Russia threatens response if interests attacked in Ukraine

Slavyansk (Ukraine) (AFP) - Russia issued a blunt warning Wednesday it would respond if its interests are attacked in Ukraine, as pro-Kremlin rebels in the restive east of the country braced for a new military

Designer Wear Frocks 2013 Collection

Life without colors is near to death as colors impart and infuse life in lifeless objects. It is human nature that he can fed up with sameness and want to bring change. This is only possible with colors. Same is the case

Jet stowaway at hospital as security issues linger

HONOLULU (AP) -- Surveillance cameras at San Jose International Airport successfully recorded the teenager on the tarmac, climbing up the landing gear of a jet. But in the end, the cameras failed because no one noticed the security breach until the plane — and the boy — landed in Hawaii hours later.

Although the 15-year-old apparently wanted nothing more than to run away, his success in slipping past layers of security early Sunday morning made it clear that a determined person can still get into a supposedly safe area and sneak onto a plane.

Scientists developing laser that could control the weather

Ever since suffering through Mother Nature's first drought, humans have wanted to control the weather.

It might soon be possible, if researchers at the University of Arizona and University of Central Florida's College of Optics & Photonics are successful in developing a high-energy laser that could, in theory, induce rain or lightning when pointed at clouds.

According to a report published in the journal

Michigan man among 1st in US to get 'bionic eye'

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — A degenerative eye disease slowly robbed Roger Pontz of his vision.
Diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa as a teenager, Pontz has been almost completely blind for years. Now,

5 Times You Should Skip the Fat-Free Version

Fat free" may sound healthy, but sometimes it's not the smartest pick. Here are a few culprits to watch out for -- and what to eat instead.

UPS fires 250 employees for staging a 90-minute protest to defend co-worker

UPS is firing 250 Queens, N.Y., drivers for walking off the job during a 90-minute protest in February. 

The company dismissed 20 of the workers after their shifts Monday and issued notices of termination to another 230 employees, notifying them that they will be fired once the company has trained their replacements, UPS spokesman Steve Gaut told Business Insider.

The workers were protesting the dismissal of longtime employee and union activist Jairo Reyes, who was fired over an hours dispute, according to Gaut. The New York Daily News first reported on the firings.

5kg bomb recovered from Musharraf’s route to court

ISLAMABAD: A five kilogram bomb was recovered from former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf’s route to court Tuesday morning, Geo News reported.

Danica Patrick Bulks Up Bigtime for Super Bowl 2014

NASCAR diva Danica Patrick turned heads on Wednesday — and not for modeling in a bikini (which she's done twice for Sports Illustrated) or her signature acid-green racing togs. The 31-year-old was spotted

4 Reasons Running is Best for Weight Loss

Bikini image in sexy style of USA:Any exercise is good exercise, but when it comes to losing weight, it's hard to beat running. After all, running is one of the most efficient ways to burn calories and get fit without

How a modern caveman could win an Academy Award

There aren't many things more fundamental to our sense of being than the earth beneath our feet -- so much so that it's a synonym for stability ("stand your ground," "down to earth," "grounded").

Ra Paulette, though, doesn't seem to see the earth as most of us do. He looks at the earth and sees -- or, perhaps more accurately, feels -- potential: cathedrals waiting to be freed.

