CEA rejects CNAC's alliance proposal

BEIJING, Feb 27: China Eastern Airlines Corp has spurned an offer by China National Aviation Corp. (Group) (CNAC) for a wide-ranging alliance, in a move that could shut the door for its tie-up with the countrys second largest airline, Air China.

CNAC, parent of Air China, had made the proposal to Shanghai-based CEA, Chinas third largest airliner, after China Eastern minority shareholders last month rejected an offer from Singapore Airlines and Temasek Holdings to buy a 24 per cent stake in CEA.

"Our board of directors has decided not to give further consideration to CNACs proposal after prudent and sufficient discussions and advice-seeking from the legal and finance consultants," the CEA said in a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

CEA said the company would stick to its plan of bringing in a strategic investor to make its main air transport business more competitive.

"In the whole process of proposal-making and with the communication method CNAC has never showed any sincerity and deep and thorough planning for our cooperation," the statement quoted by official Xinhua news agency said.

CNAC had offered to buy a stake worth USD 1.91 billion in CEA in an alliance that it said would help dominate their position in China, one of the worlds fastest growing aviation markets.

As the bitter battle for buying the stake intensified, CNAC offered to buy 2.98 billion shares at a price not less than five Hong Kong dollars in CEA.

Singapore Airlines and its parent Temasek Holdings had made a persistent bid to buy a 24 per cent stake in CEA for 3.80 Hong Kong dollar per share. (PTI)

UNWFP warns of potential nutritional crisis in central America

NEW YORK, Feb 27: The United Nations World Food Programme (UNWFP) has warned of a potential nutritional crisis in Central America, where the prices of wheat and corn have nearly doubled in the past year and bad weather has pushed the price of beans to unprecedented levels.

The agency notes that the surge has meant that the actual calorie intake of an average meal in rural El Salvador, for example, is today roughly 60 per cent of what it was in May 2006.

"At this stage it is still premature to provide figures, but we fear a deepening nutritional crisis among the poorest segments of the population, those already food and nutritionally insecure," WFP El Salvador Country Director Carlo Scaramella, who is coordinating a study of the impact of recent rising prices in the region, said.

"At the same time, what we are seeing is the emergence of a new group of nutritionally and food-insecure people among the poorest strata of the population," he added.

In response to the growing crisis, WFP has increased local purchases and is urgently asking international donors for more contributions, to make up for its sharp decline in purchasing power.

The agency has also set up an internal task force at its Rome headquarters and is reviewing ways to better target its assistance.

At the global level, WFP plans to launch a series of consultations with leading experts in the field of hunger and food security, and has called for a special meeting with key non-governmental organization (NGO) partners to tackle the issue. (PTI)

Bangladesh foresees lesser than expected growth rate

DHAKA, Feb 27: The finance ministry in the emergency-ruled Bangladesh foresees the GDP growth to be one per cent lesser than it expected earlier attributing the phenomenon on natural disasters and massive anti-graft campaign, reports said here today.

The ministry now estimated that gross domestic product (GDP) will grow by six per cent, down from earlier official projection of seven per cent, a media report quoted officials as saying.

With all major economic indicators remaining in a slump, the country’s economy would require two more years to see a seven per cent growth, the report said quoting the latest internal estimate of the finance ministry.

The report by the New Age newspaper came as Finance adviser of the interim cabinet Mirza Azizul Islam last week said that Bangladesh’s economy was now under "tremendous strain" as global price hikes inflated import bills of essentials and enhanced the government’s subsidy liabilities, bleeding state coffers dry.

Bangladesh Bank and global lenders already lowered their projections on the growth rate for the current fiscal to be ended on June 30.

A recent meeting of the ministry projected 6.7 per cent GDP growth for 2008-09 fiscal, seven per cent for 2009-10 and 7.2 per cent for 2010-11 fiscal year.

The GDP growth in the 2006-07 fiscal was 6.5 per cent.

The meeting observed that twin floods and cyclone Sidr in the first half of the current fiscal year dampened the overall economic growth prospects while officials in the meeting also "pointed the finger at the drives against corruption and tax evasion", said the report quoting officials familiar with the meeting.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) in October said the country’s economic growth might slow down to 5.5 per cent in the current fiscal year due to impacts of anti-corruption drive and July-September flooding.

