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Putin compares U.S. plan to Cuban missile crisis
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MAFRA, Portugal (AP) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin Friday compared the U.S. proposal to build a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe to the Cuban missile crisis of the 1960s.


Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) with Portuguese PM Jose Socrates at the EU-Russia summit in Portugal.

"Analogous actions by the Soviet Union, when it deployed missiles in Cuba, prompted the 'Caribbean crisis,"' Putin said at a news conference at the end of a European Union-Russian summit in Portugal, using the Russian term for the Cuban missile crisis.

"Such a threat is being set up on our borders," he said.

At the same time, Putin suggested the tension was much lower than during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis because Russian-U.S. relations have moved on since the Cold War. He also said he believes the United States is listening to Moscow's concerns about its missile plans.

Putin said his relationship with President Bush helps solve problems in relations with the U.S., calling him a friend.

The U.S. plan would install a radar base in the Czech Republic and 10 interceptor missiles in Poland -- both former Soviet satellites that are now NATO members. It is part of a wider missile shield involving defenses in California and Alaska which the United States says are to defend against any long-range missile attack from countries such as North Korea or Iran.

Russia strongly opposes the idea, saying Iran is decades away from developing missile technology that could threaten Europe or North America, and it says the U.S. bases will undermine Russia's own missile deterrent force.

Turning to his future, Putin said he would not assume presidential powers if he became prime minister after finishing his term in the spring.

"If someone thinks that I intend to move, let's say, into the government of the Russian Federation and transfer the fundamental powers there, that's not the case," he said at a news conference. "There will be no infringement on the powers of the president of the Russian Federation, at least while it depends on me."

The popular Putin is barred from seeking a third consecutive term in the March 2008 presidential election. But he suggested earlier this month that he could become prime minister after his term ends in May, leading some to speculate that the substantial powers now invested in the presidency might be transferred to the prime minister.

After repeating his insistence that he does not intend to change the constitution in order to run for a third term, Putin said he had not yet decided where and in what capacity he would work as former president. He is expected to remain an influential figure in Russia.

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Putin and EU leaders put a positive spin on Friday's Portugal summit. Many observers had approached the meeting with low expectations, given deepening disputes between Moscow and the 27-nation union over issues such as energy, human rights and the Balkans.

Putin, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and other EU officials repeatedly characterized the talks as "open, frank and productive."

However, the two sides failed to sign a new cooperation agreement to replace an expiring one, and two minor deals -- on drug trafficking and steel exports -- were the only concrete results announced.

Topping the list of concerns for a growing number of European nations is Russian energy policy -- the reliability of supplies and the intentions of state-run oil and gas companies. Russia already provides 30 percent of EU energy imports, including 44 percent of natural gas imports.

The state-controlled gas giant OAO Gazprom has recently moved to acquire assets in Europe and strike bilateral deals with some EU countries.

That has led the EU to consider new restrictions on non-EU companies owning majority stakes in gas pipelines or electricity power grids without additional agreements -- much to the Russians' consternation.

Earlier, Putin tried to assure European leaders that Russian investment was not to be feared.

"When we hear in some countries phrases like, 'The Russians are coming with their scary money,' it sounds a bit funny," he said.


He said money flowing into Russian government coffers -- largely from oil and gas exports -- was being used to resolve domestic problems. And he noted that private foreign investors hold large amounts of shares in Gazprom.

Putin held talks Friday with Barroso and Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, at an 18th-century baroque palace in Mafra, a small town about 30 miles north of Lisbon

China vows tough line on protests
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BEIJING, China (AP) -- Chinese police will deal harshly with social or political demonstrations at the Beijing Olympics, a top security official said Friday.


Security guards patrol outside a fence surrounding the University of Science and Technology Beijing.

With 28,000 journalists expected to attend, the Aug. 8-24 Olympics offer a rare chance for protesters to express grievances against China's communist government on issues including religious freedom, Tibetan independence and global warming.

Liu Shaowu, deputy director of the Olympic Security Command Center, said security forces would stop any form of demonstration at or around venues. He also suggested that protests deemed threatening would be snuffed out far from Olympic sites.

"As for violating China's sovereignty and encouraging separatists and terrorists, definitely we will not allow that," Liu told reporters. "We will deal with that according to Chinese law."