For 20 years, he has been quietly and often secretly carving intricate and by all accounts stunning caverns
into the landscape of New Mexico -- by himself, solely with hand tools: shovel, mattock, scraper. The chambers are filled with arches and whorls and apertures that seem to sculpt the sunlight itself.'A transformative tool'The caves are not enormous; mostly, their square footage would be comparable to rooms or perhaps small houses. His ambitions for them are outsize, though, as he describes in a new documentary shortlisted for an Academy Award, "CaveDigger," directed by Jeffrey Karoff:These caves are designed as transcendent spaces. The fact that the cave is underground and you feel the earth around you yet the sun is pouring in: Those are the juxtapositions of the two metaphors of our life, the inside, the within, and the without. it's a perceptual trick that brings out deep, expansive emotionality."And when he says "transcendent," he isn't just being flowery. "I want to subject mercilessly a person to the aesthetic in a way that stimulates a deep emotionality to the point where it becomes a transformative tool. That's a big goal, but I'm ready for it.I don't put any energy into being a success in the world'He doesn't do it for glory, and he certainly doesn't do it for money: When he's been paid at all for his work, he's generally earned perhaps $15 or $20 an hour.I don't put any energy into being a success in the world," he says. "My strategy is to wait for something from heaven to come along and lay it on me.He has taken a few commissions, not all of which have gone well.[Click here to see a slideshow of Ra Paulette's caves]"Ra's not your typical person, which is what I like about him," says his close friend, ex-girlfriend and onetime patron, Liz Riedel. "He doesn't do things for himself, he does things for art. He does things for other people" -- meaning the viewer of his art, not necessarily the person paying for it.

Riedel and her husband, Shel Neymark, commissioned a piece from him that was supposed to take two months and cost $2,000. They knew what they were getting into, though: They privately doubled his estimate, figuring that Paulette being Paulette, he'd take four months and $4,000.

It took two years -- during which Riedel learned that she had cancer. She underwent grueling treatments. The couple asked Paulette many times to stop, and even believed once or twice that they'd convinced him. Still he refused to leave the project.

"When he has a shovel in his hand, he's like a coke addict with piles of coke. He just loves to keep going and going," Neymark said.

They admit, though: The work he produced for them was transcendent.

'Everyone else grew up and I didn't'

Such tensions are at the heart of Karoff's documentary. Paulette is "living the dream so you don't have to," Karoff says, but it's "not without cost."

Paulette's wife may be the one who bears the cost most, as the documentary makes clear. "Her demands of security are so reasonable," Paulette says, but they aren't demands that he shares. So her role has become the de facto breadwinner, supporting them as an advocate for hospice patients.

"Everyone else grew up and I didn't," Paulette says simply.

And at 67 years old, he says he's now "through working for other people." He'll take no more commissions; instead, he's about three years into a private project that he expects will take 10 years.

"I want people to get a break in the continuity of who they are. And in that break, a lot of things can happen: personal insights, access to enthusiasms. I've seen it happen. It's fun to watch. It keeps me digging."

Doc McStuffins Is Breakout Holiday Toy for Boys and Girls of All Races

Brace yourselves for a nice surprise, parents: One of the most in-demand toys of the holiday season is neither a princess nor a video-game warrior, but a doctor, thanks to Disney Junior’s runaway cartoon hit
Doc McStuffins.    More from Yahoo Shine: GoldieBlox Pulls Beastie Boys Song From Viral Video
Doc is huge,” Jackie Breyer, editor in chief of the trade publication the Toy Insider tells Yahoo Shine about the doll based on the character, as well as other related merchandise. “The Checkup Center is almost impossible to find at this point. But it’s all hot. Anything Doc is huge this year.”Anyone with a little kid won’t be too surprised, as the relatively new show, about a 6-year-old aspiring doctor who admires her doctor mother and treats her toys with help from her dragon and snowman friends, is hugely popular with the 2- to-7-year-old set. It draws an average of 1.3 million viewers weekly, according to the latest Nielsen ratings, and has a viewership of both boys and girls.More on Yahoo: Gov. Walker Urges Parents to Skip Toys and Send the Christmas Money to HimBut the popularity of its merchandise  including Doc dolls, figurines, doctor kits and the Checkup Center is still a breath of fresh air for many reasons, say toy experts. “If anything is surprising, it’s the fact that [it serves] a classic play pattern — it gets kids away from the screens, and they get to role-play and use their imaginations,” Breyer notes. “What kid doesn’t imagine that their toys come to life at some point? Also, it’s aspirational — [the character’s] mom is a doctor.

