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When writing systems were invented in ancient civilizations, nearly everything that could be written upon—stone, clay, tree bark, metal sheets—was used for writing. Alphabetic writing emerged in Egypt around 1800 BC. At first the words were not separated from each other (scripta continua) and there was no punctuation. Texts were written from right to left, left to right, and even so that alternate lines read in opposite directions. The technical term for this type of writing is 'boustrophedon,' which means literally 'ox-turning' for the way a farmer drives an ox to plough his fields.

Papyrus, a thick paper-like material made by weaving the stems of the papyrus plant, then pounding the woven sheet with a hammer-like tool, was used for writing in Ancient Egypt, perhaps as early as the First Dynasty, although the first evidence is from the account books of King Neferirkare Kakai of the Fifth Dynasty (about 2400 BC). Papyrus sheets were glued together to form a scroll. Tree bark such as lime (Latin liber, from there also library) and other materials were also used.

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AUGUSTA, Maine – A Maine legislator wants to make the state the first to require cell phones to carry warnings that they can cause brain cancer, although there is no consensus among scientists that they do and industry leaders dispute the claim.
The now-ubiquitous devices carry such warnings in some countries, though no U.S. states require them, according to the National Conference of State Legislators. A similar effort is afoot in San Francisco, where Mayor Gavin Newsom wants his city to be the nation's first to require the warnings.
Maine Rep. Andrea Boland, D-Sanford, said numerous studies point to the cancer risk, and she has persuaded legislative leaders to allow her proposal to come up for discussion during the 2010 session that begins in January, a session usually reserved for emergency and governors' bills.
Boland herself uses a cell phone, but with a speaker to keep the phone away from her head. She also leaves the phone off unless she's expecting a call. At issue is radiation emitted by all cell phones.
Under Boland's bill, manufacturers would have to put labels on phones and packaging warning of the potential for brain cancer associated with electromagnetic radiation. The warnings would recommend that users, especially children and pregnant women, keep the devices away from their head and body.
The Federal Communications Commission, which maintains that all cell phones sold in the U.S. are safe, has set a standard for the "specific absorption rate" of radiofrequency energy, but it doesn't require handset makers to divulge radiation levels.
The San Francisco proposal would require the display of the absorption rate level next to each phone in print at least as big as the price. Boland's bill is not specific about absorption rate levels, but would require a permanent, nonremovable advisory of risk in black type, except for the word "warning," which would be large and in red letters. It would also include a color graphic of a child's brain next to the warning.
While there's little agreement about the health hazards, Boland said Maine's roughly 950,000 cell phone users among its 1.3 million residents "do not know what the risks are."
All told, more than 270 million people subscribed to cellular telephone service last year in the United States, an increase from 110 million in 2000, according to CTIA-The Wireless Association. The industry group contends the devices are safe.
"With respect to the matter of health effects associated with wireless base stations and the use of wireless devices, CTIA and the wireless industry have always been guided by science, and the views of impartial health organizations. The peer-reviewed scientific evidence has overwhelmingly indicated that wireless devices do not pose a public health risk," said CTIA's John Walls.
James Keller of Lewiston, whose cell phone serves as his only phone, seemed skeptical about warning labels. He said many things may cause cancer but lack scientific evidence to support that belief. Besides, he said, people can't live without cell phones.
"It seems a little silly to me, but it's not going to hurt anyone to have a warning on there. If they're really concerned about it, go ahead and put a warning on it," he said outside a sporting good store in Topsham. "It wouldn't deter me from buying a phone."
While there's been no long-term studies on cell phones and cancer, some scientists suggest erring on the side of caution.
Last year, Dr. Ronald B. Herberman, director emeritus of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, sent a memo to about 3,000 faculty and staff members warning of risks based on early, unpublished data. He said that children should use the phones only for emergencies because their brains were still developing and that adults should keep the phone away from the head and use a speakerphone or a wireless headset.
Herberman, who says scientific conclusions often take too long, is one of numerous doctors and researchers who have endorsed an August report by retired electronics engineer L. Lloyd Morgan. The report highlights a study that found significantly increased risk of brain tumors from 10 or more years of cell phone or cordless phone use.
Also, the BioInitiative Working Group, an international group of scientists, notes that many countries have issued warnings and that the European Parliament has passed a resolution calling for governmental action to address concerns over health risks from mobile phone use.
But the National Cancer Institute said studies thus far have turned up mixed and inconsistent results, noting that cell phones did not come into widespread use in the United States until the 1990s.
"Although research has not consistently demonstrated a link between cellular telephone use and cancer, scientists still caution that further surveillance is needed before conclusions can be drawn," according to the Cancer Institute's Web site.

