Small Chinese character reform triggers big controversy

More than 50 years after a major overhaul of the way in which Chinese characters are written, a far less ambitious project to simplify just a few dozen ideogrammes has sparked huge controversy here.

The government has put forward proposals to change 44 characters out of the 3,500 most used, or 1.25 percent of the total, "to adapt to the requirements of the information era, the evolution of language and the development of society."

After eight years of reflection and expert consultations in China and abroad, the education ministry and the State Language Work Committee called on members of the public for their opinions -- a first for such a reform.

The project was not expected to spark any major concerns, with just a few strokes removed from characters here and there.

For example, "cha," or tea, would lose a tiny upward stroke at its base -- a change that is already noticeable on some shopfronts in Beijing.

"Xin," which means new, would also get rid of its little upward line.

But dissenting voices have run riot, particularly on the Internet.

According to polls by major Chinese web portals or newspaper websites, more than 80 percent of online users are opposed to the project.

They say the reform might only affect a few characters, but these are used often and their modification would have an important impact on dictionaries, school books, signs, publishers... and the Chinese themselves.

"Chinese characters are a precious part of the cultural heritage left to us by our ancestors thousands of years ago," one net user in eastern Shandong said in a comment posted on sina.com.

"We should respect them and protect them, not change them on a whim."

Liu Jingbo, a calligraphy professional who regularly organises exhibitions in Beijing, said the changes would not go against the nation's history.

"Chinese characters come from ancient history, but it is possible to reform them, respecting certain rules, if it helps to make life easier for people," he said.

"A lot of people, such as the elderly, are however opposed to this as they were used to these characters."

In the 1950s, when the government decided to simplify more than 2,000 characters, the philologist Chen Mengjia paid dearly for his opposition to this huge reform project.

Accused of being a "rightist" and sent to a labour camp in central China, he subsequently committed suicide in Beijing in 1966 after being subjected to public criticism sessions at the start of the turbulent Cultural Revolution.

Experts say the new controversy highlights the strong public attachment to the Chinese form of writing -- a unifying factor within the massive country of 1.3 billion people, which boasts many languages and dialects.

"Of the first measures taken by the first emperor after he defeated all other kingdoms, the unification of writing was not insignificant," said Olivier Venture, a Beijing-based researcher for the French School of Asian Studies.

"It is extremely important -- it is seen as the bond that unites Chinese culture, as part of the nation's identity. A lot of things change but people can always look to writing, even if in fact it always evolves," he said.

Faced with the surge of protests on the Internet and in the press during the consultation phase in August, the education ministry and the commission decided to wait, saying nothing had been decided and that discussions were ongoing.

"We are civil servants -- our responsibility is to serve the people, and if the people are opposed, we will not budge," Li Ningming, an official at the commission, said in comments broadcast on state television. (AFP)

China's Andersen theme park may open next year: partner

A theme park dedicated to Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales is expected to open in Shanghai during the 2010 World Expo next May, a partner in the project said Friday.

The eight hectare (20 acre) park will celebrate the Danish writer's stories including the Little Mermaid, the Ugly Duckling and the Emperor's New Clothes, said Yang Wenyan, director of the state-run Haha children's channel and the project's media partner.

"The park will open on May 11 during the World Expo, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Denmark," Yang told AFP.

Denmark will donate to the park a replica of the Andersen statue that stands in front of Copenhagen city hall, Yang added.

The theme park in the northeast outskirts of Shanghai was first announced in August 2006, but was suspended due to financing problems, according to previous state media reports.

The main investor in the project, Shanghai Gujing Investment and Development Co Ltd, has not released any information about the park's cost and could not be immediately reached for comment.

In addition to the park, Copenhagen's famous Little Mermaid sculpture will be brought to Shanghai to be the centrepiece of Denmark's pavilion at the six-month World Expo, which begins on May 1. (AFP)

Peruvians oppose abortion for rape, fetal deformity: poll

More than half of all Peruvians are against legalizing abortion in cases of rape or fetal deformity, according to a national poll released Sunday on a contentious bill pending in Congress.

The results of this week's Ipsos-Apoyo poll of 1,000 people showed a majority of Peruvians siding with the Roman Catholic Church in its strong condemnation of the abortion bill Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani has dubbed a "death penalty" the innocent.

The survey found 53 percent against the bill's provision allowing abortions in cases of rape, and 48 percent against the fetal deformity clause -- those in favor of the measures polled 41 percent and 46 percent respectively.

The bill was approved last week in committee, making it ready for its full debate in Congress.

By a 58-to-38 percent margin, Peruvians supported the current 1924 abortion law that allows the termination of pregnancy only to save the life of the expectant mother, said the poll published in the El Comercio daily.

Cipriani and Defense Minister Rafael Rey head the anti-abortion bill movement in Peru.

Cipriani has denied allegations made in a report by civil groups that some 300,000 illegal abortions are performed each year in Peru. He sides with the Peruvian Bishop's Conference's recent statement that pregnancies should not be terminated for any reason. (AFP)

'Peace cotton' smooths its way into Benin

It has not rained much recently in the northern regions of Benin in west Africa, the soil is hard and cracking. But from it sprout small and precious white flowers of organic cotton.

"At the beginning, we did not think we could cultivate without fertiliser," said Michel Boundia, head of a cotton farmers association in the village of Batia, 800 kilometres (500 miles) north of the commercial capital Cotonou.

"But we soon realised that organic cotton allows us to live in better health and that is why we baptised it 'lafia cotton,'" or 'peace cotton' in the local gourmantche dialect, the farmer said.

Some 220 Benin cotton growers went organic last year, cultivating 54 hectares with an average yield of 400 kilogrammes per hectare, thanks to the backing of Germany and Helvetas, a Swiss non-governmental organisation.

In place of fertilisers, the villagers use natural compost of organic waste and tree branches, which help fight off parasites. "Just as in the good old days, we weed with our hands or with a hoe," Boundia added.

To protect the cotton flowers, farmers have replaced industrial insecticides with an organic solution -- the sap of a local plant called the neem.

A recent health ministry study showed that 322 farmers in Benin died during the 2007-2008 planting season following the use of fertilisers to grow cotton.

"Here we usually receive those who are regularly using fertiliser," Eugene Zounmenou, an emergency doctor in a Cotonou hospital, told AFP.

"If quickly attended to, they stay alive, otherwise they die... all because of wrong information on these pesticides dangerous to humans," he said.

Alidou Boundaone, a cotton farmer, said going organic was about protecting the health of growers but also made good economic sense.

"For us, the first advantage is health. We no longer fall ill as a result of of chemical products," he said.

"Secondly, and more importantly, is the economic sense: at the end of the planting season we need to pay debts contracted in buying fertilisers. That is ruinous," he added.

There are benefits at the retail end too. Organic cotton sells for 230 FCFA, the local currency in Benin, while non-organic fetches the farmer only about 190 FCFA (0.2 euro).

Organic cotton farmers in Benin last year harvested a total of seven tons of cotton -- they expect to produce more than 200 tons between now and 2012.

But Benin, Africa's third largest producer of cotton, still lacks factories that can process organic cotton separately from non-organic.

Farmers say there also needs to be a label that can guarantee a 100 percent organic origin and an outlet specifically for selling organic cotton.

"That is where our struggle begins: to find a factory that will not mix to enable us have an identity that would lead to certification," said Djafarou Tiomoko, director of Pendjari nature reserve and an advocate of organic cotton. (AFP)

Campaign to stop mass animal sacrifice in Nepal

Every five years a temple in southern Nepal plays host to an extraordinary religious festival in which hundreds of thousands of animals are sacrificed to the Hindu goddess of power Gadhimai.

For two days, the tiny village of Bariyapur near Nepal's border with India flows with blood as thousands of Hindu devotees flock to the temple to take part in what organisers believe is the world's biggest ritual slaughter.

Many travel from neighbouring India for the festival, which has been running uninterrupted for around three centuries and is due to take place on November 24 and 25.

But this year, a group of animal rights activists is campaigning to stop what it says is senseless cruelty to innocent creatures -- pitting themselves against Hindu devotees in this deeply religious nation.

"We launched our campaign to put a stop to the gruesome killing of animals in the name of God," said Pramada Shah, director of campaign group Animal Nepal which has launched an online petition demanding the festival be cancelled.

"Even in the 21st century, innocent animals are facing cruel treatment due to people's superstition."

The campaign received a local boost when it won the support of Ram Bahadur Bomjam, a young Nepalese man believed by followers to be a reincarnation of Buddha after supporters said he could survive without water, food or sleep.

Bomjam, dubbed "Buddha Boy" by Nepalese media, has spent the past year meditating in the jungle near Bariyapur, but last week broke his silence to condemn the festival.

"Human beings have turned brutal by offering animal sacrifices to the goddess. This practice must be stopped now," he reportedly told local media.

Bomjam's supporters have organised their own campaign to put a stop to the festival, distributing pamphlets in the area and in Indian towns on the border urging people not to take part.

One reason for the event's huge popularity is its proximity to India, where some states have now banned sacrificial slaughter.

"In India today there is greater awareness about animal sacrifice and suffering, so people and rights activists are against it," said N.G. Jayasimha, campaign manager for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in India.

"Some states have banned animal slaughter even for religious purposes -- including Karnataka, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. So all these factors contribute to the numbers going to Nepal."

But animal rights campaigners face an uphill struggle in Nepal, where Hindus make up 80 percent of the population and where ritual sacrifice is a part of everyday life.

Local authorities said they would increase security surrounding the festival, which begins with the sacrifice of two wild rats, a rooster, a pig, a goat and a lamb before the temple's statue of Gadhimai.

Devotees can then bring their animals into the temple for ritual purification before taking them into the grounds where they will have their throats slit. The meat is distributed and eaten.

Nepal's government has already pledged 4.5 million rupees (60,000 dollars) in funding for the festival and authorities say they have no power to stop it going ahead.

The temple's head priest, Mangal Chaudhary Tharu, told AFP 800,000 people attended the festival in 2004, when about 400,000 sacrifices were made, and he said he expected more people to come this year.

"Nepal's security situation has improved and we are expecting a larger turnout this year," said Tharu, the fourth generation of his family to serve as a priest for the festival, whose origins have never been documented.

