Man has 39 wives, nearly 100 children | Reuters

Reuters

GUWAHATI, India (Reuters) Tue Feb 22, 2011 - The more, the merrier is certainly true for Ziona Chana, a 66-year-old man in India's remote northeast who has 39 wives, 94 children and 33 grandchildren -- and wouldn't mind having more.

They all live in a four storied building with 100 rooms in a mountainous village in Mizoram state, sharing borders with Myanmar and Bangladesh, media reports said.

"I once married 10 women in one year," he was quoted as saying.

His wives share a dormitory near Ziona's private bedroom and locals said he likes to have seven or eight of them by his side at all times.

The sons and their wives, and all their children, live in different rooms in the same building, but share a common kitchen.

The wives take turns cooking, while his daughters clean the house and do washing. The men do outdoor jobs like farming and taking care of livestock.

The family, all 167 of them, consumes around 91 kg (200 pounds) of rice and more than 59 kg (130 pounds) of potatoes a day. They are supported by their own resources and occasional donations from followers.

"Even today, I am ready to expand my family and willing to go to any extent to marry," Ziona said.

"I have so many people to care (for) and look after, and I consider myself a lucky man."

Ziona met his oldest wife, who is three years older than he is, when he was 17.

He heads a local Christian religious sect, called the "Chana," which allows polygamy. Formed in June 1942, the sect believes it will soon be ruling the world with Christ and has a membership of around 400 families.

(Reporting by Biswajyoti Das, editing by Elaine Lies)

Work At Home Mom Makes $6,795/Month Part-Time...

News1Reports.com By Jacqueline Douglas

Can $47 Really Turn Into $6795? We, NEWS1 REPORT1, Investigated...

News 1 Reports Investigates Online Work at Home Programs...

!8 Feb. 2011. We investigate the Story about a Mom who Makes over $6,700/Month. Are There Any Legit Work At Home Programs?

With unemployment numbers extremely high, everybody is looking to make a few extra bucks these days. Many people are turning to work at home programs... But, which ones are REAL and which ones are SCAMS?

We just had to find out... So we set out to do some research ourselves. We came across a blog by Jessica Holcomb of D'aguilar, 04.

Like many, curiosity got the best of Jessica and she filled out a simple online form and put out just a little money to try a program she came across. Before she knew it, she discovered her secret to beating the recession, and being able to provide for her family while at home with her three children."

I read Jessica's blog last month and decided to feature her story in our weekly investigative report. In our phone interview she told me her amazing story. "I actually make $6,000-$7,000 a month online which is enough to comfortably replace my old jobs income, especially considering I only work about 10-13 hours a week from home.

Online work has been a financial windfall for Jessica, who struggled for months to find a decent job but kept hitting dead ends. "I lost my job shortly after the recession hit, I needed reliable income, I was not interested in the "get rich quick" scams you see all over the internet. Those are all pyramid scams or stuff where you have to sell to your friends and family. I just needed a legitimate way to earn a living for me and my family. The best part of working online is that I am always home with the kids, I save a lot of money."

"I actually make $6,000 to $7,000 a month working from home."
By Jessica Holcomb

I asked her about how she started her remarkable journey. "It was pretty easy, I actually received an email that sparked my interest, so I went to the site, filled out a short form and signed up for a work at home program where I got instant access to everything! They actually were giving a limited-time $100 instant rebate, which last time I checked, they were still doing. And since they offered a 365 Day Money Back Guarantee - I figured I really had nothing to lose. So, I started the program and within four weeks I was making over $5,000 a month. It's really simple, I am not a computer whiz, but I can use the internet. I followed the instructions, and I don't even have to sell anything and nobody has to buy anything. This is a very stable system and they are recruiting, you should try it."

