US beverage industry cuts calories for school kids

NEW YORK, May 4: The US beverage industry has agreed to fight child obesity by cutting calories and shrinking the serving sizes of drinks sold at schools in a deal brokered by self-described former ''fat kid'' Bill Clinton.

Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Cadbury Schweppes and the American Beverage Association volunteered for the program that will ban some of their best-selling products from a market of 35 million US public school children.

Under the plan unveiled yesterday at Clinton's New York-based foundation, the number of calories in school beverages will be capped at 100 except for certain milks and juices. By comparison, a can of regular Coca-Cola has 140 calories.

''Today is significant much like it was when Roger Bannister ran a four-minute mile or when the sound barrier was broken. Many did it later but somebody had to do it first,'' said Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who has joined Clinton's campaign against child obesity and battled chronic obesity himself.

Since 1980, obesity rates have tripled among adolescents aged 13 to 17 and doubled among younger children, according to a federal government report issued on Tuesday. An estimated 16 percent of children aged 6 to 19 are obese, it said.

Clinton illustrated how the program could help, saying an 8-year-old who cuts 45 calories a day from his diet would be 20 pounds lighter by the time he or she graduates from high school.

The former president, who has had two heart-related operations in recent years and was overweight as a child, has made child obesity one of his top public policy issues since leaving the White House in 2001.

BUSINESS EFFECT SAID MINIMAL

Clinton praised the beverage industry for taking a risk with the initiative. But one expert said vending machines in schools are not a big revenue source for carbonated soft-drink manufacturers.

''The effect on their business will be minimal,'' said Manny Goldman, a beverage industry consultant. ''There's a lot more than soft drinks that is responsible for childhood obesity. But soft drinks are visible products and are an easy target.''

The agreement is part of a larger effort by Clinton's nonprofit foundation and the American Heart Association to promote a better diet and more active lifestyle for youths.

The beverage industry agreed to apply the new limits to 75 percent of the nation's public and private schools before the start of the 2008-09 school year and apply it to all schools a year later.

Elementary schools will sell only water, small servings of juices with no added sweeteners, and small servings of milk that are fat-free or low-fat.

Middle schools will have the same restrictions while allowing slightly larger portion sizes. For high schools, at least half of available beverages must be water, zero-calorie and low-calorie drinks. (AGENCIES)

At 82, Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew battles on

SINGAPORE, May 4: Even at 82, Singapore's elder statesman Lee Kuan Yew relishes a fight. With elections set for May 6, he is once again busy blasting the opposition and silencing his critics with lawsuits.

At a late-night People's Action Party rally this week, Lee took the stage, dressed in the party's trademark pristine whites and a garland of purple orchids, and told voters to ignore the ''rubbish'' they heard at opposition rallies.

''Many people go to their election rallies to enjoy the noise and excitement,'' said Lee, who described one opposition candidate as a ''liar'' and another as a ''bad egg''.

''But when you go home, consider carefully which candidate or the group of candidates ... Can look after your lives, your jobs, homes, your children's education ...,'' he said.

Last month Lee and his son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, launched defamation lawsuits against Chee Soon Juan and his sister, Chee Siok Chin, two leaders of the opposition Singapore Democratic Party. Several other SDP leaders threatened with similar action over political comments have since apologised.

A founder of the People's Action Party (PAP), which has been continuously in power for more than four decades, Lee Kuan Yew was Singapore's leader for its first 31 years and is widely credited with turning the former British colonial outpost into one of the world's great manufacturing and financial hubs.

He has remained a vocal presence at home and abroad after resigning in 1990 to take up the advisory posts of senior minister and then minister mentor.

The PAP government plays a pervasive role in the lives of Singapore's 4.4 million people, using a state investment firm to buy shares in major companies and setting down prescriptive rules to preserve harmony among the Chinese, Indian and Malay communities.

And Lee Kuan Yew is at the centre of the PAP, the star speaker whose views are cited at length in the pro-government media. As one former diplomat put it: ''He didn't leave the stage, he just stepped behind the curtain''.

(AGENCIES)

Bush to Iran give up weapons ambitions

WASHINGTON, May 4: President George W Bush has demanded that Iran give up nuclear weapons ambitions ''for the sake of world peace,'' as he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel emphasized diplomacy in dealing with Tehran.

