Women risk cancer returning by stopping Tamoxifen early

Women who cut short their Tamoxifen treatment before the recommended full five years risk their breast cancer returning, experts warn. Tamoxifen is used to treat tumours fuelled by the female hormone oestrogen Up to half of women stop taking the drug prematurely but in doing so significantly reduce their survival odds, says Cancer Research UK. Data shows for every hundred women who complete the full course, six fewer will have a recurrence of their cancer. Tamoxifen is usually given to women with oestrogen-sensitive breast cancer. This means that their tumour's growth is fed by the female hormone, and tamoxifen can help by blocking oestrogen. But the treatment can cause unpleasant side effects like...

Read more »

Posted in: Health

Barack Obama's top secret tent By Rajini Vaidyanathan

President Obama with members of his team in a mobile war room in a tent A rare photo, released by the White House, shows Barack Obama fielding calls from a tent in Brazil, to keep up with events in Libya. The tent is a mobile secure area known as a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, designed to allow officials to have top secret discussions on the move. They are one of the safest places in the world to have a conversation. Designed to withstand eavesdropping, phone tapping and computer hacking, Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities - also known as SCIFs - are protected areas where classified conversations can be held. They can be permanent enclosures within a building, or mobile areas set up...

Read more »

Posted in: Politics

50% of Pregnant Women in Canada are Overweight/Obese: New Book Offers Advice for Plus-Size Moms-to-Be

50% of Pregnant Women in Canada are Overweight/Obese: New Book Offers Advice for Plus-Size Moms-to-Be According to recent findings by Statistics Canada, approximately half of all Canadian women of childbearing age are considered overweight or obese. While women are advised to lose excess weight before conceiving, North American researchers confirm that rising overweight/obesity rates among pregnant women mirror that of the general population. In other words, many Canadian women are entering pregnancy far from their ideal weight. What can “plus-size” moms-to-be expect when they are expecting? According to Dr. Cornelia van der Ziel, Harvard Medical School clinical instructor in obstetrics and gynecology, “overweight and obese women, as a group, are at...

Read more »

Posted in: Health

Full face transplant for US man

A 25-year-old man horrifically injured by an accident involving an electric power line has received a full face transplant in the US. Dallas Wiens: "Not being able to kiss my daughter is frustrating" It took a team of more than 30 doctors over 15 hours to give Dallas Wiens his new face. Surgeons who carried out the operation at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston have hailed it a success. It follows nearly a year to the day after the world's first full face transplant in Spain. Mr Wiens, from Texas, was injured in November 2008 when his head touched a high voltage electrical wire. The burns erased all of his facial features. The surgery has replaced the nose, lips, skin and muscles as well...

Read more »

Posted in: Health

Gaza: Children die in Israeli attack, say doctors

Two Israeli military strikes on Gaza have killed eight Palestinians, medical officials say. Several Palestinians were also injured in Tuesday's attacks Two were under 18, while four were members of the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, according to the ruling Hamas militant group. Israel apologised for the civilian casualties but said it would defend itself against rocket fire from Gaza, which has increased in recent days. Militants fired a barrage of rockets into Israel on Saturday. Serious exchanges Four people were killed, including two children, when an Israeli tank shell hit a home on the outskirts of Gaza City. The four - including a grandfather and two of his grandsons - were outside playing...

Read more »

Posted in: Politics,Society

Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh warns of coup

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has said there could be a civil war in Yemen because of attempts to stage what he called a coup against his rule. President Saleh remains defiant in the face of protests and resignations "Those who want to climb up to power through coups should know that this is out of the question. The homeland will not be stable, there will be a civil war, a bloody war," he said. Army officers expressed their support for pro-democracy protesters on Monday. A senior EU official has predicted that the president "won't last long". Call for dialogue Hugues Mingarelli, of the European External Action Service's Middle East office, told a European Parliament committee the Yemeni leader...

Read more »

Posted in: Politics

Defiant Gaddafi pledges victory

Col Gaddafi appeared on Libyan TV making a defiant address to supporters The Libyan leader, Col Muammar Gaddafi, has appeared at a site in Tripoli that was recently attacked by the Western coalition and told his followers: "We will be victorious in the end." In a brief speech at the Bab al-Aziziya compound, targeted on Sunday, he said "all Islamic armies" should join him. Forces loyal to Col Gaddafi are engaged in fierce fighting with rebels. The coalition is enforcing a UN Security Council resolution to protect civilians and set up a no-fly zone. Major partners in the alliance have been thrashing out a new command structure that will tone down US leadership. Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Hillary...