Motorola Inc., one of the nation's major wireless phone makers, says on its Web site that all of its products comply with international safety guidelines for radiofrequency energy exposure.

A Motorola official referred questions to CTIA.

A sales tax is a consumption tax charged at the point of purchase for certain goods and services. The tax is usually set as a percentage by the government charging the tax. There is usually a list of exemptions. The tax can be included in the price (tax-inclusive) or added at the point of sale (tax-exclusive).

Sales taxes are considered to be regressive tax; that is, low income people tend to spend a greater percentage of their income in taxable sales (using a cross section time-frame) than higher income people. However, this calculation is derived when the tax paid is divided not by the tax base (the amount spent) but by income, which is argued to create an arbitrary relationship.

Sales Tax

PARIS (AFP) –
Tens of thousands of European travellers were stranded Sunday in rail stations, traffic jams and airports as heavy snow and ice caused massive disruption at the start of the Christmas holiday season.

At least 19 people froze to death, mainly in Poland and mostly homeless people or drinkers caught out in temperatures that were glacial across Europe, plunging as low as minus 33 Celsius (minus 27 Fahrenheit) in parts of Germany.

Forecasters across the continent are expecting more snow and freezing rain over the next couple of days, but with temperatures rising slightly and the outlook gradually improving in the run-up to Christmas Day on Friday.

Roads and railways were closed or disrupted by snow, black ice or floods across northern and western Europe from Portugal to the Netherlands, and flights from British, Belgian, Dutch, French and German airports delayed.

The most embarrassing scenes for transport operators hit cross-Channel transport between Britain and France, after the Eurostar passenger service from London to Paris was shut down following at least five breakdowns.

Eurostar, the operator of the Channel Tunnel passenger trains, admitted it could not say when services would resume, with more than 24,000 passengers attempting inter-city travel ahead of the Christmas break stranded.

The company said it would send test trains along the route to see if they can withstand the sub-zero temperatures in northern France, which are thought to have caused trains to break down in the tunnel late Friday.

"We did run two or three trains yesterday, they all got through the tunnel OK, but one or two of them showed symptoms of the problem that happened on Friday night," Eurostar director Richard Brown told the BBC.

French Euro MP Dominique Baudis said he would call for the European Commission to investigate after he and his family were among those stuck.

More than 2,000 passengers spent Friday night trapped in the undersea tunnel, some without anything to eat or drink. There were reports of heated disputes on board and some passengers bitterly criticised the company.

Approach roads to the ports of Dover and Calais were snarled by tail-backs because of heavy snow and queues of trucks waiting for delayed shuttle trains through the Channel Tunnel.

"Eurotunnel has advised us that waiting times are up to two hours at the terminal," Kent police Superintendent Matthew Nix said, warning car and truck drivers without reservations to stay away.

At Paris Charles de Gaulle airport 40 percent of flights were cancelled and the remaining services were leaving an average of one hour late, while the city's second airport Orly was the scene of a strike by security staff.

In the Belgian capital Brussels a flight was able to leave just after sunrise for Seville in Spain, but afterwards heavy snow forced authorities to halt all flights from airports in Brussels, Liege and Charleroi.

"We're putting everything into clearing the runway as quickly as possible, but it all depends on how the weather develops," a Brussels airport spokesman told AFP.

