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After the world’s first successful AIDS vaccine has been tried and tested — protecting one in three people from getting HIV in a large study in Thailand — government leaders and scientists are now trying to improve it.

The World Health Organization and the UNAIDS said that the results gave hope to those concerned, even though it will be years before a vaccine will be thoroughly available. Scientists created the vaccine with a combination approach, using two types of vaccines that worked in different way.

The combo cut the risk of becoming infected with HIV by more than 31 percent in the study of more than 16,000 volunteers in Thailand. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases co-sponsored the study and said that the outcome has given him cautious optimism and inspires him to develop a more effective AIDS vaccine.

Every day, there are 7,500 people around the world who are infected with HIV and in 2007, 2 million died of AIDS.

According the Food and Drug Administration, the disgusting blob that Fred DeNegri’s wife poured out of his Diet Pepsi can was probably a gutted frog or toad. Fred DeNegri’s wife, Amy said that her husband popped open a can of Diet Pepsi, took a big gulp and started gagging. Something heavy remained inside when he tried to pour out the can’s contents and when his wife tok over and shook the can over a paper plate, something that resembled a pink linguini slid out followed by “dark stuff.”

Before calling poison control and the FDA, the DeNegris took pictures. The FDA showed up the next day to examine the can in question and collected it for lab testing. The couple received a copy of the completed report last week from the Food and Drug Administration Office of Regulatory Affairs, which concluded the foreign matter appeared to be a frog or a toad. The report noted that the animal was lacking internal organs normally found in the abdominal and thoracic cavity, which connotes that the remaining parts may be in other cans.

According to Pepsi spokesman Jeff Dahncke after FDA did a thorough inspection on the Orlando facility that the results affirmed the company’s confidence in the quality of their products. The FDA was also unable to determine when or how the specimen entered the package. When asked if Pepsi believed it was not responsible for the animal getting into the can, their spokesman said that they have addressed the facts of the investigation and stated their position.

The DeNegris, on the other hand, are hopping mad over Pepsi’s handling of the matter and are seeking legal advice to examine their options. Amy DeNegri said she hasn’t heard from Pepsi Pepsi since the day after the incident occurred. She was quoted as saying: "I want to see Pepsi fess up to it and compensate my husband for the negative publicity they have caused. I’m easy, but they’re the ones that are making it hard."

A four star hotel near Venice offered the ultimate low-cost vacation by mistake. It was a romantic weekend in the Italian lagoon city for 1 Euro cent. Not surprisingly, the Crowne Plaza in Quarto D’Altino which is 15.5 miles from Venice received bookings for the equivalent of 1,400 room nights on the night the rate was posted on its site.

The hotel first thought that the offer was posted by a hacker but it turned out to be human error at the Atlanta, Georgia offices of Intercontinental Hotels Group and this is acknowledged by the hotel’s mother company. The offer was supposed to be for a two-night stay at half price, because a night at the 151-room hotel would normally cost between $128 and $214. The 1-cent rate was up only Sunday night, but that was long enough for travelers to book dates running from October until next year. The hotel stands to lose 90,000 Euro or $129,000 and this is according to the hotel manager.

Monica Smith, media relations manager for the hotel group in the U.S. said Friday that some 228 guests made reservations for the equivalent of 1,400 room nights while the error was on the hotel’s site and that the reservations would be honored. According to the media relations manager for the hotel group in the U.S. although there was a pricing error, the hotel has committed to honoring the 1-cent rate for guests who have a valid confirmation, but the rooms booked at the low rate are non-transferable.

Michael Jackson, the charismatic musician who came to be known as The "King of Pop,’ has died at the age of 50.

 TMZ was the first to report the news, which has now been confirmed by Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press. According to reports, the pop legend suffered a cardiac arrest this afternoon and medics were unable to revive him. A TMZ source said Jackson was dead when paramedics arrived, while the Times says he was in a deep coma upon arrival.

Authorities said on Tuesday that a red notebook of 33 pencil drawings by Pablo Picasso has been stolen from a specially locked glass case in the Paris museum that bears the painter’s name. The book is said to be worth 8 million euros. The theft took place around Tuesday morning at the Picasso Museum; the glass case where the artifact was kept can only be opened with a specific instrument.

