Special Report: Why China's film makers love to hate Japan

China: Shi Zhongpeng dies for a living. For 3,000 yuan ($488) a month, the sturdily built stuntman is killed over and over playing Japanese soldiers in war movies and TV series churned out by Chinese film studios. Despite his lack of dramatic range, the 23-year-old's roles have made him a minor celebrity in China. Once, Shi says, he perished 31 times in a single day of battle. On the set of the television drama "Warning Smoke Everywhere," which has just finished shooting here at the sprawling Hengdian World Studios in Zhejiang Province, he suffers a typically grisly fate.

"I play a shameful Japanese soldier in a way that when people watch, they feel he deserves to die," Shi says. "I get bombed in the end."

For Chinese audiences, the extras mown down in a screen war that never ends are a powerful reminder of Japan's brutal 14 year occupation, the climax of more than a century of humiliation at the hands of foreign powers.

Japanese foreign-policy scholars say more than 200 anti-Japanese films were made last year.

This well-nursed grudge is now a combustible ingredient in the dangerous territorial dispute over a group of rocky islands in the East China Sea, the most serious row between the two Asian powers since Japan's 1945 defeat. It is debatable which side has the better case for ownership of the islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.

The United States, Japan's security-treaty partner, refuses to endorse either claim, only insisting the dispute be settled peacefully.

But decades of officially sanctioned hatred for Japan in China means Beijing is now caught in a propaganda trap of its own making. It has little room to negotiate or step back now that forces from both sides are circling in a potentially deadly standoff.

Nationalism in Japan also makes concessions difficult for Tokyo. But the stakes are potentially higher for China's ruling Communist Party under its new, strongly nationalistic leader Xi Jinping.

"It is going to be very hard for the current Chinese leadership if they want to compromise," said He Yinan, a professor at New Jersey's Seton Hall University who studies the impact of wartime memory on Sino-Japanese relations. "It will be rejected by the public, and the leaders know it."

The tensions and the propaganda go far beyond the current spat. Underneath it all lies a struggle for power and influence in Asia between China and Japan and political struggles within China itself.

Many China watchers believe Beijing's leaders nurture anti-Japanese hatred to bolster their own legitimacy, which is coming under question among citizens livid over problems ranging from official corruption to rampant environmental pollution.

POLITICS DRIVES OUTPUT

As sparring continues in the East China Sea, open hostilities rage on Chinese screens.

On the hilly, forested set of "Warning Smoke Everywhere" at Hengdian, the world's biggest film lot, lead actor Jing Dong plays a young Chinese sniper taking on the invading Japanese in a second television version of a 2011 action film of the same name. In one scene, Jing and his comrades scramble through a village to reach a new firing position. In an interview between takes, the actor rejected suggestions that politics drives the output of these TV dramas and films.

"It's a theme people have liked for a long time," he said, wearing his Chinese Nationalist uniform with its distinctive German-style, coal-scuttle helmet. "That's a fact."

The film original, starring veteran Hong Kong actor Tony Leung Ka-fai, was also released for foreign audiences with the English title, "Cold Steel." Adapted from a popular Internet novel, it tells the story of Mu Liangfeng, a young hunter who is drafted into the Nationalist army for his marksmanship.

He duels with a ruthless Japanese sniper, Captain Masaya, in a series of bloody encounters. Both marksmen are in love, Mu with a war widow and Masaya with a Japanese military nurse. But the film draws a clear distinction between the moral qualities of the two combatants.

"I want to marry a samurai, not a murderer," Nurse Ryoko tells Masaya after accusing him of massacring civilians.

In the remake, director Li Yunliang says he isn't trying to demonize the wartime enemy. "The Japanese soldiers in our drama also have emotions," he says. "It's the war bringing suffering to both China and Japan."

The Communist rulers in Beijing will still find much to like. Pre-publicity material suggests the new storyline will have a harder political edge, concentrating more on the martial qualities of Communist forces who formed a united front with the Nationalists.

WAR STORIES

Some film reviewers in China say that with the censors declaring so many other subjects off limits, it is only natural that the war dominates story-telling in a competitive market for viewers and advertising.

"Only anti-Japanese themes aren't limited," says Zhu Dake, an outspoken culture critic and professor at Shanghai's Tongji University.

"The people who make TV think that only through anti-Japanese themes will they be applauded by the narrow-minded patriots who like it."

Zhu estimates war stories make up about 70 percent of drama on Chinese television. The state administrator approved 69 anti-Japanese television series for production last year and about 100 films.

Reports in the state-controlled media said up to 40 of these were shot at Hengdian alone. State television reported in April that more than 30 series about the war were filming or in planning by the end of March.

On any given night, state-owned television channels bombard Chinese viewers with the heroics of the two major Communist armies in combat with the Japanese, the Eighth Route Army and New Fourth Army. Elaborate plots tap the period's rich history of deception, betrayal and collaboration.

In January, a tense seminar in Hong Kong brought together opinion makers from both sides, including senior retired military officers. There, the role of wartime drama was singled out as a major factor in plunging ties between the two nations.

"Yes, the Nanjing massacre did happen," Yasuhiro Matsuda, a professor at Tokyo University and a former Japanese defense ministry researcher, told the seminar.

"Yes, Japan did invade China. These are facts. But, when there are more than 200 movies coming out, you can imagine the negative effect."

When Tokyo nationalized the disputed islands last September, buying them from a private Japanese owner, it provoked sometimes violent anti-Japanese protests in cities across China.

In a telling indicator of the hostile mood in China, demand for Japanese products is falling across the board. Japanese exports to China for the year through March dropped 9.1 per cent to 11.3 trillion yen, according to Japanese customs figures.

Out in the East China Sea, both sides are so far exercising restraint. The risk of conflict through accident or miscalculation, however, remains high. Under Xi, China has intensified an air and sea campaign that military experts believe is aimed at wearing down Japanese forces around the potentially resource rich islands.

FASHIONING PARTY LORE

Anti-Japanese films were instrumental in fashioning some of the Communist Party's foundation myths.

In the early years of the People's Republic, these films showed Mao Zedong's patriotic Communist guerrillas leading a heroic resistance.

In contrast, Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists were portrayed as corrupt, ineffective and aligned with treacherous foreign powers, principally the United States. A vast majority of Chinese born before the 1970s remember the black-and-white classics from this period.

One of them, "Tunnel Warfare," is the world's most-watched film, with an estimated 1.8 billion viewers by 2006, according the August First Film Studio in Beijing, the Chinese military production house that turned out the 1964 landmark and many others like it.

In "Tunnel Warfare", Maoist guerrilla strategies inspire resourceful peasants to dig extensive tunnel networks beneath their village homes, from which they emerge to harass the occupying Japanese.

Regular screenings during an era of tight political control and virtually no alternative entertainment meant generations of viewers saw these movies many times. They are often crude, with voiceovers making sure viewers get the point.

The brutality of Japanese troops toward Chinese combatants and civilians is a staple, but the films paradoxically avoided over-vilifying the invaders. Japanese characters are rarely developed.

Plot lines concentrate on Mao's triumph in leading the resistance, rather than the clear battlefield superiority of the invaders, which had Chinese forces in retreat right up to the end of the war.

In this period, Chinese film makers conformed to a wider geopolitical strategy, where Beijing was anxious to avoid alienating Tokyo, historians say.

The Communist Party wanted diplomatic recognition from Japan and also sought to drive a wedge between Washington and its most important regional ally.

Strict censorship ruled out researching or publishing material about Japanese atrocities. In a move that would be unthinkable today, Beijing treated convicted Japanese war criminals leniently at the 1956 war crimes trials it held in Shenyang and Taiyuan. None of the 51 prisoners who stood trial were executed or sentenced to long terms.

Textbooks from this time mentioned key events and battles but played down the scope and impact of Japan's occupation.

