France offers free newspapers for youth

France is to spend millions of euros to provide free newspapers for young people, officials said Wednesday, in a bid to boost readership and shore up the struggling print news sector.

Those aged 18 to 24 will get a free daily paper of their choice once a week for a year and a discount subscription later, to "encourage the renewal of readership of the daily press," according to a government statement.

Newspapers worldwide are struggling with plunging revenues as readers migrate to the Internet and mobile telephones to access news. Traditional media groups are fighting to find ways of making online content profitable.

The French plan, presented to the government by Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand, would see the state pay five million euros (7.4 million dollars) over three years to help revive readership of regular print titles.

Newspaper editors involved in the initiative will produce "content adapted to the demands of young readers," the government said.

It added that the idea also aimed to grant young people "access to culture" in the same way as free entry to museums. (AFP)

First woman voted head of German Protestant church

A divorced woman once described as "a cross between Mother Teresa and Demi Moore" was Wednesday elected head of Germany's Protestant church, the first woman to hold the post.

Margot Kaessmann, 51, received 132 of the 142 votes cast at the church's general assembly in Ulm, southern Germany. She now leads 25 million faithful across the country.

"Trusting in God's help, I accept the vote," she said.

Kaessmann, who was elected for a six-year term, was the only candidate for the post.

The charismatic Kaessmann hit the headlines around the world in 2007 when she became the first bishop in Germany to file for divorce from her husband, also a leading member of the Lutheran church.

She was Germany's youngest bishop when she was consecrated in 1999 and has since survived an operation to remove breast cancer.

In 2003, the Frankfurter Allgemeine daily reported that she was known within the organisation as a "mixture of Mother Teresa and Demi Moore." (AFP)

Fewer holiday gifts but more cheer in US, poll

More than half of Americans in a survey out Wednesday say they plan to spend more during the end-of-year holidays this year compared to 2008 as concerns about the economy subside.

The projected spending boost at Christmas, Hannukah and Kwanza won't come from more or more expensive gifts, but rather from spending on items like entertainment and home decoration, which traditionally account for a smaller portion of the holiday budget, said the annual Deloitte holiday survey of retail spending and trends.

More than half -- 54 percent -- of the 10,878 consumers surveyed for Deloitte's poll said they expect the economy will improve in 2010, and nearly a quarter thought the United States was already in the early stages of recovery from the downturn.

Last year, only 28 percent of Americans were optimistic that the economy would pick up, and 41 percent said they would either maintain or increase holiday spending. This year, more than half -- 51 percent -- said their holiday outlay would rise or hold at the same level.

"We have had stabilization in the housing market; the tax burden on the consumer is less; real wages are higher. The combination of all that is what's leading to consumers' intent to spend a little more on the holidays than they did last year," Stacy Janiak, head of Deloitte's retail group, which conducted the survey, told AFP.

"But they indicated that both the number and dollar amount of gifts are declining," Janiak said.

The average number of gifts Americans plan to purchase declined to 18 from 21.5 last year, while the amount consumers plan to spend on gifts was down to 452 dollars this year compared with 532 dollars in 2008, the survey, which Deloitte has compiled since 1985, showed.

Meanwhile, expenditures on socializing, entertaining, non-gift clothing and home or holiday furnishings are expected to go up, the survey said.

"People had to pull back on gifts last year, given the economic uncertainty, and they realized what's more important: the gift or bringing people together?" said Janiak, explaining why people were expecting to spend more on socializing and entertaining.

The "replenishment" factor would see non-gift clothing and home and holiday furnishing sales rising, said Janiak.

"Those items aren't made to last forever and if those purchases weren't made last year at this time, it's another reason that consumers are tending to enter that space again," she said.

The survey also looked at what was likely to be the most popular gift this year.

For the sixth year running, the gift card came out on top.

Nearly two-thirds of consumers plan to buy gift cards as presents, laying out 35 dollars per card, or seven dollars more than the 28 dollars they spent last year.

Americans have also retained the lessons of frugality they learned from the recession.

Two-thirds of those polled said they plan to "shop differently due to concerns about the economy," and of those large majorities said they would look for sales or use money-off vouchers.

Many consumers planning to buy electronics, toys, clothing or jewelry expect to get steep discounts similar to those seen in US shops last year.

But Janiak warned they might be out of luck, because while the US consumer has retained the virtues of thrift from the recession, retailers have learned their own lesson about over-stocking.

"This year, the retailers have been managing their business based on lower consumption levels, and their expectation is that those lower consumption levels will hold through the holidays," said Janiak.

"But if consumers step up their spending, there's going to be a disconnect. And if you're holding out for the 50-percent-plus discount on a wide variety of merchandise, you will be disappointed," she predicted. (AFP)

Macedonia seeks to stop archaelogical smugglers

Macedonia has vowed to put a halt to illegal excavations at the country's wealth of archaeological sites, many of which have already been ransacked by savvy smugglers digging up the rich treasures.

"The criminals are always a step ahead, they follow our activities and know exactly when to move away," an official from the special department in charge of archaeological crime who requested anonymity told AFP.

When archaeologists arrived at Isar Marvinci in southern Macedonia, the seat of power in ancient times, they had hoped to begin excavations but instead faced an unpleasant surprise.

"They found more than 1,000 open pits, but all the findings were gone, mostly sold to our southern neighbour" Greece, said Pasko Kuzman, head of the state institute for the protection of cultural heritage.

Ancient graves were believed to be full of "golden jewelry, silver, bronze and amber pieces, all very light and easy to transport," Kuzman said.

Isar, which dates back to the Iron Age, flourished under the ancient Greeks, but the Romans levelled the metropolis to the ground.

Kuzman noted a case when 230 archaelogical findings -- hidden in bags full of beans -- were discovered by customs officials at the Croatian-Slovenian border in 2006.

"Slovenian officials established that the findings were from the territory of Macedonia and returned them to us," he said.

In the past two years, police have reported 21 cases of cultural heritage theft, with 16 of them solved, interior ministry spokesman Ivo Kotevski said.

Thieves are mostly interested in smaller pieces like money, silver, copper or ceramic pots, and stone figures, he said.

According to various estimations, most of Macedonia's territory hides archaeological treasures due to the Balkan state's central position in ancient times.

So far, 10,000 different sites have been registered, but at least several more thousand still need to be examined.

The ancient Roman settlement of Stobi, famous for its mosaics, has for years attracted visitors, scientists and tourists, but also thieves.

A large part of the area has yet to be excavated, so officials have introduced 24-hour security at the site.

"Stobi has been protected around the clock as our presence is the best guarantee that there will be no illegal diggers," Silvana Blazevska, the manager of the site, told AFP.

It is quite common in Marvince, in southern Macedonia close to the border with Greece, for a builder to find an ancient plate while putting in foundations for a new home, or for a farmer to dig out a piece of an ancient vase in hisfield.

"Usually farmers immediatelly call us to tell us of the findings," said Blazevska.

Police officials are reluctant to estimate whether the amount of archaeological thefts has risen in the past years, but say that such "illegal business can bring several million dollars annually."

A wide-range network is believed to be organised through regional crime gangs, while buyers are easily found in Greece, Austria and Germany, they say.

Some of the findings could be sold for up to 20,000 euros, while less valuable pieces -- like an ancient Roman spear top -- could be had for only 100 euros.

"One golden coin by itself has no high value, but if it is found together with other objects from a dated time-period, its value increases in relation to scientific, cultural and heritage significance," Kuzman said.

Zlatko Videski from the Museum of Macedonia heads the excavations at Isar, spread across about 80 hectares (xx acres ????) of land. He said the economic crisis has trimmed government funding of the site -- "neglected for so many years" -- so his team will be able to cover only about 20 acres HECTARES??? this year.

"But the site has been damaged a lot and only when we examine material collected so far will we be able to estimate its real value," Videski told AFP.

In only seven months of excavations at the site, archaeologists have found around 2,500 graves from different time periods, he added.

"There are graves from prehistoric times, Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages, but for smugglers, the most interesting are those from ancient and Byzantine times," Kuzman said. (AFP)

Macedonia seeks to stop archaeological smugglers

Macedonia has vowed to put a halt to illegal excavations at the country's wealth of archaeological sites, many of which have already been ransacked by savvy smugglers digging up the rich treasures.

"The criminals are always a step ahead, they follow our activities and know exactly when to move away," an official from the special department in charge of archaeological crime who requested anonymity told AFP.

When archaeologists arrived at Isar Marvinci in southern Macedonia, the seat of power in ancient times, they had hoped to begin excavations but instead faced an unpleasant surprise.

"They found more than 1,000 open pits, but all the findings were gone, mostly sold to our southern neighbour" Greece, said Pasko Kuzman, head of the state institute for the protection of cultural heritage.

Ancient graves were believed to be full of "golden jewelry, silver, bronze and amber pieces, all very light and easy to transport," Kuzman said.

Isar, which dates back to the Iron Age, flourished under the ancient Greeks, but the Romans levelled the metropolis to the ground.

Kuzman noted a case when 230 archaelogical findings -- hidden in bags full of beans -- were discovered by customs officials at the Croatian-Slovenian border in 2006.

"Slovenian officials established that the findings were from the territory of Macedonia and returned them to us," he said.

In the past two years, police have reported 21 cases of cultural heritage theft, with 16 of them solved, interior ministry spokesman Ivo Kotevski said.

Thieves are mostly interested in smaller pieces like money, silver, copper or ceramic pots, and stone figures, he said.

According to various estimations, most of Macedonia's territory hides archaeological treasures due to the Balkan state's central position in ancient times.

So far, 10,000 different sites have been registered, but at least several more thousand still need to be examined.

The ancient Roman settlement of Stobi, famous for its mosaics, has for years attracted visitors, scientists and tourists, but also thieves.

A large part of the area has yet to be excavated, so officials have introduced 24-hour security at the site.

