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PREVENT KIDNEY STONES, DRINK LOTS OF WATER -A kidney stone is a mass of crystals that have separated from urine and have accumulated inside a kidney. These hard masses can be extremely painful as they pass through the urinary tract. It's not entirely clear why some people are more prone to kidney stones, although those who have already had a stone are more likely to develop another. [ Read More]

AGEING WELL- Pick the age you want to be and "practice". Don' t care so much what others think or say. It's just you out there, be just you. Think small, break your life down into manageable pieces, time wise, chore wise, and Have FUN. There is no Happy, no young, Don't accept labeling. Live for just you, love yourself. [ Read More]

Malaria parasite now resists anti-malaria drugs -malaria has recurrence tendency after treatment because the parasite may settle in the liver to reinfect the blood system. [ Read More]

Delta and Northwest Fly Into Bankruptcy - Delta Air Lines Inc. snatched pillows from most of its domestic passengers, and Northwest Airlines Corp. quit offering pretzels. They slashed thousands of jobs and pressed remaining workers to take pay cuts. They renegotiated debt and dropped money-losing flights, but it wasn't enough to keep both airlines out of bankruptcy court. Ultimately, both were undone by spiking fuel prices after Hurricane Katrina. Their other problems - heavy debt, mounting pension obligations, labor costs higher than their peers - were serious enough, but could be addressed later. But not the fuel. Northwest Chief Executive Doug Steenland said there were times in the days after Katrina that the airline was paying nearly $100 a barrel for jet fuel - almost double its cost at the beginning of the year. Delta and Northwest both filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York . Both companies said the timing was a coincidence. They became the third and fourth major carriers to enter Chapter 11 since the 2001 terrorist attacks. The nation's big airlines have lost lost more than $30 billion in those four years,[Read More]

Germany's two times scorer Kevin Kuranyi, left, jumps for the ball against Czech Tomas Galasek during the Euro 2008 group D qualifying match between Czech Republic and Germany in Prague, Czech Republic, Saturday, March 24, 2007. Czech Republic was defeated by Germany with 1-2. Other teams in group D are Ireland, Slovakia, Wales, San Marino and Cyprus. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Germany beats Czechs; France on Course

LONDON - Kevin Kuranyi scored two goals Saturday to put Germany in control of its European Championship qualifying group after a 2-1 victory at the Czech Republic, and Nicolas Anelka kept France on course with the goal in a 1-0 victory at Lithuania. Israel held struggling England to a 0-0 draw and European champion Greece lost its lead and tumbled 4-1 to visiting Turkey. In a meeting of two clubs level on points at the top of Group D, Germany moved three ahead of the Czechs as Kuranyi scored with two headers in Prague. Milan Baros replied for the Czechs, who are now tied for second with Ireland, which edged Wales 1-0.Not considered for last year's World Cup by France coach Raymond Domenech, Anelka scored a solo goal in the 73rd minute ....[Read More]

IS KOBE THE MOST COMPLETE PLAYER IN THE NBA?

In the past five games, Kobe Bryant has averaged 54 points per game. Think about that for a moment. Fifty four! Most importantly, the Los Angeles Lakers won all five, reversing a seven-game losing streak that had threatened to ruin their season. In effect, Bryant placed the entire team on his shoulders and willed it back into a positive state. The Lakers are now confident again, they have Luke Walton and Lamar Odom back from injuries and they're no longer looking like road kill for the West's top seeds come playoff time. And they owe it all to Kobe. His offensive game is so good, so fundamentally sound in every aspect, that it may be time to debate whether or not he's the most complete offensive player in the history of the NBA. I'm not talking about the best player – there are plenty of players who rank well ahead of Bryant ....[Read More]

No joke: U.S. comedian wrecks rare Ferrari
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Maybe Eddie Griffin should leave the driving to his chauffeur. The comedian destroyed a rare million-dollar Enzo Ferrari when he crashed it into a barricade while promoting a movie. He was unhurt in the low-speed incident, at Irwindale Speedway, about 20 miles (32 km) east of Los Angeles. "The brother's good at karate and all the rest of that, but the brother can't drive," Griffin told reporters. He was practicing for a celebrity charity racing event tied to his upcoming film, "Redline." The car, one of just 400 manufactured, belonged to the film's producer, Daniel Sadek. Sadek estimated that the car was worth $1.2 million, and seemed philosophical about the loss, saying he was just happy that Griffin was unharmed.......[Read More]