Film makers avoided the dramatic potential of atrocities such as the 1937 Nanjing Massacre. Some historians suggest the Communists were also determined to suppress movies or detailed historical accounts of major campaigns: Otherwise, attention would have been drawn to the role of the Nationalist armies, which bore the overwhelming brunt of fighting the Japanese. In the sacking of Nanjing, the Nationalists' capital, Communist forces played little or no role in defending the doomed city.

JAPANESE ATROCITIES REVISITED

This changed in the early 1980s when Chinese film makers began to turn their cameras unsparingly on Japan's wartime behavior. Beijing had already won diplomatic recognition from Japan in 1972, and when the disastrous Cultural Revolution ended in 1976, the Communist Party under Deng Xiaoping abandoned its ruinous economic policies and began experimenting with market reforms.

For a ruling party desperate to recover its prestige and stamp out demands for political change, revisiting Japanese atrocities provided a useful distraction, historians say.

In contrast, the party still vigorously suppresses any effort to document or publicize the calamities of its own making, including the starvation of tens of millions following Mao's disastrous Great Leap Forward.

The official desire to foster nationalism intensified after the 1989 Tiananmen protests shook the party to its foundations.

"Maybe the leadership realized that a memory of collective suffering at the hands of an external enemy is more effective in bringing people together," said Kristof Van Den Troost, a film and history researcher at Hong Kong's Chinese University.

One of the best known films of the era, "Red Sorghum" from 1987, based on a novel by 2012 Nobel prize winner Mo Yan, launched the careers of actress Gong Li and director Zhang Yimou.

It pulled no punches, switching from a rich love story set in rural China to a blood-drenched climax in which the Japanese order a local butcher to skin alive a prisoner.

"Skin him," the Japanese interpreter screams at the butcher, who in an act of mercy stabs the prisoner to death and is immediately machine gunned. The butcher's assistant is then forced to skin another live prisoner, later revealed to be a communist guerrilla.

As war museums and memorials opened all over China, film makers were free to explore the orgy of killing and rape at Nanjing. Chinese estimates put the Nanjing death toll at 300,000. Japanese and some other foreign estimates are lower.

Today, while hewing to the official anti-Japanese line, some of these films are more subtle than their forerunners. In the 2009 box office hit, "The City of Life and Death," director Lu Chuan controversially included a relatively sympathetic Japanese character. Sergeant Kadokawa, played by Hideo Nakaizumi, stands apart from his comrades amid the orgy of violence in Nanjing.

But film makers can go too far. Jiang Wen, the male lead in "Red Sorghum," ran afoul of the state film administrator with "Devils on the Doorstep," his second film in the director's chair.

The film won the Cannes Grand Jury Prize in 2000 but was subsequently banned in China. It mocks the confusion of peasants in a village in northern China entrusted with holding a captured Japanese soldier and his translator.

Though the movie ends in a bloodbath for the villagers, censors attacked it for its sympathetic treatment of the Japanese prisoner and failure to depict the Chinese as selfless patriots.

LUDICROUS PLOTS

While studios continue to pump out drama, there are now signs scriptwriters are scratching for material. Critics inside and outside the government have been scathing about the ludicrous and violent plots of some of the more recent productions.

Some directors have merged war dramas with semi-mystical, martial arts action where virtually unarmed Chinese slaughter platoons of hapless Japanese.

In the television series "Anti-Japanese Knight," an unarmed Chinese martial art expert tears a Japanese soldier in half from head to crotch, the divided corpse suspended in the air with a skein of blood connecting the pieces.

In another scene from the same series, a Japanese soldier's intestines are wrenched out of his abdomen in a fight sequence.

Under the weight of ridicule and disgust, officials from the State Administration of Radio Film and Television this month ordered a crackdown, insisting studios make "more serious" dramas.

Even Shi, the busy stuntman, is tiring of his role as a Japanese victim.

"I'm not good-looking so I play a Japanese soldier," he said. "I would really prefer playing a soldier in the Eighth Route Army." (Reuters) (GNN)

Arab spring nations face delayed economic recovery: IMF

AMMAN: Arab spring countries face rising social tensions that could thwart an early economic recovery from over two years of political turmoil that has worsened fiscal pressures and threatens macroeconomic stability, a senior IMF official said on Saturday. Masood Ahmed, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said oil importers Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan faced the double shocks of high energy and food import bills and the impact of a global economic downturn along with growing popular disaffection since the wave of Arab revolts over two years ago.
"The big challenge this year is to manage the expectation of an increasingly impatient population to undertake the measures that will stabilize the economy and would begin to lay the foundations of an economic transformation that would generate more job creating and inclusive growth," Ahmed said.

"Those political transitions are turning to be more prolonged and in some cases more contentious and unemployment is higher and social unrest is rising," Ahmed told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of a World Economic Forum (WEF) conference on the Middle East and North Africa.

Ahmed said the plight of these countries hit by protests was worsened by extra spending on food and energy subsidies that forced governments to draw on foreign reserves and expand domestic borrowing at high interest rates that raised public debt.

Political turmoil was hurting much needed private investments in the meantime, the IMF official said.

"In a number of these countries, private confidence has not yet taken hold so the recovery such as it was in 2012 was driven by continued government spending rather than a recovery in private activity," Ahmed added.

Two years of higher spending on wages and food and fuel subsidies will push budget deficit deficits even higher to an average eight percent in 2013. In Egypt, for example the budget deficit was expected to rise to between 10 to 12 percent of GDP this year, the IMF official said.

"The cost of that is that budget deficits have begun to rise and in some cases have risen to levels that are progressively unsustainable," Ahmed said.

SLUMPING RESERVES

Egypt's foreign exchange reserves have slumped since the revolution that toppled president Hosni Mubarak in 2011 due to falling revenues from tourism and foreign investment.

Jordan's foreign reserves had also fallen sharply but have since recovered this year with an infusion of Gulf Arab capital.

Growth levels that are forecast to average around three percent this year for oil importing countries were insufficient to absorb more job entrants in a region with traditionally high unemployment that has increased since the wave of unrest that swept the region since 2011.

"Already young people are suffering unemployment levels of close to 30 percent and in last two years there have been further increase in some countries," the IMF official added.

Governments had to grapple sooner than later with the politically sensitive subsidies that topped $240 billion in 2011 for the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region and accounted for about one half of global energy subsidies.

This was equivalent to about 8.5 percent of regional GDP, IMF figures show.

Universal energy subsidies were benefiting the top 30 percent income bracket among consumers and although Morocco, Jordan and Tunisia had begun to move towards targeted subsidies, more was needed to help reduce hefty subsidies that diverted much needed funds to spur growth.

"In the middle of political and social transition, it is even more difficult to undertake necessary reforms to reduce budget imbalances or try to take action to protect your reserves but the option of postponing these actions much longer really is not there for many countries," the IMF official said.

"The margin for maneuver is much more limited and today their cushions have been used up a lot and today they find they have the ability to borrow more from domestic markets constrained and their reserves positions are such they really cannot afford to let reserves run down much further," Ahmed said.

Lifting fuel subsidies had triggered civil unrest in Jordan last November and some analysts say the government's move to raise prices of heavily subsidized electricity in June under an IMF standby deal was fraught with risks. (Reuters) (GNN)

Kerry stresses respect for human rights with Nigerian president

ADDIS ABABA: Secretary of State John Kerry, who last week expressed concern about allegations of gross human rights violations by Nigerian forces fighting the Boko Haram Islamist sect, raised the issue with the country's president directly on Saturday, a U.S. official said. Kerry sat beside Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan at an African Union dinner and discussed the matter privately much as he has raised it publicly, defending Nigeria's right "to combat terrorism but (saying) government security forces have to do so smartly (and) respect human rights," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told reporters.
Nigerian troops last week used jets and helicopters to bombard targets in their biggest offensive since the Boko Haram group began a revolt almost four years ago to establish a breakaway Islamic state in the northeast of the country.