"We are not forcing devotees to sacrifice animals. It is an age-old practice and it must continue.

"The festival will lose its charm and become meaningless if we break with tradition." (AFP)

Wine country renaissance near Bordeaux

Jean-Francois Janoueix and Jean-Michel Cazes have more in common than producing outstanding Bordeaux wine. These vintners share a passion for old limestone, and are banking on tourism to revive the wine country's crumbling cottages and dying villages.

"The villages need to be reborn", said Mr. Janoueix, owner of seventeen wine estates, including Chateau Haut Sarpe near Saint Emilion, 45 kilometres (28 miles) east of Bordeaux.

"The great wine estates don't care about these modest homes, but they are the markers of the past. When we demolish them, we gain a few vines but lose a whole piece of the past."

Determined to keep the rural heritage alive, he's personally financing the renovation of the rustic hamlet of Sarpe at the gates of his estate. "I want it to have the atmosphere of the past", said Mr. Janoueix while his full-time mason meticulously restores a facade nearby.

True to his vision, the village steps back in time. An original "rural post office" sign clings to a wall -- no one can quite remember when the building last sold stamps.

Guests can visit an 18th century windmill and the kitsch, 1950's "night club" built for the pickers. In Haut Sarpe's cellars, Mr. Janoueix offers wine tastings amidst a collection of antique tools and equipment.

A few steps away, a farmhouse provides room and board to modern-day pilgrims walking the historic St. Jacques de Compostelle route (just 1,060 kilometres to go!), and soon, an old-fashioned bakery will open on the square.

Banking on another winning combination -- wine and art -- Mr. Janoueix also restored the winegrowers' cottages in his vineyards. Soon, artists will take up short-term residencies and sell their work in a gallery in the village.

Inspired by Napa's savvy approach to wine tourism, Mr. Janoueix hopes to draw tourists to Sarpe, where he can introduce them to a slice of wine history, art and his wines.

Sarpe is well-located for such a project. The local tourist office estimates that Saint Emilion, a UNESCO world heritage site, receives one million visitors per year.

"We would be stupid to be five hundred meters from Saint Emilion and do nothing", emphasised Mr. Janoueix.

Ninety kilometres away in the Medoc region, northwest of Bordeaux, the iconic owner of Chateau Lynch Bages, Jean Michel Cazes, does not have a world heritage site to draw tourists. When he arrived from Paris in 1973 to take over Lynch Bages, "there was not a single tourist".

Yet he sensed wine tourism was the future. Thirty-six years later, Lynch Bages receives 20,000 visitors per year.

In addition to several wine estates, the Cazes family owns a luxury hotel, two Michelin-starred restaurants, a wine estate bed (and) breakfast, a wine school and a wine tour agency. Twenty percent of their business revenue comes from wine tourism.

Even as his business flourished, the lively village of his childhood quietly slid into ruin.

In 2003, when Cazes needed to enlarge his cellars and the architect proposed demolishing the abandoned hamlet of Bages, located on his back doorstep, Cazes balked.

"I didn't want to see the village disappear", explained Mr. Cazes. "I didn't want to be remembered as the man who knocked down a village to stock my wine."

Instead, he hired craftsmen to restore the historical limestone buildings with the goal of creating a modern village that would attract both locals and tourists.

"We need to brush the dust off the image of the Grands Crus of Bordeaux", he explained.

Cazes' vision has taken shape: a pretty village square, a bakery, a stylish bistro, a refined boutique, a master basket-weaver, an annex to a luxury hotel, a butcher and soon, an upscale wine bar and cigar lounge.

A cheerful playground attracts mothers and toddlers. Free, open-air movie nights bring in the locals. And the buildings retain the names of the original owners.

"Here we have a history, an architecture, the art of living", said Cazes. "The town represents how we see Lynch Bages - conviviality."

He's unfazed by critics that he's created a mini-Disneyland -- "(Disneyland)'s a wonderful success, if only I had so many people..."

However, Cazes is quick to point out that there are no souvenir shops in Bages hawking "t-shirts, baseball caps and fridge magnets".

He reiterates his goal is to attract a cross section of the population.

"Our town is not just for tourists", declared Mr. Cazes. "The day I saw three vineyard workers and Madame Borie from Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou, having coffee next to one another, I knew we had succeeded."

Summing up his philosophy: "I want the village of Bages to live." (AFP)

NKorea completes plans for 100,000 city apartment

North Korea has completed plans for 100,000 new apartments in high-rise blocks, which will be built by 2012 to mark a major anniversary, a pro-Pyongyang newspaper said Tuesday.

Blueprints for the apartment blocks, which will all be between 18 and 30 storeys high, have been finalised, Chosun Sinbo said on its website.

The apartment blocks will be located in three districts of the capital Pyongyang including Mangyongdae, said the newspaper, published in Tokyo for Korean residents there.

"The apartments to be built in Mangyongdae district's Daepyong area will be composed of a grandiose home district befitting the beautiful natural surroundings formed by Mount Ryongak and the Taedong River," it said.

Plans for new infrastructure and leisure facilities were also drawn up. "Service networks including restaurants and shops are also being sited in the most convenient way," it added.

Foreign residents say work is going ahead to smarten up Pyongyang and other cities in time for 2012, the 100th anniversary of the birth of founding father Kim Il-Sung.

The North's official goal is to become a "great, prosperous, powerful nation" by then, even though it currently suffers from severe shortages of food, raw materials and electricity.

An online newspaper run by North Korean defectors in Seoul said last week the construction project in Pyongyang is exacerbating resource shortages in the provinces, halting work on several projects.

The government has ordered provinces to rely on their own resources to complete projects, it added. (AFP)

Swine flu detected in US pigs in Minnesota

Pigs in the state of Minnesota may have become infected with swine flu, officials said Friday, citing preliminary tests taken at a state fair.

If the initial results are confirmed it would be the first case of the pandemic virus detected in US hogs.

"We currently are testing the Minnesota samples to determine if this is 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement.

"I want to remind people that they cannot get this flu from eating pork or pork products."

The pigs sampled at the fair showed no sign of illness and were apparently healthy, the agriculture department said.

However an outbreak of swine flu occurred in a group of children housed in a dormitory at the fair around the same time the tests were conducted from August 26 through September 1.

"Information available at this time would suggest the children were not sickened by contact with the fair pigs," the agriculture department said.

Final test results are expected in a few days.

At least 4,735 people have died from swine flu infections since the A(H1N1) virus was uncovered in April, the World Health Organization said Friday.

This is an increase of 210 fatal cases from a week ago when 4,525 deaths were recorded, the UN health agency said in its weekly update of the pandemic. (AFP)

Ending death penalty could save US millions: study

Even when executions are not carried out, the death penalty costs US states hundreds of millions of dollars a year, depleting budgets in the midst of economic crisis, a study released Tuesday found.

"It is doubtful in today's economic climate that any legislature would introduce the death penalty if faced with the reality that each execution would cost taxpayers 25 million dollars, or that the state might spend more than 100 million dollars over several years and produce few or no executions," argued Richard Dieter, director of the Death Penalty Information Center and the report's author.

"Surely there are more pressing needs deserving funding," he wrote, noting that execution was rated among the least effective crime deterrents.

In just one death penalty trial "the state may pay one million dollars more than for a non-death penalty trial. But only one in every three capital trials may result in a death sentence, so the true cost of that death sentence is three million dollars," the study's author said.

"Further down the road, only one in ten of the death sentences handed down may result in an execution. Hence, the cost to the state to reach that one execution is 30 million dollars," Dieter added in the report entitled "Smart on Crime."

The center's goal of ending executions may still be an uphill battle.

The report comes just a week after a new poll found that 65 percent of Americans still favor the death penalty.

Legal in 35 of the 50 US states and used regularly in about 12 or so, the death penalty has been reconsidered recently in 11 states, largely because of the high costs associated with its use.

Colorado came close to eliminating execution but New Mexico was the only state to abolish it, in March.

"There is no reason the death penalty should be immune from reconsideration, along with other wasteful, expensive programs that no longer make sense," Dieter stressed, noting that most US states that pay to maintain a system to execute inmates have in the past three decades put to death only a handful of convicted criminals.

"The same states that are spending millions of dollars on the death penalty are facing severe cutbacks in other justice areas. Courts are open less, trials are delayed, and even police are being furloughed," Dieter said.

In Pennsylvania, 200 police posts sit unfilled, and in New Hampshire trials were put on hold for a month to save money.

Dieter says that keeping execution while reducing its costs is not realistic. If less money is spent on appeals, he argues, the risk of executing an innocent person will increase.

He said that ultimately, execution does not deter crime as its supporters hope. Capital punishment has been abolished in most western democracies, and after it was eliminated in the US state of New Jersey in 2007, the state saw its murder rate decline.

Dieter cites a poll of 500 local police chiefs, which was paid for by the DPIC and released on Tuesday, showing support for ending capital punishment.

The survey found that the police chiefs see the death penalty as the least effective tool in deterring crime. They suggest more efficient use of resources -- such as boosting funding for drug and alcohol abuse programs. (AFP)

Swine flu toll climbs to 4,735: WHO

At least 4,735 people have died from swine flu infections since the A(H1N1) virus was uncovered in April, the World Health Organisation said Friday.

This is an increase of 210 fatal cases from a week ago when 4,525 deaths were recorded, the UN health agency said in its weekly update of the pandemic.

Most deaths occurred in the Americas region, where 3,406 fatalities have been reported.

Some 962 people have died from the infection in the Asia-Pacific region, while at least 207 fatal cases have been recorded in Europe.

Ninety deaths have been reported in the Middle East while in Africa, 70 people have succumbed to the disease. (AFP)

Afghanistan looks to squeeze new markets from pomegranates

Clogged with overloaded trucks, construction firm yards, hardware shops and police checkpoints, the Jalalabad Road on the outskirts of Kabul is an unlikely place for an agricultural revolution.

But beyond the impatient traffic, a high wall topped with razor wire and heavily guarded iron gates, the Omaid Bahar Fruit Processing Company is being hailed as a beacon of hope for Afghanistan's fractured farming sector.

This is the country's first juice concentrate factory, designed mainly to transform succulent pomegranates into juices and purees for consumption at home and around the world.