"Stobi has been protected around the clock as our presence is the best guarantee that there will be no illegal diggers," Silvana Blazevska, the manager of the site, told AFP.

It is quite common in Marvince, in southern Macedonia close to the border with Greece, for a builder to find an ancient plate while putting in foundations for a new home, or for a farmer to dig out a piece of an ancient vase in hisfield.

"Usually farmers immediatelly call us to tell us of the findings," said Blazevska.

Police officials are reluctant to estimate whether the amount of archaeological thefts has risen in the past years, but say that such "illegal business can bring several million dollars annually."

A wide-range network is believed to be organised through regional crime gangs, while buyers are easily found in Greece, Austria and Germany, they say.

Some of the findings could be sold for up to 20,000 euros, while less valuable pieces -- like an ancient Roman spear top -- could be had for only 100 euros.

"One golden coin by itself has no high value, but if it is found together with other objects from a dated time-period, its value increases in relation to scientific, cultural and heritage significance," Kuzman said.

Zlatko Videski from the Museum of Macedonia heads the excavations at Isar, spread across about 80 hectares (xx acres ????) of land. He said the economic crisis has trimmed government funding of the site -- "neglected for so many years" -- so his team will be able to cover only about 20 acres HECTARES??? this year.

"But the site has been damaged a lot and only when we examine material collected so far will we be able to estimate its real value," Videski told AFP.

In only seven months of excavations at the site, archaeologists have found around 2,500 graves from different time periods, he added.

"There are graves from prehistoric times, Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages, but for smugglers, the most interesting are those from ancient and Byzantine times," Kuzman said. (AFP)

Lack of health care led to 17,000 US child deaths

Lack of adequate health care may have contributed to the deaths of some 17,000 US children over the past two decades, according to a study released by the Johns Hopkins Children's Center.

The research, to be published Friday in the Journal of Public Health, was compiled from more than 23 million hospital records from 37 states between 1988 and 2005.

The study concluded that children without health insurance are far more likely to succumb to their illnesses than those with medical coverage.

"If you are a child without insurance, if you're seriously ill and end up in the hospital, you are 60 percent more likely to die than the sick child in the next town who has insurance," said Fizan Abdullah, lead writer of the study and a pediatric surgeon at Hopkins.

With some seven million children in the United States currently uninsured, the problem needed addressing immediately, the report said.

"In a country as wealthy as ours, the need to provide health care to the millions of children who lack it is a moral, not an economic imperative," said Peter Pronovost, director of critical care medicine at Johns Hopkins.

The study was published as the United States finds itself embroiled in a fierce debate on increasing health care access for uninsured Americans.

US President Barack Obama wants Congress to approve reforms by the end of the year in order to fulfil a key campaign pledge to provide health care to some 47 million Americans, 15 percent of the population, who currently do not have any medical coverage.

Obama says his plans will cut in half runaway healthcare expenditures which, if unchecked, are forecast to gobble up one-fifth of US gross domestic product by 2013.

He has been advocating a government insurance option as a key element of his plans, which have been fiercely criticized by Republicans who charge that they amount to an exorbitantly expensive government takeover of health care. (AFP)

S.Africa's Zuma vows to step up fight against AIDS

South African President Jacob Zuma vowed on Thursday to strengthen the fight against AIDS in the world's worst affected country, in a "renewed onslaught" against the epidemic.

"We are not yet winning this battle," Zuma said in his annual address to the second house of parliament.

"We need to do more, and we need to do better, together. We need to move with urgency and purpose to confront this enormous challenge," he said.

"If we are to stop the progress of this disease through our society, we will need to pursue extraordinary measures."

He said an announcement would be made on December 1, World Aids Day, on additional measures to counteract the "chilling statistics" of deaths of young people.

Zuma cited statistics showing that six out 10 deaths in 2006 were among people younger than 50 years, while the overall number of deaths in 2008 jumped to 756,000, up from 32 percent from the year before.

"Let us resolve now that this should be the day on which we start to turn the tide in the battle against AIDS."

"If we do not respond with urgency and resolve, we may well find our vision of a thriving nation slipping from our grasp."

After becoming an international pariah for its policies of denial under former president Thabo Mbeki and his health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, South Africa made a dramatic turn around, pledging to cut new infections in half by 2011.

In 2006 Tshabalala-Msimang was lambasted at an international AIDS conference in Toronto for promoting the use of vegetables above anti-retrovirals which she said were toxic -- while hundreds of thousands died without access to treatment.

While South Africa now has the world's largest anti-retroviral programme, nearly one million people are still believed to need treatment. (AFP)

China warns of 'grim' swine flu battle, 4th death reported

China has warned the country's battle against swine flu is "extremely grim" after infection levels spiked in some areas and a Beijing university student became the fourth person here to die of the virus.

"There is a surge in patients in many parts of China, some schools have experienced clusters of cases, and some areas have entered the flu season," China's State Council, or cabinet, said in a statement issued late Wednesday.

"In the coming period, the epidemic will continue to develop, and the prevention and control situation is extremely grim," the State Council, headed by Premier Wen Jiabao, said in the statement posted on a government website.

The warning came after a student at Beijing's Beihang University, the nation's top aeronautics and astronautics institution, died on Tuesday of the A(H1N1) virus, state media said, citing health authorities.

The unnamed student was one of more than 3,000 new university recruits participating in compulsory military drills, the official China Daily newspaper reported.

Some of these students last week started showing symptoms of flu, such as fever, and one of them was rushed to hospital on Monday and died the next day, according to a statement posted on the Beijing health bureau's website.

A total of 28 other students have tested positive for A(H1N1) flu, but all were in a stable condition late Wednesday.

"There is a long battle ahead as the city counters this year's flu infection," Fang Laiying, head of the Beijing health bureau, was quoted as saying by the China Daily.

"Near the New Year, the number of people who catch the flu... could reach 12,000 people per day. More than half of them could be infected with H1N1 influenza, and we have not reached peak time yet."

More than 6,000 residents in Beijing are contracting flu every day, the report said, citing hospital records.

"This is five times more than the same period last year, and half of these people are infected with H1N1 influenza," the report said.

More than 42,000 cases of swine flu had been reported in China as of Wednesday, according to health ministry figures. (AFP)

Kenya to conduct AIDS control study among gays

Kenya will conduct a study among homosexuals and use the findings to help control the spread of HIV/AIDS in the east African country, where homosexuality is illegal.

The research by the National AIDS/STD Control Programme (NASCOP) is to begin in December or next January, the group's director Nicholas Muraguri told AFP.

"From the studies it appears that 15 percent of the new HIV infections are attributed to gays. We can make much noise about them but we cannot ignore them," he said.

The study will seek to determine the latest population of gays -- currently estimated to be around 10,000 in the capital Nairobi and the coastal city of Mombasa -- along with the rate of HIV infection among them and statistics on their use of condoms.

Through anonymous questionnaires to be distributed in selected places or by a peer network, respondents will also be asked how many partners they have and offered voluntary AIDS testing.

"It is the first time in Africa that a government is taking a leadership to deal with population at risk," Muraguri said.

NASCOP stressed that the identity of people who become involved in the programme will remain confidential.

In Kenya, as in much of Africa, homosexual acts are criminal. (AFP)

In macabre Rome, it's Halloween all year round

Romans don't have to wait for Halloween to enjoy the macabre. The spirit of Halloween stalks the city's myriad churches, from skeletons galore to mummified monks, embalmed papal hearts to a purported piece of John the Baptist's head.

A good place to start is the Church of Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Via Veneto.

The ghosts of La Dolce Vita are quickly forgotten when the visitor enters the church's crypt, elaborately adorned by the earthly remains of hundreds of Capuchin monks.

Vertebrae create a floral effect, while shoulder blades suggest the wings on the hourglasses symbolising the inexorable flight of time for us mortals.

Clavicles also make up the Grim Reaper's scythe held by a skeleton attached to the ceiling.

Decorated by the monks themselves using the bones of their departed brothers, the sanctuary is a series of alcoves dubbed the Crypt of the Skulls, the Crypt of the Pelvises, the Crypt of the Leg Bones and Thigh Bones, and so on.

Mummified monks in their brown robes lie in niches or stand, heads bowed in prayer, against the wall.

Here the Capuchins would come to pray before retiring for the night, contemplating the message that "Death closes the gates of time, and opens those of eternity," the church says on its website.

Most chilling are three skeletons, displayed in the final alcove, of small children, said to have been members of the noble Barberini family that produced Pope Urban VIII and built the friary.

Those who may be more shaken than stirred by the omnipresent reminders of death need to put things into perspective.

Centuries ago, the Grim Reaper stalked the Eternal City in the form of famine, violence and diseases, notably malaria and tuberculosis.

Whether their souls were headed for heaven or hell, Rome's legions of unidentified dead had a home at Santa Maria dell'Orazione e delle Morte, built by a charity, the Company of Good Death, that buried abandoned corpses or those of the poor.

The 16th-century church near the banks of the Tiber -- convenient for fishing out corpses -- has a forbidding facade decorated with laurel-wreathed skulls and a winged skeleton.

The effect is enhanced by moonlight -- as it happens, Halloween falls two days before the full moon this year.

On a plaque near the entrance, a skeleton holds a banner reading "Hodie mihi cras tibi," the Latin for "My lot today, yours tomorrow."

In the crypt, the upper part of a skeleton with one arm raised as if to say "hello" is set in the wall above a holy water basin.

Only one burial chamber remains from a set that contained some 8,000 bodies until the late 19th century, when the graves were destroyed during the building of an embankment.

Here the decor includes a candelabra made from vertebrae.

For those on the threshold of eternity, there is the tiny but spooky Museum of the Souls of Purgatory, with purported messages from beyond the grave begging for help to get in.

The tortured souls seeking prayers to speed the process left imprints of burning hands or fingers on items such as prayer books and garments, collected by Father Victor Jouet in the late 19th century from around Europe.

