Hillary pitches for India model in Africa

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has hailed India as a model of democracy for the developing world as she campaigned in Africa for better governance.

Clinton was speaking to students in Kenya, where politics remain tense after a hotly disputed election triggered street violence until a power-sharing deal was reached in February 2008.

She told the students that India’s billion plus people also had strong political differences.

“But they have figured out how to run an election where the results can be surprising and unpredicted but accepted,” she said at the University of Nairobi.

“I said only half-jokingly after our problems with our 2000 election, and then our 2004 elections in some of our constituencies, that we should outsource our elections to India,” she said.

Clinton visited India last month where she called for greater cooperation between the world’s two largest democracies on a range of global issues.

What is the prevention and treatment for swine flu?

There are antiviral medicines one can take to prevent or treat swine flu. There is no vaccine available right now to protect against swine flu. The spread of the viruses that cause respiratory illnesses like influenza can be prevented by:

• Covering your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.
• Washing your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. You can also use alcohol-based hand cleaners.
• Avoiding touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread this way.
• Trying to avoid close contact with sick people.
• Staying home from work or school if you are sick.

Antiviral drugs for seasonal influenza are available in some countries and effectively prevent and treat the illness. Most of the previously reported swine influenza cases recovered fully from the disease without requiring medical attention and without antiviral medicines. Some influenza viruses develop resistance to the antiviral medicines, limiting the effectiveness of chemoprophylaxis and treatment. The viruses obtained from the recent human cases with swine influenza in the United States were sensitive to oselatmivir and zanamivir but resistant to amantadine and remantadine.

San Diego menaced by jumbo squid

Squid have come to the California coast before, like this one in 2005

Scuba divers off the Californian city of San Diego are being menaced by large numbers of jumbo squid.

The beaked Humboldt squid, which grow up to 5ft (1.5 metres) long, arrived off the city’s shores last week.

Divers have reported unnerving encounters with the creatures, which are carnivorous and can be aggressive.

One diver described how one of the rust-coloured creatures ripped the buoyancy aid and light from her chest, and grabbed her with its tentacles.

“I just kicked like crazy,” diver Shanda Magill told the Associated Press news agency.

“The first thing you think of is: ‘Oh my gosh, I don’t know if I’m going to survive this.’ If that squid wanted to hurt me, it would have.”

Shanda Magill holds the buoyancy aid and light that the squid ripped from her

The creatures – also known as jumbo flying squid – do not affect swimmers because they remain deeper in the water.

But dozens have been washing up on beaches in the area.

“The ones that we are getting right now have a big beak on them, like a large parrot beak,” San Diego’s Union-Tribune quoted John Hyde of the National Marine Fisheries Service as saying earlier in the week.

“They could take a chunk of flesh off you.”

‘Ram you’

Diver and amateur underwater cameraman Roger Uzun said he swam with a group of squid for about 20 minutes.

They seemed curious about him, he said, and appeared to be touching him and his wetsuit with their tentacles to see if he was edible.

“As soon as we went underwater and turned on the video lights, there they were. They would ram into you, they kept hitting the back of my head,” he told AP.

It is not the first time the squid, which can weigh up to 45kg (7 stone), have taken up residence off California’s coast.

In January 2005 hundreds of them washed up off the coast of Orange County, to the north, and in 2002 a similar invasion was reported near San Diego.

Scientists say they do not know why the squid – which usually live in deep waters further south off Mexico and Central America – have come so close in.

But one expert, Nigella Hillgarth of the San Diego-based Scripps Institution of Oceanography, told AP it was possible that the squid had established a year-round population off California.

Madonna stage deaths investigated

Prosecutors have opened a manslaughter investigation after a stage being built for a Madonna concert collapsed killing two people, a French official has said.

Eight other people were seriously injured in Thursday’s accident at the Velodrome stadium in Marseille.

Assistant prosecutor Marc Cimamonti said an investigation for manslaughter and involuntary injuries in a work-related accident has been opened.

Madonna has said she is “devastated” by the news of the deaths.

‘Tragic news’

Her concert, planned for Sunday, has been cancelled.

Charles Criscenzo, a 53-year-old French worker, was killed outright in the accident and Charles Prow, a 23-year-old from Headingley in Leeds, died in hospital.

Technicians had been setting up the stage at the city’s Velodrome stadium when the partially-built roof fell in on Thursday, bringing down a crane.

The 60,000-seater Velodrome is France’s second-biggest sports arena and home to the Olympique de Marseille football club.

The planned concert was part of Madonna’s Sticky and Sweet tour

About 50 people from a range of nationalities were working to set up the structure, city sports official Richard Miron said.

The roof “started shaking and collapsing” gradually, said Marseille city councillor Maurice Di Nocera.

