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SINGAPORE (AFP) - - Oil prices ended the year on a calm note Wednesday, slightly lower after a tumultuous 2008 which saw prices hit record peaks before plunging to multi-year lows.

New York’s main futures contract, light sweet crude for February delivery, eased 13 cents to 38.90 dollars a barrel after falling 99 cents to 39.03 dollars on Tuesday at the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent North Sea crude for February delivery fell six cents to 40.09 dollars a barrel after shedding 40 cents to 40.15 on Tuesday in London.

Prices soared in the first half of the year, reaching record highs above 147 dollars a barrel in July, before a sharp global economic downturn slashed world demand for energy and pulled prices sharply lower.

New York crude plunged earlier this month to below 33 dollars, its lowest point for almost five years.

“The market had a pretty torrid few months, a hell of a lot of uncertainty,” said Mark Pervan, senior commodities analyst for ANZ bank in Melbourne.

Current prices, though, do not reflect actual market conditions, said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading.

“It is probably not productive to search too deeply for the rationale behind market movements at this time of year because they are generally more expressive of accounting necessities than market sentiment,” he said.

But some analysts saw an influence from Israel’s assault on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Israel began a massive bombardment of Hamas targets in Gaza on Saturday in response to ongoing rocket fire from the territory, fuelling fears of wider tensions in the oil-rich Middle East,

Pervan said traders were using the fighting as an excuse to buy on weakness in oil prices in an oversold market.

With recession curbing the world’s appetite for energy, analysts say, prices risk slumping further in 2009.

Pervan said he expected prices to fall a little lower in January before bottoming out in February and improving in March or April.

“There is no quick fix, quick recovery in the near term,” Pervan said, referring to the global economic slump.

OSLO (AFP) - - As Norway rings in the new year it will introduce a new law making the purchase — but not the sale — of sex a criminal act, threatening even to put Norwegians who buy sex abroad behind bars.

“We think buying sex is unacceptable because it favours human trafficking and forced prostitution,” Deputy Justice Minister Astri Aas-Hansen told AFP.

Street prostitution has become ever more visible in Norwegian cities in recent years, with prostitute support organisations estimating the country of just 4.6 million people counts as many as 3,000 sex workers.

The new law, which is modelled on similar legislation in Sweden, aims to clean up the streets and protect the prostitutes by outlawing the buying of sex, but not the sale.

Procuring, or “pimping”, and human trafficking are already illegal.

Norway will go even further than its Scandinavian neighbour however, making it illegal for Norwegian citizens and residents to purchase sexual favours even abroad, although Aas-Hansen insists catching johns in foreign countries “is not a priority for Norwegian police.”

Prostitutes’ customers could be slapped with fines proportionate to their revenues, be sentenced to up to six months in prison, or both.

In extreme cases, especially when the person providing sexual services is a minor, the prison term can stretch up to three years.

Norwegian media has reported that street prostitution has dropped considerably in the run-up to the introduction of the new law, but Bjoerg Norli of the Pro prostitute support centre insists the decline is an illusion brought on by plunging winter temperatures.

“The women are waiting to see what will happen. They have not decided yet whether they will leave or stop selling sex or continue and establish indoors,” she told AFP.

When the centre-left coalition government said in July 2007 that it was planning to draft the law, it drew protests from support groups like Pro who claimed it would make sex workers more reliant on pimps to get customers and would force them to work in more secluded places, making them more vulnerable to rape and attack by clients.

“That’s the risk … Some of us feared the situation of the prostitutes would get worse,” Aas-Hansen acknowledged, but pointed out that after much debate the law had been equipped with mechanisms aimed at helping the prostitutes.

“That’s why our plan includes help for the prostitutes.”

Under the new law, prostitutes will have access to free schooling, police assistance and detoxification treatment for those who are addicted to drugs or alcohol.

Norli was not convinced however, pointing out while those wishing to quit the profession would surely receive plenty of help the new law would make life much more difficult for sex workers who felt they had no alternative.

