No more backing up with Nissan's experimental pivoting car called the Pivo

TOKYO (AP) - For drivers who find backing out of tight parking spots a hassle, Nissan has an answer: An egg-shaped car whose body pivots 360 degrees so that its rear end becomes the front. The Pivo, shown Friday at a Tokyo Nissan showroom, is still an experimental model and probably won't go on sale publicly for several years. It is a three-seater electric car that looks like a big egg on wheels. Its body revolves in a complete circle while its wheels stay put.

Such moves are possible because Pivo's steering, wheels and other parts are controlled electronically by wireless, or electronic signals, not mechanical links between the cabin and the vehicle's chassis.

"This is a cute car for people who have problems parking," said Nissan Motor Co. chief designer Masato Inoue.

Pivo, also planned for display at the Tokyo auto show opening next month, highlights other technologies, including a system that allows the driver to control devices inside the car simply by raising his or her fingers off the steering wheel.

That's done through a camera embedded in the steering wheel that senses heat. Lifting one finger might turn on the radio. Two fingers might set car navigation equipment.

The technology works much like voice-recognition capabilities already available in some advanced cars, but Tokyo-based Nissan says some people prefer finger-pointing to talking to yourself.

Pivo also allows the driver to see blind spots via cameras attached to the outside of the car.

Inoue says it's possible to design a gasoline-engine vehicle that spins in the same way if electronic controls are approved for traffic safety. But they're unlikely to have the round look of Pivo because a conventional engine requires more room than an electric motor.

© The Canadian Press, 2005

Singapore prosecutes bloggers with colonial law once used against insurgents

SINGAPORE (AP) - A British colonial law originally put in place to fight a communist insurgency is now being used to prosecute three ethnic Chinese accused of writing racist remarks on the Internet, as authorities attempt to crack down on racial intolerance and regulate online expression. Benjamin Koh Song Huat, 27, and Nicholas Lim Yew, 25, will plead guilty Oct. 7 to sedition for racist remarks against the minority Malay community, their lawyers said. They face up to three years in prison and a maximum fine of the equivalent of $2,975 US.

Experts said the Sedition Act has not been used in Singapore since it gained independence from Malaysia in 1965.

But they suggest the government may be using the Act to publicize the cases, in an effort to stamp out racial intolerance. Social cohesion has been a chief concern since Chinese-Malay riots in the 1960s left scores dead.

Singapore is 80 per cent ethnic Chinese, while the mostly-Muslim Malays make up 15 per cent of the country's 4.2 million people.

Lim posted disparaging comments about Malays and Islam on an Internet forum for dog lovers. He was participating in a discussion about whether taxis should refuse to carry pets not in cages out of consideration for Muslims, whose religion considers dogs unclean.

Koh advocated desecrating Islam's holy site of Mecca in his online journal.

Both are accused of committing acts "with a seditious tendency to promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between different classes of the population of Singapore," according to court documents.

Koh's lawyer, Irving Choh, said it was the first time that modern Singapore, which places tight control on expression, has used the Sedition Act. A spokesperson from the Attorney General's Chambers said it could not immediately verify when the act was last used.

In a separate case, a 17-year-old student is due in court Oct. 7 to face sedition charges for also allegedly making racist comments about Malays on the Internet.

The Sedition Act was first introduced in Malaya, which later became known as Malaysia, by British colonialists. It was used against communist insurgents there in 1948 and incorporated into Singaporean law just ahead of independence, said Michael Hor, a law professor at the National University of Singapore.

Hor said the government might not have used the Sedition Act in the past because it didn't want trials to be used as platforms for promoting racist views.

Singapore kept the law after independence because it was concerned by left-wing activists, Hor said.

"Now, the Sedition Act is being used for something completely different," he said.

Singapore has previously used the Internal Security Act - another colonial-era law, but one which allows for detention without trial - to deal with people who made racist comments.

Censorship is usually handled by Singapore's Media Development Authority, or MDA, which requires websites that discuss race, religion or domestic politics to be registered and imposes fines on site owners if it deems the content on their sites to be "objectionable."

"One possible reason why the Sedition Act is being used this time is that there may be a desire to have the spectacle of a trial, because it would be a more effective way of making an example of these guys than if it were left to the MDA to handle," said Mark Cenite, an American media law expert in Singapore.

Singaporean authorities have said the Sedition Act, which was last revised in 1985, is under review to see if it should to be strengthened or amended in any way.

© The Canadian Press, 2005

Hong Kong's Spider-Man protester accused of causing a public nuisance

HONG KONG (AP) - A British man on Friday was accused in court of causing a public nuisance by dressing up like Spider-Man and climbing atop a giant TV screen in central Hong Kong to protest Beijing's bloody crackdown of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. The protester, Matt Pearce, pleaded not guilty and told reporters the protest "was good for all Chinese people. It was a high-profile protest raising awareness."

Pearce's protest on June 3 - one day before the Tiananmen anniversary - blocked traffic for about an hour in Hong Kong's bustling central district. He scaled the massive LED screen, which broadcasts news and advertisements, dressed like a worker with a yellow hardhat.

Then he unfurled a banner that said, "Tiananmen Square 4.6.1989 Justice Must Prevail," stripped off his work clothes and showed off the Spider-Man costume he was wearing underneath.

The 30-year-old English teacher chatted on a cellphone and ate a takeout Chinese lunch as a huge crowd gathered and firefighters blocked off the road and inflated a huge cushion to protect Pearce if he fell.

He said Friday that he dressed up like the comic book hero "because Spider-Man is a figure who is interested in fighting for justice."

On Friday, he wore a black Elvis wig and a shiny yellow traditional silk Chinese shirt. He and other members of his activist group held a banner that read, "Justice must prevail for the Tiananmen victims."

A court summons said Pearce, a long-time Hong Kong resident from Bristol, England, caused a public nuisance.

The prosecution argued for combining Pearce's trial for the Spider-Man incident with another case. Pearce is also accused of causing a public nuisance and disorderly conduct at a protest on Dec. 12, 2004, at a horse racing track. He dressed up like a horse wearing a T-shirt that read, "Demand democracy now," and he jumped onto the track before a race.

The matter of combining the two cases will be considered in court on Oct. 5. Pearce could receive a fine equivalent to $750 Cdn and 12 months in prison if found guilty for disorderly conduct. Pearce could receive a $1,500 fine and two years in prison if convicted for causing public nuisance.

© The Canadian Press, 2005

Japan's Mitsubishi UFJ debuts as the world's biggest bank, topping Citigroup

TOKYO (AP) - The Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. debuted Saturday as the world's biggest bank, surpassing U.S.-based Citigroup in assets through the merger of Japan's second-and fourth-largest financial institutions. Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group Inc. won a protracted takeover battle against rival suitor Sumitomo Mitsui to buy No. 4 UFJ Holdings Inc. in a stock swap valued at 3.4 trillion yen (US$30.1 billion) when shareholders approved the deal in June.

The firms combined holding companies Saturday, but their commercial banking operations will merge Jan. 1 after a delay caused by linking their computer systems. The new Tokyo-based Mitsubishi UFJ has total assets of around 190 trillion (US$1.68 trillion), topping U.S.-based Citigroup Inc.'s US$1.55 trillion, based on most recent company figures.

The takeover reduces Japan's big four banks to three and symbolizes the recovery of a banking industry once buried in bad debt. The bank plans to benefit by combining Mitsubishi Tokyo's international reach with UFJ's strength in retail banking, especially in western Japan.

Mitsubishi Tokyo and UFJ posted a combined net loss of 139.3 billion yen (US$1.23 billion) in the year through March.

But adding individual outlooks gives the new company a joint profit of 735 billion yen (US$6.5 billion) in the current year to March 2006, while together they are forecasting net income of 1.1 trillion yen (US$9.7 billion) for the year to March 2009.

On Wednesday, Mitsubishi UFJ said it would pair with Merrill Lynch & Co. to set up a securities company targeting rich investors starting in 2006.

