Chinese official says no mass evacuation yet ordered in Sichuan province

William Foreman, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHENGDU, China - More than one million people may have to evacuate dozens of villages in a valley in Sichuan province if an earthquake-spawned lake threatens to burst its banks and flood the region, an emergency official warned Friday.

But the official at the Mianyang City Quake Control and Relief Headquarters described as erroneous a report by the official Xinhua news agency that a mass evacuation of more than one million people had already been ordered.

The official, who gave only her surname of Chen, said authorities were preparing to run a drill starting Saturday to ensure 1.3 million people in the Mianyang region can get out quickly if needed.

"Not all 1.3 million people will be actually evacuated," Chen told The Associated Press. "People will only be evacuated in case of the actual collapse of the whole bank."

Chinese troops were still working to drain Tangjiashan lake, which formed above Beichuan town after a quake-triggered landslide blocked a river. There was no sign that the dam formed by the landslide in the May 12 quake was about to burst on Friday, though officials say it could do so in coming days.

Chen said 197,500 people in the valley were being moved to higher ground - about 30,000 more than previously announced.

On Saturday, officials will start a three-day drill that will test government communications systems to ensure that any evacuation order - if it comes - quickly filters down to residents in the valley.

Soldiers were using 40 heavy earth-moving machines to dig drainage channels. Officials quoted in state media have not said how long the work would take.

The confirmed death toll from China's worst quake in three decades was 68,858, the government announced Friday, an increase of about 350 from a day earlier. Another 18,618 people were still missing.

In the chaos after the magnitude 7.9 earthquake, which made five million homeless, many survivors were separated from their families.

Thousands of children and parents who had been separated have been reunited, officials said Friday, while the government has been inundated with requests from families to adopt other children orphaned by the disaster.

Social workers have helped bring together more than 7,000 children and their families since the earthquake struck Sichuan province May 12, said Ye Lu, director of social welfare at the provincial Civil Affairs Department.

"A little more than 1,000 children remain unclaimed or orphaned," Ye said.

The government has been overwhelmed with calls seeking to adopt those children, Ye said.

"We are still getting thousands of calls per week asking about how to adopt, but we are still hoping to find the parents of these 1,000 kids," he said.

Millions are living in tent camps or prefabricated housing being erected by troops, which were taking on the tone of new villages.

In Mianzhu, hospitals, schools and even a makeshift shopping mall had emerged in a tent camp, with stores selling shampoo, shoes, beer and clothes.

A mobile medical centre on the back of a tractor-trailer rig was providing free eye exams. About 50 people - mostly senior citizens and children - lined up for the checkups.

"I've never had my eyes checked before. Even before the quake. This is the first time," said Yu Xiaoling, a 54-year-old farmer who lost her home in the quake.

But some residents were longing for the comforts of home.

"Life is really good here, but we don't have a TV. The things I miss most, though, are my stuffed animals. I lost them when our home collapsed," said Fang Ming, a 10-year-old girl standing outside her tent peeling an orange with the sharp edge of a chopstick.

Also on Friday, government officials in Tokyo said Japan would not use military planes to deliver relief goods to China after Beijing voiced uneasiness over the idea.

China had been in talks with Tokyo about using Japanese military planes to deliver aid, which could have become the first significant military dispatch between the two countries since the Second World War.

But Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said Tokyo would not insist on using the military.

Japan invaded China and conquered large parts of it in the 1930s before being defeated by the Allies in 1945. Many Chinese still strongly resent Japan for its military aggression.

© The Canadian Press, 2008

SKorea resuming U.S. beef imports despite protests sparked by mad cow fears

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SEOUL, South Korea - South Korea plans to resume imports of U.S. beef despite fears of mad cow disease that have led to large street protests.

Agriculture Minister Chung Woon-chun says the government is easing quarantine regulations on U.S. beef in accordance with an April 18 agreement with Washington.

The new rules will take effect in a few days after they are published in a government journal.

Thursday's announcement was the final administrative step necessary to resume U.S. beef imports.

It has been delayed several times in recent weeks amid anti-government protests calling for scrapping the deal.

© The Canadian Press, 2008

Africa, Japan pledge to tackle food crisis

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
YOKOHAMA, Japan - African leaders, Japan and development organizations agreed Friday that there is an urgent need to boost agricultural productivity in Africa and pledged to tackle the widespread impact of soaring food prices.

Participants closing a three-day African development conference said they aim to double rice production in Africa in 10 years and expand irrigated land by 20 per cent in five years.

They called for more research into drought-resistant crops and for Africa to tap into the agricultural prowess of countries like Japan.

African leaders said they welcomed Japan's plan to establish a $10 billion program to help developing countries modernize their industries and address climate change.

Participants outlined three priority areas for the next five years: stimulating economic growth, ensuring "human security" and addressing environmental issues.

They promised to improve roads and power facilities, promote private-sector trade and investment, expand health care and education, and develop an effective framework beyond 2012 on climate change.

"The Conference took place against the backdrop of a rapidly changing Africa determined to take responsibility for and to assert ownership over its own destiny: and an Africa increasingly confident and capable, itself, of determining that destiny," they said in a joint declaration.

The parties praised Africa's increasing political stability, improved governance, strong economic growth of 5 per cent a year and rising levels of foreign direct investment.

Still, they recognized that the continent faces serious hurdles such as "widespread poverty and unemployment in rural and urban areas coupled with rapid population growth."

The parties urged the Group of Eight nations, whose leaders will convene in northern Japan in July, to honor their previous commitments to Africa and strengthen coordination with the continent.

Hosted by Japan, the Tokyo International Conference on African Development, or TICAD, began in 1993 and has been held every five years since then. This week's gathering was its largest yet, drawing some 2,500 delegates from 50 African countries, international organizations and other governments.

© The Canadian Press, 2008

Peru signs free trade deals with Canada and Singapore

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LIMA, Peru - Peru has signed free trade deals with Canada and Singapore as part of its push for such trade pacts - despite opposition from other Andean nations.

President Alan Garcia said at a ceremony at the presidential palace Thursday that he wants Peru to be Latin America's gateway for Asian trade.

Peru also wants trade agreements with other countries, including China and European nations, Garcia said.

Chile is the only other Latin American country with a free trade deal with China.

Peru's pursuit of its own trade accords has irritated some of its partners in the Andean Community regional trade group.

Leftist Bolivia and Ecuador are more wary of free trade deals with developed nations.

Last week, Peru petitioned the Andean Community to allow each member country to make its own intellectual property laws.

Peru needs tighter patent and trademark standards to comply with a free trade deal that was approved by U.S. Congress late last year.

Ecuador and Bolivia voted against Peru's request.

© The Canadian Press, 2008

Japanese scientists create microscopic noodle bowl using nanotechnology

Mari Yamaguchi, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TOKYO - Engineers in Japan have created a noodle bowl so small it can only be seen through a microscope.

Mechanical engineering professor Masayuki Nakao and his students at the University of Tokyo created the tiny bowl in a project aimed at developing nanotube-processing technology.

Nakao says it has a diameter of just one-thousandth of a millimetre.

The Japanese-style ramen bowl was carved out of microscopic nanotubes.

Nanotubes are tube-shaped pieces of carbon, measuring about one-ten-thousandth of the thickness of a human hair.

Carbon nanotubes are being explored for a wide range of uses in electronics and medicine because their structure endows them with powerful physical properties such as strength greater than steel.

The microscopic bowl was first created in December 2006, but the experiment was only disclosed Thursday after being entered in a microphotography competition last week.

The ramen bowl experiment included a string of "noodles" that measured one-five-hundredth of a millimetre in length, with a thickness of one-50,000th of a millimetre.

"We believe it's the world's smallest ramen bowl, with the smallest portion of noodles inside, though they are not edible," Nakao said.

The hardest part was to keep the noodles from rising upright from the bowl "like alfalfa sprouts," he said.

"The achievement was mostly for fun," he added.

The Canadian Press, 2008

Chinese soldiers evacuate villages under flood threat from quake-created dams

Audra Ang, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MIANYANG, China - About 80,000 people were evacuated Tuesday from downstream of an unstable earthquake-created dam that is threatening to collapse, and troops rushed to carve a trench to drain the water before it floods the valley.

The threat of flooding from dozens of lakes swelling behind walls of mud and rubble that have plugged narrow valleys in parts of the disaster zone is adding a new worry for millions of survivors.

