Life in the Closet

Japan man discovers woman living in his closet

Fri May 30, 9:25 AM

TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese man who was mystified when food kept disappearing from his kitchen, set up a hidden camera and found an unknown woman living secretly in his closet, Japanese media said on Friday.

The 57-year-old unemployed man of Fukuoka in southern Japan called police on Wednesday when the camera sent pictures to his mobile phone of an intruder in his home while he was out on Wednesday, the Asahi newspaper said on its Website.

Officers rushed to the house and found a 58-year-old unemployed woman hiding in an unused closet, where she had secreted a mattress and plastic drink bottles, the Asahi said. Police suspect she may have been there for several months, the paper said.

"I didn't have anywhere to live," the Nikkan Sports tabloid quoted the woman as telling police.

Local police confirmed that they had arrested a woman for trespassing, but would not comment further on the case.

(Reporting by Isabel Reynolds; Editing by David Fox)

Legal Teratology

Wed May 28, 7:28 AM

CHARLEVILLE-MEZIERES, France (AFP) - A verdict was expected Wednesday in the trial of a French serial killer for the rape and murder of seven girls and young women, and his wife, accused of helping lure his victims.

Prosecutors are demanding life sentences for Michel Fourniret and Monique Olivier, whom they described as "a devil with two faces" in one of France's most gruesome cases of recent years.

Dubbed the "Ogre of the Ardennes", Fourniret, a 66-year-old machine operator, has admitted to the kidnap, rape and murder of seven young girls and women between 1987 and 2001.

His wife, a 59-year-old nurse, is accused of helping him trap his victims, who were aged between 12 and 22. They were shot, strangled or stabbed to death.

The nine-member jury was holed up in a local police station early Wednesday with a verdict to be handed down in the afternoon after the court reconvenes at 3:00 pm (1300 GMT).

In a final address to the court, Fourniret delivered a 15-minute diatribe -- part of which was written in verse -- against the prosecution and described his wife as "a poor woman incapable of harming anyone."

Olivier, charged in the murder of one of the young women and complicity in three others, expressed remorse at the end of the trial in the northeast town of Charleville-Mezieres.

"I regret everything that I have done. That is all," she said on Tuesday.

During the two-month trial, the jury heard Fourniret admit that he had a sexual obsession with virgins and describe being in an "altered state" when killing his victims.

"I remain an extremely dangerous individual," the bespectacled grey-haired Fourniret told the court.

Lawyers for Olivier sought to portray their client as the terrorised wife of a domineering and violent husband.

But state prosecutor Xavier Lenoir described her as a willing accomplice, saying she displayed a "deafening silence" to the screams of girls being raped by her husband.

Olivier testified that she and Fourniret would reproduce scenes from their crimes during sexual intercourse.

Fourniret met Olivier in the 1980s while he was serving time in jail on sexual assault charges. She responded to an ad he had placed for a pen pal.

Letters seized by investigators showed that Fourniret had made a pact with Olivier that in exchange for the murder of her first husband -- who was never killed -- she would find him virgins to satisfy his obsession.

Olivier denied in court that such a pact ever existed.

Among the most disturbing accounts, the court heard a coroner provide evidence suggesting Fourniret sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl after stabbing her to death in 1990.

Describing Fourniret as a "necrophiliac monster", state prosecutor Francis Nachbar called for a maximum sentence of life in prison for Fourniret, with no possibility of parole.

But on the final day of the trial, Fourniret's lawyer Pierre Blocquaux appealed to the jury to show compassion toward his client.

"He is part of our humanity, alas, regardless of the horrible nature of these acts," said Blocquaux. He announced that Fourniret would not appeal the sentence.

Lawyers for Olivier urged the jury to draw a distinction between her and Fourniret, arguing that she had no criminal record prior to meeting him.

The prosecution is seeking life imprisonment for Olivier, whom they described as Fourniret's "bloody muse" and a "deceitful witch", and said she should not be eligible for parole for 30 years.

The trial also laid bare some of the mistakes by police that allowed Fourniret to elude arrest for years, both in France and across the border in Belgium where he operated.

The couple was finally arrested in 2003 when a Belgian teenage girl managed to escape from Fourniret's vehicle and went to the police.

Fourniret faces charges in three other cases including the 1990 murder of Joanna Parrish, a 20-year-old British woman who worked as a teaching assistant in the central French city of Auxerre.

Breaking the Rules of Gorilla Communities

Who's the daddy? Swiss zoo in gorilla paternity mix-up

Thu May 29, 1:37 PM

GENEVA (AFP) - Monkey business is clearly afoot in a Swiss zoo after a paternity test revealed Thursday that one of its gorillas has effectively been cuckolded by a young pretender half his age.

Zookeepers in the northern city of Basel were shocked to discover that Kisoro, a 17-year-old gorilla, is not the father of little Chelewa -- instead it's Viatu, another male who is just nine years old.

The situation was "almost unbelievable," and the precocious Viatu has "broken all the rules that apply in gorilla communities," the zoo said in a statement.

Normally, only male gorillas aged 12 or over have the right to have sex with females in the tribe.

The facts came to light when the zoo carried out the test as part of the data it keeps on animals born in captivity.

Peacemaking Pedophiles

Child sex abuse 'widespread' among peacekeepers: NGO

Tue May 27, 7:16 AM

LONDON (AFP) - Aid workers and peacekeepers are sexually abusing young children in war zones and disaster zones but their actions are largely going unpunished, a British charity said Tuesday.

