Huge swarms of humans killed off Neanderthals

Neanderthals died out in Western Europe after a huge surge of modern humans arrived suddenly from Africa and made them a minority in their own land, researchers claim.

The swarm of Homo sapiens onto the continent more than 40,000 years ago left the Neanderthals, who had thrived in the frigid conditions for 300 millennia, outnumbered by a massive 10 to one.

The invasion of so many modern humans overturned the neanderthals' domination of the land and forced them into fierce competition for food, fuel and other crucial resources.

The scenario, described by Paul Mellars, emeritus professor of prehistory and human evolution at Cambridge University, and his colleague, Jennifer French, is the latest attempt by scientists to explain the mystery of the Neanderthals' demise.

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Artist portrays gorilla on a crucifix

An artist has defended his installation of a lifesize gorilla on a crucifix in a former London church.

The artwork by Paul Fryer is scarily lifelike, created using the waxwork techniques of the world-famous Madame Tussauds museum and finished off with human hair.

Another of Fryer's pieces being shown in the crypt is a lifelike black Christ depicted in an electric chair - a statement about the disproportionately large number of black people on death row in the United States.

Girls mature faster in Iran, can be executed sooner

Under the Iranian Islamic Penal Law, Article 49; a child becomes criminally liable at 9 years for girls, 15 years for boys.

Thus, at those ages, they can be sentenced to the death.

If younger than these respective ages, they can be sentenced to corporal punishment (presumably a public lashing)

PlayStation is "road to hell" - Prez Chavez

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has denounced the PlayStation console as a "poison" that leads our kids down the capitalist "road to hell".

Egyptian official blames Israel for shark attack increase

Shark attacks on tourists in the Red Sea have triggered a flurry of speculation as to what could have caused them, with suggestions ranging from overfishing to an Israeli plot to harm Egyptian tourism.

"What is being said about the Mossad throwing the deadly shark (in the sea) to hit tourism in Egypt is not out of the question, but it needs time to confirm," South Sinai Governor Mohamed Abdel Fadil Shousha was quoted as saying by state news site egynews.net.

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Saudi high school girls hold illegal sports tournament

Private Saudi girls' high schools are being investigated by the education ministry for holding an "illegal" sports tournament, the Arab News reports.

The groundbreaking event involving 200 females from six Jeddah private high schools broke ministry rules against girls' sports in schools, a ministry official told the newspaper.

"We don't have any regulations that say that it's okay for girls' schools to hold sports classes or training," said Ahmed Al-Zahrani, director of girls' education in Jeddah.

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Iran executing another person every eight hours

Iranian authorities have unleashed an "execution binge" with an average rate of one person hanged every eight hours since the beginning of the year, a rights group monitoring the Islamic Republic says.

"The Iranian judiciary is on an execution binge orchestrated by the intelligence and security agencies," Aaron Rhodes, a spokesman for the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, said yesterday.

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Effeminate schoolboys sent to anti-gay camp

Malaysian authorities have sent 66 Muslim schoolboys identified by teachers as effeminate to a four-day camp where they will receive counselling on masculine behaviour to discourage them from being gay, an official said.

Gay rights advocates decried the measure as a symptom of widespread homophobia in the Muslim-majority country where gay sex is illegal.

China, Russia quiz Guantánamo Bay detainees

Leaked State Department documents show many foreign countries sent intelligence officers to question Guantánamo Bay detainees — among them China, Russia, Tajikistan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait, Algeria and Tunisia.

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Steady Decline in Major Crime Baffles Experts

The number of violent crimes in the United States dropped significantly last year, to what appeared to be the lowest rate in nearly 40 years, a development that was considered puzzling partly because it ran counter to the prevailing expectation that crime would increase during a recession.

In all regions, the country appears to be safer. The odds of being murdered or robbed are now less than half of what they were in the early 1990s, when violent crime peaked in the United States. Small towns, especially, are seeing far fewer murders: In cities with populations under 10,000, the number plunged by more than 25 percent last year.

The news was not as positive in New York City, however. After leading a long decline in crime rates, the city saw increases in all four types of violent lawbreaking — murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault — including a nearly 14 percent rise in murders. But data from the past few months suggest the city’s upward trend may have slowed or stopped.

- New York Times.

Muslims obligated to resist democracy, say radicals

MUSLIMS in Australia are being urged yesterday to join the uprisings that have toppled regimes across the Middle East, to renounce moderate forms of the religion and to reject democracy, during a day-long conference sponsored by a radical Islamic organisation.

Hizb ut-Tahrir, a fundamentalist group that calls for the establishment of a caliphate stretching from the Middle East to Indonesia, hosted the event at Lidcombe, which drew about 1000 people.

Talks included ''The Muslim World in the 20th century: totalitarian Western oppression'' and ''Western endeavours to frustrate the Islamic revival''.

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Chavez says US 'weapon' caused Haiti quake

Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez has accused the United States of causing the destruction in Haiti by testing a 'tectonic weapon' to induce the catastrophic earthquake.

President Chavez said the US was "playing God" by testing devices capable of creating eco-type catastrophes, the Spanish newspaper ABC quoted him as saying.

President Chavez is also on record claiming that the 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre and the Apollo moon landings were faked.

All of this so-called evidence, too, was a mere product of imperialist television. After all, "there is film of the Americans landing on the moon", he scoffed. "Does that mean the moon shot really happened? In the film, the Yankee flag is flying straight out. So, is there wind on the moon?"

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