A Canadian researcher managed to take a picture of the face of the legendary hairy giant – the mascot of the Winter Olympic Games 2010.

Randy Brisson, a well-known Canadian cryptozoologist, shared hot information with his Russian colleagues. The researcher sent a photograph of the North American Bigfoot to Igor Burtsev and Dmitry Bayanov, the directors of the International Center for Hominology. The Canadian took the picture of the creature in Vancouver, the capital of Winter Games 2010.

Brisson assured his Russian colleagues that it was a photo of the legendary Bigfoot, or Sasquatch. The popularity of the mythical creature has won it the honor to become a symbol and a mascot of Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Mr. Brisson’s photo may mean that the mascots ramble somewhere in the woods of the Olympic city.

The Canadian cryptozoologist said that he had seen a Sasquatch peeking out from behind a huge stub in the woods near Pitt Lake. The spot, where the creature was supposedly photographed, is quite far from sports objects.

Randy and his son Ray found big tracks on the snow along a hauling road. The footprints were quite big – it was obvious that they had been left by an adult creature. There were smaller footprints found nearby too.

The toes on the feet of both the adult and the youngster were pathologically angled to one side. The researcher claimed that the creatures were breeding since he had found the footprints of both a parent and a baby.

Mr. Brisson also said in his message to the Russian researchers that he and his son decided not to trace the couple because the creatures, when trying to escape, were throwing rocks at them.

The story may sound very strange, but Burtsev and Bayanov said that they had never exposed the Canadian of any falsifications in their studies of the unknown.

pravda.ru

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Prime Minister Putin signed a decree to build a nuclear power plant in the Kaliningrad region. The Baltic Nuclear Power Plant is expected to become Russia’s first NPP built with the participation of private and foreign capital.

The Baltic Nuclear Power Plant is to be built in the Nemansky district of the Kaliningrad region, the website of the Russian government said Wednesday.

Russia’s nuclear corporation Rosatom coordinated the construction of the plant with the Ministry for Nature and other interested departments, the message posted on the official website said.

News agencies previously reported that Putin signed a decree to allocate funds for the construction of nuclear power plants. It was also reported that Putin harshly criticized Russian energy companies and their owners for delays in fulfilling obligations within the scope of investment programs, Interfax reports.

“Today I signed the decree to allocate 53 billion rubles for the construction of nuclear power plants,” Putin stated Wednesday.

The prime minister stressed out that several Russian energy companies did not execute the state-funded work on which they had been contracted.

“OGK-2 – Mr. Potanin is the chief shareholder, TGK-2 – Mr Lebedev is the prime shareholder, TGK-4 – Mr. Prokhorov is the main shareholder, the Complex Energy Mystem – Mr. Vekselberg,” Putin said naming the companies and their owners who can be referred to as Russia’s richest people.

Putin reminded that the new owners of the Russian energy system assumed serious obligations to invest in the development of the nation’s industry after the reform of the energy giant RAO UES (United Energy System). A part of the obligations were secured with additional issue of shares. The volume of the attracted funds totaled 450 billion rubles. It was the state money, which was provided during the reform for the development of the electric power industry, as Putin said.

“Nevertheless, only 270 billion of the amount were spent on the implementation of investment projects. Sixty-six rubles were used to maintain companies’ activities, to purchase various non-profile assets, which had nothing to do with the electric power industry. Frankly speaking, those funds were used speculatively,” Putin stated.

pravda.ru

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Police in Georgia are searching for a pair of hungry bandits who stole an order of chicken wings from a pizza delivery driver.

Columbus Police say the 19-year-old Domino’s driver was approached outside a home Tuesday night by two men who asked for money. One of the men pointed a chrome pistol.

Police say one of the men then said, “give me the wings.” They fled the scene with the $36 order.

No cash was taken and the driver was not injured.

CANOE

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A man who lost his hand after being dragged by a commuter train two weeks ago in Southern California has been hit by a train again. Police say the man claimed he fell from the platform onto the tracks at the Irvine station and was hit by a northbound train Tuesday morning. Sgt. Mike Meyers says the man gave the same explanation when he was hit by a Metrolink train at about the same time two weeks ago in Laguna Nigel and dragged 87 feet. His left hand was severed at the wrist.

The sheriff's department investigated the first incident as an accident.

Police say the man was taken to a hospital Tuesday with non-life-threatening injuries and will receive a mental health evaluation.

Upi.com

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A Brazilian would-be burglar got stuck inside a chimney when trying to sneak into a bar in San Paolo while its owner was away.

He had to shout for help before he was finally heard by a woman living next door to the bar. She called an ambulance and a fire truck so that the unfortunate burglar could be released.

When the bar's owner, Cleia Baldonedo, came home after midnight on Tuesday, she saw the man's feet hanging from inside the chimney.

The soot-covered man was freed after firefighters broke away part of the chimney with hammers.

RIA Novosti

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The world’s most expensive military cemetery, a £22.6 billion centre dubbed “The Boneyard”, has been pictured in a spectacular series of new high-resolution Google Earth satellite images.

The 2,600 acre facility, officially known Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, is home to thousands of outdated aeroplanes and helicopters mothballed by the United States Air Force and other allied forces.

The 60 year-old facility, the size of 1,300 football pitches and sprawled across the desert in Tucson, Arizona, houses the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group

(AMARG) and is America's only storehouse for out-of-service aircraft.

Now for the first time, a series of stunning high resolution satellite images of the four-square-mile facility, nicknamed “the Boneyard”, have been produced by Google Earth.

The base can also be seen from Google's streetview.

Commonly used as a final resting place for thousands of decommissioned machines, the centre, originally designed in 1946, is also is used as a spare parts resource for the United States military.

