Red Lamp Lighters

LOS ANGELES – Brittany Murphy, the actress who got her start in the sleeper hit "Clueless" and rose to stardom in "8 Mile," has died in Los Angeles. She was 32.
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Spokeswoman Sally Stewart said Murphy died at 10:04 a.m. Sunday. She would not provide a cause of death, or any other information.
The Los Angeles Fire Department responded to a call at 8 a.m. Sunday from a home that is listed as belonging to British screenwriter Simon Monjack, who is married to Murphy, spokesman Devon Gale said. Gale said one person was transported to a hospital.
Messages left for Murphy's manager, agent and publicist by The Associated Press weren't immediately returned.
Born Nov. 10, 1977 in Atlanta, Murphy grew up in New Jersey and later moved with her mother to Los Angeles to pursue acting.
Her career started in the early 1990s with small roles in television series, commercials and movies. She is best known for parts in "Girl, Interrupted," "Clueless" and "8 Mile."
Her on-screen roles declined in recent years, but Murphy's voice gave life to numerous animated characters, including Luanne Platter on more than 200 episodes of Fox's "King of the Hill" and Gloria the penguin in "Happy Feet."
She is due to appear in Sylvester Stallone's upcoming film, "The Expendables," set for release next year.
Her role in "8 Mile" led to more recognition, Murphy told The Associated Press in 2003. "That changed a lot," she said. "That was the difference between people knowing my first and last name as opposed to not."
Murphy credited her mother, Sharon, with being a key to her success.
"When I asked my mom to move to California, she sold everything and moved out here for me," Murphy told the AP in 2003. "I was really grateful to have grown up in an environment that was conducive to creating and didn't stifle any of that. She always believed in me."
She dated Ashton Kutcher, who costarred with Murphy in 2003's romantic comedy "Just Married."
Kutcher tweeted Sunday morning about Murphy's death: "2day the world lost a little piece of sunshine," Kutcher wrote. "My deepest condolences go out 2 Brittany's family, her husband, & her amazing mother Sharon."

Most health clubs have a main workout area, which primarily consists of free weights including dumbbells, barbells and exercise machines. This area often include mirrors so that exercisers can monitor and maintain correct posture during their workout.

Newer health clubs generally include health-shops, snack bars, restaurants, child-care facilities, member lounges and cafes. It is not unusual for a sauna, steam shower, or wellness areas to be present. Health clubs generally charge a fee to allow visitors to use the equipment, courses, and other provided services.

Portable Home Gym

Cap Cana is located in the Eastern region of the Dominican Republic known as Juanillo. The site was founded as a new and more ambitious touristic site with contributions from international investors and strategic partners such as Ritz-Carlton, Sotogrande, Donald Trump and many others. The site has a Marina, Large resorts, beaches, and many others. Primarily founded as a site to attract international visitors. The Cap Cana Championship, a Champions Tour golf tournament, is held at Punta Espada Golf Club in Cap Cana, a course designed by Jack Nicklaus.

Cap Cana is a tourism development with an investment of upwards of two billion dollars in the eastern lands of the Dominican Republic. This area renown for its great hotels and beaches, lacks exclusivity to the high upper class which Cap Cana hopes, in part, to offer. The area was conceived with the backing both financially and publicly of "elites" such as Donald Trump, Jack Nicklaus, and other holders.

Cap Cana Villa

ATLANTA – Former Georgia state Sen. Kasim Reed will be sworn in as Atlanta's next mayor after his slim margin of victory over opponent Mary Norwood was confirmed Wednesday in a recount.
His election to succeed current Mayor Shirley Franklin extends a decades-long line of African-American mayors in the mostly black city.
It came after a hard-fought race that was extended beyond November's general election with a December runoff and the recount. More than 84,000 ballots were cast in the runoff — more votes than in the general election.
The results of the recount showed Reed won 714 more votes than City Councilwoman Mary Norwood. Norwood picked up just one vote in the recount. Because of the change, Fulton County elections officials said they would have to recertify the race on Thursday.
Norwood ran a strong grassroots campaign but fell short of becoming the city's first white mayor since 1973.
The 40-year-old Reed, who entered the race a few months ago as a virtual unknown, ended the contest strongly, passing Norwood in fundraising.
Reed and Norwood fought for votes across the city and over the airwaves in the month leading up to the runoff. Both tried to gain a critical mass of racial crossover votes, with victory likely hinging on black-versus-white turnout. Norwood was trying to become the city's first white mayor in more than three decades.

