Christian Dior, the French fashion brand, has become the latest company to learn a hard lesson about the danger of hurting China's pride.
Facing the possibility of a boycott of its products, the luxury company said Thursday that it had dropped the American actress Sharon Stone from its advertising in China after she suggested last week that the earthquakes in Sichuan Province were karmic retribution for the country's treatment of Tibet.
The gaffe, which has provoked calls for a boycott of Ms. Stone's films, received sharp criticism in the media. The state-run Chinese news agency, Xinhua, referred to the actress in an editorial on Thursday as "public enemy of all mankind."
The Associated Press quoted an executive at Dior's Shanghai office as saying that the ads featuring Ms. Stone would no longer appear in China. And Dior released a statement in which Ms. Stone apologized, saying: "Due to my inappropriate words and acts during the interview, I feel deeply sorry and sad about hurting Chinese people. I am willing to take part in the relief work of China's earthquake, and wholly devote myself to helping affected Chinese people."
VIENNA, Austria -- Television was once her only window on the world. Now Natascha Kampusch -- still adjusting to life after spending 8 1/2 years captive in an underground cell -- is starting an improbable career as a TV talk show host.
Less than two years after staging a dramatic escape while her captor was distracted with a phone call, the young Austrian woman whose ordeal stunned people worldwide is going prime time.
"Natascha Kampusch Meets ...," a chat show featuring local celebrities, debuts Sunday on Puls4, a new cable channel.
A Puls4 trailer shows Kampusch typing on a laptop computer, pouring herself a glass of mineral water and grinning as makeup artists give her a final touchup on the set. She wears her long blond hair down and sports a sweater and a floral-patterned skirt -- both in purple, her favorite color.
Kampusch, 20, is the first to acknowledge she's an unlikely talk show host.
Damage to forests, rivers, marine life and other aspects of nature could halve living standards for the world's poor, a major report has concluded.
Current rates of natural decline might reduce global GDP by about 7% by 2050.
The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) review is modelled on the Stern Review of climate change.
It will be released at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) meeting in Bonn, where 60 leaders have pledged to halt deforestation by 2020.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA rushed Wednesday to get a special pump on board shuttle Discovery to fix a balky toilet at the international space station, as the launch countdown got under way.
The space station's Russian-built toilet has been acting up for the past week. The three male residents have temporarily bypassed the problem, which involves urine collection, not solid waste.
Russian space officials are providing the pump to launch aboard Discovery on Saturday. The shuttle's seven astronauts arrived at Kennedy Space Center a few hours ahead of the start of countdown Wednesday afternoon.
WASHINGTON, May 29, 2008 Eight-year-old Sriram Hathwar, the youngest speller in the history of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, says he isn't nervous.
After all, if there's one thing this second-grader can do, it's spell.
"I am ready to get it over with," Hathwar told ABC News about joining the other 287 competitors, the largest group ever, for the 81st National Spelling Bee, as he smiles from behind his thick-rimmed glasses, pausing only to share some of his favorite words and then, of course, to spell them out loud.
"A-r-c-h-a-e-o-p-t-e-r-y-x," spelled Hathwar. "It means a dinosaur that is a type of bird."
Naomi Campbell has been charged with three counts of assaulting a police officer over an alleged air rage incident at Heathrow.
The supermodel, wearing a black pin-stripe suit, made no comment as she walked into Heathrow police station.
She is also charged with one offence of disorderly conduct likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress and two offences of using threatening, abusive words or behaviour to cabin crew.
San Francisco -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she will step in if necessary to make sure the presidential nomination fight between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama does not reach the Democratic national convention - though she believes it could be resolved as early as next week.
Pelosi predicted Wednesday that a presidential nominee will emerge in the week after the final Democratic primaries on June 3, but she said "I will step in" if there is no resolution by late June regarding the seating of delegates from Florida and Michigan, the two states that defied party rules by holding early primaries.
"Because we cannot take this fight to the convention," she said. "It must be over before then."
