Australian surgeons at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney have performed the first heart transplant using a “dead heart”.
Donor hearts from adults usually come from people who are confirmed as brain dead but with a heart still beating.
Specialists at Sydney hospital revived and then transplanted hearts that had stopped beating for up to 20 minutes.
The first patient who received a heart said she felt a decade younger and was now a “different person”.
Hearts are the only organ that is not used after the heart has stopped beating – known as donation after circulatory death.
Beating hearts are normally taken from brain-dead people, kept on ice for around four hours and then transplanted to patients.
Australian surgeons at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney have performed the first heart transplant using a dead heart
The novel technique used in Sydney involved taking a heart that had stopped beating and reviving it in a machine known as a “heart-in-a-box”.
The heart is kept warm, the heartbeat is restored and a nourishing fluid helps reduce damage to the heart muscle.
The first person to have the surgery was Michelle Gribilas, 57, who was suffering from congenital heart failure. She had the surgery more than two months ago.
“Now I’m a different person altogether,” she said.
“I feel like I’m 40 years old – I’m very lucky.”
There have since been a further two successful operations.
Prof. Peter MacDonald, head of St Vincent’s heart transplant unit, said: “This breakthrough represents a major inroad to reducing the shortage of donor organs.”
It is thought the heart-in-a-box, which is being tested at sites around the world, could save up to 30% more lives by increasing the number of available organs.
The breakthrough has been welcomed around the world.
Similar methods of warming and nourishing organs before transplant have been used to improve the quality of lung and liver transplants.
Stem cells could be turned into killing machines to fight brain cancer, scientists from Harvard Medical School have discovered.
In experiments on mice, the stem cells were genetically engineered to produce and secrete toxins which kill brain tumors, without killing normal cells or themselves.
Researchers said the next stage was to test the procedure in humans.
A stem cell expert said this was “the future” of cancer treatment.
The study, published in the journal Stem Cells, was the work of scientists from Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.
For many years, they had been researching a stem-cell-based therapy for cancer, which would kill only tumor cells and no others.
They used genetic engineering to make stem cells that spewed out cancer-killing toxins, but, crucially, were also able to resist the effects of the poison they were producing.
They also posed no risk to normal, healthy cells.
In animal tests, the stem cells were surrounded in gel and placed at the site of the brain tumor after it had been removed.
Their cancer cells then died as they had no defense against the toxins.
Stem cells could be turned into killing machines to fight brain cancer
Dr. Khalid Shah, lead author and director of the molecular neurotherapy and imaging lab at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, said the results were very positive.
“After doing all of the molecular analysis and imaging to track the inhibition of protein synthesis within brain tumors, we do see the toxins kill the cancer cells.”
He added: “Cancer-killing toxins have been used with great success in a variety of blood cancers, but they don’t work as well in solid tumors because the cancers aren’t as accessible and the toxins have a short half-life.”
But genetically engineering stem cells has changed all that, he said.
“Now, we have toxin-resistant stem cells that can make and release cancer-killing drugs.”
Dr. Khalid Shah now plans to test the technique using a number of different therapies on mice with glioblastoma, the most common brain tumor in human adults. He hopes the therapies could be used in clinical trials within the next five years.
Tonight, Russia is turning back its clocks for the last time to permanently adopt winter hours.
Three months ago, President Vladimir Putin has announced that Russia will permanently switch to winter time on October 26, 2014.
The move will reduce the time difference between Moscow and most of Europe by an hour.
Russia already has nine time zones – but now the area around the Volga River will run one hour ahead of Moscow, and the country’s remote Kamchatka and Chukotka regions in the far east will be nine hours ahead – giving Russia a total of 11 time zones. Correspondents say the aim is to make sure local time matches the rising of the sun as closely as possible.
For the last three years, Russia experimented with keeping permanent summer time, but it proved to be highly unpopular with many Russians.
Russia will permanently switch to winter time on October 26, 2014
The Soviet Union introduced Daylight Saving Time in 1981.
In 2011, then President Dmitry Medvedev introduced measures to reduce Russia’s time zones to nine, and to keep summer time all year round.
Russians put their clocks forward one hour but did not put them back in winter time.
Changing times in the seasons disrupted people’s biorhythms and even upset cows, Dmitry Medvedev said.
However, during winter many Russians in the north complained about living in darkness, where there are fewer hours of sunlight closer to the Arctic Circle.
At a news conference in Moscow, representatives of the Russian Academy of Sciences said that Europe would now be closer as the difference between the capital and Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) would only be three hours.
The deputy director of the Geography Institute, Arkady Tishkov, said he was against the latest change because he believed it was carried out to please advertisers as it would result in, he believes, more people watching television.
