Obama to ask his donors to help storm victims

LIMA, Ohio (Map, News) - Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama said Sunday he will tap his huge political network of donors and volunteers to help U.S. victims of Hurricane Gustav after it comes inland.

"I think we can get tons of volunteers to travel down there, if it becomes necessary," Obama told reporters after attending St. Luke's Lutheran Church in Lima, Ohio.

"I think we can activate an e-mail list of a couple of million people who want to give back," he said. Donations could include cash, goods and individual labor, he said.

Obama said he first would ask officials in the affected areas what is most needed, which may not be known for a few days.

"We don't want to solicit a bunch of canned goods that can't get there, or, you know, bottles of water where they already have water," he said.

Obama said he might visit storm-damaged areas once "things have settled down."

"The thing that I am always concerned about in the middle of a storm is whether we are drawing resources away from folks on the ground," he said, referring to the security demands his traveling entourage makes on local police and other officials.

Obama said he saw no problem with Republican rival John McCain's trip Sunday to Mississippi ahead of the storm's landfall. "I'm assuming that where he went, that wasn't an issue," Obama said.

Obama later conducted phone interviews with several Gulf Coast radio and TV stations, urging listeners to follow local officials' instructions about evacuations, his campaign said.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

McCain orders convention changes because of storm

ST. PAUL, Minn. (Map, News) - John McCain ordered changes in the Republican National Convention that was to be a four-day celebration of his presidential nomination Sunday, to "redirect our efforts" to reflect the seriousness of Hurricane Gustav as it churned toward the Gulf Coast. President Bush, Vice President Cheney and prominent GOP governors decided to skip the gathering altogether.

"I pledge that tomorrow night, and if necessary throughout our convention, we will act as Americans and not as Republicans because America needs us now," McCain said.

McCain, his wife Cindy, and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, toured the emergency management center in Mississippi, a state that could be hit hard by the approaching hurricane.

The Bush White House and Republicans in general are still shadowed by criticism of their handling of relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans and parts of the Mississippi Gulf Coast three years ago. Party leaders fear that televised scenes of celebrations and partying at the convention could subject them to similar criticism now.

"We must redirect our efforts from the really celebratory event of the nomination of the president and vice president of our party to acting as all Americans," McCain told reporters.

Party leaders were considering shortening the big four-day event as Gustav approached the Gulf Coast with potentially deadly strength.

The McCain campaign was chartering a DC-9 jetliner from St. Paul for any delegates from the coastal region who wanted to return home.

The convention, a marquee event meant to send McCain into the fall campaign with a burst of energy and good feeling, already was becoming overwhelmed by alarming news of the hurricane just three years after deadly Katrina struck New Orleans.

GOP officials were tracking the path of the storm, trying to determine how to complete the official business of nominating McCain while also being sensitive to the thousands of people fleeing the Gulf Coast - more than 1,000 miles down the Mississippi from St. Paul.

Even as delegates streamed into the convention city, McCain and Palin got briefings from officials in Jackson. He was invited by Republican Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour.

President Bush said he would go to Texas on Monday to see emergency workers. He said he wouldn't go to Louisiana right away because he didn't want his presence to interfere with emergency operations. "I hope to be able to get to Louisiana as soon as conditions permit," he told reporters after meeting with federal emergency officials in Washington.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger backed out of his convention visit in an unrelated budget dispute with California legislators.

All three - Bush, Cheney and Schwarzenegger - had been scheduled to address the convention on Monday, its opening day.

Democrats turned their attention to the storm as well. Presidential nominee Barack Obama offered to tap his sprawling network of donors and volunteers to help any victims of Gustav.

"I think we can get tons of volunteers to travel down there if it becomes necessary," Obama told reporters after attending St. Luke's Lutheran Church in Lima, Ohio. "I think we can activate an e-mail list of a couple of million people who want to give back," he said.

He said donations could include cash, goods and individual labor.

Obama said he might visit storm-damaged areas once "things have settled down."

Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor who is scheduled to be the convention's keynote speaker, said Sunday, "We have to make sure the focus is on the South, on Gustav, make sure that all of the resources are there, and that anything that is done with regard to the convention doesn't take anything away from that and is done in a serious way."

He spoke on CBS' "Face the Nation."

McCain said he had conferred by phone with Govs. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Bob Riley of Alabama and Charlie Crist of Florida. Crist wasn't coming to St. Paul, even though he had been given a prominent speaking role, and the others weren't coming either.

McCain went to Mississippi as convention officials, GOP Chairman Mike Duncan, and McCain Campaign Manager Rick Davis huddled to determine what to do about the convention. Republicans with knowledge of the deliberations said shortening their four-day national convention - and packing necessary work into a couple of days - was one option.

Several officials said various possibilities were being considered - including adding more public-service elements, and trimming back the pep-rally segments.

Canceling the convention altogether seemed highly unlikely, given that the party has to take formal steps to make sure McCain is nominated and can get on the ballot.

"We're going to have a convention. We have to endorse a candidate. But it may be a different convention than what we thought of a couple days ago," said Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman.

Mississippi Republican Chairman Brad White said most of his state's 39 delegates were to arrive Sunday. About 10-15 delegates, mostly from Mississippi's three southernmost counties, were staying home, he said.

He said he did not know of any delegates who planned to take the McCain campaign up on its offer of a chartered plane to fly home. "Keep in mind, those areas are under a mandatory evacuation, so right now they couldn't go home anyway," White said.

Democrats were paring back their activities in St. Paul.

Party spokesman Brad Woodhouse said the Democrats had canceled a "More of the Same" rally that had been slated for Monday. He said the tone of the Democratic rapid response effort would depend on the changes Republicans make in their convention program.

In other convention news, the Republican candidate's wife, Cindy McCain, said her husband's choice of Palin, a first-term Alaska governor little known outside her home state, was "a marvelous choice."

"They're a perfect match," she told ABC's "This Week" in a taped interview. Why? "Because she's a reformer. And she thinks outside the box, the way my husband does," Cindy McCain said. "You know, Washington is just a quagmire. It's a mess right now. And both of them have been serious reformers."

As to Palin's lack of national security experience, Cindy McCain said, "Alaska is the closest part of our continent to Russia. So, it's not as if she doesn't understand what's at stake here. It's also about making decisions and be targeted in what she thinks. She has a great mind. And she has a very serious direction in where she goes."

Also defending McCain's running mate choice was Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, passed over by McCain for the No. 2 spot. He called Palin "a maverick with a record of reform."

---

Associated Press writers Liz Sidoti, Charles Babington in Lima, Ohio, and Beth Fouhy in Jackson, Miss., contributed to this report.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

5 Fashion Trends Men Hate the Most

We all know that men are no longer those poor, lost souls when it comes to fashion or, as a matter of fact, to most things that have been, until now, deemed "feminine" par excellence. Which is why, since they do make the best cooks, hair and makeup stylists, and designers, we should probably also listen to what they have to say when it comes to some of the fashion trends that are sweeping the world (and dragging along millions of women in the process) like crazy.

Now, some of what follows are probably items that many women would not even consider donning in the first place – so don’t expect something new, or anything close to some sort of epiphany. However, having these five items together in the same place and, even more, with their many cons described by a man who certainly does know one or two things about fashion, like Simon writing for the Fashion Victims website is, could serve as a lesson for many girls/women out there who follow trends indiscriminately and, most often than not, completely sheepishly. On a side note, for at least three out of the five worst accessories this year, we can thank celebutante extraordinaire Paris Hilton and the likes.

Monroe piercing

Also known as cheek or upper lip piercing. Although its name clearly refers to one of the most emblematic women of modern times, Marilyn Monroe, and to her equally famous beauty spot, it seems that this piercing is no longer the "accidental" fashion statement it used to be, like, five years ago. This is all the more true in a time when unique rebelliousness no longer translates into anything that might make those around you picture you walking around the house with a nail gun, looking for potentially surprising places where to put an earring into.

Because today you can go a bit emo-ish for that dash at rebelliousness that you occasionally experience. Men clearly see it that way. Or, as Simon puts it, "When you’ve run out of original places to stud your head, don’t go random. That’s like a musician saying ‘wehhh, all melodies have been done before. I’m gonna play random notes wherever and I’ll be so different I’ll be cool.’ You’re not cool." Full stop.

Giant / bugeyed sunglasses


Nothing seems to ruin a wonderfully put together outfit or a perfectly shaped face like shades that look so heavy as if one’s head is this close to crumbling down under their sheer weight. As a general rule in the "science" of accessorizing, larger sunglasses can be perfect for certain occasions, when they can actually make you look twice as good as you actually do. But this is never the case with those black shades that cover two thirds of your face, leaving you looking not like the siren that you probably picture yourself but more like some alien type of creature come to feed off the blood of the innocent.

Simon has yet another description for women who are overtly fond of giant sunglasses, especially if they are also excessively skinny and wear quirky clothes – praying mantises he calls them. "You may be proud that not the smallest beam in the slightest crack of space will get in your deflector shield eye booth, but you look like a bug on hind legs. A bug! The stick thin skin-and-bones body type completes the preying mantis fashion statement." he writes.

Excessive makeup / foundation

This should have probably come first because if it’s a condition that is met, it can ruin everything else as well. We all know just how much trouble women go through in order to look as "natural" as possible, just like we’re way too familiar with the now legendary phrase of "give me 15 minutes to freshen up." However, when you take that timeframe and multiply it by, say, four, what you get is not a prettily made-up face on which some of the imperfections are barely visible, but a mask. And, for those girls/women out there who still think that men can’t tell the difference unless you’re standing in bright sunlight – they can, and they do.

"Here’s the problem: lots of cover up is actually worth covering up. You may think that a pimple mount of height X necessitates a layer of foundation of X + 1 thickness, but really you’ve managed to expand the ‘problem area’ to your entire face. You don’t look like porcelain, you look crusty. If you can’t tan, don’t manufacture a layer of grainy fakeskin. Some guys like pale chicks." Simon writes.

Pet accessories


Paris Hilton is hot, as she herself always says. So much so that, even if most would disagree with this statement, there still are plenty of women willing (dying) to follow in her footsteps by emulating whatever she does. Naturally, first thing on the list is her pet pooch, the fabulous Chihuahua Tinkerbell. So, faster than you can say "That’s hot!" the dog is no longer a companion but a genuine accessory which, as a rule, you must use wisely in order to make the best of your outfits. Aside from the PETA-ish implications of such a decision, this trend is almost always frowned upon. Because it’s simply not cool, just in case you were still wondering.

Cue to Simon: "Living. Creatures. Are. Not. Accessories. While I appreciate, on some level, the pimping out of an otherwise evolutionary abomination into some kind of social use, this is a problem. You have no idea of the statements you make when you walk around with these fashion rats, or the thoughts that go through every guy’s mind." We’ll just have to take his word on that.

High belts


This is arguably the weakest item on Simon’s list, unless we also mention that it’s a wrong trend to follow only in the case of certain body types. When used randomly or just for the sake of keeping up with what your friends are wearing, high belts can do more damage than good because, instead of emphasizing your torso and waistline, they make you look all bulky and, why not say it outright, fat. Disproportionate. Eager to hide those very flaws that you ironically make more obvious with that belt.

"There’s beauty in proportion, and nothing messes with that more than a blatant misplacing of a standard item. If you’re willing to constrict your ribs, do us all a favor and wear a corset." Simon writes, stressing that sometimes more is definitely… well, more.

Of course you can all disagree with all of the above, especially since, like all other worst/best tops, this one too comes with a high degree of subjectivity. Even more, in good circumstances, these five items can actually prove to be like the cherry on the cake instead of the straw that breaks the camel’s back. In the end, it’s all a matter of perspective and, most important, of taste. So don’t flaunt it if you ain’t got it, and choose what trends you follow wisely, always keeping your personality and what’s suitable for it in mind.

5 Styles Women Hate in Men

- Fashion taken to extremes
By: Elena Gorgan, Life & Style Editor


Women and fashion are such best friends that their coming together rarely leaves room for anything or anyone else. But that doesn’t mean they’re safe from the so-called "faux pas" phenomenon, also known as that common disease that affects those ladies who, out of their desire to be trendy, end up looking like just fresh out of a garage sale. Quite on the contrary. Now, since a few days ago we saw which the five trends men hate the most in women were, it’s time to turn the tables on them and analyze five of the styles that are generally over-abused by them, as well as explain why they’re not as cool as they seem to think they are.

The girls at All Women’s Talk drew up the following chart as some sort of payback to Simon's post that we already talked about. However, anyone is free to disagree with it, as well as to add new items that are not present in it, like wearing socks with sandals in the summertime, wearing cutoffs (pants and shirts) or see-through tees, cladding oneself all in tight leather, or whatever else comes to mind. So let’s begin with our countdown.


Backpacks with suits



A suit is generally seen as a sign of ultimate elegance, thus excluding from the very start the idea of comfort. On the other hand, you have the backpack which, as useful as it may be (and it is), seems to cry outdoors, practicality and freedom of movement. Whoever sees how these could ever come together needs to take a good look at the way people (to read, women) are looking at him on the street and go and buy himself a nice and fancy murse or a regular briefcase.

A bag as an accessory for men is not a new idea so what’s so wrong about this combo is not the combination itself, but rather the nature of the two elements. There are always ways to avoid looking this awkward, and they are so varied that it would be almost pointless to try to enumerate them all. But, whatever guys choose to carry their stuff to work in, they must remember that suit plus backpack almost always equals "high school kid playing dress up with his dad’s suit," as the girls from All Women’s Talk so delicately put it. And that’s just not cool.

Comb-overs

This one, naturally, applies to men who are already of a certain age. Be that as it may, nothing in this world can excuse a Donald Trump hairstyle – unless, of course, we’re talking about the Donald himself. Sure, losing one’s hair can be a pretty traumatizing experience and it’s only understandable that the man in question tries to do his best to make it less obvious.

Nevertheless, comb-overs are never the solution. Just because Trump can pull it off doesn’t mean that regular guys can too. And the explanation for this is pretty simple: given the Donald’s money, fame and reputation, he could as well go out of the house in nothing but a bathrobe (if Hugh Hefner does it, why couldn’t he?) and he would still be seen as the epitome of… whatever Trump stands for. For regular folks, however, the solution can only be either cutting the hair close to the head or going completely bald. Sometimes, they say, less is more, and this certainly applies in the case of hair of "follicly challenged" men.

Wacky ties

There was once a time when wacky ties were seen as a must in every guy’s wardrobe, as they were deemed the only accessory that could bring some spunk into an otherwise boring office outfit. That was back in the ‘90s so, unless you’re living in the past or you’re trying to set the trend (wrong one, this time), it’s best to keep ties as simple as possible. Make no mistake, women do love it when they see that you still haven’t lost touch with that child in you, but maybe wearing Tweety ties is not the answer to finding the key to their hearts.

"It may look cute for some, but wacky ties just look - well, wacky - on some men. Stick with the basics." write the girls who came up with this chart. However, we might as well mention that there are certain types of men who can, and do, get away with the craziest and most colorful ties and even bow-ties. They are usually cool by definition and, to them, fashion is not a science but rather the most natural way they have of expressing themselves. Needless to say, unless you happen to be among those very few lucky ones, you might as well stop trying to impress your work mates with your ties. Trust us, they’re not jealous of you because you have so many. Really, they’re not.


Too tight clothes


While girls are encouraged to wear clothes as tight as possible (actually, the word is "fitting"), few other sights are as laughable as that of a guy donning clothes two numbers too small, in what can only be a desperate attempt at looking buffer. Machos are all the rage right now, and have been so ever since we can remember, but those who flaunt it without having it are guilty of first degree wannabe-ism, and are treated by those around them accordingly.

Bear in mind that the opposite can also apply but, most often than not, it’s not a fashion crime that women frown upon as much as in the case of too tight clothes. Either way, it’s pretty obvious for women when a guy goes out and buys an S tee when he’s actually an XL, just to create the impression that he’s bulkier in the chest and arms area than he really is. If he also matches the tee with the "cocky walk" (you know, the one where he keeps his arms slightly farther away from the sides of his body, as if all those muscles are constantly getting in the way of him walking normally) and equally tight jeans, he should not be that amazed that chicks don’t swoon at his feet whenever he walks by. It’s never going to happen.

Funky facial hair


There’s rugged, and then there’s just… unkempt. Also, there’s facial hair, and then there’s the goatee. For some reason or another, men seem to think it’s ok not to shave for days, as if taking care of themselves would be some kind of favor they’re doing us women. Sadly, they’re wrong and, with each day that they conveniently forget to take care of their looks, their hotness factor goes down. Facial hair and unkemptness can only look good if the guy in question makes sure they do.

"You may not know about the meaning of fashion - but please, get rid of those goatees which make you look exactly what the name implies! If you need that ‘stache to keep your macho image, keep it trimmed - neatly!" say the girls from All Women’s Talk. Just like with the mullet and its many recent variations, facial hair is not for everyone because it can make a guy, if not the right type, look like a trucker, to avoid a more offensive term. So make sure you know in which category you belong and that you’re willing to take great care of your looks if you really want to go for facial hair.


These being said, it’s pretty clear that men, just like women, can sometimes be found guilty of falling victims to the trends they so much criticize. And, as in the case of the latter, the solution is never to overdo it – just stick to being yourself and doing/wearing whatever best suits you as an individual, and you will certainly not be stared at on the street, for all the wrong reasons.

Google: Britney Isn't Hot Anymore!

- The company updated Google Trends
By: Bogdan Popa, Security and Search Engines Editor

The Mountain View company rolled out a brand new update for Google Trends, the online service that shows you the most popular Google searches. Until now, the service displayed the hot searches for a certain period of time such as weeks, months or years. Now, the new function, codenamed Google Hot Trends, shows even more, refreshing the provided information several times per day. According to Reuters, the service will display the hot searches with one hour delay, meaning that you're now able to view the most popular searches conducted one hour ago using the Google search technology.

"There are events going on all the time that most of us aren't aware of happening. After we find what trends that are interesting, users will want to know why are they important?[…]We are helping you find an explanation: There is some investigation that has to be done by the user," Amit Patel, a Hot Trends software engineer, said according to Reuters.

In the past, the Mountain View-company returned some expected trends concerning the search queries conducted using its technology. At that time, Britney Spears and Paris Hilton were the most popular keywords typed on Google, managing to beat IT-related searches such as Windows or Microsoft. Now, the trends are quite different as the most searched things are "avandia" and "jaclyn nesheiwat".

"Google Trends analyzes a portion of Google web searches to compute how many searches have been done for the terms you enter relative to the total number of searches done on Google over time. We then show you a graph with the results -- our search-volume graph -- plotted on a linear scale," the search giant describes its technology. However, the company shows only the US trends, meaning that it analyzes only the queries conducted from this country.

Russian pullback in Georgia 'far too slow': US

GORI ( 2008-08-22 13:28:04 ) :Russia promised to complete a partial pullback of troops from Georgia by the end of Friday but said an unspecified number of 'peacekeeping forces' would stay inside the country, angering the West.

A top US general visiting Georgia condemned the pullout as "far too little, far too slow."

"If they are moving, it's at a snail's pace," General John Craddock, head of the U.S. European Command, told reporters at Tbilisi airport, where he watched the arrival of a US military plane bringing in aid.

Russia and Georgia went to war after Tbilisi attempted on August 7-8 to retake the Russian-backed rebel province of South Ossetia by force, provoking a massive counter-attack from Moscow by land, sea and air.

