Baechu kimchi (Cabbage kimchi)

Baechu-kimchi is made by fermenting brined Korean cabbage with Korean radish, vegetables, salt-fermented seafood, ground red pepper and various seasonings. Kimchi is a quintessential side dish that is served without fail on dining tables in Korea. Kimchi was approved as an International Standard Food by Codex in 2001. Certain studies have shown a link between kimchi and cancer prevention.

Baechu kimchi (Institute of Traditional Korean Food)

Ingredients
● 4.8 kg Korean cabbage, 700 g cups coarse salt, 5 liters water

● 1 radish, 100 g watercress, 200 g small green onion, 200 g mustard leaf

● 1 cup oyster: 1/2 tbsp salt, 2 cups water

● seasoning: 1 1/3 cups ground red pepper, 1/2 cup salted anchovy juice, 100 g salted shrimps, 1 tbsp sugar, 200 g green onion, 5 tbsp minced garlic, 3 tbsp minced ginger, kimchi liquid: 1/2 cup water, 1/2 tsp salt

1. Trim the bottom and outer leaves of the cabbage, put a deep knife slit lengthwise and split it into two parts, marinate them in salt water in which half (350 g) of the coarse salt dissolved, and spread remaining half of the salt in between the inner leaves. Let it sit cut side up for 3 hours, and then another 3 hours after turning over.

2. Rinse the cabbage under running water 3-4 times, drain for about 1 hour.

3. Trim and wash the radish, and cut into slivers. Trim and wash watercress stalks, small green onion and mustard leaf, cut them into 4 cm pieces. (watercress 60g, small green onion 150 g, mustard leaf 150 g).

4. Wash the fresh oyster gentlyin mild salt water and drain.

5. Mince the salted shrimp finely. Add the ground red pepper to the salted shrimp juice and salted anchovy juice.

6. Add soaked red pepper to the radish, mix well, add remained seasonings, and mix well again. Add vegetables and oyster, mix softly and season with salt.

7. Pack the seasonings in between each leaf of the cabbage, fold over the outer leaves to hold in the seasonings.

8. Place halves in a jar one by one until 70-80 percent of the jar filled, cover the top with marinated outer leaves.

9. Adding some water and salt into the kimchi mixing container. Then pour the liquid into the jar and press down.

Tips
● For the best taste and nutrition ferment under ground at 10 ºC for around 3 weeks.

● Fresh shrimps or glue plants may be added into the kimchi.

(Adapted from the Institute of Traditional Korean Food)

Kimchi’s new chapter: Korea’s traditional condiment blurs culinary borders

Marja Vongerichten’s new cookbook and public television travel/culture/cooking series share the same name: “The Kimchi Chronicles.” The choice of kimchi in both titles was easy.

“Kimchi is so distinct to Korea,” Vongerichten says. “It’s the first thing people think of. It’s a great attention-grabber.”

The condiment stars in Vongerichten’s book, “The Kimchi Chronicles: Korean Cooking for an American Kitchen” (Rodale, $32.50). A self-described “staunch” traditionalist, she likes kimchi as a side dish, stirred into stews and spooned over noodles.

Perhaps not surprising given that her husband, Jean-Georges, is a chef famed for his East-West creations, the book also features recipes for a fast no-wait kimchi, a kimchi relish for hot dogs, even a cucumber kimchi martini.

Marja Vongerichten believes it’s time for kimchi to be discovered and enjoyed by more people. “I think it’s got huge potential,” she says. “People just don’t really have a knowledge of it.”

Indeed, nothing looks, tastes, feels or smells quite like kimchi, a pungent, pickled, fermented condiment that is served with nearly every Korean meal.

Made year-round, kimchi has hundreds of variations that depend on the season and the available produce, which can include cabbage, radishes, green onions and cucumbers. Many kimchi are fiery in flavor and color, thanks to the liberal application of red chili powder. It can also be stinky, but Vongerichten notes the same can be said for a number of fine French cheeses.

“The Kimchi Chronicles” by Marja Vongerichten (Chicago Tribune/MCT)

“Be adventurous,” she urges. “Close your eyes and eat it.”

Mark Miller, a restaurateur and cookbook author in Santa Fe, New Mexico, says the vibrantly flavored condiment feeds a hunger for “more complex flavors with less fat and salt.” He’s included kimchi in a book due out in October, “Salsas of the World,” written with Robert Quintana.

“Kimchi is becoming more mainstream,” Miller said. “The idea of fermenting things and creating more umami flavors seems to be something resonating on the American palate.” Umami is the fifth taste, a sense of savoriness.

“Korean flavors are big flavors,” he adds. “There’s a verve in those flavors resonating in the culture now.”

Making kimchi at home is “fun and completely doable,” Vongerichten says, but most Koreans buy it prepared at the market.

“When buying ready-made kimchi, make sure there’s plenty of liquid in the container,” she says. “Don’t get one that’s too dry; the liquid is an indicator of how fresh it is.”

Vongerichten encourages experimentation. Buy a number of different small containers of kimchi and discover what you like best and what you like to serve it with.

“I love to put it out with barbecue,” she says.

Kimchi fried rice
● Prep: 10 minutes

● Cook: 9 minutes

● Servings: 4

● Note: “One of my guilty, happy pleasures is to make this late at night (usually after a lot of karaoke) and eat it with cheese (slices of American melted into it, if you must know),” writes Marja Vongerichten in “The Kimchi Chronicles.” Using cooked, day-old rice is key to this dish.

● Ingredients:

- 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil

- 1 1/2 cups finely chopped onions

- Pinch coarse salt

- 2 cups kimchi, coarsely chopped, plus 1/2 cup kimchi liquid

- 4 cups day-old cooked rice, at room temperature

● Directions:

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onions and salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions begin to soften and brown, about 3 minutes. Add the kimchi and kimchi liquid; cook, 1 minute. Add the rice; stir to combine. Cook until the rice is warmed through and beginning to brown, about 5 minutes.

By Bill Daley

(Chicago Tribune)

(MCT Information Services)

LG Display stresses localization in China

HONG KONG (Yonhap News) -- South Korea's LG Display Co. said Friday localization is a priority in its China business in order to further expand its presence in the world's No. 2 economy.

"For LG Display, China is not a mere market" said Lee Bang-soo, LG Display's vice-president of public affairs and public relations, in an interview with the Southern Daily, the official Guangdong Communist Party newspaper. "We want to truly integrate into China."

"Recently, we have been seeking to strengthen cooperation with local TV companies," he added.

LG Display will continue to cooperate with Chinese TV makers and support them in growing to become global players.

"We started to include our three-dimensional technology in their products. We believe this is a good start," Lee said.

Currently, the world's second-largest flat panel maker maintains a close relationship with China's top five TV companies

-- Skyworth Group, Konka Group, Hisense Group, Haier Group and Changhong Electronics Co, he said. Lee added that LG Display has been rapidly expanding its market share in China through such partnerships.

Earlier this year, LG Display introduced a 3-D display technology called a film patterned retarder (FPR) to spur fresh demand for 3-D TV.

LG Display Co., which obtained approval from the Chinese government to build LCD factories last December, is expected to break ground this year on a facility in the southern city of Guangzhou.

Humidifier sterilizer alert issued

The Korea Consumer Agency on Friday urged Koreans to refrain from using humidifier sterilizers, which have been blamed for mysterious deaths of five infants and a pregnant woman.

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is looking into 28 cases of lung disease with an unidentified cause that occurred at a university-affiliated hospital in Seoul since 2004. Many of them were reported this year.

The KCDC said some tests prove that a harmful substance in a sterilizer ― used by all the patients to clean their humidifiers ― could seriously damage lung cells when inhaled.

People who used the germicide were 47.3 times more inclined to suffer lung damage than those who did not, KCDC said last month.

The state-run KCA said its alert is based on the KCDC’s interim findings and chiefly aimed at large facilities such as hospitals, nursing homes and child care and postnatal centers.

“We plan to launch a fact-finding probe into the sterilizer as soon as the harmfulness of the product becomes more evident,” the KCA said in a statement, advising humidifier users to change water and rinse the tank every day instead of adopting any disinfectants.

Civic groups and lawmakers have been pushing the government and health authorities to disclose the makers of the sterilizer.

“The KCDC’s investigation is restricted to a single hospital but the phenomenon has been reported nationwide, many of which involve young children,” said Asian Citizen’s Center for Environmental Health.

“This resulted from chemical abuse and is a clear case of biocide. There would be a lot more unknown damage elsewhere.”

Rep. Jeon Hyun-hee of the main opposition Democratic Party also called on the government to order recalls of the sterilizer during a parliamentary audit last week.

“Citizens are in imminent danger of lung damage because the sterilizers are still on the shelves in markets across the country.”

But Health and Welfare Minister Lim Chae-min dismissed her claim, saying the inspection was still under way.

