Horrific video shows Syrian Catholic priest being 'beheaded by jihadist fighters in front of cheering crowd'

A Syrian Catholic priest has been beheaded by jihadist fighters in Syria, it has been claimed. The death of Franciscan Father Francois Murad has been confirmed bythe official Vatican news agency. The gruesome killing has raised further concerns aboutthe West arming rebels in the fight againstthe regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Grainyfootage purported to show the 49-year-old’s deathhas been posted on the internet. Father Francois, was killed on23 June in Gassanieh, in northern Syria. He had been staying in the convent of the Custody of the Holy Land. Catholic.orglinked to the video and reported: 'Syrian terrorists have beheaded a Catholic priest who they accused of collaborating with the Assad regime. Those accusations have not yet been verified.' Fides News Agencysaid: 'According to local sources, the monastery where Fr. Murad was staying was attacked by militants linked to the jihadi group Jabhat al-Nusra.' Jabhat al-Nusra, also known as the Front for the Protectionof the Syrian People, is an Al Qaeda associated group, described as 'the most aggressive and successful arm of the rebel force.' In the video, filmed on a camera phone and posted on LiveLeak, three men - including a man reported to beFather Francois -are seen sitting on the dusty ground asa crowd around them cheers.The man, wearing a brown robe, is filmed sitting cross-legged with his hands apparently bound. He is pulled forward and laid face down on the grass as thecrowd chant 'Allahu akbar' andtake photos. He is then decapitated, using what looks like a rudimentary kitchen knife. Dozens of camera phones are shoved forward by the bayingcrowd as the scene turns more bloody. Fides News Agency says the 'circumstances of the death are not fully understood' but said his death has been confirmed by the Custos of theHoly Land - the convent whereFather Francois had been staying. It has not been confirmedFather Francois was beheaded. Assad's forces pounded SunniMuslim rebels in the city of Homs with artillery and from the air on Sunday, the secondday of their offensive in central Syria, activists said. They said rebels defending the old centre of Homs and five adjacent Sunni districts had largely repelled a ground attack on Saturday by Assad'sforces, backed by guerrillas from the Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah, but reportedclashes and deaths within the city on Sunday.http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2352251/Horrific-video-shows-Syrian-Catholic-priest-beheaded-jihadist-fighters-cheering-crowd.html

Anti-smoking clinics fail to help China kick the habit

Beijing,In a country of 300 million smokers and where two trillion cigarettes are produced every year, "smoking cessation clinics" seemed to be a promising business. But the results such clinics have produced show how far off the mark such an effort was. According to the latest figures, 600,000 people develop lung cancer every year in China, accounting forone-third of the world's total. The smoking cessation clinic at the Chongqing Fifth People's Hospital in Chongqing metropolis received only 10 patients last year, down from 100 in 2008 when the clinic was set up, Xinhua reported. In Beijing, where 29 percent of 20 million residents are smokers, most of the city's hospitals have shut down their smoking cessation clinics. A doctor in Chongqing said one course of treatment costs about 2,000 yuan (around $320). That may seem like a lot, but is actually less than what a heavy smoker might spend on cigarettes each year. However, many smokers, even after successfully kicking the habit after receiving treatment, eventually start smoking again, he said. To promote tobacco control and help smokers quit, Beijing's municipal health bureau announced this month that the costs of smoking cessation treatments will be covered inthe public health insurance programme. With nearly two trillion cigarettes produced in 2011,China is the world's top producer and consumer of tobacco. The country is also home to over 300 million smokers, and about 740 million people are subject to passive smoking through inhalation of second-hand smoke. However, there is no national legislation on tobacco control in China. Although a government regulation issued in 2011 bans smoking in enclosed public spaces, enforcement of the regulation has been considered very poor because it does not stipulateany penalties for offenders.(IANS)

Official: 19 firefighters dead in Arizona

Nineteen firefighters were killed Sunday battling a blaze in Arizona, the state forestry division said. The vast majority were fromPrescott, said Wade Ward with the Prescott Fire Department. State forestry official Art Morrison said the firefighters were members of a "hotshot" crew, tasked with digging a fire line and creating an escape route. "In normal circumstances, when you're digging fire line, you make sure you have a good escape route, and you have a safety zoneset up," Morrison said. "Evidently, their safety zone wasn't big enough, andthe fire just overtook them." The crew was fighting the Yarnell Hill fire, which broke out Friday northwest of Phoenix. The fire has grownto 1,000 acres, damaged three homes and forced the evacuations of residents in the communities of Peeples Valley and Yarnell, Morrisonsaid. Authorities believe lightning sparked the blaze. Not including the 19 deaths reported in Arizona, there have been 43 firefighter fatalities reported so far in 2013, according to the U.S. Fire Administration. A total of83 firefighters died last year while on duty. A Facebook page in memory of the Arizona firefighters was created Sunday night. People left their condolencesand messages of support. "Such a tragic loss. My heartaches for these brave souls, and for their families and friends," wrote one.source:CNN

Shockwave from the 10,000 tonne Russian meteor was so powerful it 'travelled TWICE around the earth'

The shockwave from a meteorthat exploded over Russia's Ural Mountains was so powerful that it travelled twice around the earth, scientists have said. The 10,000 tonne rock, measuring around 55 feet in diameter, created a huge hole in a frozen lake when it crashed into the ground in February and is said to have injured almost 1,500 people. The tremors from the explosion aboveChelyabinsk citywere recorded at around 20 monitoring stations across the world, it has today been revealed.The stations are part of the International Monitoring System network operated by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation. They are designed to detect nuclear weapon tests, and look for ultra-low frequency waves known as infrasound, the Independent reports. The findings were published inthe journal Geophysical Research Letters,. It said it was the first time the stations had ever noted 'multiple arrivals involving waves that travelled twice round the globe' and teams said it was the 'most powerful ever recorded'.Since it crashed to earth in February,scientists have found more than 50 tiny fragments of the meteor, allowing them to uncover information about its contents. Local residents have been more interested in the black market value of the fragmentssince the dramatic incident, asa 'gold mine' has been kickstarted for the valuable pieces. As they search for their own pieces of the meteor, rocks have already been put on the internet for sale, and police are warning all purchasers to prepare for possible fraud. The meteor injured nearly 1,500 people and caused widespread property damage in Chelyabinsk city. The debris narrowly missed a direct and devastating hit on the industrial city which has a population of 1.13 million but spread panic through its streets as the sky above lit up with a blinding flash.As it raced through the sky, the 50-foot wide chunk of space rock compressed the air ahead of it, creating the enormous temperatures that meant it exploded in a fireball somewhere between 18 and 32 miles above the ground at around 9.20am local time on Friday. Although some debris fell to earth, ‘whipping up a pillar of ice, water and steam’ and creating a 20-foot-wide crater, the damage in nearby towns was actually caused byshockwaves created by the meteor breaking the sound barrier and then exploding.

Why people have different colours of hair.

In addition to corneous protein,a small amount of water and fat,hair contains more than ten metallic element,such as sulphur,carbon,phosphorus,calcium,iron,lead,zinc,copper,manganese and cobalt.The colour of the hair is determined by the amount of these various elements.if the hair contains more than the usual amounts of copper and iron,the hair will be black.If the hair contain a lot of titanium,it will be blond,if their is a lot of molybdenum in the hair,MU be dark-brown,and if the hair contain a lot of copper,iron and cobalt,the hair will be reddish-brown.