LIMA, Peru - Peru's "miracle baby" on Thursday underwent a successful second operation to fully separate her legs and allow her to walk unassisted, according to the lead doctor on the eight-person team performing the surgery.
"We have finished with the final part of the thighs. After recovery from this operation, she probably will be able to walk in better conditions," Dr. Luis Rubio said.
Milagros Cerron, whose first name means "miracles" in Spanish, was born with a rare congenital defect known as sirenomelia, or "mermaid syndrome," which left her legs connected from her heels to her groin.
Doctors successfully performed risky surgery in June 2005 to separate her legs to above her knees. Thursday's operation was to separate the remaining four inches of fused tissue just below the groin.
Milagros, now 2 years and 4 months old, waved and blew kisses to well-wishers before her surgery.
Her parents, medical personnel and journalists watched the procedure on a screen in an adjoining room. When the operation ended, Rubio lifted up Milagros to show that her legs were fully separated.
The girl — who is affectionately called "The Little Mermaid" by Peruvians — had developed the ability to stand alone without help and take small assisted steps before Thursday's surgery.
"I expect to be walking the streets of Lima holding her hand in December, which would be a Christmas gift for her family," Rubio said Wednesday night.
According to Rubio, Milagros will need at least 16 more operations in the next decade to reconstruct and repair her digestive, urinary and sexual organs.
He said her own body had corrected one problem — a lack of properly formed sockets for her hip bones that in December appeared to be one of the biggest challenges facing surgeons. Her growing body gradually formed the sockets, without which she would have been unable to maintain stability when standing up, Rubio said.
Rubio has said that Tiffany Yorks, a 17-year-old American, is the only other person known to have undergone successful surgery to correct the rare congenital defect, which occurs in one out of every 70,000 births and is almost always fatal within days of birth.
SAN FRANCISCO - Revelations that Hewlett-Packard Co. officials used questionable tactics in an internal investigation into media leaks have caught the attention of California's attorney general, who's launched his own probe into the computer maker.
Attorney General Bill Lockyer subpoenaed some HP officials Wednesday in a probe he characterized as still being in the "early fact-finding stage."
Lockyer refused to say whether criminal charges would be filed against Chairwoman Patricia Dunn, other directors or the private investigators HP hired to find out who leaked confidential information to the media. He said the state also could charge HP with civil violations and order the company to pay fines.
"I don't have a settled view on whether it was illegal yet, but it certainly was colossally stupid," Lockyer said in a phone interview Wednesday.
HP disclosed in a filing Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commision that it sought the private telephone records of the company's board members in its leak investigation. Private investigators used the invasive and possibly illegal practice of "pretexting" — posing as someone else to get personal information about that person.
HP said in the SEC filing that the company would decline to nominate one board member, George A. Keyworth II, for re-election because he was a source of the leaks. Keyworth, who has acknowledged leaking information, will be gone by March 2007.
The company also said lawyers hired to review its tactics could not determine if the investigation "complied in all respects with applicable law."
Experts say Dunn, who announced the firing of HP Chief Executive Carly Fiorina, may be the next to go.
"If the chairman thinks this is the way business ought to be conducted, maybe it's time for her to take a sabbatical," said Peter Morici, professor at the Professor Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. "It's arrogant and inappropriate."
Identity thieves use pretexting to steal social security numbers and other confidential information.
In this case, investigators hired by HP called the phone company and impersonated at least one board member to get logs of phone calls to and from his home, said the attorney of a former HP director.
HP said in the filing it would cooperate with the state probe and that no recording or eavesdropping of directors' phone conversations had occurred. Spokesman Ryan Donovan said the company would not provide other further details of the investigation. Dunn declined to comment.
Keyworth's departure comes after a January article on CNET Network Inc.'s News.com, which included a quotation from an anonymous HP source who described a gathering of HP directors at a posh spa in Southern California. Although the source didn't leak high-level strategic detail or say anything inflammatory, the statement angered Dunn, who has been on the board for eight years.
At a board meeting in May, Dunn identified Keyworth as CNET's source, as well as that of other leaks dating to early 2005. The board asked Keyworth, 66, to resign, but he refused.
The investigation and attempted ouster riled another board member, Tom Perkins, 74, who resigned and stormed out of the May 18 meeting.
In the months since his resignation, Perkins — co-founder of Menlo Park-based venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers — complained to other executives and journalists about the investigation's ethical implications.
His attorney, Viet Dinh, a former assistant U.S. attorney general, says he discovered that one of HP's private investigators also obtained the last four digits of Perkins' social security number.
The investigator used that information to open an online account with AT&T, Dinh said. The investigator then called the telephone provider and impersonated Perkins, offering up his social security digits as proof of identity and asking AT&T to send a record of phone calls to and from his house in December 2005 and January 2006 to a free, Web-based e-mail account.
Perkins was unavailable for comment but issued a statement through his lawyer.
