Mass killing at trailer park

SEVEN people were slaughtered and two left fighting for their lives at a mobile home park in America's Deep South.

Cops in Georgia made the grisly discovery this morning after a family member of one of the victims called 911.

Glynn County Police Chief Matt Doering said: "It's not a scene that I would want anybody to see."

He added it was the worst mass slaying in his 25 years of police work in this coastal Georgia county.

He would not say how the victims died, and he also declined to say whether police believe the killer was among the dead or remained at large.

No arrests had been made.

Investigators were talking to neighbours about whether they saw or heard anything unusual at the dingy mobile home shaded by large, moss-draped oaks with an old boat in the front yard.

Police had not interviewed the survivors, who remained in critical condition and may be the only witnesses.

"I assume they know something, but we have not been able to speak to them," the chief said.

All seven bodies were identified by Saturday evening.

Massacre

Doering said families of the victims had been notified, but he would not release any names or ages before receiving the autopsy results.

"I really don't know the ages," Doering said. "There were some older-aged victims and we believe there were some in their teens."

Located a few miles north of the port city of Brunswick, the mobile home park consists of about 100 spaces and is nestled among centuries-old live oak trees near the centre of New Hope Plantation, according to the plantation's Web site.

Lisa Vizcaino, who has lived at New Hope for three years, said the management works hard to keep troublemakers out of the mobile home park and that it tends to be quiet.

"New Hope isn't run down or trashy at all," Vizcaino said. "It's the kind of place where you can actually leave your keys in the car and not worry about anything."

Vizcaino said she didn't know the victims and heard nothing unusual when she woke up at 7am on Saturday morning. After word of the slayings spread, she said, the park was quieter than usual.

"Everybody had pretty much stayed in their houses," Vizcaino said. "Normally you would see kids outside, but everybody's been pretty much on lockdown."

Orgasm for women

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BOOSTING YOUR RETIREMENT FUND

THERE'S a good reason to celebrate the recent stock market recovery, because it may have plugged a giant hole in your pension.

Last autumn’s crash hacked nearly 25 per cent off the value of the nation’s pensions, but much of that lost value has now been recovered.

The total value of the UK’s investment- linked workplace pensions fell from £450 billion last September to just £344 billion in March, according to figures from Aon Consulting. But they have since rebounded to stand at £451 billion.

The recovery has also helped to plug the massive £80 billion shortfall in the UK’s 7,800 private sector final salary schemes and repaired many people’s personal pensions and investment Isas as well.

You could call it the great pensions rebound, although there is a long way to go before pension values reach what they were before the credit crunch.

The flipside is that anybody who drew their pension fund when stock markets hit rock bottom in March will be cursing their bad luck.

Since then, shares have risen more than 40 per cent.

This shows just how volatile pension investing is at the moment, says helen Dowsey, pensions expert at Aon Consulting.

Even a month can make a big difference.

“Someone who retired at the end of July may have a significantly higher retirement income than someone retiring in June. This highlights the need for people to plan their retirement carefully, and understand their investments, whose value can change dramatically in a short space of time.”

Despite the pensions rebound, most people still have a long way to go to save enough money for their retirement. The average pension pot is about £25,000, which could buy you income worth a meagre £25 a week, on top of your state pension.

So don’t squander this great opportunity, but review your pension plans, and consider investing more before markets rise even higher.

Your first step is to find out exactly where you stand at the moment. So dig out your most recent annual pension statements, or if you can’t find them, request a copy from your company.

Your statement should show the total value of your pension pot and which funds it is invested in, and should also show how much income you are likely to receive in today’s prices at age 65.

Worryingly, almost one in three workers don’t know where their retirement savings are invested, and have never reviewed their pension’s performance, according to research from insurer Prudential.

People need to take a more active role in the management of their pension, says Andy Brown, director of investment funds at Prudential. “You routinely check your savings, utilities, insurance, mobile phone contract and broadband to make sure you’re getting the best deal. Checking the performance of your pension should be no different.”

Thanks to this inertia, a huge amount of pensions money is now sitting in underperforming funds, says Tom McPhail, pensions specialist at adviser hargreaves Lansdown.

“Many people put their money into mediocre pension funds and never review them again, which means it stays there year after year, at great cost.”

Plenty of underperforming funds have swollen immensely, putting billions of pounds into the hands of second-rate managers.

Pensions website howmuchdoIneedtoretire. co.uk recently highlighted the worst performing £1 billion-plus pension funds over the last decade. It identified Abbey equity, Friends Provident UK equity, Scottish Life Managed, Clerical Medical Managed and Phoenix Life exempt Managed as the five greatest underachievers over the last 10 years.

Many people probably don’t even realise they are free to shuffle the funds in their company- run or personal pension schemes. reviewing your pension will become more important as more employers shut final-salary pensions and replace them with cheaper money-purchase schemes.

“More workers now have to take personal responsibility for their pension funds, or pay the price in retirement,” McPhail says.


Planning your best saving strategy

Where you should invest for retirement partly depends on what pension you have already, and your own attitude to risk.

The following tips, from Neil Thomas, director of independent financial adviser Simpsons of
Brighton, should help.

If you belong to a workplace final-salary scheme, your best option may be to buy additional years in the scheme (if you can). “Final salary schemes are attractive because your employer shoulders the investment risk. even if stock markets fare badly, your pension is still protected. Unfortunately, many companies are now closing their schemes.”

If you are in your company’s final-salary scheme, consider making additional voluntary
contributions (AVCs). “Charges are usually lower than on a personal pension, which should help boost your total return. But not every scheme offers AVCs, and the investment choice is often limited. You may prefer the greater flexibility of a stakeholder pension,” Thomas says.

Stakeholder pensions are an attractive way to top up your retirement savings, because your contributions earn tax relief at 20 per cent year or 40 per cent, depending on your tax bracket. You can also choose from a wide range of schemes offered by leading insurance companies such as Norwich Union, Prudential and Standard Life.

Isas are also tax efficient and offer greater flexibility than pensions. “You don’t get any tax relief on your contributions, but can draw income and capital gains free of tax. Plus you don’t have to buy an annuity, as you have to with your pension fund, and your dependants can inherit the money after you die, which they can’t with an annuity,”
Thomas says.

If you’re approaching retirement, you need to take careful stock of your pension planning, and choose your
annuity wisely. Investment-linked pension savers now receive a “wake-up pack” six months before they retire, setting out their options, including the freedom to shop around for their annuity.

Many people still make the mistake of buying their annuity from their pension provider, rather than seeking
better rates elsewhere.

From taking out your first pension to buying your annuity, you have to plan carefully. You should also take independent advice.

Woman's murder unsolved but not forgotten

She springs out of bed. Red lights on her clock radio flash 4:20 a.m. "Where is Simone?"

That question has passed Linda Sandler's lips a thousand times in the past 15 years. Especially in the dead of night, when her subconscious transports her back to July 24, 1994, when she was startled awake and knew – with a mother's intuition – that she would never see her daughter again. "I woke up thinking `this is wrong,' " Sandler says now. "Something is wrong."

It would be another nine agonizing nights before her worst fears were confirmed, but chances are good 21-year-old Simone Penni Sandler was already dead by the time her mother fumbled for the phone to call York Regional Police.

To this day her murder is a cold case mystery. No motive, suspects or leads. And while police re-ignited their investigation 18 months ago at the family's request, they have once again hit only dead ends.

Back in 1994, officers arrived at the Sandlers' home within 20 minutes that humid summer morning. But when they learned Simone had just crossed the threshold into adulthood, they backed off. Maybe she had slept out with a boyfriend, they suggested, or had skipped curfew. When the Sandlers contacted Toronto police in the following days, officials said their hands were tied, the family alleges in a complaint filed to the York Regional Police Services Board. Even though Simone had been working near the Eaton Centre on the afternoon she went missing, York police would have had to enlist the services of Toronto police in order to get help from them.

But they didn't, the document shows. An investigation did not start for an entire week. An ocean of time, detectives say today, for invaluable strands of evidence to uncoil, witnesses to slip away and leads to vanish.

Their inaction may have lasted even longer if a couple driving along Lake Shore Blvd. E. the following Saturday had not spotted something bobbing in the Keating Channel.

Simone's body was bloated and battered. She was naked from the waist down. A green garbage bag was knotted around her neck as she floated in the Don River among the empty potato chip bags, Styrofoam cups and construction debris.

The consummate ingénue, Simone was sweet and pretty, shy and trusting. Petite and fair-skinned with flaxen-coloured curls, she loved to pose for pictures, bake carrot muffins and work out at the YMCA. But her parents admit she lacked savvy and street smarts.

Fresh off her first year in hospitality and tourism at Humber College, Simone took a summer job with a now-defunct casting company called Actors and Models Studio.

Her office was a sandwich board parked at gritty Yonge and Gerrard Sts., between the now-shuttered La Maison croissant shop and the Evergreen Youth Shelter. Her task was recruiting passersby to become extras on film and TV shoots.

Getting through those long summer days downtown was tough at first for Simone. But quickly, she struck up a partnership of sorts with the street rats and homeless kids who hung around the area.

