China quake-hit pandas to return home

Sixty giant pandas who were transferred to zoos around China after last year's devastating earthquake in Sichuan province destroyed their home are set to return in 2012, state media reported.
The 8.0-magnitude quake in May last year left more than 87,000 people dead and missing in Sichuan, and seriously damaged the Wolong nature reserve, which had 63 pandas in captivity, the official Xinhua news agency said late Saturday.
One panda was killed in the tremor, one is still missing, and another died of an illness, the report quoted Luo Zengbin, deputy head of the Sichuan Provincial Forestry Department, as saying.
The quake also killed 12 people who worked with the pandas, seriously injured 57 others, and damaged nearly 60,000 hectares (148,000 acres) of the animals' habitat in southwestern China, the report said.
The surviving animals were moved to zoos in other parts of the country while the Wolong base underwent a 380-million-yuan (56 million dollars) reconstruction programme, expected to be completed by 2011.
They should return to their home base in 2012, the report said.
There are about 1,590 pandas living in the wild around China, mostly in Sichuan, northern Shaanxi and northwestern Gansu provinces. A total of 180 have been bred in captivity, according to earlier reports.
But their notoriously low libidos have frustrated efforts to boost their numbers.
In a recent report issued by the World Wildlife Fund, the conservation group warned that the giant panda could soon die out as rapid economic development is infringing on its way of life.

One in six Mediterranean mammals face extinction

One in six Mediterranean mammals is threatened with extinction at the regional level, mainly due to the destruction of their habitat from urbanization, agriculture and climate change, nature body IUCN said Tuesday in a new study.Of the 320 mammal species assessed by the Geneva-based International Union for the Conservation of Nature, 49 were threatened, including 20 that can be found nowhere else in the world, it said in a statement.Three percent are "critically endangered", including the Mediterranean monk seal and the Iberian lynx, another five percent are "endangered" and eight percent are "vulnerable"."The number one threat is habitat destruction, which affects 90 percent of the threatened species," said IUCN expert Annabelle Cuttelod, co-author of the report, in a statement released in Spain."We need international action to protect key areas and preserve natural habitats to ensure we don?t lose the rich biodiversity in this area," she added.High concentrations of threatened species are found in the mountains of Turkey, northwestern Africa and the Levant, the ancient land now comprising Syria, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.Large herbivores such as deer and rabbits, and carnivores, are particularly threatened.Eight species from these groups, including the common hippopotamus and the Mesopotamian fallow deer, have already gone extinct in the Mediterranean region."To ensure the survival of large herbivore and carnivore mammals in the Mediterranean, we have to restore habitats and food chains," the report's co-author Helen Temple said."We need to encourage people to accept large predators, improve protected areas management and better enforce laws regarding hunting practices," she added.The study, carried out by over 250 mammal experts, did not include whales and dolphins.Over one-quarter of Mediterranean mammal species, 27 percent, have declining populations, 31 percent are stable and only three percent are increasing, the study found. The trend for the remaining 39 percent is unknown.It is the first time that all Mediterranean animals have been assessed for the IUCN Red List of threatened species.

Madonna wows VMAS with king of pop tribute

Madonna stunned the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday (13Sep09) by opening the show with a tribute to Michael Jackson.The pop superstar, dressed in black, took to the stage at Radio City Music Hall in New York to rapturous applause and a standing ovation and listed all the things she shared with the King of Pop - including the fact they were both born in August 1958 and have eight brothers and sister. Her opening speech struck a sombre note when she said, "When Michael Jackson was six, he became a superstar and was perhaps the world's most beloved child. When I was six, my mother died. I think he got the shorter end of the stick. I never had a mother but he never had a childhood. "When you never get to have something you become obsessed by it; I spent years searching for mother figures... but how do you recreate your childhood when you are under the magnifying glass of the world for your entire life?" Madonna went on to tell the audience, which included Jackson's brother Jermaine and father Joe, "There is no question that Michael Jackson was one of the greatest talents the world has ever known... Michael Jackson was a hero." She recalled trying to befriend Jackson back in 1991, after deciding the two pop superstars should be pals. She explained, "He showed up to my house without any bodyguards. We drove to the restaurant in my car. It was dark out but he was still wearing sunglasses. I said, 'Michael, I feel like I'm talking to limousine, do you think you could take off those glasses, so I could see your eyes. "He paused for a moment and then he tossed the glasses out of the window, looked at me with a wink and a smile and said, 'Can you see me now, is that better?' In that moment I could see both his vulnerability and his charm. "The rest of the dinner I was hell bent on getting him to eat French fries, drink wine, have dessert and say bad words... Later, we went back to my house to watch a movie and we sat on the couch like two kids and somewhere, in the middle of the film, his hand snuck over and held mine. It felt like he was looking for a friend more than a romance, and I was happy to oblige him." Madonna confessed she and Jackson fell out of touch but she felt "his pain" when "the witch hunt began" and he was accused of child molestation, adding, "I know what it's like to walk down the street and feel like the whole world has turned against you." Holding back tears, Madonna revealed she felt she and the world had "abandoned" the King of Pop after she heard he had died in June (09). She added, "We had allowed this magnificent creature that once set the world on fire to somehow slip through the cracks. While he was trying to build a family and rebuild his career, we were all busy passing judgment. Most of us had turned our backs on him." The pop star concluded by calling Jackson a "king" and adding, "He was also a human being and alas we are all human beings, and sometimes we have to lose things before we can truly appreciate them. "I want to end this on a positive note and say that my sons, aged nine and four, are obsessed with Michael Jackson. There's a whole lot of crotch-grabbing and moonwalking going on in my house." Her heart-felt tribute proceeded a dance tribute to the King of Pop as footage from the Thriller, Smooth Criminal and BAD videos played on a big screen behind the stage. Dancers hired for Jackson's doomed This Is It concerts in London performed step-by-step moves mirroring those on the screen. The tribute concluded with a short rendition of Scream - his duet with sister Janet, who appeared onstage from behind a smashed mirror. The two Jacksons appeared to dance and perform together.

