Sofia: A strong 5.8-magnitude quake rocked Bulgaria shortly after 3:00 am (0000 GMT) on Tuesday, Bulgaria's Seismological Institute said.

"The magnitude measured so far was 5.8 on the Richter scale with the epicentre near Sofia, between the towns of Pernik and Radomir," a spokeswoman at the institute told AFP.

"We have been registering many aftershocks since then," she added.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damages but the jolt was felt very strongly on the top floors of buildings in Sofia.

Residents of tall apartment buildings in Sofia said objects crashed to the ground during the tremor which lasted several minutes and was immediately followed by at least one aftershock.

"Everything was shaking like crazy. I ran out shouting... I won't go back home today," teenager Maria told AFP outside her apartment building in a western Sofia neighbourhood.

People, who were still sitting outside in their pyjamas over an hour after the first jolt, said they felt a new tremor around 4:30 am (0130 GMT).

The seismological institute measured it at 4.2 - 4.3 on the Richter scale, it said.

Civil defence chief Nikolay Nikolov said his service received many reports of toppled chimneys and cracked walls and even broken windows in the region of Pernik, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) southwest of Sofia.

There were no reports of interruptions of electricity or communications.

The quake comes on the heels of Sunday's 6.0-magnitude earthquake around the northern Italian city of Ferrara that killed six people and reduced homes and historic buildings to rubble.

In August 2009, a 5.0 magnitude earthquake hit the Black Sea between Bulgaria and Romania to the southeast of the Kaliakra Cape. No serious damage was reported.

Niagara Falls: A man survived a plunge of at least 180 feet (55 meters) over Niagara Falls in an apparent suicide attempt on Monday - only the third person known to have lived after going over the falls without a safety device.

Niagara Parks Police said witnesses reported seeing the man climb over a railing up to 30 feet (9 meters) out over the Horseshoe Falls at 10:20 a.m. local time and "deliberately jump" into the Niagara River. Seriously injured, he surfaced in the lower Niagara River basin near the Journey Behind the Falls observation platform and managed to make it to shore on his own.

"He waded ashore," said Platoon Chief Dan Orescanin of the Niagara Falls, Ontario, Fire Department. "He must have gotten swept into an eddy, floated over there and was able to get out on his own.

"That's another stroke of luck," said Mr Orescanin. "If he was in the main current, he would have been swept down river."

Mr Orescanin said the man was conscious and talking at first but got quiet. He appeared to have chest injuries, including broken ribs and a collapsed lung, Orescanin said.

The man was airlifted to Hamilton General Hospital with what police initially said were life-threatening injuries. Hospital spokeswoman Agnes Bongers said later that the man was critically injured but was expected to survive.

Authorities did not release the man's name.

Horseshoe Falls, on the Canadian side of the river, is the tallest of the three main falls, higher than the American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls.

The man, believed to be in his 30s or 40s, was rescued about two hours later after fire department rescuers rappelled down the steep and rocky gorge and pulled him in a basket back up the cliff.

"It was very difficult. Between the shale and the boulders, and everything is wet and slick. It's slimy," Mr Orescanin said.

About seven rescuers struggled to carry the basket up to a point where it could be lifted with ropes suspended from an aerial truck.

"We had to basically hand-carry him back up, a foot at a time, up the rope," Orescanin said.

The rescue came weeks before daredevil Nik Wallenda plans to walk over Niagara Falls on a tightrope after convincing United States and Canadian officials to grant an exception to laws prohibiting stunting.

Although several daredevils have survived trips over the falls in barrels or other contraptions, beginning with Annie Edison Taylor in 1901, few have survived unprotected. In 1960, 7-year-old Roger Woodward was swept over the falls wearing a life jacket and survived.

Authorities don't believe Monday's plunge, on a warm and sunny Victoria Day holiday in Canada, was a stunt.

"Based on witness statements and surveillance video, it doesn't appear in any way, shape, or form that this was anything other than a suicide attempt," Niagara Parks Police Sgt. Chris Gallagher told WIVB in Buffalo.

More than 6 million cubic feet (0.17 million cubic meters) of water go over the brink of the falls every minute during peak daytime tourist hours, according to the Niagara Parks Commission.

The last person to go over the Falls unaided and survive was a 30-year-old Canadian man in March 2009. In October 2003, Kirk Jones, an out-of-work auto parts salesman from Michigan survived his plunge over the falls.

