Thứ Ba, 1 tháng 5, 2012

National Briefing | New England

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Rhode Island: Federal Prosecutors Fight Governor Over Murder Suspect

By JESS BIDGOOD
Published: April 4, 2012
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A federal appeals panel heard arguments on Wednesday over Gov. Lincoln Chafee 's refusal to surrender a murder suspect to federal prosecutors. The suspect, Jason W. Pleau, 34, is accused of shooting a gas station employee in front of a federally insured bank in 2010. He has agreed to plead guilty and serve a life sentence without parole in Rhode Island, which does not have the death penalty. The governor is concerned that Mr. Pleau will face the death penalty if he is tried in federal court. Mr. Chafee is believed to be the first governor to refuse to surrender a suspect to the federal authorities.

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Observatory

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Changes in Social Status Seen in Monkeys' Genes

By SINDYA N. BHANOO
Published: April 9, 2012
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Social stress is known to have adverse health effects on both humans and primates.

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National Primate Research Center

Researchers found they could predict a female macaque's social ranking by looking at its genes.

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Now, researchers report that it also affects the immune system of female rhesus macaques at the genetic level.

"Social stress seemed to have a relatively strong and pervasive effect on the regulation of the genome," said Jenny Tung , an evolutionary anthropologist at Duke University and the first author of a study on the monkeys; it appears in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences .

She and her colleagues found differences in nearly 1,000 genes in the white blood cells of macaques. They focused on the monkeys' T cells and other white blood cells that play a role in immunity .

"Although all of the monkeys have the same set of genes in their white blood cells, not all of them turn on these genes to the same degree," Dr. Tung said.

Dr. Tung and her colleagues were able to predict the social ranking of a female macaque with 80 percent accuracy simply by looking at the genes.

They worked with 49 macaques at the Yerkes Primate Research Center at Emory University.

They also found that if a macaque's social rank changed, her gene expression did as well.

"If an individual is able to improve their social environment, the genome is pretty plastic, which is kind of optimistic," Dr. Tung said.

She said the results could provide insight into how to manage stress caused by social status in humans.

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Vietnam ranks second at SE Asian Futsal Championships

congty.edu.vn | teaching methods |

Nhan Dan – The Vietnam national futsal squad finished second at the 2012 Southeast Asian Futsal Championships in Bangkok, Thailand, after losing 4-9 to the hosts in the final match on April 27.

Thueanklang gave Thailand the lead with two consecutive goals in the second and fifth minutes, before Quynh Toan narrowed the gap for the guests in the 15th minute.

However, Thailand played very well and netted four more goals to close the first half with a score of 5-1.

Vietnam tried its best in the second half and managed to gain three goals by Van Vu, Trong Thien and Hoang Vinh, but it was not enough and Thailand scored four more goals to win the match.

In the playoff for third place, Indonesia beat Malaysia 4-2 to take home the bronze medal.

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International fireworks performance lights up Da Nang

may tinh bang moi | teaching methods |

Da Nang International Fireworks Competition 2012 kicked off in central coastal Da Nang city on April 29. The competition, the fifth of its kind, themed 'Colours of Da Nang' brought together teams from Canada , China , France , Italy and host Vietnam .

Photo by DTiNews



To begin the first night of the competition, Canada 's 20-minute performance "Lighting up the dark" highlighted the sparkling beauty of the Han River and the modern Da Nang City .

Following was the host Da Nang-Vietnam team presenting a display depicting the pride of being Vietnamese, Vietnamese people's gratitude towards President Ho Chi Minh and the colours of Da Nang city on the path towards modernisation.

To conclude the first day of competition, the team from China delighted the audience with a story of the legendary valley of cherry blossoms, reflecting the hope for a peaceful, happy life with enchanting background music.

The fireworks display will wrap up on April 30.

Besides the firework display, a cultural, cuisine and tourism festival will run until May 2.

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Study Millennials Rejecting Religious Doctrine

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College campuses are among the least religious places in America, largely because people tend to drift away from faith when they are young. But a study focusing on 18-to-24-year-old Americans finds many rejecting religious doctrine and orthodoxy in general.
Woman lights candle at 'night of lights' ecumenical prayer, Erfurt, Germany, Nov. 23, 2011 (file photo).
Photo: AP
Woman lights candle at 'night of lights' ecumenical prayer, Erfurt, Germany, Nov. 23, 2011 (file photo).



Findings of the Millennial Values Survey , a joint survey of the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), and Georgetown University's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs , indicate that many of the youngest millennials - members of the so called "millennial generation" - are leaving their childhood faith and ending up mostly unaffiliated.

Around one quarter of respondents said they don't identify with any religion, more than twice the 11 percent raised in households without any particular faith.

According to Dr. Robert Jones, PRRI's CEO and one of the study's lead researchers, this group is changing the way Americans view and practice religion.

"Basically all the varieties of Christian religion are in negative territories," said Jones, adding that Catholics and white mainline Protestants saw the largest losses away from childhood religious identification.

A Complicated Relationship
"Millennials kind of have a complicated relationship with religion," said Abigail Clauhs, one of a group of university students from around the country invited to be present at the survey's release.

