Hilton ordered to serve out jail term
Hilton ordered to serve out jail termParis Hilton is seen the window of a police car as she is transported from her home to court by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department in Los Angeles on Friday, June 8, 2007.(Photo: thebeijingnews)
BEIJING, June 11 (Xinhuanet) -- Socialite and hotel heiress Paris Hilton, said late on Saturday afternoon that she had told her attorneys not to appeal the order that sent her back to jail and called for an end to the media frenzy fueled by her jail sentence.
The 26-year-old Hilton began her jail term last Sunday night at the sprawling Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood, just outside Los Angeles.
She was released for unspecified medical reasons last week after serving just three days behind bars, provoking a public outcry amid allegations of favoritism.
At a hearing on Friday, the judge, Michael Sauer, ordered the distraught celebrity heiress back to jail to serve out the remainder of her 45-day jail term in the medical unit of another detention site in downtown Los Angeles.
New reports Sunday said that Hilton's health collapse last week was caused by dehydration.
"She didn't eat or drink a single thing for three days because she didn't want to use the toilet," a source also told the New York Daily News, adding that Hilton suffered from claustrophobia and hyperventilation.
Hilton, though mad at the decision to return her to prison, said in a statement released through her lawyers on Saturday that she would not appeal.
"I told my attorneys not to appeal the judge's decision," Hilton said, describing being in jail as "by far the hardest thing I have ever done."
Hilton said in her statement she was stunned by the blanket coverage of her case.
"I was shocked to see all of the attention devoted to the amount of time I would spend in jail for what I had done -- by the media, public and city officials," she said.
"I would hope going forward that the public and the media will focus on more important things like the men and women serving our country in Iraq and other places around the world."
Hilton was jailed in May for violating the terms of her probation following a conviction for alcohol-related reckless driving.
Paris Hilton determined to stop acting "dumb"
Paris Hilton determined to stop acting "dumb"BEIJING, June 12 (Xinhuanet) -- Paris Hilton has decided that she will no longer "act dumb."
The remark was made in a telephone call Sunday with Barbara Walters, in which Hilton described her brief spell behind bars last week -- after which she was released and then sent back to jail by an outraged judge.
"I used to act dumb. ... That act is no longer cute," ABC quoted Hilton as saying.
Hilton has been saying that she is changed by her jailhouse experience: "Now, I would like to make a difference. God has given me this new chance."
A day earlier, Hilton released a statement through her lawyers, saying she hoped the media would focus on "more important things" than her 45-day jail sentence.
According to the announcement, 26-year-old socialite would not appeal against her return to prison and would serve out her sentence even though it was "by far the hardest thing I have ever done."
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-06/12/content_6231202.htm
Hilton's parents visit, raise questions
Hilton's parents visit, raise questionsRick and Kathy Hilton leave the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles June 12, 2007. The couple were there to visit their daughter, Paris Hilton, who is serving a jail sentence for violating her probation on a driving under the influence of alcohol charge. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
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BEIJING, Jun 13 (Xinhuanet) -- The parents of Paris Hilton visited their daughter Tuesday, shortly after the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors ordered Sheriff Lee Baca to respond by next week to allegations of favoritism for reassigning Hilton.
Hilton's parents breezed past people standing in line for hours and raised more questions of whether the hotel heiress was receiving special treatment. After her visit, Kathy Hilton said her daughter wants "just to do her time and get on." She added her daughter has not had much sleep.
Steve Whitmore, a sheriff's spokesman, said it was routine for high-profile inmates to receive visitors during lunch, a time when the visiting room is normally cleared out and closed.
The area where Hilton was being housed was usually reserved for high-security inmates or those worse off than Hilton has appeared according to Mary Tiedeman, who regularly visits the jails as a monitor for the ACLU.
County Supervisor Don Knabe said he and his colleagues had received many angry e-mails from people who believed Baca was treating the heiress better than other sick and mentally ill inmates.
The sheriff, who was traveling to Istanbul for an anti-terrorism conference, did not attend Tuesday's board meeting.
(Agencies)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-06/13/content_6236254.htm
Camp Lejeune water pollution, cancer link investigated
Camp Lejeune water pollution, cancer link investigatedWASHINGTON (CNN) -- Some 75,000 Marines and their families at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina were exposed to toxic tap water that may have caused cancer and birth defects, a federal health official testified Tuesday.
Results of a new study of the base's water were released Tuesday, the same day lawmakers heard emotional testimony from families who were affected by the water, which contained 40 times the amount of toxins considered safe by today's standards.
