Honduras Restricts Liberties to Prevent Rebellion
September 28, 2009
MyWay News
By Mark Stevenson
Interim government leaders have suspended constitutionally guaranteed civil liberties in a pre-emptive strike against widespread rebellion Monday, three months to the day since they ousted President Manuel Zelaya in a military-backed coup.
Zelaya supporters said they would ignore the decree issued late Sunday and march in the streets as planned. Some already had arrived in the capital, Tegucigalpa, from outlying provinces.
The measures – announced just hours after Zelaya called on his backers to stage mass protest marches in what he called a “final offensive” against the government – are likely to draw harsh criticism from the international community, which has condemned the June 28 coup and urged that Zelaya be reinstated to the presidency and allowed to serve out his term, which ends in January.
Officials also issued an ultimatum to Brazil on Sunday, giving the South American country 10 days to decide whether to turn Zelaya over for arrest or grant him asylum and, presumably, take him out of Honduras. They did not specify what they would do after the 10 days were up.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva responded, saying that his government “doesn’t accept ultimatums from coup-plotters.”
Interim President Roberto Micheletti has pledged not to raid the Brazilian Embassy building where Zelaya has been holed up with more than 60 supporters since he sneaked back into the country a week ago. The building is surrounded by armed police and soldiers. On Tuesday, the day after Zelaya’s return, baton-wielding troops used tear gas and water cannons to chase away thousands of his supporters.
Protesters say at least 10 people have been killed since the coup, while the government puts the toll at three.
Interim Foreign Minister Carlos Lopez has said that, because Brazil has broken off diplomatic relations with the interim government, it would have to remove the Brazilian flag and shield from the Embassy “and it (the building) becomes a private office.”
The government’s suspension of civil liberties violates rights guaranteed in the Honduran Constitution: The decree prohibits unauthorized gatherings and allows police to arrest without a warrant “any person who poses a danger to his own life or those of others.”
The Honduran Constitution forbids arrests without warrants except when a criminal is caught in the act.
The government measures also permit authorities to temporarily close news media outlets that “attack peace and public order.”
In a nationally broadcast announcement, the government explained it took the steps it did “to guarantee peace and public order in the country and due to the calls for insurrection that Mr. Zelaya has publicly made.”
There was no immediate reaction from Zelaya, who is demanding to be reinstated and has said that Micheletti’s government “has to fall.”
Zelaya’s supporters pledged to ignore the restrictions and forge ahead with their scheduled demonstrations.
“The protest is on,” said pro-Zelaya leader Juan Barahona. “Tomorrow we will be in the streets.”
The media restrictions appear aimed at pro-Zelaya radio and television stations that – while subject to brief raids immediately after the coup – had been allowed to operate freely, openly criticizing the interim government and broadcasting Zelaya’s statements.
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FOX-TV Chicago Ordered Not to Run Anti-Olympics Story
September 27, 2009
Drudge Report
A local TV station that reported on Chicagoans NOT wanting the Olympics has been told NOT to run the report again, insiders tell the DRUDGE REPORT!
The Chicago Olympic Committee told FOX Chicago that its broadcast “would harm Chicago’s chances” to be awarded the games.
The station’s news director ordered staff to hold fire after the report aired once last Thursday morning, claims a source.
Chicago, Madrid, Tokyo and Rio are mounting strong bids for the honor to host in 2016.
The International Olympic Committee makes its decision on Friday. President Obama will lead the in-person push.
Click here for the full report from the Drudge Report
Ron Paul Questions the Government’s Corruption
September 27, 2009
MN Daily
By Anissa Stocks and Taryn Wobbema
Addressing issues of economic responsibility and big government, Reps. Ron Paul, R-Texas and Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. spoke at a student town hall meeting in Northrop Auditorium Friday night to an audience of more than 600 people.
Bachmann and Paul highlighted the war on drugs, income tax and the government’s interference with the free market as policies that need to be changed in the United States.
The date of the speech coincided with the introduction of a bill Paul sponsored in the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services.
The bill, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act , calls for an audit of the U.S. Federal Reserve to be completed by the end of 2010.
With wide-spread support including 271 co-sponsors, the bill calls for an end to the secrecy surrounding the acts of the Federal Reserve.
“Today, Ron Paul achieved a 26-year dream,” Bachmann said.
Both Bachmann and Paul blamed the Federal Reserve for the collapse of the dollar, citing its ability to print money without accountability.
“You can’t just print dollars,” Paul said.