More than 30 villages were emptied and the people were being sent to camps like the one outside Jiangyou, where an Associated Press reporter saw 12-15 people crammed into each of about 40 government-issued tents pitched on a hillside overlooking the river.

"We were told that so far it is the safest place for us to stay if the dam of the lake crashes," said Liu Yuhua, whose village of Huangshi was one of those emptied. "But we will have to move farther uphill if the situation turns out to be worse."

Troops on Tuesday used explosives to blow up tree stumps that were hampering heavy-duty excavators that were airlifted by helicopter in recent days to the newly formed Tangjiashan lake near the town of Beichuan, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

The magnitude-7.9 quake that struck Sichuan province May 12 sent a mass of dirt and rocks tumbling in the valley about three kilometres above the town in a spot not reached by roads, plugging a river that is now forming the lake.

Elsewhere in the region, workers also used explosives to level some buildings that were left teetering by the quake, a further sign that officials have stopped rescue and recovery efforts in some places.

The number of deaths from the quake climbed toward an expected toll of 80,000 or more. China's cabinet said Tuesday that 67,183 people were confirmed killed, with 20,790 still missing.

Aftershocks continued to rattle the region, causing more damage and injuries and jangling the already-frayed nerves of survivors. Two temblors Tuesday caused more than 420,000 houses to collapse in Qingchuan county, Xinhua reported. Sixty-three people were injured, including six who were critically hurt.

The U.S. Geological Survey measured a magnitude-5.2 aftershock just after 4 p.m. and one measuring 5.7 about a half-hour later.

In a live broadcast, state television showed heavy earth-moving equipment being used to carve a 180-metre channel to drain the water from the Tangjiashan lake.

"We are prepared to get rid of the trees by chopping and explosion. After that, the second batch of equipment will be moved in," Liu Ning, chief engineer at the Ministry of Water Resources, was quoted as saying on CCTV.

Downstream, officials rushed to evacuate people in the path of potential floodwaters. Xinhua said emergency workers laboured into the night to try to get 80,000 people out. Another group of about 80,000 have already been moved out of the valley, it said.

At Tangjiashan lake, hundreds of troops were working around the clock to dig a channel that would divert the rising waters before they breach the top of the rubble wall. Officials fear the loose soil and debris wall could crumble easily if the water starts cascading over the top, and send a torrent flooding down into the valley.

The lake now holds 130 million cubic metres of water and was rising by more than one metre every 24 hours, Xinhua reported.

Tangjiashan is the largest of some 35 lakes created by rubble blocking rivers in the quake zone. Some rising floodwaters have already swallowed villages, though only Tangjiashan was posing a risk of another big catastrophe.

Adding to the urgency, thunderstorms were forecast for parts of Sichuan this week, a foretaste of the summer rainy season that accounts for more than 70 per cent of the 60 centimetres of rain that falls on the area each year.

Man-made dams in the mountainous region were also weakened by the quake, although officials said there is no major threat.

At one dam site near the town of Mianyang, villagers workings in nearby rice fields said cracks had appeared in the dam wall after the quake but that government workers had reinforced it with steel rods.

In the town of Yingxiu, explosives were used to demolish some damaged buildings, a new element to the massive cleanup operation. Teams have been pulling down creaky buildings across Sichuan using mostly excavators, bulldozers and other heavy machinery.

Also Tuesday, health officials said higher-than-normal rates of stomach pains and fever had been reported among the millions of quake survivors, but that no major disease outbreaks had occurred.

About five million people were left homeless by the quake, and many are living in tents or makeshift camps clustered throughout the disaster zone.

Qi Xiaoqiu, the director of disease prevention at the Health Ministry, said the quake had knocked out much of the region's health infrastructure. He said 12 field hospitals had been erected and tens of thousands of health professionals sent into the zone.

"With the destruction by the quake, the living and sanitary conditions have worsened for the local population," Qi said in Beijing. "Their physical conditions are weakened, (they are) more vulnerable to disease."

Diseases such as tuberculosis, hepatitis and diarrhea remained a threat, but so far no outbreaks had been reported, he said.

© The Canadian Press, 2008

MPs, including Tories, sign up to view controversial sex comedy

Bruce Cheadle, THE CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA - Parliamentarians on the front lines of Canada's culture wars are girding themselves to watch Young People ... Fuddle-duddling.

A special screening of the provocatively titled movie, "Young People F**king," is set for Thursday night in downtown Ottawa and more than 40 MPs, Senators and their staff and guests have signed up for a viewing.

Among an early list of RSVPs obtained by The Canadian Press are four Conservative MPs. The list included three Liberal MPs and two New Democrat MPs, including Bill Blaikie, an ordained minister. Several Liberal Senators are on the list as are staff from every party on Parliament Hill.

The sexual comedy-relationship movie has become a lightning rod in the debate over proposed Conservative legislation that would give the federal government the power to deny tax credits to Canadian movie and TV productions it deems "contrary to public policy."

While Canada's multibillion-dollar TV and movie production industry has been screaming censorship, proponents responded that taxpayers simply shouldn't be funding such subject matter.

At least one prominent Conservative blogger recently posted an internal Parliament Hill memo from the office of Liberal MP Mark Holland seeking any extra tickets to the event.

The posting drew a number of outraged responses from conservative readers, who suggested only depraved Liberals would want to view the film.

"Given all the attention and controversy, I think we'd be well advised to go see it," Holland said in an interview Monday. "Oftentimes in our society, things are condemned that nobody ever sees."

Holland said it's "fabulous" that several Tories will be in the audience.

"It has a shocking title but I think people should look beyond that - what is the actual value of the movie?" said Holland.

"I hope a lot more Conservative members take up the offer and see it."

None of the four Tory MPs on the list - Patrick Brown, Gary Goodyear, James Lunney or Carol Skelton - were immediately available for comment. But Brown's office later said he would be in his Barrie, Ont., riding on Thursday and was not planning to see the movie.

© The Canadian Press, 2008

China's one-child policy makes exceptions for victims of deadly earthquake

Cara Anna, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BEIJING - Parents whose only child was killed or maimed in China's earthquake would be allowed to have another, officials who administer the country's one-child policy in part of the disaster zone said Monday, offering some solace to grieving couples.

Couples whose only child was killed, severely injured or disabled in the quake can get a certificate allowing them to have another child, said the Chengdu Population and Family Planning Committee, which oversees the policy in the capital of Sichuan province.

The May 12 quake was extra painful to many Chinese because it killed so many only children. The destruction of almost 7,000 classrooms during a school day left China heartbroken, with newspaper photos focusing on piles of dusty book bags and small hands emerging from the debris.

The earthquake has killed more than 65,000 people, and with more than 23,000 missing the toll is expected to rise further. Officials say they haven't been able to estimate the number of children killed.

A Chengdu committee official, who gave only his surname, Wang, said the one-child policy exceptions were being made specific to quake victims. He described his comments as clarifying existing policy rather than announcing changes, and he would not elaborate.

Though commonly called a one-child policy, the rules already offer a welter of exceptions and loopholes, some of them put into practice because of widespread opposition to the limits.

For example, in large parts of rural China, most families are allowed a second child, especially if the first was a girl. Local officials often have wide discretion on enforcement, a fact that has made the policy susceptible to corruption.

Chen Xueyun is among the parents who could be affected. His eight-year-old son, Weixi, was killed when the family's apartment in Qingchuan collapsed. Chen said he searched three days before finding the boy's body. He wears his son's blue plastic watch, as a reminder.

Chen said Monday's announcement could offer parents some hope after their grief subsides.

"If they are still sad and depressed, it's impossible to talk about another baby," he said. "But in the future, it could be quite helpful for them."

Monday's announcement affects the city of Chengdu, which has 10 million people, as well as two of the hardest-hit cities nearby, Dujiangyan and Pengzhou. The committee plans to help about 1,200 of the worst-hit families, but that number could change, Wang said.

It wasn't clear whether other cities in the quake zone, including Qingchuan, would make similar announcements. A woman answering phones at the Sichuan provincial family planning office said officials are studying the issue. She didn't give her name, as is common in China.

China's one-child policy was launched in the late 1970s to control China's exploding population and ensure better education and health care. The law includes certain exceptions for ethnic groups, rural families and families where both parents are only children.

The government says the policy has prevented an additional 400 million births, but critics say it has also led to forced abortions, sterilizations and a dangerously imbalanced sex ratio as local authorities pursue sometimes severe birth quotas set by Beijing and families abort girls out of a traditional preference for male heirs.

