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Kenyan environmentalist and human rights campaigner Wangari Maathai has won the Nobel Peace Prize. She is the first African woman to be awarded the peace prize since it was created in 1901. A surprised Mrs. Maathai broke the news to reporters minutes before the official announcement. The prize committee says Mrs. Maathai, Kenya's Deputy Environment Minister(助理环境部长), is an example for all Africans fighting for democracy and peace. The delighted 64-year-old professor said the award was completely unexpected. "This is extremely encouraging to the people of Africa and the African woman," she told the BBC. "It is a recognition of the many efforts of African women, who continue to struggle despite all the problems they face." In the late 1970s, Mrs. Maathai led a campaign called the Green Belt Movement to plant tens of millions of trees across Africa to slow deforestation(采伐森林) . The movement grew to include projects to preserve biodiversity, educate people about their environment and promote the rights of women and girls. Known as "The Tree Woman" in Kenya, Mrs Maathai celebrated by planting a Nandi flame tree(凤凰木) in her home town of Nyeri, in the shadow of Mount Kenya. She said she was delighted that the vital role of the environment had been recognised. "The environment is very important in the aspects of peace because when we destroy our resources and our resources become scarce, we fight over that". "I am working to make sure we don't only protect the environment, we also improve governance," she added. The committee says she has combined science with social engagement and politics, and has worked both locally and internationally. The professor was the 12th woman peace laureate since the first award was first made in 1901. A spokesman for the Kenyan government said his country was honored. "This is a great moment in Kenyan history. To us this shows that what Wangari Maathai has been doing here has been recognized," Alfred Mutua said. "We're very proud of her and she deserves all the credit." Mrs. Maathai beat a record 194 nominations, including former chief United Nations weapons inspector Hans Blix and the head of the UN energy watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, to win the prize. Mrs. Maathai is the second woman in a row to be awarded the peace prize, which last year went to Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi for her work for the rights of women and children in Iran. The award, which includes 10 million Swedish kronor ($1.3m) is awarded in Oslo on 10 December each year.
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Reeve was real-life 'Superman' Although he will always be remembered for portraying "Superman," the greatest role of actor Christopher Reeve's life was as a champion of sufferers of spinal cord injuries(脊椎损伤患者中的斗士) and an advocate of stem cell research(干细胞研究). Unlike the man of steel, he wasn't faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive and he couldn't leap tall buildings in a single bound. But the courage and determination Reeve displayed in trying to overcome his paralysis from a 1995 horse-riding accident far surpassed any of the feats of the comic book hero(连环画英雄). "He became a real-life Superman. His heroism, his courage was extraordinary," Colin Blakemore, the chief executive of Britain's Medical Research Council(英国医学研究学会主任) said. "Like many people who suffer some terrible injury, Christopher Reeve was reinvented(彻底改变) by that experience and brought the kind of energy and enthusiasm that made him successful as a film star to an entirely different issue, with huge effect." Reeve, 52, died on October 10 of heart failure(心脏功能衰竭) after having treatment for an infected pressure wound(伤口严重感染) without realizing his dream of walking again. But in the nine years since his accident, he made personal progress to regain some feeling(重新获得了人们的尊敬和欣赏), established the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, a non-profit research organization, and used his fame to raise millions of dollars for research into spinal cord injuries. He also provided hope and inspiration to other patients and lobbied for scientists to be allowed to conduct stem cell research in the hopes of eventually curing paralysis and other illnesses such as diabetes and Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease(糖尿病、阿兹海默症和巴金森氏症). "He has been our champion. If you think of spinal injuries you automatically conjure up(想起、回忆) a picture of Christopher Reeve," said Paul Smith, executive director of the Spinal Injuries Association in England. It is because of Reeve that spinal cord injuries and stem cell research are so widely discussed, according to Smith. The fact that it happened to Reeve showed it can affect anyone, even
Superman. Reeve did not live long enough to see whether stem cell research could help restore movement to the paralyzed. The research is still in its early days and no one knows what advances it may bring.
