Warhol's Jackson sells for 812,500 dollars

A 1984 Michael Jackson portrait by pop-art icon Andy Warhol surpassed estimates to fetch 812,500 dollars at auction on Tuesday, but two headline pieces at the Christie's sale in New York flopped.

Warhol's "Tunafish Disaster," a 1963 silkscreen depicting two housewives who died from poisoned tuna, had to be withdrawn when bidding stumbled at around 4.7 million dollars. It had been expected to go for six million.

Even more disappointing was the failure to find a buyer for Jean-Michel Basquiat's "Brother Sausage," a giant six-panel painting by the late African-American graffiti artist expected to fetch up to 12 million dollars.

The rest of the bidding was lively and the sale made a total of 74.1 million dollars, well within the range of pre-auction estimates.

The 46-lot auction was boosted by the sale of a 1996 painting by the Scottish artist Peter Doig, "Reflection (What Does Your Soul Look Like)," for more than 10 million dollars.

Warhol's silkscreen Jackson portrait, painted during the era of the singer's wildly successful "Thriller" album, was owned by the Andy Warhol Foundation before being acquired by the seller, a Christie's spokeswoman told AFP.

Believed to be one of four similar paintings, Christie's had valued the portrait at between 500,000 and 700,000 dollars. (AFP)

The globetrotting little Opinel knife

Picasso used it in his workshop, Ellen MacArthur and Eric Tabarly took it out to sea: from a blacksmith's forge in France's Savoie region, the simple Opinel knife has come a long way.

Today Opinel is a household name and style icon, with its own entry in the main French dictionary and New York's Museum of Modern Art catalogue.

Each year, from a single factory in Chambery, three million of the knives are sold worldwide.

The story of how the wooden-handled folding knife eventually helped Picasso carve his sculptures starts with Joseph Opinel in 1890, "a simple man who had his eye on the future," grandson Maurice Opinel told AFP.

Joseph Opinel had wanted to assert his "independence from his father, a very authoritarian edge-tool maker," the 82-year-old grandson and company president explained.

In 1909 he registered the trademark -- bearing the emblem of a crown and a hand -- "at a time when this was not common practice" and began exporting the tool to northern Italy and Switzerland using a network of wholesalers.

A fire completely destroyed the factory in 1926 but a new one was built a year later and son Maurice quickly developed the knife into an industrial tool. Before the Second World War, 20 million knives had been sold.

From artists and mariners to mushroom pickers, all are loyal users of the sharp and solid tool.

"It has saved the lives of seamen and mountaineers", one of whom told Maurice Opinel how he managed to escape a sinking vessel by carving steps in the ice with his knife.

There are many pearls in Opinel's proud history of use, but a few black spots too.

"Unfortunately there are some criminal uses which we are not happy about", says Maurice Opinel, recalling French serial killers Guy Georges and Francis Heaulme in whose hands it became a murder weapon.

The absence of a serious competitor and a policy since the 1950s of protecting the trademark around the world have both been key to Opinel's success Opinel retrieved the trademark that had been registered illegitimately by the firm importing the knives in Japan.

A present challenge is the battle against cheap replicas being sold in countries including China and Pakistan.

Maurice Opinel also worries about a "resurgence" of what he calls "the anti-knife spirit" that began in the 1990s and was symbolised by knife detectors being installed at the entrance of some buildings such as schools.

"Today we do not give a knife to a seven-year-old, but we would do better to offer him one and teach him how to use it properly" says Opinel, who has founded a national federation to protect the profession.

In 2009 Opinel employed 90 staff and made a turnover of 10 million euros. (AFP)

US judge bans 'I Believe' license plates

A US federal judge has ordered South Carolina not to issue cross-adorned "I Believe" license plates, ruling it violates the constitutional separation of church and state.

US District Judge Cameron Currie ruled Tuesday that the state legislature, which in 2008 voted unanimously to approve the license plates that also include a cross in front of a stained glass window, had thus clearly given favored government treatment to a single faith in violation of the Constitution.

"Whether motivated by sincerely held Christian beliefs or an effort to purchase political capital with religious coin, the result is the same," Currie wrote in a 57-page order.

"The statute is clearly unconstitutional and defense of its implementation has embroiled the state in unnecessary (and expensive) litigation."

Christian rights activists labeled the decision an attack on their faith.

"For those who say proclaiming 'I believe' violates the Constitution by giving preference to Christianity, I think this lawsuit clearly discriminates against persons of faith," South Carolina Lieutenant Governor Andre Bauer, who initiated the legislation, told The Greenville News.

"I will ask the state attorney general to vigorously appeal this ruling because it is time that people stand up for their beliefs. Enough is enough."

But Mark Plowden, a spokesman for state Attorney General Henry McMaster, told the newspaper that South Carolina's top law enforcement officer could not appeal the ruling, although it "utterly disappointed" him.

But Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a religious liberty group that brought the legal challenge to the bill before the court, hailed Currie's decision.

"This is great news," Americans United executive director Reverend Barry Lynn said in a statement.

"Some officials seem to want to use religion as a political football.... That's an appalling misuse of governmental authority, and I am thrilled that the judge put a stop to it."

His Washington-based group filed a lawsuit on behalf of four local clergy -- three pastors and a rabbi -- the Hindu American Foundation and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

On the third day of issue, 400 people had already ordered the license plates.

In most US states, a driver can choose a customized license plate for 20 to 30 dollars, in the name of groups defending state-approved causes or in their own name.

Flyfishing enthusiasts, animal rights activists, veterans or even anti-abortion activists -- who proclaim to be "4LIFE" -- thus make their own personal stamp on US roads. (AFP)

S.Korea reschedules rush hour for annual exam ritual

Education-obsessed South Korea rescheduled rush hour and airline flights as hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren sat a college entrance examination seen as crucial to their future.