Camp Lejeune's water supply was polluted from 1957 until 1987 by TCE, a degreasing solvent, and PCE, a dry cleaning agent. The chemicals apparently came from a dry cleaning store near the base, according to the government.
The substances are possible carcinogens.
Camp kids have cancer, disorders
Jerry Ensminger, a 24-year Marine Corps veteran, said his daughter, Jane, born in 1976 at Camp Lejeune, was diagnosed with leukemia at age 6 and died at age 9.
Jeff Byron, a former Marine air traffic controller, moved with his family into base housing in 1982, three months after his first daughter Andrea was born and two years before his daughter Rachel was born.
Rachel is developmentally disabled, has spina bifida and was born with a cleft palate, he said. Andrea has a rare bone marrow syndrome known as aplastic anemia, according to Byron's testimony.
Dr. Michael Gros, a Navy obstetrician at Camp Lejeune in the early 1980s, was diagnosed with lymphoma after living in Camp Lejeune housing, he said.
Gros said he has had to give up his medical practice and his treatment has cost more than $4.5 million.
Thomas Sinks, deputy director of the National Center for Environmental Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the reports are anecdotal and that there has been no proven link between specific cases of illness and the contaminated water.
At least 850 former Camp Lejeune residents have filed legal claims.
Pollution discovered in 1982
In 1992, federal regulators set the maximum allowable amount at 5 micrograms of PCE per liter, Sinks told CNN in a telephone interview after he testified before the House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee.
But residents at Camp Lejeune were exposed to an average of 70 micrograms of PCE per liter, with the highest levels around 200 micrograms per liter.
The contamination was discovered in 1982 in several wells that fed into two of the base's eight water systems, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a federal public health agency.
The agency, which has been studying the contamination since 1993, blamed leaking underground storage tanks, spills and drum disposal as well as solvent-disposal practices at an off-base dry cleaners.
The agency has also initiated a study on whether 12,000 offspring of women who drank the base's water while pregnant are at increased risk of developing certain birth defects or illnesses.
No study has been undertaken on how the Marines themselves may have been affected, Sinks said.
For the moment, the agency is recommending only that people who lived on the base from 1957 to 1987 check with their doctors.
Its Web site, www.atsdr.cdc.gov/sites/lejeune, lets Marines enter the dates they lived on the base and learn about their exposure.
"The purpose of the hearing today is to get some answers," said the committee's chairman, Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak of Michigan, in prepared remarks.
He then ticked through a list of questions he wanted answered:
"When did the Marine Corps learn that the drinking water at Camp Lejeune, a military base with nearly 100,000 residents, was contaminated with dangerous chemicals?
"Why were the 'closed' wells not immediately capped and abandoned, but continued to be used to supply water at various points at least into 1987?
"When and how were the residents told about the contamination? Was the notification adequate?
"Did exposure to the drinking water cause cancer and birth defects in children conceived at the base? What about adults who drank the water?
"How has the Marine Corps responded to those affected? Has it taken care of its own?"
The chairman of the committee, Democratic Rep. John Dingell of Michigan, said he will examine handling of the water investigation in 2005 by the Environmental Protection Agency's criminal division.
An EPA investigator, Tyler Amon, acknowledged Tuesday that officials had considered accusing some civilian Navy employees of obstruction of justice.
Amon, who testified despite objections from the Bush administration, said some employees interviewed during the criminal investigation appeared coached and were not forthcoming with details.
Rep. Ed Whitfield of Kentucky, the panel's ranking Republican, said he was puzzled why criminal charges weren't pursued.
"We have many people who have died," Whitfield said. "We have many people who have suffered significant health problems."
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/06/12/toxic.tapwater/
7 Afghans Die in Erroneous Exchange of Fire
7 Afghans Die in Erroneous Exchange of Fire KABUL, Afghanistan, June 12 — American-led forces killed seven Afghan policemen and wounded five more in an exchange of fire early Tuesday that Afghan police officials said was a result of mistaken identity.
At an Afghan police checkpoint in the Khogyani district, in the eastern province of Nangarhar, Afghan and American forces mistook each other for insurgent fighters and opened fire. During the exchange, the Americans called in air support.
“The American troops were coming toward the Afghan police post as both sides did not know the identity of each other,” said Nasir Ahmad Safi, an Afghan police official in Nangarhar. He said the bodies of the policemen were riddled with bullets.
A spokesman for the American forces said that they were en route to an operation at a Taliban house in the Shirzad district of Nangarhar Province on Monday night when they were ambushed and attacked with rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire.
