Darwish, like many, didn’t start out as a drug addict. He did well in school, was very skilled at Tae Quan Do, and skateboarding and grew up in a family that provided him with a lot of opportunity. By the time he was 13 years old he was looking at professional skateboarding scholarship but instead started smoking marijuana. “I went to a pretty rough junior high school and began to get involved with smoking pot and hanging out with gangs,” says Darwish. “As a result, I lost interest in all my hobbies.”

Starting off with pot, Ramsy’s drug addiction soon escalated and he started using pills and other heavier drugs. Before he knew it, he had developed an addiction to opiates and prescription pain medication and was doing everything he could to get his next drug fix.

By the time Ramsey was ready for help, he had already burned all his bridges. “My family was hurt and it got to a point where they gave me an ultimatum - they weren’t going to watch me kill myself anymore,” he says. “They told me I could go to Narconon. I wanted help all along but was scared.”

Despite his fear, Darwish hopped on a plane and enrolled in the Narconon program - a long-term residential drug rehab program with a more than 70% success rate for permanent recovery. Within weeks, under the care of Narconon Freedom Center, Ramsy started thinking about what it would be like to have a life without drugs. “When I went through the sauna detoxification program at Narconon I didn’t think about doing drugs anymore,” he says. “I started to be happy. I even noticed that I was laughing more.”

Today Darwish has been stably off drugs for several years and is happily married. He explains that the Narconon program gave him the ability to be in control of his life and to confront his problems. “I thought my life was over and I had missed my opportunities,” says Darwish. “It turns out I hadn’t.”

Ramsy’s advice to others through his CNN Interview was to get help. “It is important to be able to leave and handle yourself,” he says. “You have to know that there’s hope and that things are fixable.”

Source: Narconon Freedom Treatment Center

MADD is very pleased that new fatality data from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) shows that drunk driving fatalities declined 9.7% with 11,773 in 2008 and 13,041 deaths in 2007. According to DOT, “the number of overall traffic fatalities reported in 2008 hit their lowest level since 1961 with 37,261 deaths and that fatalities in the first three months of 2009 continue to decrease. The fatality rate, which accounts for variables like fewer miles traveled, also reached the lowest level ever recorded.”

Two of the best states for drunk driving fatality reductions were New Mexico and Arizona with 20 and 21% drops respectively. Both states have all offender ignition interlock laws and are now performing better than the national average. The state-by-state fatality numbers are available at http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811172.pdf.

MADD National President, Laura Dean-Mooney, said, “The recession has had a major impact on these numbers. As the economy rebounds these gains could be erased unless we have strong laws, strong funding and strong enforcement as called for in MADD’s Campaign to Eliminate Drunk Driving.”

As a nation, we have the level of drunk driving that we chose to have. Texas has chosen to be the worst in the country with the largest number of fatalities by far and continues to lag behind the rest of the nation. “The influence of defense attorneys, segments of the alcohol industry and lack of leadership from the legislature and other elected officials keeps Texas in a drunk driving tolerant mode,” Dean-Mooney said. In November 1991, Mike Dean — Laura’s husband and father to their then 8-month-old-daughter — died on a Texas highway in a drunk driving crash caused by an offender who had a blood alcohol concentration of .34, more than four times the illegal drunk driving level and no prior DWI convictions.

Nationally, MADD thanks Members of Congress for including major provisions of the Campaign to Eliminate Drunk Driving in the House Committee version of the next highway reauthorization bill. “We applaud House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Jim Oberstar and Ranking Member John Mica as well as Highways and Transit Subcommittee Chairman Peter DeFazio and Ranking Member Jim Duncan as they introduced legislation that includes bold initiatives that will have a dramatic impact on highway safety in America,” said Dean-Mooney. According to a 2009 Pacific Institute for Research & Evaluation report issued recently alcohol-related traffic crashes cost Americans nearly $130 billion dollars.

