Westerners 'programmed for fatty foods and alcohol'

Westerners could be genetically programmed to consume fatty foods and alcohol more than those from the east, researchers have claimed.

Scientists at the University of Aberdeen say a genetic switch - DNA which turns genes on or off within cells - regulates appetite and thirst.
The study suggests it is also linked to depression.
Dr Alasdair MacKenzie conceded it would not stop those moving to the west adapting to its lifestyle.
Obesity levels have risen sharply in many Western countries since the 1970s.
Dr MacKenzie, who lead the study team, told BBC Scotland they found Europeans were more inclined to consume fatty foods and alcohol - but that people from the East could end up with the same problems if adapting to a new culture.

Scientists at the university's Kosterlitz Centre said the switch controls the galanin gene.

Dr MacKenzie said: "The switch controls the areas of the brain which allows us to select which foods we would like to eat and if it is turned on too strongly we are more likely to crave fatty foods and alcohol.
"The fact that the weaker switch is found more frequently in Asians compared to Europeans suggests they are less inclined to select such options.
"These results give us a glimpse into early European life where brewing and dairy produce were important sources of calories during the winter months.
"Thus, a preference for food with a higher fat and alcohol content would have been important for survival.
"The negative effects of fat and alcohol we see today would not have mattered so much then as life expectancies were between 30 to 40 years."
'Emotional state' He explained: "It is possible that during the winter individuals with the weaker switch may not have survived as well in Europe as those with the stronger switch and as a result those in the west have evolved to favour a high fat and alcohol rich diet."
Dr MacKenzie added: "Galanin is also produced in an area of the brain called the amygdala where it controls fear and anxiety.
"Thus, changing levels of galanin in the amygdala will have an effect on an individual's emotional state. Intriguingly, the switch was also active in the amygdala."
The study is being published in the Journal of Neuropsychopharmocology.

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New technique could see end of plaster casts; By Eleanor Bradford

A Scottish surgeon has come up with a surgical technique which could mean the end of patients wearing a plaster cast for certain kinds of injuries

A Scottish surgeon has come up with a surgical technique which could spell the end of the plaster cast for certain kinds of injuries.

The technique uses an internal support which is inserted via keyhole surgery.
Plaster casts or "stookies", as they are known in Scotland, are used to keep injured limbs immobile.
But Professor Gordon Mackay wanted to find a way of avoiding the muscle-wasting and inconvenience of plaster casts, boots and slings.
The professor, from the Ross Hall hospital in Glasgow, said: "I think anyone who's had the experience of trying to put a knitting needle down the cast to get to an itch will realise that a stookie is extremely unpleasant.
"Also, when it comes off, the limb tends to be festering within and your muscles have wasted to nothing."
Ligament damage Prof Mackay uses keyhole surgery to insert a tiny piece of tape which acts as a brace over injured ligaments.
The brace allows movement but supports the ligaments while they heal.

Prof Mackay has carried out the procedure on about 20 patients in the UK

It means patients do not need to have their injured joint immobilised and recovery times are much quicker.
The technique is particularly attracting the interest of sportspeople and athletes, who cannot afford to spend weeks recovering from ligament damage.
One of Professor Mackay's patients is Olympic figure skater Sinead Kerr, who was injured when her skating partner and brother John landed on her.
"I've not had any pain since the surgery and I'm taking it step by step but it's gradually getting back to normal," she said.
"I think it really helped that I didn't have anything too rigid on my arm locking me in.
"I had something that allowed me to do that movement."
More comfortable Prof Mackay has carried out the procedure on about 20 patients in the UK and is now collaborating with the famous Steadman Clinic in the US, which has treated many injured sport stars.
He said: "If you can move much more quickly then you don't get all the secondary problems and it's much more comfortable for the patient.
"They can start the rehabilitation immediately.
"The problem we've had before is that if the joint is unstable it's uncomfortable to move and if you move it too quickly then the tissues stretch and fail.
"Here we have an internal brace which prevents the tissues from stretching but still allows you to mobilise the joint with some confidence."
However the technique is not yet available on the NHS so most people who tear ligaments can expect to continue to have to reach for the knitting needle.

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HIV medicines 'boost prevention' By Helen Briggs

HIV drugs can be used to boost protection against HIV as well as treating symptoms after infection, research suggests.

Two studies in Africa add weight to previous data showing drugs used to treat HIV can reduce infection risk when taken daily.
The World Health Organization said the studies could have "enormous impact" in preventing HIV transmission.
The findings were revealed in the run-up to an AIDS conference in Rome.
"This is a major scientific breakthrough which re-confirms the essential role that antiretroviral medicine has to play in the AIDS response," said Michel Sidibé, executive director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).
"These studies could help us to reach the tipping point in the HIV epidemic."
Future hopes One trial, carried out by the University of Washington, US, followed almost 5,000 couples in Kenya and Uganda, where one person had HIV infection and the other did not.

End Quote Lisa Power Terrence Higgins Trust

The uninfected person took a daily HIV medicine (tenofovir), a combination of two HIV drugs (tenofovir and emtricitabine), or a placebo pill.

There were 62% fewer HIV infections in the group on the single drug and 73% fewer HIV infections in the group that took the combination, compared with those given a dummy pill.
The other trial, conducted by the United States Centers for Disease Control, followed 1,200 HIV-negative heterosexual men and women in Botswana. They received either a once-daily combination tablet or a placebo. The HIV medication reduced the risk of getting HIV by about 63% overall.
A previous trial found the combination of two HIV drugs reduced the risk of infection in gay and bisexual men by 44%. But a similar study in women at risk of HIV infection in Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa produced disappointing results.
New tools The HIV charity, the Terrence Higgins Trust, described the latest findings as "genuinely exciting".
Head of Policy Lisa Power told the BBC: "Pre-exposure prophylaxis is not going to be available overnight but we are exploring whether it is one of a range of things that can drive down onward transmission of HIV."
But she stressed that the findings needed to be properly tested and trialled.
"If you're currently trying to stay HIV negative don't give up on the condoms yet."
The WHO and UNAIDS recommend that people make evidence-informed decisions on HIV prevention options.
They say no single method is fully protective against HIV and antiretroviral drugs for prevention need to be combined with other HIV prevention methods such as condoms.
"Effective new HIV prevention tools are urgently needed, and these studies could have enormous impact in preventing heterosexual transmission," said Dr Margaret Chan, the WHO's Director-General.
"WHO will be working with countries to use the new findings to protect more men and women from HIV infection."
Full details of the studies will be presented at the meeting in Rome.

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Gene link to 70% of hard-to-treat breast cancers,,By James Gallagher

A gene has been linked to 70% of hard-to-treat breast cancers which are resistant to hormone therapies, in US research.

The study published in Nature used a new technique which tested hundreds of genes at once, rather than one at a time.
Scientists said there was "a lot of potential for significant impact" if drugs could be developed.
Cancer Research UK said it would be interesting to see where the study led.
Hormones can force tumour growth, so drugs which interfere with that process, such tamoxifen and aromatase inhibitors, are used as treatments.
Up to a third of breast cancers, however, are not hormone driven, so these drugs do not work and there are fewer treatments available for these patients.
Turn off The researchers at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Massachusetts, used small, disruptive, snippets of genetic material which can turn off genes.
They injected cancerous cells with the snippets to investigate which genes were necessary for tumour formation and growth.

End Quote Dr Richard Possemato Lead researcher

They found that the gene - PHGDH -was highly active, far more than usual, in 70% of tumours which did not respond to hormone therapies.

Over expression of the gene results in the chemistry of a cancerous cell changing and is involved in the production of an amino acid - serine.
The hope is that by identifying the gene which leads to some breast cancers, a drug can be developed which interferes with its activity.
Dr Richard Possemato told the BBC: "There is a lot of potential for a significant impact if a therapy targeting the serine pathway were found to be effective.
"However, as we do not treat any patients in our study, or develop any chemical inhibitors of the pathway, it would be very premature to predict the response in the general population."
The technique used allowed researchers to analyse large numbers of genes, they said "the technological advance is one of scale".
Cancer Research UK's Henry Scowcroft said: "The more scientists delve into cancer's inner secrets, the more clues to future treatments they discover.
"This early work has identified a possible new avenue for future research into a hard-to-treat form of breast cancer, and it will be interesting to see where it leads."

