Police officers suspended amid beating probe in Philippines

(CNN) -- Eleven police officers in a Manila police precinct have been suspended after footage emerged of a detainee being beaten, officials said.

Metropolitan Manila Police Chief Leocadio Santiago told CNN that officials relieved the 11-member police station Wednesday and ordered its commander, Senior Inspector Joselito Binayug, investigated for criminal acts.

"We will try to finish this as soon as we can. It will not last more than a month, hopefully all of the administrative charges will be filed within 15 days," said Santiago, adding that such behavior would lead to dismissal and legal action.

All of the personnel in the precinct have been replaced, police official Rodolfo Magtibay said.

ABS-CBN TV aired footage Tuesday of a man administering a beating while others watched.

The government's Commission on Human Rights and other agencies are investigating. CNN

U.S., South Korea to conduct anti-submarine warfare exercises

Washington (CNN) -- The United States and South Korean navies will begin a joint exercise off the western coast of the Korean peninsula in response to North Korea's alleged sinking of a South Korean warship last march.

South Korea maintains the Cheonan was sunk by a North Korean submarine.

"Following the Gates/Clinton meetings of their South Korean counterparts in Seoul last month, we said that we would continue a series of exercises that are defensive in nature, that are designed to send a clear message to North Korea," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said, referring to meetings by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

"The next exercise in that series will focus on the anti-submarine warfare tactics, techniques and procedures," Whitman said Wednesday.

The anti-submarine warfare exercises will take place in early September in international waters in the Yellow Sea.

The Defense Department said recently that the aircraft carrier USS George Washington and its support ships would take part in the exercises, but Whitman said Wednesday it's unclear what U.S. Navy ships would be involved. CNN

FBI reportedly investigates N.C. Muslim

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Aug. 18 (UPI) -- The FBI is reportedly investigating whether a young Muslim man who spent most of his life in the United States is the editor of an al-Qaida magazine.

Samir Khan, who had been living in the Charlotte, N.C., area since 2004, is now believed to be in Yemen, National Public Radio reported Wednesday. Several Muslim men in the area told NPR they had been questioned by FBI agents and subpoenaed to give grand jury testimony.

Inspire, an online magazine, is written in correct and colloquial English and includes articles such as what to pack for a jihad mission. One headline reads "Make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom".

Khan, 24, a U.S. citizen, was born in Saudi Arabia. His family moved to New York when he was 7. UPI

Obama administration preparing to loosen rules on Cuba travel

Washington (CNN) -- The Obama administration is preparing to announce new rules allowing some travel to Cuba, along with an expanded ability for Americans to send economic assistance, a senior U.S. official and congressional sources said Wednesday.

According to two congressional aides briefed informally on the plans, the administration is expected to announce "soon" that it will essentially reinstate measures that were in place under the Clinton administration.

Both aides stressed that the administration is still working through the details and legal language.

"It's a return to Clinton, plus some," one aide said, noting that President George W. Bush tightened restrictions on travel and cultural exchanges.

The central component of the policy involves "people to people" exchanges that would allow academics, corporations, humanitarian groups and athletic teams to travel to Cuba. The administration is not lifting tourist travel limits or the strict trade restrictions currently in place but would promote cultural exchanges and programs with universities or allow U.S. farms to send assistance to Cuban farmers as part of the new rules. CNN

Pentagon: Not working with WikiLeaks, just want documents back

Washington (CNN) -- A Pentagon spokesman denied a report out Wednesday that the Army is willing to consider working with WikiLeaks to review classified documents that were leaked and will soon be posted online by the website.

"The department has not had any direct contact with WikiLeaks on this matter. Our position has been consistent and clear, and that is that these documents should be returned, there should be no further posting of these classified documents. And that those that have been posted should be removed," said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.

He said that the only indirect contact has been from WikiLeaks to the Defense Department through journalists.

"We have all seen attempts through the media to act as intermediaries but the government -- the Defense Department -- has had no direct contact with WikiLeaks," Whitman said. CNN

Mandela charity trustee resigns over Campbell diamonds

The former head of the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, Jeremy Ractliffe, has resigned from the charity's board after admitting he secretly kept diamonds received from the model Naomi Campbell.

Mr Ractliffe admitted he had the gems only when Ms Campbell mentioned him at the war crimes trial of former Liberian leader Charles Taylor two weeks ago.

Prosecutors say she received the diamonds from Mr Taylor in 1997.