Mitsubishi UFJ may not be Japan's biggest bank for long.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi plans to privatize the country's postal system, which has 330 trillion yen (US$2.92 trillion) in savings and insurance deposits and 24,700 offices around the country. That process, if approved by parliament, would begin in 2007 and could pose a retail banking threat to the likes of Mitsubishi UFJ.

© The Canadian Press, 2005

North Korea: a million city dwellers helping with annual harvest

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - More than a million North Koreans are being sent each day on trains around the country to help with the annual harvest, Pyongyang's official media reported Friday. Special trains are transporting officials, workers and residents of the capital to farms on the outskirts as well as to North Hwanghae province, the North's official Korean Central News Agency reported. The report said the daily number averaged 1.17 million people.

"All people in (North Korea) are now out to give helping hands to the farmers in harvesting," KCNA said.

Pyongyang says this year's harvest will be sufficient to wean the communist country off international food handouts.

The deliveries through the United Nations are set to end by Jan. 1 after the North requested the food assistance instead be shifted to development projects. The North has told aid officials that its harvest this year is sufficient and that it doesn't want to create a culture of dependency.

The UN World Food Program has been feeding an average of 6.5 million North Koreans in the last several years, nearly a third of the total population. As many as two million people are believed to have died during a famine that began in the 1990s, caused by natural disasters and outdated farming methods.

The report Friday didn't give any figures on this year's crop, other than saying 12.9 per cent of the country's rice and 52.4 per cent of its corn had been harvested.

UN officials have said they weren't allowed for the first time this year to carry out their regular annual crop survey.

© The Canadian Press, 2005

Bird flu in Vietnam resisting Tamiflu

(CBC) - Experts in Hong Kong warn that the human strain of the H5N1 bird flu that surfaced in Vietnam is showing resistance to the antiviral drug Tamiflu. Countries around the world are stockpiling Tamiflu to ward off a looming flu pandemic that could kill as many as 150 million people.

"There are now resistant H5N1 strains appearing, and we can't totally rely on one drug (Tamiflu)," said William Chui, honorary associate professor with the department of pharmacology at the Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong.

Drug manufacturers were urged to make more effective versions of Relenza, an inhaled antiviral that is also known to be effective in battling the much feared H5N1.

Chui also said general viral resistance to Tamiflu was growing in Japan, where doctors habitually prescribe the drug to fight the common influenza.

There are currently only four flu drugs marketed to battle flu: amantadine and rimantadine, which are called adamantane drugs; and oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza), which are neuraminidase inhibitors. Rimantadine is not sold in Canada.

In places such as China, drug resistance to H5N1exceeded 70 per cent to adamantane drugs, suggesting that they will probably no longer be effective for treatment or as a preventive in a pandemic outbreak of flu.

Chui said that manufacturers should develop an injectible version of Relenza, since "high doses can be given where necessary and onset time is a lot faster."

Intravenous Relenza would also ensure faster onset, which would be critical in patients who are seriously ill.

"We don't have to worry about absorption, injections take drugs right in. But if the patient takes them orally, maybe some amounts won't be absorbed or some may be destroyed by stomach acids," said pharmacist Raymond Mak at Queen Mary Hospital.

"Orally taken drugs take three to four hours to reach maximum blood concentration and three to four hours is very critical in severe cases. But injectable Relenza takes only 30 minutes to reach maximum blood concentration, this is a huge difference," Chui said.

While the H5N1 virus is now mostly passed directly from bird to human, health experts have warned that it is just a matter of time before it mutates into a form that is easily transmissible between people.

Phenom Michelle Wie to turn pro next week

(AP) - Michelle Wie will stick to her routine by going to school Wednesday, with one notable exception. She will be the only junior at Punahou School who already is a millionaire. Six days before she turns 16, still not old enough to drive a car by herself, the six-foot prodigy will turn professional with two endorsement deals that will make her the richest female golfer.

Two sources involved with her decision, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Wie will make the announcement at 8 a.m. Wednesday in Honolulu at the Kahala Mandarin Hotel near Waialae Country Club, where she twice played in the Sony Open and shot 68 as a 14-year-old.

The time was set early so she could still go to school. That weekend, she will fly to the California desert and make her professional debut in the Samsung World Championship at Bighorn.

But the money will start pouring in no matter how she fares in the 18- player field.

The sources said Wie will sign two major endorsements, with Nike and Sony.

One source said the Nike contract would pay her about $4 million to $5 million US a year. Nike prefers its athletes to have a clean look with no other logos, meaning Wie would have the swoosh on her cap and clothing. Tiger Woods has a dozen sponsors, but only the Nike logo is displayed on his clothing.

Wie has been using Nike equipment the last few years, and wearing its apparel.

The other major endorsement is with Sony, which is believed to be worth close to the Nike deal.

Sony officials got to know Wie during her two appearances at the Sony Open. She shot 68 in the second round last year - the lowest score ever by a female competing on a men's tour - and missed the cut by one shot. She returned this year and shot 75-74 in blustery conditions to miss the cut by seven shots.

One executive from Sony walked all 18 holes of her second round in 2004.

Along with appearance money to play overseas, Wie could bring in about $10 million a year beyond whatever she makes on the golf course. Annika Sorenstam, whose 66 victories on the LPGA Tour include nine majors and the career Grand Slam, earns about $6 million a year in endorsements.

Along with playing in the Samsung World Championship on Oct. 13 - two days after she turns 16 - Wie will play the Casio World Open in Japan the week of Thanksgiving, her first tournament overseas against the men.

"The courses in Japan are not as tough as here, they're not as long as they are in the United States," Shigeki Maruyama said Friday from the Chrysler Classic of Greensboro. "She should have a very good chance of making the cut over there."

Wie figures to have even greater recognition overseas, especially in Asia, than in the United States. She was born in Honolulu and has a Korean heritage, and speaks to her parents primarily in Korean.

"The LPGA is very popular in Japan," Maruyama said. "She will be a big star."

Wie is unlikely to play any other tournaments this year.

Nike most likely will build an ad campaign around her decision to turn pro, although not to the extent of its "Hello, World" ad when Tiger Woods turned pro in 1996 at age 20 after winning six straight USGA titles.

Wie is more about potential, a prodigy who already was hitting the ball like a PGA Tour player when she was still wearing a retainer. She first caught players' attention while playing in a junior pro-am at the Sony Open when she was 12. Tom Lehman thought her swing was so fluid he called her the "Big Wiesy," because she reminded him of Ernie Els.

Wednesday's announcement will end an amateur chapter in her career in which she spent more time playing against the pros. Wie already has played 24 times on the LPGA Tour, and has not missed a cut in the last two years.

She was runner-up at the LPGA Championship to Annika Sorenstam in June, and tied for third at the Women's British Open in July. Both are majors on the LPGA Tour.

Wie also has competed five times against the men, without making a cut - three on the PGA Tour, once on the Nationwide Tour and once on the Canadian Tour.

Her father said his daughter's routine would not change despite her status as a professional and the amount of money she will earn. B.J. Wie said he would stay at the University of Hawaii, where he is a professor, and Michelle would spend her final two years at Punahou School before going to college.

Wie will not challenge the LPGA Tour's policy that members be 18 years old. Instead, she will take sponsor's exemptions - a maximum of six on the LPGA Tour, excluding the U.S. Women's Open or the Women's British Open. She can take up to seven on the PGA Tour, although it is not likely she will accept that many.

The announcement comes a week before her final LPGA Tour start to deflect some of the media attention. Some have scrutinized Wie the last two years for not playing more against girls her own age to pile up trophies.

Her most noteworthy victory was the 2003 U.S. Woman's Amateur Public Links, which she captured at age 13 to become the youngest champion of a USGA championship for adults. She lost in the finals of the WAPL a year later, but never reached the finals of the U.S. Junior Girls or U.S. Women's Amateur.

Her path has been different from the start.

She was winning state amateur events before she got out of elementary school, and qualified for her first LPGA Tour event - the Takefugi Classic in 2002 - before she was eligible for some junior tours like the American Junior Golf Association.

© The Canadian Press, 2005

Cities crucial to Canada's success with emerging Indian, Chinese markets: PM

VANCOUVER (CP) - Canada's days as simply an honest broker between the world's big powers is over, Prime Minister Paul Martin said Friday. "The role of traditional mediator that Canada has played consistently between great powers is not the foreign policy that I would envisage," Martin told a meeting of B.C. civic leaders.

