TGIF Edition 3 July 09

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EDITION

Dunedin

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ISSN 1172-4153 | Volume 2 | Issue 40 |

| 3 July 2009

Schools MEDIA HOUND KEY OVER WORTH don’t want to be judged by parents

on the

INSIDE

Wellington, July 3 – Pressure is expected to build

Minister says ‘tough’ Wellington, July 3 – Education Minister Anne Tolley is ruling out a law change to prevent standards’information being used to create league tables comparing schools.

Her position comes as a new survey shows 95 percent of New Zealand Principal Federation (NZPF) members were either opposed to or have serious concerns that new national standards would be used to create the tables, which would allow parents to compare school performances.

Principals have threatened to withhold standard assessment results over the issue,concerned that schools would be unfairly compared against each other.

From next year, the progress of primary school children in maths, reading and writing will be assessed against government-set standards.

NZPF president Ernie Buutveld said students, teachers, boards and schools would be affected if a fundamental, but wrong, change was made to the education system.

“If following consultation data remains the issue and could be used potentially to publicly exercise a culture of blame and shame for schools we would be worried for our children.”

Last week Labour education spokesman Trevor Mallard suggested a change could be made to the Education Amendment Bill currently before a select

on Prime Minister John Key to state why he lost confidence in Richard Worth, now a sexual complaint against the former minister has been dropped.

Police today confirmed the Korean woman who laid the complaint against Dr Worth had withdrawn it.

“At no time did police suggest to the complainant that she should withdraw her complaint,” a Wellington police spokeswoman said.

“Police will need to assess all the information we have to bring the file to a state of finality.”

Dr Worth’s lawyer Paul Dacre said his client was happy with the outcome and now wanted time to reflect.

Dr Worth resigned as a minister on June 2 and quit 10 days later after the scandal involving the Korean woman and another incident involving a woman from the Labour Party who accused him of making inappropriate phone calls and texts.

At a press conference last month Mr Key made it clear he would not be revealing the reason he accepted Dr Worth’s resignation. All he would say was that Dr Worth had lost his confidence.

Mr Key was not commenting today.

TV3 tonight reported further details of the Korean woman’s allegation; that Dr Worth invited her to Wellington for a function, they later drank wine in his office after which he escorted her to a hotel room he had booked and had the key for. The woman became tired, when Dr Worth allegedly would not leave, she went to bed and awoke to find him next to her.

Dr Worth consistently maintained his innocence and previously said he had no choice but to resign from Parliament because of the “avalanche of rumour and innuendo” surrounding him.

– NZPA

FINAL DIG

Dinosaur lady’s obit Page 5

GIANT RAT The new plague Page 7

FADE OUT

Michael’s memorial Page 8

Continue reading

Top HoS journo denies drug-dealing Auckland, July 3 – A Herald on Sunday assistant editor who was sacked last year has told an employment hearing he denies allegations he was selling the drug P in the newspaper’s own toilets.

Stephen Cook told Employment Relations Authority member Rosemary Monaghan in Auckland today that he was also told of rumours and gossip among Auckland journalists that he was connected with the Head Hunters gang .

Cook is arguing he was unjustifiably dismissed by

the Herald on Sunday towards the end of last year and is seeking compensation.

He said he heard the rumours about alleged criminal activity in October last year, just under a month after drug police arrived at the Herald on Sunday office making inquiries about him.

The rumours suggested he was involved with the Head Hunters gang and“dealing P out of the toilets of the Herald on Sunday”, he told Ms Monaghan.

Cook said these rumours helped damage his rela-

tionship with the Herald on Sunday.

Herald on Sunday editor Shayne Currie told Ms Monaghan the events which led to Cook’s dismissal began when police came to the newspaper’s office on September 5 last year.

He said they identified themselves as drug police and had seen Cook in an unmarked Herald on Sunday car outside a property they had under surveillance.

Currie said the information gave him cause for concern and he gave police the home address of

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Cook, who was sick that day with influenza. Cook said police visited him and claimed that he was “pushed around and roughed up”.

When asked by Currie at a meeting the following Tuesday, September 9, why he was outside the address, Cook said he was covering a story about a dispute at a plastics company.

He told Currie there was nothing for either him or the publication to concern themselves about, and offered to take a drugs test.Currie told the authority he found Cook’s response“puzzling and troubling”.

Subsequently Currie asked Cook to attend a meetContinue reading

NEW ZEALAND

3 July 2009

off BEAT

Office workers asked to go naked NEWCASTLE, England, July 3 (UPI) – There are a million stories in the naked city, and now you are reading one of them: a British business consultant said he was able to improve a firm’s productivity by convincing office staff to work for one day in the nude.

David Taylor, a self-proclaimed business psychologist, said he was called in to help onebestway, a design and marketing company in Newcastle, England, after the company began losing money and had to fire six workers this spring, The Sun reported today.

“Inviting an organization to go naked is the most extreme technique I’ve used,” Taylor said. “It may seem weird but it works. It’s the ultimate expression of trust in yourself and each other.”

Managing Director Mike Owen, 40, and his employees said the company has vastly improved since the experiment, which was filmed for cable channel Virgin 1’s July 9 special, Naked Office.

“We’re either brave or mad. But I did tell everyone they didn’t have to do it – only if it felt right,” Owen said.

“As a creative company, we persuade our clients to be brave, and this was about taking on some of the braveness ourselves.”

The employees eased in to the challenge, performing tasks such as photocopying parts of their bodies and drawing a nude model. On the big day, all but three went naked, while one man wore a posing pouch and two women drew the line at black underwear.

‘Sasquatch’ a costumed teen FAIRFIELD, Conn., July 3 (UPI) – Police in Connecticut said a Sasquatch sighting reported by a motorist turned out to be a teenager in a gorilla costume.

Authorities said a woman driving on Unquowa Road in Fairfield called police at about 10:30 p.m. Tuesday and reported she almost hit Sasquatch, the Connecticut Post of Bridgeport reported Thursday.

The woman described the creature she spotted on the road as 8 feet tall, hairy and with legs like tree trunks.

She said the creature covered its eyes and ran into the woods after she switched on her high beams.

Police said they searched the area and instead of discovering the legendary creature, they found a five foot tall 16-year-old boy in a gorilla costume. They said the teenager admitted to standing at the side of the road and waving to cars.

The officers turned the boy over to his parents.

Bear attacks man for his hoagie VERNON, N.J., July 3 (UPI) – A New Jersey man said a black bear attacked him in his driveway and stole his Italian hoagie.

Henry Rouwendal said he was in the driveway of his Vernon home at about 10:30 p.m. packing for a business trip when something struck him from behind, The (Newark) Star-Ledger reported today.

“It blind-sided me. I was on the ground and I was thinking, ‘What the hell just hit me?’ “ Rouwendal said.

Rouwendal said he rolled onto his back in time to see the bear grab his sandwich.

“I kicked him three times in the snout and one time in the throat. I think the one in the throat got him,” he said.

Rouwendal, who suffered a head injury, a dislocated shoulder and deep bruises on his knee, elbow and buttocks, said it took him about an hour to make his way back into his house, where he was tended to by his wife, who works as a nurse.

Police said the bear is believed to be a mother of two cubs that has been spotted several times in the area.

Elation and relief as ocean rowers found Auckland, July 3 – Elation and relief were the twin emotions for Rebecca Wigram today when she learnt her husband and his three teammates rowing across the Indian Ocean had been located.

The Rowing for Prostate crew of Tom Wigram, Peter Staples, Billy Gammon and Matt Hampel last made contact with Indian Ocean Rowing Race organisers last Saturday. A problem with recharging their satellite phone was thought to be the reason they haven’t been in touch since. Early today (NZ time), the four were sighted from the air about 300 nautical miles from their destination of Mauritius.

Mrs Wigram,who is flying out of Auckland tonight for Mauritius to see the team cross the finish line, said a local coastguard patrol plane made contact about 1am (5pm Thursday, Mauritius time).

The parties spoke by VHF radio and the coastguard passed on the following message to race organisers:“Made contact, all crew safe, this is their co-ordinates..., they sounded well.”

Mrs Wigram said she got the news from race organisers in a telephone call about 5am.

“We laughed a lot,”she said.

“It was just elation really. I was very relieved.”

Mrs Wigram had remained confident throughout that the men, all expatriate Britons living in New Zealand, were safe despite their silence.

“It was great to have it confirmed,”she said.

“We just want them on dry land now.”

She said RFP’s projected arrival at the finish line was around the middle or end of next week.

The crew had been averaging about 50 miles a

day before they stopped making contact.

She didn’t expect to have any more news from them unless they came within VHF radio range of a boat or a plane.

The chances of that happening increased the closer they got to land.

RFP was one of 11 entries of varying crew sizes taking part in the inaugural 3132-nautical-mile charity race, which began from Geraldton, in Western Australia, in mid-April.

Two boats have finished, the first containing a British crew of four, who crossed the line eight days ago after 68 days, 19 hours and 40 minutes.

Four others teams are still rowing, while the five others have retired.

– NZPA

Sophie wrote $100 cheque to her killer Christchurch, July 3 – A bloodied pair of scissors was found on the carpet between Sophie Elliott’s legs, where her body lay on top of an open suitcase in her bedroom, the jury in the murder trial of Clayton Robert Weatherston was told today.

Detective Constable Joanne McLaughlin, the officer in charge of the scene at the Elliott house, said the scissor blades were bent at the tip and found in Miss Elliott’s knee area.

She also found a bloodied silver blade of a knife inside the suitcase, between her legs.After her body had been removed she found a black knife handle with hairs attached to it on the lid of the suitcase under where she had been lying.

She said there was a large quantity of blood staining the carpet under the body.

There was further blood near soft toys and other personal items in the corner of the room to the left of the doorway. There was blood spattered on the wall as well, she said.

There was women’s clothing in the suitcase and she found a clump of hair in the bottom of it.

She found a clear plastic bag with an orange tshirt, a leather armband, two beaded bracelets, and a book called Animal Farm in it. It had blood on the outside of it.

Among the items found in an outside pocket of a satchel belonging to Weatherston, were a photocopied document and a Snickers bar. Both had blood smears on them.

There was a $100 personal cheque from Sophie Elliott to Weatherston inside the bag, she said.

The door knob and lock on the inside of the bedroom door had blood on them.

Senior Sergeant Bruce Ross said Weatherston appeared cool and calm and was not concerned about what he had been arrested for when he was brought to the charge room at the Dunedin Police Station.

He was monitored while in custody, and examined by the Emergency Psychiatric Service. Because he was considered a high suicide risk he was then monitored constantly.

The trial in the High Court in Christchurch continued on the eighth day today with 11 jurors after Justice Judith Potter discharged one juror because of ill health.

Clayton Robert Weatherston denies the charge of murdering Sophie Elliott, but has indicated he would admit a charge of manslaughter.The defence claims provocation.

– NZPA

There was a $100 personal cheque from Sophie Elliott to Weatherston inside the bag

NEW ZEALAND

3 July 2009

Bank loses in buck-passing case Wellington, July 3 – Westpac Bank has failed to persuade the Supreme Court to reverse a decision in lower courts that a solicitor should be liable for a mortgage fraud which cost it $180,000.

The Supreme Court today dismissed an appeal by Westpac and ordered it to pay solicitor Alan John Clark $15,000 costs, plus “reasonable disbursements”.

Associate Judge Anthony Christiansen, in the High Court, rejected a Westpac bid for summary judgment against Mr Clark, and said he considered Westpac’s loss may have been a result of“slack lending practices”.

His decision was upheld by the Appeal Court,

and Westpac took its case to the Supreme Court, where it also lost.

The bank was caught out by a “clever imposter” who impersonated Marie Antoinette Fenech, and used a false passport to obtain a $180,400 mortgage on her Remuera house.The same conwoman apparently used similar tactics at three other banks and three other lawyers.

Mr Clark provided a solicitor’s certificate to Westpac on September 30, 2005, undertaking to promptly lodge the mortgage for registration, and Westpac handed over the money to the imposter on October 4.

Mr Clark took no steps to register the mortgage

Fonterra cries over guilt milk Wellington, July 3 – Fonterra says it will appeal the Commerce Commission’s latest ruling against it in a long-running series of disputes over supplying milk to smaller rivals.

“It is not fair for Fonterra farmers to be exposed to an unnecessary cost while a new regulatory framework for determining the regulated milk price is put in place,”said Fonterra’s milk supply director, Barry Harris.

The Commerce Commission last month confirmed that Kaimai Cheese Company Ltd and the Grate Kiwi Cheese Company Ltd are legitimate “independent processors”– a status that effectively forces Fonterra farmers to supply them with cheap milk.

Fonterra not only has to deliver the milk where its smaller rivals want it, but those companies can each claim up to 50 million litres a year of the lowcost milkflows, even though they may be linked to the same manufacturer.

That decision was seen as potentially exposing Fonterra to a proliferation of small food processors each seeking a share of the 600 million litres of “statutory”milk it has to provide at cost price.

Fonterra has so far lost on all fronts in the case,and yesterday there was more bad news for its farmers when Agriculture Minister David Carter deferred a planned November auction of that regulated milk.

Widely viewed as a start to solving Fonterra’s problems with the statutory requirement to supply raw milk at cost to smaller rivals, the auction was intended to force those companies to have to bid for the milk, and pay a premium.

At present they only have to pay a default price according to a formula set to calculate the cost to

ing on September 18 along with APN executive Rick Neville.Cook attended with his lawyer Chris Comeskey and made a covert audio recording of the meeting.

Both parties agreed that the newspaper wanted a written assurance from Cook that he was not involved in any illegal activity or anything that would compromise the reputation of management or the newspaper. Cook provided this the next day.

