British Airways asks staff to work for nothing

LONDON (Reuters) - British Airways, which reported a record annual loss last month, said on Tuesday it had asked its staff to work for free as part of the company's battle for "survival" in tough market conditions.
The appeal to its British-based employees, which featured in the company's staff magazine, asks workers to volunteer for between a week and a month in unpaid leave or in unpaid work.
Chief Executive Willie Walsh, who along with the chief financial officer Keith Williams has promised to work for nothing in July, said the idea was part of BA's across the board cost-cutting measures.
"Many of you from across the airline are stepping up to help the company," Walsh said.
"I am looking for every single part of the company to take part in some way in this cash-effective way of helping the company's survival plan. It really counts."
BA, Europe's third-biggest airline by revenue, posted annual operating losses of 220 million pounds ($362 million) and scrapped its dividend in May, saying it had suffered from a downturn in air travel and forecast no immediate revival.
It said 1,000 employees had volunteered to take part in a Business Response Scheme launched at the time which allowed staff to take a month's unpaid leave or to switch to part-time contracts.
Walsh, who earned 735,000 pounds a year, was one of those to sign up.
The new measure, which is designed to be more flexible, would not be compulsory but the company was instead encouraging staff to "play their part," a spokeswoman said.
Other companies have launched similar schemes in response to the global aviation crisis, including Cathay Pacific, where the majority of its workforce has signed up, BA said.
Last week, the company said it was in discussions with its pilots about taking pay cuts. Walsh has also said there would be more redundancies after reducing BA's headcount by 2,500 since March last year.
(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)
($1=.6080 Pound)

Source: Reuters

Lazy Environmentalist says don't feel bad

By Claudia Parsons
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Self-described lazy environmentalist Josh Dorfman has a plan to save the planet that is a little unorthodox -- he tells people to stop feeling bad about taking long showers and driving fast cars.
"Environmentalists make people feel bad, and making people feel bad is a terrible marketing strategy," Dorfman said, explaining the concept of his new television series debuting on the Sundance Channel on Tuesday, "The Lazy Environmentalist."
"Prophecies of doom and gloom or trying to appeal to a moral imperative, those tactics appeal to a very small minority that change their behavior," Dorfman said in an interview. "I'm interested in implementing change for the great majority."
On the show, Dorfman shows families and business people how they can make their lives easier by making more environmentally friendly choices.
In the first episode, he analyzes a California family's trash and shows them how to recycle, compost and shop for products that produce less waste that will go to landfills.
The father is at first skeptical, casting doubt on the reality of global warming and arguing that there is plenty of space in Texas for as many landfills as required.
"The great majority of Americans are not environmentally conscious," Dorfman said, adding that the biggest challenge he finds in persuading people to go green is the argument that it will cost them more money, especially at a time of recession.
Dorfman deliberately chooses skeptics, such as a woman who runs a dog grooming business and believes it will be too difficult and too costly to use natural products.
Dorfman shows she can save money in some areas, for example by using less water to wash the dogs. There's no escaping that organic dog biscuits are more expensive, but he argues that is offset by health benefits and lower vet's bills.
"The Lazy Environmentalist" started life as a blog five years ago soon after Dorfman started a small environmental luxury furniture design company. An assistant questioned how he could call himself an environmentalist when he enjoyed taking long showers and showed little commitment to recycling.
"I do my best thinking in the shower," Dorfman said, adding that he would rather drive a swift Audi than a gas-sipping Prius, even though he knows a hybrid is better for the planet than a sports car.
"I care, but I'm lazy," he said. "Let's stop feeling bad."
The best way to make a difference, Dorfman said, is to make the environmental choice also the more attractive choice -- cheaper, easier, time-saving or more aesthetically pleasing.
Among examples he cites is a website called www.solarcity.com that leases solar energy systems to homeowners with no upfront installation cost. The money saved on lower electricity bills offsets the lease payment so most homeowners end up saving money immediately, Dorfman said.