Government offices nationwide opened one hour later than normal and private firms were advised to do likewise to reduce traffic congestion, as students headed to 1,124 centres to sit the College Scholastic Aptitude Test.

Flight takeoffs and landings were to be banned for two separate periods totalling about 30 minutes when students take oral examinations as part of the overall test.

The Korea Airports Corp said 94 domestic flights would be rescheduled or cancelled, and two international flights were also expected to be re-timed.

Cars were banned from sounding their horns near test centres during the same periods.

Even the stock and foreign exchange markets opened one hour later than usual.

Extra bus and subway services were laid on to get students to centres on time for the day-long exam, an annual ritual in a country where entry to a prestigious university is seen as the key to lifetime success.

Swine flu was an added complication this year. Examinees who have either tested positive for the (A)H1N1 virus or are suspected of being infected will take the test in separate rooms.

Electronic devices including mobile phones were banned to avoid hi-tech cheating.

Critics say the test assesses rote learning at the expense of creativity, and encourages expensive private tutoring to supplement the state education system.

After the official school day ends, many parents force young children to study until late in the evening at cram schools, with the aim of getting a head start in the college test.

An estimated 200 stressed students commit suicide every year, according to police statistics.

Central bank figures show household spending on private education rose to 20.9 trillion won (16.4 billion dollars) in 2008 from 20.04 trillion won a year earlier, despite the economic slowdown.

President Lee Myung-Bak's government is pushing for curbs on the cram schools, which are blamed for driving poor households into debt as well as stressing out young children.

A reform package announced earlier this year includes measures to normalise public education and to limit the opening hours of the private cram schools. (AFP)

Australian bid to 'regrow' breasts after cancer surgery

Australian scientists said they were to trial a revolutionary treatment which would allow women to regrow their breasts after cancer surgery.

Doctors from Melbourne's Bernard O'Brien Institute of Microsurgery said they had developed an implantable device that uses a woman's own fat cells to grow back breasts following a mastectomy.

"There is a dollop of fat that is put inside a device, a chamber, fed with the blood supply and then this dollop of fat will grow into the space and essentially feel normal to the patient," said lead researcher Phillip Marzella.

Resembling a perforated brassiere cup, Marzella said the chamber would eventually fill with fat as the initial deposit expands because "nature abhors a vacuum".

Initial participants would have to undergo a second operation to remove the chamber, but he said a biodegradable version that would dissolve within weeks was planned.

"In terms of the breast certainly I think this is the first time it has been done in the world using this technology," Marzella told AFP.

"Certainly there's work that has been done using stem cells but this is a completely different device that uses the patient's own blood supply."

Trials on pigs had proved "very successful" and the question was whether the human body could grow fat in the breast area, he said.

The hospital, which received a three million dollar (2.8 million US) government research grant, had been given human ethics clearance and the first human trials will begin early next year, he added.

Breast cancer is the most common form of the disease among women worldwide and the leading cause of female cancer fatalities. (AFP)

Peru slum goes cutting edge as 'fog catcher'

Many of Peru's grittiest slums can only dream of access to water. But thanks to a German NGO, simple technology and hard work, some humble homes are the first to use plastic netting to harvest water from the fog cloaking the night sky.

In sprawling settlements like Bellavista del Paraiso -- a dusty clutch of streets on Lima's south end named "Beautiful View of Paradise" with some eye-popping optimism -- there is no running water.

There is no well.

Buying water, trucked in by resellers, costs nine times what it does in richer urban areas, precisely in places where no one can afford it.

And Bellavista's more than 200 residents are used to making do without water; they are among the stunning 1.3 million of Lima's eight million people who have no access to water.

"Really, it just seemed like it would be impossible to catch fog with plastic netting, and that it would turn into drops of water," said Noe Neira Tocto, the mayor of the slum which lies just inland from the Pacific.

"We are the very first to have fog-catchers in Lima's poor neighborhoods," he said, proudly showing off a system that works with a net that looks a lot like volleyball netting.

"We have five panels that are eight meters by four meters," perched on the mountaintop above, he explained. "With them we are able to collect up to 60 liters per night in wintertime."

Each single panel costs the equivalent of 800 dollars, added the 37-year-old Neira.

When the netting traps the fog, water droplets run down it into a small aluminum gutter on the panel's edge. Water keeps collecting until it runs -- aided by gravity and drain canals -- down to cement storage tanks that lie halfway down the local hill.

The benefits are huge and multifaceted.

Part of the water is channeled to a vegetable garden where vegetables and spices are grown.

Most, though, is kept in ground-level storage tanks for residents to use at home for cooking, cleaning and bathing.

Local Olga Arce is in charge of popping water-purifying pills into the tanks mainly to keep out mosquitos because they can spread dengue fever.

The idea stems back to German biologists Anne Lummerich and Kai Tiedemann, with the German NGO Alimon, recalled Neira. The two arrived in Bellavista in 2006, were surprised how dense the fog was, and encouraged locals to see if they might be able to tap the fog to improve their lives.

They helped with the system's construction and installation and stayed a few months teaching locals how to run it before heading home.

They called it a Green Desert experiment, and even after one day running, it looked like a success. Some were disappointed at having to use purifying tablets, though.

And it is not all simple going: locals have to trudge up the mountain at least twice a week to check on the state of the nets.

It is a steep and slippery path. At 5:00 am, time for one recent outing, visibility was near zero at the hilltop, 600 meters (almost 2,000 feet) above sea-level.

But it's worth the work, said Olga Cajahuaman. She said she grows radishes, greens and spices "with the fog water." The water and food supplies are heaven sent for families earning under 200 dollars a month.

French hydrologist Alain Gioda said the fog-catching actually recalls an ancient Inca technique in which plants and trees -- not nets -- were used to gather water here, collected at the base of the tree or plant.

