Excelsior... Nation

Tale of US book scam wins over Rome film festival

ROME, Oct 16: One of the biggest literary scams hit the screen with ''The Hoax'', the story of how a frustrated author conned America's publishing world into believing he had written the memoirs of Howard Hughes.

Richard Gere plays Clifford Irving, the writer who sold the bogus ''autobiography'' of the reclusive billionaire to publishers McGraw-Hill in 1971 for more than 1 million dollars.

Irving said he had had wide access to Hughes, a pioneering aviator and film producer whose eccentric lifestyle was legendary, and had interviewed him repeatedly for the book.

He was gambling that Hughes was so paranoid and media-shy -- at the time he had not spoken to the press for 15 years -- that he would not come forward to denounce the book as a fake.

But in 1972 the hoax unravelled. Hughes broke his silence to tell a stunned news conference by phone he had never met Irving, and the fraudulent writer ended up in jail for nearly 18 months.

Gere won warm applause for his performance at the Rome film festival, where the premiere of ''The Hoax'', directed by Swedish film-maker Lasse Hallstrom and based on Irving's published account of what happened, was screening yesterday.

It is all the more relevant after the recent string of U.S. Media and literary scandals -- particularly author James Frey's admission earlier this year that he fabricated parts of his memoir ''A Million Little Pieces''.

Irving, in his mid-seventies, has said in interviews the screenplay had nothing to do with him and that he was upset to find his character in the film so unlikeable.

MURKY CONNECTIONS

But Gere was more indulgent towards the writer.

''It (the scam) was actually quite innocent,'' Gere told reporters after a media screening of the film.

''There were no really harmed people. There were a lot of harmed egos, especially in the literary community, and it caused anxiety in the Nixon administration, but that anxiety was well-deserved,'' he said.

The film suggests a murky connection between Hughes, then President Richard Nixon, and the Watergate scandal that was about to explode.

''The film tells you about the kind of powers that existed outside government. Hughes was this God-like universal force controlling everything. In the film you never see him, he is this mythical creature. But he is the real puppeteer,'' he said.

''It's the same thing today. Most of these powerful people, we don't even know their names, but they control the judiciary, the administration, the legislators. It's frightening.''

The film was initially expected to be released in November, making it a potential Oscar contender next year. But Gere, busy on the set of a film about former Yugoslavia's war criminals, said ''The Hoax'' would hit U.S. Screens only in April 2007. (AGENCIES)

Red wine can help prevent stroke damage: Study

WASHINGTON, Oct 16: Red wine might work to protect the brain from damage after a stroke and drinking a couple of glasses a day might provide that protection ahead of time, according to US researchers.

In an effort to better understand how red wine works, the scientists from Johns Hopkins University fed mice a moderate dose of a compound found in red grape skins and seeds before inducing stroke-like damage.

They discovered that the animals suffered less brain damage than similarly damaged mice who were not treated with the compound, which is called resveratrol.

''When we pre-treat the animals with the compound orally, then we observe that we have a significant decrease in the area of stroke damage by about 40 percent,'' said Sylvain Dore, the lead researcher for the study.

Dore and his research team presented their results from the study yesterday, which was funded in part by the US Government, at a Society for Neuroscience conference in Atlanta.

''What is unique about this study is we have somewhat identified what can be the specific mechanism,'' in the wine that is good for health, Dore said. ''Here we are building cell resistance against free radical damage.''

The study showed that resveratrol increases levels of an enzyme in the brain -- heme oxygenase -- that was already known to shield nerve cells from damage.

Dore said the beneficial effects associated with drinking a moderate amount of red wine could be explained by the fact the the wine turns on the heme oxygenase anti-oxidant system.

''Red wine has been suggested for the heart. Here what we show is its special effect in stroke and pre-treatment,'' Dore said. ''It suggests that prophylactic use of wine could work.''

The fermentation process in wine-making boosts the concentration of resveratrol, Dore said.

But said more studies are needed to translate the findings from mice into humans.

The amount of wine that must be consumed in order to reap the benefits of the compound will vary depending on a person's weight and the concentration of resveratrol in the wine. But Dore said it will likely work out to about two glasses a day.

(AGENCIES)

Italian boy becomes youngest to swim Messina Strait

ROME, Oct 16: A 10-year-old Italian boy became the youngest person ever to swim across the Strait of Messina when he made the crossing from Sicily to the Italian mainland in 55 minutes and 30 seconds.

Giuseppe Mangano, who can see the Strait from his house in Messina, Sicily, completed the 3,700 metre crossing yesterday, despite poor weather conditions, high waves and being stung by two jellyfish.

''It's a dangerous stretch of sea because of the currents,'' Giuseppe's trainer, Francesco Cacopardo, told ANSA news agency.

