Protestor beheads Hitler waxwork

A waxwork model of Adolf Hitler was beheaded by a protester today in Berlin minutes after the controversial exhibit was unveiled.

Just after the opening of the new branch of Madame Tussauds museum in the German capital, a 41-year-old German man pushed aside two security men guarding the exhibit and wrenched the model’s head off.

The protester did not resist arrest when police arrived shortly afterwards and he is being investigated for assault and damaging property.

Critics have attacked the waxwork figure of a glum-looking Adolf Hitler in a mock bunker during the last days of his life as being in bad taste.

It is illegal in Germany to show Nazi symbols and art glorifying Hitler and commentators have said it is inappropriate to display the Nazi dictator alongside celebrities, pop stars, world statesmen and sporting heroes.

Institutions such as the foundation for Germany’s central Holocaust memorial site condemned the idea of the exhibit as tasteless, saying it had been included simply as a commercial stunt. The wax figure is the latest in a gradual breaking down of taboos about Hitler in Germany more than 60 years after the end of the war and the Holocaust in which some six million Jews, and other groups, were killed.

It took around 25 workers four months to make the waxwork, using more than 2,000 pictures and pieces of archive material. They were also guided by a model of the “Fuehrer” in the London branch of Madame Tussauds.

Unobtrusive signs near the exhibit asked visitors to refrain from taking photos or posing with Hitler “out of respect for the millions of people who died during World War Two”.

Camera surveillance and museum officials were meant to stop inappropriate behaviour.

The Times.

800 missing as ship sinks in 15 minutes

Huge waves washed people off liferaft: survivor

More than 800 people were missing last night after a Philippine passenger ship capsized in a typhoon that has killed scores and left a trail of destruction across the archipelago.

Sulpicio Lines, the owner of the MV Princess of Stars, revised up the number of people missing to 845 after discovering an extra 100 passengers on the ship's manifest.

Typhoon Fengshen swept through the central Philippines at the weekend, leaving at least 155 people confirmed dead - apart from those on the ferry, Red Cross and civil defence officials said yesterday.

Only four people on board the ferry are so far known to have survived.

One survivor, crew member Reynato Lanorio, told how the ship listed and sank quickly in heavy seas. "It seemed like everything happened in 15 minutes. Next thing we knew, the ship had gone under," he said.

Mr Lanorio said the captain gave orders to abandon ship shortly after it listed, sending passengers and crew scrambling for life rafts.

"Many of us managed to get on the lifeboats, but I don't know if they survived," he said, adding that four other people on his raft were wrenched away by the huge waves as he clung on for dear life.

The ferry went down at around noon on Saturday several kilometres off the coast of Sibuyan Island, after being battered by huge waves overnight when its engines failed.

Four bodies washed ashore on Sibuyan, but the death toll was expected to rise sharply as many people were still inside the ship when it sank.

A coastguard ship is searching the waters around the hulk of the 23,824 tonne vessel, which is upside-down with only its bow above the waves, looking for survivors.

The head of the coastguard, Vice-Admiral Wilfredo Tamayo, said there were lots of small islands in the area where survivors could be sheltering.

"We are hoping more people will have reached the shore," he said.

Two more rescue boats would be sent as soon as the weather improved, Vice-Admiral Tamayo said.

Witnesses reported lifejackets from the doomed vessel washing ashore along with other debris.

"There were many plastic slippers of children also found floating on the shore but no survivors," said Nanette Tansingco, mayor of San Fernando, a coastal town on Sibuyan.

The ship, travelling from Manila to the central island of Cebu - and 16 hours into its 22-hour voyage - issued a distress signal before going down.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo demanded to know why the ferry was allowed to leave Manila with the typhoon about to hit the country.

"I want answers," she said from on board the presidential plane en route to the United States.

Coastguard officials said the ship's manifest included 20 children, 33 infants and 121 crew.

Elsewhere, the central province of Iloilo on Panay Island suffered the heaviest losses, with 101 dead, Philippine senator and Red Cross chairman Richard Gordon said.

Other fatalities were recorded in the neighbouring provinces of Romblon, Cotabato, Antique and Capiz, Senator Gordon said. "We got hit real bad this time," he added.

The typhoon has continued to move northwest, passing Manila and moving over the northern half of the main island of Luzon, packing maximum winds of 120km/h.

At 11pm, Fengshen was centred 570km south-southeast of the island of Dongsha. It is forecast to move northwest or north-northwest at 18km/h towards the northeastern part of the South China Sea.

Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau said it might issue a storm warning today as the storm approached.

SCMP. Jun 23, 2008.

Blogger arrests hit record high

More bloggers than ever face arrest for exposing human rights abuses or criticising governments, says a report.

Since 2003, 64 people have been arrested for publishing their views on a blog, says the University of Washington annual report.

