Month: February 2014

French investigators have ruled out any third party involvement in the ski accident of former Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher and have closed the case, the local prosecutor said on Monday. "The investigation into the causes and consequences of the December 29 skiing accident of Michael Schumacher … has been closed on February 12," Albertville prosecutor Patrick Quincy said in a statement. "No person has been found guilty of any violation." Schumacher, 45, has undergone two operations since sustaining brain injuries after hitting his head on a rock while skiing off-piste in the French Alps resort of Meribel. The seven times world champion was in a stable but critical condition until late January and doctors in the Grenoble hospital have started waking him up progressively by lowering his sedation.

French investigators have ruled out any third party involvement in the ski accident of former Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher and have closed the case, the local prosecutor said on Monday. “The investigation into the causes and consequences of the Dec. 29 skiing accident of Michael Schumacher … has been closed on Feb. 12,” Albertville prosecutor Patrick Quincy said in a statement. “No person has been found guilty of any violation.” Schumacher, 45, has undergone two operations since sustaining brain injuries after hitting his head on a rock while skiing off-piste in the French Alps resort of Meribel. The seven times world champion was in a stable but critical condition until late January and doctors in the Grenoble hospital have started waking him up progressively by lowering his sedation.

Mothers may say they don't care whether they have a son or a daughter, but their breast milk says otherwise. "Mothers are producing different biological recipes for sons and daughters," said Katie Hinde, an evolutionary biologist at Harvard University. There are a lot of theories as to why this happens, Hinde said Friday at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting.

Lauren Sesselmann, whose Canadian Olympic soccer team captured a bronze medal at the 2012 Summer Games in London, said while the physical prowess has to be there, a healthy mindset might play an even bigger part in success. "We do a lot of mental training," said Sesselmann. "You have to push yourself and to put goals before yourself every day." Motivation was never a problem for Sesselmann, 30. But Sesselmann credits the mental strategies learned in the team's so-called "mind room" with helping her counter inevitable Olympic stressors from a bad practice day to a truncated personal life to being far away from family and friends.

The Chinese government's failure to take emergency steps over the weekend to rein in pollution was "indefensible," state media said on Monday, in a rare show of defiance after several days of thick smog once again blanketed the capital, Beijing. The criticism will be a concern for the stability-obsessed government, which is keen to be seen as tough on pollution as affluent city dwellers weary of a growth-at-all-costs economic model that has tainted much of China's air, water and soil. "Their inaction in the face of the heaviest air pollution in a month flies in the face of their own promises and their own credibility," the official English-language China Daily said in an editorial. Similar comments posted by China's state broadcaster CCTV and official mouthpiece the People's Daily on their Twitter-like Sina Weibo microblogs over the weekend were later deleted.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Just a few weeks ago, 11-month-old Shaista was pulling herself up, giggling as she took her first wobbly steps with the helping hand of her teenage mother.

ZURICH (Reuters) – Novartis said it will buy U.S.-based CoStim Pharmaceuticals Inc., a privately held biotechnology company focused on harnessing the immune system to eliminate immune-blocking signals from cancer, for an undisclosed price. The Swiss drugmaker said the move follows increasing evidence pointing to the role of the immune system in controlling cancer. (Reporting By Katharina Bart; Editing by John Stonestreet)