Russia's Defense Ministry said in a statement that military units supporting its peacekeepers would pull back by the end of Friday to South Ossetia from Georgia proper. President Dmitry Medvedev made a similar pledge earlier this week.

But within a new Russian-controlled security zone inside Georgia, the Defense Ministry statement said "peacekeepers at special checkpoints in the quantities needed to ensure security will remain."

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said he would not accept that. "There will be no buffer zones. We will never live with any buffer zones. We'll never allow anything like this," he told Reuters in Tbilisi.

Russia says it needs to maintain a force in Georgia to prevent further bloodshed and protect South Ossetians -- most of whom hold Russian passports -- from Georgian attacks. Tbilisi says Moscow is trying to annex its territory.

With the size of the new security zone unclear and the difference between regular Russian troops and Russian peacekeepers increasingly blurred, it was uncertain what Moscow's pledges actually amounted to.

"There are some checkpoints where one day they are federal troops and the next day peacekeepers," Kakha Lomaia, secretary of Georgia's Security Council, told Reuters.

The six-point peace plan brokered by France gives Russia the right to take unspecified additional security measures in Georgia pending the arrival of an international force.




Copyright Reuters, 2008

Sierra Leone agency wants ban on Blood Diamond film

FREETOWN ( 2008-08-22 03:51:45 ) :With the 2007 Hollywood movie 'Blood Diamond' still pulling big crowds into Freetown's movie halls, Sierra Leone's new promotion agency would like nothing better than to see it banned.

'This 'Blood Diamond' film is sending bad signals to the world about Sierra Leone,' the state-run Sierra Leone Investment and Export Promotion Agency (SLIPA) said Thursday.

The agency is urging the government and other partners "to ban the film with immediate effect," SLIPA head Adeyormie Sandy told AFP.

Set at the height Sierra Leone's 1991-2002 civil war, the movie stars Leonardo DiCaprio as an unscrupulous diamond trader. The film shows gruesome scenes of fighting in Sierra Leone and details how rebels force civilians to mine diamonds for them to fund the war effort.

While the movie awakened the world to the problem of conflict diamonds, the promotion agency argues it hampers its efforts to rebrand Sierra Leone to lure new investors.




Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2008

Convicted ex-rocker Glitter due in London

LONDON ( 2008-08-22 11:42:24 ) :Former glam rocker and convicted paedophile Gary Glitter was due to arrive in London on Friday morning, three days after being released from a Vietnamese prison.

A British foreign ministry spokesman confirmed Glitter's departure to London after Hong Kong refused to allow him in, and Thailand declared him persona non grata.

The 64-year-old was released from a Vietnamese prison on Tuesday after serving nearly three years for committing obscene acts with two girls aged 11 and 12.

He had initially been booked to fly to London that night via Bangkok, but refused to get on the plane to the British capital, instead spending 24 hours in a transit lounge in Bangkok before agreeing to take a flight to Hong Kong.

Chinese authorities refused him entry, however, and he was sent back to Thailand, where he had also been declared persona non grata.

"I can confirm that he has now left on the flight to London," the spokesman

told AFP Thursday evening.

Glitter, whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd, had reportedly been contacting countries around Asia in hopes of finding one that would allow him in, before finally being forced to return to Britain.

Once famous for his flamboyant bouffant wigs and silver jumpsuits, Glitter was arrested in 1997 and served prison time in Britain after taking his computer to a repair shop, where hardcore child pornographic material was found on its hard drive.

He was sentenced in 1999 to four months in prison on child pornography charges, of which he served two.

Keen to avoid the media, Glitter reportedly moved to Cuba and then Cambodia, where he was expelled in 2002, allegedly for trawling for underage sex.

Having settled in communist Vietnam, where a British newspaper reported he was living with an underage girl, he was arrested at Ho Chi Minh City airport in November 2005 while trying to leave for Thailand.

In March 2006 he was sentenced to three years in prison, the minimum term under Vietnamese law, which was later cut by three months.

The singer maintained his innocence, blamed a media conspiracy and claimed he was teaching the girls English and allowed them to stay overnight because they were scared of ghosts.

He continued to profess his innocence as he shuttled desperately among Asian airports.

"God, am I happy to be leaving Vietnam and that jail. I should never have been in there," he said on one flight, according to The Sun newspaper in Britain.

Although Britain has not announced any outstanding charges against the singer, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said he would be forced to sign a sex offenders register and warned that he should not be allowed to travel overseas again.

In the 1970s, Glitter racked up several hit songs including "I'm The Leader Of The Gang (I Am!)" and "Do You Wanna Touch Me?"

The 1972 hit "Rock and Roll" is still often chanted in British and US sports stadiums.

He has spoken about trying to revive his music career and penning a book that he says would exonerate him.




Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2008

Akshay Kumar signed as the brand ambassador for Levi's

MUMBAI ( 2008-08-22 12:32:28 ) :After the unprecedented success of the Anees Bazmee directed Singh Is Kinng, Akshay Kumar is on top of the world. The film has not just upped his Bollywood status, but has also made him the advertiser's darling.

After endorsing brands like Thumbs Up and Grasim, Akshay has now been roped in as the Brand Ambassador for the American Jeans and casual wear manufacturer, Levi Strauss, for launching its brand Levi's 501 in India. According to reliable sources, Akshay has been paid a whopping sum for the endorsement of the jeans brand, whose ads have been shot in some of the most stunning locations of Los Angeles. These ads are expected to go on air from the last week of this month.


Copyright Aaj TV, 2008

Mandela home to become museum

CAPE TOWN: Nelson Mandela signed over his Cape Town home to be used as a living museum. The house was Mandela's only residence outside of prison. The former South-African president spent 27 years in prison. Wednesday 20 August 2008

Former South African President Nelson Mandela on Wednesday signed his Cape Town home over to the city for use as a living museum.

Jakes Gerwel, chairman of the Mandela Rhodes Foundation, one of Mandela's three charity organisations, said the house had been Mandela's "only home outside of prison in the Western Cape."

The nobel peace prize laureate, who was South Africa's first black president, spent 27 years imprisoned in jailhouses in the province by the white minority apartheid government.

A frail, but smiling Mandela sat through Wednesday's proceedings without speaking.

City premier Lynne Brown said the project would see Mandela's home become "our investment for young people" and would in future host youth leadership programmes.

The Foundation also announced that Mandela's prestigious scholarship programme had been boosted by major donations, including 10.5 million rand (1.3 million US dollars) from South Africa's Absa Bank and 2.5 million pounds (4.6 million dollars) from the London-based Leverhume Trust.

The donations would provide a further 13 scholarships a year for young Africans.

Matt Damon, wife welcome 2nd baby girl

LOS ANGELES: Hollywood actor Matt Damon and his wife Luciana on Wednesday announced the birth of their second child, a baby girl named Gia Zavala, US media reported.

"Everyone's doing great," Damon's rep, Jennifer Allen, told People magazine.

"She is a healthy baby girl."

Damon, 37, met Luciana at the Miami bar where she worked in 2003, when he was filming the movie "Stuck on You."

The couple married in December 2005. They live with their first-born daughter, Isabella, 2, and Alexia, 10, who is Luciana's daughter from a previous relationship.

Damon was voted People's "Sexiest Man Alive" this year and shared the Oscar for best screenplay writing with co-star Ben Affleck in 1997's "Good Will Hunting."

Georgian rebels demand Russian recognition

TSKHINVALI: South Ossetia will ask the Kremlin to recognise its independence from Georgia, the leader of the breakaway region told a rally including widows and mourning mothers in his war-ravaged capital on Thursday.

Eduard Kokoity, who styles himself president of a country not recognised by any other nation, told a rally of several thousand that Georgia had undermined its own statehood by trying to seize his region by force on Aug 7-8.

Widows and mothers in black, with photographs of their loved ones pinned to their chests, shed tears in the shadows of bombed-out houses on the central square of Tskhinvali as Kokoity lambasted Georgia and its Western backers.

The small, pro-Russian province in the Caucasus mountains, which broke away from Georgian rule in 1992 after a war, saw renewed fighting this month after Georgia tried to impose
control in a failed invasion repelled by Russian forces.

"I have already prepared an address to the President of the Russian Federation, to the Federation Council and State Duma, and to the heads of state of the international community, with a request to recognise our independence," Kokoity said.

"Georgia itself has driven a nail into the coffin of its statehood," said Kokoity, a former Soviet wrestling champion, who wiped away tears as he spoke under a beating sun.

"We proudly say today that we deserve to live in a free and independent republic of South Ossetia," he said. "The recognition of our independence is not a whim of the Ossetians; this is a security guarantee for our tiny people."

US pullout from Iraq may start by June: US army

WASHINGTON: US forces could begin withdrawing from Iraqi cities as early as June under a draft agreement reached between US and Iraqi negotiators, a senior US military official said Thursday.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the agreement on the US status of forces still awaited final approval.

But the official said that under the draft agreement a withdrawal of US forces from Iraqi cities "could be as early as June, conditions permitting."

Putin vows $24b for Russian hi-tech: report

MOSCOW: Russia is to invest 600 billion rubles (24.6 billion dollars, 16.7 billion euros) in hi-tech industries over two years, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Wednesday.

"We have never put this kind of money into this area," Putin was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.

"Between 2008 and 2010 we expect to assign 600 billion rubles to various state hi-tech programs," he told the meeting.

Putin has said investment in the technology sector is key to Russia's efforts to wean itself off dependence on the export of natural resources, such as oil, gas and metals, whose prices can fluctuate wildly

Ricky Martin father of twins: representative

SAN JUAN ( 2008-08-21 10:16:59 ) :Latin pop star Ricky Martin is now father of twin baby boys, born by a surrogate mother, representatives for the spunky Puerto Rican crooner said on Wednesday.

Martin, 36, known for his hits "Livin' La Vida Loca," and "She Bangs," became a father a few weeks ago and plans to spend the rest of the year with the babies, according to a statement by Perfect Partners.

"In recent weeks, Ricky Martin became a proud father by the birth of twin sons. The children, delivered via gestational surrogacy, are healthy and already under Ricky's full-time care," the statement said.

"Ricky is elated to begin this new chapter in his life as a parent and will be spending the remainder of the year out of the public spotlight in order to spend time with his children."

No further details were released about the mother or the babies.

The singer, who has been active in children's causes through his Ricky Martin Foundation, maintains residences in New York and Miami.-




Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2008

Storm Fay floods hundreds of Florida homes

FLORIDA: Emergency crews launched airboats into submerged streets Wednesday to rescue central Florida residents trapped by rising floodwaters from a stalled Tropical Storm Fay, which soaked the state for a third consecutive day.

Calling the flooding "catastrophic," Governor Charlie Crist requested an emergency disaster declaration from the federal government to defray rising debris and response costs.

The White House said the Federal Emergency Management Agency was reviewing the request.

Flooding was reported in hundreds of homes in Brevard and St. Lucie counties, some by up to 5 feet of standing water.

In three towns, rising waters backed up sewage systems. It wasn't immediately clear how many residents had been displaced or were stranded, but county officials reported making dozens of rescues.

The storm could dump 30 inches of rain in some areas of Florida and the National Hurricane Center said up to 22 inches had already fallen near Melbourne, just south of Cape Canaveral on the state's central Atlantic coast.

By Wednesday evening, the storm's center had moved over the Atlantic Ocean, and its winds had picked up speed.

Forecasters expected the storm to strengthen slightly before turning back toward the mainland Thursday and hitting Florida for the third time this week.

But National Hurricane Center meteorologist Corey Walton said it was unlikely the storm would gain enough energy over the water to become a hurricane.

The erratic storm first struck Monday in the Florida Keys, then veered out to sea before traversing east across the state, briefly strengthening, then stalling.

For much of Wednesday, the storm barely moved, dumping inches and inches of rain over coastal central Florida.

If Fay strikes Florida again as expected, it would be just the fourth storm in recorded history to hit the peninsula with tropical storm intensity three separate times. The most recent was Hurricane Donna in 1960, said Daniel Brown, hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center.

At least 21 killed in Madrid air crash

MADRID: At least 21 people were killed when a Spanair passenger jet crashed on takeoff at Madrid airport on Wednesday and 40 were hurt, a source at Spanish emergency services said.

A Spanish jet skidded off the runway and crashed at Madrid airport Wednesday and billowing smoke came from the wreckage, television images showed.

An emergency services spokesman, quoted by Spanish national radio, said the plane had been attempting an emergency landing just after taking off from the airport.

Eleven fire trucks were at the scene.

A spokesman for the fire service at Madrid's Barajas airport said the plane had a capacity of 166 passengers.

Spanair is Spain's second biggest airline after Iberia and is a subsidiary of Scandinavian carrier SAS.

Iraq to sign long-term oil deals

BAGHDAD: Iraq will soon sign its first big international oil deal since the fall of Saddam Hussein, a $1.2 billion oil service contract with China, oil minister Hussain Al-Shahristani was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

The deal covers a small field producing just 90,000 barrels per day and replaces an earlier deal signed under Saddam. But the terms described by Al-Shahristani give a clue to the tough line Baghdad is likely to take in deals with other foreign firms.

It replaces a production sharing agreement that would have given a Chinese firm a long-term stake in profits from the Adhab oilfield with a services contract in which the Chinese receive fees for work, but Baghdad keeps the future profits.

"We have held talks with [the Chinese] for a year, and the terms of the deal were changed to a service contract. The Chinese have agreed on that, with a value of $1.2 billion," Al-Shahristani told the An-Noor newspaper.

Foreign firms are keen to have access to the OPEC country's oilfields, the world's third largest. But with oil prices high Baghdad has been negotiating from a position of strength, while war has kept firms from setting up a presence in Baghdad.

The oil minister is traveling to China at the end of this month to discuss the deal, which was originally signed in 1997 between Iraq and the China National Petroleum Company (CNPC).

The original deal was valued at $670 million at a time when oil prices were much lower than today, but it would have become far more lucrative for the Chinese if they were allowed to keep the production sharing terms at today's prices.

Iraq had said in the past it would honour the Saddam-era deal with the Chinese, but wanted to renegotiate it.

Iraq now exports about 2 million barrels of oil per day, roughly equivalent to exports under Saddam, but says that it can quickly boost production when it begins repairing infrastructure that was neglected during decades of sanctions and war.

The high price of oil means Baghdad is flush with cash and has little need of foreign financing for projects, although it wants to import expertise and technology from foreign firms.

Iraq is negotiating six other short-term service contracts worth about $500 million each with foreign firms or consortiums, but those deals have been long delayed. A US diplomat said this week he expected most or all of them would be scrapped.

Foreign oil companies are seen as much keener on production sharing deals, which would give them a stake in future oil profits, rather than service contracts.Dozens of oil firms are expected to compete for long-term deals which the government says it hopes to open for bidding next year.

Shahristani repudiated a Saddam Hussein-era deal with Russia's largest private oil company LUKOIL, saying the contract was political and its terms "totally unfair".

"Relating to the Russian contract, it was signed with the former regime for political reasons and scrapped by the former regime also for political reasons," he said. "It is a totally unfair contract."

He said the field covered by that deal, Phase II of the West Qurna oilfield, was one of the biggest in Iraq.

LUKOIL has already been informed that rights to the field will be offered in a second round of bidding coming soon, he said.

He also said a deal was almost complete with a large global firm on a joint venture to produce natural gas to generate electricity at home while liquefying and exporting the surplus.

He did not name the company, but Shahristani has previously discussed negotiations with Royal Dutch Shell on a project that would collect gas Iraq now burns off at oilfields.

Bush defends terror war in speech to veterans

CRAWFORD, Texas: President George W Bush is defending his line-in-the-sand approach to the fight against terrorism, following presidential rivals John McCain and Barack Obama in a speech to a major veterans group.

His address Wednesday in Orlando, Florida, was to highlight themes Republican hopeful McCain has been using to argue that he is better qualified to be commander in chief than Obama, the Democratic nominee-in-waiting.

Bush, in remarks to the annual convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, also was expected to address the conflict between Russia and Georgia, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said .

Yet it is the nearly seven-year battle against nebulous terror groups such as al-Qaida that has dominated Bush's presidency and will carry over to a new administration next year.

Bush was to travel to Florida from his Texas ranch, where he is spending most of the remainder of August.

The president also was stopping in New Orleans and Gulfport, Mississippi, to talk about recovery efforts from Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the Gulf Coast in August 2005 and brought heavy criticism of the Bush administration for its sluggish response

Five Americans held as China steps up scrutiny

BEIJING: Five American blogger-activists and a foreign artist have been detained in Beijing as the government intensifies a crackdown on pro-Tibetan protests in the home stretch of the Olympics, rights groups said on Wednesday.

Students for a Free Tibet said authorities detained on Tuesday five self-styled "citizen journalists" who were in Beijing to promote Tibetan freedom. They said activist-artist James Powderly had also been nabbed.

The Beijing Olympics have not been dogged by the widespread demonstrations that authorities had feared. Several protesters advocating for Tibet independence have nonetheless managed to breach tight security, in one case hanging a "Free Tibet" banner outside the headquarters of the state broadcaster.

China is particularly sensitive to criticism of its rule in Tibet, the far-western region Communist troops entered in 1950.

"In relation to foreigners holding demonstrations in Beijing in support of Tibet independence, competent authorities have the right to handle these things according to law," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a news conference on Wednesday.

"I'd also like to emphasize that in China, activities that support Tibet independence will be strongly condemned by the Chinese people and will not be welcomed."

The Committee to Protect Journalists said China had blocked more than 50 websites carrying news or advocating on behalf of pro-Tibetan groups, including their own (www.cpj.org), before the Games began, reneging on pre-Olympics promises of Internet freedoms.

New York-based Human Rights in China says 24 protesters -- critics of the Communist Party and their family members -- had been detained or put under watch before the Olympics opened.

Many others had been captured in the months prior to silence dissent as global attention turned to the Olympics.

Beijing resident Dong Jiqin said his wife Ni Yulan was jailed in April when authorities began clearing out activists and others they felt may draw media attention away from the Games.

"I cannot watch the Games," Dong said from his cluttered apartment in the heart of the capital. "I'm afraid my wife isn't safe. We think the Olympics should be held, but I am just not in the mood to watch it."

In another case, petitioners Wu Dianyuan, 79, and Wang Xiuying, 77, were sentenced to one year of "re-education through labor" after repeatedly applying to demonstrate in areas set aside for protests during the Games, Human Rights in China said.

"In China, as in other countries, applications for demonstrations must go through legal procedures," the Foreign Ministry's Qin said when asked about the two petitioners.

None of dozens of applications to protest has been approved.

"They wanted to see us stuck in jail so the Olympics would look better," said Dong.

Algeria bombing kills 43

ALGIERS: A bomb attack east of Algiers on Tuesday killed 43 people and wounded 38, the Algerian interior ministry said, in one of the bloodiest incidents in years in the OPEC member state.

A ministry statement carried by the official APS news agency, said the attack targeted a paramilitary gendarmerie training school at Issers, 55 km (34 miles) east of the capital.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

In recent months the mountainous region east of Algiers has seen numerous attacks by al Qaeda's north Africa wing, which is fighting to set up purist Islamic rule in the north African country, a major oil and gas supplier to Europe.

A suicide car bombing killed at least six civilians in Zemmouri, also east of Algiers, on Aug 10 in an attack on a coast guard barracks and an adjacent post of the gendarmerie.

The government said the attack may have been retaliation for an army ambush that killed 12 rebels in mountainous Kabylie region during the night of August 7 to 8.