“I’m sure it’s going to be a lot about helping the women who would like to quit and get extra schooling or assistance to get a job,” she told AFP.

But “our experience is not that a lot of women are leaving prostitution, but that some of them have left (the country) because of the law,” she said.

The Pro centre suspects many of the Nigerian women, who make up one of the largest groups of foreign prostitutes in the Scandinavian country, “will leave Norway and continue prostitution elsewhere in Europe, which is just moving the problem somewhere else.”

And for those who stay behind, “everything is going to be more difficult, the streets will be more difficult,” Norli insisted.

“Our greatest concern are the Norwegian women who are drug dependent. They really don’t have an alternative. They won’t have any income source with the new law,” she said.

The Norwegian law is modelled on a law adopted in Sweden in 1999 that has been hailed by police and even some sex worker support groups as highly effective at reducing prostitution.

Finland introduced a similar law in 2006, while Scotland also criminalised the purchase of sex in 2007.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - - Facebook is facing an online protest after removing pictures of breastfeeding mothers found to be overly revealing from the pages of members of the social network.

A Facebook group entitled “Hey, Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene!” has attracted nearly 85,000 members as of Tuesday and a handful of activists held a rally outside its California headquarters over the weekend.

The organizers of the page, which is hosting a lively debate, receiving more than 10,000 comments, said they launched their “Official Petition to Facebook” after Facebook pulled profile pictures showing women nursing their babies.

“The pictures have been reported as ‘obscene’ and have been removed — their posters warned not to repost or fear being kicked off of Facebook,” the group’s organizers said.

“We’re wondering: what about a baby breastfeeding is obscene? Especially in comparison to MANY other pictures posted all over Facebook that really are obscene.”

Facebook, which has more than 120 million members, said there was no ban on breastfeeding pictures but it did have a policy on how much of a woman’s breast can be revealed similar to that of US newspapers and other media outlets.

“We agree that breastfeeding is natural and beautiful and we’re very glad to know that it is so important to some mothers to share this experience with others on Facebook,” said Barry Schnitt, a Facebook spokesman.

“We take no action on the vast majority of breastfeeding photos because they follow the site’s Terms of Use,” Schnitt said in a statement.

“Photos containing a fully exposed breast (as defined by showing the nipple or areola) do violate those Terms and may be removed,” he said.

“These policies are designed to ensure Facebook remains a safe, secure and trusted environment for all users, including the many children (over the age of 13) who use the site,” Schnitt said.

“The photos we act upon are almost exclusively brought to our attention by other users who complain,” he added.

Saturday, the Facebook breastfeeding group staged a virtual protest online, called the Mothers International Lactation Campaign, which attracted more than 11,000 followers.

Real-life mothers also held a “nurse-in” outside Facebook’s Palo Alto, California, headquarters the same day, the Palo Alto Daily News reported.

The local newspaper said a handful of activists attended the protest, signing songs, displaying signs and breastfeeding their children outside Facebook headquarters.

CHICAGO (AFP) - - The corruption-tainted governor of Illinois defied Democratic party leaders Tuesday by appointing a prominent African-American statesman to the senate seat of president-elect Barack Obama.

Senate Democrats vowed not to seat former Illinois attorney general Roland Burris, saying he would “serve under a shadow and be plagued by questions of impropriety” in the wake of allegations that Governor Rod Blagojevich tried to sell the seat to the highest bidder.

Obama said that while Burris is “a good man and a fine public servant” he supports the decision not to seat anyone appointed by Blagojevich.

Obama called the governor’s move “extremely disappointing,” and said the “best resolution would be for the governor to resign his office and allow a lawful and appropriate process of succession to take place.”

“While Governor Blagojevich is entitled to his day in court, the people of Illinois are entitled to a functioning government and major decisions free of taint and controversy,” Obama said in a statement.

But Illinois congressman and civil rights leader Bobby Rush used racially tinged language in urging senate Democrats to reconsider, saying they should “not hang and lynch the appointee as you try to castigate the appointer.”

