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Osama bin Laden, the face of terror, killed in Pakistan

2011-05-02T17:52:00.001-07:00

Osama bin Laden used the fruits of his family's success -- a personal fortune estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars -- to help finance al Qaeda in its quest for a new pan-Islamic religious state.

CNN

The Saudi-born zealot commanded al Qaeda, a terrorist organization run like a rogue multinational firm, experts said, with subsidiaries operating secretly in dozens of countries, plotting terror, raising money and recruiting young Muslim men -- even boys -- from many nations to its training camps in Afghanistan.

Bin Laden and his terrorist network were behind the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and are linked to others around the world.

The enormity of the destruction in the 9/11 attacks -- the World Trade Center's towers devastated by two hijacked airplanes, the Pentagon heavily damaged by a third hijacked jetliner, a fourth flight crashed in rural Pennsylvania, and more than 3,000 people killed -- gave bin Laden a global presence.

His death early Monday in Pakistan ended a nearly 10-year long manhunt for one of the world's most-wanted men.

Even before September 11, 2001, bin Laden was already on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.

He had been implicated in a series of deadly, high-profile attacks that had grown in their intensity and success during the 1990s.

They included a deadly firefight with U.S. soldiers in Somalia in October 1993, the bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa that killed 224 in August 1998, and an attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 sailors in October 2000.

Bin Laden eluded capture for years, once reportedly slipping out of a training camp in Afghanistan just hours before a barrage of U.S. cruise missiles destroyed it.

On September 11, sources said, the evidence immediately pointed to bin Laden. Within days, those close to the investigation said they had their proof.

Six days after the attack, President George W. Bush made it clear Osama bin Laden was the No. 1 suspect.

"I want justice," Bush said. "There's an old poster out West that said, 'Wanted, dead or alive.'"

Bin Laden was born in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1957, the 17th of 52 children in a family that had struck it rich in the construction business.

His father, Mohamed bin Laden, was a native of Yemen, who immigrated to Saudi Arabia as a child. He became a billionaire by building his company into the largest construction firm in the Saudi kingdom.

As Saudi Arabia became flush with oil money, so, too, did the bin Laden family business, as Osama's father cultivated and exploited connections within the royal family.

One of the elder bin Laden's four wives -- described as Syrian in some accounts -- was Osama's mother. The young bin Laden inherited a share of the family fortune at an early age after his father died in an aircraft accident.

The bin Ladens were noted for their religious commitment. In his youth, Osama studied with Muslim scholars. Two of the family businesses' most prestigious projects also left a lasting impression: the renovations of mosques at Mecca and Medina, Islam's two holiest sites.

As a young man attending college in Jeddah, bin Laden's interest in religion started to take a political turn. One of his professors was Abdullah Azzam, a Palestinian scholar who was a key figure in the rise of a new pan-Islamic religious movement.

Azzam founded an organization to help the mujahedeen fighting to repel the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.

Bin Laden soon became the organization's top financier, using his family connections to raise money. He left as a volunteer for Afghanistan at 22, joining the U.S.-backed call to arms against the Soviets.

He remained there for a decade, using construction equipment from his family's business to help the Muslim guerrilla forces build shelters, tunnels and roads through the rugged Afghan mountains, and at times taking part in battle.

In the late 1980s, bin Laden founded al Qaeda, Arabic for "the base," an organization that CNN terrorism analyst and author Peter Bergen says had fairly prosaic beginnings. One of its purposes was to provide documentation for Arab fighters who fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan, including death certificates.

Al Qaeda, under bin Laden's leadership, ran a number of guesthouses for these Arab fighters and their families. It also operated training camps to help them prepare for the fight against the Soviets.

In the early 1990s, with the disintegration of the Soviet Union, bin Laden turned his sights on the world's remaining superpower -- the United States. War-hardened and victorious, he returned to Saudi Arabia following the Soviet retreat from Afghanistan.

In a 1997 CNN interview, bin Laden declared a "jihad," or "holy war," against the United States.

The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait provided the next turning point in Osama bin Laden's career.

When the United States sent troops to Saudi Arabia for battle against Iraq in the Persian Gulf War, bin Laden was outraged. He had offered his own men to defend the Saudi kingdom but the Saudi government ignored his plan.

He began to target the United States for its presence in Saudi Arabia, home to the Muslim holy sites of Mecca and Medina. With bin Laden's criticisms creating too much friction with the Saudi government, he and his supporters left for Sudan in 1991.

There, according to U.S. officials, al Qaeda began to evolve into a terror network, with bin Laden at its helm. Tapping into his personal fortune, bin Laden operated a range of businesses involved in construction, farming and exporting.

Although the U.S. government was unaware of it at the time, bin Laden was already actively working against it.

According to court testimony, he sent one of his top lieutenants, Mohammed Atef, to help train Somalis to attack U.S. peacekeeping troops stationed there. Bin Laden would later hint, during an interview with CNN, of his involvement in the deaths of 18 U.S. Army Rangers in 1993 in Mogadishu.

Also in 1993, terrorists bombed the World Trade Center in New York, killing six and wounding hundreds. Eventually, bin Laden would be named along with many others as an unindicted co-conspirator in that case. The mastermind of the attack, Ramzi Yousef, would later be revealed to have close ties to al Qaeda.

In 1996, bin Laden took his war against the United States a step further. By then, he had been stripped of his Saudi citizenship and forced by Sudanese officials, under pressure from the United States, to leave that country. He returned to Afghanistan where he received harbor from the fundamentalist Taliban, who were ruling the country.

By then, the United States had begun to recognize a growing threat from bin Laden, citing him as a financier of terrorism in a government report.

According to reports, however, the U.S. government passed up a Sudanese government offer to turn over bin Laden, because at the time it had no criminal charges against him. The Saudis, according to an interview with their former intelligence chief in Time magazine, also declined to take custody of bin Laden.

In Afghanistan in 1996, bin Laden issued a "fatwa," or a religious order, entitled "Declaration of War Against Americans Who Occupy the Lands of the Two Holy Mosques."

"There is no more important thing than pushing the American occupier out," decreed the fatwa, which praised Muslim youths willing to die to accomplish that goal: "Youths only want one thing, to kill (U.S. soldiers) so they can get to Paradise."

In his first interview with Western media in 1997, bin Laden told CNN that the United States was "unjust, criminal and tyrannical."

"The U.S. today, as a result of the arrogant atmosphere, has set a double standard, calling whoever goes against its injustice a terrorist," he said in the interview. "It wants to occupy our countries, steal our resources, impose on us agents to rule us."

In February 1998, he expanded his target list, issuing a new fatwa against all Americans, including civilians.

They were to be killed wherever they might be found anywhere in the world, he decreed. This new fatwa announced the creation of the "The World Islamic Front for Jihad against the Jews and the Crusaders" and was co-signed by Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, head of Egypt's al-Jihad terrorist group.

Six months later, explosions destroyed the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 people and injuring 4,000 more.

U.S. prosecutors later indicted bin Laden for masterminding those attacks.

By the time three hijacked airliners struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, symbols of the U.S. business and military might, bin Laden's terror network had become global in its reach.

The organization soon became America's prime target in Bush's war against global terrorism. Bin Laden, its founder, became the most-wanted man in the world.

Then-U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell explained al Qaeda's network this way: "Osama bin Laden is the chairman of the holding company, and within that holding company are terrorist cells and organizations in dozens of countries around the world, any of them capable of committing a terrorist act."

"It's not enough to get one individual, although we'll start with that one individual," Powell said.

In statements released from his hideouts in Afghanistan after September 11, bin Laden denied al Qaeda was responsible for the attacks.

A videotape of bin Laden later obtained and released by the U.S. government, however, showed him saying he knew the September 11 attacks were coming, chuckling and gloating about their toll. Even with his knowledge of the construction trade, he said with a smile, he did not expect the twin towers of the World Trade Center to collapse completely.

Speaking in an earlier video recording that was first broadcast over the Arabic-language television network Al-Jazeera, bin Laden said America is "filled with fear from the north, south, east and west. Thank God for that."

"These events have split the world into two camps -- belief and disbelief," he said. "America will never dream or know or taste security or safety unless we know safety and security in our land and in Palestine."

Bin Laden had taken advantage of his time in Afghanistan, cementing his ties to the Taliban.

He was particularly close to Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar. He built a mansion in Kandahar but spent most of his time on the move around the country, according to intelligence sources.

Al Qaeda had a network of training camps and safe houses where recruits from around the world were brought for combat and weapons training and indoctrination.

As long as the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, bin Laden, his four wives and more than 10 children were able to avoid capture.

Before September 11, the Afghan government refused U.S. requests to turn over bin Laden. "Osama's protection is our moral and Islamic duty," one Taliban official was quoted as saying in July 2001.

As the United States bombing campaign helped the Afghan opposition drive the Taliban from power, however, bin Laden's days were numbered.

The reward on his head grew to $25 million. Countless leaflets advertising the bounty were dropped from U.S. airplanes, which flew with impunity over Afghan skies.

"We're hunting him down," Bush said on November 19, 2001. "He runs and he hides, but as we've said repeatedly, the noose is beginning to narrow. The net is getting tighter."

But he eluded U.S. and allied authorities during the war in Afghanistan, vanishing in December 2001, apparently fleeing during the intensive bombing campaign in the rugged Tora Bora region near the border with Pakistan.

"He's alive or dead. He's in Afghanistan or somewhere else," then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in April 2002 when asked about bin Laden's whereabouts.

No more videos showing bin Laden were released during the spring and summer of 2002 and there was speculation that he may have died during U.S. bombing raids in Afghanistan.

But audiotapes released in October and November 2002 and broadcast on Al-Jazeera were allegedly were from him. U.S. government experts analyzed the tapes and said the voice on the tapes was almost certainly bin Laden's.

On February 11, 2002, a new audio message purportedly from bin Laden called on Muslims around the world to show solidarity against U.S.-led military action in Iraq.

The tape was broadcast on Al Jazeera, which originally denied its existence. The voice on tape added that any nation that helps the United States attack Iraq, "(Has) to know that they are outside this Islamic nation. Jordan and Morocco and Nigeria and Saudi Arabia should be careful that this war, this crusade, is attacking the people of Islam first."

Days later, U.S. government reports suggest that bin Laden had survived sustained bombing and could be near the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Then, in May 2002, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar is quoted in a Saudi-owned publication, "Sheikh Osama is still alive, praise God." A Russian newspaper publishes a similar report likewise quoting Omar, saying, "Osama helped us during the war with the (Soviets), he would not leave us now."

Abdel-Bari Atwan, the editor of the London-based Al-Quds Al Arabi newspaper, said in July of that year that bin Laden was in good health, despite being wounded in an attack on his base in Afghanistan the previous December. Atwan said then that bin Laden's followers had told him that the al Qaeda leader would not make more video statements until his group launched another attack on the United States.

That appeared to prove prescient, as there were no further attacks on U.S. soil in subsequent years -- though there were several high-profile attempts, purportedly linked to al Qaeda -- and few signs of bin Laden.

Muslim clerics in Spain turned the tables on bin Laden in March 2005, issuing the first fatwa against the terrorist leader. The Islamic edict called him an apostate and urged other Muslims to denounce him.

More details about bin Laden came out in October 2009, in the form of a book written by one of his wives and sons titled, "Growing Up bin Laden: Osama's Wife and Son Take Us Inside Their World."

A few months later, the U.S. government admitted a "lack of intelligence" on his whereabouts -- suspecting that he could be in Afghanistan or Pakistan.

But he reappeared on the world's radar in January 2010, with the release of two audiotapes released in the span of a week.

In the first, he purportedly claimed responsibility for the alleged Christmas Day attempt by Nigerian national Umar Farouk AbdulMuttallab to blow up a Northwest Airlines plane as it neared Detroit, Michigan, from Amsterdam, Netherlands. In that tape, the voice -- thought to be bin Laden's -- warned the United States of more attacks.

Days later, Al Jazeera released an audiotape purportedly from bin Laden in which he condemned the United States and other industrial nations for causing climate change.

Then, in January of this year, a speaker claiming to be the terrorist mastermind warned French troops to leave Afghanistan -- or else two French journalists abducted by militants there could be killed.

The speaker thought to be bin Laden said on the audiotape, which also aired on Al Jazeera, that France's alliance with the United States will prove costly.

One U.S. counterterrorism official told CNN at the time that the tape "sends a chill up your spine," as it refers to "a couple of human beings whose lives are at stake."

For several months before that last tape's release, however, U.S. officials had received specific information about where bin Laden may have been hiding in Pakistan, according to President Barack Obama.

On Sunday, the president said he ordered an operation -- carried out by a handful of U.S. troops -- to get bin Laden in Pakistan. The al Qaeda leader resisted and was killed in an ensuing firefight, and U.S. forces took custody of his body. He was later buried at sea, with one U.S. official saying his body was handled in the Islamic tradition.

"His demise should be welcomed by all who believe in peace and human dignity," Obama said in a speech announcing bin Laden's death. "Justice has been done."

'Thorn from Jesus's crucifixion crown' goes on display at British Museum

2011-03-28T17:58:00.001-07:00

It was plundered in the Fourth Crusade, sold to French royalty and has spent the past 200 years in safekeeping at a British public school.

Now a relic claimed to be a thorn from Jesus's crown is to go on display at the British Museum.

And while no one can doubt the item's rich history, there is less evidence to support the claims of its provenance.

The Crown of Thorns is said to have been seized from Constantinople, the imperial capital of the Roman Empire, in the Fourth Crusade - around AD 1200 - and was later sold to King Louis IX of France while he was in Venice.

King Louis kept the religious relic in the specially-built Saint Chapel and thorns were broken off from the crown and given to people who married into the family as gifts.

The thorn at Stonyhurst College - a 400-year-old Jesuit boarding school - was said to have been given to Mary Queen of Scots who married into the French royal family and she took it with her to Holyrood in Edinburgh.

And following her execution in 1587, it was passed from her loyal servant, Thomas Percy, to his daughter, Elizabeth Woodruff, who then gave it to her confessor - a Jesuit priest - in 1600.

The Jesuits brought it with them to the college and it has been kept at the Ribble Valley college ever since.

The Satanists of Ash Tree Close: 'Evil' paedophile found guilty of running sex cult from cul-de-sac in seaside village

2011-03-09T17:38:00.000-08:00

The leader of a Satanic sex cult is facing a lengthy jail sentence after being found guilty of multiple counts of rape and child abuse.

Colin Batley, 48, exercised absolute control over his sect in a seaside cul-de-sac – abusing and exploiting helpless children as ‘sex toys’ for more than a decade.

He was found guilty yesterday of 35 sex offences against children and young adults. Yet social services were alerted to Batley’s child abuse in 2002 – and took no action.

As a consequence, the former Tesco security guard was allowed to continue ‘preying on the young and vulnerable’ for a further eight years – with the full support of wife Elaine.

At their semi in Kidwelly, South Wales, he would dress in hooded robes, chant before an altar and then orchestrate or participate in group sex with his female followers, including Jacqueline Marling and Shelly Millar.

One helpless girl was ‘initiated’ when she was just 11 and threatened with death by ‘cult assassins’ if she did not comply. At least two of his young victims gave birth as a result of the ‘systematic and prolonged abuse’.

Yesterday at Swansea Crown Court, Marling, 42, and Elaine Batley, 47, were found guilty of five counts including sexual activity and indecency towards children. Millar, 35, was found guilty of two similar charges. Another woman, Sandra Iveson, was found not guilty of gross indecency.

Those found guilty will be sentenced tomorrow and face ‘substantial’ jail terms.

Colin Batley’s home was a typical semi in a typical cul-de-sac. But to the stream of visitors who trooped through the front door – especially on Sunday nights – it was the Temple.

In the lounge, a white cloth would be draped over a table to form an altar with candles and burning incense; nearby were tanks full of snakes and Satanic symbols. Those present would put on hooded robes and wear upside-down crucifixes.

There would be chanting, which would always end in group sex.

Children, boys and girls as young as 11, were also ‘initiated’ – repeatedly sexually abused in other words – during ‘Black Masses’ at Batley’s home. There were at least five victims that we know of, but police believe there could have been many more.

Yet these vile activities did not disturb the neighbours. Why? Because they were involved too. They lived in houses next to or opposite each other on the outskirts of Kidwelly (population 3,000) near Carmarthen.

For more than a decade Clos Yr Onnen, Welsh for Ash Tree Close, was possibly the most depraved street in Britain. The proof was there, in black and white, on the charge sheet at Swansea Crown Court where Batley, his bisexual wife Elaine and their accomplices stood trial for a sickening catalogue of crimes. All of them perpetrated by culprits living in the same road; perhaps the single most shocking fact of all.

This disturbing story begins not in Wales, however, but more than 200 miles away in East London. Batley, from Shoreditch, had a string of jobs including work as a Tesco security guard and on a fruit-and-vegetable stall. He also bred rottweiler dogs and Siamese cats. His outwardly mundane existence, we now know, masked a sinister private life.

He and his wife had been dabbling with the occult ever since they were married 30 years ago and were obsessed with Aleister Crowley, the most notorious Satanist of the 20th century, the self-styled ‘Great Beast’. One of Crowley’s publications, the Book of the Law, includes the passage: ‘Let all chaste women be despised. Sex with anyone is not just permissible but to be encouraged.’ And this: ‘Some of the most passionate and permanent attachments have begun with rape. Rome was founded thereon.’

Apart from anything else, the Book of the Law provided justification for the couple’s own ‘open marriage’.

Batley had sent a photo of his wife to the Readers’ Wives section of a pornographic magazine and this had led to them meeting ‘others for group activities’, the jury was told. They included former dental nurse Jacqueline Marling and prostitute Shelly Millar, who both joined Batley’s occult ‘circle’.

They were given matching tattoos of the Eye of Horus, the Egyptian falcon god depicted pecking out the eyes of Christ in Crowley’s works, and addressed Batley as ‘My lord’ (police found him listed under this name on Millar’s mobile phone).

Such was Batley’s control over his wretched ‘coven’ that they had to pay him 25 per cent of their income.

Every time Millar entertained a client, she would send Batley a text message to tell him how much she had been paid. She had sex with more than 3,000 clients over a two-year period, making about £2,000 a month, a quarter of which went to him. It explained how Batley, officially unemployed, could afford a £45,000 caravan and frequent holidays abroad.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1364583/Evil-paedophile-guilty-running-cul-sac-sex-cult-seaside-home.html#ixzz1G9lF8w9B

Batley would later claim that he moved to Wales for health reasons – to escape the smog. A claim rather undermined by the fact that his coven also relocated to the principality. Police believe there was another reason for the exodus; they suspect that other members of the cult – who have not been identified – were based in Wales.

The first East Londoner to arrive in Kidwelly was twice-married mother of four Sandra Iveson in 1995. The following year, the Batleys moved in. Two years later, Marling became their next-door neighbour and Millar, 35, an unmarried mother of two who was brought up a Catholic, completed the set.

Did other residents have any inkling of the kind of people that were now living among them? Well, with hindsight, there were a few small clues.

John Wheatland and his wife Marion, both in their seventies, couldn’t help but notice how Colin Batley was ‘over at Shelly’s all the time’.

On another occasion, the Wheatlands encountered Millar and another woman kissing and touching each other in the supermarket. Yet they could not have imagined the extent of what was really going on behind the closed curtains of the so-called Temple. During occult gatherings it became the set of a horror movie.

Batley, in a hooded robe, would read out extracts from the Book of the Law, which had been typed out and laminated by his wife. Hanging above him on the wall was a gold ceremonial dagger and sitting menacingly nearby were his two rottweilers, Tutankhamun and Sekhet.

One young victim told how Batley introduced her to the cult by raping her when she was 11, telling her that having sex with him was a ‘test’ and if she did not pass she would go to ‘the Abyss’. The victim, now in her twenties, told the court: ‘I did not want him to do what he was doing, but I did not have a choice because what Colin said happened. What Colin said went.’

The abuse continued for years. As a teenager she became pregnant by Batley, who prevented her from having an abortion saying that babies belonged to the cult and not to their mothers.

Another victim, now in her thirties, said she was forced to have sex with Batley when she was 15. She was also ordered to perform sex acts on his wife and other men and women. ‘I was told I’d be killed if I didn’t become part of the cult,’ she said. ‘Colin Batley had a gun and brought it to meetings. I was so scared I just did what I was told. I was in the living room at his home and he told me there would be an initiation. I was called upstairs. Elaine was there. He would just snap his fingers and say, “Strip”.’

She said that on one occasion when she was 16, she was made to have sex with a boy of 15 – as Marling filmed them.

The girl was told she would be murdered by ‘cult assassins’ if she did not give in to Batley’s demands. Through a video link, she sobbed as she told how she was taken to other addresses by Batley where she had sex with other men. ‘I did it because I was told to by Colin.’ Another woman victim said she was recruited into the cult and became pregnant after becoming a ‘sexual plaything’ for the group. Batley ordered her not to abort her ‘occult child’.

One male victim said that, as a teenager, he was tricked into having sex with Batley’s wife.

The witness recalled how Batley promised to set him up with a girl and directed him to a dark bedroom. Once inside, he got into bed and then realised that the other person lying beside him was Elaine Batley.

One of the charges against Shelly Millar was that she seduced a boy of 15. Millar claimed he was 16, and that she was teaching him how to have sex as he had a new girlfriend ‘he wanted to impress’. She had sex with him twice in Batley’s caravan in Tenby. Batley, it emerged during the trial, had been reported to Carmarthenshire Social Services in 2002 by a concerned relative. She said Batley had been abused by his own father and that ‘history was about to repeat itself’.

The warning went unheeded, allowing Batley and his cult to prey on youngsters week after week, month after month for another eight years.

The Batleys had four children, one of whom, Damian, died of strangulation three years ago when a bizarre sex game went wrong. He was found hanging from his bedroom door at the family home and had been filming himself.

Finally, last year, one of Batley’s victims went to the police. It was one of the girls he had impregnated as a teenager. She said she feared he might target her own child.

Batley was tipped off about the police inquiry and, by the time he was arrested, had destroyed potential evidence. But officers found home-made films of two of his victims on his camcorder. Interviewed 11 times by detectives, he steadfastly maintained his innocence.

The jury did not believe him. They saw him for what he was – ‘an evil and manipulative sexual predator’ who had used the cult and ‘black magic’ as a cover for his own perverted ends.

Back in Kidwelly, there was relief at the verdicts. ‘I’m just glad they’ve all finally gone,’ said John Wheatland.

He spoke for everyone in Ash Tree Close.

Sex cult was inspired by 'the Great Beast'

The cult’s inspiration, Aleister ‘the Great Beast’ Crowley, believed himself to be a prophet of a new age of personal liberty, controlled by the ancient Egyptian god Horus.

He was a bisexual heroin addict whose doctrine for life was ‘Do What Thou Wilt’, advocating sexual promiscuity and prostitution.

Crowley was a frequenter of orgies and brothels, and contracted gonorrhea from a prostitute.

Born into a wealthy family in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, he gained such notoriety during his lifetime that he was denounced in the press as ‘the wickedest man in the world’.

Crowley’s work has been cited as an influence by famous figures including Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, who bought Crowley’s former home and set up an occult bookshop and publishing house which published some of his work.

Page once said: ‘I feel Aleister Crowley is a misunderstood genius of the 20th century because his whole thing was liberation of the person.’

SLEEPY TOWN SHOCKED BY PERVERTED SEX CULT

A handful of housing association homes in an overlooked cul-de-sac in sleepy Kidwelly is an unlikely location for a sex cult.

With its medieval castle, industrial museum and historic canal, the pretty seaside town tries hard to attract the tourist pound.

The first anyone heard of a satanic paedophile ring was when Colin Batley hit the national headlines last month.

Despite having lived in the community for years, the cult's inevitably low-key operation had gone completely unnoticed.

News of what had been going on under their noses for so long was greeted by many residents with disbelief, shock and unease.

Even today, few in the deeply conservative community were willing to do much more than express shock at revelations from the trial.

One man spoke of the anger at the way a group of 'outsiders' from London had stained the town's character.

'Nobody understands how so many of them could come down and all end up living in one place in the town,' he said.

'They must have planned it somehow. I don't think Kidwelly is to blame for what has gone on. They kept a very low profile.'
He said he preferred not to give his name because he felt the cult would still be operating in the area.

But Geraint Thomas, Kidwelly Town Council clerk, predicted that the community would quickly rise above its problems.

'The first we knew about this matter was when it was publicised in the newspapers. It is fair to say that on reading about it we were shocked and dismayed.

'This unfortunate matter has put Kidwelly on the map for wrong reasons as we are continuously endeavouring to promote the town of Kidwelly and its environment in a positive way.

'We view this matter as a one-off. Kidwelly is a safe and respectable place to live and visit for all ages.'

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Daily Mail Reporter - Original Version

Protesters Stand Firm On Egypt's Streets

2011-02-04T15:48:00.000-08:00

Thousands of protesters remain gathered in Egypt's capital as what has been called the "Day of Departure" draws to a close.

Demonstrators have pledged to stay on the streets of Egypt's cities until embattled leader Hosni Mubarak steps down.

The president of 30 years has said he will remain in control until September, when he will not stand for re-election.

Earlier, largely good-humoured crowds streamed into Cairo's Tahrir (Freedom) Square, the scene of earlier clashes between pro and anti-Mubarak supporters.

Tim Marshall, in Cairo, and Kat Higgins
Thousands of protesters remain gathered in Egypt's capital as what has been called the "Day of Departure" draws to a close.

:: Follow breaking developments here and LIVE at www.skynews.com/liveplus

Demonstrators have pledged to stay on the streets of Egypt's cities until embattled leader Hosni Mubarak steps down.

The president of 30 years has said he will remain in control until September, when he will not stand for re-election.

Earlier, largely good-humoured crowds streamed into Cairo's Tahrir (Freedom) Square, the scene of earlier clashes between pro and anti-Mubarak supporters.

Live Blog: Egypt Protests

Thousands of protesters have also gathered in Alexandria, Egypt's second-largest city.