Consumers purchase Billions and Billions of dollars worth of products each year online. Every time people use the internet, go on facebook or do a search, someone is making money. This program will teach you how to get a piece of this money and free yourself from the 9-5. The internet economy has grown by leaps and bounds in the recession, so why not take advantage of the goldrush? There are plenty of scams on the internet claiming you can make $50,000 a month, but that is exactly what they are... scams. From my conversation with Jessica, "I am making a good salary from home, which is amazing, under a year ago I was jobless in a horrible economy. I thank God every day that I signed up for this program."

Quickly, Jessica Holcomb was able to use the simple "Online Revenue Solution" Refer ome page link, to make it out of the recession.

New York City launches app for free condoms...

Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) Tue Feb 15, 2011. Need a condom? There's an app for that. The New York City Health Department on Monday unveiled a smartphone application that will help users locate the nearest place in the area giving out free condoms.

"We want New York City to be the safest city in the world to have sex," said Dr. Monica Sweeney, the city's assistant health commissioner. "A lot of people come here for that, so we want them to practice safer sex."

The application, available for download on the iPhone and Android phones, taps into the city's database of over 1,000 different locations which offer free condoms.

It uses GPS technology or an address input to give users directions to the nearest five places in the city that are giving out free condoms.

The city is rolling out the application on Valentine's Day. For the past five years, the city has been giving out free condoms at an average of 3 million a month.

New York City has come under criticism in the past for its condom distribution program, especially from parents of younger children who claim the program encourages people to have sex.

"We're not promoting sex, we're promoting safer sex," Sweeney said. "In New York City and around the country, adolescents and pre-adolescents have sex whether you give them condoms or not."

(Reporting by Aman Ali; Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Jerry Norton)

Gene tests inadvertently exposing cases of incest...

Reuters By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) Thu Feb 10, 2011. New gene-based tests that map out a person's entire genetic code can help explain why a child has birth defects or developmental delays, but they are also exposing some dark family secrets.

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston recently started using such tests and have uncovered several cases of likely incest, says Dr. Arthur Beaudet, chairman of molecular and human genetics at Baylor, who wrote about the problem on Thursday in the journal Lancet.

The tests, called single nucleotide polymorphism-based arrays, allow doctors to scan a child's genome for extra or missing copies of genes that could explain their disability.

But they can also show large, identical chunks of DNA that a child might have inherited from two closely related relatives, such as a father and daughter, raising social and legal issues that institutions and the scientific community must address, Beaudet said in a telephone interview.

"The concern mainly stems from the possibility of children being sexually abused in the home, most often girls between 12 and 16 years of age," he said.

Disabilities are frequent in children born of incestuous liaisons. In the past, doctors may have suspected a child was the product of incest, Beaudet said. "Now we have a routine test that we do in children with disabilities that makes it obvious."

U.S. doctors are legally and ethically bound to disclose cases of suspected child abuse to authorities.

"Most often we don't really suspect it and the lab result come as a surprise," Beaudet said.

'A LITTLE AGONY'

Nancy Spinner, a professor of pathology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, said her team had encountered two cases of incest since it began using SNP-based arrays from gene sequencing company Illumina Inc in May 2008.

"In both cases, you see it and it causes you a little agony because you realize it could be a big problem. But when we contacted the physician to learn more about the case, in both cases it was known," Spinner said in a telephone interview.

"In one case, the father was incarcerated for rape. In the other case, there was a known product of incest," she said.

Spinner said her lab had yet to see a case in which the incest was not known by the referring physician, but she knows it could happen.

"We have discussed this with our medical ethics committee."

Beaudet and colleagues are calling on professional groups to establish guidelines to help in such cases.

Incest cases found in such tests are what researchers call an "incidental finding" and Spinner says they are likely to occur more frequently as scientists begin to explore the power of genomic technology.

Ten years after the first sequencing of the Human Genome, gene tests are finally coming of age as sequencing technology becomes more affordable.

Only a handful of U.S. labs now use the SNP-based arrays routinely. Spinner's lab uses them because they can explain disorders that previously went undiagnosed, and she said many more labs were interested.

"We recognize we will make observations that were not necessarily what we were looking for." But Spinner says it is important information to have.