Heavy snowfall also closed Germany's third largest airport in the western city of Duesseldorf, authorities said, and in the Netherlands a dozen flights from Amsterdam Schipol were cancelled.

International Thalys trains between Brussels, Paris and Amsterdam were also delayed and Sunday football matches were cancelled as far south as Italy and across much of the north.

The weather problems in Europe came as the eastern United States experienced an even more ferocious snowstorm, which blanketed several states, paralysed transport and cut off power to hundreds of thousands of homes.

In the United States, bathrooms are generally categorized as a "full bathroom" (or "full bath"), containing four plumbing fixtures: bathtub, shower, toilet, and sink; "half (1/2) bath" (or "powder room") containing just a toilet and sink; and "3/4 bath" containing toilet, sink, and shower, although the terms vary from market to market. In some U.S. markets, a toilet, sink, and shower are considered a "full bath". This lack of a single, universal definition commonly results in discrepancies between advertised and actual number of baths in real estate listings. An additional complication is that there are currently two ways of notating the number of bathrooms in a dwelling. One method is to count a half bathroom as ".5" and then add this to the number of full bathrooms (e.g., "2.5" baths would mean 2 full baths and 1 half bath). The other, newer method is to put the number of full bathrooms to the left side of the decimal point and to put the number of half bathrooms to the right of the decimal point (e.g., "2.1" would mean 2 full baths and 1 half bath; "3.2" would mean 3 full baths and 2 half baths).

In fact throughout the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, the use of public baths declined gradually in the west, and private spaces were favoured, thus laying the foundations for the bathroom, as it was to become, in the 20th century. However in Japan shared bathing in sento and onsen (spas) still exists; the latter being very popular.

Toilet Partitions

BEIJING – China has closed one of the country's largest file-sharing sites in what it says is a fight against copyright infringement, but could be seen as another measure aimed at controlling what content the country's Web users can find online.
The file-sharing site BTCHINA — a major source of overseas movies, television shows and games in the country — has been closed since Friday, and another site, VeryCD.com, was down Wednesday. A report in the Southern Metropolis Daily said other file sharing sites would be closed in the coming days.
The State Administration of Radio Film and Television said BTCHINA did not have a license to distribute audio and video content. "SARFT has deleted our site's registration and shut down our site," a notice on the BTCHINA site said.
The owner of VeryCD.com, Huang Yimeng, wrote on his blog that his site was down due to a server problem, but he told The Beijing News in a report Wednesday that "we also don't have a license."
An official in SARFT's news office said they would post a news release about the file-sharing sites on its own Web site by Thursday morning.
Struggles over file-sharing sites aren't unique to China, with companies in the United States and Europe being accused of illegally sharing copyrighted material. But China is known to have the world's most extensive system of Web monitoring and censorship and has stepped up its efforts in recent years, with Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites already blocked in the country.
Another popular Web site, the Chinese translation cooperative Yeeyan, has stopped publishing in recent days.
The government says the main targets of its Web censorship are pornography, online gambling and other sites deemed harmful to society. Critics, however, say that often acts as cover for detecting and blocking sensitive political content.

MANILA (AFP) –
A Muslim clan blamed for a horrific political massacre in the Philippines was accused on Wednesday of killing more than 250 people during an eight-year reign of terror in a strife-torn southern province.

Explosive allegations of chainsaw murders and victims being buried alive were levelled by the nation's human rights chief as judicial authorities charged the leaders of the Ampatuan clan with rebellion.

Police also said they suspected at least 161 people, including rogue soldiers and policemen loyal to the Ampatuans, of direct involvement in last month's political massacre in Maguindanao that left 57 civilians dead.

Human rights commissioner Leila de Lima said the Ampatuans had murdered more than 200 other people during a brutal eight-year rule that President Gloria Arroyo's government had ignored because the clan were important allies.

"Everybody was aware (of the killings), but they have been tolerated," Commission on Human Rights chairwoman Leila de Lima told reporters.

"That is why we want full accountability now. The years of tolerance and neglect are over."