However, Currie said he also asked for Cook’s notes regarding the story he was working on, and a status report on it, something Cook disputes.

Both parties admitted it was not audible on Cook’s audio recording, though the newspaper said there were several inaudible parts of the recording which it could have been in.

Cook said he received a written request on September 23 asking for the status report and his notes and some other assurances.

“My reaction was one of astonishment,”he said, saying he did not respond due to losing trust in the newspaper.

He said he felt at this point that he was the subject of a witchhunt and that he lost faith in Currie, especially over Currie providing police with his address.

He added he did not want to hand over the notes

the home owner would have had to have sought compensation under the Land Transfer Act for the “mistake”of a registrar in accepting the forgery.

But the chief justice said the bank had failed to prove the claimed loss, even if the mortgage had been registered it would not have secured the money advanced separately under a forged loan document.

Justice Peter Blanchard noted that the Land Transfer Act does not allow banks to claim against the registry of land titles where a void mortgage has been innocently registered, but the Act and its compensation provisions are under review by the Law Commission.

– NZPA

in connection with the story as they were given to him in confidence and the story was not advanced enough for him to tell Currie.

Following further requests along similar lines, which Cook did not respond to, the newspaper suspended him on October 2.

The suspension was subsequently lifted and Cook was offered a job as a senior reporter, though he didn’t come back to the office due to his illness.

A letter containing a preliminary decision to dismiss Cook was sent on November 20, and he was dismissed the following month.

During some tense exchanges, Cook said Currie had acted in a friendly manner towards him for “self-serving”purposes only, while Currie said he had delivered medicine to Cook when he had been ill.

The hearing will resume on Monday, when submissions will be made on the remedy Cook will seek if it is found his dismissal was unjustified.

Cook said it was unrealistic for him to return to the Herald on Sunday given his experiences there.

He said he would seek financial compensation, though he has yet to say how much.

Ms Monaghan’s decision is expected to be reserved.

– NZPA Back to the front page

special

the ordinary becomes

– NZPA

He said the organisation’s survey found 75 percent of respondents felt so strongly that if reporting requirements made it possible for media or others to produce league tables, they would not report the new way.

Only 2 percent supported the proposed standards without change.

“With the potential for league tables national standards is a proven failure,”Mr Buutveld said.

In Britain teachers voted to boycott standard assessment tasks next year.

Principals were also concerned the standards were being rushed. `The National Party was happy to criticise the Labour government for its failure to implement NCEA effectively, and yet they are now rushing through the national standards and expecting us to implement them in less than six months.”

Primary school teachers’ union, the NZEI, was hopeful implementation of the standards would be delayed.

NZEI president Frances Nelson said removing the possibility of league tables was non-negotiable.

“Hopefully (a delay would) mean we will be able to get a commitment from the Government that standards data will not be available to draw simplistic comparisons between schools in the form of league tables.”

– NZPA Back to the front page

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committee,or a separate bill be drafted,to ensure that the Education Ministry and officials could see the comparative data but that it not be released publicly.

Mr Buutveld also asked the minister if she would consider the option.

When asked last week, Mrs Tolley would not say whether she would support such a change or not.

“I welcome views from parents and educators on how best to do this -- including on how we could shape those reports so they don’t lead to league tables,”she earlier said.

“I’m open to suggestions from the sector on how this information should be collected and reported.”

But today, speaking at NZPF’s conference, she took a firmer line.

“You should be clear that the Government will not resile from national standards. Parents want them, they have a right to them, and this Government is going to deliver them,”she said.

“The Government does not intend to issue league tables, either produce or issue league tables, but we are not going to change the law to prevent information being released to the school’s community and to the school’s parents.”

Her priority was accountability to parents, Mrs Tolley said.

Mr Buutveld said the fear of league tables may train-wreck the new standards.

Fonterra – which the company contends is less than the real cost.

“The raw milk regulations cost each of our farmers around $1000 a year,”Mr Harris said today.“This is money that they can’t afford and the Commerce Commission decision opens up eligibility for this milk further.

“This is an important principle that we have to defend,”he said.“Otherwise it could potentially cost our suppliers even more”.

Fonterra is appealing the determination on three key grounds: • The commission’s decision that an independent processor does not need to process the raw milk is not consistent with the purpose of the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act. • Requirement for Fonterra to deliver raw milk to any address nominated by the independent processor is inconsistent with the regulations.

• The commission is wrong to say Fonterra did not supply raw milk to Kaimai and Grate Kiwi.

A key trade-off that Fonterra farmers made to avoid commission scrutiny of the mega-merger that set up their company was to agree that independent processors must be able to obtain the raw milk, and other dairy goods and services, necessary for them to compete in dairy markets.

Fonterra controls about 95 percent of the nation’s milk production, which is about 15 billion litres, and it provides 600 million litres to rivals.

The law provides for Fonterra to make up to 5 percent of its supply (about 750 million litres) available as regulated milk.

until December 6 – but Westpac had known since November 18 that a fraud had been perpetrated, and registration of the mortgage was refused.

Chief Justice Sian Elias said the bank was effectively claiming that it was entitled to have Mr Clark register a forgery and that it has been deprived of that benefit:“I doubt whether that can be right,” she said.

“The bank’s claim against the solicitor is for failure to put it in a protected position through registration of a forged mortgage.”

A registered mortgage would have allowed it to recover money from the legitimate home-owner – even though they had not borrowed money – and

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EDITORIAL

3 July 2009

Editorial

Family Matters

Endurance in Honduras There’s an awful lot of liberal hand-wringing going on this week over the‘coup’in Honduras that saw the army remove President Manuel Zelaya from office.

The United Nations have rapidly called for their left-wing puppet to be restored to his throne, as have the equally left-wing Organisation of American States (OAS).

The problem the liberals are overlooking is that Hondurans don’t want the flamboyant halfwit back.

Zelaya has become very chummy of late with Venezuela’s communist dictator Hugo Chavez – also a darling of the UN.The Honduran leader’s problems reached a tipping point when he decided,in a Chavezesque move – to alter the constitution that currently

bars presidents from seeking a second term.

On the strength of this final slap in the face to the democratic process,the Army – acting as a police force in effect – arrested Zelaya and gave him the option of facing trial on criminal charges or skipping the country with a shred of dignity left.Zelaya evidently chose the latter because he was quickly bundled on a plane, in his PJs, and flown to exile in Costa Rica.

The liberals see the military’s move to banish him as illegal, but the liberals evidently had no problem with his attempts to alter the Honduran constitution and his pursuit of left-wing objectives against the wishes of the public.

But frankly,that’s a little obtuse.Whether it’s police

officers arresting him or soldiers,the effect is the same.

Liberals simply don’t like it when left-wing leaders are removed.End of story.Apparently it’s all hunky dory to gerrymander the political system, alter constitutions at will (Lord knows Helen Clark was an expert at both of these things back here),and the public are supposed to sit and twiddle their thumbs?

If Zelaya was a corporate CEO doing such things he’d be prosecuted for fraud and removed. He should not have immunity just because he’s a left-wing president. The Honduran military need to return to democratic authority as soon as possible, but we should be thanking them in the interim, not SUBSCRIBE TO TGIF! criticizing.

Obituary

Remembering Joan Wiffen, New Zealand’s ‘Dinosaur lady’ Dr James Crampton, paleontologist and programme leader at GNS Science, comments: “I guess for me, her story is a wonderful example of the intense interest, drive and energy that motivate many natural historians – amateur and professional scientists alike – the“simple”joy of discovery that has led to all the great scientific discoveries throughout history. Like a prize-winning film, novel or painting, or a stunning sports victory, Joan’s work has enriched our national identity, so that“our” dinosaurs now reside in the psyche of many (most?)

New Zealanders. What a great legacy! I suggest that her success as an amateur also appeals to New Zealander’s egalitarian and“number 8 wire”ethos.

Associate Professor Ewan Fordyce, Head of the Department of Geology at Otago University, comments: Joan Wiffen did what a good vertebrate paleontologist should. She started her work prompted by reports of fossil bones. She organised field groups, recovered new material, prepared it, and saw it written up. She sought and received support from NZ Geological Survey (now GNS Sciences). She developed excellent collaborations especially with other vertebrate paleontologists overseas, notably Dr Ralph Molnar then of Queensland Museum. She produced a series of scientific publications on Late Cretaceous biotas, including bony fish, sea turtles, mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, dinosaurs and pterosaurs.

Such articles are the fundamentals of paleontology, and they give a certain immortality to the writer. It is a tribute to Joan and her associates that her work will be referred to a hundred years hence.

Dr Ralph E. Molnar, vertebrate paleontologist and co-author of many of Joan Wiffen’s publications, comments: “Joan was the primary figure in the discovery of dinosaurs and other Mesozoic terrestrial vertebrates in New Zealand.Thirty some years ago, in the 1970’s she and her husband, known to his friends as Pont, decided to hunt for vertebrate fossils in North Island. They tracked down a map from a petroleum company that noted “reptilian bones” in the Te Hoe Valley. In their 50’s, when most of us would be contemplating retirement, they took up prospecting for reptilian fossils. At this time, Cretaceous marine reptiles were known from New Zealand, but no land-living creatures. By 1980, in addition to fossils of marine reptiles, Joan and Pont had discovered a single bone of a dinosaur, the first from New Zealand. Her later work was to reveal evidence of probably five types of dinosaur, as well as of one flying reptile (pterosaur).This is set out in her 1991 book ‘Valley of the Dragons’.

“Joan’s work is significant in several ways.To me, however, Joan’s chief significance is not in what she found, but what she did with her discoveries.Without formal university training, Joan taught herself not only how to extract the fossils from the recalcitrant rocks in which they were embedded, and which

would tax many formally trained technicians, but also to describe these remains scientifically, and publish their descriptions in scientific journals.

Regardless of what kinds of expensive education, equipment or expeditions may be necessary in certain circumstances, Joan showed that the interested, logical and critical mind is the single most important factor in success. She showed that a person with

these qualities can make important contributions to their chosen field. She had scientific papers published not only in New Zealand, but also Australia, the U.S. and Brazil and was awarded the Morris K. Skinner award by the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology for her contributions to the science. She will be long remembered and much missed.”

Compiled by Science Media Centre,Wellington

Sue Reid Research / Writer, Family First NZ -Referendum represents democracy in action Much to the chagrin of politicians and media commentators, the smacking debate is back on the agenda thanks to the Citizen’s Initiated Referendum to be held in August.

Even more disappointing has been the disrespect and disregard shown towards the voting public by our political leaders, and some media and commentators.

It is arrogant to assume that citizens are incapable of understanding a simple referendum question and to suggest it is ambiguous.

It is irresponsible to imply that this referendum is a ‘waste of time’ or ‘there is little point’ to the exercise – after all, this referendum is the result of 310,000-plus signatures who felt this question was important enough to be ‘put to the vote’.

The referendum is the completion of the democratic cycle.

It began with a question scribed, submitted to the appropriate government authorities, and due process followed.

Countless hours of hard work by a multitude of New Zealanders, who felt the issue was too important to be dismissed, gave the public the opportunity to sign a petition to bring it ‘to the vote’. This is simple democracy in action and now it allows us to gain a ‘snapshot’ of what New Zealand voters think of a particular issue – in this case the anti-smacking law.

It isn’t a vote about whether the police are using discretion appropriately or whether we should wait for an ‘internal’ review by the Police or CYF. It is a vote that simply asks whether a good parent raising great kids should be criminalised for using a smack to correct their child. It is completely fair and reasonable to ask the voting public about this.

Those that make a fuss about how ‘confusing’ the question is simply do not like the answer they arrive at – NO. Those that suggest something is wrong with the Citizens Initiated Referendum Act merely resent the fact that the consistent and hard work of the general population has been rewarded.

The government funded groups that are bleating about the referendum question now are licking their wounds because signatories were gained and the right to a referendum was won.

There is also no use being outraged about the $9 million price tag either. The blame for that falls squarely at the feet of Helen Clark and the previous Labour-led government when they denied the referendum to be held alongside the last election. This is the legacy she has left us.

The referendum (and its cost) has also been as a result of the politicians’ complete refusal to listen to the overwhelming opposition to the law when they passed it in 2007.

Those that say that a referendum is pointless when the government will ignore it refuse to see that apathy is the worst enemy to democracy.

Here is a chance for a ‘snapshot’ of the nation’s view on this issue to be recorded and a formal ‘poll’ to materialise.

Even now, 10 years down the track, we can still quote ‘the Norm Withers Referendum” when advocating for crime to be dealt with.

Perhaps in 10 years from now the 2009 referendum will be referred to as we continue to uphold the valuable, unique and challenging role of parenting, and the wellbeing of children and families within our society.

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ANALYSIS

3 July 2009

Exiled Honduran leader has long rattled his critics He grew up in a wealthy landowning family, dropped out of college but went on to witness his nation’s grinding poverty firsthand in the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch and then win office by one of the slimmest margins in Honduran history.

By the time of his ouster in his pajamas Sunday, the imposing six-foot, two-inch mustachioed 56-year-old had made a pilgrimage to Havana to pose for a photo with Fidel Castro, sung along while a Mexican band crooned a ballad about drug-trafficking – and alienated his nation’s media, military and supreme court.

“He’s always had a reputation – as a child and as an adult – of being wild, reckless and untamable,” said former U.S. Ambassador Cresencio Arcos, who served in Honduras in the 1980s and 90s.

“But the sense I had is there was no ideology there”before his rise to power.

Zelaya achieved the presidency by campaigning on a reform agenda in cowboy boots and 10gallon hat, and was inaugurated in January 2006 under a constiOusted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya at a press conference June 30, 2009 at tutional system that limits the the United Nations in New York City. Picture by Dennis Van Tine/LFI president to one term.

Fellow ranch owner George W.

