Asia

Alia Sabur, the child genius who was just 14 when she earned her bachelor's degree, is now the youngest college professor in history. The Guinness Book of World Records formally announced Alia Sabur of New York to be the youngest person to be a full-time professor.

Sabur was just 18 when she was hired on February 19 as faculty in the Department of Advanced Technology Fusion at Konkuk University in South Korea.

While being critical of the Chinese government, Nancy Pelosi did not say that the United States should boycott of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. Pelosi released a press release that stated:

"The Olympic Charter states that the Olympics should seek to foster 'respect for universal and fundamental ethical principles.' Sadly, the Chinese government has not lived up to its commitments to improve the human rights situation in China and Tibet. I believe the International Olympic Committee made a mistake in awarding the 2008 Summer games to China, and I sponsored a Congressional resolution expressing that view at the time.

"However, I believe a boycott of the Beijing Olympics would unfairly harm our athletes who have worked so hard to prepare for the competition.

"The Olympics should provide for more opportunity for free expression, not less. When the Olympic torch passes through San Francisco next month, I support the rights of individuals and groups to make their views known about the actions of the Chinese government.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, most known as the guru The Beatles in the late 1960's, has died today at age 91. Maharishi taught the Beatles transcendental meditation but fell out of favor with the band when they grew skeptical of his teachings.

He had retired from his duties as leader of the religous movement he founded just last month. He had penned over 16 books during his life time.

Maharishi was "the guru to the stars" for a time. He had aided notable celebrities such as Clint Eastwood, the Rolling Stones, Mia Farrow, Andy Kaufman, and the Beach Boys in their quest for his teachings of Eastern philosophies. John Lennon penned a scorning song about him when the famous Beatle felt that the religious leader was a "phony". To avoid a lawsuit, he changed a song title called "Maharishi" to "Sexy Sadie". In the song, Lennon sang:

Sylvester Stallone's latest installment of 'Rambo' does not cast the government of Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) in a good light. Shots of genocide and extreme violence in the country has led to a ban by the government of distributing the film.

The man who portrays John Rambo shot back at the ban by saying:

"If the Burmese government has nothing to hide, I am wiling to go there and show the world where thousands of bodies of innocent women and children are buried," Stallone told Entertainment Tonight. "Let the generals look me in the eye and tell me they have a free country. It will never happen."

Time Magazine today named Russian President Vladimir its 2007 "Person of the Year." Put received the distinguished award because of his "extraordinary feat of leadership in taking a country that was in chaos and bringing it to stability," said Richard Stengel, Time Magazine's managing editor.

Putin enjoys enormous popularity within Russian, as he presidents over a resurgent economy flush with revenue from oil and natural gas. However, Putin's critics charge that he has moved Russia away from the country's democratic reforms of the 90's through tightening controls on the media, parliament, and courts.

Putin recently endorsed Dmitry Medvedev's bid for the presidency, and later on said that he would accept Medvedev's offer to serve as prime minister, should Medvedev be elected in the March 2 election. Many believe, however, that if Medvedev won, and Putin became prime minister, Put would still remain Russia's real leader, regardless of his title. Russian law dictates that presidents are limited to two consecutive terms.

Stengel also said, "He's the new czar of Russia and he's dangerous in the sense that he doesn't care about civil liberties, he doesn't care about free speech."

Things are not looking good for the US Dollar. Once a currency accepted by pretty much the entire world, the weakened dollar is now facing rejection around the world. First supermodel Gisele Bundchen began asking to be paid in Euros rather than Dollars, and now the Indian government is turning up its nose at the USD.

Many of India's main sights have long charged a dollar based entrance based fee, but officials in India have now changed the fees to a flat-rate rupee charge. The Taj Mahal, one of the country's biggest attractions, used to charge $5 to enter. This was when 1 dollar was good for 50 rupees. Now, with the dollar at an all-time low of 1 dollar for every 39 rupees, that means had the Indian government continued to charge in dollars, they were getting shortchanged by about 55 rupees per tourist at each sight. Overtime, that can really add up. The Ministry of Culture has now changed the pricing structure to reflect the weakness of the dollar, charging a 250 rupee entrance fee for the Taj Mahal. That comes to about $6.50 USD.