“Since it did not collapse right away that allowed several people to get out,” he said.

Madonna, who is performing on her Sticky and Sweet tour, was in Udine, Italy, when told of the incident.

“I am devastated to have just received this tragic news,” she said in a statement released by Live Nation, the organisers of the concert.

“My prayers go out to those who were injured and their families, along with my deepest sympathy to all those affected by this heartbreaking news.”

Madonna paid tribute to the technicians at her concert in Italy on Thursday.

“I just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge and pay tribute to two people who lost their lives today,” she told fans at the Fruili Stadium in Udine.

“It’s a great tragedy to me,” she continued, choking back tears. “I feel so devastated to be in any way associated with anyone’s suffering.

“Let’s all just take a moment to say a prayer for Charles Criscenzo and Charlie Prow. Our hearts go out to their family and loved ones.”

British hostage bodies identified

The bodies of two British hostages handed over in Iraq have been identified, the BBC has learned.

The families have been told, and are being given time to inform their relatives, the BBC’s security correspondent Frank Gardner said.

The names of the two hostages are expected to be released later today.

IT consultant Peter Moore, from Lincoln, and four security guards were captured by armed militants at the Ministry of Finance in Baghdad in 2007.

Videos of captives

The Foreign Office said it had “grave concerns” over the safety of the three other men still thought to be held by the kidnappers, our correspondent said.

“This is incredibly tough for the families because there really was so much optimism,” he added. “This was a blow out of nowhere.”

It’s possible the handover of the bodies could be seen as a trade-off for the release of a militant, Laith al-Khazali, on 6 June.

His freedom had been a stipulation for the hostages being freed, Frank Gardner said.

The remains of the two dead men were handed over to Iraqi authorities on Friday night, and were then passed on to the British Embassy in Iraq.

Little is known about the identities of the men because of a media blackout during a large period of their captivity.

Contractors

The blackout originally came on the instruction of the hostage-takers who said they did not want publicity.

Mr Moore had been working for American management consultancy Bearingpoint when he was kidnapped, while the other men were contractors employed to guard him.

The names of the four security guards are understood to be Jason, Alan, Jason and Alec.

Little else is known about them, other than that the guard Alan is from Dumbarton in Scotland and at least one other is from South Wales.

Air France jet broke into two parts before it hit water: Report

Reports say that the Air France Jet split in two at high altitude before it plunged into the Atlantic Ocean.

After the discovery of two trails of bodies which was found 80 km apart from each other, investigators have concluded that the plane split into two parts before plunged into the sea.

They also say it lost control in bad weather and turbulence during its flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on June 1.

According to a report in The Sunday Times, Examination of bodies discovered off the northeastern Brazilian coast indicated that they were dead by the time they hit the water.

They were stripped of clothes, apparently in the rush of air as they fell from as high as 35,000 ft. multiple fractures were most likely to have been caused by hitting the water at about 120mph.

Reports also say that, the absence of any traces of an explosion, such as burn marks or inhaled smoke, supports the view that the disaster was caused by a combination of factors, possibly beginning with the blockage of speed sensors. The sensors, called pitot tubes, are prone to get clogged with ice and insects.

Air France tail section recovered

A Brazilian search team has recovered a large tail section of the Air France jet that crashed a week ago over the Atlantic with 228 people on board.

The Brazilian military released photos of divers securing the tail fin, which was painted with Air France colours.

Meanwhile the US is sending two sophisticated listening devices to help search for black boxes from the plane.

Brazilian officials said 24 bodies had now been recovered, an increase from the previous total of 16.

Bodies and debris from the plane have been found some 1,000km (600 miles) north-east of Brazil’s Fernando de Noronha islands, where the Airbus disappeared.

The BBC’s Gary Duffy, in Sao Paulo, says the search teams are likely to draw encouragement from the discovery of the plane’s tail.

There had been uncertainty last week about whether some of the debris came from the plane, but our correspondent says the latest find is likely to help to move the inquiry forward.

Investigators have so far focused on whether the plane’s speed sensors stopped working properly just before it crashed in turbulent weather.

French sub

The US listening devices are being flown to Brazil and will then be taken to two French tugs that will listen for signals from the plane’s “black box” data recorders, the Pentagon said.

SEARCH FOR FLIGHT AF 447
1 June: Contact lost with plane over mid-Atlantic
2 June: First debris spotted from the air includes an airline seat. Brazilian defence minister says debris is from missing plane
3 June: More debris spotted, including a 7m-wide chunk of metal. Fuel slick seen on surface
4 June: Recovered buoys and pallet said to be from plane. Officials later retract statement
6 June: First two bodies, plus suitcase and backpack found, along with seat from the plane
7 June: Fourteen additional bodies recovered, taking total to 16
8 June: Large tail fin section found

Timeline of Flight AF 447
Air disasters timeline
Mystery of Air France flight
Challenge of deep-sea debris

They can detect signals from the black boxes up to a depth of 20,000ft (6,100m).

