British tycoon Branson offers $25 million prize to fight climate change

By: Associated Press - | Friday, February 9, 2007 6:13 PM PST ∞

LONDON -- Sir Richard Branson on Friday announced a $25 million prize for the scientist who comes up with a way to extract greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, comparing it to the 17th-century quest to revolutionize navigation by determining longitude.

The Virgin Group chairman was joined by former Vice President Al Gore and other leading environmentalists as he announced the challenge to find the world's first viable design to capture and remove carbon dioxide from the air.

A landmark report by the world's leading climate scientists and government officials, published in Paris last week, warned global warming will continue for centuries, creating a far different planet in 100 years.

"Man created the problem, therefore man should solve the problem," Branson said. "Could it be possible to find someone on Earth who could devise a way of removing the lethal amount of CO2 from the Earth's atmosphere?"

Branson compared it to a competition launched in 1675 to devise a method of estimating longitude accurately. It was 60 years before English clock maker John Harrison discovered an accurate method and received his prize from King George III.

"The Earth cannot wait 60 years. We need everybody capable of discovering an answer to put their minds to it today," Branson said.

He said many remain skeptical about the reality of climate change.

"The plot is often that no one believes the threat until it is almost too late and then the superhero steps in to save the day," he said. "Well, today we have a threat, we still have to convince many people that the threat is indeed urgent and real. We have no superhero, we have only our ingenuity to fall back on."

Gore said the planet now had a "fever" and the world had to listen to experts.

He said last week's report offered conclusive evidence the planet was unwell. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said last week that temperatures on Earth could increase by 2-11.5 degrees by the year 2100.

"Up until now, what has not been asked seriously on a systematic basis is, is there some way that some of that extra carbon dioxide may be scavenged effectively out of the atmosphere? And no one knows the answer to that," Gore said.

Branson, whose business interests include Virgin Atlantic airline and Virgin Trains, rejected charges that it was hypocritical for him to sponsor the prize. He reiterated a commitment made in September to invest $3 billion toward fighting global warming, saying he would commit all profits from his travel companies over the next 10 years.

As part of that pledge, he launched a new Virgin Fuels business, which is to invest up to $400 million in green energy projects over the next three years.

Experts agreed the challenge is difficult, saying no carbon capturing technology exists. Scientists in Scandinavia have started to safely bury CO2 emissions before they reach the atmosphere, but no one has captured them after they are released.

"I see no evidence that a quantifiably acceptable solution or pathway has been identified," said Jerry Mahlman, the former head of climate modeling at the United States' National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. "It's not what you say, it's what you can do and at the moment you can't do a lot."

The organizers of the "Virgin Challenge" said the winner would receive $5 million once judges rule they have succeeded. The rest of the money will be paid out over 10 years if the judges decide the goal of removing significant amounts of greenhouses gases has been met over the long term.

On the Net:

http://www.virginearth.com

With Anna Nicole dead, greater urgency seen in Bahamas into probe of her son's death

NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) -- The death of Anna Nicole Smith adds urgency to a planned inquest into how her 20-year-old son died in the Bahamas five months ago, the country's chief magistrate said Friday. - "The fact that both of them have died under sudden death circumstances makes this inquest that much more interesting," Chief Magistrate Roger Gomez told The Associated Press. Daniel Smith died at his mother's hospital bedside in September, three days after she gave birth to a baby girl, Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern.

Dannielynn, now five months old, was not with the former Playboy Playmate and reality TV show star when she died in Florida on Thursday. The baby is being cared for by the family of Bahamian Immigration Minister Shane Gibson, People magazine reported, citing unidentified sources.

Gibson, a friend of Smith, did not return calls seeking comment on the baby's whereabouts. A black pickup on Friday carried a crib and an infant's car seat from the mansion Smith had been living in to Gibson's mother's house. But when the unidentified driver spotted an AP reporter across the street, he sped away. Gibson's mother would not come to the door.