"If you want to see what Afghanistan's agricultural future will be, look here," said minister of agriculture, irrigation and livestock Mohammad Asif Rahimi, as he opened the privately owned factory this week.

"This is the beginning," he added, calling the initiative "our path to prosperity."

Inside the building -- a Soviet-era textiles factory converted at a cost of more than 11 million dollars -- women in black, full-face veils and blue plastic overshoes wash giant, red-skinned pomegranates at a conveyor belt.

Nearby, men in blue overalls, face masks and hairnets sweep mounting piles of leathery peel into wheelbarrows.

Shiny chrome pipes snake outwards and upwards from the factory floor, into and out of large, round tanks until a sweet-smelling, ruby red liquid -- squeezed, pressed, sieved, filtered, heated and cooled -- finally emerges.

Luca Panzeri, from the Italian company that provided the machinery, said with pomegranate juice considered a "super food" in the West, the initiative could be lucrative for impoverished Afghanistan.

"Pomegranates are one of the highest added-value fruits," the food technologist with Bertuzzi Food Processing told AFP.

"They're full of antioxidants and good for health. They protect against cancer and many kinds of diseases. There's a large market in the US and Europe."

Some 200 people, including 70 women, will work in two shifts around the clock at the factory, while the government estimates that 50,000 farmers will benefit directly from its creation.

Pomegranates -- found everywhere in Afghanistan and hailed by its people as the best in the world -- will be the main fruit, although there are plans to process apples, melons, peaches and apricots.

Work is under way to ensure a constant supply chain, with the unit taking lower-grade fruit that could not otherwise be sold at market.

About 5,000 tonnes of fruit are expected to be processed by the end of this year with projections that the factory will deal with 25,000 tonnes in 2010.

Afghanistan produced 96,000 tonnes of pomegranates in 2008, according to the government, with the main export markets in neighbouring Pakistan, India and the United Arab Emirates.

International aid agencies are helping the processing plant develop a business plan and win new customers in North America and Europe.

"We have four European companies interested in buying our product," one Western aid agency official told AFP on condition of anonymity but refusing to name the firms. "There's a lot of goodwill."

Up to 80 percent of Afghans rely on agriculture, yet the country's rural economy has been blighted by three decades of conflict.

Rural poverty has been identified as one of the main factors fuelling the cultivation of poppies -- used to make heroin, the profits from which have fuelled the Taliban insurgency.

But there are hopes that the Kabul factory could help persuade farmers to grow more legitimate crops.

"The security and stability of Afghanistan is dependent in a huge way on employment," Rahimi told dignitaries at the opening.

"If you have people out of work, especially in rural Afghanistan, I can assure you that there will not be peace and security in Afghanistan, even if you double the number of soldiers."

The aid agency official said that it was hoped that farmers would not have to turn to "alternative crops" if they had contracts to supply the factory with fruit at market prices. (AFP)

More Internet users sharing status updates: report

Sharing status updates on online services such as Twitter or Facebook is becoming increasingly popular among Americans, according to a survey released on Wednesday.

Nineteen percent of Internet users surveyed in August and September said they use Twitter or another service to share updates about themselves, the Pew Internet and American Life Project said.

That was a significant increase from previous surveys in December 2008 and April 2009 when 11 percent of Internet users said they post status updates, according to the Washington-based organization.

Pew said 35 percent of Internet users who already use a social network site such as MySpace, Facebook or LinkedIn are likely to also use Twitter compared to six percent of Internet users who do not use such sites.

The Pew survey also found a relationship between the number of devices a person owns and their likelihood to "tweet."

Thirty-nine percent of Internet users with four or more Web-connected devices, such as a laptop, a cell phone, a game console, or a Kindle, use Twitter, compared to 28 percent with three devices, 19 percent with two devices, and 10 percent with one device.

Thirty-seven percent of Internet users aged 18 to 24 use Twitter or another service, up from 19 percent in December 2008, the study found, while the median age of a Twitter user is 31.

The Pew survey found that the median age for an Internet user is 41 years old, the median age for wireless Internet users is 37 and the median age for a social network site user is 34.

The median age for MySpace is 26, down from 27 in May 2008, and the median age for LinkedIn is 39, down from 40, while the median age for Facebook has gone up to 33 from 26 in May 2008, Pew said.

The survey of 2,253 adults aged 18 and older was conducted between August 18 and September 14 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points. (AFP)

Tensions rise as Bhutan refugees leave Nepal

Seventeen years ago, Narad Muni Sanyasi was forced to flee his native Bhutan in the middle of the night, leaving his home and all his possessions behind.

Sanyasi was one of more than 100,000 Bhutanese who fled the country when ethnic tensions flared in the early 1990s and who ended up in eastern Nepal, where they have lived ever since in camps run by the UN refugee agency.

Now, the 65-year-old former member of Bhutan's parliament is once again facing threats -- this time apparently from within his own community.

Last month Sanyasi's name appeared on pamphlets distributed by an anonymous group in the Beldangi refugee camp where he works as camp secretary, threatening him and eight other community leaders with death.

The pamphlets accused Sanyasi of supporting the resettlement of the refugees in Western countries and turning his back on the fight for their repatriation in Bhutan -- a charge he strongly denies.

"I am neither against repatriation nor against resettlement. But I was accused of sending my family members to be resettled in a third country," he told AFP in the small bamboo hut that functions as his office.

"No one is so brave they would not be afraid of a death threat. But where can I go? I am responsible for the people in this camp."

The anonymous threats have exposed bitter divisions within the Bhutanese refugee community over a UN scheme under which more than 20,000 of the exiles have resettled in third countries, the majority in the United States.

The ethnic Nepali refugees fled Bhutan, claiming ethnic and political persecution, after the Buddhist kingdom made national dress compulsory and banned the Nepalese language.

Bhutan's government says the people who left were either illegal immigrants or went voluntarily. The refugees, who have no legal right to work or own land in Nepal, insist they are Bhutanese citizens.

Numerous rounds of high-level talks between Nepal and Bhutan have failed to reach an agreement on repatriation.

Police in the nearby town of Damak say they have increased security at Beldangi, the largest of seven refugee camps in eastern Nepal, after a 45-year-old male refugee was murdered there last month.

No one has yet been convicted over the murder, but police say they believe it was linked to the resettlement issue, and they are also providing protection to the eight community leaders whose lives have been threatened.

But with the refugees allowed to move freely in and out of the camps during the day, police say there is a limit to what they can do to protect people.

"Tensions are increasing day by day. We have 50 armed police stationed at the camp, but there are 40,000 refugees there and it is not enough," Damak police inspector Navin Karki told AFP.

Gandhivraj Syangtam, head of the armed police unit at Beldangi, said the murder had exacerbated tensions, but cautioned that not all reported threats were genuine.

"People have been afraid for a long time, that's the nature of refugee camps," he said.

"Those who are threatened will receive protection help from us. But there are also those who claim to be threatened in order to be given priority for resettlement. We have to be very thorough in our investigations."

The UN refugee agency UNHCR points out that the situation has stabilised since resettlement began in 2007, when buses belonging to the International Organisation for Migration were bombed and one refugee died in a scuffle with police.

"Overall the security situation is pretty good. It is very different from two years ago when resettlement started because that created a big debate in the camps," said Mads Madsen, the UNHCR's local field safety adviser.

"Many people were in favour, but there were some who were aggressively opposed, and there were threats and even physical attacks against those who supported resettlement."

Facing little prospect of being allowed to return to Bhutan or settle permanently in Nepal, most of the refugees in the camps have now asked to be resettled, and applications continue to pour in.

"There is no work and no future in the camps, and anyway we don't feel safe here," said Milan Kumar Rana, 22, who hopes to go to Australia with his family.

But there are those who say they will only leave Nepal if it is to return to Bhutan -- and some are prepared to fight to achieve their aim.

Ramesh Chettri fled Bhutan aged just nine, after his family heard reports of what he calls ethnic cleansing.

Now 27, he says he and a group of fellow refugees are preparing a "violent political movement" to fight for democracy in Bhutan, but fear resettlement will weaken their case.

"If the refugees are resettled we will not be able to achieve our goal of returning and fighting for democracy. It will weaken us and strengthen the tyrannical government of Bhutan," he told AFP.

"I understand the temptation to leave the camps. But I am convinced that one day I will return to Bhutan, so I have no difficulty staying here." (AFP)

Human swine flu confirmed in Minnesota pigs

US officials Monday confirmed that pigs at a Minnesota fair have caught the H1N1 virus, but insisted people could not be infected by the animals and pork remained safe to eat.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement that the US National Veterinary Services Laboratories had confirmed the presence of 2009 pandemic swine flu in a pig sample collected at the Minnesota State Fair.

But the statement said infection of a fair pig does not mean commercial herds were infected because show pigs and commercially raised pigs are kept separately.

"We have fully engaged our trading partners to remind them that several international organizations, including the World Organization for Animal Health, have advised that there is no scientific basis to restrict trade in pork and pork products," said Vilsack.

"People cannot get this flu from eating pork or pork products. Pork is safe to eat."

The infected pigs in Minnesota have so far not shown any flu symptoms and appear to be in good health. (AFP)

Israel pulls textbook over reference to 'ethnic cleansing'

Israel's Education Ministry has recalled all copies of a history textbook because of a passage alleging "ethnic cleansing" of Palestinians during the 1948 war, a newspaper reported on Monday.

Israel's Haaretz newspaper said the secondary school textbook was removed from shelves because it sought to present both Israeli and Arab perspectives on the departure of some 750,000 Palestinians during the fighting that erupted after the creation of the Jewish state.

The Palestinians have always said they were violently expelled by Jewish forces while Israel has maintained they were ordered to flee by invading Arab states or alarmed by inflammatory Arab radio reports.

The fate of the refugees and their descendants, who now number some 4.6 million and are scattered across the region, has been one of the most divisive issues in the decades-old Middle East conflict.

The textbook in question, for 11th and 12th graders, contained both versions of the events side-by-side, but according to Haaretz the ministry took issue with the Palestinian version.

It quoted the passage in question as saying: "The Palestinians and the Arab countries contended that most of the refugees were civilians who were attacked and expelled from their homes by armed Jewish forces, which instituted a policy of ethnic cleansing."