The patriarch of the clan, Andal Ampatuan Snr, had been governor of Maguindanao and an Arroyo ally since 2001.

Ampatuan Snr and and his relatives were allowed to run private armies as part of a government strategy to contain a long-running Muslim separatist insurgency in Maguindanao and other parts of the southern Philippines.

The Ampatuans were also a rich source of votes for Arroyo's ruling coalition.

De Lima said witnesses, who only dared to come forward after the November 23 massacre triggered the clan's downfall, had given horrifying accounts of people being buried alive and slain with chainsaws in "killing fields".

Arroyo ended the alliance only after the Ampatuan clan was accused of organising last month's massacre, which was allegedly carried out to stop a rival politician from running for provincial governor in next year's elections.

Police allege Ampatuan Snr's son and namesake, a local mayor, led a militia of more than 100 gunmen in abducting then shooting dead a convoy carrying female relatives of his political rival, plus a group of journalists.

Andal Ampatuan Jnr was detained three days after killings and has been charged with 25 counts of murder so far.

After turning against her former allies, Arroyo declared martial law in Maguindanao on Friday night and accused the Ampatuans of rebellion.

Amatuan Snr and four of his sons, who were among 62 people swept up in martial law raids over the weekend, were charged in a southern Philippine court on Wednesday with rebellion and could face life in prison.

The government says 3,000 of their former militia remain on the run and capable of further atrocities.

De Lima hit out at the government's long alliance with the Ampatuans, saying reports of political opponents and others going missing in Maguindanao had circulated for years.

"It was too dangerous for our investigators to validate these reports earlier," she said. "But now we are taking advantage of the military security to go and investigate."

De Lima said independent forensics experts deputised by her agency would begin excavating two alleged "killing fields" in the next two weeks.

"We are looking at a minimum of 200 (bodies)," de Lima said. "These are victims of the same clan and the private armies."

Among those missing and presumed killed was a former Ampatuan lawyer who had wanted to expose the clan's atrocities, she said. Others were regular peasants who fell out of favour with the family.

"Some were allegedly killed with the use of chainsaws, and others were buried alive," de Lima said, citing witnesses now in her agency's protection.

Five police officers who had direct knowledge of some of the murders were among those now willing to speak out against the Ampatuans, according to de Lima.

One of de Lima's aides said the rights commission could not divulge any more details about the 200-plus murders because it wanted to protect witnesses.

COPENHAGEN (AFP) –
It began 10 years ago as a small-scale touch of satire: a wee plastic T. Rex and a lump of coal, awarded to the nation deemed to have done most to have held up, diluted or sabotaged world climate talks.

Now the "Fossil of the Day" award has developed Oscars-style glitz, with red velvet curtains, evening dress, a podium and gleaming trophies... but, true to its roots, the little dinosaur and lump of coal are still there.

The mock presentation is staged every day at the two-week annual conference of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Its organisers are Climate Action Network (CAN) International, an umbrella group of more than 450 green groups.

Before a friendly crowd several hundred strong at the Bella Center, the first Fossil of the Day presentation of the Copenhagen talks began on Monday to the swelling strings of the theme music to "Jurassic Park."

"Fossil of the Day / Fossil of the Day / Who is bad? / Who is worse?" sang the throng.

Award emcee Ben Wikler of Avaaz.org, dazzling in tuxedo, pleated white shirt and button studs, asked a fellow activist -- a young woman delightfully clad in blue silk as Denmark's "Little Mermaid" -- to withdraw the winners' envelopes from a safe.

The day's winners (roll of drums...) were, in third place: Canada, for lagging on tackling carbon emissions; second: Sweden, Finland and Austria, for backing "a devious EU proposal" allowing them to increase logging; and, in first place, all the industrialised countries, for having "a profound deficit of ambition for cutting carbon."

Saudi Arabia picked up a "dishonourable mention" for saying Climategate -- the controversy surrounded hacked emails exchanged among climate scientists -- sowed public doubt about the evidence for global warming.