MADD’s Campaign to Eliminate Drunk Driving includes support for high visibility enforcement - highly publicized, highly visible and frequent sobriety checkpoints, ignition interlocks for all convicted drunk drivers, development of advanced technologies that would not interfere with the general public but rather stop only those driving drunk (.08+ BAC), as well as grassroots support for all of the above. Eleven states now call for ignition interlocks for all convicted drunk drivers.

Source: Mothers Against Drunk Driving

BNA’s mid-year survey of 23 well-known economists found that the consensus predicts the economy will contract 2.6 percent this year and will expand 2 percent next year. That would match the growth pace of 2007 but is well short of the 3.1 percent the world’s largest economy averaged in 1995-2004, according to the International Monetary Fund.

All but three of the BNA panelists expect real GDP to turn positive in the summer and only one sees the decline continuing into the fourth quarter. But growth of 2 percent in 2010 is not brisk enough to keep the unemployment rate from rising further: it is forecast to average 9.9 percent next year. It was at 9.4 percent in May.

Survey panelists predict a sluggish recovery, in which:

• The recession will end this summer, but most consumers won’t recognize it as a recovery until the middle or latter part of 2010.
• Federal Reserve policymakers will keep monetary policy on hold this year. That will change in 2010 as the central bank acts to remove some easing, though not very aggressively, since inflation is expected to remain low. The consensus predicts the federal funds rate will reach 1 percent by the end of next year.
• Long-term interest rates as measured by the yield of the 10-year Treasury bond will rise to 4.33 percent by the end of 2010 from an average 3.82 percent at the end of this year. It is around 3.5 percent now.
• Credit conditions improve and the $787 billion fiscal stimulus package bolsters spending and mitigates state and local government cutbacks.
• The glut of housing inventory weighing on the economy is beginning to correct as businesses which did not anticipate the absolute collapse of sales activity late last year realign inventories appropriately.
• The Obama administration’s stimulus package will help support the recovery, though economists vary on how much weight to give it, particularly in the first year. Consensus is that, mostly by increasing business confidence, it will return the economy to full employment faster than would have been the case without it.
• GDP will start expanding again this year but growth will be uneven as many areas — like construction — continue to shed jobs. Construction job losses will be mitigated somewhat by home building and stimulus-funded projects, but not enough to offset significant decline in nonresidential construction.
• A total of about 6 million payroll jobs have been lost, or 4.3 percent of employment since the recession began in December 2007. Panelists expect total losses to reach 7.6 million jobs by the time employment hits bottom in the first half of 2010, although the pace of the decline will decelerate steadily.
• In the first half of 2010, payrolls will grow on average 51,000 a month.

Source: BNA

The following analysis is provided to Pennsylvania reporters as part of the Keystone Research Center’s ongoing tracking of the health of the Pennsylvania economy. The Keystone Research Center is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization that promotes a more prosperous and equitable Pennsylvania economy.

The carnage in the national job market continued unrelenting in June, with the U.S. shedding 467,000 jobs and the national underemployment rate reaching 16.5% - roughly one of every six Americans in the labor force.

Today’s national job numbers place the debate about Pennsylvania’s state budget in a new context. It is well known to economists that the best way for state government to limit job loss in an economic recession is to maintain spending levels. Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and others have shown that direct spending reductions may generate more adverse economic consequences than tax increases, particularly tax increases on higher-income households. That means tax increases can be the least damaging way to close state fiscal deficits in the short run and provide for long-term economic growth. (www.fiscalpolicy.org/10-30-01sfp.pdf)

Basic economics underscores that Governor Ed Rendell’s proposal to balance the state’s budget in part through an increase in the state’s personal income tax is on target and that the alternative course of draconian cuts in state spending would reduce job creation and increase unemployment. So far Pennsylvania unemployment remains about a percentage point lower than the national rate - an advantage that translates into 60,000 jobs. The wrong budget agreement would jeopardize that Pennsylvania advantage.

The basic economic reasons that maintaining state spending ideally through revenue increases that fall on higher earners are straightforward:

1. Government injects every dollar it raises into the economy.

2. Taxpayers, by contrast, save some of their income and those savings do not stimulate the economy in the short run. The income of higher earners is most likely to be saved rather than used for consumption or investment in a deeply depressed economy.

