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A Democratic congressional candidate abruptly dropped out of the race Wednesday and said a former campaign worker was linked to an Internet smear aimed at a rival. Jake Metcalfe said he had known nothing about a scheme to redirect Internet users searching for fellow Democrat Ethan Berkowitz to bogus sites intended to harm Berkowitz’s candidacy. But he added, “It appears that a former campaign worker was involved in these acts, and I condemn them.” Metcalfe, former chairman of the Democratic Party in Alaska, said he takes responsibility and apologized to Berkowitz on Wednesday. The disputed Web sites contained variations of Berkowitz’s name but were not associated with the candidate’s campaign. When users clicked on the Web sites, they were directed to pages that attempted to portray Berkowitz as a privileged California liberal or to gay cultural sites in San Francisco. “I made a mistake by not taking these allegations more seriously from the beginning,” Metcalfe said. Berkowitz said Wednesday it is time to move past the Web site flap. Married with two children, he has roots in San Francisco but has lived since 1990 in Alaska, where he has served as a prosecutor and legislator. “I think it’s time to close a chapter and go back to what we should have been doing all along, which is talking about the direction the state is taking,” Berkowitz said. Metcalfe’s former campaign manager, Dana Krawchuk, claimed that his political adviser Bill Scannell talked about such a scheme last year in front of her and Metcalfe. Scannell has denied establishing the fake Web sites but he resigned last week, saying the allegations were hurting Metcalfe. Metcalfe said Wednesday he had not determined that Scannell was behind the ruse. “I’ve talked to Bill. Bill denies it’s him, but the evidence shows he may have had something to do with it,” Metcalfe said. Metcalfe said he…

Daily health Tip: Exercising in Hot Weather
Take care to prevent a heat injury

Google Looking Golden Again After Challenging Stretch
It’s hard to believe Google Inc. actually looked vulnerable just two months ago. The Internet search leader’s stock had plummeted 45 percent from its peak. And its two biggest rivals, Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc., appeared poised to combine forces and launch a double-barreled attack. But as Google holds its annual shareholders meeting Thursday, the company looks stronger than ever. Its stock is hot again and Microsoft has scrapped its plans to buy Yahoo, with Google playing the spoiler’s role. “Google is winning again. What a surprise,” said Canaccord Adams analyst Colin Gillis. “If you want to invest in the Internet space, where else do you want to be but Google?” More investors have been coming to that conclusion since last month, when Google’s stellar first-quarter results cast aside concerns that the drooping U.S. economy would depress the online advertising spending that generates most of the company’s profit. Google shares have surged 29 percent since the first-quarter report, regaining a little more than half of the $100 billion in shareholder wealth that evaporated as the stock plunged from an all-time high of $747 last November to a 52-week low of $412 in mid-March. Meanwhile, Microsoft and Yahoo are again trying to figure out how to lessen Google’s dominance of Internet search and advertising. Microsoft hoped to throw Google for a loop by buying Yahoo for $47.5 billion. Unnerved by the threat, Google worked behind the scenes with Yahoo to thwart Microsoft’s unsolicited takeover attempt. The counterattack now has Yahoo considering a deal that would allow Google to sell some of the ads displayed alongside the search results on Yahoo’s Web site. The alliance, which has already been tested in a two-week trial, will likely hinge on whether the two companies can persuade antitrust regulators the partnership wouldn’t undermine competition in the ad market. Even if a Google-Yahoo pact…

10M Children Worldwide Die from Lack of health Care
More than 200 million children worldwide under age 5 do not get basic health care, leading to nearly 10 million deaths annually from treatable ailments like diarrhea and pneumonia, a U.S.-based charity said Wednesday. Nearly all of the deaths occur in the developing world, with poor children facing twice the risk of dying compared to richer children, according to Save the Children’s global report. Sweden, Norway and Iceland top the ranking in terms of well-being for mothers and children in 146 countries surveyed, while Nigeria ranks last. Eight out of 10 bottom-ranked countries are in sub-Saharan Africa, where four out of five mothers are likely to lose a child in their lifetime, Save the Children said. The top three among the 55 developing countries ranked in the survey are the Philippines, Peru and South Africa — all surveyed for the first time. Indonesia and Turkmenistan tied for fourth. Laos, Yemen, Chad, Somalia and Ethiopia were found doing the worst among developing countries, the report said. Through a number of health initiatives, including access to oral rehydration to treat diarrhea, the Philippines has nearly cut its child death rate in half since 1990, said David Oot, Save the Children’s associate vice president. Today, more than 75 percent of Filipino children with diarrhea receive rehydration therapy, compared with 15 percent of Ethiopian children, he said. An alarming number of countries are failing to provide the most basic health services that would save lives, with 30 percent of children in developing countries not getting basic health intervention such as prenatal care, skilled assistance during birth, immunizations and treatment for diarrhea and pneumonia. Wide disparities in health care for the poorest and best-off children are seen even in the highest-ranked countries, the report said. In the Philippines and Peru, for example, the poorest children are 3.2 times more likely to go without essential health…

