Spain uses stem cells to repair damaged hearts

A Spanish hospital has successfully used stem cells culled from healthy donors to treat seven heart attack victims, in what officials said was a world first.

Madrid's Gregorio Maranon hospital plans to treat 55 patients in all with the technique in a clinical trial, the regional Madrid government which runs the hospital said in a statement.

"Seven patients have already been operated on and they have progressed very well despite having suffered serious damage to their heart tissue," it added.

It is the first time that allogeneic cells -- stem cells that come from another person -- have been used to repair damage to a heart caused by a heart attack, the statement added

A heart attack happens when the organ is starved of oxygen, such as when a clot blocks the flow of blood to the heart.

As the heart heals, the dead muscle is replaced with scar tissue, but because this does not beat like healthy heart muscle the ability to pump blood around the body is reduced.

While patients with mild heart failure can live a relatively normal life with the help of drugs, those with severe heart failure can suffer prolonged pain and distress because everyday tasks such as doing the shopping or taking a shower leave them exhausted.

Doctors around the world are looking at ways of "regenerating" the heart to replace the scar tissue with beating muscle. Stem cells figure prominently in their plans although they have up until now involved the patient's own stem cells.

While it takes 4-8 weeks to process a patients' own stem cells to be used in therapy, donor cells can be processed and stored and are available for immediate use, the hospital's head of cardiology, Francisco Ferandez-Avila said in the statement.

"Besides this very important advantage, this technique allows for the selection of donors whose cells show the greatest potential to repair" heart tissue, he added. "Before being processed, the allogeneic cells are exhaustively studied and only those that functioned best are selected," he added.

The cells are injected into the heart through a coronary artery.

The clinical trial is partially financed by the European Union. The hospital is coordinating the study which has involved the cooperation of about 20 European bodies.

                                                

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Indian Overseas Bank plans to raise Rs 1,000 crore to augment additional Tier-1 capital

Indian Overseas Bank, the public sector lender, plans to raise Rs 1,000 crore to augment the additional Tier-I capital and also to strengthen its overall capital.

"Indian Overseas Bank has launched an issue of unsecured, non-convertible, additional Tier-I, basel III compliant perpetual bonds to the extent of Rs 1,000 crore, including an option of Rs 300 crore to augment additional Tier-I capital", the Chennai-based bank said in a statement.

Tier I capital is core capital and includes equity capital and disclosed reserves.

The Bond will have a face value of Rs 10 lakh per bond and carry a coupon rate of 10 per cent per annum payable annually.

The bond issue was opened on January 23 for subscription and would close on February 4, 2015, it said.

                                                

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Dumfries Little Italy boss guilty of sex assault

The boss of an award-winning restaurant has been found guilty of sexually assaulting four former waitresses.

Robert McAleese, 38, who runs Little Italy in Dumfries, was placed on the sex offenders' register following the verdict at Dumfries Sheriff Court.

Sheriff Brian Mohan said he accepted the credibility of the four waitresses who said his actions left them upset, frightened and confused.

McAleese, of Cairn Court, Dumfries, will be sentenced next month.

He was found guilty of three charges of sexually assaulting three waitresses at the restaurant between December 2012 and December 2013.

He slapped one of the women on the buttocks, seized her by the hips and lifted her off the ground.

Another woman was grabbed by the hips and pulled towards him. He brushed against the buttocks of a third woman and made sexual comments to her.

McAleese was also found guilty of assaulting another former waitress at Chancers nightclub in Dumfries in November 2013 by putting his hand up her skirt.

The trial began in October, just hours after his restaurant picked up a prize at the Scottish Italian Awards.

The restaurateur had maintained that he enjoyed banter and jokes with staff.

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German rabbit breeders criticize pope's sex comments

BERLIN — The pope's comment that Catholics don't have to breed "like rabbits" has caused offense — among Germany's rabbit breeders.

Pope Francis said Monday that Catholics should instead practice "responsible parenting" and use Church-approved forms of birth control.

But Erwin Leowsky, president of the central council of German rabbit breeders, told news agency dpa on Tuesday that only rabbits which live in the wild are sexually overactive.

He said those in captivity have tamer reproductive habits.

Leowsky says he feels the pope should allow Catholics to use contraception rather than resorting to misleading cliches about rabbits.