Bush and Merkel, during an hour of Oval Office talks, said it was important for the international community to stay united in the effort to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.

''The Iranians must understand that we won't fold, that our partnership is strong, that for the sake of world peace, they should abandon their nuclear weapons amibtions,'' Bush said.

Merkel said she and Bush saw good chances for bringing about a diplomatic solution to Tehran's nuclear ambitions, which Iran says is for generating electricity, not weapons.

''We are in total agreement saying that under no circumstances must Iran be allowed to come into possession of nuclear weapons,'' Merkel said. (AGENCIES)

Intel unveils new low-cost PC for developing nations

AUSTIN, May 4: The head of the world's largest chipmaker has unveiled a new mobile personal computer designed to provide affordable, collaborative learning environoments for teachers and young students.

Codenamed "Eduwise," Intel Corp Chief Executive Paul Otellini said the USD 40 machines will feature built-in wireless and will be able to run Mcrosot Corp's Windows or Linux operating systems.

"What we want to do is accelerate to uncompromised technology for everyone in the world," Otellini said during a demostration at the World Congress on Information Technology in Austin yesterday. "No one wants to cross the digital divide with yesteday's technology."

The flip open Eduwise computer includes a handle, light blue accents and snaps shut like a purse. Special software allows students in a classroom to view presentations, take tests and interact individually with their teachers using a built-in wireless connection.

The cheaper PCs are part of a USD 1 billion investment by Intel over the next five years to promote the use of computers in schools, cafes and other public spots in developing countries, Otellini said.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Nicholas Negroponte's nonprofit One Laptop Per Child association hopes to begin providing USD 100 laptops to millions of children in India, China, Egypt, Brazil, Thailand, Nigeria and Argentina by early 2007.

The Eduwise machine was designed by Santa Clara, California-based Intel but will be built by its computer-making customers. Otellini said the devices should be available next year. (AP)

Political satire sends post-9/11 message on evil

NEW YORK, May 4: Donald Sutherland has played plenty of bad guys in his time and in his new film ''Land of the Blind'' he gets to explore the roots of evil and how the victim can become the tyrant and torturer.

The political satire, which had its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival this week, stars Sutherland as an imprisoned playwright who convinces a soldier, played by Ralph Fiennes, to help assassinate a tyrannical dictator in an unnamed country.

After the dictator is dead and Sutherland's group take power, the revolution turns sour and Fiennes's character ends up imprisoned for refusing to swear loyalty to the new regime.

The revolutionaries send intellectuals for re-education in internment camps and enforce such bizarre laws as one endorsing vegetarianism.

Alluding to historical examples from the French revolution to Romania, North Korea, Iran, the Soviet Union, Haiti, Cuba and Northern Ireland, the film blends absurd satire with dark scenes of torture, violence and summary executions.

Fiennes plays the decent soldier in ''Land of the Blind'' but he too has played his share of bad guys, notably a Nazi officer in ''Schindler's List.''

'PSYCHOTIC MENTALITY'

''What's important is to see why these people come into being and what makes a society produce that sort of psychotic mentality,'' he told a news conference.

Sutherland, who is first seen in the film battered and bedraggled in a prison cell with slogans smeared in excrement on the walls, said it was important to ask what drives people to evil, and to realise that perceptions of evil vary.

''People like Mohammed Atta, in this country, you describe him as evil, but to many people he was heroic in his decision to fly those planes into the World Trade Center,'' Sutherland said, referring to one of the September 11 hijackers.

Fiennes said ''Land of the Blind'' was the latest in a string of political films directly related to current crises.

''You're seeing a number of films with a clear political content because ... Film is a strong medium, because it gets inside people's heads like nothing else,'' he said. ''9/11 sort of swung the whole world into another sense of awareness.''

He expressed frustration about problems in places as varied as Uzbekistan, Iraq, Darfur, Russia and even Britain, which is introducing security measures human rights campaigners fear will curtail civil liberties.

''This is really scary, this is really urgent,'' Fiennes said. ''It's time to get angry ... For the first time in my life I feel the world is getting dangerously unhinged.''

