The Ambassadors Magazine - July 2011

An Algonquin elder who met Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama and was named an officer of the order of Canada has died at age 97 in western Quebec with kidney problems. He was a trapper guide, master canou maker, chief and spiritual leader who won an international following bridging cultures. He was the chief of Kitigan Zibi, a First Nations Reserve in the Outaouais region of Quebec from 1951-1970. In 1990 he was asked to bless Human Right Momentum to Ottawa along with the Dalai Lama. He also presented Mandela with an Eagle Feather in 1998 on behalf of First Nations People. He received numerous awards and honors. He was named an officer of the Order of Canada and received the Key of the City of Ottawa, along with an honorary doctorate from Ottawa University. he also won a lifetime achivement award for his efforts. He was the great grandson of a hereditary Algonquin chief who in the mid-1800s led his people to settle their current territory.

The 85 year old duchess is one of the richest women in Spain. She is a relative of King James II, Winston Churchill and Princess Diana. She intends to marry Alphonso Diez, a Spanish government civil servant, 24 years her junior. The Duchess has undergone significant cosmetic surgery, she shocked in 1978 her nation in when she remarried the former Jesuit priest, Jesus Aguirrey Ortiz De Zarate who died in 2001. . In 2008, it appeared tat the proposed marriage to Mr. Diez has been called off. Her personal wealth is thought to be between 600 million and 3.5 billion Euros. She possesses hundreds of precious paintings, a first edition of Don Quixote , Columbus' first map of America and the last will and testament of Fernando the Catholic father of Catherine of Aragon. She was born in Madrid's Palacio De Lira and she has more titles than any noble on earth. Being a Duchess 7 times over, a Countess 22 times, and Marquesa 24 times. As head of the 539 year old house of Alba, her priviledges include not having to kneel before the Pope. Her six children from previous marriages are blocking her attempts to marry Alphonso Diez. He first marriage was to Pedro Luis Martinez, son of the Duke of Sotomayor who died in 1972.

Over one million persons filled every inch of the sidewalk, every corner of Trafalgar Square and much of Hyde Park. With rays of sunshine, sheer joy and ringing of bells, Prince William and Kate Middleton wed in Buckingham palace, London. As the Rolls Roys passed and the Queen’s characteristic smile was coupled with a wave to the people. A retired nurse from Atlanta who flew from London said “we don’t have princes and princesses in the States and we don’t have any need for them, but they sure have them here and it is worth coming to see them.” At least 5000 police officers and many intelligence officials were present to exercise crowd control. Two billion persons watched the event on their television screens worldwide. With crepe hat and diamond broche, the Queen looked glamorous on this day. Colorfully dressed guests. Canadian governor general David Johnston and his wife. William’s RAF colleagues and the butcher and postman from the Middleton’s home village of Bucklebury. Pippa Middleton stole the show at Westminster Abbey where William the Conqueror was crowned in 1066. The young couple took pains to ensure their wedding was a modern one, from the bride’s flowing hairstyle to her omission of the vow to obey and other traditional ceremonial details. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Britain’s most senior cleric married the couple. Interestingly, a horse that has thrown its rider gallops along the royal wedding’s processional route and he was eventually caught safely. After the wedding, Kate became HRH the Duchess of Cambridge and the Countess of Strathern and Baroness of Carrickfergus. US president Obama and Britain’s last two Prime Ministers did not attend the ceremony. The newlyweds surprised onlookers as they left in a vintage Aston Martin Volant, Prince William drove himself and his bride. Canada's wedding gift will be a $50,000 donation to the Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary. The organization was chosen by William and Kate to be the Canadian beneficiary of a special charitable fund set up to celebrate their wedding. In a statement Thursday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the donation will help the Coast Guard provide a permanent search-and-rescue program and help prevent injuries or loss of life at sea. William and Kate had publicly asked for charitable donations in lieu of traditional gifts. Global News said Harper's wife, Laureen, presented the royal couple with another gift of hiking gear when the royal pair visit Canada this summer. Their tour from June 30 to July 8 took them to Alberta, the Northwest Territories, Prince Edward Island, Quebec and the Ottawa region.

