Aftermath News

Birmingham Mail | Sep 2, 2010

by Vicky Farncombe

BIRMINGHAM was the centre of the coldest August for more than 23 years, it has emerged.

But the chilly end to the summer has done nothing to dampen the local tourism industry – because the city’s attractions are mostly weather proof.

Major venues have reported a bumper month with thousands of holiday-makers foregoing a day at the seaside for a day in the second city.

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The month saw the chilliest temperature recorded in August for 23 years – 12.8C in Edgbaston, Birmingham.

And, according to The Met Office, rainfall in the city was 117.1mm – nearly double the average over the last 30 years.

But the wet and cold has actually helped the city’s economy.

A campaign run in conjunction with London Midland trains and city attractions saw a 20 per cent rise in visitors to the city’s tourism website VisitBirmingham.com.

Meanwhile Louise Wilce, marketing manager at the National Sea Life Centre, said their August numbers were “significantly up” on last year.

Thinktank Science Museum also recorded one of its highest footfall rates in the last five years.

While visitors to the IMAX cinema
were nearly double that of 2007 and 2009 with 17,750 people clamouring to see Inception, Toy Story 3 or Avatar Special Edition.

“As Thinktank is all under one roof, with an on-site car park, the bad weather is certainly an incentive for visitors to choose us over some outdoor attractions,” said a spokeswoman.

North-easterly winds last Thursday saw daytime temperatures in Edgbaston plummet to 55f (12.8C), making it the coldest city in the country.

Forecaster Matt Dobson, of MeteoGroup, said: “There was an area of low pressure in south east England and it brought a north easterly wind to the Midlands.

“Along with that, there was a lot of dark cloud and drizzle which never really allowed the temperature to rise during the day. Stations near to Birmingham recorded their coldest day for 23 years.”

The outlook for September is brighter with forecasters predicting a dry and sunny weekend.

smh.com.au | Sep 2, 2010

Sydneysiders can blame cloud and rain for this winter being one of the coldest in 13 years, a meteorologist says.

“In a normal winter Sydney will have quite a few brisk mornings and sunny days but not this year,” weatherzone.com.au meteorologist Brett Dutschke said.

“An excess of cloudy and rainy days has led to it being a dull, cold and gloomy one, at least in June and July.

“There has been so much cloud that Sydney has had fewer days warmer than 20 degrees than in any other winter since 1990,” Mr Dutschke said.

With so many cloudy days, this winter has delivered 39 days of rain, eight more than in a normal winter.

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“It finally brightened up a bit in August and we even managed a 25-degree day in the second half of the month.

“But it was too late to stop this winter being colder than recent winters. There hasn’t been a colder winter since 1997.”

However, this winter was still warmer than the long-term average.

Daytime maximums averaged 17.7 degrees, compared with the long-term winter norm of 17. Overnight minimums averaged 9.4 degrees, compared with the long-term norm of 8.7.

When both daytime and overnight temperatures were combined, Sydney’s average temperature came in at 13.5 degrees. This makes it the coldest winter since 1997, but equal to 2008 and 2000.

Despite eight more rain days than normal, Sydney gained only 289 millimetres, 21mm short of the long-term winter average.

However, it was still the wettest winter in three years, largely due to a wetter than normal June and July.

“The outlook for spring is for near-or-above average rainfall with the aid of relatively frequent north-west cloud bands.

“Also, the current La Nina is a chance to peak late in spring, which will be a boost, particularly when storm season kicks in,” Mr Dutschke said.

“The likelihood of above-average rainfall will favour a season of warmer than normal nights.

“There’s a chance of cooler than normal days once we get into late spring if La Nina does a good job with rain.”

‘All of a sudden they just showed up, came in here like there was a fire’

WorldNetDaily | Sep 1, 2010

By Bob Unruh

A lawsuit has been launched against the sheriff’s office in Marin County, Calif., over an episode in which deputies barged uninvited into a 64-year-old man’s home and shot him three times with a Taser, screaming “stop resisting” while the incapacitated victim writhed in pain on the floor.

The sheriff’s version of the episode was that watching “selected” video segments of the events may mislead people.

The incident was reported by KGO-TV in San Francisco, which posted a video:

The episode developed late in June when Peter McFarland, a consultant, returned home one night from a charity fundraiser and fell on his front steps, injuring his knee. Paramedics were called to treat his injury.

Then as the paramedics departed, McFarland reported, two deputies barged in.

“All of a sudden they just showed up, came in here like there was a fire,” he said.

The deputies insisted on taking him to a hospital for an evaluation, according to the television report.

“We’re going to take you to the hospital for an evaluation,” one deputy says on the video. “You said if you had a gun you’d shoot yourself in the head.”

McFarland said that statement was no more than hyperbole, reflecting how much pain he was in from his fall and the fact he was exhausted.

He refused to go and argued with the deputies. He told them to get out of his house and got up to go to bed.

That’s when he was shot by the deputies, three times. The officers were yelling, “Stop resisting. Stop resisting,” as he screamed unintelligibly while writhing uncontrollably on the floor.

His wife was pleading for the officers to stop, telling them McFarland had a heart condition.

John Scott, McFarland’s attorney, told the television station it is “hard to imagine something this shocking could happen.”

McFarland was arrested and charged with resisting arrest, but the charges later were dismissed. The attorney told the station the officers had no search warrant or any legal reason to enter the private home.

