Dream recording device 'possible' !!!

A US researcher says he plans to electronically record and interpret dreams.

Writing in the journal Nature, scientists say they have developed a system capable of recording higher level brain activity.

"We would like to read people's dreams," says the lead scientist Dr Moran Cerf.

The aim is not to interlope, but to extend our understanding of how and why people dream.

For centuries, people have been fascinated by dreams and what they might mean. In Ancient Egypt they were thought to be messages from God.

More recently, dream analysis has been used by psychologists as a tool to understand the unconscious mind. But the only way to interpret dreams is to ask people about the subject of their dreams after they had woken up.

The eventual aim of Dr Cerf's project is to develop a system which would enable psychologists to corroborate people's recollections of their dream with an electronic visualisation of their brain activity.

"There's no clear answer as to why humans dream," according to Dr Cerf. "And one of the questions we would like to answer is when do we actually create this dream?"

Dr Cerf makes his bold claim based on an initial study which he says suggests that the activity of individual brain cells, or neurons, are associated with specific objects or concepts.

He found, for example, that when a volunteer was thinking of Marilyn Monroe, a particular neuron lit up.

By showing volunteers a series of images, Dr Cerf and his colleagues were able to identify neurons for a wide range of objects and concepts - which they used to build up a database for each patient. These included Bill and Hilary Clinton, the Eiffel Tower and celebrities.

So by observing which brain cell lit up and when, Dr Cerf says he was effectively able to "read the subjects' minds".

Dream catcher

He admits that there is a very long way to go before this simple observation can be translated into a device to record dreams, or dream catcher. But he thinks it is a possibility - and he said he would like to try.

The next stage is to monitor the brain activity of the volunteers when they are sleeping.

The researchers will only be able to identify images or concepts that correlate with those stored on their database. But this data base could in theory be built up - by for example monitoring neuronal activity while the volunteer is watching a film.

But Dr Roderick Oner, a clinical psychologist and dream expert, believes that while this kind of limited visualisation might be of academic interest - it will not really help in the interpretation of dreams or be of use in therapy.

"For that you need the entire complex dream narrative," he said.

Another difficulty with the technique is that to get the kind of resolution needed to monitor individual neurons, subjects had to have electrodes surgically implanted deep inside their brain.

In the Nature study, the researchers obtained their results by studying patients who had electrodes implanted to monitor and treat them for brain seizures.

Translating thoughts

But Dr Cerf believes that sensor technology is developing at such a pace that eventually it might be possible to monitor brain activity in this way without invasive surgery. If this were to happen it would open up a range of possibilities.

"It would be wonderful to read people's minds where they cannot communicate, such as people in comas," said Dr Cerf.

There have been attempts to create machine interfaces before that aim to translate thoughts into instructions to control computers or machines.

But in the main these have tried to tap into areas of the brain involved in controlling movement. Dr Cerf's system monitors higher level areas of the brain and can potentially identify abstract concepts.

"We can sail with our imaginations and think about all the things we could do if we had access to a person's brain and basically visualise their thoughts.

"For example, instead of just having to write an email you could just think it. Or another futuristic application would be to think a flow of information and have it written in front of your eyes."

Professor Colin Blakemore, a neuroscientist at Oxford University, believes that it is quite a jump from the limited results obtained in the study to talking about recording dreams.

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Paul, the octopus is no more...

Paul the Octopus, the eight-armed oracle that correctly predicted the outcome of eight World Cup matches this year, has died.

Paul the Octopus, who gained worldwide fame this year by correctly forecasting the outcome of eight World Cup soccer matches including the final, has died peacefully of natural causes, the Sea Life Aquarium in Oberhausen said on Tuesday.

