Racist webmaster gets 6 months for hate propaganda

A notorious Montreal-based white supremacist whose body is covered in racist tattoos was sentenced Tuesday to six months in jail for willfully promoting hatred on a website he created.

Jean-Sébastien Presseault built and managed a website that featured racist and anti-Semitic music, documents, literature and cartoons available for download, including songs with titles such as "Skin is Black, You Make Me Sick."

Before he was arrested in 2003, Presseault's U.S.-based website received hundreds of thousands of hits, and material was downloaded from it more than 300,000 times, according to Montreal police.

Presseault has been in custody since June 2006, when he pleaded guilty to willfully promoting hatred, after he was picked up by police for uttering threats against the judge hearing his case.

On Tuesday, Quebec judge Martin Vauclair concluded Presseault, now 30, is a racist and violent man, and rejected the defence's request for a more lenient sentence to be served in the community.

Crown prosecutors sought a one-year sentence with three years' probation, but are satisfied with the six-month prison term.

"This is a sentence that sends a message, that, as judge Vauclair says in his judgment, will denounce and dissuade people to commit these crimes," said Thierry Nadon, a Montreal lawyer who prosecuted the case.

But anti-racist advocates were disappointed.

"If you know six months will maybe get you out in 30 days, it's maybe not a very high price to pay, so maybe you take that chance," said Moise Moghrabi, a spokesman with B'nai B'rith.

Presseault's lawyer had wanted him to serve his time outside of prison, arguing his client is a family man, with a wife and young daughter.

Presseault is the second person in Canada to be convicted and sentenced under article 319 of the Criminal Code, which deals with online hate propaganda.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2007/01/23/qc-presseault.html

Oil prices shoot back above $55 US a barrel

Oil prices shot back up above $55 US a barrel Tuesday as cold weather hit the northeastern United States and U.S. President George W. Bush revealed plans to increase the country's petroleum reserves.

In trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the price of light, sweet crude for March delivery finished at $55.04 US, up $2.46 US.

As part of his state of the union address to be delivered Tuesday night, Bush was expected to ask Congress to double the capacity of the strategic petroleum reserve.

The reserve, which is held as a hedge against oil market disruptions, is currently about 727 million barrels, and the U.S. Congress has given consent for it to grow to one billion barrels. Bush is expected to seek its expansion to 1.5 billion barrels, with that capacity filled by 2027.

Relatively warm winter weather in the U.S. and growing oil supplies combined to push the price of oil down to $50 US a barrel last week. However, the return of colder weather over the weekend started putting upward pressure on prices on Monday as heating oil use jumped.

Tuesday's jump in crude prices led to a 2.9 per cent rise in the heavily-weighted TSX energy index. Rising energy stocks were a main reason behind the 205-point surge in the benchmark index of the TSX.

Petro-Canada shares gained $1.86 to $45.21; Nexen soared $2.94 to $72.28; and Suncor Energy advanced $2.83 to $89.40.

The S&P/TSX composite index climbed 205.10 points to close at 12,910.87. Surging gold prices also contributed to the big gain, as bullion futures rose almost $12 US an ounce to $646.60 US.

Source:http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2007/01/23/oilprice.html

'The most polluted town in Europe'

First impressions leave a mark and mine were of an immediate assault on the senses.

Within minutes of arriving in Copsa Mica, a small industrial town deep in a valley in Transylvania, I could feel the pollution in my eyes and nose. I could even taste it - it was slightly sweet.

Ahead of me was a factory built in the late 1930s to process heavy metals, a giant smelting works that over the following decades belched out contaminants on a terrifying scale.

The factory's current owners, the Greek firm Mytilineos Holdings, has recently installed new filters to bring emissions into line with European standards. But there's a poisonous legacy.

Official statistics show life expectancy in the town is nine years shorter than the national average.

There are numerous studies that lay out the facts. An environmental organisation, EcoTur, carried out a survey in the area from 1999 to 2004 working alongside scientists from Britain.

It found the soil contained so much lead that it was 92 times above the permitted level; the vegetation had a lead content 22 times above the permitted level.

One of the organisation's leading members, Prof Doru Banaduc, of the University of Sibiu, told me the whole food chain was contaminated.

"The town is really a dangerous place to live - everything you touch, everything you eat, the air you breathe is serious for your health."

Another study into children aged between two and 12 years old found heightened levels of lead and evidence of arrested development.

Last year alone, 80 workers from the factory were treated for lead poisoning. For years, hundreds of people have complained of bronchial problems.

No choice

Further evidence of a health impact came during an official investigation into the deaths of two horses.

The national veterinary service found the hay fed to the horses had lead levels 10 times higher than the legal limit, and the horses themselves were carrying high levels of lead and other heavy metals.

There is a high risk that food grown locally is similarly toxic. In the marketplace, we found a trader highlighting the fact that his vegetables were grown a long way from Copsa Mica.

But for a town suffering from grinding poverty, many do not have the choice of paying for food that comes from outside the area.

I asked Berta Matefi if she was worried about feeding her own children with potatoes and fruit from their small holding.

"Yes I do," she said. "But what can we do? We cannot afford to do anything else."

'Legacy of distrust'

The factory, Sometra, is adamant that its emissions record is now improving.

A detailed environmental control programme has been agreed with the local authorities, part of a package of measures designed to bring Romanian industry in line with EU standards.

In August and September last year, the plant was closed while new filtering systems were fitted. Bela Balazs, Sometra's production director, told me that emissions were now within EU limits.

"We have results about heavy metal content in the emitted dust and every measurement is in the correct level," he explained.

He talked of there being a major difference between historic pollution and the factory's current emissions.

But when we asked to film the new filters, we were refused.

There is a legacy of distrust. While around 1,000 people are employed at the plant, there are many more living locally who are not.

Most conversations on the street quickly turned to the pollution and the threat to health.

There is talk of a clean-up: hundreds of new trees have been planted. But the toxins have penetrated at least one metre (three feet) into the soil.

Improvements will need to be measured over decades rather than years.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6268741.stm

Connecticut versus Texas: battle brewing over birthplace of the hamburger

A burger battle is brewing between a Texas state legislator and the owners of a New Haven restaurant who claim the hamburger was invented in Connecticut.

With the new session of the Texas legislature now underway, Republican state Representative Betty Brown has proposed a resolution declaring Athens, Texas, the original home of the hamburger.

Brown, an Athens resident, says that a long-ago resident of the town had a luncheonette in the late 1880s and sold the first burgers there.

Those claims are not sitting well with Ken Lassen Sr., 89, third-generation owner of Louis' Lunch, established in 1895. He says his grandfather came up with the first hamburger there.

Lassen said it happened in 1900 when a man rushed into the restaurant asked for something he could eat on the run. Ken Lassen's grandfather grabbed a broiled beef patty and put it between two slices of bread.

Mayor John DeStefano Jr., advocating for his city, backs the Lassens and their claims.

"We are even the birthplace of George Bush, who wants people to think he's from Texas," the mayor said. "So yes, the hamburger is as much a New Haven original as President Bush. Get over it, Texas."

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/cp/Oddities/070116/K011606AU.html

Castro had 3 failed surgeries, Spanish paper says

Cuban leader Fidel Castro is in serious condition after a series of three failed operations on his large intestine for diverticulitis complicated by infection, the Spanish newspaper El Pais reported on Monday.

Castro, 80, suffered a serious infection that worsened to peritonitis, the newspaper's Tuesday edition said, citing two medical sources at the Madrid hospital where a surgeon who visited Castro in December works. The report was posted on the newspaper's Web site on Monday.

Castro's prognosis is "very serious" and he is being fed intravenously, the paper said.

A first operation to extract part of his large intestine and connect the colon to the rectum was a failure and the link broke, releasing feces into the abdomen that caused another peritonitis, the newspaper reported.

A second operation to clean and drain the infected area and perform a colostomy also failed, the paper said. A third operation implanted a prothesis, it said.

When Spanish surgeon Jose Luis Garcia Sabrido visited Castro in late December, Cuban doctors were considering another operation, the paper said.

"The patient required drainage for more than half a liter of fluids a day, which is causing him a severe loss of nutrients," the paper reported.

Castro, who took power in Cuba in 1959, has not been seen in public since July 26. He handed over power to his brother five days later, fueling speculation he is so ill he may never return to power on the communist-run Caribbean island.

In a New Year's message issued on December 30, Castro told Cubans that he was recovering slowly from surgery and said his recovery was "far from being a lost battle."

Garcia Sabrido, the Spanish surgeon, said after his visit in December that Castro did not have cancer and could return to govern Cuba if he recovered fully from his surgery.

Source:

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2007-01-16T031459Z_01_N18357550_RTRUKOC_0_US-CUBA-CASTRO-MONDAY.xml&WTmodLoc=NewsHome-C1-topNews-2

Is 'Bad Cholesterol' A Culprit In Parkinson's Disease?

A team of researchers at the University of North Carolina, led by Dr. Xuemei Huang, has found what appears to be a link between low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels and Parkinson's Disease.

Cholesterol is the fatty-like substance that builds up along the walls of your arteries. LDL, also known as “bad cholesterol,” is the main source of that cholesterol buildup.

In a study of 124 participants, the researchers found that patients with low levels of LDL cholesterol were more than three and a half times as likely to develop Parkinson's Disease as patients with higher LDL levels. Their conclusion opened up the question as to whether or not “statins,” a group of LDL cholesterol lowering drugs, may also be a risk factor for the disease.

