Obama Says Gay Couples Deserve Same Rights as All

Treading carefully, President Barack Obama praised New York state lawmakers who were debating landmark legislation Thursday to legalize gay marriage, saying that's what democracy's all about. But as expected, the president stopped short of embracing same-sex marriage himself, instead asking gay and lesbian donors for patience.

"I believe that gay couples deserve the same legal rights as every other couple in this country," the president said at a Manhattan fundraiser, his first geared specifically to the gay community. Coincidentally, the long-planned event occurred just as lawmakers in Albany were debating legislation that would make New York the sixth and by far the largest state to legalize gay marriage.

That served to spotlight the president's own views on same-sex marriage, a sore point with gay supporters who've otherwise warmed to Obama. The president has said his views are "evolving," but for now he supports civil unions, not same-sex marriage.

Obama said progress will be slower than some people want, but he added that he was confident that there will be a day "when every single American, gay or straight or lesbian or bisexual or transgender, is free to live and love as they see fit.

"Traditionally marriage has been decided by the states and right now I understand there's a little debate going on here in New York," he said to laughter. New York's lawmakers, he said, are "doing exactly what democracies are supposed to do."

The lawmakers ended their session late Thursday in Albany without voting on the bill.

As Obama spoke a handful of people shouted out "marriage!" And Obama said, "I heard you guys." He never directly mentioned gay marriage.

Obama said there were those who shouted at him at events about other causes of the gay community, such as the need for anti-hate crimes legislation and for the repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" ban on openly gay military service, and both of those have since been achieved.

Obama also has won favor by instructing the Justice Department to stop defending in court a law defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

Obama told of receiving a letter last year from a teenager in a small town. He said the boy was a senior in high school who was gay and was afraid to come out. The boy wondered to the president why gays shouldn't be equal like everyone else.

"So, yes, we have more work to do," Obama said. "Yes, we have more progress to make. Yes, I expect continued impatience with me on occasion."

He said teenagers such as the one who wrote to him "remind me that there should be impatience when it comes to the fight for basic equality. We've made enormous advances just in these last two and half years. But there's still young people out there looking for us to do more."

In a direct appeal for votes, Obama said: "With your help, if you keep up the fight, if you will devote your time and your energies to this campaign one more time, I promise you we will write another chapter in that story. ... I'll be standing there, right there with you."

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NASA rover Spirit 'revolutionized' how we see Mars As the Martian rover falls silent for good, JPL scientists mourn Spirit's loss and celebrate its re

By Thomas H. Maugh II and Eryn Brown, Los Angeles Times

May 25, 2011, 5:53 p.m.

It was supposed to roam the surface of Mars for only three months and cover a distance of just a few hundred yards. Instead, NASA's Spirit rover traveled nearly five miles over five years, finding geological evidence that the Red Planet had once been warm and wet enough to have harbored life. Even after it got hopelessly stuck in the powdery soil of Gusev crater, the rover continued to make discoveries and beamed them to scientists millions of miles away.

But engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Flintridge sent their final commands to Spirit early Wednesday morning, more than a year after the rover made its last transmission to Earth.

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After seven years on Mars, the craft had exhausted its batteries, and its electronic innards had probably been destroyed during the long Martian winter, with temperatures sinking to about 150 degrees below zero.

"It's very sad," said Diana Blaney, a geologist and spectroscopist who has been examining the pictures sent by Spirit and its twin rover, Opportunity, since they arrived on Mars. "I honestly thought up until March that Spirit was going to pull through."

Opportunity continues to soldier on on the opposite side of the planet.

Scientists at JPL mourned the loss of Spirit because they, like many people around the world, had come to think of the two explorers almost as living beings, said John Callas, project manager for the rovers. But they also celebrated its achievements.

"It's impossible to think about Mars before the rovers — they've so revolutionized our understanding of this planet," Callas said. "The Red Planet is no longer this distant alien world. It's now a familiar place, and Spirit has given us that."

The launch of the two rovers in 2003 came at a difficult time for planetary exploration in general and for JPL in particular. The lab's previous two Mars missions, the Mars Climate Orbiter and the Mars Polar Lander, had both failed in 1999. The loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter, which disintegrated as it plunged into the atmosphere, was particularly embarrassing because a contractor had programmed it in English units of measurement rather than the required metric units.

Britain's Beagle 2 lander, scheduled to land Christmas Eve 2003, disappeared without a trace during its descent. That same month, Japan aborted the mission of its Nozomi Mars orbiter because of problems with its navigation system and other equipment.

A lot of hopes were therefore riding on Spirit when it made its fiery descent through the thin Martian atmosphere on Jan. 3, 2004. When the JPL team acquired a signal from the craft at 8:51 that evening, then-NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefeproclaimed, "We're back. This is a big night for NASA."

Planning for the Mars Exploration Rovers had begun more than a decade earlier. JPL's initial idea was to investigate what the planet's geology had been like about 3.5 billion to 4 billion years ago, when life was beginning to develop on Earth. A crucial part of the proposal was to make two rovers and deploy in different places.

"The cost is not twice as much as one because a lot of the expense is in the design and validation," Callas said. "You get twice the bang at less than twice the cost."

The initial price tag for the twin-rover mission was $820 million.

Spirit and Opportunity were equipped with a variety of onboard instruments to study rocks on Mars.

Each rover has "eyes" — sharp color cameras that capture images for scientists to study (as well as navigation imagers that help it avoid hazards while driving from place to place). They each have a robotic arm that contains a microscopic imager that is the equivalent of a geologist's hand lens, a rock abrasion tool to help see material just beneath the surface, and spectrometers to examine the composition of the Martian surface.

"Spirit and Opportunity are basically geological explorers," said Ray Arvidson, a professor of Earth and planetary sciences at Washington University in St. Louis who serves as deputy principal investigator for the rovers' scientific payload.

At 384 pounds apiece, each was more than 15 times the weight of Sojourner, the toy-like rover that had been carried to Mars' surface by the Pathfinder mission in 1997. That required a completely new way of doing things.