Microsoft Telescope Will Bring Universe to the Desktop
Having conquered much of planet Earth, Microsoft is turning at least some of its attention to the sky. WorldWide Telescope (WWT), a free tool that allows users to explore images of the night sky, will become available at the end of this month. WWT, developed by Microsoft Research Labs using the company’s Visual Experience Engine, enables a home PC to become an engine for exploring the galaxies. It utilizes terabytes of images and data from telescopes worldwide and from the Hubble orbiting telescope. ‘An Observatory on Your Desktop’ In a speech at a conference in Jakarta Friday, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates told news media that the software “takes very complex data gathered over many years from many telescopes” and makes it accessible to a desktop user. He described it as “an observatory on your desktop.” The WWT project was designed to be ready for 2009, which is the 400th anniversary of Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei’s first public observations of space, using a simple telescope. According to news reports, the project holds information on more than 300 million stellar systems. Some astronomers have said they expect the project to have as much of an impact on the way we view the universe as did the view conveyed by Galileo. For instance, schoolchildren will be able to devise their own visual tours of the universe as classroom projects. Much of the interaction will make disparate images seem as if they are part of a single set of images. According to news reports, the user can zoom into sections of the sky by clicking on the images, which come from some of the largest Earth-bound telescopes as well as spacecraft. The software stitches together the images into a virtual sky. There will also be commentaries, such as downloadable podcasts from leading astronomers and researchers that expand on the…

For Your health: How the Right Nutrients Help Keep Memory Sharp
Supplementing your diet with brain healthy nutrients may help preserve memory and maintain sound cognitive function as you age. These neuronutrients, which fuel brain cells and promote healthy blood flow to the brain, include phosphatidylserine, ginkgo biloba, coenzyme Q10, alpha lipoic acid, acetyl-L-carnitine, resveratrol and omega-3 fatty acids. It is important, however, to know which forms, amounts and combinations of these nutrients will provide the most benefit to the health of your brain for years to come.

For Your health: Research Validates Vitamin Benefits
The importance of good nutrition cannot be stressed enough. It is sometimes difficult, however, to get the nourishment you need from the food you eat. Nutritional supplements can help bridge the gap by offering the vitamins, minerals and other essential nutrients your body requires. Recent studies show just how valuable supplements can be in helping maintain optimal health and vitality for years to come.

Aid Given to Myanmar Despite Junta’s Refusal To Allow Relief Workers
The Myanmar junta’s stubborn refusal to let in foreign aid workers has not stopped donors — from billionaire Bill Gates to a little-known British travel company — from opening their wallets. The aid includes a luxury river cruise liner loaned by the travel company to a charity for transporting relief material, and 25,000 shoes sent by a U.S-based group for the survivors of Saturday’s devastating cyclone that left more than 60,000 people dead or missing. The Gates Foundation donated US$3 million (EU1.94 million) for emergency relief efforts in Myanmar, and will provide software to help reunite family members separated in the cyclone, Gates, the Microsoft chairman, told The Associated Press on Friday. The funds were transferred to the aid agencies Mercy Corps, Worldvision and Care “so they can go in there and help as quickly as possible,” Gates said. Gates’ donation is about as much as the total money pledged by the U.S. government — US$3.25 million (EU2.11 million). But Myanmar’s military government has refused to allow U.S. relief planes to fly in. It also refuses to give visas to U.N. experts who want to assess the damage and manage logistics. As of Thursday, the U.N. had recorded donations to Myanmar relief totaling US$25 million (EU16.23 million) from 28 nations, the European Union and charities. An additional US$25 million (EU16.23 million) has been pledged by donors. The figure jumped Friday with the Gates Foundation’s pledge and another US$10 million (EU6.49 million) that Japan promised to give through international organizations such as the United Nations Children’s Fund, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the World Food Program. Irrawaddy Flotilla Company, a British company that operates river cruises on the Irrawaddy river in Myanmar, said it was handing over one of its luxury liners to British charity Merlin. “I think we all feel that this…

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