Northern Ireland Sitting On A Goldmine

A modern day gold rush is getting underway in parts of Northern Ireland. Dozens of potential gold deposits have been identified in a new geological survey of the province. Sky's Ray Kennedy reports.

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Four-Year-Old Swims With Whale

Huang Yan is the latest example of bizarre athletic accomplishments in China. The 4-year-old sits astride a beluga whale's back, which is about 30 times his size, as it glides under water. There's no commentary on this video.

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Boy Racer Beats Police With Go-Kart

Seven police cars were caught up in a Wacky Races-style high-speed chase when they found themselves in pursuit of a boy racer - in a go-kart.

The 18-year-old driver led them on a wild goose chase for three miles through the winding streets of Moenchengladbach, the birthplace of Formula 1 drivers Nick Heidfeld and Heinz-Harald Frentzen.
After a breathless chase he ducked into a vacant garage to lie low but was discovered by police.

"We were chasing him across town but the squad cars couldn't keep up because the go-kart was able to take the corners faster and he was able to get away," police spokesman Willy Thevissen said.
The youth was charged with driving without a licence and driving a go-kart on a public street.
"He told us he knew driving a go-kart on the street is illegal," the spokesman said.
"But he had purchased the vehicle from a friend and said he had no other way of getting it home."

McCanns' Sketch Of Possible Abductor

Sketches have been released of the man who Gerry and Kate McCann believe abducted their daughter.



They depict a man of southern European or Mediterranean appearance walking with a child in his arms.

It is understood the images were drawn by an FBI-trained forensic artist from the eyewitness account of Jane Tanner.

She was in the group of friends who dined with the McCanns on the evening Madeleine disappeared.

She said she spotted the man striding from the area of the McCanns' apartment but had not realised the relevance of what she saw at the time.

The man is drawn by the artist with greasy, straggly hair, wearing a purple or maroon top and beige chinos.

He is aged about 35 to 40, 5ft 6in (1.7m) tall, and of slim build.

The child, with her legs dangling, is wearing the same pyjamas as Madeleine on the evening of May 3.

To ensure accuracy, where Ms Tanner could not be certain, the artist left some details blank.
The release of the images, commissioned by private detectives working for the McCanns, was given the "tacit approval" of the Portuguese police, said family spokesman Clarence Mitchell.

He said: "This is another important phase of our investigation into Madeleine's abduction, and we hope that this picture will be a very important reminder to anyone who was in the area on that night who may have seen this man.

"We believe that this was Madeleine being carried away by a man from the apartment, so we place great importance on having these pictures produced."

It is now almost six months since Madeleine went missing from the family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz.


McCanns In Emotional Interview

Kate McCann has broken down during her first television interview since being named as a suspect over her daughter's disappearance. The couple maintain their daughter is alive. Paul Harrison reports.

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população mundial hoje

De acordo com estimativas publicadas pelo IBGE, em maio de 2006 a população mundial era de 6,800,000,000. De acordo com projeções populacionais, este valor continua a crescer a um ritmo sem precedentes antes do século XX. Aproximadamente um quinto de todos os humanos dos últimos seis mil anos estão vivos actualmente. Segundo algumas estimativas, há hoje um bilhão de jovens no mundo entre as idades de 15 e 24 anos.

Nossa população está em explosão demográfica desde a revolução industrial que começou na Inglaterra no século XVII por volta de 1650.

Veja como é essa progressão geométrica:

1 a 2 bilhões de pessoas entre 1850 a 1925 - 75 anos se passaram.

2 a 3 bilhões de pessoas entre 1925 a 1962 - 37 anos se passaram.

3 a 4 bilhões de pessoas entre 1962 a 1975 - 13 anos se passaram.

4 a 5 bilhões de pessoas entre 1975 a 1985 - 10 anos se passaram.

5 a 6 bilhões de pessoas entre 1985 a 1993 - 8 anos se passaram.

6 a 7 bilhões de pessoas entre 1993 a 1999 - 6 anos se passaram.

* A projeção indica que a população humana estará crescendo de 1 bilhão de pessoas a mais por ano (1.000.000.000/ano ) neste planeta ainda nesta década. 2000 a 2010 !

