Hollywood Release: The Expendables 2 [Watch Trailer]

The Expendables 2 is a 2012 American ensemble action film directed by Simon West and written by Richard Wenk and Sylvester Stallone, based on a story by Ken Kaufman, David Agosto and Wenk. It is a sequel to the 2010 action film The Expendables, and stars Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Chuck Norris, Randy Couture, Terry Crews, Liam Hemsworth, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Bruce Willis, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. The film follows The Expendables, a mercenary group, as they seek revenge against Jean Vilain (Van Damme), a rival mercenary who murders one of their own, and threatens the world with a deadly weapon.

Principal photography took place over 14 weeks beginning in September 2011 on an estimated $100 million budget, with filming occurring in Bulgaria, Hong Kong and New Orleans. The film is due to be released across Europe on August 16, 2012, followed by a North American release on August 17. A tie-in downloadable video game was released on July 31, 2012, that served as a prequel to the events of the film.

Synopsis

After taking a seemingly simple job for Mr. Church (Bruce Willis), the Expendables find their plans going awry and one of their own is brutally murdered by rival mercenary Jean Vilain (Jean-Claude Van Damme). The Expendables set out into hostile territory – with their new members Billy the Kid (Liam Hemsworth) and Maggie (Yu Nan) – to put a stop to a deadly weapon and gain their revenge against the people who killed their brother-in-arms.

Read More

Hollywood Release: Cosmopolis [Watch Trailer]

Billionaire Eric Packer (Pattinson) rides slowly across Manhattan in his limousine that he uses as his office while on his way to his preferred barber, even though there are traffic jams. The traffic jams are caused by a visit of the president of the United States and by the funeral of Eric's favourite musician, whose music he plays in one of his two private elevators.

He has recently married. In the car and elsewhere, he has meetings with his wife, who does not want sex with him, to save energy that she needs for her work. Instead, he has sex with other women. In his car, while having a meeting, he has his doctor carry out his daily medical checkup; Eric worries about the doctor's finding that he has an asymmetrical prostate. After devastating currency speculation, he kills his bodyguard and follows a path of further self-destruction, including visiting his potential murderer and deliberately shooting himself in the hand.

Read More

Hollywood Release: Out of the Clear Blue Sky

Filmmaker Danielle Gardner tells the remarkable story of prominent Wall Street bond trading company Cantor Fitzgerald, which suffered more losses of lives than any other business in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and has struggled to rebuild from the ground up ever since. Intimate interviews with Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick, other surviving employees, and the family members of their colleagues who perished on that fateful day offer an intensely personal look at the effects of the tragedy that sent shockwaves around the entire world.

Read More

Hollywood Release: Painted Skin: The Resurrection [Watch Trailer]

An ancient fox spirit embarks on a diabolical quest to become human after escaping an icy prison, and becomes bound to a disfigured princess who seeks the love of a noble guard as her kingdom crumbles in this lavish supernatural epic. Confined to a frozen cell for centuries, malevolent fox spirit Xiaowei (Xun Zhou) regains her freedom and seeks to preserve her beauty by seducing men and consuming their hearts. Should a man offer her his heart willingly, Xiaowei will become mortal, breaking free of the underworld and experiencing living among the living. Meanwhile, as a dark cloud falls over her kingdom, Princess Jing (Wei Zhao) flees, hiding her deep facial scars under a mask of pure gold while seeking the love of her former protector, who remains haunted by his failure to save her years prior. When destiny brings Xiaowei and Princess Jing together, the battle for the princess' heart begins.

Read More

Hollywood Release: True Wolf [Watch Trailer]

Fate had thrown them together with a wolf. Sure, it was captive, but it was still a wolf and it was now their responsibility. Should they euthanize her as their instincts told them to? Or could they somehow create a meaningful life with this beast? Living with a wolf would certainly not be easy, in fact, they shared the same fears as society at large; the wolf is a dangerous beast that has no place around humans.

But Koani changed everything. She allowed them to see the true nature of the wolf and it literally changed Bruce and Pat’s story.  It was this revelation that set this unusual pack on a path to tell a new story about wolves and challenge the age old perception of the Big Bad Wolf as well as the New Age portrayal of the wolf as a noble savage.