"Children as young as six are trading sex with aid workers and peacekeepers in exchange for food, money, soap and, in very few cases, luxury items such as mobile phones," a Save the Children report said.

It also highlighted instances of rape, verbal sexual abuse, child pornography, prostitution and trafficking of youngsters, many of whom are poor, displaced or orphaned by conflict.

The group said the scale of abuse was "significant". Its findings were based on work with hundreds of youngsters from Ivory Coast, southern Sudan and Haiti, said the charity's chief executive Jasmine Whitbread.

"This research exposes the despicable actions of a small number of perpetrators who are sexually abusing some of the most vulnerable children in the world -- the very children they are meant to protect," she added.

"It is hard to imagine a more grotesque abuse of authority or flagrant violation of children's rights."

The charity said "endemic failures" in responding to the abuse that was officially reported, were letting down the abused, and better reporting mechanisms should be introduced.

Fear of aid and assistance being withdrawn, being stigmatised by the local community, fear of reprisals, lack of faith in the response or simply ignorance about how to report abuse were also major factors, it added.

Whitbread said the United Nations, the wider world as well as humanitarian and aid agencies have made important commitments to tackle the problem in recent years.

But most had failed to turn their promises into action, she added, calling for all agencies working in emergencies -- including her own -- to "own up to the fact that they are vulnerable to this problem and tackle it head on".

The UN Department for Peacekeeping Operations (UNPKO) was said to be the group most likely to be responsible for abuse. Save the Children said there had been 15 claims against its staff and partners last year, of which three were upheld.

UNPKO spokesman Nick Birnback said it was "entirely unacceptable" that those sent to help the most vulnerable are instead causing grievous harm.

"Clearly a lot more has to be done," he told BBC radio, while rejecting allegations that the problem was widespread and those responsible were getting away with it.

"The vast majority of UN peacekeepers all over the world, of which we have over 100,000 now, serve with honour and courage in very difficult situations and don't engage in this unacceptable behaviour," he added.

The reputation of UN peacekeepers has been tarnished in the past by cases of sexual abuse against women, notably in Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast and Haiti.

In November last year, the UN said that more than 100 Sri Lankan soldiers were to be sent home over charges that they paid for sex while stationed in Haiti.

After turning a blind eye for decades to cases of abuse by its peacekeepers, the world body recommended in 2005 that errant soldiers be punished, their salaries frozen and a fund set up to help any women or girls made pregnant by their actions.

The "zero tolerance" policy towards sexual misconduct includes a "non-fraternisation" rule barring them from sex with locals.

It was brought in after revelations in December 2004 that peacekeepers in DRC were involved in the sexual abuse of 13-year-old girls in exchange for eggs, milk or cash sums as low as one dollar.

Robot Future & the Race Against Suicidal Boredom

Parade Magazine
January 4, 1959

All over the world and on the colonies in outer space, everyone is excited about the most popular event of the year. All human activity stops as people breathlessly await the outcome of the world's championship tiddlywinks contest.

In this world of the future mankind has little else to be excited about. For earth has been transformed into a "paradise" where incredibly clever robots take care of things. They do the farming, the factory work, run the trains, regulate traffic, enforce the law, cook the meals, clean the houses and distribute a vast wealth of goods and services to which every human being is entitled - merely by being alive.

Almost nothing familiar on earth today will survive in this robotized world of the future. For instance:

* Only a privileged few will have the right to work at a job.
* The dream of youngsters will not be to grow up rich and successful, but to be one of the favored few workers.
* Juvenile delinquency will take the form of vandalism against robots.
* Everyone wil aspire for some kind of "blue ribbon" for an amateur activity, hobby or sport - possibly an award for the best ship model built out of matchsticks or the most colorful rock garden in town.
* Heroes and celebrities will be the persons who devise new parlor games.

Withering Family Life

* Mankind's major struggle will be against boredom, with the suicide rate zooming as people lose the race.
* Governments and family life will wither away. Public officials will be replaced by Board of Supervisors to "umpire" games, sports and recreation, and also administer competitive exams which would decide who could work at the few essential jobs left for human beings to do.

Fantastic? Certainly, by our everyday standards of progress. But every one of these dizzying pictures of life in the future could conceivably become real - when and if man creates robots to do his work for him.

Man's mastery of science and technology is advancing by tremendous leaps and bounds. One of his major goals ever since the caveman harnessed an ox to a primitive plow, has been to make something else replace human muscle power. The ultimate "something else" is the robot that acts and thinks like a man.

For the robot-powered society described here, Parade enlisted the fertile imagination and scientific knowledge of Isaac Asimov, an associate professor of bio-chemistry at the Boston University School of Medicine and a writer of science-fiction stories, including a series on robots.

Awful to Face

Wondrous as Asmiov's robotized world of the future may seem, the man who dreamed it up wants no part of it. Says Asimov, "I'll be glad that I will have long since been dead rather than face life in such a society!"

In the transportation systems of the future, electronically guided robots will be the bus and truck drivers. There may be robots that can repair TV sets, fix the plumbing, run IBM machines, act as traffic policemen, read galley proofs, serve as "information" attendants at railway stations.

"In theory," says Asimov, "there is no reason why any human job cannot be done by a machine if we can invent a robot brain as complex and as small as the human brain. Under such circumstances, there is no reason why a robot couldn't mentally be capable of doing anything a human can.

"But who will need man then? Man will die off of simple boredom and frustration." The reason, Asimov points out, is that comparatively few people can be usefully creative.

Consider the Joneses, who in a robotized world, have lost their usefulness:

Mr. and Mrs. Jones would have it easy. Their robot butler would awaken them gently, serve them breakfast in bed and wheel away and wash the dirty dishes. The robot valet and maid would choose the day's attire and dress them.

