4 hostages freed by Colombian rebels, reunited with families

CARACAS, VENEZUELA, Feb 28: Four hostages were freed by Colombian rebels after six years of captivity and flown to Venezuela, where they appealed to President Hugo Chavez to help press for the freedom of all remaining hostages.

The ex-lawmakers were released Wednesday in a gesture coordinated with Chavez as the leftist rebels seek to put pressure on Colombia's US-allied government and persuade the international community to strike them from lists of terrorist groups.

"You've given me the opportunity to live again," hostage Gloria Polanco said as she was freed in a Colombian jungle clearing, thanking Chavez for allowing her to see her three grown sons again.

The four were reunited with relatives amid tears, hugs and grasped flowers at Caracas' international airport.

Then Chavez welcomed them to the presidential palace, where Polanco made a passionate plea for the Venezuelan leader to help win the release of ailing former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, a dual French-Colombian citizen who is one of the most prominent captives.

"As a woman and a mother, I ask from my heart here in front of everyone that you fight to get Ingrid free as soon as possible," Polanco implored. "She is very ill, president very ill. She has recurrent hepatitis B and is near the end."

Chavez turned to TV cameras recording the meeting and asked the rebel leader Manuel Marulanda, "from my heart to change Ingrid's location. Move her to a base closer to you, while we continue working to pave the way for her definitive release." Chavez called Betancourt's case "urgent." (AGENCIES)

Olympics-US panel told China not keeping rights pledges

WASHINGTON, Feb 28: Promises China made to improve its human rights record in order to host the 2008 Olympics are not being kept, experts and lawmakers told a US government panel.

Five months before the opening ceremony, conditions may be getting worse with the detention of Chinese activists who have sought to link human rights to the Beijing Olympics, witnesses told the Congressional-Executive Commission on China yesterday.

''We have continued to document not only chronic human rights abuses inside China -- such as restrictions on speech, assembly and political participation -- but also abuses that are taking place specifically as a result of China's hosting the 2008 Summer Games,'' Sophie Richardson of the New York-based Human Rights Watch told the panel in Washington.

Richardson and other media freedom and rights watchdogs raised the cases of activist Hu Jia, who was detained for inciting subversion after supporting campaigns for democratic reform, and Yang Chunlin, a factory worker on trial after calling for rights to take precedence over the Olympics.

China, which lost its bid to host the 2000 Olympics in a campaign overshadowed by the 1989 Tiananmen massacre of democracy protesters, had secured this year's games in part by promising to improve rights.

''It is clear the Chinese government has no intention of following through on these commitments,'' said Richardson. She warned that failure to press Beijing would give the crackdown a stamp of world approval and make it harder to reverse after the Olympics.

Bob Dietz, Committee to Protect Journalists Asia Program Coordinator, told the commission that China has been the leading jailer of journalists since 1999, with at least 25 reporters behind bars on vague charges such as revealing state secrets or inciting subversion of state power.

''Media conditions in China do not reflect the sort of change we were assured we would see after Beijing was awarded the 2008 Olympic Games,'' Dietz said.

At a hearing focused on China's domestic situation, Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Joseph Pitts, a commission member, also faulted Beijing's close diplomatic, economic and military relations with repressive regimes in Myanmar and Sudan.

''If the Chinese government wants to curtail criticism of its actions, then it needs to implement long-term, lasting changes that improve the lives and protect the freedoms of the Chinese people and other peoples around the world,'' he said.

China told the United States on Tuesday it is willing to resume a bilateral human rights dialogue that Beijing broke off in 2004 after Washington urged a UN watchdog to condemn Chinese practices.

Human rights experts at Wednesday's panel were sceptical about that gesture, which China Labor Bulletin director Robin Monroe called a ''smokescreen to deflect international attention away from continued Games-related crackdowns.''

Richardson said the ''decreasing volume of American criticism'' of China's rights record in the past decade was partly to blame for China's backsliding.

She urged US President George W Bush to reconsider plans to attend the Beijing Olympics if the crackdown persists. (AGENCIES)

No plan for Texas Presidential ballot bid-Bloomberg

NEW YORK, Feb 28: New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg says he does not plan to launch a US presidential bid in Texas, where independent candidates need to gather over 74,000 signatures to get their names on the ballot.

Independents in the large southern state -- home to President George W Bush -- cannot start gathering signatures for the petition until after the March 4 Republican and Democratic primaries to choose their candidates for president.

Then, according to the Texas Secretary of State Web site, www.Sos.State.Tx.Us, an application and the petition, which can only be signed by people who did not vote in either the Republican or Democratic primaries, must be filed by May 12.