Seven months into its journey, Spirit entered the Martian atmosphere at 12,000 mph. Thus began a complex descent-and-entry sequence Callas described as "six minutes of terror."

After friction slowed its descent to less than 1,000 mph in just a few minutes, the lander deployed a parachute and reduced its speed to 200 mph. Just before the lander reached the surface, retro rockets slowed it almost to a stop. Seventeen-foot-high airbags inflated and the craft bounced to a halt in massive Gusev crater.

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Opposition Lawmaker To Mark Tibet's Democracy Day

The Dalai Lama
SRP MP Son Chhay

Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Washington, DC Friday, 27 August 2010

"The Dalai Lama's non-violent protests are an example to world leaders."

Opposition lawmaker Son Chhay is expected to join a major celebration for Tibet's government in exile, officials said.

Tibet's exiled government, led by the Dalai Lama to seek genuine autonomy within the Chinese state framework in the mountainous province, will hold the 50th anniversary of Democracy Day Sept. 2 in India, marking the formation of the first elected Tibetan Parliament in India.

Son Chhay told VOA Khmer he would give an address to the celebrants, “to applaud Tibetans, who have struggled strongly under the leadership of the Dalai Lama.”

The Dalai Lama's non-violent protests are an example to world leaders, he said.

Son Chhay will join representatives from 14 countries, including members of parliament from the EU, Africa and others.

At least 130,000 Tibetans live in exile in India, while 3 million more live under Chinese rule, where rights groups say they face rights abuses and persecution.

Tibet's government in exile now have an elected parliament, legislature and executive body, Urgen Tenzin, director of the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy, told VOA Khmer Thursday.

“It's very important for Tibetans living in exile to practice the democratic system,” he said.

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Chefs sizzle for charity

Chefs Sunny de Ocampo, Don Hancey, Stephen Clarke and Peter Manifis.

24/Aug/2010
InMyCommunity.com (Perth, Western Australia)

SEVEN well-known chefs with big hearts will come together on August 30 to raise money for Cambodian children.

Cocktails for Cambodia aims to raise $30,000 to help three groups – the Paul Dubrule Hospitality School, The Children’s Surgical Centre and The Cambodian Acid Survivors Charity.

It’s hard to imagine what life is like for people who live in Cambodia, one of the poorest countries in Asia, but Don Hancey, one of WA’s most accomplished chefs, has seen first-hand the suffering and is driven to make a difference.

Five years ago, he established the Yes Cambodia organisation.

This year Don’s friends – Russell Blaikie of Must Winebar, Stephen Clarke of Clarkes of North Beach, Peter Manifis of Incontro Restaurant, Eat Good Life’s Sunny de Ocampo, Theo Kalogeracos of Little Caesars Pizzeria, and master oyster shucker Jerry Fraser – have come on board for the fourth Cocktails for Cambodia event.

Don said the event was not only about raising money, but also raising awareness.

“In the past five years, we have continued our support by raising funds and working on special projects but it’s never enough; every time you go over there, you see other areas of need,” he said.

“I’ve not known anyone that has gone there and not come back and wanted to do something.”

Don said the biggest problems were lack of health and welfare and lack of education.

“When you help educate kids through the hospitality school you empower them; it means they can get a job,” he said.

“A lot of these kids support their parents.

“Give a kid an education and you’ve given them a survival tool for life.”

- The event is at West Coast TAFE Joondalup Hospitality & Tourism Centre and will include a charity auction.

Tickets available at www.yescambodia.org

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Moko ‘The Dolphin’ will be always missed

Hundreds people gathered for the funeral ceremony of Moko the dolphin to say good bye, and farewell in Whakatane.

Hundreds of people gathered for the funeral ceremony of Moko to say Good bye. They carried photographs, dolphin balloons, and boogie boards. the body of Moko was in a big blue box jewellery box, decorated with flowers. While manay people had tears in their eyes, many also had smiles on their faces, because they had fond memories of Moko.

Moko came in the light in March 2008. She helped a worker who was trying to protect two whales caught between a sandbar and the beach. Moko helped him in finding the right direction and escape from this critical situation. Moko liked to play with bathers at the beach.

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Mother’s Day: School’s tea shows off special bond

WILLIAMSTOWN - Mother's Day teas are not particularly unusual this time of year, unless they're hosted by a group of 6-year-olds, like the 22 children in Patty Yazombek's kindergarten class at Williamstown Elementary School Friday.

"We've been talking about etiquette, so the children are hosting a tea with a special message to their mothers," Yazombek said. "They also make a framed picture and plant a potted flower for their moms."

Each picture frame included a picture of a flower with the child's handprint as the blossom and a heart in the center of the hand.

The frame also contained the following poem:

"A piece of me I give to you,

I painted this flower to say 'I love you.'

The heart is you, the hand is me -

To show we're friends, the best there can be.

I hope you will save it and look back someday

At the flower we shared on your special day."

Mothers joined children at their desks for a serving of cake and punch, followed by a chorus of young voices honoring their moms in song.

"This is a great thing," said Cindy Turley, accompanied by daughter, Kenzie.

"From the time her teacher announced the tea party, she's been marking the days off the calendar," Turley said.

Nearby, Anne Chambers agreed as she sipped punch with her daughter, Natalie.

"She's been very excited about this," Chambers said. "And I've been here once before with my son, Joshua, who's 9 now."

She'll likely return for the annual event again in a few years when her 3-year-old daughter, Meredith, begins kindergarten.

"I'm just here for the cake and punch," 6-year-old Rainer Holl told his mom, Michelle, who said she appreciates the opportunity to participate in such activities with her son's class as a parent volunteer.

"I help out with the class at least once a week," she said. "It's great to see what they're doing in school, and it allows us to meet the other children as well as their parents. And we all look out for each other's children."

Interim Williamstown Elementary Principal Rose Mary Stull said the Mother's Day Tea is a great time for moms and kids to dress up and be a little formal for a change.