Rush said Burris is a “worthy” candidate and noted that with Obama’s departure, there will be no African-Americans in the US senate.

“I don’t think that anyone — any US senator, who’s sitting in the senate, right now, wants to go on record to deny one African-American for being seated in the US senate,” Rush said as he joined Burris and Blagojevich at a press conference.

Blagojevich, who has vehemently denied any wrongdoing, said he was merely fulfilling his duty to the citizens of Illinois after state lawmakers failed to call a special election.

“I am here to announce my intention to appoint an individual who has unquestioned integrity, extensive experience and is a wise and distinguished senior statesman of Illinois,” Blagojevich told reporters.

“Please don’t allow the allegations against me to taint this good and honest man.”

Obama, who is on holiday in Hawaii before he takes office on January 20, has not been accused of any wrongdoing in the scandal.

Burris, 71, was the first African-American elected to statewide office in Illinois in 1978 when he won the office of state comptroller.

He held that post 1991, when he became the second African American in the United States elected to the office of attorney general.

Burris “has had a long and distinguished career serving the people of Illinois. He will be a great United States senator,” Blagojevich said.

Illinois Senator Dick Durbin said Burris’s record and ability are irrelevant in the face of Blagojevich’s December 9 arrest on fraud and bribery charges after FBI wiretaps allegedly revealed he had discussed ways to profit from the appointment.

“It is truly regrettable that despite requests from all 50 Democratic senators and public officials throughout Illinois, Governor Blagojevich would take the imprudent step of appointing someone to the United States Senate who would serve under a shadow and be plagued by questions of impropriety,” Durbin said in a statement.

“Under these circumstances, anyone appointed by Governor Blagojevich cannot be an effective representative of the people of Illinois and, as we have said, will not be seated by the Democratic Caucus.”

Blagojevich has refused to resign in the wake of the “seat-for-sale” scandal, but state lawmakers are currently leading an inquiry into whether there are grounds to impeach him and remove him from office.

He is also accused of demanding hefty campaign contributions in exchange for state contracts - including threatening to block funds to a children’s hospital - and trying to get editors critical of his administration fired from the Chicago Tribune.

Burris, who is not thought to be among the six candidates discussed by Blagojevich in the FBI wiretaps, declined to comment on “the governor’s circumstance” saying only that “in this legal process, you’re innocent until you’re proven guilty.”

He also declined to say whether he would fight attempts to block his appointment, telling reporters “we will deal with the next step in the process.”

“I am proud of my accomplishments as a public servant,” Burris said as he accepted the appointment.

“I ask the people of Illinois to place the same faith and trust in me that they have in the past when they elected me” for earlier statewide positions.

Expect chaotic music and brilliant fireworks to usher in the New Year at the countdown party at Marina Bay on Wednesday, with celebrations choreographed to match the current uncertain economic times.

According to the organiser Esplanade, a special music score has been composed to go with the fireworks. Chants will build up towards the stroke of midnight before being replaced by high energy music to reflect the anxieties of the economic climate.

Benson Puah, CEO of Esplanade, said: “This year, we’re going to hold you back after the fireworks because the chant trails off and lets you pause and reflect again.”

Some ex—offenders from the Yellow Ribbon Project are also reflecting and penning down their hopes on wishing spheres — a tradition that started three years ago as part of the Marina Bay Countdown.

One of them, Sunny, said: “I want to be a better person… to change, reach my goals and watch my son grow up.”

Ten thousand of these wishing spheres will be lit up in multiple colours on New Year’s Eve. The idea has also caught on with corporate sponsors like Carlsberg which has created 60 wishing spheres of their own.

Grace Lee, senior marketing manager, Carlsberg, said: “Generally, we feel that the market sentiments are pretty poor and public morale is pretty low at this point in time. It’s a very meaningful cause for us to engage in a much bigger scale or campaign to help spread cheers and good wishes to our partners and our supportive consumers.”

Besides penning down their wishes on the spheres which will be set afloat on the water, hundreds of visitors have also been writing their hopes and dreams for 2009 on bell charms.

