Azima Hussain's husband Khalid was first person in UK to die of new Sars-like disease
The widow of the first person to die of a deadly new Sars-like virus in the UK has told the Guardian of the tragic circumstances of his death.
Azima Hussain, 33, giving her first interview, spoke of the devastation inflicted on her family by the coronavirus that killed her husband, Khalid, last month.
She said her father-in-law, Abid – who was the unwitting bearer of the disease – is still unconscious in hospital and unaware of the death of his son. He fell ill from the virus after a trip to Mecca in Saudi Arabia to pray for the health of Khalid, who had brain cancer.
Azima described the severe impact of the 38-year-old's death on their twin boys, Danyal and Zain, who will be three years old on Sunday.
"They keep asking, 'Where's Daddy?, 'When is Dad coming home?' … but they're too young to know what's going on," she said. "Khalid was a lovely man, he had many friends – and he loved his kids."
Meanwhile, as the Hussain family contend with the tragedy, it can be revealed that scientists are screening hundreds of drugs for compounds that might help contain the new pathogen, which is a coronavirus – the same family of viruses as those that cause common colds and Sars.
It has infected at least 15 people since it emerged in the Middle East last year – more than half of whom have died of pneumonia and multiple organ failure, symptoms that were common in Sars patients.
The precautionary search for treatments marks a clear decision within Europe to "prepare for the worst" and have drugs ready for GPs and hospital workers in case the infection spreads around the world.
The aim is to boost resources to avoid a disaster like the Sars outbreak, which saw 8,000 people in 37 countries fall ill with a respiratory illness that killed one in 10 patients in 2003.
The first patients infected with the coronavirus fell ill in Jordan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia last year, but the source of the infection remains unknown, despite missions by the World Health Organisation and other international groups. As with Sars, the virus has most likely jumped from bats into other animals, in this case perhaps goats or other livestock, which have gone on to infect humans.
Abid Hussain, in his early 60s, had gone to Mecca to pray for his son's recovery. But on his return he fell ill, Khalid caught the virus and, because of his chemotherapy treatment, did not have the immune system to fight it off. Abid has not regained consciousness and does not know about Khalid's death on 17 February.
Khalid, a travel agent living in Rotherham, was diagnosed with a brain tumour in November. Doctors gave him a 20% chance of survival, and he had moved to Birmingham in order to be closer to Queen Elizabeth hospital, where he began chemotherapy in January.
"The cancer was complicated, it was right behind the eyes and nose," Azima said. "So doctors said he needed chemotherapy, to make the tumour smaller, before they could operate.
"His father went back to Pakistan to tell the family about Khalid's cancer, and decided to come back via Mecca, to pray for his recovery. It was weird, no one could have expected what happened."
Abid developed flu-like symptoms and a cough immediately on his return to the UK, and was admitted to Queen Elizabeth hospital on 7 February – where Khalid was having a course of chemotherapy that day – and was later transferred to Manchester for specialist care.
By Sunday 10 February, Khalid was displaying the same symptoms and 10 days later he was dead. His official cause of death is recorded as coronavirus.
Doctors believe Abid transmitted the disease to his son in the first few days after arriving back from Mecca. Abid's sister Zaida was also confirmed to have the virus, but because she had a healthy immune system, she quickly recovered.
The coronavirus was first identified by a doctor in Saudi Arabia, who alerted the international authorities and was subsequently forced to leave the country after being sacked, the Guardian can reveal.
Prof Ali Mohamed Zaki isolated the virus from a patient who died in hospital last June. He angered the Saudi health ministry when he sent the virus out of the country for identification and alerted international researchers to the threat. "They sent a team to the hospital to investigate me, to blame me and threaten me. They forced the hospital to terminate my contract," Zaki said. "I was obliged to leave my work because of this, but it was my duty. This is a serious virus."
Azima said she was shocked to hear about how Zaki was treated. "If what he did could have helped identify the virus quicker, then I don't think the Saudis should have done that. I don't want anyone else to have to go through what my family has."
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
Friday, 15 March 2013
Portugal gets extra year to meet deficit target
The Portuguese government has announced it will have more time to reduce its public deficit to levels accepted under European Union rules. International lenders are willing to pay out the next tranche in bailout funds.
MIT crypto pioneers scoop Turing Award
Nobel Prize of computing goes to Goldwasser and Micali
Two professors from MIT have won the Turing Award for their pioneering cryptography work.…
Two professors from MIT have won the Turing Award for their pioneering cryptography work.…
CCTV hack takes casino for $33 MILLION in poker losses
Australian Ocean's 11 crew rigs high-stakes poker tourney
A sophisticated scheme to use a casino's own security systems against it has netted scammers $33m in a high-stakes poker game after they were able to gain a crucial advantage by seeing the opposition's cards.…
A sophisticated scheme to use a casino's own security systems against it has netted scammers $33m in a high-stakes poker game after they were able to gain a crucial advantage by seeing the opposition's cards.…
Giant African Snail ‘Destroyed’ After Discovery in Australia
Giant African land snails are seen as the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services announces it has positively identified a population of the invasive species in Miami-Dade county on Sep. 15, 2011 in Miami, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)A snail the size of a baseball discovered in Australia was killed to protect the country’s vegetation, as the snail is deemed an invasive species, posing a threat to local agriculture.
The exotic snail was “humanely destroyed” after it was discovered in a container yard in Brisbane, said the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Tuesday. The owners of the yard called the Department of Agriculture, which sent biosecurity officers to take care of it.
The snail was destroyed and officials found no evidence of any other snails, snail trails, or eggs.
The snail can lay as many as 1,200 eggs in a year and can live up to nine years. The species is capable of destroying crops, forests, and fruit trees.
It can eat as many as 500 different kinds of fruits, crops, native plants, and other giant African snails, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The snail can even cause structural damage to plaster and stucco, and carries a parasitic nematode that can cause meningitis in humans.
“Giant African snails are one of the world’s largest and most damaging land snails,” stated Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry acting regional manager Paul Nixon, according to the news agency.
The snail can also endure extreme temperatures and has few predators in Australia.
In 1977, Australia was forced to destroy 300 of the snails in Queensland after an outbreak.
Nixon added that the snails are also hermaphrodites, which means they can spread rapidly. “They are essentially a male-female all-in-one so they can essentially lay eggs without the need for any other snail,” he said, according to the ABC.
Nixon said the species is native to some Asian countries, but can be inadvertently transported to Australia.
“Australia’s strict biosecurity requirements and responsive system has so far kept these pests out of Australia, and we want to keep it that way,” Nixon added.
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Dial 100 for Smoking Ban Violations in India
Public can now report smoking ban violations by dialing 100 in the south Indian city of Bangalore.
At a recent meeting of the Home Department of the Karnataka state government, it was decided that public can call the police control room (100) to lodge complaints against anyone violating provisions of smoking ban. The control room will in turn alert police stations or patrolling vehicles.
The police will act on the complaint to trace the violators and fine them. Media reports quoting an official from the Home Department said a circular in this regard will be issued in a week.
Bangalore city has a larger smoking population. According to the city based study, “Second Hand Smoke in public places,” around one million deaths occur every year in India due to tobacco consumption, imposing a heavy burden on the economy and society.
According to section 4 of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA), smoking in public places is prohibited. In compliance with the COTPA many state governments in the country, institutions, and autonomous bodies started taking concrete action to implement its provisions for public benefit.
In Karnataka, the authorities of the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation and Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation have earlier taken action to strictly prohibit smoking in their premises.
However, as larger implementation always remained a challenge, providing public the opportunity to report on smoking ban violations from anywhere in the city could help in effective implementation of the COTPA in the city.
At a recent meeting of the Home Department of the Karnataka state government, it was decided that public can call the police control room (100) to lodge complaints against anyone violating provisions of smoking ban. The control room will in turn alert police stations or patrolling vehicles.
The police will act on the complaint to trace the violators and fine them. Media reports quoting an official from the Home Department said a circular in this regard will be issued in a week.
Bangalore city has a larger smoking population. According to the city based study, “Second Hand Smoke in public places,” around one million deaths occur every year in India due to tobacco consumption, imposing a heavy burden on the economy and society.
According to section 4 of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA), smoking in public places is prohibited. In compliance with the COTPA many state governments in the country, institutions, and autonomous bodies started taking concrete action to implement its provisions for public benefit.
In Karnataka, the authorities of the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation and Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation have earlier taken action to strictly prohibit smoking in their premises.
However, as larger implementation always remained a challenge, providing public the opportunity to report on smoking ban violations from anywhere in the city could help in effective implementation of the COTPA in the city.
Hurricane Sandy Car Wrecks Reconditioned by European Gangs
GOTHENBURG, Sweden—In Sweden, an estimated 12,000 drivers are getting around in reconditioned wrecks from hurricanes and other natural disasters, and many of them don’t even know it. Criminal organizations are making big money in this potentially lethal business.
Carfax, a company that provides prospective buyers with history reports on used vehicles, traced a vehicle that had crashed in Sweden back to the United States. It was ruined in Hurricane Sandy, considered totaled, and sold at an auction, but it was hard to trace its movement between that point and the crash.
The car’s airbag did not release upon impact; when local police in Sweden opened the airbag compartment, “It just had a pair of shoes and a T-shirt in it as filler,” said Hakan Lindberg of Carfax’s Swedish branch.
Many such demolished cars are now shipped over to Lithuania, according to Lindberg.
It is a complex, large-scale criminal operation: Totaled cars are imported and then reconditioned with parts pilfered from Swedish cars by gangs. Burglars cut the side of the car open, disable the alarm, and then calmly go about removing whatever they need.
“It’s a large-scale industry. They ship truckloads of parts over there [to Lithuania] every day,” Lindberg said.
Reconditioned cars are then imported back to Sweden, and this is where the real trouble begins, since some of them are not properly repaired. An owner may unwittingly be driving around with even worse problems than clothes in the airbag compartment.
“If you crash your car into something, the steering column is made in two parts, so that it collapses on impact. Now, they weld the parts together, which means that in a collision, the steering column becomes a spear thrust right into your chest,” Lindberg said.
Lindberg asked how many consumers check airbags, whether the steering column is still collapsible, or cables and connections for lamps. The private buyer is seduced by the nice exterior and the low price. Lindberg has personally seen a few of these cars and can testify that they look great at first glance.
When local police in Sweden opened the airbag compartment, “It just had a pair of shoes and a T-shirt in it as filler,” said Hakan Lindberg of Carfax’s Swedish branch.
Many people who find out that they have bought a totaled car tend to stick their heads in the sand, said Lindberg.
But Lindberg wants to remind people of how they would feel if their families were hurt in a crash because of shoddy workmanship.
When importing a used car to Sweden, it must pass an inspection. Authorities told Carfax that as long as cars pass the inspection, they are cleared for Swedish roads, even though they were previously declared totaled in another country.
There are currently an estimated 12,000 hurricane-totaled and reconditioned cars on Swedish roads that would not be legally allowed on roads in the United States. Hurricane Sandy alone destroyed some 900,000 cars, according to Jan-Erik Heed of the Stockholm police.
Heed says that Lithuanian authorities are not cooperating with their Swedish counterparts to deal with this problem.
Since both Lithuania and Sweden are European Union (EU) member states, Heed recently visited Europol, the EU criminal intelligence agency. One of its tasks is to help member states prevent and fight international crime in Europe.
Carfax, a company that provides prospective buyers with history reports on used vehicles, traced a vehicle that had crashed in Sweden back to the United States. It was ruined in Hurricane Sandy, considered totaled, and sold at an auction, but it was hard to trace its movement between that point and the crash.
The car’s airbag did not release upon impact; when local police in Sweden opened the airbag compartment, “It just had a pair of shoes and a T-shirt in it as filler,” said Hakan Lindberg of Carfax’s Swedish branch.
Many such demolished cars are now shipped over to Lithuania, according to Lindberg.
It is a complex, large-scale criminal operation: Totaled cars are imported and then reconditioned with parts pilfered from Swedish cars by gangs. Burglars cut the side of the car open, disable the alarm, and then calmly go about removing whatever they need.
“It’s a large-scale industry. They ship truckloads of parts over there [to Lithuania] every day,” Lindberg said.
Reconditioned cars are then imported back to Sweden, and this is where the real trouble begins, since some of them are not properly repaired. An owner may unwittingly be driving around with even worse problems than clothes in the airbag compartment.
“If you crash your car into something, the steering column is made in two parts, so that it collapses on impact. Now, they weld the parts together, which means that in a collision, the steering column becomes a spear thrust right into your chest,” Lindberg said.
Lindberg asked how many consumers check airbags, whether the steering column is still collapsible, or cables and connections for lamps. The private buyer is seduced by the nice exterior and the low price. Lindberg has personally seen a few of these cars and can testify that they look great at first glance.
When local police in Sweden opened the airbag compartment, “It just had a pair of shoes and a T-shirt in it as filler,” said Hakan Lindberg of Carfax’s Swedish branch.
Many people who find out that they have bought a totaled car tend to stick their heads in the sand, said Lindberg.
But Lindberg wants to remind people of how they would feel if their families were hurt in a crash because of shoddy workmanship.
When importing a used car to Sweden, it must pass an inspection. Authorities told Carfax that as long as cars pass the inspection, they are cleared for Swedish roads, even though they were previously declared totaled in another country.
There are currently an estimated 12,000 hurricane-totaled and reconditioned cars on Swedish roads that would not be legally allowed on roads in the United States. Hurricane Sandy alone destroyed some 900,000 cars, according to Jan-Erik Heed of the Stockholm police.
Heed says that Lithuanian authorities are not cooperating with their Swedish counterparts to deal with this problem.
Since both Lithuania and Sweden are European Union (EU) member states, Heed recently visited Europol, the EU criminal intelligence agency. One of its tasks is to help member states prevent and fight international crime in Europe.
El jefe de caballería de la reina británica, envuelto en un escándalo de carne de caballo
Una compañía de alimentos propiedad de la familia de Lord Vestey, miembro de alto rango de la Casa Real, ha suministrado carne de caballo a una de las empresas de catering más grandes del Reino Unido. Según la compañía Sodexo, que proporciona alimentos a los servicios públicos, el conglomerado de empresas cárnicas Vestey le vendía carne picada y carne halal, que contenían más de un 1% de carne de caballo. El grupo Vestey está presidido por Lord Samuel Vestey, el Magister Equitum, es decir, el jefe de caballería encargado superior de las caballerizas reales y los caballos de la reina británica desde 1999.
Americans hacked us, says North Korea
Regime's servers reportedly went down as rhetoric continues over UN sanctions and South conducts war games with US
North Korea, usually blamed for hacking others, has accused the US of staging cyber attacks against its internet servers after reports of disruptions to the North's main news services.
Russia's Itar-Tass news agency said a "powerful hacker attack" from abroad had brought down internet servers in the North, disabling access to some websites.
Tensions are high between North Korea, South Korea and the South's ally the US after UN sanctions were tightened against the regime in Pyongyang because of its latest nuclear test.
The North has cancelled peacemaking contacts and threatened a nuclear strike against the US. War games that are under way between the South and the US have added to the bellicose air.
South Korea's MBC television said the North's state media services were among those affected by the cyber attack. These included the websites of the KCNA news agency and the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper, which were said to be experiencing disruptions even though they were operating normally on Thursday and Friday.
"It is nobody's secret that the US and the South Korean puppet regime are massively bolstering up cyber forces in a bid to intensify the subversive activities and sabotages against the DPRK," KCNA said on Friday.
"Intensive and persistent virus attacks are being made every day on internet servers operated by the DPRK."
KCNA and Rodong Sinmun have carried the North's increasingly strident rhetoric of late, accusing the US and South Korea of staging preparations for war and vowing to scrap the armistice that stopped fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War.
North Korea has itself been blamed for spreading malicious software that crashed the websites of government agencies and businesses, and for a cyber attack on a South Korean state-run bank server in 2011 that took more than a week to fix.
North Korea denies cyber attacks and accuses the South of a conspiracy to fuel confrontation, although defectors from the North have said that Pyongyang is recruiting thousands of computer engineers to its cyber warfare unit.
Military experts have said cyber warfare is a major threat from North Korea, along with its conventional forces and its weapons of mass destruction programme, posing a security risk to utilities and communication networks in the South.
North Korea has been accused of jamming global positioning system signals, affecting hundreds of flights at South Korea's main airport.
US spy agencies said this week for the first time that cyber attacks and cyber espionage had supplanted terrorism as the top security threat facing the US.
Washington and China are embroiled in their own row over hacking, with the US president, Barack Obama, calling his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, to discuss the issue this week.