Sutherland said there was a complacency in America and he feared audiences were not open enough to political films.

Made in London with a budget of 10 million dollars, the film opens in New York in June and the distributor is hoping word of mouth will push it wider, as there is little budget for publicity. (AGENCIES)

Fish fossils found in China may shed light on origin of man

BEIJING, May 4: Chinese scientists have announced that fossils of fish species that lived over 405 million years ago in southern China may shed exciting new light on the origin of human beings, the state media reported.

Secrets of the ancient creature's skull were unveiled by Chinese scientists in the latest issue of the British 'Nature' magazine.

Zhu Min and his team of researchers at the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Paleoanthropoly, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), found the fossils of the ancient fish twice in 2001 and in 2002 in Qujing of Southwest China's Yunnan Province, the China Daily reported.

In the following three years, the Chinese scientists discovered that the creature was one of the most ancient species of fish, the only kind found with aspects of two different types of ancient fish.

One, the ray-finned bony fish, includes the majority of modern fish species while the other, the lobe-finned bony fish, allegedly "crawled" out of the water millions of years ago to evolve into today's reptiles and human beings.

The link between the two has been missing, casting doubt on the evolution of ancient fish, Zhu said.

Zhu and his fellow researchers gave the ancient fish species a Chinese name "Chenxiao Miman Fish," which literally means "Fish of the Dawn."

The discovery of the species is an exciting step forward for researchers on the evolution of ancient fish, Zhu said. (PTI)

Pakistan, Iran, Saudi violate religious freedom: US report

WASHINGTON, May 4: The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has urged Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to designate 11 nations, including Pakistan, Burma and Iran, as ''countries of particular concern'' for violations of religious freedom.

The commission, which released its annual report here on Tuesday, has added Afghanistan to its 'watchlist' of countries that violate religious freedom and said Iraq and Afghanistan pose growing threats to the freedom of worship.

The report has recommended 11 countries to be designated as ''countries of particular concern'' by the State Department, for being the worst violators of religious freedom, meaning they could face sanctions.

Those countries are China, North Korea, Vietnam, Burma, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Iran, Eritrea, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

The findings of the commission come in the congressionally mandated group's annual report for 2006. The agency's findings and recommendations go to the White House, the State Department and to Capitol Hill.

In a letter to Ms Rice, included in the report, Commission Chairman Michael Cromartie said the panel is trying to draw attention to ''countries, whose governments have engaged in or tolerated systematic and egregious violations of religious freedom.''

''The situation in Afghanistan and Iraq serve to underscore the precarious state of this fundamental freedom,'' Mr Cromartie wrote.

The report said Afghanistan and Iraq were two countries where ''the universal right to religious freedom is imperiled.'' ''Religious extremism, even in official circles, is an increasing threat to democratic consolidation in Afghanistan,'' the report added.

Commissioner Preeta Bansal said Afghanistan has been added to the group's watch list, which is made up of countries where the commission has concerns about the future of religious freedom.

''The principal concern of the commission consists of flaws in the country's new Constitution,'' she said, adding, ''the Constitution does not contain clear protections for the right of freedom of religion or belief for individual Afghan citizens.''

Citing an example, she pointed to the recent high-profile case of Abdur Rahman, an Afghan citizen, who was threatened with the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity.

Afghanistan joins Bangladesh, Belarus, Cuba, Indonesia, Nigeria and the US ally Egypt as nations where, ''discrimination, intolerance and other human rights violations affect a broad spectrum of religious groups,'' including Coptic Christians, Bahais, Jews and members of minority Muslim communities, the report said.

Meanwhile, Nina Shea, another member of the Commission, called on the US government to take action against Saudi Arabia, which the State Department named as a so-called country of particular concern in its annual religious freedom report in November 2005.

''Since religious freedom conditions in Saudi Arabia have not substantially improved in the last year, the US government must not hesitate in taking aggressive action to demonstrate that it will not disregard the persistent and egregious religious freedom violations committed by the Saudi Government,'' she said.

Ms Shea noted that a waiver period, Washington initially granted to Riyadh, which allowed the two sides to discuss the issue, has expired. She also urged that any agreement reached between the US and Saudi Governments be made public.

