News Blog

The get-fit blue tit who practises chin-ups between flights

2007-12-21T09:27:00.000-08:00

After a hard day's flying, you might think a blue tit would get more than enough exercise to stay in shape.But this body-conscious bird appears to have found time to practice some chin-ups.
Or maybe it has simply lost confidence in its flying abilities and is hanging to the twig on a wing and a prayer.Spotted on forestry commission land near Farnborough, Hampshire, this bird displays a stunning agility with its claws wrapped tightly around the wood.And the strange looking position is in fact a regular part of the blue tits feeding strategy. Grahame Madge of the RSPB explained: "Blue tits are extremely agile and light weight birds and are very acrobatic feeders."They often hang upside down on branches to catch insects, and this is a very comfortable position for them to be in."He added: "Around bird feeders, birds will wait for their turn to eat. There is a definite pecking order."

Haj Pilgrimage in 1953 - Rare Pictures

2007-12-19T08:39:00.000-08:00

Amazing pictures from the biggest pilgrimage on Earth

2007-12-18T12:14:00.000-08:00

It is one of the greatest examples of human devotion on earth - a sea of white robes as hundreds of thousands of Muslims poured onto the plain of Arafat east of Mecca today as the sun rose over the rocky hills for the day marking the climax of the annual haj pilgrimage.They came on foot, by bus and in pick-up trucks from Mina and other sites in the direction of Mecca, adding to a throng which will reach more than two million in the afternoon.Saudi authorities say more than 1.6 million people have entered Saudi Arabia for the event, the largest religious gathering in the world, which poses a huge logistical and security challenge for the Saudi authorities.Pilgrims make the journey to Mecca in the second week of Dhu al-Hijjah - the twelfth month in the Islamic calendar - and perform prayers and rituals in the days before the haj begins.
The haj has been marred in previous years by fires, hotel collapses, police clashes with protestors trying to politicise the haj and deadly stampedes caused by overcrowding.
In January 2006, 346 muslims were crushed and a further 200 were injured on an overcrowded bridge.This year, more than 35,000 security staff are on hand to ensure that this show of unity is a peaceful one.The government is also wary of any militant actions. Al Qaeda-linked militants launched a campaign to destabilise the U.S.-allied monarchy in 2003, and Saudi radicals opposed to the royal family seized control of Mecca's Grand Mosque in 1979.

A representative of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei managed to give a speech to a group of Iranian pilgrims at Arafat today denouncing "enemies of the Muslim nation". Shown on Iranian TV, pilgrims waved signs saying "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" and chanted slogans.President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is performing haj this year at the invitation of Saudi Arabia, a close U.S. ally.Some of the most enthusiastic pilgrims spent the night on Mount Arafat, also known as Jabal al-Rahma or the Mountain of Mercy, nestling in cracks between the boulders. The night air was pleasantly cool, with a breeze from the desert.
Pilgrims perched on the hillside said they had prayed for the welfare and success of Muslims across the world.Zaki Ali Ibrahim, an Egyptian driver working in Saudi Arabia, said he spent the whole night in prayer with friends."I prayed that all Muslims may prosper, and that I may prosper with them," he said. "I felt that my prayers for Muslims were reaching God with strength."

Shazli Atallah Mohamed, a plumber from the southern Egyptian province of Qena, said that on the hilltop he felt he was closer to God than anywhere else on earth. "I prayed that God might accept us all into paradise," he said.A large group chanted prayers in unison, asking God to help fellow Muslims in areas of conflict including the Palestinian territories, Chechnya, Kashmir and Sudan.As day spread across the plain, the size of the pilgrimage came to light.A sea of people wrapped in white cloth streamed along six-lane roads to fill the plain, carrying mats, food, screens against the sun, Korans and prayer books.It is the duty of every able-bodied Muslim to make the haj at least once in their lifetime.In a display of solidarity and faith, the pilgrims walk seven times around the Kaaba, touching the sacred black stone at its corner.They wear sacred robes called ihram and are forbidden to use cosmetics, shave or cut their nails while dressed in these.They are also not allowed to swear, argue, kill a living creature or have sex.Over the five days of haj, more than two million Muslims, 25,000 of whom are British, will pass through the Grand Mosque.
Fruit sellers set up stalls and tea stands suddenly appeared. African trader women spread their wares on the ground, offering prayer beads, incense and prayer mats.One man offered rides in the howdahs of camels, richly decorated with brocade and coloured pompoms.The afternoon at Arafat, known in Arabic as the wuqouf or "standing", is an essential part of the pilgrimage but the requirements are not strict.The noon prayer and sermon at the Namera Mosque is a major event, evoking the sermon which the Prophet Mohammad made from the hill in the year of his death in 632.

Iranian president joins 2.5 million other Muslims as Haj pilgrimage in Mecca begins

2007-12-17T11:37:00.000-08:00

More than two million Muslims began their annual Haj pilgrimage in Mecca today amid tight security.The pilgrims, including Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, started the week-long religious event at the Saudi Arabian city with a three mile walk to the holy site of Mina.The faithful, wearing white robes, make the symbolic trip tracing the journey made by the Prophet Mohammed more than 1,400 years ago.Sleeping at night in tents before heading further south to Mount Arafat, where the Prophet is believed to have received the last passage of Islam's holy book, the Koran.
The Haj climaxes on Tuesday, when the faithful will spend the day praying and asking God's forgiveness at the summit.
During the pilgrimage Muslims numbering nearly 2.5 million will walk anti-clockwise seven times around the Kaaba, a cube-shaped structure in Mecca toward which all followers of Islam pray.Also among the pilgrims were 1,000 residents of the Gaza strip who were allowed by Israel to leave the territory as a gesture of goodwill.Yesterday 491 Palestians were taken by bus through the Erez checkpoint, which is controlled by Israeli troops and normally closed to civilians.
Another 500 pilgrims are expected to be allowed through today, befor heading to Jordan and flying on to Saudi Arabia.
The move came as 10,700 Chinese Muslims, an isolated minority in the communist state, were given permission to travel - and fulfil their faithful duty of making the pilgrimage if they can.They will join president Ahmadinejad, the first Iranian leader to take part in the event since the 1979 Islamic revolution, who was invited by Saudi King Abdullah.Before leaving, he said: “If I made a mistake or in one of my speeches or said something that was not in line with the interest of the nation and has hurt the nation or I was not able to defend its rights, then I ask people to forgive me."His invitation is a highly symbolic move as the pilgrimage has in the past caused major diplomatic strains between the two regional heavyweights.Relations reached an all-time low in July 1987 when 402 people, mostly Iranians, were killed in clashes between Iranians and Saudi security forces during the Haj.Iran's late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini subsequently accused the kingdom of being a lackey of the United States that was unable to look after holy sites.But the two countries have tried to give an impression of unity in recent years, vowing to work together to end the political crisis in Lebanon and bring stability to Iraq.

Scientists discover the energy source driving the Northern Lights

2007-12-12T09:32:00.000-08:00

Scientists think they have discovered the energy source of auroras borealis, the spectacular color displays seen in the upper latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere.New data from NASA's Themis mission, a quintet of satellites launched this winter, found the energy comes from a stream of charged particles from the sun flowing like a current through twisted bundles of magnetic fields connecting Earth's upper atmosphere to the sun. The energy is then abruptly released in the form of a shimmering display of lights, said principal investigator Vassilis Angelopoulos of the University of California at Los Angeles. Results were presented Tuesday at the American Geophysical Union meeting. In March, the satellites detected a burst of Northern Lights over Alaska and Canada. During the two-hour light show, the satellites measured particle flow and magnetic fields from space. To scientists' surprise, the geomagnetic storm powering the auroras raced 400 miles in a minute across the sky. Angelopoulos estimated the storm's power was equal to the energy released by a magnitude 5.5 earthquake."Nature was very kind to us," Angelopoulos said. Although researchers have suspected the existence of wound-up bundles of magnetic fields that provide energy for the auroras, the phenomenon was not confirmed until May, when the satellites became the first to map their structure some 40,000 miles above the Earth's surface. Scientists hope the satellites will record a geomagnetic storm next year and end the debate about when the storms are triggered.

Janis Winehouse to Estranged Daughter Amy: Call Me!

2007-12-10T12:00:00.000-08:00

Amy Winehouse’s estranged mother, Janis Winehouse, penned an open letter to her daughter, 24, urging her to come home and seek help. She writes:“We want to help you, but we know that unless you want to be helped, unless you come to us — anything we tried would be in vain. So this letter is my way of making sure you know … that all you have to do is come home to us, Amy, and we’ll do everything in our power to get you well again. After all, you are still my baby and you always will be. So just pick up that phone and tell me what’s troubling you… Wherever you are, whatever you need, we’re here for you day and night.”The full version of Amy’s mother’s letter was published in the UK’s News of the World. It’s very nice, heartfelt and, of course, likely to fall upon deaf ears.
Amy Winehouse looking pretty coherent… relatively speaking of course.The singer has faced some hard times lately. She nixed her tour to support her incarcerated husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, who is being held without bail after allegedly trying to buy off a witness in a pending assault case against him.Winehouse was recently spotted wandering the streets of London in the middle of the night in just a bra and jeans, looking for her dealer having been asleep.In a recent statement, Amy Winehouse — who nabbed six Grammy nominations in spite of her personal woes — apologized to fans for the recent troubles.“Thank you for all your kind letters and emails,” she said. “I am grateful for all your support.”

A family that can’t step out together

2007-12-09T10:55:00.001-08:00

London: A family branded “worse than the neighbours from hell” have been banned from going out together.Forty-eight-year-old Leslie Brien, and sons Dean, 26, Darren, 23, and Jimmy, 18, cannot even step out of their front door with each other without police permission.
It follows 69 complaints about them including threats to kill, battery, street fighting, slashing tyres, domestic abuse, fraud, drink driving, disorderly behaviour and drug possession with intent to supply.They are also banned from pubs, being drunk, fighting, and even parking badly outside their home in Buckfastleigh, Devon.Neighbours have branded them “the Buckfastleigh Mafia” and Gipsy Lane where they live “Beirut”, a court was told.Totnes magistrates heard that Jimmy Brien and some friends invaded the home of a disabled neighbour for up to six months - smashing down the door if it was locked.They would smoke cannabis and steal his possessions. Finally, he and three terrified families moved away.The Briens - who did not attend the hearing - have been banned from every pub in the area since 2004.Police said an eviction notice had been served on them by Teign Housing and they were investigated by environmental health and social services. Prosecuter Alison Hooper said they were “worse than the neighbours from hell”.She added: “They are intimidating and abusive. They regularly threaten the public and police. Unless people live in Gipsy Lane they will not go down it unless they have to.
“Within a 20 mile radius, people fear for the safety of themselves and their families at the hands of the Briens. They’re absolutely petrified of them.”Police lawyer Peter Quinn said: “This is by far the worst order I have come across. People are emotionally and mentally terrified by them.”Teignbridge councillor Anne Fry said: “I am glad we have been able to take this necessary step to help protect our community from the damaging actions of the Brien family.”

'Now I'll be famous,' says geeky gunman who killed eight in shopping mall massacre

2007-12-06T10:34:00.000-08:00

The teenager who killed eight shoppers yesterday after opening fire on a crowded mall left a suicide note predicting: “Now I'll be famous.”Robert Hawkins, 19, who had a history of depression and had broken up with his girlfriend two weeks ago, also wrote that he was “sorry for everything”.The high school dropout yesterday left the note at the home of the Maruca-Kovac family who had taken him in after he was thrown out by his parents.He had just been fired from his McDonald's job for allegedly stealing $17 before driving to the Westroads Mall in Omaha, Nebraska, and beginning his bloodbath.President George W Bush had come within two miles of the centre during a morning visit to the Midwest city."He wanted to go out like a star," said Andrew Bigler, who described himself as a friend of bespectacled Hawkins."He had a rough life. He was a good guy. I loved him."Wearing a camouflage vest, Hawkins headed to the third floor of the Von Mauer department store, pulled out an SKS assault rifle and opened fire.He gunned down shoppers in the store's customer service department before spraying bullets at others on a floor below as they looked up an escalator towards the screams and pandemonium.In total, he hit 13 people in the crowded complex, killing eight and injuring five before turning the gun on himself. Last night, Debora Maruca-Kovac, who invited Hawkins to live with her after her 17- and 19-year-old sons befriended the killer, said: “I had a feeling it was him.”

The surgical nurse, who described the youth as “very troubled” had witnessed victims of the mall shooting being brought in to the hospital where she works."He was depressed, and he had always been depressed," she said. "But he looked like he was getting better."Hawkins, who earned a high school equivalency degree after dropping out of Papillion-La Vista High School, earned his driving licence after moving in with the Maruca-Kovacs.And five months ago he started working at a McDonald's restaurant near their home in the middle-class suburb of Bellevue.The teenager was not on any medication for mental illness, but he had been treated in the past for depression and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, Mrs Maruca-Kovac revaled. Though he had his troubles, Hawkins was gentle and loved animals, Maruca-Kovac said.But he also had a drinking problem and would occasionally smoke marijuana in his bedroom, she said.The youth had been due to attend court for allegedly being caught in possession of alcohol.The minimum drinking age in all U.S. states is 21.

Maruca-Kovac continued: “He didn't cause a lot of trouble. He tried to help out all the time. He was very thankful for everything. He wasn't a violent person at all."Hawkins had lived with several friends for a couple days at a time before landing at Maruca-Kovac's house last year, she said."He was like a lost pound puppy that nobody wanted," she explained. "I felt sorry for him. I let him stay, and we tried to get him on his feet."

Mrs Maruca-Kovac said she found the handwritten note on the floor by his bed.She then called Hawkins' mother, whom she said she knows only as "Molly." The woman went to her house, retrieved the suicide note and took it to authorities.Mrs Maruca-Kovac did not hear about the shooting - which began around 1.50 pm - until she arrived at work, where she saw patients being wheeled in.

In the note Hawkins he didn't want “to be a burden anymore" to his family.At the top of the note was his "will," which said that his green Jeep Cherokee was to go to his mother, and that "my friends can have whatever they want."He ended the note by saying that now he would be famous.Police said they had no reason to think Nebraska's biggest lunchtime bloodbath was connected to the Bush visit but FBI agents were said to be checking for a possible link.

Day Three of our brilliant new brain trainer: 30-Second Challenge

2007-12-05T10:10:00.000-08:00

We all want to keep our minds as sharp as possible - and here's a brilliant new challenge that'll keep your brain in tip-top shape in just 30 seconds a day.Whether you're an older reader, wanting to keep your mind alert, or a parent who wants to sharpen up your children's mental arithmetic skills, our 30 second challenge is fun for all the family.

Devised by Norman D Lock, a respected maths teacher for more than 30 years, it couldn't be easier to follow.Start on the left with the number given and follow the instructions as you go across.When you get to the right you should have an answer.Beginner players have 30 seconds to complete their challenge.Intermediates have to complete the beginners' and their own intermediate challenge in 30 seconds and the advanced have to complete the intermediate and their own advanced challenge in 30 seconds.If you're really keen, you can try to improve on your times each day.