Among cabins, wings and undercarriages are more than 4,200 of the western world's military aircraft, said to be worth £22.6 billion ($US35 billion) that were at one point in history the most advanced weapons of the air.

Some of the dismantled aircraft include B-52 flying fortresses, F14 Tomcats, seen in the Tom Cruise 80s blockbuster film “Top Gun”, and the A-10 Thunderbolt “tank busters”.

Resident aircraft are either stored long term, dismantled for spare parts, kept in tact for shorter stays or sold off.

Over the past 25 years more than a fifth of the aircraft have been returned to flying status, officials said.

Similar to a large-scale recycling plant, hundreds of staff sift and sort almost 20,000 pieces of junk.

Its landscape has also come to the attention of Hollywood, with several blockbuster movies including Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, shot there.

Most of the aircraft are vacuum packed in the hope they can be restored and returned to service or sold to other nations.

"309 AMARG does not own the aircraft stored here, they still belong to the delivering military services and government agencies,” said a base spokesman.

"Some of the aircraft belong to various aviation museums like the National Museum of the U S Air Force, the National Museum of Naval Aviation, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

"This area was selected for two reasons. The first is Tucson's dry climate minimises damage caused by corrosion. The second reason was the ground under the site consists of about six inches of dirt topsoil.”

He added: “Beneath that is a claylike sub layer called ‘caliche’. This extremely hard subsoil makes it possible to tow and park the planes in the desert without constructing new parking ramps.”

Click here to see a high-resolution image of the "The Boneyard"

telegraph.co.uk

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A black Labrador named Treo will today receive the animal equivalent of a Victoria Cross for his work sniffing out roadside bombs in Afghanistan.

The nine-year-old has been awarded the Dickin Medal after a saving the lives of a number of British soldiers by detecting improvised explosive devices in Helmand province.

His handler Sergeant Dave Heyhoe said the dog proved a particularly effective counter-insurgency weapon because of the rapport the pair developed over years of action in Northern Ireland.

"I'm very proud indeed, not only for myself and Treo, but it's for every dog and handler that's working out in Afghanistan or Iraq," he said.

Treo, who served in Afghanistan in 2008 and is now retired, will be presented with his medal at a special ceremony at the Imperial War Museum today.

He is the 63rd animal to receive the Dickin Medal, which was introduced by the PDSA veterinary charity in 1943.

Treo started his career at the Defence Animal Centre, based in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, when he was a year old.

He did 12 weeks training before he went to Northern Ireland, where he worked for three years with his first handler before Sgt Heyhoe took over.

But their relationship is now far more than a working partnership, Sgt Heyhoe said.

"Basically, me and the dog have got to get a rapport. We've got to understand each other and without that we can't be effective on the ground.

"He must know when I want him to go somewhere to search, that's where he goes.

"Everyone will say that he is just a military working dog – yes, he is, but he is also a very good friend of mine. We look after each other."

telegraph.co.uk

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A poverty-stricken 97-year-old man in Vietnam won up to $400,000 in a lottery, a report said Tuesday, sparking a frenzy among relatives eager to get a piece of his new-found wealth.

A neighbour in southern Ho Chi Minh City and local officials had to step in to stop the elderly man from giving away the windfall to people who had swarmed to his home, Thanh Nien newspaper said.

What was left of the money has gone into a bank account, the newspaper reported.

Nguyen Van Het bagged the prize after spending 100,000 dong (just over $5) on lottery tickets from "lucky money" he received ahead of the Lunar New Year, Thanh Nien said.

Small packets of "lucky money" are a traditional Tet gift.

Thanh Nien reported Het's winnings at 7.6 billion dong, or $400,000, a massive sum in a country where the annual per capita income is about $1,000.

"We only know he won billions of dong," an official from the Fatherland Front, which implements government social programmes, told AFP.

The official, who declined to be named, said local authorities had to intervene and restore order around the man's home because so many relatives or people claiming to be relatives had turned up asking for money.

Het and his sick wife had been receiving special financial support from authorities because they lived below the poverty line, the Fatherland Front official said.

"We will wait for a few more weeks so that he can calm down before asking him what he wants to do with the money," he said.

cbnnews.com

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It is very unclear why the US specialists insist on finding an old Russia spacecraft.

The work conducted on the Moon in the last century allows scientists to measure the distance to it with high degree of precision, up to a millimeter. Thanks to the equipment left on the Moon, we found out that the natural satellite moves away from Earth 38 millimeters a year.

To measure the distance between Earth and the Moon, a powerful laser beam is directed from Earth to the Moon, and then the time is calculated spent for the light to travel back and forth. Knowing the speed of light, we can calculate the distance.

The beam is directed at the so-called corner reflector. Its basic model consists of three mutually perpendicular, intersecting mirror surfaces. Any beam that gets to the mirrors is reflected back towards the source.

The reflectors installed on the Moon are more complex. Instead of mirrors they have prisms serving as reflecting panels.

Three corner reflectors were left on the Moon by American astronauts who came with the missions “Apollo-11”, “14” and “15”. Two reflectors were sent by Russia.

The first Russian reflector arrived to the Moon along with the automatic station “Luna-17” and was installed on the self-moving robot "Lunokhod-1". The second one was installed on “Lunokhod -2", delivered to the Moon in 1973 along with the station "Luna-21".

All reflectors but the one installed on "Lunokhod-1" are still functioning. In 1971, after a number of successful experiments with the reflector, the robot seemed to be missing. It was known for fact that it stopped in Mare Imbrium (Latin for "Sea of Showers" or "Sea of Rains") because laser impulses were sent there, but no answers were received.

It did not seem like a big deal. Yet, the Americans are trying to find it for some reason, searching the Moon’s surface with a laser beam. It is hard to miss something because the area of the light spot can reach 25 square kilometers.

