Sharon Stone blames China's earthquake on karma

Sharon Stone has suggested that the Chinese earthquake which claimed tens of thousands of lives may be "karma". The Basic Instinct star believes the disaster may be payback for China's policy towards the Tibetans. She made her comments during a red carpet interview in Cannes last week, a video of which has just surfaced on YouTube. Asked if she had heard about the situation in China, Stone replied: "Of course. You know, it was very interesting because at first I am not happy about the way the Chinese are treating the Tibetans, because I don't think anyone should be unkind to anyone else, and so I have been very concerned about how to think and what to do about that because I don't like that. "Then I have been concerned about, oh, how shall we deal with the Olympics? Because they are not being nice to the Dalai Lama, who is a good friend of mine. "And then this earthquake and all this stuff happened and I thought, 'Is that karma, when you're not nice that the bad things happen to you?'" Stone, 50, said her attitude softened after she received a letter from a Tibetan charity which planned to launch a relief programme for victims of the earthquake. "They wanted to go and be helpful, and that made me cry," she said. "It was a big lesson to me that sometimes you have to learn to put your head down and be of service even to people who aren't nice to you." Outraged Chinese citizens have already begun posting their responses on YouTube and calling for Stone to apologise...Telegraph

Murky measures in Myanmar's disaster

Over three weeks since Cyclone Nargis crashed through Myanmar's populous Irrawaddy Delta, the country's military regime has been more forthcoming about the number of buffaloes and chickens that perished than on human casualty and missing counts. The official human toll in Myanmar, or Burma, now stands at 77,738 deaths and 55,917 missing. This figure was revealed in a small story that appeared at the bottom of page six in a May 17 of the New Light of Myanmar, a mouthpiece of the regime. That figure was almost double of what the notoriously secretive junta had revealed nearly 10 days after the powerful cyclone struck in the early hours of May 3. Since the country's worst natural disaster in living memory, the official figures of dead and missing people have been revised at least four times. Some international humanitarian agencies have estimated the death toll to be over 130,000. Yet even that number may be much lower than what a few civilian organizations working closely with the junta estimate, according to information revealed to Inter Press Service (IPS). By the end of the first week, information gathered by the junta and discussed among a small group of senior military officers in the former capital Yangon had put the death toll as high as 300,000, the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said. "They were shocked by the scale of the disaster and that is why they clamped down on information getting out and outsiders, like foreign aid workers, going into the delta," he added. This revelation was made a few days before another assessment... Asia Times Online

Singapore's Unloved Chinese Labor Boom

05.08.08, 10:29 AM ET Low-skilled workers from China are ubiquitous in Singapore these days: in the shiny new terminal of Changi Airport, in coffee shops, in shopping malls, in supermarkets, at gas stations, at construction sites and populating the much-loved open-air food courts called hawker centers. They also make their presence felt in five-star hotels, where one recent encounter found a Mandarin-speaking maid who could not comprehend a word of English. Most recently, Singapore's two bus companies began hiring drivers from China. Chinese workers are just one constituency in Singapore's fast-growing foreign population, but they are the largest component of an expatriate contingent that crossed the 1 million mark in October, helping boost the overall population to 4.68 million in an otherwise chronically aging society. Foreigners make up about one-third of the national workforce. The country set a goal to raise its population total to 6.5 million within two decades, rejuvenating itself mainly through immigration from India and China. But the sudden influx of workers from China appears to have taken ordinary Singaporeans by surprise, as the low-skilled and the elderly start to find themselves losing jobs to the newcomers. The tidal wave of mainland Chinese workers began last year, when Singapore relaxed its rules to allow more immigration to staff its service industries, part of its measures to address an acute labor shortage resulting from a boom in the construction, marine, manufacturing and services sectors. Beginning this year, Singaporean companies were allowed to draw on foreigners for up to 50% of their labor force; 10% can be Chinese nationals. Previously, the respective figures were 45% and 5%. The government last year reckoned 450,000 jobs will be created in the next five years; the country's annual birth rate is only 30,000. As Chinese workers with distinct and varied provincial accents proliferate, so do natives' complaints about their loudness and lack of mastery of English. Their popularity with the city-state's employers, who like their work ethic and low wage expectations, further fuels resentment. They threaten the job security of Singapore's most unskilled, the low-wage workers who earn less than 1,200 Singapore dollars ($872.73) a month, numbering about 350,000. "There are so many of them everywhere, the mainland Chinese," a taxi driver lamented. "They take away our jobs and force poor people to go unemployed." This month, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong tried to place the issue in context, arguing that the majority of Singaporeans have benefited from rising household incomes, a boon stemming from the country's historically low unemployment rate. This follows four consecutive years of strong economic growth. But labor activists view things differently. The Workers' Party pointed out that Singaporeans are being left behind by the recent boom: more than 60% of the record 236,600 new jobs created last year went to foreigners. Forbes

