■ Germany
`Einstein Year' begins
Germany kicked off cele-brations on Wednesday of the 100th anniversary of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity and the 50th anniversary of his death, honoring the legendary native son whose books were once burned by the Nazis. The "Einstein Year" is being marked with tours, a scientific conference and a major exhibition about Einstein, whose theories about space, time and relativity revolutionized science. Einstein, who was Jewish, was born in 1879 in Ulm, Germany. He left Germany one month before Adolf Hitler took power in 1933, never to return.
■ United States
Parents clueless on teen sex
Young US teenagers are becoming intimate and having sex at an earlier age than their parents suspect, according to a new survey. The survey of 1,000 teens aged 13 to 16 showed 27 percent said they had "been with somebody in an inti-mate or sexual way," while 83 percent of 1,000 parents surveyed said they did not think their teenager had gone beyond kissing. Sexual intercourse was as common as oral sex among the teens in the survey released on Wednesday by NBC News and People magazine. Twelve percent said they had engaged in oral sex and 13 percent said they had sexual intercourse. Of those who said they had engaged in either sexual intercourse or oral sex, about half had first done so by the age of 14.
■ United Kingdom
Odor may deter mosquitoes
Scientists hope to remedy one of life's great injustices: that some people are far more likely than others to be bitten by mosquitoes. Human volunteer trials have begun in the mosquito-infested west of Scotland as scien-tists build on the long-held theory that both deadly and simply painful insects are fatally attracted by body odors. They think they can use other body chemicals to hide the smells. Some researchers have suggested that individuals who escape mosquitoes lack the attrac-tive chemicals. But those involved in the study funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Science Research Council think all of us have these chemicals but some have others which "switch off" or disguise them.
■ United States
Four Chinese sought
Federal law enforcement officials said Wednesday they were searching for four Chinese citizens who may have been involved in plot-ting a possible terrorist action in Boston. The names and photographs of two men and two women whom officials were looking for were released to the media. The statement said none of the four were on "any pre-viously existing watch list." The authorities were informed about the four in a tip from a single anonymous source, said Boston Mayor Thomas Menino.
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