Um quinto da população mundial acessará a internet em 2011

O número de usuários conectados à internet em todo o mundo vai aumentar de 1,1 bilhão, em 2006, para 1,5 bilhão em 2011, representando um quinto da população global estimada para o ano, segundo projeção do JupiterResearch.

A empresa de pesquisas em internet prevê que o Brasil - juntamente à Rússia, Índia e China - vai garantir a pujança necessária ao crescimento do número global de internautas.
Já regiões como Estados Unidos, Canadá, Japão e Europa Ocidental, que conquistaram um população online madura na última década, vão apresentar taxas mais lentas de crescimento nos próximos quatro anos.

Neste cenário, a participação da América do Norte na população online mundial deve cair de 21% em 2006 para 17% em 2011. Mesmo assim, a região deverá manter a maior densidade de usuários de internet, com 76% da população conectada daqui a quatro anos. A Europa Ocidental deve alcançar um patamar similar.

População mundial é de 6,5 bilhões e pode chegar a 9 bilhões em 2050

A população mundial atual totaliza 6,5 bilhões de pessoas e pode chegar a 9 bilhões em 2050, de acordo com relatório da ONU. O documento, elaborado pelo secretário-geral, Kofi Annan, alerta para o fato de que existe uma grande diversidade nas tendências demográficas de cada país.

Conforme o relatório, o maior aumento de população nas próximas décadas acontecerá em países da África e da Ásia, liderado pela Índia, China, Paquistão e Nigéria, seguidos dos Estados Unidos.

Foi constatado que houve um crescimento no uso de anticoncepcionais no mundo, de 54%, em 1990, para 63%, em 2000, e que a população dos países desenvolvidos utiliza métodos de efeito a curto prazo e reversíveis, enquanto nas nações pobres optam-se pelos de efeitos prolongados.

Os dados do relatório apontam ainda para a diminuição da população em alguns países desenvolvidos, em função da baixa taxa de natalidade, devendo se mais acentuada na Rússia, Ucrânia, Japão e Itália e em menor grau na Polônia, Romênia, África do Sul e Espanha.

Idade média


Estima-se também que em 2050 o número de pessoas com 50 anos some 2 bilhões de habitantes em todo mundo, em comparação com os 600 milhões no início do século XXI. Com isso, a idade média da população mundial, hoje de 26 anos, subirá para 37 anos, em 2050.

Os movimentos migratórios, por sua vez, conforme o relatório, duplicaram entre 1960 e 2000, com mais de 175 milhões de pessoas vivendo fora de sua pátria. Os países com mais imigrantes são os EUA, com quase 35 milhões, seguidos em número bem menor por Rússia, Alemanha, Ucrânia, França, Índia e Canadá.

Por outro lado, o relatório afirma que o índice de mortalidade, cuja expectativa era de diminuição nos países pobres, deve aumentar por causa do crescimento das mortes por epidemia de HIV, especialmente na África, a região mais afetada. Calcula-se que no final de 2003 havia cerca de 58 milhões de pessoas no mundo com vírus da aids, dos quais 93% no África subsaariana. Porém, o relatório alerta que as maiores taxas de incidência estão sendo registradas em países da Ásia e na região da América Latina e do Caribe.

O documento também estima que metade da população do mundo viverá em zonas urbanas, em 2007, sendo que a maioria das pessoas residirá em cidades com menos de 500 mil habitantes. Isto significará que em 2050 a população das zonas urbanas será de 5 bilhões de pessoas, em comparação com os atuais 3,2 bilhões. Os maiores conglomerados urbanos serão Tokyo, Cidade do México, Nova York, Bombaim, São Paulo e Nova Délhi.

Obtido acordo sobre Tratado da União

Os líderes dos 27 festejam com espumante da Murganheira o acordo obtido. Sócrates sempre terá um Tratado de Lisboa.

Nicolas Sarkozy, presidente francês, José Sócrates e o primeiro-ministro polaco, Jaroslaw Kaczynsk

Os líderes dos 27 chegaram finalmente a acordo em relação ao Tratado de Lisboa, pondo assim fim a uma "saga institucional" de vários anos que dota a União de um novo instrumento de funcionamento a partir de 2009.