3. State spending financed through bonds - in effect, through future state revenues - can be especially stimulating to the state economy in the short run, one reason that bond-financed water and sewer infrastructure and the state’s $650 million Alternative Energy Investment Fund are so well timed.

From the point of view of maximizing short-run job creation, an even better alternative to the Governor’s current proposal would be to collect needed state revenues more substantially from higher earners, through a differentially higher tax on investment income. This can be done in Pennsylvania without a constitutional change. (As a result of private sector pessimism about future demand, investment income is especially likely to stay on the sideline in today’s economy. This makes the stimulating impact of spending financed by higher tax rates on investment income especially great).

While Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate is lower than the national one, it continues to move higher as the U.S. labor market weakens further. Moreover, initial claims for unemployment insurance also released this morning were above 40,000 in Pennsylvania for the third week in a row, a figure which is 87% higher than during a comparable period prior to the start of the recession. Unemployment is higher in every part of Pennsylvania, although manufacturing-dependent rural areas have been especially hard hit. County-level unemployment rates are available now for May and can be seen in an online map at http://www.keystoneresearch.org/unemploymap.html.

Source: The Keystone Research Center

A new law designed to protect public health and reduce taxpayer costs through the collection of mercury thermostats is effective today. The Mercury Thermostat Collection Act of 2008 (AB 2347, Ruskin) increases the number of thermostat collection locations and makes recycling more convenient. The law requires heating and air conditioning wholesalers with physical locations in California to collect thermostats from the public and contractors. Retailers are also encouraged to participate.

Co-sponsored by the California Product Stewardship Council (CPSC) and Sierra Club California, AB 2347 is California’s first full producer responsibility legislation and makes California only the third state to pass such a law in an effort to protect public health.

Mercury is a potent neurotoxin. On average, mercury thermostats contain about three grams of mercury. Each year in the U.S., as many as 630,000 infants are born with mercury levels associated with IQ loss, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

“We want contractors and the public to know that this new law is in effect to protect the public from mercury exposure,” says Heidi Sanborn, CPSC Executive Director. “Having the producers fund and manage the collection system reduces public costs to manage the product at the end-of-life and is in line with the overall framework for an Extended Producer Responsibly (EPR) system adopted by the California Integrated Waste Management Board in 2008.”

Sanborn praised the efforts of Honeywell International Inc., as part of the Thermostat Recycling Corporation (TRC), and the California Retailers Association for supporting the recycling legislation.

CPSC is an organization of local governments and other partners, formed to support development of EPR policy and its implementation. EPR is a policy whereby product manufacturers are responsible for the life cycle of their products. CPSC’s mission is to shift California’s product waste management system from one focused on government-funded and ratepayer-financed waste diversion to one that relies on producer responsibility in order to reduce public costs and drive improvements in product design that promote environmental sustainability.

Information about free thermostat recycling in California can be found at http://www.calpsc.org/products/thermostats.html

Source: California Product Stewardship Council

The suit, filed by Consumer Watchdog and Strumwasser & Woocher LLP, alleges that the DMHC, and its Director Cindy Ehnes, recently changed the state agency’s policy to permit insurers to deny coverage for Applied Behavioral Analysis (”ABA”), an essential treatment for autism, in plain violation of the California Mental Health Parity Act. That law requires health insurers to cover and pay for all medically necessary treatments for autism, including ABA. If successful, the suit would require the DMHC to bar insurers from refusing to cover medically necessary ABA treatments. The suit also seeks to compel the DMHC to turn over records that would expose the full extent of the DMHC’s violations of the California Mental Health Parity Act and the Knox-Keene Act.