                                                         

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Sexual disorders listed as contradictions to driving in Russia

Russia’s new road safety rules have expanded the list of medical conditions preventing people from get a driving license to include sexual disorders, which covers all transgender people, bi-gender, asexuals, transvestites, cross dressers and others.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree on December 29 last year, which came into effect on January 6, 2015.
The document has been adopted in the framework of the state’s road traffic safety program, which is aimed at reducing the number of deaths on Russian roads.
The decree mentions a number of “disorders of adult personality and behavior” from the International Classification of Diseases and Related Health (ICD-10) to be among the contradictions to driving.
They include such sexual behavior disorders as transsexualism, transvestism, fetishism, voyeurism, sadomasochism, pedophilia, exhibitionism, necrophilia and others.
However, ICD-10 especially stresses that sexual orientation by itself isn’t considered a personality disorder.
“Sexual disorders” may be an obstacle to driving a car if they take "chronic and prolonged” form with“severe or persistent painful symptoms,” the decree said.
Schizophrenia, mood disorders, mental retardation, epilepsy, substance use disorder and visual impairment are also included in the document as contradictions to getting behind the wheel.
People shorter than 150 centimeters were also included on the list as well those who suffer from"pathological" gambling and kleptomania.
The member of the Presidential Council for Human Rights, Elena Mayuk, criticized the decree, saying there was “a possible injustice in restricting the right to operate a vehicle to persons suffering from disorders of gender identity and sexual preference.”
Masyuk believes that “international legal practice of such restrictions should be examined to determine if the ban is justified,” the Council’s website said.

                                                   

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Russia bans drivers with sex, gender 'disorders'

Extending Russia's legal campaign against homosexuality, a new law aimed at reducing traffic deaths denies driver's licences to people with "disorders" involving sexual preference and gender identity.

The decree, signed Dec. 29 by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, empowers officials to ban transsexual and transgender people from driving, along with others suffering from such "mental disorders" as fetishism, exhibitionism, voyeurism, compulsive theft or "pathological" gambling, the BBC and Mashable reported Thursday.

Specifically, the decree — "to promote public health" — applies to those with "gender identity disorders, disorders of sexual preference and psychological and behavioral disorders associated with sexual development and orientation."

The rules also apply to people with schizophrenia, "mood" disorders and "neurotic, stress-related" problems.

"The decisions are aimed at reducing deaths from vehicular accidents," the decreedeclares, according to a translation provided to USA TODAY.

Nearly 28,000 fatalities -- 55 per 100,000 vehicles -- occurred on Russian roads in 2012, according to the most recent statistics available. (The United States recorded 8,000 more traffic deaths the same year, but the per-100,000-vehicle rate was only 13.6.)

Russia defends the restrictions by citing the World Health Organization's International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems. However, the compendium contains this note: "Sexual orientation by itself is not to be regarded as a disorder."

The move has been condemned by Russian psychiatrists and human rights lawyers, while the country's Professional Drivers Union endorsed the restrictions for pros (trucks and bus drivers, for instance) to improve safety on the country's notoriously deadly roads.

Mikhail Strakhov, a psychiatric expert in Russia, told the BBC Russian Service that the definition of "personality disorders" was too vague and that some disorders would not affect anyone's ability to drive safely.

Valery Evtushenko, from the Russian Psychiatric Association, told the BBC he worries that some people would avoid seeking psychiatric help, fearing a driving ban.

The new law is "discriminatory," the Association of Russian Lawyers for Human Rights said, adding that it would ask the Russian Constitutional Court for clarification.

Citing the country's many road deaths, the head of the Professional Drivers Union, Alexander Kotov, told the BBC that "toughening medical requirements for applicants is fully justified" for pros but too strict for others.

In 2013, Russia outlawed "promoting non-traditional lifestyles," a measure aimed at gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people.

                                      

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Malaysian admits sex with 31 boys in Singapore

Court told Ipoh-born man made friends on Facebook, had sex with boys in public places.

SINGAPORE: An Ipoh-born quality assurance engineer has admitted having sex with 31 boys aged between 11 and 15 after befriending them on Facebook under different names.

Yap Weng Wah pleaded guilty on Friday to 12 charges of sex with boys, with 64 other charges to be taken into account for his sentencing.

Prosecutors told the court that he and 30 of the boys engaged in sexual acts at his rented flat, toilets of shopping centres and swimming complexes, hotel rooms and a public park.

He recorded the sex acts on his mobile phone, storing them in his laptop computer, in folders indicating each boy’s name, age and year they met, the Straits Times reported.

He also asked a 12-year-old to send a video of the boy performing a lewd act, the Straits Times reported.

Police found more than 2,000 video clips in his computer when they raided his home after one of the boys made a report.

On Friday, Yap pleaded guilty in court to 12 charges, while 63 other charges of sexual penetration of a minor and one for procuring a child to commit an indecent act will be taken into consideration at sentencing.

