Straight British couple fight for civil partnership

A straight British couple who reject marriage but want to seal their love with a civil partnership were told Tuesday they could not because they are not gay.

Tom Freeman and Katherine Doyle, both 25-year-old civil servants, were turned away from Islington Registry Office in north London because the law says civil partnerships -- brought in here in 2005 -- are only for same-sex couples.

Undeterred, the couple said they will take their fight for equality to court.

"We want to secure official status for our relationship in a way that supports the call for complete equality and is free of the negative connotations of marriage," Freeman said.

"If we cannot have a civil partnership, we will not get married."

A spokesman for Islington Council said: "The law dictates that a civil partnership is only for couples of the same sex. The council must follow the law."

There are a small number of differences between a marriage and a civil partnership, including that a marriage can be conducted in a church, while a civil partnership cannot. (AFP)

French artist sells work in 'game' with the devil

A French artist has struck an unusual deal to sell his latest work: instead of paying up front, the buyer will hand over a regular fee until the artist dies.

Christian Boltanski said his deal with Australian professional gambler David Walsh was a "game" with the devil -- but not a pact.

The work involves four video cameras filming Boltanski's studio in suburban Paris, day and night, from January until his death, with images relayed live to a cave in Tasmania, Australia.

"This man (Walsh) thinks he can beat the odds and he says he never loses," Boltanski, 65, told AFP in an interview at the studio in Malakoff, in the southwest Paris suburbs.

"Anyone who never loses or thinks he never loses must be the devil."

Rather than handing over the price of the work in one lump sum, Walsh will make regular payments -- monthly or annual, the artist did not say -- until Boltanski's death.

The longer Boltanski lives, the more Walsh has to pay.

Walsh, a professional gambler who made his fortune in casinos, worked out that he would make money from the deal if Boltanski dies within the next eight years.

"If I die in three years, he wins. If I die in 10 years, he loses," Boltanski said.

"He has assured me I will die before the eight years is up because he never loses. He's probably right. I don't look after myself very well.

"But I'm going to try to survive. You can always fight against the devil."

It was Boltanski -- a doctor's son with a lifelong fascination with death -- who came up with the unusual payment scheme and he seems unfazed by the prospect of being on camera so much of the time.

"It's not my bedroom, it's just my studio," he said, and in any case the pictures are going to Tasmania, where "no-one ever goes".

The images will be stored on DVD, but as long as the artist is still alive, there are restrictions on what Walsh can do with them.

Walsh has a passion for the macabre, the Boltanski said, and collects Egyptian mummies.

"He wanted to buy my ashes, but I refused. I don't want to end up in Tasmania. There's a little temple in Japan that will suit me just fine," he said. (AFP)

Rio does away with coconuts on beaches

One of the enduring images of Rio's beaches -- coconuts opened to yield their sweet water -- is about to be a thing of the past under a new clean-up campaign by authorities.

The environment secretariat of the host city of the 2014 soccer World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games has decreed that the big green fruit beloved by thirsty residents and tourists alike is an unhygienic eye-sore and its sale by vendors will be banned from December 1.

"Go on Ipanema beach at the end of the day and you'll see a mountain of coconuts that people have left on the sand. What attracts rats most to the beach are coconut husks," the official in charge of the beaches, Jovanildo Savastano, told AFP.

Up to 30 tons of empty coconuts are recovered every day, he said.

Some environmentalists argue however that the fruit is biodegradable and presents no negative ecological impact. Its liquid is also excellent for health, they say.

Beachgoers with a craving for coconut juice will still be able to slake their thirst, but only by buying it in receptacles like bottles -- or industrially made, in cans.

"This ban favors companies more than the people," environmentalist Gerhard Sardo said, stressing that empty drink cans are already a problem.

Rio de Janeiro's mayor, Eduardo Paes, has offered to rethink the ban -- but only if the thousands of people hitting the city's beaches pick up after themselves.

Besides cleaning up Rio beaches, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva vowed last month to ensure The Marvelous City is also free from violence during its hosting of the 2016 Olympic Games. (AFP)

Italians reject proposal to abolish lunch breaks: media

Italians have vehemently rejected a cabinet minister's proposal that lunch breaks be scrapped to increase productivity, media reported Tuesday.

Gianfranco Rotondi, minister for programme implementation, made the suggestion on Monday, saying, "The lunch break impairs work. It is a ritual which brings the whole country to a halt."

His statement provoked an outcry. "But has Rotondi ever worked?" Communist Party official Gianni Pagliarini asked ironically in La Stampa newspaper.

Italians questioned by television stations and newspapers were also against by the proposal.

"An enemy attack on the rights of workers," is how it was described in the Repubblica daily by Michele Gentile, a leader in Italy's largest labour union, CGIL, which has five million members.

"If it is behind the obscure wish to try to lengthen work hours or to increase productivity, then we are against it. The lunch break has been a right for a long time," he said.

"While we are at it, why don't we do away with the annoying ritual of sleep," added Gentile's colleague Carlo Podda in the Corriere della Sera newspaper.

Nutritionists pointed to potential danger to health and productivity.

"It is meals that synchronise our rhythms. It would be a mistake to disrupt this mechanism with a long fast," said Giuseppe Fatati, president of the Italian Association for Clinical Dietetics and Nutrition, in Il Messaggero daily.

"We cannot let the brain starve. To maintain concentration and productivity, it needs 'fuel'," he said, adding that the absence of meal breaks could also lead to weight gain. (AFP)

White House veggies for Obama's big night

With arugula straight from his garden and entertainment by two Oscar winners, President Barack Obama took a fresh take on the state dinner in Washington's top social event since his inauguration.

For a youthful president who often draws comparisons to John F. Kennedy, Obama reserved the glamour of his first White House state dinner for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India, in a bid to show his commitment to the world's largest democracy.

More than 300 guests including film director Steven Spielberg dined under the stars and drizzle in a warm tent on the South Lawn. Each table was decked with candles and flowers in a festive feel Obama likened to India's gala outdoor parties.

"It's been said that the most beautiful things in the universe are the starry heavens above us and the feeling of duty within us," Obama said in a toast to Singh, quoting an Indian proverb.