Those with a taste for the grotesque on top of the morbid may be interested to know that a certain baroque church facing the Trevi Fountain is the custodian of the hearts and intestines of three centuries of popes, ending with those of Leone XIII, who died in 1903.

The gruesome tradition begun by Pope Sixtus V raised the theological conundrum of how the popes' bodies would be recombined at the time of the General Resurrection, when people are to rise from the dead to face the Last Judgement.

Presumably, the popes' organs will find their way across the Tiber to St Peter's Basilica where the rest of their bodies lie buried.

Rome is well known for its catacombs, spooky underground cemeteries with thousands upon thousands of burial niches lining dark and narrow passageways, with the occasional sculpted mausoleum or stunning fresco -- but no skeletons, at least not in those that are open to the public.

No matter, for skeletons, bodies and body parts abound elsewhere in Rome.

One of the first sights awaiting the visitor to St Peter's is the embalmed body of Pope John XXIII (1881-1963), lying in an ornate glass case in the right aisle.

At Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, another glass case contains the body of Santa Wittoria, lying on her side, propped up on an elbow looking out.

There's also the Blessed Annamaria Taigi in Trastevere's San Crisogno; Saint Francesca Romana at Santa Maria Nuova in the Forum, and Saint Philip Neri -- his decomposed face covered with a silver mask of his likeness -- in the Chiesa Nuova, among others.

Body parts are also commonplace.

Saint Ignatius has a silver reliquary containing the arm of Saint Francis Xavier; San Silvestro in Capite claims to harbour a fragment of Saint John the Baptist's decapitated head; Santa Croce in Gerusalemme boasts the finger of Saint "Doubting" Thomas. (AFP)

French luxury preens on website in China

France's creme de la creme luxury firms, hit by a drop in sales on traditional markets, on Thursday launched a China charm offensive, with a 3D website that gives a peek at the best France has to offer.

Launched in Paris and Beijing by the Comite Colbert group of 70 luxury firms, the 250,000-euro website developed over two years (www.cColbert.fr) shows off top-end products as well as the best of the French lifestyle.

The launch came as consultants Bain et Company said luxury goods are expected to slump 16 percent this year on the US market, 10 percent in Japan and eight percent in Europe -- but see a 12 percent hike in China.

"This is the first such internet site," said the Comite Colbert's Elisabeth Ponsolle des Portes. "3D previously was used for video and film but not on a website."

Users can watch a ballet performance, drool over patisseries, check out Paris hot spots and see the latest watches, perfumes and scarves.

"Luxury is not just about money but about culture and education," said the president of the Comite Colbert, Francoise Montenay.

"Products can be more or less expensive and you have to learn to distinguish between a very good product and a less good one."

Underlining the importance of the stakes, a number of leading luxury goods makers attended the launch of the site in Beijing, including Cartier, Hermes, Lanvin, Yves Delorme and Gien.

The website is hosted by China's biggest portal sina.com and will be available for six months.

In 2005, Comite Colbert companies registered 4.5 percent of their turnover in China, Hong Kong and Macau. That figure has gone up to eight percent on average, for some, up to 25 percent.

Over the last four years French luxury outlets in China have tripled to around 1,600, with 45 new boutiques due to be opened in 2009-2010, including 38 in mainland China. (AFP)

Tests on treasured maize ignite fears in Mexico

As scientists race the clock to increase food production worldwide, new trials to plant genetically-modified maize have stoked anger in Mexico, the cradle of corn.

Many here are sensitive about meddling with maize, which dates back to pre-Hispanic times, when mythologies held that people were created from corn.

Some fear Mexico could one day lose the wealth of native varieties it still produces, including red and blue, to a few, tough breeds of GM maize, as well the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of subsistence farmers.

The government this month granted its first 22 permits to agribusinesses Monsanto, Dow AgroSciences and Pioneer to carry out tests on GM maize on farms in north and west Mexico.

Mexico is the number one producer of white maize, which is used to make its famous flat tortillas, but it imports increasing amounts of yellow maize from the United States, mainly for cattle feed.

The tests are part of efforts to help the country return to maize self-sufficiency and keep food prices down.

The price of maize has more than doubled since 2007, which prompted tens of thousands to protest the price of tortillas in Mexico last year.

"No country should be dependent for its food from other countries," Ariel Alvarez Morales, head of the Bi-Secretarial Commission on Biosecurity of Genetically-Modified Organisms, told AFP.

"We can take advantage of this biodiversity we have in maize, and part of that can also be through this (GM) technology," Morales said.

The United States, China and India are among countries that already grow GM crops, while six European countries have banned them.

GM crops, also including soya and cotton, are highly controversial, with critics underlining potential risks to health and the environment.

Greenpeace has led efforts to protect Mexico's maize after GM traces have turned up in samples of native varieties in the past decade, despite a moratorium on planting GM maize.

The new test permits cover more than 10 hectares (25 acres) in northern border states and the western top corn-producer of Sinaloa, and the government has pledged to prevent them from contaminating native varieties.

But Greenpeace claims they risk polluting 31 of more than 50 native seeds and is filing court motions to withdraw the permits.

"The final goal is not to experiment. It's to open the door for these kind of crops which only benefit the companies, not the producers nor Mexican consumers," Greenpeace campaigner Aleira Lara told AFP.

The government should spend more money helping small farmers and protecting native corn, Lara said.

Of the country's 1.9 million corn farmers, some 85 percent have less than five hectares (12.5 acres) of land, according to government figures.

As the GM debate rages on, much of Mexico's treasured maize diversity is for now protected in a giant seed bank in central Mexico, which keeps tiny grains of different colors and sizes at freezing temperatures, holding 27,000 maize samples from across the Americas.

"It's a repository of potentially useful genes for future breeding and response to problems ... for example in response to climate change," said maize expert Kevin Pixley, at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Texcoco, where the bank lies among fields of maize.

Scientists also cross-breed grains and advise on more efficient farming techniques to help them survive challenges, such as this summer's severe drought.

They say that, in the current climate, Mexican farmers need all the help they can get.

"If conserving diversity in the field actually conserves poverty of the farmers by having them grow varieties that are far inferior to those that are available, then I think it's a debatable issue," Pixley said. (AFP)

Malaysia seizes 15,000 copies of the bible: church leader

Malaysian authorities have seized some 15,000 bibles imported from Indonesia because they use the word "Allah" as a translation for God which is banned here, a church leader said Thursday.

"The church uses the bible and it is part of the worshipper's life. There is no reason why it should be confiscated," said Reverend Hermen Shastri, general secretary of the Council of Churches of Malaysia.

"The bibles are used in the church," he said, dismissing suggestions by Islamic officials that they could be used to help convert Muslims who make up some 60 percent of the 27 million population.

Shastri said the latest confiscation happened in September when airport authorities in Sarawak state on Borneo island seized 10,000 copies of the Indonesian-language bibles which feature the disputed word "Allah".

Another 5,000 copies were confiscated in March, he said.

"The reason given for the detention of the Scriptures was because they contain banned words," he said.

The Catholic Church has waged a two-year legal battle with Malaysian authorities over the use of the word "Allah" as a translation for "God" in its newspaper published here.

The Herald newspaper, circulated among the country's 850,000 Catholics, nearly lost its publishing licence last year for using the disputed word in its Malay-language edition.

The government has argued that the word "Allah" should be used only by Muslims, who dominate the population of multicultural Malaysia.

The row is one of a string of religious disputes that have erupted in recent years, straining relations between Muslim Malays and minority ethnic Chinese and Indians who fear the country is being "Islamised".

Shastri said there was no reason to seize the bibles because the use of the word "Allah" pre-dates Islam.

"The word is not sensitive in Indonesia and the Christians use it in the Middle East. It is mainly driven by other motives ... (to project) the dominance of Islam in Malaysia," he said.

Officials at the home ministry, which Shastri said was involved in the seizure, were not immediately available for comment. (AFP)

Sleep deprivation a major US health problem: study

Americans suffer from a chronic lack of sleep, according to a study released Thursday, which says the problem is a bigger public health problem than is generally recognized.

The report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) analyzed American sleep patterns, which was gathered by state health departments in phone interviews with more than 400,000 adults around the United States last year.

The study, published in the most recent issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a health journal, found that almost one-third of Americans get less than seven hours of sleep per night, which is generally considered the minimum for an average adult to feel rested.

As many as 70 million can be classified as having chronic sleep and wakefulness disorders, the CDC study found.

The survey, conducted in 2008, asked the question: "During the past 30 days, for how many days have you felt you did you not get enough rest or sleep?"

Just three Americans in 10, the CDC said, reported no days of insufficient sleep, while one American in 10 reported not having had a restful night's sleep in 30 days or longer, the study found.

Meanwhile, the researched detected notable demographic variations in the amount of shut-eye Americans get, broken down by geographic location, age, race, gender, class and education.

The greatest rates of sleeplessness were found in the southeastern United States and among racial and ethnic minorities, the study found.

People who don't have a high school diploma tend to sleep better than university graduates, for example.

Thirty-eight percent of people with little schooling -- less than a high school diploma or equivalency test -- said they got enough sleep every night during the previous month, while only 28 percent of college graduates said the same.

Women slept worse than men, younger people worse than the elderly, whites slept better than Latinos and blacks, the study showed.

The CDC warned that chronic lack of sleep could have serious health consequences, including depression, obesity and high cholesterol, and is associated with risk behaviors including cigarette smoking and heavy drinking. (AFP)

Up to 5.7 mln US swine flu cases in four months: study

Up to 5.7 million people in the United States may have been infected with swine flu in the first four months of the outbreak, or more than 100 times the number of laboratory-confirmed cases that were reported, a study said Thursday.

Using a multiplier model, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention demonstrated that "the reported cases of laboratory confirmed pandemic (H1N1) 2009 are likely a substantial underestimation of the total number of actual illnesses that occurred in the community during the spring of 2009," lead author Carrie Reed wrote in the study.