The daily awards will climax on December 18 with the announcement of the "Grand Fossil" -- the country that CAN activists say has tallied most points in climate thuggery.

Folding bikes generally come with a wider range of adjustments than conventional bikes for accommodating different riders, because the frames are usually only made in one size. Seatposts and handlebar stems on folders extend as much as four times higher than conventional bikes. For even greater range of adjustment, longer after-market posts and stems are available. While folding bicycles are usually smaller in overall size than conventional bicycles, the distances between center of bottom bracket, the top of the saddle and the handlebars, the primary factors in determining whether a bicycle fits its rider, are usually similar to that of conventional bikes. The wheelbase of many folding designs is also very similar to that of conventional, non-folding, bicycles. Some manufacturers are producing folding bikes designed around folding systems that allow them to utilize 26" wheels, for example the Montague Corporation which bases all its folding bicycles on the 26" wheel.

The A-bike is similar to the Strida but has tiny wheels and compacts a bit smaller. Bikes smaller than a Brompton are often called portable bicycles. They forgo the performance and easy ride benefits of their larger counterparts, acquiring characteristics similar to those of an adult folding kick scooter. Regardless of how each folds, the result is easier to transport and store than a traditional bicycle.

Tandem Bikes

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – The United Arab Emirates' top officials looked Tuesday to allay concern over Dubai World's $60 billion debt-load, stressing the strength of Dubai and the UAE's economies even as regional markets tumbled for a second day.
Dubai's ruler, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum told the Al-Arabiya satellite channel that his emirate's economy was "strong" and solid." The comments were his first public statement about Dubai World since his government announced on Wednesday that conglomerate — the emirate's chief engine for growth — was restructuring and wanted a six-month minimum delay in its debt payments.
The news roiled Dubai and Abu Dhabi's markets for a second day Tuesday, as the UAE's two biggest bourses as well as others in the Gulf Arab region played catch-up with global markets that had digested the bad news late last week.
The Dubai Financial Market closed down 5.61 percent after slightly paring an earlier slide of about 6 percent. Abu Dhabi's bourse fell 3.57 percent by closing, after losing about 5 percent earlier in the day.On Monday, both markets registered record falls.
Sheik Mohammed attributed the reaction in the market to the news of Dubai World's restructuring as an indication of "a lack of understanding about what is happening in Dubai."
Earlier, the UAE's president, was quoted by WAM, the state-run news agency, as saying that the country's economy was healthy and that the international financial crisis, "despite being very harsh, will not push us toward despair."
The remarks were clear attempts by UAE officials to calm investors scrambling to get a clear understanding of how Dubai would deal the conglomerate's debts. Dubai officials on Monday indicated they had washed their hands of Dubai World's debts, arguing that it was an independent company that happened to be owned by the city-state.
The news rattled investors and raised more questions about whether neighboring Abu Dhabi, the oil-rich seat of the UAE's federal government, would step in with a bailout of sort and what such a step would mean for Dubai.
Partial answers emerged early Tuesday when Dubai World announced in a statement that it had begun "constructive" discussions with its creditors over $26 billion of the conglomerate's debts. It said the debt restructuring would include about $6 billion
It said the restructuring would include about $6 billion in Islamic bonds issued by its real estate arm, Nakheel PJSC, the company behind Dubai's iconic palm shaped man-made islands. About $3.5 billion of the bonds come due on Dec. 14, and Nakheel was viewed as the litmus test Dubai World's debt woes.
Dubai World said the restructuring would include Dubai World and certain subsidiaries, including Nakheel World and Limitless World. Excluded from the talks are debts from Infinity World Holding, Istithmar World and Ports & Free Zone World, which includes ports and terminal operator DP World, Economic Zones World, P&O Ferries and Jebel Ali Free Zone).
The conglomerate said all those subsidiaries are on "stable financial footing," and in a statement posted on the Nasdaq Dubai Web site, Jebel Ali Free Zone said it paid a roughly $2 billion Islamic bond, or sukuk, on time Tuesday.
While the statement offered the first taste of clarity for a financial world eager for some transparency, it did not deal with the broader issue of how the company and Dubai itself would deal with the overall debt.
"There has been a mixed sentiment," said Saurabh Dhall, an independent broker in Dubai. "There is a lack of certainty as to how things are going to move forward, and investors are wary espeically when all the talk beforehand was that things were OK and payments would be made."
"The major concern is not so much the dollar amount ... of the payments, it's the concern about how this will affect credibility," he said.
Those concerns were reflected in trading on the UAE's main bourses, as well as elsewhere in the Gulf.
Qatar's bourse fell 8.27 percent while Kuwait's was off 2.71 percent.
Markets in the Emirates will be closed on Wednesday and Thursday for the country's national holiday and will reopen on Sunday after the end of weekend in the Arab world.

