Dog called as star witness in French murder trial

TOURS, April 4, 2014 (Express0 - A dog has been called this week as a star witness during a murder trial in a French court.

Tango, a nine-year-old Labrador, is believed to have witnessed his master being killed during a fight in the city of Tours in the Loire Valley.

As a means of identifying the alleged murderer, Tango was called to the stand, where the suspect threatened him with a bat.

The idea was that Tango would start barking, or show some other sign that he recognized the killer.

In a preliminary hearing earlier this month, a second dog of the same breed and age called Norman was also summoned to undergo the same test.

It led to protests from the suspect's lawyer, Gregoire Lafarge, who said: "So if Tango lifted his right paw, moved his mouth or his tail, is he recognizing my client or not?

"I find it very troubling for the French legal system. If a judge ignores the demands of reason and surrounds himself with experts who are unreasonable, well the system becomes very dangerous."

However, the entire episode turned out to be a total failure, with neither Tango nor Norman showing any interest in the man with the bat, or in the rest of the court proceedings.

The idea was that Tango would start barking, or show some other sign that he recognized the killer

It is not the first time a dog has been called as a court witness in the country.

In 2008, a dog named Scooby created legal history by appearing as a witness in a murder case.

The animal's 59-year-old owner had been found hanging from the ceiling of her Paris flat.

Police believed it was suicide but her family say that it was murder, and Scooby was in the flat at the time of the death.

During a preliminary hearing in the city, the pet was led into the witness box by a vet, but his barking proved inconclusive.

Despite this, French judge Thomas Cassuto praised the animal for his "exemplary behaviour and invaluable assistance".- Express, April 4, 2014

Spring brings beautiful blossoms and hay fever misery in Japan

TOKYO, April 03, 2014 (AFP) -Spring in Japan brings explosions of pink and white cherry blossoms that provide a beautiful backdrop for picnics across this nature-loving country.

But it also heralds a mass outbreak of face masks and specialty goggles intended to fend off clouds of pollen that make noses stream and eyes itch.

"I want to take my eyeballs out and wash them," websites blare as they advertise eye clinics and remedies for hay fever sufferers.

For many, the runny nose and sneezing are a minor inconvenience, but for some, the allergy to pollen causes nasty congestion, headaches and a racking coughing. For the unlucky few, asthma and bronchitis can follow.

According to surveys, up to one out of every four people among Japan's 128-million-strong population suffers from "kafun-sho" -- literally "pollen illness".

Pharmacies are stacked with surgical masks to meet demand that has swelled five-fold over the last decade, alongside glasses, tissues and a bevvy of medicines.

Air purifiers, bed cleaners, pollen-absorbing sprays and trench coats that repel pollen and water are also among "kafun-sho" goods, a market worth an estimated $1.5 billion annually, according to the Nikkei business daily.

The latest hit is the battery-powered "Kafun Blocker" a beekeeper-like nylon hood, that its maker claims "shuts out 99.99 percent of pollen" by taking air through a fan and a filter on its top.

Tokyo novelty electronics shop Thanko has sold the $40 gear "by the thousands" this year, manager Takahiro Sasaki said. "It is really popular among people who work outdoors, such as farmers."

Weather presenters commiserate with viewers as they show special pollen maps, warning of the density of airborne particles at different locations, before they move on to graphics showing the spread of the celebrated cherry blossoms.

While these delicate blooms might appear to be at the root of hay fever-sufferers' misery, they are relatively benign compared with pollen from ragweed, birch, grasses or other wild plants.

But by far the largest source of the irritant is the swathes of man-made woodland that sprang from the nationwide program of tree planting as Japan rebuilt after World War II.

Pollen from "sugi" -- Cryptomeria japonica -- an indigenous cedar-like Japanese evergreen, is held responsible for 70 percent of pollen allergies, and is at its most rampant in March and April.

A month later, "hinoki" -- Japanese cypress -- adds to the suffering, releasing clouds of pollen across the country.

Sugi -- light, soft, fragrant and with a delicate patina -- has been systematically planted as building material for centuries in Japan.

In the aftermath of WWII, the government led a drive to plant sugi and hinoki trees to meet surging demand for fast-growing, high-quality timber.

But the 1964 liberalization of timber imports started to squeeze domestic sugi products out of the market.