O acordo foi anunciado pouco faltava para a 01 hora de sexta-feira, quase sete horas depois da reunião ter tido início e depois de terem sido resolvidos os últimos problemas levantados por alguns países, com quem o primeiro-ministro português reuniu bilateralmente antes de juntar todos os chefes de Estado e de Governo ao jantar, a partir das 22h10.

Nesta fase final, as questões pendentes eram a recusa da Itália em perder a paridade com o Reino Unido e a França no número de representantes no Parlamento e a exigência da Polónia em incluir no corpo do Tratado a chamada cláusula de Ioannina, que permite a um país vencido na votação de uma decisão adiar a sua aplicação durante um determinado período de tempo.

Antes, já tinha sido encontrada uma solução para as outras duas "pontas soltas", a transliteração do "euro" em búlgaro e a exigência da Áustria de limitar o acesso às suas universidades a estudantes de outros países europeus, nomeadamente da Alemanha.

Com base na Convenção de Madrid, que estipula as modalidades de funcionamento da moeda única, o Conselho aceitou que o "euro" possa ser transcrito em alfabeto cirílico e pronunciado como "evro", única forma correcta em búlgaro.

A Áustria, que é alvo de um processo de infracção por parte da Comissão Europeia por limitar o acesso de estudantes de outras nacionalidades às suas universidades, violando assim o direito comunitário em matéria de livre circulação, obteve garantias de que o referido processo será suspenso por um período de cinco anos, findo o qual se efectuará uma nova avaliação da situação.

Cimeira Europeia: fumo branco para o Tratado de Lisboa

Os líderes dos Vinte e Sete chegaram a um acordo sobre o Tratado reformador da União Europeia que substitui a falhada Constituição Europeia. A luz verde ao documento, que vai chamar-se Tratado de Lisboa, só foi alcançada depois de ultrapassados os problemas levantados pela Polónia e pela Itália, entraves que a diplomacia portuguesa conseguiu transpor. O texto final vai ser assinado na capital portuguesa no dia 13 de Dezembro, às 11h00.

A decisão culmina um processo iniciado em Junho, quando os Vinte e Sete definiram os termos exactos do novo texto, mandatando a actual presidência portuguesa da UE para o traduzir juridicamente num novo Tratado.

Com estas balizas bem definidas, o processo de redacção do texto decorreu a uma velocidade inédita, deixando para a Cimeira de Lisboa os problemas de natureza política de maior dificuldade.

José Sócrates, primeiro-ministro português, avisou antes do início da cimeira que os líderes não sairiam do Pavilhão Atlântico do Parque das Nações antes de chegarem a acordo.
“Estamos muito perto de ter um novo Tratado e esse Tratado vai chamar-se de Lisboa”, prognosticou.

Esta mensagem pretendeu constituir uma forma de pressão sobre a Itália e a Polónia, que chegaram a Lisboa com as suas reivindicações intactas.

Ao invés, a exigência da Áustria de limitar a livre circulação de estudantes estrangeiros candidatos às suas universidades, e a pretensão da Bulgária de poder utilizar a denominação “evro” no seu alfabeto cirílico para a moeda única, puderam ser resolvidas antes do arranque da cimeira, às 18h00.

Dois ossos duros de roer

Desta forma, os líderes puderam centrar-se inteiramente nos dois ossos mais duros de roer da Itália e Polónia.

Varsóvia obteve uma vitória sobretudo de apresentação ao conseguir a elevação do chamado compromisso de Ioannina – que permite a um pequeno grupo de países suspender uma decisão – de declaração política a protocolo anexo ao Tratado e com o mesmo valor jurídico. Este protocolo incluirá no entanto igualmente uma outra disposição do processo de decisão comunitário que permite ao presidente em exercício do conselho de ministros da UE pedir a todo o momento a passagem a uma votação.

A inclusão dos dois mecanismos no mesmo texto provoca a sua anulação mútua: os polacos – ou qualquer outro país – podem invocar Ioannina sempre que se perfile uma decisão desagradável, mas isso não impede o conselho de passar à votação sempre que achar que é tempo de encerrar a pausa para reflexão assim aberta.