True Wolf: The Story of Koani and Her Unusual Pack weaves the story of Bruce and Pat’s life with Koani into the larger issue of humanity’s relationship with the wolf and wildness.  Through 16 years of archival footage, supplemented by provocative interviews, stylized re-creations and stunning wolf footage, this contemporary film explores the highly polarized and contentious period before, during, and after our nation made the historic decision to return wolves to the homelands from which they’d been exterminated in the Northern Rockies.

Koani became an ambassador for her species.  She had changed Bruce and Pat’s story about wolves and they hoped that she could do the same for others. So they decided to take Koani into classrooms, museums and venues across America to give people a face-to-face experience with a wolf. It was a dangerous proposition. Many things could go wrong. She was a wolf after all. The stakes were high.  The wolf issue was highly contentious and one false move by Koani and her unusual pack could potentially put a black eye on wolf recovery.

Against all odds, they set forth on a journey with Koani and Indy, Koani’s dog companion, and traveled across the continent on a quest to change people’s attitude and story about the wolf.  It was an odyssey that challenged their conventions and beliefs. And while they were successful beyond their wildest imagination – they would present 1,400 programs to 200,000 people – to this day they are haunted by the question, “Did we do the right thing?”

The film explores a much more personal side to the story – Bruce and Pat’s relationship with Koani. Born in captivity, Koani could only be a captive wolf. She never roamed wild nor could she be allowed to run free.  For Bruce and Pat, despite all their efforts to provide for Koani’s needs, they would have to face the painful truth that they could not provide for her greatest need – to be free – and as she would prove time and time again, she was a wolf – and wolves belong in the wild.

In the end, Koani taught Bruce and Pat an unexpected lesson in their own truth – the truth about being human.

True Wolf: The Story of Koani and Her Unusual Pack explores the power of story, challenges all conventions on how society views the wolf and, perhaps more importantly, how we view ourselves in relationship to the natural world.

Read More

Dark Chocolate May Lower Blood Pressure

There may be good news for people looking for an excuse to munch on a couple of squares of chocolate after a review showed the treat could reduce blood pressure.

An analysis of 20 studies showed that eating dark chocolate daily resulted in a slight reduction in blood pressure.

The Cochrane Group's report said chemicals in cocoa, chocolate's key ingredient, relaxed blood vessels.

However, there are healthier ways of lowering blood pressure.

The theory is that cocoa contains flavanols which produce a chemical in the body called nitric oxide. This 'relaxes' blood vessels making it easier for blood to pass through them, lowering the blood pressure.

However, studies have thrown up mixed results. The Cochrane analysis combined previous studies to see if there was really an effect.

There was a huge range in the amount of cocoa consumed, from 3g to 105g a day, by each participant. However, the overall picture was a small reduction in blood pressure.

A systolic blood pressure under 120mmHg (millimetres of mercury) is considered normal. Cocoa resulted in a 2-3mmHg reduction in blood pressure. However, the length of the trials was only two weeks so the longer term effects are unknown.

Lead researcher Karin Ried, from the National Institute of Integrative Medicine in Melbourne, Australia, said: "Although we don't yet have evidence for any sustained decrease in blood pressure, the small reduction we saw over the short term might complement other treatment options and might contribute to reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease."

High blood pressure is both common and deadly. It has been linked to 54% of strokes worldwide and 47% of cases of coronary heart disease.

However, chocolate packs plenty of fat and sugar as well as cocoa so is not the ideal way of lowering blood pressure.

There has also been a warning in the Lancet medical journal that dark chocolate may contain fewer flavanols than you might think. Dark chocolate contains a higher cocoa count than milk chocolate so should contain more flavanols, however, they can also be removed as they have a bitter taste.

Victoria Taylor, of the British Heart Foundation, said: "It's difficult to tell exactly what sort of quantities of flavanol-rich cocoa would be needed to observe a beneficial effect and the best way for people to obtain it.

"With most of the studies carried out over a short period of time it's also not possible to know for sure whether the benefits could be sustained in the long term. The 100g of chocolate that had to be consumed daily in a number of the studies would also come with 500 calories - that's a quarter of a woman's recommended daily intake.

"Beans, apricots, blackberries and apples also contain flavanols and, while containing lower amounts than in cocoa, they won't come with the unhealthy extras found in chocolate."

