Sampras Issues Public Request To Find Stolen Trophies

Retired tennis star Pete Sampras has exposed that most of the trophies and memorabilia collected during his 15-year career have been stolen.

Speaking to the Los Angeles Times the former World No.1 said the trophies were robbed from a public storage rental unit.

The missing items comprise two Davis Cup trophies, an Olympic ring and his first Australian Open title which he won in 1994.

He said his other 13 grand slam trophies are safe, but none of the stolen objects were insured.

The seven-time Wimbledon champion told that the items were placed in storage after he had moved homes two times.

Sampras, who retired in 2003, is publicizing the theft which took place three weeks ago in the hope that someone might offer a new lead.

Ama Crowned With The Title “Ghana’s Most Beautiful 2010”

Perhaps the most keenly contested edition since its inception three years ago, the curtain was lastly lowered on the 2010 version (Season IV) of “Ghana’s Most Beautiful” (GMB) beauty pageant, with Ama, representing the Eastern Region going home with the popular crown.

20-year-old Ama, whose full name is Nana Ama Agyeiwaa and hails from Akyem Oda in the Eastern Region, made no secret of her purpose to go home with the ultimate, when Season 4 of Ghana’s Most Beautiful beauty pageant took off in August this year.

It thus came as no surprise, when on Sunday at the National Theatre, she was able to beat the other three grand finalists – Bambi from the Central Region, Asibi from the Upper East Region and Chaana from the Upper West Region with 30.34%, to win the crown, KIA Picanto and cheque for GH¢5,000 among others, which were at stake.

Past winners of GMB are Ama from the Central Region in 2007, the Greater Accra Region representative, Adoley in 2008 and Nasara as of the Northern Region in 2009.

First Multi Format Microchip Awarded Prestigious Prize

A Cambridge company has been awarded the esteemed Coup de Coeur prize at the Franco British Business Awards.

SureFlap Company behind the first multi-format microchip cat flap – was picked by the judges as the entry with the most scientific flair.

The inventive product has attracted a growing list of French customers and the Dry Drayton company is now setting up a French language customer service telephone line to support them.

One of the judges – Barbara Habberjam, director for trade and investment at the British Embassy in Paris – said: “SureFlap is a well-deserved winner of the Coup de Coeur award for its technological flair and modernization, and its targeted and determined approach to the French market. There is valid scope for the product in a nation of pet lovers like France.”

Microchipping is designed to assist reunite lost pets with their owners, but Cottenham physicist Dr Nick Hill saw the potential to use this exclusive identifier within a cat flap so that it only opens for a specified animal.

The device recognizes all the common microchip formats used to spot pets throughout Europe – it has seen strong sales in Germany and the Netherlands, as well as France.

Marketing manager Judith Bank said: “The French market has been particularly receptive to the design features of SureFlap and to be recognised in this way is a valuable endorsement.'

Michael Leads Alfred Dunhill Championship

South African Anthony Michael continues to lead the Alfred Dunhill Championship following the second round at the Leopard Creek Country Club.

Michael posted a three-under-par round of 69 for a 36-hole total of 135, to stay clear of Englishman Robert Rock (70) and compatriots Alex Haindl -- who carded a best-of-the-day 66 -- and Dawie van der Walt (70).

However, there was dissatisfaction for British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen, who missed the cut after adding a 71 to his opening round 76.

Oosthuizen has been wearing a brace on his leg after tearing ankle ligaments while hunting three months ago, and this newest setback follows his poor showing in last weekend's Sun City Challenge, where he was the only one of the 12 competitors to finish over par.

The event is co-sanctioned by the European Tour and South African Sunshine Tour and is the opening competition in the 2011 Race to Dubai.

Meanwhile, Denmark's Iben Tinning and England's Melissa Reid share a one-stroke lead heading into the final round of the Dubai Ladies Masters.

The pair are tied on 208 (-8) after Reid carded a third round 68 and Tinning went around the Majlis course at Emirates Golf Club in 69.

