Deadly floods sweep southern China

Flooding and landslides across nine southern Chinese provinces leave more than 50 people dead and 14 missing, officials say.

Rising EU obesity rings alarm bells in Brussels

Half of EU citizens are overweight. Among these people, serious obesity is on the rise. It's a heavy and expensive burden for national health care systems - and one the EU Commission hopes to stop.

Buscan preservar la mayor mina de cobre

RANCAGUA, Chile, 18 de mayo.— El yacimiento cuprífero subterráneo más grande del planeta, que se explota desde 1905 y es propiedad de la estatal Corporación Nacional del Cobre de Chile (Codelco), se prepara para prolongar su vida 50 años más.
Para eso necesita incorporar tecnología de punta e invertir tres mil 278 millones de dólares, una suma similar a la empleada en toda la historia de la División El Teniente, nombre formal de la mina.
Ubicada en la Cordillera de los Andes, para llegar a El Teniente hay que recorrer 150 kilómetros desde Santiago hacia el sur. Sólo en 2010 aportó 25 por ciento de la producción de Codelco.
El cobre fue estatizado en 1971 y lo es todo para Chile, primer productor mundial de ese metal.
En el sector El Teniente 8 se extraen 137 mil toneladas por día (tpd), que equivalen a una producción de 434 mil toneladas de cobre fino al año.
Sin embargo, el metal se está acabando en esta zona, que sólo cuenta con reservas que cubrirán hasta el año 2025.
Por eso Codelco desarrolla el proyecto Nuevo Nivel Mina, que comenzará a operar en 2017 y permitirá explotar dos mil 20 millones de toneladas de reservas alojadas a mayor profundidad, en la cota mil 880 de altitud y 100 metros por debajo de El Teniente.
Se trata de “un proyecto estructural dentro de la corporación, que va junto a los que se están desarrollando en las divisiones Andina y Chuquicamata Subterránea”, explicó a Tierramérica la ejecutiva Millaray Farías, jefa de proceso de la planta de chancado de la mina Pipa Norte, uno de los ocho yacimientos que funcionan en El Teniente. “Nos va a permitir tener vida por muchos años más, ya que se estima que operará hasta 2070”.
El chancado es la reducción del material extraído en fragmentos pequeños.
Además de garantizar los volúmenes de producción actuales, la nueva mina permitirá, en 2020, iniciar las obras necesarias para llegar a producir 180 mil tpd.
El cobre se cotiza a más de tres dólares la libra en la Bolsa de Metales de Londres. El año pasado, Codelco generó para el Estado siete mil 518 millones dólares de ganancias, el tercer excedente más alto de su historia.
Para que el Nuevo Nivel Mina opere a partir de 2017, se excavarán 98 mil 450 metros de túneles y tres mil 454 metros de desarrollos verticales, como chimeneas de ventilación y piques de traspaso, galerías que permiten controlar el
paso del mineral desde la producción hasta el transporte.
El acceso será por dos túneles paralelos de 9.4 kilómetros: uno para la entrada y salida de vehículos con trabajadores, y el otro para la correa transportadora de mineral y la pista de servicios.
En El Teniente se extrae el mineral con hundimiento de paneles (“panel caving”): explosiones que socavan las bases de mineral, del tamaño de un edificio de 50 pisos, para su fractura. Luego, fuerza de gravedad y equipos mineros mediante esas moles se van achicando.
Riesgo de muerte
Una cuestión delicada es la mortalidad: 6.5 muertes de mineros por año, dice la estadística.
El Proyecto Estructural de Seguridad y Salud Ocupacional busca un récord de cinco años sin fatalidades, con una tasa de frecuencia menor a uno, así como automatizar procesos peligrosos y mejorar las condiciones de salubridad laboral en todas las áreas.
“Tradicionalmente nuestra gente estaba acostumbrada a que la producción no podía parar. Hoy, poco a poco, va entendiendo que el tema de seguridad es de todos y que no sólo hay que velar por la propia vida, sino también por la de los otros ‘viejos’ (como se llama a quienes laboran dentro de las minas)”, afirmó Juan Bobadilla, superintendente ingeniero de procesos en la Fundición de El Teniente, ante la pregunta de Tierramérica.
Las medidas de seguridad en la división, compuesta por cinco mil trabajadores, están comprendidas en siete valores corporativos que parten de “el respeto a la vida y dignidad de las personas”.
El 23 de marzo murió un operador de maquinaria en la división, Radomiro Tomic, ante
lo cual los trabajadores paralizaron todas las labores y la empresa debió cerrar temporalmente el yacimiento.
El proyecto de El Teniente incluye operaciones semiautomáticas comandadas desde salas de control ubicadas en Rancagua, a más de 50 kilómetros del área de trabajo.
De momento, el yacimiento con mayor tecnología moderna es Pipa Norte, donde se trabaja con equipos autónomos de carga, acarreo y descarga (LHD, por sus siglas en inglés), “operados desde el concentrador Colón —el lugar donde se liberan y concentran las partículas de cobre que se encuentran en la roca—, a 13 kilómetros aproximados desde la mina”, explicó Farías.
La Planta de Chancado y el Martillo también se manejan de forma remota, añadió.
Pese al avance técnico, los recursos humanos se valorizan, porque “naturalmente surgen otras tecnologías que van necesitando el apoyo de los viejos”, dijo Bobadilla, echando mano a la jerga minera.
“Por lo tanto, los que tienen que retirarse se retiran y los que todavía están vigentes, van a tomar nuevas posiciones. Es decir, no hay dolor”, aseguró.
Otro asunto que forma parte de la carta de valores de Codelco es la búsqueda del desarrollo sostenible.
Bobadilla aseguró que la división captura 93.9 por ciento de las emisiones de dióxido de azufre —el principal contaminante— y sólo se libera a la atmósfera el seis por ciento restante. La empresa se propone elevar la proporción capturada a 95 por ciento para 2017.
Luis Sandoval trabajó 38 años en El Teniente. Ya retirado, funge como oficial de guía a solicitud de la compañía.
Mientras nos desplazábamos por un largo túnel subterráneo, Sandoval contó a Tierramérica que en El Teniente se acabó hace años con los campamentos mineros.
Hoy, todos los trabajadores “bajan” a Rancagua, donde están sus casas y familias, y solamente “suben” cuando les toca asumir un turno, explicó.
Por eso, “las emisiones de ácido sulfúrico de la mina
no dañan a la población”, aseguró.
Las aguas ácidas son procesadas en una planta especial y “evitamos tirar lo menos posible residuos industriales sólidos y líquidos, y los ocupamos acá”, finalizó Farías.