The station interviewed Dr. Byron Lee, a cardiologist, who said “the Taser has some real risks that if you can get Tasered in the right places, you can cause sudden death and cardiac arrest.”

The station later reported when the sheriff responded to concerns about the incident.

The sheriff’s office’s written statement to the station said, “The decision to resort to the use of force is never taken lightly and deputy sheriffs (sic) undergo an extensive amount of on-going training to ensure those decisions are both appropriate and fall within the guidelines established by law and department policy.”

The station said the officers also said watching someone being jolted is hard.

“That reaction can all too often also be influenced by using only small, selected segments of a much lengthier video that better depicts the complexity of the event in question.”

ktvu.com | Aug 17, 2010

RICHMOND, Calif. — The Contra Costa County School District began introducing a new high tech tracking system for preschool students Tuesday that alert teachers when their students leave campus.

Embedded in what looks like a tiny basketball jersey that each student will wear when at school is a radio frequency tag that also uses Wi-Fi. The tag provides a signal to sensors planted throughout the school.

The information from those sensors is displayed in a map of the school, thereby allowing teachers and administrators to know exactly

Parents will digitally sign in and sign out a child, saving teachers from hand filing attendance records required by the state.

“Now, when we feed the children lunch we just have to push a button and it’s done,” said teacher Simone Beauford. “We don’t have to check the papers, check the papers, check the papers…”

Sung Kim of the county’s employment and human services department said 3,000 man hours could eventually be saved with this $50,000 system, which was paid for by a federal grant.

“Within a year we could completely pay off this system from the savings we have with the staffing,” said Kim. “We are the first child care center that is implementing with this technology, but it is already proven technology.”

RIA Novosti | Aug 31, 2010

MOSCOW – Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Tuesday paid a visit to a memorial complex dedicated to those people who died at a north Siberian Gulag.

Putin, an ex-KGB employee, laid flowers at the Norilsk Gulag memorial complex and spoke to former prisoners, who told him that up to 500,000 people had passed through the camp between 1936 and 1953.

Some 16,000 people perished in the camp.

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The premier noted that this was not the first time he had visited the memorial complex.

“It’s not the kind of thing you forget,” he commented.

Norilsk, like other large cities in Russia’s Arctic, was built by Gulag prisoners, and Putin said that he had reminded the management of Norilsk Nickel, the main employer in the city, of this at a meeting earlier in the day.

“What a cost,” he said.

During the Stalinist purges, millions of people were executed on fake charges of espionage, sabotage, anti-Soviet propaganda or died of starvation, disease or exposure in Gulag labor camps in Siberia and the Far East.

In 2009, former Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Mark Hurd slashed 6,400 jobs and his compensation amounted to $24.2 million that year. Paul Sakuma / AP

Report: Top execs made more than average when payrolls cut

msnbc.com | Sep 1, 2010

By Roland Jones

When Hewlett-Packard’s Chief Executive Mark Hurd resigned last month he received something few regular workers see when they quit their jobs under a cloud: A massive payout.

Turns out Hurd is far from the only top executive to be rewarded with a rich package despite a management performance that could be considered less than optimal — especially by rank-and-file workers.

A new report concludes that chief executives of the 50 firms that have laid off the most workers since the onset of the economic crisis in 2008 took home 42 percent more pay in 2009 than their peers at other large U.S. companies.

The report, from the Institute of Policy Studies, found that the 50 layoff leaders received $12 million on average in 2009, compared with an average compensation of $8.5 million for chief executives of companies in Standard & Poor’s 500. Each of the 50 companies examined in the report laid off at least 3,000 workers between November 2008 and April 2010.

“Our findings illustrate the great unfairness of the Great Recession,” said Sarah Anderson, lead author of the study, “CEO Pay and the Great Recession,” the latest in a series of annual “Executive Excess” reports published by the institute, a progressive think tank. “CEOs are squeezing workers to boost short-term profits and fatten their own paychecks.”

Those CEOs include HP’s Hurd, who slashed 6,400 jobs in 2009 — a year when his compensation amounted to $24.2 million.
Newsweek: When CEOs behave badly

Hurd made headlines last month when he suddenly resigned after an investigation into a sexual harassment claim against him found he had falsified expense reports related to meetings with a female contractor. Despite the findings, he walked away with a severance package that reportedly could be worth more than $40 million.

The report also highlights Johnson & Johnson’s William Weldon, who took home $25.6 million — more than three times the average CEO compensation for big U.S. companies — even as the  health care giant was slashing 9,000 jobs and facing a massive drug recall scandal.

Fred Hassan of drug pharmaceutical company Schering-Plough received a $33 million “golden parachute” when his firm merged with Merck in late 2009, the report said, even as Schering was laying off 16,000 workers. The report calculates that Hassan’s total compensation for 2009 of almost $50 million could have been used to cover the average cost of these workers’ jobless benefits for over 10 weeks.

Overall, the Institute for Policy Studies calculates that the $598 million total compensation awarded to the top 50 CEO layoff leaders was enough to provide average unemployment benefits to 37,759 workers for an entire year, or nearly one month of benefits for each of the 531,363 workers their companies laid off.

While the details of the report may seem shocking at first blush, it’s worth remembering that a public company’s chief executive has a fiduciary obligation to maximize value for the owners of a corporation — its shareholders.

“This report is not quite as cynical as it seems,” said Dr. Andrew Ward, associate dean at the College of Business at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa.