Implausible as it seemed for this sheltered Thornhill girl to carve a niche among these social misfits, Simone was absorbed by the group, even falling for a new boyfriend. "Joe," tattooed but attractive, was a year older. He had a way about him, detectives said, and certainly "knew how to work it." Later on, "friends" would say that Simone was often seen holding Joe's hand. But others said the two broke up a week before her disappearance.

The group invited her to gatherings in the wooded areas off Cherry Beach to smoke marijuana around sandpit bonfires. Detectives would later place Simone at one of these "parties" the night she disappeared. But they will never really know how she spent her last hours.

Her case was fraught with challenges, says Mark Mendelson, one of the original investigators.

Detectives could never crawl out of the weeklong black hole in their investigation. The river's toxic waters removed any hint of a murderer's DNA. Other evidence was probably washed away in a thunderstorm four days after Simone's body was discovered, forcing police to call off their search for clues.

While there are always more tests in the works, and evidence can be found in the unlikeliest places, detectives say, even today's technology has failed to detect a flake of dead skin or a single strand of hair on the garbage bag tied around her neck. Biologists methodically separated each knot in the plastic weapon, recently dissecting it with fresh intent, but found nothing.

After Simone's body was discovered, an autopsy merely concluded she had died of strangulation. The body was so badly decomposed that dental records were used for final identification. There had been an unsuccessful attempt at rape.

"It was one of those nasty investigations," Mendelson says. "Every time we thought we turned a corner and answered a question, we didn't. We just picked up three more questions." Perhaps, the biggest impediment was the quality of witnesses – the homeless kids Simone had befriended, the wayward youth, the hot dog vendors. Sure, they recognized the girl who had become a local fixture. But could they shed light on what happened to her? Who did it? A resounding no.

There were many fruitless attempts to find people and confirm alibis. Even a $100,000 reward offered in 1998 for information yielded nothing.

The last time Stephen Sandler saw his daughter was the Saturday she disappeared. She smiled at him, mid-stride from across the street.

"Do you want a lift to the subway?" he called out. "No thanks, Dad," she said, a hand at her face shielding her eyes from the sun's glare. Today, the Sandlers are left with that vision, the hurt as fresh as the day their daughter went missing.

Over the years, the family has accumulated part of their pain in a bulging red folder. Documents burst out the sides – explanations, apologies and promises from top York police brass, government officials and politicians that something like this will never happen again.

The Sandlers toyed with legal action against York Regional police, believing that Toronto officers might have located their daughter sooner had they gotten the go-ahead to proceed with an investigation. But the Sandlers decided against a legal course of action.

It won't bring back Simone. Nothing will. Not even finding her killer.

"But someone should not be getting away with this," Linda and Stephen both said. "If they do find out, it will at least give us some sense of closure."

Pregnant women warned to protect against H1N1

Since more than 10 percent of the H1N1 swine flu fatalities in Brazil were pregnant women, doctors in Japan are asking expectant mothers — who have a higher risk of developing complications if infected — to wash their hands and take other precautions.

The Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology, an organization of OB-GYN doctors, is calling for pregnant women with suspected swine flu symptoms to get treatment at fever clinics and general hospitals rather than OB-GYN clinics to prevent the H1N1 virus from spreading to other expectant mothers during the epidemic.

JSOG is recommending Tamiflu and Relenza for pregnant women who catch the new flu. A guideline in the United States says the two antiviral drugs have no negative side effects on babies. The organization is also urging the government to give expectant women priority for swine flu vaccines.

The figures announced Wednesday by the Brazilian government sent shock waves around the world. Of the 557 people who died, 58 were pregnant. No such deaths have been reported so far in Japan.

The government is expected to formally place expectant mothers on the vaccine priority list in September.

"Pregnant women comprise only about 1 percent of the population but the number of deaths (among those women) is high," Hisanori Minakami, a professor at Hokkaido University who belongs to JSOG, said during a meeting Thursday to discuss the priority list for new influenza vaccines. "I have a sense of crisis."

Women are also concerned.

"I'm worried about the higher risk of pregnant women but I'm also worried what will happen to my newborn baby," said a 42-year-old woman in Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo, who is close to giving birth.

She wears a mask when she needs to go out and avoids crowds. "But I don't know which department to be treated at when I am infected," she said.

When women are pregnant, their immunity to viruses weakens, putting them at higher risk of complications. Seasonal and new flu viruses can lead to pneumonia and other diseases.

JSOG is urging pregnant women with potential flu symptoms — fever, runny nose, sore throat and cough — to call a general hospital and get treated early.

Nationwide, total swine flu deaths grew to seven Saturday when a woman in her 30s in Tatsuno, Hyogo Prefecture, died after contracting the virus, the municipal government of Himeji said the same day.

She was preceded by a female cancer patient, also from Hyogo, in her 60s, the Kagoshima Prefectural Government said.

The woman, from Makurazaki, Hyogo Prefecture, had cancer of the digestive system and a tumor that spread to her lungs after surgery, local government officials said.

She was treated with Tamiflu on Friday after being entering a hospital complaining of a sore throat, coughing and a 38-degree fever she had developed the previous day, officials said. But her condition worsened, and she died early Saturday, becoming the nation's sixth swine flu fatality.

In Shiga Prefecture, a 5-year-old boy infected with swine flu showed signs of resistance toward Tamiflu, the prefecture said Saturday, becoming the fifth Tamiflu-resistant patient in the country.

Prefecture officials said the virus is likely to have mutated in his body.

Although the boy was given Tamiflu, he showed no signs of recovery and was admitted to a hospital, the officials said, adding he has now fully recovered from the virus.

Let Malaysians advertise Pendet and wayang

We Indonesians are simply overreacting in our response to Malaysia's use of the Balinese Pendet dance in promotional TV spots. We are acting like a big brother and bullying our younger brother. And such responses will not help us become a better nation.

First, it was a small protest from a group of Balinese people, the rightful owner of the dance, then unfortunately it grew into a nationwide condemnation of Malaysia.

Just read the comments posted at www.thejakartapost.com or many other Internet forums discussing the issue, and you will easily find many condemnations from Indonesians against Malaysia, some even urging the government to ganyang (invade) Malaysia, invoking memories of the time Indonesia was in confrontation with Malaysia.

Unwisely, the government responded in the same way, with the tourism minister summoning the Malaysian embassy's top official and sending a letter of protest to his counterpart in Kuala Lumpur.

But it did not stop there. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono joined the fray, calling on the Malaysian government to deal more carefully with "sensitive" cultural issues between the two countries.

Our responses have really gone too far. Just read this news from Antara: Diponegoro University (Undip), one of Indonesia's leading institutes of higher learning, has stopped admitting Malaysian students for the 2009-2010 academic year in an expression of "nationalism".

"We have done it as a concrete expression of our sense of nationalism," Undip rector Susilo Wibowo said Tuesday as quoted by Antara, after attending a ceremony to mark the induction of new students.

But we don't know the real reasons behind it. It could be because there were no Malaysian students applying to study at the university this academic year, which begins in July.

The point here is that we just overreacted to this issue, or worse, we tried to bully one of our closest neighbors.

Malaysia uses various Asian cultural expressions, especially Chinese and Indian, in its tourism campaign "Malaysia Truly Asia". China and India have never protested Malaysia's use of their cultural heritage in its tourism campaigns.

Why then are we so angry whenever Malaysia uses our cultural heritage, including the Pendet, batik and wayang in their tourism campaigns? In reality, though, Malaysia has never claimed the Pendet as their dance, batik as their craft or wayang as their performance.

These are Indonesian cultural expressions brought to Malaysia by the millions of Indonesians who moved there, mostly as migrant workers.

If it's an issue of rights, we don't have copyrights for most of our cultural products. Much, if not the majority of our cultural heritage, was created by our ancestors for the good of society and mankind.

For instance, many of our best classical Javanese gamelan compositions were written by anonymous composers. They were composed for the kings and the people, and the composers deliberately did not put their names there, much less copyrighted them.

Before Indonesia existed, anyone could play these compositions, even people from outside the Javanese kingdom. Now that Indonesia exists, does it mean nobody outside Indonesia can play and use them in their tourism campaigns, even if they have gamelan groups in their own countries?

Currently, hundreds of gamelan groups exist outside Indonesia. If they wish to promote their groups or if their country wishes to use these gamelan groups to promote tourism, they have every right to use gamelan images in their campaign.

Thus instead of getting angry or sending letter of protests or stopping admitting Malaysian students, we should be more positive and collaborate with the Malaysian government to promote our culture in that country.

When there are more Malaysians dancing the Pendet and playing the gamelan and to Indonesian pop songs, it will only mean more benefits, and not losses, to Indonesia. It will mean more commerce and tourism between the two countries.

Not only that, it would also strengthen cultural ties between the two nations.

Similarly, if Malaysia advertises more Indonesian cultural heritage, it would bring more benefits than losses to us.

Let says, Malaysia advertises the Pendet, and tourists go there because of the advertisement. There is a great chance these tourists will continue on to Bali to see the Pendet at its source. So it not only saves us precious advertising dollars - which we rarely ever spend anyway - but also brings in dollar from more tourist visits.

