The Balkan Chronicle

A group of scientists is pushing to publish research about how they created a man-made flu virus that could potentially wipe out civilisation.

The deadly virus is a genetically tweaked version of the H5N1 bird flu strain, but is far more infectious and could pass easily between millions of people at a time.

The research has caused a storm of controversy and divided scientists, with some saying it should never have been carried out.

According to popular belief (not to mention popular music), there's long been a link between mood and weather. Some of us can't stand the rain. Others aren't happy unless we can feel the warm glow of sunshine on our shoulders.

But does rain really make us blue? And does the sun really cheer us up? A new study in the journal Emotion explored this popular belief by surveying nearly 500 adolescents and their mothers and found that for some of us, weather does indeed have a direct affect on our mood.

Rae Padilla Francoeur, 63, of Rockport, Maine, has been in plenty of passionate relationships before but when she met her current mate, she fell head over heels. Who'd have thought it would take a terrible toll on her health?

Francoeur, the author of "Free Fall: A Late-in-Life Love Affair," says "the physical manifestations were extreme." During the lovesick phase she became lightheaded, lost weight, couldn't sleep for days, had butterflies and a quickened heart rate and couldn't concentrate or eat. "I was happier than ever emotionally, even though I couldn't eat and felt shaky all the time," says Francoeur who also ended up with a year's prescription for a prophylactic antibiotic for chronic urinary tract infections, too.

Annual checkups and tests such as colonoscopies and PSA assays are important, but it's not a good idea to rely on tests alone to protect you from cancer. It's just as important to listen to your body and notice anything that's different, odd, or unexplainable. (You should also listen to those close to you, such as a wife or partner, because others sometimes notice things we're unaware of—or don't want to admit.) You don't want to join the ranks of cancer patients who realize too late that symptoms they'd noticed for a long time could have sounded the alarm earlier, when cancer was easier to cure.

An ancient healing remedy comes to you from the Middle East and a 1400 year old spiritual tradition. The Black Seed, one remedy from this spiritual healing tradition, has been used successfully for over 1400 years. This ancient healing secret emerges from the rich tradition of Prophetic Medicine. Prophetic Medicine is the folk wisdom, herbal remedies and healing prayers that have been passed down from generation to generation by the followers of the Prophet Muhammad. One of the strongest and oldest of the remedies is black seed (Nigella sativa).

Cinnamon serves uses beyond bread pudding, french toast, and tea. In fact, Pliny the Elder referenced an unknown native people's guarding of a pricey cinnamon by "a terrible kind of bats," circa 77 AD.1 Both bark and flower have their practical application. Following are some important facts about cinnamon which should prove useful to you.

A new study should give women pause before filling their wine glass. Researchers found that women who regularly drink a small amount of alcohol — less than a drink a day — may increase their lifetime risk of breast cancer.

Dr. Wendy Chen, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital, and her colleagues report this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that women who consumed as little as three to six drinks a week over several decades were 15% more likely to develop breast cancer than women who didn't drink at all. Heavier drinking, defined as at least two drinks per day, was associated with a 51% increase in risk.

Near-death experiences are simply "manifestations of normal brain functions gone awry", researchers say.

Psychologists from Edinburgh University and the Medical Research Council in Cambridge reviewed existing research.

They say phenomena such as out-of-body experiences or encounters with dead relatives are tricks of the mind rather than a glimpse of the afterlife.

One of the researchers, Dr Caroline Watt, said: "Our brains are very good at fooling us."