The announcement offers a glimpse into the strict workings of the one-child system.

Couples who have more than one child are commonly punished by fines. The announcement says that if a child born illegally was killed in the quake, the parents will no longer have to pay fines for that child - but the previously paid fines won't be refunded.

If a couple's legally born child was killed and the couple is left with an illegally born child under the age of 18, that child can be registered as the legal child - an important move that gives the child previously denied rights including nine years of free compulsory education.

Many Chinese have shown interest in adopting earthquake orphans, and Monday's announcement says there are no limits on the number a family can adopt. A couple that adopts won't be penalized if they later have their own biological child.

Chen said he would like to have another child, but he hasn't spoken about it with his wife.

"She doesn't have good health, and she's afraid it would be dangerous to have another pregnancy, so I don't dare talk about it," he said. "She asked me if we could adopt a quake orphan, but I told her we should talk about it later."

© The Canadian Press, 2008

Diplomats say that China is the middleman between NKorea and IAEA

George Jahn, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
VIENNA, Austria - The U.S. has agreed to share documents on North Korea's secretive nuclear program with the U. nuclear monitor and is ready to enlist China as the middleman in the delicate process, diplomats have told The Associated Press.

At issue are 18,500 pages of documentation provided by Pyongyang earlier this month.

Washington plans to scrutinize the technical logs from the North's Yongbyon reactor to see if North Korea is telling the truth about a bomb program that it has agreed to trade away for economic and political rewards.

The U.S. probe of the North Korean records is to focus on the amount of plutonium - a key nuclear bomb ingredient - that the North has produced from spent fuel from the Yongbyon reactor.

The reactor has been shut down and is being disabled under last year's disarmament agreement between the North and its five interlocutors: the U.S., China, Russia, South Korea and Japan.

Two diplomats, speaking separately to the AP recently, said Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill agreed to the plan with Chinese officials and Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in the past two weeks.

Hill is Washington's top North Korea nuclear negotiator.

With the North mistrustful of the UN-based agency even before it kicked out IAEA inspectors and then unilaterally abrogated its Non proliferation Treaty membership in early 2003, China was chosen as a go-between, they said.

Beijing is the North's closest ally.

Both diplomats follow the North Korean nuclear issue.

They demanded anonymity because their information was confidential.

One of the diplomats said the U.S. considered the use of IAEA resources and personnel helpful in cross-checking the information provided to Washington by the North.

The documents were handed over to Sung Kim, the U.S. State Department's top Korea specialist, during a three-day visit to Pyongyang that ended May 10.

As well, he said, both Washington and the IAEA hoped that getting the agency involved would be the start of the process that would ultimately result in Pyongyang returning to the Non proliferation Treaty fold.

He said that any such sharing of the information with the agency was conditional on agreement by the North - something that had yet to happen.

Still, he speculated that Pyongyang would concur because it was interested in ultimately resuming its IAEA membership as one step in ending its international isolation.

The diplomat also said that the agency had very little documentation on the Yongbyon reactor - something that a former senior U.S. non-proliferation official expressed surprise about.

John Bolton, who has served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and U.S. undersecretary of state in charge of the North Korean nuclear dossier, said Sunday the fact that the agency had no separate documents to cross-check with the information given Washington could allow Pyongyang to "commit fraud."

© The Canadian Press, 2008

China aftershock destroys 71,000 homes and kill at least two on Sunday

Christoper Bodeen, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHENGDU, China - A powerful aftershock destroyed tens of thousands of homes in central China on Sunday, killing two people and straining recovery efforts from the country's worst earthquake in three decades.

More than 480 others were injured.

Meanwhile, soldiers rushed with explosives to unblock a debris-clogged river threatening to flood homeless quake survivors.

The fresh devastation came after a magnitude 6.0 aftershock - among the most powerful recorded since the initial May 12 quake, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The China National Seismic Network said the aftershock was the strongest of dozens in the nearly two weeks after the disaster.

The new tremor killed two people and injured more than 480 others, 41 seriously, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Some 71,000 homes that had survived the original quake were levelled, and another 200,000 were in danger of collapse from the aftershock that caused office towers to sway in Beijing.

Before the aftershock, the cabinet said the confirmed death toll from the disaster had risen to 62,664, with another 23,775 people missing. Premier Wen Jiabao has warned the number of dead could surpass 80,000.

A mudslide caused by the aftershock blocked a road, but Xinhua said no serious landslides were reported.

Previous landslides loosened by the quake jammed rivers across the disaster area, creating 35 new lakes that placed 700,000 survivors in jeopardy of floods, Vice Minister of Water Resources E Jingping told reporters in Beijing.

The biggest concern was the new Tangjiashan lake in Beichuan county, where some 1,600 police and soldiers were hiking with 10 kilograms of explosives each to blast through debris.

Hazy weather prevented helicopter flights to the area, and forecasts for rain increased the risk that lakes could overflow.

Rain will "not only cause the amount of water going into the lakes to increase, but also influence their normal structure, so the situation is quite serious," said Vice Minister E.

"It is a daunting task because of the unpredictability of when the barrier lakes will burst."

About 20,000 people have been evacuated from the disaster area due to the flood risk, and the total relocated could rise to 100,000, said Liu Ning, chief engineer at the Ministry of Water Resources.

The ministry also said 69 dams in Sichuan are in danger of collapse from quake damage, but reservoirs have been drained to lessen the risk.

Authorities have said the world's largest water project - the Three Gorges dam, located about 350 miles east of the epicentre - was not damaged.

Elsewhere in the disaster zone, people ventured cautiously back to homes to retrieve belongings, but some decided the risk of entering damaged buildings was too great.

In Hanwang, 58-year-old Zhang Heqing was carrying a handful of plastic bags and had planned to go into his apartment block, but the coal mine employee said he had second thoughts.

"I just don't dare to go in," he said. "I live on the fifth floor and the staircase is blocked and you can't even open the doors."

Down the street, retiree Huang Huimei, 75, and her husband were busy stacking pots, pans, chairs and bed boards in a pile for movers to take to the provincial capital of Chengdu, where her son lives.

Her building remained standing but had serious cracks and was not safe for habitation.

She had spent most of the time since the quake caring for her 95-year-old mother.

"I don't know if we'll be back," she said as her husband handed her part of a cooking stove through the front window of their ground-floor apartment.

More than 15 million homes were destroyed in the disaster, and the Chinese government has appealed for tents to help shelter survivors.

Meanwhile, one of two pandas missing since the quake from a major preserve for the endangered animals in Wolong, near the epicentre, was sighted Sunday.

The panda, named Xixi, disappeared before staff could reach it, but was believed safe. The search will continue Monday.

© The Canadian Press, 2008

Hidden strings attached to feds' pledge to match donations for Myanmar, China

Joan Bryden, THE CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA - The federal government's offer to match Canadian donations to disaster relief efforts in China and Myanmar turns out to be nowhere near as generous as it initially appeared.

Humanitarian groups have been disappointed to discover the bulk of donations they've received thus far - in the immediate aftermath of the disasters - won't be matched at all.

"It is certainly somewhat disappointing that we cannot count all the donations that we've received since the start of this crisis (in Myanmar)," said Kieran Green, communications manager for Care Canada.

"Nevertheless, matching funds certainly will help."

When International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda announced the matching funding May 15, she made no mention of any strings attached.

"Today, I am announcing that our government will match the contributions of Canadians to humanitarian organizations working in Burma and China," she told the House of Commons.

"Let me assure all Canadians our government will do our share of the international effort and ensure that our help does get to the victims and their families."

However, details subsquently posted by the Canadian International Development Agency revealed the government will match only those individual donations received by aid groups between May 15 and June 6.

That excludes all the donations that poured in immediately after the devastating May 2 cyclone in Myanmar, also known as Burma, and the May 12 earthquake in China.

Typically, humanitarian groups say the flow of donations is greatest within the first 72 hours of a disaster. Green said that was particularly true in the case of the Myanmar tragedy.

"In this case, particularly, we did see the bulk of our donations that we've received to date come in in that very early period and they diminished significantly by the end of the first week."

Green estimated Care and its partner groups in the Humanitarian Coalition have thus far raised about $200,000 through private donations from individuals for the relief effort in Myanmar.

He said some donors have asked Care to refund their original early contributions so they can make new donations that will be matched by the government.