Pelosi made the comments during a wide-ranging, hour-long session before The Chronicle's editorial board. She talked about the prospects for the election of a Democratic president this fall, the legacy of President Bush and the California Supreme Court's ruling legalizing same-sex marriage.
The speaker talked in depth about the party's dilemma as its primary process comes to a close after Sunday's Puerto Rico primary, in which 55 delegates are at stake, and Tuesday's South Dakota and Montana primaries, in which 33 total delegates are up for grabs.
ELIZABETH, N.J. -- The estranged wife of New Jersey's gay former governor took the stand in their bitter divorce trial Wednesday, saying she depleted her savings to pay for their $30,000 wedding and reluctantly agreed to add dozens of his political cronies to the guest list.
Dina Matos McGreevey painted a picture of herself as a dutiful and supportive spouse who devoted herself to James McGreevey's goal of being elected governor.
"Once we became engaged, I was a full partner," said Matos McGreevey, who testified for about an hour and was to return to the witness stand Thursday.
The McGreeveys wed in 2000, but their marriage unraveled after he proclaimed himself "a gay American" in 2004, announced he had had an affair with a male staffer and resigned as governor. The staffer denies the affair and says he was sexually harassed by McGreevey.
Matos McGreevey, 41, wants compensation for losing out on the perks of his job -- state police transportation and a 24/7 security detail, a household staff and use of two beach houses -- because he resigned 13 months shy of completing his first term.
Newlyweds Ashlee and Pete Wentz have confirmed that they are expecting their first child.
"While many have speculated about this, we wanted to wait until after the first trimester to officially confirm that we are expecting our first child," they wrote on Wentz's site, friendsorenemies.com. "This is truly the most joyous time in our lives and we are excited to share the happy news and start our family."
After getting married in L.A. on May 17, the couple honeymooned in Turks and Caicos.
The bride, who has changed her name to Ashlee Wentz but will go by Ashlee Simpson-Wentz professionally, told PEOPLE after the wedding, "I would love to have a big family one day."
NEW YORK, May 28 -- Some of the nation's leading scientists, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's top science adviser, today sharply criticized the diminished role of science in the United States and the shortage of federal funding for research, even as science becomes increasingly important to combating problems such as climate change and the global food shortage.
Speaking at a science summit that opens this week's first World Science Festival, the expert panel of scientists, and audience members, agreed that the United States is losing stature because of a perceived high-level disdain for science. They cited U.S. officials and others questioning scientific evidence of climate change, the reluctance to federally fund stem cell research, and some U.S. officials casting doubt on evolution as examples that have damaged America's international standing.
"I think there's a loss of American power and prestige that came about as a result of our anti-science policies," said David Baltimore, a biologist and Nobel laureate and board chairman of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Raising questions about the science of evolution, he said, "leads to a certain disdain for American intelligence." He added, "What we need is leadership that respects science."
The panelists also expressed concern that science funding has not been a major issue for any of the presidential candidates. "The campaign so far has given too little attention to what science means for our own economy and our status in the world," said Harold Varmus, a Nobel laureate and president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
TEHRAN, Iran -- A rival to Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected by an overwhelming majority as speaker of the Parliament on Wednesday, a strong signal of growing impatience with his economic policies and a possible sign of a political shift in the country.
The new speaker, Ali Larijani, Iran's former nuclear negotiator, is viewed by the West as a moderating influence in Tehran. He said his priority would be to address Iran’s economic problems.
The role of parliamentary speaker is a powerful position in Iranian politics and analysts said Mr. Larijani could use it to challenge Mr. Ahmadinejad, against whom Mr. Larijani ran for president in 2005. Mr. Larijani won the speaker position by a vote of 232 to 31.
The lopsided vote appeared to be a rebuke of Mr. Ahmadinejad, who has faced growing dissatisfaction in Iran about his steering of the economy during a period of grinding inflation and rolling blackouts last winter that left people without electricity and heat for hours at a time.
The economic problems -- which have intensified even as Iran enjoys a revenue windfall from skyrocketing global oil prices -- have apparently deepened tensions between Mr. Ahmadinejad and the religious establishment he ultimately answers to and have apparently helped spur a collective rethinking of Mr. Ahmadinejad's stewardship.
