Five dead in arson-homicide at bar

Police investigate at Fero's Bar and Grill in Denver where the bodies of a man and four woman were discovered after firefighters extinguished a fire at the bar. Police believe the fire was lit to cover up a multiple homicide. Source: AP

DENVER police believe a bar was set fire to hide the slayings of the five people found inside who apparently were killed by other means.

The blaze at Fero's Bar & Grill was reported around closing time at 2 a.m. Wednesday, Police Chief Robert White said.

Firefighters responding to the fire found four women and one man dead inside the bar. Police don't think they died in the fire.

"The business has obviously been set on fire, an arson, I'm guessing, to mask the homicide that occurred inside," said police Commander Ronald Saunier.

"There is just trauma, enough information to believe that we have a homicide that occurred here. They didn't perish in the fire."

The bar is located in a strip mall about five miles south of downtown Denver on one of the city's busiest streets, Colorado Boulevard. It serves bar food and a few Asian dishes. Other businesses in the strip mall include a check cashing store.

The bar's owner couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

The five are believed to be the only ones in the bar when the fire started - other than whoever is responsible for their deaths -so police are asking anyone else who was at the place earlier to come forward, as investigators try to piece together what happened.

The victims haven't been identified. Autopsies were expected to be completed later in the day.

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Woman 'gives birth on subway train'

A woman reportedly has given birth on a subway train in Philadelphia. Source: news.com.au

IT was a very unusual delivery on a Philadelphia subway line.

Police say a woman riding the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority's Broad Street line told officers she gave birth aboard a northbound train Tuesday afternoon.

KYW-TV reports transit police Officer Loyd Rodgers and his partner gave the stork a helping hand after the woman approached them at the Olney station. Nestled in her clothing was her baby boy, umbilical cord still attached.

Mr Rodgers wrapped the newborn in a blanket and called for medics.

He says all activity in the busy subway station halted as riders snapped pictures and congratulated the new mom.

Mother and baby are doing fine at a hospital. The new mom's name wasn't released.

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Fiery Obama takes aim at Romney

President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney disagree over Detroit, unemployment figures during second presidential debate.

PRESIDENT Barack Obama hounded Mitt Romney on Libya and his corporate past as he got the better of his Republican challenger in a fiery debate three weeks from election day.

Bouncing back after being pilloried even by his own Democrats for appearing passive and listless during their first encounter in Denver, Obama was a different character on stage at Hofstra University, Long Island.

Instant surveys by CNN, which hosted the debate, and a host of other media organizations showed the more aggressive and combative Obama came out the clear winner against Romney, who spent more of the night on the back foot.

Rebounding from the ropes after a dismal showing two weeks ago that sent his poll numbers tumbling, the president was aware a second poor outing could doom him to the historical ignominy of a single term.

Early signs were that Obama's passion-fueled performance will revive optimism among Democrats over his re-election bid even if Romney made a strongly-worded case that the president had presided over economic failure.

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama speak during the second presidential debate.  Picture: AP/Eric Gay

In one spellbinding exchange, Obama stared directly at Romney and rebuked him over his criticism of his White House for its handling of an attack on the US consulate in Benghazi on September 11, which killed four Americans.

"The suggestion that anybody on my team, whether it's a secretary of state, our UN ambassador, anybody on my team, would play politics or mislead when we've lost four of our own, governor, is offensive," Obama said, wagging his finger at Romney across the stage of the town hall-style debate.

"That's not what we do. That's not what I do as president, not what I do as commander-in-chief," Obama said, in the most memorable clash of one of the most ill-tempered and contentious White House debates ever.

Seeking to recover, Romney then seemed to stumble, accusing the president of taking days to call the attack, which killed US ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens, terrorism.

Obama snapped back that he had referred to the assault as "an act of terror" a day after the attack, telling Romney: "check the transcript" before fixing his rival with a withering stare and saying "Please proceed governor".