CHICAGO (Reuters) –
Hunger is spreading while the number of homeless families is increasing as a result of the recession and other factors, according to a report on Tuesday.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors said cities reported a 26 percent jump in demand for hunger assistance over the past year, the largest average increase since 1991.

Middle-class families as well as the uninsured, elderly, working poor and homeless increasingly looked for help with hunger, which was mainly fueled by unemployment, high housing costs and low wages.

The 2009 report is based on a survey of 27 cities, including Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, Philadelphia and San Francisco, that comprise the group's task force on hunger and homelessness.

Looking ahead to 2010, cities said they expect it will be difficult to meet increased demands for food due to the impact of state and local budget cuts, a decrease in grocery store donations and higher food costs.

Just over three-fourths of the cities reported a jump in homeless families due to the recession and lack of affordable housing. Individual homelessness, on the other hand, was level or down in 16 of the cities.

"This is an indication of the success of policies aimed at ending chronic homelessness among single adults with disabilities," the report said.

Only 10 cities reported having so-called tent cities or other concentrations of the homeless.

Most of the cities in the survey received additional funding to combat hunger and homelessness from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

"Cities are using (housing funds) to develop central intake systems for homeless services, coordinate services more closely with surrounding areas, or offer homeless prevention assistance for the first time," the report said.

(Reporting by Karen Pierog; Editing by James Dalgleish)

DETROIT – Prosecutors have charged two people with threatening to sell photos of actor John Stamos unless he paid them $680,000. The actor's spokesman said Tuesday that the pictures were benign.
Allison Coss and Scott Sippola were arrested Dec. 3 on an extortion charge at an airport near Marquette, 450 miles north of Detroit. An undercover FBI agent posing as a representative of Stamos had arranged to meet them there.
Stamos' spokesman Matt Polk said there was nothing embarrassing about the images.
"At the conclusion of the investigation and hearing, the photos will be available and the public will be able to see that the photos are simply John posing with fans," Polk said Tuesday.
Stamos, 46, is starring on Broadway in "Bye Bye Birdie." His TV credits include "ER" and "Full House."
In a court document, the FBI identified Stamos as "Mr. X," an actor, whose attorney contacted agents on Nov. 28.
Stamos had received an e-mail from someone identified as "Brian L" threatening to release photos to the news media unless the actor paid $680,000, agent Leslie Hahn said in an affidavit filed in federal court in Marquette.
Stamos met Coss in Florida in 2004 and attended a party with her where pictures were taken, Hahn said.
The FBI got involved by having an agent pose as Stamos' representative and communicate with "Brian L" by e-mail.
Coss and Sippola were released on bond on Dec. 3. Messages seeking comment were left with their lawyers Tuesday.
During a search of a Marquette home shared by the pair, the FBI found pieces of paper with Stamos' cell phone number and the names and phone numbers of three tabloid magazines.
Polk said Stamos would not comment on the case.
"The U.S. attorney and the FBI handled the investigation swiftly and with great expertise," Polk said.

LONDON (Reuters) –
More than 94 percent of the world's people are not protected by laws against smoking, leaving them exposed to the biggest cause of preventable death, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.

In a Global Tobacco Epidemic report the WHO said smoke-free policies were crucial to reducing the harm caused by second-hand smoke, which it said kills around 600,000 people prematurely each year and causes crippling, disfiguring illness and economic losses reaching tens of billions of dollars.

The report found some progress had been made, with 2.3 percent of the world's population, or around 154 million people, newly covered by smoke-free laws in 2008. But it warned of many more early deaths if governments did not act quickly.

"The fact that more than 94 percent of people remain unprotected by comprehensive smoke-free laws shows that much more work needs to be done," said the WHO's expert on non-communicable diseases, Ala Alwan.

Scientific evidence has unequivocally established that exposure to tobacco smoke causes death, disease and disability. Over the past four decades, smoking rates have fallen in rich places such as the United States, Japan and western Europe, but they are rising in much of the developing world.

The WHO said seven countries -- Colombia, Djibouti, Guatemala, Mauritius, Panama, Turkey and Zambia -- brought in comprehensive smoke-free laws in 2008, bringing the total to 17.

Tobacco is the leading preventable cause of death in the world, killing more than 5 million people a year. A report by the World Lung Foundation in August said smoking could kill a billion people this century if trends hold.

