.
These new
findings join a long-standing debate about the fate of the Neandertals that
shows no signs of dimming.
Previous
reports that some Neandertals survived in Southwestern Europe until more
recently, about 30,000 years ago, hinged on underestimates of the age of carbon
from ancient bones and other organic material, say archaeologist Tom Higham of
the University of Oxford and his colleagues. Improved radiocarbon dating
methods now indicate that Neandertals disappeared at different times in
different regions of Western Europe before finally going extinct about 40,000
years ago, the scientists report in the Aug. 21 Nature.
Movie
Release This Week:
Co-directors
Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller reunite to bring Miller's visually stunning
"Sin City" graphic novels back to the screen in Sin City: A Dame to .
Weaving together two of Miller's classic stories with new tales, the town's
most hard boiled citizens cross paths with some of its more notorious
inhabitants.
Sin City:
A Dame to Kill For is the follow up to Rodriguez and Miller's 2005
groundbreaking film, Frank Miller'S Sin City.
A
teenager finds her perfect life upended when she's stalked by a mysterious
doppelganger who has her eyes set on assuming her identity.
A retired
Las Vegas crime boss is forced to return to the city, and face his former
enemies, when his teenage daughter goes missing.
The film
tells the life of Simón BolÃvar (1783 – 1830). BolÃvar was instrumental in
Latin America's struggle for independence from the Spanish Empire, and is today
considered one of the most influential politicians and emancipators in American
history
A typical
weekend down the shore takes a bizarre turn in the New Jersey Pine Barrens as
six girls and five obnoxious fist-pumpers become the unsuspecting targets of a
deranged killer.
Political
News This Week:
1) Flood
fury affects lakhs in Assam, UP and Bihar:
Union
minister for Development of North Eastern Region Vijay Kumar Singh on Friday
said floods in Assam is "nothing new". "Flood condition is
nothing new to Assam. I have been dealing with floods in Assam since 1970
onwards," Singh said at a press conference in Guwahati.
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On his
ministry's role in finding a way to handle this perennial problem, Singh said
"DoNER has got no role in flood control. It is a job of Ministry of Water
Resources. DoNER funds are not enough even to contribute to type of things that
the state requires.I can be initiator. I can be catalyst. I can assist. I can
suggest. I can push. But if you are thinking that the DoNER is going to do
flood control, I am sorry that is not done. We have to go to the
charters," the Union minister said.
He said
DoNER's role is to carry forward development work in the field of
infrastructure, education, health sector, employment and skills among others.
When pointed out that the flood creates huge challenge and destroys a lot of
developmental works, Singh said "It is not being stopped but flood causes
damage to life and property. So let’s separate it out. Let’s not get just stuck
on floods... Flood is not just development. Flood is only a part of the
issue."He said silting of Brahmaputra is a big problem and nobody gave a
serious thought on this over the years. Singh also said he will recommend the
water resources ministry to conduct an in-depth study on Brahmaputra
considering various aspect.
On August
15, Manisha Shukla, a resident of the flood-hit Bahraich district in Uttar
Pradesh, gave birth to a baby boy while being rescued by
2) AAP
steps up attack against Vardhan over removal of AIIMS CVO:
Stepping
up its attack on the Union Health Minister over the removal of All India
Institute of Medical Sciences Chief Vigilance Officer Sanjeev Chaturvedi, the
Aam Aadmi Party on Friday called for the immediate sacking or resignation of
Harsh Vardhan.
The AAP's
National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal alleged that Chaturvedi was removed because
he brought corruption cases of a senior Indian Administrative Service officer
of Himachal Pradesh who worked as a deputy director administration in the
AIIMS, to light."Vardhan should be immediately sacked or should resign for
removing an honest officer. The IAS officer against whom Chaturvedi had
initiated the complaint is close to a senior BJP leader. Chaturvedi started
taking action against the IAS officer which is why the Central Bureau of
Investigation could register cases against him. Because of these cases IAS
officer could not become chief secretary of the state."The BJP leader had
complained about Chaturvedi several times, but his complaints were examined and
rejected," Kejriwal told a press conference. He said that the logic given
by Harsh Vardhan that Chaturvedi's appointment required Chief Vigilance
Commission's approval was wrong as AIIMS is not included in the list of
government institutions that require CVC's nod for appointment of a CVO.