By Carol Rosenberg Bush welcomed him to the Oval Office soon after McClatchy Newspapers with smiles, lunch and a declaration of,“We’re sure glad you’re here.”

MIAMI – An eccentric populist to some, a phony, But that was before he would alarm the White wannabe president-for-life to others, Honduras’ House by forging friendships with Venezuela’s Hugo exiled President Manuel Zelaya carries a curious Chavez and Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega, a move that pedigree. brought cheap oil to his impoverished nation of 7.5

million even as antagonists accused him of mishandling the economy.

Zelaya, known by the nickname Mel, was born 80 miles outside the capital to a father who claimed a 400-year landowning and cattle-ranching tradition but was also blamed for a 1970s massacre of some priests and peasants, which the family denies.

He never left his country to study abroad, a status symbol in class-conscious Central America, and he never managed to get a degree from the Honduran engineering college where he studied for a time.

When he was elected, he came off as a wealthy, upstart outsider, especially in some circles who had overlooked the years he worked for President Carlos Flores as minister of investment, an era that emphasized aid to local communities.

In his swift four-year rise and fall from president to outcast, he has been a Mass-going Catholic who has remained married to the same woman for 33 years. In October 2006, he attended the Miami area opening of a headquarters for the King Jesus International Ministry – part of a Spanish-speaking evangelical movement expanding its influence in Central America.

In Miami, John Laffitte, a pastor at El Rey Jesus Ministerio Internacional, said the ministry was declining to say whether Zelaya had been in contact with the mega-church, specifically the movement’s Honduran founder, the Rev. Guillermo Maldonado.

Zelaya never served in the Honduran military, and recent events suggest he never successfully courted the nation’s powerful institution. Senior officers chose to boot him from the country rather than follow what Honduras’supreme court and congress cast as an illegal order: to hold a nonbinding referendum on changing the constitution, which opponents cast as a plot to lift the single-term limit on the presidency. Zelaya was to cede office in January.

By his ouster, he had already antagonized the nation’s media by borrowing a page from Chavez’s playbook. Confronted with blistering coverage of

The curse of the child prodigy

By David Patrick Stearns The Philadelphia Inquirer

The curse of the child prodigy is living long enough to become your own ghost.

So it was with Michael Jackson in the quartercentury slide that followed his epoch-defining, stillbrilliant “Thriller.” Of course, hits came after that, along with the extenuating circumstances of his child-abuse trial that no doubt caused his creative silence in recent years. But such circumstances often dog ex-prodigies in lives that most of us can barely imagine.

Consider what’s normal for too many prodigies: relentlessly pushy, impossible-to-please parents, worshipful public acclaim, and handlers who encourage whatever makes the kid feel good. It’s amazing that more aren’t like Tatum O’Neal, who won an Oscar at age 10 but has been in and out of drug rehab much of her life.Yet things could still turn around for her, which shows how loosely survival must be defined here.

The idea that the post-”Thriller”Jackson was a child prodigy in decline has been around for years; he is right in line with composers from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the 18th century to Erich Wolfgang Korngold in the 20th. Both were brilliant child talents who transformed their worlds, Mozart on the opera stage and Korngold with lush 1930s and ‘40s scores to films like “Captain Blood.” But Mozart’s public abandoned him amid economic recession and Korngold became so outdated that he was laughed out of post-World War II music circles.

Career visibility can be a booby prize, and few earthlings are the subject of more intense focus than child prodigies. Relatively speaking, musicians such as soprano Beverly Sills and pianist Yevgeny Kissin have had it easy:That visibility is in a realm

specialized enough to afford some semblance of private life. Consider the scorecards for generations of film and pop-music stars: Shirley Temple, Deanna Durbin, Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Elizabeth Taylor, Ron Howard, Jodie Foster, Brooke Shields, Diane Lane, Christina Ricci, Britney Spears. Some have enjoyed stable ground, some not.

The survivors have an inner durability from the beginning.Temple wasn’t just charming but efficient, accomplishing the most complicated musical numbers in a single“take.”Sills didn’t just sing intricate coloratura, but knew that making it pay included living in second-rate hotels and cooking on a hot plate. Intelligence (as opposed to instinct) works: Foster and Shields temporarily quit their celebrity to attend Yale and Princeton, respectively.

They’re like most survivors, who take an extended intermission that opens up options beyond their early lives.After getting a college education,Temple briefly returned to movies and had a TV show, but ultimately spent her adult life as a diplomat. Sills married and moved to Cleveland before returning as the star of the New York City Opera and then went on to run it. Diane Lane arrived as a star opposite Laurence Olivier in A Little Romance at 13 and came back as a character actor who seems able to do most anything.

Intermissions aren’t always a matter of choice.

What children do with openhearted instinctiveness sometimes has to be relearned more analytically in adulthood.Violinist Yehudi Menuhin performed long, emotionally complex works as a teenager in recordings that are still considered classics. Then came a crisis during which he wondered if he could play at all; he came back better than ever – but just for a while. And when he died at age 82 in 1999, he was beloved more as a humanitarian; for decades, he’d given haphazard, even disastrous performances

that he somehow thought were transcendent. He talked about “gazing in my usual state of being half absent in my own world and half in the present. I have usually been able to ‘retire’ in this way.”

There’s also artistic survival vs. personal survival.

One case history: Durbin and Garland got their start in the same 1936 movie, Every Sunday; both had amazing adult voices and ways of using them that seemed far beyond their chronological ages (15 and 14). Though Durbin saved Depression-era Universal Pictures from bankruptcy, she opted not to hang on. Success diminished and, after 1950, she left Hollywood to have a family. Now 87, she lives in France.

Garland was dead at 47 after a history of brilliant ups, embarrassing downs and lots of drugs. Sound like somebody more recently deceased?

his government’s handling of crime in May 2007, Zelaya ordered TV stations to relinquish two hours of government programming for a 10-day propaganda campaign defending the government record.

The confiscation of airtime was technically legal but stirred an outcry that the man whom the United Nations and Organization of American States now defend as democratically elected was seeking to weaken a pillar of democracy.

His presidency has also been dogged by allegations of corrupt cronyism.

In April, a now defunct Miami-based communications firm, Latin Node, agreed to pay $2 million in fines after pleading guilty to bribing officials in Honduras and Yemen in exchange for favorable interconnection rates. Bush’s original pointman for Latin American policy, Otto Reich, who went on to become an advisor to some Latin American telecommunications firms, told El Nuevo Herald at the time that Zelaya encouraged such practices.

Then in October 2008,the Honduran leader argued that Latin America should decriminalize drug abuse and legalize prescriptions for addicts as a means of regulating narco-trafficking rather than declare war on it. The idea floated throughout Latin America, from Mexico to Brazil,but sounded eccentric enough to let critics question his stability.

Now in exile, he is racking up condemnations of his ouster from President Barack Obama and other world leaders for whom a 21st-century coup of a democratically elected leader is anathema.

And his hopes are pinned on an OAS mission to reinstall him for his last six months in office – even amid a whispering campaign by opponents who question his sanity.

“I have not met him. But I don’t think he’s crazy,” said Roger Noriega, who ran Bush’s Latin American policy from 2003 to 2005.“My impression from my friends is that he thinks he can run the country like his private finca and treats people accordingly. I think Chavez has radicalized him and pushed him into a fight he can’t win on his own.”

ANALYSIS

3 July 2009

A two kilogram rat nabbed alive in China and later released in nearby forest.

WENN

A plague on both your mouses since at least antiquity.The world has experienced three major pandemics and any number of epidemThe recent outbreak of plague in Eastern Libya ics of which the Black Death in the 14th century as well as a number of cases in the USA, including commands most attention. But the 3rd pandemic one death in New Mexico, focuses our attention on which swept out of Asia in the 1890s to envelop this, the most historic of pandemic infections. But most of the world by the 1940s, causing at least what significance does bubonic plague hold for us 30 million deaths, holds considerable significance today? Did not the disease have its heyday in the for life today.

14th century (remember the Black Death) and then It was during this pandemic that plague reached disappear for good? Surely plague is now past his- Australia and New Zealand as well as the USA and tory and holds no relevance for 21st century life? parts of South America, where it established permaWell nothing could be further from the truth. nent reservoirs among a variety of ground-living Bubonic plague today is more geographically animals. Plague was to hang around in Australia widespread than at any time in human history and for at least 10 years and did not finally disappear the WHO now classifies plague as a “re-emerging” until the early 1920s. At least 535 (probably many disease.There seems little doubt that plague poses more) Australians died from plague during these a growing but consistently overlooked threat. Most years, and the disease caused a major dislocation of the western states of the USA are a huge natural to economic and social life. reservoir of bubonic plague and have been so for at While there is evidence of plague penetrating least the last 100 years. Every year between 10 and Australia’s native wildlife during the early part 20 Americans catch plague and major epidemics of last century, little is known about whether the (epizootics) among wildlife are not unknown. As disease permanently established itself in natural well, the disease remains entrenched among native reservoirs as happened in the USA and elsewhere. wildlife throughout parts of the Middle East, Kaza- To the author’s knowledge, no attempt has ever been khstan, India, China, Mongolia and Southeast Asia made to test the sera of native and urban rats for and also in North and Sub-Saharan Africa and plague antibodies. parts of South America.

Plague is a particularly interesting disease with Plague today remains a real threat, not only to a complex and poorly understood epidemiology. many developing countries, but also to a number Primarily it is a zoonosis or animal disease that of developed nations. Over the last 20 years there only very rarely affects humans.The disease is perhave been between 2500 and 5000 cases of plague manently maintained in the burrows of groundreported to the WHO every year with more than living animals in sparsely populated areas of the 90% of all cases coming from Africa,including major world. More than 200 animal species in over 30 epidemics in Algiers (2003) and India (1994, 2002) countries have been found to support plague as and Indonesia (1997). Probably the real number of a chronic infection and the disease seems to have cases is two to three times this number. Most cases adapted beautifully to their lifestyle. Some animals have been bubonic plague caused by contact with remain immune; others tolerate a chronic non-lethal infected rodents and their fleas, although the much infection, while still others succumb to the disease. more deadly pneumonic plague has also occurred, In cold climates the plague bacteria adopts the such as the major epidemics causing hundreds of seasonal rhythms of its host, becoming quiescent cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo while the animal hibernates, only to reactivate in the between 2004 and 2006. spring when the animal awakens. Nature is surely Plague has always been a part of human history wonderful and moves in extraordinary ways.

By Peter Curson

Humans remain at risk in a variety of ways.

During pandemics, rats living near humans act as ‘liaison’hosts transporting plague from its natural host to human populations.Various other routes of infection remain important. Human encroachment or intrusion on natural reservoirs such as by animal trappers, farmers, tourists, campers or refugees can expose people to the infection. Every year in the Western part of the USA a number of human cases of plague come about from people camping in national parks along with their pet dogs who have the misfortune to encounter a squirrel or other rodent dying from plague with a flea looking for another suitable host. The spread of wildlife such as foxes and racoons in the US into the suburban environment in search of food during periods of drought is another way humans and their domestic animals are at risk.

Only last month, an eight year old boy in the United States died of bubonic plague in Santa Fe, despite medical intervention. Doctors managed to save his 10 year old sister.

Looking to the future there is no possibility that plague can be eradicated because of its widespread distribution among wildlife throughout the world.In addition,in countries like Britain,Australia and New Zealand rat populations are growing at an alarming

rate helped in many cases by warmer wetter weather and our increasing slovenly waste disposal habits.

To make matters worse there is emerging evidence of rats becoming immune to rat poisons. The good news is that bubonic plague is a bacterial infection that responds well to drugs like streptomycin or gentamycin, provided treatment is begun within 48 hours.The bad news is that the plague bacillus is probably one of the most pathogenic infective agents on our planet and if left untreated, spreads rapidly and can rapidly multiply in humans causing septicemic plague or even pneumonic plague with mortality rates of between 50 and 90 %.

Finally we should also be aware of the fact that plague has been weaponised at various times in history, whether it be by catapulting plague corpses over city walls, dropping plague infected fleas from aircraft onto unsuspecting towns, or attempts to refine modern aerosol formulations. Fears still remain that a terrorist organisation could release an aerosol of plague in a confined space causing significant mortality and immense panic.Whatever the future holds one thing remains certain. Plague will always be with us, like it or not.

Peter Curson is Professor in Population & Security, at the Centre for International Security Studies, Faculty of Economics & Business, the University of Sydney. He is also a TGIF Edition subscribe

WORLD

update

in 60 seconds HIGH RANKING OFFICER KILLED London (dpa) – A lieutenant colonel in Afghanistan has become the highest-ranking British officer to die in combat since the Falkland Islands war with Argentina in 1982, the Defence Ministry announced in London.

The officer and another soldier died when a bomb blast struck their vehicle in Helmand province, where a major US-led offensive began Thursday against Taliban insurgents.

Six British soldiers were wounded in the attack.

Since the start of military operations in Afghanistan in late 2001, 171 members of the British military have died.

WOMAN CLEARED IN CHILD SUICIDE Los Angeles (dpa) – A federal judge today dismissed a criminal case against a woman who was charged with computer fraud for signing up for a false MySpace account and using it to badger a 13- year-old girl, who later committed suicide.

Lori Drew, 50, was found guilty of three misdemeanour counts by a jury last year, but US District Court Judge George Wu granted a defence motion to dismiss the entire case.

“I dont see how the misdemeanour aspect would be constitutional,” said Wu, who argued that the vagueness of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act could be used to prosecute anyone who lied about their age when signing up for an online account. “That is the issue I’m wrestling with at this time.”

Drew had been accused of setting up a false profile on MySpace, in which she posed as a teenage boy and flirted with Megan Meier, 13, a girl who had been arguing with Drew’s own daughter. After Drew told Meier that the world would be a better place without her, Meier hanged herself in her bedroom.

