DNA test for girl in India who looks like Madeleine

Tourists in Leh claim daughter of French/Belgian couple is missing Madeleine McCann

Indian police have taken DNA swabs from the daughter of a French/Belgian couple in the northern city of Leh after tourists alleged that she is in fact Madeleine McCann, the girl who disappeared from a holiday apartment in Portugal four years ago. The girl was spotted by a British tourist last weekend, who was reportedly backed up by other tourists. At one point, according to the Daily Mail, an American tourist attempted to take the girl from her parents, a Belgian man and French woman, who insist the girl is theirs. Private investigators hired by Madeleine’s parents, Gerry and Kate, are in contact with the police and are awaiting the results of the DNA test. Madeleine would now be eight years old. The McCann's spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "Our private investigators are aware of the reports from India over the weekend about a possible sighting of Madeleine. We are liaising with the Indian authorities over the incident and await the results of the DNA test." For further concise, balanced comment and analysis on the week's news, try The Week magazine. Subscribe today and get 6 issues completely free. Source: The Week UK

Read More........ → March 17, 2014

China to become world's biggest economy

Those who are strong today will lose their strength. The US will yield to China in the economic leadership in 2017. Such is the forecast made by experts of the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) consulting services. They also say that this will not be the final step in the re-arrangement of forces in the world economy and that less than in 40 years Russia will play one of main roles while Europe’s largest economies will be lagging behind. The PwC experts forsee that by 2050 three leading economies will be China, the USA and India. Thus, the USA will yield the palm to the Chinese and that India will move to the third from the tenth place. The size of the future leader’s GDP, meaning China, will be about 54 trillion dollars. Just to compare: today it is under 6 trillion dollars. Executive Secretary of the Russian-Chinese Chamber Sergei Sanakoyev also says that China will be giant No. 1 in the world in the future. He says: "The nation is working which means that it is producing goods. This is a very important factor of growth. Of course, under the conditions of the world financial crisis, when the demand for Chinese goods dropped around the world, had a bad impact on the Chinese economy. However, quick measures on the reorientation towards domestic demand and a flexible credit policy have enabled China to maintain average yearly economic growth rates within the 7 to 10 per cent limits. It is absolutely clear that it is enough for becoming the world’s economy No. 1 by 2017." Experts mention certain risks as well. One of them is an increase in the share of city dwellers. Hence, the issue dealing with the growth of food prices and the cost of work force is becoming urgent enough. A hike in both indices will do damage to the competitiveness of Chinese goods. The Chinese authorities are doing their utmost to prevent this. Meanwhile, Russia’s government reports about economic victories. Russia’s GDP per capita has doubled since 1999, and the unemployment rate in this country was only 5.4 per cent in the end of the year which is very low according to the world standards. Experts from PricewaterhouseCoopers say that Russia’s GDP will increase by many times to reach 8 trillion dollars by 2050. Thus, Russia will rank sixth among the world’s economies, outstripping Germany, France, and Britain and coming close to Japan. This is possible, Director of the Institute of International Business at the National Research University - Higher School of Economics (HSE) – Natalia Karpova says. "Russia and China - two superpowers of the future – are on the rise, and should serious contradictions or cataclysms be non-existent, they will develop faster than all the other countries." The industrialized countries got the hardest hit by the current crisis because all of them relied on excessive loans to stimulate their growth, experts say. Therefore, the industrial growth of the developing markets not burdened with debts will become logical in the future. Especially that of the countries of raw materials – such as Russia and China. Source: Voice of Russia

Read More........ → January 24, 2013

'I'm sorry.' Cycling career was one big lie admits Armstrong

'If there's a truth and reconciliation commission, I'll be the first man in the door,' he tells Oprah

BY Gavin Mortimer, "ONE BIG LIE". That's how Lance Armstrong described a cycling career that brought him seven Tour de France titles and a reputation as the sport's greatest star. The Texan rider finally admitted the truth during an astonishing interview with Oprah Winfrey last night, confessing to the chat show host that he had used banned substances and blood transfusions for most of his career. Armstrong dated his doping back to the mid-1990s and said he continued to cheat for a decade, stressing that when he made a comeback in 2009 he was clean. There were other damning admissions from the disgraced rider, who was described by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) last October as a "serial cheat". Yes, he told Winfrey, he had been a bully. "I was a bully in the sense that I tried to control the narrative and if I didn't like what somebody said, I tried to control that. I was just trying to perpetuate the story and hide the truth". Armstrong verdict: 'clever, calculating, callous and arrogant', He singled out the former masseuse Emma O'Reilly as someone who had suffered particularly as a result of her attempts a decade ago to alert the world to Armstrong's doping. "Emma O'Reilly is one of these people that I have to apologise to," said Armstrong, who had described the Irishwoman as "a prostitute and an alcoholic" in a bid to destroy her credibility. "She is one of these people that got run over, got bullied." O'Reilly was also one of the people who got sued by Armstrong in his aggressive strategy to suppress the truth of what he was doing. Asked by Winfrey how many others he'd sued, Armstrong replied: "To be honest, Oprah, we sued so many people I don't know... I was a guy who expected to get whatever he wanted and to control every outcome. It's inexcusable. There are people who will never forgive - I understand that." Contrary to what many in the cycling world had feared before the interview aired, Armstrong did not try and portray himself as the victim. "I don't look around and say 'Oprah, I am getting so screwed here'. Were there days early on when I said that? Absolutely, but those days are fewer and fewer and further and further in between." Occasionally during the interview, the 41-year-old revealed glimpses of the psychology that had helped him construct his 'one big lie'. "I went and looked up the definition of cheat," he told Winfrey, "and the definition is to gain an advantage on a rival or foe, but I didn't view it that way. I viewed it as a level playing field." In his view, "the issue of performance-enhancing drugs was 'We're going to pump up our tyres and we're going to put water in our bottles, and oh yeah, that too is going to happen'." Ultimately it appears that at the height of his fame Armstrong came to believe his own fairy tale of the cancer sufferer turned sporting champion. "This story was so perfect for so long," he explained. "You overcome the disease, you win the Tour de France seven times - it was this mythic, perfect story, and it wasn't true." Reaction to last night's interview was swift. Travis Tygart, head of USADA, the body who did most to bring Armstrong to justice, said: "Tonight, Lance Armstrong finally acknowledged that his cycling career was built on a powerful combination of doping and deceit. "His admission that he doped throughout his career is a small step in the right direction. But if he is sincere in his desire to correct his past mistakes, he will testify under oath about the full extent of his doping activities." Armstrong didn't address that possibility directly, although he did tell Winfrey: "It's not my place to say 'Hey guys, let's clean up cycling', [but] if there was a truth and reconciliation commission, and I'm invited, I'll be the first man in the door." Nor did Armstrong appear willing to bring others down with him: "It's hard to talk about these things and not mention names, but there are other people in this story," he said. "I didn't invent the [doping] culture, but I didn't try to stop the culture. That's my mistake." Perhaps the hardest word of all for Armstrong to utter was the one that until now had never passed his lips. "I view this situation as one big lie that I repeated a lot of times," he said. "I'm sitting here today to acknowledge that and to say I'm sorry for that." The second part of the interview will be aired tonight (2 am Saturday, UK time). Source: The Week UK

Read More........ → January 19, 2013