The Americans returned fire and called in air support, said the spokesman, Maj. Chris Belcher.
Afghan authorities regularly complain of a lack of coordination between the American-led forces and Afghan forces, saying many civilian casualties have resulted.
The Afghan police in Nangarhar said they were not aware of any operation by American-led troops on Monday night.
Elsewhere, the American forces said they had killed more than two dozen enemy fighters during an eight-hour battle on Monday in the southern province of Kandahar. The battle began when American and Afghan forces were attacked by more than 30 fighters, a statement from the American military said.
The police said two students, ages 29 and 15, were killed and four were wounded outside a girls’ school in the southeastern province of Logar on Tuesday when two gunmen opened fire on students as they left for home. The police were searching for the gunmen, who fled.
The provincial police chief, Ghulam Mustafa, blamed Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters for the attack in Sayed Habibullah village, south of the capital, Kabul.
When the Taliban were in power, women and girls were barred from attending school.
Google promises to dump user data after 18 months
Google promises to dump user data after 18 monthsGoogle's headquarters in Mountain View, California, May 2006. Faced with concerns by European online privacy advocates, Google is promising to obscure information about people's Internet searches for only 18 months.
Faced with concerns by European online privacy advocates, Google is promising to obscure information about people's Internet searches for only 18 months.
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Google's global privacy counsel Peter Fleischer revealed late Monday that the Mountain View, California, firm's policy change in a letter to the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party in Belgium.
Fleischer's message was a response to a demand by Article 29 that Google justify why it doesn't conform to the Resolution on Privacy Protection and Search Engines adopted in London in November of 2006.
The resolution calls on search engines to erase data linking people to searches when sessions end unless they get permission to keep it.
Google announced in March a policy to edit data to render users anonymous after 18 to 24 months. Article 29 implied California-based Google is flaunting European regulations.
"Google is a US company and respects US laws, but we are also a global company, doing business across Europe and across the world, and we recognize the need to respect laws of the countries in which we do business," Fleischer wrote.
"After considering the Working Party's concerns, we are announcing a new policy. To anonymize our search server logs after 18 months."
Google said it needs to keep information about searchers and their online explorations to protect its system against attacks; expose online scams and hackers; to improve the algorithm on which searches are based and to meet requirements by law enforcement.
"Clearly, some period of retention is necessary," Fleischer wrote.
"A policy of immediate deletion would not serve our users and would breach many of our legal and ethical obligations."
http://www.physorg.com/news100921579.html
New solar array being unfurled on international space station
New solar array being unfurled on international space station Houston, June 13 (AP): A new set of solar panels gleamed in the sunlight on the international space station as the freshly installed array started opening up.
The first pair of solar wings was fully deployed by early afternoon yesterday. The other solar panel would be unfurled later in the day.
It is a slow process. Each wing is unfolded halfway, then allowed to warm in the sun for about 30 minutes to prevent the solar panels from sticking together.
The installation of the new array - part of the station's third pair of solar panels - started on Monday, when two astronauts hooked up the new panels, which have a total wingspan of more than 73.2 metres, during a spacewalk. Engineers at Mission Control then began remotely unfolding the array from its storage box during the night.
Today, an older solar array will be folded up so it can be moved during a later shuttle mission. The retraction of that array will allow the newly installed pair of panels to rotate, following the direction of the sun.
Atlantis arrived at the space station on Sunday and will be spending an extra couple of days in orbit to allow its astronauts time to fix a thermal blanket near the shuttle's tail that peeled back during launch.
Experts do not believe the gap would pose any threat to the astronauts, though it could allow damage to the shuttle during its re-entry into Earth's atmosphere.
Engineers at Johnson Space Center in Houston were already were practicing techniques the astronauts might use to repair the thermal blanket.
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/008200706131023.htm
Whisky sales on the rise in China
Whisky sales on the rise in ChinaChinese youths are increasingly turning away from the nation's traditional potent spirits, known as baijiu, in favour of whisky as their alcohol of choice.
Look around the bars and discos in Shanghai, Beijing and other cities, and famous baijius like Maotai are nowhere to be found, but whisky is flowing in ever greater volume for young party goers.
Groups of friends can be seen sharing one or two bottles between them as they dance the night away rather just buying whisky by the glass.
"While cognac is sold mainly in the south of the country, whisky is being drunk everywhere," said Philippe Guettat, China operations head of French group Pernod Ricard.
Sales of whisky have increased by about 30 percent annually over the last five years, with Pernod Ricard's Chivas Regal currently the top selling brand.
