The top view of an underground shelter. U.S. company Vivos offers 4,000 spaces for sale at 20 doomsday bunkers across the U.S. ©sina.com.cn

BEIJING, April 19 — A U.S. company will start building commercial underground bunkers for people who want to survive an apocalypse such as an asteroid hitting the Earth or a nuclear attack, media reported on Monday.

Vivos, a California-based company, said it is planning a business project that offers the hope of surviving a near-extinction-level event, like the one many people say the Mayans predicted will occur in 2012.

Vivos said it plans to set up 20 “multi-level, 20,000 square foot (1,858 square meters) hardened shelter,” with each housing up to 200 people across the United States.

The bunkers will be designed to withstand outdoor temperatures of 700 degrees Celsius, winds of 700 kilometers an hour, flooding for 500 hours or a wave of earthquakes over 10 on the Richter scale. Besides, a portion of the bunkers even includes refurbished Cold War-era nuclear shelters.

The company said it would cost around 10 million U.S. dollars to build each shelter with food, fuel, water, clothing, medical supplies and security devices in it.

The cost of admission to the shelters will be 50,000 dollars, according to the company.

“It’s really not about 2012,” said Robert Vicino, the owner of Vivos, “something could happen tomorrow or 20 years from now.”

“You can’t predict, but you can prepare,” the company advertises on its website.

On Xinhua Web site: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/sci/2010-04/19/c_13257683.htm

An odd species of pig in Britain. ©Xinhua

BEIJING, April 19 — Three rare Mangalitza “sheep-pigs,” which have snouts and trotters as well as woolly coats, have been delivered to a UK zoo, the Daily Mail reported Monday.

The Mangalitza sheep-pigs, originating from Austria and Hungary, were brought to Tropical Wings Zoo in Essex, UK to form part of a program to help save the animals from extinction, according to the newspaper.

“At first sight, people think they are sheep,” Denise Cox, education coordinator at Tropical Wings, was quoted as saying, “it is not until they turn around and you see their faces and snouts you realize they are in fact pigs.”

The Mangalitza sheep-pig is similar to a Lincolnshire curly coat breed, which died out in Britain 40 years ago, the newspaper reported.

In the early 1900s, many Lincolnshire curly coats were sold to Austria and Hungary where they were crossed with the Mangalitza.

Three years ago this cross-breed were found thriving in Austria, and a small number were brought back to create a herd in Britain. These three sheep-pigs are offspring of this herd.

Now the three sheep-pigs in the zoo, named Buddy, Porsche and Margot, have attracted lots of interest from visitors. 

On Xinhua Web site: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/sci/2010-04/19/c_13257989.htm

The court ruling came on Sunday, dismissing an appeal by Charlotte Adams, 25, and Ayman Najafi, 24, who were arrested last November on charges of kissing intimately in public and consuming alcohol. An Emirati woman had complained her two-year-old daughter had seen their indiscretion.

The pair, who had been free on bail, is also to pay a fine of 1,000 dirhams (272 U.S. dollars) for illegal consumption of alcohol and will be deported after serving their jail term, according to Gulf News.

The pair claimed they are not a couple, and said they exchanged only a kiss on the cheek as a greeting, said Al Jazeera.

Khalaf al-Hosany, the pair’s lawyer, told the court in a previous hearing that they kissed on the cheek as a greeting and “never intended to break the law”.

The case is the third time in under two years that Britons have fallen foul of indecency laws in Dubai.

In 2008, a British couple narrowly escaped jail after a court found them guilty of engaging in drunken sexual activity out of wedlock and in public on a beach in the emirate.

In another case this year, a British couple who shared a hotel room managed to escape trial in Dubai for having sex out of wedlock by producing a marriage certificate. 

On Xinhua Web site: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/odd/2010-04/06/c_13239759.htm

The video posted on the popular video-sharing website YouTube shows the 499-dollar device being dropped on the floor, stamped on, thrown, and smashed with a baseball bat.

More than 500,000 people have watched the clip since it was posted online Saturday, the day when iPad made a market debut in the U.S.

According to The Los Angeles Times, the video, titled “Brand new iPad getting smashed by a baseball bat”, was made by Justin Kockott, a 19-year-old high school student.

“I wanted to be the first one to do it before other people did it,” Kockott was quoted by the newspaper as saying, “it was just something to do.”

But Kockott denied holding a grudge against Apple, saying, “I do not at all hate Apple. I love Apple, actually.”

Apple reportedly has sold more than 300,000 iPads on the first day of its availability. 

On Xinhua Web site: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/odd/2010-04/06/c_13239699.htm

Frank Dryman, now 78, was found by an investigator hired by the Montana victim’s grandson.

Before Dryman was arrest by the Pinal County sheriff’s office in Arizona on Tuesday, he was running a successful notary and chapel business under the assumed name Victor Houston.

Dryman initially received a hanging sentence after a trial in 1955. His case then became the focus of a battle over the death penalty, so he received a new sentence of life in prison.

In 1969, after 15 years in prison, Dryman was paroled. He disappeared three years later.

“He just went into thin air in 1972,” Clem Pellett, the victim’s grandson, was quoted as saying, “I don’t think that my grandfather’s death was well represented.”

But Pellett said he only decided to hire a private investigator on a whim during a dinner party conversation, and he is not driven to see Dryman punished.

Dryman was now awaiting extradition proceedings. A hearing was scheduled for Thursday morning local time in Arizona.

“I think this sends a message to other fugitives that they are never off the radar screen,” said Montana Department of Corrections spokesman Bob Anez, “it’s imperative that individuals be held accountable for their actions.” 

On Xinhua Web site: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-03/25/c_13224846.htm

Surgical teams split in two groups to operate individually on newly separated twins Trishna and Krishna of Bangladesh in the surgery at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne in this handout picture taken on November 17, 2009 and made available November 19, 2009. Twenty seven hours of surgery were required to separate the conjoined twins, who were joined at the head. Picture taken November 17, 2009. ©Reuters

BEIJING, Nov. 25 — Formerly conjoined twin sisters Trishna and Krishna are recovering well in Australia from a marathon separation surgery in Australia.

According to Australia’s Royal Children’s Hospital chief of surgery Leo Donnan Tuesday, Trishna has started to eat bread and fruit for the first time in her life — she previously got the nutrition from her sister.

“The exciting thing is they’re now starting to play,” Donnan told reporters, adding that he was amazed at the girls’ improvement.

The twins will turn three years old next month.

Previously Trishna and Krishna had been joined at the top of their heads and shared brain tissue and blood vessels. They were separated on Nov. 17 and left intensive care on Monday.

Their mother, Lovely Mollick, handed over the girls to an orphanage in the Bangladeshi capital in Dhaka, as she and her husband were unable to care for their special needs.

The girls were found by an aid worker in an orphanage when they were one month old. The aid worker contacted the Children First Foundation, which brought the girls to Australia for the operation.

The Children First Foundation has said it will support the twins when they undergo further medical treatment in Australia for at least the next two years. 

On Xinhua Web site: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-11/25/content_12536508.htm