When Crimea was annexed by Russia from Ukraine in March, Crimea’s time was adjusted to match Moscow time (GMT +4).
Qari Hashim, one of the suspects in the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl, has been set free by an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan.
Qari Hashim was detained in 2005 and held in jail in Hyderabad, a southern city in Pakistan, during his trial.
The court acquitted Qari Hashim because of a lack of evidence, his lawyer said.
American journalist Daniel Pearl went missing in Karachi in January 2002
Daniel Pearl went missing in Karachi in January 2002. A month later authorities said he had been killed after receiving video footage of his beheading.
In May 2002, a decapitated body was found in a shallow grave.
DNA test proved it was Daniel Pearl, who was South Asia bureau chief at the Wall Street Journal.
Omar Sheik, the alleged mastermind of the murder, was sentenced to death in 2002. Three other men were sentenced to life imprisonment.
Cream bassist Jack Bruce has died aged 71, his publicist confirms.
Legendary group Cream, which also included Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker, are now considered one of the most important bands in rock history.
Cream sold 35 million albums in just over two years and was given the first ever platinum disc for Wheels of Fire.
Jack Bruce wrote and sang most of the songs, including I Feel Free and Sunshine Of Your Love.
Born in the Glasgow suburb of Bishopbriggs in 1943, Jack Bruce’s parents travelled extensively in Canada and the USA and the young Jack attended 14 different schools.
He finished his formal education at Bellahouston Academy and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music, to which he won a scholarship for cello and composition.
Jack Bruce wrote and sang most of Cream’s songs
Jack Bruce left the academy and Scotland at the age of 16 and eventually found his way to London where he became a member of the influential Alexis Korner’s Blues Inc, where Charlie Watts, later to join the Rolling Stones, was the drummer.
He played in a number of bands throughout the early 60s, including John Mayall’s Blues Breakers and Manfred Mann before joining Eric Clapton and Baker in Cream.
Cream split in November 1968 at the height of their popularity, with Jack Bruce feeling he had strayed too far from his ideals.
Jack Bruce never again reached the commercial heights he did with Cream but his reputation as one of the best bass guitarists in the business grew throughout the subsequent decades.
In May 2005, Jack Bruce reunited with his former Cream bandmates for a series of concerts at London’s Royal Albert Hall.
Jack Bruce’s death was announced on his official website, and confirmed by his publicist Claire Singers.
Claire Singers said: “He died today at his home in Suffolk surrounded by his family.”
A statement from Jack Bruce’s family said: “It is with great sadness that we, Jack’s family, announce the passing of our beloved Jack: husband, father and granddad and all-round legend.
“The world of music will be a poorer place without him, but he lives on in his music and forever in our hearts.”
For gun control activists, 2008 was the year the floodgates opened. That’s when the Supreme Court ruled on District of Columbia v. Heller, a landmark challenge to the constitutionality of DC’s 32-year ban on handguns. In a remarkable 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court held that the personal right to own a gun for lawful purposes, such as self-defense, is a guarantee under the Constitution.
The court did not finish there. In 2010, it further strengthened Second Amendment rights by overturning Chicago’s handgun ban with its 5-4 decision in McDonald v. City of Chicago. Following these two legal decisions, and spurred on by mass shootings in Colorado, Arizona, and Connecticut, the gun control lobby has gone into overdrive. It continues to push legislations that chip away at the Second Amendment.
Image via Flickr by Jim Wrigley Photography
Universal Background Checks
Universal background checks are the least intrusive measure in the gun control arsenal. While federal law already requires background checks for any weapons sold by licensed gun dealers, gun control activists want those checks to extend to every gun transaction. This includes live auctions over the Internet, gun shows, and private sales.
A private seller does not need to perform a background check on the buyer, but certain states such as California require that you do. If you know that the buyer has a criminal history or suffers from a mental illness or drug addiction, you are legally allowed to refuse to sell him or her a firearm without performing a background check.
Magazine Bans
Image via Flickr by Mojave Desert
There are eight states, plus the District of Columbia, that have passed laws restricting magazine capacity. In New Jersey and Colorado, the limit is 15 rounds. In states such as California, Connecticut, DC, and Massachusetts the limit is 10. However, some states, such as Colorado and Massachusetts, grandfathered certain magazines before laws came into effect. Check your date of purchase, as you may be eligible to keep your large capacity magazine.
Law enforcement officers in Colorado recently sued the state over its newly enacted gun control laws, claiming they were unconstitutional and unenforceable; the judge ruled against them based on lack of standing.
