Experts propose new ways to slow Africa's population growth

Pairing family planning services with HIV/AIDS treatment can help curb Africa's population growth rate which records a yearly increase of 2.5 percent, health experts said Monday.

Many of those seeking HIV/AIDS information are often the ones who need to be offered birth control services, Maggwa Ndugga of Family Health International told AFP.

Ndugga said the strategy would be to use the enormous global investment made to counter HIV/AIDS to provide information on family planning.

"We started to realise that most of the people who were coming to us for HIV AIDS information are the same people that we needed to be targeting for family planning services," Ndugga said during an international family health conference in Kampala.

Every year, 75 million women in developing countries have unintended pregnancies and Africa is a significant contributor, according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

Africa has 239 million women aged between 15 and 49 and who average five births each year compared to Asian women of the same age range who average 3.3 births while Europeans average 1.5, said the Population Reference Bureau.

Last year, the continent's population stood at 809 million.

"It is absolutely vital both for cost effectiveness and to maximise resources that HIV and family planning information are provided together," said Janet Jackson of the UNFPA. (AFP)

China fuels US foreign student boom

Soaring interest by Chinese students has led to record foreign enrollment at US universities, offering a potential boon to the United States both economically and politically, a study said.

Indians remained the biggest group of foreign students in the United States in the last academic year but their numbers appeared to be leveling off, while strong growth came from China, Vietnam and several other emerging economies.

The United States hosts far more foreign students than any other country, owing to their universities' reputation, flexibility and concerted recruitment drives, said the Institute of International Education, an educators' group.

The number of foreign students increased eight percent to a record 671,616 in 2008-2009 from the previous academic year, the sharpest growth since 1980-81, the group's annual report said Monday.

With foreign students generating close to 18 billion dollars a year, officials and educators said higher education was proving to be a strong engine to bolster the troubled US economy.

Judith McHale, the undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, said US universities were also a crucial element in improving the US image around the world by offering foreigners a first-hand look at the United States.

"One of the things that has struck me is that everywhere I've gone -- even countries where we have a very difficult situation in terms of perception of the United States, throughout the Middle East, in Pakistan and elsewhere -- you find continued interest in people coming to the United States to study," she told an event releasing the research.

Saudi Arabia was among the countries that sent more students to the United States last year, with the number jumping 28 percent from a year earlier to 12,661.

But China was the key driver of growth, with the number of Chinese students heading to the United States increasing 21 percent to 98,510.

"Even though we know there has been a financial crisis, the Asian economies have not been as badly hit as the US," said Rajika Bhandari, who directed the research for the Institute of International Education.

"Chinese families tend to be smaller and put aside great resources to invest in their children's education," she said.

The United States also enjoyed dramatic growth in the number of Vietnamese students, with the figure soaring by 46 percent last year.

The only country that saw a significant decline was Japan. The number of Japanese studying in the United States slipped nearly 14 percent, a trend the study pinned on Japan's shaky economy and shrinking population.

More than half of US universities promoted themselves overseas, said the report, which was released the same day that US President Barack Obama met with students in Shanghai.

The United States remained by far the biggest single destination for students studying outside their own country, but the gap has narrowed in recent years with Britain, its biggest competitor.

The United States in 2008 pulled in 21 percent of the world's estimated three million foreign students, compared with 13 percent for Britain. France came in third at nine percent, followed closely by Germany.

But in a sign there is room for growth, foreigners made up only 3.5 percent of the overall student body in the United States, compared with 16.3 in Britain and 22.5 percent in Australia.

Bhandari, the researcher, said the United States has largely addressed concerns about slow issuance of student visas in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, although some applicants still had negative perceptions about the visa process.

She said British universities were now facing troubles over student visas after London reformed its immigration system.

The study also found that a record 262,416 Americans studied overseas the same year. More than half went to Europe but a growing number headed elsewhere, with 19 percent more going to China than a year ago and 14 percent more to Japan. (AFP)

First Latin America gay marriage on December 1

Latin America's first gay marriage will be held on World AIDS Day on December 1, the Argentine couple, who are both HIV positive, said Monday.

"We will become husband and husband," said Alejandro Freyre, 39, and Jose Maria Di Bello, 41, after they were given the date by the Buenos Aires registry office.

An Argentine judge on Friday paved the way for the couple to marry in a first for Latin America, the world's biggest Catholic region.

The wedding will take place in the same registry office where the couple were turned away in April because they are both men. Now they will have the same rights as a heterosexual couple.

Buenos Aires, known for its active if low-key gay movement, became the region's first city to approve civil unions for gay couples in 2002.

It was followed by Villa Carlos Paz in the north and the southern province of Rio Negro. Those civil unions grant gay couples some, but not all, the rights enjoyed by heterosexual married couples.

Uruguay became the first country in the region in late 2007 to legalize civil unions for gays. In January 2009, the Colombian Constitutional Court recognized a series of rights for homosexual couples, including social welfare rights.

Elsewhere, civil unions are recognized in Mexico City, the Mexican state of Coahuila and the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul.

The Catholic church, which is especially powerful in Argentina where the population is 91 percent Catholic, has sharply criticized the move.

"Same sex unions do not contribute to the common good, but seriously endanger it," said Bishop Baldemoro Martini. (AFP)

'Unfriend' is New Oxford American word of the year

The New Oxford American Dictionary named "unfriend" -- as in deleting someone as a friend on a social network such as Facebook -- its word of the year on Monday.

Oxford University Press USA, in a blog post, said "unfriend," a verb, had bested netbook, sexting, paywall, birther and death panel for the honor.

"Unfriend has real lex-appeal," said Christine Lindberg, senior lexicographer for Oxford?s US dictionary program.

"It has both currency and potential longevity," she said. "In the online social networking context, its meaning is understood, so its adoption as a modern verb form makes this an interesting choice for word of the year."

Previous words of the year include carbon neutral, locavore and hypermiling.

Locavores are people who eat locally grown food while hypermilers modify their cars and driving techniques to maximize gas mileage. (AFP)

Crisis-beating Italian online fashion retailer launches IPO

Yoox, an Italian online fashion retailer that sells top brands and has been growing rapidly during the global economic crisis, launched an initial public offering (IPO) in Milan on Monday.

The company is offering a total 55.5-percent stake and is pricing shares at between 3.60 and 4.50 euros per share, valuing the company at 226.8 million euros (339.5 million dollars). The IPO is to be completed by November 30.

Four investment funds currently own a 55-percent stake in the company, which sells brands including Diesel, Dolce (and) Gabbana, Emporio Armani and Valentino.