In 2007 three times as many people were arrested for blogging about political issues than in 2006, it revealed.

More than half of all the arrests since 2003 have been made in China, Egypt and Iran, said the report.

Jail sentence

Citizens have faced arrest and jail for blogging about many different topics, said the World Information Access (WIA) report.

Arrested bloggers exposed corruption in government, abuse of human rights or suppression of protests. They criticised public policies and took political figures to task.

The report said the rising number of arrests was testament to the "growing" political importance of blogging. It noted that arrests tended to increase during times of "political uncertainty", such as around general elections or during large scale protests.

Jail time followed arrest for many bloggers, said the report, which found that the average prison sentence for blogging was 15 months. The longest sentence found by the WIA was eight years.

It acknowledged that the true number of bloggers arrested could be far higher than the total it found as, in some cases, it proved hard to verify if an arrest had taken place and on what grounds.

For instance, it said the Committee to Protect Bloggers has published information about 344 people arrested in Burma - many of whom are thought to be be bloggers - but the WIA could not verify all the reports.

It also noted that many nations, perhaps as many as 30, imposed technological restrictions on what people can do online. In nations such as China this made it difficult for people to use a blog as a means of protest.

The report pointed out that it is not just governments in the Middle East and East Asia that have taken steps against those publishing their opinions online. In the last four years, British, French, Canadian and American bloggers have also been arrested.

The report predicted that the number of blogger arrests in 2008 would exceed the 36 seen in 2007 thanks to greater popularity of blogging as a medium, greater enforcement of net restrictions, and elections in China, Pakistan, Iran and the US.

BBC News.

Children sent to a mental health clinic for addiction to mobile phones

Two children in Spain have been admitted to a mental health institution to be treated for addiction to their mobile phones, Spanish media report.

The children, aged 12 and 13, were sent to the clinic by their parents, who said they could not carry out normal activities without their handsets.

They were doing badly at school and lying to relatives in order to get money to spend on their phones.

They have been learning to cope without their phones for three months.

Dr Maite Utges, who runs the Child and Youth Mental Health Centre in Lleida, near Barcelona in north-eastern Spain, said it was the first time the clinic had treated children who were dependent on their mobile phones.

"They both showed disturbed behaviour and this exhibited itself in failure at school. They both had serious difficulties leading normal lives," she was quoted in Spanish papers as saying.

The children had owned their phones for 18 months, and their parents had made little effort to restrict their use before noticing how serious their dependence had become.

'Tip of iceberg'

Dr Jose Martinez-Raga, an expert in addictions, said children who developed a dependency on mobile phones, like those who over-used video games, often became irritable, withdrawn and antisocial, and their school performance deteriorated.

He warned these cases could be the "tip of the iceberg", and that mobile phone addiction "could definitely be a danger in the future".

Fears have been raised in a number of countries about the adverse effects mobile phone use may have on children.

Dr Utges recommended that parents not allow their children to have mobile phones until they reached 16 years of age.

BBC News

Tribe of Amazon “Uncontacted” Indians Photographed from Air

A photo of tribal members trying to shoot down the plane.

One of South America's few remaining uncontacted indigenous tribes has been spotted and photographed on the border between Brazil and Peru.

The Brazilian government says it took the images to prove the tribe exists and help protect its land.

The pictures, taken from an aeroplane, show red-painted tribe members brandishing bows and arrows.

More than half the world's 100 uncontacted tribes live in Brazil or Peru, Survival International says.

Stephen Corry, the director of the group - which supports tribal people around the world - said such tribes would "soon be made extinct" if their land was not protected.

'Monumental crime'

Survival International says that although this particular group is increasing in number, others in the area are at risk from illegal logging.

The photos were taken during several flights over one of the most remote parts of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil's Acre region.

They show tribe members outside thatched huts, surrounded by the dense jungle, pointing bows and arrows up at the camera.

"We did the overflight to show their houses, to show they are there, to show they exist," the group quoted Jose Carlos dos Reis Meirelles Junior, an official in the Brazilian government's Indian affairs department, as saying.

"This is very important because there are some who doubt their existence."

He described the threats to such tribes and their land as "a monumental crime against the natural world" and "further testimony to the complete irrationality with which we, the 'civilised' ones, treat the world".

Disease is also a risk, as members of tribal groups that have been contacted in the past have died of illnesses that they have no defence against, ranging from chicken pox to the common cold.

More photos at BBC News.

Burma Cyclone - killing thousands and causing widespread damage

Cyclone Nargis swept into Burma on Saturday 3 May 2008, killing thousands and causing widespread damage.

Nasa satellite images below vividly demonstrate the scale of the impact. The top image was taken before the cyclone hit, with land and water features sharply defined. The lower image shows the aftermath on 5 May, with much of the Irrawaddy river delta region clearly flooded.