Law Student Crowned Great Britain 2010

A law student proved she had both brains and beauty when she was crowned Miss Great Britain 2010. Gorgeous Amy Carrier, 20, from Liverpool, was given the name at the finals which broke 65 years of tradition as the crown was not passed on by her predecessor.

Amy Carrier, 20, was awarded the honor at a ceremony at the Grand Pier in Weston-Super-Mare. She says she wants to use the title to assist raise money and support charities and hopes to be a good ambassador and role model for all young women.

First runner-up was given to Lisa Lazarus, 23 and second runner up to Gina Basham, 22, who holds Miss Birmingham City.





















60 women from across the UK competed for the crown in front of a board of celebrity judged including Gary Cockerill; Chris de Burgh's daughter and former Miss World, Rosie Davison.

The winner of Miss GB's is given a modeling agreement to be the face of Powershot organic energy drink, a part in a movie, £5,000 cash and a photo shoot and 5-star stay on the Amalfi coast.

France Produces Two Beauty Queens

It was for the first time ever, France produced two main beauty queens from rival contests.

On Saturday, 19-year-old business school student Laury Thilleman of Brittany was chosen Miss France 2011 by viewers of television channel TF1 in the traditional competition. But the very next day, that contest’s long-time organizer, Geneviève de Fontenay was busy hosting her own spin-off: the "Miss Nationale-Geneviève de Fontenay 2011" pageant, in which Barbara Morel of Provence, also 19 years old and a student, was crowned by a jury.

Fontenay had been president of the Miss France committee since 1954, but newly sold the competition to French production company Endemol. “France deserves two winners”, Fontenay declared to the French press. “The French will decide the one they prefer. My winners have always adhered to the values I promote - dignity under all circumstances, respect of oneself and of others”.

Though she primarily remained involved in the contest’s organization, disagreements with Endemol led Fontenay to leave the contest entirely. According to widespread rumours, Fontenay felt that the company did not respect her standards for the contestants. She was said to be mainly unhappy with revelations that certain former participants had previously posed nude.

When she said that she intended to set up a rival competition, Endemol took the 78 year-old icon to court. The court ruled in Fontenay’s favour.

Kirra Titled As “Queen of The Doggie Dieters”

Cattle dog Kirra has been titled “Queen of The Doggie Dieters”, taking out the national 2010 PetFit Slimmer of the Year competition. The eight-year-old won the title after shedding 10kg, almost a third of her body weight, on the program.

Owner Melina Lowth put the dramatic weight loss down to daily walks and monitoring what Kirra ate. Kirra is the third animal from Ormeau Veterinary Surgery to win a title in the PetFit competition.

The surgery’s nutritional adviser Lisa Larman said the win was testament to how significant good nutritional advice and support was for pet owners.

``Kirra is a very commendable winner. The Lowth family, Melina, David and their two young daughters, have determinedly followed the PetFit program, putting Kirra on a strict diet and exercise regime. It’s been a real family affair with Kirra’s two young owners coming to the weigh-ins every two weeks,’’ she said.

Former The Biggest Loser competitor Bob Herdsman was at Ormeau to present the award. As part of the prize, Kirra’s owners receive a $2000 travel voucher and a year’s supply of Hill’s Pet Nutrition food.

Studies propose close to half of all Australian dogs are overweight, while most owners don’t know how much their dogs weigh or should weigh.

"Horse Dragon," Colossus Dinosaurs Discovered In Utah

A shield-toothed horse-dragon may sound like a fabulous creature, but the newly described dinosaur once roamed the U.S. West, a new study says.

The 125-million-year-old herbivore Hippodraco scutodens whose partial skull and bones were unearthed in 2004 in eastern Utah has a long, low skull like a horse's and a mouth filled with shield-shaped teeth.

Hippo and draco are Latin for "horse" and "dragon," respectively, while scutum means "oblong shield" and dens means "tooth."

Also revealed newly, fossils of another newly described species from the same time period, Iguanacolossus fortis, were found in 2005 not far from Hippodraco.