Museum auctioneers were victimized as soaring prices in the far East fuel demand for powered rhino horn. On July 28th, two men forced their way through a fire escape at the rear of the museum and made straight for the rhinoceros where they sawed off the 45cm horn. The theft was just the most recent of a series of similar actions happening across Europe. Last February, the head of a black rhino was taken from Sworders Fine Art auctioneers in Essex, on May 27 a similar head was taken from the educational museum in Haslemere in Surrey. Last month it was the turn of a museum in Liege, Belgium. The Royal Belgian Institute for Natural Science in Brussels suffered a smilar hiest in which the head of a rhino dating back to 1827 was also stolen. Twenty thefts have taken place across Europe in the past 6 months in Portugal, France, Germany, Czech republic, Belgium, Sweden and Britain. Behind the crimes is a demand from the far east and the asian countries for powered rhino horns used in Chinese medicine and is valued as a remedy for everything from fevers and headaches to cancer. The value of a horn is $79,000/kg. (twice the value of gold). There is a strange and very lucrative market in Chinese medicine. Now there are only 20,000 white rhinos and fewer than 5,000 black rhinos in the wild.

Dr. Nancy Mettee, a veterinarian at Loggerhead Marinelife center who cared for Andre, the injured green sea turtle who underwent a year long rehabilitation and innovative operations before being released recently by caretakers hoping he finds a mate and helps his species prosper. She said "he really is a miracle turtle!" The 80kg green sea turtle was found stranded on a sand bar on June 15, 2010 with gaping holes in his shell with more than 1kg if sand inside him, a raging infection, and a collapsed lung. Andre is believed to be about 25 years old. Aaron Lichtig, a scientist said to Andre, go out, live long, prosper and have lots of babies. He was with hundreds cheering for the turtle as Andre was released into the Atlantic. More than 200 people from 25 states sent checks to be honorary adoptive parents. One child sent a card to the Loggerhead Marinelife Center saying "Good luck Andre, have a safe trip." (photo: Lannis Waters/AP). Unfortunately, only three weeks after he was released off the Florida coast, he has been found dead on Hutchinson Island.

The former South African president and anti-apartheid hero, Nelson Mandela, spent his 93rd birthday with friends and relatives in his rural hometown. Millions of school children began their day by singing a special version of "Happy Birthday" to him. He received congratulatory letters from many international figures, including U.S. President Obama who called Mandela, "A beacon for the global community, and for all who work for democracy, justice, and reconciliation." The UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon urged people around the world to make a difference by tutoring a child, feeding the hungry or volunteering at a hospital or community centre. He said, "Topgether the best way we can thank Mandela for his work, is by taking action for others and inspiring change." South African president Jacob Zuma visited Mandela in his home village Qunu nearly 1000km south of Johannesburg to send his regards. In the eyes of many, Mandela is viewed as a living symbol of wisdom, courage and integrity. Mandela became South Africa's first black president in 1994, after spending 27 years in prison for his fight against the racist apartheid rule, and was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.

When the Italian surgeon, Dr. Paolo Zamboni, published his paper mentioning that Multiple Sclerosis (MS), instead of being an incurable auto-immune disease, it can be alleviated by freeing up blocked veins in the neck. He calls the condition, "chronis cerebro-spinal venous insufficiency". He gave hope to MS sufferers worldwide. Last April, the Buffalo-based neurologist, Robert Zivadinov, reported blocked veins in barely half of the latest MS patients, as well as almost one quarter of his healthy test subjects. Therefore he believes that Zamboni's theory is not correct on the cause for MS. In Canada, the federal government will fund trials of the therapy which has divided doctors, patients and politicians to decide if this procedure is safe or not. Interestingly, thousands of Canadians unwilling to wait for the treatment to be approved in their country, mainly have travelled as far as Costa Rica, Poland and Kuwait, to get the procedure done at private medical clinics. At least two patients have died following the surgery, and many others have had serious side effects. It is well known that MS drugs are both costly and problematic, reaching up to $40,000. The most common form of the disease, called relapsing remitting, is characterized by an attack of new or worsening symptoms followed by a period of recovery and stability. The limitations of conventional treatments may explain why some patients choose the controversial "Zamboni" surgical procedure. Other than the surgical option, there is currently a clinical trial of a new oral drug called, "Fingolimod", sold under the brand name Gilenya, with the downside of decreased heart rate and increased risk of infections. To date, no MS drug available is perfect.

