Bangladesh culls 100,000 fowl to halt bird flu

DHAKA, Apr 3: Bangladesh authorities have culled more than 100,000 chickens at farms over the last one week over suspected bird flu outbreaks, officials said today, although the disease had begun subsiding across the country.

Avian influenza has spread through 47 of Bangladesh's 64 districts and forced the killing of more than 1.61 million birds since detection of the virus in March 2007. Around 2.2 million eggs have also been destroyed.

''More than 100,000 chickens and ducks were culled in last one week in dozens of affected firms and in their immediate vicinity,'' a senior official at the livestock ministry said today.

Industry officials said bird flu has caused losses of about 45 billion taka (650 million dollars) to the poultry sector, which accounts for 1.6 per cent of the poor nation's gross domestic product.

About 60 per cent of the country's more than 150,000 poultry farms have been closed, making more than 1.5 million people jobless.

Chicken prices in the capital Dhaka have jumped nearly 70 per cent in the past week, selling at 150 taka (2.2 dollars) per kg, while the price of eggs has risen over 25 per cent.

''Now prices of egg and chicken, which are the cheapest source of animal protein, have gone up when prices of rice, flour, pluses and edible oil continue to rise alarmingly,'' said Munira Hossain, a school teacher.

No human bird flu cases have been reported in Bangladesh, a densely populated nation where poultry is commonly kept by households.

Experts fear the H5N1 strain could mutate or combine with the highly contagious seasonal influenza virus and spark a pandemic, especially in countries such as Bangladesh where people live in close proximity to backyard poultry.

The virus has killed 238 people worldwide since 2003. (AGENCIES)

Blackstone has no plan to buy German firms:Report

FRANKFURT, Apr 3: Blackstone Group currently has no plan to take full control of German companies because the country's economy could slow down and share prices could fall, its chief executive told German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Stephen Schwarzman said, however, his interest could return when the bottom has been reached.

''This can happen quicker than many expect,'' he said, adding that the company remained interested in buying minority stakes at times when big loans for acquisitions are not available.

Schwarzman declined to comment on the private equity and real estate firm's 4.5 percent stake in Deutsche Telekom.

''We are pleased with the new management,'' Schwarzman said.

Sources told Reuters on Wednesday that Blackstone is one of four preferred bidders for a stake in German conglomerate Evonik Industries.

The bids for a 25 percent stake are worth around 2 billion euros ($3 billion) each, the sources with direct knowledge of the situation said.

(AGENCIES)

Bush - NATO cannot afford to lose

WASHINGTON, Apr 3: Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Wednesday conceded for the first time the US Economy may slip into recession, but said growth should pick up later this year as interest rate cuts and other emergency steps take root.

Bernanke said in testimony before a Congressional committee that the economy appeared to be growing, but warned it could shrink in the first half of 2008. It was his first appearance on Capitol Hill since the U.S. Central bank helped rescue failing investment bank Bear Stearns in the most dramatic turn to date in the credit crisis.

''Recession is possible,'' Bernanke told the Joint Economic Committee. ''Our estimates are that we are slightly growing at the moment, but we think that there's a chance that for the first half as a whole, there might be a slight contraction.''

The Fed has lowered benchmark interest rates by three percentage points to 2.25 percent since mid-September to help put a floor under an economy hit hard by a housing slump and credit market turmoil.

Bernanke said those rate cuts and other emergency measures to thaw frozen credit markets should promote growth over time -- remarks traders in financial markets saw as a signal that the Fed's sharp rate-cutting action may be drawing to an end.

Some analysts said the absence of a specific pledge by Bernanke to act as needed to help the economy, a standard feature of recent Fed statements, buttressed that view. ''There is a conspicuous absence of policy commitment in this statement,'' said Jan Hatzius, chief economist at Goldman Sachs.

Short-dated Treasury bond prices lost ground, while the dollar rose against the yen. U.S. Stocks were largely flat, with the blue chip Dow Jones industrial average down about 10 points in early afternoon.

DEFENDS BEAR STEARNS RESCUE

Bernanke defended the Fed's role in providing emergency funding to prevent an abrupt bankruptcy at Bear Stearns -- the fifth-largest U.S. Investment bank -- which he said could have caused a ''chaotic'' market reaction.