So let Malaysians dance our Pendet and play our wayang and advertise them. It will only do good things for us in Indonesia.

Fears as Chinese food pours in, farmers claim lost markets and biosecurity risk

CHINA is supplying an ever increasing quantity of food to Australian consumers, raising concerns about food safety and the capacity of local farmers to compete with cheaper imports.

According to the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service, between January 1 last year and May 31 this year more than 4200 tonnes of prawns were imported from China into Australia.

This was in addition to 153 tonnes of frozen broccoli and cauliflower, 65 tonnes of fresh apples, 95 tonnes of fresh pears, 325 tonnes of garlic, 72 tonnes of peas and 4292 tonnes of peanuts and peanut butter. Last year, imports of Chinese vegetables rose by 35 per cent from 2007, making it the second-biggest importer, behind New Zealand. As imports have risen, local production has declined.

"Chinese imports are putting the industry in Australia on a very unsound footing and I think Australians should be very concerned about food security," said Tasmanian vegetable grower Mike Badcock, a former chairman of peak body Ausveg.

Mr Badcock said Australian producers faced higher costs due to stricter standards.

"The biggest problem we have got is the government attitude that we have to meet the market, but it is not a fair market and I think the government is playing a very risky game for a short-time cheap product. Once the Chinese have ruined our industries in Australia the prices will go up," he said.

Mr Badcock cited the example of the Australian garlic industry. He said Chinese garlic, a quarter the cost of the local product, had flooded the market. "But once they ruined the producers of garlic in Australia, they put the price back up."

He said 90 per cent of garlic now sold in Australia came from China.

Federal Minister for Agriculture Tony Burke said 98 per cent of the fresh produce in Australia was locally grown. "The question that needs to be asked when deciding whether fresh produce should be allowed to be imported is whether or not there is an unacceptable biosecurity risk. Our systems for assessing that are rigorous and science-based," Mr Burke said.

But opposition spokesman on agriculture John Cobb said: "When we look at the stuff that is coming in and competing in Australia with Australian products, it is staggering."

He argued that when the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme came in, Australian products would become even more expensive.

Australians were alerted to food safety problems in China last year after melamine was found to have been added to baby formula. Six infants died and nearly 300,000 were hospitalised.

In the US, 1950 cats and 2200 dogs died after eating food contaminated with melamine. Melamine-tainted products were also fed to pigs, fish farms and chickens.

A US Department of Agriculture report last month said the most common reasons Chinese products were refused entry to the US were "filth", unsafe additives, inadequate labelling and lack of proper manufacturer registration, and potentially harmful veterinary drug residues in farmed fish and prawns.

Trevor Anderson of the Australian Prawn Farmers Association worries about the risk of diseases such as white spot and yellow head virus that exist in China but not in Australia.

He said a number of antibiotics had been found in Chinese prawns that resulted in bans and restrictions into the US, "who are much more rigorous than we are about these things".

Mr Anderson said Australian farms were run under "rigorous environmental standards".

"Not only are the Environmental Protection Authority watching every step we make, we are watching each other. We have a clean, green image to protect," he said.

How Retirees Can Spend Enough, but Not Too Much

By RON LIEBER
Published: August 28, 2009

When you retire, you’ll probably want to visit your grandchildren more than once each year. Perhaps you’ll aim to give money each month to charity or your religious congregation.

The amount you have saved will clearly matter a great deal in whether you can do these things. But so will your portfolio withdrawal rate — the percentage of your assets that you take out each year to pay your expenses. You want it to be high enough to afford fun and generosity but low enough that you have little risk of running out of money.

Until a few years ago, the standard advice was that 4 percent or 4.5 percent was about the best you could do. So if you had $500,000 in savings, 4 percent would give you about $20,000 in your first year of retirement to augment Social Security and any other income. Then, you could give yourself a raise each year based on inflation. At 3 percent inflation, you’d end up with $20,600 in the second year of retirement and so on from there.

More recently, however, several studies have suggested that withdrawing 5 percent or even 6 percent was possible — and still prudent.

Retirees rejoiced.

And then the stock market fell to pieces.

In the wake of the carnage, people who hope to retire anytime soon will probably be starting with a kitty smaller than they had expected just a few years ago. So an extra percentage point on the withdrawal rate matters even more than it might have in 2007. It could be the difference between traveling to see family or not, or it could determine when you get to retire in the first place.

But could it also lead you on a path toward ruin? This week, I went back to two of the researchers who had come up with the more generous formulas to see whether they’re sticking by them. Not only are they staying the course, but one is telling his clients that they can take out as much as 6 percent of their money during the next year.

How can they justify something like this after the year we’ve just had?

Setting a Rate

Here’s one big reason to be suspicious about applying that same 4.5 percent withdrawal rate to all people, no matter when they retire: Should a person who had the bad luck to retire in March 2009, at the stock market’s recent bottom, spend 4.5 percent of, say, $350,000, or could they spend a bit more? After all, people who retired a year or two earlier with the same portfolio, before the bulk of the stock market’s decline, might have started with 4.5 percent of $550,000 (and taken inflation-adjusted raises each year from that initial amount until they died).

It didn’t seem right to Michael E. Kitces, a financial planner and director of research at Pinnacle Advisory Group in Columbia, Md. He said he was uncomfortable with all the decisions made based on “the day you happen to come into my office and the balance on that day.”

In fact, he started looking into this before the market collapsed, and his research ended up suiting the conditions of the last year perfectly. He tried to figure out whether one could estimate how much better or worse stock market returns might be in the years after big declines — and whether the answer might allow for a more generous initial withdrawal rate.

What he concluded was that the overall market’s price-earnings ratio — taking the current price for the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index divided by the average inflation-adjusted earnings for the past 10 years before the date of withdrawal — was predictive enough to produce guidelines. Then he came up with the following suggestions for a portfolio of 60 percent stocks and 40 percent bonds meant to last through 30 years of retirement.

If the ratio was above 20, indicating that stocks were overvalued, than a 4.5 percent withdrawal rate was prudent given that the stock market was likely to fall. But if it was between 12 and 20 (the historical median is roughly 15.5), a 5 percent rate was safe, tested against every historical period for which data was available. And if it was under 12 — a level it almost got to earlier this year — a rate of 5.5 percent would work.

The most recent figure was 17.67, which suggests a 5 percent withdrawal rate for current retirees. It had been above 20 until October 2008.

Mr. Kitces gets his ratios from a set of data that the Yale professor Robert Shiller creates and stores on Yale’s Web site , at http://bit.ly/3gexz. I’ve provided a link to that data (Mr. Kitces uses column K in the Excel spreadsheet there) and to all of the other research in this column in the online version of this story.

Making Adjustments

Jonathan Guyton, a financial planner with Cornerstone Wealth Advisors in Edina, Minn., looked at the 4.5 percent baseline and asked a different question: Couldn’t it be a whole lot higher if a client was willing to forgo the annual inflation raise when conditions called for a bit of thrift?

And if so, under what conditions would that happen — and would people be willing to, in effect, cut their own retirement paycheck?

It didn’t take Mr. Guyton long to find out. Two studies he worked on in 2004 and 2006 led him to the following conclusions about a portfolio meant to last 40 years: Using Mr. Kitces’s research to establish a baseline initial withdrawal rate of up to 5.5 percent (or 5 percent given valuations at the moment), the initial withdrawal rate could rise another whole percentage point, to 6.5 percent, if at least 65 percent of the money was in a variety of stocks, as long as the owner followed a few rules.

First, if the portfolio lost money in any given year, there would be no raise at all for inflation. And if the size of the withdrawal, in dollars, in any year amounted to an actual percentage rate of the remaining portfolio that was at least 20 percent more than the initial withdrawal rate, retirees would have to take a 10 percent cut in their annual allowance that year. Then, the increase for inflation would build on that new base the following year.

While Mr. Guyton also put a “prosperity” rule into place that allowed for a 10 percent increase in particularly good years, 2008 tested his “capital preservation” rule first. So he cut his clients’ withdrawals by 10 percent.

How did they take it? “Many of them said, ‘Really, that’s all?’ ” he recalled. “Keep in mind how dire things seemed.”

Others blanched, noting that they had played by the rules and didn’t cause the financial crisis. But they came around when Mr. Guyton gave them a good talking to. “For us to maintain the same degree of long-term financial security for you that you said you wanted, this is what you need to do,” he told them. “It’s a system. And the great thing about a policy is that it leaves no doubt about what you are supposed to do.”

Another cut of 10 percent might severely hurt their purchasing power, but the stock market’s performance since March suggests that it won’t be necessary in the coming months.

The Real World

The actual execution of these strategies requires a bit more work. You need to figure out what stocks and bonds should make up your investments in the first place, for instance, and how best to minimize taxes when you sell each year.

All this together seems complicated enough to suggest to a cynic that it’s just a ruse to keep a client coming back each year for costly checkups. That said, surviving retirement without a big pension that never runs out isn’t easy, and paying a bit of money each year in exchange for help in prudently raising your withdrawal rate by 20 percent does not strike me as completely insane.