Yoox has reported a 48.8-percent rise in sales to 106.7 million euros over the first nine months of the year, with net profit rising to 2.8 million euros compared to a net loss of 400,000 euros over the same period in 2008.

The company was set up in 2000 and operates through the website yoox.com.

A report this month by the 30-nation Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) showed online commerce is booming because people and businesses are looking for bargains and new outlets in bad economic times. (AFP)

One-fourth of teen drivers text behind the wheel

One-fourth of US teenagers aged 16 and 17 have sent text messages while driving and over 40 percent have had a cellphone conversation while behind the wheel, according to a study published on Monday.

Twenty-six percent of teenagers aged 16 and 17 have texted while driving, according to the survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project -- about the same rate as found in separate studies conducted among adults.

The survey found boys and girls were equally likely to text while driving.

Forty-three percent of teens aged 16 and 17 have talked on a cellphone while driving, the study by the Washington-based Pew found.

According to Pew, 82 percent of teens aged 16 and 17 have a cellphone and 76 percent of them send text messages.

Forty-eight percent of teens aged 12 to 17 said they have been in a car when the driver was texting and 40 percent said they have been in a car when the driver used a cellphone in a way that put themselves or others in danger.

A number of US states have banned text messaging or talking on a handheld cellphone while driving and the US Senate is considering legislation to crack down on so-called "distracted driving."

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there were 5,870 fatalities last year in crashes in which driver distraction was reported.

An estimated 515,000 people were injured in such crashes.

The Pew survey involved 800 teens between the ages of 12 and 18 and was conducted this summer. It has a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points. (AFP)

Global health alliance targets chronic illnesses

A global health alliance including US, Indian and Chinese organizations has pledged to coordinate efforts against "chronic non-communicable diseases" that kill millions globally each year.

The Global Alliance for Chronic Disease, which brings together institutions managing an estimated 80 percent of all public health research funding worldwide, announced its first targets for action in a statement this week.

The alliance said it would seek to reduce hypertension, tobacco use and the indoor pollution caused by the types of cooking stoves used in many developing countries.

The group, founded last year by organizations from the United States, China, India, Canada, Britain and Australia, said the three priorities were chosen because they contribute to one in five deaths worldwide each year.

The targets were selected during the organization's inaugural scientific summit, held in November in New Delhi, India.

According to the World Health Organization, which belongs to the group's board, chronic non-communicable diseases (CNCDs) were responsible for some 60 percent of the 58 million deaths worldwide recorded in 2006.

The number of deaths caused by CNCDs is twice the combined total of deaths from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, maternal and peri-natal conditions and nutritional deficiencies, according to the alliance.

"The health impact and socio-economic cost of CNCDs is enormous and rising, upending efforts to combat poverty," the group said in a statement.

The three issues targeted by the alliance are believed to be responsible for some 11.5 million deaths per year, almost a third of all deaths associated with CNCDs, the group said.

The unregulated sale of cigarettes in countries like India could kill a billion people over the course of this century if nothing is done, and the number of people suffering from hypertension could rise to 1.5 billion by 2025 without action.

"The epidemic of chronic disease in the world has accelerated. We urgently need to understand how to reverse the trend, not just in small trials, but in all world communities. This new initiative will provide urgently needed resources to find and implement solutions," said David Matthews, a professor at Oxford University and acting executive director of the alliance.

For Elizabeth Nabel, director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at the US National Institutes of Health, the alliance presents a unique opportunity to coordinate proposals, peer reviews, data gathering and evaluation.

"The alliance represents an important new vehicle for making optimal use of limited global resources available to reduce the enormous toll of these largely-preventable diseases," she said in a statement. (AFP)

Saint Laurent's last belongings sold at auction

From pots and pans to antique chandeliers, the last belongings from the homes of Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge went on sale Tuesday, with the late fashion icon's bulldog looking on.

The celebrity bulldog, Moujik, joined scores of dealers and well-heeled seekers of YSL memorabilia for the four-day auction held in a Paris theatre just off the Champs Elysees boulevard.

"I'd like to have something that belonged to them in my home," said blonde Italian retiree Giuliana Giovannelli, hunting for something to distinguish her Parisian flat. "But nothing too expensive."

It was a slow start for some of the more expensive pieces, with a massive 19th Dutch chandelier and a large 16th century Chinese basin both going 50 percent below their top estimates of 60,000 euros (80,000 dollars).

But then a flurry of bids for smaller bric-a-brac sent prices flying.

One Swiss couple, hoping to pick up an eye-catching Napoleon III sofa for a couple of thousand euros, quickly gave up to watch the piece instead soar to 29,500 euros.

"I'm pleased," Berge told AFP. "Very pleased, as all the proceeds are going to HIV-AIDS research and campaigning."

The sale is expected to raise between three to four million euros (4.5 to six million dollars), a drop in the ocean compared to February's record smashing YSL-Berge auction of artworks they amassed over half a century.

That blockbuster sale raised 342 million euros (491 million dollars), making Saint Laurent the top-earning dead celebrity of 2009, ahead of Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley, according to Forbes.

Most items under the hammer this week through to November 20 are from the pair's weekend hideaway on the French coast, the three-storey Chateau Gabriel on the Normandy coast they acquired in the early 1980s.

The style-setters -- design enthusiasts, art buffs and literati -- decorated the mansion in a style inspired by novelist Marcel Proust's "In Search of Lost Time", late 19th century Bavarian castles and decors by Luchino Visconti.

"It was a sublime decor, a homage to Proust, a kind of exercise in style," Alexis Kugel, the renowned antique dealer who helped them acquire their more valuable art treasures, told AFP.

Reading lamps, boxes, pipes and side-tables accessible to YSL fans at a mere couple of hundred euros each were among 300 bits and pieces up for grabs on the first day of the auction.

But the magic of the name sent prices to dizzying heights at times. A pair of brass 19th-century English fireplace hearth stands, for instance, went for 15 times the estimated 1,000-euro value.

The rest of the 1,185 objects, are from the pair's Paris flats and offices.

Among those items, which will close the sale, is the most expensive, a Fernand Leger gouache estimated at between 60,000 and 70,000 euros (90,000 and 105,000 dollars).

Saint Laurent's last Mercedes-Benz car, due to have closed the sale, was withdrawn at the last minute by Berge, who sat by Moujik's side on opening day.

Almost 18 months after the couturier's death in June last year, the couple's Moroccan seaside home overlooking the Gibraltar Straits as well as Saint Laurent's vast Paris flat with garden are still on the market.