The researchers estimated that between 1.8 million to 5.7 million cases of H1N1 flu occurred in the United States in the four months from April, when the virus was first reported.

Of those cases, between 9,000 and 21,000 were hospitalized, the report estimated.

Although the report did not estimate the number of deaths from swine flu, Read pointed out that the ratio of deaths to hospitalizations in the four months to July 23 was six percent.

That would mean that around 1,200 people died of H1N1 flu in the United States in the first months of the outbreak.

The official US death rate from swine flu at the end of July was less than 300.

"We have been saying that we were just finding the tip of the iceberg with our laboratory confirmed reporting," Anne Schuchat, the director of the national center for immunization and respiratory diseases, told reporters on Thursday as she commented on the report.

The danger from the hugely underestimated impact of swine flu is that health authorities and infrastructures might be "unprepared in the short-term" to tackle the H1N1 outbreak.

US health officials have said vaccine supply would fall about 10 million doses short of the 40 million doses they had expected to have by the end of October, and long lines have formed outside vaccination clinics around the United States, with many people turned away as supplies of vaccine ran dry. (AFP)

Internet turns 40 with birthday bash

Technology and media stars, pundits and entrepreneurs joined the Internet's father to celebrate the 40th anniversary of his culture-changing child.

"It's the 40th year since the infant Internet first spoke," said University of California, Los Angeles, professor Leonard Kleinrock, who headed the team that first linked computers online in 1969.

Kleinrock led an anniversary event at the UCLA campus that blended reminiscence of the Internet's past with debate about its future.

"There is going to be an ongoing controversy about where we have been and where we are going," said Arianna Huffington, co-founder of the popular news and blog website that bears her name.

"It is not just about the Internet; it is about our times. We are going to need desperately to tap into the better angels of our nature and make our lives not just about ourselves but about our communities and our world."

Huffington was on hand to discuss the power the Internet gives to grass roots organizers on a panel with Kleinrock and Social Brain Foundation director Isaac Mao.

"The Internet is a democratizing element; everyone has an equivalent voice," Kleinrock said. "There is no way back at this point. We can't turn it off. The Internet Age is here."

Kleinrock never imagined Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube that day four decades ago when his team gave birth to what is now taken for granted as the Internet.

"The net is penetrating every aspect of our lives," Kleinrock said to a room of about 200 people and an equal number watching online.

On October 29, 1969, Kleinrock led a team that got a computer at UCLA to "talk" to one at a research institute.

Kleinrock was driven by a certainty that computers were destined to speak to each other and that the resulting network should be as simple to use as telephones.

US telecom colossus AT (and) T ran lines connecting the computers for ARPANET, a project backed with money from a research arm of the US military's Advanced Research Projects Agency.

ARPANET grew into what is known today as the Internet.

"It feels to me like the alumni meeting of the framers of the US Constitution," Electronic Frontier Foundation co-founder John Perry Barlow said as he addressed the gathering.

"There are a lot of people in this room who are honest to god uncles and aunts of the Internet. What you did is conceivably the most important technological event since the capture of fire."

Barlow, whose nonprofit legal organization fights for online freedom, maintained that Internet access is on the verge of becoming an inalienable human right.

"The reality today is that the Internet is like a new life; it is organic," said Regina Dugan, director of what became DARPA when "Defense" was added to the agency's name.

"It is inherently beautiful. It challenges us all to think about ourselves, about others, about ethics, and about the future."

To test the power of the Internet, DARPA will release 10 "very large balloons" in the continental US and then pay 40,000 dollars to the first person or team to pinpoint their locations using online tools or networking.

The balloons will be afloat for two days and visible only during daylight hours.

"Individuals can make information go viral," Dugan said. "Then it was an Internet challenge, today it is a network challenge."

The competition will be tracked on wildly popular microblogging service Twitter, according to DARPA.

Kleinrock, who is now 75, sees the Internet spreading into everything.

"The next step is to move it into the real world," Kleinrock said. "The Internet will be present everywhere. I will walk into a room and it will know I am there. It will talk back to me." (AFP)

Born in Israel but unwanted by the Jewish state

Eight-year-old Stephanie is not afraid of deportation. Her teacher told her not to be. But like hundreds of Israeli-born children of illegal foreign workers, she faces the prospect of being expelled from the only home she's ever known.

Some 1,200 Asian and African children born in Israel and their parents currently face deportation following a crackdown on foreign workers who have overstayed their visas and continue working in the Jewish state.

The fate of the children has struck a deep chord in Israel, which has absorbed millions of Jewish immigrants since its founding in 1948.

The children are, for all intents and purposes, Israeli -- they speak fluent Hebrew, know all the Jewish holidays by heart and celebrate them at school and consider Israel their home.

But while many Israelis support granting the children and their parents residency, others insist that absorbing them would create a dangerous precedent that would undermine the state's Jewish character.

For Stephanie the prospect of being kicked out of the only country she has lived in is unthinkable. But both her parents work illegally in Tel Aviv, 10 years after arriving from the Philippines with work visas.

"I don't want to leave this country, this is my country and I love it," she said in fluent Hebrew outside the Hayarden elementary school in southern Tel Aviv, where nearly half of the students are children of foreign workers.

Although illegal aliens do not benefit from any social rights, Israel grants their children free schooling and healthcare. Their parents nevertheless do not want to give their full names, fearing the authorities.

According to official figures, some 222,000 foreign workers live in Israel, including 107,000 who have exceeded their work permits.

The arrival of hundreds of thousands of foreign workers over the past two decades has left its mark on the character and demographic landscape of Tel Aviv, transforming the once predominantly Jewish city into a multi-cultural hub.

Entire streets in southern Tel Aviv, home to the majority of Israel's foreign workers, are lined with colourful Asian and African food stores, restaurants, Internet cafes and karaoke bars.

But rough living conditions, poverty and their legal limbo make life arduous for many of the illegal aliens.

Israel started welcoming non-Jewish immigrants mainly from Asia in the mid-1990s to fill up a gaping need for cheap labour in construction, agriculture and caregiving.

It issues work visas for nearly 30,000 foreign workers every year and many stay in the country once the visas expire.

Those who remain live in constant fear of arrest and almost automatic deportation.

Several years ago Israel decided to crack down on illegal workers and several months ago, the interior ministry created a new unit to deal with the the issue.

As a result of the enforcement, some 1,200 children and their parents were due to be deported by November 1, but following public pressure the interior ministry agreed to postpone this to the end of the school year.

But while the parents risk going to a place where economic opportunities are few, their children face the prospect of having to leave the place they call home.

The parents of eight-year-old Benita have told her a lot about their native country of Ghana, but she does not want to go there.

"I want to grow up here, and I want to be a soldier," she said with a broad smile across face. Military service is compulsory in Israel.

School principal Yael Klein says that teaching the children with the risk of deportation hovering over their heads is unique, rife with difficulties but very positive for all school children.

"The children often start school at the age of five with no Hebrew and go into special Ulpan (Hebrew language) classes we set up for immigrants. But they blend in with the rest very quickly."

"Many children have nowhere to go back to. I think they should not be expelled because they are part of us... their integration is very positive."

The plight of the 1,200 children has mobilised thousands of Israelis who are pressuring the government to grant them residency.

Rotem Ilan, a 24-year-old student, is among a group of young Israelis who founded in July an association known as Israeli Children to raise awareness to the cause with a series of highly-publicised campaigns.

In one instance, volunteers distributed thousands of pictures of children facing deportation across Tel Aviv.

The original prints were later sold in a glitzy gallery event which was attended by celebrities, wealthy businessmen and a throng of ministers and politicians opposed to the deportations.

Activist Noa Maiman says the children are Israeli in every way.

"One can't say these children are not Israelis. They have Israeli names, they speak Hebrew, they dream in Hebrew. It is the only language they know. They are Israelis," she said.

Despite the massive public outcry, ultra-Orthodox Interior Minister Eli Yishai remains adamant over his decision that all illegal foreign workers and their families must leave the country.

"Minister Yishai is not ready to give a permanent residency to these children. Their parents, who are staying illegaly, are using their children to whitewash their presence," Yishai's spokesman Roee Lahmanovitz said.

Allowing this group residency would create a dangerous precedent which could eventually fundamentaly change the Jewish character of Israel, he said.

"We are not a safe haven, period. We should not damage the character of the Jewish state simply out of clemency." (AFP)

Diarrhoea kills 'three times more than thought'

Diarrhoea kills at least three times more people than previously thought, the World Health Organisation said Friday, citing latest data showing that 1.1 million people die yearly from the ailment.

"The burden of disease from diarrhoea ... is significantly higher than was previously considered," said Jorgen Schlundt, who is director of food safety department at the WHO.

Some 1.1 million people who are older than five in Africa and Asia die from the ailment every year, according to new figures from a six-year-long study to be concluded in 2012 on food-borne diseases.

Previous research, which commenced in 2002 and which had been regularly updated, had estimated only 300,000 deaths annually among those older than five world-wide.

Schlundt said the current study showed a sharp difference compared to earlier research as it looks deeper into the problem.

He hoped that the latest data would bring greater awareness to the ailment that is both preventable and treatable.

"There are still some countries that believe that food safety is not very important and that not many people die in relation to food safety and food-borne diseases but we have data to show that it is a significant problem and it's something that could be dealt with," said Schlundt.

Diarrhoea, largely caused by contaminated water and food, also claims the lives of 1.5 million children under the age of five a year, according to UN estimates. (AFP)

Swine flu deaths jump by 700 in a week: WHO

The number of swine flu deaths jumped by 700 in a week, reaching more than 5,700 worldwide since the virus was first uncovered in April, World Health Organisation data indicated Friday.