The boxes are capable of emitting signals for 30 days.

A French submarine is also expected to arrive this week at the crash site to help with the search.

Teams from France and Brazil are continuing to scour the site of the crash.

The bodies that have been found will be taken by ship to Fernando de Noronha, before being moved to the Brazilian city of Recife, where a temporary mortuary has been established.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said his country would do all it could to retrieve more bodies.

Discussing the possible cause of the crash, French officials have said the plane’s sensors could have iced over, meaning pilots may have flown into a storm without knowing their speed.

France’s Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau told French radio that such a situation could have resulted in “two bad consequences for the survival of the plane”.

“Too low a speed, which can cause it to stall, or too high a speed, which can lead to the plane ripping up as it approached the speed of sound, as the outer skin is not designed to resist such speed,” he said.

Air France has said it is stepping up the process of replacing speed monitors on board its Airbus planes.

The company said it first noticed problems with speed monitors a year ago and began replacing them a few weeks before the accident.

But investigators have said it is too early to say what role faulty sensors might have played in the crash.

Brazil recovers 3 more bodies near jet crash site

RECIFE, Brazil – Three more bodies were found Sunday bobbing in the ocean near the spot where an Air France jet is believed to have crashed a week ago, bringing the total number of bodies plucked from the water to five, Brazil’s military said.

Authorities said pilots searching the mid-Atlantic also spotted additional bodies from the air and are sending ships to recover them, Navy Capt. Giucemar Tabosa Cardoso said.

The number or approximate number of additional bodies in the water was not disclosed. Brazil’s military is not releasing information about bodies or debris that have not been taken aboard ships, after sea trash was mistaken last week for a cargo pallet from the plane, prompting criticism.

Flight 447 disappeared and likely broke up in midair in turbulent weather May 31 during a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris with 228 people aboard — all now presumed dead.

The investigation is increasingly focused on whether external instruments on the Airbus A330 may have iced over, confusing speed sensors and leading computers to set the plane’s speed too fast or slow — a potentially deadly mistake.

The French agency investigating the disaster said airspeed instruments on the plane had not been replaced as the maker had recommended, but cautioned that it was too early to draw conclusions about what role that may have played in the crash.

The agency, BEA, said the plane received inconsistent airspeed readings from different instruments as it struggled in a massive thunderstorm.

In Brazil, Air Force Col. Henry Munhoz said he could not immediately provide information on how many more bodies were spotted from the air. Cardoso said late Sunday morning that ships should be able to recover some of them within hours despite rainy weather and poor visibility.

Brazilian investigators are searching a zone of several hundred square miles (square kilometers) roughly 400 miles (640 kilometers) northeast of the Fernando de Noronha islands off Brazil’s northern coast.

None of the bodies recovered Sunday had documents with them to indicate their identities, and authorities did not specify their gender. The first two bodies, found Saturday, were men.

The three bodies were found about 70 kilometers (45 miles) south of where the flight emitted its last signals indicating it was experiencing a series of electric failures and losing cabin pressure. All the bodies that have been recovered were found in the same general area.

Munhoz and Cardoso declined comment on the condition of the recovered bodies, saying the release of that information would be too emotionally painful for relatives.

Authorities also announced that searchers spotted two airplane seats and other debris with Air France’s logo, and they have recovered jet wing fragments and other plane debris.

Munhoz said there is “no more doubt” that the wreckage is from Flight 447.

“We’re sailing through a sea of debris,” Cardoso said.

Hundreds of personal items belonging to the passengers have been recovered, but Munhoz said authorities would not immediately identify them because relatives of the victims panicked after authorities on Saturday announced the discovery of a laptop computer and a briefcase with a plane ticket inside it.

“We’re don’t want to cause them more suffering,” Munhoz said.

The bodies and plane wreckage were being transported by ship and should arrive Monday at Brazilian islands of Fernando de Noronha, where the military has set up a staging post for the search operation. From there, remains and debris will be taken to the northeastern coastal city Recife for identification.

Air France Flight 447 emitted its last signals roughly 400 miles (640 kilometers) northeast of the Fernando de Noronha islands.

Brazilian authorities have refused since the search began to release precise coordinates where they are looking, except to say the area lies southwest of the last jet transmission and could have indicated the pilot was trying to turn around in mid-flight and head to Fernando de Noronha.

Munhoz on Sunday would not say how far apart the bodies had been found, and referred comment to French authorities as to whether the locations of the bodies could help determine whether the plane broke up in the air.