Parkinson’s Disease is a chronic neurological condition that affects a small area of cells in the mid brain known as the substantia nigra. It is named for Dr. James Parkinson, a London doctor who first described the condition in 1817. The progress of the disease is slow because the cells of the substantia nigra degenerate over time. As they degenerate, they reduce their production of a chemical known as "dopamine."

Source:http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,243812,00.html

Criticism of Iraq hangings grows

United Nations and European Union leaders have condemned the executions in Baghdad of two of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's top aides.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon said he regretted the move, while a top EU official said it had damaged Iraqi reconciliation.

The US and UK also expressed concern about the conduct of the executions.

Barzan Ibrahim and Awad Hamed al-Bandar were hanged for crimes against humanity - Barzan was decapitated by the noose, but officials said it was an accident.

A half-brother of Saddam Hussein, Barzan was Iraq's former intelligence chief and al-Bandar was the former head of the Revolutionary Court.

The two men were convicted alongside Saddam Hussein over the killing of 148 Shias in 1982.

Their executions came just over two weeks after Saddam Hussein was put to death in Baghdad.

The manner of his execution drew international criticism after unofficial mobile phone footage showed him being taunted and insulted in his final moments.

'Detrimental to Iraq'

The United Nations reacted strongly to the announcement of Monday's executions.

UN spokesman Michele Montas said Mr Ban "regrets that despite pleas from himself and the high commissioner for human rights to spare the lives of the two co-defendants, they were both executed".

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour also condemned the hangings, saying that they could "make it more difficult to have a complete judicial accounting of other, equally horrendous, crimes committed in Iraq".

EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said that the executions were "detrimental also to the question of national reconciliation" in Iraq, while a number of European leaders restated their opposition to the death penalty.

US and UK officials also expressed concern about the way in which the death sentences were carried out.

Both US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and a spokesman for UK Prime Minister Tony Blair raised concerns about the dignity afforded to the condemned men.

But the Iraqi authorities defended the conduct of the executions.

Journalists were shown a video recording of the events in an apparent attempt by officials to make it clear that the decapitation of Barzan was an accident.

In it the two men, both dressed in orange boiler suits, were seen being led to the gallows.

Executioners in balaclavas placed hoods round their heads, then the noose. The two men were then seen to fall, after which the footage showed Barzan's decapitated body.

Iraqi spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said that the condemned men had not been taunted or insulted before their deaths and that the executions had been carried out "in accordance with the law".

Barzan's decapitation was "a rare incident", he said.

But the BBC's Mike Wooldridge in Baghdad says the authorities' defence of the procedures shows little sign of stemming this new controversy, particularly when the government could ill-afford to have anything go wrong on this occasion.

Source:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6265631.stm

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'Human hair' clue in hunt for airliner

Rescuers have found fragments of human hair and scalp that might come from passengers on a missing Indonesian airliner, a rescue official said on Sunday.

The remains will be sent for DNA testing, Muslimin, a rescue official in Makassar, said by telephone.

Pieces of wreckage of the Adam Air Boeing 737-400 that vanished from radar screens on New Year's Day with 102 people aboard have been found in the past few days floating in the sea or washed up on beaches off Sulawesi island.

Officials have suggested the plane might have crashed into the sea off the west coast of Sulawesi, disintegrating into small pieces.

"Some human hair and scalp suspected to be that of the victims of the missing Adam Air plane were found this morning in Dutungan island in the Pare Pare area," Muslimin said.

He did not say how long the DNA testing would take.

Makassar, Sulawesi's largest city and the coordinating point for the search, is about 1,400 km (870 miles) northeast of Jakarta. Pare Pare is a two-hour drive north from Makassar. Both are on Sulawesi's west coast.

A search team found part of one of the plane's wings on Saturday night, Budi Haryoto, an official from the national search and rescue agency said.

He said the 1.5 metres (5 ft) long fragment was still being examined to find out if it was part of the right or left wing.

A fisherman found the tail stabiliser of the Boeing on Tuesday snared in his nets but initially stored it under his traditional stilted house because he thought it was only a slab of plywood. He was given a cash reward of 50 million rupiah ($5,500) on Saturday for finding the first piece of the missing jet.

Part of a passenger seat with a serial number on it was found on Sunday in waters around Pasir Putih island roughly half way between Pare Pare and Makassar, Lieutenant Andi Ichsan, an Indonesian marine involved in the search, told Reuters.

Troops in a rubber boat also found a piece of an emergency exit door off Sakuala island in Pangkep district, he said.

On Saturday, pieces of clothing that might be linked to passengers were also found, according to the Web site of Indonesian TV station SCTV.

Despite the possibility that the Boeing had broken up, Indonesian navy ships assisted by a U.S. oceanographic ship have been trying to locate its fuselage, which could still house the flight recorder that could provide clues to explain the disaster.

Search mission chief First Air Marshal Eddy Suyanto said on Saturday that the search for the plane's main body and black box was being hampered by the depth of the sea in areas where metal objects had been detected in the Makassar Strait.

Strong winds and heavy seas were also making the search more difficult at the weekend.

The flight recorder is set up to give off a signal for 30 days to aid detection, but it is likely to be very hard to locate in waters as deep as 1,700 metres (5,600 ft) in the area.

So far no bodies confirmed as the missing passengers have been found. Suyanto said previously that, considering that parts of the plane found so far were mostly small, a body was unlikely to have survived the disaster in one piece.

The 17-year-old plane was heading from Surabaya in East Java to Manado in northern Sulawesi when it vanished in bad weather on January 1. The plane made no distress call, although the pilot had reported concerns over crosswinds.

Source:http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/01/14/missing.plane.reut/index.html

Immigrant quota for Russia retail

Tough new laws limiting job opportunities for immigrants have been introduced in Russia.

The number of non-Russians working in the retail trade is now being limited to 40%, but by the end of the year that number is supposed to be zero.

Russian police are raiding the country's markets on a daily basis, enforcing quotas on the number of foreigners working in the retail trade.

The new law was proposed after race riots in northern Russia last summer.

President Vladimir Putin spoke of the need to defend the interests of what he called the native population.

Markets - often a source of employment for Russia's army of immigrant workers - were singled out.

Immigration officials say that the new laws have encouraged more foreigners to apply for legal residency status even if they will remain barred from working in retail.

Human rights groups fear that police officers may try to abuse their authority as they carry out their duties.

Immigrant workers, most of them from Central Asia or the Caucasus, share those fears.

They also question who would actually do their often difficult, dangerous and dirty jobs if they did not.

Source:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6261897.stm

Millionaire Secret Santa dies

Larry Stewart, a millionaire who became known as Secret Santa for his habit of roaming the streets each December and anonymously handing money to people, died Friday. He was 58.

Stewart died from complications from esophageal cancer, said Jackson County Sheriff Tom Phillips, a longtime friend.

Stewart, who spent 26 years giving a total $1.3 million, gained international attention in November when he revealed himself as Secret Santa. He was diagnosed in April with cancer and said he wanted to use his celebrity to inspire other people to take random kindness seriously.

"That's what we're here for," Stewart said in a November interview, "to help other people out."

Stewart, from the Kansas City suburb of Lee's Summit, made his millions in cable television and long-distance telephone service.

His private holiday giving started in December 1979 when he was at a drive-in restaurant nursing his wounds from having been fired. It was the second year in a row he had been fired the week before Christmas.

"It was cold, and this carhop didn't have on a very big jacket, and I thought to myself, `I think I got it bad. She's out there in this cold making nickels and dimes,' " he said. He gave her $20 and told her to keep the change.

After that, Stewart hit the streets each December, handing out money, often $100 bills, sometimes two and three at a time. He also gave money to community causes in Kansas City and his hometown of Bruce, Miss.

Stewart said he offered the simple gifts of cash every year because it was something people didn't have to "beg for, get in line for, or apply for."

Stewart gave out $100,000 between Chicago and Kansas City in December. Four Secret Santas whom Stewart "trained" gave out another $65,000.

Source:http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/01/13/obit.stewart.ap/index.html

Somalia declares state of emergency

Somalia's parliament declared on Saturday a three-month state of emergency amid fears of a return of clan violence after weeks of war ousted Islamists.

Members of parliament in the government's interim seat of Baidoa -- its home until Ethiopian and Somali troops defeated Islamists who controlled much of the south, voted 154 to two to ratify Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi's plan.

The government, which is seeking to install itself in the capital Mogadishu, faces a huge challenge to bring peace and security to the Horn of Africa nation, which has been without effective central rule since the 1991 ouster of a dictator.

"A three-month state of emergency has been passed. If the need arises for the government to extend the period then the president will have to ask parliament for approval," second deputy speaker Osman Elmi Boqore told parliament.

Residents fear Mogadishu could slide back into the anarchy that has gripped the city since 1991.

On Friday, warlord gunmen tried to force their way inside the presidential palace and fought Somali troops, showing how hard it will be to tame the nation.

The shootout which killed a handful of people and came as warlords agreed to merge their forces into a new national army, was the kind of clash that was commonplace in Mogadishu.

Within hours of the Islamists fleeing Mogadishu, militiamen loyal to the warlords reappeared at checkpoints in the city where they used to terrorise civilians.

The government welcomed the vote.

"Since the country is facing a hard time, we believe the emergency law will play a crucial role in bringing back peace and in the reconstruction of our country," government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari told Reuters.