The Asian Development Bank earlier forecast 6.5 per cent growth and World Bank estimated that floods might decline economic growth by 0.20 per cent.

Bangladesh Bank governor Salehuddin Ahmed recently said GDP might see a slower-than-expected growth, but the decline would not be more than 0.50 per cent.

The sluggish economic trend has been reflected in the external trade figures as import growth largely outpaced export increment in first five months of the current fiscal year.

Components of import also add to the worries as food import bills alone accounted for one-fourth of the country’s total trade deficit of over USD 2 billion. (PTI)

After the headscarf, it is "bare below the elbows" in Britain

LONDON, Feb 27: Even as the headscarf controversy was yet to settle down, Muslims medical staff in Britain have objected to hygiene rules which compels them to roll up their sleeves and removing arm coverings.

Muslim medics in at least three major English cities denied to follow the regulations aimed at tackling spread of superbugs.

The medics claim that following the rules left their forearms exposed, which is regarded ''immodest'' in their faith.

Health officials have been engaged in talks with the Muslim medics at Alder Hey children's hospital in Liverpool, Leicester University and Sheffield University to resolve the crisis, Daily Mail reported.

While officials have pledged to work with Muslim students to find a solution to the problem, many scholars said they would prefer to quit the course rather than expose their arms.

''A number of female Muslim students had approached the University of Liverpool to ask if we would provide facilities for them to change their outerwear and Hijab for theatre scrubs,'' Medical Director at Alder Hay Dr Steve Ryan was quoted by the paper as saying.

''Good hand hygiene is one of the most important and simplest actions we can take to prevent healthcare associated infections,'' he added.

(UNI)

Pablo Picasso's burial site to be opened to public

LONDON, Feb 27: Thirtyfive years after his death, Spanish artist Pablo Picasso's final resting place in France is to be opened to the public soon.

Picasso, one of the most famous artists of the 20th century, was buried in the grounds of Chateau de Vauvenargues in the south of France, which he had purchased in 1958. The burial mound is topped with his 1933 sculpture, Femme au vase.

The 14th century chateau now belongs to Catherine Hutin, the daughter of Picasso's last wife Jacqueline Rogue, who has agreed to to open the gates for six months to allow the artist's admirers a rare glimpse into his life, 'The Daily Telegraph' reported today.

Picasso had been enchanted with the austere medieval chateau when he acquired it in 1958. It included 2,500 acres on the north slope of Mont Sainte Victoire, and, as he told a friend at the time: "I've just bought myself Czanne's view."

He moved to Chateau de Vauvenargues to escape Cannes, where he had become a tourist attraction. A constant stream of tourists plagued his studio, trying to catch a glimpse of him at work.

In fact, the artist's studio in the chateau has been left untouched, complete with brushes, paints and still-life arrangements. He liked the vast rooms as he was always running out of space for his paintings and sculptures.

The chateau's bedroom still contains Picasso's furniture, including a mandolin that appears in several of his works. A mural that the artist painted over the bathtub still remains untouched.

Picasso died in 1973, aged 91. Since he left no will, his death duties to the French state were paid in the form of his works and others from his collection. These works form the core of the immense collection of the Muse Picasso in Paris. (PTI)

South China province on high alert after one dies of bird flu

BEIJING, Feb 27: A south China province was on high alert and surveillance on poultry and migrant birds has been tightened after a woman died of bird flu here, state media reported today.

The Ministry of Health had confirmed yesterday that a 44-year old woman surnamed Zhang had died of H5N1 strain of bird flu in Haifeng county in Guangdong province after she was found to have had contact with poultry.

Poultry near the residence of the dead patient have been subjected to vaccination and disinfection, the Guangdong Agricultural Department said.

The provincial forestry bureau also issued an emergency notice to tighten monitoring on migratory birds, official Xinhua news agency said.

