MIAMI (AP) -- Forecasters say Tropical Storm Jova has formed in the Pacific off the coast of Mexico. The National Hurricane Center said Thursday afternoon that Jova was centered about 495 miles (800 kilometers) south-southwest of Manzanillo, Mexico. Forecasters say Jova could become a hurricane by Saturday. The storm's exact path remains uncertain, but models show Jova could make landfall over the mainland of Mexico sometime next week. Jova's maximum sustained winds were near 40 mph (65 kph). Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Irwin also was swirling in the Pacific. It was expected to become a hurricane within a couple of days, but it's not yet clear if Irwin will affect land. In the Atlantic, Hurricane Philippe was far off the U.S. coast and was not expected ... Continue reading →
The zebra and parrot at the Reiter's home in Cascade. (KCRG/The Gazette) Story Created: May 22, 2012 at 1:28 PM CDT Story Updated: May 22, 2012 at 3:13 PM CDT Continue reading →
Niamh Scallan Staff Reporter He’s been dubbed the next Mark Zuckerberg. A six-year-old, gap-toothed entrepreneur impressed the crowds at Seattle Startup Weekend held May 18-20 with his business pitch: GapTooth Stickers. The youngest person to ever present at the Seattle startup event, Ashwin Gowland explained that his stickers could be placed on anything from clothing to fruit to toys and dissolve off the products with water. “One day Mommy went to an event and put a name tag on. But when she came home she forgot to take it off and then threw it in the wash. But the sticker never came off and ruined her favourite shirt,” said Ashwin during his one-minute pitch, his mother and business co-founder Lisa sitting nearby for support. The ... Continue reading →
Liam Casey Staff Reporter Pomegranate juice doesn’t prevent prostate cancer, stave off heart disease or scare away erectile dysfunction, a U.S. judge has ruled in the latest warning to companies exaggerating the health benefits of their products. A Federal Trade Commission administrative law judge upheld a complaint that POM Wonderful misled consumers in 12 of 540 advertisements which made those claims. “We are allowed to make more generalized health claims that the products are healthy and good for heart health, erectile health and prostate health,” said Corey Martin, a spokesman with Roll Global, which makes the juice. “To claim at this time that taking pomegranate juice is the magic bullet that is going to cure these diseases is wrong,” said Venket Rao, a University of ... Continue reading →
Richard J. Brennan National Affairs Writer Val Theroux says just because she loves an oak tree in England doesn’t mean she’s a few acorns short of a bushel. Since 2008, the 64-year-old retired nurse from Kamloops, B.C., has been travelling once a year to Britain to hold workshops in reiki, a type of holistic therapy. But during her trips, she never fails to make time to hug her deciduous friend she met by chance four years ago in Brockenhurst, in the New Forest, Hampshire. “I do love the tree, but I don’t know about being in love with the tree,” said the mother of two who was reached by the Toronto Star in Dublin, Ireland. “It is a lovely, lovely tree that I feel very ... Continue reading →
Lesley Ciarula Taylor Staff Reporter Weather has been so bad on Mount Everest this year’s climbing season that at least one well-known expedition leader cancelled all of his company’s summit climbs. “There were none up to the peak of Everest,” famed climber Namgyal Sherpa told the Star on Tuesday. “We only went to 6,500 metres. It is not so good weather.” Namgyal is a director of the expedition and trekking company Mountain Consult of Katmandu, Nepal. Questions have swirled around how expeditions decide who to take to the 8,848-metre peak after the death of Shriya Shah-Klorfine of Toronto on Saturday. The 33-year-oldwas said to be caught in a traffic jam of 150 people near the summit and was one of four people who died of ... Continue reading →
Myles Estey Special to the Star MEXICO CITY—After nearly a decade at No. 2, last year’s death of Osama bin Laden bumped Mexican drug trafficker Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman to the top of Forbes magazine’s “World’s Most Wanted Man” list. Mexico and the U.S. have put their money where there mouths are, offering $7 million in rewards for his capture. As a July 1 election looms in Mexico, getting Guzman seems more urgent than ever. The recent public dumping of bodies — 49 in one incident near Monterrey last weekend and 18 days before in Guadalajara — along with a recent spree of violence against the press have highlighted a grim reality: after almost six years, President Felipe Calderón’s militarized drug war is as fierce ... Continue reading →