"Putting your head in the sand does not seem an answer to me, but it does mean we have a lot of work to do to be sure we don't do any harm with these technologies."

(Editing by Peter Cooney)

Think a kiss is just a kiss? New book tells all..

Reuters By Elaine Lies

TOKYO Fri Feb 11, 2011 (Reuters) - Ever wondered about the political uses of a kiss, the kiss's changing status or legendary movie kisses? Do you find yourself needing to say the word in Albanian, Icelandic or even, perchance, Maori?

Fear not. "A Compendium of Kisses," the guide to everything oscular -- that's "of or pertaining to kissing" for the unenlightened -- tells all about one of the world's most universal gestures, whether simple greeting or sublime.

"When I came to look at the kiss, the romantic side is such a small part of it," said British novelist and actress Lana Citron, who compiled the book.

"I love how when you're born, the first thing is, you're kissed, you're welcomed into the world. It's this little gesture that follows you throughout life, through all the most important parts of your life."

Citron's interest in kisses began with a short story she wrote a decade ago about a lonely woman who collected kisses in jars -- such as one for the lover who spurned her, one that was full of yearning -- and labeled them.

That led to her invitation to do an installation of kisses in jars, all labeled, as part of an art exhibition. The response of viewers sent her to the internet, searching out books on kisses and deciding to write her own when nothing seemed just right.

"It was almost like opening a Pandora's chest and just being overwhelmed by all the different ways a kiss is expressed, the meanings attached to it and the things it symbolizes," she said.

"I fell in love with it, I really did. I was submerged in the world of kisses for a year and came out of it with a book."

Her compendium mingles brief kiss anecdotes with kiss factoids and scraps of poetry to cover evolutionary kisses, bonding kisses, artful kisses, screen kisses, bike shed kisses or first kisses, passionate kisses, Kama Sutra kisses, animal kisses and even The Death Kiss, to name just a few.

She also traces the evolution of kissing through history, from its use in Christian religious ceremonies -- "greet ye one another with a kiss" -- to its social role as a greeting on many levels, including between kings and the vassals they ruled.

"Then the kiss suddenly becomes eroticized, also compounded by advances made in dentistry. Once it becomes eroticized, it also becomes highly contentious socially," she said.

While she finds it difficult to pick one favorite fact about kisses, Citron does acknowledge being fascinated about the use of kisses in politics and history, from its involvement in accusations about witchcraft down to the present day.

"Superficially, you have sex scandals, kiss and tell scandals, which many politicians fall prey to," she said.

Though most of the book is written in a tongue-in-cheek style, Citron becomes practical when asked for kissing advice.

"Basic hygiene, I think, is the only thing I'd say."

(Reporting by Elaine Lies; editing by Paul Casciato)

Barking dogs can land owner in jail...

Reuters

--->A dog walks across the snow covered Saint Mark's square in Venice December 19, 2009. Credit: Reuters/Manuel Silvestri

ROME(Reuters) Thu Feb 10, 2011 If you live in Italy and if the barking of your dogs keeps the neighbors up at night, it's you who might wind up caged -- in a jail cell.

The top appeals court sentenced four people in Sicily to two months in jail because they refused to keep their 10 dogs quiet at night despite complaints from neighbors who had repeatedly picked a bone with the owners over lost sleep.

The four were also ordered to pay court charges and a fine of 500 euros ($684) each.

(Editing by Paul Casciato )

Obesity epidemic risks heart disease tsunami...

Reuters By Julie Steenhuysen and Kate Kelland

CHICAGO/LONDON (Reuters) Fri Feb 4, 2011 - More than half a billion people, or one in 10 adults worldwide, are obese -- more than double the number in 1980 -- as the obesity epidemic spills over from wealthy into poorer nations, researchers said on Thursday.

And while rich nations made big strides in cutting rates of high cholesterol and hypertension, or high blood pressure, the overall number of people with high blood pressure rose from 600 million in 1980 to nearly 1 billion in 2008, fueled by an aging and expanding global population.