Use the tick box above the top image to see the path of the cyclone overlaid on the images. Yangon is another name for the capital of Burma, Rangoon.

The PDF document on the right is a UN map showing the flooded areas in more detail with extra information including the main population centres affected.

BBC News.

Tree Man of Indonesia

Dede Koswara, who earned worldwide celebrity as the Tree Man of Java, would probably have died if he hadn't sought hospital treatment for the bark-like growths sprouting from his body, doctors have revealed.

The 37 year old entered an Indonesian hospital because of the huge tree-like growths that had encased his limbs for 20 years.

But an X-ray quickly revealed that the immune deficiency stopping him fighting the warts had also allowed a potentially deadly TB infection to take hold.

Dr Rachmat Dinata, leading the team treating Dede at the Hasan Sadikin Hospital in Bandung, West Java, said: "Five years from now, he would have been dead.

"He had lots of very active bacteria in his lungs. If he hadn't come here, and instead had lived his life as he had, with bad food and not enough of it, then the disease would have spread quickly."

However, intensive treatment has allowed Dede to beat the infection since arriving in hospital in January.

Dr Dinata said: "After three months treatment we have done an X-ray to check. His lungs are clear."

Dede's ordeal began when he was 15 and cut his knee in an accident. A small wart developed on his lower leg and spread uncontrollably.

"The warts began appearing everywhere," he told the Telegraph.

Eventually he had to give up work as a builder. His wife of ten years left him as it became impossible for him to support her and their two children.

Late last year, however, Dede's plight was highlighted on Telegraph.co.uk and in a Discovery Channel documentary.

The documentary team took American dermatology expert Dr Anthony Gaspari to Indonesia to see if he could find a cure.

Dr Gaspari, of the University of Maryland, is now liaising with the team treating Dede in Bandung.

He concluded Dede's affliction was caused by the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), a fairly common infection usually causing only small warts.

Dede, however, has an extremely rare immune system deficiency, leaving his body unable to contain the warts. The virus was able to "hijack the cellular machinery of his skin cells", ordering them to produce massive amounts of the substance causing tree-like growths known as "cutaneous horns".

Dr Dinata revealed the immune deficiency is so severe they have to be extremely wary of transmitting infections to Dede.

He said: "He is like an HIV patient, but he is negative. Because his immunity system is so weak, it's easy for other infections to enter his body. We have to be very careful around him if we have flu."

Four major operations have removed most of Dede's growths, including 4lbs of warty tissue from his feet alone. His hands are still massive clumps, but he can now use them for the first time in more than a decade.

He enjoys doing sudokos, but it can take him several days to complete one – not only are the puzzles challenging in themselves, the remaining growths on his hands still make it difficult for Dede to use a pen.

Dede has three more months of treatment to go before doctors think he will be fully cured, and is tentatively making plans for the future.

He told the Telegraph: "If all the growths are gone, I want to work again. If I had some seed money I would like to open a small business in my village, selling whatever I could."

He also laughed as he confirmed that he would also like to remarry.

"Yes I would like to get married again."

The Daily Telegraph, UK.

Rising cost of staples

THE rising cost of food is being felt around the world, by the poor especially and, in turn, by politicians. Greater demand from China and India as more people switch to rich diets is lifting prices, which had been low for some 30 years. Last week the prime minister of Haiti resigned in the face of a mob angry at the cost of food, while the Philippines made hoarding rice a crime punishable by life imprisonment. The price of wheat rose 77% in 2007. Since January the price of rice has jumped by 141%. But growing more food takes time, and as the land available for production has decreased, governments and farmers must look to improve crop yields.

The Economist.

Prince William lands helicopter at girlfriend's home

Britain's Prince William landed a Royal Air Force helicopter in a field behind the garden of the parents of his girlfriend Kate Middleton, but the Ministry of Defence defended his actions, saying he achieved essential training objectives.
Newspapers reported yesterday that 25-year-old Prince William, who is second in line to the throne, asked permission from his girlfriend's parents to land near their country home in Bucklebury, Berkshire, because of a shortage of landing slots in Hampshire.

The Mail on Sunday said he landed the helicopter in a field behind their home.

While aviation analyst and RAF-trained pilot Jon Lake told the News of the World the April 3 flight was "ridiculous and inappropriate", the ministry said the two-hour training mission was fully authorised as part of the prince's four-month RAF attachment.

"Battlefield helicopter crews routinely practise landing in fields and confined spaces away from their airfields as a vital part of their training for operations," it said. "These highly honed skills are used daily in conflict zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan."

The ministry said helicopter bases continually sought permission from landowners to use their fields and that there were only two fields permanently available in Hampshire.

"Opportunities to use alternatives are therefore regularly seized. The aircraft landed in the field, after taking all necessary safety precautions, and was on the ground for 20 seconds.

