News May 11, 2007

The latest skin-cancer prevention advice is to stop trusting sunscreen as the front line of defense against harmful rays.
 

Instead, wear sunblocking clothing or stay out of the sun altogether, experts say.

Sunscreen has been shown to protect against UV skin damage as well as basal carcinomas and squamous cell carcinoma—two of the three most common skin cancers. However, it has not been conclusively shown to protect against melanoma , the most fatal kind, said Stephan Lautenschlager of the Outpatient Clinic of Dermatology at Triemli Hospital in Switzerland.

Lautenschlager and his colleagues carried out a comprehensive review on sun protection strategies worldwide, recently detailed online in the journal Lancet.

"Wearing sun-protective clothing and a hat and reducing sun exposure to a minimum should be preferred to sunscreens," Lautenschlager said. People tend to sunbathe for social reasons, he said. "Nevertheless, sunscreens should not be abused in an attempt to increase time in the sun to a maximum."

No wet T-shirts

The best clothing for sun protection is tightly woven, thick garments made of denim, wool or polyester, not cotton, linen or acetate, he said. Dry material or clothes that have shrunk after washing are denser and better at blocking UV rays than wet, stretched or bleached clothing.

Outdoors, wear sunscreen and lots of it. Zinc or titanium oxide sunscreens scatter UV light and yield fewer allergies, so they are better for children, he said. The more common sunscreen lotions, called organic sunscreens, absorb UV rays.

"The application of a liberal quantity of sunscreen is by far the most important factor for effectiveness of the sunscreen, followed by the uniformity of application and the specific absorption spectrum of the agent used," Lautenschlager said.

That is, don't treat the stuff like liquid gold. Smear it on. A shot glass-full should be applied 15 to 30 minutes before heading outdoors.

Look at your skin

While four out of five people are concerned about skin cancer, more than half have never been screened for skin cancer (54 percent) and nearly one quarter (23 percent) never examine their skin for changes to moles and blemishes, according to a recent survey by the American Academy of Dermatology.

More than 1 million new cases of skin cancer will be diagnosed this year, the AAD says, but when detected early, even melanoma is highly treatable.

To check yourself, regular inspect all your skin, including the back, scalp, buttocks, soles of the feet, between the toes and the palms of the hands. Use mirrors when necessary.

Other tips from the AAD: Seek shade if you must be outdoors during the sun's strongest hours, between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Avoid tanning beds. Their UV light causes skin cancer and wrinkling. Use a self-tanning lotion if you want to look tanned.

Over the past week, inquiring minds have followed the daily doings of
Queen Elizabeth II as she toured the USA. Her meals, her meetings, her many fawning admirers have all been chronicled in great detail.
 


All but lost has been why she chose this moment for a visit. America is 400 years old, if measured from the first surviving English settlement at Jamestown, Va., in 1607. Sunday marks the anniversary of the first landing.
President Bush and other dignitaries will be on hand.

That is a big deal, even bigger than, say, what the Queen wore or ate.

The shorthand form of American history often starts with the signing of the Declaration of Independence or the ratification of the Constitution. By using these documents as the standard, we see America as it aspires to be - always striving for a more perfect union, always defining itself in terms of lofty principles.

By using Jamestown and other early colonies as the reference point, we see Americans as they really are, and have been over the centuries:

•America was a land of immigrants before it was a nation. In the decades after Jamestown, Europeans began pouring into newly founded settlements up and down the East Coast. The original 104 grew to a quarter million by 1700 and 2.8 million by the time of independence. New Americans are still coming. And, though the nation is engaged in a heated debate on illegal immigration, the desirability of a lawful and orderly immigration is not in question.

•The early colonists displayed many traits that would be familiar today. They were adventurers and profit seekers, people willing to take enormous risks in search of a better life. The impetuous yet pragmatic John Smith, who went from soldier of fortune to leader of the Virginia Colony, was the prototype for latter-day industrialists, politicians and entrepreneurs.

•The settlers would soon demonstrate the less noble elements of America. Twelve years after this first group arrived, the first African slaves were brought ashore. In the decades that ensued, the terrible institutions of slavery were formalized to enrich white farmers. To this day, Americans are paying for that practice in shame and racial tension.

For these and other reasons, it is useful to pause and look back at Jamestown. By doing so we will learn a good bit about ourselves, far more than by watching a member of the monarchy that had different ideas of what America should be all about.

