All three cases in the territory were diagnosed within the past eight days and are believed to have been contracted locally, the report said. While the patient had spent a day in the mainland Chinese city of Shenzhen early this month, the trip "may not be related" to the disease, the paper quoted an unnamed health official as saying.

There have been no reported cases on the Chinese mainland since a deadly outbreak in 2005, the article said. It added that the bacterial infection is rarely fatal in humans, but an unusually virulent strain killed more than 30 people in Sichuan province in 2005. Eight cases were reported last year in Hong Kong, with 13 -- two of them fatal -- in 2005.

Pork prices have soared on the Chinese mainland after an outbreak of blue ear disease, or Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) which surfaced a year ago. Experts and industry sources have said it wiped out as many as a million pigs.

By 2010, the newly found deposits will raise the city's gas output to 24 billion cubic meters and surplus to more than 4.3 million tons, according to a Dazhou official at the on-going Western China International Economy-Trade Fair on Saturday.

China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the country's biggest oil and gas producer, and Sinopec Corporation, China's largest refiner, plan to build five purification plants in Dazhou and are expected to purify a total of 74 million cubic meters of natural gas a day by 2010.

Dazhou City, located in eastern Sichuan, covers an area of 16,600 square kilometers with a population of 6.46 million.

EU spokesman Pietro Petrucci said Friday that the 28-member panel, which advises the European Commission and EU governments on data protection issues, wants Google to address concerns about the company's practice of storing and retaining user information for up to two years.

"This group has addressed a letter to Google raising a number of questions," Petrucci said, adding that EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini was backing the investigation. "He considers those questions raised by the letter to be appropriate and legitimate," Petrucci said.

Peter Fleischer, Google's global privacy counsel, said the company was doing a lot to protect personal data gathered from users on its search engine. "We believe it's an important part of our commitment to respect user privacy while balancing a number of important factors, such as maintaining security and preventing fraud and abuse," Fleischer said. He added that Google was "committed to engaging in a constructive dialogue."

Google said it would answer the EU's privacy concerns before the panel's next meeting at the end of June.

"It continues spreading the 'China threat' theory, seriously violates the norms of international relations and is a gross interference in China's internal affairs," it added. "The Chinese side expresses strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition to this."

The U.S. Defense Department report released on Friday said that while Beijing remained focused on the Taiwan Strait as a potential flashpoint, it also appeared to be looking to project its growing military strength elsewhere.

Not so, China's foreign ministry said. "China is a peace-loving country which sticks to a path of peaceful development and adopts a defensive national defense policy," it said. "The international community has a fair judgment that China is an important force in promoting peace in the Asia-Pacific and in the world." In March, China said it would boost defense spending by 17.8 percent to about $45 billion in 2007.

"It is the responsibility of any sovereign country to conduct necessary national defense build-up to safeguard national security and territorial integrity," the foreign ministry statement added.

"The report's whipping up the 'China threat' theory is completely wrong and will be in vain." "Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinese territory and China firmly opposes any country that interferes in China's internal affairs through any means," she said.

"The Chinese government adheres to the principles of peaceful reunification and 'one country, two systems.' We will show our utmost sincerity and do our best in seeking peaceful reunification of the motherland but we will never tolerate 'Taiwan independence' and allow any secessionist activities." "We urge the United States to adhere to the one-China policy adn the three joint communiques, oppose 'Taiwan independence', stop selling weapons and sending any wrong signals to Taiwan secessionists," Jiang said.

Iraqi officials said the meeting between US Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Iranian Ambassador Hassan Kazemi Qomi was cordial and focused solely on Iraq. The disputed nuclear issues which have been lingering between the two nations are not to be discussed at the meeting. "There are good intentions and understanding and commitment between the two countries," Ali al-Dabagh, an Iraqi government spokesman, told reporters.

The talks were held at Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's office in the Green Zone compound in Baghdad. Iraq was being represented at the talks by National Security Adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie. Ust before 10:30 a.m., al-Maliki greeted the two ambassadors, who shook hands, and led them into a conference room, where the ambassadors sat across the table from each other. Al-Maliki then made a brief statement before leaving.

He told both sides that Iraqis want a stable country free of foreign forces and regional interference. The country should not be turned into a base for terrorist groups, he said. He also said that the US-led forces in Iraq were only here to help build up the army and police and the country would not be used as a launching ground for a US attack on a neighbor, a clear reference to Iran.

Speaking in Tehran, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Monday the talks could lead to future meetings, but only if Washington admits its Middle East policy has not been successful. "We are hopeful that Washington's realistic approach to the current issues of Iraq by confessing its failed policy in Iraq and the region and by showing a determination to changing the policy guarantees success of the talks and possible further talks," Mottaki said.