Download the complaint filed at the Los Angeles Superior Court here: http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/resources/Conformed_PetitionComplaint.pdf

Download the lawsuit exhibits here: http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/resources/Exhibits.pdf

“Californians, including those stricken by autism, and their parents and caregivers, expect regulators to enforce the law, not to side with insurance companies seeking to boost their profits by denying patients the care they need,” said Harvey Rosenfield, founder of the non-profit advocacy group Consumer Watchdog and author of the landmark insurance reform initiative Proposition 103. “Governor Schwarzenegger, a longtime and vocal supporter of the Special Olympics and developmentally disabled children, will now have to explain in court why his administration is allowing health insurers to evade state mental health laws and shift health care costs to already beleaguered taxpayers.”

Governor Schwarzenegger, who appointed the current Director of the DMHC, has received $711,200 in campaign contributions from Blue Cross, Kaiser and Blue Shield — three health insurers regulated by the DMHC that commonly deny coverage for autism treatments.

The DMHC’s actions upholding heath insurance denials for medically necessary autism treatment puts children at risk by forcing parents to seek treatment through over-stretched taxpayer-funded programs, or to forgo treatment altogether.

“HMOs and health insurers are denying autistic children the most effective medical treatment that is available, with severe consequences for them, their families, and the state’s taxpayers,” said Fredric D. Woocher, lead counsel in the suit. “Insurance companies are blatantly violating California law. Yet the Department of Managed Health Care is not only standing by and doing nothing to prevent these violations; it is actually supporting the insurers as they abandon autistic children and their families.”

Insurer’s New Tactic in the Battle to Avoid Paying for Autism

ABA is a form of behavioral therapy that has been scientifically proven to improve brain function in autistic children. For years, insurance companies refused to pay for ABA on the grounds that it was “experimental” and that there was insufficient medical evidence to show that it was an effective treatment for autism. But the evidence supporting the efficacy of ABA is now overwhelming. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the United States Surgeon General all agree that behavioral interventions, such as ABA, are a critical component of any comprehensive autism treatment program.

According to the lawsuit, until March of this year, health care consumers were able to appeal an insurer’s denial of ABA through the DMHC’s Independent Medical Review (”IMR”) system, in which a treatment denial is reviewed by a team of doctors that is unaffiliated with the insurance company that denied the treatment and independent of the DMHC.

The suit alleges that as the IMR doctors increasingly overturned insurer treatment denials, compelling the insurers to pay for ABA, insurers privately urged the DMHC to change its procedures and process the treatment denials through the DMHC’s own internal grievance review system. Unlike the IMR system, in which independent doctors evaluate whether a treatment should be provided on the basis of whether it is medically necessary and effective, the grievance system is conducted by DMHC staff, who are not doctors and who simply defer to the insurers’ determination of whether the claim is even covered by their health care policies.

“Health insurers want to re-write the law to benefit their bottom line and the regulators are holding the pen,” said Pam Pressley, Consumer Watchdog’s Litigation Director. “California’s mental health laws are clear: doctors get to decide whether care is needed, not insurance company bureaucrats or government lawyers.”

Consumer Watchdog has learned that the health insurance industry mounted a lobbying campaign to convince the Schwarzenegger Administration that ABA is an “educational” program not covered by health insurance policies. On March 9, 2009, the DMHC issued a memo indicating that the agency would review ABA and other autism treatment denials through the DMHC’s internal grievance system as urged by insurers.

Consumer Watchdog has evidence that the DMHC has in fact upheld the insurers’ denials of ABA on coverage grounds in violation of the Mental Health Parity Act. That law requires insurers to pay for any “medically necessary” and effective autism treatment — a decision that must be made by independent doctors, not by insurance company bureaucrats or government lawyers.

Kristie Sepulveda Burchit, mother of Aidan who suffers from autism, joined the group to announce the lawsuit. Kristie’s insurer, Blue Cross, first refused to provide ABA in 2008 on the ground that it was not medically effective as a treatment for autism. Kristie requested an IMR and the independent physicians who reviewed her appeal overturned the Blue Cross denial. Then, in 2009, shortly after the DMHC issued its March 9 memo, Blue Cross again refused to pay for Burchit’s continued ABA autism treatment, this time on the basis that it supposedly was “not covered” by Kristie’s health insurance policy because ABA is an “educational service.” Burchit has now appealed the denial to the DMHC through the grievance system and is awaiting a decision from the regulator. Consumer Watchdog said that if it wins the lawsuit, the DMHC would have to order Blue Cross to provide ABA treatment for Aidan.