Liu's comments, made at a rare media briefing on Olympic security, are likely to compound concerns that Beijing will use heavy-handed policing at the games.

Defending the measures, Liu said the protest clampdown at Olympic sites is in line with the Olympic charter, which he said forbids "any form of political, religious or racial demonstration."

His assistant, Cao Dongxiang, said protesters who managed to get inside a venue would be dealt with quickly.

"If a protester holds up a banner, it's against the rules, so security will take it down," Cao said.

Bolstering security will be an extensive electronic surveillance system, which journalists saw in part during a tour of the Olympic venue for judo and taekwondo. An elaborate security control room housed 17 screens monitoring hundreds of closed-circuit TV cameras inside and outside the 8,000-seat venue.

Liu and Cao declined to give specifics but said about 100 security officials -- some of them dressed as Olympic volunteers -- would be on duty inside the venue at the Beijing University of Science and Technology. Hundreds more would be on duty outside, some of them armed, Liu said.

Organizers have tried to play down the policing, and Liu said International Olympic Committee officials had been pleased when they didn't see a lot of police at test events. Any appearance of overbearing security could take the luster off the games and reopen the debate about the IOC's choice of Beijing.

Liu said about 20 government agencies were involved in providing security including the 2 million-member People's Liberation Army, police agencies, customs officials, firefighters and volunteers from military and police training schools. Unlike Greece, China is getting little outside help handling security.

Chinese media reports earlier this year put the cost of security at $300 million -- about one-fifth of the amount spent for the games in Athens, where NATO played a large part. Beijing organizers said last month that the operating budget had risen by at least 25 percent from $1.6 billion to more than $2 billion.

Officials said this was due largely to more spending on security and the rising value of the Chinese currency against the dollar.

"To guarantee there is a good atmosphere in the venues, we have to make sure the security is there," Liu said. "We are very confident of holding a secure Olympic games. We are confident about our security work."

Yahoo settles dissidents suit
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(CNN) -- Internet giant Yahoo has settled a lawsuit brought by the families of a Chinese dissident and a journalist, who claim they were jailed after the company cooperated with Chinese authorities, according to court documents.


Gao Qin Sheng, mother of jailed reporter Shi Tao, listens to an interpreter during the hearing.

Notification of the settlement was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California.

An attorney involved in the case who did not want to be identified told CNN the amount of the settlement was not disclosed.

The case was filed by dissident Wang Xiaoning; his wife, Yu Ling; Shi Tao, a reporter for a Chinese newspaper; and others not identified in court documents.

China's communist government sentenced Wang to 10 years in prison for sending out pro-democracy blogs.

Although he was sentenced in 2002 and has already served five years, Yu told CNN she only recently received court documents in the case. Those documents itemized the information Yahoo provided to the government.

Shi landed in trouble three years ago when the Chinese government prohibited journalists to report on the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in 1989.

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When Shi forwarded the notice to human rights groups, the Chinese government pressured Yahoo to give them the name of the account holder, and they did so. Shi was also sentenced to 10 years in prison.

In testimony before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs last week, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang was contrite, saying, "My heart goes out to the families" of the dissidents.

Yahoo attorney Michael Callahan discussed what the company might have faced if it had refused to provide the information to the Chinese government.

"I cannot ask our local employees to resist lawful demands and put their own freedom at risk, even if, in my personal view, the local laws are overboard," Callahan said.

However, Rep. Tom Lantos, a California Democrat, who serves as chairman of the House committee and has led the probe into Yahoo's cooperation with the Chinese government, remained critical of Yahoo in a statement issued Tuesday.

"It took a tongue-lashing from Congress before these high-tech titans did the right thing and coughed up some concrete assistance for the family of a journalist whom Yahoo had helped send to jail," Lantos said. "In my view, today's settlement is long overdue."

There was no immediate reaction to the reports of the settlement in China, as Chinese media were not reporting it and bloggers apparently had not heard about it.  Watch what's known about the deal »

But one Shanghai-based blogger, after being told about the settlement, told CNN, "Hopefully this settlement will have a long-term restraining effect on the Internet companies beyond this individual case ... The way they are making concessions to the Chinese government is unacceptable. They are hiding from their moral obligations and standards."

The attorney in the case told CNN the families of the detainees would have preferred that the settlement include a court finding of Yahoo's culpability, that the settlement terms be made public and that the terms included enforceability by the court. However, none of that was included in the final settlement, he said.