The government is seeking to disarm the capital's residents but few weapons have been handed in as locals wait to see whether the government can impose the relative stability they experienced under the Islamists' sharia rule.

Islamist stronghold captured

Earlier, government forces captured a southern Islamist stronghold and Ethiopian planes pounded the area. Many fugitive Islamists were believed to be in the coastal village of Ras Kamboni near the Kenyan border after fleeing south.

"The government took over the last Islamist stronghold of Ras Kamboni yesterday evening after fighting in the morning," Dinari said.

"Most of the wanted terrorists have either died or fled. They are hiding in the forests ... Government forces are still chasing them. We will not stop the chase until we are sure they are totally eliminated."

Washington sent a warplane into Somalia on Monday to try to kill top al Qaeda suspects and Ethiopian aircraft have struck the area for days to finish a war that began before Christmas.

"Ethiopian troops are engaged in a mopping up operation against the remnants of the terrorist group around Ras Kamboni," Ethiopian Information Ministry spokesman Zemedhun Tekle said.

Speaking from the southern Kismayu port, lawmaker Abdirashid Mohammed Hidig, also acting government leader for the area where operations were being launched, said Ethiopian planes were striking sites where "the Islamists are believed to be hiding."

Hidig said U.S. forces were on the ground but were not involved in any fighting although he had not seen them. A senior U.S. official told Reuters this week he was not aware of any American special forces in Somalia.

British-based aid agency Oxfam said air raids to pursue Islamists in southern Somalia had mistakenly killed 70 nomadic herdsmen. While some Somali sources have reported scores of deaths, there has been no independent confirmation. Both Ethiopia and the United States deny hitting civilians.

Washington's strike was its first overt military involvement in Somalia since a disastrous peacekeeping mission in 1994.

It killed up to 10 al Qaeda allies, but missed its main target of three top suspects, the U.S. government said. Washington denies carrying out any further strikes.

Ethiopia, the region's major power, wants to withdraw in coming weeks its soldiers who have been attacked in Mogadishu.

Diplomats fear that would leave the government -- the 14th attempt at central rule since 1991 -- vulnerable to remnant Islamists vowing guerrilla war, warlords seeking to re-create their fiefdoms, and competing clans.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/01/13/somalia.reut/index.html

Tsunami fears ease hours after strong quake

Tsunami alerts issued for the Pacific Basin due to a massive underwater earthquake were lifted hours later Saturday when only minor surges resulted.

The alerts had been issued for Japan and a broad area surrounding the Pacific Ocean -- including Hawaii and Alaska -- after the quake hit east of the Kuril Islands.

The temblor had a preliminary magnitude of 8.2, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center bulletin said.

Hours after the quake was detected, instruments in four locations along Japan's northeastern coast measured a rise in tidal levels of about 10-centimeters (4 inches), according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. No damage was reported.

A 1-foot (30-centimeter) wave was measured in Shemya, Alaska, part of the Aleutian Island chain, the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center said.

The center warned that strong currents could still result on the western coast of the United States and Canada.

Earlier, the Japan Meteorology Agency had said tsunami waves between one and two meters were possible near Hokkaido, Japan, and other areas of Japan's northern island.

The earthquake occurred at 11:23 p.m. ET, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center bulletin said.

After the earthquake, coastal residents in low-lying parts of the warning areas were advised to move to higher ground.

Sirens were sounded in Kushiro, Japan, after the earthquake. Most residents stayed home and some sought shelter in public buildings on high ground, officials said.

In November, a tsunami warning was issued after an 8.3-magnitude earthquake in a nearby area. Large waves were reported hours later in Hawaii and on the western coast of the United States, including a 6-foot wave in Crescent City, California. (Full story)

A wave measuring about 40 centimeters (16 inches) did wash up on some eastern Pacific coastal areas of Japan, officials there said in November, but nothing like the wave of almost 2 meters (about 6 feet) that had been predicted as a possibility.

A 9.1-magnitude quake off the coast of Indonesia on December 26, 2004 caused a tsunami that killed more than 200,000 people in 11 countries. (Full story)

And a tsunami caused by a magnitude 8.3 offshore earthquake struck Hokkaido on September 25, 2003, injuring 589 people and causing significant damage to the port and coastal communities, according to the archives of the U.S. Geological Survey. (Full story)

Source:http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/01/13/tsunami.japan/index.html

Isabel Peron arrested in investigation of '70s rights abuses

Former Argentine President Isabel Peron was briefly detained Friday in Madrid as part of investigations into the South American country's past human rights abuses, police said.

She appeared at Spain's National Court which released her conditionally three hours after her arrest, pending an extradition request from Argentina. The court said Argentina has 40 days to file the request and ordered Peron to appear at a police station every 15 days.

As Peron walked free to a car awaiting her outside the court, a group of protesters shouted at her. She did not speak to reporters.

Police acted on an international arrest warrant from an Argentine investigative judge who said he had questions about Peron's chaotic 20-month rule, a time when shadowy right-wing violence destabilized Argentina. The third wife of three-time president Juan Domingo Peron was ousted in the March 1976 coup that ushered in a seven-year dictatorship that waged a "dirty war" against its opponents.

Peron, 75, has lived in exile in Spain since 1981.

Her arrest marked the expansion of Argentina's human rights investigations beyond dictatorship-era crimes to the death squads that terrorized the nation before the 1976 coup.

Peron was taken into custody at her villa in the wealthy northern Madrid neighborhood of Villanueva de la Canada.

She was wanted for questioning about three decrees she approved in her brief presidential tenure, calling on armed forces to crack down on "subversive elements." She was also wanted for questioning in connection with the disappearance of leftist Hector Aldo Fagetti Gallego one month before the coup.

Maria Estela Martinez de Peron -- known as Isabel -- was sworn in as president in 1974 after the death of her husband, the former strongman and father of Argentina's ruling political party. She struggled to hold on to power as Argentina was convulsed by violence from leftist guerrillas and reprisals by death squads.

Her detention followed the recent arrests in Argentina and Spain of two suspected leaders of the "Triple A" death squad that human rights groups call a precursor to state-sponsored terror waged by the country's military rulers from 1976-83.

Political analyst Felipe Noguera noted that dozens of former police and military officers have been summoned for questioning since Argentina's Supreme Court in 2005 annulled a pair of 1980s amnesty laws blocking prosecution of human rights cases.

"What might be different is that her surname is Peron," Noguera said. "So this seems to drive home the point that a lot of violence against the left wing started during the Peronist time, before and not during the junta."

Previously, efforts to bring alleged human rights abusers to justice focused on crimes committed during the dictatorship, when at least 13,000 suspected leftists and other opponents of the regime were killed or disappeared.

Peron testified in 1997 in Madrid as a witness in a Spanish case probing crimes during the military dictatorship. She said then she recalled signing a law authorizing the "annihilation" of leftist guerrillas, but did not remember details. She also said that she was unaware of human rights abuses that began during her tenure and expanded after the military overthrew her.

Adolfo Perez Esquivel, the 1980 Nobel Peace laureate for his human rights work, told The Associated Press he believed the Triple A, short for the Argentina Anticommunist Alliance, was effectively part of a state structure and thus the beginnings of state-backed terror.

"Once and for all, we have to get to the bottom of this problem and find out how this terrorism was generated by the state," Perez Esquivel said. "The search for the truth must go in every direction."

In Argentina, families of the victims of the repression celebrated Peron's arrest.

"I believe state terror began before the coup," said Maria Adela Antokoletz, whose brother, a lawyer who defended leftists, was kidnapped shortly before the 1976 coup. "Those who signed these decrees knew perfectly well the nature of the campaign and what this repression would involve."

Human rights groups blame Triple A for at least 1,500 killings of government opponents from 1973 to 1976. The dead included leftists, trade activists, opposition lawmakers and intellectuals.

Some victims were abducted off streets and never seen again while others were found dead of bullet wounds, some with their hands hacked off or burned.

The violence set the stage for the dictatorship's crackdown on dissent, a campaign known as the "dirty war." Nearly 13,000 people are officially listed as dead or missing from that era, but human rights groups say the total is closer to 30,000. Civilian rule was restored in 1983.

Source:http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/01/12/argentina.peron.ap/index.html

AMD warning shows processor momentum shifting

AMD also has a new notebook chip in the works that should help it challenge Intel's long-standing dominance in that fast- growing segment.

Even then, it may take several months before the new chips translate into fresh share gains. That is because AMD must increase output of those chips, while customers need time to evaluate them against Intel's offerings.

"If the Vista deployments begin to build some momentum and PC sales overall improve dramatically, then everyone will benefit and it could lift AMD," Acree said.

"Unfortunately, a lot of things don't change for AMD until they get new products, just like how things didn't change for Intel until they had new products."

In light of AMD's warning, Wall Street now expects it to show a profit, before special items, of $51 million, or 8 cents per share. Including the company's acquisition of graphics chip maker ATI, which closed in the quarter, AMD is expected to show a loss of nearly $500 million, or 91 cents per share.

AMD reports quarterly earnings on January 23.

Source: http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2007-01-12T220543Z_01_N11450199_RTRUKOC_0_US-INTEL-AMD.xml&pageNumber=2&imageid=&cap=&sz=13&WTModLoc=NewsArt-C1-ArticlePage2

Madonna calls for more adoption

Madonna has called for more people to adopt children from Africa despite the controversy surrounding her own moves to take custody of a Malawian child.

The singer told US talk show host David Letterman she was "saving a life" by taking the one-year-old to the UK.