The appetizer came from just a few feet away -- arugula grown in the White House garden, set up by First Lady Michelle Obama in her drive to encourage healthier eating.

It may also have been one of the more daring choices of the evening. While campaigning for president in Iowa in 2007, critics hoping to portray Obama as elitist attacked the then senator for speaking to farmers about arugula.

In a nod to Singh, who like many Indians prefers not to eat meat, the menu was all vegetarian save for an option of green curry prawns with smoked collard greens.

The guests' other choice, which also pays tribute to both Indian and African-American cuisine, was roasted potato dumplings with tomato chutney, chickpeas and okra.

Brought in as the guest chef is Marcus Samuellson, who was born in Ethiopia, raised in Sweden and lives in New York where his Aquavit restaurant has won acclaim for transcending cultural boundaries.

Michelle Obama described Samuellson as "one of the finest chefs in the country" and said the meal featured "the freshest ingredients from area farmers and purveyors."

"It's going to showcase the best of American cooking," she said.

The first lady sported a gold and cream strapless dress by Naeem Khan, an Indian-born US designer who has also made outfits for musical sensations Jennifer Lopez and Beyonce.

The guests also had a more direct look at musical celebrity with performances by Oscar winners Jennifer Hudson and A.R. Rahman, along with the National Symphony Orchestra and jazz vocalist Kurt Elling.

Hudson, raised in a poor neighborhood in Obama's hometown of Chicago, shot to stardom on the reality show "American Idol" and went on to win an Academy Award for her performance in the movie "Dreamgirls."

Rahman is one of the top composers and musicians in India's prolific Bollywood film industry. He won two Oscars for his song "Jai Ho," which was the theme to the rags-to-riches blockbuster "Slumdog Millionaire."

With invitations to the dinner a hot commodity, some guests made their own fashion statements.

Semonti Stephens, a top aide to Michelle Obama, showed up in a red and golden sari from Kolkata which she wore to her own wedding.

Congressman Jim McDermott, a strong supporter of India, sported a black Nehru jacket he bought in India and his wife came in a sari.

Other guests included most of the top US leadership, entertainment moguls Spielberg and David Geffen, novelist Jhumpa Lahiri and spiritual guru Deepak Chopra.

In a nod to bipartisanship, Obama invited several members of the rival Republican Party including Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, who is of Indian descent.

While much of the glitz may appear to be for domestic consumption, Vice President Joe Biden assured the self-effacing Singh that it was meant to show a commitment to India.

"You are the hottest ticket in town," Biden told him. (AFP)

Action on climate change 'also averts health crisis'

Climate change will imperil health through malaria, cholera, heatwaves and hunger, but many problems can be eased or avoided if countries make wise policy choices, doctors said on Wednesday.

In a series of papers issued ahead of the UN climate conference in Copenhagen, experts challenged governments to factor in public health when conceiving a battle plan for global warming.

"In view of the trillions of dollars likely to be spent on greenhouse-gas mitigation in the coming decades, the relatively small resources needed to guide investments along paths bringing the world closer to its health and climate goals would be money well spent," they said.

The reports were published by the British medical revue The Lancet in the runup to the December 7-18 showdown, which aims at building a planet-wide pact on climate change from 2013.

"Policymakers have been slow to recognise that the real bottom line of climate change is its risk to human health and quality of life," World Health Organisation (WHO) Director General Margaret Chan said in a commentary.

"Malnutrition, and its devastating effects on child health, will increase.

"Worsening floods, droughts and storms will cause more deaths and injuries. Heatwaves will cause more deaths, largely among people who are elderly.

"Finally, climate change could alter the geographical distribution of disease vectors, including the insects that spread malaria and dengue."

The Lancet file said policymakers could boost both the environment and public health through "careful selection" of actions to curb carbon.

It offered these examples:

-- HOUSEHOLD ENERGY: Switching to lower-carbon energy in poorer countries would avert millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) from biomass stoves and save people at risk from pneumonia, lung disease and lung cancer from particles and fumes.

The report gave the example of India, which suffers an estimated 400,000 premature deaths from biomass burning each year.

A 10-year programme to introduce 150 million lower-emission cookers in India, either as cleaner fossil fuels or advanced biomass stoves, would cost less than 50 dollars per household to start with, an investment that would have to be renewed after five years.

Over the decade, this initiative would save 1.8 million adult lives and 240,000 children aged under five -- an equivalent achievement to nearly halving the national burden from cancer.

It would slash India's carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by up to 200,000 tonnes per million population per year. In addition, levels of "black carbon" particles, methane and other dangerous compounds would fall by as much as a billion tonnes over the 10 years.

-- AGRICULTURE: Food and agriculture contribute between 10 and 12 percent of global greenhouse-gas emissions, while deforestation and changes in land use add another six to 17 percent.

By 2030, surging demand for meat, especially in fast-growing Asia, is expected to drive up livestock production by 85 percent compared to 2000 levels, which in turn will drive up emissions of methane and other heat-trapping gases.

But a 30-percent reduction in production in large livestock-rearing economies, coupled to technological improvements, would help meet carbon emissions targets and also pare the toll from heart disease inflicted by saturated animal fats. In Britain, 18,000 deaths could be averted in one year, according to their estimate.

-- TRANSPORT: Designing cities so that people can walk or cycle would benefit health more than introducing low-emission vehicles.

Modelling of London and Delhi, in scenarios that saw less motor traffic and more "active transport" in both cities, showed a fall in carbon emissions and in heart attacks, strokes and dementia.

In London, the switch would lead to an increase of 19-39 percent in road injuries, but Delhi would see a fall of 27-69 percent.

Also on Wednesday, senior clinicians announced they had set up a worldwide network, the International Climate and Health Council, to mobilise professionals' awareness of the link between ill-health and climate change.

In September, the heads of 18 doctors' associations urged world leaders to be decisive in Copenhagen, warning a weak response could have "catastrophic" consequences for international health. (AFP)

UN AIDS chief in China to push for stronger civil society

The UN AIDS chief said 50 million people are at risk from the disease in China and the government must do more to reach out to civil society and work with vulnerable groups such as homosexuals.