"Management and staff of the Oberhausen Sea Life Aquarium were devastated when Paul was found dead this morning," the aquarium said in a statement. It said it would erect a memorial to the little brown octopus whose astounding predictive powers turned him into the true star of the tournament, eclipsing the likes of Lionel Messi, Wayne Rooney, Thomas Müller and Andres Iniesta. Spain, which won the tournament, embraced "Pulpo Paul" as a hero.
During the World Cup in South Africa in June and July, TV channels around the world provided live coverage of Paul's forecasts, made by picking a tasty mussel from one of two transparent boxes emblazoned with the national flags of the two opposing teams.
There was a one in 256 chance that he would get all eight predictions right. Paul's success rate confounded mathematicians, angered bookmakers and spooked hundreds of millions of football fans around the world.
Paul Enlivened a Dreary World Cup
Paul's uncanny accuracy wasn't the only reason for his fame. The lack of excitement in many of the matches also played a part. Every World Cup needs its heroes, and South Africa 2010 came up short in this respect. Many of the stars that had been predicted to dominate the tournament, such as Rooney and Messi, failed to shine.
Germany sparkled with two stunning victories over England and Argentina, but those matches were the exception in a string of clashes marred by poor and unimaginative passing, some appalling referee errors and, in the case of Sunday's final, by relentless fouling. Not to mention the drone of Vuvuzelas.
So Paul offered a welcome distraction. His success rate enabled him to brush aside competition from other animals chosen to rival his predictive powers during the tournament, for example a chimpanzee called "Pino" in an Estonian zoo, a parakeet called Mani in Singapore, or a crocodile called Harry in Australia.
Attempts to find a scientific explanation for Paul's choices have come to nothing. A Russian biologist, Vyacheslav Bisikov, suggested that he might have been attracted to boxes that displayed flags made up of stripes. But that doesn't explain how he distinguished between two boxes with striped flags, such as Spain and the Netherlands. Besides, octopuses are believed to be color blind, which precludes the explanation that he picked the brightest flags.
Biologists Perplexed by Mystic Powers
Germany's leading octopus researcher, Volker Miske, said Paul may have been making his choices based on the size of the mussel in the box, or the ease with which the box could be opened, or traces of mussel flavor on the outside of the box. It is clear, however, that Paul was highly intelligent. Apart from being a soothsayer, he was an expert at unscrewing the lids off jars.
Before the World Cup, Paul's powers were already known in Germany because he had correctly predicted four out of Germany's five matches in the 2008 European Championship. But his clean sheet this year has made him immortal.
He helped to make the World Cup memorable. Just like everyone will remember the 2006 tournament in Germany for Zinedine Zidane's astounding head butt, and the 1986 one in Mexico for Maradona's "Hand of God" goal against England, South Africa will forever be associated with an octopus.

If he really was born in 2008, then Paul was nearing the end of his natural life. Octopuses only live three years on average and he was never going to be around for the next European Championship in 2012, let alone the World Cup in Brazil in 2014. But here is some comfort for football fans. "Behind the scenes, a young Paul is already acclimatizing himself, he was meant to be trained by Paul the First in the coming weeks," aquarium officials said.
Fellow sea creatures will also benefit from his immortality in future. Oberhausen said it plans to donate some of its income from the sale of commercial rights relating to Paul -- he adorns a clothes brand and adverts for a supermarket chain, for example -- to help finance a rescue station for endangered turtles on the Greek island of Zakynthos.

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Re-using vuvuzela!

A competition is drawing to a close in South Africa to find new ways to use the vuvuzela.

Some ideas submitted so far include turning the plastic horns into chandeliers, lamp shades, bird food dispensers and table stands.

The winning design, to be announced later this month, is to be produced and sold through a local retailer.

The vuvuzela reached the world's attention during the Word Cup which South Africa hosted in June and July.

Competition organiser Jono Swanepoel says designs will be handed over to local manufacturers, who will receive all the proceeds from the sale of the new-look vuvuzela.

"This is ultimately designed to create jobs for crafters out there," he said.

Many of the designs were impractical but funny, Mr Swanepoel said.

"We've seen quite a few entries of hearing aids; things to magnify the sound on your cellphone if you put it on speaker phone," he said.