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Argentina must abandon Barcelona plan

If the Titanic had reached New York it would have been just another ship ride. The fascination lies in the failure.
The thought kept running through my mind last Wednesday night as I watched Argentina ride their luck to hold Colombia to a 0-0 draw in the Copa America. The game was like an iceberg - an appropriate image given the Arctic conditions - that left the big idea of Argentina coach Sergio Batista holed below the waterline. The project to mould the national side in the shape of Barcelona will surely have to be abandoned. The slavish copy of the 4-3-3 with Lionel Messi in that false number nine position has not been a success - and the players know it.
Watching Argentina was a lot like seeing the air removed from one of those inflatable men. The team took the field swelling with hope, fanatical provincial crowd behind them, ready to show that the debut draw against Bolivia was nothing but a case of opening-night nerves. And then during the course of the 90 minutes they visibly deflated, shrinking in front of our eyes as their faith in what they were doing seeped away.
In part this is a story of the contemporary primacy of European club football, of how the outstanding teams in the Champions League are now a global reference, setting standards throughout the game.
And to be fair, Batista was perfectly entitled to attempt an imitation Barcelona. It seemed to supply an off-the-peg solution to a vital question - that of how to get the best out of Messi at international level.
There was some promising evidence in friendlies - especially the first 45 minutes away to the USA at the end of March, when Argentina looked worthy of the comparison they had set themselves.
Friendlies, though, can be unreliable witnesses. After two ineffective Copa America matches, one of Winston Churchill's pithy observations seems appropriate - however beautiful the strategy, one should occasionally stop to have a look at the results.
That time has clearly come for the Copa hosts, who, almost incredibly, are going into their final group game still scrambling around for points in order to qualify for the quarter finals - and this in a tournament where only four of the 12 teams fail to make it out of the group stage.
Tournaments are like time speeded up. Some teams fall apart, others suddenly come together, making a year's progress in half a week as the elements reform and come back together in a more effective combination. By far the biggest test of Batista's coaching career is coming up. Can he find a new formula and convince his players that he has found the way forward?
The first tactical change is obvious - the introduction of Gonzalo Higuain up front. Very, very few teams can play attacking football without a penalty-area presence. Barcelona can do it. Holland could do it in 1974.
Almost everyone else benefits from the capacity to take defenders out of the game by playing up to some sort of target man. Without such a figure there is a constant obligation to play perfect football, to have slick passing and moving in restricted spaces plus the occasional touch of genius in one-against-one situations.
Some presence in the box can also bring out the best in skilful players coming from deep, either by dragging defenders away or simply by offering a strong option for a pass - Brazil have also suffered from the absence in their starting line up of a genuine number nine.
One of the most inspired balls that playmaker Paulo Henrique Ganso gave against Paraguay on Saturday was the little slip that set up substitute Fred, the only centre forward in the squad, for the last-minute equaliser in the 2-2 draw.
So Higuain will have to come in for Argentina. So too will Angel Di Maria.
I found it difficult to understand the one change that Batista made for the Colombia game - left back Marcos Rojo dropping out, Pablo Zabaleta coming in at right back, and Javier Zanetti crossing over to the other flank.
With no Rojo and no Di Maria, Argentina were without a naturally left-footed player down that flank. Instead of creating space they played into the hands of the Colombian marking. So, to open out the field, Di Maria goes wide left, Higuain is central and Sergio Aguero can cut in from the right, with Messi free to wander behind them. Carlos Tevez is left on the bench, behind Javier Pastore as the first attacking option.
All this armchair generalship, of course, totally ignores the emotional aspect, which is so important at a time like this. Do Argentina's players and coaching staff really believe they can win the Copa with a revamped line-up - and could their faith survive some missed chances or a goal conceded?
Normally such questions would not even be raised against an experimental young Costa Rica side. But these are not normal conditions. The pressure is cranking up.
And to add spice to the occasion, the opposing coach is Ricardo La Volpe, he of the big moustache and even bigger ego. An Argentine who has done much of his coaching in Mexico, La Volpe feels something like a prophet without much prestige in the land of his birth. He would thoroughly enjoy putting one over Sergio Batista - and in explosive striker Joel Campbell he might feel that he has a potent secret weapon.
On paper, of course, Argentina should walk into the quarter finals - they were placed in Group A for precisely this reason. And they could still go on to win the Copa. But if an early goal does not come, it could be a nervy 90 minutes on a bumpy pitch in Cordoba. And should Argentina fail to make the quarter finals then Batista's immediate job prospects will be as sunk as the Titanic.
Please leave comments on this piece in the space provided. Send questions on South American football to vickerycolumn@hotmail.com and I'll pick out a couple for next week.
Q) Tim, I hardly ever read any comments about football in Chile. Based on what Argentina and Brazil have done (or haven't) in the Copa America don't you think Chile has a chance? I know Claudio Borghi is no Marcelo Bielsa, but the players are amazing and CAN make the difference, dont you find?
Eric Gamboa
A) They certainly have an exciting team - the only ones in the Copa to score three goals in their first two games. The tournament already owes them a debt! It's also something of an anomaly that they have never won the Copa - Paraguay, Peru, Bolivia and Colombia all have.
This is probably Chile's finest ever generation, and there is plenty of time ahead for them to achieve things. But I do worry about that defence - I fear that they give away too many soft goals to be real title contenders - but I'd be happy to be proved wrong.

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Carlos Tevez saga continues as Corinthians make new bid

Brazilian side Corinthians have made an improved offer for Manchester City captain Carlos Tevez.

Earlier this week they failed in a £35m offer for the want-away Argentine striker and are understood to have come back with a £39m bid.
"I do know there has been an increased offer," Tevez's representative Kia Joorabchian told BBC Sport, "but the bid only went in on Friday and it's very early stages."
City want close to £50m for Tevez.
They are determined not to be rushed into a deal, but were it to go ahead manager Roberto Mancini would then pursue his interest in Atletico Madrid's Sergio Aguero.
City believe they are in a powerful position as they are under no financial pressure to sell and Tevez is still locked into a long-term contract believed to be worth in excess of £200,000 per week.
So Corinthians' latest offer may still not be enough to persuade City into selling the 27-year-old, who last season captained them to the FA Cup and a place in the Champions League.
The Brazilians, backed by revenue from a new television deal, want to make Tevez a landmark signing by taking him back to the club where he previously enjoyed success.
Moving to South America would also help solve Tevez's problem of being separated from his family.
If he does go, his 23-year-old fellow countryman Aguero, who is rated at £45m by Atletico, is regarded as a natural replacement.
But City will not make a move for him until Tevez's future is clarified.

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Misrata rebels: Stuck in the sand, with sky-high morale

Libyan rebel forces on the front line outside Misrata have one powerful weapon in their fight against Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's well-armed troops - self-confidence and high morale.
It's not often that you find yourself caught up in a real-life metaphor that seems so ludicrously appropriate as to become almost a cliche.
But that's exactly what happened when, on a recent trip to speak to the rebels about the stalemate on their front line, our car got stuck in the sand.

Everyone is busy, but no-one seems to know what anyone else is up to... and yet, somehow, it seems to be working

We had been bumping our way through the dunes just inland from the coast.
Our escort was a commander by the name of El Hadi, a softly spoken man with intelligent eyes and a bushy black beard. He was taking us to see his encampment, high on the brow of a hill, overlooking territory held by Colonel Gaddafi's forces.
Suddenly our 4x4 was stuck, its wheels spinning pointlessly in the sand, angrily throwing up dust and bits of buried shrapnel. The more the wheels chewed up the ground, the deeper our car sank.
This, I thought, was not a comfortable place to be. Col Gaddafi's men were dug in just over the brow of the hill.