"Some of these children have never seen fancy tables laid with placemats, napkins and flowers," she said. "This is a chance for them to experience that."

Stull added that all parents are encouraged to volunteer to spend time with their children in school.

"Kids love to see their parents in the school setting," she said. "And instead of parents asking what's going on at school, we tell them to come in and be a part of it."

Yazombek's class was one of three Williamstown Elementary kindergarten classes that hosted Mother's Day Teas on Friday.

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Angkor: How can a UNESCO site keep tourist temple raiders in check?

Image credit: Angkor Wat (Workbook Stock/Thomas Kokta/Getty Images)

Fri Mar 5, 2010
By Sarah Dowdey
Discovery News

It only takes a quick Google image search to understand why Angkor, the Khmer empire's ancient seat, makes plenty of "must-see" travel lists. Its ruined temple complexes pop out through the forests, and its sprawling reservoirs offer a testament to the city's impressive engineering.

When I podcasted on Angkor a while back, my co-host and I talked a bit about the possible role of environmental degradation in the city's downfall. Deforestation may have caused silting, something that could damage the complex waterworks that kept the city running so efficiently.

Another hypothesis, this one from National Geographic's Richard Stone, centers more on plain old environmental bad luck: an El Niño cycle beginning exactly when the delicate water management system was showing its age. Deprived of the mechanical wizardry that kept dramatic seasonal changes in check, the city may not have been equipped to face a long dry period.

But since Angkor's fall could have had as much to do with war, religion or rivalry among feuding Khmer royal offspring, I'll focus here on the present-day site's environmental woes. The ruined complex, situated near Siem Reap, has been one of Cambodia's tourist cornerstones since the country opened as a safe destination after years of war and internal strife.

And while Angkor has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1992, and spent 12 years on the group's "threatened" list, such a designation requires some trade-offs. With international protection comes international exposure and a flood of new visitors. According to the non-governmental organization Heritage Watch, Angkor saw 7600 visitors in 1993; by 2006, the number was 1.6 million; by the time 2010 is up, the complex will likely draw 3 million. Tourists of course bring in money for the developing country, as well as help assure a certain degree of protection for cultural sites. But they also walk everywhere. They touch things. They require hotels, resorts and transportation. The development of Siem Reap may even be sucking Angkor dry, drawing out its groundwater and weakening the temples' foundations.

Fortunately, groups like Heritage Watch are advocating for a more sustainable type of tourism. Working with the Cambodian government, they've started a "heritage friendly tourism campaign" to save antiquities, discourage looters and encourage visitors to fan out, spread their wealth and take a little heat off of Angkor.

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Clinton fails to win over Brazil on Iran

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton failed to win Brazil's support on Wednesday for more sanctions against Iran and said Tehran would not talk seriously about its nuclear program until the United Nations took new action.

Barack Obama | Brazil

Even before he met with Clinton, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said: "It is not wise to push Iran into a corner. It is wise to establish negotiations."

Clinton's visit to Brasilia came as U.S. diplomats seek to persuade key U.N. Security Council members that the time had come for action on Iran, which has defied U.N. demands it stop enriching uranium.

"I think it's only after we pass sanctions in the Security Council that Iran will negotiate in good faith," Clinton said.

"That is my belief, that is our administration's belief: that once the international community speaks in unison around a resolution then the Iranians will come and begin to negotiate."

Clinton said the United States believed sanctions were "the best way to avoid conflict and arms races that could disrupt stability and the peace and the oil markets of the world."

While most attention is focused on Russia and China, which hold veto power over any U.N. resolution, the United States had hoped to win over key nonpermanent Security Council members such as Brazil and Turkey to present a united front on the Iran nuclear standoff.

Lula, who has upset Washington by pursuing close ties with Tehran, has repeatedly voiced caution over the drive by the United States, Britain, France and Germany for new sanctions over Iran's nuclear program, which they fear is a cover for making atomic weapons.

Tehran has denied the accusation, and says its program is purely for peaceful purposes.

U.S. CIRCULATES DRAFT SANCTIONS PROPOSAL

Diplomats in New York told Reuters this week the Western powers had prepared a revised draft proposal for a fourth round of sanctions against Iran for defying U.N. demands that it stop enriching uranium.

They said it was circulated by the United States to Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China. They added the Western powers hoped to hold a conference call soon among the six, possibly this week, to gauge Russia's and China's views.

If the Western powers win the support of Russia and China, negotiations on the first new U.N. sanctions resolution in two years could begin immediately. Russia's initial reaction to the U.S. proposal has been negative, diplomats said, while China continues to leave U.S. and European officials guessing.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said Brazil felt there was room for two or three months' more negotiation with Iran.

"We still have some possibility of coming to an agreement ... but that may require a lot of flexibility on both sides," Amorim said at a news conference with Clinton in Brasilia.

"We will not simply bow down to the evolving consensus if we do not agree."

Clinton, who is on a tour of Latin America, expressed disappointment with Brazil's position and said talks had proved fruitless with Iran.

"The door is open for negotiation, we never slammed it shut, but we don't see anybody even in the far-off distance walking toward it," Clinton said.

She urged countries to be cautious about Iran's assurances that it had only peaceful intentions.

"We have seen an Iran that runs to Brazil, an Iran that runs to Turkey and an Iran that runs to China, telling people different things to different people to avoid international sanctions," she said.

A senior U.S. official, speaking to reporters on Clinton's plane, said the Brazilians told Clinton their position was not "etched in stone" and said the two countries would keep talking.

The official said that if Lula's planned May visit to Tehran occurs after a Security Council sanctions vote, it could "take on a different cast" -- suggesting Lula could act as an intermediary to urge Iran back to talks.

Lula told reporters that Brazil would "not support any move by Iran to go beyond the peaceful use of nuclear energy."

He added he planned to have a "frank discussion" on the subject with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad when he visited Tehran.

HOT RHETORIC

The United States and European Union on Wednesday kept up the hot rhetoric, accusing Iran of breaking nuclear transparency rules by escalating uranium enrichment without U.N. surveillance and saying its "provocative" behavior invited tougher sanctions.