Mr Ractliffe had apologised for his secrecy, the charity's board said.

The former chief executive handed the diamonds over to South African police after Campbell testified that she had given three stones to Ractliffe because she wanted them to go to charity.

Mr Ractliffe said he had kept the stones, which could link him to illegal "blood diamonds", because he wanted to protect the reputation of Mr Mandela and his charity.

Stepping down from his role as trustee, Mr Ractliffe apologised for causing "possible reputational risk" to the charity by not informing his colleagues of his receipt of the diamonds, the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund said in a statement. BBC News

Parents can mitigate boys' lure to drugs

MONTREAL, Aug. 18 (UPI) -- Parental monitoring of aggressive and hyperactive boys has a mitigating effect on their affiliating with deviant peers, Canadian researchers say.

First author Jean-Sebastien Fallu, a Universite de Montreal professor, and Richard Tremblay, a Universite de Montreal professor and a Sainte-Justine University Hospital Research Center researcher, say aggressive children are more inclined to misuse drugs than their non-aggressive counterparts, and this risk increases substantially if they also affiliate with deviant friends.

"Disruptive boys typically show a proneness to act aggressively and impulsively -- these adolescents might need more external constraints from parents as compared to others who have stronger internal control," Fallu said in a statement.

The researchers used data from a long-term investigation that tracked children from low socioeconomic backgrounds and from kindergarten through adolescence. UPI

U.S. teen hearing loss up significantly

BOSTON, Aug. 18 (UPI) -- Twenty percent of U.S. teens suffer from hearing loss with the number jumping by about 30 percent in a decade, U.S. researchers found.

Dr. Josef Shargorodsky of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and colleagues examined two comparable databases to evaluate hearing loss among youths ages 12-19.

The databases were the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1988-1994 involving 2,928 participants and NHANES 2005-2006 involving 1,771 participants.

The research, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found hearing loss among youths ages 12-19 was 14.9 percent in 1988-1994 and 19.5 percent in 2005-2006 -- a 31 percent increase.

The prevalence of any unilateral hearing loss was 11.1 percent in 1988-1994 and 14 percent in 2005-2006, while high-frequency hearing loss -- 12.8 percent in 1988-1994 and 16.4 percent in 2005-2006 was more common than any low-frequency hearing loss 6.1 percent in 1988-1994 and 9 percent in 2005-2006. UPI

U.S., S. Korea war games set in Yellow Sea

WASHINGTON, Aug. 18 (UPI) -- The United States and South Korea said Wednesday they will hold more naval exercises in the Yellow Sea in early September.

The anti-submarine warfare training is directly tied to last spring's sinking of a South Korean navy ship by a North Korean submarine, the Defense Department said in a release. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said U.S. and South Korean cabinet members discussed ways to show solidarity when they met last month in Seoul.

"We said we would continue a series of exercises -- defensive in nature -- that are designed to send a clear message to North Korea," Whitman said.

It hadn't been determined which surface ships, submarines and air units will take part in the war games, Whitman said. UPI

Berenson ordered back to prison in Peru

LIMA, Aug. 18 (UPI) -- A Peruvian court Wednesday ordered an American to finish out her prison term for collaborating with a Marxist rebel group.

Lori Berenson, 40, of New York had been released on parole in May for good behavior behind bars but the court ruled she is to be returned to prison to complete five years remaining on her 20-year sentence, The New York Times reported.

The court revoked her parole, saying authorities hadn't been able to verify addresses in Lima Berenson had provided. She had recently moved into an apartment with her son, who was born about year ago while she was in prison, and was to work as a baker, the Times said.

Berenson was arrested in Peru in 1995 for her association with members of a group called Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, which a year later stormed the Japanese Embassy in Lima and took hundreds of diplomats and senior government officials hostage. UPI

Boy, 6, found with dad's body in hotel

HONOLULU, Aug. 18 (UPI) -- A 6-year-old boy may have spent two days in a Hawaiian hotel room with his father's body, investigators say.

Housekeepers at the Hawaiian Princess at Makaha discovered the body and the boy Tuesday morning, KHON-TV in Honolulu reported. The last person known to have seen or spoken to the man was his ex-wife, who talked to him by telephone Sunday, police said.

An autopsy was to be done Wednesday to determine how the man died, but investigators said his death appeared to have been natural.