Popular Rapper Arrested - Rapper Tony Yayo of the G-Unit is now rocking bling in the form of handcuffs. The 28 year old rapper, born Marvin Bernard, has been arrested for allegedly assaulting the 15 year old son of business rival Czar Entertainment head Jimmy “Henchman” Rosemond. According to several sources,Yayo and several members connected with G-Unit Records allegedly jumped Rosemond’s son last Tuesday. Ources say the boy was on his way to an internship at his father’s company after school when things popped up. “As 50 was getting into his SUV, he hand signaled to Yayo and his entourage to approach and harass the boy,” After being interrogated for several minutes as to why he was wearing a Czar Entertainment sweatshirt, Yayo pushed the boy up against athe wall.”According to sources, Yayo back handed the boy and began screaming profanities about Czar Entertainment,not realizing the boy was the son of the company’s president. Czar entertainment represents rapper The Game who is long time 50 Cent rival.....[Read More]

PORT-AU-PRINCE,Haiti
Chavez shadows Bush in Whirlwind tour
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez shadowed his political foil President Bush on a tour of Western Hemisphere nations, stopping in Haiti after passing through Jamaica to promote aid packages and discuss development projects. Chavez, who left Nicaragua as crowds greeted Bush in Guatemala, was met by Haitian President Rene Preval and several thousand cheering supporters outside the Port-au-Prince airport. Many waved Venezuelan flags, while some chanted "Down with Bush, long live Chavez!" Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez shadowed his political foil President Bush on a tour of Western Hemisphere nations, stopping in Haiti after passing through Jamaica to promote aid packages and discuss development projects. Chavez, who left Nicaragua as crowds greeted Bush in Guatemala, was met by Haitian President Rene Preval and several thousand cheering supporters outside the Port-au-Prince airport. ........... [Read More]

KANDAHAR
O' Connor fails to get detainee meeting
Defense Minister Gordon O'Connor's attempts to meet with the head of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission failed when he discovered the organization's director wasn't in Kandahar. Mr. O'Connor said after arriving that he wanted to meet AIHRC head Abdul Qadar Noorzai to look him in the eye and confirm that his group, the newly appointed monitors of Canada's detainee agreement, are “going to do what they say they're going to do.” But the meeting was cancelled when it emerged that Mr. Noorzai was in neighboring Helmand province.It's not known why Mr. Noorzai was in Helmand or whether the meeting will be rescheduled. Mr. O'Connor recently announced that Canada has asked the AIHRC to monitor detainees handed over to Afghan authorities. Unlike Britain and the Netherlands, Canada did not retain the right to verify that detainees transferred to Afghan custody are being properly treated. Earlier in the day, General Rick Hillier said he has no regrets about signing an agreement with the government of Afghanistan relinquishing the right to monitor the treatment of detainees.

“We think the agreement was pretty solid,” Gen. Hillier said....................[Read More]

VIENNA
UN atomic agency suspends 22 Iranian aid projects.
A 35-nation meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency approved the suspension of 22 nuclear technical aid projects to Iran as part of United Nations sanctions. Tehran said the move would not stop it from enriching uranium. The decision by the agency, an arm of the United Nations, was by consensus and expected. Even nations on the agency board normally supportive of Iran backed the suspension because it was recommended by the director general, Mohamed ElBaradei, on authority of the UN Security Council. Egypt's chief representative, Ramzy Ezzeidin Ramzy, said before the decision that "I have not heard anyone express dissatisfaction" with ElBaradei's recommendations, reflecting the meeting's consensus on the issue. Iran's chief representative, Ali Ashgar Soltanieh, dismissed the decision, along with other international moves to pressure his government to suspend uranium enrichment, as the work of a few countries seeking "to deprive Iran from its inalienable rights for peaceful use of nuclear energy.""None of these projects are related to enrichment," he said of the suspensions. "The enrichment program will continue as planned." The projects aid the peaceful use of nuclear energy in medicine, agriculture, waste management, management training or power generation. They are provided to dozens of countries, most of them developing nations......[Read More]

Stolen Diamond Found In Prison Shower.
A $25,000 diamond was found stuck in a shower drain at the prison housing the man accused of stealing it two years ago. Bret Allen Langford, 39, allegedly asked the owner of a Jewelry Express store to show him a 2-carat colorless diamond in April 2005. Langford then grabbed the diamond and sped away, said sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino. Langford was arrested shortly after but the diamond was never retrieved.".........[Read More]

Senate Signals Support for Iraq Timeline.