After a month and half of stalemate, the front line has moved

The lull in the fighting we had so fortuitously stumbled upon was already coming to an end. The thuds of falling rockets sounded ever closer by. And from somewhere not far off, someone was loosing off rounds from a machine gun.
After much fruitless digging and cursing, we were finally rescued by a couple of teenagers in a pickup truck with an anti-aircraft gun welded to the back. They pulled us backwards out of our rut, and we were able to move forward again.
But we only drove another 50m or so, before our guide stopped again. This was as far as we could go, he said. Beyond lay hostile territory.
We parked on top of the hill, feeling exposed on all sides, and began to walk towards the camp.
Farmers and lawyers
Until last week, this position was held by Col Gaddafi's soldiers. For a month and a half the two sides had shelled and rocketed each other from fixed positions, neither managing to take any ground off the other.

Some fighters are quiet young men, others are brash daredevils

Then, at the beginning of last week, the rebels had made a co-ordinated dash forward, pushing Col Gaddafi's troops back. The rebels then dug in and held their ground.
It felt like the stalemate had been broken. Despite heavy losses, the fighters were ecstatic - finally things seemed to be moving again.
In actual fact though, the line had shifted only a short distance, and the momentum seems to have stalled.
We found El Hadi's fighters lounging up against a sandbank, sheltering from the sun and the bullets, eating spaghetti out of tin-foil containers.
Before the revolution started, El Hadi had been an importer of car tyres. Now he has around 600 men under his command.
These are not soldiers. They are farmers and lawyers, students and engineers. But what they lack in experience, they more than make up for in courage and commitment.
"Every day I am more determined to stand here and fight until the end," said Siddique, as he pointed to a ditch where less than 24 hours previously, four of his comrades had been killed when a mortar landed right on top of them.
Until last month, this shy 24-year-old maths student had never held a gun before in his life. And yet, he said, he wasn't scared.
"We will win eventually," he said, "But in order to achieve this, we have to make sacrifices."
Self-belief and determination have proved to be the rebels' most powerful weapons against Col Gaddafi's heavy artillery and long-range rockets.
Hugs and kisses
But what a job it must be for El Hadi, the commander, to try to instil military discipline in hundreds of young men, some quiet like Siddique, others brash and loud - daredevils who like to stand up above the defensive sand-banks and shout verbal abuse at Col Gaddafi's forces.

Close your eyes and you might almost imagine yourself in Petrograd during the Russian revolution

El Hadi looked embarrassed by the question. He pushed my microphone away and looked round at his men.
"I don't want to play the boss in front of them," he said. "We're all in this together as equals."
At Misrata's military HQ, fighters greet each other not with salutes, but with bear-hugs, kisses, and cries of "Allahu Akbar" - "God is Great".
There's a frantic atmosphere of energy and industry. Everyone is busy, but no-one seems to know what anyone else is up to.
And yet, somehow, it seems to be working. Close your eyes and you might almost imagine yourself in Petrograd during the Russian revolution, watching a new order struggling to establish itself.
But there is one crucial difference. This is a leaderless revolution, whose only ideology is a single common purpose - the overthrow of Col Gaddafi.
What kind of a country might emerge if and when that goal is attained?
At the moment, that is a question few have time to even ask themselves. But the reality is that the new Libya is likely to be a place of many competing factions, no clear leader, but awash with guns.

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PM defended over News International links

Foreign Secretary William Hague has defended David Cameron, saying he was "not embarrassed" by the extent of the PM's dealings with News International.

Mr Cameron has met its top executives 26 times in the 15 months since he became prime minister, it emerged.
Mr Hague defended the PM's decision to entertain Andy Coulson after the latter quit as an aide over the News of the World phone-hacking scandal.
In press ads, Rupert Murdoch apologises for "serious wrongdoing" by the paper.
A list of engagements released by Downing Street shows that Rebekah Brooks, who quit as News International chief executive on Friday, had been entertained at the prime minister's official residence Chequers in June and August last year.
News International chairman James Murdoch also attended Chequers in November.
There were further social meetings between Mr Cameron, and James Murdoch and Mrs Brooks, last December.
Mr Coulson stayed at Chequers in March this year, two months after he quit as Downing Street director of communications following fresh allegations of phone hacking under his editorship at the News of the World.

"In inviting Andy Coulson back, the prime minister has invited someone back to thank him for his work - he's worked for him for several years - that is a normal, human thing to do," Mr Hague told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "I think it shows a positive side to his character."
Mr Coulson was arrested last week as part of the police inquiry into phone hacking.
Regarding Mr Cameron's meetings with various News International executives, Mr Hague said: "I don't think that would be very different from previous prime ministers.
"Personally I'm not embarrassed by it in any way - but there is something wrong here in this country and it must be put right. It's been acknowledged by the prime minister and I think that's the right attitude to take."

End Quote Norman Smith BBC Radio 4 chief political correspondent

The 26 meetings or events involving News International figures compares with: nine involving Telegraph Media Group figures; four meetings involving Associated Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday; four meetings involving the Evening Standard.

BBC Radio 4 chief political correspondent Norman Smith said: "It's pointed out that News International is a formidable player in the British media market and therefore it's perhaps understandable that the prime minister should devote so much time to them.
"Similarly, when you look at the list, many of the meetings were for things like charity receptions or award ceremonies. They were sort of informal gatherings rather than serious, across-the-table discussions with senior executives at News International.
"Nevertheless, it sort of fuels the perception - certainly the accusation from Labour - that the prime minister was too close to News International."
The prime minister's relationship with Mr Coulson was "the one thing that could profoundly damage Mr Cameron from all these hacking allegations," our correspondent added.
"Still Mr Cameron seems unwilling to disown Andy Coulson, repeatedly stressing the good work he did in Downing Street and in no sense cutting him loose."
'Lack of judgement'
Labour's Lord Prescott accused Mr Cameron of being "very much wrapped into the Murdoch operations".
Shadow culture secretary Ivan Lewis said the disclosure of the list of engagements offered "yet more evidence of an extraordinary lack of judgement by David Cameron".

The apology letter appeared in several Murdoch papers and other titles

"He hosted Andy Coulson at Chequers after, in the prime minister's own words, Mr Coulson's second chance hadn't worked out.
"David Cameron may think that this is a good day to bury bad news but he now has an increasing number of serious questions to answer."
Rupert Murdoch has taken out full-page advertisements in several newspapers on Saturday, using the space to say: "We are sorry for the serious wrongdoing that occurred."
The printed apology expresses regret for not acting faster "to sort things out".
"I realise that simply apologising is not enough. Our business was founded on the idea that a free and open press should be a positive force in society. We need to live up to this.
"In the coming days, as we take further concrete steps to resolve these issues and make amends for the damage they have caused, you will hear more from us," says the statement, signed "sincerely, Rupert Murdoch".
MPs' questions Rupert and James Murdoch and Mrs Brooks are due to appear in front of the Commons media select committee on Tuesday to answer MPs' questions on the hacking scandal.
Mrs Brooks was editor of News of the World between 2000 and 2003, during which time the phone belonging to murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler was tampered with.
As well as her resignation, senior News Corporation executive Les Hinton quit on Friday.

Mrs Brooks has been replaced by Tom Mockridge, who was in charge of News Corporation's Italian broadcasting arm.
In a resignation statement, Mrs Brooks said she felt a "deep responsibility for the people we have hurt".
Mr Cameron said through a spokesman that her resignation was "the right decision".
Mr Hinton, chief executive of the media group's Dow Jones, said in a statement that he was "ignorant of what apparently happened" but felt it was proper to resign.
The most senior executive to leave the conglomerate, Mr Hinton was previously head of News International from 1995 to 2007 and has worked with Rupert Murdoch for more than five decades.
On Friday, Rupert Murdoch apologised to Milly Dowler's family at a meeting in London.
The family's solicitor Mark Lewis said the newspaper boss looked very shaken up and upset during the talks, which were arranged at short notice.

