Please follow the link to read the article:

http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/8109951-top-ten-richest-women-of-world-2010

Please follow the link:

http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/8091120-celebrities-who-had-visited-nepal

I would like to thank World Wide Nepalese Students Organisation, which is run by a group of enthusiastic young people, for organising essay competition and providing a platform for me to make committments of the activities that I will be doing in my life to combat Climate Change from my side.

Guess, for the first time in my life I have achieved a bicycle for being one of the prize winners. I think, this is one of the rear prizes, that is given and of course, it has marked the awareness that we should use human muscles at individual level to prevent emission :). The other top essayists were provided with CFL bulbs and jute bag including bicycles.

The context behind the essay contest was that the world leaders, then December 18 in Copenhagen, did not come up with some agreement to deal with the climate change.

Whatever, the leaders do, it doesnt affect me including the individuals of the world to fight against global warming and climate change.

My essay was as follows:

As of 18 December 2009, the Earth's population estimated by the US Census Bureau is 6.804 billion. I cover 1.46X 10-10 part of the total population. I am a unit to produce carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, fluorinated gases as I use fuels in different forms, produce solid waste, use pesticides and herbicides for growing plants, use refrigerators that produce chlorofluorocarbons.

Greenhouse gases in atmosphere absorb and emit radiation within the thermal infrared range. Production of such green houses has destroyed ozone layer and has increased the temperature of earth; without them, Earth's surface would be on average about 33 °C colder than at present. The consequent rise in temperature of earth has lead to environmental, socio-economic and health problems. The gradual rise in sea level, gene mutation in microbes, variations in seasons, probability of outbursting of glaciers and fall of weak mountains has threatened humanity and enhanced hostility population.

What I do has direct impact in environment. Before thinking about global change, I should be the change. So from today onwards, I am to use eco-friendly things which have less impact in climate and environment. Use of CFL bulbs, use of bicycles or hybrid cars, turning off the computer monitor when it is not in use, use of paper or cloth bag, less use of clothes and meat are some of things I am to apply in my daily life to protect earth.

Worldwide Nepalese Students' Organisation - Nepal (WNSO-Nepal) is calling Nepalese Youth (ages 17 - 28) to submit their commitment essays on the topic : "I'm not emitting anymore".


The context behind the essay contest is that the world leaders, this December 18 in Copenhagen, may or may not come up with some agreement to deal with the climate change. After 5 days from that day in Kathmandu, we are giving away 15 bicycles plus other things as prizes to the top 15 essayists. The December 18 is the commencing day of UNFCCC COP15 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Interested youth (ages 17-28, until 23 December 2009) are called to submit the handwritten-scanned essay (max. 240 words in English language) along with scanned citizenship and campus ID card (if applicable) to iycm-essays@wnso.org. The last date of submission is December 20, 2009.
Please don't forget to include your contact number on e-mail.

Conditions:
1) The selected top 15 essays along with the names of respective essayists will be published on the websites.
Prizes:
The distribution of such prizes is an iconic to exhibit that Nepalese youth have begun to stop the emissions of green house gases.



The top 15 essayists will get prizes as:
1) Top 5 : a bicycle and a CFL pack each
2) Next 5: a bicycle and a Jute bag each
3) Next 5: a bicycle
Venue of December 23 event will be made public very shortly.
For further details:



Worldwide Nepalese Students' Organisation - Nepal (WNSO-Nepal), Dillibazar, Kathmandu, Nepal 012143143 , info@wnso.org.np , http://www.wnso.org.np/

The head of oil giant Total has told the BBC the world could face a shortage of oil because of underinvestment.

Chief executive Christophe de Margerie warned that too little has been spent trying to tap into new oil reserves because of the economic crisis.

"If we don't move [now] there will be a problem," Mr de Margerie said. "In two or three years it will be too late."

He also said he thought oil prices would rise to more than $100 a barrel, from their current level of around $70.

"The reserves of oil are there, but if you don't invest they don't come on the market," Mr de Margerie said.