"Free" for the day, Mr. and Mrs. Jones must decide what to do. Mrs. Jones doesn't have the drudgery of housekeeping. Mr. Jones has no job to go to, since robots are doing nearly all the work. Of course, he could spend the day tinkering with his sailboat, although he knows a robot could tune u p the auxiliary engine more efficiently. Mrs. Jones may decide to work in the garden. Her robot could do this better, but she jealously guards this privilege.

Some people - the "aristocracy" in this strange robot society - would be entitled to work.

Another Severed Foot

Mystery deepens as 4th severed foot found

Fri May 23, 3:34 PM

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - Another severed human foot has been discovered washed ashore on Canada's Pacific coast, but police are no closer to solving the gruesome mystery.

The foot, still wearing a shoe, was discovered on Thursday on a small uninhabited island south of Vancouver in the Strait of Georgia, and is the fourth discovered in the region in the past 10 months.

The previous cases all involved right feet still in sneakers, and each was found on a different island.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have not said if the latest discovery was a right or left foot.

DNA testing has failed to link the earlier discoveries to any missing person cases.

(Reporting Allan Dowd, editing by Rob Wilson)

Naked Spiritual Servants

Shrine workers may keep their underwear on

1 hour, 47 minutes ago

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India (Reuters) - Employees counting donations at a popular Hindu shrine in southern India will no longer have to take off their underpants at work after the local human rights commission intervened.

Police and temple authorities imposed the dress code at the Sabarimala hill shrine in Kerala five years ago after thefts were reported from the shrine's strongroom.

Employees in the vault, all of whom were men, were made to work topless wearing only a dhoti -- a cotton wrap worn around the waist -- with nothing underneath.

But they found it degrading, and their union complained to the Kerala State Human Rights Commission.

"The employees on duty are made to strip before an officer before leaving the office to ensure that they do not carry anything in their underwear," said Chavara Gopakumar, the union leader. "It is humiliating and an insult to human dignity."

The state's human rights commission agreed.

Authorities at the shrine, which is dedicated to Ayyappa, a south Indian deity, said on Friday they would end the practice and have begun looking into electronic surveillance systems.

Thousands of pilgrims flock to the shrine between November and January, bringing cash, precious metals and jewels in offerings. They are expected to forego meat, alcohol and sex for 41 days before arriving. Women of child-bearing age are forbidden.

(Reporting by D. Jose; Writing by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Alex Richardson)

The Morbidity Pendulum

Deaths from cancer, heart disease, crashes to soar: WHO

Tue May 20, 1:08 PM

GENEVA (AFP) - Deaths from road accidents, cancer and heart disease are set to soar over the next 20 years as the developing world's populations get richer and live longer, according to a study out this week.

As low and middle-income economies grow by 2030, mortality rates from noncommunicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease and cancer, and road crashes due to increased car ownership, will make up more than 30 percent of deaths worldwide, the World Health Organisation (WHO) found.

Meanwhile, deaths from factors currently associated with the developing world, such as nutritional deficiencies, malaria and tuberculosis, will fall, the Geneva-based organisation said in its "World Health Statistics 2008."

"Globally, deaths from cancer will increase from 7.4 million in 2004 to 11.8 million in 2030, and deaths from cardiovascular diseases will rise from 17.1 million to 23.4 million in the same period," the survey said.

Deaths due to road traffic accidents will increase from 1.3 million in 2004 to 2.4 million in 2030, mainly owing to increased motor vehicle ownership and use associated with economic growth in low- and middle-income countries.

The four main causes of death by 2030 will be ischaemic heart disease, strokes, chronic obstructive heart disease (COHD) and lower respiratory infections such as pneumonia, the WHO said.

The rise in COHD is mainly seen coming from increased tobacco consumption, it added.

Tobacco-related illnesses caused some 5.4 million deaths in 2004 and are expected to soar by more than half to 8.3 million by 2030, with 80 percent of these cases in developing countries, the WHO said.

Every tobacco user loses on average 15 years of life due to their habit, and use is particularly high in eastern and central Europe and southeast Asia.

Nearly two thirds of the world's smokers live in just 10 countries: Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, Turkey and the US, the WHO said.

Moreover, although anti-smoking measures such as advertising restrictions, health warnings and higher taxation do have an impact, not more than five percent of the world's population is fully covered by any one of these measures, the WHO warned.

Conversely, the WHO statistics found that the increase in deaths from noncommunicable diseases will be accompanied by "large declines in mortality for the main communicable, maternal, perinatal and nutritional causes, including HIV infection, tuberculosis and malaria."

However, deaths worldwide from HIV/AIDS are expected to rise from 2.2 million in 2008 to a maximum of 2.4 million in 2012 before declining to 1.2 million in 2030.

When Deterritorialization Outpaces Capital

South Africa acts to curb attacks on foreigners

2 hours, 27 minutes ago

By Marius Bosch

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African police fired rubber bullets at hundreds of shantytown residents on Tuesday in a crackdown on violence against foreigners that has killed at least 24 people and unnerved investors.

The army could be called in to quell the violence as criminals were exploiting the situation, the president of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), Jacob Zuma, said in a radio interview.

The rand currency fell sharply after more than a week of attacks on African migrant workers, accused by many poor township dwellers of stealing jobs and fuelling a wave of violent crime.

Local media said two people were killed overnight in the Ramaphosa squatter settlement east of Johannesburg.

