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Jessie J. performing at the Malta concert where she stopped a fight.
They say music soothes the savage breast, but at British singer Jessie J.'s "Isle of MTV" performance in Malta on Wednesday, music didn't keep two concertgoers from breaking out into a fight.
The singer was in the middle of her song, "Rainbow," which ironically is about how people are all similar and should get along, when she noticed the altercation between two fans near the stage. "Stop the music, stop the music," she shouted to her band in a video captured by a fan and posted to You Tube. (The fighting fans can't clearly be seen in the video.)
"OK, so, you guys in the front, guys ... see I don't perform when people are fighting," the singer announced, as the audience applauded her words.
"OH MY GOD!" another fan could be heard saying.
"OK, so here's the deal right?" Jessie J. continued. "Music is about bringing people together. You don't need that angriness in your lives, OK? So kiss and make up and let's party."
"Jes-sie! Jes-sie!" fans chanted in appreciation.
"Let's go, let's go again," the singer told her band, before delivering one more word to the fighters. "Look at me, come on, look at me. Are we good? Sort it out, bro."
CHICAGO (AP) ? The emotional pain and practical demands facing Nelson Mandela's family are universal: confronting the final days of an elderly loved one. There are no rules for how or when the end may arrive. Some choose to let go with little medical interference; others seek aggressive treatment. Mandela's status as a respected global figure only complicates the situation, doctors and end-of-life experts say.
Mandela "is not only revered he is loved and profoundly admired by people all over the world and the sense of letting go must be difficult for everyone involved," said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University.
In much of Africa, people are considered fortunate to live past age 60. For those who reach old age, death is still seen as sad, but friends and family typically celebrate with big parties to honor a life well-lived. Taking extraordinary measures to keep that person alive would be considered dishonorable, said Dr. Sola Olopade, the Nigerian-born clinical director for the University of Chicago's Center for Global Health.
If such measures are being used for Mandela, many could consider it "quite painful," Olopade said, "because those are not the last memories you want to have for someone with such an exemplary life."
U.S. doctors said Mandela's lung infection is most likely pneumonia, a very common cause of illness and death in the elderly.
The infection is usually caused by bacteria and causes lungs to fill with fluid or pus, making breathing difficult and often causing fever and weakness. Treatment includes antibiotics and extra oxygen, often from a mechanical ventilator.
In the United States, an elderly person critically ill with pneumonia would typically be hospitalized in an intensive care unit and put on a mechanical ventilator, or breathing machine, said Dr. J.P. Kress. He is director of the University of Chicago's medical intensive care unit's section on lung and critical care. Ventilators often require a breathing tube down the throat, and patients need to be sedated because of the discomfort.
These patients typically are hooked up to feeding tubes, intravenous fluids and all kinds of monitoring machines to check heart rate, blood pressure and other functions. For long stays, lying prone in a hospital bed, they have to be periodically moved into different positions to prevent bed sores; their arms and legs have to be exercised to fight muscle wasting.
Mandela has been hospitalized several times since December for a recurring lung infection, and he has had tuberculosis.
In a hospitalization in March and April, doctors drained fluid from around his lungs, making it easier for him to breathe. He got care at home until he returned to the hospital on June 8.
For elderly patients hospitalized repeatedly with lung problems, the chances for recovery are often grim, Kress said.
"It's possible he's sitting in a chair asking, 'When am I going to get out of the hospital?' but that's very unlikely," he said.
Patients so critically ill may have ups and downs, and small changes like needing a little less help from a ventilator may be seen as a sign of improvement even when the outlook remains poor, Kress said.
Schaffner, the Vanderbilt doctor, said, "There are always little glimmers of hope. It's not a straight line down ... when you're so gravely ill."
Ada Levine faced end-of-life decisions with her mother, Maria Robles of Chicago. And it was difficult even though her mother had made her wishes known. Robles died two weeks ago at age 75 after 12 years of heart failure and other problems that had her in and out of the hospital.
"It was not going to get better," Levine said. "You're hopeful. You believe in miracles and 'maybe.' At some point you realize there is no miracle and you have to be strong and do the right thing."
Her mother did not want life support, but following that directive is easier said than done, Levine said.
"It's brutal, very difficult, hard, to watch this person decline and think now you're responsible for making their decisions."
Schaffner went through the same experience with his mother. She died 10 years ago at age 84 after several strokes and then pneumonia.
When she was still lucid, the family discussed end-of-life care. She did not want to be kept alive on a ventilator. So when she developed pneumonia and was hospitalized, she got comfort care ? fluids, antibiotics and sedatives to calm her anxiety over struggling to breathe ? but no intensive treatments with fancy machines.
After several days, when it became clear "there was zero chance she was going to turn around," the family brought her home, with hospice care, and she died less than two weeks after falling ill, Schaffner said.
Loretta Downs, former president of the Chicago End-of-Life Care Coalition, said decisions about life support should turn around the patient's wishes.
"Very often it's not the person who's dying's choice," but the family's, she said. "Now that we can prolong dying there's this whole question of are we prolonging dying versus prolonging living? It's not comfortable to be on life support."
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AP Chief Medical Writer Marilynn Marchione contributed from Milwaukee and Andrew Meldrum contributed from Johannesburg.
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Online:
End-of-life care: http://1.usa.gov/bPeFiT
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AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner
VATICAN CITY (AP) ? A Vatican cleric and two other people were arrested Friday by Italian police for allegedly trying to smuggle 20 million euros ($26 million) in cash into the country from Switzerland by private jet. It's the latest scandal to hit the Holy See and broadens an Italian probe into its secretive bank.
Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, already under investigation in a purported money-laundering plot involving the Vatican bank, is accused of corruption and slander and was being held at a Rome prison, prosecutor Nello Rossi told reporters.
Scarano's arrest came just two days after Pope Francis created a commission of inquiry into the Vatican bank to get to the bottom of the problems that have plagued it for decades and contributed to the impression that it's an unregulated, offshore tax haven.
Francis has made clear he has no tolerance for corruption or for Vatican officials who use their jobs for personal ambition or gain. He has said he wants a "poor" church that is concerned for the world's needy, and he has also noted, perhaps tongue in cheek, that "St. Peter didn't have a bank account."