Gibson last year approved Smith's Bahamas residency application based on her claim to ownership of the mansion, but it turned out that G. Ben Thompson -- a developer from Myrtle Beach, S.C., who had dated Smith -- claimed the mansion was his. Godfrey Pinder, a lawyer for Thompson, said Anna Nicole Smith's death means her claims to the home are no longer valid.

A medical examiner hired by Anna Nicole Smith's family concluded Daniel Smith died by accident from a lethal combination of methadone and antidepressants. The death of the 39-year-old model and former actress leaves her companion, Howard K. Stern, as the only potential witness who was in the hospital room at the time of Daniel's death.

If necessary, authorities will try to compel Stern to come to the Bahamas and testify for the inquest, scheduled to begin March 27, Gomez said.

Bahamians followed Smith's troubles closely in the local media, and many expressed concern for her baby daughter.

"What I want to know now is who is going to take care of that poor baby," said Antoinette Butler, 32, who was reading updates about Anna Nicole's death online in her office at the Chamber of Commerce.

A former attorney for Smith in the Bahamas, Michael Scott, said he believed drugs played a role in Anna Nicole Smith's death.

"Undoubtedly it will be found at the end of the day that drugs featured in her death as they did in the death of poor Daniel," said Scott, whose law firm had filed suit accusing Smith of failing to pay her legal bills. He declined to elaborate.

Muslim lifeguards begin patrolling on Australian beach rocked by race riots

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- A team of Muslim lifeguards -- including a woman dressed in a modest "burquini" -- began patrols this week on a Sydney beach that was the scene of frenzied race riots between Australia's Caucasian majority and its Middle Eastern minority in late 2005.

The violence erupted in the popular beachside neighborhood of Cronulla, when around 5,000 mostly male, Caucasian youths launched an alcohol-fueled rampage against anyone who looked Middle Eastern. They were spurred by rumors that a group of Lebanese-Australians had attacked two white lifeguards.

The Cronulla riot touched off two nights of retaliatory attacks by carloads of Middle Eastern youths, shocking this city of 4 million that had prided itself on being a successful multiracial melting pot.

Earlier this week, the national lifeguard association, Surf Life Saving Australia, certified a team of Muslim guards in a bid to overcome the stereotype of the bronzed, blond rescuer and promote racial unity.

With more than 15,000 miles of coastline, Australia has an extensive network of paid and volunteer lifeguards -- easily identifiable in their regulation yellow and red uniforms.

The Muslim lifesavers were recruited from a sporting club in the Lebanese-dominated suburb of Lakemba, in southwestern Sydney, with help from a $624,000 federal grant.

Jamal Rifi, president of the Lakemba Sports Club, said the program has already helped to break down racial barriers and heal the rifts left by the riots.

"We were prejudiced ourselves because we always believed that Surf Life Saving, as an organization, was a closed shop, mainly for fair-skinned, blue-eyed, blond-haired Aussies," Rifi said.

Similarly, Rifi said the presence of 17 volunteer lifesavers from Sydney's Lebanese community had also helped break down the perception that Muslims are disengaged from mainstream Australian society.

"Through this project, we changed our view and they changed their views, and now there is a lot of friendship," he said.

Surf Life Saving Chief Executive Brett Williamson agreed, saying the new recruits and others in the pipeline would be "the best advocates for surf safety and beach harmony in their communities."

Mecca Laa Laa, a 20-year-old Muslim student, said the program had changed her life.

Because her religious convictions bar her from wearing the swimsuit typically worn by Australia's female lifeguards, Laa Laa made her debut in a specially designed two-piece suit called a "burquini" -- a play on the burqa, the head-to-toe robe worn by some Muslim women.

Laa Laa said the burquini -- a pair of red Lycra leggings worn under a loose-fitting yellow tunic -- had allowed her to swim freely for the first time in her life.

"The burquini has allowed me to participate in activities at a level I had never previously expected," she said.

Muslims make up around 2 percent of Australia's 20 million population, and until now, very few have become qualified lifeguards, which involves a grueling selection process and 100 hours of intense physical training.