"But what was possible with those techniques and an (Inca) empire of eight million is not possible on a current scale of a country of 28 million people," he added. (AFP)

Modernity casts spell over magic tattoos in Cambodia

It's much harder to get a magic tattoo in Cambodia than it used to be, laments Chey Cham.

"I do have one tattoo of a python on my right upper-arm but it's for beauty, not magic," says the 30-year-old from the outskirts of Cambodia's capital.

"That's because I can't find anywhere in my town to get a magic tattoo."

Over centuries, Cambodians have endured hours of procedures to obtain hand-drawn mystical tattoos believed to give them magical powers, but the tradition appears to be fading in this increasingly modern country.

Miech Ponn, advisor on mores and customs at Cambodia's Buddhist Institute, says magic tattoos are believed to bring good luck or make you popular but are mostly used by soldiers seeking to become invisible to enemies or repel bullets.

"Tattoos were really popular among Cambodian men in the past. Almost every Cambodian male was tattooed," Miech Ponn says.

These days, he adds, superstitious people in rural areas are usually the ones who believe in magic.

"Until now science can?t break this superstition. I don?t know why it cannot."

Tattooist Chan Trea notices the number of customers seeking him out in the belief they will obtain special powers has dwindled over the past decade.

"Usually, the Cambodian customers are police, soldiers, and fighters like boxers and martial artists," Chan Trea says.

"But there is a decrease of people coming for magical reasons. I guess, in the future, things like magic will be very rare in this country."

The tattoos usually feature images of supernatural creatures, Hindu gods or characters from Pali and Sanskrit. Cambodian fighters are often adorned with intimidating images of a dragon, tiger or the monkey king Hanuman.

Chan Trea notes the tattoos can be administered by any traditional healer or Buddhist monk who has strong spiritual beliefs, but only a few remain alive who know how to use traditional long needles and recite magical spells.

These esteemed tattooists draw magic tattoos by hand with two or three sewing needles tied together, poking black, blue or red ink into the skin.

But for those seeking powers, the process isn't as simple as getting poked by a few needles, says the Buddhist Institute's Miech Ponn.

Those who drink alcohol or have extramarital affairs risk decreasing the magic from their tattoos, he says.

He adds that people getting the tattoos also must refrain from eating purple potatoes, gourds or star fruit to ensure the spells work -- while for soldiers on the battlefield, stealing breaks a tattoo's magic.

A national hero, Cambodian heavyweight kickboxing champion Ei Phuthong, says he owes part of his decade-long reign to his magic tattoos.

With a mystical flying creature and the Hindu god Vishnu on his back, as well as a "Great Weight" Pali symbol on his right hand, he believes he gets more power in his punch.

"Of course I believe in magic tattoos, though it is inexplicable," he says. "They have helped me win. With them, I feel more than a match for my opponent in the ring."

The belief in the power of tattoos is most evident among hardened Cambodian troops stationed near the Thai border, where a territorial dispute over the past year has erupted into skirmishes which have killed seven soldiers.

One soldier near the area at the centre of the dispute, a 46-year-old who gives his name only as Oeurn, says he and most of his comrades have magic tattoos for protection.

The value of the magical Sanskrit patterns tattooed on his back and chest was proven, he says, during an April gunbattle which killed three Cambodian troops.

"At that time, many bullets were showered toward me," Oeurn claims, "but magically they were averted away." (AFP)

In Taiwan, baseball is the favourite game

In Taiwan, 500-dollar bills carry the image of Little League baseball players in a moment of glory. That's how serious the island is about its favourite game.

At a time when Taiwan's professional baseball elite is shaken by game-fixing allegations, the island of 23 million stays devoted to its most popular sport because it is much more than just a pastime.

"Baseball is an important part of Taiwanese identity. People are proud of their baseball," said Scott Simon, an anthropologist at the University of Ottawa who has done extensive research in Taiwan.

Taiwan is a highly diverse society -- people speak one of three vastly different dialects at home -- but collective memories about baseball form part of the glue that holds it together.

"I remember when I was a little girl, perhaps five or six years old," said Candy Lin, now 40, about the 1970s heyday of the island's participation in the Little League, a US-based organisation that brings together players aged five to 18 from across the world for tournaments.

"When they were playing overseas, we'd get up in the middle of the night because of the time difference to watch our heroes live on TV."

Taiwan is not recognised by the vast majority of nations due to China's efforts to isolate it internationally, and in this situation baseball is a crucial way to make its presence known.

The theory is that no society that can win the Little League World Series 16 times can be a nonentity as claimed by Beijing, which considers the island part of its territory and wants it back.

The island split off from the mainland at the end of a civil war in 1949, and one of the darkest moments in the decades that followed came in 1971, when it was forced to hand over its seat in the United Nations to China.

"In the years right afterwards, baseball helped restore pride," said Yu Chun-wei, a baseball expert at the National Taiwan Sport University in the central city of Taichung.

"Whenever Taiwan won the Little League, it meant enormous national confidence," said Yu, who has written a book about the history of baseball in Taiwan.

When Taiwan was first introduced to baseball in the early 20th Century, it was not a direct import from the United States but came via Japanese colonisers.

The Japanese departed at the end of World War II in 1945, but they left behind baseball, much the way the British made cricket one of their lasting legacies in South Asia.

China's Nationalists, who took over from the Japanese, were eager to eradicate most vestiges of the colonial period but soon gave up on baseball, finding it too firmly rooted in the island's soil.

Even so, the lukewarm mainland attitude to the sport is reflected in the family backgrounds of most elite players even today.

"The majority of baseball players are Taiwanese, not descendants of people from the mainland (who fled to the island in the late 1940s)," said Yu.

Baseball underlines the differences between Taiwan and the mainland, unlike the other globally successful American sport, basketball.

"Baseball is especially Taiwanese. Basketball is the opposite, because it's also a big sport in the mainland. Basketball creates a commonality," said Simon.