Prosecutor Rossi said the Swiss operation involved three people, all of whom were arrested Friday: Scarano, a recently suspended accountant in the Vatican's main finance office, Italian financier Giovanni Carenzio, and Giovanni Zito, who at the time of the plot was a member of the military police's agency for security and information.
Rossi detailed a remarkable plot ? uncovered by telephone wiretaps ? in which the three allegedly planned to bring into Italy some 20 million euros in cash that financier Carenzio held in his name in a Swiss bank account without paying customs at the airport, as would be required.
Scarano's attorney, Silverio Sica, said his client was something of a middleman: The 20 million euros belonged to friends who had given the money to Carenzio to invest but wanted it back. The plot would presumably enable them to avoid paying customs fees or having any paper trail of such a large amount of money entering Italy.
Rossi identified the friends as members of the Italian shipping family d'Amico and said that the money was "presumably" being held in Switzerland to avoid paying Italian taxes. An email seeking comment from the family's Rome-based company, the d'Amico Societa di Navigazione SpA, wasn't immediately returned.
According to prosecutors, Zito, the agent, called in sick to his job one day in July 2012, rented a private plane and flew with Carenzio to Locarno, Switzerland. There, Carenzio was supposed to withdraw the cash from his bank account and hand it over to Zito to bring back to Italy. The plan was so detailed there was even to be an armed police escort waiting at the airport to bring the money to Scarano's apartment in Rome, Rossi said.
"This operation was meticulously planned in all its details," Rossi said, noting that Zito was chosen to be the mule specifically because his high-ranking position in the Carabinieri would have enabled him to pass through the airport customs area without being stopped.
The money could have been transported relatively easily because euros are issued in high denominations. If the cash had been withdrawn in the largest denomination ? 500 euro notes ? it would have weighed 44 kilograms (97 pounds) and fit in a suitcase.
But at a certain point in Locarno, the deal fell through and Carenzio made excuses that the bank couldn't come up with the money, Rossi said. He declined to identify the bank.
Zito returned to Rome empty-handed but still demanded from Scarano his fee of 600,000 euros for the operation. Scarano cut him one check for 400,000 euros which he deposited. He gave him a second check for 200,000 euros, but in a bid to prevent the check from being deposited, reported it as missing, the prosecutor said.
That put a block on the check and resulted in Scarano being accused of slander for filing a false report knowing that the check was in Zito's hands, Rossi said.
Scarano, as well as the other two, are also accused of corruption. If they are indicted and convicted, they could face up to five or six years in prison, prosecutors said.
Sica, the lawyer, said Scarano said his client would respond to prosecutors' questions.
The Vatican bank, known as the Institute for Religious Works, or IOR, is cooperating with Italian authorities and its lay board has launched an internal investigation, spokesman Max Hohenberg said.
Rossi, the Italian prosecutor, described the operation as one branch in a "mosaic" of investigations targeting the IOR, which has long been a source of scandal for the Holy See. That said, the Swiss investigation didn't immediately appear to directly involve the IOR.
The checks Scarano wrote to Zito, for example, came from an Italian bank account, prosecutors said. They declined to say if Scarano received any payment for his role in the plot, or if his IOR account was used at all.
Rossi's team of prosecutors in 2010 placed the top two Vatican bank officials under investigation for allegedly violating anti-money laundering norms during a routine transaction involving an IOR account at an Italian bank. They ordered the 23 million euros in the transaction seized. The money was eventually unfrozen but the two men remain under investigation.
Rossi's team is also working with prosecutors in Salerno on a separate money-laundering investigation involving Scarano and his IOR account.
According to Sica, the lawyer, Scarano took 560,000 euros ($729,000) in cash out of his IOR bank account in 2009 and carried it out of the Vatican and into Italy to help pay off a mortgage on his Salerno home.
The money had come into Scarano's IOR account from donors who gave it to the prelate thinking they were funding a home for the terminally ill in Salerno, Sica said.
To deposit the money into an Italian bank account ? and to prevent family members from finding out he had such a large chunk of cash ? he asked 56 close friends to accept 10,000 euros apiece in cash in exchange for a check or money transfer in the same amount. Scarano was then able to deposit the amounts in his Italian account.
The lawyer said Scarano had given the names of the donors to prosecutors and insisted the origin of the money was clean, that the transactions didn't constitute money-laundering, and that he only took the money "temporarily" for his personal use.
The home for terminally ill was never built, though the property has been identified, Sica said.
The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Scarano was suspended more than a month ago and that the Vatican was taking the appropriate measures to deal with his case. He said the Vatican had confirmed it was prepared to offer its "full cooperation" to Italian investigators.
On Wednesday, Francis named five people to head a commission of inquiry into the Vatican bank's activities and legal status "to allow for a better harmonization with the universal mission of the Apostolic See."
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Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield
There's a whole plethora of places to keep your data online, but without getting too political, there's no place like home, right? TonidoPlug is a tiny personal server that lets you access your images, photos and personal files wherever you are, without having to hand them over to someone else to look after. Not only is there software to mount it as a local drive -- à la dropbox -- but it serves as a NAS device on your home network too. With the option to plug in USB drives, or add an internal SATA HDD, you won't need to pay a subscription, either. Best of all, we've got five to give away to some lucky UK readers. Please read the terms and conditions after the break to make sure you qualify. But if you do, be sure to enter -- and good luck!
Contact: Andy Henion henion@msu.edu 517-355-3294 Michigan State University
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Automakers and other private firms should be required by law to carry insurance policies to pay for tearing down their factories and buildings, recommends a hard-hitting study from Michigan State University's Center for Community and Economic Development.
Such a requirement would prevent commercial and industrial companies from "walking away" from shuttered facilities a problem plaguing the nation, said Rex LaMore, director of the CCED and lead author on the study.
In the automotive industry alone, there are 135 abandoned plants nationwide. That's not to mention the vacant gas stations, apartment buildings and many other decaying structures that are blighting both rural and urban communities, LaMore said.