But, the attorney said, Yahoo executives did tell the detainees' families they will do everything they can to get the men out of prison. The families are confident, the attorney said, that Congress will bring the executives back before committees if they fail to deliver.


Yahoo and other U.S. companies, including Google and MSN, are accused of censoring their Internet search engines in China. The companies say they block content only when they're given a legal order from the Chinese to do so, and they say they always let customers know of the blocking of content.

Google told CNN it takes steps to make sure private users are not identified.

Titanic survivor dies at 96
————From Chinadaily

LONDON -- Barbara West Dainton, believed to be one of the last two survivors from the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, has died in England at age 96.Dainton died Oct. 16 at a nursing home in Camborne, England, according to Peter Visick, a distant relative. Her funeral was held Monday at Truro Cathedral, Visick said Thursday.

Elizabeth Gladys "Millvina" Dean of Southampton, England, who was 2 months old at the time of the Titanic sinking, is now the disaster's only remaining survivor, according to the Titanic Historical Society.

The last American survivor, Lillian Gertrud Asplund, died in Massachusetts last year at age 99.

Dainton, born in Bournemouth in southern England in 1911, was too young to remember the night when the huge liner hit an iceberg and sank in the Atlantic in April 1912, killing 1,500 people, including her father, Edwy Arthur West.

He waved farewell as the lifeboat carrying Barbara; her mother, Ada; and her sister, Constance, was lowered into the ocean, according to Karen Kamuda of the Titanic Historical Society in Indian Orchard, Mass. His body was never identified.

The Titanic did not have enough lifeboats for all of 2,200 passengers and crew. Only a small number of those unable to find a place on the boats survived the freezing waters.

Dainton returned to England after the accident. She married in 1952.

She avoided publicity associated with the Titanic and even insisted that her funeral take place before any public announcement of her death, Kamuda said.

"We respected her privacy," Kamuda said. "We're so open with everything and our emotions nowadays, but people at that time, they just didn't talk about it."

Expert warns of worsening AIDS infection in China
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(Xinhua)from chinadaily

SHENYANG -- China sees increasing cases of AIDS infection and wider spread of the disease among the public, an anti-AIDS expert has warned, calling for immediate measures.

China reported 218,107 AIDS cases by the end of August this year, with an increase of 3,807 cases in August, said Dai Zhicheng, director of the Chinese Association of STD (sexually transmitted disease) & AIDS Prevention and Control.

In central Henan and southwestern Yunnan provinces, the reported infected cases exceeded 30,000, Dai said at a recent seminar to raise people's awareness of AIDS in Liaoning Province.

Some western areas, including the Tibet Autonomous Region, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Qinghai Province, and northern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region reported less than 2,000 infection cases, he said.
The disease is mainly transmitted by sex and needle sharing of drug users, which account for 43.6 percent and 44.3 percent of the total infections respectively.
The rate of HIV infections among drug users rose from 1.95 percent in 1998 to 7.5 percent in 2006. The rate of HIV infections among male homosexuals stayed between 1 percent to 4 percent, according to the monitoring data obtained by Dai's association.

China's anti-AIDS efforts are hampered by many factors, including inadequate publicity and funding, inefficient health care facilities in rural areas and ineffective control on floating population, said Dai.

The increasing number of floating population and drug users also pose difficulties for the campaign against AIDS.

He suggested compulsory urine test be adopted to keep drug addicts clean and anti-AIDS knowledge be made well-known among migrated population in the hope of curbing the virus spread.

Russian oil tanker breaks in two
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MOSCOW, Russia (AP) -- A Russian oil tanker split in two during a fierce storm early Sunday, spilling some 560,000 gallons of fuel into a strait leading to the Black Sea in one of the worst environmental disasters in the region in years, authorities said.

Two freighters carrying sulfur also sank nearby in the Strait of Kerch, a narrow strait linking the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov to the northeast, said Sergei Petrov, a spokesman for the regional branch of Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry.

Operations to rescue the crews of all three ships were under way, officials said.

The oil tanker, the Volganeft-139 -- loaded with about 1.3 million gallons of fuel oil -- was stranded several miles from shore. Stormy weather was preventing emergency workers from collected the spilled oil, authorities said.

