No smoking !

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President-elect Barack Obama failed to give a straight answer when asked on a U.S. talkshow on Sunday whether he had managed to quit smoking.

In a country where cigarettes are responsible for one in five deaths and smoking costs tens of billions of dollars in health care, Obama has been under pressure to set an example by giving up his reported two-decade-old habit.

Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press" program, interviewer Tom Brokaw told Obama he had ducked answering the question during an interview last month with ABC's Barbara Walters.

Noting that the White House was a no-smoking zone, Brokaw asked Obama, "Have you stopped smoking?"

"I have," Obama replied, smiling broadly. "What I said was that there are times where I have fallen off the wagon."

"Wait a minute," Brokaw interjected, "that means you haven't stopped."

South Africa Wins Dubai Sevens Title

South Africa overcame England in a dramatic final to win the Dubai Sevens 19-12 and get their 2008/09 IRB Sevens World Series campaign off to the perfect start.

The Boks travel home to George for the South Africa Sevens next weekend brimming with confidence as they attempt to win their home event for the first time.

They hold an early four-point lead over England in the World Series, with New Zealand and Fiji a further four behind, having lost their respective semi-finals.

Robert Ebersohn opened the scoring for the Boks, in the first-half and Mpho Mbiyozo stretched the lead to 12-0 at the break.

Tom Biggs hit back for the English as they exerted pressure and teenager Micky Young scored and converted a second try to bring the scores level with three minutes remaining.

With less than a minute on the clock England worked a line-out in an attacking position and span the ball out to danger man Tom Biggs, but Gio Aplon tackled him and from the resulting ruck sprinted 80 metres before unselfishly passing inside to Ryno Benjamin, who scored under the posts.

Mzwandile Stick converted the drop goal, as he had done crucially to win their semi-final, before the final whistle brought an end to the tournament.

For England captain Ollie Phillips was inspirational to earlier fire his side to a superb semi-final win against New Zealand. Ben Ryan's men stormed the Kiwis in the first-half, at the end of which they led 21-0, but the Kiwis hit back with three tries of their own.

Crucially, though, Tomasi Cama failed to convert Nafi Tuitavake's try wide out on the right-hand touchline and although Solomon King's try was converted on the stroke of full-time there was no time for another Kiwi restart.

The second semi-final was tighter throughout, and Mzwandile Stick was left a tough conversion to tie the match at 7-7 on full-time. He did so, and then struck the ball beautifully from the half-way line to secure a sudden death extra-time win.

Samoa beat Kenya to the Plate

THE WORLDS OLDEST PERSON DIES

SHELBYVILLE, Ind. – Edna Parker, who became the world's oldest person more than a year ago, has died at age 115.

UCLA gerontologist Dr. Stephen Coles said Parker's great-nephew notified him that Parker died Wednesday at a nursing home in Shelbyville. She was 115 years, 220 days old, said Robert Young, a senior consultant for gerontology for Guinness World Records.

Parker was born April 20, 1893, in central Indiana's Morgan County and had been recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest person since the 2007 death in Japan of Yone Minagawa, who was four months her senior.

Coles maintains a list of the world's oldest people and said Parker was the 14th oldest validated supercentenarian in history. Maria de Jesus of Portugal, who was born Sept. 10, 1893, is now the world's oldest living person, according to the Gerontology Research Group.

Parker had been a widow since her husband, Earl Parker, died in 1939 of a heart attack. She lived alone in their farmhouse until age 100, when she moved into a son's home and later to the Shelbyville nursing home.

Although she never drank alcohol or tried tobacco and led an active life, Parker didn't offer tips for living a long life.

A former anti-graft chief who fled to Britain after blowing the whistle on one of Kenya's biggest scandals said on Wednesday after returning home that the government should consider offering amnesty for economic crimes.

John Githongo, who fled Kenya more than three years ago fearing for his life, said he had no apologies for revealing a case that forced several ministers to resign.

His return this week was an endorsement of steps taken to address a variety of graft-related issues by a coalition government that was created in April to end a bloody post-election crisis that rocked East Africa's biggest economy.

Githongo had quit his job as Kenya's first anti-corruption adviser in 2005 and then leaked documents unveiling the so-called "Anglo Leasing" scam in which state contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars were awarded to phantom firms.

"I admit that I have some unfinished business, like Anglo Leasing," he told a human rights meeting in the capital Nairobi, which he attended after an invitation from Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Vice-President Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka.

He said the affair had loomed over politics ever since.