The Fed, informed on March 13 that Bear Stearns was on the verge of collapse, decided to a provide a $30 billion credit line backed by the firm's shaky assets to facilitate its purchase by JPMorgan Chase. The action raised questions about the central bank's willingness to shield investors from risks.

''Our financial system is extremely complex and interconnected, and Bear Stearns participated extensively in a range of critical markets,'' Bernanke said.

''With financial conditions fragile, the sudden failure of Bear Stearns likely would have led to a chaotic unwinding of positions in those markets and could have severely shaken confidence,'' he said. For details see [nN02373949]

MARKETS REMAIN STRESSED

Bernanke said financial markets remain under considerable strain but that emergency measures to provide liquid funds have been helpful in alleviating some of the stresses. Funding pressures on large financial institutions seem to have eased somewhat, and some markets, including the market for mortgage-backed securities, appear to be more liquid, he said.

''Much necessary economic and financial adjustment has already taken place, and monetary and fiscal policies are in train that should support a return to growth in the second half of this year and next year,'' Bernanke said. ''I remain confident in our economy's long-term prospects.''

He said the Fed expects the economy to strengthen in the second half of the year, and for growth to proceed at or a little above its sustainable pace in 2009.

Housing markets should stabilize later this year and into 2009, he added.

Bernanke said a Treasury Department proposal to overhaul financial regulation, which would give the Fed responsibility for overall financial market stability but remove it from front-line bank examination duties, could hurt the Fed's ability to keep tabs on the health of the financial system.

''We could not successfully carry out this mission if we had to rely entirely on second hand reports from primary supervisors of these individual institutions,'' he said. (AGENCIES)

Scarlett's mother wants Indian police sued; third autopsy in UK

LONDON, Apr 3: The mother of Scarlett Keeling, the teenager who was killed in Goa, has said she wanted the Indian police prosecuted for trying to cover up her daughter's murder.

''I hope the Indian police are prosecuted for lying from the beginning. The police system is so corrupt when the press pressure dies down they will start messing about with the forensic results,'' Ms Fiona MacKeown, Scarlett's mother said.

She also announced that officers in Britain had agreed to carry out a post-mortem on the body as she wanted tests carried out in case forensic results from the two post-mortems that were conducted in Goa were changed, the Daily Telegraph reported.

Speaking at her home near the village of Meddon in north Devon, Ms Mac-Keown said, ''The police in Britain are going to do a third autopsy today.''

The half-naked body of the 15-year-old was found on Anjuna Beach, Goa on February 19.

Goa police initially said the death was an accidental drowning, after which Ms MacKeown called for a second post-mortem examination which showed that Scarlett was attacked and was given ecstasy, cocaine and LSD on the night she died.

The police arrested two men-- Samson D'Souza, who was remanded in custody on suspicion of rape, and Placido Carvalho, who appeared in court on suspicion of drugging Scarlett. (UNI)

Even octopuses flirt!

WASHINGTON, Apr 3: Even octopuses indulge in romance and lovemaking and are passionate about flirting, handholding and keeping rivals at arms' length.

For decades, scientists had viewed octopuses as unromantic loners, with mating habits nearly devoid of complex behavior but new research from the University of California, Berkeley, has found that at least one species of octopus engages in such sophisticated lovemaking tactics, Science Daily reported.

Biologists witnessed an array of complex mating behaviours as they snorkeled two meters or less above the shallow reefs of northern Sulawesi in Indonesia.

For several weeks, they tracked Octopus Abdopus aculeatus, a diurnal species of cephalopod that typically sports a spiky tan body the size of a small orange and 8-to-10-inch-long sucker-lined arms.

''This is not a unique species of octopus, which suggests others behave this way,'' a professor of integrative biology at UC Berkeley and co-author Roy Caldwell said.

Researchers observed exemplary romantic tendencies of macho octopuses that didn't just mate with the first female that crossed their path but also picked out a specific sex partner.

They even jealously guarded her den for several days, warding off rivals to the point of strangling them if they got too close. When flirting or fighting, they would signal their manliness by displaying striped body patterns.

''If you're going to spend time guarding a female, you want to go for the biggest female you can find because she's going to produce more eggs,'' Caldwell said adding, ''It's basically an investment strategy.''

(UNI)

Steve Irwin's zoo subject of Australia tax probe

CANBERRA, Apr 3: Australian tax officials are probing the affairs of late ''Crocodile Hunter'' Steve Irwin and his wife Terri over an offshore scheme involving their Australia Zoo wildlife business, the zoo said today.