Several organizations are working to digitize and make available online all the information that might be hiding on the shelves of libraries around the world. Leaders in the digital libraries community talk about how they intend to go about putting every book published online.

Brewster Kahle, digital librarian; director and co-founder, The Internet Archive

Michael S. Hart, founder, Project Gutenberg

The Army will offer incentives to keep midlevel officers as it faces another decade or so in combat around the world, its chief of staff said Friday.
 
Make sure you’re still Mom’s favorite with the perfect gift.

 

Gen. George Casey, who took over as the Army's chief just a month ago, said the United States will "be in a period of conflict for, I believe, another five or ten years." And the Army, which has been stretched and stressed by five difficult years at war, must be organized and equipped to deal with that challenge, he said.

The general said he is not suggesting that the
Iraq or
Afghanistan wars will last five more years. But Casey, who was the top commander in Iraq until February, acknowledged that building a stable, self-governing Iraq is a "long-term proposition."

"We have been attacked and are at war with an insidious group of transnational terrorists who are attacking our way of life, and are going to continue to attack our way of life until we beat them, because I don't see them giving up," he said.

To stem a growing trend of critical future leaders leaving the service, Casey said the Army will unveil a plan next week to give some captains $20,000 to stay on. He said the Army also will increase opportunities for officers to go to various graduate schools as another incentive to stay in the military. The captains also would get a choice in duty assignments.

Casey said leadership development is one of his priorities, along with increasing the size of the Army, improving conditions for soldiers and their families and continuing to transform the service so it can better fight future battles.

According to the Army, the attrition rate for officers is higher than it has been in previous years, with graduates of West Point, the Officer Candidate School and ROTC leaving at a faster pace once they've finished their initial tour in the military.

For example, about six in 10 West Point soldiers who graduated in 1997 reenlisted after their sixth year. But just 53 percent of those who graduated in 2000 — and likely have spent much of the last six years rotating in and out of the war zones — have signed up for another tour.

Casey, who served as the Iraq commander from July 2004 until February 2007, said he doesn't know how long the Army can keep up current troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But, he said, "it's a question I have foremost in my mind." He acknowledged that soldiers' families are upset about the
Pentagon's recent decision to extend Iraq deployments to 15 months, from what had usually been 12 months.

But he said the move was the only way to avoid sending as many as five Army brigades back to Iraq after just seven or eight months at home, resting and getting the equipment and training needed to return to war. Under the new system, units are guaranteed 12 months at home.

The Pentagon released a one-page description Friday of the new deployment policy signed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates stating that units are guaranteed the one-year break. But it noted that a policy for individual soldiers has not yet been completed.

Some soldiers returning from Iraq may change to a new unit or switch jobs which could result in their being sent back to the war zone in less than 12 months. The Army is working on a policy that would address those instances as much as possible.

In other comments, Casey said he is still considering moving faster to increase the size of the Army but said he would have to shift money from future years in order to buy enough equipment for the expanded Army, as well as set up more recruiting centers.

He said he does not yet know how much money it would take.

Casey also said the Army is near a decision on how many mine-resistant armored vehicles to buy to replace the more vulnerable Humvees. The number is "somewhere between 2,500 and 17,000."

The Army wants more of the so-called MRAPs (Mine Resistant, Ambush Protected), but acknowledges there are missions for which the vehicle is not suitable or as agile as needed.

___

OSAN, South Korea (AFP) - Despite the unromantic occasion, Ngo Ngoc Quy Hong says it was love at first sight when she and other Vietnamese women held a group meeting with prospective husbands from
South Korea 17 months ago.
 


"I don't know why but at that moment, I knew I had just found my man," said Hong, 21, beaming at her husband who is 19 years older than her.

"Age does not matter. I am very happy now," she said in halting Korean, her gold bracelet glinting as she flipped through an album of their wedding photos taken in Ho Chi Minh City.

Her husband Kim Choong-Hwan, a 40-year-old truck driver, has only one regret.

"I regret I had no chance to meet a Vietnamese woman earlier. If I had, I would have married a Vietnamese," said Kim, who divorced his first wife, a South Korean, in 2002.

"Hong is six months' pregnant. I know it's a son," he told AFP proudly during an interview at their modest apartment in Osan, 55 km (34 miles) south of Seoul.