Rifi said he hopes the presence of Lebanese-Australian lifeguards on Cronulla beaches will ensure that such race-based riots are never repeated.

"It has helped, and I reckon the racist element in the society, they had their glory, their one day of glory in December 2005 and they will never have that day of glory again," he said.

Angelica Vale, Mexico's 'Ugly Betty,' says she struggled with looks in real life

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Being ugly may be in fashion for TV viewers around the world, but not for those who experience its repercussions in real life, says Angelica Vale, star of the popular Mexican soap opera "The Prettiest Ugly Girl."

"At one point they fired me from my job as the host of a television program, because it's true, I was pretty fat," Vale told The Associated Press in an interview to discuss her character's recent transformation on the show from ugly duckling to swan.

But Vale's perceived physical disadvantages became a blessing when she landed the part of Leticia Padilla Solis, a nerdy office worker with thick black glasses, greasy hair, pimples, and braces who is the protagonist of "The Prettiest Ugly Girl."

In recent episodes of the show, one of numerous adaptations in several countries of the original Colombian telenovela "I Am Ugly Betty," Padilla was transformed rapidly into Aurora, a stunning and mysterious woman whose loud makeup, red hair and long dresses with gloves recall images of Mexico's movie star divas of the 1940s and 1950s.

"This is the first change for 'Lety' because there will be more surprises," before the show ends on Feb. 23, Vale said, adding, "I'm very content with it, though, because what they wanted was to create a scandal, that would draw a lot of attention, that would not go unnoticed."

"The Prettiest Ugly Girl" is one of the most popular telenovelas in the history of Mexico's dominant Televisa network, and is broadcast in numerous countries, including the United States.

Mexico film star Salma Hayek launched an American adaptation of the show called "Ugly Betty," last year. It promptly won a Golden Globe for best comedy series, while the show's star America Ferrera won the Golden Globe for best actress in a comedy.

White tiger cubs at Argentine zoo draw thousands of suggested names

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) -- The Buenos Aires Zoo has been swamped with thousands of suggested names for three rare white tiger cubs that made their public debut this week.

The cubs -- two females and a male -- were born Dec. 23 to parents Conde and Bety at the Argentine capital zoo. The three siblings have been romping in the grass of their outdoor pen to the delight of schoolchildren out for South America's summer vacations.

"They're just so playful," Buenos Aires Zoo spokeswoman Florencia Presa said Friday.

A big box for entries in a naming contest has been filling fast. "Already there are 5,000 slips filled out and the box keeps filling," she said.

The winners will be picked in a few months with the three lucky children whose names are selected becoming "godparents" to the cubs and getting a yearlong pass to visit.

Conde and Bety -- two white Bengal tigers -- had triplets in 2002, and two years later had another six cubs.

"She cares for her cubs very much, and the cubs are proving quite playful," Presa said. "They are sniffing the grass, picking up on the scent of the other zoo animals and just beginning to awaken their senses."

Meanwhile, the cubs, which are still nursing, are growing fast. Weighing in at just over 2 pounds each at birth, the cubs now weigh about 13 pounds apiece.

White tigers are not a separate subspecies but the result of both parents having a recessive gene for white coloration. They are rare in the wild because standing out in the jungle does not help catch prey.

Teenage Tibetan braves shooting, threat of execution to escape Tibet

DHARMSALA, India (AP) -- Struggling through knee-deep snow at the roof of the world, Jamyang Samten scrambled behind a boulder when he heard gunshots. Who was shooting? Who had been shot? He had no idea.

But foreign mountaineers camped nearby could see what was happening, and the video they made of Chinese border guards firing at a single-file line of 75 Tibetans wading through a snow-filled Himalayan pass provoked international anger.

While more than half the Tibetans managed to scramble away last Sept. 30 and reach Nepal, a 25-year-old Buddhist nun and a man were killed, and 31 people were detained.