China has 319,877 confirmed HIV cases but 740,000 are estimated to be infected, Michel Sidibe told AFP in an interview late Tuesday, citing figures compiled by UNAIDS, the World Health Organisation and China's health ministry.

But up to 50 million others are in high-risk groups such as sex workers, migrant labourers and drug users, he added.

The UNAIDS executive director said he chose China as the place to launch the UN 2009 AIDS epidemic update on Tuesday, partly to push Chinese leaders to work with non-government groups, who often must operate unofficially in China.

"I wanted to come here to push a few agendas ... I'm pushing them for a civil society ... they don't have mechanisms to register them and monitor how they are doing," Sidibe said.

With sexual transmission between gay males accounting for 32 percent of new infections in China last year, Sidibe said more must also be done to engage the homosexual community, which struggles for acceptance in China.

Sidibe travels to Beijing on Wednesday for talks with Chinese leaders and to launch a new public awareness campaign featuring NBA star Yao Ming on Friday.

He said the involvement of such a popular and high-profile star as Yao was a positive signal that Chinese society was getting more comfortable discussing AIDS.

Health Minister Chen Zhu joined Sidibe at the UNAIDS report's release in Shanghai and acknowledged China faced "a long march" in AIDS prevention and control.

Calling AIDS "an engine for social change", Sidibe said it was forcing Beijing to openly discuss controversial issues.

"When you talk about AIDS, you talk about sex, you talk about human rights," he said.

Chen has agreed to hold an AIDS human rights forum early next year to discuss issues including patient care, women's role in society, sex workers, and the homosexual community, Sidibe said.

He said the forum would help carve out space for civil society in China's AIDS dialogue.

"Like most former Communist countries, you have a nascent civil society," he said.

"It has never been well-organised, it has been characterised by the position of individuals, vocal activists who were able to voice their position a little. I'm seeing major progress."

Sidibe said the government is adopting a more open approach due to the evolution of the epidemic in China, which has shifted from mostly intravenous drug use to sexual transmission.

Sexual transmission accounted for more than 72 percent of new cases last year.

"They have today 30 to 50 million people at risk in China because of their behaviour," Sidibe said.

He based those numbers largely on China's huge floating population of migrant workers, traditionally a high-risk group as it includes prostitutes and migrants who pay them for sex.

"Multiply that by the number of spouses, by the number of children and family members who could be affected -- it's a major risk they want to manage," he said.

"(China is) dealing with it with energy and pragmatism -- which is important to say to the rest of the world. That doesn't mean there aren't issues."

Sidibe's words of support for civil society were welcomed by Wan Yanhai, the Beijing-based founder of the AIDS Action Project and one of China's most prominent AIDS activists.

But he said China's control-conscious government was still far from openly embracing civil society groups in a manner sufficient to meet the epidemic.

"Every year we see UN people coming to China. They do many good things for the publicity, but the work they are doing is not helping civil society."

Wan said the government was starting to selectively work with non-governmental groups.

"They select NGOs who defend the government, not those that defend people's lives," Han said. (AFP)

Hospital ship plugs health gap in Brazil's Amazon

For the residents of Mocajuba Island, dirt-poor folk who sleep in wooden shacks under the Amazon's vast canopy of green, the once-a-year visit by the hospital ship is an occasion akin to Christmas.

They greet the two-level white vessel and its team of volunteer medical staff with the enthusiasm and attire reserved for special occasions.

Once on board, they eagerly push forward, without exception, to be treated for the variety of ills accumulated in a part of the world almost untouched by civilization.

This is the mission of the Light of the Amazon, a floating hospital run as a charity program since 1962 to improve the physical health of the riverside denizens in Brazil's remotest region.

The ailments suffered by the community of 250 people, located four hours upriver from the northern city of Belem, attest to the harshness of jungle life and ignorance about hygiene.

"Intestinal parasites are very common, due to the untreated water that they usually use. Even if they treat the water, the kids go swimming in the river and swallow water from the river," says one of the doctors, Maria-Auxiliadora Martins.

She is treating a young girl with an ear infection and a stomach parasite. Most likely she also has the most common ailment seen by the staff: decaying teeth.

The onboard dental surgery works for such long hours treating the villagers that the two dental student nurses working the drill complain of shoulder pain afterwards.

On shore, staff try to instill a regime of dental hygiene, getting the children to sit for long minutes with fluoride paste on their teeth, and using a toothbrush.

For the older members of the village, like Pedro Silva, 67, it's too late.

"I'm going to get a consulting note to see about the last tooth I have in my mouth," he says with a cackle that frames the solitary tooth in a cavern of black.

Some of the problems are more serious. One middle-aged man looks around in befuddlement, blood coagulating on his forehead from a bathroom fall that, he finds out, also broke his shoulder.

Sexually transmitted diseases are also rife, as are teenage pregnancies.

On a past trip to another village, the ship's medics discovered one sickly girl was suffering from leukemia.

While the ship sets about treating the residents, some of the staff hand out simplified Bibles, to be colored in or taken apart as jigsaw puzzles, to the scores of children.

These are gifts from the charity that owns the vessel: the Brazilian Bible Society, the world's biggest publisher of the Christian book which sees spiritual health as much in need of help as physical wellbeing.

On both counts, the Amazon is a fertile region for the hospital ship's services.

The impoverished communities which live in isolation, relying on the rivers as the only practicable pathways through the jungle, are grateful for the medical aid they would never otherwise see, and the literacy boost provided by the Bibles.

Acyr Degerone Junior, in charge of the ship's program, says the idea is "to treat people who don't have medical access, who can't get to a town, who don't have that option."

He won't be drawn, though, on whether the fact that the ship fulfils a need means that public authorities are not doing enough to care for the communities.

"The program is concerned more with giving an option to these people, than us thinking about whether we see an absence of public services in these areas," he said.

After a two-day stop on Mocajuba Island, the hospital ship slips its moorings and heads out into the river, back to Belem for restocking and to change its team of volunteers.