“We often find CEOs are simply taking action in the face of an economic crisis to reduce expenses,” he said. “The thinking is that, in the future the company’s productivity will increase (and) that it will ultimately perform more efficiently, and this usually garners a positive reaction on Wall Street.”

However, one worrying aspect of the report is the finding that five of the 50 top layoff leaders received taxpayer-funded bailouts. American Express, for example, gave CEO Kenneth Chenault $16.8 million in 2009, including a $5 million cash bonus. American Express has laid off 4,000 employees since receiving $3.4 billion in taxpayer bailout funds, the report said.

“Questions should be asked of the boards of these sorts of companies,” Ward said. “A company’s board has a great deal of responsibility for overseeing CEO compensation.”

Even among their peers, the CEOs examined in the Institute of Policy Studies report were handsomely compensated. They received average increases of 7 percent in 2009 while chief executives in Standard & Poor’s 500 companies saw their pay decline around 11 percent on average, according to the institute’s Anderson.

“What’s clear here is that CEOs who slash thousands of jobs certainly aren’t tightening their belts,” she told CNBC in an interview. “And I would caution that while these layoffs might have boosted short-term profits in terms of cutting labor costs, such cutbacks can have long-term costs for a company in terms of lower morale and the costs associated with hiring workers down the road, so I find it a disturbing trend.”

The report also highlights the structure of company pay packages and unintended consequences of tying performance to stock price, said Ward.

In the past, many companies rewarded executives with stock options, which had little downside risk and gave corporate leaders a clear incentive to drive up a company’s stock price.

A jury found the Texas-based group negligent for allowing a former assistant scoutmaster, Timur Dykes, to associate with Scouts after he admitted to a Scouts official in 1983 that he had molested 17 boys.

The lawsuits are settled for undisclosed amounts

msnbc.msn.com |  Sep 1, 2010

By TIM FOUGHT

PORTLAND, Oregon — Six men who alleged they were sexually abused by an Oregon Boy Scouts leader in the 1980s have settled their lawsuits against the group’s national organization for undisclosed amounts, the plaintiffs’ attorney said Wednesday.

The settlements include the case of one man, Kerry Lewis, who was awarded nearly $20 million in damages from Boys Scouts of America in a trial that ended in April. It was believed to be the largest such award against the national youth organization.

A jury found the Texas-based group negligent for allowing a former assistant scoutmaster, Timur Dykes, to associate with Scouts after he admitted to a Scouts official in 1983 that he had molested 17 boys. The verdict came as the Boy Scouts, a congressionally chartered organization, mark their centennial.

In that trial, Lewis’ attorneys used secret files kept by the Boy Scouts to try to demonstrate that the organization dismissed or ignored allegations of sex abuse by Scout leaders for nearly two decades. It was the first time the so-called “perversion files” had been used in a trial.

After the jury’s verdict, the Boy Scouts of America still faced lawsuits from five other men who alleged Dykes molested them.

But an attorney for the five, Kelly Clark, announced his clients and the Scouts have agreed to a settlement.

“This is a great day for Kerry Lewis and for all these men,” Clark said.

Kerry Lewis expressed relief to have the matter settled, saying in a written statement: “On behalf of all six of us, I can say that we are glad this is over.”

The Boy Scouts have settled sex abuse lawsuits out of court before, although the exact number is not known because not all are announced.

But an expert on the subject, Patrick Boyle, has said that from 1984 through 1992, the Scouts were sued at least 60 times for alleged sex abuse, with settlements and judgments totaling more than $16 million.

Ahmed Mohamed Nasser al Soofi, left, and Hezem al Murisi, were taken off a United Airlines flight in the Netherlands  Photo: ABC

Two Yemenis suspected of making a “dry run” for a planned terrorist attack were able to fly from Chicago to Amsterdam, despite airport staff finding in their luggage a mobile phone taped to a bottle and other suspicious items.

Telegraph | Aug 31, 2010

By Martin Banks in Brussels and Alex Spillius in Washington

Dutch prosecutors are currently interrogating the two men, Ahmed Mohamed Nasser al-Soofi and Hezam al-Murisi, who were taken off a United Airlines flight from Chicago at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport on Monday morning.

They had aroused suspicions by changing planes in Chicago, while their luggage was sent on another route, via Washington Dulles airport, towards their final destination, the Yemeni capital Sana’a. A checked bag belonging to Mr al-Soofi was found to contain a phone taped to a medicine bottle, three other mobile phones taped together, watches taped together, and box cutters and three knives. He was also carrying $7,000 (£4,500) in cash.

The bag was cleared twice, at Birmingham, Alabama, where his journey started, and then again at Washington.

It was only taken off the plane in Washington when it was discovered that Mr al-Soofi was not on the flight.

One security official told ABC News the two men had been allowed to continue to their destination for “investigative purposes”.

The incident raised further questions about the efficiency of airline security, coming after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who was on a terrorist watch list, was allowed to board a flight in Amsterdam for Detroit on Christmas Day, and tried to light explosives hidden in his underpants while on board.

Judith Sargentini, a Dutch Greens MEP, said the latest incident gave “cause for real concern”.

“My question is: how on earth were these two men allowed to travel separately from their luggage as, apparently, happened? That seems to break the number one rule of air travel.”

Despite raising suspicions, a US official said the items in Mr al-Soofi’s bag were not intrinsically dangerous and that the two men were not carrying any banned objects.