"If
the CVC's approval was really an issue, the minister could have approached the
CVC and obtained the same, rather than removing an honest officer. All you
require is good intention and will," Kejriwal said.The AAP leader added
that there were attempts to remove the Haryana cadre Indian Forest Service
officer as the CVO from day one. "Under influence of some powerful vested
interests, there were attempts to remove Chaturvedi within a few months of his
posting. The Parliamentary Standing Committee took umbrage and sought to know
why it should not be treated as breach of privilege of the Parliament.
"The union health secretary had then given specific commitment to
Parliamentary Standing Committee on June 6, 2012 that Sanjeev Chaturvedi would
be posted as the CVO in AIIMS," Kejriwal said.
The AAP
leader also alleged that since Charturvedi had initiated action against many
officers, much senior to him, this was hurting people with "vested
interests".Kejriwal pointed out the case of a doctor of the AIIMS who was
sent to inspect facilities and infrastructure of VinayakaMissionsMedicalCollege
in Karikal by the Medical Council of India, and allegedly accepted lodging,
boarding and other hospitality from the inspected college, contrary to the
norms."Chaturvedi recommended imposition of major penalty on the doctor.
The then Health minister reduced it to minor penalty, but Harsh Vardhan has
completely exonerated her and even withdrawn her penalty.
3) BJP
leader, 5 others arrested for raping minor girl:
persons
including a local Bharatiya Janata Party leader were arrested in connection
with alleged trafficking and rape of a minor girl from Assam, police said on
Friday.The accused were caught on Thursday evening during a routine checking on
Ujjain road when police stopped a car on the basis of suspicion and found a
15-year-old girl in the captivity of four men, city Kotwali police station
in-charge, Bhupendra Singh said.
The minor
later told police that she was lured by a person from Doipang area near
Guwahati, Assam and brought to Mumbai on the pretext of providing her a job but
was allegedly raped there by few persons.Later, she was brought to Indore in
Madhya Pradesh where a middleman Raja alias Rakesh allegedly sold her to a
woman agent, Mumtaz after taking money.Mumtaz later handed over her for Rs
4,000 to four persons, including Dewas municipal corporation’s revenue
inspector Sabir alias Lal, a corporation employee Rohit Jalodia, BJP leader
Hamid Sadar and Yaqub Sheikh.
On
Thursday, they allegedly took her to a secluded place in a car for physically
exploiting her but started abusing her in the vehicle itself, Singh said. After
reaching the designated spot they began squabbling over taking turns to rape
her following which they decided to return, the in-charge said.Meanwhile, Sabir
allegedly raped the girl and was subsequently caught by police on the way back.
Taking a serious view of the matter, BJP has expelled the minority wing’s
former office bearer Hamid from the party.
The
accused will be produced in a local court on Friday and a police team would be
sent to Assam for further probing the incident.
4) Manipur
activist Irom Sharmila arrested yet again:
Two days
after she was released on court orders, civil rights activist Irom Chanu
Sharmila was re-arrested by the police on fresh charges of attempt to commit
suicide and forcibly taken away to a city hospital from a makeshift shelter
where she was continuing her fast on Friday.“We have re-arrested her this
morning and will produce her in the Chief Judicial Magistrate court later in the
day on charges of attempt to commit suicide (Section 309 of IPC),” Manipur Additional Director General of Police
(Intelligence) Santosh Macherla said.
A local
court in Imphal had on Tuesday absolved 42-year-old Sharmila of charges of
attempt to commit suicide by means of fasting after which she walked out of a
hospital-turned-prison on Wednesday.“The court released her for her past act.
Now she is again refusing to take food and water and resisting any medical
check-up as well. Her health is deteriorating and now she will be kept at the
same Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital ward where she was kept earlier,” Macherla said.
Her medical check-up will be done and she will be force fed once again through
nose, he said.
Earlier
in the day, she was forcibly taken away by the police to a city hospital from a
makeshift shelter outside the hospital where she was continuing her fast after
being released from detention.Women police personnel took her to Jawaharlal
Nehru Institute of Medical Science and Hospital for a medical-check-up after
she refused to eat or drink, the police said.
