Macedonian Press Agency
TWO RENAULT MODELS RECALLED
Athens, 22 August 2005 (14:42 UTC+2)
A recall program for Renault models Clio II and Modus is underway by the automobile manufacturer RENAULT SAS through the RAPEX system, announced Ministry of Development general secretary Athanasios Skordas.
The recall concerns model Clio II, a total of 3,891 cars, built in the period May 8, 2003 - November 18, 2004 because of a short-circuit risk in the steering wheel compartment. Also, it concerns the Renault Modus, a total of 596 cars, built before April 5, 2005 which can become difficult to control because of steering wheel assembly errors.
http://www.mpa.gr/article.html?doc_id=541346
GREECE: THE LOWEST GAS PRICE IN EUROPE
Athens, 23 August 2005 (13:32 UTC+2)
Greece had the lowest gas price and the second lowest diesel price in Europe last July, according to figures provided by the Greek Automobile Club, ELPA, the International Association of Tourism, AIT, and the European Road Information Center, ERIC, in Geneva.
Based on the figures provided (price samples collected on July 18, 2005 in all European countries), Greece had the lowest price for unleaded gas -average price of 0.90 euros a litre- and the second lowest average price in diesel namely, 0.88 euros a litre compared to 0.87 euros a litre in Luxembourg.
http://www.mpa.gr/article.html?doc_id=541478
NINE INDICTMENTS FOR FIXED TELE-GAMES
Thessaloniki, 24 August 2005 (14:14 UTC+2)
Nine individuals are being accused of fraud concerning fixed tele-games in Thessaloniki that befooled thousands of unsuspecting private television channel viewers.
According to Thessaloniki daily Angelioforos, the nine individuals involved in the scam are accused of committing fraud and forming a criminal organization. Allegedly, the turnover in one year that the scam lasted reached 10 million euros.
Based on the indictments, thousands of television viewers, who tried to call in order to play in the game and win money prizes, were the victims of a fraud because they later had to pay huge telephone bills because of the fact that they were put on hold indefinitely and never had the chance to actually play in the tele-game.
http://www.mpa.gr/article.html?doc_id=541603
The Miami Herald
Katrina's outlying squalls reach South Florida
By MARTIN MERZER, CURTIS MORGAN AND DAVID OVALLE
mmerzer@herald.com
The leading edge of Tropical Storm Katrina reached South Florida this morning and forecasters said severe squalls should begin by mid-afternoon. The center of the slow-moving, rain-intensive system could reach land -- probably in Broward County and possibly as a hurricane -- around 7 p.m. tonight.
But Katrina's center was surrounded by multiple bands of rain and wind, and it seemed to be strengthening. Regardless of the precise site of landfall, forecasters warned the entire region to prepare for gusty wind and a severe soaking, with some areas receiving a foot or more of rain.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12472628.htm
U.S. hotel firm's land seized only recently
It turns out that Fidel Castro's government didn't seize all foreign-owned property decades ago. Land owned by a U.S. firm was taken only recently.
BY FRANCES ROBLES
frobles@herald.com
Four decades after Fidel Castro's government had apparently seized all foreign-owned properties in Cuba, it now turns out that a U.S. telephone company retained some 400 acres of land in and around Havana until just two years ago.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12470225.htm
Pentagon orders 1,500 more troops to Iraq
JOHN J. LUMPKIN
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon has ordered 1,500 paratroopers to Iraq to provide security in advance of two upcoming national votes, the military announced Wednesday.
Two infantry battalions from the 82nd Airborne Division will deploy to Iraq before the scheduled Oct. 15 referendum on the proposed constitution, and remain through the December national elections, the Pentagon said in a statement.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12466933.htm
Growing hazards endanger coral reefs
OUR OPINION: FLORIDA'S UNIQUE RESOURCE NEEDS MORE PROTECTIONS
Climate change, coral-bleaching disease, coastal development, landside pollution, overfishing, ship groundings -- these are the hazards contributing to the decline of Florida's coral reefs, according to a new study by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration. That decline is costly.