The Egyptian prime minister has said the crowds in Tahrir Square will not be forced to leave and state television says the curfew has been shortened.

Meanwhile, an Egyptian reporter shot during the clashes earlier this week has died, becoming the first journalist to be killed in the political crisis.

Although the protests on Friday have been mainly peaceful there have been reports of fights breaking out and gunshots were heard north of the square at one point.

Earlier this week men from each side were seen throwing petrol bombs and rocks, and dishing out brutal beatings on the streets.

The New York Times reported that US officials are discussing plans for Mr Mubarak to step down immediately and hand power to a transitional government led by vice president Omar Suleiman and the army.

Mr Mubarak, 82, said yesterday he would have stepped down this week but feared chaos and the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood taking power.

In an interview with America's ABC News, the leader denied accusations that it was his hired thugs who had been stirring up the violence this week.

Thousands of protesters remain gathered in Egypt's capital as what has been called the "Day of Departure" draws to a close.

Demonstrators have pledged to stay on the streets of Egypt's cities until embattled leader Hosni Mubarak steps down.

The president of 30 years has said he will remain in control until September, when he will not stand for re-election.

Earlier, largely good-humoured crowds streamed into Cairo's Tahrir (Freedom) Square, the scene of earlier clashes between pro and anti-Mubarak supporters.

Thousands of protesters have also gathered in Alexandria, Egypt's second-largest city.

The Egyptian prime minister has said the crowds in Tahrir Square will not be forced to leave and state television says the curfew has been shortened.

Meanwhile, an Egyptian reporter shot during the clashes earlier this week has died, becoming the first journalist to be killed in the political crisis.

Although the protests on Friday have been mainly peaceful there have been reports of fights breaking out and gunshots were heard north of the square at one point.

Earlier this week men from each side were seen throwing petrol bombs and rocks, and dishing out brutal beatings on the streets.

Egyptian anti-government demonstrators shout slogans at Cairo's Tahrir square.

Anti-Mubarak protesters are determined to get their message across

The New York Times reported that US officials are discussing plans for Mr Mubarak to step down immediately and hand power to a transitional government led by vice president Omar Suleiman and the army.

Mr Mubarak, 82, said yesterday he would have stepped down this week but feared chaos and the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood taking power.

In an interview with America's ABC News, the leader denied accusations that it was his hired thugs who had been stirring up the violence this week.

In a press conference on Friday US President Barack Obama urged Mr Mubarak to listen to the Egyptian people's calls for an orderly transition of power, saying the country could not go back to its "old ways".

Mr Obama declined to say whether he thought Mubarak should leave office now or stay in power until elections can be held.

Reuters has reported that Egypt's prime minister has said Mr Mubarak will not hand power to his deputy, the vice president.

Eight people have been killed, not including the reporter, and around 900 injured, according to official figures.

Sky News witnessed severe beatings being dished out to suspected plain-clothes policemen - who have been blamed for inciting violence - and pro-democracy protesters.

Several foreign journalists have also been badly beaten by pro-Mubarak supporters.

Broadcaster Al Jazeera has reported that its offices in Cairo have been set on fire and that its website has been hacked.

Angry men also carjacked an ABC News crew and threatened to behead the journalists, but the crew managed to talk its way free, the US network said.

A statement from the European Council said: "Any attempt to restrict the free flow of information, including aggression and intimidation directed against journalists and human rights defenders, is unacceptable."

Speaking after the council's summit in Brussels,Prime Minister David Cameron repeated his call for the the transition of power to "start now".

"The protests that we have seen have shown that popular desire for change is unstoppable and fundamental political change is inevitable.

Sky News

"As much as yesterday's violence and brutality was an unacceptable step back, today's peaceful demonstrations I hope have shown that there is a yearning for serious democracy and rights that we take for granted."

Women's tears may send a sexual message in addition to an emotional one, study finds

2011-01-06T12:52:00.000-08:00

Tears mean a lot of things in the drama of human interaction. They telegraph heartbreak, hopelessness, anger, frustration, elation and relief. They express mood - and can alter behavior - in an instant.

But it turns out there might be more to know about tears, which historically have interested poets more than scientists.

A team of Israeli researchers believes that tears, in addition to everything else they convey, send a sexual message that can be summarized as: "Now's not a good time." In a study published online Thursday by the journal Science, the researchers report that men who sniff tears cried by sad women experience a temporary decline in both sexual arousal and circulating testosterone, a hormone tied to libido.

"We've identified that there is a chemo-signal in human tears," said Noam Sobel, the researcher at the Weizmann Institute of Science who headed the study.

Only women's tears have been studied so far, but the researchers suspect men's tears, and possibly children's, also contain chemical signals. They are eager to find out what messages those tears may convey.

"This experiment opened gazillions of questions. It opened way more questions than it answered," Sobel said.

The new study places human tears in a raunchier family of fluids that includes urine and the secretions of anogenital glands. Those fluids contain behavior-altering compounds, known as pheromones. Emotional tears have a different chemical composition from tears shed when the eye is irritated. But the identity of the ardor-quenching substance they contain isn't known.

Earlier research in rodents showed that liquids secreted from around the eye have a variety of social effects. In mole rats, the secretions reduce aggressiveness in head-to-head underground confrontations, but in mice they do the opposite.

"What we have found is that human emotional crying may not be so unique after all," Sobel said. "It is a reflection of something common to many if not all mammals, which is chemosignaling through lacrimal secretions."

The study, which required a complicated process of collecting tears and then exposing people to them in a controlled manner, was greeted positively in the small circle of researchers who study crying.

"It's the first report. I think it's quite interesting," said Robert R. Provine, a psychologist and neuroscientist at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, who has studied tears as a visual cue.

"The results indeed are fascinating," said Ad Vingerhoets of Tilburg University in the Netherlands, who has studied the social reactions to crying.

In the new study, Sobel and his colleagues collected tears from women who cried after watching a sad scene in a movie. The researchers beforehand trickled saline solution - salty water - down the cheeks of the women and collected it as a "control" substance. A group of men were then exposed to the two liquids by sniffing them in vials and, for some of the experiments, by having a small pad soaked with the liquid taped between the nostrils and the upper lip.

The men were unable to distinguish the two liquids; both were odorless. However, the men's physiological states, and to some extent their thoughts, changed depending on whether the liquid was tears or saline.

For example, when presented with emotionally ambiguous pictures of women's faces, 17 of 24 men in the experiment found the faces to be less sexually attractive after sniffing tears than after sniffing saline. After watching a sad movie and sniffing tears during it they also reported an overall reduction in sexual arousal.

These subjective changes were small. Slightly larger were changes in physiological measurements.

Testosterone concentration in saliva (which reflects the amount circulating in the bloodstream) fell 13 percent after sniffing tears but stayed the same after sniffing saline. Physiological state, as measured by skin temperature, heart rate and respiration, also fell after exposure to tears. Functional MRI imaging of the brain also showed less activity in areas associated with sexual arousal after smelling tears.

Taken together, the results "jointly suggest that women's emotional tears contain a chemosignal that reduces sexual arousal in men," the researchers concluded. "We have ... identified an emotionally relevant function for tears."

In an interview Sobel hastened to add that he doesn't think chemical signaling is unique to women's tears. His research used them simply because they were easier to obtain.

The research team posted an advertisement on the Weizmann Institute campus seeking volunteers who could cry easily. About 60 women and one man responded. They were then screened to see how easily they cried and the volume of tears they produced.

"We reached this core group of six women criers who could come back to the lab every other day and cry a full [milliliter]," Sobel said.

Each woman chose a movie to elicit crying, watching it in private and collecting her own tears. By far the most successful tear-inducer was the dying scene in "The Champ," a 1979 film starring Jon Voight about an over-the-hill boxer making a comeback in order to provide a better future for his son, whom he is raising on his own.

"That scene is a winner," Sobel said. "Emotion labs all over the world use it to establish sad mood."

Other reliable tear-jerkers were the Italian film "La Vita E' Bella" ("Life Is Beautiful"), "Terms of Endearment," "When a Man Loves a Woman" and the Israeli movie "Broken Wings."

The researchers now have two male criers and are slowly recruiting more in order to study the effects of their tears on women and on other men.

Dilma Rousseff sworn in as Brazil's new president

2011-01-01T16:08:00.000-08:00

Brazil's first woman President, Dilma Rousseff, has been sworn into office.

BBC News Latin America & Caribbean

She took over from her mentor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who stepped down after two terms as the most popular president in the country's history.

After taking the oath of office, Ms Rousseff promised in a speech to protect the most vulnerable in Brazilian society and govern for all.

She also vowed to consolidate the work of her predecessor, who she said had changed the way Brazil was governed.

Brazil's economy has grown strongly in recent years, but it remains one of the most unequal societies in the world.

Ms Rousseff was appointed energy minister in President Lula's government in 2003 and served as his chief of staff from 2005 to 2010.

She was elected in October, defeating the opposition candidate Jose Serra by 56% to 44% in a run-off vote.

She is known to favour a strong state role in strategic areas, including banking, the oil industry and energy.
'All Brazilian women should be proud'

Ms Rousseff's inauguration ceremony at the Brazilian Congress began with a ride through the capital, Brasilia, in a Rolls Royce.

After swearing the oath of office, Ms Rousseff began her inaugural address by noting that this was the first time in Brazil that the role of president had been given to a woman.

"I know the historical significance of this decision," she said to widespread applause. "Today, all Brazilian women should feel proud and happy."

Ms Rousseff then said this was "just the beginning of a new era" for Brazil, and promised to protect the most vulnerable in society and "govern for all".

But she also vowed to consolidate the work of her predecessor, who she described as a "great man" who had changed the way the country was governed and encouraged Brazilians to trust in the future of their country.

"The best homage that I can give to him is to continue the progress made by his government, and invest in the strength of the people," she added. "This has been the best lesson that President Lula has given all of us."

Ms Rousseff singled out his work over the last eight years to reduce poverty and promote economic prosperity.

"The most determined struggle will be to eradicate extreme poverty," she said. "We can be a more developed and fairer country."

"I will not rest while there are Brazilians without food on their table, homeless in the streets, and poor children abandoned to their luck."

She also outlined her plans for tax reforms, environmental protection, improved health services, regional development, and measures to protect the economy from foreign "speculation".

She later travelled to the presidential palace, where Lula draped her in the green-and-gold sash of the Brazilian head of state.

Ms Rousseff, a former Marxist rebel who was imprisoned for three years in the early 1970s for resisting military rule, has promised to protect freedom of expression and worship, and to honour the constitution.

The BBC's Paulo Cabral, in Brasilia, says Ms Rousseff faces significant challenges, public health, education and improving the country's infrastructure.

Brazil's economy is estimated to have grown by 8% in 2010. However, the currency, the real, has risen so high that it is now making Brazil's exports less competitive.

During his two terms as president from 2002, 30 million people were lifted out of poverty - a major reason for his status as Brazil's most popular president, our correspondent says.

During President Rousseff's term, Brazil will host the Rio Plus 20 global environmental summit in 2012 and the Fifa World Cup in 2014. She will also oversee preparations for the Summer Olympics in 2016.

Obama Signs Landmark US Military Gay Law

2010-12-22T12:07:00.001-08:00

President Obama has signed a landmark measure ordering the US armed services to allow gay men and women to serve openly for the first time.

Approval of the measure by Congress this month was a victory for Mr Obama after he made the repeal of the so-called 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy a campaign issue.

At the signing ceremony in Washington the president said that valour and sacrifice in the armed forces are no longer defined by sexual orientation.

Mr Obama said he was proud to fulfill his campaign pledge and sign a bill which he believes will "strengthen national security".

Since 1993, when the Pentagon introduced the policy allowing gays and lesbians to join the armed forces if they did not reveal their sexuality, at least 13,000 people have been expelled from the armed forces for violating the rules.

READ NEWS IS THE GOSPEL CHANNEL BRAZIL

The Pentagon will now have to draft a plan for implementing the altered rules, deciding how troops will be educated about the new policy.

Decisions will also have to be made about disciplinary procedures and the status of those who were fired for violating "Don't Ask" in the past.

Some top military figures have opposed the repeal and believe it is too risky to make such a change when the armed services are already stretched fighting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

A recent study found about 30% of troops expressed negative views or concerns about the repeal.

But the signing is a victory for America's gay community and for Mr Obama who had been criticised for not acting swiftly enough.

He hailed the courage and vision of defence secretary Robert Gates and praised Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Admiral Mike Mullen, who advocated changing the 17-year-old policy.

"No longer will tens of thousands of Americans in uniform be asked to live a lie, or look over their shoulder in order to serve the country they love," Obama said.

Local Pastor Charged with Over 100 Counts of Child Porn

2010-12-18T06:03:00.000-08:00

CLEVELAND —Rev. Dr. Mark Griggs, pastor of St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Olmsted Falls, has been charged with trading in child pornography.

Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason announced that Griggs, 48, faces 112 counts that include downloading, trading and possessing child pornography.

Griggs is one of 27 adults, along with three juveniles, charged in a six month investigation called "Operation Lake Effect." The investigation has been conducted by the Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force.

Prosecutors charge that Griggs downloaded and saved images of children being sexually abused onto his computer. They say Griggs traded child porn images from both his home and church computers.

"Shocking...always," Mason says of a pastor being indicted on such charges.

But Griggs', attorney, Jay Milano, says his client will fight the charges.

"Reverend Griggs is going to plead and he's going to defend himself," says Milano. "He's not a child pornographer."

Milano says Rev. Griggs was on "Limewire" -- an internet file-sharing program.

"If you're downloading files from Limewire, you don't have any control of what's coming into your computer," Milano says.

Prosecutor Mason rejects the notion that Griggs made innocent mistakes.

"The amount of downloading and file sharing he has is significant," Mason says.

The church's website talks about Griggs' "commitment and love of children."

In a statement released Thursday, the Presbytery of the Western Reserve said the following about Griggs' arrest: "We do not have much information about this situation yet but the Presbytery takes allegations of misconduct very seriously and will cooperate with authorities in their investigation."

All of these cases are in Cuyahoga County, indicating how pervasive child porn can be. 34 other cases have been sent to other jurisdictions.

Prosecutor Mason says the investigation shows the need for parents to monitor what their children do online. And he also says that predators should be aware that, if they continue trading in child porn, they may well be caught.

An initial court date for Griggs and the other defendants has not been set yet.

Faiths Unite To Pray For Rain In Holy Land

2010-11-13T15:08:00.000-08:00

Jews, Christians and Muslims have united in the Holy Land to pray for rain.

An unusually dry autumn has left Israel and the Palestinian territories perilously parched.

Authorities are deeply concerned about the impact on water supplies and agriculture, after years of insufficient rainfall. Forecasters expect another dry winter.

So, imams, rabbis and priests gathered in the West Bank village of Walaja to hold the unusual ceremony.

On a dry, dusty hillside overlooking the outskirts of Jerusalem they bowed and chanted prayers, each calling on their own Almighty to end the drought.

After the ceremony they sowed the land with wheat.

They were called together by a group of pacifist Jewish settlers called Eretz Shalom, (land of peace), that claims to promote moderation among fellow settlers and Palestinians.

Walaja has been the focus of recent protest by Palestinians and Israeli and international peace activists.

The village of a few thousand Palestinians is being almost completely enclosed by Israel’s controversial security barrier.

The picturesque hillside is being scarred by Israeli construction work erecting the barrier.

When it is complete villagers will be cut off from some of their land and links with Jerusalem will be severed.

This week’s rain ceremony was a rare moment of solidarity in this troubled part of the world.

Brazil elects Dilma Rousseff, nation's first woman president

2010-10-31T17:11:00.000-07:00

(CNN) Dilma Rousseff has won the election for president in Brazil, according to the country's Supreme Electoral Tribunal Minister, making her the nation's first woman to hold the office.

TSE Minister Ricardo Lewandowski made the announcement to the local press around 8 p.m. local time (6 p.m. Eastern) stating on the tribunal's website that she was "mathematically elected the president of Brasil."

Rousseff -- President Luiz Inacio da Silva's right-hand woman -- has served as his chief of staff. Previously, as energy minister, she claims to have helped turn Brazil into one of the world's leading energy giants.

A left-wing guerrilla fighter during the military dictatorship rule in the 1960s, Rousseff said during a congressional hearing that she was "barbarically tortured" after she was charged with subversion by the military regime.

Her opponent, Jose Serra, also suffered persecution during Brazil's military rule and was forced into exile during the 1960s.

A centrist politician, he served as health minister during Fernando Henrique Cardoso's government. He recently left his job as governor of Brazil's richest state, Sao Paulo, to run for presidency.

Millions of voters lined up across Brazil's vast territory to vote in the heated runoff.

Voters living abroad correspond to about 0.15 percent of the Brazilian electorate, about 200,000.

In 60 Brazilian cities, voters used their thumbs instead of ballots on a newly launched biometric system, where voters scan their fingers to log in and vote.

TSE officials said all regions, however remote, will have the ubiquitous electronic voting machine. In indigenous areas in the Amazon, these voting machines were delivered by boats and helicopters. It costs the state of Amazonas 5 million reais. (U.S. $3 million) to place the voting machines.

One of the most challenging trajectories, officials said, is the one to Sao Gabriel da Cachoeira, a densly-forested area in the Amazon.

"There, our electronic machines first leave Manaus by plane," said Pedro Batista, TSE Director for the Amazon.

"It's loaded onto a helicopter, and then travels by boat before being carried on some one's back for a long walk to a remote village," he said.

In Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest city, voters faced heavy rains and threats of flooding.

Accused pastor crusaded against homosexuals

2010-09-22T17:55:00.000-07:00

Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- As Bishop Eddie Long poked through a salad in his church office one summer day in 1999, he shot a weary look at a person ticking off his ministry's successes.

His Atlanta megachurch had already reached 25,000 members. He had been invited to the White House, built a global television ministry and drove around town in a luxury automobile.

But Long told the visitor who had come to write about him that the pressures of being a high-profile pastor could be brutal.

"You don't want any of this," he said in a raspy baritone as he shook his head. "You don't want any of this ..."

Long didn't get more specific about those pressures.

Today, the 57-year-old minister, known for his public crusades against homosexuality, faces serious allegations.

On Tuesday, two young men who were members of Long's New Birth Missionary Baptist Church filed lawsuits claiming he used his position as their spiritual counselor to coerce them into sexual relationships.

The men -- Anthony Flagg, 21, and Maurice Robinson, 20 -- allege Long used a private spiritual ceremony to mark a "covenant" between them, with both becoming his "spiritual son."

Flagg alleges that Long then used that relationship to take him on overnight trips where they shared a bedroom and engaged in kissing, masturbation and "oral sexual contact."

Robinson, who claimed Long engaged in oral sex with him, said the pastor would cite Scripture to justify their relationship.

"We categorically deny the allegations," Art Franklin, Long's spokesman, said in a written statement. "It is very unfortunate that someone has taken this course of action."

Franklin said "our law firm will be able to respond once attorneys have had an opportunity to review the lawsuit."

The men's lawyer, Brenda Joy (B.J.) Bernstein, would not make them available for comment.

Long's crusades against homosexuality

The allegations against Long run contrary to his public image.

He is a celebrity preacher in the black church world and a star in the evangelical world as well. His church is one of the largest in the country.

In the pulpit, Long seamlessly blends muscle and ministry.

He wears tight shirts that display his weight-lifter arms. He writes books such as "Gladiator, the Strength of a Man," that teach men how to be warriors for God. He says he has a special calling to reach out to men.

He's a married man who preaches about the sanctity of the union between a man and a woman. He denounces homosexuality. In 2004, he led a march in Atlanta against gay marriage. He once declared that his church had created a ministry that "delivered" people from homosexuality.

His public statements about gays and lesbians have helped reinforce homophobia in the black church, says Shayne Lee, a sociologist and author of "Holy Mavericks: Evangelical Innovators and the Spiritual Marketplace."

"The homophobic atmosphere he helped perpetuate," Lee said, could "come back to possibly harm him."

Long's controversial ministry

Long has been the center of public controversy before.

In 2005, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that a charity Long created to help the poor and spread the Gospel had made him its biggest beneficiary.

An examination of the nonprofit's tax returns and other documents revealed that the charity provided him with at least a million dollars in salary over four years, and the use of a $1.4 million home and the $350,000 Bentley.

A frequent critic of black preachers (he once said they "major in storefront churches"), Long responded by saying he was a CEO of a global business who deserved his lifestyle.

"You've got to put me on a different scale than the little black preacher sitting over there that's supposed to be just getting by because the people are suffering," Long said, explaining the compensation he received from his charity.

In 2007, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, of the Senate Finance Committee, sent a letter to Long asking detailed questions about his financial operations. Long was one of six televangelists whom Grassley targeted.

After an initial flurry of publicity following Grassley's request, the investigation appeared to peter out.

In recent years, Long seemed to become more humble, says the Rev. Tim McDonald, senior pastor of First Iconium Baptist Church in Atlanta.

In private talks, McDonald said, Long told him about the pressures of leading a megachurch. He said he no longer had as many close friendships and yearned to return to the more intimate relationships that McDonald seemed to have with his much smaller congregation.

"He said, 'Tim, I may have the numbers, but you have the love,' '' McDonald said.

God's 'scarred leader'

For all his outward confidence, Long also displayed a vulnerable side.

He built an intimate bond with many members of his church by talking about his private failings: his divorce from his first wife; being rejected by his father; and being fired from a job in corporate America.

He called himself God's "scarred leader."

He also became known for his generosity. He would give out cars and money to strangers at church services. He built ministries to help the poor, AIDS patients and young people.

He talked proudly about his ability to reach young men. He called himself a "spiritual daddy" to many of the young men he mentored at New Birth.

He would pay the college tuition for some men, give business suits to others and play basketball and lift weights with his male ministers.

Once, he even boasted to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that some mothers at New Birth trusted him enough to bring their wayward teenage boys to him for paddling.

"When I say bend over, even on Sunday, they bend over," he said, referring to the boys he paddled. "Why? Because they respect me. Because I first died for them ..."

The two men who filed suit against Long, though, said he used their relationships to instruct them, as "spiritual sons," to follow their "master."

They also say Long enticed them "with cars, clothes, jewelry, and electronics." Robinson claims the pastor paid for his college tuition.

In Flagg's suit, he claimed that when some young men found girlfriends, Long would attempt to block those relationships by "increased contact and spiritual talk" about "the covenant between the Spiritual Son and himself."

In addition to Long, the lawsuits name as defendants his church and a youth academy where Long was pastor and mentor. Both suits seek unspecified punitive damages on counts ranging from negligence to breach of fiduciary duty.

Lee, the sociologist who has written about Long, says he expects him to mount a fierce counterattack.

"He'll demonize the accusers," Lee said, "and couch it in terms of how the enemy Satan is trying to hurt the ministry."

Religious leaders hit back at Hawking

2010-09-04T05:24:00.000-07:00

London, England (CNN) -- Religious leaders in Britain on Friday hit back at claims by leading physicist Stephen Hawking that God had no role in the creation of the universe.

In his new book "The Grand Design," Britain's most famous scientist says that given the existence of gravity, "the universe can and will create itself from nothing," according to an excerpt published in The Times of London.

"Spontaneous creation is the reason why there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist," he wrote.

"It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper [fuse] and set the universe going."

But the head of the Church of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams, told the Times that "physics on its own will not settle the question of why there is something rather than nothing."

He added: "Belief in God is not about plugging a gap in explaining how one thing relates to another within the Universe. It is the belief that there is an intelligent, living agent on whose activity everything ultimately depends for its existence."

Williams' comments were supported by leaders from across the religious spectrum in Britain. Writing in the Times, Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks said: "Science is about explanation. Religion is about interpretation ... The Bible simply isn't interested in how the Universe came into being."

The Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols, leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, added: "I would totally endorse what the Chief Rabbi said so eloquently about the relationship between religion and science."

Ibrahim Mogra, an imam and committee chairman at the Muslim Council of Britain, was also quoted by the Times as saying: "If we look at the Universe and all that has been created, it indicates that somebody has been here to bring it into existence. That somebody is the almighty conqueror."

Hawking was also accused of "missing the point" by colleagues at the University of Cambridge in England.

"The 'god' that Stephen Hawking is trying to debunk is not the creator God of the Abrahamic faiths who really is the ultimate explanation for why there is something rather than nothing," said Denis Alexander, director of The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion.

"Hawking's god is a god-of-the-gaps used to plug present gaps in our scientific knowledge.

"Science provides us with a wonderful narrative as to how [existence] may happen, but theology addresses the meaning of the narrative," he added.

Fraser Watts, an Anglican priest and Cambridge expert in the history of science, said that it's not the existence of the universe that proves the existence of God.

"A creator God provides a reasonable and credible explanation of why there is a universe, and ... it is somewhat more likely that there is a God than that there is not. That view is not undermined by what Hawking has said."

Hawking's book -- as the title suggests -- is an attempt to answer "the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything," he wrote, quoting Douglas Adams' cult science fiction romp, "The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy."

His answer is "M-theory," which, he says, posits 11 space-time dimensions, "vibrating strings, ... point particles, two-dimensional membranes, three-dimensional blobs and other objects that are more difficult to picture and occupy even more dimensions of space."

He doesn't explain much of that in the excerpt, which is the introduction to the book.

But he says he understands the feeling of the great English scientist Isaac Newton that God did "create" and "conserve" order in the universe.

It was the discovery of other solar systems outside our own in 1992 that undercut a key idea of Newton's -- that our world was so uniquely designed to be comfortable for human life that some divine creator must have been responsible.

But, Hawking argues, if there are untold numbers of planets in the galaxy, it's less remarkable that there's one with conditions for human life. And, indeed, he argues, any form of intelligent life that evolves anywhere will automatically find that it lives somewhere suitable for it.

CNN's Richard Allen Greene contributed to this report.

Hunt for Jamaican drug suspect to resume

2010-05-29T14:45:00.000-07:00

Security forces in Jamaica plan to renew a push Monday to arrest an accused drug lord at the center of violence that has now killed 76 people, the country's police commissioner said.

