Polish museum curator claims that he managed to discover the possible whereabouts of a legendary Russian treasure looted by Germans during WWII.
Russia's Mythical Amber Room Possibly Found in WWII Bunker in Poland
http://sputniknews.com/art_living/20160422/1038452424/poland-bunker-amber-room-discovery.html
A Polish museum curator named Bartlomiej Plebanczyk believes that the world-famous Amber Room may in fact reside in a previously undiscovered underground chamber located in a bunker complex in northern Poland that served as a German army HQ during WWII.
According to RMF 24 radio station, Plebanczyk made his discovery using a ground-penetrating radar, and is currently seeking permission to drill a hole into the chamber in order to determine the nature of its contents.
He also added that in 1950s a sapper regiment of the Polish army stationed in the region was contacted by a man who claimed that during the winter of 1945 he witnessed a German truck convoy arriving at the bunker designated as Facility 31. The witness insisted that the trucks’ mysterious cargo was unloaded and stored at the bunker, and that the place was eventually walled up, RMF 24 adds.
The Amber Room chamber decorated in amber panels backed with gold leaf and mirrors was originally built for the Catherine Palace of Tsarskoye Selo near Saint Petersburg.
The chamber was constructed in 18th century and was lost during World War II after being looted by Nazi German forces – the Amber Room that is currently available on display is in fact a reconstruction completed in 2003.
Polish doctors have managed to save the life of a child who was born 55 days after his mother died from brain cancer, Sputnik Poland reported.
Poland's Miracle Child: Unborn Baby Lives for 2 Months after Mother's Death
http://sputniknews.com/europe/20160422/1038422415/poland-baby-born-mother-death.html
A 41-year-old woman gave birth to her child two months after being admitted to hospital in Wroclaw, Poland in the final stages of brain cancer, Sputnik Poland reported.
The woman was 17 weeks pregnant, and doctors at Wroclaw's University Hospital decided to try and save the life of the unborn child by artificially maintaining his mother's vital bodily functions.
The baby boy weighed around one kilogram when he was born, and he spent the next three weeks in intensive care in the hospital where he gained around three kilograms in weight, and became able to breathe independently.
He has now been taken home by his father, and will be an outpatient at the hospital's pediatrics department until he is three years old.
Professor Barbara Królak-Olejnik, head of University Hospital's neonatal unit, told Sputnik Poland that doctors took the decision to prolong the mother's life after consulting her family.
'Miracle in Wroclow. A woman who had been dead for 55 days gave birth to a child,' reported Polska Times.
"At the beginning, in constant consultation with anesthetists, obstetricians and neonatologists, we planned to prolong the pregnancy to 30 weeks. At that stage of pregnancy the fetus is developed enough and does not need intensive therapy after birth," Królak-Olejnik said.
"Unfortunately in the 26th week of pregnancy the condition of the fetus was so precarious that there was a danger of miscarriage. We had to make an urgent decision – can we fight for his life?"
"The fetus was very small and premature, but we had to try and meet this challenge, otherwise the child would have died in his mother's womb," she explained.
Królak-Olejnik said that the case was a first for pediatricians at the hospital in Wroclaw; there has previously been one similar case in Poland, but the mother had been in a later stage of pregnancy.
"I would prefer that this kind of situation doesn't happen again, for this is a great joy amid great sorrow. But I am sure that all the staff at the hospital would be ready to meet such a challenge," the doctor said
“Miracle baby” Sonies Awal was only 5 months old when he was found covered in dust after being buried alive for 22 hours after the earthquake in Nepal. Now, a year later, Nepal's new face of hope is a happy toddler full of life.
‘Miracle Baby’ Who Survived Nepal Quake Now Symbol of Life After Tragedy
http://sputniknews.com/asia/20160419/1038276983/nepal-boy-rescue-hope.html
It was Saturday, April 25, 2015, when Rasmila Awal, the boy's mother, walked home from the store and the earth began to shake. A few moments later, she saw the building she lived in collapse. And inside were her children — Soniya, aged 10, and Sonies, only 5 months old. After two hours, Soniya was found alive, but the baby was still missing.
Everyone thought he had been killed. Incredibly, he survived because a cupboard fell over his bed, protecting him, and he was dug out the following day, after being buried alive for 22 hours in the rubble of his family's house. His face was coated with dust. But he was alive.
A photo of him being lifted from the rubble has become the defining image of a disaster that has devastated the country. His rescue has given hope to a nation that has experienced so much loss.
Now 17 months old, Sonies is a happy, bright and light-hearted child.
"I try not to think too much about what happened last year with the earthquake," the boy's mother said. "He is such a lovely boy. I am just so, so pleased and relieved that he survived and that Sonia escaped as well."
However, the impact of the earthquake on the family's life has been enormous. They cannot move back to their home, which still looks like a mass of rubble on the main street of Muldhoka, near Kathmandu. They now live in one tiny room nearby.
"We won't be able to move back," Rasmila Awal said.
Russian judge Konstantin Belik has been decorated with France's National Order of Merit for saving a two-year-old French girl, according to the press service of the court department of Primorye Territory, Russia.
Nice Catch: French Decorate Russian Hero With Medal for Saving Little Girl
http://sputniknews.com/world/20160422/1038449316/france-russia-judge-order.html
Russian judge Konstantin Belik has been decorated with France's National Order of Merit for saving a two-year-old French girl, according to the press service of the court department of Primorye Territory, Russia.