Police fired volleys of rubber bullets to disperse about 700 people who earlier forced foreigners from the area, Reuters TV cameraman John Mkhize said. At least two people were injured.

Thousands of foreigners, mostly from Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi, have fled into refugee shelters since the violence began on May 11 in Alexandra township.

Several foreigners have been burned to death, women raped and scores of shops and homes looted. More than 200 people have been arrested.

Zuma told the BBC World Service criminals were using the attacks as a cover.

"What we have detected so far is criminality. I would not rule out (bringing in the army) because we need to take the measures that are going to help us stop the violence," he said.

The violence unsettled investors who feared the xenophobic attacks could hurt the economy. The rand currency fell as much as 1.7 percent to 7.68 to the dollar.

"We've got the domestic xenophobic violence which is scaring investors away, so these factors are combining to create a weaker rand," said David Gracey, a trader at Nedbank.

South Africa's tourism minister, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, said the violence could hurt the sector, which contributes around 8 percent of Gross Domestic Product to Africa's biggest economy, employs a million people and attracted 8.4 million visitors last year.

WORLD CUP

The South African Football Association said the attacks could harm the country's bid to host a successful soccer World Cup in 2010.

"You know attacks like this ... are very sad for football, are very sad for the country," SAFA CEO Raymond Hack told Reuters. "So we need to ensure that it (the violence) is brought to an end as quickly as possible."

Local World Cup organizers have dismissed persistent reports international soccer body FIFA is considering stripping South Africa of the tournament.

The ANC said the situation was coming under control after it sent officials into townships to urge an end to the attacks.

Police also increased their deployment to trouble spots.

"We are going hard on the situation," said Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula.

The unrest threatens to increase political instability at a time of power shortages, rising inflation and disaffection among the poor over President Thabo Mbeki's pro-business policies.

Mbeki has faced strong criticism, especially from ANC left wingers, for not spreading the benefits of black rule to millions of poor people.

South Africa, with a population of 50 million, is home to an estimated 5 million immigrants. Foreigners have been lured from poorer neighbors by work in mines, farms and homes and by one of the world's most liberal immigration and refugee policies.

The biggest group -- an estimated 3 million -- are from Zimbabwe. They have fled economic collapse at home and the violent political standoff since disputed March 29 elections.

Mbeki's critics say his softly, softly approach has done too little to end the crisis or stem the flow of migrants.

(Additional reporting by Paul Simao, John Mkhize, Gugulakhe Lourie and Stella Mapenzauswa in Johannesburg and Wendell Roelf in Cape Town; Editing by Barry Moody and Charles Dick)

(For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the violence and other top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com)

Sex in Advertising

Sex and elephants woo voters ahead of Romania polls

Mon May 19, 11:41 AM

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - From parading an elephant through the streets to wrapping a condom on a finger or posing as Jesus, Romanian politicians are finding new ways to woo voters ahead of municipal elections on June 1.

In the Black Sea port of Constanta, a bulky candidate for mayor, nicknamed "the elephant," publicized his campaign by walking the animal through the town centre.

"It eats peas," the candidate Victor Manea said, poking fun at the current mayor of Constanta, whose last name, Mazare, means peas in Romanian.

The election for thousands of city mayors and county council members is an important gauge of the popularity of Romania's centrist government ahead of a parliamentary election this year. Hence the eye-catching stunts.

A candidate from the western city of Arad has printed banners showing himself sitting behind a long table, together with 11 colleagues, in a depiction of the Last Supper. His message is he "believes" in his team.

Banners in central Romania display images of a finger with a condom wrapped around it. The candidate for city hall in Bistrita, Gelu Dragan, hopes to show he will protect voters against ever-present corruption.

And in what a Romanian blog called "eggvertising," a candidate for the Navodari sea resort stamped his name on eggs to be sold in supermarkets. Their sell-by date is set for a week before a potential run-off on June 15.

Many voters, angry about Romania's dilapidated infrastructure and poor public services, are not impressed.

"I feel harassed," said Ileana Zamfir-Berca, a 49-year-old accountant from Bucharest.

"These people will do anything to get into power but just because they are walking an elephant doesn't mean they'll repair roads."

(Reporting by Marius Zaharia; Editing by Keith Weir)

Death Ruins Doomsday

Corpse stench drives Russian doomsday cult from cave: officials

1 hour, 27 minutes ago

MOSCOW (AFP) - Toxic fumes from rotting corpses drove the final members of a Russian doomsday cult from the cave where they had been waiting six months for the end of the world, officials said Friday.

Eight women and one man emerged from the muddy bunker outside a village in the region of Penza, 560 kilometres (350 miles) southeast of Moscow, said Tatyana Ostrovskaya, a spokeswoman for the local prosecutor's office.

"The last nine people came to the surface after the bodies of two women were found," Ostrovskaya told AFP.

Interfax news agency quoted local official Vladimir Provotorov as saying that everyone left because there was "a real threat of poisoning from toxic corpse fumes" from two deceased cult members rotting in the cave.

"We could smell it through the ventilation shaft," he was quoted by RIA Novosti news agency as saying. "When the specialists took out the dead hermits, we asked the others if they would like to leave, and they agreed."

The cultists were part of an ultra-Orthodox Christian splinter group, led by bearded guru Pyotr Kuznetsov, who reject the modern world and believe that bar codes on food products are a symbol of the devil.

In November, 35 members followed Kuznetsov's orders to take refuge in the frozen underground labyrinth as he predicted the world would end on Orthodox Easter Sunday, April 27.

Taking candles, icons and headscarves, they threatened to blow themselves up with cooking gas canisters if authorities interfered.

