Latest news about Family And Relationships and Food And Drink and more

This holiday season may have a dearth of options, and the current economic disaster is not be the only thing to blame. Right after an analyst decreed Apple’s iPod to be in short supply this season, Amazon’s Kindle eBook reader disappeared from shelves and will not be available until February of next year.

The Kindle has been out for a year, and has been enormously popular, so its vanishing makes a degree of sense. But one would figure Amazon understood the demand for its product and would stockpile appropriately.

Another theory is that Amazon might be making room for the updated Kindle 2.0, which was revealed in snippets earlier this year. Even though Amazon stated the Kindle 2.0 would not be released in 2008, the early photos and detailed specs made it clear that the company would have to vanquish its Kindle 1.0 stock to make room.

Meanwhile, shoppers for the eBook reader are out of luck. Unless, of course, you’re willing to brave eBay‘s price gouging.

at least 4,186 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

The figure includes eight military civilians killed in action. At least 3,387 military personnel died as a result of hostile action, according to the military’s numbers.

The AP count is two fewer than the Defense Department’s tally, last updated Wednesday at 10 a.m. EDT.

The British military has reported 176 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 21; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, seven; El Salvador, five; Slovakia, four; Latvia and Georgia, three each; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand and Romania, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan and South Korea, one death each.

Ever since the International Criminal Court began pursuing allegations of war crimes in Darfur in 2005, its investigators have pursued a government-backed militia leader known as “the colonel of colonels.” Ali Muhammad Ali Abd Al Rahman - a.k.a. Ali Kushayb - was high in the pantheon of the Janjaweed militia when a warrant was finally issued for his arrest in February 2007. Investigators said he led raids that left hundreds dead and countless homes destroyed. According to one witness, Ali Kushayb once inspected a line of naked women just before they were raped by his men. There were critical grumblings that the Sudanese government was coddling him: Ali Kushayb had been detained before but had been released for lack of evidence.

So it was more than a surprise when Khartoum announced last week that it had, in fact, been holding Ali Kushayb for several months and that he would be put on trial. “The timing of this particular claim about an arrest is certainly interesting,” says Christopher Hall, head of Amnesty International’s International Justice Project. Sudan claims that the investigation into Kushayb gained speed after a special prosecutor was appointed in August. But Hall and many others suspect that Ali Kushayb’s trial - if it ever happens - is just the Sudanese government’s latest gambit in what has become a full-blown campaign to derail the International Criminal Court’s investigation into its own complicity in charges of genocide in Darfur.

“We haven’t actually seen anything formal,” Hall says of Ali Kushayb’s trial. “One of the things that Amnesty International is asking for immediately is that Sudan permit a trial observer to attend the proceedings and for a copy of the charges and any other court documents related to the case.” On Tuesday, the New York-based Human Rights Watch derided Sudan’s domestic investigations into the Darfur conflict as nothing more than “window dressing.” The group’s Africa director, Georgette Gagnon, said that Sudan was clearly trying to block the ICC’s work. “No one should be fooled by these moves,” she said in a statement released on the group’s web site.

The government of President Omar al-Bashir has been criticized for its methods and policies since the very start of the Darfur conflict, which has killed some 300,000 and displaced 2.5 million in five years. Along with domestic trials, which have achieved little, Bashir announced on Thursday a “people’s initiative” to bring peace to Darfur, even though none of the rebel groups agreed to take part.

Such gestures have come more frequently in recent months as Sudan tries to shut down the ICC investigations, experts say. For a couple of years, Sudan seemed to have regarded the Hague-based International Criminal Court dismissively, but its focus was sharpened in July when Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo sought an arrest warrant for President Bashir himself. During the annual General Assembly session last month, Sudan pressed its case with other countries. The Bashir government warned that Sudan could cancel all its agreements with the U.N. if the ICC case goes ahead. “It is not true that the government is trying to show the world they are trying to do something - in fact, they are doing something,” Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ali Sadiq Ali told TIME. However, just for good measure, he repeated the government’s stance that “it will not hand over a Sudanese citizen to the outside.”?]