Before
she was whisked away this morning, officials had said that her condition was
deteriorating.They said doctors tried to feed her through nose but she refused
and her health was deteriorating very fast.The activist had refused to take
food even after being released. The hospital where she was taken on Friday had
served as her make-shift prison in the last several years.
Sharmila
has been fasting for the last 14 years demanding the withdrawal of Armed Forces
Special Powers (Assam and Manipur) Act 1958.After her release on Wednesday,
Sharmila had begun her fast at a place near the hospital.Even after her
release, the former journalist-cum-social activist had decided to keep her vow
of neither entering her house nor meeting her mother till the government
repeals AFSPA. “I will continue to fast till my demand (withdrawal of AFSPA) is
met. The order of the sessions court that I am not attempting to commit suicide
(by launching fast to remove the controversial Act) is welcome,” she had said.
She had
launched her fast unto death on November 2000 after Assam Rifles killed 10
persons at Malom area in an alleged encounter with insurgents. For the last
many years, she was released from time to time and rearrested again and again
under the provisions of the Indian Penal Code for attempting to commit suicide.
5) Imran
Khan suspends talks with Sharif govt; vows to fight 'till the last ball':
Pakistan’s opposition
leader Imran Khan on Thursday hardened his stand by withdrawing from dialogue
with the government and vowed to continue his fight till the end, apparently
buoyed by the Supreme Court’s washing off its hands of the protests.
Pakiatan Awami
Tehreek chief cleric Tahirul Qadri whose thousands of supporters have combined
with Khan’s supporters also stayed put in the ‘Red Zone’ where important
government buildings including the Parliament House, Prime Minister House,
President House, the Supreme Court besides the embassies are housed.Khan
relented late Wednesday night from his ‘no-talks’ position until Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif resigns. A team of\ his party leaders held discussions with the
government representatives.
The Pakistan Supreme
Court on Thursday rejected the government’s plea for an order for the eviction
of protesters besieging the Parliament, saying it is an administrative matter
and should be dealt with in accordance with the law.
Emboldened by the
court’s stand, Khan upped the ante against the Sharif government, announcing
that he would not talk to the government until the PM resigns.
A visibly charged PTI
Chairman Khan on Thursday afternoon called on his supporters to expand the
civil disobedience movement into all the provinces. “It is our democratic right
to protest...we are not breaking any laws. I request the Supreme Court to have
these containers removed so that life can return to normal,” said Khan,
addressing his supporters camped outside the parliament.PAT whose leaders met
with government representatives on Wednesday held no fresh talks on
Thursday.The talks with the government are over. How can these talks proceed
when we first want resignation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif?” Khan said.
Khan asked his
supporters from all provinces to converge in Islamabad. He vowed to fight
“until the last ball”. “PTI suspends negotiations with the government
committee. Their attitude is totally opposite compared to their dialogues
call,” the PTI party said on Twitter.PTI leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi said the
decision had been conveyed to Governor Punjab Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar and it
was taken because the government’s actions were opposite to their dialogue
call. “Police has begun crackdown against PTI workers and is once again
blocking roads in Islamabad,” he said.Qureshi’s statement came as the
government team reached a local hotel here to hold talks with the PTI team
which did not turn up for the meeting, Geo News reported.
6) US
journalist's brutal execution shocks the world:
The
cold-blooded murder of American journalist James Foley has sent shockwaves
around the world.
Even as
social media websites clamoured to block the execution video, leaders from
around the world have heaped scorn on the Islamic State militants.While British
Prime Minister David Cameron condemned the killing as "deeply
shocking", UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called it "an abominable
crime that underscores the campaign of terror".
Shortly
after it was confirmed that Foley had been murdered, Obama said: "ISIL
speaks for no religion. ISIL has no ideology of any value to any human beings.
Their ideology is bankrupt.""People like this ultimately fail ...
because the future is always won by those who build, not destroy. The world is
shaped by people like Jim Foley.Obama also pledged a relentless response to
"cowardly acts of violence".Shortly after Obama spoke, US central
command confirmed 14 new air strikes against Isis near the Mosul Dam, which the
Pentagon and Iraqi forces said on Tuesday was no longer under ISIS control.But
probably that's not what Michael Foley, the slain journalist’s brother,
wanted."I hope they do more for Steven Sotloff (The other captive American
journalist who was seen dressed in an orange jumpsuit like Foley in the video).