CNN

Police officers and soldiers plan to launch the second phase of an operation Monday aimed at executing an arrest warrant for Christopher "Dudus" Coke, a suspected drug kingpin who is wanted in the United States, police commissioner Owen Ellington said.

The death toll has risen to 76 as a result of violence triggered by Jamaican authorities' attempts to arrest Coke, Ellington said. The dead include 73 civilians, two police officers and one soldier, he said.

Authorities have detained more than 700 people, he said.

Clashes have unnerved residents in the Kingston neighborhoods of Tivoli Gardens and Denham Town.

Violence flared there after authorities tried to arrest Coke, who was charged last year in U.S. federal court with conspiracy to distribute marijuana and cocaine and with conspiracy to illegally traffic in firearms. Authorities in Jamaica sought to arrest him after federal prosecutors in New York sought his extradition, but his supporters attacked police stations in response.

Coke has a heroic reputation in Kingston's slums. He has been likened to Robin Hood and Jesus because he has helped the community by handing out food, sending children to school and building medical centers.

The plans for a new push to arrest Coke unfolded amid credible evidence that criminals from around the country have converged on Tivoli Gardens to help him avoid arrest, Ellington said in a press briefing with reporters.

At that briefing, Ellington reiterated government denials that members of the security forces have burned bodies. Some people in Tivoli Gardens told CNN this week that they saw security forces torch dead people and that they feared the authorities were burning bodies to cover up the extent of the violence.

"I literally saw them wrap up men in sheets and put tires on them and burn them," one man said, adding that the people were already dead when their bodies were burned.

He and others who described burning bodies declined to be identified for fear of reprisals from the authorities.

Reports that authorities have burned or secretly buried bodies are false, Ellington said. Several senior officials who investigated the reports found no sign that they were true, he said.

The violence that gripped much of Kingston for much of the last week seemed to have largely abated Friday. Charred debris, broken windows and deserted streets served as a reminder of an anxiety still felt by some, but businesses in Kingston's main commercial district were open, and officials expressed hope for a sense of normalcy.

The president of Jamaica's Chamber of Commerce, Milton Samuda, said more businesses reopened Friday.

"I anticipate and hope that it will be fully back to normal by Monday," he said.

Pope says 'sorry' for Irish church abuse

2010-03-20T11:39:00.000-07:00

(CNN) Pope Benedict XVI said Saturday he is "truly sorry" for the abuse suffered by victims at the hands of Catholic priests in Ireland.

The pope directly addressed the church abuse crisis that has rocked the Irish Catholic Church in an 18-page letter, which was made public Saturday. It is expected to be read in churches across Ireland on Sunday.

"I have been deeply disturbed by the information which has come to light regarding the abuse of children and vulnerable young people by members of the church in Ireland, particularly by priests and religious," the pope wrote.

"I can only share in the dismay and the sense of betrayal that so many of you have experienced on learning of these sinful and criminal acts and the way church authorities in Ireland have dealt with them."

The deeply Catholic country has been badly shaken by a government-backed report that found the Archdiocese of Dublin and other Catholic Church authorities in Ireland covered up child abuse by priests from 1975 to 2004. Child sexual abuse was widespread then, the report found.

The head of the church in Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady, apologized this week for his role in the church's investigation of an abusive priest in 1975.

Brady's office said he investigated the priest, who was later convicted of dozens of counts of child abuse, and reported his findings to his superiors. But critics say Brady should not have remained silent about what he learned.

"No one imagines that this painful situation will be resolved swiftly," Benedict said in his letter.

Contributing factors to the crisis can include inadequate procedures for determining suitable priesthood candidates, insufficient moral and spiritual formation in seminaries, and "misplaced concern for the reputation of the church and the avoidance of scandal," the pope said. He called for them to be addressed urgently.

The pope acknowledged the crisis has shaken people's faith and even turned many away from the church, saying it has "obscured the light of the Gospel to a degree that not even centuries of persecution succeeded in doing."

Benedict then addressed the victims of abuse and their families, recognizing the tragedies they have been through.

"You have suffered grievously and I am truly sorry," he says. "I know that nothing can undo the wrong you have endured. Your trust has been betrayed and your dignity has been violated. Many of you found that, when you were courageous enough to speak of what happened to you, no one would listen."

According to Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, the pope started thinking about writing the letter last summer after the publication of the Ryan report -- one of three separate reports on sexual and physical abuse by Irish clergy that has come out since 2005.

The Ryan report, published in May 2009, investigated abuse in Catholic-run institutions primarily from 1936 to 1970. Many of the alleged abusers in the 2,600-page report were not priests, but nuns or Catholic lay people.

The pope says he expressed "shame and remorse" and asks the victims not to lose hope.

"I know some of you find it difficult even to enter the doors of a church after all that has occurred," he says.

"I pray that, by drawing nearer to Christ and by participating in the life of his church -- a church purified by penance and renewed in pastoral charity -- you will come to rediscover Christ's infinite love for each one of you."

Next in the letter, the pope turned his attention to the priests and religious officials who have abused children. He sharply criticized them and said they must answer to the authorities.

"You betrayed the trust that was placed in you by innocent young people and their parents, and you must answer for it before Almighty God and before properly constituted tribunals," he says. "You have forfeited the esteem of the people of Ireland and brought shame and dishonor upon your confreres."

He added, "Together with the immense harm done to victims, great damage has been done to the church and to the public perception of the priesthood and religious life."

The pope urged guilty priests to "take responsibility" for their sins and "seek to atone personally" for their actions.

"Openly acknowledge your guilt, submit yourselves to the demands of justice, but do not despair of God's mercy," he said.

Lombardi said guilty priests should follow the laws in their own country and cooperate with justice authorities, as well as follow the church's rules. Benedict proposed several concrete steps to address the situation, including asking the Irish faithful to pray for the church for one year, starting at Easter.

But he also announced an apostolic visitation of certain Irish dioceses, seminaries, and congregations. Such visitations are actually Vatican investigations; the church held one in the United States after the clerical sex scandal in 2002.

The letter is specific to Ireland and did not address similar scandals now coming to light in other European countries like Austria and Germany. Lombardi said the pope is aware of the situations in those countries, but did not think it was appropriate to address all of them in Saturday's letter.

US defends $6.4bn weapons sale to Taiwan

2010-01-30T11:53:00.000-08:00

The US has defended a proposed weapons sale to Taiwan following a furious response from China.

BBC

The US State Department said on Saturday that the sale contributed to "security and stability" between Taiwan and China, Reuters reported.

Beijing announced a series of moves against the US in retaliation for the proposed $6.4bn (£4bn) sale.

Ties between the two countries are already strained by rows over trade and internet censorship.

"Such sales contribute to maintaining security and stability across the Taiwan Strait," said US State Department spokeswoman Laura Tischler, quoted by Reuters.

The US is the leading arms supplier to Taiwan and has a treaty obligation to provide it with defensive arms.

'Severe harm'

Beijing said it would suspend military exchanges with the US, review co-operation on major issues and impose sanctions on companies selling arms.

However, the US - like the EU - has banned its companies selling arms to China since the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, so it was not clear what effect Chinese sanctions would have.

Chinese defence ministry spokesman Huang Xueping said the measures reflected the "severe harm" posed by the deal.

A foreign ministry spokesman said the arms deal would have "repercussions that neither side wishes to see".

Difficult ties

Taiwan and China have been ruled by separate governments since the end of a civil war in 1949.

Beijing has hundreds of missiles pointed at the island and has threatened to use force to bring it under its control if Taiwan moved towards formal independence.

Defence ties between Washington and Beijing have been on ice for several years because of differences over Taiwan, though the two countries' leaders pledged to improve them in 2009.

Taiwan, meanwhile, welcomed the US move.

"It will let Taiwan feel more confident and secure so we can have more interactions with China," the Central News Agency quoted President Ma Ying-jeou as saying.

The Pentagon earlier notified the US Congress of the proposed arms sale, which forms part of a package first pledged by the Bush administration.

Friday's notification to Congress by the Defense Security Co-operation Agency (DSCA) was required by law. It does not mean the sale has been concluded.

US lawmakers have 30 days to comment on the proposed sale, Associated Press reported. If there are no objections, it would proceed.

The arms package includes 114 Patriot missiles, 60 Black Hawk helicopters and communications equipment for Taiwan's F-16 fleet, the agency said in a statement.

It does not include F-16 fighter jets, which Taiwan's military has been seeking.

Last week US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton angered Beijing with a call to China to investigate cyber attacks on search giant Google, after the company said email accounts of human rights activists had been hacked.

Haitian doctor takes 100 patients into his home

2010-01-16T03:28:00.000-08:00

But a magnitude-7.0 earthquake has brought the 59-year-old pediatrician's involvement to a whole new level.

Surena has converted his property into a field hospital for more than 100 quake victims. His patients are treated in the shaded, leafy patio of his undamaged home while thousands of others in the city lie in the dirt under a merciless sun waiting for attention from a handful of doctors.

"I have to thank whoever brought me," said Steve Julien, who says the last thing he remembers before he blacked out was rescue workers calling his name as they dug through the rubble of his house.

When he woke up, he was lying on a mattress inside Surena's soothing oasis.

It wasn't long after Tuesday's earthquake leveled nearly all of the houses next to Surena's that neighbors started showing up at his doorstep.

"It was a blessing from God my house is safe," he said. "We at least have been able to do something for everyone."

Surena has been relying on food and supplies salvaged from ruined homes to treat patients' broken bones and, for the dying, provide at least a minimum level of comfort away from the devastation.

The patients show physical and emotional wounds from having their homes collapse on them. Julien, 48, is among the least severely injured, with only a few scrapes and a sore body. Others have compound fractures and festering wounds. Surena said at least 10 patients are in critical need of more substantial help.

The injured sing Christian hymns as they huddle close together beneath sheets strung up as tents, but the earthquake still haunts them. Aftershocks rattled the city as recently as Friday morning.

"Sometimes they just start crying. We still get some movement," said Surena, who is also the local district chairman for Haiti's disaster relief agency.

The conditions at his home are far from ideal. Plastic buckets serve as toilets, and for some patients Surena can do little more than change dressings on infected wounds. But they are better off then many in Port-au-Prince, the capital city of 3 million people.

Surena earned his medical degree in Haiti and spent a year at the University of Illinois training in neonatology. He has been tending his ward with the help of two other doctors, including a Lake Worth, Florida-based gynecologist, Frantz Python, who was working in the area when the earthquake struck.

Eighteen of their patients have died. No case hit Surena harder than a pregnant woman who died shortly after she started having contractions Tuesday night, likely from internal hemorrhaging. Despite a rudimentary Cesarean-section, they could not save the baby.

"She was really suffering," Surena said. "The most difficult thing emotionally is that you know how to do it, but you don't have the materials do it."

The patients say they knwo Surena is doing his best.

Florene Francois, 19, was trying to soothe her fussing 18-month-old son, Rick Joey, on blankets in a corner of the patio between Surena's grill and a built-in bar. She said she is fine despite the scrapes on her face, but she worries about a deep gash on the back of her son's head.

"They just don't have what they need for the stitches," she said.

A 39-year-old tailor, Roger Hubert, had bandages on wounds and a sling for a severely broken arm. His bones have not been reset because there is no X-ray machine available.

"Considering the materials here, they are taking good care of us," Hubert said.

The supplies of food, water and medicine were quickly running out. Surena drove himself to the airport Thursday after neighbors cleared away debris blocking the only road down the hill, but his hopes of finding help were dashed in the confusion of so many arriving aid flights.

"So many planes. You don't know where to go and who to talk to," he said.

Still, he is optimistic more help is coming. He said Rotary International has pledged to send supplies including shelter boxes for the patients, and he expects more doctors to come, too.

Meanwhile, he keeps everyone at his house because they have nowhere else to go. He sent three patients in urgent need of surgery to a hospital on the airport road Thursday, but he took them back in after they were refused admission.

"They would have left their bodies on the street," Surena said.

BBC:Haiti earthquake survivors await global aid effort

2010-01-14T03:20:00.000-08:00

Hundreds of thousands of Haitians are awaiting the start of a global rescue effort in the wake of the country's devastating earthquake.

BBC correspondents say the situation is increasingly desperate, with no coordinated rescue plan so far and aid only trickling in.

The search for survivors continues but rescuers have little lifting equipment and are often using their bare hands.

Tens of thousands are feared dead and up to three million affected.

Aid groups say there is a race against time to find survivors under the rubble of the collapsed buildings - the first priority of the rescue effort.

Heavy lifting gear and sniffer dogs are desperately needed to seek out trapped victims, with medicine, food and water also in short supply.

Elisabeth Byrs of the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said: "The priority is to find survivors. We are working against the clock."

The head of Medecins du Monde, Olivier Bernard, told AFP news agency that aid had to arrive by Thursday evening.

"To save lives, surgery must be available ideally within the first 48 hours."

A few US aid planes and a 50-strong Chinese rescue team with sniffer dogs have landed at the airport serving the capital, Port-au-Prince.

Other plane-loads of rescuers and relief supplies are said to be on the way from the EU, Canada, Russia and Latin American nations.

A British rescue team with heavy lifting gear and dogs has landed in the Dominican Republic and will be in Haiti later on Thursday.

International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander said: "This is a tragedy on a massive scale. Britain is playing its part in the huge international response."

US President Barack Obama said the "people of Haiti will have the full support of the United States" in an "aggressive" aid campaign.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has cancelled a trip to Asia to deal with the crisis. Her husband, Bill Clinton, the UN special envoy for Haiti, told the Washington Post the quake was "one of the great humanitarian emergencies in the history of the Americas".

The USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier will arrive on Thursday. The USS Bataan, carrying a Marine expeditionary unit, is also on its way. The Pentagon said it was "seriously considering" sending thousands of marines.

The World Bank is funding $100m of emergency aid.

The World Food Programme is working on supplying 15,000 tonnes of food and the Red Cross has begun a $10m appeal.

The help is desperately needed as there is no coordinated rescue at present.

Doctor's assistant Jimitre Coquillon told Associated Press: "This is much worse than a hurricane. There's no water. There's nothing. Thirsty people are going to die."

Haitian President Rene Preval could not give an official estimate of the dead, saying: "I don't know... up to now, I heard 50,000... 30,000."

He spoke of how he stepped over dead bodies and heard cries of those trapped in the parliament building.

Singing hymns

Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere and correspondents say it simply does not have the infrastructure to manage a rescue operation.

One Chilean UN peacekeeper told Reuters: "We just don't know what to do. You can see how terrible the damage is. We have not been able to get into all the areas."

The UN peacekeepers, who played a key role in maintaining public order in Haiti even before the quake, have been deployed to control any outbreaks of unrest as reports come in of looting.

The UN says 16 personnel are confirmed dead and between 100 and 150 staff are missing. They include UN mission head Hedi Annabi.

Medical aid agency Medecins sans Frontieres reported a "massive influx" of casualties at its makeshift clinics, many of them with severe injuries.

Patients with "severe traumas, head wounds, crushed limbs" have been streaming into MSF's temporary structures but the agency is only able to offer them basic medical care, spokesman Paul McPhun told reporters.

Thousands of Haitians spent a second night in the open on Wednesday, too scared to sleep inside damaged buildings. Many sang hymns to keep up their spirits.

The BBC's Matthew Price visited the grounds of one hospital and spoke of seeing about 100 bodies - but there were many people bedding down for the night to sleep among the dead.

The 7.0-magnitude quake, Haiti's worst in two centuries, struck at 1653 local time (2153 GMT) on Tuesday, just 15km (10 miles) south-west of Port-au-Prince and close to the surface.

Brazil truth commission arouses military opposition

2010-01-12T12:43:00.000-08:00

A package of reforms put forward by the Brazilian government to improve human rights is causing growing controversy.

A proposed truth commission to investigate torture during military rule is said to have so angered forces chiefs that they threatened to resign.

Parts of the Catholic Church have opposed moves thought sympathetic to abortion and gay civil unions.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is to consider how to deal with the row when he returns to work this week.

'Sense of one-sidedness'

The National Human Rights Plan first provoked a row when it was revealed that it proposed setting up a truth commission to investigate torture and killings carried out during the 21 years the military was in control, from 1964 to 1985.

Although the number of victims in Brazil was far smaller than under military rule in neighbouring Argentina and Chile, hundreds of people died and thousands were tortured or forced into exile.

In the period before democracy was restored an amnesty law was passed, in effect granting immunity to state officials involved in torture as well as those in the opposition who had resorted to violence.

Military chiefs believe the truth commission is an attempt to get round the amnesty law, while supporters argue it is simply designed to secure justice for the families of those who died and disappeared.

President Lula reportedly had to head off possible resignations by his defence minister and senior military figures, including the heads of the navy, air force and army, by promising to review the matter.

Brazil's former President, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, told the BBC the government had not presented the proposal well.

"The way the situation has been presented was in the sense that all the crimes that had been exercised by those in power in the past would be judged, not the crimes that also the other side eventually could have responsibility for," he said.

"So this gave a sense of one-sidedness, and this produced unrest in the armed forces."

"I don't think it was necessary to produce this unrest. I don't understand why, since a text had been approved by both sides before, why at the last minute a change was introduced to turn the text so one-sided," he added in the BBC interview.

"I think they are creating an unnecessary political issue - and with this an obstacle to what is important, which is to know the truth about the past."

The issue is a delicate one for President Lula, who was himself briefly imprisoned as a union leader under military rule, while prominent members of his Workers Party were involved in the resistance.

Some military figures are suggesting the commission could look both at the actions of the country's then military rulers and those who used violence to oppose them, but the minister behind the proposal says he would resign if that approach was adopted.

With sections of the Catholic Church, the media and his own agriculture minister antagonised by other aspects of the human rights plan, the president will have a challenge to find a solution that is acceptable to all sides.

BBC News:Alastair Campbell defends 'every word' of Iraq dossier

2010-01-12T12:38:00.000-08:00

Tony Blair's ex-spokesman Alastair Campbell has said he "defends every single word" of the 2002 dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

He told the UK's Iraq war inquiry that parts could have been "clearer" but it did not "misrepresent" Iraq's threat.

The UK should be "proud" of its role "in changing Iraq from what it was to what it is now becoming", he argued.

But he said Mr Blair told President Bush privately in 2002 the UK would back military action if necessary.

Critics of the war have called for private correspondence between the two leaders about their views on Iraq to be published.

Countdown to war

Mr Campbell is the most prominent figure to appear so far before the inquiry, which is looking at UK policy before and after the 2003 war.

The BBC's Security Correspondent Frank Gardner said he had given a defiant performance, showing no contrition over the controversial decision to go to war or the arguments used to justify the action.

Mr Campbell said the prime minister recognised the deep opposition to military action amongst much of the British public but believed there would be a "bigger day of reckoning" to come with Saddam if he was not confronted at the time.

As No 10 director of communications between 1997 and 2003, he played a key role in the drawing-up of the government's September 2002 dossier on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction, containing the controversial claim that they could be deployed within 45 minutes.

"Could things have been done differently, almost certainly," he said of the March 2003 invasion.

"Any decision, you can go back over it, but on the big picture, on the leadership that he [Tony Blair ] showed, on the leadership that the British government showed on this issue, I was privileged to be there and I'm very very proud of the part that I was able to play."

He added: "I think that Britain, far from beating ourselves up about this, should be really proud of the role that we played in changing Iraq from what it was to what it is now becoming."

Mr Campbell said he was "very close" to the prime minister but stressed that Mr Blair fully consulted other key ministers on Iraq policy - including the then Chancellor Gordon Brown.

Mr Campbell, who has given evidence to three previous inquiries on Iraq, said claims that Mr Blair endorsed regime change after a meeting with President Bush at his Crawford ranch in April 2002 were not true.

British policy was still focused on disarming Iraq and getting it to abide by UN resolutions, he argued, as Mr Blair "genuinely believed" Iraq's pursuit of weapons of mass destruction must be dealt with.

Mr Blair was clear that military action should be regarded as a last resort if the diplomatic process failed and still hoped that the issue could be "peacefully resolved" right up to the eve of war.

"You seem to be wanting me to say that Tony Blair signed up to saying, regardless of the facts and WMD, we are going to get rid of this guy," he said. "It was not like this."

But he revealed that Mr Blair had written to President Bush during 2002 about the disarmament strategy, saying: "If that cannot be done diplomatically and it is to be done militarily, Britain will be there. That would be the tenor of the communication to the president."

The Lib Dems, who opposed the invasion, have called for the letters to be published, saying Mr Campbell's evidence cast further doubt on the legality of the war.

Former Conservative Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind, who opposed the invasion, said the letters would show the extent to which Tony Blair and George Bush were "hand in glove" over the issue and should be available to the public.

Asked about weapons of mass destruction, Mr Campbell said Tony Blair believed Iraq posed a "unique threat" because Saddam Hussein had used them before and there was no means of dialogue with him.

Mr Campbell said he had provided "presentational" support on the key September 2002 dossier but, at no stage, did No 10 try to "beef up or over-ride" the judgements of the intelligence agencies.

Describing it as a "cautious" assessment, he insisted it had not been designed to present the "case for war" but to highlight why Mr Blair was increasingly "concerned" about the threat posed by Iraq.

"I don't believe the dossier in any sense misrepresented the position."

The dossier included a foreword by Mr Blair in which he wrote that he believed the intelligence had established "beyond doubt" that Saddam Hussein had continued to produce chemical and biological weapons.

Sir John Scarlett, chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, told the inquiry last month that the foreword was "overtly political" and "quite separate" from the rest of the dossier.

45-minute claim

Mr Campbell, who drafted the first version of the foreword - ultimately approved by Mr Blair - said no-one in intelligence challenged this statement which, he added, never suggested Saddam Hussein "was able to do something terrible to the British mainland".

On the 45-minute claim, which was retracted after the war, he said the dossier "obviously" could have been clearer about it referring to battlefield munitions.

But he insisted Mr Blair put forward a balanced argument in the House of Commons on the issue and the 45-minute claim was only given "iconic" status by the press.

Questions about Mr Campbell's role in the dossier were at the centre of a post-war row with the BBC culminating in the death of the government weapons expert Dr David Kelly and the subsequent Hutton inquiry.

Mr Campbell said he was "never in doubt" that Iraq would be found to have weapons of mass destruction and the realisation that they did not was "very difficult".

On the invasion's aftermath, he said it became clear within a week that things were not going well and there was a lack of "grip".

He argued that Secretary of State for International Development Clare Short, who resigned shortly after the invasion in protest about post-war strategy, was "difficult to handle" and suggested there was a fear she might leak things she did not agree with.

Former Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon and former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw will give evidence to the inquiry next week with Mr Blair expected to appear at a later date.

His successor as prime minister, Gordon Brown, will not give evidence until after the general election, expected to take place in May.

The SNP have called for Mr Brown to give evidence before the election as it was he, as chancellor, who "bankrolled" the military campaign.

The Iraq Inquiry's final report is due to be published by early next year.

Death toll rises to 75 from Brazilian floods

2010-01-04T15:13:00.000-08:00

The death toll rose to 75 Sunday on Brazil's southeast coast after three days of torrential rains unleashed a series of deadly mudslides, an emergency official said.

CNN / Rede Record Internacional

Dozens of people were killed when a large part of a mountain collapsed as mud Friday, sliding into the upscale Sankay Inn resort in Angra dos Reis, two hours west of Rio de Janeiro.

More than 3 inches of rain has accumulated in Rio's western regions since the end of last week, according to Geo-Rio, the state official weather forecast center. Brazilian forecasters are predicting more rain to come in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.

Angra dos Reis is a popular destination for wealthy vacationers and celebrities, many of whom were spending New Year's in the resort town. According to local reports, the 24-year-old son of French President Nicolas Sarkozy was among the vacationers in the area this week. Pierre Sarkozy, 24, was staying at the home of Ivo Pitanguy, a top Brazilian plastic surgeon and a family friend, the reports said.

The town is also home to one of Brazil's major nuclear plants -- the Central Nuclear Almirante Álvaro Alberto complex, managed by Electronuclear. Officials at the power plant denied reports they would shut down operations due to safety concerns raised by local officials.

The inundations began Wednesday. Erosion caused by the deluge created a massive crack in the Rio-Santos Highway, forcing authorities to shut down the road Saturday night.

Rio de Janeiro's State Governor Sergio Cabral on Friday declared three days of mourning and ordered the state's civil defense rescue teams on duty round the clock.

In the poorer suburbs of Rio de Janeiro's Zona Norte, several makeshift homes built on steep slopes fell victim to mudslides, leaving at least 350 people homeless, the officials said.

In nearby Jacarepagua, rescuers carried three bodies of a family of four from the wreckage of their hilltop home after it was hit by a mudslide.

CNN affiliate Record TV broadcast the rescuers' attempt to find the family's toddler, Mariana. After sifting through rubble, the rescuers heard her cries emanating from beneath the rubble, dug her out and carried her to safety amid cheers. But hours later, the television station reported that the girl had died.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told reporters he will send marine and naval forces to aid in rescues in remote coastal areas where more bodies were believed to be trapped.

Revealed: Height of World's Tallest Building

2010-01-04T15:11:00.000-08:00

The world's tallest building has opened in Dubai as the official height was revealed - 828 metres (2717ft).

Adam Arnold, Sky News Online

The world's tallest building has opened in Dubai as the official height was revealed - 828 metres (2717ft).

In a surprise move, the Burj Dubai was renamed Burj Khalifa by Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum.

The new name is after Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan - the president of the United Arab Emirates and the ruler of the neighbouring emirate of Abu Dhabi.

The Burj Khalifa towers over its nearest rival, the Taipei 101 in Taiwan, which rises 508m (1,667ft).

That makes it about twice the height of the Empire State Building.

At the opening ceremony, thousands of residents and tourists crowded around the base of the half-mile tall tower, which is at least 160 storeys high.

Dubai's ruler unveiled a plaque, kicking off inaugural festivities.