On May 17, Kerry took the unusual step of saying that he was "deeply concerned by credible allegations that Nigerian security forces are committing gross human rights violations, which, in turn, only escalate the violence and fuel extremism."

Boko Haram's 4 year long insurgency has killed about 3,000 people and the group has become the biggest security threat to Africa's top oil exporter and second largest economy.

In their biggest offensive since the insurgency began in 2009, Nigerian forces are trying to chase well-armed militants out of territory they control in remote semi deserts around Lake Chad, along the borders with Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

"Boko Haram is a terrorist organization and they have killed wantonly and upset the normal governance of Nigeria in fundamental ways that are unacceptable and so we defend the right, completely, of the government of Nigeria to defend itself and to fight back against terrorists," Kerry said earlier at a news conference with Ethiopia's foreign minister.

"That said, I have raised the issue of human rights with the government, with the foreign minister. We have talked directly about the imperative of Nigerian troops adhering to the highest standards and not themselves engaging themselves in atrocities or in human rights violations. That is critical.

"One person's atrocity does not excuse another's."

Another U.S. official, speaking before Kerry met Jonathan, stressed the two countries have many common interests, including economics, peace keeping and regional security, and said human rights were only one part of the conversation. (Reuters) (GNN)

Niger attacks launched from southern Libya: Niger's president

NIAMEY: Islamist militants who carried out simultaneous suicide attacks on an army base and a French uranium mine in northern Niger two days ago came from southern Libya, Niger's president said on Saturday. President Mahamadou Issoufou said the raids showed Libya was a source of regional instability, months after France launched an air-and-ground assault on northern Mali, which Paris warned had become a launchpad for attacks by al Qaeda-linked groups.

The suicide attacks on Thursday killed 24 soldiers and one civilian and damaged machinery at Areva's Somair mine in the town of Arlit, a supplier of uranium to France's nuclear power program.

Militants said the raids were in retaliation for Niger's role in the French-led war on Islamists in Mali.

French forces have killed hundreds of Islamist gunmen in Mali while those who escaped the raids have scattered across the desert in the north of the country and a vast region full of uncontrolled borders.

"According to the information we have, the attackers came from southern Libya," Issoufou said of the dawn attacks in Niger which raised fears that Mali's conflict could spread to neighboring West African states.

"I know the Libyan authorities are trying hard. But Libya continues to be a source of instability," the president said.

He did not give details on who the gunmen were, but Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a one-eyed veteran of al Qaeda's North African operations, said that his Mulathameen brigade organized the raids with the MUJWA militant group.

Thousands of gunmen and tons of weapons and ammunition flowed south, mainly to Mali, after the fall of Libya's former leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

A mix of Islamist and separatist rebels then seized control of the north of Mali before the French operation launched in January dislodged them from the towns they controlled.

Niger has for weeks warned that Libya was the next potential safe haven for militants. (Reuters) (GNN)

Nigerian army says rescues hostages taken by Islamists

ABUJA: Nigeria's military has freed a number of women and children held hostage by Islamist sect Boko Haram, the army said on Saturday, after its offensive in the northeast of the country overran three of the insurgents' camps. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said in a video earlier this month that the group had kidnapped several women and children in retaliation against security forces who, it says, detained the wives and children of its members without cause.

In their biggest offensive since the insurgency began in 2009, Nigerian forces are trying to chase well-armed militants out of territory they control in remote semi-deserts around Lake Chad, along the borders with Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

"Troops of the Special Operations have rescued three women and six children after overrunning three terrorists camps. in the ongoing onslaught against terrorists," a statement from the defense ministry said on Saturday.

"Troops combing the forest are however yet to locate one other woman and her two children," it added.

President Goodluck Jonathan has declared a state of emergency in the three northeastern states. The operation has targeted areas of Africa's top energy producer where Boko Haram, which is fighting to create a breakaway Islamic state in religiously mixed Nigeria, has bases and weapons caches.

Retaking hostages was not one of the military's stated aims but the freeing of the hostages is some evidence of the progress the army says it has made against Boko Haram since launching the offensive 10 days ago.

Jonathan has also offered amnesty to Islamist insurgents who surrender and said he would release detained women and children linked to Boko Haram, one of the sect's chief demands.

An amnesty for militants in the oil-producing Niger Delta in 2009 helped end a conflict there that cut oil output by nearly half at one stage.

But Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau rejected the offer of amnesty last month.

Boko Haram's four-year long insurgency has killed around 3,000 people and the group has become the biggest security threat to Africa's top oil exporter and second largest economy. (Reuters) (GNN)

As border tightens, some U.S Mexico neighbors reach across the fence

Mexico: Mexican activist Maria Elena Borquez takes up a paintbrush and daubs a bright splotch of color on the rusted steel fence separating the small Mexican town of Naco from a neighboring town in the United States. The wall projects hostility, she said, paint pot in hand and surrounded by youngsters from both the United States and Mexico. "The idea is to transform it with art, friendship, colors and life ... into something that unites us," said Borquez, who is director of the local museum.

As the United States pushes for tighter security along the Mexico border as part of efforts to overhaul immigration laws, Borquez is among scores of residents on either side of the border in this corner of southeast Arizona taking the unusual step of working to strengthen neighborly ties.

The project, with a group calling itself the "Border Bedazzlers," was founded last year by Gretchen Baer, a painter in the former copper mining town of Bisbee about 5 miles north of the border.

Bisbee, with 5,600 residents, is hardly a typical town - a local bumper sticker describes it as a "liberal oasis in a conservative desert" - in its community outreach.

A Rasmussen Reports poll found last month that the majority of likely American voters (57 percent) thought the United States should continue building a border fence along the nearly 2,000-mile (3,200-km) border.

There are also periodic flare-ups over civilian volunteers looking for unauthorized border crossers and Mexico's outrage after Arizona passed a 2010 law that required police to question those they stopped, and suspected of being in the country illegally, about their immigration status.

"As the U.S. is pumping up all this security on the border and more and more money is being spent on all of this 'keep them out,' people want to respond in a positive way and say 'That's not us,'" said Baer.

CLINICS AND GREENHOUSES

One example of a positive response is Casa Saludables, a free clinic offering Naco residents healthcare services such as health checkups, blood pressure, eye exams and diabetes tests.

There's also a collaborative garden. Victor Acedo, a Bisbee bartender and trained horticulturist, is helping Naco residents grow fresh food for children at the local Casa Hogar orphanage, a few hundred yards south of the rusted border fence.

He and other volunteers built a greenhouse out of old car tires and a trampoline frame to grow crops ranging from celery, onions and chilies to carrots, cabbage and chard.

The produce helps feed half-a-dozen youngsters aged eight to 21.

Mexican handyman Francisco Corona, who is learning from Acedo how to tend plants and improve the soil via vermiculture worms says it has become "really important" to the youngsters.

"It gives them somewhere to enjoy themselves after school. They come, they look and see if it needs watering, they plant seeds, they ask if the plants have come up," said Corona, who is now building a second greenhouse out of discarded soft-drink bottles.

TWINNING LINK

City authorities say the Bisbee-Naco ties have been aided by their relative isolation, low waiting times at the border crossing in Naco, and a can-do attitude of residents.

"We don't worry so much, on either side, about politics or where we came from," said Bisbee Mayor Adriana Badal. "We don't get bogged down with bureaucratic stuff. we say 'OK, I have this project and you have a need, so let's just work together.'"

Badal is now seeking a sister-city agreement with Naco, which would enable the two to step up cultural and economic ties and put their projects on a more formal footing.

Other local initiatives are in the works, including a plan by Jesus Morales, the fire chief in tiny unincorporated Naco, Arizona, to create a food bank over the line with counterparts in its Mexican namesake, where a majority of people live in poverty.