According to Vladislav Trushev with the Rocket Propulsion Paboratory, NASA failed to find "Lunokhod-1" three years ago. Now, specialists from University of California, San Diego, measure the distance to the Moon with the most precise equipment, a powerful telescope with a laser, in an observatory (Apache Point Observatory in Sunspot, New Mexico). They discovered that the work of the existing reflectors has worsened significantly.

It is very difficult to “catch millimeters” because it requires very sensitive equipment. Out of millions of billions of photons reflected from the Moon, only a few thousands come back to Earth detectors. This number constantly decreases .

According to Tom Murphy, head of research, efficiency of the reflectors has worsened more than ten-folds. The issues began between 1979 and 1984, and the situation keeps getting worse.

The scientist believes that soon it may be impossible to take measurements.

The only sound hypothesis suggests that the reflectors are either covered by the Moon dust or scratched, because the dust is abrasive. But what did make it move in four locations at the same time? It could not be the wind.

In any case, this does not explain why the Americans keep searching for the Russian robot. They may think that the reflectors installed on it could still work.

NASA is going to send its LRO now located in the Moon’s orbit to search for "Lunokhod-1". They plan to take high quality pictures of the spot where the Soviet equipment may be located to take a better look at it.

kp.ru and pravda.ru

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A copy of the first comic to feature Superman has been sold in an online auction for $1m.

The Action Comics No 1 is said to be the "Holy Grail of comic books" and this particular copy has been kept in great condition.

Originally sold for 10c in 1938 it features the first story of the cape-wearing superhero - who is seen lifting a car above his head on the cover.

Only about 100 copies of this comic book remain in existence and few have been kept in such good quality and only two have received a grading of 8.0 (Very Fine) or higher.

Both the seller and the buyer have chosen to remain anonymous… we wonder where they got that idea from, they probably also have a penchant for wearing their underwear over their trousers. A spokesperson for ComicConnect.com, which hosted the sale, said: "Before Action Comics #1, there was no such thing as a superhero or a man who could fly.

"It’s the single most important event in comic book history."

The prevoous record-holder was another Action Comics #1, this one with a grading of 6.0. It sold for $317,200 in 2009

newslite.tv

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Topless tobogganing may be all the rage in Germany right now, but it’s not the only naked sport to have hit the world over the last year – here's our top 5:

Naked Volleyball

Germany was involved again as two naked volleyball teams came together to thrash it out in the sand.

The ladies were saved some blushes through the miracle of body paint as the Austrians eventually beat the German team, in front of a surprisingly male-dominated crowd.

Playboy Olympics

This was our rundown of the top sportswomen to have featured in the pages of the world’s most famous adult magazine.

From Olympic figure skaters to American High Jump champions, there was even a special September 2004 edition of Playboy with a dedicated Olympic special.

Lingerie Bow

This is probably the best Fantasy Football league we have ever seen, with girls taking to the field wearing protective kit, and pretty much nothing else.

The yearly half-time Lingerie Bowl has now been turned into a full on league, with teams set to line up against each other later this year.

We can’t see it being anything other than a hit Stateside and maybe it could be a way to get some more British sports fans interested in American Football!

Naked Windsurfing

Three brave surfers took to the waves just off the coast of Scotland and cast their modesty aside by baring all as they did so.

With the help of a few well-placed hands the guys managed to cover some bits up, but female surfer Louise had no choice but to let everything hang out as she rode the freezing surf.

Naked Ramblers

Maybe not a sport as such, but these guys will certainly cause some top break out in a sweat as they roam the countryside in nothing more than a pair of boots.

There is even a dedicated day in the US for people who love nothing more than to experience mother nature the way they believe it is to be intended.

metro.co.uk

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A Great Dane from Tucson, Arizona, has been declared the world's tallest dog.

Giant George is the new Guinness World Records holder of the title, measuring a mighty 43 inches (109cm) from paw to shoulder and 7ft 3in (2.2m) from nose to tail.

His title was announced after a special Guinness World Records adjudicator visited the lofty hound to verify his measurements.

Giant George, who weighs 245lb and consumes around 110lb of food every month, inches out the previous record holder, Titan, a Great Dane from San Diego, California, by 0.75in (around 2cm).

Guinness World Records said they were hoping the new title announcement would prompt owners to examine their own pets to see if perhaps they too could break a record.

It is launching a new search for pet records for the longest ears on a dog, the smallest dog, the oldest dog, the smallest cat and oldest cat.

Craig Glenday, editor-in-chief of Guinness World Records, said: "This record has also sparked great interest in finding other pet records, so we're asking everyone to check their dog houses, scratch posts and under the bed – they just might be living with a record-breaking pet."

Telegraph.co.uk

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An Australian golf course boasts the world's most dangerous water hazard: a lake with a 1.8 meter (6 foot) crocodile.

The croc, nicknamed Steve, has been lurking at Willows Golf Resort for more than a week, attracting near-daily sightings but a conspicuous lack of panic.

"It's not scaring anyone -- it's par for the course in North Queensland," shrugged manager Adrian Lawson. "North Queenslanders are used to seeing this kind of thing."

Steve, a freshwater crocodile known to be more docile than saltwater crocs, can be seen swimming or enjoying the tropical sun near the par-five second or par-three 17th, which tees off over his lake.

"It doesn't put anyone off unless they put their ball in that lake -- they're not going to retrieve it, that's for sure," Lawson told AFP on Monday.

"We've seen him sunning himself on the bank on the second (hole), but whenever anyone has come near him he's straight back in the drink, as quick as a wink."

The Townsville course has played host to about five crocodiles in recent years when heavy rains swell a nearby river, dumping the reptiles in its lake.

The phenomenon is common enough for the course to have its own crocodile management plan, the first step of which is calling local authorities to check the animal does not pose any danger.