That "ponderous beast" is named for its comparatively large size—about 30 feet (9 meters) long, compared with Hippodraco's 15 feet (4.5 meters), according to the study.

Iguanacolossus's teeth look like those of Iguanodon, a related, 33-foot (10-meter) North American herbivore that likely lived a few million years before Hippodraco.

Both of the newfound dinosaurs are iguanodonts, an "tremendously successful" group of plant-eaters that expanded worldwide during the early Cretaceous period, the study team wrote.

Despite their abundance, North American iguanodonts from this period are rare in the fossil record except in one Utah rock formation, which spans about 40 million years and contains fossils of many types of creatures, according to study leader Andrew McDonald, a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania.

"They're part of this actually interesting window into the early Cretaceous that's been emerging in western North America during the past two decades," McDonald said.

"They're filling in another chapter of what will ultimately be a complete and intricate story."

World's Largest Airship To Be Hosted By NASA

If you like big and green, NASA's Ames Research Center will shortly have something for you: the world's largest and greenest airship.

The space agency announced that the Mountain View, Calif., research center's Moffett Field will soon play host to a mammoth 265-foot-long and 65-foot-diameter airship from Kellyton, Ala.'s E-Green Technologies. The Bullet Class 580 will be developed and tested at Ames in 24,000 square feet of Ames' well-known Hangar 2.

The new airship, which has a planned first flight date of early 2011, is probable to run on algae-based biofuel, and fly at speeds of up to 75 miles an hour at altitudes of up to 20,000 feet.

Ames and Moffett Field are becoming a hotbed for airships. Already, the capacity is the home of Airship Ventures, and its own giant zeppelin. And, of course, Moffett Field has a storied history of hosting airships, stretching back to 1933, when the U.S. Navy's Zeppelin ZRS-5 785-foot-long zeppelin resided there.

The E-Green Technologies Bullet Class 580 is expected to fly with "a joint NASA Langley Research Center and Old Dominion University payload, the Radar Oxygen Barometric Sensor Project, a remote sensing instrument for measuring barometric pressure at sea level-an important meteorological measurement in the calculation and forecasting of tropical storms and hurricanes."

Graeme McDowell And Martin Kaymer Share Top Award

European Ryder Cup teammates Graeme McDowell and Martin Kaymer have together won the 2010 European Tour Golfer of the Year award the first time the honor has been shared in its 26-year history.

Both players enjoyed outstanding seasons, with 25-year-old German Kaymer wiining the U.S. PGA designation, as well as pipping Northern Irishman McDowell to the Race to Dubai money list title.

Meanwhile, 31-year-old McDowell also won his first major - the U.S. Open -and sunk the winning putt that gave Europe victory over the American in the Ryder Cup.

McDowell told the official European Tour website: "I am truly humbled to get this coveted award. It is the icing on the cake on what has been a very unique year for myself, Martin and everyone involved in European golf.

"It is an honor to share this prize with a player of Martin's caliber. He is one of the best players of our generation and I am confident will enjoy many more successes in the years to come."

Kaymer echoed those sentiments, adding: "This has been a really great year for me and winning this award is the perfect ending.

"It is credit for my performances in 2010 and to be voted for by the golfing media, the people who watch and report on our sport throughout the year, makes me feel very proud."

Woman Gives Birth In MRI Machine For The First Time In The World

Doctors at a hospital in Berlin, Germany have pulled off a world first by creating MRI images of a lady giving birth, The Local Newspaper reported.

A team of obstetricians, radiologists and engineers at Charité Hospital have spent the last two years creating an “open” MRI scanner that permits a pregnant woman to fit fully into the machine to give birth. Traditional MRI machines appear like long, narrow tunnels.

Researchers hope the new machine will allow them to study in “greater detail” how the baby moves through the birth canal, which should assist them understand why a growing number of women end up needing a caesarean section.

For the first time we can obviously see the mechanics of a vaginal delivery. For years, obstetricians have relied on very crude methods of understanding complications like cephalopelvic disproportion (CPD), which translates when the baby fails to fall into the birth canal and there is a rest in cervical dilatation, which ultimately leads to a C-section.”

