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Bad news for record lottery "winner"
(Reuters) - A deaf South African cleaner besieged by begging relatives after a newspaper reported he had scooped a 91 million rand ($12 million) lottery jackpot was not the winner, the draw's organizers said on Tuesday.
National Lottery spokeswoman Thembi Tulwana said the real winner of Friday's PowerBall draw was an unnamed 43-year-old woman, and not 52-year-old Stanley Philander, a Cape Town hardware store cleaner reported to have carried off the record rollover prize.
Tulwana said Philander had bought -- after the draw -- a lottery ticket with the same numbers as the winning ticket, but could not explain how the mix-up had escalated into the family being moved to a secret location for their own protection.
"We are as confused as everybody else. It did not come from the National Lottery at all," Tulwana said. "Those numbers have nothing to do with the previous draw."
The Star newspaper said Philander, his wife of 12 years, Diana, who is also deaf, and their two children had been moved from their home in a poor Cape Town neighborhood to an undisclosed location after talk of their purported win spread.
Philander's sister-in-law said the family was besieged by relatives asking for a share of the winnings, and implied National Lottery officials were involved in their disappearance -- something Tulwana denied
"We don't even know where he was. All we know is that one newspaper did indicate that they have him in a safe place," she said.
Even though apartheid officially ended 16 years ago, millions of black South Africans still live a grim existence in squalid tin-shack townships lacking electricity or running water.
South Africa's lottery launched in October last year, and produced four multi-millionaires in its first month. Friday's record prize money was the result of 22 previous "roll-over" draws.
(Reporting by Shapi Shacinda, editing by Paul Casciato)
Miley Cyrus "no underwear" photo is fake, blogger says
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton on
(Reuters) - Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton on Tuesday sought to defuse a media furor he created by posting a picture on his Twitter account that seemed to suggest teen pop star Miley Cyrus had been photographed without wearing underwear.
The snapshot showed the "Hannah Montana" Disney idol, 17, climbing out of a car while wearing a short, white dress. The space between her legs was pixilated and carried a "warning" notice in Hilton's Twitter posting, which has some 2 million followers.
Although the photo was later removed, it sparked a flurry of news reports and talk among celebrity watchers over whether L.A.-based Hilton could be prosecuted for distributing child pornography, given that Cyrus is still a minor under U.S. law.
In a video riposte, Hilton said the controversy was as fake as the photo because Cyrus was "clearly wearing underwear."
"Do you think Miley is that stupid to be out in public without panties?" he said. "Do you think I am stupid enough to post a photo of Miley if she is not wearing any underwear down there?"
Hilton said he had posted the photo to highlight the "very unladylike fashion" in which Cyrus was getting out of the car.
The blogger's stunt coincides with moves by the teen singer to shed her squeaky-clean Disney image by releasing a raunchy music video for her new single "Can't Be Tamed," pretending to kiss a female dancer on stage and wearing figure-hugging black bodices.
Fresh economic worries trigger rush into gold
(Reuters) - Gold bullion came just short of its all-time high and U.S. gold futures ran up to their highest close ever on Thursday on both concern over Europe's credit problems and downbeat U.S. data which encouraged a fresh sweep into safe-haven assets.Euro strength also propelled gold's advance after European ministers jointly backed the publication of so-called bank "stress tests," along with a successful Spanish bond auction.
Spot gold advanced to $1,244.45 an ounce by 2:29 a.m. EDT from $1,229.60 an ounce late Wednesday. Its session high reached $1,250.65 an ounce, just short of its all-time peak at $1,251.20 hit on June 8.
U.S. gold futures for August delivery surged $18.20 to finish at $1,248.70 an ounce, its highest close on record.
"There's no consistency right now in terms of good news coming out of the euro zone. And, because of that, it's making investors feel a bit uncertain about going into riskier assets. Gold is obviously a safe-haven asset to offset that," said Fred Jheon, managing director of U.S. product development at ETF Securities in San Francisco.
Euro's push to a three-week high against the dollar also renewed gold buying among some investors who are seeking the precious metal as a substitute currency.
"At the macro level, we're seeing central banks being net buyers of gold versus being net sellers for the first time in many years. So there's appetite at that level," said Jheon.
He added; "Investors are looking at the degradation of the dollar or the euro and are saying, 'Rather than hold a fiat currency, holding a hard currency like gold is a better investment."
Fiat currency is a currency that is legal tender by government fiat but has no fixed value against a hard asset such as gold or silver.
The euro gained after a Spanish bond auction soothed worries about the country's finances and worse-than-expected U.S. data weighed on the dollar.
"Gold is looking for any and every opportunity to go higher, and we all know the reasons why--the safe-haven factor, sovereign debt risks and so on," said Peter Hillyard, head of metals sales at ANZ Investment Bank.
"The mood is with gold right now, the momentum is with gold and the market will either do nothing or go up," he said.
Weaker U.S. economic data showing Mid-Atlantic factory activity plummeted in June and a rise in the number of U.S. workers filing for unemployment benefits last week also drove anxious investors to return to gold as a safety play.
NEAR RECORD
Concern investors have about some debt-laden euro zone economies, such as Spain, has not receded.