Read more »

Posted in: Politics

Lights restored at Japan nuclear reactor

Deserted streets and just a handful of people remain inside the nuclear exclusion zone Lighting has been restored in the control room of one of the most badly-damaged reactors at Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear plant, officials say. It is hoped the development will speed up work to restore cooling systems vital for stabilising the reactor. Meanwhile, the UN's nuclear watchdog says radiation is still leaking from the quake-hit plant, but scientists are unsure exactly where it is coming from. Japan estimates more than 21,000 people died in the 11 March quake and tsunami. The lights came back on in the control centre of reactor 3, hours after power cables were connected to all six reactors for the first...

Read more »

Posted in: Health,Society

Japan radioactive cloud yet to reach Vietnam

Radioactive cloud (for illustration purposes only) The radioactive cloud from Japan’s Fukushima 1 nuclear power plant that suffered explosions several days ago has been moving southeast since March 19 but it has yet to reach Vietnam.  This is a confirmation from the Vietnamese Ministry of Science and Technology yesterday.  Under the Prime Minister’s instructions, the ministry has ordered its affiliates to conduct radioactive tests on Vietnamese citizens returning home from Japan.  The ministry is coordinating with other relevant agencies in making plans to cope with the impacts of the harmful cloud in case it reaches Vietnam in the coming time.  Four Vietnamese who retuned home from Japan were tested for radioactive...

Read more »

Posted in: Health,Society

Foreign man sentenced to death over drugs transportation

The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court Tuesday sentenced Michael Ikenna Nduanya, a 34-year-old Nigerian, to death and his wife Nguyen Thi Hai Anh, a 27-year-old Vietnamese from Dak Lak Province, to life imprisonment after the couple being caught red-handed ‘illegally transporting drugs.’ According to the indictment by the Supreme People's Procuracy, a friend living in India offered in 2008 to pay Michael Ikenna Nduanya US$1,000 each time to transport drugs. Nduanya turned the friend down, as he knew Vietnam severely cracks down on illegal transportation of drugs. Knowing Nduanya had a roommate, the friend then succeeded in persuading the two to join the affairs. The roommates would accordingly take...

Read more »

Posted in: Society

Verizon 4G Phones: HTC Thunderbolt or Droid Bionic?

By JR Raphael, PCWorld   Fasten your seatbelts, friends: Verizon's first 4G smartphone has finally arrived. The long-anticipated HTC Thunderbolt launches this Thursday, March 17. It'll sell through Verizon for $250 with a two-year contract (though you can get it for $200 if you buy from a third-party retailer like Wirefly). The Thunderbolt has plenty going for it: Running Google's Android operating system, the phone boasts a giant 4.3-inch display and a look similar to HTC's popular EVO 4G device. Like the EVO, the Thunderbolt even comes with a kickstand. The Thunderbolt has more horsepower than its Sprint-based predecessor, mind you -- 768MB of RAM compared to the EVO's 512MB -- and a good bit more storage space,...

Read more »

Posted in: Entertainment

Bahrain and Iran expel diplomats

Authorities in Bahrain have been trying to control anti-government protests Iran has expelled a Bahraini diplomat in a retaliatory move, amid an ongoing dispute linked to anti-government protests in Bahrain. Earlier, Bahrain had expelled the Iranian charge d'affaires. Tehran has criticised Bahrain's Sunni rulers for using troops from other Gulf states to help control mainly Shia protesters. Bahrain has accused Iran, the main Shia power in the Gulf, of interference in its internal affairs. Both countries withdrew their ambassadors earlier this week. "After the illogical and incomprehensible actions of the Bahrain government, especially expelling one of our diplomats, as a reprisal the attache at Bahrain's embassy has been summoned...

Read more »

Posted in: Politics

CTIA Spring 2011: Hot Smartphones Galore!

If you're in the market for a phone this spring, you're going to have quite a hard time making a decision. Remember all those cool phones we saw at CES back in January and last month at Mobile World Congress? And do you recall that virtually none of them had pricing or availability attached to them? Well, CTIA Spring is when all this information is released. You'll also see a lot of familiar phones launched overseas get rebranded for US carriers. Here's what to expect from the Big Four carriers. Verizon Besides the HTC Thunderbolt, the Motorola Droid Bionic was one of Big Red's hottest phones at CES. The Thunderbolt already came out this week, and we are still waiting to hear more on the Bionic. I have a feeling we might find...