''It is a fair assumption that we will not be doing a petition drive in Texas,'' said Bloomberg, a multibillionaire who has been the subject of widespread speculation about a possible independent bid for the White House.

He also told reporters yesterday, ''I'm not a candidate for president of the United States'' -- a point he has made many times.

Still, Bloomberg did not appear to close the door entirely, saying he could not speak for Kevin Sheekey, the deputy mayor for government affairs who is jokingly referred to around City Hall as ''the deputy mayor for running for president.''

''Now what Mr Sheekey's going to be doing, I can't speak for him, control him, or anything else,'' Bloomberg said.

Last November, Sheekey told Newsweek magazine Bloomberg will have to make a decision on whether to run by March 5, the day after the Texas primary. ''If it happens, it's a billion-dollar campaign,'' Sheekey also said at the time.

Bloomberg, 65, was a longtime Democrat who switched to the Republican Party to run for New York mayor in 2001. He was reelected in 2005, and then in June last year announced he had left the Republican Party to become an independent.

US voters will go to the polls on November 4 to choose a new president.

(AGENCIES)

Pro-Israel evangelical leader endorses McCain

SAN ANTONIO, Feb 28: Republican presidential candidate John McCain won the endorsement of Texas evangelical leader John Hagee, which could boost his standing among religious conservatives who have been reluctant to embrace the likely nominee.

Hagee, who heads a 19,000-member church in San Antonio, is best known for his outspoken support of Israel and writings on the West Asia, where he envisions a blood-soaked clash between East and West leading to the return of Jesus Christ.

''I'm very honored by Pastor John Hagee's endorsement today,'' McCain said yesterday at a news conference. ''He has been the staunchest leader of our Christian evangelical movement in many areas, but especially, most especially, his close ties and advocacy for the freedom and independence of the state of Israel.''

Hagee, standing beside the candidate, said he admired McCain's pro-Israel stance, commitment to nominate conservative judges and opposition to abortion.

''Victory is within our grasp because John McCain knows it's never wrong to do the right thing,'' Hagee said.

Christian conservatives are an important part of the Republican base, but many have so far been reluctant to support the Arizona senator.

Coast-to-coast primary victories on February 5 made McCain the all-but-certain Republican nominee, but many evangelicals continue to support rival Mike Huckabee, a Baptist preacher and former Arkansas governor. Several conservative Christian leaders have said they will not vote for McCain in November if he is the nominee.

McCain's support for the Iraq war and fierce criticism of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won praise from Hagee, who has brought thousands of evangelical Christians to Washington to lobby on Israel's behalf.

Hagee has written that events in the Middle East point to an imminent apocalypse Christians should welcome.

In his book ''Jerusalem Countdown: A Warning to the World,'' Hagee predicts Russian and Arab armies will invade Israel and be destroyed by God. Israel will then be the site of a battle between China and the West, which will be led by the anti-Christ in his role as head of the European Union. Jesus Christ will return to Earth in the final battle, he writes.

The book also claims Adolph Hitler and the Roman Catholic Church joined in a conspiracy to destroy the Jews.

''Our support of Israel has absolutely nothing to do with an end times prophetic scenario,'' Hagee told reporters. ''They are a democracy in the Middle East that deserves the support of America and the Christian people of America.''

McCain said on his campaign plane that he was not familiar with Hagee's writings. ''I think he's a fine leader and I appreciate his commitment to Israel,'' McCain said. (AGENCIES)

Chaplin was on the hit list of Hitler : Book

LONDON, Feb 28: Even though he was not a jew, the reel life 'Great Dictator'-- Charlie Chaplin-- was on the hit list of the real life Nazi tyrant-- Adolf Hitler.

According to a book 'Juden Sehen Dich An' (The Jews are Watching You), written by an anti-Jew propagandist Dr Johann von Leers listed the Hollywood great among renowned Jewish personalities who were ''forming an international network aimed at world domination'', and called for their extermination.

Albert Einstein was also on the hit list along with economists, journalists, scientists and entertainers.

The book which would go under the hammer in Shropshire next month was published in Berlin in the 1930's. It is claimed that the book inspired 'The Great Dictator' directed by Charlie Chaplin in which he also starred.

Chaplin played Adenoid Hynkel, dictator of Tomainia, in the 1940 film.

''The book aims to attack leading Jews worldwide, warning the German people that these people were forming an international network aimed at world domination. Each leading Jew is featured with a photograph and a pen portrait, but by far the most remarkable and bizarre aspect of this book is the inclusion of Charlie Chaplin,'' auctioneer Richard Westwood-Brookes was quoted by Daily Mail as saying.

''He is attacked in a section named 'Artistic Jews', with the suggestion that he was of Jewish origin and therefore a pseudo-Jew.