"It's not going to eat anyone or chase a dog down the main street, but it's an interesting find," Lawson said.

abs-cbnnews.com

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A Winnipeg mom is looking to move gallons of surplus mother’s milk via the online marketplace.

With a freezer full of breast milk she’s been stocking away since her four-month-old son’s birth, Sara Wiens is now looking to offload it after she found out her son Simon cannot drink it.

He has an allergy to cow’s milk protein and is unable to drink his mother’s breast milk produced during the period when she still was consuming cow’s milk. The toddler can now consume his mother’s milk again as she has cut dairy products from her diet.

“I know lots of people who would have loved to have breast milk for their children — women who aren’t producing enough or aren’t producing at all,” said the mother of two. “If someone can use it, that would be great.”

Wiens has put the milk up for sale on Kijiji — a classifieds website — and is fielding offers. She said there is no set price for the milk but hopes to cover the rental of the breast pump and other costs incurred, likely somewhere between $200 and $500.

“Compared to formula, it’s a lot cheaper and a lot better,” Wiens said.

Breast milk banks exist in Canada, but there is no such facility in Winnipeg to which a mother could donate milk. Wiens said she’d have to cover costs to donate the milk to a bank in Vancouver.

“People have also suggested I send it to Haiti but I don’t know for sure that it would clear customs and it would cost thousands of dollars to ship it,” she said.

Wiens said she is uncertain of exactly how much milk she has available but said there are at least several gallons stored in her freezer. She estimates the milk represents at least a three-month supply, depending on the size and age of a baby.

As of Monday, Wiens said she had received five inquiries about her breast milk. She remains confident she’ll find a buyer.

“I just hope someone buys it before it reaches the end of its freezer life,” she said.

The bagged milk is all separately dated and Wiens said the first of it may have to be discarded by early spring.

Wiens said the milk is not pasteurized nor tested for disease or bacteria, so she understands people’s apprehension. “There has to be that trust there that I’m not sick,” Wiens said.

Wiens said she has heard of people selling breast milk for as much as $8 per ounce — far less than she’s hoping for. “I could retire if I sold it for that much because I have gallons in the freezer,” Wiens said.

Cnews

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American authorities guarantee that the GlaxoSmithKline knew that the Avandia could provoke heart attacks.

Avandia, a drug often prescribed to patients with diabetes, may have caused millions of heart attacks around the world. This is the conclusion of a 334-page report submitted by the U.S. Senate on Saturday. According to the American authorities, the GlaxoSmith-Kline (GSK), pharmaceutical company that produces the drug, knew the risks to which patients were exposed, but always kept them hidden from the public. "GSK executives tried to intimidate independent researchers, using strategies to minimize or hide the findings that Avandia could increase cardiovascular risks and hid studies that were developing competing drugs with reduced risk," says the report.

"Americans have a right to know that there are serious health risks associated with Avandia and GlaxoSmithKline had a responsibility to tell them," said Democrat Max Baucus, U.S. Senator and chairman of the committee that conducted the study. "Patients rely on pharmaceutical companies for health and life, and GSK had abused that trust," he added. The report is also signed by Sen. Chuck Grasseley, leader of the Republicans on the committee that wants to withdraw the drug from the market.

The drugmaker denies all charges. "No study shows a statistically relevant correlation between Avandia and ischemic heart disease [disease that leads to narrowing of the coronary arteries] or myocardial infarction," stated the spokesman of the company, Nancy Pekarek, to CNN. "The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has revised the information and concluded that the drug should be in the market."

Also the FDA has been criticized in the report for ignoring safety concerns related to Avandia. "There is strong evidence that rosiglitazone [Avandia's active ingredient] increases the risk of heart attack compared with pioglitazone [in a medicinal product competition]," two officials defended the FDA in October 2008. "If GSK had held the cardiovascular risks of Avandia in earnest when the issue was first raised in 1999, many deaths could have been avoided," concluded the report.

There is much about Avandia that raises concern: in 2007, "The New England Journal of Medicine" and "Journal of the American Medical Association” have questioned the safety of the drug. Estimates of scientists from the FDA in July of that year indicate that the drug for diabetes was related to 83,000 heart attacks. And the Senate goes further in the charges: "The FDA has been very comfortable with the drug and has been regularly handled by companies with economic interests to undervalue or not to investigate potential security risks."

In Europe, where Avandia is also for sale, the Committee for Proprietary Medicinal Products for Human Use of the European Medicines Agency ensures that it maintains a strict monitoring of rosiglitazone and it is not expected that the drug will be withdrawn.

pravda.ru

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A man who is only 22 inches (56 centimetres) tall left his home country of Nepal on Sunday in a quest to be recognized as the world’s shortest man.

Khagendra Thapa Magar is travelling to Europe to campaign for the Guinness World Record title. He applied to London-based group for a place in the record book in October, soon after turning 18, but said he has not received any response.

Magar’s family initially filed a claim when he was 14, but it was rejected because he was not an adult and there was a chance he might grow.

They say doctors in Nepal have not been able to explain why Magar is so small.

“We are going to Italy to try to record his name in the Guinness Book of World Records,” his father, Rup Bahadur Thapa Magar, told reporters in Kathmandu. They plan to appear on an Italian television show to talk about his bid for the title.

Once in Italy, Magar, his father and a supporter will decide on their next destination.

His supporters saw him off from the Nepalese capital on Sunday, offering flower bouquets and garlands.

The current record is held by He Pingping of China, who is 29 inches (73 centimetres) tall.

Cnews

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American scientists from the Scientific Center for Public Opinion Research compiled a list of harmful foods that caused suffering of many people in the past two decades. The black list includes the foods that provoked mass illnesses in the US within the last twenty years. Fish, cheese, eggs and oysters are on the top of the list.

