Australian rescuers save 37 as yacht sinks

SYDNEY, Feb 12: Rescue helicopters winched 37 people from a sinking yacht off Australia's northeast coast today after it was washed on to rocks and holed.

Rough seas swept the twin-mast yacht named the Romance on to rocks off Hook Island on the southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef, rescue officials said.

Emergency Management Queensland said it was too dangerous to rescue the 32 passengers and 5 crew using boats, so two helicopters were brought in to winch them to safety.

A helicopter rescue crewman was lowered on to the yacht, lying at a 45-degree angle on rocks and being pounded by waves, and lashed tether lines from the boat to trees on shore.

But the plan for some passengers to climb along the tether lines to shore was abandoned because of high waves and strong winds.

''All passengers have now been flown to nearby Hayman Island and will be assessed by the onboard paramedic and doctor,'' Emergency Management Queensland said.

(AGENCIES)

US experts say leniency on North Korea has risks

WASHINGTON, Feb 12: US leniency with North Korea after delays in implementing a key nuclear disarmament deal puts a carefully crafted diplomatic strategy at risk, former White House officials warned.

Nearly a year after the February 13, 2007 breakthrough six-party deal reached by China, Japan, Russia, North and South Korea, and the United States, a key deadline under that deal lapsed with no consequences for Pyongyang, the experts said yesterday.

North Korea had committed to provide by December 31 a full declaration of its nuclear arms programs, weapons and materials -- a key element in a multistage disarmament process -- but has not delivered the expected inventory.

Steady progress had been made in dismantling North Korea's Soviet-era nuclear reactor at Yongbyon that is the source of its weapons-grade plutonium. But Pyongyang has slowed the process of removing spent fuel rods from that facility, citing delays in promised fuel oil deliveries.

''With North Korea, delays are inevitable, but the delays have not been met with any consequences, which is increasingly going to be a problem,'' said Michael Green, a Georgetown University scholar who served as top Asia expert in the White House during earlier stages in the North Korea negotiations.

Green, while stressing that he supports the six-party deal, said a pattern of US concessions toward North Korea ''creates, intended or not, the impression that we are willing to do whatever we have to do to keep the process going.''

He cited the return of allegedly tainted funds to North Korea that had been held up in a money laundering investigation, failure to implement UN Security Council sanctions imposed after Pyongyang tested a nuclear weapon in 2006 and separating the issue of Japanese abducted by North Korea from the issue of taking the country off a US terrorism blacklist.

To retain pressure on North Korea, the United States should quietly revive US-Japan-South Korea policy coordination after several years' hiatus and prepare to revisit the now dormant UN sanctions, Green told a Heritage Foundation panel.

Victor Cha, who worked under Green as a White House Asia expert, said the nuclear declaration represented the first test of whether North Korea had decided to abandon its programs in exchange for aid and an end to international pariah status.

''A declaration of everything that they have really would be the first strategic decision they have to make, and I think that's in part why it's been so difficult,'' he said.

Cha, a scholar at Georgetown University, said optimism has never been the driving force in US diplomacy with Pyongyang.

''People who support the policy now don't support it because they're optimistic. They're as pessimistic as the strongest hawk on North Korea, but we still have to fashion some sort of diplomatic process that gets (the North Koreans) in a position where they're forced to make decisions they don't want to make,'' he said.

(AGENCIES)

Japan PM calls Okinawa rape case "unforgiveable"

TOKYO, Feb 12: Top Japanese officials today deplored the suspected rape of a 14-year-old girl by a US Marine on the southern island of Okinawa, an episode with echoes of a 1995 incident that jolted the US-Japan security alliance.

Tyrone Hadnott, based at Camp Courtney marine base on the island, was arrested yesterday on suspicion of raping the schoolgirl when the two were in a car on Sunday.

Japanese media said the 38-year-old had denied raping the girl but acknowledged forcing her to kiss him.

''It is unforgiveable,'' Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda told a parliamentary panel in his first public comments on the latest incident on Okinawa, host to a huge US military presence.

''It has happened over and over again in the past and I take it as a grave case.''

Japan hosts about 50,000 US troops, most of them in Okinawa, where many residents have long resented bearing what they see as an unfair share of the burden for the bilateral security alliance, a pillar of Japan's post-war diplomacy.