''Chaplin must have feared for his life when he saw the book, because the majority of the people in this book were exterminated by the Nazi,'' he added.

Film historian Kevin Brownlow said Chaplin made The Great Dictator in response to seeing himself on the book's hit list.

''The Nazis mistakenly thought he was Jewish because Chaplin never denied it,'' he said.

(UNI)

Tiananmen mothers call for China dialogue on 1989

BEIJING, Feb 28: Families of victims of China's crackdown on the 1989 Tiananmen Square movement appealed to Chinese lawmakers today to open a dialogue, saying such a move would send the right message ahead of the Beijing Olympics.

In an open letter released through New York-based Human Rights in China, the ''Tiananmen Mothers'' said members of China's parliament, whose annual session opens next week, should also issue a public apology to families of those killed on June 4, 1989.

''How can this government face the whole world?'' the letter asked.

''Is it really possible that, as the host of the 2008 Olympic Games, the government can be at ease allowing athletes from all over the world to tread on this piece of blood-stained soil and participate in the Olympics?''

China pledged to improve its human rights record in order to host the Games, which open on August. 8, but experts and lawmakers told a US government panel yesterday that such promises were not being kept.

After initially tolerating the student-led demonstrations in the spring of 1989, the ruling Communist Party sent troops to crush the protests on the night of June 3-4, killing hundreds.

China has since labelled the movement ''counter-revolutionary'' and, nearly 19 years on, the subject remains taboo and the leadership has rejected public calls to overturn its verdict.

The Tiananmen Mothers, a group led by Ding Zilin, a retired professor whose teenage son was killed in the crackdown, called for the Standing Committee of China's parliament, or National People's Congress, to designate prosecutors to investigate the killings.

''Issues remaining after June 4th must be resolved through the legal system, in accordance with the law, without interference by any party, faction or individual,'' the letter said.

''They must not be resolved according to the pattern of previous political campaigns, after which the government has always issued its own account of a re-evaluation or exoneration.'' (AGENCIES)

No single creative area in the brain: Study

WASHINGTON, Feb 28: A consistent pattern of activities throughout the brain enables creativity, rather than the focal activation of a single area, says a new study.

A large portion of the human brain involved in monitoring one's activities shuts down when people are engaged in a highly creative and spontaneous activity, while a small portion involved in organising self-initiated thoughts is highly activated, a US study has found.

The researchers believe that this and several related patterns are likely to be key indicators of a brain engaged in highly creative thought.

The involvement of many variables has made it difficult for scientists to study the functioning of brain during the process of creative thinking, a researcher of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders-funded study said.

To study how the brain functions when it is thinking creatively, the researchers designed a protocol in which six highly trained jazz musicians played the keyboard under two scenarios while in the functional MRI scanner.

Functional MRI (fMRI) is an imaging tool that measures the amount of blood travelling to various regions of the brain as a means of assessing the amount of neural activity in those areas.

The researchers were able to differentiate the brain functions when the musicians were improvising as opposed to playing a simple melody from memory.

The study published in the February issue of the journal Public Library of Science (PLoS) One, found that much of the change between improvisation and memorisation occurred in the prefrontal cortex, the region of the frontal lobe of the brain that helps us think and problem-solve and that provides a sense of self.

The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the large portion responsible for monitoring one_s performance shuts down completely during improvisation, while the much smaller, centrally located region at the foremost part of the brain, medial prefrontal cortex becomes highly active. This portion is involved in self-initiated thoughts and behaviours, and is very active when a person describes an event that has happened to him or makes up a story.

The study noted that suppression of inhibitory, self-monitoring brain mechanisms helped to promote the free flow of novel ideas and impulses. The functioning of brain when thinking creatively resembled the pattern seen in people when they are dreaming, it said.

(UNI)

Indian-origin state legislators divided over Democratic nominees

WASHINGTON, Feb 28: State legislators of Indian-origin in the United States appeared to be divided in their support either for Senator Hillary Clinton or Senator Barack Obama--both of whom are engaged in a bitter fight for Democratic nomination for the 2009 presidential election.

According to a survey conducted by an organisation, the Indian American Leadership Initiative (IALI), Iowa State House Representative Swati Dandekar endorsed Ms Clinton last August. But, Kansas Representative Raj Goyal and Maryland House Majority Leader Kumar Barve backed Mr Obama.

However, other state legislators of Indian origin are neutral, and they might elect to stay that way. They include Minnesota State Senator Satveer Chaudhury, New Jersey Representative Upendra Chivukula, and Ohio State Representative Jay Goyal.

Meanwhile, Mr Goyal was this week named Ranking Member of the Ohio House Ways and Means Committee, the standing committee responsible for all bills which require a change in tax law, property foreclosures and other issues such as Homestead Exemption expansion.