"Unless urgent action is taken to control the tobacco epidemic, the annual death toll could rise to 8 million by 2030," the WHO report said.

"More than 80 percent of those premature deaths would occur in low- and middle-income countries -- in other words, precisely where it is hardest to deflect and bear such tremendous losses."

The WHO report found that tobacco control remains severely underfunded, with 173 times as many dollars collected worldwide in tobacco taxes each year than are spent trying to get people to stop smoking.

Progress on implementing bans on tobacco advertising had stalled, it said, and progress on increasing tobacco tax had come to a halt, with nearly 95 percent of people living in nations where tax is less than 75 percent of the retail price.

The WHO urged governments to implement its framework convention on tobacco control, which 170 nations have signed.

The convention urges countries to adopt measures to prevent smoking and protect people from tobacco smoke. It also advocates offering people help to quit, enforcing bans on tobacco advertising and raising tobacco taxes.

At the moment, less than 10 percent of the world's population is covered by any one of these measures, the WHO said.

(Editing by Noah Barkin)

The Decisions on the Rules of Golf are based on formal case decisions by the R&A and USGA and are revised and updated every other year.

Golf courses can be built on sandy areas along coasts, abandoned farms, strip mines and quarries, deserts and forests. Many Western countries have instituted significant environmental restrictions on where and how courses can be built.

Putting Contest

MANILA (AFP) –
At a warehouse near Manila's infamous Smokey Mountain dump, slum-dwellers working for a British-led charity are turning rubbish into fashion items that are proving a hit in top-end London shops.

Under a dim fluorescent lamp, amid the constant humming of sewing machines, about 20 women cut pieces of cloth and other materials found amid the garbage to make teddy bears.

Others are busy putting finishing touches to handbags and purses made from discarded toothpaste tubes, while glossy magazines are turned into colourful bracelets.

"This bag costs about 100 pounds sterling (165 dollars) or more in London," said Jane Walker, a former publishing executive from Southampton who gave up her lavish lifestyle in 1996 to set up the Philippine Christian Foundation in Manila after seeing the plight of the poor here.

Walker said about 200 bags were currently being shipped to boutiques in London, and the foundation was unable to meet demand.

"I had to turn down three shops in London ordering our products because we keep running out."

Walker said a deal to supply a major luxury chain was also in the works, while negotiations were underway with an American firm to produce shoes and slippers using discarded car tyres.

Known in the local press as Manila's "angel of the dumps" for her work among the scavengers of Smokey Mountain, the 45-year-old single mother's tireless efforts have helped entire families rise above crushing poverty.

Last year, she was made a Member of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in honour of her work.

Relying mainly on corporate donations, the non-profit foundation provides livelihood projects, health services and free education to children of families living on the dumpsite.

Covering a sprawling area in Tondo district near Manila Bay and just a few kilometres (miles) from the presidential palace, Smokey Mountain has come to symbolise pervasive poverty in this Southeast Asian nation of 92 million people.

An entire colony of squatter families lives off the dump, which got its name from methane gas-induced black smoke billowing from the mound.

While parts of the site have been levelled to make official settlements over the past decade, a large portion remains a permanent open dump for tonnes of daily refuse from Manila's 12 million inhabitants.

Before Walker set up her foundation, swarms of children and entire families would descend on the trash, scavenging for items to sell at junkshops.

The thousands of people living on Smokey Mountain had no other way out, and the few pesos earned from a day's gruelling work was spent on food.

Many still do scavenge.

But through Walker's efforts, a school was built, an abandoned warehouse was transformed into a livelihood centre where hot meals were offered and the children were given a semblance of a normal life.

Then, when the global financial crisis hit last year and many donors cut back on corporate social responsibility work, Walker was forced to find creative ways to raise new funding.

She came up with the idea of turning trash into fashion accessories and began getting members of the community, mainly mothers, to start sewing together ring tabs from aluminum cans into tiny purses.

She then expanded the project to include laptop and shoulder bags for women.

Other products soon followed -- necklaces and bracelets from colourful magazines, and stuffed toys from readily available material from the dump.

"The magazines are cut into triangular shapes and glued and rolled, keeping the brightly coloured part as the last part to roll so the beads are more interesting," Walker said.

"The beads are then dipped in clear varnish and later assembled into jewellery."