After getting the call on Monday, rescuers didn't immediately know whether the man at the bottom of the gorge had gone over the brink or entered the water at the base.

"When we heard that he had gone over the falls we were shocked," Mr  Orescanin said.

Changing pillow covers every week, rubbing and polishing every corner till it was spotlessly dust-free, wearing masks while travel and a host of other things were a part of homemaker Swati Bodhe’s routine for her son Aarav’s (name changed) protection against asthma attack. 

Her six-year-old son who was suffering from childhood asthma was prone to asthma attacks quite often. Swati couldn’t fathom the reason till a detailed history taking by her doctor revealed that preservatives in junk food and soft drinks consumed by her son were to blame. 

Asthma experts say most people depend heavily on medication and do not follow simple easy to do things and techniques to ensure protection against asthma. 

“Fifty per cent of asthma attacks are triggered by dust mite allergies which are avoidable to great extent. Just keeping house dust free, ensuring no fungus on damp walls, keeping bed sheets and pillow covers in sunlight once a week to kill dust mites, good ventilation can help in protecting against asthma attacks,’’ said Dr Vijay Warad, allergist and pediatric pulmonologist. Following a healthy lifestyle by eating right foods and exercising regularly is equally important in asthma control, say doctors. 

“Innumerable studies across the world have proved correlation between junk food and rising asthma. Frequent consumption of junk food leads to lowering of basic immunity levels among kids, which, in turn, makes sensitivity to various allergies sharper. Besides that junk food, soft drinks contain preservatives that can be allergents,’’ said Dr Sundeep Salvi, director, Chest Research Foundation (CRF). Besides good food, ensuring no deficiency of vital nutrients such as Vitamin D and Vitamin C can help in better asthma control. 

Pediatrician Dr Barnali Bhattacharya said while asthma is genetically-linked ailment, there were a few measures one could take to ensure protection against asthma. 

“It is a known fact that women, who abstain from smoking during pregnancy, do exclusive breastfeeding for at least 6 months give their children better chances of protection against asthma,’’
she said.

Our solar system, which is four and a half billion years old, may have formed over a shorter period of time than we previously thought, an international team of researchers has revealed.

The team include researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and universities and laboratories in the US and Japan.

Establishing chronologies of past events or determining ages of objects require having clocks that tick at different paces, according to how far back one looks. 

Nuclear clocks, used for dating, are based on the rate of decay of an atomic nucleus expressed by a half-life, the time it takes for half of a number of nuclei to decay, a property of each nuclear species.

Radiocarbon dating for example, invented in Chicago in the late 1940s and refined ever since, can date artefacts back to prehistoric times because the half-life of radiocarbon (carbon-14) is a few thousand years.

The evaluation of ages of the history of earth or of the solar system requires extremely “slow-paced” 

chronometers consisting of nuclear clocks with much longer half-lives.

The activity of one of these clocks, known as nucleus samarium-146 (146Sm), was examined by Michael Paul, the Kalman and Malke Cooper Professor of Nuclear Physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, as well as researchers from the University of Notre Dame and the Argonne National Laboratory in the US and from two Japanese universities.

146Sm belongs to a family of nuclear species that were “live” in our sun and its solar system when they were born. Events thereafter, and within a few hundred million years, are dated by the amount of 146Sm that was left in various mineral archives until its eventual “extinction.”

146Sm has become the main tool for establishing the time evolution of the solar system over its first few hundred million years. This by itself owes to a delicate geochemical property of the element samarium, a rare element in nature. It is a sensitive probe for the separation, or differentiation, of the silicate portion of earth and of other planetary bodies.

The main result of the work of the international scientists is a new determination of the half-life of 146Sm, previously adapted as 103 million years, to a much shorter value of 68 million years. 

The shorter half-life value, like a clock ticking faster, has the effect of shrinking the assessed chronology of events in the early solar system and in planetary differentiation into a shorter time span.

The new time scale, interestingly, is now consistent with a recent and precise dating made on a lunar rock and is in better agreement with the dating obtained with other chronometers.

The measurement of the half-life of 146Sm, performed over several years by the collaborators, involved the use of the ATLAS particle accelerator at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois.

Details of the finding appeared in recent article in the journal Science.

Lifting less weight more times is just as good at building muscle as doing it with heavy weights, says a new finding.