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
North Korea, usually blamed for hacking others, has accused the US of staging cyber attacks against its internet servers after reports of disruptions to the North's main news services.
Russia's Itar-Tass news agency said a "powerful hacker attack" from abroad had brought down internet servers in the North, disabling access to some websites.
Tensions are high between North Korea, South Korea and the South's ally the US after UN sanctions were tightened against the regime in Pyongyang because of its latest nuclear test.
The North has cancelled peacemaking contacts and threatened a nuclear strike against the US. War games that are under way between the South and the US have added to the bellicose air.
South Korea's MBC television said the North's state media services were among those affected by the cyber attack. These included the websites of the KCNA news agency and the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper, which were said to be experiencing disruptions even though they were operating normally on Thursday and Friday.
"It is nobody's secret that the US and the South Korean puppet regime are massively bolstering up cyber forces in a bid to intensify the subversive activities and sabotages against the DPRK," KCNA said on Friday.
"Intensive and persistent virus attacks are being made every day on internet servers operated by the DPRK."
KCNA and Rodong Sinmun have carried the North's increasingly strident rhetoric of late, accusing the US and South Korea of staging preparations for war and vowing to scrap the armistice that stopped fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War.
North Korea has itself been blamed for spreading malicious software that crashed the websites of government agencies and businesses, and for a cyber attack on a South Korean state-run bank server in 2011 that took more than a week to fix.
North Korea denies cyber attacks and accuses the South of a conspiracy to fuel confrontation, although defectors from the North have said that Pyongyang is recruiting thousands of computer engineers to its cyber warfare unit.
Military experts have said cyber warfare is a major threat from North Korea, along with its conventional forces and its weapons of mass destruction programme, posing a security risk to utilities and communication networks in the South.
North Korea has been accused of jamming global positioning system signals, affecting hundreds of flights at South Korea's main airport.
US spy agencies said this week for the first time that cyber attacks and cyber espionage had supplanted terrorism as the top security threat facing the US.
Washington and China are embroiled in their own row over hacking, with the US president, Barack Obama, calling his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, to discuss the issue this week.
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
Donald Trump's remedy for America: oil from Iraq to 'pay ourselves back'
Friday's CPAC keynote speaker gives rambling address, from the evils of immigration reform to an exhortation to re-invade Iraq
Every conference needs a good troll. And Donald Trump seemed happy to play the part at CPAC with a rambling speech on Friday that ranged from the evils of immigration reform to an exhortation to re-invade Iraq.
Trump gave the first keynote of the second day of the biggest annual gathering of conservatives in the US. He used it run against the tide of Republican opinion on immigration, to call for the expropriation of Iraq's oil, and to complain that the Obama administration turned down his offer of building a ballroom in the White House grounds.
In what would have been a damaging revelation if it had come from a more credible source, Trump said "high-level officials" told him before the Iraq war that the US was "going for the oil". The trouble was, it didn't get any. Trump's remedy: go back for it.
Trump's speech was greeted with polite applause, and there was a standing ovation from some parts of the room, but it did not electrify the GOP base in the way that Marco Rubio or Rand Paul had done a day earlier.
His solution for America's woes was that it needed to build a better economy, mostly through manufacturing televisons again. (A logic somewhat undermined by his revelation that he has just placed an order for 3,000 televisions with South Korea). "Our country is in very, very serious trouble," he said.
Going against the tide of opinion from the platorm at this year's CPAC conference, Trump warned against any embrace by the GOP of immigration reform: regularising the immigration status of "11 million illegals" would create 11 million Democrat voters, he said. The Republican party risked putting itself on a "suicide mission". Instead, he argued, the US should consider allowing more Europeans to the country.
Trump repeated a complaint that the White House wouldn't let him build one of his big tacky ballrooms on the back lawn. They wouldn't even call him back. "That's the problem with this country," he raged. "People don't get back to you."
He also launched into a big advert for his new golf resort in Florida, where he was hanging out with Tiger Woods earlier this week. (Admittedly, it sounded very nice.) This was the problem with Mitt Romney: he didn't go on about how wealthy he was, often enough, Trump says. 'If Mitt made one mistake, he didn't talk enough about his success.' Yes! That was it!
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
Every conference needs a good troll. And Donald Trump seemed happy to play the part at CPAC with a rambling speech on Friday that ranged from the evils of immigration reform to an exhortation to re-invade Iraq.
Trump gave the first keynote of the second day of the biggest annual gathering of conservatives in the US. He used it run against the tide of Republican opinion on immigration, to call for the expropriation of Iraq's oil, and to complain that the Obama administration turned down his offer of building a ballroom in the White House grounds.
In what would have been a damaging revelation if it had come from a more credible source, Trump said "high-level officials" told him before the Iraq war that the US was "going for the oil". The trouble was, it didn't get any. Trump's remedy: go back for it.
Donald Trump on Iraq's oil reserve: "I say we should take it and pay ourselves back" #CPAC
— Cameron Joseph (@cam_joseph) March 15, 2013
Trump's speech was greeted with polite applause, and there was a standing ovation from some parts of the room, but it did not electrify the GOP base in the way that Marco Rubio or Rand Paul had done a day earlier.
His solution for America's woes was that it needed to build a better economy, mostly through manufacturing televisons again. (A logic somewhat undermined by his revelation that he has just placed an order for 3,000 televisions with South Korea). "Our country is in very, very serious trouble," he said.
Going against the tide of opinion from the platorm at this year's CPAC conference, Trump warned against any embrace by the GOP of immigration reform: regularising the immigration status of "11 million illegals" would create 11 million Democrat voters, he said. The Republican party risked putting itself on a "suicide mission". Instead, he argued, the US should consider allowing more Europeans to the country.
Trump repeated a complaint that the White House wouldn't let him build one of his big tacky ballrooms on the back lawn. They wouldn't even call him back. "That's the problem with this country," he raged. "People don't get back to you."
He also launched into a big advert for his new golf resort in Florida, where he was hanging out with Tiger Woods earlier this week. (Admittedly, it sounded very nice.) This was the problem with Mitt Romney: he didn't go on about how wealthy he was, often enough, Trump says. 'If Mitt made one mistake, he didn't talk enough about his success.' Yes! That was it!
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
Catholic priest accused of sexual assault reveals he is secretly married
A Roman Catholic priest accused of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl has revealed to a court that he has been secretly married for more than 13 years.
£1million compensation for man who fell in pothole
A man who suffered a brain injury after tripping in a pothole has won an estimated an estimated £1 million in damages
Pope Francis 'dismissed Anglican branch as quite unnecessary'
Pope Francis once dismissed the branch of the Roman Catholic Church set up for defecting Anglicans as "quite unnecessary", his Anglican counterpart in Argentina claims.
Introducen una administración de emergencias en Detroit para salvar la ciudad de la insolvencia
El gobernador del estado de Michigan designó un administrador de emergencias en Detroit, ciudad que se encuentra en una catástrofe económica.
El encargado de las finanzas de la ciudad será Kevyn Orr, experto en bancarrotas corporativas de la empresa Jones Day.
Es la mayor toma de control de una ciudad importante de EE.UU. por parte de un estado desde hace años. En el estado de Michigan se ha aplicado la misma medida para cinco ciudades.
Detroit, también llamada 'Motor City', fue uno de los centros económicos de EE.UU., pero el colapso de la industria de automóviles en las últimas décadas causó la caída de la población a la mitad. El desempleo en la ciudad es el doble del promedio nacional, y la pobreza y el crimen son preocupantes.
El encargado de las finanzas de la ciudad será Kevyn Orr, experto en bancarrotas corporativas de la empresa Jones Day.
Es la mayor toma de control de una ciudad importante de EE.UU. por parte de un estado desde hace años. En el estado de Michigan se ha aplicado la misma medida para cinco ciudades.
Detroit, también llamada 'Motor City', fue uno de los centros económicos de EE.UU., pero el colapso de la industria de automóviles en las últimas décadas causó la caída de la población a la mitad. El desempleo en la ciudad es el doble del promedio nacional, y la pobreza y el crimen son preocupantes.
Cameron wins 'breakthrough' deal among European leaders to cut red tape
David Cameron claimed an "important breakthrough" after winning a deal among European leaders to cut red tape that he believes is stifling small businesses.
Bee-harming pesticides escape proposed European ban
Commission proposal to suspend use of neonicotinoids fails to gain majority, but could still be enforced by appeals committee
A European attempt to ban the world's most widely used insecticides that have been linked to serious harm in bees has failed.
The European commission proposed a two-year suspension of neonicotinoids after the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) deemed their use an unacceptable risk, but major nations including UK and Germany failed to back the plan in a vote on Friday.
The result leaves environmental campaigners, scientists and some politicians bitterly disappointed.
"Britain and Germany have caved in to the industry lobby and refused to ban bee-killing pesticides," said Iain Keith, at campaign group Avaaz. "Today's vote flies in the face of science and public opinion and maintains the disastrous chemical armageddon on bees, which are critical for the future of our food."
The chemical companies that dominate the billion-dollar neonicotinoid market, Bayer and Syngenta, were relieved. Syngenta chief operating officer, John Atkin, said: "We are pleased member states did not support the EC's shamefully political proposal. Restricting the use of this vital crop protection technology will do nothing to help improve bee health."
A Bayer spokesman, describing the company as a "responsible corporate citizen" said: "The EC has relied too heavily on the precautionary principle, without taking the principle of proportionality into account."
A spokeswoman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs defended the UK's abstention: "Bee health is extremely important but decisions must be based on sound scientific evidence and rushing this through could have serious unintended consequences both for bees and for food production. We are not opposing the EU's proposals. But as we do not have the evidence yet it is impossible for us to vote either way."
But Prof Dave Goulson, at the University of Stirling and who led one of the key studies showing that neonicotinoids harm bumblebees, told the Guardian: "The independent experts at EFSA spent six months studying all the evidence before concluding there was an unacceptable risk to bees. EFSA and almost everybody else – apart from the manufacturers – agree this class of pesticides were not adequately evaluated in the first place. Yet politicians choose to ignore all of this."
About three-quarters of global food crops rely on bees and other insects to fertilise their flowers, so the decline of honeybee colonies due to disease, habitat loss and pesticide harm has prompted serious concern.
Conservationists argue that the harm resulting from the loss of bees and the vital pollination service they provide outweighs any farming losses. Almost three-quarters of the UK public backed the proposed ban, according to a poll released on Wednesday, and Avaaz had amassed 2.5m signatures across Europe in support.
The EC proposal was to ban the use of three neonicotinoids from use on corn, oil seed rape, apples, carrots, strawberries and many other flowering crops across the continent for two years, after which the situation would be reviewed.
Suspensions have previously been put in place in France, Germany, Italy and Slovenia, but the EC proposal would have applied across all 27 member states. Many major agricultural nations, including France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Poland, voted for the ban, while the UK and Germany abstained, with Hungary and Romania leading those opposed.
However, the ban could still be enforced within months if the EC takes the decision to an appeals committee. Friday's vote, by member states' experts on the standing committee on the food chain and animal health, saw 13 nations in favour of the ban, five abstaining and nine opposing, meaning there was no majority for or against.
The same "hung" vote at the appeals committee would mean the EC could enforce the ban. "When member states do not want to take a decision, then the commission does it, as it has in approving genetically modified crops," a source told the Guardian.
EC officials said: "The commission takes note of the member states' response to its proposal but remains committed to ambitious and proportionate legislative measures." It said it would decide whether to go to appeal, or revise the proposal, in the next week.
Bart Staes, a Green party MEP in Belgium said: "The inconclusive outcome keeps hopes alive that the proposed neonicotinoid suspensions can be implemented soon. We call on all reluctant EU governments not to heed the misleading lobbying from the insecticide industry."
A series of high-profile scientific studies in the last year has increasingly linked neonicotinoids to harmful effects in bees, including huge losses in the number of queens produced, and big increases in "disappeared" bees – those that fail to return from foraging trips.
The UK's environment secretary, Owen Paterson, faced criticism from one of his Conservative predecessors. Lord Deben, who as John Gummer was environment secretary, said: "If ever there were an issue where the precautionary principle ought to guide our actions, it is in the use of neonicotinoids. Bees are too important to our crops to continue to take this risk."
Paterson said in February: "I have asked the EC to wait for the results of our field trials, rather than rushing to a decision." However, the results were not available at Friday's meeting because the field trials have been seriously compromised by contamination from neonicotinoids. Prof Ian Boyd, Defra's chief scientist, said: "At the control site, there were residues of neonicotinoids in pollen and nectar."
Evidence submitted to an ongoing parliamentary inquiry in the UK cites a long list of failings in the existing regulation of neonicotinoids. Currently, only the effects on honeybees are considered, despite 90% of pollination being performed by different species, such as solitary or bumblebees, hoverflies, butterflies, moths and others. Another failing is that the regime was set up for pesticide sprays, not systemic chemicals like neonicotinoids that are used to treat seeds and then spread through the growing plant.
Even the National Farmers Union, which argues that there is no need for change, admitted: "It is very well-known that the current pesticide risk assessment systems for bees were not developed to assess systemic pesticides." On Friday, the NFU's Chris Hartfield said: "We maintain that the proposed ban is not a proportionate response to the evidence we have available."
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
A European attempt to ban the world's most widely used insecticides that have been linked to serious harm in bees has failed.
The European commission proposed a two-year suspension of neonicotinoids after the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) deemed their use an unacceptable risk, but major nations including UK and Germany failed to back the plan in a vote on Friday.
The result leaves environmental campaigners, scientists and some politicians bitterly disappointed.
"Britain and Germany have caved in to the industry lobby and refused to ban bee-killing pesticides," said Iain Keith, at campaign group Avaaz. "Today's vote flies in the face of science and public opinion and maintains the disastrous chemical armageddon on bees, which are critical for the future of our food."
The chemical companies that dominate the billion-dollar neonicotinoid market, Bayer and Syngenta, were relieved. Syngenta chief operating officer, John Atkin, said: "We are pleased member states did not support the EC's shamefully political proposal. Restricting the use of this vital crop protection technology will do nothing to help improve bee health."
A Bayer spokesman, describing the company as a "responsible corporate citizen" said: "The EC has relied too heavily on the precautionary principle, without taking the principle of proportionality into account."
A spokeswoman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs defended the UK's abstention: "Bee health is extremely important but decisions must be based on sound scientific evidence and rushing this through could have serious unintended consequences both for bees and for food production. We are not opposing the EU's proposals. But as we do not have the evidence yet it is impossible for us to vote either way."
But Prof Dave Goulson, at the University of Stirling and who led one of the key studies showing that neonicotinoids harm bumblebees, told the Guardian: "The independent experts at EFSA spent six months studying all the evidence before concluding there was an unacceptable risk to bees. EFSA and almost everybody else – apart from the manufacturers – agree this class of pesticides were not adequately evaluated in the first place. Yet politicians choose to ignore all of this."
About three-quarters of global food crops rely on bees and other insects to fertilise their flowers, so the decline of honeybee colonies due to disease, habitat loss and pesticide harm has prompted serious concern.
Conservationists argue that the harm resulting from the loss of bees and the vital pollination service they provide outweighs any farming losses. Almost three-quarters of the UK public backed the proposed ban, according to a poll released on Wednesday, and Avaaz had amassed 2.5m signatures across Europe in support.
The EC proposal was to ban the use of three neonicotinoids from use on corn, oil seed rape, apples, carrots, strawberries and many other flowering crops across the continent for two years, after which the situation would be reviewed.
Suspensions have previously been put in place in France, Germany, Italy and Slovenia, but the EC proposal would have applied across all 27 member states. Many major agricultural nations, including France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Poland, voted for the ban, while the UK and Germany abstained, with Hungary and Romania leading those opposed.
However, the ban could still be enforced within months if the EC takes the decision to an appeals committee. Friday's vote, by member states' experts on the standing committee on the food chain and animal health, saw 13 nations in favour of the ban, five abstaining and nine opposing, meaning there was no majority for or against.
The same "hung" vote at the appeals committee would mean the EC could enforce the ban. "When member states do not want to take a decision, then the commission does it, as it has in approving genetically modified crops," a source told the Guardian.
EC officials said: "The commission takes note of the member states' response to its proposal but remains committed to ambitious and proportionate legislative measures." It said it would decide whether to go to appeal, or revise the proposal, in the next week.
Bart Staes, a Green party MEP in Belgium said: "The inconclusive outcome keeps hopes alive that the proposed neonicotinoid suspensions can be implemented soon. We call on all reluctant EU governments not to heed the misleading lobbying from the insecticide industry."