"There is serious concern that the spill will continue," Oleg Mitvol, head of the state environmental safety watchdog Rosprorodnadzor said on Vesti 24 television.

He said it could take "several years" to clean up the spill, one of the worst in the region in recent years.

Maxim Stepanenko, a regional prosecutor, told Vesti 24 that the oil tanker -- designed during Soviet times to transport oil on rivers -- was not built to withstand a fierce storm. He said a similar tanker battered by storm developed a crack in its hull but hasn't yet leaked any oil.

Mitvol said while the spilled sulfur did not present an environmental danger, the two freighters could also leak fuel oil from their tanks, adding to the pollution.

A Turkish freighter also has run around in the strait, the RIA Novosti news agency quoted Vladimir Yerygin, chief administrator in the nearby Russian port city of Novorossiisk, as saying.

The Black Sea is bordered by Russia, Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Georgia.

Environmental fears over palm oil
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LONDON (CNN) -- Destruction of Indonesia's peatlands to make way for the production of palm oil is leading to a significant increase in greenhouse gas emissions, a problem that will get worse as demand for biofuel grows, Greenpeace reported Thursday.

The environmental group said Indonesia's carbon-rich peatlands are being razed, drained and burned to make way for plantations of oil palm trees, which are used for the production of palm oil.


Indonesia : peatlands in Riau province are being razed, drained and burned to make way for plantations of oil palm trees

Palm oil is used in food products ranging from potato chips to cream cheese and is also used for biofuel.

The destruction of the peatlands releases 1.8 billion tons of greenhouse gas each year, Greenpeace said. That figure represents 4 percent of global emissions from an area representing 0.1 percent of the land on earth.

"We're talking about enormous carbon stores basically being released into the atmosphere when these forests are being burned and cleared," said Andy Tait, a forests campaigner for Greenpeace

Tait said the razing of the peatlands is so destructive that the planting of palm oil trees cannot make up for the greenhouse gases emitted in the process.

In a report released Thursday titled "Cooking the Climate," Greenpeace also said only a third of the land cleared since 1990 has been planted with oil palm plantations.

Greenpeace said large food and consumer product companies including Unilever, Nestle, and Procter & Gamble are driving the peatland destruction because the companies account for a significant volume of global palm oil use.

These companies, Greenpeace said, "are complicit in the expansion of palm oil at the expense of Indonesia's peatlands."

The group called on companies that use palm oil to make sure it does not originate from destroyed peatland.

In response to the report, Procter & Gamble said it is committed to sustainable palm oil and shares guidelines on sustainability to its suppliers.

"We encourage our suppliers to follow sustainable practices and we support various initiatives for the sustainable production and use of palm products, such as the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)," Procter & Gamble said in a statement.

Greenpeace said the RSPO's efforts are hampered because member companies often can't trace the palm oil beyond the processor, leaving companies unable to determine whether it comes from destroyed peatlands.

Tait said the problem will get worse as demand for biofuel increases. Greenpeace said compared to 2000, demand for palm oil is predicted to more than double by 2030 and triple by 2050.

But Tait said using biofuel from crops connected to deforestation defeats the purpose of trying to produce an eco-friendly fuel.

"Using biofuel made of palm oil to tackle climate change is like putting gasoline on a fire to put it out," he said.

To highlight the effects of peatland destruction, Greenpeace focused on the Indonesian province of Riau, where it said a quarter of the country's oil palm plantations are located and more are planned.

The group said that if Riau's peatlands are destroyed, the resulting greenhouse gas emissions would be equivalent to the amount emitted by the rest of the world in a year.

Girl with 8 limbs' surgery going well
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BANGALORE, India (AP ) -- Surgeons in India said a mammoth 40-hour operation on a two-year-old girl born with four arms and four legs was going according to plan.


Lakshmi, pictured with her mother prior to surgery.

"So far, so good," Dr. Sharan Patil, the head surgeon, told reporters after 10 hours of surgery to separate Lakshmi Tatma from her "parasitic twin."

The task began early Tuesday in the southern Indian city of Bangalore and is expected to go on through the night.

Patil told reporters the team of 30 surgeons had begun the process of severing Lakshmi from her conjoined twin, which stopped developing in the mother's womb and has a torso and limbs but no head.

He said the spinal cord had been successfully separated and that body tissues vital for the girl's survival had been isolated and retained.