Marianne Szymanski, president of the consumer research group Toy Tips, notes that the toys are also big with kids who have pets, and who like to treat them as patients. “Taking care of animals is such a play pattern that it's just a perfect fit,” she tells Yahoo Shine. “There wasn’t really anything out there in this category, but this being Disney, it really took off.” Another attribute, she adds, is the fact that it’s something fresh in an industry used to remaking the “same old, same old,” from Legos to Barbie.

Jim Silver, editor in chief of toy review website Time to Play, tells Bloomberg Businessweek that the toys first took off last year during holiday season, surprising retailers, who were largely unprepared for the Doc demand. But this year, the amount of shelf space that Disney’s top retail accounts — Wal-Mart, Target, Toys “R” Us, and Kmart — have given the toys has grown from an average of 5 feet to 20 feet J.D. Edwards, senior VP of Disney Media Networks licensing at Disney Consumer Products, tells Yahoo Shine in an email. Also, to date, more than 1 million of Doc McStuffins Doctor Bag Playsets have sold, and the brand continues to grow — beyond the toy aisle, with bedding, apparel, footwear and band-aids. The Checkup Center was nominated for the Toy Industry Association's Toy of the Year award for 2014.

“I’m very pleased with this product because, guaranteed, you will see kids who become doctors because of this toy,” Richard Gottlieb, founder and president of Global Toy Experts, tells Yahoo Shine. The fact that the character is both female and African-American, he adds, is another big plus. “It’s kind of a postgender product — and the industry has gotten even more gender-specific over the last 20 years,” he says. “Boys might not play with the doll, but I don’t think it’s just about the doll; it’s about a storyline. I think Doc McStuffins crosses many boundaries.”

On the World’s Roads, More American Wheels

DETROIT — The resurgence of the American auto industry has been driven primarily by pent-up demand for new cars and trucks by consumers in the United States.

But a big part of the comeback has also come from an unlikely source: rising exports of vehicles made in the United States for sale in international markets.

Annual exports of American-made vehicles have increased nearly 80 percent from 2009 through
2012. And this year exports are up about 9 percent from last year through the month of October, according to the Commerce Department.And it is not only the Detroit carmakers that are benefiting from the international appeal of American-made models. Factories owned by Japanese and European auto companies in the United States are also steadily expanding their export business, adding jobs and investment to keep pace with overseas demand.

“It’s becoming a more important part of our business every year,” said Robert S. Carter, senior vice president of Toyota’s United States division. “It is a very robust area of growth.”

Indeed, automakers are adding more new models to their roster of export-ready vehicles.

On Thursday, the Ford Motor Company unveiled the latest version of its iconic Mustang muscle car, and it announced that for the first time it would begin exporting it to global markets in 2015.

The introduction of the new Mustang was a global event, with simultaneous presentations in New York; Los Angeles; Barcelona, Spain; Sydney, Australia; and Shanghai — as well as in Ford’s hometown, Dearborn, Mich.

“We think this car has universal appeal,” said Mark Fields, Ford’s chief operating officer. “We’re really excited to ship it to Europe and China and the Asia-Pacific countries.”

Last year, American factories shipped 1.8 million cars, sport utility vehicles and light trucks for sale in international markets, including Canada and Mexico. That figure should reach two million this year.

While that is still a fraction of the estimated 15.5 million vehicles expected to be sold in the United States this year, the growth of exports underscores how competitive American-made models have become worldwide on manufacturing costs and overall quality.

Since emerging from the recession, automakers are benefiting from lower labor and energy costs, along with slimmed-down, more efficient plants. “We are likely to see a continued growth of exports, as the U.S. has a more competitive cost structure than before, better products and more global platforms that can be shipped elsewhere,” said Xavier Mosquet, an auto specialist with the Boston Consulting Group.

At the same time Ford was showing off the new Mustang, Toyota was starting production of its new Highlander sport utility vehicle in Princeton, Ind. Toyota officials said that key markets for the Highlander were Russia and Australia.

