U.S MILITARY DESTROYS SOLDIER'S BIBLES

The U.S. military is confirming that it has destroyed some Bibles belonging to an American soldier serving in Afghanistan.
Reuters News says the Bibles were confiscated and destroyed after Qatar-based Al Jazeer television showed soldiers at a Bible class on a base with a stack of Bibles translated into the local Pashto and Dari languages. The U.S. military forbids its members on active duty -- including those based in places like Afghanistan -- from trying to convert people to another religion.
Reuters quotes Maj. Jennifer Willis at the Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul, who said "I can now confirm that the Bibles shown on Al Jazeera's clip were, in fact, collected by the chaplains and later destroyed. They were never distributed."

According to the military officials, the Bibles were sent through private mail to an evangelical Christian soldier by his church back home. Reuters says the soldier brought them to the Bible study class where they were filmed.
The Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, told a Pentagon briefing Monday that the military's position is that it will never "push any specific religion."

SWINE FLU : WORLD ON ALERT: 1124 CASES AND SPREAD TO 21 COUNTRIES

GENEVA: The World Health Organisation has raised its tally of confirmed human cases of swine flu to 1,124 from 1,025. There have been 26 confirmed deaths. The global body says 21 countries have now reported laboratory-confirmed cases.

The United States has 286 cases and one death. Mexico has reported 590 cases and 25 deaths. According to the latest figures today Canada has 140 cases, Spain has 54, Britain has 18, Germany has eight, New Zealand has six, France and Israel have four each, Italy and El Salvador have two each. Austria, Hong Kong, Costa Rica, Colombia, Denmark, Ireland, Netherlands, Portugal, South Korea and Switzerland have one each. WHO figures are often behind those reported by national health authorities.

YOUTHS CHIP IN FOR SLUM DWELLERS IN GUJARAT: YOUTH'S MAKING DIFFERENCES

AHMEDABAD: Radhika was richer in a day. On Sunday, she got a new pair of clothes, a doll and a pair of glares. This was no shopping spree for a slum dweller from Gulbai Tekra, but a gift from a group of youngsters who reached her home.

All the presents meant no less to her, even if they were used. Youth volunteers from Yuva Unstoppable, held a drive on Sunday morning, called 'Donate by heart'. Close to 100 volunteers participated in the drive where they had to bring at least one thing that they were going to donate.

The group collected almost 600 clothes, 70 pair of shoes, accessories and toys. The programme began at Gujarat Law Society, where the group was addressed by the founder of the youth group, Amitabh Shah and chief guest of the event, who was at least 10 years younger than most present.

"Since we were organising a programme for the slum dwellers, we decide to have one of them address us. Amit Thakur, a class X student, who is running a school in his slum area in Manekbaug was called as the chief guest," said Hardeep Pathak, a Yuva volunteer. Shakib Saiyed, a Yuva volunteer said, "Seeing beaming faces of slum children after they got donated clothes was a delight.

We were surprised to find that the youngsters donated branded clothes. The volunteers came up with food items, clothes, shoes, remort control cars, goggles and even a small piano for the children."Another volunteer, Henal Tewani says, "It is not about going and simply distributing items. We had an interaction and shared thoughts with each other. These experiences helps us in being a better person in life."

HEALTH : SCIENTISTS INCH CLOSER TO ' MALE CONTRACEPTIVE ' PILL

BEIJING: Chinese researchers are on track to create an effective male contraceptive jab with none of the usual side effects, a development that would revolutionize family planning. The testosterone injection works by temporarily halting sperm production by reducing levels of two regulatory brain chemicals.

Previous attempts to develop an effective and convenient male contraceptive have encountered problems over reliability and side-effects, such as mood swings and a lowered sex drive. The study, which will appear in the June issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, was backed by the World Health Organisation.

Researchers were able to achieve a 99 per cent success rate by injecting men with testosterone in a trial that they claim is the largest so far conducted anywhere in the world. The latest research, conducted at the National Research for Family Planning in Beijing, injected 1,000 healthy, fertile male patients with a testosterone-based jab over a two-year period and found only 1 per cent went on to father a child, The Independent newspaper reported today.