"No one got on or off the aircraft. This was very much a routine training sortie that achieved essential training objectives."

Prince William, the fourth successive generation of the monarchy to become an RAF pilot, received his wings from his father, Prince Charles, on April 11 in a ceremony watched by Ms Middleton.

Known as Flying Officer William Wales, he is due to start an attachment to the Royal Navy in June.

He broke up with his long-time girlfriend in April last year but they now appear to be firmly back together, sparking feverish speculation among royal watchers about the marriage plans of the eldest son of the late Princess Diana.

SCMP. Apr. 21, 2008

Bus driver chooses GPS over gigantic warning sign, plows into overpass

The driver of the bus carrying the Garfield High School girls softball team that hit a brick and concrete footbridge was using a GPS navigation system that routed the tall bus under the 9-foot bridge, the charter company's president said Thursday.

Steve Abegg, president of Journey Lines in Lynnwood, said the off-the-shelf navigation unit had settings for car, motorcycle, bus or truck.

Although the unit was set for a bus, it chose a route through the Washington Park Arboretum that did not provide enough clearance for the nearly 12-foot-high vehicle, Abegg said. The driver told police he did not see the flashing lights or yellow sign posting the bridge height.

"We haven't really had serious problems with anything, but here it's presented a problem that we didn't consider," Abegg said of the GPS unit. "We just thought it would be a safe route because, why else would they have a selection for a bus?"

Some models that offer routing for larger vehicles base directions on general information -- such as routes that are closed to buses -- rather than painstakingly collected data such as bridge heights, GPS experts say.

The accident Wednesday afternoon sheared the roof off the charter bus and sent 21 students and a coach returning from a game in Kirkland to the hospital. All were treated and released.

Sixteen softball players stayed home from school Thursday to recover, said Seattle Public Schools spokesman David Tucker.

The nearly century-old concrete and brick footbridge in the arboretum was not damaged, other than a few minor chips and scratches, city officials said.

The bus driver, whose name was not released by police or the company, was cited for "hitting a structure with impaired clearance" and given a $154 ticket.

A spokesman for Garmin Ltd., the manufacturer of the GPS unit used by Journey Lines, said an independent company that also supplies information to online mapping sites provides its underlying data.

Bus routes typically steer drivers away from roads or turns where larger vehicles are not allowed, but don't take specific bridge heights into account, said Garmin spokesman Ted Gartner.

"The bigger comment here is that drivers always need to obey all the rules of the road at all times," he said.

"Stoplights aren't in our databases, either, but you're still expected to stop for stoplights."

A handful of companies do offer GPS systems -- largely used by commercial truckers -- that allow drivers to enter the height of their vehicles and then route them around bridges that would be too low.

"It's such a painful process to collect the data," said Edward Friedman of TeleType GPS, which released its WorldNav truck system three months ago. "You actually have to ... drive around and look at the heights of the bridges and go to all the counties."

Mark Hornung, senior vice president of operations for the manufacturer of CoPilot Truck, another GPS system for laptops and mobile devices that takes clearance heights into account, said some who buy cheaper generic systems wind up in tough spots.

Matt Bremner, business manager at Western Motorcoach, which sells luxury RVs in Lynnwood, said most GPS models he's seen are geared for cars. Those driving larger vehicles just need to apply common sense and pay attention to where they're going.

"If this guy was a professional driver, he should have known his bus was 12 feet high and couldn't fit into a 9-foot box," he said.

Abegg declined to answer other questions about the accident or the driver, saying the company was still investigating.

Journey Lines received the highest "satisfactory" rating from the state Utilities and Transportation Commission during its most recent inspection two months ago, said spokeswoman Marilyn Meehan.

But the company was fined $300 in 2006 after parents complained that a bus taking students from Lowell Elementary in Everett on a field trip had exhaust fumes leaking up through the floors.

Inspectors also found emergency lights that were not working and mold growing on the bus -- all problems that were corrected, Meehan said.

The state also fined the company $200 in 1994 for broken warning lights and failing to properly maintain driver qualification files, Meehan said.

State Patrol records indicate that Journey Lines buses were involved in accidents in 1998 and 2005, with one injury each, no fatalities, and no written citations or violations, Meehan said.

The charter company has the highest safety rating from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which found no problems during its six most recent inspections, according to the agency's database.

seattlepi.com

8-year-old girl gets divorce after forced marriage

A Yemeni court on Tuesday granted a divorce to an eight-year-old girl whose unemployed father forced her into an arranged marriage this year, saying he feared she might be kidnapped. "I am happy that I am divorced now. I will be able to go back to school," Nojud Mohammed Ali said, after a public hearing in Sanaa's court of first instance.