The suit also alleges that the DMHC and its Director Cindy Ehnes:

• Illegally instituted a policy of denying ABA treatment on the ground that providers were inadequately licensed, despite the fact that the law clearly requires health insurers to cover all medically necessary treatments for autism, including ABA, whenever such services are either provided or supervised by a licensed or certified professional.

• Illegally withheld public documents properly requested under the California Public Records Act, which would expose how the DMHC conducts its “grievance system” and would reveal the full extent of the DMHC’s violations of the mental health parity law.

Nearly 1 out of every 150 children born in the United States is diagnosed with autism. As of December 2007, the California Department of Developmental Services provided care to nearly 37,000 Californians with autism.

Source: Consumer Watchdog

U.S. District Judge Denny Chin, in sentencing Madoff, stated, “Objectively speaking, the fraud was staggering” and that “the breach of trust was massive.” Judge Chin described Madoff’s crimes as “extraordinarily evil” and said that Madoff’s was “not merely a bloodless crime that takes place on paper but one that takes a staggering human toll.” Judge Chin said, “No other white collar case is comparable in terms of the scope, duration and enormity of the fraud and the degree of the betrayal.” Prior to imposing sentence, Judge Chin heard from nine victims who testified as to the devastation Madoff’s fraud had caused to their lives and the lives of their families.

As part of his sentence, Madoff, 71, was also ordered to forfeit a total of $170,799,000,000, which represents the total proceeds of and property involved in certain of Madoff’s crimes. Judge Chin had entered a preliminary order of forfeiture on June 26, 2009, which completely divested Madoff of his interest in all property, including real estate, investments, cars and boats, in partial satisfaction of the forfeiture judgment. In addition, by order entered June 24, 2009, Judge Chin extended the time for ruling on an order of restitution for 90 days from the date of sentencing.

Madoff has been in custody since he pleaded guilty on March 12, 2009, to an 11-count information charging securities fraud, investment adviser fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, false statements, perjury, false filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and theft from an employee benefit plan.

Mr. Dassin praised the investigative work of the FBI. Mr. Dassin also thanked the SEC, the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, the U.S. Department of Labor, the Securities Investor Protection Act (SIPA) Trustee, and the U.S. Marshals Service for their assistance.

“The sentence imposed today recognizes the significance of Bernard Madoff’s crimes,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Lev L. Dassin. “While today’s sentence is an important milestone, the investigation is continuing. We are committed to bringing additional charges against anyone else who bears criminal responsibility. At the same time, we are focused on tracing, restraining and liquidating assets to maximize recoveries for the victims.”

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Marc Litt, Lisa A. Baroni, William J. Stellmach, Barbara A. Ward and Sharon Frase are in charge of the prosecution.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice

Motor vehicle drivers in the 13 states that have adopted California’s Clean Car Standards approved earlier today by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would save hundreds of dollars annually at the gas pump while reducing heat-trapping greenhouse gases, according to a report issued today by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). The states — Arizona, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington — represent approximately one quarter of the U.S. vehicle fleet and vehicle miles traveled.

“Cleaner cars are a trifecta that will save families money at the gas pump, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and cut global warming pollution from tailpipes,” said James Fine, economist and policy scientist at Environmental Defense Fund.

Today’s EPA grant of California’s long-standing request for a Clean Air Act waiver immediately clears the way for vehicle emissions standards in these states to cut global warming pollution. The waiver request was denied under the Bush administration. Under a January 26, 2009 Presidential Memorandum, EPA was directed to reconsider the decision. The standards were adopted in Assembly Bill 1493 (2002, Pavley), the first law in the United States to set limits on global warming pollution from tailpipes. The waiver grant follows a breakthrough agreement announced by the Obama administration, states and automakers in May to put in place a national clean car program in model years 2012 to 2016 that is based on the state standards.

