Segway millionaire drove machine over cliff: police

[The Age, September 28 2010] - The British businessman responsible for the Segway has been found dead after falling off a cliff on one of the vehicles.A British millionaire businessman whose company builds and markets the Segway upright scooter died when he apparently rode one of them over a cliff and into a river.

West Yorkshire police said Jimi Heselden, 62, was found in the River Wharfe, at Boston Spa, near Wetherby, on Sunday.

"The incident is not believed to be suspicious and the coroner has been informed," a police spokesman said.

[Jimi Heselden and, inset, a model of the Segway that he made and marketed.]

Heselden made his fortune when his Leeds-based firm Hesco Bastion developed the "blast wall" basket, which protect soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq, as a replacement for traditional sandbags.

Last year he led a British team which bought the US-based Segway firm that makes and distributes the distinctive two-wheeled self-balancing scooters.

The chief executive of Leeds City Council, Tom Riordan, said councillors were "devastated and saddened" to learn of Heselden's death.

"Jimi was an amazing man who, apart from being a wonderful success story for Leeds due to his business acumen, was also remarkably selfless and generous, giving millions to local charities to help people in his home city," Riordan said.

"As a council we enjoyed great success with Jimi and Hesco Bastion, working together with them to achieve a historic gold medal for the city at this year's Chelsea Flower Show, and everyone who knew him will remember his quiet manner, good nature and tremendous pride in being from Leeds."

PA

Gorillas in midst of malaria mystery

[By Nicky Phillips, Sydney Morning Herald, September 26, 2010]

[Host to killer pathogen ... a silverback gorilla forages in the Republic of Congo. Photo: National Geographic Society]

A PARASITE that causes malaria may have originated in gorillas, a study has found. The pathogen, Plasmodium falciparum, is the most widespread and lethal of the malaria parasites that infect humans.
The research will give scientists important insights into eradicating the mosquito-borne disease, which is contracted by more than 250 million people a year and kills nearly 1 million.

Previous research had suggested the human malaria parasite split from a chimpanzee parasite when humans and chimpanzees last had a common ancestor.

Other studies claimed the pest originated in bonobos, or possibly a human ancestor.

To determine the source of the parasite, researchers gathered faecal samples from chimpanzees, bonobos and eastern and western gorillas in central Africa. No parasites were found in bonobos or eastern gorillas, but about half the western gorillas and chimpanzees were infected. When the researchers analysed the DNA strain, they found the parasites were closely related to the parasite that infects humans.

This suggested the parasite jumped from gorillas to humans, the researchers said.

The scientists do not know when the cross from gorillas to humans occurred, or whether the parasite has a negative impact on apes.

"What is still unclear is . . . whether present-day ape populations represent a source for recurring humans infections," said the researchers, whose findings are published in the journal Nature.

The findings will inform scientists and health experts about how the parasite has evolved and adapted and the possible reservoirs of the parasite, which will, in turn, aid malaria eradication efforts.

Malaria is a serious problem, especially in Africa, where one in every five childhood deaths is due to the effects of the disease.

Obama blasts Iran leader over 'outrageous, offensive' 9/11 comments

[By Kate Andersen Brower, Sydney Morning Herald,26th September 2010] - NEW YORK: US President Barack Obama has slammed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's September 11 conspiracy theory comments at the United Nations as ''offensive'' and ''hateful''.

US President Obama [Photo: Sydney Morning Herald]

In his first comments on the Iranian leader's statement that the 2001 terrorist attacks on America may have been orchestrated to bolster the US economy and ''save the Zionist regime'', Mr Obama told BBC Persian that ''for him to make a statement like that was inexcusable''.

President Ahmadinejad's statements do not serve the interests of the Iranian people, says Barack Obama."

US and European diplomats walked out of the UN General Assembly hall on Friday when Mr Ahmadinejad delivered his remarks about the September 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon.

Envoys representing Australia, Canada, Costa Rica and New Zealand also left during the speech.

The interview with BBC Persian is part of Mr Obama's attempt to communicate directly with the Iranian people as the US and other nations increase pressure on Mr Ahmadinejad's government to comply with UN demands that it halt uranium enrichment.

''To have a President who makes outrageous, offensive statements like this does not serve the interests of the Iranian people, does not strengthen Iran's stature in the world community,'' Mr Obama said.