They spoke at a tense meeting in Vienna of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency. A diplomat inside the closed-door meeting said China's ambassador reiterated that Beijing still believed the time was not right for sanctions against its major trade partner, further complicating the Western-led push for quick moves to sanctions.

Also on Wednesday, Admiral Mike Mullen, the top U.S. military officer, said there were "extraordinary and increasing concerns" about Iran's nuclear ambitions in the Middle East but suggested any military action was "not the preferred path at this point."

"We're working hard to make it a very, very stringent set of sanctions," said Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"It's very narrow space between Iran getting a nuclear weapon and someone who might strike Iran, and both of those outcomes I think generate an enormous amount of instability in a part of the world that's already pretty unstable," he said.

(Additional reporting by Louis Charbonneau at United Nations and Phil Stewart and Adam Entous in Washington; Writing by Andrew Quinn; Editing by Anthony Boadle and Peter Cooney)

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SKorea: NKorea crossed border to hunt for defector

A South Korean protster with a defaced photo of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and what protesters say is Kim's youngest son Kim Jong Un, right, shouts slogans during a rally to mark the March First Independence Movement Day, the anniversary of the 1919 uprising against Japanese colonial rule, in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, March 1, 2010. South Korea's president Lee Myung-bak said Monday that he wants to achieve "genuine" reconciliation with North Korea through dialogue and renewed his offer of a package of incentives for the North's nuclear disarmament. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
SEOUL, South Korea—South Korea's military says several North Korean soldiers crossed the border into the South this week, apparently to pursue a defecting soldier.
Military spokesman Park Sung-woo said Thursday the North Korean soldiers crossed the border about an hour after a fellow soldier fled to the South on Tuesday. He says they retreated after South Korean soldiers fired warning shots.

Park says North Korean soldiers did not return fire.

He says the defector is being questioned.

More than 18,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea since the 1950-53 Korean War. They rarely cross the heavily armed border and instead defect via China and other countries.

The last soldiers to defect were in 2008

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China parliament examines growth, living standards

BEIJING (Reuters) - The Chinese leadership's efforts to engineer a trouble-free succession and push both economic growth and improved living standards in coming years move to the national parliament from Friday.

The annual full session of the National People's Congress (NPC) will open with a report by Premier Wen Jiabao, who with President Hu Jintao is entering the last stretch of a second five-year term steering the world's third-biggest economy. They are due to make way to a new generation of leaders from 2012.

Wen's speech in the Great Hall of the People will be as cautious as the Communist Party-controlled parliament, whose 3,000-odd delegates - officials, executives and workers and farmers -- are chosen and trained to keep their criticisms muted.

Yet Wen's report and the 10 or so days of discussions will also address strains worrying China, including fast-rising property prices, income inequality and a skewing of loans and investment to projects favored by local governments.

The attention and the backstage lobbying will give Hu and Wen, and a younger generation of aspiring leaders, chances to put their stamp on policy and consolidate influence, said Zheng Yongnian, director of the East Asian Institute in Singapore.

"This year and next year are going to be very important for succession politics and the two meetings are part of that," Zheng said, referring to the NPC and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, an advisory body meeting alongside the parliament.

"The NPC is not that powerful, but it allows people to see what the agenda is and who is setting that agenda," Zheng said. "Who controls the policy agenda will enjoy a political advantage when it comes to succession issues."

"YOU CAN'T GET AWAY FROM GROWTH"

Attention will fall on Vice President Xi Jinping and Vice Premier Li Keqiang, the favored successors to Hu and Wen respectively.

Li is leading efforts to improve health care and food safety and his influence could be boosted by extra attention to - and possible spending on - those issues.

Provincial leaders hoping for a spot in the next central leadership could also court attention.

They include Bo Xilai, Party chief of Chongqing, who has orchestrated publicity by cracking down on mafia-like gangs in the southwest city, and Wang Yang, Party chief of the booming southern province of Guangdong. Both have cast themselves as forward-looking leaders with a popular touch.

Hu and Wen will also be looking to secure their influence by pushing improvements to welfare, health care and schooling, especially for China's 700 million-strong farming population.

"The key is that to fund these plans to improve public welfare you need to keep increasing government revenues, and that requires continued fast economic growth," said Mao Shoulong of the Renmin University in Beijing.

"You can't get away from the need for growth."

The parliament may discuss proposals for spending and policy goals in the next government five-year development plan from 2011.

Since 2003, Hu and Wen have vowed to transform China's economic model, easing dependence on heavy industry and exports to focus on grassroots growth and welfare.

"By ensuring those policy priorities are in the five-year plan, they can consolidate their influence beyond retirement," said Zheng, the Singapore-based researcher.

Their results have fallen short of ambitions. Many sectors and officials are committed to a recipe of industrial expansion they believe has worked and helped China escape a serious slowdown in the global economic downturn.

"It is very difficult to get change out of a political system that seems to be succeeding so brilliantly on its own terms," Barry Naughton of the University of California, San Diego, wrote recently for the China Leadership Monitor website.

Wen made a plea for his more populist plans last weekend, sympathizing with complaints about income disparities, rising housing prices, graduate unemployment, poor health care and registration rules hindering movement to and between cities.

"I'll spare nothing in exerting myself on my duties until I die," he told an online question-and-answer session. "When a society's wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few, then it is certainly unjust, and that society will be unstable."

State media reports have indicated that all those issues will receive attention at the session.

But the parliament affirms rather than makes policy, which is left to elite Party circles. Delegates suggest tweaks to settled decisions and China watchers expect few big changes to broad economic policy, currency management or spending priorities.

"We expect no change in the official macro policy stance, but expect some expenditure shift in the next budget", Tao Wang, an economist with UBS in Beijing, wrote in a report.

"We expect an increase in budgetary spending on 'livelihood' items, including cheap rentals, subsidies to the lower-income population, and social safety net." (Editing by Benjamin Kang Lim and Ron Popeski)

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63 Killed in Stampede at Indian Temple

At least 63 people were killed in a massive stampede at a temple in northern India, Thursday.