"What we have to decide today is production for 2010-2015. So in between we might be faced with insufficient oil to meet demand."

He said the major oil producing countries, which have cut production in the face of falling demand and to protect prices, could not be blamed for the underinvestment.

"You cannot ask those countries who are also facing a crisis to continue to invest for a potential recovery of demand, and to do this for the benefit of the world."

Instead, he called on heads of government to get involved.

"I think it is our role to... force people in charge of our countries to think about this concern we have."

The global recession has had a marked effect on international migration according to a special report commissioned by the BBC World Service.

Fewer people are moving abroad for work but those who are already abroad are, for the most part, staying put.

And in general, money sent by migrants to their families in their home country, has declined.

The research was done for the BBC by the Migration Policy Institute, an independent agency in Washington.

And you can see the report explained in graphics .

The story is varied, but the general pattern is that fewer people are moving abroad for work.

The number of Mexicans moving to the United States, for example, has fallen sharply - down 40% since 2006.

The drop is even greater in the case of Romanians and Bulgarians moving to Spain. Their numbers have fallen by 60%.

Vulnerable

Migrant workers are more at risk of losing their jobs than native workers as they often work in industries especially exposed to the recession - notably construction and hospitality.

Hence, for the most part, they are also sending less cash home to support their families.
In the case of Turkey, the decline in these remittances was 43% from 2008, the report says.

The impact of Moldova's 37% fall is especially severe, because remittances are equivalent to a third of the country's national income.

Although the general trend is downwards, a few countries including Pakistan and Bangladesh, have enjoyed an increase in the amount of money sent home by its citizens working abroad.

Staying put

But despite the loss of income many face, in most cases there has not been a large-scale return home.
This may reflect the fact that, for many migrants, economic conditions are even worse at home and it would be difficult and costly if they wanted to return to their host country later.

That's especially true for people who have moved illegally.

There are some striking exceptions to these patterns, however.

Many migrants to the UK and Ireland from Central and Eastern Europe have returned home, where economic conditions have not deteriorated as much.

And as nationals of European Union countries, they can legally go back to their host country later.

Country on the move

The main focus of the research was international migration, but it did look at one example of migration within national borders, namely China.

The numbers are extraordinary.

The report says that 140 million have left rural areas in search of work in industrial cities near the coast.

That's the equivalent of the world's tenth largest population.

Every year millions return home for the Chinese New Year. This year, as China's economy weakened, record numbers went back and fewer returned to the cities afterwards.

Protecting their own

A recession often pushes international migration up the political agenda, and governments frequently take action intended to protect employment opportunities for their own nationals.

Several have cut the numbers of work permits for foreigners, including Malaysia, Australia and Russia.

Some, including Spain and Japan, are offering incentives for migrants to return including one-way tickets and lump-sum payments.

The picture the research paints is rich and diverse in detail, but a few things stand out.

Migrant workers have been especially vulnerable to the global economic storms that were created by the financial crisis.

They are more likely to lose their jobs, and their families at home have paid the price in the shape of less financial support.

Many have pulled down the shutters while the storm rages and decided to wait for better times - either at home or, if they have already moved abroad, in their host country.

It is also very plain from the report that migration is an increasingly important part of the global economic landscape.

Investment moves across borders fairly freely in search of the best opportunities. Increasingly, people want to do this as well.

The pattern depends on where the opportunities are. But when the economy recovers, people will be on the move once again.

Since the markets began to tumble in 2008, governments around the world have spent almost $11 trillion bailing out failing banks and trying to repair the financial system.

Find out how the money was spent and what it means for the taxpayers who have funded it. There are two animated slide shows: scroll down the page to see how the money was spent in the UK.Crisis 'cost us $10,000 each'

As one of the world's major financial centres, the UK has been one of the hardest hit by the financial chaos.
What effect have the bailouts had on the public finances and how has it hit people's personal wealth?

House prices in England and Wales rose by 1.7% in July compared with June - the biggest monthly leap in value since July 2004, the Land Registry said.