"There needs to be a new approach for dealing with abandoned property, because local residents not only pay a price by losing jobs and the resulting ripple effects on the local economy, but the community can be left with property that is unsafe, vulnerable to crime, costly and unappealing to other potential employers," LaMore said.
Currently, facility owners can walk away without dismantling the structure and clearing the property for future use. Responsibility often falls to local municipalities to redevelop or clean up the abandoned property before they can, if ever, attract new companies.
The report calls for federal or state-by-state legislation requiring new commercial and industrial projects to carry insurance policies that secure financial assurances for any potential future dismantling, removal and restoration of abandoned properties. LaMore said the recommendation applies only to newly built -- not existing -- facilities.
The report also supports the creation of a private sector industry that develops and maintains insurance that can implement abandoned property clean-ups.
The idea is not without precedent. In various industries, including railway, companies buy an insurance policy on the land where they have business activity. Further, the practice of requiring people and businesses to buy insurance can be seen, at the federal level, for health care and properties within a floodplain, and, at the state level, for automobiles.
LaMore said the proposal is not without disadvantages. It could, for example, discourage mixed-use structures and increase construction costs.
But the potential benefits outweigh the disadvantages -- particularly by ending the pattern of abandoned buildings and the economic drag that can have on a community, he said.
Daniel P. Gilmartin agrees. Gilmartin is executive director and CEO of the Michigan Municipal League, which represents cities, villages and townships many of which are dealing with abandoned factories and buildings.
"Blighted property is a significant issue for Michigan communities that impacts safety, property values and quality of life," Gilmartin said. "It is a problem we must tackle if we're going to have vibrant places that attract talent. This proposal provides a unique new approach worthy of discussion by policymakers, and we're excited to help move that forward with Michigan State University."
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LaMore co-authored the report with Michelle LeBlanc, a 2013 graduate from MSU's School of Planning, Design and Construction.
LaMore and LeBlanc will present the report and recommendations at the 2013 Joint Congress of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning and the Association of European Schools of Planning in Dublin, Ireland July 15-19.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Contact: Andy Henion henion@msu.edu 517-355-3294 Michigan State University
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Automakers and other private firms should be required by law to carry insurance policies to pay for tearing down their factories and buildings, recommends a hard-hitting study from Michigan State University's Center for Community and Economic Development.
Such a requirement would prevent commercial and industrial companies from "walking away" from shuttered facilities a problem plaguing the nation, said Rex LaMore, director of the CCED and lead author on the study.
In the automotive industry alone, there are 135 abandoned plants nationwide. That's not to mention the vacant gas stations, apartment buildings and many other decaying structures that are blighting both rural and urban communities, LaMore said.
"There needs to be a new approach for dealing with abandoned property, because local residents not only pay a price by losing jobs and the resulting ripple effects on the local economy, but the community can be left with property that is unsafe, vulnerable to crime, costly and unappealing to other potential employers," LaMore said.
Currently, facility owners can walk away without dismantling the structure and clearing the property for future use. Responsibility often falls to local municipalities to redevelop or clean up the abandoned property before they can, if ever, attract new companies.
The report calls for federal or state-by-state legislation requiring new commercial and industrial projects to carry insurance policies that secure financial assurances for any potential future dismantling, removal and restoration of abandoned properties. LaMore said the recommendation applies only to newly built -- not existing -- facilities.
The report also supports the creation of a private sector industry that develops and maintains insurance that can implement abandoned property clean-ups.
The idea is not without precedent. In various industries, including railway, companies buy an insurance policy on the land where they have business activity. Further, the practice of requiring people and businesses to buy insurance can be seen, at the federal level, for health care and properties within a floodplain, and, at the state level, for automobiles.
LaMore said the proposal is not without disadvantages. It could, for example, discourage mixed-use structures and increase construction costs.
But the potential benefits outweigh the disadvantages -- particularly by ending the pattern of abandoned buildings and the economic drag that can have on a community, he said.
Daniel P. Gilmartin agrees. Gilmartin is executive director and CEO of the Michigan Municipal League, which represents cities, villages and townships many of which are dealing with abandoned factories and buildings.
"Blighted property is a significant issue for Michigan communities that impacts safety, property values and quality of life," Gilmartin said. "It is a problem we must tackle if we're going to have vibrant places that attract talent. This proposal provides a unique new approach worthy of discussion by policymakers, and we're excited to help move that forward with Michigan State University."
###
LaMore co-authored the report with Michelle LeBlanc, a 2013 graduate from MSU's School of Planning, Design and Construction.
LaMore and LeBlanc will present the report and recommendations at the 2013 Joint Congress of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning and the Association of European Schools of Planning in Dublin, Ireland July 15-19.
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?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
PRETORIA (Reuters) - Former South African President Nelson Mandela is still clinging to life, his eldest daughter Makaziwe said on Thursday, but she criticised foreign media "vultures" for violating his privacy as he lay critically ill in hospital.
Makaziwe's outburst came as anxiety increased over the faltering health of the frail 94-year-old anti-apartheid hero, admired across the world as a symbol of resistance against injustice and of racial reconciliation.
Late on Wednesday, President Jacob Zuma's government reported a downturn in Mandela's condition after nearly three weeks of treatment in a Pretoria hospital for a lung infection.
This forced Zuma to cancel his participation in a regional summit in neighbouring Mozambique on Thursday.
But Zuma paid a second visit in 24 hours to Mandela on Thursday and was told by his doctors that he had improved overnight. "He remains critical but is now stable," presidency spokesman Mac Maharaj said in a statement.
"I won't lie, it doesn't look good," Mandela's daughter Makaziwe told state broadcaster SABC after visiting her father.
"But as I say, if we speak to him, he responds and tries to open his eyes. He's still there".
Accompanied by a group of grandchildren, she angrily criticised the "bad taste" of foreign media she said were intruding on the privacy of her father and his family.
"There's sort of a racist element with many of the foreign media, where they just cross boundaries," she said, after running the gauntlet of the pack of camera crews and reporters gathered outside the hospital.
"It's truly like vultures waiting when the lion has devoured the buffalo, waiting there for the last of the carcass. That's the image we have as a family," Makaziwe added.
Her criticism followed several sharp rebukes from Zuma's spokesman against some foreign media reports that have given alarming details of Mandela's deteriorating condition.