Retirees also have to wonder whether the market will behave in the future as it has in the past. Or whether retirees can realistically stick to a strict budget. “Even if you tell me that spending fluctuates a bit here and there, we still have to start somewhere,” said Mr. Kitces. “What on earth is your alternative? Are you not going to give any spending recommendations whatsoever?”

Mr. Guyton solves this issue for clients who can afford it by carving out a separate discretionary fund. Retirees can spend that money on anything, but once it’s gone, it’s gone, unless they manage to replenish it out of their regular annual withdrawal.

There are still plenty of retirees and advisers who will balk at what appears to be outsize aggressiveness, whatever the studies indicate. To them, Mr. Guyton suggests an entirely different consideration.

“The only problem is you run out of money? I don’t buy that,” he said. “For a lot of people who lock in on a 4 percent figure, it’s a formula for regret. They get 15 years in and look back at all of the things they didn’t do. And now their health is gone.”

Lotto shakeup looms

Rob Ferguson
Robert Benzie
Queen's Park Bureau

The Liberal government is set to clear house at the troubled Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation in a mad scramble to pre-empt another eHealth-style spending scandal, the Star has learned.

Three informed sources said OLG chief executive Kelly McDougald is fighting for her $400,000-a-year job, which she got two years ago with a mandate to reform the error-prone monopoly that oversees everything from casinos to the popular Lotto 6/49.

Sources said late yesterday that the Liberals hope to short-circuit an expected onslaught from the Progressive Conservatives when the Legislature returns Sept. 14 and are concerned about the impact of any new controversy on the Sept. 17 by-election in the mid-town Toronto riding of St. Paul's.

"Something big is up," a senior government official confirmed.

"By next week, OLG will look much different. And by the time this is over, they'll be forced to clean up their act."

McDougald has already been reprimanded by the Liberals for a series of problems at the gambling agency – including awarding foreign-made Mercedes-Benz cars as casino prizes at the same time as the province was bailing out General Motors and Chrysler.

An audit last winter also found:

A Good Samaritan treated shabbily when he tried to turn in a cache of lost tickets;

A malfunctioning slot machine erroneously informing a player he'd won $42.9 million when the maximum payout was $9,025;

A misprinted scratch-and-win ticket that led a man to believe he had won $135,000 when he hadn't.

But the straw that broke the camel's back appears to be Liberal fears of a reprise of the eHealth Ontario debacle at OLG.

The Tories, repeating their successful strategy that exposed spending run amok at the electronic health records agency, are seeking thousands of pages in OLG documents under freedom of information legislation.

Records sought include expense accounts of senior executives, spending on leased, owned and rented venues, such as luxury boxes at sports stadiums, contracts for consultants as well as travel costs.

So far, the Tories have been stonewalled in their request for information as the Liberals try to beat them to the punch by taking pre-emptive action.

"The concern is she's been running OLG like it's a private-sector company when it's a government agency," said one Liberal insider.

McDougald was not in her office yesterday afternoon and did not return emails and calls from the Star.

She was put in the top job after previous troubles at the Crown agency, where it was found that lottery retailers, employees and their families won $198 million in prizes over 13 years, dating from 1996.

"Any CEO that's running a large organization under public scrutiny certainly feels under the gun," McDougald, a former Bell Canada and Nortel executive, told the Star in March.

OLG officials were also unavailable for comment yesterday.

The Liberals were reluctant to talk on the record because negotiations on the future of the OLG executive team are expected to continue through the weekend and into next week.

Premier Dalton McGuinty issued warnings to government agencies like OLG in the wake of the eHealth scandal – which saw consultants paid $2,700 a day while expensing $3.99 bags of cookies to taxpayers – that such spending no longer passes the sniff test and must stop.

Tory MPP Norm Miller (Parry Sound-Muskoka) said the party has been trying since January to glimpse the inner workings of OLG.

"So far, we've been getting rebuffed. It certainly looks a lot like eHealth because with that we had to be very persistent – it wasn't just ask once and get the information. It certainly makes us suspicious."

Miller said the Tories targeted OLG because the organization "has had quite a few problems."

He added that voters would likely see through any OLG shake-up that seemed to be politically motivated.

The eHealth scandal continues to dog the Liberals, who are watching the issue resurface in the St. Paul's by-election.

Sex slave tip-off: 'girls stared into my soul'

Two American policewomen say they became suspicious of accused kidnapper Phillip Garrido when his young daughters' behaviour caused them to feel "weird and uneasy".

Garrido, 58, and his wife Nancy, 54, pleaded not guilty yesterday to 29 alleged offences including kidnapping, rape and false imprisonment, following the discovery of Jaycee Lee Dugard on Wednesday.

The blonde schoolgirl was snatched outside her home in 1991 aged 11, and was imprisoned for 18 years.

During her captivity Garrido fathered two daughters, aged 11 and 15, with Ms Dugard.

The police officers saw Garrido with the two young girls at the University of California at Berkeley on Wednesday (local time).

Garrido was trying to hand out religious literature propounding claims he was able to channel the voice of God.

Allie Jacobs says something about the girls did not feel right.

"They were extremely pale. In comparison to Phillip they were extremely, extremely pale," she said.

"[They had] bright blue eyes just like him, and I just got a weird uneasy feeling.

"I was looking at the younger daughter, who was sitting across from me, and she was staring directly at me.

"It was almost like she was looking into my soul - that's how her eyes were so penetrating."

Ms Jacobs says the girls told her they did not go to school, but were given lessons at home.

She says the younger daughter sounded robotic and rehearsed when she explained a bruise around her eye as a birth defect.

Garrido was subsequently summoned to a meeting Wednesday with his parole officer.

The parole officer, having previously visited the Garrido home, found it strange that in addition to his wife Nancy he brought along two girls and a woman he called "Allissa."

Ms Dugard's real identity emerged during the course of the meeting and Garrido and his wife Nancy were detained.

Garrido is now also being investigated over the deaths of prostitutes in the 1990s.

However, questions are now mounting about how Garrido was able to hold Ms Dugard captive for 18 years, along with the two girls she bore him, despite neighbours' warnings to police that something was amiss.

Secret garden

Ms Dugard was confined in a makeshift prison of sheds and tents in what police have described as a "backyard within a backyard" at Garrido's home in Antioch, around 80 kilometres east of San Francisco.

Police in Contra Costa County admitted on Friday that they had received a tip in November 2006 and failed to follow it up properly.

Sheriff Warren Rupf issued an apology over the missed opportunity to rescue Ms Dugard, saying law enforcement officials were distraught over their failure to discover Garrido's crimes earlier.

"I can't change the course of events, but we are beating ourselves up over this and are the first to do so," Mr Rupf said.

Mr Rupf said the sheriff's deputy who responded to the tip never entered the house or checked the backyard, missing an opportunity to rescue Ms Dugard.

Others of Garrido's neighbours said they had no idea that anything was wrong.

"It's kind of embarrassing to be here this long and not know what's going on. How could that go on under all of our noses?," one neighbour, who gave his name only as Steve, said.

New details suggested that Garrido was able to cultivate a normal public persona, taking on jobs and even allowing Ms Dugard to interact with other people.

A man who once hired Garrido for a printing job told The New York Times on Saturday that he had met, exchanged emails and regularly spoken on the phone with a woman who was introduced as Garrido's daughter Allissa.

Ben Daughdrill said the woman never suggested that she was being held captive or tried to identify herself as Ms Dugard.

Her stepfather Carl Probyn said Ms Dugard appeared to have formed a relationship of sorts with her abductor.

"Jaycee feels that she has real regrets for bonding with this guy," Mr Probyn told reporters outside his home in Orange, south of Los Angeles.

Mr Probyn said Ms Dugard, who was reunited with her mother and half-sister on Friday, was struggling to come to terms with what had been inflicted upon her and experts said it could take years for her to recover.

Gene therapy for the unborn

Successful trials raise hopes for end to inherited human disorders

Scientists are on the verge of ridding inherited diseases from future generations with a new technique for swapping genes between unfertilised human eggs before the resulting IVF embryos are implanted into the womb.

The technique has been successfully tested on laboratory monkeys and researchers believe it is now safe enough to apply for clinical trials on the many thousands of women at risk of giving birth to babies with some of the most debilitating inherited disorders.

Such a procedure would break new ground and raise fresh ethical concerns over the direction of IVF research because it would lead to permanent changes to the genetic make-up of children that would be passed on to subsequent generations of the same families.

This form of gene therapy, known as germline gene therapy, alters the DNA of sperm or eggs and is banned in Britain because of fears over its safety as well as the prospect of it leading to the creation of "designer babies". However, a clause in the new Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act, which comes into force on 1 October, could permit a type of germline gene therapy involving mitochondrial DNA – which exists outside the chromosomes – without the need for changes to primary legislation and a parliamentary vote.