WASHINGTON - The Democratic-controlled Senate narrowly signaled support Tuesday for the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq by next March, triggering an instant veto threat from the White House in a deepening dispute between Congress and commander in chief.Republican attempts to scuttle the nonbinding timeline failed, 50-48, largely along party lines.The vote marked the Senate's most forceful challenge to date of the administration's handling of a war that has claimed the lives of more than 3,200 U.S. troops. It came days after the House approved a binding withdrawal deadline of Sept. 1, 2008,......[Read More]

Somalian Islamists claim they destroyed AU peacekeeping plane.
Islamist militants said they had fired missiles at a plane carrying Ugandan peacekeepers which caught fire on landing at Mogadishu airport. "Today, March 9, 2007, we destroyed a military plane at Mogadishu airport," said the statement on the Qaadisiya.com Web site, which is linked to an Islamist movement. "The plane carrying the last invading troops was hit by two missiles at the center of the aircraft," it added.The AU peacekeeping force began deploying in Somalia on Tuesday, amid continuing insurgent attacks........[Read More]

Rape, Gender Violence the Norm in Post-War Liberia
When the West African state of Liberia was torn apart by 14 years of civil war, the victims of the brutal insurgency included mostly women and children who were subject to rape and sexual violence. "Not only are the terrible consequences of this still felt by many Liberian women today, but violence against women and rape continue unchecked," says a new study on Liberia by ActionAid, an international development agency based in South Africa. Rape is currently the most serious crime plaguing Liberia, with an average of ......[Read More]

Ethiopia opposition threatens strike, demonstrations
Ethiopia's biggest opposition party threatened to call a national strike and demonstration within 10 days if the government continued to "harass, kill and torture" its party members. Political tensions in Africa's top coffee grower have increased since a disputed May 15 election triggered opposition claims of fraud and protests in which 36 people were killed. "We warn that if the government continues to harass, kill and torture our members, we shall be forced to call for strike and demonstration within the next 10 days after the Ramadan is over," said Hailu Shawel, chairman of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD). .......[Read More]

Paris Club agrees debt deal with Nigeria -source
The Paris Club of sovereign creditors has signed a comprehensive debt relief deal with Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, a source close to the 19-member Club said on Thursday."The deal is done," the source said. The accord came less than four months after the Club reached a deal in principle which Nigeria said at the time represented a write-off of nearly $18 billion, or roughly 60 percent of the debt it owed the rich creditor nations........[Read More]

Nigerian Corruption Record Improves, Russia Worsens-Report
N igeria's corruption record appears to have improved in 2005, while the situation in Russia seems to have worsened, Transparency International said. The Berlin-based group's annual corruption index places Russia in 126th place and Nigeria at 152nd - with the country in first place being perceived as the least corrupt. This year's index has 159 countries, compared with 146 in 2004. The index is based on how businessmen and residents perceive the level of corruption in a particular country. Russia, the world's largest exporter of natural gas, was ranked 90th in last year's indexso its position alongside Albania, Niger and Sierra Leone this year is significantly
worseIn a statement, Transparency International said that less transparency in ........[Read More]

US ambassador is held at gunpoint over Mugabe 'plot'
T he American ambassador to Zimbabwe has been accused of attempting to provoke "regime change" after straying into a military zone close to the residence of the country's President, Robert Mugabe.
Ambassador Christopher Dell found himself looking down the wrong end of a gun as he was held at bayonet and gunpoint for more than one-and-a-half hours by the presidential guard after walking up a restricted hill at the National Botanical Gardens. The hill overlooks one of President Mugabe's
official residences, located about a mile away......... [Read More]

