Orange celebrations as King Willem-Alexander takes Dutch throne

1 of 27. Dutch King Willem-Alexander waves to the crowd next to his wife Queen Maxima and their daughters Crown Princess Catharina-Amalia and Princess Alexia during a boat parade in Amsterdam April 30, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Laurent Dubrule

By Gilbert Kreijger and Thomas Escritt

AMSTERDAM | Tue Apr 30, 2013 6:15pm EDT

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Willem-Alexander became the first king of the Netherlands since 1890 on Tuesday, ascending a throne largely stripped of political power but still invested with enormous symbolic significance for the Dutch people.

At his investiture in Amsterdam's 600-year-old Nieuwe Kerk, or New Church, the 46-year-old monarch swore an oath to uphold the Dutch constitution and stressed the need for unity at a time of economic crisis.

"I take office in a period when many in the kingdom feel vulnerable or uncertain. Vulnerable in their job or in their health, uncertain about their income or their immediate environment," Willem-Alexander said at his inauguration, attended by crown princes and princesses and other dignitaries.

"We can no longer take it for granted that children will be better off than their parents ... Our strength is therefore not in isolation but by cooperating."

Willem-Alexander - who is a water management specialist, a useful expertise in a country where much of the land is below sea level - and his wife Maxima, a former investment banker from Argentina, are expected to bring a less formal touch to the monarchy at a time of national austerity and budget cuts.

April 30, or Queen's Day, has always been an occasion for partying in the Netherlands, and Amsterdam has been awash with orange - the color of the House of Orange - for days.

Houses were covered in bunting and flags and shop windows were stuffed with orange cakes, sweets, clothes and flowers.

Many people took Monday off work and started celebrating in earnest from Monday evening. Nearly a million people were expected at street parties in the capital where there was dancing to bands and DJs in a carnival atmosphere.

LIFTING THE MOOD

An estimated 25,000 people, many dressed in orange or wearing orange wigs, hats, feather boas and crowns, massed in Dam Square next to the Royal Palace to watch the abdication and inauguration being broadcast live.

Blinking back tears, former Queen Beatrix stepped out onto the balcony of the Royal Palace and presented her son to the crowds of cheering well-wishers.

"Some moments ago I abdicated from the throne. I am happy and thankful to present to you your new king," said Beatrix, 75, who retired after 33 years in the role, following in the tradition of her mother and grandmother. She now takes the title of princess.

The ceremonies provided a welcome excuse to celebrate at a time when plummeting house prices, rising unemployment and slumping consumer confidence have pushed the country into recession.

Thousands of well-wishers cheered as the royals toured in a canal boat as the sun set. Cannons fired a three-round salute and 10 F-16 fighter jets flew overhead streaming red, white and blue smoke.

King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima made an unexpected stop, disembarked with their three daughters and shook hands with DJ Armin van Buuren, a break from protocol that hinted at the beginning of a less formal era for the Dutch monarchy.

"The new king is okay and his wife if okay and that is the most important thing," said Rik de Boer, who was selling hand-made jewellery in the packed capital. "He is a peoples' king, a new generation. He goes to football matches and he cheers. He expresses emotions in public."

Prime Minister Mark Rutte said at the weekend the celebrations would lift the mood of the nation and might even have a positive economic impact.

The government had promised to keep the cost of the pageantry down - the ceremonies will cost about 12 million euros ($15.82 million), excluding the bill for security measures.

"I've been pleasantly surprised by the new king, he seems to say exactly what you want him to say," said Alexander van Merchem, a student, craning his neck outside the church in the hope of seeing a passing dignitary.

"He seems like a really nice, pleasant guy."

Shop owner Marcel Beurst enthused about Queen Maxima.

"I'm really happy we're going to have a very nice new queen. Maxima has a great appearance, and she's a power woman. She'll manage things in the background. I think she'll be the real king."

POPULAR ROYALS

Willem-Alexander wore a royal mantle decorated with silver lions that has been used for investitures since 1815, although it has been repaired and altered at least twice over the past century, for the investitures of his mother and grandmother.

In accordance with tradition, he was not formally crowned because in the absence of a state church, there is no cleric available to carry out the coronation. Instead, the crown and other jewels sat on a table beside him throughout the ceremony.

Queen Maxima wore a tiara and a full-length royal blue dress and cloak, which Dutch media reported was designed by Jan Taminiau of the Netherlands. The ceremony was attended by Britain's Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, and by Japan's Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako, on her first foreign trip since falling ill a decade ago.

Like their counterparts in Britain and Sweden, the Dutch royals are broadly popular; 78 percent of Dutch are in favor of the monarchy up from 74 percent a year ago, according to an Ipsos poll.

And like many other royals, they have had their fair share of embarrassing marital, political and financial scandals.

Willem-Alexander's marriage to Maxima in 2002 was controversial because Maxima's father, Jorge Zorreguieta, served in Argentina's military dictatorship more than 30 years ago.

Maxima quickly endeared herself to the Dutch, however - a poll showed she is now as popular as Beatrix, and even more popular than her husband.

While Beatrix had considerable political influence as queen, she was stripped of that power by an act of parliament last year, and the monarch no longer appoints the mediator who conducts exploratory talks when forming government coalitions.

($1 = 0.7585 euros)

(Additional reporting by Ivana Secularac; Writing by Sara Webb and Anthony Deutsch; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall and Michael Roddy)

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Editor's choice

1 of 24. An Israeli border police officer aims pepper spray towards a Palestinian man during clashes between Jewish settlers and Palestinians in the West bank village of Urif, near Nablus April 30, 2013. The clashes erupted after an attack near Nablus. A Palestinian man stabbed and shot dead an Israeli settler in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, the Israeli ambulance service and police said.

Credit: Reuters/Abed Omar

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UPDATE 1-Antibiotic-resistant bacteria found in ground turkey-report

* FDA says "major public health threat"

* Dangerous bacteria found on 90 percent of turkey tested (Adds FDA comments, paragraphs 11-13)

By Carey Gillam

KANSAS CITY, April 30 (Reuters) - Dangerous antibiotic-resistant bacteria has been found in ground turkey on U.S. grocery shelves across a variety of brands and stores located in 21 states, according to a report by a consumer watchdog organization.

Of the 257 samples of ground turkey tested, more than half were found to be positive for fecal bacteria and overall, 90 percent were contaminated with one or more types of disease-causing organisms, many of which proved resistant to one or more common antibiotics, Consumer Reports found.

The non-profit, independent product-testing organization said in the June issue of its magazine that the sampling marked the first time it had conducted a laboratory analysis of ground turkey, a popular consumer alternative to hamburger. It was alarmed by the results.

"Some bacteria that end up on ground turkey, including E. coli and staph aureus, can cause not only food poisoning but also urinary, bloodstream, and other infections," said a Consumer Reports statement on its findings.

The group said it samples ground turkey from 27 different brands including major and store brands.

Turkeys, like other livestock in the United States, are commonly given repeated low doses of antibiotics in an effort to keep the animals healthy and help promote growth. But there has been growing concern that widespread use of antibiotics in animals that are not sick is speeding the development of antibiotic resistance.

The National Turkey Federation said the findings were sensationalized on a sampling that was "extremely small," and said that blaming use of antibiotics in animals was "misleading."

"There is more than one way they (harmful bacteria) can wind up on food animals," said National Turkey Federation vice president Lisa Picard. "In fact, it's so common in the environment, studies have shown that generic E.coli and MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) can even be found on about 20 percent of computer keyboards."

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration also found widespread contamination, discovering antibiotic resistant E coli, salmonella and other harmful bacteria in turkey, ground beef, pork chops and chicken in sampling done in 2011.

The food safety regulator says resistance of bacteria to antibiotics is "a major public health threat," and last year issued voluntary guidelines for animal health and animal agriculture industries aimed at limiting the antibiotic use in livestock.

The agency has rebuffed efforts to mandate reduced usage but says the voluntary route is faster.

"FDA believes these drugs should be used only in situations where they are necessary for ensuring animal health, and done so under the oversight of a veterinarian," FDA said in a statement.

It added the Consumer Reports findings were misleading and said antimicrobial resistance is a "complex issue with many causes."

U.S. Rep. Louise Slaughter, a New York Democrat, last month reintroduced legislation that would ban non-therapeutic uses of eight types of antibiotics in food animal production.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also has issued a warning about antibiotic resistance infections, saying they are becoming increasingly difficult to treat and more infected people are likely to die.

"Humans don't consume antibiotics every day to prevent disease and neither should healthy animals," said Dr. Urvashi Rangan, Director of the Food Safety and Sustainability Group at Consumer Reports. "Prudent use of antibiotics should be required to stem the public health crisis generated from the reduced effectiveness of antibiotics." (Reporting By Carey Gillam; Editing by Leslie Gevirtz)

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Editor's choice

1 of 24. An Israeli border police officer aims pepper spray towards a Palestinian man during clashes between Jewish settlers and Palestinians in the West bank village of Urif, near Nablus April 30, 2013. The clashes erupted after an attack near Nablus. A Palestinian man stabbed and shot dead an Israeli settler in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, the Israeli ambulance service and police said.

Credit: Reuters/Abed Omar

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Editor's choice

1 of 24. An Israeli border police officer aims pepper spray towards a Palestinian man during clashes between Jewish settlers and Palestinians in the West bank village of Urif, near Nablus April 30, 2013. The clashes erupted after an attack near Nablus. A Palestinian man stabbed and shot dead an Israeli settler in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, the Israeli ambulance service and police said.

