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The Hellenic Radio (ERA): News in English, 08-12-05
From: The Hellenic Radio (ERA) <www.ert.gr/>
CONTENTS
[01] Russia's Patriarch Aleksy II Dies
[02] Chemical Weapon fromâ¦Smell of Fear
[01] Russia's Patriarch Aleksy II Dies
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Aleksy II, 79 died
on Friday morning at his residence. The Patriarchate has not disclosed
the cause of his death yet. Announcements are expected in the next
hours. Russian Prime-minister, Vladimir Putin described the Patriarch's
death as a "great loss for Russia" while Russian President, Dmitry
Medvedev's has postponed a scheduled visit to Italy this weekend and he
will return immediately to Moscow from his official visit to India. The
Russian President expressed his grief for the death of Patriarch
Aleksey II, "a prominent Russian citizen" as he said who struggled with
many of the 20th century problems in Russia."
Fanari sent letter of condolences signed by Ecumenical Patriarch
Bartholomew on the death of Russian Patriarch and refers to his visit
to Fanari in October to attend events marking Apostle Paul
year.Archbishop of Athens and all Greece, Ieronymos sent a letter of
condolences expressing the deep grief of the Greek Church. In his
statement to Athens News Agency, Cyrus Archbishop Hrisostomos also
expressed his deep grief on the death of Patriarch Aleksey II,
underlining that he was a loyal friend of Cyprus.
News item: 16359
[02] Chemical Weapon fromâ¦Smell of Fear
The smell of fear is not illusion, is real scientists claim today.
People can unconsciously detect whether someone is stressed or scared
by smelling a chemical pheromone released in their sweat, according to
researchers who have investigated the underarm secretions of petrified
skydivers. The research, published in "Guardian" magazine, was carried
out by Dr Lilianne Mujica-Parodi at Stony Brook University in New York
State and her team and was funded by the US Defence Advanced Research
Projects Agency - the Pentagon's military research wing - raising
speculation that it is a first step to isolating the fear pheromone for
use in warfare, perhaps to induce terror in enemy troops. But DARPA
denied that it had any military plans for fear pheromones or plans to
fund further research into the field.
The team found that the smell of fear triggered a heightened response
in brain regions associated with fear when inhaled by volunteers in a
brain scanner. The research suggests that like many animal species,
humans can detect and subconsciously respond to pheromones released by
other people. Researchers taped absorbent pads to the armpits of novice
skydivers, who were doing their first tandem jump. The pads soaked up
sweat before they leaped from the plane and as they fell. They
transferred the two types of sweat to volunteers in a brain scanner to
breathe it in. To avoid biasing the results, the team did not tell the
volunteers anything about the experiment. New Scientist magazine
reported that the volunteers' amygdala and hypothalamus - brain regions
associated with fear - were more active in people who breathed in the
"fear" sweat compared with the control. Mujica-Parodi said: " Our
findings indicate that there may be a hidden biological component to
human social dynamics, in which emotional stress is, quite literally,
contagious.Simon Wessely, a psychiatrist at the King Centre for
Military Health Research at King's College London told New Scientist
that the idea that a fear pheromone could be developed as a chemical
weapon is scientifically implausible. He said that a purely
physiological cue is not enough to induce fear if people are not in a
frightening situation. "You can generate the physical
News item: 16357
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