The vote was also a strong indication of his waning support among parts of Iran's senior leadership. Analysts said such a result in the election for speaker could not have been possible without the backing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado -- President Bush told the 2008 graduating class at the U.S. Air Force Academy on Wednesday that the "only way America could lose the war on terror is if we defeat ourselves."
Speaking on a cloudy day at Falcon Stadium, the president compared the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to America's earlier conflicts, particularly World War II.
"Our nation is once again contending with an ideology that seeks to sow anger, hatred and despair: the ideology of Islamic extremism," he said.
"In today's struggle, we are once again facing evil men who despise freedom and despise America and aim to subject millions to their violent rule.
"We assumed this obligation before," he said, referring to the rebuilding of Germany and Japan after World War II, a conflict that saw the loss of more than 400,000 American lives.
"Germany and Japan, once mortal enemies, are now allies of the United States. And people across the world have reaped the benefits from that alliance," he said. "Today, we must do the same in Afghanistan and Iraq. ... We'll lay the foundation of peace for generations to come."
A Dunkin Donuts commercial featuring beloved U.S. TV chef RACHAEL RAY has been ditched after critics accused her of dressing like a terrorist in the ad.
Ray, who was announced as the company's new spokeswoman last year (Mar07), appears in the commercial wearing a black-and-white scarf, alleged to be symbolic of a keffiyeh -- a traditional headdress worn by Arab men.
Fox news columnist Michelle Malkin explains the garment "...has come to symbolise murderous Palestinian jihad. Popularised by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos.
"The apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant and not-so-ignorant fashion designers, celebrities, and left-wing icons."
Dunkin' Donuts bosses first dismissed complaints, claiming Ray's black-and-white wrap was merely misinterpreted, but an ensuing firestorm forced them to quickly pull the ad from rotation.
A statement from company executives reads, "In a recent online ad, Rachael Ray is wearing a black-and-white silk scarf with a paisley design. It was selected by her stylist for the advertising shoot.
Two monkeys with tiny sensors in their brains have learned to control a prosthetic arm with only their thoughts, using it to reach for and grab food and even to adjust for the size and stickiness of morsels when necessary, scientists reported Wednesday.
The report, released online by the journal Nature, is the most striking demonstration to date of brain-machine interface technology, which scientists expect will eventually allow people with spinal cord injuries and other paralyzing conditions to gain more control over their lives. The findings suggest that brain-controlled prosthetics, while not yet practical, are at least technically within reach. ...
The researchers, from the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, first had the two macaque monkeys use a joystick to get a feel for the prosthetic arm, which had shoulder joints, an elbow, and a grasping claw with two mechanical fingers.
Then, inside the monkeys' skulls, the scientists implanted a small grid, about the size of a large freckle. The grid sat on the monkeys' motor cortex, over a patch of cells known to signal arm and hand movements. It held 100 tiny electrodes, each connecting to a single neuron, its wires running out of the brain and to a computer.
Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan writes in a new memoir that the Iraq war was sold to the American people with a sophisticated "political propaganda campaign" led by President Bush and aimed at "manipulating sources of public opinion" and "downplaying the major reason for going to war."
McClellan includes the charges in a 341-page book, "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception," that delivers a harsh look at the White House and the man he served for close to a decade. He describes Bush as demonstrating a "lack of inquisitiveness," says the White House operated in "permanent campaign" mode, and admits to having been deceived by some in the president's inner circle about the leak of a CIA operative's name.
The book, coming from a man who was a tight-lipped defender of administration aides and policy, is certain to give fuel to critics of the administration, and McClellan has harsh words for many of his past colleagues. He accuses former White House adviser Karl Rove of misleading him about his role in the CIA case. He describes Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as being deft at deflecting blame, and he calls Vice President Cheney "the magic man" who steered policy behind the scenes while leaving no fingerprints.
