Thứ Hai, 30 tháng 4, 2012

Party leader to visit Cuba, Brazil

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Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong will pay an official friendship visit to Cuba and a State-level visit to Brazil in the near future.



According to the Commission for External Affairs of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee, the visits will be made at the invitations of the First General Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee and President of the Cuban State Council and Council of Ministers, and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.-VNA
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NOAA Scientists Confirm BP Oil Spill Harms Dolphins and Deep-Sea Corals

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U.S.-based marine scientists say bottlenose dolphins and deep-sea corals in the northern Gulf of Mexico, where the massive Deepwater Horizon oil spill occurred two years ago this April, are showing signs of severe stress from their prolonged exposure to the polluted water.
A Barataria Bay dolphin is photographed by researchers, April, 2011.
Photo: NOAA
A Barataria Bay dolphin is photographed by researchers, April, 2011.



The dolphins' ailments include low body weight, anemia, low blood sugar, and symptoms of liver and lung disease, according to biologists working on a post-spill, natural resource health assessment for NOAA , the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. They report that nearly half of the dolphins they tested in the summer of 2011 have abnormally low levels of the hormones that help with stress response, metabolism and immune function.

The scientists physically examined 32 live dolphins in the Gulf's Barataria Bay.  One of the aquatic mammals was found dead this past January.  The researchers fear more of the dolphins will die of illnesses related to the 2010 oil spill, the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.  During the accident, a damaged British Petroleum well, located on the seabed 80 kilometers off the Louisiana coast, gushed nearly five million barrels of crude oil into Gulf waters before being capped.

Another new NOAA study identifies the BP spill as the source of the contamination that is slowly killing numerous colonies of deep-water corals.  A detailed chemical analysis found a match between oil from the ruptured seafloor well and oil found coating colonies of slowly dying corals, 11 kilometers from the spill site.

The corals the scientists examined were covered in a fluffy, brown, mucus-like substance, and showed signs of tissue damage and severe stress.

The marine biologists note that in 10 years of research in the Gulf of Mexico, they have never seen deep-water coral dying in this manner.

Deep-water coral species usually are not harmed in an oil spill, but not even creatures living at depths of more than 1,200 meters were spared the unprecedented magnitude of the BP oil disaster.  However, the scientists say communities of deep-water corals 20 kilometers from the ruptured oil well were clean and thriving.

NOAA released the preliminary results of the dolphin study on Monday.

The study of the deep-water corals is published in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill was an environmental and economic catastrophe.  Not only did it kill or threaten the region's vast assortment of flora and wildlife, but the disaster also devastated the livelihoods of many thousands of people who work in fisheries and other businesses dependent on Gulf of Mexico resources.

Some information for this report was provided by AP and AFP.

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Q A

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Q. A doctor told me that you don't need daily vitamin supplements if you eat right, and that they don't dissolve anyway. Is he correct?

Micronutrient Insurance

By C. CLAIBORNE RAY
Published: April 2, 2012
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A. Probably not, on both counts. Even those few who consistently eat well "may have dysfunctions that create special needs for micronutrients," said Dr. Sheldon S. Hendler, an editor of "The PDR for Nutritional Supplements," the standard reference.

For example, Dr. Hendler said, low levels of a class of carotenoids are correlated with age-related macular degeneration . These micronutrients are found in spinach, mustard greens and collard greens, which are not a large part of the typical American diet .

As for the problem of supplements that fail to dissolve, Dr. Hendler said, the situation has changed in recent decades. The Dietary Supplement and Health Education Act of 1994 requires quality control for supplements, he said, and "reputable companies adhere to government standards of content, disintegration and dissolution."

Absorption, which does not occur until the dissolved material reaches the small intestine, is another matter, Dr. Hendler said. But it, too, can be improved with adequate dissolution and disintegration.

There is less of an absorption problem with hydrophilic, or water-soluble vitamins . Fat-soluble vitamins, like A, D, E and K, are better absorbed when taken with a meal that includes fats.

C. CLAIBORNE RAY

Readers may submit questions by mail to Question, Science Times, The New York Times, 620 Eighth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018, or by e-mail to question@nytimes.com.

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Letter

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Autism, now diagnosed in 1 in 88 American children, is an epidemic and a national health emergency. The increase in prevalence is real, only partly explained by a broadening of the diagnosis, improved detection and heightened awareness.

Growing Cases of Autism

Published: April 2, 2012
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To the Editor:

Re " Diagnoses of Autism on the Rise, Report Says " (news article, March 30):

Approximately half of the increase remains unexplained. We must aggressively invest in research and develop a comprehensive national action plan that coordinates efforts between the public and private sectors. We need to find the answers to autism now.

There are real people behind these increases who need better access to autism screening, diagnosis and treatments. And the growing adult population needs employment and housing assistance. We must act, collectively and urgently.

MARK ROITHMAYR
President, Autism Speaks
New York, March 30, 2012

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James Endler, Who Oversaw Construction of World Trade Center, Dies at 82

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James R. Endler, an engineer who helped manage some of the biggest construction projects of the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, including the World Trade Center, Epcot Center at Walt Disney World, and the Renaissance Center in Detroit, died on Saturday in Manhattan. He was 82.

By DOUGLAS MARTIN
Published: March 29, 2012
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The cause was neuroendocrine cancer, his daughter, Julianne Heckert, said.

Mr. Endler brought his experience as an Army engineer to managing projects, like the trade center, for the Tishman Realty and Construction Company. He later worked on Disneyland Paris and Olympia & York’s Canary Wharf project in London for Lehrer McGovern Bovis, an international construction management firm. He was Tishman’s project executive for Disney’s Epcot Center in Orlando.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey broke ground on the trade center on Aug. 5, 1966, with the on-site engineer Rino M. Monti as construction manager. In his book "Men of Steel: The Story of the Family that Built the World Trade Center" (2002), Karl W. Koch III wrote that Tishman representatives originally served on the construction advisory committee and that the company then became the general contractor. Mr. Endler was Tishman’s vice president during that time.

