Time is up for victims of Chinese head tax to apply for sympathy payment

Marco Morelli - THE CANADIAN PRESS
VANCOUVER _ With the deadline looming Monday, many Chinese Canadians who were forced to pay Canada's controversial head tax in the early 1900s have not applied for a federal redress payment.

There could be up to 150 people who have not yet applied for the $20,000 payment, said Victor Wong, executive director of the Chinese Canadian National Council.

``We've been doing some outreach to try and get those people to apply,'' Wong said.

It's taken a long time to get the word out to people, especially because most of them are seniors or living in rural Canada, he said.

Sid Chow Tan, president of the Head Tax Families Society of Canada, said he once had to physically take a woman down to get some of her documents notorized to make sure her application would get approved.

Monday marks the application deadline for people looking to collect the compensation payment promised to them by the federal government.

Wong said the council had spoken with the government to extend the deadline for a few more months, but he is unsure if they will get their wish.

In 2006, Prime Minister Stephen Harper made an official apology to the Chinese community for the injustice.

``For over six decades, these malicious measures, aimed solely at the Chinese, were implemented with deliberation by the Canadian state,'' the prime minister said in his speech.

``This was a grave injustice and one we are morally obligated to acknowledge.''

Since the announcement, over 650 living Chinese head-tax payers, spouses and people who were in a relationship with a Chinese head-tax payer have come forward across the country to claim the compensation.

Wong said he suspects there are many more applications as many as 150 already in progress.

Although the federal government has been offering the payments to anyone who was an actual head-tax payer or a spouse, Wong said the payments do not include another 3,000 families whose relatives have passed away.

``We are still pressing the government to include those families to the redress announcement,'' he said.

Tan echoed Wong.

``While 82,000 Chinese paid the head tax, the federal government's package provides no direct compensation to head-tax families without a surviving head-tax payer or a surviving spouse of a head-tax payer,'' he said.

``The issue is closure with respect and dignity for Chinese head-tax families and all Canadians.

``This begins when the government recognizes the redress is incomplete and undertakes good-faith negotiations with representatives of excluded head-tax families,'' Tan said.

In 1885, to restrict the immigration of Chinese people to Canada, the federal government introduced a bill requiring a $50 payment from anyone of Chinese origin entering the country.

In the early 1900s, the tax was increased to $500, the equivalent of two years worth of wages for a Chinese labourer for the Canadian Pacific Railway at the time.

Despite the head tax, over 82,000 Chinese people emigrated to Canada between 1885 and 1923.

Then, in 1923, the federal government passed the Chinese Immigration Act excluding all Chinese people from entering Canada until the act was repealed in 1947.

Len Westerberg, spokesman for Heritage Canada, the civil servant in charge of issuing the compensation, said the deadline is not going to be extended.

But ``if someone was unable to apply for reasons beyond their control, the Minister of Canadian Heritage can exercise her discretion and accept an application received after the deadline,'' Westerberg said.

``Monday is only the deadline for receiving applications, so anything that's in process will still be processed,'' he said.

Heritage Canada requires photo identification, proof of Canadian citizenship, proof of permanent residency, a death certificate of a tax victim for those applying on behalf of their spouse and a head-tax certificate number to accompany an application form.

China mounts new attack on Dalai Lama following Tibet protests

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BEIJING - Chinese state media accuses the Dalai Lama of slamming the door on talks over Tibet's future.

It's an apparent response to rising international calls for Beijing to negotiate with Tibet's exiled Buddhist leader.

In a lengthy Sunday article, Xinhua News Agency cited past actions and statements attributed to the 72-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner that it said contradicted or undermined his calls for negotiations.

The statement came a day before the arrival in Beijing of the Olympic torch that has become a magnet for Tibetan activists and other groups seeking to use the August Games to draw attention to their causes.

China has accused the Dalai Lama of orchestrating protests in Tibet's regional capital Lhasa and other areas that turned deadly on March 14.

Beijing says 22 people were killed in Lhasa, most of them ethnic Han and Muslim Chinese migrants, while Tibetan exiles put the overall death toll at 140. The Dalai Lama has condemned the violence and urged an independent investigation into the protests.

© The Canadian Press, 2008

SFU arts school gets funding cheque

Vancouver Sun
Simon Fraser University was presented Friday with a $13.3-million cheque as part of a $49.5-million investment by the B.C. government for its School for Contemporary Arts on the old Woodward's site.

"This is not merely a transformation of real estate; this is a crucial element in the transformation and revitalization of an entire community," said Economic Development Minster Colin Hansen Hansen in a press release. "The School of Contemporary Arts will help recruit and retain the creative, talented individuals who are so vital to our future."

The 11,845-square-metre School for the Contemporary Arts will fill five storeys on the southwest corner of West Hastings and Abbott Streets. It will include public space, performance venues, teaching studios, a 400-seat theatre, and a multimedia lounge and lab for new media, the release said.

Warren Gill, SFU's vice-president for university relations, said: "SFU's Contemporary Arts faculty, staff and 1,200 students are counting the days to September 2009 when they will move into their new home.

The new campus is being built to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver standards. Green roofs are being used throughout the site, and much of the material for the building will have recycled content. The project is being built to last for a century, whereas most buildings have a 30- to 50-year life expectancy, the release said.

The cost of the campus will total $71.5 million. The B.C. Ministry of Advanced Education is providing $36 million.

SFU has launched a fundraising campaign with leadership gifts from chancellor emeritus Milton Wong and Michael Audain to secure the balance. The site for the campus, valued at more than $10 million, has been given to SFU by Westbank Projects Corp. and the Peterson Group, the release said.

NKorea threatens to ban SKorean officials unless Seoul apologizes over remark

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea says it will ban South Korean officials from the country in anger over a top Southern military leader's remark about attacking the communist nation.

The North's military also demanded that Seoul apologize for the remark by the new head of the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff - otherwise it would assume Seoul wants to suspend all dialogue and contacts with the North.

The angry reaction came days after the new head of the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff, Kim Tae-young, said the military would strike a suspected North Korean nuclear weapons site if Pyongyang attempts to attack the South with atomic bombs.

The North said Kim's remark amounted to a declaration of war.

The South's Defence Ministry and the Joint Chiefs of Staff said they had no immediate comment.

Kim made the remark during a parliamentary hearing on Wednesday. His office later said he was talking about a general military principle dealing with outside threats, not about launching an unprovoked pre-emptive attack on the North.

© The Canadian Press, 2008

China steps up attacks on Dalai Lama, announces arrests in Lhasa arson cases

Tini Tran, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BEIJING - China stepped up attacks against the Dalai Lama on Monday as authorities apprehended four suspects in arson and murder cases stemming from anti-government riots that engulfed the Tibetan capital in mid-March.

Jiang Zaiping, the vice chief of the Public Security Bureau in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, said investigators have arrested the suspects responsible for arson attacks on three shops - including the clothing outlet where five young women were burned to death - and one in nearby Dagze county, the Tibet Daily newspaper reported Monday.

A total of 414 suspects have been arrested in connection with the anti-government riots, Jiang was quoted as saying. Another 298 people have turned themselves in, he said.

The Tibetan regional government also announced that the families of two of the women killed were given compensation of 200,000 yuan ($28,170) each, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The government has promised to give the same amount of compensation to the families of 18 civilians killed. China's total number of deaths from the riots also includes one policeman and three people who died jumping through windows to escape arrest. Tibet's government-in-exile has said that 140 Tibetans were killed during the protests.

"The compensation is a huge sum of money for a rural family like mine. I am grateful to the government's care and consolation, though nothing could bring my daughter back," He Hongli, father of 19-year-old He Xinxin, was quoted as saying.

The government has highlighted the burning deaths as a way to show that Tibetans were responsible for the violence that mainly targeted Han Chinese.

The anti-Chinese protests sparked demonstrations in recent weeks by ethnic Tibetans in neighbouring provinces, becoming the most sustained challenge to China's rule in the Himalayan region since 1989.

China has consistently blamed the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, and his supporters for being behind the protests that began March 10 when Tibetan monks from Lhasa's main monasteries marched to commemorate a failed uprising against Chinese rule.

In the wake of the subsequent crackdown by Chinese forces, Beijing has come under intense international scrutiny over its human rights policies, causing embarrassment to China as it prepares to host the summer Olympic Games in August.

In turn, China has turned up its attacks against the Dalai Lama, who it has accused of trying to sabotage the Games in an effort to promote Tibetan independence.

A Monday commentary by Xinhua said if the Tibetan leader "really wishes to be a simple Buddhist monk, it's high time for him to stop playing politics and cheating people, Westerners in particular, with his hypocritical 'autonomy' claims.'

