NEW YORK (Reuters) - The gunman who killed 32 people at
Virginia Tech University did not purchase ammunition used in the rampage
on eBay's online auction site, eBay said on Monday, refuting published
reports.
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The company said Cho Seung-Hui, who also killed himself, did in recent
months buy empty ammunition clips and a gun holster on eBay. He also
sold other items including books and tickets to sporting events.
"Empty ammunition clips and gun holsters are unregulated items that can
be legally bought and sold on eBay as well as in retail stores across
the US. However, we are saddened that Mr. Cho purchased on eBay any item
that may be linked with his actions last week," the company said in a
statement.
By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press Writer Sun Apr 22, 4:56 PM ET
HAVANA - "Fidel: 80 More Years," proclaim the good wishes still hanging
on storefront and balcony banners months after Cubans celebrated their
leader's 80th birthday.
Fidel Castro may be ailing, but he's a living example of something
Cubans take pride in — an average life expectancy roughly similar to
that of the United States.
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They ascribe it to free medical care, mild climate, and a low-stress
Caribbean lifestyle, which they believe make up for the hardships and
shortages they suffer.
"Sometimes you have all you want to eat and sometimes you don't," said
Raquel Naring, a 70-year-old retired gas station attendant. "But there
aren't elderly people sleeping on the street like other places."
Cuba's average life expectancy is 77.08 years — second in Latin America
after Puerto Rico and more than 11 years above the world average,
according to the 2007
CIA World Fact Book.
It says Cuban life expectancy averages 74.85 years for men and 79.43
years for women, compared with 75.15 and 80.97 respectively for
Americans.
Most Cubans live rent-free, and food, electricity and transportation are
heavily subsidized. But the island can still be a tough place to grow
old.
Homes that were luxurious before Castro's 1959 revolution are now
falling apart and many cramped apartments contain three generations of
family members. Food, water and medicine shortages are chronic.
But most prescription drugs and visits to the doctor are free and
physicians encourage preventive care.
"There's a family doctor on almost every block," said Luis Tache, 90 and
blind from glaucoma but still chatty and up on the news.
Tache lived in New York for six straight summers starting in 1945,
paying $8 a month for a furnished apartment at 116th Street and
Broadway. An English teacher, he retired 30 years ago.
Sitting in a rocking chair in his breezy living room in Havana's Playa
district, Tache said Cuban communism "is both good and bad," while the
high cost of living in capitalist societies "must be very stressful."
A relaxed lifestyle, which prizes time spent with family over careers,
helps keep Cubans healthy, Tache said.
"It's bad for production, bad for the nation," he said. "But it's good
for the people."
The government runs residence halls for seniors with no family to care
for them, though space is severely limited. Community groups make sure
older people look after one another.
"It's a very happy society. There aren't so many worries and problems
and that helps," said Alida Gil, 57, leader of a community group in Old
Havana known as "Circle of Grandmothers 2000."
Shortly after 8 a.m. every weekday, Gil leads two dozen elderly women
through 40 minutes of calisthenics on the windowless, water-damaged
ground floor of a state-owned building adorned with photos of Castro and
his brother, Raul.
Raul Castro, 75, took over in July after the president underwent
intestinal surgery. Officials offer increasingly upbeat reports about
his progress, but his condition and ailment remain state secrets.
One of Fidel Castro's personal physicians, Dr. Eugenio Selman, in 2003
helped launch the "120 Years Club," an organization of more than 5,000
seniors — many 100 or older — from several countries including the
United States. They hope to reach the 120-year mark through healthy
diet, exercise and a positive outlook.
Selman has not spoken publicly since Castro fell ill, but had previously
suggested the president could live to 120. Whether Castro is a member of
the club is unclear.
Gerardo de la Llera, who still practices medicine at 77, is the club's
vice president. He said the oldest member was a 122-year-old woman who
lives in the eastern Cuban province of Granma, but he did not know her
name or exact birthrate. Cuba has a history of claiming very old
citizens whose ages have not been authenticated.
The government says it wants Cuba to become the world leader in life
expectancy, vying with the 82-year average for Japan and Singapore.
BEIJING (Reuters) - Global warming could wipe out large areas of
glaciers in the Himalayas and surrounding highlands, threatening
livelihoods across much of Asia, climate scientists said in Beijing on
Monday.
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Rising temperatures fuelled by greenhouse gases from industry and
agriculture have already shrunk glaciers on the mountains dividing China
and South Asia, experts say.
But one author of a benchmark U.N. report on climate change said more
rapid melting could severely disrupt river flows and rainfall patterns
across Asia.
"If the rate of temperature rises does not change, glaciers on the
Qinghai-Tibet plateau will rapidly shrink, perhaps from 500,000 square
kilometres in 1995 to 100,000 square kilometres in 2030," Wu Shaohong of
the Chinese Academy of Sciences told a news conference.
Glaciers across the Himalayas and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau are a major
source for key rivers, such as the Yangtze in China, the Mekong in
Indochina and the Ganges in India.
Uncertainty surrounds how fast global warming might shrink glaciers, Wu
told reporters after the briefing to explain forecasts issued by the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) earlier this month.
Another senior Chinese climate scientist, Qin Dahe, gave a lower
estimate, saying that about one-quarter of glaciers in the Qinghai-Tibet
Plateau could melt away by mid-century.
But even using conservative forecasts, the experts said disappearance of
glaciers could imperil rain patterns, river flows and farming across
Asia. Glacier-fed rivers could swell as the ice melts but then dry out
as the ice disappears.
"Glaciers are vital to the national economy and peoples' livelihoods,"
Qin said, explaining that they were a crucial source of water and had a
profound impact on weather across Asia.
A top Indian climate expert said South Asia would also be threatened if
glacier-fed rivers dried up.
"That is the region that is really the granary of South Asia," said
Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC, referring to the northern part
of the Indian subcontinent, which relies on waters from the mountains.
Pachauri said underground water supplies would also be at risk from
melting glaciers.
"We will have to adapt. We will have to use water far more efficiently
than we have in the past," he said, adding that the only hope of slowing
global warming was if wealthy countries led the way in dramatically
cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
In recent days, China has publicly released its own national assessment
of climate change, which forecasts that coverage of glaciers across the
country's west could shrink by about 27 percent by mid-century.
As a result, China's assessment warns, "many lakes will swell then
shrink, wetlands will retreat, desertification will expand and
grasslands will retreat."