Source: Reuters

Chefs Cantu pushes boundaries with dishes, gadgets

By Richard Leong
NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Chef Homaro Cantu describes the energy-saving cooking gadgets he invents with the same passion as the cutting-edge dishes he creates.
Cantu, 33, is the executive chef at Moto, a Chicago restaurant where diners can literally eat their menus and enjoy fish cooked and served inside a special polymer box designed by Cantu.
His inventiveness goes back to his childhood when he dismantled and rebuilt his father's lawnmower. He spoke to Reuters about his inventions and creating memorable meals.
Q: How do you describe your cuisine?
A: "Some people call it post-modern. I call it pleasurable, outside-the-box food."
Q: What type of diners does your restaurant cater to?
A: "They are people looking to be wowed. They want to see something they've never seen before. My goal is that I want them to remember every course in the next 10 years."
Q: Given your fascination with science, why did you decide to become a chef?
A: "If you choose to work in the scientific field, it's usually a very specialized subject you are working on. You are confined to that area. In the kitchen, as long as it runs and can turn a profit, a chef has so much ability to work on so many different things from hydrotechnology to storing energy to polymer ovens for increased efficiency in cooking ... That's a powerful thing."
Q: Do you see yourself as more of a food scientist than a chef?
A: "Everything in the kitchen is an opportunity. I don't know if it's science or physics or it's just cooking. When I turn on the faucet, I see untapped, recoupable energy that could be sent back to the grid."
Q: You have been working with algae in your kitchen. Why?
A: "Algae grows faster than anything else. We have been experimenting with it and creating biofuel out of it. The cool thing about it is that plants can grow really quickly from algae water instead of fortified water so you can spend some of that and use it as biodiesel while you are feeding the plants."
RECIPE
Crispy Sushi Hand Rolls (Makes 4 hand rolls) Continued...
Source: Reuters

Video wall may save historic Athens buildings

By Renee Maltezou
ATHENS (Reuters Life!) - A huge video wall may save two historic buildings threatened with demolition for blocking the view of Greece's new Acropolis Museum, architects say.
Greek architects came up with hundreds of ideas to save the two landmarks, which stand in front of the new museum, due to open this week and expected to give new impetus to Greece's efforts to bring home the Parthenon marbles from Britain.
"These buildings should not be demolished because they are priceless, they are part of one of the most beautiful streets in Athens," architect Thomas Doxiades, told Reuters on Tuesday. "A street is like a smile. When teeth are removed, empty spaces ruin its beauty."
Residents, artists and politicians have protested a Culture Ministry decision to demolish them and the case is being examined by a top court, which may overrule the ministry.
Weeks before the inauguration of the new museum which has been plagued by legal battles and missed deadlines, Greece's Culture Minister Antonis Samaras, proposed to move the facades of the buildings to nearby plots, but architects said the landmarks also form a unity.
One of the buildings is hailed as a prime example of art deco in Athens, designed by an award-winning Greek architect, and boasts statues and mosaics on its facade.
The other, neo-classical building on the pedestrian street which surrounds about half of the Acropolis, belongs to music composer Vangelis Papathanasiou, of Chariots of Fire fame.
Greek architects took part in a national competition organized by e-magazine www.greekarchitects.gr and came up with ideas that would preserve the buildings without allowing their unattractive backs ruin the museum's view of the Acropolis.
More than 170 solutions were submitted. The winning proposal suggested building a wall visually extending the massive walls of the Acropolis and covering the back of the landmarks.
Another shortlisted idea was to build a huge video wall that would project what is happening on the street in front of the buildings, visually erasing them from behind for all museum visitors.
"The government has to realize that this is merely a design problem and can be solved. The state must not see our buildings as rivals but as neighbors," said architect Nikos Rousseas who has his office in one of the buildings.
(Editing by Paul Casciato)