Samten, 15, was among the detainees. He had expected an arduous two- to three-week trek to escape Chinese-ruled Tibet. Instead he endured a five-month odyssey and was threatened with execution should he try to escape again.

The teenager ignored the warning from Chinese authorities on the advice of a Buddhist holy man, who told him he would succeed on his second attempt.

His story, while nearly impossible to verify, echoes other accounts that have filtered out of Tibet, where each year thousands of people who are unable to get passports try to flee Chinese rule and reach Dharmsala, the Indian city that is home to the Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Tibet's Buddhists and the Tibetan government-in-exile.

China has exercised an often harsh, intrusive rule over Tibet since communist troops marched into the region in 1950.

Beijing has attacked the foundations of Tibetans' identity, their Buddhist faith. It shut down religious institutions in the 1960s and '70s, and, though some have reopened, religion is still controlled. The Dalai Lama, who fled in 1959 following a failed uprising, is vilified.

Free-market reforms have brought a tide of Chinese migrants into Tibet, searching for economic opportunities and making Tibetans feel marginalized in their homeland.

Samten was one of the Tibetans left on the margins.

Raised in a middle-class family, he was 9 when he was kicked out of school for cutting class and sent by his parents to work on an uncle's farm. There, he heard of a relative who had escaped to India, and he began saving money he earned collecting Yarchagumba, a fungus prized as an aphrodisiac in traditional Chinese medicine.

After six years, Samten had about 5,000 yuan ($650). He gave some money to his mother -- whom he did not tell of his plans, fearing she would stop him -- and made his way to the home of another uncle in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa.

The uncle, after first trying to dissuade him, put him in touch with a guide who could lead him through the mountain passes to Nepal.

He met the guide on a clear day in mid-September and climbed into a truck with 75 other people. He had money, clothes and a small bag of yak meat and other food.

They drove for two days, then began a 125-mile trek to the border.

The group walked for 11 nights, and Samten's cotton trousers and old sneakers did little to keep him warm. During the day, they slept beside rocks to hide from Chinese patrols.

As they climbed toward the 19,028-foot-high Nangpa La Pass on Sept. 30, they encountered deep snow. And they stumbled into a group of Chinese border guards.

Half the group, walking farther back, fled when they heard shooting. That group, including Samten, hid behind boulders while their guide went ahead to scout the situation.

They waited for three days until their food ran out. Finally, they made another attempt.

"As we went across, the Chinese guards started shooting near us to frighten us," Samten said. They surrendered and were arrested.

Over the next two months, Samten said he was regularly beaten, shocked and made to do hard labor.

One day, "the policeman told me that I was being released because it was my first arrest for escaping," Samten said. "If I tried again to escape and was caught, I could face execution."

So he returned home, and then went to Lhasa to make a pilgrimage of thanks for his survival.

When he went to see a Buddhist high lama, the holy man told him his escape was divined and that he would succeed if he tried again. His uncle then put Samten in touch with smugglers who knew a shorter -- but more expensive -- route to freedom.

The next journey was even more physically punishing -- by the final night, as they traversed a snow-filled pass, the smugglers threw away Samten's only food, a bag of apples, saying it would slow them down.

"I was exhausted, but I decided that even if I had to crawl I would make it to the border," he said. "I really believed in the divination. I knew in my heart that I would succeed and that kept me going."

When they made it across the border into Nepal, Samten was bundled into a car and taken to the Nepalese capital, Katmandu.

A month later, he reached Dharmsala, joining the Dalai Lama and tens of thousands of other Tibetans in exile.

Ian Richardson, TV's villainous Francis Urquhart, dead at 72

LONDON (AP) -- Ian Richardson, who brought Shakespearean depth to his portrayal of a thoroughly immoral politician in the hugely popular satirical TV drama "House of Cards," died Friday at age 72, his agent said.

In addition to his many stage, screen and TV roles, Richardson also appeared in one of the mustard commercials as the man in the Rolls-Royce who asked, "Pardon me, would you have any Grey Poupon?"