She admitted she had been warned it might be difficult but had not expected so much criticism.

The 48-year-old suggested laws needed to change because a million children in Malawi needed to be "rescued".

Some groups in Malawi have expressed concern that Madonna was able to bypass laws about foreigners adopting children.

She has also faced criticism this week from actress Angelina Jolie, who has adopted children from Cambodia and Ethiopia as well as having a daughter with actor Brad Pitt.

Jolie said in a magazine interview she would have steered clear of adopting from a country where there was no legal framework for adoption.

Madonna said she was warned by a social worker that adopting a child from Malawi could be difficult.

"She didn't say don't do it, but she just said expect challenges, and, boy, did we get them."

She added: "We were basically creating the laws as we went."

Madonna also has a nine-year-old daughter and six-year-old son.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6255297.stm

Russian billionaire held in prostitution sweep

One of Russia's wealthiest men, billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, was taken into custody by French police in a crackdown on a suspected prostitution ring at a swank Alpine ski resort, officials said Thursday.

Investigators suspect Russian call girls were brought to the resort in Courchevel, a favored playground of Russia's rich, to work during the winter holidays, authorities said. Clients allegedly paid the women with gifts from luxury boutiques.

A total of 26 people were taken in for questioning Tuesday, Prosecutor Xavier Richaud said. As of Thursday, 15 -- including Prokhorov -- were still being held in the southeast city of Lyon, officials close to the investigation said.

Among those detained, the officials said, was an Austrian who runs a travel agency and is suspected of helping the Russian women find their way to two at the ski resort. The officials asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss the case.

Some of the 15 could be placed under investigation -- a step short of being charged -- as early as Friday. They would face counts of "aggravated procuring in an organized band" and "criminal association," the sources said.

Martine Monteil, director of France's judicial police, said earlier that a Russian tycoon was in custody for allegedly offering young women to his guests. She did not identify Prokhorov by name.

Prokhorov, the 41-year-old chief executive of a Russian mining giant, is ranked No. 89 on Forbes magazine's 2006 list of the world's richest people. He is worth $6.4 billion, according to Forbes, largely thanks to his holding in OAO Norilsk Nickel, the world's largest nickel producer, and Polyus Gold, Russia's biggest gold miner.

The sporty, 6-foot-7 Prokhorov is often described as Russia's most eligible bachelor. Even among Russia's big-spending business elite, he has a reputation for organizing lavish parties.

The arrests occurred in several hotels at fashionable Courchevel, which has its own airstrip that can accommodate private jets. Russian tycoons flock to the resort over the New Year and Orthodox Christmas holidays.

Investigators also seized $65,000 at two four-star hotels in Courchevel, an official working on the probe said. The official was not authorized to speak to the media and requested anonymity. No drugs or weapons were found.

Those questioned include seven Russian women about 20 years old, as well as people suspected of helping bring the women to France, the official said. It was unclear whether the women were among those still in custody.

Police suspect the women involved worked only occasionally as prostitutes and that their pay likely came mainly in the form of expensive presents from luxury boutiques in the ski station, the investigating official said.

That practice is also used by some prostitutes in the chic beach resorts of the French Riviera. The official said the giving of gifts could complicate efforts to prove the women were prostitutes and not simply friends.

Police began the investigation last year after noticing suspicious trips by young Russian women heading through Geneva to the French Alps, with tickets booked through Austrian travel agencies, the official said. Investigators were on the lookout for two waves of prostitutes arriving in Courchevel during the 2006-07 holiday season.

Sergei Chernitsyn, head of the press department with Norilsk Nickel, said the company had received no information about Prokhorov's arrest. He called the allegations "absurd."

"We expect him back at work on Monday," Chernitsyn said. The spokesman added that the company was "operating to plan" and would not be affected by Prokhorov's detention.

Based on Russia's Arctic edge in the Taimyr Peninsula, Norilsk Nickel also has the world's biggest reserves of palladium, and its mines were at one point worked by inmates of Josef Stalin's gulag.

A keen basketball player, Prokhorov has used his wealth to acquire Euroleague basketball champions CSKA. Skiing, jet skiing and kickboxing are among his favorite sports. He divides his time between Norilsk, Moscow, Saint Tropez on the French Riviera, and Courchevel, where he owns a chalet.

Source:http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070111/Mikhail_Prokhorov_070111/20070111?hub=World

Syphilis rates 'soaring in China'

The Lancet reports that China - which virtually eliminated syphilis in the 1960s and 70s - is now seeing the disease return with alarming intensity.

It reveals that reported rates have risen from 0.2 cases per 100,000 in 1993 to 5.7 cases per 100,000 in 2005.

Dramatic intervention is now needed, a co-author of the report says.

The study involved doctors from China's National Centre for STD Control in Nanjing and from the University of North Carolina's School of Medicine.

Dr Myron Cohen, a co-author of the report, described the spread of the disease as "fantastically rapid".

Spreading HIV

The disease is most prevalent amongst those in particular high-risk groups, like commercial sex workers and men who have sex with men. In those groups, as many as one in ten to one in five has syphilis, according to some of China's top specialists.

But syphilis is also spreading quickly in the general population. An area of particular concern is the surge in congenital syphilis - the number of babies born with the disease, after contracting it in utero from infected mothers.

It is reported that about 3,400 Chinese babies are being born each year with congenital syphilis. The figure has risen dramatically since 1991 - by more than 70% each year.

Syphilis is an aggressive and dangerous disease in itself - but Dr Cohen says its rise also has wider implications, giving a sense of the rapid spread of other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) too.

"If we are seeing syphilis spread, we have to be concerned that other STDs are spreading as well," he told the BBC.

"Also we have reason to believe that syphilis helps to drive HIV. So we have to be concerned that untreated syphilis will amplify the spread of HIV as well."

'Deeply conservative'

So why is there such dramatic spread? It is being fuelled in part by rapid social change.

The large numbers of migrant workers in China, increasing prostitution and more extramarital sex - along with low condom use - are all key factors.

The need to pay for health care now may deter people from getting early tests and treatment.

Chinese society is still deeply conservative with little open discussion about sex at any level.

That severely inhibits the exchange of information at all levels, from within families and sexual relationships to information campaigns in schools, universities and in the media.

There may even be a biological reason too for the rapid rise.

Chinese adults, who are sexually active now, had no exposure to syphilis for decades. Some scientists say that has left today's population with very little immunity to it.
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6253807.stm

Human error may have doomed Mars Global Surveyor

NASA is investigating whether incorrect software commands may have doomed the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft, which abruptly fell silent last year after a decade of meticulously mapping the Red Planet.

The space agency said the theory is just one of several that may explain the probe's failure. NASA on Wednesday announced the formation of an internal review board to investigate why the Global Surveyor lost contact with controllers during a routine adjustment of its solar array.

John McNamee, deputy director of solar system exploration at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said a preliminary investigation points to incorrect software commands uploaded to the spacecraft in June.

The software was aimed at improving the spacecraft's flight processors. Instead, bad commands may have overheated the battery and forced the spacecraft into safe mode, McNamee told scientists gathered Tuesday in Virginia to plan for future Mars missions.

An account of McNamee's speech was posted on the NASA watchdog site nasawatch.com, and it was confirmed Wednesday by Doug McCuistion, director of NASA's Mars Exploration Program.

Overheating problem

Records show there was an incorrect loading of software, which could have resulted in a cooling radiator for a battery being pointed at the sun, McCuistion said.

"It may have overheated and lost the battery, which then would not allow us to have adequate power to operate the spacecraft," McCuistion told AP Radio.

If the Global Surveyor's demise is traced to a technical error, the mistake raises questions about why engineers did not catch the problem before the software program was sent to the spacecraft.

McCuistion said the space agency will wait for the completion of the investigation before declaring an official cause of failure.

The Global Surveyor, which lost contact with Earth in November, was the oldest of six active spacecraft on or circling Mars. NASA has made several unsuccessful attempts to locate the missing probe.

"We're declaring it most likely dead," McCuistion said. "I doubt we will see it again."

During its 10 years mapping the Martian surface, the Global Surveyor beamed back some 240,000 pictures, including the first detailed images of swirling dust devils and gullies.

Shortly before it failed, the Global Surveyor re-imaged thousands of gullies and found the strongest evidence yet that liquid water recently coursed through two of them. The discovery, which still needs to be confirmed, raises the possibility that Mars might harbour an environment conducive to primitive life.

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/01/11/tech-mars.html

After storm, the mercury drops in B.C., Prairies

The winter storm that battered western Canada this week and caused havoc for travellers is being blamed for at least three deaths in Saskatchewan and B.C. as temperatures plummeted across the regions.

A 32-year-old woman was killed after four vehicles collided in icy conditions on Lougheed Highway in Maple Ridge, B.C.

In Saskatchewan, two people were found frozen to death on the side of the road north of Lloydminster after they left their stranded vehicle.

Snow warnings from Environment Canada were dropped Thursday for much of B.C., just in time for icy Arctic air to move south over the province after blizzard conditions buffeted the Lower Mainland Wednesday.

Arctic outflow warnings have been issued for the North and Central B.C. coast, with windchills predicted to reach down to -20 C by Thursday night.

Emergency crews — including patrols on snowmobiles — rescued 45 people Wednesday who were trapped by the blizzard in the Dawson Creek area.

Some people waited 16 hours in the bitter cold to be rescued, but the RCMP said late Wednesday that everyone was safe.