Hospital staff told to make sure Muslim patients' beds face Mecca five times a day

2007-12-04T10:19:00.001-08:00

In a bid to promote cultural understanding, they are also expected to provide patients with running water so they can wash before prayer.And then, of course, they are required to turn the beds back around to return the wards to normality. The measures are being pursued by Mid Yorkshire NHS Trust to ensure Muslim patients have a "more comfortable stay in hospital".Hundreds of staff have attended tax-payer-funded workshops with Muslim GPs and ethnic-minority support groups on how best to help patients.During these meetings, nurses have been told that if a patient asks for water to bathe in, or for their bed to be turned to face Mecca, then this should be considered.

If the measure is deemed "practically possible" and does not impinge on other patients, then it should be carried out.And if it is not practical, nurses are encouraged to find them a bed that faces Mecca permanently.But an experienced nurse at Dewsbury and District Hospital in Yorkshire where the ideas are being tested, has blasted the scheme.She said: "It would be easier to create Muslim-only wards with every bed facing Mecca than deal with this.The job of the nurse used to one of caring for the sick and needy.But not - it would seem - in today's politically-correct Britain.

Now, nurses are being encouraged to spend valuable time turning around the beds of Muslim patients up to five times a day - so they can face Mecca. "We have a huge Muslim population in Dewsbury and if we are having to turn dozens of beds to face Mecca five times a day, plus provide running water before and after prayers, it is bound to impact on the essential medical service we are supposed to be providing."Although the beds are designed to be moved, the bays are not really suitable for having loads of beds moving around to face a different direction and, despite our best efforts, it does cause disruption for non-Muslim patients."

Conservative MP David Davies also criticised the idea, saying: "Hospitals should be concentrating on stopping the spread of infections than kowtowing to the politically-correct brigade."The workshops - led by the hospital's chief matron Catherine Briggs - looked at Muslims' religious concerns over being in hospital.A key part of Islamic faith is praying five times a day to Mecca, Saudi Arabia - revered as the birthplace of the prophet Mohammed.Muslims are also meant to wash themselves in running water prior to prayer.Although staff said they would do everything possible to help patients fulfil these obligations, a request by Muslim women to be seen by female-only doctors was not guaranteed.

The scheme comes just a year after some NHS hospitals introduced Burka-style gowns for Muslim patients who did not want to show their face during operations.Yesterday, a spokeswoman for Mid Yorkshire NHS Trust confirmed that nurses were encouraged to help meet individual requests.She said: "Nurses have not been ordered to move beds or provide running water - they have just been encouraged to help meet patients' needs wherever possible."If a sick patient requests that their bed be moved to face Mecca, then it is right that the hospital looks at this request - even if it is more than once a day."If it is practically possible - and is not inappropriate or inconvenient to nurses or other patients - then it is right that nurses try and carry it out."We can also try and move the patient to a bed that faces Mecca permanently."

Hospital staff told to make sure Muslim patients' beds face Mecca five times a day

2007-12-04T10:19:00.000-08:00

Study finds acrylamide link to cancer in woman

2007-12-03T06:52:00.000-08:00

Fresh fears have been raised over the safety of cooked foods as a wide-ranging study found for the first time that a common chemical caused by frying, roasting or grilling can double the risk of cancer in women.

How to cut your acrylamide levels
NHS to extend breast cancer screening
Over half of new mothers who die 'are obese'

Five years ago, scientists sparked a worldwide alert when they disclosed that many household foods contain the substance acrylamide, which was thought to be a probable cause of the disease.
Now a study involving 120,000 people - half of whom were women - has established a direct link between consumption of the chemical and the incidence of ovarian and womb cancer.
Research has shown that acrylamide is found in cooked foods such as bread, breakfast cereals, coffee and also meat and potatoes which had been fried, baked, roasted, grilled or barbecued.
The Dutch study found that women who absorbed more acrylamide were twice as likely to develop ovarian or womb cancer as those who ingested a smaller amount.
The higher amount eaten by the women involved was the equivalent to a single packet of crisps, half a pack of biscuits, or a portion of chips a day.The EU has now advised people to avoid burnt toast or golden brown chips because they contain higher levels of the substance acrylamide.They have also recommended eating home-cooked meals which contain much lower amounts of the chemical than processed products, fast food and restaurant meals.The Food Standards Agency welcomed the report and called on consumers to heed the EU's advice. However, a spokesman said it was not possible to avoid the chemical entirely."This new study supports our current advice and policy, which already assumes that acrylamide has the potential to be a human carcinogen," a spokesman said."Since acrylamide forms naturally in a wide variety of cooked foods, it is not possible to have a healthy balanced diet that avoids it."

Binge-drink study 'slows' ex-Olympic athlete
Babies 'get taste for vegetables in womb'
Sex and chocolate 'boost brain power'

The findings from the University of Maastricht, published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, came only a month after the public was warned about the increased risk of cancer from eating bacon and ham.It also came as the Government launches a five-year strategy to combat the disease.The Dutch report relied on the Netherlands Cohort Study, which involved 120,000 people aged between 55 and 70, about 62,000 of them women.At the start of the study, participants completed a questionnaire that was used to estimate their acrylamide intake.The participants were followed up through the Dutch cancer registries and after 11 years, 327 had developed endometrial (womb) cancer, 300 were diagnosed with ovarian cancer and 1,835 suffered breast cancer.

The study found that women who had eaten 40 micrograms (μg) of acrylamide a day (found, for example in a 32g pack of crisps) had double the risk of endometrial cancer and ovarian cancer than women in the lowest category.There was no link found to breast cancer.Janneke Hogervorst, at the Department of Epidemiology at Maastricht University, said that "this is the first observation of an association between dietary acrylamide intake and cancer in humans".But she warned: "It is important that these results are corroborated and confirmed by other studies before far-reaching conclusions can be drawn."

About 6,400 women are diagnosed with womb cancer in Britain each year and 7,000 with ovarian cancer, one of the highest rates in Europe.The FSA said people should try to have less fried and overcooked food in their diet."People should eat a balanced healthy diet which includes plenty of fruit and vegetables, bread, other cereals and potatoes," a spokesman said."They should also limit the amount of sugary and fatty foods they eat, including fried food such as chips and crisps."The EU called on people not to overcook their food."General advice, resulting from this project, is to avoid overcooking when baking, frying or toasting carbohydrate-rich foods," it recommended.

"French fries and roast potatoes should be cooked to a golden yellow rather than golden brown colour and bread should be toasted to the lightest colour acceptable."Dr Lesley Walker, of Cancer Research UK, tried to calm fears over the link, suggesting that other factors could have a greater impact on the chances of cancer."Women shouldn't be unduly worried by this news," she said. "It's not easy to separate out one component of the diet from all the others when studying the complex diets of ordinary people."And as acrylamide levels are highest in carbohydrate containing foods - such as chips and crisps - other factors need to be firmly ruled out, especially being overweight or obese, which we know is strongly linked to womb cancer and probably linked to ovarian cancer."A Food and Drink Federation spokesman said: "The food manufacturing industry has made huge efforts to reduce the formation of acrylamide in manufactured foods using a variety of techniques.

"Considerable progress has already been made in reducing levels - for example potato crisps 30-40 per cent, potato fries 15 per cent, crispbread 75 per cent - but more work is needed on coffee."When the alarm was raised in 2002, the FSA tested a number of products, including Walkers Crisps, Ryvita crackers, Kellogg's Rice Crispies and Pringles crisps.They found higher levels of the chemical occurring naturally in the food than international safety limits permitted in the packaging of the product.Although people fry less food at home, the popularity of fast food means increasing levels are being consumed.In 2000, charred meat and blackened toast were condemned because other chemicals formed on the burnt food were found to contribute to the risk of cancer.

My harrowing story, by the teenage girl who was sentenced to 200 lashes after being gang raped in Saudi Arabia

2007-12-01T10:52:00.002-08:00

When a teenage girl was gang raped in Saudi Arabia,a court sentenced HER to 90 lashes. After she complained,it was increased to 200. Now, the victim speaks for the first time...
She was only 19 and a new bride when it happened.Seven men held her at knifepoint and, for a number of hours, she was subjected to a horrific gang rape.But when she later went to the authorities, they sentenced her to 90 lashes.She complained in the media, so the punishment was increased to 200 lashes and imprisonment.Her lawyer has been suspended for speaking out against it.
Life in the kingdom is still dominated by religious police who enforce a strict Islamic lifestyle (Posed by model)
Too outlandish to be true? Well, these are the bare facts of the so- called "Qatif girl" case, which has become a cause celebre among Western liberals and in Saudi Arabia, the West's most important Middle Eastern ally.Earlier this week, the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, declared that what had happened was, indeed, an "outrage".But he did not mean that the rape victim had suffered a gross injustice.No, only that criticism of his country was a foreign conspiracy.The plight of the anonymous victim has served to cast an embarrassing light on one of the world's most authoritarian and oppressive regimes.Specifically, it has exposed the power of a judicial system based on the Sharia law of the extreme Wahhabi sect of Sunni Islam and its appalling treatment of women and persecution of religious minorities.International pressure to clear the young woman is growing.Now, as one Saudi judge who might well hear her latest appeal declares that she should have been sentenced to death, the victim's voice has been heard in public for the first time.The pressure group Human Rights Watch has just released a transcript of an interview which the Qatif girl gave to one of its workers.Her account reveals the horrific details of the original ordeal and how, having gone to the police, she was abused and demonised by the Saudi judicial system.

The attack took place in February last year and had its roots in a typical Saudi teenage arrangement which in the West would seem odd, but is a way of getting round the strict Islamic sex segregation laws.Forbidden from approaching young women directly, young men make contact by publicly displaying their own mobile phone numbers on cards as they pass in the street or by dropping the cards through open car windows.Others make contact using their phone's Bluetooth technology, which allows users to send messages to nearby mobile phones without knowing the telephone number."I had a relationship with someone on the phone," recalled the Qatif girl."It started when we were both 16. I had never seen him before, I just knew his voice. Then he started to threaten me and I got afraid."He threatened to tell my family about the relationship. Because of the threats and fear, I agreed to give him a photo of myself."But when the girl wed another young man she became worried about the photo she had given to her "ex-boyfriend"."I asked him for the photo back but he refused. He said: 'I'll give you the photo on the condition that you come out with me in my car.'"I told him we could meet at a souk [market] near my neighbourhood in Qatif."

She recalled: "He started to drive me home, and when were about to turn the corner to my house, another car stopped right in front of our car."Two people got out of their car and stood on either side of our car. The man on my side had a knife."They tried to open our door. I told the individual with me not to open the door, but he did. He let them come in. I screamed."The ordeal had begun."One of the men brought a knife to my throat. They told me not to speak. They pushed both of us to the back of the car and started driving. We drove a lot, but I didn't see anything since my head was forced down."They took us to an area with lots of palm trees. No one was there. If you kill someone there, no one would know about it."First, they took the girl's male companion from the car.He was the victim of homosexual rape a number of times during the course of the evening."I was so afraid," the girl said."Then they forced me out of the car. They pushed me really hard. I yelled out: 'Where are you taking me? I'm like your sister.'"

They took her to a building. Then two men came in and stripped her."The first man with the knife raped me. I was destroyed. I tried to force them off but I couldn't. Another man came in and did the same thing to me. I didn't even feel anything after that."For two hours the girl begged the two men to take her home."I told them that it was late and that my family would be asking about me.Then I saw a third man come into the room. There was a lot of violence.After the third man came in, a fourth came. He slapped me and tried to choke me."The fifth and sixth ones were the most abusive. The fifth one took a photo of me like this. After the seventh one, I couldn't feel my body any more. I didn't know what to do. When a very fat man was on top of me I could no longer breathe."Before she was eventually taken home by the gang, she was raped again by all seven attackers.

"They took my mobile and saw my husband's picture in my wallet."When I got out of the car [at her home], I couldn't even walk. I rang the doorbell and my mother opened the door. She said: 'You look tired.'"She thought I was with my husband."I went to the hospital the next day. I didn't eat for one week after that, just drank water. I didn't tell anyone, but I would see the rapists faces in my sleep."However, the story began to leak out."The criminals started talking about it in my neighbourhood. They thought my husband would divorce me. They wanted to ruin my reputation. Slowly, my husband started to know what had happened."But he stood by her, outraged at what the men had done and the fact they were going unpunished."Two of the criminals were walking round our neighbourhood, right in front of me," her husband said.He complained to the police on four occasions before anything was done.Human rights activists are sure the authorities' reluctance to investigate and their subsequent actions have much to do with the fact that the woman was from Saudi's Shi'ite minority, while the accused are from the majority Sunni Muslims.

When her attackers were finally called to account, the girl had to go to court, where she received a hostile reception."At the first session, the judges said to me: 'What kind of relationship did you have with this individual [the man she originally agreed to meet]? Why did you leave the house? Do you know these men?'"They asked me to describe the situation. They yelled at me. They were insulting. The judge refused to allow my husband in the room with me."One judge told me I was a liar because I didn't remember the dates well. They kept saying: 'Why did you leave the house? Why didn't you tell your husband where you were going?'"The second session, in October last year, proved to be even more shocking.Four of the attackers - the three others were not found - were given sentences of between one and five years and between 80 and 1,000 lashes.They were convicted only of kidnapping because the prosecution could not prove rape even though the video images taken on the mobile phone during the attack were presented to the judges.

"I thought these people shouldn't even live," said their victim."I thought they would get a minimum of 20 years."Then the senior judge turned to her and her male companion on the night of the gang rape."He said: 'You get 90 lashes. You should thank God you're not in prison.'"I asked him why and he said: "You know why. Because mingling begets evil.' "She had been convicted under the khalwa - Sharia law which forbids any woman from being alone in the company of a male to whom she is not related."Don't you have any dignity?" her husband demanded of the judges. It was no good. And worse was to follow. The girl grew suicidal. Her own brother blamed her for the attack and his family's "shame"."He hit me and tried to kill me," she said.But she was not prepared to accept her unjust punishment.

With the backing of the leading Saudi human rights lawyer, Abdul Rahman al-Laham, she made the facts public, even giving an interview to an Arab TV channel. But far from embarrassing the authorities, this merely seemed to enrage them.On November 14, the General Court of Qatif struck back, increasing her sentence to 200 lashes and six months in prison.(Flogging is usually carried out in batches by a prison official who has to hold a copy of the Koran under his whip arm, which prevents it from being raised very high).The rapists' sentences were also increased to between two and 11 years each.An official at the court said that her sentence was raised because of "her attempt to aggravate and influence the judiciary through the media".Judge Sa'd al-Muhanna also banned her lawyer, Abdul Rahman al-Laham, from the courtroom and from representing her in future for allegedly raising his voice in court.His licence to practise has been suspended and his passport seized.He faces a further hearing before a Ministry of Justice disciplinary committee in Riyadh next week for appearing regularly on television and talking about the case.Overnight, though, the Qatif girl's case became a matter of international interest.How on earth could the Saudi authorities justify such behaviour?

US presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton became involved. But far from retreating, the Saudi authorities dug their heels in.Official statements posted on the Ministry of Justice website in the past fortnight have alleged that the girl admitted adultery and was already undressed in the car when she was attacked by the rapists.One statement went so far as to say that it was her own fault: "The main reason the crime took place was because the woman and her companion, who exposed her to this heinous crime, did not follow the law."The ministry chastised the media for providing an "unjustified defence" of the woman.A representative of the ministry also appeared on television blaming her for the attack.He strongly hinted that she had engaged in adultery.Earlier this week a Saudi newspaper published an interview with Judge Dr Ibrahim bin Salih al-Khudairi of the Riyadh Appeals Court, in which he said that he would have sentenced her to death.

The Appeals Court, and possibly Judge al-Khudairi, will consider the appeal that the Qatif girl said she intends to file.Impartial? Hardly."How is this woman going to get a fair hearing?" asks Farida Deif, of Human Rights Watch."The Ministry of Justice has been highly defamatory of her and suggestive that she committed adultery and it was, therefore, her own fault."Yes, she broke the law on mingling, but the court should have shown some discretion given that she was brutally gang-raped."But this is a country with no written penal law, in which the judges are religious scholars with very little formal legal training."Thanks to the internet and satellite television however, the Qatif girl's case has caused many Saudis to question the fairness of their own judicial system.Legal reforms have been announced recently.But life in the kingdom is still dominated by the religious police who work for the Commission For The Propagation Of Virtue And The Prevention Of Vice to enforce a strict Islamic lifestyle.
They are the untouchables.

Indeed, only on Thursday it was reported that charges against two religious policemen had been dropped. They had been investigated following the death of a man in custody.The man had been arrested for allegedly drinking alcohol and there was evidence that he had been kicked in the head - but not sufficient to pursue the case, a judge decided.It echoes a similar case in the summer in which three other members of the religious police had charges dropped after the death of another suspect in custody.The victim's alleged crime was, like that of the Qatif girl, being alone with an unrelated member of the opposite sex.The Saudi foreign minister has said that the judicial system will review the Qatif girl's case.In the meantime, as she awaits her fate, she remains under virtual house arrest, unable to communicate with the outside world; her traumatised family's phones are tapped by the religious police and they are followed when they leave the house.Meanwhile, the girl is still tormented by thoughts of suicide. But then, in the medieval world of Saudi law she has only herself to blame.

Former City Hall Worker Accused Of Child Pornography

2007-11-30T11:07:00.000-08:00

A man is accused of having child pornography and having it on the job, police said.On Friday, a former city of Dayton worker, Charles Evans, 62, made his intial court appearance on federal charges.Evans pleaded not guilty to receipt of child pornography and possession of child pornography, police said.Evans will have another court appearance on Dec. 6.

Bin Laden: Europe must quit Afghanistan

2007-11-29T11:27:00.000-08:00

The al-Qaida leader, Osama bin Laden, called on European governments to end their military cooperation with the US in Afghanistan in a new audio message broadcast today.With his fifth public message this year, bin Laden sought to exploit tensions between European capitals and Washington over the ongoing Nato military campaign in Afghanistan.He reiterated that he was responsible for the September 11 attacks on the US, not the Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan at the time."The American tide is ebbing," he said in a message addressed directly to the European public. "It is better for you to restrain your politicians who are thronging the steps of the White House."

In a quick rebuttal to bin Laden's audio message, parts of which were carried on al-Jazeera television, the Afghan government said bin Laden had no right to interfere with its sovereignty. It also rejected his accusations that Afghan civilians were being killed by Nato troops, saying they were being killed by extremists.His message came as Poland is reconsidering its commitment of 1,200 troops to the Nato mission, following the election of a new government.
Bin Laden has issued four other public statements this year: on September 7, September 11, September 20 and October 22. The September 7 video was bin Laden's first in three years and was issued to mark the sixth anniversary of 9/11.

The last message in October was an audiotape broadcast on al-Jazeera television where bin Laden called for Iraqi insurgents to unite and avoid divisive "extremism".Bin Laden's followers in Iraq have angered other Sunni groups and tribes through their hardline interpretations of Islam and the indiscriminate killing of civilians.As a result, Sunni tribal leaders in Anbar province have turned against al-Qaida in Iraq and allied themselves with US forces.

In his October tape, the speaker said the strength of faith was in bonds between Muslims, not in a tribe, nationalism or an organisation.A message released on 20 September called for a holy war against Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf, who has sided with the Bush administration against the Taliban since 9/11.Earlier this week, al-Qaida's media wing announced that it would soon release a new message from bin Laden. As-Sahab said bin Laden would address European countries in the message.

Fury as British zoo kills two endangered monkeys just because they didn't get on with each otherFury as British zoo kills two endangered monkeys just

2007-11-28T10:19:00.000-08:00

To an endangered animal, a zoo is supposed to offer sanctuary.A macaque monkey may even consider itself fortunate to live in one - safe from poachers and predators.Fortunate, that is, until the rare Indonesian animal falls foul of Newquay Zoo's strict approach to cage discipline.Animal charities and conservationists condemned the 'awful' decision to kill two adult male monkeys who behaved aggressively.

The two rare macaques Venus and Ia were killed because the zoo could not find a place for them
Venus and Ia were put down by lethal injection despite being members of the most endangered species of macaque - there are just 100,000 in the entire world.Keepers at the Cornish zoo say they killed two of their three male macaques because they could neither live together or be found new homes.But the decision was slammed as 'unacceptable' after it emerged that a nearby monkey refuge had not even been contacted about the problem.Matt Thomas, a keeper at The Monkey Sanctuary in Looe - just 40 miles away from the zoo - said: "They never contacted us."What they have done is horrendous and would not happen here. It would never be considered."There are other options and places which could have taken these animals on."Another keeper, Rachael Hevesi, added: "Our staff would have been willing to help to find a suitable place for the monkeys - but they did not ask us. I am very saddened and shocked."
The macaques cannot be kept alongside other monkeys because of their agressive nature
The pair of male Sulawesi black crested macaques were two of three males kept in their own enclosure at the zoo where the mission statement describes it as a "charity dedicated to conserving our global wildlife heritage and inspiring [...] a life long respect for animals and the environment."The pair initially lived harmoniously with the zoo's other male macaque but later became aggressive and started to fight.Director of the zoo, Stewart Muir, said efforts to find a new home for one or both monkeys had failed.He defended the decision to put the animals down, saying "The male Sulawesi macaques can be very aggressive towards each other."This resulted in us having to separate permanently one animal. This could not continue as primates should never be kept alone."Sulawesi black crested macaques are an endangered species so the enclosure at Newquay Zoo is valuable to the future breeding and long term survival of this species."He continued: "No suitable home could be found in any other zoo or sanctuary. "We had to look at the long term welfare of the animals and what would happen if they fought or one died, leaving one permanently on its own."After looking long and hard at the situation and much soul searching, we came to the conclusion that we could not re-home these two males and guarantee their long term health and welfare."The only option left open to us was to put them to sleep."This will give us the opportunity to bring in young females to join our breeding male, so we can continue with this much needed breeding programme."It is an incredibly hard decision to make and we all feel very sad at the turn of events, but we are dedicated to the long term conservation of this species and hope that with the introduction of breeding females we can help play an active part in securing the species futuresurvival."Keepers say it would have been impossible the separate the animals as they must live in groups and cannot be housed in isolation.The crested black macaque is found on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia and is threatened by over hunting for food where its meat is considered a delicacy.Its habitat is also threatened by human settlement, land clearing for agriculture and logging.Macaques are social creatures and were often seen in groups of 100 or more before their decline in the wild.They feed on fruit, vegetation, insects and small animals such as mice, crabs and lizards and interact by grooming each other and communicating vocally with grunts.It is classified as endangered on the world conservation union's red list and listed on appendix II of convention on international trade in endangered species.

Divers Who Jump in to Take the Mystery Out of City Waterways

2007-11-27T08:28:00.000-08:00

Having frequently pedaled his bike over the Gowanus Canal’s bridges in Brooklyn, Ludger K. Balan was familiar with its sickly green tint, oil-slicked surface and rotten-egg smell. Then, one day about eight years ago, he looked into the canal and saw a school of striped bass chasing minnows.Soon he was putting on his diving gear and jumping right in.“I assumed like everybody else that it was open sewage,” he said. “I didn’t realize it was a connected tributary.”The popular conception about New York City waterways is that the only people diving in them are the ones getting dumped in body bags. But the resilience of those bass inspired Mr. Balan. He wanted to demystify urban waters like the Gowanus to change them from environments that are ignored and shunned to those that are protected and perhaps even loved.In 1998, he founded the Urban Divers Estuary Conservancy, a group of people who literally immerse themselves in the problem they are trying to fix.Based at the Marine and Ecology Center in the Bronx, the Urban Divers run youth educational projects and river cleanups with six divers and 150 land-based volunteers. They monitor pollution, make recommendations to the city and conduct demonstrations in which they show live video of their dives. On Dec. 6, the group and several city officials will hold a forum on the future of the Gowanus Canal.

Over the summer, the Department of Parks and Recreation contacted the group, which has only three paid staff members, to monitor an oyster restoration project in the East River. Restoring the population of oysters, which once flourished beneath the East River’s murky waves, could have a significant impact on cleaning up the river. The Urban Divers said that one oyster can filter up to a gallon of water.Sheathed in their neoprene suits, the divers resemble members of the Starship Enterprise, perhaps with good reason: Mr. Balan said diving in the Gowanus Canal “is like going to the moon.”To save money on gas, they often dive from an inflatable boat, with a detachable motor, that looks like a children’s wading pool. They take turns blowing it up with a foot pump. Divers are expected to buy their own equipment, which can cost up to $1,500.When Avra Cohen, 55, went into the Gowanus this past summer to collect samples from an unidentified microbial colony growing on the bottom, he wore a suit of vulcanized rubber, two pairs of gloves and a full face mask.Mr. Cohen was inoculated against hepatitis A and tetanus. A friend suggested that he get vaccinated for typhoid, too. “And the doctor asked me where I was traveling,” Mr. Cohen said. “And I told him, ‘Brooklyn.’”

Mr. Cohen, with a ponytail and graying beard that give him the weathered look of a born adventurer, described another dive in Sheepshead Bay. He said he found shopping carts, tires and an old bicycle frame with barnacles growing on it.“It shows you, a land-lubber person, that when you dump stuff in, it stays,” Mr. Cohen said. “And if it happens to be car batteries, eventually the lead leaches into the water and ends up in fish that might be on your dinner plate.”Pollution has plagued the 1.8-mile Gowanus Canal since its early days as a commercial waterway and shipping hub. A tunnel to sweep in clean water from New York Harbor broke down in 1960 and was not repaired until 1999.The Gowanus is cleaner today than in previous decades, but still bedeviled by sewage overflow and runoff from local industrial plants. Biology students from the New York City College of Technology recently detected gonorrhea in a drop of water from the canal, according to Scienceline, a New York University publication. And scientists have yet to identify the microbes that Mr. Cohen collected, though they do know that they kill red blood cells.

Because urban waters present unusual challenges, like entanglement in fishing line, river currents and low visibility, Mr. Balan said it was important to “zen” with a dive beforehand, to visualize each step. During a recent East River dive, Mr. Cohen accidentally touched the bottom of the river, and plumes of sediment ballooned around him. “I was in a nine-foot impenetrable cloud,” he said.He spent nearly an hour underwater taking photographs and video of the substrates — layers of clam shells — that the Parks Department had placed in the river to encourage oyster growth. He found old oyster shells that crumbled to dust in his fingers.As for new spats, or young oysters, the prognosis was not good. “Maybe a few,” Mr. Cohen said, “but it wasn’t like a big plate of oysters waiting for me.”As the sun set, the Urban Divers headed back to Clason Point in the Bronx. They sped past the bony legs of a dilapidated dock and the lights of La Guardia Airport. Beneath the hulking jets, their inflatable boat looked like a water insect barely skimming the river’s surface.Mr. Balan grew up diving in the Caribbean, with its clear waters and explosion of natural life. In contrast, sediment levels in the New York-New Jersey Harbor Estuary inhibit visibility.“So everything you encounter is an amazement,” he said.Audiences that watch his live diving demonstrations react the same way. “Every time we see a fish,” he said, “we get a standing ovation.”

Junior giant: Shock for 5ft-tall mother who gave birth to a 14lb 8oz baby boy

2007-11-26T11:10:00.000-08:00

As a first-time mother, Sara Herman thought it was only to be expected that she had an enormous bump after five months.What she and doctors failed to realise was that the petite mother-to-be, who is only just over 5ft, was expecting a giant.When Jack eventually arrived at 37 weeks he weighed an astonishing 14lb 8oz. Doctors had to move Jack to a bigger incubatorAnd now, after health problems kept him in hospital for four months, he is enjoying life at home in Manchester with 37-year-old Mrs Herman and her husband Keith.

"At five months I looked like I was going to give birth at any moment and the size of my bump meant it was difficult for me to get around," said Mrs Herman, a product sourcer."But because it was the first time I'd been pregnant, I just thought this was normal."Mrs Herman became pregnant in September last year, shortly after marrying Keith, who runs a sales promotion business. A scan at 14 weeks showed the baby was growing fast and doctors even thought that the due date was wrong as the baby was so large."When they said they thought Jack was going to be big, I imagined a 9lb or 10lb baby at the most," she said. "And that's what the doctors thought too."When she was five months pregnant, the couple went on holiday to New York, where strangers asked her if her baby was due any day.

She said: "Jack was actually about 7lb then, so he was actually the size of an average new-born baby."I was finding it very difficult to get around the department stores, and had to lie down in the afternoons as I was so exhausted from all the weight I was carrying."At 37 weeks, Mrs Herman was admitted to Wythenshawe Hospital in Manchester as she had not felt the baby move much for the last two days."He was actually so big that there wasn't much room for him to move around, which is why I hadn't felt much movement," she said."I was taken straight down for a caesarean. The doctors actually gasped when they brought him out."

Tests showed that Jack had grown so big because of a condition called hyperinsulism which causes the body to produce too much insulin, leading to weight gain.His heart muscle had thickened since it had to work extra hard because of his size. All right, Jack: He now weighs 22lb and wears clothes for an 18-month-old Mrs Herman said: "He may have looked big and healthy, but he was actually life-threateningly ill. They had to put him on a drip."I went in to see him after a few hours and I couldn't believe his size. He was in the unit with premature babies, who looked tiny compared to him. He actually filled the whole incubator. After a few days, the doctors had to get him a bigger one."Jack was transferred to Pendlebury Children's Hospital in Manchester, which is setting up a support group for children with hyperinsulism.

At the age of 14 weeks he had 95 per cent of his pancreas removed to treat his condition. The operation was a success and he was allowed home with medication.His heart condition has also improved.He weighs nearly 22lb, compared with the average weight at six months of 16lb, and wears clothes for a child aged 12 to 18 months.Mrs Herman added: "I have to manage his weight very carefully because of his condition. Surprisingly, he doesn't have a good appetite but he's starting to eat rice and mashed banana."He's such a happy baby, always laughing and giggling. People can't believe that he's only six months old when I take him out in his pram."Britain's heaviest baby was Guy Warwick Carr, delivered in Cumbria in 1992 weighing 15lb 8oz.The biggest ever born was a boy produced in 1879 by Anna Bates of Canada, who like her husband was more than 7ft tall. The infant weighed 23lb 12oz and died 11 hours after birth.

