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Show A4 DAILY HERALD Monday, February S. 2007 FAST FACT Morning Briefing The indentation at the bottom of a wine bottle is called a kick or a punt Source: The Book of Answen Compiled from Dairy Herald wire services The Nation h4 i - The WORLD Chinese may OK property rights law 4 BEIJING Chinese law- makers are expected to pass and enact in March a property rights law that clearly protects privately owned land, according to Chinese Communist Party sources. If the National People's Congress passes the bill into law, economic activity by private companies and foreign investors will be freed up. Until now, China has maintained the principle of state property since its establishment as a communist state and continues to grant considerable power to public authorities. According to the sources, the most important point of the new law is that it will establish the inviolability of private property. Under the constitution, aaswpfcp; Via ii! f 1 ,i J mwi state-owne- d property is seen as both sacred and inviolable, but the protection of private property is limited to that deemed "legal." Though the final wording has yet to be decided, the sources said the law will include a passage that states: "Ownership rights of the state, groups and individuals are protected by law, and no individual or organization may violate these rights." As a result, private property will have the same legal status as that held by the state or the public. m 20 killed in flood JAKARTA, Indonesia Boats ferried supplies to desperate residents of Indonesia's n capital on Sunday as rivers burst their banks following days of rain. At least 20 people have been killed and almost 340,000 forced from their homes, officials said. Hundreds of people scrambled to the second floors of their houses to escape the rising waters. Some found themselves trapped, while others refused to leave despite warnings that the muddy flood waters running over 13 feet may rise furdeep in places ther in the coming days. "Jakarta is now on the highest alert level," said Sihar Simanjun-tak- , an official who monitors the many rivers that crisscross this city of 12 million people. "The floods are getting worse." Indonesia's meteorological agency is forecasting two weeks of rain. flood-stricke- GARY HEAssociated Press Jackline Lamiscarre, 70, walks through Times Square while bundled up against the frigid cold, Sunday in New York City. Privacy provision for phones review Bush signed a law last month criminalizing the practice and imposing penalties including WASHINGTON Federal up to 10 years in prison. The issue gained promiregulators working on rules to secure the calling records nence last year when execuand other private information tives of the Hewlett-Packar- d Co. were charged with hiring of telephone customers are running into resistance from private detectives who used phone companies and law en- the technique to investigate forcement agencies. board members. The new law gives police The rules, an effort by a weapon to punish perpetrathe Federal Communicators. But it leaves out any tions Commission to combat "pretexting," are circulating requirements for how phone among the commissioners for companies should protect comment and may be voted their customers' private data. Cell phone bills, for example, on this month. can reveal who a person has Pretexting is the practice called and, in some cases, of impersonating a phone even the callers location. customer to gain access to The FCC chairman, Kevin his phone records. President Martin, told reporters recently that the new rules will require that customers use a password to access their account information. While that might protect calling data, telephone companies are wary. They fear a password requirement might upset customers. U.S. pilots changing tactics and procedures BAGHDAD, Iraq The U.S. command has ordered changes in flight operations after four helicopters were shot down in the last two weeks, the chief military spokesman said Sunday, acknowledging for the first time that the aircraft were lost to hostile fire. The crashes, which began Jan. 20, follow insurgent claims that they have received new stocks of and a weapons recent boast by Sunni militants that "God has granted new ways" to anti-aircra- threaten U.S. aircraft. aired video late Sunday showing one of the U.S. helicopters being hit in central Iraq and said it came from an insurgent Web site. AD four helicopters were shot down during a recent increase in violence, which an Interior Ministry official said has claimed nearly 1.000 lives in the past week alone. At least 103 people were killed or found dead Sunday, most of them in Baghdad, police reported Ford receives top scores in crash tests WASHINGTON The 2007 Ford Fusion midsize sedan and the 2007 Ford Edge sport utility vehicle received top scores in front- - and crash testing by the insurance industry. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety said Monday that the Edge, which has the same underpinnings as the Lincoln MKX, also earned its top rating for rear crash protection. The crossover vehicles received the Iastitute's Top Safety Pick award, which recognizes vehicles that provide the best overall crash protection. The award applies to Edge and MKX vehicles made after January 2007 because Ford upgraded head restraints to improve rear crash protection. Ford made changes to improve the Fusion's ability to withstand front and side crashes, and new institute testing gave it top scores of "good" in both scenarios. The Fusion, which has the same side-impa- without side air bags, which received a "poor" rating in tests. Side air bags are now standard equipment in all 2007 Fusions. side-impa- Astronaut sets spacewalk record CAPE CANAVERAL, Ha. U.S. astronaut Sunita Williams has now spent more time spacewalking than any other woman, setting the record on Sunday as she and a crew mate upgraded the international space station's cooling system. Williams broke the previous female spacewalking record of more than 21 hours a when she and Michael completed the second of what could be a precedent setting three spacewalks in nine days. The new record is 22 hours and 27 minutes. During the spacewalk, which lasted more than seven hours, small amounts of toxic ammonia leaked from a fluid line. The liquid ammonia, which freezes into flakes when it hits the vacuum of space, did not appear to touch either astronaut. Mission Control told them to continue their task of hooking up ammonia