Her former husband, 28-year-old Faez Ali Thameur, said he married the child "with her consent and that of her parents" but that he did not object to her divorce petition. In response to a question from Judge Mohammed al-Qadhi, he acknowledged that the "marriage was consummated, but I did not beat her." Yemen, one of the world's poorest countries, has no law governing the minimum age of marriage.

Nojud was a second grader in primary school when the marriage took place two and a half months ago. "They asked me to sign the marriage contract and remain in my father's house until I was 18. But a week after signing, my father and my mother forced me to go live with him."

Nojud's father, Mohammad Ali Al-Ahdal, said he had felt obliged to marry off his daughter, an act he claims she consented to. He said he was frightened after his oldest daughter had been kidnapped several years ago and later married to her abductor. He said the same man then kidnapped another of his daughters who was already married and had four children, resulting in him being jailed. Dressed in traditional black, Nojud said she would now go to live in the home of her maternal uncle and did not want to see her father. The girl's lawyer, Shadha Nasser, said Nojud's case was not unique. "I believe there are thousands of similar cases," she said, adding that civil society groups are pressing parliament to set the minimum age for marriage at 18.

Breitbart.com

Teenage girl left looking like alien after hair dye causes severe allergic reaction

A teenager was left in agony and covered in weeping sores after suffering a severe allergic reaction to hair dye.

Lois Queen, 13, was rushed to hospital after using L'Oreal Casting Crème Gloss in chocolate brown.

Her face is still swollen 10 days after using the product and she's vowed never to dye her hair again.

Miss Queen bought the hair dye from a local shop near her home in Mottingham, south London, for £5.99.

She wanted to colour her hair for her forthcoming 14th birthday party, which takes place next month.

Miss Queen followed the instructions on the pack and, under the watchful eye of her mum Lorna, 40, carried out the allergy patch test 48 hours before applying the dye.

After her face ballooned, she was rushed her to hospital where doctors diagnosed a severe allergic reaction and gave her steroids and antihistamines.

Miss Queen said: 'The pain was intense. It was terrifying. Within hours of using it my eye went red and itchy, then the swelling started. The next morning I could barely open my eyes.

'It was so painful. I thought I was going blind and dying. My head was such a weird shape, I looked like an alien.'

Lois said: 'Doctors gave me medicine but it didn't get better, it got worse. I had to go back three times.

'I'd wanted to look better but ended up looking like a freak.'

Mrs Queen, a mum-of-four children and a trainee teacher, said: 'The doctor said she was lucky to avoid permanent eye damage.

'Lois missed a whole week of school and has been miserable. She's really down, won't eat and won't leave the house.

'The swelling has gone down a bit but she is still covered in weeping sores that are getting infected. It's miserable.

'She dyed her hair for her 14th birthday party – coming up in May. She's really gutted.

'I'm revolted and Lois will never dye her hair again. L'Oreal obviously use very strong ingredients.'

The hair dye used by Lois Queen

Daily Mail.

Teen's organs prove deadly for recipients

Alex Koehne had a love for life and always wanted to help people.

So when his parents were told that their 15-year-old son was dying of bacterial meningitis, the couple did not hesitate in donating his organs to desperately ill transplant recipients.

"I immediately said, `Let's do it'," Jim Koehne recalled. "We both thought it was a great idea. This is who Alex was."

A year later, their dream that Alex's spirit might somehow live on has become a nightmare.

It turned out that Alex did not die of bacterial meningitis, but rather a rare form of lymphoma that was not found until his autopsy, and apparently spread to the organ recipients.

The suburban New York couple was told that two of the recipients had died and two others had the donor kidneys removed and were being treated for cancer.

The revelation has led two hospitals to revise transplant procedures, although the state Health Department found that no one was to blame. Experts said getting cancer from an organ donor was extremely rare: only 64 cases have been identified in a national study of 230,000 cases, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing.

"A 15-year-old boy's organs are a gift from the Almighty," said transplant surgeon Lewis Teperman, noting that most organ donors were much older than Alex. "Usually the organs from a 15-year-old are perfect. In this case, they weren't."

Dr Teperman is the director of transplantation at New York University Medical Centre, where two of the transplants were done, and lead author of a report on the case.

In March of last year, Alex was taken to Stony Brook University Hospital on Long Island after treatment at another hospital for nausea, vomiting, severe back and neck pain, seizures and double vision. Doctors told his parents they suspected he had bacterial meningitis - an infection of the fluid surrounding the spinal cord and brain - although tests did not reveal what bacteria caused it.

He was treated with antibiotics but died on March 30 last year.

The Koehnes requested an autopsy. They were told that Alex had actually died from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, but in a rare form of the blood cancer that affects fewer than 1,500 people in the US annually.

"Our jaws dropped," Mr Koehne recalled. "We walked out of there crying."

Mr Koehne and his wife, Lisa, later learned that a 52-year-old man died of the same rare lymphoma about four months after receiving Alex's liver.