Bird flu has claimed three lives this year in China, which has the world's biggest poultry population. China has reported 30 confirmed cases of human bird flu since 2003, 20 of them fatal. (PTI)

Pak SC dismisses petitions challenging Presidential order

ISLAMABAD, Feb 27: Pakistan's Supreme Court today dismissed three of the five petitions challenging a controversial order issued last year by President Pervez Musharraf to grant amnesty in corruption cases to slain former premier Benazir Bhutto and her husband Asif Ali Zardari.

A five-member bench headed by Chief Justice Abdul Hameed dismissed petitions filed by Jamaat-e-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed, PML-N leader Shahbaz Sharif and another person challenging the constitutional validity of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO).

Musharraf promulgated the NRO on October 5 last year, a day ahead of the presidential poll which he contested while still in uniform. The law benefited leaders of Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party but did not cover leaders of the PML-N, including former premier Nawaz Sharif.

In exchange for the quashing of graft cases against its leaders, the PPP did not boycott the presidential poll, giving Musharraf's re-election credibility. Following his re-election, Musharraf quit the post of army chief and took oath as a civilian president for a second five-year term.

As ordinances in Pakistan have a life of only three months, the NRO lapsed last month. But the caretaker government has said it continues to be in force as it was covered by the same order that validated last year's emergency imposed by Musharraf.

The petitions challenging the NRO had said the law violated fundamental rights as no government has the right to quash corruption cases. The petitioners also contended that the ordinance was contrary to the constitution and asked for it to be scrapped. (PTI)

Australian paparazzo loses Nicole Kidman case

SYDNEY, Feb 27: An Australian paparazzi photographer today lost his bid for damages in a defamation case involving his treatment of Hollywood actress Nicole Kidman.

Jamie Fawcett had sued Fairfax Media over a 2005 article in the Sun-Herald newspaper which described him as "undoubtedly Sydney’s most inventive and most disliked freelance photographer".

The article said Fawcett was determined to "wreak havoc" on Kidman’s private life and said he had planted a listening device outside her Sydney home.

A jury last year found the article had defamed Fawcett.

But the New South Wales Supreme Court today ruled out a damages payment to the photographer, instead ordering Fawcett to pay Fairfax’s legal costs, believed to be in the high six figures, the Sydney Morning Herald said on its website.

Fairfax, publisher of the Sun-Herald and the Sydney Morning Herald, had argued the defamatory statements in the case were either true, in the public interest or fair comment.

Outside court, Fawcett said he was "very disappointed" and might appeal.

Fawcett said he was also disappointed that the judge had found he had placed a listening device on Kidman’s property.

"I don’t believe that’s supported by the ... Police investigation," he said.

At last year’s hearing Kidman gave evidence that she had been "really, really scared" by Fawcett’s efforts to get a photograph of her during a 2005 pursuit through Sydney.

The Oscar-winner said she had worried about an accident as she crouched in the back seat of her car when her driver said the paparazzi were "driving crazy". (AGENCIES)

Men remember their first car better than their first kiss

LONDON, Feb 27: Majority of men remember their first car more than their first kiss, a survey revealed.

According to the study, 60 per cent of respondents regarded their first car as being female and a quarter gave it a name.

Owning their first car ranked higher than their initial embrace, their first boyfriend or girlfriend and their 18th birthday, the survey carried out by the organisers of the British International Motor Show found.

About 40 per cent of respondents even remembered their first registration plate in full. More than a third said they had sex in their first vehicle.

Show organiser Kirsty Perkinson said people develop strong bonds with their first car. ''First cars represent an explosion of independence and a gateway to untold adventures, which is why they are so special,'' the Daily Mail quoted Ms Perkinson as saying. (UNI)

Once militant, Romania's miners seek investment

PETRILA, ROMANIA, Feb 27: Romanian coal miners once rampaged through Bucharest, storming Parliament and toppling a prime minister. Their battle now is for investment.

With gas and oil prices soaring, they see a chance to safeguard their livelihoods. The miners' once-feared political power eroded as many mines were shut down in restructuring around a decade go.

Miners hope to attract foreign cash to the coal industry, which could help Romania, with its mix of coal, hydro and nuclear power, become a major source of energy exports to southeastern Europe.

Their worry is that new EU environmental standards, combined with government indecision on privatisation, are holding them back.