By Shin Hyon-hee (heeshin@heraldm.com)

Samsung Electronics may post 3.5 trillion won in profit for Q3

Samsung Electronics, Asia’s largest technology company, pulled off record earnings last year, but its revenue and operating income for 2011 might underperform heightened expectations, analysts said on Friday.

Samsung posted an operating profit of 17.3 trillion won ($14.7 billion) on revenue of 154.6 trillion won, helped by strong demand for its computer memory chips. This year, however, signs are less optimistic as the chip sector remains sluggish and the prices of display products continue to slump, a mix of two negative factors that threatens to hurt Samsung’s bottom line.

The tech giant’s third-quarter operating income is estimated at around 3.5 trillion won, which means it has to achieve upward of 7 trillion won in operating profit in the final quarter to outperform its 2010 results.

Samsung is set to give its guidance on the third-quarter earnings on Oct. 6 amid growing attention about its performance at a time when the South Korean economy confronts more threats stemming from global market jitters and questions about a timely resolution to the eurozone’s debt crisis.

Samsung said on Friday its first-half revenue reached 76.4 trillion won and operating income stood at 6.7 trillion won. Compared with the year earlier period, revenue rose 5.4 percent but operating profit tumbled 28.9 percent.

The company’s revenue growth in the first six months is expected to be relatively solid, but the drop in the prices of LCD panels and semiconductors has eroded into its operating profits.

Local brokerages issued a flurry of third-quarter earnings estimates for Samsung, with the focus placed on whether the company could post more than 3.5 trillion won in operating income on revenue of about 42 trillion won.

Mirae Asset Securities cited the sales volume of smartphones to raise its operating income estimate from 2.9 trillion won to 3.5 trillion won for the third quarter.

LIG Investment & Securities projected that Samsung’s revenue would reach 42.2 trillion won and its operating income would hover at around 3.4 trillion won.

Kyobo Securities set the estimated revenue at 40.3 trillion won and operating income at 3.4 trillion won.

Daewoo Securities was more optimistic when it comes to Samsung’s third-quarter revenue as it projection was 44.1 trillion won.

UBS, citing the worsening market conditions in the chip and LCD sectors, revised down the company’s third-quarter operating profit from 3.8 trillion won to 3.4 trillion won.

For the fourth quarter, Samsung has to post 7 trillion won in operating profit on revenue of 35 trillion won in order to beat its own record last year.

Analysts, however, warned that the company’s fourth-quarter operating income might be less than 5 trillion won as long as the chip and LCD sectors are trapped in the current slump. A more optimistic scenario is that Samsung’s operating income in the October-December period might receive a much-needed boost if the chip and LCD prices bottomed out and revenues from smartphone grew faster than expected.

By Yang Sung-jin (insight@heraldm.com)

Sumi Jo to visit Pyongyang in May

Coloratura soprano shares her belief in power of music to help those in need


The concert schedule of Grammy-winning South Korean soprano Sumi Jo is extremely tight.

Successfully finishing the “Hyundai Capital Invitational Sumi Jo Park Concert” at an outdoor stage in Olympic Park in Seoul last Saturday, she had to fly on Tuesday morning for another concert in Busan, and another in Daegu the next day. After the Korean tour, her worldwide concert schedule is fully booked until the end of this year.

Although music has made Jo an internationally acclaimed opera star, she said the real motivation that keeps the 49-year-old performing powerfully on stage is not the music itself.

“The real motivation comes to me only when I stop doing music and do volunteer work such as assisting the caregivers who take care of disabled children or visiting an orphanage,” Jo told The Korea Herald at a hotel suite in Seoul on Monday. She was back from a visit to her mother, who suffers from dementia, at a hospital in Yongin.

“It’s those small little things that make me go forward. And it is very important for me to share. Music, in the end, is there to share.”

Jo rarely reveals her personal volunteer work to the press, and often makes secret visits without notifying her managers, an official at her agency SMI Entertainment said.

The soprano was excited about her visit to Pyongyang next year. Although she had once performed with the state symphony orchestra of North Korea in 2000 in Seoul, she has never visited Pyongyang before.

“I’m going to Pyongyang in May next year with an association of Korean American doctors who annually visit there to give North Korean children vaccinations,” Jo said.

“I’m going there, not as a South Korean but as UNESCO Artist for Peace. Rather than performing, I will be ‘physically’ helping North Korean children.

“There are starving and dying children in North Korea. Of course music is necessary too, but what North Korea needs now is daily necessities and humanitarian aid,” she said.

Maintaining a ‘voice from heaven’

Jo, whom legendary conductor Herbert von Karajan called “a voice from heaven,” described her job as very hard work.

“We, opera singers, are people whose appearances, emotions and even personalities are honestly expressed in our voice. Because our voices directly ‘penetrate the skins and hearts’ of the audiences, top-class singers need to stay fit no matter what,” Jo said. She spoke very softly throughout the interview, seemingly mindful of doing anything that might strain her throat. She drank water from time to time to keep the throat from going dry.

Sumi Jo (Kang Tae-uk)

“If I were to be born again, I would never want to do this job.”

To maintain her voice in top form and sing immediately after a 26-hour flight from Rome to Sydney, for example, she never parties with other artists after a performance. She hardly gets a good night’s sleep due to stress. After visiting her mother for several hours Sunday, she practiced Mahler for about four hours for the upcoming Beijing Mahler Festival concerts scheduled Oct. 6-12.

“I get to know the feeling of having a good sleep only when I take an annual two-week vacation. But even during those times, I never get a full rest because I have to deal with all the emails and phone calls.”

So as not to catch a cold, Jo takes vitamin C, ginseng drinks and omega-3, 6, 9 every day.

However, she said she would be the last person to care too much about her appearance.

“I’m not a person who can sit in a hair salon or at a facial shop for long hours. I don’t have time for that either.”

When asked about her life’s mission, she used a parable.

“I think I’m like a star, a lonely star that shines for a long time. I have to make sure that its sparkle is not changed, stained or darkened.”

More than music

Jo recently released “Libera,” an album marking the 25th anniversary of her international debut. She debuted as Gilda in Verdi’s “Rigoletto” in Italy in 1986.

In the past 25 years, she has recorded more than 50 albums which she describes as “a department store collection.” From Italian operas to oratorio to German lieder to Korean songs to musicals to film and drama soundtracks, listeners can choose an album according to their tastes, she said.

She is currently under an exclusive contract with Universal Music and two more albums are due with the record label.

“I’ll be choosing a marketable repertoire. I want to do Bach whom I still find very challenging. I’m thinking of something like ‘a tribute to Bach,’” she said.

Jo expected that just as she spent the past 25 years on stage, she will be actively performing for the next 25 years as well, “if it is God’s will.”

She said that she will be also thinking about how she will teach next-generation musicians in the future.

The soprano stressed that she is never a person who lives within the boundaries of music.

“I was questioning myself whether I should really live only for concertgoers because, in my 30 years of travel, I realized that there are too many people and situations where music is a secondary thing,” Jo said.

“I was so shocked that I almost fainted when I saw a favela in Brazil, thinking how these people live like this. In Africa, I was invited to a luxurious house of a corporate president for dinner and five minutes away, children were digging out garbage bins to get something to eat.”

Although most musicians’ goal is to show their professional musical ability and techniques to the public and reach the highest level of artistry in music, she said she also wants to help the general public enrich their lives by reaching them with easier classical music.

“Whether you’re a top-class artist, a secondary musician, a member of a choir or an orchestra, you’d better get out of the small space where you do music only for yourself or your pleasure. Music has immense power and so much potential to give.”

Her efforts to turn people’s attention to children and animals include raising money for establishing an education center for protection of animal rights.

A strong advocate for animal rights, Jo donated 150 million won ($125,650) to the Beautiful Foundation and Korea Animal Rights Advocates to help them establish the education center.

“I’m hoping to raise 1 billion won in two years to establish the center. People’s participation is urgent,” Jo said.

To participate in Jo’s fund-raising, you can donate money to Woori Bank account at 1005-301-651573.

By Kim Yoon-mi (yoonmi@heraldm.com)

U.S. approves two solar loans worth $1 billion

WASHINGTON (AP) ― The Energy Department on Wednesday approved two loan guarantees worth more than $1 billion for solar energy projects in Nevada and Arizona, two days before the expiration date of a program that has become a rallying cry for Republican critics of the Obama administration’s green energy program.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the department has completed a $737 million loan guarantee to Tonopah Solar Energy for a 110 megawatt solar tower on federal land near Tonopah, Nevada, and a $337 million guarantee for Mesquite Solar 1 to develop a 150 megawatt solar plant near Phoenix.

The loans were approved under the same program that paid for a $528 million loan to Solyndra Inc., a California solar panel maker that went bankrupt after receiving the money and laid off 1,100 workers. Solyndra is under investigation by the FBI and is the focal point of House hearings on the program.