After the destruction of the trade center towers on Sept. 11, 2001, Mr. Endler told The Putnam County News and Recorder that they had been "built as safe as any building could be built."

James Richard Endler was born on Jan. 25, 1930, in Passaic, N.J., and was accepted to the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. He was commissioned in the Corps of Engineers and served in the Korean War. After entering the private sector he joined Tishman in 1961 and worked on the new Madison Square Garden atop Pennsylvania Station. He retired from Tishman in 1983 as president, chief operating officer and vice chairman. He then ran his own real estate development firm for four years before joining Lehrer McGovern Bovis .

In the early 1980s, Mr. Endler was instrumental in building a Jewish chapel at West Point , where there had long been only Roman Catholic and Protestant chapels. He remembered long marches as a cadet to attend Jewish services in a funeral chapel at the academy cemetery, an experience he likened to Moses’ "wandering in the desert."

In 1999, Mr. Endler published "Other Leaders, Other Heroes: West Point’s Legacy to America Beyond the Field of Battle." It told how West Point graduates had improved the country’s infrastructure, building railroads, bridges and the like. Booklist said the book "fills a niche in American historiography."

In addition to his daughter, Mr. Endler, who lived in Garrison, N.Y., is survived by his wife of 57 years, the former Myra Lynette Thayer; his son, Peter; his sister, Sheila Kiviat; and two grandsons.

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Syrian Troops Fire Across Turkish Border in Clash Near Refugee Camp

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BEIRUT, Lebanon — The deadly confrontation between Syria and opposition groups spilled into Turkey for the first time on Monday as Syrian forces fired across the border near a refugee camp, casting a further pall over prospects for a United Nations peace plan due to be put into effect this week.

By NEIL MacFARQUHAR and SEBNEM ARSU
Published: April 9, 2012
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Syrian refugees watched the border Monday from Kilis, Turkey.

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Border shootings were deadly in Turkey and in Lebanon.

The shooting killed two Syrian refugees and wounded at least 23 people, including a Turkish police officer, near the southern Turkish town of Kilis.

Residents of the camp reached by telephone said bullets had ripped through their prefabricated shelters, shattering windows and spreading panic. "Even the camp isn't safe anymore," said Ahmad, a refugee who used only one name out of concern for repercussions in Syria.

A senior Turkish Foreign Ministry official said Syria's ranking diplomat had been summoned and given a harsh message about Turkey's "irritation" with the episode. There was no immediate comment from Syria.

"It is not sufficient reason for military action by itself," said Cengiz Candar, the dean of Turkish analysts of Arab affairs. "But the likelihood of Turkish military action is not as dim as it was a week ago." The shooting will undoubtedly be used to buttress Turkey's call for a buffer zone inside Syria to protect civilians.

Turkey was once one of the closest allies of President Bashar al-Assad's Syrian government. But Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan became an early and harsh critic of Syria's crackdown on protesters last year, and Turkey has since taken in thousands of fleeing Syrians — as well as rebel leaders and members of ragtag militias that have gathered under the banner of the Free Syrian Army.

On a broader front, diplomatic efforts also faltered. After agreeing to a peace plan negotiated under United Nations auspices, the Syrian government on Sunday announced new conditions for withdrawing its forces from major population centers by Tuesday and carrying out a cease-fire by Thursday. The conditions boiled down to written guarantees from rebel groups and their main backers — Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia — that the opposition would be dismantled first.

Pressure from Moscow, which publicly endorsed the truce and is Syria's crucial international patron, was considered critical to the survival of the peace plan, which was negotiated by Kofi Annan, the special envoy of the United Nations and the Arab League. Walid al-Moallem, the Syrian foreign minister, was scheduled to meet his Russian counterpart in Moscow on Tuesday.

China, which has also vetoed international efforts to isolate Syria, criticized the new conditions. Syria has undermined every truce plan it ostensibly accepted since the uprising started in March 2011.

Mr. Annan considered the plan still alive and was waiting to see what Syria did this week, said Ahmad Fawzi, his spokesman. "To say now that you want written guarantees is a condition that was never in the agreement," Mr. Fawzi said. "The deadline is still valid, and the plan is still on the table."

Mr. Annan was scheduled to head to Turkey on Tuesday to visit some of the nearly 25,000 Syrian refugees there, several thousand of whom arrived in recent days, before moving on to Iran to try to persuade another important Syrian ally to back his plan. Senators John McCain of Arizona and Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut were also scheduled to meet with refugees in Turkey on Tuesday.

The Syrian National Council, the main opposition umbrella group, said it was ready to respect a cease-fire.

"The opposition, including the Free Syrian Army, says it will comply if the regime does," said Bassma Kodmani, a member of the Syrian National Council's executive committee, adding that opposition groups within Syria were ready to put a cease-fire into effect on Tuesday and not wait until Thursday. She called the government's actions "clearly not a sign of their intention to cooperate in good faith."

In another ominous sign, deadly violence has intensified in the days leading up to the cease-fire deadline, with opposition groups reporting scores killed on Monday alone in besieged cities and towns across Syria. In Aleppo, which has been less turbulent than much of the country, 10 security officers were shot dead quelling a demonstration and 11 were wounded, along with several civilians, the official Syrian Arab News Agency reported. It said 25 security men were buried nationwide Monday.

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Neil MacFarquhar reported from Beirut, and Sebnem Arsu from Ankara, Turkey. Hala Droubi contributed reporting from Beirut.

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