The comment, after a speech on the importance of cities in Canada's quest for a stake in the emerging Indian and Chinese markets, came in response to a question from the floor on the need for a peace-oriented economy.

"The only way that we're going to have a peace economy is if Canada has a very active, very aggressive foreign policy," Martin said.

Canada's strong values must be reflected in its foreign policy, he said, citing its initiative in pushing for a United Nations resolution on the responsibility to protect.

"It's no good to have peace only for Canada if you've got conflict and rape and pillage in places like Darfur or widespread areas in Africa," Martin said.

"Yes, very much we want to have a peace economy but let's understand we're not going to have it if we hide within our own borders. We're going to have to be very aggressive outside of our borders."

Martin's address, though, focused mostly on how the rapid rise of India and China is reshaping the world.

"How we react to it as a nation I believe will determine the contours of the Canadian future," he told the Union of B.C. Municipalities' annual convention. "It calls for immediate and sustained action."

While some countries view their burgeoning economic power as both a threat and opportunity, Martin said it offers tremendous potential for Canada if the country is up to the competitive challenge.

Ottawa's so-called new deal for cities recognizes the growing clout of large urban centres in a globalized economy, Martin said.

"Statistically economic performance when you read about it is compared by country to country," he said. "But the fact is more and more competition is being waged by major metropolitan centres, our cities.

"It is Vancouver against San Francisco; it is Montreal and Toronto against Shanghai and Bangalore."

British Columbia has a natural advantage because its ports are the closest in North America to Asian markets.

Martin's Liberal government has touted its new deal for cities policy as a recognition cities are Canada's economic centres of gravity. He's promised a reliable stream of money for them, as well as smaller communities, to rebuild crumbling roads, bridges, sewer and water systems, as well as bolster public transit.

A relaxed and jocular Martin got a very warm reception from the civic leaders. It wasn't surprising since he signed a deal Thursday sending $633 million in child-care funding to the province. The day before that John Godfrey, his infrastructure minister, opened the tap on $635 million in federal gas-tax rebates to B.C. municipalities.

Martin, scheduled to meet Mexican President Vicente Fox later, also took another swipe at the United States for ignoring a North American Free Trade Agreement final ruling in Canada's favour on the softwood lumber dispute.

Asia's potential is a great opportunity for North America as a whole, if it pulls together, he said, which is why it must abide by NAFTA's rules when it comes to the lumber dispute.

Martin said he's told President George W. Bush the integration of the North American economy is a fact.

"That's why it is so counterproductive when one nation decides to flout the rules," he said. "NAFTA is not something to be ignored just because it suits narrow domestic interests."

Free and fair trade depends on all parties respecting the treaty's dispute-settlement procedure, Martin said.

"Unfortunately the reaction of the United States in the face of the latest NAFTA panel decision on softwood lumber mocks that principle, and in so doing it sends the wrong message to the world," Martin said.

The lumber stalemate underscores how important it is for Canada to develop other markets for its goods, he said.

"With a rising Asia, the opportunity to do just that is greater than it's been any time since the Second World War," he said.

© The Canadian Press, 2005

asian arts freedom school pilot workshop

Are you an Asian/ South Asian/ Pacific Islander youth between 14-21 living
in the G.T.A? Do you want the chance to check out a pilot workshop for a
Freedom School that will teach writing and performance skillz and rad
Asian history of activism and resistance? Read on!

the asian arts freedom school is a new project of ASAO, a Toronto group of
Asian activist rappers, spoken word artists, musicians, writers and
beatboxers who want to teach radical API history you don't learn in school
and writing and performance skills. we're kicking off our first freedom
school next summer, but in the meantime, we're throwing a pilot workshop
to try out what we've got. if you're interested in coming to a one-time
FREE workshop that teaches rad API history and writing, come check us out!

details: The workshop will be on Sunday, October 2, at the U of T women's
centre, from 2-5 PM. we will have yummy snacks and free notebooks. to us
asian= east, southeast, south, west (aka arab or middle-eastern)
mixed-race, adoptee, suburban, hood, just got here or been here since the
1800s. If you're interested, just come, or email Leah Piepzna-Samarasinha
at brownstargirl@riseup.net or Gein Wong at maewon@poetic.com for more info.

directions: the women's centre (non-female folks are okay to come, by the
way, we're just holding it there cuz they're rad and the space is free) is
located on Spadina north of College street, at 563 Spadina Ave, Room 100.
>From Spadina Station, go one or two stops past Harbord on the streetcar-
it's on the east side of the traffic circle in the middle of Spadina.

see you soon. peace,
Leah and Gein

the Freedom School is supported by a grant from the Ontario Arts Council

Literary icon's home faces wrecker's ball

By Sandra Thomas-Staff writer
http://www.vancourier.com/issues05/094205/news/094205nn11.html

Last November city council passed a motion to plant a cherry tree propagated from one growing in the backyard of the former home of author Joy Kogawa.

But if a demolition application recently filed at the city by the owner is approved, that tree could soon be one of the last remaining tangible symbols of the home on West 64th Avenue.

Kogawa lived there until she was six years old, when her Japanese-Canadian family was interned in the Slocan Valley during the Second World War. The Marpole house was then auctioned off at a bargain price by the government's "Custodian of Enemy Alien Property" program. Her 1983 autobiographical work Obasan, named one of the most influential novels of the 20th century by Quill and Quire, a monthly magazine of the Canadian book trade, tells the story of the internment camp through the eyes of a child.

Kogawa, who keeps small apartments in both Vancouver and Toronto, noted the irony of receiving the bad news while being honoured at several events across the city.

"It is how life operates," said Kogawa from her children's home in Surrey. "It is the yin and yang of the world."

Kogawa was honoured last weekend at a One Book, One Vancouver event for her novel Naomi's Road, the children's version of Obasan, at Vancouver Public Library, and at a dinner for Ricepaper Magazine, during the Word on the Street Book and Magazine Fair, and at the premiere of Naomi's Road performed by Vancouver Opera.

Kogawa, who was named to the Order of Canada for her writing and work with the Japanese-Canadian redress movement, said she was "dumbfounded" by the news the home is in danger. Two years ago Kogawa discovered the property was for sale and a committee was formed in an attempt to purchase it. The home was eventually bought by private owners. In December 2004 when the owners started renovations without a permit, the Joy Kogawa Homestead Foundation contacted both the city and the media to increase pressure on the federal and provincial governments to save the home as a historical and cultural icon.

The city issued a stop-work order which the new owners followed. They also donated the three doors and 12 windows they had removed to the city for safe keeping. The owners, who have no messaging service, did not answer several phone calls from the Courier.

"I don't want to be aggressive, I don't want to fight," Kogawa said. "We'll see what friendship can do."

Jim Green, a city councillor and mayoral candidate for Vision Vancouver, said he was at the house with Kogawa recently to look at the cherry tree.

"This is too sad," he said. "This is a historical place in Canada and it should be preserved."

Green sits on the city's heritage committee but admits the city can do little to save the home.

"There is very little we can do with the powers we have," he said. "It will be up to the will of council because I expect it to come before the development permit board because it would have a significant impact historically on Vancouver."

Green said he and Kogawa expect to plant the cherry tree on the grounds of city hall within the next couple of weeks.

Nortel reports US$150M worth of contracts for China Mobile digital wireless

TORONTO (CP) - Nortel Networks says China Mobile has awarded the Canadian-based company $150 million US worth of contracts this year to help expand its digital wireless network in six regions. China Mobile's network expansion will increase subscriber capacity by 3.48 million to a total of about 18 million, Nortel (TSX:NT) said in a release.

"Nortel's wireless technology is playing a significant role in positioning China Mobile to bring advanced wireless broadband services to millions of people and ensuring the world's largest GSM (global mobile) operator is well prepared to meet the stringent needs of China's 3G (third-generation) era," said Robert Mao, Nortel's CEO for Greater China.

"This current expansion project confirms China Mobile's continued trust in Nortel's wireless broadband technology to improve network efficiencies and help enhance the subscriber experience."

