Pirate war could revive US-China military ties: US admiral

Thu Dec 18, 6:07 PM

WASHINGTON (AFP) - China's plans to join the fight against piracy off the coast of Somalia could lead to a renewal of military exchanges between Beijing and Washington, a top US military official said Thursday.

Admiral Timothy Keating, head of the Pacific Command, held out hopes for a revival in military relations after China said it was preparing to send warships to the Gulf of Aden in response to a pirate attack on a Chinese vessel.

"I hope the Chinese do (send ships to the Gulf of Aden) and we'll work closely with them," Keating told reporters.

"I think this could be a springboard for a resumption of dialogue between PLA forces and US Pacific Command forces," he said.

China suspended military contacts with the United States in October in protest over US arms sales to Taiwan valued at 6.5 billion dollars.

Relations between Taipei and Beijing, which regards Taiwan as a renegade province, nevertheless have warmed since President Ma Ying-jeou assumed office in Taiwan in May.

Keating said his command has been in touch with other agencies and military commands to provide information to the Peoples Liberation Army should it decide to deploy warships in Gulf of Aden.

The United States wants "to make sure they are aware of the lines of communications that are available to them... should they desire to send ships to the area of piracy most prevalent which is of course the Gulf of Aden and off the coast of Somalia."

Since the start of the year, about 100 ships have been attacked by Somali pirates who are holding 240 sailors for ransom.

Man dies after retirement party hijinks

Tue Dec 16, 12:24 PM

TOKYO (Reuters) - A 60-year-old man who was thrown into the air in celebration at his retirement party died after his colleagues failed to catch him and he fell to the floor, a Japanese newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The case came to light after the man's wife filed a police complaint against colleagues who threw the man up into the air, accusing them of gross negligence, the Mainichi paper reported on its website.

The man died in September, 10 months after the party attended by around 40 people at an unnamed transport company at an inn in Ritto, near the ancient capital of Kyoto in central Japan.

The fall damaged his neck and backbone, leaving him paralyzed, and he eventually died of blood poisoning, the paper said.

"He worked until the retirement age. We had been looking forward to going to various places as a couple and were excited that we would be able to spend a relaxing time together," the paper quoted the man's wife as saying.

"No matter what I say he won't come back, but I want to find out why this happened."

(Reporting by Rodney Joyce; Editing by Jerry Norton)

Shoe attack on Bush mars farewell Iraq visit

Sun Dec 14, 5:51 PM

BAGHDAD (AFP) - A journalist hurled two shoes at President George W. Bush on his farewell visit to Iraq on Sunday, highlighting hostility still felt toward the outgoing US leader who acknowledged that the war is still not won.

Muntazer al-Zaidi jumped up as Bush held a press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, shouted "It is the farewell kiss, you dog" and threw his footwear.

The president lowered his head and the first shoe hit the American and Iraqi flags behind the two leaders. The second was off target.

Zaidi, a reporter with the Al-Baghdadia channel which broadcasts from Cairo, was immediately wrestled to the ground by security guards and frogmarched from the room.

Soles of shoes are considered the ultimate insult in Arab culture. After Saddam Hussein's statue was toppled in Baghdad in April 2003, many onlookers beat the statue's face with their soles.

Bush laughed off the incident, saying: "It doesn't bother me. If you want the facts, it was a size 10 shoe that he threw".

He later played down the incident. "I don't know what the guy's cause is... I didn't feel the least bit threatened by it."

Bush, on his fourth and final official trip to Iraq since he ordered the March 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam, admitted: "There is still more work to be done."

As he and Maliki signed a security pact setting out new guidelines for US troops in Iraq, the president said: "The war is not over, but with the conclusion of these agreements... it is decisively on its way to being won."

Earlier, Bush ventured out in a motorcade through Baghdad streets, the first time he has gone somewhere other than a military base or the heavily protected Green Zone.

Pool reports said the unmarked motorcade passed through darkened streets that appeared heavily guarded, before arriving at Maliki's residence.

Bush hands over the delicate task of overseeing the US withdrawal from Iraq in five weeks to Barack Obama, who has pledged to turn the page on the deeply unpopular war.

"I'm so grateful that I've had a chance to come back to Iraq before my presidency ends," he said at a meeting with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.

In the evening, the president flew by helicopter from the Green Zone to Camp Victory near Bahgdad airport, where he greeted hundreds of US troops under a huge US flag and a gigantic crystal chandelier in the Al Faw palace, formerly used by Saddam.

Bush has staunchly defended the invasion that triggered years of deadly insurgency and sectarian violence that has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis and more than 4,200 American troops.

Modest inventor shies from sex, hopes his lady robot will be used for good

Thu Dec 11, 9:17 PM

By Tamsyn Burgmann, The Canadian Press

BRAMPTON, Ont. - To the casual observer, she's the very embodiment of a lady.

Dressed demurely in a blushing pink blouse, hands sheathed in dainty white gloves, Aiko - quite possibly Canada's first android - sits patiently, ready to engage in polite conversation using her 13,000-word vocabulary. She'll recognize your face, shake how-do-you-do, read you a story, add sums and deliver the current weather.