Privacy watchdog warns teenagers that using Facebook is jeopardising their future careers

2007-11-25T10:30:00.000-08:00

Millions of young people are putting their careers at risk by using social networking websites, a report from Britain's privacy watchdog says.The study for the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) showed 60 per cent of 14- to 21-year-olds did not realise their online details could be accessed years into the future.Seven in 10 questioned in the study did not like the idea of potential universities or employers seeing their current networking site content.

Not ashamed: More young people, such as these drunken girls, are not embarrassed by their pictures on FacebookICO deputy commissioner David Smith said: "Many young people are posting content online without thinking about the electronic footprint they leave behind."
"The cost to a person's future can be very high if something undesirable is found by the increasing number of educational institutions and employers using the internet as a tool to vet potential students or employees."In addition, posting personal information leaves young people vulnerable to identity fraud. If information such as dates of birth and addresses is put together with details which might be used to create passwords, like a mother's maiden name, fraudsters might be able to access online bank accounts.
The report revealed nearly two thirds post their date of birth, a quarter their job title and almost one in 10 give their home address.But despite the risks one third of the 2,000 youngsters who logged onto sites such as Facebook, MySpace or Bebo never read the privacy policies.The findings come days after a security blunder at HM Revenue & Customs in which personal details of 25 million people were lost in the civil service's internal post.The ICO has launched a new online guide at www.ico.gov.uk/youngpeople with tips about protecting identity.The guidance includes the warning that a "blog is for life" and can leave a permanent electronic footprint.It says: "If you don't think you'll want it to exist somewhere in 10 years' time, don't post it."The ICO's findings were based on a survey of 2,000 14- to 21-year-olds carried out last month by market researchers Dubit.The ICO is an independent body which polices the Data Protection Act.

Cat survives behind cupboard for 44 days by licking condensation from pipes

2007-11-24T07:38:00.000-08:00

A curious cat narrowly escaped death after getting trapped behind a bathroom cupboard for 44 days.Pensioner Jessie Sculpher, 79, was devastated when her new pet Tabitha went missing just three days after she took her home from the RSPCA.After searching her home and garden, Jessie resigned herself to the idea that Tabitha had run away. It was only when Jessie heard a strange sound coming from behind the vanity unit in the bathroom over a month later, was she finally reunited with her feline friend.

Jessie recalled: "It was 4am and I heard some scratching and knocking coming from the bathroom."At first I thought it was a rat but then I heard a miaow."Upon further investigation, Jessie found the tabby trapped behind the unit and the wall.Jessie explained: "I had to get my arm in and break the top of the hardboard. When I looked all I could see were her legs sticking out."My arm was all bruised but I pulled her out by her legs. She couldn't hold her head up and she couldn't stand." Worried Jessie rushed Tabitha to the Garth Veterinary Group in Driffield, East Yorkshire; where the cat was diagnosed with severe dehydration.

Jessie said: "They put her on a drip to get fluid into her but said she might not pull through.
"After she had gone for six weeks, I had given up hope. The vets think she had been unconscious for some of the time through dehydration."The vets thought she must have gone into some sort of coma but wondered whether she had licked condensation off the sink pipes."Fortunately, Tabitha pulled through and is content to remain at home after bonding with her new owner.

Protective Jessie enthused: "She is still a bit nervous but she is very affectionate and is playing and eating just fine."Paul Thompson, partner at Garth Veterinary Group, said it was a miracle the cat survived.He said: "She would have got to such a state of dehydration that she would have lapsed into a low-activity state."It is extremely rare to have survived this long and she is an extremely lucky cat that she is back to normal with no ill-effects."

People Evacuated From Ship in Antarctic Waters

2007-11-23T07:43:00.000-08:00

A Canadian cruise ship struck ice off Antarctica and began taking on water, but all 100 passengers and crew took to lifeboats and were rescued safely Friday by a passing Norwegian liner, officials said.The passengers and crew from the Explorer were picked up by the Nordnorge, a Norwegian cruise ship that was nearby and responded to the distress call, said Susan Hayes of G.A.P. Adventures of Toronto, which owns the stricken vessel.

It was believed that the 91 passengers included at least 22 British citizens, 10 Canadians and an undetermined number of Americans. Earlier, the British coast guard had said 154 people were aboard.''The passengers are absolutely fine,'' Hayes said. ''They're all accounted for, no injuries whatsoever.''The Nordnorge has enough room to accommodate all the passengers, ''so they may very well continue their journey on the Nordnorge,'' Hayes said.The Explorer was completing an ecological tour of Antarctica when it struck a chunk of ice that tore a hole about the size of a fist in its hull, Hayes said.

She called the evacuation process ''calm,'' saying pumps were able to deal with incoming water until the Nordnorge arrived.Still, Hayes said the ship is in danger of sinking.''It is listing. ... There is a possibility we may lose the ship,'' she said.The British coast guard said it was told at 12:24 a.m. EST of the incident involving the 2,646-ton Explorer near the South Shetland Islands and Graham Land, an Antarctic peninsula.Rescue centers in Norfolk, Va., and Ushuaia, Argentina, were taking charge of coordinating the rescue, the coast guard said.An Argentine rescue and command center received a first distress call at 11:30 p.m. EST Thursday from the Explorer amid reports it was taking on water through the hull despite efforts to use onboard pumps, said Capt. Juan Pablo Panichini, an Argentine navy spokesman.

A navy statement said the captain ordered passengers to abandon ship about 90 minutes after the first call and that they and the crew took to eight semi-rigid lifeboats and four life rafts, with the captain leaving the ship later.The statement said Explorer was some 475 nautical miles southeast of Ushuaia, the southernmost Argentine city and a jumping-off point for cruise ships and supply vessels for Antarctica.Seas were calm and winds light at the time, what Panichini called ''optimal conditions for carrying out the evacuation,''G.A.P Adventures is a tour company that provides eco-friendly excursions with an environmental focus. The Explorer was in the midst of a 19-day circuit of Antarctica and the Falkland Islands that allowed passengers to observe penguins, whales, and other forms of local wildlife.The Nordnorge, built in 1997, is 403 feet long and has a capacity of 691 passengers in 214 cabins.

Bus killer had been freed by mistake

2007-11-22T11:00:00.000-08:00

An investigation has been launched into the circumstances that allowed a man to be released from custody, only to kill a passenger on a bus a few hours later - despite an outstanding warrant for his arrest.Richard Whelan, 28, was stabbed seven times in the heart and torso after remonstrating with Anthony Joseph, 23, who was throwing chips at his girlfriend on a London bus in July 2005.Joseph today pleaded guilty to his manslaughter due to diminished responsibility, having argued that he was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia at the time of the attack.It emerged today that Joseph had been mistakenly released from a young offenders' institution in Manchester only hours before the attack, after charges of abduction and unlawful sex with a 15-year-old were dropped. Because of a separate arrest warrant, issued after Joseph failed to attend court in Liverpool four weeks before the killing on charges of burglary, he should have been retained in custody, but was instead released in error from Forest Bank young offenders' institution.

Eight hours after his release, at around 10pm on the evening of July 29, he killed Mr Whelan in what was described today by Detective Chief Inspector John Macdonald, who led the investigation, as a "horrendous" attack.A government spokeswoman said ministers from the Ministry of Justice and Home Office, along with the solicitor general, had written to "chief inspectors of the crown prosecution service, court administration, constabulary and prisons to gain a full understanding of what happened in June and July 2005 and to make sure any mistakes that may have occurred do not happen again".Merseyside police said today the force had followed the correct guidelines and circulated Joseph's details on the national police computer as soon he failed to appear in court.

Joseph's admission of manslaughter came after a second jury failed to reach a verdict on a charge of murder. But speaking outside the court, Mr Whelan's family said they did not accept that Joseph was mentally ill at the time of the killing."We feel the defence of diminished responsibility has been used as a defence for the undefendable, with so much evidence showing that Anthony Joseph was an angry and vindictive man," the dead man's sister Theresa Ward said."He has tried to excuse his actions by claiming mental illness. In our opinion, he callously killed Richard for no reason at all."Joseph has been remanded to a secure hospital to await sentencing, pending psychiatric reports.Ms Ward described her brother, an events manager originally from Gortahork in Co. Donegal, as "a very private, quiet man brought up with high values [who] treated people with respect.

"Our lives are changed forever. We miss Richard every day, his gentleness, his kindness and his love, and we will always miss him in a way that is so painful we cannot put it into words."Earlier, Mr Whelan's girlfriend, Kerry Barker, had told the court that they had been travelling home on the upper deck of a No 43 bus between Islington and Archway in north London when they noticed Joseph, seated behind them, throwing chips at another woman, who moved to the lower deck.After a chip hit Ms Barker on the back of the head, her partner looked around, at which point Joseph approached them, she said. Mr Whelan stood up and was attacked. "I remember trying to pull the man off Richard," she said. "I was ringing the bell. I was screaming: 'Leave him alone.'"Fellow passengers described hearing a thumping sound from the upper deck and Ms Barker screaming, "Get off him, get off him. Oh my God, what's he doing? Make him stop."

Jo Uttley, who was sitting on the lower deck, described hearing Ms Barker's screams before Joseph came down the bus stairs. "He just walked away down from the top deck with a gangster swagger as if it meant nothing to him," she told the court."Some said he was grinning. He looked around the bus and demanded to be let off. He seemed to be unconnected to what happened. He behaved so calmly."Mr Whelan staggered down the stairs where he removed his jacket and was heard to say: "Look, he stabbed me."He was taken to hospital but died shortly afterwards.
For the defence, a psychiatrist, Professor Nigel Eastman, told the court Joseph was now being treated for paranoid schizophrenia at Broadmoor secure hospital and that he believed he had been suffering from the illness and the start of a personality disorder in July 2005.But Dr Paul Chesterman, a psychiatrist for the prosecution, had argued that Joseph made no complaint about his mental health until he was on remand at Belmarsh prison.

Medal Bimbos Wanted for Olympic Games

2007-11-21T08:15:00.000-08:00

It’s official. I have been conclusively disqualified from presenting medals to winners at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. It’s not because I don’t have a million-dollar smile or the ability to place a medal around someone’s neck. It’s just that the Olympic Organizing Committee decided to go with young hot chicks and not over-the-hill, out-of-shape dudes. I do not meet any of the requirements to be a medal bimbo in Beijing. The Organizing Committee is in the process of recruiting a team of highly motivated individuals to present medals and raise flags during the two weeks of Olympic competition this summer. The BOCOG requires that medal presenters be between 5′6″ and 5′10″. I, unfortunately, am too tall. And when it comes to weight, there are no strict requirements however the director of the BOCOG’s cultural activities department told Reuters “Generally speaking, they can’t be too fat. Their figure should be good. They shouldn’t be too heavy.” I, unfortunately, am probably too fat. The medal bimbos also must be between the ages of 18 and 25, which again doesn’t work for me. I, unfortunately, am too old. You also have to be female, which I am not. And finally, the last requirement I do not meet is that applicants “must have a very clear understanding of the Olympic spirit and the Olympic movement.” I have no Olympic spirit and I wasn’t aware of any “Olympic movement.” So whatever. I won’t be a medal presenter. Their loss. There’s always London 2012. And judging by their Olympic logo, the London committee has absolutely no aesthetic standards.

Britain to demand right to catch more cod

2007-11-20T04:13:00.000-08:00

Britain will demand the right to catch more cod after the fishing industry warned that EU quotas are forcing crews to dump thousands of tonnes of dead fish into the sea.Environmentalists, however, have branded the idea "madness", saying it would endanger the recovery of cod stocks.Fishermen often catch large amount of fish such as cod by accident after exceeding their quotas.
Quotas strictly limit the amount of fish that each vessel can bring back to port, not the amount of fish they actually catch.

Often boats catch a species or size of fish which is not what they were targeting.They then have no choice but to dump the fish back into the sea, which leaves them struggling to make a living.The problem has been acknowledged by Joe Borg, the EU commissioner, but he said there was no clear solution.

However Jonathan Shaw, the Fisheries Minister, said this morning that stocks of cod had recovered enough to allow British fishermen to have their quotas increased.He said: "Throwing back good quality fish is heart-breaking, particularly for some of the hard-pressed fishermen."Why did we introduce discards in the first place? The reason that we did that is that we knew that stocks were going down."We have seen a recovery in cod in the North Sea in particular. That is good news and that's why we will pushing the commissioner in December for an increase."He added: "We are confident we have a position that is backed up by science - that's the crucial thing."

But environmentalists say increasing the quotas is exactly the wrong thing to do.Oliver Knowles, a Greenpeace campaigner, said: "We think it would be madness to increase the cod quotas to try to remedy this problem."The solution to over-fishing lies in a much more wholesale review of the fishing industry."If stocks of cod in the North Sea are returning then it is at its very earliest stage and one way to destroy that recovery is to send the fishing fleet back."UK vessels landed 614,000 tonnes of sea fish, including shellfish, in 2006, worth £610m, a 13 per cent reduction in quantity on 2005 but seven per cent up in value.The number of young cod in the North Sea has risen for a second year in a row, but the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas has called for a 50-per-cent cut on 2006 catch levels to sustain it.

Tigers Eat Tiger at Shenyang Zoo

2007-11-19T11:39:00.000-08:00

What do Siberian tigers do when they are cooped up in a freezing North China zoo that cannot afford to feed them? They go after one of their own. In a gruesome act of cannibalism Saturday, four adult Siberian tigers attacked a 12-year-old 330-pound tiger with which they had peacefully shared a compound for over 5 years. According to a Xinhua report Monday, the killer tigers ripped off the leg of their unlucky friend and then proceeded to eat the dead body as visitors to the zoo looked on in amazement. Imagine taking your small child to the zoo one weekend and observe four tigers go absolutely crazy on one of their own. Perhaps as comedian Chris Rock pointed out when a tiger attacked Las Vega performer Roy Horn of “Sigfried and Roy” back in 2003, the tigers didn’t go crazy, the tigers went tiger. Rock said during a performance, “That tiger was crazy when he was cycling around on stage wearing a little hat!” But according to zoologists, in the case of tigers snacking on their own species, the cats actually have to go crazy. Fan Zhiyong, species program director with the WWF, told Xinhua “This kind of tragedy of tiger eats tiger is unheard of. It rarely happens in the wild. It is obvious that the zoo’s management should be held responsible.” Reportedly, the Shenyang Zoo, where the attack took place, has been in a financial crisis for the last two years and has not been able to sufficiently feed the tigers. An adult tiger requires 20 pounds of meat a day, and the Siberians at the Shenyang Zoo were being fed a mere chicken every few days. This is not the first time starvation has led to disaster at the Shenyang Zoo. Last year, a starving elephant went crazy, not elephant, and smashed through the wall of its habitat.

Second bird flu outbreak in East Anglia

2007-11-19T11:18:00.000-08:00

A second case of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has been confirmed on the Norfolk-Suffolk border, it was announced today.The news comes just days after confirmation of an outbreak at the Redgrave Park farm, operated by Redgrave Poultry.

More than 28,000 free-range turkeys on four farms closely linked to the infected site, in Suffolk, were culled following the outbreak."We have confirmed a second case of H5N1," a spokeswoman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said.
"It is on one of the four farm premises we confirmed last week. All the birds there have already been culled."

