Triggered!: Jewish groups angry, in shock over Duterte’s Hitler comments

(asiatimes) - President Rodrigo Duterte’s comments citing Adolf Hitler has triggered shock and anger among Jewish groups in the United States, which will add to pressure on the U.S. government to take a tougher line with the Philippines leader.

Duterte cited Nazi leader Adolf Hitler on Friday and said he would “be happy” to exterminate three million drug users and peddlers in the country.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Digital Terrorism and Hate project, called them “outrageous.”

“Duterte owes the victims (of the Holocaust) an apology for his disgusting rhetoric.”

The Anti-Defamation League, an international Jewish group based in the United States, said Duterte’s comments were “shocking for their tone-deafness.” Read More

Catalonia to Vote on Independence, With or Without Spain's Consent

(voiceofamerica) - Catalonia will hold a referendum on independence from Spain next year whether or not the central government in Madrid agrees to one, the region's head said Wednesday.

Carles Puigdemont told the Catalan parliament that he was willing to discuss the terms of a referendum with Madrid, which has steadfastly opposed any such vote in the northeastern region, but that otherwise he would hold one next September.

Spain's Constitutional Court in August annulled a resolution by Catalonia's assembly to press ahead with independence, sharpening the standoff between the separatists and the central government of the conservative People's Party (PP).

"There is an enormous consensus that the ideal formula is a referendum agreed with the Spanish state," Puigdemont told parliament.

He said he would discuss the wording of the question in a vote and its date.

"But if by July there has been no positive response [from the central government], we will be prepared to climb the last step and call a referendum for the second fortnight of September next year," he said.

US: Self-driving cars will have to pry the steering wheel from our cold, dead hands, poll says

(theverge.com) - Americans like the idea of self-driving cars, but are less willing to cede control of the steering wheel to a computer program, according to a new poll released today. An overwhelming majority, 80 percent, said humans should always have the option to drive themselves, while 64 percent expressed a need to be in control of their own vehicle.

Moreover, people are essentially torn between the promise of safety and the need for control: 49 percent said they prefer a safer roadway even if it means they would have less control over their vehicle, while 51 percent said wanted to stay in the driver seat, safer streets be damned.

Opinions like these will become increasingly relevant as self-driving cars become more mainstream. Right now, they are floating in limbo between hype and skepticism. Uber is offering a handful of Pittsburgh residents free rides in its self-driving cars. Ford, BMW, andVolvo say they plan to offer autonomous vehicles for sale within the next five years. But most experts predict that widespread adoption is still a decade or more away

The idea of fully autonomous cars, with no steering wheel, no pedals, and no way for a human to intervene, is also something most Americans are unwilling to embrace. One-third of respondents to the poll said they would never buy a Level 5 autonomous vehicle, where there is no option for human control, while 16 percent said they would buy one the moment they were available.

In fact, most people haven’t even heard of “autonomous vehicles,” as compared to the more easily defined “self-driving car,” the poll shows. “This is good, because we live in our own little world, where the word ‘autonomous’ is this word that everyone knows,” said Karl Brauer, senior analyst for Kelley Blue Book, which commissioned the poll of 2,200 US residents. “Forty-one percent are familiar with the term, while 59 percent are not." (FullText)

Blocking Indus waters will be act of war: Pakistan

(newindianexpress.com) - ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Tuesday said India cannot unilaterally revoke the 56-year-old Indus Waters Treaty and that any attempt by New Delhi to block Islamabad's share of water could be seen as an act of war.

Prime Minister's Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz on Tuesday told the National Assembly that Pakistan would approach the International Court of Justice if India violates the treaty.

Pakistan will not accept "aggression by India in any form" and China would get justification to block Indian water if New Delhi did the same to Islamabad, he said.

Aziz said that India is "feeling pressure" due to Pakistan's diplomatic onslaught against "human rights violation" in Jammu and Kashmir and supporting their right to self determination in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions.

He said Pakistan will "expose India" before the international community, and added that the government is preparing a comprehensive dossier on alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav and "Indian interference in Balochistan".

Aziz said the Indus Waters Treaty offers no unilateral exit provision or revocation, and its role is defined in the treaty in case of violation by any party.

Aziz's statement came a day after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a review of provisions of the Indus Water Treaty with Pakistan and was quoted as saying that "water and blood can't flow at the same time".

New Delhi's stance comes in the wake of the September 18 terror attack on the Uri Army camp in Kashmir which left 18 Indian soldiers dead. India has blamed the attack on Pakistan-based militants and Modi has promised that the sacrifice of the soldiers will not go waste.

Pakistan's former Indus Water Commissioner Jamat Ali Shah on Monday slammed India for threatening to block the flow of water.

He expressed fears that if the treaty gets suspended then India may build up dams on Jhelum and Chenab rivers.

On the Uri attack, Aziz said that Pakistan was ready to extend all possible support for investigation into the incident but it should be conducted by an international body.

Colombia, Marxist rebels to sign accord ending 52-year war

(Reuters) - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and Marxist rebel leader Timochenko will use a pen made from a bullet on Monday to sign an agreement ending a half-century war that killed a quarter of a million people and made their nation a byword for violence.

After four years of talks in Havana, Santos, 65, and Timochenko, nom de guerre for 57-year-old revolutionary Rodrigo Londono, will shake hands on Colombian soil for the first time.

Some 2,500 foreign and local dignitaries were to attend the ceremony scheduled for 5 p.m. local time (1800 EST/2200 GMT) in the walled, colonial city of Cartagena.

The agreement to end Latin America's longest-running war will turn the FARC guerrillas into a political party fighting at the ballot box instead of the battlefield they have occupied since 1964.

"We are going to sign with a bullet-pen ... to illustrate the transition of bullets into education and future," said Santos, who staked his reputation on achieving peace.

Guests, who were asked to wear white, include United Nations head Ban Ki-moon, Cuban President Raul Castro and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

"This step that your country is going to take is a giant step," Kerry said during a visit to a training center for conflict victims, former combatants and other young people.

"Anybody can pick up a gun, blow things up, hurt other people, but it doesn't take you anywhere," he said. " ... Peace is hard work."

Despite widespread relief at an end to the bloodshed and kidnappings of past decades, the deal has caused divisions in Latin America's fourth-biggest economy.

Influential former President Alvaro Uribe and others are angry that the accord allows rebels to enter parliament without serving any jail time.

Colombians will vote on Oct. 2 on whether to ratify the agreement, but polls show it will pass easily. Around Cartagena on Monday, huge billboards urged a "yes" vote.