"There's families still sleeping on dirt floors over there," said Morales. "We have to look out for the old or the vulnerable, whether they are here or wherever. It is the humane way to be." (Reuters) (GNN)

Russian pro, anti-gay activists arrested after defying ban

MOSCOW: Russian police detained around 30 pro- and anti-gay activists in central Moscow on Saturday, imposing the city's ban on gay rights demonstrations. The arrests, underlining Russia's tough response to public demonstrations by gay groups, coincided with the first ever gay rally in neighboring Ukraine, which was allowed by the authorities and protected by the police.

Russia's parliament has given preliminary approval to a ban on "homosexual propaganda" targeting minors, which critics say would effectively ban gay rights demonstrations.

The legislation has prompted condemnation from abroad, but President Vladimir Putin has rejected that criticism, saying Russia did not discriminate against gay people.

Putin's traditional support base is among conservative voters, including Russian Orthodox followers, some of whom turned up to show their disapproval of Saturday's rally.

A few dozen gay rights activists gathered in front of the Duma parliament building, as well as on a nearby square.

"It's an outrage that they didn't allow a gay parade. but I'm glad there weren't fights as in Georgia," said Alexander Asman, who described himself as a gay sympathizer and an observer, a few minutes before being hauled away by police.

There were minor scuffles as police swooped to detain protesters from both sides, but the mostly peaceful event avoided the large-scale violent clashes of gay rallies in Georgia and the Russian city of St Petersburg earlier this month.

Protester Galina Kovtun, who was shaven-headed and wearing a pink T-shirt, described the actions of the authorities as "disgusting and unjust .

There is such a thing as freedom of speech, after all: Article 31 (of the constitution)," she added.

There were also small groups of anti-gay protesters, most wearing traditional Russian dress and religious symbols and chanting hymns and passages from the Bible.

"We are Orthodox believers, defending our Russian land, our traditions and our faith," said Marina Lovtsova, an elderly woman in a traditional head-scarf who was attending the counter-demonstration at the Duma.

"God doesn't allow Sodom and Gomorrah. We will make a stand until the last Russian person."

Despite Russia's constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech and assembly, Moscow authorities have repeatedly rejected annual requests by gay activists to hold a parade in the city. (Reuters) (GNN)

Tripped units at Guddu fixed, power supply resumes

JACOBABAD: Fourteen tripped units of Guddu Thermal Power Plant and a technical glitch in Dera Murad Jamali grid station have been fixed on Saturday morning.

The power supply to affected parts of Sindh and Balochistan have also resumed following the removal of technical faults.

Earlier, KESCO sources said that power supply to Jafferabad and Nasirabad among various areas was halted as a technical fault had occurred in Dera Murad Jamali grid station.

On the other hand, as soon as two units of Guddu thermal tripped on Friday night, twelve more units also got off after which power supply to various areas of Sindh and Balochistan were suspended.

Later on Saturday morning, the technical faults were fixed after which the power supply to the affected areas resumed. (Geo) (GNN)

Power units tripping at Guddu halts supply to Sindh, Balochistan

JACOBABAD: Fourteen units of Guddu Thermal Power Plant and a grid station in Dera Murad Jamali have tripped, plunging parts of Sindh and Balochistan into darkness on Friday. According to KESCO sources, power supply Jafferabad and Nasirabad among various areas remained halted since 7 PM as a technical fault occurred in Dera Murad Jamali grid station.

Later, as soon as two units of Guddu thermal tripped, twelve more units also got off after which power supply to various areas of Sindh and Balochistan were suspended.

It is pertinent to mention here that Guddu Power Thermal had also tripped on Thursday night due to which power supply to various areas were halted. (GNN)

PIA plane lands at Manchester airport, probe continues

LONDON: A Pakistan International Airline (PIA) passenger plane, which was forced to land at a London airport after two travelers threatened to ‘explode the plane’ during their argument, has now arrived at Manchester. According to the sources, British police arrested two people on suspicion of endangerment of aircraft after diverting Manchester bound PIA flight PK-709 to land at Stansted airport following a mid-air alert.

Both the British nationals of Pakistani origin were arrested after they reportedly had a spat with the crew, the sources said. The police continued the investigation with the two arrested air travelers.

Later, the aircraft departed for its destination (Manchester).

According to PIA sources the suspects had allegedly threatened to bomb the plane with explosives. A panicked stewardess alarmed the pilot, Captain Nadeem Sufi, who sent a stress signal to London control tower triggering the security alert, which led to the force-landing of the plane.

There were 297 passengers and 11 crew members were on the plane.

Initially Essex Police said that a man namely Mohammad Shafqat, and a woman, Ammara Ashraf were arrested and removed from the plane, which is on an isolated runway at the airport.

Reportedly, it all started after Mohammad Shafqat and Ammara Ashraf, traveling with a number of other family members, engaged in a hot argument, which went out of control forcing the crew to intervene, who were warned to stay out of it.

The quarreling family went as far threatening the crew that they were going to blow the plane up, which caused this whole panic. However, they were released after police found out it was a petty domestic squabble.

The incident was not believed to be terrorism-related, the officials said.

"There was a family of eight to 10 people on the plane and they were wrangling among each other," the PIA source said.

"When PIA staff approached them and asked them to calm down, they told them to go away otherwise they would blow up the plane. "PIA staff became scared and they raised the alarm to avoid any untoward situation."

A passenger Nauman Rizvi told Geo News that two passengers who had tried to move toward the cockpit during the flight were handcuffed and arrested once the plane landed. Rizvi said that after the men were taken away, the flight crew told passengers there had been a terrorist threat and that the pilot had raised an alarm.

Later, there were reports that another couple of men apart from the fussing spouses were also arrested amid the panic. Two men, aged 30 and 41, were held on suspicion of endangerment of an aircraft, Essex Police said

Earlier, Royal Air Force (RAF) Typhoon jets were scrambled to intercept the PIA plane, which escorted the Manchester-bound flight to Stansted.

Flight PK709 from Lahore was due to land at Manchester Airport in north west England at 1230 GMT. The plane was diverted to Stansted airport, east of central London, according to a Manchester Airport spokesman.

A spokesman for the British Ministry of Defence said that Typhoon jets had been launched from a Royal Air Force base after the incident was signaled by the plane's crew, shortly before the plane was due to land in Manchester at 1230 GMT.

"Typhoon aircraft from RAF Coningsby have been launched to investigate an incident involving an aircraft in UK airspace," the MoD spokesman said.

After the plane landed, the MoD spokesman said the incident was now a police matter and "our involvement is over".

Typhoon planes can be scrambled if the pilot or crew of a passenger aircraft sends out a passenger signal, he added.

Essex Police, who are responsible for the area where Stansted is located, said an incident had occurred on a flight and they were investigating.

"The plane diverted to Stansted Airport has now landed at the airport. Police + partners are continuing to respond," Essex Police in southeast England said in a Twitter message.

All the passengers were disembarked at the Stansted Airport and no one has been hurt, an airport spokesman said.

According to a statement issued by Pakistani High Commission, a team of the officers was sent to the Stansted Airport to provide any consular assistance to the passengers that may be required.

The High Commission is keeping the authorities informed back in Pakistan and is also in touch with the PIA office in London, the statement added.

The news comes two days after a soldier was hacked to death on a London street in an incident the government are treating as a terrorist incident. (GNN)

Altaf says he never preached misuse of authority

KARACHI: Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain said on Friday that he had never preached corruption, fraud, cheating, overstepping and misuse of authority and indulging in social evils to his workers. I have been asking his workers to refrain from these evils since 1978, Altaf said while addressing the meeting of the provisional Co-ordination Committee, the dissolved Co-ordination Committee and office bearers of various wings at Nine Zero.

Hussain said that state and government repression was used against the MQM to finish it during the past 35 years of its struggle. Thousands of workers were martyred and many were maimed and wounded.

