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US admits thousands became sick making nuclear weaponsWASHINGTON: The US Government has admitted that nuclear weapons production during t...

US admits thousands became sick making nuclear weapons

WASHINGTON: The US Government has admitted that nuclear weapons production during the cold war era have caused illness in thousands of workers and promised to compensate them for medical care and lost wages. 8220;The US government is acknowledging that we made mistake. We need to right this wrong,8221; Energy Secretary Bill Richardson told the New York Times on Thursday. Announcing the compensation plans after years of government rejection of the health claims, he depicted the workers as victims of the rush to produce nuclear weapons in the cold war. The workers suffered from cancers and lung diseases after exposure to beryllium, asbestos, mercury, uranium and other materials. 8220;I am reversing a policy of denial of compensation,8221; said Richardson. The workers are mostly men in their 50s or older who spent decades in skilled blue-collar employment from the World War II Manhattan atomic weapons project to the present. About 9,000 workers have so far beenscreened. At least 5,000 more will be. Hundreds of them are showing job-related health problems.

Egyptian locks up daughter for divorcing 80-year-old husband

SOHAG EGYPT: A rural Egyptian man locked his 23-year-old daughter in a tiny dark room for 108 days and left her for dead because she had divorced her 80-year-old husband, police said. Madiha Ali, who had married the old man to escape ill treatment by her stepmother, told police on Thursday she survived only because her adolescent half-brother slipped water and bread to her every five days through a small hole. Police found her in the one-square meter room when they heard faint cries for help while searching a nearby home for firearms earlier this week and took her to the hospital in a state of extreme weakness. Police were looking to arrest her father, 45-year-old Abdul Ali, who fled after he was alerted by his third wife, a 25-year-old.

Artificial dog nose to sniff out landmines around the world

OSLO: Scientists are using amarvel of nature 8212; the sensitive nose of a dog as the model for a machine designed to sniff out deadly landmines that are killing and maiming people around the world. A prototype should be ready by August, when the Norwegian People8217;s Aid Organisation plans to test the machine against real dogs in the mine fields of Angola, whose long civil war has left millions of mines hidden across the countryside. 8220;It is one of the most promising new technologies we have seen,8221; said Per Nergaard of the Oslo-based group. 8220;It is copying a mechanism 8212; the dog8217;s sense of smell that has functioned successfully for millennia.8221; The system, being built by the Swedish company Biosensor Applications, would find land mines by detecting traces of explosives inside mines buried in the dirt. The 8220;nose8221; could even be modified to detect such things as hidden weapons, stashed drugs, buried bodies and pollutants, its sponsors say.

American lawmakers vote to double President8217;s salary

WASHINGTON: Members of the House ofRepresentatives have voted to give the US President his first raise since 1969, doubling his yearly salary to 4,00,000 dollars over Rs 1.7 crore and to give themselves a 3.4 percent pay raise. The bill, including the pay raises, has yet to be voted on in full. After a heated debate, lawmakers voted 334 to 82 to strike down an amendment that would have prevented a presidential pay raise. One lawmaker said 4,00,000 dollars was a lot of money, while another noted that the country8217;s first president, George Washington, was paid 25,000 dollars a year, which today would be equivalent to some 4.6 million dollars. The House also voted 276 to 147 to give themselves a 3.4 percent pay increase, equivalent to 4,600 dollars approx Rs 2 lakh.

Explorers solve a deep, dark secret, find 90-yr-old shipwreck

CAPE TOWN: South African explorers have solved one of the sea8217;s most enduring mysteries, finding the 90-year-old wreck of the liner SS Waratha off the country8217;s 8220;wild coast8221; between East London and Durban.8220;We are 100 per cent certain it is the Waratha. The champagne-shaped stern and the rudder configuration match exactly,8221; Ian Wright of the Marine Geoscience Unit said on Thursday. The Waratha, on the return leg of its maiden voyage from England to Australia and back, disappeared with all 211 people aboard on the storm-lashed night of July 26, 1909. The 109 crew were predominantly British. The passengers were a mixture of returning emigrants, Australians and South Africans. The cargo was frozen meat and lead. No trace of the ship, even a lifeboat, was ever found, leading to a buildup of myths and legends surrounding the vessel.

Homeless Robin Hood doles out thousands of free lunches

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TOKYO: Robin Hood lives: a crafty homeless man filched thousands of boxed lunches in Japan and doled them out among his fellow sufferers, local newspapers reported on Friday. According to the reports, the man posed as an official for the fan club of a famous pop singer at O-Bento, an outlet selling ready-made boxedmeals. He was dressed elegantly and his suave behaviour failed to arouse the suspicions of the shopkeeper, even as he ordered 80 portions each day over a two week period. The jig wasn8217;t up until the trickster suddenly upped his order to 375 of the boxes and the shop contacted concert organisers to see if the order would be picked up. Upon his arrest, the man defended himself by saying that there are ever more homeless people in Japan and that it was getting increasingly difficult to get to O-Bento.