The Baghdad talks are the first of their kind and a small sign that Washington thinks rapprochement is possible after nearly three decades of animosity. Iran, angry over the blunt show of US military power off its coast, almost refused to come.

Human trials are planned this year to chill volunteers so they go into 'induced hibernation' and sleep safely, possibly for months. Research teams in Boston, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh are racing to be first to successfully carry out the procedure.

The American teams developed an injectable mix of salt and ice to cool the blood quickly. The plasma rapidly sends body temperature from 98.6f (37c) down to 50f (10c). The mixture puts the human body into hibernation by slowing the metabolism, delaying the onset of shock and limiting wound damage, said researcher Hasan Alam, a surgeon at Massachusetts general hospital and a consultant to the U.S. army.

So far it has worked on pigs, sending them into a state of suspended animation for several hours.
Nasa, the U.S. space agency, abandoned work on induced hibernation 20 years ago, but the European Space Agency has been quietly taking another look at it for the last three years.

American researchers followed suit - and the idea got a major boost last December after a Japanese businessman, Mitsutaka Uchikoshi, 35, was found on a snowy mountain side 24 days after vanishing. When searchers discovered him, Mr Uchikoshi appeared to be in a frozen coma. His pulse was almost undetectable. His body temperature had dropped to 71f (22c) and his organs had mostly shut down.

He was treated for hypothermia-multiple organ failure and blood loss from his fall. Remarkably, he recovered fully with no lasting ill effects. When rescuers found Mr Uchikoshi, who broke his hip when he slipped and fell down the mountain, he had lost a lot of weight. Until becoming unconscious the businessman had survived by sipping the remains of a bottle of barbecue sauce that he had been carrying with him when he fell.

His doctors believe he survived unscathed because he went into some kind of frozen hibernation. One of his doctors said: "He was frozen alive and survived. If we can understand why, it opens up all sorts of possibilities for the future."

Torn from his family and sent to languish in jail as a convicted sex attacker, the innocent father-of-two imagined he was due a hefty sum for the miscarriage of justice. Instead, he was flabbergasted to learn the Home Office now intends to charge him nearly £7,000 for "board and lodging". The money is for the cost of food and accommodation while he was behind bars, and will be deducted from whatever compensation he receives for wrongly imprisonment.

Mr Blackwell, 37, said: "I can't believe it, they've got to be joking. They are going to charge me for my porridge!
Mr Blackwell was jailed in 1999 on the evidence of a woman who had a history of making false claims against blameless men. He was cleared at the Appeal Court in September last year after her background was exposed. He said: "It's absolutely ludicrous. They accept they put me in prison wrongly, and accept I'm due compensation.

"Then they turn around and say, 'Thank you for your stay with us, hope you didn't miss your family too much during three years in the clanger, now off you go - oh, and here's your bill.'" He added: "I'm going to challenge it on the grounds of discrimination. I mean, burglars and murderers who actually did commit a crime, and deserve to be in jail, don't get charged for being in prison. So why charge me?" He said the ruling amounted to the guilty staying in jail for free, while the innocent are charged.

Research shows that E211 - found in drinks such as Fanta and Pepsi Max - can switch off vital parts of DNA, causing serious damage to cells. Laboratory tests suggest this could even result in degenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and cirrhosis of the liver. However, the Food Standards Agency and drinks manufacturers insisted that the additive had been rigorously assessed before being approved for use.

The research into E211 - or sodium benzoate - was carried out by Peter Piper, a molecular biology expert at Sheffield University. He found that it could damage an important area of DNA called mitochondria. "These chemicals have the ability to cause severe damage to DNA in the mitochondria to the point that they totally inactivate it, they knock it out altogether," he told a Sunday newspaper. "The mitochondria consumes the oxygen to give you energy and if you damage it then the cell starts to malfunction very seriously.

"And there is a whole array of diseases now being tied to damage-to this DNA - Parkinson's and quite a lot of neuro-degenerative diseases, but above all the whole process of ageing."
Sodium benzoate has been used as a preservative for decades by the £74billion global carbonated drinks industry.

It is used to kill yeast, bacteria, and fungi in soft drinks, jam, fruit juice and salad dressing. When mixed with vitamin C it forms benzene, a carcinogenic substance. It is found naturally in cranberries, prunes, greengages, cinnamon, ripe cloves and apples. Professor Piper claimed that tests on sodium benzoate carried out by the European Union and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration were too old to be reliable.

"By the criteria of modern safety testing, the safety tests were inadequate," he said. "Like all things, safety testing moves forward and you can conduct a much more rigorous safety test than you could 50 years ago.
We are feeding vast amounts of them to children inadvertently. Is this a completely safe process?

The Victorian state civil and administrative tribunal ruled the Peel Hotel could ban patrons based on their sexual orientation. The pub's management said the move would stop groups of heterosexual men and women abusing gay people. Civil liberties groups have supported the decision.

