ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher has shed tears in the Legislative Assembly while delivering an update on the $1 billion Mr Fluffy buyback and demolition scheme.

This week the ACT Government agreed to accept a concessional loan of $1 billion from the Commonwealth to help pay for the demolition of the 1,021 properties affected by potentially deadly loose-fill asbestos.

But the decision to demolish all of the homes has been a difficult moment for Ms Gallagher's Government.

On Thursday as she updated the ACT Legislative Assembly on the buyback and demolition scheme, the Chief Minister showed some of the strain, shedding tears and pausing to wipe her eyes during the address.

Ms Gallagher told the assembly she could not let the shadow of Mr Fluffy hang over the ACT any longer.

"1,021 houses is a big call, but I cannot see any other way through this. We cannot let this legacy continue, it has plagued this city for more than half of Canberra's history. It must end and it will with the buyback scheme being put in place this week," she said.

But it was the stories of the families that live in the homes that were the focus on Thursday.

All have been combined into a group impact statement, which was tabled in the Legislative Assembly today by the Chief Minister.

Many accounts speak of the social isolation and guilt that has come with living in a Mr Fluffy home.

"I am confused and anxious about what the future holds ... I feel very distressed most of the time and there is never a day that goes by where I do not cry," one statement said.

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Journalists stare at the Sistine Chapel with its new lighting during a press visit at the Vatican Thursday. Photo by Filippo Monteforte/MUSEI VATICANI/AFP

The Sistine Chapel just got a makeover. Vatican officials unveiled new state-of-the-art energy-efficient lighting and air purification systems to protect Michelangelos more than 500-year old frescoes. The three-year-long installation cost roughly $3.8 million.

The masterpieces have seen their fair share of deterioration over the years from the throngs of tourists who visit. The Vatican is now capping the chapels visitors to 6 million each year, its current level. The preservation efforts are designed to help shield the chapel from the dust and carbon dioxide those crowds leave behind.

The high-tech illumination installed by the German firm Osram is comprised of some 7,000 LED lights that will better highlight Michelangelos work as well as the chapels lesser-known frescoes by Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino and Domenico Ghirlandaio.

Its an emotional experience, said Osrams project leader, Mourad Boulouednine. Its difficult to talk in words but if you see it, many details in the frescoes, nice and wonderful colors, the plasticity and the three dimensional effect that Michelangelo has used in his figures is really outstanding.

The head of the Vatican Museums, Antonio Paolucci, told Reuters, I got to see the Sistine Chapel like I had never seen it before. This light allows you to see every little detail of the paintings and at the same time it allows you to grasp and experience the Sistine Chapel as a whole, in its entirety.

As an added benefit, the modernized lighting is also expected to cut the Vaticans energy bills by more than 80 percent.

As for the new air-conditioning system, it will direct airflow slowly through the hallowed room to avoid damaging the frescoes. The air temperature and humidity levels can also be adjusted based on data from 70 sensors in the Sistine Chapels walls as well as cameras monitoring visitors.

This chapel is a unique structure so we spent a great deal of time understanding how air flows here in order to map the technology, said John Mandyck, the chief sustainability officer for United Technologies unit Carrier which developed the air purification system. Air flows differently here than it does, say in an office building or even another church.

The previous air-conditioning system was installed 20 years ago, back when the chapel received only 1.5 million visitors each year.

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In The Sheds with Henry Speight
Ryley McKay chats with Brumbies Winger Henry Speight, following a hard fought 32-30 win over the Chiefs in Week 1 of the 2014 Super Rugby Finals.

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North Country Sheds 1-888-290-8277 http://northcountrysheds.com/garages/motorcycle-storage-sheds/ Motorcycle Storage Sheds - The Perfect Winter Storage Solution Delivered Fully Assembled...

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Prime Minister John Key should have announced during the election campaign that his former staffer Jason Ede had quit working for the National Party, the Greens say.

Mr Ede was a central figure in Nicky Hager's book Dirty Politics, which disrupted the campaign.

It was known at the time that Mr Ede had left Mr Key's office and was working for the National Party, but it wasn't known until recently that he no longer held that position.

A revised biography of the prime minister, written by John Roughan and released on Thursday, reveals that Mr Ede quit his job the night Hager's book was published.

Green Party co-leader Russel Norman says National deliberately kept it quiet.

"If New Zealanders had known Ede was no longer working for National, they would have realised there was a lot of weight in the allegations (in Hager's book)," Dr Norman said.

"That's why National didn't want anyone to know."

Hager said in Dirty Politics that Mr Ede was a contact and confidant of right-wing blogger Cameron Slater.

It was alleged they colluded in planning attacks on National's opponents.

In an interview for the biography, Mr Key said Mr Ede had a lot of jobs.