While Ford is looking to broaden its Mustang sales in overseas markets, foreign automakers like Toyota view exporting from the United States as an alternative to higher manufacturing costs in their home countries.

“It’s a hedge against currency fluctuations, but it also shows how attractive our products are in places like China, Russia and the Middle East,” said Mr. Carter of Toyota.

Other automakers are following suit. Nissan expects to export about 14 percent of its United States production overseas this year. And Honda predicts that by next year it will export more vehicles from North America — the bulk of them from American plants — than it will bring into the region from Japan.

Last year, Canada and Mexico accounted for about half of exports of American-made vehicles. A decade ago, the vast majority of exports were limited to Canada and Mexico, but demand for American models in is expanding rapidly in other countries.

Exports to Saudi Arabia, for example, have tripled since 2009. And sales to Chinese customers have increased fivefold over the same period.

Last year, Ford exported more than 370,000 vehicles from the United States to foreign markets, an increase of nearly 14 percent from the previous year. The roster of models headed overseas includes the company’s popular Focus and Fusion sedans, as well as sport utility vehicles like the Escape and Explorer.

The new Mustang will be built in Flat Rock, Mich., about 20 miles from Ford’s world headquarters. Ford executives stressed that the car was designed mostly for American buyers, but that its history and appeal had gained admirers in every region of the world.

“More than 50 percent of Mustang fans on Facebook are outside the U.S.,” Mr. Fields said. “And there are 300 Mustang clubs on five continents.”

Like its domestic rivals, General Motors and Chrysler, Ford has drastically trimmed its manufacturing capacity in the United States since the industry tumbled into financial crisis in 2008.

Now Ford’s American plants operate at higher productivity levels, often on three shifts operating nearly around the clock. A growing number of its hourly workers are also receiving lower, entry-level wages that have cut overall manufacturing costs.

Ford has also introduced smaller, more fuel-efficient engines that are attractive to buyers in Europe and other regions where gas prices are high. Mr. Fields said product planners in the United States were attuned to the needs of consumers abroad.

“We’ve changed the heating and air conditioning systems to accommodate very high heat levels in the Middle East,” he said.

Some American brands are proving better suited for export markets than others. G.M., for example, is pushing hard to expand sales of its Cadillac luxury brand outside the United States. But the company said Thursday that it was dropping plans for broad growth of its Chevrolet brand in Europe, where it competes for customers with its Opel division.

One of the biggest success stories in exports has been Chrysler’s rugged line of Jeep sport utility vehicles.

On any given day, the assembly line at Chrysler’s Jefferson North assembly plant in Detroit churns out Jeep Grand Cherokees destined for sale in more than 120 countries.

Global sales of Jeep vehicles increased 19 percent in 2012 over the year earlier, according to Commerce Department statistics. And Chrysler is investing $500 million in its Toledo, Ohio, plant for the new Jeep Cherokee — partly to accommodate the expected demand for the vehicles outside the United States.

Jaclyn Trop contributed reporting.

NASA says giant Saturn hexagon storm might be hundreds of years old

In November, NASA released some incredible composite photographs of Saturn taken from the Cassini spacecraft. In some of the images, you can see streams of liquid erupting from the planet.

This week, NASA has topped that with its most detailed movie of the “hexagon jet stream” erupting from the ringed planet, creating a giant storm that might be hundreds of years old.

The movie shows a complete view of the top of Saturn. And in the middle of it all is the hexagon, a giant 20,000-mile-wide jet stream of winds racing at 200 mph.

It’s a storm that NASA says truly stands alone in the entire solar system.

"The hexagon is just a current of air, and weather features out there that share similarities to this are
notoriously turbulent and unstable," said Andrew Ingersoll, a member of the Cassini imaging team in Pasadena, Calif. "A hurricane on Earth typically lasts a week, but this has been here for decades and who knows  maybe centuries.You can see more images of the storm on NASA’s Cassini hangout page.