The products were first sold to friends, but then found their way into a specialty store carrying eco-friendly fashion in Manila's upmarket Makati financial district. Soon, there were orders from shops in London.

"The mothers come up with their own designs, they are all very creative," she said.

At any given time, about 40 families are directly employed by the foundation, with each earning at least 3,000 pesos (65 dollars) a month -- far more than they could earn from picking trash alone.

"This has helped me a lot because I can work and watch my grandchildren go to school," said Martha Dominguez, 60, as she delicately put together a stuffed toy.

"We lived surrounded by trash all our lives, not knowing that we could have made it into money."

Walker said the project gave the people involved more than just income.

"There is a big social angle to the project. Many mothers consider mastering the techniques in making bags their biggest achievement in life," she said.

Proceeds from the sales are not enough to sustain the foundation's entire operations but they have helped fill a void left by the donor slump.

"We will never be 100 percent financially sustainable, but if we can aim to be at least 50 percent self-sufficient, then we can expand the work we are doing," Walker said, adding the long-term goal was for the organisation to have its own boutique in Manila.

Meanwhile, Walker and her staff are busy trying to expand the fashion line.

"We are always taking in stuff from the dumps. Right now, I'm trying to figure out how to use old piano keyboards as a design on a hand bag," she said, briefly pausing before her eyes lit up.

"Ahh, I need to drill holes into them first."

WASHINGTON – The couple that got into the White House state dinner for the visiting Indian prime minister without invitations denied Tuesday that they were gatecrashers.
Appearing on a nationally broadcast morning news show with his wife, Tareq Salahi said the furor surrounding his and his wife Michaele's attendance at the dinner a week ago has been a "most devastating" experience. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs described President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama as angered by the incident.
Salahi told NBC's "Today" show Tuesday there's more to their side of the story — an explanation that would exonerate them from allegations of misconduct in the breach of White House security. Appearing on the same program, Gibbs insisted the Salahis had not been invited.
"This wasn't a misunderstanding," Gibbs said. "You don't show up at the White House as a misunderstanding."
For his part, Salahi said he and his wife were cooperating with the Secret Service in its investigation of the incident a week ago. And he said they both have "great respect" for President Barack Obama.
"We're greatly saddened by all the circumstances ... portraying my wife and I as party crashers. I can tell you we did not party-crash the White House," Salahi said.
The White House gate caper captivated a capital frequently as well known for its high-end social life and celebrity eruptions as the occasionally mundane day-to-day business of governance.
Interviewed on MSNBC, Gibbs said "it's safe to say he (Obama) was angry. Michelle was angry."
Gibbs noted that the Secret Service is investigating what went wrong and said the White House was also re-examining its procedures. He told the network, "I think the president really had the same reaction the Secret Service had, and that was great concern for how something like this happened."
Michaele Salahi described the couple as "shocked and devastated" when they saw accounts of the incident the following morning.
Asked if they had been mischaracterized through the media and other paparazzi forums," Tareq Salahi said, "No question ... It's been devastating what's happened to Michaele and I ... Our lives have really been destroyed."
"Everything we've worked for," Michaele Talahi told interviewer Matt Lauer.
"We were invited, not crashers, and there isn't anyone who would have the audacity or the poor behavior to do that," she said. "No one would do that, and certainly not us."
Tareq Salahi said that the couple has been "very candid" with the Secret Service and said "we have turned over documentation to them."
"We're going to definitely work with the Secret Service between Michaele and I to really shed light on this," Tareq Salahi said. He indicated the couple had e-mails that would reinforce their position that they did not go uninvited to the dinner.
The couple also said they had not discussed accepting money from any party or organization, including NBC, for telling their story.
NBC's parent company, NBC Universal, also owns the cable network Bravo. Michaele Salahi had hoped to land a part on an upcoming Bravo reality show, "The Real Housewives of D.C."
On Monday there were more twists in the unfolding mystery of how the Virginia couple managed to get into the highly secured White House dinner Nov. 24 and shake hands with Obama. It was revealed that they communicated with a senior Pentagon official about going to the event, but the official denied that she helped the couple get in.

Michele Jones, a special assistant to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, said in a written statement issued through the White House that she never said or implied she would get the Salahis into the event.

"I specifically stated that they did not have tickets and in fact that I did not have the authority to authorize attendance, admittance or access to any part of the evening's activities," Jones said. "Even though I informed them of this, they still decided to come."