Conservative groups, including Young Americans for Liberty and the College Republicans sponsored the event.
Minnesota College Republicans Chairman Abdul Magba-Kamara said Minnesota’s 5th and 6th Congressional districts have a strong Ron Paul following.
Chris Huxtable , president of Young Americans for Liberty — known as Students for Ron Paul during his 2008 presidential campaign — emphasized the importance of presenting opposing views on a campus like the University of Minnesota, which he views as liberal.
“It’s good to have rallies and events like this because they give people energy and something to look forward to,” he said. “If times seem dark, there is a hope for freedom and Ron Paul is the movement.”
Paul said the federal government does not have the right to tax a person’s income or dictate the way in which people live their private lives. He said it is the citizens’ duty to protect themselves from big government.
“The good patriot sticks with the people and questions the government,” Paul said.
He addressed the government’s use of fear to push its own agenda, pointing at the PATRIOT Act , the recent bailout and the wars in the Middle East.
Bachmann said today’s economic issues will be handed to the next generation to fix.
Following the speeches, which were met with both positive and negative outbursts from the crowd, there was a question and answer period. Most questions centered on the current health care reform debate.
Bachmann and Paul stated succinctly their belief that health care is not a right.
Karen Zaklika , 61, of St. Paul said she attended the event to show support for a public health care option. She said she would have liked to hear more of their stances.
Zach Holmquist , a sophomore English major, said the speakers did not need to talk more about the subject because that statement summed it up.
When Bachmann posed a question to the audience about whether they wanted health care under a system like those in the United Kingdom or the Soviet Union , those in the audience who, like Zaklika, support universal health care shouted, “Yes!”
Bachmann mentioned the Soviet Union’s health care system several times Friday in present tense — the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s.
Despite naysayers, the event raised excitement in furthering a belief in individual freedom. Organizers said this will help gain more support for Ron Paul.
“It’s important that we understand that we have not gained a lot in Washington yet,” Paul said. “We have a long way to go, but we’re making progress.”
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Obama Orders More School For Kids
September 27, 2009 by JP
Filed under Government
September 27th, 2009
Yahoo! News/Associated Press
By Libby Quaid
Students beware: The summer vacation you just enjoyed could be sharply curtailed if President Barack Obama gets his way.
Obama says American kids spend too little time in school, putting them at a disadvantage with other students around the globe.
“Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas,” the president said earlier this year. “Not with Malia and Sasha, not in my family, and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom.”
The president, who has a sixth-grader and a third-grader, wants schools to add time to classes, to stay open late and to let kids in on weekends so they have a safe place to go.
“Our school calendar is based upon the agrarian economy and not too many of our kids are working the fields today,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.
Fifth-grader Nakany Camara is of two minds. She likes the four-week summer program at her school, Brookhaven Elementary School in Rockville, Md. Nakany enjoys seeing her friends there and thinks summer school helped boost her grades from two Cs to the honor roll.
But she doesn’t want a longer school day. “I would walk straight out the door,” she said.
Domonique Toombs felt the same way when she learned she would stay for an extra three hours each day in sixth grade at Boston’s Clarence R. Edwards Middle School.
“I was like, `Wow, are you serious?’” she said. “That’s three more hours I won’t be able to chill with my friends after school.”
Her school is part of a 3-year-old state initiative to add 300 hours of school time in nearly two dozen schools. Early results are positive. Even reluctant Domonique, who just started ninth grade, feels differently now. “I’ve learned a lot,” she said.
Does Obama want every kid to do these things? School until dinnertime? Summer school? And what about the idea that kids today are overscheduled and need more time to play?
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Obama and Duncan say kids in the United States need more school because kids in other nations have more school.
“Young people in other countries are going to school 25, 30 percent longer than our students here,” Duncan told the AP. “I want to just level the playing field.”
While it is true that kids in many other countries have more school days, it’s not true they all spend more time in school.
Kids in the U.S. spend more hours in school (1,146 instructional hours per year) than do kids in the Asian countries that persistently outscore the U.S. on math and science tests — Singapore (903), Taiwan (1,050), Japan (1,005) and Hong Kong (1,013). That is despite the fact that Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong have longer school years (190 to 201 days) than does the U.S. (180 days).
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Regardless, there is a strong case for adding time to the school day.
Researcher Tom Loveless of the Brookings Institution looked at math scores in countries that added math instruction time. Scores rose significantly, especially in countries that added minutes to the day, rather than days to the year.