US military bases in Japan have long caused complaints from local residents about crime, noise and accidents.

In 1995, the rape of a 12-year-old Japanese schoolgirl by three US servicemen sparked huge protests in Okinawa, triggering calls for the US military to leave the island and raising questions about the security alliance itself.

''It is truly deplorable that an American serviceman was arrested for these allegations despite the fact that major incidents have occurred in the past and the government has repeatedly urged the U.S. Side to ... Take preventative measures,'' Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura told reporters.

US officials have responded quickly to mitigate fallout from the case, which comes as Tokyo tries to persuade Okinawa residents to accept a plan to relocate the Marine's Futenma Air Station from the densely populated central Okinawa city of Ginowan to the coastal city of Nago.

''Obviously, the US military is cooperating with the Okinawan authorities who are investigating this,'' Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said in Washington, adding that the Marine was presumed innocent until proven guilty.

''But in any serious allegation like this we take it very seriously and are cooperating fully with the local authorities,'' he said, echoing comments by US military officials in Japan.

Whitman said the incident should not affect U.S.-Japan security ties.

The Futenma base move, agreed by Tokyo and Washington in 2006, is a linchpin of a broader accord to rejig U.S. Troops in Japan and is a prerequisite for moving about 8,000 Marines from Okinawa to Guam. Japanese media say Nago officials have accepted the relocation plan in principle but have opposed some details.

(AGENCIES)

London mayor announces major cycling scheme

LONDON, Feb 12: London will adopt a bicycle hire scheme similar to a popular initiative in Paris under a 1 billion dollars cycling investment package announced by the mayor.

Under the plan, part of a series of environmental measures due in coming days, 6,000 bicycles will be available for hire from ranks every 300 metres throughout the city centre.

London, which accounts for 7 per cent of Britain's climate changing carbon emissions and is at the forefront of efforts by major cities around the world to combat global warming, plans to cut carbon emissions by 60 per cent by 2025.

The Paris bike scheme lets riders with an electronic card take a bike from one rank and return it at another rank anywhere in the city. It has proven popular, transforming traffic in the French capital since it came into operation last July.

Mayor Ken Livingstone's initial announcement did not give details of how much the cycles would cost to rent in London or how Londoners would pay for them.

''We will spend 500 million pounds ($1 billion) over the next decade on cycling -- the biggest investment in cycling in London's history, which means that thousands more Londoners can cycle in confidence on routes that take them quickly and safely to where they want to go,'' Livingstone said in a statement.

''Around 20 per cent of the carbon emissions savings we've calculated we can make from transport by 2025 will come from changing the way we travel,'' he added.

Other aspects of the scheme include new cycle paths and exclusive cycle zones and more bike parking facilities at underground stations across the capital.

Livingstone, facing a tough mayoral election in May with the environment as one of the major campaign issues, said he wanted five percent or 1.7 million of all daily trips in London to be by bike by 2025.

Today Livingstone is expected to announce his decision to go ahead from October with a plan to charge drivers of gas-guzzling Sport Utility Vehicles 25 pounds (50 dollars) a day to drive in central London's congestion charge zone. Ordinary cars pay eight pounds (16 dollars) a day to drive in the zone.

A low emission zone targeting heavy lorries came into force on Monday in the 1,600 square kilometres area inside the M25 ring road circling the sprawling city.

Added to that, Livingstone was also due to announce a comprehensive plan to fit new filters and equipment to all municipal buildings in the city to cut their carbon emissions. (AGENCIES)

Will Muslim call to prayer ring out over Oxford?

LONDON, Feb 12: A battle of faiths is being waged in the ancient English city of Oxford, where some people are bitterly opposed to Muslim plans to broadcast the call to prayer over the fabled dreaming spires.

Local residents, clergy and now the head of the Church of England have been drawn into a debate over a proposal from the Central Oxford Mosque to broadcast a recording of the call to prayer, or azan, from its minaret over loud speakers.

Residents who live near the mosque claim the call will annoy their mainly non-Muslim community and won't even be heard by the majority of Oxford Muslims, who live more than half a mile away.