Source: Reuters

Crisis dents European holiday plans: survey

PARIS (Reuters) - Fewer Europeans plan to head away on holiday this summer but the recession seems to have done next to nothing to Italian appetites for vacation, a survey published on Tuesday shows.
The number of Europeans planning to leave home for a holiday dropped three percentage points to 64 percent this year from 2008, with the French cutting back most, according to the survey by polling agency Ipsos, which contacted 3,500 people in seven countries.
Budget-wise, British tourists, hit also by a decline in the exchange rate of the pound, expect spending to fall considerably more than holidayers in other countries, according to the survey, conducted between February 16 and March 27, Ipsos said.
The percentage of people planning a holiday of at least four nights dipped three percentage points on average but the fall for the French was eight points, far more than in any of the other countries surveyed -- Italy, Britain, Belgium, Austria, Spain and Germany.
Italians topped the vacation table with 76 percent planning a break away this summer, down just one point from last year. However, Italians had a bigger preference than all others for holidaying in their own country.
The average vacation budget, at 2,066 euros across countries surveyed, will be down six percent this year. But for Britons it will decline 14 percent, more than twice as much as those with the next biggest drop, France and Spain, down six percent.
Again, Italians appear to be cutting back less, with holiday budgets there seen dropping four percent from 2008, the survey results showed.
While the impact of the economic crisis may be considerable, Europeans seemed largely indifferent when planning holidays, especially on transport choice, Ipsos said in a statement.
"They tend to live with the crisis wherever that is still possible, rather than radically change their lifestyle," said the statement.
The economy of the 27-country European Union as well as the 16-country euro zone within the EU is forecast by the European Commission to shrink 4 percent this year while the jobless rate is expected to rise roughly 50 percent.
Some economists believe low inflation will nonetheless help to offset the toll by supporting consumer spending power.
For more on the holiday survey, click on the link below. here
(Reporting by Brian Love; editing by Stephen Nisbet)

Source: Reuters

Burgundy expects lower wine prices in softer market

By Michel Rose
PARIS (Reuters Life!) - Burgundy wines, hit by a fall in U.S. and British demand suffered a 30 percent drop in first-quarter exports and a "more difficult" year ahead is expected to lead to price cuts for the region's finest vintages.
Increased volumes in 2009 compared to the relatively poor harvest of 2008 which helped producers maintain prices, combined with an enduring economic crisis will force prices down, the BIVB sector organization said.
"The harvests in 2009 should be good, we will start picking grapes early, around September 10. If the crisis continues, then it will be difficult. A drop in prices of grand crus wines is to be expected," BIVB President Pierre-Henry Gagey said.
Stable sales in France in the first three months of this year mean global sales of Burgundy wines dropped only 11 percent in the first quarter of 2009, but the domestic market is now also feeling the pinch of the crisis.
"In the last few months, I have the impression that it hasn't improved, maybe it will at the end of this year. All in all, we will maybe finish this year on a 15 to 20 percent drop (in sales)," Gagey added.
"Our clients will expect price cuts," Gagey added. "But we were more reasonable than wines from Bordeaux, where the price increase was crazy."
STRONG EURO
He added that the rise of the euro versus the U.S. dollar and the pound sterling increased the pressure on producers to reduce their margins in those markets, to hang on to big retailers such as Tesco or Sainsbury's in Britain.
"In England, it's a catastrophe. Supermarkets are very powerful there. They refuse to sell a bottle at more than 10 pounds, and with an increase in taxes from the government, it's up to the producers to swallow the extra cost," Gagey said.
Some 46.5 percent of Burgundy wine bottles were exported in March 2009, and Britain and the United-States are the region's top two markets, with 45 percent of total exports shipped to these two countries alone.
But if sales in France held up well in 2008 and helped compensate for the fall in exports, this year should see a further drop in consumption in French restaurants.
"Restaurants are a concern for us. Wines are horribly expensive there, and the fall in VAT (Value Added Tax) on food should accentuate the price difference with liquids," Gagey said. "People will only drink wine at home with friends."
Total sales of Burgundy wines dropped some 5.1 percent last year compared to the record high of 2007, with 194 million bottles sold and 94 million of these exported, on revenues of 1.1 billion euros.
Wines from the Burgundy region in central France account for 3.3 percent of the total French wine production, and 0.5 percent of the world's wine production. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes are the main varieties found in Burgundy.
(Editing by Marcel Michelson and Paul Casciato)