Surprisingly enough, potatoes, tomatoes and leafy greens also made it to the list. It turns out that there are over 3,000 registered diseases caused by potatoes.

Herbs (parsley, dill, etc.) became the absolute leader of the group. Nearly 14,000 Americans suffered from them through getting salmonella and E.coli.

The most dangerous bacterium, according to the scientists, is salmonella, contained in a great deal of food and causing food poisoning in 40% of cases.

MEANWHILE

An Indian chef created the recipe of the “most healthful” food on the planet. It is chicken curry with blueberries, rice, and goji berries. The chef mixed traditional ingredients that protect a person from many diseases, including cancer and Alzheimer, Vokrug Sveta reports.

According to the chef, this meal alone contains as much antioxidants as 23 cups of spinach, 23 cups of grapes, and 9 servings of broccoli. It is also delicious and costs no more than £2.5 per plate.

Blueberry, one of the ingredients, prevents cancer and amyloid plaque in the brain. Goji berries native to Himalayas are rich in vitamin A, C and iron. Spices used in the recipe have antibacterial and antivirus qualities. Chili reduces pain; curcuma helps to protect the heart, brain and blood vessels. Chicken was chosen because it is low in fat and affordable.

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania designing medicine for skin cancer treatment that contains broccoli and cabbage extracts. According to the scientists, isothiazoline contained in green vegetables can prevent skin cancer when mixed with selenium from the Brazilian nut. The mixture can also be added to sunscreens.

Skin cancer may be prevented with moderate caffeine consumption and exercise. Anti-cancerous quality of caffeine has been long known. Some components of green tea have been proven to have a distinct anti-cancerous quality. The most active anti-tumor components of green tea are polyphenols.

pravda.ru

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Languages and dialects are dying every day, especially when we live in a world linked by computers and mass media, where people end up joining together in a few languages. Dialects spoken by smaller groups of people are covered by an official language of each nation, while linguists are trying to make them survive. Below you can see the lesser-used languages in the world.

Ter Sami (2 persons) - That's right, when these people die the dialect is officially dead. It was spoken in the northeastern part of the Kola Peninsula in Russia. Ter Sami was one of the dialects to have been eliminated by the USSR.

Kayardild (10 people) - Spoken at Bentinck Island, Australia, and islands around this language will also die soon.

Ume Sami (approximately 10 people) - On the course of the River Ume, Sweden, no one knows the exact number of people who can still speak this language, but surely it will not last long.

Pite Sami (approximately 20 people) - Spoken between Sweden and Norway this language is one of four belonging to the Sami dialect that do not have an official written language.

Votic (20 people) - More a language spoken in Russia, specifically in Ingria in the northwest. It was spoken by the Votes, a local population.

If you think the presence of the strange name Sami in a number of languages, know that this is a general name for the language group of Uralic languages spoken by the Sami people, who live in parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. But that does not mean that all languages are equal, since each people speak a language of their own and many of them are about to disappear from the earth.

Pravda.ru

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A German luger, who won a silver medal at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, broke his tooth after reporters asked him to bite his medal, Moscow-based radio Business FM reported.

"The photographers wanted us to bite into our medals at the presentation ceremony. And a corner of my front tooth broke off," David Moeller, 28, told the German newspaper Bild.

Moeller said he did not feel any pain but went to see a dentist anyway as he wanted to look good in photographs.

The Vancouver Olympics end on February 28.

RIA Novosti

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A baby squirrel has been adopted by a cat - and become best friends with her kitten.

The unlikely pals cuddle up together with 'mum' Tita in Envigado, near Medellin, Colombia, reports The Sun.

The two baby animals suckle on Tita's milk, scamper about the house and even share a cuddle from time to time.

The squirrel was rescued by Ruben Gaviria who found him injured in a local park.

He has been nursing the little rodent back to health with the help of his feline companions.

MIA

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Does a London football club have fans that are out of this world? A British police officer says he spotted a UFO hovering above Chelsea's stadium in the British capital.

Declassified military files show the unnamed officer reported seeing bright yellow lights flying over Stamford Bridge more than a decade ago.

The officer says he saw the lights move soundlessly over the field, changing from a square to a diamond-shaped formation before disappearing from view.

The March 10, 1999 sighting is detailed in more than 6,000 pages of material declassified Thursday.

Britain's Defence Ministry has been gradually releasing the files and posting them online as part of a three year project with the country's national archives.

cnews

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An x-ray image shows the horrific skull injuries suffered by a father-of-three after he was set upon by a gang of 30 thugs.

David Barry's face is held together by metal plates and nuts and bolts after he and his brother Thomas were attacked outside a pub by hammer-wielding youths.

The brothers both had emergency surgery to rebuild their faces after the vicious assault in Bethnal Green, East London, on New Year's Eve last year.

Remarkably David, 41, who suffered the worst injuries including a snapped palate, shattered eye socket, smashed cheekbone and six breaks to his jaw, now shows no outward signs of the ordeal.

The surgeon treating him said his injuries to his face were the worst he had ever seen on someone who had survived an attack.

David, a communications engineer from Ilford, East London, said: "It was one of the most frightening experience of my life seeing hammers raining down on me.

"I was out cold after the first few blows but witnesses told me they continued to hit me when I was unconscious and helpless.

"My face was in pieces when I came round and when I got to hospital doctors said it was a miracle my brother and I had survived."

telegraph.co.uk

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The reason why some women remain without a long-term boyfriend appears to have been solved by Australian scientists.

Researchers from the University of Western Australia reportedly claim some of the secrets of attraction appear to be hidden in certain immune system genes inherited from our parents.

They found that a woman's appearance or sweat contains clues to the genetic make-up of her immune system.