The new report, Saving Fuel, Saving Money, Saving Our Climate, compares automobile fleets under two scenarios for years 2010 through 2030. The first scenario is based on current and projected federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards. The second scenario is based on implementation of California’s vehicle greenhouse gas performance standards (i.e., Clean Car Standards) through 2020, with continued progress through 2030. These Clean Car Standards can be achieved using existing technologies, including: alternative fuels, advanced tire technology, engine adjustments and improved air conditioning systems.

“This study shows that once these standards go into effect in these states, drivers will save billions of dollars, while dramatically reducing global warming pollution from tailpipes, one of the major sources of global warming pollution,” said Fine.

The analysis features aggregate and state-specific results for the states that have already adopted the standards. Combined, the 13 states will avoid consuming 16 billion gallons of fuel in 2030, saving drivers $40 billion in fuel costs based on an average gas price of $2.50. Depending on future gas prices and actual miles driven, and after subtracting estimated costs of vehicles to comply with standards, drivers of 2030 model cars will gain net benefits between $33 and $560; drivers of light duty trucks will enjoy net benefits between $340 and $1,390. In addition to fuel savings, the standards will avoid 100 million metric tons of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2030 alone, and nearly one billion tons of emissions between 2010 and 2030. Cutting one billion tons of pollution is roughly equivalent to eliminating two years worth of California’s emissions from all sources, based on 2004 estimates of 484 million metric tons (MMT).

Low-income drivers will be hardest hit by rising fuel prices because they spend proportionately twice as much of household budgets on transportation compared to average drivers.(1) Consequently, this same group of drivers will benefit most from more efficient vehicles. We estimate that people driving 10-year-old cars in 2030 are expected to gain an annual net benefit of $164 to $770 depending on the extent of driving, fuel prices and actual costs of car technologies required to meet the standards. Nearly a quarter (23 percent) of the households in the 13 states are considered low-income.

New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey have the largest fleets of the 13 states, so they will reap the greatest benefits. For example, New York drivers will save nearly $8 billion in fuel costs between 2010 and 2030 and avoid 184 MMT of GHG emissions between 2010 and 2030. New Jersey will save $4.1 billion and avoid 102 MMT of GHG emissions. The table below shows avoided fuel costs and GHG emissions from cars and trucks in 2030 in each state.

“California and these states have pioneered clean car standards that reduce one of this country’s leading sources of global warming pollution, while strengthening our national and economic security,” said Derek Walker, director of Environmental Defense Fund’s California Climate Initiative.

The Saving Fuel, Saving Money, Saving Our Climate report analyzed automobile fleet data of 13 states using the VISION model developed by Argonne National Laboratory. The study compares fuel consumption and emissions for cars and light trucks in two scenarios based on vehicle fuel efficiency estimates developed by the California Air Resources Board (CARB). Estimates of net benefits are derived from subtracting annualized vehicle modification costs from estimates of avoided fuel costs.

Source: Environmental Defense Fund

The focus is particularly high in the Mediterranean region where in the last few years we have been witnessing an increasingly severe water scarcity. Frost & Sullivan has been looking at this sector with particular interest and will soon publish a comprehensive study on the Spanish water market with trends, challenges and opportunities.

Why Spain? Frost & Sullivan Analyst, Nuno Oscar Branco, who has been researching the market and conducting extensive interviews with market participants, confirms: “Spain is the largest desalination market in the Mediterranean region, but countries such as Algeria, Morocco or Libya, to name just a few, have joined the desalination bandwagon and are investing heavily on this source of fresh drinking water.”

Spain built its first desalinization plant in 1965 and was one of the first countries in the Mediterranean region to consider desalination as a viable solution to solve water shortage issues in large urban areas. “Spain is close to reaching the peak of its desalination programme and is on the forefront of the desalination markets, leading the way in employing new technologies and plant design,” says Frost & Sullivan’s analyst Nuno Oscar Branco .