Haaretz said the textbooks would be reissued after "corrections" are made.

The education ministry could not immediately be reached for comment.

Since assuming office in March, Israel's right-wing government has sought to reinforce Israel's Jewish identity, including by instituting a plan to change traffic signs to display only Hebrew place names.

Israel's former dovish Education Minister Yuli Tamir sparked controversy in December 2006 when she said school textbooks should show Israel's borders prior to the 1967 Six Day war, during which it conquered Egypt's Sinai, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights and the West Bank including east Jerusalem.

Israel returned the Sinai under a peace treaty with Egypt in 1979 and annexed the Golan and east Jerusalem. The Palestinians have demanded the occupied West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza as their future state. (AFP)

Cyprus tourist arrivals plunge

Cyprus tourist arrivals plunged 10.7 percent in the first nine months of 2009, the government statistical office reported on Friday, bringing more bad news to the recession-hit economy.

The recession in Europe is now biting hard on the Mediterranean holiday island with the tourism-reliant economy expected to contract by 0.5 percent this year.

Between January and September, 1.75 million tourist arrivals were recorded, compared with 1.96 million in the year-earlier period.

In September alone, arrivals were 276,178 as against 305,348 in September 2008 -- a sizeable year-on-year decline of 9.6 percent.

There was a hefty 20.1 percent decline in arrivals from Russia, but a lower 7.2 percent dip from Britain, the island's largest source of holidaymakers.

The government estimates that arrivals will be down 10 percent for 2009 as a whole. To help ease the crisis, Cypriots were urged to holiday at home with subsidised hotel stays for lower income groups.

Total tourism receipts for 2008 dropped 3.5 percent to 1.79 billion euros (2.5 billion dollars) from 1.85 billion euros (2.6 billion dollars) in 2007.

Tourism contributes around 12 percent of the island's GDP.

Bumper tourism revenues helped Cyprus achieve GDP growth of 4.4 percent in 2007 and 3.7 percent in 2008.

Cyprus's economy shrank 0.4 percent in the second quarter after a 0.6 percent drop in the first three months of 2009.

Year-on-year, GDP in the first six months shrank 1.1 percent compared to 2008.

The finance ministry predicts that GDP growth with contract 0.5 percent this year then grow by the same figure in 2010. (AFP)

One in six Japanese living in poverty: survey

Nearly one in every six Japanese lives in poverty, one of the highest rates among developed countries, according to the latest survey by Japan's welfare ministry.

In Japan's first official calculation of its relative poverty rate, the ministry said 15.7 percent of Japanese people lived on less than half the median disposable income in 2006.

The figure, based on national statistics of income in 2006, was up from a figure of 14.6 percent for 1997 according to the newly released ministry data.

Japan is confirmed to be "among the worst" of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) member countries, Health, Labour and Welfare Minister Akira Nagatsuma said Tuesday.

"I want to implement policies to improve the figure, with child-raising allowances and other measures," Nagatsuma said.

The ratio could be worse by now as Japanese workers' salaries have fallen amid the economic slump following the 2008 global financial crisis.

The centre-left government, which ousted conservatives in August elections, has promised family-friendly policies, including a monthly allowance to households with young children.

An OECD report showed that Japan had the fourth-highest relative poverty rate among 30 member countries in the mid-2000s.

Japan's rate came to 14.9 percent in 2004, behind worst-ranked Mexico with 18.4 percent, Turkey with 17.5 percent and the United States with 17.1 percent.

The OECD report also showed the poverty rate for working single-parent households was very high in Japan, reaching 58 percent, far above second-worst Luxembourg with 38 percent.

The Japanese ministry has not calculated a poverty rate for single-parent households.

Nagatsuma has said he plans to reinstate an extra allowance to financially strapped single-parent households, possibly in December.

The allowance was gradually reduced from 2005 and completely scrapped earlier this year under the previous governments' policy of putting more emphasis on job training to help single parents earn money by themselves. (AFP)

Brazilian writhes to win South American pole-dancing crown

Brazil's Rafaela Montenero, 24, has taken first place in South America's premier pole dancing competition, where women writhe on a pole in a mix of eroticism and acrobatics, organizers said Wednesday.

Montenero, from Sao Paulo, delivered her vertical best to take the regional prize late Tuesday, following a similar triumph to become Brazil's Miss Pole Dancer 2009.

In second place was an Argentine dance instructor, 29-year-old Maria Luz Escalante.

Both women travel to London in May to compete in the pole dancing world championships. (AFP)

Cocaine use doubles in Mexico in six years

Cocaine use doubled in Mexico in the six years to 2008, the health minister said Friday, arguing that tougher border controls on smuggling has pushed more of the drug into the domestic market.

Mexico is a major hub for drug trafficking from South America to the United States and beyond, and suspected drug-related violence has left some 14,000 people dead since late 2006.

Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova blamed the rise in cocaine use -- from 1.2 to 2.4 percent among 12 to 65 year olds -- on "changing trafficking routes and increased security on the country's northern and southern borders, which increases access to (illegal) substances inside" the country.

However, Mexico's main addiction problem was alcoholism, Cordova said.

Some 4.2 million people, out of a population of around 109 million, were addicted to alcohol, he said.

The figures came from a public survey of more than 50,000 households across the country's 32 states.

Drug violence has increased despite the deployment of more than 50,000 soldiers nationwide since late 2006 in a crackdown on organized crime. (AFP)

Norwegian passes go to win world Monopoly crown

The once-booming United States property sector may have been ravaged by recession, but in Las Vegas this week real estate wheeler-dealers have been doing a roaring trade.

Unaffected by the credit crunch and with cash to burn, speculators from around the world have been locked in battle for some of the most desirable addresses the Monopoly boardgame has to offer.

In the end, 19-year-old Norwegian student Bjorn Halvard Knappskog was crowned the beloved game's 2009 world champion on Thursday, outlasting his rivals to walk away with a check for 20,580 dollars -- in real money.

That sum is, as most aficionados know, the total amount in the "bank" of the American edition of the game.

Knappskog bankrupted the American, Russian and New Zealand champions in the finale after two days of horse-trading to become the youngest-ever title holder.

The student from Oslo was among 41 national champions competing for the world title, the first global championship in five years.

All of the competitors had won Monopoly tournaments in their home countries to qualify and earned an expenses-paid trip to Las Vegas for this week's event. Knappskog was attending his first world final.

"It was fun just to be here," the Norwegian said. "I was really happy to be here whether I won or lost, but I'm also very happy to have won."

Knappskog emerged the swaggering tycoon when, after the American and Russian players went bankrupt, his Kiwi rival landed on Knappskog's North Carolina Avenue, which had two houses on the property.

The New Zealander, Geoff Christopher, did not have enough cash or assets to pay the 1,600 dollars in rent, and the game was up.

Monopoly's maker, Hasbro, holds world championships sporadically, with the last times in 2004 in Tokyo and 2000 in Toronto.

"Sure, this is exciting," said Germany's Hans-Georg Schellinger, 45, a refrigerator technician from Stuttgart, ousted in Thursday's semi-finals. "I get to go to Las Vegas and play for money. It's a thrill."

It's also about the furthest thing from the homey kitchen-table play that most conjure up when they think of the 75-year-old game.

For one thing, this year's competition took place in a mammoth ballroom at Caesars Palace with hundreds of spectators, official judges and bankers, plus language translators to facilitate deals between the far-flung opponents.

A man dressed in a tuxedo and top hat with a huge handlebar moustache stalked the scene as the game's "Mr. Monopoly" mascot, the New Zealand champion brought 15 of his college friends for a cheering section and a crew of film-makers was on hand to film every dice roll for a documentary about the game, "Under The Boardwalk," expected out next year.

"This is truly spectacular and impressive," said defending world champion Antonio Zafra Fernandez, 41, a Madrid laboratory technician who was playing for Spain and was also ousted during the semi-final round.

"I just want to take a picture of everything, it's so amazing."

The event also offered an opportunity for players to compare "home rules" that have developed in various countries.

In the tournament, however, the official rules are strictly followed and the language barriers made it more challenging to negotiate deals or even to develop a rapport with other players, said American champion Richard Marcinaccio, 26, of Buffalo, New York, who finished third.

"You think of Monopoly, you think about sitting around the board with friends and family and lots of small talk," said Marcinaccio. "Deals may come from that small talk but here it's harder to make deals."

There have been 12 Monopoly kings crowned since the first world championship tournament took place in New York, in 1973. (AFP)

Irish gays hail sport star's coming out

An Irish sporting hero's decision to "out" himself as gay in a new book was hailed as a landmark on Thursday by one the country's leading gay support groups.

Donal Og Cusack, 32, a triple all-Ireland medallist and goalkeeper with the Gaelic Athletic Association's hurling team in the southern county of Cork, reveals his sexual orientation in a new autobiography, "Come What May."

"I get more out of men. Always have. I know I am different but just in this way. Whatever you may feel about me or who I am, I've always been at peace with it," he says in the book, to be published Friday.

His decision was described as "courageous" by David Carroll, national network manager of BeLonG To, a youth project for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender young people.

"From our experience of working with young people we find it is really positive when people they associate with specific achievements come out," he told AFP, calling the move a "real landmark in Irish culture."

Tom Humphries, chief sports writer with The Irish Times, who assisted Cusack with the book, said the gay disclosure challenges the rest of Ireland more than him.

"As the first prominent sportsperson on this island to come out... he has challenged that boorish machismo that still underpins a lot of Irish society and a lot of GAA life. And he has challenged those of us who by our silence are accomplices in that culture," Humphries wrote in his newspaper.

Hurling is a very fast-moving traditional Irish field sport played by two 15-member teams that claims to have a 2,000 year history. Players use a curved bat made of ash wood called a hurley and a leather ball called a sliothar.

Martin Breheny, GAA writer with the Irish Independent said it is a "seminal moment" in the GAA's 125 year history with Cusack a trail-blazer on a path that everybody knew existed but that remained unexplored, publicly at least.

