World News joined 5

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Glad to see he's manned up and accepted the blame and did the right thing by stepping down. "Kristin" is pretty good looking. Kind of hard to miss her pictures, she's been shown half naked all over the media.

[JohnCenaFan28]

A global campaign aimed at reducing the marketing of unhealthy food to children has been launched.



More than 50 consumer groups are backing a voluntary code of practice which includes tight restrictions on television and internet advertising.

It also calls for a ban on unhealthy food promotion in schools and an end to the use of celebrities and cartoon characters.

UK food manufacturers said removing adverts was no "silver bullet".

World Health Organization figures suggest that up to 177m children worldwide are threatened by obesity-related diseases, and it is predicted that 2.3 billion people over 15 years old will be overweight by 2015.

The new measures have the backing of the London-based International Obesity Task Force, which says that the several billion pounds spent each year advertising food or soft drinks is partly to blame.

Its chairman, Professor Philip James, said: "It is vital that, as well as governments, food industry leaders support the new standards we propose.

"We challenge the giants of the food and beverage industry to throw their weight behind this and demonstrate they really do want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem."

The code concentrates on foods high in fat, sugar and salt, and, in addition to a ban on advertising between 6am and 9pm, asks for a complete halt to internet and new media advertising, and no use of celebrities or cartoon characters, competitions or free gifts.

Sue Davies, the chief policy officer of Which?, one of the 50 groups, said: "With rising rates of obesity and diet-related disease escalating globally, food companies need to take a more responsible approach to the way they market their foods to children, whichever part of the world they are trading in."

UK rules

In some parts of the world, including the European Union, there are some restrictions on marketing.

The UK television regulator Ofcom introduced a ban on marketing unhealthy foods in adverts during shows aimed at children. This came into force in January.

A spokesman for the Food and Drink Federation, which represents the UK industry, said: "As far as marketing in the UK is concerned, we are now one of the most heavily-regulated markets in Europe.

"As a result the marketing landscape has dramatically changed recently - for example in addition to the new regulations, many of our leading member companies are developing new codes of practice or strengthening their existing ones.

"These codes of practice apply to products popular with children, and the codes are implemented globally.

"Restricting advertising of food and drinks to children is not the silver bullet to solve the complex issue of obesity."

BBC News

[OMEN]

Chinese officials have declared a "people's war" of security and propaganda against support for the Dalai Lama in Tibet after riots racked the regional capital Lhasa, and some sources claimed the turmoil killed dozens.
Residents of the remote city high in the Himalayas said on Sunday that anti-riot troops controlled the streets and were closely checking Tibetan homes after protests and looting shook the heavily Buddhist region.

Two days ago Tibetan protesters, some in Buddhist monks' robes and some yelling pro-independence slogans, trashed shops, attacked banks and government offices and wielded stones and knives against police.

China has said at least 10 "innocent civilians" died, mostly in fires lit by rioters.

But an outside Tibetan source with close ties in Lhasa said that number was far too low. He cited a contact who claimed to have counted many more corpses of people killed in the riots or subsequent crackdown.

"He said there were 67 bodies in one morgue alone," the source told Reuters. "He saw it with his own eyes."

The self-proclaimed Tibetan government-in-exile in northern India has said some 30 people were killed in clashes with Chinese authorities. Beijing bans foreign reporters from freely reporting in Tibet, so the conflicting claims cannot be easily checked.

The convulsion of Tibetan anger at the Chinese presence in the region came after days of peaceful protests by monks and was a sharp blow to Beijing's preparations for the Olympic Games in August, when China wants to showcase prosperity and unity.

The monks took to the streets on Monday to mark the 49th anniversary of an earlier uprising.

The protest later spread to Chinese areas inhabited by Tibetans. Xiahe in Gansu province saw hundreds of monks and lay residents march in peaceful defiance, to judge from pictures sent to reporters.

Chinese authorities have now signalled a sweeping campaign to redouble security in the region and attack public support for the Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in 1959 after that year's failed uprising.

"This grave incident of fighting, wrecking, looting and burning was meticulously planned by reactionary separatist forces here and abroad, and its goal was Tibetan independence," a Saturday meeting of senior regional and security officials announced, according to the official Tibet Daily on Sunday.

"Fight a people's war to oppose separatism and protect stability ... expose and condemn the malicious actions of these forces and expose the hideous face of the Dalai clique to broad daylight."

The meeting was attended by Tibet's hardline Communist Party boss, Zhang Qingli, and senior central government security officials, and it strengthens signs that China has no patience with international calls for a lenient response to the riots.

Authorities have already set an ultimatum to rioters, urging them to hand themselves in to police by Monday midnight and gain possible clemency, or face harsh punishment.

The government has mobilised officially favoured Buddhist monks to denounce the protests and the Dalai Lama, the Tibet Daily reported.

"The Party's policies on religious freedom have been very well observed," one said, according to the paper.

"But monks in a few monasteries don't study the scriptures well ... and co-ordinate from afar with the Dalai clique."

International pressure has mounted on China to show restraint. Australia, the United States and Europe have urged China to find a peaceful outcome, and Japan has expressed concern.

Lhasa residents contacted by telephone, including some who spoke relatively freely a day or two ago, were frightened and reluctant to say much even anonymously.

"There are police checking our homes and handing out warnings," said a shopkeeper who lives near the old Tibetan part of Lhasa that saw torrid rioting. "Now is not the time to talk."

The Dalai Lama earlier released a statement urging China not to use "brute force" against protests, and his representatives have said the charge that they organised the violent protests was ridiculous.

The Dalai Lama, who won the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize, has said he only wants greater autonomy for Tibet. To the great majority of Buddhist Tibetans, he remains a powerful and venerated figure.