Church bells rang at midnight on July 9 to mark the birth of the Republic of South Sudan, after a half century struggle that claimed more than 2 million lives. Africa welcomed its 54th state, the latest since Eritrea split from Ethiopia in 1993. South Sudan's independence is a culmination of a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war with Sudan, which culminated in a January 2011 referendum in which 98% voted to secede from the North and form their own nation The flag of the new country is the former emblem of the Sudan People's Liberation Army - black, red and green horizontal strips with a gold star in a blue triangle. The countries first president is Salva Kiir Mayardit, 60, a former army officer and head of the liberation movement. The population of South Sudan is estimated to be around 8.5 million, mostly Christian but many practice traditional African beliefs. While at least 80% are illiterate, the country is an exporter of oil, and has the potential to be among the largest food producers in Africa.

The former Irish prime minster, Garrett Fitzgerald, negotiated the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement to seek a constitutional way forward for Northern Ireland, and of the North-South Irish peace settlement. He was elected leader of his Fine-Gael in 1977, and became prime minister in June 1981. His reconciliation policies led to the Good Friday agreement. He had studied law at University College, Dublin, and he is the son of poet Desmond Fitzgerald, who had in 1922 become the first foreign minister of the Irish Free State and a founder of Fine Gael. After his party's election defeat in 1987, he left politics and went back to writing and as director of the International Institute of Economic Development and Guinness Peat Aviation. He died last May at the age of 85. On his visit to Dublin, US President Barack Obama offered condolences on his death, describing Dr. FitzGerald as; "someone who believed in the power of education, someone who believe in the potential of youth, someone who believed in the potential of peace and who lived to see that peace realised."

The Irish-born writer and famous playwright, George Bernard Shaw, who wrote a dozen outstanding plays, appears to have had controversial opinions on anything and everything. Professor Leonard Conoly from Trent University says, "that did not make him an authority on everything and anything...And sometimes, I wish he'd just shut up." In Niagra-on-the-Lake, Ontario, his statue will be raised this year during a celebration of the golden anniversary of Shaw Festival, fifty years after it began honouring a man then widely considered the second greatest English-language playwright after Shakespeare, and whose still impressive catalogue include Pygmalion, My Fair Lady, Arms and the Man, and The Heartbreak House. His critics see him as a totalitarian supporter of Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini. In the 1930's, he was a social democrat for the first half of his life, as well as an advocate of women's rights and social equality. After watching the Russian Revolution, he mentioned, "the Bolsheviks changed the world more in four years than Fabian constitutional action seemed likely to do in four hundred." He also endorsed what he called, "positive eugenics" Glenn Beck, the popular Fox News and talk-radio host said, "The man [Shaw] was a monster." In Canada's second largest theatre festival, which draws thousands of spectators yearly, really dedicated to a man who stood for dictators? He was born in Dublin in 1856, twenty years before Thomas Edison invented the phonograph, and forty years before the first motion picture. He lived an exceptionally long time, dying at the age of 94.