The site of the new infection - Hill Meadow Farm, in Knettishall - is outside the two-mile protection zone set up around Redgrave Park by Defra following news of last week's outbreak.
The declaration of a protection zone bans the movement of birds, eggs and carcasses into or out of the area and restricts other movements within it.However, the new farm is within a wider restricted zone that covers Suffolk and much of Norfolk.Hill Meadow Farm was identified as having "dangerous contact" with the initial outbreak last week because workers for Redgrave Poultry, which operates all five sites on which culls have taken place, moved between the farms.

Defra said the birds appeared healthy when they were first inspected, but a precautionary cull was completed on Saturday. Yesterday, a Defra statement said 28,600 birds had been culled at four premises."The laboratory test results today highlight the importance of poultry keepers in the area being extremely vigilant," the acting chief veterinary officer, Fred Landeg, said.
"It is essential they practise the highest levels of biosecurity and report any suspicions of disease to their local animal health office."

The operations director for Redgrave Poultry, Geoffrey Buchanan, said Defra had told the company "a small number of turkeys" culled at Hill Meadow Farm had tested positive for the H5N1 strain."It stated that on clinical inspection the flock appeared healthy, which indicates the infection was in its early stages," he added.

According to the company, Hill Meadow is a seasonal farm that rears turkeys for Christmas, and no birds have been slaughtered for food or sent to customers. All staff at the farm have been offered preventative medicines against avian flu.A new two-mile protection zone has been set up around the farm, and an extended surveillance zone, surrounding both sites, has also been established.

Officials are still awaiting results following culls at two other Redgrave Poultry farms - Stone House, in West Harling, and Bridge Farm, in Pulham, both in Norfolk.

Cyclone disaster toll climbs

2007-11-18T11:40:00.000-08:00

Still recovering from its summer floods, Bangladesh faces another grim struggle after a storm that killed at least 1,700 people
Aid agencies have called for urgent international assistance to help survivors of the cyclone which has devastated parts of Bangladesh, ripping up roads, tearing down buildings and damaging as many as two million homes.

The government said around 1,700 people had died, but that toll might rise as aid workers, helped by ships and military helicopters, battle to reach hundreds of villages cut off by the damage. Power and phone lines were knocked out by heavy rains, slowing down relief efforts and making the full scale of the disaster difficult to estimate.

Bodies littered flattened rice fields along the coast and Bangladesh TV described relatives joining a 'procession of deaths' as they hurried to bury corpses. Local TV put the death toll at 2,000 or more and reporters said hundreds of fishermen, out at sea when the cyclone hit on Thursday, were still unaccounted for.

'The toll is rising fast as we are receiving more information from outlying areas, where telephone lines have been restored,' Mokhlesur Rahman, a Ministry of Disaster Management official, said.

Villagers made their way back to their homes in the south-west of the country yesterday, visibly distressed by the destruction. Homes here, typically made from straw, bamboo, corrugated iron and flimsy timber, were unable to withstand winds of up to 100mph. Many of those buildings which did remain standing were washed away in the tidal wave that followed Cyclone Sidr.

Survivors whose shacks were destroyed sought refuge with neighbours, as volunteers began constructing more permanent shelters. 'We survived, but what we need now is help to rebuild our homes,' said Chand Miah, a resident of Maran Char, an island off the coast.

With as much of 80 per cent of the main annual rice crop ruined by the winds, aid agencies were looking beyond the rescue operation, and warned that the cyclone's longer-term consequences would be severe, further impoverishing a nation already suffering from the effects of this summer's catastrophic flooding in the north of the country.

'We will need to build long-term solutions for those who have lost their homes,' said Ali Asgar, of the Red Cross, estimating that as many as two million homes had been damaged. He said help from the international community was needed urgently. 'These people are very poor and have lost everything. Their need will be very high, and we don't believe the Bangladesh government can help all of them,' he said.

While acknowledging that the final death toll could be much higher, there was relief among many that the disaster had not killed more. In 1970 between 300,000 and half a million people died in a cyclone and Thursday's storm was as strong as a 1991 cyclone which killed around 140,000.

Because Bangladesh is known to be so vulnerable, the government and NGOs have devised cyclone preparedness programmes, building shelters, organising simulated cyclone evacuation exercises and educating villagers in the most exposed areas on how to flee. Efficient early warning systems and the widespread use of mobile phones meant that this time even people in remote regions were aware of the impending disaster.

'Given the scale of the cyclone and given that the areas it hit were so densely populated, it could have been much worse,' Juliet Parker, Christian Aid's representative, said. But she stressed that these preparations had helped to save lives but not livelihoods, adding that millions now risked hunger. Bangladesh is one of the world's most disaster-prone nations. The United Nations Development Programme said it had the highest disaster mortality rate in the world, with at least 516,239 people having lost their lives in 171 calamities between 1970 and 2005.

Kelland Stevenson, country director for Save the Children, said: 'People can be very cynical about Bangladesh because it is so disaster-prone. This country is still coping from the floods of the summer. It will be difficult for the government to manage this too.'

Sailor spills beans on Cold War mystery

2007-11-16T01:32:00.000-08:00

One of the Cold War's most baffling mysteries has been solved after an elderly Russian man admitted to killing a British spy in the fifties. Cdr Lionel "Buster" Crabb disappeared while spying on a Soviet warship in 1956. The vessel was en route to Portsmouth Harbour, bringing Soviet leaders to Britain for talks. At the time, the Navy feared that Cdr Crabb had drowned in the nearby Stokes Bay. But several months later, the diver's headless corpse was found floating along the coast. Now the final moments of Cdr Crabb's life have been put together after a retired Russian sailor told a documentary he needed to clear his conscience before he died. Eduard Koltsov told filmmakers he cut the Englishman's throat as he caught him placing a mine on the Soviet ship Ordzhonikidze, which was bringing Joseph Stalin's successor Nikita Khrushchev and other leaders for meetings with the British prime minister Anthony Eden. Mr Koltsov, who was 23 at the time of the James Bond-style incident, says he had been ordered to keep a watchful eye for any suspicious activity around the ship. It was then that he apparently saw Cdr Crabb planting the mine to the hull of the ship. In an action that would see him secretly awarded for his bravery, the frogman cut the throat of the impostor with a dagger which he revealed to the Russian film crew. "I saw a silhouette of a diver in a light frogman suit who was fiddling with something at the starboard, next to the ship's ammunition stores," Mr Koltsov said. "I swam closer and saw that he was fixing a mine." Cdr Crabb, decorated with the George Medal and an OBE for his actions during World War II, was 47 when he disappeared. The murky incident in Portsmouth sent relations between the Soviet state and Britain into freefall, ending any hopes of a rapprochement. The Russian envoys maintained that they were being spied upon and Mr Eden's conservative government was lambasted in the Commons for their loose grip on the security services.

Shanghai Revives Disneyland Plans

2007-11-15T03:52:00.001-08:00

Shanghai needs a Disneyland like it needs 18 million more people. But often times here, like in the case of Tongren Lu or the Oriental Pearl Tower, garishness supersedes function. And in the case of the Shanghai Disneyland, the plans for which have been resuscitated as of Tuesday, garishness supersedes the thousands of Chinese people who are being relocated to make way for a giant fake castle. According to Wednesday’s China Daily, “Qian Weizhong, director of the economy committee of Nanhui district, said residents had moved off the land targeted for Shanghai Disneyland, in suburban Chuansha town.” We all know what that means. The “residents had moved” could translated as “the residents were moved.” Anyhow, Disney, who refused to acknowledge any new development in China, said that it would only comment on its existing failed venture in China, Hong Kong Disneyland, and not any future failing ventures. But the ball is rolling on Shanghai Disney, which will occupy 6.7 square kilometers in the Nanhui district of Pudong, 4 times the size of its Hong Kong counterpart. Authorities have begun construction on a Disneyland exit to the A20 highway in Pudong and plan on putting a Disneyland stop on the upcoming Metro Line 11. They could build a teleportation device to Shanghai Disneyland, and Chinese people still probably wouldn’t be the slightest bit interested in going. And if they were, then Hong Kong Disneyland might not have been such disaster. That place has offered discounted ticket promotions about as many times as the “It’s A Small World” ride operator has heard that song. Disney is an American thing. It’s hard to adore Donald Duck and Goofy in China when both of them would be more suited for a lunch menu than a theme park.Correction: Shanghai Disneyland will occupy 6.7 square kilometers, not 6.7 square meters. Thanks to Yokie Kuma for reading the posts so carefully.

F.B.I. Says Guards Killed 14 Iraqis Without Cause

2007-11-14T01:18:00.001-08:00

WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 — Federal agents investigating the Sept. 16 episode in which Blackwater security personnel shot and killed 17 Iraqi civilians have found that at least 14 of the shootings were unjustified and violated deadly-force rules in effect for security contractors in Iraq, according to civilian and military officials briefed on the case. The F.B.I. investigation into the shootings in Baghdad is still under way, but the findings, which indicate that the company’s employees recklessly used lethal force, are already under review by the Justice Department. Prosecutors have yet to decide whether to seek indictments, and some officials have expressed pessimism that adequate criminal laws exist to enable them to charge any Blackwater employee with criminal wrongdoing. Spokesmen for the Justice Department and the F.B.I. declined to discuss the matter. The case could be one of the first thorny issues to be decided by Michael B. Mukasey, who was sworn in as attorney general last week. He may be faced with a decision to turn down a prosecution on legal grounds at a time when a furor has erupted in Congress about the administration’s failure to hold security contractors accountable for their misdeeds. Representative David E. Price, a North Carolina Democrat who has sponsored legislation to extend American criminal law to contractors serving overseas, said the Justice Department must hold someone accountable for the shootings. “Just because there are deficiencies in the law, and there certainly are,” Mr. Price said, “that can’t serve as an excuse for criminal actions like this to be unpunished. I hope the new attorney general makes this case a top priority. He needs to announce to the American people and the world that we uphold the rule of law and we intend to pursue this.” Investigators have concluded that as many as five of the company’s guards opened fire during the shootings, at least some with automatic weapons. Investigators have focused on one guard, identified as “turret gunner No. 3,” who fired a large number of rounds and was responsible for several fatalities. Investigators found no evidence to support assertions by Blackwater employees that they were fired upon by Iraqi civilians. That finding sharply contradicts initial assertions by Blackwater officials, who said that company employees fired in self-defense and that three company vehicles were damaged by gunfire. Government officials said the shooting occurred when security guards fired in response to gunfire by other members of their unit in the mistaken belief that they were under attack. One official said, “I wouldn’t call it a massacre, but to say it was unwarranted is an understatement.” Among the 17 killings, three may have been justified under rules that allow lethal force to be used in response to an imminent threat, the F.B.I. agents have concluded. They concluded that Blackwater guards might have perceived a threat when they opened fire on a white Kia sedan that moved toward Nisour Square after traffic had been stopped for a Blackwater convoy of four armored vehicles. Two people were killed in the car, Ahmed Haithem Ahmed and his mother, Mohassin, a physician. Relatives said they were on a family errand and posed no threat to the Blackwater convoy. Investigators said Blackwater guards might have felt endangered by a third, and unidentified, Iraqi who was killed nearby. But the investigators determined that the subsequent shootings of 14 Iraqis, some of whom were shot while fleeing the scene, were unprovoked. Under the firearms policy governing all State Department employees and contractors, lethal force may be used “only in response to an imminent threat of deadly force or serious physical injury against the individual, those under the protection of the individual or other individuals.” A separate military review of the Sept. 16 shootings concluded that all of the killings were unjustified and potentially criminal. One of the military investigators said the F.B.I. was being generous to Blackwater in characterizing any of the killings as justifiable. Anne E. Tyrrell, a Blackwater spokeswoman, said she would have no comment until the F.B.I. released its findings. Although investigators are confident of their overall findings, they have been frustrated by problems with evidence that hampered their inquiry. Investigators who arrived more than two weeks after the shooting could not reconstruct the crime scene, a routine step in shooting inquiries in the United States. Even the total number of fatalities remains uncertain because of the difficulty of piecing together what happened in a chaotic half-hour in a busy square. Moreover, investigators could not rely on videotapes or photographs of the scene, because they were unsure whether bodies or vehicles might have been moved. Bodies of a number of victims could not be recovered. Metal shell casings recovered from the intersection could not be definitively tied to the shootings because, as one official described it, “The city is littered with brass.” In addition, investigators did not have access to statements taken from Blackwater employees, who had given statements to State Department investigators on the condition that their statements would not be used in any criminal investigation like the one being conducted by the F.B.I. An earlier case involving Blackwater points to the difficulty the Department of Justice may be facing in deciding whether and how to bring charges in relation to the Sept. 16 shootings. A Blackwater guard, Andrew J. Moonen, is the sole suspect in the shooting on Dec. 24 of a bodyguard to an Iraqi vice president. Investigators have statements by witnesses, forensic evidence, the weapon involved and a detailed chronology of the events drawn up by military personnel and contractor employees. But nearly 11 months later, no charges have been brought, and officials said a number of theories had been debated among prosecutors in Washington and Seattle without a resolution of how to proceed in the case. Mr. Moonen’s lawyer, Stewart P. Riley of Seattle, said he had had no discussions about the case with federal prosecutors. Some lawmakers and legal scholars said the Sept. 16 case dramatized the need to clarify the law governing private armed contractors in a war zone. Workers under contract to the Defense Department are subject to the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, or MEJA, but many, including top State Department officials, contend that the law does not apply to companies like Blackwater that work under contract to other government agencies, including the State Department. Representative Price’s bill would extend the MEJA legislation to all contractors operating in war zones. The bill passed the house 389 to 30 last month and is now before the Senate. He said it cannot be applied retroactively to the Sept. 16 case, but he said that the guards who killed the Iraqis must be brought to justice, under the War Crimes Act or some other law.