"Music and drama have felt no such need to hide their gay communities, but for reasons probably linked to the macho image attached to physical endeavour, sport has generally presented its heroes in very straight lines." (AFP)

Brazil, China top anti-hunger scorecard: ActionAid

Brazil topped an anti-hunger scorecard on Friday followed by China where 58 million people have more to eat but India earned low marks in a new ActionAid index.

The study, released on World Food Day, scores the efforts by 50 governments to fight hunger, with calls for more action with more than one billion people in the world already going hungry.

"Some of the poorest countries in the world are making striking progress on reducing numbers of hungry people, while some wealthier countries are lagging behind," the Johannesburg-based group said.

It praised President Lula da Silva for Brazil's 73 percent drop in child malnutrition through food banks, community kitchens and support for small farmers and land reform.

"Brazil tops our league table, showing what can be achieved when the state has both resources and political will to tackle hunger," the report said.

Less than nine percent of China's population now go hungry with 58 million people no longer undernourished, edging the Asian giant into second place on the developing state table.

The ranking of African states Ghana and Malawi in third and fifth place showed the fight against hunger did not depend on wealth, the group said.

ActionAid said 30 million more people in India, listed at number 22 after countries like Ethiopia and Lesotho, had slipped into the hungry category since the mid-1990s.

"Hunger exists not because there is not enough food in India, but because people cannot access it," the report said.

Rich nations drew criticism for reneging on commitments to finance a stronger fight against hunger.

Greece, Portugal, Italy, the United States and New Zealand are named as the worst offenders in reducing official aid to agriculture.

Bottom of the developed nation scorecard is New Zealand, with a score of seven out of 100, followed by the United States and Japan which were all given an "E" grade.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, with nine points, is the lowest on the developing state list.

ActionAid called on world leaders to fight hunger by supporting small farmers, protect rights to food, and tackle climate change.

"It's the role of the state and not the level of wealth, that determines progress on hunger," said Anne Jellema, ActionAid policy director. (AFP)

China to relocate 15,000 from lead-poisoned area

Authorities in central China plan to move 15,000 residents away from smelting plants in the area after nearly 1,000 children tested positive for lead poisoning, state media said on Friday.

Zhao Suping, mayor of Jiyuan city in Henan province, said the mass relocation would cost one billion yuan (146 million dollars), the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Zhao said 70 percent of the cost would be borne by the local government and the smelters responsible for the lead poisoning, while local residents would foot the rest of the bill, according to Xinhua.

State press reported Tuesday that health authorities in Jiyuan found that 968 children had excessive levels of lead in their blood after tests on more than 2,700 kids under the age of 14.

The scandal was just the latest in a string of recent lead poisoning incidents around China that have exposed the dark side of the country's industrial boom of recent decades.

Excessive levels of lead are considered hazardous, particularly to children, who can experience stunted growth and even mental retardation.

Xinhua called Jiyuan the country's biggest lead-smelting centre.

The report said the relocation site for the affected residents was still being determined.

The Jiyuan government suspended production at 32 of the 35 electrolytic lead plants in the area, it added. (AFP)

Flood-borne disease leaves 89 dead in Philippines

Massive floods brought by powerful storms have caused an outbreak of the deadly disease leptospirosis that has claimed 89 lives in the Philippine capital alone, the health secretary said Saturday.

The incidence of the disease in the Philippine capital and surrounding areas rose to 1,027 with 89 fatalities from October 1-15 this year compared to 769 cases and only 39 deaths in the same period last year, Secretary Francis Duque said.

"It is largely attributable to the floods," Duque told AFP.

Huge floods covered parts of Manila and its surrounding areas after tropical storm Ketsana hit the country on September 26.

This was compounded by typhoon Parma which hit a few days later, again bringing heavy rains. In some areas, the floodwaters have not receded.

This has caused many people to fall ill of leptospirosis, an infectious disease caused by exposure to dirty, stagnant water.

To lessen the incidence of the disease, Duque said authorities had declared an outbreak of the disease in three districts of the capital and were administering antibiotics to some 1.3 million people.

"It will provide substantial protection," he said. However he warned that people should still avoid exposure to dirty water.

The government has said that at least 773 people have already died from storms Ketsana and Parma, mostly from drowning and landslides. (AFP)

Mum's the word at Vegas blogging convention

For years, the stereotypical blogger was a geek yammering on about the latest technoglogy or a celebrity-obsessed scribe dishing about Paris, Lindsay and Madonna.

But the powerhouses in blogging nowadays may surprise you: Mothers.

At this weekend?s BlogWorld Expo, billed as the world's largest blogging convention, women who blog about their family life are commanding more than a dozen special sessions and are intensely sought after by the plethora of corporate marketers stalking the event.

"This shows the power of the blog and the power of moms," said Beth Davis, who blogs at ThePlusSizedMommy.Com and was brought to BlogWorld by Healthy Choice, a frozen diet food line, to discuss a potential sponsorship.

"If I say something about a product being wonderful and you have to try it, my readers are going to listen to me because of my influence, and go out and buy it," Davis said.

It was unclear how many of the 2,500 BlogWorld attendees from 20 countries are "Mommy bloggers," but the topic of the kind of gifts and sponsorships they're receiving loomed large over the proceedings.

The Federal Trade Commission earlier this month threatened to impose hefty fines on bloggers who don't disclose they've received free items or money in exchange for their coverage.

Some mommy bloggers were pleased that their work is being taken so seriously but also feeling besieged by governmental interference.

Rachel Herrscher, chief executive of the parenting networking site TodaysMama.Com, questioned why the government needed to issue such rules when the public can tell what advertising is.

"If I go to a basketball game and I see banners hanging, no one needs to tell me that that was paid advertising," Herrscher said.

"As consumers, we?re savvy."

Yet both the rise of Mom bloggers and the involvement of the government also reflects the fact that blogging and other social-media outlets like Twitter have gone mainstream.

Not only was attendance the show?s highest ever, but conventioneers were treated by major Las Vegas resorts during the weekend to show tickets, passes to attractions and elaborate parties with free food and alcohol.

"Last year and year before, big businesses didn't get it," said Blogworld chief executive and co-founder Rick Calvert of his efforts to shop for deals and organize events for the 1,750 bloggers who attended last year and 1,400 who came in 2007.

"This year, we're getting calls from every hotel in town. They want to host events for our bloggers and podcasters."

The convention's attendees were an admittedly eccentric group, brought together to compare technical, publicity and marketing ideas.

It was not uncommon to see people bumping into one another as they walked and typed on their phones.

Convention speakers seemed unfazed as members of their audiences tapped away at their computers, checked their iPhones, shot photos or updated their status on Twitter.

One expert on social media, Mari Smith, explained that she always wears an article of pale blue clothing because of her loyalty to the micro-blog site Twitter. Real estate blogger Daniel Rothamel of RealEstateZebra.com wore a black suit jacket covered in swathes of fabric that boasted the websites of other real estate blogs.

During a keynote address, blogger Chris Brogan not only accepted that his audience's attention was fragmented but spoke in front of two large screens that showed the latest Twitter updates about the talk he was delivering.

"We need to drive this stuff to business," Brogan, president of New Marketing Labs, told the audience.

"The salad days are done. It's not time to be all gee-whiz with each other anymore. It's time to think how this will affect our business." (AFP)

Rio youth use GPS phones to put favelas on map

Rio's favelas are home to a third of the city's population, but are almost invisible on maps -- a situation five young women are trying to change with the help of GPS and the Internet.

Rafaela Goncalves da Silva, 21, has lived in the Santa Marta favela, a poor and dangerous slum that was recently the target of a police pacification operation, since she was two years old.

She is bringing up her son there now, and takes him to school each day by cable-car under the watchful gaze of the Christ the Redeemer statue that dominates the city's horizon.

She is also among the five women recruited by youth organization Rede Jovem to use GPS-equipped cellphones to map and log the streets of Rio's favelas.

"I start up the GPS at the beginning of the street, then I walk without stopping until the end," she told AFP. The information is then uploaded to the Wikimapa site, where is available for anyone to access.

Some of the streets being mapped do not have an official name.

"I just ask the older residents what they call, the community calls the street," she said, tapping in one such name -- Paciencia Street -- into her cellphone.

The mapping project goes beyond just street names, and includes details of local shops, clubs and meeting points.

On this street, Rafaela's first stop is at Flavio's, "whose fatty cakes are bad for your heart," she said, sitting on the sidewalk. She takes down the name of the shop, a little background, opening hours and a photograph. Within minutes, the information is available on the online map.

There is plenty more for Rafaela to document -- football fields, cybercafes, shops, churches. She takes photographs and videos, and little escapes her telephone. She even captures the location where Michael Jackson filmed the video for his song "They don't really care about us," in 1996.

"People are often suspicious, but I explain that I'm doing this for an Internet project and that reassures them," she said.

Rafaela is one of five so-called "wikireporters" recruited by Rede Jovem.

"We looked for dynamic young people from poor neighborhoods who wanted to learn," said Natalia Santos, a Rede Jovem representative.

The five young women, chosen because they are "less timid than boys", will compete to see who can obtain the most information over the next six months. The winner will receive a grant to study journalism, but for now each of the five receives a monthly stipend of 105 dollars along with a GPS cellphone.

Rede Jovem works to try and drive social engagement among underprivileged youth by facilitating their access to new information and communication technologies. The group points out that Wikimapa can serve as a way to encourage Internet use.

"Everyone can participate and send their information," Santos said. "All you need is a 3G telephone with GPS and to upload the Wikimapa software. We're hoping to map all of Brazil."

In many favelas, wi-fi access is free, and more and more residents have Internet access.

For Alini dos Santos Silva, a wikireporter from Pavao-Pavaozinho in the heights of Copacabana, the project is also a chance to refute the "big lies" she says are told about the slums, many of which are run by drug traffickers and gangs.

"People think that there's nothing here but violence. But I want to show them! The favelas are above all places of life, of meetings," she said. (AFP)

Ageing French hunters target young blood

Thirty-year-old Simon Mueller stands with a shotgun slung over his shoulder and a brace of dead partridges at his feet. France desperately needs more youngsters like him to keep the multi-billion-euro hunting sector alive, say bloodsport authorities.

The sport has more than a million participants here, making it by far the largest hunting population in Europe.