Varsóvia obteve igualmente uma declaração garantindo-lhe um lugar permanente de advogado-geral no Tribunal de Justiça da UE em pé de igualdade com os restantes “grandes” estados. Esta concessão terá como contrapartida a atribuição de pelo menos mais um lugar rotativo entre os países mais pequenos.

Dos dois, o problema italiano foi o mais difícil de resolver. Romano Prodi, primeiro-ministro italiano entrou na cimeira mantendo a recusa da proposta avançada pelo Parlamento Europeu (PE) sobre a repartição dos seus futuros 750 membros.

A sua recusa resultava do facto de ter um número de deputados (72) inferior aos dos Reino Unido (73) e, sobretudo, da França (74), em resultado das diferenças de população. Esta quebra da tradicional paridade entre os três países não tem sentido, defendeu Prodi, pelo facto de os cálculos terem sido feitos com base na população, quando a referência deveria ser os cidadãos.

O problema acabou por ser resolvido com a decisão de aumentar o tecto dos deputados para 751, de modo a garantir um lugar adicional à Itália. Prodi tinha no entanto começado as discussões dos líderes afirmando que um deputado adicional não seria suficiente, deixando claro que o seu verdadeiro objectivo era a paridade com franceses e ingleses.

O risco inerente à sua reivindicação era uma reabertura das discussões sobre os lugares do PE, o que todos os líderes procuraram evitar a todo o custo, sabendo que nesse cenário, vários outros países – pelo menos a Espanha, Polónia, Irlanda e Eslováquia – exigiriam um aumento da sua quota. O chefe do governo italiano acabou por aceitar a solução proposta, depois de um encontro a sós com Sócrates e com o presidente francês, Nicolas Sarkozy.

Península Ibérica

A Península Ibérica é geograficamente uma península na Europa localizada no sudoeste deste continente. Podemos localizar politicamente nesta península quatro paises, Portugal, Espanha, Andorra e Gibraltar.

















Formando quase um trapézio, a Península liga-se ao continente europeu pelo istmo constituído pela cordilheira dos Pirenéus, sendo rodeada a norte, oeste e parte do sul pelo oceano Atlântico e a restante costa sul pelo mar Mediterrâneo.

Com uma altitude média bastante elevada, apresenta predomínio de planaltos que estão rodeados de cadeias de montanhas e que são atravessados pelos principais rios. Os mais importantes são o rio Tejo, o rio Douro e o rio Guadiana, que têm a parte terminal do seu curso em Portugal, desaguando, tal como o rio Guadalquivir no oceano Atlântico, e o rio Ebro, que, por sua vez, deságua no mar Mediterrâneo.

As elevações mais importantes são a Cordilheira Cantábrica, no Norte, a serra Nevada e a serra Morena, no Sul, e ainda a serra de Guadarrama, na Cordilheira Central, de que a serra da Estrela é o prolongamento ocidental. Densamente povoada no litoral, a Península Ibérica tem fraca densidade populacional nas regiões interiores

Nomes alternativos

Apesar de Península Ibérica ser atualmente o nome mais comum para designar a península, a mesma possui outras designações, dadas pelos diversos povos que a colonizaram e mantidas posteriormente. As várias denominações alternativas são:

Ibéria, (Grego: Iberia) nome grego para designar a região;
Hispânia, (Latim: Hispania) nome romano para designar a região;
Península Hispânica.
Sefarad (Hebraico: ספרד) nome hebraico para algumas partes da península.

História

Celtas, Iberos, Lusitanos, Celtiberos, Cónios
Invasão romana
Hispânia (Ulterior e Citerior)
Galécia, Lusitânia, Terragona, Bética
Invasões bárbaras da Península Ibérica (especificidade das migrações dos povos bárbaros)
Godos e Suevos, Visigodos
Godos e Suevos, Visigodos
Invasão árabe
Califado de Córdoba
Ducado da Cantábria
Reconquista
Reino das Astúrias
Reino de Leão, Castela, Aragão e Navarra
Condado Portucalense e independência de Portugal
Taifa

Child Sex Suspect 'Counselled Teens'

The schoolteacher arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing boys in rural Thailand was previously employed by the Canadian military to counsel teenagers on moral issues.