Maharaj declined to comment on the latest report by a major U.S. TV news network that South Africa's first black president was on life support. He said this was part of Mandela's confidential relationship with his doctors.
Daughter Makaziwe said: "If people say they really care about Nelson Mandela, then they should respect that. They should respect that there is a part of him that has to be respected."
She compared the massive media attention on Mandela, who has been in and out of hospital in the last few months with a recurring lung infection, with the coverage of the death in April of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.
"We don't mind the interest but I just feel it has gone overboard. When Margaret Thatcher was sick in hospital, I didn't see this kind of media frenzy around Margaret Thatcher," she said. "It is only God who knows when the time to go is."
OBAMA SAYS MANDELA "PERSONAL HERO"
Mandela's fourth hospitalisation in six months has forced a growing realisation among South Africans that the man regarded as the father of their post-apartheid "Rainbow Nation" will not be among them for ever.
"Mandela is very old and at that age, life is not good. I just pray that God takes him this time. He must go. He must rest," said Ida Mashego, a 60-year-old office cleaner in Johannesburg's Sandton financial district.
U.S. President Barack Obama, who is due to visit South Africa this weekend, said his thoughts and prayers were with the Mandela family and South Africans.
Speaking in Senegal, his first stop on a three-nation African tour, Obama said Mandela was a "personal hero" of his.
"Even if he passes on, his legacy will linger on," Obama said. He confirmed he still planned to travel to South Africa in the coming days, in response to speculation he might re-schedule his trip because of Mandela's deteriorating health.
Mandela is revered for his lifetime of opposition to the system of race-based apartheid rule imposed by the white minority government that sentenced him to 27 years in jail, more than half of them on the notorious Robben Island.
He is also respected for the way he preached reconciliation after the 1994 transition to multi-racial democracy following three centuries of white domination.
Well-wishers' messages, bouquets and stuffed animals have piled up outside Mandela's Johannesburg home and the wall of the hospital compound where he is being treated in the capital.
South Africans seemed resigned to the prospect of losing their hero, but expressed gratitude for what he had done.
"That great man who is in God's hands now fought so a black woman like me could move into this whites-only area in 1991," teacher Nthabi Chauke, 54, said outside the hospital. "Now I know what freedom feels like. I came here to say thank you."
Mandela stepped down in 1999 after one five-year term in office. Since then he has played little role in public life, dividing his time in retirement between his home in the wealthy Johannesburg suburb of Houghton and Qunu, the village in the impoverished Eastern Cape province where he was born.
SANFORD, Fla.?The photos were as unforgettable as they were haunting: Trayvon Martin?s dead body, sprawled out in wet grass; the 17-year-old?s Nike shirt, pierced with a bullet hole; his limp wrist; his chest; and his face, slack.
The second day of the murder trial of George Zimmerman brought forth those photos and other powerful pieces of evidence, including the clothes Zimmerman was wearing and the gun he carried on the night he fatally shot Martin in February 2012. There was also a display of the now-iconic hoodie Martin wore on the night he died.
Zimmerman looked at the images without a strong reaction, though with more focus than he showed during opening arguments. Martin?s parents turned away, looked down, and eventually left the courtroom as the photos of their son were shown to the jury.
The litany of graphic evidence, paired with the testimony of the Sanford police officer who described his efforts to save Martin, brought the trial to an early emotional crescendo. The 14-year veteran of the department, Anthony Raimondo, Jr., gave sober detail of the bubbling sound coming from Martin?s lungs as he tried to administer CPR. He eventually placed a blanket over Martin that was too small, leaving his lower legs and feet exposed in another poignant crime scene photograph.
Emotionally, the significance of the photos is unmistakable and resonant. Legally, the most important turn in the second day of proceedings might have been something far more mundane: In the morning session, before the crime scene photos were shown, a neighborhood watch supervisor with the Sanford police department was called to the stand by the prosecution?and emerged as a key witness for the defense.
Wendy Dorival, who trained Zimmerman in his duties as the watch representative for his gated community, described him as ?a little meek,? and someone who wanted to ?make changes in his community to make it better.?
Although a PowerPoint slide as part of Dorival?s orientation presentation declared citizens are ?NOT the vigilante police,? she told defense attorney Don West that seeing an unknown or suspicious person walking around in the rain or on a pathway not meant for walking would be grounds for calling the police department?s non-emergency number. That testimony could assist the defense in painting Zimmerman as someone who was simply carrying out his neighborhood watch duties rather than hunting down an unarmed teenager.
The defense?s case was further strengthened by testimony that there had been burglaries in Zimmerman?s community, including one in which a home was entered while a mother of a small child was upstairs. ?She was alone,? Dorival said. ?It was terrifying for her. She was still shaken up by it. It seemed very fresh to her.?
Dorival testified that residents who had an issue ?were directed to call Mr. Zimmerman.?
Perhaps just as significantly, Dorival came to Zimmerman with the idea of assuming greater duty in community policing. Asked why, Dorival said it was because of Zimmerman?s ?demeanor? and ?his high interest in being part of a Sanford community.?
The prosecution will continue to argue that Zimmerman went against protocol by leaving his car after he saw Martin rather than waiting for police to arrive.
?Let law enforcement take the risk of approaching the suspect,? Dorival said.
And the defense got some help from the 911 dispatcher who took Zimmerman?s call, who testified Monday that his foul language didn?t raise any red flags.
What may raise flags with the jury would be the multiple calls Zimmerman made in the weeks and months leading up to Martin?s death. Several were played in the courtroom without the jury present in the prosecution?s efforts to bring them into testimony. The calls featured Zimmerman mentioning recent break-ins and alerting authorities of African-Americans in the gated community where he lived. The judge has not yet decided if the calls will be permitted.
If they are heard by jurors, defense will argue that they were ?good acts? meant to help keep watch over a community that had crime problems. Prosecutors will say the repeated calls reflected anger that climaxed on the fateful February night Martin returned from a local convenience store with Skittles and a can of Arizona iced tea.