Berge, a business tycoon and arts patron who was Saint Laurent's lover and business partner, opted to sell all after the June 2008 death at 71 of the designer who famously put women in trousers.

"I hope that everything we loved so passionately will find a home with other collectors," Berge, who is 78, said earlier this year. (AFP)

US anger at new age rules for breast cancer tests

Doctors and experts are in uproar over new recommendations to raise the age of breast cancer screening, warning more women will die from the disease which already claims some 40,000 lives each year.

The high-level United States Preventative Services Task Force of scientists and researchers Monday recommended that breast cancer screening in women should now start at the age of 50 as opposed to 40.

And it further said that women between the ages of 50 to 74 should be screened every two years instead of annually.

"Screening saves lives, and cutting back on screening would cost lives," said Dr. Timothy Johnson, an oncologist at Holyoke Medical Center in Massachusetts.

"I'm against the proposals to cut back the screening on women between the age of 40 and 50, absolutely," he told AFP.

Some 210,000 American women are affected by the disease each year, and breast tumors are the most common cancer in women patients at Holyoke.

The task force's findings came two years after the panel issued a report which looked at the same issue, but did not recommend raising the screening age.

Some wondered whether the recommendations issued Monday were part of a cost-cutting effort as the United States wrestles to reform its health care system, something it wasn't doing two years ago.

But if that was the idea, cutting mammograms for younger women was not the way to go, said Dr Christine Pellegrino of the Montefiore-Einstein Center for Cancer Care in New York.

"Are they going to not reimburse mammograms for younger women versus potentially having to absorb the case of a woman who presents years later with advanced breast cancer where you're talking chemotherapy, surgery, more chemo, radiation and a great potential for recurrence?" Pellegrino, who is director of Montefiore-Einstein's breast clinic, wondered.

"Not only does that have a huge financial cost but also a devastating psychological impact," said Pellegrino, who was also opposed to hiking the starting age for breast cancer screening.

"If a woman shows up at 50 for her first screening and they find out she has this big cancer, and you know that if you had screened her a few years earlier you would have found it... whether you're the patient or the provider, if you have to say, 'Well, if we had done this two years earlier,' nobody will recover from that."

Mammograms currently cost the US public health system, Medicare, between three and five billion dollars a year.

One reason the task force gave for phasing out mammograms for younger women was the higher incidence of false-positive results in the group. These caused significant stress and led to unnecessary biopsies and treatment.

But cancer survivor Debbie Guardian said a false-positive was a small price to pay for catching the real thing in time.

"What's worse? A lot of stress only to find out it was plain old calcification or a lot of stress to discover you've got breast cancer but it's treatable because you were screened on time?" Guardian, whose doctors confirmed she had breast cancer days after her 50th birthday last year, told AFP.

"I went every single year (for a mammogram) starting at 40. Had I not gone when I was still 49, I wouldn't have known I had cancer because it wasn't big enough for me to feel, but it was big enough to be serious," she said.

"What this esteemed panel of experts is recommending is not wise, to put it politely. Based on personal experience, I wholeheartedly disagree with them," she said.

Pellegrino said the panel's recommendations went against years of efforts to raise awareness of breast cancer.

"With breast cancer, the money and resources we have poured into education and awareness is tremendous. Today, no matter where you go, women know something about breast cancer and something about having mammograms done," Pellegrino said.

"To start telling women, 'I know you just turned 40 but we're not going to do your baseline mammogram' -- the reaction is going to be one of complete visceral disbelief like, 'What do you mean I'm not going to have my mammogram'?"

According to this year's report, one life is saved for every 1,900 women aged 40-49 screened for breast cancer, compared to one life for every 1,300 in the 50-59 year age group.

"You may have to screen 1,900 women a year to save one life, but that's part of cancer screening," said Johnson. "We see a lot of women in their 40s with breast cancer, and by screening younger women, we save lives." (AFP)

Yellow fever drive targets 12 million West Africans: WHO

The World Health Organisation announced on Tuesday that the largest ever round of yellow fever vaccinations, for about 12 million people, would be launched in three West African countries next week.

"The largest ever drive against yellow fever is going to kick off in three countries in West Africa next Monday," said WHO spokeswoman Aphaluck Bhatiasevi.

"These three countries are Benin, Liberia, Sierra Leone and 11.9 million people will be vaccinated in ten days," she told journalists.

The vaccination drive, which is also backed by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders (MSF), was launched in 13 West African countries at the end of 2007.

Some 29 million people have been vaccinated against yellow fever so far, according to the WHO.

About 30,000 people die every year from the viral disease, which is carried by mosquitoes. Its most virulent form can kill more than 50 percent of those infected.

The UN health agency has blamed deforestation, urban growth, climate change and low levels of immunisation for a resurgence of the disease in recent years, mainly in South America and in Africa. (AFP)

Canadian-made swine flu shots approved by US regulator

The US Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday it has approved a Canadian-made shot against swine flu.

The vaccine is the fifth approved by the FDA for use in the United States, where a massive campaign to vaccinate tens of millions of Americans against swine flu has come up against a severe shortage of vaccine.

Fewer than half of the 160 million doses that health officials had originally said would be available by the end of October have been delivered.

The shortfall has been blamed in part on the outdated method used to produce vaccine, which relies on growing a seed stock of the virus in chicken eggs.

Like the other four vaccines approved by the FDA for use in the United States, the new vaccine, made by ID Biomedical of Quebec, is manufactured "using the established, licensed egg-based manufacturing process used for producing seasonal flu vaccine," the US food and drug regulator said.

The vaccine will be produced in multi-dose vials and will contain the preservative thimerosal, which contains mercury.

Pregnant women, who are one of five groups at heightened risk of developing severe complications and dying from swine flu, have to have the injectable form of the pandemic H1N1 vaccine because it is made with killed virus.

The other form, a nasal spray, is made with live, greatly weakened virus and is not advised for pregnant women, children under the age of two and people with chronic health conditions such as asthma, other groups who have priority for vaccination.

Swine flu vaccine was tested on pregnant women in the United States, but the vaccine that was tested did not contain thimerosal. (AFP)

China stifles Obama charisma

Something got lost in transit in US President Barack Obama's visit to China -- the charismatic rhetoric and dominance of mass communication that took him from nowhere to the White House.

Obama built his political persona with soaring speeches on a grand stage and by reaching out to a vast grassroots network on the Internet.

But in China, Obama's hosts successfully stifled those prodigious public talents, keeping his message from the people with media censorship and smothering it in staid diplo-speak.

On previous foreign trips in his taxing first year in office, the president sent inspiring words winging to millions of satellite dishes in the Muslim world and sparked Obama mania in Europe.