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Googie Withers dies in Australia aged 94

Actress Googie Withers, best known for starring in Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes and TV series Within These Walls, has died in Australia aged 94.

She was born Georgette Lizette Withers in what was then British India. She died at her home on Friday.
She was the first non-Australian to be awarded an Officer of the Order of Australia and was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Her last role was in the 1996 Australian movie Shine.
Withers's family moved back to Britain from India and she began acting at age 12.
She had been given her nickname Googie by her Indian nanny.
She was working as a dancer in a West End production in London when she was offered work in 1935 as a film extra in The Girl in the Crowd.
Withers, who had three children, appeared in dozens of films in the 1930s and 40s.
She played Blanche in 1938's The Lady Vanishes, opposite Margaret Lockwood and Michael Redgrave.
Later in her career she appeared in several television productions, including prison drama Within These Walls on ITV and the BBC's Hotel du Lac and Northanger Abbey.
In 1958, Withers moved to Australia with her husband, Australian actor John McCallum - he helped create the classic television series, Skippy the Bush Kangaroo.
The couple co-starred in 10 films, and they lived together in Sydney until McCallum died last year at the age of 91.

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China calls on Obama to cancel Dalai Lama meeting

China has complained about US President Barack Obama's scheduled meeting on Saturday with exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

China's foreign ministry urged Mr Obama to cancel the White House engagement, which is expected to last half an hour.
The private discussion is intended to show Mr Obama's support for Tibet's identity, the White House said.
Mr Obama's last meeting with the Dalai Lama in February 2010 drew strong condemnation from Beijing.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement on Saturday: "We firmly oppose any senior foreign government officials meeting with the Dalai Lama in any way."
The White House did not immediately return a call seeking comment about Beijing's displeasure.
But the White House said earlier in a statement announcing the meeting: "The president will highlight his enduring support for dialogue between the Dalai Lama's representatives and the Chinese government to resolve differences."

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Mexico prisoners in mass jail break in Nuevo Laredo

Seven prisoners have been killed and 59 others have escaped after a riot at a jail in northern Mexico near the US border, officials say.

Five guards are also missing and are believed to have aided the mass prison breakout in Nuevo Laredo town.
Mexican police say the majority of those on the run are drug traffickers and members of armed gangs.
The prison system is struggling to cope with an influx of offenders arrested in a campaign against drugs cartels.
Correspondents say prison breakouts are not uncommon in northern Mexico, where more than 400 inmates have escaped since January 2010.
Nuevo Laredo, in Tamaulipas state, lies just across the border from Laredo, Texas.
The largest jail break so far was last December when more than 140 prisoners escaped from the same prison.
According to a statement from the Tamaulipas state government, the riot began on Friday morning in Nuevo Laredo's Sanctions Enforcement Centre, which houses an estimated 1,200 prisoners.

After the breakout, soldiers surrounded the jail and calm was restored, the authorities said.
The northern border region is the scene of rising lawlessness as the cartels fight the security forces and each other for control of smuggling routes into the US.
The main battle in Tamaulipas is between the Zetas and the Gulf cartels, the AFP news agency reports.
Their capacity for violence and ability to pay huge bribes gives them considerable power to subvert the prison system and get their people out.
President Felipe Calderon came to power in 2006 promising a war on drugs.
More than 35,000 people have died in drug violence since he began his campaign, which has involved launching an army assault on drug gangs.

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Afghanistan: UN drops Taliban names from sanctions list

Fourteen former Afghan Taliban leaders have been removed from an international blacklist by the UN Security Council.

President Hamid Karzai's government had asked the UN sanctions committee to drop the names from the list.
They include four members of the High Peace Council set up last year to pave the way for talks with the Taliban.
The Security Council said the delisting of the names sent out a strong signal of support for the Afghan government's reconciliation efforts.
The sanctions were imposed in 1999, when the Taliban were in power, and were expanded after the 9/11 attacks on the US.
"The international community recognises efforts made by members of the High Peace Council to work toward peace, stability and reconciliation," Germany's UN ambassador Peter Wittig, who chairs the sanctions committee, said in a statement.
"All Afghans are encouraged to join these efforts. The message is clear: Engaging for peace pays off," he said.

But according to the Associated Press news agency, the Afghan government had wanted 50 names dropped from the blacklist.

It had provided extensive documentation to show they had reintegrated into society, but the committee refused to remove them from the list, the agency says.
Following Friday's decision, 123 names remain on the Taliban sanctions list that imposes travel bans and asset freezes.
Analysts say the US and Nato acknowledge that they cannot withdraw successfully from Afghanistan, or effect a transition to Afghan forces by 2014, without an end to the war and some kind of political settlement between the Afghan government and the Taliban.
US President Barack Obama has said 10,000 US troops will pull out this year, with another 23,000 leaving by the end of September 2012.
Civilian and military casualties are at levels not seen for a decade in Afghanistan - last year more than 2,400 civilians died.

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Syria protesters 'die as troops open fire'

Syrian security forces have opened fire on anti-government protesters in cities across the country, leaving at least 28 people dead, activists say.

At least 16 people died in the capital, Damascus, where about 20,000 took part in protests, reports say.
The demonstrations appear to be among the largest since the anti-government uprising began in March.
The government has launched a "national dialogue", but many protesters want President Bashar al-Assad to quit.
Protests have regulary taken place following Friday prayers.
There were reports of mass demonstrations in several locations including the cities of Homs, Hama, Deraa, Deir al-Zour and Idlib and in the Damascus neighbourhood of Qabun.
The Syrian League for the Defence of Human Rights estimated about 20,000 people were protesting in Damascus.
Rami Abdel Rahman, of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said more than one million people turned out in just two cities - Hama and Deir al-Zour.
"It's a major development and a message to the authorities that protests are getting bigger," he said.
Rights activists said at least 16 people had died in Damascus, three in Idlib, two in Deraa and three in Duma.
There were also reports of two deaths in Homs.

---

Each Friday opposition organisers come up with a slogan and this week's calls for the release of political prisoners in Syria.
It is reckoned there are more than 10,000 people now being held by the authorities.
Earlier this week the government held a national dialogue to which some government critics were invited. Some spoke out against the violent suppression of protest.
The government has also announced a comprehensive reform programme and is talking in terms of the possible introduction of multi-party politics.
But many in the opposition remain sceptical and have once again expressed their distrust of the government by turning out on to the streets and demanding revolutionary change.

International journalists have been denied access to Syria and the figures cannot be independently verified.

Firing 'intense' Opposition activists told the BBC that protesters in Damascus were trying to evacuate several wounded people and to stop security forces from entering Qabun.
In Deraa, an activist told AP news agency: "All hell broke loose, the firing was intense."
The official Sana news agency reported that "armed men fired on security forces and citizens in the areas of Qabun and Rukn Eddin in Damascus".
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reiterated on Friday that President Assad had lost his legitimacy in the eyes of the Syrian people.
Speaking during a visit to Turkey, she said: "We, along with many others in the region and beyond, have said we strongly support a democratic transition," she said.
"The ultimate destiny of the Syrian regime and Syrian people lies with the people themselves."
President Assad is trying to crush a rebellion that human rights groups say has so far killed about 1,400 civilians and 350 security forces personnel.
The government blames the unrest on "armed criminal gangs" backed by a foreign conspiracy.
In an attempt to defuse the unrest, ministers recently held a two-day "national dialogue" between members of the ruling Baath party and its opponents.
However, many opposition leaders and protest organisers refused to attend.

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UK pledges £52.25m in aid for drought-hit Horn of Africa

The UK is to give £52.25m in emergency aid to help millions of drought victims in the Horn of Africa.