The tribunal's president said groups of straight women found homosexual men entertaining but that such attention was dehumanising, the BBC's Phil Mercer in Sydney says. Managers complained raucous hen nights and stag parties created a poisonous atmosphere for its gay clientele, our correspondent says. "If I can limit the number of heterosexuals entering the Peel, then that helps me keep the safe balance," the hotel's manager, Tom McFeely, told Australian radio, according to the Reuters news agency.

He said while Melbourne had 2,000 venues catering for heterosexuals, his was the only bar aimed exclusively at gay men. Civil liberties groups said homosexuals should be allowed to relax in places without fear of bullying or intimidation. Australia's equal opportunity laws prevent discrimination based on race, religion or sexuality.

A man remained missing in Texas after his sport-utility vehicle was swept away in a swollen creek, officials said. Several other people were rescued, and Gov. Rick Perry activated search and rescue teams. Perry activated National Guard troops to be deployed in Waco, Austin and San Antonio for the weekend.

About 100 homes, apartment buildings and businesses sustained minor damage Friday, and a few minor injuries were reported, said Dennis Baker, the Bell County emergency management coordinator.

In Kansas, rivers and creeks continued to rise Friday in the central and south-central parts of the state following a downpour two days earlier. The most serious flooding was expected along the Arkansas River in Harvey County, the National Weather Service said.

Sweltering conditions are expected to intensify. Stateclimatologist David Stooksbury this week classified 74 of the state's 159 counties as being in "extreme" drought - more than double the assessment he delivered just a few weeks ago. And he said he's doubtful conditions will improve any time soon, with little rain in the forecast.

In Columbia County east of Augusta, officials get five to 10 calls a day from neighbors reporting neighbors for water violations. Sick of people ignoring the rules, the county is disconnecting the water for violators, with nearly 50 households disconnected in recent weeks.
"It's like any rule or law: If you don't enforce it, than no one abides by it," said Margaret Doss, the water quality manager in Columbia County. "These are our customers and we hate to punish them. But on the other hand, the drought is significant and it has to be handled properly."

In rural areas, farmers worried about whether they should plant their crops are also facing a massive shortfall of hay, a key part of GEORGIA'S $50 BILLION AGRICULTURE INDUSTRY. Bone-dry fields can't sustain enough grass to make hay. There's hardly a bale of hay to be found in Tifton and other Georgia towns.

"I don't know what I'm going to do," said Derrick Jones, a Tifton farmer who this week could only scrape up enough bales of hay from his property to feed his 300 head of cattle for a day or two. "My only other option is to sell. That's not a good option, but it may be what we have to do."

"The community needed to come together and feel like you're doing something," said Rhonda Royals, a secretary who attended the first meeting Wednesday. "And the only thing you can do is pray - and pray hard."

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said yesterday that the report, scheduled for release today, shows how China "has steadily devoted increasing resources to their military."

The officials also said that the report will detail how China is developing two new types of strategic forces that go beyond what nations have done traditionally using air, sea and land forces by aiming to knock out modern communications methods on which the U.S. military relies for advanced warfighting techniques.

First, U.S. intelligence officials estimate that by 2010 China's ASAT missiles will be capable of delivering a knockout blow to many U.S. military satellites. Second, China also is training large numbers of military computer hackers to deliver crippling electronic attacks on U.S. military and civilian computer networks.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley stated recently that the ASAT test, which involved a missile ramming into a Chinese weather satellite some 500 miles in space, was as significant as the 1957 Soviet launch of the satellite Sputnik, which launched the space race.

The China military power report has been a subject of political fighting every year as part of pro-China officials' efforts to promote the Bush administration's pro-business agenda with Beijing. As part of those policies, the Pentagon and U.S. military recently stepped up military exchanges with China, but in ways that critics say disproportionately benefit Beijing.

Thousands of government web pages suddenly vanish to be replaced with the Internet's version of the Testcard - that dreaded screen '404 - Not Found' or, more amusingly, some pastiche or parody.

Then the Labour website starts to promise a wholesale renationalisation of the railways. The popular response this generates turns to amusement then bemusement as everything from Jaguar to BT is, the sites claim, to be taken back into state hands.

When conservatives.org.uk starts to promise compulsory repatriation and the return of capital punishment, bemusement turns to alarm. The disruption continues: thousands of popular websites, from eBay to YouTube, start malfunctioning or are replaced by malicious parodies. Tens of millions of pounds are wiped off the share price of companies like Amazon as fears grow that the whole Internet credit card payment network is now vulnerable and insecure. Eventually, reports start to flood in that hundreds of thousands of personal bank accounts have been raided overnight.