The Canadian Red Cross reported it pulled in $555,500 in private donations from individuals for Myanmar and $1.1 million for China, all before May 15. Hence, none of those donations will be matched by the federal government.

Dave Toycen, president and CEO of World Vision Canada, said his group received at least $500,000 to $600,000 prior to May 15, which won't be matched by the federal government.

In the last two major international disasters - the Asian tsunami in 2004 and the Pakistan earthquake in 2005 - the federal government pledged to match donations received by aid groups starting on the very day the tragedies struck, World Vision said.

Still, humanitarian groups are reluctant to criticize the government's response to the latest disasters, noting Ottawa is providing direct funding to various relief agencies in addition to the matching funds.

Oda pledged Friday an additional $12 million for relief efforts in Myanmar, in addition to the initial $2 million kicked in by the federal government. She has also pledged $1 million to the International Federation of the Red Cross to help in the emergency response to the earthquake in China.

However belated or limited, aid groups are hopeful the promise of matching funding will encourage a second wave of donations from Canadians.

"All in all, I still have to say this is a positive thing," said Toycen.

"We know from past experience, when there is a match, it definitely lifts public giving. Even when it's further away from the onset of a disaster, our understanding with our donors is that people appreciate knowing that their gift in a sense is going to be doubled in its value."

The Canadian Press, 2008

SKoreans protesting against U.S. beef imports clash with police at 2nd rally

Kwang-Tae Kim, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SEOUL, South Korea - Hundreds of South Korean protesters clashed with riot police early Monday during an illegal rally against a beef import agreement with the United States.

Riot police at the protest in downtown Seoul beat several protesters who were taken to nearby hospitals for treatment.

A policeman "shoved me and slammed his shield into my right side, and the pain is killing me," Cho Ik-bi, 36, a businessman, told The Associated Press as he was taken to an ambulance.

A police officer at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency declined to comment on the police violence. He requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media.

Police detained 32 others for questioning, the officer said.

Early Sunday, police detained 37 other protesters at a separate rally urging the government to scrap a recent deal to resume imports of U.S. beef. Thousands of South Koreans have taken part in candlelight vigils against U.S. beef imports in recent weeks. The protesters have cited lingering mad cow disease concerns.

President Lee Myung-bak last week sought to reassure the country on the safety of U.S. beef, but failed to ease public anger, fanned in part by media reports questioning the safety of the meat.

The protest movement is among the biggest domestic challenges faced by Lee in his first months in office.

Some 700 protesters marched through the capital until the early hours of the morning. Some of them called for Lee's resignation, saying he was sacrificing public safety for his political gains.

The South Korean government was preparing to make an official announcement on the resumption of American beef imports this week.

South Korea suspended U.S. beef imports after the first American case of mad cow disease appeared in December 2003 in a Canadian-born cow in Washington state.

Restricted imports of U.S. beef reached South Korean supermarkets last year, but further shipments were canceled in October after banned parts, such as bones, were found. An agreement reached last month sought to scrap nearly all the quarantine restrictions imposed by the previous government to guard against mad cow disease.

Scientists believe mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, spreads when farmers feed cattle with recycled meat and bones from infected animals. In humans, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare and fatal malady, is linked to eating meat products contaminated with the cattle disease.

© The Canadian Press, 2008

B.C. man who runs popular file-sharing website targeted in Hollywood lawsuit

James Keller, THE CANADIAN PRESS
VANCOUVER - Five years ago, Gary Fung set up a small website in his B.C. home to let visitors search for files available through a then-emerging peer-to-peer file-sharing system called BitTorrent.

What started as a hobby project to help Fung improve his programming skills has grown into one of the largest file-sharing websites on the Internet - with five paid staff members and growing advertising revenues - and has made Fung the target of a major lawsuit launched by the Hollywood film industry.

"At first, it was a side-project to learn some of the language and databases - mostly for technical reasons," says the 25-year-old Richmond man, who started isohunt.com while studying computer engineering at the University of British Columbia.

"I hosted it off my cable modem at home, so it hardly had any traffic."

But in the years since, Fung has put his studies on hold as he maintains a website that sees 18 million visitors a month, linking them to more than 25 million files ranging from music and movies to video games and software.

Fung first heard from the Motion Picture Association of America - or MPAA - more than three years ago, when the association's lawyers wrote him demanding copyrighted movies be taken down immediately.

The MPAA launched a lawsuit in a U.S. court in 2006.

Fung says he's always been watching the long list of legal cases that have dogged other file-sharing websites, prompting many to shut down to avoid costly court battles and in several instances resulting in multimillion-dollar settlements.

But, while other websites have collapsed long before their legal cases were resolved, Fung says he intends to fight the lawsuit through the courts.

BitTorrent works differently than other popular file sharing methods.

Users download a small file - called a torrent - connecting them to a tracker, which keeps tabs on who else has a particular movie, piece of music or software program.

Instead of downloading from one computer, someone obtaining a file through BitTorrent is actually downloading small pieces from hundreds or even thousands of users, as well as also uploading small pieces themselves.

Fung's site doesn't host the actual file or do the tracking - it crawls other websites looking for the small torrent files and puts them into a searchable database.

Fung argues that sites such as his simply automate the process and don't have any control over whether users share files legally or abuse the system.

"That's really a problem with the copyright system and how people want to share things. It's a social problem, and it's far beyond what we can control," says Fung, who insists he removes material if the copyright owners follow a formal complaint process.

The MPAA, however, claims BitTorrent websites like isohunt.com exist for no other reason than to trade in pirated material.

"All of them are inducing massive copyright infringement, and they are making a lot of money doing so," says John Malcolm, the association's anti-piracy director.

"All of these films that are either being hosted by these sites or to which they are providing links or torrents, are stolen movies. They're not paying any licensing fees, there is no deal with any artists, there is no deal with any studio."

Malcolm rejects Fung's argument that he's not responsible for how people use his site, saying it's not the role of copyright holders to police the Internet and ask for their material not to be shared.

"There are a lot of sites out there where copyrighted material appears, but these are businesses that have a legitimate business model that is not exclusively premised on copyright infringement in order to work," says Malcolm.

The judge in the lawsuit is currently deciding whether to hand down a summary judgment or order a full trial.

Malcolm wouldn't explain why the MPAA is pursuing its lawsuit against Fung - a Canadian - in a U.S. court, other than to say it was free to choose from a number of jurisdictions.

But industry associations have long complained that Canada's copyright laws provide a haven for movie and music pirates without much consequence.

"Canada's laws are not up to snuff, that's been recognized by all sorts of people," Malcolm says. "With respect to laws to address online piracy, they are not what they should be."

The MPAA and Fung will both be watching how Ottawa updates Canadian copyright laws with legislation expected sometime this year.

However, University of Ottawa copyright expert Michael Geist says Canada's laws already cover many forms of illegal file sharing, and he says changes to the law likely wouldn't affect sites like Fung's.

Geist, who holds the Canada research chair in Internet and e-commerce, says efforts to paint Canadian law as weak aren't fair.

"Copyright law applies online in the same way that it does offline," he says. "While we are anticipating changes in the law, I think it would be a misnomer to suggest the Internet was a free-for-all."

Trading copyrighted movies and software is already illegal, Geist says, while it is illegal to upload - but not to download - music.

There have already been several criminal cases involving online movie piracy, but those have been against individual users, not large websites.

Under both Canadian and U.S. law, Geist says, one of the issues a court would have to weigh is how much copyright infringement is occurring, compared with legitimate uses.

"They fall in a bit of a grey zone not because the law has a shortcoming, but because their activities themselves include some that are clearly permitted under the law, and some that may involve acts of infringement," says Geist.

Geist notes file sharing systems like BitTorrent are already seeing more legitimate uses.

A national Canadian broadcasting agency recently used BitTorrent to post free downloads of its "Canada's Next Great Prime Minister" program.

"When you think of new technology, it's often the case that it takes time for the authorized uses to exceed the unauthorized uses," says Geist.

© The Canadian Press, 2008

China shortens Tibet leg of Olympic torch relay due to quake recovery

Henry Sanderson, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BEIJING - The controversial Tibetan leg of the Olympic torch relay is being cut to just one day because of the devastating earthquake in Sichuan province.

Word of the change comes from a Beijing Olympics official.

The torch's stop in Tibet - originally set for three days - has been criticized by Tibetan activist groups who see it as an attempt by Beijing to symbolize its control over Tibet.