McClellan stops short of saying that Bush purposely lied about his reasons for invading Iraq, writing that he and his subordinates were not "employing out-and-out deception" to make their case for war in 2002. Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan writes in a new memoir that the Iraq war was sold to the American people with a sophisticated "political propaganda campaign" led by President Bush and aimed at "manipulating sources of public opinion" and "downplaying the major reason for going to war."
The highest-ranking female at the Wakayama Electric Railway Co. does nothing more than sit around looking cute, but no one minds because she's single-handedly caused ridership on the struggling transit system to jump more than 10 percent.
Make that single-pawedly.
The miracle worker that's turned the Japanese railway around is a nine-year-old cat. Her name is Tama, she wears a stationmaster cap and she has her own office. And she's responsible for one of the the greatest business turnarounds since Steve Jobs saved Apple. ...
Before Tama came along, Wakamaya was losing 500 million yen ($4.7 million US) a year as passengers abandoned the Kishigawa line in western Japan. In an effort to staunch the red ink, railway officials all but shut down Kishigawa station.
But Tama stuck around, and the passengers returned.
It didn't happen overnight. Railway officials laid off the station's staff in April 2006, but Tama -- who's mother was a stray that lived at the station -- didn't leave. She became a popular fixture among riders, and railway officials formally named her "stationmaster" ... Tourists flocked to the station to take pictures and buy souvenirs -- postcards, erasers, notebooks and pins. Ridership rose 17 percent in the month after her appointment, and rose another 10 percent the following year.
WEED, Calif. -- This town is in a tempest over a bottle top.
The federal government is telling the owner of a small brewery here that the pun he's placed on caps of his Weed Ales crosses a line.
"Try Legal Weed," the caps joke.
The U.S. Treasury Department's Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau says those three little words allude to marijuana use.
Vaune Dillmann, owner of Mt. Shasta Brewing Co., says he was just trying to grab attention for his beers and this tough-luck place in the morning shadow of Mt. Shasta.
But in the two months since he received a warning, the 61-year-old brewer has found himself in a David-vs.-Goliath struggle, cast as the little guy.
The bureau's bureaucrats have told Dillmann he needs to stop using the "Try Legal Weed" bottle caps. If he doesn't, he could risk fines or sanctions. His worst fear: being forced out of business.
A balding former cop turned saloon owner and then master brewer, Dillmann isn't one to back down.
"This is ludicrous, bizarre, like meeting Big Brother face-to-face," he grumbled recently. "Forget freedom of speech and the 1st Amendment. They are the regulatory gods, a judge and jury all rolled into one. This is a life-or-death issue for my business."
WASHINGTON -- In a study spanning a generation, a team of US researchers has linked exposure to lead in the womb and early childhood to a higher rate of criminal behavior among adults.
The researchers from the University of Cincinnati measured the blood lead concentrations in pregnant women living in poor urban areas known to have lead-contaminated housing, between 1979 and 1984.
They then measured the lead levels in the blood of their children, from birth until the age of six-and-a-half.
Years later, when the children in the observation group were between the ages of 19 and 24, the researchers studied the arrest records of 250 of them.
More than half of them -- 55 percent -- had been arrested at least once, and young men were nearly five times more likely to be arrested than young women, the study said.
They were unaware of each other's existence for nearly 30 years, until their uncanny likeness caused a misunderstanding at a clothes shop that led to their reunion.
Now one of the identical twins -- separated at birth 35 years ago after a mix-up at the hospital where they were born -- is suing the Spanish health authority for a mistake that led to her growing up in the wrong family.
The woman is seeking £2.4 million in damages for the error, which came to light after she was spotted in a shopping centre by a friend of her twin sister. "In just one day, my world fell apart," she said of the chance reunion. "I wish it had never happened."
In an attempt to shield them from the intense media interest that their case has generated, her lawyer, Sebastián Socorro, has not revealed the women's identities. The case is further complicated by the existence of a third victim: the baby who was inadvertently switched with one of the twins when they were born.
BERLIN -- Babies stashed in freezers. A tiny skeleton found in a fish tank. Infants suffocated in plastic bags.
Germans are reeling over a recent string of cases involving mothers accused or convicted of killing their babies. The grisly killings have come at a time when the country's low birthrate has left the government searching for ways to encourage people to have more children.