Singapore's Top Terrorist Gone In 11 Minutes Flat

Updated: 12:27 PM ET May 17, 2008 Singapore's top terrorist slips out of jail—revealing worrying cracks in this ultracompetent nanny state. A visitor to Singapore's Ministry of Home Affairs these days isn't greeted by portraits of the senior leaders or the country's founder, Lee Kuan Yew. Instead, one finds, taped to the wall, a black-and-white image of a nondescript middle-aged Malay man. His name is Mas Selamat Kastari. And though his face is unremarkable, his reputation is not: the 47-year-old is the reputed head of the Singapore cell of Jemaah Islamiah, a notorious Southeast Asian terrorist group linked to Al Qaeda. And his image has lately become ubiquitous in this city-state. That's because, in late February, Mas Selamat broke out of a detention facility and became Singapore's most-wanted man. Citizens here are raised to put their faith in a state thought ultracompetent. Singapore's government has earned this reputation by achieving decades of economic growth and prosperity that would be the envy of almost any country, let alone one this small (Singapore's population is just 4.6 million). But for the past three months, since Mas Selamat's escape, authorities have been scrambling to regain that trust. Police and military units are scouring the city-state, and locals have been told to stay on high alert for a fugitive authorities think unarmed but very dangerous. The government is warning people of the dangers of complacency and arguing that all the jailbreak revealed is that even an effective government occasionally slips. "It's a blessing," says Zainal Abidin Rasheed, senior minister at the Foreign Ministry. "We need to remind ourselves we are not infallible." Yet as Singapore's alleged No. 1 terrorist remains on the lam, the people's confidence in their government's omnipotence is starting to falter. Indeed, the details surrounding Mas Selamat's jailbreak hardly inspire confidence. During a trip to the bathroom on Feb. 27, the JI leader managed to climb through a prison window—which, incredibly, had no bars—and is believed to have then shimmied down a water pipe and broken his fall on seven rolls of toilet paper. It was then just 20 meters to a fence that could be easily scaled. At the time, the facility's security cameras were not operational. When guards started to wonder why Mas Selamat was taking so long in the toilet, rather than act immediately, they went to their superiors for permission to open the bathroom stall door. By the time they got it open, Mas Selamat was gone, having escaped in less than 11 minutes. Singapore's Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng admits the string of lapses and errors were "silly and incredible." As much as the government is trying to spin the prison break as a cautionary tale, the episode is revealing shortcomings in Singapore's nanny state. "[The escape] shows some of the strengths of Singapore and some of the weaknesses," says a Western diplomat, who did not want to give his name because of the nature of his work. Singapore does an excellent job mobilizing its resources and directing them at recognized problems. But there are few external or independent checks on the system—and this lack of scrutiny, combined with the government's generally successful record, has produced serious blind spots. Past circumstances have made it "easy to become smug," says the Western diplomat. But this smugness has now proved dangerous. In this case, security at the detention facility had been designed to prevent raids intended to break out inmates. Several weeks ago, the Home Affairs minister admitted of the authorities that had "never in their imagination thought that anybody would attempt to escape." Since Mas Selamat got out, moreover, the government's actions have done little to bolster public confidence. Despite the fact that the first hours of any manhunt are the most critical, the authorities took five days to tell the public what the terrorist was wearing at the time of his escape. And only a few days after that did they bother to inform citizens that the fugitive also limps on his left leg. The government's hesitation may reveal the fact that Singapore's leaders, like any semiauthoritarian regime, are uneasy with the thought of the people taking too active an interest in security matters. The government has worked hard to make sure citizens "see Singapore's place [in the world] as being very precarious," says the diplomat. "It is a very useful political tool" that the government has used to persuade the public to leave things to the experts. But for such a deal to work, the state has to get things right every time. All is well so long as the system keeps working. But when it doesn't, as Singapore just discovered, the country's most dangerous criminal ends up walking out the door. Newsweek