Many sugi forests were abandoned over the following decades without being logged or replanted, and, says Kimihiro Okubo of Nippon Medical School, that has led to a rise in pollen, which can travel 300 kilometers (190 miles).

Pollen production peaks when trees reach maturity at 30 years old, he said, with around 70 percent of sugi trees planted after the war now that age or older.

According to the Forestry Agency, planted sugi trees -- both state and privately owned -- account for 18 percent of all man-made and natural forests in Japan. Hinoki accounts for 10 percent.

Methods of treating sugi pollen allergy have improved since the first case was reported in 1963, said Okubo, an ear, nose and throat specialist.

Leading the way is "sublingual immunotherapy", in which drops of allergen extracts are put under the tongue to be absorbed. Around a third of patients get rid of almost all symptoms through this method and 50 percent see their problems ease.

The government for its part has been reluctant to help stop planting sugi trees or cut them down.

But it has led projects since 1999 to plant saplings of sugi varieties which produce little pollen -- as little as one percent of that produced by ordinary trees.

Sugi forests "serve a variety of public purposes such as national land conservation, prevention of global warming and cultivation of water sources," said a Forestry Agency publication. "It is not desirable to log them at once."

"Air pollutants, stress and the westernization of lifestyle including eating habits have combined to worsen symptoms of pollen allergy," the ministry said in a 2009 report, a view shared by many experts.

Forestry Agency official Kiyohito Onuma said the ratio of sugi saplings of varieties which produce little pollen had constantly risen to reach 10.4 percent in 2012. About 15.2 million sugi saplings were planted in that year.

He added that experiments are under way at laboratories to develop saplings that produce no pollen at all, partly by genetic engineering.

"Sugi grows fast and it is so straight that it can be easily utilized as building material," said Onuma, himself a hay fever-sufferer. "I don't think production of sugi will ever be stopped."

Airborne sugi pollen is now several times higher than in 1965, the Sagamihara National Hospital has estimated.

"The amount of airborne sugi pollen may probably peak in 2050" along with the number of patients, said Okubo. "I believe sugi pollen allergy will be definitely eliminated in 100 to 200 years."

AirAsia withdraws inflight magazine, apologizes for 'inappropriate' article

KUALA LUMPUR, April 5 (AP) — Southeast Asia's top budget carrier AirAsia on Saturday withdrew its latest inflight magazine and apologized for an offending article boasting that its well-trained pilots would never lose a plane.
AirAsia Executive Chairman Kamarudin Meranun expressed "deep regret and remorse," saying the latest issue of "travel 3Sixty" magazine was printed before the Malaysia Airlines plane carrying 239 people disappeared March 8 while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Kamarudin said the article was a monthly aviation column prepared well in advance by a retired pilot, who had worked for both AirAsia and Malaysia Airlines.
"This is a truly difficult time for the nation and words cannot describe how I personally feel of this incident," Kamarudin said in a statement. "It truly saddens me that this article was released at such an inopportune moment. Again, I repeatedly offer my sincere apologies for any discomfort this may have caused."
The article sparked anger on social media after an AirAsia passenger posted a photograph of the text on Twitter late Friday.
The last paragraph read: "Pilot training in AirAsia is continuous and very thorough. Rest assured that your captain is well prepared to ensure your plane will never get lost."
AirAsia group CEO Tony Fernandes also echoed the apology.
"As soon as we were informed on Twitter, we withdrew. Once again, apologies. It has been a difficult time for all in the industry," he tweeted.
Kamarudin said disciplinary action would be taken against the magazine's editorial team.
The fate of the Malaysian airline remained a mystery nearly a month after it vanished. A multinational search team is racing against time to find the flight recorders in the Indian Ocean where it was believed to have crashed. No floating wreckage has been found in the water so far.
It wasn't the first faux pas for AirAsia.
On the day the plane went missing, Fernandes said on Twitter that the aircraft's radio had failed and that all were safe, but later deleted the tweet.

California court revives suit claiming woman frozen alive in morgue

LOS ANGELES, March 4, 2014 (Reuters) - A California appeals court has revived a malpractice suit brought by the family of an 80-year-old grandmother they claim was prematurely declared dead by doctors then frozen alive inside a body bag in the hospital's morgue.

A lower-court judge had dismissed the lawsuit brought in May 2012 by relatives of Maria de Jesus Arroyo against White Memorial Hospital in Los Angeles over the woman's 2010 death, on grounds that the statute of limitations had lapsed.