It will be a brief return to civilization before returning to the jungle waterways, on yet another of its thrice-weekly trips. (AFP)

Wall dividing Slovak village sparks Roma outcry

Lucia Kucharova never cared much about the view from her window until its main feature became a wall separating her and more than 1,000 other Roma from the rest of their village.

The white concrete wall, built last month in Ostrovany, a village of 1,800 in eastern Slovakia, has locals as well as Roma and human-rights organisations fuming.

"It's discrimination, the mayor should have used the money to build houses for us instead," Kucharova, a 25-year-old Roma, told AFP.

The wall, which is 150 metres (yards) long and more than two metres high, cost 13,000 euros (19,300 dollars) to build and begins where the road ends in Ostrovany.

But Cyril Revak, the village mayor since 1991, is careful to avoid calling it a wall.

"The fence doesn't prevent the Roma from coming to the village," he said. "It just prevents them from entering private gardens and stealing. It wasn't just petty theft, especially in autumn.

"People don't grow vegetables in their gardens any more, there's no use -- everything gets stolen."

To get from the village to Kucharova's house on the other, rubbish-strewn side of the wall -- and the destitute world of some of the 27-member European Union's most impoverished citizens -- one has to splosh through mud along a slippery downhill path.

At the foot of the hill, Alena Kalejova sorts through the ubiquitous litter for butt-ends that she gratefully picks up from the muddy ground on a chilly, rainy day.

"The children have been stealing apples from the gardens but what can we do -- they are just children," admitted the 21-year-old Roma mother of one.

Apologetically, she adds: "Cigarettes are too expensive, we can hardly live on unemployment benefit at 150 euros a month."

Joblessness in this Roma community is almost 100 percent with most living on unemployment benefits and so-called activation work -- community service aimed at improving job skills.

"These days even the 'gadzos' have problems finding a job," concedes Lucia Kucharova, using the Roma word for "white people".

Her own education ended after nine years of school.

The wall dividing Ostrovany -- whose name can translate as "island village" -- has outraged human-rights and Roma associations.

"We have filed a suit with the prosecutor, we think the wall was built illegally and it discriminates against the Roma minority in Ostrovany," Alexander Patkolo, chairman of the Roma Initiative of Slovakia (RIS), told AFP.

Ostrovany is by no means the only island of Roma poverty in the country, which joined the European Union in 2004.

There are more than 600 Roma settlements in Slovakia where people live without electricity, sewage or running water, most located far from the relatively affluent capital Bratislava.

Behind the wall, in a shack of wood and corrugated iron, Lucia Kucharova's partner Martin proudly tells how he himself built their home, tensing his muscles to display a woman tattooed on his shoulder as he speaks.

"We are lucky to have a fridge, a stove and running water here," he said.

The young couple share a narrow bed with two daughters, while their youngest girl sleeps in her stroller.

Just a few kilometres from Ostrovany lies Slovakia's largest Roma settlement near the village of Jarovnice. Floods killed 58 people there in 1998.

A nation of 5.4 million, Slovakia is officially home to around 89,000 Roma, according to the 2001 national census.

But in reality, the Roma population is much higher.

"The actual number might be approximately 350,000 Roma," says Arne Mann, an ethnologist at the Slovak Academy of Sciences. The EU's entire Roma population is estimated to be 11-12 million.

Mann blames communism for having pushed Roma further toward the margins of Slovak society.

"Before World War II, there was good cooperation between Roma and farmers. Roma used to help during the harvest or with the laundry," he said.

"But after the post-war collectivisation, their help wasn't needed any more and segregation began."

In a 2008 survey, 82 percent of Slovaks said they did not want to have a Roma neighbour.

"The segregation of the Roma can lead to similar problems as France had to cope with during nationwide riots in suburbs in late 2005," ethnologist Mann warns.

Rioting in France, the country's worst urban violence since the 1968 student revolts, was concentrated in deprived out-of-town housing estates largely populated by people of Arabic or African origin.

"It's a natural defence mechanism of people pushed to the fringes of society," Mann said. (AFP)

Robo-chefs and fashion-bots on show in Tokyo

Forget the Transformers and Astroboy: Japan's latest robots don't save the world -- they cook snacks, play with your kids, model clothes, and search for disaster victims.

In a nation that takes its humanoids seriously, the International Robot Exhibition kicked off this week, showing off the latest whirring and buzzing inventions from 192 companies and 64 organisations from at home and abroad.

Many of the cutting-edge machines on show are eye-popping, but industrial robot "Motoman" also put on a mouth-watering performance, deftly flipping a Japanese savoury pancake called okonomiyaki on a sizzling hotplate.

"It is delicious. Please enjoy," said the human-size creation of Yaskawa Electric Corp. in a robotic voice.

For pure dexterity, an artificial hand called the "H-type" was hard to beat -- a robotic hand with a sufficiently deft touch to handle a piece of pound cake without dropping a single crumb.

"This robot hand can pick up food without crushing it, which has been a hurdle for metal arms," said Jun Honda of robot developer Denso Wave.

Denso used small air pumps and a smooth silicon skin for the artificial limb, co-developed with software maker Squse, and says the device may one day be used to help the sick and elderly.

"It could be used to serve food for people who need care," Honda said.

Also aimed at helping people is the snake-shaped "Active Scope Camera", which uses robotic technology to slither serpent-style through the rubble of a disaster zone to take and transmit live video images.

Tohoku University and the International Rescue System Institute jointly developed the instrument, which propels itself forward with thousands of tiny devices called cilia that resemble the legs on a centipede.

Elsewhere, Eager Co. showed off a curvaceous female-shaped humanoid made of layers of cardboard, billed as the first eco-friendly robot.

The maker hopes the figure, with its soundless, smooth and almost seductive movements could find a job as a display window mannequin -- or even on a theatre stage.

"We want to apply this very light-weight robot as a new advertising medium," said Eager's Tsuyoshi Yamashita. "The smooth movements of the robot would help female customers feel safe and have an affinity with the machine."

A robot of the cuter variety is Ropid, 38 centimetres (15 inches) tall, with huge round eyes and boxy arms and legs -- more at home in a toy department than on a factory floor.