He died in his sleep at his London home, said the agent, Jean Diamond.

Richardson played the silkily evil Francis Urquhart in three miniseries, "House of Cards" in 1990, "To Play the King" in 1993 and "The Final Cut" in 1995.

Urquhart's smooth riposte to any slur against another character -- "You may think that; I couldn't possibly comment" -- was picked up by British politicians and heard again and again in the House of Commons.

His other television roles included Bill Haydon in John Le Carre's "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy"; Sir Godber Evans in "Porterhouse Blue" and Sherlock Holmes in "The Hound of the Baskervilles."

In 2001, he starred in "Murder Rooms: The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes," playing Dr. Joseph Bell, the mentor of Arthur Conan Doyle, in a miniseries that was broadcast in the United States on PBS' "Mystery."

He also portrayed the British spy Anthony Blunt in the BBC-TV play "Blunt."

On Broadway, he played Jean-Paul Marat in "Marat/Sade" in 1965, reprising the role in the United Artists film the following year, and Henry Higgins in a 1976 revival of "My Fair Lady," for which he was nominated for a Tony Award as best actor in a musical.

Other movie credits included "Brazil" in 1985, "The Fourth Protocol" in 1987, "B..A..P..S" in 1997, and "102 Dalmatians" in 2000.

But it was his role in "House of Cards" that turned him "from a jobbing actor that the cognoscenti were aware of into a star that the country's entire viewing population knew," Richardson said in an interview last year with the Daily Mail newspaper.

"House of Cards" was brilliantly, if accidentally, timed. It appeared in Britain in the same year that Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was brought down by feuding in her Conservative Party.

The miniseries was shown in the United States as part of PBS' "Masterpiece Theatre."

"Urquhart was a wicked character but Richardson portrayed him in such a way that everybody loved it. In anybody else's hands, that role could have fallen flat on his face," said Michael Dobbs, who wrote the book on which it was based.

In the feverish atmosphere of Thatcher's downfall, "even John Major's leadership campaign in 1990 came to a halt at 9 p.m. on a Sunday night so that the whole campaign team could sit down and see what was happening," Dobbs said.

Richardson, born in Edinburgh in 1934, joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1960.

In 1989, Queen Elizabeth II honored him with a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his many roles.

He is survived by his wife, Maroussia, and two sons. Funeral arrangements were not announced.

British police arrest suspect in spate of letter bombs

LONDON (AP) -- Police said Friday they have arrested a man who claimed he sent at least one of a spate of letter bombs at British companies linked to traffic enforcement.

The man was arrested Thursday after he attempted to appear on a radio call-in show, said Assistant Chief Constable Anton Setchell, the national police coordinator for domestic extremism.

The man specifically claimed to have sent a device to Vantis PLC in Wokingham, 40 miles southwest of London. Two employees suffered minor injuries in an explosion there Tuesday.

"At lunchtime yesterday a man claiming to be the Wokingham letter bomber called a national radio phone-in program. He wanted to go on air and claim responsibility and set out his reasons for doing it," Setchell told a news conference.

Instead, a British Broadcasting Corp. employee contacted police, and the 48-year-old man was arrested later in the day.

Setchell said police were investigating whether the suspect was responsible for the attacks. He said the man was being held under the Mental Health Act.

Police have said seven devices have been mailed in the past three weeks, causing minor injuries to eight people.

The three most recent attacks were on offices that have some connection to motorists.

Police said Vantis' clients include Speed Check Services, which provides traffic monitoring technology. On Wednesday, a parcel bomb exploded and injured three women at Britain's driver and vehicle licensing agency.

Two days earlier, a woman was injured by an exploding parcel at the head office of Capita Group PLC, which has a number of government contracts, including setting up and running a system to enforce the $16 congestion charge on vehicles in central London.

Paris court dismisses fine against man who attacked Duchamp urinal

PARIS (AP) -- A French appeals court ruled Friday that a 78-year-old Frenchman who attacked Marcel Duchamp's famed porcelain urinal with a hammer last year does not have to pay $260,000 in damages.