"The self-proclaimed spiritual leader has obviously forgotten his identity, abused his religion and played too much politics," the commentary said.

World leaders from the U.S., Australia and the European Union have repeatedly pressed for China to begin talks with the Dalai Lama.

In a recent interview with Hong Kong-based Phoenix Satellite Television, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao again repeated that resumption of any dialogue would be contingent on the Dalai Lama giving up "independence" activities and agreeing that Tibet and Taiwan were part of China. But Wen also gave a more nuanced plea, asking the Tibetan leader to "utilize his influence to stop the occurrence of violent activities in Tibet."

© The Canadian Press, 2008

Adobe launches free Web-version of Photoshop

Access the free Web-based Photoshop Express at www.photoshop.com\express.
Adobe Systems Inc., San Jose, Calif., launched Adobe Photoshop Express public beta, a free Rich Internet Application (RIA) available to anyone who wants to store, sort, and edit digital photos. During the public beta period, Adobe will solicit Photoshop Express user feedback on product features and functionality, which will continue to evolve over time.

As the newest addition to the Photoshop line, Photoshop Express has taken much of Adobe's best image editing technology and made it simple and accessible to a new online audience. Photoshop Express allows users to store up to 2GB of images online free, make edits to their photos, and share them online in creative ways, including downloading and uploading photos from popular social networking sites like Facebook.

"Photoshop is trusted technology that has changed the visual landscape of our world. Now, Photoshop Express allows anyone who snaps a digital photo to easily achieve the high-impact results for which Adobe is known," said Doug Mack, vice president of Consumer and Hosted Solutions at Adobe. "Photoshop Express is a convenient, single destination where you can store, edit, and share photos whether you're at home, school, or on the road."

Users can upload and sort digital photos anytime, edit them non-destructively to always preserve the original image, and share from anywhere on any Web browser. In a few clicks, users can make standard edits, such as removing blemishes and red-eye, converting to black and white, cropping and resizing, and more. Users can also off photos and slide shows in their own online "Gallery" hosted by Adobe.

Photoshop Express was created with Flex, Adobe's free, open source framework for building RIAs. Flex applications provide a consistent, rich user experience across operating systems and all major browsers, including Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari and others. An Internet connection and an up-to-date Flash Player 9 are all that are required to experience Adobe Photoshop Express.

In its early phases, Photoshop Express is available to U.S. residents only in English. Users may experience slow performance if accessed outside of the United States. Future plans include availability in other languages and countries.

Ashton Kutcher stars in new Nikon ad campaign

Actor and producer Ashton Kutcher is part of a new ad campaign by Nikon Inc. to promote the Coolpix Style series cameras. The campaign debuted nationally on March 25 with a television commercial, which precedes the print advertisements and an interactive online component.

Nikon says it selected Kutcher for the campaign to bring brand relevance to a broader and more youthful audience. Taking place in trendy locales such as boutique hotels and upscale shopping destinations, the campaign focuses on the styling, fashionable colors, simplicity, and performance of Nikon's Style series compact digital cameras.

The television campaign spots have Kutcher's Coolpix camera being discretely taken and passed around by numerous adoring fans who take several pictures with it before slipping it back into Kutcher's pocket. Kutcher then notices some surprising pictures when he reviews the photos on his camera's LCD screen. Nikon says in a release that the print campaign "captures the sophisticated yet playful essence of Ashton and the aesthetics of the camera." Following the television and print advertisements, the campaign will come full circle with an engaging Internet component, details of which will be revealed shortly.

Too many pill-popping, tech-savvy Canadians unknowingly polluting: study

Michael Oliveira, THE CANADIAN PRESS
TORONTO - Too many pill-popping, tech-using Canadians are polluting the environment without realizing it and the problem is expected to worsen as the population ages and electronic gadgets become even more popular, says a new Statistics Canada study released Thursday.

While Canadians have overwhelmingly learned that they shouldn't pour paint down the drain or throw it in the trash, six out of 10 said they tossed their batteries in the garbage and almost four in 10 said they got rid of leftover or expired pharmaceuticals by flushing them or burying them, according to the results of a 2005 survey.

Many Canadians don't realize it, but improper disposal of toxic household waste leads to environmental and health risks, said the report's author John Marshall.

Flushed pharmaceuticals can contaminate the water supply and the drug industry is booming, with sales of prescription and non-prescription drugs having almost doubled to $21.8 billion a year between 1998 and 2006.

And batteries can contain dangerous substances like mercury, cadmium and lead. Canadians buy hundreds of millions of them each year, with only a small percentage getting safely recycled.

Some people know better but are too lazy to do their part to protect the environment, said Aaron Freeman, policy director for Environmental Defence. But those people need to consider the health implications of not making a special trip to dispose of their waste, he said.

"These aren't substances people would put near their food or in their water but they're doing that indirectly by putting it into our environment," Freeman said.

More governments should consider an idea being raised in Toronto, where batteries could be sold with a deposit fee to encourage proper disposal, he added.

"You have to make it easy for people to recycle and you have to make it difficult for them not to, so that goes beyond education," he said.

"Because a lot of these items are small, people think that it's not a big deal but they're highly, highly toxic."

The rates of safe disposal varied greatly from province to province. While about two-thirds of Quebec and Prince Edward Island households sought out disposal centres for their pharmaceutical waste, just over 40 per cent of people in Ontario did so. In British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador, less than one-third of households properly disposed of the waste.

More than half of the households in Prince Edward Island returned their batteries to a special depot instead of throwing them out, but no more than a third did so in the rest of the country, and less than 10 per cent did so in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The biggest bright spot in the report was awareness that paint needs to be disposed of safely, and only four per cent of surveyed homeowners said they either poured paint down the drain or left paint cans at the curb.

Canadians also seemed to think they shouldn't throw out old computer equipment, and almost half of those surveyed said they either donated it or took it to a drop-off centre when they wanted it out of the house.

Thirty-five per cent left the old hardware to gather dust somewhere in their home, while 16 per cent threw it in the garbage.

Freeman said any future surveys need to focus on compact fluorescent light bulbs because the public needs to know that they too need to be disposed of properly. Statistics Canada says the use of the energy-saving light bulbs in homes has gone from 19 per cent in 1994 to 56 per cent in 2006.

While Freeman called the amount of mercury in each bulb "very trace," he said it's important that people realize the products shouldn't go in a trash bag, where they could break and leak out the toxic substance.

"There is a mercury problem and it highlights the need for take-back legislation, so everywhere that sells these bulbs should be required to take them back," he said.

"When you make it easy for people they do do the right thing."

The Canadian Press, 2008

China promises compensation for victims of Tibet violence; diplomats visit region

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BEIJING - A state news agency says Beijing will compensate victims of anti-government protests in Tibet, while diplomats were taken to visit the region as China tried to show it has restored order.

The communist government wants to enforce calm quickly following the riots, which drew attention to its human rights record as it prepares for this summer's Beijing Olympics.

The Xinhua news agency says families of 18 civilians killed will each receive US$28,500, citing an announcement by the Beijing-installed Tibet regional government. It said people injured will receive free medical care and owners of damaged homes and shops will get help rebuilding.

It comes after a similar visit by foreign journalists to Tibet's regional capital, Lhasa, backfired when about 30 crying monks burst into a briefing room shouting there was no religious freedom in Tibet.

Beijing says 22 people died in protests that spread earlier this month to dozens of Tibetan communities across western China, in the broadest challenges to Chinese rule in decades. Tibetan exiles say almost 140 are dead.

Xinhua gave no indication Saturday whether there would be compensation for four other deaths - one police officer and three people who the government says were fleeing arrest.

The government says 382 civilians and 241 police officers also were hurt. The protests, led by monks, began peacefully March 10, on the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule. Tibet had been effectively independent for decades before Chinese communist troops entered in 1950.

Beijing blames the unrest on supporters of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader who lives in exile in India.

About two dozen diplomats, including those from the United States, Britain and Japan, were in Tibet on Saturday on a government-organized trip. The Chinese foreign ministry did not respond to a request for details of their agenda.

The United States is represented on the Tibet trip by a second secretary from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington.

"He is somebody in the political section who speaks fluent Mandarin and his portfolio is Tibet," he said.

The protests in Tibet and in other provinces with sizable Tibetan populations have threatened to mar Beijing's effort to use the Olympics in August to showcase China as a confident, respected power.

U.S. President George W. Bush and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Friday they want Chinese leaders to meet with the Dalai Lama to defuse tensions.

"It is absolutely clear that there are human rights abuses in Tibet," Rudd told reporters after meeting Bush in Washington.