Unlike the super-advanced industrial robots elsewhere in the exhibition, this one keeps things simple. It can stand up, walk, run and jump -- but in a loveable way, its creator hopes.

"The challenge is to design a robot in a way to make you believe that you can communicate with it," said its creator, Tomotaka Takahashi. "With his quick actions, he looks like he's really alive." (AFP)

Nepal tucks into first international fast-food chain

Nepal's first international fast-food restaurants opened in the capital Kathmandu on Wednesday, reflecting the country's cautious attempts to attract more investment from Western companies.

Long queues formed outside Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) and Pizza Hut, with KFC serving more than 500 people in the first two hours of business.

"It has been an exciting day after a long period of planning and preparation," Vishnu Reddy, country manager for the two brands said. "We are happy and satisfied with the overwhelming response from customers."

KFC and Pizza Hut arrived in Nepal as the country recovers from a decade-long civil war that claimed more than 16,000 lives before a peace deal was reached between rebel Maoists and the government in 2006.

During the violence, rebels targeted foreign ventures including Coke, Pepsi and Unilever but more recently Kathmandu has seen rapid growth in restaurants, malls and supermarkets.

Many of the ingredients for KFC and Pizza Hut are imported from abroad, including the chicken from Brazil and potatoes from Australia.

"We have to maintain our products and original taste," Reddy told AFP.

The Nagarik newspaper welcomed the restaurants, saying they gave "an opportunity for Nepalese customers for cheaper and better food and an alternative." (AFP)

'Delighted' couple holds Australia's first gay union

Two "delighted" men became Australia's first same-sex couple to hold a legally recognised civil partnership ceremony Wednesday, under new laws which look set to be quickly overturned.

Warren McGaw and Chris Rumble said they were honoured to celebrate their union in the Rose Garden of Old Parliament House in Canberra, 20 years after beginning their relationship.

"We thought we'd take this opportunity not only for gay couples Australia wide ... but just for human rights," McGaw said.

"I think the majority of Australians are behind us."

The national government, however, is seeking legal advice on whether to quash the laws, passed this month in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) parliament, allowing same-sex couples a legally recognised union.

"The reality is there are a number of people in the community who feel strongly about this issue both ways," said Attorney-General Robert McClelland.

McClelland, of the ruling centre-left Labor party, overturned a similar bid in February 2008 on the grounds it broke national laws on marriage, which is defined as between a man and woman.

It was the second time the national government had overturned gay marriage legislation in the ACT, after an earlier attempt was halted in 2006.

"I would like to resolve the matter with the minimum amount of angst, a minimum amount of trauma, and the minimum amount of time," said McClelland.

McGaw and Rumble said they would be "devastated" if the law was thrown out, despite assurances that any unions already celebrated would stand.

"We'll be really disappointed and devastated if (the legislation) does get overturned," said McGaw.

"But we took the opportunity today to have the legal ceremony as the law stands today."

"We couldn't be happier, couldn't be more delighted."

The ruling party voted in August to uphold Australia's gay marriage ban, but the government has also passed legislation to remove same-sex discrimination from almost 100 national laws including areas such as tax and employment. (AFP)

Gypsies seen as outcasts in new, ultra-conservative Iraq

Squeezed between a rubbish dump and a dry riverbed, Al-Zuhoor has no clean water or electricity and the gypsies who live here are at the margins of the new, ultra-conservative Iraq.

In smelly alleys bordered by brick hovels, without glass windows or doors, men wander without work, a young girl plays on a squeaky swing and women return from a day's begging in Diwaniyah, 180 kilometres (110 miles) south of Baghdad.

In the distance, smoke from burning rubbish blackens the sky and, when the wind turns, the nauseous odour is overwhelming.

Before 2003, under the Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein, the situation was much better. The dictator's iron fist did not weigh on the gypsies or Roma.

The men were professional singers or musicians and the women were invited to dance at feasts, weddings and parties in Iraq, having migrated to the Middle East from India centuries ago.

With the rise of radical Islamists in 2004 however, they were marginalised, attacked and robbed by the Mahdi army, a Shiite militia loyal to the radical, anti-US cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who regarded the gypsies as morally repugnant.

Today, with the war-torn country primarily run by religious leaders, as opposed to the mostly secular society that existed under Saddam, the Roma community feels ostracised.

Despite being Muslims, the "Kawliya" -- as the community is known in Iraq -- are seen as outcasts.

"We live worse than dogs," says Ragnab Hannumi Allawi, a villager, wearing a sombre, piercing black look, surrounded by a group of women and sitting on a dusty carpet.

She now refuses to go to Diwaniyah, capital of the eponymous province, to seek help. "The authorities say 'you are entitled to nothing' and throw us out. When we go into the city to buy food, they refuse us."

The only thing these women can do to beg a few dinars is to cover their face entirely to avoid being recognised.

"We leave at 5:00 am and we return around 3:00 pm, for two years they have been shutting all the doors on us and they kept us agonising," says Lamia Hallub, her face broken.

The men, meanwhile, remember with nostalgia the weddings and events where they played and sang at night for rich families.

Before 2003 "we could work in music and folk festivals," says Khalid Jassim, his head dressed in a red and white checked Keffiyeh.

"But since we have had nothing. Why? Because our traditions do not accord with Islamic values," the old man complains.

"They say to us that the artists have no place in Iraq. The art is finished, but what country is there without artists?" he says, his voice rising and mood becoming more animated.

"Give me any job -- military, police, security or worker."

In the face of regular attacks, police installed checkpoints at the village entrance, but despite this many gypsies left.

"In the village, the infrastructure was destroyed, including the water network and the electricity," explains Abbas al-Sidi, a member of the province's Human Rights Commission.

"The attacks, mostly by armed militias, forced the families to flee to other provinces. The number of families has fallen from 450 to 120. Those who remain are the poorest."

The number of Roma in Iraq, according to tribal chiefs, is estimated at 60,000. Their hopes of a better life in the country with a population of 30 million people appear slim.

"Islam considers them to be deviants," declares Hafiz Mutashar, a religious dignitary in Diwaniyah.

