World Observer

Australian prime minister frightened and unable to celebrate 'Australia day'

2012-01-30T16:38:00.000-08:00

Julia Gillard is bustled away from angry crowd of protesters Link to this video

The Australian prime minister, Julia Gillard, stumbled and was caught by a security guard as riot police helped her force a path through a crowd of rowdy protesters following a ceremony to mark Australia Day.

About 200 supporters of indigenous rights surrounded a Canberra restaurant and banged its windows on Thursday while Gillard and the opposition leader, Tony Abbott, were inside officiating at an awards ceremony.

About 50 police escorted the political leaders from a side door to a car. Gillard stumbled, losing a shoe. Her personal security guard wrapped his arms around her and supported her to the waiting car, shielding her from the angry crowd.

The protesters had been demonstrating for indigenous rights nearby at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, a collection of tents and temporary shelters on the lawn of Old Parliament House in the national capital that has become a focus for protests against Australia Day.

Australia Day marks the arrival of the first fleet of British colonists and convicts in Sydney on 26 January 1788 – called "invasion day" by many Aborigines.

Abbott appeared to be the target of protesters, who chanted "shame" and "racist" outside the restaurant.

The Tent Embassy celebrated its 40th anniversary on Thursday and Abbott has angered indigenous activists by saying it is time the encampment "moved on".

How Cell Phones are Causing Health Complications, Protect Yourself

2012-01-29T03:20:00.001-08:00

Andre Evans
NaturalSociety
January 26, 2012

Experts in EMF and wireless technologies are saying that cell phones and similar devices are capable of causing a number of health defects, including depression, body irregularities, infertility and even damaging your DNA.

How Cell Phones are Causing Health Complications, Protect Yourself

A number of foreign countries are attempting to adopt precautionary protocols to limit cell phone use in an attempt to mitigate the number of adverse effects they have on human health. In 2011, the WHO/IARC released a report stating that cell phone radiation may have a carcinogenic effecton humans. In fact, the World Health Organization actually said that cell phones are in the samecancer-causing category as lead, engine exhaust, and chloroform.

Though known, there is a growing contingent of researchers and scientists coming to terms with the fact that cell phone radiation is having a large effect on human health, causing physical deterioration, mental disorders and infertility.

The nature of our society in this day and age leaves little breathing room, however. In a country where cell phone subscriptions actuallyoutnumber the amount of people, you are basically guaranteed to be exposed to cellphone microwaveswhenever you enter a social setting. People rationalize that it’s a ‘necessary evil’, and it may be, but the acceptance leads to increased health risk overall. It is for this reason that we recognize the issues and develop a wide-scale solution.

Studies on cellphones indicate that the brain is highly affected by any level of exposure, altering its normal function and causing mental disorders. Younger people are more susceptible to damage from cellphone radiation because their bodies are still underdeveloped.

Research also shows its carcinogenic effect on the body can produce metabolism problems, affect organs, and cause cancer. These devices are also having an impact on our ecosystem, causing the bee population to become confused, disoriented, and soon die from the signals emitted.

Taking steps to avoid exposure to cellphone radiation is important, but it is very hard to completely eliminate the radiation. Simply by talking on your cell phone less will result in less radiation exposure. Even placing your cell phone far away from you instead of in your pocket at all times limits exposure. Although it is a small amount, it is a very simple solution. Another solution for limiting exposure would be to invest in an EMF protector or other similar and very available technologies that reduce exposure.

Web economy in G20 set to double by 2016, Google says

2012-01-29T03:18:00.001-08:00

More and more people are accessing the internet via mobile devices

Davos 2012

The value of the web economy in G20 countries will nearly double by 2016, according to Boston Consulting Group.

Driving the spurt from $2.3tn (£1.5tn) to $4.2tn (£2.7tn) will be the rapid rise of mobile internet access.

The study, supported by web giant Google, assumes that in four years 3bn people will be using the internet, or nearly 50% of the world's population.

The research suggests that the UK is one of the most advanced e-commerce economies.

Right now, every year about 200 million people are going online for the very first time.

However, traditional internet access via a copper wire and a desktop PC will fade into the background.

The rapid fall in the cost of smartphones - with cheap versions now costing about $100 - means that by 2016 about 80% of all internet users will access the web using a mobile phone.

The research does not even account for web access using so-called feature phones.

The 'new' internet

These numbers look impressive, but they are still just a fraction of the global economy.

“Start Quote

We don't fill empty holes on websites any more, we engage customers”

Michael LazerowChief executive of Buddymedia

The search for e-commerce 3.0

In 2010, the internet economy in the G20 group of leading nations was worth $2.3tn - larger than the economies of Italy or Brazil, but a mere 4.1% of the total size of all G20 economies.

The Boston Consulting Group researchers speak of the emergence of a "new internet" where:

web access will not be a luxury any more

the majority of web users will live in emerging markets (within four years, China is expected to be home to 800 million people using the internet; that is more than the United States, India, France, Germany and the UK taken together)

about 80% of all internet users will access the web from a mobile

the internet will go social, and allow customers and companies to engage with each other

This trend will be coupled with another huge technology shift that will fundamentally change the nature of how to run a business - the rise of the so-called "internet of things", where all kinds of devices from sensors to cars to radiators will be connected to the web.

“Start Quote

Understanding the economic potential of the web should be an urgent priority for leaders”

Patrick PichetteGoogle chief financial officer

Technology giant IBM estimates that by 2015, one trillion devices will be internet-connected.

Online is also reaching into the offline world. The BCG researchers say that every household already researches about $3,000 worth of goods online before buying them in traditional stores.

Digital, the researchers say, cannot be an add-on. Businesses have to adapt their people, processes and structures for the digital economy.

Paul Zwillenberg of BCG says that entrepreneurs building a digital business are outperforming rivals who do not embrace the web economy.

However, what the research fails to capture is the balance of employment between new, more efficient digital companies and old-style businesses.

The winners

Google, who supported the research, is obviously one of the companies set to gain most from the rapid growth of the internet.

"Understanding the economic potential of the web should be an urgent priority for leaders... [with] a powerful case for countries and companies to get online and reap the rewards of an age of data," Patrick Pichette, Google's chief financial officer, says.

However, the report suggests that Google will not be the only winner.

The researchers identify several "internet ecosystems" that will try to tie users in to their customised part of the internet, among them Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Baidu and Tencent in China and Yandex in Russia.

What is digital?

A problem with BCG's research is obviously that it is difficult to define what is actually part of the digital economy.

"During the research we discovered very quickly that there is no approved way of measuring the internet economy," says David Dean, a managing director at BCG.

Official statistics simply do not capture the sideways move of old technologies into the digital world, for example when a widget maker starts upgrading its devices so that they can be hooked up to the internet.

But if the report's predictions are correct, then speaking of a "web economy" will soon sound about as comical as speaking of an "electricity economy".

David Dean believes that the G20 countries could reach this moment as early as 2020.

The Disease Machine: Why Drug Makers Keep You Sick

2012-01-29T01:59:00.000-08:00

Why are ineffective and dangerous drugs peddled by supposed ‘public health’ organizations in place of well-established natural solutions with virtually zero side effects? The truth of the matter is that drug makers simply would not profit if the world were to awaken to the plethora of free health-promoting substances that beat out over-priced pharmaceuticals and medical interventions. There would be no need for pharmaceutical manufacturers, phony ‘public health’ organizations peddling the latest ‘miracle’ drug, and certainly no research organizations feeding off the donations of good-hearted individuals.

You may think that this is an impossibility and that natural solutions simply do not compare to ‘scientifically proven’ pharmaceutical science. The truth of the matter is that scientific evidence is the very thing disproving the safety and effectiveness of pharmaceutical drugs as well as highlighting the surplus of beneficial properties associated with inexpensive and free vital nutrients.

Contrast: Cancer Drugs Causing ‘Mega’ Tumors, Turmeric Reduces Tumors by 81%

It was recently revealed that cancer drugs, toted as the only choice among chemotherapy for many cancer sufferers by ‘public health’ groups, are actually causing massive tumors and subsequently killing the patient. The cancer drugs were found to not only be completely ineffective, but deadly. These are the same drugs that are sold for a premium price and considered to be scientifically validated.

Meanwhile, peer-reviewed research has found that a spice known as turmeric can reduce tumors by 81% naturally. Researchers found that curcumin (a derivative of turmeruc)dramatically decreased brain tumors in 9 out of the 11 studies examined by 81 percent. Furthermore, there was no evidence of toxicity. Widely used as a spice in South Asian and Middle Eastern countries, turmeric is continually being pinpointed as an extremely potent anti-cancer solution. What’s more is the fact that turmeric is extremely inexpensive, and can be found around the globe — from Saudi Arabia to Kentucky.

This is just one example of scientific research validating natural alternatives while simultaneously pinpointing the extreme dangers associated with mainstream pharmaceuticals pushed as the onlytreatment by drug companies.

Antibiotics Causing Mental Illness, Drug Makers Treat With Antipsychotics

As reported back in 2011, antibiotics have been found to permanently destroy beneficial gut bacteria and damage gut health. As you may know, gut health has been directly linked to the state of your mental health, with some even going as far as saying that your gut is your ‘second brain’. What this means is that antibiotic use can actually breed mental illness (along withdiabetes and metabolic syndrome), which is quite concerning when considering that half of all Americans are to be diagnosed with a mental illness within their life time.

What is the answer to these skyrocketing mental illness rates according to drug makers and the mainstream medical industry? Prescribe mind-altering antipsychotics. Prescribe more drugs to treat a side effect of another drug — receive more profits. After all, the extreme profits generated from antipsychotic drugs became apparent in 2008, becoming the top-selling therapeutic class prescription drug in the United States and grossing over $14 billion in sales.

Of course these antipsychotics are given out to patients instead of actually addressing the core problem associated with gut health. As a result, the patient simply is under the influence of brain-altering effects and never really ‘recovers’ from their mental illness. Instead, they are sentenced to a lifetime of prescription drug usage with the possibility of reduced dosage over time. To truly address the issue of gut health, it is vital to utilize probiotics to restore the depleted beneficial bacteria back into your gut.

This can easily be done through natural foods or high quality supplementation. Fermented food items such as sauerkraut, tempeh, miso or kefir are all rich sources of probiotic bacteria. But the drug makers would never willingly tell you that, because all of these foods can be found for a few dollars at your local farmers market and can work more effectively to recover mental health than dangerous antipsychotics.