Mitochondria, the tiny "power houses" of cells and their DNA, which lies outside the nucleus, is inherited solely down the maternal line. It is estimated that 1 in every 200 babies are born with mitochondrial mutations, some of which can lead to serious, life-long illnesses, such as diseases of muscles and nerves, as well as diabetes and cancer. The study on monkeys involved "renewing" the mitochondria of their eggs by the wholesale transfer of the chromosomes of one of their eggs into the egg of a donor female that had its own chromosomes removed so that only her mitochondrial DNA was left.

The aim was to test the feasibility of taking eggs from women with one of the 150 known mitochondrial DNA disorders and using them to create healthy eggs by transferring their chromosomes into donor eggs with no chromosomes of their own. The resulting egg would have DNA from two females and, when fertilised with a sperm, would result in an embryo which has three genetic parents.

In the latest study, four healthy macaque monkeys have been born using the technique. The scientists involved said yesterday there is no evidence that the procedure is unsafe and that they were planning to apply for ethical approval to conduct clinical trials in humans within a few years.

"In theory, this research has demonstrated it is possible to use this therapy in mothers carrying mitochondrial DNA diseases so that we can prevent those diseases from being passed on to their offspring," said Shoukhrat Mitalipov, of Oregon Health and Science University in Beaverton, Oregon.

"We believe with proper governmental approvals, our work can rapidly be translated into clinical trials for humans, and approved therapies," said Dr Mitalipov, whose study with colleague Masahito Tachibana is published in the journal Nature.

Conventional gene therapy has been tried in humans for 20 years but changing the DNA of mitochrondria would raise new ethical concerns. "This is not a simple form of gene therapy. This type involves replacing genes in the germline which will of course transmit it to the next generation and there are concerns," Dr Mitalipov said.

"We are talking of gene defects that cause terrible diseases. So the only way to prevent these genetic defects is to replace these genes whether we like it or not. We realise it's gene therapy involving the germline."

Professor Peter Braude, a specialist in reproductive medicine at King's College London and director of the Centre for Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis at Guy's Hospital, said that the study involved a series of technically difficult experiments that were meticulously executed. "For the first time, proof of principle has been demonstrated that transmission of mitochondrial disease might be avoided. It is a first step toward preimplantation correction of the serious medical disorders caused by defective DNA inherited maternally in the mitochondria," Professor Braude said.

"The transfer of the normal genetic material from a mother who has defective mitochondria, to a clean donated oocyte [egg] with normal mitochondria would allow it to be fertilised with her partner's sperm and for them to have a child free of the mitochondrial disease with the genetic material of the couple."

A spokesman for the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority said: "If, in the future, safe and effective treatments are then developed to prevent the transmission of mitochondrial disease, Parliament would have to pass secondary legislation to allow that treatment to take place under HFEA licence. Any specific proposals would be closely examined by a Licence Committee to ensure that appropriate safeguards were in place."

Jaycee Lee Dugard walks into police station 18 years after disappearance

A woman who was abducted in 1991 at the age of 11 was waiting to meet her mother on Thursday after walking into a California police station and identifying herself as Jaycee Lee Dugard.

Miss Dugard was abducted near her home in South Lake Tahoe on June 10, 1991 by two people in a gray sedan.

Her parents have spoken to the young woman over the phone and say they are convinced she is the daughter they believed they would never see again.

"I had personally given up hope," her stepfather Carl Probyn told ABC News. "I had just hoped for a recovery [of a body]... I've actually won the lotto."

He added: "She sounds like she's okay. She had a conversation with my wife and she remembers things. I hope she's been well treated this entire 18 years."

Her mother Terry Probyn and 19-year-old half-sister Shayna were flying from their home in southern California to be reunited with the woman who California authorities say is their long-lost relative.

Although the details of Miss Dugard's re-emergence are not yet clear, it is understood that Phillip Craig Garrido, 58, and Nancy Garrido, 55, are now in custody. Police were also said to be searching a home in Antioch, a suburb of San Francisco.

Mr Garrido, a registered sex offender with a prior conviction for rape, was being held on suspicion of kidnapping, rape, lewd and lascivious acts with a minor, sexual penetration and kidnapping, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Nancy Garrido was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy and kidnapping, the newspaper said.

Miss Dugard, who would now be 29, was seized by a man and a woman on the morning of June 10, 1991 as she walked to her school bus stop in her home town of South Lake Tahoe, California.

Mr Probyn heard his stepdaughter scream and saw her being forced into a grey car, but was unable to prevent the kidnapping, which became one of the most notious unsolved crimes in the US.

There were a number of reported sightings of the blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl in nearby towns in the years after her disappearance, but the trace ran cold and her family had resigned themselves to never seeing her again, although the case was never closed.

Rumours surfaced that she had been kidnapped by religious cult members or known child abusers, although police could find no firm leads.

Authorities were due disclose more information about Dugard's remarkable re-emergence – and how she has spent the last 18 years – in a news conference on Thursday afternoon.

But her case is already being compared to that of Natascha Kampusch, the Austrian girl held for more than eight years in a dungeon below the home of her abusive captor. Kampusch only secured her own freedom by escaping from her windowless cell in August 2006, after which her kidnapper Wolfgang Priklopil committed suicide.

Mr Probyn, who was initially a suspect in the case and was forced to take repeated lie detector tests, said that his wife, from whom he is estranged, initially believed the phone call she received from the FBI telling her the news was a hoax.

"To have this happen, where she walks into a police station, is really a miracle to get her back," Mr Probyn said. "And she sounds like she is doing okay. I don't know if she is married. I don't know if a cult took her, or if a couple who didn't have kids took her. I'll find out today all these answers."

Sorry, Brazil's Carnaval Is Not a Free for All, All Out Orgy

It's Carnaval in Rio and I am honestly not that excited about it. I did the whole Rio experience last year with a bunch of blocos, performing in the Children's Parade, and going to two nights at the Sambadrome (one night of the Special Groups, the other the Champion's Parade). My experience at the Sambadrome was amazing, an incredible opportunity, one I felt no need to repeat this year.

The blocos were an interesting cultural experience, but after I had a claustrophobia-induced panic attack at one of them, I wasn't so crazy about them. Though I love dancing, I hate being in the sun and heat in huge groups of people, especially drunk ones. Plus, though the music is great, it's the same short song played over and over and over again and I find it a little tedious after awhile.

I do regret not going to any samba school rehearsals this year though; they're held indoors and are a lot of fun, where people seem more interested in dancing than in getting wasted. Another factor this year has been Eli, who was very sick for most of the week and isn't quite better yet, so I've been taking care of him and helping him take it easy.

It's not that I don't like Carnaval; I'm completely fascinated by it, but this year I prefer to take a step back and watch it from the sidelines. (However, I did have a fantasy that by now I'd have become a blogging celebrity in Rio and a local celebrity would invite me to his/her box seats at the Sambadrome. I have a very vivid imagination.)

But I digress, because the real point of this post is aimed at my gringo readers who haven't yet experienced Rio's Carnaval, as well as the hordes of horny Googlers accessing my blogs in hopes of finding naked pictures of Carnaval queens and videos of sex in the streets of Rio. There's a great deal of mystique and a wealth of misinformation when it comes to Carnaval, so I'd like to clear up a few misconceptions.

I. Nudity & Sex

First of all, nudity is not omnipresent at Carnaval in Rio. Though a number of women in the parade at the Sambadrome wear very little clothing, the rest of the participants wear elaborate, heavy costumes, and those are the dancers and musicians that make up the bulk of the parade. At the street parties (blocos), which are the second great pride of Rio's Carnaval, revelers dress up in costumes or put on silly hats or accessories, but most certainly do not go half naked. You're more likely to find men in drag than women in thongs at the blocos.

Though nudity is not nearly as widespread at Rio's Carnaval than people think, it is unfortunately one of the most commonly projected images of Carnaval, Rio, and Brazil to the rest of the world. As a result, many foreigners incorrectly link nudity to promiscuity, assuming that Carnaval is some sort of sexual free-for-all, an all out orgy.

But I have bad news for you: it's not.

There is no sex in the Sambadrome parade, there is no sex on the streets during the blocos, and there is no sex in public in general (there are, however, copious amounts of men peeing in public). The only instance of semi-public promiscuity I've heard about is at the Scala club's tacky Carnaval parties, but I'm not sure how bad it really is.

Due to heavy drinking, some people certainly hook up and some make out in public, but it's not much different from meeting someone at a club or a party. The same rules apply - there is no special sex loophole for Carnaval.

Comfortable with Nudity

Many foreigners believe that Brazilian women are sluts and whores. Let's examine why. Juliana Paes, a beloved famous Brazilian novela and film actress, is going to help me demonstrate.

First, there's Rio Carnaval, where women in the Sambadrome parade wear very little clothing and dance sensually down the avenue, sometimes practically naked.

Since Rio's Carnaval celebration is the best known of all Brazilian celebrations in Gringolândia (and probably Latin American ones, at that), this is the image that is projected of Brazilian women to the world.

Many men, as a result, falsely assume that all Brazilian women are scantily-clad, sex-crazed, and provocative beings, incorrectly connecting costumes and dance with sexual habits. Carnaval is a celebration and in the case of Rio's Carnaval, a performance. Dancing in a bikini does not translate to nymphomania.

