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A seven-year-old boy has become one of the youngest people to swim the choppy, chilly waters from Alcatraz Island to the San Francisco shore.

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Braxton conceded that there were "a few" sharks in the waters around San Francisco Bay, but said he was not scared.

Had he seen a shark's fin in the water, he said, he would have "punched it in the nose".

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THEY seem the unlikeliest of relatives. One was a fearsome warlord whose name became a byword for savagery. The other is a mild-mannered accountancy academic from Florida.

Yet Tom Robinson, 48, has become the first man outside Asia to trace his ancestry directly to Genghis Khan, the 13th-century Mongol leader whose empire stretched from the South China Sea to the Persian Gulf.

And, since his paternal great-great-grandfather emigrated to the United States from Windermere, Cumbria, many more descendants are probably scattered across the Lake District.

Genetic tests have revealed that Mr Robinson, a professor of accountancy at the University of Miami, shares crucial portions of his DNA with the Mongol ruler.

He has little in common with his infamous ancestor. He is not a keen horseman. Though a Republican, his politics are moderate. And while Genghis Khan may have fathered thousands of children, Professor Robinson and his wife, Linda, have no offspring.

"I'm not sure we have too many similarities," he said. "I obviously haven't conquered any countries, and though I've headed up accounting groups, I've done nothing as big as Genghis Khan.

"I'm proud to have such an interesting ancestor. I've been reading a lot about him since I found out about the link, and it does seem that his reputation is a little unfair.

"He conquered a lot of countries, but he had a pretty good system of government."

Professor Robinson's genetic past was uncovered by Brian Sykes, Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Oxford. His company, Oxford Ancestors, offers genetic tests to help people to trace their family trees.

Samples of Professor Robinson's DNA were first taken four years ago. Tests suggested that his paternal forebears came from the Caucasus, while his mother's ancestors originated in the Pyrenees.

Then a study in 2003 suggested that up to 16 million people worldwide "” and 8 per cent of Asian men "” were descended from Genghis Khan, and Professor Sykes decided to trawl through his database of approximately 25,000 male clients for a match.

The link is revealed by the Y chromosome, a packet of DNA that determines male sex, which is passed down from father to son. Men who share a Y chromosome are invariably descended from the same man at some point in the past, and the accumulation of mutations can be used to date the common ancestor. Women do not have a Y chromosome, so they cannot be tested in the same way, although millions are likely also to be descended from the warlord.

The 2003 study found that large numbers of Asian men from the regions that once made up the Mongol empire shared a single Y chromosome, and that this originated in a man who lived in the early 13th century.

Genghis Khan lived from about 1162 to 1227 and fathered hundreds or even thousands of children as his armies swept across the continent. This makes him by far the most probable source of the common chromosome.

Professor Sykes said: "Genghis Khan may have been the most successful male ever at spreading his genes. He would have passed his Y chromosome on to his sons and grandsons, who inherited his empire and with it an opportunity to spread it even further.

"We knew it exists widely in Asia today, but I was sure it must have moved further afield as well. Tom Robinson is the first man we've found who has it who is from a European or American background."

Oxford Ancestors looked for Genghis Khan's genetic signature by examining Y chromosomes for nine characteristic DNA markers. Professor Robinson's Y chromosome is an exact match for eight of the nine markers, and one mutation is expected over the 800 years that separate him from the Mongol ruler.

"It is a very precise match," Professor Sykes said.

Professor Robinson's research into his family tree shows that his paternal great-great-grandfather, John Robinson, emigrated from the Windermere area to Illinois, placing the Genghis Khan chromosome firmly in Britain in the relatively recent past.

Ravdan Bold, the Mongolian Ambassador to the US, is holding a reception in Professor Robinson's honour in Washington DC next month.

Any man who is interested in finding out whether he is descended from Genghis Khan can be tested by Oxford Ancestors for £195.

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"My first instinct was to run," said Autry, 36. "Those kids were younger than me. They caught me and cornered me. It was about life preservation."

As he ran, Autry repeatedly yelled "Fire," which Stephens said attracted the attention of nearby residents who called 911.

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Originally posted by Marshdrifter:
Not soldiers, Marines (yes, there is a
difference).

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Scott Silverman, Chairman of the Board of VeriChip Corporation, has proposed implanting the company's RFID tracking tags in immigrant and guest workers. He made the statement on national television earlier this week.

Silverman was being interviewed on "Fox & Friends." Responding to the Bush administration's call to know "who is in our country and why they are here," he proposed using VeriChip RFID implants to register workers at the border, and then verify their identities in the workplace. He added, "We have talked to many people in Washington about using it...."

The VeriChip is a very small Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag about the size of a large grain of rice.

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Originally posted by Gromit:
Dutch pedophiles are launching their own political party.

Presumably because they're, you know, just regular guys who are misunderstood.

What the fuck?

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ArkanGL:
A US accountant has proof that he is descended from Genghis Khan, the Mongol warlord (Timesonline)

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Originally posted by Kradlum:
Coma woman mix-up pains US family. Imagine coming round from a coma to find people you have never met before telling you they are your family.