Paradigm Shift

Drug makers want you to remain sick, tired, and looking for pharmaceutical solutions. In order to see a transformation, natural solutions need to be brought into the spotlight. As a result, drug sales will plummet and these profit-mongering corporations will begin to go bankrupt after spending millions on the latest cancer drug that turns out to actually be deadlier than the disease itself.

A real paradigm shift is coming — the gears of the disease machine are slowing to a halt.

Liam Neeson considers converting to Islam following trip to Istanbul

2012-01-25T15:45:00.000-08:00

'It really makes me think about becoming a Muslim': Liam Neeson considers converting to Islam following trip to Istanbul
Last updated at 8:44 PM on 25th January 2012

He may have been named after the local priest in his Irish hometown but Liam Neeson could be leaving his Roman Catholic beliefs behind.

The 59-year-old actor is said to be considering converting to Islam following a working trip to Istanbul.

According to The Sun, Neeson admitted that Islamic prayer 'got into his spirit' while he was filming in Turkey.

A different faith: Liam Neeson, pictured here on the Late Night With Jimmy Fallon Show this month, is reportedly considering converting to Islam

'The call to prayer happens five times a day, and for the first week, it drives you crazy, and then it just gets into your spirit, and it's the most beautiful, beautiful thing,' he said.

'There are 4,000 mosques in the city. Some are just stunning, and it really makes me think about becoming a Muslim.'

Neeson was raised in Northern Ireland as a devout Roman Catholic due to his parents beliefs.

'The most beautiful thing': The actor learned a lot more about the religion after he spent time filming in Istanbul

However, the Taken star has recently spoken about his opinion towards religion.

'I was reared a Catholic, but I think every day we ask ourselves, not consciously, what are we doing on this planet? What's it all about?' he said.

'I'm constantly reading books on God or the absence of God and atheism.'

Working hard: Neeson is currently filming the sequel to hit film Taken and another one of his films The Grey is released this Friday

The actor was criticised in 2010 after claiming The Chronicles Of Narnia lion, Aslan, who he provided the voice for in the film, was not based on Christ as CS Lewis had claimed but in fact all spiritual leaders including Mohammed.

Neeson's latest film The Grey will be released in the UK this Friday.

It was maternal, not political, says Italian MEP who took her baby to work

2012-01-19T13:37:00.000-08:00

Licia Ronzulli hopes photographs published worldwide will draw attention to difficulties faced by working mothers

Italian MEP Licia Ronzulli takes part in a vote as she cradles her baby at the European parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday. Photograph: Sipa Press / Rex Features

When Licia Ronzulli took her seven-week-old baby to work at the European parliament this week, she did not realise what a stir she would cause. Photographs of Ronzulli cradling her daughter, Vittoria, in a sling as she voted on proposals to improve women's employment rights were broadcast around the world and published in newspapers from the US to Vietnam.

The Italian MEP has been inundated with requests for interviews ever since, and is left wondering what to do with the political energy generated by her act.

Ronzulli, a member of Silvio Berlusconi's Il Popolo della Libertà party and a family friend of the Italian leader, said she hoped to draw attention to the difficulties experienced by working mothers.

"It's bizarre," she said. "We've been doing a lot, a lot of work in the European parliament and there was no interest in the press. Then I come with my baby and everybody wants to interview me.

"It was not a political gesture. It was first of all a maternal gesture – that I wanted to stay with my daughter as much as possible, and to remind people that there are women who do not have this opportunity [to bring their children to work], that we should do something to talk about this."

Encouraged by the support she received from all parties, Ronzulli, 35, has called a meeting of like-minded parliamentarians next week to discuss ways to improve the lives of working mothers.

"We will do something with all the political parties together," she said. "We will discuss some kind of directive or proposal. Maybe we will make an appeal to the European commission, with all the political parties together our message will be all the more strong."

Ronzulli does not plan to bring Vittoria on a regular basis and said she would leave if her child began to cry: "It's an official meeting, it's not a creche. You can't have everybody coming in with children who might cry or who might want to play … I'll come when it's possible. If I can bring her, I will. If it's not appropriate, then I won't."

She offered support to the French MEP Rachida Dati, who was criticised for returning to work five days after giving birth, saying it was a personal choice. Ronzulli said individual mothers should be able to stay at home or to go back to work.

"It's a very personal choice. A woman should be free to choose to come back after 48 hours. But if she wants to stay at home for six months, or a year, we should create the conditions to make that possible," she said. "I came back to work after one month. But I am not an example to follow. Everyone must decide for themselves."

Despite all the attention, this is not the first time the EU assembly has been graced with young guests. In the previous legislature Danish MEP Hanne Dahl took her baby into the chamber once – and into the weekly meetings of the conference of presidents, the male-dominated club of the parliament's political chiefs, several times. The German MEP Hiltrud Breyer breast-fed regularly at meetings of the environment committee.

Muhammad Ali at 70: Bill Clinton hails Ali's worldwide impact

2012-01-17T13:58:00.001-08:00

MUHAMMAD ALI AT 70

Clinton praises Ali courage

Muhammad Ali's talent, charisma and strong principles were responsible for raising boxing's popularity across the world, according to former US president Bill Clinton.

Clinton also credited Ali, who turned 70 on Tuesday, with helping pave the way for Barack Obama to become the country's first black president.

"He made millions of people believe. He was something unique," said Clinton.

Stars pay tribute to Muhammad Ali at 70

Page last updated at 10:43 GMT, Tuesday, 17 January 2012

Bill Clinton, Frank Bruno, Sir David Frost and David Haye pay tribute to Muhammad Ali as the former heavyweight champion of the world turns 70.

Three-time world heavyweight champion Ali won 56 bouts over a 21-year career.

He was entertaining and when he was younger he was always mouthing off. But it was part of his schtick. He made [boxing] part theatre, part dance and all power

Bill ClintonFormer US President

He also made plenty of headlines outside of the ring with his sharp words and refusal to take part in the Vietnam War.

But Clinton believes his fellow American's legacy will be the way he got the whole world talking about boxing again in the 1960s.

"People had moved away from boxing. It was a huge deal in America in the 1940s and 1950s and then they wrote it off," he told BBC Sport boxing commentator Mike Costello.

"Then here comes Muhammad Ali, first as Cassius Clay, looking like a ballerina in the boxing ring - reminding people it was a sport.

"He made it exciting and meaningful again. He was entertaining and when he was younger he was always mouthing off. But it was part of his schtick.

"He made it part theatre, part dance and all power."

MUHAMMAD ALI FACTFILE

1942: Born Cassius Clay on 17 January 1941 in Louisville, Kentucky
1960: Wins Olympic light-heavyweight gold
1964: Beats Sonny Liston to be crowned world heavyweight champion
1964: Changes his name to Muhammad Ali after joining Nation of Islam religious movement
1967: Refuses to step forward in US Army induction for Vietnam service
1971: Suffers first professional loss in 'The Fight of the Century' against Joe Frazier
1974: Regains title with shock win over George Foreman in fight billed as the 'Rumble in the Jungle'
1975: Beats Frazier in the 'Thriller in Manila' to take crown for an unprecedented third time
1981: Fights for the final time in defeat by Trevor Berbick
1984: Diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease
1996: Lights Olympic flame at opening ceremony of Atlanta Games
1999: Voted BBC's Sporting Personality of the Century

Ali risked his glittering career, and his reputation, to oppose the Vietnam War. He refused to serve in the US Army when he was called up for service and was subsequently arrested for committing a felony.

Boxing authorities suspended his licence and stripped him of his titles before he was found guilty of the offence after a 1967 trial. The US Supreme Court reversed the conviction four years later.

"It could have destroyed him but it didn't - because people realised he had been very forthright and he was prepared to pay the price for his convictions," said Clinton. "On balance he won more admirers than detractors."

Ali's success helped break down racial barriers in the US and create the path which eventually led to President Obama's election in 2008, according to Clinton.

"All those people from the Civil Rights years and also every African-American who did everything that destroyed the old stereotypes have helped," said Clinton, 65.

"There was nothing inferior about Ali - he was superior on merit without regards to his race when it came to what he loved.

"All this stuff played a role. Society changes slowly, like icebergs turning in the ocean. Sometimes great symbolic events affect changes of consciousness of a whole country. Ali reflects a lot of that."

British broadcaster Sir David Frost, who famously verbally sparred with the boxer during television interviews at the height of his fame, believes Ali touched the hearts of millions with his words.

He said: "Over the years Muhammad Ali spoke with peace. Not just for boxing but peace in general.

ANALYSIS

Mike Costello,
BBC boxing commentator

Ali was the primary reason I took up boxing. I wonder how many more youngsters across the globe pushed open a gym door for the same reason

Mike Costello meets Bill Clinton

"Although he spoke in this war-like rhetoric, it was already clear that the man beyond that rhetoric was a warm and friendly and peaceable man.

"He became the most famous man in the world for a long time. He's not far off it now even."

Former British and Commonwealth heavyweight champion Joe Bugner fought Ali in 1973 and 1975, losing on points on each occasion. He told BBC Radio 5 liveBreakfast: "It was a great pleasure to fight him on both occasions.

"He was more of an athlete than a fighter. He was a highly intelligent athlete, who utilised every inch of the boxing room."

Frank Bruno insists the world will never see another boxer like Ali, whom he believes put "boxing on the map".

"He paved the way for boxers like myself to want to go into boxing and make a living for themselves," said Bruno.

"We're grateful we had Muhammad Ali to inspire us."

David Haye, who won the WBA heavyweight crown in 2009, added: "I believe he is the world's greatest ever athlete bar none."

Ali through the years

Processed meat 'linked to pancreatic cancer' - BBC

2012-01-17T03:22:00.000-08:00

Can bacon increase the risk of cancer?

A link between eating processed meat, such as bacon or sausages, and pancreatic cancer has been suggested by researchers in Sweden.

They said eating an extra 50g of processed meat, approximately one sausage, every day would increase a person's risk by 19%.

But the chance of developing the rare cancer remains low.

The World Cancer Research Fund suggested the link may be down to obesity.

Eating red and processed meat has already been linked to bowel cancer. As a result the UK government recommended in 2011 that people eat no more than 70g a day.

Prof Susanna Larsson, who conducted the study at the Karolinska Institute, told the BBC that links to other cancers were "quite controversial".

She added: "It is known that eating meat increases the risk of colorectal cancer, it's not so much known about other cancers."