"Despite this current disagreement, Tom Perkins has a warm place in his heart for HP and believes in the prospects and performance of HP under the leadership of Mark Hurd," Dinh said.
Dunn, 52, resigned as CEO of Barclays Global Investors in 2002 to battle breast cancer and melanoma, but she's taken an active role as chairwoman of HP, the 11th largest company on the Fortune 500.
She was one of the board members who hired Fiorina in 1999, but Dunn became disillusioned after years of lackluster stock performance and, in December 2004, wrote a four-page report to Fiorina detailing her concerns.
Dunn announced Fiorina's resignation in February 2005, and two months later introduced Hurd, who was favored by Keyworth and Perkins, among others.
She majored in economics and journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, and worked as a freelance journalist before joining Barclays as a temporary secretary.
Dunn had reportedly grown increasingly upset over HP's leaks to journalists.
Bruce Oliver, professor and director of the Center for Business Ethics at Rochester Institute of Technology, said Dunn had the right to seek out the source of leaks because board members often sign nondisclosure agreements. But she crossed an ethical line in going after the home phone logs, Oliver said.
"To engage in some activity where you're hiring someone to do something on the QT where they're misrepresenting themselves, that's over the line of what constitutes ethical behavior," he said.
Others said the scandal could erode morale on HP's Palo Alto campus.
"This sends a message to employees that the company is willing to do just about anything to protect itself," said John W. Dienhart, business ethics professor at Seattle University. "This sends a bad message to existing employees, and it's bad for attracting good employees from outside the organization."
The stunning death of the Crocodile Hunter sent searches soaring. Steve Irwin's untimely passing hit folks hard and they headed to the Search box for answers. We always see heavy search activity when a celebrity dies unexpectedly, but the unusual nature of Irwin's fatal stingray encounter fueled an even more massive search response.
After word came that Irwin's death was captured on film, macabre searches on "steve irwin death video" and "steve irwin death pictures" also began to crop up.
We ran across many other search spikes in our research. Here are a few terms people were searching on in the wake of Irwin's passing...
September 3, 2006 -- An already sad day for the Fire Department turned tragic when a 12-year-old boy crossing a Queens street was killed by a firetruck racing to a call yesterday.
Michael Kandathil was heading from his uncle's house to that of his parents when he apparently slipped on the slick pavement of Hampton Street and was fatally struck, witnesses said.
Shaken firefighters leaped out of their rig and tried to revive the unconscious boy - as his hysterical mom was held back.
"She became pale when she saw her son," said a 35-year-old neighbor. "They didn't even let the mother get to him. She was screaming something in [Hindi]."
The FDNY truck's driver was also devastated, witnesses said.
"He was very sad and crying. The other firefighters had to hug him," said neighbor Gencis Florimon, 50. "He was in very bad shape."
The accident occurred on the same day that firefighters buried one of their own, Lt. Howie Carpluk, killed last Sunday in a Bronx fire that also claimed the life of rookie Michael Reilly.
"Obviously, it was a rough day for all of us already," one fireman said.
Michael was crossing Hampton Street near Whitney Avenue in Elmhurst at about 3 p.m., when he paused near a double-parked car in the middle of the street to look west, officials and witnesses said.
At the same time, Engine 289, with its lights and sirens on, was coming from the east. The driver couldn't see him.
Witnesses said that it looked as if Michael hesitated and that he may have slipped.
"He just went to get the mail, across the street," said his grief-stricken uncle, Joseph Kurian. "It happened in a split second. He had no chance; the impact was too much. He was dead on the spot."
"The kid was crossing the street, and he got scared," Florimon said. "He was trying to back up when the firetruck hit him on the side of the head."
Relatives described Michael as a bright boy who was about to enter the eighth grade at nearby St. Bartholomew's Catholic School.
His schoolmates gathered at the accident scene in front of his home to remember the altar boy, math whiz and basketball player.
"When I found out, I just couldn't believe it," said Chirag Jethanandani, 13. "He was the type that if you needed help, he'd go out of his way to help you."
Officials said that the boy's death was the result of a terrible accident but that they were still investigating.
One cop blamed the double-parked driver.
"You know who's at fault is the person who double-parked the car. That's why we give tickets to double-parked cars - to prevent things like this from happening," the officer said angrily.
FDNY spokesman Farrell Sklerov said, "The matter is under investigation. At this time, our thoughts and prayers are with the family."
Hundreds of additional Italian soldiers are arriving in Lebanon to reinforce the international peacekeeping force in the region.
Some 500 Italian troops arrived Saturday and 500 more are expected today Sunday, raising the total number of U.N. peacekeepers to 3,250.
The U.N. Security Council plans to deploy 15 thousand international troops on the Israeli - Lebanese border to monitor the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
Indonesia announced Saturday that it has accepted a U.N. invitation and is planning to send one thousand troops to join the mission.
Israel has opposed help from from countries that do not have diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.