Patil said orthopedic surgeons would now begin the painstaking task of separating fused bones connecting the girl to her twin. He said Lakshmi was in a stable condition and was responding well to the surgery. Watch images of Lakshmi as she prepares for surgery .

When Lakshmi was born into a poor, rural Indian family, villagers in the remote settlement of Rampur Kodar Katti in the northern state of Bihar believed she was sacred. As news of her birth spread, locals queued for a blessing from the baby.

Her parents, Shambhu and Poonam Tatma, named the girl after the Hindu goddess of wealth who has four arms. However, they were forced to keep her in hiding after they were approached by men offering money in exchange for putting their daughter in a circus.

The couple, who earn just $1 a day as casual laborers, were keen for her to have the operation but were unable to pay for the rare procedure, which has never before been performed in India.

Many villagers, however, remain opposed to surgery and are planning to erect a temple to Lakshmi, who they still revere as sacred.

After Patil visited the girl in her village from Narayana Health City hospital in Bangalore, the hospital's foundation agreed to fund the $200,000 operation.

The non-stop procedure will go on through the night with surgeons working eight-hour shifts to separate her spinal column and kidney from that of her twin.


The operation is being conducted by specialists in pediatrics, neurosurgery, orthopedics and plastic surgery. Without it, doctors say, Lakshmi would be unlikely to survive beyond early adolescence.

Her parents are being given regular updates but are not allowed to see their daughter during the operation.

Report: Chinese name kids 'Olympics'
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BEIJING, China (AP) -- The upcoming Beijing Olympics is more than just a point of pride for China -- it's such an important part of the national consciousness that more than 3,000 parents named their children after the event, a newspaper reported Sunday.

Most of the 3,491 people with the name "Aoyun," meaning Olympics, were born around the year 2000, as Beijing was bidding to host the 2008 Summer Games, the Beijing Daily reported, citing information from China's national identity card database.

The vast majority of people named Aoyun are male, the newspaper said. Only six of them live in Beijing, though the report didn't say where the others lived.

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Names related to the Olympics don't just stop with "Olympics." More than 4,000 Chinese share their names with the Beijing Games mascots, the "Five Friendlies." The names are Bei Bei (880 people), Jing Jing (1,240), Huan Huan (1,063), Ying Ying (624) and Ni Ni (642). When put together, the phrase translates to "Beijing welcomes you!"

Chinese have increasingly turned to unique names as a way to express a child's individuality. In a country with a population of 1.3 billion people, 87 percent share the same 129 family names.

Lunar probe enters moon's orbit
————China Daily     
China's first lunar probe, Chang'e I, successfully completed its first braking at perilune and entered the moon's orbit Monday morning, becoming China's first circumlunar satellite.

Chang'e I, following the instructions of the Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC), started braking at 11:15 am at a position around 300 km away from the moon and entered the moon's orbit at around 11:37 am after completing the braking, according to the BACC.

The speed of Chang'e I reached about 2.3 km per second when it started braking. It would likely fly away from the moon if the braking was too early, or it would crash into the moon if the braking was too late, scientists explained.

After the braking, the probe's speed was slowed down to 1.948 km per second and is now traveling along a 12-hour elliptical moon orbit, with a perilune of about 200 km and an apolune of about 8,600 km.Chang'e I, named after a legendary Chinese goddess who flew to the moon, blasted off on a Long March 3A carrier rocket on October 24 from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwestern Sichuan Province.

The probe completed its fourth orbital transfer on October 31, which shifted it to the earth-moon transfer orbit and pushed it to fly to the moon "in a real sense". Then it flied another 114 hours to arrive at the perilune 200 km away from the moon.

It was previously moving around the earth and experienced three orbital transfers, which lifted it up first to a 16-hour orbit with an apogee of 50,000 km, then to a 24-hour orbit with an apogee of 70,000 km and next to a 48-hour orbit with an apogee of more than 120,000 km.

On November 2, BACC successfully carried out an orbital correction for Chang'e I to ensure that it traveled on the pre-set orbit.

A second orbital correction scheduled for November 3 was called off because it was "unnecessary" -- Chang'e I had been running accurately on the expected trajectory, a BACC scientist said.