A study of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) published in Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) states that "It seems appropriate to stop discouraging the use of pacifiers." The authors recommend the use of pacifiers at nap time and bedtime throughout the first year of life. For breastfeeding mothers, the authors suggest waiting until breastfeeding is well established, typically for several weeks, before introducing the pacifier.

Teething is the process during which an infant's teeth start to sequentially grow in. Teething can start as early as three months or as late, in some cases, as twelve months. Occasionally a baby may even present with one or more teeth at birth. The typical time frame for new teeth to appear is somewhere between six and nine months. It can take up to several years for all 20 deciduous (aka "baby" or "milk") teeth to emerge. The process of teething is sometimes referred to as "cutting teeth".

Organic Baby Products

Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) or in Britain, Hormone therapy (HT) is a system of medical treatment for surgically menopausal, perimenopausal and to a lesser extent postmenopausal women. It is based on the idea that the treatment may prevent discomfort caused by diminished circulating estrogen and progesterone hormones. It involves the use of one or more of a group of medications designed to artificially boost hormone levels. The main types of hormones involved are estrogens, progesterone or progestins, and sometimes testosterone. It often referred to as "treatment" rather than therapy,

Attitudes towards HRT changed in 2002 following the announcement by the Women's Health Initiative of the National Institutes of Health that those receiving the treatment (Prempro) in the main part of their study had a larger incidence of breast cancer, heart attacks and strokes. The WHI findings were reconfirmed in a larger national study done in the UK, known as the the Million Women Study. As a result of these findings, the number of women taking hormone treatment dropped by almost half. The Journal of the American Medical Association and elsewhere based on these findings warn that women with normal rather than surgical menopause should take prescribed HRT treatment at the lowest feasible dose, for the shortest possible time. For health problems associated with menopause such as osteoporosis (a small percentage of postmenopausal women are at risk of severe bone loss), other life-style changes and/or medications are now recommended.

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The word "wallet" has been in use since the first century A.D. to refer to a bag or a knapsack for carrying articles. The word may derive from Proto-Germanic. The ancient Greek word kibisis, used to describe the sack carried by the god Hermes and the sack in which the mythical hero Perseus carried the decapitated head of the monster Medusa, has been typically translated as "wallet". Usage of the term "wallet" in its modern meaning of "billfold" in American English dates to 1834.

Wallets may also have an identification pocket, which facilitates the display of a regularly-used piece of identification such as workplace ID or a bus pass, by housing it within a transparent "window". A wallet may also have photo pockets, which are designed to hold a collection of small personal photographs. A wallet may also have a small pouch for coins or keys.