Nortel has designed and installed more than 300 wireless networks in over 70 countries.

© The Canadian Press, 2005

Konica Minolta targets Chinese market for cellphone camera lenses

Konica Minolta Holdings Inc., Tokyo, Japan, hopes to cash in on China's growing market for cameraphones with a new sales company in Shanghai, China, to market lenses for cellphones, Agencies France Presse reports. Konica Minolta's optics unit has invested about $500,000 in the marketing business, which aims for sales of ¥10 billion (US$90 million) in the year to March 2007, the company said. The lenses are mostly produced by Konica Minolta factories in Japan, with some made in China by third party producers.

"The formation of the new company was completed this summer and it will start operating fully later in the year," said company spokesman Katsuyuki Sakai. The subsidiary would also market lenses for digital cameras at some point in the future, he said.

Giant squid photographed for first time

TOKYO (AP) - Japanese scientists have photographed a live giant squid in the wild for the first time, ending an age-old quest to document one of the most mysterious and mythologized creatures of the deep sea. The team led by Tsunemi Kubodera, from the National Science Museum in Tokyo, tracked the eight-metre-long Architeuthis as it attacked prey at a depth of 900 metres off the coast of Japan's Bonin islands.

"We believe this is the first time a grown giant squid has been captured on camera in its natural habitat," said Kyoichi Mori, a marine researcher who co-authored an article on the finding in Wednesday's issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

The camera was operated by remote control during research in the fall of 2004, capping a three- year search for the squid around the Bonin islands, 1,000 kilometres south of Tokyo, Mori told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The feat was praised by researchers as an important milestone in observation of the enormous creatures, which appeared in the writings of the ancient Greeks as well as Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea."

"It's the holy grail of deep sea animals," said Jim Barry, a marine biologist at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California who has searched for giant squid without luck. "It's one that we have never seen alive, and now someone has video of one."

New Zealand's leading authority on giant squid, marine biologist Steve O'Shea, hailed the Japanese team's feat, although he said the photographs in themselves would probably not advance knowledge about the animals much.

"Our reaction is one of tremendous relief that the so-called ... race is over ... because the animal has consumed the last eight or nine years of my life," he said. O'Shea added that Kubodera's determination in tracking down the animal "is truly commendable. I think it is fantastic."

Mori said the squid, which was purplish red like smaller squid, attacked its quarry aggressively.

"Contrary to belief that the giant squid is relatively inactive, the squid we captured on film actively used its enormous tentacles to go after prey," Mori said.

"It went after some bait that we had on the end of the camera and became stuck, and left behind a tentacle six metres long," Mori said.

Kubodera, also reached by The AP, said researchers ran DNA tests on the tentacle and found it matched those of other giant squids found around Japan. The animal - which has eight arms and two longer feeding tentacles - was not in danger of dying from the injury, he said.

"Other sightings were of smaller, or very injured squids washed toward the shore - or of parts of a giant squid," Kubodera said. "This is the first time a full-grown, healthy squid has been sighted in its natural environment in deep water."

"I always suspected that giant squid lived in deep water, and that they moved as actively as ordinary squid," Kubodera added. "Our discovery confirms this."

The researcher, however, would make no claims about the scientific significance of his team's work.

"As for the impact our discovery will have on marine research, I'll leave it to other researchers to decide," he said.

Giant squids have long attracted human fascination and imagination, but almost everything scientists know about them has come from dead specimens found beached or floating in the ocean. The largest ones have eyes the size of dinner plates.

Scientific interest in the animals has surged in recent years as more specimens have been caught in commercial fishing nets.

Researchers said the quest to learn more about the animals would go on.

O'Shea, who said there were five equally large or larger species of giant squid that have yet to be photographed, has pursued the beasts in the hope of capturing juveniles and raising them successfully in captivity.

O'Shea, the chief marine scientist at the Auckland University of Technology, enclosed 17 of them five years ago, but they died in captivity.

"We are using this charismatic mega fauna to lure people in to ... far more important issues such as conservation ... of these magnificent creatures," he said.

By focusing on the giant squid and protecting it by closing areas of coastal habitat, many smaller species were also being protected from bottom trawling and other fishing methods, he added.

Kubodera said he hoped to get more funding to carry on research, possibly to capture videos of giant squids in the same area. Currently, the project is funded only by the National Science Museum.

The next hunt for the giant squid will be in mid-October, Kubodera said. No giant squid were found in an earlier hunt this month.

© The Canadian Press, 2005

CBC brass tables contract offer to locked-out employees

OTTAWA (CP) - CBC management tabled a proposal for its locked-out workers Wednesday that would cap the number of contract employees the public broadcaster can hire.
The 55-page "comprehensive offer" - seven weeks after CBC locked its doors - came as some Liberal MPs were openly musing about taking away the Crown corporation's right to lock out employees in future.

George Smith, the CBC's senior vice-president of human resources, said a key element of the offer was to cap the number of additional contract workers hired at 90 in each of the next four years.

"That addresses the concerns that we've heard from the employees, that we've heard from the union, that this was about some sort of unlimited, unfettered right to turn this into a contract-only organization," Smith said in an interview.

But with 180 contract workers currently employed, the proposed cap would permit a significant increase in the itinerant work force.

"They've known for 16 months that we oppose the concept of additional contract workers at CBC," said Arnold Amber, a branch president of the Canadian Media Guild representing 5,500 locked-out CBC workers.

Management's offer amounts to a 150 per cent increase in contract workers, said Amber. "It's outrageous."

The CBC proposal came amid increasing pressure from the governing Liberals to reach a deal.

Earlier Wednesday, Labour Minister Joe Fontana emerged from a Liberal caucus meeting on Parliament Hill to suggest progress was being made - "albeit there are still difficult issues ahead."

The dispute hinges on layoff provisions and management's desire to fill more contract positions.

Talk of the lockout dominated as Liberal MPs and senators gathered behind closed doors for their weekly national meeting.

"I think it's key that there is a huge political will within that caucus to get CBC back on the air - now," said Toronto MP Sarmite Bulte, parliamentary secretary to Heritage Minister Liza Frulla.

Some Liberals are suggesting that either labour laws or the mandate of Crown corporations need to re-examined because of the frequency of lockouts in recent years by CBC management. Various unionized CBC groups have been locked out three times in the past five years.

"Do we look at the Labour Act? Maybe we should," said Bulte.

"I think it's inappropriate that Canadians have been locked out of the CBC. That's what I think is inappropriate."

MP Denis Coderre, a former Liberal cabinet minister, was more direct.

"Three times in a row, three lockouts in five years? I'm sorry. I don't accept that," he said.

"We should stop that lockout once and for all. . . . At the end of the day I know one thing: there's a lot of people that don't have the public service that they should deserve."

Fontana refused to offer an opinion on whether government-funded agencies should be permitted to lock out workers, calling it "a balance between employee rights and employer's rights."

But the labour minister did not dismiss what he said would be "a fundamental change."

"We'd have to think about that in the whole context of the labour code and how we move forward. But that's not for today."

© The Canadian Press, 2005

The 24th annual Vancouver International Film Festival starts Thursday!

Tickets and passes are on sale for all screenings and events. Visit www.viff.org for all the latest news, program changes, event information and more.

VIFF Daily Contest
Each day, beginning September 28, we will be drawing one entry at random to win a pair of 2005 VIFF exchange vouchers (good for any 2005 VIFF screening, except galas; subject to availability) and a complimentary 3-month Zip.ca Membership. Visit our Contest page for details and to enter.

VIFF Newsletter Exclusive
Limited ticket release for Water Sat. Oct 1, 18:30

Due to popular demand, we will release more tickets to Deepa Mehta's Water, screening on Saturday, October 1 at 6:30 p.m. at the VISA Screening Room at the Vogue. The tickets will be released on today at 1:00 p.m. - go online or call the VISA Charge-by-Phone Line (604-685-8297) to snap up tickets during this limited release.