Tropical cyclone Sidr ripped across Bangladesh's southwestern coast late Thursday evening, with driving rain and high waves that leveled homes and forced the evacuation of 650,000 villagers. The cyclone had strong 150mph winds, and is believed to have killed at least 1,100 people so far.

The deadly cyclone has left the country in runs, isolating remote towns and villages swamped by a storm surge and hemmed in by piles of debris.

The government had put the death count at 242 earlier, and has now acknowledged the difficulty in keeping count with power and phone lines down in most remote areas. Reporters who deployed across the region made their own unofficial count in each affected district, coming up with the figure of 1,100 dead thus far. The Bangladesh government expects the death toll to rise significantly.

Bangladesh is a low-lying delta nation, and is prone to seasonal cyclones and floods that often cause huge losses of life and property. The coastal area of Bangladesh borders eastern Indian. Bangladesh is famous for their mangrove forests of the Sundarbans, which is considered a world heritage site that is home to the rare Royal Bengal Tigers.

Last night, an oil tanker and two freighters carrying sulphur sank in the Black Sea during stormy weather conditions. The Black Sea region is now facing one of their worst environmental disasters in the years.

Waves up to eighteen feet high (8 meters) battered the ships in the Strait of Kerch, which links together the Black Sea and Sea of Azov. Eight sailors from one of the freighters remain missing, while crew aboard the other two ships were rescued.

The Russian oil tanker, the Volganeft-139, is believed to have spilled at least half of its 4,000 tonne cargo. The severity of the weather conditions prevented emergency workers from collecting the oil, which authorities now say is sinking to the seabed.

Oleg Mitvol, the head of Rosprirodnadzor, the state environmental safety watchdog organization, told Russian TV "There is serious concern that the spill will continue." He also said it would take "several years" to clean up.

The two freighters which also sank, were carrying around 6,500 tonnes of sulphur. According to Mitvol, the sulphur does not pose an environmental danger, however there is concern that the freighters could leak oil fuel from their tanks, which would only add to the pollution.

Sergie Baranovsky, President of the Green Cross environmental group, believes that the sulphur could pose a very serious environmental risk, one potentially even more hazardous to nature than the oil.

Several other ships also sank during last night's storm. In total, ten ships sank or ran aground in the storms. A Russian freighter carrying metal sank, with 2 of its 16-man crew drowning, and 1 still missing. Two barges with fuel oil ran aground in the area, but did not link.

Recently, when a Chinese submarine popped up undetected in the middle of a Pacific Ocean exercise, dangerously close to the U.S.S. Kitty Hawk, American military chiefs were left dumbfounded and red-faced, according to UK newspaper, Daily Mail.

When the Navy deploys a battle fleet on exercises, they take the security of the aircraft carriers very seriously. At least a dozen warships are used to provide a physical guard, and using advanced technology they are able to detect and deter any potential intruders.

By the time the Chinese sub surfaced, the 160ft Song Class diesel-electric attack submarine sailed within viable range for launching torpedoes or missles at the U.S.S. Kitty Hawk, a 1,000ft. supercarrier with 4,500 military personnel onboard.

According to senior Nato officials, the incident caused a sense of sudden fear in the U.S. Navy, as officials realized the seriousness of the encounter. The U.S. apparently had no idea just how sophisticated China's fast-growing submarine fleet had become, or that they even posed such a threat.

The Odaiba Ferris Wheel in Tokyo, Japan is currently the world's tallest ferris wheel at 377-feet high. But not to be outdone, the Chinese are now planning to top that, beginning construction on what promises to be the the next world's tallest ferris wheel.

The giant Chinese ferris wheel is being named the "Great Wheel of China", and will cost a whopping $99 million to construct. It will be far taller and grander than the Japanese wheel, soaring at 680 feet. The ferris wheel will have 48 gondola-like cars, complete with air-conditioning and capable of holding 40 passengers. That means a total of 1920 passengers can ride at full capacity, so if you get freaked out by being up so high, well let's just say it's going to take a long while for you to be let off the ride.

The ferris wheel will unfortunately not be done in time for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, which would have likely been a popular tourist attraction. Construction is expected to be completed by 2009.