China says it has ruled Tibet for centuries, although many Tibetans say their homeland was essentially independent for much of that time.

The cut to one day comes after the relay was stopped for three days last week as part of a national period of mourning declared by the government to honour the victims of the May 12 earthquake in Sichuan province.

The quake left nearly 63,000 people dead and almost 24,000 others missing.

The announcement also comes two months after a violent uprising in ethnic Tibetan areas throughout China led to a security clampdown in the region.

China says life is returning to normal, and monasteries are reopening in Tibet's capital, Lhasa.

But foreigners are still banned and until recently Chinese were advised to stay away.

"All I can be sure of is that the Lhasa relay has been shortened to one day," said Li Lizhi of the Beijing Olympic torch relay centre.

"It's probably either on June 18 or June 19, as is tentatively set now. But it is still open to future adjustment," she said.

Olympic organizers announced days ago that the Sichuan leg of the relay had been shifted from mid-June to early August because of the quake. The leg now will run from Aug. 3 to Aug. 5 instead of June 15 to June 18.

It was not clear if the torch relay would still go through Mianyang, one of the hardest-hit areas, as planned. The Beijing games start Aug. 8.

"It is too early to tell," said Zhang Liang, who is also with the torch relay centre. "Every city has been preparing for it very hard and we will make the final decision based on how well each place recovers."

So far the torch has had a smooth relay in mainland China, uninterrupted by the protests over Tibet and human rights that dogged parts of its international tour.

Earlier this month, Chinese mountaineers raised the Olympic torch at the summit of Mount Everest, the world's highest peak, producing the triumphant image that China has longed for in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics.

The Everest torch was separate from the main Olympic flame, which is on a three-month tour of China after a one-month trip around the world.

Activists upset with Chinese government policies, especially pro-Tibet independence groups, used that trip around the world to stage protests to highlight their causes.

© The Canadian Press, 2008

Jet lagged? Next time skip airplane food: study

(CBC) - Skipping airplane meals and fasting for an extended period of time may help ease travellers' jet lag, suggests a U.S. study on circadian rhythms.

Lead researcher Patrick M. Fuller of the Beth Deaconess Medical Center in Boston theorizes a food-based clock overrides the standard light-based regulator in animals when food is scarce.

"When food is plentiful, circadian rhythms of animals are powerfully entrained by the light-dark cycle," said the study published in the May 22 issue of Science.

"However, if animals have access to food only during their normal sleep cycle, they will shift most of their circadian rhythms to match the food availability."

Researchers studied the interplay between the light-driven and food-based clocks in genetically altered mice.

"For a small mammal, finding food on a daily basis is a critical mission. Even a few days of starvation, a common threat in natural environments, may result in death," the study said.

"Hence, it is adaptive for animals to have a secondary "master clock" that can allow the animal to switch its behavioral patterns rapidly after a period of starvation to maximize the opportunity of finding food sources at the same time on following days."

The shift is a survival mechanism in small mammals that forces them to change their sleeping patterns, Fuller suggests. One starvation cycle is enough to override the traditional light-based circadian clock, the study suggests.

"This new timepiece enables animals to switch their sleep and wake schedules in order to maximize their opportunity of finding food," said researcher Clifford Saper in a release. Saper said the findings could prove relevant to shift workers and travellers.

"A period of fasting with no food at all for about 16 hours is enough to engage this new clock," says Saper. "So, in this case, simply avoiding any food on the plane, and then eating as soon as you land, should help you to adjust - and avoid some of the uncomfortable feelings of jet lag."

CIBC likely to face more writedowns as Canadian banks cleanup from subprime

David Friend, THE CANADIAN PRESS
TORONTO - Only one of Canada's biggest banks has forewarned it will post more credit crisis-related charges when reporting earnings next week, which some analysts say could mark the beginning of the end for big bank writedowns.

That doesn't mean the banks are completely in the clear, at least for the second quarter - the usual suspects are still on the radar for potential writedowns.

What remains to be seen is whether the charges they report have already been built into their flagging share prices.

So far, only Royal Bank (TSX:RY) has stepped forward to say that its earnings will be hit by $855 million in writedowns during the second quarter.

However, other banks could be facing even deeper charges tied to troubled credit markets, particularly the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (TSX:CM).

"The pressure is mounting for CIBC to have a meaningful loss in the quarter," said Brad Smith of Blackmont Capital. "We would imagine a reserve loss in or around a billion (dollars) or greater."

CIBC has faced a rash of writedowns totalling around $3 billion since the credit crisis emerged last summer.

Last week, rating agency Moody's downgraded monoline CIFG by seven notches, potentially leaving the bank open for an additional writeoff worth $617 million before tax on its fair-value exposure, Smith said.

CIBC has said it has $628-million of notional subprime mortgage-related exposure to CIFG, and $1.5-billion of non-subprime insurance at the insurer.

Other analysts went with less conservative estimates for CIBC's potential writedown. Merrill Lynch's Sumit Malhotra expects a charge of up to $2 billion for the quarter.

He noted that investors will have a comparatively muted response to the earnings because writedown expectations have already been built into the stock price.

"While we certainly agree that there are additional charges to be taken, the 'surprise' factor of new disclosures appears to have lessened," Malhotra said in a note.

"On an individual bank basis, we expect that each of the six large-cap banks will produce results that are flat-to-down versus their performances in the second quarter 2007."

The banks start reporting results on Tuesday with a busy, but brief, earnings schedule. Both Scotiabank (TSX:BNS) and Bank of Montreal (TSX:BMO) kick off the season.

On Wednesday, TD Bank (TSX:TD) issues its results, and CIBC reports on Thursday alongside National Bank (TSX:NA) and Royal Bank.

BMO might emerge from earnings season the least scathed, because the bank is "arguably best positioned to deliver a better-than-expected second quarter earnings performance," Smith said.

The bank has endured a year of nasty writedowns that started last spring with gas trading losses, months before the credit crisis spread across the industry.

A trend that's likely to stretch across all of the Canadian banks is the reeling in of frequent dividend increases, said John Aiken of Dundee Securities.

"Given that capital is at a premium, any increase in dividends will not likely be large. Further, we would see more banks ignoring the pattern of increasing dividends at least every second quarter."

When the quarterly reports wrap-up, this bank earnings season could become known more for what the banks avoided, rather than what was on the books.

"I view this quarter as being the transition period, or inflection point, where we move from the writedown era more so into the credit quality era," said Craig Fehr, a financial services analyst with Edward Jones in St. Louis.

"The next big earnings story for the banks is going to be provisions and reserves for credit losses and how deep of an impact that has on earnings growth."

Fehr said banks with U.S. exposure are going to feel a deeper impact from credit losses because of the more difficult retail banking and mortgage climate south of the border.

Royal, BMO and TD Bank all have U.S.-based operations.

© The Canadian Press, 2008

Wireless spectrum auction to bring consumers more cellphone choice

Luann Lasalle, THE CANADIAN PRESS
MONTREAL - Consumers are expected to be the winners in the coming year with more choice and better prices after Canada's cellphone market gets a shot of competition.

New players and networks will enter the market as a result of the federal government's wireless spectrum auction, which starts on Tuesday.

"Ultimately, you will get more choice," said analyst Troy Crandall.

"That means more competitive prices for everyone as well," said Crandall of MacDougall, MacDougall and MacTier in Montreal.

The multimillion-dollar auction has 26 players, many of them new entrants, bidding for licensing rights for the airwaves that wireless networks need to operate over.

A 105-megahertz band of spectrum is being auctioned off and Ottawa has said proceeds from the auction will be used to pay down the national debt.

About 40 per cent of the available spectrum is being specifically reserved for new entrants into Canada's cellphone market.

That means new entrants won't have to outbid Rogers Communications Inc. (TSX:RCI.B), BCE Inc. (TSX:BCE) and Telus Corp. (TSX:T) for that section of the spectrum because the three wireless heavyweights will be bidding on the remaining spectrum access that's open to all participants.

The auction is expected to last for three to five weeks and participants will bid via the Internet. Industry Canada has said that the results of each round will be made available to bidders and the public.

The availability of new spectrum will also allow carriers - either the new or established players - to provide consumers with more bandwidth-heavy services like video streaming on cellphones.

"Possibly next summer you could start to see the beginnings of these companies coming out with offerings, maybe even May or June of next year," Crandall said.

But Crandall said consumers shouldn't expect discount prices.