Asteroid 9 times size of ocean liner approaches Earth

Officially known as Asteroid 1998 QE2, the ‘minor planet’, as astronomers refer to these space objects, is about nine times the length of its name-sharing ocean liner, Queen Elizabeth 2.

The incoming space object is not named in honor of Queen Elizabeth II, however, nor the 12-deck QE2 luxury liner. It’s simply the designation assigned by the US Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, based on an alphanumeric code for naming newly-discovered asteroids.

Aside from the asteroid’s hulking mass, another thing that intrigues astronomers about QE2 is that nobody can say with any certainty where it came from.

One clue to its origins, however, is that its surface is said to be covered with a sticky, black residue, suggesting that it may be the remains of a comet that came in close proximity to the sun, Amy Mainzer, a researcher at Jet Propulsion Laboratory at La Cañada Flintridge, California, told the Los Angeles Times.
Another explanation is that QE2, discovered on August 19, 1998 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was originally part of the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, she said.
QE2’s nearest approach happens on May 31 at 20:59 GMT, bringing the huge space rock to within 3.6 million miles (5.8 million km) of Earth – about 15 times the distance to the Moon. While this may seem a great distance, in astronomical terms it is a mere stone’s throw away.
Mainzer emphasized the significance of the asteroid, drawing parallels with a past celestial event that had devastating consequences for the entire planet.
"This is a really big asteroid, similar in size to the one that killed off the dinosaurs, and it's getting very close to us," she told the Times.
"Fortunately we've been tracking its orbit very carefully so we know with great certainty it won't hit us. We don't need to panic, but we do need to pay attention, she added.
Since the threat of a doomsday scenario seems unlikely, astronomers will be given an opportunity to study the physical characteristics of asteroids, as well as their history.
"Whenever an asteroid approaches this closely, it provides an important scientific opportunity to study it in detail to understand its size, shape, rotation, surface features, and what they can tell us about its origin,” radar astronomer Lance Benner, the principal investigator for the Goldstone radar observations from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said in a statement.
Observers will take advantage of radar technology to measure the asteroid's distance and velocity to improve the calculation of its orbit and compute its motion farther into the future than we could otherwise, he added.
The next arrival of Asteroid 1998 QE2 following its near-miss on May 31 will not occur again for another two centuries.


Rocky history

For millions of years, Earth has been occasionally pounded by space objects both large and small. Russia, due to its sprawling landmass, has played an unwitting host to many of these celestial bodies.

In 1908, a comet explosion over a largely uninhabited area of Siberia flattened some 80 million trees. The so-called Tunguska Event is recognized as the largest impact event on or near Earth in recorded history: The explosion was about 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan.

More recently, on February 15 this year, a meteor exploded in the sky over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk. The shock waves from the explosion shattered windows and damaged buildings, injuring more than 1,500 people, mostly from flying glass and other debris.

Following the Chelyabinsk meteorite, which is the largest known space object to have entered Earth's atmosphere since the Tunguska Event, NASA chief Charles Bolden gave advice on how to handle an asteroid that was on a collision course with Earth “if it's coming in three weeks”: Pray.
While NASA is tracking about 95 per cent of the largest objects flying near Earth, only about 10 per cent of an estimated 10,000 asteroids with a diameter of 50 meters (165 feet) or more have been identified.
Meanwhile, mankind continues the search for ways to counter future space objects deemed dangerous.
Just days after the Russian meteor struck, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced a joint mission between Europe and the US that aims to strike an asteroid with a spacecraft.
The Joint European/US Asteroid impact and Deflection Assessment mission (AIDA) is preparing to intercept the asteroid Didymos in 2022, when it is about 6.5 million miles (11 million km) from Earth.
Didymos, which poses no immediate threat to Earth, is actually a binary system, in which an 800-meter-wide asteroid and a smaller 150-meter space rock orbit each other.
The AIDA mission - designed to test the theory that governments can protect the planet from a space object on a collision course with the planet - will target the smaller asteroid with a rocket at about 14,000 mph (22,539 kph) in an effort to knock the object off course.

Greek pro-drachma party to meet

A new political party, Plan B, which supports Greece's exist from the euro and a return to the drachma is due to hold its first meeting.