He also suggested that lamp shades could be useful in South Africa's poor communities.

"For example in lower cost houses where you have a naked light bulb hanging from a ceiling in a shack or a house."

The competition ends on 15 October and organisers say more than 200 entries have been submitted so far.

A prize of 10,000 rand (£916; $1,460) will be distributed among the 10 best suggestions.

Vuvuzelas have long been a feature of football in South Africa.

But many foreign fans criticised them during the World Cup, saying they sounded like a swarm of bees and drowned out traditional football chants.

Several English premiership clubs have banned them from their grounds.

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Nobel Prize in Peace

Jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo has been named the winner of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize.

Making the announcement in Oslo, Nobel Committee president Thorbjoern Jagland said Mr Liu was "the foremost symbol of the wide-ranging struggle for human rights in China".

Mr Liu's wife and some Western nations have called for his immediate release.

China said the award was a violation of Nobel principles and could damage relations with Norway.

Mr Jagland admitted he knew the choice would be controversial. He told local television before the announcement: "You'll understand when you hear the name."

'Curtailed freedom'

Mr Jagland, reading the citation, said China's new status in the world "must entail increased responsibility".

"China is in breach of several international agreements to which it is a signatory, as well as of its own provisions concerning political rights."

In the weeks leading up to this announcement, Beijing was very strong on its statements. It said that Liu Xiaobo was not a suitable candidate. Beijing regards him as a criminal and said the award could damage relations between China and Norway.

Many Chinese people will see this as an attack by the West on what they stand for and certainly many nationalists will see this as an example of the West trying to demonise China.

The statement of the Nobel Peace Prize committee will not get a lot of traction with ordinary people. The authorities have very effectively given him no publicity whatsoever.

Mr Jagland said that, in practice, freedoms enshrined in China's constitution had "proved to be distinctly curtailed for China's citizens".

Mr Jagland said the choice of Mr Liu had become clear early in the selection process.

Mr Liu, 54, who was a key leader in the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, was jailed for 11 years on Christmas Day last year for drafting Charter 08, which called for multiparty democracy and respect for human rights in China.

The Nobel Foundation citation read: "Liu has consistently maintained that the sentence violates both China's own constitution and fundamental human rights."

Ending the citation, Mr Jagland said: "The campaign to establish universal human rights in China is being waged by many Chinese, both in China itself and abroad. Through the severe punishment meted out to him, Liu has become the foremost symbol of this wide-ranging struggle for human rights in China."

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Nobel Prize in Literature

Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa, one of the most acclaimed writers in the Spanish-speaking world, has been awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize for literature.

The Swedish Academy hailed "his cartography of structures of power" and "trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat."

The 74-year-old has written more than 30 novels, plays and essays.

He is the first South American winner of the prize since 1982 when it went to Colombian Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

In the previous six years, the academy awarded the 10 million kronor (£938,000) prize to five Europeans and one Turk, sparking criticism that it was too Euro-centric.

The Swedish Academy's Peter Englund said Vargas Llosa was "a divinely gifted story-teller," whose writing touched the reader.

'Total surprise'

Mr Englund added that the writer was in New York and was told by telephone that he had won the prize.

Vargas Llosa is currently teaching at Princeton University.

"I will try to survive the Nobel Prize," he joked during a news conference later on Thursday. "It was a total surprise."

But he said the honour would not affect his craft. "I don't think the Nobel Prize will change my writing, my style, my themes," he said.

Previously, the author had told the BBC's Latin American service that "a writer shouldn't think about the Nobel prize as it is bad for one's writing".

Born in the town of Arequipa, Vargas Llosa took Spanish nationality in 1993 - three years after an unsuccessful bid for the Peruvian presidency.

The author had long been mentioned as a possible Nobel candidate - he has won some of the Western world's most prestigious literary medals including the Cervantes Prize in 1995 - the Spanish-speaking world's most distinguished literary honour.