20th annual Film & Television Trade Forum starts tomorrow
The 20th Annual Film and Television Trade Forum begins at 9:00 a.m. right here at the Vancouver International Film Centre. This year's exciting line-up includes exciting panel discussion, interviews with successful filmmakers, the Trade Forum One-minute Film Contest and more! Visit our Trade Forum site for more details.

VIFF Program Updates
To get the latest information on added films, added screenings, program changes and advance-ticket-sell-outs, visit the Updates page on our website.

Canada and China to mark 35 years of diplomatic relations with stamps

OTTAWA (CP) - Canada and China will each issue a stamp to mark 35 years of diplomatic relations. A government release says Canada's stamp will feature a cougar, while China's will be of an Amur leopard. Both of these animals avoid human contact, preferring to move silently and blend into the scenery to the point of near invisibility.

The stamps will be displayed at a ceremony at the Museum of Civilization in Gatineau, Que., on Oct. 13, and on the same day in Yangzhou City in Jiangsu Province.

In addition, the Postal Museum in Ottawa will have an exhibit of Chinese stamps from Sept. 25 until the end of October and an exhibition in Beijing will showcase 15 years of Canadian stamps.

The stamps will be at post offices across the country on Oct. 13.

© The Canadian Press, 2005

Apple Canada announces claims process for refund of levy on iPods

TORONTO (CP) - Apple Canada has announced a claims process for customers who bought iPods from Dec. 13, 2003 to Dec. 21, 2004 and were charged a levy that has since been struck down by the courts. "As we announced last month, Apple is refunding money collected through Canada's blank media levy," the company said in a statement. "Customers wishing to claim a refund can get more information at apple.com/ca."

In July, the Supreme Court of Canada backed a Federal Court of Canada decision quashing the levy on iPods and other digital music players.

The non-profit Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC) had collected the tax built into the price of the devices since December 2003. The agency collects such tariffs on behalf of musicians and record companies.

The CPCC stopped charging the levy in December 2004 when the Federal Court overturned the policy at the urging of the Canadian Coalition for Fair Digital Access, a group representing retailers and manufacturers such as Future Shop, Wal-Mart Canada, Apple Canada, Sony Canada and Dell Computer Corporation of Canada.

While the levy was in place, it added $15 to the cost of an iPods with up to 10 GBs, and $25 for digital music players with more than 10 GBs.

Any money that isn't claimed by Dec. 31, 2005 will be donated to the Canadian Red Cross, Apple said.

Approximately $4 million was collected from sales of digital audio recorders in the one-year period.

© The Canadian Press, 2005

Chinese Restaurants: Beyond Frontiers to World Premiere in Calgary

The 2005 Calgary International Film Festival will present the world premiere of Cheuk Kwan’s Chinese Restaurants: Beyond Frontiers on Saturday, October 1, at 7 p.m. at the Plaza Theatre. The director will be in attendance.

Chinese Restaurants tells the story of the Chinese diaspora through its most recognizable and enduring icon – the family-run Chinese restaurant. In his 15-part series, the filmmaker takes us on a tour of restaurants around the world, bringing us into the lives of extraordinary families as they share moving stories of struggle, courage, displacement and belonging, and what it means to be “Chinese” today.

Beyond Frontiers, the latest installment of the series, takes us to India and the Amazon, delving into Chinese communities who transcend geographical, political and social frontiers. The soundtrack to this fascinating documentary features traditional Indian raga music by Calgarians Raj Rangayyan (bamboo flute bansuri) and Utpal Mazumdar (tabla and pakhawaj).

Five years in the making, films from Chinese Restaurants series have been wooing audiences all over the world. San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival called Kwan’s series “a brilliant and incisive look at the intersection of Chinese immigration and local politics… and required viewing for all those passionate about food, politics and history.”

Film festival website http://www.calgaryfilm.com/schedule.php?fd=140
Chinese Restaurants website http://www.ChineseRestaurants.tv

NAAAP Toronto Celebrates Asian Culture Night with Factory Theatre

Featuring the critically acclaimed "Banana Boys"

Tuesday, October 4th, 2005;

Community Reception 7:00 pm
Performance Start Time 8:00 pm

(Doors close at 7:45 pm - No Latecomers permitted)

FACTORY THEATRE
125 Bathurst Street (@Adelaide)
Toronto, Ontario
CANADA M5V 2R2

Tickets: $18.50 per person
(Contact Factory Theatre Box Office for Tickets)

- Featuring a performance of the hit play "Banana Boys" (co-produced with fu-GEN Asian Canadian Theatre)
- An indepth discussion with the phenomenal Asian-Canadian cast
- Networking Reception

Banana Boys, the new stage adaptation by Leon Aureus, of the novel by critically acclaimed Toronto author Terry Woo, is a smart, contemporary and wickedly funny play that breaks down stereotypes and paints a candid picture of what it is to be an Asian-Canadian male. The story centers on the lives of five regular Chinese-Canadian guys in their mid-twenties. Trapped by parental obligations and societal expectations, these CBCs are neither fully Chinese nor Canadian. From the joys of beer and video games, to the frustrations of being stereotyped in mainstream media and passed over by Asian-Canadian women, Banana Boys captures what it means to be a "Yellow Guy" in the Great White North.

"Banana" is a term used to describe Canadian-born Chinese (CBC's) - yellow on the outside, white on the inside. Everyone knows a Banana Boy. He's the beer swilling IT guy bitter at his poor dating prospects with white and Asian women. He's the suave and ambitious young business man who learns Cantonese and plays the Asian card to get ahead. He's the quite engineer with broken dreams of being a hockey star and quiet romantic hopes for love. He's the nerdy sexually deprived son of a convenience store owner.

In particular, the five young men whose lives we follow run the gamut of the Asian Canadian experience: Rick the money hungry B.Comm player, Sheldon the hopeless romantic engineer, Luke the club crawling psych major, Dave the cynical woman
hating computer science student, and Mike the pre-med hopeful who just wants to be a writer.

RSVP for Community Reception at: rsvp@naaaptoronto.org by Monday, Oct. 3rd; 12:00 noon

Ticket Box Office: 416-504-9971
Fax: 416-504-4060
E-mail: info@factorytheatre.ca
Website: www.factorytheatre.ca

Japan's delay in lifting U.S. beef ban raises congressional ire

WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. legislators reacted angrily Tuesday to what they called stalling by Japan on lifting a ban on beef from the United States. Japan's Food Safety Commission said it needs more time to weigh U.S. safeguards against mad cow disease. The Japanese government agreed last fall to lift the ban but has not done so.

U.S. Senate agriculture committee chairman, Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, said Japanese stalling "will sorely tempt economic trade action against Japan."

Last week, the Senate voted keep Kobe beef off U.S. menus if Japan continues to refuse to lift its ban.

Once the biggest customer of U.S. beef, Japan imported more than $1.5 billion US worth in 2003. Japan has refused to allow the import of U.S. beef since the United States' first case of the brain-wasting cow disease was confirmed in Washington state almost two years ago.

A second U.S. case was confirmed in June in a Texas-born cow. Japan has found 20 cases of mad cow disease in its herds. U.S. regulators proposed last month to partially lift the ban on Japanese beef.

"It is simply inaccurate to call the U.S. beef supply unsafe," said Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas, a major beef state.

"The numbers do not add up."

The medical name for mad cow disease is bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE. People who eat meat products contaminated with BSE can contract a rare, fatal degenerative disease called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. It has been linked to about 150 deaths.

© The Canadian Press, 2005

Chinese company to build pipeline for Russian oil imports

BEIJING (AP) - A private Chinese company plans to build the country's first oil pipeline to Russia, Chinese news media said Wednesday, underscoring growing interest in tapping Siberian petroleum resources. The planned 30-kilometre project would link railway lines between Heihe in northeastern China's Heilongjiang province and the eastern Siberian city Blagoveshchensk, across the Amur River, China Daily newspaper said.

The line is to be built by Heihe-based Xinghe Industries in co-operation with the Lanta Oil Company of Moscow for the equivalent of $76 million Cdn, the newspaper said. It is expected to begin operations in September 2006 with an annual capacity of 21 million barrels.