Police say the dead included women and children, while many other people were injured.

Thousand of people had gathered at the Ram Janki temple in Uttar Pradesh to collect free clothes and other goods being handed out during a religious festival.

The stampede broke out when the main gate of the temple collapsed.


Some information for this report provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.

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Taliban militants 'attack army in north-west Pakistan'

Dozens of suspected militants have attacked an army checkpoint in the tribal Mohmand region of north-west Pakistan, a military source says.

More than 30 militants and one soldier were killed in the clash, according to the source. But a Taliban spokesman told the BBC only four militants died.

The clash occurred close to the Bajaur tribal region where troops recently declared victory over local Taliban.

There has been no official confirmation of the incident from the army.

The BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says the fighters who stormed the checkpoint in Mohmand's Chamarkand area appear to have slipped out of the Taliban stronghold of Damadola in Bajaur, which security forces captured on Tuesday.

The army has been fighting Taliban militants based in Bajaur since August 2008.

Chamarkand is close to the Afghan province of Kunar, which has witnessed a recent rise in Taliban militancy.

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Quake survivors await aid as aftershocks rattle Chile

Despite fears from the aftershocks, crews are focused on providing aid to the most vulnerable.

Aid was flowing into some hard-hit areas Wednesday, but some residents said they still had not received food or water. Security forces also fanned out to stop looters.

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet urged residents Wednesday to remain calm despite the shortages and lawlessness in Concepcion, Talcahuano, and other areas of central and southern Chile. For the second consecutive day, she warned that looting will not be tolerated.

"Nobody can argue that taking a refrigerator is an act of survival," Bachelet told reporters. "That is simply vandalism and delinquency."

About 13,000 soldiers had been sent to Concepcion and other cities to maintain order, she said.

An overnight curfew remained in effect for the third day Wednesday in Concepcion, the scene of the worst looting. Authorities said they would take whatever steps were needed to keep order, and 35 people were arrested for curfew violations.

A military presence and citizen patrols appeared to maintain order in the nation's second-largest city, but many stores showed signs of looting.

Food and water were being distributed in Concepcion on Wednesday. The city's mayor, Jacqueline Van Rysselberghe, said the 30 trucks of aid in the city were a good start, but not nearly enough.

Concepcion is less than 10 miles inland from Talcahuano, but the two towns suffered far different fates. In Concepcion, fatalities and injuries resulted largely from buildings that had collapsed.

In coastal Talcahuano, the damage was caused by a tsunami that roared into town about an hour after the quake. When the waters receded, they left large boats stranded inland.

Much of the port city looked as if a bomb had exploded there, with buildings reduced to rubble.

The greatest number of deaths occurred in the Maule region, where disaster also visited two cities in different ways.

In the central city of Talca, an ancient municipality, the earthquake wiped out many older adobe structures, crushing hundreds of residents. Thursday's early morning aftershock struck about 40 miles north of Talca.
March 4, 2010 -- Updated 0932 GMT (1732 HKT)
Concepcion, Chile (CNN) -- More aftershocks rocked parts of Chile early Thursday, five days after a massive earthquake that killed more than 800 people.

A 4.9-magnitude aftershock struck near the already devastated Maule region about 1:30 a.m. Thursday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

It came hours after a 6.1-magnitude aftershock struck near Valparaiso, raising fears that damaged buildings could topple.

More than 120 aftershocks of 5.0 magnitude or greater have hit Chile since Saturday's 8.8-magnitude earthquake, USGS geophysicist Don Blakeman said.

The disaster's death toll had risen to 802 by Wednesday, with nearly 600 of those occurring in the Maule region, the National Emergency Office said. Nineteen people were missing, said Patricio Rosende, the country's assistant interior secretary.

It was unclear what the new quake did to the already battered region.

In the seaside town of Constitucion, survivors tried to hold on to the little that remained. Saturday's earthquake had flattened rows of homes, leaving a path of destruction that led to the sea.

Many had left, but Sofia Monsalve Gutierrez and Emilio Gutierrez stayed near the concrete slab that used to be their home. On Wednesday, they were searching for their 4-year-old son.

They had not seen him since he ran from their home and jumped into a boat during the massive earthquake.

"If you know my son, please keep pictures of him. I don't have any pictures left of him. It's very important to me," Sofia Monsalve Gutierrez said.

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Gold falls from record, dips below $1,050

By Miho Yoshikawa

TOKYO (Reuters) - Gold fell to below $1,050 per ounce on Friday as the dollar edged up, snapping a rally that took prices to all-time highs for three consecutive days.

Spot gold hit a record high of $1,061.20 on Thursday as the dollar's weakness increased bullion's traditional appeal as a hedge against the U.S. currency.

The dollar rose on Friday, with comments from Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that indicated monetary policy might have to be tightened as a recovery takes hold, helping to pull the greenback off 14-month lows against a basket of currencies.

Apart from its strong inverse correlation with the dollar, fears of inflation have also fuelled gold's rise to historic levels this week.

"I think gold's uptrend remains intact," said Shuji Sugata, a manager at Mitsubishi Corp Futures & Securities' research team.

Technical analysts at Barclays Capital have also said their outlook on gold was bullish, with a push towards $1,120 now a possibility.

"There are new participants that are being attracted to the market now as it rises," Sugata said.

He said these new inflows of money could be seen in areas including gold-backed exchange-traded funds and physical buying

By Miho Yoshikawa

TOKYO (Reuters) - Gold fell to below $1,050 per ounce on Friday as the dollar edged up, snapping a rally that took prices to all-time highs for three consecutive days.

Spot gold hit a record high of $1,061.20 on Thursday as the dollar's weakness increased bullion's traditional appeal as a hedge against the U.S. currency.

The dollar rose on Friday, with comments from Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that indicated monetary policy might have to be tightened as a recovery takes hold, helping to pull the greenback off 14-month lows against a basket of currencies.