SolarReserve LLC, of Santa Monica, California, the parent company for Tonopah, is privately held. The Energy Department said its rules prevented it from discussing the company’s financial information. Sempra Energy of San Diego, which owns Mesquite, is publicly held.

Energy Department spokesman Damien LaVera said the two projects had extensive reviews that included scrutiny of the parent companies’ finances.

Chu said the Nevada project would produce enough electricity to power more than 43,000 homes, while the Arizona project would power nearly 31,000 homes. The two projects will create about 900 construction jobs and at least 52 permanent jobs, Chu said.

“If we want to be a player in the global clean energy race, we must continue to invest in innovative technologies that enable commercial-scale deployment of clean, renewable power like solar,” Chu said in a statement.

This artist rendering released by SolarReserve LLC shows what will be the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project, a solar generating facility, that is being constructed northwest of Tonopah, Nevada. (AP-Yonhap News)

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, is a strong supporter of the Nevada project, which he says will help his state’s economy recover. Former Gov. Jim Gibbons, a Republican, also supported the project.

The loan approvals came just two days before a renewable energy loan program approved under the 2009 economic stimulus law is set to expire. At least seven projects worth more than $5 billion are pending.

Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Florida., chairman of a House energy subcommittee that is investigating Solyndra, said the impending deadline was no reason to complete loans before they are ready.

“Solyndra was the product of a bad bet rushed out the door, and taxpayers are now on the hook,” he said. “We cannot afford DOE rushing out more Solyndras in these final hours.”

A government watchdog group said the Solyndra bankruptcy shows the need for greater oversight of all the department’s loan guarantee programs.

“It is time for a full audit of their activities, their management and their results,” said Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste, Washington-based advocacy group.

“Candidly, it might be time for the federal government to rethink the whole idea of loan programs,” Schatz added, calling the government’s track record on loan guarantees “lousy.”

Too often, the government either backs risky or failing ventures, resulting in a loss of taxpayer money, or subsidizes companies and industries that are mature and profitable and don’t need the money, such as the oil and gas industry, Schatz said.

Scott Crider, a spokesman for Sempra Generation, a Sempra Energy subsidiary that is developing the Arizona project, said its loan guarantee was far less risky than the Solyndra loan. Most importantly, the project has a 20-year agreement with Pacific Gas & Electric Co. to buy power supplied by the solar plant, he said.

The purchase agreement is a key element of the project and will “provide assurance that there are sufficient revenues in place to support the loan guarantee,” Crider said.

A similar agreement is in place in Nevada. NV Energy, the state’s largest electric utility, has agreed to purchase power from the Tonopah tower, which will connect to NV Energy’s power grid. The Interior Department approved the project, known as Crescent Dunes, last year.

Solyndra, of Fremont, Calif., was the first company to receive a loan guarantee under a stimulus-law program to encourage green energy and was frequently touted by the Obama administration as a model. Since then, the company’s implosion and revelations that officials hurried review of the loan in time for a September 2009 groundbreaking has become an embarrassment for Obama as he tries to sell his job-creation program.

Europe eyes controversial financial tax

STRASBOURG (AFP) ― Europe went ahead with landmark proposals to tax the financial sector on Wednesday, ignoring U.S. opposition in a move also sure to provoke a row with London which fears capital flight from the City.

On the drawing-board for more than a year, the idea was given fresh impetus last month when given the nod by Europe’s power couple, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The plan will go before all 27 European Union heads of state and government at an Oct. 17-18 summit, and also be put to a summit of G20 leaders in Cannes on Nov. 3-4.

European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said the tax could generate around 55 billion euros ($76 billion) a year as he lodged the draft legislation with the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

“The tax would be levied on all transactions on financial instruments between financial institutions when at least one party to the transaction is located in the EU,” a commission statement said.

Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the executive European Commission, delivers a speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday. (AP-Yonhap News)

The EU executive stressed that “house mortgages, bank loans, insurance contracts and other normal financial activities carried out by individuals or small businesses fall outside the scope of the proposal.”

The aim is to ensure that the financial sector “makes a fair contribution” after EU governments ploughed 4.6 trillion euros ($6.4 trillion) into bailouts mainly for banks caught in a U.S.-triggered property credit meltdown in late 2008, only for taxpayers to suffer as public finances had to be cut as a result.

The commission also has another key goal in mind: some of the receipts from the tax, which would not be implemented before 2014, would go directly into the EU’s budget, giving Brussels more independently-raised resources than under the present system of contributions from national governments.

Controversy over where the money will go erupted almost immediately with grassroots activists One, the group co-founded by U2’s Bono, saying the tax should fund the fight against poverty and efforts to mitigate climate change.

“At least half the revenue of an EU financial transactions tax should be allocated to the fight against extreme poverty and climate change, to help millions of people trapped in misery,” said Guillaume Grosso of the group’s French arm.

Charity group Oxfam said the commission should “go further,” covering “all financial transactions” and fixing “more ambitious rates for derivatives products,” blamed in part for exacerbating the global financial crisis of the last three years.

The parliament’s socialists and democrats grouping hailed the fact the proposal will target “the most speculative financial products including transactions carried out off-exchange,” and bring the date for implementation forward by four years.

But the head of an international network of tax advisers, Taxand, said the plans “will cause severe tension with those countries opposed to the tax.”

Frederic Donnedieu de Vabres also maintained that “importantly, the proposals currently do little to stop the tax ultimately being passed on to the clients of financial institutions.”

The latest known proposals would slap 0.1 percent on shares and bonds and 0.01 percent on derivatives, although countries wanting higher levels would be free to raise the rate domestically.

While Merkel and Sarkozy offered no details on the tax in August, their support helped send shares into an immediate tailspin with financial sector players warning the measure would push business away from Europe.

Britain, at the heart of the global financial industry, reiterated demands for any such tax to “apply globally,” after a Treasury official argued that “otherwise the transaction covered would simply relocate.”

The Netherlands are also opposed to it.

“The tax would not be based on where transactions take place but on the parties involved,” an EU source has argued.

Decisions on tax matters, the bedrock of national sovereignty, require unanimity under EU rules.

Jackson bodyguard says doc told him to hide vials

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The first bodyguard to reach Michael Jackson's bedroom after the singer's doctor called for help testified Thursday that he was told by the doctor to gather medicine vials before calling emergency services.

Deputy District. Attorney. David Walgren displys an image of Micheal Jackson's Holmby Hills bedroom while questioning Alberto Alvarez,one of Michael Jackson's security guards, during Conrad Murray's involuntary manslaughter trial in downtown Los Angeles, Thursday. Murray has pleaded not guilty and faces four years in prison and the loss of his medical license if convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Michael Jackson's death. (AP-Yonhap News)

Alberto Alvarez said Dr. Conrad Murray grabbed the vials form a nightstand next to Jackson, who was still in his bed. ``He said here, put these in a bag.'' Alvarez said of Murray.

Alvarez said at first he thought he was bagging the items in preparation for a trip to the hospital. He said he trusted Murray because he was a doctor.

When he entered the bedroom, Alvarez said, he saw Jackson's eyes were open and was surprised to see the singer was wearing a condom catheter.

Alvarez testified that Murray only told him Jackson had a bad reaction. Alvarez is the sixth witness to testify in the involuntary manslaughter trial of Murray, who has pleaded not guilty.

Earlier, Alvarez testified that Jackson was in good spirits at a rehearsal on the night before he died.

``He was very happy,'' Alvarez testified. ``I do recall he was in very good spirits.''

Prosecutors have been calling witnesses who were with Jackson and Murray the day the singer died.

Authorities accuse Murray of giving Jackson a lethal dose of the anesthetic propofol in the bedroom.

Prosecutors are calling key witnesses in an attempt to show Murray delayed calling authorities on the day the King of Pop was found lifeless and was intent on concealing indications that he had been giving the singer doses of the surgical anesthetic.

The jury has already gotten a glimpse into the entertainer's inner sanctum through photos and testimony.

Alvarez's testimony will likely be challenged by Murray's defense attorneys, who on Wednesday questioned Jackson's head of security and the singer's personal assistant about why they didn't reveal certain details about the day Jackson died to police for at least two months.

Defense lawyer Ed Chernoff asked Faheem Muhammad and Michael Amir Williams about whether they conferred with Alvarez before their interviews with detectives.

Williams, who was Jackson's personal assistant, said his interview with detectives had been delayed. He testified that he received an urgent phone call from Murray on the day of Jackson's death but wasn't told to call emergency services.

He called Muhammad, who then dispatched Alvarez to Jackson's bedroom on the second floor of the singer's rented mansion in the ritzy Holmby Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles.

The room was off-limits to Jackson's staff, and Muhammad paused before racing up the stairs after reaching the mansion just before paramedics arrived.

He described a heart-wrenching scene. By then, he said, Jackson had been removed from his bed and was on the floor, where Murray, sweaty and frantic, was performing CPR.