General Manager Frank Muscillo said the zoo, where the khaki-clad Irwin got up close with crocodiles and other wildlife at the 5,000-seat ''Crocoseum'', had done nothing wrong except fall victim to a ''highly sophisticated case of deception''.

''This situation has cost us a lot. Not just in monetary terms but in respect of our reputation,'' Muscillo said in a statement to Reuters, adding that the zoo in tropical Queensland state was fully cooperating with the tax investigation.

Steve Irwin was killed in September 2006 when a stingray barb pierced his heart while he was filming a documentary. His daughter Bindi and American-born wife Terri have vowed to continue his work on conservation and crocodile research.

The scheme, under investigation by the Australian Taxation Office, allowed the Irwin's zoo to claim large tax breaks by paying more than A$600,000 a year (550,000 dollars) in fees to a Singapore-based company, the Australian newspaper said.

Muscillo said the ATO investigation was linked to a A$2.5 million civil lawsuit against Terri Irwin and Australia Zoo which was in turn tied up in tax advice given to the Irwins and their advisers by a disgraced former ATO tax lawyer.

''Clearly we wish we had not dealt with these organisations and people,'' Muscillo said. ''We would certainly never knowingly have become involved or associated ourselves with anything illegal or deceitful,'' he said.

The zoo is being sued by a collection company over unpaid debts after the Irwins signed off on the tax scheme in 2005, before the television naturalist's death.

Steve Irwin's father, meanwhile, told Australian television in an interview to be aired next Monday that he recently quit the zoo he founded 36 years ago, and which his son made famous, because he was becoming a ''disrupting influence''.

''It's a strange feeling to spend half your lifetime building something up and walking away from it. I was becoming a disrupting influence, not that I meant to be,'' Bob Irwin told Australian Broadcasting Corp. Television.

Magazine reports have suggested the 68-year-old was upset with the direction of the zoo and the high-profile career of 9-year-old Bindi Irwin, falling out with Terri Irwin.

Terri Irwin, who plans to extend the zoo to give it a ''Disneyland feel'' with luxury accommodation and more staff, has denied there is a rift between the two. (AGENCIES)

Obama battles to limit expectations in Pennsylvania

WALLINGFORD, PA, Apr 3: Barack Obama tried his hand at bowling, bottle-fed a calf at a dairy farm and toured a chocolate factory as he sought to connect with voters in Pennsylvania, a crucial state in the fight for the Democratic US presidential nomination.

Ending a six-day bus tour yesterday in a state where his rival Hillary Clinton is heavily favored, the Illinois senator hoped to erode her advantages, especially with white working-class voters who have been slower to warm up to him than the young people and more affluent voters who have flocked to his rallies.

The Columbia University and Harvard-educated Obama, known for his sweeping oratory, sought to show a more down-to-earth side of himself, talking of his upbringing by a single mother and his early career as a community organizer in Chicago helping laid-off steelworkers.

Obama, who would be the first black president, leads in a tight national race with Clinton, who would be the first woman to win the White House, for the right to represent the party against presumed Republican nominee John McCain in the November presidential election.

But publicly, at least, he's not raising expectations of a win in the state's April 22 nominating contest. Most recent polls have put him behind Clinton, although the race has tightened.

''We are the underdog in Pennsylvania,'' Obama told voters in Johnstown. ''We may not be able to win.''

Obama visited a steel mill in Pittsburgh, a wire factory in Johnstown, a restaurant, and a bowling alley in Altoona -- in a reprise of the small-scale, person-to-person campaigning used in states that voted earlier, such as Iowa.

At a meeting with voters in Johnstown, Doug and Trish Crump, both Democrats, did not applaud as Obama ran through the reasons why voters should choose him over Clinton.

''He is very charismatic and you automatically look to see what's the substance behind that,'' said Trish Crump, 48.

Doug Crump, 51, a clergyman, said he ''cringed'' as Obama said he would reconfigure US foreign policy and avoid the ''politics of fear,'' an allusion to charges that Republicans have used fear of another September. 11-type attack on the United States as a way to scare up votes.