Christopher Paul Neil, 32, was the world's most wanted paedophile suspect after images on the internet sparked a global manhunt.

His face was digitally obscured but experts managed to reconstruct a recognisable image and Interpol circulated those pictures last week.
Officials at the Canadian Department of National Defence confirmed Neil had been hired by the military in 1997 to offer counselling to teenagers at a sea cadet training camp at Fort San.

Canadian forces officials said they received no complaints from the youngsters or their parents during the time he worked there.

Then in 2000 and 2001, Neil volunteered at Saint Patrick's School in Maple Ridge, British Columbia as part of his training to become a priest, the school principal said.

He also applied for a teaching position at the school, she confirmed.
Neil then went on to teach English at various schools in Thailand, South Korea and Vietnam.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said it was conducting a "very active" investigation into Neil's activities in Canada and overseas.

Neil was arrested in Thailand's north-eastern province of Nakhon Ratchasima and paraded before the cameras at a news conference.
"Bingo! We've got him," Thai police Major General Wimol Powintara told reporters.

Officers had travelled to the province to make the arrest after receiving information that Neil was in the area.
Thai authorities, who issued an arrest warrant for Neil on Thursday, suspect he may have sexually abused boys in Thailand.

France-based international police agency Interpol believes Neil also molested a dozen other boys in Cambodia and Vietnam, some as young as six.
The hunt for Neil began three years ago when German police discovered about 200 online photographs of a man sexually abusing children.


Experts Reconstruct Swirled Face

Police around the world are hunting a paedophile who published photos on the web of himself abusing children. He digitally obscured his face but Interpol experts have unscrambled his face. See the before and after.

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Paedophile Paid £8 For Sex With Boys

A warrant has been issued for the arrest of a paedophile at the centre of a worldwide manhunt after three of his alleged victims came forward.

Authorities tracking Christopher Neil are now searching for a fourth youngster.

The 32-year-old Canadian is suspected of sexually abusing young boys and putting the images on the internet - but his face was hidden by a swirling digital 'mask'.

Specialists managed to unscramble the images and reveal his face.

The three boys who came forward were aged nine, 13 and 14 at the time of the allegations came forward after Interpol launched an international search for the offender.

Neil - now thought to be in Thailand, where the warrant was granted - is believed to have abused them in 2003 at his Bangkok flat and charges have been filed in relation to oldest two.
Major General Wimon Pao-in, who is in charge of the case, said the abuser had sex in 2003 with at least one other boy, and paid them each £8-£16.

"As far as the information we have, he did abuse at least four boys. Three of them have now testified and we are looking for the other one," he said.

Neil is accused of having sex with at least a dozen Cambodian and Vietnamese boys, some as young as six, and to have featured in 200 pornographic images placed on the internet.

He had worked as a teacher in Seoul, South Korea, and took other teaching jobs in Thailand and Vietnam.

More clues about his background have emerged with the discovery of a page on the social networking website MySpace which he apparently created.

His profile reads: "Been kicking around Asia for the past five years, teaching mainly and finding other forms of mischief.

"I love teaching, can't get enough of it really."

The entry describes his passion for drama, musicals and karaoke and describes him as 5ft 11in tall, slim and slender.

Neil also worked as a chaplain and counsellor advising children aged 12 to 18 from 1998 to 2000 at the Greenwood Air Cadet Summer Training Centre in Nova Scotia, Canada, the Canadian military said.

Disliking McCanns 'An International Sport'

The winner of a prestigious award for novelists has revealed how she takes part in the "international sport" of disliking Gerry and Kate McCann.

In a venomous attack on the family, Mann Booker Prize winner Anne Enright wrote that she was "angry" that Kate and Gerry McCann "refused to accept" their daughter was dead.
"Disliking the McCanns is an international sport," she writes.

"I disliked the McCanns earlier than most people (although I am not proud).
"I thought I was angry with them for leaving their children alone.