Alvarez was pacing nervously, Muhammad told the jury. When he saw Jackson up close, he understood why.

``What did you observe about his face,'' prosecutor David Walgren asked

``That his eyes were open,'' Muhammad said. ``That his mouth was slightly open.''

``Did he appear to be dead,'' Walgren asked.

``Yes.''

The bodyguard soon noticed that Jackson's children, Prince and Paris, had gathered by the doorway.

``Paris was on the ground, balled up crying,'' Muhammad said. He ushered the children out of the room, and then into a sport utility vehicle so they could follow the ambulance to the hospital.

Some of the scenes recounted by Muhammad will likely be repeated Thursday as prosecutors work to fill in other details about Murray's behavior after finding Jackson unconscious. Also expected to testify on Thursday are Kai Chase, a chef who spoke to Murray briefly on the morning of Jackson's death, and paramedics who also tried to revive the singer. The medics believed Jackson was already dead by the time they arrived, but Murray insisted the performer be taken to a hospital for additional resuscitation efforts.

Prosecutors contend Murray did not tell any of the bodyguards or emergency personnel that he had been giving Jackson propofol and other sedatives to help him sleep.

Chernoff claimed in opening statements that Jackson gave himself the lethal dose.

Much of the trial in later sessions will focus on the science of what killed Jackson, and dueling theories of Murray's role.

NASA identifies 90% of asteroids near Earth

The U.S. space agency announced Thursday that there is 90 percent less chance for asteroids crashing with Earth. Asteroids are icy metallic rocks orbiting around the Sun.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said that it identified 90 percent of asteroids near Earth that included some as big as the ones that might have killed dinosaurs.

"We know now where most of them are and where most of them are going. That really has reduced our risk of an impact,” said Amy Mainzer of NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Since 2009, NASA has used Wide-field Infrared telescopes to seek out near-Earth asteroids and has collected new data. With the sensitive telescope, the researchers updated the data of medium-sized asteroids. Even though they updated the number, the researchers are yet to find the location of these asteroids.

"Fewer does not mean none," Mainzer said. "There are still tens of thousands out there that are left to find."

Markets await auditors’ verdict on Greek’s austerity push

ATHENS (AFP) -- International auditors headed for Greece and Germany’s parliament prepared for a crucial vote on boosting the eurozone rescue fund Thursday, but discord over the debt crisis unnerved global markets.

Greece’s global creditors announced their auditors would return to Athens, four weeks after they quit the country abruptly, unhappy with the government’s efforts to tackle its debt mountain.

The announcement came a day after Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou’s impassioned appeal to German politicians and businessman in Berlin, where he said his country was making a “superhuman effort” to tackle the problem.

At stake is billions of euros in blocked bailout loans from the European Union and International Monetary Fund, which Athens needs to avoid default.

EU and IMF negotiators will resume their talks with Greek‘s leadership on Thursday, amid mounting social tension and what the European Union describes as the biggest challenge of its history.

The leaders of the United States and Germany have exchanged barbs over the crisis, each calling on the other to assume their responsibilities.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has suggested a second Greek bailout may even need to be renegotiated.

Berlin, Paris and the European Central Bank are also at odds over how much Europe’s banks should lose in the event of a default, which would require massive recapitalization of bankruptcy-threatened lenders.

“This sort of in-fighting amongst Europe‘s leaders will only serve to undermine the recent rally in shares and the euro, underlining the importance of the audit’s findings,” said Moneycorp in a note to investors.

European stocks fell amidst the disarray, with London, Paris and Frankfurt all closing down Wednesday.

Asian markets were mostly lower Thursday following weak leads from Wall Street and the euro was range bound against other major currencies in Asia, as investors stayed cautious ahead of the German vote.

European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso defied divisions within the EU and pushed two controversial measures in his annual “state of the union” address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

He advocated a joint eurozone bond deeply opposed by Germany and an EU-wide financial transaction tax rejected by Britain.

“Once the euro area is fully equipped with the instruments necessary to ensure both (economic policy) integration and discipline, the issuance of joint debt will be seen as a natural and advantageous step for all,” he said.

The ‘stability bonds’ will be “designed in a way that rewards those who play by the rules and deters those who don‘t,” he said, adding that the Commission would issue proposals in the coming weeks.

To ward off future debt crises, the European parliament on Wednesday adopted stiffer budget rules armed with the threat of fines against governments with runaway deficits and debts.

As Greece waits for the funds from a first 110-billion-euro ($150 billion) bailout approved last year, a few eurozone states have yet to sign off on a second 159-billion-euro Greek rescue package that was agreed in July.

German lawmakers vote on Thursday on expanding the scope and size of the EU’s current rescue fund -- the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF).

It has already helped rescue Ireland and Portugal and will be tapped for Greece’s second bailout.

Finland’s parliament finally approved changes to the fund on Wednesday, despite deep-rooted reluctance there to bailing out eurozone strugglers.

But another seven of the 17 eurozone states still have to approve the measure.

Even if auditors decide the Greeks are doing enough to merit more financial aid, eurozone partners and the International Monetary Fund will still have to sign off on the money.

Finance ministers meet on Monday in Luxembourg, but EU economic affairs spokesman Amadeu Altafaj indicated that the talks in Athens would not be concluded in time for a decision by then.

The head of the German banking federation criticized talk that eurozone governments may now push private holders of Greek government bonds to accept losses of 50 percent instead of 21 percent as agreed in July.

“If governments now unravel the deal that was reached on private-sector involvement, then the loss in confidence for the financial markets would more than negate the benefits of any such action,” Andreas Schmitz told the German daily Bild.

A Greek government spokesman said the country would escape default.

“We are not far from securing (the loan tranche). One by one, pending issues are settled,” deputy government spokesman Angelos Tolkas told Flash Radio.

Greek austerity measures have met fierce resistance and Athens was again paralyzed by a transport strike Wednesday, with police again using tear gas, ahead of protests by pensioners, municipal workers and students.

France unveils slashed budget for 2012

France says it’s cutting budget for 1st time since WWII but experts say more needs to be done


PARIS (AP) -- France proudly presented next year’s budget on Wednesday as the first to cut spending since World War II, as it tries to convince nervous investors that it will get its debts under control.

But economists balked at the claim and said the cuts in the 2012 budget are not substantial enough to meet deficit targets laid out by the government -- or to reduce the country’s debt load. France hasn’t balanced its budget in three decades and for years flouted EU rules that require members to keep their deficits under 3 percent of GDP.

Paris was not alone in ignoring the spending rules, and the result has nearly brought the eurozone to its knees: Ireland, Portugal and Greece have all needed bailouts to pay their bills after investors refused to lend to them, and Italy and Spain have seen their borrowing costs skyrocket.

France’s own bond yields -- the interest rate investors demand to lend a country money -- rose this summer amid fears its debts were too high.

In response, the government unveiled a series of measures -- mostly new taxes -- that were reiterated in Wednesday’s budget. Among other measures, it plans to increase taxes on the wealthy, levy a tax on sugary drinks and close loopholes.

It also promised to cut around 30,400 public jobs next year by not replacing one in two posts vacated by people retiring.

“Public debt reduction is a priority. It happens by first reducing the public deficit,” a statement from the Budget Ministry said.

Budget Minister Valerie Pecresse told her colleagues Wednesday that -- including the austerity measures -- next year’s deficit should fall to 80.8 billion euros ($109 billion) -- that’s nearly 15 billion euros ($20.4 billion) smaller than this year’s.

“It’s a historic moment: For the first time since 1945, public expenditures year-on-year will go down,” Pecresse told Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting.

But economists said while that claim may be true on paper, next year’s spending was almost certainly going to outstrip this year‘s.

“Every budget predicts a stabilization of spending ... and we see after the fact that these goals are never met,” said Nicolas Bouzou, an economist with consulting firm Asteres.

He said that to really reduce the budget would take a rethinking of the role of the state, especially in terms of health care and retirement benefits.

Frederic Bonnevay, an economics expert associated with the Institut Montaigne think tank, called the budget a “guerrilla strategy rather than full battle plan” to tackle the problem of public indebtedness.

Next year, President Nicolas Sarkozy faces re-election, making the budget debate a particularly thorny one -- and Wednesday’s presentation focused much more on tax increases than the cuts. In a country where citizens expect a lot from their government, new taxes are typically easier to swallow.

But Sarkozy has staked his reputation on meeting deficit reduction targets, promising to bring it from 7.1 percent of GDP last year to 4.5 percent next year and 3 percent -- the EU limit -- in 2013. Further reductions were laid out, all the way down to 1 percent in 2015.

The ministry said its goals were built around an expectation of 1.75 percent growth in GDP in 2012 -- an estimate it had to slash earlier this year.

The global slowdown has made it increasingly difficult for countries to balance their budgets as weak growth means less money pouring in.

But the government said that the reduced level of growth was attainable -- and even indicated it represented an abundance of caution.