Foreign editor Greg Sheridan says despite a more spirited performance by Barack Obama, there was no clear winner in the second presidential debate.

CNN moderator Candy Crowley fact-checked on the spot in Obama's favor and the transcript of the president's Rose Garden remarks on September 12 confirmed that he did indeed imply the assault was terrorism.

"No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation," Obama said in the remarks, which contradict Republican claims he laid the blame fully on an anti-Muslim YouTube video made on US soil.

Even before the debate had ended, Democrats were seizing on the moment to question Romney's credentials to serve as commander-in-chief, while conservatives hammered Crowley for what they said was an unfair intervention.

As anger crackled in the debate hall, the candidates were freed from podiums at Hofstra University, New York and roamed the floor, often encroaching on each other's personal space.

Minutes into the clash, Republican Romney and Democrat Obama stood just a few feet apart, trading charge and counter-charge in a furious verbal slanging match over economic policy.

Sophie Bock, a supporter of Barack Obama, watches a televised debate between Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and the president. Picture: AP /Alan Diaz

Romney's strongest moments came when he delivered stinging indictments of the Obama economy, charging the president with miserably failing to restore speedy jobs growth and cut ballooning deficits.

"The president wants to do well, I understand," Romney said, adopting a sorrowful tone of voice. "But the policies he put in place have not let this economy take off as it could have."

Obama slammed Romney over his attitude on women's issues, but the former Massachusetts governor and multi-millionaire businessman hit back over debt.

"If the president were re-elected, we'd go to almost $20 trillion of national debt. This puts us on a road to Greece," he said, before also vowing to stand up to China over what he says are trade and currency abuses.

Obama countered that Romney had invested in companies in China that were pioneers of outsourcing US jobs, saying: "Governor, you're the last person who's going to get tough on China."

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speaks as President Barack Obama listens during a town hall style debate.Picture: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images/AFP

When Romney interrupted, asking Obama if his pension scheme included investment in low wage economies abroad, the president openly mocked his wealth.

"I don't look at my pension. It's not as big as yours. I don't check it that often."

Analysts agreed that Obama shaded the clash.

"I think the Republicans will be disappointed that Romney didn't put him away, and the Democrats will be reassured that the president is in full press now," said Linda Fowler, professor of government at Dartmouth College.

John Pitney, professor of politics at Claremont McKenna College said he thought ``the president had a much better night than he had in Denver.''

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney kisses his wife Ann following the second presidential debate. Picture: AP/Pool-Win McNamee

"It was close, but I have to give the edge to Obama."

Just 21 days before the election, the obvious antipathy between the candidates reflected stakes that could hardly be higher as national polls and the race in battleground states tightens into a dead heat.

Romney, 65, took the first question of the night, about the jobs crisis, and bemoaned the plight of ordinary Americans who he said had been "crushed over the last four years."

"I know what it takes to create good jobs and to make sure you have the opportunity you deserve," Romney said.

Obama, 51, was quick off his stool in response, looking 20-year-old questioner Jeremy Epstein straight in the eye, fixing him with an intense stare as he promised to quicken the US economic recovery.

President Barack Obama kisses his wife Michelle Obama after the debate. Picture: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images/AFP

In conclusion, he fired a parting shot at ill-judged Romney comments - which came to light last month in a secretly-taped video - writing off 47 percent of American voters who don't pay income tax as ``victims'' reliant on government handouts.

"When he said behind closed doors that 47 percent of the country considered themselves victims who refuse personal responsibility, think about who he was talking about," Obama said, pointing out that this included war veterans, students and soldiers.

"I want to fight for them," he said.

"That's what I've been doing for the last four years. Because if they succeed, I believe the country succeeds."

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Three dead, three wounded in Ohio shooting

A gunman in Ohio has been shot by police after he allegedly opened fire and killed two others, including a three-year-old child. Source: The Daily Telegraph

THREE people, including a three-year-old child, are dead after a shooting at an apartment complex in northwest Ohio.