Many of the mothers have been struggling single women who hid their pregnancy from friends and family, gave birth alone and killed the newborn out of fear or desperation -- increasing calls for support programs for single mothers.
And while experts say the rate of German mothers killing their children is no higher than elsewhere in Europe, the recent slayings have stunned the nation and prompted questions about cracks in Germany's much-lauded social welfare system.
An autopsy showed the child was alive when placed in the freezer and the woman, who was not identified, has been taken into custody.
JERUSALEM -- Israel's defense minister called on Wednesday for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to remove himself from his post pending the outcome of a high-profile corruption investigation in which Mr. Olmert is embroiled.
The defense minister, Ehud Barak, a former prime minister, was the first senior member of Israel's coalition government to insist Mr. Olmert relinquish his office over the corruption case.
"The prime minister must disconnect himself from the daily running of the government," Mr. Barak, said at a lunchtime news conference broadcast live from the Parliament building.
When Guadalupe Benitez was referred by her endocrinologist to a California medical clinic to treat her polycystic ovary syndrome, she didn't expect to get "dumped" by her doctors.
In 1999, after a year of surgeries and hormone treatments -- all covered by insurance -- Benitez was finally ready to get pregnant by artificial insemination. But at the crucial moment, her doctor refused to do the procedure for "religious" reasons.
Benitez, now 36, is a lesbian. She sued her doctors under California's civil rights laws, charging that they discriminated against her because of her sexual orientation. Today, the state Supreme Court will consider whether a doctor can invoke his faith to refuse a patient treatment.
"For me this is a case about doing the right thing and being fair," Benitez told ABCNEWS.com. "Not discriminating against people and doctors not playing the role of God, saying because you are gay, you are not worthy of having a child or a family. ...
The case has drawn more than 40 "friend of the court" briefs, pitting gay and civil rights groups against conservative, religious-based organizations like Advocates for Faith and Freedom and the Alliance Defense Fund. It also tests the state's Unruh Act, which bars discrimination in business and housing.
VANCOUVER -- A Vancouver couple have been arrested but will not be charged after posting an Internet ad on Craigslist, offering their seven-day-old baby for $10,000, police said Tuesday.
Vancouver police Const. Tim Fanning said he had never heard of such a thing in his 27 years as a police officer.
Ten police officers worked on the case, he said, tracking the Craigslist posting to a west-end apartment.
"Police knocked at the door and asked if there was a baby in the apartment," Const. Fanning told reporters at a news conference.
He said the 23-year-old mother was found nursing a seven-day-old baby.
Nepal is due to become a republic and end 240 years of royal rule.
A newly-elected assembly is to meet in the capital, Kathmandu, to abolish the monarchy but its key vote has been postponed for a few hours.
As the assembly was being sworn in on Tuesday a bomb explosion in the capital injured two people.
Meanwhile thousands of people have gathered on the streets of the capital and near the assembly in support of "republic day".
CHICAGO -- A recent employee of R. Kelly testified Tuesday that she didn't want to believe the R&B superstar appeared on a sex tape at the center of his child pornography trial because he was such a good boss. But now she's sure he did.
Lindsey Perryman, who worked as a personal assistant to Kelly and his family on and off from around 2000 to 2007, was among the latest witnesses to identify Kelly and the alleged victim as the ones on the graphic 27-minute videotape.
"I didn't want to think it was them," a sometimes anxious-looking Perryman said, the 41-year-old Kelly sitting at the defense table just yards away. ...
Perryman told jurors she saw the tape for the first time in December 2007, after prosecutors approached her. That first time she wasn't sure it was Kelly and the alleged victim, but she became "110 percent" certain after viewing it again, she said.
Obama had a magical week, McCain had a bad one, but the polls remain remarkably close.
Twin towers wire-walker Philippe Petit and "Man on Wire" director James Marsh talk about taking risks and making magic in troubled times.
Joan Walsh compares the very different weeks the two candidates had on the campaign trail.
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Beyond the Multiplex
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