"I acknowledge that what I set into motion in regard to corruption lives to this day, and I make no apologies for it," he said.

While in exile in the UK, Githongo became an academic at an Oxford University college and vice-president of relief agency World Vision. He has said he is back for a short visit only and that the country remained in a fragile state after violence that killed 1,500 people.

"The grand coalition cannot be seen as more than what it is, a temporary instrument, a lid that covers a range of unresolved issues," Githongo said.

ECONOMIC AMNESTY

Githongo suggested the new government should consider offering amnesty to people who had committed economic crimes.

"I would like to make a case, no matter how unpalatable it is and however distasteful it may appear, (that) there is a need in this country for an amnesty for economic crimes," he said.

The amnesty, he said, would only be for those willing to make due redress and restitution to the people of Kenya after an open acknowledgement that they had swindled them.

Anglo Leasing and the Goldenberg affair -- which cost the nation at least $1 billion -- were Kenya's biggest scandals.

More recently, former finance minister Amos Kimunya was forced to step down from his position over his alleged role in the secret sale of a luxury hotel to Libyan investors.

The government has formed commissions of inquiry into the three scams, but Githongo was sceptical of their success.

"Commissions of inquiry not only delay justice but make ultimate accountability less likely," he said.

Faked opening ceremony fireworks

If you watched the Opening Ceremony on Friday night, chances are you said something like, "no way that's possible" at least once. It turns out you were right.

London's Telegraph newspaper reports that some of the fireworks which appeared over Beijing during the television broadcast of the Olympic Opening Ceremony were actually computer generated. But -- hold on -- it's not necessarily as bad as you think.

The faked fireworks were actually set-off at the stadium, but because of potential dangers in filming the display live from a helicopter, viewers at home were shown a pre-recorded, computer-generated shot. It sounds dishonest, but I'm not sure it's such a terrible thing.

The Opening Ceremony is, at its core, just one big performance. And isn't it accepted that some things might not be legit at a performance? The final torch bearer wasn't actually running around the top of the stadium, does the fact that everyone could figure that out make it any less impressive? It might have been unnecessarily deceptive, but the firework-faking isn't really that big of a deal. But, if I found out that the lighted-drum thing wasn't on the up and up, then we'll have problems,

Obama calls for use of alternate energy sources

Barack Obama on Monday called for tapping into strategic oil reserves as part of his plan to provide relief from high gas prices.

Barack Obama is going to Michigan on Monday where he'll unveil his energy plan.

Speaking before a crowd in Lansing, Michigan, the senator from Illinois called the country's addiction to oil "one of the most dangerous and urgent threats this nation has ever faced."

Obama unveiled his energy plan, which includes a windfall profits tax on big oil corporations that would be used to provide a $1,000 rebate to people struggling with high energy costs.

The Democratic presidential candidate also wants to create 5 million "green" jobs and eliminate the need for oil from the Middle East within 10 years.

"You won't hear me say this too often, but I couldn't agree more with the explanation that Sen. McCain offered a few weeks ago. He said, 'Our dangerous dependence on foreign oil has been 30 years in the making, and was caused by the failure of politicians in Washington to think long-term about the future of the country,' " Obama said.

"What Sen. McCain neglected to mention was that during those 30 years, he was in Washington for 26 of them. And in all that time, he did little to reduce our dependence on foreign oil," Obama said.

Obama's call for tapping into strategic oil reserves is an apparent policy shift.

"Sen. Obama has looked at this issue, he recognizes that Americans are suffering, that we have a unique situation with rising gas prices and this is one occasion where we need to look at this strategically and he made the decision that we need to tap the strategic petroleum reserves," Obama's energy policy director, Heather Zichal, said in a conference call with reporters Monday.

Sir Elton John the "ice cream" man

Sir Elton John has become the unlikely muse for American ice cream supremos Ben & Jerry's.

The Vermont company has launched a limited edition flavour to honour the star's first show in its home state and raise money for his Aids foundation.

Based on one of his most popular song titles, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, the ice cream is made from chocolate ice cream, peanut butter cookie dough, butter brickle and white chocolate chunks.

The singer said: "I've never been a flavour before, I've never been edible before... I've had an amazing life, but being an ice cream is pretty hard to beat, I think."

Ben & Jerry's will offer Goodbye Yellow Brickle Road for a week at his gig at the Champlain Valley Expo Center in Essex Junction, Vermont.

The company will donate all profits from the sale to the non-profit Elton John Aids Foundation.