Athens News Agency:10-09-02

The municipality of Marathon in Attica on Tuesday announced a programme of events to celebrate the 2,500th anniversary since the historic Battle of Marathon on September 12. On this crucial battlefield, the ancient Athenians managed to thwart invasion by a numerically superior Persian force, inaugurating an era in which Greece flourished and laid the foundations of western culture.

With money donated by the Leventis Foundation, the municipality will mark out historic routes for cyclists and pedestrians that will link monuments such as the Marathon Tomb, the Trophy, the ancient quarries and others.

On September 12 itself the events will reach a peak and will feature a walk to the Tomb followed by the reading of descriptions of the battle from Herodotus by well known Greek actors, accompanied by ancient Greek instruments such as the lute, pan-pipes, horn and others.

BBC News : 1 September 2010

Experts from the US space agency Nasa are travelling to a copper mine in Chile where 33 miners have been trapped underground for almost a month.

The specialists will advise the Chilean government on how to keep the miners in good spirits under extreme conditions.

Nasa's deputy chief medical officer Michael Duncan has already told Chilean officials to be frank with the miners about how long their rescue will take.

Drilling work to rescue the miners could take three to four months.

The miners have been told it could take a long time to get them out of the San Jose mine, in Copiapo, but have not been given dates.

On Tuesday, the company that owns the mine asked for forgiveness from the miners' relatives, many of whom have accused it of ignoring safety guidelines.

The firm denies the accusations, but described the unfolding drama at the San Jose mine as "a terrible situation".The Nasa team, made up of a doctor, a nutritionist, an engineer and a psychologist, has considerable experience of space missions and is used to helping astronauts cope with extreme conditions and months of solitude.

Mr Duncan, who is leading the Nasa team in Chile, said his group had been asked to provide help in nutrition and behavioural health.

Times of Malta : Wednesday, 1st September 2010
Ivan Camilleri

The European Commission yesterday refused to react to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's latest request for €5 billion a year to stop illegal immigrants from Africa entering the EU through its southern border.

Col Gaddafi’s comments, in which he also said Europe could soon become “black”, were made during an official visit to Rome on Monday.

Asked for a reaction, European Commission spokesman Matthew Newman said the EU executive did not wish to give any reaction on what President Gaddafi said.

When pressed, he only said that, “through dialogue and comprehensive cooperation, the EU can improve the situation ... in particular with regard to prevention of irregular migration”.

Commission sources said this was not the first time Col. Gaddafi or other Libyan officials made financial requests to the EU in exchange for help over the illegal immigration issue.

“Some years ago, the Libyan government sent the EU a list of military equipment it needed to police its borders against illegal immigrants. The equipment costs much more than the € 5 billion Col. Gaddafi mentioned last Monday,” the sources said.

The sources acknowledged that Libya did hold the key to control the flow of illegal immigrants as the bilateral agreement between Libya and Italy had shown.

(ANSA) - Castel Gandolfo, September 1 - Catholics should love the Church even though it has been "wounded by the sins of priests," Pope Benedict XVI said Wednesday in what was seen as his latest reference to child sex scandals.

The pope's remarks came in a sermon devoted to a 12th-century German mystic nun and polymath who distinguished herself at a time, like today, when the Church was "suffering".

Hildegard of Bingen, he said, was a model for the way Catholics should react to worldwide paedophile scandals.

The visionary nun, who preached to popes and condemned sins like paying money to obtain benefits after death, had "a courageous capacity to discern the signs of the times".

The Church she loved, Benedict said, was "suffering also at that time, wounded by the sins of priests and the laity".

Benedict's public pronouncements on the child sex scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church have been sparing.

He has apologised to victims and vowed to root out sex abuse.

Critics say he has not gone far enough in punishing cover-up

(ANSA) - Milan, September 1 - Italian researchers have helped pinpoint a gene responsible for the fatal and incurable nerve-wasting disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).

Scientists at the University of Milan, the Dino Ferrari Centre and the Auxologico lab have worked with colleagues in the US, UK, Netherlands, Ireland, France, Sweden and Belgium to identify the part of the human chromosome responsible for 'sporadic ALS'.

This type of ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease, accounts for some 90% of all cases.

"The identification was made possible by the Genome-Wide Association (GWA) technique which is able to analyse almost a million genetic variations in a 'hot' zone of the genome," said Auxologico's Vincenzo Silani, one of the authors of the study published in The Lancet.

"The discovery represents a substantial step towards understanding the causes of ALS".

"It is only through these compulsory stages that a therapy may be prepared," Silani stressed. ALS is one of the most common neuromuscular diseases worldwide, and people of all races and ethnic backgrounds are affected. One to two people per 100,000 develop ALS each year.