But a three-judge panel of a state appeals court sided with the family on Wednesday in agreeing they could not have known how Arroyo was alleged to have died until it was brought to light by a pathologist in an expert opinion he gave in December 2011.

"Plaintiffs had absolutely no reason to suspect that the decedent was alive rather than dead when placed in the hospital morgue," the court said in its 27-page opinion. The lawsuit now goes back to Los Angeles Superior Court.

The origins of the case date to July 26, 2011, when doctors at the hospital pronounced Arroyo dead from cardiac arrest shortly after she was brought there by ambulance.

Employees of a funeral home chosen by the family to pick up the woman's remains from the hospital morgue later discovered her lying face down in a body bag half-unzipped, with bruises and gashes to her face and a broken nose, according to the court record.

Informed by the mortuary of the body's condition, family members who had seen Arroyo's face without injuries just after she was pronounced dead assumed her corpse had been mishandled by hospital morgue workers.

The family went on to file a negligence suit in January 2011 claiming the hospital was to blame for mutilating their loved one's body.

But Dr. William Manion, a New Jersey pathologist, retained by the family as an expert witness reviewed medical records and sworn statements of hospital personnel and reached a far more horrific conclusion.

He said Arroyo had been prematurely declared dead and was placed alive in the freezer of the hospital morgue where she eventually regained consciousness due to the extreme cold and "damaged her face and turned herself face down as she struggled unsuccessfully to escape her frozen tomb."

As a result, the family dropped its original lawsuit and filed a new claim accusing the hospital of malpractice and wrongful death.

"It really has to be your worst nightmare to wake up like that, the worst way to die," the family's lawyer, Scott Schutzman, said on Thursday. "Can you imagine trying to get out of a zippered bag?"

The hospital declined in a brief statement to comment on the case, except to say that "we continue to disagree with the allegations being made."

"We followed all proper protocols in the matter, and are confident that once the facts of the case are reviewed we will prevail in court," the statement said.

Schutzman said the family has "no choice" but to go to trial, as "there has never been a settlement offer in this case."  He said he expects the case to reach trial within a year. 

Gasoline-loving spiders cause Mazda recall for the second time

WASHINGTON,  March 4, 2014 (Reuters) - For the second time in three years, Mazda Motor Corp has issued a recall for Mazda6 sedans in North America because of a spider that likes the smell of gasoline and weaves a web that blocks a vent in the engine.

Mazda told US regulators that it is recalling 42,000 sedans with 2.5-liter engines from model years 2010 to 2012 in the United States. Mazda officials were not immediately available to report recalls outside of the United States.

Three years ago, Mazda recalled about 65,000 M

azda6 sedans in North America from model years 2009 and 2010, also because of spider webs blocking evaporative canister vent lines. The same issue caused the most recent recall, Mazda told the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The web weaved by a spider can lead to a restriction of fuel flow, which in turn can reduce fuel tank pressure when the emission control system purges vapors from the evaporative canister. This can put stress on the fuel tank, which may crack and leak fuel, increasing the risk of a fire, a report filed with NHTSA says.

Mazda said it is not aware of any fires because of this risk.

In 2011, Reuters reported that the Yellow Sac spider was the culprit in that year's recall. It just likes the smell of gasoline, an auto analyst told Reuters at the time.

Mazda attempted to remedy the problem by adding a spring to the canister vent line to keep spiders from crawling inside.

For the most part, that solution worked, but after several reports of cracked fuel tanks in sedans equipped with the spring, Mazda engineers tried to figure out the spider's route to the canister.

After learning of nine cases in which tanks were damaged even though a spring was loaded, engineers determined that a change in the car's software would keep tanks from cracking even if a spider web blocks a vent.

Mazda will inform owners in the recall campaign to bring cars to dealers, where the evaporative canister vent line will be checked and cleared if necessary. Also, the dealerships will reprogram software.

The blockage is not present on other models made by Mazda and occurs only in cars made a plant in Flat Rock, Michigan, at which Mazda once produced cars jointly with Ford Motor Co. Mazda stopped production of cars at Flat Rock in August 2012.