The crucial moments between Zimmerman leaving his vehicle and the shooting of Martin will put even more emphasis on the expected testimony of the young woman Martin was speaking with on the phone as the confrontation loomed. She was reported to be scheduled Tuesday, but has not yet taken the witness stand.
Instead, the jury heard from a witness who said she looked out her window on the night of the shooting and saw ?arms flailing? and heard yells of ?no? and ?uhh.? She said it was too dark to identify who was outside her townhouse, but she went to check the stove and heard a gunshot. She then returned to see a body laying in the grass.
The witness also said she saw movement from ?left to right,? and the defense grilled her on cross-examination, suggesting that she had never said that before to law enforcement. The ?left to right? action is important because that might imply some kind of pursuit.
Zimmerman?s mindset during those moments will have to be shown as something other than the ?meek? persona Dorival described. Asked Tuesday if Zimmerman was ?polite, courteous, and respectful,? she replied: ?Yes, every time.?
Jurors will likely not forget the images of Martin?s body, yet their mental picture of Zimmerman on the night of Martin?s death will weigh far more in the outcome of this trial.
The Fisher-Price View-Master has entertained generations of kids with stereoscopic views of famous landmarks and cartoon characters since its advent in 1939. Problem was, these iconic gadgets could only display images, never record them. But the Poppy can. It turns your iPhone into a 3D camera.
Exercise benefits patients with type 2 diabetesPublic release date: 25-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Linda Brooks lbrooks@rsna.org 630-590-7762 Radiological Society of North America
OAK BROOK, Ill. Moderate-intensity exercise reduces fat stored around the heart, in the liver and in the abdomen of people with type 2 diabetes mellitus, even in the absence of any changes in diet, according to a new study published online in the journal Radiology.
Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body does not produce enough insulin, a hormone that regulates the movement of sugar into the cells, or when the cells resist the effects of insulin. The disease can lead to a wide range of complications, including damage to the eyes and kidneys and hardening of the arteries.
Exercise is recommended for people with diabetes, but its effects on different fat deposits in the body are unclear, according to the study's senior author, Hildo J. Lamb, M.D., Ph.D., from the Department of Radiology at Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands.
"Based on previous studies, we noticed that different fat deposits in the body show a differential response to dietary or medical intervention," he said. "Metabolic and other effects of exercise are hard to investigate, because usually an exercise program is accompanied by changes in lifestyle and diet."
For the new study, Dr. Lamb and colleagues assessed the effects of exercise on organ-specific fat accumulation and cardiac function in type 2 diabetes patients, independent of any other lifestyle or dietary changes. The 12 patients, average age 46 years, underwent MRI examinations before and after six months of moderate-intensity exercise totaling between 3.5 and six hours per week and featuring two endurance and two resistance training sessions. The exercise cycle culminated with a 12-day trekking expedition.
MRI results showed that, although cardiac function was not affected, the exercise program led to a significant decrease in fat volume in the abdomen, liver and around the heart, all of which have been previously shown to be associated with increased cardiovascular risk.
"In the present study we observed that the second layer of fat around the heart, the peracardial fat, behaved similarly in response to exercise training as intra-abdominal, or visceral fat," Dr. Lamb said. "The fat content in the liver also decreased substantially after exercise."
Dr. Lamb noted that the exercise-induced fat reductions in the liver are of particular importance to people with type 2 diabetes, many of whom are overweight or obese.
"The liver plays a central role in regulating total body fat distribution," he said. "Therefore, reduction of liver fat content and visceral fat volume by physical exercise are very important to reverse the adverse effects of lipid accumulation elsewhere, such as the heart and arterial vessel wall."
The findings point to an important role for imaging in identifying appropriate treatment for patients with type 2 diabetes, which the World Health Organization projects to be the seventh leading cause of death worldwide by 2030.
"In the future, we hope to be able to use advanced imaging techniques to predict in individual patients which therapeutic strategy is most effective: diet, medication, exercise, surgery or certain combinations," Dr. Lamb said.
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"Exercise and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: Changes in Tissue-Specific Fat Distribution and Cardiac Function." Collaborating with Dr. Lamb were Jacqueline T. Jonker, M.D., Pieter de Mol, M.D., Suzanna T. de Vries, M.D., Ralph L.Widya, M.D., Sebastiaan Hammer, M.D., Ph.D., Linda D. van Schinkel, M.D., Rutger W. van der Meer, M.D., Ph.D., Rijk O.B. Gans, M.D., Ph.D., Andrew G. Webb, Ph.D., Hermien E. Kan, Ph.D., Eelco J.P. de Koning, M.D., Ph.D., and Henk J.G. Bilo, M.D., Ph.D.
Radiology is edited by Herbert Y. Kressel, M.D., Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass., and owned and published by the Radiological Society of North America, Inc.
RSNA is an association of more than 51,000 radiologists, radiation oncologists, medical physicists and related scientists promoting excellence in patient care and health care delivery through education, research and technologic innovation. The Society is based in Oak Brook, Ill. (RSNA.org)
For patient-friendly information on MRI, visit RadiologyInfo.org.
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Exercise benefits patients with type 2 diabetesPublic release date: 25-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Linda Brooks lbrooks@rsna.org 630-590-7762 Radiological Society of North America
OAK BROOK, Ill. Moderate-intensity exercise reduces fat stored around the heart, in the liver and in the abdomen of people with type 2 diabetes mellitus, even in the absence of any changes in diet, according to a new study published online in the journal Radiology.
Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body does not produce enough insulin, a hormone that regulates the movement of sugar into the cells, or when the cells resist the effects of insulin. The disease can lead to a wide range of complications, including damage to the eyes and kidneys and hardening of the arteries.
Exercise is recommended for people with diabetes, but its effects on different fat deposits in the body are unclear, according to the study's senior author, Hildo J. Lamb, M.D., Ph.D., from the Department of Radiology at Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands.
"Based on previous studies, we noticed that different fat deposits in the body show a differential response to dietary or medical intervention," he said. "Metabolic and other effects of exercise are hard to investigate, because usually an exercise program is accompanied by changes in lifestyle and diet."