The couple said they were also told a 36-year-old woman who received Alex's pancreas also developed lymphoma and died.

Two patients who received the kidneys were undergoing cancer treatment and were faring well, according to a report in the American Journal of Transplantation.

All four recipients were notified immediately of the autopsy results and received chemotherapy, the report said. None has been publicly identified.

The report's authors noted a diagnosis of bacterial meningitis does not preclude donating organs, because the recipients can be given antibiotics to prevent infection, but they concluded "a more thorough evaluation of the donor" should be done when there is any doubt.

SCMP. Apr 09, 2008

Paris puts out Olympic flame as protests mount

Games' symbol extinguished; IOC chief voices concern

Protesters against China's policies on human rights and Tibet forced security officials to put out the iconic Olympic flame and take refuge on a bus five times before aborting its relay through Paris yesterday.

Games organisers vowed to defeat the "few Tibet separatists" who threatened to spoil the biggest relay in Olympic history.

Speaking in Beijing hours after similar protests during the torch relay in London, International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said he was very concerned about the protests and about the recent deadly unrest in Tibetan-populated regions.

"The torch relay has been targeted. The IOC has expressed its serious concern and calls for a rapid peaceful resolution in Tibet," he said.

The comments were the sternest yet by Dr Rogge, who has repeatedly defended the awarding of the Games to China and said at the weekend the IOC saw "no momentum" for a boycott of Games events.

French officials cut short the torch relay after protesters had repeatedly held up its progress.

On the Eiffel Tower's first floor, Green Party activist Sylvain Garel lunged for the first torch-bearer, shouting, "Freedom for the Chinese". Security officials pulled him back.

After just 200 metres, protesters confronted the relay. Security officials extinguished the torch and put it on a bus.

Crowds booed and jeered its progress down the Champs Elysee - the most famous street in Paris - and protesters, among them city councillors, hung banners depicting the Olympic rings as handcuffs from landmarks including City Hall, where a Tibetan flag also flew. Mayor Bertrand Delanoe cancelled a ceremony there marking the torch's passage, citing Chinese objections.

One protester tried to douse the flame with a fire extinguisher.

Each time officials resumed the relay, it was interrupted. The flame was put out at least twice. Police made 28 arrests.

When the torch was whisked to the stadium where the relay was to have ended, fighting broke out nearby between French pro-Tibet activists and demonstrators carrying Chinese flags. The French activists spat on them and shouted, "Fascists!"

The head of the French Olympic Committee called the protests against the relay highly regrettable.

Wang Hui , spokeswoman for the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, was defiant. "The Tibet separatists are doomed to failure. Nothing can stop the smooth operation of the torch relay. It will be a success. We will not change our schedule," she said.

Earlier, a government spokesman described Sunday's demonstrations in London as "vile misdeeds" by "disgusting" separatists seeking to sabotage the relay.

Dr Rogge, clearly rattled by the images of protesters trying to snuff out the flame, called on the 205 national Olympic committees meeting in Beijing this week to form a united front to prevent the Games being overshadowed by violent protests.

"Our major responsibility is to offer a good Games to the athletes. The world expects it, and the unity of the Olympic movement will deliver it," he said.

Agence France-Presse, Associated Press, Reuter

Olympic torch lit despite protest

The Olympic torch has been lit at a ceremony in Greece that was briefly disrupted by pro-Tibet activists.
Protesters from media rights group Reporters Without Borders broke through the cordon of 1,000 police officers in Olympia as China's envoy spoke.

Activists had vowed to protest over the violence in and around Tibet.

The torch will now be carried in an around-the-world relay through 20 countries, before arriving in Beijing for the start of the Games on 8 August.

As Liu Qi, head of the Beijing Olympic organising committee, spoke ahead of the torch lighting, three men broke into the ceremony venue.

One ran up behind him attempting to display a black flag depicting the Olympic rings made from handcuffs.




The men were from the France-based media rights watchdog Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders, or RSF), which has called for a boycott of the opening ceremony of the games.

They were quickly bundled away by police and Mr Liu continued his speech uninterrupted.

The live television coverage, beaming the scene around the world, quickly cut away from Mr Liu and the protesters until they had been removed.

"We cannot let the Chinese government seize the Olympic flame, a symbol of peace, without denouncing the dramatic human rights situation in the country," RSF said in a statement.

Later, as the torch began its journey, pro-Tibet activists unfurled banners and shouted slogans before Greek security wrestled them away.

'Boycott unwanted'

Actors dressed in ancient Greek costume then lit the torch in the traditional manner by using a parabolic mirror to focus the sun's rays.

There were fears that stormy weather would prevent the torch being lit in the customary way.

The ceremony, beside the Temple of Hera, was moved forward by an hour and the sun shone through a break in the clouds.

The head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Jacques Rogge, has defended the decision to hold the Games in China saying: "The major political leaders don't want a boycott".