Assault Weapons Ban
Image via Flickr by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
In 2003, a decade-long federal ban on “assault weapons” expired. After the Sandy Hook shootings, renewing this ban became a primary focus of gun control groups. Unfortunately, most of the groups pushing for a ban had little understanding of the weapon they were proposing to ban, focusing more on cosmetic alterations. The AR-15, America’s most popular rifle, became their primary enemy. However, there was little support for this ban. Furthermore, a Justice Department study showed the federal ban actually failed to save any lives. It is no longer a primary aim of the largest gun control groups.
Gun Registries
Second only to an outright ban, federal gun registries are the Holy Grail for gun control activists. This is because a gun registry does not track guns so much as it identifies and registers gun owners. This makes it easy to disarm certain classes of people. The Nazis used a national gun registry to disarm its political opponents and the Jews.
States such as Hawaii and the District of Columbia require owners to register their guns. Some states, such as New York, require registration of certain guns (handguns). Check with your state to see whether you need to register your gun, especially if you own different firearms.
Know Your Rights
While the Supreme Court has reaffirmed universal Second Amendment rights, laws still vary from state to state regarding concealed carry, open carry, magazine capacity, and other limitations. The most recent example of the tragedy that can occur over disparate gun laws is Shaneen Allen, a single mother from Pennsylvania who faced prison time over her legally owned and carried gun. At a routine traffic stop in New Jersey, Ms. Allen, a Pennsylvania resident, disclosed to the officer that she had a concealed carry permit and her handgun was in the car. The police immediately took her to jail. She faces a mandatory prison sentence because of New Jersey’s extremely restrictive gun control laws.
Even though the Second Amendment right to gun ownership is universal and guaranteed under the Constitution, it’s still important to understand the gun laws of any state. If you travel and plan to bring your gun, know the rights of each state to avoid trouble.
Chiquita shareholders have voted against a merger deal with Irish rival Fyffes.
As a result, the US-based banana company will enter talks with Brazil’s Cutrale and Safra following its $14.50 a share offer.
The announcement sent shares in Fyffes down 5% to 94 cents in Dublin, while Chiquita shares rose 3% to $14.16 in New York.
The Brazilian groups raised their offer by 4% on Thursday ahead of the shareholder vote.
The Fyffes deal, first announced in March, would have created the world’s largest banana supplier, with $4.6 billion in annual revenues.
Chiquita chief executive Edward Lonergan said: “While we are convinced [Fyffes] would have been a strong merger partner, we will now go forward as competitors.”
Chiquita shareholders have voted against a merger deal with Irish rival Fyffes (photo Getty Images)
The Brazilian consortium had said their revised bid, which valued Chiquita at about $682 million, offered shareholders 20% more than the Fyffes bid.
Chiquita had said ahead of the meeting that that it would only enter talks with Cutrale, a fruit juice producer, and investment bank Safra if its shareholders rejected the deal with Fyffes.
The company said it was possible that no agreement with the Brazilian groups would result from the talks.
Dublin-based Fyffes employs about 12,000 people worldwide, while Charlotte, North Carolina-headquartered Chiquita has 20,000 workers.
When the deal was announced, US and Irish law would have permitted Chiquita to move its headquarters to the Republic of Ireland, where it would be subject to a lower tax rate than.
However, the Irish and US governments have since announced plans to make it much harder for companies to take advantage of these so-called tax inversions.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) latest report, the number of cases in the Ebola outbreak has exceeded 10,000, with 4,922 deaths.
Only 27 of the cases have occurred outside the three worst-hit countries, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
Those three countries account for all but 10 of the fatalities.
Mali became the latest nation to record a death, a two-year-old girl. More than 40 people known to have come into contact with her have been quarantined.
The latest WHO situation report says that Liberia remains the worst affected country, with 2,705 deaths. Sierra Leone has had 1,281 fatalities and there have been 926 in Guinea.
Nigeria has recorded eight deaths and there has been one in Mali and one in the US.
The number of cases in the Ebola outbreak has exceeded 10,000, with 4,922 deaths
The WHO said the number of cases was now 10,141 but that the figure could be much higher, as many families were keeping relatives at home rather than taking them to treatment centers. It said many of the centers were overcrowded.
The latest report also shows no change in the number of cases and deaths in Liberia from the WHO’s previous report, three days ago.
Eight countries have registered cases in the outbreak. In West Africa, Senegal and Nigeria have now been declared virus-free by the WHO.
In the US, the governors of the states of New York and New Jersey have ordered a mandatory 21-day quarantine period for all doctors and other travelers who have had contact with Ebola victims in West Africa.
Anyone arriving from affected West African countries without having had confirmed contact with Ebola victims will be subject to monitoring by public health officials.
The move follows the diagnosis in New York of Dr. Craig Spencer, who had been working in Guinea.
The first person to be quarantined under the rules was a female health worker who arrived at Newark Liberty International Airport on October 24.