Every region recorded a monthly rise in prices, with the average home valued at £155,885, the analysis found.

But prices were still 11.7% lower in July than they were in the same month a year earlier and sales were also down.

The annual drop in prices was sharpest in the North East of England but at its most shallow in Wales.

The Land Registry, which records all completed property sales in England and Wales, is widely regarded as producing one of the most authoritative house price reports, although it does lag behind data from lenders.

It compares the price of properties sold now with the price paid when they were sold previously. However, repossessions and property transfers following a divorce are excluded from the sample.

Slowing rate

The annual fall in prices eased in July compared with June, when the year-on-year drop stood at 13.8%. This was at the lowest level in July since October last year.
The recovery in the housing market has been revealed in a series of surveys in recent months, including the Nationwide building society's index which is based on mortgage data, which this week revealed prices had risen by 1.6% in August compared with July.

This has proved to be bad news for tenants, who have seen rent levels rise again as former "reluctant landlords" put their homes back on the market.

However, the number of transactions remains relatively low, with some experts suggesting rising prices could stall if there is a surge of properties coming back onto the market.

There were an average of 35,848 sales per month between February and May this year, compared with 61,743 in the same period a year earlier.

Regional breakdown

The housing market slump was more acute for the owners of flats and terraced homes, as revealed in the latest figures.

The Land Registry said that the value of terraced properties fell by 12.9% and flats dropped by 12.7% in July compared with the same month a year earlier.

This compared with an 11.3% fall for semi-detached homes and just a 10.2% drop for detached houses.

On a national and regional level, the biggest month-on-month rise in property values came in Wales, where prices rose by 3.1% in July compared with June.

At the other end of the scale, prices rose by 0.9% during the same period in Yorkshire and the Humber.

The Land Registry analysis is one of the very few reports that maps out house prices changes at a local level.

It found that in the 12 months to July, prices fell the least in Ceredigion (down 8.4%) - where the average price was £161,279 - and fell the steepest in Luton (down 22.5%) - where the average home cost £118,195.

Millionaire row

Those buying and selling some of the most expensive homes in England and Wales were not immune to the slump in activity in the housing market at the turn of the year, the figures also reveal.

The biggest drop in sales in the year to May - the latest figures available - came among properties in the £1.5m to £2m bracket. Some 38 were sold in this price range in May compared with 88 in May 2008, a fall of 57%.

The number of homes sold at more than £1m in the same period fell from 453 to 242, a drop of 47%.

Meanwhile, more of the cheapest homes were being sold. Sales of homes which cost less than £50,000 rose by 50% from 508 in May 2008 to 760 a year later.

Mobile operator China Unicom has signed a deal with Apple to launch the popular iPhone into the world's largest mobile phone market.

The phones are expected to go on sale in China later this year.

State-owned Unicom would be the first Chinese phone company to formally support the iPhone, although many unlocked iPhones are already in use.

China has more than 600 million mobile phone accounts and a deal to introduce the iPhone has been long-awaited.

Apple said the two partners had agreed a "multi-year deal" and expected the launch to be in the fourth quarter of 2009, but gave no financial details.

"We believe China Unicom's high-speed mobile broadband network, coupled with [the iPhone] will create new communication and different experiences for customers in China," said Unicom chairman Chang Xiaobin.

Apple sold 5.2 million iPhones between April and June this year, seven times more than a year earlier.

The sales helped to push quarterly profits at the US technology giant to $1.2bn (£735m).

A soluble fibre supplement should be the first line of attack in treating irritable bowel syndrome, experts say.

Researchers from Utrecht University in the Netherlands compared adding bran, a soluble supplement called psyllium and a dummy supplement to sufferers' diets.

They found psyllium was the most effective, warning that bran may even worsen the symptoms of the condition, the British Medical Journal reported.

As many as one in 10 people is estimated to have the condition.

It is characterised by abdominal pain and an irregular bowel habit.
Its exact cause is unknown and recommendations for treatment include dietary advice, antidepressants and drug treatments.