The reefs that fringe our shoreline from Palm Beach to Key West bring in billions of dollars annually through recreational diving and sport fishing. Protecting our reefs, unique in the continental United States, must be a priority for Florida.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/12470243.htm
The People's China Daily
Full text: Gender Equality and Women's Development in China
www.chinaview.cn 2005-08-24 12:24:07
BEIJING, Aug. 24 (Xinhuanet) -- The Information Office of China's State Council on Wednesday issued a white paper titled Gender Equality and Women's Development in China. The following is the full text of the document:
Gender Equality and Women's Development in China
Information Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China
August 2005, Beijing
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-08/24/content_3396107.htm
China praised for efforts in resolving textile row
www.chinaview.cn 2005-08-25 13:57:13
BEIJING, Aug. 25 -- Supachai Panitchpakdi, director-general of the World Trade Organization, said Wednesday that China's efforts in settling the textile issue is commendable.
"First, China is trying to do self-restraint exercise," said the WTO chief in an interview with Xinhua News Agency. "I learn that China is reducing rebate or some other kinds of support to textile exporters, and sometimes even putting quotas." Second, he added, China is looking into possibilities of working with those poor countries that seemingly are being affected by any form of loss of preference that maybe related to textile.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-08/25/content_3401060.htm
Japan to build rocket unit in joint missile plan with US
www.chinaview.cn 2005-08-25 15:11:00
TOKYO, Aug. 25 (Xinhuanet) -- Japan will be engaged in building the rocket unit and the United States will be making the warhead in a joint missile defense project, Kyodo News reported Wednesday,quoting sources close to the project.
The two countries are tied up in developing for Japan a dual-level missile defense system based on current US interception missiles.
Tokyo aims to start the deployment in fiscal 2006 which begins in April.
The two countries will conclude a new pact on the project to develop the enhanced Standard Missile-3 interceptor to be deployedon an Aegis vessel after the Japanese endorses the plan at the Security Council around the end of this year, the report said.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-08/25/content_3401352.htm
Study finds link between daydreaming, Alzheimers
www.chinaview.cn 2005-08-25 10:24:35
WASHINGTON, Aug. 24 (Xinhuanet) -- The parts of brain used to muse or daydream are the same where some aged people develop Alzheimer's disease, showed a US study published Wednesday.
The study, which appears in The Journal of Neuroscience, suggests that the normal brain activity of daydreaming could trigger a life-long process that ends in Alzheimer's disease in some people.
It found the evidence of Alzheimer's disease mostly appear in the brain's "default state" areas that are involved in musing or daydreaming.
"We appear to use memory systems often in our default states. This may help us to plan and solve problems. Maybe it helps us be creative. But it may also have metabolic consequences," said lead author Randy Buckner, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Washington University in St. Louis.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-08/25/content_3400349.htm
US softens on Pyongyang's civilian nuclear capabilities
www.chinaview.cn 2005-08-24 23:42:45
WASHINGTON, Aug. 24 (Xinhuanet) -- The chief US negotiator in the six-party talks with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Tuesday that Pyongyang's demand for civilian nuclear power is not a "show-stopper" and some kind of compromise on the issue is possible, said a Washington Times report on Wednesday.
Although the chief US negotiator, Christopher Hill, insisted that the DPRK does not need nuclear energy, he indicated that the United States is trying to address the issue with more flexibilitythan before, the report said.
"I think we can come up with something. But I cannot be more specific than that because we are in the middle of a negotiation,"the report quoted Hill as saying.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-08/24/content_3400202.htm
Tibetan antelopes being menaced by poachers
www.chinaview.cn 2005-08-24 17:13:34
URUMQI, Aug. 24 (Xinhuanet) -- In spite of efforts by China and the world at large in protecting Tibetan antelopes, the rampant poaching of the rare species, still occurs in conservation zones in China's Qinghai-Tibet plateau.
Since June 2005, Swiss customhouse has seized a total of 537 pieces of shahtoosh shawls, which means 1,600 and 2,700 Tibetan antelopes have been poached, Xinhua learned Wednesday from an international conference in this Xinjiang's capital city of Urumqi.
