Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi to join Cannes jury

BEIJING, Apr 15: Chinese movie actress Zhang Ziyi who starred in the film 'Memoirs of a Geisha' has been included as a judge at this year's Cannes Film Festival.

She has accepted an invitation to join the jury, but is awaiting a formal announcement from the organisers, Zhang said while promoting the movie "Jasmine Women" here on Friday.

"I'm anticipating taking up the post and it would be an honour," Zhang said.

Zhang said she wanted to use her international influence in creating more Chinese films.

Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai will preside over the jury of the 59th film festival, which opens on May 17. It will be the first Cannes jury to include two Chinese. (PTI)

'Poultry smugglers may be undercutting fight against bird flu'

NEW YORK, Apr 15: A thriving international trade in smuggled poultry products may be making a substantial contribution to the spread of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus.

Smuggling of poultry products including birds, chicks, eggs, meat and feathers turned out to be a huge and previously largely overlooked business, perhaps second only to narcotics in international contraband, experts and gvornment officials were quoted as saying by 'International Herald Tribune'.

H5N1 is a robust virus that survives not just in live birds but in frozen meat, feathers, bones and on used cages - although it dies with cooking.

"No one knows the real numbers, but they are large; behind illegal drug traffic, illegal animals are No 2," Timothy Moore, an official at the University of Nebraska who has advised the US government on agricultural disaster planning, told the paper.

"And there is no doubt in my mind that this will play a prominent role in the spread of this disease. It looks to be the main way it is spreading in some parts of the world."

Illegal trade, the paper said, seriously undermines the bans on poultry products from bird flu-infected countries that many governments have enacted in the hopes of stemming spread of the disease.

"In spite of the EU ban we are still seizing Chinese poultry products," according to an expert.

Many experts, the Tribune said, are convinced that the illegal import of infected chicks introduced the virus into Nigeria, setting off Africa's first and largest epidemic which is limited to poultry farms and has not affected wild birds.

This week, Vietnam health officials said chickens smuggled over the border from China had reintroduced bird flu into their nation, which had reported no cases for four months.

No one has any precise sense of the extent of the trade - or the importance of it role in spreading bird flu - because until recently, poultry smuggling was regarded mostly an economic nuisance, the Tribune said.

"I would love to have a map of illegal trade - but I'm embarrassed to say we don't have a good handle on it," said Juan Lubroth, a senior veterinarian at UN Food and Agriculture Organisation. "We all know it occurs and we are worried, but what we see confiscated is only the tip of the iceberg."

The trade is hard to control because such massive amounts cross borders in trucks, carts, planes and boats each day, police and experts were quoted as saying.

Smuggled meat from Asia is often loaded in containers with a mish-mash of goods like clothes, furniture and toys. Labels indicating the port of origin are easily falsified.

Late last year, a shipment was discovered with 260 tonnes of meat scattered among several containers transiting at a port in Calabria in southern Italy, destined for the tiny East European country of Moldova. Because of improper paperwork, inspectors started asking questions and determined the shipment had come from China. They worried the smuggled meat would soon be in Italy, the report said.

Although many countries attribute the spread of H5N1 to migratory fowl, many ornithologists say the evidence often points to smuggling, it said.

"We believe it is spread by both bird migration and trade, but that trade - particularly illegal trade - is more important," said Wade Hagemijer, a bird flu expert. (PTI)

First egg production by storks released into wild confirmed

KOBE, Apr 15: A pair of artificially bred white oriental storks that were released into the wild last September in Toyooka, Hyogo Prefecture, have produced their first egg, a prefecture-run breeding farm announced.

It is the first time in 38 years in Japan that production of an egg by storks living in the wild has been confirmed, the Hyogo Prefectural Homeland for the Oriental White Stork said yesterday.

The egg was found in a manmade nest in a rice paddy, it said.

In September last year, two male and three female storks aged between 2 and 7 were released from the breeding farm in a ceremony attended by Prince Akishino and his wife Princess Kiko. The release came more than three decades after the species became extinct in the wild in Japan.

The egg was produced by a pair comprising a 5-year-old male stork and 7-year-old female stork. The egg is due to hatch in late May.

Japan's wild storks lived only in Toyooka. In 1971, all were kept in captivity. The species was designated as a special natural treasure in 1956.

The birds, which have a 2-metre wingspan, live along rivers, wetlands and rice paddies and feed mainly on fish, frogs and grasshoppers. They disappeared from Japan due to hunting, the use of pesticides in rice paddies and other types of environmental disruption. (PTI)

Queen to make Windsor Castle her principal residence

LONDON, Apr 15: After staying for almost 70 years in Buckingham Palace, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II will spend less time in the royal headquarters and make Windsor Castle in west London her principal residence.

Although the Buckingham Palace will remain the royal headquarters, the Queen, who turns 80 next week, will make Windsor Castle in west London her principal residence to reduce her official engagements, a media report said today.

Almost 70 years later the Queen, who moved to the palace in 1937 as a young Princess on the abdication of Edward VIII, has decided to reduce her stay at the Palace to a few days midweek. She will always be there on Tuesdays for her audience with the Prime Minister, but sometimes she will be at the Palace as little as two days a week to preside over investitures and meetings with foreign dignitaries, The Times newspaper reported today.

The Queen has been living in the royal palace uninterrupted since 1937 with the exception of the Second World War.

Aides emphasised that the change of routine should not be seen as the Queen's retreating from public life but as adapting to a pace of life more suitable to a woman entering her ninth decade.

The Queen has already slowed down, carrying out 378 engagements last year compared with 509 in 1996.