Pali Nath believes that his cobras are1000 years old. His trade, as snake charmer, is an ancient integral part of Indian culture. He plies it at weddings and other occasions, and sometimes on the pavement at busy crossroads in Delhi. When he begins to play his flute, lifts the lid of a whickered basket of coiled cobra snakes, the music sways of the serpents out. Delhi is a modernizing city, with ancient practice of snake charming. In 2003, Delhi's Wildlife Department ordered all city residents with wild animals to register their beasts - dancing bears, trained elephants, festive camels, performing monkeys, fourtune-telling parrots, and rats that predict the future. The municipal government of Delhi recently summoned Mr. Nath and his colleagues to have their snakes microchipped. However, only 10 snake charmers, with a total of 43 snakes, came forward for the microchipping. Mr. Nath speaks of his charm with snakes, recalling, "I have caught snakes at the Kuwaiti Embassy, home of the Minister of External Affairs and at the Railway Museum." He feeds them with de-boned chicken, fish, and yogurt in the summer. He believes that he has a mystical and religious relationship with his snakes, bonding them together with music. "It is a talent, a work of art, and now legalized with a certificate," says Mr. Nath.

Staff at an animal charity have named an abandoned kitten "Kitler" - because she bears an uncanny resemblance to the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. The kitten has a black marking over its nose .. The six-week-old cat - which was abandoned at the roadside - earned the moniker because of her distinctive black moustache. Staff at Wood Green animal shelter in Godmanchester, Cambs., say they are struggling to find her a loving home because of her unusual markings. Spokeswoman Tara Dundon said: ''Kitler is an adorable little girl who will make a wonderful addition to the right family. She is really playful and a typical sweet kitten. ''We re-home five and a half thousand animals every year but we cannot find a loving owner for Kitler. We think her unusual markings are putting people off. ''She is not a specific breed and we don't know where her black and white patches came from because we have no idea who her parents are.

That is how relationships are described among the Mosuo people, one of the last matriarchical societies, where men usually live with their mothers and can visit their female partners but are expected to return to their mother's home. Home to one of the world's last surviving maternal lead societies is under threat from commercialism and intruding patriarchy. China that surrounds them is a place where men rule and where women are thought as a burden. The Mosuo people put women at the center of society and where children inherit their mother's names and where women are authoritative figures. Children grow up in households where four generations of women. In fact their is no word in their language for father or husband. Instead, the equivalent of matrimony in the Mosuo culture is the concept of "walking marriages" where the man is invited to a woman's home to consummate but is expected to return to his mother's home. There is no contractual agreement and no responsibilities for the rearing of children. The head of the wunquan village north of Lugu lake says, I" think female leaders are softer and deal with disputes in a more peaceful way than men. Men use strength. I always joke that if women rule the world it would be more peaceful."

On 2 July 1961, Mary, the wife of the most macho of American writers Ernest Hemingway, announced that he had accidently killed himself while cleaning his shotgun at their summer home in Ketchum, Idaho. The author of the Old Man and the Sea in 1951, and Nobel laureate had killed himself just days after receiving electro-shock treatment for depression. His pedigree analysis showed that his father shot himself in 1928. Eventually his grandmother, Margaux, and his younger brother and sister killed themselves too. The question to be asked becomes, "Is there an autosomal dominant gene causing these suicides across three generations?! Interestingly, on 29 July 1890, artist Vincent Van Gogh committed suicide by mutilating and shooting himself outside the village of Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris. In 1990, Christie's sold a self-portrait he completed shortly before his death for a record $82.5 million.

The gifted politico-social cartoonist, Ahmed Toughan, 84, was elected as the chairman of the Egyptian Cartoonists Association. As his first major event, he hosted a special exhibition last July dedicated to presenting cartoons on the January 25 Revolution at Sayyit El-Sawy in Zamalek district of Cairo Almost 100 artists and cartoonists presented over 500 works. Among those famous artists who participated include Mustafa Hussein, Gomaa, Hegazy, Farahat, El-Bahgoury, Adel El-Batrawy, Abdelaziz Tag, among others.Cartoonist Abdel Halim Taha displayed 18 piece from his new book, "Sura fi Karikateir" (An Image in Caricature), which will be released in Arabic, English, French and German.