According to figures released by the China Wildlife Conservation Association, more than 100 Tibetan antelopes were culled in April and August this year alone.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-08/24/content_3397413.htm
Human activity responsible for sixth mass extinction in history
www.chinaview.cn 2005-08-23 21:09:58
NANJING, Aug. 23 (Xinhuanet) -- Planetary collisions, volcanic eruptions and sudden releases of poisonous gases are the kinds of phenomena typically blamed for the previous mass extinctions on Earth. This time, however, the cause may be humankind.
Rapid population growth, global warming and environmental degradation have ushered in the sixth mass extinction in the Earth's geological history, scientists say.
Though less grave than the mass extinctions caused by planet collision and global volcanic eruption, mankind is "directing" a mass extinction more serious than the ones triggered by natural climate changes, said Shu Degan, a noted paleontologist with the Northwest China University.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-08/23/content_3393715.htm
Jupiter's moon more likely to harbor life: scientists
www.chinaview.cn 2005-08-21 16:53:10
GUIYANG, Aug. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- When a spacecraft was launched to search for water and life on Mars on Aug. 12, some scientists also cast their eyes on the more remote Europa, one of Jupiter's moons, with the hope that the ice-covered satellite is more likely to harbor life than Mars -- if indeed life exists somewhere else in our Solar System.
"So far as we known, the chances to find life beyond the Earth are very, very slim, while the chances might be a little more likely in Europa than Mars," said Simon Conway Morris, a noted Professor of evolutionary palaeobiology at Cambridge University.
On Mars if there was life, it would most probably be extinct and you would need paleontologists to go to the Mars and study possible biological's structures and sediments. Only paleontologists are trained to study extinct life, he said.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-08/21/content_3384523.htm
Tanzanian president warns against politics of intolerance in Africa
www.chinaview.cn 2005-08-25 14:56:04
KAMPALA, Aug. 25 (Xinhuanet) -- Visiting Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa has warned against politics of intolerance and exclusion in Africa, stressing that the continent needs to developa synthesis based on history, experience and on global realities.
President Mkapa made the statement here on Wednesday when he delivered a farewell message to the Ugandan parliament.
He said that "the new African democracy I advocate must have atits heart the politics of tolerance and inclusion, not as a product but as a fundamental, deliberate goal and priority."
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-08/25/content_3401298.htm
Zanzibar eyes sea waves electricity
www.chinaview.cn 2005-08-25 14:16:22
DAR ES SALAAM, Aug. 25 (Xinhuanet) -- An Israeli company has contracted to conduct a feasibility study about electricity generation through sea waves on the Indian Ocean island of Zanzibar.
Suleiman Ali Juma, manager of the Zanzibar State Fuel and PowerCorporation, told the press that the Israeli company of SDA Limited is expected to start the feasibility study next month.
Zanzibar relies on thermal power generators which have proven to be costly and environmentally unfriendly.
Should the sea waves power generation technology proves viable,most Zanzibaris would benefit from cheap and reliable power supplies, said Suleiman Ali Juma.
Zanzibar, a part of the United Republic of Tanzania yet with its own president, cabinet and parliament, started its rural electrification program in 1986.
Under Phase Four of this program starting in January this year,61 more villages will get electricity with priority placed on areas with water pumping facilities and tourist-concentrated areas.Enditem
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-08/25/content_3401182.htm
Former Rwandan minister to testify in genocide court
www.chinaview.cn 2005-08-25 14:15:53
DAR ES SALAAM, Aug. 25 (Xinhuanet) -- The former Rwandan justice minister is scheduled to testify in the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), according to reports reaching here from the northern Tanzanian city of Arusha on Thursday.
Agnes Ntamabyariro is set to testify in defense of genocide suspect and former Rwandan commerce minister Justin Mugenzi.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-08/25/content_3401180.htm
UN peace mission to train DRC forces before general elections
www.chinaview.cn 2005-08-25 11:39:45
KINSHASA, Aug. 24 (Xinhuanet) -- The UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), known as MONUC, would help the country train forces to tackle possible turbulence in thegeneral elections next year, said MONUC spokesman on Wednesday.