Apart from its strong inverse correlation with the dollar, fears of inflation have also fuelled gold's rise to historic levels this week.

"I think gold's uptrend remains intact," said Shuji Sugata, a manager at Mitsubishi Corp Futures & Securities' research team.

Technical analysts at Barclays Capital have also said their outlook on gold was bullish, with a push towards $1,120 now a possibility.

"There are new participants that are being attracted to the market now as it rises," Sugata said.

He said these new inflows of money could be seen in areas including gold-backed exchange-traded funds and physical buying

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Palace says it will no longer ‘tolerate’ intrusion by paparazzi

The Queen has issued a blunt warning that the Royal Family stands ready to take legal action against harassment and intrusion by paparazzi.

After years of what one aide yesterday called “a growing feeling of frustration” over repeated breaches of privacy, lawyers operating for the Queen have reminded newspapers of their obligations under the industry’s own code of practice.

Photographers will be closely monitored around the Sandringham estate in Norfolk, where the Queen and members of her family will gather for Christmas.

The use of telephoto lenses by paparazzi — who sometimes conceal themselves in the undergrowth or wear camouflage to snatch pictures from public roads near the estate — “will not be tolerated”, according to the aide.
Last Christmas there were a number of incidents, including publication of images allegedly showing the Earl of Wessex beating two gun dogs with a walking stick at Sandringham.

Prince William is also understood to have been dismayed that a shooting party with friends was spoilt by photographers “hiding in bushes”. Some members of the Royal Family blame the paparazzi for the death of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, in a car crash 12 years ago.

William has taken a keen interest in whether privacy laws have been broken by those following Kate Middleton, his girlfriend, over recent years. He came close to taking legal action when he and Ms Middleton were pursued by the paparazzi after leaving a nightclub.

Disclosure yesterday of the tougher approach towards intrusive photography renewed speculation that they might be planning to get engaged over Christmas. The bookmaker William Hill halved the price on such a prospect from 12-1 to 6-1. The palace, however, is playing down talk of an engagement and says it reflects long-standing concerns.

“We wrote to newspapers with a private letter two and a half months ago and you will have to ask The Sunday Telegraph [which run the story on its front page yesterday] why this is news right now,” said a senior official.

Paddy Harverson, the Prince of Wales’s communications secretary, was quoted by the newspaper saying: “Members of the Royal Family feel they have a right to privacy when they are going about everyday, private activities. They recognise there is a public interest in them and what they do, but they do not think this extends to photographing the private activities of them and their friends.”

The Republic Campaign, which calls for the monarchy to be replaced with an elected head of state, said the Royal Family must be open to scrutiny. “While everyone has a right to a level of privacy, the Queen cannot expect the media to dance to her tune,” said Graham Smith. “If people who claim a God-given right to head our nation are falling out of nightclubs, clearly there is a public interest.”

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Gold rallies to fresh record, stocks up

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Gold climbed to a record on Thursday as the dollar struggled, while U.S. stocks settled higher after Alcoa (AA.N) began the third-quarter earnings season with an unexpected profit.

Major U.S. equity indexes rose nearly 1 percent, led by Alcoa, a day after the Dow component and the largest American aluminum producer posted its first profit after a string of quarterly losses. Alcoa cited improving metal prices and cost savings as the main reasons for its profitable quarter.

Alcoa is the first major company to release earnings in the U.S. third-quarter reporting season.

Its profit surprise also played a factor in world equity markets on Thursday, as investors have been scouring for signs of any fundamental improvement in organic growth. The MSCI world equity index .MIWO00000PUS rose 1.32 percent to 1,137.84, near the year's high of 1,150.42.

For their part, the Dow Jones industrial average .DJI was up 61.29 points, or 0.63 percent, at 9,786.87, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX was up 7.90 points, or 0.75 percent, at 1,065.48. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC was up 13.60 points, or 0.64 percent, at 2,123.93.

But gold stole the spotlight again.

The yellow metal topped $1,060 per ounce to mark a record high for the third session in a row, versus its late New York Wednesday quote of $1,043.70. It closed the day at $1,055.45.

The move in spot bullion has primarily been driven higher by the weakening dollar, which makes the dollar-denominated metal more attractive to investors.

In some currencies -- the high-flying Australian dollar, for example -- gold has actually fallen in price this year.

"Investors are turning toward gold as a hedge in dollar weakness," said Adrian Koh, an analyst at Phillip Futures in Singapore.

The dollar was down against a basket of major trading-partner currencies, with the U.S. dollar index down 0.69 percent at 75.966, a 14-month low and below a previous session close of 76.494.

The currency has been hit by a combination of expectations that U.S. interest rates will stay low for some time and a belief that the global economy is on the mend, easing the motivation behind last year's flight to dollar safety.

The euro was up 0.63 percent at $1.4778 from a previous session close of $1.4685, while against the Japanese yen, the dollar was down 0.15 percent at 88.45 from a previous session close of 88.580.

The Australian dollar jumped 1.7 percent to US$0.9063, still benefiting from this week's rate hike. It has now gained nearly 28 percent against the U.S. dollar this year.

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United Commercial Bank is shut down, sold to East West BancorpThis creates by far the largest U.S. bank focused on the Chinese American market and the largest bank based in Southern California. United Commercial was the 120th bank to fail in the U.S. this year.This creates by far the largest U.S. bank focused on the Chinese American market and the largest bank based in Southern California. United Commercial was the 120th bank to fail in the U.S. this year.

This creates by far the largest U.S. bank focused on the Chinese American market and the largest bank based in Southern California. United Commercial was the 120th bank to fail in the U.S. this year.

Toppled by loan losses and misstated financial reports, San Francisco's United Commercial Bank was shut down by regulators Friday night and immediately sold to Pasadena's East West Bancorp, creating by far the largest U.S. bank focused on the Chinese American market.

The combination also will be the largest bank based in Southern California, surpassing City National Bancorp.

East West agreed to assume all of United Commercial's deposits, so no depositors will lose money, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said. The bank's 63 U.S. branches, including 17 in Southern California, will reopen Saturday as branches of East West Bank.