A series of high-profile scientific studies in the last year has increasingly linked neonicotinoids to harmful effects in bees, including huge losses in the number of queens produced, and big increases in "disappeared" bees – those that fail to return from foraging trips.
The UK's environment secretary, Owen Paterson, faced criticism from one of his Conservative predecessors. Lord Deben, who as John Gummer was environment secretary, said: "If ever there were an issue where the precautionary principle ought to guide our actions, it is in the use of neonicotinoids. Bees are too important to our crops to continue to take this risk."
Paterson said in February: "I have asked the EC to wait for the results of our field trials, rather than rushing to a decision." However, the results were not available at Friday's meeting because the field trials have been seriously compromised by contamination from neonicotinoids. Prof Ian Boyd, Defra's chief scientist, said: "At the control site, there were residues of neonicotinoids in pollen and nectar."
Evidence submitted to an ongoing parliamentary inquiry in the UK cites a long list of failings in the existing regulation of neonicotinoids. Currently, only the effects on honeybees are considered, despite 90% of pollination being performed by different species, such as solitary or bumblebees, hoverflies, butterflies, moths and others. Another failing is that the regime was set up for pesticide sprays, not systemic chemicals like neonicotinoids that are used to treat seeds and then spread through the growing plant.
Even the National Farmers Union, which argues that there is no need for change, admitted: "It is very well-known that the current pesticide risk assessment systems for bees were not developed to assess systemic pesticides." On Friday, the NFU's Chris Hartfield said: "We maintain that the proposed ban is not a proportionate response to the evidence we have available."
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
The police worker who turned to Islamic extremism
Jahangir Alom spent two years policing communities he would later turn on.
Un juez confirma la fianza de 8,2 millones de euros al yerno del rey de España
El juez José Castro, del tribunal español de Palma de Mallorca, ha rechazado este jueves los recursos presentados por Iñaki Urdangarin, el yerno del rey de España, y su ex socio Diego Torres contra la fianza de casi 8,2 millones de euros (10,6 millones de dólares) que se les impuso.
La fianza está fijada para cubrir las responsabilidades pecuniarias que pudieran declararse contra ambos en el proceso contra el presunto desvío de unos 6,1 millones de euros (unos 7,89 millones de dólares) de fondos públicos a paraísos fiscales.
Castro impuso el pasado 30 de enero esta caución, sin embargo ninguno de los dos abonó la fianza requerida, por lo que se dio inicio a un proceso que podría concluir en un embargo de propiedades.
La fianza está fijada para cubrir las responsabilidades pecuniarias que pudieran declararse contra ambos en el proceso contra el presunto desvío de unos 6,1 millones de euros (unos 7,89 millones de dólares) de fondos públicos a paraísos fiscales.
Castro impuso el pasado 30 de enero esta caución, sin embargo ninguno de los dos abonó la fianza requerida, por lo que se dio inicio a un proceso que podría concluir en un embargo de propiedades.
336 million abortions under China's one-child policy
More than half a billion birth control procedures, including at least 336 million abortions, have been performed in the name of the one-child policy, China's Health ministry revealed yesterday.
California Coast Sees Deluge of Sick Sea Lion Pups
By Dana Feldman
LAGUNA BEACH, California (Reuters) - Sick and malnourished sea lion pups are stranding themselves on Southern California beaches in some of the largest numbers seen in over a decade, perplexing scientists and leading one care facility to declare itself near capacity.
Officials at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach, California, have said they are in emergency mode.
The last time they saw such an onslaught of the mammal pups this early in the year was 1998, when an "El Nino" weather pattern warmed the waters off the California coast.
Fish migrated away from shore, which forced adult sea lions to swim farther to chase them and made it harder for mother sea lions to care for their young.
Animal rescuers believe adult sea lions are again foraging deeper into the ocean this year, but the reasons are unclear. [More]
LAGUNA BEACH, California (Reuters) - Sick and malnourished sea lion pups are stranding themselves on Southern California beaches in some of the largest numbers seen in over a decade, perplexing scientists and leading one care facility to declare itself near capacity.
Officials at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach, California, have said they are in emergency mode.
The last time they saw such an onslaught of the mammal pups this early in the year was 1998, when an "El Nino" weather pattern warmed the waters off the California coast.
Fish migrated away from shore, which forced adult sea lions to swim farther to chase them and made it harder for mother sea lions to care for their young.
Animal rescuers believe adult sea lions are again foraging deeper into the ocean this year, but the reasons are unclear. [More]
Developing countries to get access to 12,000 online research books
A global academic publishing company is making more than 12,000 research books available free online to low- and middle-income countries.
Homens armados matam sete pessoas em Cancún
CANCÚN - Autoridades do balneário de Cancún informaram que dois homens armados invadiram um bar em um bairro de classe operária e mataram a tiros sete pessoas. Outras quatro ficaram feridas. Segundo o Secretário de Segurança Pública, Aiza Jesus, a maioria das vítimas pertencia a um sindicato de motoristas de táxi.
Aiza relatou que os assaltantes chegaram ao bar numa área pobre, longe da zona hoteleira de Cancún, em dois carros na tarde de quinta-feira. Os dois homens armados entraram no estabelecimento com fuzis automáticos e começaram a atirar. A polícia ainda está tentando determinar um motivo para o ataque.
Cancún, importante destino turístico da costa caribenha do México, tem escapado da violência relacionada com as drogas que tem atingido Acapulco, na costa do Pacífico.
No mês passado, seis mulheres espanholas foram estupradas por homens armados encapuzados que invadiram uma casa na praia de Acapulco.
O presidente do México, Enrique Pena Nieto, que prometeu reduzir a violência registrada durante o governo de seu antecessor, Felipe Calderón, lançou uma ofensiva contra os cartéis de drogas.
Mais de 70 mil pessoas foram mortas vítimas da violência relacionada às drogas no México desde 2007.
Aiza relatou que os assaltantes chegaram ao bar numa área pobre, longe da zona hoteleira de Cancún, em dois carros na tarde de quinta-feira. Os dois homens armados entraram no estabelecimento com fuzis automáticos e começaram a atirar. A polícia ainda está tentando determinar um motivo para o ataque.
Cancún, importante destino turístico da costa caribenha do México, tem escapado da violência relacionada com as drogas que tem atingido Acapulco, na costa do Pacífico.
No mês passado, seis mulheres espanholas foram estupradas por homens armados encapuzados que invadiram uma casa na praia de Acapulco.
O presidente do México, Enrique Pena Nieto, que prometeu reduzir a violência registrada durante o governo de seu antecessor, Felipe Calderón, lançou uma ofensiva contra os cartéis de drogas.
Mais de 70 mil pessoas foram mortas vítimas da violência relacionada às drogas no México desde 2007.
China e Irã estão na lista de "inimigos da internet"
Os dois países estão novamente na lista dos que mais censuram a rede mundial de computadores, elaborada pela organização Repórteres Sem Fronteiras. Bloggers contam como funciona o controle da informação pelo Estado.
Dolphin Found Swimming in New York City's East River
By Jonathan Allen
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A dolphin swam up New York City's East River on Wednesday where it appeared to be doing fine despite straying from its more usual ocean habitat, officials said.
Until biologists get a closer look, it is hard to say whether it is a common dolphin, an Atlantic bottlenose dolphin, a white-sided dolphin or a white-beaked dolphin, said Kimberly Durham, the rescue program director at the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation.
"I've seen some video of it swimming, and it seems to be swimming fairly strong," Durham said. [More]
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A dolphin swam up New York City's East River on Wednesday where it appeared to be doing fine despite straying from its more usual ocean habitat, officials said.
Until biologists get a closer look, it is hard to say whether it is a common dolphin, an Atlantic bottlenose dolphin, a white-sided dolphin or a white-beaked dolphin, said Kimberly Durham, the rescue program director at the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation.
"I've seen some video of it swimming, and it seems to be swimming fairly strong," Durham said. [More]
IRS has $917 mln in unclaimed refunds that are about to expire
About 1 million US taxpayers from all 50 states failed to filetheir returns in 2009, but unless they do so before April 15, theywon’t be getting their checks.
In the US, individuals making less than $9,750 a year are notrequired to file taxes. Some people are unaware that federal taxeshave been taken out of their paychecks and that the IRS owes themmoney. Others choose not to file returns because they don’t believethey would get much cash back, and don’t consider the paperworkworth their time.
The IRS gives taxpayers three years to claim a refund, afterwhich Uncle Sam gets to keep the money. There is no penalty forfiling a late return, but hundreds of thousands of Americans mightnot even be aware of the fact that they qualify.
As a result, the US Treasury could be making more than $917million from unclaimed refunds from 2009.
And for those who do file a late return, they will beexperiencing a delay in payment – especially if they also failed tofile returns for 2010 and 2011, the IRS says. The Treasury is alsoable to withhold refunds if taxpayers have outstanding debt, likeunpaid student loans, child support and federal or state taxes.
Low-and middle-income Americans, primarily those with children,may also qualify for Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). But one infive US residents are unaware that they qualify for the EITC andmay therefore be overpaying the IRS, rather than filing for thededuction.
The IRS announcement regarding the number of unclaimed refundscomes just one month before the deadline to file for them, givingtaxpayers only a short amount of time to determine if they areeligible. But even though the IRS has so many unclaimed refunds, itstill claims to struggle with the high number of tax returns.
The “Where’s My Refund?” tool on the IRS website has beenunavailable numerous times this season, and the IRS blamestaxpayers for clicking on it too much and overwhelming the system.The agency has urged taxpayers to only check their refund once aday, or limit use of their website to weekends.
In February, an IRS spokesperson told the Associated Press thatit was receiving more than 1 million tax returns every day and thatthe most common question the agency is hears is about people’srefunds.
“I think what we’re seeing is just part of the naturalevolution in the refund process,” IRS spokesman Terry Lemonstold AP. “Twenty-five years ago, you desperately checked themailbox every day.”
But by already promising delays in late tax returns and claimingto have an overwhelmed system, taxpayers who file for a 2009 returncould be waiting months for their money.
In the US, individuals making less than $9,750 a year are notrequired to file taxes. Some people are unaware that federal taxeshave been taken out of their paychecks and that the IRS owes themmoney. Others choose not to file returns because they don’t believethey would get much cash back, and don’t consider the paperworkworth their time.
The IRS gives taxpayers three years to claim a refund, afterwhich Uncle Sam gets to keep the money. There is no penalty forfiling a late return, but hundreds of thousands of Americans mightnot even be aware of the fact that they qualify.
As a result, the US Treasury could be making more than $917million from unclaimed refunds from 2009.
And for those who do file a late return, they will beexperiencing a delay in payment – especially if they also failed tofile returns for 2010 and 2011, the IRS says. The Treasury is alsoable to withhold refunds if taxpayers have outstanding debt, likeunpaid student loans, child support and federal or state taxes.
Low-and middle-income Americans, primarily those with children,may also qualify for Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). But one infive US residents are unaware that they qualify for the EITC andmay therefore be overpaying the IRS, rather than filing for thededuction.
The IRS announcement regarding the number of unclaimed refundscomes just one month before the deadline to file for them, givingtaxpayers only a short amount of time to determine if they areeligible. But even though the IRS has so many unclaimed refunds, itstill claims to struggle with the high number of tax returns.
The “Where’s My Refund?” tool on the IRS website has beenunavailable numerous times this season, and the IRS blamestaxpayers for clicking on it too much and overwhelming the system.The agency has urged taxpayers to only check their refund once aday, or limit use of their website to weekends.
In February, an IRS spokesperson told the Associated Press thatit was receiving more than 1 million tax returns every day and thatthe most common question the agency is hears is about people’srefunds.
“I think what we’re seeing is just part of the naturalevolution in the refund process,” IRS spokesman Terry Lemonstold AP. “Twenty-five years ago, you desperately checked themailbox every day.”
But by already promising delays in late tax returns and claimingto have an overwhelmed system, taxpayers who file for a 2009 returncould be waiting months for their money.
EUA podem limitar número de vistos a familiares de imigrantes
WASHINGTON - Apesar de pretender ampliar os direitos aos imigrantes, a polêmica reforma do sistema migratório dos Estados Unidos pode incluir novos limites ao número de vistos entregues a familiares de estrangeiros residentes no país. A possibilidade de restringir a entrada de parentes foi reconhecida pelo senador Lindsey Graham, um dos republicanos que trabalham na nova legislação. A proposta foi amplamente rejeitada pelas organizações a favor da reforma, pois limitaria drasticamente uma das principais vias de entrada legal no país.
- Os imigrantes adultos, seus filhos, os avós podem obter o green card - afirmou o senador Graham, em referência à permissão de residência. - O que pretendo fazer é conceder os vistos em função das necessidades econômicas do país, e, claro que faremos algo com as famílias, mas a minha prioridade é que a reforma do atual sistema se baseie em critérios econômicos.
Quatro senadores republicanos e quatro democratas trabalham desde o mês passado na reforma do sistema de imigração. O presidente Barack Obama pressionou o Congresso a aprovar o projeto e indicou que a Casa Branca poderia apresentar uma proposta caso os legisladores não cheguem a um consenso.
Enquanto há um esforço dos senadores e de Obama para legalizar a situação dos cerca de 11 milhões de imigrantes sem documentação estimados no país, há outros aspectos da reforma que que são mais polêmicos. Esse é o caso do limite de vistos e permissões de residência que são concedidos a cada ano e quem deve ter prioridade de recebê-los. Segundo últimos dados do Instituto de Políticas de Migração dos EUA, 65% dos imigrantes ilegais que entram em território americano com o green card que conseguiram por terem parentes que moram no país. Outros 14% passam pela fronteira com permissões de trabalho, um número que, de acordo com alguns ativistas, devia aumentar.
Empresários e líderes de grandes empresas dos EUA pediram diversas vezes pela entrada mais flexível de engenheiros e profissionais qualificados no país, visando a manter o crescimento econômico do país. Muitos desses estrangeiros estudaram em universidades americanas, mas encontram sérias dificuldades para conseguir as permissões de trabalho, dificultando que exerçam a profissão.
Como solução, os senadores propõem que os vistos sejam dados com prioridade a trabalhadores que estejam em falta na economia dos EUA, e não a familiares de imigrantes, o que romperia com o funcionamento do sistema atual e com o que está planejado até agora. No total, podem desaparecer 90 mil vistos entregues a descendentes maiores de 21 anos, assim como a membros da família dos cônjuges. A notícia não foi bem aceita pelos legisladores de origem latina e asiática no Capitólio. Vinte e quatro deles assinaram uma carta aos oito senadores responsáveis pelos planos de reforma.
“Eliminar a possibilidade de famílias numerosas de obter permissões de residência será uma redução mínima do número de vistos. Pelo contrário. Vai gerar muitos problemas e preocupações a milhares de cidadãos dos EUA e a seus parentes”, diz a mensagem. “Nos colocamos contra qualquer intenção de colocar limites a definição de família.”
Na mesma linha se expressou o Centro para a Justiça Asiático-americana.
“Nós estamos conversando com a Casa Branca e com a Câmara dos Representantes e do Senado para explicar que não há como limitar o que se entende por núcleo familiar”, assegurou Mee Moua, presidente da organização.
A Conferência Episcopal dos EUA também não acredita na redução do número de vistos com o limite do número de familiares. O grupo defende que “o Congresso não deve sacrificar as famílias de imigrantes, muitas das quais começaram a criar seus próprios negócios com intenções meramente econômicas”.
- Os imigrantes adultos, seus filhos, os avós podem obter o green card - afirmou o senador Graham, em referência à permissão de residência. - O que pretendo fazer é conceder os vistos em função das necessidades econômicas do país, e, claro que faremos algo com as famílias, mas a minha prioridade é que a reforma do atual sistema se baseie em critérios econômicos.
Quatro senadores republicanos e quatro democratas trabalham desde o mês passado na reforma do sistema de imigração. O presidente Barack Obama pressionou o Congresso a aprovar o projeto e indicou que a Casa Branca poderia apresentar uma proposta caso os legisladores não cheguem a um consenso.
Enquanto há um esforço dos senadores e de Obama para legalizar a situação dos cerca de 11 milhões de imigrantes sem documentação estimados no país, há outros aspectos da reforma que que são mais polêmicos. Esse é o caso do limite de vistos e permissões de residência que são concedidos a cada ano e quem deve ter prioridade de recebê-los. Segundo últimos dados do Instituto de Políticas de Migração dos EUA, 65% dos imigrantes ilegais que entram em território americano com o green card que conseguiram por terem parentes que moram no país. Outros 14% passam pela fronteira com permissões de trabalho, um número que, de acordo com alguns ativistas, devia aumentar.