Drew had faced a maximum sentence of three years and a 300,000- dollar fine.

3 July 2009

Jackson memorial plans well underway Los Angeles – A massive public memorial for Michael Jackson is to take place next week at the Staples Centre in downtown Los Angeles, his concert promoter Randy Phillips said today.

Broadcasters showed footage tonight of a dancing, singing Jackson at the same venue on his last rehearsal just before he died.The video seemed to corroborate previous comments from numerous people who had been present that Jackson appeared healthy and engaged beforehis death, and was fit to go ahead with his planned 50-concert comeback engagement in London.

Meanwhile, his former wife, Debbie Rowe, reportedly said she would battle Jackson’s family for custody of her two children.

In another new development, the Los Angeles Police Department called in the federal Drug Enforcement Administration to help in the investigation of Jackson’s death,an indication that an abuse of prescription drugs may have played a role.

Phillips, president and chief of concert firm AEG, said the service will begin at 10 am (5am Wednesday NZST) at the 20,000-capacity Staples Centre with live images screened on widescreen televisions for an overflow crowd expected to gather in the plaza outside the huge basketball stadium and convention centre.

“Details are still to be finalized when I meet with the Jackson family this afternoon,”Philips said on local TV station KNBC. “Everything is in preliminary stages except the place and time.”

The station reported that Rowe,who is the mother of Jackson’s two older children, would seek custody.

“I want my children,” she was reported to have said.“I am stepping up. I have to.”

But CNN quoted a lawyer for Rowe as saying

that she had made no decision on custody. A court hearing on the issue will take place on July 13, reports said.

Rowe said that she would seek a restraining order to keep Jackson’s father,Joe,whom the pop star claimed had abused him as a child, away from her children.

In Jackson’s will, he appointed his mother Katherine, 79, as guardian of his children, with soul diva Diana Ross tapped as an alternate.

Plans to hold the memorial at Jackson’s home in Neverland had to be cancelled because of the difficulties expected in dealing with thousands of fans in the remote region. Jackson’s brother Jermaine told the Today Show that the family still hoped to make the fantasy-like refuge his final resting place

once permits were obtained.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) joined the investigation into Jackson’s death following evidence that the singer had desperately sought the powerful sedative Diprivan days before his death from cardiac arrest on June 25.The drug is used in hospitals as an anaesthetic.

Jermaine said the family has been deeply hurt by speculation that an overdose of prescription drugs may have caused Jackson’s death.

“For people to come forward to say things they don’t have the facts (to back up) is very damaging for the family, to me, to us. Because we don’t know,” he said in the interview, conducted at Neverland.

Popular baby names list released

GIANT TELCO ORDERED TO FUND BIGGER THIEVES Munich (dpa) – Making up for its past misdeeds, Siemens is to help pay for anti-corruption campaigns by the United Nations and other bodies, the German electronics group said Thursday in Munich.

The company will provide up to 5 million euros (7 million dollars) annually for 15 years to help prevent corruption.

Siemens, which has admitted that for years its executives bribed their way to contracts for telephone exchanges and other multi- million-dollar projects, said the undertaking was made to the World Bank in Washington.

Under a settlement with the World Bank to mark a clean start, the German company also agreed to be excluded from tendering for all World Bank-funded projects from the start of this year until the end of 2010.

Peter Solmssen, a Siemens executive, said the accord was a fresh reminder of the failures of Siemens management in the past. A repentant Siemens has admitted corruptly spending 1.3 billion euros before it mended its ways.

In the past, Siemens’ sales for World Bank-financed projects have averaged 100 million euros annually. The company makes everything from power turbines to tramcars.

“This settlement provides significant consequences for past wrongdoing by Siemens,” said Leonard McCarthy, a vice president at the World Bank. He said the company’s penalty also help “hold more corrupt firms and individuals accountable” for corruption.

In Munich, sources said the opt-out would not necessarily reduce Siemens sales radically, as the group could still sell equipment to projects as a subcontractor. It could also supply equipment to projects paid for by other international development banks, the sources said.

Sydney – Hands shoot up in Australian classrooms when you call out Jack, Josh,William and Lachlan – or Mia, Chloe, Isabella and Charlotte.These hardy annuals again took the top spots when a list of the 100 most popular baby names in 2008 was released Friday by social researcher Mark McCrindle.

Jack, highest ranked for the seventh time in 9 years, also leads the international top 10 for English-speaking countries.Tops in the global pink classification is Emily.

The conformism of Australians was evident in the girls division, with the 2008 pick almost identical to the international top 10.

McCrindle said parents were“showing their con-

servative side”by avoiding the gender-neutral and picking snappy names like Jack for baby boys and dreamy ones like Isabella for baby girls.

Although parents told McCrindle they were overwhelmingly in favour of standard spellings, if all of them really could spell the labels they gave their offspring the ranking would be different.

Caitlyn, Kaitlyn and Katelyn were just some of the tries at Caitlin that registry offices around the country were obliged to accept.There were 18 variations on Mikayla and 14 different stabs at Kaiden.

The notables in this year’s far-out section were Cameo, Kikiyah Lezley, Me-a and Al’Bert.

– DPA

– DPA

WORLD

3 July 2009

Obama’s off to Moscow Washington – US President Barack Obama heads to Russia next week seeking to “reset”relations by finding ways to cooperate on a host of challenges, including confronting Iranian and North Korean nuclear ambitions.

Obama is due to arrive Monday in Moscow to meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ahead of traveling to the Group of Eight summit in Italy and a subsequent stop in Ghana.

Obama and Medvedev and both expressed hope that they can move beyond the strained ties of the past to find issues of mutual cooperation and to replace a nuclear arms-control agreement that expires in December.

“The president made very clear that he wanted to establish a different kind of relationship with Russia,”Mike McFaul, a senior advisor to Obama for Russian and Eurasian affairs, told reporters.

“We want to actually do real business with the Russians on things that matter to our national security and our prosperity.”

US officials have described the approach as an attempt to“reset”relations after ties worsened dur-

ing George W Bush’s presidency, mainly over US plans to deploy a missile-defence system to Eastern Europe and Moscow’s military intervention last summer in Georgia.

Samuel Charap, a fellow at the Centre for American Progress, said that the conflict in Georgia left Washington and Moscow “incapable of discussing issues of mutual concern and managing differences.”

“The reset button was intended to ratchet down tensions and create an environment where the two countries could engage in productive discussions on the major issues facing them and facing the world,” Charap said.

Obama’s agenda will be a full one when he sits down Monday with Medvedev and has breakfast Tuesday with Vladimir Putin, the influential prime minister. Obama wants Russia to take a tougher line with Iran over Tehran’s refusal to halt uranium enrichment, and in response to North Korea’s recent nuclear bomb and missile tests.

Obama has identified non-proliferation as a key area where the White House and Kremlin can work

Obama has identified non-proliferation as a key area where the White House and Kremlin can work together to forge a more cooperative relationship together to forge a more cooperative relationship.

Obama will be seeking greater Russian support for the conflict in Afghanistan, including the possibility of moving military cargo through Russian territory.

Among the key sticking points are plans to base a missile defence system in Poland and the Czech Republic, and US support for allowing former Soviet states to join NATO. The missile shield plan was initiated by Bush to fend off Iran’s growing missile capability, but Moscow has strongly opposed the idea, threatening to

Since the recession began in December 2007,payroll employment has dropped by 6.5 million.Declines in payrolls continued to be widespread in June.

Analysts were also concerned because the underlying factors were also extremely weak.

“On the whole, this was a very ugly labor market report, and there is no amount of lipstick that can improve its image,”said Millan L.B. Mulraine, Economics Strategist at TD Securities in Toronto.

That didn’t keep some analysts from trying.

They pointed out that the trend of job losses in the second quarter is still much better that the torrid pace in the first quarter.

White House officials said they were disappointed by the data but noted that the consensus forecast of economists still expects the recession to bottom out in the second half.

Average hourly earnings in June were flat at $18.53.

Economists had been expecting a 0.2 percent gain.

Earnings are up 2.7 percent in the past year.

As a result, personal income should be extremely weak in June.There is a risk that wages could fall The unemployment rate ticked higher to 9.5 per- further, which may cause prices to decline.This can cent in June from 9.4 percent in the previous month. be as damaging to an economy as inflation.

Economists had expected the unemployment rate to “Wages will soon be falling outright, a classic rise to 9.6 percent.There was only a very slight 8,000- deflation signal,” said Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. downward revision to payroll losses in April and May. economist at High Frequency Economics.

The data “strongly suggest that consensus foreThe average workweek fell six minutes to a record cast for a second half recovery is overly optimistic,” low 33.0 hours. said Steve Ricchiuto, chief economist at Mizuho Hours worked fell 0.8 percent. Manufacturing Securities in New York. hours fell a sharp 1.2 percent, which points to a very Stocks sold off sharply today on the pessimistic weak industrial production report for June. picture painted by the data.

Most analysts expect the economy to turn around

US job losses bite

By Greg Robb MarketWatch

WASHINGTON – The U.S. economy shed jobs at a faster pace in June than in May, suggesting that the turnaround in the economy may take longer than expected.

Nonfarm payrolls shrank by 467,000 in June, higher than the 325,000 decline expected by economists surveyed by MarketWatch and the 322,000 jobs lost in May.

Angelina Jolie, $27 mil

Jennifer Aniston, $25 mil

Meryl Streep, $24 mil

Sarah Jessica Parker, $23 mil

Cameron Diaz, $20 mil

Sandra Bullock, $15 mil

Reese Witherspoon, $15 mil

target Poland and the Czech Republic if they host the bases. While the plan is under review by the Obama administration, McFaul said the United States will not abandon the plans solely to win Russian help in other areas.

“We’re not going to reassure or give or trade anything with the Russians regarding NATO expansion or missile defence,”he said.

During an April speech in Prague,Obama warned of the threat posed by the proliferation of nuclear arms and talked of a world free of nuclear weapons, but for now Obama and Medvedev will focus on finding a replacement to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, which expires December 5.

That treaty limited both sides to a range of 1,700 to 2,200 nuclear warheads.Both sides currently have arsenals at the high end of the range. McFaul was optimistic that the two sides could go below those figures but said it still too early to propose a goal.

“That requires a lot of heavy lifting, and you can’t get to the numbers ... until you know what you can verify,”he said.

– DPA

in the second half, but a vocal minority believes that optimism is misplaced.

“We are still a long way from the point of stability in the labor market and this represents a powerful headwind for the broader economy,”said David Greenlaw, economist at Morgan Stanley Research.

In any case, unemployment is expected to rise further this year.

The report is likely to justify the Federal Reserve’s cautious stance about monetary policy.The Fed has promised to keep interest rates close to zero. Most analysts expect the Fed to keep rates at historically low levels until the labor market begins to recover.

The Fed will see the July jobs report before its next policy meeting on Aug. 11 and 12.

Construction, manufacturing and professional and business services reported heavy job losses in June. Construction payrolls fell by 79,000, factory payrolls fell by 136,000, and professional and business employment fell by 118,000.

Retail jobs fell 21,000 while financial services shed 27,000 jobs.

Hiring came from the usual places: Education and health care added 34,000 jobs.

In the separate survey of households used to figure the unemployment rate, the government reported employment fell by 374,000, while unemployment rose by 218,000.The labor force fell by 155,000.

These factors led to the smallest gain in the unemployment rate since November.

In a separate report, the Department of Labor said initial jobless claims fell by 16,000 last week to 614,000.

Nicole Kidman, $12 mil

Drew Barrymore, $12 mil

Renee Zellweger, $10 mil

Jolie almost pipped by Streep on rich list Los Angeles – Angelina Jolie was Hollywood’s top-earning actress over the last year, earning an estimated 27 million US dollars between June 2008 and June 2009, according to Forbes annual Celebrity 100 list released tonight.

Jolie’s jackpot came mostly from last year’s

Wanted but also from a hefty advance for next year’s thriller Salt, in which she plays a CIA agent accused of being a Russian spy.

Second on the list was Jennifer Aniston, ex-wife of Jolie’s boyfriend Brad Pitt, who earned 25 million dollars for her work in the romantic comedy Marley

& Me and the upcoming comedy The Baster.

Meryl Streep earned 24 million dollars thanks to last summer’s hit Mamma Mia, while Sarah Jessica Parker came in fourth with 23 million dollars for the big-screen debut of Sex and the City.

In fifth place was Cameron Diaz, who earned

20 million dollars, followed by Sandra Bullock (15 million dollars), Reese Witherspoon (15 million dollars), Nicole Kidman (12 million dollars), Drew Barrymore (12 million dollars) and Renee Zellweger (10 million dollars).

– DPA

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SPORT

3 July 2009

11

Venus serene, Serena vexed London – Venus Williams delivered crushing 6-1, 6-0 humiliation to world number one Dinara Safina this morning to line up against her sister Serena for the fourth time in a Wimbledon final.

Five-time champion Venus needed 51 minutes to crush the out-of-sorts top seed, going through with just one unforced error.

Serena struggled for almost three hours before finally eliminating ASB Classic winner,Russian Elena Dementieva 6-7 (4-7), 7-5, 8-6 in their semi-final.

Venus is bidding for her fourth trophy in the past five years at the All England club, a venue she dominates in the style of Roger Federer.

Her ritual win over Safina was overwhelming after the Russian had played finals of the last two Grand Slams.

“This is my eight final – and her eighth against her sibling at a Grand Slam,”said Venus, seeded third. “it’s a dream come true here again and have the opportunity to hold the (trophy) plate up.

“Dinara has played consistently this year, but I was really focused. It was hard for me to watch the drama of Serena’s match before.