His works have also been translated into 31 languages, including Chinese, Croatian, Hebrew and Arabic.

Burnt copies

The writer's international breakthrough came with the 1960s novel The Time of The Hero which built on his experiences at the Peruvian military academy, Leoncio Prado.

The book was considered controversial in his homeland and 1,000 copies were burnt publicly by officers from the academy.

His best-known works include Conversation In The Cathedral, The War of the End of the World and The Feast of the Goat.

Several books were made into movies including the 1990 Hollywood film Tune in Tomorrow, based on his novel Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, which starred Barbara Hershey, Peter Falk and Keanu Reeves.

The author once had a great friendship with Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez, about whom he wrote his doctoral thesis in 1971.

But their relationship turned into one of literature's greatest feuds after Vargas Llosa punched Garcia Marquez at a theatre in Mexico City in 1976, leaving him with a black eye.

The pair have never disclosed the reason for their dispute, although witnesses have suggested they fell out over a conversation between Garcia Marquez and Vargas Llosa's wife.

In the intervening years, the authors fell out politically, too, with the Peruvian publicly criticising Garcia Marquez's friendship with Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

Relations appeared to thaw in 2007, however, when Vargas Llosa provided the foreword to the 40th anniversary edition of Garcia Marquez's classic work, A Hundred Years of Solitude.

After the Nobel announcement on Thursday, Garcia Marquez - himself a Nobel laureate - tweeted: "Cuentas iguales" ("Now we're even").

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Baby in Malaysia snatched by monkey

 

A baby in Malaysia has died after being snatched from home by a monkey which bit her - then dropped her from a roof.

The four-day-old girl was sleeping in the living room of her home in the central Malaysian state of Negri Sembilan when a macaque monkey entered.

The baby had been briefly left alone. Wildlife officials said the monkey had probably been searching for food.

The officials said it was the first case of an attack by wild monkeys on a human in the state.

Correspondents say the Malaysian authorities are struggling to control a booming population of macaques in urban areas, as the animals' natural habitat shrinks because of deforestation.

Alarmed

The mother, 26-year-old V Revathy, had left the baby to go to the bathroom and the baby's grandfather had gone to get a glass of water.

"We frantically searched all over the house and saw her body covered in blood lying outside the house," the child's grandfather A Valayutham told the Star newspaper.

The baby had serious bite and scratch marks.

Wildlife and national parks director Ishak Muhamad said his staff had later caught and shot a monkey believed to have been responsible for the attack.

"We suspect the macaque was rummaging for food inside the house. It could have taken the baby to the roof thinking the newborn was food," he told the newspaper.

"The baby died when she fell to the ground. The monkey had apparently released the newborn, probably because it was alarmed by the parents' shouts," Mr Ishak said.

The area where the family lives has many trees where macaque monkeys have made their homes.

"She was our bundle of joy and we were looking forward to spending many happy years with her... I just cannot believe she's gone," said V Neru, the baby's father.