She had no symptoms then but later developed a fever. A preliminary test came back negative for Ebola, the New Jersey health department said on October 25, but the woman remains in isolation.
Ha Van Tham, one of Vietnam’s richest business tycoons, has been arrested on suspicion of lending fraud, authorities say.
Ha Van Tham, a former chairman of the private Ocean Bank, was taken into custody in Hanoi on October 24, the ministry of interior said in a statement.
Vietnam’s Central Bank also announced on October 24 that it had suspended Ha Van Tham from his bank chairman role.
Ha Van Tham also owns significant stakes in hotel and real estate businesses.
His personal wealth is estimated to be several billion dollars.
Local media reported that Ha Van Tham could be held for up to four months pending further investigations.
Ha Van Tham is one of Vietnam’s richest business tycoons
The Central Bank said Ha Va Tham was “personally responsible” for some serious violations of the law but did not give further details.
Shares in Ocean Group have fallen by several percentage points since October 22.
The Vietnamese government has vowed to clamp down on fraud and embezzlement.
In June, another one of Vietnam’s richest men, Nguyen Duc Kien, was sentenced to 30 years in jail for tax evasion and illegal trading.
In Nguyen Duc Kien’s case, observers have suggested that the charges against him were a result of an attempt to weaken the position of Vietnamese PM Nguyen Tan Dung, an associate of Kien.
For some people, love lasts forever. For others, it can last anywhere from a few days to a few years. In Hollywood, relationships are always being scrutinized for being too short. In some cases, they may be, but it is possible that the Hollywood spotlight just makes them appear to be much shorter than they really are. In reality, how many month-long relationships have you had in your lifetime? Chances are you’re not constantly scrutinized about those.
But no matter how you personally feel about Hollywood romance, 2014 has been just like every other year and allowed us to witness many famous divorces and breakups. Some were amicable, some breakups required restraining orders, and some tough divorces required family lawyers or other divorce professionals to get involved in very lengthy proceedings. But all in all, most breakups were quite amicable!
Check out the following famous divorces and breakups of 2014!
Jordin Sparks and Jason Derulo
Jordin Sparks earned her fame on American Idol, and Jason Derulo is another famous singer topping the charts today. Although the two made beautiful music together for about two years, they split, and rumors have it that the split was amicable. Here’s hoping they can still be friends.
Britney Spears and David Lucado
Poor Britney. It seems as if no matter how hard she tries, she always ends up with the wrong guy. Since she became famous at the age of 16, she has had her fair share of public relationships—and her fair share of marriages (and divorces). Britney Spears and David Lucado have been dating for one and a half years. This year, though, a video surfaced showing Lucado making out with another woman, and Britney wasn’t having it. She ditched David, is currently single, and according to her Twitter feed, loving every minute of it.
Eliza Dushku and Rick Fox
Recently, Eliza Dushku, known for her roles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Bring it On, has split from five-year boyfriend Rick Fox, former NBA star and current TV actor. Although the couple had been together for five years, they could compromise when it came to where to live. Eliza prefers the East Coast, while Rick wants to stay in L.A. So instead of compromising, they broke up so each could have what they really want.
Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith
When a Hollywood couple is married longer than two years, it’s a record. When a Hollywood couple is married more than 20 years, it seems as if the marriage will last forever. Unfortunately for Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith, the 20-year mark was the end of their romance. The split was amicable, and they have agreed to both be a part of their kids’ lives and still support one another even though no longer married. If only every breakup could be as smooth.
Robin Thicke and Paula Patton
The blurred lines singer and his actress wife, Paula Patton, have officially called it quits, although Robin would have it the other way. The pair separated in the summer of 2014 after a photograph of Thicke grabbing a woman’s behind surfaced. Although he made every attempt to get her back—including crying at his concerts and writing an album dedicated to her—Patton officially filed for divorce in October.
Iran has executed Reyhaneh Jabbari who killed a man she said was trying to abuse her.
Reyhaneh Jabbari, 26, was hanged in a Tehran prison despite an international campaign urging a reprieve.
She was arrested in 2007 for the murder of Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi, a former employee of Iran’s ministry of intelligence.
Human rights group Amnesty International said Reyhaneh Jabbari was convicted after a deeply flawed investigation.
A campaign calling for a halt to the execution was launched on Facebook and Twitter last month and appeared to have brought a temporary stay in execution.
However, government news agency Tasnim said on Saturday that Reyhaneh Jabbari had been executed after her relatives failed to gain consent from the victim’s family for a reprieve.
Reyhaneh Jabbari was arrested in 2007 for the murder of Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi, a former employee of Iran’s ministry of intelligence
It said her claims of self-defense had not been proved in court.