"In my own personal experience dealing with other millennials my age, there's a lot of those kinds of stories of 'Well, I was raised like this, but I am now this, or I'm not religious at all,'" she said. "There's a lot of shifting, and people don't tend to be as committed to one strict set of doctrines or dogmas, even if they might be spiritual still."

Clauhs, a religion major at Boston University, was raised by a southern Baptist father and a Roman Catholic mother.

"I actually identify as Unitarian Universalist now," she said, explaining with a chuckle that "you're allowed to believe what you want."

Christianity Too 'Judgmental'
Only 23 percent of the survey's respondents said they believe the Bible is the word of God and should be taken literally. And while 76 percent agreed with the statement that Christianity "has good values and principals," more than six in ten said the way the faith is practiced today is "judgmental" and "anti-gay."

Jones said it may not be surprising that millennials are less likely to attend church than older Americans.

"Even on very basic questions like the nature of God, for example, we see millennials much less likely to believe in a personal God that one can have a relationship with, and much more likely to believe in a kind of God as an impersonal force," he said.

Changing the Face of Religion in America
The survey's results also suggest that many millennials aren't looking for spirituality online. Fewer than half of respondents with Facebook accounts, for example, list a religious affiliation on their profile page.

But Jones said results do suggest millennials are seeking spirituality, albeit with less commitment than "the traditional structured church experience."

"A social service opportunity for you to go and do some good in the city, that's going to be connected to the deepest things you believe about reality and God," he said, describing the kind of experience that might appeal to them. "And you know you can come this time, maybe you don't come next time, and you know six months later you'll come again.

"That kind of more free-form engagement, that's something that this generation is really looking for," he said, adding that millennials "really do look to change the face of religion in the country."

Theo www.voanews.com

Sudan Fighting Damages Both Sides Oil Industry

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U.S. officials say the most recent fighting between Sudan and South Sudan damaged some of the oil infrastructure on which both countries" economies depend. African Union is working to implement terms of a cease-fire.
Newly appointed U.S. special envoy for Sudan Princeton Lyman attends a meeting with Sudan's Foreign Minister Ali Karti in Khartoum. (File Photo - April 6, 2011
Photo: Reuters
Newly appointed U.S. special envoy for Sudan Princeton Lyman attends a meeting with Sudan's Foreign Minister Ali Karti in Khartoum. (File Photo - April 6, 2011)



During South Sudan's brief occupation of the town of Heglig, there was damage to an oil collection manifold joining pipelines from adjacent oil fields. The Harvard Humanitarian Initiative says satellite imagery can not determine whether the damage came from aerial bombardment or ground action.

Either way, it is another setback for Sudanese oil at a time when both countries are counting on that revenue.

"That's not a very good situation at all," said Princeton Lyman, the U.S. special envoy for Sudan and South Sudan. "It will take some time to get that back on track. Both countries are suffering from the crisis in the oil sector. South Sudan lost 98 percent of its budget revenue. Sudan is facing serious foreign exchange shortages, which means they can't import as much food. They have fuel shortages."

Watch related video of exclusive VOA interview with former British PM Gordon Brown

At independence last year, South Sudan took over most of Sudan's oil fields. But Juba shut down production in January after refusing to pay what it said were inflated fees imposed by Khartoum to use northern pipelines and ports.

One of the biggest investors in oil infrastructure on both sides of the border is China. Beijing is playing a more active diplomatic role in the dispute, hosting South Sudanese President Salva Kiir this week on a state visit.

Ambassador Lyman travels to China next week along with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

"They have a stake in the oil sector," said Lyman. "But they have a larger stake in their relations between Sudan and South Sudan, and their relations with Africa in general. And I think they have increasingly recognized that if the political issues in Sudan and between Sudan and South Sudan are not resolved, neither the oil nor their other interests can be served."

In an interview Friday with VOA, Lyman said Juba and Khartoum need to formalize their cease-fire and act on an already agreed upon system to demilitarize and monitor their border. That, he says, should help resolve longstanding security concerns that Khartoum is backing raids into the south and southern forces are helping rebels in the Sudanese provinces of Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile.

"I think a political process there will decrease the problem of southern support to that conflict," added Lyman. "But the government of Sudan has to stop sending arms or other kinds of support to militia in South Sudan to try and weaken the government there."

Lyman says the strength of this week's African Union resolution to stop the fighting reflects the gravity of the conflict's threat to the region.

"They realize that a breakdown in peace in Sudan will spill over in every country - whether it is Uganda, whether it is Kenya, whether it is Ethiopia, whether it is Egypt," he said. "So all the countries in the region are affected if you have widespread conflict in Sudan."

The Arab League has joined the African Union and United Nations in a plan to open humanitarian corridors in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile. Lyman says Khartoum is still studying the proposal and has concerns about how some parts of the plan will be carried out.

Aid officials say more than 140,000 people have already left Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile and are now refugees in South Sudan, Kenya and Ethiopia.

Theo www.voanews.com

Thứ Hai, 30 tháng 4, 2012

Party leader to visit Cuba, Brazil

pho nha hang | teaching methods |

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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