"There is an acknowledgement that the Queen has turned 80 and so things have to be paced more appropriately," the paper quoted a Palace spokewoman as saying

The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall will absorb more of the Queen's official duties. (PTI)

Ambedkar's birth anniversary celebrated in India House

LONDON, Apr 15: B R Ambedkar, the architect of the Indian Constitution, was remembered on his 115th birth anniversary at a function in India House here.

Indian High Commissioner Kamlesh Sharma and several speakers eulogised the contribution of Bharat Ratna Ambedkar not only to the downtrodden community but India as a whole.

Prerna Tambay, Lecturer from Mumbai University who is currently doing a research at London University, spoke about Ambedkar's contribution to emancipation of women in India.

Others who spoke on the occasion included Dhammachari Suddhaka, Director of Karuna Trust, who has worked extensively in India and abroad for under-privileged children in India; R M Summan, Executive of Federation of Ambedkarites and Buddhist Organisations UK; Yograj Ahir, President of Shri Guru Ravidass Sabha, Southall; and Srinivasan, Acting President of Federation of Ambedkarites and Buddhists Organisation UK.

The High commissioner also presented an award to Chaman Chahal of 'Sahenshah Restaurant', Southall, for his philanthropic work.

The two-hour function concluded with a musical tribute by famous folk singer Haridan Gadhavi, accompanied by Gira Chakravarty and Prajay Chauan on Tabla. (PTI)

SAFTA Council of Ministers to meet on April 20

DHAKA, Apr 15: The first meeting of SAFTA Council of Ministers, the highest policy-making body set up under the South Asia Free Trade Agreement, will be held here on April 20 to review the implementation of regional free trade regime.

Commerce ministers from seven countries of South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation, including host Bangladesh, will take part in the meeting. It will be preceded by a two-day meeting of SAFTA Committee of Experts comprising senior trade officials of all seven countries, official sources told BSS here Saturday.

This meeting scheduled for April 18 and 19 at a city hotel will appraise different trade and administrative issues on implementation of the regional free trade launched on January 1, 2006.

Experts will take stock of the new issues and adopt agenda for discussion by the ministers. The Council of Ministers on their part will give important policy guidelines and set the course of implementation of different free trade issues. (AGENCIES)

Abdullah vows that no race will be marginalised

KUALA LUMPUR, Apr 15: Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has pledged that he will not allow a single race to be marginalised in the national development agenda in line with the National Mission which was the thrust under the Ninth Malaysia Plan (9MP).

"As long as I breathe, given the responsibility and the mandate, that is my pledge. That will be my undertaking," said the Prime Minister at the Baisakhi Day 2006 celebration, in Petaling Jaya, near here.

The function was held in conjunction with Baisakhi, a yearly festival of the Sikh community on Saturday organised by the Malaysian Murdwara Council.

Speaking to about 2,000 guests, Abdullah said the National Mission would focus on balanced development throughout the country.

"This way, all Malaysian citizens will not be left behind or marginalised and will be brought together to enjoy Malaysia's success," he said.

He also urged the people to be with him to prepare the nation towards realising the developed status at a faster track.

The Sikh community performed Bhangra dance and songs to entertain the guests here, including former Deputy Prime Minister Musa Hitam. There are an estimated 90,000 Sikhs in Malaysia. (AGENCIES)

Asia Pacific loses 6 million hectares of forest

BANGKOK, Apr 15: The Asia Pacific region lost more than six million hectares of natural forests, mainly converted to agricultural crops and oil palm plantations, during the past five years, Food and Agriculture Organisation has said.

"This loss of more than one million hectares of natural forests each year was alarming," Patrick Durst, FAO's senior forestry officer for Asia-Pacific, said on Thursday.

While plantation forests are an extremely valuable resource and will undoubtedly supply an increasing portion of wood and fibre needs in the future, they should not be considered a substitute for the region's dwindling natural forests, Durst said in a statement released here.

However, the Asia-Pacific region recorded the highest rate of forest plantation in the world over the past five years and this helped the region reverse the 1990s' trend of net loss of forest cover into a net gain from 2000 to 2005, it said.

"From a net loss of 1.3 million hectares per year in the 1990s, Asia-Pacific boasted a net gain of more than 600 000 hectares per year between 2000-2005, making it, along with Europe, the world's only region with a sustained increase in forests."

Of the 10 countries in the world with the largest plantation areas, six are in the Asia-Pacific region, namely China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam, with China posting an overall increase in forest area of more than four million hectares per year between 2000 and 2005. (AGENCIES)

Hackers selling credit card details of Britons

LONDON, Apr 15: Hackers are selling credit card details of thousands of Britons on the internet creating serious identity fraud for the consumers.

At least 400 credit card details containing card numbers, three digit security codes, PINs and dates of birth along with other personal information are being sold every day in internet chat rooms by criminals who hack into company computer systems, a media report said here today.

A credit card number sells for one dollar while a card with a three-digit code fetches five dollars, The Times newspaper said.

Additional security information such as a mother's maiden name can add USD 10 to a card's value and a working PIN can raise the cost to 175 dollars.

The thieves target both companies whose customers buy online and those that take orders by more conventional means, demonstrating that it is not just internet-based companies that are at risk but any organisation that holds personal information about consumers.

Card Cops, a US-based firm which monitors "Internet relay chatrooms" where the stolen details are traded, said it was aware of the details of 300 to 400 British customers a day at a conservative estimate.

Alun Michael, the government's e-commerce minister, said: "These findings are disturbing and we will look at them very seriously."

Britain's newly-formed Serious Organised Crime Agency said that computer crime was "among its priorities" but would not say how it intended to tackle the problem.

Banks are now planning to address the problem by issuing card numbers which are valid for single transactions only. (PTI)