FARC, which stands for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, began as a peasant revolt, became a big player in the cocaine trade and at its strongest had 20,000 fighters. Now it must hand over weapons to the United Nations within 180 days.

Colombians are nervous over how the remaining 7,000 rebels will integrate into society, but most are optimistic peace will bring more benefits than problems.

Kerry praised Santos and pledged $390 million in U.S. funds to help implement the peace pact.

Cats Sailed With Vikings During Sea Voyages, Ancient Feline DNA Reveals

(techtimes) - Vikings are popularly portrayed as tough seafarers who raided and traded across Europe between the late 8th and late 11th centuries, but these people have also likely kept Viking cats when they sailed ships.

Analyses of ancient cat DNA have revealed that thousands of years before they became one of the most common pets in American households, cats hopped continents as they were brought along by farmers, ancient mariners and even the hardy Vikings.

For the new study presented last week at the International Symposium on Biomolecular Archaeology in Oxford, UK, Eva-Maria Geigl and colleagues from the Institut Jacques Monod in Paris sequenced DNA from 290 cats coming from over 30 archeological excavations in the Middle East, Africa and Europe. The study also included cat remains that were found in a Viking grave in Germany.

Genetic analysis of the ancient felines' remains revealed that cats likely spread out in two waves. Remains from a 9,500-year-old grave in Cyprus suggest that the first wave likely happened with the earliest farmers in eastern Mediterranean, which showed that man's relationship with felines dates back to the early days of agriculture.

The second wave happened when cats from Egypt spread to Asia and Africa, as hinted by remains of cats from Turkey, Bulgaria and Africa.

The second wave of expansion was associated with ancient seafaring people including the Vikings. The cat remains from a Viking grave in northern Germany were found to have the same maternal DNA common in Egyptian cat mummies.

The animals were likely brought on board ships during sea voyages. Mice and rats can be a problem with long voyages at sea and having cats on board can help keep down the number of these pests.

Kristian Gregersen, from the Natural History Museum of Denmark, said that people commonly used cat skins by the late Viking Age.

"We are sure that there were domestic cats then, because of their size." Gregersen said, adding that these cats did not have the same size as the wild cats.

Christian Koch Madsen, from the National Museum in Nuuk, Greenland, said that archeological evidence also shows that cats have made it to Greenland. Madsen said that these furry and intelligent creatures with the ability to understand laws of physics must have arrived aboard Viking ships.

Figures from the American Pet Products Association (APPA) show that between 74 to 96 million cats are owned in the U.S. Up to 37 percent of American households have a cat. (FullText)

India's Prime Minister Says Pakistan a Haven for Terrorism

(abcnews) - India's prime minister said Saturday that he would work to isolate Pakistan internationally, accusing his country's archrival of trying to destabilize Asia by exporting terrorism.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a nationally televised speech that in the last four months, Indian security forces have killed 110 terrorists who crossed over the cease-fire line in Kashmir from Pakistani territory.

"There would have been a bloodbath had they succeeded in carrying out attacks in India," Modi said.

He said terrorist attacks in Bangladesh and Afghanistan were also being instigated from Pakistan.

"We will isolate you," Modi warned Pakistan. "I will work for that."

Modi's speech in the southern Indian town of Kozhikode was his first since 18 soldiers were killed in an attack on an army base in Indian-controlled Kashmir last Sunday. Indian investigators say maps, weapons and other evidence indicated that the attackers were from Jaish-e-Mohammed, an outlawed militant group based in Pakistan. Pakistan denies the charge.

"Let me tell Pakistan that the sacrifice of 18 Indian soldiers will not go to waste," Modi said in his speech.

"There is one nation in Asia whose aim is to spread terrorism and is working toward ensuring that the 21st century does not belong to Asia," he said, referring to Pakistan. "Every nation is holding only one country responsible for terrorism. Only one country in Asia is a safe haven for terrorists."

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said Saturday evening that it would release an official reaction to Modi's comments later. (FullText)

Untreatable gonorrhea threat is increasing, new data show

(ChicagoTribune) - U.S. health officials have identified a cluster of gonorrhea infections that show sharply increased resistance to the last effective treatment available for the country's second most commonly reported infectious disease.

The findings from a cluster of Hawaii cases, presented Wednesday at a conference on prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, represent the first cluster of cases in the United States that have shown such decreased susceptibility to the double-antibiotic combination used when other drugs have failed. If the bacteria continue to develop resistance, that end-of-the-line therapy ultimately will fail, and an estimated 800,000 Americans a year could face untreatable gonorrhea and the serious health problems it causes, health officials said.

This latest news about antibiotic resistance came as world leaders gathered at an unusual meeting at the United Nations to address the rising threat posed by superbugs, microbes that can't be stopped with drugs. Leaders adopted a joint declaration committing them to address the root causes of antimicrobial resistance, especially in human health, animal health and agriculture.

Nations called for better use of existing tools to prevent infections in humans and animals, including farmed fish. Norway's prime minister spoke about how her country has been vaccinating every single "baby salmon, just like small kids," and as a result, has cut antibiotic use in one of its principal foods and exports to virtually zero.

In the United States, drug-resistant gonorrhea already is one of the country's three most urgent superbug threats, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In each case, as with other diseases such as pneumonia and tuberculosis, overexposure to antibiotics has allowed the particular germ to more rapidly develop resistance.

CDC warned this summer that evidence of gonorrhea's diminished vulnerability to one of the last-resort drugs, azithromycin, was emerging nationwide. But it said the other antibiotic, ceftriaxone, was still effective. (FullText)

After ‘Brexit,’ E.U. Revives Idea of Its Own Joint Military Command

(NewYorkTimes) LONDON — In late April 2003, just after the rapid fall of Baghdad, four of the founding countries of what is now the European Union met to announce the formation of a European operational military command headquarters just down the road from NATO.

France and Germany, which had fiercely opposed the war against Saddam Hussein, led by the United States and Britain, joined with Belgium and Luxembourg in what the American State Department sniffily dismissed as “the chocolate summit.”

The Americans were outraged that the French-German “couple,” having noisily opted out of the war in Iraq, had then dared to propose a European defense command separate from NATO. But Europe, the French and the Germans argued, needed its own defense capacity, so it could not be dragged into America’s wars.

In the end, because of American and British opposition, the project went nowhere, like so many other grand European ideas.

But now — after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have both turned long, bloody and hollow, and after Britain voted to leave the European Union — the idea of a European military headquarters is back.

For a European Union shaken by the British exit, cooperation on security, a major concern of voters on the Continent, was an obvious focus of last week’s summit meeting in Bratislava, the Slovak capital. The meeting was the first to exclude a British leader in more than 40 years.