RFID Blocking Wallet

MANILA, Philippines – Philippine prosecutors charged the heir of a powerful clan with murder Tuesday in the massacre of 57 people, more than half of them journalists or their staff who were accompanying the family and supporters of an election candidate.
At least 10 witnesses will testify they saw Andal Ampatuan Jr. leading the gunmen, including police officers, who blocked his rival's election caravan moments before the Nov. 23 massacre, prosecutor Al Calica told The Associated Press.
Hours later, troops found the bullet-riddled and hacked bodies near the highway sprawled in the grass and hastily buried in three mass graves by a backhoe together with three vehicles.
Ampatuan turned himself in last week and denied the charges.
He is the scion of a clan allied with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo that has ruled southern impoverished Maguindanao province unopposed for years. His father, the family's patriarch, and six other family members also are considered suspects but have not been charged.
Prosecutors initially filed 25 murder charges against Ampatuan in southern Cotabato city, whose regional trial court is nearest to the massacre site in Ampatuan township.
The five prosecutors handling the murder case carried two boxloads of evidence and affidavits from witnesses from Manila to Cotabato city aboard two air force helicopters. They are expected to ask the court to try the case in Manila for security reasons.
"The evidence is strong," Calica said, adding that at least 10 witnesses provided written testimonies linking Ampatuan to the killings.
He said three of them were in the convoy carrying journalists and the wife, two sisters, an aunt and several supporters of Ampatuan's rival, Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu of Maguindanao's Buluan township.
Mangudadatu had sent his relatives to file his candidacy papers for governorship. Mangudadatu said Ampatuan had threatened to chop him to pieces if he attempted to challenge the Ampatuan family's ironclad control over the province. So, Mangudadatu sent female family members in the belief they would not be harmed.
Quoting the three witnesses, Calica said they managed to turn their cars from the tail end of the convoy and escaped after shots were fired and the gunmen hurriedly took control of the vans and sport utility vehicles in the caravan.
Police cars were parked along the road as the gunmen led the victims in their vehicles to a remote hilltop where they were butchered, Calica said.
Police said earlier they took into custody six officers, including the Maguindanao provincial police chief and his deputy. Two inspectors among them were allegedly seen during the massacre with Ampatuan, said Erickson Velasquez, head of the criminal investigation division.
Prosecutors said the killings were carefully planned and that more charges will follow. At least one witness alleged that the Ampatuan clan had gathered in the patriarch's mansion in the provincial capital of Shariff Aguak days before to plan the killings, said chief state prosecutor Jovencito Zuno.
The graves were dug in advance and a backhoe positioned to bury the bodies, prosecutors said.
The Ampatuans denied any responsibility in the killings in a rare news conference in Shariff Aguak on Sunday.
In Manila, about 1,000 journalists and activists marched Monday to demand justice for the single worst attack on the media anywhere in the world. Thirty of the victims were journalists or their staff. The protesters hackled Arroyo's spokesman Cerge Remonde when he tried to address them outside the president's office.
The carnage drew worldwide condemnation, including from U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the U.S., Australia and EU governments.

Arroyo has declared a state of emergency in Maguindanao and a neighboring province and ordered troops and police to confiscate unlincensed weapons and restore order. But few think the measures will go far enough in a lawless region notorious for political warlords that has been outside the central government's control for generations.