The US, Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia were united last week in telling Mr Ahmadinejad to comply with UN Security Council demands or remain under trade and financial sanctions. The council wants Iran to cease uranium enrichment and answer the International Atomic Energy Agency's questions about whether the effort is designed to achieve a weapons capability.

In his speech to the General Assembly on Friday, Mr Obama said while he was willing to negotiate, ''the Iranian government must demonstrate a clear and credible commitment, and confirm to the world the peaceful intent of its nuclear program''.

Mr Obama told BBC Persian that Mr Ahmadinejad's address ''defies not just common sense but basic sense - basic senses of decency that aren't unique to any particular country - they're common to the entire world''.

He drew a distinction between the Iranian people and their government, saying that when the September 11 attacks took place there was ''a natural sense of shared humanity and sympathy expressed within Iran''.

''It just shows once again sort of the difference between how the Iranian leadership and this regime operates and how I think the vast majority of the Iranian people who are respectful and thoughtful think about these issues,'' he said.

Megachurch preacher accused by trio of cash lures for sex

[The Sydney Morning Herald, 23 Sept 2010] - As a Christian author, gospel singer and leader of one of the USA's best-known black megachurches, Bishop Eddie Long finds a wide audience for messages such as marriage is "between one man and one woman".

Those words hung heavy this week over accusations that the TV preacher, a married father of four, used jewellery, cars and cash to lure three young men into sexual relationships.

Lawsuits filed in Atlanta, Georgia, this week say the young men were 17 or 18 years old at the time, enrolled in New Birth Missionary Baptist Church's ministry for teen boys.

Accused ... Bishop Eddie Long. [Photo: AP]

A lawyer for Long, who writes books on heterosexual relationships and has strong ties to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s family, adamantly denied the allegations.

Few at Long's 25,000-strong church will discuss the situation, and the grounds were quiet on Wednesday, save for a small group walking in prayer. But those who will speak say they are supporting him.

Lance Robertson, who joined New Birth nearly two decades ago and has coached youth basketball there, said that members were hurting.

"I support and will stand with my bishop, but right now in the court of public opinion, it does not look good," Robertson said.

"This affects too many people. As the bishop goes, New Birth goes. He built New Birth."
B.J. Bernstein, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, said she opened her investigation after getting a call from one of the men.

The Associated Press normally does not name people who claim they are victims of sexual impropriety, but Bernstein said all three — Maurice Robinson, 20, and Anthony Flagg, 21, and Jamal Parris, 23 — have consented to making their identities public.

Bernstein said she didn't trust local authorities to investigate the claims.

"This is a really large church that's incredibly politically powerful," Bernstein said. "There are pictures of this guy with every politician around. With something this important, how can I trust that word didn't get back to the bishop?"

DeKalb County Sheriff Thomas Brown has been a member of New Birth for more than 15 years and sits on the advisory board for Long's Longfellows Youth Academy. He said he would stand by the bishop and bristled at Bernstein's suggestion that local authorities couldn't be trusted.

"I take offense to that," he said. "It does not merit a dignified response."

Bernstein said that her case hinges on her three clients' testimony and that she doesn't have much physical evidence backing up her complaint.

Bishop sent dozens of e-mails and phone calls to her clients, though they weren't "overly sexual," she said.
Bernstein said she plans to subpoena records from Long that will show he travelled with the young men to New York, Las Vegas, New Zealand and elsewhere.

Long has been silent since the lawsuits were filed, though he did have a news conference planned for Thursday.

But urban radio, websites like Facebook and Twitter, and cable television news shows have been abuzz.
Atlanta radio host Frank Ski devoted much of his four-hour morning show to the issue.

Ski, a 12-year member of New Birth, called the accusations "painful" and said he doesn't believe them.
Ski said he and his fellow church members are generally supportive of Long and are awaiting the outcome of the case.

"This church is used to the controversy coming against him," Ski said. "It's all about faith. When you have faith, you understand that those kinds of things will happen."

Robertson, the church's youth basketball coach, said he wants to hear Long respond to the accusations.
"The bishop has helped so many people," he said. "It's not uncommon for him to mentor young men and groom them to be productive members of society.

"The bishop's heart has always been in the right place. But the New Birth family, we're weeping. This is not a good day for New Birth."