The police chief in Lake Township near Toledo, Mark Hummer, said a man shot five people in two apartments on Tuesday night before coming outside and firing on officers. Two officers returned fire and killed him.

Besides the child, a 26-year-old woman - believed to be the estranged girlfriend of the gunman - was killed.

Three other people shot in the apartments were hospitalised.

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Google unmasks 'secret' data centres

Google is opening up its secretive data centres.

GOOGLE is opening a virtual window into the secretive data centers where a maze of computers process Internet search requests, show YouTube video clips and distribute email for millions of people.

The unprecedented peek is being provided through a new website unveiled overnight at http://www.google.com/about/datacenters/gallery/#/ . The site features photos from inside some of the eight data centres that Google already has running in the US, Finland and Belgium. Google is also building data centres in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Chile.

Virtual tours of a North Carolina data centre also will be available through Google's "Street View" service, which is usually used to view photos of neighbourhoods around the world.

The photographic access to Google's data centres coincides with the publication of a Wired magazine article about how the company builds and operates them. The article is written by Steven Levy, a journalist who won Google's trust while writing In The Plex, a book published last year about the company's philosophy and evolution.

The data centres represent Google's nerve centre, although none are located near the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California.

As Google blossomed from its roots in a Silicon Valley garage, company co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin worked with other engineers to develop a system to connect low-cost computer servers in a way that would help them realise their ambition to provide a digital roadmap to all of the world's information.

Initially, Google just wanted enough computing power to index all the websites on the Internet and deliver quick responses to search requests. As Google's tentacles extended into other markets, the company had to keep adding more computers to store videos, photos, email and information about their users' preferences.

The insights that Google gathers about the more than 1 billion people that use its services has made the company a frequent target of privacy complaints around the world. The latest missive came Tuesday in Europe, where regulators told Google to revise a 7-month-old change to its privacy policy that enables the company to combine user data collected from its different services.

Google studies Internet search requests and Web surfing habits in an effort to gain a better understanding of what people like. The company does this in an effort to show ads of products and services to the people most likely to be interested in buying them. Advertising accounts for virtually all of Google's revenue, which totaled nearly $US23 billion ($22.4 billion) through the first half of this year.

Even as it allows anyone with a Web browser to peer into its data centres, Google intends to closely guard physical access to its buildings. The company also remains cagey about how many computers are in its data centres, saying only that they house hundreds of thousands of machines to run Google's services.

Google's need for so many computers has turned the company a major electricity user, although management says it's constantly looking for ways to reduce power consumption to protect the environment and lower its expenses.

The company's data centres are located in: Berkeley County, South Carolina; Council Bluffs, Iowa; Douglas County, Georgia.; Mayes County, Oklahoma.; Lenoir, North Carolina; The Dalles, Oregon.; Hamina, Finland; and St. Ghislain, Belgium. Other data centres are being built in Quilicura, Chile; Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan.

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400 new species 'at risk of extinction'

A poached baby Grauer's gorilla is pictured at a gorilla orphan centre in eastern Congo. A quarter of the world's mammals are at risk of extinction, according to a new report. Source: AP

MORE than 400 plants and animals were added to a "Red List" of species at risk of extinction, raising the alarm as more than 70 environment ministers met for a global conference.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) updated its authoritative and widely referenced list monitoring biodiversity on Earth and said a total of 20,219 species were now at risk of dying out.

The report showed that 83 per cent of Madagascar's 192 palm species, which the poor rely on heavily for food and housing construction, are now at risk of extinction.

New additions to the threatened list include the large Egyptian dab lizard and the Sichuan Taimen, a fish species endemic to China.

Two invertebrates, a cockroach from the Seychelles and a freshwater snail called Little Flat-Top found in the US state of Alabama, have moved into the extinct category since the last update of the bi-annual survey in June.

"The figures are going up," IUCN global director for biodiversity conservation Jane Smart told journalists in Hyderabad, southern India, where the UN Convention on Biological Diversity conference is taking place.

