Marshall Tidus, a fan of Funk music pioneer Rick James, speaks with reporters outside the singer's apartment complex August 6, 2004. James, a dynamic performer famed for the sensuous 1981 dance hit "Super Freak" as well as a descent into drugs and crime, died in his sleep Friday morning of natural causes, officials said. James, 56, the self-proclaimed "icon of drug use and eroticism," battled a crack-cocaine habit for years. He had been in fragile health since suffering a stroke in 1998 after bursting a blood vessel at a concert in Denver. REUTERS/Jim Ruymen JR 

African would-be immigrants, who used self-inflicted wounds to delay being deported, rest at Tarifa's port after being intercepted in waters off the Strait of Gibraltar as they attempted to reach Spanish soil in a fragile vessel July 19, 2004. About 61 persons were on the vessel, among which were three pregnant women. REUTERS/Anton Meres AC/AA 

A fishing boat passes the Australian navy vessel HMAS Manoura after it
arrived at Red Beach located just outside the Solomon Island's capital
of Honiara July 24, 2003 as part of the 2000-strong intervention force
consisting of police, troops and support personnel. Red Beach was the
site of where the United States launched their first major offensive
against the Japanese during World War Two, and was so-called after the
sand turned red due to the blood spilt there. The force, the largest
military deployment in the region since World War Two, has the
authority to use 'lethal force' if they are threatened by any
resistance in the near-bankrupt and lawless South Pacific nation.
Ethnic fighting and lawlessness has claimed hundreds of lives in the
Solomons during the past five years, with up to 30,000 people driven
from their homes. REUTERS/David Gray

DG/PB 

Gerald McSorley holds up a Jurassic fossil, clearly showing four prefectly preserved vertebrae, complete with spinal cord and blood vessels, which he found on the shores of Loch Ness, at his home in Stirling in Scotland, July 16, 2003. Though experts have stressed that the find is not related to the original Loch Ness monster - the remains of the plesiosaur (a long-necked, carnivorous sea reptile) are around 150 million years old and Loch Ness did not exist until the last Ice Age around 12,000 years ago - they say the find is evidence that the 35-foot-long creature once existed in the area. 

Gerald McSorley holds up a Jurassic fossil, clearly showing four prefectly preserved vertebrae, complete with spinal cord and blood vessels, which he found on the shores of Loch Ness, at his home in Stirling in Scotland, July 16, 2003. Though experts have stressed that the find is not related to the original Loch Ness monster - the remains of the plesiosaur (a long-necked, carnivorous sea reptile) are around 150 million years old and Loch Ness did not exist until the last Ice Age around 12,000 years ago - they say the find is evidence that the 35-foot-long creature once existed in the area. 

Gerald McSorley holds up a Jurassic fossil, clearly showing four prefectly preserved vertebrae, complete with spinal cord and blood vessels, which he found on the shores of Loch Ness, at his home in Stirling in Scotland, July 16, 2003. Though experts have stressed that the find is not related to the original Loch Ness monster - the remains of the plesiosaur (a long-necked, carnivorous sea reptile) are around 150 million years old and Loch Ness did not exist until the last Ice Age around 12,000 years ago - they say the find is evidence that the 35-foot-long creature once existed in the area. 

Gerald McSorley holds up a Jurassic fossil, clearly showing four prefectly
preserved vertebrae, complete with spinal cord and blood vessels, which he
found on the shores of Loch Ness, at his home in Stirling in Scotland, July
16, 2003. Though experts have stressed that the find is not related to the
original Loch Ness monster - the remains of the plesiosaur (a long-necked,
carnivorous sea reptile) are around 150 million years old and Loch Ness did
not exist until the last Ice Age around 12,000 years ago - they say the find
is evidence that the 35-foot-long creature once existed in the area.
REUTERS/Jeff J Mitchell PP03070059

JJM/ASA 

Gerald McSorley holds up a Jurassic fossil, clearly showing four prefectly
preserved vertebrae, complete with spinal cord and blood vessels, which he
found on the shores of Loch Ness, at his home in Stirling in Scotland, July
16, 2003. Though experts have stressed that the find is not related to the
original Loch Ness monster - the remains of the plesiosaur (a long-necked,
carnivorous sea reptile) are around 150 million years old and Loch Ness did
not exist until the last Ice Age around 12,000 years ago - they say the find
is evidence that the 35-foot-long creature once existed in the area.
REUTERS/Jeff J Mitchell PP03070059