Credit: Reuters/Abed Omar

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UPDATE 2-Cerberus raises $2.61 billion private equity fund -sources

* Cerberus has raised over $11 bln over the last two years

* First completed PE fundraising since plans for Freedom sale

* Cerberus partners may bid for gunmaker Freedom

By Greg Roumeliotis

NEW YORK, May 1 (Reuters) - Cerberus Capital Management LP has completed fundraising for its latest flagship private equity fund, raising $2.61 billion to invest in distressed assets, two sources said, bringing the capital Cerberus has raised from investors in the last two years to over $11 billion.

Cerberus Institutional Partners V (CIP V) is also the first Cerberus private equity fund to complete fundraising after the firm said in December it would sell Freedom Group Inc, the maker of the Bushmaster rifle that was used in the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

Cerberus started marketing CIP V in 2011 with a $3.75 billion fundraising target, and later moderated its expectations to between $3 billion and $3.5 billion.

There is no evidence that the Freedom Group controversy weighed on the CIP V fundraising, one of the people familiar with the matter said. Both people spoke on condition of anonymity because the details of the fundraising are confidential. A Cerberus spokesman declined to comment.

Following the Newtown massacre, Cerberus came under public pressure to sell Freedom Group and moved quickly to announce it would divest it. The firm's chief executive and co-founder Stephen Feinberg, along with other Cerberus partners, may make a bid for the gun maker to ensure the sale does not occur at an unfairly low price for its investors, sources told Reuters last month.

The capital of over $11 billion Cerberus has raised from investors in the last two years includes fund offerings in structured products, non-performing loans, mortgage-backed-securities and distressed corporate debt.

CIP V invests in private equity assets that include operational turnarounds and distressed situations and securities that include distressed corporate debt and mortgage investments.

CIP V's predecessor, the $7.5 billion CIP IV that was raised in 2006, was valued at 1.33 times its investors' money and had a net internal rate of return of 7.3 percent as of the end of June 2012, according to the University of California, a Cerberus investor.

This was a stronger performance than most of the private equity funds of a 2006 vintage that the University of California had in its portfolio. The University's total private equity portfolio, across all vintages, was valued at 1.6 times the cost its original investments.

In the first quarter of 2013, 129 private equity funds reached a final fundraising close, raising a total of $67 billion, compared to the 203 funds that raised a total $79 billion in the first quarter of 2012, according to market research firm Preqin.

Founded in 1992 and named after the mythical many-headed dog that guards the gates of the underworld, Cerberus has specialized over the years in investing in distressed companies and debt. It now has over $20 billion of assets under management.

Cerberus, which is best known for its one-time investment in Chrysler, has investments in a range of sectors including banking, retail and real estate. Most recently, it acquired a chain of stores from supermarket operator Supervalu Inc. It also has a number of investments in Europe and Japan.

Dow Jones reported on the completion of the CIP V fundraising earlier on Wednesday.

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EU considers trade action after Bangladesh factory collapse

n">May 1 (Reuters) - The European Union voiced strong concern over labour conditions in Bangladesh after a building collapse there killed hundreds of factory workers, and said it was considering action to encourage improvements, including the use of its trade preference system.

The European Union is Bangladesh's largest trade partner and clothes made inside the building - an illegally built structure that toppled last week, killing at least 390 people - were produced for retailers in Europe and Canada.

"The EU is presently considering appropriate action, including through the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) - through which Bangladesh currently receives duty-free and quota-free access to the EU market under the 'Everything But Arms' scheme - in order to incentivise responsible management of supply chains involving developing countries," said the statement, issued on Tuesday by EU foreign affairs representative Catherine Ashton and trade commissioner Karel de Gucht.

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Editor's Choice

1 of 24. An Israeli border police officer aims pepper spray towards a Palestinian man during clashes between Jewish settlers and Palestinians in the West bank village of Urif, near Nablus April 30, 2013. The clashes erupted after an attack near Nablus. A Palestinian man stabbed and shot dead an Israeli settler in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, the Israeli ambulance service and police said.

Credit: Reuters/Abed Omar

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Polish far-right "flash mobs" scare liberal thinkers

1 of 4. A demonstrator holds flares up as he taunts the riot police as violence breaks out at a parade celebrating Poland's national holiday in Warsaw in this November 11, 2012 file photograph.

Credit: Reuters/Peter Andrews/Files

By Marcin Goettig

WARSAW | Tue Apr 30, 2013 6:54am EDT

WARSAW (Reuters) - Magdalena Sroda, a Polish feminist and academic, was about to deliver a lecture at Warsaw university on "Morality in public life," when around 50 young men wearing balaclavas and plastic animal masks shoved their way into the building.

Security guards pushed them from the auditorium and they moved to an adjacent hall, waving fists and shouting a chant from the soccer terraces that compares opponents with Poland's widely despised former Soviet overlords:

"Hit the red trash with a hammer, with a sickle!".

They soon dispersed and the lecture went ahead, but the audience, which included professors and two university deans, was shaken, Sroda told Reuters, recalling the incident in February, one of a growing number since late last year.

"We are dealing with a new political movement that has decided to use barbarity against democracy," she said.

The invasion by "flash mobs" of liberal lectures and conferences marks a new battleground in a years-long struggle between Poles seeking to embrace liberal, western European values and those who say phenomena like feminism and gay partnerships are a corruption of traditional Polish values.

The masked gangs are loosely affiliated to far-right groups and have targeted, among others, the editor of a major newspaper, the first openly gay member of parliament and a student society planning to debate same sex couples.

They coincide with a rise of the far-right in countries across Europe as recession bites. Hungary's far-right Jobbik party is now third biggest in parliament, while in Greece, the far-right Golden Dawn won 7 percent of votes last year.

In Poland, where the far right is not in parliament, the "flash mobs" combine elements of both ends of the right-wing spectrum. At one is the hooliganism of the soccer fans who fight police with their club scarves over their faces and whose anti-communist chants can mask anti-Semitism and homophobia.

At the other is the organization and social conservatism of the mainstream right-wing, which expresses its views in parliament, Catholic sermons and on television talk shows.

Together, they make a potentially explosive mix.

"Football fans are the avant-garde of the young generation today," said Artur Zawisza, a former member of parliament who is now one of the leaders of the National Movement (Ruch Narodowy), which aims to unite the forces of Poland's far-right.

The "flash mobs" were well-organized groups standing up for their beliefs, Zawisza said, adding that he had nothing to do with inspiring or organizing them but understood their frustration with the liberal establishment.

"There are so many examples of disregard for Polishness, for tradition, history and culture that it causes anger and rebellion."

"HIT THE RED TRASH!"

Poland's far-right agenda ranges from fighting social liberalism and rights for sexual minorities to calls for the creation of a Catholic state for the Polish nation.

Even in the political mainstream, conservatism is strong. The legislature in January threw out draft laws aimed at giving homosexual couples limited legal rights and deputy Krystyna Pawlowicz of the largest opposition party, Law and Justice (PiS), said gay people should attend "therapy centers".

The mobs have yet to affect policy, but many intellectuals say they have a chilling effect on academic debate; at least one university discussion has been canceled because organizers feared it could be hijacked by far-right activists.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk condemned the flash mobs after the incident at Warsaw university. "If we do not act in an unambiguous way, then in a month or half a year they will not only yell, but they will beat," he said.

"I do not have the slightest doubt about it."

The authorities are struggling to know how to deal with the new tactics, which occupy a grey area between legitimate protest and violent intimidation.

A few days after Sroda's lecture was ambushed, around 20 young men tried to interrupt a lecture by Adam Michnik, the editor-in-chief of Gazeta Wyborcza, a leading liberal newspaper.

Internet footage shows them jostling with university security staff in Radom, about 100 km (60 miles) south of Warsaw, and shouting the same slogan, "Hit the red trash!". It was extra ironic; Michnik was one of Poland's most prominent dissidents in communist times.

In March, Robert Biedron, Poland's first openly gay member of parliament, was at a conference with other leftist politicians when around 30 young men in sports clothing gathered outside the hotel in Sandomierz, 220 km south of Warsaw.

"This is Poland not Brussels, here we do not support deviations!" they shouted in video footage on the Internet.

Some of the young men got past security personnel into the meeting hall while police stood by. Once in they shouted the "Hit the red trash...." slogan and "Get the fuck out of here!".

Biedron, a member of the liberal Palikot party, said he had heard of other such incidents involving far-right groups. "It fills me with horror to watch this," he said in an interview.

"These movements raise their heads today and, with increasing audacity, interrupt meetings and demand debates be canceled," Biedron said. "This is very dangerous and the authorities and the police are just passively watching."

Police spokesman Grzegorz Dudek said an oversight body would look into whether police at the hotel could have done more.

Sandomierz prosecutor Malgorzata Sowinska-Lalek told Reuters preliminary police findings indicated the group was made up mainly of fans of a local soccer club. She said her office would determine whether to press criminal charges of unlawful threats.

FAR-RIGHT NETWORKS

The anti-racist Never Again Association said it documented a 30 percent rise in the number of racist or xenophobic incidents and crimes linked to the far-right last year.