But in China, it has been tougher to reach out to ordinary citizens. His best attempt, a town hall meeting streamed on the White House website, suffered from what was largely a nationwide media blackout.

And Obama's talks on Tuesday with President Hu Jintao were followed by a dull public appearance, with both leaders reading out statements to the media stuffed with diplomatic code words.

The US president shuffled his papers on the lectern, scratched an eyebrow and looked across at Hu, as his host read out a long speech. The arid diplomatic translations made the occasion seem even more sterile.

Chinese officials several times warned the hundreds of reporters present, whom they referred to as "dear friends," that questions were banned. There was no chance for Obama to deploy his persuasive political personality.

Clearly, the raucous political dialogue seen in American elections and politics is alien to communist-ruled China where sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are heavily censored.

But it seems Obama is ready to play a "long game" on China policy, and is willing to take domestic media hits over a lack of progress now, in the hope of results later on.

Equally, the White House did not expect opportunities for Obama's populist politics offered elsewhere in the world, or that the US president could transform the political environment alone.

"I did not expect, I can speak authoritatively for the president on this, that we thought the waters would part and everything would change over the course of our two-and-a-half-day trip to China," said Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs.

Obama aides report that while his public persona may be out of view, the first-year president has emerged as a forceful negotiator with Chinese leaders, and is firing off questions about life here.

US Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman said Obama was "extremely effective" in private and a strong advocate for the country as a president "who talks about our traditions and is able to explain it to all those who are listening."

White House aides prefer not to dwell on the differences, and instead talk about how he is developing a relationship with China that will be invaluable for working on the world's most pressing problems.

Obama used his town hall meeting in Shanghai to issue a call for the unshackling of the Internet.

But Chinese authorities appeared to make attempts to stack the audience with students willing to follow the government line.

At least two of the four youths Obama picked to ask their own questions were later identified as Communist Youth League members.

The event did air on local television, but appears not to have had national exposure. Hopes that the official Xinhua news agency would stream it live did not materialise.

The state mouthpiece instead posted a running transcript of the meeting, erecting a barrier between Obama's personality and everyday Chinese.

Several Chinese bloggers praised Obama's efforts, and said his call to pull down the "Great Firewall of China" would provide valuable ammunition for Chinese web users.

"Obama's answer... is very interesting, because he is the first president who talks about this, and it will move and urge the Chinese government to think," said one blogger, known as Beifeng.

Another blogger, Zuola, also welcomed Obama's intervention -- which was sparked by a question submitted by email read out by Huntsman.

But he said the town hall meeting was simply a "game" played out under strict Chinese supervision.

"The Chinese government surely does not like those who are not in their control," he said.

Obama's trip to Shanghai only got covered in passing on the main evening news on state-run nationwide broadcaster CCTV on Monday, which devoted most of its time to Hu's trip to the Asia-Pacific summit.

The town hall meeting was not mentioned at all. (AFP)

Saint Laurent's last belongings sold as his dog looks on

From pots and pans to antique chandeliers, the last belongings from the homes of Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge went on sale Tuesday, as the late fashion icon's bulldog sleepily looked on.

The celebrity bulldog, Moujik, joined scores of dealers and well-heeled seekers of YSL memorabilia for the four-day auction held in a Paris theatre just off the Champs Elysees boulevard.

"I'd like to have something that belonged to them in my home," said blonde Italian retiree Giuliana Giovannelli, hunting for something to distinguish her Parisian flat. "But nothing too expensive."

In all, auctioneers Christie's announced sales for the first day totalling 2.2 million euros (3.3 million dollars), including costs. The auction house expects to raise three to four million euros (4.5 to six million dollars) excluding costs, for the entire November 17-20 auction.

The sale saw a slow start for some of the more expensive pieces, with a massive 19th Dutch chandelier and a large 16th century Chinese basin both going 50 percent below their top estimates of 60,000 euros (80,000 dollars).

Several pricey items even had to be withdrawn after failing to find buyers.

But then a flurry of bids for smaller bric-a-brac sent prices flying and by the end of the day 95 percent of the lots were sold.

One Swiss couple, hoping to pick up an eye-catching Napoleon III sofa for a couple of thousand euros, quickly gave up to watch the piece instead soar to 29,500 euros.

"I'm pleased," Berge told AFP. "Very pleased, as all the proceeds are going to HIV-AIDS research and campaigning."

The proceeds however will be a drop in the ocean compared to February's record smashing YSL-Berge auction of artworks they amassed over half a century.

That blockbuster sale raised 342 million euros (491 million dollars), making Saint Laurent the top-earning dead celebrity of 2009, ahead of Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley, according to Forbes.

Most items under the hammer this week are from the pair's weekend hideaway on the French coast, the three-storey Chateau Gabriel in Normandy that they acquired in the early 1980s.

The style-setters -- design enthusiasts, art buffs and literati -- decorated the mansion in a style inspired by novelist Marcel Proust's "In Search of Lost Time", late 19th century Bavarian castles, and decors by Luchino Visconti.

"It was a sublime decor, a homage to Proust, a kind of exercise in style," Alexis Kugel, the renowned antique dealer who helped them acquire their more valuable art treasures, told AFP.

Reading lamps, boxes, pipes and side-tables financially accessible to YSL fans at a mere couple of hundred euros each were among 300 bits and pieces up for grabs on the first auction day.

But the magic of the name sent prices to dizzying heights at times. A pair of brass 19th-century English fireplace hearth stands, for instance, went for 15 times the estimated 1,000-euro value.

Highlights were two 19th century chandeliers estimated at 10,000-15,000 euros that fetched 82,600 euros, a Napoleon III table estimated at 2,000-3,000, that finally sold for 49,000 euros, and a Napoleon III suite of furniture worth 4,000-6,000 euros that flew away at 49,000 euros.

The rest of the 1,185 objects, are from the pair's Paris flats and offices.

Among those items, which will close the sale, is the most expensive, a Fernand Leger gouache estimated at between 60,000 and 70,000 euros (90,000 and 105,000 dollars).

Saint Laurent's last Mercedes-Benz car, due to have closed the sale, was withdrawn at the last minute by Berge, who sat by Moujik's side on opening day.

Almost 18 months after the couturier's death in June last year, the couple's Moroccan seaside home overlooking the Gibraltar Straits as well as Saint Laurent's vast Paris flat with garden are still on the market.

Berge, a business tycoon and arts patron who was Saint Laurent's lover and business partner, opted to sell all after the June 2008 death at 71 of the designer who famously put women in trousers.