Sceptics question Microsoft move

Open source advocates have questioned Microsoft's commitment to using open document standards in the future. The computer giant has said it will implement use of the Open Document Format (ODF), "sometime next year". The Free Software Foundation Europe said: "It's a step in the right direction but we are sceptical about how open Microsoft will be." The European Commission, which has fined Microsoft for monopolistic practice, welcomed the move. "The Commission would welcome any step that Microsoft took towards genuine interoperability, more consumer choice and less vendor lock-in," it said. The Commission added that it would look into whether Microsoft's announcement "leads to better interoperability and allows consumers to process and exchange their documents with the software product of their choice". Governments will be looking for actual results, not promises in press releases Marino Marcich, ODF Alliance Open source software advocates have long criticised the file formats used by Microsoft's Office suite of programs because they are not genuinely interoperable with software from third parties. Microsoft has said it will add support for ODF when it updates Office 2007 next year. Georg Greve, president of the Free Software Foundation Europe, said he remained dubious about "how deep" Microsoft's adoption of the standard would go... BBC

China earthquake toll jumps again

The death toll from the massive earthquake in south-west China rose again, as an official said more than five million buildings had collapsed. The vice-governor of Sichuan province said 55,239 people were now known to have died in the 12 May quake. Li Chengyun appealed for more tents and set a three-year goal to rebuild towns and infrastructure in the region. Meanwhile, concern is growing over a number of new lakes formed by the force of the earthquake. Thirty-four lakes were created in the province when landslides blocked rivers, Xinhua news agency said. Eight held more than 3 million cubic metres of water and one lake, less than 3km ( two miles) from Beichuan town, had doubled in size in four days. Officials are monitoring the lakes and have sent experts to assess them, the agency said. Forecasters predict heavy rain in the region next week, which could further raise the water levels in the lakes... BBC

Too Fat? First, Get off the Couch

There's been a lot of debate over the past several years about whether you can be both fit and fat. That is, can you be overweight but as healthy as a lean person if you exercise regularly? A study released today in the Archives of Internal Medicine suggests that at least as far as heart disease in women goes, body weight and exercise are both important variables. The discussion is complicated by the fact that the body mass index, the number researchers typically use to gauge overweight and obesity, is not always a perfect measure of body fatness. On one hand, because it simply relates weight to height, it may put musclebound but lean athletes into the "overweight" category. (Here's a study looking at its use in college athletes and nonathletes.) And as I wrote earlier this month, a low BMI may give some thin people a false sense of security, even though their percentage of body fat is high. Studies looking at the relationship between health and exercise and body weight are often confusing. One, published in December in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that among people 60 and older, fitness was the better predictor of longevity than BMI. And the study released today says that yes, exercise absolutely makes a difference in the risk of heart disease among the overweight and obese. But so does weight. Compared with women of normal weight (a BMI less than 25) who were active (or burned off at least 1,000 calories a week), inactive overweight women had an 88 percent higher chance of developing heart disease; active overweight women had a 54 percent higher risk. In women who were obese, the active group had an 87 percent higher chance of getting the disease, while the inactive obese women were at highest risk: Their odds of getting heart disease were more than 2½ times as high as those for the lean active women. The lean women, even the inactive ones, still had far lower odds of later developing heart disease than the overweight women, including those who were exercising. "The physical activity did make a significant difference and reduced the risk of heart disease. But according to our study, to fully reverse the risk of heart disease from being overweight or obese, you'd also have to lose weight," says Amy Weinstein, an instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and an author of the study... US News