New US manual for diagnosing mental disorders published

The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM-5, has divided medical opinionThe field of mental health will face its greatest upset in years on Saturday with the publication of the long-awaited and deeply-controversial US manual for diagnosing mental disorders.
Early drafts of the book, the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM-5, have divided medical opinion so firmly that authors of previous editions are among the most prominent critics.
Known informally as the psychiatrists' bible, the $199 tome from the American Psychiatric Association is the guidebook that US doctors will use to diagnose mental disorders. The latest edition is the first major update in 20 years.
Though not used in the UK, where doctors turn to the World Health Organisation's International Statistical Classification of Diseases (ICD), the US manual has global influence. It defines groups of patients, and introduces new names for disorders. Those names can spread, and become the norm elsewhere. More importantly, the categories redefine the populations that are targeted by drugs companies.
Criticisms have come from almost every corner. There are claims of expansionism, with common experiences and behaviours becoming newly medicalised. Temper tantrums become disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD); grief becomes major depressive disorder (MDD), according to Allen Frances, an American psychiatrist who chaired the task force behind the fourth edition of the manual. Other behaviours get their own labels: overeating becomes binge eating disorder; keeping too much junk, a hoarding disorder; a bit forgetful could be mild neurocognitive disorder.
David Clark, professor of experimental psychology at Oxford University, said mental health disorders are often hard to divide into clear categories, because too little is known about them, and there can be major overlaps. But the definitions are often valuable. For example, greater distinctions between various types of anxiety have led to more specific and effective treatments, he said.
Nick Craddock, professor of psychiatry at Cardiff University, and director of the National Centre for Mental Health in Wales, said some of the stranger aspects of the US manual will have no impact in Britain. But he said DSM-5 was flawed because definitions of disorders were sometimes changed on the basis of too little fresh scientific evidence.
"I don't believe the science has advanced sufficiently in 20 years since DSM-4 to warrant making a new system," he said. "That essentially is just a group of people agreeing on tweaking things and making them a little bit different. That to me is not a very helpful stage in the develop of psychiatric diagnosis. This is the wrong time in history to change the diagnostic system. "
Changing the definitions of disorders alters who has them. That affects who gets drugs and other support, and who interventions are trialled on. If the criteria for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are broadened, then more people are likely to be diagnosed with the condition.
The arrival of DSM-5 will mark the end of Asperger's syndrome in the US.
Along with some other autism-related conditions, Asperger's will now be consumed by the new category of "autism spectrum disorder".
Some people diagnosed with Asperger's are unhappy about the coming change. Carol Povey, director of the National Autistic Society's Centre for Autism, said: "The term Asperger Syndrome is a core part of their identity for many people and they understandably feel anxious about moves to remove the term. The changes won't prevent people from continuing to use it to define themselves and nor should it," she said.
Debbie Tucker, chair of the Asperger's Syndrome Foundation, said the label can be useful in treating people, but that some did not want to be labelled. "Labels only become unhelpful and sometimes dangerous if used to discriminate. People with Aspergers are vulnerable to this," she said.
Last month, Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, declared that the organisation would not use DSM-5 definitions to set its research priorities. Writing about DSM-5 on his blog, he said: "The weakness is its lack of validity. Unlike our definitions of ischaemic heart disease, lymphoma, or AIDS, the DSM diagnoses are based on a consensus about clusters of clinical symptoms, not any objective laboratory measure." Instead, he said the NIHM would lay the foundations for a new classification system, based on brain imaging, genetics, cognitive science and other research.
"We need to begin collecting the genetic, imaging, physiologic, and cognitive data to see how all the data – not just the symptoms – cluster and how these clusters relate to treatment response," he said.

Argent propre: UBS encourage ses clients à se régulariser

UBS ne veut pas attendre que la Suisse mette en place la stratégie de l'argent propre. La banque pousse déjà ses clients à se régulariser.

EU to ban refillable olive oil jugs

The EU is to ban restaurants from using refillable bottles and dipping bowls of olive oil, citing hygiene and consumer protection.

OEA aboga por legalizar drogas

BOGOTÁ, 18 de mayo.— La Organización de Estados Americanos (OEA) sugirió ayer a los gobiernos que consideren despenalizar el consumo de drogas en un esperado informe sobre el problema regional, que concluye que hay “signos” en favor de la legalización de la mariguana, pero ningún “apoyo significativo” para hacer lo mismo con otras sustancias.
El estudio fue encargado a la OEA por los presidentes del continente durante la Cumbre de las Américas en abril de 2012 y entregado ayer en Bogotá por el secretario general del organismo, José Miguel Insulza, que lo presentará el lunes.
“La despenalización del consumo de drogas debe ser considerada en la base de cualquier estrategia de salud pública”, señala el informe, que recomienda avanzar hasta ese modelo mediante métodos transicionales, como los tribunales de drogas, “la reducción sustantiva de penas y la rehabilitación”.
Los tribunales de drogas, que existen en Estados Unidos y comienzan a implantarse en México y Chile, promueven la sustitución de las penas de cárcel por un tratamiento controlado para el adicto que, según el documento, “es un enfermo crónico que no debe ser castigado”.
“Las medidas restrictivas de libertad son antagónicas de este enfoque (de salud pública) y sólo deberían usarse cuando esté en riesgo la vida del adicto o cuando su conducta constituya un riesgo para la sociedad”, agrega el análisis que encabeza el informe, escrito por el propio Insulza.
La OEA subraya que los planteamientos del informe “no constituyen una conclusión, sino el inicio de un debate largamente esperado”, cuyas “conclusiones definitivas” corresponden “a los destinatarios” del informe, es decir, los gobiernos del continente.

Silvia Ribeiro*: Biohackers: la contaminación transgénica es buena para usted

Se llaman a sí mismos biohackers, pretendiendo dar un tono positivo a sus experimentos de manipulación genética. Presentan como una “libertad civil” que cualquiera que se compre un sintetizador de ADN (apenas un poco más grande y de precio similar al de una computadora) arme sus propios transgénicos en casa, comprando secuencias de ADN hechas con biología sintética y usando mapas genómicos que están en Internet. Al igual que con una computadora, no es necesario ser programador, ingeniero o biólogo para usar un sintetizador, ni social o ecológicamente responsable de lo que con ello se produzca.

Hamburg ‘avoids radiation disaster’ as ship loaded with fissile material, explosives burns

It took 200 firefighters working for several hours to douse the fires on the Atlantic Cartier. The ship’s most visible cargo was some 70 cars, 30 of which were damaged in the incident. But now it was revealed that the vessel also had highly dangerous substances on board as well, which posed the threat of radioactive contamination to the area.
Fire broke out the ship several hours after it arrived in the port of Hamburg. Three tugs and two fireboats were involved in fighting with the blaze, as firefighters unloaded shipping containers while cooling down the hull of the vessel with water. The ship was seriously damaged by the fire and remains in Hamburg.
The Atlantic Cartier was transporting around 9 tons of uranium hexafluoride, a radioactive highly violate and toxic compound most commonly used as an intermediate material in the production of nuclear fuel. The vessel also had 180 tons of flammable ethanol and 4 tons of explosives at the time the fire broke out.
The news of the averted disaster in Hamburg was broken by the opposition Green Party. It criticized the city authorities for not reporting the full details of the incident on its own initiative.
"It is an outrage that the Senate has not informed the public about this near catastrophe," Greens' member of the Hamburg parliament Anjes Tjarks said. "Here one must speak of a cover-up."
The city responded by saying that the firefighters were informed of the dangerous nature of the cargo promptly, which is the reason why the containers in question were quickly removed from the ship.
"Thanks to the quick intervention, the harbor and the people in the area suffered from no hazard," said city spokesman Frank Reschreiter. “There was no leak of the dangerous material.”
Hamburg regularly receives shipments of radioactive material, German media report. It is a convenient transit point to deliver them to the uranium-enriching facility in Lingen, Lower Saxony.