"In fact, I was angry at their failure to accept that their daughter was probably dead."

Enright, 45, was this week's surprise winner of the literary prize for her book The Gathering.
But earlier this month the Irish novelist wrote an essay about the McCanns in the London Review of Books.

Entitled Disliking the McCanns, the 2,000-word piece discusses public perceptions of the couple.
Enright says she does not share some of the public "animosity" towards the "beautiful mother" Mrs McCann.

But she has few warm words for Mr McCann.

"I find Gerry McCann's need to 'influence the investigation' more provoking," she writes.
"The sad fact is that this man cannot speak properly about what is happening to himself and his wife... the language he uses is more appropiate to a corporate executive than to a desperate father.

"This may just be the way he is made. This may be all he has of himself to give the world just now.

"But we are all used to the idea of corporations lying to us, one way or another - it's part of our mass paranoia."

Madeleine disappeared from the couple's holiday apartment in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz on May 3.

Both parents are being treated by Portuguese police as formal suspects.

Writing in his blog this week, Mr McCann said: "Kate and I do NOT accept that Madeleine is 'probably' dead. We know it is a possibility."

Family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said the couple were "realistic enough" to know there was a "probability" she had died.


McCanns Welcome New Top Cop 09/10/07

Gerry and Kate McCann have welcomed news that one of Portugal's top cops is taking over the case. They hope Paulo Rebelo will quickly clear them as suspects - and get on with the search for their daughter, their family spokesman Clarence Mitchell says.

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Do You Agree With Anne Enright About The McCanns?

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52 new species discovered on Borneo Island

Over 400 species have been newly identified on the island since 1996


GENEVA - Scientists have discovered at least 52 new species of animals and plants on the southeast Asian island of Borneo since 2005, including a catfish with protruding teeth and suction cups on its belly to help it stick to rocks, World Wildlife Fund for Nature International said Tuesday.

“The more we look the more we find,” said Stuart Chapman, WWF International coordinator for the study of the “Heart of Borneo,” a 85,000-square-mile rain forest in the center of the island where several of the new species were found. “These discoveries reaffirm Borneo’s position as one of the most important centers of biodiversity in the world.”

Much of Borneo, which is shared by Indonesia, Malaysia and the sultanate of Brunei, is covered by one of the world’s last remaining rain forests. However, half of the forest cover has been lost due to widespread logging, down from 75 percent in the mid-1980s.

The discoveries bring the total number of species newly identified on the island to more than 400 since 1996, according to WWF, known in North America as the World Wildlife Fund.

Other creatures discovered between July 2005 and September 2006 were six Siamese fighting fish, whose unique colors and markings distinguish them from close relatives, and a tree frog with bright green eyes.

The catfish, which can be identified by its pretty color pattern, is named glyptothorax exodon, a reference to the teeth that can be seen even when the its mouth is closed. The suction cups on its belly enable it to stick to smooth stones while facing the current of Indonesia’s turbulent Kapuas River system.

On the Malaysian part of the island, slow-flowing blackwater streams and peat swamps are home to the paedocypris micromegethes, which is 0.35 inch long.

The creature, which gets its name from the Greek words for children and small, is tinier than all other vertebrate species on Earth except for its slightly more minuscule cousin, a 0.31-inch-long fish found on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, according to WWF.

The discoveries further highlight the need to conserve the habitat and species of Borneo, where the rain forest continues to be threatened by rubber, palm oil and pulp production, WWF said.
“The remote and inaccessible forests in the Heart of Borneo are one of the world’s final frontiers for science, and many new species continue to be discovered here,” said Chapman.He added that the forests were also vital because they were the source the island’s major rivers acting as a natural break to fires burning in the lowlands this year.

Jane Smart, who heads the World Conservation Union’s species program, said the discovery of 52 species within a year in Borneo was a “realistic” number given that scientists guess there are about 15 million species on Earth. “There are still many more species that remain to be discovered there,” she said.

Borneo is particularly important for biodiversity because the island has a high number of endemic species, creatures which only occur in that one place, she told The Associated Press. “So if you wipe out a small area, you’re going to wipe out a lot of the species’ habitat,” she said, adding that once these creatures are destroyed, they are gone forever.