Read more »

Posted in: Entertainment

AT&T to buy T-Mobile USA making it top US wireless firm

The combined mobile phone company would knock Verizon Wireless off the top spot in the US AT&T says it will buy rival T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom AG for $39bn (£24bn) making it the largest mobile phone company in the US. The deal would give AT&T about 43% market share, putting it well ahead of industry leader Verizon Wireless. T-Mobile customers will get access to AT&T's phone lineup, including the iPhone. The deal would reduce competition in the US mobile phone industry and needs approval from regulators. AT&T is looking to increase its network capacity to handle the rapidly increasing consumer demand for videos and data. Regulatory approval However, analysts said that the deal may prove controversial. Consumer...

Read more »

Posted in: Business

Obama praises Brazil democracy in Rio speech

Mr Obama was treated to a capoeira display during his visit to the City of God US President Barack Obama has praised Brazil as a model of democracy, during a visit to the country. Mr Obama - on a five-day Latin American tour - said Brazil's flourishing economy and growing democracy were a model for countries in the Middle East. Earlier, the US president visited the City of God, one of Rio de Janeiro's shantytowns, where he met local people. The visit to Rio follow talks in Brasilia with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff that focused on trade. Mr Obama, whose visit is being partly overshadowed by events in Libya, is to travel on to Chile and El Salvador. In his speech, Mr Obama referred to Libya,...

Read more »

Posted in: Politics,Society

US 'will hand over' Libya command

Libya said it was ordering all its forces to observe an immediate ceasefire The US has said it expects to hand over control of military operations against Libya within days to either a UK-France coalition or Nato. Meanwhile in Tripoli, journalists were shown a ruined building in Col Muammar Gaddafi's compound that officials said was hit by a missile late on Sunday. The UK said it again launched Tomahawk missiles as part of a co-ordinated strike on Libyan air defences. Earlier, the Pentagon said Libya's air defences were effectively degraded. US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said that while the US will continue to play a part in military operations against Col Gaddafi's forces, it "will not have the pre-eminent role". "I think...

Read more »

Posted in: Politics

90% Vietnam trains directly drop feces on tracks

Only 10% of trains in Vietnam have modern toilets equipped with waste reservoirs while the rest just have simple Hopper toilets that directly release human feces onto tracks. The latter toilets are simply round holes cut through the floor of the train. The figures were announced yesterday by the Steering Committee on Railway Hygiene at a conference in Nha Trang. The Committee has instructed relevant agencies to install composting rest rooms that can hold in human wastes for later treatment at future trains. The conference is meant to lay out a hygiene roadmap for the railway sector towards 2015. Nguyen Minh Dao, a senior official from the state-run Viet Nam Railway Corp., once told Sai Gon Giai Phong...

Read more »

Posted in: Society

Japan shows Samurai spirit amid horrible disaster

There is stoicism. There is dignity. There is even an unthinkable resilience in the face of major disaster. This battered nation has acquitted itself admirably. Faced with the worst disaster to hit their densely populated island since World War II, the Japanese have shown an admirable stoicism and dignity that has had the world agape with admiration. After Friday's 9.0 magnitude earthquake and a tsunami, four nuclear reactors are in crisis and the Nikkei in freefall. The economy is teetering, thousands are dead, many more are missing, presumed dead, and millions are homeless, without water or electricity. Yet vignettes from around the country show only co-operation between people, generosity, order,...

Read more »

Posted in: Experimental Society,Society

Western attacks kill 48 in Libya: state TV

Western forces hit targets along the Libyan coast on Saturday, using strikes from air and sea to force Muammar Gaddafi's troops to cease fire and end attacks on civilians. * U.S. official says coalition targeting air defences * French plane fires the first shots * Libyan TV says 48 killed, 150 wounded in air strikes * Coalition includes Britain, U.S., France, Italy, Canada Libyan state television said 48 people had been killed and 150 wounded in the allied air strikes. It also said there had been a fresh wave of strikes on Tripoli early on Sunday. There was no way to independently verify the claims. CBS News on its website said on Sunday that three U.S. B-2 stealth bombers had dropped 40 bombs on a "major Libyan airfield" that...

Read more »

Posted in: Politics