Hollande sanciona lei do casamento gay na França

PARIS - O presidente François Hollande promulgou neste sábado a lei do casamento gay, tornando a França o oitavo país a legalizar a união entre pessoas do mesmo sexo na Europa. O primeiro matrimônio será realizado em 29 de maio na cidade de Montpellier. O gabinete do prefeito socialista, Helen Mandroux, anunciou o casamento de Vincent Autin, ativistas dos direitos dos homossexuais, de 40 anos, com seu parceiro Bruno, de 30 anos, para esse dia.
O texto legislativo foi publicado pelo Jornal Oficial um dia depois de o Conselho Constitucional dar a sua aprovação final, contrariando os conservadores do partido UMP, que tinham recorrido da decisão.
Hollande havia manifestado sua intenção de promulgar a lei o mais rápido possível, principalmente para acabar com a polêmica da oposição que havia organizado manifestações maciças nos últimos meses contra a união gay. Ainda assim, conservadores apoiados pela UMP advertiram que não vão desistir de tentar derrubar a lei e convocaram novos protestos para o próximo dia 26.
Na noite de sexta, centenas de pessoas se manifestaram em Paris nas proximidades da praça do Panteão sem ter pedido autorização, um ato que resultou em incidentes com a polícia e um funcionário foi agredido, de acordo com o Ministério do Interior.
Hollande advertiu que garantirá que “a lei seja aplicada em todo o território com plena eficácia e que não aceitará que se perturbe o casamento”.

N.Korea launches short-range missiles

North Korea launched three short-range guided missiles into the sea off the Korean Peninsula's east coast Saturday, South Korea's semi-official news agency Yonhap cited the South Korean Defense Ministry as saying.

Piratage informatique: Yahoo! Japon craint le vol de 22 mio d'identifiants

Yahoo! Japon craint que près de 22 millions d'identifiants d'utilisateurs n'aient été volés lors d'une tentative frauduleuse d'entrer dans le système administratif de son portail.

Coreia do Norte dispara três mísseis de curto alcance, diz Coreia do Sul

SEUL - A Coreia do Norte disparou três mísseis de curto alcance no Mar do Leste (Mar do Japão), informaram neste sábado fontes do Ministério da Defesa da Coreia do Sul, sem especular sobre o motivo. O governo japonês também confirmou os três lançamentos efetuados pelo Exército norte-coreano e disse que nenhum dos projéteis caiu em águas japonesas.
Lançamentos desse tipo são comuns, mas o ministério sul-coreano afirmou que não iria especular se esses últimos fazem parte de um teste ou exercício de treinamento.
- A Coreia do Norte disparou mísseis de curto alcance duas vezes pela manhã e uma à tarde em sua costa leste - afirmou um funcionário do Ministério da Coreia do Sul por telefone. - Em caso de qualquer provocação, o ministério vai continuar acompanhando a situação e permanecer em estado de alerta.
A tensão na península coreana diminuiu no mês passado depois de reiteradas ameaças norte-coreanas, em resposta às sanções da ONU contra Pyongyang por seu terceiro teste nuclear em fevereiro.
O governo da Coreia do Norte emitiu alertas quase diários de guerra nuclear iminente com a Coreia do Sul e os Estados Unidos. O país realiza lançamentos regulares de seus mísseis Scud de curto alcance, que podem atingir alvos na Coreia do Sul.
O país realizou um lançamento bem sucedido de um míssil de longo alcance em dezembro passado, alegando que era para colocar um satélite meteorológico em órbita. Os Estados Unidos e seus aliados denunciaram o lançamento como um teste de tecnologia que poderia um dia virar uma ogiva nuclear.
Durante as semanas de alta tensão, a Coreia do Sul informou que o Norte tinha deslocado mísseis em sua costa leste para um possível lançamento de um míssil de médio alcance Musudan. O Musudan tem alcance de 3.500 quilômetros, colocando o Japão em alcance e, possivelmente, ilha do Pacífico Sul de Guam, dos Estados Unidos.

Papa Francisco recebe Merkel em audiência privada

VATICANO - O Papa Francisco recebeu a chanceler Angela Merkel em audiência privada no Vaticano neste sábado. Fontes diplomáticas em Roma afirmaram que o Pontífice e a alemã, que é de confissão luterana, conversaram sobre as graves consequências sociais da crise econômica na Zona do Euro.
Na quinta-feira, o líder máximo da Igreja Católica havia condenado a “tirania do dinheiro’ e pediu reformas financeiras “éticas” que servissem para melhor distribuir a riqueza entre ricos e pobres.
Merkel foi ido ao Vaticano há dois meses para participar da entronização do pontificado do sucessor de Bento XVI. Na ocasião, a chanceler deu as mãos ao Papa Francisco na Basílica de São Pedro.

Angry Afghan MPs halt debate on women's rights

Conservative lawmakers in Aghanistan halted a debate on women's rights after just 15 minutes today, failing to approve a law that aims to protect women because parts of it violate Islamic principles, an Afghan legislator said