The new pipeline project is the latest sign of Chinese interest in tapping prospective oil and gas fields in eastern Siberia, as it attempts to quench its growing appetite for hydrocarbon fuels to power fast-paced economic growth.

The Chinese and Russian governments already have discussed the feasibility of constructing a million-barrel-a-day oil pipeline from Anagarsk in Russia to join the existing Chinese pipeline network at the northeastern city Daqing. An alternative million-barrel-a-day pipeline would terminate in the Siberian port city Nadhoka.

The Daqing version would serve the Chinese market almost exclusively, while its Nadhoka rival is aimed at China, South Korea and Japan.

China's Russian oil imports now amount to less than 70 million barrels a year but under the terms of an agreement signed between the countries last year, that amount is meant to increase in 2006.

The imports are currently moved by truck and railway, seriously limiting their capacity for growth.

© The Canadian Press, 2005

Analyst says Canadian forest firms move to Asia and Europe will take years

MONTREAL (CP) - A trend by Canadian forest companies to find new markets in Asia are fine, says a forest products analyst, but it could take 20 years before offshore markets make much of a dent in the Canadian producers' dependence on the United States. Canadian pulp, paper and lumber companies have been casting eyes towards Asia as one way out of their traditional markets in Europe and North America, noted Tom Fitkowski of Dominion Bond Rating Service Ltd. in an interview Tuesday.
Even Prime Minister Paul Martin has suggested that Canada look at other customers such as China to sell softwood lumber, as the long-running softwood lumber trade dispute with the United States drags on, imposing high duties on Canadian lumber exports.

Lumber giant Canfor Corp., for example, hopes to benefit from efforts to persuade China to use wood to replace deteriorating cement rooftops on Chinese apartment buildings.

"The strategy is good but it would take 20 years," Fitkowski said.

"It's hard to find another market when we're so dependent on the U.S."

Fitkowski said Canadian producers have been shipping pre-fabricated wooden houses to Japan for 10 years and promoting them, "but it still hasn't become the rage."

In any case, even if China did throw open its arms to building wooden houses, worldwide competitors will spot the opportunity just as quickly.

"Suppose Chinese demand shoots up, do you think Russian sawmills are going to sit there and say 'let the Canadians have it'?" Fitkowski asked with a laugh.

A group representing the 15 largest French construction companies just completed a Canadian tour to hear the merits of woodframe houses.

Julie Cohen, spokeswoman with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. which sponsored the French visit, said woodframe houses occupy five to seven per cent of the French market, from all sources, but demand surpasses supply by two-to-one.

"There's a possibility for quite a bit of growth if supply would match up to demand," Cohen said.

Annual wood housing starts could double in France to 20,000 units, she said.

Jim Shepherd, chief executive of Vancouver-based Canfor, plans to tour major Chinese cities next month to try to expand Canfor's small business there, particularly to reduce dependence on the United States.

Fitkowski said the same dilemma is there for pulp and paper producers, often the same integrated companies that produce lumber.

While the Asian market for pulp and paper is growing, and North America and Europe are stagnating, it will be at least 15 years before demand for writing papers in China catches up to the Western market, he said.

Fitkowski said the only defence available for forest companies like Abitibi Consolidated, Tembec Inc. and West Fraser Timber Co., in the face of slow markets, is to drive down their operating costs.

The analyst said the forest industry faces four major challenges: Very slow growth in demand for paper, high energy costs, a spike in electricity rates affecting Ontario mills, and the high Canadian dollar.

© The Canadian Press, 2005

Vietnam offshore oil and gas block awarded to Keeper Resources

CALGARY (CP) - Keeper Resources Inc. has been awarded an oil and gas exploration block off the coast of Vietnam, the junior Calgary company said Tuesday.
Keeper (TSXV:KEE) said PetroVietnam had selected Keeper and its bidding partner, a major U.S. independent oil and gas producer, as the winners of a tender for Block 124 off the coast of Vietnam.

A final deal is subject to negotiation and execution of a production sharing contract with PetroVietnam, the national oil company of the communist Asian country.

Vietnam currently produces 353,000 barrels of oil and about 742 million cubic feet of natural gas a day.

Keeper has operations in Canada and Vietnam.

The Calgary company's shares were halted on the TSX Venture Exchange pending news of the offshore licence.

When trading resumed, the shares rose 20 cents to close at $1.40, a gain of nearly 17 per cent.

© The Canadian Press, 2005

Singapore: Bull semen improved China ties

SINGAPORE (AP) - Singapore said Tuesday that relations with the Chinese province of Shandong grew after it presented officials there with a "unique" gift: quality bull semen. "Bilateral ties between Singapore and Shandong received another boost Monday, this time with Singapore presenting a unique gift of 200 straws of bull semen," International Enterprise Singapore said in a statement.

The gift of semen was part of a pact to help the eastern Chinese province "improve the quality of cattle breeding and dairy products," said IE Singapore, the external economic wing of the government.

The semen was pooled from dairy bull from the United States and Canada, the statement said.

© The Canadian Press, 2005

17 Chinese nationals jump off cruise ship in N.S.

(CBC) - Seventeen cruise ship passengers used false passports to slip past Canadian immigration officials in Halifax earlier this month.

It's the largest single incident of ship-jumping in Halifax so far this year, police said Tuesday.

Immigration officials say that on Sept. 9, the 17 people used fake South Korean passports to leave the cruise ship, saying they were seasick or just wanted to get off temporarily.

"They just said they were going off because they weren't feeling well," said RCMP spokesman Sgt. Phil Young. "Instead of going back on, they hopped a train for Toronto."

Police said they don't know where the group is now.

Young said it's quite common for poor young Chinese people to use forged passports to enter Canada, and then claim refugee status so they can stay.

The Korean passport is a common choice because South Koreans do not require a visa to enter Canada, he said.

However, it's rare for large numbers of illegal entrants to come to an East Coast port aboard a cruise ship, and the initial influx of 17 people appeared to catch officials off guard.

He said the group doesn't pose security or terrorist risks.

"These are Chinese individuals who are trying to find a better life in Canada."

Word of the 17 ship-jumpers got out when immigration officials said that four others from the same ship are now in jail, for trying to leave the ship the same way, four days later.

"We knew a lot more by then than we did previously," said Young.

One of the four, the group's English-speaking escort, has been charged with aiding and abetting illegal entry to Canada.

All 21 are believed to have started their journey in Le Havre, France.

Young said Canada Border Services and the RCMP will conduct a joint review of the incident and intend to increase their scrutiny of the South Korean passports.

Where is the CBC money going?

Ottawa may start probe into $110.7M saved during lockout

Both sides in dispute to meet with labour minister Monday

SUSAN DELACOURT
OTTAWA BUREAU CHIEF
Toronto Star

OTTAWA—The federal government may launch a probe into how the CBC has been using the money it's been getting from Ottawa during its 41-day lockout — and perhaps ask for some of it back, says the Heritage department's parliamentary secretary. Sam Bulte is also intending to push for back-to-work legislation for the CBC when Parliament resumes next week, even though Labour Minister Joe Fontana said yesterday he doesn't favour that option.

"I would advocate for that," Bulte said in an interview after she returned from speaking to locked-out CBC workers on the Toronto picket line.

Fontana, who has summoned the top leaders from CBC management and the union to meet with him on Monday morning, says he wants to hear a concrete plan from both sides about how they intend to end this lockout, since frustration is mounting in many quarters of the Liberal government over how it's dragging on.

"My officials have told me they've hit an impasse," Fontana said in an interview yesterday. "Because the government thinks it's important and the Canadian public believes it's important, I've asked the parties to come to Ottawa to let me know what their plan is to a successful resolution of this matter."

Fontana will meet in his office with CBC president Robert Rabinovitch and Canadian Media Guild head Arnold Amber.

One of the guild-friendly lockout websites, cbcunplugged.com, obtained a copy of Fontana's letter to Amber and Rabinovitch and posted it yesterday.

The letter states: "You are no doubt aware of the grave concerns expressed by many Canadians over the length of the work stoppage that has affected the CBC's English-language operations. As Minister of Labour and Housing, I am also personally very concerned about the impacts that this work stoppage is having, particularly in remote areas of Canada.