''But Giuseppe was superb, he never got flustered, I knew everything would go well this morning when I saw his eyes sparkling with joy and determination.''

Giuseppe's father Baldassare, who runs a local bar, said he was very proud but the family was not going to get carried away.

''We're happy because he's happy, but today ... Will be like any other Sunday: lunch with his favourite pudding and then outside to play.''

(AGENCIES)

Venezuela runs for UN Council seat; US opposed

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 16: Armed with petrodollars, Venezuela has made a major push to defeat Guatemala in today's elections for five open UN Security Council seats.

While Venezuela is expected to get a majority in secret balloting in the 192-nation UN General Assembly, Caracas may not achieve the required two-thirds vote, leaving open the possibility of a compromise candidate.

''This is a real wrestling match. This is a heavy-weight encounter,'' said Larry Birns, director of the Washington-based Council on Hemispheric Affairs.

''If they vote with their head they're voting against Venezuela because, the United States is certainly going to make this an anti-Venezuela position,'' he said.

''If they vote with their heart they are basically saying: 'we're tried of being pushed around by Washington and we're just going to go our own way on this,''' Birns said.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, up for re-election in December, has campaigned hard for the seat in 2007-2008, sending assistance to Latin American countries as well as contributing to food aid in Africa.

And Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro left no doubt during a visit to the United Nations last month his government sees the race as one against the United States.

''Our debate is not with Guatemala,''' Maduro told reporters. ''Our debate is with Secretary of State of Condoleezza Rice. We are calling for an end to the unipolar world that has been so damaging.''

OTHER RACES

The Security Council has 15 seats, five permanent members with veto power -- the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France -- and 10 nations serving for two-year terms, five of them elected each year.

Venezuela and Guatemala are vying for the Latin American seat being vacated by Argentina while Peru stays until the end of 2007 along with Congo Republic, Ghana, Qatar and Slovakia.

The European seats are uncontested and will be filled by Belgium and Italy, who replace Denmark and Greece, next year while South Africa replaces Tanzania.

In the Asian Group, Indonesia and Nepal are vying for the seat vacated by Japan, with Jakarta expected to win.

Still, the Venezuelan-Guatemala fight is the only hotly contested race. Russia, China, several Arab nations and many Africa countries are expected to support Venezuela while most European nations are tipped to back Guatemala.

Within Latin America, nations have been divided, with Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia expected to support Venezuela. Mexico, Columbia and most Central American nations have indicated support for Guatemala.

Chile, where the debate had divided the ruling coalition of Michelle Bachelet's government, said yesterday it would abstain in the vote.

Most of the decisions within the council are made by the permanent members but Venezuela could be a spoiler as Qatar, the only Arab council member, often is on Sudan. Policy statements need the support of all 15 members and a resolution has to have a minimum of nine votes and no veto for adoption.

U.S. Ambassador John Bolton has made the US position clear. ''In 1990 and 1991, when Cuba was on the Security Council, it was extremely unhelpful and uncooperative at a time of great pressure,''' Bolton said in June, in reference to Cuba's vote against authorization of the first Gulf War.

''Nobody expects anything like complete unanimity on our issues, but there's a difference between constructive discussion and unconstructive behavior,'' Bolton said. (AGENCIES)

China to offer cash in bid to control population

BEIJING, Oct 16: Nearly three decades after China imposed its strict one-child policy, the Government will offer financial incentives in an effort to restrain its population rise, paying farmers who choose not to have more children than allowed by law, state media reported.

From next year, the government will pay parents in rural areas who have no more than one son -- or two daughters -- 600 yuan a year each starting at the age of 60, the official China Daily said.

China introduced a one-child policy in 1979 but later relaxed it to allow farmers in particular to have more children, especially if they have a daughter first.

China now has 1.3 billion people, making it the world's most populous nation. The government's one-child policy remains in effect in most urban areas, although some exceptions have been allowed.

Chinese parents traditionally prefer sons, who are seen as being able to carry on the family name and provide for them in old age.

''In the policy's early years local governments' main enforcement measure was to impose fines on rural families that violated the policy,'' the newspaper said.

''Experts said although imposing fines has contributed to the project's success, the policy should be adapted as the nation develops,'' it added.

''More encouraging measures and public education should be used to raise awareness of the need for family planning,'' the report said.

The stipend is supposed to lessen the burden on single children who try to look after aged parents, many of whom in rural areas have no health insurance, the newspaper said.

It added that about 95 per cent of survey respondents who had either one son or two daughters reported financial problems. The survey was carried out by a development body under the State Council, or cabinet, in rural areas of Jiangxi, Gansu and Shanxi provinces.