The study, published in the British Journal of Cancer, analysed data from 11 trials and 6,643 patients with pancreatic cancer.

Hazel Nunn from Cancer Research UK: ''The increased risk was found only in processed meat''

Increased risk

It found that eating processed meat increased the risk of pancreatic cancer. The risk increased by 19% for every 50g someone added to their daily diet. Having an extra 100g would increase the risk by 38%.

Prof Larsson said: "Pancreatic cancer has poor survival rates. So as well as diagnosing it early, it's important to understand what can increase the risk of this disease."

She recommended that people eat less red meat.

Pancreatic cancer symptoms

Unexplained weight loss
Abdominal pain (often described as a dull, gnawing ache that spreads to the back, which may becomes worse if the patient eats)
Jaundice
Weight loss and weakness
Nausea and loss of appetite
Back pain
Itching of the skin
Diabetes
Fever and shivering

BBC - Health- Pancreatic cancer

Cancer Research UK said the risk of developing pancreatic cancer in a lifetime was "comparatively small" - one in 77 for men and one in 79 for women.

Sara Hiom, the charity's information director, said: "The jury is still out as to whether meat is a definite risk factor for pancreatic cancer and more large studies are needed to confirm this, but this new analysis suggests processed meat may be playing a role."

However, she pointed out that smoking was a much greater risk factor.

The World Cancer Research Fund has advised people to completely avoid processed meat.

Dr Rachel Thompson, the fund's deputy head of science, said: "We will be re-examining the factors behind pancreatic cancer later this year as part of our Continuous Update Project, which should tell us more about the relationship between cancer of the pancreas and processed meat.

"There is strong evidence that being overweight or obese increases the risk of pancreatic cancer and this study may be an early indication of another factor behind the disease.

"Regardless of this latest research, we have already established a strong link between eating red and processed meat and your chances of developing bowel cancer, which is why WCRF recommends limiting intake of red meat to 500g cooked weight a week and avoid processed meat altogether."

10 reasons the U.S. is no longer the land of the free - Washington Post

2012-01-16T15:56:00.000-08:00

By Jonathan Turley, Published: January 13

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University.

Every year, the State Department issues reports on individual rights in other countries, monitoring the passage of restrictive laws and regulations around the world. Iran, for example, has been criticized for denying fair public trials and limiting privacy, while Russia has been taken to task for undermining due process. Other countries have been condemned for the use of secret evidence and torture.

Even as we pass judgment on countries we consider unfree, Americans remain confident that any definition of a free nation must include their own — the land of free. Yet, the laws and practices of the land should shake that confidence. In the decade since Sept. 11, 2001, this country has comprehensively reduced civil liberties in the name of an expanded security state. The most recent example of this was the National Defense Authorization Act, signed Dec. 31, which allows for the indefinite detention of citizens. At what point does the reduction of individual rights in our country change how we define ourselves?

While each new national security power Washington has embraced was controversial when enacted, they are often discussed in isolation. But they don’t operate in isolation. They form a mosaic of powers under which our country could be considered, at least in part, authoritarian. Americans often proclaim our nation as a symbol of freedom to the world while dismissing nations such as Cuba and China as categorically unfree. Yet, objectively, we may be only half right. Those countries do lack basic individual rights such as due process, placing them outside any reasonable definition of “free,” but the United States now has much more in common with such regimes than anyone may like to admit.

These countries also have constitutions that purport to guarantee freedoms and rights. But their governments have broad discretion in denying those rights and few real avenues for challenges by citizens — precisely the problem with the new laws in this country.

The list of powers acquired by the U.S. government since 9/11 puts us in rather troubling company.

Assassination of U.S. citizens

President Obama has claimed, as President George W. Bush did before him, the right to order the killing of any citizen considered a terrorist or an abettor of terrorism. Last year, he approved the killing of U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaqi and another citizen under this claimed inherent authority. Last month, administration officials affirmed that power, stating that the president can order the assassination of any citizen whom he considers allied with terrorists. (Nations such as Nigeria, Iran and Syria have been routinely criticized for extrajudicial killings of enemies of the state.)

Indefinite detention

Under the law signed last month, terrorism suspects are to be held by the military; the president also has the authority to indefinitely detain citizens accused of terrorism. While the administration claims that this provision only codified existing law, experts widely contest this view, and the administration has opposed efforts to challenge such authority in federal courts. The government continues to claim the right to strip citizens of legal protections based on its sole discretion. (China recently codified a more limited detention law for its citizens, while countries such as Cambodia have been singled out by the United States for “prolonged detention.”)

Arbitrary justice

The president now decides whether a person will receive a trial in the federal courts or in a military tribunal, a system that has been ridiculed around the world for lacking basic due process protections. Bush claimed this authority in 2001, and Obama has continued the practice. (Egypt and China have been denounced for maintaining separate military justice systems for selected defendants, including civilians.)

Warrantless searches

The president may now order warrantless surveillance, including a new capability to force companies and organizations to turn over information on citizens’ finances, communications and associations. Bush acquired this sweeping power under the Patriot Act in 2001, and in 2011, Obamaextended the power, including searches of everything from business documents to library records. The government can use“national security letters” to demand, without probable cause, that organizations turn over information on citizens — and order them not to reveal the disclosure to the affected party. (Saudi Arabia and Pakistan operate under laws that allow the government to engage in widespread discretionary surveillance.)

Secret evidence

The government now routinely uses secret evidence to detain individuals and employs secret evidence in federal and military courts. It also forces the dismissal of cases against the United States by simply filing declarations that the cases would make the government reveal classified information that would harm national security — a claim made in a variety of privacy lawsuits and largely accepted by federal judges without question. Even legal opinions, cited as the basis for the government’s actions under the Bush and Obama administrations, have been classified. This allows the government to claim secret legal arguments to support secret proceedings using secret evidence. In addition, some cases never make it to court at all. The federal courts routinely deny constitutional challenges to policies and programs under a narrow definition of standing to bring a case.

War crimes

The world clamored for prosecutions of those responsible for waterboarding terrorism suspects during the Bush administration, but the Obama administration said in 2009 that it would not allow CIA employees to be investigated or prosecuted for such actions. This gutted not just treaty obligations but the Nuremberg principles of international law. When courts in countries such as Spain moved to investigate Bush officials for war crimes, the Obama administration reportedly urged foreign officials not to allow such cases to proceed, despite the fact that the United States has long claimed the same authority with regard to alleged war criminals in other countries. (Various nations have resisted investigations of officials accused of war crimes and torture. Some, such as Serbia and Chile, eventually relented to comply with international law; countries that have denied independent investigations include Iran, Syria and China.)

Secret court

The government has increased its use of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which has expanded its secret warrants to include individuals deemed to be aiding or abetting hostile foreign governments or organizations. In 2011, Obama renewed these powers, including allowing secret searches of individuals who are not part of an identifiable terrorist group. The administration has asserted the right to ignore congressional limits on such surveillance. (Pakistan places national security surveillance under the unchecked powers of the military or intelligence services.)

Immunity from judicial review

Like the Bush administration, the Obama administration has successfully pushed for immunity for companies that assist in warrantless surveillance of citizens, blocking the ability of citizens to challenge the violation of privacy. (Similarly, China has maintained sweeping immunity claims both inside and outside the country and routinely blocks lawsuits against private companies.)

Continual monitoring of citizens

The Obama administration has successfully defended its claim that it can use GPS devices to monitor every move of targeted citizens without securing any court order or review. (Saudi Arabia has installed massive public surveillance systems, while Cuba is notorious for active monitoring of selected citizens.)

Extraordinary renditions

The government now has the ability to transfer both citizens and noncitizens to another country under a system known as extraordinary rendition, which has been denounced as using other countries, such as Syria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Pakistan, to torture suspects. The Obama administration says it is not continuing the abuses of this practice under Bush, but it insists on the unfettered right to order such transfers — including the possible transfer of U.S. citizens.

These new laws have come with an infusion of money into an expanded security systemon the state and federal levels, including more public surveillance cameras, tens of thousands of security personnel and a massive expansion of a terrorist-chasing bureaucracy.

Some politicians shrug and say these increased powers are merely a response to the times we live in. Thus, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) could declare in an interview last spring without objection that “free speech is a great idea, but we’re in a war.” Of course, terrorism will never “surrender” and end this particular “war.”

Other politicians rationalize that, while such powers may exist, it really comes down to how they are used. This is a common response by liberals who cannot bring themselves to denounce Obama as they did Bush. Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), for instance, has insisted that Congress is not making any decision on indefinite detention: “That is a decision which we leave where it belongs — in the executive branch.”

And in a signing statement with the defense authorization bill, Obama said he does not intend to use the latest power to indefinitely imprison citizens. Yet, he still accepted the power as a sort of regretful autocrat.

An authoritarian nation is defined not just by the use of authoritarian powers, but by the ability to use them. If a president can take away your freedom or your life on his own authority, all rights become little more than a discretionary grant subject to executive will.

The framers lived under autocratic rule and understood this danger better than we do. James Madison famously warned that we needed a system that did not depend on the good intentions or motivations of our rulers: “If men were angels, no government would be necessary.”

Benjamin Franklin was more direct. In 1787, a Mrs. Powel confronted Franklin after the signing of the Constitution and asked, “Well, Doctor, what have we got — a republic or a monarchy?” His response was a bit chilling: “A republic, Madam, if you can keep it.”

Since 9/11, we have created the very government the framers feared: a government with sweeping and largely unchecked powers resting on the hope that they will be used wisely.

The indefinite-detention provision in the defense authorization bill seemed to many civil libertarians like a betrayal by Obama. While the president had promised to veto the lawover that provision, Levin, a sponsor of the bill, disclosed on the Senate floor that it was in fact the White House that approved the removal of any exception for citizens from indefinite detention.

Dishonesty from politicians is nothing new for Americans. The real question is whether we are lying to ourselves when we call this country the land of the free.

Web addicts have brain changes similar to alcoholics/drug abusers, research suggests

2012-01-14T15:18:00.000-08:00

Brain scans of white matter in the brain

Web addicts have brain changes similar to those hooked on drugs or alcohol, preliminary research suggests.

Experts in China scanned the brains of 17 young web addicts and found disruption in the way their brains were wired up.

They say the discovery, published in Plos One, could lead to new treatments for addictive behaviour.

Internet addiction is a clinical disorder marked by out-of-control internet use.