Coal fires almost 40 per cent of the European Union newcomer's power and government documents show it will continue to do so until 2020 as renewable and nuclear energy take time to develop. Lignite, which is softer than hard coal and dug in open pits, accounted for over 90 per cent of Romania's total coal output of 35.1 million tonnes in 2006.

Major foreign companies have shown they are keen to join partnerships with the state to manage and upgrade coal-fired power plants to meet environmental targets, but analysts say government delays could put them off.

''Energy reform has slowed down and it is a pity,'' said Doina Visa, a World Bank operations officer in the sustainable development sector.

''The worry is that privatisation of coal-fired power plants has already been delayed. I don't think the state has all the funds needed to make the upgrades itself and a lot of them may end up shut down.''

Miners in Olteanu's Jiu Valley, in Romania's mountainous southwest, suffered in the industry's restructuring in the late 1990s: burning through severance pay, unemployment was rampant and their attempts to run small businesses often foundered, with doughnut shops typically appearing and then vanishing overnight.

Massive layoffs and environmental degradation left towns desolate and desperate. Many left, seeking jobs abroad. Two years ago, local people wrote ''discarded town'' on buildings in Petrila before officials painted it over.

But Bucharest's centrist government hopes coal, in particular lignite, will help fire Romania's growing energy needs and could turn into a much-needed source of exports.

PAST AND FUTURE

Romania has drawn up ambitious plans to boost power generation through privatisations -- listings, sell-offs and partnerships. Two more units are proposed at its nuclear power plant in Cernavoda.

But privatisations were put on hold last year when Prime Minister Calin Tariceanu announced plans to set up a mammoth energy company -- which he likened to Czech giant CEZ -- that would incorporate state-owned power producers and distributors.

From hard coal and lignite mines to the antiquated power plants that guzzle the coal, the entire industry needs to speed up improvements to keep up with Romania's growing energy demand.

The government, which has forecast power demand will rise by 3 per cent annually, has drawn up plans to modernise and attract private partners for remaining viable mines, as well as ensuring they sign sustainable supply contracts with coal plants.

But it has ruled out privatisation plans for the industry this year, saying it needs more time to analyse potential solutions. It plans to merge viable Jiu Valley hard coal mines with two power plants to create an energy holding similar to three highly coveted lignite firms.

Czech company CEZ, a major investor in Romania, has been vying for the lignite-fired energy holdings not far from Jiu Valley and has bid to upgrade and manage power plants. Also interested were Germany's RWE and E.ON, Italy's Enel and Spain's Iberdrola.

The Czechs complain about Bucharest's indecision over privatisation, saying it complicates investment plans.

Other countries in eastern Europe are also dragging their feet on privatising energy sectors, but analysts warn Romania stands to lose a potentially leading role in the region.

''Privatisations by definition are prone to delays because they are political animals,'' said Bram Buring, analyst with Wood & Company in Prague.

''If you haven't made the investments somebody else will make them ... And sell you the power.''

LAST CALL FOR CASH

In the hot damp tunnels 400 meters below ground in Lupeni, a Jiu Valley hard coal mine, miners wish each other 'Noroc Bun' -- good luck. However, many of them doubt their luck, despite officials' hopes the industry will recover.

The need for funds is particularly marked for hard coal mines, which must become self-sustainable by 2010 when the government will end subsidies.

''If you asked me five years ago I would have said 'shut down hard coal.' Now, I am not so sure, given the oil and gas trend. Maybe some cash should be put in upgrades to boost productivity at the mines with good resources,'' the World Bank's Visa said.

Mining, once a thriving industry employing almost half a million people including jobs above ground, has in the period 1995-2000 cost Romania roughly 6 billion dollars, mostly in subsidies.

Jiu Valley miners were once bound together by strong unions, a feared political force in the 1990s. Their violent riots have been blamed by many for Romania's slow transition to democracy in the early years after the 1989 fall of communism.

In September 1991, thousands of miners stormed into Bucharest and invaded parliament, setting fire to government buildings and forcing reformist Prime Minister Petre Roman to resign. Former President Ion Iliescu denied engineering the protests to tighten his grip on power.