The 2,350-kg satellite carried eight probing facilities, including a stereo camera and interferometer, an imager and gamma/x-ray spectrometer, a laser altimeter, a microwave detector, a high energy solar particle detector and a low energy ion detector.

The ultraviolet image sensors, put into actual use on a satellite for the first time, has begun working since October 30 to collect information on both the earth and the moon.

Chang'e I is expected to relay the first picture of the moon in late November.

It will fulfil four scientific objectives, including a three-dimensional survey of the Moon's surface, analysis of the abundance and distribution of elements on lunar surface, an investigation of the characteristics of lunar regolith and the powdery soil layer on the surface, and an exploration of the circumstance between the earth and the moon.

China's lunar orbiter project has cost 1.4 billion yuan (US$187 million) since research and development of the project was approved at the beginning of 2004.

The launch of the orbiter kicks off the first step of China's three-stage moon mission, which will lead to a moon landing and launch of a moon rover at around 2012. In the third phase, another rover will land on the moon and return to earth with lunar soil and stone samples for scientific research at around 2017.

Setting back clocks can be a killer
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- This weekend is the time to turn back those clocks, and according to two scientists, time to be extra careful when walking during evening rush hour.


Most of the country got an extra hour of sleep Sunday morning.

At 2 a.m. local time Sunday, standard time returned. That means clocks should have been set back an hour.

It also means that pedestrians walking around dusk are now nearly three times more likely to be struck and killed by cars than before the time change, the researchers calculate.

Ending daylight saving time translates into about 37 more U.S. pedestrian deaths around 6 p.m. in November compared to October, the professors report.

Their study of risk to pedestrians is preliminary but confirms previous findings of higher deaths after clocks are set back in fall.

It's not the darkness itself, but the adjustment to earlier nighttime that's the killer, said professors Paul Fischbeck and David Gerard, both of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

Fischbeck, who regularly walks with his 4-year-old twins around 6 p.m., is worried enough that he'll be more cautious starting Monday.

"A three times increase in the risk is really dramatic, and because of that we're carrying a flashlight," he said.

Fischbeck and Gerard conducted a preliminary study of seven years of federal traffic fatalities and calculated risk per mile walked for pedestrians. They found that per-mile risk jumps 186 percent from October to November, but then drops 21 percent in December.

They said the drop-off by December indicates the risk is caused by the trouble both drivers and pedestrians have adjusting when darkness suddenly comes an hour earlier.

The reverse happens in the morning when clocks are set back and daylight comes earlier. Pedestrian risk plummets, but there are fewer walkers then, too. The 13 lives saved at 6 a.m. don't offset the 37 lost at 6 p.m., the researchers found.

The risk for pedestrian deaths at 6 p.m. is by far the highest in November than any other month, the scientists said. The danger declines each month through May.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety of Arlington, Virginaia, in earlier studies found the switch from daylight saving time to standard time increased pedestrian deaths. Going to a year-round daylight saving time would save about 200 deaths a year, the institute calculated, said spokesman Russ Rader.

"Benjamin Franklin conceived of daylight savings time as a way of saving candles," Rader said Friday. "Today we know it saves lives."

The risk at 6 p.m. in November, after daylight saving time ends, is 11 times higher than the risk for the same hour in April, when daylight saving begins, according to the Carnegie Mellon researchers.

Fischbeck and Gerard used federal traffic fatality data that they've incorporated into a searchable database for different risk factors. Their analysis was not peer-reviewed or being published in a scientific journal.

But it does jibe with other peer-reviewed studies that looked at raw fatalities.

A 2001 study by John M. Sullivan at the University of Michigan looked at national traffic statistics from 1987 to 1997 and found that there were 65 crashes killing pedestrians in the week before the clocks fell back and 227 in the week after.

Fischbeck and Gerard found the increase in fatality risk after the end of daylight saving time is only for pedestrians. No such jump was seen for drivers or passengers in cars.

Once everyone "springs forward" to daylight saving time in April, there is a 78 percent drop in risk at 6 p.m., they said.

But overall for the evening rush hour, turning the clock back is a killer. In seven years there have been 250 more deaths in the fall and 139 fewer deaths in the spring.

"This clearly shows that both drivers and pedestrians should think about this daylight savings adjustment," Gerard said. "There are lives at stake."

The time change does not apply in Arizona, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands.