After surviving the bitter Russian winter, fourteen emerged on April 1, including all four children, when part of their subterranean shelter collapsed in what they took to be a sign from God. Officials blamed water from melting snow.

Several others abandoned the cave in the following weeks as more chunks of the mud roof collapsed.

Kuznetsov himself waited above ground in a nearby wooden shack before he was committed to a psychiatric hospital with a diagnosis of schizophrenia.

After the world failed to end on schedule, Kuznetsov was found trying to commit suicide.

No journalists appear to have been present on Friday when the cult members left their cave or to have had contact with them since.

On Thursday night journalists were kept away from the cave as several cars arrived at the site, NTV television reported.

A sound engineer for the station who was keeping watch was beaten by members of the security forces, NTV said.

Those who emerged from the cave alive "are now being looked at by a doctor," Penza's deputy governor Oleg Melnichenko told the TV station. Three are citizens of Belarus, RIA Novosti reported.

Later, television pictures showed the mangled remains of one of the two dead women caked in mud and decomposing body parts wrapped in sheets after their excavation.

A member of the cult who had emerged earlier told ITAR-TASS that one had died after a severe fast, the other from an unknown illness.

"We are examining the bodies to see if we will open a criminal case," said prosecutor's office spokeswoman Tatyana Ostrovskaya.

Most of the sect members who left the cave earlier continue to await the end of the world at Kuznetsov's wooden cottage in the nearby village of Nikolskoye.

Greek doctors remove twin from nine-year-old girl

Thu May 15, 11:21 AM

LARISSA, Greece (AFP) - Surgeons have removed the foetus of an undeveloped twin from the stomach of a nine-year-old Greek girl, doctors said Thursday.

In a rare medical case, the girl had grown up with the six-centimetre (two-inch) foetus inside her undetected until recently.

Doctors at the hospital at Larissa said the girl had recovered wit

h no problems from the operation to remove what is known as a "parasite foetus".

Why should we not talk about an 'extraterrestrial brother'?

Vatican's chief astronomer says it's OK to believe in aliens

Tue May 13, 5:13 PM

By Ariel David, The Associated Press

VATICAN CITY - Believing that the universe may contain alien life does not contradict a faith in God, the Vatican's chief astronomer said in an interview published Tuesday.

Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, was quoted as saying the vastness of the universe means it is possible there could be other forms of life outside Earth, even intelligent ones.

"How can we rule out that life may have developed elsewhere?" Funes said. "Just as we consider earthly creatures as 'a brother,' and 'sister,' why should we not talk about an 'extraterrestrial brother'? It would still be part of creation."

In the interview by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Funes said that such a notion "doesn't contradict our faith" because aliens would still be God's creatures. Ruling out the existence of aliens would be like "putting limits" on God's creative freedom, he said.

The interview, headlined "The extraterrestrial is my brother," covered a variety of topics including the relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and science, and the theological implications of the existence of alien life.

Funes said science, especially astronomy, does not contradict religion, touching on a theme of Pope Benedict, who has made exploring the relationship between faith and reason a key aspect of his papacy.

The Bible "is not a science book," Funes said, adding that he believes the Big Bang theory is the most "reasonable" explanation for the creation of the universe. The theory says the universe began billions of years ago in the explosion of a single, super-dense point that contained all matter.

But he said he continues to believe that "God is the creator of the universe and that we are not the result of chance."

Funes urged the church and the scientific community to leave behind divisions caused by Galileo's persecution 400 years ago, saying the incident has "caused wounds."

In 1633 the astronomer was tried as a heretic and forced to recant his theory that the Earth revolved around the sun. Church teaching at the time placed Earth at the centre of the universe.

"The church has somehow recognized its mistakes," he said. "Maybe it could have done it better, but now it's time to heal those wounds and this can be done through calm dialogue and collaboration."

Pope John Paul declared in 1992 that the ruling against Galileo was an error resulting from "tragic mutual incomprehension."

The Vatican Observatory has been at the forefront of efforts to bridge the gap between religion and science. Its scientist-clerics have generated top-notch research and its meteorite collection is considered one of the world's best.

The observatory, founded by Pope Leo XIII in 1891, is based in Castel Gandolfo, a lakeside town in the hills outside Rome where the Pope has a summer residence. It also conducts research at an observatory at the University of Arizona, in Tucson.

-

On the Net:

Vatican Observatory: http://clavius.as.arizona.edu/vo

Fox's "Millionaire" puts charitable spin on reality

Tue May 13, 1:18 AM

By James Hibberd

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Fox's newest reality experiment is a modern-day twist on "The Prince and the Pauper."

The network is set to announce "Secret Millionaire," a new series in which wealthy benefactors go undercover in impoverished neighborhoods. For about 10 days, a multimillionaire meets financially destitute locals and experiences what it's like to live on a meager budget. At the show's conclusion, the millionaire reveals his true identity to the community and gives a minimum of $100,000 of his own money to at least one deserving person.

"How often do we see somebody who's homeless on the street and wonder what it would be like to live like that?" Fox president of alternative entertainment Mike Darnell asked. "Whereas the superwealthy are so detached from that experience. This is a really clever conceit and has a great emotional arc to it."

Fox has ordered six episodes of the hourlong series from RDF USA. The network plans to unveil the show Thursday at its "upfront" presentation to advertisers in New York. "Secret Millionaire" is based on a Channel 4 U.K. hit from RDF Media that is returning for a third season and which won the prestigious Rose d'Or award in 2007 for best reality series at the annual Rose d'Or Festival in Lucerne, Switzerland.