Empresários e líderes de grandes empresas dos EUA pediram diversas vezes pela entrada mais flexível de engenheiros e profissionais qualificados no país, visando a manter o crescimento econômico do país. Muitos desses estrangeiros estudaram em universidades americanas, mas encontram sérias dificuldades para conseguir as permissões de trabalho, dificultando que exerçam a profissão.
Como solução, os senadores propõem que os vistos sejam dados com prioridade a trabalhadores que estejam em falta na economia dos EUA, e não a familiares de imigrantes, o que romperia com o funcionamento do sistema atual e com o que está planejado até agora. No total, podem desaparecer 90 mil vistos entregues a descendentes maiores de 21 anos, assim como a membros da família dos cônjuges. A notícia não foi bem aceita pelos legisladores de origem latina e asiática no Capitólio. Vinte e quatro deles assinaram uma carta aos oito senadores responsáveis pelos planos de reforma.
“Eliminar a possibilidade de famílias numerosas de obter permissões de residência será uma redução mínima do número de vistos. Pelo contrário. Vai gerar muitos problemas e preocupações a milhares de cidadãos dos EUA e a seus parentes”, diz a mensagem. “Nos colocamos contra qualquer intenção de colocar limites a definição de família.”
Na mesma linha se expressou o Centro para a Justiça Asiático-americana.
“Nós estamos conversando com a Casa Branca e com a Câmara dos Representantes e do Senado para explicar que não há como limitar o que se entende por núcleo familiar”, assegurou Mee Moua, presidente da organização.
A Conferência Episcopal dos EUA também não acredita na redução do número de vistos com o limite do número de familiares. O grupo defende que “o Congresso não deve sacrificar as famílias de imigrantes, muitas das quais começaram a criar seus próprios negócios com intenções meramente econômicas”.
Bad weather delays shuttle crew's return
An American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts are stuck in space for one more day after freezing rain and fog on Earth prevented them from landing in Central Asia on Thursday, NASA officials say.
Hackers publish CIA Director Brennan's financial records
A credit report alleged to belong to Brennan, one of the newestadditions to US President Barack Obama’s official cabinet, waspublished Friday afternoon on the website Exposed.Su. The site madeheadlines earlier in the week after it published Social Security Numbers, homeaddresses and credit reports for a number of influential Americansfrom both Washington and Hollywood.
The dossier on Brennan is the latest addition to the site andputs him in the company of a handful of other Obama administrationofficials, including Vice President Joe Biden, FBI Director RobertMueller, Attorney General Eric Holder and former SEcretarty ofState Hillary Clinton.
Additionally, Exposed.su has released sensitive information thisweek allegedly belonging to first lady Michelle Obama, actors MelGibson and Tom Cruise and the chief of the Los Angeles PoliceDepartment.
The FBI, Secret Service and the LAPD all confirmed that theywere investigating the leaks when the website was first discoveredearlier in the week. Since then, though, he administrators ofExposed have continued to publish information on celebrities andpoliticians, all the while eluding the authorities.
The page posted on Friday with information on Mr. Brennanincludes what is alleged to be the CIA director’s home address,phone numbers, Social Security Number and a credit report asprepared by the company TransUnion. Earlier in the week, aspokesperson for TransUnion told Forbes that they “immediately launched aninvestigation” within moments of hearing about the initialleaks.
RT called one telephone number alleged to belong to Mr. Brennanincluded in the report and was told he was unavailable for comment.RT was told that Mr. Brennan would likely not speak to the mediaabout a "leaked credit report," but was first asked if thephonecall was with a matter related to the government.
The credit report was created on Friday, March 15, and includesinformation on the director’s past student loans, American Expresscards and auto leases, among other details.
And if you’re wondering, yes, the head of the CentralIntelligence Agency is indeed up-to-date in terms of paying bothhis Banana Republic and Brooks Brothers cards. His account withretailers Nordstrom, however, is a whole other story.
The dossier on Brennan is the latest addition to the site andputs him in the company of a handful of other Obama administrationofficials, including Vice President Joe Biden, FBI Director RobertMueller, Attorney General Eric Holder and former SEcretarty ofState Hillary Clinton.
Additionally, Exposed.su has released sensitive information thisweek allegedly belonging to first lady Michelle Obama, actors MelGibson and Tom Cruise and the chief of the Los Angeles PoliceDepartment.
The FBI, Secret Service and the LAPD all confirmed that theywere investigating the leaks when the website was first discoveredearlier in the week. Since then, though, he administrators ofExposed have continued to publish information on celebrities andpoliticians, all the while eluding the authorities.
The page posted on Friday with information on Mr. Brennanincludes what is alleged to be the CIA director’s home address,phone numbers, Social Security Number and a credit report asprepared by the company TransUnion. Earlier in the week, aspokesperson for TransUnion told Forbes that they “immediately launched aninvestigation” within moments of hearing about the initialleaks.
RT called one telephone number alleged to belong to Mr. Brennanincluded in the report and was told he was unavailable for comment.RT was told that Mr. Brennan would likely not speak to the mediaabout a "leaked credit report," but was first asked if thephonecall was with a matter related to the government.
The credit report was created on Friday, March 15, and includesinformation on the director’s past student loans, American Expresscards and auto leases, among other details.
And if you’re wondering, yes, the head of the CentralIntelligence Agency is indeed up-to-date in terms of paying bothhis Banana Republic and Brooks Brothers cards. His account withretailers Nordstrom, however, is a whole other story.
Filho gay faz senador mudar de opinião sobre casamentos
O republicano Rob Portman sempre foi contra o casamento gay. Mas ao saber que o filho é homossexual escreveu a admitir que mudou de opinião.
Extreme water
Munich, Germany (SPX) Mar 15, 2013
Earth is the only known planet that holds water in massive quantities and in all three phase states. But the earthly, omnipresent compound water has very unusual properties that become particularly evident when subjected to high pressure and high temperatures.
In the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a German-Finnish-French team published what .....
Earth is the only known planet that holds water in massive quantities and in all three phase states. But the earthly, omnipresent compound water has very unusual properties that become particularly evident when subjected to high pressure and high temperatures.
In the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a German-Finnish-French team published what .....
Hungary sends in tanks as cold snap grips Eastern Europe
BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary deployed tanks to reach thousands of motorists trapped in heavy snow on Friday in a sudden cold snap and high winds which also struck parts of the Balkans, Slovakia and Poland and have left at least four people dead.
Dilma se encontrará com o Papa Francisco
BRASÍLIA - A presidente Dilma Rousseff disse nesta sexta-feira que estará presente à cerimônia de entronização do Papa Francisco na próxima terça-feira, no Vaticano, para representar a população brasileira, que, de acordo com o censo do IBGE, é majoritariamente católica. Dilma terá um encontro privado com o Pontífice. O encontro foi confirmado nesta sexta-feira pelo núncio apostólico no Brasil, dom Giovann D'Aniello, ao ministro da Secretaria Geral, Gilberto Carvalho.
O ministro foi convidado e integrará a comitiva da presidente que irá ao Vaticano assistir à missa de posse do novo Papa. Dilma e comitiva devem embarcar para a Itália no domingo à noite.
Dilma ressaltou que, embora era própria tenha sido criada no catolicismo, irá à cerimônia independentemente de religião.
- Eu irei a Roma. O Brasil tem uma população católica muito expressiva. Mas não estou indo como uma pessoa criada na religião católica, e sim como presidente representando a população - disse ela, após o lançamento de um pacote de fortalecimento dos direitos do consumidor.
A presidente tinha uma visita à Bahia agendada para a segunda-feira, mas o compromisso foi cancelado para que ela possa participar da cerimônia do novo Papa
O ministro foi convidado e integrará a comitiva da presidente que irá ao Vaticano assistir à missa de posse do novo Papa. Dilma e comitiva devem embarcar para a Itália no domingo à noite.
Dilma ressaltou que, embora era própria tenha sido criada no catolicismo, irá à cerimônia independentemente de religião.
- Eu irei a Roma. O Brasil tem uma população católica muito expressiva. Mas não estou indo como uma pessoa criada na religião católica, e sim como presidente representando a população - disse ela, após o lançamento de um pacote de fortalecimento dos direitos do consumidor.
A presidente tinha uma visita à Bahia agendada para a segunda-feira, mas o compromisso foi cancelado para que ela possa participar da cerimônia do novo Papa
When hungry, Gulf of Mexico algae go toxic
Washington DC (SPX) Mar 15, 2013
When Gulf of Mexico algae don't get enough nutrients, they focus their remaining energy on becoming more and more poisonous to ensure their survival, according to a new study by scientists from North Carolina State University and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The study shows that harmful and ubiquitous Karenia brevis algae, which cause red tide blooms across the Gulf
When Gulf of Mexico algae don't get enough nutrients, they focus their remaining energy on becoming more and more poisonous to ensure their survival, according to a new study by scientists from North Carolina State University and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The study shows that harmful and ubiquitous Karenia brevis algae, which cause red tide blooms across the Gulf
21 pessoas detidas por ligações a rede pedófila
A polícia australiana deteve esta semana 21 pessoas alegadamente vinculadas a um rede virtual de pedofilia que distribuía e partilhava fotografias de abusos sexuais de menores, revelou a imprensa local
França e britânicos não conseguem acabar com embargo de armas para a Síria
LONDRES - No dia em que se comemora o segundo aniversário que marca o início da revolta na Síria, o britânico David Cameron e o francês François Hollande fracassaram na tentativa de convencer os líderes da União Europeia (UE) a derrubarem o embargo no fornecimento de armas à oposição do país oriental. Ministros das Relações Exteriores continuarão discutindo a proposta, embora a chanceler alemã Angela Merkel tenha jogado água fria na ideia, alegando que é um risco de “alimentar ainda mais o conflito”.
- Nós temos que andar muito rápido - disse.
Para marcar os dois anos de guerra civil, manifestantes foram às ruas da Síria para protestar contra o presidente Bashar al-Assad. Segundo a ONU, o conflito já deixou 70 mil sírios mortos.
Também, hoje, a Síria alertou que pode atacar rebeldes escondidos no vizinho Líbano, caso o Exército libanês não entre em ação, informou a agência de notícias estatal Sana. O Ministério das Relações Exteriores sírio disse ao ministério homólogo libanês, na noite de quinta-feira, que um “grande número” de militantes haviam cruzado a fronteira no norte do Líbano para a cidade síria de Tel Kalakh ao longo dos últimos dois dias, afirmou a Sana.
“A Síria espera que o lado libanês impeça que esses grupos terroristas armados usem as fronteiras como um ponto de travessia, porque eles estão mirando o povo sírio e violando a soberania da Síria”, disse a mensagem diplomática.
O documento disse que a “paciência da Síria não é ilimitada”, embora “as forças sírias contiveram-se, até agora, em atacar gangues armadas dentro do território libanês”. Combates perto da fronteira resultaram em um grande número de vítimas, segundo a Sana, antes de os atiradores recuarem para o país vizinho.
O Líbano tem uma política de “dissociação” com o confronto, mas autoridades afirmam que sentem que seu país está cada vez mais em risco. O chefe da agência da ONU para refugiados, António Guterres, disse que o conflito sírio ameaça a existência do Líbano. Acredita-se que mais de um milhão de sírios buscaram refúgio no país.
- A comunidade internacional deve reconhecer que a crise síria representa uma ameaça existencial para o Líbano.... e deve mostrar um apoio muito maior do que tem feito até agora - afirmou.
Cameron, no entanto, sugeriu que o Reino Unido e a França estariam preparados para caminharem sozinhos. O primeiro-ministro britânico disse que uma solução militar poderia levar a uma solução política. Em relação à crítica de que as armas poderiam ir para “pessoas erradas” (extremistas islâmicos cada vez mais influentes entre os rebeldes), ele assegurou ter recebido garantias dos rebeldes sírios que isso não aconteceria.
O ministro das Relações Exteriores da França, Laurent Fabius, indicou ontem estar com pressa e que o país poderia armar a oposição mesmo se não houvesse acordo internacional. Segundo ele, a França é um Estado soberano e pronto para agir em coordenação com o Reino Unido.- Nós temos que andar muito rápido - disse.
Para marcar os dois anos de guerra civil, manifestantes foram às ruas da Síria para protestar contra o presidente Bashar al-Assad. Segundo a ONU, o conflito já deixou 70 mil sírios mortos.
Também, hoje, a Síria alertou que pode atacar rebeldes escondidos no vizinho Líbano, caso o Exército libanês não entre em ação, informou a agência de notícias estatal Sana. O Ministério das Relações Exteriores sírio disse ao ministério homólogo libanês, na noite de quinta-feira, que um “grande número” de militantes haviam cruzado a fronteira no norte do Líbano para a cidade síria de Tel Kalakh ao longo dos últimos dois dias, afirmou a Sana.
“A Síria espera que o lado libanês impeça que esses grupos terroristas armados usem as fronteiras como um ponto de travessia, porque eles estão mirando o povo sírio e violando a soberania da Síria”, disse a mensagem diplomática.
O documento disse que a “paciência da Síria não é ilimitada”, embora “as forças sírias contiveram-se, até agora, em atacar gangues armadas dentro do território libanês”. Combates perto da fronteira resultaram em um grande número de vítimas, segundo a Sana, antes de os atiradores recuarem para o país vizinho.
O Líbano tem uma política de “dissociação” com o confronto, mas autoridades afirmam que sentem que seu país está cada vez mais em risco. O chefe da agência da ONU para refugiados, António Guterres, disse que o conflito sírio ameaça a existência do Líbano. Acredita-se que mais de um milhão de sírios buscaram refúgio no país.
- A comunidade internacional deve reconhecer que a crise síria representa uma ameaça existencial para o Líbano.... e deve mostrar um apoio muito maior do que tem feito até agora - afirmou.
Seis mortos e milhares de desalojados devido à chuva
As fortes chuvas que desde o início do mês assolam a província do Moxico, leste de Angola, provocaram já seis mortos e milhares de desalojados, noticiou hoje a agência Angop.
Phantom Rain Clouds
Climate models are far from perfect. But then again the prediction of weather is a far from perfect science. It seems counterintuitive that clouds over the Southern Ocean, which circles Antarctica, would cause rain in Zambia or the tropical island of Java. But new research finds that one of the most persistent biases in global climate models – a phantom band of rainfall just south of the equator that does not occur in reality – is caused by poor simulation of the cloud cover thousands of miles farther to the south.
Over 2,000 detained migrants released due to US budget cuts – Washington
The release took place in February, AP reported.
However, four prisoners who were considered particularlydangerous were re-imprisoned.
Earlier, the US administration claimed that just “a fewhundred” undocumented immigrants had been freed, saying thatthe news reports of more than 2,000 detainees being released wereuntrue.
However, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director JohnMorton said Thursday that ICE had released 2,228 illegal immigrantsdue to the budget cuts imposed as part of ‘sequestration.’
He defended the move by claiming that the alternative would havebeen a reduction of investigations into smuggling and childpornography, according to Reuters.
"We were trying to live within the budget that Congress hadprovided us," Morton explained during a House AppropriationsSubcommittee hearing. “We have limited resources.”
The official also indicated that it cost around $122 a day tokeep someone in a detention center, compared to about $7 a day tomonitor them with electronic devices.
The acknowledgement of the release came as Obama administrationofficials warned of the severe consequences of the spending cuts,such as delayed flights, meat shortages and governmentlayoffs.
Republicans have alleged that the Obama administration freed theimmigrants to pressure lawmakers into undoing the automatic budgetcuts, Reuters reported.
However, four prisoners who were considered particularlydangerous were re-imprisoned.
Earlier, the US administration claimed that just “a fewhundred” undocumented immigrants had been freed, saying thatthe news reports of more than 2,000 detainees being released wereuntrue.
However, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director JohnMorton said Thursday that ICE had released 2,228 illegal immigrantsdue to the budget cuts imposed as part of ‘sequestration.’
He defended the move by claiming that the alternative would havebeen a reduction of investigations into smuggling and childpornography, according to Reuters.
"We were trying to live within the budget that Congress hadprovided us," Morton explained during a House AppropriationsSubcommittee hearing. “We have limited resources.”
The official also indicated that it cost around $122 a day tokeep someone in a detention center, compared to about $7 a day tomonitor them with electronic devices.
The acknowledgement of the release came as Obama administrationofficials warned of the severe consequences of the spending cuts,such as delayed flights, meat shortages and governmentlayoffs.