On a separate note, MediaCorp Channel 5 will hold a 90—minute concert on the floating platform for the first time and Channel NewsAsia will beam the countdown ’live’ to the region.

Tickets to the countdown concert on the floating platform are priced from S$18.

LONDON (AFP) - - Jack remained the most popular British baby boy name in 2008 for the 14th year running, while names influenced by celebrities moved up an annual ranking published Tuesday.

Olivia topped the girls’ list, closely followed by a surge of Rubys — apparently inspired by the name of the daughter of singer Charlotte Church, a staple of the British tabloids.

Other star-tinged names in the top rankings included Lily, apparently after songstress Lily Allen, while Amy Winehouse’s personal troubles were seemingly reflected in her name dropping three places to 23rd.

The top 10 boys’ names in the poll, compiled by parenting club Bounty from a total of 380,000 babies born in 2008, were: Jack, Oliver, Harry, Alfie, Charlie, Thomas, Joshua, Daniel, James and William.

“Boys’ names have witnessed the biggest changes over the last decade as parents are increasingly influenced by American culture and celebrity trends relating to films and sports personalities,” said Faye Mingo of Bounty.

Football wunderkind Theo Walcott’s moniker moved up 12 places to 53rd in the name league table.

The girls’ top 10 was: Olivia, Ruby, Grace, Emily, Jessica, Sophie, Chloe, Lily, Mia and Lucy. “Parents are more likely to name girls after a well known movie star or celebrity,” said Mingo.

“Parents are also more likely to copy celebrities’ own choices of baby girls’ names, perhaps as a way of reflecting the aspirations that they have for their children,” she added.

LONDON (AFP) - - British patients could soon rate their doctors by posting reviews on an official health service website, Health Minister Ben Bradshaw said in comments published Tuesday.

By being able to read feedback from other patients, people would be better able to decide which doctor they wanted to consult, the junior minister told The Guardian newspaper.

The scheme would take its cue from the way people leave comments and ratings about books and music on Internet retail sites, Bradshaw said.

Posters would be able to leave positive and negative feedback, though the site would be moderated.

However, doctors’ representatives voiced concern that it would descend into a meaningless popularity contest rather than providing accurate information about medical skills.

Officials have been told to get the necessary software ready in 2009, The Guardian said.

Since April, the National Health Service’s Choices website has allowed people to post comments on hospitals. Bradshaw wants to extend the scheme to family doctors, called general practitioners (GPs).

“On NHS Choices there is already some useful information about whether a practice offers extended hours and how it performs on the quality indicators,” Bradshaw said.

“But the quality scores look like the results of an east European election under the Soviet regime. Nearly all get 96 percent, 97 percent or 98 percent.

“That doesn’t really give people an idea of whether the practice is better or worse than others in the area.

“I want people to be able to read comments. It may be that people think the GP is fantastic and they can always get an appointment within 48 hours. Or they may have terrible experiences and think the receptionist is really rude.”

He added: “I would never think of going on holiday without cross-referencing at least two guide books and using Trip Adviser (a travel review website). We need to do something similar for the modern generation in healthcare.

“I can already learn a lot from the comments of people, both positive and negative, about a type of treatment or a hospital. We need to extend the service to cover GPs.”

However, Laurence Buckman, chairman of the British Medical Association’s GPs committee, accused the government of not thinking the plan through properly.

“A website on which people can slander or praise irresponsibly is the wrong approach,” he said.

“Patients should be able to choose a doctor, but I don’t think this is the way to do it.

“For example, if I don’t give antibiotics for a viral infection because I don’t think it is appropriate, the word will get out that I am a tough git. But making them happy is not what I am there for. I am there to make them healthy.”

WASHINGTON (AFP) - - The US Treasury unveiled a six-billion-dollar package Monday to assist GMAC, the troubled financial arm of General Motors seen as vital to the survival of America’s largest automaker.

The Treasury said in a statement it would purchase five billion dollars in senior preferred equity with an eight percent dividend from GMAC, which is also partially owned by Chrysler parent company Cerberus Capital Management, and make a one-billion-dollar loan to General Motors.