Barrymore takes car race challenge

Drew Barrymore has accepted a challenge to test her green driving skills on late-night TV in America.The celebrity eco-warrior will go head-to-head with another Hollywood racer when comedian Jay Leno launches his Green Car Challenge during the first week of his new U.S. variety show The Jay Leno Show. Leno tells news show Access Hollywood that the stars are lining up to get behind the wheel of a high-powered electric car, but Barrymore will be the first to try-out the track on 19 September. Leno says, "The fun thing about it, there’s a lot of people... perhaps athletes and people like this who are not good talkers but would be fun in this sort of environment - to see if Shaquille O’Neal is faster than Cameron Diaz." And there's one star the host can't wait to see behind the wheel: "Tom Cruise called and said, 'Can I get in early and practice?' I said, 'No, nobody gets to practice

Gaga dismisses 'feud' with Pussycat Dolls

Lady Gaga has dismissed rumours of a feud with tour mates the Pussycat Dolls, insisting the girl group didn't feel upstaged by the stellar reviews the opening act received.The Just Dance singer got her start in the music industry writing songs for the burlesque-inspired band before carving out her own solo career. And now she has come full circle - she opened for the Pussycat Dolls on a worldwide tour earlier this year (09). But some critics have suggested she was the main draw - as she consistently outshone the headliners. GaGa suggests the reports are aimed at driving a wedge between all the girls, and she insists she'll always remain great friends with her Dolls. She says, "It's something that never really came to my attention until interviews... We had such a wonderful time on the road and I'm just grateful to travel and reach lots of my fans at once. Because of them (Pussycat Dolls), I can now come back and play the area by myself, so I'm very grateful."

World's first cloned wolf dies

Oneof the world's first two cloned wolves has died from an apparent infection, a professor who produced the clones almost four years ago said Tuesday।Snuwolf (Seoul National University wolf) was found dead on August 26 at Seoul Zoo, Professor Shin Nam-Shik of the university told journalists.Snuwolf apparently died of an infection and had no other health problems, Shin said. "But we can't say anything for certain until we complete the analysis of autopsy results."He denied the death might be linked to a faulty cloning technique. "Sudden deaths among dogs and wild animals always happen. This death must not be blown out of proportion," Shin stressed.Shin is a member of the team from the university led by Professor Lee Byung-Chun which created the world's first cloned dogs in early 2005.The team also cloned two female wolves, Snuwolf and Snuwolffy, which were born in October 2005. Shin said Snuwolffy is alive and healthy at the zoo.Their feat was clouded as it was achieved under the stewardship of now-disgraced cloning expert Hwang Woo-Suk. But a probe by an independent panel confirmed the canine cloning was genuine. one

Tick saliva could hold cancer cure: Brazilian scientists

It may be one of nature's repulsive little blood-sucking parasites, but the humble tick could yield a future cure for cancers of the skin, liver and pancreas, Brazilian researchers have discovered.
They have identified a protein in the saliva of a common South American tick, Amblyomma cajennense, that apparently reduces and can even eradicate cancerous cells while leaving healthy cells alone.
"This is a radical innovation," said Ana Marisa Chudzinski-Tavassi, the molecular biologist at the Instituto Butantan in Sao Paulo who is leading the research.
"The component of the saliva of this tick could be the cure for cancer," she told AFP.
She said she stumbled on the properties of the protein, called Factor X active, while testing the anti-coagulant properties of the tick's saliva -- the way it stops blood thickening and clotting so the tick can keep gorging itself on its host.
The protein shares some characteristics with a common anti-coagulant called TFPI (Tissue Factor Pathway Inhibitor), specifically a Kunitz-type inhibitor which also has been shown to interfere with cell growth.
A theory that the protein might have an effect on cancerous cells led to laboratory tests on cell cultures which exceeded all expectations.
"To our surprise it didn't kill normal cells, which were also tested," Chudzinski-Tavassi said. "But it did kill the tumorous cells that were being analyzed."
In her modest lab in the institute, housed in a rundown building, a line of immobile bloated ticks could be seen lined up with straws under their heads.
The small amounts of saliva captured that way was reproduced many times over in yeast vats so that tests could be carried out on lab rats with cancer.
The results have been more than promising.
"If I treat every day for 14 days an animal's tumor, a small tumor, this tumor doesn't develop -- it even regresses. The tumor mass shrinks. If I treat for 42 days, you totally eliminate the tumor," the scientist said.
Producing a medicine from the find, though, will require years of clinical tests and a significant financial investment neither of which Brazil is geared to provide.
Chudzinski-Tavassi has applied for a patent on the tick protein, and is presenting her team's discovery in medical journals and conferences around the world.
But she says moving beyond her lab "proof of concept" will be frustratingly difficult.
"To discover this is one thing. To turn it into a medicine is a whole other thing entirely," she said.