A research team led by Hao Lei of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Wuhan carried out brain scans of 35 men and women aged between 14 and 21.

Seventeen of them were classed as having internet addiction disorder (IAD) on the basis of answering yes to questions such as, "Have you repeatedly made unsuccessful efforts to control, cut back or stop Internet use?"

Specialised MRI brain scans showed changes in the white matter of the brain - the part that contains nerve fibres - in those classed as being web addicts, compared with non-addicts.

Diagnostic criteria for internet addiction

Do you feel preoccupied with the internet?
Do you feel the need to use the internet with increasing amounts of time in order to achieve satisfaction?
Have you repeatedly made unsuccessful efforts to control, cut back or stop internet use?
Do you feel restless, moody, depressed, or irritable when attempting to cut down or stop internet use?
Do you stay online longer than intended?
Have you jeopardized or risked the loss of a significant relationship, job, educational or career opportunity because of the internet?
Have you lied to family members, a therapist or others to conceal the extent of involvement with the internet?
Do you use the internet as a way of escaping from problems or of relieving a distressed mood (eg feelings of helplessness, guilt, anxiety and depression)?

Participants answering yes to questions 1 to 5 and at least one more answer were classed as suffering from Internet Addiction Disorder

Source: Young's Diagnostic Questionnaire for Internet Addiction adapted by Beard and Wolf

There was evidence of disruption to connections in nerve fibres linking brain areas involved in emotions, decision making, and self-control.

Dr Hao Lei and colleagues write in Plos One: "Overall, our findings indicate that IAD has abnormal white matter integrity in brain regions involving emotional generation and processing, executive attention, decision making and cognitive control.

"The results also suggest that IAD may share psychological and neural mechanisms with other types of substance addiction and impulse control disorders."

Prof Gunter Schumann, chair in biological psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College, London, said similar findings have been found in video game addicts.

He told the BBC: "For the first time two studies show changes in the neuronal connections between brain areas as well as changes in brain function in people who are frequently using the internet or video games."

Commenting on the Chinese study, Dr Henrietta Bowden-Jones, consultant psychiatrist and honorary senior lecturer at Imperial College London, said the research was "groundbreaking".

She added: "We are finally being told what clinicians suspected for some time now, that white matter abnormalities in the orbito-frontal cortex and other truly significant brain areas are present not only in addictions where substances are involved but also in behavioural ones such as internet addiction."

She said further studies with larger numbers of subjects were needed to confirm the findings.

Afghanistan soldier photos 'show effect of war'

2012-01-14T06:14:00.001-08:00

By Dan Cairns
Newsbeat reporterPrivate Jo Yavala, 28: The photos were taken in the UK and Helmand province

The heavy toll of fighting in Afghanistan can be seen in a set of photos showing UK soldiers before, during and after their tour of duty.

They were taken by photographer Lalage Snow who first met the soldiers from 1st Battalion the Royal Regiment of Scotland during their training.

She says the time she spent with them helped win their trust and get them comfortable in front of the camera.

Three months later Lalage travelled to meet the group in Helmand province.

She said: "I was really shocked at how different they looked: Red-rimmed eyes, beards, really gaunt and thin, brown, and full of sand.

"It really shocked me," she admits.

Second Lieutenant Adam Petzsch, 25

The photographer says she realised there were lots of good images of soldiers in Afghanistan, but they didn't show how a person could change through combat.

"That's the external manifestation of the scars they bear - it's written in their faces," she says.

As well as the physical change, she also witnessed a shift in the personality of some of the soldiers, particularly the younger ones.

"They had grown up a lot," says Lalage.

"Instead of on training - where they might have been mucking around a bit more - out there it seemed to make them wake up a bit more.

"They were thinking: 'This is real, this is what I'm doing. This is my job - okay get on with it.'"

Private Becky Hitchcock, 23

The realities faced by troops in Afghanistan were also violently reflected in some of the group she photographed.

One of them was injured in an IED explosion, one had to be resuscitated, and another was shot in the leg.

Adjusting to life back in the UK is especially hard for many of soldiers, says Lalage: "Their families for the past six months have been soldiers, guns and sand, rations, living in rough conditions.

"It takes a long time to get used to it."

Private Matthew Hodgson, 18

The main aim of the photos is to shed extra light on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a subject that's been covered by Newsbeat.

None of those photographed is suffering from the condition. Lalage Snow says she wanted to highlight how PTSD can emerge years after combat.

It occurs when troops are exposed to the death of colleagues and other serious battlefield experiences. The mental health problems can have a dramatic effect on wives, children and other relatives.

"The thing that is most important from the project is the PTSD thing, which I don't think many people are aware of," says Lalage.

"Boys in the Balkans are now getting PTSD, wars from 10-15 years ago."

Elderly Experts Share Life Advice - New York Times

2012-01-12T03:45:00.000-08:00

At 17, I wrote a speech titled, “When You Come to the End of Your Days, Will You Be Able to Write Your Own Epitaph?” It reflected the approach to life I adopted after my mother’s untimely death fromcancer at age 49. I chose to live each day as if it could be my last — but with a watchful eye on the future in case it wasn’t.

My goal was, and still is, to die without regrets.

For more than 50 years, this course has served me well, including my decision to become a science journalist instead of pursuing what had promised to be a more lucrative and prestigious, but probably less enjoyable, career as a biochemist. I find joy each day in mundane things too often overlooked: sunrises and sunsets, an insect on a flower, crows chasing a hawk, a majestic tree, a child at play, an act of kindness toward a stranger.

Eventually, most of us learn valuable lessons about how to conduct a successful and satisfying life. But for far too many people, the learning comes too late to help them avoid painful mistakes and decades of wasted time and effort.

In recent years, for example, many talented young people have denied their true passions, choosing instead to pursue careers that promise fast and big monetary gains. High rates of divorce speak to an impulsiveness to marry and a tenuous commitment to vows of “till death do us part.”

Parents undermine children’s self-confidence and self-esteem by punishing them physically or pushing them down paths, both academic and athletic, that they are ill equipped to follow. And myriad prescriptions forantidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs reflect a widespread tendency to sweat the small stuff, a failure to recognize time-honored sources of happiness, and a reliance on material acquisitions that provide only temporary pleasure.

Enter an invaluable source of help, if anyone is willing to listen while there is still time to take corrective action. It is a new book called “30 Lessons for Living” (Hudson Street Press) that offers practical advice from more than 1,000 older Americans from different economic, educational and occupational strata who were interviewed as part of the ongoing Cornell Legacy Project.

Its author, Karl Pillemer, a professor of human development at the College of Human Ecology at Cornell and a gerontologist at the Weill Cornell Medical College, calls his subjects “the experts,” and their advice is based on what they did right and wrong in their long lives. Many of the interviews can be viewed at legacyproject.human.cornell.edu.

Here is a summary of their most salient thoughts.

ON MARRIAGE A satisfying marriage that lasts a lifetime is more likely to result when partners are fundamentally similar and share the same basic values and goals. Although romantic love initially brings most couples together, what keeps them together is an abiding friendship, an ability to communicate, a willingness to give and take, and a commitment to the institution of marriage as well as to each other.

An 89-year-old woman who was glad she stayed in her marriage even though her young husband’s behavior was adversely affected by his military service said, “Too many young people now are giving up too early, too soon.”

ON CAREERS Not one person in a thousand said that happiness accrued from working as hard as you can to make money to buy whatever you want. Rather, the near-universal view was summed up by an 83-year-old former athlete who worked for decades as an athletic coach and recruiter: “The most important thing is to be involved in a profession that you absolutely love, and that you look forward to going to work to every day.”

Although it can take a while to land that ideal job, you should not give up looking for one that makes you happy. Meanwhile, if you’re stuck in a bad job, try to make the most of it until you can move on. And keep in mind that a promotion may be flattering and lucrative but not worth it if it takes you away from what you most enjoy doing.

ON PARENTING The demands of modern life often have a negative effect on family life, especially when economic pursuits limit the time parents spend with their children. Most important, the elders said, is to spend more time with your children, even if you must sacrifice to do so.

Share in their activities, and do things with them that interest them. Time spent together enables parents to detect budding problems and instill important values.

While it’s normal to prefer one child over others, it is critical not to make comparisons and show favoritism. Discipline is important when needed, but physical punishment is rarely effective and can result in children who are aggressive and antisocial.

ON AGING “Embrace it. Don’t fight it. Growing older is both an attitude and a process,” an 80-year-old man said. The experts’ advice to the young: “Don’t waste your time worrying about getting old.”

Most found that old age vastly exceeded their expectations. Even those with serious chronic illnesses enjoyed a sense of calm and contentment. A 92-year-old who can no longer do many of the things she once enjoyed said: “I think I’m happier now than I’ve ever been in my life. Things that were important to me are no longer important, or not as important.”

Another said, “Each decade, each age, has opportunities that weren’t actually there in the previous time.”

Maintain social contacts. Avoid becoming isolated. When an invitation is issued, say yes. Take steps to stay engaged, and take advantage of opportunities to learn new things. Although many were initially reluctant, those who moved to a senior living community found more freedom to enjoy activities and relationships than they had before.

To those who worry about dying, these men and women said the best antidote is to plan for it: Get things organized, let others know your wishes, tidy up to minimize the burden on your heirs.

ON REGRETS “Always be honest” was the elders’ advice to avoid late-in-life remorse. Take advantage of opportunities and embrace new challenges. And travel more when you’re young rather than wait until the children are grown or you are retired.

As Dr. Pillemer summarized the elders’ view, “Travel is so rewarding that it should take precedence over other things younger people spend money on.” Create a bucket list now and start whittling it down.

ON HAPPINESS Almost to a person, the elders viewed happiness as a choice, not the result of how life treats you.

A 75-year-old man said, “You are not responsible for all the things that happen to you, but you are completely in control of your attitude and your reactions to them.” An 84-year-old said, “Adopt a policy of being joyful.”

The 90-year-old daughter of divorced parents who had lived a hardscrabble life said, “I learned to be grateful for what I have, and no longer bemoan what I don’t have or can’t do.”

Even if their lives were nine decades long, the elders saw life as too short to waste on pessimism, boredom and disillusionment.

Nurse reveals the top 5 regrets people make on their deathbed

2012-01-11T13:50:00.001-08:00

For many years I worked in palliative care. My patients were those who had gone home to die. Some incredibly special times were shared. I was with them for the last three to twelve weeks of their lives. People grow a lot when they are faced with their own mortality.