The prosecutor seeks a penalty of at least 30 years’ jail and 24 strokes of the rotan.

Yap was reported to have come to Singapore in 2009. His two younger siblings and mother live in Ipoh. His father moved to New Zealand when he was eight years old, the report said.

                                            

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The mysterious world of 'lightbombing': Dazzling art illuminates the streets

The Art of Movement is a monthly show that highlights the most significant innovations in science and technology that are helping shape our modern world.

Birmingham, England (CNN)It's 4 o'clock in the morning. Most of Birmingham, the second most populated city in England, is fast asleep. But like a thief in the dead of night, a solitary figure slips through the city's deserted streets. Arriving at a derelict warehouse, he is brandishing what looks like a lightsaber as he makes his way to the roof.

Using the resting metropolis as a backdrop, "Sola" draws swift shapes in the air with the light wand. Thirty seconds later, the camera shutter clicks and the light artist grabs his kit, disappearing once more into the night.

Welcome to the elusive, magical world of "lightbombing."

"Sola" is the street artist alter ego of 40-year-old photographer Peter Medlicott,who has been capturing the urban landscape of Birmingham streets since shortly after relocating there in 2000. Much of the city had become ex-industrial space and Sola recalls how upon first appearances, the city seemed somewhat run down. But a chance late-night shoot revealed the transformativMeeting in the heart of the city's creative quarter, Sola greets me warmly before grabbing a coffee and sitting down. Dressed casually in a sweatshirt, jeans and sneakers, his face lights up with enthusiasm as he begins to explain the art of lightbombing.

"I look like a complete nutter"

Lightbombing is long-exposure photography where the artist draws intricate designs, patterns or words using hand-held lights in front of a camera in pitch black darkness. While many artists around the world experiment with long-exposure photography and light art, Sola coined the term "lightbombing."

"It's me, the drunks and the burglars," he says grinning. "To the average casual observer who just happens to come across me, I look like a complete nutter. I'm in the street waving a torch around. It's so dark you can't see my camera 90% of the time. And you're looking at this dude running around, thinking 'What the hell is going on?!'"

His technique borrows elements from graffiti, including "bombing," where the artist gets to a location, does the work and is gone. Sola's physical process lasts mere seconds and leaves a continuous, fluctuating stroke on the final photograph as if by magic..

"It's like drawing on the page and when I move the light in front of a camera, it leaves that mark. If you go faster, it leaves a thinner mark and if you go slower, it leaves a brighter mark," explains the artist.

Then for just a brief moment, Sola's face becomes solemn. Although striking and entertaining to see, lightbombing isn't some frivolous hobby. Explaining his vocation, Sola's voice is filled with passion for his work as he reiterates that what you see is what he shoots. He's adamant that the camera should capture the moment and only permits himself to edit the photographs in as much as a darkroom would allow.

"I never edit my photos. You should shoot it for real," he says. "When I grew up with film, you had to make it in the camera. There was no messing around. You couldn't do much afterwards in post edit. Yet some of the most iconic imagery of all-time was shot on film and very little touches with a brush afterwards on the print. I think there is something important about that."e nature of nightfall on the city. What were once dead spaces became a textural stage for the photographer to illuminate.

He adds: "I very purposefully don't shoot under direct light. I don't hang around. I don't wear bright clothing. I wish I wore some crazy ninja Zentai suit or something."

"I'm not going to get arrested"

Often he will spend weeks scouting the perfect location for his latest collection. And while he's always eager to find a new space, he says he has no desire to be arrested.

"As long as I don't break anything to get in, I'm not forcing entry. If there is a fence down, there's a fence down. I'm just wandering around. By and large, it is never my intention to trespass. I'm walking around and if there is a way into a space, I might use it."

The popularity of Sola's light art has offered the photographer some exciting opportunities in the last few years, including working with commercial partners such as Nike for ad campaigns and traveling to Dubai for a three-week collaboration with local artists. He has also shot scenes in the British countryside and during the Glastonbury annual music festival.

Using the city as his playground, he never returns to the same location twice -- explaining that he thinks it helps keep his work "fresh." But just for once, tonight he has driven me to an abandoned car park he recently shot at. As he expertly unfurls his tripod and snaps his camera in to place, Sola claims anyone can duplicate his method -- all you need is a light source and a camera.

"The first few I did were with road safety maintenance lights that you have in your car. You can use anything, you could use your phone. You can use anything that has got a light. I use certain items -- I'm not a painter but they are my brushes and also my sculptor's tools as well. Different ones do different things. Different filters go onto them and to help me realize what I need that light form to do."