"We found that loads that were quite heavy and comparatively light were equally effective at inducing muscle growth and promoting strength," says Cam Mitchell, the study's co-author and a doctoral candidate in kinesiology at McMaster's University in Ontario, Canada. 

The research suggests that the key to muscle gain is working to the point of fatigue and challenges the widely held belief that training with heavy weights is best for muscle growth, the Journal of Applied Physiology reports.

"Many older adults can have joint problems which would prevent them training with heavy loads," says Mitchell. "This study shows that they have the option of training with lighter and less intimidating loads and can still receive the benefits."

For the study, a series of experiments were conducted on healthy and young male volunteers to measure how their leg muscles reacted to different forms of resistance training over a period of 10 weeks, according to a McMaster's statement.

The researchers first determined the maximum weight each subject could lift one time in a knee extension. Each subject was assigned to a different training program for each leg.

In all, three different programmes were used in combinations that required the volunteers to complete sets of as many repetitions as possible with their assigned loads -- typically eight to 12 times per set at the heaviest weights and 25-30 times at the lowest weights.

The moon is set to get a lot bigger and brighter than average this weekend as it officially becomes full on Saturday (May 5) at 11:35 pm EDT.

And since this month’s full moon coincides with the moon’s perigee — its closest approach to Earth — it will also be the year’s biggest.

The moon will swing in 221,802 miles (356,955 kilometres) from our planet, offering skywatchers a spectacular view of an extra-big, extra-bright moon, nicknamed a supermoon, the Discovery News reported.

According to meteorologist Joe Rao, besides moon’s perigee coinciding with full moon this month, this perigee will be the nearest to Earth of any this year, as the distance of the moon’s close approach differs by about 3 percent. 

This occurs because the moon’s orbit is not perfectly circular.

This month’s full moon is due to be nearly 16 percent brighter than average. Conversely, later this year on November 28, the full moon will coincide with apogee, the moon’s farthest approach, offering a especially small and dim full moon.

Though the rare appearance of this month’s full moon may be surprising to some, there’s no reason for alarm, scientists cautioned. 

The slight distance variation is not enough to cause any earthquakes or extreme tidal effects, experts asserted.

However, the normal tides around the world will be mostly high and low. At perigee, the moon will exert about 42% more tidal force than it will during its next apogee two weeks later, Rao added.

The last supermoon appeared in March 2011.

The oldest red blood cells ever identified have been found in the body of Ötzi the Iceman, a 5,300-year-old mummy found in the Alps in 1991.

 

 

The bloody find is a first for Ötzi's mummy, which has been under scientific scrutiny since a pair of hikers stumbled over the body frozen in ice on the Austrian-Italian border. And the new research, published today (May 1) in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, helps confirm the story of Ötzi's death.

The Iceman was so well preserved that scientists could estimate his age (about 45), his health, his last meals (they included red deer meat with herb bread) and even his probable cause of death, an arrow wound to the shoulder that sliced an artery. But no one had ever found blood cells in the ancient man's corpse.

Albert Zink, a biological anthropologist at the European Academy of Bozen/Bolzano, was the leader of the study that uncovered the elusive cells. "It was very surprising, because we didn't really expect to find compete red blood cells," Zink said. "We hoped to find maybe some remnants or shrunken red blood cells, but these are looking like a modern-day sample; the dimensions are the same." [Photos: See the face of Ötzi]

Feeling for blood

Zink and his colleagues took tissue samples from Ötzi's arrow wound and from an earlier wound on the mummy's hand. Using a light microscope, they identified round objects that looked a bit like red blood cells, Zink said. But to be sure, the researchers needed more advanced technology.

They turned to a device called an atomic force microscope, which works by "feeling" rather than "seeing" an object. The minuscule probe, itself invisible to the naked eye, runs over the object like a needle on a record player. As the probe bumps up and down along the object's contours, a laser measures the movement. The result is a three-dimensional "tracing" of the object.

In the case of the mysterious Ötzi contents, an exciting picture emerged: The roundish shapes were indeed red blood cells.

"They have the typical form, this kind of doughnut-like shape of red blood cells," Zink told LiveScience. "The dimensions are the same in modern-day samples, so we were really quite sure these were red blood cells that had been preserved for 5,000 years." [Mummy Madness: Quiz Yourself]

A quick death

To confirm the finding, the researchers used a technique called Ramen spectroscopy, which uses light-scattering patterns to determine which molecules are present in a sample. The suspected blood cells had all the markers of true red blood cells, including hemoglobin, the protein that carries oxygen in the blood.

