A Sydney youth who created an uproar with an online game based on the Virginia Tech massacre, says he will remove the game if he receives $2000 in "donations".

Add another $1000 and he promises to apologize.

The game, called V-Tech Rampage, offers "three levels of stealth and murder" and is set on a facsimile of the Virginia Tech campus.

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The game features a gun-toting character based on Cho, the dormitory where the killing spree started, the post office where he sent his manifesto to a TV network and Norris Hall, the building where most of the murders took place.

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V-Tech Rampage is the work of 21-year-old Ryan Lambourn from western Sydney who goes by the screen name, Master PiGPEN.

"I've done offensive things before but they're not usually this popular," Lamourn said, adding that he made the game "because it's funny".

Lambourn, who grew up in the US, said his friends suggested putting up the ransom demand which he thought was "a hilarious idea".

Once shots are fired, the other characters start running around with their hands in the air screaming.

The game starts with the gunman in his room. The text on the screen says: "Locked and loaded, it's party time. I just gotta make sure no one sees me or lives to tell the tale."

In another frame, the following words appear: "The pawns are all in place, the time has come that I may finally send my message to the world."

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (Reuters) - A convicted murderer put to death in Tennessee this week got his last meal wish after he died.

Philip Workman had turned down the usual final meal of his choice traditionally offered the condemned, asking instead that a vegetarian pizza be given to a homeless person.

Prison officials refused to send out a pizza and Workman died Wednesday by lethal injection.

But news accounts of his request touched a nerve with the public.

Nashville's Union Rescue Mission received 170 pizzas. Media reports said listeners to a radio station in Minnesota also ordered pizzas sent to another organization for troubled youngsters.

US hospitals charge uninsured, self-paying patients more than twice the amount they receive for insured patients, according to a new study on health policy.

Study author Gerard Anderson of the Center for Hospital Finance and management at Johns Hopkins University said that on average, patients that have to pay for their own care in the United States get charged 2.5 times what insurers are billed for their customers for the same care in hospitals.

"The markup on hospital care for these individuals, especially for those who can afford it least, is unjustifiable," Anderson said in a statement summarizing his research.

The hospitals also charged those patients an average of three times the allowed costs for the same services set by the government-run Medicare health insurance program available mainly to elderly people.

For-profit hospitals were the worst offenders, on average marking up a 100 dollar Medicare-set cost to 410 dollars for someone not using insurance to pay for the service.

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Anderson argues that the US needs to either provide health insurance to uninsured people to overcome the problem, or for hospitals to charge the same rate for everyone.

"Hospitals should do the right thing and lower the prices they charge the uninsured," he said.

Following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the U.S., it was right, Blair said, to "stand shoulder to shoulder with our oldest ally, and I did so out of belief."

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In a short, almost apologetic speech, Blair added: "I may have been wrong. That's your call."

Three retired generals challenged a dozen members of Congress in a new ad campaign [by VoteVets.org] Wednesday, saying the politicians can't support President Bush's policies in Iraq and still expect to win re-election.

"I am outraged, as are the majority of Americans. I'm a lifelong Republican, but it's past time for change," retired Maj. Gen. John Batiste told reporters.

"Our strategy in Iraq today is more of the same, a slow grind to nowhere which totally ignores the reality of Iraq and the lessons of history," Batiste said. "Our president ignores sound military advice and surrounds himself with like-minded and compliant subordinates."

On Friday, May 4, John Edwards returned to New Orleans to talk about his plans for ending poverty in America, and to roll up his sleeves to help those in need today.

This month, John's asking all of us to do the same. We've put together a simple, powerful plan to combat the worst effects of poverty in our communities today while building the support we need to end poverty in America tomorrow, and we need you to take the lead.

Please sign up to host an event on Saturday, May 19th. All you have to do is set up a table outside of a supermarket to collect food goods for a local food bank, pass out information about the Edwards plan to end poverty, and sign up people who want to join the cause.