There’s more that could be done. The footprint’s been laid by some of the other
nations."
Michael
was hinting at how vastly different responses to kidnappings by US and European
governments are saving European hostages but dooming Americans.According to
reports later in the day, elite US military forces secretly invaded Syria
recently in a risky and ultimately unsuccessful attempt to free Foley.The
Guardian reported that the night-time raid involved dozens of special
operations forces from all US military services, including the 160th special
operations aviation regiment.US forces flew into Syria in defiance of air
defence batteries that senior military officials have described as highly
threatening to pilots. Modified Black Hawk helicopters were involved, and
"armed fixed-wing aircraft and drones" provided cover to forces on
the ground, the report said quoting an US administration official.Yet the
operation, which took place in an area of Syria that Obama administration
officials declined to disclose, failed when "the hostages were not present
at the targeted location," said rear admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon
press secretary.Foley first went missing in November 2012. He was last seen
alive in Aleppo, Syria, where he was covering the Syrian civil war. It wasn't
clear where he had gone or who had taken him. At that point in the conflict,
ISIS had not yet formed.
For a
long time, Foley's location was unknown. In May 2013, his family and friends
believed they had tracked him to a Syrian government jail.Foley was kidnapped
once before while he was reporting in Benghazi, Libya, and was held for 44 days
before the fall of dictator Muammar Gaddafi.Disclosure of the unsuccessful
operation may have consequences for Sotloff, whom ISIS has threatened to kill
unless the US ends its bombing campaign against it.The chilling video of the
execution, released by ISIS, begins with Obama explaining his decision to order
airstrikes in Iraq before switching to a man dressed in an orange jumpsuit
kneeling with a person dressed in black by his side."For what will happen
to me is only a result of their complacency and criminality," ABC News
reported Foley as saying in the video.
"I
wish I had more time. I wish I could have the hope of freedom of seeing my
family once again, but that ship has sailed. I guess all in all, I wish I
wasn't American."Seconds later, ABC News reported, the person dressed in
black takes out a knife and identifies himself as being with ISIS."Today
your military air force has attacked us daily," the person said.
"Your strikes have caused causalities amongst Muslims. Any attempt to deny
the Muslims their right to live in safety under Islamic caliphate will result
in the bloodshed of your people."The video then shows Foley being
beheaded.
Was that a
UFO flying over Texas?:
Several
people reported seeing a ring of blinking lights in the sky in Texas during a
recent lightning storm and have claimed that it was a UFO.Photographs and
videos of the event have been circulating on social media.
The best
footage was recorded by Houston musician Andrew Pena, who he was videoing the
spectacular lightning show while driving, the New York Post reported.The video,
which shows a circle of brightly coloured lights moving around in the sky, has
been declared both “amazing” and “nothing” by UFO-logists and sceptics alike.
“I think
the trick with UFOs is figuring out what else they could be,” Dr Carolyn
Summers, vice president for astronomy at the Houston Museum of Natural Science,
told KPRC-TV. “It’s easy to say that it could be aliens. The more people who
see it in different directions, the more likely we are to figure out where it
is, what it is, and see if we can explain it.”
However,
Tutual UFO Network chief investigator Fletcher Gray denied that it was a UFO
and dismissed the object as "no more than light trapped in the side
window" of Pena's car.
The UFO
was reportedly hovering less than 20km from the Johnson Space Centre, leading
others to speculate it could have been NASA testing its latest toy, a “supersonic
flying saucer” which was launched from Hawaii on June 28.The NASA device,
officially named Low Density Supersonic Decelerator, imitates the rapid
inflation technique of the Hawaiian puffer fish as a way to protect spacecraft
during landings.The aim is to reduce the speed of descending spacecraft, making
it easier to land on planets like Mars.Other theories include a weather
balloon, the reflection of a street light, stadium lights and an unmanned
drone. So far, there has been no official explanation from NASA.
Sports News
This Week:
1) The
England cricket team celebrate with champagne their 3-1 series win,
after
defeating India on the third day of the fifth test cricket match at Oval
cricket ground in London, Sunday, Aug. 17, 2014. Captain Alastair Cook holds
the trophy from the series.