European Union foreign ministers gathering in Slovenia on Friday appealed to China to resolve the crisis peacefully.

© The Canadian Press, 2008

Olympic torch touches down in Beijing amid tight security

Stephen Wade, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BEIJING - The Olympic torch touched down in Beijing on Monday amid high security before it leaves on a round-the-world relay expected to be a lightning rod for protests against China's policies and human rights practices.

The arrival was shown live on state television, and comes a week after the lighting ceremony for the torch in Greece was marred by protests. There also were protests Sunday by a pro-Tibetan group when Greek officials handed over the flame to organizers of the Beijing Games in Athens.

The torch relay has been heavily promoted by the Chinese government. The chartered Air China plane was greeted at the Beijing airport by hundreds of school children waving Chinese and Olympics flags.

Chief Beijing organizer Liu Qi carried the flame off the plane and was greeted by Zhou Yongkang, a member of the Communist Party's supreme nine-man Politburo Standing Committee.

Authorities have given few details about a torch welcoming ceremony later Monday in Tiananmen Square, the heart of China's capital.

The torch arrival in Beijing allows the government a brief respite before the relay sets off on a problematic, month-long world tour. After a one-day stop in Beijing, the flame goes Tuesday to Almaty, Kazakhstan, the start of the 20-country, 136,955-kilometre global journey.

The grandiose relay is the longest in Olympic history and has the most torch bearers - a sign of the vast attention lavished on the Games by Beijing, which hopes to use it to showcase China's rising economic and political power.

Instead, however, it has provided a stage for human rights activists who have been criticizing China over a range of issues including its control over Tibet, its relationship with Sudan and its handling of Muslims in the far west of the country.

Tibetan and rights groups have said they will stage protests along the torch route, which includes stops in London, Paris and San Francisco over the next 10 days.

The relay has especially focused attention on recent unrest in Tibet, the worst in the Chinese-controlled region since 1989.

Dozens of Tibetan exiles burned an effigy of China President Hu Jintao as they reached the Indian capital of New Delhi on Sunday, carrying a symbolic flame which they said was running parallel to the official torch for the Beijing Olympic games.

Beijing's relay was tarnished before it even began when a demonstrator protesting Chinese media curbs grabbed headlines last week by disrupting a Chinese official's opening address at the lighting ceremony in Greece.

That was followed across Greece by a smattering of protests by activists protesting a crackdown on dissent in Tibet and members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, which is banned in China.

On Sunday, some two dozen activists in Athens chanted "Save Tibet!" and unfurled a banner reading "Stop Genocide in Tibet" before police intervened, detaining 21 protesters outside the Panathenian Stadium. Most were later freed.

A police cordon prevented the demonstrators from disrupting the final leg of Greece's relay from the Acropolis to the marble stadium, the venue of the first modern Olympics in 1896.

Associated Press Writer Nicholas Paphitis in Athens, Greece contributed to this report.

© The Canadian Press, 2008

Canadian musicians, composers mourn demise of country's last radio orchestra

Cassandra Szklarski, THE CANADIAN PRESS
TORONTO - Classical musicians are mourning the demise of the country's last radio orchestra, set to disband in November after championing the works of Canadian composers for 70 years and producing award-winning recordings.

Members of the Canadian Music Centre, Canadian League of Composers and Royal Conservatory of Music were among those Friday criticizing a move by the CBC to disband its Vancouver-based orchestra, warning that Canadian talent - and culture - would suffer from the blow.

"The big question is: What kind of priority is the CBC going to give to music that expresses something that is uniquely Canadian, that is not easy-listening?" asked James Waltz of the Canadian League of Composers in Toronto.

"Something that is worth thinking about, worth listening to more than once? We at this point just don't know if the CBC cared about that kind of thing."

CBC executives delivered the news Thursday to some 45 members of the orchestra in a closed-door meeting in Vancouver. A hastily assembled rally at the site drew dozens of classical music supporters to denounce the decision as soon as it was announced, said Elisabeth Bihl of the Canadian Music Centre, which promotes the works of Canadian composers.

CBC radio's Mark Steinmetz, executive director of music, said Friday that money was at the heart of the decision.

"It was a very, very difficult decision and it really came down to the hard, economic choice," Steinmetz said from Vancouver. "We just felt that the sustainability of this orchestra - and we did between six and eight concerts a year - was very expensive."

The CBC wouldn't reveal the orchestra's budget, saying only that it was under $1 million.

Steinmetz said concert ticket and CD sales recouped very little of those funds, with the number of CDs sold dropping in recent years to between 1,000 and 3,000 copies per release.

He insisted that the public broadcaster's funds could be used more efficiently on CBC Radio 2 programs.

"This is not the end of classical music and it's not the end of us recording and commissioning composers in this country," Steinmetz said.

"We intend to work with other orchestras, other ensembles across this country to record Canadian composers. ... We will be upping our Canadian content across the schedule by 20 per cent come September, and part of that is the continuation of recording Canadian composers."

Bihl wasn't convinced by the assurance, bemoaning that other orchestras don't have the same mandate to showcase homegrown compositions as the CBC orchestra.

She wondered how Canadian classical-music talent will be featured on radio in future.

"This little bit of money isn't going to do much," Bihl said from Toronto. "It is never, ever going to replace what the CBC orchestra has done."

The CBC Radio Orchestra was formed in 1938 to showcase Canadian composers and musicians, putting out dozens of studio and live recordings to acclaim.

Former conductor Mario Bernardi, who led the orchestra from 1983 to 2006, said the writing was on the wall when the broadcaster told musicians three years ago that there would be no more studio recordings.

"You wonder why do we give billions to the CBC if they want to do exactly the same as everybody else?" Bernardi said Friday. "I'm very sad for the musicians, mostly."

Radio orchestras like the CBC's were once common, with other Canadian orchestras at one time in Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax, said David Visentin, associate dean at the Royal Conservatory of Music's Glenn Gould School in Toronto.

Those CBC orchestras provided programming and theme music for various shows on the network and gave public performances.

One of the last studio recordings by the CBC Radio Orchestra provided background music for Stuart McLean's "Vinyl Cafe" spoken word CD series, said Bernardi.

© The Canadian Press, 2008

Rising rice prices spark concerns about unrest across Asia

Paul Alexander, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MANILA, Philippines - A sharp rise in the price of rice is hitting consumer pocketbooks and raising fears of public turmoil in the many parts of Asia where rice is a staple.

Part of a surge in global food costs, rice prices on world markets have jumped 50 per cent in the last two months and at least doubled since 2004. Experts blame rising fuel and fertilizer expenses, as well as crops curtailed by disease, pests and climate change. There are concerns prices could rise a further 40 per cent in coming months.

The higher prices have already sparked protests in the Philippines, where a government official has asked the public to save leftover rice. In Cambodia, Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered a ban on rice exports Wednesday to curb rising prices at home. Vietnamese exporters and farmers are stockpiling rice in expectation of further price increases.

Prestoline Suyat of the May One Labor Movement, a left-wing workers group, warned: "Hunger and poverty may eventually lead to riots."

The neediest are hit hardest.

Rodolfo de Lima, a 42-year-old parking lot attendant in Manila, said "my family will go hungry" if prices continue to rise.

"If your family misses a meal, you really don't know what you can do but I won't do anything bad," said de Lima, whose right foot was amputated after he was shot during a 1985 gang war.

Others might not be so restrained, said Domingo Casarte, 41, a street vendor.

"There are people who are hotheaded," he said.

"When people get trapped, I can't say what they will do."

The U.S. Department of Agriculture forecasts global rice stocks for 2007-08 at 65 million tonnes, the lowest since 1983-84 and about one-half of the peak in 2000-01.

The higher prices are stretching the budgets of aid agencies providing rice to North Korea and other countries, particularly with donations already falling.

Jack Dunford, head of a consortium in Thailand helping more than 140,000 refugees from Myanmar, said soaring rice prices and a slumping U.S. dollar are forcing cuts in already meagre food aid.

"This rice price is just killing us," he said.

"This is a very vulnerable group of people under threat."

China is among several countries in the region that subsidize rice prices, an increasingly expensive proposition.

Rice prices have almost doubled in Bangladesh in just a year, sparking resentment but no unrest yet. Repeated floods and a severe cyclone last year have cut production, forcing the government to increase imports.

In Vietnam, a major rice exporter, the crop has been hit by a virus called tungro and infestations of the brown planthopper insect.

Farmers there say they are not benefitting from the higher prices.

"The rice price has gone up 50 per cent over the past three months but I'm not making any more money because I have to pay double for fertilizer, insecticides and labor costs," said Nguyen Thi Thu, 46, a farmer in Ha Tay province, just outside Hanoi.

