'Superstorm' Sandy Batters US East Coast

Hurricane Sandy, now downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone, has made landfall on the U.S. East Coast, putting some 50 million people in the path of torrential rain, high winds and dangerous tidal surges from one of the biggest

storms to hit the region in years.

Sandy came ashore on the coast of New Jersey Monday, about 10 kilometers south of Atlantic City, some 200 kilometers south of New York City, bringing storm surges of nearly three meters to lower Manhattan.

Major U.S. cities along the Eastern seaboard are at a standstill, with public transit systems suspended, airports closed and millions of people forced to stay home from work.  New York's main utility has cut electricity to lower

Manhattan in an effort to stave off damage to the subway system.

Forecasters say the storm is 65 kilometers south of Atlantic City, New Jersey, about 200 kilometers south of New York City, and traveling westward at 44 kilometers per hour.

President Barack Obama canceled election campaign events to monitor the storm from the White House.  He urged those in the storm's path to heed warnings about the dangerous nature of it.

"The most important message that I have for the public right now is please listen to what your state and local officials are saying.  When they tell you to evacuate, you need to evacuate.  Do not delay, don't pause, don't question the

instructions that are being given because this is a serious storm and it could potentially have fatal consequences if people haven't acted quickly," he said.

Authorities in nine U.S. states and Washington, D.C. declared states of emergency, as the storm has already knocked out power to 1.5 million people on the U.S. east coast.   U.S. federal government offices were closed Monday

and will remain so on Tuesday.

U.S. Coast Guard helicopters rescued 15 crew members who abandoned a tall ship after it started to take on water off the coast of the state of North Carolina.  The Coast Guard says it is searching for one other crew member

who is missing from the HMS Bounty.  The replica of an 18th century ship was featured in the 1962 film "Mutiny on the Bounty."

Forecasters said Sandy was expected to merge with a cold weather system, transforming it into a "super storm" before it makes landfall.  New York authorities ordered the evacuation of 375,000 people from low-lying parts of the

city, whose major stock markets were closed in their first unplanned shutdown since the September 11, 2001 terrorists attacks.

Officials said people who refuse to evacuate and later need to be rescued would be putting the lives of emergency workers at risk.

Sandy killed at least 65 people in the Caribbean last week before it moved toward the United States.

Abandoned puppy and kittenhanded into rescue centre at the same time now think that they are SISTERS

　　An orphaned puppy and abandoned kitten who were put together ata rescue centre have become so close - they think they aresisters.Kitty the cat was brought into Battersea Cats and Dogs Homeby a kind-hearted member of the public who found her alone in agarden when she was just one day old.To keep her company she wasput together with Buttons the Jack Russell, who was born at thecentre but rejected by her mother as the runt of the litter.

　　Adorable: Buttons the abandoned puppyand Kitty the rescued kitten are so close they think they aresisters and live at Battersea Cats and Dogs Home.

　　Come here you: Buttons was rejectedby her mother as she was the runt of the litter。

　　Room for me? Buttons vies for hershare of the food as Kitty digs right in.

　　They have since become inseparable - and even cry when Kitty ismoved to the cattery to spend some time with other cats.BatterseaVeterinary Nurse Sascha Taylor says the pair eat, sleep and playtogether.

She said: 'Normally we’d hand rear puppies and kittensseparately but we thought we could try putting them together asthey are both so young。
　　'Luckily it’s paid off as they adore being with each other anddo everything together - it’s really very sweet。
　　'Buttons’ mum Poppy was given to the centre in Old Windsor,Berks., because her elderly owners could not cope when theydiscovered she was pregnant with eight puppies。
　　Heartwarming: The 'siblings' indulgein a bit of rough and tumble at the rescue home。
　　Inseparable: Staff at the homedecided to try rearing the pair together and they have since becomegreat companions。
　　Tiny: The two rescued pets fit snuglyinto the palm of a member of staff's hands。
　　Rescued: Kitty, who was rescued by amember of the public, has a wrestle with Buttons。
　　But she was the runt of the litter and staff have had tohand-rear her after being rejected by her mother and was at risk ofbeing killed by her seven brothers and sisters。
　　Kitty and Buttons were put together when they were about twoweeks old and treat each other like siblings。

　　Staff at the animal home are hoping someone has enough room toadopt the loveable pair, who are now both around four weeksold。
　　Nurse Sascha added: 'Hand-rearing them is hard work - I have tofeed them every two hours, even throughout the night - but it’stotally worth it。
　　'We’re not sure if they’ll be re-homed together, though it wouldbe great if they did.'
　　Get off! The rescue home hope tore-home the adorable pair together
　　Move over: Kitty is wide awake asButtons tries to sleep off all that playing
　　Gnawing: Kitty appears to havespotted something as Buttons nibbles on a corner of a cushion
　　Say cheese: Buttons stares at thecamera as Kitty tucks into her dinner

Researchers say that bald men, such a Bruce Willis, are perceived as being better lead

　　Bald men are perceived to be more dominant, more athletic and better leaders, researchers have claimed.

　　A new study from information management lecturer Albert Mannes at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business suggests that while men with male-pattern baldness tend to view themselves as having poor self-esteem, those who take the pre-emptive step of shaving a thinning head of hair improved their image.

　　'The broad take-away is that perceptions about leadership and related traits like dominance can emerge from peculiar characteristics that aren’t really related to leadership at all,' says Mannes.

　　For the paper, 'Shorn Scalps and Perceptions of Male Dominance,' published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, Mannes describes three experiments.

　　The first found men with shaved heads were viewed as more masculine and dominant than other men.

　　Two more experiments found men were perceived as taller (by an inch, on average) and stronger (that is, seen as being able to bench press 13% more) than those men with a full head of hair.