Newspapers have said that ambush was part of the army's pursuit of rebels who orchestrated a suicide car bombing which wounded 25 people in Tizi Ouzou town east of Algiers on August 3.

That attack was claimed by al Qaeda's north Africa wing, the al Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Saturday's attack.

The group has links with like-minded militants in other north African countries and is the most effective armed rebel organization in the country of 34 million, Africa's second largest country by area.

The group has claimed several attacks in the past including the twin suicide bombings of U.N. offices and a court building in Algiers in December 2007, which killed 41 people, 17 of them United Nations staff.

Algeria, an important supplier of gas to Europe, is emerging from more than a decade of conflict that began when in 1992 the military-backed government scrapped legislative elections a radical Islamic party was poised to win.

About 150,000 people have died during the ensuing violence.

The bloodshed has subsided in recent years and in 2006 the government freed more than 2,000 former Islamist guerrillas under an amnesty designed to put an end to the conflict.

But a hard core of several hundred rebels fights on as members of al Qaeda's north Africa wing, which was previously known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat or GSPC.

The group's leader, Abdelmalek Droukdel, told the New York Times last month that increasing numbers of young men around the region were joining the group out of persistent poverty and anger at what he called the West's war on Islam.

Russia not keeping its word on Georgia: US

CRAWFORD ( 2008-08-19 10:18:18 ) :The United States accused Russia on Monday of not keeping its word to start withdrawing its forces from Georgia and vowed to look into charges of 'ethnic cleansing' in the former Soviet republic.US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, bound for crisis talks at Nato headquarters in Brussels, said Russian President Dmitry Medevdev had failed to fulfill his pull-out pledge under a France-brokered ceasefire plan."(I wonder) why the Russian president either will not or cannot keep his word," Rice told reporters on her airplane hours after the White House demanded that Moscow proceed with its withdrawal "without delay.""The Russians have said that their withdrawal would start at midday today. We will continue to closely monitor Russian actions in Georgia for confirmation of the withdrawal," said spokesman Gordon Johndroe.But hours later, a US defense official speaking on condition of anonymity said in Washington those US officials monitoring the situation "have not seen any significant Russian movement out of Georgia today."US President George W. Bush, watching the crisis from his Texas ranch, stayed out of sight after ordering Rice to Europe to seek a common Nato position in support of Georgia and reaffirm US solidarity with its ally.Johndroe also said Washington would investigate charges, most recently levelled by staunch Georgia allies Lithuania and Poland, that Russian troops were guilty of "ethnic cleansing" as part of their offensive."That's a serious charge and we take it seriously and are looking into the matter," Johndroe told reporters, citing "charges from both sides" and stressing: "It's clear this was an ugly conflict on the ground."Russia made similar charges against Tbilisi shortly after the conflict flared up August 6 with a Georgian incursion into the breakaway region of South Ossetia and escalated with an all-out Russian offensive two days later.Johndroe declined to confirm reports, denied by Moscow, that Russia had rolled short-range SS-21 missiles into Georgia, but said any troops or equipment that came in when the conflict flared up August 6 must leave under the ceasefire."Let me be clear: If it rolled in after August 6, it needs to roll out" under the terms of a French-brokered ceasefire pact, said Johndroe. "That would be in keeping with the Russian commitment on withdrawal."The United States will help Georgia rebuild its battered infrastructure but also its security forces, said Johndroe, who declined to discuss possible US aid for specific military hardware like radar installations."I think it's premature to talk about any specifics of what that reconstruction effort might be. But there should be no doubt that the United States is committed to helping Georgia rebuild," he said.In Brussels, Rice was to hold talks with key Nato allies as well as European Union heavyweights including French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, and European Commissioner for External Relations Benita Fererro-Waldner, Rice's office said.She was also to sign a key missile defense shield pact with Warsaw that green lights the basing of US interceptor missiles on Polish territory -- a step that has drawn angry reactions from Russia.Moscow is furious at Georgia's attempt to join Nato, and alliance foreign ministers will meet on Tuesday to show their support for Georgia. But they remain divided on how to deal with a resurgent Moscow, with some western leaders unwilling to see ties with oil-rich Russia deteriorate any further.Rice said Washington would not try to speed up Georgia and Ukraine's path to membership in Nato, but said the alliance must make it clear to Moscow that it cannot prevent former Soviet countries from building closer ties with the West.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2008

Majority rejoice over Musharraf resignation: survey

ISLAMABAD: The Gallup survey (Pakistan) Tuesday revealed that 63 per cent people rejoice over President Musharraf's resignation, while only 15 per cent regret it. "20 per cent were ambivalent about saying they were neither happy or unhappy", the survey added. According to the survey, soon after Pervez Musharraf announced his resignation on Monday the poll was carried out by Gallup Pakistan (Pakistan Institute of Public Opinion) the Pakistani affiliate of Gallup International. The sample size was approximately 560 men and women statistically chosen from major urban areas of the country comprising a cross-section of all ages, socio-economic and linguistic groups. Demands for Musharraf's resignation had been rising consistently since November last year when Musharraf suspended the constitution. According to Musharraf, the reason for imposing `emergency' was to safeguard Pakistan. In his resignation speech, he again cited Pakistan's best interests as the reason behind his departure. However, 70 per cent dispute Musharraf's claim to have resigned with the motive of Pakistan first. Instead, they said he resigned in personal interest-'Musharraf first' approach. The majority of Pakistanis, 64 per cent, also reject his claims of economic accomplishments and good government during his last nine-year tenure. Surveys have shown that, rightly or wrongly, majority of Pakistanis attribute current economic crisis and inflation to bad policies of Musharraf regime. The majority of Pakistanis take a pessimistic view of the past nine years, 70 per cent said it was bad or vary bad and only 18 per cent said it was good or very good. The remaining did not give a view. As his tenure comes to an end, 55 per cent Pakistanis expect that conditions in the country would improve with Musharraf's resignation, 19 per cent take a pessimistic view said conditions will worsen; 19 per cent expect no change. Although there is uncertainty as to whether charges will be pressed against the former President, for suspending the constitution among others things, 65 per cent support holding a proper trial while only 26 per cent are in favor of the "forgive and forget" option. On the issues of restoring deposed judges, 85 per cent want Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and other judges to be restored immediately, 6 per cent oppose restoration, while 9 per cent advise not to take up the issue right now.

Musharraf resigns: Reactions from world leaders

LONDON: Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has said he will resign after nine years in office. World figures have been giving their reaction.Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesmanWe hope that the resignation will have a positive impact on strengthening the government and democracy in Pakistan. Afghanistan wishes a stable, democratic Pakistan based on the rule of law.Spokesman for the British PM Gordon BrownDuring President Musharraf's time in office we have seen a deepening of UK-Pakistan relations. We wish him well in the future. But relations between the UK and Pakistan don't depend on individuals and, as we have made clear, we support measures that promote strong democratic institutions which lead to greater stability, democracy and rule of law in Pakistan.David Miliband, British Foreign SecretaryPakistan is a vital friend of the UK and it is essential for Britain's security that it has a strong and democratic government with a clear mandate. The responsibilities on political leaders in Pakistan are now significant. They need to come together to ensure that the recently-elected government carries forward an economic and security agenda consistent with the long-term interests of the Pakistani people.Yasuo Fukuda, Japanese Prime MinisterWhat kind of changes does this bring to the "war-on-terror" and the Afghan situation? I don't expect any significant change for now. I would expect different things would occur later. But it is not a time for us to make predictions.Pranab Mukherjee, Indian Foreign MinisterIt is an internal matter of Pakistan. During my [recent] visit to Pakistan, I had, in fact, developed a personal relationship with the leaders of that country. From Nawaz Sharif to Asif Ali Zardari and Yusuf Gilani, I have cordial discussions with all of them and it seems to me that a positive approach could be made in improving our relations.Russian Ministry of Foreign AffairsRussia hopes that the resignation of Pervez Musharraf will have no negative consequences for the political stability of this great Asian state. We hope that the situation in Pakistan will not leave the limits of the constitutional framework and will remain within the framework of legality and respect for order.Spokesman for European CommissionThere is not a lot to say; the European Commission considers the resignation of Pakistan President Musharraf as essentially a matter of internal politics in Pakistan.Spokesman for German Foreign MinistryWe expect that we will continue to deal with a Pakistan government (and) with a Pakistani president in the future who does not only have an eye on the situation in Pakistan itself but also on regional stability and who does his part to contribute to peace and stability in Afghanistan... Peaceful conflict resolution with its neighbors and decisiveness in fighting terrorism in all its forms are of crucial importance to us... Germany will continue to stand by Pakistan in the future as the country develops and stabilizes its democracy.Stephen Smith, Australian Foreign MinisterPolitical stability is now required in Pakistan following the resignation of President Pervez Musharraf [as] political instability in Pakistan is not in the interests of Pakistan nor the regional or international community... The Pakistani Government needed to renew efforts to deal with its security and economic problems. It is important that the government of Pakistan now moves with purpose to tackle the security and economic challenges facing the country… These challenges have regional and international implications... Australia - as a friend of Pakistan - would look to assist it in dealing with the challenges especially in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.(Courtesy: bbc.co.uk)

China's lunar satellite survives eclipse

BEIJING: China's first lunar satellite, which has been orbiting around the moon for nearly nine months, has withstood the test of a solar eclipse that cut its solar energy supply, state media reported. Scientists altered the Chang'e 1's orbit and temporarily turned off some functions before losing contact with the satellite for more than three hours on Sunday, the Beijing News reported. Signals sent by the satellite after the eclipse indicated it was operating "as expected" the newspaper reported, citing Liu Junze, a scientist at the Beijing Aerospace Control Centre. The ground control centre changed the satellite's orbit so that it would only be out of direct sunlight for 168 minutes instead of the 220 minutes it would have faced otherwise -- which would have exceeded the probe's power reserves, the report said. The eclipse occurred between 3:35 am and 6:44 am Sunday (1935 GMT and 2244 GMT Saturday), the report said. It was the second challenge for Chang'e 1 after it had to adopt similar tactics during an eclipse in February. Chang'e 1 is part of China's three-stage moon mission, which is expected to include a landing on the moon and the launch of a rover vehicle which will return to Earth with soil and stone samples around 2017, according to the Xinhua news agency.

Manissha have no regrets

MUMBAI: Bachna Ae Haseeno’ has hit the cinema halls, and is busy collecting the box office earning as well the reactions of the audiences. The much talked about movie has lived up to its expectations. The enormous star cast is well known, but we think many of us still are not well acquainted with the fresh tulip beauty, Manissha Lamba.The girl who started with an off-beat role in ‘Yahan’, to doing a second lead role in Bhandrakar’s Corporate, Lamba has come a long way.Manissha’s character in her latest flick ‘Bachna Ae Haseeno’ is being admired by millions. She plays a sweet romantic girl Mahi, who meets Raj (Ranbir) on her way to Zurich. You can’t simply ignore the confidence this girl has in her voice. Her costumes, which display mixing of Patiala salwars denim jackets and halter tops, are already becoming popular among the girls. At this, the actress laughs and replies, “Really, the clothes suit Mahi, the character I play. I didn’t think of making a fashion statement consciously, but sure if I become more visible thanks to them, it’s fun.”The actress completely denies of any moments of insecurity while she was shooting as there were other two beauties too on the sets- Bipasha and Ranbir’s real lady, Deepika. Supposedly there were no catfights, too bad.Talking about Bipasha, Lamba says, “even if she’s a successful actor, Bipasha is friendly, down-to-earth and very endearing. I didn’t get to know her too well, but I’d like to do more films with her.”And what about the freshest heartthrob of the nation, Ranbir Kapoor? “Well, he’s a very talented actor. He’s easy to get along with and a true gentleman. Working with him was fun and a fabulous experience,” she expresses.The girl doesn’t regret anything in her life. Eventually this graduate in English literature wanted to become a journalist, then how did she enter the field of acting? At this Manissha replies, “The growing process is on. I need to learn lot more from here. The three years that I spent in the profession have been worth a life-time experience. I’ve become more professional and aware of my surroundings.”The beauty who maintains a low profile is still single and in her own statement “ready to mingle”, so all you singles on a search out, keep dreaming!

NEW DELHI: India is acquiring sophisticated equipment to videotape rai

NEW DELHI: India is acquiring sophisticated equipment to videotape railway passengers travelling between Pakistan and India at the Atari and Munnabao railway stations. Media reports quoting Indian Home Ministry source said an integrated surveillance system will be established for this purpose. The Indian Intelligence Bureau (IB) will record the arrival and departure of passengers at the two stations. According to details, top-end closed circuit television (CCTV) equipped with state-of-the-art camera with zoom lens and video converters, video management system software, high resolution LCD panel for round the clock control room monitoring will be part of the equipment being acquired by the Home Ministry.

Musharraf can go anywhere: Boucher

WASHINGTON: US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher has said that the former president Musharraf can go anywhere including United States. In an interview to American media Boucher said Pervez Musharraf was a friend of United States, adding that the US will continue cooperation with the new government in Pakistan.

Referring to Musharraf’s past role in war on terror that is said to have declined his popularity among masses he said, that was his own decision and the current government of Pakistan is committed to follow the footsteps of ex-president of Pakistan in war on terror. Responding to a question regarding Dr. Aafia Siddiqi he said that, US army apprehended her on 17 July this year as she was charged with firing on US army however only she can reveal as to where she remained for past five years.US forces did not torture Aafia and such reports are baseless, he added.

Israel cracks down on Arabic Harry Potter

HELD AL-QUDS: Harry Potter and Pinocchio are apparently not welcome in Israel, at least in their Arabic translations imported from Syria and Lebanon.Arab-Israeli publisher Salah Abassi told Israeli public radio on Monday that authorities ordered him to stop importing Arabic-language children's books from the two longtime foes of Israel.The ban includes translations of such books as Pinocchio and Harry Potter as well as Arabic classics."The trade and industry ministry and treasury warned me that importing those books is illegal," said Abassi, who imported the books through Jordan.The ban is based on a decree from 1939 -- when the area was under British mandate -- prohibiting the importation of books from countries that are at war with Israel.Abassi told the Maariv daily most of the books can be found only in Lebanon and Syria."If they were printed in Jordan or Egypt, which are friendly to Israel, I would lose no time in buying them there. Now the significance is that the Arabic reading public in Israel will not be able to enjoy the best literature," he said.

China to become world's biggest economy in 2035

China's economy will overtake that of the United States by 2035 and be twice its size by the midcentury, a study by a US research organization concluded.The report by economist Albert Keidel of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said China's rapid growth is driven by domestic demand more than exports, which will be sustainable over the coming decades."Its growth this decade has averaged more than 10 percent a year and is still going strong in the first half of 2008. Because its success in recent decades has not been export-led but driven by domestic demand, its rapid growth can continue well into the 21st century, unfettered by world market limitation."Keidel, who has worked as a World Bank economist and US Treasury official, said the rise of China to the world's biggest economy will happen regardless of the method of calculation.Under current market-based estimates, China's gross domestic product is about three trillion dollars compared to 14 trillion for the United States.Based on a more controversial purchasing power parity (PPP) measure used by the World Bank and others to correct low labor-cost distortions, he said China's GDP is roughly half of that of the United States."Despite this low starting point, if China's expansion is anywhere near as fast as the earlier expansion of other East Asian modernizers at a comparable stage of development, the power of compound growth rates means that China's economy will be larger than America's by midcentury -- no matter how it is converted to dollars," Keidel wrote.Keidel's calculations suggest that using the PPP method, China will catch up with the United States as an economic power by 2020, with an equivalent GDP of 18 trillion dollars.Based on the more commonly accepted market method, the turning point will come by 2035. By 2050, he estimated Chinese GDP at some 82 trillion dollars compared with 44 trillion for the United States.The dramatic economic change will make help China become a more important power in other areas including military and diplomatic affairs, according to Keidel."China's financial clout will spill into every conceivable dimension of international relations," he writes."Leadership of international institutions will gravitate toward China. This movement could include the equivalents at that time of the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, regional international development banks, and more specialized bodies. Various headquarters could shift to Beijing and Shanghai."He said the United States "will have an important secondary influence, like Europe, but it will need to compromise and its sphere for unilateral action will be increasingly curtailed."However, the Chinese standard of living will remain lower -- with per capita GDP in China between half and two-thirds the level of that in the United States in 2050, according to the report.Keidel said poverty will remain a significant problem in China for decades despite considerable progress.

South Ossetia's president sacks government, declares emergency

MOSCOW: The president of Georgia's pro-Russian separatist republic of South Ossetia, Eduard Kokoity, late Sunday dismissed his government and proclaimed a state of emergency in the rebel region, Russia's television reported. "I have signed three decrees including one on the resignation of the government, another on proclamation of a state of emergency in South Ossetia and the third on setting up an emergency committee to settle the consequences of the Georgian aggression," Kokoity told the channel. He accused his government of being slow in distributing humanitarian aid to the residents of South Ossetia, stressing that a public servant "must work for his people and not to make profit for himself." South Ossetia, which is officially part of Georgia but declared independence in 1992 after the fall of the Soviet Union, is determined to win recognition after the failure of a Georgian military operation to reclaim it by force. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Saturday signed a peace deal a day after Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, and a week after Russian forces invaded Georgia in support of separatists in the South Ossetia and Abkhazia regions.

President Musharraf announces resignation

ISLAMABAD: President Pervez Musharraf announced in a televised address to the nation Monday that he had decided to resign after nine years in power to avoid the threat of impeachment."After viewing the situation and consulting legal advisers and political allies, with their advice I have decided to resign," a grim-faced Musharraf said, backed by Pakistani flags and a portrait of the country's founder."I leave my future in the hands of people."Musharraf made the shock announcement after denying that any of the impeachment charges against him could stand and launching into a lengthy defence of his time in power."Not a single charge in the impeachment can stand against me," Musharraf said. "No charge can be proved against me because I never did anything for myself, it was all for Pakistan."He said that there was now law and order in the country, that human rights and democracy had been improved and that Pakistan was now an crucial country internationally."On the map of the world, Pakistan is now an important country, by the grace of Allah," he said.The President dismissed the “false allegations” being leveled against him by the coalition government and said he was neither afraid of the charges against him, nor shy to face these through impeachment. “For me it is always Pakistan first”, Musharraf said and added that politics of confrontation must come to an end and instead a policy of reconciliation be pursued. He stressed immediate measure be taken to arrest the economic downturn and said the nation has the resilience to withstand any challenge.He said it was not a time to show bravado, but to get serious as country’s dignity was at stake, the office of Presidency would bear the brunt.“For 44 years I have safeguarded the country and will continue to do so.” “No charge sheet can stand against me. Not even a single charge can be proven against me as I have full trust in Allah Almighty and I did everything with the belief of Pakistan First.” The President said he took all decisions with consultation, took all stakeholders onboard, on the most difficult decisions. “All stake holders, whether they were soldiers, politicians, bureaucrats, members of civil society, Ulema were consulted in all decisions. “I have nothing to worry about the charge sheet,” Musharraf said.

