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Show l>lilll,l!,l.!.l'+lllii'»l* Page 2 Today'slssue Today is Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2007. Today's issue of The Utah Statesman is published especially for Kierste Carter, a sophomore in Nutrition & Food Science from Garland, Utah. Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2007 Alex Haley's nephew uses DNA to trace family line SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - In 1976, when Alex Haley published "Roots," his ancestral account through six generations of slaves, free men and professionals, he didn't have help from genealogical or DNA databases. ClarifyCorrect The policy of The Utah Statesman is to correct any error made as soon as possible. If you find something you would like clarified or find unfair, please contact the editor at 797-1762 or TSC 105. Hypnotist s show goes awry at Logan High LOGAN, Utah (AP)-Is there a Hogwarts wizard in the house? A hypnotist's entertainment show at Logan High School ended quickly when some girls felt nauseated and short of breath. A teenager was taken to a hospital, checked and released. "It's a hypnotist we've used before — same jokes, same timing and everything," said Mike Monson. support-services director at Logan City School District. "For some particular reason, and he's not sure, a couple girls started to hyperventilate." There were hundreds of people at the show last Thursday, which was part of the school's homecoming activities and a fundraiser for the drill team. Hypnosis is an altered state that allows a person's mind lo wrap around a thought or desire. The hypnotist, Dale Bowman, believes some students may have faked their symptoms. The show ended long before intermission. "Stuff like this gives hypnosis a bad name," said Bowman, 40, who manages a bus depot in Ogden. "1 basically do the same thing all the time. I have them imagine a staircase and count backwards from 10 to one." The school's principal, Patricia Hansen, said Bowman did a good job trying to get "people back to their normal state of mind." There will be no show in 2008. "We'll be looking for a few more car washes," she said of ways to raise money. Putin warns against military action for Iran TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Vladimir Putin issued a veiled warning Tuesday against any attack on Iran as he began the first visit by a Kremlin leader to Tehran in six decades — a mission reflecting RussianIranian efforts to curb U.S. influence. He also suggested Moscow and Tehran should have a veto on Western plans for new pipelines to carry oil and natural gas from the Caspian Sea, using routes that would bypass Russian soil and break the Kremlin's monopoly on energy deliveries from the region. Putin strongly warned outside powers against use of force in the region, a clear reference to the United States, which many in Iran fear will attack over the West's suspicions that the Iranians are secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons. Celebs&People CHRIS HAYLEY, left, poses with his uncle, "Roots" author Alex Haley, right, in Norris Tenn., in 1991. Chris has a DNA test which revealed that a branch of the Haley family extends to a white European man. (AP photo/courtesty of Chris Haley) Enter nephew Chris Haley, whose DNA test revealed that a branch of the family extends to a white European man. He provided a cheek swab and was one of the first to use DNA Ancestry, a Web site that combines DNA analysis and historical records. Ancestry.com, the Internet's largest family-history archive, rolled out the service Tuesday. "It's fascinating," said Haley, 40, research director for the Legacy of Slavery Project at the Maryland State Archives in Annapolis, Md. His family had long suspected that the paternal line descends from an Irishman. Now there's some proof, and Haley hopes to fill the gaps left by his late uncle, whose historical novel traced a maternal line to Africa. "It will be a shortcut for many people," said Megan Smolenyak, chief family historian for Provo, Utah-based Ancestry.com and author of "Trace Your Roots with DNA." For less than $200 and a cheekswiped cotton swab, customers can add DNA results to a family tree and contact others with DNA matches to compare family histories. DNA tests help when the paper trail fades but it still has limits. It can't reveal names, precise dates or locations of ancestors, said Dick Eastman, who writes an online genealogy newsletter. People will find it useful to discover their ethnic origins, he said. Haley said many people assume his family knows everything about its history, but "Roots" mixed fiction with history of one branch of the family. Alex Haley was inspired after discovering the names of his maternal great-grandparents in post-Civil War records at the National Archives in Washington. The book and a TV miniseries inspired a new generation of black Americans to discover their own family stories. Chris Haley readily agreed to give a cheek swab after striking up a conversation with Smolenyak at a genealogy conference in Fort Wayne, Ind., in August. She walked him through the results in a Web conference on Monday, when Haley discovered he shared a DNA match with two other Ancestry, com users, including a Canadian. Ancestry DNA's database is on track to capture the genetic profiles of 50,000 people within six months, a relatively small number. The more people use it, the more valuable it will become, Smolenyak said. Ancestry.com is using the Utah labs of Sorenson Genomics, a privately owned research firm, for DNA analysis. Drug-resistant deaths may more likely AIDS CHICAGO (AP) - More than 90,000 Americans get potentially deadly infections each year from a drug-resistant staph "superbug," the government reported Tuesday in its first overall estimate of invasive disease caused by the germ. Deaths tied to these infections may exceed those caused by AIDS, said one public