Christians aren't being persecuted in American schools | TF Charlton

Unfounded fears have driven some Christian groups to co-opt the language of discrimination for their reactionary policies
Christians make up 78% of the American population, 90% of Congress, and 100% of presidents thus far. But to hear some conservative Christians tell it, they are a persecuted minority. Newt Gingrich recently claimed that LGBT rights have caused Catholic adoption services to be "outlawed" in Washington DC and Massachusetts. In a loaded speech on the House floor last week, Representative Steve King accused President Obama of racial favoritism and "[eroding] western Judeo-Christendom", unfavorably comparing his congratulatory call to Jason Collins, the newly out NBA player, with strangely unspecified slights against Tim Tebow, "who will kneel and pray to God on the football field."
Fears of marginalization because of Christian faith, even persecution, have deep roots in white American evangelical culture, dating back to the Scopes Trial and before. As with Representative King's comments, they're often steeped in white racial anxiety and resentment. This persecution complex is also taught – actively promoted and reinforced through fearmongering aimed at youth.
One example: "The Thaw", a modest viral hit produced by Reach America, a "Christian youth leadership program" based in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. In the video, about 20 local teens – all white except but one – list ways in which Christians are systematically "frozen out of the public sphere" and public schools. Christian students are expected to "check [their] religion at the door," forbidden to pray, or to "write about God" in school. They hazard bullying and "rude and disrespectful" treatment, "dirty jokes" from fellow students, and "pornography" disguised as "sex education". The curious notion that Tim Tebow has been punished for his public faith comes up here, as well.
The teenagers wax nostalgic for an America where "school prayer and pledge to the flag was welcomed [sic]," before God was taken "out of … history books" and the country was "stolen" by "people who do not love our God". They call on students to join an "army … with Christ [as] commander", to reverse this political and religious decline.
In stark contrast to this dour picture, Idaho reporter Maureen Dolan writes that two high schools near where The Thaw was made have active prayer groups that meet on school grounds. At Lake City High, principal Deanne Clifford prays with students. At Coeur d'Alene High, local churches "regularly" send "representatives … as 'approved visitors' [who join] the students for lunch in the cafeteria".
It's this cognitive dissonance that's most striking, and disturbing, about "The Thaw". The language of bullying and social isolation of students who don't fit in, increasingly a concern for many parents and schools, is harnessed for a defense of the imagined good old (viz segregated) days when conservative Christian tenets were even more privileged in school curricula: abstinence-only education, creation science, mandatory school prayers, etc. The absence of such privileges – infringements on the equal rights of students and families who believe differently – is presented as bullying and persecution. As Reach America director Gary Brown says:

"Bullying is in the eyes of the beholder, I guess."

This is precisely the sort of counterfactual reasoning and co-opted rhetoric of social justice that influential groups on the religious right use to promote their policies, rather than actually help students who are truly vulnerable to bullying and discrimination. Focus on the Family, for example, has developed a "True Tolerance" program to defend "parental rights" and help students stand up to "homosexual indoctrination" and "bullying" of Christians in public schools – by opposing anti-bullying programs that work to make schools safer for LGBT and gender non-conforming students.
Fueling such reactionary activism is a powerful sense of grievance, stoked by a thriving cottage industry that churns out misinformation like "The Thaw". In such a climate, dubious accounts of anti-Christian discrimination or coercion are believed readily. In recent weeks, for example, tales of students forced to engage in "lesbian kissing", or disqualified from athletic events for religious gestures have circulated widely in conservative media, only to be debunked shortly thereafter.
Factual rebuttals, however, have little impact in a culture where people are trained to overlook the considerable influence of conservative Christianity in society, and to instead believe their communities need more political capital. Paradoxically, children like those in "The Thaw" are encouraged to seek influence, even run for office, in a system they're taught to deeply distrust. This disconnect is embodied in Reach America, which "[encourages] Christian parents to remove their children from traditional public school systems", but counts among its supporters a member of the Coeur d'Alene School District Board of Trustees and a candidate for election to another local school board.
This mindset obscures serious problems of discrimination and bullying that many students face in schools – not usually for being white conservative Christians. And indeed, these problems are often perpetuated by the direct influence or complicity of the religious right. In Florida, Kiera Wilmot, a 16-year-old African American girl, was arrested and transferred to an "alternative school" after an experiment resulted in a small explosion with no injuries or damage. Her case has brought attention to the criminalization of black students and other students of color in public schools – far more likely than white students to be suspended, expelled, and funneled into the "school-to-prison pipeline" by zero-tolerance policies.
The same conservatives likely to complain that the Bible has been "taken out of schools" have spearheaded efforts to censor the history of white supremacist violence and colonialism from public education, overhauling history textbooks in Texas and shuttering a Mexican-American studies program in Tucson, Arizona on the grounds that it "encouraged students to resent white people". In my own town of Medford, Massachussetts, representatives from state "family values" organizations have shown up at city council meetings to oppose guidelines to protect transgender students in public schools, claiming, among other things, a violation of parental rights.
Ultimately, this is what is most troubling about "The Thaw": it represents a generation raised to believe their divine mission is to entrench a racialized and politicized Christian supremacy – not Christian inclusion – in the public sphere. Children on the religious right are being taught that they've been robbed of their voice, and that they have a calling to to reclaim it through political and cultural activism. In a lot of ways, they're succeeding.
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.

Germany beefs up banking regulations

Germany has introduced some 30 laws regulating the financial market, the most important of which were passed this week. The government claimed they are milestones, but they don't go far enough for the opposition.

Preserving Mayan Civilization, Nurturing Current Community

Efforts to preserve the 51 Mayan cities in Cuenca Mirador, northern Guatemala, are also providing training in forest stewardship and other life skills for locals.
When Richard Hansen arrived at the site in northern Guatemala in 1978 to establish the Mirador Basin Project, the area was much troubled. Since the site’s discovery in 1926, treasure thieves had devastated the exposed archaeological sites—many of the characteristic white plaster reliefs were destroyed or stolen.
The Mirador Basin Project, however, began training Guatemalans as “forest guardians.”
Locals guard the site from thieves, but also learn to care for the ecosystem surrounding the ancient cities. The project also funds literacy and other developmental courses, partially with tourism revenue.
Today, fires set by locals to clear land for agriculture are the greatest threat to the site. Hansen says the short-term benefits of clearing the land this way do not outweigh the long-term damages to local livelihood that comes with destroying the ecosystem.
Almost 2,000 years ago, the Mayan civilization collapsed due to the depredation of natural resources, Hansen explains. Hansen is an archaeologist from Idaho University, director of the Mirador Basin Project, and president of the Foundation for Anthropological Research and Environmental Studies (FARES). The Mayans had to migrate after exhausting their local resources, he says.
“Imagine the message it carries for the current government. If that ancient abuse provoked a collapse, it’s strange that we are doing the same,” Hansen says.