After her arrest, Reyhaneh Jabbari had been placed in solitary confinement for two months, where she reportedly did not have access to a lawyer or her family.
She was sentenced to death by a criminal court in Tehran in 2009.
Amnesty said that although Reyhaneh Jabbari admitted to stabbing Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi once in the back, she alleged that there was someone else in the house who actually killed him.
Jalal Sarbandi, the victim’s eldest son, said Reyhaneh Jabbari had refused to identify the man.
He told Iranian media in April: “Only when her true intentions are exposed and she tells the truth about her accomplice and what really went down will we be prepared to grant mercy.”
The UN says Iran has executed about 250 people this year.
Nina Pham and Amber Joy Vinson, the two nurses infected with Ebola while caring for Thomas Eric Duncan in Dallas, have been declared free of the virus.
Nina Pham had a meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House, hours after being discharged.
The news comes one day after Dr. Craig Spencer returning from Guinea tested positive for Ebola in New York City.
More than 4,800 people have died of Ebola – mainly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone – since March.
On October 24, it was announced that one million doses of an experimental Ebola vaccine will be produced by the end of 2015.
Amber Joy Vinson and Nina Pham were infected with Ebola while caring for Thomas Eric Duncan in Dallas hospital
It was a day of mixed news in the US, where the first infection in New York was followed by the release from hospital of Nina Pham, 26.
“I feel fortunate and blessed to be standing here today,” she said.
“I am on my way back to recovery.”
Nina Pham thanked supporters for their prayers during her illness, and asked for privacy as she plans her return to Texas and a reunion with her dog, Bentley.
But first she was flown to Washington, at the request of the White House.
Nina Pham had been treated at a specialist hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, since being flown there from Texas Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas last week.
The other nurse, Amber Vinson, has also been declared virus-free, but she will remain in treatment in Atlanta until further notice.
“Tests no longer detect virus in her blood,” a Georgia hospital official said.
Thomas Eric Duncan died earlier this month and it is still unclear how the nurses contracted the virus while wearing protective clothing.
Founders of the Dolce & Gabbana fashion house, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, have been cleared by Italy’s top court of tax evasion.
Two lower Italian courts had found Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana guilty of failing to declare millions of euros the company had earned through a subsidy based in Luxembourg.
In April, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana had been sentenced to a suspended 20-month jail term.
Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana were found guilty of failing to declare millions of euros their fashion house had earned through a subsidy based in Luxembourg
Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have always denied the charges.
In June 2013, they were convicted by a lower court for failing to file tax declarations for the Luxembourg company, Gado, which prosecutors alleged was set up to evade paying taxes in Italy.
Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana denied the charges, and last year they briefly closed their Milan stores in protest.
The ruling by Italy’s top court is the final ruling on the subject.
The mayoral race in a small town high in the Peruvian Andes was decided by a coin toss after two candidates tied at the ballot box.
Wilber Medina, a 40-year-old teacher, was chosen mayor of Pillpinto near the tourist center of Cusco on October 22 after he and his rival, Jose Comejo, each garnered 236 votes in municipal elections this month.
Pillpinto mayoral race was decided by a coin toss after two candidates tied at the ballot box
Peru’s electoral law allows for tied races to be decided by a coin toss.
Wilber Medina said he’ll work to earn voters’ trust. Jose Cornejo accepted the results.
Air New Zealand has launched its latest Hobbit-themed pre-flight safety demonstration.
Air New Zealand has established a long tradition of memorable in-flight safety videos, has done a new take on an old theme.
This time the video features brief cameos from the director, Peter Jackson, as well as Elijah Wood, the main actor in the trilogy.
Describing itself “the official airline of Middle-earth”, Air New Zealand subtitles the new film “the most epic safety video ever made”.
Air New Zealand has launched its latest Hobbit-themed pre-flight safety demonstration (photo Air New Zealand)
Air New Zealand was one of the pioneers of the alternative in-flight safety video, and has garnered particular success with its Hobbit-themed versions.
The original hobbit safety video gathered more than 12 million views on YouTube.
Other videos have included Bear Grylls , as well as the All Blacks New Zealand rugby team and Snoop Dogg.
Many other airlines have followed suit and attempted their own versions of the airline safety video genre, including Virgin Atlantic with an animated safety video earlier this year.
The final installment of The Hobbit trilogy, The Battle of the Five Armies, will be on general release in December 2014.
Queen Elizabeth II sent her first tweet through the @BritishMonarchy account heralding the launch of a major new exhibition at London’s Science Museum.
“It is a pleasure to open the Information Age exhibition today at the @ScienceMuseum and I hope people will enjoy visiting. Elizabeth R.”