But underneath her wispy auburn hair and peaches and cream complexion is an anatomically correct silicone fembot, easily modified for any number of uses.

Of course peddling her to the sex industry would be lucrative, her creator agrees, but he insists he has far more noble aspirations for Aiko - which means "love child" in Japanese.

"To be honest with you, sex sells," said Trung Le, 33, after cradling the five-foot tall, 27-kilogram life-like doll on his lap for photographs in his parents' Brampton, Ont., home where he lives.

"It sells, but it's not like (she's) one of those $99 (dolls), right? It would be very expensive (to use that way). It would be cheaper just to spend money on my own, real girlfriend."

Le doesn't have a girlfriend right now, though, because he's been much too busy over the past year and a half developing the uber feminine robot. (To those who contend Aiko is his girlfriend, he has these words: "I don't care what they say.")

Costing him $25,000 so far in parts - including a sex doll from Japan for a body, sensors on her head, arms, face and breasts, oodles of bone-structure mechanics, a camera in her neck and computer processors - the project has moved from hobby to full-fledged passion.

His hopes for the humanoid's use are wide, varied and all in the name of helping humanity.

Le sees possible applications within homes for the elderly, inside hospitals or the military, working reception or providing airport security.

He also sees her as a research tool for developing fully-sensing limb replacements for people who've had an amputation.

In fact, she's so sensitive to touch if someone gets a little too rough, she cries out indignantly. If they're really pushing the boundaries, she moves in for a slap.

Le's older brother Quang, 35, doesn't entirely share his brother's modest views. Having been financially supporting his brother since Trung Le left his job about three months ago, he's trying to convince him to think big. And if that means moving towards the erotic, so be it.

"I don't see why not," Quang Le said. "I see a big application for this in any industry, you just have to tailor her to that industry."

With Trung Le's skills, it wouldn't even be that hard to do, the trouble is finding the financial backing.

So far, though, no one has been willing to pony up the estimated $12,000 in parts for his next goal: to give Aiko the ability to walk.

"Most people ... say it's fake," he said, explaining that when people watch his You Tube demonstrations, they think it's CGI or that she's pre-programmed.

Le, a former software engineer, graduated with a chemistry degree from York University. He built his first robot for a school science fair around the age of 8, shortly after his family moved to Canada from Japan, where they were living after leaving his birth country of Vietnam.

Every time he submitted an entry to the fair, however, he was somehow disqualified. So he backed away from his hi-tech dreams. Then more recently, he found the desire to create stirring within him again.

"I just want to see how far I can go, basically," he said. "It's one guy versus the corporation. (It's) like 50 engineers and million-dollar budgets against one guy, from his home, with his credit cards."

Italy to prop up iconic Parmesan industry by buying and giving cheese to the poor

Thu Dec 11, 3:04 PM

By Colleen Barry, The Associated Press

MILAN, Italy - Some might see it as a cheesy way to solve the problem of poverty.

The Italian government says it plans to gave cheese away to the underprivileged as a way to combat poverty while propping up one of the country's iconic industries.

Agriculture Minister Luca Zaia says he is committed to buying 100,000, 30-kilogram wheels each of Parmigiano Reggiano and the very similar Grana Padano cheese to donate to the needy.

Producers have sought government help in the face of prices that have fallen some 25 per cent over the past five years.

The government said it will buy three per cent of the annual production at market prices.

The Parmigiano Reggiano and Grana Padano consortia put the value of the purchase at about US-$66 million.

"It's a help. It doesn't resolve the problem, but it is a help," said Giorgio Apostoli, who represents dairy farmers for the Coldiretti agriculture lobby.

"This is a crisis of pricing, not of consumption," added Apostoli, who notes that while consumption of the more expensive Parmigiano Padano has fallen slightly in the last year, that of Grana Padano has risen slightly.

Apostoli said the measure doubles the usual government acquisition of Parmigiano and Gran Padano under an EU program to provide food for the poor.

The government also plans to convene a round table with distributors to negotiate sales promotions that will be fairer to producers, as well as launch campaigns to promote Italian Parmesan abroad, where it can command higher prices.

An overwhelming 85 per cent of the Parmigiano Reggiano and Grana Padano produced is consumed in Italy; Coldiretti estimates that some 60 per cent of that is sold at discounted prices.

Parmigiano Reggiano and Grana Padano cheeses are produced according to very strict traditions tied to their geographic origins - primarily the Po River Valley of northern Italy - specifying everything from the aging process to the origin of the milk used.

Italy is jealous even of the name Parmesan, having gone to the EU seeking to ban its use by copycats cashing in on the culinary tradition.

RNPS IMAGES OF THE YEAR 2008 Shreeya Bajracharya adjusts her 'third eye' while posing for the photographer as the newly appointed Goddess Kumari at Bhaktapur in Kathmandu September 29, 2008. Nepal's new Maoist-led government has appointed the 6-year-old girl as a 'living goddess' in a town near Kathmandu, for the first time snapping the link between the ancient ritual and the ousted monarchy.

REUTERS/Gopal Chitrakar (NEPAL)