Figures & Facts

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The 400-year-old church was originally lost to the waters in 1966 when it was flooded; now emerging from the depths again due to 2015 drought (causing the Mexican reservoir to decrease by 82 feet) as it did in 2002 when water dropped so low.

2015 - The watershed of the Grijalva river has been hit by a drought this year, causing the water level in the Nezahualcoyotl reservoir to decrease by 82 feet. The remains of a 400-year-old church have emerged from the receding waters of a river in the southern Mexico state of Chiapas.

Mid-16th century - The church was built by a group of monks led by Friar Bartolome de la Casas, who arrived in the region that was inhabited by the Zoque people in the mid-16th century in the Quechula locality.

1966 - It was originally lost to the waters of the Nezahualcoyotl reservoir in 1966 when it flooded. With the walls rising to about 30 feet, the stunning structure is 183 feet long and 42 feet wide. The bell tower reaches 48 feet above the ground of the church. Architect Carlos Navarete, who worked with Mexican authorities on a report about the structure, said: 'The church was abandoned due to the big plagues of 1773-1776.'  read more »

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Oct 27, 2015 Reuters - Eating processed meats like hot dogs, sausages and bacon can cause colorectal cancer in humans, and red meat is also a likely cause of the disease, World Health Organization (WHO) experts said.
The review by WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), released on Monday, said additionally that there was some link between the consumption of red meat and pancreatic cancer and prostate cancer. IARC classified processed meat as "carcinogenic to humans" on its group one list along with tobacco and asbestos, for which there is "sufficient evidence" of cancer links.

Each 50-gram (1.8-ounce) portion of processed meat eaten daily increases the risk of colorectal cancer by 18 percent, the agency estimated. A 50-gram portion would be the equivalent of eating one hot dog or two slices of bacon. Americans eat about 21.7 grams of processed pork per day, according to a 2011 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Oct 28, 2015 Reuters - California considers adding meat to cancer-alert list
California is examining new World Health Organization findings to determine whether to add red meat and foods like hot dogs, sausages and bacon to a cancer-alert list, setting the stage for a potential battle with the meat industry over warning labels.  read more »

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The German village of Sumte, population 102, to accommodate for an influx of 750 migrants, nearly 10 times as many migrants as it had residents
SUMTE, Germany — This bucolic, one-street settlement of handsome redbrick farmhouses may for the moment have many more cows than people. In early October, the district government informed Sumte’s mayor, Christian Fabel, by email that his village of 102 people just over the border in what was once Communist East Germany would take in 1,000 asylum seekers.

His wife, the mayor said, assured him it must be a hoax. “It certainly can’t be true” that such a small, isolated place would be asked to accommodate nearly 10 times as many migrants as it had residents, she told him. “She thought it was a joke,” he said.

But it was not. Sumte has become a showcase of the extreme pressures bearing down on Germany as it scrambles to find shelter for what, by the end of the year, could be well over a million people seeking refuge from poverty or wars in Africa, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

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Photo courtesy Gordon Welters / NY Times

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The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization to promote international co-operation, established on 24 October 1945 after World War II in order to prevent another such conflict. At its founding, the UN had 51 member states; there are now 193.
The headquarters of the United Nations is in Manhattan, New York City, and experiences extraterritoriality. Further main offices are situated in Geneva, Nairobi and Vienna.
- UN Charter signed 26 June 1945
- Charter entered into force 24 October 1945
There are six official languages of the UN.
These are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

1942 "Declaration of United Nations" by the Allies of World War II  read more »

Image courtesy NASA and Scott Kelly

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ex-hedge funder increases price of pill 5,000% overnight, drawing outcry
Hedge funder buys rights to drug used by AIDS patients and raises price from $13.50 to $750 per pill. A hedge fund trader is at the centre of mounting controversy after the pharmaceutical company he bought raised overnight the cost of a life-saving treatment for people with Aids and weakened immune systems from $13.50 per pill to $750.

The 5,000 per cent increase was enacted last month for Daraprim, known generically as pyrimethamine, by Turing Pharmaceuticals of New York, a start-up firm, shortly after it bought the rights to the drug. The firm is headed by Martin Shkreli.

Daraprim fights toxoplasmosis, the second most common food-borne disease, which can easily infect people whose immune systems have been weakened by AIDS, chemotherapy or pregnancy, according to the Centres for Disease Control. About 60 million people in the United States may carry the toxoplasma parasite.

Ex-Hedge Funder Buys Rights To Drug Used By Aids Patients And Raises Price From $13.50 To $750 Per Pill  read more »

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ABC news - Couple Fighting With Verizon Over $2M cell phone bill, said it took them 10 months to clear up - $2 million for one month
A couple in Oregon say they spent 10 months trying to clear up a whopping $2 million phone bill, which they say has prevented them from buying the home of their dreams. Ken Slusher and his girlfriend, of Damascus, Oregon, have a balance of $2,156,593.64 on a Verizon Wireless bill that was for a wireless account that they opened in November. "Yeah, it's been very stressful to say the least," Slusher told KPTV.com.

The couple canceled their service in December and returned their phones in January, but the bills continued to arrive, as first reported by KPTV. Customer service representatives told them in-person and on the phone that they promised to clear up the matter, he said.

Slusher said he hoped to close on a new house next Monday and his girlfriend and their children are eagerly awaiting the move. But he said his mortgage company won't sign off on a loan due to the phone debt. They began receiving several calls from collection agencies demanding upward of $2,000, KPTV reported. According to Slusher, the couple's first bill should have been around $120, but it was actually $698 with a balance of $451.

CBS - Volkswagen said its cheating software affects 11 million vehicles and may cost up to $87 billion  read more »