They included traditional Gulf Arab dance performances and skydivers with parachutes emblazoned with the colours of the UAE flag.

The top of the building can be seen from 60 miles away and the exterior is covered in about 26,000 glass panels.

The building boasts the most storeys and highest occupied floor of any building in the world, and ranks as the world's tallest structure, beating a television mast in North Dakota.

"We weren't sure how high we could go," said Bill Baker, the building's structural engineer, who is in Dubai for the inauguration. "It was kind of an exploration ... a learning experience."

Revealed: Height of World's Tallest Building

7:41pm UK, Monday January 04, 2010

Adam Arnold, Sky News Online
The world's tallest building has opened in Dubai as the official height was revealed - 828 metres (2717ft).

In a surprise move, the Burj Dubai was renamed Burj Khalifa by Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum.

The new name is after Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan - the president of the United Arab Emirates and the ruler of the neighbouring emirate of Abu Dhabi.

The Burj Khalifa towers over its nearest rival, the Taipei 101 in Taiwan, which rises 508m (1,667ft).

That makes it about twice the height of the Empire State Building.

At the opening ceremony, thousands of residents and tourists crowded around the base of the half-mile tall tower, which is at least 160 storeys high.

Dubai's ruler unveiled a plaque, kicking off inaugural festivities.

They included traditional Gulf Arab dance performances and skydivers with parachutes emblazoned with the colours of the UAE flag.

HOW THE BURJ COMPARES TO WORLD RIVALS

The top of the building can be seen from 60 miles away and the exterior is covered in about 26,000 glass panels.

The building boasts the most storeys and highest occupied floor of any building in the world, and ranks as the world's tallest structure, beating a television mast in North Dakota.

"We weren't sure how high we could go," said Bill Baker, the building's structural engineer, who is in Dubai for the inauguration. "It was kind of an exploration ... a learning experience."

The Burj's opening comes at a tough time for Dubai's economy with property prices in newer parts of the sheikhdom down by nearly half over the past year.

The city-state turned to its richer neighbour Abu Dhabi for a series of bailouts in 2009 to help cover debts amassed by a network of state-linked companies.

Heavy Snow Set To Bring More Travel Chaos

2010-01-04T15:08:00.000-08:00

Commuters in London and the south-east are being warned of travel chaos as snow and sleet is expected to spread southwards on Tuesday.

Sky News

Heavy snow already affecting parts of Scotland and Ireland is expected to hit many parts of England by morning and reach the Home Counties and the capital by lunchtime.

Sky weather presenter Lucy Verasamy said "significant snow" would cause disruption during the morning rush hour.

"It will be very wintry and snowy come Tuesday morning, with plunging temperatures and frost and ice on the roads once more, and a line of sleet and snow anywhere from the East Midlands and Lincolnshire, across the West Midlands and into Wales," she said.

"It will shuffle into the South East, Greater London and Home Counties by the latter stages of the morning.

"Further sleet and snow is expected in the South and East. In the West there will be brighter skies with some sunshine but it will be terribly cold for all of us.

"And it is to stay bitter as the week goes on, with very low temperatures, sunshine and snow showers."

The Met Office has issued severe weather warnings for the South East and warned of travel problems due to snow and sleet.

The cold weather has already resulted in delays for travellers returning to work after the festive break.

In London, there were overland rail delays at Liverpool Street Station and in north and east London due to a broken down train.

On London Underground there were part-suspensions on two lines due to signal failures - the District and the Hammersmith & City.

In Scotland, severe weather conditions led to delays to rail services between Glasgow and Edinburgh.

After a freezing night during which temperatures dipped to -12C (10F) in places, a series of accidents led to jams on major road routes.

A vehicle fire closed a section of the M6 in Warwickshire and part of the nearby M42 was also shut, as was the M6 toll slip road to the southbound M6 in the West Midlands.

An accident closed a section of the A38 in Staffordshire, while broken down cars led to congestion on the A2 in Kent, the M1 in Leicestershire and the M5 in the West Midlands.

Thousands of school children enjoyed an extra day's holiday as dozens of schools were shut due to the wintry weather.

There were 19 closures in Northumberland, 13 in Lancashire and 12 in Durham.

Seven schools were also shut in North Yorkshire due to weather and heating problems and one in Staffordshire due to conditions on local roads.

But the freezing conditions have delivered an unexpected bonus for some people.

Around 60 guests seeing in the New Year at the Tan Hill Inn in the Yorkshire Dales - England's highest pub which stands at 1,700ft above sea level - were forced to spend three days snowed in.

Heavy, relentless snowstorms on New Year's Eve left the guests stranded in the pub as 7ft drifts left them unable to get to their cars as they tried to leave on New Year's Day.

But resourceful landlady Tracy Daly, her husband Mike Peace, and two staff sprang into action to keep the stranded guests watered and fed.

The guests passed the time by playing cards and servicing the bar until the roads were finally cleared today.

Ms Daly said: "There was a lovely, community atmosphere despite the fact nobody could get home. I suppose there are worse places to be snowed in than a pub."

New Year's revelers have a blast

2009-12-31T11:39:00.000-08:00

CNN-The New Year got under way with blasting horns and fireworks shot from the Sky Tower as revelers partied Friday morning in Auckland, New Zealand.

Similar celebrations were moving like a wave from east to west as midnight struck across the globe, starting at the International Date Line in the mid-Pacific Ocean.

Throngs danced to pounding rock 'n' roll music and cheered a spectacular 12-minute fireworks display over the picturesque Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia. A giant bell was rung before a huge crowd in Seoul, South Korea.

In New York, security promised to be tight for Thursday night's traditional celebration in Times Square. After the Christmas Day attempt to blow up a Northwest Airlines plane over Detroit, Michigan, security forces are on high alert.

"We want people to have a happy experience. But we are also concerned about a terrorist event. We have to do that after 9/11," New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said.

As happens every year, police are searching garages and subway tunnels for bombs, trash cans are being removed, and mailboxes and manhole covers are being sealed. Detectives were asking hotel and restaurant personnel if they had noticed any suspicious people or activity, and radiation detectors and bomb-sniffing dogs were being deployed.

Snow was falling on the square Thursday morning.

See images from Times Square

On Wednesday, a search of a suspicious van led to a partial evacuation of Times Square and the Nasdaq building, but the van turned out to pose no threat.

In the years before terrorism was a concern inside the United States, the Times Square celebration was a rowdy affair, fueled by copious amounts of alcohol, often transported via backpack. Today, alcohol and backpacks are banned from the area on New Year's Eve, and revelers are herded into 2,500-person pens, but the mood is festive nonetheless.

New Yorker Julio Ortiz-Teissonniere, a CNN iReporter, said he's too jaded to take part in the spectacle, but that wasn't always the case.

"When the ball drops, it's like an earthquake," he said. "The amount of people screaming and stomping -- it's amazing."

It's a tense time for police.

"When the ball drops, you get a feeling of relief that you made it through another year," Kelly said.

Google includes real-time data in search results

2009-12-07T13:29:00.000-08:00

Google has introduced so-called "real-time web" results into its search engine.

It means that Google will display information from news organisations, blogs and platforms, such as Twitter, as soon as it is published.

Google said it was "the first time" that a search engine had integrated the real-time web into its results page.

The feature will also be available on phones, such as the iPhone and handsets running the Android operating system.

"Our users will get the results as they are produced," said Google fellow Amit Singhal at an event in Mountain View in California.

"There is so much information being generated out there that getting to you relevant information is the key to a product like this."

Google announced that it would now index status updates from Facebook and all public information from MySpace. Earlier this year, it also struck a deal with Twitter to index messages or "tweets".

The real-time data will be displayed in a constantly updating stream within the normal results page.

The firm also showed off a visual search tool called Google Goggles that allows a user to take a picture with a mobile phone to perform a search.

The tool compares the image against a stored database and then returns relevant information.

"It represents our earliest efforts in computer vision," said Vic Gundotra, vice president of engineering at the same event.

He said Goggles could also be used to read barcodes to retrieve information.

Chavez welcomes Ahmadinejad in Venezuela

2009-11-28T09:28:00.000-08:00

CNN) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad received a warm reception Wednesday from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, wrapping up a three-nation visit to Latin America to shore up support against the United States.

Ahmadinejad arrived Tuesday night on a flight from Bolivia, where he spent a few hours meeting with President Evo Morales. The Iranian leader met Monday with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

On Wednesday afternoon, Chavez gave Ahmadinejad a warm welcome with full military honors. Wearing a dark suit with a blue shirt and red tie, Chavez stood at attention in front of Palacio de Miraflores as a military band played the national anthems for both countries.

The two men then reviewed the presidential honor guard, clad in bright red uniforms with gold piping and tall black hats with a red plume on top.

"We are here to welcome you, brother Ahmadinejad. Leader. Brother. Comrade," Chavez said.

Ahmadinejad, in return, called Chavez "my valiant brother."

"A brother," he said, "who is resisting like a mountain the intentions of imperialism and colonialism."

Afterward, the two men shook hands and hugged.

Ahmadinejad was met with demonstrations in Brazil on Monday and again Wednesday in Venezuela.

He has already visited Gambia, on the African continent, on this trip and will stop in Senegal on his way back to Iran.

The Iranian president hopes to strengthen economic ties with the five countries. But more significantly, he aims to bolster political ties with sympathetic governments as he tries to counter U.S. and European efforts to curtail Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Ahmadinejad also wants to improve Iran's image after the brutal repression of demonstrators who objected to the outcome of the presidential election in June. Ahmadinejad was re-elected, but many Iranians believe the election was rigged.

In Venezuela, the two leaders were expected to discuss agreements in areas such as energy, investment, trade and science. Experts from the two countries were reported to be reviewing 70 new accords.

Chavez is among Ahmadinejad's top supporters in Latin America, both leaders finding common ground in their opposition to U.S. foreign policy. Both men referred to "imperialism" several times in their statements Wednesday.

With its burgeoning nuclear program, Iran is interested in largely untapped uranium deposits in Venezuela, Brazil and Bolivia, the three nations Ahmadinejad visited this week.

Iran's alliance with Venezuela presents a challenge for U.S. national interests.

Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau, in a September column in the Wall Street Journal, said that "Mr. Ahmadinejad and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez have created a cozy financial, political and military partnership rooted in a shared anti-American animus."

During a visit to Iran that month, Chavez highlighted a series of joint ventures, including the construction of ethanol plants in Venezuela and gas exploration in Iran by Venezuela's state-run oil company. He also said he aimed to build a "nuclear village" with Iranian help.

In October, Chavez said Iran was helping to find uranium in Venezuela.

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace estimated in December that Venezuela could have 50,000 tons of unmined uranium. Brazil also has a nuclear program and is said to sit on one of the world's largest uranium reserves.

While some analysts believe Chavez could want to eventually export uranium to Iran, it might not be technically feasible.

"It's like everything Chavez does," said Robert Pastor, who was a national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter in the late 1970s. "It's more symbolic than real."

Brazil also is not likely to export uranium to Iran, said Bernard Aronson, assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs from 1989 to 1993.

"That would be a bridge too far," he said. "It would be too high a cost."

Russia train crash 'caused by bomb'

2009-11-28T09:26:00.000-08:00

A bomb blast caused the Russian train crash in which at least 26 people were killed, intelligence officials say.

The Nevsky Express derailed with nearly 700 on board as it ran through remote countryside between the capital Moscow and the second city, St Petersburg.

Investigators found "elements of an explosive device" at the scene of Friday's attack, a statement said.

Officials said a second, less powerful device went off on Saturday near the site of the first, but no-one was hurt.

There was no immediate confirmed claim of responsibility for the blast on Friday evening, which hit a train popular with government officials and business executives at peak travel time.

"Criminology experts say, on the basis of preliminary information, that an improvised explosive device, equivalent to 7kg (15 lb) of TNT, had gone off," said Alexander Bortnikov, head of Russia's domestic intelligence service.

At least three of the 14 carriages left the tracks as the train reportedly approached speeds up 200 km/h (130mph).

Russia's prosecutor-general has opened a criminal case on terrorism charges, Russian news agencies say.

If terrorism is confirmed as the cause, observers say the derailment would represent the deadliest attack outside the volatile North Caucasus region for five years.

'Attack on elite'

Pavel Felgenhauer, defence correspondent for Russia's Novaya Gazeta newspaper, told the BBC News website the key suspects for investigators would be "either militants from Russia's North Caucasus region or nationalist extremists, pro-Nazi groups".

"I think we can expect the Russian authorities to come up with some names soon, because this attack is politically very embarrassing.

"This is an expensive, high speed train, used by an elite which has been pushing to transfer parts of government functions to St Petersburg. We already have reports of several high-ranking government and local officials among the dead.

"Whoever is responsible, this attack clearly seems aimed not so much at the public, but directly at the ruling class."

'Loud bang'

Hundreds of rescuers and officials worked through the night at the scene near the town of Bologoye, about 400km (250 miles) north-west of Moscow.

Some reports say as many as 39 people have died.

The train was reported to be carrying around 650 passengers and two dozen or so staff.

About 90 people are in hospital, some taken there by helicopter.

Many of the injured are said to be in a serious condition.

According to some reports, the scene of the crash, in wooded countryside, was so remote it took emergency services two hours to get there.

Passengers spoke of a loud bang just before the derailment.

Russian television channels broadcast a recording of a mobile phone call from the train driver to the emergencies ministry.

"There was an explosion under the locomotive," he said. "I do not know what we hit. We are derailed. The locomotive and carriages, I do not know yet what else, everything is in smoke. "

Federal prosecutors' spokesman Vladimir Markin told Itar-Tass news agency that a crater found at the site was 1.5m (5ft) wide and 0.7m deep.

"Indeed this was a terrorist attack," he said.

In 2007, a bomb on the same line derailed a train, injuring nearly 30 passengers.

Two men suspected of having links to Chechen rebels were accused of planting a bomb next to the track.

Death toll past 100 in Baghdad bombings

2009-10-25T11:20:00.000-07:00

Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- At least 132 people were killed and 520 wounded in twin suicide car bombings in central Baghdad Sunday, officials said -- the deadliest attack on civilians in Iraq this year.

Two car bombs detonated in quick succession near Iraqi government buildings about 10:30 a.m. Sunday, as the Iraqi work week began, an Interior Ministry official said.

Among the wounded were three American security contractors, the U.S. Embassy told CNN. The embassy would not give any more details.

One of the bombs exploded outside Baghdad's governorate building. The second was outside the Justice Ministry, about 500 meters (1,600 feet) away. The Ministry of Municipalities and Public Works, which is about 50 meters from the Justice Ministry, also sustained severe damage.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki surveyed the carnage shortly after the explosions.

"The cowardly attack that took place today should not affect the determination of the Iraqi people from continuing their battle against the deposed regime and the gangs of criminal Baath party and the terrorist al Qaeda organization, who have committed the most heinous crimes against the civilians,'" al-Maliki said in a statement.

Plumes of smoke billowed from the sites of the attacks as victims fled, some with blood streaming down their faces. The streets were strewn with debris, including charred cars and chunks of concrete from damaged buildings. Some government buildings and others in the area were heavily damaged.

The bombings came a day after the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, visited the country for the first time, and on the same day Iraqi officials were due to try to break a logjam holding up a new election law. Iraqis are supposed to go to the polls January 16, but parliament still has not passed the legislation, putting the balloting in limbo. The original deadline for parliament to pass the law was October 15, because Iraq's electoral commission says it needs 90 days to organize the process.

Iraq's parliament failed Wednesday to reach agreement on a new electoral law, so the issue was supposed go to the Political Council for National Security on Sunday. It is not clear if the bombings will derail the political council's discussions.

Al-Maliki vowed to punish "the enemies of the Iraqi people who want to spread chaos in the country and derail the political process and prevent the parliamentary elections from taking place as planned" in January.

He said holding the elections as scheduled would send the strongest response and message to the "enemies of the political process who are supported from the outside."

Susan Rice, the ambassador, completed a two-day visit to Iraq on Saturday that included a condolence stop at the Foreign Ministry, where a huge bombing killed more than 100 in August.

Security was tightened around Baghdad in the wake of the August 19 attack, which Iraqis dubbed "Bloody Wednesday." Blast walls were erected around the city and more checkpoints were set up.

Iraqi journalists grilled officials on TV on Sunday, demanding to know how the new attacks could have taken place given the new security measures.

An Iraqi official said the government was working to bolster security, but regional cooperation was needed to help fight suicide bombers.

"We are calling on international and U.N. envoys to come and find out why Iraq is being targeted this way," said Ali al-Dabbagh, the Iraqi government spokesman.

The spokesman said Iraq's setbacks are mainly caused by a fledgling intelligence that has "not been completed."

The European Union condemned "this terrorist attack" and sent its condolences to the families of the victims, the Swedish presidency said in a statement.

The Foreign Ministry, near the site of Sunday's blasts, was one of six places attacked on August 19. That day's attacks killed at least 100 people and wounded hundreds more. The area is close to the heavily guarded Green Zone that also houses the U.S. Embassy.

The August attacks shook confidence in the abilities of Iraqi security forces who took over securing urban areas from U.S. troops over the summer.

The Iraqi government has blamed Syria for harboring former Baath party members, who it said planned the August attacks, and asked for their handover.

Relations between the two neighbors were strained after the bombings. Each withdrew its ambassador from the other's country.

Security in the capital was tightened after the August bombings, and a decision to normalize the situation in Baghdad by taking down blast walls was reversed and checkpoints increased.

Iraqi and U.S. officials have warned of a possible increase in violence ahead of the country's national elections.

DNA leads to suspect after 19 years, FBI says

2009-10-13T15:51:00.000-07:00

(CNN) -- A suspect has been arrested in the 1990 abduction and attempted murder of an 8-year-old Texas girl, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Houston, Texas, office said.

The victim, Jennifer Schuett, is now 27. She recently shared her story with CNN in hopes of someday bringing her attacker to justice.

Schuett fought tears as she spoke at a news conference in Dickinson, Texas.

"This event in my life was a tragic one," she said. "But today, 19 years later, I stand here and want you all to know that I am OK. I am not a victim, but instead, victorious." Video Watch Schuett's teary remarks »

She continued, "I hope that my case will remain as a reminder to all victims of violent crime to never give up hope ... With determination and by using your voice to speak out, you are capable of anything."

Dennis Earl Bradford, a 40-year-old welder, was arrested at 6:50 a.m. Tuesday in Little Rock, Arkansas, authorities said. He was on his way to work, and his wife was in the car with him.

DNA and other forensic testing led to him, authorities said. His DNA profile was in the FBI database due to a 1996 arrest in Arkansas. Video Watch police announce the arrest »

Schuett was abducted from her bedroom, raped and left for dead August 10,1990. She spoke with CNN two weeks ago.

CNN normally does not identify victims of sexual assaults. But Schuett decided to go public with her story -- and her name -- to increase the chances of finding and prosecuting her attacker.

"It's not about me anymore," she told CNN in September. "It's about all the little girls that go to sleep at night. I know there are so many girls out there who have been raped and hurt. You have to fight back."

"I remember everything; I've always wanted to remember everything so I can find the person that did this," Schuett said. "If I had blocked this out of my memory, the investigation wouldn't have come this far. I'm a fighter."

Schuett says she was alone in her bed when a man crept in through a window. She remembers waking up in a stranger's arms as he carried her across a dark parking lot.

She said he told her he was an undercover cop and knew her family.

He drove her through the streets of Dickinson, Texas, pulling into a mechanic's shop next to her elementary school.

"Watch the moon. The moon will change colors, and that is when your mom will come to get you," she recalled him saying. "Oh, it looks like she is not coming."

Schuett said he drove her to an overgrown field next to the school and sexually assaulted her.

She passed out. When she regained consciousness, she was lying naked on top of an ant hill with her throat slashed from ear to ear, and her voice box torn.

She was found at 6 p.m. on a hot August day after lying in the field for nearly 12 hours. She was rushed to a hospital in critical condition.

"Three days after the attack, I started giving a description. The doctors told me I would never be able to talk again, but I proved them all wrong," Schuett said. She believes she got her voice back so she could tell her story.

Houston FBI Special Agent Richard Rennison is one of the lead investigators in the case, along with Dickinson police Detective Tim Cromie. Read the affidavit

Both men were discussing the case when Rennison received a memo from the FBI's Child Abduction Rapid Deployment (CARD) team seeking child abduction cases that had gone cold and could be retested for DNA evidence. Schuett's was one of the cases selected.

Rennison, who has 10 years of experience in child abduction cases, said he has never seen a case like Schuett's.

"This is the only one that I can think of that the victim has suffered some traumatic injuries and survived," he said, "The main reason the CARD team picked this case was because she was alive. In cases of child abduction, it is rare that the child is recovered alive. Frequently, you recover a body. And most times, you never find them."

The investigators found evidence collected 19 years ago, which was retested. It included the underwear and pajamas Schuett was wearing, as well as a man's underwear and T-shirt, which were found in the field where Schuett was left for dead.

The clothes were tested in 1990, but the sample wasn't large enough for conclusive results. But now, modern techniques allow DNA to be isolated from a single human cell.

They were still awaiting the results when CNN featured Schuett's story in late September.

Serb gay pride parade off on lack of security assurances

2009-09-19T18:54:00.001-07:00

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Gay and human rights activists in Serbia have called off their September 20 Pride Parade after being urged to move venues for safety reasons, organizers said on Saturday.

The announcement followed a meeting with Prime Minister Mirko Cvektovic, who said the police had recommended the move after threats from ultranationalists and others.

A previous event ended with running battles on the streets of Belgrade.

"We were told in the meeting with Prime Minister Cvetkovic that the gathering is impossible for security reasons and that we should choose another location," said Dragana Vuckovic, member of the Pride Parade organizing team.

"Taking the Pride Parade to another location is simply not acceptable," Vuckovic said. "Pride parades are traditionally organized in the main streets of big cities and the message is that groups kept on the fringes of a society need to be integrated."

Serbian President Boris Tadic had promised on Friday to protect marchers.

A government source, who did not wish to be identified, said the decision to move the march to a venue usually used for music gigs was prompted by concerns police might not be able to contain violence toward marchers.

The Yugoslav Committee for Human Rights, an organization of lawyers, accused the authorities of having capitulated.

"The prosecutor's office has openly acknowledged that they are incapable of finding the legal grounds to prosecute the hooligans who openly call on murder, violence and human rights violation," YUCOM said in a statement.

The only public event staged by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) activists in Serbia was in 2001 and ended in clashes, with dozens of gay activists and policemen injured by nationalists, neo-Nazis and soccer hooligans.

In February 2008, a government-backed rally to protest the independence of Kosovo, turned into scenes of vandalism, with attackers setting the U.S. Embassy on fire, stoning other diplomatic missions and foreign businesses, storming shops in central Belgrade and clashing with police.

(Reporting by Gordana Filipovic; Editing by Matthew Jones)

Disney's studio chief Dick Cook resigns

2009-09-19T18:49:00.000-07:00

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Walt Disney Studios Chairman Dick Cook stepped down on Friday from his post to pursue "new adventures" after privately telling staff he felt he no longer fits in at the No. 1 U.S. entertainment company.

Cook, who fondly described his 38-year rise from Disneyland ride operator to head the Hollywood studio in 2002, said in a statement that he had been contemplating his departure "for some time now" and felt it was the right time to move on.

Cook, 59, told his staff on Friday that he felt like "a square peg in a round hole," according to a source familiar with Cook's statement. The source did not elaborate.

His departure was not the result of a conflict with Chief Executive Bob Iger or the company's corporate side, the source said. A Disney Studios spokeswoman said the division was not ready to announce a successor.

The studios division struggled in recent quarters with a slide in DVD sales due to the recession and changing technology and a spate of unprofitable films.

After taking over as CEO in 2005, Iger cut the studios' staff by 20 percent and refocused the division on a smaller slate of high-concept family-oriented franchises.

The strategy worked for a couple of years -- producing megahits like "Pirates of the Caribbean," "National Treasure" and "The Chronicles of Narnia" -- but the studio has been slow to cut costs and leverage hits from other divisions.

COOK PRAISED FORTHCOMING FILMS

The respected industry figure left days after he said at a glittering Disney exposition in Anaheim, California that the studios' upcoming slate of films was "the best in our history."

Cook presided over the integration of Pixar Animation Studio, the "Pirates" franchise that went on to gross more than $2 billion at worldwide box offices, and a roster of "big event" films and technological innovations.

Under his watch, Disney became the first studio to push digital 3D technology with "Chicken Little" and got top directors to make 3D to revitalize an industry that was losing ground to video games, piracy and digital home entertainment systems.

In a statement, Iger praised Cook's "outstanding creative instincts and incomparable showmanship."

His departure coincides with Disney's efforts to absorb Marvel Entertainment, whose creative and production staff likely will function independently from Disney as has Pixar's team.

Larry Gerbrandt, a principal at consultancy Media Valuation Partners, said Cook's resignation could be tied to Disney's $4 billion acquisition last month of the comic book publisher and movie studio, and Disney's reliance on its Pixar division.

"If Disney is not going to develop a significant slate of completely original films, but relies primarily on Pixar and Marvel, then Dick's role becomes far less important," he said.

(Reporting by Gina Keating and Alex Dobuzinskis, Editing by Ron Popeski)

South America: Brazil beats Argentina to reach World Cup

2009-09-06T08:05:00.000-07:00

ROSARIO, Argentina (AP) -- Brazil qualified for its 19th consecutive World Cup, outplaying Argentina 3-1 Saturday night in a match that left its South American rival in a precarious position.

Luisao put the five-time World Cup champions ahead in the 24th minute, and Luis Fabiano scored in the 30th and 67th. Jesus Datolo got Argentina's goal in the 65th.

Brazil (8-1-6) leads South American qualifying with 30 points, while Argentina (6-5-4) is fourth with 22 points with three matches remaining. The top four teams advance to next year's tournament, while the No. 5 nation goes to a playoff against the No. 4 nation in North and Central America and the Caribbean.