Residents in Edmonton were faced with another day of bitter cold on Thursday as temperatures stayed below -30 C, which prompted warnings from physicians to bundle up properly.

Dr. Matthew Rose of Edmonton's Boyle MacAuley Health Centre says layers are the best protection from cold weather and windchill, but that's not always an option for homeless people.

"A T-shirt, sweatshirt, sweater and a reasonable winter jacket is probably the ideal combination," Rose told CBC News Wednesday. "The inner city population does not have access to that kind of apparel choice, so they do the best they can with what's available and really rely on clothing donations."

Snowmobiles used in rescues

In Saskatoon, city firefighters and ambulance crews were forced to use snowmobiles borrowed from a local dealership to get to people trapped in snowbound vehicles in one of the worst blizzards to hit the city in years.

The storm left about 350 people marooned for several hours Wednesday at Saskatoon's airport.

Gord Lacoursiere drove to the airport to pick up a stranded friend and take him home, but his four-wheel-drive truck got stuck in a drift only a few hundred metres from the terminal building.

Lacoursiere said he could see nothing around him but swirling snow until another truck drove past his vehicle. He then found his way to the building by walking in the tire tracks and realized he might have to stay the night.

"We gotta find a bar with beds I think," he told CBC News at the time.

One woman was stranded in the airport's parking lot and called on her cell phone to be rescued, said Bill Restall, the airport's manager.

Two staff members went out and found her by the sound of her beeping horn, then led her back to the building, he said.

Source:http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/01/11/weather-wrap.html#skip300x250

Bon Cop, Bad Cop' picks up Genie nominations

TORONTO -- The bilingual cop action film "Bon Cop, Bad Cop," one of the top-grossing films in Canadian history, picked up a handful of Genie nominations on Tuesday, including best picture and best actor nods for its two male stars.

But it was "The Rocket," the moving film about hockey legend Maurice Richard and the rise of Quebec nationalism, that received the lion's share of nominations, receiving 13 nods in 19 Genie categories, including best picture.

Roy Dupuis also got a best actor nomination for his turn as the beloved Habitant.

Three other films rounded out the best picture category: "Trailer Park Boys: The Movie," "La petite guide de la vengeance (The Little Book of Vengeance)," and "Un dimanche a Kigali (A Sunday in Kigali)."

"Bon Cop's" Colm Feore and Patrick Huard, who play bickering cops from Ontario and Quebec, respectively, as they try to solve a chain of hockey-related serial killings, join Dupuis in the best actor category. Olivier Gourmet in "Congorama" and Luc Picard in "Un dimanche a Kigali" were also nominated. It was Picard's second nomination in as many years; he got a nod last year for his work in "L'Audition."

In the best actress category, 12-year-old Jodelle Ferland, the Vancouver actress best known for her turn in "Silent Hill," was nominated for her starring role in the stomach-churning "Tideland." The Terry Gilliam horror film was funded in part by Telefilm Canada and was one of the most critically reviled movies of the year.

Julie Le Breton also got a nod for "The Rocket," Fatou N'Diaye for "Un dimanche a Kigali," Ginette Reno for "Le secret de ma mere" and American actress Sigourney Weaver for "Snow Cake."

While Ricky, Bubbles and Julian were shut out in the acting categories, their "Trailer Park Boys" co-star, Hugh Dillon, picked up a best supporting actor nod for his portrayal of Sonny, the sinister owner of the boys' favourite strip club.

"Bon Cop, Bad Cop" - considered the top-grossing Canadian film of all time if inflation isn't taken into account ("Porky's" would still be ahead in today's dollars) had a total of 10 nominations, "Un dimanche a Kigali" had seven and "Tideland" had six, most of them in production categories.

The Genies, honouring the best in Canadian cinema, will be handed out Feb. 13 in a gala to be broadcast on Citytv.

Source: http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070109/genies_nods_070109/20070110?hub=Entertainment

George Michael pleads not guilty to charges

LONDON -- George Michael pleaded innocent Wednesday to charges of being unfit to drive and possessing marijuana.

The 43-year-old singer was arrested Sept. 30 after police responded to complaints that a car was blocking an intersection in north London. Police said Michael was found passed out inside the car.

Michael, who was referred to by his birth name, George Panayiotou, wasn't in court, and the pleas were entered by his attorney, Keima Payton.

Judge Katherine Marshall provisionally set a trial date for April 23, but Payton said blood samples taken on the night of his arrest weren't legal, meaning the trial should be scrapped.

"Are you saying prosecution should not take place because it is unfair?" Marshall asked.

"Indeed," Payton said.

Arguments were set for March 7 to discuss whether the blood sample taken from Michael was inadmissible. The judge excused Michael's attendance for that hearing, too.

Michael rose to fame in the 1980s as half of the duo Wham! before starting his solo career.

Source: http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070110/george_mike_070110/20070110?hub=Entertainment

Mel's movie tops box office

"YOU can't hope for better than the No 1 spot," says Mel Gibson, citing the opening weekend box office for his ancient Mayan chase pic, Apocalypto.

Gibson's latest epic has which reaped a three-day gross of $US15 million ($A19 million).

Still, that's nothing compared with the dollars Gibson collected from his previous directing job, The Passion of the Christ.

Gibson's controversial retelling of the Crucifixion opened on Good Friday of 2004 and made a whopping $US85.8 million ($A110 million) its first weekend out.

"Of course, I knew Apocalypto wouldn't do that kind of business," Gibson said by phone from Los Angeles. And not, he asserted, because of any fallout from his July arrest on drink-driving charges and subsequent anti-Semitic rantings.

He blames it on the shops.

"No, I don't think it (the scandal) had an impact," said Gibson, who has been on a public campaign of self-reflection, contrition and reconciliation with Jewish leaders since his infamous outburst.

"It was a soft weekend all around. There were other good pictures out there and they were all in line with one another. Everyone was at Christmas parties or shopping. ... But, hey, I'm not sneezing at it. No 1 - I think it's great."

Apocalypto also has landed a Golden Globe nomination for best foreign language film (the actors, indigenous Americans, speak Yucatec). Whether the widely praised film will garner Oscar nods is another question. Gibson, who won best picture and best director Academy Awards for Braveheart, was criticised by religious leaders for his villainous depiction of Jewish high priests in The Passion.

The actor and moviemaker's anti-Jew eruptions hardly helped matters. Can he still be embraced by the Hollywood community?

"Hey, awards and stuff like that, or being embraced, is not the ultimate goal of what I do," he said.
"What I'm doing is what I love - it's a passion for telling stories. These other things are, and have always been, by-products. Who was ever embraced by the Hollywood community, tell me? . . .
People, if they're creative and they have something to say, they just do it, and it's either consumed or not."

But doesn't he feel that he's alienated a significant group of his peers?

"If I have, there's nothing I can do about it, and there's no way of gauging it either," Gibson said. "In my dealings it's always straight-ahead here, business as usual. And most people are very understanding. There's very few of us that haven't made a mistake or goofed up somewhere along the line. People understand humanity and human failure. There you go, you know."

Like Braveheart and The Passion before it, the $US40 million ($A51 million) Apocalypto - which Gibson financed and filmed last year in Mexico - is graphically, rhapsodically violent. There are impalings, decapitations, scenes of people getting their hearts ripped from their chests. Some critics have said it's too much, that Gibson's penchant for gore is obsessive, fetishistic.

"Well, it's part and parcel of the subject matter, and the story," he said. "Apocalypto is set in the fading glory days of the Mayan civilisation, when tribe preyed upon tribe, and priests practised human sacrifice.

"People either really love it or they really hate it. Looking at some of the people that really hate it, I think maybe there's a little disingenuousness and jealousy there. One always has to ask, is that honest? Is that an honest criticism? And sometimes it is, and sometimes it isn't. But it's of little consequence . . . I make the story that I want to tell and put it out there and try to share it with people."

How does he mean, "disingenuousness"?

"Well, when you read things like `it's boring'. I know it's not boring. So why is he saying that? ...

Some critics are really honest, great, erudite. Others are bitter. I mean, imagine having to see that many movies every week. You'd get jaded really fast."

Gibson, 50, hasn't appeared onscreen for several years: He had a role in the little seen 2003 release The Singing Detective, and was, of course, the star of M Night Shyamalan's 2002 extraterrestrial thriller, Signs.

A couple of projects he's been linked to - Under and Alone, about an undercover agent who joins the Mongols biker gang, and Richard Donner's Sam and George - are on the back burner.

"I love it when I do it," he said of acting. "I just haven't gotten around to it for awhile. That's not to say I won't. But if you do something for 30 years you get an appetite for something more. Or something else."

And what's next as a director? After films in Aramaic and Yucatec, is there another dead language and culture he'd like to explore? "I'm not sure what's next," he said. "I'm on the hunt. I might try something out of left field, you know."

Like The Passion of the Christ and Apocalypto aren't?

"Yeah, in a sense. But I mean out of left field if you think about those. I'll focus somewhere else. I think it's time."
Source: http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,20953066-5006023,00.html

EU Commission proposes migrants' green card

The European Commission will propose a green card this year giving highly skilled migrants easier access to the European Union, officials said on Tuesday.

The U.S. so-called green card is a coveted identification card that allows immigrants to live and work in the United States and eventually apply for U.S. citizenship.

The EU proposal touches on one of the hottest political issues in Europe - immigration - and could face strong resistance from several EU states, all of which have to agree for it to come into effect.