"They commit prostitution which is forbidden under Islam. It is normal that our community considers them inferior and insists that they be isolated." (AFP)

France to ban 'psychological violence' in marriage

France is to pass a law banning "psychological violence within the couple" and study the idea of tagging violent partners to prevent them stalking their victims, the government said Wednesday.

Prime Minister Francois Fillon announced the measures in a speech to mark the United Nations' tenth International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, promising legislation in the first half of nest year.

"It's an important step forward: the creation of this offence will allow us to deal with the most insidious situations, situations that leave no visible scars, but which leave their victims torn up inside," he said.

"And we are going to experiment with electronic surveillance measures on the Spanish model to monitor the effectiveness of restraining orders against a violent spouse," he added.

Spanish judges now have the power to force convicted a wife-beater to wear a watch-sized electronic bracelet that triggers an alarm if he gets too close to his former victim and gives her a chance to call the police.

Since June, 58 men have been tagged and police have been called 222 times.

Last year, 157 French women were killed by their husband or partner. (AFP)

China's pandas worth more than Tiger Woods: Australian zoo

Two giant pandas due to begin a 10-year stay at an Australian zoo could give the local economy a bigger boost than recent visits by Tiger Woods or Lance Armstrong, officials said Wednesday.

Wang Wang, four, and three-year-old Funi are due to arrive at Adelaide Zoo Saturday for a long-term loan from the Panda Protection and Research Centre at Ya'an in China's Sichuan Province.

Zoos South Australia chief Chris West said the stay would be a "financial bonanza" for the state's economy, reaping an estimated 600-million dollar benefit over the 10 years.

"The pandas can be expected to generate 632 million dollars (584 million US) for the state economy over 10 years," West said.

"Each year (the pandas) could generate significantly more economic benefits than the much-vaunted appearances by golfer Tiger Woods or cyclist Lance Armstrong," he added.

West said the zoo was expecting "huge" visitor numbers for the pandas, which will be the only ones of their kind in the southern hemisphere.

"The average increase in visitation at the US zoos (with pandas) has been 70 percent for about two years after their arrival, and another 30 percent if and when baby pandas were born," he said.

The pandas will spend their first month in Australia quarantined in a new purpose-built enclosure, which features refrigerated rocks to help keep them cool through what is forecast to be a summer of record-breaking heat.

Their first public appearance will be on December 13, and zookeepers said they would focus on trying to breed panda cubs -- a notoriously difficult task for the low-sexed creatures. (AFP)

TV accused of fanning Pakistan political instability

Pakistan's television networks are heaping political pressure on an increasingly unpopular President Asif Ali Zardari with critical and influential programming that offers a voice to the poor.

In the decade since military ruler Pervez Musharraf issued licences and softened state control on media after seizing power, more than 50 channels have mushroomed in the country, with around half dedicated to news broadcasts.

The channels have become campaigners against the leadership, have whipped up fervour for and against the Taliban, have embarrassed the security services and sown fear with 24-seven coverage of attacks beamed into living rooms.

"The government is under constant pressure from the media," Mutahir Sheikh, head of international relations at Karachi University, told AFP.

A recent Gallup survey claimed that more than half of Pakistanis -- 57 percent of those polled -- blame the media for stirring up political instability in the country, which has known regular periods of military rule.

There are dozens of private satellite channels based in Pakistan and abroad that present every possible political opinion, pumping out news and debate in Urdu, English and regional languages to the country's 167 million people.

Owned by newspaper groups, wealthy businessmen and private individuals, critics accuse them of sensationalism and peddling conspiracy theories, particularly about perceived interference from India and the United States.

Renowned author Ahmed Rashid accuses talk show hosts of "demonising the elected government, trying to convince viewers of global conspiracies against Pakistan led by India and the United States or insisting that the recent campaign of suicide bomb blasts... is being orchestrated by foreigners.

"The campaign waged by some politicians and parts of the media -- with underlying pressure from the army -- is all about trying to build public opinion to make Mr Zardari's tenure untenable," he wrote on the BBC website.

This week, authorities banned a Dubai-based show presented by an outspoken critic of the government on Pakistan's most influential private channel, Geo.

"Apparently the Pakistani government, President Zardari to be specific, used his position to get the authorities in Dubai to impose a ban on the airing of the programme," Azhar Abbas, Geo's managing director, told AFP.

"The government is unnerved and uneasy over the independent criticism it faces in our unbiased programmes. But instead of countering argument with argument it goes for tactics which bring more embarrassment."

Last month the authorities cut live footage broadcast by some TV channels of a deeply embarrassing 20-hour siege on the Pakistani army's headquarters.

Television channels were also seen as having influenced a government decision to publish a list of officials, including Zardari, who have benefited from an amnesty on graft accusations that expires Saturday. The move has raised fears that heads may roll.

"The government had to expose its own allies, party officials and politicians who benefitted.... There are no sacred cows now," said Sheikh.

Many say the media play a vital role in shaping public opinion in a country where nearly half the population are illiterate.

"Independent media has empowered the underprivileged people to express themselves, which is itself a revolutionary change," said Fateh Muhammad Burfat, a sociology professor at Karachi University.

The channels supported a movement to restore ousted Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, siding with opposition leader Nawaz Sharif until Zardari's government caved in, reinstating him in March to avert violence in the capital.

Television executives believe their news helps inculcate democracy and gives a voice to the disenfranchised, who get little assistance from the state.

"We adopt very democratic methods. Here you find people from both sides," said Talat Hussain, executive director of news and current affairs at Aaj News.

"The impression that we create chaos in society is not true," said Hussain.

In fact, he says, poor and underprivileged people with problems -- looking for employment or outraged by an issue -- descend on TV stations hoping for answers.

"In Pakistan people have utmost faith in two institutions -- judiciary and media. Our people pin their hopes on us and we do whatever we can to make ours a better society," said Hussain. (AFP)

For Afghan poor, Eid charity starts at home

At the Kampany market on the outskirts of the Afghan capital Kabul, the rain is turning to snow as the livestock traders decide to call it a day and heave their animals back into their trucks.

