Contraception myths ‘widespread’

A UK survey has revealed that myths about contraception may be widespread.

One in five women said they had heard of kitchen items, including bread, cling film and even chicken skin, being used as alternative barrier methods.

Others had heard food items such as kebabs, Coca-cola or crisps could be used as oral contraceptives.

The survey questioned 1,000 women aged 18 to 50 and was carried out by market research company Opinion Health, sponsored by Bayer Schering Pharma.
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G20 pledges tougher bank action

Finance ministers from the world’s most powerful economies have agreed a series of measures to try to regulate the global banking system.

They want a system that rewards long-term performance rather than short-term risk-taking.

However the G20 meeting in London did not agree on specific limits on the amounts individual bankers get paid.

Britain, the US and Canada opposed the idea, but the Financial Stability Board is to examine the issue.
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Top Bush-era lawyer ‘can be sued’

A former US attorney general can be sued by an American citizen held as a witness suspected of having information in a terrorism case, a court has ruled.

Abdullah al-Kidd accuses John Ashcroft, attorney general from 2001 to 2005, of violating his constitutional rights in 2003, when he was held for 16 days.

The court said detention of witnesses without charge after the 9/11 attacks was “repugnant to the constitution”.

The US Department of Justice said it was reviewing the court’s order.

A three-judge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals also said the government’s policy was “a painful reminder of some of the most ignominious chapters of our national history.”
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Obama seeks to quell healthcare revolt

Barack Obama faces a steep challenge in his address to the joint houses of Congress next Wednesday to get his healthcare reforms back on track without provoking revolt from the Democratic party’s moderate or liberal wings, say lawmakers.

The US president, who has seen sharply declining public support for healthcare reform and falling personal approval ratings, will set out his plans in “understandable, clear terms”, Joe Biden, the vice-president, said on Thursday.

But Democratic lawmakers on Thursday made clear that there were still unbridgeable differences between the party’s centrist and progressive wings. In August a group of 60 Democratic lawmakers wrote to Mr Obama to say they would vote against a healthcare bill that excluded the public insurance option on which he had campaigned.
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14 from U.S. Embassy security staff in Afghanistan fired

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) — Fourteen employees of a U.S. security contractor accused of wrongdoing at the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan have been fired and were leaving the country, the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq said Friday.

Allegations surfaced last week that contractor ArmorGroup North America allowed mistreatment, sexual activity and intimidation within the ranks of private guards hired to protect the embassy in Kabul. The company and U.S. officials are investigating.

“We’ve immediately taken several actions,” said Ambassador Karl Eikenberry. “First of all, 13 of the employees of ArmorGroup have been terminated from their contracts. That’s a combination of some management and any of the individuals that were involved in this very disgusting behavior that occurred.”
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One giant slip in Bangladesh news

Two Bangladeshi newspapers have apologised after publishing an article taken from a satirical US website which claimed the Moon landings were faked.

The Daily Manab Zamin said US astronaut Neil Armstrong had shocked a news conference by saying he now knew it had been an “elaborate hoax”.

Neither they nor the New Nation, which later picked up the story, realised the Onion was not a genuine news site.

Both have now apologised to their readers for not checking the story.

“We thought it was true so we printed it without checking,” associate editor Hasanuzzuman Khan told the AFP news agency.
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Google China chief leaves company

The man who led Google’s expansion into China is leaving the company to start his own business.

Lee Kai-Fu, who joined from Microsoft in 2004, will step down as president of Google in greater China in September, the company said.

When he joined, Microsoft sued Google and Mr Lee, claiming he had violated an agreement that prohibited him from working for a rival for one year.

The two sides later settled out of court, without releasing details.

Mr Lee went on to become the face of Google China.
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Jobless rate at 9.7 pct.; 216K jobs lost in Aug.

The unemployment rate rose to 9.7 percent in August, the highest since June 1983, as employers eliminated a net total of 216,000 jobs.

Analysts expect businesses will be reluctant to hire until they are convinced the economy is on a firm path to recovery. Many private economists, and the Federal Reserve, expect the unemployment rate to top 10 percent by the end of this year.

While the jobless rate rose more than expected, the number of job cuts is less than July’s upwardly revised total of 276,000 and the lowest in a year, according to Labor Department data released Friday. Economists expected the unemployment rate to rise to 9.5 percent from July’s 9.4 percent and job reductions to total 225,000.

If laid-off workers who have settled for part-time work or have given up looking for new jobs are included, the so-called underemployment rate reached 16.8 percent, the highest on records dating from 1994.
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Boosting economy to top G20 talks

Finance officials from the Group of 20 richest nations are set to outline a commitment to boosting the global economy when they meet in London later.

While there is expected to be consensus over continuing to spend, there is some friction over the pace of spending and when to scale down stimulus efforts.

And a European proposal to curb bankers’ bonuses may face opposition from the US.

A full G20 meeting takes place in Pittsburgh later this month.

Early exit warnings

The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Dominique Strauss-Kahn, has said the G20 must proceed cautiously.
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Dead stars and classic art will surround Michael Jackson

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) — Seventy days after his sudden death, Michael Jackson will be interred in what may or may not be his final resting place Thursday evening.

Only his family and closest friends will attend the private burial starting at 7 p.m. PT (10 p.m. ET) inside the ornate Great Mausoleum on the grounds of Forest Lawn cemetery in Glendale, California.

They’ll then drive to an Italian restaurant eight miles away in Pasadena, California for “a time of celebration,” the nine-page engraved invitation said.

The first page inside the invitation holds a quote from “Dancing the Dream,” a book of essays and poems published by Jackson in 1992:
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