“Ten minutes sounds trivial to a school day, but don’t forget, these math periods in the U.S. average 45 minutes,” Loveless said. “Percentage-wise, that’s a pretty healthy increase.”
In the U.S., there are many examples of gains when time is added to the school day.
Charter schools are known for having longer school days or weeks or years. For example, kids in the KIPP network of 82 charter schools across the country go to school from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., more than three hours longer than the typical day. They go to school every other Saturday and for three weeks in the summer. KIPP eighth-grade classes exceed their school district averages on state tests.
In Massachusetts’ expanded learning time initiative, early results indicate that kids in some schools do better on state tests than do kids at regular public schools. The extra time, which schools can add as hours or days, is for three things: core academics — kids struggling in English, for example, get an extra English class; more time for teachers; and enrichment time for kids.
Regular public schools are adding time, too, though it is optional and not usually part of the regular school day. Their calendar is pretty much set in stone. Most states set the minimum number of school days at 180 days, though a few require 175 to 179 days.
Several schools are going year-round by shortening summer vacation and lengthening other breaks.
Many schools are going beyond the traditional summer school model, in which schools give remedial help to kids who flunked or fell behind.
Summer is a crucial time for kids, especially poorer kids, because poverty is linked to problems that interfere with learning, such as hunger and less involvement by their parents.
That makes poor children almost totally dependent on their learning experience at school, said Karl Alexander, a sociology professor at Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins University, home of the National Center for Summer Learning.
Disadvantaged kids, on the whole, make no progress in the summer, Alexander said. Some studies suggest they actually fall back. Wealthier kids have parents who read to them, have strong language skills and go to great lengths to give them learning opportunities such as computers, summer camp, vacations, music lessons, or playing on sports teams.
“If your parents are high school dropouts with low literacy levels and reading for pleasure is not hard-wired, it’s hard to be a good role model for your children, even if you really want to be,” Alexander said.
Extra time is not cheap. The Massachusetts program costs an extra $1,300 per student, or 12 percent to 15 percent more than regular per-student spending, said Jennifer Davis, a founder of the program. It received more than $17.5 million from the state Legislature last year.
The Montgomery County, Md., summer program, which includes Brookhaven, received $1.6 million in federal stimulus dollars to operate this year and next, but it runs for only 20 days.
Aside from improving academic performance, Education Secretary Duncan has a vision of schools as the heart of the community. Duncan, who was Chicago’s schools chief, grew up studying alongside poor kids on the city’s South Side as part of the tutoring program his mother still runs.
“Those hours from 3 o’clock to 7 o’clock are times of high anxiety for parents,” Duncan said. “They want their children safe. Families are working one and two and three jobs now to make ends meet and to keep food on the table.”
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China Investigates American Chicken
September 27th, 2009
Associated Press
By Gillian Wong
China on Sunday started investigating complaints that American chicken products are being dumped in China and are unfairly benefiting from subsidies, adding to a string of trade disputes with Washington.
The Commerce Ministry said the probe was launched Sunday on broiler products and chicken products, following requests by Chinese companies to investigate the U.S. imports they say are hurting the domestic industry.
The investigation comes at a time of mutual finger pointing Washington and Beijing accusing the other of protectionism, which both say will hurt efforts to end the global economic crisis.
A U.S. labor union and three paper companies announced last week they had filed a new trade complaint over imports of Chinese paper. The move came a week after Beijing filed a World Trade Organization challenge to Washington’s decision to raise tariffs on imports of Chinese-made tires.
The two governments also are involved in disputes over access to each others’ markets for steel pipes, music and movies. On Tuesday, China appealed against a U.S. victory in a trade dispute over restrictions on the sale of U.S. music, films and books in the Chinese market.
The same week, U.S. President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, were attending a summit of leaders of the Group of 20 major economies in Pittsburgh, which issued sweeping promises to fix a malfunctioning global economic system including a vow to “reject protectionism in all its forms.”
At the summit, China played down growing trade tensions with the United States, saying the two trading partners must focus on long-term relations and settle their differences through friendly talks.
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UN Seeks $1.5 Billion for Swine Flu
September 24, 2009 by Andrew
Filed under Government
September 24, 2009
Associated Press
By Maria Cheng
United Nations health officials claim in a new report they need nearly $1.5 billion to prevent the swine flu epidemic from spiraling into a global catastrophe.