Ahead of a visit to Kenya, International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell said the money would be used in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya.
The World Food Programme estimates 10 million people are affected by the worst drought in over half a century.
Mr Mitchell said the situation was "getting worse" and urged the international community to do more.
The Dadaab camps in Kenya are overflowing with tens of thousands of refugees fleeing the parched landscape in the region where Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya meet.
The United Nation's Children's Fund estimates two million young people are malnourished.
The UK's aid package comes after a joint charity appeal by the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) saw over £13m raised in a week.
The Department for International Development (DFID) said the money would help:

• 500,000 people in Somalia, including treatment for nearly 70,000 acutely malnourished children
• Over 130,000 people in the Dadaab camps to help provide them with clean drinking water and health care
• 100,000 people in Dolo Ado refugee camps in Ethiopia to provide them with shelter and clean drinking water as well as targeted treatment of starving children
• 300,000 Kenyans, including special rations to prevent malnutrition in children under the age of five and breastfeeding mothers.

Mr Mitchell said: "People across Britain have responded with great generosity to appeals by British NGOs (non-governmental organisations) working in the Horn of Africa.
"But the situation is getting worse - and is particularly devastating in Somalia, where families already have to cope with living in one of the most insecure countries in the world.
"More than 3,000 people every day are fleeing over the borders to Ethiopia and Kenya, many of them arriving with starving children.
"The international community must do more to help not only refugees but also those victims of the drought who remain in Somalia."
In Kenya, Mr Mitchell is to meet the head of the DEC, Brendan Gormley, and Justin Forsyth, chief executive of Save the Children.
He will also meet Somalian refugees.

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China: 1.3 million websites shut in 2010

More than one million websites closed down in China last year, a state-run think tank has said.

The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said there were were 41% fewer websites at the end of 2010 than a year earlier.
Chinese officials have tightened regulations on the internet in recent years, and they launched a crackdown on pornography websites in 2009.
The academy's researcher said there was no link, insisting China had a "high level of freedom of online speech".
Liu Ruisheng said that despite the declining number of sites, the number of web pages had risen to 60 billion during 2010 - a 79% increase on the previous year.
"This means our content is getting stronger, while our supervision is getting more strict and more regulated," he said.
Civil rights campaigners have long railed against China's web censors, who impose controls known as the Great Firewall of China.
A number of websites are routinely blocked, such as the BBC's Chinese language service, and social media sites like Facebook, Youtube and Twitter.

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Wave device tested off Scotland exceeds expectations

A wave power developer has said tests of a device off Scotland's coast exceeded expectations.

US-based Ocean Power Technologies (OPT), which also has offices in Warwick, Warwickshire, deployed the machine from Invergordon, Easter Ross.
The trials of the PB150 PowerBuoy required the consent of the Scottish government.
OPT has also been developing wave energy devices for powering US Navy and Marine Corps bases.
The tests off Scotland are mentioned in the company's latest financial results.
OPT said it had successfully deployed the PB150 PowerBuoy off the coast of Scotland on 15 April 2011.
It said initial reported power levels for the system had outperformed expectations.
OPT added: "The company believes the capacity factor represented by these results exceeded that experienced by most other renewable sources."

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Spelling mistakes 'cost millions' in lost online sales

An online entrepreneur says that poor spelling is costing the UK millions of pounds in lost revenue for internet businesses.

Charles Duncombe says an analysis of website figures shows a single spelling mistake can cut online sales in half.
Mr Duncombe says when recruiting staff he has been "shocked at the poor quality of written English".
Sales figures suggest misspellings put off consumers who could have concerns about a website's credibility, he says.
The concerns were echoed by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), whose head of education and skills warned that too many employers were having to invest in remedial literacy lessons for their staff.
Written word Mr Duncombe, who runs travel, mobile phones and clothing websites, says that poor spelling is a serious problem for the online economy.

Charles Duncombe says poor spelling is costing the economy millions

"Often these cutting-edge companies depend upon old-fashioned skills," says Mr Duncombe.
And he says that the struggle to recruit enough staff who can spell means that this sector of the economy is not as efficient as it might be.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics published last month showed internet sales in the UK running at £527m per week.
"I know that industry bemoaning the education system is nothing new but it is becoming more and more of a problem with more companies going online.
"This is because when you sell or communicate on the internet, 99% of the time it is done by the written word."
Mr Duncombe says that it is possible to identify the specific impact of a spelling mistake on sales.
He says he measured the revenue per visitor to the tightsplease.co.uk website and found that the revenue was twice as high after an error was corrected.
"If you project this across the whole of internet retail, then millions of pounds worth of business is probably being lost each week due to simple spelling mistakes," says Mr Duncombe, director of the Just Say Please group.
Spelling is important to the credibility of a website, he says. When there are underlying concerns about fraud and safety, then getting the basics right is essential.

End Quote William Dutton Oxford Internet Institute

"You get about six seconds to capture the attention on a website."

When recruiting school and university leavers, Mr Duncombe says too many applications have contained spelling mistakes or poor grammar.
"Some people even used text speak in their cover letter," he says.
Even among those who appeared to be able to spell, he says that a written test, without access to a computer spellchecker, revealed further problems with spelling.
William Dutton, director of the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University, says that in some informal parts of the internet, such as Facebook, there is greater tolerance towards spelling and grammar.
"However, there are other aspects, such as a home page or commercial offering that are not among friends and which raise concerns over trust and credibility," said Professor Dutton.
"In these instances, when a consumer might be wary of spam or phishing efforts, a misspelt word could be a killer issue."
James Fothergill, the CBI's head of education and skills, said: "Our recent research shows that 42% of employers are not satisfied with the basic reading and writing skills of school and college leavers and almost half have had to invest in remedial training to get their staff's skills up to scratch.
"This situation is a real concern and the government must make the improvement of basic literacy and numeracy skills of all school and college leavers a top priority."

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Pentagon admits suffering major cyber attack in March

The Pentagon has admitted it suffered a major cyber attack in which thousands of files were taken by foreign hackers.

Deputy Defence Secretary William Lynn said that in a March attack and other breaches, hackers had taken information on "our most sensitive systems".
The admission came as the Pentagon rolled out a strategy for strengthening US cyber capabilities and addressing threats and attacks in cyberspace.
The plan would treat cyberspace in a similar manner to land, air and sea.
"In the 21st Century, bits and bytes can be as threatening as bullets and bombs," Mr Lynn said, unveiling the plan.
In a speech at National Defense University in Washington, Mr Lynn said about 24,000 files containing Pentagon data were stolen from a defence industry computer network in March, marking one of the largest cyber attacks in US history.
Extracting files He said at least one attack - a previously revealed 2008 penetration of classified computer systems - had come from a foreign intelligence service, and in an interview ahead of the speech said the Pentagon believed the March attack had been perpetrated by a foreign government.
Previous cyber attacks have been blamed on China or Russia.

End Quote William Lynn Deputy Defense Secretary

"We have a pretty good idea" who did it, he told the Associated Press news agency.

In his speech, he said some of the stolen data was "mundane, like the specifications for small parts of tanks, airplanes, and submarines.
"But a great deal of it concerns our most sensitive systems, including aircraft avionics, surveillance technologies, satellite communications systems, and network security protocols," he said.
Mr Lynn said cyber attacks in the future would not only focus on stealing data but also damaging US defences or even causing deaths.
He added that virtual intruders have previously tried to extract files related to missile tracking systems and the Joint Strike Fighter.
Though nations like China and Russia have been blamed for many previous cyber attacks, the Pentagon fears terrorist groups could eventually strike American computer networks and steal data.
"Keystrokes originating in one country can impact the other side of the globe in the blink of an eye," Mr Lynn said.
'Too aggressive' He added that information technology has become so important to the US government that it "virtually guarantees that future adversaries will target our dependence on it".
Mr Lynn said the Department of Defense Strategy for Operating in Cyberspace was defensive, countering earlier criticism that the strategy might be too aggressive.
In a release accompanying the new strategy, Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said it was "critical to strengthen our cyber capabilities to address the threats we're facing".
The news comes one month after the Pentagon said it was building its own "scale model" of the internet to carry out cyber war games.

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TEDGlobal 2011: Social media game aims to end extremism; By Jane Wakefield

A social media game with Arab super heroes at its heart has been launched on Facebook.