A quarter of the world's mammals, 13 per cent of birds, 41 per cent of amphibians and 33 per cent of reef-building corals are at risk of extinction, said the report released at the conference.

More than 70 environment ministers met at the start of high-level talks on halting the depletion of Earth's natural resources, with pressure for them to put up money to match their political pledges.

The gathering comes two years after UN countries approved a 20-point plan at a conference in Japan for reversing the worrying decline in plant and animal species that humans depend on for food, shelter and livelihoods.

Experts says as much as $US440 billion ($429 billion) per year would be needed to meet the targets for turning back biodiversity loss by 2020.

"The cost of inaction is something that people have only just begun to appreciate," warned UN Environment Program executive director Achim Steiner.

"When you run out of water, when you run out of arable land... and your rivers run dry, when your lakes silt up, when your fisheries collapse, then it is often too late to start talking about the value of biodiversity ecosystems."

The three-day ministers' meeting from Wednesday to Friday comes at the end of two weeks of negotiations by senior officials from 184 parties to the conference - talks that delegates say have become stuck on the question of financing.

The last CBD conference in Japan set a series of targets for 2020, which include halving the rate of habitat loss, expanding water and land areas under conservation, preventing the extinction of species on the threatened list, and restoring at least 15 percent of degraded ecosystems.

Environmental economist Pavan Sukhdev said that an expert panel advising negotiators had concluded that between $US150 billion-$US440 billion would be needed annually to meet these goals, dubbed the Aichi biodiversity targets.

Current conservation spending is estimated at about $US10 billion per year, with some delegates in Hyderabad noting that donor funding for conservation, particularly from European countries, is at risk at a time of economic austerity.

"The critical issue really is how to mobilise the necessary financial, technical and human resources," Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told the gathering yesterday.

The convention, to which 193 countries are signatories, marks its 20th anniversary this year.

In that time, it has already missed one key deadline when it failed to meet the target set to halt biodiversity loss by 2010.

"Obviously to some extent a financial crisis in many of the traditional donor countries is playing into the negotiations," said Mr Steiner told AFP of the Hyderabad talks. 

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McJordan BBQ sauce sells for $10,000

A former McDonald's restaurant owner has sold a bottle of McJordan sauce from the 1990s Michael Jordan Burger on eBay for almost $10,000. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

A MAN who used to own McDonald's restaurants in North Dakota is about $US10,000 richer after selling a 20-year-old container of McJordan barbecue sauce to a buyer in Chicago.

The sauce was used on McJordan Burgers, named for basketball icon Michael Jordan.

The promotional item was sold in limited markets for a short time in the 1990s, when Jordan led the Chicago Bulls to six NBA championships.

Mort Bank, of Bismarck, saved the gallon jug of sauce after selling his McDonald's restaurants in Bismarck-Mandan and Minot in 1996.

"It was in my basement and I would look at it occasionally," he told The Bismarck Tribune. "I thought it would be worth something someday."

Mr Bank advertised the sauce on eBay, saying: "A once in a lifetime chance to own the rarest of rare Michael Jordan and McDonald's collectible!" It sold for $US9995 ($9734) to a buyer from Chicago whom Mr Bank has not identified.

Mr Bank told the Chicago Tribune that the buyer was not Jordan himself. Jordan opened a steakhouse in Chicago last year.

"I'm sure he's a Bulls or Michael Jordan fan, and hopefully he's not going to put it on his ribs or his burger," Mr Bank told KXMB-TV of the buyer.

"But it's up to him; he can do whatever he wants with it."

Mr Bank said he has at least three storage units full of McDonald's memorabilia and other collector's items that he has been selling on eBay for three years. He has sold items to buyers as far away as China, Japan, Brazil and Europe, though never for as much money as the sauce garnered.

"I'm pretty ecstatic," he told the Bismarck Tribune. "You never know what is going to be a hot item."