　　They were also viewed as having greater potential as leaders.

　　Mannes said the impetus for his research came from his own experience in his early thirties, when he began losing his hair.

　　In the first experiment, subjects were asked to look at a series of photographs of men of similar age and dress, including some with shaved heads.

　　Then, they were asked to rate the men in terms of how powerful, influential and authoritative they looked. When the numbers were tallied, the shaved heads won.

　　In a second experiment, Mannes tried to control for other physical features that could convey dominance by showing his subjects the images of four men, but in two different versions: one with their hair, and one with their hair digitally removed.

　　Again, the images of men without hair were perceived as more dominant — and, much to Mannes’ surprise, also taller and stronger.

　　For his third experiment, Mannes avoided all visual cues and offered subjects physical descriptions of men, including whether they had hair, thinning hair or a shaved head.

　　Again, the shaved men came out on top.

　　However, there were downsides. Men with shaved heads were rated lower in attractiveness and also seen as being older. But they nonetheless scored higher than men with thinning hair, who were ranked lower in almost all categories.

A photographer has made a real meal out of a selection of classic 16th century paintings by recreating them using fruit and vegetables

　　New York based photographer Klaus Enrique Gerdes was inspired by Italian painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo who created real-life portraits using fruit, vegetables, meat and flowers. He then painted his creations on to canvas creating a selection of unique artworks between 1527 and 1593.

　　Klaus Enrique Gerdes now does the same, except that photography allows him to capture his subject instantly - before any of the ingredients begin to wilt.
　　Getting his five a day: A portrait of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II as the Roman God of the seasons Vertumnus by photographer Klaus Enrique Gerdes, left, and the original painted in 1590 by Italian Giuseppe Arcimboldo, right.

　　Barking up the wrong tree: Klaus Enrique Gerdes's recreation of Winter, left, originally painted Giuseppe Arcimboldo in 1573, right.

Obama, Romney kick off foreign policy debate

BOCA RATON, the United States, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama and his Republican rival Mitt Romney were starting on Monday night to duel on foreign policy issues in their third and final face-to-face encounter.

The debate came 15 days before voters choose a new White House occupant.

The face-off in Lynn University in Boca Raton of Florida could turn out consequential in a very tight race as latest polls show the duo neck-and-neck among likely voters.

Moderator Bob Schieffer from CBS News has selected five topics for the 90-minute event, namely America's role in the world, the war in Afghanistan, Iran's nuclear issue, the changing Middle East and the new face of terrorism, and the rise of China.
While foreign policy has been a strength of Obama throughout the campaigns, the Democratic incumbent has found his advantage narrowing to a mere four percentage points, a contraction of 11 points from last month, following his lackluster performance in the first presidential debate on Oct. 3, and his rebound in the next encounter on Oct. 16 has failed to regain the lead.

Gov't to curb corruption in medical procurement

Authorities have pledged to further crack down on illegal activity regarding procurement procedures at local hospitals that are under the supervision of local governments, mainly at the provincial and prefectural levels.

Anyone who violates the law must be dealt with and punished, said Minister of Health Chen Zhu at a national conference on pharmaceutical procurement held in Beijing.

Online procurement will be widely adopted at the provincial level, said the minister, adding that he hopes online purchases will help ensure quality, bring prices down, regulate the sector and curb illegal activity.

Chen called for tougher scrutiny and stricter control over pharmaceutical purchases, as well as urged efforts to set up a system that will prevent hospitals from profiting from medication sales in order to deter excessive prescriptions. ' Domestic hospitals and clinics make significant profits by selling pharmaceuticals at high prices. Doctors have been known to prescribe expensive drugs in order to get kickbacks from manufacturers, increasing financial burdens for patients and causing confrontations between hospital staff and patients.

A romantic message-in-a-bottle discovered by a mother

A romantic message-in-a-bottle discovered by a mother and daughter at a Scottish beach has sparked a mystery about whether it could have travelled 5,000 miles across the seas from China.

Nicola MacFarlane, 41, and daughter Lucy, four, from Portobello, near Edinburgh, were scouring Portobello Beach when they came across an old glass bottle sticking out of the sand containing a note inside written in Mandarin.

Now the family are trying to work out if the letter has managed the extraordinary journey across the South China Sea, into the Indian Ocean and through both the South Atlantic and the North Atlantic Ocean's before washing up on the shores of Great Britain.

It is unclear when the letter was sent off, as it was written on Chinese Valentine's Day, or Qixi Festival as it is more traditionally known, which falls on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month.

While the letter bears the date in line with the lunar calendar - July 7, 2012 - it could have been sent off as recently as six days ago if it followed the modern calendar, which celebrated the occasion on August 23.

Whether the message has travelled thousands of miles from China or whether it was penned by a love-struck pair much closer to home remains a mystery.

But for Nicola it doesn't matter - she was still excited to read about the Chinese love story after having it translated.

She said: ‘I really do hope that it is from China but even it is from nearer to home, it’s still a lovely gesture and an inspiring find. It’s a love story regardless of where it came from.’

Nicola, who runs a beach art business in Portobello, added: ‘I’m always at the beach looking for bits of driftwood but I’ve never come across anything like this before.

Unable to read the Mandarin text, Nicola turned to the internet and her Australian friend, Julie Gould, whose daughter attended a Chinese school in Sydney.

Several hours later Julie returned with the news that it was in fact a love letter.

The translated letter reads: ‘Da Hai: Ocean, I hope no-one will get this bottle, as we just wish you can hear our voice, and get your blessing.

‘Today is the Chinese Valentine’s Day, we pray that our relationship will last forever and we will have a long happy life together.'

(Read by Brian Salter. Brian Salter is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)