“The hardest part of the tournament is coming up – playing Serena Williams. I’m hoping to win it.”

Safina has lost in three Grand Slam finals, beginning with the French Open a year ago. She was also beaten by Serena Williams at the Australian Open and went out to Svetlana Kuznetsova at Roland Garros a month ago.

Against Serena,Russian two-time 2004 Grand Slam finalist Dementieva failed on a match point in the tenth game of the third set asWilliams returned a loose volley which hit the top of the net but landed good.

Serena struggled for almost three hours before finally eliminating ASB Classic winner, Russian Elena Dementieva 6-7 (4-7), 7-5, 8-6 in their semi-final The American then broke for 7-6 as the air went out of her Russian opponent, with two-time winner Williams reaching her second title match in three years on her own first winning chance, “It was really, rally tough,”said Williams, holder of 10 titles at the majors.“When I faced that match point (on her own serve) I was thinking ace.

“I stayed calm and positive. I wasn’t on my best game, but we gave the crowd a wonderful match.”

The contest ran for just over two and a quarterhours, with Williams hitting 20 aces and 43 winners as she broke her Russian opponent five times.

Dementieva converted on three of ten opportunities.

“It was a very close match, we both were playing very well today,” said Dementieva.“It was a good fight.

“Actually, I feel very satisfied the way I was playing today. The only regret I have, maybe I should take a little bit more risk on match point, should go down the line.”

– DPA

Team for Sri Lanka on hold Auckland, July 3 – New Zealand Cricket (NZC) has delayed the naming of their squad to tour Sri Lanka next month until the tour and itinerary is rubberstamped.

The team – and a New Zealand A squad for India – was due to be revealed today but NZC now expect to announce the names on Tuesday.

Although an itinerary has been published on cricket website cricinfo.com for several weeks, NZC general manager Geoff Allott is yet to confirm the fixtures.

It is possible New Zealand are trying to tweak the

schedule to allow test players optimum time in India to acclimatise to subcontinent conditions.

The difficulty with the current itinerary is the two tests precede the five one-day internationals, meaning the test specialists will barely have played before they arrive in Colombo.

New Zealand’s most recent test series was a 0-2 loss to India in April.

In contrast, Sri Lanka are currently hosting Pakistan, a clear advantage in terms of preparation for the longer format.

However,short of moving the ODIs to the start of the tour, there seems little scope for significant change.

The tour is scheduled to start onAugust 13 with a threeday game against a local selection and end with the second and finalTwenty20 match on September 19.

The tour cannot be lengthened as both sides have to leave promptly for the Champions Trophy in South Africa.

Allott and New Zealand Cricket Players Association boss Heath Mills are currently in Sri Lanka, where they are assessing security arrangements.

Although New Zealand tours to Sri Lanka have been disrupted by bomb blasts in 1987 and 1993, it is unlikely the tour is in jeopardy given the country’s long-running civil war is considered over.

The composition of the squads should be straightforward, the main talking point being Shane Bond’s return to international duty.

The fast bowler is likely to be included in the A side to play two-day matches in India before he crosses to Sri Lanka for the limited overs series.

– NZPA

Philosophical Williams braced for break

By Chris Barclay of NZPA

Auckland, July 3 – Once his battered body has been surgically enhanced,Ali Williams will still sit uncomfortably as the All Blacks rugby season continues to unfold.

The 61-test lock is scheduled for procedures on his right Achilles tendon and left shoulder on Monday, work that requires at least six months rehabilitation.

Williams hopes to return to the field when the Blues open their Super 14 campaign in February.

Until then the All Blacks’ senior second rower admits he will do it tough watching the Tri-Nations before embarking on a sabbatical in the United States originally scheduled during the 2010 Super 14.

His enforced lay-off means the travel plans have been brought forward, with Williams believing the break will see him return physically and mentally refreshed.

All Blacks management and medical staff had hoped to select Williams for the one-off test against Italy in Christchurch last weekend but he broke down during training and had to watch rookie Isaac Ross settle into his role alongside Brad Thorn.

Williams confessed watching Ross during the tests against France and Italy had heightened his frustration at not being available.

“There’s always someone to push you off the cliff isn’t there?”Williams said when asked if he felt his position was under threat.

“That is that hardest part, watching.

“It’s been the toughest because I’ve never known “I think he’s done extremely well. He’s a confi- the end (when he would be fit). dent young man and in open spaces he does very “With my other injuries I’ve known in four weeks well,”said Williams, recognising his own style in the or six weeks you’ll be back.This one (Achilles) was Cantabrian’s play. give it a crack and hopefully you’re right.

“So far he’s made a real fist of it. If you cast your “Now I can see it’ll be six months.Then I should eyes back to what I did ... I didn’t do much for those be fine.” first three or four years of my international career.

All Blacks coach Graham Henry announces his “And he’ll get better with every experience he 30-man squad for the Tri-Nations tomorrow, the gets.” identity of Williams’ replacement one of the few Still, Williams is areas of conjecture. determined to return to With Ross and Thorn His enforced lay-off the first choice duo the national side, saying Ross has provided there will be space for means the travel ample motivation. to join Bryn plans have been brought someone “You have to use it as Evans. motivation, something forward, with Williams Taranaki’s Jason to fire you up to get believing the break will Eaton’s contribution back into it. I’ve still to the Junior All Blacks got something to give see him return physically unbeaten Pacific to that jersey, the team and mentally refreshed Nations Cup campaign and the country.” casts him as the favourDespite experiencite to cover Williams. ing World Cup heartache in 2003 and 2007, WilOther contenders includeWaikato’s Craig Clarke,Jerliams said this season had arguably been his most emy Thrush (Wellington) and Otago’s Tom Donnelly. frustrating.

Meanwhile,Anthony Boric’s broken toe continues The Achilles had been a bugbear for the majority to heal meaning the North Harbour utility may be of the Super 14, meaning he barely featured since available part way through the Tri-Nations defence, returning from a championship-winning campaign which starts against the Wallabies here at Eden Park with the Crusaders last year. on July 18.

NZPA/Wayne Drought

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WEEKEND

3 July 2009

13

TV & Film

doned overcoat. He has no qualms over wiretapping and pressuring the criminals’ families and associates. But he’s sickened to find his men trying to beat information out of suspects, and to participate in fumbled ambushes that leave civilian bystanders riddled with lead.

Although Depp’s Dillinger works out his bank raids in detail, he’s wild and impulsive in daily life.

He has no overall plan. Stage a heist, spend the In Public Enemies, two threats to law and order money on nightclubs, fast cars and women, drive loom over Depression-era America. One is John Dill- across the country, get caught, break out of jail, steal inger, a gallant bank robber, and his gang.The other the sheriff’s car and repeat. He says he just wants to is a new national police force being assembled by an make one more big score and “slide off the edge of ambitious administrator named J. Edgar Hoover. the map.”He knows better.The law was closing in on Michael Mann’s new film is a white-hot crime him from one side. Organized crime was squeezing drama, but just beneath its bullet-pocked surface him on the other. are substantial insights about the limits of law A substantial subplot focuses on his exile from enforcement, the point at which society’s guardians the increasingly sophisticated Cosa Nostra, whose do more damage than its thieves. It fits neatly on the bookie operations were becoming far more profitshelf with Bonnie and Clyde and The Godfather. able than Dillinger’s risky robberies. By the end of The film covers the hectic final year of Dillinger’s his 13-month spree, Dillinger met and lost the love of life, beginning in 1933. It was not a time when citi- his life Billie Frechette (fetchingly played by Marion zens held bankers in high esteem.“Some will rob Cotillard) and saw most of his gang killed. you with a six-gun, and some with a fountain pen,” Depp’s Dillinger is too shrewd to think he’d evade goes a line in one of Woody Guthrie’s Dust Bowl Hoover’s G-Men forever. In one nerve-tingling scene, ballads. Dillinger, an Indiana farm boy who let bank he strolls into the Chicago Police Department’s Dillcustomers keep their own money during his raids inger Investigation bureau, examines mounted phoand never killed anyone, was considered a folk hero tos of his lost comrades (and Billie) and asks the making war on the banks.

With his trademark move, vaulting over a bank counter with one hand while brandishing a Thompson machine gun, he seemed to incarnate swashbuckling bravado.Although he was declared Public Enemy No. 1, many people cheered him on, Outstanding harbouring his gang in their homes.“Mister, take me with you,”a bedraggled farm woman says when New Worthy effort Dillinger takes his leave. Since he is played by a very review So-so dapper Johnny Depp, it’s easy to understand her A bomb impulse. His basic pick-up line is “I like baseball, movies, good clothes, fast cars, and you. What else Cheri you need to know?”

A bold leader and strategist, Dillinger made a The Hangover mockery of Hoover’s promised“war on crime.”Hoover, My SisterÕs Keeper played with prissy malice by Billy Crudup,appoints a special task force to take down the outlaw.He places The Proposal Special Agent Melvin Purvis in charge,with orders to bring Dillinger in by any means necessary.“As they Transformers say in Italy these days,‘Take off the white gloves,’” Up Hoover snarls, with a nod to Mussolini.

Christian Bale plays Purvis as a straight arrow Whatever Works twisted beyond all recognition in his battle against the elusive Dillinger gang. He hopes to use sophistiYear One cated, scientific crime-fighting techniques, tracking down the robbers by the label in Dillinger’s aban-

0Cast: Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard, Billy Crudup 0Director: Michael Mann 0Length: 140 minutes 0Rated: R (for strong violence, some sex scenes, drug use and language)

Movie picks

cops listening to a ball game,“What’s the score?”

But he already knows the score.When he settles in at the Art Deco Biograph Theatre to watch Manhattan Melodrama, his eyes gleam with identification as Clark Gable goes to the chair.

The acting is top drawer from the stars to the little roles. British actor Stephen Graham makes such an antic psychopath of Baby Face Nelson that you wish he’d survive to the end of the film (though that would deny us his jaw-dropping death scene).

Channing Tatum makes a handsome Pretty Boy Floyd, and Giovanni Ribisi, Leelee Sobieski, Lili Taylor and singer Diana Krall pop in for brief but effective appearances.With its soundtrack of suave standards and growling guitar blues sounds, the film sounds as good as it looks.

Mann shot the film in high-definition video, giving it a richly textured look distinct from most period films, which favor celluloid for a glossy romantic effect. Mann makes a more imaginative choice, plunging us into the thick of the action.There are two hellacious firefights that will knock your socks off and straight into the hamper.

Public Enemies proves that excitement and intelligence aren’t mutually exclusive values, but the yin and yang of blockbuster entertainment.

Watch the trailer

– By Colin Covert

Loc al c ritic Chi cag o Tr ibun e Mia mi H eral d New sda y Phil ade lphi a In quir Min er nea poli s St ar T Sea ribu ttle ne Tim es

Public Enemies

© 2009 MCT

Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs

0Voices: Ray Romano, Queen Latifah, Denis Leary, John Leguizamo, Simon Pegg 0Directors: Carlos Saldanha, Mike Thurmeier 0Length: 94 minutes 0Rated: PG for some mild rude humour and peril Let us thank the producers of Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs for remembering that adults sit beside the youngest viewers.

The film interweaves vigorous, inventive slapstick, engaging voice talent and a script that depends more on tongue-incheek humor than perfunctory pop culture gags. Kids who are just graduating from Pull-Ups should have a blast, and ditto for their babysitters. It isn’t “Up,” but it’s not too many rungs down from Finding Nemo.

Manny the mammoth (Ray Romano) and his mate Ellie (Queen Latifah) are expecting a calf, or a foal, or whatever a baby mammoth is called. Manny’s new focus on family distracts him from the concerns of his sidekicks Diego (Denis Leary), an aging sabretooth who fears he’s losing his hunting skills, and Sid (John Leguizamo), a manic sloth who’s jealous of Manny’s impending fatherhood. Sid snatches three outsized eggs he comes across and cuddles them until his body heat and a warm sunrise combine to hatch them.

Unfortunately, they’re large, hungry dinosaur chicks (or whatever), whose much larger, much hungrier mother arrives to retrieve them. The reptiles inhabit a tropical underworld beneath the mammal clan’s icy environment, and the breach between the two worlds propels a search-and-rescue storyline. Down below, a swashbuckling weasel named Buck (Simon Pegg) introduces our furry friends to a dazzling variety of lizards and rainforest flora. Most of which want to eat them.

Also returning is Scrat, the kinda rat/kinda squirrel character who spends all his time in Wile E. Coyote-ish pursuit of an elusive acorn. His adventures are high-impact Looney Tunes knockabout that goose up the energy whenever the main storyline takes a breather. This time Scrat takes a detour into Pepe Le Pew territory as a foxy rival steals his nut and his heart.

Human hatchlings will love the one-liners and oddball characters, and older viewers will be amused by prehistoric curiosities like Lou Rawls’ boudoir classic You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine and Gilbert O’Sullivan’s chestnut Alone Again, Naturally. This one won’t give the kiddies nightmares, or their parents, either.

Watch the trailer – By Colin Covert

REVIEWS

14

3 July 2009

Music wanted to give up a song they’ll do on tour, though he said it will be mostly singer-songwriter material, with a touch of British pop, and she promised to draw heavily from the songbook of the leading ladies of R&B. THE ROUGHNECK AND THE WIDOWER

American Idol Top 10 include clockwise from top left, Michael Sarver, Scott MacIntyre, Allison Iraheta, Adam Lambert, Anoop Desai, Matt Giraud, Danny Gokey, Lil Rounds, Megan Joy, and Kris Allen. (Ray Mickshaw/Courtesy Fox Broadcasting/MCT)

American Idol finalists get ready to hit the road

By Peter Larsen The Orange County Register

BURBANK, Calif. – Face to face at twin pianos, Matt Giraud and Scott MacIntyre strike the opening chords of“Don’t Stop Believin’,”and playing in unison the two“American Idol”finalists start to sing the Journey classic.