Analysts say economic slowdown plays a role. Youth unemployment is at a six year high of 29 percent as Poland's economy, which defied the euro zone crisis for years, grinds almost to a halt.

The far-right "flash mobs" have channeled unformed youthful aggression into disciplined operations with a political agenda.

The main far-right organizations deny organizing them but there is a trail of connections - from links on each other's Facebook pages to statements praising each other's activities - that tie the groups indirectly to the new tactics.

A group calling itself the Independent Academic Faction (NSA) has taken responsibility for the incident in Warsaw, saying it was staged to protest against the cancelling of a nationalist debate at the university.

Little is known about NSA, but it is affiliated with Ruch Narodowy, the informal umbrella movement for far-right groups that was launched in November last year at a nationalist demonstration after which some marchers clashed with police.

That movement is led by two main groups: Pan-Polish Youth and the National Radical Camp, which shares its name with an anti-Semitic party that was outlawed before World War Two.

Przemyslaw Holocher, a National Radical Camp leader, said his group was growing, but did not organize the "flash mobs".

"We do not dissociate ourselves from such initiatives, because they are grassroots social initiatives, which are an effect of leftists' ideologies throwing themselves around for many years," he said.

Robert Winnicki, who was leader of Pan-Polish Youth at the time of the Warsaw incident, denied organizing it, calling it an "eruption of students' discontent" at the cancellation of the nationalist debate.

"This was a happening, not well prepared, but a happening," he said, rejecting violence and using a term that usually describes an artistic performance.

"If it is a happening then I support it," he said.

(Editing by Christian Lowe and Philippa Fletcher)

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Spain's El Celler De Can Roca named world's best restaurant

n">(Reuters) - Spain's El Celler De Can Roca edged past Denmark's Noma and Italy's Osteria Francescana to be named the world's best restaurant on Monday in a ceremony in London.

The restaurant owned by the three Roca brothers Joan, Jordi and Josep, captured the top spot on The World's 50 Best Restaurants list organized by Britain's Restaurant magazine and sponsored by the mineral water company S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna.

Another Spanish eatery, Mugaritz, in San Sebastian, and New York's Eleven Madison Park rounded out the top five.

"El Celler de Can Roca in Girona has long been hailed as one of Spain's most exciting places to eat, and having spent two years at No. 2 on the list, the three brothers have swapped places with Denmark's Noma, which held the top ranking for the last three years," organizers said in a statement.

"The Roca brothers' restaurant has gained global acclaim for its combination of Catalan dishes and cutting-edge techniques and the passion that they share for hospitality," it added.

Spanish restaurants captured three of the top 10 spots and five on the entire list announced at London's Guildhall. Arzak, also in San Sebastian, came in at No. 8, just behind London's Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, which was seventh.

D.O.M. in Sao Paulo, Brazil, placed sixth, while Steirereck in Vienna, Austria, was ninth and Vendome in Bergisch Gladbach, Germany, was tenth.

Chef Grant Achatz, from Alinea in Chicago, which was 15th on the list, was presented with the Chef's Choice Award.

Britain's Restaurant Magazine has published the annual list since 2002.

In addition to Eleven Madison Park and Alinea, the United States had four other restaurants on the list, including Per Se at No. 11, Le Bernardin at 19 and Daniel at 29, all in New York City, and The French Laundry in Yountville, California.

L'Arpege in Paris was France's top restaurant, coming in at No. 16. Like the United States, France had six restaurants on the list, the highest number.

Astrid y Gaston in Lima, Peru, was the top South American restaurant at No. 14, having risen 21 places since last year, while Narisawa in Tokyo topped Asian eateries at No. 20.

Australia's Attica in Melbourne was 21 and a new entry on the list.

Nadia Santini from the Dal Pescatore restaurant in Italy was named The Veuve Clicquot World's Best Female Chef.

The One To Watch Award was given to South Africa's The Test Kitchen in Cape Town.

The list is compiled from the votes of The Diners Club World's 50 Best Restaurants Academy, which includes 900 international leaders in the restaurant industry.

(Reporting by Patricia Reaney; Editing by Philip Barbara)

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Latin American presidents love Twitter - maybe too much

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro meets Venezuela's First Lady Cilia Flores in Havana, in this picture provided by Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro via Twitter on April 27, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro via Twitter/Handout

By Brian Winter

BUENOS AIRES | Mon Apr 29, 2013 8:57am EDT

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - When a million angry Argentines flooded the streets earlier this month to protest her government, President Cristina Fernandez decided to post a message on Twitter.

And another. And then another.

"Yes, I'm a bit stubborn, and I'm also old. But in the end, it's lucky to arrive at old age, isn't it?" one tweet read. She also mused about a 19th century fresco in her "gorgeous" palace, and the merits of a state-run literacy program.

At the end of the day, Fernandez had sent 61 tweets in a nine-hour period - prolific even by the standards of Latin America, where presidents and other leading politicians have embraced social media with a zeal unmatched anywhere else.

Their love for Twitter, in particular, has given millions of voyeurs a real-time window into policymaking - and, often, their leaders' most intimate thoughts.

Yet it has also fueled debate on whether some are guilty of "oversharing" - making politics more polarized, confrontations more personal, and potentially making the leaders themselves look awkward when they post about chats with strangers in a bathroom, for example, as Fernandez also did this month.

"Everybody who uses Twitter knows that sometimes you write something and push the send button without thinking enough about it. That's dangerous in politics ... and we've seen many examples of it," said Alan Clutterbuck, head of Fundacion RAP, a group based in Buenos Aires that seeks to improve the civility of political discourse.

"We should hold our political leaders to a different standard," he said. "You see a message that says 'I'm having a sandwich,' and you think: 'Who cares?'"

With a rich tradition of florid oratory, Latin America produced Cuba's Fidel Castro and his famed five-hour-long speeches. So it's unsurprising that some of its modern-day leaders have embraced a new platform to express themselves - but also struggle to shoehorn their thoughts into a few tidy blasts of 140 characters or less.

Politicians have also been hurling around insults since before the Twitter age, such as when the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez called former U.S. President George W. Bush the "devil" at the United Nations in 2006.

Yet there is no question that the technology has made the invective fly faster than ever before.

In the aftermath of this month's bitterly contested election to succeed Chavez in Venezuela, there were moments when both candidates were simultaneously tweeting attacks on each other.

Eventual winner Nicolas Maduro referred to the opposition as "fascists," declaring: "In their crazy hatred and desperation they're capable of anything." Losing candidate Henrique Capriles used Twitter to question the results of the voting hours after polls closed, tweeting "There is an illegitimate president!"

SHOWING THEIR HUMAN SIDE

Leaders elsewhere have also taken to Twitter, though not with the same fervor. U.S. President Barack Obama has a robust feed, but his profile says he only sends some himself, signing them "-bo." As of Friday, he hadn't done so in at least a month.

In contrast, Latin America's most prolific tweeting presidents - Fernandez, Maduro, Colombia's Juan Manuel Santos and Mexico's Enrique Pena Nieto - all send a large percentage of messages themselves, their aides say.

The most popular of all was Chavez, who had more than 4 million followers prior to his death in March.

Not everybody's on board: The president of the region's biggest country, Brazil's Dilma Rousseff, stopped tweeting right after she was elected in 2010. "She thinks it's a total waste of time," one aide said.

But for others, it has become part of their identity.

Since leaving office in 2010, former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has sometimes sent dozens of tweets a day criticizing Santos for being weak on security, among other alleged failings.

Uribe's critics say he has diminished his stature, and unfairly hamstrung his chosen successor, by weighing in so frequently on day-to-day affairs. But he has shown no signs of slowing down, and even hung in his home office a framed cartoon of himself hunched over his Blackberry, tweeting away.

"It allows direct communication, without intermediaries," Uribe said via e-mail. "The danger is that it tempts you to react to first impressions, so I try to avoid seeing many of the provocations that arrive."

At its best, Twitter can remind voters that their politicians are human - and even vulnerable.

The night of the march against her in Buenos Aires, Fernandez traveled to Caracas, and began to reflect on Chavez's death - words that added poignancy given the sudden passing of her own husband, former President Nestor Kirchner, in 2010.

"Why is it that those who live with so much intensity abandon us so soon?" she tweeted.

The following night, she started writing about "the human condition," before seemingly remembering that, even on Twitter, there are limits.

"Pardon me," she tweeted. "I started thinking, and since I can't speak (because my voice is gone), I'm channeling it through here."

"In the end, it's healthy and absolutely inoffensive."

(Additional reporting by Helen Murphy in Bogota; Editing by Kieran Murray and Sandra Maler)

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Irish bid to bring diaspora home reviving tourism

Passengers from the Titanic Memorial Cruise walk towards the old town hall while on a tour of Cobh April 9, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Chris Helgren

DUBLIN | Mon Apr 29, 2013 1:19pm EDT

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Visits to Ireland by North Americans rose by 17 percent in the first quarter of the year, data show, a sign that a government-led campaign to lure visitors with Irish roots is reinvigorating tourism in the country as it emerges from financial crisis.

A pickup in the job-rich tourist trade would help cut a 14 percent unemployment rate, one of Europe's highest, although Ireland is relying mainly on exports to deliver a third year of modest growth as it looks to exit an EU/IMF bailout this year.