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Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Three scientists have shared this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing new ways of linking carbon atoms together.
The Nobel was awarded to Professors Richard Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki for innovative ways of developing complex molecules.
The chemical method developed by the researchers has allowed scientists to make medicines and better electronics.
The Nobels are valued at 10m Swedish kronor (£900,000; 1m euros; $1.5m).
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said this year's chemistry award honours the researchers' development of "palladium-catalysed cross couplings in organic systems".
The academy said it was a "precise and efficient" tool that is used by researchers worldwide, "as well as in the commercial production of for example pharmaceuticals and molecules used in the electronics industry".
Such chemicals included one found in small quantities in a sea sponge, which scientists aim to use to fight cancer cells. Researchers can now artificially produce this substance, called discodermolide.
Heck, 79, is a professor emeritus at the University of Delaware, US; Negishi, 75, is a chemistry professor at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, and 80-year-old Suzuki is a professor at Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan.
Professor Negishi told reporters in Stockholm by telephone that he was asleep when the call from the Nobel committee came.
'Essential tools'
"I went to bed last night well past midnight so I was sleeping but I am extremely happy to receive the telephone call," he said.
Organic chemistry has built on nature, utilising carbon's ability to provide a stable skeleton for functional molecules. This has paved the way for new medicines and improved materials.
To do this, chemists need to be able to join carbon atoms together, but carbon atoms do not easily react with one another.
The first methods used by chemists to bind carbon atoms together were based on making carbon more reactive.
This worked well for synthesising simple molecules, but when chemists tried to scale this up to more complex ones, too many unwanted by-products were generated.
The method based around the metal palladium solved that problem: in it, carbon atoms meet on a palladium atom, and their proximity to one another kick-starts the chemical reaction.
PM's call
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said he spoke to Professor Suzuki on the phone and congratulated him.
"He told me that Japan's science and technology is at the world's top level and encouraged me to make good use of the resources," he said.
Professor David Phillips, President of the Royal Society of Chemistry, said these metal-based "coupling" reactions had led to "countless breakthroughs".
He added: "The Heck, Negishi and Suzuki reactions make possible the vital fluorescent marking that underpins DNA sequencing, and are essential tools for synthetic chemists creating complex new drugs and polymers."
Russian-born Andre Geim, 51, and Konstantin Novoselov, 36, of the University of Manchester, UK, were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics on Tuesday for groundbreaking experiments with graphene, an ultra-thin and super-strong material.
The prizes also cover chemistry, medicine, literature, peace and economics.

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Smoker Chimp Charlie dies at 52

A chimpanzee famous for smoking cigarettes has died at a South African zoo, aged 52.

Charlie the chimp started smoking when some visitors to Mangaung zoo, in Bloemfontein, threw him lit cigarettes.

Zoo spokesman Qondile Khedama said Charlie had become an institution, entertaining thousands of visitors every year with his antics.

An autopsy is being conducted to determine the cause of death.

For years, zookeepers had been trying to get the chimp to kick the habit, and they discouraged visitors from giving him cigarettes.

But Mr Khedama said he did not believe the addiction had ended Charlie's life prematurely, as he had lived around 10 years longer than the average chimp.

"He was on serious medications and in and out of the vet," he said.

"Even though he has been receiving special care, and a special diet including protein shakes, vitamin and mineral supplements, he succumbed to old age."

Charlie is not the only chimp to have picked up human bad habits.

In February, it was reported a Russian chimpanzee was being sent to rehab after he started pestering visitors for alcohol and cigarettes.

Mr Khedama said the zoo hopes to find a new companion for its female chimp, Judy.

But he said: "We realise it will be almost impossible to replace a character like Charlie."

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Nobel Prize in Physics

Technorati Tags: Nobel Prize

The 2010 Nobel Prize for physics has been awarded to two European scientists, Andre Geim of the Netherlands and Russian-British national Konstantin Novoselov, for their pioneering work on graphene, an atom-thick form of carbon which is expected to play a large role in electronics.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the prize to the pair for their "groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene," according to a statement released on Tuesday. Graphene is both the thinnest and strongest material known: almost completely transparent yet so dense that not even the smallest gas atom can pass through it.

Geim, 51, and Novoselov, 36, who are both Russian-born and based at Manchester University in the United Kingdom, were able to isolate graphene for the first time by extracting it from a piece of graphite like that found in ordinary pencils.

The Nobel committee said experiments with graphene could lead to the development of new material and the manufacture of innovative electronics, and that one possible application of the winners' work could be in researching new ways to trace dangerous gases.

"Since it is practically transparent and a good conductor, graphene is suitable for producing transparent touch screens, light panels and maybe even solar cells," the academy said in a statement.

Geim says 'no change' in schedule after award

Novoselov is one of the youngest Nobel Laureates for physics ever. In 1973, Brian David Josephson, a British scientist, shared the prize at the age of 33.