Fighting Depredation 
In 2003, local farmers started a great fire to create new land for crops, burning more than 98,000 acres (40,000 hectares) of forest in the region. The international scientific community and environmental organizations were alarmed.
“[Locals] continue deforesting—chopping down trees and burning them,” Hansen said in April.
The Global Heritage Fund (GHF) is working with the Mirador Basin Project to educate locals, but the groups are seeking further support within Guatemala and beyond its borders to step up preservation efforts.
GHF Director of Global Projects Dan Thompson describes the Guatemalan population he works with as “warm, gentle people willing to communicate and share their lives and culture, despite the significant language barrier.”
“I think the pride of their cultural heritage is bigger as the project moves forward, which is a benefit to everybody in the long term,” he says.
People who once earned a living by clearing land, stealing, and other illegal means are now gainfully employed. The GHF-funded project employs more than 200 Guatemalans each year, and provides courses in computers, tourism, and other subjects.
Reconnecting With Heritage
GHF seeks to reconnect locals with their heritage, explained Elinor Betesh, GHF public relations manager. “All the cultural engagement and training classes are meant to strengthen that bond again. … It’s what makes them, and the place, so special.”
The 51 cities, of which eight of the largest are the particular focus of preservation and tourism, were home to approximately 1 million Mayans about 3,000 years ago. The Mayans built more than 1,000 pyramids in the region.
A Mayan pyramids differs from an Egyptian one in that it does not have a funerary function, but rather a ritualistic one. A small room is found in the pinnacle. Intricate reliefs line the stairway that ascends to the room, visited frequently for rituals.
Mayans from the Cuenca were great astronomers. Astronomy guided their agricultural production and their daily lives. The pyramids are oriented with the solstices and equinoxes, reminding the population of its connection with the rest of the cosmos and celestial phenomena.
Thompson says Carmelita, near Cuenca Mirador, “has seen dramatic changes as a result of the Mirador project, including the opening of a visitor’s center.”
Carmelita now has 60 guides and 30 trained forest rangers patrolling to protect the archaeological sites, and also for the benefit of visitors and tourists. Thomson notes the project employed 340 members of local communities. Workers on site are offered literacy classes in the afternoon.
Sustainable Tourism
The project also helps tourists appreciate the site, and in turn bring resources back to the community.
Guides take tourists through eight of the largest cities and surrounding jungle on a three-day tour. A helicopter ride provides a view from another angle. The private trips attract high-profile tourists such as actors Harrison Ford and Mel Gibson. Gibson collaborates with FARES.
With new preservation technologies parts of the cities are uncovered with greater care, revealing reliefs that have not been eroded. But the Mirador Basin Project is not just an archaeological project—Hansen directs studies in the region of geology, local flora and fauna, Mayan architecture, agriculture, and more.
“I believe the people in the region are well-prepared and want more visitors to come,” Hansen said, “but certainly want to keep their own cultural identity, preserving their way of life.”
The post Preserving Mayan Civilization, Nurturing Current Community appeared first on The Epoch Times.

Três novos suicídios registados em fábrica da Foxconn

Três trabalhadores de uma fábrica da Foxconn na China suicidaram-se nas últimas três semanas, informou a agência oficial chinesa e uma organização de defesa dos trabalhadores chineses.

Why We Shouldn't Be Surprised That Managers Don't Embrace Complexity

 Back in the 15th Century, Leonardo da Vinci, the great genius of the Middle Ages, asserted that, “simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”  Most modern managers would agree.  Every good operation works hard to streamline their processes down to the barest essentials.

Número de feridos em colisão de trens sobe para 60 nos EUA

NOVA YORK - Um trem de passageiros viajando no sentido leste de Nova York descarrilou perto de Connecticut na noite de sexta-feira e colidiu com um trem suburbano, ferindo 60 pessoas. Com o acidente, o serviço de transporte teve que ser interrompido por tempo indeterminado entre Nova York e Boston, informou a ferrovia nacional.
- É um dano devastador - disse o governador de Connecticut, Dannel Malloy, em coletiva de imprensa
O acidente ocorreu pouco depois das 18h locais, segundo as autoridades. A polícia informou que cinco pessoas ficaram gravemente feridas e 60 foram transportadas para hospitais da região.
- De repente, o trem começou a tremer... como se algo tivesse batendo nele contou a passageira Rowana Shepherd à emissora CBS. - Um compartimento inteiro do outro trem ficou completamente destruído.
O número de feridos pode subir. Os funcionários do hospital foram orientados a se preparar para receber até 180 pacientes. A causa do descarrilamento ainda não foi divulgada.

Rusia entrega a Venezuela el primer lote de automóviles Lada

Rusia entregó a Venezuela el primer lote de automóviles de la marca Lada, informa la agencia Ria Novosti. Moscú y Caracas firmaron en 2010 un contrato para el suministro de 2.225 vehículos Lada Kalina y Lada Niva.

"Se ha entregado a Venezuela el primer lote de 450 automóviles. Estos vehículos están destinados a los ciudadanos con bajos recursos en el marco de un programa de asistencia social" del Gobierno venezolano, señaló el jefe del Departamento de Asuntos Económicos de la Corporación Pública Tecnologías de Rusia, Serguei Goreslavsky.

Livros autopublicados conquistam mercado alemão

Antes ridicularizados, autores que publicam suas próprias obras obtêm hoje altos níveis de vendagem. Reagindo à concorrência, editoras tradicionais lançam suas próprias plataformas de autopublicação.

Accord fiscal: Les négociations avec les USA avancent

Les négociations fiscales entre la Suisse et les Etats-Unis sont près d'aboutir, selon Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf.

Securité: Suisse et France vont renforcer la coopération

La conseillère fédérale Simonetta Sommaruga a rencontré vendredi à Genève le ministre français de l'Intérieur Manuel Valls pour discuter de la collaboration franco-suisse dans le domaine policier.