2) Phelps
back in winners circle in international comeback:
It was
just like old times for Michael Phelps on Friday. The world's most decorated
swimmer was on the top of the podium at the Pan Pacific championships,
collecting another gold medal after a thrilling race win.
He had
just helped the Americans win the 4x200 metres freestyle relay after a titanic
struggle against Japan at Australia's Gold Coast on a rainy winter's night.For
a man who has won a mind-boggling 18 Olympic gold medals, it might normally
have seemed like just another day at the office, but not this time.The
importance was not lost on Phelps, who was swimming at his first international
meet in two years in an event the Americans have not lost for over a decade.“I
think being able to hold that tradition for this long and being able to get
back on the podium, it feels amazing," Phelps told reporters.
"We
all know that by no means is this going to get any easier over the next two
years, and I think having a close one like this should propel us into the
Worlds next summer, and hopefully on to Rio from there."Comebacks have
invariably been cruel to swimmers and even Phelps has struggled to get near his
best but Friday was a good day for the 28-year-old.
3)
Djokovic, Federer favored for grand slam sequel:
Top seed
Novak Djokovic and number two Roger Federer are favored to wage another title
showdown in the last grand slam of 2014, although some emerging young guns have
other ideas for the U.S. Open starting on Monday.
Djokovic
and Federer's path to a championship clash could be less troubled than usual
with the absence of last year’s winner Rafa Nadal due to a wrist injury, and
the sub-par form of 2012 champion Andy Murray since last year’s back surgery.
If the
leading men star in the Arthur Ashe Stadium final, it would provide a sequel to
their five-set thriller at the All England Club in which a teary-eyed Djokovic
hoisted the Wimbledon trophy.
Both
claim to be overdue for another taste of triumph at Flushing Meadows.Djokovic
counts just one U.S. title (2011) in his haul of seven grand slams despite
reaching the Flushing Meadows final in each of the last four years and five
times overall.
Federer,
33, has five successive U.S. Open crowns from 2004 but has gone without since.
He extended his grand slam title record collection to 17 by winning the 2012
Wimbledon, which stands as his only slam triumph in his last 18 tries.
Lying in
wait for another chance to spring a surprise and trumpet their arrival on the
main stage are promising players who made a big splash in London.Seeded fifth
is hard-serving Canadian Milos Raonic, a Wimbledon semi-finalist along with
fellow 23-year-old Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria, seeded seventh in Flushing
Meadows, where girlfriend Maria Sharapova will likely be seen cheering him on.
Also
hoping to follow up the fireworks he set off at the last major is 19-year-old
Australian Nick Kyrgios, who ousted Nadal in the fourth round before falling to
Raonic in the quarters at Wimbledon.Among the veterans, Australian Open
champion Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland is seeded third ahead of Spaniard David
Ferrer, with Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic at number six, two places
ahead of Murray, who has shown hints of a return to form of late.
4)
Bouchard, Raonic make final push to summit at U.S. Open:
Canada
has long been a global ice hockey super power, toasted a Formula One driver's
champion and at different times has laid claim to the world's fastest man.The
Maple Leaf has been waved by a Masters champion and produced most valuable
players in the National Basketball Association, National Hockey League and
Major League Baseball.
But one
sporting peak no Canadian has yet to reach is the top of the tennis mountain as
a grand slam winner.Faced with some Everest sized hype, Canadians Eugenie
Bouchard and Milos Raonic have set up base camps within sight of that lofty
goal and head into the U.S. Open next week prepared to make a final push for
the summit.By reaching the Wimbledon final Bouchard has already climbed higher
than any Canadian before her after semi-final appearances at the French and
Australian Opens - losing to eventual champions on both occasions - had already
marked her as a rising star.
5) Uruguay
begin renewal without Lugano and Forlan:
The
disgraced Luis Suarez and ageing veterans Diego Forlan and Diego Lugano are all
missing from the first post-World Cup Uruguay squad announced on Thursday for
two friendlies in Asia next month.Suarez is technically allowed to play
friendlies after an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport succeeded in
getting some terms of his four-month suspension from all football-related
activity changed.But the striker has seen only 15 minutes of action in a
Barcelona friendly since being handed a nine-match ban from competitive
internationals after biting an opponent during a World Cup match in June.