The White House promised a “vigorous investigation” into the incident, but said neither man was on any terrorist watch-list. The Department of Homeland Security however urged people against “jumping to any conclusions”.

A Dutch prosecution spokesman said a judge would decide whether the suspects should be released or kept in custody.

Muammar Gaddafi returns to Tripoli after his controversial visit to Italy  Photo: EPA

Col Muammar Gaddafi has warned that Europe runs the risk of turning “black” unless the EU pays Libya at least €5 billion (£4.1 billion) a year to block the arrival of illegal immigrants from Africa.

Telegraph | Aug 31, 2010

By Nick Squires in Rome

His remarks, made during a controversial three day visit to Italy, were condemned as “unacceptable blackmail” by Italian MPs, who likened the demand to the protection money that mafia gangs demand from businesses.

Speaking at a ceremony in Rome while standing next to Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s prime minister, Col Gaddafi, 67, said that unless his request for money was met, Europe would otherwise become “another Africa” as a result of the “advance of millions of immigrants”.

“Tomorrow Europe might no longer be European and even black as there are millions who want to come in,” he said.

“We don’t know if Europe will remain an advanced and united continent or if it will be destroyed, as happened with the barbarian invasions”.

Tens of thousands of desperate African refugees and economic migrants have reached Italian soil by boat from the North African coast, although the influx has been stemmed by the Libyan navy in the last year under an accord with the Berlusconi government.

An MP from the opposition Italy of Values party, Silvana Mura, accused the Libyan leader of holding Europe to ransom, demanding mafia-style protection money in return for a promise to safeguard the continent from unchecked immigration.

Another opposition MP, Luigi de Magistris, accused the Libyan regime of keeping tens of thousands of African migrants in “concentration camps” in the desert.

Microscopic image shows oil being degraded by microbes that break it up into smaller globulets. Photo: Hoi-Ying Holman group

Newly classified species consumes half of oil in days

USA Today | Aug 31, 2010

Nature’s microbes take care of oil spill

BY ELIZABETH WEISE

Researchers have discovered a previously unclassified species of microbe that appears to be happily gorging away on the long plume of oil left by the BP drilling rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. It’s turning the toxic mixture into nontoxic microbes about twice as fast as had been expected, scientists reported in the journal Science.

This could mean that nature is able to clean up oil spills on its own more quickly than had been realized, at least in the Gulf.

The microbes are related to known cold temperature gamma-proteobacteria, said Terry Hazen, a microbial ecologist with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and lead author on the paper. The research was funded through the Energy Biosciences Institute in Berkeley, Calif., a collaboration between the University of California-Berkeley, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and BP, which supported it with a 10-year, $500 million grant beginning in 2007. The funds are entirely unrestricted, Hazen said.

The group also found that the microbes don’t appear to be using up all the oxygen in the water as they eat and grow. The fear had been that large microbe blooms might deplete water oxygen levels, leading to dead zones that could impact ecosystems and fisheries.

When the bacteria encounter oil in the water, they consume half of it in 1.2 to 6.1 days. That’s compared with an average of seven at the Exxon Valdez site, Hazen said. Other components degrade more slowly and take longer.

The researchers sent two ships into the Gulf on May 25 and have been collecting samples there ever since, Hazen said. Using DNA microarrays, they were able to quickly scan for up to 50,000 different species of bacteria and other single-celled organisms. In the oil plume, 95 percent of the bacteria are this particular oil-eating type. Outside the plume, they make up only 5 percent of the bacteria, he said.

The researchers speculate that the oil is biodegrading quickly for several reasons. First, Gulf light crude is more biodegradable than other types of oil because it has more volatile components. Also, the use of dispersant might have accelerated biodegradation because the bacteria could more easily get at smaller oil particles.

The findings about the oil plume fit well with a paper released in Science by scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. They found a 21-mile plume of oil at 3,600 feet deep. “These are very important findings, particularly from a societal impact point of view,” said Richard Camilli, lead author.

The Woods Hole group didn’t find evidence of oil-eating microbes, but they weren’t looking for them, Camilli said. “My group was using robots to try to find out if a plume was down there and then try to characterize its shape, extent and chemical composition. Terry (Hazen) was characterizing the microbes.”

Last month was the coldest August for 17 years, recording the chilliest average temperatures since 1993 without a single “hot day”, figures show.

Telegraph | Sep 1, 2010

By Nick Collins

Heavy rain across much of the country and thick cloud in the south east made for a disappointing end to the summer holiday.

The month also saw the coldest temperature recorded in August for 23 years, with mercury falling to 12.8C in Edgbaston, Birmingham.

Last week a number of nights were “notably” cold and by the end of the month there had not been a single day on which temperatures topped 27C, forecasters said.

Weather consultant Philip Eden said average temperatures this August had been at their lowest since 1993.

He added: ”This is more a reflection of the warmth of recent Augusts rather than anything exceptional.

”During the last 100 years, 30 Augusts were cooler, 63 were warmer, and seven had the same overall mean temperature.”

Conditions were notably bad towards the latter part of the month when there was widespread wet weather in the southern regions.

Data showed rainfall in England and Wales was almost one and a half times the average amount, at 106.2mm.

In the last 100 years, only 22 Augusts have been wetter.