''We are very angry that they are presuming to inflict this on a non-Muslim community,'' Allan Chapman, a historian at the university and a local resident who described himself as a practising Christian told Reuters.

''We see this as an attempt to impose Islam on a Christian- culture community,'' he said.

The rector of one of Oxford's largest Anglican churches, Charlie Cleverly of St. Aldate's, has also attacked the plans.

He told the Oxford Mail that it was ''un-English'' and could create a Muslim ghetto in the neighbourhood around the mosque.

''When such an area is subject to such a call to prayer, it may force people to move out and encourage Muslim families to move in,'' he told the newspaper.

Oxford's population is 150,000, the Central Oxford Mosque estimates that around 7,000 of these residents are Muslim, predominantly of south Asian origin.

Anxious to avoid a clash of cultures, Imam Munir Chisti said he is happy to compromise and has amended his proposal to broadcast the call to prayer once a week, instead of the five times a day heard in Islamic countries.

''We suggest that we have a call to prayer every Friday, because that is a special day for Muslims. It won't be heard over the whole of Oxford. It won't hurt anybody or force anything on anyone,'' Imam Chisti told Reuters.

At the centre's busiest time, during Friday prayers, there are around 1,000 faithful worshipping inside the purpose-built mosque.

(AGENCIES)

Heart attacks drop after Italy's smoking ban:Study

LONDON, Feb 12: Italy's 2005 smoking ban has led to a sharp fall in heart attacks, researchers reported in a finding they said shows that such laws really do improve public health.

Following the ban the number of heart attacks in men and women aged 35-64 -- people most likely to be exposed to smoke in cafes, bars and restaurants -- fell 11 per cent, the researchers said.

The findings showed the health benefits of European smoking bans in public places, said Francesco Forastiere, an epidemiologist at the Rome Health Authority who led the study.

''Most of this change is due to the decreased impact of passive smoke,'' he said in a telephone interview. ''This is ... important because it shows the impact of a health intervention that can be achieved in other countries.''

Italy, Britain, Ireland and a number of other European countries have outlawed smoking in public places, and many health experts are urging the European Union to adopt an even wider ban.

The ban in Italy, where the researchers said about 30 per cent of men and 20 per cent of women smoke, prohibited smoking cigarettes in all indoor public places such as offices, retail shops, restaurants, pubs and discos.

STRONGLY ENFORCED

''Smoking bans should be extended to all possible countries and smoking bans in the workplace should be strongly enforced,'' the researchers wrote.

Writing in the American Heart Association journal Circulation, the researchers compared the rate of heart attacks from 2000 to 2004 to those occurring in the year after the ban was enforced.

The team analyzed hospital records and adjusted for heat waves, flu epidemics, air pollution and other factors that could have contributed to heart attacks. The researchers also took daily measurements on air quality in 40 public places.

''The smoking ban in Italy is working and having a real protective effect on population health,'' Forastiere said.

After the ban, cigarette sales also fell 5.5 per cent but the researchers attributed the health benefits seen in the study to reduced exposure to passive smoke.

They said young men and women living in poorer areas appeared to have the greatest health benefit after the ban.

Smoking kills about four million people each year while about a quarter of deaths related to heart disease are due to cigarettes, according to the World Health Organisation. (AGENCIES)

Bhutto book says she had cell numbers of assassins

NEW YORK, Feb 12: Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto returned home knowing the names and cell phone numbers of her possible assassins, she wrote in a book finished just days before her murder at a December election rally.

Bhutto wrote in ''Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West,'' to be released worldwide today, that Pakistani officials told her four suicide bomber squads had been sent by Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud, Osama bin Laden's son Hamza, and two militant groups to kill her.

''I had actually received from a sympathetic Muslim foreign government the names and cell numbers of designated assassins,'' said Bhutto, who accused Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf of not doing enough to protect her or investigate the threats.

Bhutto, 54, who twice served as prime minister of Pakistan, said she sent a letter to Musharraf before returning to her homeland in October in which she identified people in the Pakistani intelligence service whom she said would be responsible for her assassination.

''I told him if I was assassinated by the militants it would be due to the sympathizers of the militants in his regime, who I suspected wanted to eliminate me and remove the threat I posed to their grip on power,'' Bhutto wrote in the 318-page book published by News Corp.'s HarperCollins.