The core of Sudan’s strategy is simple. The ICC may only take on cases of war crimes and crimes against humanity if the country where the crimes allegedly occurred doesn’t pursue the cases itself. Since the ICC got the Darfur docket in 2005, Sudan has repeatedly assured the outside world - not very persuasively, experts say - that it is trying Darfur atrocities cases itself. The ICC itself remains unconvinced that Ali Kushayb’s arrest, or Sudan’s prosecution of low-level officials in Darfur, is sincere. “No cases involving serious violations of international humanitarian law have been tried and therefore our case is still admissible and the arrest warrants must be executed,” says Florence Olara, a spokeswoman in the ICC’s prosecutor office.

Bashir has tried to woo African Union leaders, who have a tendency to close ranks around colleagues who become the target of accusations of rights abuses or political shenanigans. And so far, it has worked. The African Union has asked the U.N. Security Council to order the ICC to suspend its Darfur investigations on the grounds that they pose a threat to international peace and security. African Union leaders also say that by prosecuting Bashir, the ICC will complicate matters for U.N. peacekeepers in Darfur, most of whom are from neighboring countries on the continent. Bashir attempts to stall the mission have already left it severely hobbled. “We are simply concerned with the best possible sequencing of measures so that the most immediate matters of saving lives and easing the sufferings of the people of Darfur are taken care of first,” Tanzania’s President Jakaya Kikwete, the current AU chairman, told the U.N. General Assembly in September.

This campaign against the ICC allows Bashir to give the impression that he’s in control. But some experts say the attacks may be a bid to shift attention from his own troubles. Sudanese society, including the government, is not monolithic and it’s important to bear in mind that there are significant divisions in government about how to deal with the war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur,” says Hall of Amnesty International. “I wouldn’t be at all surprised if at some point, sooner rather than later, Bashir is arrested by Sudanese police and put on a plane to the Hague.”

A “dinosaur graveyard” full of fossils has been discovered in a former river bed in Utah, presenting an opportunity for a decade’s worth of Jurassic research by paleontologists, it was announced this week.

Scientists and technicians with the Utah Thornbury Dinosaur Expedition unearthed an abundance of sauropod (an herbivorous long-necked dinosaur) finds, as well as the bones of several carnivorous dinosaurs, said paleontologist Luis Chiappe, director of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County’s Dinosaur Institute. Nearby, the team, led by the museum, also discovered a 5-foot humerus (arm) bone from a brachiosaur, a gigantic long-necked dinosaur.

The graveyard’s star discovery thus far is “Gnatalie,” a well-preserved skeleton of a 150 million-year-old sauropod.

Tracks of Jurassic Period sauropods at the site in San Juan County were found near tracks of carnivorous theropods and herbivorous ornithopods of the early Cretaceous. And, even more notably, the sandstone site also features tracks belonging to a European stegosaur, named Deltapodus, Chiappe said.

“The Deltapodus tracks have never been found in North America,” Chiappe said. “When we began the process of collecting specimens from the Utah Thornbury Dinosaur Expedition, we had no clue about the association of Jurassic and Cretaceous footprints.”

The discovery of these track ways is part of an international effort to track the migration patterns of dinosaurs following the split of Pangea, a supercontinent that existed during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras, during the Jurassic.

“Paradoxically, the late Jurassic dinosaurs from western-most Europe appear to be more similar to those in North America than to those in the rest of Europe,” Chiappe said, “and the Utah Thornbury Dinosaur Expedition project helps us to put together an important piece of the puzzle.”

Major findings from the expedition will be featured in the museum’s newly renovated dinosaur galleries, set to open in 2011. The museum has one of the largest collections of dinosaur and Mesozoic fossils in the world.

International nuclear inspectors are investigating whether a Russian scientist helped Iran conduct complex experiments on how to detonate a nuclear weapon, The Telegraph quotes European and American officials, as saying.