Another farmer, Cao Thi Thuy, 37, in Nam Dinh province, 120 kilometres south of Hanoi, said exporters have actually been paying less for rice over the last week.

"If the world prices are going up still, then Vietnamese rice-exporting companies are benefitting, not us," she said.

"They tell us that now weather is better and rice can grow more easily, so we should not expect higher prices."

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, worried about anything that could spark a "people power" revolt against her, is assuring the public rice won't run out or skyrocket in price during the traditionally lean months of July to September.

This week, she arranged the purchase of up to 1.4 million tonnes from Vietnam. She also has ordered a crackdown on price manipulation, hoarding and profiteering on subsidized rice and will hold a food summit April 4.

Things are so tight Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap has asked people not to throw away leftover rice and urged fast-food restaurants, which normally give customers a cup of rice with meals, to offer a half-cup option to cut waste.

The Philippines is facing "a perfect storm," said Senator Mar Roxas, president of the Liberal party. Problems coping with rising rice prices are compounded by higher oil prices and a U.S. economic downturn, which could reduce the money sent home to families by Filipinos working in the United States. Such remittances underpin the economy.

Philippine farmers say the country, which has become the world's largest importer of rice after being an exporter in the early 1970s, has shot itself in the foot by developing some former rice paddies for housing and golf courses and planting more lucrative crops on others.

One Asian country, Japan, is encouraging cuts in rice production. Rice prices there have been falling in recent months as people eat less rice and more bread.

© The Canadian Press, 2008

Cambodian 'Killing Fields' survivor Dith Pran dies of cancer

Richard Pyle, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK - Dith Pran, the Cambodian-born journalist whose harrowing tale of enslavement and eventual escape from that country's murderous Khmer Rouge revolutionaries in 1979 became the subject of the award-winning film "The Killing Fields," died Sunday, colleague Sydney Schanberg said.

Dith, 65, died at a New Jersey hospital Sunday morning of pancreatic cancer, according to Schanberg, his former colleague at The New York Times. He had been diagnosed almost three months ago.

Dith was working as an interpreter and assistant for Schanberg in Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, when the Vietnam War reached its chaotic end in April 1975 and both countries were taken over by Communist forces.

Schanberg helped Dith's family get out but was forced to leave his friend behind after the capital fell; they were not reunited until Dith escaped four and a half years later. Eventually, Dith resettled in the United States and went to work as a photographer for the Times.

It was Dith himself who coined the term "killing fields" for the horrifying clusters of corpses and skeletal remains of victims he encountered on his desperate journey to freedom.

The regime of Pol Pot, bent on turning Cambodia back into a strictly agrarian society, and his Communist zealots were blamed for the deaths of nearly two million of Cambodia's seven million people.

"That was the phrase he used from the very first day, during our wondrous reunion in the refugee camp," Schanberg said later.

With thousands being executed simply for manifesting signs of intellect or Western influence - even wearing glasses or wristwatches - Dith survived by masquerading as an uneducated peasant, toiling in the fields and subsisting on as little as a mouthful of rice a day, and whatever small animals he could catch.

After Dith moved to the U.S., he became a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and founded the Dith Pran Holocaust Awareness Project, dedicated to educating people on the history of the Khmer Rouge regime.

He was "the most patriotic American photographer I've ever met, always talking about how he loves America," said AP photographer Paul Sakuma, who knew Dith through their work with the Asian American Journalists Association.

Schanberg described Dith's ordeal and salvation in a 1980 magazine article titled "The Death and Life of Dith Pran." Schanberg's reporting from Phnom Penh had earned him a Pulitzer Prize in 1976.

Later a book, the magazine article became the basis for "The Killing Fields," the highly successful 1984 British film starring Sam Waterston as the Times correspondent and Haing S. Ngor, another Cambodian escapee from the Khmer Rouge, as Dith Pran.

The film won three Oscars, including the best supporting actor award to Ngor. Ngor, a physician, was shot to death in 1996 during a robbery outside his Los Angeles home. Three Asian gang members were convicted of the crime.

"Pran was a true reporter, a fighter for the truth and for his people," Schanberg said. "When cancer struck, he fought for his life again. And he did it with the same Buddhist calm and courage and positive spirit that made my brother so special."

Dith spoke of his illness in a March interview with The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., saying he was determined to fight against the odds and urging others to get tested for cancer.

"I want to save lives, including my own, but Cambodians believe we just rent this body," he said. "It is just a house for the spirit, and if the house is full of termites, it is time to leave."

Dith Pran was born Sept. 27, 1942 at Siem Reap, site of the famed 12th century ruins of Angkor Wat. Educated in French and English, he worked as an interpreter for U.S. officials in Phnom Penh. As with many Asians, the family name, Dith, came first, but he was known by his given name, Pran.

After Cambodia's leader, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, broke off relations with the United States in 1965, Dith worked at other jobs. When Sihanouk was deposed in a 1970 coup and Cambodian troops went to war with the Khmer Rouge, Dith returned to Phom Penh and worked as an interpreter for Times reporters.

In 1972, he and Schanberg, then newly arrived, were the first journalists to discover the devastation of a U.S. bombing attack on Neak Leung, a vital river crossing on the highway linking Phnom Penh with eastern Cambodia.

Dith recalled in a 2003 article for the Times what it was like to watch U.S. planes attacking enemy targets.

"If you didn't think about the danger, it looked like a performance," he said. "It was beautiful, like fireworks. War is beautiful if you don't get killed. But because you know it's going to kill, it's no longer beautiful."

After Vietnamese forces invaded Cambodia in 1979 and seized control of territory, Dith escaped from a commune near Siem Reap and trekked 40 miles, dodging both Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge forces, to reach a border refugee camp in Thailand.

From the Thai camp he sent a message to Schanberg, who rushed from the United States for an emotional reunion with the trusted friend he felt he had abandoned four years earlier.

"I had searched for four years for any scrap of information about Pran," Schanberg said. "I was losing hope. His emergence in October 1979 felt like an actual miracle for me. It restored my life."

After Dith moved to the U.S., the Times hired him and put him in the photo department as a trainee. The veteran staffers "took him under their wing and taught him how to survive on the streets of New York as a photographer, how to see things," said Times photographer Marilynn Yee.

Yee recalled an incident early in Dith's new career as a photojournalist when, after working the 4 p.m. to midnight shift, he was robbed at gunpoint of all his camera equipment at the back door of his apartment.

"He survived everything in Cambodia and he survived that too," she said, adding, "He never had to work the night shift again."

Dith spoke and wrote often about his wartime experience and remained an outspoken critic of the Khmer Rouge regime.

When Pol Pot died in 1998, Dith said he was saddened that the dictator was never held accountable for the genocide.

"The Jewish people's search for justice did not end with the death of Hitler and the Cambodian people's search for justice doesn't end with Pol Pot," he said.

Dith's survivors include his companion, Bette Parslow; his former wife, Meoun Ser Dith; a sister, Samproeuth Dith Nop; sons Titony, Titonath and Titonel; daughter Hemkarey Dith Tan; six grandchildren including a boy named Sydney; and two step-grandchildren.

Dith's three brothers were killed by the Khmer Rouge.

© The Canadian Press, 2008

Lehman Brothers sues Marubeni in Japan for $350 million over alleged fraud

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TOKYO - Lehman Brothers has filed a lawsuit against major Japanese trading company Marubeni today, demanding $350 million in a case of alleged fraud.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. is seeking to recoup funding it provided to another Japanese company that the U.S. bank says employees of Marubeni Corp. helped secure.

A Lehman Brothers official who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the lawsuit, filed in a Tokyo court, demands $350 million. Other details were not immediately available.

Marubeni has denied wrongdoing and says it has no obligation to repay the money.

Marubeni Corp. shares tumbled more than six per cent in Tokyo to 729 yen - $7.29 - in Monday morning trading.

Lehman spokesman Matthew Russell said in a statement that there will be no financial impact on Lehman because of the merits of the lawsuit, appropriate reserves in the first quarter and insurance coverage.

Still, the woes are the latest challenge for Lehman, which like other American investment banks, are fighting a credit crunch in the U.S. The collapse of Bear Stearns has added to such concerns.

Tokyo-based Marubeni said in a statement Saturday that it did not secure the funding, and documents to that effect are fake. It contends that it is also a victim of the alleged fraud and therefore should not have to cover any damages.

© The Canadian Press, 2008

New Zealand, China to sign trade deal in Beijing

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WELLINGTON, New Zealand - New Zealand's prime minister said Sunday she would sign a groundbreaking free trade agreement with China on April 7 at Beijing's Great Hall of the People.