Without Britain there to veto, France and Germany won approval for a joint European military headquarters. “It was a way in Bratislava to signal that we could move ahead post-Brexit, that the E.U. is alive and kicking,” said Camille Grand, director of the Paris-based Foundation for Strategic Research and soon to become NATO’s assistant secretary general. “Security is one thing on which E.U. leaders can all agree, and this works reasonably well with our public, to see the E.U. trying to deal with problems without spending billions.”

The proposed joint military headquarters, Mr. Grand said, was “a small step, but it would give the E.U. some institutional visibility and the ability to command a small-scale operation on its own.”

This time, the United States seems quietly supportive. The atmosphere in 2003 was fraught and conflictual, with allies deeply divided. “Those were very different times and a very different American administration,” said Stefano Stefanini, a former Italian ambassador to NATO. Now the Americans just seem desperate to get European allies to meet the Atlantic alliance’s military spending target of 2 percent of gross domestic product.

President Obama has pushed Europe hard to increase its defense capabilities, essentially saying, Mr. Stefanini said, “Do it any way you want — do it as the European Union, as NATO, or as nations, but just do it.”

The headquarters does not imply a European army and represents little competition to the Atlantic alliance, which retains large planning, intelligence and operational facilities. Britain and France, reluctantly, understood that they needed those capabilities when they led even the shortintervention in Libya.

But in circumstances where there is no obvious “lead nation,” the headquarters would provide the European Union a military planning and operational capacity it lacks, even for small missions, like securing the airport in Mali in January 2013, said Rem Korteweg, a defense analyst for the London-based Center for European Reform. “The E.U. normally wants to deploy in coordination with diplomacy and development aid,” he said, “and now can’t pull it all together.”

The headquarters would allow faster deployment, Mr. Korteweg added, “so you could slow the escalation of a nearby conflict and thus slow the momentum for migration.” (FullText)

Triggering: 3 percent of US adults own half of the union’s guns

(bostonglobe.com) - Just 3 percent of adults in the United States own half of the country’s guns, according to a new study by researchers at Harvard and Northeastern universities.

An estimated 7.7 million adults nationwide make up a group of so-called gun super-owners, stockpiling anywhere from eight firearms per person up to 140. On average, they own 17 guns apiece, according to the research.

The study has not yet been published, but a summary of its findings was released exclusively this week to a pair of news outlets, the Guardian and the Trace.

The news outlets said that some people who own relatively large numbers of guns said they were dedicated collectors, firearms instructors, gunsmiths, hunters, or competitive shooters. Others said they were stockpiling the weapons, along with food and water, in case of disaster.

Still others said they had simply acquired guns in small numbers over a period of time — including some inherited from parents and grandparents — and wound up with a relatively large total, according to the Guardian and the Trace.

On the other end of the spectrum, half of the estimated 55 million gun owners in America own either one or two guns, according to the study.

The paper’s lead author, Deborah Azrael, director of research at the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, said that from a public health perspective, she was most intrigued by that group.

Azrael, in a phone interview with the Globe on Tuesday, said that better understanding how people in that larger cohort store their guns could potentially reduce suicides by gun.

“It’s possible to imagine talking to those people about the risks and benefits of guns and to help them think of whether having a handgun ready for immediate use confers more benefit or not,” she said.

Nearly two-thirds of the 30,000-plus gun deaths in the United States each year are suicides.

The most common method of suicide in the United States is by firearm, and researchers have found that people who live in a household with a gun are more likely to kill themselves than people who don’t. Suicides are often impulsive acts, researchers say.

The Harvard-Northeastern study found that the percentage of Americans who own a gun at all has decreased slightly between 1994 and 2015, from about 25 percent to 22 percent.

But the total number of guns owned in the country increased during that same time by about 38 percent, or 73 million guns, to an estimated 265 million guns — a figure that outnumbers the 242 million adults living in the United States.

The study found a particularly sharp increase in the number of handguns. There were an estimated 111 million nationwide in 2015, a 71 percent increase from the 65 million handguns estimated in 1994.

Researchers told the Guardian and Trace that the growing popularity of handguns coincides with the rise in people owning firearms — and in particular handguns — for self defense.

Nearly two-thirds of gun owners told researchers that protection against other people was one of the primary reasons they own a gun, making it the most commonly cited reason for ownership.

'5-Second Rule' Debunked: Rutgers Researchers Say Eating Food Off The Floor Is Quite Risky!

(universityherald) - If you're tempted to pick up food you've dropped on the floor, think again! A new study has debunked the "5-second rule" that state food (or even cutlery) dropped on the floor will not be much contaminated with bacteria provided it is picked up within five seconds of being dropped.

Apparently, bacteria from a surface transfers to food in split of a second; in fact, in some cases, the transmission happens in less than a second, the study divulged.

According to study co-author Donald Schaffner, the 5-second rule is an underestimation of what happens when bacteria actually transfers from the floor to food. Rubbishing the 5-second rule, Schaffner, a microbiologist and professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey said in a statement that bacteria can contaminate immediately.

In the study, the researchers contaminated four separate surfaces - carpet, wood, ceramic tile and stainless steel - with bacteria. Then they dropped food on each surface allowing it to sit for a specific time i.e. less than 5 seconds, 5 seconds, 30 seconds and 5 minutes. The researchers analyzed four food types including watermelon, bread and butter, bread and gummy candy.

The results were quite surprising. It was found that the longer the food was allowed to sit on the floor, the more bacteria were transferred on to the food. Meanwhile, some bacterial contamination took place in less than a second.

Among the tested food types, watermelon picked up the most bacteria. Gummy candies, on the other hand, picked up the least. The researchers expected the high rate of contamination for watermelon citing the food's moisture level. Schaffner explained this by pointing out that bacteria do not have legs and they move with the moisture. In order words, the wetter the food, the higher the chances of transfer.

As far as the surface is concerned, carpet had a low rate of bacteria transfer to the food as opposed to the other surface types.

Aside from the amount of time the food is left on a surface, it was found that several other factors influence how much bacteria accumulates, the researchers noted. The said factors include the type of surface food falls on, and the also the type of food.

The 5-second rule was also analyzed a couple of years ago as well, and it was found that the amount of time food sits on the floor significantly influences the amount of bacteria that are transferred to the food, according to reports on Live Science.