Connections, Corruption and Concerts

2007-11-13T10:24:00.000-08:00

With the Beyoncé Experience in the rear view mirror and the Linkin Park Shanghai concert just around the bend, it’s clear that the old attitudes toward Western-minded cultural events in Shanghai, and mainland China in general, have changed drastically. Just two years ago, the announcement of an Ice-T concert at the now defunct Pegasus Club in Shanghai was described as “Breaking News” on the media site Danwei. China has come a long way from those old days of when Ice-T, Richard Marx and Michael Bolton were the major international draws. China-based promoters are now faced with the task of welcoming two of the biggest world tours to Shanghai just 15 days apart. While this may seem like a blessing more than a curse, China’s demand for live international acts may have outgrown the infrastructure in place to support these massive productions.A Washington Post story over the weekend examines the concert market in mainland China and how this new concert industry operates under the connections, corruption and confusion of old China. Here’s an excerpt from the story:Live events in China have been government-controlled since the Communists took power in 1949.Until recently, “the government would select a state-run or related company to organize an event,” says Li Bin, marketing manager at promoter Beijing Gehua Live Nation Entertainment. “If you had connections with the government or that company, you’d get a bunch of tickets for free.”The hangover from that culture means selling tickets to the public can be difficult, while local authorities and others may still expect free ones.“These days,” Li says, “paying for a ticket is like losing face — it means you’re not well connected.”And here’s a bit about how scalpers get their hands on so many tickets for these events.China has a major ticket-scalping problem, mainly because some venue operators and government officials demand “huge” numbers of free tickets in exchange for green-lighting events, says Archie Hamilton, CEO of Beijing-based promoter Split Works, which handled Sonic Youth’s China shows in April.“They give the tickets to the huangniu (scalpers) to sell at whatever they can get,” Hamilton notes.Fake tickets proved a major problem at Avril Lavigne’s August 15 Qi Zhong Tennis Centre show in Shanghai.“We turned away many disappointed fans who had purchased fakes, often unknowingly,” Emma Ticketmaster marketing director Robb Spitzer says.Unlike most major cities where ticket scalping is regulated and undercover police officers weed out fake ticket vendors, in China’s major cities, scalping is part of the game. In a sense, Beijing and Shanghai, in particular, have taken a total Chinese attitude toward managing live music events. Similar to how Hu Jintao describes “democracy with Chinese characteristics,” these concerts featuring Beyoncé and Linkin Park are simply Western shows, aimed at the expats and Chinese elite, with Chinese characteristics. Tickets are delivered by couriers and paid for in cash. The content of the shows is censored carefully by China’s Ministry of Culture. Finally, when it comes to procuring a ticket to one of these shows, like everything else in China, if you don’t know nobody, you’re nobody.

Several Killed in Clash at Gaza Rally

2007-11-12T09:47:00.000-08:00

Several Palestinians were killed and dozens were wounded in Gaza today when a mass rally to mark the third anniversary of the death of Yasir Arafat, the longtime Palestinian leader, ended in armed clashes. The official Palestine Authority television reported that seven people had been killed and more than 150 had been wounded. A doctor at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Fathi Abu Warda, said that at least six people had been killed and more than 100 were injured. Tens of thousands of Gazans turned out to honor Mr. Arafat, the founder of the Fatah movement. It was the largest show of support in Gaza for Fatah, the mainstream Palestinian organization, since the rival Islamic group Hamas seized the territory in an armed struggle last June. Different Fatah officials estimated attendance at the rally at somewhere between 250,000 and 500,000. Hamas and Fatah traded blame for the outbreak of the violence. Ahmed Helles, a senior Fatah leader in Gaza, said that Hamas militants had opened fire on the people at the rally because they “didn’t like the scene of such a large number of Fatah supporters participating in the rally.” According to The Associated Press, Hamas security officials said they fired toward protesters who threw stones at security compounds. But the Interior Ministry, run by Hamas, said in a statement that Fatah gunmen had opened fire on its police officers in several areas in Gaza. Among the injured was one Hamas policeman who was shot in the head, according to news reports. Speaking at a rally in Ramallah on Sunday, the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, of Fatah, denounced the takeover of Gaza by Hamas and called on Hamas to retreat from its “black coup.” Borrowing phrases from the Koran, he appealed to God to set Ismail Haniya, the Hamas leader in Gaza, back on the rightly guided path, to cheers from the crowd. A Fatah spokesman in Gaza said on Sunday that the Hamas police had confiscated thousands of hats, scarves and Arafat posters meant for the rally today in Gaza City. The Hamas police confirmed the raid, saying that the materials had been allowed to pass through a crossing from Israel into Gaza while Israel restricts the entry of food and fuel.

The cyber school for killers

2007-11-10T07:39:00.000-08:00

A group of young people who idolised the Columbine High School killers may have shared information on the internet
The YouTube killer who shot dead eight members of his school in Finland before turning his gun on himself had internet contacts with an American teenager who was planning a shooting spree in a high school in Philadelphia, it was claimed yesterday.

The disclosure could turn upside down previous assumptions about the dynamics of school massacres. Until now, teenage killers were regarded as depressed loners whose imagination had been stoked by aggressive computer games. Now it seems that information may have been shared by potential killers over the internet: a virtual community of young people who idolise the 1999 Columbine High School murders.

“It’s highly probable that there was some form of contact between Pekka-Eric Auvinen and Dillon Cossey,” a spokesman for the cyber crime department of Helsinki police said. Dillon Cossey, 14, was arrested last month on suspicion of planning to storm his old school, Plymouth Whitemarsh. Police acting on a tipoff found a 9mm semi-automatic rifle, handmade grenades, a .22 pistol and a .22 single-shot rifle at his home. Less than two weeks later Auvinen, already a member of a shooting club, was buying his first gun — a .22 pistol — and expressing interest in a 9mm semi-automatic.

Police do not believe this to have been a coincidence. The two youths are thought to have made contact over two MySpace groups, “RIP Eric and Dylan” — a reference to Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who killed 12 schoolmates at Columbine — and “Natural Selection”.

Dillon Cossey used the alias Shadow 19462 on internet forums. Overweight and bullied, he had been withdrawn from Plymouth Whitemarsh and was resentful. His MySpace profile lauded the Columbine killers as heroes.The 18- year-old Finnish killer made a rambling testimony on YouTube, clearly drawing on the rhetoric used in the Natural Selection group and related chat rooms. His YouTube account — under the pseudonym Sturmgeist89 — included snippets from violent films, shots of him posing with his “beloved” pistol and tributes to other mass murderers. It was viewed 200,000 times before being closed down after the Finnish high school killings on Wednesday.

Police are trying to establish whether the Jokela massacre was in some way a copycat event or whether it resulted from an exchange of tips across the internet. Across Europe cyber-crime experts are nervous that some of the abuses on the net committed by Islamic fanatics could become a model for other marginalised groups. The diaries of the Columbine killers also give detailed guidance about their crime.

The two 18-year-olds in Columbine had planned to set the school on fire to spread panic. This appears to have also featured in the plans of Auvinen. However, he brought only a small quantity of lighter fuel, not enough to cause a blaze. Instead he relied on an enormous cache of ammunition for his Sig Sauer Mosquito handgun. He pumped 68 bullets into his eight victims; the 69th he shot into his own skull. Police found 500 rounds of unused ammunition in his rucksack.

“We have to look out for the warning signs,” said Tonni Karpela, a Finnish security expert. “Plainly there is a problem if a young person openly espouses violence and regards it as a solution.” Finnish authorities were trying to piece together the clues on the internet and in the classroom. More concrete measures to protect schools have been ruled out. “I am firmly against metal detectors in schools,” Mr Karpela said. “That won’t make pupils feel better or more secure.”

The Government has said that it will look again at gun control regulations but it is unlikely that they will be tightened severely. Guns are common in Finland: 56 per cent of the population owns one. Everybody over the age of 15 can apply for a gun permit; usually the applicants are hunters. Auvinen was a member of the Helsinki Shooting Club, which enjoys some notoriety in the capital. Eight years ago a member suffering from schizophrenia shot three men dead.

“If we suspect anyone of being mentally sick we will not accept him as a member of the club,” Mari Kiuru, the owner of the club, said. Auvinen showed no outward sign of psychological problems, even though his schoolmates noted that he talked obsessively about his gun.

Unlike in the case of Dillon Cossey there is no sign that Auvinen’s parents were drawn into his fantasy world. Dillon Cossey’s mother has been arrested in America for buying weapons for her son. Auvinen’s parents are regarded as somewhat bohemian in the small dormitory township of Jokela. His father plays part time in a jazz band and composes his own music; Auvinen’s mother is an activist for the Greens. They are regarded as stalwart members of the community and neighbours describe them as a “normal family”. Since Wednesday they have been living under police protection.

Schoolboy Julian's lifesaving MythBuster moment

2007-11-09T23:04:00.000-08:00

Mark O'Dwyer owes his life to a 14-year-old punk rocker and an edgy television science program.The 54-year-old was waiting at Lisarow train station on the Central Coast at 2.45pm on October 19 when he fainted and toppled two metres from the platform onto the tracks below, as a freight train bore down on the station.Julian Shaw, who is 180 centimetres tall and weighs 70 kilograms, was travelling home from school with classmates when he saw Mr O'Dwyer, who is 187 centimetres tall and weighs 110 kilograms, fall. Julian leapt into action."I jumped down on to the tracks, lifted him off the ground and put him on my shoulder - he was heavy but there was enough adrenaline rushing through to help me," said Julian, who is in year 9 at Lisarow High School and plays guitar in punk rock band Checkered Fist.With the train "just a couple of metres away", Julian moved the North Gosford resident to the edge of the track and rolled him under the platform.But danger was not totally averted."[As the train roared past] the noise pierced your ears and there was a suction that pulled us in," Julian said."I'd seen that on MythBusters, so I stayed right back and pulled Mark back towards me."The train eventually passed safely, and the pair chatted until ambulance officers arrived."What an amazing young man," said Mr O'Dwyer, recovering at home with a back injury, three fractured ribs, a fractured shoulder, damaged knee and general bruising."What he did was amazing. He took it upon himself and saved my life."I was very emotional [afterwards], I gave him a hug and thanked him for saving my life."Mr O'Dwyer said teenagers usually did not get much positive publicity, but it was important to "highlight when someone of this age group stands up and does what Julian's done"."I had my girlfriend make him a medallion recognising his bravery, humanity, and what he did," he said.The Department of Education has also sent Julian a formal letter of commendation.Julian has already written a song about the incident for his band, featuring the chorus "I saved your soul".He couldn't explain what spurred him to help Mr O'Dwyer - a stranger - despite the danger to himself."It was scary [but] I probably would have felt heaps bad if I didn't jump in," he said."Everyone at school knows about it - kids are buying me ice-blocks and hamburgers."Julian's proud mother, Rachel, said the public reaction to Julian's brave deed had surprised her."A lot of people have called up saying 'I don't think I could've done what he did,' " she said.

China Denies Bible Ban in Beijing

2007-11-09T06:36:00.001-08:00

Really good news out of Beijing Thursday for those Olympic athletes who are devoutly religious. Bibles will be permitted in the Olympic Village during the Beijing Summer Games. Not only permitted, but according to Olympic organizers, they are welcome. I know some of you Flumesday readers abroad might be thinking, “why wouldn’t Bibles be welcome in Beijing next summer?” And sound question. Well earlier this week the Catholic News Agency (who knew that Catholic news required its own agency?) published a report that cited Italian newspaper La Gazetta as saying that Bibles were included on the list of prohibited items in the Olympic Village. The story spread about as fast as the legs of a godless harlot, appearing in all major news wires in America, Europe and Asia. Fox News reported this week that bibles and items such as video cameras and cups would be banned. Cups? Well late Thursday, China said that the Bible ban was “an “intentional distortion of the truth” and that Bibles would be allowed at the Olympics. But only one. Seriously. According to the Olympic website, “Each traveler is recommended to take no more than one Bible into China.” Because more than one would imply that you might be spreading the good word around the Olympic Village. Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao assured those religious athletes that religious services for Christians, Jews, Muslims and Hindus would be offered in the Olympic Village. He said, “According to the Provisions on the Administration of Religious Activities of Aliens Within the Territory of the People’s Republic of China, foreigners are allowed to bring in religious publications, audio-video materials or other objects for personal use.” Pretty much everything except for cups.

No Smoking…Even at Home

2007-11-06T21:38:00.000-08:00

Not to sound like Bill O’Reilly by proclaiming “wars” on things, but it appears there really is a war on cigarette smokers in America. I feel compelled to begin by saying that smoking is harmful to your health and leads to lung cancer, emphysema and bad breath. And kids, it doesn’t make you look older or cooler. In theory, the prohibition of smoking in public places seems reasonable as one of the fundamental roles of government in a civilized society is protecting one citizen from the harm of another. So in the case of a bar, restaurant or any other enclosed space where a non-smoker can be harmed by a smoker’s cigarette, it seems fair enough that lawmakers protect non-smokers from the effects of cigarette smoke. The problem I had with city-wide smoking bans, like the one in New York City, wasn’t that bars are going to suck without smoking, but rather that once you give smoke-free activists an inch, they take a mile. And sometimes more like 3 miles. A New York Times story Monday depicts the newest trend in the war on smokers, a push by various legislative bodies and real estate companies to ban smoking inside people’s homes. According to the Times, this year two California cities banned smoking inside individual units of residential buildings and two major real estate companies with holdings in various states have followed suit. Moreover, thousands of individual housing complexes are imposing bans on cigarette smoke inside apartments, on balconies and on rooftops. First of all, it always strikes me ridiculous that California, the state that contains the 12 most polluted counties anywhere in America in terms of air quality, complains so much about cigarette smoke. Second and most important, when did Americans surrender their individual property rights to the smoke-free movement. Granted, I live in China, but I missed this memo on this. The Flumesday Legal Correspondent researched this issue and found that the Fair Housing Act, part of the 1968 Civil Rights Act, expressly outlaws “interfering with a person’s enjoyment or exercise of housing rights based on discriminatory reasons.” And while this correspondent holds no credible legal degree, he does pull up some nice facts. Smoking isn’t against the law and a local government doesn’t have the right to tell people they can’t do it behind closed doors. And if the basis is that it damages the air quality of the hallway outside of the apartment, then by that same principle, my housing complex in Shanghai would be justified in prohibiting my neighbor from cooking nasty-smelling shit every evening at around six. The point is, Americans pride themselves on freedom and are so quick to throw epithets like “fascist” and “police state” at their ideological enemies, namely the Chinese. But instead of worrying about how China should become more like the U.S., Americans should begin to worry about how the U.S. is becoming more like China.

‘Beyoncé Experience’ Comes to Shanghai

2007-11-05T21:06:00.000-08:00

Monday night, for the first time ever, those Shanghai residents crazy in love with the R&B star Beyoncé Knowles will get to experience her music up close and personal at the Shanghai Grand Stage. Beyoncé’s Shanghai stop is part of the 8-stop Asia leg of her “The Beyoncé Experience” world tour, a seven-month sweep of five continents and over 90 cities. “The Beyoncé Experience” features an all-female band and a set list that includes such kiddy classics as “Crazy in Love,” “Baby Boy,” “Déjà Vu,” “Irreplaceable” and some of those old Destiny Child jams like “Say My Name,” “Bug a Boo” and “Soldier.” And those of you who like shiny costumes, you’re in for a treat — the singer will change six times and according to Emma Entertainment, the concert promoter, most every costume is silver. Emma told state-run Xinhua that the show will showcase “the most imaginative choreography ever to have graced the Shanghai Grand Stage” which if you ask me, is a swipe at another soulful songstress who performed at this venue in June, someone who goes by the name “Xtina.” I guess they’re just trying to sell tickets. Of which there are many still available. Only the 2000RMB ($275) seats are sold out. It is a familiar pattern in Shanghai that only the most expensive seats sell out quickly and I’ll tell you why. Half these seats go to wealthy Western expats who are so tormented by the guilt of raising their Western children in mainland China, that when a Beyoncé concert comes to town, the whole family’s gonna sit front row. And the other half goes to super rich Shanghainese, who despite knowing not one song of Beyoncé’s, would never miss the opportunity to be front and center at a glitzy American cultural event like “The Beyoncé Experience.” Beyoncé said of the Shanghai show, “China is one of the few countries that I haven’t had the opportunity to travel to and experience. I’m so honored that China is welcoming me as well as my band, dancers and staff. I’m very excited to meet the fans and embrace the culture.” Beyoncé’s entourage includes around 80 people, including her mother/stylist Tina Knowles who makes sure that Beyoncé’s hair gets did. Beyoncé was slated to perform in Shanghai alongside her boyfriend Jay-Z last October, however China’s censors canceled the show due to the graphic nature of the rapper’s lyrics.