Long, who was appointed pastor of New Birth in 1987, presides over an empire that claims athletes, politicians and entertainers as members.

President George Bush and three former presidents visited the sprawling New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in the Atlanta suburb of Lithonia for the 2006 funeral of Coretta Scott King, the widow of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Long introduced the speakers and the Rev. Bernice King, the Kings' younger daughter, delivered the eulogy. She is also a pastor there.

Today, New Birth sits on 250 acres and has more than 25,000 members, a $US50 million, 10,000-seat cathedral and more than 40 ministries.

Not all of his attention, though, has been positive. The church was among those named in 2007 in a Senate committee's investigation into a half-dozen Christian ministries over their financing.

Long has called for a national ban on same-sex marriage. In 2004, he led a march with Bernice King to her father's Atlanta grave to support a national constitutional amendment to protect marriage "between one man and one woman."

This isn't the first allegation against a religious leader who has crusaded against gay marriage.
Ted Haggard left New Life Church of Colorado Springs in 2006 after a male prostitute said Haggard paid him for sex.

Haggard denied the allegations but later admitted to "sexual immorality" and launched a new church in June 2010.

AP

'Split personality' Mugabe doesn't want to be remembered as a villain

September 21, 2010 - 10:40AM

Robert Mugabe ... denied rumours he was close to death.

Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has signalled Robert Mugabe's 30-year reign is drawing to a close as the octogenarian president looks to secure his legacy by shedding his "villainous reputation".

Army 'selling illegal diamonds for war chest'
Mr Tsvangirai said he believed his former "sworn enemy" was now attempting to repair the damage wrought in a decade of chaos that brought the country to its knees.

Mr Mugabe's health has come under scrutiny in recent weeks after he had to be helped from an African summit by aides.

Mr Tsvangirai told journalists the 86-year-old leader was eager to shake his reputation as a destructive tyrant. "You must understand this man has got a split personality, from being a hero to being the villain the international community would like to define him as.

"If I was in the same position, would I like to go down as a villain? If there's an opportunity to rescue my reputation and legacy, I would go for that.

"I think Robert Mugabe genuinely believes he has left Zimbabweans at least talking across the political divide and he is committed to a peaceful Zimbabwe."

Mr Tsvangirai said he had no interest in punishing Mr Mugabe for Zimbabwe's decline. "Robert Mugabe has been portrayed as a demon but he himself made a contribution to that character and I cannot defend what he did over the last 10 years in terms of violence," he said.

"But there is also a positive contribution to our country that he made. He was a national liberation leader."
The leader of the Movement for Democratic Change also warned senior lieutenants of Mr Mugabe not to subvert the constitution by installing power brokers Emmerson Mnangagwa, the defence minister, or Solomon Mujuru, the husband of the vice-president, Joyce Mujuru, as his successor.

"There are maybe individuals, military people and police people who hate the MDC but it doesn't mean that the institutions will oppose democratic rule," Mr Tsvangirai said.

"We respect our security forces and we hope that in line with the Global Political Agreement, they will respect the rule of law, the GPA and the constitution."

The agreement, which established Zimbabwe's fragile coalition government is supposed to end with an election - possibly in May next year - and both parties have pledged to respect the result.

Mr Mugabe was forced to publicly deny rumours recently that he was suffering from cancer and close to death.

Mr Tsvangirai said he saw Mr Mugabe weekly and he seemed in good spirits. "His health, at his age, is quite normal," he said.

 The Daily Telegraph, London

Japan-China boat spat escalates

The captain of the Chinese trawler, Zhan Qixiong

[ BBC NEWS, 9 September 2010] - China has warned Japan that their wider relationship will suffer if Tokyo mishandles a dispute about a Chinese fishing boat seized in disputed waters.

China's foreign ministry said it was "absurd and illegal" for Japan to apply domestic law in "China's territory".

The captain of a Chinese trawler that collided with Japanese patrol vessels has been handed to prosecutors who will decide whether to charge him.

Tuesday's incident happened near disputed islands in the East China Sea.

There were no injuries, and the two Japanese vessels sustained minor damage.

The uninhabited islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, are controlled by Japan, but are also claimed by China and Taiwan.

Tokyo says the Chinese vessel collided with two Japanese patrol boats in two separate incidents, 40 minutes apart.