Having cut sales tax on restaurants and hotels, the government is now banking on a year-long tourism campaign dubbed "The Gathering" to boost the numbers of Irish diaspora visiting their homeland.

The number of visitors rose by 7.4 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2013, Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures showed on Monday, with the North American market posting its best performance since 2004.

Around half of the estimated 70 million people with Irish heritage living abroad are in the United States and Canada, meaning they are the main targets of "Gathering" advertising.

"There's clear evidence that The Gathering has been very effective in North America, in the U.S. in particular," said Eamon McKeon, chief executive of the Irish Tourist Industry Confederation (ITIC).

"It has absolutely hit the spot and differentiates us from other European destinations. The Gathering was definitely a conduit that helped grow air capacity and is helping consumers make the decision: 'Yeah, let's do Ireland'."

The 1.25 million people who visited between January and March was the highest number of first-quarter trips to Ireland since 2009. But it was still some way behind the 1.55 million who came in the first three months of 2008, just before Ireland's financial crisis struck.

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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Feathers fly over French cockerel statue in London's Trafalgar square

A view of Nelson's column in Trafalgar Square in London March 8, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Kieran Doherty

LONDON | Wed May 1, 2013 10:15am EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - Plans to erect a statue of a giant, electric blue French cockerel in the shadow of Nelson's Column in London's Trafalgar Square have ruffled feathers among British heritage enthusiasts.

Never mind that Lord Nelson's greatest victory, the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, was against the French, the 4.7-metre (15-foot) high statue by Katharina Fritsch has been deemed "totally inappropriate" on aesthetic grounds by the campaigners.

The fiberglass cockerel, entitled "Hahn/Cock", will replace a sculpture of a boy on a rocking horse on the square's "fourth plinth", which since 1999 has hosted artworks including a marble carving of a pregnant woman with no arms or legs, and 2,400 selected members of the public posing over 100 consecutive days.

Fritsch described the project in a statement as "mischievously sitting the national symbol of France within a square that celebrates an historical victory over the French".

But the Thorney Island Society, a local group campaigning for the preservation of heritage in central London, feels such a big and garish object would be out of place anyway.

"It is unrelated to the context of Trafalgar Square and adds nothing to it but a feeble distraction," group leader, June Stubbs, said in a letter to local city council, Westminster.

The planning application notes the society's objections and also refers to the artist's statement in which she describes the statue as a "rude or welcome interruption to the grey, formal architecture of the square".

"The bizarre scale of the bird diminishes its surroundings and, among the endless flocks of pigeons, it is a species interloper too," the German artist said.

Westminster has recommended that the statue be approved at a planning committee meeting on May 7, after which it would be on the plinth from July 20 until February 2015.

(Reporting by Shadia Nasralla; Editing by Louise Ireland and Stephen Addison)

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Fierce lobbying counters White House push for food aid reform

* White House seeks biggest change in aid since Cold War

* Opposition began work months ago on Capitol Hill

* Reforms have mostly detractors, few supporters in Congress

By Charles Abbott

WASHINGTON, May 1 (Reuters) - A White House plan to modernize the major U.S. food aid program, by donating cash rather than American-grown food, is in trouble after fierce lobbying by farm groups, food processors, shippers and others who set out to sink the idea months before it was unveiled in President Barack Obama's fiscal 2014 budget.

The administration, which needs congressional approval to make the changes, is discovering that only a few lawmakers are prepared to publicly support the effort to send cash abroad to make the distribution of aid faster and more efficient.

They are outnumbered by lawmakers from both parties who want to kill the initiative or water it down substantially, based on letters sent to the White House and comments made at recent congressional hearings. In one letter 21 senators, including two key committee chairwomen, opposed the changes.

The administration's proposed changes, rolled out last month, have already been diluted.

The White House had hinted it wanted to convert aid entirely to cash donations. Instead, its fiscal 2014 budget proposal said that at least 55 percent of aid spending, or nearly $800 million of the $1.4 billion requested, would be earmarked to buy and transport U.S.-grown food.

It would still be the biggest change since the Food for Peace program was created in a mixture of Cold War "soft" diplomacy, compassion for suffering overseas and a practical use of farm surpluses. For six decades, U.S. food aid has meant shipping U.S.-grown goods thousands of miles to hunger spots. Other major donors have switched to cash donation.

Lawmakers were bluntly skeptical of the administration's plan, which was a response to some aid groups' assertions that using U.S. cash aid to buy food overseas would allow more needy people to be fed than if the United States continued to send food rather than cash.

"I don't think that's going to get done," Nebraska Republican Senator Mike Johanns told Secretary of State John Kerry at a hearing days after the administration's new aid formula was proposed. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack heard a similar message at a House appropriations hearing.

The criticism reflected not only the challenge the White House faces in altering the aid formula, but also the fact that its aid plan faces an uphill struggle for action at a time when Congress is focused on deficit reduction and overhauling the nation's immigration laws.

Congress could resolve the issue as soon as May or June, when it writes the annual funding bills for food aid and other agricultural programs. The long-term farm policy bill, another avenue for food aid reform, is scheduled for drafting in May.

CRITICS OUT EARLY, OFTEN

Opponents of the White House plan were in touch with congressional heavyweights as early as February, when word of the proposal leaked out.

Those leading the charge have included groups such as the Alliance for Global Food Security, which is made up of several aid organizations, and major commodity groups.

Opponents made contact with key lawmakers by soliciting meetings, writing letters and encouraging constituents to press their case - often by citing the U.S. jobs that could be lost if the aid's focus was shifted away from sending food.

A coalition letter to Obama had more than 70 signatories including agricultural, maritime and logistics groups, aid organizations and individual companies.

Another letter was sent in March to the leaders of nine congressional committees including those overseeing agriculture, foreign affairs, appropriations and budget in the U.S. House and Senate.

The letter lauded the "transparency, accountability and reliability" of the current system - essentially a suggestion that limiting aid to cash could invite corruption. The letter also noted that the current aid program provides jobs to those who grow, package and ship food.

Lorena Alfaro, the American Soybean Association's representative, said soybean farmers who visited the capital in March met with congressional aides on various policy issues, including food aid, and will raise similar concerns again if necessary.

ADMINISTRATION PUSHES EFFICIENCY

In pressing the case to shift more aid to a cash system, the White House and the U.S. Agency for International Development have highlighted the potential ability to feed up to 4 million more needy people each year at a lower cost. Several major aid groups, including Oxfam America and CARE, favor such changes.

Groups that support reform say it is generally better to buy food locally, thereby supporting local farmers and cutting out the cost of shipping food around the globe.

The administration says its plan would also clarify what has become a jumble of programs. Food for Peace is funded through USDA but run by the State Department, which operates other humanitarian programs.

<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ FACTBOX-Split control over US food aid programs

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But the proposed savings - $500 million over a decade - are too small to pique the interest of congressional budget hawks, especially when stacked against the vocal complaints about the potential loss of jobs and markets for U.S.-grown food.

Under the White House plan, cash could be used for food vouchers or to buy food locally in needy areas. In dangerous places, "these more flexible tools are invaluable," said Rajiv Shah, the head of the USAID and an Obama appointee.

The Food for Peace program is focused on emergency hunger relief, meaning famine, broad-scale food shortages, provision of aid to refugee settlements in war-torn regions, and so on.

Some 1.44 million tons of food were shipped last year. Among the largest recipients of aid were Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya and Pakistan. Shippers have a vested interest in keeping aid tonnages high, because at least half of such shipments must be carried on ships sailing under the U.S. flag.

Government spending of $1 billion or so a year to buy food for donation - typically rice, vegetable oil, flour, lentils, dry beans, a corn-soy blend, bulgur and dried peas - pales next to U.S. farm exports worth some $145 billion this year.

Commodities shipped under the Food for Peace program "currently account for less than two tenths of one percent of U.S. agricultural production and about one half of one percent of U.S. agricultural exports," the White House estimated.

"Exports via food aid are a small drop in the market," said Veronica Nigh, an economist with the American Farm Bureau Federation. "Our concern is less about decreasing an important revenue stream for U.S. agriculture. It's more about the loss of a sense of pride." (Reporting By Charles Abbott and Patrcia Zengerle in Washington and Karl Plume and PJ Huffstutter in Chicago; Editing by Ros Krasny and Claudia Parsons)

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Spanish eatery hopes world best restaurant award boosts tourism

By Inmaculada Sanz

MADRID | Tue Apr 30, 2013 4:26pm EDT

MADRID (Reuters) - An avante-garde restaurant run by three brothers in north-east Spain hopes that being crowned the world's best restaurant will boost food tourism in recession-bound Spain.

El Celler de Can Roca in Girona scooped the prestigious prize from Britain's Restaurant magazine on Monday, making Spain's coastal region north of Barcelona the top place in the world to eat once again.

The restaurant ended Danish experimental eatery Noma's three-year run in the No. 1 slot. Noma took the title from Catalan chef Ferran Adria's El Bulli, which is 30 miles from El Celler, and held the crown for four years.

El Celler, which the Roca brothers opened in 1986 and boasts three Michelin stars, favors Catalan ingredients such as fresh seafood and playful presentation, serving caramelized olives on bonsai trees to diners.

Dishes at the avant-garde restaurant include desserts based on perfume ingredients, including Calvin Klein's Eternity, ice cream that tastes like smoke from Cuban cigars, and "Dublin Bay prawns with curry smoke".