Brazil became the seventh nation to join host South Africa in next year's 32-nation field, following Australia, Japan, the Netherlands, North Korea and South Korea and the Netherlands

The defeat could cost Argentina coach Diego Maradona his job. The Albiceleste play at Paraguay on Wednesday, then close South American qualifying at home against Peru on Oct. 10 and at Uruguay three or four days later.

Argentina benefited from Colombia's 2-0 victory over Ecuador on Saturday. Had Ecuador won, it would have moved ahead of Argentina.

Michael Jackson's death was a homicide, coroner rules

2009-08-28T16:18:00.000-07:00

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The Los Angeles County coroner has ruled that Michael Jackson's death was a homicide involving a combination of drugs.

"The drugs propofol and lorazepam were found to be the primary drugs responsible for Mr. Jackson's death," said a news release issued Friday by the coroner. "Other drugs detected were: midazolam, diazepam, lidocaine and ephedrine."

The release said Jackson died from "acute propofol intoxication," but said "other conditions contributing to death: benzodiazepine effect."

Lorazepam, midazolam and diazepam are benzodiazepines.

Federal and state agencies also have launched independent investigations into "matters uncovered" by Los Angeles police while looking into Jackson's death, authorities said.

been conducting a criminal investigation of Jackson's death, requested at an interagency meeting last week that federal and state agencies pursue their own investigations, according to statements issued Friday by California's attorney general and the Drug Enforcement Administration. The full and final autopsy report and the complete toxicology report "will remain on security hold at the request of the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County district attorney," the release said.

Dr. Conrad Murray, Jackson's personal physician, told investigators that he had given Jackson three anti-anxiety drugs -- lorazepam, midazolam and diazepam -- in an effort to help him sleep in the hours before he stopped breathing, according to a police affidavit made public earlier this week.

Murray also told detectives he administered a dosage of the anesthetic propofol, diluted with lidocaine, to Jackson a short time before he stopped breathing, the affidavit said.

The 32-page sworn statement was written by Los Angeles Police detective Orlando Martinez to outline probable cause for warrants to search Murray's offices, home and storage rooms in Texas and Nevada.

Murray told detectives he had been treating Jackson for insomnia for six weeks, giving him 50 mg of propofol, the generic name for Diprivan, diluted with the anesthetic lidocaine every night via an intravenous drip, the affidavit said.

Worried that Jackson might become addicted to the drug, Murray said he tried to wean Jackson from it, putting together combinations of other drugs that succeeded in helping him sleep during the two nights before his death.

But on the morning of June 25 other drugs failed to do the job. Murray recounted the events to detectives in an hour-by-hour account that was detailed by Martinez:

• About 1:30 a.m., Murray gave Jackson 10 mg of Valium (diazepam).

• About 2 a.m., he injected Jackson with 2 mg of the anti-anxiety drug Ativan (lorazepam).

• About 3 a.m., Murray then administered 2 mg of the sedative Versed (midazolam).

• About 5 a.m., he administered another 2 mg of Ativan.

• About 7:30 a.m., Murray gave Jackson yet another 2 mg of Versed while monitoring him with a device that measures the oxygen saturation of his blood.

• About 10:40 a.m., "after repeated demands/requests from Jackson," Murray administered 25 mg of propofol, the document said.

"Jackson finally went to sleep and Murray stated that he remained monitoring him. After approximately 10 minutes, Murray stated he left Jackson's side to go to the restroom and relieve himself. Murray stated he was out of the room for about two minutes maximum. Upon his return, Murray noticed that Jackson was no longer breathing."

Efforts at CPR proved fruitless. Jackson was pronounced dead at UCLA Medical Center at 2:26 p.m.

Murray's lawyer, Ed Chernoff, declined to comment on the coroner's announcement.

Agents from the California attorney general's office also will investigate physicians whose names have come up in the course of the Jackson death probe, Attorney General Jerry Brown said.

The federal drug administration also responded with its own independent investigations "into matters that the LAPD's investigation uncovered that may not be directly related to the cause of death," the agency said.

Last week Drug Enforcement agents executed a federal administrative search warrant at the Mickey Fine Pharmacy in Beverly Hills, California, looking for prescription records relating to Jackson, an agency spokesman said.

The pharmacy sits directly below the offices of Jackson's dermatologist, Dr. Arnold Klein. Shortly before his death, Jackson visited the building several times to see Klein.

Klein, who treated Jackson for decades, denied in a CNN interview last month that he had given Jackson dangerous drugs.

Attorney General Brown said that agents with his Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement "will review relevant records and documents."

The attorney general's office maintains a computerized prescription drug monitoring system that tracks controlled substances.

Brazil tops worldwide H1N1 deaths, officials say

2009-08-28T16:15:00.000-07:00

Brazil has confirmed 557 deaths caused by H1N1 flu, the highest total in the world, the nation's Health Ministry says.

The United States has counted 522 fatalities through Thursday, and nearly 1,800 people had died worldwide through August 13, U.S. and global health officials said.

In terms of mortality rate, which considers flu deaths in terms of a nation's population, Brazil ranks seventh, and the United States is 13th, the Brazilian Ministry of Health said in a news release Wednesday.

Argentina, which has reported 386 deaths attributed to H1N1 as of August 13, ranks first per capita, the Brazilian health officials said, and Mexico, where the flu outbreak was discovered in April, ranks 14th per capita.

Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico and the United States have the most total cases globally, according to the World Health Organization.

The Brazilian Ministry of Health said there have been 6,100 cases of flu in the nation, with 5,206 cases (85.3 percent) confirmed as H1N1, also known as swine flu.

The state of Sao Paulo had 223 deaths through Wednesday, the largest number in the country. In addition, 480 pregnant women have been confirmed with H1N1, of whom 58 died. Swine flu has been shown to hit young people and pregnant women particularly hard.

Many schools in Sao Paulo have delayed the start of the second semester for a couple of weeks, and students will have to attend classes on weekends to catch up. Schools also have suspended extracurricular activities such as soccer, volleyball and chess to try to curtail spread of the disease.

Flu traditionally has its peak during the winter months, and South America, where it is winter, has had a large number of cases recently. The World Health Organization said this week that the United States and other heavily populated Northern Hemisphere countries need to brace for a second wave of H1N1 as their winter approaches.

Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other U.S. health agencies have been preparing and said this week that up to half of the nation's population may contract the disease and 90,000 could die from it.

Seasonal flu typically kills about 64,000 Americans each year.

A vaccine against H1N1 is being tested but is not expected to be available until at least mid-October and will probably require two shots at least one week apart, health officials have said. Since it typically takes a couple of weeks for a person's immunity to build up after the vaccine, most Americans would not be protected until sometime in November.

The World Health Organization in June declared a Level 6 worldwide pandemic, the organization's highest classification.

Obama condemns Lockerbie bomber's 'hero's welcome'

2009-08-21T14:06:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON (CNN) The cheering, flag-waving welcome that the convicted Lockerbie bomber received in Libya after being released from a life sentence was "highly objectionable," President Barack Obama said Friday.

His spokesman, Robert Gibbs, also criticized the bomber's reception as "tremendously offensive," echoing a sense of outrage that senior British leaders also have expressed.

Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi had been serving a life sentence for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. The bombing killed 270 people, including 189 Americans.

Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill freed al Megrahi after doctors concluded he has terminal prostate cancer and estimated he has three months to live. A plane returned the 57-year-old to Libya, and video of his reception Thursday at the airport drew harsh responses in the United States and Britain.

"The images that we saw in Libya yesterday were outrageous and disgusting" and are "tremendously offensive to the survivors that lost a loved one," Gibbs said.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said it was "deeply distressing" and "deeply upsetting" to watch video of the convict's return home.

"Obviously, the sight of a mass murderer getting a hero's welcome in Tripoli is deeply upsetting, deeply distressing," Miliband told BBC radio Friday morning. He added that personally, "I find it deeply distressing of course, as well."

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown had specifically asked Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi not to give al Megrahi a celebratory welcome, Brown's office at 10 Downing Street said.

Brown wrote a letter to Gadhafi, delivered to the Libyan Foreign Ministry on Thursday, asking the Libyans to act with sensitivity with regard to al Megrahi's return.

The letter was private and therefore won't be released to the media, a Downing Street spokeswoman said.

MacAskill released al Megrahi on compassionate grounds, saying he was going home to die. His decision was highly controversial, drawing criticism from the United States and dividing family members of the 270 Lockerbie victims.

Both Brown and Miliband made clear that the decision to release al Megrahi was for the Scottish government to make. But Miliband said Libya must now act responsibly.

"I think it's very important that Libya knows, and certainly we have told them, that how the Libyan government handles itself in the next few days after the arrival of Mr. Megrahi will be very significant in the way the world views Libya's re-entry into the civilized community of nations," Miliband said.

"It is in our interests to stand up for our own principles in the interests of international relations," he said. "Where Libya is willing to abide and engage in the international system in a way that does the right thing for those international principles, we will engage with Libya."

Al Megrahi always maintained his innocence, complaining that he had to spend years in prison for something he did not do.

"The remaining days of my life will have to be spent under the shadow of the wrongness of my conviction," he said in a statement issued Thursday through his attorney.

He also offered sympathy to the families of the victims.

Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over the Scottish town of Lockerbie four days before Christmas in 1988 while traveling from London to New York. All 259 of those aboard the plane and 11 people on the ground were killed.

Missing ship 'found' off Africa

2009-08-14T14:42:00.001-07:00

A missing merchant ship with 15 Russian crew members on board has been spotted off the coast of West Africa, unconfirmed reports say.

The Arctic Sea had last been sighted in the Bay of Biscay on 30 July.

Reports citing coastguards suggested it had been seen some 400 nautical miles north of the Cape Verde islands.

However amid continuing uncertainty, a Russian official was later quoted in Russian media as saying "this information did not prove to be true".

Russian navy ships have been searching for the 4,000-tonne Maltese-flagged vessel, which had been carrying timber.

Observers have suggested the ship was hijacked, possibly because of a Russian commercial dispute.

Following the reported sighting, a spokesman for the French defence ministry told the BBC that the Arctic Sea was thought to be in international waters.

The spokesman said his information came from the Cape Verde coastguard, who said the ship was outside its jurisdiction.

However, the spokesman said there was a "high possibility" that the ship had been located. French intelligence officials also believe they have found the ship in the same area, he said.

The Russian ambassador to Cape Verde, Alexander Karpushin, told Associated Press news agency that a Russian frigate was heading to the area but had no information on the Arctic Sea's location.

However, Russia's RIA news agency later quoted Mr Karpushin as saying the information that the Arctic Sea was spotted "400 nautical miles north of the island of Santo Antao... did not prove to be true".

He cited a meeting with the head of Cape Verde's armed forces.

Five Russian warships and other vessels have been searching the Atlantic for the vessel.

Attack reports

Carrying timber reportedly worth $1.8m (£1.1m), the Arctic Sea sailed from Finland and had been scheduled to dock in the Algerian port of Bejaia on 4 August.

The crew reported being boarded by up to 10 armed men as the ship sailed through the Baltic Sea on 24 July, but the intruders were reported to have left the vessel on an inflatable boat after 12 hours.

There are also reports of the ship being attacked a second time off the Portuguese coast. However the ship's operators said they had no knowledge of the incident and Portugal said the ship was never in its territorial waters.

The last known contact with the crew was when the Arctic Sea reported to British maritime authorities as it passed through the Dover Strait.

On Friday, the European Union Commission spokesman Martin Selmayr said: "From information currently available it would seem that these acts, such as they have been reported, have nothing in common with 'traditional' acts of piracy or armed robbery at sea."

Nato was monitoring the situation due to the unusual nature and location of the attacks, but was not directly involved in the search.

Helicopter and plane in NY crash

2009-08-08T11:18:00.000-07:00

A tour helicopter and a light aircraft have collided near New York City and crashed into the Hudson River, the US Coast Guard says.

The collision occurred between Hoboken, in New Jersey, and Manhattan, just across the river.

Divers are searching for survivors. Reports suggest one person has been found; their condition is unknown.

Television footage showed rescue craft heading to the site from both sides of the Hudson River.

"It hit the water like a stone," a woman told local television station NY1.

"I saw a piece of metal, I saw a helicopter, the helicopter went down, and that was it. I heard no noise, and no smoke or fire."

Other witnesses described seeing debris - including the plane's wing - falling into the water.

"We saw the helicopter propellers fly all over," said Hoboken resident Katie Tanski.

The helicopter was operated by Liberty Helicopters, a sightseeing company that flies tourists around sites such as the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

Six people were believed to be on board, US media reports said.

The light plane took off from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, aviation officials said. It is not known how many people were on the plane.

The weather at the time of the collision, noon local time (1600 GMT), was said to be clear and mild.

In January, a passenger plane with 155 people aboard ditched into the Hudson River without loss of life, after apparently hitting a flock of geese.

HSBC global profits halve to $5bn

2009-08-03T08:22:00.000-07:00

Banking group HSBC saw pre-tax profits halve to $5bn (£2.98bn) in the first six months of 2009.

BBC

Rising bad debts in the US, Europe and Asia forced it to write-off $13.9bn - 39% more than the same period in 2008.

Earlier Barclays also announced pre-tax half-year profits of £2.98bn boosted by its investment banking arm.

HSBC is in the process of closing most of its retail lending operations in the US, having taken hefty losses from mortgages which went unpaid.

Its US consumer lending business, Household International, which is being wound down after being devastated by the credit crunch, saw a $2.9bn pre-tax loss for the period.

But HSBC gained from record investment banking profits of $6.3bn during the first half of the year.

BBC business editor Robert Peston said its profits were a story of "resilience in the face of extraordinary losses on loans".

"Of all the big banks in the US and UK, HSBC is the one that comes closest to being able to claim - without stretching credibility too much - that it's a proper commercial operation, not too reliant on finance or insurance from taxpayers," he said.

Unlike many of its peers, HSBC has not had to go to governments for extra cash.

It decided instead to ask existing shareholders for more money through a rights issue in April, which raised $17.8bn.

'Uncertain'

The bank said results were better than it had expected in an "unprecedented" economic climate.

Chairman Stephen Green added it was likely that "we have passed, or are about to pass" the bottom of the cycle in financial markets.

But he said: "The timing, shape and scale of any recovery in the wider economy remains highly uncertain."

HSBC has tried to increase its share of the the UK mortgage market, as rivals remain less willing to lend, or have withdrawn altogether.

The bank has committed £15bn for new mortgage lending in the UK - and said that £6.7bn had been lent during the first half of the year.

Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland will report their half-year results later this week.

Scientists find new strain of HIV

2009-08-03T08:20:00.000-07:00

Gorillas have been found, for the first time, to be a source of HIV.

BBC

Previous research had shown the HIV-1 strain, the main source of human infections, with 33m cases worldwide, originated from a virus in chimpanzees.

But researchers have now discovered an HIV infection in a Cameroonian woman which is clearly linked to a gorilla strain, Nature Medicine reports.

A researcher told the BBC that, though it was a new type of HIV, current drugs might still help combat its effects.

HIV originated from a similar virus in chimpanzees called Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV).

Although HIV/Aids was first recognised by scientists in the 1980s, it is thought to have first entered the human population early in the 20th Century in the region of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The virus probably originally jumped into humans after people came into contact with infected bush meat.

SIV viruses have been reported in other primates, including gorillas.

Unusual case

French doctors treating the 62-year-old Cameroonian woman who was living in Paris said they initially spotted some discrepancies in routine viral load tests.

Further analysis of the HIV strain she was infected with showed it was more closely related to SIV from gorillas than HIV from humans.

She is the only person known to be infected with the new strain, but the researchers expect to find other cases.

Before moving to Paris, she had lived in a semi-urban area of Cameroon and had no contact with gorillas or bush meat, suggesting she caught the virus from someone else who was carrying the gorilla strain.

Analysis of the virus in the laboratory has confirmed that it can replicate in human cells.

Co-author Dr David Robertson, from the University of Manchester, said it was the first definitive transfer of HIV seen from a source other than a chimpanzee, and highlighted the need to monitor for the emergence of new strains.

"This demonstrates that HIV evolution is an ongoing process.

"The virus can jump from species to species, from primate to primate, and that includes us; pathogens have been with us for millions of years and routinely switch host species."

The fact the patient had been diagnosed in France showed how human mobility can rapidly transfer a virus from one area of the world to another, he said.

New problems 'unlikely'

Speaking to the BBC's Wold Today programme, Dr Robertson said there was no reason to believe that existing drugs would not work on the new virus.

"If some day we do manage to develop a vaccine, there's no reason to believe it wouldn't work," he said.

"There's no reason to believe this virus will present any new problems, as it were, that we don't already face."

Professor Paul Sharp, from the University of Edinburgh, said the virus probably initially transferred from chimpanzees to gorillas.

He said the latest finding was interesting but perhaps not surprising.

"The medical implication is that, because this virus is not very closely related to the other three HIV-1 groups, it is not detected by conventional tests.

"So the virus could be cryptically spreading in the population."

However, he said that he would guess it would not spread widely and become a major problem.

"Although the patient with this virus was not ill, there is no reason to believe that it will not lead to Aids," he added.

Police Search Jackson Doctor's Home In LA

2009-07-28T15:57:00.000-07:00

Police have searched the home of Michael Jackson's doctor as part of their investigation into the singer's death.

Michael Jackson and Conrad Murray

Officers swooped on Dr Conrad Murray's gated home in Las Vegas amid reports he gave the star a fatal dose of the powerful sedative propofol hours before his death.

Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents and detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) executed a search warrant for Jackson's medical records.

A separate raid took place across town at the doctor's offices.

Dr Murray's lawyer, Edward Chernoff, said: "The search warrant authorised investigators to look for medical records relating to Michael Jackson and all of his reported aliases.

"Dr Murray was present during the search of his home and assisted the officers.

"Investigators left Dr Murray's home around noon, seizing cell phones and a computer hard drive."

Last week, police raided the doctor's office in Houston searching for "evidence of the offence of manslaughter".

The results of toxicology tests on Jackson's body will be released this week, said the Los Angeles Coroner's office.

Pathologists reportedly discovered a deadly cocktail of prescription drugs in his blood.

Propofol is used in hospitals to induce unconsciousness in patients ahead of major surgery.

Police search Murray's home

Experts say the drug should only be administered by a trained anesthesiologist under strict medical conditions.

The possibility that Dr Murray gave Jackson the drug intravenously has sparked speculation that he may be charged over his death.

TMZ.com reported that Dr Murray had told police in an interview he gave Jackson propofol via an IV drip.

It said police believe he may have fallen asleep while the drug was being administered, and woke up to find the singer already dead.

The star's family say they have "unanswered questions" about the death.

Dealer Ran Cocaine Ring From Prison Cell

2009-07-28T15:53:00.000-07:00

A convicted drug smuggler has admitted continuing to run an international cocaine ring by using a mobile phone from his prison cell.

Prisoner George Moon and the package which brought down his cocaine operation

The intercepted package which rumbled Moon's international operation

George Moon orchestrated the importation of drug packages from Panama and Venezuela into the UK and Ireland.

The 62-year-old ran the operation while serving 15 years at HMP Lindholme, near Doncaster, for supplying Class A substances.

Moon and five side-kicks pleaded guilty at Liverpool Crown Court. They were among 13 people arrested in November 2008.

Two men are already serving sentences in Ireland and another, Leo Morgan, has just begun a 10-year prison term in Panama, also for cocaine offences.

The arrests followed an investigation by the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), which managed to intercept a two-kilo package of cocaine being couriered through Caracas International Airport, destined for an address in Cork.

Officers raided Moon's cell to find a mobile phone on which he had made hundreds of calls to Panama and Ireland, as well as a notebook containing the numbers of co-conspirators.

They believe he had been involved in organising the importation of at least 12 packages of cocaine, all sent via postal couriers.

Moon is currently serving a 15-year sentence for smuggling £3.5m worth of heroin and amphetamines into the UK from Holland by hiding it in a sport holdall in the back of a Heavy Goods Vehicle.

Moon and another man were also charged with smuggling contraband into a prison, in the form of sim cards and heroin.

It is thought that SOCA will now apply for a special order to be placed on Moon, which would make it a criminal offence for him to have possession of a mobile phone in prison.

Last year 4,000 mobile phones were seized from inmates of the UK's prison estate.

George Moon, 62, Lee Standeven, 24, Bilaal Khan, 27, Anthony Parry, 39, Harminder Singh, 25, and Abid Latif Hussain, 22, all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import Class A controlled drugs.

Moon and Standeven also pleaded guilty to smuggling contraband into a prison.

Massa injured in qualifying crash

2009-07-25T09:01:00.000-07:00

Felipe Massa will not race in the Hungarian Grand Prix after the Ferrari driver was hurt in a high-speed accident during qualifying on Saturday.

Massa, 28, applied his brakes but went head on into a tyre wall at Turn Four after a piece of debris hit his helmet.

He was treated at the scene by medical teams before being airlifted to hospital, which is standard procedure.

Massa suffered a cut above his left eye which Ferrari called a "superficial" injury after confirming he was "OK".

A statement on their official website reads: "Felipe is conscious and has been brought to a Budapest hospital for routine examinations."

The incident delayed final qualifying by 20 minutes but Massa - who was provisionally 10th on the grid - took no part.

The 28-year-old - winner of 11 grands prix in his career - went off the Hungaroring track at around 125mph, with reports suggesting the debris had fallen off the rear of compatriot Rubens Barrichello's Brawn GP car.

Barrichello told BBC Sport that he believed a rear bar or rear spring had fallen off - "something broke" - after qualifying in 13th, but made no mention of Massa's crash.

Brawn later confirmed that Barrichello's car was missing a part, or parts of its rear suspension.

Massa's team-mate Kimi Raikkonen said: "Felipe was just very unlucky. It was just an unlucky situation."

The incident comes less than a week after Henry Surtees, 18, was killed in a what was described as a "freak" accident during a Formula Two race at Brands Hatch.

The son of motorsport legend John Surtees was struck by a wheel which flew off a competitor's car.

Alarming Africa male gay HIV rate

2009-07-20T09:34:00.000-07:00

HIV rates among gay men in some African countries are 10 times higher than among the general male population, says research in medical journal the Lancet.

The report said prejudice towards gay people was leading to isolation and harassment, which in turn led to risky sexual practices among gay communities.

But the risks are not limited to gay men, as many of the infected also have female sexual partners.

The report called for greater education and resources in the fight against HIV.

The Oxford University researchers found that the prevalence of HIV/Aids among gay men in sub-Saharan African has been "driven by cultural, religious and political unwillingness to accept [gay men] as equal members of society".

Lead researcher Adrian Smith told the BBC there was "profound stigma and social hostility at every level of society concerning either same-sex behaviours amongst men, or homosexuality".

"This has the consequence that this group becomes extremely hard to reach," he said.

Mr Smith said that gay male sex had always been acknowledged as being particularly dangerous in terms of contracting HIV/Aids.

But gay men were also more likely to be involved in other high-risk behaviours, including sex work, having multiple partners and being in contact with intravenous drug use, he said.

Education crucial

George Kanuma, a gay rights activist in Burundi, told the BBC many men "hide their sexual orientation" to get married and have children, but continue to have sex with men.

"Most of them know that you can contract HIV/Aids or any infection when you are making sex with women, but not when you are having sex with another man," he said.

Mr Smith said there was "a desperate need for delivering a basic package of prevention for HIV", including ensuring supplies of condoms.

"There is also a need to sensitise, educate and train those involved in HIV, the interface with men who have sex with men, to educate those involved in care and prevention activities," he said.

The United Nations Aids agency estimates that 33 million people in the world have HIV, of whom two-thirds live in sub-Saharan Africa.

Iran plane black boxes 'damaged'

2009-07-15T16:33:00.000-07:00

Damaged black boxes have been recovered from a Caspian Airlines plane that crashed in north Iran with the loss of all 168 people on board, say officials.

Investigators who scoured scattered body parts and metal fragments for the data recorders hope they will salvage a clue as to the cause of the crash.

The wreckage was spread over a large area of farmland in Qazvin province, 120km (75 miles) north-west of Tehran.

The Tupolev plane was flying from the Iranian capital to Yerevan in Armenia.

Witnesses said the 22-year-old Russian-made aircraft, which had 153 passengers and 15 crew, nose-dived from the sky with its tail on fire.

Flight 7908 crashed 16 minutes after take-off from Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran, officials said.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad offered his condolences to the bereaved families and ordered a transport ministry investigation into the tragedy.

'Heads, fingers, passports'

Farsi Majidi, head of the investigating committee, told Associated Press TV News: "Thank God, we succeeded in finding two of the three flight data recorders or black boxes.

"Although they are damaged we are hopeful that we can extract information from them."

Eight members of Iran's national junior judo team and two coaches were on the flight, heading for training with the Armenian team.

Among the mainly Iranian passengers were about five Armenian citizens and two Georgians.

Search teams picked through an area 200m (660ft) wide in a field at Jannatabad village, where the plane gouged out a huge smoking crater.

A relief worker, standing next to a body bag of human flesh, told AFP news agency: "There is not a single piece which can be identified."

Mostafa Babashahverdi, a local farmer, told Reuters news agency: "We found severed heads, fingers and passports of the passengers."

Witnesses said the Tu-154 had circled briefly looking for an emergency landing site. One man described it exploding on impact.

"I saw the plane crashing nose-down. It hit the ground causing a big explosion. The impact shook the ground like an earthquake," Ali Akbar Hashemi told AP news agency.

At Yerevan's airport, one woman wept as she said her sister and two nephews, aged six and 11, had been on the flight.

"What will I do without them?" said Tina Karapetian, 45, before collapsing.

It was the third deadly crash of a Tupolev Tu-154 in Iran since 2002.

The BBC's Jon Leyne says Iran's civil and military air fleets are made up of elderly aircraft, in poor condition due to their age and lack of maintenance.

Since the Islamic revolution of 1979, trade embargoes by Western nations have forced Iran to buy mainly Russian-built planes to supplement an existing fleet of Boeings and other American and European models.

