"KINOKAWA, Japan (AFP) - In times of need, Japanese say they can even ask the cat for help. In this town in western Japan, people look to Tama, a nine-year-old cat working as master of an unmanned train station.

The tortoiseshell coloured creature, born and raised at Kishi Station on the provincial Kishigawa Line, wears a formal uniform cap of Wakayama Electric Railway and calmly watches passing passengers who greet her.

There are 10 train stations on the 14.3-kilometre (8.9-mile) line.

"Tama is the only stationmaster as we have to reduce personnel costs. You say you could ask for the cat's help, but she is actually bringing luck to us," Wakayama Electric spokeswoman Keiko Yamaki said."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080525/od_afp/japantourismanimalcatoffbeat

"French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday called for a cut in European oil taxes to help consumers as fishermen and truck drivers across the continent staged protests against soaring prices.

French riot police cleared fisherman away from a key oil depot in southern France as British truck drivers staged a demonstration in London and Spanish fishermen started a strike and lorry drivers threatened to join in.

Italian and Greek fishermen may start strikes this week."

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hX-SqMo2iaFkffklYI6E513bBSYg

"It's a new frontier for psychiatric illness: Brain pacemakers that promise to act as antidepressants by changing how patients' nerve circuitry fires."

"the new experiments with so-called deep brain stimulation, or DBS, are in their infancy. Only a few dozen patients with severe depression or obsessive-compulsive disorder so far have been treated in closely monitored studies."

""Not all patients get better, but when patients respond, it's significant," says Dr. Helen Mayberg of Emory University, who has implanted about 50 depression patients."

""We're rewiring the brain in many ways," says Dr. Ali Rezai, chief of the Cleveland Clinic's Center for Neurologic Restoration."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080526/ap_on_he_me/healthbeat_brain_pacemakers

"The European Union hopes to bring fuel efficiency concerns to the forefront with a bill requiring all new passenger cars to have anti-skid and tire technology features by 2012.

The proposed high tech features would require fitting cars with computerized systems that control brakes and engines, tires that could contribute to a cut in fuel consumption and computer programs that monitor wheel pressure. The measures, which may hike vehicle prices by up to $473 (300 euro), also aim to promote road safety, said EU Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen."

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7011067470

"Billionaire George Soros on Monday blamed speculators for the sharp increase in the price of crude oil.

In an interview with the London Telegraph, Soros stressed that speculators are equally to blame for the skyrocketing prices in the crude market as much as the weak dollar, declining Middle East oil supply, and China's increasing demand for crude oil.

According the newspaper, Soros described the price increase as having a "Parabolic shape" which, he explained is ``characteristic of bubbles,'. The billionaire investor added that the oil bubble "will not burst until the U.S. and Britain are both in recession"."

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7011065592

"Children as young as six are being sexually abused by peacekeepers and aid workers, says a leading UK charity.

Children in post-conflict areas are being abused by the very people drafted into such zones to help look after them, says Save the Children."

"Save the Children says the most shocking aspect of child sex abuse is that most of it goes unreported and unpunished, with children too scared to speak out."

"A 13-year-old girl, "Elizabeth" described to the BBC how 10 UN peacekeepers gang-raped her in a field near her Ivory Coast home."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7420798.stm

China Earthquake charity

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eflhEuSwKl8

"A fire ripped through a military depot in northwestern Russia on Friday, destroying hundreds of air-to-air missiles, local media reported.

The fire destroyed the depot at an air base housing Sukhoi Su-27 fighter jets near the town of Lodeinoye Pole, some 240 km (150 miles) northeast of Russia's second city of St Petersburg, Russian news agencies reported.

"The fire destroyed 450 rockets of the air-to-air class. We have yet to establish how many of them exploded and how many were damaged by fire, but in any case they can't be used," Interfax news agency quoted a Russian military source as saying."

http://africa.reuters.com/world/news/usnL23192671.html

"An unwitting passenger arriving at Japan's Narita airport has received 142g of cannabis after a customs test went awry, officials say.

A customs officer hid a package of the banned narcotic in a side pocket of a randomly chosen suitcase in order to test airport security.

Sniffer dogs failed to detect the cannabis and the officer could not remember which bag he had put it in.

Anyone finding the package has been asked to contact customs officials."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7419969.stm

"NASA probe lands in Martian arctic"

"After a nine-month journey from Earth, the Phoenix probe touched down in a relatively rock-free, flat target area, said Barry Goldstein, Phoenix project manager at the mission's control center at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California."

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5g7I8sRrYqgGiQD2wSHxbbFtfE5Jg