Lobster-loving Canadians are trying to persuade a fish market in easternmost New Brunswick province to set free a huge crustacean believed to be more than 100 years old, its owner said Friday.

The 10-kilogram (22-pound) male named Big Dee-Dee was caught earlier this month in the Bay of Fundy and is now on display at the Shediac fish market Big Fish.

According the store owner, Denis Breau, it was to be auctioned off in the coming weeks.

But a massive campaign to stop it from landing in a pot of boiling water has unexpectedly kicked off, with online petitions and a woman in Vancouver on Canada’s Pacific Coast enlisting the help of the Vancouver Humane Society and animal rights group PETA.
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Border agents have stepped up searches and hundreds of traps have been placed on the California-Mexico line in an aggressive campaign to stop a tiny bug from bringing in a disease farmers say could wipe out the $1.3 billion citrus industry here.

Already, Asian citrus psyllid has hurt citrus production in parts of China and infested millions of dead and dying trees in Florida and Brazil. Growers say the bug has the potential to be more damaging than the Mediterranean fruit fly because entire groves — not just fruit — are at risk.

“This is not one more thing, this might be the last thing,” said Al Stehly, who manages 200 acres of oranges near Valley Center in San Diego County.

The tiny psyllids are the only transmitters of the disease, officially known by its Chinese name, huanglongbing, or “yellow dragon disease” for its visual effect on leaves. In the U.S., growers call it “citrus greening” disease because fruit fails to ripen. Read more » »

The equity release market has bucked overall trends, recording a 14 per cent increase in business during the second quarter of 2008.

A total of £275.7 million of equity was released in the second quarter, 14 per cent higher than the £242.7 million released in the first quarter, finds Safe Home Income Plans (Ship).

Ship is the leading professional body for regulated equity release product providers, and represents 90 per cent of the market.

“This success underlines the robust health of the equity release sector, despite the impact of the credit crunch that is having such a negative effect on the mainstream mortgage market,” said Andrea Rozario, director general of Ship.
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It appears the Yahoo! Sports voting panel still isn’t quite sold on Forrest Griffin.

No one has scored a pair of bigger victories since the Y! Sports Top 10 poll was instituted last August than the new UFC light heavyweight champion’s wins over Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in September and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson on July 5.

Rua was ranked No. 2 at the time he was submitted by Griffin at UFC 76. Rua fell out of the rankings entirely; Griffin didn’t crack the top 10.

Jackson was ranked No. 4 at the time he fought Griffin and had been ranked as high as No. 2. But “Rampage,” after his first loss in seven fights, dropped five spots to No. 9. Griffin, despite the big victories and despite holding the championship in the deepest division in the sport, checked in at No. 8 in the rankings. Read more » »

The Associated Press and video services operated by CBS and NBC have pulled video allegedly taken of a tornado in Nebraska last weekend after questions were raised about its authenticity.

A tornado chaser has claimed that the video was a doctored version of pictures he had taken of a twister that touched down four years ago in Rock, Kan.

The AP paid another storm chaser, Andy Fabel, $295 for footage of a tornado that briefly touched down Saturday afternoon near Valentine, Neb. The video was sent Sunday to nearly 2,000 Web sites that subscribe to the AP’s Online Video Network, and more than 60 large digital customers that buy AP’s online content individually.

Yet on Tuesday, a person who asked that his name not be used contacted the AP and said the supposed Nebraska footage was really video he had taken four years ago. The image Read more » »

The An anonymous tip led Suffolk police and animal control officers to a home located in the 4300 blk. of Desert Rd..

Police tell WAVY.com that they found 102 dogs, several cats and an assortment of livestock “living in substandard conditions.” They also believe some of the dogs weren’t licensed or vaccinated.

Angie Lynch says the dogs are family pets. “I have here, the documentation that the dogs were vaccinated on January 16, and animal control officers told us the dogs were healthy,” explained Lynch.

Police conducted a search of the property, gathering evidence. Debbie George with the Suffolk Police Department says the homeowner may have been housing a “breeding and selling facility.”
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The gains made against coronary death rates in recent decades are starting to slip away for middle-aged Americans, public health officials report.

Overall, the picture looks rosy, said a report that used U.S. vital statistics data between 1980 and 2002 for all people aged 35 and older. The death rate from coronary disease fell by 52 percent in men and 49 percent in women.

“In older age groups, the reduction is still going on,” said lead researcher Dr. Earl S. Ford, a medical officer in the U.S. Public Health Service, who co-authored the report with Dr. Simon Capewell of the University of Liverpool in England.

But the picture is more bleak for Americans aged 35 to 54.

For men of that age, the average annual rate of death from coronary disease declined by 6.2 percent in the 1980s but only by 2.3 percent in the 1990s. It then dropped at an annual rate of 0.5 percent between 2000 and 2002. Read more » »