The captain of the fishing boat was arrested after repeatedly ignoring requests to leave the area, officials said.

China has demanded his release.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu described the move as "absurd, illegal and invalid, and China will never accept it".

Beijing has twice summoned Japan's ambassador and urged him to stop the "illegal interception" of Chinese fishing boats, and to release the boat and the crew detained onboard.

In recent years, Chinese activists have sailed to the islands on a number of occasions to assert China's territorial claims.

Analysts say this latest incident is unlikely to disrupt Japan-China ties but it underscores the inevitable tensions as China's maritime ambitions grow.

Filipinos hide from Somali pirates

[ABC RADIO AUSTRALIA, 10th September 2010] - United States Marines have rescued a ship seized by pirates in the Gulf of Aden, off Somalia, after hijackers vainly sought the crew - hiding in a secret compartment.

The crew included seven Filpinos.

A spokesman for the shipping firm says the pirates spent nearly 20 hours searching for the crew and even phoned the shipping company, Quadrant, in Germany to ask where they were hidden.

The US military says Marines boarded and seized control of the Antigua-Barbuda flagged vessel M/V Magellan Star from the pirates in a pre-dawn raid

No one was hurt in the operation, in which the Magellan Star's crew was freed and nine pirates arrested.

Quadrant spokesman Juergen Salamon says: "The crew had closed down the engines and locked themselves away in a safe room which the pirates were unable to find."

The 11-man crew comprised two Russians, two Poles, and seven Filipinos.

The Magellan Star was sailing from Bilbao in Spain to Singapore.

US pastor Terry Jones cancels Koran burning

Pastor Jones

[BBC News, 10th September 2010] - The pastor of a small US church who planned to burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of 9/11 has cancelled his protest.


Terry Jones said he was calling off the event after the group behind a planned Islamic centre near Ground Zero in New York agreed to relocate it.

But the cultural centre's organisers said they had no plans to move it.

Mr Jones' plan had been internationally condemned and had already sparked many protests around the world.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates had telephoned him to urge him to reconsider his plans. The pastor had also been visited several times by the FBI.

Mr Jones, pastor of the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, which has fewer than 50 members, had named Saturday "International Burn a Koran Day".

But at a news conference, he said he was now dropping the plans and urged his supporters to do the same.

"We would right now ask no one to burn Korans. We are absolutely strong on that. It is not the time to do it," he said.

He said he would travel to New York on Saturday to meet those behind the Islamic centre, saying they had "agreed to move the location".

"The American people do not want the mosque there, and, of course, Muslims do not want us to burn the Koran," he said.

"If it's not moved, then I think Islam is a very poor example of religion. I think that would be very pitiful. I do not expect that."

'NO AGREEMENT'

Jones and Muhammad Musri

Mr Jones was joined at his news conference by Muhammad Musri from the Islamic Foundation of Central Florida.

Mr Musri said he and Mr Jones had committed to travelling to New York "to come to a decision on moving the mosque".

"We are committed to dissolving the situation here and there," he said.

He also thanked Mr Jones for his "courage and his willingness to take these serious events that are unfolding".

But the organisers of the New York centre said no agreement had been reached with Mr Jones.

Leader of the New York project, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf issued a statement saying he welcomed the cancellation of the Koran burning.

"However, I have not spoken to Pastor Jones or Imam Musri," he added.

"We are not going to toy with our religion or any other. Nor are we going to barter. We are here to extend our hands to build peace and harmony."

Mr Musri clarified to reporters that no guarantees about moving the Islamic centre had been given.

He and Mr Jones had only agreed to fly to New York to discuss the location of the Islamic centre with Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf.

Plans for the Islamic centre have prompted fierce debate in the US because of its proximity to the scene of the 9/11 terror attacks.

President Barack Obama had earlier warned Mr Jones the proposed burning would be "a recruitment bonanza" for al-Qaeda.
The US State Department had warned US citizens of an increased risk of attack, while international police organisation Interpol also issued a warning of the risk of violent response.

China Could Overthrow One-Child Rule

[NewsFeed, 10th September 2010] - The Chinese government is beginning to rethink its famed one-child limit as it begins to lift the restriction in five provinces with low birth rates.