In exchange, Treasury would receive warrants from GMAC in the form of additional preferred equity equal to five percent of the preferred stock purchase and would be paid a nine-percent dividend if used.

GMAC said the sale of its preferred membership interests and warrants to Treasury was completed Monday.

“GMAC Financial Services … has sold five billion dollars of GMAC’s preferred membership interests and warrants to the US Department of the Treasury as a participant in the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) established under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008,” GMAC said in a statement.

The GM loan comes on top of a 13.4-billion-dollar rescue loan package the US government approved this month for GM and Chrysler to stave off collapse amid tight credit and dismal sales. GM would receive an additional four billion dollars from February pending congressional approval.

Treasury said it agreed to the additional one-billion-dollar loan “so that GM can participate in a rights offering at GMAC in support of GMAC’s reorganization as a bank holding company.” The reorganization was approved by the US Federal Reserve on December 24.

GMAC faced possible bankruptcy, jeopardizing financing for GM car dealers and customers, and its demise could have dragged down the Detroit automaker’s fortunes with it.

GMAC has lost five billion dollars over the past six months in investments in the plagued automobile and real estate sectors.

But the company has stressed that acquiring bank holding company status — and access to federal TARP bailout funds — would help restore stability to the company seen as crucial to GM’s survival.

“The company intends to act quickly to resume automotive lending to a broader spectrum of customers to support the availabilty of credit to consumers and businesses for the purchase of automobiles,” GMAC said.

Treasury said the GMAC plan is “part of a broader program to assist the domestic automobile industry in becoming financially viable.” Under the agreement, GMAC must also comply with enhanced restrictions on executive compensation.

The funds for all automaker loans were to come from the TARP, the 700-billion-dollar government bailout plan initially introduced earlier this year to shore up financial firms, Treasury said.

The Treasury announced on December 19 a massive rescue of cash-strapped GM and Chrysler, facing a threat of imminent bankruptcy that could create economic chaos and throw millions out of work across the country.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - - President-elect Barack Obama’s economic stimulus plan is an urgent matter that will favor long-term infrastructure and job creation projects over tactics aimed at boosting consumer spending, two of his top aides have said.

With the United States facing gloomy forecasts of up to 10 percent unemployment and a deepening recession in 2009 — likely “the bleakest economic outlook since World War II” — Lawrence Summers said Sunday creating three million new jobs was a “key pillar” of Obama’s plan.

Obama senior adviser David Axelrod told CBS television the stimulus plan would cost between 675 billion and 775 billion dollars, but stressed that “those numbers are not fixed.”

“In this crisis, doing too little poses a greater threat than doing too much,” Summers, tapped to head the White House National Economic Council, wrote in an editorial in The Washington Post.

“Any sound economic strategy in the current context must be directed at both creating the jobs that Americans need and doing the work that our economy requires.”

Summers, who served as Treasury secretary under former president Bill Clinton, signaled that Obama would adopt a different approach than President George W. Bush.

“Some argue that instead of attempting to both create jobs and invest in our long-run growth, we should focus exclusively on short-term policies that generate consumer spending,” he said.

“But that approach led to some of the challenges we face today — and it is that approach that we must reject if we are going to strengthen our middle class and our economy over the long run.”

Obama’s incoming administration and congressional leaders are “getting awful close” to a general agreement on the huge economic stimulus package the Obama team hopes to implement soon after the January 20 inauguration, vice president-elect Joseph Biden said last week.

“I don’t think Americans can wait,” Axelrod said.

“People are suffering, our economy is sliding and we need to act. So our message to Congress is to work on it with all deliberate speed.”

Axelrod said the economic downturn adds urgency to repealing Bush’s tax cuts for wealthier Americans and will not prevent the future Obama administration from enacting its planned middle-class tax cuts.

Bush’s tax cuts are “something that we plainly can’t afford moving forward. And whether it expires or whether we repeal it a little bit early we’ll determine later, but it’s going to go. It has to go.” he told NBC.