The Aston University (UK) researchers led study, reached a totally different conclusion. Their finding reportedly provided a scientific basis for the 5-second rule as food that's picked up from the floor within a few seconds of it falling is less likely to be contaminated as compared to food that is allowed to sit on the surface for a longer amount of time. (FullText)

With 800 offspring, ‘very sexually active’ tortoise saves species from extinction

(washingtonpost) - To stop the northern white rhinoceros from slipping into extinction, officials in Kenya put the last remaining male under 24-hour armed protection from poachers and prayed that he wasn’t too old to mate.

When the panda population reached dangerously low numbers, scientists used panda porn to give the notoriously poor breeders the right idea about boosting the species.

If only they had a Diego.

The century-old, extremely sexually active giant hooded tortoise, has single-handedly brought his species back from the brink of extinction.

Fifty years ago, there were 14 members of Chelonoidis hoodensis, in Española, an island of the Galapagos Islands — 12 females and two males.

They did not even need the other guy. Since 1976, Diego has fathered more than 800 young — 2 of every 5 hooded tortoises in existence, according to genetic testing.

“He’s a very sexually active male reproducer. He’s contributed enormously to repopulating the island,” Washington Tapia, a tortoise preservation specialist at Galapagos National Park, told Agence France-Presse.

On the island, where he greets tourists and feasts on native plants and cacti, they call him Super Diego.

That was quick: ISIS wing claims responsibility for Minnesota mall attack

Inside Job?

(CNN) The man who stabbed at least eight people at a Minnesota mall Saturday (Sept 17) before being shot dead by an off-duty police officer was a "soldier of the Islamic state," according to an ISIS-linked news agency.

The statement posted online Sunday by the Amaq agency follows a pattern of ISIS-related media claiming responsibility for what appear to be the acts of individuals across Europe in the past few months.

CNN cannot independently confirm this latest claim.

"We still don't have anything substantive that would suggest anything more than what we know already, which is this was a lone attacker," St. Cloud Police Chief William Blair Anderson told CNN's Jake Tapper Sunday. "And right now, we're trying to get to the bottom of his motivations."

Police and witnesses said the man, wearing a private security company uniform, entered Crossroads Mall on Saturday night around 8 p.m. ET, made a reference to Allah and asked at least one person if they were Muslim before he attacked.

Seven of the wounded were treated and released, while one victim remains hospitalized, Chief Anderson said. Police are trying to confirm if a ninth victim was transported to a hospital outside the city, Anderson said.

Ashley Bayne, an employee of JCPenney at the mall, was visiting a coworker at the time of the incident.

"All of sudden chaos just broke out," she told CNN's Nick Valencia on Sunday. "There was a bunch of people running into the JCPenney mall entrance, and they were just screaming that someone was going around the mall stabbing people, and that there was blood everywhere. It was just honestly a really scary experience."

Bayne said she ran out to the parking lot and took off in her car.

The stabbings occurred in multiple locations inside the mall, including the common area and in several stores. The mall has security teams on site but they are not armed.

Shortly after, an off-duty officer confronted the attacker.

"The individual we believe to be responsible for the victim's stab wounds is currently deceased inside the mall," police said early Sunday.

Mexico: Thousands of demonstrators demand President Nieto's resignation

(BBC) - Thousands of people have taken to the streets of Mexico City to demand the president's resignation.

Protesters gathered as anger mounted over President Enrique Pena Nieto's handling of drug violence, corruption - and his meeting with Donald Trump.

Cries of "resign now" rang out as they marched to the Zocalo square on the eve of Mexico's independence day holiday.

Mr Pena Nieto's approval rating has dropped to 23%, according to a recent survey by Reforma newspaper.

Mexicans traditionally gather in the Zocalo square the night before independence day celebrations to see the president come out to the balcony.

Once there, the leader is supposed to replicate the "grito", or shout of independence, made in 1810.

But on Thursday, the mood was not one of celebration.

Instead, demonstrators waved blackened Mexican flags and held a sign "Pena Nieto INEPT, RESIGN for the good of Mexico!", and were blocked from entering the square by riot police.

Among the crowd were the parents of 43 students who went missing in September 2014.

"We don't have a reason to shout 'viva Mexico' ... There are thousands of injustices," Cristina Bautista, mother of one of the missing trainee teachers, told AFP.

The missing students are considered by some observers as one of the reasons why Mr Pena Nieto's approval rating has dropped so low.

Earliest Evidence of Indigo Dye Found at Ancient Peruvian Burial Site

"Ï am an official colour of the rainbow"- Indigo

(Smithsonianmag.com) - Archaeologists recently uncovered several scraps of indigo-dyed fabric at the Huaca Prieta ceremonial mound in northern Peru. Believed to be about 6,200 years old, this find pushes back the date for the earliest known use of the dye by roughly 1,600 years, Cynthia Graber reports for Scientific American.

The small cotton scraps were discovered on a 2007 excavation of Huaca Prieta, found bundled and embedded in concrete-like layers on a ramp leading up to the temple. They remain in surprisingly good condition despite their age because of this unusual burial at the site.

"They were literally sealed under these new layers of building, but because the building material had so much ash in it, it leached into the textiles, making them a very dirty, sooty color," Jeffrey Splitstoser, archaeologist and textile expert at The George Washington University, told Stephanie Pappas for Live Science.

Though the fabrics’ color was initially hidden, when Splitstoser carefully washed the fabric, the true indigo color appeared. “It was at that point we realized that we probably had indigo, and that it was probably the world’s oldest indigo,” he told Graber. They published their findings this week in the journal Science Advances.

Prior to this discovery, the oldest known dyed fabrics were Egyptian textiles with indigo-dyed bands from the Fifth Dynasty, roughly 2400 BC. The earliest known examples of indigo in the Americas, however, were a mere 2,500 years old.

Almost all blue dye in nature stems from an organic compound, known as indigoid, found in a variety of plant genera. The source of indigo at Huaca Prieta was most likely Indigofera, an indigo-producing plant native to the tropics of South America. Plants are not the only source of indigo, however—ancient Egyptians also extracted high-quality indigo from sea snails. Today, indigo is largely synthetically created and is primarily associated with the color in blue jeans.

Splitstoser and his colleagues identified the indigo in the fabric scraps using an advanced analytical technique known as high-performance liquid chromatography. Splitstoser confirmed indigo in five out of the eight fabric samples he tested. The lack of indigo in three of the samples could be due to age, where the indigo had either washed out over time or degraded, Splitstoser told Dani Cooper of ABC Science.

The findings also validate the contributions of early people in the Americas. “We in the West typically skip over the accomplishments of the ancient people of the western hemisphere ... but in this case, the cottons domesticated by the people of South America and Mesoamerica form the basis of the cottons we wear today,” he said.