For all its popularity, Taiwanese baseball has had a tumultuous history, and the suspected game-fixing driven by high stakes illegal gambling now rattling the sport is just the latest in a series of scandals.

Prosecutors last month began investigations into alleged game-fixing in Taiwan's professional league, the fifth time that a scandal of this type has emerged.

At least a dozen players have been named as defendants, while reports have pointed to links with notorious members of the island's criminal underworld.

A legalised sports lottery began in May last year and sales reached nearly eight billion Taiwan dollars (247 million US dollars) from January to July this year -- with 60 percent of that accounted for by baseball.

Last year, Taiwan's baseball league banned the Media T-Rex team over match-fixing allegations implicating the team's management and three players, among others.

A scandal that erupted in 1996, the worst in the history of the sport here, led to the disbanding of the China Times Eagles.

Despite the wave of bad news, observers believe the sport still has a future in Taiwan, citing the way it continues to attract genuine enthusiasm at the grassroots level.

"You see townships organise baseball games for the villages. Everyone loves it. It brings the communities together in a meaningful way," Simon said. (AFP)

Chemical in plastic linked to sexual dysfunction

Exposure to high levels of Bisphenol-A (BPA), a chemical compound found in baby bottles and plastic containers, increases the risk of male sexual dysfunction, according to a new study.

Previous animal studies had shown that BPA had a negative impact on mice and rats, but the study published Wednesday in the journal Human Reproduction was the first to examine its effects on male reproductive systems in humans.

The study examined 634 workers in factories in China over a five year period, comparing workers in facilities that produced BPA with those in facilities where the chemical compound was not present.

"The study found that the workers in the BPA facilities had quadruple the risk of erectile dysfunction, and seven times more risk of ejaculation difficulty," the study said.

The levels of BPA in the Chinese facilities were 50 times higher than what an American male faces in US factories, and it was not known what the effect of lower levels of exposure might be.

"This study raises the question: Is there a safe level for BPA exposure, and what is that level?" said De-Kun Li, an epidemiologist with Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California and a lead author of the study.

"More studies like this, which examine the effect of BPA on humans, are critically needed to help establish prevention strategies and regulatory policies," he said.

BPA is used in the production of polycarbonated plastics and epoxy resins found in baby bottles, plastic containers, the lining of cans used for food and beverages, and in dental sealants.

A 2008 study by toxicologists at the National Institutes for Health found that the substance could affect the development of the brains of fetuses and newborns.

In March, the six biggest US manufacturers of baby bottles decided to stop selling products containing BPA in the United States, and US lawmakers introduced legislation to ban food containers with BPA.

French Health Minister Roselyne Bachelot, nevertheless, said in March that reliable studies had concluded that baby bottles made with BPA were harmless. (AFP)

Maternal mortality 'halved in ex-Soviet bloc'

The maternal mortality rate has decreased by 50 percent in a decade in some ex-Soviet bloc and Balkan countries, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said in a report unveiled Thursday.

The rate of women dying just before, after or during birth went down from 51 to 24 in 100,000 births between 2000 and 2009, according to the report on former 12 former Soviet bloc countries, not including Baltic states, and eight southeast European countries including Turkey.

Abortion rates were reduced by more than 50 percent in 15 years from 1,049 to 493 compared to 1,000 births in the region, which still has one of the highest rates of abortion in the world, the report said.

"There is a lot of achievement in this region, but we still have an agenda to go because we are lacking behind on the Millennium goal number five"," Thea Fierens, regional director of UNFPA, said.

In 2008, the UN established a set of Millennium Development Goals, one of which envisages a 75 percent reduction in maternal mortality by 2015.

"We really want to meet this objective to make sure that every birth is safe, that every child is wanted and that everyone has access to primary healthcare, including migrants, including young people, including internally displaced people and including Roma," Fierens said.

(AFP)

Swine flu has killed nearly 4,000 in US: estimates

Swine flu is thought to have killed nearly 4,000 people in the United States, including more than 500 children, health officials said after a new counting method yielded an estimate six times higher than the last.

The new system is based on more precise figures provided by 10 states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said. The previous estimated death toll from H1N1 was 672.

While still imprecise, the new numbers provide "a bigger picture of what has been going on in the first six months of the pandemic," Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told a press conference.

She said previous estimates were based on "laboratory confirmed cases of hospitalization and death, potentially giving an incomplete picture of the story of this pandemic."

According to the new estimates, the total deaths since the swine flu virus first appeared in April total about 3,900, the CDC said, noting that figures were rounded to the nearest 10. The CDC also posted the new set of figures on its website.

The new swine-flu death toll for children under 18 years of age is 540, four times higher than the previous estimate.

Still considered the tip of the iceberg compared to the real, full extent of the swine-flu pandemic, the new estimates are based on more precise data provided by hospitals in 10 US states, Schuchat said.

Those figures were extrapolated to the national level, she added.

The CDC cautioned that methodology was "not a predictive tool and cannot be used to forecast the number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths that will occur going forward over the course of the pandemic because they are based on actual surveillance data."

Schuchat said the estimated range of all H1N1 fatalities in the United States from April to mid-October was 2,500-6,100, with the mid-level range at 3,900.

Broken down by age group, the range was 300-800 deaths for children up to 17 years of age (mid-level range 540); 1,900-4,600 for ages 18-64 (2,920), and 300-700 for people above 65 years of age (440).

In all, 22 million Americans were infected by the swine flu virus during the period studied, with 98,000 hospitalized, according to the new CDC estimates.

Schuchat also said that 41.6 million doses of the H1N1 vaccine were made available Thursday for distribution around the country.

While the volume of vaccine deliveries shows the progress made in production facilities, it remains far below initial estimates and expectations, she added.

US health authorities have recently acknowledged greater shortfalls than anticipated in the vaccine supply, as long queues form outside authorized clinics and health centers in the inoculation drive.