I learnt never to underestimate someone’s capacity for growth. Some changes were phenomenal. Each experienced a variety of emotions, as expected, denial, fear, anger, remorse, more denial and eventually acceptance. Every single patient found their peace before they departed though, every one of them.

When questioned about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently, common themes surfaced again and again. Here are the most common five:

1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
This was the most common regret of all. When people realize that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people had not honoured even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made.

It is very important to try and honour at least some of your dreams along the way. From the moment that you lose your health, it is too late. Health brings a freedom very few realise, until they no longer have it.

2. I wish I didn’t work so hard.
This came from every male patient that I nursed. They missed their children’s youth and their partner’s companionship. Women also spoke of this regret. But as most were from an older generation, many of the female patients had not been breadwinners. All of the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence.

By simplifying your lifestyle and making conscious choices along the way, it is possible to not need the income that you think you do. And by creating more space in your life, you become happier and more open to new opportunities, ones more suited to your new lifestyle.

3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
Many people suppressed their feelings in order to keep peace with others. As a result, they settled for a mediocre existence and never
became who they were truly capable of becoming. Many developed illnesses relating to the bitterness and resentment they carried as a
result.

We cannot control the reactions of others. However, although people may initially react when you change the way you are by speaking honestly, in the end it raises the relationship to a whole new and healthier level. Either that or it releases the unhealthy relationship from your life. Either way, you win.

4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
Often they would not truly realise the full benefits of old friends until their dying weeks and it was not always possible to track them down. Many had become so caught up in their own lives that they had let golden friendships slip by over the years. There were many deep regrets about not giving friendships the time and effort that they deserved. Everyone misses their friends when they are dying.

It is common for anyone in a busy lifestyle to let friendships slip. But when you are faced with your approaching death, the physical
details of life fall away. People do want to get their financial affairs in order if possible. But it is not money or status that holds the true importance for them. They want to get things in order more for the benefit of those they love. Usually though, they are too ill and weary to ever manage this task. It is all comes down to love and relationships in the end.
That is all that remains in the final weeks, love and relationships.

5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.
This is a surprisingly common one. Many did not realise until the end that happiness is a choice. They had stayed stuck in old patterns and habits. The so-called ‘comfort’ of familiarity overflowed into their emotions, as well as their physical lives. Fear of change had them pretending to others, and to their selves, that they were content. When deep within, they longed to laugh properly and have silliness in their life again. When you are on your deathbed, what others think of you is a long way from your mind. How wonderful to be able to let go and smile again, long before you are dying.

Life is a choice. It is YOUR life. Choose consciously, choose wisely, choose honestly. Choose happiness.

'I don't want men to look at me like a piece of meat': Why the UK's most modest woman insists on covering up... and says British schoolgirls dress 'like prostitutes' - Daily Mail

2012-01-11T13:48:00.000-08:00

By DEBORAH ARTHURS

Last updated at 8:16 AM on 11th January 2012

Could this be the most modest woman in Britain? Lillian La Mantia is so cautious about flashing the flesh she even wears a full-body bathing suit to the beach.

As well as covering her hair, Lillian likes her outfits to reach from ankle and wrist right up to her collarbone. And she's on a one-woman mission to get the other women in Britain to stay - at least a bit more - covered up.

The 34-year-old, from near Farnham, Surrey, who only wears flat shoes and never uses make up, says women in the UK could learn from her example.

Too risqué: Lillian La Matia says she despairs of the amount of flesh revealed by British women. 'Some of the girls look like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. It wasn't that long ago that's what a prostitute wore,' she says

But she is at her wits end trying to find clothing that doesn't bare some part of her body. And she is frequently stunned by how little some women wear on the streets.

Lillian said: 'It saddens me how women feel like they have to show off their breasts and, in some cases, bottoms, to feel like they look good.

'You see women wearing very short skirts, sandals and tops that only just cover their breasts and earrings and nothing else.

'Sometimes you see girls who are maybe 12 and they are wearing make up and high heels and clothing that is just not appropriate for a child.

'It should shock you when you see a child dressed as a prostitute.

'Some of the girls going to school look like they are Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. It wasn't that long ago that's what a prostitute wore.'

Part of Lillian's unconventional dress code is because she is a Seventh Day Adventist, a church which encourages but does not demand modesty.

Her views on baring flesh have some similarities to those commonly associated with the Amish community.

Covered up: Adventist Lillian, who is forced to shop on Mormon websites for her clothes, models the conservative clothes she favours, left, and right, the full-body swimsuit she wears to the beach

But more specifically, the former PA at a pharmaceuticals company simply believes modesty is best - because it means she'll get more respect when she is out in the streets.

She said: 'I was with some friends who were visiting from outside the UK recently and they couldn't understand why some women were undressed in the cold.

'For me, dressing modestly is about respect - for myself, my husband, the other people around me. I don't want men to look at me like a piece of meat. I'm not out to seduce people when I go to the shops.

'Some people might say I dress like I'm Amish, but I always aim to be fashionable. I just don't need to show off my chest to do that.

'I wear dresses because I want to be feminine. I expect that some people probably see my views as old fashioned or strange, but it's something I've decided for myself - and it works well.

'My clothes have a function - they cover me and keep me warm.'

Demure: Lillian says she struggled to find a wedding dress with sleeves when she married husband, Italian chef Gabriele, in 2007. 'I was offered one with inch-wide straps when I asked for sleeves,' she says

Her husband Gabriele, an Italian chef, also shares her views on modesty and prefers that she doesn't wear make-up or dye her hair.

Even on the beach Lillian covers up with a specially designed suit that meet her needs - covering her down to her mid-calves and up to the neck.

The mother to two-year-old Joshua says her quest for modesty has left her frustrated at the clothes on offer for women in the UK.

And she has been left on the verge of tears after shopping all day and not finding a single thing to wear.

She said: 'When I was looking for a wedding dress I asked the shop assistant if they had one with sleeves, and she brought me one with inch-wide straps.

'I just walked out of the shop. Sometimes I'm so frustrated I could cry. I don't think I've seen a neckline in the recent years that I'm comfortable with, and you are lucky to even get sleeves.

'I have had to order things from Mormon websites in the US, and I've even thought about opening my own shop for modest women in the UK.

'Many of my clothes come from charity shops, because some 'older' fashions tend to be more modest. But these days even that is becoming more of struggle.'

So limited are Lillian's choices that she has even resorted to making her own clothes.

About 50 per cent of the clothes in her wardrobe are made from modest patterns she has found online.

But Lillian says the clothes she wears make people treat her better than women who subscribe to the latest immodest fashions.

She said: 'Men will open doors for me and won't swear in front of me, and they talk differently to me than they do to the other women.

'I tend to get treated with more respect because of what I wear.

'I dress like a lady and I think people respond to that - they treat me like a lady.

'I've got respect for my body and I don't want anyone other than my husband seeing it.'

But the upside to thrifty Lillian's dilemma is that she spent just £40 on clothes last year - mostly on thick wool tights for winter.

Skyscrapers 'linked with impending financial crashes'

2012-01-11T05:27:00.001-08:00

The view from the top of the world's tallest building: video courtesy Imre Solt

There is an "unhealthy correlation" between the building of skyscrapers and subsequent financial crashes, according to Barclays Capital.

Examples include the Empire State building, built as the Great Depression was under way, and the current world's tallest, the Burj Khalifa, built just before Dubai almost went bust.

China is currently the biggest builder of skyscrapers, the bank said.

India also has 14 skyscrapers under construction.

"Often the world's tallest buildings are simply the edifice of a broader skyscraper building boom, reflecting a widespread misallocation of capital and an impending economic correction," Barclays Capital analysts said.

World's tallest buildings
Name	Where	Height	Use
SOURCE: COUNCIL ON TALL BUILDINGS AND URBAN HABITAT
Burj Khalifa	Dubai	828m (2,717ft)	Offices, homes, hotel
Taipei 101	Taipei	508m (1,667ft)	Offices
Shanghai World Financial Center	Shanghai	492m (1,614ft)	Hotel, offices
Int'l Commerce Centre	Hong Kong	484m (1,588ft)	Hotel, offices
Petronas Towers 1&2	Kuala Lumpur	452m (1,483ft)	Offices

The bank noted that the world's first skyscraper, the Equitable Life building in New York, was completed in 1873 and coincided with a five-year recession. It was demolished in 1912.

Other examples include Chicago's Willis Tower (which was formerly known as the Sears Tower) in 1974, just as there was an oil shock and the US dollar's peg to gold was abandoned.

And Malaysia's Petronas Towers in 1997, which coincided with the Asian financial crisis.

The findings might be a concern for Londoners, who are currently seeing the construction of what will be Western Europe's tallest building, the Shard.

That will be 1,017ft (310m) tall on completion.

China bubble?

The 27-storey home of one Indian family in Mumbai

Investors should be most concerned about China, which is currently building 53% of all the tall buildings in the world, the bank said.

A lending boom following the global financial crisis in 2008 pushed prices higher in the world's second largest economy.

In a separate report, JPMorgan Chase said that the Chinese property market could drop by as much as 20% in value in the country's major cities within the next 12 to 18 months.

In India, billionaire Mukesh Ambani built his own skyscraper in Mumbai - a 27-storey residence believed to be the world's most expensive home.

Local newspapers said the house required 600 members of staff to maintain it. Reports suggest the residence is worth more than $1bn (£630m).

"Today India has only two of the world's 276 skyscrapers over 240m in height, yet over the next five years it intends to complete 14 new skyscrapers," according to Barclays Capital.

Barclays Capital's Skyscraper Index has been published every year since 1999.

Facebook tracking is under scrutiny - USA Today

2012-01-11T04:29:00.000-08:00

By Byron Acohido, USA TODAY

Updated 11/16/2011 9:03 AM

Enlarge

KIMIHIRO HOSHINO, AFP/Getty Images

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg delivers a keynote during Facebook's developer conference in San Francisco in September.

In recent weeks, Facebook has been wrangling with the Federal Trade Commission over whether the social media website is violating users' privacy by making public too much of their personal information.

Far more quietly, another debate is brewing over a different side of online privacy: what Facebook is learning about those who visit its website.

Facebook officials are now acknowledging that the social media giant has been able to create a running log of the web pages that each of its 800 million or so members has visited during the previous 90 days. Facebook also keeps close track of where millions more non-members of the social network go on the Web, after they visit a Facebook web page for any reason.