Indonesian presidential foreign policy advisor Dino Pati Djalal told VOA the U.N. invitation indicates Israel reversed its objections, but Israel has not commented on the announcement.
Also Sunday, Russia's defense minister, Sergei Ivanov, told the Itar-tass news agency that Moscow is willing to send army engineers -- but not peacekeeping troops -- to help rebuild Lebanon's infrastructure.
Malaysia and Bangladesh have also offered help, but neither has diplomatic relations with Israel, and their offer has not been formally accepted.
So how does a pious Islamic extremist and potential terrorist pass the time? He watches hardcore porn. Investigators found that at least one of two Islamic extremist planning an attack on the US from Canada was in possession of hardcore pornography.
In Muslim societies the calls for all women to be covered completely and constant diatribes that sexual immorality is a threat to Islamic nations have become commonplace. Yet there is mounting evidence that terrorist extremists commonly view hardcore pornography.
Toronto-based TheStar.com recently reported that two men from the US state of Georgia met in the Canadian city with Islamic extremists to discuss potential terror strikes in the United States, including attacks on oil refineries and military bases, according to recently unsealed US court documents.
The documents say the pair met with at least three people, who are under international surveillance, to plot ways to disable the Global Positioning System, which would disrupt military and commercial communications and air traffic. They also discussed a trip to Pakistan to receive military training at a terrorist-sponsored camp.
US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent Michael Scherk, a member of the Joint Terrorism Task Force in Atlanta, says in a sworn affidavit that Eshanul Islam Sadequee, 19, of Roswell, Georgia, and Syed Haris Ahmed, 21, of Atlanta, made the trip to Toronto in March 2005.
Ahmed has been charged with suspicion of giving material support of terrorism and is being held at an undisclosed location. He pleaded not guilty during a brief court appearance in Georgia.
Sadequee is accused of making materially false statements in connection with a terrorist investigation, and he was arrested in Bangladesh, where he told the FBI that he had gone to get married.
Many would give pause to consider what his young bride would think of her husband's penchant for porn, when Islamic societies in almost all cases forbid it.
The US Attorney (federal prosecutor) in Georgia, David Nahmias, said in a statement that the charge against Ahmed is "serious and involves national security".
US Justice Department officials, however, said there was no immediate threat to any strategic US targets.
According to the court document, Sadequee and Ahmed traveled to Toronto from Atlanta on a Greyhound bus, leaving on March 6, 2005, and crossed the border back to the United States on March 12.
Sadequee is accused of lying to federal agents when he was detained at New York's John F Kennedy airport last August, saying he had traveled to Canada the previous January, staying with an aunt he identified as "Manju Auntie", but being unable to name her husband.
FBI agents confiscated computer hard drives and data CDs from their home last month.
Federal agents conducted a search of Sadequee's bags before he left for Bangladesh and found two CD-ROMS concealed in the lining of a suitcase. One disc contained encrypted files that FBI technical experts still cannot decode, the affidavit said, while the other CD contained a bootleg copy of a hardcore pornographic movie. Indeed, there was evidence uncovered by the 9/11 Commission after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US that indicated that ringleader Mohammed Atta and some of his co-conspirators viewed pornography and enjoyed the company of prostitutes, and they were rumored to use cocaine. "Radical Islamic extremists" seem to deviate from pious Muslim beliefs.
"They are also disillusioned in many cases," Nahmias said, and sometimes take up Islam "in the radical form".
"I do believe that when the time comes, a number of these people will attempt to do something quite serious."
He probably meant mass murder, not what too many religious leaders call "serious": enjoying the on-screen antics of Jenna Jameson.
Models pose for a photo to promote the first 2006 Seoul Sex Education Expo at the Millennium Seoul Hilton in Seoul.
The 2006 Seoul Sex Education Expo, which ostensibly seeks to enlighten the public about sexual health, will run Thursday to Sunday at the SETEC in Daechidong, Seoul.
The 2006 Seoul Sexpo will feature seminars on sex, medical consultations, exhibitions of sex toys and accessories, lingerie fashion show, strip shows, a nude photo zone, kissing competitions and other events that provide visitors with the opportunity to experience most of what the adult industry has to offer, the sponsors say.
For the expo, 11 famous nude models including Penthouse Pets and Hustler models have come to Korea, and met the press at a promotional event on Tuesday. The original Sexpo has been held in Australia for 10 years now as an event for the adult industry to exhibit itself, and has also now spread to Singapore and other countries.
The Seoul Sexpo, which has the domestic rights, says it hopes to "provide accurate information about sex, foster a more open approach towards sex, and search for a means of revitalizing the flagging domestic adult industry." Critics say the event is just a pretext to flog pornography. Those over 19 years of age may attend for W15,000 (US$1=W961).
The nude photo zone, where entrants can admire nudes from the leading adult magazines and even take pictures with glamour models, will cost an additional W20,000. "Sex shouldn't be handled in a secretive, closed-off manner any more," the organizers say, adding the expo aims to anchor a "healthy sex culture." They appealed to the public to approach it with an open mind.