Shooters can take aim at everything from wild boar in the deep forests around Paris, to deer and woodcock on the Mediterranean island of Corsica, to chamois goats and mouflon sheep high in the Alps.

In neighbouring Britain hunting is seen as a largely upper-class pastime. But in France it is a far more democratic hobby --- largely thanks to the 1789 French revolution that did away with aristocratic privileges -- practised by top executives and factory workers alike.

But with the average hunter age at 54, the industry believes it needs to take rapid action to avoid decline and has launched a recruitment campaign to accompany the opening late last month of the main hunting season.

Mueller, a farmer, thinks young people are turned off by a pastime they see as "wicked men shooting poor innocent animals."

He regrets that most do not understand that, apart from being a convivial activity that provides lots of fun, hunting also protects nature.

"Hunting is about respect for others, respect for the animal, respect for the environment," said Mueller in between taking potshots at birds in a beetroot field at Four a Chaux estate near Jouy-sous-Thelle, north of Paris.

That is the message France's national hunting federation is trying to get across in the poster, advertising and car sticker campaign it has launched in villages and towns across the country.

"We want fewer grey heads and more young blood," said Guy Harle d'Ophove, president of the hunting federation in the Oise department, or administrative district, that borders the Paris region.

The white-haired president noted that overall hunter numbers have dropped from 2.2 million in 1974 to 1.4 million today, and of that number just 100,000 are under 25 years old.

The problem, he said, is that too many French see hunters as people "who kill Bambi and Bambi's mother," a reference to a Walt Disney film where a deer gets shot by bloodthirsty humans.

That is indeed the message of animal rights groups like the foundation set up by the French film legend Brigitte Bardot, which describes hunting as "ransacking and murder" and says it is a pastime with no future.

"Some hunting federations are engaged in reckless lobbying, scandalous proselytism in schools, but with little success because hunting is an outmoded practice," a foundation spokesman told AFP.

Animal rights activists describe hunting, like bull-fighting, as the torture and killing of animals for entertainment.

The anti-hunting movement, which is far less vociferous here than in Britain or the United States, holds regular protests and in particular takes aim at the "chasse a courre," or hunting with hounds, which is banned in several European countries.

Many animal lovers are horrified by the spectacle of a crowd of hunters following a pack of baying dogs that pursue, sometimes for hours, terrified deer or boar before going in for the bloody kill.

The problem, said Harle d'Ophove, is that France has gone from a rural to an urban society that has lost touch with the countryside and forgotten that nature is red in tooth and claw.

"If you want an animal to remain wild you have to hunt it. If you don't hunt it will lose all the things that make us admire wild animals -- cunning, speed, strength. Otherwise they end up like sheep."

Hunters were ecologists long before the environment became fashionable, he said, noting that hunting federations finance and maintain nature reserves across the country in order to maintain the habitat necessary for their prey.

Some species can also start being a serious threat to crops if their numbers are not kept down, said Harle d'Ophove.

"That's true for boars," said Christophe Aubel of the Roc League for the Protection of Wild Animals.

"But one reason the population needs to be controlled is because hunters feed boars in winter to keep up the population and thereby contribute to the explosion of the population," he said.

Harle d'Ophove is confident that the bid to attract youth will work.

"The campaign we are launching is aimed at putting hunting back in the heart of civilisation," he declared.

Politics is a large part of that campaign.

A candidate from the Hunting, Fishing, Nature, Traditions (CPNT) stood against Nicolas Sarkozy in the 2007 presidential election. He got only 1.15 percent of the vote, but Sarkozy knows those 420,000 votes will be useful if and when he runs again for the presidency.

"When I phone politicians they always gets back to me," said Harle d'Ophove.

He argues that there is also a major economic reason to encourage more young people to take up bloodsports, noting that the sector is worth an annual 2.4 billion euros (3.6 billion dollars) and employs 23,000 people. (AFP)

US to ease prosecutions for 'medical marijuana' use

The US Justice Department said it would ease federal prosecutions for the use of "medical marijuana" in states where the substance is permitted by law for the treatment of illness.

Marijuana use is a federal crime in the United States, but 14 US states, including California, allow use of the drug to alleviate medical symptoms.

Attorney General Eric Holder said that in the future, federal law enforcement resources will not be used to prosecute patients whose state laws allow prescription use of the drug, in a sharp departure from the policy of the George W. Bush administration.

"It will not be a priority to use federal resources to prosecute patients with serious illnesses or their caregivers who are complying with state laws on medical marijuana," said Holder in a statement.

He added however that "we will not tolerate drug traffickers who hide behind claims of compliance with state law to mask activities that are clearly illegal."

"This balanced policy formalizes a sensible approach that the department has been following since January," said Holder, the top federal prosecutor.

He added that the new rules "effectively focus our resources on serious drug traffickers while taking into account state and local laws."

States that allow some use of marijuana for medical purposes are Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.

The new guidelines, which were sent to federal prosecutors across the United States, codify a policy that the government has followed since President Barack Obama took office in January, Holder said.

On the campaign trail while vying for the White House last year, Obama promised that he would not prosecute medical marijuana users in states where the practice was legal under state law. (AFP)

Global recession hits India's 'baby business'

The global economic downturn has hit businesses around the world, from big banks to local shops, leaving millions in fear of losing their livelihoods and desperate to cut down on spending.

But among the recession's more unlikely victims have been infertile Western couples wanting children and prepared to travel abroad to use Indian surrogate mothers as a cheaper alternative to fertility clinics back home.

"There are so many couples who back out, who have enquired, who would say that we would like to come, but then say, 'Doctor, we are worried about our jobs right now'," said Nayna Patel, who runs a clinic in western Gujarat state.

"They say, 'Without a job, what good are we going to do to the child that is going to come with us?'," she told AFP TV.

The situation is a turnaround for Patel, who has seen business boom at her Akanksha clinic in the town of Anand in recent years.

Despite the recession, some wealthy foreigners still travel thousands of miles for the chance of a baby -- finding no shortage of poor, local women prepared to allow them to use their wombs.

Upstairs from the clinic's examination rooms, pregnant Indian women in colourful saris lie on dozens of beds, holding their swollen bellies as they chat or watch television under whirring ceiling fans.

One woman explained that she had no option, as her husband died and she had no money to feed her own children. Another said she miscarried recently but was hopeful of carrying another surrogacy full term.

Opina, 26, opened a box to reveal a gold locket with two tiny photos of her newborn twins. Soon, the trinket -- a gift from the parents -- will be the only reminder of the babies she is about to give away.

"I feel very happy because now one couple has their own children, and I gave them their children," she said.

But with watery eyes, she added: "On the other hand, I also feel very sad, because I was the one who delivered them."

Surrogacy is not illegal in India, but there are moves to tighten laws to define the responsibilities and duties of a surrogate mother and those seeking her services, as well as tighter regulation of medical facilities.

The baby business -- one of the most controversial areas of India's "outsourcing" and medical tourism boom -- still carries a stigma in the deeply conservative, family-orientated society.

Opina's husband supported her but she faced opposition from her grandparents and has not told her friends.

Living on just 50 dollars a month, these women can boost their earnings dramatically to 7,500 dollars for a single pregnancy -- more than 10 years' earnings.

For now, Opina rocks one of the twins back to sleep, and, like any mother concerned over a newborn, she anxiously watches his every move, patting away hiccups.

But the twins were conceived using eggs and sperm from a Canadian couple and their biological mother sits close by, ready to take them home when they are about a month old.

Christine, in her mid-30s, and her husband -- who did not want their surnames used -- turned to surrogacy and India after several failed attempts at expensive in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) in Canada.

Bouncing one of her new children on a knee as Opina looks on, Christine said that surrogacy needs to be considered more as an option "instead of continual repeat visits and an encouragement for IVF cycles to continue".

Another Canadian couple with newborn twins have different reasons for choosing surrogacy.

Shyamani already has a seven-year-old daughter but her husband is from a family of 11 and they want more children.

"We always wanted to have a lot of children in our family. We weren't satisfied with just one child and we wanted our daughter to have siblings," she said.

Surrogacy can work well for both sides, she added.

"They have lots of difficulties, they have lots of needs and they'll be able to fulfill their dreams and needs in the same way we do ours. So, it's kind of a win-win situation," she explained.

Patel acknowledged that the motivation for most Indian women is financial and is confident that demand will pick up again, as the first seeds of recovery are seen in Western economies.

Opina said: "It is good work because she (Christine) had no child. I had no money and now she has child and I have money.

"My husband feels it's good because it is like a type of gift from God.

"It is the first time I have done surrogacy... I did it so we can buy our own home but I would do it again, so we can have money for our own child and give him a bright future." (AFP)

Bumper harvest turns sour for Bulgaria's grape growers

This year's grape harvest in Bulgaria proved to be a bumper one but independent grape growers around the country say they will be in no mood to celebrate.

Plenty of sun and just the right amount of rain have boosted the yield to well over 400,000 tonnes of grapes from 369,400 tonnes last year.

And winemakers say the quality is excellent, too, with high sugar content, mouth-watering aroma and rich colour.

Nevertheless, independent grape growers will not be cheering, because slumping wine sales are forcing major winemakers to cut back the volumes of grapes they traditionally purchase from them.

And travelling in one of Bulgaria's wine-growing regions between the southern city of Plovdiv and nearby Assenovgrad, home to Mavrud, one of the most popular red grape varieties, one comes across scores of crates filled with grapes lining the roads, with makeshift "for sale" signs.

"Do you want to buy some?" asks 65-year-old Elena Nikolova from the nearby village of Proslav, rather hopefully.

"It's a nightmare," she huffs.

"The wineries don't want to take it at all or try to buy it dirt cheap, so we're forced to try and sell the grapes by the roadside. But can you imagine how many people will really buy it to take home and make their own wine?"

Nikolova said she and her three cousins, who work 1.2 hectares of Mavrud, have decided to uproot their ageing vineyard and sell the land next year.

Hundreds of thousands other small vineyard owners, who were given their land back after the communist-era cooperatives were dismantled, are facing similar fates.

Yordan Stefanov, director of the huge Winery Assenovgrad nearby, said he would be buying almost no extra grapes from small growers in face of a 15 to 20 percent drop in export orders.