The man behind the project, Suleiman Bakhit, hopes that Happy Oasis can create positive role models for children who might otherwise be enticed by extremist views.
The game launched this week and has already attracted 50,000 followers.
Newly appointed TED fellow Mr Bakhit spoke about his project at the TEDGlobal conference in Edinburgh.
Mr Bakhit, who comes from Jordan, was a student at the US University of Minnesota when the 9/11 attacks took place. Shortly afterwards he was attacked by four men because he was an Arab.
Magic carpet

Mr Bakhit has created a range of comic book characters

Instead of feeling bitter, Mr Bakhit decided to engage in an education campaign.
"I realised that you fight extremism by starting with the young. The message was simple - 'We are not all terrorists'," he told the BBC.
Armed with a not-so-magic carpet, he began telling Aladdin-style stories in local schools.
"One day a child asked me if there was an Arab superman and I realised that there wasn't," he said.
So began his comic-book project which aimed to create a range of positive Arab role-models, including a female James Bond and a Jordanian special agent who fights extremists.
In Jordan, Mr Bakhit has sold 300,000 copies of his comics and came to realise that there was a market for a web-based version.
"Print media is dying but there are 30 million Arabs on Facebook so I thought about making social games with the same message," he said.
Mr Bakhit wanted to make sure that his characters related to the children he was aiming to reach.

His comics were a huge hit in Jordan

"I took a peer-to-peer approach, engaging kids to get their ideas," he said.
He was undecided about whether to include a character dressed in a burka until he showed the animated character to a focus group.
"They loved the idea so she was in," he said.
The first game featured special agent Element O and while it was, in Mr Bakhit's words "not very good", it did show him the potential of such a project.
"Fans were discussing the games in the forums and arguing about politics. I went on as Element O and the arguments immediately stopped," he said.
Mr Bakhit said he now hopes to take his comic book model to Pakistan, where extremism is a growing problem.

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Technology to crowd-source clean water,,By Jane Wakefield

A device that crowd-sources water quality could help prevent the spread of diseases such as cholera.

The Water Canary checks supplies in real-time, alerting users to possible infections.
It is also able to upload the data, allowing scientists to monitor the location and movement of outbreaks.
Unveiling the device at the TED Global conference in Edinburgh, researchers said they hoped eventually to give the units away for free.
More than three million people die each year from water-related disease, according to the World Health Organisation.
"Water Canary is an open source tool to rapidly test water and transmit information in real time to be instantly assessed," said co-founder and TED fellow Sonaar Luthra.
He explained why such a device is needed.
"Currently water testing is too slow and too expensive. We only test water in hindsight," he told the BBC.
"When cholera hit Haiti there was no way of knowing how fast it would spread," he added.
The device will be able to test for both micro-biological and chemical contaminations using spectral technology. It will provide instant information on whether the water is drinkable via a red or green light on the device.
Mr Luthra is hopeful to get manufacturing costs to below $100 although he envisaged the end user will pay much less.
"Ideally we will give it away because it will be the data that is really valuable," he said.
The device will be capable of wirelessly sending GPS-tagged data from any available network.
"We will be collecting data off thousands of devices from which many conclusions will be drawn. This is all about information and empowering people with real-time water information," he said.
Such information could prove invaluable for governments around the world keen to contain disease and environmental disasters.
Unsafe water kills more people each year than die in conflicts, according to Mr Sonaar but currently there are no agreed method for assessing water quality.
"The metric for measuring water is different in many cases. This device could help make a decision on what constitutes safe water," he said.
The project grew out of the New York University Interactive Telecommunications Programme, which focuses on human-centric technology design.
Mr Luthra is hopeful that over the next year he will be able to get the device ready for use in the field but he is reluctant to put a date on this.
"So many tech firms promise things that they can't deliver. We wouldn't want to disappoint people by saying they could have it and then disappointing them," he said.

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Dawn probe has date with asteroid,- By Jonathan Amos'

The US space agency says its Dawn probe should now be in orbit around the asteroid Vesta.

The robotic satellite will be spending a year at the 530km-wide body before moving on to the "dwarf planet" Ceres.
New pictures on Dawn's approach to Vesta show the giant rock in unprecedented detail.
The asteroid looks like a punctured football, the result of a colossal collision sometime in its past that knocked off its south polar region.
Confirmation that Dawn is safely circling the rock should come on Sunday (GMT) when the probe is due to return data on its status.
Vesta was discovered in 1807, the fourth asteroid to be identified in the great belt of rocky debris orbiting between Mars and Jupiter.
At the time, its great scale meant it was designated as another planet but it later lost this status as researchers learnt more about the diversity of objects in the Solar System.
Close but careful Dawn's encounter is occurring about 188 million km (117 million miles) from Earth.
The probe is propelled by an ion engine and engineers put the spacecraft on a course to be captured in the gravitational field of Vesta.
They will not know for sure this has happened until a scheduled communications pass that starts at approximately 0630 GMT on Sunday (2330 PDT on Saturday; 0230 EDT Sunday).
Initially, Dawn will be about 16,000km (9,900 miles) from the asteroid, but this distance will be reduced over time.
Mission scientists hope to get within 200km of the surface but the team do not intend to take any unnecessary risks.
"We would like to get as low as possible but if we crash Dawn, Nasa would understandably be very angry at us," Principal Investigator Chris Russell told BBC News.
Asteroids can tell us about the earliest days of the Solar System. These wandering rocks are often described as the rubble that was left over after the planets proper had formed.
Vesta and Ceres should make for interesting subjects. They are both evolved bodies - objects that have heated up and started to separate into distinct layers.
Surface detail "We think that Vesta has a metal core in the centre - an iron core - and then silicate rock around it," explained Dr Russell.
"And then, sometime in its history, it got banged on the bottom and a lot of material was liberated. Some of this material gets pulled into the Earth's atmosphere. One in 20 meteorites seen to fall to Earth has been identified with Vesta," he added.
Ceres, which, at 950km in diameter, is by far the largest and most massive body in the asteroid belt, probably did not evolve as much as Vesta.
Scientists think it likely that it retains a lot of water, perhaps in a band of ice deep below the surface.
Dawn's quest at Vesta over the coming months will be to map the asteroid's surface. The probe carries instruments to detect the mineral and elemental abundances in its rocks. It will be looking for evidence of geological processes such as mountain building and rifting. The team is keen to understand how Vesta's surface has been remodelled over time by impacts and even lava flows.

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Alaskans smuggled walrus tusks and polar bear hides

Two Alaskans have pleaded guilty to illegally trading the tusks of about 100 walruses with Eskimo hunters.

The pair were arrested in April with the ivory tusks, along with two polar bear hides.
They had swapped the animal parts with the hunters in exchange for money, guns, cigarettes and at least one snowmobile.
Indigenous Alaskans are allowed to hunt walruses but they are not permitted to sell the tusks.
The state prosecutor declined to comment on whether the hunters would also be charged, according to the Anchorage Daily News.
Prosecutors say this is Alaska's biggest wildlife trafficking case for nearly two decades.
A third defendant is expected to plead guilty to similar charges next week.
The three had obtained about 500 pounds (227kg) of walrus tusks from Yup'ik Eskimo hunters in the village of Savoonga, court documents say.
The pair pleaded guilty under a plea bargain and prosecutors have asked for prison terms of at least five years.
Two of the defendants asked for permission to get married before they are sentenced in November.
They fear that if they are not married, they will not be able to send letters to each other in separate prisons.
The judge said he would try to accommodate their request.

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Habsburg: Last Austro-Hungarian heir to be buried

The funeral of the last heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Otto von Habsburg, is set to take place in the Austrian capital Vienna.

His body will be buried in the Imperial crypt amid pomp and ceremony associated with the former empire. His wife, who died last year, will also be buried.
European royals and political leaders, many from nations that his family ruled over, will attend the ceremony.
Otto von Habsburg, a former MEP, died earlier this month at the age of 98.
Thousands of people have been paying their respects before the coffins of Mr Habsburg and his wife in one of Vienna's churches.