Reuters

[JohnCenaFan28]

Thanks for the story.

[OMEN]

Bombs have killed two men and wounded 18 other people in two separate attacks in Thailand's troubled Muslim deep south, police said.

A 20-kg remote-controlled bomb, hidden in a car near the entrance of a hotel in the city of Pattani, killed one man and wounded 13 others on Saturday, police said.

Three were injured seriously in the blast which destroyed more than a dozen cars and damaged the front of the CS Pattani hotel where officials visiting from Bangkok often stay.

Pattani is one of three far south provinces where more than 2500 people have been killed in mostly gun and bomb attacks since a separatist insurgency erupted in January 2004.

Hours after the hotel bombing, suspected militants used a mobile phone to detonate a 5kg bomb at a Pattani school, killing one firefighter and wounding five others. The firefighters were trying to put out a fire at the school when the bomb went off.

As security forces rushed the wounded to hospital, they were ambushed by insurgents. One soldier was wounded seriously, police said.

Security personnel along with Buddhist monks and government school teachers are prime targets for militants in the region, an independent sultanate until annexed by Thailand a century ago.

Nobody has claimed responsibility for attacks in the deep south, where most people speak a Malay dialect and where the government has stationed several thousand troops in a so far unsuccessful attempt to quell the unrest.

Reuters

[JohnCenaFan28]

Thanks for the news.

[OMEN]

Pro-Tibetan demonstrators hurled eggs and water bottles at China's consulate in Melbourne today in protest against China's rule over the Himalayan kingdom.

More than 100 Tibetans and their supporters began demonstrating outside the consulate, in leafy Toorak in Melbourne's east, at 10am (AEDT), following a similar event outside Chinese consular offices in Sydney yesterday.

What began as a peaceful affair turned rowdy as a handful of demonstrators repeatedly surged towards the consulate's gates, before being pushed back by federal, Victorian and mounted police officers.

At one point, a car driven by an unidentified Chinese man was pelted with eggs and battered with flagpoles as it swept into the consulate compound.

A female protester who sneaked past the police line and followed the car inside was chased by police and frogmarched back outside before being cautioned.

Australia Tibet Council campaigns coordinator Simon Bradshaw said that despite the Tibetans' proud history of non-violence and peaceful dissent, the protesters were releasing decades of pent-up frustration at China's occupation of their homeland.

"One of the frustrating things for the Tibetans at the moment is that the dialogue process between Tibet and China has stalled, so there's a lot of frustration around, here in Melbourne, in Sydney yesterday, in Tibet and around the world," Mr Bradshaw told AAP.

"Everyone's now aware of the way things have escalated in Lhasa. I think it's made it very clear that China's rule in Tibet isn't working and there's a need more than ever for them to engage in constructive dialogue with the Tibetan government in exile."

The demonstrations in Melbourne and Sydney follow deadly clashes on Friday between Chinese authorities and protesters in the Tibetan capital Lhasa which, Tibet's exiled government said, left as many as 30 dead.

Four pro-Tibet activists were arrested following yesterday's protest outside the Chinese consulate in Sydney's inner west suburb of Camperdown.

Kesang Wangmo, one of the demonstrators at the Melbourne protest, said China's oppression was hurting her homeland.

"The Chinese say they come to liberate us, to make our life better, but they didn't. It's time the world stands up," an emotional Ms Wangmo said.

"Tibet has lots to offer to the world. I appeal to the Australian public, I know they have good hearts, please be aware of what's happening in Tibet."

Police said one woman was cautioned after breaching the consulate compound but no arrests were made.

AAP

[JohnCenaFan28]

Thanks for the news.

[OMEN]

MY DAUGHTER'S BACK: Karen Matthews, Shannon's mum, smiles outside her Dewsbury home after she was reunited with her daughter.
The mother of nine-year-old Shannon Matthews says she was overwhelmed at being reunited with her daughter and "just couldn't stop crying."

Detectives are trying to find out what happened to the girl between her disappearance from the gates of her school in Dewsbury and her dramatic rescue 24 days later.

She was discovered in the base of a bed at a flat in the area after police smashed their way in on Friday. A 39-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of abduction.

Police said the schoolgirl had spent a "comfortable and settled night and is starting on the road to recovery following her ordeal".

She spent the night watching DVDs and has been playing with a kitten.

Her mother Karen Matthews said "When I first saw Shannon again I was overwhelmed. I just couldn't stop crying, knowing she's back where she belongs and she's safe."

"I never gave up hope and now she'll be able to come home and sleep in her room again. We've got her new pink bedding which she will love," she added.

Shannon's father Leon Rose was equally overjoyed, saying "I am buzzing over it, especially since Shannon has been found alive. I'm over the moon."

Matthews had been missing for nearly four weeks, sparking a massive police search which involved about 10 percent of the West Yorkshire police force.

Detectives said they will begin to talk to Matthews, who is the subject of an emergency police protection order, following medical checks.

"The interviews may be a long process but throughout this enquiry our main focus has been and continues to be Shannon's welfare," police said in a statement.

The order will remain in place until police have "had time to establish the full facts of what happened in the time since her disappearance".

Matthews was found after detectives broke down the door of the house a mile from her family home in Dewsbury.

Neighbours said the girl appeared "quite calm" when she emerged from the house in Batley Carr.

Locals later ripped up "Missing Shannon" posters and threw them in the air like confetti in celebration of her safe return.

Matthews had gone missing on February 19 after a swimming trip, prompting one of the biggest investigations in the area since the Yorkshire Ripper inquiry of the late 1970s.

Reuters

[JohnCenaFan28]

Great news, thanks.