Finance Minister Francois Baroin promised that the new budget would both slash spending and help boost growth.

“This budget plan is in line with our policy: It marries a reduction in the deficit, a managing of spending, and a support for (economic) activity,” he told reporters.

The opposition Socialist Party denounced it and said that, if given the chance, its leaders would restore progressiveness and justice to taxes.

Cantaloupe outbreak kills at least 16 in United States

WASHINGTON (AP) ― Federal health officials said Wednesday more illnesses and possibly more deaths may be linked to an outbreak of listeria in cantaloupe in coming weeks.

So far, the outbreak has caused at least 72 illnesses ― including up to 16 deaths ― in 18 states, making it the deadliest food outbreak in the United States in more than a decade.

The heads of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration said consumers who have cantaloupes produced by Jensen Farms in Colorado should throw them out. If they are not sure where the fruit is from, they shouldn’t eat it.

Neither the government nor Jensen Farms has supplied a list of retailers who may have sold the fruit. Officials say consumers should ask retailers about the origins of their cantaloupe. If they still aren’t sure, they should get rid of it.

“If it’s not Jensen Farms, it’s OK to eat,” said Thomas Frieden, director of the CDC. “But if you can’t confirm it’s not Jensen Farms, then it’s best to throw it out.”

Jensen Farms of Holly, Colo. says it shipped cantaloupes to 25 states, though the FDA has said it may be more, and illnesses have been discovered in several states that were not on the shipping list. A spokeswoman for Jensen Farms said the company’s product is often sold and resold, so they do not always know where it went.

The recalled cantaloupes may be labeled “Colorado Grown,” ‘’Distributed by Frontera Produce,“ “Jensenfarms.com” or “Sweet Rocky Fords.” Not all of the recalled cantaloupes are labeled with a sticker, the FDA said. The company said it shipped out more than 300,000 cases of cantaloupes that contained five to 15 melons, meaning the recall involved 1.5 million to 4.5 million pieces of fruit.

The FDA said none of the cantaloupes had been exported, reversing an earlier statement that some of the tainted melons had been shipped abroad.

Frieden and FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said that illnesses are expected for weeks to come because the incubation period for listeria can be a month or even longer. That means that someone who ate contaminated cantaloupe last week may not get sick until next month. Jensen Farms last shipped cantaloupes on Sept. 10. The shelf life is about two weeks.

“We will see more cases likely through October,” Hamburg said.

The Food and Drug Administration said state health officials found listeria in cantaloupes taken from Colorado grocery stores and from a victim’s home that were grown at Jensen Farms. Matching strains of the disease were found on equipment and cantaloupe samples at Jensen Farms’ packing facility in Granada, Colo.

Sherri McGarry, a senior adviser in the FDA’s Office of Foods, said the agency is looking at the farm’s water supply and possible animal intrusions among other things in trying to figure out how the cantaloupes became contaminated. Listeria bacteria grow in moist, muddy conditions and are often carried by animals.

The health officials said this is the first known outbreak of listeria in cantaloupe. Listeria is generally found in processed meats and unpasteurized milk and cheese, though there have been a growing number of outbreaks in produce. Hamburg called the outbreak a “surprise” and said the agencies are studying it closely to find out how it happened.

Cantaloupe is often the source of outbreaks, however. Frieden said CDC had identified 10 other cantaloupe outbreaks in the last decade, most of them from salmonella.

Listeria is more deadly than well-known pathogens like salmonella and E. coli, though those outbreaks generally cause many more illnesses. Twenty-one people died in an outbreak of listeria poisoning in 1998 traced to contaminated hot dogs and possibly deli meats made by Bil Mar Foods, a subsidiary of Sara Lee Corp. Another large listeria outbreak, in 1985, killed 52 people and was linked to Mexican-style soft cheese.

Amazon ignites tablet war with Fire, takes on Apple

Amazon unveils "Kindle Fire" tablet (03:15)

By Phil Wahba and Liana B. Baker

NEW YORK | Wed Sep 28, 2011 6:32pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc took the wraps off its long-awaited "Kindle Fire" on Wednesday, tacking on a mass market-friendly $199 price tag that poses a serious threat to the dominance of Apple Inc's two-year-old iPad.The eagerly anticipated gadget, while lacking many of the high-tech bells and whistles common on tablets from cameras to 3G wireless connection, may sound the death knell for a raft of devices based on Google Inc's Android. The software powers tablets made by Samsung, Motorola, Asustek, HTC and LG Electronics.
Dotcom-entrepreneur and billionaire-CEO Jeff Bezos unveiled to a packed audience the gadget he hopes will wed Amazon's books, movies, music and other content with cloud or Internet-based storage and Web browsing.
"People have been waiting for a tablet for 200 bucks for a long time and this is the best one I've seen so far," Tim Stevens, editor-in-chief of gadget review website Engadget, told Reuters.
The Kindle Fire tablet has a 7-inch screen, free data storage over the Internet and a new browser called Amazon Silk. Amazon expects shipments to start on November 15 -- hitting store shelves at Best Buy and other chains just in time for the peak holiday shopping season.
By pricing the Fire at less than half the iPad -- yet stripping out costlier components and features -- the Internet retailer hopes to get the device into millions of consumers' hands, who in turn will buy Amazon content.
One key differentiator that might help the Fire stand out during the cut-throat holidays is Amazon's "EC2" cloud computing service, which supports Internet browsing and helps speed loading of websites. That was not available on rival tablets, Stevens noted.
'BLOOD BATH'
"Expect a blood bath as pricing will have to get extremely aggressive," said Mark Gerber, an analyst at Detwiler Fenton & Co. He expects Amazon to sell at least 3 million Kindle Fires this holiday season, taking the No. 2 spot in the tablet market.
The Fire was unveiled alongside several rock-bottom-priced versions of the basic Kindle reader, with the lowest at $79 -- a clear challenge to Barnes & Noble Inc's Nook that will surely force the ailing bookstore chain to try and match.
Amazon shares closed 2.5 percent higher, while Barnes & Noble dropped 7 percent. Apple shares dipped 0.6 percent.
"These are premium products at non-premium prices," Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said. "We are going to sell millions of these."
Analysts had expected Amazon's tablet to be priced around $250, roughly half the price of Apple's dominant iPad, which starts at $499. The Nook Color e-reader costs $249.
The Web retailer might be angling for a lower-end slice of the market that Apple -- which maintains a careful grip over its higher-end branding and margins -- has traditionally steered clear of.
SUPPLY CONCERNS
Bezos said Amazon is making "millions" of the tablet, without being more specific. However, he urged customers to pre-order the device.
When the original Kindle e-reader came out in 2007, it quickly sold out.
Colin Sebastian, an analyst at RW Baird, kept his Amazon tablet sales forecasts the same on Wednesday on concern about potential supply issues. He expects two million to three million units to be sold this year and four to six million next year.
"While we think the Kindle Fire could easily be the most successful Android-based tablet to date, the November 15 launch date, and the possibility of issues with ramping production -- Apple encountered significant production issues with the iPad 2 -- are the key reasons we are maintaining our current tablet estimates."
CROWDED MARKET
Breaking into a crowded tablet market will be difficult. Companies from Hewlett Packard Co, Motorola, Samsung and Research in Motion Ltd have launched tablets, but none has taken a big bite out of Apple's lead.
Apple dominates the North American tablet market, with 80 percent of the 7.5 million units shipped during the second quarter of 2011, according to Strategy Analytics.
Bezos took a jab at its larger rival during the New York press conference on Wednesday, noting that the Fire needs no wires for syncing. An image of a white USB cord appeared on the screen behind him, prompting laughter from the crowd.
Bezos didn't mention Apple but the picture of the cord resembled those commonly used to connect iPhones and iPads to computers.
Still, Michael Yoshikami, who oversees $1 billion at YCMNET Advisors, discounted any serious hit to Apple -- for now -- because of Apple's similarly rich library of content.
But he thought Apple may need to start offering some sort of subscription-based video streaming service -- iTunes is download primarily -- to respond. Rivals without their own content or services to support their devices, such as Samsung, are most exposed, he added.
"HP's decision to get out of tablets is actually looking fairly bright," he told Reuters.
Having its own tablet is important for Amazon because the company has amassed a mountain of digital goods and services that could be sold through such a device.
The tablet might also encourage customers of Amazon, the world's largest Internet retailer, to shop online for physical products more often. (link.reuters.com/xab24s)
Amazon recently redesigned its main shopping website to make it easier to navigate for mobile users.
"Getting this device into the hands of customers means Amazon can expand their e-commerce footprint -- this is a strategic focus for the company," said Eric Best, an Amazon veteran who now runs online commerce company Mercent.
"Every Kindle Fire user, by virtue of the better browser and richer operating system, has the potential to become a more frequent Amazon shopper."
Meanwhile, competition at the high end of the market is heating up. Motorola on Wednesday announced it will offer 4G-LTE upgrades for Motorola Xoom users on Verizon Wireless, improving loading speeds.
(Additional reporting by Liana Balinsky-Baker and Sinead Carew in New York; Writing by Alistair Barr in San Francisco and Edwin Chan in Los Angeles; Editing by Derek Caney, Gerald E. McCormick and Bernard Orr)

Granite sharing the spotlight with glass, engineered stone and more

To anyone reading the real estate ads in recent years, it could seem that granite was the only material worth using for a kitchen counter, as important as updated electrical or a reliable roof.