"It's going to be huge," said Chris Coelen, CEO of RDF USA ("Don't Forget the Lyrics," "Wife Swap"). "It's got a 'fish out of water' element -- which is always fun -- and it's got the inspirational stories about what these people are doing in their communities. And then there's an unbelievable emotional payoff."

CULTURE SHOCK

"Secret Millionaire" producers sought participants with assets in the "triple-digit-million range" who have lived sheltered lives. Most are men, but not all. Each episode tracks two story lines: the millionaire's culture shock as he or she is immersed in poverty and the rags-to-riches fairy tale of struggling individuals who gain a financial windfall.

Philanthropic reality shows have been increasingly popular the past couple of years, led by ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" and, most recently, "Oprah's Big Give." Yet some attempts to capitalize on them have flopped, such as NBC's "Three Wishes" and ABC's "The Benefactor."

"Aspiration for the sake of aspiration does not work," Darnell said. "But this has a very compelling concept."

Fox's reality efforts have been on a roll this past year. Although top series "American Idol" has suffered recent ratings erosion, freshman show "The Moment of Truth" was the season's top-rated new series, and veteran summer program "Hell's Kitchen" has enjoyed record-setting viewership.

Yet with "Secret Millionaire" helping the poor and Fox's recent reality pilot "Bad Dads" tracking down deadbeat parents, the network's oft-notorious reality efforts have taken a surprisingly altruistic turn.

"This show is one of my last few shots at redemption," said Darnell, whose hits include "Joe Millionaire" and "Temptation Island."

Joking aside, Darnell advised not to read anything into his recent feel-good picks. Like "Truth," Darnell said "Secret Millionaire" is simply good business.

"There's no method to the madness," Darnell said. "I purchase whatever I think will work."

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

Natural Disasters

1 hour, 37 minutes ago

By Ben Blanchard

CHONGQING, China (Reuters) - China's most devastating earthquake in three decades killed nearly 9,000 people on Monday, with the toll likely to soar as authorities struggle to reach casualties in large areas cut off from relief.

The earthquake that hit China's southwestern province of Sichuan killed 8,533 people, the official Xinhua news agency said on Monday, citing the provincial government.

The epicenter of the 7.8 magnitude quake was in a mountainous region about 100 km from Sichuan's capital Chengdu, a bustling city of 10 million.

"The road started swaying as I was driving. Rocks fell from the mountains, with dust darkening the sky over the valley," a driver for Sichuan's seismological bureau was quoted by Xinhua as saying, as he was driving near the epicenter.

The quake hit in the middle of the school day, toppling eight schools in the region. Chemical plants and at least one hospital were also flattened, trapping many hundreds, state media said.

About 900 teenagers were buried in the rubble of a collapsed three-storey school building in the Sichuan city of Dujiangyan.

Local villagers had already helped dozens of students out of the ruins and five cranes were excavating the site as anxious parents looked on, Xinhua said.

"Some buried teenagers were struggling to break loose from underneath the ruins while others were crying out for help," the agency said.

Nightfall, severed communications and blocked roads have hampered rescue efforts and the death toll was likely to rise significantly.

MANY BUILDINGS FLATTENED

An estimated 3,000 to 5,000 people were killed in Beichuan Qiang Autonomous County alone, state media said.

As many as 10,000 in Beichuan were feared injured and 80 percent of the buildings there had been destroyed, Xinhua said. There had been more than 300 aftershocks, state television said.

Beichuan's population is 161,000, meaning about one in 10 residents were killed or injured. The county is a part of Mianyang city, and about 160 km (100 miles) from the provincial capital, Chengdu.

Hundreds of people were buried in two collapsed chemical plants in Shifang in Sichuan, the online edition of the official Xinhua news agency said.

About 6,000 people were evacuated, Xinhua said, adding that more than 80 tonnes of highly corrosive liquid ammonia had leaked.

Hundreds of people were buried under rubble in Shifang in Sichuan as several schools, factories and dormitories collapsed during the quake, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Hundreds were also buried under rubble in a collapsed hospital in Dujiangyan city in Sichuan.

The quake's epicenter was in nearby Wenchuan, a mountainous county of about 100,000 people, but its force was enough to cause buildings to sway across China and as far away as the Thai capital Bangkok.

The Sichuan plain is one of China's most fertile agricultural areas, but it relies heavily on an irrigation system linked to the 2,000-year-old Dujiangyan flood control works.

Which means the quake could exacerbate inflation, already running at the fastest pace in 12 years.

The quake is also the worst to hit China in 32 years since the 1976 Tangshan earthquake in northeastern China where up to 300,000 died.

It has come at a bad time for China, which holds the Olympic Games in August, and has been struggling to keep a lid on unrest in ethnic Tibetan areas and the heavily Muslim northeastern Xinjiang region.

The U.S. Geological Survey said on its website (http://earthquake.usgs.gov) the main quake struck at 0628 GMT at a depth of 10 km (6 miles).

In Beijing and Shanghai, office workers poured into the streets as the tremor hit. In the capital, there was no visible damage and the showpiece Bird's Nest Olympic stadium was unscathed.

"ALL-OUT" RESCUE EFFORT

Premier Wen Jiabao arrived in Chengdu and President Hu Jintao ordered an "all-out" rescue effort, Xinhua reported.

Thousands of army troops and paramilitary People's Armed Police carrying medical supplies were also headed to the region, state television said. But a landslide had blocked a mountain road leading to Wenchuan, preventing troops from reaching the scene, state radio said.