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Woman beheaded for refusing prostitution

Najibullah, pictured centre, says Mah Gul's mother-in-law lured him into killing her by telling him that she was a prostitute.  Source: AFP

AFGHAN police have arrested four people who allegedly tried to force a woman into prostitution in western Afghanistan and beheaded her when she refused, officials say.

Mah Gul, 20, was beheaded after her mother-in-law attempted to make her sleep with a man in her house in Herat province last week, provincial police chief Abdul Ghafar Sayedzada told AFP.

"We have arrested her mother-in-law, father-in-law, her husband and the man who killed her," he said.

Gul was married to her husband four months ago and her mother-in-law had tried to force her into prostitution several times in the past, Mr Sayedzada said.

The suspect, Najibullah, was paraded by police at a press conference where he said the mother-in-law lured him into killing Gul by telling him that she was a prostitute.

"It was around 2:00 am when Gul's husband left for his bakery. I came down and with the help of her mother-in-law killed her with a knife," he said.

The murder comes against a backdrop of a world outcry over the shooting by Taliban Islamists of a 14-year-old Pakistani girl, Malala Yousafzai, who had become a voice against the suppression of women's rights.

While Yousafzai's case has made world headlines, people using social media in Afghanistan have made the point that oppression and violence against women are commonplace in Afghanistan.

Abdul Qader Rahimi, the regional director of the government-backed human rights commission in western Afghanistan, said violence against women had dramatically increased in the region recently.

"There is no doubt violence against women has increased. So far this year we have registered 100 cases of violence against women in the western region," he said, adding that many cases go unreported.

"But at least in Gul's case, we are glad the murderer has been arrested and brought to justice," he said.

Last year, in a case that made international headlines, police rescued a teenage girl, Sahar Gul, who was beaten and locked up in a toilet for five months after she defied her in-laws who tried to force her into prostitution.

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Worst grape harvest in half century

European vineyards have been hit hard by bad weather, leading to the worst wine harvest in decades. Picture: AP Source: AP

DROUGHT, frost and hail have combined to ravage Europe's wine grape harvest, which in key regions this year will be the smallest in half a century, vintners say.

Thierry Coste, an expert with the European Union farmers' union, said that France's grape harvest is expected to slump by almost 20 per cent compared with last year. Italy's grape crop showed a 7 per cent drop - on top of a decline in 2011.

"Two big producing nations, France and Italy, have not known a harvest so weak in 40 to 50 years," Mr Coste said. "All the major producing nations have been hurt."

France's Champagne and Burgundy regions were hard hit by weather conditions that particularly affected the prevalent Chardonnay grape, used to make the world's most famous sparkling wine and the luxurious whites from those regions.

In places where vintners were already facing a small margin of profit, many could be facing survival problems, said Mr Coste of the Copa-Cogeca union.

"In certain regions, there will be many vintners in big difficulties because of the collapse of the harvest," he said.

The European wine harvest automatically has a global impact since it accounts for some 62 per cent of the worldwide wine production.

In Europe, about 2.5 million families live off the wine sector. It makes the dependency on the vagaries of weather a sometimes cruel business.

Drought hit the Mediterranean rim hard this year, Mr Coste said. As a cooperative leader in southern France's Herault region, he should know.

"First and foremost, climate change or not, we see that we have ever more dry spells," he said. Making matters worse is that even winter was dry this time.

"It was almost zero (degrees Celsius) in the south."

In the northern wine regions, it was the inverse, with cold and wet weather wreaking havoc. Hail in particular hurt the crops.

"Natural phenomena happened all at the same time to make sure the harvest is so small," Mr Coste said.

French figures show that in Champagne the harvest could decline by 40 per cent, with Bourgogne Beaujolais expected to decline 30 per cent. Bordeaux would get away lightly with a drop of 10 per cent.

Mr Coste said there may be an upside to the bad harvest - it is not a bitter one when it comes to taste. The quality of the wine produced will be good as it is expected to be more concentrated.

"When it comes to quality, we are looking at a good year," Mr Coste said.

While some price increases were on the cards, Mr Coste hoped they could be contained.

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