Full state funeral
begins for Suharto
SOLO,
INDONESIA, Jan 28: A state funeral with full military
honors began today for former Indonesian
President Suharto, who led a military
dictatorship for three decades and whose
US-backed regime killed hundreds of thousands of
left-wing opponents.
Just before noon,
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono began the
ceremony at the Suharto family mausoleum near the
city of Solo, Suharto's hometown, some 400
kilometers east of the capital, Jakarta.
Suharto died of
multiple-organ failure yesterday, after more than
three weeks on life support at a Jakarta
hospital. He was 86.
Tens of thousands
of mourners watched the motorcade carry Suharto's
body to the mausoleum, many of them sobbing and
calling the name of the man whose brutal rule
brought economic growth and stability to
Indonesia.
Many waved
Indonesian flags and threw flowers at his hearse.
"He was a
great man," said Sumartini, a 65-year-old
woman who, like many Indonesians, goes by just
one name. "His death touched us
deeply."
Sumartini came
from a nearby village with her four children to
watch the funeral procession.
Although he
oversaw some of the worst bloodshed of the 20th
century, Suharto is credited with developing
Indonesia's economy and will be buried with the
highest state honors.
A string of the
country's political elite visited Suharto's
family home yesterday to pay respects and pray
over his body, in a sign of his lingering
importance. (AGENCIES)
Day-Lewis,
Christie win top honors at key Oscars
indicator...
LOS
ANGELES, Jan 27: Daniel Day-Lewis and British veteran
Julie Christie underscored their status as Oscars
front-runners after winning the top prizes at the
14th Screen Actors Guild Awards.
British-born star
Day-Lewis was crowned best actor yesterday for
his performance as a tyrannical oil prospector in
"There Will Be Blood", while Christie
was selected as the best actress for playing an
Alzheimer's sufferer in "Away From
Her."
Day-Lewis and
Christie's wins shorten the odds on them claiming
the equivalent acting awards at the Oscars, which
take place on February 25.
The Screen Actors
Guild Awards have been a reliable indicator of
likely Oscars success. For the past three years,
the best actor and actress winners have gone on
to win Academy Awards.
Day-Lewis
dedicated his award to Heath Ledger, who died
aged 28 in New York last week, saying the
Australian actor was someone whose performances
inspired him to keep working.
"There are
many actors in this room tonight including my
fellow nominees who've given me that sense of
regeneration. Heath Ledger gave it to me,"
he said, to loud applause.
Ledger's
performance in the 2005 gay cowboy drama
"Brokeback Mountain" had been
"unique," Day-Lewis said.
"That scene
in the trailer at the end of the film is as
moving as anything I've ever seen and I'd like to
dedicate this to him," he added.
Christie, 66,
meanwhile paid tribute to the cast and crew of
her drama about a woman slowly descending into
dementia and joked: "If I've forgotten
anybody it's just that I'm still in
character." (AGENCIES)
'Fat mums have
fat kids'...
SYDNEY,
Jan 28: Like mother, like kids -- a new
research shows that fat mothers have fat kids.
Researchers from
Australia conducted a study and found that women
who are overweight before pregnancy, and during
it, may condemn their children to a life of
overeating and obesity.
The study reveals
that a mother's diet during pregnancy affects the
baby's brain circuits, determining appetite and
energy expenditure in their offspring.
The researchers,
after conducting the study found that mothers fed
a high-fat diet had offspring that were heavier,
with more body fat and altered appetite
regulators in the brain, meaning they overate.
''This suggests
that mothers should think twice about
overindulging, or using the excuse that they're
eating for two during pregnancy,'' lead
researcher Margaret Morris, of the University of
NSW, said.
Unlike previous
studies, the groundbreaking work highlights the
pre-natal period as a critical time for
''programming of post-natal and adult appetite''.
The study was
conducted using overweight female rats who mated
with healthy males. The females continued to be
fed a high-fat Western diet during and after
pregnancy.
''The mums were
overeating for that whole period. We found the
offspring were a third heavier than the rats fed
a low-fat ' diet,'' she said.
The experiment
results also found their offspring were showing
signs of developing diabetes at a young age, the
Daily Telegraph reported.
The findings are
particularly relevant for overweight mothers,
highlighting the importance of maintaining a
normal weight before and during pregnancy.
(UNI)
As safe as
houses? Dutch history suggests not
AMSTERDAM,
Jan 28: The house sugar merchant Cornelis
Sasbout built in 1617 at number 150 on
Amsterdam's Herengracht canal tells a cautionary
tale about investing in property -- prices
fluctuate wildly, but are ultimately flat.
From boom to bust,
the plot Sasbout bought for 4,600 guilders (2,100
euros) and which today might sell for several
million euros on the prestigious canal, will in
the long run always revert to some kind of price
equilibrium.