Meanwhile, the global death toll from flu pandemic passed the 6,000 mark last week according to the World Health Organization.

The H1N1 virus has swept around the world since it was first identified in Mexico and the United States in April, spreading into at least 199 countries.

The pandemic is currently surging in the northern hemisphere with the onset of colder weather. (AFP)

Smoking decline stalls in the US: health officials

Progress in the effort to reduce smoking, seen as the leading cause of preventable death, has stalled since 2005 despite aggressive and expensive campaigns, a government report said Thursday.

In 2008, 20.6 percent of American adults smoked, amounting to 46 million people, virtually unchanged from the rate of 20.9 percent four years earlier, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.

The "alarming" data based on a 2008 survey of 21,781 adults "hints that smoking rates may be moving in the wrong direction," the CDC said in its report.

Smoking has a massive impact on US society. The CDC says tobacco use kills more than 443,000 people each year and costs the country some 96 billion dollars in health care costs annually.

"Today tobacco will kill more than 1,000 people, but we can reduce smoking rates," said CDC Director Thomas Frieden.

"We must protect people from second-hand smoke, increase the price of tobacco, and support aggressive anti-tobacco campaigns that will reduce smoking and save lives."

"If every state had smoking rates similar to places which have implemented effective programs, there would be at least 10 million fewer smokers in the US, and millions of heart attacks, cancers, strokes and deaths would be prevented in decades to come."

The CDC said that from 1998 to 2008 the proportion of US smokers shrank from 24.1 percent to 20.6 percent, but that most of the decline occurred prior to 2005.

The latest figures are in stark relief to the federal funding that has been thrown into the effort to curb smoking.

Over the past decade US states have received more than 200 billion dollars in funding, from money supplied by tobacco companies forced to pay compensation in court cases, said Matthew McKenna, director of CDC's Office on Smoking and Health.

Of the 50 US states, only 21 plus the capital city Washington have implemented smoking bans in the workplace, restaurants and bars. (AFP)

Sunbeds: 250,000 English kids at risk of cancer

A quarter of a million children in England aged 11 to 17 face a higher risk of developing malignant skin cancer by using tanning beds, researchers said Friday.

Writing in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), the researchers called for urgent legislation to stop sunbed use by minors in England, as is already the case for Scotland and Wales.

The risk of melanoma -- the most lethal form of skin cancer -- increases by 75 percent when use of tanning devices before the age of 30, according to a study published earlier this year in Britain's The Lancet Oncology.

In July, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) placed tanning beds alongside cigarettes and asbestos as a top-level cancer threat.

Current rates of use in England "would lead to more than an estimated quarter of a million 11- to 17-year-olds being put at risk of developing malignant melanoma," wrote Catherine Thomson from Cancer Research UK and Professor Chris Twelves from St James's University Hospital in Leeds.

"National legislation to limit access to sunbed salons to those over 18, and close down unsupervised or coin operated salons, is required to stop more children being put at unnecessary risk," they said.

Six percent of English youngsters in the 11-to-17 age bracket use sunbeds, according to recent studies. The average age at which the practice starts is 14.

Usage rates are nearly three times as high in the north, and more common among older girls and within economically-deprived communities.

More than a quarter of the kids who darken their skin with the devices do so at least once a month, the studies found.

Sunbed use was highest in Liverpool and Sunderland, reaching 51 percent and 48 percent respectively among 15-17 year old girls, with over 40 percent using them weekly. (AFP)

Recorded AIDS deaths in Iran top 3,400: report

Iran has recorded at least 3,409 deaths from AIDS, while another 2,097 people have been diagnosed as having the disease, according to health ministry figures reported by the ILNA news agency on Thursday.

The news agency said a total of 20,130 people had tested positive for HIV. It did not specify whether that figure included those who had gone on to develop AIDS.

The report said men accounted for a full 93 percent of recorded HIV infections.

With testing facilities limited and HIV-infected people or those living with AIDS often unwilling to come forward, the health ministry has previously estimated that total HIV infections are four times higher than the recorded figure.

The ministry says that intravenous drug use is the most common way HIV is transmitted in Iran.

It has not made clear when it started compiling its figures. (AFP)

Brazilian Siamese twins celebrate one year, await surgery

Siamese twin sisters here celebrated their first birthday Wednesday as their parents tearfully await a highly complex and dangerous separation surgery early next year to save their young lives.

Playful and smiling, Marie Luiza and Marie Luana are connected at the abdomen and hip, have three legs between them, and share the same liver, intestines, bladder, anus and vagina.

Their surgeon Zacharias Calil, set to head a team of 25 physicians for a 14-hour operation in March, warned the girls' parents the chance of both children surviving was around 50 percent.

"Their anatomy is very complex and there can always be surprises during the procedure," Calil, whose team has a conducted numerous Siamese separation surgeries in Brazil, told AFP.

"The risk of death (for one or both) is very high," he cautioned.

The post-operation phase is perhaps even more delicate for patients due to the high risk of infections, Calil added.

There is, however, "a greater risk (for the girls) if they stay as they are," said the twins' 22-year-old mother Larissa Nunes, speaking through tears alongside her husband Thiago Andrade, 24, in their small Recife apartment, on Brazil's northeast coast.

"Whenever I feel bad (because of their condition)," Nunes added, "I look at them and my energy returns."

Luiza and Luana's condition was detected five months into the pregnancy, but their mother was at first confident the problem would be swiftly resolved.

Awaiting the right time for surgery, however, the girls have not yet encountered any health problems in their young lives, Andrade said.

Cost for the operation has been estimated at around one million reals (590,000 dollars), and will be covered by the central state of Goias, where the operation will take place at the main children's hospital.

Number of Siamese twins born in Brazil has been on the rise, with around one case per 100,000 newborns.