___

Associated Press writer Teresa Cerojano contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON – The couple who crashed the Obama administration's first state dinner communicated with a senior Pentagon official about going to the event, but the official denies that she helped the couple get in.
Michele Jones, a special assistant to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, said in a written statement issued through the White House on Monday evening that she never said or implied she would get Michaele and Tareq Salahi into the Nov. 24 White House dinner.
"I specifically stated that they did not have tickets and in fact that I did not have the authority to authorize attendance, admittance or access to any part of the evening's activities," Jones said. "Even though I informed them of this, they still decided to come."
This is the latest twist in the unfolding mystery of how the two reality show wannabes managed to get into the highly secured event and shake hands with President Barack Obama. Also on Monday, a House committee chairman asked the couple, Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan and White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers to testify at a hearing Thursday on the incident.
The White House issued Jones' statement after questions were raised about communications between the administration and the couple prior to the dinner.
A friend of the couple, McLean, Va., real estate agent Casey Margenau, said in an interview with The Associated Press that the couple interpreted an e-mail exchange as permission to attend the exclusive party. Margenau said he did not personally see the e-mails and did not know with whom the couple was corresponding.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said he wants answers about the Secret Service's security deficiencies that allowed the Salahis to attend the dinner. A White House photo showed the Salahis in the receiving line in the Blue Room with Obama and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in whose honor the dinner was held. Obama and Michaele Salahi are smiling as she grasps his right hand with both of hers and her husband looks on. Singh is to Obama's left.
"This is a time for answers," Thompson said in a statement Monday. "This is not the time for political games or scapegoating to distract our attention from the careful oversight we must apply to the Secret Service and its mission."
Some lawmakers have called for criminal charges to be brought against the couple, but the Secret Service has not yet decided whether to refer the case for criminal prosecution.
The Secret Service declined to comment on whether Sullivan would testify on Thursday.
On Friday, Sullivan issued a statement saying that his agency is "deeply concerned and embarrassed" by the circumstances.
Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said the couple was not on the approved list for the party, but they were allowed in. "This should not have occurred," Donovan said.
"The preliminary findings of our internal investigation have determined established protocols were not followed at an initial checkpoint, verifying that two individuals were on the guest list," Sullivan said Friday. "Although these individuals went through magnetometers and other levels of screening, they should have been prohibited from entering the event entirely. That failing is ours."
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Monday the president shares the Secret Service director's concern about the incident.
"That's why there's an investigation," Gibbs said.
Gibbs said the president was not concerned about his safety and continues to have faith in the Secret Service.
The ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security committee, Rep. Peter King of New York, also said there needs to be an investigation into what happened. King said he wants to be sure the hearing does not give away Secret Service operations or methods that could tip someone off how to get into the White House. King said he's been to at least 40 invitation-only events at the White House — including two state dinners — and security has always been tight and thorough.
The Salahis have boasted about going to the state dinner on their Facebook page: "Honored to be at the White House for the state dinner in honor of India with President Obama and our First Lady!" they wrote.

Michaele Salahi is a reality TV hopeful trying to get on Bravo's "The Real Housewives of D.C."

The couple's publicist, Mahogany Jones, could not immediately be reached for comment about whether the Salahis would testify Thursday. But earlier Monday, Mahogany Jones said allegations that the Salahis are shopping interviews and demanding money from television networks to tell their story are false.

Mahogany Jones said the couple is not making any formal comments or arrangements to speak with the media. An appearance previously scheduled for Monday night on CNN's "Larry King Live" has been canceled.

A TV executive who spoke on condition of anonymity to publicly discuss bookings had told The Associated Press that the couple's representatives had urged networks to "get their bids in" for an interview.

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Associated Press writers Julie Pace and Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) –
The internal watchdog for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is probing whether enforcement staff "committed acts of negligence" in conducting an insider trading investigation.

Inspector General David Kotz's office said it is looking at a complaint that SEC staff had access to specific evidence that insider trading had occurred prior to staff closing the investigation.

The insider trading probe is one of 16 investigations Kotz's office is conducting, according to his semi-annual report to Congress that was released on Monday.

Kotz's office is also investigating allegations that an SEC enforcement attorney participated in an investigation even though a personal conflict of interest required his recusal from the probe.

The IG's office continues to probe allegations that two SEC enforcement lawyers repeatedly disclosed nonpublic information about agency investigations to a corrupt Federal Bureau of Investigations agent and a short seller. That agent and short seller were subsequently convicted of several criminal violations including fraud and conspiracy in connection with a stock short-sale operation, the report said.

An SEC spokesman declined to comment on Kotz's pending investigations, but said: "We look forward to receiving the inspector general's findings."

The semi-annual report comes after Kotz issued his damning report in September on how the SEC failed to catch Bernard Madoff's fraud of up to $65 billion, despite repeated tips and red flags raised by the agency's own inquiries.

The SEC has agreed to implement Kotz's 58 recommendations to improve its enforcement division and Office of Compliance, Inspections and Examinations.

Kotz's report said that staff in the inspections unit made critical mistakes in nearly every aspect of their examinations of Madoff and his business.

Kotz has urged the SEC to create a protocol detailing how staff can identify red flags and potential securities violations based on information gleaned from sources.

(Reporting by Rachelle Younglai; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)