The scientists, who studied the DNA of almost 150 university students, found that the more varied the genes were the more boyfriends a woman was likely to have.

The scientists, reporting in the journal Animal Behavior, said they couldn’t be certain why a woman's immune system affected her success with men.

They were also unclear whether her genes make her irresistible to the opposite sex – or whether she finds them irresistible.

But it could explain why some women, such as Hollywood actress Jennifer Aniston, remain unlucky in love.

In the study participants, including aspiring doctors and engineers, were asked to provide a DNA sample as well as completing a detailed questionnaire about their love lives.

The DNA was then scrutinised for variations in genes known to influence the immune system, where the more diverse these genes, the stronger a person's defence against disease.

The results of the test were then compared to the survey.

This showed that the women with the most varied major histocompatibility (MHC) genes, had the most sexual partners, the Daily Mail reported.

“None of these explanations are mutually exclusive and, regardless of the underlying mechanism, the effect of MHC diversity is intriguing and deserves further investigation,” the research team concluded.

There was, however, no link between a man's MHC genes and his success with women.

Telegraph.co.uk

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A Melbourne escape artist has mirrored a feat attempted by the legendary Harry Houdini 100 years ago.

'Cosentino' was handcuffed and shackled to a 60 kilogram concrete block inside a tank at Melbourne Aquarium this morning.

He was trying to copy Houdini's trick, when he jumped off Queen's Bridge into the Yarra River, shackled from his neck to his waist, a century ago.

The 27-year-old magician and escape artist was aiming to do the trick in a time of 2 minutes and 30 seconds.

But struggled to unlock one of the shackles and finished in 3 minutes and 39 seconds.

"I was thinking why today? But it has happened before in my practice so I realised that I move on, don't waste any time," he said.

"So I moved to the middle padlock and then went back to it, and I knew I was going to get it open," he said.

He said after struggling with the first padlock, he lost track of time and knew he would not make the required time.

He performed the trick in front of an anxious crowd, surrounded by sharks.

No one was more worried than his mother, Rosemary Cosentino.

"My heart was beating so fast. I just never want to go through that again," she said.

Cosentino says he is motivated by the adrenalin rush.

"It's pushing your body, it's pushing the limits, that's when I feel most alive," he said.

ABC News

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A deaf South African cleaner besieged by begging relatives after a newspaper reported he had scooped a 91 million rand ($12 million) lottery jackpot was not the winner, the draw's organizers said on Tuesday.

National Lottery spokeswoman Thembi Tulwana said the real winner of Friday's PowerBall draw was an unnamed 43-year-old woman, and not 52-year-old Stanley Philander, a Cape Town hardware store cleaner reported to have carried off the record rollover prize.

Tulwana said Philander had bought -- after the draw -- a lottery ticket with the same numbers as the winning ticket, but could not explain how the mix-up had escalated into the family being moved to a secret location for their own protection.

"We are as confused as everybody else. It did not come from the National Lottery at all," Tulwana said. "Those numbers have nothing to do with the previous draw."

The Star newspaper said Philander, his wife of 12 years, Diana, who is also deaf, and their two children had been moved from their home in a poor Cape Town neighborhood to an undisclosed location after talk of their purported win spread.

Philander's sister-in-law said the family was besieged by relatives asking for a share of the winnings, and implied National Lottery officials were involved in their disappearance -- something Tulwana denied.

"We don't even know where he was. All we know is that one newspaper did indicate that they have him in a safe place," she said.

Even though apartheid officially ended 16 years ago, millions of black South Africans still live a grim existence in squalid tin-shack townships lacking electricity or running water.

South Africa's lottery launched in October last year, and produced four multi-millionaires in its first month. Friday's record prize money was the result of 22 previous "roll-over" draws.

abs-cbnnews.com

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An unemployed man from Ohio has built himself an 'extreme igloo' in his yard - a four-room monster that even has an entertainment room with cable TV and surround sound.

Jimmy Grey said that he'd been out of work for almost a year, and needed a project to keep himself busy.

So with the heavy snowfall that America has experienced this winter, the 25-year-old labourer got to work on an extreme igloo in his family's yard in Aquilla, about 30 miles east of Cleveland.

His four-room creation has 6-foot ceilings and an entertainment room. He powers the TV with an extension cord plugged into an outlet in the garage. He also ran wires for cable television with surround-sound stereo, enabling him and his friends to watch the Superbowl in his icy mansion.

Grey told The Plain Dealer newspaper that candles help to add ambiance for night time get-togethers with friends, and the freezing temperatures mean that the beer is always chilled.

metro.co.uk

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Russian police have arrested a prankster who hacked into a computer system to show a pornographic movie on a giant advertising screen, causing havoc on a busy Moscow thoroughfare.

The two-minute clip, displayed on a video screen above a main road south of the Kremlin, caused midnight traffic jams and a frenzy of excitement across the Russian blogosphere.

Police said the hacker gained control of the screen by breaking into an online company's server in the volatile southern region of Chechnya as "he didn't think the police would go looking for him there''.

"(The hacker) is a highly-educated, temporarily unemployed and extremely advanced internet user," police said. "The scandalous film was the talk of the town."

The 40-year-old man said he wanted to "give people a laugh", the popular daily Kommersant reported.

Rossiya-24 television said an elderly motorist suffered a heart attack at the wheel after seeing the scenes.

stuff.co.nz

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Peter Colat, a Swiss freediver, has held his breath underwater for 19 minutes and 21 seconds, smashing the world record.

Colat, 38, performed the feat in a water tank in St Gallen, Switzerland.

The previous Guinness World Record for oxygen-assisted static apnea was 19 seconds shorter and was set by an Italian, Nicola Putignano, last May.