This can be seen
in a unique index dating back 350 years, drawn up
by Piet Eichholtz, a real estate professor at
Maastricht University using records of house
prices on the canal. Even for people with no
intention of buying property, it has been cited
by Yale economist Robert Shiller for its
reflection of the inexorable logic that bubbles
always burst.
Just now for
Eichholtz, the arrow is pointing down. He says
home-owners worldwide may need to brace for
double-digit losses in once-booming markets, and
even more in places with low birth rates like
eastern Europe as well as Japan and South Korea.
''I'm really
concerned about housing markets where the
demographics look bad,'' he said. ''Then prices
can really fall a long way.''
His Herengracht
index came to prominence in 2005 when Shiller,
whose book ''Irrational Exuberance'' forecast the
1990s stock market bubble would burst, picked up
on it as an ill omen for the U.S. house market.
Shiller and fellow
economist Karl Case did the pioneering research
in the 1980s that produced the
S&P/Case-Shiller index of the US housing
market which has shown big recent falls.
Eichholtz says
what makes his index stand out from house price
histories in other cities is what he calls
''constant quality'' -- the Herengracht has
always been prime real estate. The index corrects
for rising consumer prices but not wages.
Sasbout's
canalside plot doubled in value over the next 50
years in one of the world's first housing
bubbles, as immigrants flocked to the booming hub
of the richest trading empire during the Dutch
''Golden Age''.
Demand was fierce
on the Herengracht -- which means ''gentleman's
canal'' -- the grandest of four waterways lined
with elegant mansions on an arc around
Amsterdam's bustling harbour.
But repeated wars
with England and France -- keen to end Dutch
dominance of the seas and trade in spices, sugar,
silk and tobacco -- set house prices gyrating
over the next century.
French occupation
in 1795 brought a major slump.
Number 150
Herengracht changed hands many times: Abraham
Mylius bought the house for 5,100 guilders in
1755. The price tag was the same over a century
later when shopkeeper Johan Hendrik Louis
Dreckmeijer bought the property.
''There are long
periods where prices go up and prices go down.
Over the centuries there is no uptrend or
downtrend,'' said Eichholtz. ''The index teaches
that the house market is volatile and in real
terms doesn't go up or down structurally.''
SHORT MEMORIES
Eichholtz says
home-owners have short memories when it comes to
big price falls: ''When there is volatility every
so often people are very myopic and tend to
forget,'' he said.
''A price fall of
30 to 40 percent is rather common and cannot be
ruled out for the United States and Britain.''
House-price booms
have turned to bust across the globe in recent
months, with markets stalling from the United
States to Spain, Britain to Ireland and even
China.
A neighbourhood
once occupied by merchants like Sasbout, and
proud of hosting Russian Tsar Peter the Great,
the canal is now home to the city's mayor,
bankers, lawyers and celebrities.
''It is one of the
biggest open air museums in the world. It can be
compared to Venice. It's rather well preserved,''
said city guide and monument expert Hans
Tulleners.
''The houses were
built for rich, elegant merchants... Nowadays
it's young people with two incomes and no kids.''
Number 150 was
bought by dentist Erik Schotman for 310,000
guilders in 1993: he discovered original
paintings of vines and fruit on its wooden beams
and has no intention of selling soon.
''Of course
everybody likes to get rich but it's not the main
reason for living here,'' he said. ''I like to
live in an old house with character.''
NO LONG-TERM BUST?
The Herengracht
index shows real prices in the early 1970s were
little changed from 1650. But home values have
more than doubled since a slump after the 1979
oil crisis, suggesting a big correction is long
overdue for the Dutch market too.
Eichholtz said it
is hard to predict how far global markets might
fall but noted that the S&P/Case-Shiller
index has doubled since 1990, suggesting US house
prices could even halve.
But he added the
current crisis is nowhere near as bad as the
Dutch crash after the French occupied the country
in 1795: then, house values on the Herengracht
tumbled 80 per cent as recession struck and the
city's population shrank 20 per cent.
''It was a period
when everything was bad: war, a major economic
crisis, a major demographic crisis,'' Eichholtz
said. ''Obviously we don't have that situation
right now ... To have a long-term bust you need
to have more than one bad thing.''
''I don't think
we're entering a 20-year crisis,'' he said,
adding that population growth and limits on new
building should ultimately put a floor under
prices in most countries.
Dan Harper, a US
businessman, has just bought number 25
Herengracht, a narrow five-storey building that
used to be a toy factory with a stunning view
over the water and city.
''It's a whole
lifestyle. It's a village,'' he said. ''They
don't build these canal houses anymore. It's a
rare commodity ... I'm in venture capital and
this is far less risky that what I do for a
living. We call this house our storm anchor.''
(AGENCIES)
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