Another change is to give one-off payments to rural families who have been given permission to have a third child but who choose not to have the child, the report said.(AGENCIES)

UK Govt to ask GPs to do minor operations

LONDON, Oct 16: Britain's general practitioners could soon be performing minor operations under Government proposals to ease waiting times in hospitals.

Demonstration schemes have already been implemented across the country that could be the forerunner to one of the biggest shifts in healthcare since the National Health Service (NHS) was founded in 1948.

''These 30 pilots are all operational now and benefiting patients,'' Health Minister Norman Warner said in a statement.

''What we want to do now is evaluate them, learn from them and see how we can go to scale across the NHS to benefit far more people.''

Warner said the rationale was to try to provide care closer to people's homes, which might require GPs to expand their skills.

''In some areas, this will involve making sure there are GPs who are as skilled with the scalpel as they are with the stethoscope.''

The pilot schemes will look into the feasibility of moving care from hospitals towards community-based centres in six speciality areas -- urology; ear, nose and throat; dermatology; orthopaedics; gynaecology and general surgery.

Professor Carol Black, chairman of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, said the pilot schemes could lead to a new way of running the health service.

''The projects represent an important step towards removing outdated barriers that have often separated primary and secondary care,'' she said in a statement.

(AGENCIES)

AIDS activist with baboon marrow transplant dies

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 16: The California AIDS activist who received the first bone marrow transplant from a baboon in a desperate bid to combat the disease died this past week, his partner of 26 years said.

Jeff Getty, 49, died from heart failure at a hospital in Joshua Tree, California, on October. 9, Kenneth Klueh told Reuters in a telephone interview yesterday.

Getty had been suffering from cancer, Klueh said.

Getty was a pioneer among AIDS activists, pressing for greater access for those with the disease to drugs still in development despite unknown risks.

In 1995, he received the bone marrow transplant, a controversial procedure because of its risk of rejection, damage to his AIDS-weakened immune system or unknown infections.

''He was always at the forefront of new therapies. He worked hard to make new AIDS drugs available to people with AIDS with compassionate-use programs and things like that. And he wanted to advance the research,'' Klueh said.

While the transplant was risky, AIDS researchers at the time had few options in treating the disease, said Jeff Sheehy, an AIDS activist on the governing board of California's voter-approved stem-cell research financing center, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

''There was only one prognosis for HIV and that was death at the time he did the experiment,'' Sheehy said. ''It was at a dark time. People were hoping something would emerge, but there was no clear sign of anything emerging to treat HIV, and everyone who progressed to AIDS died.''

The transplant neither obviously hurt nor helped Getty, and within a year researchers discovered drug ''cocktails,'' or a combination of drugs, to treat patients with AIDS and HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Medical researchers credit Getty's transplant with helping them better understand the promise of stem-cell therapy for treating HIV and for opening the door to organ transplants for people with HIV, Sheehy said.(AGENCIES)

Asia seen giving priority to trade over security

WASHINGTON, Oct 16: As Asia's security situation hots up with the North Korean nuclear crisis, a US study says the region is giving greater emphasis to trade than security despite the risk of political conflicts.

Asian states are deepening their trade dependence but the move will not reduce the risks of political tension or conflict between them, said the study by the US-based National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR).

The trade-driven Asian economies view their deepening interdependence as a means of hastening national growth rather than promoting collective security, according to the report "written by some of America's leading scholars."

It examined whether deepening trade ties contribute to peace in Asia and assessed how the United States can best balance the trade-offs between its security objectives and economic pursuits.

"Asian states appear to view trading relations as vehicles to increase national wealth rather than as a means for procurement of collective security," said the report "Strategic Asia 2006-07: Trade, Interdependence, and Security."

Various studies in the new report find that while economic interdependence may encourage peace in Asia for the time being, the underlying strategies of key Asian powers raise questions about the depth of regional stability.

Even India and Russia, which previously had not emphasized foreign trade, now have focused on increasing links with the global economy, it said. (AFP)

Christian priest shot dead in Indonesia's Sulawesi

JAKARTA, Oct 16: An unidentified gunman shot dead a Christian priest today in Indonesia's Central Sulawesi province, where relations between Muslims and Christians are fragile, local media reported.

A witness told the Antara national news agency that Reverend Irianto Kongkoli was shot in the head when he was buying construction materials at a shop in the provincial capital of Palu, 1,650 km (1,030 miles) northeast of Jakarta.

The situation in Central Sulawesi has been tense since the executions of three Christian militants over their role in Muslim-Christian violence that gripped the province's Poso region from 1998 to 2001.

The three Christian militants were executed on Sept. 22 by a police firing squad despite appeals from Pope Benedict and rights groups.