Source: BBC News  

Read More

Bill Gates Looks To New Toilets To Improve World Sanitation

Bill Gates is, in a manner of speaking, flushing his money down the toilet.

His charitable organisation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is looking for future loos that can improve sanitation around the world.

At the Reinvent the Toilet fair, hosted at its Seattle campus this week, designs included a lavatory that used microwave energy to turn poo into electricity.

Another turned excrement into charcoal, while a third used urine for flushing.

In total 28 designs were shown off at the fair and the winner was a team from the California Institute of Technology.

Led by Prof Michael Hoffman, the toilet they designed was solar-powered and generated hydrogen gas and electricity. They won a $100,000 prize.

"We couldn't be happier with the response that we've gotten," Bill Gates said at the event.

The project challenged inventors to come up with a toilet that operated without running water, electricity or a septic system. It needed to operate at a cost of no more than five cents (3p) a day and would ideally capture energy or other resources.

Walter Gibson, from a team of scientists at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, showed off a toilet that used black soldier fly larvae to process waste and create environmentally-friendly animal feed.

The toilet is already being field tested in South Africa.

Traditional flush toilets waste tons of drinking water and are often impractical in many areas of the developing world.

The UN estimates that disease caused by unsafe sanitation is responsible for half of the hospitalisations in the developing world. About 1.5 million children die each year from diarrhoeal disease.

The Gates Foundation has committed $370m (£235m) to its future toilet initiative and hopes to field test the prototypes within three years.

Source: BBC News

Read More

Mars Rover Spied By Satellite

Nasa has used its high-resolution imaging satellite at the Red Planet to look down on the Curiosity rover and acquire a new picture of the recently landed six-wheeled robot.

The vehicle appears as a double dot.

The view from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has been colour enhanced to emphasise certain ground features.

These include the disturbance in the soil made either side of the vehicle by the rocket powered crane that lowered Curiosity into Gale Crater a week ago.

"We can clearly see Curiosity - it's like two bright spots that we see, and their shadows. And then it's surrounded by the blast pattern from the descent stage - those little blue fans right next to it (false colour blue)," explained Alfred McEwen, the principal investigator on MRO's High Resolution Image Science Experiment (HiRise) camera.

Since its 6 August (GMT) touchdown, engineers have been checking out the rover's systems and instruments.

And the past four days have been spent upgrading the vehicle's onboard software.

Curiosity runs two computers - a main unit and a back-up. Both have been updated to what programmers call the R10 configuration.

This software is optimised for surface operations, enabling the rover to drive, drill into rocks and take samples into the laboratories inside its body.

The update also removed all the code used by Curiosity during the complex manoeuvres required to land in Gale Crater, a deep depression on Mars' equator.

The mission team will continue to shake down the vehicle and its instruments in the coming days. A first drive is expected next week.

"We will drive just a little bit forward and then turn and back up. That's… in five or six days, assuming all goes well between now and then," said mission manager Michael Watkins.

Curiosity's ultimate goal is to go to the base of the big mountain in the centre of Gale known as Mount Sharp.

There, it is expected to find rocks that were laid down billions of years ago in the presence of liquid water.

Curiosity - also called the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) - will probe these sediments for evidence that past environments on Mars could once have favoured microbial life.

The key science targets are about 8km away, but it will take several more km to find a drivable route across the rugged terrain.

Researchers hope to have the rover at the base of Mount Sharp in a year's time.

Source: BBC News  

Read More

Gunmen Kill Eight In Mexican Bar

The authorities in Mexico say at least eight people were killed when heavily armed men stormed a bar in the northern city of Monterrey on Monday night.

The police are investigating the possible motives for the attack.

Some of the victims were employees of the bar, in a central area of the city, once one of the safest in Mexico.

Recently, Monterrey has been badly hit by a bloody turf war between two of Mexico's powerful drug gangs - the Zetas and the Gulf cartel.

Police are investigating the possible motives for the attack.

Four people died in the Matehuala bar. The others were taken to hospital, where they died of their wounds.

Monterrey is the capital of Nuevo Leon state, which borders the American state of Texas.

Formerly one of the safest cities in Mexico, it has been the scene of several massacres since the cartels intensified their battles for control of trafficking routes and drug markets.

A year ago, gang members set fire to a packed nightclub in Monterrey, killing more than 50 people in a matter of minutes.