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Adventurer Fossett launches solo balloon trip The giant high-altitude balloon, bathed in the desert's golden morning light, drifted slowly into the sky above Northam, a small mining town 100 km (62 miles) east of Perth, just after 7.00 a.m. (2300 GMT). Fossett had delayed inflating the aircraft for six and a half hours due to unfavourable winds, but with time running out before the arrival of the morning's hot thermals, he gave the order to fill the balloon with helium for a dawn launch. Fossett waved to around 100 townsfolk as he entered the capsule for an eastward circumnavigation that he expects will take 15 days. "I am a bit nervous about the first night," Fossett said before take-off. "On the first night I will find out if everything works, if there are any leaks in the balloon, if there are any failures in communications and if the all-important heating works," he said. The millionaire former stockbroker has made a series of failed attempts to fly solo in a balloon around the world. The last attempt to inflate the giant balloon for a launch on June 17 from the Australian gold mining town of Kalgoorlie ended in disaster when a freak wind tore it apart. Fossett's fourth solo bid ended in near disaster in 1998, when a thunderstorm off Australia's northeastern coast shredded his canopy and sent him plummeting 29,000 feet (9,000 metres) into the Coral Sea. He was unhurt. This year Fossett, 57, decided to launch in western Australia, some 600 km (400 miles) from the Indian Ocean, to have a better chance of avoiding thunderstorms in the South Pacific and gain time to detect problems while still over land.
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Laughing Matter-Woman Resorts to Comedy to Confront the Trauma of Cancer "In a flash moment, I went from being a happy expectant mother, to being someone afraid for her life," she told reporters. Minutes after doctors delivered Nate by emergency C-section, Southcott went into surgery. The diagnosis was ovarian cancer. Suddenly tears and chemotherapy overtook her life. But the lowest moment came after she lost all her hair and a free wig arrived. She tried it on as her older son Kyler watched. "I thought I can cry about this bad wig and he'll remember it, or I can laugh about it and he will remember that," Southcott said. That was when she started laughing a lot, and found it was the perfect medicine. "I spent a lot time looking for anything humor based for cancer patients," she said. "And I'll tell you what: There isn't much out there." Using herself as a bald model, Bonnie started her own line of greeting cards and a calendar. Each pose pokes fun at the tribulations of chemo. "We desperately need to laugh," she said. "It's vital to our joy." Even though Southcott's ovarian cancer is in remission, the diagnosis is no laughing matter - a 25-percent chance she will live for another two-years. She plans to appreciate every moment of motherhood. And she plans to laugh.
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Spacewoman Stuck in Orbit with Too Much Shrimp Peggy Whitson, the American astronaut spending her 130th day in space, said on Sunday that she was happy in orbit, but maybe she brought along too much shrimp. "Sometimes, when you come to space, your tastes change. One of my favorite foods on the ground is shrimp, and up here I can't stand it," said Whitson, the science officer on the International Space Station . A quick check of the station's manifest showed that Whitson had planned more than 40
shrimp meals for her stay. "The guys like it because they get all my shrimp," she said, referring to her two Russian crewmates, Valery Korzun and Sergei Treshcvev. The three members of the space station's Expedition Five team held a joint news conference with the six astronauts from the space shuttle Atlantis on Sunday. "I'm having a great time up here. It's fun to live here and do the science," said Whitson, a biochemist conducting and monitoring dozens of studies on the station. When someone asked about her plans for Christmas, Whitson said "It's hard to imagine being back home because I guess I feel like this is my home right now. I don't have my husband, but other than that, this is my home." Whitson, due to return to Earth with Korzun and Treschev aboard a U.S. shuttle in November, said some changes in space take more getting used to than others. Salsa can usually overcome space blandness. "We could probably eat paper if we had it with salsa," she said. But calluses are another matter. In weightlessness, she never actually stands, but does sway about with her feet in foot restraints. "It was really interesting to me to lose the calluses from the bottom of your feet and to get calluses on the top of your feet after being up here for a few months," she said.