The deal - which will give New Zealand access to the world's fastest-growing economy - is expected to boost exports to China by up to US$318 million a year.

"This is a significant event for both New Zealand and China," said Prime Minister Helen Clark, adding that details of the agreement would be released publicly after the signing ceremony.

Previously Clark said the trade pact would cut tariff barriers for New Zealand farm exports to China. Farm output makes up half of New Zealand's annual economic production.

Beyond trade in goods, the agreement is also expected to cover the services sector, from insurance and banking to education and labour supply.

China has already sought New Zealand's permission for specialist workers, including chefs and Chinese language teachers, to work in New Zealand. New Zealand has said it will study the proposal closely.

Two-way trade between China and New Zealand is currently worth more than US$3.8 billion a year, with Chinese exports making up about 80 per cent.

After the pact is signed, it will have to be formally ratified in New Zealand's Parliament.

Clark will be one of the first Western leaders to meet with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao since rioting began in Tibet, and she has said she will raise the issue in formal talks.

New Zealand has urged China to engage in meaningful dialogue with representatives of the Tibetan people as the best way to achieve a lasting resolution to problems in Tibet.

© The Canadian Press, 2008

Canada beats China 7-4 to win world women's curling championship

James Bisson, THE CANADIAN PRESS
VERNON, B.C. - Jennifer Jones's foursome had a good feeling prior to their gold-medal showdown with China.

Imagine how they felt afterward.

The Winnipeg quartet won its first Ford world women's curling championship, beating China's Bingyu Wang 7-4 in Sunday's final. The victory helped Jones avenge two earlier losses to Wang, who had a marvellous week to reach the championship but was outplayed by the two-time Canadian champion for most of the gold-medal game.

Jones had a simple answer for how it felt to be a world champion.

"Pretty darned good," said Jones. "I can't even begin to describe it. You always dream of it, and you never know how many chances you're going to get.

"I thought we went out and controlled that game. I thought we deserved it today."

Jones, lead Dawn Askin, second Jill Officer and third Cathy Overton-Clapham became the first Canadian team to win the title on home ice since Marilyn Bodogh in 1996. The victory will also take some of the sting away from the team's fourth-place finish at the 2005 world championship in Paisley, Scotland.

Jones said her team had a good idea early on that things would go in their favour.

"I knew it from the moment we had our practice that we were going to come out and play well," said Jones. "We get a feeling about our team, and we knew it from the moment that we stepped on the ice."

Officer said she knew even earlier.

"I woke up and I had those butterflies," said Officer. "It's a good sign. My dad tells me if you're not nervous, then you're not ready. I had those good butterflies, and they were flying formation, so it was a good sign."

For Wang, lead Yan Zhou, second Qingshuang Yue and third Yin Liu, the second-place result was equal parts unexpected and impressive. The Chinese have played in just four world championships, and came into the tournament having finished no better than fifth.

Wang wanted to win gold, but was more than happy to settle for silver.

"We hoped we could win the game," Wang said. "I said before the game, Canada is really a strong team, so (for us) it was just to enjoy it here. This is our first time."

China's runner-up performance all but assures the country a berth in the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver - something that means more to Wang than finishing second here.

"It's not so popular, not so many people play this game," she said. "I hope we can make curling more popular, so more people will know about it and play it."

Jones's foursome opened the tournament looking like they might go unbeaten - just as they did in their final eight games of the Scotties Tournament of Hearts. The team faced its share of struggled as the tournament progressed, developing the bad habit of falling behind by multiple points early in games.

In most cases, they fought back to win - and no comeback was bigger than the one they staged Saturday, stealing points in the 10th and 11th ends to stun Japan 9-8 in the semifinal.

Given Jones's mistake in Canada's first game against China - it was her missed draw in the 10th end that gave Wang the victory - it seemed fitting that her final shot gave Canada its golden moment. Jones threw her arms in the air as her shot caromed off a Chinese guard, clinching the victory.

She scurried over to her teammates to exchange hugs as the sellout crowd of 3,004 at the Greater Vernon Multiplex stood and cheered.

Wang, 23, showed composure beyond her years, opening the competition with seven straight victories and leading her team to a 7-5 win over Canada in the semifinal game. Playing in front of a vocal crowd at the Greater Vernon Multiplex on Sunday, Wang showed flashes of greatness but ultimately struggled to keep pace with the more experienced Canadians.

Jones said she wasn't surprised by China's success on the world stage.

"They play a ton of bonspiels in Canada, and they do well," said Jones. "This is great ice for China, because they get a lot of late movement off their rocks. We weren't surprised at all."

Playing without the hammer, Jones defended well from the start. After Wang played her first shot around her own guard but rolled a shade too far, Jones sent her final shot into the rings to protect Canada's shot stone. That forced Wang to draw to the button for one.

Wang followed with one of her bigger gaffes of the tournament. Attempting to clear a Canadian stone out of the house, she jammed it on one of her own stones to leave Canada lying two. That left Jones with a draw for three, and she made no mistake.

Wang suffered another hiccup in the third end, failing to roll her shooter out of the rings while attempting a blank. Jones did the same thing one end later, settling for one point and a 4-2 lead.

Canada limited the Chinese to a single again in the fifth after Jones made a fantastic takeout with her final shot, forcing Wang to draw for one.

The sixth end saw the teams load the house with rocks - up to nine sat in the rings at one point. Jones capped the wild end with her best shot of the game, playing a double-raise takeout to score two as the crowd erupted.

The teams traded singles in the eighth and ninth ends, and Canada ran the Chinese out of rocks in the 10th to ignite the celebration.

© The Canadian Press, 2008

Nerdiness not linked to glasses, study says

(CBC) - Sporting a pair of glasses doesn't necessarily indicate a nerdy personality, an Australian study says.

The study, published in the March edition of Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, discounts the long-held view that people who are short-sighted, or myopic, are socially withdrawn and conscientious, traits often associated with nerds.

"The long-held view that myopic persons are introverted and conscientious may reflect intelligence-related stereotypes rather than real correlations," wrote the researchers from the University of Melbourne's Centre for Eye Research Australia.

The researchers studied 633 individual twins and 278 family members with myopia and rated them on five personality traits: extroversion, conscientiousness, openness, agreeableness and neuroticism.

"All those 278 people came from families with myopia so if we're going to find something that's a personality trait, then you think it would be in those families," lead author Paul Baird, an associate professor, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"But we couldn't find anything associated with introversion, conscientiousness or passiveness."

They concluded there was no link between wearing spectacles and having an introverted or conscientious personality.

However, the researchers did find a small, but "significant, association between short-sightedness and agreeable personalities, but only in the twin samples.

A link between myopia and openness, which the researchers correlated with intelligence, was more pronounced, the study said.

"In multivariate analysis with age, sex, education, and the five personality factors entered as predictors, openness was the only significant personality predictor of myopia in both samples," the researchers wrote.

Associate Professor Nick Haslam of the university's psychology department, told the ABC that openness is one of the only personality traits that correlates with intelligence.

"People who score highly on this trait tend to have a wide range of interests, are often well-educated and widely read," he said.

So, while glasses wearers may not be as introverted and careful as stereotyped, the idea of a nerd sporting glasses and carrying a book may have some basis in reality.

With files from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Dalai Lama says "demographic aggression" is making Tibetans a minority in their homeland

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW DELHI - A Chinese government policy of "demographic aggression" is threatening Tibetan culture as increasing numbers of non-Tibetan Chinese move into the region, the Dalai Lama said Saturday.

In Lhasa, the region's ancient capital, there are now 100,000 Tibetans but twice as many outsiders, he said. The majority of those are Han Chinese, the country's ethnic majority.

"There is evidence the Chinese people in Tibet are increasing month by month," the Tibetan spiritual leader told reporters, calling the population shift a "form of cultural genocide."

He also said that a million more people are expected to be settled in Tibet after this summer's Olympics. He did not say how he received that information.

The comments from the Dalai Lama, who has been based in India since fleeing his homeland decades ago, came as diplomats were preparing to leave the Tibetan capital after a quick overnight visit. The visit was the latest move by China to show it is in control of the region after deadly anti-government protests more than two weeks ago.

Beijing blames the unrest on the Dalai Lama and his supporters.

The protests in Tibet and other regions with large Tibetan populations have brought immense unwanted attention to China and its human rights record ahead of the Beijing Olympics.

China wants to use the games to showcase itself as an emerging international power and an important player in the international community.

The Tibet protests, led by monks, began peacefully March 10 on the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule. Tibet had been effectively independent for decades before Chinese communist troops entered in 1950.

Tibetan exiles say almost 140 people have died in the recent protests. Beijing puts that number at 22.