Professor Gonzalo Rojas lived to be 93 years of age when he died in April of 2011. He was the writer of his land. While Pablo Neruda was the poet of Chile's ocean, Rojas was the poet of the land. In a career spanning seven decades he published a collected works entitled Metamorfosis de lo Mismo (Metamorphosis of the Same). He is the son of a coal miner from the south of the country. He published his first poerm at 17, but was not until 30 in 1948 that his first volume, the Misery of Man appeared. The imagery of his early verses was influenced by surrealism although he always insisted that he learned more from the miners of Chile than he did from the surrealists. He taught Spanish poetry at the university of Valparaiso and his students included Chile's current President Sebastian Pinera. In the 1960 he was close friends with another president Salvador Allende even though he never joined Allende's socialist party or the communists. His exile by Pinochet attached him to Germany where he was offered a professorship at Rostock University. He returned to Chile in 1979 where he taught and he also taught at several universities in the United States. He settled in southern Chile and was given the 2002 Poet of Chile Award and the following year he was given the prestigious Cervantes prize. He said, "I would probably be more known if I joined the Communist Party of Chile, but known for what?" (photo: Diario La Tercera/AP)

She is a professor in the faculty of education of St. Francis Xavier and an active community member in the small coastal town of Antigonish, NS, Canada. To pay for her teaching qualifications she worked as a janitor cleaning rooms. She was born in May 1968 in Zimbabwe. Her father was not willing to send a girl to go to school. She had to rebel in order for her to advance and to go against her culture. In 1993 her husband earned a scholarship to study at the University of New Brunswick. She spent a year as a Chambermaid at the Lord Beaverbrook Hotel in Fredericton, NB while she worked on a diploma in advanced undergraduates studies. She continued to study and the following year she began her Masters degree. In the mid 1990s she and her husband returned to Zimbabwe and both secured jobs where she taught high school geography and commerce. In 1999 she visited Canada and began pursuing a PhD and UNB. She earned a Commonwealth Scholarship to conduct interviews in Zimbabwe. She returned again to Canada in 2001 and worked as a research assistant for the Spirit of Democracy Project. Her PhD research focused on political participation of African migrants and multicultural education. She completed her PhD and in 2005 landed a teaching position at St. F.X. Her research interests are in multicultural education, citizenship education, migration and integration of immigrants, global education and inclusive practices. In 2007, her paper “Civic Duty: Young People’s Conceptions of Voting as Means of Political Participation” earned her the Jackson Award for best English Language article published in Canada. She was recently named associate professor. She lost her life on March 16, 2011 at the age of 42 in her Antigonish home. Her husband was charged with murder.

Joanna Russ is a gifted American science fiction writer. She is best known for her 1975 novel The Female Man. This book told the stories of four women in different moments in history. Joanna the contemporary woman and three other egos: Jeannine who dwells in a dismal past; Jael, a warrior who inhabits a world where the war between women and men is literal; and Janet the utopian. She helped inaugurate the now-flourishing tradition of feminist science fiction. She also published essays, criticism and short fiction. In 1983 she was a writer for the New York Times and she is the winner of the Hugo Award for Souls a historical fantasy novel about a 12^th century abyss who must defend against invading, sexually brutalizing norse men and Nebula Award in 1972 for the story “When it changed: A precursor of the female man.

It took 64 years for the Indian newspaper NaiDunia to reach a circulation of half a million. Since then, the paper publication has soared a stunning 63.5% to 800,000 copies a day. The publisher and owner says this is just the start. By 2016 the newspaper hopes to reach a circulation 16 million more than the top three US dailies, USA Today, The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Newspaper readership in India has increased significantly over the last years due to high literacy, and economic boom, and expanding middle class. The owner of the newspaper is one of many trying to take advantage of this remarkable growth. The paper set up an office in Delhi and started 6 local regional edition, a think Sunday edition and a glossy magazine supplement. NaiDunia was founded by a pair of freedom fighters weeks before Indian independence in 1947 has an editorial staff of less than 100 people. Every edition will be shared among many households so the journal includes business, education and religious content, as well as Hollywood gossip.