“They never fully explain why some women are able to deliver 10-pound babies while others can not deliver 7-pound babies,” Dr. Manny Alvarez said.

Another immediate advantage to this technology is that it could also help better explain shoulder dystocia.

“This is a difficulty that could lead an infant to be significantly damaged at the time of vaginal birth,” Alvarez said. “Shoulder dystocia is when a baby’s head delivers through the vagina, however the shoulders get impacted behind the mother’s pelvic bone and it’s very difficult to guess. I think using this technology will allow us to have a better understanding of this process long-term.”

Here in the U.S., an predictable 30 percent of pregnant women deliver via caesarean section.

A hospital spokesman said the birth that took place in the new scanner went smoothly, and both the mother and baby are in good physical condition.

MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) uses a magnetic field and radio waves to create complete images of the organs and tissues. Doctors frequently use them to help diagnose conditions such as aneurysms, spinal cord injuries and tumors, as well as back and joint injuries.

Angelina Jolie Introduces The World The Dazzling Sweater Gown

All of us would have heard about Sweater dress but not sweater gown. Angelina Jolie wore a Versace sweater gown to the New York premiere of The Tourist.

The floor-length ivory dress has a plunging neckline and a gorgeously high thigh slit. It also has extensive sleeves and is made of angora. So it’s kind of a vixen/prude hybrid that is also season appropriate.

The Hollywood actress plays upper class English lady Elise in the new movie, opposite Johnny Depp. And the Oscar-winner reveals she studied etiquette and learned to move with poise to make her portrayal precise.

Facebook Newspaper “PostPost” Launched

PostPost is a new “social newspaper” from TigerLogic that has just been deployed for Facebook. The application basically takes your newsfeed and displays it in a more controllable way. It takes your links, photos, and videos, and compiles them into a legible format, sort of like a newsletter.

TigerLogic is a rapid application deployment solutions company that developed PostPost, which also uses Yolink search API so that users can simply locate passed backlinks and context.

According to some reviews, the application marks a sign of the movement away from RSS feeds to most of these newspaper-type solutions as social media sites grow in fame.

Using the plugin jQuery Masonry, created by David DeSandro, PostPost imports links, videos, and photos from the Facebook Open Graph API. Displayed in such a way to look like a typical newspaper, the PostPost news can also be adjusted to the size of the user’s browser window for easy presentation.

PostPost has the potential to scale well as it was built using JavaScript, using the platform for the display and user controls. It also uses the existing Facebook infrastructure to host content. Using JavaScript means that PostPost can display the ‘newspaper’ in real time with the capability to fetch news as it is issued.

Using Yolink’s search integration capabilities, finding and indexing the backlinks within stories will be made much simpler. The panel that serves as the ‘newspaper’ from PostPost allows users to comment straight from the panel.

Juliana Kenny graduated from the University of Connecticut with a double degree in English and French. After managing a small corporation for two years, she joined TMC as a Web Editor for TMCnet. Juliana at present focuses on the call center and CRM industries, but she also writes about cloud telephony and network gear with softswitches.

Innovative Taxi with Global Ambitions Is The "Taxi of Tomorrow"

It's a long way from the streets of New York to the factories of Turkey, but this 5,000-mile voyage could soon be made by all of the city's iconic yellow taxis.

A glass-roofed, eco-friendly vehicle intended by Turkish automaker Karsan is among the three finalists in New York City's search for a taxicab for the future.

New York launched the "Taxi of Tomorrow" competition to find a safe, energy proficient and accessible model. The winning design will be the exclusive New York City taxi for at least 10 years, according to city officials.

Karsan's V1 is the only model that was planned from scratch for the contest.
A reflection of the country's growing automotive ambitions, it would be Turkey's first high-profile recognized vehicle if it wins.

So far all the cars Turkey makes are built under license for major manufacturers. Karsan, while not accurately a household name outside its homeland, makes vehicles for Hyundai, Peugeot, Citroen and Renault.