Rather than "aggressive pricing," new companies will come out with "more innovative" pricing plans that aren't already being offered, he said.

At least one new entrant is looking to reshape Canada's multibillion-dollar cellphone market.

Toronto-based Globalive Communications Corp., best known for its Yak long-distance calling service, wants to build a new network and offer competitive prices.

Globalive CEO Anthony Lacavera has said there's plenty of room for other players.

"We don't necessarily think it has to be a price war," Lacavera said recently.

He also said Canada is behind in market growth in cellphones.

"Canada is lagging developing and developed countries, so we think there's a great opportunity to participate in the growth of the market and introduce new features and technologies."

Wireless subscribers in Canada now number 20.1 million, which is about 62 per cent of all Canadians, said Marc Choma of the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association.

It is somewhat lower than some other countries, but Choma said Europe and the United States adopted the use of cellphones several years before Canada. Canadians also are "spoiled" by top-quality land lines at affordable rates, he added.

Strict federal regulations prevent foreign telecom companies from simply breaking into Canada with their own platforms and they can only invest a minority stake in a Canadian company.

The federal government recently released the list of bidders, which also includes the media subsidiary of Quebecor Inc. (TSX:QBR.B), Shaw Communications Inc. (TSX:SJR.B) and Manitoba Telecom Services (TSX:MBT).

Analyst Iain Grant said there also will be better prices from current providers.

Grant cited Koodo Mobile, which promotes talking and text messaging plans and no system-access fee.

"Koodoo is a direct shot across the bows of new entrants," said Grant of telecom consultancy SeaBoard Group.

Telus registered the name Koodo Mobile last year in various provinces, along with the Web domain name koodomobile.ca.

"The real innovations will start next year and that could be as soon as the first quarter of next year, but mostly likely next summer," he said. "That's when we'll see the new players coming in."

Law professor Michael Geist said the auction is only a first step to better prices.

"We have a wireless crisis in Canada right now," said Geist, who teaches at the University of Ottawa where he holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law.

"It's widely recognized that mobile is where so much of the growth and opportunities lie and we find ourselves woefully behind the rest of the world," he said.

Canada needs to open up its market to greater foreign competition to have a really competitive environment, he said.

© The Canadian Press, 2008

Hong Kong businessman awarded $43.8 million in Las Vegas Sands case

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LAS VEGAS - A jury on Saturday awarded a Hong Kong businessman a $43.8-million judgment against Las Vegas Sands Corp., the casino giant run by billionaire Sheldon Adelson.

Richard Suen claimed he was owed up to $100 million for helping the Las Vegas-based company secure a lucrative gambling license in the Chinese enclave of Macau.

Suen said he was hired by Las Vegas Sands to win favour with the Chinese government and was successful.

Las Vegas Sands has opened two resorts in Macau's Cotai Strip area, the Sands Macao and the Venetian Macao, and has plans for at least 10 more casino properties.

It also owns The Venetian and the Palazzo casinos on the Las Vegas Strip.

Suen filed the civil lawsuit in 2004, saying that he and his company were promised a $5-million "success fee" and two per cent of net casino profits to help the company open its first casino in Macau.

Las Vegas Sands attorneys argued that Suen was owed nothing because he did not make good on his promise to aid company executives in 2000 and 2001.

The company later partnered with Hong Kong-based Galaxy Entertainment in February 2002 and was awarded one of three gambling licenses by the Macau government.

The companies couldn't reach a contract agreement, however, and the partnership was dissolved.

Macau then awarded Las Vegas Sands a subconcession, a decision that Suen's lawyers said was a result of their client's earlier lobbying.

Adelson, the 74-year-old chairman and chief executive of Las Vegas Sands, offered conflicting testimony in the trial.

He initially told jurors that William Weidner, president and chief operating officer, provided a letter to Suen seeking his assistance in doing business in Macau.

He later said Suen was never hired by the company.

The eight-person Clark County District Court jury deliberated for about a day before returning the award.

Suen's lawyer, John O'Malley, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Las Vegas Sands lawyer Rusty Hardin said the company plans to appeal the decision.

© The Canadian Press, 2008

Japan to provide rice aid to ease global food crisis

Mari Yamaguchi, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TOKYO - Japan will release some of its huge stockpile of rice to help ease the global food crisis, sending some 20,000 tonnes to five African countries in coming weeks, a government official said Thursday.

The rice, less than one per cent of Japan's 2.23 million surplus tonnes, is part of a $50 million emergency food aid plan to be endorsed by the Cabinet on Friday, said Shigeru Kondo, a Foreign Ministry aid official.

The total aid package - which includes grains, beans and other foods in addition to rice - will be disbursed in 12 countries, including Afghanistan, by international relief agencies such as the World Food Program.

Japan's decision to open up its rice warehouses comes as prices of the grain and other staples have jumped around the world, sparking violent protests in some countries.

"Rice prices are skyrocketing, even though prices of wheat and other crops have somewhat subsided," Kondo said. "Our aim is to make effective use of our resources for those who are in dire need of food relief."

The $50 million package is the first half of a $100 million relief plan Tokyo announced in April.

In addition to the aid package, Japan is considering a request by the Philippines to sell it some 200,000 tons of imported rice to ease rising global prices.

The stocks will mostly come from rice imported by Japan from the United States under international trade rules, so Tokyo needs to first iron out details with Washington as the exporter, said a second Foreign Ministry official on condition of anonymity, citing protocol.

U.S. Ambassador Thomas Schieffer praised Japan's consideration of rice exports to the Philippines.

"The United States welcomes the news that Japan is considering extraordinary measures to respond to this uniquely critical situation," he said in a statement Friday.

Agricultural officials from Japan and the U.S. are meeting in Washington later this week "to address the impact of high rice prices on the global market," he added.

Japan's stockpile includes 1.52 million tonnes of imported rice from the U.S., Thailand and Vietnam in the compulsory "minimum access" annual purchase under the 1993 WTO agreement. The rest of the stockpile is domestic rice.

The rice is kept in warehouses under a government program to maintain high domestic prices to protect Japanese rice growers.

© The Canadian Press, 2008

B.C. politicians vote unanimously to apologize for 1914 Komagata Maru incident

Dirk Meissner, THE CANADIAN PRESS
VICTORIA - B.C. politicians marked the 94th anniversary of an event some called a stain on Canadian values by voting to offer an apology Friday for the treatment of South Asian passengers who were denied entry to Canada after arriving at Vancouver harbour.

It was May 23, 1914 - mere months before the start of the First World War - when the Komagata Maru arrived carrying 376 people. Most of them were Sikhs from India's Punjab province and considered British subjects.

But they were denied entry to Canada, and after being anchored in Vancouver's Burrard Inlet for about two months, the Komagata Maru returned to India, only to be met with police gunfire and about 20 deaths.

Relatives of some of the ship's passengers were at the B.C. legislature Friday to witness what they called a historic healing gesture on behalf of the provincial government.

"My dad's uncle, he was on the ship," said Surinder Sharma, of Victoria. "He used to tell us stories when we were kids in the1950s, early '60s, and they seemed like bedtime stories at that time."

"I had no idea what they went through," Sharma said, his voice shaking. "But now, I'm much pleased today."

Jaswinder Toor of Vancouver said the British Columbia apology provides closure for many people who have been waiting decades for official declarations from governments about the injustices the passengers aboard the Komagata Maru endured.

"My grandfather was on the Komagata Maru," said Toor, president of the Descendants of the Komagata Maru Society. "They were not allowed to get off the ship. After two months, they were told to go back."

Toor said his grandfather often spoke about the Komagata Maru incident after his return to India.

"This event was a sad story," he said. "When I was a child, I heard him talking. My grandfather passed away when I was 12, but I heard about Komagata Maru, about how harsh the conditions were and what they went through."

Politicians on both sides of B.C.'s legislature made emotional statements during the debate of Motion 62, offering apologies for what they called a dark chapter in the country's history.

Liberal House Leader Mike de Jong looked up at the packed gallery of the B.C. legislature and said the government was offering an apology for the injustices suffered by the Komagata Maru's passengers, who were refused the opportunity to make Canada their new home.

Part of his message was spoken in Punjabi, and translated into English it said: "Forgive us, you are welcome."

Opposition House Leader Mike Farnworth said B.C. needs to acknowledge the difficult periods of its history, like the denial of entry into Canada for the passengers of the Komagata Maru, in order for the province to understand where it stands today.

