|
|
|
Weekly Update: Jackson goes to Baba
LOS ANGELES: Michael Jackson once paid nearly 100,000 pounds for a “voodoo curse” to kill director Steven Spielberg.
In 2000 Jackson attended a voodoo ritual in Switzerland where a witch doctor promised that Spielberg, music mogul David Geffen and 23 other people on the entertainer’s list of enemies would die.
Jackson, who underwent a “blood bath” as part of the ritual, then ordered his former business adviser Myung-Ho Lee to wire $150,000 to a bank in Mali for a voodoo chief named Baba, who had sacrificed 42 cows for the ceremony. According to the magazine, Jackson’s extravagant lifestyle and declining record sales have left him $240 million in debt.—Reuters
Black cats provide lucky break to disease research
WASHINGTON: According to a report, black cats, once considered unlucky, may have provided a lucky break to disease researchers.
Different genetic mutations give black coats to different species of cats. Some of the mutations are in genes that, in humans, are linked with diseases such as AIDS, a team at the National Cancer Institute and the University of Maryland found.
Dr Stephen O’Brien, Eduardo Eizirik and colleagues were wondering what made cats black — not out of idle curiosity, but because such genes often confer protection against disease.
“In understanding how wild species like cats evolve genetic resistance to disease, we might discover new natural genetic resistance that might help in human disease,” O’Brien said in a telephone interview.
His team found that a gene called MC1R makes jaguars black when mutated. Humans also have an MC1R gene that, when mutated, gives some people red hair.
It is in a family of genes called 7-transmembrane receptors. A receptor acts as a doorway into cells and is often used by bacteria and viruses to infect cells.
“HIV enters cells through a 7-transmembrane receptor called CCR5,” O’Brien said. “So perhaps the selective pressure that allowed these mutations to survive in cats may not be to camouflage...”
The team’s next step is to look for whatever possible advantages the mutations may offer. Making the cats black may just be a side effect, O’Brien said.
“We have had black cats and they have been mythical all along,” O’Brien said, “but now they have been demystified.” —Reuters
Man attacks chef
FRANKFURT: Unhappy with his pizza and not content with a refund, a man in Germany has gone after the chef with an axe.
The drunken man, who had been offered a refund or a fresh pizza after complaining his first one was revolting, was ejected from the restaurant after hurling abuses.
He later returned to continue his tirade and then produced the axe and attempted to strike the chef but patrons managed to wrestle him to the ground. He was arrested by police. —Reuters
Buying up elephants
BANGKOK: The Thai government wants to buy more than 1,600 elephants as part of a $40-million effort to take them off Bangkok streets, where they cause about 20 accidents a month and often break legs falling into drains and ditches. The environment ministry has proposed offering between $1,165 and $2,330 to handlers, who earn money selling fruit to tourists who like to feed these elephants. Some elephants could also be released into the wild.
The ministry’s proposal, which is due to go to the cabinet for approval, also includes a plan to set up an elephant hospital and reserve. —Reuters
|
|
|
|