NASA says some parts of the storm, known as vortices, cover 2,200 miles, making them twice as big as any known hurricane in Earth’s history. While no one knows for sure, NASA says it believes the giant storm has managed to stay active for so long because Saturn does not have any substantial landmass that could cause the weather pattern to die out.

Cassini first arrived near Saturn in 2004, and its mission is scheduled to end in 2017. However, NASA says the timing is perfect as the planet’s summer solstice occurs during that timeframe and should give Cassini its best views of the storm.

"As we approach Saturn's summer solstice in 2017, lighting conditions over its north pole will improve, and we are excited to track the changes that occur both inside and outside the hexagon boundary," Scott Edgington, Cassini deputy project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a statement.

Disgusting Christmas “Tinner” offers a time-saving alternative for gamers

For gamers who want to enjoy all the traditional components of a Christmas dinner and don't mind doing so in the most disgusting, least appetizing way possible, we present...Christmas Tinner, the Christmas dinner in a can.

Those with sensitive tummies should stop reading now, because this one will haunt your nightmares. There's just no other way to describe a tin can that comes with nine layers of food, one on top of the other.

Pop open the can, and you're greeted with a top layer of scrambled eggs and bacon. But wait, there's more! Below that resides some fruity mincemeat.Still with us? Good, because it's time for the main course: turkey
and potatoes, plus carrots and other side dishes, including gravy, cranberry sauce, and Brussels sprouts or broccoli, depending on your preference. (Apparently, some people who eat Christmas Tinners will draw the line at Brussels sprouts.) At the bottom of the can is your dessert/reward/finish line — Christmas pudding.

What cruel fiend could possibly come up with such a diabolical concept? British video game retailer GAME is selling the cans to its customers after research suggested that nearly 50 percent of UK gamers intend to spend the majority of the holidays playing video games, according to Nintendo Life.

The Daily Mail reports that the Christmas Tinner is undergoing a trial period at the GAME store in Basingstoke, England. If the demand is high enough (?!?), other stores may stock the meal as well

What’s the Secret to Hacker-Proof Passwords?

Is no password hacker-proof anymore?

Researchers at cybersecurity firm Trustwave said this week they found a stash of about two million passwords to major sites, including Facebook (FB), Twitter (TWTR), Google (GOOG) and Yahoo (which operates Yahoo Finance).

The database included stolen information from some 320,000 email accounts, 318,000 Facebook
accounts, and 21,000 Twitter users, nearly 60,000 Yahoo accounts, more than 8,000 LinkedIn accounts, and 70,000 Gmail, Google+ and YouTube accounts, Trustwave said. Two Russian social-networking sites, vk.com and odnoklassniki.ru, were also targeted, as well as 8,000 accounts at ADP, the payroll service provider, according to Trustwave.

"We don't have evidence they logged into these accounts, but they probably did," John Miller, a security research manager at Trustwave, told CNNMoney.

You have ‘terrible’ passwords

Trustwave’s researchers combed through the data to analyze users’ password selection habits – and they weren’t impressed. More than 15,000 of the affected users had “123456” as their password, followed by “123456789,” “1234” and “password.”

The firm said only 5% of the passwords were considered “excellent,” which means they used all four character types (uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers and special characters), and 17% were “good.” Passwords with four or fewer characters of only one type are considered “terrible” – and there were more terrible passwords -- 6% -- than excellent ones.

Every year or so, a report comes out that highlights how vulnerable our passwords are to hackers and identity thieves. And a different list from 2011, for instance, shows the most common passwords are nearly identical to the ones found in Trustwave’s trove. In short, they’re way too simple.

Protect yourself

We asked Nick Berry, data scientist at Facebook, for guidance on how users should go about creating passwords to their myriad email, social networking, banking and other accounts they want to remain private. “I can confirm from my research that people really are staggeringly unimaginative in their selection of passwords,” says Berry, who founded technology consulting firm Data Genetics and has done extensive research on password security. Check out Berry's TEDx Seattle talk about the subject.