Panicked bank chiefs and PR men go on TV to try to reassure, promising that this is no more than an electronic glitch, but thousands of anxious citizens take to the streets, many in tears, and pour angrily into the banks to demand their savings in cash. When the ATM system goes down, the government steps in. A task force is appointed. There is a rush on hard cash that leads to a shortage of notes and coins.

Soon, it is clear that the United Kingdom (and much of Europe) has been subjected to a sustained and effective cyber-terrorist attack. Disaster is narrowly avoided when a series of sophisticated viruses disrupt the workings of the National Air Traffic Control System.

Slowly, the computer network is disinfected; the viruses, botnets and worms that are the electronic versions of bombs and bullets are defused and rendered harmless. No one has died, but the attack has cost Britain £10bn, and share prices take months to recover.

SUCH A SCENARIO, SAY SOME EXPERTS, IS NOT ONLY POSSIBLE BUT LIKELY IN THE NEAR FUTURE.

The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland drew to a close yesterday after a week of debate and deliberation which saw Scotland's "national" Church scrutinise everything from human trafficking to the correct weight of a hymn book.
Yet has the voice of the Kirk in annual communion now trailed to a faint whisper of what it once was, muttering only to itself, where it once spoke loudly for a nation? Or, is it in a transitional stage, negotiating the swift currents of an increasingly secular society, losing ground, but far from being swept away?

There is little doubt that the spotlight which once burned so brightly on the General Assembly has dimmed. In the 1950s, when active membership was about 1.5 million, the Church of Scotland had a genuine claim to represent the people of Scotland, while in the 1980s, a disgruntled nation turned to the assembly to articulate its opposition to the premiership of Margaret Thatcher. Today, membership is at an all-time low of just 500,000, while the establishment of the Scottish Parliament has provided domestic control over political action, replacing the Church's largely impotent political arguments.

Yet there were two occasions when the Church appeared to avoid controversy and take a softer line than might at first have been expected. The decision that a ten-year study on human sexuality, an attempt to re-examine the Kirk's attitude to homosexuality, required yet more study was described as a classic fudge to avoid a schism between liberals and traditionalists. In the gallery, eyebrows were raised when the Rev Colin Renwick, convener of the World Mission Council, explained that the Church would not issue a direct condemnation of the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe for fear of the consequences for churches there.

In the opinion of Professor David Fergusson, the head of the school of divinity at Edinburgh University, that time has come: "The Church is having to become, not the national Church, but a significant presence in a multi-faith and secular society. It is not the national Church of 50 years ago. It is more a Church of gathered congregations, rather than one that can represent the majority of Scots."

The Saudi regime's Expatriates Monitoring Committee used a new high-tech finger-print system to identify Nirosh Kamanda of Sri Lanka as a Christian, reported Arab News, the government-approved English-language paper.

"The Grand Mosque and the holy city are forbidden to non-Muslims," said Col. Suhail Matrafi, head of the department in charge of Expatriates Affairs in Mecca. "The new fingerprints system is very helpful and will help us a lot to discover the identity of a lot of criminals and overstayers." Kamanda came to the Saudi city of Dammam to work as a truck driver and left his sponsor to sell goods near Mecca's Grand Mosque, Arab News reported. The sponsor reportedly denied he knew where Kamanda was working.

"He fled six months after coming to the kingdom," the sponsor said. "I have no idea how he reached Mecca."
Arab News said that after Kamanda's identity became known, he admitted he was a Christian and had come to Mecca to earn money. "I heard that Mecca is a safe place, where I could hide my identity," he said.

The U.S. State Department, in its annual reports on human rights worldwide, consistently has stated "religious freedom does not exist" in Saudi Arabia, which is dominated by the strict Wahhibist interpretation of Islam. In the kingdom, the State Department says, non-Muslim "WORSHIPPERS RISK ARREST, IMPRISONMENT, LASHING, DEPORTATION AND SOMETIMES TORTURE FOR ENGAGING IN RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY THAT ATTRACTS OFFICIAL ATTENTION."

The Saudi royal family has stated it permits non-Muslims to practice their own religion in the privacy of their homes, but many arrests have been made of worshippers in house churches. In 2004, for the first time, the State Department named Saudi Arabia a "country of particular concern," subjecting it to possible sanctions for egregious and ongoing violations of religious freedom.

IN THE U.S., AN ESTIMATED 80 PERCENT OF MOSQUES ARE SUPPORTED LARGELY WITH FUNDS AND IMAMS FROM SAUDI ARABIA..

As WorldNetDaily reported, the Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings in 2005 in response to a yearlong study by a Washington human-rights group asserting the government of Saudi Arabia is disseminating propaganda through American mosques that teaches hatred of Jews and Christians and instructs Muslims that they are on a mission behind enemy lines in a land of unbelievers.

Responding to the report by the Center for Religious Freedom at Freedom House, 15 senators, including Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice demanding the Bush administration take stronger action against Riyadh.