In Weybourne, Norfolk, temperatures soared to a high of 26.70C, but temperatures failed to reach the levels of July when the 30C heat in some areas prompted health alerts.

Figures showed England and Wales enjoyed 148 hours of sunshine this month – 25 per cent less than the average.

Scotland saw 142 hours of sunshine, meeting its average, and Northern Ireland had better weather than usual, with 192 hours of sunshine.

You already knew this: Summer was coldest in 17 years

Brrrr! All three ‘summer’ months had below-normal temps

portlandtribune.com | Sep 1, 2010

Summer’s over, right?

You mean we actually had a summer?

We did, but according to meteorologists, it was the coldest Portland-area summer in 17 years.

“This was also the first summer since summer of 1976 that all three summer months (June, July and August) recorded back-to-back below normal average monthly temperatures,” said Steve Pierce, vice president of the Oregon chapter of the American Meteorological Society. “In fact, Portland has now been below average for five back-to-back months, beginning in April and continuing through August. Either way you slice it, it was a chilly summer by Portland standards.”

Some of Pierce’s highlights (or low-lights) from the summer months:

• It was the 10th coldest June on record at the Portland International Airport.

• It was the wettest June ever recorded (1941-2010). More than 4.25 inches of rain fell.

• It also took longer this year to finally reach 80 degrees for the first time, which was done on June 11. The old record was June 9.

Last summer was the warmest on record, Pierce said, in contrast to this year, when low clouds, a dipping jet stream and marine air kept temperatures well below normal and provided a roller coaster of hot and cold days.

myfoxdfw.com | Aug 30, 2010

(NewsCore) – Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin threatened Monday to launch a crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations as he gave fresh hints that he planned to return to the Kremlin as President in 2012.

Putin said that opposition protesters deserved to be beaten by police for holding banned street protests. Russia’s authorities routinely refuse permission for liberal critics of the Kremlin to hold demonstrations then brand them illegal to justify police intervention.

“If you get [permission], you go and march. If you don’t, you don’t have the right. Go without permission and you will be hit on the head with batons. That’s all there is to it,” the former KGB hardman said in an interview with the Kommersant newspaper.

He issued the warning as opposition activists prepared to take to the streets Tuesday as part of their Strategy 31. Protesters gather on the 31st day of the month to uphold Article 31 of Russia’s Constitution, which guarantees the right to free assembly.

Police arrested more than 100 people, including the opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, at last month’s rally.

Putin nominated Dmitry Medvedev to succeed him in 2008 after eight years as President because he could not run for a third successive term. Speculation is rife, however, that he intends to replace his protege.

Putin, 57, said that the 2012 election for a new six-year term “interests me like … I wanted to say like everyone, but in fact more than everyone else.”

He added: “The most important thing is that these problems of 2012 don’t derail us from the path of stable development.”

Told he had already been in power a long time, Putin said: “I only have two choices: either to watch from the bank how the waters are flowing away and how something collapses or is lost — or to get involved. I prefer to be involved.”

Putin also accused the West of tricking Moscow after the Soviet withdrawal from Eastern Europe at the end of the Cold War, and cast doubt on the “reset” in relations with the United States under U.S. President Barack Obama.

“At time of the withdrawal … the NATO Secretary-General promised the USSR it could be confident that NATO would not expand over its current boundaries. And where is it? I asked them about this. They have nothing to say. They deceived us in the rudest way,” he said.

Putin said that he “really wants to believe” in improved relations with the U.S., but pointed to what he called a “long-term rearming of Georgia” as a potential flashpoint. Russia and Georgia fought a war in 2008 over the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

He also attacked Obama’s plan for a revised missile defense system in Eastern Europe, asking: “Where is this ‘reset’? We don’t see it yet in this area.”

news.yahoo.com | Aug 31, 2010

Two New York lawmakers want farmers to vaccinate their chickens against salmonella, The Associated Press reported.

Sen. Daniel Squadron and Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh announced their proposal in response to the nationwide recall of more than half a billion eggs linked to nearly 1,500 cases of salmonella poisoning. “The massive outbreaks of food-borne illness in recent months leave no doubt that our food safety system is failing us, threatening everyone’s well-being and sometimes costing people’s lives,” Kavanagh said.

Since May, there has been a four-fold increase in the number of cases of salmonella infections, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services reported. Preliminary investigations by state and federal officials suggest that contaminated eggs are the likely sources of many of these infections.

In Britain, the Lion Quality Code of Practice was launched in 1998 after the country experienced a similar salmonella outbreak. Eggs are now marked with a lion stamp to show that they meet numerous safety standards, including hen vaccination against salmonella, passport certification tracking all movement and hygiene controls for breeding flocks and hatcheries. Since enacting these guidelines, the U.K. has successfully reduced the number of salmonella cases by 96 percent.

“Looking back, that scare was probably the best thing for the industry because we sorted out the problem, and we now have very high standards and there are no consumer concerns about safety,” Amanda Cryer, spokeswoman for the British Egg Information Service, said.

While there is no plan to require vaccinations at all U.S. farms, the Food and Drug Administration is going to inspect all 600 of the country’s largest egg producers before the end of next year. Most of these producers have gone largely uninspected for decades. The FDA also intends to improve the training given to inspectors.