"I hope that everything we loved so passionately will find a home with other collectors," Berge, who is 78, said earlier this year. (AFP)

Tokyo crowned world's top Michelin three-star city

Tokyo has overtaken Paris as the city with the most Michelin three-star restaurants, cementing its status as the "world capital of gastronomy", the publisher of the culinary guide announced Tuesday.

The latest edition of the Michelin guide to the Japanese capital awarded 11 eateries the coveted three stars, against 10 in Paris.

Tokyo also kept its title as the world's most-decorated city with 261 stars in total -- 34 more than last year -- awarded to 197 restaurants.

"Tokyo remains by far the world capital of gastronomy and also has the most three-star restaurants," Michelin guide director Jean-Luc Naret told a news conference.

With 11 three-star, 42 two-star and 144 one-star eateries, Tokyo now boasts triple the number of awards that the French capital has.

"Tokyo has become the world culinary capital, ahead of Paris. We give stars where we find them and in Tokyo, the culinary richness is extraordinary," said Naret.

Tokyo's status as the world's largest metropolis was also a factor given that it has four times as many restaurants as Paris, he noted.

But France kept its place as the country with the most Michelin triple-star restaurants -- 25, compared with 18 in Japan, including those awarded to eateries in a separate edition for the western Kyoto-Osaka region.

Two-thirds of the 197 restaurants that Michelin selected from the 160,000 eateries in Tokyo serve Japanese cuisine, while the others offer French, Chinese, Italian, Spanish, or fusion food.

The Tokyo edition only includes restaurants that have been awarded stars. In the Michelin guides for other cities, it is common for a restaurant to be listed without being awarded stars.

The first Tokyo guide in 2007 provoked criticism and sarcasm among Japanese restaurant owners and food critics, who mocked the ability of French inspectors to judge Japanese cuisine.

For the latest edition, the inspectors were all Japanese.

The updated guide, which will go on sale in Japanese and English on November 20 in Japan and in early February in Europe, covers 15 districts of Tokyo.

It also introduces for the first time Japanese-style "izakaya" pubs, "kushiage" and "yakitori" restaurants that feature deep-fried and grilled food, as well as "shojin ryori" -- a vegetarian food favoured by Buddhist monks.

Three restaurants offering Japanese cuisine joined the prestigious triple-star club this year -- Esaki, Sushi Saito, and Yukimura -- while another, Hamadaya, lost one star due to the departure of its chef.

Three French restaurants also kept the full three stars -- Joel Robuchon, L'Osier and Quintessence.

Under Michelin's rules, one star signifies a "very good" cooking quality, two stars mean "excellent" and three stars mean "exceptional".

Michelin will run 150,000 copies in Japanese and 30,000 in English of the new 2010 edition. The first Tokyo 2008 guide sold about 300,000 copies while the 2009 version sold 180,000. (AFP)

Winemakers face climate change with dread

With the Copenhagen climate change summit looming, the world of wine convened on Spain's Rioja region for a conference in which global warming emerged as the industry's top concern.

"All over the world, alcohol levels are going up," said British wine critic Jancis Robinson at the WineFuture conference, citing just one problem producers are facing as a result of rising temperatures.

"Champagne alcohol levels are becoming embarrassingly high," she added, meaning that the heat which is raising the alcohol content changes both the texture and personality of a wine.

Robinson said there were some "benevolent effects" of climate change -- the slight increases in temperature currently benefiting certain wine-producing regions like California or Germany, as well as more ominous global implications.

"Even in England, the grapes are ripening more," she said. "Someone even planted a vineyard in Norway. Can you believe that?"

Less benevolent effects, added Robinson, are being seen in warmer wine producing regions around the world such as Australia where water shortages are contributing to the demise of many wineries.

"Farmers in Spain don't have nearly enough water," she continued, "Spanish wine has always been pretty dry and concentrated, but the last few vintages have reached a crisis point."

In the short to medium term, however, what might drive producers to go green has nothing to do with conscience or desire to save the world. For many, it's about money and marketing.

"I want to find new markets, particularly for export. I want to be the first winemaker who eliminates direct CO2 emissions. Nobody does that," said Manuel Garcia of Rioja's Bodegas Regalia de Ollauri. "As a commercial argument, it's very important."

Potentially, there's also money to be saved by going green. At Garcia's new vineyard, he installed a geothermal system that takes advantage of the constant temperature underground to cool his cellars in the summertime and heat them in the winter, a game changer for wineries whose power bills are often referred to as "astronomical."

"My summertime cooling no cuesta nada (doesn't cost anything)," he said, making a "0" in the air with his thumb and index finger. "We paid 250,000 euros to install the system, but we'll recuperate our investment in four or five years."

"You might not get vineyard owners to want to save the Earth, but they'll want to save money," concludes Garcia.

Winemakers are also being encouraged to rethink how they ship their wines and how they make their bottles.

At the WineFuture conference last week, speaker Nicola Jenkins, drinks category expert for the Britain.-based environmental agency WRAP cited a Chilean winery which used a "lightweighting" process on its bottles, reducing their weight from 485g to 425g and encouraging others to ship overseas in bulk using giant vats known as 'flexitanks'-- both processes that result in CO2 emissions reductions and shipping cost savings.

But it's still a slow process getting winemakers on board.

"People go to a climate conference and get all excited then go back to their company and say, 'Let's buy solar panels!' and their boss says 'What?!?!'" said Miguel Torres, president of Bodegas Miguel Torres.

Yet Torres, who heads up a generations-old wine company has become something of an Al Gore for the wine industry, travelling the world with a climate change PowerPoint presentation, showing what his company is doing to go green and why he's trying to lead by example.

At the new Torres winery in the Rioja town of Labastida, the facility is built into the earth, has a fleet of electric vehicles and special water collecting reservoirs.

"We won't be able to make the same quality of wines if we don't do anything," he said, addressing the particular sensitivity of grapes and the winemaking process to temperature changes other crops could endure.

Some producers who want to continue to produce the wines they've made historically are adapting by simply changing physical location.

"You can work with latitude or altitude, or switch grapes," he said. The latter has particular consequences in Europe, as a switch to grapes that are better adapted to higher temperatures could signal the end of the appellation system as a whole. "It's going to change the map."

"In 10, 15 or 20 years there's going to be a frightening change with consequences," he concluded. "If temperatures in Europe go up by five degrees, we won't be able to grow grapes and I don't want to have to explain to my grandchildren why we did nothing." (AFP)

Yemen's prided jambia hits tough times

With rhinoceros horns under a world preservation order, increased use of plastic from China and lack of interest from young men, Yemen's prided "jambia" curved dagger is under threat.