Lt. Col. Thierry Provendier said MONUC would train nine composite brigades in the program, which would be dispatched to the eastern part of the country after a 45-day special training.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-08/25/content_3400768.htm
Annan urges more international aid to Niger
www.chinaview.cn 2005-08-25 11:38:13
LOME, Aug. 24 (Xinhuanet) --- UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan appealed for more international aid to Niger on Wednesday, describing the large-scale famine in the largely desert country as"unacceptable in the 21st century."
Annan, ending a two-day visit aimed at highlighting the plight of more than 5 million people across northwest Africa, most of them in Niger, said in Niamey, Niger's capital, that he had seen skeletal kids and how their desperate mothers plead for help.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-08/25/content_3400765.htm
Israel to build new police station between Jerusalem, settlement
www.chinaview.cn 2005-08-25 17:51:37
JERUSALEM, Aug. 25 (Xinhuanet) -- Israel will build a police station in Area E-1 between Jerusalem and the West Bank settlement Ma'aleh Adumim, the Ha'aretz daily reported on Thursday.
The Civil Administration's Planning Council in the West Bank is expected to approve the building plan in the coming days, said the report.
The station is part of an Israeli plan to connect Jerusalem and Ma'aleh Adumim, the largest West Bank settlement about 10 km east of Jerusalem.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-08/25/content_3402531.htm
University of Wisconsin-Madison
News
Gender hormones may lend to social disorder therapies
Gender politics aside, every biologist knows that men and women truly are different.
Social disorders such as autism constitute one area where those differences come to the fore: around 80 percent of all autism cases, for example, occur in men. Social play behaviors also differ greatly between the sexes—just about everyone agrees that young boys play "rougher" than girls.
Early in human development, critical brain proteins known as steroid receptors lay most of the groundwork for ensuing sexual destinies. The receptors bind to hormones such as testosterone and estrogen and set in motion gender blueprints for a lifetime.
To understand why autistic children have trouble engaging in social interactions, researchers have long observed "rough-and-tumble" play—the propensity to bite, wrestle or pounce—in juvenile rats. Scientists were convinced that testosterone solely dictated the onset of such behavior.
But researchers at UW-Madison have now made the surprising finding that estrogen-and even dopamine, a neurotransmitter-also play critical roles. The work, which appeared online Aug. 16 in the journal Endocrinology, may one day help diagnose new autism cases and potentially pave the way for new hormone-based therapeutic approaches that counteract the social difficulties of autism, says senior author Anthony Auger, an assistant professor of psychology.
"Our work points out an overlooked mechanism that controls social play behavior," says Auger. "Now if we work to understand how these biological mechanisms control social behavior, we can discern which points of the various pathways are involved in the disruption of social interactions."
Male rats are likely to engage in rough-and-tumble play almost 13 times as frequently as females, says Auger. But when the UW-Madison team treated newborn females with estrogen, they bit, boxed, pinned and pounced as frequently as the males after reaching juvenile age. The estrogen effectively "masculinized" the females, Auger says.
To the scientists' surprise, a similar result took place when they treated the females with a mimic of the neurotransmitter dopamine, a chemical messenger in the brain that regulates emotions and feelings of pleasure.
The UW-Madison study results imply that many factors, beyond steroid receptors and sex hormones, may be interrupted during the onset of social disorders, Auger says. Consequently, he hopes to focus on the potential role of another group of proteins - known as growth factors - in social play behaviors.
Other scientists who participated in the study include UW-Madison doctoral student and lead author Kristin Olesen, zoologist Catherine Auger and research specialist Heather Jessen.
File last updated: August 24, 2005
Feedback, questions or accessibility issues: comments@uc.wisc.edu
http://www.news.wisc.edu/11455.html
New Zealand Herald
Human rights groups criticise UK's 'behaviour' laws
Charles Clarke
25.08.05 1.00pm
By Nigel Morris
The UK Home Secretary faced accusations today that moves to expel radical preachers could backfire by turning extremists into martyrs and increasing prejudice against law-abiding Muslims.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10342420
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