Next, there's the Brazilian bikini. Though the G-string bikini is no longer in fashion, the teeny weeny bikini bottom is, and when gringos get to the beach in Brazil, their jaws sometimes drop. (Keep in mind, however, that unlike in Europe, going topless in Brazil is NOT acceptable).

Also, there's nudity. Brazilians are more comfortable with nudity than Americans, and you'll see more skin in the media, on TV, and in public more than you would in North America. However, showing skin does not mean a person is necessarily more sexually inclined than others; being more comfortable with it is a cultural trait.

The moral of the story? There are sluts and hos in every country, and you are no more likely to find them in Brazil than you would in England or the US. You may find more prostitutes, since prostitution is legal, but that certainly doesn't mean that all women act like whores. In fact, Brazilian women are generally more reserved about sex that North Americans.

Though Brazilians are comfortable making out with strangers (perhaps another factor gringos assume is part of the nymphomania stereotype), I believe Brazilian women to be less promiscuous than Americans. You'd be hard-pressed to find a typical Brazilian woman primping with her friends before going out saying, "Man, I really have to get laid tonight!"

In the end, that girl in the teeny weeny bikini may actually be a total goody-two shoes.

II. Lifestyle

Some gringos believe that Rio is like Carnaval all year long. Though you can find a few blocos and plenty of samba school rehearsals during the year, Rio is definitely not a perpetual Carnaval. Though the work culture isn't like São Paulo, people work long hours and go about their daily lives without partying daily.

I've noticed a certain something in the air during Carnaval, a skip in people's steps, a definite weight lifted and a feeling of relaxation. Carnaval is different from the rest of the year, a time when people let go and transform into something different. Carnaval is, after all, a social pressure valve, especially in Rio.

Since people assume that Rio is a party city, it attracts some gringos to visit or move here. It didn't for me. I think the nightlife is far better in Buenos Aires and New York, but aside from that, Rio is an incredibly cosmopolitan city with museums, galleries, cafés, restaurants, movie theaters, shows, outdoor activities, and cultural centers. There's a lot more to Rio than its nightlife.

III. Authentic Experience

Some tourists come to see Carnaval in Rio because they think it's the "authentic" Brazilian cultural experience. Though it's internationally one of the most famous manifestations of Brazilian culture, there are so many other celebrations and representations of Brazilian culture. There are Carnaval celebrations in hundreds of other Brazilian cities and a huge wealth of holidays and traditions you can experience year-round.

Also, Rio life during Carnaval is different from Rio life during the rest of the year. Few people work (with the exception of restaurants, hotels, malls, etc), the city slows down, and many Cariocas leave the city, while the tourists pour in. Seeing Rio outside of the Carnaval season is just as authentic, if not more so.

This article was written earlier this year during Carnaval. Rachel Glickhouse, born in 1984, spent two years living in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil after graduating from college in 2007. She now lives in New York with her Brazilian husband. She has also lived in Spain, the Dominican Republic, and Argentina and has traveled through Latin America. You can find more about her in her blog: http://riogringa.typepad.com.

Teen's ignorance was fatal

A YOUNG P-plater drove his car with the engine turned off and keys out of the ignition because he thought it would save petrol.
It instead resulted in his death and one of his passengers losing half her face, a coroner has found.

The bizarre act caused the steering wheel to lock and resulted in the vehicle ploughing into a garbage truck, killing the 18-year-old instantly and severely injuring his three passengers.

The driver, whose name has been suppressed by the Coroners Court, had had his licence for only one month before his death.

Coroner Rod Chandler released his findings yesterday into the crash which occurred last December on the Channel Highway at Margate.

Mr Chandler has described the act as "ignorant" and urged lawmakers to ensure young drivers not only gained the skills they needed to drive on the road but also general vehicle knowledge.

"In my opinion the removal of the key from the Nissan's ignition was the principal factor causative of this crash because it disengaged the engine thereby effectively disabling the vehicle and preventing the driver from steering it on a safe course," Mr Chandler said in his findings.

"Quite clearly it is an extremely dangerous act to remove a key from a vehicle's ignition whilst it is still in motion.

"I am satisfied that it occurred in this instance not because the deceased was being foolhardy or irresponsible but rather because of his ignorance of its effect upon his capacity to manage the vehicle.

"His tragic death should serve as a reminder to all parents, driving instructors and others involved in driver training of the need to incorporate in learner driver education advice upon fundamental motor vehicle mechanics including direction upon the danger of driving when a vehicle's engine has been disengaged."

Mr Chandler said one of the passengers stated the driver had previously turned off the engine and removed the key -- causing the vehicle to roll, also known as "coasting".

"The deceased's mother also comments that her son was frequently `worried about petrol', and that it would be unsurprising to her if he had removed the key from the ignition in an effort to conserve fuel," he said.

Mr Chandler said speed and the fact the male driver of the Volvo truck had some minor traces of marijuana in his blood had nothing to do with the accident.

"I find that this crash occurred as a consequence of the deceased deliberately removing the key from the ignition while his car was still in motion," he said.

"As a consequence, the engine disengaged and the steering wheel locked as soon as an attempt was made to steer the vehicle.

"In the result it was unable to be diverted from its set course so that it moved from its northbound lane into the opposite lane and into the direct path of the Volvo truck."

The crash happened last December when the teen was driving towards Hobart on the Channel Highway with a group planning to travel to Launceston.

As the Nissan was approaching a left-hand curve it suddenly crossed to the opposite side of the roadway and into the path of the truck travelling towards Margate.

The driver of the truck braked heavily and tried to swerve but was unable to avoid a collision with the Nissan.

Would you remarry?

HONEY BACON, Kim Geale and Wendy Kennedy talk about how they feel about remarrying.

Honey Bacon, widow of former Premier Jim Bacon, says she has not ruled out re-marrying but thinks it's unlikely she would ever meet the perfect man again.

"I never thought I'd get married the first time," the 56-year-old says.

"I never thought that I wanted to -- or needed to -- get married.

"It wasn't until I met Jim that I realised I wanted to do it because I wanted to shout it from the rooftops."

Honey, who was married to Jim for 10 years before he succumbed to lung cancer, says she still loves her husband and can't imagine marrying someone else.

"I don't know whether I would ever feel that need again, but I'm sure it does happen to people," she says of re-marrying.

"It's about meeting the right person that you absolutely trust 100 per cent and want to share your life with.

"The chance of me meeting somebody is fairly remote... I wouldn't expect it. I am still in love with my husband."

Heart FM breakfast radio host Kim Geale is about to remarry fiance Andrew Napier after her 20-year-marriage to her first husband ended 12 months ago.

"My theory is just go for it," says Geale, who plans to wed in Hobart next January.

"Whether you get married or not the commitment is still there -- but if you get married you get the party to celebrate the attraction."

Geale, 42, says when her first relationship broke down she never imagined she would remarry, especially not so soon.

"I wondered how I'd ever meet anyone," says Geale, who has a 15-year-old son.

"I'm too old to go clubbing; I'm too young to hang out at parents without partners meetings and I didn't want to be the token single woman who got invited to barbecues because there was a guy there who was also single."

Her fiance, a school teacher, has been married before and has a 10-year-old daughter.

Hobart personality Wendy Kennedy says she would re-marry if she met the right man.

"If you'd asked me a few years ago I would have said that I didn't want to get married again," says the 48-year-old singleton who has a 19-year-old son.

"But now, because I've been single for quite a while, I actually quite like the concept of getting married again.

"I don't like the chances of it happening because I'm such a homebody and don't go out much.

"But I think as you get to middle age and mellow out you realise that it would be quite nice to have someone around."

Teens save schoolbus driver from basher

A bus driver says he might have been bashed to death by a passenger had it not been for the quick actions of a group of schoolchildren.

Ian Magee, a 56-year-old grandfather of nine, was attacked on his Auckland Metrolink bus just after picking up the last of a group of about 25 children - ranging from primary to high school students - in Mangere.

He said the "no fuss" morning turned ugly when a man - said to be in his 50s - got on board and started swearing at the children for being too noisy.

Mr Magee said he told the man to be quiet, but he walked towards the back of the bus yelling profanities and racist remarks at the children. "That was it," Mr Magee said. "I stopped the bus. It looked like he was going to hit one of the kids."

He told the man to get off the bus. Instead, the angry passenger grabbed Mr Magee, dragged him on to the street and started punching him.

"He hit me the first time on the side of the head, which stunned me a bit. The second hit, I got an eyeful of blood in my right eye."

The attacker hit Mr Magee another six to eight times while he was on the ground, as children on the bus screamed and pleaded with him to stop.

"That's when I saw three to four pairs of feet go past me and I don't know what [the students] did - yell or push him away - but it did the job. He ran off across the road."

Mr Magee said other students called the police and an ambulance.

A group of boys aged 16 and 17 from St Paul's College in Grey Lynn have been identified as the students who came to Mr Magee's aid during the attack, which happened just before 7am on Tuesday.

"I didn't see any of them. I don't know their names, but they are good kids," Mr Magee said.