Calil said he considers the increase to be due to "environmental changes" in the country and the "indiscriminate use of toxic chemicals in farming." (AFP)

First woman pilot joins Britain's Red Arrows

Britain's renowned Red Arrows aerobatic display team presented its first woman pilot on Thursday, ending a high-altitude all-male bastion.

Flight Lieutenant Kirsty Moore, 31, will perform with the Royal Air Force display team from next year until 2012 after becoming the first female fast-jet pilot to advance far enough in their flying career to qualify.

Moore said: "It's an awesome job. To be told I had been selected was one of the best days of my life. It was incredible.

"The girl thing is an aside for me because I have been a female all my life and I've been a pilot since joining the RAF," she said before taking to the skies above the Red Arrows' RAF Scampton base in Lincolnshire, eastern England.

She added: "I know for outsiders it is a big thing but for me it is about timing and someone was always going to be the first woman to join the Red Arrows. I'm lucky enough it's happened to me and I'm very proud."

The Red Arrows' jets are a firm fixture at national events such as Queen Elizabeth II's birthday and at air shows at home and abroad, performing heart-stopping loops and turns in tight formation.

Since their creation in 1965, they have given over 4,200 displays in 53 countries.

Moore, who was picked from up to 40 applicants, credited her father Robbie Stewart, a retired RAF navigator, with inspiring her to join up after studying for a Masters in Aeronautical Engineering at Imperial College, London.

"Hopefully in a small way, by me being a Red Arrows pilot, some girls might think that this is something they could be part of and they should go for it," she said. (AFP)

Money returns unevenly to NY art auctions

Serious money has flowed back into the international art market at New York's autumn sales, although still bypassing some of the big ticket items.

The November sales at Sotheby's and rival Christie's in New York marked something of a recovery from the low point during the financial crisis erupting last year.

While prices are not yet matching the go-go days of 2007, sales have often met expectations and large sums of money are once again being exchanged for top works.

At the same time, the market remains unstable, leaving major works as likely to sit unsold as to trigger bidding wars.

Wednesday's contemporary and post-war sales at Sotheby's were an unexpected success, pulling in 134.4 million dollars and selling 96 percent -- all but two -- of the 54 lots. Presale estimates were for sales of 97.7 million dollars.

Andy Warhol's "200 One Dollar Bills," a grey and black work showing 200 life-sized images of dollar bills, sold for 43.8 million dollars.

This was far over the pre-sale estimate of eight to 12 million dollars, although never likely to approach the 71.7 million dollar record for the artist.

And a Warhol self-portrait estimated at one to 1.5 million dollars sold for 6.1 million dollars, a fairy tale ending for a work that was hidden away in a cupboard for 42 years by its owner, Cathy Naso -- a one-time secretary at Warhol's famous Factory.

Sotheby's contemporary art director, Tobias Meyer, said the art market was rebounding.

"Bidding was very deep tonight. There is a great desire for great art. Consumer behavior has started to accelerate after May 2009."

But on Tuesday at Christie's, the contemporary and post-war sales picture was decidedly mixed.

The evening's big winner was Peter Doig's Reflection (What Does Your Soul Look Like), from 1996, which sold for 10.2 million dollars, double the pre-sale estimate.

Overall, the sale was respectable, with 85 percent of works being sold and total proceeds of 74.1 million dollars falling within pre-sale estimates.

But there were also high-profile flops, including an unsold Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat's unsold "Brother Sausage," valued at nine-12 million dollars.

The same uneven pattern applied to the impressionist and modern art sales at the start of November.

Sotheby's saw several records broken during an unexpectedly strong 181 million dollars in sales.

These included 13.8 million dollars paid for "Young Arab," by early 20th century Dutch artist Kees Van Dongen. His previous record was 11.1 million dollars.

French painter Andre Derain's "Barques au port de Collioure," from about 1905, went under the hammer for 14 million dollars, smashing the 6.1 million dollar record.

Simon Shaw, head of the impressionist department at Sotheby's, described those performances as "a shot in the arm for the market."

However, the impressionist and modern art sales at Christie's were subdued, with total sales of less than 66 million dollars, below the presale estimate.

Notably there were no bids for a 1943 Picasso, "Tete de femme," estimated at seven to 10 million dollars.

Marc Porter, president of Christie's Americas, said the emphasis was on art seen as a safe investment. "Classic impressionist paintings and sculptures across a range of prices continue to achieve strong results," he said. (AFP)

Bikinis, hugs and hairy heroics on world records day

Stripping down to bikinis, cuddling strangers in railway stations and dragging buses with their hair, thousands of people across the globe attempted to break curious world records Thursday.

From Australia to China, Britain, Egypt, Lebanon and Tennessee, people put their scalps, stomachs and reputations on the line.

The antics were all in the name of the fifth annual Guinness World Records Day, with hopefuls trying to secure a spot in the next edition of their famous Guinness World Records book.

"It's a wonderful feeling knowing that so many hundreds of thousands of people around the world are taking part in fun, inspirational, courageous and awe-inspiring record attempts," said editor-in-chief Craig Glenday.

Around the world, new records were set -- some in the preceding days -- in the rush to claim a place in history.

In London, "Ironman" Manjit Singh set a record by dragging an 8.5-tonne bus some 21.2 metres (69 feet six inches) -- with his hair.

It was something of a comeback for the 59-year-old, who failed to break the record for pulling a bus with his ears two years ago.

"I will never be discouraged by defeat because I know that success can be waiting around the next corner," he said.

"The only way to get there is to try again and stay positive."

Meanwhile 112 people, including total strangers commuting to work, set a record at London's St Pancras station as they hugged for a minute.

Outside the Sydney Opera House, 235 people stripped down to their bikinis and swimming trunks, but alas were 47 people short of setting a new swimwear parade record.

New Zealand's Alistair Galpin set three records, spitting a champagne cork five metres, blowing a Malteser candy 11.295 metres with a straw and blowing a coin 37.6 centimetres.