© The Canadian Press, 2008

With Jaguar and Land Rover, India strides onto the global stage

Sam Dolnick, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW DELHI - To understand India's economic rise, look to its cars.

The iconic Indian automobile of a generation ago was the Ambassador, a noisy, boxy clunker that was ubiquitous despite its ungainly 1950s style.

Compare that to the newest Indian-owned line of cars, the famously sleek and sophisticated Jaguar, which Tata Motors, India's biggest auto company, purchased Wednesday, along with Land Rover, in a landmark US$2.3-billion deal.

The vehicle upgrade could be a metaphor for the transformation the entire country has gone through in recent years, as the so-called "License Raj" - the stifling state-run socialist system widely blamed for shackling India's economy - came to an end, giving rise to a new middle-class whose appetite for consumption has reshaped India and spurred a national economic boom.

Now, Indian companies are taking that money and shopping overseas for acquisitions as part of a strategy meant to announce India's arrival on the global stage, break into new markets and keep the profits rolling in.

"It's a matter of survival," said Ashutosh Goel, an analyst with the brokerage firm Edelweiss Capital. "To succeed and thrive you have to be a serious global player and not only focused on the domestic market. You can't remain a purely Indian player."

Nearly all the leading corporations here - including Reliance Industries Ltd. and outsourcing company Wipro Ltd. - are looking overseas, and news of Indian acquisitions of brands from Europe, the United States, Asia and Africa has become common.

Many see the newfound assertiveness as a reflection of the general feeling in India that the once-stagnant underachiever now belongs among the international elite.

"Indian companies have been in the mood for overseas purchases for a few years now and that coincides with the boom in the economy and the general feel-good factor here," said Anjana Menon, an editor at Mint, a leading Indian business newspaper.

At the same time, the robust economy and looser regulations have attracted widespread foreign investment, increasing competition here and forcing Indian companies to expand overseas to seek sales, analysts said.

Beyond Tata Motors, the crowded car market includes the Maruti Suzuki Ltd. - majority owned by Japanese automaker Suzuki Motors Corp. - South Korea's Hyundai Motor Ltd., Japan's Honda Motor Co. and U.S. automakers Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp.

International companies are interested in more than selling just cars, however. Coca-Cola Co., which was booted out of India in the 1970s to make way for the local brand Thums-Up, came back in 1993, after the economy opened to foreign investment, and now owns the former rival. In gleaming new malls across India, customers can choose between German washing machines, Korean air conditioners and Japanese televisions.

Tata Group, the country's oldest and largest conglomerate, is the most striking example of an Indian company on an acquisition spree. With roughly 100 companies in everything from salt to software, it has led the charge that has made India an international player.

The group has emerged from its own economic doldrums with high-profile moves like the purchase of British steelmaker Corus Group for $13 billion, as well as tea, hotel and automobile companies.

Tata's acquisitions have sparked an outpouring of national pride.

"The Empire Strikes Back!" was one of many headlines Thursday that trumpeted the purchase of Jaguar and Land Rover, brands founded in Britain, India's former colonial power.

The economic rise can be traced back to 1991, when India began shifting toward a market economy. The boom was led by the outsourcing and technology sectors, which forged a connection between Indian companies and overseas markets.

The new opportunities gave rise to an educated and ambitious middle class, which has lustily embraced consumer culture.

"The middle class Indian from a decade ago was more of a saver and he's a spender now," said Menon. "There's a generational shift and there's more money in people's wallets and they're freer to spend."

Companies like Tata have reaped giant profits that freed them to pursue acquisitions. In five years through March 2007, Tata's annual group sales more than doubled to $29 billion, not including Corus Group. The capitalization of its 27 listed companies rose six-fold, to $78 billion

"Bankers are looking where they can put their money and (Tata is) a sure thing, they're not even a bet," said Tarun Das of the Confederation of Indian Industry.

Tata announced the Land Rover and Jaguar acquisition with very little fanfare, apparently anticipating anti-India backlash. In a sign of how the times have changed, Indian companies that once lobbied the government for protection against foreign competition now find themselves battling protectionist sentiments abroad.

Tata is paying Ford with a 15-month, $3 billion loan but expects to replace that financing with a mix of equity and debt during the next several months, said C. Ramakrishnan, Tata's chief financial officer.

Some analysts are skeptical about how the luxury brands will fit into Tata's portfolio and whether going into debt to pay for the deal makes sense amidst fears of a global recession.

But many of Tata's big-ticket acquisitions were derided initially and went on to be praised by analysts. It's other purchases include Britain's Tetley Tea, Boston's Ritz Carlton Hotel, Eight O'Clock Coffee, Glaceau flavoured waters and South Korea's Daewoo Commercial Vehicle Co.

Other corporations looking overseas include the Aditya Birla Group, which has bought companies in cement, metals, telecommunication and textiles. Last year, Reliance Industries bought Malaysia's leading polyester producer, Hualon Corp, while Wipro bought New Jersey-based Infocrossing Inc.

"Every large and small Indian company is looking at overseas corporations," said analyst Goel.

© The Canadian Press, 2008

Having a big belly in your 40s could lead to dementia later: study

(CBC) - Sporting a significant belly and over 40? A study finds that by the time you reach your 70s, you could be at an increased risk of dementia.

When researchers at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, Calif., measured the bellies of 6,583 people between the ages of 40 and 45 and then followed up 36 years later, they found that 16 per cent or 1,049 participants had been diagnosed with dementia.

Those with a large belly and who were overweight were 2.3 times more likely to develop dementia than those with a normal weight and belly size. Obese participants who had a large belly were 3.6 times more likely to develop dementia, the study found.

Overall, a large belly increased the risk of dementia in all participants - of normal weight or obese - and regardless of existing health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and stroke.

Belly size was measured with a caliper and measured the distance from the back to the upper abdomen and midway between the top of the pelvis and the bottom of the ribs.

Weight was calculated using Body Mass Index, a calculation based on a person's weight-to-height ratio. A BMI of 18.5 to 24.9 was considered normal while a BMI of over 30 was considered obese.

The initial measurements were taken by researchers in 1964 to 1973. The medical records of the participants were assessed for a diagnosis of dementia between January 1994 and June 2006.

Researchers aren't sure why belly fat may play a part in the onset of dementia. "It is possible that insulin resistance could be a confounder in the association between midlife central obesity and dementia," reads the study. However, the authors point out that they did not measure insulin resistance, the way the body processes insulin, and cannot verify this.

They also theorize that sporting a large belly could result in a "lifetime exposure to an altered metabolic and inflammatory state" that is associated with a cognitive decline.

The study was published Wednesday in the online issue of the journal Neurology.

100 influential Indo-Canadians in B.C.

British Columbia is unique in the world for the vibrancy and diversity of its people. When the results of the latest census are released next week, it is anticipated that four in 10 Metro Vancouver residents will be counted as visible minorities. Today The Vancouver Sun is looking at one important community that has more than a century of history in British Columbia. South Asians with roots in India, Pakistan, Fiji, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Tanzania and Bangladesh number in the hundreds of thousands in B.C. and have exerted a positive and energetic influence on business, community, the arts, media and political life. Those on the list are diverse and vibrant as the province itself.

The Vancouver Sun undertook to identify 100 leading citizens from a truly global mosaic of communities hailing from South Asia. Diversity and inclusiveness are the dual tracks of this list. From hundreds of names taken from the panoply of South Asian leaders, academics, community workers, artists, journalists, thinkers, speakers and doers, we have crafted a list of influential men and women in British Columbia.

www.vancouversun.com/influential

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

Canada's big banks show humble face as credit crisis wears on

David Friend, THE CANADIAN PRESS
TORONTO - Canada's biggest banks, cast into gloom after a long period of brilliant earnings, are displaying some humility after months of uncertainty, surprises and writedowns tied to troubled credit markets.

"When you look at the history of banks around the world, they are phenomenal profit machines - except that every five to seven years they figure out a way to blow themselves up and set themselves back," Ed Clark, chief executive of Toronto-Dominion Bank (TSX:TD), told an industry conference Wednesday.

"If you can just avoid those errors you in fact have the best investment you can find around the world," said Clark, who heads the only major Canadian bank that has dodged writedowns directly related to the U.S. structured debt turmoil.

Clark was among top bank executives who addressed the issue of the drawn-out impact of the credit crunch at a financial services conference Wednesday hosted by the National Bank (TSX:NA).

The banking sector has been ravaged by investors worried that problems at international institutions could increasingly ripple into Canada.

The Toronto Stock Exchange financial sector has fallen about 18 per cent from its peak in October, and the troubles of international banks are keeping analysts cautious.

