FT Chronicle

Think of the world’s wealthiest person, Warren Buffett? Bill Gates? Not anymore!

For the third time in three years, the world has a new richest man.

After the time in power of Bill Gates as the world’s richest 14 of the past 15 years, Carlos Slim Helu finally took No. 1 spot on Forbes World’s Billionaires list as a record 164 10-figure titans return to the ranking amid the global economic recovery.

Slim’s fortune has swelled to an estimated $53.5 billion, up $18.5 billion in 12 months. Shares of America Movil, of which Slim owns a $23 billion stake, were up 35% in a year.

Riding surging prices of his various telecom holdings, including giant mobile outfit America Movil (AMX), the Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim Helu has beaten out Americans Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to become the wealthiest person on earth and nab the top spot on the 2010 Forbes list of the World’s Billionaires.

A giant asteroid smashing into Earth is the only possible explanation for the extinction of the dinosaurs-a global scientific team said on Thursday, hoping to settle a row that has divided experts for decades.

A panel of 41 scientists from across the world reviewed 20 years’ worth of research to try to confirm the cause of the so-called Cretaceous-Tertiary (KT) extinction, which created a “hellish environment” around 65 million years ago and wiped out more than half of all species on the planet.

Scientific opinion was split over whether the extinction was caused by an asteroid or by volcanic activity in the Deccan Traps in what is now India, where there were a series of super volcanic eruptions that lasted around 1.5 million years.

The new study, conducted by scientists from Europe, the United States, Mexico, Canada and Japan and published in the journal Science, found that a 15-kilometre (9 miles) wide asteroid slamming into Earth at Chicxulub in what is now Mexico was the culprit.

“We now have great confidence that an asteroid was the cause of the KT extinction. This triggered large-scale fires, earthquakes measuring more than 10 on the Richter scale, and continental landslides, which created tsunamis,” said Joanna Morgan of Imperial College London, a co-author of the review.

The asteroid is thought to have hit Earth with a force a billion times more powerful than the atomic bomb at Hiroshima.

Agathe Habyarimana, the widow of late Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, whose assassination triggered the Rwandan genocide, has been arrested in France.

Habyarimana is accused by the current Rwandan government of helping to plan the 1994 genocide, and has long been sought by prosecutors there.

Mrs Habyarimana, who has been living in France for several years, denies the accusations.

More than 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus died in the massacres of 1994.

French officials said Mrs Habyarimana was detained in the Paris region by police executing a Rwandan-issued international arrest warrant.

Mrs Habyarimana, who was flown out of Rwanda by the French military in the early days of the violence, has been seeking political asylum in France, without success.

Her arrest follows a visit to the Rwandan capital Kigali last week by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, when he admitted that France – and the wider international community – had make “mistakes” over the genocide.

SYDNEY—US daredevil Seth Enslow coined a world record distance on a Harley-Davidson motorbike not once, but twice, on Tuesday after media missed the first death-defying leap.

The freestyle motocross star broke Bubba Blackwell’s 11-year record by soaring 175 feet (53.3 meters) near Sydney’s famed harbour, and then went back and jumped 183.7 feet for the assembled cameras.

The heavily tattooed Enslow, a star of the Crusty Demons motorbike troupe, held his crotch and grimaced after landing “awkwardly” on the second jump, but did not suffer any serious injury, a spokeswoman said.

The record was once held by legendary US stuntman Evel Knievel, who cleared 14 buses on a Harley XR-750 at King’s Island, Ohio in 1975, just a few months after famously crashing at London’s Wembley Stadium.

Enslow now wants to jump the XR1200 past the 200 foot (60.9m) mark.  He has been spotted in Australia recently testing for this jump.  The jump is scheduled for the end of March 2009 to coincide with the Official Grand Opening of the Red Rock Harley Davidson dealer in Las Vegas.  This jump will be an amazing jump considering it will be done on a Harely in Las Vegas.

WASHINGTON DC, United States— Another 6.2-magnitude aftershock struck central Chile late Sunday which followed the major 8.8-degree earthquake a US government agency reported.

The epicenter of the shake was 35 kilometers underground and 109 kilometers northeast of the city of Talca, the US Geological Survey said.

Chile’s death toll reached 700 on Sunday as rescuers searched for survivors and the extent of the disaster claimed 1.5 million houses and buildings which were destroyed or badly damaged.

Japan on Monday lifted all tsunami alerts nationwide, a day after authorities ordered large-scale evacuations as waves triggered by Chile’s massive earthquake hit its Pacific coast.

“We lifted all alerts as of 10:15 a.m. (0115 GMT),” said Yoshiro Ota at the Meteorological Agency’s earthquake and tsunami division.

There were no immediate reports of damage from the four-foot (1.2-meter) wave, though some piers were briefly flooded.

In the Philippines, State volcanologists on Sunday afternoon lifted their tsunami warning in the absence of unusual, significant sea level changes near the country’s coasts in front of the Pacific Ocean in the wake of an 8.8-magnitude earthquake that hit south-central Chile on Saturday.

Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) also said initial waves had been small and most of the Pacific islands already in its path had been spared damage.

Philipines and Japan also shared their own earthquake occurrences.