For the new study, Dr. Lamb and colleagues assessed the effects of exercise on organ-specific fat accumulation and cardiac function in type 2 diabetes patients, independent of any other lifestyle or dietary changes. The 12 patients, average age 46 years, underwent MRI examinations before and after six months of moderate-intensity exercise totaling between 3.5 and six hours per week and featuring two endurance and two resistance training sessions. The exercise cycle culminated with a 12-day trekking expedition.
MRI results showed that, although cardiac function was not affected, the exercise program led to a significant decrease in fat volume in the abdomen, liver and around the heart, all of which have been previously shown to be associated with increased cardiovascular risk.
"In the present study we observed that the second layer of fat around the heart, the peracardial fat, behaved similarly in response to exercise training as intra-abdominal, or visceral fat," Dr. Lamb said. "The fat content in the liver also decreased substantially after exercise."
Dr. Lamb noted that the exercise-induced fat reductions in the liver are of particular importance to people with type 2 diabetes, many of whom are overweight or obese.
"The liver plays a central role in regulating total body fat distribution," he said. "Therefore, reduction of liver fat content and visceral fat volume by physical exercise are very important to reverse the adverse effects of lipid accumulation elsewhere, such as the heart and arterial vessel wall."
The findings point to an important role for imaging in identifying appropriate treatment for patients with type 2 diabetes, which the World Health Organization projects to be the seventh leading cause of death worldwide by 2030.
"In the future, we hope to be able to use advanced imaging techniques to predict in individual patients which therapeutic strategy is most effective: diet, medication, exercise, surgery or certain combinations," Dr. Lamb said.
###
"Exercise and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: Changes in Tissue-Specific Fat Distribution and Cardiac Function." Collaborating with Dr. Lamb were Jacqueline T. Jonker, M.D., Pieter de Mol, M.D., Suzanna T. de Vries, M.D., Ralph L.Widya, M.D., Sebastiaan Hammer, M.D., Ph.D., Linda D. van Schinkel, M.D., Rutger W. van der Meer, M.D., Ph.D., Rijk O.B. Gans, M.D., Ph.D., Andrew G. Webb, Ph.D., Hermien E. Kan, Ph.D., Eelco J.P. de Koning, M.D., Ph.D., and Henk J.G. Bilo, M.D., Ph.D.
Radiology is edited by Herbert Y. Kressel, M.D., Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass., and owned and published by the Radiological Society of North America, Inc.
RSNA is an association of more than 51,000 radiologists, radiation oncologists, medical physicists and related scientists promoting excellence in patient care and health care delivery through education, research and technologic innovation. The Society is based in Oak Brook, Ill. (RSNA.org)
For patient-friendly information on MRI, visit RadiologyInfo.org.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
What you're looking at above is Motorola's new logo, which apparently drifted into the wild ahead of a major rebranding effort. In case you didn't already know, Google owns Moto and dictates much of its company policy. Oh you didn't know?
Here's a reminder for the rest of eternity. [The Verge]
A visualization of the twin primes using an Ulam spiral. Created by Silveira Neto and shared under a Creative Commons-attribution-share alike license.
I?m pleased to introduce a new American Mathematical Society blog: the Blog on Math Blogs! Over there, my co-editor Brie Finegold and I are featuring posts from around the math blogosphere to help you keep up with math news and find new math blogs to follow.
We?ve been around for about two months now, and so far we?ve featured:
The Mathematics of Planet Earth blog, which provides a post a day about celestial mechanics, network theory, climate change, and mathematical approaches to understanding our planet.
Win at Math!, a roundup of some fun math games for procrastination very important educational purposes.
Binary Bonsai and Other Mathematical ?Plants,? about a nice knitting/botany/mathematics blog.
Building the World Digital Mathematical Library, an effort to determine the best way to make mathematics papers available online.
This Week in Number Theory, a roundup of blog coverage of two big results about prime numbers: Yitang Zhang?s progress towards the twin primes conjecture, and Harald Helfgott?s proof of the ternary Goldbach conjecture.
On Pregnancy and Probability, a look at Kate Owens?s recent posts about being a pregnant mathematician.
The mathematics-related events and panels at the?World Science Festival.
Celebrating the Grandmothers of STEM, about Rachel Levy?s collection of stories about older women in all sorts of science careers.
Narrowing the Gap, a follow-up to the twin primes post, about the remarkably quick progress that has been made on improving Zhang?s bound for twin primes.
The Calculus of Poetry (Poetry of Calculus?), about a math poetry blog that shared some related rates poetry.
We?re casting a wide net in terms of blog topics, so we?ll be writing about research, teaching, links between math and art, applied math, and who knows what else. If that?s the kind of thing you might like, bookmark the Blog on Math Blogs. You might be interested in checking out some of the other AMS blogs while you?re at it. As an early-career mathematician, I find PhD plus epsilon particularly relevant.
Now I?ve blogged about the blog on math blogs. I hope someone will blog about this blog post. We need to get this thing as fractal as possible!
A major addition to the immigration bill that beefs up border security and effectively serves in part as a ?redo? of the legislation will face a crucial procedural vote in the Senate on Monday afternoon.
Written after a series of negotiations between Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee and Democratic Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota, the amendment is intended to ease concerns of skeptical lawmakers who are calling for tougher border enforcement as part of the bill.
The bill retains the language of the original one proposed by a bipartisan group of eight senators earlier this year, but adds 119 new pages, Corker says. While most of the language would remain the same, the Corker-Hoeven version strengthens security measures by nearly doubling the amount of security agents along the nation's borders. The bill would also mandate the construction of a fence stretching "no less than" 700 miles along the U.S. border with Mexico and provide funding for aerial surveillance of the area. The federal government will be required to meet a series of security benchmarks before immigrants living in the country illegally would be allowed to obtain permanent legal status.
?The American people want a strong, comprehensive immigration reform plan, but we need to get it right,? Hoeven said in a statement last week. ?That means first and foremost securing the southern border before we address other meaningful reforms to our immigration policy. They want to know that ten years from now, we won?t find ourselves in this same position, having to address the same problem.?
The Senate will vote on whether to end debate on the amendment, which will allow it to move on to final passage within the next few weeks.
Lawmakers rejected a similar (and less costly) amendment to the bill proposed by Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn last week by tabling the measure, so supporters of the new amendment hope it will serve as a new vessel to entice more Republicans to sign on to the bill.