"The prize means we can strengthen our brand and in terms of promoting our country it's extremely important," sommelier Josep Roca told radio station Cadena Ser on Tuesday.

"We have to take advantage of this to show off our country, philosophy, way of being, living, eating and in some way use it to our advantage in terms of tourism."

Josep and his brothers Joan and Jordi run the restaurant after learning the trade at their parents' Can Roca restaurant, also in Girona.

Joan, who spent one season under Adria at the now closed El Bulli, is head chef, while Jordi takes care of desserts.

The eatery, which has been ranked among the world's top five restaurants for the last five years, offers two tasting menus featuring over 20 dishes for 135 euros ($180) and 165 euros.

"The Roca brothers have managed to reach an extraordinary level based on dialogue, between the sweet, the savory and wine, in a way no other restaurant in the world has managed," said Adria, who cried when the award was announced on Monday.

Two restaurants in Spain's northern Basque Country, Mugaritz and Arzak, came in at No. 4 and No. 8 on the list, making Spain the world's top ranking gastronomic destination with three of the top 10 slots.

Elena Arzak, named the best chef in the world two years ago, told Reuters she also thought the rankings could help lift Spain's depressed economy.

Tourism is one of the only bright spots in Spain's economy, which has shrunk for seven consecutive quarters with record unemployment of 27 percent.

"Getting on the list has a major international impact because it encourages food tourism and generates excitement among people who like fine dining," Arzak said.

"People come from all over the world ... recently we've been seeing lots of visitors from Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines and Canada. It's like you get to travel all over the world without leaving the restaurant, just talking to the people who come in."

(Writing by Clare Kane, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith)

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Your child's brain on math: Don't bother?

By Sharon Begley

NEW YORK | Mon Apr 29, 2013 5:02pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Parents whose children are struggling with math often view intense tutoring as the best way to help them master crucial skills, but a new study released on Monday suggests that for some kids even that is a lost cause.

According to the research, the size of one key brain structure and the connections between it and other regions can help identify the 8- and 9-year olds who will hardly benefit from one-on-one math instruction.

"We could predict how much a child learned from the tutoring based on measures of brain structure and connectivity," said Vinod Menon, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine, who led the research.

The study, published in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the first to use brain imaging to look for a connection between brain attributes and the ability to learn arithmetic. But despite its publication in a well-respected journal, the research immediately drew criticism.

Jonathan Moreno, professor of medical ethics at the University of Pennsylvania, fears that some parents and teachers might "give up now" on a math-challenged child. "If it gets into the popular consciousness that it's wise to have your kid's brain checked out" before making decisions about academic options, he said, "that raises huge issues."

Menon and his fellow scientists agree that their research shouldn't lead to hasty conclusions. They are exploring whether any interventions might change the brain in such a way that children who struggle with math can benefit more from tutoring.

Just as learning to juggle increases the amount of gray matter in the area of adult brains that is responsible for spatial attention, said Menon, maybe something could pump up regions relevant to learning arithmetic before a child begins math tutoring.

Until then, he said "it's conceivable" that parents will interpret the new study as saying some kids cannot benefit from math tutoring, "and give up before even trying. How this plays out is far from clear."

MENTAL MATH

The study was conceived as a way to understand why some children benefit more than others from math instruction, said study co-author Lynn Fuchs, professor of special education at Vanderbilt University and an expert on ways to improve reading and math skills in students with learning disabilities.

For the research, the scientists first ran several tests on 24 third-graders to measure their IQ, working memory and reading and math ability. The children also underwent brain imaging. Structural MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) revealed the size and shape of various regions, while functional MRIs revealed connections among them.

Then the children received 22 one-on-one tutoring sessions, spread over eight weeks, for eight to nine hours per week. The tutoring emphasized number knowledge (principles like 5 + 4 = 4 + 5, and that many pairs of numbers add up to, say, 9) and fast-paced mental math ("quick, what is 6 + 9?").

After the tutoring, the children all improved in their arithmetic ability, solving more problems correctly and more quickly. But the amount of improvement varied enormously, from 8 percent to 198 percent.

None of the measures - pre-tutoring IQ score, working memory and math skills - predicted how much a child would improve.

But when the scientists compared each child's improvement with his or her pre-tutoring brain images, two connections jumped out. The volume of gray matter (neurons) in the right hippocampus, one of the twin structures crucial for forming memories, varied by about 10 percent in the children, Stanford's Menon said. The strength of the wiring between the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex and the basal ganglia varied by about 15 percent. Both predicted how much a child's math skills improved with tutoring, the scientists reported.

The prefrontal cortex, behind the forehead, "is important for cognitive control, which plays a role in the formation of long-term memories," Menon said. The basal ganglia, tucked under the brain's outer surface, "is involved in habit formation and procedural memory," such as how to add numbers.

"Children with a larger right hippocampus and greater connectivity between the hippocampus and these two structures improved their arithmetic problem-solving skills more," said Menon.

These brain features explained 25 percent to 55 percent of the variation in improvement after math tutoring, he said. That, of course, leaves almost half of the difference among children to be explained by other factors.

Among the concerns raised about the study is its size. It enrolled only two dozen children, on a par with many neuroimaging studies but quite small for research that might influence people's behavior, said psychologist Scott Lilienfeld of Emory University.

"This is very, very preliminary evidence that brain measurements might tell you something that psychological measurements don't," said Lilienfeld, co-author with psychiatrist Sally Satel of an upcoming book, "Brainwashed: The Seductive Appeal of Mindless Neuroscience," that critiques some uses of neuroimaging. "It's important to see if the findings hold up in a second sample, and if other labs corroborate this."

Because brain images seem more rigorous than psychological measures, he said, there is a risk that parents and educators will interpret the study as definitive evidence that some children are doomed to be innumerate.

"Caution has to be the watchword here," he said.

(Reporting by Sharon Begley; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Douglas Royalty)

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Editor's choice

1 of 24. An Israeli border police officer aims pepper spray towards a Palestinian man during clashes between Jewish settlers and Palestinians in the West bank village of Urif, near Nablus April 30, 2013. The clashes erupted after an attack near Nablus. A Palestinian man stabbed and shot dead an Israeli settler in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, the Israeli ambulance service and police said.

Credit: Reuters/Abed Omar

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WRAPUP 1-EU considers trade action after Bangladesh factory collapse

* EU considers action on Bangladesh, including trade preferences

* Canadian retailers say they will also issue new guidelines

* Rescuers give up hope finding any more alive; death toll passes 390

May 1 (Reuters) - The European Union voiced strong concern over labour conditions in Bangladesh after a building collapse there killed hundreds of factory workers, and said it was considering action to encourage improvements, including the use of its trade preference system.

Anger has been growing since the illegally built structure collapsed last week, killing at least 390 people. Hundreds remain unaccounted for but rescue officials said on Tuesday they had given up hope of finding any more survivors.

It was the third deadly incident in six months to raise questions about worker safety and labour conditions in the poor South Asian country, which relies on garments for 80 percent of its exports.

Representatives of major international garment buyers - some facing sharp criticism in home markets for doing too little to safeguard the mostly female workers making their clothes - met industry representatives in Dhaka on Monday and agreed to form a joint panel to put together a new safety plan.

Clothes made in five factories inside the Rana Plaza building on the outskirts of the capital, Dhaka, were produced for retailers in Europe and Canada.

Late on Tuesday, the EU issued a brief statement expressing concern and suggested it would look at Bangladesh's preferential trade access to the EU market in considering taking action to encourage better safety standards and labour conditions.

"The EU is presently considering appropriate action, including through the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) - through which Bangladesh currently receives duty-free and quota-free access to the EU market under the 'Everything But Arms' scheme - in order to incentivise responsible management of supply chains involving developing countries," said the statement, issued by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht.

About 3.6 million people work in Bangladesh's garment industry, making it the world's second-largest apparel exporter. The bulk of exports - 60 percent - go to Europe.

Ashton and de Gucht said they were deeply saddened by the "terrible loss of life", particularly because it followed a fire in the Tazreen Fashion factory in a Dhaka suburb in November that killed 112 people.

"The sheer scale of this disaster and the alleged criminality around the building's construction is finally becoming clear to the world," Ashton and de Gucht said.

Also on Tuesday, following a private emergency meeting of Canadian retailers, the Retail Council of Canada said it would develop a new set of guidelines.

That emergency meeting brought together retailers including Loblaw, Sears Canada Inc and Wal-Mart Canada, to discuss how they would deal with the tragedy.

Representatives of some 45 companies, including Gap Inc , H&M, J.C. Penney, Nike Inc, Wal-Mart, Britain's Primark, Marks & Spencer and Tesco , and Li & Fung, also met officials from the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association in Dhaka on Monday to discuss safety.

The Retail Council of Canada, which represents operators of more than 43,000 stores in Canada, said it would work with international organisations, the Bangladeshi government and others to find ways to address safety in the Bangladesh garment industry.

Primark and Loblaw have promised to compensate the families of garment workers killed while making their clothes.

AGONISING WAIT

With no hope left of finding survivors, heavy machinery is being used to clear concrete and debris from the site in the commercial suburb of Savar, about 30 km (20 miles) from Dhaka.

It was still an agonisingly slow process for families waiting for news on loved ones who worked in the Rana Plaza, which collapsed with about 3,000 people inside. About 2,500 people have been rescued so far, many of them injured.