Heavy storms in Europe kill 6, injure scores

WARSAW: Heavy storms hit parts of Europe, killing at least six people, injuring scores and damaging houses, according to media reports Saturday. Southern Poland was hardest hit, with three deaths and 34 injuries when a tornado and heavy rain storms late Friday tore the roofs off homes, knocked down trees and overturned vehicles.Two of those killed were in the southern province of Silesia, where a man near Czestochowa died after a tree crashed into his vacation home and a woman was crushed by the ceiling of her house in Rusinowice. Separately, a woman in the central city of Lodz was electrocuted by wires pulled ripped off by heavy winds.In the Italian Alps, a guide found two bodies on the Monte Rosa peak in the Aosta region, at an altitude of 13,000 feet (4,000 meters) on Saturday. Authorities said the victims, a man from the Netherlands and another man from Britain, apparently froze to death during a storm that hit the mountain on Friday.Local Alpine rescue service personnel told Sky TG24 TV that the men had set out late Friday morning to climb the mountain, despite storm warnings. Authorities were working to establish their identities.Meanwhile, one death was reported in Austria, where a 41-year-old woman was killed Friday when she was hit by a falling tree in a small village in the province of Styria, the Austria Press Agency reported.The woman was part of a group of hikers taking cover from a hailstorm when the tree collapsed in a forest in St. Stefan.

Coalition forces kill 90 Taliban in Afghanistan: report

KABUL: A bomb struck the convoy of Afghanistan's education minister and parliamentarians on the outskirts of the capital Kabul, wounding a driver, a ministry spokesman said.Education Minister Mohamad Hanif Atmar was not hurt in the blast, which hit one of the last vehicles in a convoy that had just left an event to distribute books to nomad children, ministry spokesman said. A driver of one of the MPs was wounded, Elmi said, adding the minister continued his programme.Moreover, two Iranian nationals were kidnapped by Taliban in Herat. Unknown armed men kidnapped two Iranian businessmen in Afghanistan's western Herat province and police have yet to locate them, police spokesman in western region Abdul said."Riza Azimyan and Hasan Farsi were on their way between Herat and Islam Qala border town on Wednesday afternoon when unknown armed men took them away to unknown location," Ahmadi told Xinhua via telephone.Both the abducted people were businessmen and working for an Iranian road construction company building Torghundi highway in the province, he added. Afghan ministry of interior has said that the coalition forces in collaboration with Afghan troops killed 90 Taliban wihin last few days.

With 8th gold, Phelps swims into history … and now on to London

As teammate Jason Lezak stroked to the wall, Michael Phelps glanced up at the bubbled ceiling of the Water Cube. His smile seemed to stretch from one end of the pool to the other.
He whooped for joy. After nine days of immersion, Phelps was ready to dry off.
With Lezak's winning touch in the 4x100-meter medley relay, in the world record time of 3:29.34, Phelps achieved his goal of capturing eight gold medals in one Olympic Games. He punched the air while Aaron Piersol slapped his chest. Phelps hugged his teammates. He had eclipsed a storied record, Mark Spitz's seven golds of 1972. He had dominated his sport like no other athlete. Nine days, 17 races, seven world records, eight golds.
Incredible numbers, breathtaking numbers, surreal numbers, but no longer impossible numbers. Five years ago, when Phelps first plotted his record, it seemed like a presumptuous, wacky fantasy. He was like a baseball player declaring he would break Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak. He was like an astronaut declaring he would step foot on Mars.
Once in a while we need someone who doesn't ask why but why not?
With single-minded dedication, Phelps took on history.
On Sunday, Phelps sprung from the starting block in third place but by the turn of his butterfly leg, he had regained the lead for the U.S. Lezak lengthened it, and the Americans beat Australia in the finale by seven tenths of a second.
In the end, not only were Phelps' arms and legs tired, so was his neck. Eight times Phelps stepped to the top of the podium to have a gold medal draped over his head.
He climbed into the stands to embrace his mother, Debbie, and two sisters, Whitney and Hilary, and their emotions poured forth.
"She cried, my sisters cried, I cried," Phelps said. "It's been a really fun week."
Certain athletes are linked forever as the signature stars of their Games: Jesse Owens in Berlin, Bob Beamon in Mexico City, Nadia Comaneci in Montreal, Carl Lewis in Los Angeles. Beijing belongs to Phelps.
He'll probably celebrate with a couple pizzas and a pile of pancakes. The U.S. has fallen in love with Phelps not only because he is a winner but because he is exactly what you see: An unpretentious 23-year-old young man who likes to eat, sleep, play video games and race. Son of a Maryland state trooper and a Baltimore principal, he's still the hyperactive little brother who found his second home at the pool.
"My mom and I joke - I think I was in middle school and an English teacher said I'd never be a success," he said.
He's not trying to be a renaissance man, just a renaissance swimmer, shredding the record book of his sport. After the Olympics, swimming leaves prime time and returns to its regularly scheduled 5:30 a.m. time slot, but with a higher worldwide profile. Phelps, swimming's first multi-millionaire, vowed to keep working to popularize it.
"I don't want this sport to be an every-four-years sport," Phelps said. "In between there's not the exposure I'd like. Over the past four years, it's skyrocketed. I'm honored to help this sport for the next generation of swimmers who will have it better than I have."
When he's doing his laps, staring at the black line on the bottom of the pool that stretches to infinity, he's not writing a novel or solving algebra problems. He is focusing on the force of his kick, the lift of his arms, the position of his head.
His coach, Bob Bowman, plays Mozart sonatas and manages a stable of thoroughbreds in his spare time. But when he chats with his protege, it's about the Baltimore Ravens and Washington Nationals.

"Michael is not into political issues," Bowman joked. "He's more likely to say, 'Oh, is this an election year?'"
Phelps does one thing better than just about anybody else has ever done one thing.
But he's not a tortured soul. He's an artist, but he's no Van Gogh. His medium is water, and Phelps, savant of the stopwatch, hits even his splits with metronomic precision.
In Beijing, Phelps won every kind of way. He won by cruising, winning the 400 individual medley by a body length. He won by the narrowest of margins, swooping to the wall with his final stroke in the 100-meter butterfly to out-touch Milorad Cavic by one one-hundredth of a second. He won when his goggles leaked. He won when Lezak saved the streak by streaking through the final leg of the 4x100 relay.
With 14 career golds, Phelps has surpassed four other Olympians who had held the record with nine.
A journalist from Finland asked Phelps to put it in perspective, considering that his own country has never won a single Summer Games medal, since the Olympics began in 1896.
"I'm just lucky to have the drive that I have, the talent that I have and the excitement for the sport," Phelps said, grinning in his endearing, sheepish way.
Incredible numbers, breathtaking numbers, surreal numbers, but no longer impossible numbers.
And Phelps will be back for more in 2012. Nine golds in London? Why not?

By LINDA ROBERTSON
McClatchy Newspapers

Pakistani scientists patent anticonvulsant drug

ISLAMABAD: A new anticonvulsant drug and its use in the treatment of a variety of disorders has been patented in USA. The team of researchers includes Dr. Iqbal Choudhry, Dr. Farzana Shaheen, Dr.Arun Ganesan, Dr. Shabana Usman Simjee and Dr. A. Mohsin Raza from the International Centre of Chemical and Biological Sciences at the University of Karachi and Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman, Chairman Higher Education Commission. The invention is based on investigations on a plant, Delphinium, which has been traditionally used as anticonvulsant but without recognizing the source of its activity or structure of the active principle. The compound possesses potent anticonvulsant activity and is therefore potentially useful in the treatment or prevention of anxiety, mania, depression, panic disorders, epilepsy , Parkinson's disease, migraine, sleep disorders, neuralgia etc. In an effort to encourage scientists to patent their findings, the Higher Education Commission has developed a programme to encourage innovation. Under this programme, researchers can submit research ideas, published papers, thesis synopsis for evaluation for patentability. The submission remains completely confidential. The purpose of this evaluation is to determine patentability. In case an invention is determined to be patentable the inventor is encouraged to file for an international patent.

Bush slams Moscow actions in Georgia

TBILISI/SOCHI: US President George W. Bush denounced Moscow's actions in Georgia as unacceptable on Friday while Russian troops made their deepest incursion into Georgian territory since the conflict began last week.Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said he had signed a ceasefire agreement, negotiated by France on behalf of the European Union, and Russia said it would implement the peace deal.Late on Friday U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov from her plane after leaving the Georgian capital Tbilisi.A U.S. official said Lavrov told Rice Russia would faithfully implement the ceasefire agreement. It wants to see Saakashvili's signature on the document first.On Thursday about 17 armoured personnel carriers and about 200 soldiers advanced to a village 45 km (30 miles) from Tbilisi, the deepest drive into Georgian territory since fighting began in Georgia's breakaway region South Ossetia on Thursday.The vehicles travelled unimpeded by Georgian police and army stationed along the road. A correspondent of a British news agency saw a military ambulance, snipers and rocket-propelled grenades.Saakashvili said tanks also advanced on another two towns -- Khashari and Borjomi -- in central Georgia, but that could not be independently verified.Bush said: "The world has watched with alarm as Russia invaded a sovereign neighbouring state and threatened a democratic government elected by its people."This act is completely unacceptable to the free nations of the world," Bush said in his weekly Saturday radio address, which the White House released on Friday.The United States earlier demanded Russian troops end their occupation of Georgia immediately after Georgia signed the ceasefire agreement.Speaking alongside Saakashvili in Tbilisi, Rice evoked the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia 40 years ago: "Russian forces need to leave Georgia at once. This is no longer 1968."Saakashvili met with Rice for five hours.Saakashvili, in passionate remarks, denounced Russians as "21st century barbarians" and blamed the West for triggering the crisis by failing to react firmly to Moscow's previous military moves and not admitting Georgia to NATO fast enough.

President Musharraf will decide on resignation by tomorrow: FM

MULTAN: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has revealed that the President Pervez Musharraf will decide about his resignation by tomorrow.

Talking to newsmen at Multan Airport here Saturday, he said the impeachment move against President may be withdrawn if he resigned from his office.

The minister claimed that the US and Pakistan Army are committed with the supremacy of the Constitution of the country and will not interfere in the political affairs.

The minister refused to comment over the alleged visit of the Saudi Intelligence Chief, saying that it should be asked to them whom he had met.

Earlier, in an interview with Indian television the FM had said President Pervez Musharraf is considering over resigning and the government is looking at the option of a safe exit for the embattled President.

“We have been in discussions with Musharraf for a safe exit for him. Musharraf is considering resigning”.

When asked about the change in Indo-Pak relations after Musharraf's exit, the foreign minister said, foreign policy is not Musharraf specific.

"Present political leadership in Pakistan is very keen on friendly relations with India because we stand to gain from that. It is not a Musharraf-specific policy," he said.

However, a spokesman for the president, Rashid Qureshi, denied the Foreign Ministers’ claims regarding President’s resignation in one or two days.

Talking to ARY OneWorld, Qureshi said the president has no plans to step down or is seeking a deal for legal immunity.

He advised the media to restrain telecasting such news without proper confirmation.

Music may be good for heart

ROME: Heart rate, blood pressure and breathing rates fluctuate in respond to music, with an arousal effect seen with increasing tempo, while slow, meditative music induces a relaxing effect. Therefore, music may give pleasure, and perhaps a health benefit as well, as a result of this controlled alteration between arousal and relaxation, Health News reported. Researchers from Italy, studied the potential effects of music on health, particularly stress. For this they had 24 men listen to a random series of six two-minute musical tracks while the researchers measured their heart rate, breathing, blood pressure and other indicators of arousal or relaxation. Before the music started, the participants, half of whom had advanced musical training, relaxed for five minutes. The tracks were then repeated in a different order, each lasting four minutes. A two-minute period of silence was randomly inserted into one of the sequences. The tracks included raga, a type of Indian music; slow and fast classical music; techno; rap; and dodecaphonic, or twelve-tone music, which lacks a traditional rhythmic, harmonic and melodic structure. It was found that most of the music increased blood pressure and heart rate, with a stronger effect seen with faster music. This effect appeared to depend on tempo, not style; fast classical and techno had the same effect. Shifts in heart rate and breathing were more pronounced in the trained musicians, who also had a slower average breathing rate than the non-musicians. The enhanced response in the musicians is probably associated with their ability to synchronise their breathing with the music phrase. Listening to music may have effects similar to that of relaxation techniques, which generally require that a person focus his or her attention on something and then release it. Appropriate selection of music, by alternating fast and slower rhythms and pauses, can be used to induce relaxation and consequently reduce sympathetic activity and thus may bepotentially useful in the management of heart disease.

Goody eyes Shilpa in Bigg show

The 27-year-old who grabbed headlines last summer with her racist barbs against Shilpa on UK’s Celebrity Big Brother is to fly in here around Thursday-Friday midnight, said sources in Colors, the channel that will run Bigg Boss 2. “She will probably go straight to the Bigg Boss house if the meeting (with the producers) is a success. The show starts from August 15,” a source said.Goody, who has made a career out of reality shows, has been “offered nearly £1,00,000 (around Rs 80 lakh), all expenses included, for the two-week programme”, the source said. “She will be here for a last-minute meeting before signing on the dotted line.” The TV fortunes of Goody, a mother of two, have sagged, partly because of the outrage that had led to her being voted out of Celebrity Big Brother.If channel insiders are to be believed, she will come prepared. “She knows she may face a hostile audience and inmates but she feels it is worth the effort,” the source said.It isn’t only her racist abuses that could haunt her on the show. Her apparent ignorance could also earn her plenty of jibes. On the UK show, she had shocked many by saying that “Cambridge is in London”.

Wikipedia founder aims to break Google stranglehold

SINGAPORE: Watch out Google -- Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales hopes that Wikia Search, a project he spearheads, will break Google's domination of the world's Internet search engine market. Google and fellow titans Yahoo and Microsoft dominate the Internet search engine market, which Wales said was already causing some worry among web users. "Right now in the US in particular we have a really strong concentration of the industry," Wales said Thursday at the Global Brand Forum in Singapore. Industry statistics showed over 90 percent of Internet searches in the United States are done through the three firms, he said. "So a lot of people are really concerned about this... Do we really want all of our traffic, all of our editorial control of the Internet all being piped through one, two or three companies? "I don't think we do... I think we want to have a broader marketplace than that." Wales said Wikia Search will run on an open platform, similar to the principles behind Wikipedia, the popular online encyclopedia in which entries can be made and edited by anyone with an Internet connection.

World's tallest woman dies

WASHINGTON: An American believed to be the world's tallest woman has died, nursing home staff said Thursday.Sandy Allen, 53, who grew to be more than seven feet, seven inches tall died Wednesday at a nursing home in Shelbyville, Indiana.A spokeswoman for the Heritage House Convalescent Center in Shelbyville said Allen "had been in failing health in recent years and died of natural causes."She had been listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's tallest woman.By the time she was 10, Allen already stood six foot three. By 16, she was over seven feet tall, the Indianapolis Star daily said.It's believed that a tumor on her pituitary gland caused her abnormal growth.It was removed when Allen was in her 20s, but she continued to be affected by a variety of health issues related to her height, including poor circulation and weak leg muscles that kept her confined to a wheelchair in her later years.While her height brought her and the town of Shelbyville fame it also led to personal despair, especially in her late teens when she spoke about her height being an impediment to relationships.The newspaper quoted a letter Allen is said to have written to Guinness in 1974 in which she said: "I would like to get to know someone that is approximately my height. It is needless to say my social life is practically nil and perhaps the publicity from your book may brighten my life."

Special: Spending time outdoors good for kids eyes

ISLAMABAD: Parents now have another reason to show their kids outdoors to play, along with making sure they get enough fresh air and exercise. In a study, Australian researchers found that children who spent the most time outdoors were the least likely to suffer from myopia, also called nearsightedness or shortsightedness, Health news reported. "Our evidence suggests that the key factor is being outdoors, and that it does not matter if that time is spent in having a picnic or in playing sport," researcher said. Myopia has become increasingly common in recent decades, with more than 80 percent of people in some highly-educated groups being nearsighted, Rose of the University of Sydney and her colleagues point out in the journal Ophthalmology. Work that requires a person to focus on something close up for example reading has been proposed to cause nearsightedness, they add. To investigate how viewing activities at various distances might influence myopia risk, the researchers looked at 1,765 six-year-olds and 2,367 12-year-olds participating in the Sydney Myopia Study. Just 1.5 percent of the six-year-olds were myopic, but 12.8 percent of the older children were. Both age groups spent about 2.3 hours outside each day, on average. Time spent outside had no significant relationship to myopia prevalence among the younger children, nor did the amount of close work they did. But among the 12-year-olds, those who spent more than 2.8 hours outside every day were less likely to be myopic than their peers who spent more of their time indoors. Children who spent less than 1.6 hours outdoors every day and more than 3.1 hours in near-work activity had double to triple the likelihood of being nearsighted compared to kids who spent the most time outside and the least time in close-up work. "We have not yet established why being outside is protective," Rose said. "But a likely candidate is the high levels of light experienced outside compared to inside. The researcher offers the following advice to parents: "Try to ensure that your children spend time outside because we have evidence that the more time they spend outdoors, the less likely they are to develop myopia. This is true, even if they are also doing a lot of close work such as reading and studying." But also, she adds, parents should be sure their kids are wearing hats and sunscreen.
___________________________________________________________

Special: Spending time outdoors good for kids eyes

ISLAMABAD: Parents now have another reason to show their kids outdoors to play, along with making sure they get enough fresh air and exercise. In a study, Australian researchers found that children who spent the most time outdoors were the least likely to suffer from myopia, also called nearsightedness or shortsightedness, Health news reported. "Our evidence suggests that the key factor is being outdoors, and that it does not matter if that time is spent in having a picnic or in playing sport," researcher said. Myopia has become increasingly common in recent decades, with more than 80 percent of people in some highly-educated groups being nearsighted, Rose of the University of Sydney and her colleagues point out in the journal Ophthalmology. Work that requires a person to focus on something close up for example reading has been proposed to cause nearsightedness, they add. To investigate how viewing activities at various distances might influence myopia risk, the researchers looked at 1,765 six-year-olds and 2,367 12-year-olds participating in the Sydney Myopia Study. Just 1.5 percent of the six-year-olds were myopic, but 12.8 percent of the older children were. Both age groups spent about 2.3 hours outside each day, on average. Time spent outside had no significant relationship to myopia prevalence among the younger children, nor did the amount of close work they did. But among the 12-year-olds, those who spent more than 2.8 hours outside every day were less likely to be myopic than their peers who spent more of their time indoors. Children who spent less than 1.6 hours outdoors every day and more than 3.1 hours in near-work activity had double to triple the likelihood of being nearsighted compared to kids who spent the most time outside and the least time in close-up work. "We have not yet established why being outside is protective," Rose said. "But a likely candidate is the high levels of light experienced outside compared to inside. The researcher offers the following advice to parents: "Try to ensure that your children spend time outside because we have evidence that the more time they spend outdoors, the less likely they are to develop myopia. This is true, even if they are also doing a lot of close work such as reading and studying." But also, she adds, parents should be sure their kids are wearing hats and sunscreen.
___________________________________________________________

Poland, US sign missile shield deal

WARSAW: Warsaw and Washington signed a preliminary deal Thursday on basing part of a US missile shield in Poland, in the face of Moscow’s vehement opposition and mounting East-West tensions over Georgia. US and Polish negotiators inked the accord in a ceremony after two days of talks in the Polish capital. "This is an important agreement for the security of the United States, for the security of Poland and the security of our NATO allies," chief US negotiator John Rood told reporters. Washington plans to base 10 interceptor missiles in Poland plus a radar facility in the neighbouring Czech Republic by 2011-2013 to complete a system already in place in the United States, Greenland and Britain. Washington insists the shield, which was endorsed by all 26 NATO member states earlier this year, is to fend off potential missile attacks by "rogue states, " notably Iran. US President George W. Bush "was very pleased with this development," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters in Washington. "In no way is the president's plan for missile defense aimed at Russia. In fact, it's just not even logically possible for it to be aimed at Russia given how Russia could overwhelm it," she said. The plan, however, has become a major source of tension with Moscow. It considers it a security threat designed to undermine Russia's nuclear deterrent, and has vowed a firm response if the Czechs and Poles go ahead.