Exercise-heart study casts doubt on 'fit but fat' theory

New research challenges the notion that you can be fat and fit, finding that being active can lower but not eliminate heart risks faced by heavy women. "It doesn't take away the risk entirely. Weight still matters," said Dr. Martha Gulati, a heart specialist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Previous research has gone back and forth on whether exercise or weight has a greater influence on heart disease risks. The new study involving nearly 39,000 women helps sort out the combined effects of physical activity and body mass on women's chances of developing heart disease, said Gulati, who wasn't involved in the research. The study by Harvard-affiliated researchers appears in Monday's Archives of Internal Medicine. Participants were women aged 54 on average who filled out a questionnaire at the study's start detailing their height, weight and amount of weekly physical activity in the past year, including walking, jogging, bicycling and swimming. They were then tracked for about 11 years. Overall 948 women developed heart disease. Women were considered active if they followed government-recommended guidelines and got at least 30 minutes of moderate activity most days of the week, including brisk walking or jogging. Women who got less exercise than that were considered inactive. Weight was evaluated by body mass index: A BMI between 25 and 29 is considered overweight, while obese is 30 and higher... AP

Surprising things that give you headaches

You've been staring at the computer for hours. You've worked late all week and have in-laws coming this weekend. You have a raging case of PMS. Eyestrain, stress, and hormonal shifts are fairly common causes of headaches, which afflict 45 million Americans (most of them women). But sometimes the usual suspects don't explain that pain in your head. That's because some triggers are just plain weird -- like perfume, storms, earrings -- or even orgasms. Here's how to identify the source of your headache so you can send it packing.

Perfume "Strong scents bother me instantly," says Bethany Hegedus, 35, a writer and receptionist from Brooklyn, New York. She can get a headache from a whiff of Lovely by Sarah Jessica Parker or a stroll past a Yankee Candle. Her sense of smell is so acute that she can sniff out whether a co-worker has changed laundry detergents or hand lotions, a degree of sensitivity common among scent-driven headache sufferers. The headaches can be fleeting if exposure is brief -- or they can last all day... CNN

Quit suffering from 'dirty' pain

Think of a problem that has plagued you for a long time -- your weight, a loved one's bad habits, fear of terrorism, whatever. No doubt you've tried valiantly to control this issue, but are your efforts working? The answer has to be no; otherwise you would have solved the problem long ago. What if your real trouble isn't the issue you brood about so compulsively, but the brooding itself? Psychologists who subscribe to acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) call "clean" pain what we feel when something hurtful happens to us. "Dirty" pain is the result of our thoughts about how wrong this is, how it proves we - and life - are bad. The two kinds of suffering occupy different sections of the brain: One part simply registers events, while another creates a continuous stream of thoughts about those events. The vast majority of our unhappiness comes from this secondary response - not from painful reality, but from painful thoughts about reality. Western psychology is just accepting something saints and mystics have taught for centuries: that this suffering ends only when we learn to detach from the thinking mind. Get happy! Continue this exercise in acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT).Learning to detach starts with simply noticing our own judgmental thoughts. When we find ourselves using words like should or ought, we're courting dirty pain. Obsessing about what should be rather than accepting what is, we may try to control other people in useless, dysfunctional ways. We may impotently rage against nature itself, even - perhaps especially - when that nature is our own... CNN