Tobacco Smoking Leads to Extensive Genome-Wide Changes in DNA Methylation

by Sonja Zeilinger, Brigitte Kühnel, Norman Klopp, Hansjörg Baurecht, Anja Kleinschmidt, Christian Gieger, Stephan Weidinger, Eva Lattka, Jerzy Adamski, Annette Peters, Konstantin Strauch, Melanie Waldenberger, Thomas Illig
Environmental factors such as tobacco smoking may have long-lasting effects on DNA methylation patterns, which might lead to changes in gene expression and in a broader context to the development or progression of various diseases. We conducted an epigenome-wide association study (EWAs) comparing current, former and never smokers from 1793 participants of the population-based KORA F4 panel, with replication in 479 participants from the KORA F3 panel, carried out by the 450K BeadChip with genomic DNA obtained from whole blood. We observed wide-spread differences in the degree of site-specific methylation (with p-values ranging from 9.31E-08 to 2.54E-182) as a function of tobacco smoking in each of the 22 autosomes, with the percent of variance explained by smoking ranging from 1.31 to 41.02. Depending on cessation time and pack-years, methylation levels in former smokers were found to be close to the ones seen in never smokers. In addition, methylation-specific protein binding patterns were observed for cg05575921 within AHRR, which had the highest level of detectable changes in DNA methylation associated with tobacco smoking (–24.40% methylation; p = 2.54E-182), suggesting a regulatory role for gene expression. The results of our study confirm the broad effect of tobacco smoking on the human organism, but also show that quitting tobacco smoking presumably allows regaining the DNA methylation state of never smokers.

Eight Years of the Great Influenza Survey to Monitor Influenza-Like Illness in Flanders

by Yannick Vandendijck, Christel Faes, Niel Hens

In 2003, an internet-based monitoring system of influenza-like illness (ILI), the Great Influenza Survey (GIS), was initiated in Belgium. For the Flemish part of Belgium, we investigate the representativeness of the GIS population and assess the validity of the survey in terms of ILI incidence during eight influenza seasons (from 2003 through 2011). The validity is investigated by comparing estimated ILI incidences from the GIS with recorded incidences from two other monitoring systems, (i) the Belgian Sentinel Network and (ii) the Google Flu Trends, and by performing a risk factor analysis to investigate whether the risks on acquiring ILI in the GIS population are comparable with results in the literature. A random walk model of first order is used to estimate ILI incidence trends based on the GIS. Good to excellent correspondence is observed between the estimated ILI trends in the GIS and the recorded trends in the Sentinel Network and the Google Flu Trends. The results of the risk factor analysis are in line with the literature. In conclusion, the GIS is a useful additional surveillance network for ILI monitoring in Flanders. The advantages are the speed at which information is available and the fact that data is gathered directly in the community at an individual level.

Venezuela’s Military Enters High-Crime Slums

PETARE, Venezuela—Stern-looking soldiers clutching assault rifles wave down the beat-up Chevy Caprice entering this sprawling slum on the outskirts of Caracas.
Flashlights in his face, the driver steps out and places his hands on the roof while the soldiers frisk him for drugs and weapons.
He’s clean, and a hand gesture from the commanding officer sends him off into the maze of ramshackle homes that is Petare, one of the most dangerous parts of Venezuela’s notoriously crime-infested capital.
Since Monday, this scene is playing out day and night at dozens of military checkpoints set up here in the socialist government’s latest attempt to control the oil-rich country’s pandemic of violence.
Critics dismiss the “Secure Homeland” initiative as a political charade that risks degenerating into human rights abuses while having no lasting impact on crime. But to many residents, weary of being terrorized by armed gangs, seeing troops on the streets is a welcome projection of government power.
“You have to act forcefully so that people feel the force of the state,” said 47-year-old Irving Garcia, an unemployed former Army reservist, who like many Caracas residents has firsthand experience of violent crime. Garcia said he was shot in the chest when he unknowingly walked into a restaurant robbery. The bullet shattered his sternum, he said, inviting a reporter to feel a piece of protruding bone through his shirt.
With some 15,000 killings a year, Venezuela’s homicide rate is the fifth highest in the world, according to U.N. statistics. The murder rate doubled during the 14-year-rule of the late President Hugo Chavez as cheap access to guns and an ineffective justice system fed a culture of violence in slums like Petare, parts of which have become no-go zones for outsiders, including police.
Chavez banned gun sales, expanded a new national police force and stepped up policing and other programs in high-crime areas. Now, his hand-picked successor, Nicolas Maduro, is adding military muscle by deploying 3,000 troops on the streets. The initiative started in the Caracas area on Monday and will be expanded to the states of Zulia, Lara and Carabobo next week.
Human rights activists worry that sending soldiers trained for warfare on policing missions will only make things worse for the residents they are meant to protect.
“It’s going to aggravate the situation, unfortunately, because the army isn’t prepared to deal with issues of public safety,” said Liliana Ortega, director of the COFAVIC human rights group. “We have various emblematic cases in which the use of the armed forces resulted in disproportional force.”
She said they include the 1989 street riots known as the “Caracazo,” when 300 people were killed, and a 1992 prison riot in Caracas in which 63 prisoners died.
The soldiers, who work together with the National Guard and national police force, have the power to make arrests but are supposed to hand over the detainees to civilian authorities. Any human rights abuses would be tried by civilian courts, according to the constitution.
In deeply divided Venezuela, there are also concerns over the initiative’s political undertones. Maduro narrowly won an April 14 presidential election that the opposition claims he stole through fraud, voter intimidation and abuse of government powers. Some of the first military units were deployed in areas under the political control of the opposition.
Petare, for example, lies in Miranda state, which is governed by Henrique Capriles, Maduro’s challenger in the presidential election. The mayor overseeing Petare also is from the opposition.
On Tuesday night, the military commander in charge of the troops in Petare, Gen. Antonio Benavides, led a motorcycle-borne unit roaring up deserted, winding streets, with a gaggle of journalists in tow. They stopped for a meeting with grass-roots Chavistas in the hilltop Bombilla neighborhood.
“How often does the mayor come here? How often does the governor come here?” Benavides asked the crowd of about 40 people. “Never,” they replied, unanimously.
A Capriles poster on a staircase above the outdoor gathering indicated not everyone here supports the government.
David Smilde, a Venezuela expert at the University of Georgia, said that for Maduro, the security initiative was both “an effort to fight crime and an effort to maintain or recover support in places where it has been declining because of crime and violence, among other issues.”
Though the idea of using military force against criminals resonates among Venezuelans, Smilde said, it would probably amount to little more than setting up road blocks and trying to project a presence on street corners. “But of course that just means that crime takes place a block away,” he said.
Some in Petare said the success of the initiative would depend not only on the soldiers’ ability to hunt down criminals and delinquents, but to win the trust of its law-abiding residents.
“What matters is how they are integrating with society, what they teach our young,” said Carmen Aponte, 47.
At one checkpoint, on a potholed street where stray dogs rummaged through foul-smelling litter from a daytime food market, irritated taxi drivers complained that the stop-and-search was bad for business.
“They make it hard for us,” said Jorge Torres, 50. “We can’t stop anywhere we want to and people don’t know where we can pick them up.”
He conceded the area was safer, for now, but predicted the military presence would be short lived. The government has said the soldiers will stay in the streets for a few months until regular law enforcement units can be boosted by new recruits.
“Once they leave, everything changes,” Torres said.
The post Venezuela’s Military Enters High-Crime Slums appeared first on The Epoch Times.