The pilot projects, which are set to begin in 2011, allow for a second child per family if at least one spouse is an only child. USA Today reports that Beijing, Shanghai and four other provinces will follow suit in 2012, with nationwide adoption of the new policy expected by 2013 or 2014. In 1979, China's one-child policy was introduced after decades of huge population boom followed by mass death due to resulting food shortages. The policy, which has prevented 400 million births, restricted the country's ethnic Han majority to have only one child per family (exempting most ethnic minorities) and has remained nearly the same since, though a few exceptions have been made. (Some rural farm families have been allowed to have a second child if the first is a girl.)

Reuters

A BRIEF HISTORY OF CHINA'S ONE CHILD POLICY


[TIME, 10th September 2010] - Is the world's most populous nation about to get more crowded? Reports surfaced in international media last week that in an effort to slow the rapid graying of the workforce, couples in Shanghai — the country's most populous city — would be encouraged to have two kids if the parents are themselves only children. Shanghai officials have since denied any policy shift, saying this caveat is nothing new, but the contradictory reports are another manifestation of ongoing rumors that Beijing is rethinking the controversial one-child policy that has for the past three decades helped spur economic growth — but exacted a heavy social cost along the way.


Soon after the founding of the People's Republic of China, improved sanitation and medicine prompted rapid population growth that — after a century of wars, epidemics and unrest — was initially seen as an economic boon. "Even if China's population multiplies many times, she is fully capable of finding a solution; the solution is production," Mao Zedong proclaimed in 1949. "Of all things in the world, people are the most precious." The communist government condemned birth control and banned imports of contraceptives.

Before long, however, population growth was taking a toll on the nation's food supply. In 1955 officials launched a campaign to promote birth control, only to have their efforts reversed in 1958 by the Great Leap Forward — Mao's disastrous attempt to rapidly convert China into a modern industrialized state. "A larger population means greater manpower," reasoned Hu Yaobang, secretary of the Communist Youth League, at a national conference of youth work representatives that April. "The force of 600 million liberated people is tens of thousands of times stronger than a nuclear explosion."

It also proved to be nearly as destructive: with many communities collectivized and converted from farming to steel production, food supply slipped behind population growth; by 1962 a massive famine had caused some 30 million deaths. In the aftermath, officials quietly resumed a propaganda campaign to limit population growth, only to be interrupted by the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution in 1966; it began it again in 1969. A push under the slogan "Late, Long and Few" was successful: China's population growth dropped by half from 1970 to 1976. But it soon leveled off, prompting officials to seek more drastic measures. In 1979 they introduced a policy requiring couples from China's ethnic Han majority to have only one child (the law has largely exempted ethnic minorities). It has remained virtually the same ever since.

The one-child policy relies on a mix of sticks and carrots. Depending on where they live, couples can be fined thousands of dollars for having a supernumerary child without a permit, and reports of forced abortions or sterilization are common. (Blind rural activist Chen Guangcheng made international headlines in 2005 for exposing just such a campaign by family-planning officials in Eastern China; he was later imprisoned on charges his supporters say were retaliatory.) The law also offers longer maternity leave and other benefits to couples that delay childbearing. Those who volunteer to have only one child are awarded a "Certificate of Honor for Single-Child Parents." Since 1979, the law has prevented some 250 million births, saving China from a population explosion the nation would have difficulty accommodating.

But critics of the policy note its negative social consequences, particularly sex discrimination. With boys being viewed as culturally preferable, the practice of female infanticide — which had been common before 1949 but was largely eradicated by the 1950s — was resumed in some areas shortly after the one-child policy went into effect. The resulting gender imbalance widened after 1986, when ultrasound tests and abortions became easier to come by. China banned prenatal sex screening in 1994. Nonetheless, an April study published in the British Medical Journal found China still has 32 million more boys than girls under the age of 20. The total number of young people is a problem as well; factories have reported youth-labor shortages in recent years, a problem that will only get worse. In 2007 there were six adults of working age for every retiree, but by 2040 that ratio is expected to drop to 2 to 1. Analysts fear that with too few children to care for them, China's elderly people will suffer neglect.