They trade lines about small town girls and city boys, and as the song unfolds the rest of this year’s Top 10 Idols join in more or less in reverse order of their finish.

Michael Sarver and Megan Joy trade verses, then Lil Rounds,Anoop Desai,Allison Iraheta and Danny Gokey take their turns.

As the song nears its end, Adam Lambert lets loose with one of those high swooping runs that gave him enough support to make the finals and finish second.

And standing in the back, almost unnoticed in comparison to some of the bigger personalities in the room, is Kris Allen, the most modest of“Idol”champions,taking his turn in the song but leaving most of the attention to the nine singers he bested.

The American Idols Live Tour opens this weekend in the US. As preparations for the 50-city started to wrap up, the Idol singers opened their Burbank rehearsal studio to a handful of reporters for a speed-dating-style round of interviews.

BIG BROTHER, LITTLE SISTER

Kris Allen and Allison Iraheta move around the room with the easy comfort of siblings, joking around and poking gentle fun at each other.

“I think both of us have wanted to do this for a long time,” says Allen, the soft-voiced 24-year-old from Conway, Ark.“For me since I was 13, and for Allison even longer.”

As champion, he automatically gets the biggest career boost, and says he’s currently working on picking songs for his debut album to come out later this year.

“We’re pretty much in the beginning stages, but

I feel like it’s going to be a pop-rock thing, kind of what I did on the show,”he says.

Iraheta, whom the judges seemed to pick at week after week,sometimes more for her quiet personality than her big rock‘n’roll voice,also has an album deal, and is following much the same course as Allen now.

“It’s definitely going to have a rock edge to it,”says Iraheta, the 17-year-old from Los Angeles who finished fourth.“It was really hard having themes each week, so the album is going to be a lot more of me.”

What they’ll sing: Allen says one of his songs in the show will be the Beatles’“Hey Jude,” a switch from the version of “Come Together”which he did on the show. Iraheta says she’ll be reprising her TV performance of Janis Joplin’s “Cry Baby.”

ROCKER GLAM, TATTOOED MA’AM

Though Allen won the show, you’re forgiven if you forget that and think Adam Lambert did.

More than almost any Idol contestant before him, Lambert was the one you talked about: his far-ranging falsetto, his rock-’n’-roll fashion, and an edgy musical style that left few watchers on the fence: you either loved it or hated it.

And so it was on press day,with Lambert probably the one Idol reporters wanted to talk to the most, which made you almost feel a little sorry for his interview partner, Megan Joy, the young mom from Utah with the tattooed arm and a retro-styled voice.

He’s in the studio when he’s not preparing for the tour – along with Allen and Iraheta, he’s the other Idol to have already inked an album deal.

He’s in the media almost constantly – this week, disavowing the release of demo songs he did a few years before “Idol,”earlier this month on the cover of Rolling Stone, talking about everything from his music to his sexuality (he’s gay, but then he figured you’d already guessed that.)

“I don’t think it was surprising,” Lambert says.

“I would assume most people knew, or assumed it. I didn’t try to hide it, I just didn’t’want to make a big announcement (during the show).And the response has been really positive.”

What they’ll sing: Lambert says he’ll perform a David Bowie medley of“Life on Mars,”“Fame,”and “Let’s Dance,”“arranged with an electronic sound mixed with the original style.”Megan Joy says she’ll sing Amy Winehouse’s “Tears Dry On Their Own.”

Michael Sarver barely made the Top 10 – he finished tenth, in fact – and so of all the Idols working around the room he almost seemed the most grateful to be there.

“Before we go on, I plan to go to the farthest seat from the stage, to get a sense of what it’s like,”says Sarver, who worked as a roughneck in a Texas oil field before making it on the show.“Because I think we need to see what that’s like, and make sure they have a good show. I really do.”

He is, though, a little nervous about his role as the first Idol to go on stage (they typically sing in reverse order of finish, saving Allen for last), especially the possibility that he might forget what city he’s in and blurt out the wrong name.

“I’m going to try real hard not to say the wrong city, but to God’s honest truth, I have thought about it a lot,”he says, laughing.

His partner for the day, Danny Gokey, a church music director from Wisconsin, at one point seemed like a likely candidate for the finals, before Allen passed him by, leaving Gokey to finish third.

Besides his strong voice, Gokey had a compelling personal story: his wife had died not long before he auditioned, and he wasn’t shy about sharing that story over the course of the season.

“I wouldn’t have changed it for anything,”Gokey says of his decision to be so open about his loss.

“Because it brought me hope to talk about it.

“It contributed to my faith in God,” he says.

“Because only he could take a bad situation and make it good.And I constantly hear messages from people about how they found hope or a reason to live again.

“I’m glad I was able to rise up and not be defined by the situation, but to use it to define myself.”

What they’ll sing: Gokey says he’ll do the late Michael Jackson’s“PYT,”while Sarver kept his songs secret, though he did say they’re numbers he didn’t do on the show.

THE SINGING SURVIVORS

THE PIANO MAN AND THE DIVA

For Scott MacIntyre, the legally blind pianist from Phoenix, it’s hard to believe what Idol has done for him, but oh so wonderful that it has.

“I think the entire experience still feels like a surreal dream to me,”he says as he makes his way around the room with Lil Rounds, the R&B-styled belter from Memphis.“All of the fans coming up and giving you hugs, giving you kisses.

“The funniest thing is walking through a mall,” MacIntyre says.“If you walked 20 feet behind me you’d hear a murmur:‘Scott, Scott ...’

“But it’s very humbling that people want to know you and to hear your music.”

Rounds described much the same reaction upon returning to Memphis, where she lives with her husband and three young kids.

“At first people will stare, like,‘Do I know you?’”

Rounds says.“And then they’ll say,‘Where do I know you from?’And I’ll say, ‘Um, maybe on “Idol” this year.””

For MacIntyre, Idol is opening doors to all kinds of musical opportunities, not just an album (he’s released others on his own) but also for his songwriting and production skills.

Rounds says she’s focused on making and then selling a ton of records, though at home, the little ones sometimes have a hard time understanding.

“My daughter Tamia already told me when I told her I had to go back out on tour,‘Mommy, why do you have to do that? I thought you were done.’”

Rounds says.

“I told her, ‘Well, mommy has to go back and work a little more so your Christmas can be really fabulous this year,’ and then she says, ‘Oh, well go ahead!’”

What they’ll sing: Neither MacIntyre nor Rounds

Both Anoop Desai and Matt Giraud used a few of their extra lives on the course of the show: Desai when the producers decided to have a Top 13 instead of 12, allowing him to make the finals, and Giraud when the judges used their veto power to save him from elimination.

And so they’re having fun now, joking around with each other, and generally acting like they can’t believe they’re still here.

“It’s insane,”Desai says.“Every day when we come to rehearse here we pass by the Kodak Theatre and the hotel where we stayed for Hollywood week.

“And every time we pass that hotel I think,‘Wow,’ and it seems like such a different time (back then).

I count myself lucky every day to be a part of this and to have my life changed like this.”

Giraud, who says it all feels like fun, never yet like work, agreed.

“Sometimes I have to pinch myself,”he says, shaking his head in wonderment.

Both hope it leads to bigger, permanent careers in music.

“I want to be a pop star,”Desai says,“that’s what I want to do. I want to make music that people want to listen to and love.”

Giraud says he simply wants a regular life on the road and in the studio.

“My dream has not really come to fruition yet,” he says.“I feel like I got everything I wanted from ‘Idol.’ I got to play piano on stage, I got to meet the mentors. ‘”But I want to go out and play my music every night, to be in a club or a theater night after night,” Giraud says.

What they’ll sing: Giraud says he’ll do Ray Charles“George On My Mind,”while Desai says he’ll do Bobby Brown’s“My Prerogative.”

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HEALTH

16

discovery

in 60 seconds Hammering: Men more accurate than women AMHERST, Mass., July 3 (UPI) – U.S. scientists studying the process of hammering a nail say they found men are more accurate than women when hammering under poor lighting conditions.

But the University of Massachusetts-Amherst researchers conversely found women are more accurate than men when hammering in good light, regardless of target size.

Associate Professor Duncan Irschick and his team said their findings suggest humans have remarkable compensatory ability during difficult motor tasks such as hammering in the dark.

Irschick says he is now planning to focus future studies on understanding how hammering ability evolved in humans from early development to adulthood.

He presented his findings in Glasgow, Scotland, Sunday during the annual meeting of the Society of Experimental Biology.

Potential Alzheimer’s drug target found SANTA BARBARA, Calif., July 3 (UPI) – A U.S.-led international team of scientists said it has found laboratory evidence that a cluster of peptides might be the toxic agent in Alzheimer’s disease.

We believe that we have put a face, a structure, on the molecular assembly that is responsible for Alzheimer’s disease, said University of California-Santa Barbara Professor Michael Bowers, who led the study.

The researchers focused on toxic Amyloid Beta 42 peptides, showing how they aggregate.

The AB42 peptide is composed of 42 amino acid residues, the scientists said. A second peptide, AB40, is 10 times more abundant than AB42 in healthy human brains, except it is missing the last two amino acids.

AB40 never grows beyond a certain point and it is nontoxic. But the scientists said AB42 grows to form a structure called a toxic dodecamer that might eventually lead to the large plaques found in the brains of those with Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases.

“We are searching for drug candidates that can prevent AB42 from aggregating to form the toxic dodecamer,” said Bowers. “These latest results are a very hopeful thing. I’m more hopeful now than I have ever been that we can make some real progress on this terrible disease.“ The study appears in the journal Nature Chemistry.

3 July 2009

Cord banks: deposit or not?

By Trine Tsouderos Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO – The advertising makes it hard for parents-to-be to say no. Pay us to bank your child’s umbilical cord blood, they urge, because someday she, or another relative, may need it.

“The first and most important investment in your baby’s future health,” counsels CorCell.“Your love and cord blood are two of nature’s most powerful protectors,” assures FamilyCord.“Years from now, the cute outfits won’t fit ... the stem cells will!”jokes NeoCells.

More than 70 diseases, from childhood leukemias to sickle cell anemia, can be treated with cord blood stem cells, the companies note. And research into new ways to use them is promising, including work on spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries and diabetes.

But talk to physicians who treat children and often you’ll hear a different story.

“I think people are paying for nothing,”said Dr. Eliane Gluckman, president of the European School of Haematology and the physician who did the world’s first cord blood transplant in 1988.

While it can’t hurt to save umbilical cord blood, which otherwise would be tossed as medical waste, many experts say the private cord banks are selling a costly service aimed at a scenario that is unlikely ever to happen.

The diseases that cord blood stem cells may help are rare, and they frequently are treated in other ways, doctors said. If a transplant is recommended, they said, a match is nearly always found in the global public donor program, which has 400,000 units of cord blood banked.

Even if a child does have her cord blood stored, physicians wouldn’t use it to treat her if she developed, say, sickle cell anemia.The blood would contain the same genetic defect.

At the same time, the banking service isn’t cheap, running between $1,000 to more than $2,000 for shipping and processing and then another $100 or so a year for storage of the frozen stem cells.

“I didn’t consider doing it for my kids,”said Dr. Steven Joffe, a pediatric stem cell transplant physician at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

“And that was after I had begun to work in this field.”

Joffe surveyed 93 fellow pediatric stem cell transplant doctors five years ago and found most agreed with him.

Joffe published his results in March in Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. That group advises doctors to “discourage”parents from privately banking cord blood, unless there is an ill sibling who might need the cells.

Most private cord blood banks acknowledge current uses for the cells are limited, though they cite cases of families who were grateful to be able to use banked cord blood to help a relative.

But“you don’t do it for any one disease,”said David Zitlow, spokesman for one of the largest and oldest cord blood banks in the world, Cord Blood Registry.

It has banked 285,000 units of cord blood.

You do it, he said, because of the rapid progress of medical research.

“If you believe in science, there are 70 diseases being treated now – do you believe there will be 100 10 years from now?”said Calvin Cole, vice president of North America for StemCyte, a large cord blood bank that handles both private customers and public donations.“It is proven it is saving lives.”

Cord blood is medically valuable because it is rich in stem cells, which can divide to create more specialized cells. Cells from cord blood can be used, for example, to build new blood and a new immune system in a person suffering from blood cancer.

Scientists are looking into whether the cells can also develop into forms that would be helpful for diabetes and other conditions.

Dr. Jennifer Willert, a pediatric oncologist specializing in blood and marrow transplants at Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego, is among the doctors who support private and public banking of cord blood.“The potential for regenerative medicine is significant,”Willert said.

Banked cord blood, both public and private, is

especially valuable for minority children and those of mixed ethnicities, who have a harder time finding a match in the public system, she said.“It might be the only chance they have to have a product that will match them.”

Everyone who spoke to the Chicago Tribune for this story, including representatives of private banks, said donation of cord blood to the public system should be encouraged.

Donation helps ensure people who fall ill with rare diseases have access to lifesaving stem cells.

“The reality is most of the population have not banked their cord blood, so there needs to be a public system,”said Jim Corbett, president of ViaCord, another large cord blood bank with 200,000 units banked.“I think it warrants greater public funding and the two models can coexist.”

Donation of cord blood is free, with processing and storage fees picked up by the federal government. Locally, ITxM handles public donations at dozens of hospitals, storing 6,000 units in its facility in Glenview, said Angela Hlavacek, clinical manager for ITxM. Between 50 and 60 units are released each year for transplants around the world, she said.

Rhesha Craigen of Roselle, Ill., is one who benefited from the public program. Craigen waited a year for a match after she suffered a relapse of leukemia, then finally got the call that a cord blood unit had been found for her in Italy.