Pierre Pinoncelli chipped the work, valued at $3.6 million, during a January 2006 exhibition of the Dada movement at the Pompidou Center in Paris.

He also scrawled "Dada" on the urinal.

At the time Pinoncelli said his actions were not vandalism but a "wink" at the early 20th century art movement that had Duchamp's blessing. Duchamp, who died in 1968, emphasized the creative process and a role for the spectator.

The lower court that convicted Pinoncelli last year gave him a three-month suspended sentence and ordered him to pay the Pompidou $18,600 for repairs and another $260,000 to cover the artwork's depreciation.

The appeals court upheld the suspended sentence and the smaller fine but said Pinoncelli did not have to pay the Pompidou for any loss of value to the "Fountain" because the museum doesn't own the work.

Pinoncelli urinated on "Fountain" during a 1993 exhibition in Nimes in southern France, and cut off his own finger as an expression of solidarity with Colombian-French politician Ingrid Betancourt, held hostage by leftist guerrillas in Colombia since 2002.

U.S. photographer Platt wins World Press Photo award with shot of bombed-out Beirut

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) -- An image of stylish Lebanese youths driving through a Beirut neighborhood devastated by Israeli bombing, taken by U.S. photographer Spencer Platt, won the World Press Photo of the Year award, the jury announced Friday.

The image contrasts a group of friends against a background of the wreckage of a collapsed building. Tellingly, one woman grimaces as she uses her mobile phone to send a text message to a friend, while another, wearing sunglasses, covers her nose with a handkerchief.

The award, which Platt took while working for photo agency Getty Images, is considered one of the most prestigious for photojournalists.

The photo was taken on Aug. 15, the first day of a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah, as thousands of Lebanese began returning to their homes. It also won in the category of "Daily Life Singles."

The chairman of the jury, Michele McNally of the New York Times, described the shot as "a picture you can keep looking at."

"It has the complexity and contradiction of real life, amidst chaos. This photograph makes you look beyond the obvious," she said in a statement announcing the winners.

In the spot and general news categories, Reuters' Akintunde Akinleye won in the spot news singles category for a picture of a man rinsing soot from his face after a pipeline explosion in Lagos, Nigeria, on Dec. 26, while Italy's Davide Monteleone won in the spot news story category for the Contrasto agency with photos of the Israeli bombings of Lebanon in July.

Italy's Paolo Pellegrin, working for Magnum Photos, won in the general news singles category with a picture of a victim of an Israeli rocket attack, taken in Tyre, Lebanon, on Aug. 6. Hungarian photographer Zsolt Szigetvary won in the general news story category for photos of the riots in Budapest in September and October, working for MTI.

Associated Press photographer David Guttenfelder won in the Daily Life Stories category with an atmospheric series of black and white images titled "The Lonely Man," shot in Tokyo.

Another AP photographer, Oded Balilty, won first prize in the People In the News Singles category with a shot of an Israeli settler struggling with an Israeli security officer.

Among other AP winners, Arturo Rodriguez took second prize for Spot News Singles with a shot of migrants waiting for transportation on the Spanish island of Tenerife. Rodriguez also took second prize in the People in the News Stories category with images of tourists helping migrants on a Tenerife beach.

In sports news, a shot of French football player Zinedine Zidane headbutting an opponent in the World Cup final in Berlin on July 9 won in the Sports Action category for Dutch photographer Peter Schols, working for Dagblad De Limburger, GPD, and Reuters.

The Associated Press won six awards, the most of any news agency overall, followed by Reuters with five and Getty with four.

Organizers said 4,460 professional photographers from 124 countries entered 78,083 images for the competition. Photographers from a total of 23 countries won awards in the 10 theme categories.

Platt will receive his award and $13,000 in a ceremony April 22.

Italian Cabinet approves rights for unmarried couples

ROME (AP) -- The Italian Cabinet on Thursday approved proposed legislation granting legal rights to unmarried couples in both heterosexual and same-sex relationships.