"We rely on grapes from our own vineyards of over 20 hectares and from contracts with local cooperatives. Purchases from individual small grape growers are being cut to the minimum," Stefanov told AFP.

The wine plant, which shipped as many as 20 million bottles of wine to the Soviet Union during the Communist era, is still among the top 10 Bulgarian winemakers with an annual production of 2.1 million litres of wine.

But soon it hopes to be able to cover as much as half of its processing volumes of around 3,000 tonnes of grapes a year from its own vineyards.

All wineries, especially the countless new chateau-type winemakers that have sprung up around the country, are now feeding 50-70 percent of their production needs with their own grapes, National Vine and Wine Chamber chairman Plamen Mollov said.

"As their most recently planted vineyards come into full fruit bearing over the next years, most wineries will be able to cover their entire production with their own grapes," he said.

That, experts say, will spell the end for small grape growers who own over half of the country's 104,335 hectares of vineyards, unless they join forces to set up cooperatives.

Already this year, the wineries will cut nearly half of their purchasing volumes to around 120,000 tonnes this year from 203,447 tonnes last year, according to data compiled by the National Vine and Wine Chamber.

Two thirds of Bulgarian wines are made for export, most of it going to Russia, which accounted for 62 percent of total exports of 87 million litres last year. But orders to Russia have slumped by around 25 percent.

Sales to other countries, such as Poland, Sweden, Britain, Germany and the Czech Republic, have also dropped, leaving winemakers with enough stock of unsold wine to cover sales for another year even if no wine is made at all this year, the data showed. (AFP)

Ashkalis: suffering of Kosovo's forgotten minority

Kosovo may have won recognition in its David vs. Goliath battle for independence from Serbia, but its own Ashkali minority live forgotten in squalor and misery in a daily fight for survival.

"Even a dog in any European Union country enjoys better living conditions than we here," complained Danush Ademi, a Kosovo MP representing the Ashkali community.

In Dubrave, a tiny shantytown in central Kosovo, all 1,600 inhabitants are Ashkalis -- part of an estimated 65,000 Ashkalis across Kosovo where the majority ethnic Albanians number almost two million people.

Ashkalis speak Albanian but are not ethnic Albanian. They are also quick to distinguish themselves from another Kosovar ethnic minority, the Roma or gypsies, who trace their origins to India.

"We come from Persia," Ademi told AFP.

But it is not their origins that preoccupy Ademi. Quickly doing the math, he calculated that with a 98 percent unemployment rate, only 12 people, "including myself", have jobs in Dubrave.

"What do we live on? Look there, that's our source of income," Fatima Hassani murmured bitterly, pointing to an old cart in the dirt courtyard behind her broken down house.

"When someone needs to transport something, we get our horse and use it. This is the only way for us to earn some money," said the 51-year old mother of three.

Curious children flock around to see what's going on. They all go to school, at least almost all of them, says one man.

Strung up on wire, fish dry in the autumn sun.

"We live -- or rather, we survive," said Hassani.

For many Ashkali, like 42-year-old Besir Ismaili, time and energy go each day into scrambling for odd jobs like collecting wood to bring in a bit of money. The father of six has never had regular, full-time employment.

"When you have a job, you have everything," he said, sweeping his old cart to fight boredom.

For a state forged on minority rights, the Ashkali say theirs are neglected.

Ismaili concedes that he, like many in Dubrave, get 50 euros (74 dollars) a month in government assistance, the stipend for every unemployed head of a family. But this is not nearly enough to feed his family.

His plight is echoed by others, in emotional testimonies.

"I am sometimes forced to beg at the mosque," cried 59-year old Myrvette Hanigi, raising her arms in despair.

She said she tries to keep up hope, telling herself it "will get better".

"As it is now, it is unbearable," she said.

Ashkalis insist their troubles are overlooked by officials in the capital Pristina, whom they say focus attention on the vocal, 100,000-strong ethnic Serb minority backed by Belgrade.

Kosovo's 2008 independence declaration by its Albanian authorities is still disputed. Though recognised by 62 countries, including the United States and most of the European Union, Serbia, backed by its powerful ally Russia, opposes the move.

Belgrade still considers Kosovo as its southern province, and the ethnic Serb enclave bordering Serbia proper has been fraught with tension and inter-ethnic clashes since the end of the 1998-99 Kosovo war.

"The ministry for return and minorities should rather be called the ministry for the Serbs," Ademi charged.

The Serb minority "is privileged, both by investments and the attention that Pristina gives them.

"I simply want to be treated equally like them," he said.

Kosovo analyst Halil Matoshi agreed.

"When the government talks about minorities, it is primarily about the Serbs," he said.

The Ashkalis say they have no tension with other ethnic groups in Kosovo, notably the Albanians, and local officials say no inter-ethnic incidents between Ashkalis and other minorities have been registered in recent years.

There is little excitement about local elections next month, even though they are the first since Kosovo declared independence.

In a bid to make their voice heard, Ademi hopes to mobilise Ashkalis to vote in the November poll. But it "is very difficult to lead an election campaign among the poor, exhausted and starved," he said.

The MP is also against western European countries repatriating Kosovo refugees, as Germany recently said it would do with some 14,000 refugees, mostly Roma, some 10 years after they fled conflict in the Balkans.

This would cut off a source of income for Ashkalis, he explained.

"There is not one single person abroad who is not helping his own. Don't force the refugees to return to Kosovo because that would only make the situation even worse," he said. (AFP)

Sepsis treatment 'may slow Lou Gehrig's disease'

An enzyme similar to that used to treat serious sepsis could be used to slow the progress of the motor neuron disorder known as Lou Gehrig's disease, according to new medical research.

A study, released late Monday, found that mice suffering from the disease experienced slower cell death when treated with the enzyme, called activated Protein C or APC.

The protein also extended by about 25 percent the life of mice suffering from a particularly aggressive form of the disease, which is formally known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, according to the study.

The report, which was published in the online edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, was produced by researchers from a group of US universities and a biotech startup company in New York state.

Among other promising developments, the study found the compound extended the amount of time that mice suffering from the disease were able to function normally, despite showing some symptoms of the disorder, which is incurable and almost always fatal.

The protein also slowed muscle wasting associated with the illness, which is named after the star US baseball player Lou Gehrig, who died in 1941 after suffering from the disease.

Though additional research will be needed before the treatment can be used in humans, the researchers said they were encouraged that the breakthrough involves a compound that is already used to treat patients with sepsis and has been proven safe.

They hope clinical trials on patients could begin within five years.

"The success of this research project has been very gratifying, and we are hopeful that a form of APC will ultimately be useful as a treatment for this disease," said Berislav Zlokovic, a professor of Neurosurgery and Neurology at the University of Rochester.

The researchers found that APC may also be useful in mitigating some of the secondary effects of the illness, including a mutation that weakens barriers between blood and the spinal cord, allowing toxic substances to enter the spinal cord. (AFP)

Young hit hardest by swine flu: CDC

Swine flu is "a younger person's disease," with more than half of hospitalizations and nearly a quarter of deaths from H1N1 involving people under the age of 25, a top health official said Tuesday.

Fifty-three percent of nearly 4,900 laboratory-confirmed cases of swine flu between September 1 and October 10 involved patients under the age of 25, Anne Schuchat, an expert on respiratory diseases and immunization at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told reporters.

Almost a quarter of the 292 deaths from swine flu which were reported in the same time period were in young adults, teens and children, and two-thirds of deaths from H1N1 were in the 25-64 age group, Schuchat said.

"This is dramatically different than what we see with seasonal flu" where 90 percent of fatalities and 60 percent of hospitalizations occur in people 65 and over, said Schuchat.

Only 12 percent of fatalities and seven percent of hospitalizations for swine flu have involved patients aged 65 and over.

H1N1 flu is "still a younger person's disease," and because it is disproportionately affecting young people, they have been made a target population for the massive vaccination effort that is being rolled out across the United States, Schuchat said.

As of Monday, 12.8 million doses of H1N1 vaccine were available, and the vast majority of those doses -- 10.8 million -- have been ordered by the states.

That meant there were three million more doses available this week than last, when the effort to vaccinate anyone who wants to be innoculated against H1N1 flu began in earnest.

Schuchat hailed as "a significant achievement" the fact that a steady supply of what she called safe, effective vaccine continues to flow out to health officials around the United States.

"Orders are being filled quickly. Vaccine is being given out all around the country," she said.

"This is a significant achievement, to have what we believe is a safe and very effective vaccine available in our states and counties... just since the April recognition of this virus," she said.

At least 4,735 people have died from swine flu infections since April, when an outbreak of H1N1 flu was first reported in Mexico, the World Health Organization has said. (AFP)

Abortion debate heats up in Peru

Thousands of pro- and anti-abortion demonstrators squared off outside Congress Tuesday, as a legislative committee revisited and confirmed its recent support of a bill allowing abortion in case of rape or fetal deformity.

The panel voted October 7 to send the bill to Congress for debate, but strong opposition by the Roman Catholic Church and Defense Minister Rafael Rey, who says he will resign if the bill is approved, prompted a "technical" review of the measure.

The bill would expand a 1924 law, which allows abortion only when the expectant mother's health or life are in jeopardy, to include rape and fetal deformity.

Spearheaded by Peruvian Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani, who calls the measure a "death penalty" for the innocent, the church has openly lobbied lawmakers to drop the proposed legislation.

As the congressional panel deliberated, thousands of people, including priests, nuns and schoolchildren on both sides of the abortion issue squared off outside the congressional building, shouting insults, slogans and waving scores of banners.

"Get your rosary out of my ovaries," one group of women was heard shouting at a group of nuns who were praying in the street.

With the panel's approval, the abortion bill now heads for debate in Congress at a date yet to be determined.

If the abortion bill is passed, Peru would join a small group of Latin American nations that allow abortion only in cases of rape or to save the life of the expectant mother.

An Ipsos-Apoyo poll released Sunday found a slight majority of Peru's population of 29 million are against the abortion bill.

Women's groups said some 376,000 illegal abortions are performed in Peru each year, and that 22 percent of women in Lima are sexual abuse victims. (AFP)

Crisis-hit Spanish wine maker cuts celebrities

For over three decades a top producer of Spanish sparkling wine known as cava has recruited top stars such as Sharon Stone for its annual Christmas television ad.