''If money is found, hard coal may have a future,'' said Sorin Olteanu, a gaunt 42-year-old miner with shoulder-length hair and an earring.

(AGENCIES)

Photo gives face to Anne Frank's 'one true love'..

AMSTERDAM, Feb 27: A photograph of the boy with the ''beautiful brown eyes'' who Anne Frank recalled as her ''one true love'' in the diary she wrote whilst in hiding in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands is to go on display in Amsterdam.

The photo of Peter Schiff was donated to the Anne Frank museum by his former childhood friend Ernst Michaelis who realised after rereading Anne's diary recently there were no known pictures of Schiff, a museum spokeswoman said yesterday.

Frank's Jewish family fled Nazi Germany in 1933 and settled in Amsterdam. During World War Two the Nazis occupied the Netherlands and began deporting Jews to the death camps in 1942, prompting the Frank family to go into hiding.

They lived in a secret annexe in a canal-side house for more than two years before their hiding place was betrayed and the family sent to concentration camps.

Anne recorded her years in the attic hideaway in her diaries. A Dutch woman who helped the family found them in the annexe after Anne's arrest and gave them to her father Otto who survived the Holocaust. They became famous around the world.

She writes in her diary: ''I forgot that I haven't yet told you the story of my one true love''.

''Peter was the ideal boy: tall, slim and good-looking, with a serious, quiet and intelligent face,'' Anne wrote of the 13-year-old she had fallen for in 1940 when she was just 11.

SCHOOL FRIENDS

They would collect each other from school and walk hand in hand through their local neighbourhood.

''He had dark hair, beautiful brown eyes, ruddy cheeks and a nicely pointed nose. I was crazy about his smile, which made him look so boyish and mischievous.''

Peter later died in Auschwitz, while Anne died in Bergen Belsen concentration camp in 1945.

Michaelis, now 81, had attended a Jewish school with Schiff in Berlin in the 1930s before both families fled the Nazis. When they parted, the boys exchanged photographs.

''He read the diary in the 1950s and thought that Peter Schiff was very likely his friend. But it was only when reading it later that he saw there were no photos and so he contacted us,'' said a museum spokeswoman.

Anne last saw Peter a few days before she moved into the annexe, but wrote of him in her diary more than 1-1/2 years later after dreaming of him.

''I've never had such a clear mental image of him. I don't need a photograph, I can see him oh so well,'' she said. (AGENCIES)

Having trendy possessions can be mentally damaging for kids

LONDON, Feb 27: Children obsessed with fashionable clothes and technological gadgets could be at higher risk of mental health problems, psychologists warn.

Kids feel under pressure to have the latest in everything from toys to trainers and are left anxious and depressed if they are unable to keep up with trends, the report found.

The findings from the Children's Society's inquiry into the state of childhood said children need good adult role models, 'not stick-thin fashion models, drug-addled rock stars or obscenely rich footballers'.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, patron of the inquiry, Dr Rowan Williams said, ''Children should be encouraged to value themselves for who they are as people rather than what they own,'' he added.

Children are teased for 'being different' and feel under pressure to be fashionable, the inquiry found.

A ten year old girl said, ''A lot of the time I feel I have to follow the trends and if I don't, people just laugh at me!''

Many parents expressed concerns about the commercialisation of childhood to the inquiry. Of more than 1,200 adults surveyed, 89 per cent said they believed children were more materialistic than those of past generations.

90 per cent of surveyers claimed advertising aimed at children over Christmas put pressure on parents to spend more than they could afford.

Professor Philip Graham, emeritus professor of child psychiatry at the Institute of Health, London, believe commercial pressures have worrying psychological effects on children.

''It could be that the most anxious, miserable children are trying to buy things to comfort themselves or it could be that actually wanting things you can't have is frustrating and depressing. Either way, that's not very good,'' he said.

''I would say it's probable that some depression and anxiety youngsters have is because of the frustration that's engendered by all the advertising, the commercial pressures that are directed towards children,'' The Daily Mail quoted him as saying.

''When they are younger, parents should limit the amount of TV, DVDs and exposure to the internet and advertising that children have,'' Prof Graham advised.

(UNI)