Cashing in on old gadgets

We think a lot about getting new gadgets, but not so much about getting rid of old ones. The result: old cell phones, defunct laser printers and Pentium III computers gathering dust.A couple companies want to help us clear out those old gadgets, while feeding our upgrade habit, helping the environment and making a buck for themselves. Instead of being hit up for an extended warranty next time you buy a gadget, you may find yourself hearing a pitch from TechForward Inc., a Los Angeles-based company selling a "guaranteed" buyback plan for electronics... CNN

Comedian is living in an Ikea store

When Mark Malkoff thought about where he could stay while his New York City apartment was being fumigated for cockroaches, he quickly ruled out friends' places (too small) and hotels (too expensive). Instead, the comedian and filmmaker decided to move into an Ikea store in suburban New Jersey, where on Monday he unloaded two suitcases into a spacious bedroom at the store. At night when the store is closed, he says he'll play laser tag with security guards and even plans to host a housewarming party. "The fact that Ikea is letting me do this is mind-boggling," said Malkoff, lounging on a bed in his new room. "There's no way I'm going back. I love this way too much." Malkoff, who works for Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" as a ticket handler, is allowed to stay until Ikea closes at about midnight on Saturday; the store, famous for its low-cost do-it-yourself furniture, is closed on Sundays... CNN

Muslim high school track star disqualified for outfit

A high school track star has been disqualified from a meet because officials said the custom-made outfit she wears to conform to her Muslim faith violated competition rules. Juashaunna Kelly, here in October, has competed in the same outfit for three straight seasons. Juashaunna Kelly, a senior at the District of Columbia's Theodore Roosevelt High School, has the fastest mile and 2-mile times of any girl runner in the city this winter. She was disqualified from Saturday's Montgomery Invitational indoor track and field meet. Kelly was wearing the same uniform she has worn for three seasons while running for Theodore Roosevelt's cross-country and track teams. The custom-made, one-piece blue and orange unitard covers her head, arms, torso and legs. Over the unitard, she wears the same orange and blue T-shirt and shorts as her teammates. The outfit allows her to compete while adhering to her Muslim faith, which forbids displaying any skin other than her face and hands. "It's not special," Kelly said. "It doesn't make me perform better." CNN

Antarctic lake may hold life clue

Edinburgh University researcher Neil Ross is part of a four-man team camped on an Antarctic ice sheet. The group, which also includes members of the British Antarctic Survey, are to explore an ancient subglacial lake about the size of Loch Katrine. Lake Ellsworth, in West Antarctica, is buried under 3.2kms of ice. About 150 lakes have been discovered beneath the Antarctica's vast ice sheet and so far little is known about them Professor Martin SiegertEdinburgh University The scientists believe the 10km-long lake could give scientists vital insights into climate change, future rises in sea-levels and the origins of life on earth. It is one of more than 150 lakes locked beneath Antarctica's vast ice sheets that have been discovered using radar and satellite technologies. Professor Martin Siegert, principal investigator on the International Polar Year project that is investigating the lake and head of Edinburgh University's School of GeoSciences, said the lake could show signs of ancient life. He said: "We are particularly interested in Lake Ellsworth because it is likely to have been isolated from the surface for hundreds of thousands of years. "Radar measurements made previously from aircraft surveys suggest that the lake is connected to others that could drain ice from the West Antarctic Ice sheet to the ocean and contribute to sea level rise... BBC