"If I'd just had the little kids [on the bus] I would have got more of a pounding.

"They saved me and they saved the younger ones too."

Tramways Union Auckland chairman Gary Froggatt said the incident was shocking and he praised the teenagers' actions.

"On behalf of the union, we're extremely grateful to the students who assisted Ian. It showed courage and most likely has saved this man's life."

Mr Froggatt said the union was planning to acknowledge the students in a ceremony on a date to be set.

A South Auckland man has been charged with assault and is to appear in the Manukau District court tomorrow.

Study: Anti-breast cancer drug may cause severe symptoms

Beijing (ANTARA News/Xinhuanet-OANA) - A study from a research center in Seattle recently shows a drug which is known widely to cure breast cancer may lead to even severer symptoms, according to news reports on Wednesday.

Introduced in 1978, tamoxifen is used to prevent recurrences of cancer in women who have already undergone surgery to remove their tumors. However, a new research recently suggests it raises the risk of getting a more aggressive cancer in the healthy breast by more than four times.

"All treatments have risks and benefits," said Dr. Christopher Li, an associate member of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. "If you consider the full balance, for most women the benefits are going to far outweigh the risks."

The new study, which assessed the likelihood of developing a new cancer in the second breast, found that women who took tamoxifen for five years were 60 percent less likely than non-users to develop a new estrogen-sensitive tumor in the second breast, and 40 percent less likely to develop a new tumor of any kind in the second breast.

Several breast cancer experts said they are concerned that breast cancer patients who heard about the new study might stop taking their tamoxifen, even though the main reason to take the drug is to prevent the cancer they already have from recurring and spreading, which can lead to death.

Other experts agreed that the study is no reason to give up on tamoxifen. "The thing we have to remember is tamoxifen saves lives," said Dr. Victor Vogel, national vice president of research at the American Cancer Society.(*)

India to ban Chinese telecom products near borders?

In view of intelligence reports on threat to national security from terrorist attacks, the government is likely to restrict deployment of Chinese equipment by private service providers in border states and states facing Naxalite problems.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has called a meeting of Chief Executive Officers of telecom service providers on August 28 with Telecom Secretary, Siddharth Behura.

“Among other issues related to security, the meeting will also consider threat posed by the use of Chinese equipment by service providers, especially in border areas,” a senior DoT official told Hindustan Times.

On the agenda is a Home Ministry report, which says Chinese equipment should not be used in border areas, following which Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd was not allowed to place orders for Chinese equipment, the official said. DoT is considering whether this restriction should be extended to the private operators.

The step has been prompted by warnings from the intelligence agencies that Chinese telecom products could have embedded elements or windows which would enable the telecom company to launch a cyber attack into the equipment, either shutting it down or completely corrupting it, if it so desired.

Private telecom service providers source GSM equipment from, among others, two Chinese vendors — Huawei and ZTE. Huawei has invested $200 million (Rs 980 crore) in setting up an R&D centre in Bangalore.

“Our equipment and solutions strictly comply with global security standards,” a Huawei spokesperson said.

D.K. Ghosh, CMD of ZTE said: “We are Indians first and employees of a Chinese company later. Our primary intent is security of the country.”

India's unwise military moves

In the last few days, India has dispatched roughly 60,000 troops to its border with China, the scene of enduring territorial disputes between the two countries.

J.J. Singh, the Indian governor of the controversial area, said the move was intended to "meet future security challenges" from China. Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh claimed, despite cooperative India-China relations, his government would make no concessions to China on territorial disputes.

The tough posture Singh's new government has taken may win some applause among India's domestic nationalists. But it is dangerous if it is based on a false anticipation that China will cave in.

India has long held contradictory views on China. Another big Asian country, India is frustrated that China's rise has captured much of the world's attention. Proud of its "advanced political system," India feels superior to China. However, it faces a disappointing domestic situation which is unstable compared with China's.

India likes to brag about its sustainable development, but worries that it is being left behind by China. China is seen in India as both a potential threat and a competitor to surpass.

But India can't actually compete with China in a number of areas, like international influence, overall national power and economic scale. India apparently has not yet realized this.

Indian politicians these days seem to think their country would be doing China a huge favor simply by not joining the "ring around China" established by the US and Japan.
India's growing power would have a significant impact on the balance of this quation, which has led India to think that fear and gratitude for its restraint will cause China to defer to it on territorial disputes.

But this is wishful thinking, as China won't make any compromises in its border disputes with India. And while China wishes to coexist peacefully with India, this desire isn't born out of fear.

India's current course can only lead to a rivalry between the two countries. India needs

to consider whether or not it can afford the consequences of a potential confrontation with China. It should also be asking itself why it hasn't forged the stable and friendly relationship with China that China enjoys with many of India's neighbors, like Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

Any aggressive moves will certainly not aid the development of good relations with China. India should examine its attitude and preconceptions; it will need to adjust if it hopes to cooperate with China and achieve a mutually beneficial outcome.

China's success in economic reform draws praise

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China 60 years ago, the Chinese economy has developed into a model of prosperity under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party.

China's efforts have drawn praise from around the globe.

Thanks to its huge development, China has become a member of the world's major rising markets and is wielding increasing influence on the global economy. To many experts, China's economic success is a miracle of Asia and the world as well.

The Chinese economy has long been a driving force for the world's economic development. From 1979 to 2007, it registered an annual growth of 9.8 percent, 6.8 percent higher than the world average, and its rate of contribution to the world economy rose from 2.3 percent in 1978 to 14.5 percent in 2006, second only to the United States.

During a series of interviews with Xinhua, many foreign experts expressed their appreciation of China's economic reform.

Mohan Guruswamy, director of the Indian Center for Policy Alternatives and a former adviser to the finance minister, has been surprised at how the Chinese economy has kept its high speed of development over a long period of time.

The reform and opening up policy brought China into fast development, Guruswamy said, adding that the resulting achievements show the wisdom and far-sightedness of China's leaders.

Guruswamy said a huge volume of foreign direct investments stimulated industries on China's Mainland and helped build the country into a major manufacturing base.

China's infrastructure was improved, the commercial market was enriched, and the Chinese people's living standard was greatly enhanced at the same time, he added.

Luiz Antonio Paulino, an international relations professor at Brazil's Saint Paulo state university, said China's development process can be divided into two stages.

In the first stage from 1949 to 1978, the Chinese people's major task was to consolidate the basis of their new country.

"Only the competent Chinese Communist Party could succeed in uniting all of the people and setting the country's progress as the common target of each citizen," said Paulino, also president of the San Paulo Confucius College.

Paulino said that in the second stage, from 1978 on, China began to experience deep changes, especially after late leader Deng Xiaoping's symbolic tour of southern China in 1992.

"All those who have visited China were impressed by the hopeful and dynamic society and could feel the Chinese people's pride in their culture and tradition," Paulino said. "They found that people in the country were confident of the future and were united for a stronger and more prosperous nation."

Russian scholar Yakov Berger appreciated China's choice of a development mode suitable for its own situation.

China received help from the former Soviet Union during its industrialization process, but it did not copy the the Soviet mode. Instead, it made arduous efforts to explore a development plan designed for its own needs, said Berger, a senior research fellow with the Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Facts prove that China made the right choice, he said.

Berger said one of the main reasons that the reform and opening up policy has succeeded was that China's leaders revised their thinking and have adhered to the principle of moving step by step.

Japanese scholar Takashi Sekiyama said the socialist market economy is the fruit reaped from years of exploration and examination of China's economic construction.

"Great changes have taken place since China adopted the policy of reform and opening up in 1978, and China's rapid economic growth has attracted worldwide attention," said Sekiyama, a research fellow at the Tokyo Foundation, a government-related think tank.

Lauding the measures taken by China in building its socialist market system, Sekiyama said that the government staged a series of reforms, including those aimed at reforming State-owned enterprises, separating the functions of government from those of enterprises and revitalizing the non-State-owned sector of the economy.

China, Sekiyama said, has "learned from the failure of the planned economy," and "made decisive and skillful use of the power of the market to achieve an unprecedented economic leap forward."

"China has followed a development path characterized by comparative advantages and open economy, and has set a fine example for most developing countries," he added.

Kenneth Dewoskin, a senior researcher at the accounting firm Deloitte, said China's economy and living standards have experienced significant improvements during the past several decades.

Residents in the cities and in the countryside have benefited since the implementation of the reform and opening up policy in 1978, said Dewoskin, who has studied China for more than 40 years.

Dewoskin said China's economic development mode has two key characteristics. One is that the concept of reform has become a part of the economic culture. The other is that the concept of private capital and markets has become a major component of the reform.

Furthermore, the adjustment of China's economic policies appears to be in better order and the government's economic administration level is rising, he added.

Many economists attribute China's development to its balanced relationship between the market and the government.

Justin Lin Yifu, chief economist and senior vice president of the World Bank, said that it was not necessarily good to undertake a comprehensive market economy.

Reviewing China's experiences in development, Lin said the government should engage in the market.

Sociologist Paul Lim, a senior academic advisor at the European Institute for Asian Studies, said that the Chinese economic model has worked well after its transition from a planned economy to a market economy.