Retired railroad worker Tim Anderson, 53, who shook hands with Obama at an Italian marketplace in Philadelphia, said he would vote for Obama because he considered him ''the lesser of two evils.'' He said he distrusted Clinton and liked Obama, although he had misgivings about controversial comments in the past by Obama's longtime pastor, the Rev Jeremiah Wright.

''I'm a little up in the air about what happened with his pastor,'' he said of Wright. ''That guy's a bigot.''

DISADVANTAGES

The Obama campaign lists several factors working against it in Pennsylvania, the sixth-most populous US state, with about 12.3 million residents.

Clinton, a New York senator, has the support of some prominent Democratic politicians, including popular Gov Ed Rendell, who controls a powerful party machine.

Obama got the backing last week of Pennsylvania Democratic Sen Robert Casey, but aides said his endorsement, while important, could not offset the impact of Rendell's support for Clinton.

Clinton also has family roots in the Northeastern state, which she visited regularly as first lady when her husband, Bill Clinton, was president, and more recently. By contrast, Obama came to the state just four times between the Texas and Ohio primaries on March 4 and the start of his tour last Friday.

In those primaries, perceptions that Obama could win hurt his campaign when Clinton scored a big victory in Ohio and gained more votes in the Texas primary. As a result, Clinton's aides were able to argue Obama struggled in large states.

Crucially, the demographics of Pennsylvania appear to favor Clinton, who outscored him by more than 10 points in neighboring Ohio, which has similar concentrations of older, working-class voters with strong union ties.

Many of Pennsylvania's voters are conservative Democrats who favor hunting and oppose abortion but see a positive role for government in redressing economic imbalances.

EXPECTATIONS MATTER

If his campaigning further narrows the gap in the polls, expectations of an upset victory will grow and a loss would then be doubly painful.

''If he doesn't win, he doesn't want it written that he put in maximum effort, and if he gets it into single digits he claims victory and says, 'Yes, I can do well with these voters,'' said Terry Madonna, professor of public affairs at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

He said Obama, to do well, needed to score big in the largest city, Philadelphia, and its suburbs, where blacks make up a high proportion of Democrats, and must limit losses elsewhere.

Like Clinton, Obama has taken cues from the populist rhetoric of former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, as he tries to court the state's many blue-collar workers.

In a fiery speech in Philadelphia on Wednesday, he expressed ''outrage'' over multimillion-dollar bonuses given to top executives of Countrywide Financial, a company at the center of the housing crisis, as the firm was being sold.

He also took a swipe at Clinton, poking fun at her comparison of herself with the movie character Rocky Balboa in an attempt to portray herself as the underdog in the race.

''Last time I checked, I was the underdog in this state,'' Obama said.

(AGENCIES)

Egypt criminalises protests in places of worship

CAIRO, Apr 3: Egypt's parliament passed a law that criminalises holding protests in places of worship, a move opponents said was a bid to place further limits on free expression.

The law mandates jail sentences of up to one year and fines as punishment for anyone found guilty of inciting, participating or organising such a protest.

Speaker of parliament Fathi Surour said yesterday the law was passed by a majority of the ruling National Democratic Party-dominated parliament. He said 59 lawmakers had submitted a bill protesting the draft, citing it was a violation of the constitution in that it ''restrains liberties and the freedom of expression''.

Members of parliament from the Muslim Brotherhood, the country's most powerful opposition group and which controls a fifth of the seats in parliament, opposed the law.

The government has touted the law as a bid to protect the sanctity of places of worship.

In practice such places, especially mosques, are among the only venues protestors can assemble without incurring swift, sometimes violent police intervention, as protests are illegal without government approval. Such approval is granted only on very rare occasions and usually only to government-backed or -sponsored demonstrations.

In recent years, the Brotherhood and other opposition groups have held numerous protests in mosques, including the historic Imam Hussein mosque and al-Azhar mosque, often held after weekly Friday prayers.

Members of Egypt's Coptic Christian minority have also held protests in some churches or in Cairo's main Coptic cathedral.

Prior to the vote, the Minister of Religious Endowments Mahmoud Hamdi Zakzouk said some people were using mosques for protest after Friday prayers every week and inviting satellite television news team to the protests ''to promote political ideas that have no connection to religion.''

A member of the Brotherhood's parliamentary bloc, Mohamed el-Beltagui said the law was part of a raft of laws ''to jail political opponents, gag mouths and constrain liberties.''