TEHRAN (Reuters) - A Canadian-Iranian writer freed after four months in an Iranian jail for allegedly endangering state security was quoted by an Iranian news agency on Thursday as saying he had been duped into aiding U.S. organisations.
"I used to write articles about Iran bband the Middle East in some Web sites which I was not aware were linked to intelligence services," Ramin Jahanbegloo, 46, told Iran's student news agency ISNA shortly after his release on Wednesday.
"While in prison, I reached the conclusion that the American organisations involved me in an affair which it was not my intention to get involved in," ISNA quoted him as saying.
He was not available for comment on Thursday. Several dissidents have in the past made apparent confessions to Iranian media during or after their detention.
Jahanbegloo was released from Iran's notorious Evin prison on Wednesday. He was arrested at the end of April for having contacts with foreigners and undermining state security.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has wbarned against a "velvet revolution," a supposed U.S. plot to use intellectuals and others inside the country to bring about "regime change."
A senior judiciary official was quoted as saying this month that Jahanbegloo had confessed to trying to undermine the Islamic Republic's system of clerical rule and had apologized.
"I have accepted the charge of acting against national security ... but I did not know my activities were endangering state security," Jahanbegloo told ISNA.
Jahanbegloo, author of some 20 books, has lectured on democracy in Iran and how Tehran can engage with the West. He has written on the importance of acknowledging the Holocaust, which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hasb
ISNA quoted Jahanbegloo as saying many Iranian intellectuals were in danger of being tricked into "acting against national security" by "a network that was active overseas."
Jahanbegloo's case strained Iran's relations with Canada, which have been icy since Canadian-Iranian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi died in detention in Iran in 2003 after being arrested for photographing Evin prison.
Western diplomats said Jahanbegloo's detention was aimed abt intimidating and silencing critics.
The European Union, which had criticized Jahanbegloo's treatment, welcomed his release and urged Iran to free "all human rights defenders."
"The Presidency expects that Professor Jahanbegloo can continue his personal life and exercise his profession without any harassment," said a statement by Finland, current holder of the European Union's rotating presidency.
Jahanbegloo said he was not put under pressure to speak.
"The first month (in detention) was very difficult for me," he told ISNA. Then for three months I was in a solitary cell, with a television ... I was not under physical and psychological pressure. But I would not wish anyone to experience the same thing."
"Why was I attracted by such organisations? Why did I want to get scholarships? As an intellectual, when you can't even teach at (an Iranian) university, then you become attracted by such offers," he said.
SEOUL (Reuters) - A South Korean sex trade show promised foreign women in steamy underwear, striptease acts and sex seminars but had to cancel the performances after losing its lingerie models to immigration laws, organizers said on Thursday. The 2006 Seoul Sex Education Expo, dubbed Sexpo, opened on Thursday, however, with plenty of sex toys, lotions and audiovisual material.
"Immigration officials warned us if the models performed without having obtained the appropriate visa, they could be subject to deportation," a Sexpo official said.
An immigration official said models from places such as Australia were planning to enter the country on tourist visas, but they needed performance visas.
The event, which runs through Sunday, had been heavily advertised.
Several male visitors were angry about seeing so many inflatable plastic women on display and no real ones.
"I came here for a show and all I have is this leaflet about sex toys. What's going on here?" said one man in his mid-60s who asked not to be identified.
Sexpo has been held in other parts of Asia but civic groups in South Korea had pressed authorities to close the show on the grounds that it was offensive.
South Korea, however, already has a large and vibrant sex industry.
Associated Press Writers Iran defied a U.N. deadline Thursday to stop enriching uranium, opening the door for sanctions, but U.S. and other officials said no action would be sought before a key European diplomat meets with Tehran's atomic chief next week to seek a compromise. ran's hard-line president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, lashed out at the United States, calling it "tyrannical" and insisting Tehran would not be "bullied" into giving up the right to use nuclear technology. Other Iranian officials said the country could withstand any punishment.
"We must not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon," Bush said in a speech in Salt Lake City. He said Washington hoped for a diplomatic solution, but insisted "it is time for Iran to make a choice" whether to cooperate with the United Nation John Bolton, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said the Security Council would wait to consider possible actions until after the European Union foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, met with Ali Larijani, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, sometime in the middle of next week.
"We're certainly ready to proceed here in New York when we're given the instructions to do so," Bolton said.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan also was expected to raise the issue during a visit to Tehran this weekend.
Midnight Thursday — the last day of the Security Council deadline — passed with no change in the Iranian position.
The formal trigger for possible sanctions was provided by the International Atomic Energy Agency based in Vienna, Austria.
In a report Thursday, the U.N. agency confirmed Tehran had not halted uranium enrichment as demanded by the Security Council and said three years of IAEA probing had been unable to confirm "the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program" because of lack of cooperation from Tehran.