In Washington, President George W. Bush said the United States was ready to help.

"I extend my condolences to those injured and to the families of the victims of today's earthquake. I am particularly saddened by the number of students and children affected by this tragedy.

"The United States stands ready to help in any way possible," Bush said in a statement.

At least 45 had died in Chengdu, Xinhua said, citing an official with the local seismological bureau. Another 600 people were injured, 58 of them critically, in the sprawling city.

Some 57 have been confirmed killed in northern Shaanxi, 48 in northwestern Gansu, 50 in Chongqing municipality, and one in Yunnan province, Xinhua said, citing the national headquarters of disaster relief.

(Additional reporting by Beijing and Shanghai bureaux; Editing by Nick Macfie and David Fogarty)

New Strategies for Corporeal Dissolution

New idea in mortuary science: Dissolving bodies with lye
Provided by: The Canadian Press
Written by: Norma Love, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
May. 8, 2008

CONCORD, N.H. - Since they first walked the planet, humans have either buried or burned their dead. Now a new option is generating interest - dissolving bodies in lye and flushing the brownish, syrupy residue down the drain.

The process is called alkaline hydrolysis and was developed in this country 16 years ago to get rid of animal carcasses. It uses lye, extreme heat and pressure to destroy bodies in big stainless-steel cylinders that are similar to pressure cookers.

No funeral homes in the U.S. - or anywhere else in the world, as far as the equipment manufacturer knows - offer it. In fact, only two U.S. medical centres use it on human bodies, and only on cadavers donated for research.

But because of its environmental advantages, some in the funeral industry say it could someday rival burial and cremation.

"It's not often that a truly game-changing technology comes along in the funeral service," the newsletter Funeral Service Insider said in September. But "we might have gotten a hold of one."

Getting the public to accept a process that strikes some as ghastly may be the biggest challenge. Psychopaths and dictators have used acid or lye to torture or erase their victims, and legislation to make alkaline hydrolysis available to the public in New York state was branded "Hannibal Lecter's bill" in a play on the sponsor's name - Senator Kemp Hannon - and the movie character's sadism.

Alkaline hydrolysis is legal in Minnesota and in New Hampshire, where a Manchester funeral director is pushing to offer it. But he has yet to line up the necessary regulatory approvals, and some New Hampshire lawmakers want to repeal the little-noticed 2006 state law legalizing it.

"We believe this process, which enables a portion of human remains to be flushed down a drain, to be undignified," said Patrick McGee, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester.

State Representative Barbara French said she, for one, might choose alkaline hydrolysis.

"I'm getting near that age and thought about cremation, but this is equally as good and less of an environmental problem," the 81-year-old lawmaker said. "It doesn't bother me any more than being burned up. Cremation, you're burned up. I've thought about it, but I'm dead."

In addition to the liquid, the process leaves a dry bone residue similar in appearance and volume to cremated remains. It could be returned to the family in an urn or buried in a cemetery.

The coffee-coloured liquid has the consistency of motor oil and a strong ammonia smell. But proponents say it is sterile and can, in most cases, be safely poured down the drain, provided the operation has the necessary permits.

Alkaline hydrolysis doesn't take up as much space in cemeteries as burial. And the process could ease concerns about crematorium emissions, including carbon dioxide as well as mercury from silver dental fillings.

The University of Florida in Gainesville and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., have used alkaline hydrolysis to dispose of cadavers since the mid-1990s and 2005, respectively.

Brad Crain, president of BioSafe Engineering, the Brownsburg, Ind., company that makes the steel cylinders, estimated 40 to 50 other facilities use them on human medical waste, animal carcasses or both. The users include veterinary schools, universities, pharmaceutical companies and the U.S. government.

Liquid waste from cadavers goes down the drain at both the Mayo Clinic and the University of Florida, as does the liquid residue from human tissue and animal carcasses at alkaline hydrolysis sites elsewhere.

Manchester funeral director Chad Corbin wants to operate a US$300,000 cylinder in New Hampshire. He said that an alkaline hydrolysis operation is more expensive to set up than a crematorium but that he would charge customers about as much as he would for cremation.

George Carlson, an industrial-waste manager for the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, said things the public might find more troubling routinely flow into sewage treatment plants in the U.S. all the time. That includes blood and spillover embalming fluid from funeral homes.

The department issued a permit to Corbin last year, but he let the deal on the property fall through because of delays in getting the other necessary permits. Now he must go through the process all over again, and there is gathering resistance. But he said he is undeterred.

"I don't not know how long it will take," he said recently, "but eventually it will happen."

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AP News Researcher Judith Ausuebel contributed to this report.

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On the Net:

http://www.biosafeengineering.com/tissue/features.html

http://www.resomation.com/index.html

Democracy Movement Removes Ears

Attackers slice ears off 17 people in Senegal

1 hour, 2 minutes ago

DAKAR (Reuters) - Unidentified attackers sliced the left ears off 17 people in Senegal's restive southern province of Casamance, a region long plagued by separatist rebel violence, police in the West African country said on Thursday.

The victims were among a group picking cashew nuts next to the village of Tampe, on the border with Guinea-Bissau, when they were cornered by men armed with knives on Wednesday, paramilitary police spokesman Daouda Diop said.

"All 17 people got their left ears sliced off," Diop told Reuters. "We rushed to the place where it happened but we did not find the attackers," he said.

The attackers' motives were unclear.

Senegal is one of the most stable countries in West Africa but its southern Casamance region -- once a tourist hotspot and the nation's breadbasket -- has been plagued by low-level rebel activity for more than two decades.