Republicans have alleged that the Obama administration freed theimmigrants to pressure lawmakers into undoing the automatic budgetcuts, Reuters reported.
Thursday, 14 March 2013
How bed bugs 'dodge insecticides'
A genetic study provides an insight into the tricks that these bugs are using to evade insecticides.
US soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians to have mental health assessed
An American soldier accused of massacring 16 Afghan civilians in the dead of night after slipping from his outpost and into their homes will this weekend be tested to see if he is insane.
Argentina's Cristina Kirchner suggests Pope Francis could mediate over Falklands
Cristina Kirchner, the Argentine president, has suggested that Jorge Bergoglio, the Argentine cardinal elected to be the new Pope Francis, will help mediate on her country's dispute with Britain over the Falkland Islands.
'Monsanto Protection Act' to be voted on by Congress
The US House of Representatives is expected to weigh in on theAgricultural Appropriations Bill for Fiscal year 2013 this week,and included within the act lies the “Farmer Assurance Provision,”a small subsection that has so far earned opposition from hundredsof thousands family farmers, environmental interest groups andother advocates. Those hoping to defeat the bill have gone so faras to dub the provision the “Monsanto Protection Act.”
Small time agriculturists have increasingly spoken out againstbiotech companies in recent years, as giants like Monsanto havemade millions off of genetically engineering crops that traditionalplants simply can’t match up with. Additionally, Monsanto has takena slew of farmers to court over questionable patent infringementsuits, almost always winning the help of high-powered attorneys.Now if the Farmer Assurance Provision is approved by Congress, GMOcompanies will once again be allowed an advantage from theirfriends in Washington.
If the provision is approved this week, biotech companies won’thave to wait for federal approval to test and plant laboratory-madecrops, instead being allowed to carry on with even selling suchcrops until the government elects to tell them otherwise.
“The provision would strip federal courts of theauthority to halt the sale and planting of an illegal, potentiallyhazardous GE crop while the US Department of Agriculture (USDA)assesses those potential hazards,” explains a letter to theHouse that has been signed by dozens of food businesses andretailers, as well as interest groups and agencies representingfamily farmers. “Further, it would compel USDA to allowcontinued planting of that same crop upon request, even if in thecourse of its assessment the Department finds that it posespreviously unrecognized risks.”
The group Food Democracy Now has started a campaign on their ownand is asking opponents of the bill to sign on with an amendment tothe appropriations bill, the DeFazio Amendment, which would ensurethat judicial oversight will continue to apply to GMOS.
The Farmer Assurance Provision, says the group, “strips therights of federal courts to halt the sale and planting ofgenetically engineered crops during the legal appealsprocess.”
“The judicial review process is an essential element of USlaw and serves as a vital check on any Federal Agency decision thatmay negatively impact human health, the environment or livelihoods.Yet this provision seeks an end-run around such judicial review bypreemptively deciding that industry can set its own conditions tocontinue to sell biotech seeds, even if a court may find them tohave been wrongfully approved.”
In the letter undersigned by the ACLU, National OrganicCoalition and others, the signees say,
“Far from safeguarding farmers, the only parties whoseinterests are ‘assured’ by this rider are those of GE cropdevelopers.”
Monsanto has already proven it has friends in Washington, as alandmark patent case currently before the Supreme Court is expected to go in favor of the biotech giants. Nowopponents of the pro-GMO provision in the appropriations bill arecalling the amendment the “Monsanto Protection Act” and hope that agrassroots campaign will keep the industry leaders from having onemore unfair advantage over small time farmers.
Meanwhile, the market value for Monsanto Company hit a 52-weekhigh on March 11, and is expected to continue with that kind ofmomentum throughout 2013, predicts Zacks Consensus Estimates.
Small time agriculturists have increasingly spoken out againstbiotech companies in recent years, as giants like Monsanto havemade millions off of genetically engineering crops that traditionalplants simply can’t match up with. Additionally, Monsanto has takena slew of farmers to court over questionable patent infringementsuits, almost always winning the help of high-powered attorneys.Now if the Farmer Assurance Provision is approved by Congress, GMOcompanies will once again be allowed an advantage from theirfriends in Washington.
If the provision is approved this week, biotech companies won’thave to wait for federal approval to test and plant laboratory-madecrops, instead being allowed to carry on with even selling suchcrops until the government elects to tell them otherwise.
“The provision would strip federal courts of theauthority to halt the sale and planting of an illegal, potentiallyhazardous GE crop while the US Department of Agriculture (USDA)assesses those potential hazards,” explains a letter to theHouse that has been signed by dozens of food businesses andretailers, as well as interest groups and agencies representingfamily farmers. “Further, it would compel USDA to allowcontinued planting of that same crop upon request, even if in thecourse of its assessment the Department finds that it posespreviously unrecognized risks.”
The group Food Democracy Now has started a campaign on their ownand is asking opponents of the bill to sign on with an amendment tothe appropriations bill, the DeFazio Amendment, which would ensurethat judicial oversight will continue to apply to GMOS.
The Farmer Assurance Provision, says the group, “strips therights of federal courts to halt the sale and planting ofgenetically engineered crops during the legal appealsprocess.”
“The judicial review process is an essential element of USlaw and serves as a vital check on any Federal Agency decision thatmay negatively impact human health, the environment or livelihoods.Yet this provision seeks an end-run around such judicial review bypreemptively deciding that industry can set its own conditions tocontinue to sell biotech seeds, even if a court may find them tohave been wrongfully approved.”
In the letter undersigned by the ACLU, National OrganicCoalition and others, the signees say,
“Far from safeguarding farmers, the only parties whoseinterests are ‘assured’ by this rider are those of GE cropdevelopers.”
Monsanto has already proven it has friends in Washington, as alandmark patent case currently before the Supreme Court is expected to go in favor of the biotech giants. Nowopponents of the pro-GMO provision in the appropriations bill arecalling the amendment the “Monsanto Protection Act” and hope that agrassroots campaign will keep the industry leaders from having onemore unfair advantage over small time farmers.
Meanwhile, the market value for Monsanto Company hit a 52-weekhigh on March 11, and is expected to continue with that kind ofmomentum throughout 2013, predicts Zacks Consensus Estimates.
Breast cancer drug 'biggest boost since Herceptin'
Thousands of women with a type of advanced breast cancer could benefit from a drug described as the biggest step-change in treatment of the disease since Herceptin was introduced in 1999.
'Miserly' Scots more generous than the English
They are renowned for being miserly, but Scots are actually more generous than the English when it comes to charity.
‘Erase Israel from the Internet’: Anonymous plots massive cyber-attack
“Hacktivists Starting Cyber Attack against Israel on 7th ofApril,” Anonymous wrote on Twitter, calling on hackers aroundthe world to join up for a second ‘OpIsrael.’
Israeli government agencies are reportedly readying for theattack: “It’s something being organized online over the past fewdays. What distinguishes this plan when compared to previousattacks is that it really seems to be organized byAnonymous-affiliated groups from around the world in what lookslike a joining of forces,” Ofir Ben Avi, director of onlinegroup Accessible Government told Haaretz.
The first ‘OpIsrael’ cyber-attacks were launched by thehacktivist group during Israeli’s ‘Pillar of Defense’ assault onGaza in November 2012.
“We are Anonymous. We are legion. We will not forgive. Wewill not forget. Israel, it is too late to expect us,” theirmessage to Israeli authorities read.
Some 700 Israeli website suffered repeated cyber-attacks, includinghigh-profile government systems such as the Foreign Ministry, andthe Israeli President's official website. The Israeli FinanceMinistry reported an estimated 44 million unique attacks on government websites.
Following ‘OpIsrael,’ Anonymous posted the online personal dataof 5,000 Israeli officials, including names, ID numbers andpersonal emails.
Anonymous was also involved in an attack in which the details ofsome 600,000 users of the popular Israeli email service Walla wereexposed online.
Israeli government agencies are reportedly readying for theattack: “It’s something being organized online over the past fewdays. What distinguishes this plan when compared to previousattacks is that it really seems to be organized byAnonymous-affiliated groups from around the world in what lookslike a joining of forces,” Ofir Ben Avi, director of onlinegroup Accessible Government told Haaretz.
The first ‘OpIsrael’ cyber-attacks were launched by thehacktivist group during Israeli’s ‘Pillar of Defense’ assault onGaza in November 2012.
“We are Anonymous. We are legion. We will not forgive. Wewill not forget. Israel, it is too late to expect us,” theirmessage to Israeli authorities read.
Some 700 Israeli website suffered repeated cyber-attacks, includinghigh-profile government systems such as the Foreign Ministry, andthe Israeli President's official website. The Israeli FinanceMinistry reported an estimated 44 million unique attacks on government websites.
Following ‘OpIsrael,’ Anonymous posted the online personal dataof 5,000 Israeli officials, including names, ID numbers andpersonal emails.
Anonymous was also involved in an attack in which the details ofsome 600,000 users of the popular Israeli email service Walla wereexposed online.
Long-lasting Chemicals May Harm Sea Turtles
From the moment they are born, sea turtles fight to survive. Buried alive, they dig themselves out and evade hungry crabs and birds as they crawl to the ocean, where they begin a long and treacherous migration. One out of 1,000 will survive into adulthood. And those that do will bear a toxic burden.
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Daily coffee 'lowers stroke risk'
A daily cup of coffee may cut the risk of stroke by a fifth, according to Japanese researchers.
Iraq war cost US more than $2 trillion – study
The study, conducted by the Costs of War Project by the WatsonInstitute for International Studies at Brown University, concludedthat the accrued interest on the nearly $2.2 trillion in expenseswould amount to some $4 trillion dollars during the comingdecades, Reuters reports.
At the time of the 2003 invasion, the Bush administration estimatedthe war would cost between $50-60 billion.
Published in advance of the 10th anniversary of the March 19 US-ledinvasion of Iraq, the study also estimated the great human costinflicted by the nearly decade long conflict.
At least 134,000 Iraqi civilians died as a result of the Iraq War,though the Watson Institute says the death toll could be up to fourtimes higher. The report stated that with the inclusion of slainjournalists, aid workers and insurgents, the base level death tollreached an estimated 176,000- 189,000.
A 2006 peer-reviewed Lancet study had found that 650,000 Iraqis –both combatants and civilians – had died up to that point. Otherestimates had previously put total war deaths as high as 1 million.
An estimated 36,000 American military personnel were also killed orinjured during the war.
The Watson Institute study further found that US gains from theinvasion were negligible, while Iraq was still reeling from thewar.
“Despite the US military withdrawal,” the report says,
“Iraq’s health, infrastructure, and education systems remainwar-devastated.” The war further galvanized radical Islamist militants in the regionand set back women’s rights, while
“the $212 billionreconstruction effort was largely a failure with most of that moneyspent on security or lost to waste and fraud.” The study was an update of a 2011 report which estimated the costsof the US military engagements in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq at$3.7 trillion. The latest report puts that cost at some $4 trilliondollars
In the run up to the war, the US and the UK claimed that Iraqpossessed weapons of mass destruction which posed a threat toregional security.
The U.S.‑led Iraq Survey Group would later conclude that Iraq hadended its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs in 1991and had no active programs at the time of the invasion.
At the time of the 2003 invasion, the Bush administration estimatedthe war would cost between $50-60 billion.
Published in advance of the 10th anniversary of the March 19 US-ledinvasion of Iraq, the study also estimated the great human costinflicted by the nearly decade long conflict.
At least 134,000 Iraqi civilians died as a result of the Iraq War,though the Watson Institute says the death toll could be up to fourtimes higher. The report stated that with the inclusion of slainjournalists, aid workers and insurgents, the base level death tollreached an estimated 176,000- 189,000.
A 2006 peer-reviewed Lancet study had found that 650,000 Iraqis –both combatants and civilians – had died up to that point. Otherestimates had previously put total war deaths as high as 1 million.
An estimated 36,000 American military personnel were also killed orinjured during the war.
The Watson Institute study further found that US gains from theinvasion were negligible, while Iraq was still reeling from thewar.
“Despite the US military withdrawal,” the report says,
“Iraq’s health, infrastructure, and education systems remainwar-devastated.” The war further galvanized radical Islamist militants in the regionand set back women’s rights, while
“the $212 billionreconstruction effort was largely a failure with most of that moneyspent on security or lost to waste and fraud.” The study was an update of a 2011 report which estimated the costsof the US military engagements in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq at$3.7 trillion. The latest report puts that cost at some $4 trilliondollars
In the run up to the war, the US and the UK claimed that Iraqpossessed weapons of mass destruction which posed a threat toregional security.
The U.S.‑led Iraq Survey Group would later conclude that Iraq hadended its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs in 1991and had no active programs at the time of the invasion.
Olive (Olea europaea L.) Leaf Polyphenols Improve Insulin Sensitivity in Middle-Aged Overweight Men: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled, Crossover Trial
by Martin de Bock, José G. B. Derraik, Christine M. Brennan, Janene B. Biggs, Philip E. Morgan, Steven C. Hodgkinson, Paul L. Hofman, Wayne S. Cutfield
Background
Olive plant leaves (Olea europaea L.) have been used for centuries in folk medicine to treat diabetes, but there are very limited data examining the effects of olive polyphenols on glucose homeostasis in humans.
Objective
To assess the effects of supplementation with olive leaf polyphenols (51.1 mg oleuropein, 9.7 mg hydroxytyrosol per day) on insulin action and cardiovascular risk factors in middle-aged overweight men.
Design
Randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled, crossover trial in New Zealand. 46 participants (aged 46.4±5.5 years and BMI 28.0±2.0 kg/m2) were randomized to receive capsules with olive leaf extract (OLE) or placebo for 12 weeks, crossing over to other treatment after a 6-week washout. Primary outcome was insulin sensitivity (Matsuda method). Secondary outcomes included glucose and insulin profiles, cytokines, lipid profile, body composition, 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure, and carotid intima-media thickness.
Results
Treatment evaluations were based on the intention-to-treat principle. All participants took >96% of prescribed capsules. OLE supplementation was associated with a 15% improvement in insulin sensitivity (p = 0.024) compared to placebo. There was also a 28% improvement in pancreatic β-cell responsiveness (p = 0.013). OLE supplementation also led to increased fasting interleukin-6 (p = 0.014), IGFBP-1 (p = 0.024), and IGFBP-2 (p = 0.015) concentrations. There were however, no effects on interleukin-8, TNF-α, ultra-sensitive CRP, lipid profile, ambulatory blood pressure, body composition, carotid intima-media thickness, or liver function.
Conclusions
Supplementation with olive leaf polyphenols for 12 weeks significantly improved insulin sensitivity and pancreatic β-cell secretory capacity in overweight middle-aged men at risk of developing the metabolic syndrome.
Trial Registration
Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry #336317.
Background
Olive plant leaves (Olea europaea L.) have been used for centuries in folk medicine to treat diabetes, but there are very limited data examining the effects of olive polyphenols on glucose homeostasis in humans.
Objective
To assess the effects of supplementation with olive leaf polyphenols (51.1 mg oleuropein, 9.7 mg hydroxytyrosol per day) on insulin action and cardiovascular risk factors in middle-aged overweight men.
Design
Randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled, crossover trial in New Zealand. 46 participants (aged 46.4±5.5 years and BMI 28.0±2.0 kg/m2) were randomized to receive capsules with olive leaf extract (OLE) or placebo for 12 weeks, crossing over to other treatment after a 6-week washout. Primary outcome was insulin sensitivity (Matsuda method). Secondary outcomes included glucose and insulin profiles, cytokines, lipid profile, body composition, 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure, and carotid intima-media thickness.
Results
Treatment evaluations were based on the intention-to-treat principle. All participants took >96% of prescribed capsules. OLE supplementation was associated with a 15% improvement in insulin sensitivity (p = 0.024) compared to placebo. There was also a 28% improvement in pancreatic β-cell responsiveness (p = 0.013). OLE supplementation also led to increased fasting interleukin-6 (p = 0.014), IGFBP-1 (p = 0.024), and IGFBP-2 (p = 0.015) concentrations. There were however, no effects on interleukin-8, TNF-α, ultra-sensitive CRP, lipid profile, ambulatory blood pressure, body composition, carotid intima-media thickness, or liver function.
Conclusions
Supplementation with olive leaf polyphenols for 12 weeks significantly improved insulin sensitivity and pancreatic β-cell secretory capacity in overweight middle-aged men at risk of developing the metabolic syndrome.
Trial Registration
Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry #336317.
Discovery may explain how prion diseases spread between different types of animals
Edmonton, Canada (SPX) Mar 14, 2013
Medical researchers at the University of Alberta have made a discovery that may explain how prion diseases, like chronic wasting disease and mad cow disease, adapt in order to spread between various types of animals.