The decision came despite alarm among Christian Democrats in the center-left government and harsh criticism from the Catholic Church.

Equal Opportunity Minister Barbara Pollastrini said that if Parliament passes the legislation, unmarried couples who live together can immediately begin to enjoy some legal protections, such as the same hospital visitation rights as spouses and relatives.

However, Pollastrini said couples would have to live together for at least nine years before they would be entitled to property rights.

"This doesn't intend to create a new legal status," said Family Policy Minister Rosy Bindi.

Instead, Bindi said the proposed legislation would grant rights "without creating minor-league marriages."

Pope Benedict XVI has been leading a campaign against legal recognition among unmarried couples and has denounced any efforts aimed at allowing gays to marry.

The issue of legal recognition for unmarried couples has divided Premier Romano Prodi's center-left government, whose smaller partners include Christian Democrats and Communists.

"For us, the family, as stipulated by the Constitution, is only that founded on marriage," said Justice Minister Clemente Mastella, who abstained from the Cabinet meeting in protest.

Passage of the law would be a grave attack "on the sensibilities of millions of Italians," Renato Schifani, a leader from Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, told news agency ANSA.

Piero Fassino, leader of the coalition party Democrats of the Left, said the law would "recognize the basic rights of couples who choose to live together. It does not inaugurate a parallel or an alternative family model."

Colombian court recognizes gay couples' rights to shared assets

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- Colombia's top court ruled that gay couples in long-term relationships should have the same rights to shared assets as heterosexual couples.

The decision by the Constitutional Court late Wednesday marked the first recognition of gay couples' rights in this South American nation. The court ruled that if a gay couple of two years separates, the assets accumulated during the relationship will be divided between the two, and in the case of death, the survivor will receive all the assets.

Previously if one died, his or her possessions passed on to the surviving family.

Representatives of the Roman Catholic Church said they supported the law but worried it may open the way to gay marriage and gay adoption.

While homosexuals celebrated the ruling, activists said they would continue fighting for parity with heterosexual couples.

Homosexuals in Colombia continue to face a number of threats in this traditional country, where the Roman Catholic church is by far and away the largest religious denomination. While homosexuality is still taboo in many rural parts of Latin America, urban areas are becoming more socially liberal. At the national level, lawmakers in Colombia and Costa Rica have debated, but not passed, measures to recognize gay unions.

Francis Bacon painting sells for more than $27 million

LONDON (AP) -- A portrait by British painter Francis Bacon sold for $27.6 million, a record price for the artist, Christie's auction house said Thursday.

"Study for Portrait II" is one of a series of Bacon works inspired by Diego Velazquez's 1650 "Portrait of Pope Innocent X," auctioneers said.

Christie's spokeswoman Rhiannon Broomfield said the buyer had not yet agreed to disclose their identity or nationality.

The price paid for Bacon's painting eclipses the previous $15 million record for his work -- paid for "Version No. 2 of Lying Figure with Hypodermic Syringe" last November.

Bacon, who died in 1992, is considered one of Britain's most important 20th-century artists.

On the Net:

http://www.christies.com

String of disasters in Indonesia raises question: Can human toll be reduced?

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- For Indonesia, 2007 started much like 2006 ended: with a string of disasters, both natural and man-made, that raised questions about whether the government is doing enough to protect its people.

In recent months, floods, landslides, boat accidents and a jetliner crash have killed hundreds, while large parts of the capital, Jakarta, remain under water Friday after the worst floods in years left at least 57 people dead and sent 450,000 fleeing their homes.

Authorities say worse may well be one the way, predicting a spike in natural catastrophes in coming decades as global warming lifts sea levels and triggers more frequent and deadlier storms.

Last year, Indonesia recorded more deaths from disasters than any other country, according to a U.N. tally, with a massive earthquake on Java killing nearly 6,000 -- the highest death toll in a single event.

Experts say the country has done little to prevent disasters or reduce their human toll -- such as building levees and drainage systems to limit floods like those now ravaging Jakarta.