"Having a vehicle designed and built in Turkey being used as a New York taxi would be a very strong branding chance for the Turkish automotive industry," said Jan Nahum, executive director of Karsan.

"It's an incredible source of pride and obsession for us," he said of being named a finalist. "New York is probably the most popular and visible city in the world, and its iconic yellow taxis are seen in almost every picture."

The Karsan V1 would be wheelchair available, spacious enough to hold five passengers and a stroller, and have a glass roof to give passengers a view of New York's skyscrapers.

It could hold a gasoline, compressed natural gas or electric engine, depending on which knowledge is the greenest at any time.

The winner of the "Taxi of Tomorrow" contest will be the first ever custom-built New York taxi. There are 16 different vehicles from nine manufacturers in the present fleet of 13,000 licensed taxicabs.

New Species Of Rust Consuming Bacteria Destroying Titanic

A new bacteria has been found in the wreck of the Titanic, rising in "rusticles," icicle-like structures on the ship's rusting iron, Canadian researchers say.

The formerly unknown bacteria, Halomonas titanicae, was found in samples of rusticles taken from the Titanic by the Mir 2 robotic submersible in 1991, the BBC reported Monday.

Researchers from Dalhousie University and the Ontario Science Center in Canada and the University of Seville in Spain secluded the bacteria from those samples.

DNA sequencing showed them to be a new species of the Halomonas genus found in salt water environments.

The bacteria may shed light on the method by which rusticles form and the "recycling" that such microbes carry out on submerged metal structures, the researchers said.

Such findings could have significance to the protection of offshore oil and gas pipelines and the safe disposal at sea of ships and oil rigs, they said.

The find has been published in the journal International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology.

Michael Jackson Glove Sold For $330,000 At Auction

A single-studded glove worn by the late Michael Jackson on his "Bad" tour in the late 1980's sold for $330,000 at an auction in Beverly Hills, California. The glove was the highest-priced product to sell at the auction.

Other Jackson paraphernalia was auctioned, including a signed Jackson jacket (sold for $96,000), a fedora he wore on stage (sold for $72,000), and a outfit made for Jackson's pet chimpanzee, Bubbles.

Jackson's gloves are known to be auctioned off at high prices. Last year, a glove Jackson wore during his "Moonwalk" performance in 1983 fetched $350,000, and a glove thrown by Jackson to an Australian fan during a 1996 performance sold for almost $50,000.

The Icons and Idols sale, organized by Julien's Auctions, raised more than $700,000 at the event.

Studies Affirm That Boy Fetus Vulnerable To Stress

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, there was a small but actual rise in the number of miscarriages across the country -- especially for women who were pregnant with boys.

The finding adds to confirmation that boys are more vulnerable to stress than girls while in the womb. The study also affirms that the tragic events of 9/11 intensely affected people far beyond the limits of New York City.

"The stress of a mother affects the fetus, and it's not just these individual stressors like whether you had a divorce or lost your job, but also these ambient stressors, like the economy and September 11," said Tim Bruckner, a population health researcher at the University of California, Irvine. "The effects resonated across the whole society. We were fundamentally bereaving what we saw on TV."

In the United States an average of 105 boys are born for every 100 girls. But in times of stress, like after natural disasters or economic subside, studies have shown that the ratio drops, and fewer boys are born than expected. So far, it hasn't been clear why.

One theory is that stress harms sperm that bear Y-chromosomes. It could also be that people just have less sex during stressful times, which might favor girls. Or perhaps something happens during pregnancy to influence the birth ratio.

The tendency of an tremendously anxious woman to miscarry male babies might have developed in our ancestors as a way to maximize the number of grandchildren she would eventually have, Bruckner said.

When times were flush and food plentiful, the theory goes, women could pour more resources into their rising sons, boosting the chances that they would go on to become alpha males. In many mammals, including red deer, alpha males are more probable to find mates and have babies.

If conditions turned sour during a pregnancy, on the other hand, it might be fine for a woman to miscarry a male baby and try again next year when life is less stressful.