Iran denies it is trying to acquire atomic weapons in violation of its commitments under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Tehran insists its nuclear program is peaceful, with the sole aim of producing electricity with nuclear reactors.
The Security Council voted July 31 to impose the Thursday deadline for Iran to suspend uranium enrichment and asked the IAEA to report on Tehran's compliance, dangling the threat of sanctions if Iran refused.
Still, with permanent council members Russia and China opposed to quick and harsh penalties, the council appeared ready to delay such action. Senior U.N. diplomats told The Associated Press that Iran had agreed to meet with European negotiators to try to find a compromise.
Confirming the plans, Bolton said the Security Council would wait to consider any action until after European Union envoy Javier Solana met with Ali Larijani, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, sometime next week.
An official from one nation on the council said the meeting was tentatively set for Tuesday in Berlin. The official said senior officials from the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany would meet in the German capital the following day. Those six nations offered rewards to Iran in June if it gave up enrichment — but warned of U.N. sanctions if it didn't.
Bolton told the AP that while Washington "has extensive thoughts on what a possible U.N. resolution would look like, such discussion will await the outcome of the Solana meeting with Iran."
Still, he said the IAEA report added further weight to suspicions Iran is "engaged in activities that are only consistent with a weapons program."
Bolton declined to specify what sanctions the U.S. might seek. But U.S. and European diplomats have said they are focusing on low-level punishment at first to win backing from Russia and China. Proposals include travel bans on Iranian officials or a ban on the sale of dual-use technology to Iran.
More extreme sanctions would be a freeze on Iranian assets or a broader trade ban, but those would likely be opposed by Russia, China and perhaps others, particularly since it could cut off badly needed oil exports from Iran.
On Friday, Russia said it "regrets" Iran's decision not to halt uranium enrichment by the deadline, Russian news agencies reported. The response underscored Russia's growing impatience with Iran, which is building an atomic power plant with Moscow's help.
In Tehran, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi shrugged off the possibility of sanctions, telling state-run television that Iran "will find a way to avoid pressure eventually."
Ahmadinejad denounced the United States, accusing it of trying to impose its will on Iran.
"They claim to be supporting freedom but they support the most tyrannical governments in the world to pursue their own interests," he told a crowd of thousands in the northwestern town of Orumiyeh.
"The Iranian nation will not succumb to bullying, invasion and the violation of its rights," Ahmadinejad said.
While stating "Iran has not suspended its enrichment activities," the restricted IAEA report, obtained by AP, did not specifically say Iran was carrying out enrichment Thursday. It said only that Tehran started work on a new batch Aug. 24.
But a senior official close to the agency said Iran's pilot centrifuge plant was processing small quantities of uranium gas for enrichment as late as Tuesday, the last day IAEA inspectors reported back to headquarters on Tehran's nuclear program.
Iran says it wants to develop a full-scale enrichment program to produce reactor fuel, but there is growing suspicion the oil-rich country wants to use enrichment to create fissile material for nuclear warheads.
The rest of the IAEA's report essentially documented a protracted stalemate between agency inspectors trying to determine if Tehran is seeking to make weapons and Iranian officials who have repeatedly refused to provide information.
While the findings on enrichment were expected, they were important because they provided the formal trigger needed for the Security Council to take up sanctions.
IAEA officials said the six-page report was hand-carried to the council chambers at the same time it was posted on the agency's intranet site for the 35 nations on the IAEA's board of governors.
Other key findings in the report from IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei:
• New findings of minute particles of highly enriched uranium at an Iranian technical university implicated in possible military work, although the report did not specify whether the level was weapons-grade.
• A decision by the Iranians to cut off IAEA access to suspicious diagrams apparently showing how to mold fissile material into the shape of a warhead and to destroy notes taken on the document by agency inspectors.
• The temporary barring of U.N. inspectors from an underground facility being built to house tens of thousands of centrifuges, the backbone of Iran's future enrichment program.
• Protracted delays in granting multiple entry visas to IAEA inspectors.
U.N. officials told AP that even Olli Heinonen, deputy IAEA director-general in charge of the Iran investigation, was left dangling. In an unprecedented move, Iranian officials initially issued him only a one-month visa before relenting and giving him the usual one-year entry pass Wednesday, a day before the report was released.
___
Nasser Karimi reported from Tehran and George Jahn from Vienna. Associated Press writers Lee Keath in Cairo, Egypt, and Nick Wadhams at the United Nations contributed to this report
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is due to meet Friday with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in hopes of shoring up an Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire.
Mr. Annan is expected to push Mr. Assad to end Syria's support for Hezbollah. Syria is suspected of funneling arms to the terrorist group.
On Thursday, the U.N. chief met with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Mualem in Damascus.
During the talks, Syria expressed support for the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah and called for Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon.b
The official Syrian news agency said Mualem also told Mr. Annan the U.N. should work for a comprehensive Middle East peace. Syria wants a peace deal that would restore the Israeli occupied Golan Heights to Syria.