While other researchers have attempted to identify blood on older stone tools, this is the oldest definite confirmation of blood, Zink said. The find may help advance forensic science, because current crime-scene technology has trouble differentiating between old and new blood, he said.

But the finding also adds corroborating evidence to the long-cold murder case of Ötzi the Iceman. Traces of a protein called fibrin were found in the blood from the arrow wound, Zink said. Fibrin is a part of the clotting process that appears immediately after a wound but vanishes very quickly.

"The fact that we found some of the fibrin confirms that he didn't survive the arrow for a long period," Zink said. "It's good to have, because there were still some people [thinking] that maybe he could have survived the arrow shot for a few hours, a few days."

Norwegian world champion swimmer Alexander Dale Oen has died of a suspected heart attack in Arizona at the age of 26, the Norwegian Olympic Committee said on Tuesday.

Dale Oen became a national hero last year when he won the 100 metres breaststroke at the world championships in Shanghai just days after Norway had been rocked by the massacre of 77 people by far right fanatic Anders Behring Breivik.

One of his country’s best hopes for a medal at this year’s London Olympics, Dale Oen was attending an altitude training camp when he died.

After a day of light training and a game of golf, his team mates became worried when they noticed he had spent a long time in the shower on Monday evening and after breaking into the bathroom, they found him lying half-in and half-out of the bath tub.

Ola Ronsen, doctor to Norway’s elite Olympians, was quickly on the scene and an ambulance arrived shortly afterwards, but despite their best efforts to revive him Dale Oen was pronounced dead at 2100 local time.

“This is incredibly sad and tragic,” Ronsen said. “As a doctor, it is painful experience not to succeed with resuscitation.

“Everything was done according to procedure, and everything was tried, so it’s infinitely sad that we were unable to revive him.”

Born in Oygarden in south-western Norway, Dale Oen’s career was ground-breaking for Norwegian swimming, and his bronze medal at the 2006 short course championships was the first for a Norwegian man in a world event.

He also won his country’s first Olympic swimming medal when he took silver in the 100m breaststroke in Beijing in 2008 but it was at the 2011 world championships that he became a real national hero to the Norwegian people.

As he prepared for the 100m breaststroke competition in Shanghai, Norway was thrown into shock by the massacre of 77 people and Dale Oen struggled with his emotions in the aftermath, touching the Norwegian flag on his swimming cap every time he entered the pool deck.

DEDICATED TRIUMPH

Three days later, he swam to victory in the 100m breaststroke final and dedicated his triumph to the Norwegian people.

“We need to let everyday life come back because we cannot get things ruined,” he told reporters after the race.

“In a time like this for Norway, we need to be together, to be one. I think now that everyone back at home, of course, is paralysed. I can feel the emotion, but I’m here in Shanghai and I have to show my best and … just think of those at home.”

Together with prime minister Jens Stoltenberg, the swimmer became a symbol of hope that life in Norway could return to normal after the savagery of Breivik’s attacks.

These old wounds were recently ripped open once again when Breivik went on trial on April 16 in an Oslo courtroom.

The gruesome details of the 77 fatalities – the vast majority children and teenagers gunned down at a Labour youth camp on the island of Utoya – were once again played out across the media.

But instead of looking forward to the Olympics and another medal for Dale Oen, the small nordic nation is now preparing for another unexpected funeral.

Stoltenberg expressed his shock and grief at the loss of his compatriot, telling TV2 that “this is a great loss for his family and friends, but also for all of Norway”.

He revealed that he had spoken to Dale Oen at the annual sports gala event in Norway.

“He told me that there was a strange, mixed feeling to win the medal while he received the tragic news from Norway, (but) the way he carried on and managed a great sporting performance, and also to show dignity, caring and compassion, it shows that he was not only a great athlete, he was also a warm and good person,” Stoltenberg said.

Dale Oen was active on social media site Twitter and in his final message he told his followers he was looking forward to returning to his native country.

“2 days left of our camp up here in Flagstaff, then it’s back to the most beautiful city in Norway – Bergen,” he wrote.

Norwegian officials offered their condolences to Dale Oen’s family and friends, and to the wider Norwegian sporting community.

“My thoughts go first and foremost to his family in Oygarden,” Per Rune Eknes, president of the Norwegian Swimming Federation said in a statement. “This is the toughest day the sport of swimming in Norway has ever had.”