“This is a real concern when forests are ripped out for rubber plantations or oil palm plantations,” Smart said.

New species found in once-lost forest

Two shrews, two frogs, a rodent and a bat call African woods home


In a once-lost forest in Africa, six animal species new to science have been discovered, members of a two-month expedition now reveal, including a bat, a rodent, two shrews and two frogs.

"If we can find six new species in such a short period, it makes you wonder what else is out there," said Wildlife Conservation Society researcher Andrew Plumptre.

The bat appears to be a kind of horseshoe bat (genus Rhinolophus), known for the large horseshoe-shaped "nose leaves" used for directing their ultrasound.

These new species were discovered in an expedition from January and March 2007 into woods just west of Lake Tanganyika, which have been off limits to scientists for more than 50 years. The area is a remote corner of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, which has been gripped by unrest and war for decades.

Spirits linked with this area include Kabogo, said to occasionally manifest itself as a ghostly boat on Lake Tanganyika at night said to guarantee good fishing if seen, as well as Misotshi, who has taboos against the killing of chimpanzees and the destruction of the forest. For this reason, local chiefs suggested naming the area the Misotshi-Kabogo Forest, the researchers said.

The scientists found that nearly 386 square miles (1,000 square kilometers) of forest, almost the size of all of Hong Kong, remained intact. The woods stretched from the shores of Lake Tanganyika up to elevations of 8,940 feet (2,725 meters) above sea level, or roughly seven times the height of the Empire State Building.

These woods have been isolated from much of the Congo rainforest, the second largest rainforest in the world, for at least 10,000 years, which explains why they held new species, said Wildlife Conservation Society researcher Deo Kujirakwinja. They proved extraordinarily rich, providing a home to chimpanzees, elephants, leopards, monkeys, birds, reptiles, frogs and other amphibians, hogs, jackals, mongooses, porcupines, and antelopes known as bongos.

The expedition collected additional material that may also yield a number of new plant species. Local botanists were unable to identify some 10 percent of the collected plants. Plumptre, Kujirakwinja and their colleagues will send these samples to specialists in the near future to assess their novelty.

The Wildlife Conservation Society notes that chiefs and elders at local villages are supportive of transforming the region into a protected park. Currently, human impacts on these forests are relatively low, with gold mining on a minor level being the most substantial threat.

Exotic creatures found in ‘coral triangle’

Expedition to diverse sea may have turned up new species, scientists say


MANILA, Philippines - U.S. and Philippine scientists may have discovered new marine species in the world's most biologically diverse region, their expedition leader said Tuesday.

Larry Madin, who led the Inner Space Speciation Project in the Celebes Sea south of the Philippines, said scientists had been to one of the world's deep-ocean basins in search of organisms that may have been isolated there for millions of years.

Madin, of the Massachusetts-based Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, or WHOI, said the Celebes Sea is at the heart of the "coral triangle" bordered by the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia — a region recognized by scientists as having the greatest degree of biological diversity of the coral reef community of fish and other marine life.

The deepest part of the Celebes Sea is 16,500 feet (5,000 meters). The team was able to explore to a depth of 9,186 feet (2,800 meters) using a remotely operated camera.

"This is probably the center where many of the species evolved and spread to other parts of the ocean, so it's going back to the source in many ways," he told a group of journalists, government officials, students and U.S. Ambassador Kristie Kenney and her staff.

Madin led the project that involved WHOI and National Geographic Magazine in cooperation with the Philippine government, which also provided the exploration ship.

The expedition included over two dozen U.S. and Philippine scientists and a group from National Geographic — including underwater photographer Emory Kristof, who teamed with noted underwater explorer Robert Ballard of WHOI in 1985 to find the wreckage of the Titanic.

The team returned to Manila on Tuesday after spending about two weeks in the Celebes Sea off Tawi-Tawi, the Philippines’ southernmost provincial archipelago, about 687 miles (1,100 kilometers) south of Manila.