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

29-Oct-2014

Contact: Chris Chipello christopher.chipello@mcgill.ca 514-398-4201 McGill University @McGillU

A new study on a large cohort of kidney cancer patients in Europe sheds light on the genetic architecture of the disease -- and reveals an apparent link between exposure to aristolochic acid and incidence of kidney cancer, particularly in Romania.

The research, by an international team led by scientists from the McGill University and Genome Quebec Innovation Centre in Montreal, underscores the importance of investigating possible sources of exposure to aristolochic acid. The compound, found in plants of the Aristolochia genus, also has been suspected of causing a kidney disease known as Balkan endemic nephropathy, affecting people along the tributaries of the Danube River in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania. Aristolochia clematitis, or European birthwort, is a common plant throughout the Balkans.

Results of the study, which focused on the most common form of kidney cancer clear-cell renal cell carcinoma -- are reported today (Oct. 29) in Nature Communications. Renal cancer accounts for 2.4% of all adult cancers and more than 140,000 deaths annually. Incidence rates have been increasing sharply, with the highest rates occurring in Central Europe.

The researchers performed whole-genome sequencing on DNA isolated from blood and tumour tissue samples and RNA sequencing on tumour and matched normal tissue samples taken from a total of 94 kidney-cancer patients in four countries: the Czech Republic, Romania, Russia and the United Kingdom.

"The most striking observation was the high frequency of a specific type of mutation pattern found in the Romanian patients," says Yasser Riazalhosseini, an assistant professor of genetics at McGill. "The specific sequence context surrounding these mutations and their predominance on the non-transcribed strand of DNA enabled us to hypothesize that the mutation is due to exposure to aristolochic acid during the patient's lifetime."

This same mutation pattern is found in patients suffering from urinary-tract cancer associated with Balkan endemic nephropathy. That disease is thought by many scientists to be due to consumption of wheat flour contaminated with seeds of Aristolochia clematitis. Aristolochic acid is also used in herbal remedies in parts of Asia.

"While the study included only 14 patients from Romania, the specific mutation pattern was found in 12 of them. As a result, we will analyze samples from more patients from Romania and elsewhere in the Balkan region, in follow-up research that is now underway to assess the extent of exposure," says Professor Mark Lathrop, scientific director of the McGill University and Genome Quebec Innovation Centre, who led the study.

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Roman Find Sheds Light on Ancient Jewish Revolt
Archaeologists in Jerusalem have discovered a rare Latin inscription from the Roman period just 100 years after Jesus.

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Ajay Devgn Sheds 17 Kilos For Action Jackson - BT
Ajay Devgn Sheds 17 Kilos For Action Jackson Ajay Devgn, who had beefed up for Singham Returns, had to get leaner for Action Jackson, in which he also has some sword fighting sequences. ...

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GLENDALE, AZ - A police report sheds new light on accusations a Valley family is making against the Glendale Fire Department.

In an interview with ABC15 Monday, a Glendale family accused firefighters of using excessive force on their mentally ill son after they called for help on Sunday.

A neighbor caught the encounter on camera as it unfolded in the Murillos' front yard in front of several witnesses.

In the video, you can hear firefighters yelling at 30-year-old James Murillo, who is strapped to a gurney.

According to a police report, while firefighters were trying to restrain James, he punched his father in the face with a closed fist.

"You're a f***ing dead meat b****, I'm gonna have you for everything you have you piece of s***," said an unidentified firefighter.

James' parents say he took too much medication and started having seizures. He was diagnosed as bipolar, schizophrenic and has multiple personality disorder.

The report goes on to say firefighters told Murillo to stop and tried to restrain him at which point he punched two firefighters in the face and upper body.

The report states James continued throwing punches, causing a gurney to fall to the ground during the struggle.

Both firefighters said they struck James with closed fists five to six times to stop him from assaulting them, and immediately called police for assistance.

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LUNCHTIME supervisor Dawn Hyland was devastated when her mother Mary suffered a stroke.

Concerned for her own health, the mother-of-two, from Grange Lane, Wolstanton, went to her GP for a check-up after hitting the age of 40.

Dawn, now 41, was told she was at high risk of suffering from stroke as well, but was given a lifeline when she was referred to Weight Watchers for a three-month trial.

A year on and three stone six pounds lighter Dawn says it is a decision she will never regret.

"My mum suffered from a stroke and it's a dreadful thing. She has recovered but will be on medication for the rest of her life.

"I had a doctor's appointment about a year ago and I was telling the nurse about it and she said that I should have some more tests to see if I was at risk too, with me being 40.

"I had blood tests and cholesterol tests and all of the results came back too high, so the nurse told me that if I lost some weight then the risk might not be as high."

Dawn went to classes at Wolstanton Workingmen's Club and started to see the pounds drop off immediately.

She said: "The diet really suited me. I love cooking anyway so I just increased my intake of fruit and vegetables and reduced my portion sizes.

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Wolstanton mum sheds more than three stone after being told she...