While Berry says there are some things users can’t control, there are plenty of steps you can take to help mitigate any potential damage. Some of these tips may be obvious, while other strategies sound secret-agent-worthy. Berry, who works in research capacity at Facebook, was unable to comment about this particular incident, but stated: "We have dedicated teams of people who monitor events such as this, and take whatever action they can to help protect the security of our users".

1. Dual factor. The best strategy, if available on the service you use, is to enable dual-factor authentication, Berry says. This means you need two things to access the service – a traditional password and something you’re in possession of, such as a smart card, dongle or your smartphone. When you attempt to log in to a service that has dual factor, you type in your password and then insert your physical key (or in the case of your smartphone, you get a text message with a temporary password). You need to type in both to get access to the site. If your password is stolen, a thief can’t use the site because they don’t have your phone. “Codes sent to your smartphone are random and change each time used, so even someone looking over your shoulder [sees] the code will not be able to gain benefit from it to replay it,” he says.

An ATM is a classic example of a dual-factor authentication – you need your ATM card and a PIN to access your account. Major sites offer the option as well, including Facebook, Microsoft Outlook, Gmail and Yahoo Mail. Users can opt into a security feature that requires them to enter a code the site sends to their phone when logging on from an unrecognized device.

2. Make it ObsKur3. If dual factor isn’t available, choose a strong distinct password for each service, Berry says. So if any one service is cracked, hackers can’t get access to other accounts that might share the same login information. If you don’t have photographic memory, password managers can handle your complex and obscure passwords

3. Write it down. This might seem oddly un-savvy, but Berry says storing written-down passwords in a safe place is good move. To break a very strong password, a thief has to have physical access to that password, which is only in one location. Unless you’ve been specifically targeted, most cybercrime is performed remotely by anonymous hackers. “A thief breaking into your house is more interested in your credit cards, iPad, flat-screen TV, prescription drugs than a piece of paper with some hieroglyphics that they have to try and correlate back to some website,” Berry says.

4. Pay extra attention to protecting your main email account with an impenetrable password. “You are only as strong as your weakest link,” Berry says. If you forget the password to your Netflix or Gilt account, those sites will offer an "I forgot my password" link, so you can reset it.

5. Use fake answers. If you answer those "secret questions," give bogus answers – but ones you’ll remember, of course, Berry says.  “Someone trying to social engineer your account can probably pretty easily find out the name of your dog (all your friends know), or your mother’s name, or the school you went to,” he says.

6. Don’t save your password. Some online services let users save their password so they don’t have to keep typing it in every time they want to access it. It’s convenient, but might prove problematic if you lose your unlocked cellphone or laptop (especially if you have your email logged in).  “How much damage could someone do in a few minutes if they visit your stock portfolio page or bank account (which probably have your account name cached), and click the 'email me my lost password'?” he says.

7. Set up a burner. Don't enter details into sites you don't trust. And if you have to, Berry suggests using a “burner” account name – an email account you don't care about. “If it gets compromised or spammed, who cares?” he says, as you can abandon it and set up another one.

And, of course, Berry says, never tell anyone – spouse, employees, support staff, best friend – your passwords.

Texans fire Gary Kubiak, promote Wade Phillips as interim head coach

Losing twice to the Jacksonville Jaguars was the last straw for Gary Kubiak.

The Houston Texans fired Kubiak on Friday morning, team owner Bob McNair announced, mere hours after losing for the second time to the Jaguars — their 11th straight loss this season in a year they entered with Super Bowl aspirations.

“Taking action now instead of waiting allows us the process of finding a new coach,” McNair said at a press conference on Friday. “That process is underway, and those prospects who are not under contract in the NFL are people we can visit with, so we'll start the process.”

Nearly everything has gone wrong for the Texans, who had to claw to win their first two games of the season before dropping their next 11. The Texans benched quarterback Matt Schaub, witnessed the season-ending injury of Arian Foster, made a failed free-agent signing of Ed Reed and saw Kubiak collapse at halftime of a loss to the Indianapolis Colts.