Wael Ghonim, an Egyptian who oversees Google’s Marketing in ME and Africa who inspired the revolt in his country by starting a Facebook Page dedicated to a young man Khaled Said killed is writing a book entitled The Revolution which will include a memoir about the uprising in Egypt would come out next January. 14 million Egyptian pounds. It is believed that he may run for parliament. http://www.iranhumanrights.org/wp-content/uploads/Wael-Ghonim.jpg

In 1984 Catherine Lin published a little article in Singapore’s Straits-Times newspaper when she was only 17 years old mentioning that the long ruling party and Prime Minister Chok Tonj had done a good job running the country’s economy but little to endear itself to those it governed. Her columns were not welcomed and she angered the country’s political figure and authoritarian founder, Lee Kuan Yew, known by the acronym LKY. She now blogs on her own website. Political scientists credit her with getting out the youth vote which swung heavily behind the opposition. She said Singaporeans are just discovering in the wake of the May 7 vote, that there is no way to go back to the LKY period. It is over, over, over!

Muhammad Younes stepped down from post as Managing Director of Grameen Bank which he founded 30 years ago. Deputy Managing Director Begum will take over until the Board names a new director. Prof. Younis who won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for fighting poverty by lending small amounts of money to mostly women. The bank has 8.3 million members in villages across the country and 22,000 employees. Government action again Prof. Younes began in late 2010. It is well known that the bank and its many enterprises makes it the largest business in Bangladesh.

Albert Einstein, who was the face of genius to the world died in Princeton, NJ age 76 on April 18, 1955. Star-struck pathologist pickled his brain and eventually handed parts of it to McMaster University’s Sandra Witelson, who found anatomical difference that may be linked to his unusual intellect. The German-born theorum was only 26 when he published the most family equation of all time e=mc2 which led to the atom bomb. He campaigned for nuclear disarmament until his death.

There are only 238 certified geriatricians in Canada. Canadian seniors are the fastest growing segment of the population with 4.8 million are over 65. The figure will double to 10 million in 2036 and by 2051, 1 in every 4 Canadians will be over 65. An additional 500 more are required plus more family physicians to treat the elderly. Becoming a geriatrician requires extensive training—3 years of internal medicine and 2 additional years in geriatrics. Geriatricians look at medical, social and psychological issues and deal with memory loss, urinary incontinence, osteoporosis and multiple medication issues. The Canadian Geriatrics Society has made several recommendations for affordable care such as home care and supportive housing.

Professor Hamdy El-Sayed, the distinguished cardiac surgeon and Professor Zahi Hawass, the internationally-renowned Egyptologist, were both criticized by their colleagues and those who worked under them after the January 25 Revolution in Egypt. El-Sayed, who was chairman of the Egyptian Medical Association called it quits, refusing to nominate himself in the next elections; deciding to rather focus on his medical practice. While Hawass resigned from his post as Minister of Antiquities, which he had been appointed to recently. Many Egyptians voiced their disagreement with the public attack against El-Sayed and Hawass, arguing that their professional record should outweigh their political affiliation to the disgraced National Democratic Party (NDP) of the deposed President Hosni Mubarak.

Flight sergeant, Bruce Beatty, who assisted nine Governor General's of Canada, passed away last March in Ottawa. He spent three decades designing almost every single medal created by the federal government. He joined the Royal Candian Air Force (RCAF). After deigning the Order of Canada, he next designed the Canadian Centennial Medal, established to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Confederation in 1967. He also personally received a medal three times; made a member of the Order of Canada in 1990 and becoming a Fellow of the Royal Heraldry Society of Canada in 1977. He continued to design medals until 2000, including the Canadian Peacekeeping Medal - awarded to 72,000 military personnel.