The biggest rise was recorded in the Americas region, where 4,175 deaths have now been reported to the WHO, up 636 from 3,539 deaths recorded in data published last week. (AFP)

Landlocked Mongolia flies flag on high seas

Inside a small office in Mongolia's capital Ulan Bator, Banzaragchaa Altan-Od fields calls from ship captains and ports around the globe -- an unusual job for someone in a landlocked nation.

The Mongolian Maritime Administration, based in a city located about 1,400 kilometres (850 miles) from the nearest ocean port, has registered more than 1,600 ships since it opened its doors in 2003.

For shipping companies, using the Mongolian flag of convenience is a good bargain, as registry fees are five to 10 percent lower than the going market rate, administration chief Altan-Od told AFP in an interview.

For the impoverished Asian country, the office is an unlikely moneymaker, raking about 350,000 dollars into state coffers a year.

"This is only the beginning of our business operations. We are going to expand our operations and focus on offering quality services," said Altan-Od, who studied maritime law for two years in Sweden.

Shipping companies that fly Mongolia's red, blue and yellow banner enjoy special tax breaks and reduced tariffs, the registry office says.

More than 300 ships from over 40 countries are currently on the books after others dropped off for various reasons, including failing to meet safety standards or being scrapped or sunk.

The operation is headquartered in Ulan Bator but registries are handled by the Singapore-based classification company Sovereign Ventures.

Altan-Od says his ultimate goal is to open a duty-free area in the eastern Chinese port of Tianjin -- 800 kilometres from the Mongolian border.

"We are doing business with the Chinese to expand our maritime methods," he said. "Hopefully this new port will be open by 2012."

Such an arrangement would also allow resource-rich Mongolia to send its own exports -- coal, copper and other minerals -- to markets around the globe. The port would also allow Mongolia to import oil from overseas.

Mongolia?s biggest shipping client so far is Japan, with 54 ships registered. Other important clients include Singapore with 42 vessels, Indonesia with 24 and Cambodia with 23. The list includes 23 oil tankers.

The country's unusual relationship with the distant sea is nothing new.

It once had a massive navy when Kublai Khan ruled the Mongolian empire more than 700 years ago, and Marco Polo sailed from China back to Europe on a ship with the Mongolian seal.

The imperial navy came to a quick end in 1281 when a typhoon wiped out almost the entire fleet of 4,000 ships as they attempted to invade Japan. About 100,000 Mongolian soldiers perished in the storm.

It has not been all smooth sailing for the ship registry either, with two ships lost last month. In both incidents, one off the coast of India and the other in the Malacca Straits, overloading was cited as the cause.

It also is battling an image problem, with rampant allegations that Mongolia-flagged ships were involved in trafficking illegal goods, and the seizure of a ship in Malaysia in 2007, but Altan-Od refutes the claims.

"There are a lot of stories in the news saying that Mongolia is involved in smuggling. But we are not involved in any illegal acts. All our agreements specifically state that we do not tolerate smuggling on our crafts," he said.

The ship registry is responsible for ensuring the sea worthiness of vessels and is also supposed to enforce maritime treaties to ensure they are not polluting the oceans, smuggling goods or conducting any other illegal activities.

Altan-Od notes that his office earlier this year axed its one and only North Korean ship over political and commercial concerns.

"We had one ship from North Korea but we decided to drop it. We want to avoid any political confrontations," he said. (AFP)

Croatia makes fertility treatment easier

The Croat parliament on Friday passed an amended law on in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) making it easier for couples to receive treatment to help them to conceive.

Under the revised law couples only have to sign a statement confirming they are in a relationship. Previously they had to prove before a court they had been together for three years.

The new law, however, will still ban the freezing of embryos despite strong criticism from the opposition and parents' groups.

"Freezing of embryos is the gold standard everywhere in Europe except in Croatia," deputy of the main opposition Social Democrats, Milanka Opacic, said before the vote.

She accused Health Minister Darko Milinovic of denying couples access to the best means of overcoming fertility.

Until the new law, which was adopted in its unamended form in July, the freezing of embryos had been used by Croatia's doctors in IVF treatments.

The former Yugoslav republic's original legislation dated back to 1978, the year that the world's first test-tube baby was born. At that time freezing of embryos did not yet exist as a fertility technique.

Under the new law, children conceived by donated eggs or sperm will also be able to obtain information about his or her biological parents when they reach 18 if donors have given their prior agreement. (AFP)

Cameroon cholera outbreak kills 65: state media

A cholera outbreak in Cameroon has killed 65 people and infected hundreds since it started last month, state media said Friday.

"Up to October 27, 2009, 407 cases (of cholera) were recorded (in northern parts of the country), including 65 deaths," according to a government statement in the state newspaper, the Cameroon Tribune.

More than 60 percent of those who died did not go to hospital, the statement said.

Prime Minister Philemon Yang urged the reinforcement of outbreak monitoring systems, "mainly in border areas, notably by the use of rapid alert mechanisms" and the organisation of hygiene campaigns, the statement added.

The infection was spread via a river contaminated by washing from a person with cholera who had crossed into Cameroon from neighbouring Nigeria, a medical official said.

Cholera outbreaks are common in northern Cameroon, especially during the rainy season, the official said, but this year's has proved particularly bad. (AFP)

SAfrica tourist arrivals hit record 9.5 million in 2008

South Africa received a record 9.5 million tourists in 2008, up 5.5 percent annually, but is counting on the World Cup to reverse a slowdown felt this year, the tourism minister said Friday.

Marthinus van Schalkwyk told a tourism trade conference that spending by the visitors jumped more than 23 percent last year, to 74.2 billion rand (9.5 billion dollars, 6.5 billion euros).

But he warned that the global economic crisis was hurting tourism this year.

"The tourism industry in South Africa has also been exposed to the global volatility," he said. "The numbers for this year are therefore bound also to reflect the international trends that put arrivals, occupancy and spending under pressure."

Van Schalkwyk said the ministry expected the 2010 football World Cup would reverse the trend and restore tourism's shine.

"We have all been working very hard to make it a success, and I also realise that the next few months will be challenging, but our industry and country will reap innumerable rewards," he said.

South Africa expects 450,000 people to visit the country during the competition, which runs from June 11 to July 11. (AFP)

'Americans first' before US donates H1N1 flu vaccine

The United States will not donate swine flu vaccine to poor countries until at-risk Americans have been inoculated against H1N1, an official said Wednesday.

"As vaccine becomes more available, I think evaluation will be made as to when it's appropriate for donation to begin, but I can tell you at this point the priority is getting the vaccine to citizens in this country, and that's what we're working on 24/7," US Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said.

"It has always been the president's intention that the safety and security of the American people be a priority in the production and distribution" of the vaccine against the new strain of H1N1 flu, Sebelius said.

The White House pledged last month to make US stocks of H1N1 vaccine "available to the World Health Organization on a rolling basis as vaccine supplies become available, in order to assist countries that will not otherwise have direct access to the vaccine."

The WHO has said donations of the vaccine from a US-led group of rich nations to about 100 developing countries could begin as early as November.

But since the first doses of vaccine were rolled out in the United States three weeks ago, officials have been forced to admit that H1N1 shots and nasal spray doses were not being delivered as quickly or in the quantities initially projected.

In mid-October, as H1N1 deaths rose and flu spread across the United States, vaccine manufacturers warned of production slow-downs and health officials said supply would fall about 10 million doses short of the 40 million doses they had expected to have by the end of this month.

Long lines formed outside vaccination clinics around the United States, with many people turned away as supplies ran dry.

Sebelius said 23 million doses of vaccine have been made available to state health authorities since the vaccine was first rolled out three weeks ago. Nine million doses came into the distribution pipeline in the past week alone, she said.

The states are giving the vaccine to people in five at-risk groups -- children and young adults, pregnant women, people with underlying health conditions such as asthma, health care workers and caregivers of infants younger than six months who cannot themselves be inoculated.

Those five priority groups for vaccination number around 150 million people. Orders have been placed for 250 million doses of vaccine, but "it was never going to be available all at the same time," said Sebelius. (AFP)

Fibre may keep asthma, diabetes at bay, study finds

An apple a day may keep the doctor away but a fibre-filled diet could also hold the key to keeping asthma, diabetes and arthritis at bay, according to Australian research released Thursday.

Scientists at Sydney's Garvan Institute of Medical Research say that fibre not only helps keep people regular, it boosts the immune system so it can better combat inflammatory diseases.

When foods high in fibre, such as dried fruit and beans, reach the gut, bacteria convert them to compounds known as short chain fatty acids. These acids are known to alleviate some inflammatory disease in the bowel.

Researcher Charles Mackay said that the team, which worked with scientists in Australia, the US and Brazil, was able to draw a clearer picture of this relationship, work which has implications for other diseases.

They demonstrated that a molecule used by immune cells and previously shown to bind short chain fatty acids also functioned as an anti-inflammatory.

"The important point about our work is that we provide the molecular explanation that links fibre in the diet to the micro-organisms in our gut to the affect on the immune response," Professor Charles Mackay told AFP.

The research, published in the latest edition of Nature, indicated that diet may have profound effects on immune responses or inflammatory diseases, he said.

"We believe that changes in diet, associated with western lifestyles, contribute to the increasing incidences of asthma, Type 1 diabetes and other auto-immune diseases," he said.

"Now we have a new molecular mechanism that might explain how diet is affecting our immune systems." (AFP)

WHO experts helping Philippines contain deadly disease: UN

UN health experts began field investigations on Wednesday to help the Philippines contain an outbreak of a deadly disease in the wake of massive storms that claimed more than 1,000 lives, officials said.

The World Health Organisation's four-member team will work with and advise local officials on combating leptospirosis, an infection caused by exposure to water contaminated with rat and other animal urine, the agency said.

"They have already commenced field trips, looking at hospitals and taking in the situation there, including at evacuation centres," said Adam Craig, a spokesman for the WHO's Western Pacific regional office based in Manila.

Parts of Manila and outlying areas remain flooded with stagnant water more than one month after tropical storm Ketsana dumped a record amount of rain on the nation's capital.

