Hong Kong Herald
Saturday 4th September, 2010
(IANS)
Shanghai residents, including students and migrant workers, will now be provided free condoms through more than 9,000 vending machines to be set up across this business capital of China.
Condom vending machines will be put up in dormitory buildings, restrooms and laundries 'where students can help themselves', officials from the city's family planning service said, according to Shanghai Daily.
Local residents can get free condoms at over 9,000 sites across the city, including residential buildings, officials said.
Tang Wenjuan, an official with the Shanghai Health Bureau, said they decided to offer free condoms to meet students' needs and promote safe sex.
Tang, however, said: 'The condoms bought from vending machines (outside the campus) are of a better quality than the free ones, and students can choose themselves.'
Over the past 10 years, the city administration had put up around 3,000 vending machines in the streets to sell condoms at 1 yuan (15 cents) each. But now, many of the machines are broken and covered with rust, and not many people use them, he said.
The administration has also set up over 3,600 condom outlets in areas having high concentration of migrant workers for distributing free contraceptives.
Condoms and other contraceptives were previously given free only to local people holding a permanent residency permit. Migrant workers had to purchase them either at stores or from condom vending machines installed in the city's streets, China Daily reported Saturday.
Over the past two years, officials have tried to make them more available in areas having migrant communities - like construction sites and railway stations - in an effort to combat HIV/AIDS, said an official at a condom distribution centre, which also dispenses contraceptive pills.
'As a result of the campaign, the number of free contraceptives used by migrant workers has surpassed that of locals,' the official said.
Migrant workers were, however, unsure about the campaign.
Zhu Aiqin, 27, from Anhui province, who works at a local restaurant, said she would not use free condoms, since she could not be sure of their quality, while Xing Dongwei, a 23-year-old security guard, said he would rather purchase them from stores for convenience and to protect his privacy.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
The 106-year-old virgin
http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/news/3124756/Isa-Blyth-is-the-106-year-old-virgin.html
SPRIGHTLY Isa Blyth will celebrate turning 106 today - and puts her amazing age down to being a VIRGIN.
Isa has never even been KISSED and thinks staying single has made her stay strong.
Last night her niece Sheena Campbell, 67, said: "I'm not sure if anyone ever tried it on - but they never got anywhere! She says she never felt the need for romance and never had time for a man.
"She did like the odd sherry though."
Isa, born in 1904, instead kept herself busy going to flower club and church, singing in the choir, and playing golf or gardening.
She's always lived in Edinburgh and worked for 35 years as a private secretary at whisky producer North British Distilleries in the city.
Sheena said: "She was wrapped up in her church and she loved her choir and flower club.
"And she had a high-powered job, which meant she was always busy.
"I think she was also a bit of a maiden lady as she was the first-born and acted as a head with her six brothers and sisters.
"She never had time to be sad. She's an amazing character. You wouldn't believe she was 106."
Isa will celebrate her birthday with a cake and champagne at the care home where she lives.
SPRIGHTLY Isa Blyth will celebrate turning 106 today - and puts her amazing age down to being a VIRGIN.
Isa has never even been KISSED and thinks staying single has made her stay strong.
Last night her niece Sheena Campbell, 67, said: "I'm not sure if anyone ever tried it on - but they never got anywhere! She says she never felt the need for romance and never had time for a man.
"She did like the odd sherry though."
Isa, born in 1904, instead kept herself busy going to flower club and church, singing in the choir, and playing golf or gardening.
She's always lived in Edinburgh and worked for 35 years as a private secretary at whisky producer North British Distilleries in the city.
Sheena said: "She was wrapped up in her church and she loved her choir and flower club.
"And she had a high-powered job, which meant she was always busy.
"I think she was also a bit of a maiden lady as she was the first-born and acted as a head with her six brothers and sisters.
"She never had time to be sad. She's an amazing character. You wouldn't believe she was 106."
Isa will celebrate her birthday with a cake and champagne at the care home where she lives.
8-kg breasts weighing down 16-year-old girl
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90782/7091554.html
Xiaowei, a 16-year-old girl, used to be a happy and vivacious junior school student. Unfortunately, everything has been changed since she got macromastia, a rare condition where both breast grow to an abnormally large size. She became sensitive and antisocial.
Xiaowei found something wrong with her breasts in July 2009. However, she kept it secret until September 2009 when her elder sister found that Xiaowei's breasts sagged to her bellybutton. The 8-kilogram breasts have made the thin girl exhausted.