Many relying on dietary adjustments still turn to bran in a bid to help improve the way the intestines work.

But the Dutch study of 275 patients questions the wisdom of this approach.

The team gave patients 10g of either psyllium, bran or rice flour twice a day for 12 weeks.

Symptom severity

At the end of the study, those on psyllium, a naturally occurring vegetable fibre, reported symptom severity had been reduced by 90 points using a standard scale of rating problems.

For bran it was 58 points and for the placebo group, 49.

The report also showed that patients seemed less tolerant of bran, with more than half of the group dropping out during the trial, mostly because their symptoms worsened.

Soluble fibre can also be found in fruit such as apples and strawberries, as well as barley and oats.

But Dr Niek de Wit, one of the researchers, said: "It is unlikely that people with IBS would get enough from fruit and other foods to help them.

"I think adding psyllium to the diet is the best treatment option to start with. In the study, people did this by adding it to things such as yoghurt and it had a real effect."

Dr Anton Emmanuel, medical director of Core, the charity for diseases of the gut, said bran was being over-used.

He said the study was "helpful" and "reasonably robust", adding: "Putting it all together, patients should tolerate this form of fibre well and it may help some, especially those with a tendency to constipation."

The discovery of swine flu in birds in Chile raises concerns about the spread of the virus, the UN warns.

Last week the H1N1 virus was found in turkeys on farms in Chile. The UN now says poultry farms elsewhere in the world could also become infected.

Scientists are worried that the virus could theoretically mix with more dangerous strains. It has previously spread from humans to pigs.

However, swine flu remains no more severe than seasonal flu.

Safe to eat

Chilean authorities first reported the incident last week. Two poultry farms are affected near the seaport of Valparaiso.

Juan Lubroth, interim chief veterinary officer of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said: "Once the sick birds have recovered, safe production and processing can continue. They do not pose a threat to the food chain."

Chilean authorities have established a temporary quarantine and have decided to allow the infected birds to recover rather than culling them.

It is thought the incident represents a "spill-over" from infected farm workers to turkeys.

Canada, Argentina and Australia have previously reported spread of the H1N1 swine flu virus from farm workers to pigs.

Dangerous strains

The emergence of a more dangerous strain of flu remains a theoretical risk. Different strains of virus can mix together in a process called genetic reassortment or recombination.

So far there have been no cases of H5N1 bird flu in flocks in Chile.

However, Dr Lubroth said: "In Southeast Asia there is a lot of the (H5N1) virus circulating in poultry.

"The introduction of H1N1 in these populations would be of greater concern."

Colin Butter from the UK's Institute of Animal Health agrees.

"We hope it is a rare event and we must monitor closely what happens next," he told BBC News.

"However, it is not just about the H5N1 strain. Any further spread of the H1N1 virus between birds, or from birds to humans would not be good.

"It might make the virus harder to control, because it would be more likely to change."

William Karesh, vice president of the Wildlife Conservation Society, who studies the spread of animal diseases, says he is not surprised by what has happened.

"The location is surprising, but it could be that Chile has a better surveillance system.

"However, the only constant is that the situation keeps changing."

Women with ovarian cancer may not be diagnosed as early as they could be because their symptoms are not being recognised, a study suggests.

Writing in the BMJ, Bristol researchers said the cancer was not a "silent killer" as it is frequently dubbed, but was associated with specific symptoms.

They looked at the case notes of more than 200 women with a cancer diagnosis.

Ovarian cancer is one of the less common cancers but survival rates are relatively low.

Separate research has however shown that cases of the cancer are falling: data from Cancer Research UK indicates numbers are down 20% from a decade ago.

The drop is being attributed in large part to use of the contraceptive pill, which is thought to have a protective effect.

But when it does develop, it is frequently diagnosed in the later stages when the disease has progressed and treatment is harder.

It has been described as silent because it was historically thought to have few symptoms.

However in recent years a number of symptoms have been noted, and it is now recommended that abnormal vaginal bleeding and "palpable masses" be urgently investigated.