Granite isn’t going anywhere. But many designers and homeowners are turning to glass, manufactured stone, metal and other materials to create counters that work for people who actually cook as well for those who see the kitchen as a decorative accessory.

“What consumers now have seen is there is kind of this granite fatigue. Everyone has granite,” said Ed Rogers, the director of business development at CaesarStone US, based in Van Nuys, California.

CaesarStone and other brands, including Silestone, sell engineered quartz, a durable product made from more than 90 percent crushed quartz mixed with a resin.

Manufacturers are producing dozens of colors of engineered quartz, some of them trying to replicate the look of other stones or concrete, at prices comparable to those of midlevel granites. Both a virtue and a drawback is its consistency ― no fossils or natural quirks, though that could change too as companies work to mimic the natural variations of marble or add a leathery surface texture.

Glass counters too are shining. Lighted from below, they can add an appealing glow to a kitchen. Buyers also like the hygienic qualities of glass in these days of the hand sanitizer.

Granite had been “reserved for the ultra high end,” but now it’s available in big box home stores, Rogers said. “It was the home center and the production builder that moved this market.”

And moved some homeowners to other choices that are new and appealing to green consumers, such as engineered quartz, as well as some that have been around for centuries, like soapstone or marble.

Stainless steel is one alternative to the ever-present granite countertop in a modern kitchen. (Los Angeles Times/MCT)

“I have not done a single granite countertop in 10 years,” said Dan Campbell, a Los Angeles contractor who specializes in kitchen design and remodels. “Maybe because it’s so overused. It all blends together.”

Troy Adams also hasn’t used much granite in the high-end kitchens he designs, though he acknowledged there are many beautiful granite slabs available. Improvements to other materials, such as stainless steel with fine patterns that resist fingerprints, have made alternatives more popular, Adams said.

One of the materials he likes to use is lava stone, which is quarried from a volcano in France, enameled and then fired at high temperatures. It’s stain-, heat- and scratch-resistant, and it has a sort of crackly surface that can be made in intense colors. It’s also three to four times as costly as many granites, Adams said.

Whether the kitchen counter is just a spot to toss the keys and mail, the place for breakfast around an island, the lab for a chili cook-off entry or the respite for sitting alone with a glass of pinot grigio, the kitchen counter is inevitably a focal point of what’s become the center of many homes.

Adams said he builds his palette around the aspect of the kitchen with the most surface area, so a large, dramatic island might be the place to start.

In sophisticated, high-end kitchens, an island might be topped with one material, the sink and cooking area in another. In his own kitchen, Adams combined lava stone, stainless steel and glass.

That doesn’t mean the old standbys, including solid surfaces such as Corian, are gone from the market ― particularly in budget-minded kitchen plans. Wood ― often used for cutting blocks or other inserts to countertops ― also can work for counters, whether in a farmhouse kitchen in the city or a sleek contemporary space.

Although it still represents a small share of overall sales, engineered quartz has been the fastest-growing category in the last five or six years, CaesarStone’s Rogers said.

CaesarStone was the first engineered stone, made in 1987, said Arik Tendler, president of CaesarStone US. It was, and still is, made in Israel, where he grew up to become a stone fabricator.

When he was first approached by a salesman with engineered quartz, his reaction was: “Do me a favor. I’m a second-generation stone guy. Have some coffee and get out of here.”

Obviously, he changed his opinion over time. In Southern California, he went door to door to introduce his company starting in 1999.

Campbell said he likes the seamless counter front possible with engineered quartz. “No one wants to see the manufacturing of anything if you can avoid it,” he said.

Many companies also are working to make their products ― natural and manufactured ― as eco-friendly as possible. Consumers who care might check a product for its percentage of recycled materials, which varies considerably, or the conditions of its mining.

Cosentino reports that its Eco line is made of 75 percent post-consumer or post-industrial materials, including mirrors, glass, stone scraps and porcelain. Other counters are being made from recycled glass or recycled paper sealed with wax.

“Granite is going to stay as long as they keep on digging,” said Oren Osovski, an L.A. contractor and interior designer, noting that the range in appearance can provide a look that feels unique. “If you want something beautiful that only you have, you have to have granite or marble.”

By Mary MacVean

(Los Angeles Times)

(MCT Information Services)

Killings spread fear on Mexico social networks

MEXICO CITY (AFP) -- The brutal killing of a third person in apparent retaliation for reporting crime on social networks has raised fears of further censorship of Mexico's drug violence.

The beheading of journalist Maria Elizabeth Macias on Saturday came two weeks after the half-naked bodies of a man and a woman were found hanging from a bridge also in the northeastern border city of Nuevo Laredo, along with messages threatening people who report drug violence on the Internet.

The use of social networks to spread information in parts of Mexico is often a matter of survival -- without a political agenda as in China or the Arab revolutions -- because newspapers no longer dare to report on drug violence.

"In the context of violence against the press present in Mexico ... social networks ... break the silence imposed on journalists," the Mexican branch of the Article 19 rights watchdog said in a statement Tuesday.

"That's why it's urgent to guarantee the security of those who use those tools."

Around 10 journalists have been killed this year in Mexico, according to different media watchdogs, alongside eruptions of violence amid a military crackdown on drug gangs that started in 2006. Officials and media reports blame more than 40,000 deaths on drug violence since 2006.

Press freedom groups condemned the killing of Macias, whose decapitated body and head were found near a message citing posts she wrote on a local anti-crime website, "Nuevo Laredo en Vivo."

Tamaulipas state authorities said a criminal group had claimed reponsibility for the crime while news reports said the message was signed 'ZZZZ,' using the letter associated with the Zetas drug gang.

The two bodies found on September 13 were also accompanied by a message signed 'Z.'

The Zetas -- who started as ex-elite army officers working as hitmen for the Gulf cartel in the 1990s -- are blamed for many attacks in Tamaulipas and beyond since they broke off from the Gulf gang in early 2010.

Macias, 39, worked for daily newspaper Primera Hora but her Internet posts were on public forums where locals seek information about gang fights in the area.

Mike O'Connor, Mexico representative for the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said it was unclear if her killing was directly related to her Internet activities.

But he added: "there hasn't been trustworthy journalism in Tamaulipas for a long time. Reporters say that if you tell the truth, they simply kill you."

As social networks have become a vital crutch to citizens in violent areas, authorities have expressed concern about their potential to spread fear.

The government of the eastern state of Veracruz last month arrested a man and a woman and accused them of terrorism for spreading rumors of attacks, which turned out to be false, on Twitter and Facebook.

The pair were finally freed last week without being charged, but state authorities also passed a new law -- which rights groups have criticized -- to punish the crime of spreading false messages which "disturb public order."

Even as the law was announced, local social networks ran warnings about the daylight dumpings of 49 bodies on roads around the port city of Veracruz last week.

Conversations on Nuevo Laredo en Vivo's Twitter account on Tuesday highlighted how local press had ignored the killing of Macias.

"She did nothing more than tell the truth," lamented @brujitaaaaaa.

Yeonhui-dong, next hip artists’ hang-out?

Old residential neighborhood morphing into bohemian cafe street


A brief taxi trip away from college hub Hongdae stands its significantly more serene cousin, Yeonhui-dong.

Just a decade ago, the place was a quiet residential area. Then, coffee shops started springing up.

The pace quickened about a year ago, spreading the word that the area might very well become the next Garosugil, a hip hang-out for artists and like-minded creative spirits.

Right now, it is too early to draw comparisons. The place still retains a tranquility in keeping with its residential surroundings.

Yeonhui-dong was christened its current name in 1946 according to the Yeonhui-dong Resident Center’s official website (yh-dong.sdm.go.kr/yh-dong/).

The name, Yeonhui, is believed to originate from the place where its neighbor, Yonsei University, currently stands. That turf is believed to have once been the grounds of Yeonhui Palace.

Not only does the area’s name boast royal origins, according to the website, it was even considered a candidate for the Joseon Dynasty capital during the reign of its first king, Taejo (1335-1408).

Yeonhui-dong transformed into a residential area during the 1970s. It wasn’t until the 21st century that it started to sprout coffee shops that many believe cater to the artists who live and work in the area.

“There already were a lot of artistic residents here,” Jennie’s Coffee House owner Han Sun-young, 44, said, affirming the longstanding creative bent of the neighborhood.