Business is not too good, said Mohammad Sarwar, 25, a nomad who has just finished haggling over the price of a brown, woolly, fat-bottomed ram -- coming down 500 afghanis (10 dollars) to seal the deal.

"The prices are certainly higher than they were last year, but so is the price of everything," Sarwar said, as he shivered in the early winter cold.

"I have to bring the animals down from the north, from Kunduz, and the cost of feeding them to get them fat and then the fuel for the truck is almost crippling," he said.

Then there's the fear of Taliban attack, he said, as the Islamist insurgents extend their influence from their southern heartland to the country's north, where attacks are on the increase.

The price of sheep at the market ranges up to 200 dollars and business is brisk ahead of the Eid al-Adha festival of sacrifice and pilgrimage, which marks Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son to God.

Every Muslim with means is obliged by religion to sacrifice an animal and distribute the meat to the poor.

At Kampany, most of the men buying sheep said charity starts at home.

Nazar Mohammed, a colonel in the Afghan army, stood patiently by the muddy roadside above the market, holding the horns of the sheep he had just bought for 8,500 afghanis.

The animal would be slaughtered on Friday and would feed the 11 members of his family, he said.

"My (monthly) income is just 10,000 afghanis," he said, as the animal reared on its hind legs and let out an angry bleat.

"As much as my income rises, prices just keep getting higher too and making ends meet just gets more difficult. Prices are going up all the time and I find that life is getting harder all the time."

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) put average inflation in Afghanistan in 2008 at almost 27 percent, compared to 13 percent the year before.

In a dollarised economy built on aid and corruption, in a country that imports almost all it consumes, Afghanistan -- and especially Kabul -- is a sellers' market, for everything from fresh fruit to armoured cars.

"About 15 percent of the people in Kabul have money," said Tamim, a shopkeeper in his twenties.

"The rest are poor, and many are so poor they can't afford enough food for their families."

Average annual income in Afghanistan is believed to be around 300 dollars -- nothing is certain in a country with few reliable statistics -- though income disparity is probably among the highest in the world.

Unemployment, like illiteracy, is estimated at 80 percent of the population, which for lack of a census is put at between 26 million and 30 million.

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) says the value of Afghanistan's 2007 exports was 327 million dollars -- excluding opium, the country's major export product, which is believed to earn an illicit three billion dollars a year.

Corruption has become a byword for Afghanistan's government, even more so since watchdog Transparency International pushed the war-torn country up to second on its global corruption table.

Only lawless Somalia, without a government for decades, is considered more corrupt.

The poverty and corruption help fuel the Taliban-led insurgency, which is spreading its footprint -- now across 80 percent of the country, according to the London-based International Council on Security and Development think-tank.

In its most recent report, British charity Oxfam found that 70 percent of Afghans believe joblessness and poverty are major driving forces for the war.

Almost 50 percent identified the corruption and ineffectiveness of the Afghan government as a major cause, Oxfam said.

President Hamid Karzai is under intense international and domestic pressure to act on corruption as a condition for continued support from the US and NATO, which together have more than 100,000 troops trying to keep the Taliban at bay.

"This government can do nothing for itself but stick its hand out for free money and in the meantime people live on garbage heaps just trying to get enough to eat," said a diplomat in Kabul, speaking on condition of anonymity. (AFP)

Michelin honours cheap eats in new HK-Macau guide

Michelin has added a cheap restaurant category to its new Hong Kong and Macau guide unveiled Thursday, after critics accused the culinary bible of ignoring the cities' food-stall culture.

Twenty-nine "simple shop" restaurants received star ratings in the guide's second edition, with its highest three-star rating awarded to a pair of French restaurants and one Chinese in Hong Kong and another in nearby Macau.

In all, 298 establishments -- including restaurants and hotels -- made the 2010 guide, Michelin said.

Michelin's inaugural Hong Kong-Macau edition came under fire last year over claims it focused on high-end eateries, and cared little about giving readers an authentic Chinese dining experience.

Critics also questioned whether the 12 Michelin inspectors, of whom only two were Chinese, had enough exposure to local cuisine to judge its quality.

Michelin baulked at those claims, but the new category suggests it took the criticism to heart.

Some restaurants in the new guide charge as little as 50 Hong Kong dollars (6.50 US) for a meal, highlighting Michelin's commitment to local eateries, it said.

"Hong Kong and Macau are well-known for their simple and local food stalls," Michelin said in a statement.

"Some of the starred restaurants are simple shops serving local food, making them the most affordable starred restaurants in the world."

For the second year, Michelin gave three stars to Lung King Heen, a Cantonese restaurant in the Four Seasons hotel run by chef Chan Yan-tak.

Chan was the first Chinese chef to receive Michelin's top rating in the guide's inaugural edition last year.

Also for the second time, French gastronome Joel Robuchon's Robuchon a Galera in Macau's Grand Lisboa casino resort received a three-star rating.

Caprice, a French restaurant also in Hong Kong's Four Seasons, is the only new restaurant to pick up Michelin's top rating this year.

Chef Vincent Thierry, 38, told AFP that Caprice adapted its menu to local tastes, such as adding fruit to complement meals, like mango with crab or foie gras.

"I introduced salty and sweet, a touch that Chinese people appreciate," he said.

The new guide includes 205 Hong Kong restaurants and 38 in neighbouring Macau. Among the entries are 86 new restaurants. Nine received the two-star rating while 39 received one star, Michelin said.

Three stars indicate "exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey" while two stars mean "excellent cooking, worth a detour". One star promises a "very good restaurant in its category".

Almost 40 different styles of cuisine, from dim sum to Italian, are featured in the guide, which was founded in 1900 as a drivers' companion to restaurants in France.

It made the leap to Asian cities in 2007 with Tokyo's first edition, a hugely popular guide that sold 300,000 copies in its first few weeks after the city became the most starred in the world.

But the 2007 guide provoked criticism and sarcasm among Japanese restaurant owners and food critics, who mocked the ability of French inspectors to judge Japanese cuisine. For the 2008 Japan edition, the inspectors were all Japanese. (AFP)

Between prisons and divisions: Chile's Mapuche Indians

In his prison cell in Concepcion, a town 600 kilometers (400 miles) south of the Chilean capital Santiago, an indigenous leader dreams of recovering his "ancestral lands".

