France offers free newspapers for youth

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

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

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

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

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

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

First woman voted head of German Protestant church

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fewer holiday gifts but more cheer in US, poll

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Macedonia seeks to stop archaelogical smugglers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Macedonia seeks to stop archaeological smugglers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kenya to conduct AIDS control study among gays

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In macabre Rome, it's Halloween all year round

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here the decor includes a candelabra made from vertebrae.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Body parts are also commonplace.

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

French luxury preens on website in China

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tests on treasured maize ignite fears in Mexico

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sleep deprivation a major US health problem: study

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Internet turns 40 with birthday bash

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ARPANET grew into what is known today as the Internet.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Born in Israel but unwanted by the Jewish state

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Diarrhoea kills 'three times more than thought'

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Swine flu deaths jump by 700 in a week: WHO

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

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

Landlocked Mongolia flies flag on high seas

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Croatia makes fertility treatment easier

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cameroon cholera outbreak kills 65: state media

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

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

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

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

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

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

SAfrica tourist arrivals hit record 9.5 million in 2008

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

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

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

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

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

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

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