JJM/ASA 

Gerald McSorley holds up a Jurassic fossil, clearly showing four prefectly
preserved vertebrae, complete with spinal cord and blood vessels, which he
found on the shores of Loch Ness, at his home in Stirling in Scotland, July
16, 2003. Though experts have stressed that the find is not related to the
original Loch Ness monster - the remains of the plesiosaur (a long-necked,
carnivorous sea reptile) are around 150 million years old and Loch Ness did
not exist until the last Ice Age around 12,000 years ago - they say the find
is evidence that the 35-foot-long creature once existed in the area.
REUTERS/Jeff J Mitchell PP03070059 Pictures of the month July 2003

JJM/ASA 

An exterior view of the Raffles Hospital in Singapore July 8, 2003,
where an operation is underway to separate adult Iranian sisters joined
at the head. Neurosurgeons trying to separate 29-year-old Iranian
twins, Laleh and Ladan Bijani, joined at the head teased apart tightly
packed brain tissue and blood vessels on Tuesday as the
life-threatening operation moved into its third day. REUTERS/David Loh

DL/CP 

Members of the Iranian community in Singapore wait at the reception area of
the Raffles Hospital in Singapore July 8, 2003, where an operation is
underway to separate adult Iranian sisters joined at the head. Neurosurgeons
trying to separate 29-year-old Iranian twins, Laleh and Ladan Bijani, joined
at the head teased apart tightly packed brain tissue and blood vessels on
Tuesday as the life-threatening operation moved into its third day.
REUTERS/David Loh PP03070027

DL/CP 

North Koreans attend a ceremony for the construction of railway to be
connected with South Korea's near Mt Kumgang Youth station at Onjong
village in Kosung North Korea September 18, 2002. South and North Korea
began work on Wednesday to relink railways and roads, in landmark
events symbolically piercing the world's last Cold War frontier. The
signs read "Long live the leader Kim Jong-il, (front) "Let's interlink
the disconnected blood vessel of nation." (rear) and (R) "Let's carry
out thoroughly the historic 6.15 joint declaration (between South and
North Korea) REUTERS/Hyundai Asan/Handout

LJW/JS 

Researchers said on January 18 that they had seen the earliest steps of a tumor forming and said they showed that a new class of cancer drugs that literally starve tumors might even be used to stop them from spreading. They said their study shows that tumors start building themselves blood vessels earlier than anyone thought, but newly discovered proteins and drugs might be used to cut them off. At top left: Implanted cancer cells glow with green fluorescence protein. At top right: Three of the original cancer cells have survived to begin replicating. Signals between the existing blood vessel and the growing cancer cells cause the cells to grow toward the vessel. At bottom left: The cancer cells have reached the existing blood vessel. At bottom right: When they number only 100-300, the cancer cells have created new, fully-functioning blood vessels. (HO/Duke University Medical Center/Graphic illustration by Stanley Coffman) 

An employee of RMB (Roulements Miniatures Biel SA), a Swiss company specialising in building miniature motors, displays this smallest industrial made motor during a press conference in Lucerne October 29. The motor can be used for medical operations such as cleaning blood vessels. RMB and Interlectric SA, a company distributing these motors, announced that they would tighten their cooperation. 

An employee of RMB (Roulements Miniatures Biel SA), a Swiss company specialising in building miniature motors, displays this smallest industrial made motor during a press conference in Lucerne October 29. The motor can be used for medical operations such as cleaning blood vessels. RMB and Interlectric SA, a company distributing these motors, announced that they would tighten their cooperation. sts/Photo by E.T.

MINIATURE MOTOR 

San Jose Sharks' Tony Granato holds the Bill Masterton Trophy after the National Hockey League awarded him with the honour of being the player who best exemplfies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey, June 19 at the NHL Awards in Toronto. Granato returned to hockey 6 months after having brain surgery to remove an abnormal collection of blood vessels.

SPORT NHL 

Philippine President Fidel Ramos flexes his muscles as he shows up for the press at the hospital lobby where he is currently confined in Manila December 25. President Ramos underwent surgery two days ago for removal of cholesterol blockage in a major blood vessel leading to the brain.