Colat, an experienced diver from Zurich, said the first 12 minutes was no problem.

He said: "I felt the first need to breathe very late, but because of this it was even stronger."

Under the Guinness rules he was allowed to inhale pure oxygen 10 minutes prior to his attempt.

telegraph.co.uk

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Olga, a ten-year-old girl from the Novosibirsk region of Russia, was balancing between life and death after she suffered from a Staffordshire terrier’s attack. She has had several reconstruction surgeries, although medics say that a series of other operations will be necessary in the future too. A complete recovery will take several years.

The tragedy took place in the town of Belokurikha, near Novosibirsk. Elena Balakhina, 35, and her daughter Olga were living in a small private home. The woman developed friendly relations with her new neighbors.

“We made friends and the new neighbor would often come and visit us for a cup of tea – she liked to chat. Me and my daughter have never visited them because they were keeping two fight dogs. My daughter would often see them behind the fence and she was afraid of visiting the neighbors,” the mother of the injured girl said.

That day, August 17, 2009, the neighbor paid Elena and Olga a visit again, at about 9 o’clock p.m. Elena had a call from a health resort, where she worked as a nurse – they asked her to go there to serve medicines to a patient. The neighbor said that she could leave her daughter with her for a couple of hours.

The little girl continued the story:

“We went for a walk, but later the woman invited me in for some tea. I did not want to go because of the dogs, and I asked her to pull the dogs away first. The neighbor said that she would not do it because her dogs were very kind. As soon as we stepped behind the gate, the dogs – Rich and Dina – approached me and began to run around me. Suddenly, Rich jumped on my back, knocked me down and started pulling my hair. Then I felt that he got off me. I ran into the house and sat down on a chair. The next moment I saw the two dogs running towards me. There was a room nearby, so I ran in there and shut the door,” the girl said.

The woman called the ambulance only after she forced the dogs into the basement. The physician found the girl bleeding. Her scalp was found on the floor near.

“They took my daughter to a local hospital and assured me that I would not have to take her to the central hospital in Barnaul. Olya had fever for a week, she stopped eating and could hardly move. So I eventually grabbed my daughter, put her in the backseat on our car and went to Barnaul. They diagnosed her there with blood poisoning, skull bones abscess, brain abscess and meningococcosis. The doctors saved her from death, but a big part of her skull was still naked,” Olga’s mother said.

The girl was transferred from Barnaul to a bigger hospital in Novosibirsk. Surgeons had to take a patch of skin from the girl’s leg to stitch it on her head.

The girl will have to wear a wig for the rest of her life. Hair will not grow on the new skin, medics said.

“I learned that a similar incident took place in Novosibirsk ten years ago, when a fight dog mauled a five-year-old girl. I read that there was a specialist who restored the girl’s pelage. When I found him, he examined my daughter and said that it would take several years and about eight surgeries. Olga listened to him too and agreed to do it,” Elena Balakhina said.

What about the dog’s owner?

“She brought 5,000 rubles ($90) the next day after the tragedy, and that was it. When we came home to Belokurikha, the dogs were still running and barking there near the house of our neighbors. I asked them to take the dogs to a dog pound, but they said that they would never do this because those dogs were like kids to them. Olya is scared to go out, and I want to sue the neighbors. All they tell me is – “How can you punish a dog?” But I want to punish them, not their dogs,” the desperate woman said.

pravda.ru

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Miss Me Yet Billboard? - President Bush may be gone from public service in the White House, but you can still find people who have a sense of humor about the former president's service vs. that of our current president, Barack Obama.

With Obama's job performance and personal likability ratings tanking -and many of his supporters complaining that he isn't all they hoped for when the office changed hands - a mystery person(s) has come forward to put up a huge billboard of the former prez waving to the people, and saying, "Miss Me Yet?"

No one seems able to find out who it was that paid for the billboard, looming on the side of Wyoming, Minnesota highway I-35.

But according to a news report from npr.org, it may have been paid for by a "group of small business owners" who wish to remain anonmymous, and that thought it would be a fun way of getting across their point that "Washington is against them."

Here is a FOX news report about the mystery billboard.

MIA

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A fight between two medics in Moscow ended with a tragedy. The doctors fought about the money, which they had received for an implant. A surgeon pulled out a scalpel and attacked an orthopedist, but the latter shot the attacker in the eye.

The dramatic scuffle took place at a dental office of the Moscow State University of Medicine and Dentistry. An orthopedist shot an oral surgeon in the eye. The gun-wielding medic said that he had only committed an act of self-defense.

The story took place on February 10 when the two doctors on duty fought over the money for an implant. The surgeon, identified as Hairullah Nigmatov, grabbed a scalpel and attacked his colleague, but the latter was armed with a gun. The bullet stuck in the victim’s eye-pit.

Nigmatov was hospitalized soon after the incident. The man will have to use an artificial eye.

The shooter, Dmitry Zakharov, aged 31, was taken to a police station. The medic told investigators that he was trying to defend himself.

Another “medical tragedy” took place at the central hospital of the city of Novosibirsk this week.

A young doctor, Valery Oleinikov, told his colleagues that he would have to disappear from the intensive care unit for five minutes. Afterwards, the young doctor rushed to his lover, Svetlana Bozhok (21), who worked as a nurse at the same hospital. The meeting had a very bad ending: the woman told the man that their affair had been over.

“I don’t know where the young man took a hammer from, but he hit her head with a hammer several times,” Vadim Kovalenko, the head physician of the hospital said.

The young woman collapsed. The man thought that he had killed her, so he decided to kill himself. He made himself an injection of arduan – the drug, which is used in surgical operations to relax cross-striped muscles.