Bhutto survived a bomb attack -- one of the deadliest in Pakistan's history, killing at least 139 people -- when she returned in October after an eight-year exile.

But she was killed after a bomb and gun attack at the end of a December 27 rally ahead of planned January 8 national elections. The polls are now due February 18.

'I WANTED TO REASSURE THEM'

''When I returned, I did not know whether I would live or die,'' wrote the mother of three. ''I said farewell to my children, husband, mother, staff, friends and family not knowing whether I would ever see their faces again.

''I wanted to reassure them, but I also told them, 'Remember: God gives life, and God takes life. I will be safe until my time is up,''' said Bhutto, whose father, Pakistan's first popularly elected prime minister, was hanged by the military in the late 1970s.

Musharraf's government blamed al Qaeda for killing Bhutto, a staunch supporter of the US.-led campaign against Islamist militancy, but many Pakistanis suspect her other enemies, perhaps from within shadowy security agencies, were involved.

After the first attempt on her life, Bhutto wrote that ''a cover-up seemed to be under way from the very first moments of the attack'' that she said was ''clearly meant to appear to be an al Qaeda-style suicide attack.''

''In Pakistan things are almost never as they seem. There are always circles within circles, rarely straight lines. This was meant to look like the work of al Qaeda and the Taliban, and I do not doubt they were involved,'' she said.

''But the sophistication of the plan ... Suggested a larger conspiracy. Elements from within the Pakistani intelligence service had actually created the Taliban in the 1980s, and certain elements sympathized with al Qaeda ideologically and theologically. Some had recruited or worked for it,'' she said.

Bhutto's widower, Asif Ali Zardari, has now become the de facto leader of his wife's Pakistan People's Party. Together with his son and two daughters, they wrote an afterword for Bhutto's book.

''This book is about everything that those who killed her could never understand: democracy, tolerance, rationality, hope, and, above all, the true message of Islam,'' they wrote. ''Or maybe they did understand these things and feared them, and thus feared her. She was the fanatics' worst nightmare.'' (AGENCIES)

McCain says doesn't need public campaign cash

RICHMOND, VA, Feb 12: Presidential candidate John McCain said today he has rejected public funding and its accompanying spending limits as he seeks to wrap up the Republican presidential nomination.

The Arizona senator asked for public funds last summer after his campaign nearly foundered, but said yesterday he does not need taxpayer money as he seeks to secure the party's nomination for the November election.

''That was my thinking, we didn't need to,'' McCain said after a rally in Virginia, which along with Maryland and the District of Columbia holds primary elections today.

The decision will allow McCain to ignore the 54 million dollars spending limit he would have had to observe had he taken public funds, allowing him to train his sights on his eventual Democratic opponent.

McCain has raised at least 53 million dollars so far, an amount dwarfed by Democratic candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, each of whom has raised at least 130 million dollars.

The Center for Responsive Politics, a watchdog group, estimates each nominee will need to raise at least 500 million dollars to compete in the most expensive election ever.

McCain campaign manager Rick Davis said fund-raising has picked up steadily in 2008. ''We're really happy with how much we're raising right now. It's plenty to do the things we want to do,'' Davis said on the campaign plane on Friday.

McCain is the author of a prominent law that limits money in politics, angering some conservatives in his party who regard the law as a violation of free speech rights.

The public financing system, created in the 1970s after the Watergate scandal, is financed by taxpayers who check a box on their tax returns.

McCain all but secured the Republican nomination with coast-to-coast primary victories last Tuesday. His top rival, wealthy former venture capitalist Mitt Romney, spent more than 35 million dollars of his own money before dropping out.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee defeated McCain in Louisiana and Nebraska on Saturday. But Huckabee will have a difficult task overcoming McCain, who has rolled up more than 700 of the 1,081 delegates needed to win the nomination.

(AGENCIES)

New Thai Govt to consider self-rule for Muslim south: Minister

BANGKOK, Feb 12: Thailand's new Government will consider granting some degree of self-rule to Muslim-majority provinces hit by bloody separatist unrest, Interior Minister Chalerm Yubamrung said today.

More than 2,900 people have died in the southern provinces along the Malaysian border since separatist violence erupted four years ago.

