6 | EXPRESS | 08.08.2014 | WEEKEND
nation+world DONETSK, UKRAINE
HONG KONG
NATO pledges support to Ukraine against Russia
Google’s autocomplete feature gets them sued
NATO’s chief defied Russian belligerence Thursday with a pledge to provide assistance to Ukraine, which is battling to quash pro-Russia rebels in the country’s east. Meanwhile, in rebel-held Donetsk, shelling struck residential buildings and a hospital, killing at least four people, local officials said, as government forces focus their efforts on taking back control of the city. (AP)
When Hong Kong tycoon Albert Yeung Sau-shing Googled his name, the autocomplete feature suggested the word “triad,” a term associated with organized crime. Now he’s suing Google for libel. Yeung, founder of Emperor Group, has been found guilty of illegal bookmaking and other crimes, but has since tried to rehabilitate his image. Google tried to have the case dismissed, but Tuesday a judge said it could go to trial. (THE WASHINGTON POST)
A tick bite might make you a vegetarian, or at least make you swear off red meat. Doctors across the nation are seeing a surge of sudden meat allergies in people bitten by Lone Star ticks. The tick bite conveys a type of sugar to the bloodstream — which is also found in red meat — that makes the immune system go overboard. (AP) LOS ANGELES
L.A. porn business down; condom rules blamed If recent film-permit records are to be believed, fewer than three adult movies a month are being made in Los Angeles County this year, a more than 90 percent drop from 2012. Industry officials say a law requiring actors to wear condoms has sent much of the industry underground. (AP) DETROIT
Detroit offers payment plans for water bills Facing international criticism for mass water shutoffs aimed at resolving unpaid bills, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan announced Thursday the bankrupt city will offer affordable payment plans and financial assistance to many delinquent customers. Duggan said the “city needs to be more mindful making sure water is affordable.” Shutoffs have been halted until Aug. 25. (AP)
All those pics of Fido could come in handy Any worried pet owner who has spent days hanging posters and knocking on neighbors’ doors hopes there’s a more scientific way to find a lost dog. That became a reality when facial recognition technology reunited a pet at San Diego County Animal Services with its owners. Joanne Cox’s family in San Diego turned to FindingRover .com, a website and app that uses technology built by university researchers, to reconnect with their dog Roxy. The website keeps a database of photos from the three county shelters and tries to match eight distinctive facial markers on dogs with images uploaded by users searching for lost pets. Founder John Polimeno wants to expand the photo database to improve the odds of more happy endings. (AP)
Obama signs $16.3 billion VA reform bill
EVAN VUCCI (AP0
HEALTH
Doctors: Ticks could turn you against red meat
TRENDS
STUDIES
The remains were found at the former Minus Funeral Home in Dover, Del.
Jonestown ashes found in Delaware DOVER, DEL. The cremated remains of nine victims of a 1978 mass cult suicide-murder in Jonestown, Guyana, have turned up in a former funeral home in Delaware, officials said Thursday. The state Division of Forensic Science has taken possession of the remains, discovered at the former Minus Funeral Home in Dover, and is working to make identifications and notify relatives, the agency and Dover police said in a statement. Last week, the Delaware agency responded to a request to check the former funeral home after 38 containers of remains were discovered inside. Thirty-three containers were marked and identified. They spanned a period from about
1970 to the 1990s and included the Jonestown remains. On Thursday, the dilapidated former funeral home had a padlock on the double front doors. The building showed few signs of its former use, and the backyard was littered with beer a cans. More than 900 people were killed in the Jonestown massacre in November 1978, when the Rev. Jim Jones ordered his followers to commit “revolutionary suicide” by drinking punch mixed with poison. There is actually a reason why bodies from Guyana would be taken to Delaware, of all places: Victims of the mass murdersuicide were flown on speciallyequipped Air Force transports to a mortuary at Dover Air Force Base. (AP/THE WASHINGTON POST)
Hate meetings? It might be the carbon dioxide. If you seem to be thinking slowly during meetings, carbon dioxide or other indoor pollutants may be to blame, Vox reports. The level of carbon dioxide in a crowded or poorly ventilated room could impair decisionmaking, according to a 2012 study from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. (EXPRESS)
‘MINIMUM-WAGE FEE’
35¢
The amount a Minnesota restaurant started adding to its bills — calling it a “minimum wage fee” after the state’s minimum wage was raised from $6.50 to $8 Friday. “We’re just doing what we have to do,” Craig Beemer, the owner of the Oasis Cafe in Stillwater, told the Star Tribune. (THE WASHINGTON POST)
RESEARCH
Want a raise? Pump up the bass.
Want to nail that big presentation? Listen to some 50 Cent first. New research shows that people who listen to music high in bass (like 50 Cent’s “In Da Club”) makes people more confident, and improves abstract thinking, according to the news website Quartz. Other tunes to listen to before asking for a raise, according to the study in “Social Psychological and Personality Science,” are Queen’s “We Will Rock You” and 2 Unlimited’s “Get Ready for This.” (EXPRESS)
Earthquake rattles Hawaii ahead of expected hurricane landfall
Researchers say vitamin D deficiency raises Alzheimer’s risk