"We are going to make a specific proposal for the admission of high skilled workers. We foresee a green card," an EU Commission official told Reuters news agency.

"The green card would be valid in the 27 EU states, to be attractive," the official said. The EU executive plans to present the proposal early in the second half of 2007.

Under the EU plan, which is still being drafted, access might be subject to certain limits, a second official said. But the overall aim would be to make it easier for migrants with a green card to work in a number of EU states, he said.

Germany, which took over the rotating six-month EU presidency on Jan. 1, has led opposition to any pan-EU policy on legal migration, rejecting interference in its labour market.

Germany's then ruling Social Democrats introduced a Green Card programme in 2000 to try to lure foreign from India and other countries.

Restrictions

EU officials argue a pan-EU programme, allowing skilled migrants to move around the bloc, would be more attractive.

Marriage to a U.S. citizen is one of the easiest ways for a foreigner to obtain a U.S. green card, but it is also based on employment criteria with priority for highly skilled candidates.

Australia and Canada have a points-based system favouring those with high education and language skills.

In the EU, the approach to legal immigration differs from country to country. Most allow only limited new immigration except for family reunification, and work permits for people with specific skills and a job contract.

The EU is also struggling to sort out its own citizens' right to work within the bloc. Citizens of some older member states fear floods of cheap workers from the bloc's newcomers.

Many old EU members still impose restrictions on workers from the 10 mostly ex-communist member states which joined in 2004, and from Romania and Bulgaria which joined on Jan. 1.

While they have done little on legal migration, EU states have in the past few years beefed up their cooperation on illegal migration, including joint patrols to prevent African migrants reaching the wealthy bloc by boat.

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=427651&in_page_id=1811

Merkel's hope for an EU superstate

Moves to revive the rejected EU constitution are under way, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said yesterday.

She said every member state would be consulted during Germany's six-month presidency of the EU, which began on January 1.

Plans to adopt the constitution, intended to speed up decision-making in the enlarged, 27-member EU, were effectively killed when it was rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005.

But Mrs Merkel declared that 'the period of reflection is over' and said she wants a constitution in place before European elections in 2009.

She said she wants to save as much as possible of the draft text: 'We are not starting from scratch.'

Mrs Merkel added: 'We will consult every member state about who has reservations about what, who has which concrete expectations and wishes for changes.'

But she admitted the German plan was a 'tall order', as it needs the support of all EU members.

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=427639&in_page_id=1811

Safety problems persist in Ontario: SARS report

Toronto's outbreaks of SARS were likely not preventable, the final report of a provincially appointed commission said Tuesday, but more could have been done to protect the safety of health-care workers. The Ontario Ministry of Labour was sidelined during the outbreaks that killed 44 people in the Toronto area, the 1,204-page report called Spring of Fear said, calling for the ministry to play a lead role in future infectious disease outbreaks.

Having occupational health experts involved in containing the outbreaks would have helped protect hospital workers, said the report by Justice Archie Campbell, who was ill Tuesday and unable to attend a news conference.

"Justice Campbell found that systemic problems ran through every hospital and every government agency," said Doug Hunt, chief counsel for the commission.

Hospitals, the report said, are as dangerous for workers as mines and factories, and the courage of front-line health workers saved the province from a worse disaster.

Among Ontario's 375 SARS cases, 45 of those afflicted were health-care workers. Two nurses and a doctor died from SARS.

Source:http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2007/01/09/sars-campbell.html#skip300x250

US submarine collides with Japanese ship

TOKYO: A nuclear-powered US submarine and a Japanese commercial ship have collided near the Arabian Sea, US and Japanese officials said on Tuesday.

A Pentagon spokesman in Washington confirmed the report, saying the US submarine had collided with a Japanese merchant ship south of the Straits of Hormuz, located between Iran and Oman.

There had been no major damage due to the collision and the Japanese tanker was now at a port in the United Arab Emirates.

The 110-meter (360-foot) long submarine carries 127 officers and enlisted crew and is based in Norfolk, Virginia, according to the Navy's website.

On February 9, 2001 another nuclear-powered US submarine Greenville sank the Japanese fisheries training ship Ehime Maru during a rapid ascent off the coast of Hawaii, killing nine people on board, including four teenage students.
Source: http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1073483

Gas smell causes a stink in Manhattan

A powerful, mysterious smell of gas has wafted through much of Manhattan and parts of New Jersey, forcing building evacuations and a temporary suspension of commuter train service before dissipating by mid-afternoon.

Officials were quick to stress that the odour was not dangerous, but at least 19 people went to the hospital with minor ailments and its wide extent provoked jitters in a city that constantly reminded of the September 11 attacks.

Twelve people were taken by ambulance to New York hospitals by emergency workers responding to calls from people complaining of upset stomachs, dizziness or difficulty breathing, a Fire Department spokesman said.

"It was all minor," said the spokesman, although he said a total of 409 fire trucks and hook and ladder rigs were scrambled to investigate the fumes - about six times more than during a normal period.

A spokesman for ConEdison said the company had found no problems in its natural gas system that would have explained the smell. "We did not find any gas leak or any problem on our gas system," spokesman Joseph Peta said. "At this point the cause of the odour remains a mystery."

Seven people went to the hospital seeking treatment in New Jersey, just across the Hudson River from New York, although New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the odour was not dangerous and no unusual gas leaks had been found.

"It may just be an unpleasant smell, but at this point we do not know any more than that. The one thing we are confident about is, it is not dangerous," Bloomberg told a news conference.

"The city's air sensors do not report any elevated level of natural gas," he said.

The gas-like smell permeated lower Manhattan and was detected as far north as Central Park, across the width of the island, and in New Jersey.

A US Department of Homeland Security spokesman said there was no indication of a terrorism connection.

Four schools in Manhattan were briefly evacuated, and the odour chased people out of landmarks such as the Rockefeller Centre and Macy's department store.

"It was really, really bad then, so bad it gave me a headache," said Kate Browne, who lives in the West Village neighbourhood and said she could smell the gas when she took her daughter to school.

"The emergency services turned up at my daughter's school looking for the leak then," she said.

Part of the New York-New Jersey PATH commuter train system, which carries 225,000 passengers a day, was closed temporarily as a precaution but normal service quickly resumed.

Several office buildings were evacuated and their air conditioning systems shut down, but city officials soon told building managers that people could return to work.

"There have been no abnormal changes in gas flow in our gas transmission lines," a spokesman for power utility Con Edison said. He declined to answer questions.

Bloomberg said there had been a small gas leak in lower Manhattan, but that was not nearly enough to account for the wide range of the odour. The city was blanketed with low clouds and there was light rain and little wind.

The smell reminded some locals of an incident in October 2005 with the more pleasing scent of pancakes and maple syrup. That mystery also sent an unidentified scent through Manhattan and New Jersey and prompted a multi-agency investigation that proved fruitless.

Natural gas is odourless and a chemical called methyl mercaptan is added to it so that people can detect leaks. The chemical adds an odour similar to rotten eggs or sulphur, which was what people smelled during their morning commute.

Source: http://www.theage.com.au/news/World/Mayor-denies-New-York-smell-is-dangerous/2007/01/09/1168104947122.html

U.S. targets al-Qaida in Somalia attack

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. military launched a strike Monday against three suspected members of al-Qaida in Somalia, one of whom is linked to the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed more than 250 people, media outlets reported Monday.

The targets, according to the Los Angeles Times and CBS News, included the senior al-Qaida leader in East Africa and an al-Qaida operative wanted for his involvement in the embassy attacks.

Citing Pentagon sources, the Times and CBS reported that an Air Force AC-130 gunship led the attack against the site at the southern tip of Somalia. There was no confirmation that the Air Force had killed any of the al-Qaida targets.

U.S. officials have secretly been negotiating with Somalian clans that are thought to have sheltered the three men, hoping to get information about their locations.

CIA, FBI and military teams have been tracking the men, particularly their alleged leader, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, for years, but they have proved elusive.

U.S. officials and their African and European allies in the negotiations believe that one Somalian sub-clan in particular has been harboring Mohammed and his associates, whom the U.S. describes as the leaders of an East Africa al-Qaida cell. Mohammed faces terror charges in the U.S. that could bring a death penalty if he is captured and convicted.

Mohammed, who has a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head, was indicted in 1998 by a federal grand jury along with Osama bin Laden and others for his alleged role in the embassy bombings.

Source:http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070109/LOCAL17/701090397/-1/ZONES04

Diana death inquest to reopen

The deaths of Britain's Princess Diana and her lover Dodi Fayed in a 1997 car crash, one of the most thoroughly investigated events of recent times, comes in for more scrutiny on Monday when an inquest reopens after a three-year break.

Three weeks ago, a lengthy police investigation ruled that the crash was an accident and the two were not the victims of an elaborate murder plot. A two-year French investigation had already come to that conclusion.

Diana, who was 36, Fayed and their chauffeur Henri Paul died when their Mercedes limousine smashed at high speed into a pillar in a Paris road tunnel after they sped away from the Ritz Hotel, pursued by paparazzi on motorbikes.

In the decade since the accident, a host of conspiracy theories flourished suggesting the couple were murdered because their relationship was embarrassing the British royal family.

The death of the "People's Princess" -- divorced from heir to the throne Prince Charles and the world's most photographed woman -- sparked an outpouring of grief in Britain.

A two-year French investigation ruled out foul play, saying Paul was responsible because he was drunk, under the influence of anti-depressants and driving too fast.