The violence has become increasingly deadly over the last year, despite repeated olive branches offered by the previous military Government.

"I want to reaffirm that autonomy is possible, but we will have to discuss what type of autonomy it would be," Chalerm told reporters.

He said that Thailand would consider China's westernmost Xinjiang region, which is autonomous and predominantly Muslim, as a possible model.

"We cannot afford to allow so many deadly bombings. We must take measures to improve the situation and not just wait to be killed," he said.

Chalerm said that unlike his predecessors, he would not make frequent trips to the Muslim south, saying such trips only spark more violence.

"Militants retaliate fiercely when a senior government minister visits the region," he said.

Chalerm also indicated that intelligence agencies continued to believe militants could seek to expand their activities and possibly stage bomb attacks in the southern commercial centre of Hat Yai or even in Bangkok. (AGENCIES)

Hollywood engine on idle as strike winds down .....

LOS ANGELES, Feb 12: Labor peace returned to Hollywood yesterday, but the town's production machine remained at a low idle ahead of a vote by striking film and TV writers on whether to return to work after a three-month clash with major studios.

A proposed contract settlement was endorsed on Sunday by the governing bodies of the Writers Guild of America, which also pulled the plug on further picketing scheduled this week.

But the walkout remained in effect pending a vote set for Tuesday by union rank and file on whether to lift the strike.

Membership meetings are slated for New York and Los Angeles where writers can cast their ballots in person or by proxy, and they are expected to support an immediate back-to-work order.

Formal approval of the contract, which hinged on new payments to writers for work distributed over the Internet, is being conducted through a lengthier ratification process that normally takes up to two weeks.

For the time being, writers were still barred from working on projects that were in development for struck companies before 10,500 WGA members walked off the job on November 5.

Even when the walkout officially ends, the potential for further labor strife hangs over Hollywood. The Screen Actors Guild, which represents some 120,000 film and TV performers, sees its contract with the studios come up for renewal in June, and SAG leaders have vowed to be aggressive in labor talks.

One key group of Hollywood workers who did return to their jobs yesterday were television ''show-runners'' on dozens of scripted prime-time dramas and comedies forced out of production by the strike.

They are permitted to perform producing duties but remain precluded for now from writing or polishing scripts.

PENCILS UP

On the film side, only production companies that signed ''interim agreements'' with the WGA during the strike, such as Lionsgate Entertainment, the Weinstein Co. And Tom Cruise's United Artists, were allowed to have writers at work.

But that has not kept countless freelance scribes from plugging away at their computer keyboards. Even before the tentative pact, film writers were presumably toiling over ''spec'' scripts -- unsolicited screenplays to shop around, or ''pitch,'' to studios once the strike is officially over.

The anticipated glut of post-strike spec scripts will likely spark a ''feeding frenzy'' by studios eager to outmaneuver rivals in snatching up fresh offerings from A-list writers, said Carl DiOrio, who covered the strike for one of the town's leading trade magazines, The Hollywood Reporter.

''The writing that was verboten during the strike involved only those projects that were pitched prior to the strike,'' he said. ''Despite the Writers Guild motto of 'pencils down,' many of them have been working on spec scripts of all sorts.''

The TV show-runners, because of their dual role as writers and producers, were never completely prohibited from working on series. But they chose to stay away in support of the WGA, playing a key role in shutting down much of the TV industry.

''They were expected to return to work today,'' DiOrio said. ''But they won't be doing any writing functions until the strike is lifted.''

Networks are eager to get new episodes of powerhouse shows -- like ''Grey's Anatomy,'' ''CSI,'' ''The Office'' and ''House'' -- back on air as soon as possible. But programs that struggled in the ratings may either be canceled or benched for next season.

The usual spring rush to produce ''pilot'' episodes of new series also will be scaled back, industry watchers said.

One program especially eager to get its writers back is the Oscar telecast slated for February 24.

A spokeswoman for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said writers for the show and its host, Jon Stewart, normally would have started working many weeks earlier.