The reports on this unfortunate girl covered by various media have caught Chinese society's attention. Hainan Women & Infants Hospital decided to give Xiaowei free treatment.
A surgery to reduce her breast size will be conducted on Aug. 4. If it is successful, Xiaowei will return to a normal life soon.
Hinews.cn contributes to this story.
Bananas could be key to stopping spread of Aids, say scientists
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1258144/Bananas-key-stopping-spread-Aids.html
Bananas may hold the key to powerful new treatments that protect against the Aids virus.
In laboratory tests, scientists found that a banana ingredient called BanLec was as potent as two existing anti-HIV drugs.
They believe cheap therapies based on BanLec have the potential to save millions of lives.
The ingredient is a lectin, a naturally occurring chemical in plants that fights infection.
Researchers in the U.S. found that the lectin found in bananas can inhibit HIV infection by blocking the virus's entry into the body. BanLec acts on the protein 'envelope' that encloses HIV's genetic material.
Lead author Michael Swanson, from the University of Michigan, said: 'The problem with some HIV drugs is that the virus can mutate and become resistant, but that's much harder to do in the presence of lectins.
'Lectins can bind to the sugars found on different spots of the HIV-1 envelope, and presumably it will take multiple mutations for the virus to get around them.'
The research is reported in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
BanLec was as effective in the laboratory as two anti-HIV drugs now in use, T-20 and maraviroc, the scientists found.
Mr Swanson is developing a process to alter BanLec and make it suitable for human patients.
The researchers believe it could be used alone or in conjunction with other anti-HIV drugs.
Even modest success could potentially save millions of lives around the world, they claim.
Currently new HIV infections are outstripping the rate at which new patients receive anti-HIV drugs by 2.5 to one, say the authors.
Professor David Marvovits, from the University of Michigan Medical School, said: 'HIV is still rampant in the US and the explosion in poorer countries continues to be a bad problem because of tremendous human suffering and the cost of treating it.'
Bananas may hold the key to powerful new treatments that protect against the Aids virus.
In laboratory tests, scientists found that a banana ingredient called BanLec was as potent as two existing anti-HIV drugs.
They believe cheap therapies based on BanLec have the potential to save millions of lives.
The ingredient is a lectin, a naturally occurring chemical in plants that fights infection.
Researchers in the U.S. found that the lectin found in bananas can inhibit HIV infection by blocking the virus's entry into the body. BanLec acts on the protein 'envelope' that encloses HIV's genetic material.
Lead author Michael Swanson, from the University of Michigan, said: 'The problem with some HIV drugs is that the virus can mutate and become resistant, but that's much harder to do in the presence of lectins.
'Lectins can bind to the sugars found on different spots of the HIV-1 envelope, and presumably it will take multiple mutations for the virus to get around them.'
The research is reported in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
BanLec was as effective in the laboratory as two anti-HIV drugs now in use, T-20 and maraviroc, the scientists found.
Mr Swanson is developing a process to alter BanLec and make it suitable for human patients.
The researchers believe it could be used alone or in conjunction with other anti-HIV drugs.
Even modest success could potentially save millions of lives around the world, they claim.
Currently new HIV infections are outstripping the rate at which new patients receive anti-HIV drugs by 2.5 to one, say the authors.
Professor David Marvovits, from the University of Michigan Medical School, said: 'HIV is still rampant in the US and the explosion in poorer countries continues to be a bad problem because of tremendous human suffering and the cost of treating it.'
Woman in China stops cars and collects toll...in her bra
A woman was seen stopping vehicles and collecting a toll from the drivers on North Street in Xian City, China, wearing only her bra.
STOMPer aBraCadeBra, who came across the photos online, said:
"This woman, clad in a bra, stopped cars on North Street in Xian City and demanded toll from the drivers.
"The woman, who seemed to be between 30 and 40 years old, was seen with a towel over her head. Some drivers speculated it was because of the hot weather (45 degrees Celsius).
"The woman would read out the vehicle numbers, then knocking onto the side mirror of the cars and demanding they paid toll. She was also seen skilfully directing traffic.
"When one woman driver refused to pay the toll, she went on top of her car and stepped on her windscreen with her stilettoes, cracking the glass.
"After jumping down from the car, she also used her high heeled shoe to beat on the left-hand side of the Black Honda.
"The female driver was so terrified that she hid behind the driver's seat.
"Are their toll collectors there that vicious and scary? This is rather violent!
"I'm glad we only have to face the ERP here."
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