health expert commenting on the new study. The report shows just how far one form of the staph germ has spread beyond its traditional hospital setting. [I Related Story, page 16 The overall incidence rate was about 32 invasive infections per 100,000 people. That's an "astounding" figure, said an editorial in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association, which published the study. Most drug-resistant staph cases are mild skin infections. But this study focused on invasive infections — those that enter the bloodstream or destroy flesh and can turn deadly. Researchers found that only about one-quarter involved hospitalized patients. However, more than half were in the health care system — people who had recently had surgery or were on kidney dialysis, for example. Open wounds and exposure to medical equipment are major ways the bug spreads. In recent years, the resistant germ has become more common in hospitals and it has been spreading through prisons, gyms and locker rooms, and in poor urban neighborhoods. The new study offers the broadest look yet at the pervasiveness of the most severe infections caused by the bug, called methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. These bacteria can be carried by healthy people, living on their skin or in their noses. An invasive form of the disease is being blamed for the death Monday of a 17-year-old Virginia high school senior. Doctors said the germ had spread to his kidneys, liver, lungs and muscles around his heart. The researchers' estimates are extrapolated from 2005 surveillance data from nine mostly urban regions considered representative of the country. There were 5,287 invasive infections reported that year in people living in those regions, which would translate to an estimated 94,360 cases nationally, the researchers said. Most cases were life-threatening bloodstream infections. However, about 10 percent involved so-called flesh-eating disease, according to the NEW YORK (AP) - A man has accused Sean "Diddy" Combs of punching him out during a dispute at a trendy Manhattan nightspot, but the rap mogul's lawyer called it a harmless "disagreement." Police were investigating the report of an assault early Saturday at the club in SoHo, but declined 1 COMBS to identify any suspects. Law enforcement officials confirmed news accounts Tuesday that Combs, 37, was the alleged assailant. Investigators were seeking to locate more witnesses before questioning Combs, said officials, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the investigation hadn't not been completed. In a statement, Combs' attorney denied any wrongdoing by his client. "We hope this matter will be resolved without the filing of any criminal charges as it was a disagreement among acquaintances, not a criminal assault," said the attorney, Benjamin Brafman. Police said the incident occurred at about 3:30 a.m. inside Kiosk nightclub. The 31-year-old man told police that he and Combs had been arguing over a woman before Combs punched him in the face, the officials said. Earlier this month, a hip-hop promoter filed a $5 million lawsuit claiming Combs unleashed three violent bodyguards on him in another New York City nightspot. The lawsuit alleged that after the plaintiff spoke to Combs in The Box, one bodyguard punched him in the mouth, knocking him backward onto a table, and two others began hitting and kicking him continuously. In 2001. a jury cleared Combs of firing a weapon during a 1999 dispute at a Times Square club that wounded three bystanders, and of bribing his chauffeur with money and jewelry to take the rap. study led by researchers at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There were 988 reported deaths among infected people in the study, for a rate of 6.3 per 100,000. That would translate to 18,650 deaths annually, although the researchers don't know if MRSA was the cause in all cases. If these deaths all were related to staph infections, the total would exceed other better-known causes of death including AIDS — which killed an estimated 17,011 Americans in 2005 — said Dr. Elizabeth Bancroft of the Los Angeles County Health Department, the editorial author. LateNiteHumor The results underscore the need for better prevention measures. That includes curbing the overuse of antibiotics and improving hand-washing and other hygiene procedures among hospital workers, said the CDC's Dr. Scott Fridkin, a study co-author. Some hospitals have drastically cut infections by first isolating new patients until they are screened for MRSA. The bacteria don't respond to penicillin-related antibiotics once commonly used to treat them, partly because of overuse. They can be treated with other drugs but health officials worry that their overuse could cause the germ to become resistant to those, too. Top 10 Messages on Al Gore's Answering Machine from Oct. 15,2007 — 10: "Hi, Mandy from The Cheesecake Factory. You left your credit card." 9: "George W. Bush here. Congratulations on your Latin Grammy." 8: "It's Larry from Toyota. This global '"_ warming paranoia is great for business." \ 7: "Put on Letterman. Some idiot is going to jump over interns." 6: "This is Hillary. If you run for president, I'll snap your neck." c 5: "It's Jets coach Eric Mangini. Can you play quarterback?" ir 4: "Ann Coulter here. Any way we can blame global warming on the Jews?" 3: "I'm calling from the EPA. Turns out there is no global warming; You're just sweating because your getting fat." 1: "It's Cheney. Watch your back, Jack." Logan, Utah Tickets: 435-752-0026 ex. 14 or buy online at www.centerforthearts.us (See the Events > Community Events link) Student Discounts available! Buy your tickets early! All shows were sold out last year! !- 2: "This is Jimmy Carter. Want to use our medals to score some babes?" October 18th, 7:30pm October 19th, 7:30pm October 20th, 1:30pm & 7:30pm DYSSEY DANCE THEATRE v r Ellen Eccles Theatre ^ : l ' |