Although Mr Habsburg's body will be buried in the crypt where his ancestors lie, his heart will be taken to Hungary for burial at an abbey in Budapest on Sunday, in accordance with a Habsburg tradition.

A passionate advocate of European unity, he served as a member of the European parliament for two decades.
His son Karl Habsburg said his father witnessed huge changes in Europe during his life.
"It would always be wrong to only remember him in the context of the old monarchy or only remember him in the context of the European Union. I think he should be remembered in the whole arch that his life has been creating...over the whole changes that happened to Europe in his lifetime," he said.
The BBC's Bethany Bell in Vienna says that there have been some complaints that the pomp surrounding the funeral is out of place in a republic.
'Life in exile' Mr Habsburg was born in 1912, six years before the collapse of the empire at the end of the First World War.
He spent many decades exiled from Austria after his family fled in 1919, but relinquished his own claim to inherit the empire in 1961. Five years later he was allowed to return to Austria.
He was an opponent of the Nazis and spoke out against Germany's annexation of Austria in 1938.
In 1989 he helped organise the Pan-European Picnic demonstration on the border of Austria and Hungary.
The border was briefly opened, an event credited with helping usher in the fall of the Berlin Wall months later.
Mr Habsburg then dedicated himself to having the former communist-ruled states of eastern Europe brought into the EU.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso paid tribute to him as "a great European... who gave an important impetus to the European project throughout his rich life".

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Venezuela's Hugo Chavez to have chemotherapy in Cuba

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is to return to Cuba to resume cancer treatment, including chemotherapy.

He recently returned to Venezuela after spending nearly a month in Cuba, where he had a cancerous tumour removed.
He has asked the National Assembly to authorise Saturday's trip, as the constitution requires.
During his previous absence, opposition politicians questioned his ability to lead Venezuela from abroad, rather than temporarily handing over power.
Mr Chavez said he would go to Cuba "to begin what we've called the second phase".
Since his return home on 4 July, the 56-year-old president has cut his workload on doctor's orders.
He has not given precise details of where the tumour was found, only that he was operated on in the pelvic region.
Reading Nietzsche Flanked by his two daughters, Mr Chavez announced his plans to travel to Cuba after meeting Peru's President-elect Ollanta Humala at the presidential palace in the capital, Caracas.
Earlier, Brazil's official news agency had reported that Mr Chavez would be undergoing further treatment for cancer at a hospital in Sao Paulo.
The Venezuelan president had spoken to his Brazilian counterpart Dilma Rousseff about the trip, Agencia Brasil reported.

Fidel Castro (L) and Hugo Chavez (R) are close friends

But hours later on the steps of the presidential palace, he read out the letter he was sending to parliament requesting its permission to leave the country for treatment, Reuters news agency reports.
He did not say how long he would spend in Cuba.
The BBC's Sarah Grainger in Caracas says some people will be surprised by the president opting to go back to Cuba instead of staying at home for treatment.
But the strong bond he has with Cuba's former leader Fidel Castro, who first noticed he was not looking well, and his ability to recover away from the public eye may make Cuba a more compelling place for treatment, she says.
The National Assembly will discuss the president's request on Saturday morning and it is likely be approved, our correspondent says.
Despite his illness, Mr Chavez has kept up his public image - his Twitter account (in Spanish) has been active over the last two weeks, with several messages posted each day.
He has made several appearances on television this week - addressing troops, attending Mass and leading a Cabinet meeting - although his speeches have been shorter and he no longer makes them late into the night.
He told state television on Friday that he was waking up at 5am and reading the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, AP news agency reports.
"I know there are people who are happy because they believe I'm dying, that I'm going to die soon," he said.
"But those evil wishes are part of that hatred... that is erased like a tsunami of love by the blessings and prayers of a nation, of millions."
His battle with cancer has raised questions over his ability to carry on as leader.
Officially, he still plans to run for re-election in late 2012.
During his 12 years in power, President Chavez has built up deep support among the poor by spending on social programmes
But there are growing problems, including high inflation, frequent electricity shortages and a lack of affordable housing.

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Japan's Ohi nuclear reactor shuts down after fault

Japan's Ohi nuclear power station is being shut down, after a technical fault.

Pressure in a safety tank fell for no apparent reason, and although it is now back to normal, the plant's operators said they would "give the top priority to safety and find out the cause".
There was no release of radioactive material.
The closure will compound power difficulties in the wake of March's earthquake and tsunami.
There has been growing public disquiet over the continuing crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which was damaged by the disaster.
Fukushima continues to leak radioactive material.
Pressure in a tank containing boric acid, which is used to slow down nuclear fission in emergencies, dropped on Friday at Ohi's No 1 reactor.
The pressure levels have since returned to normal, but the reactor will be completely shut down by 2100 (1200GMT)
The reactor, 350 km (220 miles) west of Tokyo, has a capacity of 1.18m kW.
With the closure at Ohi, only 18 of Japan's 54 reactors remain operational.
The Kansai Electric Power Company, which operates Ohi, could not say when the reactor would be restarted.

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Whaling meeting 'ignores needs of whales'..By Richard Black

The International Whaling Commission's (IWC) annual meeting has closed after a tense final day when relations between opposing blocs came close to collapse.

Latin American nations attempted to force a vote on a proposal to create a whale sanctuary in the South Atlantic.
Pro-whaling countries walked out, but eventually it was decided to shelve any vote until next year's meeting.
Environment groups said the delays and wrangling meant important issues for whale conservation were neglected.
But a number of nations pledged new funding for research on small cetaceans, some of which are severely threatened.
Earlier in the meeting, governments agreed new regulations designed to prevent "cash for votes" scandals that have plagued the IWC in the past, and passed a resolution censuring the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society for putting safety at risk during its annual missions to counter Japanese whalers in the Southern Ocean.
But the sanctuary issue threatened to derail the entire session.
"Whale species and populations from the Southern Atlantic oceanic basin were amongst the ones that suffered the most due to commercial whaling on a large scale," Roxana Schteinbarg, from the Argentina-based Institute for the Conservation of Whales, told delegates.

End Quote Wendy Elliott, WWF

"Fifty-four species live in the waters where the sanctuary is proposed - it is therefore appropriate that the protection of these species in the Southern Ocean Sanctuary be extended and complemented in the reproduction areas in the Atlantic Southern basin."

The 14-strong Buenos Aires bloc of nations knew it did not command the three-quarters majority needed to win, but remained determined to put it to the test.
"We didn't come here to win the sanctuary on the vote, but we wanted to put it to a vote - we believe our conservation agenda cannot be put forward, be stressed, be highlighted, be defended in some issues without a vote," said Brazil's commissioner Marcus Henrique Paranagua.
"Why not vote on things that are controversial?"
Voting with feet

Delegates from pro-whaling countries walked out in protest when a vote was called

The pro-whaling bloc said this could herald a return to the fractious days of the past, and walked out in an attempt to bring the meeting below the quorum needed for votes to count.
"We fear that the fact of voting will probably damage the very good atmosphere we have established, and might trigger a landslide of many votes for next year which might disrupt the progress we have made," said Japan's alternate (or deputy) commissioner Joji Morishita.
"This was not a hostile move to the Latin American countries - our effort is to try to save this organisation, and it turned out ok."
The good atmosphere, he added, had survived a "very difficult day".
Critics, however, said the pro-whaling countries had tried to hold the commission to ransom by their walkout.
Explosive meeting The compromise eventually hammered out, after private discussions lasting nearly nine hours, asks countries to strive to reach consensus during the coming year.