Spurred by the PROGRAMA A.G.U.A., Spain has an estimated investment plan of about $5.5 Billion for the period 2004 to 2015 in desalinization treatment plants in an effort to increase the production capacity of fresh water by 1,100 hm3 per year.

At a time when the construction market is in trouble, investments by the Spanish Government in the water infrastructure is proving to be a good opportunity for EPC companies, construction companies, project engineering firms and technology providers. “The Spanish desalination market still offers opportunities for local and international companies that have expertise especially in key areas of energy efficiency as well as process and operation optimisation,” according to Nuno Oscar Branco. Desalination is looking at the opportunity of going green through renewable energy options. And in fact, there are technologies already available that would use wind or off-shore solar power units as their energy source for desalination.

The presence of Spanish companies is also very strong in other geographical markets: “Albeit the desalination market in Spain is at its peak,” concludes Frost & Sullivan’s analyst Nuno Oscar Branco, “Spanish companies have developed strong know-how in the construction and operation of large desalinization plants and are winning important contracts in Algeria, India and Australia.”

Drivers for investment in water desalination plants will continue to remain strong in the Mediterranean countries for the next decades.

Source: Frost & Sullivan

Amnesty International members across Europe, including the United Kingdom, Germany and Turkey, take to the streets in support of independent media in Azerbaijan which is coming under increasing pressure from the authorities.

This action, part of the organization’s solidarity campaign with independent journalists and human rights activists in Azerbaijan, comes as the country’s parliament (Milli Mejlis) prepares to discuss on Tuesday, June 30, legislative changes affecting the registration and financing of independent media and civil society.

If adopted, they will increase the government’s control and scrutiny of the activities of journalists and human rights activists and will undermine their ability to monitor abuses and hold the authorities to account. They could also limit the access to the country for representatives of international human rights organizations.

Emin Huseynov, head of the country’s media watchdog Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety (IRFS) said that if voted through by parliament, the legislative changes would pave the way for the closure of independent media and organizations that stand for freedom of expression.

“The introduction of restrictive legislation and the banning of foreign radio broadcasters are some of the methods that the authorities in Azerbaijan are using to muzzle the media there,” said Nicola Duckworth, Amnesty International’s Europe and Central Asia program director.

“Independent journalists are being intimidated, arrested and sent to prison after unfair trials. Attacks on and even murder of independent journalists remain unresolved.”

“A society without an independent media and civil society is a voiceless society. Its members are easy prey for human rights violations,” Duckworth said.

Amnesty International has compiled a list of cases illustrative of the range of human rights abuses that journalists in Azerbaijan have been subjected to in recent months.

“President Ilham Aliyev has declared that the state should protect the rights of all journalists. It is high time that the authorities of Azerbaijan match their words as well as international obligations with deeds,” Duckworth said.

As the urgent first step, Amnesty International calls upon the Milli Mejlis not to pass any amendments that could be used in effect to prevent the legitimate activities of media and civil society organizations. The country should bring its existing legislation and practice into line with the government’s international obligations.

Cases

Emin Huseynov, head of the IRFS, has been allegedly beaten up by the police on several occasions.

Aqil Xalil from Azadliq newspaper was stabbed in the chest and later physically attacked again in 2008, but though the authorities claimed they had found a perpetrator, Aqil Xalil and Azerbaijani human rights organizations believe that the true assailants have escaped justice.

Elmar Huseynov, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Monitor, was shot dead in 2005. Four years on, no one has been brought to justice.

Qanimat Zahid and Eynulla Fatullayev are in prison after unfair trials for their peaceful journalistic work. Amnesty International considers them prisoners of conscience and calls for their immediate and unconditional release.

Journalists in Naxcivan, an autonomous Azerbaijani exclave situated between Armenia, Iran and Turkey, have also been repressed for trying to report alleged abuses of power by local officials.

Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 2.2 million supporters, activists and volunteers in more than 150 countries campaigning for human rights worldwide. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public, and works to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied.

Source: www.amnestyusa.org