Police did not release the identity of the man but said he was from northern California. His former wife was believed to be flying to Hawaii to be with her son. UPI

U.K. astronomers find new type of star

LONDON, Aug. 18 (UPI) -- British astronomers say the discovery of a rare magnetic star, dubbed a magnetar, challenges widely accepted theories about the origin of black holes.

Magnetars are a special type of neutron star with a powerful magnetic field formed by gravitational collapse after the original or progenitor star explodes in a catastrophic supernova, the BBC reported Wednesday.

Astronomers at Britain's Open University calculate the mass of the progenitor of the newly discovered magnetar was at least 40 times greater than that of our sun.

Current theory says collapsing stars of this size should always form a black hole.

The fact that this one resulted in a neutron star instead challenges established theory, scientists say. UPI

Chinese-Rwandan military ties deepen

KIGALI, Rwanda, Aug. 18 (UPI) -- China's economic advance in Africa is drawing increased Western attention. Now Beijing is readying to increase its military presence in Africa as well.

Rwanda's minister of defense, Gen. James Kabarebe, met Tuesday with China's ambassador to Rwanda, Sun Shuzhong, the New Times reported on Wednesday.

According to Sun, he discussed military cooperation with Kabarebe, telling journalists that the forces of Rwanda and China are intent on improving existing levels of cooperation in training and logistics. 

"You know we have friendly relations between China and Rwanda, including our military sides, but this time I am here to talk about some future plans between the two armies. We have many programs between China and Rwanda that are coming. We have training programs coming up where Rwandans soldiers go to China for training. I think it's very important for all of us to know about the military and the development of both sides. The Chinese government supports capacity building plans for the Rwandan army. It is very important for us to have this kind of cooperation". UPI

Brazil politicos use old generals' law to stifle satire

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 18 (UPI) -- Brazil's press and creative industry are up in arms, albeit in a sort of deferential way, over politicians' attempts to use an old draconian law from the country's dictatorial past to stifle satire before the Oct. 3 presidential election.

The deference comes from the god-like status enjoyed by outgoing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose protege Dilma Rousseff appears set to win the first round and a possible run-off in late October. 

Lula himself is constitutionally barred from contesting a third term though has not discounted speculation that he may seek a return after Rousseff serves a term.

Reverence for Lula has already impinged on employment prospects of cartoonists and stage caricaturists. But as political campaigning heats up, funsters in the media and in the performing arts are feeling increasingly frustrated. For some, underemployment looms, and that, everyone agrees, is not funny.

Not only can cartoonists and television performers not make even the mildest fun of the candidates, whether they are winning or losing in the opinion polls, the actors, illustrators and journalists also need to tread carefully when commenting on anyone else daring to poke fun at the politicians. UPI

Google chief: My fears for Generation Facebook

Eric Schmidt, the chief executive of Google, has issued a stark warning over the amount of personal data people leave on the internet and suggested that many of them will be forced one day to change their names in order to escape their cyber past.

In a startling admission from a man whose company has made billions by perfecting the art of hoarding, storing and retrieving information on us, Mr Schmidt suggested that the enormous quantity of detail we leave online may not be such a good thing after all.

The man who – alongside Google's founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page – runs the world's largest search engine said that young people will need to go as far as changing their identities if they are to truly erase what they have left online.

"I don't believe society understands what happens when everything is available, knowable and recorded by everyone all the time," he told the Wall Street Journal. "I mean we really have to think about these things as a society".

For a man whose company is built on the ability to store information and retrieve it again in a faster and more efficient way than its rivals, Mr Schmidt's admission revealed a surprising concern among Google's leadership over the importance of data privacy.

But it has also provoked a wider debate on the sheer amount of information we give away about ourselves online and how most of that data is virtually un-erasable.

Perhaps more than any other company Google has helped created a world where we willingly deposit vast amounts of personal data into the public domain – information that might previously have taken months of investigative work by professionals to find.

Google has made billions from storing data on its customers' browsing habits so that it can use that data to target them with personalised adverts. It also runs the kind of websites that have pioneered the open sharing of information online. The Californian internet giant owns You Tube, the world's largest video sharing website; it handles billions of our emails through Gmail; and – if you live in a big city – chances are that a Google Street View car has photographed your front door. A series of recent acquisitions also suggests it is hoping to move into the social networking market, the area of the internet that most concerns privacy campaigners.