In May, 49 beheaded and mutilated corpses were found dumped by a roadside near the city.

A local leader of the Zetas was later arrested and blamed for the massacre.

Taxi drivers have also been killed in the city either for refusing to pay "protection" money or for being suspect of working for rival gangs.

More than 55,000 people have died in drug-related violence in Mexico since 2006, when President Felipe Calderon deployed the army to combat the cartels.

Source: BBC News  

Read More

German Arrests Over Iran Exports

Four men have been arrested in Germany on suspicion of illegally supplying Iran with parts needed to build a nuclear reactor.

The suspects were held following searches of homes and business in Hamburg, Oldenburg and Weimar.

They are accused of using front companies in Turkey and Azerbaijan to supply the parts in deals worth millions of euros.

Germany has an embargo on nuclear-related trade with Iran.

Many Western countries have concerns about Iran's nuclear programme, but Iran insists it is for peaceful purposes.

Prosecutors say the group, which includes one German national, and three Iranian-German dual nationals, were supplying speciality valves to be used in heavy water reactors.

They are accused of breaking the arms embargo, as well as export restrictions on goods that could be used for military purposes.

Prosecutors say the men, known as Rudolf M, Kianzad Ka, Gholamali Ka, and Hamid Kh, knew what the parts would be used for.

Germany privacy laws prevent their full names being released.

A fifth suspect has not been named.

Some 90 customs officials and prosecutors were involved in the searches that led to their arrest.

The men will appear in court on Wednesday.

Source: BBC News  

Read More

Japan Arrests Group In Island Row

Japanese police have arrested five Hong Kong activists who landed on disputed islands, reports say.

The group had sailed from Hong Kong to the islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.

Japanese coastguard vessels had followed them, but the group jumped into the water and swam to one island.

The landing came with Japan embroiled in another row over islands with South Korea, and as two ministers visited the controversial Yasukuni Shrine.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said Japan had lodged a diplomatic protest with China over the activists.

"We have just lodged our complaints via diplomatic channels in both China and Hong Kong," he said.

China's Foreign Ministry also said it was "contacting the Japanese side to lodge representations over five Chinese nationals' detention", China's state-run Xinhua news agency reports.

The various rows erupted as Japan marked its surrender at the end of World War II and South Korea its independence from Japanese colonial rule.

Early in the day, a group of South Korean swimmers landed on islands called Dokdo by South Korea and Takeshima in Japan, days after President Lee Myung-bak visited the islands - prompting Japan to recall its envoy.

The group of pro-China activists set sail on Sunday.

Japanese coastguard vessels surrounded the boat as it approached, but seven of the activists jumped overboard and swam to one of the islands, local media report.

Officials told the BBC that two activists returned to the boat, while the other five were arrested.

"The Okinawa prefectural police arrested five men for violation of the immigration control law on Uotsurijima island," a spokesman told AFP news agency.

Early on Wednesday, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman warned Japan not to "endanger" the activists and said Beijing was ''paying close attention'' to the developments, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Tensions between China and Japan have been rumbling in recent months over the islands in the East China Sea.

Taiwan also claims the islands, which are controlled by Japan and form part of Okinawa prefecture.

Largely uninhabited, they are close to strategically important shipping lanes, offer rich fishing grounds and are thought to contain oil deposits.

In September 2010, relations between China and Japan plummeted after the arrest of a Chinese trawler captain near the islands. The captain was accused of ramming two Japanese patrol vessels in the area, but Japan eventually dropped the charges against him.

In April a fresh row ensued after Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara said he would use public money to buy the islands from the current private owner.

Source: BBC News   

Read More

Adobe Flash Player Exits Android Google Play Store

Adobe is pulling its Flash Player plug-in from Android's Google Play store.

It follows a decision to halt development of the software for mobile devices.

The plug-in allows multimedia content created using the Flash format to be viewed via a web browser.

Adobe will continue to develop the player for PCs. It will also support Air - a tool which lets developers turn web-based applications using Flash into standalone mobile apps.

The Flash Player had been popular on Google Play - with two-thirds of users giving it a top score.

But Adobe said it was removing the option to install the plug-in because it was likely to exhibit "unpredictable behaviour" when used with the latest version of Android, known as Jelly Bean.

It also suggested that smartphone owners who had upgraded to the latest system should uninstall the Flash Player if it was already on their device.