But that has not stopped skeptics pointing the finger of blame at British spies acting on the orders of Queen Elizabeth's husband Prince Phillip or even of Prince Charles.

When the formal British inquest opened in 2004, it was immediately adjourned in dramatic fashion by the then royal coroner Michael Burgess to allow police to carry out a top-level investigation into the allegations.

That three-year inquiry, headed by former London police chief John Stevens, reported last month that it agreed with the French probe's conclusions, with thorough tests showing the chauffeur had been drinking before the crash.

It also dismissed claims Diana was pregnant and was engaged, or about to get engaged, to Fayed.

"On the evidence available now, there was no conspiracy to murder any of the occupants of that car. This was a tragic accident," Stevens said.

Secret hearings

But under British law an inquest is needed to determine the cause of death when someone dies unnaturally. It cannot apportion blame but can rule that the death was "unnatural," due to violence or an accident.

The police report will be at the center of the inquest, which resumes on Monday, but Stevens said his findings should not prejudge its conclusions.

The inquest has already attracted controversy after Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, who took over last year as the presiding judge, decided initial hearings should be conducted in secret.

She changed her mind after strong criticism from Fayed's father Mohamed al Fayed, owner of the London store Harrods and the leading advocate of murder conspiracy theories.

Preliminary hearings will decide whether inquests into Diana and Fayed's deaths should be held together, whether a jury should be present and if so, who will take part.

Nothing short of a full public inquiry is likely to satisfy al Fayed. "I will never accept this cover-up of what really happened," he said after the Stevens report, which he called "garbage."

"For nine years I have fought against overwhelming odds and monstrous official obstructions. I will not stop now in my quest for the truth."

Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/01/05/diana.inquest.reut/index.html

Chinese Casinos Take on Vegas

If you're feeling lucky, then you might want to book a ticket to Macau.

Forget Monte Carlo, Atlantic City, even Las Vegas. The sleepy coastal backwater, an hour ferry ride away from Hong Kong, seems set to surpass Vegas to become the gambling capital of the world.

The gaming revenues in the Chinese-held territory are expected to top $6.8 billion this year, slightly more cash than Las Vegas' casinos will bring in.

It has been a stunning transformation for this former Portuguese colony. Macau had long been known throughout Asia as a gambling mecca, but was dominated by a tawdry gambling scene, seedy nightlife and a fair share of corruption and vice.

Most of the gamblers were day-trippers from Hong Kong, who would head home flush or broke at the end of the night.

A Vegas Facelift

But, in recent years, Macau has undergone a multi-million dollar facelift. Since the Chinese government allowed foreign casinos to begin operating on Macau in 1991, major players have been setting up shop and cashing in.

American casino magnate Steve Wynn opened a glitzy, Vegas-style resort on Macau. The Sands group built what is now the world's biggest casino here, and others have followed suit.

The result has been Southeast Asia's own version of the Vegas strip, complete with all of the glamour and grandeur you'd expect, from lavish fountains to neon lights. It seems to be a bet that is paying off in spades.

Stephen Weaver, the vice president of Asian development for the Sands, says the investment in Macau has paid off for the casinos.

"We earned back our investment in this property in nine or 10 months," he says. "That is a successful investment by anybody's standard."

Fun for Young and Old

With the encouragement of the Macau government, the newest casinos are also selling themselves as resort destinations for the entire family — offering recreation facilities, organized tours, health clubs, and exotic spas. Their hope is that families will come and stay for several days, as they now do in Las Vegas.

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Travel/story?id=2647650&page=1

Woman Accused of Killing Husband for Boob Job

In a murder trial that began in California this week, a young mother is accused of using arsenic to kill her Marine husband to, according to prosecutors, pay for plastic surgery and a shopping spree.

The murder mystery has gripped San Diego and a Marine Corps Air Station.

Cynthia Sommer, 33, is accused of poisoning her husband Todd Sommer, a Marine, with arsenic for financial gain so she could afford plastic surgery and a shopping spree.

Sommer is accused of murdering her husband in order to collect his $250,000 life insurance policy. Prosecutors say soon after he died, Sommer spent $5,400 on breast implants and hosted boisterous parties at her home on the base.

They recounted what she said when medics removed his body.

"She said something to the effect of, 'We joked about the life insurance policy, but I never thought I'd actually see it,'" San Diego County Deputy District Attorney Laura Gunn said.

Todd Sommer's death was initially ruled a heart attack, but tests later found arsenic in his liver at levels 1,000 times above normal.

But the mystery has deepened because analysts say the prosecutor has been unable tie Sommer's wife to the poison.

"She doesn't have any evidence linking Sommer to possessing or trying to buy arsenic," said Beth Karras, a Court TV news correspondent. "She has ways of trying to get around it. She did a lot with what she had. It's a tough case though."

Sommer's attorney Robert Udell said the state is pursuing a case based only on circumstantial evidence and that his client is not guilty.

"There's still not one piece of evidence, one document, one hearsay statement connecting Cindy with arsenic, or even the attempt to get arsenic," Udell said.

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/LegalCenter/story?id=2775274&page=1

Painting of Jolie Draws Notice

A North Carolina artist intrigued by the public obsession with celebrity has found herself feeding that obsession with a painting of actress Angelina Jolie as the Virgin Mary hovering over a Wal-Mart check-out line.

Kate Kretz has painted for 20 years but none of her previous work has garnered the attention given "Blessed Art Thou," showing this weekend at Art Miami, an annual exposition of modern and contemporary art.

The painting has gotten much attention from celebrity web sites and blogs. Since the buzz started, the number of daily unique visitors to Kretz's own blog has jumped from an average of 30 to 15,000 on Wednesday.

"My intention was to ask a question and get people to think," Kretz said in a telephone interview Friday from Miami. "I had no idea so many people would be asking a question and thinking."

The painting acrylic and oil on linen depicts an angelic Jolie in the clouds, holding her newborn daughter, Shiloh, with children Maddox and Zahara at her legs. Below them is a Wal-Mart checkout line. The painting is for sale for $50,000 through Chelsea Galleria in Miami, which represents Kretz.

On her blog, Kretz, 43, said the painting addresses "the celebrity worship cycle." She said she chose Jolie for the subject "because of her unavoidable presence in the media, the worldwide anticipation of her child, her 'unattainable' beauty and the good that she is doing in the world through her example, which adds another layer to the already complicated questions surrounding her status."

Washington Post art critic Blake Gopnik, asked to comment about "Blessed Art Thou" on a Post blog, was unimpressed. "Once you've deciphered it, there's not much chance of giving it a second look," Gopnik wrote.

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2776438

Amniotic Fluid Yields Stem Cells

Scientists reported Sunday they had found a plentiful source of stem cells in the fluid that cushions babies in the womb and produced a variety of tissue types from these cells sidestepping the controversy over destroying embryos for research.

Researchers at Wake Forest University and Harvard University reported the stem cells they drew from amniotic fluid donated by pregnant women hold much the same promise as embryonic stem cells. They reported they were able to extract the stem cells without harm to mother or fetus and turn their discovery into several different tissue cell types, including brain, liver and bone.

"Our hope is that these cells will provide a valuable resource for tissue repair and for engineered organs as well," said Dr. Anthony Atala, head of Wake Forest's regenerative medicine institute and senior researcher on the project.

It took Atala's team some seven years of research to determine the cells they found were truly stem cells that "can be used to produce a broad range of cells that may be valuable for therapy."

However, the scientists noted they still don't know exactly how many different cell types can be made from the stem cells found in amniotic fluid. They also said that even preliminary tests in patients are years away.

Still, Atala said the research reported in the scientific journal Nature Biotechnology expands far beyond similar work discussed at a heart research conference in November. There, Swiss researcher Simon Hoerstrup said he managed to turn amniotic fluid stem cells into heart cells that could be grown into replacement valves. Hoerstrup has yet to publish his work in a scientific journal.

Atala said the new research has found even more promising stem cells with the potential to turn into many more medically useful replacement parts.

"We have other cell lines cooking," Atala said.

The hallmark of human embryonic stem cells, which are created in the first days after conception, is the ability to turn into any of the more than 220 cell types that make up the human body. Researchers are hopeful they can train these primordial cells to repair damaged organs in need of healthy cells.

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory?id=2776804

Sri Lanka detains 3 in bomb blasts

Three people have been detained for questioning after bus bombs blamed on Tamil separatist rebels killed at least 21 people and wounded dozens more, Sri Lanka's Defense Ministry said Sunday. The insurgents have denied involvement.

The government meanwhile reaffirmed its commitment to the peace process and urged the rebels to resume negotiations.

Security forces said a Tamil rebel suicide bomber killed at least 15 people and wounded 40 more Saturday on a bus in the coastal town of Meetiyagoda, 95 kilometers (60 miles) south of the capital, Colombo, and near several popular resort towns.

It was not clear if the dead bomber was included in the official death toll. Police could not immediately be reached early Sunday.

Less than 24 hours earlier, a bus bomb also blamed on the Tamil Tigers killed at least six people just northeast of Colombo.

Police detained three people late Saturday in connection with the blast earlier that day, an official at the Defense Ministry's Media Center for National Security said Sunday. The officer, who cannot be named due to military policy, had no other details.

The rebels, formally known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, have been fighting for decades for an independent homeland for the Tamil ethnic minority in Sri Lanka's north and east, because of discrimination at the hands of the majority-Sinhalese government.