"These cheap solutions are not being implemented, even though the risk of flooding has been known in Jakarta for a long while," said Prof. Debarati Guha-Sapir of the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, who has researched the impact of disasters around the world. "The frequency is increasing in leaps and bounds and will only get worse."

Casualties from earthquakes could be significantly reduced by enforcing building safety standards in the construction sector, where corruption is alleged to be widespread, Guha-sapir said.

Overpopulation, particularly in cities on the main island of Java -- home to half the country's 220 million inhabitants -- also increases the number of people effected by catastrophes.

The hardest hit are often the poor, making up a majority in a country spread over 17,000 far-flung islands, the bulk of whom live in cramped housing in vulnerable areas, such as low-lying flood plains in urban areas or mountain slopes prone to mudslides.

The country's location on the "Ring of Fire" -- an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin -- makes it especially prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was spawned off Indonesia's Sumatra island, killing more than 160,000 people in Indonesia -- the most in the 12 nations affected by the disaster.

In December last year, a ferry sinking killed more than 400 passengers and more than 100 people died in floods and landslides. On New Year's Day, a jetliner plunged into the sea with 102 people on board.

Also in 2006, uncontrolled land-clearing fires sent a blanket of choking haze to neighboring Malaysia and Singapore. A mud volcano is still pumping out millions of cubic yards of muck from a gash in the earth on Java.

Last week, Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar predicted sea level rises would submerge about 2,000 of Indonesia's 17,000 islands by 2030 and lead to even wilder extremes of weather.

"We build roads and buildings, but never consider the environment," said Stephanus Felix Lamuri, 34, eating a bowl of instant noodles and gazing down his flooded street in downtown Jakarta.

Many in the staunchly Islamic nation accept the disasters as being sent by God, either as a test of their love for him or as punishment for straying from his teachings.

However, government ministers in recent days have challenged that belief.

Public Works Minister Djoko Kirmanto blamed garbage-clogged canals and drainage systems, in combination with excessive rainfall, deforestation and urban development errors for the most recent floods.

"We have made mistakes and now we are paying for them," Witoelar said.

Recent disasters in Indonesia

-- Feb. 1: Rivers in the capital burst their banks, submerging parts of the city in water up to 12-feet deep, killing 57 and displacing 450,000.

-- Jan. 1: Indonesian plane carrying 102 people crashes off northwestern Sumatra island during a two-hour domestic flight from Java.

-- Dec. 29, 2006: Ferry sinks during a violent storm, killing more than 400 people in Java Sea.

-- Dec. 23, 2006: Heavy rain touches off floods that kill more than 100 people and displace over 400,000 on Sumatra.

-- July 17, 2006: A 7.7-magnitude earthquake triggers a tsunami off of Java island's southern coast, killing at least 600 people.

-- June 19, 2006: Floods and mud flows kill up to 300 people in southern Sulawesi province.

-- May 27, 2006: A 6.3-magnitude earthquake in central Java kills at least 5,800 people and injures more than 36,000.

-- May 2006: A series of explosions spew hot ash down the slopes of Mount Merapi, forcing 15,000 villagers to flee.

-- May 2006: A mud eruption at a drilling shaft on Java displaces more than 11,000 people and inundates villages and factories. It continues to spew a million oil drums of muck a day.

-- Jan. 4, 2006: Around 200 people are killed in a landslide in village of Cijeruk on Java.

-- Sept. 4, 2005: An Indonesian jet crashes in a residential neighborhood in Medan, the country's third largest city, killing 149 people, including 47 on the ground.

-- March 28, 2005: More than 900 people killed and tens of thousands left homeless in a 8.7-magnitude earthquake that hits Nias, Banyak and Simeulue islands off the coast of Sumatra.

-- Dec. 26, 2004: An 8.9-magnitude earthquake sets off a tsunami that kills more than 160,000 people in Indonesia, mostly in Aceh province on Sumatra island.