“Norwegian sport has lost a sporting hero, not just because of his performances in the pool, but also because of his manner,” said Borre Rognilen, president of Norway’s Olympic council.

If you are currently plagued by stress and depression, there is no harm in trying a cheap solution to this one. Walk regularly in the morning, while breathing fresh air!

Yes, some light exercise like walking may help reduce symptoms of depression. This is the conclusion of a recent study by scientists from the University of Stirling in Scotland.

As is known, regular exercise, especially that done in an active and energetic shown to assist patients in reducing symptoms of depression. However, the benefits of light activity for the recovery of depression remains unclear.

A recent study published in the journal Mental and Physical Activity suggests, walk proved to have great benefits for the recovery of depressive symptoms.

Researchers revealed that one in 10 people may have experienced depression at some point in their lives. This condition can be overcome by using drugs, but most doctors generally advise to exercise when experiencing symptoms of mild depression.

The researcher explained, walking is an effective intervention to treat depression and effect is the same when a person commits an energetic workout.

"Walking has the advantage of being easily performed by most people because it does not cost the sakali and relatively easy to apply in daily life activities," said Professor Adrian Taylor of the University of Exeter, who was not involved in the study.

However, Taylor reminded the need for more research on the benefits of walking. Because there are still many questions about how long it should run, how fast and whether it is running must be done indoors or outdoors.

"The beauty of walking is that anyone can do it. Walking has benefits for mental health conditions such as depression," said Taylor, who had been the focus of studying the effect of exercise on depression, addiction and stress of the University of Exeter.

How exercise can help to overcome depression remains unclear. However, Taylor said, may exercise can be a distraction from feelings of anxiety or worry, give a sense of control and release of hormones that give a sense of tranquility.

"It's important to find the type of exercise you enjoy doing. Try different things, such as walking, bicycling, gardening," continued Paul Farmer, of a social organization that cares about mental health.

"Exercising with others can have a greater impact, as it provides us an opportunity to strengthen social networks. So invite a friend to join you," he concluded.

Six classic James Bond films are to feature in this year's 007 Legends on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, which will end with story and action sequences from October 2012 Bond premiere Skyfall.

For now, Activision and developer Eurocom are staying mum on which of Bond's twenty-two previous silver-screen escapades have made it in.

LONDON –  The director of the new James Bond movie said he initially had doubts about Daniel Craig being cast in the role of the legendary British spy.

Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes admitted his concern at the media launch of the 23rd Bond movie, "Skyfall."

Speaking at Pinewood Studios, he said, "I was one of the people who said I didn't think he was the right casting. At the time, I was asked in an interview and I said, 'I'm not sure, I would advise him not to do it'."

Mendes, who directed Craig alongside Jude Law in 2002 movie "Road To Perdition," admitted he was wrong.

"I watched him go through that intense pressure and come through that with flying colors," Mendes said. "I bumped into him after 'Casino Royale' and I was so excited to see him as Bond. It was great to watch him come through that and prove the doubters wrong."

Craig said that working with Mendes for the second time -- and the first on a Bond film -- had helped him deal with the pressures of the role.

"I have got an awful lot to worry about when making a movie like this -- it's another level making a Bond movie," Craig said.

He added, "Sam has allowed me to forget about that and concentrate on the job. I have been able to remember why I love this job."

Humanity needs to be much better prepared for massive solar storms, which can wreak havoc on our technology-dependent society, a prominent researcher warns.

Powerful blasts from the sun have triggered intense geomagnetic storms on Earth before, and they'll do so again. But at the moment our ability to predict these events and guard against their worst consequences - which can include interruptions of power grids and satellite navigation systems - is lacking, says Mike Hapgood of the British research and technology agency RAL Space.

"We need a much better understanding of the likelihood of space weather disruptions and their impacts, and we need to develop that knowledge quickly," Hapgood, head of RAL Space's space environment group, writes in a commentary in the April 19 issue of the journal Nature.

Potentially devastating storms

The solar storms we need to worry about, Hapgood says, are coronal mass ejections, huge clouds of charged solar plasma that can rocket into space at speeds of 3 million mph (5 million kilometers per hour) or more.

CMEs that hit Earth inject large amounts of energy into the planet's magnetic field, spawning potentially devastating geomagnetic storms that can disrupt GPS signals, radio communications and power grids for days.