In China, Tao Yongming drove his motorcycle up a sand dune in six minutes and two seconds.

In Beirut, Toufic Daher made the tallest matchstick model, reaching six metres, 53 centimetres, while Nabil Karam broke the record for the largest collection of model cars, instructing the witnesses to stop counting at 22,222.

Meanwhile Hesham Nessim got his vehicle across the Egyptian western desert in 13 hours and 33 minutes.

In Helsinki, people from 76 nationalities squeezed into a sauna while the new fastest 40 metres human wheelbarrow race record was set at 17 seconds.

The largest gingerbread man (651 kilogrammes) was baked in Oslo, while in Denmark, Jim Lyngvild peeled and ate three lemons in 28.5 seconds.

In Milan, the record for the largest pizza base stretch in one minute was set at 42 centimetres, while Ernesto Cesario wolfed down a bowl of pasta in 90 seconds.

Hamburg in northern Germany saw two new records. Joe Alexander broke a stack of 11 concrete blocks with his elbow while holding a raw egg, and Maiko Kiesewetter climbed five metres up a wall -- on darts.

In the United States, 23 people in Fort Worth, Texas broke the record for lassoing simultaneously, while in Memphis, 297 people set the benchmark for the largest cheerleading dance.

In New York, the largest cup of hot chocolate record hit four gallons (15 litres), while 1,817 lipstick prints were collected in 12 hours across the city.

Brewers Guinness launched their famous records book in 1955 to settle disputes among drinkers.

All the record attempts are assessed by adjudicators from the organisation. (AFP)

New mega wine cultural centre for Bordeaux

Bordeaux on Thursday unveiled plans for a 55-million euro wine cultural centre that Mayor Alain Juppe says will act as a platform for developing wine tourism in southwest France.

The 10,000-square-metre centre, a decade in the pipeline, will grace the mouth of the city's tiny pleasure port just north of the historic Chartrons wine district where a new bridge will cross the Garonne river.

The development marks a new step forward for an urban renewal plan to transform the once sleepy city into a flourishing tourist destination with a tramway system, renovated river front, parks, bike paths, a botanical garden and clean facades.

The ambitious wine centre project stakes a claim to not only the region's historical dominance but its future position among the world's wine capitals.

"The center of the world of wine is Bordeaux," said Sylvie Cazes, president of the Union of Grands Crus and delegate to the City Council for economic development in the wine trade and tourism.

Wine is France's number two export after aeronautics, and France is the number one tourist destination. Bordeaux, both a city and a wine, intends to capitalize on that connection.

Amid the current economic woes striking the wine business, many are hoping the project will help secure the region's livelihood. One in six jobs in the region is in the wine business and five percent of the population works in tourism.

The historical city, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2007, sees 2.5 million visitors annually, and Juppe believes the city can deliver the 400,000 visitors needed per year to make the center a success.

Project leaders promise an architecturally impressive edifice that will also be convivial, lively, and create a positive image of wine. "We want to demystify wine," said Cazes.

Visitors will learn about making, selling and enjoying wine throughout the world as well as the idiosyncrasies of Bordeaux wine.

Architects will compete with their designs in 2010, a winner will be chosen next summer, and the doors will open in 2013. (AFP)

Cyprus tourism drop worsens in October

The pace of the year-on-year decline in tourist arrivals in Cyprus accelerated to 14 percent last month from 9.6 percent in September, official figures showed on Thursday.

The number of holidaymakers jetting in to the Mediterranean island sank to 230,431 in October from 267,866 a year earlier, hit by a hefty 29.6 percent reverse in arrivals from Russia and a 19.1 percent dip from Britain -- the island's biggest holiday market.

The blow was slightly softened by a 21.9 percent spike in tourists from Greece.

For the ten months to October, Cyprus tourist arrivals have dived 11.1 percent, overshooting the government's forecast of a 10 percent drop for the whole of 2009.

From January to October inclusive visitor numbers to the sunbaked Republic of Cyprus fell to 1.98 million from 2.23 million in the same period last year.

Bookings for next summer are down 20 percent, according to estimates.

To help ease the crisis, the government last week approved a 65 million euro tourism support package including loan guarantees for hotels and airport fee waivers.

A large majority of the island's tourists come from recession-hit European Union countries and Russia.

A fall in tourism revenue and arrivals has been instrumental in the Cyprus economy going into decline for the first time in three decades.

The country is technically in recession after GDP shrank by 0.6 percent in the first quarter and 0.5 percent in the second.

The government hopes tourism will receive a lift from the new state-of-the-art Larnaca airport, opened this month, but tour operators have complained about high charges for using the new facility.

Tourism contributes around 12 percent to the island's GDP. (AFP)

US town nixes Christmas parade to avoid legal squabble

Officials in an Ohio town canceled their Christmas parade this year to avoid huge legal fees in defending the tradition from possible lawsuits by religious groups.

The legal hurdle surfaced when the private group that for 28 years had funded the parade in Amelia village recently announced it could no longer do so, prompting the village mayor to step in with public funds.

On a lawyer's advice, the mayor decided to change the name of the event from Christmas Parade to the more neutral "Holiday Parade" to avoid lawsuits and abide by constitutional rules about the separation of church and state.

"Even though it may seem silly," Mayor Leroy Ellington said, "the legal fees that the village would spend to defend 'A Christmas Parade' would be costly."

"There was the likelihood that we would be sued on a first amendment issue," he added, referring to the constitutional requirements for secular government.

However, the name change did not sit well with local church officials, who promptly threatened to boycott the event if it was no longer called "A Christmas Parade."

Faced with legal quarrels and logistical problems in organizing the parade, Ellington threw in the towel.