Chinese Parents Naming Kids ‘Olympics’

2007-11-04T20:46:00.001-08:00

The Beijing Daily, perhaps China’s best resource for bizarre stories, reported Sunday that over 3,000 Chinese babies have been named “Olympics,” as an homage to the 2008 Beijing Games. The paper said that since 2000, when Beijing was bidding for the Games, records show that 3,491 kids have been given the Chinese name 奥运, pronounced aoyun, the Chinese word that means “Olympics.” Considering the girl who makes my coffee at Starbucks is named “Zero” and Lady Flumesday came across a “sandwich artist” at Subway named “Silence,” the name “Olympics” sounds kind of pretty. It’s not so far off from the name Olympia, the name of a certain actress who won a little something called an Academy Award for her role in the 1987 film Moonstruck (see photo). And while in this case, the name Olympia belongs to a unquestionably feminine aged beauty, it isn’t so clear whether “Olympics” is a girl’s name or a boy’s name. According to the AP, who translated the story, the vast majority of those named “Olympics” are boys. And only six of them live in Beijing, the host city. Not only this, but parents are naming their kids after the Olympic mascots, the Five Friendlies. As the AP points out, this strange trend in naming is not only a product of a creepily nationalistic pride for the Olympics, but rather the fact that everyone in China has the same name and the Chinese are looking for some new names. If you, like me, still think it’s stupid to name your child “Olympics,” consider this: would you rather have this unique name or be one of the 5,598 people walking around China with the name Yao Ming?

Colbert Dropped rom Ballot

2007-11-03T22:12:00.000-07:00

Thursday, Stephen Colbert, the host of Comedy Central’s satirical news show “The Colbert Report,” learned that his native state of South Carolina had denied his application to appear on the state’s primary ballot as a candidate for President of the United States. Colbert, who officially announced his candidacy on his own show on October 16, complied with all of the known bureaucratic and financial rules governing a presidential bid. According to the New York Times, Colbert paid the required $2,500 fee by Thursday’s deadline in order to be considered. However, the chairwoman of South Carolina’s Democratic Party said that the denial of Colbert’s application was based on his inability to meet two requirements: that he be generally consider a viable candidate and that he would actively campaign for support. But the 13-3 council vote to block Colbert’s campaign seems a bit unfair. First of all, on Sunday, Colbert went to his home state’s capital of Columbia to garner support and not only did Columbia’s mayor give Colbert the key to the city, but he proclaimed the day “Stephen Colbert Day.” I don’t know of any other candidates who could claim such support in the Palmetto State. And second, a Rasmussen poll last week found that Colbert is favored by 2.3% of Democratic voters, which puts him tied with Senator Joe Biden and makes him a more viable candidate than Mike Gravel, Bill Richardson and Dennis Kucinich. Moreover, an Editor and Publisher article points out that Colbert’s 2.3% support comes only after a week of announcing his candidacy, and if the comic were to gain support at this alarming rate, he would be the leading Democratic candidate before the end of November. Furthermore, the Facebook group dedicated to Colbert’s election has attracted nearly 900,000 members, the most of any political association on the site. So shame on South Carolina for effectively squashing the candidacy of a perfectly viable candidate. Colbert’s candidacy and his overwhelming support, mostly from young voters, highlights a sad truth about America — presidential politics has become a joke. And in a time where most of the “real” candidates — the George Bushes, the Fred Thompsons, the Dennis Kuciniches — are laughable, why not go all the way and elect an actual comedian?

Turning Flickr Images into Statues, Making Sense of Mouse Urine

2007-11-02T23:53:00.000-07:00

A University of Washington professor announced that he and his team are able to create 3D statues like the one pictured at right by overlaying dozens of photos from Flickr. As he said in the release, "The big breakthrough here is being able to compute very accurate 3D models from people's vacation photos." The professor came up with a software tool called Photo Tourism, which allows them to compute depth based on using the various angles that tourists have taken pictures from. As the German co-author explained, "You get multiple views from different points of a scene, and then you find the same point in different views and infer from that the depth of the object." Urine as Chemical Fingerprint: University of Liverpool scientists have discovered that female mice identify potential mates by a series of proteins in the male mice's urine. Apparently, the ladies pick their mates based on who has most recently urinated on the floor. The discovery could lead to an explanation of alpha-male behavior at frat parties. The team also came up with an excellent new acronym: MUP, or major urinary proteins. As the lead researcher put it, "Each individual has a slightly different set of proteins, allowing each animal to be easily recognised. Our results demonstrate that this protein 'barcode' allows females to identify individual males accurately."

‘Don Vito’ Gets Pinched

2007-11-01T22:42:00.000-07:00

Vincent Margera, known to fans of the MTV reality show Viva La Bam as “Don Vito,” was convicted Wednesday of two counts of sexual assault on a child and could face life in prison. The obese, often sweaty, often tormented uncle of prankster Bam Margera reportedly collapsed in court as his conviction was read and screamed, “Just kill me now.” Witnesses also claimed he yelled to the court, “You can all go rot in fucking hell.” As the story goes, Don Vito made an appearance at the Colorado Mills Mall in Lakewood, Colorado in August of last year and scores of Viva fans showed up to meet the 51-year-old reality star. According to a San Francisco Chronicle article last week, Vito showed up so unbelievably drunk to the event that he not only groped the tits and ass of two 12-year-old girls and one 14-year-old girl, but he also pissed his pants. The prosecutor in Vito’s trial described Margera’s behavior as “out of control.” During the trial, Vito’s sister-in-law April Margera testified that she had never seen him grope young girls before. Prosecutors promptly impugned April’s testimony when they showed the court multiple photographs of Vito groping and kissing girls’ breasts. On Thursday, MTV published an article claiming Don Vito is on suicide watch in a Colorado jail where he will be held until his December 20 sentencing. As a fan of Viva La Bam, it’s sad to find out that Don Vito is actually the crass, bumbling bum that he appears to be on TV. My favorite Vito moment is when Bam’s gang dug a 30-foot tunnel that led to the floor of Vito’s bedroom. As they popped through the carpet, Vito goes in his thick Philly accent, “Whata you, retarded or something?” Perhaps someone needs to ask that same question to Vito.

U.S. team to begin disabling Korean nuclear plant

2007-10-31T23:33:00.000-07:00

U.S. technicians are likely to begin dismantling a key North Korean nuclear complex by the end of this week, the chief U.S. envoy in talks to disable the North's nuclear capabilities said on Thursday.The team of U.S. experts flies to Pyongyang on Thursday to oversee disabling the Yongbyon nuclear reactor, which is capabale of making plutonium for nuclear bombs.U.S. envoy Christopher Hill said the U.S. team had "a specific list of measures" and would arrive at Yongbyon to begin the dismantling process on Friday or Saturday."The first actual physical acts of disablement will probably be at the end of the week," Hill told reporters. "We are satisfied that we have an overall plan that will be effective and that will provide the disablement that we need."The moves follow a breakthrough February deal under which North Korea, which tested a nuclear device last year in defiance of international warnings, is to shut down its Yongbyon plant and admit U.N. nuclear monitors.Hill met his North Korean counterpart, Kim Kye-gwan, on Wednesday to discuss steps to disable Yongbyon.Following lengthy six-party talks in Beijing involving North and South Korea, the United States, Japan, Russia and China, Pyongyang agreed that by the end of 2007 it would have disabled its main nuclear facilities, a term meaning crippling the plants, but short of outright destruction.North Korea also agreed to fully disclose all its atomic activities by the end of the year and Hill said on Wednesday the process of making such a declaration should begin within the next two weeks.In exchange, the impoverished North will receive 1 million tonnes of heavy fuel oil or equivalent aid. The United States will also move towards taking North Korea off a U.S. terrorism blacklist.

YouTube Returns to Mainland China

2007-10-31T10:48:00.001-07:00

The omniscient Danwei noticed this afternooon that access to YouTube had been restored in mainland China. To be honest, I had stopped looking. Two weeks ago today, the site was blocked suddenly while the National Communist Congress convened in Beijing. The block also coincided with Google’s launch of two Chinese language YouTube sites, one in Taiwan and one in Hong Kong. This may have been what irritated China’s web censors. I’d like to think that YouTube came back for the sole purpose of allowing me to post this video, which I have been saving for the liberation of YouTube. It is every reason I love YouTube rolled into one 1-minute-and-11-second video. So welcome back YouTube. I hope you’re back for good.

The Terminator Kicks In

2007-10-30T04:16:00.000-07:00

The only, and I mean only, slightly pleasurable part of the wildfire disaster that has now destroyed almost 500,000 acres in Southern California is watching Arnold Schwarzenegger flip on the Terminator switch and take matters into his own hands. People like me, who do not reside in California and thus do not rely on a film actor for things like healthcare, take some sort of pleasure in watching Arnold act less like an elected official and more like Harry Tasker from True Lies. Some of the grimaces he’s been giving to the camera make me afraid that I had something to do with starting a wildfire. And I’m in China. Last week, it was reported that two of the near 20 fires burning in California were started as a result of arson. Saturday, Arnold issued a warning to those firebugs responsible saying, “We will hunt down the people responsible for that… If I were one of the people who started the fires, I would not sleep soundly right now, because we’re right behind you.” The Governator also offered a $250,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of any of the arsons. What’s clear is that Arnold has resorted to the persona that launched his career as a relentless, courageous action hero, the guy that chased an Islamic terrorist off a roof on a horse in True Lies. The guy in Terminator 2 who went into a bar and threw numerous bikers through panes of glass simply to procure clothes, boots and a motorcycle. It seems in California, the line between Hollywood and the rest of the state have become as blurred as the line differentiating kindergarten teacher and cop in Arnold’s 1990 action comedy. As an AP story Monday pointed out, Arnold’s experience as a movie actor means that he understands symbolism. He knows how to march through the relief centers making sure each of those displaced Californians has blankets, food and water. He knows that a disaster like this month’s California fires can make, like Rudy Giuliani, or break, like Kathleen Blanco, a politician. Arnold knows that when his term as governor expires in 2010, his response to this disaster could mean the difference between his telling California “I’ll be back” as a U.S. senator or perhaps saying “hasta la vista” to his political career.

Steve Irwin 'Knew He'd Die Young'.

2007-10-30T04:13:00.000-07:00

Australian crocodile hunter Steve Irwin had an eerie "sixth sense" that he would die young, his American-born wife Terri has revealed.More than a year after the 44-year-old wildlife presenter died from a stingray's barb that pierced his heart, Irwin's widow has admitted she had always tried to deflect her husband's darker moments.She says, "He wasn't morbid about it, or awful about it, he was open and earnest about it."Steve had a real sixth sense about so many things. He had an odd connection with wildlife. He was extraordinarily intuitive with people. I found it all very, I don't know if 'eerie' is the word, but remarkable, certainly".Terri Irwin is now writing a book about her life with the tragic star. They had one daughter, Bindi, nine, together.Meanwhile singer Justin Timberlake has donated $100,000 (£50,000) to an Australian wildlife fund, paying tribute to deceased crocodile hunter Steve Irwin.The U.S. pop superstar is currently touring Australia on the latest leg of his FutureSex/LoveShow tour.And during a concert in Brisbane on Saturday (27Oct07) evening, he announced plans to give $100,000 to a scheme set-up by Irwin.Timberlake had been given a guided tour of the facility in Queensland by Irwin on a previous tour, prompting the generous gesture.He told the crowd, "When I came here last time, it really hit me...I said to myself: 'What can I do?' "So what I did was 50 cents from every ticket sold on the Australian tour goes to Wildlife Warriors".

Florida City Seeks to Ban Chinese Products

2007-10-27T06:51:00.000-07:00

Be careful what you wish for Palm Bay, Florida. The residents of this blue-collar town on the Atlantic coast will soon vote on a initiative proposed by their mayor to prohibit the city from buying any Chinese-made products. Which, unfortunately, means everything. What a shame with the holiday season just weeks away. That Mac laptop you wanted for Christmas, made in China. Pretty much any article of clothing you wear in this town, made in China. And for all you Palm Bay kids, Santa won’t be bringing you any toys this year. Well, at least not any of the 90% of the American toys made in China. And that probably means all the cool ones. Apparently, residents of Palm Bay are fed up with the substandard quality of Chinese imports and all the American jobs lost to the Chinese. On the city’s website, which I have been browsing for about 20 minutes, the slogan at the top of the page reads, “Buy American.” Palm Bay would be the first American town to enact a blanket ban on items imported from a particular country. You’re probably wondering why I’ve been on the Palm Bay website for so long. Well, to be honest, I spent about a minute reading about Palm Bay and the other 19 perusing the town’s sex offender notification page. I guarantee the camera that took all of their mugshots was made in China. And if you’re bored, try to find the lone female of this handsome bunch. What the residents of Palm Bay don’t understand is that blue-collar towns such as Palm Bay, the towns that patronize places like Walmart and Target, are the places that benefit most from Chinese imports. And as an ABC News story Wednesday points out, the town’s 107,000 residents aren’t really going to stop buying Chinese goods. Like any good Americans, they just want to make a political statement without really sacrificing anything. There are more exceptions in the proposed ban than there are lead particles in little Tyler’s rattle. First, the ban only covers items priced over fifty dollars. Second, the ban doesn’t restrict individual shoppers, only goods purchased by the city. Third, the ban only applies to items in which 50% of the parts are Chinese-made. Fourth, if the item can’t be found anywhere else, the city will be allowed to purchase it from China. And last, and most absurd, if an American-made item costs 150% more than an identical Chinese-made version, the city is permitted to buy the import. How ridiculous is that last one? That’s exactly the point — Chinese stuff is cheap. As ABC cited from a Morgan Stanley report, Chinese imports have saved American consumers $600 billion in the last 10 years. There’s a reason why laptops are so cheap. And if these Floridians don’t support America’s trade relationship with China, a silly ban that will give their town some cheap publicity isn’t the answer. If Palm Bay feels so strongly, that we all should buy American, then they should actually do something, forgo something, stop going to Walmart, stop buying Apple products. While the health risks of Chinese products might be scary for people in this town, there are things in Palm that are much more frightening. Like sex offender James Jay Davis on Seahorse Circle. Third row, fourth column.

Louisiana Elects Indian Gov.

