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Germany’s Joseph Ratzinger was electedthe 265th pope of the Roman Catholic Church on Tuesday andwill take the name Benedict XVI, the Vatican announced.The name of the 78-year-old Ratzinger was announced to acrowd of around 100,000 pilgrims by Cardinal Jorge MedinaEstevez of Chile, the senior cardinal deacon, from thebalcony of St Peter’s Basilica.

When the name of the new pope was announced, some members ofthe crowd cheered, but others were disappointed. In ahopeful note, Benedict XV was known as a pope ofreconciliation in the early part of the 20th Century,because of his ability to balance the needs of both liberaland conservative Catholics.
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There’s a controversial theory making its way around thescientific community that says that life on Earth was seededby an asteroid from Mars, meaning we are all, essentially,Martians. But now astronomers think that an asteroid fromsomewhere else may have seeded life on Mars as well, meaningthat our ancestors could have come from far away in theuniverse. Recent Mars rovers are examining five ancientMartian craters that form a ring-like “equator” around themiddle of the planet, looking for signs of life.
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Newswise – It’s long been known that Asian women have less breastcancer, and when they do develop the disease, they livelonger than other women. No one knew whether this was due totheir lifestyles or their genes. Now it’s been discoveredthat Asian women living in England and Wales have a muchlower risk of breast cancer than women of other races,suggesting that it’s genetic.

The annual rate of breast cancer among South Asian women wasalso lower: 40.5 per 100,000 compared with 57.4 per 100,000among all other women, a difference of 29%. Over 70% of theAsian women were alive five years after diagnosis, comparedwith just under 67% of all other women with the disease.
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Agence France-Presse – Some samples of adeadly fluvirus that a US institute sent out to more than 3,700laboratories around the world have disappeared on their wayto two of their destinations (in Lebanon and Mexico) theUN’s health agency revealed Friday.
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