Thanks to the global popularity of social networking – an estimated 600 million people have personal online profiles – friends, prospective employers and enemies alike are able to access photographs, videos and blogs that we may have long forgotten with a few simple clicks of a mouse. Recently one columnist in The New York Times went so far as to describe our current world as an age defined by "the impossibility of erasing your posted past and moving on".

Many websites yesterday picked up on the apparent disconnect between Mr Schmidt's comments and his company's ethos. The Independent

Hungary Watchdog: Bulgaria-Proposed Change on Debt Cosmetic

A Hungarian independent budget watchdog has slammed as unviable a proposal from nineEuropean Union countries, including Bulgaria, to change the way debt among member countries is calculated.

"From our perspective, this (proposal) is little more than cosmetic," the chairman of the Budget Council, Gyorgy Kopits, told reporters.

According to other members of the body the proposal does not create more fiscal room for governments and markets would not take for the credible the resulting lower overall budget deficit figures.

“This would be something we would believe, but markets wouldn’t,” they said.

Bulgaria, Poland, Sweden and six other countries sent the EU a letter asking for a change in the way country debt is calculated.

The letter, addressed to the European Commission and EU President Herman van Rompuy, was signed by the finance ministers of the countries, which also include Hungary,the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, Lithuania and Latvia.

The proposed recalculations relate to grants to private pension systems.

The European Commission has said the proposal is relevant. It is expected to draft answers to the proposal over the next few days, before the next meeting on the Task Force on Sept 6. Novinite

Lenin statue rubs elbows with de Gaulle, sparking outrage in France

Some of the greatest political figures of the 20th century are dividing opinion in France, where the former mayor of Montpellier is giving the city he loves nine statues - not all of which are welcome.

Georges Freche, a historian who was mayor of the provincial French city for 27 years until 2004, has commissioned French sculptor Francois Cacheux to produce the works, which weigh from 850 to 1,000 kilograms and cost around 200,000 euros ($260,000).

The first five are well on the way to being installed on a square in the west of Montpellier. French socialist Jean Jaures, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, French leader Charles de Gaulle and U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt caused no trouble.

But then came the leader of the Bolshevik Revolution, Vladimir Lenin.

French officials are not pleased. President Nicolas Sarkozy's right-wing UMP was reportedly outraged to find General de Gaulle standing in apparent solidarity with Lenin.

And worse could be to come, with China's communist revolutionary Mao Zedong due to join the scene, along with India's political and spiritual leader Mohandas Gandhi, Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir and Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser. RIA Novosti

Medvedev offers to help Tajikistan deal with natural disasters

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev proposed on Wednesday that Moscow and Dushanbe work to improve joint responses to natural disasters, such as the wildfires in Russia and January's quakes in Tajikistan.

Medvedev made the offer during a bilateral meeting with Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon on the sidelines of a summit in the Black Sea resort of Sochi involving the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan, Hamid Karsai and Asif Ali Zardari.

Medvedev said this year has brought severe natural disasters to Russia, Tajikistan and Pakistan, where millions have been affected by severe flooding.

"On these issues, I believe it makes sense to discuss measures for joint support and assistance," Medvedev said.

Tajikistan, a poor, mountainous country prone to natural disasters such as floods, avalanches and quakes, was hit in January by an earthquake measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale that left thousands injured and destroyed more than 100 houses. RIA Novosti

Vitali Klitschko to take on Shannon Briggs in October

World heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko will defend his WBC title against American Shannon Briggs on October 16 in Hamburg, Germany.

"[Briggs] is more experienced than me, has more professional fights on his record and is one of the hardest punchers in the division," Klitschko said on his website.

The Ukrainian, 39, will be defending his title for the fifth time since he beat Samuel Peter in October 2008 to regain the WBC crown.

Vitali's brother, Wladimir, will face off Nigeria's Peter to defend his IBF, WBO and IBO heavyweight titles on 11 September in Frankfurt. RIA Novosti

Russia may join Tajik-Pakistani electricity project

Russia will consider participating in an ambitious project to deliver electricity from Tajikistan to Pakistan, Russia's foreign minister said on Wednesday.

"The presidents paid particular attention to the project, that is currently pending, but they would like to add practical sense to it. The project is called CASA-1000. It envisages the delivery of electricity from Tajikistan to Pakistan via Afghanistan," Sergei Lavrov said during a summit of the presidents of Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan in Sochi.

Russia was invited to participate in the project, Lavrov said, adding Russia would take part in the project under mutually profitable terms.

