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Journalism of Courage
Khrushchev Jr gets US citizenship
PROVIDENCE: Four decades after his father threatened to “bury” US capitalism, Sergei Khrushchev has become a US citizen here, swearing allegiance to the stars and stripes. The son of former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev took the oath alongside his wife Valentina Golenko at the Bishop McVinney auditorium on Monday. The elderly couple, holding small American flags, stood together with 247 other aspiring American citizens in a mass swearing-in ceremony without fanfare and distinguished only by a group of photographers gathered at their feet. “This is a great country and it’s an honour to live here,” Khrushchev told the New York Times on the eve of his swearing-in. Khruschev, who himself espoused communism in his younger days, shrugs at the idea that critics in his native Russia may view him as a traitor. “People over there, really much more than here, they are less under the pressure of old ideology,” said Khrushchev.
Cambodian star dies afterexecution-style attack
PHNOM PENH: Cambodia’s most popular home-grown film star, actress Piseth Pilika, died early on Tuesday one week after she was gunned down execution-style by suspected hired hitmen, doctors said. “She died very early this morning. The family played music to call her soul back to the body but unfortunately it did not return,” Heng Taykry, head of Phnom Penh’s French-funded Calmette hospital, said. The body of the 34-year-old pin-up was taken home by grieving relatives, he said. In a crime that has stunned a capital normally accustomed to high doses of daily violence and police inaction, the local press have linked last Tuesday’s daylight attack to the jealous wife of an unnamed senior government official. Senior police sources confirmed they believe the attack points to a professional job, which in crime-ridden Phnom Penh can cost as little as 400 US dollars per killing.
Sri Lanka plans to bring down suicide rate
COLOMBO: The Sri Lankan government has begun implementinga national plan to cut down the high suicide rate in the island nation, a presidential secretariat document released on Tuesday said. Up to 20 deaths are reported daily and at least four further attempted suicides. The government hopes to launch programmes to identify and provide counselling to potential suicides, restrict access to common suicide agents including pesticides, improve medical facilities in areas where suicide is prevalent and use cultural measures to reduce suicide. Sri Lanka’s high suicide rate has been attributed to unemployment, failure in love affairs and marriages, financial problems and losses suffered by the failure of crops. Studies have revealed that the suicide rate is high among young people. The country was identified as one of the nations with the highest suicide rates in the world when it peaked in 1995 at 8,514 reported suicides. Since then the suicide rate has dropped, but the government aims to further minimise the rate under its new national plan, the presidential secretariatsaid.
Educated elderly show more brain shrinkage
DETROIT: First the bad news: older people with lots of education show more brain shrinkage than those who spent less time hitting the books. The good news is higher education levels give the elderly more protection from dementia and memory loss, according to a medical study released on Monday. “Our brain cells are dying, but if we have educated ourselves, that provides a buffering effect such that our functioning remains intact,” said Dr Edward Coffey, chair of the Henry Ford health system department of psychiatry and principal investigator for the study. The research, published in the July issue of the journal Neurology, examined 320 healthy men and women from 66-90 years old. Coffey was quick to point out the study did not conclude that lots of education causes smaller brains. In fact, he said everyone’s brain starts shrinking beginning at young adulthood. On average, a person’s brain will shrink 2.5 per cent every 10 years. Coffey likened theeffect of a high amount of schooling on the brain to exercising a muscle. Coffey had published a study in 1998 that found men’s brains shrink faster with age than women’s.