As part of the investigation, International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors are seeking information from the scientist, who they believe acted on his own as an adviser on experiments described in a lengthy document obtained by the agency, the officials said.

The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation isnderway, said that the document appeared authentic, without explaining why.

But they made it clear that they did not think the scientist was working on behalf of Russia.

Still, it is the first time that the nuclear agency has suggested that Iran may have received help from a foreign weapons scientist in developing nuclear arms.

The American and European officials said the new document, written in Farsi, was part of an accumulation of evidence that Iran had worked toward developing a nuclear weapon, despite Iran’s claims that its atomic work over the past two decades has been aimed solely at producing electrical power.

The new document under investigation offers further evidence of such experiments,estern officials said.

Iranian officials maintain that the documents the agency is using in its investigation of Iran’s past nuclear activities are fabrications or forgeries, and that any experiments were not related to nuclear weapons.

As the annual cost of treating preventable diseases hits 5 billion dollars in Australia, State Government has proposed a plan, under which obese people may have to pay for their own healthcare.

Treating preventable medical conditions caused by obesity, smoking, alcohol and sun exposure consumes Queensland’s health system’s almost 5 billion dollars a year.

According to new Queensland Government figures, so-called ‘lifestyle diseases’ also cost the economy a further 22 billion dollars in lost productivity and social factors, including lost earnings and the cost to carers.

The cost of treating these preventable conditions will wipe out 57 per cent of the state’s record 8.35 billion dollars health budget for 2008-2009.

The govt said that it’s time for individuals to take more responsibility for their health.

And therefore, conservatives in the State Government have put forward a plan that includes a user-pays health system for the obese.

The govt is also considering compulsory health checks for three and four-year-olds at childcare centres around the state.

The plan is to spot any signs of chronic disease early and provide advice to parents.

“We’re facing a tsunami of chronic disease in the coming years, thanks to lifestyle changes and our rapidly ageing population,” the Courier Mail quoted Queensland Health Minister Stephen Robertson, as saying.

“Queenslanders need to realise they face an increasing financial burden from preventable chronic diseases.

“If Queensland continues its current rates of population growth, economic growth and public health spending, by 2042 the entire state budget will be consumed by health. That’s why we need to tackle this upsurge in chronic disease before it overwhelms us,” he added.

The attorney general said Monday she is seeking to freeze the assets of two Venezuelans jailed in the U.S. in a case involving the seizure of a cash-filled suitcase.

Attorney General Luisa Ortega Diaz said her office has asked a Venezuelan court to seize property and accounts belonging to Moises Maionica and Carlos Kauffman.

The two are wanted in Venezuela for alleged corruption. They also have been accused in Miami of acting illegally as Venezuelan agents in an alleged scheme to cover up the source of US$800,000 seized in a suitcase in Argentina last year.

Maionica has testified that the Venezuelan government hired him to ensure that the businessman who was carrying the suitcase did not reveal the money’s origin or destination.

U.S. prosecutors say the money was from Venezuela’s state oil company and was intended for the campaign of Argentine President Cristina Fernandez. Both Fernandez and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez deny the allegation.

A woman, reportedly of Pakistani origin, was stabbed to death Monday by a man wearing a Phantom of the Opera mask in a small college for foreign students in east London.

The 23-year-old unnamed woman was said to be a receptionist at St George’s college in the area of Plaistow. The small college runs courses in subjects from travel tourism to computing and is believed to have three teachers.

Witnesses said the killer, wearing a curly black wig as well as the white mask from the popular musical, repeatedly stabbed the woman’s lifeless body in a frenzied attack.

A second woman, said to be the wife of the college proprietor, was also injured but was discharged from hospital after treatment, local papers said.

Officers said they had arrested a 29-year-old man, who was in hospital with neck injuries apparently suffered in a suicide attempt.

The woman who was injured and witnessed the murder was named as Kiran Asghar.

Ijaz Malik, who runs a builders merchants on the ground floor of the same building, said: “She was already dead but he was stabbing her again and again. When he saw me he chased me down the stairs. I locked the door behind me and called the police. It was the worst thing I have ever seen in my life.’