United Commercial, a unit of UCBH Holdings Inc., was the fourth-largest bank to fail this year. That position was formerly occupied by California National Bank of Los Angeles, which failed last week and was acquired by U.S. Bancorp of Minneapolis.

Regulators also seized on Friday one bank each in Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota and Missouri, bringing to 120 the number of failures this year.

United Commercial's collapse may cause a greater-than-usual stir because a year ago the federal government invested $299 million in bailout funds in the bank in exchange for preferred stock, which was made worthless by the failure.

In addition, the FDIC said the collapse would cost the federal deposit insurance fund an estimated $1.4 billion.

East West raised $500 million in new capital to support the takeover, most of it from mutual funds and other existing shareholders, said Dominic Ng, chairman of the Pasadena-based lender.

The privately placed stock sales will enable East West to proceed slowly as it integrates the two banks, then have plenty of capital later next year to consider additional expansion by adding branches or making more acquisitions.

The takeover will greatly expand the reach of East West, which has concentrated on Southern California and the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition to 69 California offices, East West has full-service branches in Houston and Hong Kong.

United Commercial not only has dozens of branches in California but also has locations in key Chinese American areas, including New York, Boston, Seattle, Atlanta and Houston.

What's more, because of its 2007 acquisition of a Shanghai bank, United Commercial also has a banking license in China -- a "rare and hard-to-come-by" asset that makes it easier to operate and expand in that country, , said RBC Capital Markets analyst Joe Morford. It has full-service offices in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Shantou, China.

United Commercial, East West and Cathay General Bancorp of Los Angeles have vied for years to become the largest of the banks focused on the Chinese American market.

East West, which had $12.5 billion in assets at last report, agreed to acquire $10.2 billion of United Commercial's $11.2 billion in assets. That would put the combined bank, at almost $23 billion in assets, ahead of L.A.-based City National as the largest bank based in Southern California. At last report, City National had $18.4 billion in assets.

The FDIC agreed to absorb most of the expected losses on about $7.7 billion of the United Commercial assets acquired by East West.

Like its Chinese American rivals, United Commercial was burned by commercial lending losses, especially loans to developers and home builders during the housing boom. But it also was tainted by a financial scandal that resulted in a shake-up of its top management.

UCBH announced in September that its financial reports could not be trusted because of the "deliberate and improper actions and omissions of certain bank officers," who had understated losses in "an apparent desire to downplay deteriorating financial conditions."

The company's longtime chief executive, Thomas S. Wu, resigned in September, along with its chief operating officer.

Ng said he believed his new customers would happily accept a takeover by another California-based Chinese American bank rather than an institution "from somewhere else -- New York, or a foreign bank."

Ng said he anticipated only a few branch closures. Some back-office employees will be let go, he said.
 

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US jobless rate rises to over 10%

The unemployment rate in the US rose to 10.2% in October, which was its highest rate since April 1983, according to figures from the US Labor Department.

It rose from September's figure of 9.8%. The economy lost 190,000 jobs in the month.
Since the recession began in December 2007, the number of unemployed has risen by 8.2 million, while the jobless rate has risen from 4.9%.
President Barack Obama described the rise in unemployment as "sobering".
"I will not rest until all Americans who want work can find work," he added.
He also said he would be signing legislation to extend unemployment benefit, cut taxes for businesses and extend tax credits for home buyers.



Analysts were also downbeat after the worse-than-expected figures.
"It's pretty disappointing overall," said Richard Franulovich at Westpac.
"Job losses are not moderating as quickly as I had hoped despite those earlier indicators on jobs."
Dollar falls
The figures were particularly poor given Thursday's news of a fall in initial weekly jobless claims and the data earlier in the week that showed the US economy had grown by 3.5% between July and September.
The number of unemployed people rose by 558,000 to 15.7 million.
But there was some better news with the revision of September's figure from a loss of 263,000 jobs to a loss of 219,000 jobs.
The dollar fell against both the euro and the yen following the release of the figures.
Long-term unemployed
The sectors contributing the largest numbers of job losses in October were construction, manufacturing and retail.
It was the 22nd month in a row that the US economy had shed jobs, which is the longest run since records began 70 years ago.
There is concern that rising unemployment could scupper the recovery by restricting consumer spending, which accounts for 70% of the economy.
The number of people who had been out of work for at least six months rose to a record 5.6 million, accounting for 35.6% of the jobless total.

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Berlin all fired up for wall-to-wall partying

THE elderly lady with her shopping bag stood and stared at the armed policeman politely but firmly preventing her from crossing the 8ft-high barrier built across the street. “It’s like having the Wall back,” she said tetchily. But with a smile.
The policeman smiled back. Stretching away on either side, a chain of 1,000 wall-like slabs daubed with graffiti form a new 1.2-mile barrier from the Brandenburg Gate to Potsdamer Platz — now once again one of Europe’s busiest intersections.