The $680 million CASA-1000 project envisages the construction of a power transmission line to transfer surplus electricity from Tajikistan to Kabul and northwestern regions of Pakistan. RIA Novosti

US nudges India to go easy on Dow Chemicals

NEW DELHI: Ahead of the November visit of President Barack Obama, US has stepped up efforts to push India to drop its demand on Dow Chemicals for Rs 1,500 crore compensation for victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy. 

Senior government sources said that almost at every level, US officials were telling the Indian government to "resolve it and move ahead". 

On Wednesday, Times Now, in an exclusive report, said US deputy NSA Michael Froman wrote to Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of Planning Commission, in an email that the "noise" in India over Dow Chemicals could have a "chilling effect" on the India-US investment relationship. 

Froman's email came as a response to a request by Ahluwalia for US help in getting India access to more World Bank loans for development. India is the world's biggest recipient of World Bank loans and would be reaching the single borrower limit beyond which it is difficult to access more funds. 

In response to this request, Froman said in an email dated July 30, "We are aware of this issue and we will look into it. While I've got you, we are hearing a lot of noise about the Dow Chemicals issue. I trust that you are monitoring it carefully. I am not familiar with all the details, but I think we want to avoid developments which put a chilling effect on our investment relationship".

Apart from the compensation package, the US chemical giant must also be apprehensive of the insistence of the group of ministers on Bhopal tragedy that the polluter must pay for the clean-up of the site of the Union Carbide gas plant in Bhopal and the neighbouring areas. 

Dow Chemicals, which took over the US-based Union Carbide Corporation in 2001, claims that it owes no liability for the Bhopal tragedy. It says that the incident happened much before it took over UCC. It also points out that the Indian operations of UCC had been sold off before they took over the US-based parent company. 

However, the Indian government's demand for compensation marks a rejection of Dow Chemicals' plea. As does the government's decision to make Dow Chemicals a respondent in existing cases in various courts related to the liability for decontamination of the Bhopal site. The Times of India

Wikipedia editing courses launched by Zionist groups

Since the earliest days of the worldwide web, the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians has seen its rhetorical counterpart fought out on the talkboards and chatrooms of the internet.

Now two Israeli groups seeking to gain the upper hand in the online debate have launched a course in "Zionist editing" for Wikipedia, the online reference site.

Yesha Council, representing the Jewish settler movement, and the rightwing Israel Sheli (My I srael) movement, ran their first workshop this week in Jerusalem, teaching participants how to rewrite and revise some of the most hotly disputed pages of the online reference site.

"We don't want to change Wikipedia or turn it into a propaganda arm," says Naftali Bennett, director of the Yesha Council. "We just want to show the other side. People think that Israelis are mean, evil people who only want to hurt Arabs all day".

Wikipedia is one of the world's most popular websites, and its 16m entries are open for anyone to edit, rewrite or even erase. The problem, according to Ayelet Shaked of Israel Sheli, is that online, pro-Israeli activists are vastly outnumbered by pro-Palestinian voices. "We don't want to give this arena to the other side," she said. "But we are so few and they are so many. People in the US and Europe never hear about Israel's side, with all the correct arguments and explanations".

Like others involved with this project, Shaked thinks that her government is "not doing a very good job" of explaining Israel to the world.

And on Wikipedia, they believe that there is much work to do.

Take the page on Israel, for a start: "The map of Israel is portrayed without the Golan heights or Judea and Samaria," said Bennett, referring to the annexed Syrian territory and the West Bank area occupied by Israel in 1967.

Another point of contention is the reference to Jerusalem as the capital of Israel – a status that is constantly altered on Wikipedia.

Other pages subject to constant re-editing include one titled Goods allowed/banned for import into Gaza – which is now being considered for deletion – and a page on the Palestinian territories. The Guardian

Ethiopia Gets 3 Billion Birr from Tourism

August 18, 2010 -- Ethiopia had secured an over 3.061 billion Birr from foreign tourists who visited the country this year, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism said, according to ENA news.

The revenue was obtained from over half a million foreign tourists who visited different attraction centers existing in the country, Culture and Tourism State Minister, Tadelech Dalecho said in a news conference she gave here on Wednesday.

She said the amount of revenue Ethiopia gets from the sector grew by 22 per cent in the last five years, and that over 400,000 tourists had visited Ethiopia in 2009.

This years revenue accounts for 17 per cent of the country's total export revenue for the same year, according to the report. Ezega