Biofuels are not a magic bullet

Biofuels may play a role in curbing climate change, says Britain's Royal Society, but may create environmental problems unless implemented with care. In a new report, the Society suggests current EU and UK policies are not guaranteed to reduce emissions. It advocates more research into all aspects of biofuel production and use. The report says the British government should use financial incentives to ensure companies adopt cutting-edge and carbon-efficient technologies. "Biofuels could play an important role in cutting greenhouse gas emissions from transport, both in Britain and globally," said Professor John Pickett from Rothamsted Research, who chaired the Royal Society's study. Nature has provided countless potential solutions in organisms as diverse as cows and microbes Dianna Bowles, York University "But it would be disastrous if biofuel production made further inroads into biological diversity and natural ecosystems. "We must not create new environmental or social problems in our efforts to deal with climate change." ... BBC

Hubble peers into dark matter

Astronomers have revealed the effects of unseen dark matter as it tugs on galaxies in a crowded supercluster. Dark matter acts as invisible cosmic "scaffolding" upon which visible stars and galaxies are assembled. The dark matter in this instance has pooled into four dense clumps, in which hundreds of old galaxies are embedded. Using the Hubble Space Telescope, a team of scientists mapped the dark matter at a better resolution than has ever been achieved before. Co-author Catherine Heymans, of the University of British Columbia in Canada, said the survey covered one of the largest patches of sky to be observed by Hubble.Dark matter does not reflect or emit detectable light, yet it accounts for most of the mass in the Universe. The researchers were able to detect it indirectly using a technique called weak gravitational lensing... BBC

Cancer's ethnic divide?

New research suggests that black women tend to develop breast cancer earlier than their white counterparts, and that the tumours in question may even be biologically different from those of white women. It is a small study, but if the findings were confirmed, it could have all sorts of implications for both screening and treatment. It may seem extraordinary, but this is one of the first UK studies to gather a sample of black people with cancer and compare them with white ones. "It's just not something we've done in this country, and as a result, there is a real dearth of information as to how cancer may affect people of different ethnic groups differently," says Dr Lesley Walker of Cancer Research UK. "Until we find out, it's very difficult to make sure that people are being offered the best possible service." ... BBC

Why are clowns scary?

Children are frightened by clown-themed decor in hospitals, a survey suggests. How did the smiley circus entertainers become a horror staple? Anyone who has read Stephen King's It would probably never choose to decorate a children's ward with clowns. And it probably comes as no surprise to horror fans that a University of Sheffield study of 250 children for a report on hospital design suggests the children find clown motifs "frightening and unknowable". It is the fear of the mask, the fact that it doesn't change and is relentlessly comical Ramsey Campbell Clown images 'too scary' One might suspect that popular culture is to blame. In It, made into a television movie in 1990, Stephen King created a child-murdering monster that appeared as a demonic clown. King's It has sparked a slew of schlocky movies over the past 20 years, known as the killer clown or evil clown genre... BBC

Misery creep

Owning too much stuff drives us into a spiral of sadness, says a new book. Or is the real problem "misery-creep", where everyday unhappiness is being rebranded as depression? We all know the old saying: "Riches won't make you happy." But is it possible that riches - or even aspiring to be rich and wanting to live a Footballers' Wife-style life of luxury - might make us mentally ill?Clinical psychologist Oliver James claims in his new book The Selfish Capitalist: Origins of Affluenza, that "selfish capitalism" (the kind of capitalism we have in Britain) is making us sick. Literally. He says the emergence of selfish capitalism, first under Margaret Thatcher and later Tony Blair, has led to a "startling increase in the incidence of mental illness". We might live more comfortable and stuff-filled lives than our forebears did, but James believes the rise of materialism has come with a high price tag attached - widespread anxiety and depression... BBC

Wii warm-up good for surgeons

Playing computer games such as the Nintendo Wii can improve a surgeon's performance in the operating theatre, a US study shows. Only certain games are effective - those requiring delicate movements. The fine hand control required to play these games acts as a warm up and hones scalpel skills the Banner Good Samaritan Medical Centre team claim. Now they are designing Wii software that will accurately simulate surgical procedures, New Scientist reports. They asked eight trainee surgeons to spend an hour playing the games on a console before performing "virtual reality" surgery on a computer system... BBC