Altaf Husain's family belonged to the lower middle class and not hailed from business class. Members of his family worked hard for getting education and got jobs of officer grade purely on merit.

Hussain said that his 70 year old brother and 28 year old nephew were brutally tortured and killed during the operation against MQM like any other worker.

He said that his family was forced to go in exile for saving the lives of their children and worked hard in foreign lands to earn a livelihood.

People might be surprised to know that his brother-in-law, who was an officer in Siemens Pakistan, and brother, who was an officer in KESC, had to work as peons and security guards in foreign countries.

He said that he was putting these things before the people because he had never obtained any benefit for his family.

He said that he never allowed his family members to take any benefit from the MQM and did not give to them tickets for elections.

Hussain said that he had done reorganization in the MQM on several occasions for reforming the party but this time he had to take very difficult decision for which he used the power vested in him by the party constitution.

He said that he dissolved the Co-ordination Committee by exercising his powers. He said that certain office-bearers were suspended while some were expelled from the party on public complaints.

The MQM chief further said that the party was not established for spreading the feelings of hatred against any regional nationality.

It was established for the rights of the deprived and disadvantaged people of Pakistan, he said. (Thenews) (GNN)

Peshawar: 6 policemen dead in rocket assault

PESHAWAR: At least six policemen were killed while six more policeman including District Police Officer (DPO) Kohat were critically injured in a rocket attack here on Friday night. According to the sources, the incident took place when 10 to 15 militants attacked a convoy of DPO Kohat Dilawar Bangash with six rockets, leaving seven policemen dead and seven others hurt.

The DPO Kohat, along with his subordinate staff, was on his way back from Peshawar after attending an important meeting there.

Injured Dilawar Bangash was shifted to Kohat while six other wounded personnel were rushed to Lady Reading Hospital (LRH).

SSP Rural Shafiullah has confirmed that seven policemen were killed in the attack whose bodies have been shifted to the LRH.

Police personnel said that following the assault they had a gunbattle with the militants for more than an hour in which security forces also took part. (GNN)

Mobile app to help fight against racism in France

PARIS: A French anti-racism association is launching a mobile application it hopes will help eradicate racist graffiti by enabling users to take photos of offensive tags, geo-locate them and get them removed. Licra the International League against Racism and Antisemitism said the app was a "digital response" to "a big increase in racist and antisemitic acts" in France, and would be available for download from June 11.

Users who have the app will be able to take a snap of racist tags they come across with their smartphones, attach the location and send the information to Licra, which will work with local authorities to have them quickly removed.

Several buildings have been defaced by racist tags in recent months in various parts of France most of them mosques but also in one case a building housing local headquarters of the Socialist party.

One mosque in Limoges in central France has been repeatedly defaced since July last year first by racist graffiti, then by excrement, and more recently this month by red liquid that appeared to be blood. (AFP) (GNN)

Stone Temple Pilots sue ex-frontman Scott Weiland

LOS ANGELES: The Stone Temple Pilots accuse former frontman Scott Weiland of misusing the band's name to further his solo career and want a judge to strip the rocker of his ability to use the group's name or songs. A lawsuit filed Friday in Los Angeles accuses Weiland of being chronically late to concerts while the group was together and having his lawyer try to interfere with the airplay of the group's new single `Out of Time.'

Weiland and Stone Temple Pilots parted ways in February, and the singer said at the time that he learned of his ouster from a statement released to the media.

The lawsuit claims the band owns the rights to the name Stone Temple Pilots, its songs, copyrights and trademarks..

Wieland has used many of the band's hits in his solo shows, the lawsuit states. The band wants a judge to block him from even calling himself a former member of the band.

The band has been reconstituted with Chester Bennington of Linkin Park taking the frontman role.

The lawsuit claims that Weiland's lawyer called the head of programming at KROQ, a Los Angeles modern rock station, and said if the station played `Out of Time' it would be infringing on Weiland's rights.

`Enough is enough,' the band's lawsuit states. `Without relief from the court, Weiland will continue violating STP's rights, misappropriating STP assets and interfering with the band's livelihood.'

Phone messages left for Wieland's manager Andrea Pett-Joseph and lawyer Gary Stiffelman were not immediately returned Friday.

The 45-year-old alluded to lawyers getting involved when the band's statement about his departure was released.

The band's hits include `Vasoline,' `Interstate Love Song' and `Plush,' which won a Grammy in 1993 for best hard rock performance with vocal. (AP) (GNN)

Saudi to send animal samples to US in coronavirus probe

GENEVA: Saudi Arabia said Friday it would send samples taken from animals possibly infected with a deadly SARS-like virus to the United States for testing in a bid to find the source of disease. The Saudi health ministry has "collected large samples from bats and other animals, including camels, sheep and cats," said Saudi Deputy Health Minister Ziad Memish.

So far, there have been 44 lab-confirmed cases worldwide of the virus, which until now has been known as the novel coronavirus, or nCoV-EMC, but was this week redubbed the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus, or MERS.

Saudi Arabia counts by far the most cases, with 30 confirmed infections and 17 fatalities, while cases have also been detected in Jordan, Qatar, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, Germany, Britain and France.

Memish told diplomats gathered in Geneva for the World Health Assembly, the decision making body of the World Health Organization, that his country until now had not been able to send samples from animals besides bats to the United States.

"But now. we've got an approval to move these samples and they will be shipped for testing," he said.

The virus is a cousin of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which triggered a scare 10 years ago when it erupted in east Asia, leaping to humans from animal hosts and eventually killing some 800 people.

Scientists at the Erasmus medical centre in Rotterdam have determined that the virus appears to infect the body via a docking point in lung cells, suggesting bats may be a natural reservoir for it.

Bats were also pinpointed as a likely natural reservoir for SARS in a 2005 study, and are known carriers of the deadly haemorrhagic fever Ebola.

The WHO said Friday that much uncertainty remained surrounding MERS, stressing that it aimed to work closely with Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and perhaps other Middle Eastern countries to determine how great the risk is.

"We will organise joint mission teams as soon as possible to collect all the facts," WHO chief Margaret Chan told delegates in Geneva, adding that not enough was known about the incubation period for the virus, which signs and symptoms to look for and how it spreads.

Without a proper risk assessment, she said, it was difficult to know what advice to give on travel restrictions, for instance.

It was "quite urgent" to determine if any such restrictions were needed before the annual hajj that draws millions of pilgrims to the Muslim holy places in Saudi Arabia in October, she added.

Chan also voiced concern over Riyadh's claim Thursday that foreign laboratories had patented the virus, which it said had slowed down the diagnostics process.

She vowed to investigate which barriers the Saudis were facing and said the WHO's legal department was looking at the legal ramifications of the intellectual property issue.

WHO spokesman Gregory Haertl told reporters it was not possible to patent the actual virus, but rather "the work based on the viral sequence that a lab generates," which is what the scientists at the Erasmus Medical Centre in the Netherlands had done.

That lab however appeared to have openly shared its sequencing with a number of other labs, he said. (AFP) (GNN)

Wagha Border, Lahore Pakistan

Wagah Border

Wagah Border is located on Grand Trunk Road which join the Amritsar, India and Lahore, Pakistan. It's a well known place all over Pakistan.

Wagah is name of village which was divided in 1947 after partition. Today half part is in India and half is in Pakistan.

Many people daily visit Wagah Border to watch soldiers parade and flag lowering ceremony on every evening between border security forces of India and Pakistan.

Wagah Border ceremony having great heart touching moments and increase heart beats of everyone with love for their country.

Address: Located on Grand Trunk Road between the cities of Amritsar, India and Lahore, Pakistan (GNN)

Zainab Market, Karachi Pakistan

Zainab Market

Zainab Market is a very famous clothing market for males and female located in Saddar near Avari Towers Hotel. It's situated in popular visitor area having small craft shops, textiles, t-shirts, leather clothing and much more.

Many foreigners daily visit this market because it’s the nearest market from most of Karachi 5 star hotels.