Indeed, Jennie’s Coffee House owner Han herself runs an interior design company, Shin Hwankyeong Design, with her husband, which moved to Yeonhui-dong before they opened their cafe below it, and the interior designer of Yeonhui-dong’s new fusion Italian restaurant Qwymin’s Table, Qwymin Kim, 46, has been living and working here for six to seven years.

The fact that Seoul Art Space_Yeonhui, a writers’ enclave created by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and run by the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture, is also located in Yeonhui-dong, further amps up its artistic reputation.

While the area may house many a creative spirit, Yeonhui-dong is not yet a full-blown bohemian hang-out. It feels more like a hideaway right now, with a series of establishments ― primarily coffee shops ― interspersed around SARUGA Shopping Center.

Clearly, Yeonhui-dong’s cafe culture is just beginning to blossom, and that seems to be one of its major charms.

The area is secluded, verdant and slow-paced, affording the worn-out city-goer an opportunity to stroll, sip and gaze at the trees, and if one comes early enough, listen to the crickets and birds in what seems like an impossibly pastoral setting.

It was precisely that peaceful quality that brought Lee Ji-eun, 48, and Kim Youn-joo, 40, co-owners of sewing atelier Nemo e Ggoom, to set up shop here.

“At first we were located in Yeonnam-dong,” said Lee. “Then late this April we moved here. We liked the atmosphere.”

“This area gets busy on the weekends,” she said, adding how that started to happen about a year ago.

Both Kim and Lee, however, believe that Yeonhui-dong will not get up to the busy, bustling pitch of Garosugil.

“I like it here because it is relaxed,” said Lee. “I don’t think it will change too drastically because there are still people living here.”

Wedged in between several shops on a small street corner, Nemo e Ggoom fits in perfectly with its surroundings.

Nemo e Ggoom offers visitors a peaceful space where they can sew to their heart’s content.

On a weekday afternoon, women gather to sew, exchanging friendly words while focusing on their pieces. Outside, the trees rustle softly, giving a woodsy ambiance to the homey setting.

Jennie’s Coffee House owner Han remembers a time when the area was even quieter.

It was the winter of 2003. Han decided to open one of the neighborhood’s first coffee shops simply because there were no cafes near the interior design company (also located there) where she worked and she wanted a great brew.

“There was nothing,” she said.

“At first we had about two customers per day.”

Not one to compromise, she stood her ground, sourcing beans imported from the United States that were then roasted fresh every three days in Korea by her supplier.

Jennie’s Coffee House whips up a decadent Vienna coffee, topped with luscious gobs of in-house whipped cream over a strong, plummy brew made from freshly roasted beans. (Lee Sang-sub/The Korea Herald)

Eight years later, Jennie’s (which is named after Han’s daughter) is still in business, dishing out perfectly-rendered Vienna coffee topped by gobs of cool in-house whipped cream over a strong, deep brew. Her menu has expanded to include delicious handmade chocolates and a simple crust-less cheesecake dressed up with a generous blueberry topping.

No longer alone, Jennie’s is flanked by a row of establishments. Houses still remain on the other side of the road, preserving the quiet aura of the area.

Han likes it this way. She seems to even wish that it was less crowded.

“The tranquility of this road has vanished,” she said.

Han, however, is open to change, as long as it is for the better, and, for better or worse, Yeonhui-dong is changing.

In fact, just a two minute walk away, a new restaurant, Qwymin’s Table, is slated to open on Sept. 24.

Newcomer Qwymin’s Table is bringing fusion Italian to Yeonhuidong starting Sept. 24.

The establishment’s interior designer, Qwymin Kim, after whom it is named, believes there is a dearth of substantial-sized Italian restaurants in the area, though Yeonhui-dong sports a wealth of Chinese restaurants on the main thoroughfare.

Kim is looking forward to the opening of the new Italian fusion restaurant, which he has infused with a vintage vibe. Kim also believes that the current cafe street will continue to grow.

While Qwymin’s Table may signal more new restaurants and shops to come, for now Yeonhui-dong is still a quiet hideaway.

On a late morning weekday, one can hear crickets chirping from the veranda of Yeonhui-dong’s Cafe 129-11, while music pours out throughout the beautiful cathedral-like space.

Patrons can study in private at Cafe 129-11. Wood panels hang in arches from the ceiling to help funnel sound throughout the space.

Small wooden panels hang from the ceiling of the coffee shop, forming arches, which manager Kim Dong-myeong said acts as an acoustic funnel for sound.

“The cafe is an affiliate of the YHD art and management projects gallery,” he said, referring to the gallery nearby.

In keeping with its artistic connections, the cafe acts as a gallery and library, with art hanging on the walls and magazines and books sitting in shelves over individual study spaces.

Buttery French toast, all custardy in the middle and crisp around the edges, and coffee brewed using a special Japanese KONO coffee dripper are served up at the establishment.

It has been a little over a year since the coffee shop opened and manager Kim says the area was quiet the first three to four months then started getting busy on the weekends.

Kim, however, expressed concern over the possibility that the current peak in public interest might just fritter away.

“For this to become something more than a fad people really need to blog about it,” he said.

Blog they may and set the neighborhood abuzz with visitors, but even now, in its quiet, secluded state, Yeonhui-dong boasts a bohemian bonhomie that simply cannot be found elsewhere.

By Jean Oh (oh_jean@heraldm.com)

Details

To get to Yeonhui-dong cafe street go to Hongik University Subway Station Line 2, Exit 9 and grab a taxi to SARUGA Shopping Center or take Exit 5 and board bus 7612 and get off after the fourth stop at Yeonhui A Area Apartments Stop and walk downhill to the Yeonhui Post Office, turn right and cross the street.

Jennie’s Coffee House
Open 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. Coffee-based drinks cost 5,000 won to 8,800 won (refill included). Chocolates cost 1,800 won each. Cake and brownies cost 5,500 won to 7,500 won. For more information call (02) 336-2635.

Nemo e Ggoom
Open from 10 a.m. to 7 pm. Mondays through Fridays and Sundays. Open till 6 p.m. Saturdays and closed the last Saturday every month. Wallets and bags cost around 20,000 won to 150,000 won. Classes for beginners cost 140,000 won for 12 works (material fees not included). For more information call (02) 6339-5677 or visit www.bynemo.com.

Cafe 129-11
Open from 11 a.m. to 11 pm. Daily. Hand drip coffee costs 7,000 won (refill included). Bakery and desserts cost 6,000 won to 12,000 won. For more information call (02)325-0129.

Qwymin’s Table
Open from noon to 10 p.m. daily starting Sept. 24. For more information call (02) 333-0819.

Apple set to unveil new iPhone next week

Company sends out invitations for ‘Let’s talk iPhone’ event on Oct. 4

Apple Inc. will introduce a new version of the iPhone at an Oct. 4 event, the first upgrade of its best-selling product since Steve Jobs resigned as chief executive officer.

“Let’s talk iPhone,” Apple said in an invitation to the gathering at its headquarters in Cupertino, California.

The new iPhone will include a better camera and faster processor, people familiar with the matter said earlier this year. Introduced in 2007, the iPhone accounts for about half of Apple’s revenue. Demand for the touch-screen gadget has helped catapult Apple ahead of Exxon Mobil Corp. as the world’s most valuable company.

Jobs, who resigned as CEO and turned leadership of the company over to Tim Cook on Saturday is now Apple’s chairman.

“The iPhone is the most important product line in the company,” said Shaw Wu, an analyst at Sterne Agee & Leach Inc. “Cook will be heavily watched,” because he didn’t typically participate in major product introductions in his former role, Wu said.

A man lines up near the new Apple Inc. store on the eve of the store’s opening in Hong Kong on Friday. (Bloomberg)

Apple showed off new features of the iPhone’s revamped operating system during Jobs’s last major Apple event, a developers conference in June. The new software, called iOS 5, includes new notification and text messaging systems. The company also said in June that it will debut iCloud, which lets users to wirelessly access music, pictures and other files across different Apple devices.

The new iPhone could be Apple’s best-selling product yet. Apple may sell 110 million iPhones in 2012, a faster pace than this year, when nearly 40 million were sold during the first half of the calendar year, according to Mike Abramsky, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets in Toronto.

Pent-up demand may help sales, said Maynard Um, an analyst at UBS Securities LLC. Apple is unveiling a new model 16 months after the iPhone 4 debuted, compared with the 12 months between previous model updates. In addition to the stronger processor and improved camera, the new iPhone may have faster networking technology, improved graphics performance and potentially be thinner and lighter, Um said.

This may be the last time Apple can wait so long between new iPhones as rivals including Samsung Electronics Co. and HTC Corp. introduce competing smartphones using Google Inc.’s Android operating system.

“A year and a half, especially in the smartphone product cycle, is many lifetimes,” said Ashok Kumar, an analyst at Rodman & Renshaw LLC in New York.