The Value My Stuff website was tasted when a client consulted them about an unidentifiable but evidently quite old metal implement. Van der Vorst who founded what has been described as the online version of the Antiques Roadshow. He worked at Sotheby's Auction House for 13 years, before founding Value My Stuff. He said that ceramic objects account for most of the valuation requests on his website. A Chinese vase found in the house of a deceased London woman sold for $83 million, more than 40 times the estimate prior to auction. "There are many wealthy collectors who are buying back their cultural heritage," said van der Vorst. Most of his customers are from Europe, with some clients in North America as well. For clients who receive a valuation of their items, they are given the choice to sell at an auction house, an antiques dealer or a memorabilia dealer.

After the delivery of Louise Joy Brown on 25 July 1978, the first "test-tube" baby. More than 4.3 million babies have been born by in vitro fertilization (IVF) globally. Louise came to the world by caesarian section at 11:47 pm - 5lbs 11 ounces. She was a beautiful 8-celled embryo, the first human conceived outside the human body. The British doctors Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards used the sperm of John Brown to fertilize his wife's egg in a test-tube, and implanted the embryo in Leslie Brown's womb 2.5 days later. At the time, she gave hope to infertile couples, who today often resort to this procedure in order to conceive their own babies.

Andrew Towle, 19 years old, was deemed ineligible for high school competition. His coach believes autistic youth thrive in solitary sports because they have less body contact to overwhelm their senses. As he walked through of the doors of Ottawa Technical, the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations. Autistic athletes are finding a natural fit and a sense of normalcy in endurance sports. The persistent child is now one of the top long distance runners in the Ottawa region and won a spot to compete in the provincial championships.

Last May, at the invitation of the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affair, youth leaders from the Tunisian, Egyptian, and Libyan revolutions were hosted to discuss their experience organizing uprisings in their respective countries. These included co-administrator of the Facebook page that called for the January 25 protests, Nadine Wahab and founder of a Tunisian activist blog, Riadh Guerfali. It is worthy of note that the discussions at the conference did not delve into the revolutions in neighboring Bahrain, Yemen or Syria. The conference featured attendees from around the world, including former Governor General of Canada Michelle Jean, Haitian singer Wyclef Jean, US civil rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson and many others. Following the lively and heated debates during the event, there was genuine interest in what next year's iteration of the Doha Forum might look like given all the dramatic changes happening in the Middle East region.

The Lancet medical journal published last June an article about the high cost of immunization programs and problem with new vaccine development. The widespread use of vaccine is responsible largely eradicating or reducing the incidence of small pox, diphtheria, measles. The development of new vaccines is promising. Experts hope to be able to vaccinate against HIV, malaria, TB, leprosy and even against non-infectious diseases and hypertension.

A trove of Medieval jewelry and other precious objects found by a man working in his back yard include pieces made for a royal court. They include more than 100 rings broches, ornate belt buckles, gold-plated silver plates, and other pieces of fragments many encrusted with pearls, fossilized coral or other ornaments. The objects weigh approximately 3kg. The man who found them in 2007, in the town of Weiner south of Vienna.

During 4 and half months in orbit, astronaut Paolo Nespoli was able to keep in touch with his ailing mother in Italy from the International Space Station via a video linkup. But he will miss her funeral. Maria Motta, 78 years old, died at home in Verano, Brianza, in northern Italy while her elders son, 45 years of age continued his mission. The European Space Agency is trying to set up a satellite uplink so that her son can participate in the funerary service.

President Goodluck Jonathan was elected last April in a divided land with ethnic tensions between the southern Christians and the northern Muslims. He won with 57% of the vote. He cast his ballot in his home village of Otuke in Bayelsa State on 16 April. President Jonathan, 53, a fedora-wearing zoologist, had relentlessly courted the youth vote, building his profile on Facebook and recruiting staff who worked on Barack Obama's 2008 campaign in the US. The president now faces the twin threats of impossibly high expectations in the south of the country, and deep suspicion and skepticism in the north. He will have to work hard to bring the divided nation together - and all agree that he needs good luck!