To do this, the company relies on tracking cookie technologies similar to the controversial systems used by Google, Adobe, Microsoft, Yahoo and others in the online advertising industry, says Arturo Bejar, Facebook's engineering director.

Facebook's efforts to track the browsing habits of visitors to its site have made the company a player in the "Do Not Track" debate, which focuses on whether consumers should be able to prevent websites from tracking the consumers' online activity.

For online business and social media sites, such information can be particularly valuable in helping them tailor online ads to specific visitors. But privacy advocates worry about how else the information might be used, and whether it might be sold to third parties.

New guidelines for online privacy are being hashed out in Congress and by the World Wide Web Consortium, which sets standards for the Internet.

If privacy advocates get their way, consumers soon could be empowered to stop or limit tech companies and ad networks from tracking them wherever they go online. But the online advertising industry has dug in its heels, trying to retain the current self-regulatory system.

Online tracking involves technologies that tech companies and ad networks have used for more than a decade to help advertisers deliver more relevant ads to each viewer. Until now, Facebook, which makes most of its profits from advertising, has been ambiguous in public statements about the extent to which it collects tracking data.

It contends that it does not belong in the same camp as Google, Microsoft and the rest of the online ad industry's major players. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made this point to interviewer Charlie Rose on national TV last week.

For the past several weeks, Zuckerberg and other Facebook officials have sought to distinguish how Facebook and others use tracking data. Facebook uses such data only to boost security and improve how "Like" buttons and similar Facebook plug-ins perform, Bejar told USA TODAY. Plug-ins are the ubiquitous web applications that enable you to tap into Facebook services from millions of third-party web pages.

Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes says the company has "no plans to change how we use this data." He also says the company's intentions "stand in stark contrast to the many ad networks and data brokers that deliberately and, in many cases, surreptitiously track people to create profiles of their behavior, sell that content to the highest bidder, or use that content to target ads."

Conflicting pressures

Rather than appease its critics, Facebook's public explanations of how it tracks and how it uses tracking data have touched off a barrage of questions from technologists, privacy advocates, regulators and lawmakers around the world.

"Facebook could be tracking users without knowledge or permission, which could be an unfair or deceptive business practice," says Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., co-sponsor with Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, of a bill aimed at limiting online tracking of children.

The company "should be covered by strong privacy safeguards," Markey says. "The massive trove of personal information that Facebook accumulates about its users can have a significant impact on them — now and into the future."

Noting that "Facebook is the most popular social media website in the world," Barton adds, "All websites should respect users' privacy."

After Zuckerberg appeared on the Charlie Rose TV show last week, Markey and Barton sent a letter to the 27-year-old CEO asking him to explain why Facebook recently applied for a U.S. patent for technology that includes a method to correlate tracking data with advertisements. They gave Zuckerberg a Dec. 1 deadline to reply.

"We patent lots of things, and future products should not be inferred from our patent application," Facebook corporate spokesman Barry Schnitt says.

Facebook is under intense, conflicting pressures.

It must prove to its global financial backers that it is worthy of the hundreds of millions of dollars they've poured into the company, financial and tech industry analysts say. Those investors include Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, the Russian investment firm Digital Sky Technologies, Hong Kong financier Sir Ka-shing Li and venture capitalist Peter Andreas Thiel.

The success of the company's initial public offering of stock, expected sometime next year, hinges in part on Facebook's ability to move beyond the bread-and-butter text ads that appear on members' home pages and emerge as a key player in graphical display ads and corporate brand marketing campaigns, says Rebecca Lieb, advertising media analyst at the Altimeter Group.

In advertising, knowing more about consumers' preferences is key. "More data means better targeting, which means more revenue," says Marissa Gluck, managing partner of the media consulting firm Radar Research.

To meet rising expectations, Facebook must increase its annual revenue, now estimated at about $4 billion, by double-digit percentage points for years to come, Gluck says. The company is striving to keep its options open to do this. In doing so, it is bumping into pressure from critics who are concerned that leaving online privacy standards entirely in the hands of corporations might not be the best idea.

Ground rules needed

Companies are incorporating tracking data into new business models "without necessarily appreciating the long-term and collective consequences," says Craig Spiezle, executive director of the non-profit Online Trust Alliance.

Last week, consumer reporter Ric Romero of station KABC in Los Angeles showed how insurance companies monitor Facebook and Twitter, looking for reasons to raise premiums and deny claims. Previously, ABC News reporter Lyneka Little reported on how employers use Facebook information as part of the recruitment process.

Meanwhile, researchers at AT&T Labs and Worcester Polytechnic Institute have documented how tracking data culled from Internet searches and surfing can be meshed with personal information that Internet users disclose at websites for shopping, travel, health or jobs. Personal disclosures made on social networks, along with preference data gathered by new apps for smartphones and tablet PCs, are being tossed into this mix, too.

Privacy advocates worry that before long, corporations, government agencies and political parties could routinely purchase tracking data from data aggregators.

"Tracking data can be used to figure out your political bent, religious beliefs, sexuality preferences, health issues or the fact that you're looking for a new job," says Peter Eckersley, technology projects director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "There are all sorts of ways to form wrong judgments about people."

So far, it does not appear that this sort of data correlation is being done, at least not on a wide scale. But in the absence of ground rules, technologists, regulators and privacy advocates worry that companies involved in collecting tracking data could succumb to the temptation to cash in.

Says Michael Fertik, founder and CEO of Reputation.com: "We can only imagine that an advertising company with a richer trove of data will sell more and more of that data."

Facebook's trove of data

Facebook for the first time revealed details of how it compiles its trove of tracking data in a series of phone and e-mail interviews conducted by USA TODAY with Bejar, Noyes and Schnitt, as well as engineering manager Gregg Stefancik and corporate spokeswoman Jaime Schopflin. Here's what they disclosed:

•The company compiles tracking data in different ways for members who have signed in and are using their accounts, for members who are logged-off and for non-members. The tracking process begins when you initially visit a facebook.com page. If you choose to sign up for a new account, Facebook inserts two different types of tracking cookies in your browser, a "session cookie" and a "browser cookie." If you choose not to become a member, and move on, you only get the browser cookie.

•From this point on, each time you visit a third-party webpage that has a Facebook Like button, or other Facebook plug-in, the plug-in works in conjunction with the cookie to alert Facebook of the date, time and web address of the webpage you've clicked to. The unique characteristics of your PC and browser, such as your IP address, screen resolution, operating system and browser version, are also recorded.

•Facebook thus compiles a running log of all your webpage visits for 90 days, continually deleting entries for the oldest day and adding the newest to this log.

If you are logged-on to your Facebook account and surfing the Web, your session cookie conducts this logging. The session cookie additionally records your name, e-mail address, friends and all data associated with your profile to Facebook. If you are logged-off, or if you are a non-member, the browser cookie conducts the logging; it additionally reports a unique alphanumeric identifier, but no personal information.

Bejar acknowledged that Facebook could learn where specific members go on the Web when they are logged off by matching the unique PC and browser characteristics logged by both the session cookie and the browser cookie.

He emphasized that Facebook makes it a point not to do this. " We've said that we don't do it, and we couldn't do it without some form of consent and disclosure," Bejar says.

Bejar also acknowledged "technical similarities" in the cookie-based tracking technologies used by Facebook and the wider online advertising industry. "But we're not like ad networks at all in our stewardship of the data, in the way we use it, and the way we lay everything out," Bejar says. "We have a very clear and transparent approach to how we do advertising that I'm very proud of."

Even so, Facebook's public descriptions of its tracking systems have not satisfied some critics — particularly European privacy regulators. Ilse Aigner, Germany's minister of consumer protection, last month banned Facebook plug-ins from government websites and advised private companies to do the same.

And Thilo Weichert, data protection commissioner in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, expressed alarm at how Facebook's technology could potentially be used to build extensive profiles of individual Web users.

"Whoever visits Facebook or uses a plug-in must expect that he or she will be tracked by the company for two years," Weichert said in a statement. "Such profiling infringes German and European data protection law."

Adding fuel to such concerns, Arnold Roosendaal, a doctoral candidate at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, and Nik Cubrilovic, an independent Australian researcher, separately documented how Web pages containing Facebook plug-ins carried out tracking more extensive than Facebook publicly admitted to.

Noyes says Germany doesn't understand how the company's tracking technologies work. And he blames "software bugs" for the indiscriminate tracking discovered by Roosendaal and Cubrilovic.

"When we were made aware that certain cookies were sending more information to us than we had intended, we fixed our cookie management system," Noyes says.

However, researcher Roosendaal says Facebook's tracking cookies retain the capacity to extensively track non-members and logged-off members alike. "They have been confronted with the same issue now several times and every time they call it a bug. That's not really contributing to earning trust."

Some corporate security executives have become concerned about cybercriminals getting hold of tracking data relayed by Like buttons, then using that intelligence to steal intellectual property. They've asked firewall supplier Palo Alto Networks to identify and block traffic from Facebook tracking cookies, while enabling their employees to continue using other Facebook services.

"The concern is that Facebook has rich personal information, which Google doesn't have," says Nir Zuk, founder and chief technology officer for Palo Alto Networks. "Combining that personal information with Web browsing patterns could be revelatory."

Immigration does not cause unemployment - The Independent

2012-01-11T04:27:00.000-08:00

TUESDAY 10 JANUARY 2012

There is no link between rising immigration and rising unemployment, independent economists have found – contradicting persistent claims from anti-immigration activists and politicians that an influx of foreign nationals into the UK in recent years has led to more British-born workers on the dole.

The respected National Institute of Economic and Social Research found that there was "no association" between higher immigration and joblessness – even at times of recession or low growth of the sort that Britain is experiencing at the moment.

In fact, the Institute's researchers suggested that the opposite might be the case and that immigration acts as an economic stimulus, pushing total employment levels higher and dole claimant numbers lower than they would otherwise have been.

"Perhaps surprisingly," their economists said, "the interaction between migrant inflows and GDP emerges as positive, indicating that during periods of lower growth, migrant inflows are associated with ... slower [dole] claimant growth than would otherwise have occurred." The researchers did concede that the stimulating effects of migration on the overall labour market at a time of recession are likely to be small.