A magnitude-5.3 quake rocked General Santos City, southern part of the Philippines, shortly after midnight Friday, with state seismologists saying no damage was expected but  aftershocks were possible.

An earthquake measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale hit east coast of Hongshu, Japan at 4:23 p.m. Sunday Hong Kong time (0823 GMT), according to a bulletin released by the Hong Kong Observatory.

The tsunami alert was caused by a possibility of huge waves produced by the massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Chile early Saturday.

President Michele Bachelet declared a “state of catastrophe” in central Chile. The death toll hits more than 700.

Actor Andrew Koenig –  known for his role as Kirk Cameron’s pal Boner on the ’80s sitcom Growing Pains — was found dead Thursday in Vancouver, B.C.

After visiting pals in Vancouver on Feb. 11, he never boarded his flight back to Los Angeles.

The 41-year-old actor had been missing since Feb. 16.

At a press conference attended by Koenig’s family Thursday evening, police said the actor’s body was discovered “in a densely wood area … unseen from the path” by “family and friends who initiated their own private search.” (His father, Star Trek actor Walter Koenig, was among the people who joined in on the search.)

“My son took his own life,” his father Walter told reporters, adding that his son had been battling depression.

His parents phoned police after receiving a disturbing letter from their son.

In an interview with UsMagazine.com earlier this week, his father Walter refused to discuss details on the note. But he revealed that his son was not taking medication for depression.

Burlesque artist Jenny Magenta — the last person to see Koenig alive – told he “looked healthy” when he arrived in Vancouver to visit her. “We were talking about old times and friends.” But she told he soon began acting “out of character,” insisting on paying her for allowing him to stay at her apartment.

Philippines’ top leaders from different sectors will have a leadership conference with former US Vice-President Al Gore as keynote speaker and other global leaders.

The lecture will have Gore present an Asian version of An Inconvenient Truth, a multimedia presentation on the threat of climate change and solutions to global warming and the subject of the movie of the same title that has won critical and box-office acclaim.

A Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Gore has just published his latest book, Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis, which proposes measures to help solve the climate crisis.

It is made possible by SM Prime Holdings and is to be held at the SMX Convention Center at the SM Mall of Asia Complex on April 30.

Soy is nutritious and contains lots of good things. Unfortunately, when you eat or drink a lot of soy stuff, you’re also getting substantial quantities of estrogens.

Estrogens are female hormones. If you’re a woman, you’re flooding your system with a substance it can’t handle in surplus. If you’re a man, you’re suppressing your masculinity and stimulating your “female side,” physically and mentally.

In fetal development, the default is being female. All humans (even in old age) tend toward femininity. The main thing that keeps men from diverging into the female pattern is testosterone, and testosterone is suppressed by an excess of estrogen.

If you’re a grownup, you’re already developed, and you’re able to fight off some of the damaging effects of soy. Babies aren’t so fortunate. Research is now showing that when you feed your baby soy formula, you’re giving him or her the equivalent of five birth control pills a day. A baby’s endocrine system just can’t cope with that kind of massive assault, so some damage is inevitable. At the extreme, the damage can be fatal.

Soy is feminizing, and commonly leads to a decrease in the size of the penis, sexual confusion and homosexuality. That’s why most of the medical (not socio-spiritual) blame for today’s rise in homosexuality must fall upon the rise in soy formula and other soy products. (Most babies are bottle-fed during some part of their infancy, and one-fourth of them are getting soy milk!) Homosexuals often argue that their homosexuality is inborn because “I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t homosexual.” No, homosexuality is always deviant. But now many of them can truthfully say that they can’t remember a time when excess estrogen wasn’t influencing them.

Doctors used to hope soy would reduce hot flashes, prevent cancer and heart disease, and save millions in the Third World from starvation. That was before they knew much about long-term soy use. Now we know it’s a classic example of a cure that’s worse than the disease. For example, if your baby gets colic from cow’s milk, do you switch him to soy milk? Don’t even think about it. His phytoestrogen level will jump to 20 times normal. If he is a she, brace yourself for watching her reach menarche as young as seven, robbing her of years of childhood. If he is a boy, it’s far worse: He may not reach puberty till much later than normal.

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A 1938 edition of Action Comics No. 1, widely considered the Holy Grail of comic books, was sold from a private seller to a private buyer, neither of whom released their names. The issue features Superman lifting a car on its cover and originally cost 10 cents.

The transaction was conducted by the auction site ComicConnect.com. Stephen Fishler, co-owner of the site and its sister dealership, Metropolis Collectibles, orchestrated the sale.

Fishler said it transpired minutes after the issue was put on sale at around 10:30 a.m. Eastern time (1530 GMT). He said that the seller was a “well known individual” in New York with a pedigree collection, and that the buyer was a known customer who previously bought an Action Comics No. 1 of lesser grade.

“It’s considered by most people as the most important book,” said John Dolmayan, a comic book enthusiast and dealer best known as the drummer for System of a Down. “It kind of ushered in the age of the superheroes.”

There are only about 100 copies of Action Comics No. 1 believed to be in existence, and only a handful have been rated so highly. It’s rarer still for those copies to be made available for sale.