In his speech during the ceremony, Mr Rogge said the Olympic torch relay and the Games should take place in a peaceful environment.

"The torch is the link between all athletes and citizens of this world; between all of us who believe in Olympism and the virtue of sport. It has the force to unite humanity and to stand for harmony."

He told the Associated Press news agency on Monday that he was engaged on a daily basis in "silent diplomacy" with Beijing on Tibet and other human rights issues.



Tibet unrest

Tibet activists are angered that the torch's 136,000-km (85,000-mile) route will take it through the Himalayan region and Mount Everest, which straddles the border between Nepal and Tibet.



China sent troops to Tibet in 1950 and since then there have been periods of unrest and sporadic uprisings as resentment of Beijing's rule has persisted.

The latest round of anti-China protests began in Tibet's main city, Lhasa, on 10 March - the 49th anniversary of a failed uprising - and gradually escalated.

Lhasa saw at least two days of violence and there have also been protests in provinces which border Tibet.

China says 19 people were killed by rioters and accuses Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama of inciting the violence.

The Tibetan government in exile says at least 130 people have died in a crackdown by Chinese troops and deny any role in the protests.

BBC News.

Woman stuck after two years on toilet

An American woman's body had became attached to her boyfriend's toilet after she sat on it for two years, police in Kansas said.

"She was not glued. She was not tied. She was just physically stuck by her body," said Bryan Whipple, the sheriff of Ness County.

It appeared Pam Babcock's skin had grown around the toilet seat, he added. "It is hard to imagine. ... I still have a hard time imagining it myself."

The 35-year-old initially refused emergency medical care but her boyfriend, 36, and police officers finally convinced her to go to hospital.

"We pried the toilet seat off with a pry bar and the seat went with her to the hospital," Mr Whipple said. "The hospital removed it."

The county attorney still has to decide whether any charges should be brought against Kory McFarren, the boyfriend.

Mr McFarren told investigators that he brought his girlfriend food and water, and asked her every day to come out of the bathroom.

"And her reply would be, 'Maybe tomorrow'," Mr Whipple said. "According to him, she did not want to leave the bathroom."

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The house in Ness City had a second bathroom that he could use.

On Feb 27, Mr McFarren called police to report that "there was something wrong with his girlfriend", Mr Whipple said, adding that the man never explained why it took him two years to pick up the phone.

Officers found Miss Babcock sitting on the toilet - fully clothed, except for her tracksuit bottoms pulled down to her mid-thigh.

She was "somewhat disoriented" and her legs looked like they had atrophied, the sheriff said. "She said that she didn't need any help, that she was OK and did not want to leave."

She was taken to a hospital in Wichita, about 150 miles away, where she is in a fair condition.

However, Miss Babcock has since refused to speak to police. Authorities said they did not know if she was mentally or physically disabled.

James Ellis, a neighbour, said Miss Babcock's mother died at a young age and she was apparently mostly kept inside the house where she grew up.

"It really doesn't surprise me," Mr Ellis said of the bathroom incident. "What surprises me is somebody wasn't called in a bit earlier."

The Telegraph, UK.

Prince Harry withdrawn from Afghanistan

Prince Harry has been withdrawn from Afghanistan after news of his secret deployment leaked out.

The 23-year-old royal, who has spent the last 10 weeks serving in Helmand Province, is flying back to the UK amid concerns for his safety.

The move follows the collapse of a news blackout deal over his tour of duty, which was broken by foreign media.

There had been fears the prince, who is third in line to the throne, could become a target for the Taleban.

In a statement, the Ministry of Defence described the reporting of Harry's deployment by foreign media as "regrettable" but said that contingency plans for such a leak were in place.

Prince Harry, in an interview recorded in Afghanistan prior to his withdrawal, said he had enjoyed being away from the press and England.

"I don't want to sit around Windsor, because I generally don't like England that much and it's nice to be away from all the press and the papers.....," he said.

It added that while the prince should have returned "in a matter of weeks" with his Household Cavalry regiment battlegroup, the situation had now "clearly changed".

Brigadier Andrew Mackay, Commander of Task Force Helmand, said Harry had been "deployed in the field, conducting operations against the Taleban" at the time of the decision.

He continued: "He has seen service both in the south of Helmand and in the north. More recently he took part in a major operation to disrupt Taleban lines of communication."

'Risks'

Chief of the Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, in consultation with head of the Army, General Sir Richard Dannatt, had taken the final decision to withdraw Harry immediately, the statement said.

"This decision has been taken primarily on the basis that the worldwide media coverage of Prince Harry in Afghanistan could impact on the security of those who are deployed there, as well as the risks to him as an individual soldier," it added.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown paid tribute to the prince and said Britain owed him a "debt of gratitude" for his service in Afghanistan, but he added that it was correct to bring Harry back to the UK.