Zainab Market ground area is for children’s and female but their first and second floor is exclusively for males.

Zainab Market

You will find here huge collection of clothing manufactured by world famous brands and merchant. Zainab Market is fulfilling the huge needs of clothing around city.

As shawls, sheets, tapestries and needlework premises within Sindh is also available at Zainab Market.

Address: Zainab Market, Saddar, Karachi, Pakistan. (GNN)

ZIAFAT, Lahore Pakistan

Ziafat Restaurant

Ziafat Restaurant is located in many cities of Pakistan. In Lahore it's located on M.M. Alam road where the most oldest and famous restaurants are present.

Many people like its food quality and taste and visit daily with their families.

Address: 21-C-I, M.M.Alam Road Gulberg-III, Lahore 54662, Punjab
Phone: +92-42 3-587-8746

Senator urges 'extreme caution' on Softbank-Sprint deal

WASHINGTON: An influential senator on Friday expressed strong concerns about Japanese company Softbank Corp's plan to buy 70 percent of Sprint Nextel, the No. 3 mobile service provider, warning it could expose the United States to more Chinese cyber attacks.

"I have real concerns that this deal, if approved, could make American industry and government agencies far more susceptible to cyber attacks from China and the People's Liberation Army," Senator Charles Schumer said in a statement.

"We must proceed with extreme caution before allowing something as vital as our communications and Internet infrastructure from falling into the hands of foreign company with reported ties to China," said Schumer, a New York Democrat. (Reuters) (GNN)

Dai-ichi expands in Southeast Asia with Panin Life deal: source

TOKYO: Japan's Dai-ichi Life Insurance Co Ltd (8750.T) has agreed to buy a 40 percent stake in Panin Life from the parent of the Indonesian insurer for around 30 billion yen ($295 million), a source with direct knowledge of the matter said. The stake acquisition by one of Japan's top four life insurers is the latest in a string of deals by increasingly acquisitive Japanese firms. Dai-ichi said this month it plans to spend 300 billion yen on M&A deals in the next two years.

Pressure to break into new markets has been especially heavy on Dai-ichi Life, the only listed company among Japan's big four life insurers, after failing in its bid for ING Groep NV's (ING.AS) insurance operations in Southeast Asia last year.

The Panin Life deal between Dai-ichi and PT Panin Financial Tbk (PNLF.JK) will take several more days before it is finalized, said the source, who declined to be identified because the talks are confidential.

A Dai-ichi Life spokesman declined to comment.

Dai-ichi is also among the companies that placed a bid for a controlling stake in the life insurance unit of Malaysian lender AMMB Holdings Bhd (AMMB.KL), another source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters earlier this month.

Dai-ichi already operates in Thailand and Vietnam.

The rapid economic growth and rising personal incomes in Southeast Asia have drawn Japanese insurers whose dim domestic prospects have pushed them to look overseas.

Just 5.8 percent of Asia's population is insured compared with 8.1 percent in the United States, and that is set to drive insurance premium sales in emerging Asia at nearly three times the growth in industrialized nations, Swiss Re says.

Insurance deals in Asia rose to a record $30.5 billion last year, according to S&P Capital IQ, and there is at least another $5 billion worth of deals in the pipeline.

Asian insurers trade at a median price-to-book (P/B) ratio of 1.73, according to Thomson Reuters data, nearly double their peers in the United States and Europe. Buyers have been willing to overlook the relatively expensive insurance stocks for the promise of fast growth.

Japan's MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings Inc (8725.T) paid a whopping 9.3 P/B multiple for a 50 percent stake in the insurance unit of Indonesian conglomerate PT Asuransi Jiwa Sinarmas.

In another Indonesia insurance deal brewing, PT Bank Negara Indonesia Persero Tbk PT (BNI) (BBNI.JK) has said it plans to sell a stake in its life insurance unit. ($1 = 101.4350 Japanese yen) (Reuters) (GNN)

Russia's oldest human rights group fights "foreign agent" tag

MOSCOW: Russia's oldest human rights group went to court on Friday to try to stop state prosecutors forcing it to register as a "foreign agent" under a law it says is intended by President Vladimir Putin to silence dissent. Memorial, which has fought political repression since Soviet times, refuses to comply with the law which critics describe as a crude attempt to reassert Putin's authority after tens of thousands called for him to quit during protests last year.

The law obliges foreign-funded non governmental organizations involved in "political activities" to operate under a label which has echoes of the Cold War and overtones of treason. Memorial says it also helps the state tighten controls.

"We're not sitting and waiting. We're staging a counter-attack," Memorial's head, Alexander Cherkasov, said. "They're taking us back to the ideas of the (Soviet) past. It's a sign of madness."

Inspired by Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov and five others' wish to create a monument to remember the victims of dictator Josef Stalin's repression, Memorial started work in 1987 as the Soviet Union opened up under Mikhail Gorbachev.

Its initial goal was to document the Communist totalitarian past, but it developed quickly into a human rights organization and criticized the detention of anti Putin protesters last year at a rally that turned violent. (Reuters) (GNN)

Highway bridge collapses in US; no deaths reported

MOUNT VERNON: The major highway bridge linking Seattle with Canada and the rest of the Pacific Northwest region collapsed late Thursday, dumping at least a handful of vehicles and people into a river, the Washington State Patrol said. There were no immediate reports of deaths.

The four-lane Interstate 5 bridge more than half a century old collapsed about halfway between Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia, Trooper Mark Francis said.

Francis said he did not know how many people were in the water. He did not know what caused the collapse, which came at the start of one of the country's busiest holiday weekends of the year.

Xavier Grospe, who lives near the river, said he could see three partially submerged cars, and the apparent drivers were sitting either on top of the vehicles or on the edge of open windows.

It doesn't look like anybody's in danger right now, Grospe said. Helicopter footage aired by KOMO-TV in Seattle showed one rescue boat leaving the scene with one person strapped into a stretcher.

A damaged red car and a damaged pickup truck were visible in the water, which appeared so shallow it barely reached the top of the car's hood.

A man told the local Skagit Valley Herald newspaper he felt a vibration and looked in his rear view mirror to see that the part of bridge he had just crossed was no longer behind him.

I thought something was wrong with my car at first, he said The bridge is not considered structurally deficient but is listed as being ``functionally obsolete'' meaning that its design is outdated, according to a database compiled by the Federal Highway Administration.

The bridge was built in 1955 and has a sufficiency rating of 57.4 out of 100, according to federal records. That is well below the statewide average rating of 80, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal data.

The American Society of Civil Engineers' 2013 infrastructure report card said more than a quarter of Washington state's 7,840 bridges were considered structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.

KSE snaps record-setting run tracking global fall

KARACHI: Karachi Stock Exchange(KSE) Thursday snapped its record-making run following a global fall in the equity markets. The benchmark 100-share index closed 0.54 percent, or 116.25 points, lower at 21,342.65.
Profit-booking in large cap scrips including Pakistan Petroleum Ltd, Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd and Muslim Commercial Bank Ltd was also one of the hits the KSE took on Thursday.

Pakistan Petroleum Ltd decreased by 2.64 percent to Rs216.89 while Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd lost 1.19 percent at Rs20.80.

Analysts say institutional buying kept fertilizers green. (Geo) (GNN)

Solar plane sets distance record on US tour

LOS ANGELES: The first manned aircraft that can fly day and night powered only by solar energy set a new distance record Thursday when it landed after the second leg of a cross-country US tour. The Solar Impulse project, founded and led by two Swiss pilots, aims to showcase what can be accomplished without fossil fuels, and has set its "ultimate goal" as an around-the-world flight in 2015.

Solar Impulse landed in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas at 1:08 am (0608 GMT) after an 18 hour and 21 minute flight from Phoenix, Arizona, a distance of 1,541 kilometers (950 miles), organizers said in a statement.