A police official who prefers to be unnamed says that a museum employee discovered the notebook missing Tuesday morning from display case. To make matters worse, there was no surveillance system in the room where the notebook was displayed. According to the Culture Ministry, the stolen shiny red sketchbook with the word "Album" inscribed in gold on the front dated from 1917 to 1924. The Picasso Museum is dedicated to the Spanish-born painter who was a founder of the Cubist movement and is the leading 20th-century artist.

In August 2007, French investigators recovered two Picasso paintings and a drawing worth a total of more than $66 million stolen from the home of the artist’s granddaughter in an overnight heist six months earlier. Two of three suspects were carrying the rolled-up canvases as police closed in. An art dealer tipped off the police after the theft at the luxury Paris apartment of Diana Widmaier-Picasso and suspected the thieves were looking to sell their loot.

In 1994, seven Picasso paintings worth around $44 million were stolen from a Zurich gallery. They were recovered in 2000, and a Swiss man and two Italians were jailed for larceny. The stolen paintings included Picasso’s "Seated Woman," and "Christ of Montmartre," which had been stolen from the gallery before, in the year 1991.

The market for stolen art is valued billions of dollars yearly.

Actor of the 1970s TV series "Kung Fu" David Carradine was found dead in Bankok. According to a new report, he was found hanged in his hotel room and was believe to have committed suicide.

A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy confirmed his death. David Carradine was 72 years old. The spokesman said that the embassy was informed by Thai authorities that Carradine died either late Wednesday or early Thursday, but could not provide further details out of consideration for his family.

It said Carradine was in Bangkok to shoot a movie and had been staying at the hotel since Tuesday. After failing to appear for a meal with the rest of the film crew on Wednesday, Carradine could not be contacted and his body was found by a hotel maid at 10:00 a.m. Thursday morning. The name of the movie is still not available.

A preliminary police investigation said that he had hanged himself using a cord for the room’s curtains and there is no sign that he has been assaulted.

I was going through the news today and found some funny news. A robbery took place at a convenience store in Long Island, New York. The store’s owner thwarted a robbery but ended up taking pity on the perpetrator who said that he couldn’t feed his family. The owner, whose name is Mohammad Sohail gave the man $40 and a loaf of bread.

A video posted by the Newsday newspaper on its website showed a masked man carrying a bat as he entered a convenience store after midnight and demanded money.

But when Mohammad Sohail pulled out a rifle, the masked man dropped to his knees and looked like he was begging for forgiveness.

"He said ‘I am sorry, I have no money, no job, my family is hungry,’" Sohail told the TV station. "Then I feel bad for him … I take $40 for him."

Sohail said he was not planning to press charges.

Click here to watch the video. 

MGM and the Farrelly brothers are finally slapping together their high-profile cast for "The Three Stooges," a comedy project the filmmakers have been developing for years. Sean Penn is set to play Larry, and Jim Carrey is in negotiations to play Curly. Benicio del Toro is a rumored possibility for the brothers’ taciturn leader, Moe.

The studio is looking to start production in the fall for a 2010 release slot.

The project was originally set up at Columbia, which produced the 1930s Stooges shorts. C3 Entertainment Inc., which holds the licensing rights to the Stooges brand, then sold the feature rights to Warner Bros. in 2001 for the Farrellys to write and produce the movie. Eventually, Warner Bros. let the rights lapse and MGM’s Mary Parent scooped them up along with the Farrellys’ continuing participation.

Peter and Bobby Farrelly wrote the script, which Bobby has referenced as "Dumb, Dumber & Dumbest," and will produce with Bradley Thomas and Charlie Wessler. Earl and Robert Benjamin of C3 will executive produce.

The film is not a biopic but a fictional treatment that maintains the Stooges’ gleeful slap schtick updated for a modern milieu.

Originally constructed as four separate shorts, the feature screenplay has since been streamlined into a single narrative. Included in the story line is an opening that shows the Stooges as kids in an orphanage, a device that will require some "Benjamin Button"-style visual trickery to place the adult actors’ heads on child actors’ bodies.

The Stooges maintain remarkably global brand recognition, and their shorts, films and cartoons are still broadcast in 30 countries. The Farrelly brothers’ latest comedy "The Heartbreak Kid" grossed $124 million worldwide.

 Source: Independent Film Guide - Yahoo! Movies