Madin said they had collected about 100 different specimens, including several possibly newly discovered species. One was a sea cucumber that is nearly transparent which could swim by bending its elongated body. Another was an unusually black jellyfish that was found near the bottom of the sea. But the most striking creature they found was a spiny orange-colored worm that had 10 tentacles like a squid, he said.

"We don't know what it is ... it might be something new," he said.

He said it would take "a few more weeks" of research in the United States to determine whether the species they have brought back are newly discovered. He expects to release a report by early next month.

Madin said the Celebes Sea, being surrounded by islands and shallow reefs, is partially isolated from the rest of the world's oceans and may have been more isolated millions of years ago,
leading scientists to believe that "there may be groups of organisms that have been contained and kept within" the basin since then.

"That makes it an interesting place to go and look to see what we might find," he said.

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Record Breaking Shark Caught In US

An 11-foot mako shark has been compared to the movie maneater in Jaws after being caught off the coast of Florida


The mako was snared by six friends who were on a fishing trip to catch grouper fish.
The fishermen first noticed the big shark because it kept eating the grouper and scamp they had already hooked.

While the boat's captain, Robert Hill described the fish as being "like Jaws", fisherman Adlee Bruner described the huge struggle to bring the shark in.
"It was tense" he said. "I've fished for 40 years. I've never seen one that big."

The 844lb catch took more than an hour to bring in, and even after having been hooked firmly and having its tail roped the crew still could not bring the shark on board.
Eventually they tied it to the back of the boat and dragged it on the four-hour journey back to shore.
The massive mako has already broken the record for the biggest fish ever caught at the Destin Fishing Rodeo.
Even after it had been gutted it still weighed 638lb - more than twice the previous record.


Jaws: It's Rare - But Could Be Great White

It's rare - but the shark spotted off the Cornish coast could be a visiting great white, says Ollie Crimmen, fish curator at the Natural History Museum. But it's impossible to tell from the images whether it is one of the terrifying beasts, he tells Sky.

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Middlesbrough 'worst place to live'

Middlesbrough has come top of a poll of worst places to live in the UK.

The city has been given the undesirable title thanks to high crime levels, severe drug and health problems, and poor education results.

Researchers have ranked the best and worst UK places for the Channel 4 show Location, Location, Location.

Last year, the London borough of Hackney was ranked the worst place to have a home. This year it comes 12th on the same list.

Hull is second, followed by Newham in east London

Middlesbrough has dropped from sixth worst place last year and fifth place in 2005.

Researchers found that Middlesbrough has one of the highest crime rates in the UK. The city, in the North East, is one of the top 10 places in the UK for theft from a car, theft of a car and burglary.

Its residents are paid on average an annual salary of £16,998 compared with a UK average £23,580, making it the 16th lowest salary in the UK.

Estimates suggest that about 27% of adults in Middlesbrough binge-drink, way over the 18% England national average.

Only 16% of the adult population eat healthily and 10% are physically active, compared with 24% and 12% national averages respectively.

Fresh Madeleine search near lake

New searches for Madeleine McCann are to be carried out by Portuguese police around the holiday resort where the child was last seen, according to reports.

Land and a lake within a large radius of the Ocean Club Holiday resort in Praia da Luz - where the youngster vanished on May 3 - are to be examined.

The areas to be covered include the coast between Praia da Luz and the village of Burgau, land between the Ocean Club and the beach, and the forests and isolated villas around the Bravura dam in Odiaxere, according to newspaper reports.

The land was searched early on in the investigation but it is believed searches there were not extensive.

Paulo Rebelo, one of Portugal's most senior detectives and the new head of the investigation, is thought to have ordered the move.

Police frogmen are also expected to start searching the lake, which is two-and-a-half miles wide.
Meanwhile, Robert Murat, the first person to be declared an official suspect over Madeleine's disappearance, broke his silence to make a direct plea to the Portuguese Police to finally clear him of suspicion.

Mr Murat said in an interview: "It's five months, my savings have gone. Mum is doing what she can. It is just very, very difficult."

Madeleine's parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, were themselves declared arguidos - or official suspects - last month after tests on DNA samples found in their hire car were taken as suggesting the girl's body had been transported in the vehicle.