Although Adobe is no longer actively developing the player for Android, Blackberry or Symbian devices - and never released it for Apple iOS or Windows Phone handsets - it has said it would continue to offer security updates and bug fixes for existing versions until September 2013.

Source: BBC News  

Read More

Central Nigeria Floods Kill 33

At least 33 people have been killed by heavy flooding in central Nigeria's Plateau state, relief official Abdussalam Muhammad said.

He said the floods had destroyed homes and washed away roads and bridges, hampering rescue efforts.

More than 12,000 people were affected by the heavy rains in six districts, including Shendam.

Flooding killed more than 39 people last month near the state capital, Jos.

Officials have warned of more flooding in the coming days.

The rainy season in Nigeria typically runs from March to September.

Mr Muhammad, the co-ordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency in central Nigeria, said hundreds of people were left homeless by the floods.

They desperately needed aid, but it was difficult to reach them because roads and bridges had been destroyed, Mr Muhammad added.

The Shendam district was worst affected by the floods, along with areas such as Wase and Kanam.

Read More

Dewani Accused Pleads Not Guilty

A man has pleaded not guilty to murdering honeymooner Anni Dewani in South Africa.

Xolile Mngeni's trial at the Western Cape High Court, in Cape Town, is expected to last for six weeks.

Mrs Dewani, 28, from Sweden, was shot when a taxi she was in was hijacked in the Gugulethu township in November 2010.

Her husband Shrien Dewani, 32, from Bristol, is accused of arranging her murder but denies the charge.

An extradition order for the care home owner to face trial in South Africa had been agreed, but was halted by the High Court in London on mental health grounds.

Mr Mngeni was named as an accomplice by Mziwamadoda Qwabe, who last week pleaded guilty to her murder.

Qwabe was jailed for 25 years last Wednesday.

On Monday a judge ruled that Mr Mngeni, who has a brain tumour, was fit to stand trial.

Source: BBC News 

Read More

Central Damascus Rocked By Blast

A large explosion has struck close to a military compound in the Syrian capital, Damascus, near a hotel used by the UN's observer mission.

Syrian state TV reported that three people had been injured in the blast, but that none of them were UN monitors.

The intended target of the explosion was not immediately clear.

Meanwhile UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos, who is visiting Syria, has said it should be made easier for aid to be delivered to civilians.

Later on Wednesday, the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC) is expected to suspend Syria's membership over the violence.

State television said Wednesday's blast had been caused by a bomb near a fuel truck planted in a car park near the hotel, but other reports suggested it had been an improvised explosive device (IED).

Images from the scene showed several charred vehicles, including a tanker which had had its rear section blown out. UN vehicles in the nearby car park were seen covered in dust and debris.

"There was a huge explosion and a fireball, and soldiers were thrown to the ground by the blast," a military officer told the AFP news agency.

There are several government and military buildings in the vicinity. The area around the hotel, the Dama Rose, is a high-security zone.

Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad visited the scene and told state media it was "a criminal act aimed at distorting Syria's image". He called on the international community to "work hand-in-hand against terrorism".

"Our primary goal is to secure the observer mission team and thank God no one from this mission has been hurt since it arrived in Syria," he said.

A senior member of the main rebel force, the Free Syrian Army (FSA), told the AFP news agency it had carried out the attack and that it had been "designed to go off at a meeting of army officers and members of the shabiha [pro-government militia] which decides on daily operations in Damascus".

"This operation aims to boost the morale of the FSA and tell Bashar al-Assad and his command that we can conduct carefully planned operations because we know what is happening in their ranks," he said.

His claim could not be immediately verified.

Source: BBC News 

Read More

Thai Senator Claims He Shot Ex-wife Accidentally

A Thai senator who is alleged to have shot and killed his ex-wife says the shooting was accidental.

The Bangkok Post reported that Boonsong Kowawisarat, 55, and Chanakarn Detkard, 46, who is also his secretary, were enroute to Bangkok on Sunday when they stopped to eat in the northern province of Phrae.

While they were waiting for their food, Kowawisarat took out a 9mm Uzi pistol that discharged, hitting Detkard in her stomach.

Police said the owner of the restaurant took Detkard to hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Kowawisarat was said to be in shock after the shooting.