Although foreign brands represent less than 10 percent of the spirit market in China, that level is remarkably high considering Chinese labels are still by far and away the most popular across all alcohol sectors.
While Pernod Ricard refuses to reveal its sales figures, a sharp rise in whisky consumption in general has made China a key market not only for the world's second major seller of
wines and spirits, but also for its competitors.
According to the Edinburgh-based Scotch Whisky Association, China became a world top 10 whisky drinking nation in 2006, when total sales hit 58.2 million pounds (115 million dollars), an increase of 27 percent over 2005.
"People are drinking more and more, especially in night clubs," said Stefen Deng, a director at Maxxium, distributor of the American whisky Jim Beam, as well as Scotland's Highland Distillers and Macallan.
As with many other phenomena linked to the nouveau riche, wealthier Chinese youths are more attracted to brands, high class fashions and the need to be seen than they are to taste.
In most night clubs, a bottle of Chivas Regal sells for about 500 yuan (65 dollars).
"(But) it is no more a question of money. Whisky and cognac are linked to a certain atmosphere, an ambiance," Deng said.
Very few Chinese can taste the difference between a pure malt aged for 18 years and a cheap scotch, according to various industry insiders.
In Chinese bars and nightclubs, it is not uncommon to see young drinkers mixing their whisky with iced
green tea, a cocktail that brings a local flavour to an imported drink.
But like many products that sell well in China, the new trend in drinking is also falling victim to counterfeiting with some fake whiskies capable of passing a taste test, although others are undrinkable.
The most common way to counterfeit is for a nightclub manager, smuggler, gang member or anyone else so-inclined to simply take an empty bottle of expensive whisky and refill it with an ordinary one.
Although counterfeiting has not greatly harmed the Chinese whisky market, industry watchers say that the future of the drink remains in doubt due to the fast-changing trends in modern China.
"The whisky market is dynamic, but it is not very solid," said Fu Leibin, editor of the Chinese magazine Food and Wine.
"People are always searching for something new and they have a tendency to always follow the latest trends. So sales will probably continue to rise, but growth may slow."
Bangladesh landslide, storm toll tops 100
Bangladesh landslide, storm toll tops 100
06-12-2007, 05h12
CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh (AFP)
Bangladeshi rescue workers recover bodies after a landslide in Chittagong. Hundreds of police, soldiers and emergency workers were digging through piles of mud in southeastern Bangladesh on Tuesday as the toll from landslides rose close to 100 (AFP)
The toll from landslides in Bangladesh brought on by heavy monsoon rains topped 100 Tuesday as hundreds of rescue workers were digging in the mud with little hope of finding survivors.
Police, soldiers and emergency teams involved in the search operation around the southeastern port of Chittagong said they were fighting a losing battle with continuing rain hampering the search effort.
"In one spot alone, we found 14 dead bodies. We had to dig through ten feet of mud for hours to locate the bodies," Chittagong fire brigade chief Rashedul Islam said, adding that they were the worst landslides he had ever seen.
"These helpless people were living in tin-roofed houses at the foot of hills. They did not have a chance," he added.
Landslides are regular in hilly areas of Chittagong, and experts have previously warned of disastrous consequences as a result of successive governments' failure to stop the illegal clearing of hill areas for housing.
Officials said 100 bodies had been recovered from the mud in and around Chittagong, a city of 1.5 million people, while ten more people died in lightning strikes in four districts across the country. One other person was electrocuted.
The head of Bangladesh's military-backed emergency government, Fakhruddin Ahmed, and communications minister M.A. Matin were both in Chittagong to oversee the search operation.
Ahmed will meet top government and military officials and visit affected areas, said Chittagong's chief administrator Mukhlesur Rahman.
An official in the army's incident control room, Major Moeen, said more than a thousand troops, police, fire brigade and civilian workers, have joined the search although he feared the "toll may climb further".
The landslides struck early Monday as people slept following several days of continuous monsoon downpours.
The rains also left a third of the major seaport city under around a metre (three to four feet) of water, although almost all has now dispersed.
At least 89 people were injured in the landslides and admitted to hospital.
Islam warned that progress would continue to be slow due to a lack of mechanical diggers and sporadic rain.
"The moment we clear the water with pumps, the rain fills the void up again within minutes," he said.
"We were not prepared for such a huge tragedy. We have only had only a few shovels and spades."
Bangladesh's meteorological office said the rains will continue in some parts of Chittagong district for at least the next 24 hours although they are likely to be lighter than over the weekend.
http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=180705&s=&i=&t=Bangladesh_landslide,_storm_toll_tops_100