Source: Reuters

Tarzan, King of the Apes, swings into Paris museum

By James Mackenzie
PARIS (Reuters Life!) - Tarzan swings out of the African jungle and into France's showcase museum of indigenous art this month in an exhibition that sets out to illustrate one of modern pop culture's most enduring myths.
The exhibition "Tarzan!" is an exception for the Quai Branly Museum, set up by former President Jacques Chirac as a center for the so-called "primary arts" of Africa, the Pacific, the Americas and Asia.
It has little to say about any real African culture, instead focusing on the exotic web of images and mythology behind the King of the Apes and his mate Jane.
"For a good part of the 20th century, popular culture has got its inspiration from the non-European world," said Stephane Martin, director of the Quai Branly museum. "This is a good synthesis of the way popular culture has looked at Africa."
Created in 1912 by Edgar Rice Burroughs, a restless former soldier, prospector and publicity agent from Chicago who never set foot in Africa, Tarzan was an instant success, with over 20 novels translated into 56 languages, thousands of comic strips and dozens of films.
Immortalized onscreen by former Olympic swimming champion Johnny Weissmuller, the image of Tarzan, swinging through the trees with his yodeled cry "Or-ah-uh-ah-aaah-ah-uh-ah-uh-aah!," has remained anchored in the modern imagination ever since.
But Tarzan's jungle realm, populated variously by helpful apes, savage cannibals, tigers, sultry beauties clad in leopard skins and the lost descendants of Roman legionaries, is a purely imaginary product of early 20th century America.
HODGEPODGE
"Burroughs was a fantastic sort of sponge, soaking up all kinds of stories, random facts and images," said Roger Boulay, the exhibition's curator.
He drew on a hodgepodge of influences ranging from the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, Rudyard Kipling and the story of Romulus and Remus, the twin founders of Rome who were suckled by a wolf.
"It doesn't tell us anything about Africa at all," said Boulay. "What it tells us about is the some of the ways our culture has seen Africa."
The exhibition features photographs, books, original plates from many of the comic strips by masters of the genre like Burne Hogarth, as well as a special stand where visitors can try to win a trip to Africa by imitating Tarzan's famous cry.
There are several extracts from films ranging from "Tarzan of the Apes" in 1918 to the Weissmuller movies of the 1930s and the 1984 epic "Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan."
The now-proverbial exchange "Me Tarzan, you Jane" does not feature, however. It was apparently a joking comment by Weissmuller that he never actually said onscreen.
But the exhibition shows that Burroughs' hero was a far more articulate character than the tongue-tied hunk of the screen -- the son of a British aristocrat who spoke English, French and the language of apes and had a smattering of Latin as well. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Iraqi fishermen suffer in Iran, Kuwait border feud