"As a citizen I want a Christmas parade, as a mayor I've an obligation to prevent the village from spending unnecessary tax dollars," he said on announcing that his office was dropping out of the organization drive. (AFP)

Online call for religions to embrace compassion

Religious leaders from around the world joined a former nun on Thursday to unveil a Charter for Compassion that urges people to embrace understanding and shun violence.

A charterforcompassion.org website that sprang from a wish Karen Armstrong was granted in 2008 at a prestigious Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) Conference went live Thursday.

"It requires you in your own sphere to work for a more compassionate world," Armstrong told AFP. "The terrorists and extremists are all highly organized and networked; we must do the same."

The charter's growing list of "affirmers" includes the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, Queen Noor of Jordan, Grand Mufti of Egypt Sheikh Ali Gomaa, Archbishop Desmond Tutu; author Sir Ken Robinson, and musician Paul Simon.

The charter is approximately 330 words, calling on everyone to "restore compassion to the center of morality and religion" and to foster appreciation for cultural and religious diversity.

The charter also urges a "return to the ancient principle that any interpretation of scripture that breeds violence, hatred or disdain is illegitimate."

A TED member with computer design prowess helped build a charter website where people can learn about the grassroots campaign or universal compassion, share the message and collaborate on taking action toward the goal.

"A launch is only the beginning of a voyage and not the end," Armstrong said. "Now people have their own website where they can organize and we can make it a movement. We have to go to work to put the charter into focus."

The website is also intended to serve as a venue for groups or individuals who have been working in isolation to collaborate as an online community.

The home page includes a box where people share word of compassionate deeds big or small.

"The charter is a summons to action, it is not just a feel good thing," Armstrong said. "It calls upon people to find creative ways of implementing... to work energetically for the good of humanity in one's own community."

A simple way to begin, she added, is to stifle nasty off-the-cuff comments.

Religious leaders worldwide helped craft the charter, which was memorialized in plaque form by designer Yves Behar and will be hung at secular spots in cities such as New York, Cairo, London, Ramallah, Melbourne, and Buenos Aires.

The charter is posted online in seven languages, with the list to be expanded.

"In the media, teaching, banking, or bringing up children one has to think of the passionate ethos," Armstrong said. "All day and every day to put yourself in the shoes of somebody else."

Annual TED conferences draw acclaimed thinkers and doers to candidly discuss evil, beauty, innovations, the future and how to save humanity.

The list of past speakers features novelist Isabel Allende, rock stars Bono and Peter Gabriel, former US president Bill Clinton and vice president Al Gore, Wikipedia creator Jimmy Wales, and Google founders Serge Brin and Larry Page.

TED speakers are challenged to give "the talk of their lives" in 18 minutes each, while listeners are called on to help make inspirational visions real.

Videos of talks are made available free online at ted.com.

TED prize winners each get 100,000 dollars in cash to fulfill "a wish to change the world." TED conference attendees, and now those viewing talks on the Internet, are called on to help make the wishes come true. (AFP)

Young Indians look to dance their way to fame, fortune

Dancing has always been a part of Bollywood, often with huge casts performing set-piece numbers as the glamorous hero and heroine lip-synch love songs in improbable locations.

But improved production values and an explosion in television dance shows in recent years have promoted dance from a second-best bit part to a viable -- and potentially lucrative -- career for aspiring young performers.

In a sign of the demand, newspaper classified sections on any given day are filled with advertisements offering tuition to would-be dancers, and with it hopes of a starring role on the small or big screen.

Jeetendra B. Singh ditched his job in the shipping industry to follow his heart rather than travel the world.

"I was just fed up with shipping, so, I gave up and decided to do dancing, which was always my passion since childhood," he said.

At 30, Singh has no regrets and now commands 4,000 rupees (84 dollars) a day to dance in shows.

"Five years back the money was not good. Sometimes I danced for 150 rupees a day, but today dancers are well-paid and the perception in Indian society has changed and they are willing to pay more for dancers."

Dancing as an art form has a long tradition in India, from ancient classical styles performed in Hindu temples, the courts of Mughal emperors and princely states, to regional folk interpretations.

Bollywood numbers were traditionally modelled on classical dance but have recently imported moves and music from Western pop videos -- often with foreign dancers and increasingly suggestive choreography

The profession has struggled to shake off its poor reputation among respectable families.

Singh said his family was "very hurt" when he told them his plan.

"My father is a school principal and he felt that I was wasting my life," he said.

But he added: "I appeared on the dance reality show "Nach Baliye" ("Dance Girl") as one of the choreographers and became famous. Now, I am a well-respected dance professional in my locality and also with my family."

Singh has choreographed cheerleaders of the Rajasthan Royals and Punjab Kings XI in the big money Indian Premier League cricket competition.

"I have many assignments and am constantly busy," he added.

Remo D'Souza has a similar story.

"In 1992, when I came to Mumbai after telling my father that I wanted to be a dancer, he told me I had gone nuts," he said.

"My father was in the Indian Air Force and my family was from a defence background. They just could not believe that one of their family members could be a dancer. They discouraged me but I was adamant."

D'Souza, in his mid-30s, persuaded his father that he would return to Jamnagar in western Gujarat state within three months if he failed.

"I gave dance tuition to children and also did odd jobs to survive in Mumbai. Finally, I got a part in a film -- "Rangeela" ("Colourful") -- in which I was one of the dancers. That changed everything for me. I never looked back," he said.

D'Souza is amazed at the recognition dancing now has in India -- and the money involved.

"There are immense opportunities. One of my dance students won the reality competition "Dance India Dance", which had a prize of 50 lakhs (five million rupees).

"Who will give you this kind of money in one go if you toil in an office from nine to five? In Bollywood, if you are an established dancer you can command a price of 25 lakh for one dance.

"Today, I say I earn more than a bank manager. When I look back I feel happy that I took the decision to pursue my passion rather than joining the Indian Air Force. I wasn't cut out for that." (AFP)