Mr. Annan is visiting Syria as part of a Middle East tour. He is also expected to travel to Iran, another major supporter of Hezbollah.
Israel has said it will not withdraw from Lebanon until the U.N. ceasefire is fully implemented and international troops are able to prevent the rearming of Hezbollah.
Israel also insists on the release of two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah on July 12.
Mr. Annan says Israel should withdraw from Lebanon once five thousand international troops are deployed in southern Lebanon. Up to one thousand Italian soldiers are due Saturday in Lebanon. France says its troops will leave for Lebanon in a few days.
Swedish officials say donor countries meeting in Stockholm have pledged more than $900 million in emergency aid to begin rebuilding war-shattered Lebanon.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora had initially appealed to delegates from 60 governments and aid organizations for $500 million in urgent aid to help post-war recovery.
Speaking Thursday in the Swedish capital, Mr. Siniora said fighting between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah militia wiped out 15 years of post-civil war redevelopment.
The meeting comes amid growing Western concerns that cash handouts from Hezbollah to Lebanese with homes destroyed or damaged in the month-long war will strengthen the guerrilla movement.
But Mr. Siniora vowed that none of the funds he sought will be distributed by Hezbollah.
He said the war, which ended earlier this month, cost his country billions of dollars in lost revenue from tourism, agriculture and industry.
Mr. Siniora also repeated warnings that Lebanon's reconstruction will be severely undermined if Israel does not lift its air, sea and land blockade of the country. Israel has said the blockade will continue until United Nations peacekeepers are in place in southern Lebanon.
The European Union said today it will contribute $54 million to help Lebanon. Most of the 25 EU member states are expected to pledge additional funds.
Saudi Arabia and Kuwait previously have promised more than $1 billion in aid. The United States is donating $230 million, including 25,000 tons of wheat and training and equipment for Lebanon's military.
The U.N. nuclear watchdog agency has concluded that Iran is continuing its uranium enrichment work in defiance of a Security Council demand. Council members are likely to begin talks on possible sanctions against Tehran in the next few weeks.
bIn a six-page report, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director Mohamed ElBaradei bluntly says "Iran has not suspended its enrichment activities".
The report sent to the U.N. Security Council Thursday also says the agency has not been able to confirm the nature of Iran's nuclear program because of Tehran's lack of cooperation. It adds that "Iran has resumed enriching small amounts of uranium in recent days".
Washington's U.N. Ambassador John Bolton described the IAEA report as a warning signal to the international community about Iran's nuclear intentions.
"That's a red flag," said Mr. Bolton. "That says that the Iranian program contains much that should be worried about here in New York and underlies our concern that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons. There's simply no other explanation for the range of Iranian behavior, which we've seen over the years other than that they're pursuing a weapons capability."
The IAEA findings place Iran in clear violation of an earlier Security Council order that set an August 31 deadline for suspending enrichment activities. It also opens the way for the Council to impose sanctions against the Tehran government.
Bolton reiterated the U.S. intention to push ahead with sanctions. But he said the Security Council would not take up the question of possible penalties until after a meeting next week between European Union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani.
John Bolton
"There are a range of issues that we've been considering," he added. "I don't think there'll be discussions here until after Javier Solana meets with Mr. Larijani next week in Europe, so we'll see what happens after that meeting, but the United States has been considering this for some time and we've got a lot of thoughts on it."
The deputy chief of Iran's nuclear agency, Mohammed Saeedi was quoted Thursday as saying the IAEA report had shown that U.S. allegations about Tehran's nuclear program are, in his words, baseless.
In a report carried by Iran's official news agency IRNA, Saeedi said the report had shown that what he called "America's propaganda and politically motivated claims" are based on "hallucinations of U.S. officials".
The focus of negotiations on Iran shifts to Europe next week, where U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns will meet with other diplomats from Security Council nations and Germany on the sanctions issue. They are also expected to confer with E.U. foreign policy chief Solana before and after his meeting with the Iranian nuclear negotiator Larijani.
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy Thursday signaled the negotiations may be lengthy. He said that while his country deplores Iran's unsatisfactory response to the Security Council demand for an end to uranium enrichment, he remains convinced that the path of dialogue should remain open.
President Bush is making a new push to boost public support for the war in Iraq, casting it as a crucial component of a broader battle against terror. In a speech to a veteran's group in Salt Lake City, Utah, Mr. Bush intensified a crucial election year debate on his Iraq policy.
George W. Bush
The president says Iraq is part of a wider war raging between the forces of freedom and Islamic fanaticism.
"When terrorists murder at the World Trade Center, or car bombers strike in Baghdad, or hijackers plot to blow up planes over the Atlantic, or terrorist militias shoot rockets into Israeli towns, they are all pursuing the same objective: to turn back the advance of freedom," said President Bush.
He says this is the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century, and vows America will stand firm against, what he calls, a worldwide network of radicals.