"It is a period in our history that is important we don't forget," he said.

Liberal backbencher John Nuraney said the Komagata Maru incident is a stain on the ethics and values Canadians hold dearly. He said it is the duty of Canadians to be vigilant as they guard against acts of racism.

"Have we really eradicated racism?" Nuraney said.

Earlier this week, Ottawa offered an apology for what has become known in Canadian history as the Komagata Maru incident.

The House of Commons voted unanimously to support a private member's bill introduced by a member of the Liberal Opposition.

Brampton-Springdale MP Dr. Ruby Dhalla introduced the apology motion.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is reportedly expected to make a formal apology and the Conservative government is planning $2.5 million in grants for a Komagata Maru memorial.

B.C. Attorney General Wally Oppal said what happened to the people on board the Komagata Maru is unimaginable today, and the B.C. government has now acknowledged the racism encountered by the passengers and apologized for their suffering.

"The cry of the day was that Canada was a white man's country," he said. "Many had come here to make Canada their home. They all had dreams to come here."

B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell was on a trade mission is Asia and was not in the legislature for the apology debate.

© The Canadian Press, 2008

Quake mutes protests of Beijing Olympics, 'turned things around' for China

Stephen Wade, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BEIJING - China's deadly earthquake may have saved the Beijing Olympics.

Just a few weeks ago, International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge described the games as "in crisis." They were being battered by pro-Tibet protests, health concerns about Beijing's noxious pollution, and calls for boycotts tied to China's support for Sudan.

The May 12 earthquake changed everything.

"I'm sorry to say it, but this has turned things around," said Gerhard Heiberg, a member of the IOC's executive board member and its marketing director.

After the tragedy in Sichuan province, the games are now riding a wave of goodwill - a feeling that the government's propaganda machine had failed for months to generate.

Of course, 11 weeks remain before the Olympics begin on Aug. 8, and another unexpected event could change everything. Politics still loom, and some athletes are still expected to use the games to speak out on political issues like Darfur and Tibet.

"What the earthquake has done ... it has essentially pushed the coverage of the preparations for the Olympics to the margins, temporarily," said Phelim Kine, Hong-Kong based Asia researcher for Human Rights Watch.

"But that coverage and focus will quickly return in the days and weeks ahead."

"The media will move on from this immediate focus on the humanitarian tragedy in Sichuan, and there will be space for other stories and other coverage," he said.

At a track and field event that opened Thursday at the 91,000-seat National Stadium - the games' centrepiece known as the "Bird's Nest" - donation boxes for quake victims dotted the venue, and people were using them.

Activist groups grudgingly acknowledge that China's state-controlled media - by allowing uncharacteristic openness in 24-hour earthquake coverage - have shaped the news agenda and gained sympathy for a catastrophe that has killed more than 55,000 people.

Instead of criticism, China is receiving wide-ranging praise for its quick earthquake response.

Known for its secrecy, the government has let earthquake coverage flow more freely, with less censorship in an era of quick-moving text messages and the Internet.

State-controlled China Central Television has produced nonstop coverage of the disaster. The government initially allowed more aggressive news reporting, most dealing with the government's rapid response, heroic rescues and grieving.

"Maybe the Chinese government hasn't had time to think about it, but later it may come to realize that, compared with the state-controlled media, the words from the ordinary people at the grass roots are more convincing and influential," said Luo Qing, who teaches at Beijing's Communication University of China.

Hoping to carry the momentum into August, the government has sent high-profile former Olympic gold medalists Gao Ming (diving), Yang Yang (speedskating) and Deng Yaping (table tennis) into Sichuan province to boost the morale for thousands of orphaned children surviving in tents.

Trained in China's high-powered sports schools, the superstars have also shown formidable psychological skill, visiting the injured in field hospitals, or leading pep rallies for those displaced people taking shelter in tented camps.

"We really don't see that we have been outmanoeuvred by the government," said Matt Whitticase, a spokesman for the Free Tibet Campaign. "Obviously, the earthquake has been awful, an act of God that no one could have predicted."

Other Olympics have been run principally by the host city. The Beijing Olympics are directed by China's communist government, and they've been designed to be colossal - a statement about the country's rising economic power.

IOC officials met this week in Beijing and entertained ideas about some kind earthquake commemoration during the opening ceremony. Athletes and citizens seem to favour it. One such commemoration took place at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics when the flag from the World Trade Center was displayed.

"The protocol for an IOC ceremony is very strict and formal, and it has to be," said Kevan Gosper, a senior IOC member and vice-chairman of the IOC co-ordination commission, which works with the Beijing organizers.

"On such an issue that has affected a host country, I believe that the president of the IOC would have a very open mind and listen to the advice coming from Beijing organizers."

Gosper said China's earthquake disaster may be recognized during the opening ceremony, but he cautioned that the IOC "in principle tried to avoid ceremonial events referring to tragedies around the world." He said there were too many, and some group always feels left out.

Beijing organizers have declined to talk openly about specific changes they might make to the Olympics. But newspaper editorials and bloggers have been suggesting that a commemoration for the dead would help set the tone for the 17-day games. Some has even suggested that a quake survivor should light the Olympic cauldron on Aug. 8.

"I think it would be great if there were some program about the earthquake during the opening ceremony," said Mo Yingbin, a speaking on the street in central Shanghai. "It's very good to let the world know about the pain, the love and the tragedy the earthquake brought to us."

Following a three-day mourning period, the Olympic torch relay resumed Thursday in Ningbo, an eastern port city that greeted the restart with a minute of silence.

Organizers also announced a rejigged relay. Instead of mid-June, the torch will pass through earthquake-ravaged Sichuan province on Aug. 3-5 - just days before the opening ceremony.

"Frankly, few people care about the torch relay these days," said Jiang Dongfang of Shanghai.

"The earthquake killed so many people and caused so much damage. I think it should be a part of the Olympic opening ceremony," she said.

© The Canadian Press, 2008

Ticketmaster executive says Beijing Olympics to sell out

Elaine Kurtenbach, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SHANGHAI, China - Olympics athletes in Beijing this August will compete in packed stadiums, with tickets selling out for all events - even those that are not traditionally as popular, Ticketmaster's president for China predicted Friday.

Jonathan Krane, whose company is the official ticket provider for the Games, said he was confident all 6.8 million Olympic tickets will be sold, though he would not say exactly when.

"We predict that this will be the first Olympics that it's a 'sold out' Olympics," he said in an interview.

Some sports, like basketball, are surefire sellers. Others, like modern pentathlon and team handball, are less popular. The 2004 Athens Olympics sold only about two-thirds of 5.3 million tickets available.

But China has an obvious advantage over some other hosts, with its 1.3 billion people, many of them full-fledged sports fanatics.

"Certain events are always sold out during the Olympics, but I think that to have every event sold out, that's something that's very positive and it doesn't always happen," said Krane, who became president of Ticketmaster China last year after it acquired Emma Entertainment, a China-based ticketing and promotions company he set up in 2004.

Earlier this month, Olympics organizers announced that domestic-sale tickets for events in Beijing were sold out. Tickets for some events in other cities, such as soccer tournaments in Shanghai and equestrian events in Hong Kong, were still available.

Beijing's Olympics ticketing got off to a rocky start last fall when the computer system meant to handle it crashed, forcing organizers to revert to a lottery system to sell tickets.

Organizers reported 27 million hits in a one-hour period during the last round of online domestic ticketing, but the system held up.

Overall, the Beijing Games will generate about nine million tickets, but a large chunk is set aside for the International Olympic Committee, sponsors, dignitaries and TV broadcasters - cutting the total available to the public.

After test events at some sites, the 7.2 million tickets originally planned for public sale was scaled back to 6.8 million. The Beijing organizing committee has said some tickets will likely be available at ticket booths around sports venues during the Games.

The Olympics sponsorship was the first major move into China for Ticketmaster, a unit of New York-based IAC/InterActiveCorp.

"Having this look like the first sold out Olympics ever, it's a very positive experience for everybody," said Krane, who later Friday ran a leg of the Olympic torch relay in Shanghai.

West Hollywood, Calif.-based Ticketmaster bought a controlling stake in Emma Entertainment in April 2007, hoping to tap into its niche in promoting international concert performers.

© The Canadian Press, 2008

Travel to Canada hits record low

CBC News
The number of foreign visitors to Canada in March was the lowest since record-keeping began in 1972, Statistics Canada said Tuesday.