The anti-immigration pressure group MigrationWatch claimed yesterday that rising immigration from Eastern and Central Europe since European Union enlargement in 2004 had contributed to a surge in youth unemployment in Britain, which is now above 1 million. MigrationWatch released its own report, saying: "Youth unemployment in the UK increased by almost 450,000 in the period from 2004 Q1 to 2011 Q3. Over the same period, numbers of workers from the A8 countries grew by 600,000.

"Correlation is not, of course, proof of causation but, given the positive employability characteristics and relative youth of migrants from these countries, it is implausible and counter-intuitive to conclude ... that A8 migration has had virtually no impact on UK youth unemployment."

However, critics of MigrationWatch pointed out that youth unemployment started rising before 2004, the point when Polish and other former Soviet bloc nationals were freely permitted to enter the UK to work.

And Jonathan Portes, the director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research and former chief economist at the Cabinet Office, also argues today that most of the rise in youth unemployment took place in 2008 and 2009, a period during which the number of Eastern European workers entering Britain to seek employment dipped. Government ministers have implied a link between immigration and joblessness. "Controlling immigration is critical or we will risk losing another generation to dependency and hopelessness," said Iain Duncan Smith, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, in a speech last July.

The Coalition has imposed a cap on immigration from outside the European Union and has pledged to reduce net migration to "the tens of thousands" a year by the end of this parliament in 2015.

The Office for Budget Responsibility, however, has cast doubt on whether the Government will succeed in meeting this goal, with the Coalition's fiscal watchdog estimating that average annual migration until 2016 will be 140,000.

Net migration hit a record high of 252,000 in 2010, although this was mainly due to a sharp fall in the number of Britons leaving the country rather than an increase in immigration.

To analyse the impact of migration on the labour market, the Institute's researchers compared the overseas nationals who were allocated national insurance numbers in an area with the number of people claiming the dole locally.

Case studies: immigrant success stories

"I came with nothing. Now I employ four people" - Datsa Gaile, 39, Northampton

In seven years I have gone from living in a single room, scouring the country for a job – to editing my own newspaper and employing people. When I came to live in the UK in 2006, a friend and I arranged accommodation and work with an agency in Latvia. But when we arrived in London there was nothing. We thought we would have to stay on the streets. I realised I had to do things for myself. I made a CV and got a job. Then I brought my children to the UK. In 2009 I began studying for a BA in business studies at Northampton. At university, I began a paper for the Latvian community. We print 10,000 copies per month.

"I don't believe I'm taking someone else's job" - Agata Wasziewicz-Schmidt Dos Santos, 29, interpreter, Newquay

My husband and I came here in 2008 from Poland. First I worked at Starbucks because I couldn't get work in languages, even though I speak Polish, Portuguese and English. As soon as I changed my email address to a less foreign name, I started getting invited to interviews. I don't believe I'm taking someone else's job, because there aren't many people who speak Polish and Portuguese. I give back to the community, by working in schools and hospitals. My husband owns a martial arts business. He trains other instructors – one of them is an unemployed Brit.

Netherlands to close prisons for lack of criminals

2012-01-10T03:08:00.000-08:00

Netherlands to close prisons for lack of criminals

By our news desk

The Dutch justice ministry has announced it will close eight prisons and cut 1,200 jobs in the prison system. A decline in crime has left many cells empty.

During the 1990s the Netherlands faced a shortage of prison cells, but a decline in crime has since led to overcapacity in the prison system. The country now has capacity for 14,000 prisoners but only 12,000 detainees.

Deputy justice minister Nebahat Albayrak announced on Tuesday that eight prisons will be closed, resulting in the loss of 1,200 jobs. Natural redundancy and other measures should prevent any forced lay-offs, the minister said.

The overcapacity is a result of the declining crime rate, which the ministry's research department expects to continue for some time.

Belgian prisoners

Some reprieve might come from a deal with Belgium, which is facing overpopulation in its prisons. The two countries are working out an agreement to house Belgian prisoners in Dutch prisons. Some five-hundred Belgian prisoners could be transferred to the Tilburg prison by 2010.

The Netherlands would get 30 million euros in the deal, and it will allow the closing of the prisons in Rotterdam and Veenhuizen to be postponed until 2012.

Tower Hamlets 'worst area for child poverty' claims map

2012-01-10T03:07:00.000-08:00

The government's austerity cuts will hit families hardest, the research claims

A 'child poverty map' claims London borough Tower Hamlets is the worst area in the UK for child poverty.

More than half (52%) of children living there are in poverty, compared to the national average of one in five, claims the Campaign to End Child Poverty.

London boroughs Islington, Hackney, Westminster and Camden all feature in the top 10 list of areas worst affected.

The government says it is "tackling the root causes of poverty."

Children were classed as in poverty if their family's income fell below 60% of the average income of £25,000.

Bethnal Green and Bow was named as the worst parliamentary constituency for child poverty - while Prime Minster David Cameron's Witney constituency and Deputy Prime Minster Nick Clegg's Sheffield Hallam constituency made the top 20 lowest child poverty levels list.

Greater burden

A total of 89 constituencies already meet the government's headline target for 2020 by having child poverty rates of 10% or lower, the report said.

Local authorities with highest child poverty levels

Tower Hamlets, 52%
Islington, 43%
Manchester, 40%
Hackney, 39%
Westminster, 38%

It warned tax and benefit changes outlined in the recent Autumn Statement showed the greater burden was being placed on society's poor, which "not only puts children's wellbeing at risk, it carries economic risks too."

The Institute for Fiscal Studies recently warned a couple with two children will be £1,250 a year worse off by 2015 as families "shoulder the burden of austerity".

At below 60% of the average income of £25,000, families struggle to meet basic needs like food, heating, transport, clothing, school equipment and trips.

The report used tax credit data to examine the proportion of children living in low income homes, also taking into account recent unemployment to estimate changes in the number of children falling into poverty because their parents have been made redundant.

Local authorities with lowest child poverty levels

Isles of Scilly, 3%
Hart, 5%
Wokingham, 5%

Campaign executive director Alison Garnham said: "The child poverty map paints a stark picture of a socially segregated Britain where the life chances of millions of children are damaged by poverty and inequality.

"But it also gives us reason for hope. The child poverty target has already been met in the Prime Minister's constituency and nearly a hundred others, so never let it be said that the targets are impossible to meet. If we can do it in Witney today, we can do it in Hackney tomorrow."

'Tackling causes'

A government spokesman said: "We are supporting local authorities to tackle child poverty in Britain.

"We are tackling the root causes of poverty to break the cycle of deprivation for future generations.

"We also cutting fuel duty, freezing Council Tax, introducing the Pupil Premium, expanding free childcare for poor two-year-olds and cutting income tax for millions.

"Working-age benefits will go up by 5.2% in April and Universal Credit will see nearly 3 million households with a higher level of entitlement than present."

Size of U.S. debt is now the same as its entire economy: $15.23 TRILLION - Mail Online

2012-01-09T13:18:00.000-08:00

America's national debt has reached a worrying milestone - it is now as big as the whole of its economy.

The amount owed by the federal government to its creditors, combined with IOUs to government retirement and other schemes, now stands at $15.23 trillion.

The government estimated the value of goods and services produced by the economy in a year at $15.17trillion as of September.

Private projections showed that the economy grew to roughly $15.3 trillion by December, which the debt is likely to surpass this month

Private projections showed that the economy grew to roughly $15.3 trillion by December, which the debt is likely to surpass this month, USA Today reported today.

Steve Bell of the Bipartisan Policy Center, which has proposed cutting nearly $6trillion over ten years, said: 'The 100 per cent mark means that your entire debt is as big as everything you're producing in your country. Clearly, that can't continue.'

According to long-term forecasts, debt will carry on growing faster than the economy, which would need to expand by at least 6 per year to keep pace.

President Obama's 2012 budget shows the debt passing $26trillion ten years from now.

Growth of U.S. debt as a percentage of the economy

Last summer's deficit reduction deal could reduce that to $24trillion.

Many economists, such as the Brookings Institution's William Gale, say a better measure of the nation's debt is how much the government owes creditors, not counting $4.7trillion owed to future Social Security recipients and other government beneficiaries.

By that measure, the debt is roughly a third less: $10.5 trillion, or nearly 70 per cent the size of the economy.

By historic standards, that is still high.

The total national debt topped the size of the economy for three years during and after World War II.

It dropped to 32.5 per cent of the economy by 1981, and then started a steady climb under President Reagan, doubling over the next 12 years.

The combination of recession and stimulus spending caused it to soar again under Obama.

Among advanced economies, only Iceland, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan and Portugal have debts larger than their economies.

Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Italy are at the root of the European debt crisis.

The first three needed bailouts from European central banks; Italy's books are monitored by the International Monetary Fund.

The White House and Congress agreed in August to cut about $1trillion from federal agencies over ten years.

An additional $1.2trillion in automatic spending cuts are on the horizon, starting next year if lawmakers can't agree on an alternative.

Mark Zandi of Moody's Analytics said reaching the 100 per cent mark highlighted 'the grave need to address our long-term fiscal problems'.

Obama urges U.S. firms to keep jobs at home

President Barack Obama kicked off an effort to encourage U.S. businesses to keep jobs at home instead of outsourcing them overseas, as he rolled out a new election-year theme on Saturday aimed at courting middle-class voters.

In his weekly radio and video address, Obama previewed an event he will hold this week with business executives to highlight the advantages of investing in the U.S.

'We'll hear from business leaders who are bringing jobs back home and see how we can help other businesses follow their lead,' Obama said.

President Obama kicked off an effort to encourage U.S. businesses to keep jobs at home instead of outsourcing them overseas at the weekend

The White House forum on 'Insourcing American Jobs' will be held on Wednesday.

Executives from more than a dozen companies will attend, including padlock maker Master Lock, furniture company Lincolnton Furniture, software application developer GalaxE Solutions, and chemicals company DuPont.

The emphasis on keeping U.S. jobs at home is in line with a populist economic message championed by Obama that could play well with union workers, whose support the Democratic president will need to win re-election in November.

The White House sees an increasing trend of companies deciding to 'insource' jobs and invest in U.S.-based plants and factories, according to a White House official.

It wants to encourage more businesses to follow that trend, the official said.

The practice of U.S. companies moving jobs to foreign countries such as India and China, where labour is cheaper, is a source of concern to many U.S. workers.

The issue resonates strongly in Midwest industrial states such as Ohio and Michigan that have been hard hit, not only by the 2007-2009 economic crisis, but also by years of shrinkage in the manufacturing jobs sector.