Queen Elizabeth II sent her first tweet heralding the launch of a major new exhibition at London’s Science Museum
Three years in the planning, the exhibition is one of the most ambitious projects the museum has undertaken.
Alongside historic objects, visitors can enjoy interactive experiences.
The Information Age gallery, opened by Queen Elizabeth on October 24, takes visitors on a journey through the history of modern communications from the telegraph to the smartphone.
Microsoft has reported a decline in its profits as a result of costs related to job cuts and its purchase of Nokia’s smartphone business earlier this year.
However, the tech giant reported higher-than-expected quarterly revenue, helped by stronger sales of its phones, Surface tablets and cloud-computing products for companies, while keeping its profit margins largely intact.
Microsoft made $4.5 billion in Q3 2014, 13% lower than the same time last year.
“Integrations and restructuring expenses” cost $1.1 billion, Microsoft said.
However, the new Nokia business also boosted revenues. They climbed 25% to $23.2 billion, beating expectations and sending shares higher in after-hours trading.
In July Microsoft announced plans to cut 18,000 jobs, including 12,500 in the Nokia unit it bought in April.
On October 22 Microsoft said it would no longer use the Nokia name, selling future Lumia smartphone models as Microsoft-branded phones.
Microsoft made $4.5 billion in Q3 2014, 13 percent lower than the same time last year
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the company was being “positioned for future growth”.
“Our teams are delivering on our core focus of reinventing productivity and creating platforms that empower every individual and organization,” he said in a statement accompanying earnings.
Microsoft makes most of its money selling software to companies. The results show a strong growth in its business selling cloud computing to companies – an area Satya Nadella has cited as important for the future of Microsoft.
The business has continued to place great importance on its consumer products like the Xbox games console, its Surface range of tablet computers, and smartphones.
Stronger sales of phones and tablets helped boost revenues, with total consumer revenue up 47%.
Microsoft shares, which have climbed 33% over the past year, rose another 3% in after-hours trading to $46.36.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that one million doses of an Ebola vaccine will be produced by the end of 2015.
The WHO said “several hundred thousand” would be produced in the first half of the year.
Vaccines could be offered to health workers on the frontline in West Africa as soon as December 2014.
However, the WHO cautioned that vaccines would not be a “magic bullet” for ending the outbreak.
There is no proven cure or vaccine for Ebola.
In response to the largest epidemic of the disease in history, the WHO is accelerating the process of vaccine development
It normally takes years to produce and test a vaccine, but drug manufacturers are now working on a scale of weeks.
One million doses of an Ebola vaccine will be produced by the end of 2015
Two experimental vaccines, produced by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and the Public Health Agency of Canada, are already in safety trials.
The GSK vaccine is being tested in Mali, the UK and the US. Research on the Canadian vaccine is also under way in the US with further trials expected to start in Europe and Africa soon.
The results are expected in December. After that, trials will move to countries affected by Ebola, probably starting with Liberia.
That will allow researchers to assess how effective the vaccine is and what dose is needed to provide protection.
Healthcare workers, who place themselves at risk when treating patients, will take part in the first trials in West Africa.
The WHO says we should have the first hints of how effective these experimental vaccines are by April.
There are no plans for mass vaccination before June 2015 but the WHO has not ruled it out.
The WHO says vaccines are likely to be key to ending the outbreak, even if cases fall in the next few months.
Dr. Marie Paule Kieny, a WHO assistant director-general, said: “While we hope that the massive response, which has been put in place will have an impact on the epidemic, it is still prudent to prepare to have as much vaccine available as possible if they are proven effective.
“If the massive effort in response is not sufficient, then vaccine would be a very important tool.
“And even if the epidemic would be already receding by the time we have vaccine available, the modeling seems to say vaccine may still have an impact on controlling the epidemic.”
As well as the two vaccines already in trials, there are a further five in the pipeline which could yet play a role in the outbreak.
The World Bank and the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres will help finance the vaccine.
There are also suggestions that an “indemnity fund” could be set up in case people have a serious adverse reaction to a vaccine being rushed through.
Matt Lucas will host this year’s International Emmy Awards ceremony in New York.
International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences president Bruce Paisner called Matt Lucas “one of the most talented comedic performers and writers of his generation”.
Bruce Paisner said: “We’re delighted to have him headlining the International Emmys.”
Matt Lucas will host this year’s International Emmy Awards ceremony in New York
The International Emmy Awards take place on November 24 in New York.
The awards celebrate TV production outside the US.
Matt Lucas is best known to global audiences for appearing in films such as Bridesmaids and Alice in Wonderland.
New York doctor Craig Spencer, who recently returned from Ebola-hit Guinea in West Africa, has tested positive for the virus.
Dr. Craig Spencer, who treated Ebola patients while working for the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), came down with a fever on October 23, days after his return, officials say.