As a major foreign donor called for an end to the escalating violence that killed more than 3,600 in 2006, Sri Lanka's government urged a return to peace talks.

"The government reaffirms its total commitment to a peaceful settlement for the north and east," it said in statement released late Saturday.

"The government appeals to the international community to condemn such acts of terror and prevail on the LTTE to renounce violence and return to the negotiating table," it said.

Cowardly acts of terrorism'

Japan also called for change in a statement e-mailed to news organizations.

"These attacks, which deliberately targeted innocent common people, must be condemned as cowardly acts of terrorism, and such incidents must not be repeated in future," the Japanese Embassy said in a statement.

Police said Saturday's blast was triggered by a female Tamil rebel.

"There is a female body inside the bus, and looking at the damage the blast has caused around her, we suspect that she could have been a suicide bomber," said senior police official Upul Ariyaratne.

Violence has risen sharply in Sri Lanka over the past year, but most has occurred in the ethnic Tamil-dominated north and east, where the rebels run their own de facto state in some areas. The latest bloodshed appeared to signal an escalation of the ethnic conflict ravaging the South Asian island nation.

"The LTTE are losing their strength in the east. Because of this, they are targeting innocent civilians," said military spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe.

The rebels have made suicide bombings a hallmark of their two-decade campaign to carve out a separate state for minority Tamils.

Yet the rebels said they were not involved.

"We totally deny that. We did not do that, that's all I can say," the rebels' military spokesman, Rasiah Ilanthirayan, told The Associated Press by telephone from the group's northern stronghold, Kilinochchi.

On Wednesday, the rebels warned the government of "serious repercussions" for a government airstrike they said killed 16 Tamil civilians, including eight children, in a Tiger-controlled northwestern area. The military said it targeted only rebel positions in the raid Tuesday.

The renewed fighting has seriously threatened a 2002 cease-fire between the rebels and the government, although the truce still officially holds.

The civil war has claimed about 68,000 lives, and displaced 1.6 million people.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/01/07/srilanka.blasts.ap/index.html

Third snowstorm smacks Colorado

now-weary Colorado was hammered with its third snowstorm in as many weeks, complicating recovery efforts from back-to-back blizzards and raising fears that livestock losses would keep mounting.

The Denver area was blanketed with up to 8 inches of snow Friday, while nearly a foot fell in the foothills west of the city before the storm moved into New Mexico.

In Kansas, an estimated 60,000 people were still without power after more than a week, and between 6,000 to 10,000 customers remained in the dark in Nebraska, according to Nebraska Public Power District.

Crews in Colorado worked around the clock to clear roads so residents could get to stores for food and medicine. Several school districts canceled classes because winds gusts up to 30 mph had reduced visibility.

The roofs of two buildings in hard-hit southeastern Colorado -- the Walsh post office and a restaurant in Elizabeth -- collapsed under the weight of the accumulated snow. No injuries were reported, the state Division of Emergency Management said.

Agriculture officials were trying to determine how to deal with the carcasses of thousands of livestock that were killed in last week's blizzard or starved afterward.

An estimated 3,500 cattle are believed to have died on rangeland in six southeastern Colorado counties alone, said Leonard Pruett, the region's agriculture extension agent for Colorado State University.

"The magnitude of the snow out here is astounding," said Ed Cordes, project manager for Pioneer Pork, which has about 7,500 sows and 4,000 young pigs on a ranch near Springfield, about 200 miles southeast of Denver.

American Humane Association workers arrived Friday to help rescue and feed young pigs that might have been orphaned because they became separated from their mothers or whose mothers' milk production declined, Cordes said.

Owners of feedlots, where range cattle are taken before slaughter, were still calculating their losses.

Luke Lind, a vice president of Five Rivers Cattle Feeding, which has 10 feedlots in Colorado, Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma, said the mortality rate could be "significant," but he declined to give specific numbers. Five Rivers had 60,000 cattle in pens in the Lamar, Colorado, area alone, he said.

In a massive effort to save stranded rangeland cattle, the Colorado National Guard conducted a three-day airlift that dropped about 3,000 hay bales to herds spotted on the rangeland. Troops trucked in hay and smashed ice on watering holes for livestock trapped and weakened by the earlier blizzard.

While that likely saved livestock, the survivors still face the threat of lung infections from the stress of the storm and dehydration, Pruett said.

In Washington, Sen. Wayne Allard and Rep. Marilyn Musgrave introduced bills Friday to help speed financial aid to ranchers who have lost livestock in Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, New Mexico and Oklahoma.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2007/WEATHER/01/06/winter.storms.ap/index.html

Bets off on Prince William wedding

Shhh! Prince William, Britain's future king, will marry on July 19.

A British bookmaker has closed its books on William and Kate Middleton getting hitched on that day after it received a number of bets the couple will tie the knot then.

"We've taken a number of large bets -- one punter wanted to place a £1,000 bet -- that the couple will marry on July 19, so we're no longer accepting wagers on that day," a William Hill spokesman told Reuters.

William Hill stands to lose in excess of £50,000 if the couple marry in 2007 and more than £20,000 if they wed on July 19.

Earlier this week William and Kate were given an unusually high level of police security when 10 officers provided the couple with a cordon as they emerged from a London nightclub, fueling rumors of an imminent engagement announcement.

William and Kate shared a house as students at St. Andrews University in Scotland. From there, romance gradually blossomed.

Middleton, who turns 25 next week, is the daughter of affluent parents who sent her to private school and live in a five-bedroom house in the heart of the English countryside.

They run their own mail order party supplies company.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/01/06/william.wedding.reut/index.html

Japan's "Cup Noodle" king dies aged 96

The Japanese inventor of instant noodles, a snack that has sold billions of servings worldwide since its launch, died on Friday at the age of 96, according to an official at Nissin Food Products Co. (2897.T: Quote, NEWS , Research), the company he founded.

Born in Taiwan in 1910 while it was under Japanese occupation, Momofuku Ando ran clothing and other companies in Taipei and Osaka early in his career.

He was inspired to develop the world's first instant noodle product after coming across a long line of people waiting to buy fresh "ramen" noodles from a black market stall during the food shortages after World War Two, Japanese media said.

After his Chicken Ramen product became hugely popular in 1958, despite a luxury price-tag of 35 yen, he went on to bring out the Cup Noodle in 1971.

Providing the instant noodles in a waterproof styrofoam container that could be used to cook them using just hot water proved a stroke of marketing genius that made the product a hit with time-pressed people around the world.

Ando remained in the public eye until recently -- appearing on television in 2005 to promote a version of the Cup Noodle adapted for astronauts to eat aboard the space shuttle Discovery.

Often seen devouring servings of the dish he invented, Ando opened a museum devoted to instant noodles in Osaka in 1999. Ando is survived by his wife, Masako.

Source: http://today.reuters.com/news/articlebusiness.aspx?type=ousiv&storyID=2007-01-06T073249Z_01_T138929_RTRIDST_0_BUSINESSPRO-INSTANT-NOODLES-JAPAN-DC.XML&from=business

EU urges U.S. to seize chance for global trade deal

EU trade chief Peter Mandelson, preparing for talks in Washington on how to save world trade negotiations, urged Europe and the United States on Saturday to show political leadership to get a deal by April.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, leading a delegation to the U.S. capital, is to press the trade issue with President George W. Bush on Monday.

He will also urge Bush to do more on climate change, work more closely on securing energy supplies and the two will discuss Middle East peace efforts.

Mandelson is to meet U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab, with whom he has swapped blame for July's suspension of the World Trade Organization's Doha round of talks to boost global trade. He said it was an opportunity to revive the process.

Mandelson said "quiet, constructive bilateral contacts" recently showed a possible outline of a final deal which must be reached in the coming months after which the round, already into its sixth year of talks, risks long delays.

"We have now entered a narrow window of opportunity lasting until Easter during which success for the world trade talks is possible," Mandelson said in a statement. "We now need the added momentum of political leadership from the highest level. Europe and the U.S. have a shared responsibility to make this happen."

U.S. officials say a breakthrough is unlikely on Monday
Source: http://today.reuters.com/news/articlebusiness.aspx?type=ousiv&storyID=2007-01-06T181837Z_01_L06738339_RTRIDST_0_BUSINESSPRO-EU-USA-DC.XML&from=business

Oprah Winfrey targeted in extortion scheme: report

An Atlanta man has been charged with trying to extort $1.5 million from Oprah Winfrey over tapes of telephone calls between him and a Winfrey employee that he said would embarrass the popular U.S. talk show host, according to court documents and media reports on Saturday.

Keifer Bonvillain is charged in federal court trying to extort money by threatening to injure a person's reputation, according to court documents.

A criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago does not identify Winfrey, but refers to an "Individual A," as "a public figure and the owner of a Chicago-based company."

he Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune on Saturday identified Individual A as Winfrey -- whose Harpo Studios is based in Chicago. They cited unidentified sources close to the investigation.

Neither Winfrey, who was in South Africa opening a $40 million school for girls she had paid for, nor her press representatives could be reached immediately for comment.

According to the complaint, filed on December 14, Bonvillain first wrote to his target in October and said an employee was saying "awful things" about the individual.

Bonvillain then wrote to the person's business on November 17 and said he had tapes of conversations with the employee that would be embarrassing, according to the complaint. The court documents did not disclose the content of the tapes.
Source: http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2007-01-06T212840Z_01_N06270809_RTRUKOC_0_US-CRIME-OPRAH.xml&src=rss