Facing growing resistance to the law, some Chinese officials have turned to harsh enforcement tactics. In 2007, for instance, bureaucrats reportedly took sledgehammers to a half a dozen towns, threatening to whack holes in the homes of people who had failed to pay fines for having too many children. Elsewhere, officials were accused of forcing pregnant women without birthing permits to have abortions and jacking up the fines for families disobeying the law. As a result, riots broke out. As many as 3,000 people demonstrated in Guangxi province, some overturning cars and burning government buildings. Several people may have been killed.

Despite rumors in early 2008 that the one-child policy would be overturned, in May of that year China's top population official said it would not be eliminated for at least a decade, when a large demographic wave of childbearing-age citizens is expected to ebb. For some Shanghai couples, at least, a small measure of change has come sooner.

World smallest man gets a taste of Big Apple

[EaseNews.net, 9th Septmber 2010] - A Nepalese teenager set to be declared the planet’s smallest person got big star treatment Tuesday on a tour of New York.


Crowds at Times Square jostled for a glimpse of Khagendra Thapa Magar who at 17 is the size of a baby and has stopped growing.

The Nepalese teen was making his first visit to New York as part of a publicity trip organized by the freak-show museum Ripley’s Believe It or Not!

Wearing a white shirt and doll-sized pin-striped gray jacket, Magar smiled shily, blinking at rows of cameras and the vast neon billboards lining Times Square.

Ripley’s declares Magar — at 22 inches (56 centimeters) tall and 11 pounds (five kilograms) — the world’s smallest person.

The Guinness Book of Records this Monday named Colombia’s Nino Hernandez to the title, saying Magar is not yet adult.

But next month the Nepali turns 18 and, at two inches (5.08 centimeters) under his rival, will easily grab the undisputed top title of tininess.

Ripley’s, a museum chain celebrating oddities such as a five-legged cow, a bearded lady and two-headed sheep, said Magar suffers primordial dwarfism.

The condition typically reduces life expectancy to as little as the 20s.

But his translator, Min Bahadur Rana, said Magar was in many ways a normal teenager.

“He’s very happy. He laughs a lot. He wants a girlfriend — a big one, not a small one,” Rana said. “He wants to be a doctor. After school, he wants to study.”

Edward Meyer, vice president for exhibits at Ripley’s, said that during an evening out on the town Monday, Magar developed a particular interest in New York blondes. “He’s fascinated with blondes because there are virtually no blonde women in Nepal.”

After posing in Ripley’s alongside a life-sized figure of the tallest man in history — the 8-foot-11-inch American Robert Wadlow — Magar stopped at Times Square and was to have lunch at a famous deli and go up the Empire State Building.

Magar smiled at the gawking crowds and showed off a dance move for a bank of news cameras. He was clearly delighted at the chance to sit with a New York policeman, admiring the officer’s shiny NYPD badge.

But sometimes he looked overwhelmed and some passersby worried that Magar’s visit resembled a 19th century traveling freak show.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Brazilian tourist Loiana Cortez, 22, after catching sight of the tiny celebrity. “I don’t know if he likes to be famous. There’s a lot of pressure around him.”

“I just feel sorry for him,” British tourist Karen Embery, 48, said. “He looks scared.”

But Meyer, who scours the world for bizarre attractions, denied that Magar was being exploited.

“I don’t use the word freak,” he said. “He can make a living. Quote-unquote ‘freaks’ have the right to make a living and if the only thing they can do is have pictures taken of them, then that’s what it is.”

After his Big Apple tour, Magar, his father and interpreter fly to London where they will continue to promote Ripley’s, which has paid for the trip.

Barack Obama's Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel to stand down and run for mayor of Chicago

Mr. Rahm Emanuel 

[The Australian, 9th September 2010] - AN undeclared contest for the second-most powerful job in Washington began in earnest yesterday after President Obama gave his approval for his Chief of Staff to pursue his quest to become the next mayor of Chicago.

Rahm Emanuel has almost three months to declare his candidacy but Washington is already rife with speculation as to who might take over his cramped West Wing office, gruelling schedule and unparalleled influence over the image and agenda of the President.

Two veteran Democratic operatives considered front-runners to succeed him are Tom Donilon, the Deputy National Security Adviser, and Ron Klain, Chief of Staff to the Vice-President, Joe Biden.