"Despite the mediation assistance that has been provided to you by my office, your respective negotiating committees appear to remain unwilling or unable to find the areas of compromise necessary for settlement."

Fontana said yesterday that he doesn't have any incentives or threats to present to end the dispute — just a strong recommendation that this get solved.

"There's nothing in my back pocket and I don't believe that back-to-work legislation is useful," Fontana said. "What's important is those parties reach an agreement themselves."

The CBC was to receive about $982 million from the government this year, which works out to about $2.7 million a day.

The money is sent in regular deposits to the Crown corporation.

Assuming they are spread out roughly evenly during the year, the CBC has received about $110.7 million during this lockout even though it has not had to pay the salaries of 5,500 people or put much original programming on the air.

Bulte asked Treasury Board officials yesterday whether dollars directed to the CBC during the lockout could be put into a trust or something similar, to ensure the corporation wasn't using the dispute merely to save money. But she was told the CBC's financing was part of the June budget and no one can simply revoke measures in it.

What she can do, she was told, is ask for a Heritage Department audit of how the CBC used government money during this lockout. Bulte says she intends to ask for that.

"They may have to give some of it back," Bulte said, especially if an audit reveals the CBC is using these savings from the lockout to cover other losses. She said she would also be annoyed if the corporation used those savings to beef up its resources after the lockout, as a way of regaining stature and goodwill.

"You can't buy back the public," Bulte said.

She's not the only politician expressing frustration.

Former Ontario premier Bill Davis, a long-time champion of public broadcasting and the father of TVOntario, has weighed in on the CBC lockout.

Davis, who rarely speaks out on political matters these days, agreed to an interview with locked-out journalist Tod Maffin for the blog CBC Unplugged.

"The CBC has been part of our life and I must say this includes my wife who is a great supporter of CBC," said the man who governed Ontario from 1971 to 1985, adding he has been "following" the lockout closely.

"I've always been very careful, even now that I'm retired, in not taking sides. I can only tell you my wife is getting more upset every day because she misses some of her favourite programs and is very anxious to see it settled," he told CBC Unplugged.

"We would be a poorer place without the CBC."

WITH FILES FROM ROBERT BENZIE

Clarkson’s legacy to be made in Nunavut

Nunavut artists to design women’s hockey trophy

JOHN THOMPSON
Nunatsiaq News
http://www.nunatsiaq.com/news/nunavut/50923_10.html

The women’s equivalent of the Stanley Cup will be made in Nunavut, by students and graduates from Arctic College’s fine arts and crafts program.

Governor General Adrienne Clarkson announced last week that she will commission a trophy for women’s hockey as a legacy as her term ends.

That wasn’t news for Beth Biggs, senior instructor for the fine arts and crafts program. She first received a phone call from Clarkson weeks earlier, in late August, asking if she would commission a trophy with the help of her class and graduates.

“Even when she talked to me, I don’t think it sunk in that I’d be making the women’s equivalent of the Stanley Cup,” Biggs said.

Biggs broke the news to her class shortly before the official announcement on Sept. 14, beginning by asking how many were hockey fans, then mentioning how a new cup would be made for the top women’s team.

“Then I said, ‘And you’re the ones going to make it.’ They just roared. Everyone’s just on Cloud Nine.”

Clarkson follows in the footsteps of another governor general, Lord Frederick Arthur Stanley, who in 1892 bought a decorative bowl from a London silversmith, which became known as the Stanley Cup.

Just what the new cup will look like is still unknown. The class will spend the fall coming up with draft designs, and the final design needs to be approved by Clarkson.

“This will be the dreaming stage,” Biggs said. They aim to begin production in January, and to finish the trophy by May.

Each of the 10 students in the program, along with the eight or so graduates in town, will contribute something unique, Biggs said.

“At the end of the day, I want every single one to be able to point and say, ‘That’s the part I did.’”

Mathew Nuqingaq is one graduate who will likely help bang the new trophy into shape with his Teflon hammer.

It won’t be the first prestigious project he’s taken on — years earlier, he helped fashion a ring of silver loons that forms the crown of the ceremonial mace found inside the Nunavut legislature. Now a full-time silversmith, his work has appeared in exhibitions in Japan and across Europe.

Still, there’s something special about being chosen by the governor general to create a new hockey trophy, he said. “It’s a huge honour for us.”

He’s met Clarkson several times. On one occasion he helped make a gift for her — several silver fish — during one of her past visits to Iqaluit.

“She always seems to remember everyone,” he said. “She always has a little bit of time to talk. We consider her as a friend.”

Julian Calleros, Nas Khan, Jane Kim, Samuel Kiehoon Lee and Chris McCarroll

Free your mind with Trinity Square Video’s LIBERTÉ Themed Commission Program screening on September 29, 2005 at 8pm at CineCycle. TSV is pleased to screen the world premieres of five videos about freedom by local artists Julian Calleros, Nas Khan, Jane Kim, Samuel Kiehoon Lee and Chris McCarroll, with a trailer by Matthew Ringling. Admission is $4 for TSV members and $6 for non-members.

This program is the first in a trilogy called Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité, which will conclude in the summer of 2006. TSV turns to the French Revolutionary slogan as the source of inspiration and as a reflection of TSV’s history as a centre for socially relevant video. With this first program, TSV commissioned five artists to define freedom in terms of their own experiences and convictions. Surprisingly, these artists have found liberty to be primarily a state of mind rather than a product of a given society’s laws or beliefs.

TSV supported the creation and production of these five videos with access to equipment, a workshop and guidance over a three-month period. The five artists were selected by a jury from an open call for submissions.

LIBERTÉ SCREENING
CineCycle
129 Spadina Ave., down the alley
Toronto, ON
Thursday, September 29, 2005 at 8pm
Admission: $4 members / $6 non-members

More information about TSV is available at www.trinitysquarevideo.com or by calling (416) 593-1332

THE MANCHU ERA

Opening September 23 2005 to January 2006

In 1644 a small group of nomadic warriors descended from Manchuria and conquered China. These Manchu warriors names their dynasty Qing (meaning 'Pure'), and would rule China until 1911. The effects of conquest by a people ethnically and culturally different from the Chinese were manifold.
This exhibition examines various aspects of art produced during Manchu rule, showing Manchu influence, as well as the continuance of Chinese art style. The exhibition will largely be divided into four parts: costumes, ceramics, painting, and calligraphy scrolls; and miscellaneous art such as jade, ivory, amber, bamboo carving, cloisonne, and bronze artifacts. Today, the porcelain of the Qing dynasty is held in high esteem throughout the world, and to some experts they are considered the most splendid ceramics ever crafted by mankind. Highlights of the exhibition include a huge two wheel horse cart of the 18th century, recently donated by Joey and Toby Tanenbaum; two large Imperial kesi (cut silk) tapestries; early unpublished Chinese paintings of European ships coming to China; large blue and white porcelain chargers, and a large painting of the Summer Palace c. 1890 donated by T. Rankin.

Gallery Talk with Curator Barry Till from the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria
Saturday, November 19th, at 12:00pm and 2:00pm

VANCOUVER MUSEUM
1100 Chestnut Street, Vancouver
Tel. 604.736.4431
www.vanmuseum.bc.ca

Fashions in a Small World

The Love Story of Barbie in Taiwan

Exhibit runs Friday, September 23 to Tuesday, September 27
Presented by The Taiwanese Canadian Cultural Society

VANCOUVER MUSEUM
1100 Chestnut Street, Vancouver
Tel. 604.736.4431
www.vanmuseum.bc.ca

Bumper crops defy expectations in Indonesia's tsunami-ravaged fields

MEULABOH, Indonesia (AP) - From atop the coconut tree where he fled to escape the onrushing water, Muhammad Yacob watched the tsunami turn his rice paddy into a briny, debris-strewn swamp. Nine months later, Yacob and his wife are harvesting their best-ever crop, despite fears that salt water had poisoned the land.

"The sea water turned out to be a great fertilizer," said Yacob, 66, during a break from scything the green shoots and laying them in bunches on the stubble. "We are looking at yields twice as high as last year."