After months of multibillion-dollar writedowns by Citigroup, UBS and other global players, a new research report from Oppenheimer and Co. cut first-quarter profit forecasts for American banks by 84 per cent on average.

"I have been struck by how many wounded players there are out there," Clark said.

"I'm less confident today that this will cure itself quickly. There is a chance that it could happen in the second half, but I think there's equally a chance that it will take the full period of 2008 to cure itself."

However, Bank of Montreal (TSX:BMO) chief executive Bill Downe predicted that summer will bring "a shift back to the focus of people on the future and where the best investment opportunities will be" on the broader market.

"There's enormous stimulus coming in the U.S.," Downe said. "I think maybe the thing to focus on is the combination of the resolution of many of the issues that individual banks have."

The wrenching reduction of asset valuations on international credit markets "was a necessary step," Downe added. "The risk-return balance was not there - we all know that."

Royal Bank CEO Gord Nixon said his bank had some regrets about its approach to credit.

"Are there areas that I wish we stayed away from? Absolutely," he said.

But "being a bank, people forget that we're in the credit business. It is impossible to be a bank or a financial institution and not be long-credit."

He added that despite the market troubles, Royal Bank hasn't given up on exploring the possibility of acquisitions, even if they are probably unlikely at this point.

"I'm not sure that our shareholders would be supportive, even at today's prices and today's economic environment," he said.

"We're certainly spending some time looking at what sort of bolder opportunities might be available out there."

CIBC (TSX:CM) chief executive Gerry McCaughey kept most of his comments focused on reworking the bank's risk operations, which have come under sharp scrutiny. The bank took the biggest writedowns of Canadian financial institutions, worth nearly $3 billion at the end of the last quarter.

"We've gone through our risk management group, and our risk management policies and practices and we're reviewing all of those to make sure that they're completely up to date with evolving industry practices," he said.

"Over the course of the near future we are going to stay very focused on balance sheet strength, as long as the environment remains as uncertain."

McCaughey also revealed that the bank has a total exposure of US$25 billion to monoline insurers.

The amount was larger than most analysts expected, but it was also more diversified, which suggests CIBC would face less risk if one insurer were to run into trouble, and the bank had to writedown the losses.

The CEO also said that the bank won't consider buying back any shares in the near future.

"The marketplace has shown that there can be surprises out there and I want to make sure that before we engaged in a buyback that we were absolutely certain that we had it down pat," he told analysts.

The current attitude of the bank executives shows that while there's some hope a recovery is near, reality suggests it could take some more time.

"The conditions that they're staring into looking forward are looking quite dismal over the very near term and I suspect that everyone is just waiting with baited breath to see just how low the U.S. economy will swing," said Brad Smith of Blackmont Capital.

"That will obviously have implications for their business by itself. It's not a time to be overly optimistic."

© The Canadian Press, 2008

CBC kills radio orchestra

Vancouver-based group last of its type in North America

Lloyd Dykk, Vancouver Sun

VANCOUVER -- The Vancouver-based CBC Radio Orchestra -- the last radio orchestra left in North America -- is dead. The head of CBC Radio music, Mark Steinmetz, flew from Toronto Thursday to tell the orchestra's 35 freelance musicians that the orchestra will be disbanded in September, key players in the Vancouver music scene said. Steinmetz met with the musicians at a late afternoon meeting at the Georgian Court Hotel, which is near the downtown CBC building. Reporters were barred from the meeting. Colin Miles, head of the Canadian Music Centre, an organization that promotes Canadian composers, said his understanding was that Steinmetz considered axing the orchestra an internal CBC matter and had no plans for a public meeting following the session.

The CBC Radio Orchestra was founded by John Avison in 1938 and has had an illustrious history. It originally consisted of 25 musicians and was increased to 35 in 1952. Its other conductors were the Englishman John Eliot Gardiner and Mario Bernardi. Quebec's Alain Trudel has held the reins of the orchestra for the past two years. The orchestra does only eight concerts a year, but that's irrelevant, Miles said. "If they're costing so little, why get rid of it when it's a national treasure?"

Richard Kurth, head of the University of B.C.'s school of music, called the loss of the orchestra "a tragic event, both culturally and economically, for the musical life of the region and of the nation." He said he feels that being the last radio orchestra in North America has to be put in context -- radio orchestras continue to play vital roles in European nations, he said, and that shows people do listen to them. "The CBC is apparently planning to use the money to record and broadcast other Canadian orchestras," Kurth said. "We ... have to wait to see whether they would actually do that, beyond the degree to which they already do.... They were cutting the orchestra just as it entered a period of renewed vitality with a dynamic new conductor."

"This is the most important orchestra in the country, with a 70-year history," Miles said. "What the CBC is doing to their mandate is what [U.S. President George] Bush is doing to the constitution." After news of the CBC meeting leaked, Miles organized a rally of local musicians in the lobby of the Georgian Court Hotel. The approximately 40 people who showed up included musical heavyweights such as Bramwell Tovey, conductor of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and music lovers such as Mary Lou Henley, one of the city's top arts patrons.

As former CBC Radio Orchestra cellist Ian Hampton described it, the loss of the orchestra was only the next logical step in the "dumbing down" of the public network.
The loss of the orchestra comes as little surprise to Vancouver's music community. In recent months, the CBC has killed such classical music shows as Music for a While and In Performance.

© Vancouver Sun 2008

Bush talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao about the crackdown in Tibet

Terence Hunt, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush called China's President Hu Jintao on Wednesday and raised concerns about the crackdown in Tibet, joining a growing chorus of international protests about Beijing's tough tactics.

The White House said Bush encouraged Hu to engage in "substantive dialogue" with representatives of the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet. The president also called on China to allow access for journalists and diplomats in Tibet.

China's crackdown in Tibet is in response to the most sustained uprising against Chinese rule in almost two decades, a challenge that has put China's human rights record in the international spotlight, embarrassing and frustrating a Communist leadership that had hoped for a smooth run-up to the Olympic Games.

The White House has said that Bush would not boycott the Beijing Olympics because of the crackdown, arguing that the games are an event that are supposed to be about the athletes, not politics.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has suggested he might boycott the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Sarkozy, visiting the Houses of Parliament in London on Wednesday, said France and Britain should struggle together for human rights and religious and cultural identity. Sarkozy called for dialogue between China's government and the Dalai Lama.

China on Wednesday showed some signs of relenting, allowing the first group of foreign journalists to visit Lhasha, the regional capital, since the violence began. The reporters were taken to Potala Square, below the Potala Palace, the traditional seat of Tibetan rulers, which reopened Wednesday for the first time since March 14. Then reporters were taken a few blocks away where many shops had been burned out during the rioting.

An account of the talks by Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency, said Hu told Bush that protests in Tibet were by no means "peaceful demonstrations" or activities of "non-violence."

According to the account, Hu said that "no responsible government would sit by and watch when faced with this kind of violent crime, which gravely violated human rights, seriously disrupted social order, and seriously endangered the safety of public life and property."

Bush's conversation with Hu also covered Taiwan, North Korea and Mynanmar.

Bush said the election in Taiwan of Ma Ying-jeou, who has promised to defuse tensions and expand trade with China, would provide "a fresh opportunity for both sides to reach out and engage one another in peacefully resolving their differences."

Xinhua said Hu voiced appreciation to Bush of the oft-stated U.S. position of a one-China policy that opposes Taiwan independence or a referendum on Taiwan's UN membership.

On a separate issue with Taiwan, China was angered that the Pentagon had mistakenly shipped secret nuclear missile fuses to Taiwan more than 18 months ago and did not learn about the error until last week. It was not known whether that issue was discussed.

Bush and Hu pledged to work together with other partners to press North Korea to make a complete and accurate declaration of all of its nuclear weapons programs and to complete a promised disarmament, the White House said.

Earlier Wednesday, the foreign ministers of the United States and South Korea said Wednesday that patience is running out over North Korea's failure to hand over a promised declaration of nuclear weapon efforts. Pyongyang was to provide a list that was due at the end of last year. The late declaration has bogged down six-country disarmament talks.

On Myanmar, Bush expressed his concern that the ruling junta of the Southeast Asian country intends to hold a referendum that was drafted without input from democratic or ethnic minority groups.

"He discussed with President Hu the need for the Burmese leadership to make changes to the referendum process to make it free, fair, and credible to the Burmese people and the international community," the White House said.

© The Canadian Press, 2008

New Pakistani PM says government will talk to militants

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan will fight terrorism as its top priority but will also negotiate with militant groups "willing to lay down their arms," its new prime minister said Saturday.