Georgia Says Russian Troops Still Control One-Third of Country

Aug. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Georgia said Russian troops still control one-third of the country three days after Russia accepted a European Union-brokered cease-fire to end fighting over the breakaway region of South Ossetia.
The Russian army has brought in ``thousands and thousands of irregulars,'' who are terrorizing the population, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili told reporters in Tbilisi yesterday. He appealed for increased diplomatic pressure on Russia.
Russia is waiting for Georgian leaders to sign a six-point EU plan after the regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia committed to the deal in Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner in a telephone call late yesterday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
The five-day war increased tensions between the U.S. and Russia with Defense Secretary Robert Gates saying yesterday Russian actions ``called into question the entire premise'' of their strategic relationship. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice travels to Tbilisi today to meet with Georgian leaders.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev met in Moscow with South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity and Sergei Bagapsh, the leader of Abkhazia. Both regions argue that Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia, recognized by much of the West, should be a precedent for their independence.
``If Russia does not step back from its aggressive posture and actions in Georgia, the U.S.-Russian relationship could be adversely affected for years to come,'' Gates said in Washington. The U.S. canceled two military exercises with Russia scheduled for this month, he said.
Missile Shield
Poland won a U.S. pledge to help improve its defenses yesterday in exchange for basing 10 American interceptor missiles, an agreement reached after Russia's attacks on Georgia highlighted the vulnerability of former Soviet republics and satellite states in eastern Europe.
U.S. government officials have to be cautious in dealing with Russia in its own backyard, said former Ambassador James Dobbins, who held senior White House posts under four presidents. Moscow has supported American-led initiatives, including Afghanistan after the al-Qaeda attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, he said.
``We've gotten used to having Russian support,'' said Dobbins, director of the nonprofit Rand Corporation's international security and defense policy center. ``Maybe we've come to take it for granted and been surprised when it isn't forthcoming.''
Military Support
The U.S. has provided military training and financial aid to Georgia's army. About 1,000 U.S. troops joined 600 Georgians for exercises in July. President George W. Bush backs Georgia's bid to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which Russia views as a security threat.
Eka Zguladze, Georgia's deputy interior minister, said more than 100 Russian armored vehicles left Zugdidi in western Georgia last night and started moving toward the Georgian military base of Senaki, 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Abkhazia.
``They have made one stop in the village between Senaki and Khobi probably for overnight purposes, though it is difficult to tell what exactly they are going to do,'' Zguladze said in a telephone interview late yesterday.
Georgian officials said Russian troops returned to the Black Sea port of Poti and will remain around the city of Gori for three days. Gates said Russia isn't blockading Poti or air and road corridors used for the delivery of humanitarian aid by U.S. forces, as ordered by Bush on Aug. 13.
Disabling Equipment
It will take ``one or two days'' more for Russia to complete disabling Georgian military equipment near the conflict zone, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in Moscow yesterday.
Russia wants to secure United Nations permission to maintain a buffer zone with its peacekeepers in Georgia without the presence of Georgia's military, he said.
``As far as Russian peacekeeping troops, they stayed before and they will stay there, definitely,'' he said.
No country has formally recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia since they fought wars to break away from Georgia after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. Since then, the government in Moscow has stationed peacekeepers in the regions, where most residents have Russian passports.
UN Resolution
The UN Security Council is negotiating a new draft resolution that will be based on the six-point plan, Vitaly Churkin, Russia's ambassador to the UN, said in comments broadcast on CNN.
The EU plan calls for the withdrawal of Georgian and Russian troops to the positions they held before the conflict, renunciation of the use of force, an end to all military operations and a commitment to making humanitarian aid freely available in the conflict zone.
The UN estimates that about 100,000 people have been displaced by the conflict, the UN Children's Fund, Unicef, said in a statement.
Russian aircraft used cluster bombs, killing at least 11 civilians in a populated area of Georgia on Aug. 12, New York- based Human Rights Watch said in an e-mailed statement today.
Cluster munitions are canisters packed with as many as 650 small bombs that can cover an area of several thousand square meters. Human Rights Watch said it found evidence of the attacks and called on Russia to halt the use of such weapons, according to the statement.
The last known use of cluster bombs came during Israel's war with the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon in 2006, Human Rights Watch said.

Clinton to Get Roll-Call Vote at Nominating Convention

By Anne E. KornblutWashington Post Staff Writer Thursday, August 14, 2008; 10:58 PM
After weeks of maneuvering aimed at producing a display of unity when Democrats gather in Denver later this month, Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign announced yesterday that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton will be formally nominated and her name included in a roll-call vote at the Democratic National Convention.
The move represented the latest, and potentially most important, symbolic gesture by Obama to Clinton supporters, and could blunt the threat of an upheaval on the convention floor. Some Clinton backers have threatened to stage a walkout or leave Denver altogether after she speaks on Aug. 26 to protest what they view as a flawed and sexist party nominating process.
In a joint statement, the two camps said the decision to enter Clinton's name into nomination was mutual, and they countered the idea that she had forced her way back into the spotlight.
"I am convinced that honoring Senator Clinton's historic campaign in this way will help us celebrate this defining moment in our history and bring the party together in a strong united fashion," Obama said in the statement. It , which went on to say that he "encouraged" the roll-call vote as a way to recognize "the historic race she ran and the fact that she was the first woman to compete in all of our nation's primary contests."
Clinton countered with a respectful tribute to the presumptive Democratic nominee. "With every voice heard and the party strongly united, we will elect Senator Obama president of the United States and put our nation on the path to peace and prosperity once again," she said.
Advisers on both sides said Clinton had initially been reluctant to pursue a roll-call vote for fear that defections would mean she would register an even smaller delegate count than she did during the primaries. She is also eager to avoid further inflaming her base, aware that any mid-convention disruption would reflect negatively on her.
But after a series of meetings with her most ardent supporters, Clinton concluded that it would be wise to suggest a roll-call vote. She said as much at a closed-door fundraiser early this month, when she cited the "incredible pent-up feelings" she knew some of her backers needed to air. "The best way I think to do that is to have a strategy so that my delegates feel like they've had a role and that their legitimacy has been validated," she said in remarks that were captured on videotape and eventually became public.
"It's as old as Greek drama. There's a catharsis. Everybody comes, and they want to yell and scream and have their opportunity, and I think that's all to the good," Clinton said.
When those comments surfaced, Obama initially appeared to contradict Clinton, saying he was letting his campaign team handle the details. "I don't think we're looking for catharsis," he said. "I think what we are looking for is energy and excitement about the prospects of changing this country, and I think that people who supported a whole range of different candidates during the primaries are going to come out of that convention feeling absolutely determined that we have to take the White House back."
Obama advisers have had their own moments of pique recently, after following not only the "catharsis" remark but also comments made by former president Bill Clinton, who initially declined to forcefully endorse Obama in his first interviews since the primaries ended, as well as Howard Wolfson, the former communications director for Hillary Clinton's campaign. Wolfson , who said that she would have won the Iowa caucuses had former senator John Edwards not been on the ballot.
Still, Obama advisers characterized the dealings with Clinton backers as only a minor distraction, and said they are determined not to allow any intraparty problems to dominate the Denver program. Obama invited the former president to speak at the convention on Aug. 27, the night before the senator from Illinois will accept his party's nomination. Hillary Clinton will have a prime speaking role on Aug. 26, a night that will also emphasize the role of women in politics. She is expected to remain in Denver all week, a show of support for Obama despite the painful and extended primary season that officially ended when she dropped out June 7 -- and even though she is almost certain not to be chosen as Obama's running mate.
How, exactly, the roll call will work remains an open question, advisers on both sides said. After having her name entered into nomination, Clinton could then ask her delegates to support Obama, bypassing the long process of reading names aloud. But several advisers said they think there will be some kind of roll call, which could begin as early as Tuesday night of the convention. As a superdelegate, Clinton is expected to vote for Obama.

Phelps Wins 200 Individual Medley for Sixth Gold

BEIJING — One of the few remaining men standing between Michael Phelps and Mark Spitz at the Beijing Olympics looks as if he should be working behind the counter of a video store, not racing to ruin Phelps’s cinematic ending.

Ryan Lochte, the primary rival of Phelps in the individual medleys, has sleepy eyes and a pattern of speech in which the sentences rolls off his tongue like gently breaking waves. Lochte, who is from Daytona Beach, seems as if he should be hanging 10 at the nearest beach, but Friday morning at the National Aquatics Center, he was trying to ride a huge wave of momentum as far as it would carry him.
Lochte started out with a come-from-behind upset of his countryman Aaron Peirsol in the 200-meter backstroke, winning his first individual Olympic gold medal.
The race ended at 10:21 a.m. local time. Twenty-nine minutes later was his showdown against Phelps in the 200 I.M., and a less-than-fresh Lochte was no match for Phelps.
But then, neither was anyone else. Pulling away from the field in the breaststroke — his weakest leg — Phelps won his sixth gold medal and set his sixth world record. He was timed in 1:54.23, finishing more than a bodylength ahead of the silver medalist, Laszlo Cseh of Hungary. Lochte nearly caught Cseh at the end but settled for third.
In the semifinals, Lochte had 44 minutes between the swims. “So cutting that in half is going to be interesting,” he said Thursday night with a wry — or was that sly? — smile.
While Lochte shrugged off the degree of difficulty of his double, others were less blasé. Eddie Reese, the U.S. Olympic men’s coach, said, “This double’s unbelievable.”
What Lochte was attempting did seem ludicrous. It was the swimming equivalent of going up against Pete Sampras at Wimbledon and then, after a rest lasting not that much longer than a changeover, squaring off against Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde in doubles.
Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe, who competed here in the women’s 200 I.M. and 200 backstroke but on different days, described Lochte’s double as “insane.” She said she saw him at the Short Course World Championships in England earlier this year when he swam the 200 backstroke and 100 I.M. finals with less than 30 minutes’ rest and told him: “You’re crazy. How are you doing this?”
The 200 backstroke is arguably the hardest on the legs of all the swimming races because of the kicking on one’s back and the dolphin-kicking off the walls. But the hardest part of the double, Lochte said, is not physical but psychological.
“There’s a physical part, but I’ve trained for it,” he said. “I’m used to it. The biggest part for me is the psychological part. Just getting ready for one race and then being able to separate that race and go into the next one. No matter what the outcome is you got to separate it and just move on.”
By now, it is obvious how large an obstacle Lochte was facing in Phelps, who has been America’s gold standard in the 200 I.M. since 2002. Going into the summer, Phelps had 7 of the 10 fastest swims in the event, with Lochte owning the other three.
But as Phelps closed in on Spitz’s record of seven golds in a single Olympics, Lochte’s other American rival was quietly making history. With his victory Tuesday in the 100 backstroke, Peirsol became the first swimmer since Roland Matthes in 1972 to successfully defend his Olympic title in that event.
Matthes, an East German, also pulled off back-to-back victories in the 200 backstroke, a feat Peirsol dearly wanted to match. Standing in his way was Lochte, who handed Peirsol his first loss in the 200 in seven years at the 2007 world championships.
Like the golfer who has to take chances off the tee to have a chance against Tiger Woods, Phelps and Peirsol have been so dominant in their events that their rivals have to alter their strategies to have any hopes of beating them.
When Lochte and Phelps, both 23, met in the 400 I.M. here, Lochte took it out faster than he normally would, hoping to gain a lead over Phelps in the first 200 and then hang on. He did take the lead briefly, at the 150 mark, but tired down the stretch and faded to third.
The 24-year-old Peirsol is known for his strong back halves, and so the obvious strategy against him is to build an early lead and try to hang on. But Friday morning, Lochte and Peirsol had to chase down Arkady Vyatchanin of Russia, who led most of the race and was first going into the last turn.
Lochte was timed in 1 minute 53.94 seconds, 0.38 of a second better than the world record he had held jointly with Peirsol, who finished second in 1:54.33. Vyatchanin, who won a swim-off to earn a berth in the final, ended up with the bronze medal.
Phelps’s coach, Bob Bowman, who knows an ambitious schedule when he sees it, described Lochte’s task Friday as “very formidable.” He added: “You’re taking on the best competitor in both. My hat’s off to him.”

India wants to eliminate Kashmiri leadership: APHC

ISLAMABAD: In occupied Kashmir, the Chairman of All Parties Hurriyat Conference, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, senior Kashmiri Hurriyat leader, Syed Ali Geelani and the Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front Muhammad Yasin Malik have emphasized that India wants to eliminate the Kashmiri leadership to suppress the ongoing freedom movement. The leaders said this while addressing hundreds of thousands of mourners at Mazar-e-Shuhada in Srinagar on the occasion of final funeral rituals of the senior APHC leader, Shaikh Abdul Aziz, who was martyred by Indian troops on Monday, while leading a march towards the Line of Control, holding in his hands a big portrait of Quaid-e-Azam, Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Shaikh Aziz was laid to rest at the `Martyrs' Graveyard' in Eidgah on Tuesday amid sobs and tears, a local daily reported. Earlier, defying curfew orders large crowds of people assembled outside the residences of the Mirwaiz and Syed Ali Gilani who took them along to Mazar-e-Shuhada breaking the three-tier security cordon, which was in place to keep them under house arrest.Mirwaiz described the murder of the APHC leader as targeted killing. He said that the naked aggression of the occupation authorities would not be tolerated and that voices would continue to be raised against it. Calling for observing August 15 as a Black Day, the APHC Chairman advised parents not to send their children to participate in functions on the day. He said that there was no information about the whereabouts of senior APHC leader, Shabbir Ahmad Shah, and that the authorities should disclose the fate of thousands of people including Shah. In his speech, Syed Ali Gilani, deferred the Muzaffarabad march and said that peaceful protests would be held for the next four days. He said that sacrifice of Shaikh Aziz would not go in vain, nor would the sacrifices offered so far be allowed to go waste. "Sacrifices are a part of our struggle, and there is no deviation from this path,' he added. Muhammad Yasin Malik, who had left hospital against the advice of his doctors, addressing the gathering termed Shaikh Aziz's murder as a irreparable loss for the people of Kashmir and asked the people to remain united and calm in this hour of trial. Meanwhile, lacs of people who could not reach Srinagar due to curfew, offered funeral prayers in absentia for Sheikh Abdul Aziz across the Valley.

Rice to visit Srakozy, then on to Tbilisi

WASHINGTON: US President George W. Bush announced that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would visit French President Nicolas Sarkozy to discuss the Georgia-Russia crisis.According to the details, US President has decided to send US Secretary of state Condoleezza Rice to visit French President, Nicolas Sarkozy to discuss peace process and also to put US emphasis on peace.After meeting with French President she would then travel to Tbilisi in Georgia to show "America's unwavering support for Georgia's democratically elected government."

Pakistan celebrating its 61st independence day

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan celebrating its 61st independence day with traditional zeal and fervor, Celebration of Independence is not only happening in Pakistan but people living in Kashmir and aboard also celebrating Independence Day.

The day of the Independence will be started just after Fajar prayers, at the occasion of Independence special prayers for beloved motherland has planned at different Mosques and seminaries throughout the country.Largest gathering of the Independence Day celebration is planned to be held at the convention center, in which Prime Minister Syed Yousef Raza Gillani would unfurl the flag. Ministers, Ambassadors and other high level delegates would attend the gathering.At the same time Gathering would also be held at Provincial and District Capital throughout the country.In Karachi Independence Day Celebration would be started by Unfurling of National Flag at the Mausoleum of Qauid-e-Azam. Guards of Naval Academy would take their position at the Mausoleum. Governor Sindh, Israt-ul-Ebad Khan, Chief Minister Sindh, Qaim Ali Shah and Provincial cabinet members will attend the ceremony.To celebrate Independence Day important buildings, places and Government offices has been decorated.

Georgia agrees to cease-fire proposal

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has agreed an outline plan with Russia and Georgia to try to resolve their crisis.
A key element calls for all forces to return to the areas where they were before fighting broke out last week.
Georgia says some details are unacceptable and the French mediator admitted difficulties lay ahead.
Some 100,000 people are estimated to have been displaced by the conflict, which has created huge tensions in international relations.
On Tuesday, Russia announced its military activity in the area was completed and witnesses saw troops pulling out.
The BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse in Georgia says fighting in the South Ossetia region does now seem to have ended.
But despite the diplomacy and apparent withdrawal, rhetoric on both sides remained fiery and analysts were predicting a long road to peace.


Russia has held all the cards in this conflict and looks set to end up with both a diplomatic and a military victory, says the BBC's Caroline Wyatt in Moscow.
FIVE-POINT PEACE PLAN
No more use of force
Stop all military actions for good
Free access to humanitarian aid
Georgian troops return to their places of permanent deployment
Russian troops return to pre-conflict positions
Peace deal all in the timing
Defiant but helpless in Tbilisi
Gori smoulders after fighting
Falling victim to pipeline politics

It has shown its power within the region and the weakness of the West, which has been unable and unwilling to come to Georgia's aid with anything other than words of support, our correspondent adds.
Russia moved in forcefully, sending troops into South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another breakaway province. Georgian towns away from the two regions were also bombed.
Making Wednesday a day of national mourning in Russia, President Dmitry Medvedev accused Georgia of mounting a "genocide of the South Ossetian people".
Fighting flared last Thursday night when Georgia sent its army to regain control of South Ossetia - a region nominally part of Georgia, but with de facto independence and where a majority of people hold Russian passports.
EU meeting
Mr Sarkozy, in his current role as EU president, held talks with President Medvedev in Moscow for most of Tuesday before flying to Tbilisi, where his arrival was greeted by emotional displays.


He held news conferences with both Mr Medvedev and Mr Saakashvili - with all three leaders saying they had agreed in principle to a five-point plan.
A sixth point in the plan, about holding international discussions on the future status of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, had been deleted with the agreement of Mr Medvedev, Mr Sarkozy and Mr Saakashvili said.
"The territorial integrity and belonging of South Ossetia and Abkhazia to Georgia can never be put under doubt," the Georgian leader said.
Mr Sarkozy said the document would be looked over by EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Wednesday before being submitted to the UN Security Council.
The US has meanwhile said it is cancelling an annual joint naval exercise with Russia, scheduled for the end of this week in the Sea of Japan.
A US official told news agencies there was no way Washington could "proceed with this joint exercise at this time".
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned that Russia was "frankly... doing great damage" to its prospects for integrating into international organisations.
In a reference to the Soviet Union's invasion of Czechoslovakia, she said Moscow's behaviour belonged to "another time".
"We are not in 1968 and the message has been very clear to Russia that it cannot operate that way," she told the US channel ABC News.
'Heartless destruction'
In his decree on national mourning, Mr Medvedev, who on Tuesday called Georgian troops "thugs" [Russian: otmorozki], did not give figures for civilian casualties in South Ossetia, but said they were "numerous".