Rice, the region's staple food, is not the only crop thriving on tsunami-affected land in Indonesia's Aceh province, which suffered the worst damage and loss of life in the Dec. 26 disaster.

Farmers say vegetables, peanuts and fruit are also growing well, spurring hopes that agriculture in the still devastated region will recover faster than expected.

But bumper harvests for some mask a very precarious future for most farmers in areas where a massive offshore earthquake caused the sea to crash ashore, experts say.

According to UN surveys, 81 per cent of the 470 square kilometres of agricultural land damaged by tsunami waves in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Maldives, India and Thailand is again cultivable.

But experts say much fertile land remains under water or sand churned up from the ocean floor. Waves and mud have destroyed or clogged countless drainage systems. So many villagers died that there is a shortage of labour to clear the land and replant.

Yacob says he has received no tsunami aid from the government, and sighs as he points to a mangled threshing machine, rusting where it was tossed by the tsunami waves.

Besides his rice crop, the father of eight lost 1,000 cocoa plants in the tsunami, and has no money for seedlings.

Recovery in the worst-hit areas may take three to five years, said Bart Dominicus of the UN tsunami response program.

The largest earthquake in 40 years sent 18-metre waves crashing into coastal communities in Aceh and more than eight kilometres inland. Of the 178,000 who died in the 11 tsunami-hit countries on the Indian Ocean rim, 130,000 victims were in Aceh province.

About 200 square kilometres of Aceh farmland were damaged, the local government estimates.

In the weeks after, many scientists warned it would take years until crops could be planted, noting that fields flooded with salt water usually become unsuitable for most types of cultivation.

"When I first got here there were preliminary figures booted about that half of the land would be lost," said Helen Bradbury, an agriculturalist with Mercy Corps, a U.S.-based charity. "But I wasn't so sure and neither were the farmers."

In at least some cases, their hunch proved correct.

Fields of lush, green rice now dot the coast, and surveys by the UN agency paint a more optimistic picture.

Researchers say high rainfall in most Indian Ocean countries washed out the salt quicker than expected. Higher yields in some plots are explained by rich top soil and the composting effect of other organic matter dumped by the tsunami.

"I am not sure the effect will last long, but for now it is a sort of tsunami bonus," said Bradbury.

The rice harvest is helping to restore some of the pre-tsunami rhythms of life to the countryside, where men like Yacob have farmed for 30 years and more. But it is still littered with damaged buildings and tent camps housing tens of thousands of survivors.

Men and women wearing wide-brimmed hats stand knee-deep in mud during long days of planting and harvesting. Villagers cycle to the fields and smoke from burning stubble makes for blazing sunsets.

The UN's World Food Program says it still expects to be feeding around 750,000 tsunami victims well into next year.

And life remains tough even for farmers with fields full of crops.

Sur Salami has never grown corn higher - his plants stand about 60 centimetres taller than him. But when heavy rain coincides with a high tide, around half of his two-hectare plot floods. He says it never did before, and blames the tsunami for changing the coastline.

"The sea is around 50 yards (metres) closer now," he said. "But we cannot lose hope. Whom can I complain to, anyhow?"

© The Canadian Press, 2005

Malaysia to build first palm diesel fuel plants soon

KUALA LUMPUR (AP) - Malaysia will soon build its first plants to produce bio-diesel fuel - a technologically proven mixture of diesel and palm oil - mostly for export to the European Union, the government said Monday. The Malaysian Palm Oil Board will invest 60 million ringgit ($16 million US) to set up the plants, each with a 50,000-ton-a-year capacity, said Peter Chin, the plantations, industries and commodities minister.

All the plants will use processed palm oil to produce methyl esther, popularly known as palm diesel, which can be directly used in automobiles without further blending with conventional diesel or gasoline.

Palm diesel isn't used very widely, but it is scheduled to be commercially available in Malaysia by early 2007 under a proposal that would blend five per cent palm oil to 95 per cent diesel, local media have reported.

Experts say they believe conventional diesel can be diluted with 10 per cent palm oil without any necessity to modify engines.

Malaysia started considering a palm diesel program several years ago when palm oil prices fell sharply. But with the recent surge in crude oil prices, industry experts say the plan is commercially viable even without much government support.

The government originally planned to build one plant but has decided on three because of strong interest from local plantation companies, Chin said. Two plants will be located in Port Klang in central Malaysia and one in southern Pasir Gudang.

Commercial production will commence within a year after the start of construction, which will begin soon, Chin said, without giving a specific date.

Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi earlier this month said public transportation could be required to use bio-diesel, as studies have found it would be cheaper.

© The Canadian Press, 2005

Chinese grain production to hit record this year; low prices hurt farmers

BEIJING (AP) - China's grain production is expected to surge to a record this year after falling to a 14-year low in 2003, but depressed crop prices are creating hardships for farmers, Chinese media reported Monday. The official China Daily newspaper quoted Chen Xiwen, deputy director of the Office of Central Financial Work, as saying that grain production in 2005 would amount to a record 475 million tons, up from 469.5 million tons in 2004 and 430 million tons in 2003, the lowest since 1989.

China's biggest grain crops are rice, wheat and corn.

In 2004, China had a grain shortfall of about 23 million tons, so even with this year's higher output figure, some imports are expected to be necessary. The United States is China's largest foreign grain supplier.

Despite the higher 2005 production, Chen told a meeting commemorating the 10th anniversary of the founding of the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy that low procurement prices are hurting the interests of 750 million farmers throughout the country, according to the China Daily.

"Weather permitting, China is heading for another bumper year, but farmers have been feeling less happy, " the newspaper quoted Chen as saying.

Grain prices in China are set by the market, although there is a minimum guaranteed by the government.

China Daily said Chen called on the government to take concrete measures to improve farmers' livelihoods.

"Currently the financial support in China's rural regions is far from enough," it quoted him as saying, adding that 94 per cent of government investment goes to Chinese urban areas.

"The country is still being challenged by a grave situation in rural areas," Chen told the newspaper.

Chen called on officials to mandate substantially increased capital flows to rural development, including infrastructure construction, education, medical facilities, and new social security networks to replace disbanded communal farming systems, the report said.

Chinese government policy has traditionally favoured urban development, but problems for farmers have intensified in the wake of the gradual move away from collectivized agriculture that began in the early 1980s.

In recent months, reports of rural unrest have multiplied, many against the background of attempts by local officials to confiscate or rezone agricultural land to construct lucrative commercial developments.

© The Canadian Press, 2005

Australia to buy 40,000 courses of bird flu medication for Indonesia

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - The Australian government pledged Monday to help Indonesia speed up its response to a bird flu outbreak, saying it will donate 40,000 doses of anti-viral medication to help its northern neighbour cope with the illness.
Bird flu has killed six people in Indonesia since July, Indonesia's Health Ministry said Monday. "They have been caught a bit short to tell you the truth, and they're finding it difficult to handle," Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told reporters in Adelaide.

Medication distribution was moving "a little more slowly than we would have liked, but I think they're getting better organized now," he said.

In a statement, Downer said the funding was intended to "help Indonesia develop a stockpile of Tamiflu which will be used to treat suspected victims and people who have been in immediate close contact with them."

Monday's announcement brings the number of Tamiflu courses Australia has pledged to buy for Indonesia to 50,000. The government last week said it would buy 10,000 doses of the anti-viral medicine through the World Health Organization. Each dose is 10 tablets.

"The Australian government is committed to taking a strong leadership role in combating avian influenza in the Asia Pacific and this assistance demonstrates our intention to work closely with regional partners as they implement their plans to treat victims and prevent spread of the disease," Downer said.

The 50,000 doses will cost $1.25 million Australian, or $947,000 US.

On Sunday, Australian Customs Minister Chris Ellison said authorities had seized tons of poultry meat in an effort to keep bird flu from entering the country. He did not say when the poultry was seized or where it came from.

"(It's from) countries where we suspect that there is a risk and in cases where there is doubt a seizure is made," Ellison told the Ten television network. "It is of concern and we're watching out."

Prime Minister John Howard said last week that Australia and the United States planned to raise their concerns about bird flu at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders summit in November in South Korea.

© The Canadian Press, 2005