He is the first Ebola case diagnosed in New York, and the fourth in the US.
More than 4,800 people have died of Ebola – mainly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone – since March.
Dr. Craig Spencer, 33, left Guinea on October 14, and returned to New York City on October 17 via Europe. On October 21 he began to feel tired and developed a fever and diarrhea on October 23.
He immediately contacted medical services and was taken to the city’s Bellevue Hospital, where he is being kept in isolation.
President Barack Obama said his thoughts and prayers were with Craig Spencer.
New York officials said Dr. Craig Spencer had travelled on the subway and gone out jogging before he started feeling unwell.
Dr. Craig Spencer treated Ebola patients while working for the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres in Guinea (photo Facebook)
At a news conference late on Thursday, they sought to ease fears of an outbreak in the densely populated city of 8.4 million people, saying officials had prepared for weeks for an Ebola case.
“There is no reason for New Yorkers to be alarmed,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
“Ebola is an extremely hard disease to contract. New Yorkers who have not been exposed to an infected person’s bodily fluids are not at risk.”
Governor Andrew Cuomo said: “We can’t say that this is an unexpected circumstance.”
President Barack Obama telephoned both the mayor and the governor to discuss the deployment of health officials and to offer “any additional federal support necessary”, the White House said.
Ebola patients are only infectious if they have symptoms, and the disease is only transmittable through bodily fluids, experts say.
Andrew Cuomo said officials had identified four people with whom Dr. Craig Spencer had contact during the period in which he was potentially infectious.
His fiancée and two friends have been placed into quarantine, said Dr. Mary Bassett, New York’s health commissioner.
Dr. Craig Spencer is the fourth person to be diagnosed with the disease in the US.
The first patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, caught Ebola in his native Liberia and travelled to Dallas, Texas, before his symptoms set in. He died on October 8.
Two nurses who treated him in Dallas subsequently came down with the disease and are recovering in hospital.
Meanwhile, on Thursday the West African country of Mali confirmed its first Ebola case – a two-year-old girl recently returned from Guinea.
Mali is now the sixth West African country to be affected by the latest Ebola outbreak – however Senegal and Nigeria have since been declared virus-free by the WHO.
Separately, the World Health Organization (WHO) has already identified at least two experimental vaccines which it believes could be promising.
At a meeting in Geneva, the UN health body said it wanted tests of the vaccines to be completed by the end of December.
The WHO says 443 health workers have contracted Ebola, of whom 244 have died.
Mark Zuckerberg was in Beijing as a newly appointed member of the advisory board for Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management.
As part of that role, Mark Zuckerberg met students for a 30-minute chat, which he conducted in Mandarin.
Facebook founder’s attempt to woo the audience by speaking Mandarin has had mixed reviews from Chinese speakers.
There was plenty of reaction to his attempts to communicate in Chinese.
“It’s hard to describe in English what Zuckerberg’s Mandarin sounded like but I’d put it roughly at the level of someone who studied for two years in college, which means he can communicate like an articulate seven-year-old with a mouth full of marbles,” one blogger wrote.
Others commented: “Oh my god… this is terrible… but apart from the tones, he seems to have learnt the vocabulary and grammar pretty well.”
News outlet Quartz described Mark Zuckerberg’s 30-minute chat as making him sound “like someone was stepping on his face”.
Mark Zuckerberg was in Beijing as a newly appointed member of the advisory board for Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management
One tonal slip-up led Mark Zuckerberg to claim that Facebook had just 11 mobile users instead of one billion.
While most agreed that his pronunciation was far from fluent, most were also impressed that he had attempted it at all.
Mark Zuckerberg, who is married to Chinese-American Priscilla Chan, set himself the goal of learning Mandarin in 2010, in part so that he could communicate with Priscilla’s relatives.
Facebook as a company is also keen to improve relationships with China. There is currently a ban on the use of the social media site, which dates since 2009.
There was no explicit chat about the ban and Mark Zuckerberg described China as a “great country”.
“The Chinese language is difficult, and I speak English, but I like challenges,” he said.
On Facebook’s future in China, Mark Zuckerberg was diplomatic: “We are already in China. We help Chinese companies gain customers abroad. We want to help the rest of the world connect to China.”
Fellow chief executive – Apple’s Tim Cook – was also in China, questioning officials about an alleged hack of its iCloud service.
Tim Cook will attend a meeting at Beijing’s Tsinghua University with Mark Zuckerberg later in the week.
Meanwhile he has had talks with the vice premier of China to discuss protecting user data in the wake of recent alleged hack attacks targeting iCloud users.
The attacks were revealed by Chinese activist group GreatFire.org, which accused the Chinese government of being involved.
iCloud user data was collected by creating a spoof icloud.com website.