"It will soon be the end of the jambia," bemoans Khaled al-Saikal, an antiques dealer in the souk of the Old City in Sanaa whose windows are brimming with precious and less precious examples.

In the trade for the past 25 years, Saikal says he has overseen the gradual decline of what is widely seen in traditional Yemeni society as "the symbol of the pride of Yemeni men."

Dating back centuries to the pre-Islamic era, as depicted in bas reliefs, the Yemeni dagger is used both for self-defence and in traditional dance, with men waving it over the head as they spin.

"What makes a jambia valuable is the handle, with those made of rhinoceros horn the most precious, and its age," explains Saikal.

Under international pressure due to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, Yemen announced last summer that it has slapped a ban on such imports for the past two years.

An old jambia crafted by a top artisan can be worth a fortune.

The official daily Al-Jumhuriya in June put an estimate of one million dollars each on the two jambias owned by the country's most senior tribal chiefs, Sadek al-Ahmar and Naji Shaef.

Their weapons were taken from Imam Yahia, the last sovereign of Yemen when he was overthrown in a republican coup in 1962.

The third most prized jambia in the Arabian peninsula state belongs to President Ali Abdullah Saleh, according to the newspaper, but its origins and value have not been disclosed.

The jambia, worn on an embroidered belt, indicates social rank, profession and tribal origins. It also denotes local origins, with a sharp curve for eastern Yemen but an almost straight blade in the north.

The pointed sheath can indicate whether the bearer belongs to a prestigious family of judges or is a descendant of the Prophet Mohammed.

Poor examples of the jambia fill artisan and repairman Abdel Karim al-Barawi's tiny workshop in the Sanaa souk, where he uses plastic to create the handle.

"Blocks of plastic imported from China started to flood the market a year ago," he said, adding that some of the best models have fetched good prices despite the use of plastic.

"But some local manufacturers were up in arms and, here, imports are banned for the plastic used to carve the handles," he said.

Barawi also said the jambia business was facing tough times, not least because many young Yemenis have not inherited the passion. "You can't wear a jambia over trousers," which have been overtaking the traditional sarong.

Several different crafts depend on the jambia.

The blade is made from an alloy of metals, the belts are expertly embroidered, jewellers design and decorate the handles, while the sheath also has to be carved, sometimes in gold.

In tribal areas, a strict code governs the use of the jambia.

"During a dispute, touching the handle signals bellicose intent, pulling it half out is the equivalent of starting an attack," says Abdul Salam Kehili, an authority on the subject from eastern Yemen.

"Once brandished, blood is spilt and the parties involved have to go before a tribal council which decides on compensation to be paid by the side which is considered to be an aggressor." (AFP)

Austria to allow civil partnerships for gays

Austria's government agreed a new law Tuesday allowing civil partnerships for homosexual couples, although ceremonies at the civil registry's office will still be banned.

The compromise, achieved after weeks of wrangling between the ruling Social Democrats and their conservative coalition partner in government, will give gay couples equal rights to heterosexuals with regards to pensions and alimony.

Partners will also be able to take each other's name, if they wish.

But the new law will continue to ban adoption or artificial insemination for gay couples, said Justice Minister Claudia Bandion-Ortner, who had put forward the draft.

The proposal came up against strong opposition from the conservative People's Party, which fought any attempts to allow civil partnership ceremonies at the civil registry's office, where gay couples can marry.

Instead, civil partnerships will be registered at the municipal office or the magistrate's office -- the local authority of which the registry's office is only a part.

Conservative Interior Minister Maria Fekter welcomed the compromise on Tuesday: "We sought a realistic solution and this was (registration at) the local authority."

Gabriele Heinisch-Hosek, the minister for women's affairs who had pushed for civil registry ceremonies, insisted however that the law was an "unfinished document."

Tuesday's compromise was "an important first step" but future amendments were on the cards, the Social Democrat said.

Last week, Vienna's archbishop, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, called for the draft to be dropped, arguing that it would "create conditions that will ultimately lead to registered partnerships and marriages being given an equal footing," which the Church opposed.

The law is to come into force on January 1 after final approval by parliament. (AFP)

For Haiti's children, school dinners are the only meal on offer

More than 250 students have gathered in the two rooms of a small public school here, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the country's capital Port-au-Prince, waiting for a meal prepared by the World Food Program.

Across this impoverished Caribbean island nation, more than half a million young Haitians rely on the school meals provided by the organization, often the only food they will eat all day.

"In the year since this cafeteria was established in this public building in Balan, the number of students using it has grown each month," said director Sauveur Noel, 66.

"In November we had numerous requests to register students. People know that since last year we have been feeding the children. So...," the director said with a smile, seated behind an old table in a room built of tin and planks.

Noel himself attended the school "a long time ago," and acknowledges that "today I should be in retirement but I've returned to serve my community and accompany the children of my village," he says.

A year ago, he appealed to the World Food Program (WFP) to bring assistance to the school, which had been all but forgotten by the government and abandoned by the community.

"When we arrived here, we realized immediately that it was important to help the school, but we insisted on a minimum standard of hygiene. We had a toilet and a kitchen built," said Nancy Exilas, a Haitian WFP official.

"Since we added the school to the program, activities have been restarted and the children have become more efficient," she added.

In hundreds of public schools and assemblies across Haiti, the WFP provides food rations for the youngest living in areas with significant food insecurity, like Balan.

When the food is ready, it is served in classrooms to the waiting youngsters, who happily dig into their portions of rice and beans with a sardine sauce.

In the courtyard, their parents get a portion of their own.

"I can assure you this here is where we eat, the WFP is our God here in Balan," said one woman, whose two children attend the school.

In the 1,400 schools where the WFP provides the crucial meals, food stocks could run out within weeks, leaving 530,000 students without meals in Haiti's primary schools.

The prospect has forced the organization to seek 13 million dollars (nine million euros) in funding to continue the program.

Parents and teachers agree that if the program were to stop, the results would be "catastrophic."

After the meal is served at midday, the students at Balan school get back to work.

In the school's two classrooms, students from all six classes are seated on wooden benches, some repeating mathematical formulas while others learn literart extracts written out on an old blackboard. Today, their bellies are full. (AFP)

No takers for fashion house Christian Lacroix: administrator

The outlook for lavish French couture house Christian Lacroix looked increasingly bleak Tuesday as a French tribunal adjourned bankruptcy hearings with no fresh news of a buyer.