The research team, led by neurologist Valerie Sim, discovered that a miniscule change in the prions' makeup appears to give the disease the ability to adapt - to mimic and ....
Medical researchers at the University of Alberta have made a discovery that may explain how prion diseases, like chronic wasting disease and mad cow disease, adapt in order to spread between various types of animals.
The research team, led by neurologist Valerie Sim, discovered that a miniscule change in the prions' makeup appears to give the disease the ability to adapt - to mimic and ....
iPhone turned into microscope for £5
Scientists in Tanzania turned an iPhone into an amateur microscope to check schoolchildren for intestinal worms.
Aspirin Use and Risk of Age-Related Macular Degeneration: A Meta-Analysis
by Wei Zhu, Yan Wu, Ding Xu, Yan-Hong Li, Ba Jun, Xiao-Long Zhang, Fang Wang, Jing Yu
Background
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the main cause of blindness and the curative options are limited. The objective of this meta-analysis was to determine the association between aspirin use and risk of AMD.
Methods
A comprehensive literature search was performed in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and reference lists. A meta-analysis was performed by STATA software.
Results
Ten studies involving 171729 individuals examining the association between aspirin use and risk of AMD were included. Among the included studies, 2 were randomized-controlled trials (RCTs), 4 were case-control studies and 4 were cohort studies. The relative risks (RRs) were pooled using a random-effects model. Relative risks with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of aspirin use as a risk for AMD. The pooled RR of 10 included studies between the use of aspirin and risk of AMD was 1.09 (95% CI, 0.96–1.24). The same result was detected in early and late stage AMD subgroup analysis. In the subgroup analyses, the pooled RR of RCTs, case-control studies and cohort studies were 0.81 (95% CI, 0.64–1.02), 1.02 (95% CI, 0.92–1.14) and 1.08 (95% CI, 0.91–1.28), respectively.
Conclusions
The use of aspirin was not associated with the risk of AMD.
Background
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the main cause of blindness and the curative options are limited. The objective of this meta-analysis was to determine the association between aspirin use and risk of AMD.
Methods
A comprehensive literature search was performed in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and reference lists. A meta-analysis was performed by STATA software.
Results
Ten studies involving 171729 individuals examining the association between aspirin use and risk of AMD were included. Among the included studies, 2 were randomized-controlled trials (RCTs), 4 were case-control studies and 4 were cohort studies. The relative risks (RRs) were pooled using a random-effects model. Relative risks with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of aspirin use as a risk for AMD. The pooled RR of 10 included studies between the use of aspirin and risk of AMD was 1.09 (95% CI, 0.96–1.24). The same result was detected in early and late stage AMD subgroup analysis. In the subgroup analyses, the pooled RR of RCTs, case-control studies and cohort studies were 0.81 (95% CI, 0.64–1.02), 1.02 (95% CI, 0.92–1.14) and 1.08 (95% CI, 0.91–1.28), respectively.
Conclusions
The use of aspirin was not associated with the risk of AMD.
Confirmed! New particle is a Higgs boson
A newfound particle discovered at the world's largest atom smasher last year is indeed a Higgs boson, which plays a role in giving other particles their mass, scientists reported Thursday.
China May Not Find Enough Coal to Burn
Energy-guzzling China is facing a coal conundrum. Rapid urbanization and industrialization will keep China's coal consumption at record highs of around 4 billion tons per year by 2015. At the same time, the country will have to fight for coal security and to keep its supply line uninterrupted, according to the first energy outlook report from China's Energy Research Institute (ERI).
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Isolation of Rare Tumor Cells from Blood Cells with Buoyant Immuno-Microbubbles
by Guixin Shi, Wenjin Cui, Michael Benchimol, Yu-Tsueng Liu, Robert F. Mattrey, Rajesh Mukthavaram, Santosh Kesari, Sadik C. Esener, Dmitri Simberg
Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are exfoliated at various stages of cancer, and could provide invaluable information for the diagnosis and prognosis of cancers. There is an urgent need for the development of cost-efficient and scalable technologies for rare CTC enrichment from blood. Here we report a novel method for isolation of rare tumor cells from excess of blood cells using gas-filled buoyant immuno-microbubbles (MBs). MBs were prepared by emulsification of perfluorocarbon gas in phospholipids and decorated with anti-epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) antibody. EpCAM-targeted MBs efficiently (85%) and rapidly (within 15 minutes) bound to various epithelial tumor cells suspended in cell medium. EpCAM-targeted MBs efficiently (88%) isolated frequent tumor cells that were spiked at 100,000 cells/ml into plasma-depleted blood. Anti-EpCAM MBs efficiently (>77%) isolated rare mouse breast 4T1, human prostate PC-3 and pancreatic cancer BxPC-3 cells spiked into 1, 3 and 7 ml (respectively) of plasma-depleted blood. Using EpCAM targeted MBs CTCs from metastatic cancer patients were isolated, suggesting that this technique could be developed into a valuable clinical tool for isolation, enumeration and analysis of rare cells.
Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are exfoliated at various stages of cancer, and could provide invaluable information for the diagnosis and prognosis of cancers. There is an urgent need for the development of cost-efficient and scalable technologies for rare CTC enrichment from blood. Here we report a novel method for isolation of rare tumor cells from excess of blood cells using gas-filled buoyant immuno-microbubbles (MBs). MBs were prepared by emulsification of perfluorocarbon gas in phospholipids and decorated with anti-epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) antibody. EpCAM-targeted MBs efficiently (85%) and rapidly (within 15 minutes) bound to various epithelial tumor cells suspended in cell medium. EpCAM-targeted MBs efficiently (88%) isolated frequent tumor cells that were spiked at 100,000 cells/ml into plasma-depleted blood. Anti-EpCAM MBs efficiently (>77%) isolated rare mouse breast 4T1, human prostate PC-3 and pancreatic cancer BxPC-3 cells spiked into 1, 3 and 7 ml (respectively) of plasma-depleted blood. Using EpCAM targeted MBs CTCs from metastatic cancer patients were isolated, suggesting that this technique could be developed into a valuable clinical tool for isolation, enumeration and analysis of rare cells.
Copyright above freedom: Strasbourg rejects Pirate Bay founders' case
“The Court held that sharing, or allowing others to sharefiles of this kind on the Internet, even copyright-protectedmaterial and for profit-making purposes, was covered by the rightto ‘receive and impart information’ under Article 10 (freedom ofexpression),” the decision reads.
After a hearing last month, the Court has denied theirapplication, arguing that the Swedish courts had already made thecorrect verdict.
The Strasbourg court concluded that the Stockholm rulinginterferes with the right to freedom of expression, but said it wasa necessary measure to protect copyright. The decision reads:“The Court concluded that the interference with the right tofreedom of expression of Mr Neij and Mr Sunde Kolmisoppi had beennecessary in a democratic society and that their application hadtherefore to be rejected as manifestly ill-founded.”
Peter Sunde and Fredrik Neij, two of the co-founders of one of theworld's biggest torrent-sharing websites were charged withviolation of the Copyright Act in 2008.
In April 2009, the two defendants were found to be guilty of"assisting in making copyright content available" by thejudge. The businessman were sentenced to one year's imprisonmentand fined 3.3 million euros after Stockholm district court heardnumerous Hollywood production studios claims of copyrightinfringement. A year later, their sentence was reduced buttheir fine increased.
In June 2012, Neij and Sunde appealed to the European Court ofHuman Rights arguing that their freedom of expression had been violated.
After a hearing last month, the Court has denied theirapplication, arguing that the Swedish courts had already made thecorrect verdict.
The Strasbourg court concluded that the Stockholm rulinginterferes with the right to freedom of expression, but said it wasa necessary measure to protect copyright. The decision reads:“The Court concluded that the interference with the right tofreedom of expression of Mr Neij and Mr Sunde Kolmisoppi had beennecessary in a democratic society and that their application hadtherefore to be rejected as manifestly ill-founded.”
Peter Sunde and Fredrik Neij, two of the co-founders of one of theworld's biggest torrent-sharing websites were charged withviolation of the Copyright Act in 2008.
In April 2009, the two defendants were found to be guilty of"assisting in making copyright content available" by thejudge. The businessman were sentenced to one year's imprisonmentand fined 3.3 million euros after Stockholm district court heardnumerous Hollywood production studios claims of copyrightinfringement. A year later, their sentence was reduced buttheir fine increased.
In June 2012, Neij and Sunde appealed to the European Court ofHuman Rights arguing that their freedom of expression had been violated.
Solar eruption may set off northern lights
A recent solar blast may ramp up northern lights displays this Friday, giving well-placed skywatchers a treat, NASA officials say.
Protein Malnutrition Induces Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells Commitment to Adipogenic Differentiation Leading to Hematopoietic Failure
by Mayara Caldas Ramos Cunha, Fabiana da Silva Lima, Marco Aurélio Ramirez Vinolo, Araceli Hastreiter, Rui Curi, Primavera Borelli, Ricardo Ambrósio Fock
Protein malnutrition (PM) results in pathological changes that are associated with peripheral leukopenia, bone marrow (BM) hypoplasia and alterations in the BM microenvironment leading to hematopoietic failure; however, the mechanisms involved are poorly understood. In this context, the BM mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are cells intimately related to the formation of the BM microenvironment, and their differentiation into adipocytes is important because adipocytes are cells that have the capability to negatively modulate hematopoiesis. Two-month-old male Balb/c mice were subjected to protein-energy malnutrition with a low-protein diet containing 2% protein, whereas control animals were fed a diet containing 12% protein. The hematopoietic parameters and the expression of CD45 and CD117 positive cells in the BM were evaluated. MSCs were isolated from BM, and their capability to produce SCF, IL-3, G-CSF and GM-CSF were analyzed. The expression of PPAR-γ and C/EBP-α as well as the expression of PPAR-γ and SREBP mRNAs were evaluated in MSCs together with their capability to differentiate into adipocytes in vitro. The malnourished animals had anemia and leukopenia as well as spleen and bone marrow hypoplasia and a reduction in the expression of CD45 and CD117 positive cells from BM. The MSCs of the malnourished mice presented an increased capability to produce SCF and reduced production of G-CSF and GM-CSF. The MSCs from the malnourished animals showed increased expression of PPAR-γ protein and PPAR-γ mRNA associated with an increased capability to differentiate into adipocytes. The alterations found in the malnourished animals allowed us to conclude that malnutrition committed MSC differentiation leading to adipocyte decision and compromised their capacity for cytokine production, contributing to an impaired hematopoietic microenvironment and inducing the bone marrow failure commonly observed in protein malnutrition states
Protein malnutrition (PM) results in pathological changes that are associated with peripheral leukopenia, bone marrow (BM) hypoplasia and alterations in the BM microenvironment leading to hematopoietic failure; however, the mechanisms involved are poorly understood. In this context, the BM mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are cells intimately related to the formation of the BM microenvironment, and their differentiation into adipocytes is important because adipocytes are cells that have the capability to negatively modulate hematopoiesis. Two-month-old male Balb/c mice were subjected to protein-energy malnutrition with a low-protein diet containing 2% protein, whereas control animals were fed a diet containing 12% protein. The hematopoietic parameters and the expression of CD45 and CD117 positive cells in the BM were evaluated. MSCs were isolated from BM, and their capability to produce SCF, IL-3, G-CSF and GM-CSF were analyzed. The expression of PPAR-γ and C/EBP-α as well as the expression of PPAR-γ and SREBP mRNAs were evaluated in MSCs together with their capability to differentiate into adipocytes in vitro. The malnourished animals had anemia and leukopenia as well as spleen and bone marrow hypoplasia and a reduction in the expression of CD45 and CD117 positive cells from BM. The MSCs of the malnourished mice presented an increased capability to produce SCF and reduced production of G-CSF and GM-CSF. The MSCs from the malnourished animals showed increased expression of PPAR-γ protein and PPAR-γ mRNA associated with an increased capability to differentiate into adipocytes. The alterations found in the malnourished animals allowed us to conclude that malnutrition committed MSC differentiation leading to adipocyte decision and compromised their capacity for cytokine production, contributing to an impaired hematopoietic microenvironment and inducing the bone marrow failure commonly observed in protein malnutrition states
Shanghai river pig toll rises to 6,600 as worries mount
Shanghai (AFP) March 13, 2013
Shanghai said it pulled hundreds more dead pigs out of its main river Wednesday, bringing the total to just over 6,600, as residents worried over drinking water criticised the handling of the incident.
Shanghai recovered 685 more dead pigs from the Huangpu river, which cuts through China's commercial hub and supplies 22 percent of its water, but water quality was within national standards, a
Shanghai said it pulled hundreds more dead pigs out of its main river Wednesday, bringing the total to just over 6,600, as residents worried over drinking water criticised the handling of the incident.
Shanghai recovered 685 more dead pigs from the Huangpu river, which cuts through China's commercial hub and supplies 22 percent of its water, but water quality was within national standards, a
[Perspective] Epidemiology: The SARS Wake-Up Call
Ten years ago, the SARS outbreak spurred efforts by the World Health Organization to improve global responses to health threats and crises.
Authors: Isabelle Nuttall, Christopher Dye
Authors: Isabelle Nuttall, Christopher Dye
600-year-old Chinese coin found in Kenya
A Chinese coin about 600 years old was recently unearthed on an island just off the coast of Kenya. If it proves to be authentic, the coin could show that the Chinese explorer Zheng He — like a Christopher Columbus of the East — came to this part of east Africa.
A European invader outcompetes Canadian plants even outside its usual temperature range
London, UK (SPX) Mar 14, 2013
Dog-strangling vine (Vincetoxicum rossicum) is an exotic plant originating from the Ukraine and southeastern Russia that is becoming increasingly invasive in southern Ontario, Canada.
It has been found growing successfully in both disturbed and undisturbed areas, in open fields, forest edges and understories, parks, road edges and railway embankments.
The invasive plant effectively..
Dog-strangling vine (Vincetoxicum rossicum) is an exotic plant originating from the Ukraine and southeastern Russia that is becoming increasingly invasive in southern Ontario, Canada.
It has been found growing successfully in both disturbed and undisturbed areas, in open fields, forest edges and understories, parks, road edges and railway embankments.
The invasive plant effectively..
Genetic study of house dust mites demonstrates reversible evolution
Ann Arbor MI (SPX) Mar 14, 2013
In evolutionary biology, there is a deeply rooted supposition that you can't go home again: Once an organism has evolved specialized traits, it can't return to the lifestyle of its ancestors.
There's even a name for this pervasive idea. Dollo's law states that evolution is unidirectional and irreversible. But this "law" is not universally accepted and is the topic of heated debate among ...
In evolutionary biology, there is a deeply rooted supposition that you can't go home again: Once an organism has evolved specialized traits, it can't return to the lifestyle of its ancestors.
There's even a name for this pervasive idea. Dollo's law states that evolution is unidirectional and irreversible. But this "law" is not universally accepted and is the topic of heated debate among ...
El lado oscuro del Papa Francisco
Jorge Bergoglio, elegido como Pontífice, ha sido acusado desde hace años de complicidad con la dictadura argentina de 1976 a 1983.
Google Reader Shutdown a Sobering Reminder That 'Our' Technology Isn't Ours
When Google announced Wednesday night that it was shutting down its Reader product, it was met with a reaction that wasn’t just furious, but personal. Many angered Reader-ites took to Twitter, looking for some outlet to express their anger, with some shouting “Save Our Reader!” in the hopes Google would
Strange creature provides crucial missing link
Montreal, Canada (SPX) Mar 14, 2013
Christopher Cameron of the University of Montreal's Department of Biological Sciences and his colleagues have unearthed a major scientific discovery - a strange phallus-shaped creature they found in Canada's Burgess Shale fossil beds, located in Yoho National Park. The fossils were found in an area of shale beds that are 505 million years old.
Their study, to be published online in the
Christopher Cameron of the University of Montreal's Department of Biological Sciences and his colleagues have unearthed a major scientific discovery - a strange phallus-shaped creature they found in Canada's Burgess Shale fossil beds, located in Yoho National Park. The fossils were found in an area of shale beds that are 505 million years old.
Their study, to be published online in the
Ejecutan a notario 103 en calles de Polanco
CIUDAD DE MÉXICO, 13 de marzo.- Aproximadamente a las 16:30 horas fue ejecutado en la zona de Polanco el Notario 103 de la Ciudad de México, Armando Gálvez Pérez Aragón, luego de sostener una reunión privada en una banco de la zona.