The Russian army says that 18 of its soldiers were killed, 14 are missing and 52 were wounded, including one general.
On Tuesday, tens of thousands of Georgians gathered in Tbilisi's main square to hear Mr Saakashvili claim that Russia was continuing its "ruthless, heartless destruction" of Georgian citizens.
Many issues remain that are likely to hamper peace negotiations.
Separatist rebels are continuing to fight Georgian troops in the Kodori Gorge region of Abkhazia - the only area of Abkhazia still under Georgian military control.
Georgia has meanwhile filed several complaints with international bodies over Russia's actions - including one at the International Court of Justice alleging ethnic cleansing.
Mr Saakashvili told crowds in Tbilisi that Russian peacekeepers in Abkhazia would now be regarded as an occupying army - ending an agreement in place since 1994.
And he also said Georgia would leave the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) - a Moscow-dominated group that includes most of the former Soviet republics.

Interesting news: A judge dismissed a juror for wearing an FCUK T-shirt.

Theatre
Let's start with opera. Opera's quite posh, innit? They must have some reassuringly solid guidelines. "Actually, we don't," responds the plummy press officer for Covent Garden's Royal Opera House. "People can wear what they like." Even if I was wearing smelly Birkenstocks, ripped shorts and a bag on my back as big as a soprano, you'd let me in? "Um, OK."
"We hope men will wear DJs and women will wear dresses, but there are no codes," says the spokeswoman for Glyndebourne, which is about as posh as opera gets. Sounds as if opera is more relaxed than I had thought. "Oh, yes! Women even wear trousers here! Ladies! In trousers!" Surely not.
Populist theatre is a more complex proposition. Take Mamma Mia! at the Prince Edward theatre in London. If you think this would be just a casual night out for you and the rest of the American tourists in town, you're headed for a fashion faux pas on a Fergie scale. "People get dressed up, particularly on the weekends. Lots of Lycra," says Tom Littlechild, account executive for the show. "Seventies gear, you see." Philip Tuten, the theatre house manager, passes on the hot fashion tip that "lots of the ladies come in big wigs."
Court
Courts seem to have pretty fixed ideas about what is and isn't appropriate dress. "No, we don't have a dresscode," says the Old Bailey's spokeswoman. "I've seen jurors in shorts. A bikini probably wouldn't be appropriate, but it's really up to the judge." In the public gallery, anything goes ("We don't have any jurisdiction up there."), although layers should be avoided because "someone might think you're concealing a bomb". What if you're up in the dock? "If the accused is standing there in tattered jeans and a smelly T-shirt, that might not work. I would recommend smart casual." Funny, I had always thought "smart casual" was a criminal offence.
Dinner parties
"Oh, I just hate smart casual!" expostulates networking queen, Carole Stone, who, fortunately, does not have any immediate plans to be up in court. She does, however, have many dinner parties: "I had one for three couples - no, I can't divulge any names, but you'd recognise them," she begins. "One woman came wearing bunny ears and fairy wings, another wore a brocade train, and the third wore a skirt and cardie. No one felt uncomfortable!"
Stone speaks of a whirlwind world where ladies can "whip fine brooches out of their pockets to smarten up" and gentlemen can "rip off their neckties, when they're feeling overly formal." She also suggests "dressing down when in doubt". "Once I was going to a regatta and I felt underdressed, so I bought a £400 jacket on the way. But when I got there, the hostess was wearing jeans! Can you imagine?" No, Carole, I can't.
Religion
Lost in a swirl of foggy advice, where to turn but to one's rabbi? "Why, hi, Hadley, we haven't seen you round here for a while!" says Rabbi Mark Winer at West London Synagogue. Any old ways, next time I, ahem, come to synagogue, what would be appropriate dress? "Modest and proper," are Winer's bywords, which translates to a dress for women and jacket for men. Displaying an almost Diana Vreeland-esque talent at fashion planning, Winer suggests: "If it's a wedding and there's an event afterwards, wear your smart outfit to the ceremony. But really, we're so glad when people come we don't mind what they wear."
Moving swiftly on, what do the Catholics have to say? At Our Lady Queen of Peace in Bournemouth, people tend to be "reasonably dressed, although we do see shorts in the summer," says the housekeeper.
Is the C of E more prescriptive? "No, we're very relaxed," chirrups Dr Martin Dudley, rector of St Bartholomew's church, in the City of London. No rules at all? "We don't allow men to wear hats - except if they're builders and they're doing some works for us."
Sport
Perhaps sport is now the opiate of the masses, so maybe it is to the stadiums insteads of temples that we should turn for guiding light. "Nope, all very casual round here, not head-to-toe designer," says the press officer for Fulham Football Club. Should the light of heaven shine and you are invited into the corporate box at Fulham, don "jeans, jackets, smart shoes". Is this, by any chance... "Yes. Smart casual." The All England Club advises that Wimbledon spectators should "just be reasonably dressed and enjoy the game. I can't understand what else you want to know."
The Marylebone Cricket Club is more specific. "We don't allow any musical instruments and flags at Lords," says the MCC. "If you were sitting next to someone with a French horn, why, your enjoyment of the cricket match would be ruined! Flags obscure people's view, and it's the same with mock Viking hats, which seem to be quite the fashion item in certain quarters."
First-class air travel
"If you want to be bumped up to first class, dress formally," advises British Airways. "Skirt or trousers for women, jacket and trousers for men." If you aren't a blagger and actually fork out £6,000 for a first class seat you are "allowed to wear whatever you like".
The bank manager
Let's ask my bank manager for his opinions on appropriate dress - his views tend to be hard and unswerving. So, Mr Browne, what is appropriate to wear to a meeting with one's bank manager? "Oh, Miss Freeman, what have you done now, eh?" But Mr Browne does indeed have some views. "Best to look smart. As long as it's not offensive you should be fine."
Does he find "FCUK" offensive? "Well, a French Connection shop is right next door to us, so it wouldn't be very sensible if I did, would it?"

Interesting news: Experiment planned for the autumn could cause the destruction of the Earth.

Scientists have quashed suggestions that a £350m experiment planned for the autumn could cause the destruction of the Earth.
The director of the laboratory commissioning the machine says there is "no chance" of the atom-smashing experiment causing a disaster, such as a black hole that would devour the entire Earth.
Researchers have spent eight years constructing the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island in New York state. Its goal is to smash the nuclei of atoms together and study their wreckage to determine the fundamental properties of matter.
Huge magnets are needed to accelerate the particlesRHIC takes atoms of gold and swings them around two 3.8 kilometre (2.4 mile) circular tubes where powerful magnets accelerate them to almost the speed of light. When they collide, they do so in minute collisions that are 10,000 times hotter than the Sun.
Scientists hope to create a quark-gluon plasma, a fundamental state of matter that probably has not existed naturally in the Universe since the Big Bang.
Armageddon?
But could they create something else, a mini-black hole perhaps or a new form of particle with unknown properties that could expand and engulf the Earth?
That was the suggestion made recently in the letters section of the Scientific American magazine, "I am concerned that physicists are going where it is unsafe to go," said one correspondent
If a mini black hole was created then some speculate that, in certain circumstances and if it was next to a concentration of mass, it could become stable and continue to grow. It would be drawn towards the centre of the Earth, where it would start to grow. It might engulf the entire Earth within minutes.
Too far-fetched
But it is all a bit-far fetched according to the scientists commissioning the particle collider. John Marburger, Director of Brookhaven Laboratories says: "I am familiar with the issue of possible dire consequences of experiments at the RHIC, which Brookhaven Lab is now commissioning.
"These issues have been raised and examined by responsible scientists who have concluded that there is no chance that any phenomenon produced by RHIC will lead to disaster.
"The amount of matter involved in the RHIC collisions is exceedingly small - only a single pair of atomic nuclei is involved in each collision. Our Universe would have to be extremely unstable in order for such a small amount of energy to cause a large effect."
"On the contrary, the Universe appears to be quite stable against releases of much larger amounts of energy that occur in astrophysical processes."
He emphasises that RHIC collisions will be within the spectrum of energies encompassed by naturally occurring cosmic radiation that strikes the Earth all the time.
Experts in the relevant fields of physics have been asked to produce a single comprehensive report on the safety of each of the speculative "disaster scenarios". When completed it will be placed on the laboratory's web site.
Familiar fear
It is not the first time that scientists and others have worried that they may produce some form of chain-reaction in their particle colliders that may endanger the Earth.
In the 1970's the Russian physicist Yakob Zeldovich expressed concern that experiments being carried out at the Cern European particle physics centre in Switzerland may result in catastrophe. He later carried out more calculations and decided that his fears were groundless.
In 1995 protestors picketed the Fermilab laboratory near Chicago carrying the banner "Fermilab: home of the next supernova." Experts said their fears were baseless

US: ‘Dr Afia’s case injustice to missing people’

WITH the US finally admitting having Dr Afia Siddiqui in its custody, one of the most brutal cases of suppression of individual freedom has become to unravel, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) says in its statement.The HRCP, in its statement issued on Tuesday, called on civil society and human rights organisations to make concerted efforts for the release of all missing people and to ensure justice for Dr Afia.The statement said the public pressure had compelled the US to admit that Dr Afia was in its custody. While the Pakistani government had belatedly begun to admit that it had some responsibility regarding Afia, it had a lot of explaining to do as to who had been detaining her since she was picked up from Karachi in 2003 along with her three children, the statement added.To say that Afia had been taken into custody only on July 21, 2008, was a blatant lie, the statement said, adding that the insinuation that she had been hiding since 2003 was a travesty of truth and an affront of the people’s commonsense. It said that Dr Afia’s case was a reminder of the grave injustice done to numerous missing Pakistanis kept in US detention centres in Bagram, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and elsewhere in the world.

In other News channel (GEO)...

WASHINGTON: A Pakistani scientist Dr. Afia Siddiqui accused of shooting at U.S. officers while in Afghan custody last month has been extradited to the United States.According to US media reports, onn July 18 Siddiqui shot at two FBI special agents, a U.S. Army warrant officer, an Army captain and military interpreters who unknowingly entered a room where she was being held unsecured at an Afghan facility. The warrant officer returned fire with a pistol, shooting Siddiqui at least once. She struggled with the officers before she lost consciousness, and was then given medical attention.US officials said that Afia Siddiqui was arrested outside the Ghazni governor's compound where they found bomb-making instructions, excerpts from the "Anarchist's Arsenal," papers with descriptions of U.S. landmarks and substances sealed in bottles and glass jars.

A senior Al Qaeda commander has been killed in clashes

A senior Al Qaeda commander has been killed in clashes with Pakistani forces near the Afghan border, reports say.

Mustafa abu al Yazid making statements in a recent web address on a radical website
A senior security official who spoke to Sky News on condition of anonymity said he was one of al Qaeda's top leaders.
Pakistani television channels say the commander is Abu Saeed Al Masri who is also known as Abu Mustafa al Yazid.
But both the claim and confirmation of either the attack or the identity of the victim is difficult, if not impossible, to verify.
The claims and their timing may not be entirely coincidental.
They come a day after the Al Qaeda number two Ayman al Zawahri broadcast a video – speaking in English for the first time – in which he repeatedly criticised Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, and said the country was "virtually ruled by the American embassy".
The voice on the tape - which has not been officially verified either - goes on to say: "Pervez (Musharraf) has insulted and compromised Pakistan’s sovereignty by allowing CIA and FBI to operate freely in Pakistan and arrest, interrogate, torture, deport and detain any person, whether Pakistani or not, for as long as they like, thus turning the Pakistani army and security agencies into hunting dogs in the contemporary crusade."
Much of the hour-long tape dwells on appealing to Pakistani soldiers to rethink their role in the fighting that has often pitted them against their countrymen, especially in tribal regions.
If – and it is a big if - the claims are true about Yazid’s death, then it would be a significant coup for those waging the so-called "war on terror".
Yazid is believed to be the terrorist network’s financial mastermind.
Indeed, he was named in the 9/11 Commission as the operation's paymaster.
A British financial expert who studied at the London School of Economics, he is believed by some US investigators to have been the main source of money wired to Mohammed Atta, the 9/11 hijackers' ringleader.
He is also thought to have been a member of al Qaeda's shura (ruling council) since the group was formed in 1988.
In May 2007, the group released a video naming him as its commander of operations in Afghanistan.
Yazid was involved in the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1982, and met al Zawahiri in Egypt.
Interestingly, he gave an extremely rare interview to a journalist from one of Pakistan’s independent television stations just last month – the first time any top al Qaeda official has talked to a bone fide journalist since 2002.
In the interview with Najeeb Ahmad from Geo Television, Yazid called for the destruction of Pakistan's government and said all Americans, not just the American government, were "enemies of Islam".
He accused Mr Musharraf of "betraying" them and vowed that al Qaeda would retake Afghanistan.
He may even be linked to the assassination of the former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
Soon after her death, Yazid himself claimed al Qaeda had "terminated the most precious American asset which vowed to defeat the Mujahiddin (holy warriors)".
He said the decision to assassinate her was made by the al Qaeda number two - his old friend, al Zawahiri.
The Interior Ministry of Pakistan blamed Baitullah Mahsood – a Taliban commander and al Qaeda sympathiser from the south Waziristan tribal area of Pakistan - for the killing. But this was denied by Mahsood and not accepted by Bhutto's political party, the PPP.
So, if this claim does prove to be true, dispensing with a man who has been so much of a thorn in the side of the Western allies will be heralded as a major step forward in security circles.
If it is true – and even if it is not – there will also be concern that revenge attacks will follow.

Georgia: Attacks continuing despite Russia halt claim

MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Tuesday that he had ordered an end to military operations against Georgia, but Tbilisi reported more attacks after the statement was made.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy meets his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, in Moscow.
Medvedev's announcement came minutes before French President Nicolas Sarkozy, head of the European Union, landed in Moscow to meet with Medvedev to negotiate terms for a possible cease-fire.
The two men were joined by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the presidential press service said.
"I have reached a decision to halt the operation to force the Georgian authorities to peace," Medvedev said. "The aggressor has been punished and has incurred very significant losses. Its armed forces are disorganized." Watch Georgia's reaction to halt in fighting »
"The statement on the halt of the military action by Russia is the news we had expected. It's good news," Sarkozy said later, according to an Interfax report.
Meanwhile, thousands of Georgians rallied in the country's capital, Tbilisi, following Medvedev's announcement.
U.S. officials also told CNN it was considering flying aid from bases in Germany to Georgia. There was also consideration being given to sending U.S. Navy ships into the Black Sea to conduct humanitarian relief missions.
Violence has raged since Thursday when Georgia launched a crackdown on separatist fighters in autonomous South Ossetia, where most people have long supported independence. Watch Lavrov speak about Georgia »
Russia -- which supports the separatists -- responded Friday, sending tanks across its border into South Ossetia. The conflict quickly spread to parts of Georgia and to Abkhazia, another separatist region.
Russian said it wanted to stop Georgian military actions against its peacekeepers in the breakaway regions.
Don't Miss
Georgian civilians living in fear
Georgia pulling out of ex-Soviet bloc
Russian military pushes into Georgia
iReport.com: Send your photos, videos
Special: Georgia Crisis
The Georgian government said despite Medvedev's announcement, Russian warplanes struck two Georgian villages and bombed an ambulance outside the breakaway province of South Ossetia. Watch more on the fighting in South Ossetia »
The Russian Defense Ministry called the Georgian claims "informational provocations" and believed they would continue, Interfax reported.
The ministry said it had not been "surprised by Georgia's reports alleging Russia is still continuing to fire."
Medvedev warned in his announcement that "when pockets of resistance and other aggressive actions occur," a decision concerning destruction had to be made.
Earlier a Georgian Interior Ministry official said Russian bombs had hit one of the three pipelines carrying oil to the Black Sea port of Poti. There was no oil in the pipeline at the time. Watch a report from Gori as Georgian troops pull out »
UK-based engery giant BP later said it had shut down two oil pipelines in the region as a "precautionary measure" linked to the security situation. None of its pipelines had been attacked.
A Dutch cameraman was killed on Tuesday morning in an incident in Gori, the Dutch Foreign Ministry confirmed. He was identified as Stan Storimans, of RTL TV. The correspondent who accompanied him was also injured.
One Russian diplomat told CNN up to 2,000 people had died in the conflict. Up to 100,000 people are thought to have been displaced by the violence, which has left South Ossetia's capital Tskhinvali in ruins. Interactive map: See how far the Russians have advanced »
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in a Tuesday news conference that it wanted a demilitarized zone to be created in Georgian territory before a cease-fire could take effect.
The zone had to be big enough to prevent Georgia's military from attacking the breakaway province, Lavrov said. Watch more on Georgia's defense »
He said it would be best if Saakashvili stepped down as Georgia's leader -- something the president has vowed not to do -- but that Russia was not demanding his resignation.
"We have no plans to throw down any leadership," Lavrov said. "It is not part of our culture. It is not what we do."
However, he said Saakashvili's "barbaric and brutal action" had undermined trust in Georgia.

Olympics medals table (Latest)

Olympics
Medals tableTuesday, 12 August 2008 05:45 UK
Rank
Country
Gold
Silver
Bronze
TOTAL
1
China
10
3
3
16
2
USA
6
6
8
20
3
South Korea
5
5
0
10
4
Italy
3
3
2
8
5
Australia
3
0
4
7
6
Japan
2
1
2
5
7
Great Britain
2
0
1
3
8
Czech Republic
2
0
0
2
9
Netherlands
1
1
1
3
10
Finland
1
0
1
2
11
Spain
1
0
1
2
12
Azerbaijan
1
0
0
1
13
India
1
0
0
1
14
Romania
1
0
0
1
15
Thailand
1
0
0
1
16
Russia
0
4
3
7
17
France
0
3
2
5
18
Dem P Rep Korea
0
2
3
5
19
Zimbabwe
0
2
0
2
20
Austria
0
1
1
2
21
Cuba
0
1
1
2
22
Germany
0
1
1
2
23
Colombia
0
1
0
1
24
Hungary
0
1
0
1
25
Norway
0
1
0
1
26
Slovakia
0
1
0
1
27
Sweden
0
1
0
1
28
Turkey
0
1
0
1
29
Vietnam
0
1
0
1
30
Brazil
0
0
2
2
31
Indonesia
0
0
2
2
32
Algeria
0
0
1
1
33
Argentina
0
0
1
1
34
Belarus
0
0
1
1
35
Chinese Taipei
0
0
1
1
36
Croatia
0
0
1
1
37
Georgia
0
0
1
1
38
Switzerland
0
0
1
1
39
Tajikistan
0
0
1
1
40
Uzbekistan
0
0
1
1

Georgia claims Russian troops take areas in Georgia near Abkhazia region

TBILISI, Georgia (CNN) -- The Russian military advanced into Georgia on two fronts Monday, heading toward cities outside the breakaway provinces that have been the centers of fighting.