Apple is set to expand the number of wireless providers for the iPhone. Sprint Nextel Corp., the third-largest carrier, will begin offering Apple’s phone in the U.S. with unlimited data services plan next month, people familiar with the matter said. AT&T Corp. and Verizon Wireless now are the only two U.S. carriers of the iPhone.

The new iPhone probably won’t be less expensive than the current model, which is sold to wireless carriers for $600, said Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray Cos., in a research report. Service providers generally subsidize the price for customers. Instead of making the phone cheaper, Apple is likely to drop the price of the current model iPhone to give consumers a more affordable alternative, Munster said.

The new model may include voice-recognition software, Munster said. He speculated that the “Let’s Talk iPhone” wording of the invite may refer to such speech-based features. Apple purchased a speech-recognition software company called Siri last year.

In the first full quarter on the market, Apple may sell 25 million iPhones, Munster said, adding that this estimate for the period ending in December may be “conservative.”

Natalie Harrison, a spokeswoman for Apple, didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.

(Bloomberg)

Putin rebuilds economic team, seeks unity

Russian P.M.’s trusted ally and low-key minister to handle country’s finance

MOSCOW (Reuters) ― Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin put a trusted ally in charge of the economy on Tuesday and named a low-key finance minister to address concerns about reforms and restore unity over his plan to return to the Kremlin.

Putin sacrificed his long-serving finance minister, Alexei Kudrin, on Monday after President Dmitry Medvedev demanded his dismissal for rebelling against a plan for Medvedev and Putin to swap places next March.

Kudrin’s abrupt departure alarmed investors who saw him as a guarantor of financial stability and a potential leader of reforms. It also highlighted rifts around Putin as he tries to tighten his grip on power by returning to the post he held for eight years until 2008.

Putin acted swiftly to restore confidence by handing control of all economic ministries to Igor Shuvalov, 44, a former sherpa to the Group of Eight industrialized nations who has been a first deputy prime minister since 2008.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin chairs a Russian government presidium meeting on Tuesday in Moscow. (AFP-Yonhap News)

He promoted Anton Siluanov, a little-known Kudrin deputy, to the interim role of acting finance minister. An expert in regional budgets, the 48-year-old career bureaucrat is expected to keep a low profile following Kudrin’s stormy departure.

Underlining that he had agreed Siluanov’s appointment with the president, Putin said: “He is a good specialist, and his candidacy was obviously agreed with Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev. This is our joint decision.”

But Kudrin, 50, did little to dampen talk of disharmony by releasing remarks on Tuesday saying he had quit because of the fiscal risks the government was taking, making clear there had been disagreements with Putin as well as Medvedev for months.

“Over the course of several months, despite my repeated objections, some made in public, decisions were taken in the sphere of budget policy that without doubt increased fiscal execution risks,” Kudrin wrote in a resignation statement.

It was the first time he had so openly criticized his long-time ally, with whom he worked in the St Petersburg city authorities in the 1990s.

No one else has joined Kudrin in openly rebelling against any parts of Putin’s succession plan, but the chairman of Russia’s central bank, Sergei Ignatyev, did praise Kudrin as a “very strong” finance minister.

Ignatyev reassured Russian banks and markets battered by global turmoil and unsettled by Kudrin’s departure that the Bank of Russia would provide as much liquidity as needed to keep the financial system afloat.



First resignation rejected



Kudrin said Putin had rejected an initial request to quit in February. But Putin’s announcement on Saturday that he planned to swap jobs with Medvedev after parliamentary and presidential elections appears to have been the last straw.

Kudrin said he would not serve in a Medvedev government and objected particularly to his plans to raise military spending.

Medvedev humiliated Kudrin by demanding his resignation on Monday at a public meeting they were attending, and made clear on Tuesday he would not put up with any dissent from others.

Defending his military spending plans during talks with army officers, he slammed a table with his hand and said: “Whoever disagrees with this can go and work elsewhere.”

Medvedev, 46, appears intent on asserting himself after he too was humiliated ― when he agreed not to see a second term under the terms of Putin’s succession plan.

Medvedev and Putin have ruled the world’s biggest energy producer in a power ‘tandem’ since Putin gave up the presidency after serving the maximum two consecutive terms since 2000.

But Russia now has a president who is little more than a lame duck as parliamentary and presidential elections loom over the next six months.

Few doubt Putin will be elected president in March.

Economists fear a policy drift until after the presidential election and say Kudrin’s removal reduces the prospect of major economic reforms next year, even though his main legacy was to build up a rainy-day fund to cushion Russia during crises.

Some economic analysts believe the government could also loosen its control on spending as the elections approach.

“Even if Kudrin had to compromise on higher spending at times, his strong preference was for the continuing accumulation of oil wealth in state savings,” said Natalya Orlova, chief economist at Alfa Bank in Moscow.



Efforts to end instability



Putin, 58, had sought to end political instability that was unsettling investors by announcing his plan on Saturday.

Under the plan, Medvedev would run as the main candidate for the ruling United Russia party in the Dec. 4 parliamentary election, boosting its chances of maintaining a two-thirds majority in the lower house. Shuvalov is a steady hand and fluent English speaker who has long worked with Putin.

Siluanov’s first task will be to present the government’s three-year budget to parliament. Despite Kudrin’s restraining influence, it foresees annual spending increases of more than 20 percent and could yet be amended to attract votes.

That in turn could further increase the vulnerability of the public finances to a decline in oil prices, as the budget next year would only balance with crude oil at $116 per barrel, about 10 percent above today’s price. Energy revenues make up half of Russia’s budget.

Whisked away to another world

LA CADIERE D’AZUR, France ― It is day four of cooking class at La Bastide des Saveurs, and many of the 14 students are looking for chairs to catch a few minutes of rest before the whisking begins. But it is also dessert day, so a delicious reward at the end is guaranteed.

Such are the joys, and challenges, of a gourmet cooking class at the estate of the Hostellerie Berard in La Cadiere d’Azur, France.

There is work to be done, and instructions to follow, during a day that can stretch to seven hours. The key also is to have fun. Who wants to work on vacation?

The setting is movie-set-perfect: The rustic kitchen of a 19th century country house in the Provencal countryside. Pass by the herb and vegetable garden on the way to the kitchen with chef Rene Berard.

A cutting board and knife await each student around the wooden block table. Bowls of cubed butter, sugar, yellow apples and pine nuts give clues to the day’s tasks. Berard walks in, and it’s time to grab your knife, or your pen to take notes, and get cooking.

Students in the gourmet cooking class of the Hostellerie Berard in La Cadiere d’Azur, France do most of the work. (Chicago Tribune/MCT)

This class has its share of English speakers ― from Australia, Canada, South Carolina and Chicago ― so the translator takes her spot across from Berard. The veal stock is already boiling on the stove, and the smell is heavenly. Every so often during the day, an assistant stops by to pour in another bottle of red wine or drop in herbs, vegetables ― even hooves.

The cooking lineup includes two kinds of tarts, lemon and apple, along with chocolate fondant (think: the original molten chocolate cake), a wafer and fruit creation, and a French classic in sauce vanille bourbon.

The students take turns cracking eggs, whisking (“No air!” cautions the chef), rolling out pastry, stirring sauces, even tossing cooked apples in the pan before the concoction is set aflame. Do something wrong, and you get a gentle suggestion from Berard. Do it correctly, and you get a smile and “Ah, perfect.”

There is time to soak in the atmosphere. The window is cracked open and reveals a prototypical Provence countryside. Copper pans crowd the space above the stove, and dried herbs in glass jars line the countertops. The tile walls of red and yellow shout Provence.

Desserts do not make a meal, so the lesson also includes an artichoke salad featuring artichokes from the garden. The students have had a hand in the entire lunch menu, so the lamb that was deboned and put in a marinade days ago is brought out. Berard arranges the meat just so before he hands it over to assistants to cook. That pot of veal stock is strained; not much is left from a day of work, but what a taste it has.

Then it is outside to the terrace to enjoy the fruits of the students’ labor. A table under canopy is already set with glasses, cutlery and bottles of wine.

The students and Berard take their seats, and the food parade begins: bread and olive tapenade and anchovy paste; ratatouille; lamb with pistachio butter; vegetable terrine; mashed potatoes; artichokes with shallots, celery and mushrooms. And desserts.

Conversation ranges from the nightly parties (the seaport of Cassis is on the night’s agenda) to the bouillabaisse to the honey farm visited earlier in the week.

One of the younger students, recent college grad Arielle Saporta of Chicago, marveled at the garden tour earlier in the week. “There were four different types of basil,” she said.

The 1 p.m. stated ending time stretches to 3:30 p.m., but no one wants to leave.

There is talk that Berard will not be doing this much longer. Someone asks him directly. His words are translated: “The day I don’t have a passion, I’ll stop.”

The students nod knowingly, then offer a toast.

By Linda Bergstrom

(Chicago Tribune)

(MCT Information Services)