"This leg was particularly challenging because of fairly strong winds at the landing. It also was the longest flight in terms of distance ever flown by a solar airplane," the plane's pilot Andre Borschberg said.

"You have to understand that the pilot needs to stay awake for more than 20 hours without any autopilot," added Borschberg, who holds the record for the longest solar-powered flight, at 26 hours.

The previous distance record was attained by Solar Impulse one year ago on a 1,116 kilometer (693 mile) flight from Switzerland to Spain.

The first leg of Solar Impulse's US tour took place on May 3, when Swiss aviator Bertrand Piccard flew the aircraft from the San Francisco, California area to Phoenix.

On the first leg the plane which has a slim body and four electric engines attached to enormous wings flew quietly at an average speed of about 30 miles (49 kilometers) per hour.

Energy provided by 12,000 solar cells powered the plane's propellers.

The plane can fly at night by reaching a high elevation of 27,000 feet (8,230 meters) and then gently gliding downward, using almost no power until the sun comes up to begin recharging the solar cells.

The US itinerary allows for up to 10 days at each stop in order to showcase the plane's technology to the public. Another stop is planned in the US capital Washington before the trip concludes in New York in early July.

The stopovers will allow Piccard and Borschberg to share duties and rest between flights. (AFP) (GNN)

Giant Lego Star Wars X-Wing lands on NY's Times Square

NEW YORK: A massive Star Wars X-Wing spaceship has landed on New York's Times Square. Well, not quite. It's actually a replica of one flown in the famed movie franchise and represents the largest model ever made by Danish toy company Lego.

Unveiled Thursday, the spectacular structure consists of more than 5.3 million of the company's multi-colored plastic bricks, weighs almost 46,000 pounds (20,865 kilograms) and took 32 builders about 17,000 hours to put together.

"I built pretty big things with Lego, but this is the biggest ever," said Lego master builder Erik Varszegi at an unveiling ceremony in the iconic Manhattan square that drew a crowd of curious onlookers.

"It's a life-size version," he added. "That means the same scale it was built for the film."

Used by Luke Skywalker to destroy the Death Star in the original "Star Wars" trilogy, the X-Wing model promotes the premiere of "The Yoda Chronicles" the Cartoon Network next Wednesday.

Its creation and transfer to New York is movie material in itself.

It began to be assembled a year ago in the Czech Republic before being transported by ship to the United States.

Once on American soil, it went to a warehouse in the state of New Jersey where in three separate parts -- it spent the last leg of the trek to Manhattan in a truck.

The model will stay in Times Square until Saturday before taking off again for the Legoland California Resort on the outskirts of San Diego, where it will be on show until the end of the year.

A George Lucas creation, "Star Wars" has achieved cult status since its 1977 premiere.

The movie, which launched the career of a young Harrison Ford, was soon followed by the equally popular "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) and "Return of the Jedi" (1983).

In the late 1990s, Lucas drew mixed reviews when he resurrected the blockbuster series with a prequel trilogy: "The Phantom Menace" (1999), "The Attack of the Clones" (2002) and "The Revenge of the Sith" (2005).

Walt Disney Company announced plans to revive the series in October, when it bought Lucasfilm for $4 billion. Sci-fi and action filmmaker J.J. Abrams will direct "Episode VII," scheduled for release in 2015. (AFP) (GNN)

Measles takes two more lives in Lahore

LAHORE: Two more children died of deadly measles while 47 new cases have been reported during last 24 hours raising the death toll to 121 in Lahore.

Two girls identified as 2 year old Zahra and Sana died in Mayo Hospital. With these two deaths, the number of measles victims alone at this hospital has reached to 50.

However, 21 more measles affected children are in Intensive Care Unit of Mayo hospital. (Geo) (GNN)

Nissan to recall 841,000 vehicles due to steering wheel glitch

TOKYO: Nissan Motor Co Ltd (7201.T) will recall about 841,000 vehicles worldwide including the Micra compact car, also known as the March, as a result of a steering wheel glitch, Japan's No.2 automaker said on Thursday. Nissan is recalling certain models of the Micra compact car produced in Britain and Japan between 2002 and 2006, as well as the Cube, produced in Japan around the same period.

It is pulling back vehicles in Japan, Europe, Asia, Oceania, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East.

The bolt used in the steering wheel of these cars may not have been properly tightened and at worst the steering wheel may not function, Nissan said in a statement filed to the Japanese transport ministry.

No accidents, injuries or deaths have been reported, Nissan spokeswoman Noriko Yoneyama said.

Nissan will fix the glitch by either tightening the bolts or replacing the steering wheel with a new one.

The repair will take about 40 minutes, Yoneyama said. She declined to say how much the recall will cost Nissan. (Reuters) (GNN)

Jodi Arias asks Arizona jury to spare her death penalty

PHOENIX: Convicted killer Jodi Arias pleaded with an Arizona jury on Tuesday to spare her the death penalty for the sake of her family and sentence her instead to life in prison for killing her ex-boyfriend. Arias, 32, was found guilty earlier this month in the murder of Travis Alexander, whose body was found slumped in the shower of his Phoenix-area home in June 2008. He had been stabbed 27 times, had his throat slashed and been shot in the face.

The murder trial, which featured graphic testimony and photographs, became a sensation on U.S. cable television with its story of an attractive, intelligent and soft-spoken young woman charged with an unthinkable crime.

The former waitress from California had previously said publicly that she preferred execution to life in prison, but reversed herself on Tuesday, citing concern for her family, in a final act in a marathon court drama that began in January.

"As I stand here now, I can't in good conscience ask you to sentence me to death because of them," she said, gesturing to her father and other family members in court.

"I made many public statements that I would prefer the death penalty to life in prison. Each time I said that, though I meant it, I lost perspective. Until very recently I could not have imagined standing before you all and asking you to give me life . I thought I would rather die," she said.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sherry Stephens asked the jury on Tuesday afternoon to begin deliberations on a sentence for Arias following closing arguments in the penalty phase of her trial.

The jury adjourned for the day without reaching a verdict and will resume deliberations on Wednesday.

If the jury is unable to reach a unanimous decision, a new jury would be impaneled to determine whether the death penalty should be imposed.

In an interview from jail late on Tuesday, Arias told the Arizona Republic newspaper she was not going to "think too much" about the looming verdict, but would just "take what's coming to me."

Should the jury give her a death sentence, she said she would wait for the mandatory appeals process "just taking it day by day." If she gets life in prison, she would "make the most of it" and do what do she can do "to help other people there."

During her trial, Arias admitted killing Alexander but said she had acted in self-defense after he attacked her. She also characterized her relationship with Alexander as physically and emotionally abusive.

"To this day, I can hardly believe I was capable of such violence, but I know that I was, and for that I'm going to be sorry for the rest of my life . I was horrified by what I had done, and I am horrified still," Arias said.

During Tuesday's court appearance, she told jurors she could lead a productive life in prison, and that there were many things she could do to "effect positive change" and contribute to society.

She mentioned that already, from behind bars, she had donated her long hair to a charity that provides wigs to children, including cancer patients, suffering from hair loss.

"If I'm allowed to live in prison, I will continue to donate to that organization for the rest of my life," she said, adding that she would also like to contribute to campaigns for literacy and to curb domestic violence.

'SO MUCH PAIN'

In closing arguments, defense attorney Jennifer Willmott walked jurors through eight mitigating factors among them that Arias had suffered abuse, had no criminal history and was 27 at the time of the murder and urged them to show mercy.

"Jodi took Travis away . but two wrongs do not make a right. Jodi can still contribute to this world," Willmott told jurors, as Arias sat calmly by her side.

"We are asking you to find that Jodi's life is worth saving . Despite her very worst deed, you can still show mercy and find that she still has value in her life and sentence her to a term of life in prison," she said.

Prosecutor Juan Martinez countered that there were no documented reports to corroborate Arias' claims of abuse and urged the jury to return a death sentence.