“I was in my bedroom folding some laundry and I literally almost passed out,” said Craigen, who is African-American.

Undergoing the transplant, Craigen remembers thinking about the little boy in Italy whose blood cells were flowing into her body.

Craigen’s voice filled with emotion as she spoke about what that donation meant to her.“I got to see my daughter graduate from high school. I get to see her go to college,”she said.“All because of that one act of kindness.”

Folic acid and the cancer connection

By Emily Sohn Chicago Tribune

Study: Outdoor cats easy prey for coyotes WASHINGTON, July 2 (UPI) – A U.S. study has determined some wild coyotes regularly feed on outdoor domestic and feral cats.

Shannon Grubbs of the University of Arizona and Paul Krausman of the University of Montana said they tracked coyotes in the Tucson area and observed 36 coyote-cat encounters, of which 19 ended with the coyotes killing the cats.

The researchers said while other studies have found approximately 13 percent of a coyote’s diet consists of cats, the new study found of the 45 instances during which coyotes were observed feeding, 42 percent of the meals were cats.

The researchers said their findings raise questions about Trap, Neuter, and Release programs that involve catching feral cats, neutering them and then releasing them back into the wild.

The American Bird Conservancy said it’s consistently raised concerns about TNR programs because cats kill hundreds of millions of birds each year and also because TNR programs do not provide a humane solution for the cats themselves.

The study appears in the Journal of Wildlife Management.

Folic acid is one of those great public health success stories. In the decade following fortification of cereal grains and other foods, the rate of certain birth defects dropped dramatically.

As studies started showing that folic acid also could help prevent cancers, it started to seem like a wonder vitamin.

Folic acid’s heyday may be over. New studies suggest that getting too much folic acid might fuel certain cancers in some people.

And with the vitamin showing up in ready-to-eat cereals, bread, snack bars and multivitamins, some experts fear it’s easy to exceed the recommended daily intake of 400 micrograms.There is an urgent need, some say, to figure out how much folic acid is enough but not too much for different segments of the population.

“Too little folic acid we know is not good, and too much folic acid is probably not good,”says Connie Motter, a genetic counselor at Akron Children’s Hospital in Ohio and co-chair of the National Council on Folic Acid, a coalition of advocacy groups.“The answer is not going to be easy.”

Folic acid is the synthetic version of folate, vitamin B9, which is found naturally in such foods as leafy greens, orange juice and legumes. It helps the body make and maintain new cells. The United States began requiring fortification of flour and several other cereal grains in 1998, after studies linked folic acid deficiency with spina bifida and

anencephaly, two potentially devastating birth defects. Since then, the rate of both defects has declined by between 20 to 50 percent.

No one disputes that women should have adequate amounts of folic acid in their bodies at conception.The first few weeks of pregnancy are especially critical.And because more than half of pregnancies are unplanned, doctors recommend that all women of childbearing age take a daily supplement of up to 800 micrograms.

Getting enough folate also may protect against anemia, premature birth and congenital heart defects, and keeps hair, skin and nails healthy.

But scientists also know that excess folic acid can cover up a shortage of the vitamin B12, a common condition in older people that can cause dementia if unaddressed.

Then there’s cancer.The vitamin can help prevent development of certain cancers, particularly in the colon, where cells replicate especially fast. Studies show that people who get plenty of folic acid reduce their risk of developing colorectal cancer and precancerous polyps by 40 percent to 60 percent.

But folic acid helps cancerous cells grow too.Animal studies show that once cells are on the path to becoming cancers, the vitamin makes things worse.

Researchers noticed that rates of colorectal cancer went up in North America around the time that fortification began. One 2007 study acknowledged that the link could be a coincidence. But another published this year found the same thing happened in Chile after fortification began there in 2000.

“It’s not as simple of a relationship as we thought,”

says Joel B. Mason, professor of nutrition science and policy at Tufts University in Boston, author of the 2007 study.

Folic acid also has been studied in clinical trials.In the largest one, half of almost 1,000 people who had had precancerous colon polyps took a daily supplement of 1 milligram of folic acid (2.5 times the recommended 400 micrograms). Several years later, those people were more than twice as likely to have three or more new polyps, researchers reported in 2007.

Also, the men who had taken folic acid supplements were nearly three times as likely to develop prostate cancer up to a decade later, researchers reported in March.

The numbers were small-34 prostate cancers in more than 600 men-but enough to cause concern.

Experts say that all women of childbearing age should get 400 daily micrograms of folic acid through food and/or supplements.Pregnant women should get 600 micrograms,adds Janis Biermann,a health educator at the March of Dimes.Breast-feeding mothers should get 500 micrograms.Pregnant or regularly breast-feeding women who have already had a child with a brain or spinal cord defect should take 1 milligram.

It’s hard to get researchers to recommend amounts for other categories of people.

The Institute of Medicine’s recommended upper limit for folic acid is 1 milligram, from synthetic and natural sources combined.“That’s one thing consumers can really take home,” says Marian Neuhouser, nutritional epidemiologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.“Not to get more than 1,000 micrograms.”

SCIENCE & TECH 17

3 July  2009

LRO transmits first lunar images GREENBELT, Md., July 3 – The U.S. space agency says its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has used its two cameras to transmit its first images since reaching lunar orbit June 23.

NASA said the LRO’s initial images were of a region a few miles east of Hell E crater in the lunar highlands south of Mare Nubium. As the moon rotates beneath the spacecraft, it will gradually build a photographic map of the lunar surface. “Our first images were taken along the moon’s terminator – the dividing line between day and night – making us initially unsure of how they would turn out,� said LROC Principal Investigator Mark Robinson of Arizona State University in Tempe. Because of the deep shadowing, subtle topography is exaggerated, suggesting a craggy and

inhospitable surface. In reality, the area is similar to the region where the Apollo 16 astronauts safely explored in 1972.

The LRO is designed to identify safe landing sites for future explorers, locate potential resources, describe the moon’s radiation environment and demonstrate new technologies, subsurface ice and create detailed images of permanently shaded craters.

After the spacecraft and instruments have completed their initial calibrations, the spacecraft will be directed into its primary mission orbit in August, a nearly circular orbit about 31 miles above the moon’s surface.

More information about LRO’s cameras and the images are available at http://lroc.sese.asu.edu. – UPI

Another Biblical plague

By Steve Everly McClatchy Newspapers

Here’s an idea for a science-fiction thriller:A virulent, mutating fungus capable of killing most of the world’s wheat crop begins to spread, threatening famine and economic havoc. Scientists work feverishly to find genes for new varieties of wheat that can resist the fungus and avert disaster.

Actually,that isn’t a movie plot.It is really happening.The fungus is called wheat stem rust,and the most virulent strain of it to appear in a century is devastating the wheat crops in a few countries.Though it hasn’t hit any major producers and could be years away from the U.S., more than 80 percent of the world’s wheat crops appear to be vulnerable to it.

Where it has taken hold, the fungus is overwhelming most of the genetic defenses bred into the plants over the decades.And it continues to mutate, becoming even more dangerous.

The threat, which has been building for years, took on new urgency when it crossed intoYemen and last year into Iran, opening potential pathways into some major wheat-producing countries. That put even more pressure on international work already under way to combat the fungus. Kansas State University is playing a major role in the effort.

The fungus, known as Ug99, appeared first in Uganda in 1999 and has so far spread to a handful of countries, includingYemen, Kenya, Iran and Ethiopia. A concern is that the fungus, which is spread by the wind, will begin to move at a far faster pace into more countries.

It could next enter Pakistan and India,the world’s second largest wheat producer, with other major wheat producers also endangered, including Russia and China.The United States,the world’s third-largest wheat producer,is eventually expected to be hit as well, although it could be years before that occurs. “It is just a matter of time before it spreads all over the world,�said Bikram Gill, the head of Kansas State University’s Wheat Genetics Resource Center.“If it would come here tomorrow, it would be disaster.�

Fungicides offer some protection, but the most fruitful approach is in producing new varieties of wheat that resist Ug99. K-State has already found

some genes that promise to do that, but it takes years to breed a new wheat variety and produce sufficient seed for widespread production.

Wheat is called the staff of life for a reason. It is a basic food in most societies, and a shortage would have a profound impact, including potentially causing riots and famine. The United Nations has encouraged the effort to combat Ug99, saying the fungus endangers the world’s food security.

The economic impact would be serious as well.

Kansas, the top wheat-producing state, last year harvested wheat worth US$2.5 billion, with half of the crop exported. A 2006 study found wheat responsible for 206,000 jobs in the United States.

Joe Kejr, taking a break last week from harvesting wheat at his family’s farm near Brookville, Kan., said the problem had gotten more attention in the last year. It’s no longer considered a question of if but when the fungus reaches the U.S., he said, so he hopes there will be several years to prepare for it. “The question is whether there is really enough money for the cause,�said Kejr, who is past president of the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers.

The effort has received some government help, and it got a big push when the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation encouraged Cornell University to develop a plan for Ug99. Cornell’s recommendations included research, accelerated plant breeding and global coordination of efforts.The foundation gave $26.8 million to get the plan moving.

As a result, the Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat project launched in April 2008. It’s led by Cornell, which enlisted more than a dozen institutions around the world. K-State, which has an international reputation in wheat genetics, was a natural to be included.

The project aims to deploy as quickly as possible some genetically resistant varieties of wheat and then add others.

However, the ability of the fungus to mutate means more genes need to be found to give wheat the protection it will need against Ug99.

One indication that the scientists know their work is far from over: The Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat project is working on a five-year plan. “This is a race between the fungus and the scientists,�said Gill of K-State.

These images show cratered regions near the moon’s Mare Nubium region, as photographed by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter’s LROC instrument. Impact craters feature prominently in both images. Older craters have softened edges, while younger craters appear crisp. Each image shows a region 1,400 meters (0.87 miles) wide, and features as small as 3 meters (9.8 feet) wide can be discerned.

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NEWSFOCUS

18

3 July 2009

Obama’s Vietnam

By Philip Smucker McClatchy Newspapers

SHARANA, Afghanistan – 1st Lt. Chip Heidt, his wire spectacles sliding down his wet nose in the hot midday sun, was walking with a purpose amid a stretch of the six-metre-high mud walls in this Afghan town opposite Pakistan’s lawless Waziristan tribal area. Heidt, 25, a scion of the Scripps newspaper family in Cincinnati, was on a foot patrol to gather local intelligence.

A man in a large beret waved him over and asked, “What will be the sign between us when the Taliban attack us here?”Heidt didn’t have a ready answer.

He had a question of his own, however, about the rumour that Taliban insurgents had beheaded an Afghan amid the scrub brush down the road. He asked the man to follow him back to the military base a mile away for a chat and a cup of tea.

The Taliban forces are aware of such foot patrols and try to work around them. They’ve learned to calibrate the movement of NATO forces, and have mounted a campaign of intimidation to expand their grip on villages and towns across the country. Using terrorism tactics, the widely unpopular guerrilla movement has built up its presence in the countryside, which NATO wants to help hand back to Afghans.

They’re a far cry from the Pashtun guerrillas who seized power in 1996. Back then, they were the rescuers who arrived on a wave of popular support and provided security from the raging chaos and horror sown by warlords. Now the Taliban are the sowers of chaos and insecurity as they seek to undermine the Afghan government and dodge attacks from the world’s most advanced military.

U.S. forces belatedly have recognized the Taliban’s tactics and adjusted their own, starting with foot patrols such as Heidt’s. In this game of cat and mouse, however, the Taliban forces have been winning, according to Afghans.

The Taliban forces are so omnipresent, albeit often covertly, in many cities, towns and villages that many Afghans have surrendered with resignation to their intimidating ways, said Afghans who were interviewed for this story.

Heidt took his guest through the gate, past a perimeter with two checkpoints and two 10-foothigh walls.The visitor confirmed the rumor of the beheading, the latest in a spate of atrocities.

An enormous U.S. air base is under construction

in Sharana that will support ground operations in Paktika – a poor, mountainous province beset by dust storms and surrounded by Taliban and alQaida havens – but there are many who doubt that it will bring security.

U.S. forces have been stationed in outposts in this region for seven and a half years,but theTaliban staged a comeback by stepping up crimes against ordinary Afghans. Now the Afghans are increasingly hostile to the Americans who failed to protect them.

How this state of affairs came about is largely a tale of missed opportunities by the United States and seized opportunities by the Taliban, according to Afghan experts. The story of Paktika, with variants, is the story of almost every border region of Afghanistan.

Today, the insurgent group’s “footprint”extends across the east and south of the country and well into the west. NATO intelligence officers told McClatchy Newspapers last month that Taliban forces have gained a surprising new hold in northwest Afghanistan in Badghis province, along the northwest border with Turkmenistan. Local officials said that the Taliban forces, in the absence of a large Western or Afghan army presence, have stepped up a campaign of kidnappings and extortion there.

Early on Thursday, about 4,000 U.S. Marines along with 750 Afghan forces launched a major operation in southern Afghanistan’s restive Helmand province.

U.S. military leaders hope to rout out the Taliban’s hold over parts of Afghanistan’s major poppy-producing province, so that government forces can regain control for the first time in five years. So far, one Marine has been killed.

According to Vahid Mojdeh, an Afghan historian who served as a Foreign Ministry adviser to the Taliban in the late ‘90s, Taliban forces began their major thrust – under the radar – about five years ago, almost three years after a U.S.-backed military offensive had pushed most of them underground or over the border into Pakistan. At first, fighters, often operating out of sanctuaries in Pakistan, were reluctant to bed down with the local population.

“Then, slowly but surely, they started trying it and they were accepted, even staying the evening in villages,”he said.With one eye on the movements of U.S. and NATO forces,Taliban fighters started launching military strikes from Afghan villages and recruiting more local fighters to bolster their ranks.