2007-10-21T23:04:00.000-07:00

Bobby Jindal, the 36-year-old son of Punjabi immigrants, was elected governor of Louisiana Saturday becoming America’s first Indian-American governor. The conservative Jindal received 53% of the vote and when sworn in to office in January, will take the reigns of a state still devastated from Hurricane Katrina two years ago. Despite the fact that Jindal will be presiding over a state with perhaps the worst schools, health and poverty in America, the governor-elect promised a “fresh start” for Louisiana. He told supporters in Baton Rouge Saturday, “In America and here in Louisiana, the only barrier to success is your willingness to work hard and play by the rules.” The election of Bobby Jindal is a victory for two groups in America. The first is the Bush Republicans, who see Jindal as a rising star within the Conservative party. Jindal is a reborn and devout Roman Catholic, an outspoken supporter of a total ban on abortion, a staunch opponent of hate-crime laws and a defender of teaching intelligent design in Louisiana public schools. The second group celebrating Jindal’s election are Indian-Americans, who, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, at 1.5% of the total U.S. population, rank as America’s second fastest-growing ethnic groups behind Hispanics. While Indian-Americans boast a representation in America’s universities and medical and financial industries disproportionately high in relation to their numbers, Americans of Indian descent have been pretty much absent from the U.S. political arena. Jindal, U.S. Representative from Louisiana’s First Congressional District since 2004, is only America’s second Indian-American member of Congress. Hispanic-Americans on the other hand, who represent 10 times the population of Indian-Americans, have 25 times as many members of Congress (25 total), three of whom are United States senators. Jay Chaudhuri, president of the Indian American Leadership Initiative said about Jindal’s win, “Bobby Jindal replaces the Mardi Gras Indians as the best known Indian from Louisiana. We congratulate him for providing Indian-Americans a seat of the table.” And indeed, he said “seat of the table.” But Chaudhuri’s comment is correct. Indian-Americans, a group often mocked in U.S. pop culture for their thick accents, traditional dress and religious headwear, are no longer a marginal ethnic minority who, as programs like the Simpsons would have you believe, either serve Slurpees or drive cabs. They are now America’s doctors, lawyers, bankers and CEOs. And now, thanks to Bobby Jindal’s election, they are America’s highest political officials.

Miracle man walks again

2007-10-21T12:18:00.000-07:00

He survived against all the odds; now Peng Shulin has astounded doctors by learning to walk again.When his body was cut in two by a lorry in 1995, it was little short of a medical miracle that he lived.It took a team of more than 20 doctors to save his life.Skin was grafted from his head to seal his torso – but the legless Mr Peng was left only 78cm (2ft 6in) tall.Bedridden for years, doctors in China had little hope that he would ever be able to live anything like a normal life agan. But recently, he began exercising his arms, building up the strength to carry out everyday chores such as washing his face and brushing his teeth.Doctors at the China Rehabilitation Research Centre in Beijing found out about Mr Peng's plight late last year and devised a plan to get him up walking again.They came up with an ingenious way to allow him to walk on his own, creating a sophisticated egg cup-like casing to hold his body with two bionic legs attached to it.He has been taking his first steps around the centre with the aid of his specially adapted legs and a resized walking frame.Mr Peng, who has to learn how to walk again, is said to be delighted with the device.What a Self-confidence !!!! Great

Nearly 3 dozen Taliban insurgents killed in S Afghanistan

2007-10-21T02:18:00.000-07:00

Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) and the US-led coalition forces during an hours-long operation killed nearly three dozen Taliban fighters Saturday in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province.The combined forces were conducting a reconnaissance mission when Taliban fighters engaged the patrol with rocket and small-arms fire, the statement said, adding that ANSF and Coalition forces returned fire and easily out-maneuvered the militants.The clash came as a sustained fighting between the combined forces and Taliban fighters Saturday entered into a second day near the Musa Qaleh Wadi region of Helmand, it said.Saturday's actions "are part of a larger operation to disrupt terrorist activities in the Helmand Province," the statement added.There were no reports of Afghan civilian casualties in the clash.On Friday, over a dozen Taliban insurgents while attacking a patrol of the combined ANSF and Coalition forces were killed in the same region of northern Helmand.Rising Taliban-related violence and conflicts have killed over 5,200 people in Afghanistan this year.The Taliban, who was removed from power by the US invasion in late 2001, has waged a years-long war against the Afghan administration and the international troops currently being deployed in the war-torn country.

Google Sales Surge 57% and Net Income 46% in Quarter 3

2007-10-20T08:48:00.000-07:00

Google, whose shares hit a record of $641.41 a week ago, reported that sales in its third quarter had surged by 57% compared with the period a year ago, and net income by 46%. "We are very pleased with the impressive growth we experienced across our business," said CEO Eric Schmidt, who also told analysts, drily: “It is obvious to us that our model continues to work very well.”"Our core search advertising business experienced continued momentum driven by growth in monetization and traffic, and we are creating a wider and deeper ads system through our focus on innovation, bringing more ad formats to our advertisers," Schmidt (pictured) explained in a statement accompanying the results. "Our efforts to offer more products and services in international markets as well as effectively grow our technology infrastructure and add to our deep talent base during the quarter helped to deliver growth by enabling Google to reach more users around the world," he continued. Google reported revenues of $4.23 billion for the quarter ended September 30, 2007, an increase of 57% compared to the third quarter of 2006 and an increase of 9% compared to the second quarter of 2007.Operating expenses, other than cost of revenues, were $1.25 billion in the third quarter of 2007, or 30% of revenues, compared to $1.21 billion in the second quarter of 2007, or 31% of revenues.GAAP net income for the third quarter of 2007 was $1.07 billion as compared to $925 million in the second quarter of 2007. Non-GAAP net income was $1.24 billion in the third quarter of 2007, compared to $1.12 billion in the second quarter of 2007.On a worldwide basis, Google employed 15,916 full-time employees as of September 30, 2007, up from 13,786 full time employees as of June 30, 2007.

Iran's top nuclear negotiator resigns

2007-10-20T08:44:00.000-07:00

TEHRAN, Iran - The Iranian government announced Saturday that its top nuclear negotiator had resigned, a move seen as a victory for hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that could bring about an even tougher stance in ongoing talks.Government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham, said Saeed Jalili, a little-known deputy foreign minister for European and American affairs, was to succeed Ali Larijani as lead negotiator effective immediately.Larijani in many cases held a hardline view on the nuclear standoff between Iran and the West but was also considered to be a more moderate figure than Ahmadinejad within Iran's hardline camp. He was seen as more committed to a diplomatic solution over Iran's nuclear program while Ahmadinejad is seen as not favoring talks with the West.Larijani's resignation was interpreted by many here as giving Ahmadinejad a free hand in dictating his views to the less experienced Jalili.Elham did not give a specific reason for Larijani's resignation other than to say he wanted to focus on "other political activities.""Larijani had resigned repeatedly. Finally, the president accepted his resignation," Elham told reporters.The United States and some of its allies accuse Iran of secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons. Iran denies the claim, saying its program is for peaceful purposes including generating electricity.Elham stressed that Iran's nuclear policy would not change because of Larijani's resignation."Iran's nuclear policies are stabilized and unchangeable. Managerial change won't bring any changes in (those) policies," Elham said.Former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton said Larijani's resignation was "a clear victory for Ahmadinejad" and shows that "the leadership is determined to continue with the nuclear program."Bolton, who served as the Bush administration's point man on the Iran nuclear issue before becoming U.N. ambassador, said the conflict between Larijani and Ahmadinejad is "part of the larger struggle for power after (Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei dies.""It's more about personalities and internal polices, but Ahmadminejad saw Larijani as someone with a different perspective on (nuclear) negotiations," Bolton told The Associated Press, suggesting Larijani was more moderate.Elham said a meeting between the nuclear negotiator and the European Union foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, scheduled for Tuesday in Rome would still take place."Despite Larijani's resignation, meetings ... won't change. Larijani's successor will meet Solana instead," Elham said.Ahmadinejad was elected president in 2005 and appointed Larijani, a former Revolutionary Guards Corps commander and a close ally of Khamenei, to replace Hasan Rowhani, considered a moderate politician. Ahmadinejad had accused Rowhani and his team of technocrats as weak and giving too many concessions in nuclear talks with European nations.After Larijani was appointed, Iran took a more defiant approach to its nuclear program. It resumed uranium enrichment activities, leading to its referral to the U.N. Security Council by the International Atomic Energy Agency in 2006. Iran's refusal to halt enrichment subsequently prompted a resolution by the U.N. Security Council imposing sanctions on Iran in December 2006 and another resolution widening the sanctions in March.In 2006, Larijani rejected Western economic incentives in return for a suspension of Iran's nuclear activities, saying the Security Council "should not think that they can make us happy with candies."However, differences between Larijani and Ahmadinejad were revealed earlier this year when Larijani became upset after the president contradicted him on whether Iran would attend a meeting in Egypt to discuss Iraq. Larijani traveled to Baghdad in May to discuss Iran's conditions for attending the meeting but was upset after a reporter at the Baghdad airport said Ahmadinejad had already confirmed that Iran would attend.Larijani's absence during Russian President Vladimir Putin's meeting with Khamenei, last week further raised eyebrows in Iran's political circles.Before he was appointed, Larijani was the head of Iran's state-run radio and television network and was seen as one of the hard-liners' most effective weapon in curtailing former President Mohammad Khatami's reform program. At the time, Larijani used the official media as a weapon to suppress democratic reforms and prohibited the broadcast of information that might have been harmful to hardline clerics.

Bush Meets with the D.L., on the D.L.

2007-10-19T11:02:00.000-07:00

This is how much China hates the Dalai Lama. So much that when the Tibetan spiritual leader met with President Bush Tuesday in Washington, what we can assume was the most important meeting between two people anywhere in world, there was not a single reporter or cameraman in sight. A day before the United States Congress honors the Dalai Lama for his humanitarian work in a ceremony that the Chinese government has deemed "extremely wrong," the media was kept away from the White House out of respect for China. Because I guess Chinese government doesn’t want its bitter Buddhist enemy seen with a man so well-respected throughout the world as George W. Bush. Reuters reported that Wednesday’s ceremony will be the first time a sitting U.S. president will appear publicly with the Dalai Lama, however the photo above from 2003 somewhat confutes this claim. If you are still confused, photo is right, Reuters is wrong. Bush has met with the Dalai Lama several times before during his presidency, however, Wednesday’s honor will be the first time a sitting U.S. president will bestow an honor upon the religious leader, who China considers to be a separatist and a threat to its sovereignty. China’s foreign minister said the Bush-Lama meeting "seriously violates the norm of international relations and seriously wounded the feelings of the Chinese people and interfered with China’s internal affairs." The Dalai Lama has lived in India since being exiled from China in 1959 for staging an uprising against the Chinese government. In China’s eyes, the legitimization of the Dalai Lama as a world leader fuels the Tibetan freedom movement and lends credence to both Tibetan separatists and the Beastie Boys. And you know what? So what. Let China be "wounded." Nobody demanded that Hu Jintao cancel his photo ops with Omar al-Bashir of Sudan or Burma’s Than Shwe, actual heads of state. The Dalai Lama is a spiritual leader with whom the United States government has every right in the world to meet and it so desires, to honor. China has to deal with the fact that most of the world views the Dalai Lama not as a rebel rouser or nuisance, but as a symbol of religious freedom and Tibet’s rightful leader. China’s leadership might not agree with it, but it might help to accept it. And from an American point of view, anything that helps guide George Bush back onto that Noble Eightfold Path that leads to Nirvana might be worth a little Chinese fury.

YouTube Apparently Blocked in Mainland

2007-10-19T10:57:00.001-07:00

As China’s Communist leaders convene in Beijing for their five-yearly National Congress, it appears state internet censors have blocked access to the online video site YouTube. As of Wednesday night in Shanghai, an attempt to connect to YouTube returns an all too familiar page for Web users in China, a blank page notifying the user that the browser cannot make a connection to the site. Web surfers in China may remember this page from such blocked sites as BBC News or Wikipedia.Historically, the Chinese government engages in mass internet censorship during the Communist Party Congress and the yearly National People’s Congress. The National Congress of the Communist Party of China began in Beijing on October 15th and oversees the appointment of new Party leadership and changing party roles over the next five years. As a symbolic display of Party strength and a measure to avoid distractions, China’s Information Ministry will commonly block access to controversial Chinese websites and restrict television and radio content.The English-language media blog Danwei described a similar situation regarding YouTube in Beijing. Web users elsewhere in mainland China have verified the site is blocked and the definitive Great Firewall of China site, which tests URLs for access blockage in mainland China confirms that www.youtube.com is indeed blocked. No blockages have been reported in Hong Kong.YouTube, the comprehensive open-source video site owned by Google, typifies media that torments China’s censors. Essentially, this means users are free to upload video content to YouTube with minimal restrictions and are able to view all of the site’s content without filtering. As the tech-minded Little Red Blog pointed out in a July 2006 post on video-sharing in China, "YouTube does monitor uploads for IPR violations and sexually explicit content (with mixed success) but it’s probably not paying much attention to things that would annoy Chinese Government censors…The Chinese Government is not, by and large, a fan of unregulated user-generated content or search. In fairness, many of us have been wondering the same thing about Flickr for some time, but it’s still accessible here." An interesting footnote: Flickr was blocked in China 10 months later.As with every internet censorship measure in mainland China, it is a guessing game as to when, if ever, access to YouTube will resume. The 17th National Congress of the Communist Party concludes on Saturday though officials have already named President Hu Jintao China’s "paramount leader" until 2012. With an apparent block and numerous emerging Chinese video-sharing pages, it remains to be seen whether YouTube will endure as China’s paramount video site.

Lady Looks Like a Dude

2007-10-19T03:12:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday the ever-credible New York Post reported that Khadijah Farmer, a transgendered lesbian, filed a suit against a restaurant in Manhattan’s West Village for tossing her out of the ladies room. As only the Post could publish, the headline read “Manly Lesbian Sues for Ejection.” The incident took place back in June at the Caliente Cab Co. Mexican restaurant, where Farmer dined after attending the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Parade. So as manly as she is on a normal day, you can only imagine how manly she must have looked on transgender pride day. As the Post reports, Farmer, on her way into to the ladies room, crossed paths with what we’d call a “typical” lady, or a female who adheres to the normative standards of femininity. This woman found a bouncer who adheres to the normative standards of Mexican bouncer and told him that a “man”, Farmer, had just entered the ladies’ room. The bouncer, unaware that the LGBT parade would bring many Ls, Gs, Bs and Ts to the restaurant, barged into the bathroom and began pounding on the stall door. The lawsuit says, “The bouncer yelled through the stall doors that he had been told there was a man in the women’s restroom, and demanded that Ms. Farmer leave the restroom and the restaurant immediately.” And 4 months later, Farmer files suit for embarrassment, humiliation and emotional distress. It hasn’t yet been confirmed whether Farmer was taking a leak or a dump, a fact that interests me, but wholly immaterial to the lawsuit. I suppose even the most manly of women have the right to use the ladies’ room without a big Mexican bouncer disrupting her. But I would say this. If you are a woman, like Farmer, whose entire outward appearance conflicts with normative standards of gender, don’t be angry when you actually fool people and they react accordingly. Because that seems to be what happened at the Caliente Cab Co. The bouncer reacted to a situation that appeared to be a situation to which he needed to react. And while Farmer has the right to appear however she wishes, as a man or a woman or whatever, she has to acknowledge that the majority of the world uses appearance to make, or in this case, rush to judgments. Not every mistake is a violation of human rights or the basis of an emotional distress lawsuit. And if Farmer doesn’t conform to society’s gender roles, it’s interesting that she’s so bent on conforming to normative restroom practices. While West Village men’s rooms at Mexican restaurants might not boast the nicest stalls, Ms. Farmer might find herself a more peaceful experience there. I doubt any man would complain.