As the clock ticks away for the meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President George W. Bush in Washington Thursday, India is hopeful that the 123 bilateral nuclear pact will be approved by the US Congress by then, which will effectively seal the deal.

If Congress approves the 123 agreement, there will not be any signing of the pact by the two principal architects of the India-US nuclear deal, official sources said.

‘Any decision on who will sign the deal will be taken later,’ a senior official accompanying the prime minister on the 10-day trip to the US and France said Monday.

‘It could be at the level of the foreign ministers or officials of the Department of Atomic Energy. No decision has been taken yet,’ said the official not wishing to be identified.

‘If the nuclear deal is not approved by the time the current session of the US Congress ends Sep 26, there is a strong likelihood that the session may be extended by another week. The financial crisis in the US may also force an extension of the session,’ said the official.

According to the US system, the president does not sign a bilateral pact. However, if Congress approves the nuclear deal by the time Manmohan Singh and Bush meet, they will announce the decision, marking the closure of over three years of negotiations.

The business committee of the US Congress is likely to take a decision Tuesday on waiving the mandatory condition of the 30-day period for the legislation to be considered by Congress. It will also decide if there will be a separate or joint resolution of Congress to approve the 123 pact by an up and down vote.

‘The picture will become clear by Tuesday,’ said the official in a bid to downplay expectations of an imminent Congressional ratification of the nuclear deal.

‘It makes no difference whether it is 24th, 25th or 26th,’ the official said, indicating it was only a matter of time when the nuclear deal is approved by Congress.

South Africa’s ruling party has decided to oust President Thabo Mbeki before the end of his term next year and he has agreed to step aside, a senior official said on Saturday.

The ANC’s decision to remove Mbeki, who is favoured by investors for his pro-business policies, threatens to raise political instability in Africa’s economic powerhouse 14 years after its transition from the end of white minority rule.

If Mbeki does resign and the replacement process is smooth, however, investor reaction may be muted.

“After a long and difficult discussion the ANC decided to recall the President before his term of office expires,” ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe told a news conference.

Mantashe said Mbeki, who has ruled South Africa since taking over from Nelson Mandela in 1999 and was due to leave office in April, 2009, had “welcomed the news” when he was told. He said he would accept the decision.

Mbeki had led the ANC for about a decade until last year when he was defeated by Jacob Zuma in a bitterly contested election.

Zuma had been the frontrunner to succeed Mbeki, a transition that was expected to occur next year after general elections. It is unclear whether Zuma, who has strong support from trade unions, would immediately step into the breach left by Mbeki.

Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka could assume the presidency but she has signalled she will resign along with Mbeki. Cabinet ministers and the speaker of parliament would follow in the succession line depending on how Mbeki is removed.

It is generally expected that parliament, which is dominated by the ANC, will elect a new president within 30 days. Baleka Mbete, the speaker of parliament and a Zuma loyalist, has been mentioned as the most likely one to lead the transition.

Mantashe said the ANC would ask Mbeki’s cabinet ministers, including Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, to remain in their positions in the transition period for the sake of stability.

Mbeki’s presidency ended after a heated debate within the ANC executive committee over his future in the wake of allegations he had meddled in corruption case against Zuma.

Trade unions and ANC members have accused Mbeki and his senior aides of plotting to smear Zuma and derail his hopes of succeeding Mbeki. The South African leader has consistently denied any involvement in the prosecution.

Last week a judge dismissed the charges against Zuma, which were linked to an arms deal, and suggested that there had been high-level political involvement in the case. The ruling spurred Zuma militants within the executive to demand Mbeki’s head.

Mbeki’s departure, especially if followed by others in cabinet, particularly Finance Minister Manuel, could heighten concerns about the country’s economic direction.

Growth has slowed this year in South Africa, struggling to contain a sharp rise in inflation and the fallout from an electricity crisis that has dented the economy, particularly the important mining sector.