Asked about this Tuesday, Gibbs declined to comment directly, except to note that the matter remains under investigation.

WTTG-TV, the Fox affiliate in Washington, reported on a similar incident a month before, in which the Salahis sneaked in through a back entrance to a Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Awards dinner at which Obama spoke. A guest complained that the couple didn't belong at his table.

"I double-checked my (guest) list and when they weren't on that list we escorted them out," a foundation representative, Lance Jones, said in an interview early Tuesday.

The Salahis insisted that they had, indeed, been invited to the Black Caucus dinner, saying they'd gotten the invitation from the Gardner Law Group.

The Salahis' lawyer, Paul Gardner, is the managing partner of the Baltimore law firm, which handles corporate and entertainment lazw. A message left early Tuesday at the law firm was not immediately returned.

Also on Monday, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee asked the couple, Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan and White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers to testify at a hearing Thursday on the incident.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said he wants answers about the Secret Service's security deficiencies that allowed the Salahis to attend the White House dinner. A White House photo showed the Salahis in the receiving line in the Blue Room with Obama and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in whose honor the dinner was held.

"This is a time for answers," Thompson said in a statement Monday. "This is not the time for political games or scapegoating to distract our attention from the careful oversight we must apply to the Secret Service and its mission."

Some lawmakers have called for criminal charges to be brought against the couple, but the Secret Service has not yet decided whether to refer the case for criminal prosecution.

The Secret Service declined to comment on whether Sullivan would testify Thursday.

The couple's publicist, Mahogany Jones, could not immediately be reached for comment about whether the Salahis would testify Thursday. But earlier Monday, she said allegations that the Salahis were shopping interviews and demanding money from television networks to tell their story are false.

A TV executive who spoke on condition of anonymity to publicly discuss bookings told The Associated Press that the couple's representatives had urged networks to "get their bids in" for an interview.

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Associated Press writers Julie Pace and Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report.

___

Web site: http://www.thegardnerlawgroup.com/about.html

Phone: 410-545-0470

GENEVA – The U.N. human rights chief says Switzerland's minaret ban is discriminatory and puts it on a collision course with international law.
Navi Pillay stopped short of declaring the Alpine country's ban on the Islamic towers illegal.
But she condemned Tuesday the "anti-foreigner scare-mongering" that produced the vote, and its "deeply divisive" result.
The referendum backed by nationalist parties was approved by 57.5 percent of the Swiss population Sunday. It does not affect the country's four existing minarets.
Europe's top human rights watchdog said Monday that the ban could violate fundamental liberties, and questioned whether human rights ought to be subject to popular votes.

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TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's announcement of plans to build 10 more uranium enrichment facilities is largely bluster after a strong rebuke from the U.N.'s nuclear agency, analysts said Monday. Nonetheless, the defiance is fueling calls among Western allies for new punitive sanctions to freeze Iran's nuclear program.
U.S. and European officials were swift to condemn the plans, warning that Iran risked sinking ever deeper into isolation. Iran responded that it felt forced to move forward with the plans after the International Atomic Energy Agency passed a resolution Friday demanding that it halt all enrichment activities.
Iran's bold announcement Sunday appears to be largely impossible to achieve as long as sanctions continue to throw up roadblocks and force Iran to turn to black markets and smuggling for nuclear equipment, said nuclear expert David Albright.
"They can't build those plants. There's no way," he said. "They have sanctions to overcome, they have technical problems. They have to buy things overseas ... and increasingly it's all illegal."
A more worrisome escalation in the standoff would be if Iran reduced its cooperation with the IAEA, as some Iranian officials have threatened to do if the West continues its pressure. The U.N. inspectors and monitoring are the world's only eyes on Tehran's program. The head of Iran's nuclear agency on Monday ruled out an even more drastic move, saying Tehran does not intend to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Enrichment is at the center of the standoff between Iran and the West because it can be used both to produce material needed for atomic weapons as well as fuel for nuclear power plants. Iran insists it only wants the latter.
New enrichment plants, on the scale of the one Iran already operates in the town of Natanz, would be extremely expensive, take years to build and would be difficult to stock with centrifuges and other necessary equipment while sanctions are in place, Albright said.
Further dimming the credibility of the plan, 10 new facilities on the scale of Natanz would put Iran in league with the production levels of any of Europe's major commercial enrichment suppliers, said Albright, president of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security.
"And also they don't have enough uranium. They would need a massive amount of uranium," he said.
A diplomat from one of the six world powers attempting to engage Iran on its nuclear program described the Iranian announcement as a "political move" with little immediate significance beyond demonstrating Tehran's defiance.
The diplomat, who follows the nuclear dossier the IAEA has gathered on Iran, noted that Tehran appears to have significant problems with its present enrichment program, to the point that it cannot even keep the centrifuges it has set up at Natanz running without breakdowns.
The diplomat demanded anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the issue.
Still, the announcement is of major concern because it could signal an intention to put up numerous decoy sites to deceive the outside world, while building perhaps a few secret military enrichment sites on a small scale that could be put to use in weapons production if Tehran decides to do go down that path, Albright said.
Such concerns were heightened with the recent discovery that Iran had a second, previously unknown enrichment facility burrowed partway into a mountain near the holy city of Qom.
"I tend to think that this Qom site was probably meant to be a clandestine facility for breakout that they wanted built for nuclear weapons," said Albright. "And now that it's been exposed they may want to replace it."
Iran's announcement triggered calls for new penalties that Albright said could evolve into a "mini-cold war strategy" to further isolate and contain Iran while holding out a hand for negotiations.
The United States' ambassador to the U.N., Susan Rice, said Iran's plans would be "completely inappropriate" and would further isolate it from the world.
In Paris, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner called Iran's decision "a bit childish."