By Mohammed Abbas
AL FAW PENINSULA, Iraq (Reuters) - Fins and gills flash silver in the dawn light as Iraqi fishermen offload their catch, relieved to be back from waters jealously guarded by two of Iraq's erstwhile war-time foes, Iran and Kuwait.
Iraqi fishermen say they often run into trouble with the Kuwaiti and Iranian navies that patrol maritime borders contested by Iraq and its neighbors, caught on the front line of a dispute that has previously led to war.
"The problem is the borders. They're not defined and that leaves us open to being stopped, robbed and beaten," said fisherman Khalil Abood, standing among mounds of fish spread before buyers at southern Iraq's Al Faw Peninsula docks.
Fellow fisherman Yassin Yasser agrees.
"When we go out, everyone's after us, the Kuwaitis and the Iranians," he said, while expertly treading the flimsy planks between the boats and dock.
Control of the Shatt al-Arab waterway, a stretch of water between Iran and Iraq that passes Faw and opens out into the Gulf, was one of the main reasons for the costly and bitter war between the two countries that lasted through most of the 1980s.
The dispute over the boundary is still not settled, and as recently as 2007 Iran detained 15 British sailors for straying into its territory. Britain said they were in Iraqi waters.
Kuwait and Iraq have also yet to define a sea border in settlement talks since Iraq's 1990 invasion. Some at the docks say Iraqis are viewed with hostility by many Iranians and Kuwaitis still bitter over Iraq's wars against them.
"They treat us this way because of the wars. You think they're going to smile at a person who might have killed their father or brother?" said Abu Ahmed, who was waiting to buy fish.
Memories of the Iran-Iraq war are strong in Faw, which was on the front line. The unsmiling face of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran's late revolutionary leader, glares across the water at Faw's docks from a billboard in the Islamic Republic.
Yet relations with Iran were not always so strained, some fishermen said, adding that tensions surfaced in the chaos that engulfed Iraq after Saddam Hussein's fall in 2003. Much of the south was controlled by militias, and smuggling was rife.
TRESPASSING
"We used to be on good terms with them, but the wave hello we used to get when we went into their waters has turned into a slap," said fisherman Abdel Khaleq, adding that he had been detained in Iran three times for entering its waters.
"Iraqis started to steal their boats, that's when things changed. There was drug smuggling. They're trying to protect their territory."
Iraq's own navy is tiny, and more concerned with protecting the country's oil terminals, from which it derives most of its revenues, than policing fishing and stopping smuggling. Continued...
Source: Reuters

HK leader cuts his $50,000 per month salary by 5.4 percent

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong's top government official, who earns close to $50,000 a month, will take a 5.4 percent pay cut along with other senior government officials to show support for fellow citizens during the recession.
Chief Executive Donald Tsang said on Tuesday he and his senior officers wanted to show they stood "shoulder to shoulder" with the people enduring difficult times.
The cut for the government's top official is the equivalent of the average household income in Hong Kong, which has been hard hit during the global downturn because of its reliance on world trade.
The economy has been shrinking since the third quarter of 2008 and unemployment is its highest in nearly fours years. Companies have cut salaries, scrapped bonuses and asked employees to take unpaid leave to help deal with the downturn.
"Hong Kong's economy has been badly hit by the financial crisis," Tsang, who currently earns HK$370,000 ($47,436) a month, told reporters.
"We understand that everyone has been affected in one way or another: some suffered a pay cut, some had their bonus reduced, and some others even lost their jobs."
The pay cuts take effect in July and tracks a proposed 5.4 percent pay cut for senior civil servants. Lower ranking bureaucrats will have their salaries frozen.
However, legislator Lee Cheuk-yan, who is chief secretary of the Confederation of Trade Unions, said the cut wasn't big enough.
Tsang should follow his predecessor, Tung Chee-hwa, who took a 10 percent pay cut when the SARS virus pushed the territory into recession six years ago, he said.
"Donald Tsang is trying to present himself as sharing the hardship of the people of Hong Kong, but it is more an act of persuading senior civil servants to take a pay cut," Lee told Reuters.
"He is being hypocritical. His pay cut should not be linked to civil servants' pay cuts. He should take a 10 percent cut, that would be more of a show of sincerity."
Top government officials are political appointees and not officially civil servants. Civil servants have criticized any proposed salary reductions, arguing that their pay increases in recent years have not kept pace with those in the private sector.
Tsang's pay cut works out at HK$19,980 a month, slightly higher than average household income of HK18,100 per month in 2008. His total monthly salary would be enough to rent a four-bedroom house in the iconic Peak mountain, one of Hong Kong's swankiest districts.
(Reporting by Susan Fenton, Editing by Neil Fullick)

Source: Reuters

New York drivers named most aggressive, angry in U.S.