Kim is among a growing army of South Korean bachelors or divorcees who have turned to China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Mongolia, Thailand, Russia, Uzbekistan and other foreign countries for brides.

In a country long known for its homogeneous make-up, government statistics show that the number of marriages to foreigners jumped 21.6 percent to 43,121 in 2005 -- 13.6 percent of all newlyweds.

Experts say many farmers who fail to persuade local women to accept a rural lifestyle, and surplus bachelors resulting from the traditional preference for sons over daughters, turn to foreign brides.

The National Statistical Office said 72 percent of international marriages involved Korean men and foreign women. Chinese brides topped the list at 66.2 percent, followed by Vietnamese with 18.7 percent, Japanese with four percent and Filipinas with 3.2 percent.

But Vietnamese brides are becoming increasingly popular. The number of such weddings jumped by 136.5 percent to 5,822 in 2005 compared to a mere 95 in 2000.

"Vietnamese women are quite popular here as they are considered the most tolerant to Korea's Confucianist, family-oriented culture and they adapt well here," said Lee Eun-Tae, president of Interwedding Co.

Hong said she had been a fan of Korean TV dramas aired in Vietnam, part of a wave of Korean pop culture spreading across Asia.

Her twin sister married a Korean three months before her. Another sister has also tied the knot with a Korean who travelled to Vietnam alongside Kim to find a bride.

Kim said he had chanced on a street sign reading: "Why don't you marry a beautiful Vietnamese?" He visited a marriage agency in Seoul after he became frustrated with what he called materialistic local women.

"Their first questions are only concerned with your social status, occupation, income and the like. They don't care about character," he said.

Kim spent 10,000 dollars for a five-day package tour to Vietnam which included a wedding ceremony and a one-night honeymoon.

Decisions on brides are made within a matter of hours through a group get-together. Out of a line-up of 40 girls, Kim and five others made three picks each.

The brides and their families have the final say on who should be the lucky ones. They may reject all the men on offer.

Most such marriages are arranged by commercial agencies like Interwedding.

"Then, you may ask where is romance? But love is something that can come instantly and all the men and women taking part in this programme are prepared to get married very soon," Lee said.

But couples like Hong and Kim can be the lucky ones.

Lee said some of his competitors failed to do their homework, screening bridegrooms and brides cursorily and introducing couples unfit to marry.

A government survey showed one out of every five migrant women found their Korean husbands different from the description they received from the agencies.

Activists say some foreign brides end up living with spouses who have few assets or are ill, alcoholic or of difficult character.

A 2005 study by the Ministry of Health and Welfare showed that 14 percent of 945 migrant wives surveyed said they had been beaten by their Korean husbands.

"Some Korean husbands, unable to get through to their foreign wives because of language barriers, get angry and beat them. They also tend to think they have purchased their wives," said Kwon Mi-Ju of the Women Migrants Human Rights Centre.

Activists say foreign brides often face serious problems adapting to a new life in a country with a different culture and atmosphere.

As a result, divorces between Korean men and foreign wives are rising fast, reaching 2,400 in 2005 -- up 65 percent from the previous year.

"Lured by the country's economic strength, many foreign women come here harboring illusions about Korea," said Yoo Kyung-Sun, an aide to lawmaker Kim Choon-Jin. Kim has proposed a law bill to curb reckless matchmaking by commercial agencies.

May 11, 2007

A 20-year-old Kazakhstan native turned himself over to police on Friday, ending a three-hour standoff with police and safely releasing a man he had been holding at the Russian Embassy in Costa Rica, police said.

Roman Bogdanyants covered his face as he was escorted by police from the building, followed by a Russian man that police spokesman Francisco Ruiz identified as a former hostage.

While hostage negotiators were talking with the suspect, police surrounded the four-story building, which is located near several other embassies, including that of Venezuela.

The standoff, which lasted more than three hours, began when Bogdanyans, a Kazakhstan native who arrived in Costa Rica in 2005, seized part of the building Friday, holding Russian Ambassador Valery Nikolayenko and seven others hostage.

Hostage negotiators talked with the suspect, and police surrounded the four-story building, which is located near several other embassies, including that of Venezuela.

Officials originally reported an armed gunman had seized eight hostages, quickly releasing five. But Russian Ambassador Valery Nikolayenko told Channel 7 Telenoticias in a phone interview during the standoff that he and three other officials had remained in the building to help negotiate a peaceful end to the conflict.