The commission criticised the President George W Bush's administration for failing to punish Saudi Arabia for violations listed in last year's report and urged it to take action this year.

The performance of Pakistan in its efforts to protect the minorities has improved, but still fell short, the report said. (UNI)

Disney to offer a milder thrill ride to Mars

ORLANDO, May 4: Florida's Walt Disney World has said it will offer a toned-down version of Mission: SPACE after two people in the past year became ill aboard the thrill ride and later died.

Visitors will have the choice of the original ride aboard a rocket simulator and a version in which the ride's centrifuge, which works to give people a momentary feeling of weightlessness, is turned off.

Disney spokeswoman Kim Prunty yesterday said the change was prompted not by safety concerns but by a desire to let more people experience the sensation of lifting off on a trip to Mars.

"No. The Mission: SPACE experience is safe as designed for people who heed the health warnings," Prunty said.

Al Weiss, president of Walt Disney World Resort, said in a statement that a choice of rides will ''encourage all guests to carefully consider posted health advisories when making their decisions.''

Both people who died after riding Epcot's Mission: SPACE had serious underlying health problems, autopsies showed.

A medical examiner said that 49-year-old Hiltrud Bluemel of Germany, who suffered a stroke last month, had signs of severe and long-standing high blood pressure.

In June 2005, 4-year-old Daudi Bamuwamye of Pennsylvania lost consciousness while riding with his mother. An autopsy found that Bamuwamye had an undiagnosed heart defect that the medical examiner said put him at risk for sudden death under stress.

Warning signs and audio messages at the Mission:SPACE site address pregnancy, heart conditions, motion sickness and back and neck problems.

Prunty said new advisories will be posted to help people choose which version to take when the new ride makes its debut this summer.

Thrill ride fans say that although Disney press releases state that Mission:SPACE's G-forces are less than a typical roller coaster, the forces last longer than the momentary bursts on a coaster. (AGENCIES)

Picasso portrait fetches 95 million dollars at Sotheby's

NEW YORK, May 4: Picasso's 1941 portrait of his mistress, ''Dora Maar with cat,'' sold for an astounding 95 million dollars at Sotheby's becoming the second most expensive painting in auction history.

The vibrant, large-scale work depicts Maar, the surrealist photographer Picasso was romantically involved with for a decade, seated in a chair with a small cat perched on the back.

It had been expected to sell for upwards of 40 million dollars, but the winning bid of 95,216,000 dollars, including commission, caught even Sotheby's officials by surprise yesterday.

''I was hoping for 70-plus,'' said David Norman, Sotheby's co-chair of Impressionist and modern art, after the sale. ''We thought it was worth more, and we were right.''

Even Tobias Meyer, the usually unflappable auctioneer, admitted he was surprised when the bidding passed 65 million dollars.

''The energy in the room was incredible,'' he said. ''There's just a very clear, strong demand for the kind of intense painting with an emotional pull that the Picasso represents; things that are made for our times,''

Given a less-than robust economy, Norman said he was ''surprised, thrilled and grateful,'' at the sale's result ''but I wasn't expecting a poor sale. We knew there's a tremendous pool of money out there,'' he said.

The auction of Impressionist and modern art brought in a total of 207,564,800 dollars, it's third highest sales figure ever, Sotheby's said.

''I didn't dare hope we'd do this well,'' said Norman.

Two works owned by disgraced Tyco head Dennis Kozlowski and being sold by court order to offset fines and restitution also achieved solid prices. Monet's ''Near Monte-Carlo (Cape Martin: The point)'' sold for just over $5 million, while Renoir's ''Flowers and fruit'' went for just over 2.8 million dollars.

The sale's other high points included a new record for a Matisse which sold for 18,496,000 dollars and several other Picassos. They included ''Harlequin with baton'' which sold for 10,096,000 dollars and ''Woman seated in an armchair,'' which fetched 6,736,000 dollars.

The world record for any art sold at auction is held by another Picasso, ''Boy with a pipe,'' which Sotheby's sold two years ago for 104 million. The second-highest price before Wednesday was van Gogh's ''Portrait of Dr Gachet'' at 82.5 million dollars, which sold in 1990. (AGENCIES)