But this year Freixenet will not be hiring celebrities due to the economic downturn and will instead repeat a spot it used in 2008 featuring Spain's synchronized swimming team as a cost-cutting move.

"This year we are not up to making a big blockbuster," Pedro Bonet, a member of the family that founded Freixenet near Barcelona over a century ago, was quoted Tuesday as saying by Spanish newspapers.

"We were aware that ostentation was not necessary, that moderation was necessary," he said, according to free daily ADN.

Cava is a popular drink in Spain to toast friends and family during year-end celebrations but Freixenet now earns 70 percent of its revenues outside of the country, according to business daily Cinco Dias.

Oscar-winning US actress Liza Minnelli was the first to perform in a Freixenet Christmas advertisement, singing the theme song from her hit film "Cabaret" in 1977.

An ageing Gene Kelly reprised "Singing in the Rain" in 1981, twirling his umbrella and clicking his heels as golden cava bubbles fell from the sky while Welsch sang "I'm So Excited" in a see-through top in the spot that aired four years later.

"Dallas" star Victoria Principal sang "Fever" in 1987 at a time when the television series was top of the ratings all over the world.

Among the other big names who have featured in its television spots are Paul Newman, Demi Moore and Meg Ryan, according to the company's website.

The Spanish economy, Europe's fifth largest, entered into recession during the second half of last year as the global credit crunch hastened a correction already underway on its property sector, the driver of over a decade of growth.

The nation's unemployment rate hit 17.92 percent in July, the highest rate in the European Union and almost twice the eurozone average, causing household consumption to drop. (AFP)

Uighurs swap Gitmo fatigues for Bermuda shorts

Every morning Khalil Mamut rides to work through winding palm-lined lanes on his rental scooter.

He spends the day raking the bunkers and tending the greens of a majestic ocean side golf course. Some evenings he trains with his soccer team. Other nights he studies his English homework or simply relaxes watching a DVD, preferably something with Jackie Chan.

It is a simple existence. But it is a life he says he will never take for granted.

It has been four months since Mamut and three other Chinese Uighur Muslims were brought blinking into the Bermudian sunlight after a secret pre-dawn flight from Guantanamo Bay, where they had been imprisoned for seven years.

The unique resettlement project -- which will be mirrored soon when eight of their fellow Uighur detainees are given new homes in the Pacific island of Palau -- has worked out well for the Bermuda four.

The men say they are adapting to their new lives on this tiny paradise island, home to roughly 65,000 people, and spend much of their spare time swimming or fishing in the ocean.

"I would like to stay here forever -- to work, make money, hopefully get married, have kids and take them to the beach," Mamut said.

The men were among a larger group of Uighurs captured in Pakistan and Afghanistan and sold for bounty to US forces after fleeing the mountains in the wake of the US-led raids that followed the September 11, 2001 attacks.

They say they were living as refugees in Afghanistan, having faced religious persecution in China. Relations have long been tense between Uighurs and China's majority Han, with some 200 people dying in July in ethnic fighting.

But their captors claimed they had attended terror-training camps and they were flown to the US military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in June 2002.

After a series of military tribunals and court-room battles they were cleared of any links to global terrorism.

Unable to return to China where they would almost certainly be prosecuted, and with no country prepared to offer them asylum, they were trapped in legal limbo and spent seven years marooned at Guantanamo until the Bermuda government offered them a home.

President Barack Obama's administration has been asking nations to take in clear Guantanamo inmates as it struggles to shut down the camp, which for many around the world became a symbol of US "war on terror" excesses.

US lawmakers, alleging that the men still posed a risk, refused to let them come to the United States. And many nations dared not risk the wrath of China, which was infuriated when Albania accepted four of the Uighurs in 2006.

The resettlement in Bermuda has not been without hitches. Protesters marched on parliament and Premier Ewart Brown faced a vote of no-confidence for his pact with the Obama administration.

Britain also voiced frustration that it was not further consulted by the decision in Bermuda, a self-governing British overseas territory.

But on the streets the Uighurs have been warmly welcomed and are treated almost as minor celebrities.

They may have shaved their thick beards and swapped their prison fatigues for board shorts and sunglasses, but they are still instantly recognizable.

And it is not unusual for passers-by to stop, shake their hands and ask for a photograph.

"People are very peaceful, very friendly. Everywhere we go people recognize us and say, 'You are welcome, don't worry you can stay here'," Mamut said.

The reception in Bermuda has been a pleasant surprise for US-based advocates of the former inmates, who had voiced fear that they would have trouble adjusting to a nation with no Uighur community.

Until they arrived in Bermuda the four men -- Mamut, Abdulla Abdulqadir, Salahidin Abdulahat and Ablikim Turahu -- had never set foot on a golf course.

Their only experience of the sport was playing on a Wii games console at the low-security Iguana Camp in Guantanamo Bay, where they were transferred after being cleared of any wrongdoing.

Now they spend their days tending the manicured fairways of Bermuda's famous Port Royal course, which was hosting the PGA Grand Slam in October and draws a slew of famous visitors, recently including former US president Bill Clinton.

"It's beautiful," Mamut said. "It feels like we are working in a garden.

"Everywhere is so green, everywhere there are trees. We even have some ducks."

Outside of work Mamut and Abdulqadir spend much of their time playing soccer.

They train twice-a-week and play matches on Sundays for X-Roads, an amateur team managed by the imam of a local mosque.

They insist they are not bitter about the seven years they spent in Guantanamo and try not to think of the past.

"We have started a new life. What is done can't be undone," Mamut said.

"When we left Gitmo we left everything behind. I don't want to mention those suffering days," he aid.

"Praise be to Allah, we are in Bermuda now." (AFP)

Jobless Jordanians exploited by organ traffickers

Ali, a 30-year-old Jordanian father of three, was without a job and desperate. A friend convinced him that selling one of his kidneys could improve conditions for his family and also save someone's life.

So he flew to Egypt earlier this year, had a kidney removed, and was paid 5,000 dollars. But it was a Faustian bargain.

"I regret it with all my heart. I don't know what I was thinking," Ali told AFP. "I got all 5,000 dollars after I donated the kidney, but I did not see or know the person I gave my kidney to.

"Now I know I made a bad mistake out of ignorance. I don't have a job, and poverty and hard conditions blinded me to what I was doing."

Ali was just one of dozens of cash-strapped people in Jordan who sold a kidney to brokers who prey on the poor.

Mohammed, 29, said he too was promised 5,000 dollars for a kidney, but after the operation he was given less than half of the money in late 2008.

"I couldn't do anything about it. They told me 'take it or leave it'," said the father of two.

"I still can't find a job, I'm still poor and now all the money is gone. My life did not improve."

Mohammed said he was deceived into thinking he would "still have a normal life" after the operation.

"I've been feeling exhausted since my kidney was removed. I know I am not well but I don't know what's wrong. I can't see a doctor because I hear police are looking out for people like me," he added in a hoarse voice.

"My life has changed. I can't even sit and talk comfortably with my wife and children. This is always on my mind."

Reliable data on organ trafficking is not available, but Jordanian officials insist it is not a pressing issue. Organ trafficking is banned, with penalties of up to five years' jail and 28,000 dollars in fines.

In September, 11 Jordanians were extradited by Cairo and charged in Amman with trafficking in human organs, mainly kidneys, and selling them illegally in Egypt for up to 30,000 dollars each.

Other suspects are being interrogated and seven more are on the run, police said.

In the tiny desert kingdom, official figures show that 70 percent of the nearly six-million population is under the age of 30 and that unemployment is running at 14.3 percent.

However, independent estimates put the jobless figure more than double, at 30 percent.

In 2007, a year in which more than 80 cases of trafficking were uncovered, Jordan created a National Commission to Promote Organ Donation in a bid to end illegal trafficking and encourage people to donate their organs.

"Traffickers work on commission, preying on poor people to convince them to sell their kidneys and then facilitating their travel to a third country for the operations," said state coroner Momen Hadidi, the commission's rapporteur.

"More than 800 people die every year in Jordan in road accidents. We should be encouraging the relatives of these victims to donate the organs of their loved ones. That way we can begin to reduce the demand," he said.

According to a recent government study of 130 cases in which kidneys were sold, nearly 80 percent of "donors" were Palestinians from Baqaa in northwest Amman, the largest refugee camp in the country.

Most were under the age of 31, lived in absolute poverty and had no criminal record.

The study said operations to remove the kidneys used to take place in Iraq, but since the 2003 US-led invasion, young men are now sent to Egypt, India and Pakistan.

A senior doctor and scientific adviser to the queen played down the extent of the problem.

"There is no organ trafficking problem in the kingdom. Such things are simply small scale improprieties," nephrologist Mohammed Lawzi said.

"Most people who sell their kidneys cite poverty as a reason but they don't use the money to improve their financial situation."

Lawzi advises King Abdullah II's wife Queen Rania, who heads the Jordan Society for Organ Donation.

"Many donors are drug addicts seeking an easy way to get money," he said. "This happens all over the world, not just in Jordan."

But University of Jordan sociologist Seri Nasser disagreed.

"It's a problem and a crime in Jordan, just like it's a problem and crime all over the word," he said.

"Materialism rules these days and everything is for sale, including human organs -- and for some people that means profit," said Nasser, who felt that tackling unemployment and poverty would help in the fight against such trafficking.

"People sell their organs mostly because they are poor and jobless. They think 'it's my kidney and I can sell it'," he said.

The World Health Organisation believes that organ trafficking is increasing, with brokers reportedly charging wealthy patients between 100,000 dollars and 200,000 dollars for a transplant.

Donors, often impoverished and ill-educated, may receive as little as 1,000 dollars for a kidney although the going price is more likely to be about 5,000 dollars, it said.

A recent joint study by the United Nations and the Council of Europe called for a new international convention to stop trafficking in organs, tissues and cells.

The study pointed to a high number of unreported cases of trafficking because of low risks and huge profits for perpetrators.

It stressed the need to collect reliable data and called for an internationally agreed definition of trafficking in human body parts.

Between five and 10 per cent of kidney transplants performed annually around the world are estimated to be the result of organ trafficking. (AFP)