Others in the frame include Valerie Jarrett, Mr Obama's close friend and confidante from his days in Chicago; Tom Daschle, a former senator whose ties to Congress might serve the Administration well in protracted negotiations with Republican majorities on Capitol Hill after the midterm elections; and John Podesta, the former Chief of Staff to President Clinton who runs Washington's most powerful liberal think-tank.

In an indication of the burden that the role places on even the toughest shoulders, one Democratic strategist joked yesterday that if Mr Podesta wanted the job back "he's probably too stupid to have it".

The position is a central one in every Hollywood rendition of life inside the White House. In real life the chief of staff is usually the first official the President meets each morning and the last one he sees at night, shaping policy, co-ordinating the Administration's response to emergencies and overseeing its relations with Congress.

Mr Emanuel, a former Illinois congressman, began his political career working for Richard Daley, the current Mayor of Chicago. He left the House of Representatives for the White House only after a concerted campaign by MrObama to persuade him that his tough - some say brutal - negotiating skills would be vital for the new Administration.

He has alienated as many Democrats as he has impressed, especially on the hard Left. One activist called him a "cancer on the party" yesterday for persuading Mr Obama to drop his call for a publicly run insurance scheme as part of his health reforms.

The guessing game about who might replace him received something close to an official endorsement when David Axelrod, the senior White House adviser, called the Chicago job "an unbelievably attractive opportunity" and added: "I'm sure if Rahm decides to do [it] the President will support that decision." Robert Gibbs, the President's spokesman, said that it was no surprise that Mr Emanuel was interested in the job.

The decision by Mr Daley on Tuesday not to seek a seventh term triggered the flurry of wagers on potential successors because Mr Emanuel had made it clear earlier this year that he would like to run if Mr Daley chose not to.

Mr Daley, 68, the son of a legendary Chicago mayor, is a titan of Midwestern Democratic politics. By the time he stands down next January he will have run the city for longer than his father, who was mayor for 21 years.

Mr Emanuel has until November 22, three weeks after the midterm elections, to file an application to seek the mayoralty. Experts said that he would have to start assembling a campaign team almost at once if he was serious.

The tight schedule led to suggestions yesterday that he may have to step down before the midterms, forcing Mr Obama to make a vital appointment in the midst of campaigning or opt to name an interim chief of staff until he knows more about the complexion of the next Congress.

Mr Emanuel was "valuable to the President but no one is indispensable", Mr Axelrod said. "If he does decide to go ... there are many to fill the breach."

The Times

I never liked you, Chinese diplomat tells UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in drunken rant

Sha Zukang.

[The Australian, 9th September 2010] - THE most senior Chinese diplomat at the UN has delivered a drunken rant against his boss and Americans at a retreat in Austria.


Sha Zukang, the UN undersecretary general for economic and social affairs, did not pull punches in a toast at a dinner in Alpbach, Foreign Policy magazine reported on its website today, citing a senior UN official who attended the event.

"I know you never liked me, Mr Secretary General - well, I never liked you either,'' the official quoted Sha as saying in a toast to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon last week.

Sha, 62, made the remarks after "a few drinks'', according to the report in the respected Washington-based magazine, which described his intervention as an "intoxicated rant''.

He said Ban had been "trying to get rid'' of him and could fire him "anytime''.

"I didn't want to come to New York. It was the last thing I wanted to do,'' the career Chinese diplomat said, before tempering his speech with some positive words about the UN chief and his persistence.


"I've come to love the UN and I'm coming to admire some things about you,'' Sha reportedly said.

He also singled out a US colleague for criticism, saying: "I really don't like Americans.''

Sha, who took up his UN post in July 2007, apologised the following day for his outburst and then maintained a low profile at the retreat, the report said.

"Sha Zukang was deeply apologetic when he met the secretary general in person early the following morning at his own request,'' UN acting deputy spokesman Farhan Haq told Foreign Policy.

Sha is known for his no-holds-barred style. China's former UN ambassador Wang Guangya described him as the "John Bolton of the Chinese foreign ministry'' - a reference to Washington's fiery former UN envoy.

The incident could be an embarrassing one for China, which lobbied hard for Sha's appointment to his post and played a key role in promoting the South Korean Ban's campaign to become secretary general.

Ban has come under fire for his low-key leadership style. The former chief of the UN's internal oversight office, Inga-Britt Ahlenius, said in a memo leaked to the press in July that Ban had led the world body into "decay''.



AFP