Ronaldo Fulfils Real 'Childhood Dream'

2009-07-06T16:40:00.000-07:00

The world's most expensive footballer Cristiano Ronaldo said he has fulfilled a "childhood dream" as he was unveiled by new club Real Madrid.

Around 80,000 fans were at the home ground, the Bernabeu, to welcome Ronaldo following his record transfer.

The current world player of the year was signed by the Spanish giants from Manchester United in a deal worth £80m.

The Portuguese international had passed a medical examination earlier in the day to complete his move.

He told supporters: "I am just so happy to be here. For me, I have made my childhood dream a reality, which was nothing less than playing for Real Madrid.

"I didn't expect a jam-packed stadium - this is truly impressive."

Ronaldo then led the crowd into a cry of "Viva Madrid!"

The forward, who signed a six-year contract, has been given the number nine shirt - the same as Madrid great Alfredo di Stefano.

The 24-year-old was greeted by Di Stefano as well as Portuguese legend Eusebio and Florentino Perez, the club president whose re-election prompted his signing from United.

Ronaldo is the jewel in the crown of Perez's self-styled "spectacular sporting project".

After bringing "galacticos" David Beckham, Zinedine Zidane and Luis Figo to the club during his previous term, Perez has spent around £185m on Ronaldo, Brazilian playmaker Kaka, French striker Karim Benzema and defender Raul Albiol.

He is hoping the signing of such high-profile players will help Real take the Spanish and European Champions League crowns from arch-rivals Barcelona.

He also aims to boost revenue via the sale of replica merchandise and marketing rights.

Madrid had been chasing Ronaldo since 2006. He won the third of three successive Premier League titles last season.

Fans had queued outside the Bernabeu from early on in the day to catch a glimpse of their latest star.

New Diabetes Drug Will Help Weight Loss

2009-07-06T16:35:00.000-07:00

A revolutionary drug for diabetes sufferers is being launched in the UK.

Obesity

The majority of Type 2 diabetes sufferers are overweight

Victoza is for Type 2 diabetes and only needs to be taken once-a-day.

The drug, also known as Liraglutide, allows the body to only release insulin when blood sugar levels become too high.

It can also be taken at any time of the day and is used alongside other drugs.

Tests suggest the drug can also help with weight loss by making people feel "full" for longer, as well as slowing down the rate at which the stomach empties.

Victoza also lowers blood pressure, lowering the risk of heart disease.

It could help the two million people in the UK who suffer from Type 2 diabetes, many of whom are overweight or obese.

Cathy Moulton, from Diabetes UK, said: "Liraglutide widens the choice of treatment for people with Type 2 diabetes that not only offer improved blood glucose but also aid weight loss.

"Good diabetes management reduces the risk of developing serious complications including heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, blindness and amputation."

It is estimated that 500,000 people in the UK have Type 2 diabetes and don't even know it.

Ousted president vows to return to Honduras

2009-07-01T06:34:00.000-07:00

(CNN) A new standoff was brewing in Honduras as the country's recently deposed president vowed to return, while the new provisional government said it would arrest him if he set foot back in the country.

Political turmoil has swept this Central American nation of 8 million people following a military-led coup Sunday that ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya. Troops entered the president's residence and sent him out of the country in exile. A veteran legislator, Roberto Micheletti, was sworn in that same day as provisional president with the support of congress.

Roberto Micheletti, the veteran legislator who was sworn in that same day as provisional president with the support of congress, was adamant that Zelaya would not return to power.

"He already committed crimes against the constitution and the laws; he can't return to be president of the republic," Micheletti told reporters Tuesday. "He can no longer return to the presidency unless a president from another Latin American country comes and imposes him with arms."

Micheletti added, "If there is an invasion against our country, we have 7½ million Hondurans ready to defend our territory and our laws and our homeland and our government."

However, Zelaya still vows to defy the provisional government.

"I am going to return on Thursday because they expelled me by force, and I am going to return as always: as a citizen and as president," Zelaya said at a U.N. news conference shortly after the world body unanimously adopted a resolution that he should be restored to power.

Zelaya, speaking to the U.N. General Assembly, called the resolution historic.

"Your servant has several accusations against him in Honduras," Zelaya said. "But nobody has given me a trial. Nobody has convened a tribunal."

Meanwhile, Micheletti's provisional government said Zelaya would be arrested if he returned.

"As soon as he arrives he will be captured, as we already have the arrest warrants ready," new Foreign Minister Enrique Ortez Colindres told CNN en Español.

Zelaya would face charges of violating the constitution, corruption and drug trafficking, among others, Ortez said.

The deposed president said he would travel to Washington to attend a meeting of the Organization of American States. He also is expected to meet Tuesday evening with Tom Shannon, the top U.S. official on Latin America.

Even as Zelaya spoke at the United Nations, his opponents held a large and noisy rally in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. Crowd members waved blue and white Honduran flags and signs denouncing Zelaya.

Roberto Micheletti, the new provisional president, briefly addressed the crowd Tuesday afternoon. He vowed that the next national elections, slated for November, will be held as planned, and that a new president will be sworn in as usual in January.

Gen. Romeo Vasquez Velasquez, the top Honduran military commander who had butted heads with Zelaya, also spoke at the rally. By removing Zelaya, the armed forces were only complying with their constitutional duties, he said.

Before he spoke, the crowd chanted in support, "Armed forces! Armed forces!"

Zelaya supporters also were active Tuesday, with three major public-sector labor unions launching a general strike, a union official told CNN. About 100,000 workers joined the strike, said Oscar Garcia, vice president of the Honduran water workers union SANAA. That number could not be independently verified.

"It will be an indefinite strike," Garcia said. "We don't recognize this new government imposed by the oligarchy, and we will mount our campaign of resistance until President Manuel Zelaya is restored to power."

Also on Tuesday, the U.S. State Department said it was reviewing its aid to Honduras as it works with regional partners on a deal to restore Zelaya to power and quell political unrest in the country.

Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the U.S. was reviewing whether Zelaya's ouster met the legal definition of a "coup" before any decision was made.

"Because of the situation and the very dramatic nature of the events there and our profound concern about what's going on there, I think we're looking at a number of aspects of our cooperation," Kelly said.

The State Department has also issued a travel alert due "to the current unstable political and security situation in Honduras." The alert "recommends that American citizens defer all nonessential travel to Honduras until further notice."

In another development, two U.S. military officials in Washington confirmed to CNN that U.S. helicopters will fly over southern Honduras on a humanitarian relief mission Tuesday. The officials said there is great sensitivity to any public appearance by the U.S. military in the country.

The U.S. military also postponed some planned exercises with the Honduran military until the situation in the country settles down, according to the U.S. Southern Command.

"We have postponed certain activities," Maj. D.L. Wright, Southern Command spokesman, told CNN.

Wright said this decision would be in effect for at least two to three weeks, or "until the political situation settles."

Zelaya was overthrown early Sunday when the Honduran military arrested him and flew him to Costa Rica. Micheletti, president of the Congress, was sworn in as provisional president later Sunday.

The United Nations, OAS and most nations in the Western Hemisphere, including the United States, have condemned the ouster and demanded that Zelaya be restored to power.

The World Bank said Tuesday it would freeze funds to Honduras until the crisis is resolved, and the United States said it is reviewing its aid to the Central American nation. The U.S. joined many other nations in co-sponsoring Tuesday's U.N. resolution.

Zelaya had been at odds with the other branches of government over a referendum he wanted to hold Sunday. The Honduran Supreme Court had ruled that the referendum was illegal, and Congress had voted not to hold it.

The high court also had overturned Zelaya's dismissal of Honduras' top general, who said the military would not participate in the referendum. The court ordered that the general be reinstated immediately.

Zelaya disregarded those actions and vowed to hold the vote anyway. Micheletti also told Honduras' representatives at the United Nations and OAS to quit speaking against the new government or they immediately will be removed from their posts. They are not authorized, he said, to speak for the Honduran government.

In another development, two U.S. military officials in Washington confirmed to CNN that American helicopters will fly over southern Honduras on a humanitarian relief mission Tuesday. The officials said there is great sensitivity to any public appearance by the U.S. military in the country.

Three Black Hawk helicopters are scheduled to leave an air base at Soto Cano in Honduras and fly south to Nicaragua. They will be used to support the USNS Comfort, which is conducting a medical relief mission.

Michael Jackson, pop music legend, dead at 50

2009-06-26T11:46:00.000-07:00

(CNN)Michael Jackson, the show-stopping singer whose best-selling albums -- including "Off the Wall," "Thriller" and "Bad" -- and electrifying stage presence made him one of the most popular artists of all time, died Thursday, CNN has confirmed.

He was 50.

He collapsed at his residence in the Holmby Hills section of Los Angeles, California, about noon Pacific time, suffering cardiac arrest, according to brother Randy Jackson. He died at UCLA Medical Center.

Lt. Fred Corral of the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office said an autopsy would probably be done on the singer Friday, with results expected that afternoon.

"Michael Jackson made culture accept a person of color," the Rev. Al Sharpton said. "To say an 'icon' would only give these young people in Harlem a fraction of what he was. He was a historic figure that people will measure music and the industry by."

Jackson's blazing rise to stardom -- and later fall from grace -- is among the most startling of show business tales. The son of a steelworker, he rose to fame as the lead singer of the Jackson 5, a band he formed with his brothers in the late 1960s. By the late '70s, as a solo artist, he was topping the charts with cuts from "Off the Wall," including "Rock With You" and "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough."

In 1982, he released "Thriller," an album that eventually produced seven hit singles. An appearance the next year on a Motown Records 25th-anniversary special cemented his status as the biggest star in the country.

For the rest of the 1980s, they came no bigger. "Thriller's" follow-up, 1987's "Bad," sold almost as many copies. A new Jackson album -- a new Jackson appearance -- was a pop culture event.

The pop music landscape was changing, however, opening up for rap, hip-hop and what came to be called "alternative" -- and Jackson was seen as out of step.

His next release, 1991's "Dangerous," debuted at No. 1 but "only" produced one top-ranking single -- "Black or White" -- and that song earned criticism for its inexplicably violent ending, in which Jackson was seen smashing car windows and clutching his crotch.

And then "Dangerous" was knocked out of its No. 1 spot on the album charts by Nirvana's "Nevermind," an occurrence noted for its symbolism by rock critics.

After that, more attention was paid to Jackson's private life than his music career, which faltered. A 1995 two-CD greatest hits, "HIStory," sold relatively poorly, given the huge expense of Jackson's recording contract: about 7 million copies, according to Recording Industry of America certifications.

A 2001 album of new material, "Invincible," did even worse.

In 2005, he went to trial on child-molestation charges. He was acquitted.

In July 2008, after three years away from the spotlight, Jackson announced a series of concerts at London's O2 Arena as his "curtain call." Some of the shows, initially scheduled to begin in July, were eventually postponed until 2010.

Michael Jackson was born August 29, 1958, to Joe Jackson, a Gary, Indiana, steelworker, and his wife, Katherine. By the time he was 6, he had joined his brothers in a musical group organized by his father, and by the time he was 10, the group -- the Jackson 5 -- had been signed to Motown.

He made his first television appearance at age 11.

Jackson, a natural performer, soon became the group's front man. Music critic Langdon Winner, reviewing the group's first album, "Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5," for Rolling Stone, praised Michael's versatile singing and added, "Who is this 'Diana Ross,' anyway?"

The group's first four singles -- "I Want You Back," "ABC," "The Love You Save" and "I'll Be There" -- went to No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart, the first time any group had pulled off that feat. There was even a Jackson 5 cartoon series on ABC

In 1972, he hit No. 1 as a solo artist with the song "Ben."

The group's popularity waned as the '70s continued, and Michael eventually went solo full time. He played the Scarecrow in the 1978 movie version of "The Wiz," and released the album "Off the Wall" in 1979. Its success paved the way for "Thriller," which eventually became the best-selling album in history, with 50 million copies sold worldwide.

At that point, Michael Jackson became ubiquitous.

Seven of "Thriller's" nine cuts were released as singles; all made the Top Ten. The then-new cable channel MTV, criticized for its almost exclusively white playlist, finally started playing Jackson's videos. They aired incessantly, including a 14-minute minimovie of the title cut. ("Weird Al" Yankovic cemented his own stardom by lampooning Jackson's song "Beat It" with a letter-perfect parody video.)

On the Motown Records' 25th-anniversary special -- a May 1983 TV extravaganza with notable turns by the Temptations, the Four Tops and Smokey Robinson -- it was Michael Jackson who stopped the show.

Already he was the most popular musician in America, riding high with "Thriller." But something about his electrifying performance of "Billie Jean," complete with the patented backward dance moves, boosted his stardom to a new level. Video

People copied his Jheri-curled hair and single-gloved, zippered-jacket look. Showbiz veterans such as Fred Astaire praised his chops. He posed for photos with Ronald and Nancy Reagan at the White House. Paul McCartney teamed with him on three duets, two of which -- "The Girl Is Mine" and "Say Say Say" -- became top five hits. Jackson became a Pepsi spokesman, and when his hair caught fire while making a commercial, it was worldwide news.

It all happened very fast -- within a couple years of the Motown special. But even at the time of the "Motown 25" moonwalk, fame was old hat to Michael Jackson. He hadn't even turned 25 himself, but he'd been a star for more than half his life. He was given the nickname the "King of Pop" -- a spin on Elvis Presley's status as "the King of Rock 'n' Roll" -- and few questioned the moniker.

Relentless attention

But, as the showbiz saying has it, when you're on top of the world, there's nowhere to go but down. The relentless attention given Jackson started focusing as much on his eccentricities -- some real, some rumored -- as his music.

As the Web site Allmusic.com notes, he was rumored to sleep in a hyperbaric chamber and to have purchased the bones of John Merrick, the "Elephant Man." (Neither was true.) He did have a pet chimpanzee, Bubbles; underwent a series of increasingly drastic plastic surgeries; established an estate, Neverland, filled with zoo animals and amusement park rides; and managed to purchase the Beatles catalog from under Paul McCartney's nose, which displeased the ex-Beatle immensely.

In 1990s and 2000s, Jackson found himself pasted across the media for his short-lived marriages, the first to Elvis Presley's daughter, Lisa Marie; his 2002 claim that then Sony Records head Tommy Mottola was racist; his behavior and statements during a 2003 interview with British journalist Martin Bashir done for a documentary called "Living With Michael Jackson;" his changing physical appearance; and, above all, the accusations that he sexually molested young boys at Neverland.

The first such accusation, in 1993, resulted in a settlement to the 13-year-old accuser (rumored to be as high as $20 million), though no criminal charges were filed, Allmusic.com notes.

He also fell deeply in debt and was forced to sell some of his assets. Neverland was one of many holdings that went on the block. However, an auction of material from Neverland, scheduled for April, was called off and all items returned to Jackson.

Interest in Jackson never faded, however, even if some of it was prurient. In 2008, when he announced 10 comeback shows in London, beginning in July 2009, the story made worldwide news. The number of concerts was later increased to 50.

Seventy-five thousand tickets sold in four hours when they went on sale in March.

However, when the shows were postponed until 2010, rumors swept the Internet that Jackson was not physically prepared and possibly suffering from skin cancer.

At the time, the president and CEO of AEG Live, Randy Phillips, said, "He's as healthy as can be -- no health problems whatsoever."

Jackson held open auditions for dancers in April in Los Angeles.

He is survived by his three children, Prince Michael I, Paris and Prince Michael II.

Video of church's 'casting out' gay 'demon' in teen sparks anger

2009-06-25T15:13:00.000-07:00

The boy writhes uncontrollably on the floor, but the church members remain calm, if increasingly loud. They're trying to drive a "demon" out of him.

"You homosexual demon, get up on outta here!" they say. "You demon, loose yourself!" "You sex demon ... you snake!"

The shouts, the convulsions, the references to homosexual spirits -- they are all captured on a video posted on YouTube by the Manifested Glory Ministries. The video has sparked anger among gay youth advocacy groups and put the small church from Bridgeport, Connecticut, in the middle of an ongoing national debate on gay issues.

Patricia McKinney, pastor of the nondenominational church who describes herself as a prophet, said she has even been receiving death threats as a result of the video, but doesn't understand the outrage.

"I believe in deliverance, I believe in anointing, I believe in the power of Jesus," she said in a phone interview with GC USA. "I've been threatened already, I've been attacked, and it doesn't make any sense to us. Really, what they're doing, they're putting me out there on the mat."

McKinney says she doesn't refer to the events of the video as an exorcism, but rather a "casting out of unclean spirits." She said this isn't the first time that an event like this has taken place at her church, but it is the first one centered around homosexuality.

McKinney said the boy approached the church and told her he wanted to be a pastor, but was struggling with his sexuality. "We allow [gay people] to come into our church. We just don't allow them to come in and continue to live that lifestyle," she said.

"God made Adam and Eve," she said. "He made a woman to be with a man, and a man to be with a woman."

Robin McHaelen, who worked with the 16-year-old boy at the center of the video in her position as executive director of True Colors Inc., a gay youth advocacy and mentoring program in Connecticut, said the video was taped in March. She would not identify the teen.

McHaelen said she doesn't think the church acted maliciously -- but that's part of her problem with the video.

"None of the people in this video were intending to hurt this kid," she said. "They performed this ritual in an attempt to rid him of feelings that he didn't want to have."

The boy is the fifth teen True Colors is aware of that has undergone an event like the one documented in the video. But unlike the boy, not all the teens approached a church or religious organization.

The event, McHaelen said, reflects a culture and society that doesn't believe a person can be both Christian and gay.

"That's what makes me so sad and so mad," she said.

McHaelen said she talked to the boy since the incident and said he's feeling very conflicted and confused in trying to reconcile who he is with his religion.

"He's 16 and having the feelings that he's having, the relationships he's having, and then [he's] being tormented by 'What if I'm going to go to hell because of what I feel and who I am?'" she said.

McHaelen notified the Connecticut Department of Children and Families, as she's mandated to do in her position when she suspects abuse or neglect of a minor. However, she told CNN the department will be looking into whether or not abuse or neglect occurred by the parents and family of the boy, not the church. The department declined to comment Thursday.

Isaiah Webster, Director of Communications for the National Youth Advocacy Commission, said he was deeply saddened by the timing of the video and the accompanying uproar.

"It's very, very sad that this still takes place in society," he said. "It's also very sad that it comes about during this week, [as the] 40th anniversary of Stonewall is this weekend."

The so-called "Stonewall Riots" are believed by many to have kicked off the gay liberation movement.

"That is really something to celebrate," Webster continued, "and it's unfortunate that young people still have to endure things like this."

McHaelen said that as an advocacy group, she doesn't think True Colors can take any legal action against the church, and said she would rather engage in an open dialogue with its members.

Late Alves free-kick gives Brazil victory

2009-06-25T15:10:00.000-07:00

A stunning free-kick from Barcelona full-back Daniel Alves with just two minutes remaining proved enough to give Brazil a narrow 1-0 victory over host nation South Africa in Thursday's second Confederations Cup semifinal in Johannesburg.

With the match heading for extra-time, substitute Alves smashed home a vicious strike from the edge of the area, after a foul on Ramirez by Aaron Mokeona, as Dunga's side secured a clash with the United States -- whom they have already beaten in the group stages -- in Sunday's Ellis Park final.

The United States secured their place in the tournament's climax after ending Spain's unbeaten record in stunning style on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, South Africa have the consolation of facing European champions Spain once again in the third-place play-off in Rustenburg.

Despite their victory, Brazil rarely convinced in a tight encounter, as South Africa's Brazilian coach Joel Santana sent his side out intent to frustrate

South Africa goalkeeper Itumelang Khune safely held onto Andre Santos' volley before new Real Madrid signing Kaka darted through the South African defence, but his curving shot drifted wide of the far post.

Mokoena then missed a gilt-edge chance, putting his close-range header wide from Teko Modise's superbly-floated free-kick.

Brazil were fortunate not to go into the break trailing as Everton winger Steven Pienaar had goalkeeper Cesar beaten, but his stinging shot edged just wide.

The second half was also tight, with defences dominating but the home side nearly went ahead when Modise's close-range shot deflected off Luisao before hitting the beaten Cesar's right-hand post.

Robinho and Luis Fabiano both fired wide for Brazil, who seemed unlikely to break the deadlock. However, with eight minutes remaining, Dunga introduced Alves into the fray and the Barcelona defender repaid his confidence when he beat the Bafana Bafana wall with a thundering free-kick.

Vatican bans sect's ordinations

2009-06-17T18:21:00.000-07:00

The Vatican has banned a small group of breakaway traditionalist Catholics from ordaining more priests and deacons.

The Society of St Pius X (SSPX), which split from the Vatican in 1970, plans to ordain more than 30 men in June.

But in a statement, the Vatican said sect members were not entitled to exercise their ministry and that any ordinations would be "illegitimate".

In January this year, Pope Benedict XVI revoked the 21-year excommunication of four bishops in the Swiss-based group.

The decision provoked an angry reaction as one of the SSPX members, Bishop Richard Williamson, is a known Holocaust denier.

The Pope defended the move by saying it was important to ensure the unity of the Catholic Church.

But instead of returning to the Church as the Vatican had hoped, SSPX has announced the new ordinations, planned to take place in Switzerland, Germany and the US, says the BBC's David Willey in Rome.

The situation is embarrassing for the Vatican, with no easy way to prevent the Pope from losing face if - as seems likely - the ordinations go ahead, says our correspondent.

SSPX was founded by a French archbishop, Marcel Lefebvre, in 1970 as a protest against the Second Vatican Council's reforms on religious freedom and pluralism.

It claims to have almost 500 priests as members and says it is active in more than 60 countries.

Air crash bodies heading to DNA lab

2009-06-10T13:13:00.000-07:00

The first bodies to be recovered from the crash of Air France 447 are due to arrive at a Brazilian Air Force base in Recife, Brazil, Wednesday afternoon local time, the air force announced.

The 16 bodies are expected to be sent on for identification to the Legal Medical Institute, the statement said. Police will perform DNA tests at their lab in the capital, Brasilia, they said.

Another 25 bodies have been found and will go through the same procedure starting Thursday, the air force said.

A French nuclear submarine joined the hunt Wednesday for the "black box" flight data recorder and other wreckage of Air France Flight 447 as Brazilian air force and navy crews continued to pull bodies from the Atlantic.

France is leading the investigation into what caused last week's accident when the Paris-bound flight from Rio de Janeiro plunged into the sea off the Brazilian coast with 228 passengers and crew on board.

The French nuclear submarine Emeraude began patrolling the area Wednesday morning, the French defense ministry said.

Around 400 French military personnel are involved in the salvage effort. France has also sent two tugs towing 40 tons of recovery equipment, a surveillance ship and a ship equipped for amphibious operations.

Fourteen aircraft -- 12 Brazilian and two French -- are participating, along with five Brazilian ships. The U.S. Navy will contribute two high-tech acoustic devices to listen underwater for the emergency beacons that are attached to the voice and data recorders.

The "towed pinger locators," which help search for emergency beacons on downed aircraft to a maximum depth of 6,000 meters (20,000 feet) -- will be placed aboard the French tugs. Brazilian officials emphasized earlier this week that finding bodies was their main priority. The French are in charge of finding the voice and data recorders.

The 16 bodies retrieved Tuesday from the Atlantic were taken to the island of Fernando de Noronha for transport by helicopter to Recife. The 25 bodies previously found were put aboard a Brazilian frigate.

The first bodies were recovered about 320 kilometers (200 miles) northwest of the Brazilian archipelago of Saint Peter and Saint Paul; Tuesday's recoveries were 80 kilometers (50 miles) away.

It was not clear whether the bodies had drifted in the 1-2 knot currents or whether their separation suggested that the jet may have broken apart in the air.The location of the crash has not been determined, because ocean currents have moved the bodies and debris. The search area covers 200,000 square km (77,220 square miles), Brazilian officials said.

The ocean depth where the debris and bodies have been found varies, but averages about 3,000 meters (nearly 9,900 feet) deep, according to the University of New Hampshire/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association Joint Hydrographic Center.

Brazilian officials said the plane debris will be taken to France for investigation but the bodies would undergo forensic tests in Recife.

The cause of the crash is still not known, but investigators are looking at the possible role of airspeed sensors known as Pitot tubes, among other factors. Air France has agreed to replace the sensors on its Airbus A330 and A340 jets, a pilots' union said Tuesday.

The airline said Saturday that it began replacing its fleet's sensors last month.

Another Air France pilots' union, ALTER, has advised its pilots not to fly planes until their Pitot tubes are replaced. ALTER, the smallest of three Air France pilots' unions, would not say what percentage of the carrier's pilots it represents.

The biggest union, SNPL, said Tuesday it has accepted Air France's assurances that no Airbus A330 or A340 will take off unless at least two of its three Pitot tubes have been replaced.

Union spokesman Eric Derivry added that there is no indication that the Pitot tubes caused the accident.

Air France said over the weekend that it began to notice in May of last year that Pitot tubes sometimes briefly iced up at high altitude on A330s and A340s. That caused "a loss of airspeed data," according to the airline -- that is, the pilots didn't know the plane's speed.

Air France decided to replace all its probes starting April 27, following laboratory tests earlier in the year, the airline said.

Air France passenger's body found

2009-06-06T11:19:00.000-07:00

PARIS, France (CNN) The bodies of two men, one of whom was confirmed to be a passenger from the Air France plane that crashed Monday, were found early Saturday, a Brazilian air force spokesman said.

Also found were a backpack and a leather briefcase containing an airplane ticket with a reservation code, which Air France verified belonged to a passenger on the jet, Jorge Amaral said.

The Brazilian navy and air force said the backpack contained a laptop, and an oxygen mask also was discovered, the Brazilian navy and air force said.

Air force officials announced the news in Recife, Brazil. The items were discovered 420 miles north of the Fernando de Noronha islands, 220 miles (355 kilometers) off the northeast coast of Brazil.

All 228 passengers and crew aboard the Airbus 330 are presumed to have died when the plane disappeared northeast of the islands.

The flight originated in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and was en route to Paris, France.