UN: Asia's gender imbalance grows
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HANOI, Vietnam (AP) -- Vietnam's preference for boys over girls is further tipping the balance between the sexes in Asia, already skewed by a strong bias for boys among Chinese and Indians. The trend could lead to increased trafficking of women and social unrest, a U.N. report says.


Mothers hold their newborn babies at Hanoi Maternity Hospital in Hanoi, Vietnam, in late October.

Vietnam is now positioned where China was a decade ago, logging about 110 boys born to every 100 girls in a country where technology is readily available to determine the sex of a fetus and where abortion is legal, according to research released this week by the U.N. Population Fund.

The sex ratio at birth generally should equal about 105 boys to 100 girls, according to the report.

"The consequences are already happening in neighboring countries like China, South Korea and Taiwan. They have to import brides," said Tran Thi Van, assistant country representative of the Population Fund in Hanoi, adding that many brides are coming from Vietnam. "I don't know where Vietnam could import brides from if that situation happened here in the next 10 or 15 years."

The report, which looked at China, India, Vietnam and Nepal, warned that tinkering with nature's probabilities could cause increased violence against women, trafficking and social tensions. It predicted a "marriage squeeze," with the poorest men being forced to live as bachelors.

Gender imbalance among births has been rising in parts of Asia since the 1980s, after ultrasound and amniocentesis provided a way to determine a fetus' sex early in pregnancy. Despite laws in several countries banning doctors from revealing the baby's sex, many women still find out and choose to abort girls.

"I have noticed that there have been more and more boys than girls," said Truong Thi My Ha, a nurse at Hanoi's Maternity Hospital. "Most women are very happy when they have boys, while many are upset if they have girls."

In China, the 2005 estimate was more than 120 boys born to 100 girls, with India logging about 108 boys to 100 girls in 2001, when the last census was taken. However, pockets of India have rates of 120 boys. In several Chinese provinces, the ratio spikes to more than 130 boys born to 100 girls.

Reports of female infanticide still surface in some poor areas of countries and death rates are higher among girls in places like China, where they are sometimes breast-fed for shorter periods, given less health care and vaccinations and even smaller portions of food than their brothers, the report said.

It estimated Asia was short 163 million females in 2005 when compared to overall population balances of men and women elsewhere in the world. It said sex ratios at birth in other countries, such as Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh, also should be closely monitored to avoid uneven trends there.

Earlier research has documented the gender imbalance in the region. A UNICEF report last year estimated 7,000 girls go unborn every day in India.

"It's very difficult to imagine what's going to be the exact impact of these missing girls in 20 years," said Christophe Guilmoto, an author of the report presented this week at a reproductive health conference in Hyderabad, India. "No human society that we know has faced a similar problem."

The reasons boys are favored over girls are complex and deeply rooted in Asian society. In many countries, men typically receive the inheritance, carry on the family name and take care of their parents in old age, while women often leave to live with their husband's family.

In India, wedding costs and dowries are usually required of the parents of the bride, and sons are the only ones permitted by the Hindu religion to perform the last rites when their fathers die.

"My husband took me to a private clinic to be checked. I broke down in tears when I saw the result because I knew this is not what my husband wanted," said Nguyen Thi Hai Yen, 33, recalling when she discovered her second baby was a girl. "But he was good. He told me it was OK."

China has a one-child policy, while Vietnam encourages only two children per family after relaxing an earlier ban on having more. Such limits have led many women to abort girls and keep trying for sons who can carry on the family lineage.

The report calls for increased public awareness, more government intervention and steps to elevate women's place in society by promoting gender equality.

Venezuelan troops use tear gas on Chavez protesters
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CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Venezuelan troops used tear gas and water cannons Thursday disperse demonstrators who turned out by the tens of thousands to protest constitutional reforms that would permit President Hugo Chavez to run for re-election indefinitely.


Riot police officers protect themselves Thursday as university students protest in Caracas.

1 of 3  Led by university students, demonstrators chanted, "Freedom! Freedom!" and warned that 69 amendments drafted by Venezuela's Chavista-dominated National Assembly would violate civil liberties and derail democracy.

Authorities broke up the protest outside the electoral agency's office.

There were no reports from authorities of arrests or serious injuries, but the local Globovision television channel showed footage of several students who suffered minor injuries.