"And the unifying feature of this movement, the link that spans sectarian divisions and local differences, is the rigid conviction that free societies are a threat to their twisted view of Islam," he said.
The president spoke to the annual convention of the American Legion - one of the oldest and largest veterans' groups in the United States.
Many of these men and women served in combat roles in World War II, the Korean conflict and Vietnam. The president drew a link between the enemy they faced, and the enemy of today.
"They are successors to fascists, to Nazis, to communists, and other totalitarians of the 20th century," said Mr. Bush. "And history shows what the outcome will be."
This address to the American Legion was the first in a series of speeches the president will deliver in the days leading up to the fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.
White House officials say the anniversary is a good time to remind the American people of the high stakes involved in the war on terror. The reminders are also coming in the weeks before congressional elections in the United States and during a campaign in which the conflict in Iraq is a central issue.
The president has denied that this latest round of speeches on the global war on terror - the third in less than a year - is politically motivated. But in his address in Salt Lake City, he took aim at critics of his policy.
"Some politicians look at our efforts in Iraq and see a diversion from the war on terror," he said. "That would come as news to Osama Bin Laden who proclaimed that the third world war is waging in Iraq."
Mr. Bush said those who are calling for a U.S. military pull-out from Iraq are patriotic but wrong, and he warned of dire consequences should the United States withdraw. He said supporters of Saddam Hussein would join with radicals and armed groups with ties to Iran to turn Iraq into a major base of terrorist operations.
"If we give up the fight in the streets of Baghdad, we will face the terrorists in the streets of our own cities," continued President Bush. "We can decide to stop fighting the terrorists in Iraq and other parts of the world, but they will not decide to stop fighting us."
Aides say Mr. Bush will sound similar themes over the next few weeks, culminating with a speech to the U.N. General Assembly on September 19.
A Beijing-based entertainment magazine has published controversial pictures of pop star Gillian Chung Yan-tung amid the furore in Hong Kong over whether they should be banned.
The cover of Banana Weekly's latest edition carried several photographs of the Twins pop star taken by a hidden camera and published in Easy Finder magazine in Hong Kong last week.
One Beijing magazine seller said the edition had been selling fast at his booth.
The China News Service quoted a Banana Weekly editor as saying the publication bought the copyright for the photographs from the Hong Kong magazine and did not think it was inappropriate to use them.
"We wrote the report from A Jiao's [Gillian Chung] standpoint ... There is no need to be surprised that these pictures have been published [in our magazine] - they can be found anywhere on the internet," the unnamed editor told the news service.
But Hong Kong's Ming Pao newspaper said Easy Finder had not sold the pictures to any other media outlet. Neither the author of the Banana Weekly story nor the publication's editor could be reached for comment yesterday.
The privacy issue has been widely debated on the internet, with some visitors expressing sympathy for Chung. But others were less concerned about the use of a hidden camera, saying it was not a big deal and "every star should give up his or her own privacy".
BEIJING, Aug. 22 (Xinhuanet) -- Al-Qaeda chief and the world's most dreaded terrorist Osama bin Laden had a crush on American singer Whitney Houston and wanted to make her his wife after killing her husband Bobby Brown.
Whitney Houston and her husband Bobby Brown more photos>>
The suggestion is made by Sudanese poet and novelist Kola Boof, 37, who claimed she was bin Laden's sex slave for four months 10 years ago.
In her autobiography Diary of a Lost Girl,excerpted in the magazine Harpers' Bazaar, she writes: "He told me Whitney Houston was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen."
Boof, who claimed bin Laden raped her and held her prisoner in a Moroccan hotel, said he could not stop talking about the songbird, even though he disapproved of music.
"He said that he had a paramount desire for Whitney Houston, and although he claimed music was evil he spoke of someday spending vast amounts of money to go to America and try to arrange a meeting with the superstar."
"It didn't seem impossible to me. He said he wanted to give Whitney Houston a mansion that he owned in a suburb of Khartoum."
"He would say how beautiful she is, what a nice smile she has, how truly Islamic she is but is just brainwashed by American culture and by her husband -- Bobby Brown."
And bin Laden had a plan to deal with that little problem -- he discussed having Brown killed, said Boof.
Boof, who once claimed she had to take her son out of a Los Angeles school after rumours surfaced that bin Laden was his father, also claimed the Al Qaeda mastermind read more than the Koran.
"In his briefcase I would come across photographs of the Star magazine, as well as copies of Playboy," she writes. Enditem
BANGKOK, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- The locomotive of a passenger train fell into the Yom river after the train derailed and crashed into a mountain in Thai northern province of Phrae on Thursday night, a local source told Xinhua.b
The accident occurred at about 8:00 p.m. local time (1300 GMT).The driver of the train and an engineman were missing after the accident, while the exact casualties were not available right now, the source said.
The Express 52 train was heading to Bangkok from northern city of Chiang Mai. After the accident, all the passenger carriages with some 100 passengers remained on the rail track and were later tolled to nearby Lam Pang station.