Geim told press he who had been answering emails when he was informed of the win. He said one of his first thoughts was: "Oh dear – I will not win many other prizes."

According to the Nobel Prize's official Twitter account, Geim did not expect to win the award this year, and added: "He plans to go back to work today, no changes in today's schedule!"

Previously, Geim was awarded an Ig Nobel award – an American humorous science prize – in 2000 for having conducted research into diamagnetic levitation, which resulted in levitating a frog.

The Nobel Prize includes 10 million Swedish kronor (just over 1 million euros, or $1.5 million), to be shared between the two winners.

The first Nobel Prize for physics was awarded to Wilhelm Roentgen for his discovery of X-rays in 1901. John Bardeen was the only Nobel Laureate who was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics twice, in 1956 and 1972.

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Nobel Prize in Medicine

The 2010 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to Robert G. Edwards, an 85-year-old British scientist who pioneered the fertility treatment in vitro fertilization.
Today nearly four million people have been born thanks to in vitro fertilization, which occurs when sperm is injected into an egg cell outside the body and the resulting embryo is implanted back into the womb.
Edwards first envisioned IVF during the 1950s and went on to develop and hone the technique in the 1960s and '70s.
He achieved his first success on July 25, 1978, when Louise Brown, the world's first "test-tube baby" was born in the United Kingdom.
"This is a wonderful achievement and a great testimony to Edwards's pioneering work in reproductive science," said Richard Kennedy, a fertility expert at University Hospital in Coventry, U.K., and secretary general of the International Federation of Fertility Societies.
"The development of IVF has enabled many millions of couples to have a child who might not otherwise have been able to," he said in a telephone interview.
The Nobel Assembly at Sweden's Karolinska Institute, which awarded the 10-million-Swedish-krona (1.5 million-U.S.-dollar) prize, described IVF as a "milestone of modern medicine, which brings joy to infertile people all over the world."
Robert Edwards was too ill to speak to the media about his award, Nobel committee member Goran Hansson told a news conference in Stockholm Monday.
But, Hansson added, "I spoke to his wife, and she was delighted. She was sure he would also be delighted."
Birth of a Nobel-Worthy Technique

More than 10 percent of couples worldwide are infertile. In the past medical help was limited, but today IVF therapy results in successful births for roughly one in five of every fertilized egg implanted.
The odds for a healthy couple conceiving naturally are about the same.
Edwards's initial inspiration came from the work of other scientists, which showed that egg cells from rabbits could be fertilized in test tubes when sperm was added.
The scientist realized that this could be a potential treatment for human infertility and began to experiment with human egg cells.
Along with colleagues, Edwards clarified how human eggs mature, how different hormones regulate their maturation, and at what point the eggs are ready to be fertilized.
In 1969, while at the University of Cambridge, Edwards and his team managed to fertilize a human egg in a test tube for the first time.
However, this fertilized egg didn't develop beyond single cell division, so Edwards suspected that he needed to use eggs that had matured in the ovaries before removal for IVF.
Working with gynecologist Patrick Steptoe, he safely extracted matured eggs from ovaries, using laparoscopy—an optical technique developed by Steptoe—to look at eggs in the ovaries.
This time the pair were able to fertilize an egg and get it to divide several times, though the embryo stopped growing at only eight cells.

In Vitro Fertilization "Here to Stay"
At this point controversy erupted, with opposition to the technique coming from religious leaders and various governments. The U.K.'s Medical Research Council decided not to continue funding the project.
However, a private donation enabled the pair to continue their research, which ultimately led to their first complete success—Louise Brown's birth.
Since 1978 the technique has been further refined, resulting in easier and more comfortable methods of egg removal.
However, in vitro fertilization treatments often lead to multiple pregnancies, which can pose risks to both the babies and the mother. For instance, multiple pregnancies can increase the likelihood for premature delivery and low birth weight, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center.
Even so, "IVF is here to stay," said University Hospital's Kennedy.
"I expect it will be combined with genetic screening in the future, to lessen the likelihood of inherited diseases, and there will be refinements to improve the success rates and reduce the chances of multiple births."