"The people of the Americas were making scientific and technological contributions as early and in this case even earlier than people were in other parts of the world," Splitstoser told Pappas. "We always leave them out. I think this finding just shows that that's a mistake."

Winning!: America has a teacher shortage, and a new study says it’s getting worse

(WashingtonPost) - The United States is facing its first major teacher shortage since the 1990s, one that could develop into a crisis for schools in many parts of the country, according to a new study by the Learning Policy Institute, an education think tank.

The shortfall is a result of increased demand for teachers as schools reinstate classes and programs axed during the Great Recession. It has been compounded by a dramatic decrease in the supply of new teachers entering the profession. Enrollment in teacher-preparation programs dropped from 691,000 in 2009 to 451,000 in 2014, a 35 percent decline, according to the study, “A Coming Crisis in Teaching? Teacher Supply, Demand and Shortages in the U.S.”

“Our analysis estimates that U.S. classrooms were short approximately 60,000 teachers last year,” Leib Sutcher, the study’s co-author, told reporters Tuesday ahead of the study’s release. “Unless we can shift these trends, annual teacher shortages could increase to over 100,000 teachers by 2018 and remain close to that level thereafter.”

The impact of the teacher shortage on students, according to the study’s authors, will be schools having to cancel courses, increase class sizes and teacher-pupil ratios, or hire underprepared teachers.

Although nearly every state has reported teacher shortages to the U.S. Department of Education, the problem is much more pronounced in some states than others. But across the country, the shortages are disproportionately felt in special education, math and science, and in bilingual and English-language education.

Regardless of the state, students in high-poverty and high-minority schools are typically hit hardest when there are teacher shortages. In 2014, on average, less than one percent of teachers were uncertified in low-minority schools, while four times as many were uncertified in high-minority schools, the study showed.

Teacher attrition — the number of teachers leaving the profession for a variety of reasons — remains high and is the single-biggest contributor to the shortage, according to the report. Nearly two-thirds of the teachers who leave the profession do so before retirement age and cite dissatisfaction with their job as the reason. Addressing the job-dissatisfaction issues could help avert a teacher crisis.

“In times of shortage, policymakers often focus attention on how to get more teachers into the profession, but it’s equally important to focus on how to keep the teachers we do have,” Sutcher said. “Reducing attrition in half, from eight percent to four percent, would virtually eliminate overall shortages.”

E-cigarettes 'help more smokers quit'

(BBC) - The rise in popularity of e-cigarettes in the UK may have resulted in more successful attempts to quit smoking, according to UK researchers.

The British Medical Journal work looked at trends in quit rates and support in England from 2006 to 2015.

E-cigarettes seem to have had no effect on the number of people trying to quit, but more have actually managed to stop.

The authors say vaping may have helped about 18,000 extra people in England successfully give up smoking in 2015.

The team, from University College London and Cancer Research UK, say theirs is an observational study, and therefore cannot prove direct cause and effect.

One smoking expert said it appeared e-cigarettes were a "major contributor" to the trend.

But health professionals say the most effective way to quit smoking remains through prescription medication and professional support from free local NHS stop-smoking services.

Electronic cigarettes are not yet widely available on the NHS.

Sales of e-cigarettes have been rising steadily since they first went on sale in the UK, in 2007. They are now used by nearly three million people in the UK.

In the past few years, they have replaced nicotine patches and gum to become the most popular choice of smoking cessation aid in England.

The BMJ research looked at data from the Smoking Toolkit Study from 2006 through to 2015.

The study also took data from the NHS Stop Smoking Service.

During the period studied, just over eight million people set dates to quit smoking.

'Something is working'

And the number of smokers who successfully managed to stop smoking increased by just under 1% for every 1% rise in the number of smokers using e-cigarettes.

Use of prescribed nicotine-replacement therapy also fell as e-cigarette use rose.

Median incomes are up and poverty rate down, surprisingly strong census figures show

(latimes) - Steady job growth and the biggest earnings boost on record helped sharply lower the nation's poverty level last year and finally provided relief to the long-running problem of stagnant incomes.

In its annual report on income and poverty, the Census Bureau said Tuesday that the share of people in the U.S. living in poverty dropped to 13.5% in 2015, marking one of the biggest annual declines in decades.

That was down from 14.7% in the prior year, but still considerably higher than the 12.3% poverty rate in 2006, the year before the Great Recession began, and the 40-year low of 11.3% in the year 2000.

The report also provided some encouraging news for a change on average American incomes. The median household income -- the point at which half make more and half less -- was $56,500 last year. That was up a substantial 5.2% from $53,700 in 2014, after adjusting for inflation.

American families still have some distance to go to recover fully from more than a decade of declining and stagnant earnings: The median household income was $57,900 in 1999.

“The good news is, maybe we’ve turned the corner,” said Sheldon Danziger, president of the Russell Sage Foundation, who like other experts following poverty and income issues had expected some improvement but nothing this large.

“I’m certainly more optimistic than I’ve been in a long time,” he said of the broad-based gains in income and poverty measures. “The prospects look good, at least for 2016 for being an improvement over 2015.”

The bureau also reported Tuesday that the number of people in the U.S. without health insurance fell further last year to 9.1% from 10.4% in 2014. The drop was expected, thanks mostly to the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, which saw its second full year of impact in 2015.

Bullets trump rehab as Asia quickens 'failing' war on drugs

(Reuters) - The Philippines has launched a bloody "war on drugs" that has killed at least 2,400 people in just two months, while neighboring Indonesia has declared a "narcotics emergency" and resumed executing drug convicts after a long hiatus.

In Thailand and Myanmar, petty drug users are being sentenced to long jail terms in prisons already bursting at the seams.

The soaring popularity of methamphetamine - a cheap and highly addictive drug also known as meth - is driving countries across Asia to adopt hardline anti-narcotics policies. Experts say they are likely to only make things worse.

Geoff Monaghan has seen it all before. He investigated narco-trafficking gangs during his 30-year career as a detective with London's Metropolitan Police, then witnessed the impact of draconian anti-drug policies as an HIV/AIDS expert in Russia.

"We have plenty of data but often we forget the history," said Monaghan. "That's the problem."

He believes President Rodrigo Duterte's anti-drugs campaign in the Philippines will fuel more violence and entrench rather than uproot trafficking networks. "I'm very fearful about the situation," he said.

Reflecting the regional explosion in use, the amount of meth seized in East and Southeast Asia almost quadrupled from about 11 tons in 2009 to 42 tons in 2013, said the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

The only region seizing more meth was North America, where the booming trade inspired the popular television series "Breaking Bad".