With angry protests continuing daily since Bangladesh's worst industrial accident, the building's owner was brought before a court in Dhaka on Monday, where lawyers and protesters chanted "hang him, hang him".

About 20 people were injured on Tuesday as police fired teargas, rubber bullets and water cannon to disperse protesters in Savar calling for the death penalty for the owners of the building and factories.

Officials in Bangladesh have said the eight-storey complex had been built on swampy ground without the correct permits, and more than 3,000 workers entered the building last Wednesday despite warnings it was structurally unsafe.

Eight people have been arrested - four factory bosses, two engineers, building owner Mohammed Sohel Rana and his father, Abdul Khalek. Police are looking for a fifth factory boss, Spanish citizen David Mayor, although it was unclear whether he was in Bangladesh at the time of the accident.

The garment industry employs mostly women, some of whom earn as little as $38 a month.

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Luxury shopping firms bet on casino approach in China

By Melanie Lee

SHANGHAI | Tue Apr 30, 2013 4:59pm EDT

SHANGHAI May 1 (Reuters) - With flagging sales in their mainland stores and increasingly price savvy consumers, luxury companies are taking a leaf out of casinos' play books by offering junkets to wealthy Chinese clients eager to splurge in their Hong Kong stores.

For companies like PPR and LVMH, who have spent the past few years building stores across China, the shift toward overseas spending is forcing them to adapt their strategy in China to the tune of: if you can't beat them join them.

"Luxury companies' results for Q1 certainly suggest that sales to Chinese consumers outside of China continue to grow faster than sales to Chinese consumers within China," said Vincent Liu, managing director of Boston Consulting Group in Hong Kong.

He says about a third of luxury sales - from handbags and shoes to cosmetics - to Chinese take place in China versus a third in Hong Kong or Macau and a third in the rest of the world.

Luxury goods in mainland China can be anywhere between 30-40 percent more expensive than in Hong Kong due to luxury and import taxes as well as pricing strategies.

"Their real stores are in Hong Kong or Paris. Their Chinese stores are just store fronts," said Renee Hartmann, co-founder of consultancy China Luxury Advisors.

Upmarket brands are increasingly holding private events in Beijing or Shanghai for an exclusive clientele - events where they pay deposits on items in the mainland and then are flown on an all-inclusive trip to Hong Kong to complete the purchase.

This not only helps manage relationships with wealthy clients, it also functions as an expensive marketing scheme. Industry experts compare this to tactics used by gambling firms to lure high-rollers to casinos by flying them in using private jets and putting them up in five-star hotels.

"For their real VIP customers, they do whatever they think is necessary," said Torsten Stocker, head of Monitor Deloitte's China consumer section. "You see the same with high-end gambling where people get flown to the casinos in Macau or Singapore."

China's new leader Xi Jinping earlier this year announced a crackdown on corruption and urged the political elite to refrain from flashy displays of wealth. This has had a negative impact on the practice of 'gifting' - where executives or officials are given luxury items in return for favours. This shift is forcing luxury brands to re-evaluate the role of their China stores and overseas stores.

"They are thinking less about 'Where do I open my next few stores', 'How can I speed up my expansion' but more, 'What role do the stores in China play, what roles do the stores overseas play and how many stores in China do I really need?' That's a different way of thinking than maybe two to three years ago," Stocker said.

LVMH, the world's No.1 luxury goods group, said this month that demand in China in the past 9-10 months had been flattish due to a weakening in economic growth and a government crackdown on gifts for favours. Price increases in Europe have made shopping in Paris and Milan less attractive for tourists from Asia, but it still remains a top desination for Chinese luxury spenders.

LVMH said earlier this year it had put the brakes on Louis Vuitton's global expansion.

The impact from the anti-corruption measures have also hit watchmakers and jewelers. They too are taking to the 'junket' format as a way to facilitate the overseas spending.

Richemont's Piaget, a Swiss luxury watch brand, stages two all-inclusive trips each year for 50 VIP customers. This year it plans to increase the number, Chief Executive Philippe Leopold-Metzger told Reuters in an interview.

"This is the best way to talk about the brand and its heritage and its legitimacy," said Leopold-Metzger, adding the number of visits would be "open".

"Of course they buy, we don't force them but they want too," he said of VIP's spending on the trips.

AN EYE FOR A DEAL

Many wealthy Chinese customers have an eye for finding a good deal overseas. Once the bargain is identified, they jump on a flight to the destination, with the unique item code in hand, and purchase the itime at the discounted price to the store in China.

This trend was seen starkly during January to February, a period encompassing China's Spring Festival, one of the two golden-week travel periods in China.

During that period, domestic luxury consumption fell 53 percent with leather goods and watches registering the biggest falls of 63 and 95 percent respectively, according to a survey by research firm World Luxury Association.

In contrast, overseas luxury spending by Chinese tourists rose 18 percent to $8.5 billion, half of which was spent in Europe, it said.

Christine Lu, the Los Angeles-based chief executive of luxury experience company Affinity China said the brands still need to maintain their stores in China to retain "mindshare" of the customers when they travel.

"When they travel overseas maybe two or three times a year, they are influenced by what they see in China. There are probably many luxury companies who aren't making any money from those ridiculously high rents in Shanghai or Beijing but it's a sunk marketing cost," Lu said.

Xiao Yu, a 21-year old student who visits Europe twice a year to shop for luxury goods for herself and for resale to others, says she spends around $15,000 each time, visiting Chanel, Burberry and Louis Vuitton stores.

"The tax is just too high here, no one buys their bags in China. Hong Kong compared to France and Europe is more expensive and they are always out of stock for popular items," Yu told Reuters.

Yu, who sells her items by advertising on China's microblogging platform Weibo, is not considered a VIP client by these brands and eligible for these "junkets", still she travels overseas to sate her desire for luxury.

"We may buy these brands in China if the price was lower, but that's impossible because of the tax. So maybe if they had sales that would tempt us," Yu said. (Reporting by Melanie Lee; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

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Early release could help ill prisoners and U.S. prisons: Justice Department

An inmate stands in his cell at the Orange County jail in Santa Ana, California, in this May 24, 2011 file photo. Co

Credit: Reuters/Lucy Nicholson/Files

By Ian Simpson

WASHINGTON | Wed May 1, 2013 3:21pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Compassionate release programs at overcrowded U.S. federal prisons are poorly run and lack clear standards, resulting in some eligible inmates dying before they can be freed, the Department of Justice said on Wednesday.

Few prisoners are released early on compassionate grounds. An average of 24 gravely ill prisoners were freed each year from 2006 to 2011, but another 28 died in custody during that time while waiting for the Bureau of Prisons to make a decision on their cases, the department's inspector general said in a report.

The report recommended 11 ways to improve the program, including taking a look at how much it costs to keep seriously ill prisoners in custody.

"We concluded that an effectively managed compassionate release program would result in cost savings ... as well as assist the (bureau) in managing its continually growing inmate population," the inspector general's report said.

The way the program has been run "has likely resulted in potentially eligible inmates not being considered for release," it added.

The compassionate release program allows prisoners to be freed on extraordinary grounds, including terminal illness and severe medical conditions. To gain release, a prisoner must initiate a request through the Bureau of Prisons and a judge must approve the release.

The report found that inmates at some prisons were eligible for release only if they had a life expectancy of six months or less. At other prisons, eligibility was set at 12 months or less.

NO NON-MEDICAL RELEASES

Although bureau rules provide for compassionate release on non-medical grounds, those requests were routinely rejected. None were approved in the six years examined by the inspector general's report.

Prison agency officials are revising rules on compassionate release to include inmates with up to 18 months of life expectancy, the report said.

The Bureau of Prisons also lacks standards on how much time it should take to review requests, taking from five to 65 days. Appeals of denied requests can take up to five months.

It also does not have a procedure to tell inmates about the program. Only eight of 111 handbooks that prisons give to inmates had information about it, the report said.

Even though the prisons agency has told Congress it could save $3.2 million by expanding the release program, it has not studied medical cost benefits from freeing inmates. It also lacks a system to track all requests, it said.

Amy Fettig, senior staff counsel for the National Prison Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, welcomed the report as a "hard-hitting" response to the Bureau of Prisons' contention that it needed more beds for a growing number of inmates.

"It's really nice seeing the IG office taking a hard look at that premise and pushing back at it," she said.

Federal prisons are at 130 percent of capacity, with 30 percent of inmates in for immigration violations, Fettig said.

Among inmates released on compassionate grounds, 3.5 percent were rearrested. The overall recidivism rate for federal prisoners has been estimated at up to 41 percent, the report said.

The inspector general recommended expanding the release program to include non-medical conditions and updating written criteria. It also called for setting time limits for the release process, informing inmates of the program and examining the savings from releasing ill prisoners.

The Bureau of Prisons said it agreed with nine of the 11 recommendations and partly accepted that it should assess the costs of healthcare for ill inmates and set time limits for processing requests.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Jackie Frank)

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Kentucky woman ordained as priest in defiance of Roman Catholic Church

1 of 6. Rosemarie Smead, a 70-year-old Kentucky woman, sings with the audience during a Celebration of Ordination at St. Andrew's United Church of Christ in Louisville, Kentucky April 27, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/John Sommers II

By Mary Wisniewski

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky | Mon Apr 29, 2013 12:50pm EDT

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (Reuters) - In an emotional ceremony filled with tears and applause, a 70-year-old Kentucky woman was ordained a priest on Saturday as part of a dissident group operating outside of official Roman Catholic Church authority.