"Overweight and obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol are no longer Western problems or problems of wealthy nations," said Majid Ezzati of Imperial College London and Harvard University, who led the studies published in the Lancet journal.

The research, conducted with the World Health Organization, benchmarks changes in key risk factors that affect heart health.

Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of people in the industrialized world, and billions of dollars are spent every year on medical devices and drugs to treat it. Thursday's study showed progress in some areas, but also areas of major concern.

In North America, for example, there have been big advances in reducing rates of uncontrolled high blood pressure in men. In Australia, New Zealand and New Guinea, rates of hypertension in women have also improved.

Ezzati said it was "heartening" that many countries had successfully reduced blood pressure and cholesterol despite rising levels of BMI, and said steps to get people to eat less salt and healthier, unsaturated fats, had helped -- as well as improved screening and treatment.

A special meeting of the United Nations General Assembly is scheduled for September to talk about the rising threat of so-called non-communicable, or chronic, diseases like heart disease, cancer and diabetes, particularly in poorer countries.

GLOBAL 'TSUNAMI' OF HEART DISEASE

But body mass index, a key measure of obesity, has risen broadly. "The world is getting more and more overweight and obese," Ezzati said in a telephone interview.

Being overweight or obese raises the risk of heart disease, diabetes, some cancers and arthritis. Hypertension, another key risk factor for heart disease, is the world's biggest killer.

Obesity-related diseases account for nearly 10 percent of U.S. medical spending or an estimated $147 billion a year. In Europe, more than half of adults are overweight or obese, piling pressure on already stretched healthcare budgets.

But the studies showed that major heart risks are no longer just an affliction of wealthy, western nations.

"When you put aside two or three countries -- the U.S., Australia and New Zealand -- it's a lot more middle income countries where obesity is the highest," Ezzati said.

Average levels of total blood cholesterol fell in North America, Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, and Europe, but increased in East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific region, the studies found.

Blood pressure levels are highest in the Baltic countries, and in East and West Africa.

Commenting on the findings in the Lancet, Sonia Anand and Salim Yusuf from McMaster University in Canada said they showed a global "tsunami of cardiovascular disease" which needed to be met with population-wide efforts to cut intake of bad fats and salt, and increased levels of exercise.

These lessons should be implemented more widely in nations of all levels of economic development, he said.

(Editing by Eric Beech)

BBC defends Top Gear jokes about Mexico | Reuters

Reuters By Tim Castle


LONDON (Reuters) Fri Feb 4, 2011. The BBC apologized to Mexico's London ambassador on Friday after presenters on the popular motoring show "Top Gear" said he would be too sleepy to protest as they described Mexicans as lazy and feckless.

But it defended the original remarks, saying jokes centered on national stereotypes were part of the humor both of the show and of Britain in general.

The publicly funded broadcaster said the show's executive producer had written to Ambassador Eduardo Medina Mora and apologized for the comments made about him.

The diplomat had said he was infuriated by "offensive and xenophobic" remarks made by hosts Richard Hammond, Jeremy Clarkson and James May during Sunday's edition of the cult show, which has been sold to television channels around the world.

The BBC said it was sorry if the presenters' comments had offended some people, but defended the comic use of a stereotype as a "robust part" of British humor.

It said its guidelines allowed comedy based on national stereotypes in shows like Top Gear where the audience would be expecting it.

"When we do it, we are being rude, yes, and mischievous, but there is no vindictiveness behind the comments," the BBC said in a statement.

"Whilst it may appear offensive to those who have not watched the program or who are unfamiliar with its humor, the executive producer has made it clear to the ambassador that that was absolutely not the show's intention," it added.

Top Gear presenter Hammond had asked why anyone would buy a Mexican car during a discussion of a Mexican sports model, the Mastretta.