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Presidential kick?

Bolivian President Evo Morales has been caught on camera apparently kneeing an opponent in the groin during a football game.

The kick, which came after the president had been fouled, happened during a friendly match against a team led by the mayor of La Paz.

The opposing player and one of Mr Morales' bodyguards were both sent off.

Reports say police tried to arrest the opposition player at the end of the match before the mayor intervened.

Evo Morales led out a team of his governing Movement towards Socialism (Mas) party against the opposition Movement Without Fear (MSM) led by the mayor of La Paz, Luis Revilla.

The match was a friendly to inaugurate a new football field in Pa Paz, Bolivia's political capital.

But within five minutes, things turned nasty.

Mr Morales was fouled by an opposition player, Daniel Gustavo Cartagena.

In an apparent retaliation caught on video, he was seen kneeing Mr Cartagena in the genitals, sending him sprawling.

"I passed the ball and, suddenly, I got hit, and not for the first time," the president said later.

After receiving treatment for injury, Mr Morales played on, and scored a goal.

The match ended 4-4, with four players sent off, including Mr Cartagena and one of the president's bodyguards.

After the final whistle, police tried to arrest the opposition player, but were stopped by Mr Revilla, local media reported.

"This was a football match, and on the pitch we are all players. It was just a clash. I am not moving while one of my players is in danger," Bolivian newspaper La Razon quoted the mayor as saying.

Doctors have advised Mr Morales to rest for several days to recover from bruising to his right leg.

Mr Morales, 50, is a keen football fan and no stranger to controversy on and off the pitch.

In 2007 he played a match at 6,000m (19,700 ft) above sea level in a protest against efforts to stop Bolivia playing its international fixtures at high altitude.

And in 2006 he suffered a broken nose in a clash with a goalkeeper.

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Brazil clown tops votes for Congress

Technorati Tags: Brazil,Romario,Bebeto,Clown,Election

A Brazilian clown has had the last laugh by winning a seat in Congress with more votes than any other candidate in Sunday's elections.

Tiririca, or Francisco Oliveira Silva to give him his real name, was elected as a federal deputy for Sao Paulo with more than 1.3 million votes.

Tiririca, or "Grumpy", had slogans such as: "It can't get any worse."

Another celebrity winner was ex-footballer Romario, elected federal deputy for Rio de Janeiro.

Tiririca won 1,353,355 votes - well ahead of the next best-supported politician, former Rio state governor Antony Garotinho, who took more than 694,000 votes to be elected a federal deputy for the state.

Joining them in Brasilia will be Romario, the striker who helped Brazil win the 1994 World Cup. Fellow footballer and 1994 team-mate Bebeto was elected state deputy for Rio.

But the main sensation of the election campaign was Tiririca, who ran humorous campaign adverts on YouTube that attracted millions of hits.

"What does a federal deputy do? Truly, I don't know. But vote for me and I will find out for you," was one of his messages.

Tiririca started working in a circus at the age of eight in the impoverished north-eastern state of Ceara, and is now a TV comedian.

He was one of dozens of candidates from the world of sport and showbusiness who were contesting some of the 513 seats in the lower house of Congress.

In all there were more than 6,000 candidates from 27 parties.

The way the Chamber of Deputies is formed - by an open-list proportional representation system - makes it easier for celebrity candidates to win office.

Analysts say their popularity also reflects disillusion with mainstream politicians, following numerous corruption scandals.

Tiririca's sucess could also have a bearing on other election races, as he can pass on his excess votes to other candidates in his party's coalition, which includes the governing Workers Party.

Tiririca survived a last-minute legal challenge to his candidacy amid evidence that he did not meet the literacy requirement for elected office.

However, the electoral authorities indicated he could be removed from office if he failed to show he can read and write after the election.

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