Search teams were still trying to find debris from the jet Saturday, two days after an air force official said debris plucked from the ocean was not from the Air France jet.

Earlier Saturday, aviation investigators said Flight 447 sent out 24 automated error messages, including one saying the aircraft's autopilot had disengaged, before it vanished with 228 people on board.

They also reported that the airline had failed to replace a part, as recommended by the manufacturer, Airbus.

Airbus had advised airlines to update equipment that monitors speed, known as Pitot tubes. The recommendation was a result of technological developments and improvements, an Airbus spokesman told CNN's Richard Quest. The change was not mandatory, and the spokesman would not comment on Air France's failure to follow the advice.

Planes have crashed because of faulty or blocked Pitot tubes in the past, Quest said, and there was clearly something wrong with the doomed plane's speed-monitoring equipment.

But it may be a mistake to place too much emphasis on the Pitot tubes, he added, as the jet apparently was experiencing massive system failures.

Even as they analyzed the error messages and satellite images of the doomed flight's path, investigators said they still have a lot of work to determine what caused the plane to go down.

"I would just like to ask you to bear in mind that all of this is dynamic and there are a lot of question marks," said Paul-Louis Arslanian, head of France's accident investigation bureau.

"We don't know how the aircraft entered the water. We don't know how these pieces of debris entered into the water and that you have to take into account the current ... and the shape of the ocean floor."

The error messages suggest that the plane may have been flying too fast or too slow through the stormy weather it encountered before the crash, officials said.

In addition, investigators have said the plane's autopilot disengaged, cabin pressure was lost, and there was an electrical failure before the disaster.

The jet's manufacturer, Airbus, sent a Telex to operators of Airbus models reminding them of what to do when speed indicators give conflicting readings.

The spokesman said the notice does not mean there is any major flaw in the aircraft but is simply a reminder to pilots of what to do in the cockpit if they get conflicting information about air speed.

Air France: Missing plane probably crashed into Atlantic

2009-06-01T12:59:00.000-07:00

PARIS, France (CNN) -- The jet carrying 228 people from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, that disappeared overnight as it entered an area of strong turbulence probably crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, the CEO of Air France said Monday.

The first three hours of what was to have been an 11-hour flight appear to have been uneventful, CEO Pierre-Henri Gourgeon said.

But about 4:15 a.m. Paris time, Flight 447's automatic system began a four-minute exchange of messages to the company's maintenance computers, indicating that "several pieces of aircraft equipment were at fault or had broken down," he said.

"This succession of messages signals a totally unforeseeable, great difficulty," he said. "Something quite new within the plane."

During that time, there was no contact with the crew, Gourgeon said.

"It was probable that it was a little bit after those messages that the impact of the plane took place in the Atlantic," he added.

He said the Airbus A330 was probably closer to Brazil than to Africa when it crashed.

He noted that turbulence made flying "difficult" in the area but that it is "too early to say" exactly what happened.

The chances of finding any survivors from were "very low," French President Nicolas Sarkozy admitted Monday.

"This is a catastrophe the likes of which Air France has never seen before," he said at Charles de Gaulle International Airport, where he met with relatives of the missing.

"I said the truth to them: The prospects of finding survivors are very low," he said.

Asked the nationalities of those aboard, he said most of them were Brazilians but added, "that changes nothing, of course. They're victims. It doesn't matter about their nationality."

The airline company identified the nationalities of the victims as two Americans, an Argentinean, an Austrian, a Belgian, 58 Brazilians, five British, a Canadian, nine Chinese, a Croatian, a Dane, a Dutch, an Estonian, a Filipino, 61 French, a Gambian, 26 Germans, four Hungarians, three Irish, one Icelandic, nine Italians, five Lebanese, two Moroccans, three Norwegians, two Polish, one Romanian, one Russian, three Slovakian, two Spanish, one Swedish, six Swiss and one Turk.

Sarkozy said French authorities had sent ships and planes to the area about 400 kilometers from Brazil. "Our Spanish friends are helping us; Brazilians are helping us a lot as well."

He added that authorities were seeking the help of satellites that might be able to pick up signs of what happened to the 4-year-old Airbus 330.

No possibility was being excluded: Turbulence in the area was strong, but other planes were able to pass through it without incident, he said.

The plane had reported a problem with the electrical system, "but the specialists refuse for the moment to express themselves about any possibility," Sarkozy said.

The jet had also sent out a warning that it had lost pressure, the Brazilian air force said.

It lost contact with air traffic control between Galeao International Airport in Rio de Janeiro and Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Paris, the airline said Monday.

The Airbus A330 sent out an automatic signal warning of the electrical problems just after 2 a.m. GMT Monday as it flew "far from the coast," said an Air France spokeswoman who declined to be identified. It had just entered a stormy area with strong turbulence, she said.

The jet was flying at an altitude of 35,000 feet and a speed of 521 mph, the air force said.

Among the passengers were 126 men, 82 women, seven children and a baby, in addition to the 12 crew members, Air France officials in Brazil said.

Much of the route is out of radar contact, Brazilian air force Col. Henry Munhoz told TV Globo.

Brazil's air force launched a search near the archipelago of Fernando de Noronha in the Atlantic Ocean, 365 km (226 miles) from Brazil's coast, a spokesman for the air force said.

Two Brazilian squadrons are searching for the plane, although it disappeared after it left the country's radar space, said the officer, who declined to be identified.

The flight, AF 447, took off from Galeao International Airport at 11:30 p.m. Sunday GMT. It was scheduled to land in Paris at 9:10 a.m. GMT.

Its last known contact occurred at 2:33 a.m. GMT, the Brazilian air force spokesman said.

It was expected to check in with air traffic controllers at 3:20 a.m. GMT but did not do so, the Brazilian air force said in a statement.

Brazilian authorities asked the air force to launch a search mission just over three hours later, at 6:30 a.m. GMT, the statement said.

The plane reported no problems before takeoff, Joao Assuncao, Air France's manager in Brazil, told the country's Record TV.

The French ambassador to Senegal told BFMTV that French military aircraft had been dispatched to search around Cape Vert, or Green Cape, off the coast of the west African country.

The airline set up a crisis center at the Paris airport. It listed numbers for families to call: 0 800 800 812 for people in France and 00 33 1 57 02 10 55 for families outside France.

At a crisis center at the airport in Rio, relatives of the missing complained of a dearth of information from Air France, the Brazilian state news agency reported.

One man, who identified himself as Bernardo, said his brother, Romeo Amorim Souza, and his wife were on the missing flight.

"I came to the airport because I wasn't finding information, and my parents are very nervous," he told Agencia Brasil.

The missing A 330 last underwent a maintenance check on April 16, the airline said.

CNN air travel expert Richard Quest said the twin-engine plane, a stalwart of transatlantic routes, had an impeccable safety record, with only one fatal incident involving a training flight in 1994.

"It has very good range and is extremely popular with airlines because of its versatility," he said.

Its crew was composed of three pilots and nine cabin crew members, including a captain who has logged 11,000 hours in flight. About 1,700 of those hours were on the A330 and A340. Of the two co-pilots, one has 3,000 hours of flying experience and the other 6,600 hours. The aircraft has flown 18,870 hours.

The model is "capable of communicating in several different ways over quite long distances even if they are out of radar coverage," said Kieran Daly of the online aviation news service Air Transport Intelligence.

The French Accident Investigation Bureau for civil aviation is investigating, the company said in a statement.

US launches cyber security plan

2009-05-29T11:46:00.000-07:00

US President Barack Obama has announced plans for securing American computer networks against cyber attacks.

He said that from now on, America's digital infrastructure would be treated as a strategic national asset.

He announced the creation of a cyber security office in the White House, and said he would personally appoint a "cyber tsar".

Both US government and military bodies have reported repeated interference from hackers in recent years.

Mr Obama pointed out that al-Qaeda and other groups had threatened computer warfare.

Acts of terror today, he said, could come "not only from a few extremists in suicide vests, but from a few key strokes of a computer - a weapon of mass disruption."

The president said the United States was particularly dependent on its computer networks and therefore particularly vulnerable to cyber attacks.

In 2007 alone the Pentagon reported nearly 44,000 incidents of what it called malicious cyber activity carried out by foreign militaries, intelligence agencies and individual hackers.

Security priority

Mr Obama said that protecting America's digital infrastructure, the networks and computers everyone depended on every day, would be "a national security priority".

"It is now clear," he said, "this cyber threat is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation."

He said the United States had failed to invest in its digital infrastructure. "We are not as prepared as we should be," he said.

In the past, no one US department was responsible for cyber-security, resulting in poor communication and co-ordination, he said.

The new cyber-security office will be a multi-billion dollar effort designed to restrict access to government computers and to protect systems - such as those that run the stock exchange and air traffic control - that keep the country going.

But Mr Obama emphasised that it would also help protect individual Americans, adding: "Millions... have been victimised: their privacy violated, their identities stolen, their lives upended, and their wallets emptied."

He pointed out that according to one survey, cyber crime cost Americans more than $8bn over the last two years. Worldwide, it was estimated that cyber criminals stole intellectual property from businesses worth up to $1 trillion.

"In short, America's economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on cyber-security," he said.

The Obama administration is also expected to create a new cyber command at the Pentagon with the dual task of eradicating potential vulnerabilities in America's sensitive computer networks, while simultaneously creating ways to exploit them in the systems of potential enemies.

An influential study published last year suggested that having an offensive computer warfare capability would have a deterrent effect against would-be attackers.

Earthquake hits Mexico City

2009-05-22T14:27:00.000-07:00

MEXICO CITY (CNN) A moderately strong earthquake rocked Mexico City on Friday afternoon, shaking the earth in the sprawling capital.

The U.S. Geological Survey measured the quake at magnitude 5.7, and placed the epicenter near the city of Puebla, about 85 miles southeast of Mexico City. It hit at 2:24 p.m. local time.

The Mexican seismological service measured the quake at 5.9.

People in the city reported the earth and buildings shaking. Thousands of panicked people streamed into the streets as stopped cars snarled traffic. Parts of the city were without electricity Friday afternoon but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

Earthquakes are a frightening experience for the 20 million residents of Mexico City, where thousands of people perished in a massive quake in 1985. The city, built on volcanic ash and clay, is particularly vulnerable to temblors.

Aldo Pontecorvo of the humanitarian agency World Vision said the shaking lasted about 20 seconds. It came out of nowhere and "without any warning," said Pontecorvo, who said he was in his office when the quake struck.

Earlier this month, a moderate earthquake was measured off the coast of Mexico's western Baja California peninsula.

Brazil food companies Perdigao and Sadia announce they will merge to form Brasil Foods

2009-05-20T11:14:00.000-07:00

(Dow Jones)- The merger of Perdigão S/A (PDA) and Sadia S/A (SDA)is likely to boost the exports and help tap new markets such as China, industryanalysts said Tuesday.

The long-awaited action makes the new merged company, Brasil Foods, one of thelargest food companies in the world, with combined revenues estimated at BRL22billion ($10.7 billion)).

Irish church knew abuse 'endemic'

2009-05-20T11:01:00.000-07:00

An inquiry into child abuse at Catholic institutions in Ireland has found church leaders knew that sexual abuse was "endemic" in boys' institutions.

It also found physical and emotional abuse and neglect were features of institutions.

Schools were run "in a severe, regimented manner that imposed unreasonable and oppressive discipline on children and even on staff".

The nine-year inquiry investigated a 60-year period.

About 35,000 children were placed in a network of reformatories, industrial schools and workhouses up to the 1980s.

More than 2,000 told the Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse they suffered physical and sexual abuse while there.

The leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady, said he was "profoundly sorry and deeply ashamed that children suffered in such awful ways in these institutions".

"This report makes it clear that great wrong and hurt were caused to some of the most vulnerable children in our society," he said.

"It documents a shameful catalogue of cruelty: neglect, physical, sexual and emotional abuse, perpetrated against children."

The five-volume study concluded that church officials encouraged ritual beatings and consistently shielded their orders' paedophiles from arrest amid a "culture of self-serving secrecy".

It also found that government inspectors failed to stop the chronic beatings, rapes and humiliation.

The findings will not be used for criminal prosecutions - in part because the Christian Brothers successfully sued the commission in 2004 to keep the identities of all of its members, dead or alive, unnamed in the report.

No real names, whether of victims or perpetrators, appear in the final document.

Police were called to the commission's news conference amid angry scenes as victims were prevented from attending.

One of the many victims, John Walsh of Irish Survivors of Child Abuse, said the absence of prosecutions had left him feeling "cheated and deceived".

"I would have never opened my wounds if I'd known this was going to be the end result," he said.

"It has devastated me and will devastate most victims because there are no criminal proceedings and no accountability whatsoever."

More allegations were made against the Christian Brothers than the other male orders combined.

The report found child safety was not a priority for the Christian Brothers who ran the institutions, the order was defensive in its response to complaints and failed to accept any congregational responsibility for abuse.

Ritual beatings

The report said that girls supervised by orders of nuns, chiefly the Sisters of Mercy, suffered much less sexual abuse but frequent assaults and humiliation designed to make them feel worthless.

The leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, the Most Reverend Vincent Nichols, said those who perpetrated violence and abuse should be held to account, "no matter how long ago it happened".

"Every time there is a single incident of abuse in the Catholic Church, it is a scandal. I would be very worried if it wasn't a scandal... I hope these things don't happen again, but I hope they're never a matter of indifference," he said.

The commission said overwhelming, consistent testimony from still-traumatized men and women, now in their 50s to 80s, had demonstrated beyond a doubt that the entire system treated children more like prison inmates and slaves than people with legal rights and human potential.

"The reformatory and industrial schools depended on rigid control by means of severe corporal punishment and the fear of such punishment," it said.

"The harshness of the regime was inculcated into the culture of the schools by successive generations of brothers, priests and nuns.

"It was systemic and not the result of individual breaches by persons who operated outside lawful and acceptable boundaries.

"Excesses of punishment generated the fear that the school authorities believed to be essential for the maintenance of order."

The report proposed 21 ways the government could recognise past wrongs, including building a permanent memorial, providing counselling and education to victims, and improving Ireland's current child protection services.

Indian prime minister looks set for second term

2009-05-16T08:37:00.000-07:00

NEW DELHI, India (CNN/Believer Inf) Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appeared set for a second term as his Congress party and its allies scored a decisive lead over their opponents on Saturday in a vote count after the country's monthlong general elections.

The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance surged ahead in more than 255 of the 543 federal parliamentary boroughs, outpacing the main opposition composed of a grouping led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP).

BJP leader Arun Jaitley conceded defeat, stating that the ruling party will win the election.

"We respect this mandate and accept it," Jaitley said.

India's communists, who last year parted ways with the federal government for its civilian nuclear cooperation agreement with the United States, also suffered a massive blow in their stronghold state of West Bengal as they trailed their rivals in more than half of its boroughs.

Singh drove down to the home of Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born head of the Congress party, after trends gave out a clear mandate in favor of the ruling coalition.

Standing beside Gandhi, who once again endorsed the choice of Singh for her party's top job, he thanked voters for their support.

He vowed to maintain a stable government that he said would remain committed to secular values. Singh also remarked that he would like Rahul Gandhi, son of his party chief, to become a member of his new Cabinet.

Deepak Sandhu, the prime minister's spokeswoman, told Believer Infthat Singh is expected to hold a meeting of his current Cabinet on Monday.

The prime minister, whose coalition may need some extra backing to be able to reclaim power with a majority of 272 lawmakers on its side, threw up an invitation to all secular parties to come and support his government.

The fifth and final phase of India's marathon general election to choose a federal government ended Wednesday.

Most of the results of the will be out by the end of the day, election officials said.

India is home to about 714 million voters. About 100 million voters registered for Wednesday's polling.

Gay protest broken up in Moscow

2009-05-16T08:33:00.000-07:00

Police in Russia have broken up a protest by gay rights activists in Moscow, staged to coincide with the final of the Eurovision Song Contest.

BBC

Some 30 campaigners had gathered near a university in defiance of a ban on their march and many were dragged away by police when they shouted slogans.

British gay rights activist, Peter Tatchell, was among those detained.

A counter-demonstration by nationalist and religious groups was allowed to go ahead elsewhere in the Russian capital.

Equal rights

The gay rights group had been waving flags and chanting slogans demanding equal rights and condemning the treatment of gays and lesbians in Russia.

At least 20 were arrested as police moved in to disperse the protest.

As he was being taken away by police, Mr Tatchell shouted: "This shows the Russian people are not free."

Speaking from a police station, he later told the BBC: "The way the police violently broke up our peaceful protest is an indication of a drift toward authoritarianism that is affecting all Russians."

'Satanic'

The organiser of the gathering and leading campaigner, Nikolai Alexeyev, was also detained at the event, which took place in the south-west of the city.

The Eurovision Song Contest traditionally has a large gay following and activists in Russia had seen its staging in Moscow as a great opportunity to highlight what they say is deep prejudice, says the BBC's Moscow correspondent, Richard Galpin.

There have been many attacks on members of the gay community - they also say they risk being sacked by their employers and shunned by their families.

The Moscow mayor Yuri Luzkhov has described gay parades as "satanic".

Anti-gay groups had threatened to take matters into their own hands if the police failed to stop the protest.

Several dozen nationalist and religious protesters earlier staged an anti-gay march near central Moscow.

Peru 'bar gay people from police'

2009-05-14T05:35:00.000-07:00

Peru has announced that it will ban homosexuals from the police force for damaging the image of the institution.

The law is one of several new regulations put forward by the Interior Minister, Mercedes Cabanillas.

Ms Cabanillas is trying to shake up the institution, which has a dismal reputation among the general public.

But critics say some of the new laws, especially those regarding sexual orientation or activity, are unconstitutional.

The law states that any police officer who has sexual relations with someone of the same gender will be indefinitely suspended from the police force.

The same applies to officers who have extra-marital relations - their actions are also deemed to cause scandal and denigrate the institution's image.

They are among a raft of new regulations, which also include provision for sacking police officers who accept bribes, organise or take part in strikes and protest marches.

Ms Cabanillas' strong-arm tactics have earned her some public backing and the nickname "Thatcher" in the Peruvian media, after the former Conservative British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.

Traditional machismo means openly homosexual police men are extremely scarce, but gay rights activists are growing in strength and this new law will provoke a debate.

Obama defends abuse photos U-turn

2009-05-14T05:32:00.000-07:00

The release of more photos of prisoner abuse by US soldiers is "of no benefit" and may inflame opinion against the US, President Barack Obama has said.

The pictures were not "sensational" and every case of abuse had been dealt with by the military, with action taken where appropriate, he said.

The White House previously said it would not fight a court ruling ordering the release of the pictures.

US civil liberties activists accused Mr Obama of adopting Bush-era policies.

The pictures were due to be released by 28 May, according to the court order.

The order was issued by an appeals court in September 2008, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

'Mockery'

Barack Obama explains why he doesn't want the release of the photos

The US defence department had been preparing to release the images, reportedly taken in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the dispute could now end up before the US Supreme Court.

Speaking outside the White House, Mr Obama said he would not tolerate the abuse of prisoners.

However, he had, he said, directed his legal team to fight the court-ordered release of the photos because he was concerned they might "inflame anti-American opinion and put our troops in greater danger".

The Pentagon had not sought to conceal anything, he added, and appropriate action had been taken against individuals involved in abuses. The president had been advised against publication by Defence Secretary Robert Gates, Centcom commander Gen David Petraeus and the commander of US forces in Iraq, Gen Ray Odierno, a Pentagon official said.

The ACLU said the president's "decision not to release the photographs makes a mockery of President Obama's promise of transparency and accountability".

"It's absolutely essential that these photos be released so the public can examine for itself the torture and abuse that was conducted in its name," ACLU attorney Amrit Singh said.

The human rights group Amnesty International also criticised the president's decision, saying human beings had been "tortured and denied basic rights".

But the switch was welcomed by Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican, and Senator Joe Lieberman, an independent.

"The fact that the president reconsidered the decision is a strength not a weakness," they said in a joint statement.

The BBC's Richard Lister in Washington says that although President Obama has insisted on the need for open government, it appears that on this issue he has been persuaded that - for now at least - such transparency risks doing more harm than good.

Leaders meet over power plant row

2009-05-08T09:01:00.000-07:00

The presidents of Brazil and Paraguay are meeting to try to resolve a dispute over the Itaipu hydro-electric plant, one of the biggest in the world.

The two countries run the project jointly. But Paraguay uses less power than Brazil.

It says it is obliged to sell its surplus to Brazil at an unfair price.

President Fernando Lugo of Paraguay wants to renegotiate the deal, a demand opposed by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Source of tension

Paraguay is one of the poorest countries in South America and its president comes to Brazil keen to resolve what has been a long-running source of tension between the two sides.

The Paraguayan government believes it is not getting a fair share of the profits from the massive power project.

As the smaller of the two countries it only takes a limited amount of the electricity produced at the plant.

Under the terms of the Itaipu treaty which was negotiated in the 1970s, Paraguay says it is obliged to sell its surplus energy to Brazil at prices well below what it could get on the open market.

The Brazilians say they covered most of the cost of constructing this vast project, and argue that their smaller neighbour has to pay its fair share.

However the debt is huge and Paraguay has threatened to pursue an international court case to dispute the amount involved.

In recent weeks Brazilian ministers have been working on proposals to resolve these contentious issues, but so far there is no sign that what is on offer is enough to bridge the gap between both sides.

President Lugo made it a key part of his election campaign that his country would renegotiate the treaty of Itaipu, arguing that control over the country's energy was a question of national sovereignty.

For the moment talks are continuing, but with little sign of agreement, it may be one for the lawyers after all.

Deadly floods strike northern Brazil

2009-05-06T17:30:00.000-07:00

SAO PAULO, Brazil (CNN) At least 18 people have died in heavy flooding across 11 states in northern and northeastern Brazil, according to a statement Tuesday from Brazil's national civil defense service.

Severe rains and mudslides prompted Brazil's Ministry of National Integration to distribute more than 1,100 tons of food across six states -- Amazonas, Piaui, Maranhao, Para, Paraiba and Acre.

In Maranhao, 22,000 people have been left homeless and 25,000 had to flee their homes, authorities said. Forty-two municipalities in the state have declared a state of emergency. Seven people in the state have died in flooding, according to a statement from the Maranhao civil defense authority.

In Ceara the death toll was at seven, authorities said. More than 11,000 people are in public shelters and another 15,000 fled to friends' or relatives' homes. Six municipalities have declared a state of emergency, according to a statement from Ceara civil defense authority.

In Salvador, the capital of the state of Bahia, four people died Tuesday in flooding, authorities said. They were killed when three buildings collapsed after a landslide in the Piraja area.

In Para, at least 1,000 people had to flee their homes. A statement from the Para civil defense authority said 28 municipalities have declared a state of emergency.

Obama hails unity over al-Qaeda

2009-05-06T17:27:00.000-07:00

US President Barack Obama has said after meeting his Afghan and Pakistani counterparts that they are united in the goal of defeating al-Qaeda.

Da BBC

Speaking in Washington, Mr Obama said the goal was to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaeda" and its allies.

He also pledged greater resources to help civilians in both countries and try to avoid civilian casualties.

Dozens of civilians are thought to have died in US air strikes on Taleban targets in Afghanistan on Tuesday.

Earlier, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she "deeply, deeply" regretted the deaths, adding that the US would work hard to avoid such "loss of innocent life".

Meanwhile, Pakistan's army was engaged in bloody operations to reverse a Taleban advance in its northern provinces on Wednesday.

The bottom line at the summit was more American troops for Afghanistan and more aid for Pakistan, with the Obama administration deepening its involvement in the search for stability, the BBC's Kevin Connolly reports from Washington.

'Solid support'

Mr Obama said his counterparts fully appreciated the gravity of the security threats posed by militants.

America, he said, was on the side of people in Pakistan and Afghanistan and had a comprehensive strategy for the region, with civilian and military components.

He said he expected more setbacks and violence to come, but there was a lasting commitment to defeat al-Qaeda.

The US would, he added, offer unwavering support to the governments of both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

"We have learned time and again that our security is shared," Mr Obama added. "It is a lesson that we learned most painfully on 9/11, and it is a lesson that we will not forget."

Senior US officials have expressed uncertainty over the commitment of the military in Pakistan, a nuclear power, to defeating militants based in its border region.

Speaking earlier after talks with Mrs Clinton, President Asif Ali Zardari said Pakistan would help Afghanistan and the US to fight the threat posed by the Taleban and al-Qaeda.

"For no matter how long it takes and what it takes, democracies will deliver, my democracy will deliver," he told reporters.

"People of Pakistan stand with the people of the United States and the people of Afghanistan."

Argentina priests in drug protest

2009-04-28T17:28:00.000-07:00

Hundreds of priests in Argentina have highlighted their concern after two of their number received death threats.

Some 353 Catholic priests in Buenos Aires signed a document in support of the men, who work with addicts in some of the city's poorest neighbourhoods.

The Church last month published a report highlighting a huge increase in drug addiction and dealing in the city.

The report said hard drugs, like Paco - a kind of crack cocaine - are sold openly and often near schools.

The report added that there was is a lack of political will to deal with the results.

"The drug trade has been like a tsunami breaking over us," said Padre Pepe de Paola, one of the priests who has received death threats.

"Heavy drug trafficking started in 2001 when the Argentine economy crashed and we haven't been able to cope."

One dose of Paco costs around $1.50 (£1) and children as young as 12 are becoming addicts, taking up to 40 doses a day.

The Church says there is a lack of spending on education and decent schooling where children can develop their own way in life.

It adds that Argentina as a whole has a disregard for the problems of the young and poor.

Most of those who are making money from drug trafficking, the document says, do not live in poor neighbourhoods but in rich ones.

Two years ago, government figures said there were 27,000 addicts in greater Buenos Aires, but recent research estimates this figure has doubled.

"It's going to take a long time, and it's not just one government who will need to work on this, it's got to be a long-term approach," said Padre Pepe de Paola.