The rebel Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance has been fighting since 1982 for greater autonomy for the mainly-Christian region, which they say has been neglected by the Muslim-led government in Dakar.

A number of peace accords have been signed over the years but have failed to bring a definitive end to the revolt in Casamance, which is cut off from the rest of the country by the tiny former British enclave of Gambia.

A public bus ran over a landmine in the region last week, killing one person and wounding 20 others, but in recent years the level of violence has generally subsided.

(For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/ )

(Reporting by Diadie Ba; editing by Nick Tattersall)

Slum Tourism

Firm in trouble for slum tour with a twist

Tue May 6, 12:03 PM

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - A Rio de Janeiro tour company could be in trouble for giving tourists too intimate a view of life in the city's notorious slums, including photo opportunities with drug gang leaders.

The Brazilian city's tourism chief said on Monday that the company, Private Tours, could be stripped of its license after a report in Sunday's Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper that it had set up meetings between traffickers and tourists.

The paper sent a reporter disguised as a foreign tourist on the 4-hour, $55 tour of Rocinha, the city's largest slum, that included visits to the "bocas de fumo" where traffickers sell drugs to Rio residents.

It said the traffickers told the tourists stories about their time in prison, described the life of a Rio drug dealer, and would then pose for pictures with their guns -- as long as their faces were not photographed.

Rio tourism chief Rubem Medina said the firm could lose its license if the story was accurate.

"It's not necessary to do this kind of tour in Rio; there are a lot of wonderful attractions," he told Reuters.

Pedro Novak of the Private Tours firm acknowledged that he ran that kind of tour but that "I'm not the only one."

Several companies have for years offered tours of the city's more than 600 slums, offering tourists a controversial alternative to the city's beaches and an insight into the lives of the more than 1 million people who live there.

The slums, or favelas, are largely controlled by heavily armed drug gangs with names such as "Red Command" and "Friends of Friends" that fight each other for control of the lucrative cocaine market.

(Reporting by Stuart Grudgings; Editing by Todd Benson and Vicki Allen)

Epidemic Panic in China

Boy dies in China as govt tries curb diseases before Olympics

Sat May 3, 3:19 PM

BEIJING (AFP) - The death of a child in south China has raised fears that a virus that has already killed 22 is spreading, as authorities called Saturday for better controls of infectious diseases before the Olympics.

The 18-month-old boy died Friday in Foshan city bordering Hong Kong, from what was probably hand, foot and mouth disease, triggered by the intestinal virus enterovirus 71, or EV71, the health department there said.

"The test results are not out yet, but that's what we suspect," said an official at the department, identifying himself by his surname Yu.

He told AFP another death in the same area in late April was less likely to have been caused by EV71.

Alerted by the new risk, the Ministry of Health on Saturday urged local health bureaus to step up the prevention and control of infectious diseases ahead of the Olympics, the state-controlled Xinhua news agency said.

Epidemics have broken out repeatedly in some regions, especially after unusual weather and population movements, the circular said.

The ministry ordered health officials to keep to watch out for not only on hand, foot and mouth disease, but also cholera, hepatitis A, typhoid fever, diarrhoea, pneumonia, malaria and meningitis.

The earlier 22 deaths among children from EV71 were in Anhui province in eastern China, where another 3,300 have also been infected.

EV71, which can cause hand, foot and mouth disease, is highly contagious and spreads through direct contact with the mucus, saliva or faeces of an infected person. Young children are most susceptible because of lower immune systems.

The disease -- which begins with fever, blisters, mouth ulcers and rashes -- has spread in Anhui since early March, amid accusations by the Chinese media of a government-led cover-up of the epidemic.

Five other cases of EV71 have been confirmed in the city of Hangzhou in eastern Zhejiang province, while 16 children were earlier reported to have fallen ill in Henan province, which borders Anhui.

In central Hubei province, 340 children were confirmed to have hand, foot and mouth disease, and local officials were testing them for EV71, state media said earlier.

Elder Rampage

Driver, 86, crashes through front of Harvey's restaurant

Mon May 5, 8:25 AM

An 86-year-old woman was sent to hospital Saturday night after she lost control of her vehicle and crashed through the front window of a Harvey's fast food outlet in Ottawa's east end.

No one at the Montreal Road restaurant was injured during the incident, which took place around 10 p.m., the Ottawa Paramedic Service reported.

However, the driver was treated for minor injuries and sent to hospital.

The Scatology of Antiquing

Ancient meteorite goes unsold as dung sells

Thu May 1, 10:43 AM

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Some dinosaur dung was snapped up at auction in New York even as a 4.5 billion year old meteorite which was supposed to top the sale went unsold.

The two chunks of 130-million-year-old coprolite, otherwise known as fossilized dinosaur dung, fetched $960 at Bonhams in New York on Wednesday, the auction house said.

The Jurassic-era rocks were sold for more than double their maximum estimate, said spokeswoman Staci Smith.

A 4.5 billion-year-old meteorite, on which a Chinese desert hiker habitually ate lunch before he discovered it was valuable, failed to meet the minimum reserve however.

Bonhams had expected the space rock to sell for $2.25 million to $2.75 million.

Smith said negotiations over the meteorite continued after the auction and that a deal could be struck in days.

The owner of the meteorite, Marvin Kilgore, the curator at the University of Arizona's Southwest Meteorite Center, was mystified by the sale of the fossilized dung which is much more common than rocks that have fallen from space.

"Some people want it on their shelves, I guess," he said.

The dung was bought by a phone bidder which the auction house declined to identify.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner, editing by Sandra Maler)