HAVE YOUR SAY Prince Harry is a trained soldier. I'm in the service too and I'm pleased for him that he was allowed to go Deborah, Hampshire, UK

"Security considerations come first. That has been the deciding factor which was made by our defence staff and I think that everybody will respect that is the right decision."

He thanked Harry, a second lieutenant, for the "professionalism and dedication he has shown", and said the decision to bring him home was a reminder of the "difficulties and challenges" the armed forces faced on active duty.

Conservative leader David Cameron agreed that it was "right" to withdraw the prince from Afghanistan, but said everyone in Britain should be "proud of what he has done".

"It's incredibly tough out there. He's obviously shown great courage and bravery as all our soldiers do out there.

"And what they do is really important, not just for the future of Afghanistan but for the safety of our country too."

'Dangerous tasks'

A member of the Household Cavalry, Prince Harry was based in a former madrassa along with a Gurkha regiment.

Work involved calling up allied air cover in support of ground forces and going out on foot patrols.

Defence Secretary Des Browne also commended Harry, saying the prince was "an example of a generation of young people" who were "prepared to take on these very serious and dangerous tasks for our security".

The Queen, opening the Queen's Court Care Home in Windsor, said she believed he had done "a good job in a very difficult climate".

The prince's deployment was subject to a news blackout deal struck between the MoD and newspapers and broadcasters in the UK and abroad.

It is understood that the news was first leaked in an Australian publication in January but only after it appeared on the influential US website, The Drudge Report, did the deal break down.

In exchange for not reporting the prince's deployment, some media organisations were granted access to the prince in Afghanistan for interviews and filming.

The prince's withdrawal is the second major blow to his army career.

Last year, a planned tour to Iraq had to be cancelled at the last minute because of a security risk.

BBC News.

Killer fish terrifies Britain

A SAVAGE fish more terrifying than a piranha has been caught in Britain for the first time — sparking fears of a deadly invasion.
The vicious giant snakehead EATS everything it comes across and has even been reported to KILL people.

The monster — from south-east Asia — has a mouth crammed with fearsome teeth, can “crawl” on land and survive out of water for up to four days.

News that a 2ft specimen had been hooked in an English river caused widespread panic among anglers and conservationists.

Continue reading in the Sun

BA plane crash-lands at Heathrow airport

A British Airways plane crash-landed at London's Heathrow airport on Thursday, slightly injuring 18 passengers and triggering an inquiry into why the Boeing 777 flying in from Beijing landed short of the runway.
Fire engines smothered the aircraft in foam after the landing at the world's busiest international airport extensively damaged its wings and ripped off its undercarriage.

Aviation commentators said the fact that the plane only just cleared the perimeter fence, hit the ground well short of the runway and then slid to a halt pointed to a massive loss of power in the final stages of landing.

The wheels of the plane, which had a routine maintenance check in December, were still in the field where it crashed, several hundred metres from the runway.

'I win the lottery today,'€ Fernando Prado, one of the passengers, said after being safely evacuated by emergency chute from the wreckage.

BA declined to comment on reports of a loss of power. But it praised the pilot and crew for the way they handled the crisis.

'The flight crew showed great courage and professionalism in landing the aircraft safely,'€ said British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh.

'All of the crew did a fantastic job evacuating the 136 passengers. They are all heroes,' he added.

An airport spokesman said in a statement that the Air Accidents Investigation Branch was inspecting the aircraft.

'BA Flight 38 arriving from Beijing made an emergency landing at 1242,' he said.

Passengers were immediately evacuated and taken to a reception centre at the airport.

'Heathrow Airport's southern runway was closed immediately after the incident. It has now re-opened for take-offs only. The northern runway is operating for arriving aircraft.'€

BAA, which runs Heathrow, said 18 passengers suffered minor injuries.

It said 221 flights, from a normal flying schedule of 1,300, had been cancelled of which only eight were long haul.

However, while it had been allowed a limited number of night flights to soak up the backlog, it warned passengers planning to travel on Friday to check ahead.

Normally about 40 flights an hour touch down at Heathrow, just west of the capital, with a further 40 taking off.

A London police spokeswoman said: 'There is nothing to suggest it is terror-related.'€

One eyewitness, Steve Bell, said the wheels were not down on landing, and he heard a grating noise.

'It turned about 90 degrees on landing. Its wheels were not down. Within minutes fire crews arrived and evacuated all the passengers,'€ he told BBC News 24 television.

Among the planes delayed was a flight Prime Minister Gordon Brown was taking on an official trip to India and China.

SCMP Jan 18, 2008

TIME's Person of the Year: Putin

Putin was chosen as the TIME's Person of the Year. There were other runners-up including Al Gore, J.K Rowling and Hu Jintao. Go and take a look at the stories.

Link to the site.