The French National Order of Merit has been awarded to Konstantin Belik, chairman of a district court in Primorye Territory in the Russian Far East, who did not think twice before saving a two-year-old French girl, the press service of Primorye Territory's court department reported.
Established by President Charles de Gaulle on December 3, 1963 and known as France's fourth most significant order, the National Order of Merit was handed to Belik by Frederic Mondoloni, chargé d'affaires of the French Embassy in Russia.
The incident took place in 2009, when Belik and his family were on tour in France. While walking the streets of Paris, he suddenly heard someone crying for help.
Shortly afterwards,
he saw a small girl desperately clinging to the window-ledge of the sixth floor of an apartment building. When she finally slipped off, Belik swiftly rushed in to catch her in his arms.
Satellite images sent to China from an orbiting space craft have revealed the potential for procreation in outer space after a recent Chinese mission revealed images of cells multiplying far from Earth.
Sex in Space: Scientists Take One Giant Leap to Figuring Out If It Works
http://sputniknews.com/asia/20160422/1038446709/space-reproduction-science-embryos.html
Six thousand mice embryos in a box the size of a microwave oven were sent into space on the SJ-10 spacecraft from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu.
During a twelve day experiment, images beamed back to Earth by satellite showed signs that some of the embryos had begun to develop. The images have been published by Chinese media.
"The human race may still have a long way to go before we can colonize space but before that, we have to figure out whether it is possible for us to survive and reproduce in outer space like we do on Earth," Enkui told Chinese media.
Satellite images showed that the embryos had matured into structures scientifically referred to as blastocysts.
The last time mouse embryos were sent into space was on a NASA spacecraft in 1996; however none of the 49 cells showed any signs of developing.
A decade later, China sent four embryos into orbit. High resolution pictures revealed that they didn't die — but they didn't grow either.
It might be a small step to start but scientists one day hope to colonize Mars. 50 men and 50 women have already been shortlisted for the Mars One Project which hopes to set up a permanent human settlement on the plant by 2024.
Scientists are already looking into how to keep astronauts fed and watered in galaxies far away — but when it comes to sex in space — the research remains in its embryonic stage.
A team of Russian, French and German geochemists discovered an ancient underground ocean. The size of the underground ocean exceeds the size of all oceans on Earth several times.
Huge prehistoric ocean discovered under Earth's surface
http://www.pravdareport.com/news/science/earth/01-04-2016/134023-prehistoric_ocean-0/
At a depth of 410-660 kilometers under the earth's surface, the scientists discovered a vast ocean aged approximately 2.7 billion years.
The ocean is located deep under the Earth's crust and was formed in the Archean period under high pressures and temperatures.The water in the ocean is locked into the crystal structure of minerals.
The scientists came to these conclusions, having studied samples of komatiites - minerals that was sound in Canada. The results of the study were published in Nature magazine.
The participants of a first-of-its-kind Vatican conference have bluntly rejected the Catholic church’s long-held teachings on just war theory, saying they have too often been used to justify violent conflicts and the global church must reconsider Jesus’ teachings on nonviolence.
Vatican Conference Rejects The Catholic Church’s Long Held Teachings On Just War Theory
http://novorossia.today/vatican-conference-rejects-catholic-churchs-long-held-teachings-just-war-theory/
Members of a three-day event co-hosted by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and the international Catholic peace organization Pax Christi have also strongly called on Pope Francis to consider writing an encyclical letter, or some other “major teaching document,” reorienting the church’s teachings on violence.
“There is no ‘just war,'” the some 80 participants of the conference state in an appeal they released Thursday morning.
“Too often the ‘just war theory’ has been used to endorse rather than prevent or limit war,” they continue. “Suggesting that a ‘just war’ is possible also undermines the moral imperative to develop tools and capacities for nonviolent transformation of conflict.”
“We need a new framework that is consistent with Gospel nonviolence,” say the participants, noting that Francis and his four predecessors have all spoken out against war often. “We propose that the Catholic Church develop and consider shifting to a Just Peace approach based on Gospel nonviolence.”
Just war theory is a tradition that uses a series of criteria to evaluate whether use of violence can be considered morally justifiable. First referred to by fourth-century bishop St. Augustine of Hippo, it was later articulated in depth by 13th-century theologian St. Thomas Aquinas and is today outlined by four conditions in the formal Catechism of the Catholic Church.
The Rome conference, held Monday through Wednesday, brought experts engaged in global nonviolent struggles to reconsider the theory for the first time under the aegis of the Vatican.
It comes after a number of theologians have criticized continued use of the theory in modern times, saying that both the powerful capabilities of modern weapons and evidence of the effectiveness of nonviolent campaigns make it outdated.
At a press event launching the conference’s final appeal document — given the title “An Appeal to the Catholic Church to Re-Commit to the Centrality of Gospel Nonviolence” — several of the event’s participants said the church should simply no longer teach the just war theory.
“I came a long distance for this conference, with a very clear mind that violence is outlived,” said Archbishop John Baptist Odama of Gulu, Uganda. “It is out of date for our world of today.”
“We have to sound this with a strong voice,” said the archbishop. “Any war is a destruction. There is no justice in destruction. … It is outdated.”
The Catechism currently outlines as one criteria for moral justification of war that “the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated” and notes that “the power of modern means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition.”
Odama, who also leads Uganda’s bishops’ conference, said the conditions in the Catechism “are only given to say in reality there should be no war. (Article continues.)