Embedding with the local population has paid considerable dividends to the Taliban, Mojdeh said.

U.S. forces have been stationed in outposts in this region for seven and a half years, but the Taliban staged a comeback by stepping up crimes against ordinary Afghans. Now the Afghans are increasingly hostile to the Americans who failed to protect them Coalition and Afghan forces regularly launch major sweeps of the countryside, which sometimes lead to aerial bombings of “suspected”villages, but the Taliban fighters melt into the farming communities.

Civilian casualties from airstrikes, as well as the rounding up of the wrong “suspects,” anger locals and enhance Taliban recruitment.

NATO officials concur that the Taliban forces, over the last four years, have gradually stepped up their level of intimidation and coercion across Afghanistan.

“One of the mistakes we have made for years here in Afghanistan was to measure the violence in terms of attacks on NATO and U.S. forces,”said Maj. Gen. Michael Tucker, 55, who is NATO’s chief of operations.

“When you drive down the road with guns stuck out like porcupines, you are going to get shot at. But our measurements are changing now, and we’ve just begun to try to gauge the levels of violence and intimidation against Afghans.”Phone and text-message threats, as well as“night letters”warning people not to cooperate with NATO and U.S. forces, have been common, often accompanied by kidnappings and assassinations.

U.S. forces, whose inclination when outflanked has been to protect themselves, have a new mantra: keeping in touch with Afghans.

Back inside the confines of his base near Sharana in Paktika province, 1st Lt. Heidt pulled out a set of cards where he kept notes on how the enemy is working around U.S. military patrols. He read out a few of

Gen. David Petraeus’words to the wise:“Forces must conduct patrols, share risk and maintain contact to obtain the intelligence to drive operations.”Petraeus, who had been the chief military commander in Iraq and now heads the U.S. Central Command, which includes Afghanistan, is widely viewed as the principal champion of counterinsurgency strategy in the U.S. military.

Unfortunately for the Americans,Taliban fighters already have the upper hand, after having seized one immense “human shield,”their fellow Pashtun tribesmen in villages and cities across the country, Afghan analysts said.

According to a recent analysis of the group’s tactics by the nonpartisan International Crisis Group, the insurgents’strategy“is not to use indiscriminate violence but rather to prevent citizens from accessing already limited government services, and to target and isolate the international community” and the Afghan government.

To outsiders, however, the violence looks calculated to sever all ties to U.S. and NATO forces.

Afghans “are slaughtered every day for working with us and their government, even if they are only related to someone who is simply trying to feed their family,”said one senior U.S. intelligence officer, who also said that the Taliban had murdered Afghans he knew personally.The intelligence officer spoke only on the condition of anonymity because of the secret nature of his contacts with Afghan civilians.“They are unprotected, and slowly slaughtered for even the mere presumption of U.S. support,”he added.

In recent months,Taliban forces have embarked on a broad national effort to enhance their organizational structure and address the concerns of Afghans who are unhappy with their tactics. Some analysts see the move as a self-critical, correcting mechanism within an insurgency that regularly engages in brutality that alienates it from the local population.

“People – some of them supporters – have actually come to the Taliban to complain about why the group is burning so many schools and taking massive bribes from contractors,”said Mojdeh, who has written a book about the Taliban. He said that even Taliban backers were disturbed by the notion that the insurgents they admired were seen by the broader public as in league with criminal gangs that engaged in kidnappings for ransom.

The complaints have sparked a new effort to rework the group’s image, he said. In an unusual move, the brother of Taliban leader Mullah Omar, known in Taliban circles simply as“Mullah Brother,” has criticized the burning of hundreds of schools, complaining that it merely increases illiteracy. Omar even has called on Afghans to respect the country’s different religions and their varied messages, Mojdeh said.

In addition, Omar has reshuffled commanders in different parts of the country, as has the Kabul government.

Lutfullah Mashal, 36, the governor of Laghman province, said in a phone interview that Taliban leaders had been shifted from Ghazni province and had stepped up attacks on government compounds in Laghman, hitting the local prison twice in recent weeks.“We believe the new commanders ... have likely been ordered here by more senior Taliban commanders,”he said.

Mojdeh said the jury was still out on whether the field commander shakeup would bring more success to the Taliban’s overall operation. The Americans, even with the enormous air base being built here, are planning to stick closer to the ground.After an investigation into the U.S. bombing of a residential compound in far western Farah province in which dozens of civilians were killed along with the Taliban fighters who had fled into their homes, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the newly named top U.S. commander for Afghanistan, instructed U.S. commanders last week to think hard about possible civilian casualties before they unleash their bombs.

Nevertheless, the deeper that Taliban insurgents ensconce themselves across the country, the more difficult it will be for NATO to dislodge them in the long war ahead.

Staff writer Nancy A. Youssef contributed to this article from Kabul, Afghanistan.

DISCOVERY

3 July 2009

19

IF YOU GO

Romancing the stones

Cartagena sparkles with modern sophistication

By Jane Wooldridge

CARTAGENA, Colombia – The day’s swelter dissipates in twilight as a makeshift bar appears in the cobbled colonial plaza. Locals sidle up for a cup of espresso – a cozy version of the cafe scene a few feet away, where out-of-towners sip daquiris and snack on gourmet pizza.

The mariachis start strumming, followed by a troop of“cumbia”dancers, and there’s a sense of an evening shared.When a mime in whiteface opens a taxi door and slides out the opposite side behind the couple just exiting, everyone giggles – even the locals who have seen it often before.

“This is the stuff I miss when I go back to the States – the little plazas, the way people just hang out,”says American Vivian Gloria of Miami, sitting at the table next to ours. She and husband Eddie are visiting her parents, who have an apartment here.

I’m tempted to check my phone’s GPS. Can this really be Colombia, one time centre of world narcotics, and location of the 1984 movie Romancing the Stone starring a youthful Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner?

Sure, there’s security at hotel entrances and here on the small Plaza San Diego.But the private guard hovering near our table is smiling as he eyes the scene – more a matter of presence than gunpower.The most dangerous moment of my four-day Cartagena visit comes when an aggressive tout angles to get me into her pizza joint, nearly battering me with her plastic menu.

Common perceptions of Colombia are outdated, says Diana Rodriguez, who lived in the U.S. and Europe before returning last year to Cartagena, where she works for a hotel.“The real Colombia is very warm people, not paramilitaries,” she says.

“It’s a land of contrasts,” with both poverty and plenty of appeal.

Clearly you need to safeguard cameras and dodge dark streets in dicey neighborhoods – just as in any city. But when The Husband slips away for a nap, I wander alone without hassle.Within the seven-mile ring of fortress walls that surround Cartagena’s Old City, lawless drug lords and the violent FARC insurgency that once ruled other parts of the country seem light-years away.

Bubbling cafes, designer boutiques, emerald milk, the manager suggests avocado juice.Why not? shops, pristinely clean streets and salsa tunes blast- The concoction – sweetened with apple juice and ing late into the weekend night (where are my ear laced with crushed ice – is tasty and crisp. plugs?) are proof that crackdowns by President We need it.The equatorial humidity is brutal at midAlvaro Uribe’s administration have worked. Once- day,when most shops close.We quickly find the time is grand 17th century houses have been transformed best spent in a museum or church, or by a pool. into smart hotels that give Manhattan and Miami Or in the islands. An hour away by boat lies Islas a run for their money. As for the restaurants, the del Rosario, a national park covering 27 islands with artful dishes at trendy haunts like 8-18 make you beaches far more appealing than those in town.We think Cartagena does just fine, thank you, without forego the less-expensive party boat excursion and superstar U.S. chefs. plunk down about US$70 each for a day trip with lunch Beneath it all lies the historic charm of gracious at Majagua, a stylish, eco-savvy hotel with private architecture painstakingly restored.Domed churches beaches, cocktail service, snorkeling and diving. edge stone squares;leafy parks offer respite from the Such serenity and sophistication are part of the searing sun.Pastel-painted houses,shops,offices and reason Camilo Covelli, a young doctor from Bogota, schools sit elbow-to-elbow, takes an annual vacation their thick walls forming in Cartagena.

Within the sevenprotective shells for ara“This is the one place mile ring of besque courtyards within. in Colombia that has eveBougainvillea drips from fortress walls that rything – the water, the balconies overlooking the nightlife, the old city, the surround Cartagena’s lanes,and you expect Bennature parks – and the jamin Bratt’s aristocratic Old City, lawless drug restaurants.” character from “Love in lords and the violent For many, the Old City the Time of Cholera” to is the draw. Founded in roll down the street in a FARC insurgency that the 1500s, Cartagena’s horse-drawn carriage. once ruled other parts Caribbean perch and Just then, a carriage wide, sheltered harbour does clatter by.The driver of the country seem made it one of the New waves; I shake my head to light-years away World’s richest ports. say ‘no thanks.’He smiles, Goods – and slaves – desnods and drives cheerily on. The hard sell is saved tined for cities throughout the region came here for tourist-heavy weekends and the menu-wielding first, making Cartagena a target for both pirates touts at the Plaza San Domingo. and rival European powers.

The same easy-going friendliness persists as we The results – both rich and dark – are explained visit the city’s top sights.“Welcome to Cartagena,” in museums, churches, tourist sites.The convent of says a guide handling a cruise-ship group at La Popa, San Pedro Claver is testament to the powerful lega hilltop convent with spectacular views across the acy of a priest who ministered to slaves.The Palace city and Caribbean.“Enjoy my city.” of the Inquisition recalls the trials and tortures of And again, when we wander into a local restau- some 800 accused heretics. Just outside the Old City rant. Our Spanish is rudimentary, but the courtly wall, the never-conquered Castillo de San Felipe is manager speaks a little English. This is a no-frills still protected by 1,500-pound canons. eatery, but the grilled chicken is fresh and tasty, Still, siege by the Spaniards – punishment for the portion generous – and the price under US$10. Cartagena’s independent spirit – led to the deaths Fresh juices are a staple; since we’ve already discov- of 6,000 from disease and poverty in the early 1800s. ered the local specialty of limeade-with-coconut And though Cartagena rose to prominence after lib-

TRAVEL ADVISORY The U.S. Department of State continues to warn about the dangers of travel to Colombia.

Its advisory points out that while security has improved significantly, violence continues to affect some rural areas and some cities. www.travel.state.gov.

WHEN TO GO The equatorial climate means hot and humid days but surprisingly comfortable nights. Prime time is late northern autumn through early spring; the summer rainy season may not be your first choice.

WHERE TO STAY It’s the historic district you’ve come to see, and though the beach district with its many modern hotels is a short cab-ride away, you’ll be missing out if you don’t stay in the old city. Word to the wise: Ask about soundproofed windows, especially if you’re staying near the Parque de la Marina.

You’ll find backpacker and some less expensive, trendy lodgings in the area called Getsemani. It’s a bit transitional still, but comfortably safe during the day. At night, stick to the area’s main streets.

In all cases, ask whether taxes are extra and whether breakfast is included.

DINING Small eateries offer good food and value; upscale options typically feature international cuisine.

• La Vitrola: Old Havana ambiance like nothing you’ve seen in Miami, with live soft jazz. The only typically Cuban dish on the menu is ropa vieja; the rest are modern Caribbean. Reservations a must; entrees $20-$25. Calle de Baloco No. 2-01; • 18-18: Our best meal in town, with a white-on-white-plus apple-green decor and smart tasty tapas with a Spanish accent. Calle de Baloco No. 2-01; About $70 for two with wine.

• Club de Pesca: The city’s top seafood choice, with a waterfront setting. Seafood entrees around $25. www. clubdepesca.com; • Juan del Mar: Whimsical seafood eatery near the hotel Santa Clara, owned by a local celebrity; entrees around $20.

A sister restaurant next door serves gourmet pizza. On Plaza San Diego; Calle de Baloco No. 2-01; • Restaurant D’Alex, on Calle Segunda de Badillo, near Casa la Fe: Simple local fare served with grace; don’t miss the avocado juice. Full meal under $10.

INFORMATION Guidebooks are few and behind the times, though the Lonely Planet Guide to Colombia is useful. More up-to-date are recent articles in the New York Times Magazine (www.newyorktimes.com; Travel + Leisure (www.travelandleisure.com) and Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel (www.budgetravel.com). At all three sites, search ‘Cartagena.’

Colombia has a visitor website, www.colombia.travel; the city site for Cartagena is www.turismocartagena.com. Cartengacaribe. com offers background on history and recommends activities.

eration, it suffered from cholera, plague, civic lethargy and economic malaise as the decades passed.

And, then, for these past few years, renewal.

Nearly 80 percent of the 1.2 million visitors to Colombia put Cartagena on their itinerary.

“When people arrive, they imagine something small and well-restored, like Puerto Rico,”says Carmen Otero de Millan, director of sales and marketing for the Sofitel Santa Clara hotel.“But this is huge ... and the city is alive.”

No matter that out-of-towners are paying $200 per square foot for houses in the historic center. In the early hours, the streets come alive with locals heading to university classes and offices. By midday the lanes are lined with carts hawking fresh fruits, icy juices, arepas filled with fried eggs, electrical gadgets, belts and cheap shoes. By evening the cafes fill, the bars open, and the air begins to sizzle with an energy that has nothing to do with the heat.

As you walk from your hotel to dinner, you may spy through the shutters an “abuela”watching TV in the same simple living room where she herself was raised. A man gets a haircut in the unairconditioned barber shop that might have served his father. Patrons spill into the streets from a neighborhood bar seething with“champeta”rhythms.

And at the trendy Cafe Havana, young and old who can afford the $2 entrance fee and the $7 cocktails crowd the tight aisles to dance until the wee hours to an eight-piece band. In Cartagena, the night is always young.

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