Russian workers bathe in milk at cheese factory

MOSCOW, April 04, 2014 (AFP) - Russia on Friday launched a criminal investigation into breaches of hygiene at a cheese factory after footage of bare-chested workers bathing in vats of milk went viral on the Internet.
The Investigative Committee announced it was probing the factory in the Siberian city of Omsk for producing food that could cause harm to health after photographs of grinning workers bathing in foaming milk horrified Russians.
"It has already been established that the liquid that the factory workers were bathing in was the raw milk that was used for making the cheese," the investigators said in a statement.
The scandal broke after a worker at the Omsk Cheeses factory posted the photographs on a social networking site with the caption: "Actually our work is pretty boring."
One photo shows six workers posing in a vat, several wearing only shorts, and raising 
victory signs.
Video footage also emerged showing factory workers kneading the cheese bare-chested
 in a dirty-looking production area, gaining more than 300,000 views on YouTube.
Russia's food watchdog banned the factory's cheese late last month and a court on 
Thursday closed down the factory for 40 days.
The factory had sold more than 49 tons of its cheese this year in 14 cities, the Investigative
 Committee said. It specialises in string cheese.
If charged and found guilty of producing food that was unsafe for human consumption,
 the factory's managers could be jailed for up to two years.

Life is good in Chilean Antarctica

Villa Las Estrellas in Chile's Frei base in Antartica where 64 families live.
Photo taken on March 11, 2014. — AFP

The Commander Ferraz Station in Brazil's side of Antarctica..

A cute penguin

Good pay, no crime, no traffic

VILLA LAS ESTRELLAS, Antarctica, April 04, 2014 (AFP) -There is no crime or traffic and in this Antarctic hamlet paychecks can be much higher than on the Chilean mainland. Plus, the penguins are very cute.
But residents of Villa Las Estrellas also have to endure winters with howling blizzards and temperatures that plunge to -40 Celsius in winter, making it painful to even breathe outdoors.
And they don't get many visitors.
"Living here is entertaining compared with the continent," said Jose Carrillan Rosales, principal of the tiny Las Estrellas school.
"The hard part is spending many days indoors. For example, last winter we spent eight days without leaving home because of the wind and snow," he told AFP.
Villa Las Estrellas is located at Fildes Bay on King George Island on the northernmost tip of the Antarctic peninsula.
The 30-year-old hamlet, population 64, has a post office, a bank, 10 houses, a miniature mall, a gym and a school for the six children who live there. It is part of the Presidente Eduardo Frei Chilean Air Base.
Most of the residents are relatives of the military personnel on the air base.
One attraction of living so far south is the exotic fauna, especially the long tailed Gentoo Penguins, which have bright orange bills and white stripes between their eyes across the top of their heads.
To survive in this remote town one must be highly organized: the local market opens just twice a week and stock is limited. Locals stockpile their own soap, toothpaste and shampoo.
Rosales, originally from a mainland town south of Santiago, has been in Las Estrellas for two years along with his wife — also a teacher at the school — and his two children.
He's happy living in the remote outpost.
"Life here is tranquil, you're not worried about theft, or with traffic," he said. He's also happy that he can be with his children "all day".
Life in Antarctica might be bleak, but plenty of Chileans would like Rosales's job. For a teacher, the pay can be five times higher than on the mainland.
"To come here, there is a nationwide contest," said Rosales's wife Maria Cristina Hernandez.
"The first requirement is for both applicants to be teachers and married to each other," she said.
Other requirements include a master's degree and at least one year of work experience.
Single candidates need not apply, she said, because there is only one house to live in.
The school opened in 1985, and since then 290 children — sons and daughters of Chilean air force members and base support personnel — have spent time in its classrooms.
Nine year old Josefina Opaso's father is an air force officer, and her mother works at the small shopping center.
"It's fascinating to live in a place that almost nobody can come to see," she told AFP.
"It's also a challenge because living here one has to go out well protected in warm clothes. Sometimes we can't go out because of the blizzards. It's the hard part of living here in Antarctica," she said.
Francisco Fuentes, 62, is manager of the sole bank — BCI, or Banco de Credito e Inversiones— in the village.
He has two grown children and a wife of 37 years, but left them on the mainland to become the bank manager.
Fuentes's customers can withdraw Chilean pesos, transfer money, exchange US dollars, and manage their investments at the bank.
"What I enjoy doing here are things I would never have thought of when I lived in the continent, like flying in a helicopter over glaciers," said Fuentes.
And his pay is also pretty good: about 120 percent more than what he would earn back north.