Japanese actress and erotic novelist Aya Sugimoto stripped down naked on Wednesday but this time not for a raunchy movie but to campaign for animal rights. Holding a tiny sign reading: "Fur? I'd rather go naked," Sugimoto posed in the nude before dozens of photographers and television cameras in one of the first Japanese campaigns by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA.)
"I stopped wearing fur two years ago after I learned how fur products are being produced," said the actress, who is also a dancer and singer."I want to play a role in the 'No Fur' movement and let more people know of the cruel and grim reality for animals," Sugimoto said. "I don't mind at all even if my naked photos are posted all over." PETA chose Sugimoto, 40, as the first Japanese model of its international anti-fur campaign because of her passion for animal rights, for which she has created a fake-fur fashion brand. "She is perfect," said Jason Baker, director of the group's Asia-Pacific branch office. "She cares about the issue." Sugimoto, a cat lover, said she wants to show Japanese consumers that being stylish and caring about animal rights does not necessarily contradict. Japanese fashion, particularly the so-called "kawaii" cute look, is enjoying growing popularity worldwide. "I want people to realize that they can be stylish and posh enough without using real fur," she said. Whether the campaign will influence consumers to stop wearing fur remains to be seen.An Arab expatriate living in the UAE told AlArabiya.net she does not wear fur because she thinks it is old-fashioned and said although she cares about animal rights she thinks there are more important issues in the world. "If I did wear fur, I probably wouldn’t think twice about animal rights unless for example it was an animal on the brink of extinction," Maya Haslam, 30, said, adding she would consider wearing fake fur.

A few days were sufficient for Republican candidate John McCain to make up for the vote intentions in favor of his opponent Democratic candidate Barack Obama. The polls even showed that McCain was leading, albeit with a slight difference.This advantage was determined by McCain's choice of the young Alaska governor as his vice-presidential candidate despite the many criticisms regarding Sarah Palin's lack of experience and family issues - including a pending case in court. Experience and personal background have not even played out in favor of the Obama-Joe Biden ticket, which combines the Afro-American candidate's charisma and eloquence and Biden's experience in Congress and foreign affairs.McCain's campaign has borrowed one of Obama's two main slogans; the Democratic candidate used them as a backbone for his presidential campaign once he snatched victory in the party elections campaign. These two slogans focus on the US domestic conditions. They revolve around change and hope: the change of the political practice at the level of the central administration in Washington, and the hope that all Americans would have equal opportunities to enjoy the same rights and obligations. McCain's campaign - particularly after Palin's choice - has borrowed change according to Palin's formula: the Democratic ticket speaks of change in order to get to the White House, whereas the Republican ticket gets to the White House in order to induce such change, albeit with a different content than the one sought by Obama. What matters in this change is to move away from the current Republican president George Bush's legacy and the negative results of his eight-year term of office both on the economic and social levels.

At a time when the Bush administration foreign policy seriously took a toll on the image of the United States - particularly with the unilateral management of the war on terror and the invasion of Iraq - Obama tried to establish a new policy based on the return to state institutions, negotiations and cooperation with allies, and dialogue with enemies, in order to guarantee US interests. In his opinion, force alone is insufficient to protect these interests.Hence, Obama gained considerable popularity around the world and up to 70% in polls outside the United States - particularly in Western Europe. However, this image sought by US allies for the US president has not dispelled domestic fears, the very ones that are feeding McCain's popularity at home. The Republican candidate is known for his military record and boldness in taking hard and unpopular decisions when necessary.McCain's campaign takes every opportunity to focus on the continuous threat to the United States and the ongoing war on terror. This threat is not limited to targeting Americans in their own country but also their interests around the world.There is a repetition of the main headline of the presidential battle four years ago between Bush Jr. and Democrat John Kerry. The former held on to the war in Iraq as a means to keep the danger off the United States. Kerry, for his part, failed to convince his fellow citizens of the need to end this costly, tiring, and damaging war. Moreover, Bush's consecutive terms of office proved that the Americans were driven more by fear than hope.* Published in the London-based DAR AL-HAYAT on September 16, 2008.

A Palestinian woman died after her father buried her alive claiming he wanted to preserve the "family honor." The father, in his seventies, turned himself in and admitted to killing his 24-year-old divorced daughter.

After investigating the crime scene, the police discovered that the woman’s father had tied her arms and legs and muzzled her before burying her alive. According to press reports on Monday, the coroner was to examine the body to determine whether the woman was also beaten before her death.

The police also detained four of the victim's brothers to investigate their involvement in the crime.

The White House warned Iran Monday that it faced possible new sanctions after the U.N. atomic watchdog reported it had been unable to make much progress in investigating Tehran's suspect nuclear program.