Rosemarie Smead is one of about 150 women around the world who have decided not to wait for the Roman Catholic Church to lift its ban on women priests, but to be ordained and start their own congregations.

In an interview before the ceremony, Smead said she is not worried about being excommunicated from the Church - the fate of other women ordained outside of Vatican law.

"It has no sting for me," said Smead, a petite, gray-haired former Carmelite nun with a ready hug for strangers. "It is a Medieval bullying stick the bishops used to keep control over people and to keep the voices of women silent. I am way beyond letting octogenarian men tell us how to live our lives."

The ordination of women as priests, along with the issues of married priests and birth control, represents one of the big divides between U.S. Catholics and the Vatican hierarchy. Seventy percent of U.S. Catholics believe that women should be allowed to be priests, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll earlier this year.

The former pope, Benedict XVI, reaffirmed the Catholic Church's ban on women priests and warned that he would not tolerate disobedience by clerics on fundamental teachings. Male priests have been stripped of their holy orders for participating in ordination ceremonies for women.

In a statement last week, Louisville Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz called the planned ceremony by the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests a "simulated ordination" in opposition to Catholic teaching.

"The simulation of a sacrament carries very serious penal sanctions in Church law, and Catholics should not support or participate in Saturday's event," Kurtz said.

The Catholic Church teaches that it has no authority to allow women to be priests because Jesus Christ chose only men as his apostles. Proponents of a female priesthood said Jesus was acting only according to the customs of his time.

They also note that he chose women, like Mary Magdalene, as disciples, and that the early Church had women priests, deacons and bishops.

The ceremony, held at St. Andrew United Church of Christ in Louisville, was attended by about 200 men and women. Many identified themselves to a Reuters reporter as Catholics, but some declined to give their names or their churches.

'NEW ERA OF INCLUSIVITY'

The modern woman priest movement started in Austria in 2002, when seven women were ordained by the Danube River by an independent Catholic bishop. Other women were later ordained as bishops, who went on to ordain more women priests and deacons.

"As a woman priest, Rosemarie is leading, not leaving the Catholic Church, into a new era of inclusivity," said Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan during her sermon Saturday. "As the Irish writer James Joyce reminded us, the word 'Catholic' means 'Here comes everybody!'"

Smead had to leave the rigorous Carmelite life due to health reasons, and earned a bachelor's degree in theology and a doctorate in counseling psychology. She taught at Indiana University for 26 years, and works as a couples and family therapist.

During the ordination ceremony, Smead wept openly as nearly everyone in the audience came up and laid their hands on her head in blessing. Some whispered, "Thanks for doing this for us."

During the communion service, Smead and other woman priests lifted the plates and cups containing the sacramental bread and wine to bless them.

A woman in the audience murmured, "Girl, lift those plates. I've been waiting a long time for this."

One of those attending the service was Stewart Pawley, 32, of Louisville, who said he was raised Catholic and now only attends on Christmas and Easter. But he said he would attend services with Smead when she starts to offer them in Louisville.

"People like me know it's something the Catholic Church will have to do," said Pawley.

(Editing by Tim Gaynor and Mohammad Zargham)

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Could 'mystery woman' shed light on UK sex scandal?

By Costas Pitas

LONDON | Wed May 1, 2013 9:40am EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - She has dark eyes, full lips and short hair in one of the favorite styles of London in the "swinging 60s" but who is she?

And could she help shed light on the infamous Profumo scandal, the heady tale of espionage, sex and politics that held Britain spellbound in the early 1960s and helped bring down the government of the time.

Britain's National Portrait Gallery is appealing for help in identifying a woman who was sketched by one of the scandal's key figures, Stephen Ward, on the back of a picture of the woman at the center of the Profumo affair, showgirl Christine Keeler.

"This drawing is of me by Stephen Ward," wrote Keeler in a 1975 note. "I don't know who the girl on the back is - she is somebody we just picked up at a bus-stop."

The gallery believes the mystery woman may have been present at the first meeting in 1961 between Keeler and John Profumo, the then minister for war.

Against a backdrop of hedonistic parties and naked swimming sessions in the pool of an English stately home, the two embarked on a brief affair that ended in scandal and disgrace.

Not only was Profumo married, it was widely alleged that Keeler had also been the girlfriend of the Soviet naval attache in London, Yevgeny Ivanov.

To have the war minister's name linked to such a figure at the height of the Cold War was political dynamite. Profumo lied about the affair in parliament and was eventually forced to resign in 1963, leaving then Conservative Prime Minister Harold Macmillan to cope with the damaging repercussions.

Macmillan also resigned in 1963, citing poor health.

Keeler later said in a book that she and Ward - a society osteopath who effectively acted as a party organizer for the aristocracy - picked up the mystery woman at the bus stop near London airport.

"She seemed so nice that we invited her to the party at Stephen's cottage," she wrote.

That cottage was on the estate of Lord Astor's stately home, Cliveden, where Profumo first cast eyes on the 19-year-old Keeler swimming naked in the pool and where Ivanov was also a party guest.

The portrait gallery's assistant curator Clare Freestone, who found the new drawing while organizing a display marking the 50th anniversary of the scandal, believes the woman's story could be fascinating.

"If this is the girl on the reverse, she would have been witness to the first meeting between Keeler, Profumo and Ivanov," she said in a statement.

Terence Pepper, the gallery's curator of photographs, told Reuters: "There are often cases of someone who never said anything at the time but is prepared to talk later on."

Keeler, now 71, has not commented on reports of the mystery woman.

(Reporting By Costas Pitas, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith)

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Many in Muslim world want sharia as law of land: survey

By Religion Editor Tom Heneghan

Tue Apr 30, 2013 2:14pm EDT

n">(Reuters) - Large majorities in the Muslim world want the Islamic legal and moral code of sharia as the official law in their countries, but they disagree on what it includes and who should be subject to it, an extensive new survey says.

Suicide bombing was mostly rejected In the study by the Washington-based Pew Forum, but it won 40 percent support in the Palestinian territories, 39 percent in Afghanistan, 29 percent in Eygpt and 26 percent in Bangladesh.

Three-quarters of respondents said abortion is morally wrong and 80 percent or more rejected homosexuality and sex outside of marriage.

Over three-quarters of Muslims in the Middle East and North Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia want sharia courts to decide family law issues such as divorce and property disputes, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life said on Tuesday.

Views on punishments such as chopping off thieves' hands or decreeing death for apostates is more evenly divided in much of the Islamic world, although more than three-quarters of Muslims in South Asia say they are justified.

Those punishments have helped make sharia controversial in some non-Islamic countries, where some critics say radical Muslims want to impose it on Western societies, but the survey shows views in Muslim countries are far from monolithic.

"Muslims are not equally comfortable with all aspects of sharia," the study said. "Most do not believe it should be applied to non-Muslims."

Unlike codified Western law, sharia is a loosely defined set of moral and legal guidelines based on the Koran, the sayings of Prophet Mohammad (hadith) and Muslim traditions. Its rules and advice cover everything from prayers to personal hygiene.

Amaney Jamal, a Princeton University political scientist who was special adviser for the project, said Muslims in poor and repressive societies tended to identify sharia with basic Islamic values such as equality and social justice.

"In those societies, you tend to see significant support for sharia," she told journalists on a conference call. By contrast, Muslims who have lived under "narrow if not rigid" Islamic systems were less supportive of sharia as the official law.

POLITICS AND VIOLENCE

More than four-fifths of the 38,000 Muslims interviewed in 39 countries said non-Muslims in their countries could practice their faith freely and that this was good.

This view was strongest in South Asia, where 97 percent of Bangladeshis and 96 percent of Pakistanis agreed, while the lowest Middle Eastern result was 77 percent in Egypt.

The survey polled only Muslims and not minorities. In several Muslim countries, embattled Christian minorities say they cannot practice their faith freely and are subject to discrimination and physical attacks.

The survey produced mixed results on questions relating to the relationship between politics and Islam.

Democracy wins slight majorities in key Middle Eastern states - 54 percent in Iraq, 55 percent in Egypt - and falls to 29 percent in Pakistan. By contrast, it stands at 81 percent in Lebanon, 75 percent in Tunisia and 70 percent in Bangladesh.

In most countries surveyed, Muslims were more worried about Islamist militancy than any other form of religious violence.

SEX AND VEILS

Views on whether women should decide themselves if they should wear a headscarf vary greatly, from 89 percent in Tunisia and 79 percent in Indonesia saying yes and 45 percent in Iraq and 30 percent in Afghanistan saying no.

Majorities from 74 percent in Lebanon to 96 percent in Malaysia said wives should always obey their husbands.

Only a minority saw Sunni-Shi'ite tensions as a very big problem, ranging from 38 percent in Lebanon and 34 percent in Pakistan to 23 percent in Iraq and 14 percent in Turkey.

Conflict with other religions loomed larger, with 68 percent in Lebanon saying it was a big problem, 65 percent in Tunisia, 60 percent in Nigeria and 57 percent in Pakistan.

A section of the survey on U.S. Muslims noted they "sometimes more closely resemble other Americans than they do Muslims around the world". Only about half say their closest friends are Muslim, compared to 95 percent of Muslims globally.