"Iran is playing an extremely dangerous game," Kouchner said on France's RTL radio Monday. "There's no coherence in all this, other than a gut reaction."

The French defense minister, Herve Morin, said the international community should "probably commit toward new economic sanctions against Iran."

Iran and the top powers at the U.N. are deadlocked over a U.N.-drafted proposal for Iran to send much of its enriched uranium abroad, which the West seeks because it would at least temporary leave Tehran unable to develop a nuclear bomb. So far Iran has balked at the offer. The unusually strong IAEA censure of Iran over enrichment was a sign of the West's growing impatience with its defiance.

Iranian Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi, who heads the nuclear program, told state radio that the decision to build the new uranium enrichment facilities was necessary to respond to the resolution.

"We had no intention of building many facilities like the Natanz site, but apparently the West doesn't want to understand Iran's peaceful message," Salehi said.

Salehi said Iran would not go so far as to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, under which Iran is subject to oversight by the U.N. nuclear agency.

"If we wanted to obtain nuclear weapons, we would have pulled out of NPT ... Iran doesn't want to withdraw from the treaty," the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying Monday.

Iran's parliament speaker Ali Larijani insisted "a diplomatic opportunity" was still possible "under which Iran will continue its (nuclear) work under international surveillance."

But a day earlier, Larijani warned that Iran could reduce its cooperation with the IAEA if the West continues its pressure and doesn't compromise.

___

Keyser reported from Cairo. Associated Press Writers George Jahn in Vienna and Ingrid Rousseau in Paris contributed to this report.

KANO, Nigeria (AFP) –
Despite huge natural resources and vast tracts of arable land, Nigeria, sub-Saharan Africa?s second largest economy and the continent's most populous nation, largely relies on imports.

The once agro-driven and food self-reliant economy, Nigeria has in recent decades relied more and more on oil, becoming a net importer of even the most basic goods.

"We import almost everything, from the important items such as food and medicines to the frivolous ones such as toothpick and razor blade," said Ibrahim Ayagi, economic adviser to former president Olusegun Obasanjo.

"We have become a classical importer nation," lamented Ayagi, ex-chairman of a government think tank, the National Economic Intelligence Committee (NEIC).

In 2007, Nigeria spent about 39 billion dollars (26 billion euros) on imports according to the World Bank, while the CIA factbook puts the value of imports for 2008 at 46 billion dollars.

Agriculture Minister Abba Sayyadi Ruma recently said a billion dollars is spent on fruit juice imports yearly. In a bid to encourage local production, the government in October banned the consumption of foreign alcohol at official events as it launched an ambitious 'Made-in-Nigeria' campaign.

Manufacturers see imports as more profitable than producing in a country desperately starved of electricity.

The discovery 50 years ago, of oil, which provides the country with 95 percent of its foreign exchange earnings and some 80 percent of budgetary income, is seen as largely responsible for some of Nigeria's woes.