Tomorrow night, at the climax of the biggest official party seen in Europe, with Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, hosting Gordon Brown, Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, and Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president — to name but a few — the slabs will crash into one another like dominos, representing the chain of events that 20 years ago brought the cold war to an end.
The first “domino” will be pushed over, fittingly enough, by Lech Walesa and Miklos Nemeth, the veteran Polish and Hungarian anti-communist campaigners. They will be joined by two other main actors in the drama of 1989: the former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev and Hans-Dietrich Genscher, the then West German foreign minister.
The officially organised street party is costing £4.6m and kicks off with a Daniel Barenboim-led concert at the Brandenburg Gate, followed by Bon Jovi performing their single We Weren’t Born to Follow and an extravagant firework display as the thousand dominos fall.
All of Germany is celebrating what the newspaper Die Welt yesterday called “the unexpected joy” that hit the country on a cold night in November 1989 when popular unrest, democracy protests, and a series of misjudged measures and misunderstandings caused the Berlin Wall to fall.
In today’s difficult climate, nobody is claiming reunification came without economic pain, but with Germany having already climbed out of recession, one newspaper editorial could claim yesterday that “if we are not the happiest nation on earth, at least we are a happy nation”.
On that wintry, chaotic, euphoric November night 20 years ago, I met up on West Berlin’s showy Kurfürstendamm with Kerstin and Andreas, two friends from East Berlin who had escaped only weeks before on one of the sealed trains that brought asylum seekers from West Germany’s embassy in Warsaw through to the West.
On a night of tears, joy, fireworks, inebriation and incredulity — a far more spontaneous celebration than anything taking place tomorrow — Kerstin was reunited with the family she had left in the East and expected never to see again.
Karin, another East German friend, reluctantly trained as an engineer by the communist regime, was expelled from East Germany shortly before the Wall fell — her brother had spent months in prison as a failed escaper — and now runs a thriving business. She has moved to a leafy suburb so far west in West Berlin that, back then, it was in East Germany.
We walked along the banks of the Spree, past the Berliner Ensemble, Bertolt Brecht’s theatre, and Ganymed, old East Berlin’s stuffy, showcase restaurant. Twenty years ago the path ended a few yards along in darkness, concrete and barbed wire across the river.
Today the same riverbank leads to the restored Reichstag, again the seat of parliament, and is lined with restaurants. Instead of patrol boats with machineguns and searchlights, the Spree is home to river cruisers with beer and champagne bars. Potsdamer Platz, near the site of Hitler’s buried bunker, has been transformed from a no man’s land of wall and watchtowers into a bustling, 21st-century streetscape.
Berlin today has seized with both hands its role at the heart of an expanded Europe, symbolised by the vast new Central station, with high-speed trains on three levels hurtling east and west. Workers from western Poland returning from Britain fly to Berlin and catch the Intercity-Express to Poznan.
As the Cafe Varna, not far from the Brandenburg Gate testifies, there are now — thanks to European Union expansion — more Bulgarians, Czechs, Slovaks and Hungarians working in Berlin than there were when they were “fraternal allies” in the Warsaw Pact. More Russians too, if one does not count the 380,000 departed troops.
As part of the celebrations, an exhibition in the city centre is showcasing the Art of Socialist Realism, a collection of Stalinist-style paintings of happy children scattering grain to chickens, or Lenin addressing adoring workers. Nostalgia is a funny thing.
On Ebertstrasse, named after the first president of the pre-war Weimar Republic — save for a brief spell as HermannGöring-Strasse — Japanese tourists queue to be photographed astride the brick line in the pavement that shows where the Wall once ran.
Ironically, it is once glitzy western Berlin that now looks the shabbier part of the city, with the Ku’damm (as the Kurfürstendamm is known) in search of regeneration money.
A few statistics alone illustrate some of the superficial social changes in the old East. The number of cars has almost doubled from 3.9m to 7.5m, while — partly thanks to mobile phones — the number of telephones has soared from 49 per 100 households to 243.
The child mortality rate has fallen by two-thirds, life expectancy has risen from 69.8 years for men and 76.8 for women to 76.1 and 82.2 respectively, and although the number of hospitals has fallen from 392 to 254, they are far better equipped.
But the west’s longer established infrastructure still beckons: the population of the old East Germany has dropped from just under 17m to just over 14m, while that of the former West Germany has risen from 61.7m to 67.5m.
For those of us who lived in the East in the years before the Wall came down and were there to see it crumble, the emotion of the anniversary is still best summed up in the words spoken at the reunification ceremony in 1990 by Lothar de Maizière, East Germany’s last prime minister: “It is an hour of great joy, It is the end of some illusions. It is a farewell without tears.”
Inevitably, there is a new joke doing the rounds: East Berlin and West Berlin used to be fractious siamese twins, one dowdy, prudish and hypocritical, the other stylish, spendthrift and sluttish. Through the miracle of modern science they have been united, and what do you get? Angela Merkel.
Peter Millar’s book 1989 The Berlin Wall (My Part in Its Downfall) is published by Arcadia Books, £11.99.
History’s back from the dead, Bryan Appleyard, News Review, page 6

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Texan police officer Kim Munley who shot Fort Hood gunman hailed as a heroine

A police officer who intervened to stop a shooting spree at America's biggest military base was hailed today a heroine as she received treatment for the wounds received in a shoot-out with the gunman.
Major Nidal Hasan, an army psychiatrist due to be posted to Afghanistan, shot dead 13 people and wounded 30 others after opening fire with two handguns at Fort Hood yesterday afternoon.
But the death toll from the rampage could have been far worse had it not been for the actions of Sergeant Kimberly Munley, a civilian police officer stationed at the base who was the first on the scene as Major Hasan picked off his victims.
Sergeant Munley managed to hit Major Hasan four times but was herself hit by a bullet that passed through both her legs, according to witnesses.



Colonel John Rossi, briefing reporters at Fort Hood this morning, said that Major Hasan's victims, who were killed in a part of the base used to process soldiers for deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan, had all been unarmed. Sergeant Munley had been the first armed person on the scene and had immediately taken him on.
"Her efforts were superb," he said.
The base commander, Lieutenant-General Bob Cone, also paid tribute: “She happened to encounter the gunman. In an exchange of gunfire, she was wounded but managed to wound him four times,” he said.
“It was an amazing and aggressive performance by this police officer.”
Colonel Steven Braverman, commander of the base hospital and Major Hasan's supervisor, said that Sergeant Munley was in a stable condition in a nearby community hospital.
She is likely to return home to a hero's welcome, although her Twitter page – which features a picture of her with the country music star Dierks Bentley at the Fort Hood "Freedom Fest" on July 4 – suggests she is not the type to have her head turned.
Her Twitter biography reads: "I live a good life ... a hard one, but I go to sleep peacefully @ night knowing that I may have made a difference in someone's life."

It emerged today that Major Hasan, a Muslim who had argued with his comrades against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and had been trying to get out of the Army, shouted "Allahu akbar" – Arabic for "God is great" – as he launched the attack.

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