"For couples who cannot or prefer not to use only female-oriented contraception, options have been limited to vasectomy, condom and withdrawal," said Dr Yi-Qun Gu, the lead researcher. "Our study shows a male hormonal contraceptive regime may be a potential, novel and workable alternative," he was quoted as saying by the British daily.

SCIENCE : DATE WITH DISASTER MAY MOVE TO 2029:

NEW DELHI: The world must restrict its carbon emissions to 190 giga tonnes by 2050 if it is to have a chance of escaping the catastrophic consequences of global warming. These are the latest findings published in the scientific journal Nature.

According to the findings, all earlier calculations have been set aside with the warning that the planet can withstand even less of the greenhouse gases than had been envisaged earlier. The warning has never been starker or simpler for everyone to understand. The latest studies show that there is a 75% chance that the world can escape the danger of global average temperature rising by more than 2 degrees Celsius over the pre-industrial era if it is able to keep its carbon emissions below 190 giga tonnes over the next 41 years.

Put simply, 190 giga tonnes is our carbon budget for the period up to 2050. But unlike a financial budget, there is no room for exceeding it. A 75% chance is, in scientific terms, reasonable, and nothing to be ecstatic about--but enough to give hope. If you think 190 giga tonnes is a huge amount of carbon to throw up in the air, read this--last year alone, the world emitted more than nine giga tonnes of carbon by burning fossil fuels.

The rate at which we emit carbon is increasing by 3% every year. If humanity continues to burn fossil fuels and gases unhindered at the same rate, the world will have consumed the entire carbon budget available to us-that is 190 giga tonnes-by 2029. Every single tonne of carbon after that will progressively reduce our chances of not letting temperatures increase above the 2 degree Celsius mark over the pre-industrialised era and consequently cause havoc.

For instance, if carbon emissions touch 310 giga tonnes between now and 2050, the chances of averting catastrophic climate change fall below 50%. The enormity of the task facing the planet becomes obvious after considering that if the world meets the most ambitious target that the major developed countries have talked about (and only talked about so far)-reducing global emissions by 80% from the 1990 levels by 2050-scientists estimate that 216-325 giga tonnes of carbon will have been sent up in the air, far exceeding the safe limit of 190 giga tonnes.

For those who may have forgotten the warning put out in 2007 by the community of scientists under the UN's intergovernmental panel on climate change, here it is again--if global average temperatures ever rise more than 2 degrees Celsius over the pre-industrial era, the world will see the irreversible and catastrophic impact of climate change that could impact billions of people, a large percentage of them being in India.

Two studies published in the latest edition of Nature warn world leaders that they are failing their people, and failing miserably. Both studies, conducted by different sets of scientists, use a common principle. Once we emit carbon in the air, it accumulates in the atmosphere. In other words, it sticks around for long. It does not break down. Stuck in the atmosphere, it warms up the planet.

Both warn that it's not just the emissions at present but the total accumulated emissions since the industrial era (when humanity started adding to the natural carbon in the air) that will determine how much time we have to avert a crisis and how quickly and by how much we should reduce our emissions today. What's to be done?

The world has to cut emissions faster and deeper. As the authors in the journal warn, the carbon budget is like a cake, much of which has been eaten by the developed world, leaving little for countries like India and China. For the budget to be adhered to, the industrialised countries have to lower their emissions dramatically. But this may not be enough to avert the crisis. Having been responsible for bringing the planet to the brink of a calamity because of their economic prosperity, the developed countries ought to help the emerging and developing economies to curtail their future emissions by assisting them with technology and funds.

How much do they need to pay out to help the developing countries cut emissions and adapt to climate change? India, China and other G77 countries have asked for 0.5-1% of the GDP of the industrialised countries to take dramatic emission reduction action. Considering that the GDP of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries in 2008 was $30.34 trillion, this works out to $150-300 billion. The amount seems huge, but compare it with the stimulus packages that the rich countries have committed recently to avoid a financial meltdown-the US alone will spend $268 billion in 2009 for economic recovery. The question Indian officials have raised at the international negotiations on climate change at the UN is worth repeating. If the rich countries can pour so much into their economies to save jobs, can't they put forth this relatively small amount to save millions from the disaster that their economies have created in the first place?