"To this day, bidders to take over the firm have not justified the means of financing their company plans, or at least not sufficiently," said judicial administrator Regis Valliot after a three-hour hearing at the Paris tribunal.

A new hearing was set for December 1 and Valliot said both an Emirati sheikh and a French firm interested in stepping in to save the prestigious house could submit details to the tribunal before that date.

Sheikh Hassan Ben Ali al-Naimi, who is close to the ruling family of the Ajman emirate, stepped in in September to take over the fashion house after Italian retailer Borletti withdrew its offer.

He made a formal 100-million-dollar (67-million-euro) offer for Christian Lacroix in October, in partnership with the designer, and was regarded as the frontrunner among the takeover bidders.

Another interested party was Bernard Krief Consulting.

Valliot had said it was "likely" the tribunal would approve the sheikh's offer because of his commitment to save jobs, tackle the company's bills and rescue the fashion house.

Christian Lacroix chief executive Nicolas Topiol for his part had said the sheikh's bid was "entirely satisfactory for all parties, including Mr Christian Lacroix."

The court had been expected to deliver a ruling Tuesday after receiving an economic recovery plan for the ailing house, which opened in 1987 and released its first ready-to-wear collection the following year.

Acquired from the world's leading luxury giant LVMH in 2005 by US duty free giant Falic, Lacroix said it had been forced to declare insolvency due to the sharp downturn of the luxury market. (AFP)

Hong Kong's 'spiders' stick to bamboo scaffolding

Nicknamed "spiders" for their gravity-defying skills in web-like constructions, Hong Kong's bamboo scaffolders have risen above predictions that their trade would disappear.

They remain a common sight high above the streets of the city, scaling the sides of towering, ultra-modern steel and glass buildings on traditional bamboo poles linked through ancient design concepts.

"People prophesied in 1957 that bamboo scaffolding was finished," former construction industry instructor Dan Waters told AFP, recalling the talk at an exhibition of new steel and aluminium gear.

The prophecy has proved accurate in some other parts of Asia such as mainland China and Singapore, where bamboo has largely been banished from high-rise construction sites in favour of modern materials.

But in Hong Kong, 1,835 registered bamboo scaffolders continue to play a vital role in forming the constantly changing skyline of the Chinese territory, and each year a handful of new recruits sign up.

"I didn't want to stay inside a classroom," 18-year-old trainee Wong Tik-hong told AFP while sitting two storeys up on a horizontal pole, with a leg hooked around a vertical for support.

"I was afraid when I looked up from the ground," he said of his early days of training at the Construction Industry Council (CIC) academy, where he and other students were erecting a frame against a wall.

Wong's initial fear is not surprising in a trade that requires workers to clamber dozens of storeys on flimsy looking frames made from what botanists recognise as a species of grass, tethered together by nylon strips.

A total of 16 people died by falling from scaffolding at construction sites in Hong Kong in the five years to 2008 -- nine of them scaffolders -- according to Labour Department statistics.

Building confidence is an important part of the training, said academy instructor Tang Sung-yuen, who started his scaffolding career at the age of 14 in the late 1960s.

The trainer, who scaled the bamboo wrappings of the Hopewell Centre in the early 1980s when the 64-storey building became the territory's highest structure, has classic advice for dealing with nerves at altitude: "Don't look down."

Despite a strong emphasis on safety on the CIC course, students acknowledge that there are concerns surrounding their choice of career.

"Even if they worry, there's not much my family can do, because I have to make a living. I have to find my way," said Wong's classmate Tsz Lung, who has his sights set on running his own firm of bamboo scaffolders.

"I plan to become a boss," the 20-year-old told AFP.

It takes several years before wages reach the going rate of around 700 to 800 Hong Kong dollars (90-100 US dollars) a day for experienced scaffolders.

Newly qualified scaffolders can expect to earn 350 to 400 Hong Kong dollars a day, staying on that rate for the first four years until they take a masters qualification.

At that wage, and with the risks involved, scaffolding is not a popular choice at the CIC academy. Only seven students are on the course this year, while about 30 have signed up for plumbing.

Scaffolding contractor Y.H. So of Wui Fai holdings is uncertain about the future.

"Last year only four students graduated from the CIC training academy. The government won't let us train our own staff," he told AFP. "All our trade is dying," he said.

Speaking outside a bamboo covered cluster of new 50-storey towers in the Diamond Hill neighbourhood near Kowloon city, he told AFP that there was also no guarantee of a continuous supply of bamboo poles in the future.

"I think change is coming. We are worried about the supply of bamboo in China," he said, explaining that most of it comes from wild bamboo groves in Guangxi province.

"The supply will drop off. There are more towns and cities now in China," he said.

But at the moment his bamboo demand is met without delay, including all the poles needed for the 30 million Hong Kong dollar contract at Diamond Hill that employs 30-40 full-time scaffolders a day.

Instructor Tang at the CIC academy does not share So's pessimism and rejects concerns about the supply of bamboo, a fast growing plant ubiquitous throughout southern China.

He also believes young men will continue to set their sights on becoming scaffolders, though "not everyone is capable of doing this job."

The industry offers new recruits good opportunities to move from merely providing skilled labour to becoming bosses of their own firms. "And that's the ultimate goal for any worker in Hong Kong," he said.

Dan Waters now knows that the 1957 prediction about the demise of bamboo scaffolding was premature, and believes it will still be around for a long time to come.

He heard the forecast during a field trip with his building industry students at the construction site of the Furama hotel, where there was an exhibition of metal scaffolding.

More than 50 years later the hotel has gone, replaced by the gleaming asymmetrical AIG tower -- and bamboo continues to be a major scaffolding material.

"I didn't think it would last in 1957, but I'm more convinced than ever that it will carry on. It will certainly long last me out," said Waters. (AFP)

After luxury bags, counterfeit luxury wines

Petrus, Romanee-Conti, Chateau d'Yquem -- wines coveted by connoisseurs, and targeted by counterfeiters.

According to French wine professionals, a handful of rare and fine wines face the same threat from fraud as luxury handbags and designer sunglasses.

Trafficking in fake wine has "always existed a little, but it's definitely amplified with the rising prices of fine wines", said Sylvain Boivert, director of the association representing Bordeaux wines classified back in 1855, the Conseil des Grands Crus Classes en 1855.

To the relief of many, the fakery remains small scale.

"We are not dealing with industrial counterfeit production, unlike the luxury brands," he said.

The counterfeiting "touches five to six of the very top wine estates in Bordeaux where there is a real potential to make a capital gain and where there is a world-wide demand because the products are rare," said wine tycoon Bernard Magrez, owner of 35 estates, including several in Bordeaux.