"The Iranian regime's continued defiance only further isolates the Iranian people," said White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe

"We urge Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities or face further implementation of the existing United Nations Security Council sanctions and the possibility of new sanctions," he added.

A Russian Aeroflot Boeing 737-500 airliner crashed near the Ural Mountains on Sunday, killing all 88 passengers and crew on board -- 21 of them foreign nationals."The Boeing-737 carried 82 passengers on board, including seven children, and six crew... All passengers were killed," Aeroflot said in a statement."There are foreign citizens among the victims, including nine from Azerbaijan, five from Ukraine, and one each from France, Switzerland, Latvia, the United States, Germany, Turkey and Italy," the statement said.Debris from the crash covered a section of Russia's main east-west railway, forcing its closure, Russian media reported.

Television pictures showed firefighters walking round the smoldering, shattered remains of the plane.Investigators were flying from Moscow to try and establish what caused the crash but there was no suggestion of an attack or sabotage."It was burning while still in the sky and it looked like a falling comet," a female eyewitness told Russia's Vesti-24 television channel."As the plane was coming in for landing, it lost communication at the height of 1,100 meters (yards) and air controllers lost its blip. The airplane was found within Perm's city limits completely destroyed and on fire," the Aeroflot statement said.Earlier, investigator Vladimir Markin was quoted by the RIA Novosti news agency as saying that the airplane "fell into a ravine near the city limits."Aeroflot set up a crisis center for the victims' relatives both in Moscow's Sheremetyevo-1 airport and in Perm, including psychological aid, the company said.Last year, 33 Russian aviation accidents left 318 dead -- a sixfold increase over 2005 -- raising serious concerns about Russia's civil aviation, with experts pointing to major faults in the professional training of crews as well as Russia's ageing fleet of passenger jets.An air safety commission announced in January that the average age of the country's international airliners was 18, and its regional jets 30 years.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - She's been named as the highest-paid TV celebrity and one of the world's most powerful women, but American talk-show host Oprah Winfrey is also a big giver, topping a list of the 30 most generous celebrities for the second year running.
The second annual list, compiled by The Giving Back Fund, a group that seeks to encourage philanthropy, put Oprah in the top slot with The Oprah Winfrey Foundation and Oprah's Angel Network spending $50.2 million in 2007 on education, health care, and advocacy for women and children worldwide.
Winfrey is a former Bob Hope Humanitarian Award winner, but her girls' academy in South Africa made headlines last year after a former dormitory matron was charged with abusing students.
Second place on the list, published in the latest edition of Parade magazine, went to trumpeter and A&M records co-founder Herb Alpert with The Herb Alpert Foundation spending $13 million on education, including the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music.
Singer-actress Barbra Streisand came third in the list that was based on public records of donations made in 2007, with $11 million donated by The Streisand Foundation to the environment, women's issues, civil rights, AIDS research, and advocacy.
Fourth place went to Paul Newman who gave $10 million to the Scholarship for Kenyon College, his alma mater in Gambier, Ohio, while Mel Gibson was in the fifth slot, giving $9.9 million to the Holy Family Church in Malibu, California.
(Writing by Belinda Goldsmith, Editing by Miral Fahmy)

A series of synchronized bomb blasts rocked New Delhi on Saturday, killing at least 18 people and injuring dozens more in some of the busiest market areas of the Indian capital. Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said five bombs had gone off, and Indian Home Minister Shivraj Patil put the death toll at 18, with many more injured. A Muslim militant outfit, Indian Mujahideen, claimed responsibility for the bombings in an e-mail. The group has claimed recent bomb attacks in other Indian cities.

The five blasts of varying intensity included two at Connaught Place -- the city's largest financial and commercial centre -- and two more at the busy, upmarket shopping district of Greater Kailash. India's television network NDTV quoted the e-mail as saying, "In the name of Allah, the Indian Mujahideen has struck back again. Do whatever you want. Stop us if you can."Police in Greater Kailash searched for survivors among a mess of mangled motorcycles and shattered glass from vehicles caught in two blasts that went off within seven minutes of each other.President Pratibha Patil denounced what she described as a "mindless act of violence."Police said two unexploded bombs had been found in Connaught Place -- one in a cinema -- and a third near India Gate, one of the country's most iconic landmarks.Both locations are popular with international tourists. An explosive expert with one of the bomb disposal units said the devices appeared to have been packed with steel ball bearings and nuts and bolts "to cause maximum harm."Triple blasts in New Delhi in October 2005, blamed on Pakistan-backed Islamic rebel groups, claimed nearly 70 lives, while a 2001 attack on India's national parliament complex also blamed on Muslim militants killed 14 people.The Indian Mujahideen group had claimed responsibility for a wave of bombings in July that killed at least 45 people in the western commercial city of Ahmedabad