The premium bond holders demand to own 10-year Spanish government debt over benchmark German bunds hit a euro lifetime high on Thursday, although an auction of Spanish 10-year bonds attracted good demand.
At a summit of EU ministers in Brussels, Germany joined France and Spain in calling for the publication of bank stress tests and leaders sought to play down Spain's problems and said the country was not on the agenda.
Interest in physical gold as an investment product kept holdings of the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, New York's SPDR Gold Trust, at a record above 1,306 tonnes on Wednesday.
Spot silver rallied to $18.71 an ounce, up from $18.40 an ounce late on Wednesday, but off earlier one-month highs at $18.86 an ounce.
Platinum firmed to $1,574 an ounce, up from $1,566.50 an ounce in late Wednesday trade, and palladium moved up to $479.50 from $471.0 previously.
(Additional reporting by Jan Harvey;Editing by Sofina Mirza-Reid )
Putin boasts new jet fighter better than U.S. plane
(Reuters) - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin climbed into the cockpit of Russia's newest fighter jet on Thursday and said it would trump a U.S.-built rival, the F-22 Raptor.Putin watched a test flight of a "fifth-generation" stealth fighter, dubbed the T-50 and billed as Russia's first all-new warplane since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
"This machine will be superior to our main competitor, the F-22, in terms of maneuverability, weaponry and range," Putin told the pilot after the flight, according to an account on the government website.
Putin said the plane would cost up to three times less than similar aircraft in the West and could remain in service for 30 to 35 years with upgrades, according to the report.
Successful development of the fighter, built by Sukhoi, is crucial to showing Russia can challenge U.S. technology and modernize its military after a period of post-Soviet decay.
Russia also plans to manufacture T-50s jointly with India.
The F-22 raptor stealth fighter first flew in 1997 and is the only fifth-generation fighter in service. Fifth-generation aircraft have advanced flight and weapons control systems and can cruise at supersonic speeds.
According to the government website, the test pilot told Putin the controls of the T-50 allowed the pilot to operate most of the plane's systems without taking his hands off the joystick, which he said would be very useful under high forces of gravity.
"I know, I've flown," Putin replied. Sukhoi has said the plane should be ready for use in 2015.
(Writing by Steve Gutterman; Editing by Elizabeth Fullerton and Robert Woodward)
Pain drugs abuse requires urgent action: CDC
(Reuters) - Emergency room visits tied to the abuse of prescription painkillers have jumped 111 percent over a five-year period, an alarming increase that threatens the American public health system, U.S. government researchers said on Thursday.Emergency department visits involving the nonmedical use of pain drugs such as oxycodone rose to 305,885 in 2008, from 144,644 in 2004, according to a study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"We urgently need to take action," CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden said in a statement, noting that trips to the emergency department for nonmedical use of prescription pain drugs are now as common as those for use of illicit drugs.
"These prescriptions medicines help many people, but we need to be sure they are used properly and safely."
SAMHSA Administrator Pamela Hyde said the increase in emergency department visits is straining the health care system.
"This public health threat requires an all-out effort to raise awareness of the public about proper use, storage, and disposal of these powerful drugs," Hyde said in a statement.
The spike in emergency department visits associated with nonmedical use of these drugs occurred among men and women, as well as among those younger than age 21 and those 21 and older.
Abuse of other drugs, such as morphine, fentanyl and hydromorphone, resulted in fewer visits to the emergency room. But they, too, have increased sharply, according to the study published in the CDC's weekly report on death and disease.
Part of the increase reflects higher prescription rates among doctors in the United States, researchers said.
The top three most abused prescription pain drugs between 2004 and 2008 were:
* Oxycodone, in which emergency room visits for nonmedical use rose 152 percent to 105,214.
* Hydrocodone, in which emergency visits rose 123 percent to 89,051.
* Methadone, in which emergency visits rose 73 percent to 63,629.
The study was based on 2004 to 2008 data from SAMHSA's Drug Abuse Warning Network, a public health information system that monitors drug-related emergency hospital visits across the United States.
Last August King Pharmaceuticals won approval for its morphine-based drug Embeda, a pain medicine meant to help thwart abuse by those who crush or chew long-acting opioid drugs to get a dangerous high.
But in April FDA advisers urged the agency to reject an experimental painkiller from King and Acura Pharmaceuticals called Acurox pill.
U.S. government statistics show more than 13,000 fatal overdoses involving opioids occur each year.
German student attacks Hell's Angels with puppy
(Reuters) - A German student created a major traffic jam in Bavaria after making a rude gesture at a group of Hell's Angels motorcycle gang members, hurling a puppy at them and then escaping on a stolen bulldozer.German police said on Monday that after making his getaway from the Hell's Angels club, the 26-year-old dumped the bulldozer, causing a 5 km (3 miles) traffic jam near the southern town of Allershausen, local police said. He then fled to his home nearby where he was apprehended by the police.
"What motivated him to throw a puppy at the Hell's Angels is currently unclear," said a spokesman for local police, adding that the student had lately been suffering from depression.
The puppy was now in safe hands, the spokesman added.
(Reporting by Max Chrambach, editing by Paul Casciato)