(Reporting By Tom Heneghan; Editing by Mike Collett-White and Michael Roddy)

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Canada retailers plan trade guidelines after Bangladesh disaster

April 30 | Tue Apr 30, 2013 7:02pm EDT

April 30 (Reuters) - The Retail Council of Canada said on Tuesday it will develop a new set of trade guidelines in response to last week's deadly collapse of a Bangladesh garment factory complex that manufactured apparel for western retailers including Loblaw Cos Ltd.

The move follows a private emergency meeting of retailers on Monday including Loblaw, Sears Canada Inc and Wal-Mart Canada to discuss how it would deal with the tragedy, which has killed at least 390 people.

The industry association, which represents the operators of more than 43,000 stores in Canada, said it will work with international organizations, Bangladeshi government and others to find ways to address safety in the Bangladesh garment industry.

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UPDATE 2-U.S. sets duties on hardwood plywood from China

(Adds comments from opponents of duties)

WASHINGTON, April 30 (Reuters) - The U.S. Commerce Department set preliminary anti-dumping duties on Tuesday ranging up to 63.96 percent on hundreds of millions of dollars of plywood from China it said were being sold at unfairly low prices.

The move angered a group of importers who said the duties would increase the cost of kitchen and bath cabinetry and other products such as furniture, flooring and boats made in the United States with the Chinese plywood.

The United States imported about $748 million of the hardwood and decorative plywood from China in 2012.

The Commerce Department said it set a preliminary duty of 22.14 percent on plywood made or exported by 101 Chinese companies and a preliminary rate of 63.96 percent on all other Chinese producers and exporters except for two companies, Linyi San Fortune Wood Co Ltd and Jiangyang Group.

Those two firms were undercutting U.S. prices by less than 2 percent, which was not enough to warrant duties, it said.

The Coalition for Fair Trade of Hardwood Plywood, which represents producers in North Carolina, New York and Oregon, had accused their Chinese competitors of selling in the United States at prices 298 percent to 322 percent below fair value.

U.S. importers and manufacturers opposed to the duties said the Chinese plywood fills a niche in the U.S. market that domestic producers are unable to supply.

"The irony is that the unfair tariffs instigated from this protectionist campaign will harm the U.S. market, and the only free trade we will see is the export of U.S. jobs to China," Greg Wilkinson, co-chair of the American Alliance of Hardwood Plywood, said in a statement.

The department has already announced separate preliminary countervailing duties of up 27 percent on the plywood to offset alleged Chinese government subsidies. A final decision on both type of duties is expected in July.

Washington has also imposed duties on wooden bedroom furniture and hardwood flooring from China in recent years. (Reporting by Doug Palmer; Editing by Sandra Maler and Philip Barbara)

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'Great Gatsby' filmmaker wants to inspire summer of lavish parties

By Zorianna Kit

Wed May 1, 2013 5:47pm EDT

n">May 1 (Reuters) - The latest big-screen adaptation of "The Great Gatsby" gets its world premiere in New York on Wednesday, kicking off what film director Baz Luhrmann hopes will be a summer of extravagant Gatsby-inspired parties.

"Is there a book that captures summer in New York more accurately, more viscerally than 'The Great Gatsby'? I don't think so," Luhrmann told Reuters ahead of the film's premiere and May 10 U.S. release date.

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, and with a soundtrack produced by rapper Jay-Z, the film has struck promotional partnerships with clothing retailer Brooks Brothers, jeweler Tiffany & Co. and Moet & Chandon champagne.

"The idea is that you don't just come see the movie, but also celebrate that extraordinary book throughout the summer," the Australian director said of his version of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1920s tale of decadence and illusion.

"There's an intoxication that (protagonist) Jay Gatsby used to draw all of New York into his glittering parties and his mysterious gardens."

The film, shot mostly in Australia, was a long time coming. Its release date was originally set for December 2012 but was pushed to May, causing speculation as to what was happening behind the scenes.

Luhrmann, who also directed the 2001 musical "Moulin Rouge," said the biggest issue was the unrelenting bad weather that kept halting production.

"It didn't rain once or twice, it rained five times," Luhrmann said. "I got shut down so many times that we had to reconvene in February (2012). When we reconvened, it rained again!"

It wasn't just the lousy weather that wreaked havoc on the schedule. Luhrmann said he got hit by a crane during production just before Christmas 2011.

"I wasn't going to die, but I had four stitches and a concussion," he said. "We just had to shut down at that point."

With visual effects also taking longer than anticipated, Luhrmann felt confident he could still deliver the film in time for release on Dec. 25, 2012.

Then another glitch occurred. Quentin Tarantino's slavery-era movie "Django Unchained," also starring DiCaprio, had the identical release date.

That would have forced the actor to simultaneously promote two vastly different films during Hollywood's awards season.

Movie studio Warner Bros. ultimately rescheduled "The Great Gatsby" for a summer release, which Luhrmann said was a good fit. The movie is also opening the Cannes film festival on May 15.

"The convincing point for me was that the book is set in the sweltering summer," said Luhrmann. "All the action takes place during one summer period."

It's mostly franchise action films playing at theaters this summer. May alone brings "Iron Man 3," "Fast & Furious 6," "The Hangover Part III" and "Star Trek Into Darkness."

Luhrmann says he isn't too concerned about the competition.

"Those summer blockbusters? I get it," he said. "Yet what we are saying with 'Gatsby' is our film shouldn't live or die in one weekend. We've got to play throughout the entire summer. It's going to be the summer of Gatsby." (Reporting By Zorianna Kit in Los Angeles, editing by Jill Serjeant and Xavier Briand)

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Starving Virginia settlers turned to cannibalism in 1609: study

1 of 5. Several sharp cuts to the bottom of a mandible excavated in James Fort, Jamestown, Virginia at the Jamestown Rediscovery Project are pictured in this December 2012 handout photo provided by the Smithsonian Institute on May 1, 2013. Settlers at Virginia's Jamestown Colony resorted to cannibalism to survive the harsh winter of 1609, dismembering and consuming a 14-year-old English girl, the U.S. Smithsonian Institution reported on May 1, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Donald Hurlbert/Smithsonian Institute/Handout

By Deborah Zabarenko

WASHINGTON | Wed May 1, 2013 7:11pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Settlers at Virginia's Jamestown Colony resorted to cannibalism to survive the harsh winter of 1609, dismembering and consuming a 14-year-old English girl, the U.S. Smithsonian Institution reported on Wednesday.

This is the first direct evidence of cannibalism at Jamestown, the oldest permanent English colony in the Americas, according to the Washington-based museum and research complex.

A recent excavation at the historic site revealed not just the remains of dogs, cats and horses eaten by settlers during the cold "Starving Time" of that year, but also the bones of a girl known to researchers simply as "Jane."

Jane probably was part of a relatively prosperous household, possibly a gentleman's daughter or maidservant, said Smithsonian forensic anthropologist Douglas Owsley, who analyzed her bones after they were found by Preservation Virginia, a private nonprofit group.

Her back molars had not yet erupted, putting her age around 14 years, and there was a lot of nitrogen in her bones, indicating she ate a meat-rich English diet, Owsley said in a telephone interview.

It is not known whether Jane was killed or died of natural causes. The Smithsonian said there is no evidence of murder.

After her death, in a year when many Jamestown colonists starved, Jane's body was hacked apart by a butcher or butchers who barely knew what they were doing. She may have been chosen because others in her household were already dead and there was no one to bury her, Owsley said.

UNSKILLED CHOPPING

"There was very clear post-mortem dismemberment that involved chops to the forehead, chops to the back of the head that cracked the skull open," the scientist said.

"A puncture to the left side of the head was used to essentially lever and open the ... head to remove the brain. There are cuts all over the face and on the mandible, inside as well as out."

By 1609, Owsley said, the settlement was effectively operating under siege, with many of the male colonists killed by hostile Native Americans after venturing out.

Those who remained inside Jamestown's confines were often women, children and the sick. Those who dismembered Jane might well have been women, he said.

The cuts were "very tentative, hesitant," Owsley said. "This is not someone who's skilled in terms of kitchen work or butchery, and yet they know, out of sheer need, that this is what they have to do."

The brain, tongue, cheeks and leg muscles appear to have been eaten, with the brain probably consumed first because it decomposes soon after death, the Smithsonian said in an online announcement.

Scholars have speculated that extreme drought, hostile relations with the local Powhatan Confederacy and a lost supply ship made the Jamestown colonists desperate enough to eat humans. Writings had suggested it, but no hard physical evidence existed until now.

William Kelso, lead archeologist on the project, and his team discovered the girl's remains last summer.

"We found a deposit of refuse that contained butchered horse and dog bones," Kelso said. "That was only done in times of extreme hunger. As we excavated, we found human teeth and then a partial human skull."

(Reporting by Deborah Zabarenko; Editing by Marilyn W. Thompson and Xavier Briand)

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Editor's choice

1 of 24. An Israeli border police officer aims pepper spray towards a Palestinian man during clashes between Jewish settlers and Palestinians in the West bank village of Urif, near Nablus April 30, 2013. The clashes erupted after an attack near Nablus. A Palestinian man stabbed and shot dead an Israeli settler in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, the Israeli ambulance service and police said.

Credit: Reuters/Abed Omar

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