Exactly one week after Ketsana, tropical storm Parma brought massive destruction further north on the main island of Luzon.

The number of people who died as a direct result of both storms is 929, but a further 167 people have since died in and around Manila from leptospirosis, according to the government.

Authorities have handed out millions of doses of antibiotics to contain the disease, but Craig warned the threat of it spreading would remained as long as the stagnant water remained.

"People continue to live in water-logged areas and the risk is still there," Craig said.

Officials have said the flood waters for more than a million residents on the outskirts of Manila may remain well into the new year.

The WHO also said the situation had been worsened "by the fact that many hospitals and clinics are damaged or are still under water."

It said in a statement that many hospital staff were unable to go back to work, because they too had been affected and marooned in evacuation centres.

"The Philippine government has responded commendably to this disaster," said WHO regional director Shin Young-Soo, who is based in Manila.

"But this is clearly a very difficult situation."

The WHO said the health experts from Australia, France, the Netherlands and Singapore were drawn from the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network, a pool of experts on permanent standby to respond to health emergencies.

They are expected to remain in the Philippines for three weeks. (AFP)

Smokers could go virtual to kick the habit: study

Battling one's cigarette demons in a virtual world may prove to be an effective way to help people quit smoking, a research team has found in a preliminary study.

Scientists from Canada's GRAP Occupational Psychology Clinic and the University of Quebec modified a three-dimensional video game to create a computer-generated virtual reality environment as part of an anti-smoking program.

Out of 91 regular smokers enlisted in the 12-week program, 46 of them crushed computer-simulated cigarettes as part of psychosocial treatment, while the other 45 grasped a computer-simulated ball.

The group who crushed cigarettes had a "statistically significant reduction in nicotine addiction" compared with the ball-graspers, according to the study released Tuesday in the journal Cyber-Psychology and Behavior.

By the 12th week, abstinence among the cigarette crushers was 15 percent, compared with just two percent for the other group.

The crushers also stayed in the program longer, and at a six-month follow-up, 39 percent of them reported not smoking during the previous week, compared with 20 percent of the ball graspers.

"It is important to note that this study increased treatment retention," said Brenda Wiederhold, the journal's editor in chief, adding that such treatment should now be compared to other popular treatments such as the nicotine patch.

The study said some 45 percent of smokers in the United States try to quit each year, with limited success. (AFP)

Church plans Christ the Redeemer upgrade in Brazil

The Catholic Church announced plans to raise 3.5 million dollars for a major upgrade of Christ the Redeemer, the iconic giant statue of Jesus with outstretched arms that overlooks Rio de Janeiro.

Cleaning and repairing the 78 year-old statue will take four to six months, Rio de Janeiro Archbishop Ornani Tempesta told reporters Wednesday.

Some of the money will be raised by selling small metal brooches of the statue, available for 4.30 dollars at any of Rio's 252 parishes, Tempesta said.

"It is a way to get to know Christ even better," said Tempesta. "We will carry him on our chest."

Brazilian mining giant Vale will also pay for part of the project.

The 30-meter (98-foot) tall stone and cement Christ the Redeemer stands on an eight-meter high pedestal on top of Mount Corcovado, overlooking the metropolis of around 10 million people.

It was designed by Brazilian engineer Heitor da Silva Costa, who ceded all the rights to the monument to the Catholic Church.

A French sculptor of Polish origin, Paul Landowski, sculpted the statue. It was inaugurated in 1931 after five years of work.

Classified as a historic monument since 1973, some 1.8 million visitors stop by to see the stature every year. (AFP)

Peaceful relations with India would skyrocket Pak's economy: Clinton

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has told Pakistan that if had peaceful relations with India, its economic developments would skyrocket.

"If there were peace between Pakistan and India, and the outstanding issues were resolved, Pakistan would take off like a rocket in terms of economic development," The Dawn quoted Clinton, as saying.

Referring to possibility of opening up trade frontiers up to north, east and west, Clinton said

15th century Battle of Bosworth's 'victory spot' moves two miles

In a new study, researchers have sited the exact spot where the English kingdom was won in 1485 in the famous Battle of Bosworth, determining the location to be two miles away from the spot that was originally believed to be the position where victory was achieved.

The Battle of Bosworth brought an end to the middle ages and ushered in the Tudor Era in England.

According to a report in the Times, Glenn Foard, a battlefield archaeologist, stood on Ambion Hill in Leicestershire, next to the award-winning Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Centre, pointed at the distant church spire of Stoke Golding and declared an end to 500 years of arguments over the location.

"It's over there, two miles away," he said, beyond and below the church, off to the right a bit and spread over 250 acres of what is now flat farmland, crisscrossed by hedgerows, pasture and autumnal trees.

Foard, who has led a four-year, 1.3 million pounds investigation into the whereabouts of the fighting, is convinced that he has unearthed the proof.

In an unexpected and thrilling development for the archaeologists, that proof is in the form of 22 lead cannon and musket balls that dramatically reshape thinking about late medieval combat.

According to Foard, his team has discovered more lead artillery shot at Bosworth than has so far been recovered from all the other 15th-century and 16th-century battlefields in Europe put together.

The Bosworth discoveries range in size from musket balls up to a 7.2kg cannonball. They are distributed in two clusters and may have been fired by both sides.

Experts from various disciplines reviewed the scant original documentary evidence for the battle, reconstructed the landscape of the area from contemporary accounts, tracked the development of local place names, analysed soils and peat deposits and finally conducted an intensive archaeological survey of the likely sites using metal detectors.

The credentials of the Ambion Hill site were examined and dismissed along with Peter Foss's suggestion that it was fought on low-lying ground between the villages of Shenton, Upton, Stoke Golding, and Dadlinton and Michael K. Jones's theory that the battle was eight miles away in Warwickshire.

By March 1 this year, Foard's team of volunteer metal detectors had only one likely field left to survey and were no closer to identifying a new location with certainty.

Fortunately, the team found an artillery lead roundshot in that field and they concluded the area as the spot where the Battle of Bosworth was won. (ANI)

Bollywood actors add glamour to grand finale of Will Lifestyle India Fashion Week

Bollywood actors, Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif, sashayed down the ramp at the grand finale of the Will Lifestyle India Fashion Week (WIFW).

The five-day event ended in here with the two popular Bollywood actors walking down the ramp for Rohit Bal here last evening.

Kapoor dressed in embroidered white sherwani, traditional Indian attire managed to woo the female audience. While Kaif looked pretty as a doll in a short white dress.

The sets oozed flamboyance and style. The glass ramp had gold lotus flowers underneath.

The collection was called 'Yasas', which means grand in Sanskrit language.

Showcasing a mix of brocades, velvets in the pre-Mughal and Mughal designs like long and short anarkalis, jodhpuri pants, sherwanis and long coats, the collection-highlighted India's rich heritage.

Bal said that the Bollywood actors with the requisite style should walk on the ramp.

"If there are people in Bollywood that actually add glamour and style to your show, I think we definitely need them on the ramp," said Bal.

Kaif said that Bal is one of the most talented ndian fashion designer.

" I have always felt that he is the most talented designer we have in our country. He is innovative, passionate and fearless," said Kaif.

This year's 'Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week', the 14th edition which commenced on October 24, has lured 110 designers to howcase their collection with nearly 48 models displaying their creations on the ramp. (ANI)

'US should consider toughening stance with Pak to achieve its goals'

Matthew Hoh, the first US official to resign in protest over the Afghan war, has said that Washington should consider toughening stance with Pakistan in order to achieve its goals in South Asia.

"I don't know if this means we toughen our stance with Pakistan (to the point we threaten our lack of support) or whether we provide support in total with no strings attached. Regardless, 60,000 troops in Afghanistan, does not stabilize Pakistan. If anything, evidence suggests our presence in Afghanistan has destabilized Pakistan," the Nation quoted Matthew, as saying.

The former Marine Corps captain believes that the goal of stability in Pakistan cannot be achieved through a huge military imprint in neighbouring Afghanistan.

"I feel that our two goals in that region should be the defeat of al-Qaeda and the stabilization of Pakistan," he said in an online discussion hosted by The Washington Post.

Hoh said he does not claim to be a Pakistan expert but understood very well that "we need to dedicate resources (personnel and money-but not troops) to ensure Pakistan's government remains successful."

Hoh's comments came as President Barack Obama nears a decision on whether to send tens of thousands of extra American soldiers to Afghanistan.

The idea of troops surge, as proposed by top U.S. commander in Afghanistan Gen Stanley McChrystal, is one of the most hotly debated parts of the ongoing discussions and reviews in the United States.

Obama's national security advisers say they are alive to Pakistan's concerrns about a massive military buildup on the fghan side. (ANI)

Clinton pledges more than 243 million dollars as additional aid for Pakistan

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is currently on a three-day tour to Pakistan, has offered to provide a total of 243.5 million dollars as aid to the troubled nation in addition to the 7.5 billion dollars that it will receive through the Kerry Lugar Bill over the next five years.

Clinton met Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, President Asif Ali Zardari and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on the first day of her visit.

During her meetings with the country's leadership, the top US Diplomat underscored the Obama administration's resolve to develop a broad relationship with Islamabad, State Department spokesperson Ian Kelly said.

" Secretary Clinton pledged 55 million dollars at a meeting with Prime Minister Gilani to assist Pakistan and UN agencies to provide humanitarian relief to families displaced from North Western Frontier Province (NWFP) and tribal areas. She also pledged 103.5 million dollars in U.S. support for the Government of Pakistan's priority law enforcement and border security programs," The Nation quoted Kelly, as saying.

He said Washington would keep on assisting and helping Islamabad in its fight against extremism and counterinsurgency operations.