El procurador capitalino, Rodolfo Ríos Garza, reconoció que se trató de un ataque directo en contra del notario quien recibió cuatro impactos de arma de fuego cuando estaba a bordo de su camioneta sentado en el lado del copiloto.
“Se realizó un ataque directo a su persona en la colonia Polanco en la esquina de presidente Masaryk y Moliere donde lo primero que tenemos es que sucedió hace muy poco tiempo, en la primera entrevista que tenemos con el chofer nos refiere que escucha al parecer cuatro disparos sin ver de dónde vienen los disparos y ve herido a su jefe y de inmediato lo traslada al Hospital Español donde lamentablemente pierde la vida", precisó.
Los primeros peritajes advierten que él o los asesinos se acercaron a la camioneta del Notario y dispararon por el lado derecho, por el lado del copiloto. Minutos antes Gálvez Pérez había sostenido una reunión en un banco y fue asesinado segundos después de abandonar una gasolinera.
El procurador local informó que se comunicó con Ignacio Morales Lechuga, presidente del Colegio de Notarios, a quien le informó de los sucedido y le solicitó antecedentes de trabajo del Notario 103 para que sean integrados a la investigación.
“Vamos a solicitar efectivamente al archivo general de notarías, como parte de la investigación que vamos a realizar todo lo que nos puedan decir acerca de los folios, etcétera que se llevaban a cabo en la notaría”, aseveró el abogado de la Ciudad de México.
Las autoridades ya revisan las imágenes de las cámaras de vigilancia del C2 para ver si grabaron el ataque. Se espera que hasta el jueves se tengan los resultados de la necropsia de ley para corroborar la causa de la muerte y cuantos balazos recibió.
Este notario ha estado involucrado en una investigación por el supuesto fraude en la cesión de obras de arte de pintores como Picasso, Miró, Braque, Gris, Mondrian, entre otros. En dicha investigación también se involucra a Mario Ivanova y funcionarios estadounidenses.
Lamento gremial
Por su parte, El Colegio de Notario del DF se refirió al asesinato de su colega.
A través de un comunicado de prensa el gremio lamentó “profundamente el fallecimiento del notario Armando Gálvez Pérez-Aragón, quien fuera titular de la notaría 103 del Distrito Federal, así como la forma en que este sucedió el día de hoy”.
El notariado hizo “un respetuoso llamado a las autoridades” para que la investigación de los hechos termine con el castigo que corresponda a los responsables de este trágico hecho.
Asimismo aseguró que participará, en términos de ley y con la intervención de la autoridad competente de la Ciudad de México, en la protección de los asuntos que en su oportunidad fueron encomendados a Gálvez Pérez-Aragón.
El procurador capitalino, Rodolfo Ríos Garza, reconoció que se trató de un ataque directo en contra del notario quien recibió cuatro impactos de arma de fuego cuando estaba a bordo de su camioneta sentado en el lado del copiloto.
“Se realizó un ataque directo a su persona en la colonia Polanco en la esquina de presidente Masaryk y Moliere donde lo primero que tenemos es que sucedió hace muy poco tiempo, en la primera entrevista que tenemos con el chofer nos refiere que escucha al parecer cuatro disparos sin ver de dónde vienen los disparos y ve herido a su jefe y de inmediato lo traslada al Hospital Español donde lamentablemente pierde la vida", precisó.
Los primeros peritajes advierten que él o los asesinos se acercaron a la camioneta del Notario y dispararon por el lado derecho, por el lado del copiloto. Minutos antes Gálvez Pérez había sostenido una reunión en un banco y fue asesinado segundos después de abandonar una gasolinera.
El procurador local informó que se comunicó con Ignacio Morales Lechuga, presidente del Colegio de Notarios, a quien le informó de los sucedido y le solicitó antecedentes de trabajo del Notario 103 para que sean integrados a la investigación.
“Vamos a solicitar efectivamente al archivo general de notarías, como parte de la investigación que vamos a realizar todo lo que nos puedan decir acerca de los folios, etcétera que se llevaban a cabo en la notaría”, aseveró el abogado de la Ciudad de México.
Las autoridades ya revisan las imágenes de las cámaras de vigilancia del C2 para ver si grabaron el ataque. Se espera que hasta el jueves se tengan los resultados de la necropsia de ley para corroborar la causa de la muerte y cuantos balazos recibió.
Este notario ha estado involucrado en una investigación por el supuesto fraude en la cesión de obras de arte de pintores como Picasso, Miró, Braque, Gris, Mondrian, entre otros. En dicha investigación también se involucra a Mario Ivanova y funcionarios estadounidenses.
Lamento gremial
Por su parte, El Colegio de Notario del DF se refirió al asesinato de su colega.
A través de un comunicado de prensa el gremio lamentó “profundamente el fallecimiento del notario Armando Gálvez Pérez-Aragón, quien fuera titular de la notaría 103 del Distrito Federal, así como la forma en que este sucedió el día de hoy”.
El notariado hizo “un respetuoso llamado a las autoridades” para que la investigación de los hechos termine con el castigo que corresponda a los responsables de este trágico hecho.
Asimismo aseguró que participará, en términos de ley y con la intervención de la autoridad competente de la Ciudad de México, en la protección de los asuntos que en su oportunidad fueron encomendados a Gálvez Pérez-Aragón.
Dead pigs in China river spotlight heedless industry
SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - The rotting bodies of about 6,000 pigs in a river that supplies tap water to Shanghai has drawn attention to an ugly truth - China's pig farms are often riddled with disease and one way or another, sick animals often end up in the food chain.
Greece creditor talks break off
Talks between Greece and its international creditors over the release of the country's next slice of bailout cash break off for two weeks.
Fake fingers fool Brazilian biometrics
Whole new frontier for giving someone the finger
Doctors at Ferraz de Vasconcelos hospital in Sao Paulo, Brazil, have reportedly fabricated fake fingers to fool biometric scanners.…
Doctors at Ferraz de Vasconcelos hospital in Sao Paulo, Brazil, have reportedly fabricated fake fingers to fool biometric scanners.…
India Ink: Researchers Find 25 Countries Using Surveillance Software
India is using spyware for politically motivated surveillance, researchers say.
Radiotherapy For Breast Cancer Increases Heart Disease Risk
A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine offers the best look yet at the increased risk for heart disease produced by radiotherapy for breast cancer. Further, this increased risk may just be the tip of the iceberg of more radiation-related problems, warns a cardio-oncologist in an accompanying editorial.
Pope Francis branded Britain 'usurpers' over Falklands conflict
As Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Pope Francis once told a congregation of Argentinean veterans that those who died in the Falklands War were "reclaiming what is theirs" during the conflict.
Painkillers Could Prove Helpful in Stem-Cell Transplants
Aspirin-like drugs could improve the success of stem-cell transplants for patients with blood or bone-marrow disorders, a study suggests. The compounds coax stem cells from bone marrow into the bloodstream where they can be harvested for use in transplantation -- and they do so with fewer side effects than drugs now in use.
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Wednesday, 13 March 2013
Pipeline project advances despite threats
The Pakistani and Iranian presidents have inaugurated a joint pipeline project despite threats of sanctions. The Iranian gas will help its neighbor meet its energy needs as blackouts become increasingly frequent.
Suisse: Baisse du nombre de naturalisations
 |
Les naturalisations ont fortement diminué en Suisse. Quelque 35'000 étrangers ont été naturalisés l'année dernière, soit 10'000 de moins que cinq ans plus tôt.
Apple's iPads to fall behind Android tablets this year: IDC
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Shipments of Apple Inc's iPads will fall behind the growing variety of tablets running Google Inc's Android platform for the first time this year as smaller-sized devices catch on with more consumers, research firm International Data Corp (IDC) said on Tuesday.
Syrie: Un million de réfugiés après deux ans de guerre
 |
L'ONU a exhorté mercredi la communauté internationale à débloquer massivement des fonds pour aider le plus d'un million de réfugiés syriens ayant fui la guerre. Le Liban, qui en accueille 340'000, tire la sonnette d'alarme.
Asie: 65% de la population n'a pas d'eau courante
Près des deux-tiers des personnes dans la région Asie-Pacifique n'ont pas accès à l'eau courante dans leur logement malgré la forte croissance économique affichée par cette partie du monde.
Pope Francis elected as 266th Roman Catholic pontiff
Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio takes name of Francis after accepting his election as 266th head of Roman Catholic church
• Live reaction to Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio's election as Pope Francis
The Roman Catholic church has a new pope: Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio from Buenos Aires in Argentina, , the first ever to come from South America, who has taken the name Francis.
He was announced to the crowd waiting in St Peter's Square from the vast balcony that runs across the front of St Peter's basilica.
Earlier, white smoke had flowed from the chimney above the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, signalling that one of the candidates for the pontificate had obtained the necessary two-thirds majority for election. The fumata bianca– the white smoke signal that marks the successful conclusion of a papal conclave – arrived after five ballots on the second day of voting.
The smoke that poured out of the comignolo, the copper and steel chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel, was greeted with cries of delight and applause from the crowd below. Soon afterwards, the bells of St Peter's rang out, confirming that the 266th pope had taken over the spiritual leadership of the world's 1.2 billion baptised Catholics.
Inside the Sistine Chapel, after the final vote was cast, the most junior of the cardinals, James Harvey, a former prefect of the papal household, called in the secretary of the college of cardinals, Monsignor Lorenzo Baldisseri, and the master of papal liturgical ceremonies, Monsignor Guido Marini, to witness the new pope's acceptance of one of the most daunting jobs on earth. The most senior of the electors, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, approached the pope-to-be and – in accordance with time-honoured tradition – asked him, in Latin: "Do you accept your canonical election as supreme pontiff?"
Having obtained his consent, he will have asked him: "By what name do you wish to be called?" The master of ceremonies, acting as a notary, will then have summoned two of his staff to act as witnesses, and prepared the document that certifies the new pope's acceptance.
Newly elected popes are taken to be robed in the so-called Room of Tears, its name an indication of the reluctance with which most approach the task for which they have been chosen. The last holder of the office, Benedict XVI, introduced a change into the ritual that allows for the new pope to pray before he is announced to the world.
Benedict abdicated on 28 February, saying that he was no longer able to cope with the burden of his office. He was the first pontiff to resign voluntarily since Celestine V in 1294.
The world's Catholics will be looking to his successor to provide not only spiritual inspiration but also firm leadership. The new pope was chosen against a background of turbulence and strife unprecedented in modern times. He takes on the leadership of a church whose faithful have been shocked by a proliferation of clerical sex abuse scandals throughout the rich world and dismayed by events in and around the Vatican.
The day for the 115 cardinal-electors began at about 6.30am local time in the Casa Santa Marta, their simple but comfortable – and highly protected – residence in the walled city state. After breakfast, they made their way to the Apostolic Palace, the home of the popes, for morning mass in the Pauline Chapel. By about 9.30am, they had settled themselves into the Sistine Chapel for prayers and the resumption of voting.
Benedict's startling decision to resign came after years of mounting tension and discreet but venomous infighting in the Roman Curia, the central administration of the Catholic church. Last year, some of the pope's correspondence, pointing to bitter rivalries and maladministration – or worse – in the Vatican was published in book form.
Benedict's butler, Paolo Gabriele, was tried and imprisoned for leaking the documents, but the journalist to whom the papers were passed has said that his source was part of a much broader network of disaffected Vatican employees and officials. Gabriele's arrest coincided with a renewed controversy over the Vatican bank, whose chairman was summarily dismissed last May.
The scandals – and a string of controversies over the pope's own declarations – distracted attention from what was expected to be the central theme of his papacy. Benedict came to the leadership of the Catholic church as the pope who would begin the process of re-evangelising an increasingly secular western world.
That too will be an important challenge for his successor. In the approach to the conclave several cardinals said they wanted a great pastor for the world's biggest Christian denomination.
No indication of how or why the new pope was chosen was expected to emerge. On Tuesday, before the start of the conclave, the cardinal-electors took an oath of secrecy, as had those Vatican employees and officials involved in the election.
Additional precautions included a sweep of the Sistine Chapel to ensure that no listening devices had been planted inside and the use of electronic jamming techniques.
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
• Live reaction to Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio's election as Pope Francis
The Roman Catholic church has a new pope: Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio from Buenos Aires in Argentina, , the first ever to come from South America, who has taken the name Francis.
He was announced to the crowd waiting in St Peter's Square from the vast balcony that runs across the front of St Peter's basilica.
Earlier, white smoke had flowed from the chimney above the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, signalling that one of the candidates for the pontificate had obtained the necessary two-thirds majority for election. The fumata bianca– the white smoke signal that marks the successful conclusion of a papal conclave – arrived after five ballots on the second day of voting.
The smoke that poured out of the comignolo, the copper and steel chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel, was greeted with cries of delight and applause from the crowd below. Soon afterwards, the bells of St Peter's rang out, confirming that the 266th pope had taken over the spiritual leadership of the world's 1.2 billion baptised Catholics.
Inside the Sistine Chapel, after the final vote was cast, the most junior of the cardinals, James Harvey, a former prefect of the papal household, called in the secretary of the college of cardinals, Monsignor Lorenzo Baldisseri, and the master of papal liturgical ceremonies, Monsignor Guido Marini, to witness the new pope's acceptance of one of the most daunting jobs on earth. The most senior of the electors, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, approached the pope-to-be and – in accordance with time-honoured tradition – asked him, in Latin: "Do you accept your canonical election as supreme pontiff?"
Having obtained his consent, he will have asked him: "By what name do you wish to be called?" The master of ceremonies, acting as a notary, will then have summoned two of his staff to act as witnesses, and prepared the document that certifies the new pope's acceptance.
Newly elected popes are taken to be robed in the so-called Room of Tears, its name an indication of the reluctance with which most approach the task for which they have been chosen. The last holder of the office, Benedict XVI, introduced a change into the ritual that allows for the new pope to pray before he is announced to the world.
Benedict abdicated on 28 February, saying that he was no longer able to cope with the burden of his office. He was the first pontiff to resign voluntarily since Celestine V in 1294.
The world's Catholics will be looking to his successor to provide not only spiritual inspiration but also firm leadership. The new pope was chosen against a background of turbulence and strife unprecedented in modern times. He takes on the leadership of a church whose faithful have been shocked by a proliferation of clerical sex abuse scandals throughout the rich world and dismayed by events in and around the Vatican.
The day for the 115 cardinal-electors began at about 6.30am local time in the Casa Santa Marta, their simple but comfortable – and highly protected – residence in the walled city state. After breakfast, they made their way to the Apostolic Palace, the home of the popes, for morning mass in the Pauline Chapel. By about 9.30am, they had settled themselves into the Sistine Chapel for prayers and the resumption of voting.
Benedict's startling decision to resign came after years of mounting tension and discreet but venomous infighting in the Roman Curia, the central administration of the Catholic church. Last year, some of the pope's correspondence, pointing to bitter rivalries and maladministration – or worse – in the Vatican was published in book form.
Benedict's butler, Paolo Gabriele, was tried and imprisoned for leaking the documents, but the journalist to whom the papers were passed has said that his source was part of a much broader network of disaffected Vatican employees and officials. Gabriele's arrest coincided with a renewed controversy over the Vatican bank, whose chairman was summarily dismissed last May.
The scandals – and a string of controversies over the pope's own declarations – distracted attention from what was expected to be the central theme of his papacy. Benedict came to the leadership of the Catholic church as the pope who would begin the process of re-evangelising an increasingly secular western world.
That too will be an important challenge for his successor. In the approach to the conclave several cardinals said they wanted a great pastor for the world's biggest Christian denomination.
No indication of how or why the new pope was chosen was expected to emerge. On Tuesday, before the start of the conclave, the cardinal-electors took an oath of secrecy, as had those Vatican employees and officials involved in the election.
Additional precautions included a sweep of the Sistine Chapel to ensure that no listening devices had been planted inside and the use of electronic jamming techniques.
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
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New pope elected after two days of conclave
White smoke has flowed from the chimney above the Sistine Chapel – but the pontiff's name has yet to be announced
• Live coverage of reaction to the new pope's election
The Roman Catholic church has a new pope. White smoke flowed from the chimney above the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican shortly after 6pm on Wednesday, signalling that one of the candidates for the pontificate had obtained the necessary two-thirds majority for election.
As is customary, the identity of the new pope was not immediately made known. And the crowd in St Peter's Square was waiting expectantly for him to appear on the huge balcony that runs across the front of St Peter's basilica.
The fumata bianca – the white smoke signal that marks the successful conclusion of a papal conclave – arrived after five ballots on the second day of voting. The smoke that poured out of the comignolo, the copper and steel chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel, was greeted with cries of delight and applause from the crowd below.