He argued that eliminating the Bush tax cuts did not mean Obama would raise taxes.

Obama’s economic stimulus plan “will amount to a net tax cut for the American people,” he said. “We feel it’s important that middle-class people get some relief now.”

In terms of job creation, “we’re talking about investing in alternative energy projects that will help us achieve energy independence. We’re talking about rebuilding the nation’s classrooms to bring them into the 21st century, and labs and libraries so our kids can compete,” Axelrod added.

Around 80 percent of the three million new jobs Obama aims to create will be “in the private sector, including emerging sectors such as environmental technology,” Summers said, calling it a “bold goal.”

“Failure to create enough jobs in the short term would put the prospect of recovery at risk,” Summers added.

“Failure to start undertaking necessary long-term investments would endanger the foundation of our recovery and, ultimately, our children’s prosperity.”

The Obama stimulus plan was originally intended to safeguard 2.5 million jobs in the next couple of years. But its scope was expanded to three million jobs earlier this month as the US economy sank deeper into recession.

Biden reaffirmed that Obama wants the new Democratic-led Congress to make the economic package its top priority when it convenes in early January, calling it “the most urgent order of business for the new administration.”

A polar bear called Debby, said to be the world’s oldest, died at age 42 after thrilling millions of visitors to a Canadian zoo. She had been orphaned as a cub in the Russian north, and raised in captivity.

- A lost baby whale mistook an Australian yacht for its mother, and tried to suckle on it. It had to be put out of its misery to end its suffering.

- Two giant pandas - Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan - made their long-anticipated, groundbreaking trip from China to Taiwan, in the latest sign of fast thawing ties between the two former bitter rivals.

- An elephant kicked its heroin habit after a three-year stint at an island rehab centre in southern China. The four-year-old Asian elephant, called Xiguang, had become hooked on the narcotic after animal smugglers captured his group by luring them with bananas laced with heroin.

- Rebels and the government in the Democratic Republic of Congo, who have blighted the Nord-Kivu province with months of fighting, cut a deal to allow armed park rangers back into the famed Virunga reserve to care for its long-neglected gorillas.

- An Egyptian donkey was locked up for stealing corn on the cob from a field belonging to an agricultural research institute in the Nile Delta.

- A small kangaroo boxed its way out of its enclosure in a German town and fled, with emergency workers in hot pursuit. Firefighters were finally able to net the 70-centimetre (28-inch) tall wallaby unharmed.

- Snuppy, the first cloned dog, became a father after the world’s first successful breeding involving only cloned canines.

- Thousands of pets were evacuated from New Orleans ahead of Hurricane Gustav in a bid to avoid the mass heartache of Hurricane Katrina, when thousands of animals — along with hundreds of humans — died.

- Sweden’s own version of the Loch Ness monster, the Storsjoe or Great Lake monster, was caught on film by surveillance videos, an association that installed the cameras said.

- Bosnian police impounded a pigeon after finding that prisoners used it to smuggle drugs into one of the country’s highest security jails.

- A rare 111-year-old New Zealand reptile, Henry the tuatara, a lizard-like creature with links to the age of the dinosaurs, is to become a father for the first time in at least 38 years after regaining an interest in sex.

- A young British woman expressed surprise after finding a live baby bat in her bra. Abbie Hawkins, 19, harboured the creature in her bosom for over four hours and had felt a slight twitching but thought it was her mobile phone vibrating.

- A Swiss court ordered that a chicken be locked up in a soundproof box every night so its neighbours can get a good night’s sleep.

- A dog was admitted to a veterinary clinic in Austria barely able to stand on his own four paws and reeking of booze. The hungry pooch had stolen and devoured half a kilogram (a pound) of fresh yeast dough — which had fermented inside his stomach.

- Emergency surgery saved an Australian python that swallowed four golf balls after mistaking them for chicken eggs.

- A lucky Australian cat used up one of its lives when it survived a 34-storey plunge from an apartment building window. Voodoo’s fall was apparently broken by some well-placed bushes.