Jordan Romero, 13, 'becomes youngest to scale Everest'
Jordan Romero was due to do some school work during his trip
A 13-year-old American boy has become the youngest person to reach the summit of Mount Everest, his family says.
Jordan Romero, from California, telephoned his mother from the peak of the world’s highest mountain, she said.
“Mom, I’m calling you from the top of the world,” Leigh Anne Drake quoted her son as saying.
He was climbing with his father and three Sherpa guides. The previous record was held by a Nepalese boy of 16.
The 13-year-old has now conquered the highest mountains on six of the world’s seven continents.
JORDAN’S SUMMITS
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- Africa – Kilimanjaro: 2006
- Europe – Elbrus: 2007
- South America – Aconcagua: 2007
- North America – Denali: 2008
- Oceania – Carstensz Pyramid: 2009
- Everest – Asia: 2010
He climbed Africa’s Mount Kilimanjaro aged 10. He just needs to scale the Vinson Massif in Antarctica.
He has also scaled Mount Kosciuszko in Australia.
The team set off from Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, last month, heading for the base camp on the Chinese side of the mountain.
While Nepal insists that anyone planning to climb Mount Everest must be 16, China does not impose any age restrictions.
Some mountaineers have criticised the Romero family for letting him attempt the feat but his father said the ascent from the Chinese side is less dangerous, the AFP news agency reports.
Last month, his mother told the BBC he would do some school work during the trip.
Also on Saturday, Apa Sherpa, 50, climbed Everest for the 20th time, surpassing his own record.
Reference Link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/asia_pacific/10141547.stm
Courtesy
The BBC
Changing the face of Bidar
It has been named the 22nd cleanest city in the country
NABARD recognises Bidar as model SHG district
The town generates 40 tonnes of garbage
every day
hygienic:The imported vacuum suction sweeper of the Bidar CMC
Bidar:How did Bidar, that was considered a dirty place three years ago, earn the distinction of being the 22 {+n} {+d} cleanest city in the country? Innovative ideas to achieve cleanliness, people’s participation, and a responsive administration have helped the city achieve it.
Three years ago, there garbage was strewn on the streets and drains were overflowing. There was no concept of door-to door collection of garbage and there were no garbage dumping sites.
However, a coordinated effort by the district administration, the CMC, NGOs and SHGs ensured that Bidar is a much cleaner city now. In the first ever National City Rating by the Union Ministry of Urban Development, the tiny town has beaten cities such as Udupi, Belgaum, Bellary, Tumkur, Gulbarga and Hubli-Dharwad.
The Union Government’s benchmarks were keeping the city free from open defecation; universal access to toilets for all, including the poor; elimination of manual scavenging; wastewater treatment; solid waste and storm water and recycling or reuse of treated wastewater, to ensure improved public health outcomes and environmental well-being.
Bidar has scored on three important areas — primary collection of garbage from houses, hygienic transportation of garbage and sanitary filling in landfill sites. Use of hi-tech machinery for cleaning of roads, drains, night soil pits and lifting and transporting garbage containers has helped.
“Nabard has recognised Bidar as a model SHG district. We decided to make use of it and we outsourced garbage collection and some other specified tasks to SHGs. It has been a huge success,” says Bidar CMC environmental engineer Abhay Kumar Habib. NGOs helped them choose SHGs. Women members of SHGs go door-to-door to collect garbage. SHGs were given 25 auto tippers on subsidy. This ensured that primary collection of garbage was complete within 35 hours. SHGs are also in-charge of cleaning drains, roads and footpaths.
The garbage is stored in dustbins placed in every ward. A trash truck picks up the containers and brings them to a site within the city. Two compactors pack garbage from 20 containers into one truck, reducing the need for movement of trucks.
Bidar generates around 40 tonnes of garbage everyday. The CMC has long-term plans to segregate this garbage and manufacture manure. “Now we are using sanitation fills to prepare manure. We plan to start harvesting very soon,” Commissioner S.R. Garwad said. “In a few months, we will distribute separate garbage bins for dry and wet waste to every household to segregate degradable and non-degradable garbage at the primary level. This will make manure production easier,” he said.
“The journey to fame has been hard and slow. But we achieved it with the cooperation of council members, NGOs and SHGs,” Deputy Commissioner Harsh Gupta said. “We were helped by the Backward Regions Grant Fund of the Union Government. We could buy 19 vehicles and other high tech equipment costing around Rs. 2.5 crore using the grant,” he said. Three years ago, Bidar had three tractors and two small trucks. Now, it has 40 containers, four dumper placers, 30 auto tippers, a nala cleaning machine, an earthmover, 20 mobile toilets, a multi purpose jetting unit that cleans roads and underground drains, and a vacuum suction sweeping machine.
Reference Link
http://www.hindu.com/2010/05/22/stories/2010052264020900.htm
Courtesy
The Hindu
Sea sponge-derived drug treats several cancers
(Reuters) – An experimental new breast cancer drug made from sea sponges helped in a range of cancers, from breast cancer to sarcoma, researchers report.
Three studies show the drug, Eisai’s eribulin, was effective and tolerated in patients with breast cancer, colon cancer and urinary cancer, according to brief data released on Thursday by the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Sarcomas are cancers that grow from muscle or bone.
A fourth study of patients with advanced breast cancer will be detailed in a “late-breaker” session at ASCO’s annual meeting in June.
The drug is not yet approved, but Eisai has filed with relevant agencies in Japan, the United States and Europe.
The drug works on the same principle, but with a slightly different mechanism as older cancer drugs such as the taxanes and is infused intravenously.
Only a few details are available in the abstracts of the research published ahead of the meeting.
Researchers at Aichi Cancer Center in Nagoya, Japan and several other Japanese sites tested eribulin in 81 breast cancer patients whose cancer had come back despite several rounds of chemotherapy.
They said 21 percent of the patients had some response to the drug and side-effects were common — 95 percent had low blood counts. Nonetheless they said the drug was effective and tolerable.
Researchers at the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer tested eribulin in several types of advanced soft tissue sarcoma and found varying responses but said it deserved further study.
Up to 45 percent of the patients with one type of sarcoma saw three months before their tumors began growing again — a significant result in advanced cancer.
And a team led by the California Cancer Consortium at the University of Southern California and elsewhere will report details of a mid-stage study of 40 patients with advanced urological cancer. They said 38 percent of the group had a response to eribulin.
An international team will report more details at the meeting itself in their trial of patients with breast cancer.
Reference Link
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64K65520100521?feedType=nl&feedName=ushealth1100
Courtesy
Thomson Reuters
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