Tuesday's final proceedings came a day after Judge Stephens denied a defense request for a penalty phase mistrial as well as a subsequent request by defense lawyers to withdraw from the case.

The judge also denied a motion for a stay to give the defense time to appeal her decisions to the state Supreme Court.

Arias has told the court she had shot Alexander with his own pistol after he attacked her because she had dropped his camera while photographing him in the shower. She said she did not remember stabbing him.

Prosecutors said Arias had repeatedly stabbed Alexander for two minutes as he tried to escape and that she then followed him down a hallway and slashed his throat.

Alexander, a 30 year old businessman and motivational speaker with whom Arias said she was having an on-again, off-again affair, knew he was going to die and was unable to resist his attacker at that point, Martinez said.

Jurors heard testimony last week from Alexander's younger brother Steven, who said the killing had invaded his dreams and that since the murder he had been hospitalized several times for ulcers. He said he never wanted to see Arias again.

Alexander's younger sister Samantha said thoughts of "the pain, agony, the screams and the fear" of her brother's last moments were stuck in her mind.

On Tuesday, Arias acknowledged the siblings' distress and said she "never meant to cause them so much pain."

"It is my hope that with the verdict you have rendered thus far they will finally gain a sense of closure. Steven said he doesn't want to look at his brother's murderer anymore. If I get life, he won't have to," Arias said. (Reuters) (GNN)

Ghana hopes to shield economy from African oil curse

Oil brought riches to Nigeria but also ravaged its economy and fuelled corruption and conflict. Now nearby Ghana has begun production and wants to take the wealth but dodge the oil curse. Ghana is used to resource riches: it is already the world's number two cocoa producer and Africa's second-largest gold miner. But there are signs it is struggling to manage the new oil money and some people are disappointed.

A budget deficit last year which soared to 12 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), nearly twice the targeted level, raised fears among economists of fiscal laxity, a classic symptom of the resource curse that often feeds corruption.

Investors are also watching the strengthening cedi currency. An inflation-adjusted rise due to an influx of petro-dollars can signal "Dutch disease", where the competitiveness of farming and manufacturing is eroded, as in Holland in the 1960s.

"The government seems to be very much wary of the dangers of Dutch Disease," central bank governor Henry Kofi Wampah said. "Oil will continue to attract attention but not at the expense of cocoa or gold."

In Nigeria, agricultural production plummeted in the 1970s and 1980s as oil came to dominate the economy. Some now fear Ghana's cocoa sector, the largest employer in the country, could be similarly threatened by oil that began flowing in 2010.

The cedi weakened last year as the oil boom fuelled imports but its depreciation has now slowed to below inflation, which stood at 10.6 percent in April, leaving the currency slightly stronger against the dollar year-on-year in real terms.

Ghana, however, has several advantages over its giant neighbor to shield itself from the oil curse, according to senior government officials, economists and watchdog groups.

Not least of these, it is aware of the risks and is trying to avoid the mistakes made by other African states.

FRONTIER MARKET

Ghana, a country of 25 million people that has long lived in Nigeria's economic shadow, is now one of Africa's hottest frontier markets. The stock market is up more than 50 percent this year but many ordinary Ghanaians complain about lack of jobs and basic services.

"I'm not seeing any benefit," said Jennifer Omaboe, a receptionist in Accra. "Those who are really benefiting are those at a high level because they have connections."

An influx of rural workers hoping for jobs in the capital, has spawned shanty towns and spilled vendors across Accra's streets, where cranes loom over construction sites and glossy billboards advertise cars and mobile phones.

In March, oil overtook cocoa as a source of government revenue, standing only behind the mining sector in importance in the $39 billion economy.

With output at Tullow's (TLW.L) Jubilee field still ramping up to its plateau level of 120,000 barrels a day, and the nearby TEN field yet to come onstream, oil already contributes 6 percent of state revenue.

Ghana's cocoa production, meanwhile, is down 11 percent so far this season year-on-year but industry regulator Cocobod blames bad growing weather. It has forecast a total harvest of 800,000 metric tons (881.849 tons) for 2013, second only to neighboring Ivory Coast.

The leaders of Ghana's cocoa sector say their industry may benefit from the oil flows. The involvement of farmers in the decision-making process, close cooperation with government, and internal checks and balances shield the sector from any policy neglect, they say.

"We all admit that oil is a big thing happening to Ghana now but for us it is a positive development because oil inflows will free more resources for the government to implement new programs to further boost cocoa production," said Yaw Adu-Ampomah, deputy chief executive of the Ghana Cocoa Board, referring to programs for fertilizers and seedlings.

With rising demand from Asian countries, as higher living standards bring increased chocolate consumption, many industry watchers say global cocoa prices are set to rise in the coming years, making the sector an attractive investment bet.

Moreover, to counteract oil's effects on the currency and the broader economy, Ghana is channeling 30 percent of tax revenues from petroleum into a stabilization fund to hedge against price fluctuations and a sovereign wealth fund, which contained $72 million in 2012.

"CAUSE FOR OPTIMISM"

Some fear that oil revenues could encourage Ghana to spend unwisely, squandering money on unproductive "white elephant" infrastructure projects or inflationary wage hikes.

In Nigeria, the wash of oil money made the government less dependent on tax revenue and less beholden to its citizens. It encouraged graft as oil-related contracts become an economic honey pot and sparked conflict in the Niger Delta amid anger the region had not benefited from its oil wealth.

"Our problem is no longer money but how to spend it," General Yakubu Gowon, Nigeria's military ruler from 1966 to 1975, said in the midst of his country's oil boom.

Ghana's advantages start with a strong democratic tradition that pre-dates its discovery of oil.

A series of peaceful electoral transitions of power since 2000 between the ruling National Democratic Congress of President John Mahama and the main opposition have helped empower parliament as a supervisory body of the executive.

A vibrant civil society pressing for better oil industry regulation and accountability is also key.

"There is cause for optimism when you look at Ghana," said Valerie Marcel, energy expert at the Chatham House think tank.

Ghana set up a National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) before the 2007 discovery of the Jubilee field, ensuring a reservoir of expertise and a structure to handle regulation and contracts was in place. In 2012, the government established a Ghana National Petroleum Commission to oversee licensing and regulation.

The mandate of the commission is being finalized but experts praise the government's decision to split the role of oil license holder and license giver into separate institutions.

One danger is that a new law gives the energy minister too much discretion to award contracts, said Mohammed Amin Adam, director of the Africa Center for Energy Policy in Accra.

"We have been talking about transparency but I don't see the transparency being implemented," Amin Adam said in an interview.

DANGEROUS EUPHORIA

Poor allocation of revenue can reduce oil's economic benefits. Nigeria has seen scant improvement in healthcare, education and infrastructure and inequality has deepened, according to Edward Al-Hussainy, analyst at Moody's ratings agency.

"Ghana benefits from being more open and more transparent than many African peers so it is likely to be a better steward of a commodity windfall," Al-Hussainy said.

Mahama's government had promised to channel oil revenues into building new school blocks and improving services, though many Ghanaians complain progress has been slow.

Oil swelled GDP growth to 15 percent in 2011 but may have encouraged the government to spend freely before December's presidential election, according to some economists. The government denies this.

The budget deficit overshot its target of 6.7 percent in 2012 to stand at 12.1 percent and the government has set lowering it to 9 percent as a key fiscal priority for 2013. Fitch in February downgraded Ghana's outlook to negative.

Ghana this year also saw public sector pay strikes that raised concerns about wage growth stoking inflation.

Public expectations of oil-fuelled good times carry their own dangers, Nana Osei-Bonsu, director general of the Private Enterprise Federation, said in an interview.

"The euphoria is heightened to the point where we might fail ourselves. People go to sleep arms folded and think of all the glorious things that might happen," he said. (Reuters) (GNN)