The senator said the shooting was an accident and that he had been trying to clear a stuck bullet from the weapon when it fired, AFP reported.

"It was my gun. I showed her the gun that I had bought for her. She lived with her mother and our two daughters - there are only women in her place - so I wanted her to have it as I'm worried about them," he told AFP.

"My hand is not in good condition. I am ill. I had a stroke," he said.

While police say they will charge the senator with causing death by negligence, they have yet to arrest and charge him as he is protected by parliamentary privilege while the country's house is in session.

Kowawisarat could face a maximum of 10 years behind bars and a fine of about 20,000 Thai baht ($632 Cdn) if he is convicted.

Source: CBC News  

Read More

WaveRider Hypersonic Jet Targets Mach 6

Hypersonic jet WaveRider is to undergo another test flight above the Pacific Ocean aiming to reach Mach 6.

At this speed - more than 4,300mph (6,900km/h) - it could travel from London to New York in about an hour.

The project is funded by the Pentagon and Nasa, and is part of plans to develop faster missiles.

During a test in June 2011, WaveRider travelled at Mach 5, but failed to reach the target speed.

It is one of several projects currently under way to create a hypersonic aircraft.

The research could also be used to build a commercial plane, able to reach much higher speeds than today's jets, after Concorde was decommissioned in 2003.

A B-52 bomber will lift the wingless unmanned jet from US Edwards Air Force Base in California to 50,000 feet (15,250m).

The craft will then be dropped, and after a free fall of about four seconds, its engine is supposed to ignite.

X-51A WaveRider should then climb to 70,000ft (21,300m) and eventually reach Mach 6.

The Mach number is the ratio of the speed of an object to the speed of sound. Mach 1 is the speed of sound - approximately 768mph, depending on various factors including temperature and altitude.

So Mach 6 is six times the speed of sound. Concorde's cruising speed was Mach 2 - it flew from London to New York in just over three hours.

The WaveRider test flight is expected to last for about five minutes. At the end of it, the aircraft will break into pieces and fall into the Pacific.

The test is essentially a repeat of last summer's attempt, when the hypersonic aircraft reached Mach 5, but the engine failed to attain full power.

European aerospace and defence giant EADS believes that hypersonic passenger flights are likely to appear in the near future. In 2011, EADS presented its own concept of a commercial high-speed aircraft designed to fly at Mach 4.

"The business community who wanted to be in New York in three hours made Concorde highly viable, and now there's interest on both sides of the Atlantic to jump a generation and go from supersonic flight to hypersonic flight," EADS' vice-president of business development, Peter Robbie, told the BBC.

"Such an aircraft will be very expensive, of course, because of the enormous amounts of energy that is required to get to such speeds.

"But the idea of going from Tokyo to Paris in two-and-a-half hours is very attractive for the business and political community - and I think that by about 2050, there may be a viable commercial aircraft."

In August 2011, US military scientists attempted to get another unmanned hypersonic experimental aircraft to reach Mach 20 - 20 times the speed of sound.

However, they lost contact with the Falcon Hypersonic Test Vehicle 2 (HTV-2) after it had separated from its rocket.

Source: BBC News  

Read More

Giant Python Caught In Florida

The biggest Burmese python ever caught in Florida's wild has been captured in the Everglades, US scientists say.

The snake measuring 17ft 7in (5.18m) and weighing 164lb (74kg) was found in Everglades National Park, the University of Florida announced.

The python - now dead - was pregnant with 87 eggs, also believed to be a record.

Non-native Burmese pythons have been blamed for a staggering decline of mammals in Florida's Everglades.

Scientists say the latest discovery shows just how pervasive the snakes - native to South East Asia - have become in South Florida.

"It means these snakes are surviving a long time in the wild," said Kenneth Krysko, at the Florida Museum of Natural History.

"There's nothing stopping them, and the native wildlife are in trouble."

He said that the snake had feathers in its stomach that would help to identify the types of wildlife it was eating.

"A 17-and-a-half-foot snake could eat anything it wants," he added.

Pythons kill their prey by coiling around it and suffocating it.

They have been known to swallow animals as large as deer and alligators.

After scientific investigation, the snake will be exhibited at the museum on the University of Florida campus for five years before being returned to the Everglades National Park.