But for a virus from which most people recover without ever being treated, not all experts are convinced swine flu merits such attention — and some critics even suspect the U.N. is using the pandemic as a convenient way to raise money.
On the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, World Health Organization chief Margaret Chan was meeting Thursday with other top officials to discuss the swine flu funding appeal, which was authored by WHO and two other U.N. agencies.
Experts said the global community should closely track how the swine flu money gets spent.
“When $1.5 billion is pledged, it’s a reasonable question to ask about the details behind it,” said Orin Levine, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “We should be very careful to watch where the money goes.”
WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl denied WHO was using the H1N1 swine flu virus as a pretext for fundraising and said the appeal was a necessary response to the global health emergency.
“If we don’t try to fund H1N1, we would be remiss in our public health responsibility to the world,” he said.
In the U.N. funding appeal, the agency says nearly 80 percent of the requested money would be used to buy antivirals and vaccines. The rest would go mostly to “strengthening country readiness.”
Influenza viruses like swine flu are unpredictable. Since the H1N1 virus first emerged in spring, experts have worried it might mutate into a more lethal form.
So far, those fears haven’t panned out. Experiments at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed swine flu lacks certain traits to help it easily morph into a more dangerous version.
Hartl said even if the virus doesn’t turn deadlier, the agency expects to see a spike in cases that might crush health systems in poor countries. “There are a lot of signs that we need to take this seriously,” he said.
Globally, WHO estimates more than 3,500 people have died of swine flu — far fewer than those killed by diarrhea, pneumonia, or road accidents. That leads some experts to contend that WHO’s prediction the virus could lead to “civil disruption” in poor countries may be overblown.
A sum of $1.5 billion is a lot to ask for considering swine flu is unlikely to be one of the world’s top killers, said Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.
“Given that the world spends about $22 billion on all global health problems, is it really wise to spend $1.5 billion only on swine flu?”
Some experts said WHO’s funding appeal went beyond the boundaries of its mandate.
“I am concerned WHO’s communications is corrupted by the fact they push the buttons in the public’s brains that will raise the most funds,” said William Aldis, a retired senior WHO official who worked on the bird flu crisis.
“That is incompatible with what the organization should be doing: serving the public with technically correct factual information, pure and simple.”
Others accused WHO of sacrificing science for dollars.
“WHO is peddling an alarmist, unscientific agenda to raise funds,” said Philip Stevens, a director at International Policy Network, a London-based think tank. “The U.N. is operating on pure conjecture that we will face anarchy and chaos in the developing world should the virus mutate,” he said.
In countries where health systems are too weak to effectively mass distribute antivirals and vaccines, some experts questioned WHO’s spending plan, particularly since most of the money will benefit the drug industry.
“If we want to reduce the mortality that will be caused by the H1N1 pandemic, we cannot rely only on the vaccine,” said Dr. Christophe Fournier of Medecins Sans Frontieres.
Aldis warned that in countries with few resources, giving people a swine flu shot might come at the expense of a vaccine for measles or diptheria.
Some experts said the U.N.’s billion-dollar swine flu appeal could overshadow other pressing health problems.
“I would prioritize other areas like maternal and child health, where the need is urgent and huge,” Murray said.
Click here for the full report from the Associated Press
Obesity Will Be Biggest Cancer Cause Within 10 Years
September 24, 2009
The Telegraph
Already up to one in twelve new cases of the disease are attributed to being overweight or obese and this proportion is set to increase as more quit smoking and stop hormone replacement therapy.
Dr Andrew Renehan, a cancer expert at the University of Manchester, told a medical conference: “Obesity is catching up at a rate that makes it possible it could become the biggest attributable cause of cancer in women within the next decade.”
Last year, the number of cancer cases in Europe linked to weight jumped to at least 124,050, almost double the number in 2002.
In men, 3.2 per cent of new cancers could be attributed to being overweight or obese and in women it was 8.6 per cent. Obesity related cancers in the UK were 3.3 per cent for men and 4.8 per cent for women and.
Colorectal cancer, breast cancer in menopausal women and endometrial cancer accounted for 65 per cent of all cancers linked to being fat.
Dr Renehan, of the University of Manchester, said: “I must emphasise we are trying not to be sensationalist about this. These are very conservative estimates, and it’s quite likely the numbers are, in fact, higher.”
The number of new cases of obesity-related oesophageal cancer was particularly high in the UK relative to the rest of Europe.
Dr Renehan, who presented his findings to a joint meeting of the European Cancer Organisation and the European Society for Medical Oncology in Berlin, said it accounted for 54 per cent of new cases across all 30 countries.