" We continue to stand with the Pakistani people who have seen firsthand the effects of violent extremism. We also honor the rave Pakistani military, police, and security personnel who are now engaged in rescue efforts, as well as those who are fighting o combat extremism and create a safe, stable, and secure Pakistan," Kelly said. (ANI)

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix could be a crash-fest, says David Coulthard

Former Formula One racing driver David Coulthard has warned that the new Abu Dhabi circuit's shortened run-off areas could see ambitious racers pay for their mistakes during the final race of the season on Sunday.

"It will really sorts out the men from the boys. It will really surprise a lot of the guys just how tight it is in places. Drivers have got used to having tracks with lots of run off and then they go to Suzuka, which is a track with not a lot of run-off, and kids are throwing it in the wall," The Mirror quoted Coulthard, as saying.

"We need an element of that in Formula 1 to maintain respect for the people watching that if you drop it you are going to have a ig shunt. For the drivers there has to be a price to pay for making a mistake, but not a big crash that ends up hurting omeone."

Coulthard further said that the sport's first underground pit lane exit at Abu Dhabi circuit, which is on a sharp left bend, could pose as a great challenge to drivers.

"You can look at it and say it is challenging, but the bottom line is that it is actually a bit silly. It is the width of a car and it is a 90-degree left at the bottom of a tunnel after a blind hill," Coulthard said.

"It is one of those things where someone has thought 'the FIA doesn't stipulates the amount of run-off area for the pit exit, so let's put some landmines in the wall' It is a bit silly," he added.

The twenty-one corners of the Yas Marina Circuit will twist through the man made island, passing the marina and Yas Hotel, nd winding its way through sand dunes, with several long straights and tight corners.

BJP asks Yeddyurappa to deal with rebellious Reddys with an iron hand

The BJP's central leadership has reportedly told Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa to deal with the rebellious Reddy brothers with an iron hand.

According to sources, Janardana Reddy and Somasekhara Reddy, Bellary's powerful mining magnates, had launched a rebellious campaign against Yeddyurappa for his alleged dictatorial style of functioning.

Both ministers are said to have wanted a free hand in the running their ministries, and had even intensified their efforts to oust Yeddyurappa by persuading a critical number of MLAs to withdraw support to him in the assembly.

In a bid to defuse the ongoing crisis, the BJP state in-charge Arun Jaitley has held talks with leaders in Bangalore today.

Jaitley has clearly said there will be no leadership change in the state.

The cabinet clash started when the CM used his administrative powers to shunt top district officials.

The Reddy brothers opposed the move and displayed their clout through a function for the construction of 55,000 houses in Bellary on Wednesday for the flood-hit from the money they and other mine owners in the state have contributed.

They went ahead with the programme ignoring Yeddyurappa's plea not make the rehab work their own, but a collective effort of the overnment. (ANI)

Krishna meets Congo FM Mwamba in Delhi

External Affairs Minister SM Krishna on Thursday discussed bilateral issues with his Congo counterpart, Alexis Thambwe Mwamba in New Delhi.

Mwamba arrived for his four-day official visit to India on Tuesday.

Both the ministers discussed a wide range of issues and other avenues to improve economic ties. Certain agreements were also signed at this meeting.

In a bilateral meeting in 2008, India and Congo have agreed to explore the possibility of cooperating in industrial diamonds in view of abundance of availability of these in Congo and Indian expertise in cutting and polishing of diamonds.

India has played a key role on various occasions in Congo, the first being the contingents of Indian Army and squadrons of ndian Air Force taking part in the UN-sponsored peace operations in early '60s. (ANI)

Radio Pakistan's latest worry is adulteration of food in Punjab

Radio Pakistan in its latest broadcast has expressed concern on adulteration of food in Punjab. The allegation is that all traders are Hindus and they are doing so to hurt the Sikh community.

People living in border villages of Punjab are aware that adulteration does happen, but it is not directed against any particular community. The traders want to make more money, but they deny that they resort to adulteration.

"We sell the same goods to people of all castes and religions. Customer is like God for us because if he buys things from us only then we will earn something and be able to fulfill our family needs," said Shammi, a shopkeeper.

According to Parkash Doshi, a senior lawyer, in Abohar the latest allegations of Radio Pakistan are baseless, as there is nothing hat can establish the prevalence of any such practices there .

"Shopkeepers are both Hindus and Sikhs and they buy things from the same shops, so this can't be proved scientifically that some thing has adverse effect on Sikhs and not on Hindus," said Parkash Doshi, a senior lawyer.

People of all religious faiths and ethnicities can be noticed in markets of Punjab. It sounds ridiculous even to imagine that somebody would like to supply adulterated food or items to those who ensure his or her livelihood.

The world knows Pakistan is today the epicentre of terrorism, courtesy its long pursued policy of providing 'moral' support to xtremists. Instead of getting worried about adulteration in India, it should look inwards. Meanwhile, thanks to Radio akistan we will eliminate 'adulterated goods' in local markets of Punjab , says Gulab Singh from Abohar.(ANI)

Christie's sells most pricey current Arab art work

Auction house Christie's fetched late on Tuesday the highest price for a work of contemporary Arab art at 662,500 dollars for a double calligraphy by Egypt's Ahmed Mustafa.

Art works sold during the auction in Dubai collected a total 6.7 million dollars, double the value reached in the last auction held by Christie's in Dubai in April.

The two-day event concludes on Wednesday night as jewellery and watches go under the hammer. Christie's expects total sales to range between 12.9 and 17.8 million dollars.

Mustafa's "Remembrance and Gratitude" broke his own record registered in a similar auction in 2007.

Indian artist Tyeb Metha's painting "Untitled (Yellow Heads)" came second with a price of 578,500 dollars, while Turkish Burhan Dogancay's "Rift" was sold for 242,500 dollars, and Iranian Charles Hossein Zenderoudi's "Kharjee Spirit" fetched 218,500 dollars.

The jewellery highlight at the auction is expected to be a pair of diamond earrings, each weighing slightly more than 15 carats, with an estimated value of between 400,000 and 600,000 dollars.

"Despite the global economic crisis... the appetite for art in the Middle East continues to grow, and also the appetite for Middle Eastern arts," said Michael Jeha, Christie's Middle East managing director.

Jeha told reporters that since its first auction in 2006, Christie's sales in Dubai have risen by 400 percent. (AFP)

Austria is pensioners' paradise: magazine survey

Austria beats even Thailand and Italy as the world's favourite place to retire to, according to a new survey by Forbes magazine.

The high quality of life and medical care, the "elegant architecture, classical music and a public transport system that works," makes the Alpine republic a pensioners' paradise, the survey showed.

The sole drawback was a "lack of Mediterranean 'joie de vivre'."

"Austria is like Switzerland, only not so expensive," the magazine wrote.

The capital Vienna had the highest quality of life, Austria's private clinics were "world class" and the cities of Salzburg, Graz und Kitzbuehel and the surrounding villages had much to offer for those who enjoy the mountains and fresh air.

Thailand came second in the Forbes list, followed by Italy in third place, France seventh and Spain ninth in a ranking based on a range of factors including immigration regulations for pensioners, quality of healthcare, bureaucracy, tax system, climate and knowledge of English. (AFP)

Work starting on Trump's Scottish golf resort, despite row

Work on a new golf resort in Scotland being built by US tycoon Donald Trump started Wednesday, despite fierce opposition from some local people.

The billion-pound (1.1 billion euro, 1.6 billion dollar) coastal resort in Balmedie, near Aberdeen in northeast Scotland, will feature two golf courses, a hotel and around 1,000 holiday homes.

But several locals are still refusing to sell their homes to make way for the site amid a high-profile campaign backed by Oscar-winning actress Tilda Swinton, who lives in the region.

Trump's son Donald Trump Junior, who was at Balmedie as the work got under way, described the protestors as "teenage people", accusing them of "little childish stunts".

"We are trying to deliver a golf course that can really be looked at as the greatest golf course anywhere in the world," he told BBC radio Wednesday.

"The vast majority of the people of the northeast want this project to go forward and have been incredible supporters of us."

But opponents say the local council is giving Trump favourable treatment because of his wealth and fame, boosted in recent years by his role as host of US reality television show "The Apprentice".

The "Tripping Up Trump" group is threatening legal action against the plans, which they say will also be bad for the local environment. Officials insist they have acted within the rules.

Initial work on the site, which got the green light from councillors Tuesday, will involve planting marram grass in a bid to stabilise a large area of sand, erecting fencing on dunes and carrying out preparatory earthworks.

The golf development is backed by Scotland's devolved government, run by the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP).

Scotland's main tourism and economic development agencies also support it, saying it will attract high-spending visitors from around the world. (AFP)

Luxury brand Versace announces crisis cuts

Top Italian luxury goods firm Versace said Wednesday it will cut a quarter of its workforce and expects to report a loss for 2009 as demand for its products has shrunk in the economic crisis.

It announced a cost-cutting plan to axe around 350 of its 1,300 workforce and review branches and investments as part of a "comprehensive corporate reorganisation," but gave no further details.

It said it aimed to return to profit by 2011, after the recent downturn sapped demand for its upmarket clothes, handbags and sunglasses.

"Trading conditions in the wake of the global financial crisis have been severe and the company expects to make a loss in 2009," Versace's chief executive Gian Giacomo Ferraris said in the statement, without giving a figure.

Ferraris said Versace still had strong growth prospects, however, as one of "the most powerful brands in the luxury industry," noting the buzz created by artistic director Donatella Versace's latest spring and summer collection.

The group announced earlier this month that it had closed three stores in Japan, a key market for luxury goods that recently re-emerged from a recession.

Versace's former chief executive Giancarlo di Risio left in July in what the group called a "mutual" decision. Press reports had cited a disagreement with Donatella Versace.

The fashion house denied rumours that she had opposed cost-cutting measures imposed by the manager to combat the financial downturn.

Her brother Gianni Versace, known for designing glamorous and sexy outfits, was murdered in Miami in 1997, aged 51.

Di Risio was appointed in 2004 to restructure the business, which had been in crisis since the murder, and managed to restore the company to profit over the next few years until the global crisis hit.