Thai railway authority has confirmed the accident and an official told Thai Radio FM100 that the heavy rain in the area maybe the cause of the accident.
The heavy rain on Thursday caused flooding at the site, which damaged the railt rack by landslide. Local officials have rushed to the scene but the rescue and repair operation has been delayed because of the bad weather, the official said.
Railway authority in Bangkok said the train service from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, which passes Phrae, has been closed temporarily. Enditem
A hotel has collapsed in Pakistan's popular hill resort of Murree with more than a dozen people believed trapped in the rubble, police said.
Army teams with heavy cranes have joined police and the local administration in the rescue operation, and none of the victims have been recovered so far, the local police chief, Sajid Kiyani, told AFP by telephone.
The building was a nine-storey block and the whole structure came down, "trapping some 12-14 people," he said.
Tourists coming to enjoy the scenic beauty of Murree, 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of Islamabad, used the hotel, he said.
The building's owner, his wife and daughter were inside.
"His daughter trapped in the rubble called police on her mobile phone and we are in touch with her," Kiyani said.
"We are very hopeful she will be rescued soon," he added.
Two families from the central city of Multan who had hired rooms Wednesday were also in the building when it collapsed before dawn, the officer said.
The hotel was "not fully occupied" as the flow of tourists had declined because schools had reopened after the summer vacation, he said.
Police and army rescue teams are trying to remove rubble and retrieve survivors, he said.
The cause of the collapse was not immediately clear. It came in the wake of frequent heavy rains in northern areas since last month.
More than 200 people have died in monsoon rains this year, most of them in roof collapses in mountainous North West Frontier Province and central Punjab province.
DAKAR (Reuters) - An Italian tourist seized by a Saharan rebel group on the border between Niger and Chad told Reuters on Wednesday he was no longer a prisoner but was seeking a safe way to leave the rebels' remote desert hideout.
"I am not a prisoner ... I consider myself free," Claudio Chiodi told Reuters by satellite phone. He said a second Italian tourist taken with him was also safe.
"At this moment the problem is to find a road to leave," he said, adding there were land mines around the rebels' mountain hideout.
Chiodi said members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of the Sahara (FARS) who had been holding him hostage were sitting on carpets around him discussing the best way to ensure the safe release of the two men.
Italian diplomats have been working with Niger's armed forces to try to ensure the release of the two hostages, but their precise location remains unclear and the captors had threatened to kill the tourists if they were attacked.
"These people are guaranteeing our safety. Many people try to catch us, this is the problem," Chiodi said, speaking broken English. He added that Niger's authorities, who have washed their hands of the case, considered him a rebel sympathiser.
Rain wrecked the second day of the US Open with only an hour of play possible by the evening.
A three and a half hour delay kept players off court to start the day as heavy showers swept through the New York area and when they did begin hitting balls it was women's top seed Amelie Mauresmo that got the action underway.
The French woman shrugged off the gathering gloom to bolt out into a 4-1 lead against Germany qualifier Kristina Barrios before the skies opened again sending them scurrying for shelter.
They were back 20 minutes later with Mauresmo wrapping up the set 6-1.
But with her right thigh heavily strapped and looking rusty after a long layoff following her Wimbledon triumph in July, the world No.1 started to struggle in the second set and was 5-2 down when the rain came down again.
This time there was no letup as heavier rain poured down and organisers were left with their worst scheduling headache since the bad weather that hit the 2003 tournament.
By 2300 GMT, there was still no sign of the rain relenting and most of the day's scheduled games were called off although play had not yet been abandoned for the day.
In other games that saw the light of day, 2001 champion Lleyton Hewitt, who has struggled all year with injuries, was level 5-5 with Spain's Albert Montanes and French hope Gael Monfils took the first set 6-2 against American qualifier Michael Russell.
Monday's opening day was also hit with a 90 minutes delay at the start of the programme before the players finally managed to get on court.
The bottom half of the women's draw was completed with straight wins for former winners Lindsay Davenport and Justine-Henin Hardenne.
All but eight of the ties in the bottom half of the men's programme were also concluded.
Andre Agassi's four sets win over Andrei Pavel of Romania was the pick of the action, extending his stay in what he has said would be his last tournament before retiring.
He is not due back on court again before Thursday when he will take on rising Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus, the eighth seed, for a place in the third round.
Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic was the first top seed to fall, going down in straight sets to Spain's Feliciano Lopez.
Top seed and title-holder Roger Federer was not scheduled to play until Wednesday when he takes on Taiwan's Wang Yeu-Tzuoo in what will be a first meeting between the two.
His main rival on the men's tour, Rafael Nadal of Spain, was one of those who was put on hold on Tuesday.
He will have to hope for a clearing of the skies on Wednesday before opening his campaign against the dangerous former US Open finalist Mark Philippoussis of Australia.
Some two years ago I began posting articles I read on the internet and found to be interesting to my various blogs, but lately I started something new on www.skupping.com