The co-authors of the original immigration bill, including Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, have spoken optimistically about securing as many as 70 votes for the final bill in the Senate, the number they think the bill needs to show the effort has wide bipartisan support. The bill is likely to get the support from 60 members needed to overcome a filibuster, but getting 70 would put pressure on the House?a chamber with a higher concentration of conservative lawmakers?to act.
?We?re very, very close to getting 70 votes," Graham said during a weekend interview on ?Fox News Sunday.?
The Senate is expected to hold the procedural vote on the Corker-Hoeven amendment at about 5:30 p.m. Monday.
To paraphrase the words of our reviewer, ASUS' Zenbook Prime UX31A is the third-best thin and light laptop you can buy. That's high praise indeed when the only two superior devices are the MacBook Air and Samsung's Series 9. So, why does it deserve such love? That's probably down to its sleek design, six-hour battery life and smooth performance. The only things it has in the "demerit" column is a wonky trackpad and weak audio, but we can forgive that, can't we? No, this is How Would You Change, which means we want to know exactly that: what, if you've owned one of these units, would you change about it?
Pakistani rescue workers unload the casket of a foreign tourist who was killed by Islamic militants from an ambulance to shift in a morgue of local hospital in Islamabad, Pakistan, Sunday, June 23, 2013. Islamic militants wearing police uniforms shot to death foreign tourists and at least one Pakistani before dawn as they were visiting one of the world?s highest mountains in a remote area of northern Pakistan that has been largely peaceful, officials said. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
Pakistani rescue workers unload the casket of a foreign tourist who was killed by Islamic militants from an ambulance to shift in a morgue of local hospital in Islamabad, Pakistan, Sunday, June 23, 2013. Islamic militants wearing police uniforms shot to death foreign tourists and at least one Pakistani before dawn as they were visiting one of the world?s highest mountains in a remote area of northern Pakistan that has been largely peaceful, officials said. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
FILE - In this May 4, 2004 file photo, Nanga Parbat, the ninth highest mountain in the world, is seen from Karakorum Highway leading to neighboring China in Pakistan's northern area. Gunmen wearing police uniforms killed 11 foreign tourists and one Pakistani before dawn Sunday, June 23, 2013 as they were visiting one of the world?s highest mountains in a remote area of northern Pakistan, officials said. (AP Photo/Musaf Zaman Kazmi, File)
Pakistani rescue workers unload the casket of a foreign tourist, who was killed by Islamic militants, from an ambulance to shift in a morgue of local hospital in Islamabad, Pakistan, Sunday, June 23, 2013. Islamic militants wearing police uniforms shot to death nine foreign tourists and one Pakistani before dawn as they were visiting one of the world?s highest mountains in a remote area of northern Pakistan that has been largely peaceful, officials said. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
Pakistani rescue workers unload the casket of a foreign tourist who was killed by Islamic militants, from an ambulance to shift in a morgue of local hospital in Islamabad, Pakistan, Sunday, June 23, 2013. Islamic militants wearing police uniforms shot to death foreign tourists and at least one Pakistani before dawn as they were visiting one of the world?s highest mountains in a remote area of northern Pakistan that has been largely peaceful, officials said. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
ISLAMABAD (AP) ? At least a dozen Islamic militants wearing police uniforms shot to death nine foreign tourists and one Pakistani before dawn Sunday as they were visiting one of the world's highest mountains in a remote area of northern Pakistan that has been largely peaceful, officials said.
The foreigners who were killed included five Ukrainians, three Chinese and one Russian, said Pakistani Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan. One Chinese tourist was wounded in the attack and was rescued, he said.
The local branch of the Taliban took responsibility for the killings, saying it was to avenge the death of a leader killed in a recent U.S. drone strike.
The shooting was one of the worst attacks on foreigners in Pakistan in recent years and is likely to damage the country's already struggling tourism industry. Pakistan's mountainous north ? considered until now relatively safe ? is one of the main attractions in a country beset with insurgency and other political instability.
The attack took place at the base camp of Nanga Parbat, the ninth highest mountain in the world at 8,126 meters (26,660 feet). Nanga Parbat is notoriously difficult to climb and is known as the "killer mountain" because of numerous mountaineering deaths in the past. It's unclear if the tourists were planning to climb the mountain or were just visiting the base camp, which is located in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan.
The gunmen were wearing uniforms used by the Gilgit Scouts, a paramilitary police force that patrols the area, said the interior minister. The attackers abducted two local guides to find their way to the remote base camp. One of the guides was killed in the shooting, and the other has been detained and is being questioned, said Khan.
"The purpose of this attack was to give a message to the world that Pakistan is unsafe for travel," said the interior minister in a speech in the National Assembly, which passed a resolution condemning the incident. "The government will take all measures to ensure the safety of foreign tourists."
Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan claimed responsibility for the attack, saying their Jundul Hafsa group carried out the shooting as retaliation for the death of the Taliban's deputy leader, Waliur Rehman, in a U.S. drone attack on May 29.
"By killing foreigners, we wanted to give a message to the world to play their role in bringing an end to the drone attacks," Ahsan told The Associated Press by telephone from an undisclosed location.
At least a dozen gunmen were involved in the attack, local police officer Jahangir Khan said.
The attackers beat up the Pakistanis who were accompanying the tourists, took their money and tied them up, said a senior local government official. They checked the identities of the Pakistanis and shot to death one of them, possibly because he was a minority Shiite Muslim, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.
Although Gilgit-Baltistan is a relatively peaceful area, it has experienced attacks by radical Sunni Muslims on Shiites in recent years.
The attackers took the money and passports from the foreigners and then gunned them down, said the official. It's unclear how the Chinese tourist who was rescued managed to avoid being killed. The base camp has basic wooden huts, but most tourists choose to sleep in their own tents.
Local police chief Barkat Ali said they first learned of the attack when one of the local guides called the police station around 1 a.m. on Sunday. The military airlifted the bodies to Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, Sunday afternoon.
"We hope Pakistani authorities will do their best to find the culprits of this crime," the Ukrainian ambassador to Pakistan, Volodymyr Lakomov, told reporters outside the hospital where the bodies were taken.