Months after a politically embarrassing $1 billion shortfall that put veterans' health care in peril, Veterans Affairs officials involved in the foul-up got hefty bonuses ranging up to $33,000.

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Among those receiving payments were a deputy assistant secretary and several regional directors who crafted the VA's flawed budget for 2005 based on misleading accounting. They received performance payments up to $33,000 each, a figure equal to about 20 percent of their annual salaries.

Also receiving a top bonus was the deputy undersecretary for benefits, who helps manage a disability claims system that has a backlog of cases and delays averaging 177 days in getting benefits to injured veterans.

The bonuses were awarded even after government investigators had determined the VA repeatedly miscalculated - if not deliberately misled taxpayers - with questionable methods used to justify Bush administration cuts to health care amid a burgeoning Iraq war.

The case highlights the struggle between campaigns' desire to control their message versus the power of voter-generated material. And it shows how one person …quot; in this case Los Angeles paralegal Joe Anthony [a one-time supporter who started the Obama MySpace page] …quot; can become an influence on presidential politics through the power of the Internet.

Anthony felt he was mistreated by the campaign after he spent the past 2 1/2 years running the MySpace page as an enthusiastic volunteer. At first, that arrangement was fine with the Obama team, which worked with Anthony on the content, promoted the link and even had the password to make changes.

But as the site exploded in popularity in recent months, the campaign became concerned about an outsider controlling the content and responses going out under Obama's name. It told Anthony it wanted him to turn it over.

Anthony wrote on his MySpace blog that he was heartbroken that the Obama campaign was "bullying" him out of the page he built.

What's a better purchase than an adorable new friend from a pet store? Just about anything! In many people's minds, pet shops are fun places, full of adorable animals romping and playing while patiently awaiting their "forever home."

But the reality of life in a pet shop is far different. That "doggie in the window" likely came from a puppy mill, where dogs are often bred repeatedly; kept in small, barren cages; and treated solely as merchandise, not as feeling beings. Life for dogs …quot; and other animals …quot; in pet shops is no better. Serious welfare problems abound when animals are kept in retail environments.

Hundreds of thousands of dogs suffer in puppy mills in this country. The dogs are prisoners of greed. They are locked in small cages. They freeze in the winter and swelter in the summer. The dogs never get out of their prisons. They are bred over and over again until they die. The only way to free them from the misery of these horrid puppymills is to eliminate the demand for puppies by refusing to buy a puppy in a pet store and boycotting those pet stores that sell puppies. When people stop buying puppies in pet stores, the puppy mills will go out of business and the misery will end. The state and federal governments do not enforce the laws to protect the dogs. The commercial breeders and brokers have huge well-funded lobbying efforts.

Please join this fight to free the prisoners of greed. The only person who is going to make a difference for the dogs suffering in puppy mills is you. You, the people, can free them from their puppy mill prisons.

One of the most effective ways to advocate on behalf of animals is to become involved in the political process.
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API participates in the public policy process at the local, state, national level, and international level - and we can show you how to do it too. We need everyone who cares about animals and their treatment to help by calling, writing, and visiting their public officials. You don't need to be a voter to express your concerns; anyone, no matter what your age, can do something. It can take as little as a minute and can make a big difference. If you're an Activist, or want to become one, we can help.

There are cats all around us. But just because a cat lives outside doesn't mean she is homeless. These alley cats, barn cats, or street cats - feral cats - are undomesticated and unsocialized, and call the outside their home, just as squirrels, raccoons, and birds do. Feral cats live together in colonies, and unless spayed or neutered, their numbers grow. Tomcats prowl for mates, females become pregnant, and the cycle of reproduction continues.
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We want everyone to know the truth about feral cats and Trap, Neuter, and Return or TNR. This sensible method of population control returns spayed and neutered cats to their outdoor homes, improves their lives and health, and brings their numbers down.