About 70 percent of Nigeria?s 150 million people engage in subsistence farming and before the oil boom in the 1970s, the country grew enough to feed itself and export surplus.

Agriculture then accounted for nearly 60 percent of GDP, but this has tumbled to just over 30 percent.

"A country?s economy is gauged by its GDP. Its volume of production determines its economic growth and the fact that we don?t produce much explains our economic woes," Abdullahi Adamu, head of National Agricultural Foundation of Nigeria said.

He said only half of arable land is under cultivation, suggesting 90 million Nigerians are food insecure.

Nigeria used to rely on cash crops for its foreign exchange earnings with cocoa, rubber, cotton and groundnuts as its major export earners but with the discovery of oil in the 1950s, crude export took over as the major export earner.

Easy oil money lured the government to abandon industrial development and concentrate on oil export, leading to the "national culture of oil export for commodities import," Ayagi said.

The country now ranks as the world?s eighth largest oil producer with an estimated daily output of around two million barrels per day. But it even imports most of the refined oil as its refineries are ailing.

"The problem started with the discovery of oil and worsened over time to this moment where we virtually import everything," said Ayagi, also an economics professor.

The non-oil sector accounts for 3.9 percent of GDP, according to the country's statistical office. The World Bank put that figure at 2.6 percent in 2007.

Nigeria grapples with woeful power shortages due to dilapidated equipment and corruption. It needs a minimum of 20,000 megawatts but currently generates some 3,000 megawatts, according to National Electricity Regulatory Commission.

"Many factory owners have abandoned their factories for imports, particularly from Asia," said Ali Madugu of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria in Kano.

Umar Sani Marshall is one of such manufacturer-turned importer. He abandoned his pasta and biscuits factory in Kano and turned to automobile and electronics imports from Asia.

"To operate my factory I needed to spend 10,000 dollars every week to power my machines, which translated into 40,000 dollars a month. You can?t make any profit with such ridiculous overhead cost," Marshall said as he gave an AFP reporter a tour of his dusty and desolate factory.

"I can make a fortune from 40,000 dollars worth of imported goods," Marshall said with a wink.

NEW ORLEANS – Drew Brees threw for 229 yards and three touchdowns passing and the New Orleans Saints took a 24-10 lead over the New England Patriots at the end of the first half on Monday night.
His scoring passes went for 18 yards to Pierre Thomas, 75 yards to Devery Henderson and 38 yards to Robert Meachem. He completed 11 of his 13 passes.
The Saints put themselves in an accustomed position. They have been ahead at the half in eight games and trailed only twice.
The second quarter was all Saints. After an interception gave New Orleans the ball at the New England 30, Thomas converted a fourth down with a 3-yard run. He then took a short throw from Brees, avoided a tackle while straddling the sideline and went across the goal line to give the Saints a 10-7 lead.
New Orleans forced a punt, and on the next play, Henderson took advantage of a busted coverage for an easy 75-yard touchdown, the longest play from scrimmage this season for the Saints. Patriots safety Jonathan Wilhite blitzed, and no one picked up Henderson, who caught the ball at the 50 with a wide-open path to the end zone.
After New England cut its deficit to 17-10 on a 36-yard field goal by Stephen Gostkowski, Brees went 4 for 4 on a five-play, 76-yard drive. He connected with tight end David Thomas, acquired in a trade with the Patriots at the end of preseason, for 25 yards and hit Meachem with a perfectly thrown ball on a deep post for the touchdown.
Gostkowski missed a 50-yard field goal with 13 seconds left.
Laurence Maroney's fourth-down touchdown run gave the Patriots a 7-3 lead at the end of the first quarter. Maroney finished the half with 64 yards.
It was the second time in three weeks that the Patriots were playing an undefeated team on the road, having lost to Indianapolis on a late Peyton Manning touchdown pass.
New England, the only team to go 16-0 in NFL history, was trying to stop the Saints from joining the Colts at 11-0. The NFL has never had a season with two 11-0 teams.
After John Carney kicked a 30-yard field goal, the Patriots drove 80 yards on 14 plays on their opening possession, with Maroney carrying eight times for 39 yards.
Sammy Morris converted a fourth-and-1 with a 3-yard run to the Saints 33 after wide receiver Randy Moss dropped a third-down pass.
Maroney capped the more than 7-minute drive with a 4-yard run as coach Bill Belichick went for it on another fourth down.
New England quarterback Tom Brady had 33 yards passing on the drive. Brady finished the half 12 for 21 for 124 yards.
The Saints scored on their opening drive for the seventh time this season. Brees hit Henderson down the sideline for a 33-yard gain on the first play, leading to a 30-yard field goal by Carney that bounced off the left upright.
New England missed a chance to extend its lead after Wes Welker's 41-yard punt return to the New Orleans 46. On the next play, Mike McKenzie, playing for the first time since breaking his right kneecap on Nov. 9, 2008, intercepted Brady's short pass over the middle. It was the Saints' 21st interception of the season.