Meth was the "primary drug of concern" in nine Asian countries, the UNODC said, including Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Japan and South Korea.

Catalans rally in support of independence from Spain

- Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets across Catalonia on Sunday to support a break from Spain which local leaders want to deliver for next year in spite of legal blocks by the central government.

Catalans gathered in five cities across the northeastern region, including Barcelona, and waved yellow banners in time to music, symbolizing the rhythm of a beating heart uniting an independent republic.

Police said that in Barcelona alone about 540,000 people took part. The mass rally on Catalonia's national day, La Diada, comes as the pro-independence local assembly vows to press ahead with plans to form an new state in 2017, raising pressure on leaders in Madrid to respond at a time of disarray in national politics.

Two inconclusive general elections have left Spain without a new national administration for more than eight months, in part due to squabbling among parties over how best to counter or defuse Catalonia's separatist challenge.

Spain's conservative caretaker government has firmly opposed any move towards secession and resorted to challenges via the constitutional court, though this has escalated the stand-off in recent months under acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

"We don't really care anymore about who will govern in Madrid," said Montse Pedra, 39, a speech therapist at the rally in Barcelona, where campaigners waved the starred blue, red and yellow pro-independence flags.

She said she was no longer hopeful Catalonia would be granted a referendum on independence like Scotland's in 2014 - where people voted to remain in Britain - but was looking beyond that.

"Here that's not going to happen one way or another, so we're going to just declare independence, and that's it," Pedra added.

Whether regional leaders will manage to produce the break they have promised is unclear.

Pro-separatist parties won a majority of seats in the regional assembly last year and have starting laying the ground for laws and institutions for an independent state, though such moves have been deemed illegal in court.

"The whole process is going a little slowly," said another participant, 64-year-old maths teacher Rafael Subirats, adding he thought independence was unlikely to happen by 2017.

Secessionists fell short of winning an overall majority of the vote last September, which according to anti-independence campaigners weakens the mandate for a split. (FullText)

Forensic Breakthrough: Unique Hair Proteins are Better than DNA in Human Identification

(NatureWorldNews) - DNA has met its rival (or partner) in identifying individuals in crime scenes. Scientists have discovered a new and better way in identifying someone through sequencing hair proteins.

According to a study published in the journal PLOS One, a team of scientists from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California has discovered a method of getting genetic information of a person from hair proteins. The said process eliminates forensic science's dependency on DNA extraction. This new method also helps cases where DNA evidence of a body is unavailable.

To test this method of using hair proteins in identification called "proteomics," the researchers studied 76 living men and women and six sets of skeletal remains from London which dates back to the 1700s and 1800s.

The results showed that of the participants and samples used in the study, there were 185 protein markers found in the subjects' hair samples. Also, the number and pattern of each participant were unique, The Washington Post reports.

“We are in a very similar place with protein-based identification to where DNA profiling was during the early days of its development. This method will be a game-changer for forensics,” said Brad Hart, co-author of the study and director of the national laboratory’s Forensic Science Center. (FullText)

In the study, the team said that frequency of changes in amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, could be measured through protein analysis and be used the same way as DNA to identify a person.

Meanwhile, Glinda S. Cooper, director of science and research at the Innocence Project, notes that even though the discovery is still in its infant stage, hair protein analysis may give birth to " a complementary but separate method than we currently have to correctly identify or to exclude the right person involved in a crime."

Norway Accuses Facebook of Censorship Over Deleted Photo of ‘Napalm Girl’

Here we go..

(wsj.com) OSLO— Facebook Inc. faced accusations of censorship from Norway’s largest newspaper and the nation’s prime minister on Friday following its decision to delete posts containing the Pulitzer-winning image of a girl fleeing napalm bombs during the Vietnam War.

Norwegian daily Aftenposten published a letter to the Facebook chief executive on its front page, lashing out at Mark Zuckerberg for “limiting freedom.”

Aftenposten editor in chief Espen Egil Hansen said he couldn’t accept that the social network had removed the Vietnam picture from the daily’s Facebook profile earlier this week.

“Listen, Mark, this is serious,” Mr. Hansen wrote. “First you create rules that don’t distinguish between child pornography and famous war photographs. Then you practice these rules without allowing space for good judgment.”

Facebook acknowledged facing a challenge. “While we recognize that this photo is iconic, it is difficult to create a distinction between allowing a photograph of a nude child in one instance and not others,” a Facebook official said in an emailed statement.

Aftenposten’s owner, the Schibsted Media Group, said it fully supported Aftenposten’s letter.

“My opinion is that it is correct to put pressure on Facebook so that they show more openness and create clearer and better guidelines,” said Schibsted chief executive Rolv Erik Ryssdal.

The dispute kept flaring up on Friday when Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg weighed in, also slamming the U.S. company in a Facebook post that contained the photo.

“Facebook gets it wrong when they censor such images,” she said. “I say no to this type of censorship.”

Hours later, however, Ms. Solberg’s post was removed from her account.

The Facebook official declined to comment on Ms. Solberg’s statement, saying only that its rules applied to everyone.

The prime minister urged Facebook to review its policy.

Vardar Macedonia’s Dreams Unrealised 25 Years After Independence

"Vardar Macedonia"

(BalkanInsight) - Twenty-five years after becoming independent from Socialist Yugoslavia on September 8, 1991, Macedonia still has external problems with its neighbour Greece and internal problems with democracy which are blocking its ultimate goals of Euro-Altantic integration.

“These goals were set by all political parties after the country gained its independence in 1991, but they didn’t succeed,” Mirjana Malevska, a professor at South East European University, told BIRN.

“The democratisation process in the country is tightly linked with the integration processes and is the main condition to enter the Euro-Atlantic family,” she said.

Macedonia obtained EU candidate status back in 2005. At that point, the country was a regional leader among ex-Yugoslav states in the race to join the European club. In 2009, it was given the recommendation to start the accession negations.

But now the recommendation is at risk. Due to institutional failings in reforms and the ongoing political crisis that has gripped the country, the European Commission said in autumn last year that it would issue another recommendation after Macedonia’s next elections - but only if the polls are judged free and fair and if the country carries out the necessary reforms.

But the unsolved ‘name’ dispute with Greece is another stumbling block in the Euro-Atlantic integration of the country. NATO’s door will also not open to Skopje until two neighbours find a mutual solution for the problem - and Greece is still strongly opposed to Macedonia calling itself Macedonia.

Malveska says that there have been some democratisation efforts but the ongoing political crisis had a negative impact.