Yousaf Raza Gilani, in his first policy speech, also said the government would seek to reinstate judges ousted by President Pervez Musharraf last year - a move that could prompt a showdown with the U.S.-backed leader.

"We are confronting many challenges, but we are not afraid of these challenges, and we will face them," Gilani told lawmakers.

Parliament elected Gilani on Tuesday, six weeks after opposition parties triumphed in elections that have restored democracy after eight years of military rule under Musharraf.

Underlining the transformation of Pakistan's political landscape, lawmakers on Saturday gave a unanimous vote of confidence to Gilani, a loyalist of assassinated former premier Benazir Bhutto.

In a gesture to Western nations concerned that Musharraf's decline could result in an easing of Pakistan's efforts to counter al-Qaida and Taliban militants entrenched along the Afghan border, he announced that "fighting terrorism" was his government's "top priority."

"The war against terrorism is our own war," Gilani told lawmakers, who repeatedly thumped their desks in approval as he outlined his priorities.

But he also said authorities were "ready to hold talks with those who will lay down their arms" in order to restore peace.

Gilani promised to develop the impoverished frontier region's economy and abolish criminal codes dating back to British colonial rule that contribute to its isolation.

However, he gave no indication whether his government was prepared to negotiate with hardcore militants blamed for a wave of suicide attacks in Afghanistan and, increasingly, in Pakistan.

Deputy U.S. Secretary of State John Negroponte cautioned on Thursday during a visit to Pakistan that some militant groups were "irreconcilable" and had to be fought.

Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party and that of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif finished first and second in Feb. 18 parliamentary elections, trouncing Musharraf's political allies.

The country faces gathering economic problems, including double-digit inflation, electricity shortages and deteriorating state finances. Gilani announced a government austerity campaign, including restricting the size of cars driven by ministers.

But Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto's widower and political successor, also want the new government to deliver quickly on a politically explosive pledge to restore Supreme Court judges ousted by Musharraf.

Gilani said his government would "work for" that goal, but didn't explain how it would be achieved.

Musharraf declared emergency rule and purged the court last November to forestall legal challenges to his re-election as president the previous month.

Musharraf retired as army chief only in November.

Sharif, who was ousted as prime minister and exiled after the 1999 coup, is pushing hard for Musharraf's resignation. Party lieutenants say parliament could impeach him if he doesn't resign.

"Musharraf is part of the problem in Pakistan, and he can't be part of the solution," Chaudhry Nisar, a leader of Sharif's party, told reporters outside parliament on Saturday.

"Only after his removal from office, can Pakistan move forward on the road to prosperity and democracy ... Under no condition are we prepared to work under Pervez Musharraf," he said.

Musharraf, a stalwart ally of the U.S. in its war on terrorism, appears increasingly isolated.

Negroponte promised after talks with Pakistan's old and new leaders that Washington would not interfere in the country's politics to save Musharraf.

Still, he was cautious on the new government's hopes to talk peace with some of the pro-Taliban militant groups battling Pakistani and U.S.-allied forces in the Pakistan-Afghan border region.

Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaida suspects are believed to be hiding in the frontier region, which has seen a spike in U.S. airstrikes in recent months.

© The Canadian Press, 2008

Union urges CRTC to curb internet interference by Bell, Rogers

(CBC) - BY PETER NOWAK - The battle for who controls the internet in Canada has begun in earnest with a national labour union urging the CRTC to curb traffic interference by Bell Canada Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc.

The National Union of Public and General Employees, which represents more than 340,000 workers across the country, on Friday wrote to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to investigate the practice of "traffic shaping" and its impact on internet users.

"These internet service providers are, with little or no public accountability, implementing measures that will discriminate against the use of legal software for legitimate uses. This is unacceptable," wrote union president James Clancy. "The continued silence on these matters by the CRTC and the Canadian government violates the trust the Canadian people have placed in you."

The union wants the CRTC to enact rules prohibiting ISPs from discriminating against certain uses of the internet, such as the file-sharing protocol BitTorrent, which is used by many to share large video files. Bell and Rogers have for some time been quietly shaping traffic, or slowing these uses by limiting how much speed they get.

A spokesman for the CRTC said the regulator was aware of the complaint but had not yet officially received it. The agency, which decided against regulating the internet in 1999, is currently reviewing its jurisdiction over new media and will issue a report in May.

NUPGE's complaint was spurred by two events in the past week. On Tuesday, Chatham, Ont.-based Teksavvy blew the whistle on the fact that Bell was expanding its traffic-shaping policies to smaller ISPs, like itself, that rent its network. The following day, a large number of users complained on the CBC's website that their download of the TV program Canada's Next Great Prime Minister using BitTorrent was slow. Many pointed the finger at traffic shaping by Bell and Rogers, the country's two largest ISPs.

The union said the ISPs' actions are undermining the position Canada has built over the years as a leader in high-speed internet deployment and use, as well as the intent and function of the internet itself.

"The internet has the great potential of democratizing information and access to it," said national representative Len Bush. "In some ways, this looks like a threat against that."

A spokesperson for Rogers declined to comment.

No outrage, Bell says

Bell spokesman Jason Laszlo on Friday reiterated the company's position -that it was shaping traffic in order to prevent a small portion of bandwidth hogs from slowing speeds down for all customers.

He said there has been no backlash from customers, despite the incidents of the past week.

"Nothing has changed as far as our position in what we're doing," he said. "We're ensuring that all of our customers get a fair and equal share of the bandwidth."

Teksavvy chief executive officer Rocky Gaudrault said the decision to throttle speeds shouldn't belong to the company renting out the network, but rather to the firm providing services to customers.

"If there is to be throttling, it should be at the ISP level," he said. "It should not be before it gets to us."

Experts also say there is plenty of capacity left on the networks - a fact Bell admits to - so the traffic-shaping is being done merely to interfere with internet applications the companies see as threats to their own businesses.

"I would challenge that they are running out of capacity," Gaudrault said. "But even if that's the case, then let's revisit the actual costs and charge accordingly instead of doing these other tactics that potentially undermine the marketplace and the future of technology on the internet."

NUPGE's complaint also came a day after New Democrat MP Charlie Angus called on Industry Minister Jim Prentice to take action on keeping the internet neutral.

“Jim Prentice cannot turn a blind eye while the telecommunication companies decide which lanes of digital traffic will be deliberately filled with potholes," he wrote on his website. "These actions have serious implications for Canada’s innovation agenda. Protecting net neutrality is a fundamental cornerstone in encouraging the development of a true knowledge economy.”

Angus told CBCNews.ca that consumers are being ripped off, innovation is being stifled and the service providers are making out like bandits while the government and CRTC stand idly by.

"We need to set some clear ground rules around how much power the telcos are going to have in rewiring the internet," he said. "There are anti-competitive questions and also questions about consumers getting ripped off when they sign up for promises of maximum bandwidth and then that bandwidth gets throttled down."

"This is the ultimate way of shutting down the innovation agenda in Canada... we can't let these companies arbitrarily decide who has access and who doesn't."

Government is silent

Bush said NUPGE also wrote to Prentice in late February urging an inquiry, but the union has not yet received any significant response from the minister.

Prentice's spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.

Canada is behind the United States in dealing with the net neutrality issue. Last month, a neutrality bill was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives while Comcast Corp., the largest U.S. ISP, was hauled in front of the Federal Communications Commissions regulator to answer for its own traffic-shaping practices, which it had previously admitted to.

Comcast on Thursday pledged it would stop interfering with traffic and invest in technology to better handle traffic by the end of the year, but FCC chairman Kevin Martin said he would continue to monitor the company.

Industry analysts said Comcast's reversal of course was directly linked to the threat of regulation - a stick that needs to be waved in Canada.

"It's textbook," said University of Ottawa professor Michael Geist. "Once there's regulatory writing on the wall, there's often a move from some companies to take matters into their own hands and address some of the concern."

"The CRTC has been virtually silent and the government has shied away from this issue, which has in some ways emboldened the Bells and the Rogers to engage in the kinds of activities that they are."

While net neutrality has been a slowly simmering issue, it has exploded over the past week because of a confluence of events catalyzed by the slow downloads of the CBC's TV show, Geist said. Offering a program over the internet circumvented the traditional distribution model, which hits both Bell and Rogers - and their respective television services - in the pocketbook.

"We've almost had the perfect storm of issues arise over the past week in Canada," he said. "The CBC using BitTorrent as a method for distribution has helped crystalize many of the core issues of net neutrality."

"This raises significant competition concerns."

China raises rice, wheat prices in a bid to boost production, cool inflation

Joe Mcdonald, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BEIJING - China said Friday it will pay farmers more for rice and wheat, trying to raise output and cool surg