About 800 extra police and troops have been sent to Poso town due to the latest inter-religious tensions. Two Muslim men were killed last month by a crowd angered by the executions.

The three-year sectarian clashes in Central Sulawesi killed more than 2,000 people before a peace accord took effect in late 2001. There has been sporadic violence ever since.

Around 85 per cent of Indonesia's 220 million people follow Islam, but some areas in eastern Indonesia have roughly equal numbers of Muslims and Christians.

Three Islamic militants are on death row for the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people.

Their lawyers have said they would file a final appeal with the Supreme Court, arguing that the retroactive anti-terror legal provisions used to convict them had since been annulled. (AGENCIES)

China's terracotta warriors get female companions

BEIJING, Oct 16: China's famed 2,000-year-old terracotta warriors are getting some female companions to spread anti-war message.

The terracotta warriors are getting some female company thanks to a Norwegian artist who's living next door to the farmer who found the famous array of clay soldiers on the outskirts of Xi'an, capital of northwest Shaanxi province.

Conceptual artist, Marian Heyerdahl, has so far created 70 replicas of the terracotta warriors in female form each of them carrying a special message.

"Every one of them has a personality and each is telling a story. I made them to express my love of peace, as women suffer the most in war," said Heyerdahl, who is the daughter of famed explorer Thor Heyerdahl.

Like the original soldiers made more than two millennia ago, Heyerdahl's soldiers each have a different facial expression but none are of stoic, brave men. The women's faces in her warriors often express the horrors of war.

"Some have their mouths open as if they're screaming, others have their eyes closed in fear, some are smiling and some are pregnant," she was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.

As daughter of Thor Heyerdahl, she said she was raised exploring famous archaeological sites.

Heyerdahl is working with a factory that makes life-sized knockoffs of the warriors, which stand almost two meters tall and are sold as novelties around the world.

On her first visit to China more than five years ago, Heyerdahl bought one of the knockoffs. That statue is also the inspiration for her current project.

Now, she is working with the still-wet statues as they come out of the factory moulds.

"I change the hairstyle to a woman's and give the pregnant ones big tummies. Some have their mouths open and other have their eyes closed. From the back they look like the original warriors but from the front they deliver a different message," she said.

That message, that women not only die in war but the mothers of sons, fathers, husbands and brothers who are killed, is one that Heyerdahl hopes will make people stop and think.

"Everyday there's killing around the world. War has always been a problem, whether it's 2,000 years ago or right now or in the future, war is horrible," said Heyerdahl who is not at all optimistic about the future.

After her warriors are kiln dried and painted she plans to first exhibit them in Beijing.

"In Beijing, I'll also add some multi-media elements which will include a DVD of war that will be seen on screens in the stomachs of a number of the statues," Heyerdahl said.

Heyerdahl is looking for sponsors to take her project to other parts of the world. She said she wants to show in Xi'an and there's been interest from an anti-war exhibit in South Korea and inquiries from the United States.

"I just want to get my message out there," she adds. (PTI)

Security tightened during Umrah season

DOHA, QATAR, Oct 16: Saudi authorities in Mecca are making all possible efforts to ensure the safety and comfort of more than two million pilgrims visiting the holy place from around the world during the Umrah season.

According to the UAE-based English language daily "Gulf News", hundreds of officials and members of the Mecca's security forces have been deployed within and around the Grand Mosque to facilitate the smooth passage for pilgrims.

"Some 990 of its officials were on duty on the 125 doors. Helicopters belonging to the Civil Defence Directorate were also hovering around the Mosque," Deputy head of the General Presidency for the Affairs of the Grand Mosque, Dr Mohammad Al-Khozaim, said.

The authorities have also put a check on the begging syndicates which deliberately use disabled or deformed beggars, both adults and children, to exploit the prevailing spirit of charity during the fasting month.

"All the beggars have told us that they were forced by organised gangs to beg or else they would be killed. Children said they had their limbs amputated back in their home countries as it would be more profitable to beg with severed limbs," an official of the department, Mansour Al-Hazmi, was quoted as saying.

He said that many of the pilgrims who had arrived in the Kingdom for the Umrah had not come for pilgrimage but rather for begging. (AGENCIES)

Japan to remain non-nuclear power, says Govt spokesman

TOKYO, Oct 16: Japan has no intention of developing nuclear weapons in response to North Korea's claim of an atomic test last week, a top Japanese Government spokesman said today.

A leading ruling party official reportedly said yesterday that Japan needs to discuss whether to create its own nuclear deterrent.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki said today, however, that the Government was committed to remaining a non-nuclear power, despite those comments.

"There is no change whatsoever to our government position that Japan will not possess any nuclear weapons," Shiozaki told reporters. (AP)