Lim believes that China's economic recovery amidst the ongoing global financial crisis will give a boost to the world.

Peter Lewis, director of the African program at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, said African nations can learn a lot from China's development experiences.

China was poor several decades ago, but now sees fast growth in its economy and a dramatic improvement in people's lives, Lewis said.

Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate in economics, said he thinks the success of China's new growth model will "benefit the rest of the world."

Touring Ontario's West Coast

Many Huron County travellers are just passing through, en route to the Great Lake, with its sparkling waters and sandy beaches, but there's every reason to stop and taste the local bounty. You'll enjoy good food, drink and treats in abundance once you shift into park.

Huron boasts it is "the most agriculturally productive county in Ontario." A leisurely drive will lead you through vast swaths of farm fields, sometimes flat, sometimes rolling, delineated by borders of trees. The county is famous for it pork and corn, but you'll find everything from herb gardens to apiaries here. In local food boutiques, fans of chocolate or garlic will discover products to please their palates. Get close to the lake and there's fresh, fish to take home or to enjoy in homey eateries.

Stay a while. Huron's waterfront towns are famous for their glorious sunsets. In Goderich, you can even catch the sunset twice, once from the beach, once from the bluffs.

BAYFIELD-Marlene O'Brien has been described as Bayfield's canning and preserving diva. This makes her blush. She doesn't like it. Sure, she knows her way around a mason jar, but she's a country girl, born and raised nearby, reticent and soft-spoken.

There's no diva in sight as we stroll around examining examine the shelves of jams and jellies at the barn-sized shop at Bayfield Berry Farm. O'Brien runs the place, and it looks as if she keeps busy. Besides browsing for treats to take home, visitors can stop for a bite at the café or indulge in a creation at the sundae bar. There's a lot of action out in the fields, too, for pick-your-own enthusiasts.

The 80-acre farm has been in the family since 2001. They grow all kinds of berries, as well as apples, rhubarb, peaches, plums, squash and asparagus. O'Brien's pet project nowadays is the five-acre swath of Saskatoon berries; she's campaigning to make this fruit more familiar to the public.

The harvests bring in a lot of raw material for baking and preserves.

Pies are baked with whatever happens to be ripe and ready from the fields just outside the door. Talk about a light carbon footprint.

O'Brien's latest project is a line of juices. Saskatoon berries, raspberries or elderberries are blended with apple, pressed and bottled right here.

As for preserves, O'Brien prepares the usual favourites, but also indulges her creativity. You may spot sumac flower or prickly pear jellies, for instance. Bayfield is known for its "butters," she says, pointing out jars of apple butter and pumpkin butter. She also sells gluten-free and no-sugar-added jams and jellies.

"It's a big thing," O'Brien says. "I always try for the niche market."

Prices are $5.75 to $5.95 for 250-millilitre jams, $4 to $5.50 for 500-millitre preserves.

O'Brien says she learned at her mother's knee. She grew up in nearby Benmiller in an industrious German family, where preserving and baking were ongoing kitchen projects.

"That was the norm," she says. "My mom is a big influence."


HENSALL - Interior decorator by day, garlic connoisseur by night - it was a busy life for Jackie Rowe. She had to choose, so she opted to dedicate her life to garlic.

"I eat massive amounts of garlic," Rowe proudly admits.

As you open the door at the head office of The Garlic Box, her business, the delicious scent wafts out. It's everywhere, even in the company's mail. Fresh Ontario garlic is sold here in the showroom, but there's much more, too, from dipping oils to dehydrated scapes.

"We dry it, we freeze it, we chop it," says Rowe, a grandmother of seven. "Garlic is so schizophrenic. It will go in sweet things. It will go into pickled things. You can cook it or eat it raw."

She and husband Jim started farming garlic in 1997 with one acre, then seven, then 100, then 400. They opened The Garlic Box for practical and enthusiastic reasons: to use up the heads that got dinged by the harvester and "to find a pulpit to stand on and preach the merits of Ontario garlic."

Rowe says China produces 65 per cent of the world's garlic and floods our markets with it, but local, hardneck garlic is superior. The "neck" is not soft and braidable, the cloves are big and fat, there's a round basal plate at the root, and the content of allicin (a healthful compound) is five times that of offshore garlic, Rowe boasts.

No longer farming, Rowe expects to process 52,000 lbs. of garlic purchased from growers across the province this year. Her creations - 34 and counting - are sold at gourmet food shops, farmers' markets and, of course, the office in Hensall. "We're cooking non-stop and developing products non-stop," she says.

Garlic steak splash and dry garlic blends for mashed potatoes are top sellers. Pickled cloves may be flavoured with Niagara Chardonnay or local honey. Friends in the maple syrup business prompted the creation of fabulous Maple Orange Garlic Sauce, which is smashing on duck or chicken.

As we browse the shelves, Rowe picks up a bottle of relish with garlic scapes. "This will make a hot dog worth eating," she says.


EXETER-It's hard to believe Huron County's chocolate masterminds learned candy-making by trial and error. They still laugh about the time they ruined their first batch of caramel - 40 pounds of it.

"We carried it and buried it in the backyard," Cherie Earle confesses.

We are in the 3,000-square-foot factory and shop at Sugar & Spice Chocolates. In the back, Earle's partner in life and business, Gerhard Kuhn, is squirting chocolate over nutty caramel Hippos (named after a fan commented she'd look like a hippo if she kept eating them). The caramel is just fine, thank you.

The shop's decor is a glorious jumble, inside and out. Call it country eclectic meets ye olde candy store. You can hardly see the porch for the twig furniture, flowers, antiques, figurines and birdhouses. Inside is a knick-knack browser's paradise crammed with everything from beer bottle tags to candles. And, of course, chocolates, candies and fudge in an antique showcase.

Sugar & Spice goes way beyond old-fashioned boxed chocolate. You can buy bars with labels featuring text messaging symbols, for instance, or order chocolate-covered licorice as wedding favours.

Earle is prone to jumping up in the middle of the night with new ideas. "We try to step out of your normal," says the spiky-haired grandmother of four. "We try to give them something they can't get everywhere else."

It's been 30 years since the Tilbury lady and the doughnut baker from Kitchener got into the chocolate business, and now Earle and Kuhn have five shops in the area. They fill many a custom Internet order, but their regulars are mainly local and loyal.

"I've had kids coming to see me and now they bring their kids," Earle says.

They certainly don't have to bury the Hippos, or the killer toffee crunch, or their signature, melt-in-your mouth Mint Smoothies. Life is sweet.

"We still eat a lot of chocolate," Earle says. "We call it quality control."

Kangaroo attack lands man in hospital

A MAN, 64, has been admitted to hospital suffering from multiple cuts after wrestling a kangaroo that attacked him from behind.

Paramedics said the man passed a group of kangaroos while he was walking yesterday morning in Sunbury.

''It was almost as tall as he was, and he wrestled it until he could break free,'' advanced life support paramedic Dennis Prendergast said of the attacking animal. The man had cuts to his eyelid, lip, stomach and leg.

He was admitted to Sunshine Hospital in a satisfactory condition. No report was available on the state of the kangaroo.

The incident is the third in which a kangaroo has attacked a person in Sunbury in the past year.

A male jogger suffered extensive injuries when he was attacked by a kangaroo in Sunbury in September last year.

A Sunbury woman was mauled by a kangaroo in April this year, suffering deep cuts.

Gender row: Semenya tests cast new doubt

Tests on controversial world champion South African runner Caster Semenya have reportedly revealed high levels of testosterone.

The dramatic improvement in Semenya's results both before and at the world athletics championships in Berlin prompted calls for a gender test from the sport's governing body, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).

The IAAF is trying to definitively determine her gender and subjected her to tests before she became the women's 800 metres world champion.

Now reports indicate she was found to have levels of the male hormone testosterone three times higher than normally expected in a female sample.

Controversy continues to grow around the South African runner, who returned home to a rapturous welcome.

"I don't know what to say, it's pretty good to win a gold medal and bring it home," she said on her arrival.

The South African Government has condemned the speculation about her gender, while the runner herself has refused to discuss the matter.

Semenya was among several South African athletes welcomed home by President Jacob Zuma.

The South African leader says the 18-year-old runner has the government's full support and maintains that she won her world title fairly.

Sources in Australia have been blamed for initiating the controversy, but Leonard Chuene from Athletics South Africa disputes this.

"The story that Caster is this and that is not coming from Australia - Australia is a scapegoat. The story comes from South Africa," he said.

'Caster is a girl'

Semenya is a tall, powerfully built athlete with a deep voice and facial hair. Her birth certificate states she is female but questions remain.

Her mother has tried to silence the doubters.

"Caster's enemies says that she is a boy, because they're jealous. Caster is a girl, Caster is a girl," she said.

Winnie Mandela, the former first lady, sat at Semenya's side.

"We are here to rally around you and South Africa will rally behind you," she said.

"This is our little girl and nobody's going to perform any tests on her. Don't touch us, don't touch us, because you dare, if those who want to challenge us continue to incite us using our own people."