Wade Phillips, who replaced Kubiak while he recuperated midseason, will take over for Kubiak again for the remainder of the season on an interim basis. This will be his fourth interim stint, after previous ones with the New Orleans Saints, Atlanta Falcons and the Texans, counting the earlier fill-in for Kubiak. McNair said Friday that Phillips will earn a chance to interview for the vacant position when the time comes.

Kubiak coached three games shy of eight full seasons in Houston, with a regular-season record of 61-64, despite only two losing seasons prior to this one. Kubiak turned in his two best seasons in 2011 and 2012, with records of 10-6 and 12-4. But the team never could reach a conference championship or, as was the realistic expectation this season, the Super Bowl.

McNair said that Case Keenum, who replaced Schaub as the starter but twice has been benched after starting games, will remain in the starting role so the Texans can determine if he has a future as the team's QB fixture. That would seemingly spell the end for Schaub, who played well Thursday up until a game-ending interception, with the franchise after this season.

The Texans are in line to finish with the NFL's worst record and earn the top pick in the draft, and yet McNair does not view this as a total rebuild.

"This is not a long-term rebuilding process, I want to make that clear. We've got the core group of players." McNair #Texans

— Houston Texans (@HoustonTexans) December 6, 2013

McNair said he will seek candidates with prior head-coaching experience, but it could include a college coach such as Baylor's Art Briles, who previously coached at University of Houston. It also could include former Chicago Bears head coach Lovie Smith, a Texas native, who is not in the NFL this season

Police block Mexico hospital, 6 may have radiation

PACHUCA, Mexico (AP) — Federal police blocked access Friday to a central Mexico hospital where six people were reported to have been admitted with radiation exposure.

An official familiar with the case confirmed Mexican media reports that the six have been admitted to the general hospital in the city of Pachuca and may have been exposed to a stolen source of highly radioactive cobalt-60.
The official, who spoke Friday on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to be quoted by the media, said only one person so far was dizzy and vomiting, symptoms of severe radiation
poisoning. She said two people were admitted on Thursday and four more Friday. She did not provide any other details.

It was not clear if the people under observation were also the thieves, who early Monday stole a cargo truck at gunpoint that was carrying the radioactive material in Hidalgo state, where Pachuca is located.

The federal attorney general's office, which is handling the case, could not be reached for comment on whether suspects were in custody.

The theft triggered alerts in six Mexican states and Mexico City, as well as international notifications to the U.S. and the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. It raised concerns that the material could have been stolen to make a dirty bomb, a conventional explosive that disseminates radioactive material. But Mexican officials said that the thieves seemed to have targeted the cargo truck with moveable platform and crane, and likely didn't know about the dangerous cargo.
View gallery
Men stand next to an unidentified vehicle inside a …
Men stand next to an unidentified vehicle inside a cordoned off area in a field near the village of  …

The atomic energy agency said the cobalt has an activity of 3,000 curries, or Category 1, meaning "it would probably be fatal to be close to this amount of unshielded radioactive material for a period in the range of a few minutes to an hour."

"What I was told yesterday is that there might be two people with severe radiation syndrome, but I do not have confirmation," said Juan Eibenschutz, director general of Mexico's National Commission of Nuclear Safety and Safeguards.

Pedro Luis Noble, health minister for Hidalgo state, told Reforma newspaper that the people believed to be exposed pose no risk to other patients and that they are in an isolated area.

The truck was found abandoned Wednesday about 40 kilometers (24 miles) from where it was stolen, and the container for the radioactive material was found opened. The cobalt-60 pellets were left about a kilometer (half mile) from the truck in an empty rural field, where authorities said they were a risk only to anyone who had handled them and not to anyone in Hueypoxtla, the closest town of about 4,000 people. There was no evacuation.