The new study doesn't offer any clear advice to pregnant women about how to avoid miscarriages, Bruckner said. Instead, it highlights one of the ways that collective stress can impact the health of our nation at its core.

Ancient Mega-Lake Discovered in Egyptian Desert

The hyper-arid deserts of western Egypt were once home to a verdant mega-lake fed by the Nile River's earliest annual floods.

Fossil fish and space shuttle radar images have defined the bed and drainage channels of the long lost lake, which at times was bigger than Lake Michigan, stretching as far as 250 miles west of the Nile in southwestern Egypt.

The discovery pushes back the origin of the "Gift of the Nile" floods to more than a quarter million years ago and paints a severely different picture of Egypt's environment than is seen today. It also explains the longstanding puzzle of the fossilized fish found in the desert -- fish that are of the same kinds that live in today's Nile River.

Although the topography is convincing, the evidence by itself isn't sufficient to prove a lake was there or how it was created.

Then there are the fish fossils, which are unmistakable proof for their having been Nile-related water filling the basin.

There are also archaeological sites, said Maxwell that helps to approximately confine the dates of the lake's surface elevation in more recent times. Maxwell and his coauthors Bahay Issawi and C. Vance Haynes, Jr., published their study in the December issue of the journal Geology.

The older sedimentary remnants associated with springs and archaeological artifacts seem to point to local rains or groundwater creating lakes that were smaller and smaller over time and not from the Nile, said Hill. Those sources could have, perhaps, distended the lake enough to join and flow into the Nile and permit the fish to move upstream into the lake, without Nile flooding. That would mean the water at Wadi Tushka would have been flowing east into the Nile rather than west into the lake.

In other words, the lake surely existed, but the jury is still out on how it got there.

Serbia Claim Davis Cup Defeating Nine Time Champions France

Viktor Troicki brushed aside Michael Llodra in straight sets in the deciding singles rubber as Serbia won the Davis Cup final for the first time with a 3-2 win over nine-time champions France on Sunday.

The 24-year-old was in appealing form as he won 6-2 6-2 6-3 in just two hours 13 minutes as the hosts claimed the most popular team award in tennis to spark scenes of wild celebration on and off the court at the Belgrade Arena.

Earlier, Novak Djokovic won his sixth singles tie from six matches in the Davis Cup this season as he beat France's Gael Monfils to level the tie at 2-2.

Troicki was drafted into the deciding singles in place of Janko Tipsarevic and it proved an enthused choice by Bogan Obradovic.

By contrast, French captain Guy Forget saw his gamble of picking Llodra ahead of Gilles Simon backfire as the left-hander could not cope with the violent play of Troicki, who hit a stream of winners and broke him eight times.

Precious Rhino Horns Guarded With GPS Trackers

Groups of conservationists are monitoring the rhino and have drilled into the rhino's horn, using an electric drill powered by a generator sitting on the back of a pick-up truck.

They have burrowed an eight centimeter hole, about an inch wide. Inside they embedded a silver canister and then plugged up the incision with putty and wrapped some masking tape over the rhino horn, like a make-shift bush bandage.

This radical surgery is an experiment that many in South Africa hope will help to restrict the massive surge in rhino poaching. More than 250 rhinos have been slaughtered for their horns this year, a massive increase compared to previous years.

The hope is that the technology inside the silver canister will discourage and even help to catch rhino poachers red-handed.

Stephan Britz of ProTagTor, the company that developed the technology, says the exclusive aspect of its tags is that they do not rely on cell phone reception, which is intermittent in many remote areas. Instead the tracking device is based on a combination of GPS and radio frequency technology.

The radio antennae embedded in the rhino horn sends information on the animal's location and sensors monitor its regular movement patterns. All this data is fed back a central control room, every 60 seconds.

Importantly, Britz says, "The system learns the movement pattern of a rhino and so if a rhino's movement unexpectedly changes or there is a lot of rapid, uncharacteristic movement, then an alarm SMS is triggered by the horn tag."