From the flashpoint South Ossetia, the Russian military moved south toward the central Georgia city of Gori, Georgia said. Russia said its troops were on the outskirts of the city.
A CNN crew in Gori saw Georgian forces piling into trucks and leaving the city at high speed.
CNN saw thousands of troops driving out of the city, as well as thousands of civilians traveling by convoy from Gori toward Tbilisi.
Gori lies along Georgia's main east-west highway, and is an important site for Georgia's communication systems.
Russian troops were also in Senaki, in western Georgia, having advanced from the breakaway area of Abkhazia, Russian and Georgian officials said.
Russia's Interfax news agency cited an official with the Russian Defense Ministry saying troops were in Senaki to "prevent attacks by Georgian military units against South Ossetia." Senaki is home to a Georgian military base.
Georgia's interior ministry said Russia had also seized control of Zugdidi -- a city on the route between Abkhazia and Senaki. Interactive map: See how far the Russians have advanced »
Georgia launched a crackdown Thursday against separatist fighters in South Ossetia. Russia, which supports the separatists and has peacekeepers in the region, sent its military into South Ossetia on Friday.
Russia and Georgia have accused each other of killing numerous civilians during the conflict.
The Georgian government said it was recalling the army to Tbilisi "to defend the capital." U.S. officials reported seeing Georgian tanks and personnel pouring into the capital. Watch a report from Gori as Georgian troops pull out »
Russia has not threatened to enter Tbilisi and says its operations are peacekeeping. However, Georgia fears an invasion of its capital.
In Washington on Monday, President Bush said Russia's attacks against Georgia have "substantially damaged Russia's standing in the world."
Bush also warned Russia against trying to depose Georgia's government, saying evidence suggests Russia may be preparing to do so.
He called on Russia to accept a cease-fire proposal that Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili had signed.
Saakashvili said Monday the internationally brokered proposal would be taken to Moscow by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb on Monday evening.
A Georgian National Security Council official said the proposal called for an unconditional cease-fire, a non-use of force agreement, a withdrawal of Russian troops from Georgian territory, including the South Ossetia region, and provisions for international peacekeeping and mediation.
Later Monday, Russia's ambassador to the United Nations said Russia would not sign off on a draft U.N. resolution calling for a cease-fire discussed by the U.N. Security Council.
Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said the proposed resolution, drafted by French officials, was lacking in a "serious number" of areas.
"We will look at the draft and try to bring it to a standard where it can play a role in this," Churkin said.
One of the issues Churkin mentioned was that the draft resolution, which has not been made public, did not mention Georgia's previous "aggression" in South Ossetia.
During a conference call with reporters Monday, Saakashvili said Georgia was "in the process of invasion, occupation, and annihilation of an independent, democratic country."

Flash floods and landslides kill at least 100 people in Vietnam

Flash floods and landslides triggered by a weekend tropical storm have killed at least 100 people in Vietnam, the country's news agency said Monday.

Vietnamese villagers look at the rubble where 19 houses stood before a flash-flood ripped away the hamlet of Tung Chin in Lao Cai province.

Forecasters fear additional casualties as more rain was expected Monday.
The floods in the the country's northern mountain provinces damaged tens of thousands of homes, swept away thousands of cattle and submerged crops, the Vietnam News Agency said. More than two dozen people remained missing.
Officials mobilized thousands of rescue workers to look for survivors and to carry relief to the areas hardest hit by the storm.
Tropical Storm Kammuri struck the northern provinces on Friday.
The southeast Asian country is prone to heavy rainfall during the May through September monsoon season. The resulting landslides and floods have killed hundreds in past years.

Virgin boss appeals to McCain, Obama on BA deal

Virgin Atlantic Airways president Richard Branson has written to both U.S. presidential candidates to warn that a proposed alliance between British Airways and American Airlines would severely damage competition on trans-Atlantic routes.

Richard Branson has written to oth Barack Obama and John McCain about BA's proposed deal.

Branson said Monday that a closer relationship between the two carriers would result in higher prices for customers and job losses on both sides of the Atlantic, adding it was "very dangerous" to believe that consolidation was the best response to the current difficult economic conditions.
"Just because life is tough out there, you shouldn't rid yourself of competition," Branson told BBC radio after releasing details of the letter to Senators Barack Obama and John McCain.
BA, which is already in talks with Spain's Iberia SA over a merger, said last week that it expected final preparations for a deal with AMR Corp.'s American, the world's largest carrier, to be completed within weeks. An application to U.S. regulators for antitrust immunity would be filed shortly afterward, it added.
It declined to comment further on its progress on Monday.
BA and American have failed in the past to win an exemption from U.S. competition laws to work more closely together because of their dominance at London's Heathrow, where the pair have more than half the capacity to and from the United States.
However, they are expected to argue that the competitive situation has changed since the "open skies" agreement between the U.S. and the European Union came into force in March, allowing airlines to fly to and from any point in the U.S. and any point in the EU.
Strict airline ownership laws in the United States all but rule out a full merger between BA and American Airlines. However, an exemption from the anti-competition laws could allow the pair to run their trans-Atlantic operations as a single company, with cooperation on pricing and schedules -- adding to the flight capacity and airline facilities they already share.
In his letter to Obama and McCain, Branson said that using open skies to justify a deal "is a complete red herring," arguing that the agreement has not significantly increased competition on Britain-U.S. routes or reduced ticket prices. He also noted that the agreement could be unwound in 2010.
"Neither is the current economic slowdown a justification for waiving through any application," Branson added in the letter. "The job of the regulators is to assess the long-term impact of the alliance on competition, not to provide special protection from the immediate challenges of the economic cycle, with which every other airline has to deal with."
BA's round of three-way talks with Iberia and American is being held against the backdrop of soaring oil prices and falling passenger demand because of the global economic slowdown.
BA Chief Executive Officer Willie Walsh last week said current conditions presented "the worst trading environment the industry has ever faced."
Branson said on Monday that Virgin, which has not provided an earnings report for almost a year, was still profitable despite conditions he said were worse than the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States. The company is privately held between Virgin Group and Singapore Airlines.
Branson added that Virgin had no plans to cut back its winter flight schedule, unlike several other carriers including BA.
"I think it's important to keep at least a daily flight on all the major routes," he told the BBC. "So I think as far as Virgin Atlantic is concerned, we feel that we can get the load factors that we need to keep the airline profitable."

Russian troops have entered Georgia

Russian troops have entered Georgia from the breakaway region of Abkhazia, reaching the town of Senaki, officials from both Russia and Georgia say.
The Russian defence ministry said its troops had moved in to stop Georgia from attacking Russian forces in South Ossetia, another breakaway region.
As the fighting continued in south Ossetia, foreign envoys were pressing for a ceasefire in the conflict.
Each side accuses the other of carrying out atrocities in the region.

Bush presses China to give religious freedom

BEIJING: US President George W Bush pressed his case for more religious freedom in China on Sunday in frank conversations with the country’s Communist leaders and by attending a worship service at a Beijing church. Bush spent the day blending diplomacy with Olympic fun — watching a gold medal win by US swimmer Michael Phelps and seeing Chinese President Hu Jintao for private talks. “Our relationship is constructive and it’s important and also very candid,” Bush said as he sat down with Hu after attending prayers at a Communist government-sanctioned church. The White House described the conversations as candid on the issue of human rights and religious freedom and that Bush told Hu he should expect those issues to remain a topic when either presidential hopeful John McCain or Barack Obama takes over in January. “He told President Hu that this is an important aspect of the US-China dialogue and that the Chinese can expect that any future American president will also make it an important aspect of our dialogue,” said Dennis Wilder, a White House National Security Council official, told reporters. Bush’s trip to Beijing has been a balancing act, taking in the Olympic games and praising China on a variety of issues while publicly nudging China to improve its internationally criticised record on human rights. Wilder said he believed he saw some movement by China based on what Hu told Bush during their meeting. “President Hu seemed to indicate that the door is open to religious freedom in China and that in the future there will be more room for religious believers,” Wilder said. Bush reiterated his position that the United States was not trying to impose “something Western” on China when pushing for religious freedom, he said. However, progress may take some time. Chinese plainclothes police detained a Chinese activist to prevent him from going to the church service Bush was attending, the activist’s brother said. He later escaped from the police, the brother said. “While I can’t confirm this specific report, we’re disappointed anytime that someone is unable to worship freely,” White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said. Bush, a frequent churchgoer with a strong base among Christian fundamentalists, has made appeals for greater religious liberties a focus of his efforts to coax China toward democratic reforms. He said outside the Kuanjie Protestant church that “it just goes to show that God is universal, God is love and no state, man or woman should fear the influence of loving religion.” The service, almost entirely in Chinese but translated for Bush and his family, was held in a modest building with a plain white cross on the roof and included a children’s choir performing “Amazing Grace” in English and Chinese. Many other Christians, who make up only a small part of China’s religious faithful, worship at so-called underground churches. Wilder said he hoped Hu’s comments meant that those churches would be permitted to operate legally. As Bush and Hu sat down for their talks, the Chinese leader focused his remarks to reporters on the Olympics and thanked Bush for his fourth trip to China. The two also discussed economic issues as well as Taiwan and efforts to convince North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons. Rights advocates and leading lawmakers at home, some of whom had urged Bush to boycott the Olympics, have chided him for not speaking out more forcefully about the human rights situation in China and the crackdown on dissent in the run-up to the games.

'New attacks' in Georgia by Russia

Russia and Georgia have accused each other of launching new attacks, as diplomats press for a ceasefire in the conflict over South Ossetia.
Georgia said dozens of Russian bombers were attacking targets inside its territory, including around Tbilisi.
And Russia said Georgian attacks on the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali killed three of its troops.
Elsewhere, US President George W Bush criticised Russia's response, while EU diplomats headed to Moscow for talks.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who met Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili on Sunday, said he was seeking a "controlled withdrawal of troops" from the conflict zone.

See a map of the region
Fighting erupted late last week when Georgia launched an overnight assault on South Ossetia, which has had de facto independence since the end of war in 1992.
Russia, which supports the breakaway province, hit back, bombing targets throughout Georgia.
The latest reports of violence came despite Georgia saying on Sunday that it would observe a ceasefire. Moscow has insisted Georgian forces withdraw fully from South Ossetia before it halts operations.

Challenging situation for Moscow
Crisis day-by-day
Q&A: Violence in South Ossetia
From Tbilisi, Georgia said up to 50 Russian fighter jets attacked targets inside Georgia overnight, with targets including a missile base and a radar station.
Georgia said the town of Gori, close to the South Ossetian border and used as a jumping-off point for Georgia's push into South Ossetia, also came under overnight attack.
Meanwhile Russian media reported that Georgian forces shelled South Ossetia's capital, Tskhinvali, killing three peacekeepers.
And in Abkhazia, a second separatist region of Georgia, reports said a Russian general issued an ultimatum to Georgian forces to pull out of Abkhazia's Kodori Gorge or Russian would send in its troops. Earlier, reports in Moscow said 9,000 Russian troops were being deployed to Abkhazia.
On Sunday, separatist leaders in Abkhazia announced a full mobilisation in order to drive Georgian troops from part of the region, and gave them a deadline to leave.
Georgia has accused Russia of landing 4,000 more troops in Abkhazia via the Black Sea. The separatists said Georgia had deployed a similar number of soldiers south of the Abkhaz border.
'Very firm'
Away from the conflict zones, US and European leaders stepped up efforts to end the fighting.
Mr Kouchner, heading a European Union delegation, was attempting to persuade both Georgia and Russia to sign up to a ceasefire agreement and stand down troops.
ARMED FORCES COMPARED
GEORGIA
Total personnel: 26,900
Main battle tanks (T-72): 82
Armoured personnel carriers: 139
Combat aircraft (Su-25): Seven
Heavy artillery pieces (including Grad rocket launchers): 95
RUSSIA
Total personnel: 641,000
Main battle tanks (various): 6,717
Armoured personnel carriers: 6,388
Combat aircraft (various): 1,206
Heavy artillery pieces (various): 7,550
Source: Jane's Sentinel Country Risk Assessments
Separately, a Council of Europe delegation headed by Sweden's foreign minister is heading to Tbilisi for talks. The BBC's Nik Gowing, travelling with the diplomats, reports that there is deep gloom among delegates, with many suggesting Russia has crossed several "red lines" by striking at Georgia.
Speaking in Beijing, US President Bush told NBC TV that he had spoken frankly to Vladimir Putin when the pair met at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games last week.
"I said this violence is unacceptable," Mr Bush said, adding: "I was very firm with Vladimir Putin. Hopefully this will get resolved peacefully."
However, in a telephone call to Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, the US Vice-President, Dick Cheney, said Russian aggression "must not go unanswered".
Mr Cheney said the continuation of violence against Georgia would have serious consequences for Russia's relations with the US, as well as the international community.
The call appears to have been an effort to send a message not just of solidarity but also of readiness for action, says the BBC's Justin Webb, in Washington.
But White House officials refused to speculate on what America might do if the Russian military action continued.
The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) has called on the parties to the conflict to grant safe passage to civilians trying to escape the war zone.
The UNHCR estimates that between 10,000 and 20,000 people have been displaced within Georgia, including South Ossetia, while Russia has said that a further 30,000 people have fled north into the Russian province of North Ossetia.

Clinton campaigns for Obama cause

Hillary Clinton has made her first solo campaign appearance backing Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama.
Mrs Clinton - who lost a hard-fought campaign to Mr Obama - told a Nevada crowd she wanted him to win.
The New York senator urged them to "remember who we were fighting in my campaign" and vote against Republican John McCain.
In June, Mrs Clinton conceded that Mr Obama had beaten her and appeared with him at a rally to endorse him.
"Anyone who voted for me or caucused for me has so much more in common with Senator Obama than Senator McCain," she said in Henderson, Nevada on Friday.
Grace and grit
Although she has already endorsed the Illinois senator in his run for the presidency, the speech was Mrs Clinton's first appearance backing him in public since they appeared on the stage together at a June rally.
Senator Obama needs all of us, he needs us working for him
Hillary Clinton
"We may have started on two separate paths, but we are on one journey now," she said of her former rival.
The long primary campaign had shown "his passion, his determination, his grace and his grit", Mrs Clinton added.
Her husband, Bill Clinton, had talked down Mr Obama's strengths during the primary season.
But the Democratic party has announced the former president will speak at the party's national convention in Denver later this month.
High turnout needed
Friday's crowd cheered heartily at intervals throughout the speech as Mrs Clinton highlighted the differences between Mr Obama and Mr McCain on such issues as Supreme Court nominations and health care reform.


It was Clinton's first public display of support for Obama since June
She warned the Democrats would need a high voter turnout to win in November.
"Senator Obama needs all of us, he needs us working for him," said Mrs Clinton.
Both Democratic and Republican hopefuls focussed comments on Friday towards resolving the mounting political crisis in Georgia.
Mr McCain, campaigning in Iowa, urged the US to convene an emergency session of the UN Security Council to resolve the conflict between Moscow and Tbilisi over South Ossetia.
Mr Obama, en-route to a holiday in Hawaii, said it was important for the US to work with the international community to bring about a peaceful resolution.

U.S. Won't Take N. Korea Off Terror List

TOKYO — Kyodo News agency is reporting that the United States has assured Japan it wouldn't immediately take North Korea off its list of state sponsors of terrorism on Monday.
The report quoted Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura as saying that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made the assurance in a phone call Monday morning.
The United States said it would remove North Korea from the list of nations sponsoring terrorism after the communist state disclosed its nuclear programs in June.
Japan, however, wants North Korea to fully investigate its past kidnappings of Japanese citizens first.

Bush says violence in Georgia is unacceptable

BEIJING - President Bush on Monday sharply criticized Moscow's harsh military crackdown in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, saying the violence is unacceptable and Russia's response is disproportionate.
The United States is waging an all-out campaign to get Russia to halt its retaliation against Georgia for trying to take control of the breakaway province of South Ossetia.
Bush, in an interview with NBC Sports, said, "I've expressed my grave concern about the disproportionate response of Russia and that we strongly condemn the bombing outside of South Ossetia." He said he did so directly to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who's here for the Olympics, and by phone to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev.
On Sunday, Vice President Dick Cheney told Georgia's pro-American president that "Russian aggression must not go unanswered, and that its continuation would have serious consequences for its relations with the United States," Cheney's office reported.
While Georgia said its troops have retreated from South Ossetia and are honoring a cease-fire, Russia disputed the claim, and U.S. officials said Moscow was only expanding its blitz into new areas.
"I was very firm with Vladimir Putin," Bush said. "Hopefully this will get resolved peacefully."
Cheney spoke Sunday afternoon with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, Cheney press secretary Lee Ann McBride said. "The vice president expressed the United States' solidarity with the Georgian people and their democratically elected government in the face of this threat to Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity," McBride said.
Asked to explain Cheney's phrase "must not go unanswered," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said, "It means it must not stand." White House officials refused to indicate what recourse the United States might have if the attacks continue.
A Russian official said more than 2,000 people had been killed in South Ossetia since Friday; the figure could not be confirmed independently.
After his TV interview, Bush headed to the Water Cube, where he watched Michael Phelps win a gold medal for the second time in two days. Pursuing Mark Spitz's record seven golds, Phelps set a world record again, this time as part of the 400-meter freestyle relay team.
The president was to end his weeklong Asia trip by attending a baseball game and other events Monday at the Beijing Olympics. The Beijing stay was mostly for fun and games, but the fast-moving conflict in Georgia has grabbed his attention.
Bush also used the Olympic visit to press President Hu Jintao over China's jailing of political and religious activists. In the NBC interview, he was asked if the message is getting through.
"It's hard to tell," Bush replied. "He listened politely. I can't read his mind, but I do know that every time I met with him I pressed the point."
At the Olympics, Bush managed time for a couple of marquee sporting events. With his father, former President George H.W. Bush, and other members of his family, he cheered from the stands as American Michael Phelps claimed the first of an expected string of gold medals by smashing his own world record in the 400-meter individual medley.
"God, what a thrill to cheer for you!" Bush told Phelps afterward.
In the NBC interview, Bush voiced concern about doping scandals that have hit both the Olympics and baseball. "We don't want adults sending mixed messages to children, that it's OK to shoot up drugs in order to become a star, because it's not OK," Bush said.
Pressing international mediation between Russia and Georgia, Bush reached out Sunday to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who heads the European Union. The two agreed on the need for a cease-fire and respect for Georgia's integrity, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.
In Washington, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said the United States must work closely with Europe in condemning Russia's actions.
"We cannot just go out alone on this and talk and act unilaterally," said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich. "We've got to stand together with European allies."
Georgia, whose troops have been trained by American soldiers, began an offensive to regain control over South Ossetia overnight Friday, launching heavy rocket and artillery fire and air strikes that pounded the provincial capital, Tskhinvali. In response, Russia launched overwhelming artillery shelling and air attacks on Georgian troops.
"We're alarmed by this entire situation, and every escalatory step is a further problem," deputy national security adviser Jim Jeffrey told reporters.
The U.S. military began flying 2,000 Georgian troops home from Iraq after Georgia recalled the soldiers following the outbreak of fighting with Russia. The decision was a timely payback for the former Soviet republic, which was the third-largest contributor of coalition forces in Iraq after the U.S. and Britain.
The risk of the conflict setting off a wider war increased when Russian-supported separatists in another breakaway region of Georgia, Abkhazia, launched air and artillery strikes on Georgian troops to drive them out of a small part of the province they control.
Also, Ukraine warned Russia it could bar Russian navy ships from returning to their base in the Crimea because of their deployment to Georgia's coast.
Asked about the possibility of sending the U.S. military or other aid to Georgia, Jeffrey said, "Right now our focus is on working with both sides, with the Europeans and with a whole variety of international institutions and organizations to get the fighting to stop."
Levin, too, did not see the chance of U.S. military involvement, though he said the U.S. needs to make clear to Russia that its action "is way out of line."