"Cars reflect national characteristics don't they?," he said. "Mexican cars are just going to be lazy, feckless, flatulent, overweight, leaning against a fence asleep looking at a cactus with a blanket with a hole in the middle on as a coat."

The trio then described Mexican food as "refried sick" before suggesting Mexicans spent all day asleep.

"That's why we won't get any complaints about this because at the Mexican embassy the ambassador's going to be sitting there with a remote control like this," said Clarkson, pretending to slump in a chair, snoring.

Top Gear is well-known for its edgy banter and its hosts are no strangers to controversy. Hundreds of viewers complained in 2008 about a joke made by Clarkson about murdering prostitutes.

Ad banned for simulating drug use...

Reuters

LONDON(Reuters) Wed Feb 2, 2011 - Britain's advertising watchdog banned an Yves St Laurent perfume advert on Wednesday, which showed a woman appearing to simulate injecting drugs.

A total of 13 viewers complained about the TV commercial for the perfume "Belle D'Opium," which shows a woman dancing to a drum beat before pointing to her inner elbow and running her finger along the inside of her forearm.

The woman was then shown lying on the floor as a voice-over said: "I am your addiction. I am Belle D'Opium. The new fragrance by Yves St Laurent."

YSL said the name Belle D'Opium was meant to suggest the addictive qualities of the women who wear the fragrance rather than the addictive effects of drugs.

They said the advert had been carefully choreographed to allow Belle to seduce the viewer and display the intense and powerful qualities of the perfume.

However the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said the frantic atmosphere of the shortened television version could be misinterpreted by viewers as the effects of drug use rather than an expression of femininity and bewitchment.

"We were concerned that in the context of the ad, Belle running her finger down her inner arm could be seen to simulate the injection of opiates into the body," the ASA said in its ruling.

"Following that scene, Belle was shown moving in a series of short, rapid scenes, before the ad concluded with her body seizing upwards while lying on the floor, an action we considered could be seen to simulate the effect of drugs on the body," the ASA added.

(Writing by Caroline Copley; Editing by Steve Addison)

Senator moves to ban drug sold as bath salts...

Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) Mon Jan 31, 2011. - Two drugs that produce a "meth-like" high and are being sold under the guise of "bath salts" would be banned as federally controlled substances under a bill unveiled by U.S. Senator Charles Schumer of New York.

"These so-called bath salts contain ingredients that are nothing more than legally sanctioned narcotics, and they are being sold cheaply to all comers, with no questions asked, at store counters around the country," said Schumer, a Democrat.

Schumer said he will introduce a bill to outlaw the two synthetic drugs -- mephedrone and methylenedioxypyrovalerone, or MDPV. The drugs come in powder and tablet form and are ingested by snorting, injection, smoking and, less often, by use of an atomizer.

Users experience an intense high, euphoria, extreme energy, hallucinations, insomnia and are easily provoked to anger, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration, which is currently investigating the drugs.

They have emerged as legal alternatives to cocaine and methamphetamines, and one or both have already been banned in the European Union, Australia, Canada, and Israel. In the United States, Florida, Louisiana and North Dakota have all recently banned the substances.

"The longer we wait to ban the substance, the greater risk we put our kids in," Schumer said.

Media reports over the last year describe the drugs as becoming increasingly popular, particularly among young people attending nightclubs, although the actual number of individuals using the drugs is unknown.

"These products are readily available at convenience stores, discount tobacco outlets, gas stations, pawnshops, tattoo parlors, truck stops and other locations," said an alert issued by the DEA.

"Prices range from $25 to $50 per 50-milligram packet," the DEA alert said.

The European Union banned mephedrone in December, saying the drug was directly linked to the deaths of two people, and may have been tied to 37 other cases of death.

The European Union's report said there was limited scientific evidence on the effects of the drug -- believed to be mostly manufactured in Asia before being packaged in the West -- but that there was sufficient evidence of its health risks to support a ban.

Schumer has also asked the health commissioner of New York State, Nirav Shah, to ban the two substances.

(Reporting by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Jerry Norton)