Costa Rican media gave conflicting reports about why the suspect took the hostages. Some said he was angry that a visa request had been rejected, while others claimed his family had been a victim of fraud.

A family friend, Artur Mitiniani, told Channel 7 that the family had lost $54,000 because of problems with a Russian citizen who Bogdanyants met at the embassy.

In July 2004, a Costa Rican security guard took several hostages at the Chilean Embassy where he worked in San Jose, eventually killing himself and three embassy employees. The guard, Orlando Jimenez, 54, was upset about a pending transfer.

CBS News State Department reporter Charles Wolfson reports that, according to State Department officials, no U.S. citizens were involved in the latest situation.

May 11, 2007

Don Imus' former producer on Friday called the Rev. Al Sharpton a 'race-baiter' who was looking for attention when he led a campaign to fire the radio host, while Sharpton said Imus and his producer got what they deserved for making a racist, sexist remark on the air.

Bernard McGuirk and Sharpton appeared together for a combative debate on Fox News Channel's 'Hannity & Colmes' show. The producer was fired last month for his part in an exchange on the 'Imus in the Morning' program in which the members of the Rutgers University women's basketball team were called 'nappy-headed hos.'

MSNBC took Imus' show off the air on April 11 and CBS fired him from his syndicated radio program a day later for the slur. McGuirk, a 20-year producer and on-air jester for the show that originated on WFAN-AM in New York, called the team 'hardcore hos' in the April 4 exchange with Imus. Sharpton held protests and lobbied both networks to fire Imus.

McGuirk called Sharpton a 'crude ... opportunist, a race-baiter' who campaigned against Imus to help his own career and raise his profile.

While McGuirk acknowledged that 'these words did hurt these girls,' he added, 'until you, Reverend Al, got involved, they probably never would have heard of it. They would have probably never, quote unquote, got scarred for life until you got involved for your own self-serving interests.'

Sharpton said he wasn't looking for more attention _ 'if you have any recollection at all, I had been in the papers all year,' he said. He said Imus and McGuirk may have apologized for the remark, but 'forgiveness is not the point. The question is the penalty.'

'Consumers have the right to say to advertisers, are your standards going to be where people are attacked based on your gender and race?' Sharpton said.

McGuirk countered that Sharpton 'terrorized these spineless, thumbsucking executives' into taking Imus off the air. In an earlier appearance on 'Hannity & Colmes,' he said the executives 'were in a fetal position under their desks sucking their thumbs on their BlackBerrys, trying to coordinate their response.'

Sharpton responded: 'What he is saying is we want to apologize and we want to decide what the penalty is.' He said that most people wanted Imus fired, including a minister who arranged Imus' meeting with the Rutgers team, and many NBC employees.

'Is Al Roker one of these guys hiding under the desk with a BlackBerry?' Sharpton asked.

Sharpton also came under fire for his recent comments about presidential candidate Mitt Romney, in which Sharpton said that 'those of us who believe in God' would defeat the Republican. Sharpton has denied he was questioning the Mormon's own belief in God, saying he was instead contrasting himself with the atheist author he was debating at the time.

Sharpton argued that his and Imus' words were not similar _ and challenged McGuirk to offer an acceptable context for Imus' remark.

'That was over the line, by the way, but there was comedic context,' McGuirk replied.

McGuirk said that Imus 'made one small mistake. He ran a red light' and shouldn't have been fired.

He asked Sharpton. 'Who elected you the PC police chief? Who elected you to anything?'

Imus has not spoken publicly since his dismissal, but his lawyer has said he intends to sue CBS for $120 million, and said that the network encouraged irreverent, off-color comments on the program.

Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani
has asked conservatives to look past his support for abortion
rights, arguing that his stance on the issue should not disqualify
him from being the party's nominee.

The former New York City mayor has struggled in the last week to
explain his personal opposition to terminating pregnancies with his
record of favoring a woman's right to choose.

Speaking today at Houston Baptist University, Giuliani said he
has opposed abortion all his life. But he said the decision should
ultimately be left to individuals and that their decisions should
be respected, saying he would "grant women the right to make that
choice."

Today, he also emphasized his conservative credentials on tax
cuts, crime and the war in Iraq before clarifying his support for
abortion rights.