Tim Cook also used the trip to China to visit Foxconn’s iPhone factory and said that the company would open 25 retail stores in China in the next two years.
Canadian police have released a video showing how gunman Michael Zehaf-Bibeau stormed into the parliament’s building on October 22.
Minutes before, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, 32, had shot dead a soldier at Ottawa’s war memorial near parliament.
Michael Zehaf-Bibeau was ultimately shot dead by Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers.
The gunman was not on a list of known high-risk travelers, but had links to extremist elements, police said. He had recently applied for a passport and intended to travel to Syria.
At a news conference on October 23, Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Commissioner Bob Paulson described Michael Zehaf-Bibeau as a Canadian-born petty criminal with possible dual citizenship in Libya, where his father was from.
Bob Paulson said Michael Zehaf-Bibeau was not among the 90 individuals known to Canadian security forces as a “high-risk traveler”, contrary to earlier reports.
Nor was he linked to the Muslim convert who on October 20 killed a Canadian soldier in Quebec in a hit-and-run attack.
Canadian police have released a video showing how gunman Michael Zehaf-Bibeau stormed into the parliament’s building
“[Michael Zehaf-Bibeau] was an individual who may have held extremist beliefs,” said Bob Paulson, who suggested the passport application process may have driven him to violence.
“I think the passport figured prominently in his motives. I’m not inside his head, but I think it was central to what was driving him.”
Killed in the Wednesday morning attack was Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, a 24-year-old reservist from Ontario who was standing as an unarmed honor guard, in ceremonial dress, at Canada’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier near the Canadian capital’s Parliament Hill.
According to the RCMP investigation, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau arrived in Ottawa on October 2, intending to deal with an issue related to his application for a passport.
“He was waiting to get it, and there was an investigation going on to determine to see whether he would get a passport,” Bob Paulson said.
On October 21, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau purchased the beige car used in the attack. On October 22 at about 09:50, he approached the war memorial from behind, fired twice at Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, who never saw him coming, then fired on the second guard. Cpl. Nathan Cirillo was struck, but the shot missed the second guard.
Michael Zehaf-Bibeau yelled something in English, then drove north on Wellington Street toward Parliament Hill. He stopped his car directly in front of the parliament complex’s East Block, and alighted from his vehicle brandishing a rifle as pedestrians fled.
Video shows Michael Zehaf-Bibeau hijacked a minister’s car, then sped off toward Centre Block, by now pursued by police.
At Centre Block, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau left the stolen car and ran into the building, exchanging gunfire with House of Commons security forces and RCMP officers.
He was ultimately shot dead by Sergeant-at-Arms Vickers, a former senior RCMP officer, who received a standing ovation in parliament on Thursday.
Only one minute and 23 seconds elapsed between the time Michael Zehaf-Bibeau parked his own car and when he entered Center Block.
Michael Zehaf-Bibeau’s assault has shaken a nation already reeling from Monday’s attack in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, in which 25-year-old Martin Couture-Rouleau smashed his car into two Canadian soldiers in a car park, killing one.
Martin Couture-Rouleau, who authorities say was “inspired” by Islamic State (ISIS) militants in Iraq and Syria, led police on a brief chase before he wrecked his car, exited the vehicle reportedly brandishing a knife, and was shot dead by the officers.
PM Stephen Harper has vowed to strengthen the nation’s anti-terrorism laws, and has said Canada will not be intimidated by such violence, nor swayed from its role fighting IS in Iraq alongside the US military.
Michael Zehaf-Bibeau is now under 24-hour protection, authorities have said.
Mali has confirmed the first case of Ebola in the country.
The Malian government said a two-year-old girl had tested positive for the haemorrhagic virus. She recently returned from the neighboring Guinea.
More than 4,800 people have died of Ebola – mainly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone – since March.
Meanwhile, an international team of scientists has been set up to determine the effectiveness of using the blood of Ebola survivors as a treatment.
It is hoped the antibodies used by the immune system to fight Ebola can be transferred from a survivor to a patient. The study will start in Guinea.
More than 4,800 people have died of Ebola since March 2014
Speaking on state television on October 23, Malian Health Minister Ousmane Kone said the infected girl was being treated in the western town of Kayes.
The girl was brought to a local hospital on October 22 and her blood sample was Ebola-positive, Ousmane Kone said.
The child and those who have come into contact with her have been put in quarantine.
The girl’s mother died in Guinea a few weeks ago and the child was then brought by relatives to Mali, Reuters news agency quotes a health ministry official as saying.
Mali is now the sixth West African country to be affected by the latest Ebola outbreak – however Senegal and Nigeria have since been declared virus-free by the WHO.