This may be due to interactions between smoking, alcohol, excess body weight and a condition called acid reflux, but more research is needed to understand the reason.
Scientists aren’t sure why being fat boosts your cancer risk, but suspect it is connected to hormones. As people become fatter, they produce more hormones like oestrogen that help tumours grow. People with big bellies also have more acid in their stomachs, which can lead to stomach, intestinal or oesophageal cancer.
Dr Renehan said new strategies were needed to help people stay slim. “We need to find the biological mechanism to help people find other ways of tackling obesity,” he said. “Just telling the population to lose weight obviously hasn’t worked.”
Click here for the full report from the Telegraph
Tylenol Recalls Some Children’s Medications
September 24, 2009
MSNBC
Liquid products pulled for possible contamination of inactive ingredient
The makers of Tylenol have recalled more than 20 types of children’s and infant’s medications as a precaution against possible contamination. The liquid products were being voluntarily pulled from stores and warehouses because bacteria were detected in one of the inactive ingredients, the company said.
The ingredient with the bacteria was not used in packaged Tylenol products sold in stores, but was manufactured at the same time.
The company did not announce whether any children had been sickened by the medicines.
The recalled products include: Children’s Tylenol Cold MS Suspension 4 oz. Grape, Children’s Tylenol Plus Cough & Runny Nose 4 oz. Cherry, and Infant’s Tylenol Suspension Drop 1 oz. Grape.
The recalled products were made between April and June 2008. The recall involves only liquid Tylenol products. Consumers with concerns about the recalled products are asked to call McNeil Consumer Call Care Center at 1-800-962-5357.
Click here for the full report from MSNBC
Cronkite Records Destroyed by FBI
September 24, 2009
USA Today
By Matt Kelley
The FBI destroyed its files on former CBS News anchorman Walter Cronkite two years ago under a policy that has been criticized by researchers for allowing potentially valuable records to be wiped out.
A search of the agency’s main index of the subjects of FBI investigations found some records tied to Cronkite’s name were destroyed in October 2007, the FBI said in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by USA TODAY. Cronkite’s death in July at age 92 made any FBI files about him available for release under the federal law.
“You’re not supposed to destroy records that are historically valuable,” Hodes said. “Somebody should have known who Walter Cronkite was.”
FBI spokesman Bill Carter said the agency works with the National Archives to try to ensure historically important records are preserved. He did not respond to requests for further information Tuesday.
The destruction of the Cronkite records illustrates the FBI’s policies on keeping and destroying records, which date to a 1981 lawsuit over public access to those records. Although the FBI’s rules call for preserving files with historical significance, researchers such as journalist Alex Heard have criticized the agency for wiping out too many potentially valuable records. The FBI destroyed a file on civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks, The Detroit News reported in 2006.
Heard, who is researching a 1951 execution in Mississippi, said he was frustrated to learn the FBI destroyed records about one of the civil rights lawyers involved.
“They piled up the documents, and we (taxpayers) paid for it,” Heard said. “With a lot of that material, the simplest thing would be to just keep it.”
The fact that the FBI had records involving Cronkite doesn’t mean the FBI had investigated him, Hodes said. Celebrities’ files often consist of letters they wrote to FBI officials or investigations of extortion attempts, he said.
“When famous people’s files are released, a lot of times they’re the victims of crimes,” Hodes said.
Click here for the full report from the USA Today
Novartis Chip to Help Ensure Bitter Pills are Swallowed
September 21, 2009
Financial Times
By Andrew Jack
Patients who fail to pop pills on time could soon benefit from having a chip on their shoulder, under a ground-breaking electronic system being developed by Novartis, the Swiss pharmaceuticals group.
The company is testing technology that inserts a tiny microchip into each pill swallowed and sends a reminder to patients by text message if they fail to follow their doctors’ prescriptions.
The partnership with Proteus Biomedical , which originally developed the technology, is one of several alliances under development by Novartis as it and rival pharmaceuticals companies attempt to maintain high prices for innovative medicines by ensuring that they are taken as the doctor ordered. Pfizer’s Health Solutions division has developed a system to telephone patients to encourage them to take medicine.
The experiment comes amid rising concern among governments and health insurers that they are not seeing the health improvements claimed by drugs companies because patients do not take the medicines as prescribed unless they are closely supervised in clinical trials.
Click here for the full report from the Financial Times