'Clear Timeline' for U.S. Troops from Iraq

BAGHDAD — Iraq's foreign minister insisted Sunday that any security deal with the United States must contain a "very clear timeline" for the departure of U.S. troops. A homicide bomber struck north of Baghdad, killing at least five people including an American soldier.
Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told reporters that American and Iraqi negotiators were "very close" to reaching a long-term security agreement that will set the rules for U.S. troops in Iraq after the U.N. mandate expires at the end of the year.
Zebari said the Iraqis were insisting that the agreement include a "very clear timeline" for the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces, but he refused to talk about specific dates.
"We have said that this is a condition-driven process," he added, suggesting that the departure schedule could be modified if the security situation changed.
But Zebari made clear that the Iraqis would not accept a deal that lacks a timeline for the end of the U.S. military presence.
"No, no definitely there has to be a very clear timeline," Zebari replied when asked if the Iraqis would accept an agreement that did not mention dates.
Differences over a withdrawal timetable have become one of the most contentious issues remaining in the talks, which began early this year. U.S. and Iraqi negotiators missed a July 31 target date for completing the deal, which must be approved by Iraq's parliament.
President Bush has steadfastly refused to accept any timetable for bringing U.S. troops home. Last month, however, Bush and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki agreed to set a "general time horizon" for a U.S. departure.
Last week, two senior Iraqi officials told The Associated Press that American negotiators had agreement to a formula which would remove U.S. forces from Iraqi cities by June 30, 2009 with all combat troops out of the country by October 2010.
The last American support troops would leave about three years later, the Iraqis said.
But U.S. officials insist there is no agreement on specific dates. Both the American and Iraqi officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks are ongoing. Iraq's Shiite-led government believes a withdrawal schedule is essential to win parliamentary approval.
American officials have been less optimistic because of major differences on key issues including who can authorize U.S. military operations and immunity for U.S. troops from prosecution under Iraqi law.
The White House said discussions continued on a bilateral agreement and said any timeframe discussed was due to major improvements in security over the past year.
"We are only now able to discuss conditions-based time horizons because security has improved so much. This would not have been possible 18 months ago," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Sunday. "We all look forward to the day when Iraqi security forces take the lead on more combat missions, allowing U.S. troops to serve in an overwatch role, and more importantly return home."
Iraq's position in the U.S. talks hardened after a series of Iraqi military successes against Shiite and Sunni extremists in Basra, Baghdad, Mosul and other major cities.
Violence in Iraq has declined sharply over the past year following a U.S. troop buildup, a Sunni revolt against Al Qaeda in Iraq and a Shiite militia cease-fire.
But attacks continue, raising concern that the militants are trying to regroup.
The homicide bomber struck Sunday afternoon as U.S. and Iraqi troops were responding to a roadside bombing that wounded an Iraqi in Tarmiyah, 30 miles north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.
Four Iraqi civilians were killed along with the American soldier, military spokesman Lt. Col. Steve Stover said. Two American soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter were among 24 people wounded.
No group claimed responsibility for the blast but homicide bombings are the signature attack of Al Qaeda in Iraq.
"This was a heinous attack by Al Qaeda in Iraq against an Iraqi family, followed by a cowardly attack against innocent civilians, their security forces and U.S. soldiers," Stover said.
Elsewhere, a homicide car bomber attacked the Kurdish security department in Khanaqin, 90 miles northeast of Baghdad. At least two people were killed and 25 wounded, including the commander of local Kurdish forces, Lt. Col. Majid Ahmed, police said.
Ethnic tensions have been rising in northern Iraq amid disputes between Kurds, Turkomen and mostly Sunni Arabs over Kurdish demands to annex the oil-rich city of Kirkuk into their self-ruled region.
Sawarah Ghalib, 25, who was wounded in the blast, said he believed military operations under way south of the city in Diyala province had pushed insurgents into the Khanaqin area.
"I did not expect that a terrorist attack to take place in our secure town," Ghalib said from his bed in the Khanaqin hospital. "Al Qaeda is to blame for this attack. Operations in Diyala have pushed them here."
In Baghdad, six people were killed in a series of bombings on the first day of the Iraqi work week.
The deadliest blast occurred about 8:15 a.m. in a crowded area where people wait for buses in the capital's mainly Shiite southeastern district of Kamaliya. Four people were killed, including a woman and her brother, and 11 others wounded, according to police.
A car bomb later exploded as an Iraqi army patrol transporting money to a state-run bank passed by in Baghdad's central Khillani square, killing two people including an Iraqi soldier and wounding nine other people, a police officer said.
Another Iraqi soldier was killed and five were wounded by a car bomb in Salman Pak, about 25 kilometers south of Baghdad, police said.

US warns Russia over Georgia

The US has strongly criticised Russian military action against Georgia, in the bitter conflict over South Ossetia.
In a telephone call to Georgia's leader Mikhail Saakashvili, the US Vice-President, Dick Cheney, said Russian aggression "must not go unanswered".
President Bush said he had expressed his grave concern to Moscow at the military's "disproportionate" response.
Meanwhile, Georgia said Russian planes had bombed targets near its capital, despite Tbilisi declaring a ceasefire.
The BBC's Justin Webb in Washington says Dick Cheney's telephone call appears to have been an effort to send a message not just of solidarity but also of readiness for action.

See a map of the region
Mr Cheney said the continuation of violence against Georgia would have serious consequences for Russia's relations with the US, as well as the international community.
But White House officials refused to speculate on what America might do if the Russian military action continued.
Meanwhile, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner is in Georgia, and will meet President Saakashvili to discuss a European Union-backed peace plan aimed at defusing the crisis.
Scenes of panic
Russia has continued air raids deep inside Georgia, after it rejected Tbilisi's announcement that it had called a ceasefire and wanted talks.

Challenging situation for Moscow
Crisis day-by-day
Q&A: Violence in South Ossetia
Georgia's interior ministry said the latest attacks took place in the early hours of Monday and targeted a military base and radar installation. There were no details of casualties.
There were unconfirmed reports of further air strikes on the Georgian town of Gori, near the border with South Ossetia.
Tens of thousands of people have fled Gori, amid fears that Russian troops are heading for the town.
The BBC's Richard Galpin described a scene of panic on Sunday night. He said he had been warned by the interior ministry to leave Gori, only to find that the road to Tbilisi was crammed with cars full of fleeing civilians.
The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) has called on the parties to the conflict to grant safe passage to civilians trying to escape the war zone.
The UNHCR estimates that between 10,000 and 20,000 people have been displaced within Georgia, including South Ossetia, while Russia has said that a further 30,000 people have fled north into the Russian province of North Ossetia.
Rising tensions
President Saakashvili told the BBC his forces had observed a ceasefire since 0500 on Sunday, but had still been bombed by Russian planes.
He said his government had been trying "all day" to contact Russia to discuss a truce.
But a Russian foreign ministry official, quoted by Moscow-based news agency Interfax, said there were "indications the Georgian forces have not been fully withdrawn from the conflict zone".
Meanwhile tensions were rising in Georgia's other breakaway region, Abkhazia.
A Georgian official said Russian planes had bombed the western town of Zugdidi and Georgian-controlled territory inside Abkhazia. The claims could not be independently verified.
The leader of the separatist government there, Sergei Bagapsh, said he had ordered a military operation to clear Georgian forces out of Abkhazia's Kodori Gorge, and gave them a deadline to leave.
Georgia has accused Russia of landing 4,000 more troops in Abkhazia via the Black Sea. The separatists said Georgia had deployed a similar number of soldiers south of the Abkhaz border.

Deadly violence hits west China and Olympic threat

Seven militants and a security guard have been killed after a series of bombings in China's north-western region of Xinjiang, state media says.

The pre-dawn violence in southern Kuqa county targeted a police station and other government buildings.

The explosions were followed by gunfire in the area, which is 3,000km (1,860 miles) from Beijing, witnesses said.

Earlier this week, China said 16 policemen were killed in an attack by Islamist separatists in Xinjiang.

"The lawbreakers drove a taxi to the local public security office, industry and business administration and other sites and tossed homemade explosives, destroying two police vehicles," Xinhua news agency reported.

Two of the militants died in the attacks, while five were killed later by police, Xinhua news agency reported.

Olympics threat

World Uighur Congress spokesman Dilxat Raxit told the BBC that the Chinese government was responsible for the latest blasts because of what he called repressive policies in Xinjiang.

"In order to stop the East Turkestan situation getting worse, I urge the international community to exert pressure on China to immediately stop its systematic repressive government policies," he said.

Xinjiang is home to many Muslim Uighurs, some of whom want independence in the region they call East Turkestan.

Kuqa county itself is almost exclusively populated by Uighurs.

Uighur separatists in Xinjiang have waged a low-level campaign against Chinese rule for decades.

The latest incident came after the Olympic Games opened in Beijing, with a spectacular display of fireworks, music and dancing.

Human rights groups say Beijing is suppressing the rights of Uighurs.

China has spoken in the past of what it calls a terrorist threat from Muslim militants in Xinjiang, but it has provided little evidence to back up its claims, correspondents say. 

Comedian Bernie Mac dies aged 50

US actor and comedian Bernie Mac has died at the age of 50.

The star was best known in the UK for film roles in Ocean's Eleven, Charlie's Angels and Transformers.

But in the US, he achieved critical and popular acclaim for the long-running sitcom The Bernie Mac Show, which earned him two Emmy award nominations.

He was admitted to hospital in Chicago last week and died early on Saturday morning due to complications arising from pneumonia, his publicist said.

"We ask that his family's privacy continues to be respected," said Damica Taylor.

Comedian Carl Reiner, who appeared with Mac in Ocean's Eleven and its two sequels, said he was "in utter shock" because he thought the comedian's condition had been improving.

"He was just so alive. I can't believe he's gone," he said.

Inspiration

Mac was born Bernard Jeffrey McCullough in Chicago, Illinois in October 1957.

According to his uncle, there were once as many as 10 people living in the two-bedroom apartment in which he grew up.

Mac was raised by his mother and grandparents.

"We learned to entertain ourselves," he wrote in his 2003 autobiography, Maybe You Never Cry Again.

"I used to have long conversations with the living room wall."

The memoir told how, as a child, he had discovered his mother doubled up with laughter at Bill Cosby appearing on Ed Sullivan's TV show.

"'That's what I want to be, Mama, a comedian'" he recalled saying.

"Make you laugh like that, maybe you never cry again."

He began performing as a stand-up at a church dinner at the age of eight, progressing to open mic nights and a regular stint at Chicago's Cotton Club by the time he was 20.

But his success was far from immediate and along the way he worked as a janitor, furniture mover, appliance hauler, and delivery man to supplement his comedy income.

It wasn't until he was featured in the Kings of Comedy stand-up tour in 1997 - which was filmed and broadcast by HBO - that he achieved national prominence.

One of his co-stars in the show, Steve Harvey, paid tribute to the comedian on Saturday, saying: "The majority of his core fan base will remember that when they paid their money to see Bernie Mac, he gave them their money's worth."

Parenting skills

Mac often attributed his dogged persistence of a comedy career to his mother who, he said, had imbued him with a strong work ethic before she died of breast cancer when he was just 16.

"Parents today don't get it," he wrote in his memoirs. "They don't want to be parents. They want to be cool. They want to be hip. They don't want to be the bad guy.

Wherever I am, I have to play. I have to put on a good show  Bernie Mac

"But guess what? Being the bad guy is your job.

"My mama knew better. She wasn't there to make me like her; she was there to shape me; she was there to make me a good person."

Mac's view of parenting was reflected in his hit TV show, which was based around a man's attempts to raise his sister's three children.

The show won a Peabody award for excellence in television in 2002. At the time, judges said they had singled it out for transcending "race and class while lifting viewers with laughter, compassion - and cool".

The sitcom, which ran for more than 100 episodes from 2001 to 2006, made Mac a household name in the US.

Mac received several awards and nominations for his TV show

"But he had been making a living from film and TV appearances for several years, starting with a small role in the Damon Wayans movie Mo' Money in 1992.

More recently, he topped the box office with Guess Who? - a remake of the Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn classic Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? - in 2005.

Earlier this year, he attracted a modicum of controversy after making some off-colour jokes at a fund-raiser for Democratic presidential candidate and fellow Chicago native Barack Obama.

But despite controversy or difficulties, in his words, Mac was always a performer.

"Wherever I am, I have to play," he said in 2002. "I have to put on a good show."

The comedian had a history of ill health and suffered from the inflammatory lung disease sarcoidosis.

He contracted pneumonia for the first time in 2004 while filming Ocean's Twelve.

Mac later told his home newspaper The Chicago Sun-Times that the disease, which had nearly killed him, had acted as a wake-up call.

"My life was slipping away. I was missing out on so much stuff with my family, and I will never do that again," he said.

In 2007, he told US chat show host David Letterman he planned to retire from comedy.

"I'm going to still do my producing, my films, but I want to enjoy my life a little bit," he said.

Mac is survived by his wife Rhonda, daughter Je'Niece and a granddaughter.

US tourist dies in Beijing attack

A US tourist has been stabbed to death by a Chinese man in central Beijing, officials have said.

A second tourist was badly hurt in the attack at the Drum Tower monument. The pair are relatives of a US Olympic volleyball team coach.

The assailant then committed suicide by jumping from the 13th Century landmark, officials say. The motive is not known.

The BBC's Quentin Sommerville says murders, especially targeting foreigners, are very rare in China.

The attack happened despite high security across the capital on the first full day of Olympic competition, with more than 150,000 police and other personnel on patrol.

Officials named the Chinese man as 47-year-old Tang Yongming, from the eastern town of Hangzhou, but said they had no idea what had motivated his attack or suicide.

"While at the Drum Tower in central Beijing, the two family members were stabbed during an attack by what local law enforcement authorities have indicated was a lone assailant," the International Olympic Committee said in a statement.

Reports say the tourists' guide was also hurt.

McCain Paints Obama as a Tax Hound

THE AD

Narrator:"Life in the spotlight must be grand, but for the rest of us, times are tough. Obama voted to raise taxes on people making just $42,000. He promises more taxes on small business, seniors, your life savings, your family. Painful taxes, hard choices for your budget. Not ready to lead. That's the real Obama."

ANALYSIS

This John McCain ad reprises what has become his signature theme, that Barack Obama is a celebrity with a hidden policy agenda. It opens with crowds cheering Obama and pictorial spreads featuring the senator from Illinois in GQ, Us Weekly and Vanity Fair. But the spot quickly turns into a standard Republican attack on a Democrat as a tax-raising liberal.

The charge that Obama voted to raise taxes on people making $42,000 stretches a valid point. Obama voted for a nonbinding Democratic budget resolution that would not have raised anyone's taxes. But it did envision phasing out most of the Bush tax cuts, which would have that effect. (The McCain campaign has backed off a previous charge that Obama would boost taxes at the $31,000 level, labeled false by FactCheck.org.)

The ad is selective in saying that Obama would raise taxes on seniors and "your family," omitting that he would target only families, Social Security recipients and those with capital gains earning more than $250,000 a year. And it is misleading in charging that Obama wants to raise taxes on small businesses, offering the lame explanation that many affluent taxpayers who would be affected by the income tax increase also happen to own small businesses. The commercial also leaves out Obama's proposal for a middle-class tax cut.

But more important than the mathematical details is the portrait the senator from Arizona is trying to paint of his opponent as an untested leader whose domestic policies are obscured by the media spotlight.

Yahoo Allows Users to Opt Out of Targeted Ads

Search giant lets consumers receive generic advertising instead

Beginning at the end of August, Yahoo! users will be able to opt out of the company’s targeted, behavioral advertising system on both Yahoo! properties and third-party websites that use the company’s advertising network.

“Yahoo! strongly believes that consumers want choice when customizing their online experience and they have also demonstrated a strong preference for advertising that is more personally relevant to them,” said Yahoo! privacy head and policy VP Anne Toth in a press release. “However, we understand that there are some users who prefer not to receive customized advertising and this opt-out will offer them even greater choice.”

Users already have the ability of opting out of “customized” ads on Yahoo.com and this new option will extend that choice to reflect websites outside the Yahoo! stable.

Yahoo! says it added the choice in response to an ongoing congressional inquiry into behavioral advertising – that is, tracking users around the internet in order to build an advertising profile from their activities – of which critics have raised privacy concerns.

Government regulators initially began their examination of targeted advertising once it became clear that ad networks were collecting staggering amounts of data on web surfers, in order to serve them relevant advertising. Some of this tracking included a record of partnered sites the user had visited, a fact that contributed to the U.S. government’s decision to step in.

An FTC summit into “ehavioral” advertising last November concluded with a dour warning to online advertisers: stop secretly tracking users, or else. Additional rules were suggested earlier this year; however, neither the FTC nor Congress has yet to enact any significant regulation on the matter.

Users who wish to opt out of Yahoo!’s targeted ad program can visit Yahoo.com’s privacy center, which Yahoo! says is available at a link on the bottom of almost every page on the site. Despite this availability, however, the company reports that only 75,000 visit its privacy policy page last month, suggesting that only a small portion of Yahoo.com visits will actually take the company up on its offer.

Yahoo’s letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee indicates that the opt-out option is cookie-based, so users will need to use the opt-out page each time they use a different computer, or clear their browser’s cookies.

Georgia Pulls Troops From South Ossetia After Losses

Georgia is withdrawing its troops from the separatist region of South Ossetia after four days of fighting with Russian and Ossetian forces as casualties rise ``into the hundreds,'' a government official said.

``Casualties are very heavy in many places,'' Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said by telephone from the capital Tbilisi. ``We are withdrawing from South Ossetia.''

A ``temporary'' cease-fire has been declared in the region, to which the Russians have agreed, Utiashvili said. Russia's Foreign Ministry ``has no such information,'' a spokesman said on condition of anonymity, citing ministry rules. ``I can neither confirm nor deny it.''

Heavy fighting began on Aug. 7 in South Ossetia, which broke from Georgia in a war in the early 1990s. Russia sent troops and tanks into the disputed region the next day in what it said was a response to Georgia's assault on Russian citizens and peacekeeping forces. Most residents of South Ossetia hold Russian passports. Georgia said Russian warplanes bombed targets in the country in an offensive President Mikheil Saakashvili called a ``well-planned invasion.''

Second Front

A second front has opened in the four-day-old conflict as eight Russian warships docked in a second breakaway region, Abkhazia, Kakha Lomaia, head of Georgia's Security Council, said by telephone. ``They've been bombing Upper Abkhazia,'' he said. ``They hit two villages overnight'' in addition to the border town of Zugdidi, he said. Upper Abkhazia is a Georgian- controlled area within Abkhazia, which also broke away from the Black Sea country in a war in the early 1990s.

Russia's Defense Ministry and a spokesman for the Ground Troops could not immediately be reached for comment. Kristian Bzhania, a spokesman for Abkhaz President Sergei Bagapsh, said Russia increased its naval presence off Abkhazia at the request of the regional leadership after four Georgian warships tried to enter its territorial waters, the Interfax news service reported.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is ``alarmed'' by the spread of the conflict to Abkhazia, the UN said.

`Economic Blockade'

In signs of an economic blockade, Russian warships prevented a Ukrainian ship carrying grain and an unidentified oil tanker from docking in the Georgian port of Poti, Economic Development Minister Eka Sharashidze said by telephone. Azerbaijan stopped sending oil to Georgian ports for export because of the clashes, AFP reported, citing Rovnag Abdullayev, head of SOCAR, the country's state oil company.

``This is suffocation of the country,'' Lomaia said. ``An economic blockade like this is very close to genocide.''

Georgia is a key link in a U.S.-backed ``southern energy corridor'' that connects the Caspian Sea region with world markets, bypassing Russia. The BP Plc-led Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline to Turkey runs about 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of Tskhinvali.