Soon afterwards, the bells of St Peter's rang out, confirming that a new pope had taken over the spiritual leadership of the world's 1.2 billion baptised Catholics.
Inside the Sistine Chapel, after the final vote was cast, the most junior of the cardinals, James Harvey, a former prefect of the papal household, called in the secretary of the college of cardinals, Monsignor Lorenzo Baldisseri, and the master of papal liturgical ceremonies, Monsignor Guido Marini, to witness the new pope's acceptance of one of the most daunting jobs on earth. The most senior of the electors, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, approached the pope-to-be and – in accordance with time-honoured tradition – asked him, in Latin: "Do you accept your canonical election as supreme pontiff?"
Having obtained his consent, he will have asked him: "By what name do you wish to be called?" The master of ceremonies, acting as a notary, will then have summoned two of his staff to act as witnesses, and prepared the document that certifies the new pope's acceptance.
Newly elected popes are taken to be robed in the so-called Room of Tears, its name an indication of the reluctance with which most approach the task for which they have been chosen. The last holder of the office, Benedict XVI, introduced a change into the ritual that allows for the new pope to pray before he is announced to the world.
Benedict abdicated on 28 February, saying that he was no longer able to cope with the burden of his office. He was the first pontiff to resign voluntarily since Celestine V in 1294.
The world's Catholics will be looking to his successor to provide not only spiritual inspiration but also firm leadership. The new pope was chosen against a background of turbulence and strife unprecedented in modern times. He takes on the leadership of a church whose faithful have been shocked by a proliferation of clerical sex abuse scandals throughout the rich world and dismayed by events in and around the Vatican.
The day for the 115 cardinal-electors began at about 6.30am local time in the Casa Santa Marta, their simple but comfortable – and highly protected – residence in the walled city state. After breakfast, they made their way to the Apostolic Palace, the home of the popes, for morning mass in the Pauline Chapel. By about 9.30am, they had settled themselves into the Sistine Chapel for prayers and the resumption of voting.
Benedict's startling decision to resign came after years of mounting tension and discreet but venomous infighting in the Roman Curia, the central administration of the Catholic church. Last year, some of the pope's correspondence, pointing to bitter rivalries and maladministration – or worse – in the Vatican was published in book form.
Benedict's butler, Paolo Gabriele, was tried and imprisoned for leaking the documents, but the journalist to whom the papers were passed has said that his source was part of a much broader network of disaffected Vatican employees and officials. Gabriele's arrest coincided with a renewed controversy over the Vatican bank, whose chairman was summarily dismissed last May.
The scandals – and a string of controversies over the pope's own declarations – distracted attention from what was expected to be the central theme of his papacy. Benedict came to the leadership of the Catholic church as the pope who would begin the process of re-evangelising an increasingly secular western world.
That too will be an important challenge for his successor. In the approach to the conclave several cardinals said they wanted a great pastor for the world's biggest Christian denomination.
No indication of how or why the new pope was chosen was expected to emerge. On Tuesday, before the start of the conclave, the cardinal-electors took an oath of secrecy, as had those Vatican employees and officials involved in the election.
Additional precautions included a sweep of the Sistine Chapel to ensure that no listening devices had been planted inside and the use of electronic jamming techniques.
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
• Live coverage of reaction to the new pope's election
The Roman Catholic church has a new pope. White smoke flowed from the chimney above the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican shortly after 6pm on Wednesday, signalling that one of the candidates for the pontificate had obtained the necessary two-thirds majority for election.
As is customary, the identity of the new pope was not immediately made known. And the crowd in St Peter's Square was waiting expectantly for him to appear on the huge balcony that runs across the front of St Peter's basilica.
The fumata bianca – the white smoke signal that marks the successful conclusion of a papal conclave – arrived after five ballots on the second day of voting. The smoke that poured out of the comignolo, the copper and steel chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel, was greeted with cries of delight and applause from the crowd below.
Soon afterwards, the bells of St Peter's rang out, confirming that a new pope had taken over the spiritual leadership of the world's 1.2 billion baptised Catholics.
Inside the Sistine Chapel, after the final vote was cast, the most junior of the cardinals, James Harvey, a former prefect of the papal household, called in the secretary of the college of cardinals, Monsignor Lorenzo Baldisseri, and the master of papal liturgical ceremonies, Monsignor Guido Marini, to witness the new pope's acceptance of one of the most daunting jobs on earth. The most senior of the electors, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, approached the pope-to-be and – in accordance with time-honoured tradition – asked him, in Latin: "Do you accept your canonical election as supreme pontiff?"
Having obtained his consent, he will have asked him: "By what name do you wish to be called?" The master of ceremonies, acting as a notary, will then have summoned two of his staff to act as witnesses, and prepared the document that certifies the new pope's acceptance.
Newly elected popes are taken to be robed in the so-called Room of Tears, its name an indication of the reluctance with which most approach the task for which they have been chosen. The last holder of the office, Benedict XVI, introduced a change into the ritual that allows for the new pope to pray before he is announced to the world.
Benedict abdicated on 28 February, saying that he was no longer able to cope with the burden of his office. He was the first pontiff to resign voluntarily since Celestine V in 1294.
The world's Catholics will be looking to his successor to provide not only spiritual inspiration but also firm leadership. The new pope was chosen against a background of turbulence and strife unprecedented in modern times. He takes on the leadership of a church whose faithful have been shocked by a proliferation of clerical sex abuse scandals throughout the rich world and dismayed by events in and around the Vatican.
The day for the 115 cardinal-electors began at about 6.30am local time in the Casa Santa Marta, their simple but comfortable – and highly protected – residence in the walled city state. After breakfast, they made their way to the Apostolic Palace, the home of the popes, for morning mass in the Pauline Chapel. By about 9.30am, they had settled themselves into the Sistine Chapel for prayers and the resumption of voting.
Benedict's startling decision to resign came after years of mounting tension and discreet but venomous infighting in the Roman Curia, the central administration of the Catholic church. Last year, some of the pope's correspondence, pointing to bitter rivalries and maladministration – or worse – in the Vatican was published in book form.
Benedict's butler, Paolo Gabriele, was tried and imprisoned for leaking the documents, but the journalist to whom the papers were passed has said that his source was part of a much broader network of disaffected Vatican employees and officials. Gabriele's arrest coincided with a renewed controversy over the Vatican bank, whose chairman was summarily dismissed last May.
The scandals – and a string of controversies over the pope's own declarations – distracted attention from what was expected to be the central theme of his papacy. Benedict came to the leadership of the Catholic church as the pope who would begin the process of re-evangelising an increasingly secular western world.
That too will be an important challenge for his successor. In the approach to the conclave several cardinals said they wanted a great pastor for the world's biggest Christian denomination.
No indication of how or why the new pope was chosen was expected to emerge. On Tuesday, before the start of the conclave, the cardinal-electors took an oath of secrecy, as had those Vatican employees and officials involved in the election.
Additional precautions included a sweep of the Sistine Chapel to ensure that no listening devices had been planted inside and the use of electronic jamming techniques.
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
Bovine TB slaughter numbers up 10%
Defra issues statistics on the slaughter of cows with bovine tuberculosis, finding that more than 38,000 cows were killed in Britain in 2012.
Pesticidas na maioria dos alimentos da UE dentro dos níveis legais
A esmagadora maioria dos alimentos analisados na União Europeia apresenta níveis de pesticidas que estão dentro dos limites admissíveis, segundo um relatório da Autoridade Europeia de Segurança Alimentar...
Venezuela to investigate Hugo Chávez poisoning claims
Acting president vows to 'seek truth' over Chávez's death amid fears his cancer was result of poisoning by foreign rivals
Venezuela will launch an inquiry into claims that Hugo Chávez's cancer was the result of poisoning by his enemies abroad, the government has said.
Critics of the government view the accusation as a typical Chávez-style conspiracy theory intended to feed fears of "imperialist" threats to Venezuela's socialist system and distract people from daily problems.
The acting president, Nicolás Maduro, vowed to open an investigation into the claims surrounding the death of the president, which were first raised by Chávez after he was diagnosed with the disease in 2011.
"We will seek the truth," Maduro told the Telesur regional TV network. "We have the intuition that our commander Chávez was poisoned by dark forces that wanted him out of the way."
Foreign scientists will be invited to join a state committee to investigate the accusation, he said.
Maduro, 50, is Chávez's handpicked successor and is running as the government's candidate in a snap presidential election on 14 April that was triggered by the president's death last week.
He is trying to keep voters' attention focused on Chávez to benefit from the outpouring of grief among his millions of supporters. The opposition is centring its campaign on portraying Maduro, a former bus driver, as an incompetent who is exploiting Chávez's demise.
"Let's take the president [Chávez] away from the political debate, out of respect for his memory, his family, his supporters," the opposition candidate Henrique Capriles's campaign chief, Henri Falcon, told reporters.
Polls from before Chávez's death gave Maduro a lead of more than 10 percentage points over Capriles. He lost to Chávez by 11 percentage points in October.
Capriles has tried to jump-start his campaign with accusations that Maduro and other senior officials lied about the details of Chávez's illness, hiding the gravity of his condition from Venezuelans.
That sparked a torrent of attacks, with senior government officials using words like "Nazi" and "fascist" to describe Capriles, who has Jewish ancestors.
In a televised message, the information minister, Ernesto Villegas, read a letter to the "sick opposition" from the late president's daughter, Maria Gabriela Chávez, who has at times been viewed as a possible future successor.
"Stop playing with the pain of a nation and a devastated family," she wrote. "It is unfair, inhuman, unacceptable that they now say we were lying about the date of his [death] … Focus on politics, don't play dirty."
Capriles was quick to respond with a flurry of tweets: "Never, in all these years, have I offended the president or his family. If one word has been taken thus by his family, I'm sorry," he wrote on Twitter.
"I don't offend families as they have mine. They have even called me a Nazi, when my great-grandparents were murdered in a Nazi concentration camp," he added, referring to the government.
In an increasingly acrimonious campaign, both sides on Tuesday accused each other of planning violence.
The opposition displayed photos circulating on the internet showing an assault rifle and a pistol being held up to a TV screen that was broadcasting Capriles's face. They also said there were indications of plans to attack Capriles when he was scheduled to register his candidacy on Monday. In the end, aides went instead.
Government spokesmen repeated accusations that opposition activists planned to disrupt Maduro's campaign. In an attempt to discredit Capriles, they waved photos of a plush New York apartment they said belonged to him, and displayed copies of university documents they claimed showed he never completed a law degree.
Capriles, 40, a business-friendly regional governor running for the opposition's Democratic Unity coalition, is trying to dissociate Maduro from Chávez in voters' minds.
"He's attacking Nicolás Maduro, saying Nicolás is not Chávez," the senior Socialist party official and Maduro's campaign chief, Jorge Rodríguez, said.
"Of course Nicolás isn't Chávez, but he is his faithful, responsible, revolutionary son. All these insults and vilification are going to be turned into votes for us," he said.
Tuesday was the last day of official mourning for Chávez, although public tributes are likely to continue. His embalmed body will be taken in procession to a military museum on Friday.
Millions have filed past Chávez's coffin to pay homage to a man who was adored by many of the poor for his humble roots and welfare policies, but was also loathed by many for his authoritarian style and bullying of opponents.
Though Maduro has spoken about combating crime and extending development programmes in the slums, he has mostly used his frequent appearances on state TV to talk about Chávez.
The 58-year-old president was diagnosed with pelvic cancer in June 2011 and underwent four operations before dying of what sources said was metastasis in the lungs.
Maduro said it was too early to specifically point a finger over Chávez's cancer, but noted that the US had laboratories with experience in producing diseases.
"He had a cancer that broke all norms," Maduro told Telesur. "Everything seems to indicate that they [enemies] affected his health using the most advanced techniques."
Maduro has compared his suspicions over Chávez's death with allegations that the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat died in 2004 from poisoning by Israeli agents.
The case echoes Chávez's long campaign to convince the world that his idol and Venezuela's independence hero Simón Bolívar died of poisoning by his rivals in Colombia in 1830.
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
Venezuela will launch an inquiry into claims that Hugo Chávez's cancer was the result of poisoning by his enemies abroad, the government has said.
Critics of the government view the accusation as a typical Chávez-style conspiracy theory intended to feed fears of "imperialist" threats to Venezuela's socialist system and distract people from daily problems.
The acting president, Nicolás Maduro, vowed to open an investigation into the claims surrounding the death of the president, which were first raised by Chávez after he was diagnosed with the disease in 2011.
"We will seek the truth," Maduro told the Telesur regional TV network. "We have the intuition that our commander Chávez was poisoned by dark forces that wanted him out of the way."
Foreign scientists will be invited to join a state committee to investigate the accusation, he said.
Maduro, 50, is Chávez's handpicked successor and is running as the government's candidate in a snap presidential election on 14 April that was triggered by the president's death last week.
He is trying to keep voters' attention focused on Chávez to benefit from the outpouring of grief among his millions of supporters. The opposition is centring its campaign on portraying Maduro, a former bus driver, as an incompetent who is exploiting Chávez's demise.
"Let's take the president [Chávez] away from the political debate, out of respect for his memory, his family, his supporters," the opposition candidate Henrique Capriles's campaign chief, Henri Falcon, told reporters.
Polls from before Chávez's death gave Maduro a lead of more than 10 percentage points over Capriles. He lost to Chávez by 11 percentage points in October.
Capriles has tried to jump-start his campaign with accusations that Maduro and other senior officials lied about the details of Chávez's illness, hiding the gravity of his condition from Venezuelans.
That sparked a torrent of attacks, with senior government officials using words like "Nazi" and "fascist" to describe Capriles, who has Jewish ancestors.
In a televised message, the information minister, Ernesto Villegas, read a letter to the "sick opposition" from the late president's daughter, Maria Gabriela Chávez, who has at times been viewed as a possible future successor.
"Stop playing with the pain of a nation and a devastated family," she wrote. "It is unfair, inhuman, unacceptable that they now say we were lying about the date of his [death] … Focus on politics, don't play dirty."
Capriles was quick to respond with a flurry of tweets: "Never, in all these years, have I offended the president or his family. If one word has been taken thus by his family, I'm sorry," he wrote on Twitter.
"I don't offend families as they have mine. They have even called me a Nazi, when my great-grandparents were murdered in a Nazi concentration camp," he added, referring to the government.
In an increasingly acrimonious campaign, both sides on Tuesday accused each other of planning violence.
The opposition displayed photos circulating on the internet showing an assault rifle and a pistol being held up to a TV screen that was broadcasting Capriles's face. They also said there were indications of plans to attack Capriles when he was scheduled to register his candidacy on Monday. In the end, aides went instead.
Government spokesmen repeated accusations that opposition activists planned to disrupt Maduro's campaign. In an attempt to discredit Capriles, they waved photos of a plush New York apartment they said belonged to him, and displayed copies of university documents they claimed showed he never completed a law degree.
Capriles, 40, a business-friendly regional governor running for the opposition's Democratic Unity coalition, is trying to dissociate Maduro from Chávez in voters' minds.
"He's attacking Nicolás Maduro, saying Nicolás is not Chávez," the senior Socialist party official and Maduro's campaign chief, Jorge Rodríguez, said.
"Of course Nicolás isn't Chávez, but he is his faithful, responsible, revolutionary son. All these insults and vilification are going to be turned into votes for us," he said.
Tuesday was the last day of official mourning for Chávez, although public tributes are likely to continue. His embalmed body will be taken in procession to a military museum on Friday.
Millions have filed past Chávez's coffin to pay homage to a man who was adored by many of the poor for his humble roots and welfare policies, but was also loathed by many for his authoritarian style and bullying of opponents.
Though Maduro has spoken about combating crime and extending development programmes in the slums, he has mostly used his frequent appearances on state TV to talk about Chávez.
The 58-year-old president was diagnosed with pelvic cancer in June 2011 and underwent four operations before dying of what sources said was metastasis in the lungs.
Maduro said it was too early to specifically point a finger over Chávez's cancer, but noted that the US had laboratories with experience in producing diseases.
"He had a cancer that broke all norms," Maduro told Telesur. "Everything seems to indicate that they [enemies] affected his health using the most advanced techniques."
Maduro has compared his suspicions over Chávez's death with allegations that the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat died in 2004 from poisoning by Israeli agents.
The case echoes Chávez's long campaign to convince the world that his idol and Venezuela's independence hero Simón Bolívar died of poisoning by his rivals in Colombia in 1830.
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
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