Full Story

Handout photograph of genetically engineered AquAdvantage Salmon with an Atlantic salmon Reuters – This handout photo, released August 30, 2010, compares the size of its genetically engineered AquAdvantage …

Reuters | Aug 31, 2010

By Susan Heavey Susan Heavey

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. health officials are set to rule on whether a faster-growing, genetically engineered fish is safe to eat in a decision that could deliver the first altered animal food to consumers’ dinner plates.

The fish, made by Aqua Bounty Technologies Inc, is manipulated to grow twice as fast as traditional Atlantic salmon, something the company says could boost the nation’s fish sector and reduce pressure on the environment.

But consumer advocates and food safety experts are worried that splicing and dicing fish genes may have the opposite effect, leading to more industrial farming and potential escapes into the wild. Side effects from eating such fish are also unknown, with little data to show it is safe, they say.

“They’re basically putting the fish on permanent growth hormone so it grows faster … so they can sell bigger fish faster,” said Jaydee Hanson, a policy analyst for the nonprofit Center for Food Safety.

It also raises questions about the industrialization of the nation’s food supply at a time when consumers — exasperated by massive egg and other food recalls — are growing increasingly concerned and seeking more locally produced meals.

The small Massachusetts-based biotechnology company is seeking Food and Drug Administration approval to sell its salmon, called AquAdvantage, to fish farmers nationwide.

If given the green light, the salmon could be followed by the company’s engineered trout and tilapia. Other scientists are also developing altered pigs and cows for food. The United States already allows genetically modified plants.

On September 19, the FDA kicks off a three-day meeting to discuss whether to approve the salmon. Outside advisers will weigh available data and offer advice, although the FDA will later make the final call.

“This is an Atlantic salmon in every measurable way,” said Aqua Bounty Chief Executive Ronald Stotish. “When you look at the fish, it’s impossible to see the difference.”

Whether consumers accept such genetic tinkering could make or break the biotech, which has staked its future on the technology since filing for U.S. approval in 1995. In 2009, it saw a $4.8 million net loss after restructuring in 2008 to preserve cash and focus on completing FDA’s approval process.

The company has seen its shares rise 75 percent this year in the run-up to the FDA’s decision to a year high of 10.50 British pounds ($16).

TASTES ‘GREAT’

Stotish said the company has analyzed its salmon and found no differences that warrant any kind of special labeling.

Using technology developed by Canadian researchers, AquAdvantage grows to full size in less than 250 days compared with about 400 days for a traditional Atlantic salmon, according to the biotech.

But some groups say little is known about hazards — such as allergies or potential digestive problems. And they have criticized the FDA for not releasing any data. The agency has said it hopes to make data public by Friday but that by law it does not have to release it until two days before the meeting.

Aqua Bounty has submitted all the FDA-required data, Stotish said, but has done no animal or human clinical trials. It has, however, conducted several taste tests, and Stotish says people like it just fine.

An FDA biotech official, who asked not to be named because Aqua Bounty’s bid is pending, said testing whole foods’ impact on animals would be impossible because of the massive amounts they would have to be fed.

“I’ve eaten the fish, and it tastes great,” said Stotish, whom the company promoted to the top slot in 2008 to try to push approval worldwide, except in Europe where it would face a certain cultural backlash.

Stotish, who trained in biochemistry, has a long history serving in research and development roles at companies focusing on genetics and livestock health products.

PRESSURE ON THE ENVIRONMENT

Until the early 1800s, U.S. Atlantic salmon was abundant in the rivers of the country’s Northeast.

But pollution and overfishing took their toll, and despite restoration efforts, much of the Atlantic salmon consumed in the United States is imported. In 2009, the nation spent nearly $1.4 billion buying from Chile, Canada, Norway and elsewhere.

Aqua Bounty says its fish can help reduce the pressure on wild salmon populations and curb costly imports. “We’re not saying if they approve our salmon we’re going to feed the world,” Stotish told Reuters, but “there’s a general consensus that overfishing is a fact of life.”

Farming fish is already a controversial endeavor, with critics concerned about the methods used and commercial feed.

Food & Water Watch’s fish program director, Marianne Cufone, said food supply issues are a concern, “but there are better ways to produce fish in the United States.” Her group and others also worry the salmon may escape and harm other fish.

Even if the salmon wins FDA approval, it is not clear how soon U.S. consumers would see it on store shelves.

Few fish farmers in the United States cultivate salmon, according to Stotish, who hopes farmers will convert their facilities to try the altered salmon.

September’s salmon meeting marks just the second time the FDA has publicly considered a genetically engineered animal.

Last year, the agency approved GTC Biotherapeutics Inc’s modified goats used to produce its anti-clotting drug Atryn for patients with a rare inherited disorder.

Other engineered food animals could be on the way.

Canadian researchers are seeking FDA approval for their Enviropig with more environmentally friendly manure. Hematech Inc, part of Kirin Holdings Co Ltd’s Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co, is also developing “mad cow” disease-resistant cattle.

Center for Food Safety’s Hanson said such animals are the exact opposite of what U.S. consumers want. “All of these are not to make our food healthier … All of these are to make it profitable for companies to grow animals in less-healthy conditions, more industrial conditions,” he said.

NSW shivered through its coldest winter in 12 years, while daytime temperatures in August hit their lowest since 1990.

heraldsun.com.au | Aug 31, 2010

NSW experienced average daytime temperatures of 15.9C, making it the coldest winter since 1998 and the 16th nippiest winter on record.

Climatologist at the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM), Shannon Symons says widespread rainfall also resulted in the wettest winter since 2005.