In 2009, another Burmese python named Delilah, measuring 18ft and weighing more than 400lb, was seized by Florida wildlife officials after it was found that its cage at a home near Lake Apopka was unsuitable.

Source: BBC News  

Read More

Texas Gunman Was Being Evicted

A gunman who shot and killed a police officer and a civilian near a Texas university has been identified.

Thomas Alton Caffal, 35, opened fire on Constable Brian Bachmann as the officer was serving an eviction notice. The shooting went on for half an hour.

The attack happened within two streets of Texas A&M University in the town of College Station on Monday.

Chris Northcliff, a town resident, died after being caught in the crossfire outside.

Caffal was also shot and killed. He was not a student at the university, but rented the home.

His sister told the Associated Press of her shock at the violence.

"We are just distraught by the havoc that he has caused," Courtney Clark said. In a separate statement, Caffal's mother said he had been "ill" and that "it breaks our hearts his illness led to this".

Bachmann, a 19-year force veteran and married father of two, was shot in the chest. He is the sixth law enforcement official killed in Texas this year, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

Barbara Holdsworth, who was helping to move her daughter, a student, was injured after bullets hit her vehicle, the Houston Chronicle reported. She was in critical condition on Tuesday.

Three other police officers were treated for injuries, police said.

Assistant chief of police Scott McCollum said in a news conference that officials would not speculate what led to the shooting.

"We're trying to make some sense of this," Chief McCollum said. He added that Bachmann's death was particularly devastating because he was "very close to everyone in law enforcement".

"He was a pillar in this community, and it's sad and tragic that we've lost him today," he said.

Caffal's neighbour, a former army medic, told the Houston Chronicle he started CPR on Bachmann after hearing shots.

"I was covered in his blood," Rigo Cisneros said, adding that the gunman repeatedly asked him to apologise on his behalf to the officer.

Texas Governor Rick Perry, who studied at Texas A&M University, said in a tweet: "Thoughts & prayers are with those impacted by shootings near A&M. Ever thankful for officers who daily sacrifice to keep us from harm."

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said in a statement: "Senseless attacks by violent criminals have no place in the state of Texas."

A Texas A&M University spokeswoman said most students were not on campus on Monday, as the autumn term does not begin until later this month.

Monday's shooting comes on the heels of an attack at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin that killed six people and a mass shooting at a cinema in Colorado in which 12 people died.

In the wake of the Wisconsin incident, President Barack Obama called for national "soul-searching" on the issue of gun violence.

Source: BBC News  

Read More

Surfthechannel Owner Sent to Jail

The owner of Surfthechannel.com has been sentenced to four years in jail after providing links to illegally copied TV shows and films.

Anton Vickerman was found guilty of conspiracy to defraud in June for "facilitating" copyright infringement.

The site used to be one of the UK's most visited sources of pirated files.

The 38-year-old from Gateshead had designed the service's pages, hiring others to source material and carry out other back-end functions.

Surfthechannel.com had acted as an index of professionally made online videos - both legal and illegal - encouraging its users to send in new links and check that they worked.

However, it did not host the video files itself, but instead pointed visitors to other sites including Megavideo and China's Tudou.

The Federation Against Copyright Theft (Fact) said that at its height in 2009 the site attracted more than 400,000 visitors a day, generating more than £35,000 in advertising revenue a month.

The maximum sentence that could have been given at Newcastle Crown Court would have been 10 years.

Mr Vickerman ran the site through a limited company, called Scopelight, which sent earnings to a bank account in Latvia.

He was arrested after Fact and the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) hired a private investigator who took photographs of Mr Vickerman's home and computer equipment in July 2008 after pretending to be interested in buying the property.

Police raided the house a month later, arresting Mr Vickerman and his wife.

Kelly Vickerman was found not guilty by the jury.

Despite the arrests Surfthechannel continued to operate and only went offline in May, coinciding with the start of the trial.

Media industry representatives, including the British Video Association, welcomed Mr Vickerman's guilty verdict saying it made it clear that copyright theft would not be tolerated.

But others have expressed concern that Mr Vickerman was found guilty of conspiracy to defraud rather than being prosecuted for copyright infringement.

The Techdirt blog has described the law as being "vague" and noted that the charge had previously been unsuccessfully levelled against the owners of Oink and tv-links.co.uk - sites which had also offered indexes of links to pirated material.

Source: BBC News  

Read More