By Patricia Reaney
NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - New York has overtaken Miami to be voted the U.S. city with the angriest and most aggressive drivers, according to a survey on road rage released on Tuesday.
Miami topped the annual poll for the last four years but voters in 25 major metropolitan areas gave New Yorkers the prize for angriest, most aggressive drivers who tailgate, speed, honk their horns, overreact and lose their tempers.
The response of New Yorkers to bad drivers also helped push the city into the top slot for road rage.
"New Yorkers were most likely to wave their fists or arms. They were most likely to lay on the horn and they were most likely to make some sort of obscene gesture," said Michael Bush, of the marketing and consulting company Affinion Group, which commissioned the survey.
Dallas/Fort Worth came in second as the worst road rage city followed by Detroit, Atlanta and Minneapolis/St. Paul. Miami ranked a distant seventh.
Baltimore, Sacramento and Pittsburgh rounded out the top five cities with the most pleasant drivers.
Portland and Cleveland were voted to have the most courteous, considerate drivers.
"The real surprise to me is that there is no geographic way to break down road rage," Bush told Reuters. "It is very much on a city-by-city basis, as opposed to geographic area."
Talking on a cell phone was the behavior that irked motorists the most, with 84 percent of people citing it as the behavior most likely to incite road rage.
Driving too fast, tailgating, and eating and texting behind the wheel also caused stress and incited road rage.
Nearly 50 percent of the 2,518 people who took part in the AutoVantage Road Rage Survey also said other drivers frequently cut across the road without notice.
More than 25 percent of people in the telephone poll reported seeing drivers putting on make-up, shaving and reading while behind the wheel. A quarter said slamming on the brakes and running red lights sent their tempers flaring.
Detroit and San Francisco had the most text-happy drivers, while Miami won the distinction as the city where people were most likely to shave, read or put on make-up while driving.
Most people, 43 percent, reacted to bad driving by honking the horn. But 36 percent resorted to cursing, 13 percent waved their fists or arms and 10 percent made an obscene gesture.
Seven percent were so angry they called the police and one percent admitted they had slammed into the car in front of them.
"In Washington, D.C., four percent of drivers admitted to slamming into another driver," said Bush. "They stand out in that one particular category."

Source: Reuters

Blame gets shared for dark side of reality TV fame

By Laura Isensee
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Television talent show contestants fantasize about fame and fortune but for some people, an appearance on one of the shows only leads to real problems of stress, anxiety, depression, even suicide.
But who is to blame when an everyday person becomes an overnight TV sensation and can't cope -- when Susan Boyle falls ill after failing to win "Britain's Got Talent" or when "American Idol" fan Paula Goodspeed, who was teased after a poor tryout, commits suicide outside the home of a judge?
Boyle was again making headlines on Monday when she was forced to cancel a performance over health concerns while on tour with other "Britain's Got Talent" performers.
TV producers and industry watchers vary in opinion, but they all say networks who air the shows, companies that make them and contestants themselves shoulder some responsibility.
Emotional stress can depend on "baggage (people) bring into a show," said John Lucas, an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical School.
Some contestants may already be vulnerable to depression or expect a show "will change others' perceptions of them or ... their ability to contend with their ordinary day-to-day existence," Lucas said. "And neither is likely to happen."
Networks ask producers to screen potential contestants for mental health issues, said David Broome, executive producer for "The Biggest Loser," on which contestants lose weight. It enters its eighth season on U.S. network NBC this coming fall.
The types of screenings vary, but people who live isolated in small groups for weeks, as in hit shows "Survivor" or "Big Brother," go through more rigorous tests than contestants on talent shows such as "Idol" or "Britain's Got Talent."
RED FLAGS
Pre-show screenings tests for red flags like clinical depression, tendency toward anger and if someone has been abused physically in their past.
"Biggest Loser" contestants undergo in-depth psychological and medical tests, and producers expect some mental health issues to arise because "almost 100 percent of the time, weight is an emotional issue," Broome said.
While taping a program, TV networks often require producers to hire psychological experts and counselors to be available if contestants have a breakdown.
Yet, while psychological screening and counseling can identify obvious mental issues, it is impossible to determine exactly how people will react to finally realizing their bubble of celebrity has burst when a show has ended.
"When you take regular people and suddenly put them in the spotlight, you never know what's going to happen," said Bob Thompson of Syracuse University's center for television and pop culture.
"I don't know that ... we can really point the blame at anyone unless you indict the notion of celebrity. And that eliminates these kinds of shows entirely," he said. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Rediscovered Afghan gold treasure comes to New York