“Northern inland regions received above, to very much above average rainfall and that was mainly in July and August, and that’s pretty much the case (across) NSW as well,” Ms Symons told AAP today.

Inland rainfall was attributed to a La Nina event, which creates cooler than average sea surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean.

“When we have La Nina events we, not always, but usually see enhanced rainfall across eastern Australia,” Ms Symons said.

NSW recorded a statewide average of 136.9mm of rainfall this winter, 20.9mm more than the average.

Meanwhile, August experienced its wettest month since 2003 and its coldest daytime temperatures since 1990, according to the BoM.

There was even some snow, as cold fronts through southern Australia brought a flurry of flakes to the alpine regions of southern NSW in late August.

Ms Symons said in the coming months, temperatures should rise as NSW settles into spring.

She said the La Nina event should dissipate by summer, but while it continues, there are chances of above average rainfall in inland NSW and warmer nights.

Mayor Daley and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano tour the Office of Emergency Management and Communications on Thursday. He wants to add more cameras. (Keith Hale/Sun-Times)

Homeland Security head praises city’s security cameras

Sun Times | Aug 27, 2010

BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Thursday ranked Chicago’s Big Brother network of well over 10,000 public and private surveillance cameras as one of the nation’s most extensive and integrated — and Mayor Daley wants to make it even bigger.

“Expansion of cameras citywide is one of the highest priorities that will help us here in the city of Chicago,” Daley said with Napolitano at his side.

“Cameras are the key. They are a deterrent. They solve crimes. It deals with terrorism. It deals with gangs, guns and drugs in our society.”

After touring the 911 emergency center that doubles as a clearinghouse for surveillance video, Napolitano pronounced Chicago’s “very robust camera infrastructure” among the “top two or three” in the nation. Asked to identify rivals, she named only New York City.

“It’s not just cameras, but they are inter-connected and then connected back here so they can really be utilized to target resources where they need to go and to tell first-responders what they’re going to be confronting,” she said.

Pressed on whether the ever-expanding network is a good thing, the secretary said, “Absolutely. If you look at cities around the world — like London, for example, [and] Madrid has been employing more cameras — they are deterrents. But, they are also force-multipliers and they enable us to make the best use of our first-responders.”

Unlike so many other Cabinet secretaries who visit Chicago, Napolitano said, “I did not come on this trip bearing checks.”  But, she said she took “careful notes” on Chicago’s needs.

Daley refused to reveal specifics of the wish list he delivered to Napolitano.

But, he once again made it a point to tout the $217 million 911 center that opened in 1995, after massive cost overruns.

“Remember, we had the vision and the foresight and the stamina to build this. Very few cities ever combined their fire and police department and emergency under one roof. We have done this. Very few cities, not only in the United States, but the world have done that,” he said.

Every year, Daley uses the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to pronounce Chicago as safe as any major city can possibly be.

Approaching the ninth anniversary, Napolitano agreed.

“In a world where we cannot eliminate all risks, Chicagoans can be confident that every effort that I know of that can be made is being made to minimize the risk. And if something were to happen, their first-responders are prepared,” she said.

In a news release distributed at the press conference, Daley also announced that the Department of Homeland Security has decided to assign a “full-time liason” to Chicago. The mayor’s chief-of-staff Ray Orozco, a former fire commissioner, already serves on a Homeland Security Task Force. That’s an elite group of first-responders charged with evaluating the national strategy on emergency preparedness.

A competitor dressed in revolutionary era PLA outfit crawls under ‘barbed-wire’ carrying a ‘bomb’ in the ‘Bomb the Blockhouse’ event at the ‘Red Games’  Photo: ADAM DEAN

Telegraph | Aug 29, 2010

By Peter Foster in Linyi

A wounded soldier lies motionless on the ground awaiting rescue, his head swathed in blood-stained bandages, while all around him the air is filled with a great hue and cry.

To the rear a gun fires and two tunic-clad female comrades arrive at full-tilt, seizing the man by his underarms and ankles and dumping him unceremoniously on a crude stretcher. To further cheers, they hurtle off with their casualty bouncing perilously between them.

Welcome to China’s ‘Red Games’, a kind of Olympics for nostalgic Communists looking to rekindle the spirit of a bygone age when millions of ordinary Chinese fought for, and eventually won, China’s Communist revolution.

Staged in Junan County in the eastern province of Shandong, a celebrated Red Army base during the Sino-Japanese War of 1937-45, the Games are a bold attempt to foster a bit of comradely backbone in modern China’s increasingly materialistic society.

Some 38 teams from 17 provinces across China competed in the inaugural Games, modeled on the Olympics, complete with torch relay from the old revolutionary base at Yan’an, cuddly toy mascot and an opening ceremony song-and-dance spectacular – but with revolutionary Red songs, of course.

“Without the Party, there can be no new China,” intoned the master of ceremonies as lasers and fireworks lit up the sky, with Mao Xinyu, the grandson of the late Chairman Mao looking on approvingly.

Formalities over, the athletes lined up for events including the 40m grenade toss, the 100m shoulder-pole race and the ‘storming of the enemy blockhouse’, in which participants run 25m, crawl 5m under ‘barbed’ wire (a set of old bed springs) and run 50m through a ‘mine field’ of traffic cones to the finishing line.