Uruguay
play Japan on Sept. 5 in Sapporo and South Korea in Seoul four days later.There
was no official reason given for the absence of World Cup captain Lugano,
released by West Bromwich Albion in May, and striker Forlan, now playing in the
J-League.They have not formally retired but with both well into their thirties,
their international careers are all but over after Uruguay’s last-16
elimination at the Brazil finals.Coach Oscar Tabarez, who picked the squad, is
close to being confirmed as staying in charge for another four-year World Cup
cycle but since he is recovering from back surgery, the team will travel with
Uruguay under-20s coach Fabian Coito as caretaker.There are 18 members of
Uruguay’s World Cup squad among the 29 players named but seven of the other 11
had never before been called up as Uruguay begin the process of renewal.
The other
missing players from the June-July Brazil tournament are midfielders Diego
Perez of Bologna and Southampton’s Gaston Ramirez.Uruguay, whose next objective
is to defend their Copa America title in Chile next year, also meet Saudi
Arabia in a friendly in Jeddah on Oct. 10.
Squad:
Goalkeepers:
Fernando Muslera (Galatasaray), Martin Silva (Vasco Da Gama), Martin Campana
(Defensor Sporting), Rodrigo Munoz (Libertad)
Defenders:
Diego Godin, Jose Maria Gimenez (both Atletico Madrid), Sebastian Coates
(Liverpool), Emiliano Velazquez (Danubio), Martin Caceres (Juventus), Alvaro
Pereira (Sao Paulo), Mathias Corujo (Universidad de Chile), Matias Aguirregaray
(Estudiantes), Jorge Fucile (Nacional), Alejandro Silva (Penarol), Maximiliano
Pereira (Benfica)
Midfielders:
Walter Gargano (Napoli), Egidio Arevalo Rios (UANL Tigres), Alvaro Gonzalez
(Lazio), Diego Laxalt (Empoli), Camilo Mayada (Danubio), Jorge Rodriguez
(Penarol), Nicolas Lodeiro (Corinthians), Cristian Rodriguez (Atletico Madrid),
Giorgian De Arrascaeta (Defensor Sporting)
Forwards:
Edinson Cavani (Paris St-Germain), Cristhian Stuani (Espanyol), Abel Hernandez
(Palermo), Diego Rolan (Bordeaux), Jonathan Rodriguez (Penarol)
Book Of
This Week:
Beloved
(novel):Author :Toni Morrison
Beloved
is a novel by the American writer Toni Morrison. Set after the American Civil
War (1861–1865), it is inspired by the story of an African-American slave,
Margaret Garner, who temporarily escaped slavery during 1856 in Kentucky by
fleeing to Ohio, a free state. A posse arrived to retrieve her and her children
under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which gave slave owners the right to
pursue slaves across state borders. Margaret killed her two-year-old daughter
rather than allow her to be recaptured.
Beloved's
main character, Sethe, kills her daughter and tries to kill her other three
children when a posse arrives in Ohio to return them to Sweet Home, the
Kentucky plantation from which Sethe recently fled. A woman presumed to be her
daughter, called Beloved, returns years later to haunt Sethe's home at 124
Bluestone Road, Cincinnati. The story opens with an introduction to the ghost:
"124 was spiteful. Full of a baby's venom."
The novel
won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988 and was a finalist for the 1987
National Book Award. It was adapted during 1998 into a movie of the same name
starring Oprah Winfrey. A New York Times survey of writers and literary critics
ranked it the best work of American fiction from 1981 to 2006.The book's
epigraph reads "Sixty Million and more," dedicated to the Africans
and their descendants who died as a result of the Atlantic slave trade
Toni
Morrison
(born
Chloe Ardelia Wofford; February 18, 1931) is an American novelist, editor, and
professor. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and
richly detailed characters. Among her best known novels are The Bluest Eye,
Sula, Song of Solomon and Beloved. She also was commissioned to write the
libretto for a new opera, Margaret Garner, first performed in 2005. She won the
Pulitzer Prize in 1988 for Beloved and the Nobel Prize in 1993. On 29 May 2012,
she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
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