fluid lines from a temporary cooling system to a permanent one. Once they were back in the space station's airlock, Mission Control made the astronauts test for contamination.' The test was negative. Lopez-Alegri- y fit "4 T v v- f - FERNANDO UN bird fiu chief warns world to expect spike in bird flu outbreaks more bird flu outbreaks in the coming months, the U.N. official coordinating the global fight against the virus warned Sunday after Britain recorded its first case of the H5N1 strain on a commercial farm. Dr. David Nabarro said, however, that he did not expect the virus to spread in Britain to neighboring farms because of the quick containment measures put in place by the government. "This should mean that there won't therefore be spread ... into other parts in the vicinity," he told The Associated Press in Indonesia, the country worst hit by the virus. "That is what I hope, but of course we will see over the next few days." He said countries around the world where the virus was not endemic would likely see more cases in poultry before June, .. Press Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez poses with a supporter commemorating a bloody coup attempt he led in 1992, in Caracas on Sunday. Chavez takes on a conservationist route His ambitious social pro- CARACAS, Venezuela grams are built on Venezuela's petroleum wealth, but President Hugo Chavez is increasingly talking up environmental causes and urging the world to cut back on oil use to fight global warming. He wants to use some oil revenues in a venture to manufacture solar panels and has begun doling out millions of energy saving fluorescent light bulbs to homes -- nationwide. Some critics say Chavez's campaign is mostly rhetoric, noting this is a country where government subsidies have gasoline prices at 12 cents a gallon, car sales are booming streets. and vehicle exhaust chokes But Chavez says Venezuela can be an example, and he has begun exhorting his followers to drive less and take public transport. His government plans a windmill farm to generate electricity on the Caribbean coast and is exnatural gas. ploring more uses for cleaner-burnin- g "Venezuela is one of the countries that least contaminates the environment, but nevertheless we want to give an example and be at the vanguard," Chavez said at a news conference Thursday. which handsomely He called U.S. oil consumption funds his government a leading cause of the world's environmental troubles. mostly spread by migrating birds. "I am expecting to see outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza in a number of locations over the next three or four months, and I am basing it on what happened last year," he said, stressing that the risk to human health remained very small. Nabarro said a recent spike in human deaths in Indonesia meant the country must do more to fight the virus despite improving its efforts in recent months, including the slaughter of backyard chickens in the capital last week. 3 million Muslims JAKARTA, Indonesia The world should expect LLANOAssociated join mass prayer for peace TONGI, Bangladesh Some 3 million Muslim devotees raised their hands in prayer for global peace, putting aside their country's sometimes violent struggle with political corruption and Islamic extremists, at one of the world's largest religious gatherings. The final prayer Sunday Islamic capped a three-dagathering on the sandy banks of the River Turag in a small industrial town just north of Dhaka, Bangladesh's capital. Pilgrims, many of whom left work early to join the prayer, streamed into the site stretching 190 acres along both banks of the river. As the crowd overflowed the space, people arrived at the site on packed boats or climbed on to the rooftops of nearby buildings. The annual gathering shuns y n politics, which have become increasingly bloody in Bangladesh, and focuses on reviving the tenets of Islam and promoting peace and harmony. Participants discuss the Quran, Islam's holy book, pray, and listen to, sermons by Islamic scholars from around the world. Though extra buses and trains were sent to ferry devotees to and from the prayer site, there was standing room only, even atop the train cars, and many passengers hung on to the sides through open windows. Many others simply walked the 12 miles back the city. Kaium Biswas, a local police official, said police estimated the number of pilgrims at 3 million, a significant increase over the 2.5 million thought to have attended last year. Japan's ruling bloc hit with poll setback TOKYO Japan's ruling bloc lost a key local election on Sunday, a possible bellwether of public support after a Cabinet minister caused an uproar by calling women "birth-givinmachines." The setback compounds the problems for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration, which has also lost a minister and a top adviser in separate scandals. Most recently, Health Minisg ter Hakuo Yanagisawa infuri- ated the public by calling the country's women "birth-givin- g machines" who had to "do their best per head" to stem Japan's falling birthrate. Jeff Zucker to replace Bob Wright at NBC LOS ANGELES Jeff Zucker, who made his mark as executive producer of NBCs "Today" show, is expected to be named chief executive of NBC Universal this week, a newspaper reported Sunday. Zucker, 41, will succeed Bob Wright, who has headed the network for 21 years, company sources told the Los Angeles Times. The transit ion comes as NBC Universal angles Hself to compete against online forces such as Google, YouTube and MySpace. underpinnings as the Mercury Milan and Lincoln MKZ, Wright. 63, had planned to received a "marginal" rating stay on as CEO at least until in rear protection. the end of the year. But JefIn testing last year, early frey Immch, chairman of General Electric Co., the owner of versions of the 2007 Fusion and Milan with side air bags NBC Universal, inswted the received the second-highes- t change come immediately, acscore of "acceptahle" In front-an- d cording to the company sourctests. It was es, who spoke on condition of an Improvement over the anonymity because the switch 2006 version of the vehicle hadn't been announced. side-impa- t litter-strew- stricken Indonesia A Frigid New York City f; , V y ' - . MARTIN Miracle Mud in Peru i f. MJIAAsocatea - Pri A bay puts bloc k mud on his grandmother next to a pond called El Milagro, the miracle, in Cto'lca, some SO km. goutheast of Lima on Sunday. The mud of this lagoon i believed to curt sfein illnent and irJerlility. . |