The control room then alerts people close to the rhino's place so they can check on the animal and, if they get there in time, apprehend any poachers.

The day we filmed, animal after animal was tagged and Britz told that across the country more of this technology will be used by game farmers and national park authorities to monitor their precious rhino stocks.

Australia Wins Two Gold At Cycling World Cup

Australia started the Melbourne round of the World Cup track cycling series with two gold medals as records tumbled at Hisense Arena.

Australian world champions Josie Tomic and Sarah Kent joint with comeback rider Kate Bates to set a national all-comers record as they won the 3000m team pursuit, pulling away from Germany in a exciting final.

Reigning world champions Cameron Meyer and Leigh Howard then won Australia's second gold medal when they starred in the 40km madison.

Their time of three minutes and 24.244 seconds is an Australian all-comers record, breaking the 3:24.771 set by New Zealand at this occasion a year ago.

Germany was second-best in qualifying with 3:24.813 and will meet Australia in final.

Israeli Forest Fire Kills Many

At least 40 people have been killed in an immense wildfire blazing its way through northern Israel, Israeli authorities.

The fire, bolstered by strong winds, blanketed Haifa, Israeli's second-biggest city, in smoke. It was not clear how the fire started, but police were investigating if the blaze started in an illegal dumping ground.

Thousands of people have been evacuated owing to the fire as firefighting equipment was scrambled to the area, according to emergency officials.

Fire-fighting aircraft pledged by different countries began to arrive in Israel Friday morning as more offers of help from around the world came in.

Several nations, including Turkey, were sending firefighting planes, Israel's Foreign Ministry said. Relations between Turkey and Israel have been tense as last spring, when Israeli commandos boarded a Turkish ship carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza, killing nine people.

In addition to Turkey's sending two planes, Greece was sending four, France two, Cyprus two, and one each from Croatia, Russia and Azebaijan, the ministry said.

Spain was sending four aircraft, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. "The essential means are not currently in the field but they are on the way here," he said, adding that he planned to demand more planes from Russia.

The United States is sending a Boeing 747 filled with chemical retardants to assist fight the flames.

'Super Telescope' Becomes Functional Soon

When the Southern African Large Telescope -- or "Salt" -- opens its shutter it offers astronomers a sight far beyond its location in the vastness of South Africa's semi desert, known as the Karoo.

Distant galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters are all in the reach of a telescope huge enough to see all the way to the edge of the observable universe, back in time to the aftermath of the big bang.

Astronomer Alexei Kniazev is one of the handful of scientists who run experiments for associate researchers from 15 institutional partners around the world.

"It's the biggest mirror in the southern hemisphere, which is 11 meters in diameter, which consists of 91 one-meter hexagonal segments," he told.

The telescope is so powerful it can record distant objects a billion times too faint to be seen with the naked eye and notice the flame of a candle on the surface of the moon. And it is perfectly positioned to unlock the universe's secrets.

"We are using this telescope to learn objects, not in our galaxy, but nearby galaxies, which is practically impossible to do with smaller telescopes," said Kniazev.
"It's using a lot of diverse technologies that have never been put together in this way before."

"In January we put both instruments on the telescope and the telescope becomes 100 percent efficient," he said.

US Scientists Reverse Aging In Mice

Harvard Scientists have reversed certain effects of the aging process­, restoring the intelligence of smell and brain function in mice, a new study shows.

The technique developed by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers can assist old mice, physiologically equivalent to 80-year-old humans, to increase certain capacities of young adults.

During the study, published in Nature, researchers genetically manipulated mice to age faster, and then used gene therapy to trigger the anti-aging enzyme telomerase to reverse age-related problems.

"We expected to see a slowing or a stabilization of aging. Instead, what we found was a vivid reversal in aging," said lead researcher Ronald DePinho, adding that his team is now assessing the result of the treatment on lifespan and its effects on living a healthier life into old age.

None of the mice developed cancer following the treatment, the study found.

Scientists stressed that the present study is an early step and more researches are needed to review its potential benefits in normal aging of mice before understanding whether the process might work in humans.