Scorpion venom could be the key to reducing heart bypass failures, according to research.
A study by Leeds University has found that a toxin in the venom of the Central American bark scorpion (Centruroides margaritatus) is at least 100 times more potent at preventing the most common cause of bypass graft failure than any other known compound.
The research, published online in Cardiovascular Research, shows margatoxin’s potential for preventing neointimal hyperplasia, which is a blood vessel’s natural response to injury. (PA)
Mummified body in passenger seat
Police launched an investigation after discovering that a Southern California woman drove around for months with a homeless woman’s mummified body in her passenger seat.
Sergeant Ed Everett said officers noticed a stench from the car and found the body covered in a blanket. He said the driver told police she let the homeless woman sleep in her car and one morning found she had died inside. The driver was afraid to contact police.
Sgt Everett said the remains were partially mummified and could have been in the car anywhere from three to 10 months. There were no signs of foul play. (PA)
Facebook burglary
Italian prosecutors have laun-ched a real inquiry into a virtual crime – a burglary of items including a jacuzzi, a designer sofa and a billiards table from the popular Facebook game Pet Society.
The inquiry is for “illegal and aggravated entry” into someone’s email account – a charge that carries a potential prison sentence of between one and five years in prison under Italy’s criminal code.
“In order to furnish the house you have to go to virtual shops for furniture, clothes and gifts,” the woman who reported the crime, Paola Letizia, said. She also reported missing paintings, carpets, an acquarium, mirrors – all for a luxurious home the woman had built up for her virtual cat.
Italy’s postal police has been given the task of tracking down the thief. (AFP)
Royal Arrangements
New funding arrangements for the Queen’s household could actually see her better off to the tune of millions of pounds.
George Osborne announced this week in the spending review how the household’s budget would fall by 14 per cent in the coming years before a new Sovereign Support Grant started.
The grant will be linked to the £6.6 billion Crown Estate and it has now emerged that if the Crown Estate hits its stated target of £250 million profit per annum, the household’s portion of the money would be £37.5 million – up from £34 million in 2009-10. (PA)
Free fuel
Striking French oil workers seized a filling station yesterday and gave out free fuel to passing motorists as part of protests against President Nicolas Sarkozy’s pension reforms.
Mr Sarkozy has accused strikers, whose actions at refineries and fuel depots have caused serious fuel shortages, of holding ordinary citizens to ransom in their battle to defend the right to retire at 60.
But in Trignac workers from oil giant Total’s Donges refinery took over one of the firm’s retail forecourts and started dispensing petrol free of charge and even washing down car windscreens. Some motorists cheerfully filled their tanks and called their friends to come and take advantage of the protest, while others were unsure how to respond and nervous of making off without paying. (AFP)
Orang-Utan ‘Highway’
A rope bridge made of fire hoses was erected across a river in Malaysia’s Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary to provide a corridor for the isolated orang-utan population in the area.
“Genetic studies have been carried out by Cardiff University, Hutan and our department. The data shows that orang-utan populations in the Lower Kinabatangan forest fragments are expected to become extinct in our lifetime if they are not reconnected through schemes like the rope bridges,” said director Dr Laurentius Ambu. (PA)
Back on the rails
The railway is many things to people in Cambodia: playground, rubbish tip, open-air toilet, livestock grazing ground, or a dry path for traversing swampy terrain.
What it has not been for many years is working transport for either people or goods. In fact, the train service was halted completely last year.
That may change soon, however as development specialists have persuaded the government to privatise the system, which officially reopened yesterday with one freight line between Phnom Penh and Touk Meas, near the Vietnamese border. Eventually, they promise, a refurbished railroad will revive Cambodia’s economy and drag it out of decades of poverty and chaos. (PA)
Israel ‘vanquishes’ Iran
An Israeli chess grandmaster took the Guinness record for simultaneous chess games from the Jewish state’s arch-foe Iran yesterday after a marathon 19-hour match against 523 players.
A Guinness representative confirmed the new record on Israeli army radio. Alik Gershon, 30, won 86 per cent of the games he played against amateurs in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square. He won 454, lost 11 and drew the other 58.
He needed to win at least 80 per cent to seal the record, which previously stood at 500 simultaneous games.
“It’s a very sweet feeling. It’s something which we prepared for a very long time,” he said. “Failure wasn’t an option. I am very, very happy that I made it.” (AFP)