About 2.26 million visits to this country were recorded that month, down 12.6 per cent from the same month a year earlier.

A big drop in American visitors was behind the decline. Only 730,000 same-day car trips were made by U.S. motorists in March. That was down 2.5 per cent from the month before and a 24 per cent plunge from a year ago as the price of gas, a high Canadian dollar and a weak U.S. economy kept Americans close to home.

The number of overseas visits fell by three per cent to 384,000.

"Travel declined in eight of Canada's top 12 overseas markets, with the strongest decreases in travel from Mexico, Germany and Hong Kong," said Statistics Canada.

Canadians, on the other hand, were showing no reluctance to travel, as the number of out-of-country trips rose in every category.

Canadians made 2.1 million same-day car trips to the U.S. in March, up 1.5 per cent from February and an increase of 9.5 per cent from year-ago levels.

The total number of trips to the U.S. rose to 3.8 million.

"The level of Canadian travel to the United States observed in the past six months has been the highest since 1998," Statistics Canada reported.

Overnight plane trips to the U.S. hit a new record high for the fourth month in a row.

Travel by Canadians to countries other than the U.S. also hit a record high.

India's Reliance signs $1B-worth of deals with Hollywood

India's Reliance Big Entertainment has signed deals with the production houses of top Hollywood stars George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Nicholas Cage to co-produce movies, the company said Monday.

The media group will provide about $1 billion to develop and co-produce films in Hollywood, company chairman Amit Khanna said at an announcement during the Cannes Film Festival in France.

The company has signed separate deals with Clooney's Smokehouse Productions, Pitt's Plan B Entertainment, Cage's Saturn Productions, Tom Hanks' Playtone Productions, Jim Carrey's JC 23 Entertainment, as well as filmmakers Chris Columbus' 1492 Pictures and Jay Roach's Everyman Pictures, Khanna said.

"We hope to have 30 scripts from which we are looking at 10 films from this slate over the next couple of years," said Khanna, whose company is based in Mumbai.

There would be different genres of films with different financing structures, he said.

"The bigger stars have a first-look deal with Hollywood studios, so the deals could range from co-production to working with the studios," he said.

Reliance Big Entertainment is the media arm of the $100 billion conglomerate Reliance ADA Group, which also has interests in telecommunications and power.

It is owned by India's leading industrialist Anil Ambani, who was listed as the world's sixth richest person by Forbes this year.

Over the past two years, India's movie houses have signed several co-production deals with foreign studios, such as Sony and Walt Disney.

© The Canadian Press, 2008

Bank of Japan keeps interest rates steady amid worries about global slowdown

Yuri Kageyama, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TOKYO - Japan's central bank kept interest rates steady Tuesday, as widely expected, amid lingering worries about a global slowdown.

The seven-member policy board was unanimous in keeping the benchmark overnight call rate unchanged at 0.5 per cent at the end of a two-day meeting, according to the Bank of Japan.

Soaring gasoline prices, rising material costs and signs of slower global growth are weighing on the world's second-largest economy, which depends heavily on exports.

Economists predict that the Bank of Japan is likely to do nothing for about a year unless economic signs change dramatically.

During much of last year, market watchers had expected the BOJ would raise its key interest rate as Japan's economy gained steam. But the global economic turmoil set off at midyear by the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis scotched that view, and a jittery market began to expect a move in the opposite direction - a rate cut.

The Japanese economy has proved remarkably solid recently. Last week, the government said the economy grew at a stronger-than-expected 3.3 per cent annual pace in the first quarter, racking up its third consecutive quarter of growth.

Still, economists warn that export growth could stumble if overseas economies falter, and domestic spending will probably stay weak.

Bank of Japan governor Masaaki Shirakawa, who took office last month, acknowledged energy and raw material costs are expected to stay high for some time.

"We are looking closely at downside risks to the economy," Shirakawa told reporters, indicating that a rate hike was unlikely for some time.

The Bank of Japan echoed such sentiments in its economic report issued Tuesday, warning that the pace of growth was slowing because of the high prices of energy and raw materials. The language was similar to what the bank said the previous month.

Since 1999, Japan had kept interest rates generally at about zero to jump start a lagging economy. It ended its zero interest policy in July 2006.

Japanese Finance Minister Fukushiro Nukaga said higher material and oil costs remain a challenge for the world economy.

"The worst appears to be over for the global financial market," he said at a symposium in Tokyo, "but recently rising oil and food prices are making economic policy management difficult."

© The Canadian Press, 2008

Cases in adult criminal courts are taking longer to complete: StatsCan

THE CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA - A new study says cases in adult criminal courts are taking longer to complete.

It took an average of eight months to dispose of a case in adult court in fiscal 2006-07, considerably longer than the six-month average five years earlier.

Statistics Canada says the blame may lie with the rising proportion of cases involving multiple charges.

Cases involving multiple charges represented 60 per cent of the adult caseload in 2006-07, compared with 57 per cent five years earlier and 53 per cent a decade earlier.

Just over 372,000 cases were completed in adult criminal courts, down seven per cent from five years earlier.

Nearly half of the cases completed in 2006-07 involved crimes against the person (25 per cent) and crimes against property (24 per cent).

Administration of justice offences comprised 17 per cent of adult court cases, and Criminal Code traffic offences, 14 per cent.

The remaining 20 per cent involved other Criminal Code and federal statute offences.

Almost two-thirds (65 per cent) of adult cases were concluded with a guilty verdict in 2006-07. The defendant pleaded guilty in 89 per cent of them.

Criminal Code traffic offences had the highest conviction rate, at 79 per cent, while crimes against the person garnered the lowest (53 per cent).

Probation was the most frequently imposed sanction in conviction cases (43 per cent). Custody was imposed in 34 per cent of those, while 30 per cent ended with fines.

The proportion of prison sentences was up slightly from five years earlier, while the percentage of fines was somewhat lower and the proportion for probation virtually unchanged.

© The Canadian Press, 2008

Hong Kong visit by Canadian frigate underlines good relations with China

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HONG KONG - Canadian military officials say the current visit to Hong Kong by the frigate HMCS Regina is indicative of the good relationship they enjoy with their Chinese counterparts.

The Regina's captain, Cmdr. Haydn Edmundson, told reporters in Hong Kong on Tuesday that his ship didn't experience any problems in paying a courtesy call to the Chinese territory.

In fact, Edmundson says Chinese authorities even cleared them to travel through the sensitive Taiwan Straits so the Regina could avoid a storm.

Col. Chris Weicker, military attache at the Canadian Embassy in Beijing, said the Regina's port call in Hong Kong was approved in three weeks, a process that normally takes four or five.

Weicker says Canada sees the quick approval as "a sign of our good relationship."

Weicker adds that he and Edmundson were also accorded a visit Monday to the People's Liberation Army base in Hong Kong - an unusual reception for a relatively small warship like the Regina.

The Regina is visiting Hong Kong as part of a western Pacific outreach tour.

It arrive from Japan, where it took part in military exercises with Japanese and U.S. navy vessels.

© The Canadian Press, 2008

Mr. Sulu of Star Trek to wed longtime partner and business mgr, Brad Altman

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES - Star Trek's Mr Sulu says he will wed his longtime partner and business manager, Brad Altman, now that the California Supreme Court has legalized same-sex marriage.

Actor George Takei, the original Mr. Sulu on the T-V show, says on his website that he and Altman have shared their lives for more than 21 years and are "overjoyed" to be able to legally marry.

The 71-year-old Takei writes: "No more 'separate but equal.' No more second-class citizenship ... Brad and I are going to be married as full citizens of our state."

Takei, who also had a recurring role on NBC's "Heroes" last year, says he and Altman are planning the details of their wedding.

© The Canadian Press, 2008

Official death toll in Chinese quake now 40,075; five million homeless

William Foreman, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHENGDU, China - The confirmed death toll in China's massive earthquake rose past 40,000 on Tuesday even as China said it was struggling to find shelter for many of the five million people whose homes were destroyed in the tremor.

Meanwhile, rescuers pulled a 31-year-old man to safety, the second known case of someone being found alive more than week after the May 12 quake. Ma Yuanjiang was rescued from the debris of the Yingxiu Bay Hydropower Plant after a 30-hour rescue effort, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Ma was able to speak and began to eat small amounts of food, colleague Wu Geng told the agency. A miner was rescued Monday after being trapped for 170