Mexico imposes swine flu measures

2009-04-28T17:24:00.000-07:00

Mexico City has banned restaurants and cafes from serving all food except takeaways in a bid to help prevent the spread of the deadly swine flu virus.

Schools across Mexico have closed and public gatherings are restricted, after more than 150 people are believed to have died from swine flu.

The number of cases globally is rising, though no-one outside Mexico has died.

The UN has called on countries to check their contingency plans for a possible global epidemic, or pandemic.

The UN's World Health Organization (WHO) chief Dr Keiji Fukuda said a pandemic was "a very serious possibility, but it is still too early to say that this is inevitable".

As officials in Mexico City announced the latest measures to stop the virus spreading, the city's chamber of trade estimated restrictions in the city were costing businesses there at least 777 million pesos ($57m or £39m) a day.

US cases confirmed

After Mexico - where the outbreak started - the US has the highest number of confirmed swine flu cases with 64.

President Barack Obama has asked Congress for an additional $1.5bn (£1bn) to bolster the US response.

In California, where there have been 11 cases, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency as a precautionary measure but stressed there was "no need for alarm".

In another development, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation is sending a team to investigate claims that industrial pig farms in Mexico were the source of the outbreak in humans.

The agency's chief veterinary officer, Joseph Domenech, told the BBC that the FAO had to act following rumours that people had been falling ill last month near some intensive pig farms .

Other countries around the world to have confirmed swine flu cases are Canada, New Zealand, Spain, Israel and the UK.

Several other countries are investigating suspected cases including Australia, Brazil, France, Chile and Denmark.

The WHO says it is "critical" that travellers from Mexico who might be infected be identified, but it has advised against countries imposing border restrictions or travel bans, saying such measures do no work.

Some countries in Asia, Latin America and Europe are screening airport passengers for symptoms, while tour operators in France and Germany have suspended trips to Mexico.

Flights stopped

Cuba also suspended flights to and from Mexico for 48 hours from Tuesday and a Canadian tour operator, Air Transat, said it was also halting flights to Mexico until 1 June.

The WHO raised its pandemic alert status to level four on Monday - two levels from a full pandemic - after concluding there had been sustained transmission between humans.

Levels five and six are reserved for when there is widespread human infection.

In almost all cases outside Mexico, people have been only mildly ill and have made a full recovery.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday it may abandon the term swine flu because some people wrongly think they can catch it from pork.

Pork producers in the US and Brazil are pushing for the name 'swine' to be changed , saying it is damaging their business.

China, Russia and Ukraine have all banned pork imports from Mexico and parts of the US since the outbreak began.

By BBC/Ap

Mexico flu 'a potential pandemic'

2009-04-25T08:18:00.000-07:00

A new flu virus suspected of killing up to 60 people in Mexico has the potential to become a pandemic, the World Health Organization's chief says.

Margaret Chan said the outbreak was a "serious situation" which needed to be followed closely.

Ms Chan cut short a visit to the US and returned to Geneva for urgent talks.

Health experts say tests so far seem to link the illnesses in Mexico with a new swine flu virus that sickened eight people in the southern US.

The WHO's new emergency committee is now meeting - though health officials say it may be premature to advise against travel to Mexico.

The committee will be discussing whether to declare a public health emergency, and whether to raise the global pandemic alert level.

The WHO says it does not know the full risk yet.

It is advising all member states to be vigilant for seasonally unusual flu or pneumonia-like symptoms among their populations - particularly among young healthy adults, who seem to be the most affected in Mexico.

Sex row Paraguay leader to stay

2009-04-25T08:11:00.000-07:00

Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo says he will not resign over claims by three women that he fathered children with them while he was a Catholic priest.

Mr Lugo said in a televised address that he would see his mandate through to 2013 regardless of "rumours of instability and conspiracy".

He asked for forgiveness from anyone who was offended by the revelations.

Opposition politicians have seized on the controversy to undermine Mr Lugo, who ran on a campaign of honesty.

Released from vows

"It was not my intention to offend anyone," Mr Lugo said in his televised news conference, after cancelling what was regarded as an important trip to Washington due to start on Friday.

"I don't hesitate to ask for forgiveness in recognising that I failed the church, the country, the citizens, those who put their trust in me," he said.

Mr Lugo came to power last August, ousting the right-wing Colorado party that had governed Paraguay for six decades.

The Pope only released him from his vows of chastity last July, two years after Mr Lugo renounced the priesthood.

This month, three women have come forward claiming that the former Roman Catholic bishop is the father of their children.

Mr Lugo, 57, acknowledges a two-year-old boy born to a former parishioner as his own, but has not commented on the paternity of the others, a 14-month-old boy and a 6-year-old boy.

'Lost credibility'

Calling the cases "private" during the news conference, he told journalists he could not keep answering questions without neglecting his duties as president.

He said he would leave the matter in the hands of the justice system.

A Paraguayan bishop, Rogelio Livieres, had called for Mr Lugo to resign.

On Friday, a senator from a party currently aligned with Mr Lugo's also urged him to step down.

"Your current personal situation has made you lose all credibility," Alfredo Jaeggli said in a letter to the presidency and congress. "I beg you to resign."

Sitting alongside the president were a number of ministers who celebrated achievements from the government's first year in office, but critics claim the scandal continues to paralyse his administration, the BBC's Gary Duffy reports from Asuncion.

High court test for voting rights in Texas case

2009-04-25T08:08:00.000-07:00

The community of Canyon Creek was ranchland rich with limestone and cedar trees when Jim Crow held sway in the South. The first house wasn't built until the late 1980s and not even a hint of discrimination attaches to this little slice in suburbia.

President Barack Obama won more than 48 percent of the vote in November in this overwhelmingly white community northwest of the state capital.

Yet Canyon Creek, the heart of Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One, is the site of a major Supreme Court battle over the federal government's often used and most effective tool in preventing voting discrimination against minorities.

The utility district's elected five-person board manages a local park and pays down bond debt. Because it is in Texas, the board is covered by a section of the Voting Rights Act that requires approval from the Justice Department before any changes can be made in how elections are conducted.

That requirement applies to all or parts of 16 states, mostly in the South, with a history of preventing blacks, Hispanics and other minorities from voting.

The utility district is challenging that section of the law, which Congress extended in 2006 for 25 years. The Obama administration is defending it.

The Voting Rights Act, enacted in 1965, opened the polls to millions of black Americans. The law "has been the most important and transformative civil rights act in our country's history," said John Payton, director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

The federal government has used the provision, known as Section 5, to "stop things that would have perverted our democracy," Payton said. His group represents Texans and organizations seeking to preserve the section.

On the other side are the utility district, an array of conservative legal groups and some Southern Republicans.

Texas and other Southern states once might have deserved to be under federal supervision, but the time for this "unparalleled federal intrusion" on a traditional power of state and local governments has passed, the utility district says in its challenge.

The justices will hear arguments in the case this coming Wednesday.

Much has changed across the South and elsewhere in the country, not least of which is Obama's election, Gregory Coleman, the district's lawyer, has told the court.

If the justices side with Canyon Creek, they could strike down Section 5 entirely, eliminating the need for any jurisdiction to seek prior approval for election changes, or tailor a narrow ruling that applies only to the utility district.

Coleman, a former Texas solicitor general, had been looking for a way to take on Section 5. In Canyon Creek, with its lack of racially charged history and unstinting compliance with the Voting Rights Act, he found a willing partner.

As recently as 2002, voters in Canyon Creek walked up Jack Steuber's driveway to choose their utility district board. Bill Ferguson won a seat on the board, then sought to hold the next election in a school rather than in a neighbor's garage.

But first the board had to seek federal clearance to change the polling location. The community got it, but Canyon Creek's board didn't understand the need to ask Washington to sign off on a change in a tiny neighborhood where there isn't a trace of minority voter discrimination.

The community has about 3,500 residents, 80 percent of whom are white, according to the 2000 census. A number of families settled in Canyon Creek for high-tech jobs. Some work at Dell Inc., whose headquarters is nearby in Round Rock.

Don Zimmerman, the utility district's vice president, spent a recent afternoon installing a security camera to scare away teenage vandals who keep ripping planks off a playground set.

"It's insulting to me to be accused of having a racial bias just because you live in Texas," said Zimmerman, an engineer.

Ferguson, 53, said, "I'm sort of embarrassed that we're still subject to this because it makes us look like dumb crackers. I don't think it's appropriate anymore."

Resounding majorities of Democrats and Republicans in Congress, however, thought it was necessary when they voted in 2006 to extend the advance approval requirement for 25 more years. President George W. Bush, a Texan and a Republican, signed the measure into law.

"Today, we renew a bill that helped bring a community on the margins into the life of American democracy," Bush said at the signing ceremony in July 2006. "My administration will vigorously enforce the provisions of this law, and we will defend it in court."

A few Republicans have raised their voice in opposition to the extension of the law, which otherwise would have expired in 2007. Among them are Republican Govs. Sonny Perdue of Georgia and Bob Riley of Alabama.

Their states, the governors said, have worked hard to eradicate the government-sponsored discrimination that resulted in federal supervision. "Georgia has earned the right to be free" of asking the federal government to bless election changes, Perdue said. In Alabama, blacks and whites register and vote in similar proportions, Riley said.

Other numbers suggest, as Justice Anthony Kennedy said in a recent court case involving a different section of the Voting Rights Act, "racial discrimination and racially polarized voting are not ancient history." In Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi _ all of which must submit proposed election changes for approval _ less than 15 percent of white voters chose Obama.

Evidence amassed at congressional hearings showed that hundreds of discriminatory proposals were rejected by the Justice Department or withdrawn when government lawyers raised questions.

The Supreme Court has upheld the advance approval requirement on four occasions before now. The outcome this time may be no different, but the recent additions of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito have given hope to the law's opponents.

Roberts, in particular, has in several cases opposed the continuing use of race, once lamenting the "sordid business" of taking race into account to draw congressional districts.

In Canyon Creek, residents seem to care more about their tax squabbles with the Austin city government than the voting rights dispute, according to Ferguson, the board member.

And not all the utility district's leaders believe issue before the high court has run its course. Chris Bowers, 40, was elected last May on a platform that questioned why this was even Canyon Creek's fight. Bowers believes his victory shows many agree with him.

"I think it's dangerous to be using the government entity which has this narrow focus of paying off ... bonds" to challenge a federal law, Bowers said. "This really seems out of scope."

Supreme Court Writer Mark Sherman reported from Washington.

Obama sees chance for Cuba, Venezuela dialogue

2009-04-19T10:13:00.000-07:00

President Barack Obama says he sees the chance for frank dialogue with both Venezuela and Cuba.

Obama already has lifted travel restrictions on Cuban-Americans to visit families on the communist island. And he had several opportunities to greet Hugo Chavez, the leftist leader of Venezuela, at the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago this weekend.

But Obama reminded reporters at a summit-concluding news conference, "the test for all of us is not simply words but deeds."

AP NEWS

Hamilton not upset by Dennis exit

2009-04-17T19:06:00.000-07:00

Dennis and Hamilton have had a close working relationship for many years

Lewis Hamilton has insisted that despite being surprised at the exit of McLaren mentor Ron Dennis from Formula 1, he was "not disappointed".

BBC

Dennis, who stepped down as team boss in January, handed over complete control of McLaren Racing to team principal Martin Whitmarsh on Thursday.

"I wasn't disappointed," said the 23-year-old. "I was surprised."

Hamilton said Dennis would remain key in his life - but admitted he did not know why he had chosen to leave now.

"Ron has been a huge force and support in my life, and he still plays a key role in my life," he told a news conference after Friday practice at the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai.

"Whether or not he is in the team or not, I think you guys have been writing about it for years that as soon as he gets to a certain stage he will move aside.

"I guess I don't know why he decided to do it now."

Dennis ended his 43-year involvement in F1 at a time when McLaren, whose car Hamilton drove to the world title last year, are under intense pressure after a series of on and off-track troubles.

McLaren - who have failed to register a podium finish in the season's first two races - are set to face the sport's governing body, the FIA, on 29 April to answer charges of breaching the International Sporting Code.

That comes after the British team were found guilty of misleading race stewards following the Australian Grand Prix, which led to Hamilton being disqualified from the race.

And 61-year-old Dennis - who insists that the timing of his departure from F1 was "purely coincidental" - admitted his absence may well be welcomed by two of F1's biggest names.

"I admit I'm not always easy to get on with. I admit I've always fought hard for McLaren in Formula 1," he said.

"I doubt if [FIA president] Max Mosley or [F1 commercial rights holder] Bernie Ecclestone will be displeased by my decision."

Martin Whitmarsh has also suggested that Dennis' departure may improve the team's standing with the FIA.

As executive chairman of McLaren Automotive, Dennis will now concentrate solely on leading the group's project to develop a range of pure McLaren sports cars, with the launch date for the first model set for 2011.

The future of Hamilton, who is contracted to McLaren until 2013, has been subject to scrutiny since events in Melbourne - but he insisted on Friday that he was not looking elsewhere.

"I'm contracted to the team and I'm happy where I am," he said.

Obama, Chavez shake hands at Americas Summit

2009-04-17T19:00:00.000-07:00

Presidents Barack Obama and Hugo Chavez have met for the first time, shaking hands as the Summit of the Americas gets under way in Trinidad and Tobago.

Photos released by the Venezuelan government show the two smiling and Obama touching Chavez on the shoulder.

The Venezuelan presidency says Obama initiated the handshake. It quotes Chavez as telling Obama he hopes for better relations between their nations.

Chavez also reportedly said Friday: "With this same hand I greeted Bush eight years ago. I want to be your friend."

As recently as last week, Chavez expressed a desire to "reset" relations with Washington.

Met suspends G20 footage officer

2009-04-15T06:26:00.000-07:00

A police sergeant apparently seen in video footage hitting a woman during the G20 protest in London has been suspended, Scotland Yard has said.

He is shown hitting the woman in the face with his hand and her leg with his baton after allegedly being sworn at.

The sergeant works for the Territorial Support Group.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission - probing the death of Ian Tomlinson during the 1 April protests - is examining the case.

Opposition members of the London Assembly said the latest incident proved that Mr Tomlinson's assault was not an isolated incident.

Officers 'accountable'

The latest video footage featuring the female protester has been passed to the IPCC, a Metropolitan Police spokesman said.

"The officer has been identified and suspended pending further investigation. The officer works as a sergeant in the territorial support group," he added.

Earlier, police said the actions of the officer featured in the footage raised "immediate concerns".

"Every officer is accountable under law, and fully aware of the scrutiny that their actions can be held open to," police said.

"The decision to use force is made by the individual police officer, and they must account for that."

The IPCC said it had been made aware of the latest footage by the Met and would now be looking at the "best way to progress an investigation into the actions of the officer involved".

Jenny Jones, the Green Party's home affairs spokesman on the London Assembly, said she was worried officers may have hidden police uniform numbers to avoid identification.

"This new video footage confirms what many of us knew, that the assault on Ian Tomlinson was far from being an isolated incident during the G20 protest," she said.

She added: "Any attempt to avoid accountability by hiding police uniform numbers, destroying video images, or collusion over statements, must be severely dealt with."

A Met spokesman said the grey epaulette flashes on the officer should also have carried his sergeant stripes.

David Howarth, the Liberal Democrat's justice spokesman, has called for a "full-scale inquiry".

"The fact that this video shows another example of an officer with his number obscured assaulting a member of the public indicates that there is a systematic problem here, not just a series of individual acts of misconduct," he said.

"The question is on my mind whether the police are using a some kind of 'designated hitter' system."

Investigation 'right'

Shami Chakrabarti, director of human rights group Liberty, said: "It is no doubt a pressure cooker environment, however highly trained professionals are supposed to be better at defusing the situation."

Andrew Or, a photographer who was standing near the woman, said the strike across the face could have been accidental.

"I was actually quite shocked when I saw the movement of the arm and her being hit by the policeman," he said.

"He may not have meant to hit her, he may have been swinging his arm in a movement to say move back."

The video footage of the female protester emerged as the IPCC continues to investigate the death of Mr Tomlinson, who suffered a heart attack and died during the demonstrations on 1 April.

The IPCC took up the case after footage taken by a New York fund manager showed Mr Tomlinson being pushed to the ground by a police officer shortly before his death.

Days later more video footage aired on Channel 4 appeared to show the newspaper vendor being struck by an officer with a baton.

The police officer seen in the video of Mr Tomlinson has been suspended by the Met.

Labour MP Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons home affairs select committee, said it was "absolutely right" any allegations regarding the new video footage should be thoroughly investigated.

Teen says man was at pond where girl's body found

2009-04-11T08:35:00.000-07:00

A police cadet said Friday that he saw someone "acting real strange" at an irrigation pond three days before an 8-year-old girl's body found in a suitcase pulled from the water.

Stephen Memory, a 19-year-old who lives near the pond where Sandra Cantu's body was found, said he spoke to the FBI about what he saw.

Memory said that he thought it was odd to see a beige Chevrolet Silverado truck parked on the shoulder of the road facing in the wrong direction on the afternoon of April 3. Sandra's body was found April 6.

The driver _ a white man in his late 40s or early 50s wearing a white baseball cap and gray T-shirt _ appeared to be looking down at the ditch beside the road, said Memory, a Stockton police cadet. Only four or five cars travel the remote road, which is a dead end, on a typical day, he noted.

"He was acting real strange," Memory said Friday of the driver. "I drove by real slow to get a good look at him. He looked at me real quick and then he turned away. I just kept going."

The FBI referred questions to Tracy police. Sgt. Tony Sheneman said Friday he was not aware of Memory's report and declined to comment on specifics of the pending investigation.

No suspects have been named in the case, but police have said the department has fielded nearly 1,500 tips in the search for Sandra's killer. Sheneman said "the investigation is heading in the right direction" but would not elaborate.

On Friday, Sheneman also announced a $32,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

Meanwhile, a Sunday school teacher who lives in the mobile home complex where Sandra lived told the Tracy Press that her black suitcase was stolen from her driveway March 27, the day the girl disappeared.

Melissa Huckaby, 28, said Sandra visited her home that day to ask if she could play with her daughter. Huckaby said she left the suitcase in the driveway and forgot about it; when she went back for it, it was gone. She said she's spoken to authorities but doesn't know if her missing suitcase matches the one that held the girl's body.

Sheneman declined to comment on Huckaby's comments, only saying that there was no police report filed on a missing suitcase. A call to Huckaby by The Associated Press was not immediately returned.

Melissa Huckaby is a granddaughter of Pastor Clifford Lawless, who was questioned by police for three hours the night Sandra's body was found and whose Clover Road Baptist Church has been the subject of a police search. Lawless has denied involvement in Sandra's disappearance, and police say he's not at the center of their investigation.

Brazil court orders jail, retrial in US nun death

2009-04-09T06:56:00.000-07:00

A court on Tuesday ordered the arrest and retrial of an Amazon rancher acquitted of orchestrating the murder of American nun and rain forest activist Dorothy Stang.

Para state's top court reversed last year's not-guilty verdict for Vitalmiro Moura on a technicality, ruling that a video used by the defense was not admissible as evidence, the state prosecutor said.

"We're elated and we are convinced we will get a guilty verdict in the new trial," prosecutor Edson Souza told The Associated Press.

Souza said Moura is charged with ordering Stang's murder and that he had yet to be arrested. Calls to Moura's last-known defense attorney were not immediately answered.

Moura is accused of masterminding the 2005 death of the 73-year-old Stang, who was shot six times at close range with a revolver in the small jungle city of Anapu. A native of Dayton, Ohio, Stang spent three decades on the Amazon's wild frontier, working to preserve the rain forest and defend the rights of poor settlers whose lands were seized by powerful ranchers.

Her death prompted Amazon activists _ more than 1,000 of whom have been murdered in the past 20 years _ to demand Brazil's government crack down on the illegal seizing and clearing of rain forest to graze cattle, raise soy crops and harvest timber.

"I am excited that perhaps Dorothy will find justice," David Stang, the nun's brother, wrote in an e-mail to the AP.

David Stang, of Palmer Lake, Colorado, has traveled to Brazil several times to witness the trials. "All of us who love Brazil today are so proud of this great country, as would Dorothy be proud today," he wrote.

Prosecutors contend Moura and rancher Regivaldo Galvao hired gunmen to kill Stang over a disputed plot of land.

Moura has already been tried twice in the case _ Brazil has no double jeopardy law. He was found guilty by a state court in 2007 and sentenced to 30 years in prison. But that ruling was overturned last year after the man who confessed to shooting Stang recanted earlier testimony, insisting that he'd acted alone. Gunman Rayfran das Neves Sales was sentenced to 28 years in prison.

The court ruled on Tuesday that Moura and Sales must be retried because a video that Moura's defense showed the jury was inadmissible.

That video _ depicting Amair Feijoli da Cunha, who was sentenced to 17 years for acting as the middleman between the gunman and the ranchers _ was made while he was in prison and without a judge's approval.

The video, made by the defense team, showed Cunha saying that Moura had nothing to do with the case. He had testified earlier that Moura paid the hired gunmen.

In Moura's first trial, Cunha was expected to act as a witness for the prosecution, but was so badly beaten by a fellow inmate in jail that he wasn't able to attend the trial.

"We got him," federal prosecutor Felicio Pontes said of Moura. "All the lies and fabrications around this case have now died."

Pontes is not involved in the prosecution of Moura's case, but is prosecuting Galvao separately. Pontes fought to have all the cases judged by federal courts, which are widely perceived to be less swayed by local politics than the state courts, which tend to favor the ranchers.

The second rancher, Galvao, was arrested in 2005 but was freed on bail in 2006. Federal prosecutors last month charged him with trying to use falsified documents to obtain the same plot of Amazon rain forest that Stang died trying to defend.

That new charge could undermine one of Galvao's key alibis in the murder case. He has testified he had no interest in the piece of land Stang was defending.

Para court officials said no date has been set for the trials of Moura or Sales.

Pontes warned that the two ranchers might flee before their retrial.

More than 1,100 activists, small farmers, judges, priests and other rural workers have been killed in land disputes in the past two decades, according to the Catholic Land Pastoral, a Brazil-based watchdog group.

Of those killings, fewer than 100 cases have gone to court. About 80 convicted suspects were hired guns for powerful ranchers and loggers seeking to expand their lands, according to federal prosecutors and the Catholic group.

About 15 of the men who hired them were found guilty, but none is serving a sentence today.

Stang's case was the subject of a documentary film, "They Killed Sister Dorothy," which debuted on HBO last month.

European investors await Bank of England

2009-04-09T06:53:00.000-07:00

European stock markets rose only modestly Thursday despite earlier hefty gains in Asia _ which included a near 4 percent rally on Tokyo's Nikkei following details of a new stimulus package _ as investors remained cautious ahead of a Bank of England interest rate decision and the long Easter weekend.

The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was up 24.17 points, or 0.6 percent, at 3,949.69, while Germany's DAX rose 50.44 points, or 1.2 percent, to 4,408.36. France's CAC-40 was 17.28 points, or 0.6 percent, higher at 2,938.34. All three indexes are closed for the Good Friday public holiday, and the FTSE won't actually be reopening until Tuesday.

The main point of interest in European markets will be the Bank of England's rate decision at midday London time (1100 GMT). Though the bank is expected to keep its benchmark rate unchanged at 0.5 percent, investors will be focusing on what the Bank says about its quantitative easing strategy, in which the central bank can buy up to 75 billion pounds of financial assets from commercial banks in the hope that they will use the money to start lending again.

Earlier in Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average added 321.05 points, or 3.7 percent, to 8,916.06 for its highest close in three months, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng climbed 426.55, or 3 percent, to 14,901.41.

Investors across Asia were buoyed by the news that Japan's ruling party is seeking a stimulus package that is substantially bigger than originally announced, involving 15 trillion yen ($150.4 billion) in new fiscal spending. The measures, should they win final approval, would equal some 3 percent of the country's gross domestic product.

"Markets welcomed the move but it may be some time before this optimism is felt across the broader economy," said Neil Mellor, an analyst at Bank of New York Mellon.

There was also some encouragement offered by the news that Japan's machinery orders _ an indicator of how much the country's companies plan to spend _ rose in February for the first time in five months. Core private sector machinery orders grew 1.4 percent in February from the previous month to 728.1 billion yen ($7.3 billion), the government said.

In addition, there was upbeat data from China where auto sales hit a monthly record of 1.11 million vehicles in March, exceeding U.S. sales for the third month in a row, as tax cuts and rebates for small car purchases lured buyers back into showrooms. Shanghai's main index closed 32.49 points, or 1.4 percent, higher at 2,379.88.

Despite some losses this week, stocks around the world are still trading much higher than they were just a month ago, amid some tentative optimism that the worst of the global economic downturn may have passed.

However, David Buik, senior strategist at BGC Partners, said there was a lot of potential bad news out there that could fuel a further nasty retreat, especially if corporate earnings come in worse than anticipated.

Next week, he said, could be a testing time for markets, as many U.S. banks are set to post their results, including Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co.

"Have any of the schemes implemented by the US government started to pay dividends?" said Buik.

The fairly subdued tone in Europe is expected to carry through into New York, when Wall Street opens.

Dow futures were 45 points, or 0.6 percent, higher at 7,838, while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 futures rose 5.3 points, or 0.6 percent, to 827.90.

On Wednesday, insurance and technology shares led Wall Street higher in a volatile day. The Dow Jones industrials rose 47.55, or 0.6 percent, to 7,837.11, while the S&P closed 9.61, or 1.2 percent, higher at 825.16.

Elsewhere in Asia, South Korea's Kospi rose 4.3 percent to 1,316.25. Elsewhere, Australia's benchmark gained 1.4 percent, Taiwan's jumped 4.1 percent and Singapore advanced 2 percent.

Oil prices rose above $51 a barrel Thursday. Benchmark crude for May delivery rose $1.86 to $51.24 a barrel on electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Meanwhile, the dollar edged back up towards the 100 yen mark from 99.72 yen, while the euro rose to $1.3315 from $1.3297.

AP Business Writer Jeremiah Marquez in Hong Kong contributed to this report.