The vaquita was among the casualties here

If that proves impossible, next year's meeting will start with a vote on the South Atlantic Sanctuary.
That could prove a particular concern for the US, which will be aiming at that meeting, in Panama, to secure renewed quotas for its indigenous hunters.
US commissioner Monica Medina agreed the potential vote "put a hand-grenade" under next year's meeting.
"I'm more than a little concerned - we've made good progress on improving the IWC's governance and that's a good thing," she said.
"But as long as we choose to continue fighting, all of the IWC's members will lose; and the world's whales deserve better."
The US played a leading role in the two-year "peace process" that attempted to build a major compromise deal between the various parties, and which collapsed at last year's meeting.
Missing in action Huge delays during the four days of talks meant that many items on the agenda pertinent to the health of whales and other cetaceans did not get discussed.

Continue reading the main story

• Guide to the oceans' great whales

How to prevent whales from being killed by collisions with ships, how to reduce floating debris and how to tackle the growth of noise in the oceans were among the issues that received no discussion.

"Acrimony is often the enemy of conservation - in this case, it meant that a critical meeting on whales failed to address the greatest threats they face," said Wendy Elliott, head of environment group WWF's delegation.
"Several whale and dolphin species are in crisis - teetering on the brink of extinction - and conservation must be front and foremost at next year's IWC meeting, for the sake of the whales and the commission."
The research programmes of the cash-strapped commission received something of a boost with France, Italy and several non-governmental groups pledging a total of about £80,000 ($130,000) for small cetaceans, which include the critically endangered Mexican vaquita.

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Spotify launches US streaming music service

Streaming music service Spotify is set to launch in the US, after thrashing out deals with the major record companies.

Its American service had previously been put on hold, apparently because the labels were not convinced about its ability to make them money.
About 10 million people use Spotify across parts of Europe, with one million paying for its premium service.
The company has reduced elements of its free product, ahead of the US launch.
In April, limits were introduced on the number of times users of the basic version could play tracks.
Total listening time was also reduced to 10 hours per month for the free service.
The move was widely seen as a pre-emptive concession to the American record companies which are uneasy about moving to ad-funded or subscription-based distribution.
Paying pennies Research suggests that services such as Spotify, Last.FM and Rhapsody yield relatively low returns for artists.
Music industry analyst Mark Milligan calculated an average pay-per-play figure on Spotify, based on the Ben Rodgers Band, of $0.004 (£0.002).
Cracking the United States might make the numbers more attractive, according to Giles Cottle, senior analyst at Informa Telecoms and Media.
"They will only get their model to work if they successfully launch in the US.
"It works if you get a large number of plays and you can get a lot of people to sign up to the premium service," he said.
Despite industry trepidation, Spotify has attracted high profile fans.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg described it as "pretty amazing", while soundtrack composer and Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor took to Twitter to express his excitement about the US launch.
Spotify is likely to face competition in the US from online jukebox Pandora which claims 100 million registered users.
Premium membership of Spotify in the US costs $9.99 (£6.19) - considerably cheaper than the UK price of £9.99 and 9.99 euro in mainland Europe.

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Theories about 'The Dark Knight Rises' trailer,,By Darren Franich,

(EW.com) -- The first teaser for next year's "The Dark Knight Rises" is airing in front of a little movie called "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2."
For those of you who missed the "Hallows" midnight screening because you're too tired/too busy/too no-longer-a-college-student, here's the lowdown on the "Rises" preview.
It kicks off with a montage of scenes from "Batman Begins," with Bruce Wayne walking over the frozen tundra while Liam Neeson narrates his speech about becoming "A legend, Mr. Wayne." "Every Hero Has a Journey," say the intertitles. "Every Journey Has an End."
Cut to: A shockingly intimate shot of Gary Oldman's Commissioner Gordon, lying on a hospital bed, breathing through what appears to be an oxygen mask, speaking in a tremulous voice.
He tells someone offscreen -- it's pretty clear that he's talking to Batman -- that people believed in him, but then, suddenly, "You were gone. Now there is evil rising. The Batman must come back."
From offscreen, Christian Bale's voice -- and this sounds specifically like his Bruce Wayne voice, which could indicate that Gordon has figured out Batman's true identity -- says, "What if he doesn't exist anymore?" Gordon, sounding like a man who hears his own death rattle: "He must...he must..."
There's a quick shot of Tom Hardy's Bane in his weird mask which literally looks exactly like that photo from a couple months ago, then a long shot of buildings collapsing which literally looks exactly like that poster from a couple days ago, and then the real attention-getter: A single shot of Batman, braced for a fight.
Bane steps into view. We only see him for a second, from over his shoulder, but he looks huge. For the first time in the Nolan "Batman" that I can remember, the Caped Crusader actually looks a bit scared. (The shot only lasted for literally two seconds, but I could've sworn Bats was wearing a new outfit.)
A final title promises, "The epic conclusion to the Dark Knight legend," while terrifying chanting plays in the background.
All-in-all, it's a weird way to launch the year-long lead-up to "Rises." In my sold-out "Potter" theater, there was nary a cheer or clap after the trailer, which either indicates that everyone was stunned into confusion, or I somehow found the one theater in the country filled with people who had no feelings whatsoever about "The Dark Knight." Let's try to decode the trailer with some theories:
-- When Gordon tells Batman, "You were gone," it seems like an indication that, following the climax of "Dark Knight" -- in which Batman become a hunted fugitive, Bruce Wayne decided to retire his alter ego.
Maybe "Rises" will be about his attempt to start a new, normal life -- kind of like Peter Parker in "Spider-Man 2" -- only to get called back into service after the arrival of Bane.
The haunted man of violence who tries to lead a peaceful life, only to be forced by circumstances and fate to return to his old ways, is a recurring plot point in the films of Michael Mann -- a director who has had a huge influence on Nolan's work.
-- What's up with all the destroyed buildings, and why does Gordon look like he's on life support? For hints, look back to the storyline that introduced Bane to the Batman mythos.
In "Knightfall," Bane freed Batman's Rogues' Gallery from Arkham Asylum and set them loose on Gotham City, creating relentless mayhem and sending the city spiraling into anarchy.
People have theorized that the strange chanting is coming from Arkham inmates. It's possible that Gordon was injured by Bane -- or perhaps even targeted. As for the buildings, here's a wild idea -- could it be that Nolan is flavoring his story with elements of "No Man's Land," the other great Batman story arc about a citywide descent into anarchy?
Sure, "No Man's Land" seems a bit fantastical for Nolan's realist mythos...but then again, so does Bane.
-- Lastly, a note about that shot of Batman and Bane. When you think about it, all of the villains in "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight" weren't really all that physical; the Scarecrow and Ra's al Ghul were both most dangerous when they were getting inside of Batman's head, and the Joker openly scolded Batman at the end of "Dark Knight" for thinking that their battle would just come down to fisticuffs. (There were also various gangsters who did various gangster things.)
It's interesting, then, to consider that Bane is such a beast of a man -- you can tell that these two dudes will wind up fighting each other tooth and nail, just like Schwarzenegger and the Predator (or, more recently and hilariously, the Rock and Vin Diesel in "Fast Five.")
And something about the finality of all the intertitles -- "Every journey has an end, the end of the Dark Knight legend" -- makes me wonder if "Dark Knight Rises" will be a genuine ending.
Like, not a "Superhero flies off into the night, forever hunting evil" ending, but an old-fashioned "This story is over, it will not begin again" ending ending. (Remember: When Bane met Batman in the comics, this happened.)
And since Nolan, Bale, and Warner Bros. are adamant that the Dark Knight series will end with this film, you have to wonder: Could this be the first superhero movie with a genuinely unhappy ending? Could Christopher Nolan's Batman die? Or at least be very badly injured?
We'll post the trailer as soon as it becomes available online. In the meantime, did anyone else out there see the pre-Potter trailer? What did you think?
Are you surprised that the trailer focused so heavily on Bane, with nary a shot of Anne Hathaway or Joseph Gordon-Levitt? Anyone else intrigued by the fact that "Dark Knight Rises" is apparently building so strongly on "Batman Begins," a film that "Dark Knight" really kind of ignored?
Could this join "Toy Story 3" and "The Return of the King" in the tiny pantheon of trilogy-enders that are actually good?

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