Worldwide, fashion has struggled over the past year, with widespread store closings as well as buyouts, layoffs and dire predictions that consumers may never reprise their old spendthrift ways.

Italy has seen a sharp drop in exports of ready-to-wear women's apparel, putting tens of thousands of jobs on the line.

SMI, which represents some 60,000 businesses in the clothing sector, said some 56,000 jobs were at risk from among the sector's 510,000 workers.

Italian fashion company Ittierre, owner of the Gianfranco Ferre brand, filed for bankruptcy in February.

French couture house Christian Lacroix, citing the luxury market's doldrums, filed for bankruptcy in June.

A sheikh close to the ruling family of the United Arab Emirates has made a formal offer of 100 million dollars (68 million euros) for Lacroix and is regarded as the frontrunner among the takeover bidders.

Judicial administrator Regis Valliot has praised the sheikh's commitment to save jobs, tackle the company's bills and rescue the fashion house.

Also bidding are Bernard Krief Consulting and La Financiere Saint Germain. Italian retailer Borletti withdrew its offer. (AFP)

France offers free newspapers for youth

France is to spend millions of euros to provide free newspapers for young people, officials said Wednesday, in a bid to boost readership and shore up the struggling print news sector.

Those aged 18 to 24 will get a free daily paper of their choice once a week for a year and a discount subscription later, to "encourage the renewal of readership of the daily press," according to a government statement.

Newspapers worldwide are struggling with plunging revenues as readers migrate to the Internet and mobile telephones to access news. Traditional media groups are fighting to find ways of making online content profitable.

The French plan, presented to the government by Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand, would see the state pay five million euros (7.4 million dollars) over three years to help revive readership of regular print titles.

Newspaper editors involved in the initiative will produce "content adapted to the demands of young readers," the government said.

It added that the idea also aimed to grant young people "access to culture" in the same way as free entry to museums. (AFP)

First woman voted head of German Protestant church

A divorced woman once described as "a cross between Mother Teresa and Demi Moore" was Wednesday elected head of Germany's Protestant church, the first woman to hold the post.

Margot Kaessmann, 51, received 132 of the 142 votes cast at the church's general assembly in Ulm, southern Germany. She now leads 25 million faithful across the country.

"Trusting in God's help, I accept the vote," she said.

Kaessmann, who was elected for a six-year term, was the only candidate for the post.

The charismatic Kaessmann hit the headlines around the world in 2007 when she became the first bishop in Germany to file for divorce from her husband, also a leading member of the Lutheran church.

She was Germany's youngest bishop when she was consecrated in 1999 and has since survived an operation to remove breast cancer.

In 2003, the Frankfurter Allgemeine daily reported that she was known within the organisation as a "mixture of Mother Teresa and Demi Moore." (AFP)

Fewer holiday gifts but more cheer in US, poll

More than half of Americans in a survey out Wednesday say they plan to spend more during the end-of-year holidays this year compared to 2008 as concerns about the economy subside.

The projected spending boost at Christmas, Hannukah and Kwanza won't come from more or more expensive gifts, but rather from spending on items like entertainment and home decoration, which traditionally account for a smaller portion of the holiday budget, said the annual Deloitte holiday survey of retail spending and trends.

More than half -- 54 percent -- of the 10,878 consumers surveyed for Deloitte's poll said they expect the economy will improve in 2010, and nearly a quarter thought the United States was already in the early stages of recovery from the downturn.

Last year, only 28 percent of Americans were optimistic that the economy would pick up, and 41 percent said they would either maintain or increase holiday spending. This year, more than half -- 51 percent -- said their holiday outlay would rise or hold at the same level.

"We have had stabilization in the housing market; the tax burden on the consumer is less; real wages are higher. The combination of all that is what's leading to consumers' intent to spend a little more on the holidays than they did last year," Stacy Janiak, head of Deloitte's retail group, which conducted the survey, told AFP.

"But they indicated that both the number and dollar amount of gifts are declining," Janiak said.

The average number of gifts Americans plan to purchase declined to 18 from 21.5 last year, while the amount consumers plan to spend on gifts was down to 452 dollars this year compared with 532 dollars in 2008, the survey, which Deloitte has compiled since 1985, showed.

Meanwhile, expenditures on socializing, entertaining, non-gift clothing and home or holiday furnishings are expected to go up, the survey said.

"People had to pull back on gifts last year, given the economic uncertainty, and they realized what's more important: the gift or bringing people together?" said Janiak, explaining why people were expecting to spend more on socializing and entertaining.

The "replenishment" factor would see non-gift clothing and home and holiday furnishing sales rising, said Janiak.

"Those items aren't made to last forever and if those purchases weren't made last year at this time, it's another reason that consumers are tending to enter that space again," she said.

The survey also looked at what was likely to be the most popular gift this year.

For the sixth year running, the gift card came out on top.

Nearly two-thirds of consumers plan to buy gift cards as presents, laying out 35 dollars per card, or seven dollars more than the 28 dollars they spent last year.

Americans have also retained the lessons of frugality they learned from the recession.

Two-thirds of those polled said they plan to "shop differently due to concerns about the economy," and of those large majorities said they would look for sales or use money-off vouchers.

Many consumers planning to buy electronics, toys, clothing or jewelry expect to get steep discounts similar to those seen in US shops last year.

But Janiak warned they might be out of luck, because while the US consumer has retained the virtues of thrift from the recession, retailers have learned their own lesson about over-stocking.

"This year, the retailers have been managing their business based on lower consumption levels, and their expectation is that those lower consumption levels will hold through the holidays," said Janiak.

"But if consumers step up their spending, there's going to be a disconnect. And if you're holding out for the 50-percent-plus discount on a wide variety of merchandise, you will be disappointed," she predicted. (AFP)

Macedonia seeks to stop archaeological smugglers

Macedonia has vowed to put a halt to illegal excavations at the country's wealth of archaeological sites, many of which have already been ransacked by savvy smugglers digging up the rich treasures.

"The criminals are always a step ahead, they follow our activities and know exactly when to move away," an official from the special department in charge of archaeological crime who requested anonymity told AFP.

When archaeologists arrived at Isar Marvinci in southern Macedonia, the seat of power in ancient times, they had hoped to begin excavations but instead faced an unpleasant surprise.

"They found more than 1,000 open pits, but all the findings were gone, mostly sold to our southern neighbour" Greece, said Pasko Kuzman, head of the state institute for the protection of cultural heritage.

Ancient graves were believed to be full of "golden jewelry, silver, bronze and amber pieces, all very light and easy to transport," Kuzman said.

Isar, which dates back to the Iron Age, flourished under the ancient Greeks, but the Romans levelled the metropolis to the ground.

Kuzman noted a case when 230 archaelogical findings -- hidden in bags full of beans -- were discovered by customs officials at the Croatian-Slovenian border in 2006.

"Slovenian officials established that the findings were from the territory of Macedonia and returned them to us," he said.

In the past two years, police have reported 21 cases of cultural heritage theft, with 16 of them solved, interior ministry spokesman Ivo Kotevski said.

Thieves are mostly interested in smaller pieces like money, silver, copper or ceramic pots, and stone figures, he said.

According to various estimations, most of Macedonia's territory hides archaeological treasures due to the Balkan state's central position in ancient times.

So far, 10,000 different sites have been registered, but at least several more thousand still need to be examined.

The ancient Roman settlement of Stobi, famous for its mosaics, has for years attracted visitors, scientists and tourists, but also thieves.

A large part of the area has yet to be excavated, so officials have introduced 24-hour security at the site.

"Stobi has been protected around the clock as our presence is the best guarantee that there will be no illegal diggers," Silvana Blazevska, the manager of the site, told AFP.

It is quite common in Marvince, in southern Macedonia close to the border with Greece, for a builder to find an ancient plate while putting in foundations for a new home, or for a farmer to dig out a piece of an ancient vase in hisfield.

"Usually farmers immediatelly call us to tell us of the findings," said Blazevska.

Police officials are reluctant to estimate whether the amount of archaeological thefts has risen in the past years, but say that such "illegal business can bring several million dollars annually."

A wide-range network is believed to be organised through regional crime gangs, while buyers are easily found in Greece, Austria and Germany, they say.

Some of the findings could be sold for up to 20,000 euros, while less valuable pieces -- like an ancient Roman spear top -- could be had for only 100 euros.

"One golden coin by itself has no high value, but if it is found together with other objects from a dated time-period, its value increases in relation to scientific, cultural and heritage significance," Kuzman said.

Zlatko Videski from the Museum of Macedonia heads the excavations at Isar, spread across about 80 hectares (xx acres ????) of land. He said the economic crisis has trimmed government funding of the site -- "neglected for so many years" -- so his team will be able to cover only about 20 acres HECTARES??? this year.

"But the site has been damaged a lot and only when we examine material collected so far will we be able to estimate its real value," Videski told AFP.

In only seven months of excavations at the site, archaeologists have found around 2,500 graves from different time periods, he added.

"There are graves from prehistoric times, Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages, but for smugglers, the most interesting are those from ancient and Byzantine times," Kuzman said. (AFP)

Is Taylor dating Taylor?

American actor Taylor Lautner has sparked off rumours that he is romancing country singer Taylor Swift after the two of them were seen together in Los Angeles.

Both the Taylors were snapped sitting side-by-side as they enjoyed a game of hockey between the Los Angeles Kings and the Columbus Blue Jackets at the city's Staples Center last weekend, reports the Daily Express.

Speculations of a relationship between the two have been floating ever since they were seen hugging each other after one of Swift's shows in Chicago, Illinois earlier this month.

Although, Swift's reps had tried to clear the air by saying the duo were "just friends", the pair's latest public outing has kicked off gossip again.

According to the New York Daily News, the pair went to the same hotel after the hockey match and left the Beverly Wilshire together early the next day. (ANI)