The material was from obsolete radiation therapy equipment at a hospital in the northern city of Tijuana and was being transported to nuclear waste facility in the state of Mexico, which borders Mexico City.

Eibenschutz said authorities continued to work on Friday at the site in Mexico state where the material was found to extract it safely.

"It's quite an operation and it is in the process of being planned," he said. "It's highly radioactive, so you cannot just go over and pick it up. It's going to take a while to pick it up."

_____

Associated Press writer Adriana Gomez Licon reported from Mexico City.

Coffee shop holds food drive for tip jar thief

Here's something to help restore your faith in humanity. The Nervous Dog Coffee Shop is holding a food drive to help benefit a man who allegedly stole money from the baristas' tip jar.

News of the coffee shop's good deed was reported by WKYC in Ohio. Apparently a man (still unidentified) was caught on camera pilfering money from the employees' tip jar. But instead of going after him with the help of the police, the coffee shop workers decided to give the guy a helping hand.

Manager Scott Moses told WKYC, "He stuck his
hand straight into the tip jar and took out as much as he could get and walked out like nothing happened."

But rather than automatiaclly think the guy is a heartless jerk, Moses said, "we assume that if he was desperate enough to steal tips, he's probably in desperate times."

Both coffee shop locations are taking food donations for the alleged thief and will give them to him if he comes forward, no questions asked, according to WKYC.

An interesitng wrinkle to the story — some people have sounded off on the Nervous Dog's Facebook page that the shop is, in effect, rewarding a crook.  WKYC asked viewers to give their opinions on whether it's an act of generosity or a bad move.

Opinions are mixed. One person wrote, "Rewarding a thief will only make it worse. Desperation is NEVER a reason to steal from others. What happened to asking your local church for help? When is asking for help become something resented while stealing is promoted?"

Another disagreed, writing, "The forgiveness and compassion of the coffee shop is refreshing!!"

If the thief doesn't come forward, the food will go to the Akron Canton Regional Food Bank.

Giant crab ‘miraculously’ survives five days in refrigerator, finds new home at UK aquarium

A giant crab hauled from its home waters off Dartmouth, England, has been named “Santa Claws” because its survival story is regarded as somewhat of a Christmas season miracle.

The colossal crustacean, with hand-sized claws and a 9-inch shell, was captured by a fisherman who decided to deliver the delectable critter to a sick friend, as a get-well present.

Edible crabs, also called brown crabs, are a fine gift for any seafood-loving family, but this crab was stored in a refrigerator for the next five days—and somehow survived.

The family, noticing movement, could not bring itself to cook the crab, so it telephoned Bristol Aquarium, which is now the crab’s home.

“Basically, they didn’t have the heart to kill him. Additionally, they decided they did not have a saucepan big enough to cook him in,” said the aquarium’s David Waines.

“When she told me it had been in there for five days I couldn’t believe it was still alive. I told them to wrap it in a wet towel and bring it along to the aquarium as quickly as possible.”

Bristol Aquarium posted a story on its Facebook page, explaining that the crab is “making a miraculous recovery.”

Waines explained: “Although the crab was very weak when it arrived the fact that it was kept refrigerated meant it was in a kind of suspended animation.”

The crab, estimated to be 15 to 20 years old, was placed in a special tank flowing with oxygen-rich water, and immediately began to show signs of recovery.

“Hopefully it will continue to get better and will be able to enjoy an unexpectedly long retirement here at the aquarium,” Waines said.

Bristol Aquarium named the edible crab—England’s largest species of crab—”Santa Claws,” and hopes it can be a popular draw over the holiday period.

Which is better than the fate of most edible crabs pulled from North Sea waters. These crabs, which are trapped in baited pots, are prized largely for the sweet, white meat contained in their enormous claws.

Those claws, the aquarium states, boast a crushing strength of more than 90 pounds per square inch, or nearly four times the crushing strength of a human hand.

As for the ‘Santa Claws’ story, it’s beginning to get some press in Europe, having been picked up by the BBC and the Bristol Post.