War crimes tribunal issues warrant for Ugandan rebels
T he International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for five leaders of Uganda's feared Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), enforcing the first indictment by the permanent war crimes tribunal.
The warrants were issued on 8 July and sent to the government in Kampala, but were kept secret until yesterday to protect witnesses and victims. The warrants named the LRA's leader Joseph Kony, who has led a brutal uprising in Uganda for 19 years, and four of his top commanders. Mr. Kony faces 33 counts, including 12 counts of crimes against humanity for rape and sexual enslavement. The other 21 counts cover war crimes, including attacks against civilians and the murder and forced enlistment
in the army of children.......... [Read More]

Nigerian rebel who led oil protests is accused of treason
Nigeria has charged a militia leader with treason and plotting to overthrow the government, three weeks after his arrest triggered street protests and the closure of oil platforms. The charges are likely to stoke tensions in the oil-rich west African nation, coming one month before the 10th anniversary of hanging of Ken Saro-Wiwa, killed by Nigeria's former military dictatorship after leading protests against Shell's activities in the region........... [Read More]
Hundreds of Africans break through razor-wire into Spain
M ore than 300 Africans have broken through a razor-wire fence separating Morocco from the Spanish enclave of Melilla in the biggest wave so far of immigrants seeking a gateway to Europe........... [Read More]

NIGERIA
Nigeria's election campaign faces hurdles.
For the first time, a civilian succession is in the offing At first, the rumor was that the patient was in a coma, rushed off for emergency resuscitation. In the next swirl of speculation the patient was already dead, and preparations were being made for a hometown burial. Later, more concrete information was released. The patient, Umaru Yar'Adua, 56, the ruling party's candidate in the Nigerian presidential election just weeks away, was in a German hospital undergoing tests because of breathing problems. On Wednesday, he assured the BBC's service in Hausa that his health problems were "nothing serious" and that he planned to return to Nigeria to resume campaigning soon. Yar'Adua's health troubles — he has a kidney ailment, but the severity and exact nature of his current illness have not been made public — are the latest of several high- profile stumbling blocks as Nigeria heads toward an election that will either secure its place in the family of modern African democracies or send it spiraling back toward chaos. "This is really the historical test of whether they can move from one elected incumbent to another without having things break down," said J. Stephen Morrison, director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a research group in Washington. "There is a lot riding on this." Since its independence from Britain in 1960, Nigeria has seesawed between civilian and military rule, enduring a brutal civil war and decades of misrule that siphoned billions of dollars from the country's oil wealth. No civilian government in Nigeria has handed power to another civilian government, making April's election a watershed. But what was supposed to be a triumphant transition has been marred by a messy battle between the current president, Olusegun Obasanjo, and his deputy, Atiku Abubakar, who wants to succeed Obasanjo but has been blocked by a series of legal maneuvers seeking to Once allies, the two have had a very public and acrimonious falling out over whether Obasanjo should seek a third four-year term. Obasanjo and his allies say Abubakar is unfit to run because of corruption allegations against him......... [Read More]

WINDHOEK, Namibia
Namibia chips away at African taboos on gays
Growing national debate follows period of harsh condemnation As a boy of 14, Petrus Gurirab

worried that he was gay. Seeking advice from a trustworthy adult, he went to see a teacher who had treated him kindly."I have feelings for other boys," Gurirab recalled telling her. "Like love feelings." There was a long silence."My advice is that it's not African" to be gay, the teacher replied, using a slur for the term."Ignore those feelings and try girls." She also apparently gossiped with colleagues. Other teachers started teasing Gurirab, asking him why he didn't play soccer and why he spent so much time around his mother. Then one morning, he said, the gym teacher invited him into his office, locked the door and forced him onto the desk for sex."Let's see how good you are at it," the teacher said, according to Gurirab, now 25, who recounted the story through tears....[Read More]

ZIMBABWE
ZIMBABWE,A.TURN.FOR.THE.WORSE.
AS REPRESSION in Zimbabwe grows more brutal, and as the economy sinks deeper into the mud, analysts usually cite a catalogue of reasons why change in the wretched southern African country, though much-needed, is unlikely soon. The political opposition is timid and led by men unwilling to risk their own necks. Religious and civic leaders do offer defiance of President Robert Mugabe’s misrule, but are unwilling to work with their political colleagues. Ordinary people, wary of violence and remembering civil war in the 1970s, dare not take to the streets... [Read More]