The model for the "Mapuche nation" he foresees in the central southern region of Chile is based on the autonomous rule enjoyed by Basques and Catalans in Spain.

But the hurdles he faces are numerous, including government opposition that extends to imprisoning him and other militants, and a division among the Mapuche Indian communities over what direction to take.

"Recovering our land will cost us sweat, blood and tears," Llaitul said, paraphrasing a phrase made famous by Britain's World War II prime minister Winston Churchill.

The 41-year-old leader of the radical indigenous Auroca Malleco Coordination was one of nine militants imprisoned after a 2008 attack against a state prosecutor and police.

Chile charged several of them under anti-terrorist legislation dating from its 1973-1990 military dictatorship, which permitted lengthy preventative detention and a tripling of sentences.

In all, 50 Mapuches are in prison, according to the Liberar non-governmental group lobbying for their freedom. Many of them were arrested during a campaign by the Indians to seize private properties, burn company equipment and clash with police on land they claim as they own.

In 2008, the confrontations resulted in the death of one Mapuche Indian.

Numbering around 600,000, the Mapuches are the biggest Indian minority in Chile, representing around six percent of the population.

Many demand the return of territory lost in a 19th century military conflict that has since been split up among ranch-holders and lumber or farm companies.

The small town of Temucuicui is at the heart of the indigenous "resistance". Its 200 homes sit on a vast steppe sown with big forests, far from the Chilean cities where most Mapuches now live, often in poverty and victims of discrimination.

A group of journalists was recently met in Temucuicui by Indians on horseback wearing traditional ponchos and carrying spears. Their role was to guard, and to escort the visitors.

One woman who passed by the group, a "traditionalist" Mapuche, threw stones at the horsemen.

"There are divergences on how to carry out the struggle," explained Jorge Huenchullan, spokesman for the "Autonomous Community of Temucuicui".

The "traditionalists," usually of the older generation, are criticized for being too passive, too collaborationist with the Chilean authorities.

Sometimes the differences turn to violence. Daniel Queipul, a traditionalist, shows bullet scars on his arms, left from clashes with the "autonomists".

The divisions in the small community and the spikes in violence feed a negative stereotype in Chilean society. The government, which considers it has been more than generous in giving land and bestowing rights and privileges to the minority, reacts with increasing firmness to the nascent insurgency.

"A Basque-style or Catalan-style autonomy is not possible. Never. It's a utopia," the special minister to President Michelle Bachelet, Jose Antonio Viera, said last week.

Viera is responsible for indigenous affairs until the appointment of a specific minister with the portfolio promised before the end of Bachelet's term in March next year.

While a form of indigenous sovereignty is ruled out, Viera said a model permitting the Mapuches to use their ancestral lands was conceivable.

"They have to understand that their identity has to live within a changing and modern world," he said.

"The solution is Mapuches living alongside enterprises. Mapuches with non-Mapuches. It's a slow lesson to learn." (AFP)

Gypsies seen as outcasts in new, conservative Iraq

Squeezed between a rubbish dump and a dry riverbed, Al-Zuhoor has no clean water or electricity and the gypsies who live here are at the margins of the new, ultra-conservative Iraq.

In smelly alleys bordered by brick hovels, without glass windows or doors, men wander without work, a young girl plays on a squeaky swing and women return from a day's begging in Diwaniyah, 180 kilometres (110 miles) south of Baghdad.

In the distance, smoke from burning rubbish blackens the sky and, when the wind turns, the nauseous odour is overwhelming.

Before 2003, under the Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein, the situation was much better. The dictator's iron fist did not weigh on the gypsies or Roma.

The men were professional singers or musicians and the women were invited to dance at feasts, weddings and parties in Iraq, having migrated to the Middle East from India centuries ago.

With the rise of radical Islamists in 2004 however, they were marginalised, attacked and robbed by the Mahdi army, a Shiite militia loyal to the radical, anti-US cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who regarded the gypsies as morally repugnant.

Today, with the war-torn country primarily run by religious leaders, as opposed to the mostly secular society that existed under Saddam, the Roma community feels ostracised.

Despite being Muslims, the "Kawliya" -- as the community is known in Iraq -- are seen as outcasts.

"We live worse than dogs," says Ragnab Hannumi Allawi, a villager, wearing a sombre, piercing black look, surrounded by a group of women and sitting on a dusty carpet.

She now refuses to go to Diwaniyah, capital of the eponymous province, to seek help. "The authorities say 'you are entitled to nothing' and throw us out. When we go into the city to buy food, they refuse us."

The only thing these women can do to beg a few dinars is to cover their face entirely to avoid being recognised.

"We leave at 5:00 am and we return around 3:00 pm, for two years they have been shutting all the doors on us and they kept us agonising," says Lamia Hallub, her face broken.

The men, meanwhile, remember with nostalgia the weddings and events where they played and sang at night for rich families.

Before 2003 "we could work in music and folk festivals," says Khalid Jassim, his head dressed in a red and white checked Keffiyeh.

"But since we have had nothing. Why? Because our traditions do not accord with Islamic values," the old man complains.

"They say to us that the artists have no place in Iraq. The art is finished, but what country is there without artists?" he says, his voice rising and mood becoming more animated.

"Give me any job -- military, police, security or worker."

In the face of regular attacks, police installed checkpoints at the village entrance, but despite this many gypsies left.

"In the village, the infrastructure was destroyed, including the water network and the electricity," explains Abbas al-Sidi, a member of the province's Human Rights Commission.

"The attacks, mostly by armed militias, forced the families to flee to other provinces. The number of families has fallen from 450 to 120. Those who remain are the poorest."

The number of Roma in Iraq, according to tribal chiefs, is estimated at 60,000. Their hopes of a better life in the country with a population of 30 million people appear slim.

"Islam considers them to be deviants," declares Hafiz Mutashar, a religious dignitary in Diwaniyah.

"They commit prostitution which is forbidden under Islam. It is normal that our community considers them inferior and insists that they be isolated." (AFP)