''They'll have significantly less time than they would have otherwise, and it will be a challenge,'' she said. ''But there will be writers ... And we'll have a show.'' (AGENCIES)

Napoleon 'did not die of arsenic toxicity'

LONDON, Feb 12: Putting to rest a 200-year-old mystery about what killed Napoleon Bonaparte, scientists claim to have found evidence that the French Emperor didn't die from arsenic poising as some had speculated.

After being defeated by the British in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, Napoleon was exiled to the St Helena island where he died after six years at the age of 52. Some arsenic found in 1961 in his hair sparked rumours of poisoning.

But the researchers at Italy's National Institute of Nuclear Physics have re-examined his hair and found that there was actually no significant increase in arsenic levels in the French Emperor's last years.

"It's not arsenic poisoning that killed Napoleon at St Helena," the National Institute of Nuclear Physics said.

The institute's researchers -- Dr Ettore Fiorini and Dr Ezio Previtali -- and Angela Santagostino of University of Milan carried out the study at a small nuclear reactor at the University of Pavia before coming to the conclusion, 'The Daily Telegraph' reported today.

The team compared samples held by French and Italian museums, dating from when Napoleon was a boy in Corsica; during his exile on the Island of Elba; on the day of his death (May 5, 1821) on the Island of Saint Helena; and the day after his death.

Samples taken from the King of Rome (Napoleon's son) in the years 1812, 1816, 1821, and 1826, and samples from the Empress Josephine, collected upon her death in 1814, were also analysed, along with hair from ten people today.

The hairs were studied using "neutron activation", a test which does not destroy samples and provides extremely precise results, even for small samples. In the radiation with in the reactor, elements in the hair are made radioactive and, from the resulting spectrum of radioactivity, its composition can be deduced.

All the hair samples contained traces of arsenic but the samples from 200 years ago contained up to 100 times more than those from today: Napoleon's hair had an average arsenic level of around ten parts per million whereas the arsenic level in the hair samples from today was around one tenth of a part per one million.

But the levels in the French Emperor's hair were typical of those seen at the beginning of the 19th people and significantly, the arsenic levels when Napoleon was a boy and during his final days in St Helena were similar.

The work provides indirect support for the suggestion that Napoleon died of stomach cancer linked to a poor diet, according to the institute. (PTI)

London mayor announces major cycling scheme

LONDON, Feb 12: London will adopt a bicycle hire scheme similar to a popular initiative in Paris under a 1 billion dollars cycling investment package announced by the mayor.

Under the plan, part of a series of environmental measures due in coming days, 6,000 bicycles will be available for hire from ranks every 300 metres throughout the city centre.

London, which accounts for 7 per cent of Britain's climate changing carbon emissions and is at the forefront of efforts by major cities around the world to combat global warming, plans to cut carbon emissions by 60 per cent by 2025.

The Paris bike scheme lets riders with an electronic card take a bike from one rank and return it at another rank anywhere in the city. It has proven popular, transforming traffic in the French capital since it came into operation last July.

Mayor Ken Livingstone's initial announcement did not give details of how much the cycles would cost to rent in London or how Londoners would pay for them.

''We will spend 500 million pounds ($1 billion) over the next decade on cycling -- the biggest investment in cycling in London's history, which means that thousands more Londoners can cycle in confidence on routes that take them quickly and safely to where they want to go,'' Livingstone said in a statement.

''Around 20 per cent of the carbon emissions savings we've calculated we can make from transport by 2025 will come from changing the way we travel,'' he added.

Other aspects of the scheme include new cycle paths and exclusive cycle zones and more bike parking facilities at underground stations across the capital.

Livingstone, facing a tough mayoral election in May with the environment as one of the major campaign issues, said he wanted five percent or 1.7 million of all daily trips in London to be by bike by 2025.

Today Livingstone is expected to announce his decision to go ahead from October with a plan to charge drivers of gas-guzzling Sport Utility Vehicles 25 pounds (50 dollars) a day to drive in central London's congestion charge zone. Ordinary cars pay eight pounds (16 dollars) a day to drive in the zone.

A low emission zone targeting heavy lorries came into force on Monday in the 1,600 square kilometres area inside the M25 ring road circling the sprawling city.

Added to that, Livingstone was also due to announce a comprehensive plan to fit new filters and equipment to all municipal buildings in the city to cut their carbon emissions. (AGENCIES)

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