The Committee hears testimony, amends bills and reports to the House of Representatives on its work.

As Ranking Member, Rep Goyal would serve as the lead voice on the Committee for the House Democratic Caucus.

''I am humbled and honoured to accept this great responsibility,'' Rep Goyal said.

''It emboldens my love of public service and the good I feel I can contribute to move Ohio forward. I would not take this position lightly; I plan to use my new standing to fight for the causes that matter to our working families so that they can live better lives,'' he said.

(UNI)

Vaccine against 'inherited' breast cancer developed

LONDON, Feb 28: British scientists claimed to have developed a medicine which if given to those with a family history of the disease could be effectively ''vaccinated'' against it.

The drug known as AGO14699 will block BRCA genes-- women inherit from their mothers-- from repairing their DNA and thus destroying their chances of multiplying. The flawed genes were responsible for 2000 of the 44000 cases of breast cancer each year in the UK.

Presently under tests in Newcastle upon Tyne, the drug could be made available within a decade, the researchers said.

Women who inherit the genes from their mother were 85 per cent more prone to develop the disease than an average woman.

The drug, which attacks tumours caused by genetic flaws, could also be free of the side-effects associated with other cancer treatments, including pain, nausea and hair loss.

The researchers say the drug could also be used against other forms of cancer, including prostate and pancreatic, although further tests are needed.

''The implications for women and their families are huge because if you have the gene, there is a 50 per cent risk you will pass it on to your children. You are carrying a time bomb,'' Daily Mail quoted Dr Ruth Plummer, senior lecturer in medical oncology at Newcastle University, as saying.

(UNI)

Bush names special US envoy to Islamic conference

WASHINGTON, Feb 28: US President George W Bush, acknowledging that the country needs to burnish its image in the Islamic world, has named a Texas entrepreneur as liaison to The Organisation of the Islamic Conference.

Sada Cumber, who is a Muslim by faith, is the first US special envoy to the intergovernmental organisation, which represents more than 50 Islamic states and promotes Muslim solidarity in social and political affairs.

Bush said the United States is misunderstood and that Cumber's mission is to explain to the Islamic world that America "is a friend of freedom" and that the United States values the freedom of religion.

"Now, a lot of people love America, don't get me wrong," Bush said at the White House where he met with Cumber. "After all, there's a lot of people trying to come here because of what we stand for. But we've got work to do in certain areas."

Creating a US envoy to the group comes as the protracted war in Iraq has fanned anti-American sentiment across the Muslim world. The OIC was created in 1969 in response to an arson attack on the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. It now has 57 members.

Bush's new envoy has founded six companies in the past 25 years and currently is chairman of SozoTek Inc, a global imaging technology company in Austin. (AGENCIES)

Indian expats launch social forum

DUBAI, Feb 28: A group of Indian expatriates in Saudi capital Riyadh have set up a social forum to foster brotherhood and promote education and literacy among the poor back home.

The group going by the name of "Association for Humanitarian Services And Solidarity" will primarily focus on educational and literary initiatives.

"AHSAS is committed to serving the underprivileged people in India in general and people living in the eastern states of Bihar and Jharkhand in particular," association president Wakil Ahmed said.

Treasurer Neyaz Ahmed said that AHSAS will be a community-based network focusing on educational and literary initiatives. Its mission will be to assist poor students, check dropouts and help them continue their studies.

Saudi is home to more than 100,000 Indian workers coming from Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. (PTI)

Security fears prevent Afghan refugees from returning home

NEW YORK, Feb 28: Deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan is preventing Afghan refugees in Iran and Pakistan from returning to their homeland, the United Nations has said.

Another reason for reluctance of the refugees to go back is difficulty in sustaining new lives, a senior official with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said.

Erika Feller, UNHCR's top protection official, has been meeting with refugees and authorities in Iran, which is currently hosting some 920,000 Afghans who have fled violence in their country over the course of the past 20 years.

"What has struck me during this visit is the variety of situations Afghan refugees are living in and the fact that the lack of security in Afghanistan is topmost in influencing their decisions to return home," Feller said, as she wrapped up her five-day mission.

During the peak of the refugee returns in 2004, there were up to 5,000 people going back to Afghanistan every day, a number maintained throughout 2007.

"So, we are at a turning point and have to reflect on the way forward with the Iranian authorities for those remaining here," noted Feller.

The refugees Feller met with cited lack of security, employment, education, health clinics and access to land in Afghanistan as some of the main concerns associated with returning home.

Female Afghan refugees, who can work informally and move around freely in Iran, fear they would face restrictions in Afghanistan. (PTI)