“The guy was found dead. He had a picture of him and his ex girlfriend in his pocket. He wrote on the back of the photo that he could no longer see any point in life, he condemned himself for what he had done. Valery and Svetlana had been dating for a year, but the woman decided to break up with him,” Mr. Kovalenko said.

It later became known that the young man threatened to kill the woman if she decided to leave him, he even threatened her parents. No one treated his words seriously.

Svetlana received severe cranial injuries, but survived.

“Svetlana has been operated on. She had a brain contusion, but we hope that she will be fine,” Kovalenko said.

pravda.ru

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A woman is to be reunited with a camera her husband dropped off the edge of the QM2 cruise ship after a fisherman caught it in his net and put the photographs online.

Barbara and Dennis Gregory, 65, from Johannesburg, South Africa, thought they would never see the Nikon P90 again after it fell into the ocean en-route from New York to Southampton in 2008.

But 16 months later Benito Estevez, a fisherman from Spain, found the camera in his nets with the photos still intact on the memory card.

He decided to trace the owners and posted five pictures online which showed Mrs Gregory posing on the deck of the ship and her husband wearing a woolly tourist hat from Oxford.

The story was picked up by the British media and Laura De Klein, a friend of the couple who lives in Chalgrove, Oxfordshire, recognised them and got in touch.

Mrs Gregory, 53, said: "To think the Spanish fishermen has gone to such efforts on this – it's very touching.

"It's literally a dream come true. There's no way we could ever have imagined that this thing would ever turn up again. It sunk to the bottom of the Atlantic.

"It's incredible it survived 16 months submerged at that depth – I'm almost speechless."

telegraph.co.uk

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Italy's government is mulling whether to slap restrictions on horror thriller Paranormal Activity after some movie-goers suffered panic attacks, sparking protests by children's and consumer groups.

Emergency services in Naples were called in at the weekend by people complaining of palpitations and anxiety after watching the film, the nearly bloodless story of a young couple trying to capture video evidence of a supernatural presence in their home.

One 14-year-old girl was in such a state of shock that she had to be given oxygen outside the cinema, Corriere della Sera daily reported.

Culture Minister Sandro Bondi noted that the film had been given the green light by a committee that decides on age bans for movies, adding however that he was considering possible measures to protect children.

The low-budget movie, a US production directed by Israeli-born Oren Peli, has become an international hit especially with young people and was released in Italy on Friday, screening in 385 cinemas with no viewer restrictions.

Consumer group Codacons has threatened to go to the courts on behalf of minors who may find the film too frightening, while Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa said the film's trailer should not be aired on television when children could see it.

"It's an anxiety-generating film that is sparking panic attacks and psychological problems among young people," said Alessandra Mussolini, a right-wing politician who heads a parliamentary committee on the rights of children.

"If it's too late to impose an age ban, we should put in place some sort of warning, particularly for parents, so that they are aware of the risks," she said.

napoli.com

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Police in Sicily have called in an international team of forensic scientists and criminologists to help solve the case of a murdered Baroness, 447 years after the crime.

The investigation in Carini -- a small town near Palermo -- centers on the castle where Baroness Laura Lanza was killed in 1563 with her lover Ludovico Vernagallo when they were caught in bed together.

"Justice wasn't done back then," said Gaetano La Fata, Mayor of Carini, who has decided to reopen the case and exhume the remains of the lovers.

"We hope that DNA tests and criminal profiling will help us discover the motive behind the crime and establish whether there was more than one assassin," he told Reuters.

The Baroness's father Cesare confessed to the honor killing in a letter to the king, which is currently archived in the Chiesa Madre church in Carini.

"Legend has it, however, that Cesare Lanza did not act alone, but was helped by his son-in-law, Don Vincenzo La Grua," said the Mayor.

Rumours passed down through generations of Sicilians have it that the husband was motivated by plans to marry again. La Grua may also have feared his rival, Vernagallo, would attempt to claim financial rights for fathering children with his wife.

In reopening the 'cold case', La Fata has asked the local police to work together with the ICAA (International Crime Analysis Association) headed by Marco Strano, psychologist and criminologist for the Italian State Police.

"The idea for the investigation began as a joke," Strano told Reuters. "I visited Carini in June and when I met La Fata I teased him for not having resolved the murder yet, so he challenged me to solve it."

BLOODY HANDPRINT

"There was a trial held at the time, but though both father and son-in-law had their properties temporarily confiscated, they were soon declared innocent, probably thanks to their noble status and the legal right for fathers and husbands of adulterous women to commit honor killings," said Strano.

It is thought the two lovers are buried in a common grave under the crypt of the Chiesa Madre church in Carini.

"If we are lucky enough to find and identify their bones, it might be possible to verify the cause of death, whether they were run through with a sword or stabbed with a dagger. If there was more than one weapon used, it's likely there was more than one murderer."

The team of crime analysts, made up of American and Italian experts in forensic science and criminal pathology, are in the process of making a 3D computer model of the 11th century castle, including the room overlooking the Gulf of Carini where the murder took place.

"We hope to map the killer's path from the courtyard to the crime scene, and work out whether it's likely there were servants in that part of the building at the time who might have seen the murderer or an accomplice," Strano said.

The investigation coincides with a project to rebuild parts of Carini Castle that have collapsed over time. The crime scene has recently been restored. A red handprint has been painted on the wall to mark the spot where -- legend has it -- the struggling Baroness left a bloody imprint, which reappears every year to mark the anniversary of her murder.

Mayor La Fata hopes that the project will help unravel some of the mystery that surrounds the lovers, whose story continues to intrigue visitors and locals alike.

"Several years ago we tested areas of the castle we knew the Baroness lived in with electromagnetic field meters, and the results were very strange," La Fata said. "In certain rooms it was as if there were ghosts in the castle, as if the murdered Baroness lives on.

postchronicle.c0m

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