Mousepad

When optical mice, which use image sensors to detect movement, were first introduced into the market, they required special mousepads with optical patterns printed on them. Modern optical mice can function to an acceptable degree of accuracy on plain paper and other surfaces. However, some optical mouse users may prefer a mousepad for comfort, speed and accuracy, and to prevent wear to the desk or table surface.

Originally, mousepads were available in a simple rectangular shape. In recent years, though, they have been available in many shapes and designs. Ergonomic designs are available with built-in wrist rests made of silicone gel, foamed and beaded materials.

MUNICH, Germany (AFP) –
John Demjanjuk appeared an ill man on Monday as he faced the first day of his trial accused of herding tens of thousands of Jews to their death in the Nazi gas chambers during World War II.

Demjanjuk, 89, charged with helping to kill 27,900 people while a guard at the Sobibor death camp in 1943, appeared for the first session in a wheelchair, keeping his eyes mostly closed and moaning as he left the room.

In the second 90-minute session, Demjanjuk was carried in on a stretcher covered head-to-toe in a white blanket, writhing about and waving his arms before the judge suspended proceedings for close to half an hour.

Demjanjuk then returned for what remained of the session, this time with his face uncovered. But at the end of proceedings, after most reporters had left the room, an AFP reporter saw Demjanjuk laughing and joking. Profile: John Demjanjuk

Other journalists and lawyers representing Holocaust survivors had previously also witnessed an apparently much more active Ukrainian-born Demjanjuk than he had appeared in court.

Efraim Zuroff, head of the Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Jerusalem, was unmoved, saying: "It's a pathetic attempt to appear more crippled than he is. He belongs in Hollywood."

"People like Demjanjuk don't deserve any sympathy because he had no sympathy for his victims."

But his lawyer, Ulrich Busch, who filed a request to have the case scrapped because others higher up the Nazi chain of command had been acquitted previously, denied Demjanjuk was putting on an act.

"I don't judge it as a show. I think my client is very, very sick," Busch told AFP. "This trial should never happened, he should have ben left in America to die peacefully with his family."

Demjanjuk's family says he suffers from a litany of health complaints including leukaemia and that it is unlikely he will survive the trial.

But Christoph Nerl, a specialist in blood diseases, told the court that he was suffering from a lesser complaint "which is definitely not leukaemia" and that Demjanjuk was "in a low-risk group."

Demjanjuk denies being at Sobibor, one of a network of camps erected by Adolf Hitler's Germany in Eastern Europe with the sole purpose of mass extermination.

Prosecutors say they have an SS identity card bearing his name and transfer orders. He is accused of being at Sobibor from March to September 1943.

If convicted, the Ukrainian-born Demjanjuk will almost certainly spend the rest of his days behind bars. If not, he will face an uncertain future as he is stateless, having been stripped of his US citizenship.

There are more than 30 plaintiffs in the case, most of whom lost family members at Sobibor. There are no living eyewitnesses who saw Demjanjuk there, so prosecutors will rely heavily on written testimony by people now dead.

Robert Cohen, a gaunt 83-year-old from Amsterdam whose parents and brother died at Sobibor, and who himself survived the Auschwitz death camp, was in no doubt that camp guards had blood on their hands.

"If he (Demjanjuk) was there, he killed more than 100 people per day -- per day! That would be the worst crime ever," Cohen told reporters.

Demjanjuk says he was a Red Army soldier captured in 1942 by the Germans and then moved around various prisoner-of-war camps, but Israeli and US courts have already established he was at Sobibor.

Busch has said that even if it could be proved his client was in Sobibor, he would have been there under duress and could not now be held responsible for the atrocities carried out.

Demjanjuk was sentenced to death in Israel in 1988 for being "Ivan the Terrible", a sadistic Nazi guard, but after five years on death row the conviction was overturned when Israel established this was another man.