The Pakistani government condemned the "brutal act of terrorism" in a statement sent to reporters.
"Those who have committed this heinous crime seem to be attempting to disrupt the growing relations of Pakistan with China and other friendly countries," said a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry.
Pakistan has very close ties with neighboring China and is sensitive to any issue that could harm the relationship. Pakistani officials have reached out to representatives from China and Ukraine to convey their sympathies, the Foreign Ministry said.
Many foreign tourists stay away from Pakistan because of the perceived danger of visiting a country that is home to a large number of Islamic militant groups, such as the Taliban and al-Qaida, which mostly reside in the northwest near the Afghan border. A relatively small number of intrepid foreigners visit Gilgit-Baltistan during the summer to marvel at the peaks of the Himalayan and Karakoram ranges, including K2, the second highest mountain in the world.
Syed Mehdi Shah, the chief minister of Gilgit-Baltistan, condemned the attack and expressed fear that it would seriously damage the region's tourism industry.
"A lot of tourists come to this area in the summer, and our local people work to earn money from these people," said Shah. "This will not only affect our area, but will adversely affect all of Pakistan."
The area has been cordoned off by police and paramilitary soldiers, and a military helicopter was searching the area, said Shah.
"God willing we will find the perpetrators of this tragic incident," said Shah.
The government suspended the chief secretary and top police chief in Gilgit-Baltistan following the attack and ordered an inquiry into the incident, said Khan, the interior minister.
___
Associated Press writer Rasool Dawar contributed to this report from Peshawar, Pakistan.
June 22, 2013 ? On June 20, 2013, at 11:24 p.m., the sun erupted with an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection or CME, a solar phenomenon that can send billions of tons of particles into space that can reach Earth one to three days later. These particles cannot travel through the atmosphere to harm humans on Earth, but they can affect electronic systems in satellites and on the ground.
Experimental NASA research models, based on observations from NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory and ESA/NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory show that the CME left the sun at speeds of around 1350 miles per second, which is a fast speed for CMEs.
Earth-directed CMEs can cause a space weather phenomenon called a geomagnetic storm, which occurs when they funnel energy into Earth's magnetic envelope, the magnetosphere, for an extended period of time. The CME's magnetic fields peel back the outermost layers of Earth's fields changing their very shape. Magnetic storms can degrade communication signals and cause unexpected electrical surges in power grids. They also can cause aurora. Storms are rare during solar minimum, but as the sun's activity ramps up every 11 years toward solar maximum -- currently expected in late 2013 -- large storms occur several times per year.
In the past, geomagnetic storms caused by CMEs of this strength and direction have usually been mild.
In addition, the CME may pass by additional spacecraft: Messenger, STEREO B, Spitzer, and their mission operators have been notified. If warranted, operators can put spacecraft into safe mode to protect the instruments from the solar material.
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Cambodian lost city:?Researchers clarified that the Mahendraparvata was not lost, but that it was found to be unexpectedly large.
By Elizabeth Barber,?Contributor / June 19, 2013
In this photo taken in June 2012, Cambodia's famed Angkor Wat temples complex stands in Siem Reap province, some 230 kilometers (143 miles) northwest Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Airborne laser technology has uncovered a network of roadways and canals, illustrating a bustling ancient city linking Cambodia's Angkor Wat temples complex.
Heng Sinith/AP
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Researchers have clarified that Cambodia?s ?lost city,? found in the swelter of the country?s northwestern jungles, was not so lost at all.?It is, however, bigger than once thought, prompting scientists to revise their previous beliefs about the?character ? and the eventual collapse ??of the Khmer Empire.
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Researchers from the University of Sydney's archaeological research center in Cambodia said that they had known about Mahendraparvata ? an ancient city from the Khmer Empire some 1,200 years old ? for decades, but that before the use of Lidar technology, which allowed them to probe the vast undergrowth with lasers that revealed the buried city?s shape, they had not understood just how extensive the abandoned one-time seat of the Khmer kingdom was. The city had previously been misreported as ?discovered" in a "world exclusive" from The Sydney Morning Herald.
?It is an exaggeration to say a lost city has been found because if you?re working in Cambodia you know it?s been there since the 1900s,"?Jean-Baptiste Chevance, director of the Archaeology and Development Foundation and the project?s lead archaeologist, told The Cambodia Daily. "The main discovery is a whole network of roads and dykes that were linking monuments that were already known."
The city's unexpected size suggests that the Khmer?Empire, which ruled Southeast Asia from?about 800 A.D. to 1400 A.D.,?was more urban than previously imagined: Mahendraparvata was a planned, well-laid-out city that was formerly linked with a system of roads and canals to the Angkor Wat temples, built some 350 years later also in Siem Reap province. Scientists had previously thought that the kingdom was more a loosely organized collection of population centers. The findings are due to be published in the?Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"We identify?an entire, previously undocumented, formally planned urban landscape into which the major temples such as Angkor Wat were integrated," the researchers wrote in a statement?published by NBC.
The researchers also offered additional comment on why it was that the Khmer Empire, once decadent in its stone temples ascending toward the clouds, collapsed into ruin, not to be reincorporated into the country?s story again until the French reintroduced the memory to Cambodian national identity. Now, researchers have suggested that periods of megadrought, combined with practices that caused environmental degradation, were to blame for the fall of the empire ? a recipe?thought to have led to the decline of massive, ancient civilizations elsewhere in the world.
?The lidar data reveal anthropogenic changes to the landscape on a vast scale, and lend further weight to an emerging consensus that infrastructural complexity, unsustainable modes of subsistence and climate variation were crucial factors in the decline of the classical Khmer civilization,??the researchers wrote.?
Once abandoned to time, the royal city was worked to rubble as a millennium of industrious vegetation and monsoon rains did their worst on its stone temples. The mountain, Phnom Kulen,?which once observed Cambodia at a cultural peak, would go on to witness one of the country's worst moments, becoming a Khmer Rouge stronghold in the 1970s, when the government murdered about a fifth of its population.
Throughout all that, the mountain has remained a spiritual place, host to tens of thousands of pilgrims each year.
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