There are about 100,000 mosques in Egypt and about 2,500 churches.

(AGENCIES)

PDP says it'll be a small but vocal opposition ..

THIMPHU, Apr 3: Bhutan's People's Democratic Party (PDP) has said it will live up to its responsibility of an effective and vocal opposition and see that the ruling party carries out its programmes it has promised.

The two elected PDP members Tshering Tobgay and Damcho Dorji have decided to withdraw their resignations and sit in the opposition.

The PDP MPs had last week resigned from the National Assembly in protest against some "foul play" resorted to by the winning Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT) party.

The DPT, led by former prime minister Jigmi Thinley, had swept the March 24 elections, winning 45 of the 47 seats.

"The party has convinced the two MPs not to withdraw because we'll form a small but vocal opposition in parliament," said PDP secretary Lam Kezang.

This was decided after the party conducted a series of brainstorming and introspection meetings during the past few days here, the state media reported.

"Our role is defined by the Constitution and hence we'll be providing the check and balance to the ruling party and also support it where necessary," said Dorji, who won from Goenkhatoe-Laya constituency under Gasa district.

"We'll also see whether the ruling party is carrying out the plans and programmes that it has promised."

The PDP said it will provide "all support needed by the two candidates outside parliament".

However, Kezang said PDP will appeal to the High Court to investigate into certain aspects of the election process.

But according to Kezang, the party will not file any legal case immediately but wait for the outcome of its application to the Court. (PTI)

US House passes big hike in global AIDS funds

WASHINGTON, Apr 3: The US House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bill to more than triple spending to fight AIDS in Africa and other parts of the world, one of President George W. Bush's foremost foreign aid quests.

The measure, a bipartisan compromise backed by the White House and passed by a vote of 308 to 116, calls for 50 billion dollars in funding for AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria programs over the next five years. It marks a big hike from the 15 billion dollars authorized over the first five years of the initiative.

Bush had initially proposed doubling the program to 30 billion dollars. The Democratic-led House boosted it to 50 billion dollars.

A similar bill is heading toward passage in the Democratic-led Senate.

The initiative aims to prevent infection by the human immunodeficiency virus, which causes AIDS, treat people already infected and care for children left as orphans by AIDS.

''There is a moral imperative to combat this epidemic,'' said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat.

The White House said the current program is supporting life-saving treatment for 1.45 million people.

The program launched by Bush in 2003 provides support programs and drugs in 15 countries, 12 in Africa plus Vietnam, Guyana and Haiti. The new bill would add 14 more countries in the Caribbean basin, and an amendment approved by the House would add three more African countries.

Bill opponents said it was simply too expensive, and that there were pressing needs at home that need to be addressed.

The bill would discard a current requirement criticized by some Democrats and AIDS activists that a third of all HIV prevention funds be spent on sexual abstinence education. It instead calls for ''balanced funding'' for abstinence, fidelity and condom programs.

There are 33 million people worldwide infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, with two-thirds of them in sub-Saharan Africa, according to UN estimates.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican, said the bill would save millions of lives around the world and help maintain stability in a key region of the world.

''The program that we are authorizing today ... Is now recognized as perhaps the most successful foreign assistance program of the United States of America since the Marshall Plan,'' Ros-Lehtinen said, referring to the costly US plan to rebuild Europe after World War II.

Bush sees his efforts against AIDS and malaria as foreign policy successes in a presidency dominated by the unpopular war in Iraq. During a trip to Africa in February, Bush was given a hero's welcome in part for US AIDS and malaria programs.

The White House calls the anti-AIDS initiative the largest commitment ever by any nation for an international health initiative dedicated to a single disease.

New Jersey Democratic Rep Donald Payne said the initiative will go down as Bush's single most important achievement.

But opponents said it costs too much. ''It is terrible that millions of Africans are suffering AIDS. But we cannot afford such totally irrational generosity. This is benevolence gone wild,'' said California Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher.

''We can't take care of our own veterans when they come home from the war. We can't take care of our elderly. We have people who can't take care of their own health needs and are at risk of losing their homes,'' Rohrabacher added. ''We have big hearts. But we need to use our brains.''

(AGENCIES)

Research debunks health value of guzzling water

WASHINGTON, Apr 3: The notion that guzzling glasses of water to flood yourself with good health is all wet, researchers said.