“The political crisis emerged after the massive illegal wiretapping by government services. It is massive violation of human rights and freedoms. If the [current] investigations [by the special prosecution into wrongdoing allegedly revealed by the tapes] prove the allegations of corruption true, that would be a jolt for the democratic process in the country”, she said.

The crisis escalated in February 2015, when the opposition Socual Democrats started releasing batches of covertly recorded tapes, which it said showed that the VMRO DPMNE-led government was behind the illegal surveillance of some 20,000 people, including ministers. The oppostion said the tapes proved many that government members were involved in various crimes.

Doctors may spend nearly half their time on paperwork, study says

(NEW YORK) — A new small study published this week found that doctors may spend nearly half their time documenting and performing administrative tasks rather than having face-to-face time with patients.

Interactions with physicians have dramatically changed since the introduction of electronic health records (EHRs), with the switch from paper intended to increase physician interactions with patients.

But the study, published in the Annals of Medicine Monday, found that doctors are still being inundated with electronic “paperwork” and desk work. In the study, 57 physicians in various sub-specialties were observed by researchers during office hours. Some also maintained a self-reported diary for after work hours from July 2015 to August 2015.

After a total of 430 observed hours for the group, researchers from the American Medical Association found that 29 percent of total work time was spent talking with patients or other staff members and another 49 percent was spent on electronic record keeping and desk work.

Dr. Tom Payne, medical director for IT services at University of Washington Medicine, who has studied the issue but was not a part of this particular project, said the survey will be key in understanding how doctors spend their time and how to find solutions so that both doctors and patients are happier.

“I applaud the authors for examining this in a rigorous way,” said Payne. He pointed out that anecdotally he had heard doctors were upset about the amount of time they were spending on paperwork.

Payne said the electronic records require doctors to fill in notes so that patients can be billed properly, but that the process can be time-consuming. “It detracts from the time we have to listen to the patient and have a meaningful visit and answer questions asked,” Payne said.

Researchers found that when physicians were in the exam room with patients they spent approximately 53 percent of their time interacting with the patients and 37 percent on electronic health records or other desk work.

Payne said doctors should be able to use other means to fill out health records online from dictation to voice recognition software. “I think we need to make things better because patients notice that doctors are spending more time with the computer than in some cases they are spending listening to” patients, said Payne.

Dr. Cliff Megerian, an ENT and President of University Hospitals Physician Services at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland, said the study can help show how a doctor’s time is not being used effectively.

“This article comes at an appropriate time to alert the medical community…and helps raise the concern that we are not utilizing medical doctors appropriately,” he told ABC News.

But Megerian warns that the study, funded primarily by the American Medical Association, is small and more research needs to be done to verify these findings.

“It’s a small sample size and only a few institutions,” he said. “There will need to be more and more of these studies done to help quantify the significance of this issue.”

Comparatively, there are no such elaborate studies when physicians used paper charts so it is difficult to evaluate if allocated time has changed.

Last year the American Medical Informatics Association EHR-2020 Task Force, which is led by Payne, evaluated the functionality of the records and concluded benefits of the EHR include consolidated information and theoretically sharing information more easily between institutions but acknowledged the technology can lead to new risks and unintended consequences.

Recommendations included simplifying documents, refocusing regulations to simplify certain procedures, and increasing transparency. (FullText)

Giant panda is no longer endangered, experts say

BEIJING (AP) — A leading international group has taken the giant panda off its endangered list thanks to decades of conservation efforts, but China's government discounted the move on Monday, saying it did not view the status of the country's beloved symbol as any less serious.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature said in a report released Sunday that the panda is now classified as a "vulnerable" instead of "endangered" species, reflecting its growing numbers in the wild in southern China. It said the wild panda population jumped to 1,864 in 2014 from 1,596 in 2004, the result of work by Chinese agencies to enforce poaching bans and expand forest reserves.

The report warned, however, that although better forest protection has helped increase panda numbers, climate change is predicted to eliminate more than 35 percent of its natural bamboo habitat in the next 80 years, potentially leading to another decline.

In a statement to The Associated Press, China's State Forestry Administration said Monday (September 5) that it disputed the classification change because pandas' natural habitats have been splintered by natural and human causes. The animals live in small, isolated groups of as few as 10 pandas that struggle to reproduce and face the risk of disappearing altogether, the agency said.

"If we downgrade their conservation status, or neglect or relax our conservation work, the populations and habitats of giant pandas could still suffer irreversible loss and our achievements would be quickly lost," the forestry administration said. "Therefore, we're not being alarmist by continuing to emphasize the panda species' endangered status."

Still, animal groups hailed the recovery of the bamboo-gobbling, black-and-white bear that has long been a symbol of China and the global conservation movement.

The panda population reached an estimated low of less than 1,000 in the 1980s due to poaching and deforestation until Beijing threw its full weight behind preserving the animal, which has been sent to zoos around the world as a gesture of Chinese diplomatic goodwill.

The Chinese government and the World Wildlife Fund first established the Wolong National Nature Reserve in Sichuan province in 1980. Wild panda numbers have slowly rebounded as China cracked down on the skin trade and gradually expanded its protected forest areas to now cover 1.4 million hectares (5,400 square miles).

International groups and the Chinese government have worked to save wild pandas and breed them at enormous cost, attracting criticism that the money could be better spent saving other animals facing extinction. The IUCN drew attention on Sunday to the 70 percent decline in the eastern gorilla population over the past 20 years.

But the WWF, whose logo has been a panda since 1961, celebrated the panda's re-classification, saying it proved that aggressive investment does pay off "when science, political will and engagement of local communities come together." (FullText)

Labor Day: More than a three-day weekend

- A three-day weekend. The unofficial end to summer. A last call for beach trips and barbecues. For all the ways North Carolinians will celebrate Labor Day in 2016, little thought may be given to the origins of this national holiday and just how much the history and consequences of the labor movement factor in to our daily lives on every other day of the year.

In the decades following the the Civil War, technological and business innovation ushered in the industrial revolution, resulting in the largest leap in productive capacity and prosperity the world had ever seen. American industrialists such as Carnegie, Rockefeller and the Vanderbilts amassed unimaginable wealth supporting, fueling and connecting the nation like never before.

As farm and factory workers endured unending work schedules, working and living in less than ideal conditions in myriad company-owned towns, labor leaders emerged and began to organize on behalf of the working man.

American innovators and opportunists alike became known as robber barons, as popular perceptions of their ruthless tactics, juxtaposed with their workers’ wanting circumstances, bred a dual resentment that powered the proliferation of unions that campaigned for shorter hours, collective bargaining and safer working conditions.