Many of those states are battlegrounds that are vital to Obama's re-election hopes.

Republicans vying to challenge Obama in November, including front-runner Mitt Romney, have hammered him over his economic stewardship.

They contend that his regulatory policies, including new rules for Wall Street and the overhaul of the healthcare system, have discouraged investment.

They also say his fiscal stimulus measures have not succeeded in bringing down high unemployment.

But the White House was encouraged by the December jobs report, released last Friday, which showed a drop in the jobless rate to 8.5 per cent - its lowest level in nearly three years.

'We're heading in the right direction. And we're not going to let up,' Obama said.

GSK Forced Illiterate Parents Into Signing Over Child in Illegal Vaccine Experiments

2012-01-09T13:02:00.000-08:00

Perhaps the most disturbing fact to come out of the recent reports exposing GlaxoSmithKline’s illegal vaccine trails is that the company actually recruited doctors to force illiterate parents to sign over their babies for experiments — experiments that ultimately led to the deaths of 14 babies and an unknown number of adverse reactions. According to experts, the motivation to perform these deadly experiments may not have simply been to examine the effectiveness of the shots outside of the United States where such testing is illegal,but to generate profits.

Of course laboratory trials on humans are not legal in Argentina either, though GSK has gotten away with the experiments since 2007 until Judge Marcelo Aguinsky cracked down on GSK following a report by the National Administration of Medicine, Food and Technology (ANMAT in Spanish) exposing the baby deaths. Interestingly, eye witnesses also began to come forward such as hospital workers that observed the corrupt workings of GSK in the recruitment of doctors whose sole purpose was to force illiterate parents into signing over their own child into these illegal experiments.

Pediatrician Ana Marchese was working at the Eva Perón children’s public hospital in Santiago del Estero during the time the studies were being conducted. During a radio interview, she revealed the full story behind the GSK cover-up, announcing that GSK Argentina actually set a protocol at her hospital and began recruiting several doctors working at the location. Once these doctors were on board with the illegal experiments, certain patients would ‘automatically disappear’ and be taken to another location to meet with GSK-backed physicians. She stated:

“These doctors took advantage of many illiterate parents whom take their children for treatment by pressuring and forcing them into signing these 28-page consent forms and getting them involved in the trials.”

This is where the doctors would target poor, illiterate families with babies under the age of one to participate in the experiments. Marchese also noted that such procedures are not legal and occurred without any state knowledge or control. In fact, they don’t comply with even the very minimum of ethical requirements.

Muslim Footballer Opens ‘Alcohol-free Bar’

2012-01-09T13:01:00.001-08:00

In an effort to fight alcohol addiction, French Muslim football player Franck Ribery has opened an alcohol-free bar that would serve fruit juices.

"I wanted a concept that's a little different from the ordinary,” the 28-year old told French newspaper La Voix du Nord.

Called "O'Shahiz", the bar takes its name from Ribery’s two daughters Shahinez and Hizya.

The Bayern Munich midfielder is believed to have reverted to Islam in 2006 after marrying a Muslim woman of Moroccan origin.

Though he rarely speaks about his faith, Ribery recently told Le Paris Match magazine that he felt "safe” with Islam.

Ribery says the free-alcohol bar in his home town of Boulogne-sur-Mer aims to encourage the French to abandon alcohol drinking by offering alternative alcohol-free atmosphere.

The new bar would also allocate an area for French Muslims who feel uncomfortable in bars that offer alcohol drinks.

Islam takes an uncompromising stand in prohibiting intoxicants. It forbids Muslims from drinking or even selling alcohol.

The general rule in Islam is that any beverage that get people intoxicated when taken is unlawful, both in small and large quantities, whether it is alcohol, drugs, fermented raisin drink or something else.

A British study released in November 2010 found that alcohol is a more dangerous and lethal drug than heroin or crack cocaine.

Alcohol is blamed for the death of 195,000 people in the 27-nation European Union every year and more than 10,000 deaths were due to alcohol-related road accidents, with young people especially at risk.

It is also blamed for 7.4 percent of all ill-health and premature death in the EU, a 2006 EU-commissioned report said.

Pepsi Says Mountain Dew Can Dissolve Mouse Carcasses

2012-01-09T07:01:00.001-08:00

Pepsi Co., facing a lawsuit from a man who claims to have found a mouse in his Mountain Dew can, has an especially creative, if disgusting, defense: their soda would have dissolved a dead mouse before the man could have found it. An Illinois man sued Pepsi in 2009 after he claims he "spat out the soda to reveal a dead mouse," the Madison County Record reports. He claims he sent the mouse to Pepsi, which then "destroyed" the remains after he allowed them to test it, according to his complaint. Most shudder-worthy, however, is that Pepsi's lawyers also found experts to testify, based on the state of the remains sent to them, that "the mouse would have dissolved in the soda had it been in the can from the time of its bottling until the day the plaintiff drank it," according to the Record. (It would have become a "jelly-like substance," according to Pepsi, adds LegalNewsline.) This seems like a winning-the-battle-while-surrendering-the-war kind of strategy that hinges on the argument that Pepsi's product is essentially a can of bright green/yellow battery acid. The lawyers still appear to be lawyering behind the scenes but we cannot wait for this to come to trial (though we think a trial is about as likely as the chances of us "Doing the Dew" ever again).

Indiana Grandmother Is Having a New Baby. With Her Grandson

2012-01-09T06:58:00.000-08:00

Pearl Carter, 72, says she has never been happier after beginning an incestuous relationship with her 26-year-old grandchild Phil Bailey.

new Idea Magazine

The pensioner, from Indiana, US, is using her pension to pay a surrogate mother so they can have a child, reports New Zealand's New Idea magazine.

She said: "I'm not interested in anyone else's opinion. I am in love with Phil and he's in love with me.

"Soon I'll be holding my son or daughter in my arms and Phil will be the proud dad."

Her lover is the son of Pearl's daughter Lynette Bailey - who she put up for adoption when she was 18-years-old.

When his mother passed away, Phil tracked down his long lost grandmother and they quickly fell in love.

Pearl told New Idea magazine: "From the first moment that I saw him, I knew we would never have a grandmother-grandson relationship.

"For the first time in years I felt sexually alive."

It was during their second week together, after dinner and wine, that Pearl made her move.

"I called Phil into my bedroom, sat him on the bed, and then I leant over and kissed him," she added.

"I expected rejection but instead he kissed me back."

Phil revealed: "I wanted to kiss her there and then. My feelings were overwhelming.

"I love Pearl with all my heart. I've always been attracted to older women and I think Pearl is gorgeous. Now I'm going to be a dad and I can't wait.

"Yes, we get laughed at and bullied when we go out and kiss in public but we don't care. You can't help who you fall for."

The pair paid $54,000 (Â£35,000) to find a surrogate mother and buy a donor egg to inseminate with Phil's sperm.

They placed an advert asking for an open-minded surrogate, and Roxanne Campbell applied.

"Initially I was shocked," says Roxanne, 30. "But they're a brilliant pair and I saw how much they loved each other. I know the baby will be loved too."

Pearl said: "I am finally going to be a mum and not forced to give up my child. Phil's going to be a great dad.

"I never in a million years thought at 72 I'd be 'pregnant' and in love with my grandson.

Why is the Queen the head of state in Jamaica?

2012-01-09T06:57:00.000-08:00

“I love the Queen; she is a beautiful lady,” said newly-elected Portia Simpson Miller today, Jamaica’s first female Prime Minister, “but I think time come.”

Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Grenada, the Bahamas, Belize. All countries that are formally independent, yet have the Queen as their official head of state. Jamaica is another country that falls into that category, but today, Portia Simpson Miller, elected Prime Minister for the second time in last week’s election, pledged to change that. As she was sworn in, Simpson Miller made a 45 minute speech in which she vowed to drop the Queen as head of state and make the country a republic. She also promised to replace the privy council in London with the court of justice as Jamaica’s highest court of appeal, which she said would “end judicial surveillance from London”.

Jamaica became an independent country in 1962, and the very idea that they would retain a head of state who lives thousands of miles away seems extremely bizarre. Nevertheless, Simpson Miller has taken a bold step to mark her inauguration. Just one month after the first ever meeting of CELAC, the coalition of thirty-three American states, including Jamaica but excluding the US and Canada, it seems that the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean are in a stronger position than ever before. Most importantly, the people of the region have recognised the necessity of unity in the face of a common oppressor; the imperialist powers that seek to divide and rule them. Ever since the penning of the Monroe Doctrine, written by Secretary of State John Quincy Adams in 1823, the United States have viewed Latin America as their ‘backyard’, and acted accordingly.

But ‘America’s Backyard’ has become independent of the house. Of course, it is perfectly reasonable for a Caribbean island to not want an English head of state, but then again, it is perfectly reasonable for an island just off the coast of Argentina to not be an English colony. The fact is, these points are unreasonable where you are trapped in the mind-set of an Empire upon which the sun never sets. The sun has set, and it set a long time ago.

Once again, it seems that countries of the so-called “third world” are paving the way towards a progressive future, whilst England lags behind with an out-of-date, feudal, monarchy-based rule. A representative democracy in which the House of Lords are elected by no-one, and hold the power, second only to the Queen, to veto or change any law being passed. I’m sure none of these factors will stop British politicians lecturing other countries about “democracy”, “legitimacy” or how to run their internal affairs, whether it is Iran, Venezuela, Syria or, indeed, Jamaica.

CELAC held its first conference in Caracas on December 2-3rd 2011, exactly 188 years after the Monroe Doctrine was committed to paper. The coalition has given countries like Jamaica an extra impetus to demand the total freedom they are long overdue, and the new sense of regional solidarity will certainly pose a problem for those who spent so long salivating over the resources of the “banana republics” and sugar plantations. Latin America and the Caribbean have chosen freedom, and real independence. And a head of state that doesn’t live in Buckingham Palace.

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Web addicts have brain changes similar to alcoholics/drug abusers, research suggests

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Size of U.S. debt is now the same as its entire economy: $15.23 TRILLION - Mail Online

GSK Forced Illiterate Parents Into Signing Over Child in Illegal Vaccine Experiments

Muslim Footballer Opens ‘Alcohol-free Bar’

Pepsi Says Mountain Dew Can Dissolve Mouse Carcasses

Indiana Grandmother Is Having a New Baby. With Her Grandson

Why is the Queen the head of state in Jamaica?