By Claudia Parsons
NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Afghanistan's National Museum is not yet ready to display a treasure trove of 2,000-year-old gold thought lost during three decades of war, but in the meantime Americans and tourists can see it in New York.
Known as the Bactrian gold, items such as an intricately carved gold belt, a delicate crown and numerous bracelets are part of a collection of more than 21,000 pieces of gold found in 1978 just before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
Rumored to have been taken to Moscow or stolen, the items were hidden in a vault and the secret was kept by a handful of employees of the National Museum of Kabul throughout the Taliban years and the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.
Only in 2003 was the vault at the presidential palace cracked open to reveal the extraordinary treasures that were originally buried in the tombs of six nomads in northern Afghanistan in the 1st century AD.
"Our national museum is still not in a condition that you would be able to display them there," Afghan Ambassador to the United States Said Jawad said at a preview of the exhibition "Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
He told Reuters proceeds of the traveling exhibition -- which has already been to Washington, San Francisco and Houston -- would help renovate the museum which was bombed decades ago and remained closed for some 25 years.
The museum has now reopened despite persistent violence, Jawad said, but the items on display in New York will go to Canada next and will not return to Kabul before 2011.
"New York has important symbolic significance for us," Jawad said at a news conference, recalling that both Afghanistan and New York were victims of the Taliban and al Qaeda. "The terrorists that destroyed your twin towers destroyed the twin Buddhas in Afghanistan," he said.
Shortly before U.S.-led forces invaded Afghanistan in 2001 in retaliation for the September 11 attacks, the Taliban blew up two giant standing Buddha statues carved into a cliff face in Bamiyan, saying they were offensive to Islam.
"By bringing this collection to you, we want to emphasize that you can not destroy the history, identity, determination and courage of the people by acts of sabotage and terrorism," Jawad said.
Fredrik Hiebert, National Geographic archeologist who curated the exhibition, said the aim was to counter the image of Afghanistan as a war-torn, desolate country.
Starting from a 4,000-year old Bronze age carved golden bowl, the show illustrates the development of an Afghan artistic heritage, influenced by its position on the trade routes of the Silk Road from Europe to China and India.
The exhibit includes artifacts from a Hellenistic city in northern Iraq founded by Alexander the Great and a collection of 1st century AD objects from Rome, Greece, India and China all found in the 1930s in two bricked up rooms at a site near what is now the U.S. military air base at Bagram.
"A merchant obviously became a little worried about something and bricked up his warehouse, and luckily for human history he never came back," Hiebert said.
Despite the riches on display, Jawad said Afghanistan had lost countless more artifacts due to looting and he appealed to international museums and collectors to help repatriate them. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Brazilian prosecutor wants to ban fast-food toys