Dr Stanley Goldfarb and Dr Dan Negoianu of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia reviewed the scientific literature on the health effects of drinking lots of water.

People in hot, dry climates and athletes have an increased need for water, and people with certain diseases do better with increased fluid intake, they found. But for average healthy people, more water does not seem to mean better health, they said yesterday.

Their scientific review, published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, is the latest to undercut the recommendations advanced by some experts to drink eight glasses of 8 ounces (225 ml) of water a day.

Dr Heinz Valtin of Dartmouth Medical School in 2002 also put those recommendations to the test, finding them to be more urban myth than medical dogma and lacking in scientific basis.

Goldfarb and Negoianu examined what Goldfarb called ''four major myths'' regarding claims of a benefit for extra water drinking: that it leads to more toxin excretion, improves skin tone, makes one less hungry and reduces headache frequency.

''Our bottom line was that there was no real good science -- or much science at all -- behind these claims, that they represent probably folklore,'' Goldfarb said.

As far as facilitating toxin excretion, Goldfarb said that was not verified by any sort of scientific study.

''The kidneys clear toxins. This is what the kidneys do. They do it very effectively. And they do it independently of how much water you take in. When you take in a lot of water, all you do is put out more urine but not more toxins in the urine,'' Goldfarb said.

No studies showed any benefit to skin tone as a result of increased water intake, they found. They also found evidence lacking that drinking water wards off headaches.

As far as lots of water serving to limit appetite, he said there was no consistent evidence, adding it was ''a little unclear exactly whether that was true.''

''What no one looked at is whether anyone really loses weight over the long haul if they go under this regimen of drinking lots of water,'' Goldfarb said. ''We just expressed uncertainty in that area.''

While it may not help a person to drink lots of water, it may not harm them much either, Goldfarb said.

''If someone enjoys it, I say that's wonderful, keep doing it. They're not doing anything that's going to hurt them.''

''A little mild dehydration for the most part is OK, and a little mild water excess for the most part is OK. It's the extremes that one needs to avoid,'' he said.

(AGENCIES)

Explorer makes it an Arctic family trip

LONDON, Apr 3: The teenage daughter of a leading arctic explorer today begins her bid to become the youngest British woman to ski to the North Pole.

Camilla Hempleman-Adams, 15, is accompanying her explorer father David Hempleman-Adams, 51, on the dangerous 80-mile (129km) Arctic trip to raise climate change awareness.

If she makes it back alive, her father, who has successfully travelled to the North Pole nine times, said she would be the youngest British woman ever to reach the Arctic.

They are facing dangers including freezing temperatures -- about minus 40 degrees -- falling ice, hidden crevices, polar beers, frostbite -- and losing toes or fingers -- and exhaustion.

Last month the year 10 student went to Buckingham Palace, where during a private meeting, the Duke of Edinburgh wished her good luck on her record-breaking trip.

The pair, from Box, Wiltshire, spoke to Reuters by telephone on the eve of their trip today.

''I am trying to tell young people about climate change and global warming and show them what is going on in the Arctic,'' said a nervous Camilla, who has recently started studying for her GCSEs.

Camilla is hoping to produce an educational CD for schools during the journey.

''I am trying to show them that the ice is melting and I want to put the message out that in years to come they won't be able to enjoy it as it will just be water,'' she said.

She said she wasn't thinking about the dangers. ''It is quite a bit of a shock,'' she said, adding that many of her friends were supporting her.

As part of her preparations, she has even had her braces removed, so they do not freeze against her mouth.

Hempleman-Adams, who has also travelled to the South Pole and the highest peaks on all seven continents as well as holding 44 aviation records, said climate change was destroying the North Pole ice.

It is his first trip to the Arctic in a quarter of a century and in that time he said the area's pack ice had been cut by a third. For the first time last summer, he said, a boat was able to sail through the ice, which he labelled a tragedy.

''I am taking her personally to show her before it (the pack ice) disappears all together and I think that in the next few years it won't be possible to go see it,'' he said.

''I don't think people realise the changes being cause by climate change. ''Once you loose the ice, you loose the planet.''

He said he was aware of the dangers he was putting his daughter through, but was hopeful they will return safely.

''I can look after myself, but I was hesitant that Camilla could (do it),'' he said.

The pair fly to Moscow before travelling to Siberia. Their polar trek is expected to last 20 days.

(AGENCIES)