The Pentagon has said there are no signs of terrorism. Brazil’s defense minister said the possibility was never considered. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner agreed that there is no evidence supporting a “terrorism theory,” but said that “we cannot discard that for now.”

Brazilian officials are focusing on the recovery of victims and plane wreckage, not the plane’s and voice recorders, which could reveal why the jet crashed. Finding theblack boxes is the mission of the French government, with help from the United States.

But the Brazilian investigators’ recovery of the bodies could help establish a more precise search area for the black boxes.

The U.S. Navy is sending two high-tech devices to French ships that will help them locate the boxes, a senior U.S. defense official said Saturday.

The Towed Pinger Locators, which can detect emergency beacons to a depth of 20,000 feet (6,100 meters), are being flown to Brazil on Monday with a U.S. Navy team, said the official, who requested anonymity because the decision has not been announced.

The team will deliver the locators to two French tugs that will use them to listen for transmissions from the black box, the official said.

France has appointed Foreign Ministry official Pierre-Jean Vandoorne to act as ambassador to families of the crash victims, the French prime minister’s office said in a statement Sunday.

___

Marco Sibaja reported from Recife and Alan Clendenning reported from Sao Paulo. AP Writers Emma Vandore and Greg Keller contributed from Paris.

Chrome on Linux: Rough, fast & promising

I’d been waiting for Chrome on Linux since Chrome first showed up. Chrome, if you haven’t tried it, is the speed-demon of Web browsers. I love it. But, until now, there really wasn’t a version that would run natively on Linux. Starting last night, June 4th, Google released developer’s versions of Chrome for Macs and Linux. They’re rough, really rough, but they’re also really fast. Here’s what I found in my first hours of working with Chrome on Linux.

I downloaded the developer release 3.0.183.1 on two different Linux systems. One was running MEPIS 8 and the other had Ubuntu 9.04. Both are Debian-based Linux distributions, and I chose them for that since Chrome is currently only available in 32 and 64-bit versions in the DEB format. You can install DEB packages in Linux distributions that use RPM program packaging systems, but I didn’t want to introduce any more variables than possible in looking at alpha software.

In the event, while Chrome installed without a hitch in both, on MEPIS, it wasn’t able to connect with any network services, so I dropped looking at it on that Linux for now. On my Ubuntu 9.04 PC it was a different story. On this Gateway 503GR with a 3GHz Pentium IV CPU, 2GB of RAM, an ATI Radeon 250 graphics card, and a 300GB SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) hard drive, Chrome ran with blazing speed.

It also, I should say, ran remarkably badly. It’s been years since I’ve seen normal CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and HTML pages render quite so horribly. Columns wouldn’t line up and there were visual artifacts from the top of every page to the bottom.

But, as Google Chrome developers, Mike Smith and Karen Grunberg, said in their Chromium blog, about the Mac and Linux releases: “please DON’T DOWNLOAD THEM! Unless of course you are a developer or take great pleasure in incomplete, unpredictable, and potentially crashing software.”

Well, Chrome on Ubuntu hasn’t crashed on me, but it sure has done everything else wrong that it could. Except, that is, run slowly.

So, in brief, here’s what doesn’t work on this alpha version of Chrome: plug-ins; media-players like Flash; printing; security settings; Firefox bookmark importing, and a host of other problems. For the full, at the moment, list you can visit the Chromium issues page.

The developers are quite right. This is no browser for anyone except Chromium, Chrome’s open-source project, developers or people who want to play with the fastest new toys. There is no way anyone could use Chrome on Linux as an ordinary browser.

That said, I love it. I feel like a 16-year old with a broken down car that can do 0-to-70-MPH (miles per hour) in less than 7 seconds. It may be junk, but boy, it’s fast junk.

How fast? On the SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark, the Chrome alpha came in at 1227.4ms (milliseconds). On the same system, Firefox 3.0.10 came in at 5564.8ms. Need I say more?

So use Chrome on Linux now? No, forget about it. But, you can bet I’m looking forward to using it on a daily basis on my Linux systems when it goes fina–whenever that will be! Google, as usual, isn’t talking. Come that day, Firefox 3.5, which was recently delayed, will be in for some real competition.

Dead US man gets parking tickets

Officials in New York have found the decomposing body of a man inside a van parked for weeks beneath a busy highway overpass, gathering parking tickets.

The city’s medical examiner said George Morales, 59, had died naturally of heart disease.

His body was found in the back seat only when the vehicle was being towed away after members of the public reported a foul odour in the area.

Police said officers would not normally search vehicles they ticketed.

The daughter of Mr Morales said she couldn’t understand how no one noticed her father inside the Chevy Ventura.

“They just gave him tickets,” Jennifer Morales told the New York Daily News.

She said she had reported her father’s disappearance, but the police said they had no record of it.

They did, however, say that they are looking into the case.