But the team from the University of Bristol said investigation was not mandatory, and that there were in fact seven symptoms associated with this form of cancer.

Most of the symptoms had a relatively low "predictive value" of less than 1%, meaning fewer than one in 100 patients with the complaint actually go on to receive a cancer diagnosis.

But abdominal distension - being permanently bloated - was more frequently associated with a diagnosis and was a symptom present even in the earlier stages of disease.

However , bloating it is not currently on the list of symptoms warranting further investigation.

"If it were, some women could have their diagnosis speeded up by many months," wrote the team, led by Dr William Hamilton.

"Symptoms are common and often reported, even in early - and potentially curable - cancers.

"In that respect our results are encouraging - there is some chance of identifying early ovarian cancer by using symptoms.

"Ovarian cancer is not silent, rather its sound is going unheard."

In some cases women had visited their GPs with symptoms six months prior to diagnosis, but most symptoms were reported in the three months before.

Confused picture

Research released earlier this year found widespread confusion among both doctors and women, both about the symptoms of the disease and when they became apparent.

Around 6,800 women are diagnosed with the cancer each year and only 30% are alive five years after diagnosis.

The charity Target Ovarian Cancer says the survival rate has not improved in 30 years.

"The UK's high rates of late diagnosis have played an important part in keeping five year survival rates low, at just 30% - amongst the lowest in the Western World," said charity chief executive Annwen Jones,

"In the last 12 months there has been progress with the Department of Health and charities agreeing key messages on symptoms of ovarian cancer for both health professionals and the public, but knowledge of these messages is woefully low.

"Change is long over-due and ovarian cancer needs to become a priority."

Low-carb slimming diets may clog arteries and increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes, a study suggests.

Diets based on eating lots of meat, fish and cheese, while restricting carbohydrates have grown in popularity in recent years.

But the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in the US found such habits caused artery damage in tests on mice.

The researchers and independent experts both agreed a balanced diet was the best option.

Low-carb diets have attracted a lot of attention and controversy after a surge in interest in them in the 1990s.
The researchers at the Beth Israel institute, which is part of Harvard Medical School, decided to investigate their impact on the cardiovascular system after hearing of reports of people on the diets suffering heart attacks.

They fed the mice three different diets - a standard mouse type, a western diet which was high in fat, and a low-carb, high-protein version, the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reported.

The low-carb diet did not affect cholesterol levels, but there was a significant difference on the impact on atherosclerosis - the build-up of fatty plaque deposits in the arteries that can lead to heart attacks or strokes.

After 12 weeks, the mice eating the low-carb diet had gained less weight, but developed 15% more atherosclerosis than those on the standard mice food. For the western diet group there was 9% more atherosclerosis.

The team could not be certain why the effect was seen, but thought low-carb diets may affect the way bone marrow cells effectively clean arteries of fatty deposits.

Adverse effects

Lead researcher Anthony Rosenzweig said the findings were so concerning to him that he decided to come off the low-carb diet he was following.

He added: "Our research suggests that, at least in animals, these diets could be having adverse cardiovascular effects.

"It appears that a moderate and balanced diet, coupled with regular exercise, is probably best for most people."

Joanne Murphy, from the Stroke Association, agreed following a balanced diet was the best advice.

"We know that foods such as red meat and diary products, which are high in protein, also contain high levels of saturated fat. These fats then cause the build up in the arteries."

But she added the research was still at an early stage and she wanted to see more work done on the subject.

Ellen Mason, from the British Heart Foundation, said it was difficult to apply the findings to humans.

But she added: "Low-carb, high-protein diets are not considered as healthy as eating a balanced diet, which is good for health because we get the different nutrients our body needs by eating from the different food groups every day."

Professor Alan Maryon-Davis, president, UK Faculty of Public Health, said: "This research helps to back up the basic message that our diet should contain more starchy carbohydrate, not less.

"For long-term health at least one-third of what we eat should be bread, rice, potatoes, pasta or other starchy food."