Nor have Bordeaux's rarefied cousins in Burgundy been spared, notably Romanee-Conti, one of the world's scarcest and most expensive wines.

Jeroboams, the equivalent of four bottles, of the 1945 vintage from this 1.8 hectare (4.4 acre) estate have recently been sold in auctions, according to Laurent Ponsot, a renowned Burgundy producer.

Alas, Romanee-Conti did not bottle their 1945 in Jeroboams.

Ponsot, owner of Domaine Ponsot, has had his own misadventures with counterfeiters.

At a sale in New York in 2008, the vintner was shocked to discover that "106 bottles out of 107" were fakes. The catalogue listed "a sale of Clos Saint Denis 1945 and other old vintages when we didn't even begin producing this particular appellation until 1982," he recounted.

"The counterfeiters aren't Asian, they are European or American", said Ponsot, who had to fly to New York to stop the sale.

The methods used to fool buyers are only limited by the imagination of the counterfeiters: photocopied labels, different chateaux names on the capsule and the label, to name a few.

Sometimes the bottle is authentic but doesn't contain the wine or the vintage indicated, or only partially, the level of the wine having been topped off with another wine by using a syringe.

"The further one is from the original market, the cruder the fakes," said Angelique de Lencquesaing, founder of the Internet auction website IdealWine.

As new markets emerge, fraudsters seize the opportunity to cash in.

According to Magrez, counterfeiting increased "when Russians began consuming after the fall of the Wall."

"There was an enormous temptation, because of the considerable demand."

Add to that the immense Chinese market. While the problem of counterfeit wine remains "very anecdotal" on the French market, it "could take on a much more serious amplitude in Asia because the market is developing at a dazzling speed," said de Lencquesaing.

China is "the principal counterfeiter," according to Renaud Gaillard, deputy director of the French export trade body, Federation des Exportateurs de Vins et Spiritueux de France (FEVS). While the main targets are champagne and cognac, according to Gaillard, "one can find Petrus and Margaux in some little stores" in China.

In addition to export markets and Internet marketplaces, fake wines slip into circulation through the auctions.

"The auction houses are not always as demanding as they should be," noted David Ridgeway, chief sommelier at legendary Paris restaurant La Tour d'Argent.

For example, "Romanee-Conti 1945, we know there were only 600 (bottles) produced. But I don't know how many thousands of bottles we have seen at the sales," he said.

Unlike luxury goods groups such as LVMH, which have the financial power to fight aggressively against fake goods, most vintners don't.

"There are no funds. Each lawsuit costs 500,000 euros," said Ponsot. "Vuitton has the means. The vintner, even if he sells all of his merchandise, it's smallscale" production.

There are also those vintners who prefer to avoid any publicity regarding fake wine.

"They file a complaint, but always quietly," said the French wine expert Claude Maratier. "They are too afraid that their entire production will be put in doubt." (AFP)

Counterfeiters target luxury wines

Petrus, Romanee-Conti, Chateau d'Yquem -- wines coveted by connoisseurs, and targeted by counterfeiters.

According to French wine professionals, a handful of rare and fine wines face the same threat from fraud as luxury handbags and designer sunglasses.

Trafficking in fake wine has "always existed a little, but it's definitely amplified with the rising prices of fine wines", said Sylvain Boivert, director of the association representing Bordeaux wines classified back in 1855, the Conseil des Grands Crus Classes en 1855.

To the relief of many, the fakery remains small scale.

"We are not dealing with industrial counterfeit production, unlike the luxury brands," he said.

The counterfeiting "touches five to six of the very top wine estates in Bordeaux where there is a real potential to make a capital gain and where there is a world-wide demand because the products are rare," said wine tycoon Bernard Magrez, owner of 35 estates, including several in Bordeaux.

Nor have Bordeaux's rarefied cousins in Burgundy been spared, notably Romanee-Conti, one of the world's scarcest and most expensive wines.

Jeroboams, the equivalent of four bottles, of the 1945 vintage from this 1.8 hectare (4.4 acre) estate have recently been sold in auctions, according to Laurent Ponsot, a renowned Burgundy producer.

Alas, Romanee-Conti did not bottle their 1945 in Jeroboams.

Ponsot, owner of Domaine Ponsot, has had his own misadventures with counterfeiters.

At a sale in New York in 2008, the vintner was shocked to discover that "106 bottles out of 107" were fakes. The catalogue listed "a sale of Clos Saint Denis 1945 and other old vintages when we didn't even begin producing this particular appellation until 1982," he recounted.

"The counterfeiters aren't Asian, they are European or American", said Ponsot, who had to fly to New York to stop the sale.

The methods used to fool buyers are only limited by the imagination of the counterfeiters: photocopied labels, different chateaux names on the capsule and the label, to name a few.

Sometimes the bottle is authentic but doesn't contain the wine or the vintage indicated, or only partially, the level of the wine having been topped off with another wine by using a syringe.

"The further one is from the original market, the cruder the fakes," said Angelique de Lencquesaing, founder of the Internet auction website IdealWine.

As new markets emerge, fraudsters seize the opportunity to cash in.

According to Magrez, counterfeiting increased "when Russians began consuming after the fall of the Wall."

"There was an enormous temptation, because of the considerable demand."

Add to that the immense Chinese market. While the problem of counterfeit wine remains "very anecdotal" on the French market, it "could take on a much more serious amplitude in Asia because the market is developing at a dazzling speed," said de Lencquesaing.

China is "the principal counterfeiter," according to Renaud Gaillard, deputy director of the French export trade body, Federation des Exportateurs de Vins et Spiritueux de France (FEVS). While the main targets are champagne and cognac, according to Gaillard, "one can find Petrus and Margaux in some little stores" in China.

In addition to export markets and Internet marketplaces, fake wines slip into circulation through the auctions.

"The auction houses are not always as demanding as they should be," noted David Ridgeway, chief sommelier at legendary Paris restaurant La Tour d'Argent.

For example, "Romanee-Conti 1945, we know there were only 600 (bottles) produced. But I don't know how many thousands of bottles we have seen at the sales," he said.

Unlike luxury goods groups such as LVMH, which have the financial power to fight aggressively against fake goods, most vintners don't.

"There are no funds. Each lawsuit costs 500,000 euros," said Ponsot. "Vuitton has the means. The vintner, even if he sells all of his merchandise, it's smallscale" production.

There are also those vintners who prefer to avoid any publicity regarding fake wine.

"They file a complaint, but always quietly," said the French wine expert Claude Maratier. "They are too afraid that their entire production will be put in doubt." (AFP)