Students also hurled rocks and bottles. A few lifted up sections of metal barricades and thrusted them against police holding riot shields. Students retreated later as police fired plastic bullets.

"Chavez wants to remain in power his entire life, and that's not democracy," said Gonzalo Rommer, a university student who joined protesters as they marched to the National Elections Council.

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Students protest constitutional changes
Critics: Changes in law could erode rights
Deputy Justice Minister Tarek El Aissami blamed students for the violence, saying they forced their way through police barricades. But Vicente Diaz, one of the National Election Council's five directors, criticized National Guardsmen and police for using excessive force to disperse protesters.

The amendments would give the government control over the Central Bank, create new types of cooperative property, allow authorities to detain citizens without charges during a state of emergency and extend presidential terms from six to seven years while allowing Chavez to run again in 2012.


Opposition parties, human rights groups and representatives of the Roman Catholic Church fear civil liberties would be severely weakened under the constitutional changes.

Chavez -- a close ally of Cuban leader Fidel Castro -- denies the reforms threaten civil liberties. He and his supporters say the changes will help move the country toward socialism, while giving neighborhood-based assemblies more decision-making power in using government funds for local projects such as paving streets and building public housing.

Philadelphia officer dies; police hunt doughnut shop gunman
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PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (AP) -- A police officer shot in the head by a doughnut shop robber died Thursday morning, the police commissioner announced.


Officer Charles Cassidy walked in on a robbery and was shot in the forehead, police officials say.

1 of 3  The 54-year-old officer, Charles Cassidy, died at 9:40 a.m. at Albert Einstein Medical Center, police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson said.

He was the third city officer shot in the span of four days.

Cassidy was wounded Wednesday at a Dunkin' Donuts when a hooded robber spun from the counter and fired at him as he walked in the door, according to an employee.  Watch security video of the robbery »

Cassidy, who had his hand on his gun, fell backward to the ground just outside the shop. The bullet went through his brain, Johnson said.

The officer came in twice a day for a large coffee with cream and sugar, shop employee Sandra Kim said. "He's always nice to all the employees," she said. "The officer was just coming in for a cup of coffee like normal."

Police swarmed the North Philadelphia neighborhood on foot, in squad cars and a helicopter looking for the robber, who grabbed the officer's weapon as he fled, according to security camera images released by police.

The gunman went into the shop, pushed aside two customers while waving a gun and demanded money just before Cassidy opened the door, according to video and Kim. He then whirled and shot the officer as he held the door.

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Johnson said video showed the gunman running through the shop's parking lot with a distinctive gait, almost as if he had a limp.

Johnson said the officer was doing a routine check on the shop, which had been robbed September 18. He said he didn't think the robber got away with any money.

The shooting came about 12 hours after a masked gunman shot traffic Officer Mario Santiago in the shoulder during a chase downtown.

Santiago was responding to a report of a gunman in a sport utility vehicle shooting at another car, injuring two men and a woman, police said.

He was chasing the SUV when the gunman eventually got out of his vehicle and approached the squad car, firing twice through the window. Santiago was hit once in the right shoulder, police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson said.

Santiago was in fair condition Wednesday.


The gunman in that shooting apparently jumped into the Schuylkill River, where searchers later recovered a body. Police said Wednesday morning that they had not determined whether it was the suspect's body.

Early Sunday, an officer responding to a melee at a West Philadelphia nightclub was shot in the ankle. More than two dozen bullets were fired, police said. One suspect was fatally shot and another was arrested.

Fighter jet crashes on takeoff
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TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- A Japanese fighter jet crashed an instant after takeoff and went up in flames Wednesday at an airport in central Japan, leaving the two pilots with minor injuries, an official for aircraft's manufacturer said.


Firefighters stand near the wreckage of the F-2B jet, which crashed on a test flight.

The F-2B fighter was on a test flight prior to delivery to Japan's air force when it crashed, said Hideo Ikuno, a spokesman for the Daiya public-relations firm representing the plane's maker, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

Footage on commercial broadcaster TV Asahi showed the jet taking off from the runway in Nagoya, only to suddenly tip downward and skid along the ground in flames. National broadcaster NHK showed the pilots jumping from the burning plane.

The flames were extinguished within 10 minutes of the crash, Ikuno said. The two crew members were taken to a hospital with minor injuries, Ikuno said.

Ikuno said the company was seeking further details about the crash.