Some municipalities in the Northeast began recognizing a working man’s holiday in the 1880s, with New York City’s influential Central Labor Union marking Sept. 5, 1882, as the Big Apple’s first official Labor Day. Followed up the next year on the same date, the holiday spread with the growth of labor unions to industrial centers around the country, with Oregon passing the first statewide law designating Labor Day in 1887.

More white nationalists on Twitter than IS backers

(timesofindia) - (NEW YORK: The number of white nationalists and Nazi sympathisers on Twitter has multiplied to more than 600% in last four years, outperforming the Islamic State group in everything from follower counts to number of daily tweets, a study has found.

Researchers at George Washington University analysed 18 accounts belonging to major white nationalist groups- such as the American Nazi Party and the National Socialist Movement - mostly located in the US. The number of followers in these accounts increased from 3,500 in 2012 to 22,000 in 2016.The study noted that while IS stood out for its outreach and recruitment using Twitter, white nationalist groups have excelled in the medium.

The report underscores the declining influence of IS on the platform after Twitter said it shut down 3,60,000 accounts for what they saw as promoting terrorism.

According to the study , white nationalist users are "heavily invested" in Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's candidacy. But mentions of the real estate tycoon were second only to talk of "white genocide" - the belief that influx of non-white cultures and increasing diversity in the United States are fuelling extinction of the "white race".

Chickenpox Cases In The US Down Since 2-Dose Vaccine Program Began

(techtimes) - Cases of chickenpox in the United States have dropped further since a two-dose vaccination program was implemented, according to the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Published Sept. 2, the CDC report noted an 85-percent drop in chickenpox cases between 2005-2006 and 2013-2014. The two-dose vaccination program was introduced in 2006. With the largest decline in chickenpox cases recorded in children and adolescents between the ages of 5 and 14, the age group coincides with the ages of the children who would have likely gotten a second shot of vaccine against the disease.

Before a chickenpox vaccination program was in place, some 4 million Americans would get sick with the varicella-zoster virus every year. Out of this number, about 11,000 to 13,500 would result in hospitalization, while 100 to 150 would succumb to thedisease and die.

When the chickenpox vaccine was introduced in 1996, routine childhood vaccination resulted in a 90-percent decline in cases of the disease in the U.S. However, as outbreaks persisted, it became necessary to implement a two-dose varicella vaccination program.

In this program, children are advised to get their first chickenpox vaccine shot at 12 to 15 months, with the second dose to be administered between 4 and 6 years old.

Alternatively, children may also be given the measles, mumps, rubella and varicella (MMRV) vaccine. It follows the same vaccine schedule but will also protect against measles, mumps and rubella (German measles).

Parents also have the option of giving their children MMR and varicella vaccines separately. MMRV and the separate vaccines option both offer the same level of protection, but children who receive their first shot via theMMRV vaccine are likelier to have more fevers and seizures related to fevers.

While the two-dose vaccination program against chickenpox has led to a large drop in cases of the disease, it is not recommended for all. For instance, those who have had life-threatening allergic reactions to their first dose should not go through with their second. Those who are heavily allergic to neomycin, an antibiotic, or gelatin should not get the shot at all.

The chickenpox vaccine also can't be administered to those pregnant or moderately or severely ill at the time of their scheduled vaccination. Women are advised not to get pregnant up to a month after receiving a shot.

Getting a chickenpox shot is much like getting any other shot in that swelling or soreness may be present on the injection site. Some may also experience fevers and mild rashes afterward, although these are rare.

Take note that severe allergic reactions such as hives, throat and face swelling, weakness, dizziness and a fast heartbeat may not manifest right away after receiving the chickenpox vaccine. Should these arise a few hours after administration, immediate medical attention is advised.

Mosquitoes Are Deadly, So Why Not Kill Them All?

(wallstreetjournal) - The death toll from diseases carried by mosquitoes is so huge that scientists are working on a radical idea. Why not eradicate them?

Mosquitoes kill more humans than any other animal and were linked to roughly 500,000 deaths in 2015, mostly from malaria. For more than a century, humans have used bed nets, screens and insecticides as weapons, but mosquitoes keep coming back. They are now carrying viruses like Zika and dengue to new parts of the world.

Powerful new gene-editing technologies could allow scientists to program mosquito populations to gradually shrink and die off. Some efforts have gained enough momentum that the possibility of mosquito-species eradication seems tantalizingly real.

“I think it is our moral duty to eliminate this mosquito,” entomologist Zach Adelman says about Aedes aegypti, a species carried afar over centuries by ships from sub-Saharan Africa. It derived from a forest dweller and adapted to thrive among humans, to whom the mosquito spreads at least four viruses that cause major diseases.

Prof. Adelman, a virologist and associate professor of entomology at Texas A&M University, is working to program Aedes aegypti mosquitoes to develop as males.

Eventually, the mosquitoes would run out of mates, crashing the species’ population in places it invaded and “cleaning up a global mess,” he says. Female mosquitoes are the only ones that bite people and transmit viruses.

Dilma Rousseff Is Ousted as Brazil’s President in Impeachment Vote

(nytimes) - BRASÍLIA — The Senate on Wednesday September 1 impeached Dilma Rousseff, Brazil’s first female president, and removed her from office for the rest of her term, the capstone of a power struggle that has consumed the nation for months and toppled one of the hemisphere’s most powerful political parties.

The Senate voted 61 to 20 to convict Ms. Rousseff on charges of manipulating the federal budget in an effort to conceal the nation’s mounting economic problems.

But the final removal of Ms. Rousseff, who was suspended in May to face trial, was much more than a judgment of guilt on any charge. It was a verdict on her leadership and the slipping fortunes of Latin America’s largest country.

The impeachment puts a definitive end to 13 years of governing by the leftist Workers’ Party, an era during which Brazil’s economy boomed, lifting millions into the middle class and raising the country’s profile on the global stage.

But sweeping corruption scandals, the worst economic crisis in decades and the government’s tone-deaf responses to the souring national mood opened Ms. Rousseff to withering scorn, leaving her with little support to fend off apower grab by her political rivals.

“She lacked it all,” said Mentor Muniz Neto, a writer from São Paulo who described Ms. Rousseff’s final ouster as a “death foretold,” asserting that she lacked charisma, competence and humility. “We deserved better.”

To her many critics, the impeachment was a fitting fall for an arrogant leader at the helm of a political movement that had lost its way. But Ms. Rousseff and her supporters call her ouster a coup that undermines Brazil’s young democracy. (Full Text)
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RELATED: Grab your popcorn: “Parliamentary coup”: Impeachment of Brazil’s President Rousseff hands power to corrupt, unelected right wing