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Charging that toys sold with meals in fast-food outlets can lead children to develop bad eating habits, a Brazilian prosecutor on Monday asked a judge to ban such sales nationally at chains including McDonald's and Burger King.
The move comes amid global concern over the link between some fast food and illnesses such as diabetes, as the U.S. Congress considers requiring chain restaurants to disclose calories on their menus to help fight endemic obesity.
Prosecutor Marcio Schusterschitz, a federal prosecutor in Brazil's Sao Paulo state, said fast-food toy promotions encourage children to buy high-fat meals through "the abusive creation of emotional associations" that turn them into life-long eaters of high-fat foods.
A judge must first decide whether or not to hear the request, which targets combination meals offered by McDonald's, Burger King and Brazilian chain Bob's that typically include hamburgers or chicken nuggets, french fries and soft drinks.
"It is necessary to remove toys that are used to leverage the sale of food that has little nutritional value," said the statement. "The (meals) offered are promoted with the clear objective of increasing juvenile consumption of fast food."
A spokesman at his office said previous attempts to regulate fast-food toys, including having them sold separately from the meals, did reduce aggressive marketing by the chains.
Reuters was not immediately able to contact Brazilian representatives of the restaurant chains for comment.
A Brazilian non-profit group last year complained to prosecutors that the promotion of the toys violated the country's consumer protection legislation.
McDonald's Corp's Brazilian website currently features a promotion with pictures of a Spiderman action figure and plastic toys with the logo Littlest Pet Shop apparently linked to an animated television series of the same name.
The Bob's website shows kid's meals offered with bottles bearing the logo of cartoon character Scooby-Doo, while Burger King features Transformer toys.
(Reporting by Eduardo Simoes, Writing by Brian Ellsworth)

Source: Reuters

Harry Potter publisher denies plagiarism claim

By Mike Collett-White
LONDON (Reuters) - Bloomsbury Publishing Plc on Monday denied allegations that author J.K. Rowling copied "substantial parts" of a book by another children's author when she wrote "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire."
The book, published in 2000, was the fourth installment of the hugely successful boy wizard Harry Potter series that has sold more than 400 million copies worldwide and been turned into a multi-billion-dollar film franchise.
"The allegations of plagiarism made today, Monday 15 June 2009, by the Estate of Adrian Jacobs are unfounded, unsubstantiated and untrue," said a statement from Bloomsbury, which publishes Harry Potter in Britain.
"This claim is without merit and will be defended vigorously."
In an earlier statement, Jacobs' estate said that it had issued proceedings at London's High Court against Bloomsbury Publishing Plc for copyright infringement.
"The Estate is also seeking a court order against J.K. Rowling herself for pre-action disclosure in order to determine whether to join her as a defendant to the ... action," the statement read.
It named the estate's trustee as Paul Allen, and said that Rowling had copied "substantial parts" of "The Adventures of Willy the Wizard -- No 1 Livid Land" written by Jacobs in 1987.
It added that the plot of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire copied elements of the plot of Willy the Wizard, including a wizard contest, and that the Potter series borrowed the idea of wizards traveling on trains.
"Both Willy and Harry are required to work out the exact nature of the main task of the contest which they both achieve in a bathroom assisted by clues from helpers, in order to discover how to rescue human hostages imprisoned by a community of half-human, half-animal fantasy creatures," the estate statement said.
"It is alleged that all of these are concepts first created by Adrian Jacobs in Willy the Wizard, some 10 years before J.K. Rowling first published any of the Harry Potter novels and 13 years before Goblet of Fire was published."
According to the statement, Jacobs had sought the services of literary agent Christopher Little who later became Rowling's agent. Jacobs died "penniless" in a London hospice in 1997, it said.
In its response, Bloomsbury said Rowling "had never heard of Adrian Jacobs nor seen, read or heard of his book Willy the Wizard until this claim was first made in 2004, almost seven years after the publication of the first book in the highly publicized Harry Potter series.
"Willy the Wizard is a very insubstantial booklet running to 36 pages which had very limited distribution. The central character of Willy the Wizard is not a young wizard and the book does not revolve around a wizard school."
Bloomsbury added that the claim was first made in 2004 by solicitors acting on behalf of Jacobs' son, who was the representative of his father's estate.
"The claim was unable to identify any text in the Harry Potter books which was said to copy Willy the Wizard."

Source: Reuters