“We hope to bring back the pure spirits of the revolutionaries,” says 30-year-old Zeng Zhihua, her chest still heaving from her exertions in the stretcher race, “although we live in modern times we need the Red values of persistence, fearlessness and endurance in the face of hardship.” It is difficult to know if such revolutionary zeal will really, as the organizers hope, find resonance with China’s younger generation which is mostly pre-occupied with long hours of academic study or factory work and playing online computer games with friends.

Over at the grenade pitch, 19-year-old Shi Yunfei, an aspiring decathlete who recently started at university, says he isn’t much influenced by the idea of Red ideals. “I came to take part and have fun,” he said, “I think it’s the government that really pays attention to promoting Red values.” In recent years, as China feels the strains and inequalities thrown up by its uneven economic miracle, the authorities have searched self-consciously searched for a viable thread — part Confucian, part old fashioned loyalty to the Party — with which to help bind a fractured society.

Last year Bo Xilai, the party secretary of the sprawling city of Chongqing, a municipality of 30m people riddled with corruption scandals, sent 30m “Red” text messages with his favourite sayings of Mao Tse-tung in a bid to rejuvenate morale in the city.

Chinese television stations have run talent competitions for the best singers of revolutionary songs, while the state-run film industry is churning out patriotic anniversary epics — last year on the 60th of the founding of the Republic, and next year on the 90th of the Communist Party itself.

Whether the Red Games can bring something to China’s ruling Party remains to be seen, but if nothing else, they should contribute to the rise in Red tourism, as more Chinese have money to tour the famous battlefields and Long March sites that they all learned about in school.

That is certainly the hope of one of the local women in revolutionary costume sitting sewing shoes ‘for the soldiers’. “We were asked to come by the family planning committee,” said Zhao Yixia, who runs a local grocery story, “the games are good. More tourists means more business.” Zuo Yuhe, professor of modern history at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, thinks the two aims — boosting tourism and revolutionary patriotism — are not mutually exclusive.

“The Games are about pushing the local tourist economy, but they do also publicise Red culture,” he said, “It is good to attain two advantages by a single move. Furthermore, I believe that as time goes by, these kinds of Red activities will become more than just an economic pursuit, and turn into a new fashion.” Back in the grandstands, where a troop of local schoolchildren cheer on the field in the Yan’an spinning-wheel race (50m dash, spin 50m of yarn and sprint another 50m), the teenaged girls and boys seem to be having too much fun to worry too much about the meaning of Red values.

But their maths teacher, 50-year-old Yan Jiasen, believes it isn’t such a bad idea. “The children need to learn their history,” he says, “they live in such comfortable times now, they know nothing of the hardships of the old days and we should teach them something of those hardships, and how to tolerate them.”

Witnesses heard Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs talk about how easy it would be to “toss a grenade” at innocent people.

Gibbs formed what one called a “kill team” to randomly execute Afghan civilians while on patrol.

Salon.com | Aug 25, 2010

Five soldiers accused of killing civilians in Afghanistan are now facing additional charges of conspiracy to commit premeditated murder — a plot that allegedly began when one soldier discussed how easy it would be to “toss a grenade” at Afghan civilians, The Seattle Times reported Wednesday.

The five soldiers were charged with murder in June for the deaths of three Afghan civilians in Kandahar Province this year. According to charging summaries newly released by the Army, additional allegations of conspiracy have since been filed against those soldiers, and seven others have been charged in connection with the conspiracy or with attempting to cover it up.

The new charges arose from the investigations into the killings and into a brutal assault on an enlisted man who had informed on soldiers smoking hashish, The Times reported. The informant reported hearing soldiers talk about killing civilians.

The Army told The Associated Press Wednesday that it is redacting charging documents that detail the new allegations and expects to release them next week.

As part of the widening probe, investigators have interviewed platoon mates and defendants, The Times reported, citing documents that defense attorneys filed with an Army magistrate judge, as well as interviews with defense attorneys. Two of the defense lawyers did not immediately respond to e-mails from the AP on Wednesday.

Some platoon members told investigators that Army Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs began joking with other soldiers last December about how easy it would be to “toss a grenade” at Afghan civilians and kill them, the newspaper said. One soldier responded that it was a stupid idea, and another believed Gibbs was “feeling out the platoon.”

But eventually, Gibbs formed what one called a “kill team” to randomly execute Afghan civilians while on patrol, the documents said. No motive was discussed.

Gibbs has denied any involvement in the killings.

Full Story

The school principal said Hitler was a ‘fairly famous person’

An Australian school has apologised after a child dressed as Adolf Hitler won a costume parade.

Telegraph | Aug 27, 2010

The boy was judged best dressed among his class of nine and 10-years-olds by the principal and other teachers in a book week contest, with the costume which featured the swastika.

The unnamed Perth Catholic school sent a letter of apology to parents after a number of complaints that commending an outfit of the Nazi dictator was inappropriate.

“It’s a one-off thing that in retrospect we’d do differently,” the principal, who was not named, told The West Australian newspaper, defending himself by saying Hitler “was a fairly famous person”.

The letter to parents said future dress-up days would be restricted to characters “appropriate for primary school-aged students” and said care would be taken to ensure students understood the “sensitivities” around certain people.

Meanwhile a US High School principal has apologised after a quote from Hitler ended up in the school yearbook.

Easton Area High School Principal Michael Koch, said the quote, which reads “And in the last analysis, success is what matters”, was a mistake and oversight by the administration.