Virgin birth or hanky-panky? Anteater mom sparks a scientific debate

Is it a case of anteater virgin birth, a hormonal quirk or just some desperate hanky-panky? Whatever it is, Armani the anteater's surprising pregnancy has sparked a debate over what animals are capable of when it comes to sex.The story unfolded at the LEO Zoological Conservation Center in Greenwich, Conn.: Last month, Armani gave birth to a cute baby pup named Archie. The only problem was, Archie ...

Rock slams into moon, sparks giant explosion

By Clara MoskowitzSpace.comThe moon has a new hole on its surface thanks to a boulder that slammed into it in March, creating the biggest explosion scientists have seen on the moon since they started monitoring it.The meteorite crashed on March 17, slamming into the lunar surface at a mind-boggling 56,000 mph (90,000 kph) and creating a new crater 65 feet wide (20 meters). The crash sparked a brig...

Environmentalists Slam Obama For Rules That Allow Oil Companies To Keep Their Fracking Chemicals A Secret (HTTPQZCOM85880GREENS, SLAM, OBAMA, FOR, DRAFT, FRACKING, RULES, ON, FEDERAL, LAND)

The Obama administration is still playing it cool with environmentalists. First it skirted the protracted battle over the Keystone XL pipeline, which could carry dirty tar sands oil from Canada to the American Gulf Coast. Now it’s facing opposition to proposed fracking regulations on tens of millions of acres of government land.
Yesterday, the Bureau of Land Management filed draft rules to govern the extraction of shale oil and gas through hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which involves injecting chemical-laced water into the ground to crack rock and force oil to the surface. The oil and gas regulations have not been updated since 1988, long before the new technology came along. The BLM currently manages 48,699 oil and gas leases on 38 million acres of federal land. Those wells produced $23 billion worth of oil and gas in 2012, earning $2.6 billion in royalty payments for the government.
The proposals would allow drillers to skirt disclosures about the chemical composition of fracking fluid by claiming them as trade secrets. “The revised proposed rule makes it clear that an operator should not disclose any information … that it believes to be exempt from disclosure under the Trade Secrets Act,” the proposal states. Instead, well operators would file an affidavit claiming trade secret protection for the chemical after drilling—at which point, the deed is already done.
The BLM also eliminated proposed disclosure requirements for so-called flowback fluids, which surface after drilling and must be disposed of in containment ponds or tanks.
Environmentalists aren’t happy. “After reviewing the draft rules, we believe the administration is putting the American public’s health and well-being at risk, while continuing to give polluters a free ride,” Michael Brune, the Sierra Club’s executive director, said in a statement. “The last thing we should be doing is opening up still more public land to drilling and fracking.” The Wilderness Society said the BLM should require flowback fluids to be stored in sturdier storage tanks rather than in lined ponds, which are eventually transferred to waste-water treatment facilities.
According to the BLM, the proposed rules would not stand in the way of stricter state regulations. For instance, California, home to the nation’s biggest shale oil reserves, is considering tighter rules. The bigger the reserves, it seems, the bigger the reservations about fracking’s fallout

Swiss set to reform corporate tax system

Official proposals say Bern will respond to international pressure by eliminating differential rates for foreign and domestic profits

Nintendo's 'software problem' for the Wii U just went from bad to worse

Friday, Nintendo took to its online Nintendo Direct platform to announce the latest batch of games for the new Wii U console. Most of the games showcased were standard Nintendo fare — Mario, Luigi, and Pikmin all made big appearances. The company even announced a new partnership with Sega to bring several "Sonic the Hedgehog" titles exclusively to the Wii U and Nintendo's popular mobile gaming con...

Bombs targeting Sunnis kill at least 76 in Iraq

Fears that country is again heading towards civil war as tensions intensify between Sunnis and Shias
Bombs ripped through Sunni areas in Baghdad and surrounding areas on Friday, killing at least 76 people in the deadliest day in Iraq in more than eight months. The major spike in sectarian bloodshed heightened fears the country could again be veering towards civil war.
The attacks followed two days of bombings targeting Shias, including bus stops and outdoor markets, with a total of 130 people killed since Wednesday.
Scenes of bodies sprawled across a street outside a mosque and mourners killed during a funeral procession were reminiscent of some of the worst days of retaliatory warfare between the Islamic sects that peaked in 2006-2007 as US forces battled extremists on both sides.
Tensions have been intensifying since Sunnis began protesting against what they say is mistreatment at the hands of the Shia-led government, including random detentions and neglect. The protests, which began in December, have largely been peaceful, but the number of attacks rose sharply after a deadly security crackdown on a Sunni protest camp in northern Iraq on 23 April.
Majority Shias control the levers of power in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq. Wishing to rebuild the nation rather than revert to open warfare, they have largely restrained their militias in the past five years or so as Sunni extremist groups such as al-Qaida have frequently targeted them with large-scale attacks.
Nobody claimed responsibility for Friday's attacks, but the fact they occurred in mainly Sunni areas raised suspicion that Shia militants were involved. The bombs also were largely planted, as opposed to the car bombings and suicide attacks that al-Qaida in Iraq and other Sunni insurgents are known to use.
Talal al-Zobaie, a Sunni politician, called on politicians across the religious and ethnic spectrum to put aside their differences and focus on protecting the nation.
"The terrorist attacks on Sunni areas today and on Shia areas in the past two days are an indication that some groups and regional countries are working hard to reignite the sectarian war in Iraq," he said. "The government should admit that it has failed to secure the country and the people, and all security commanders should be replaced by efficient people who can really confront terrorism. Sectarianism that has bred armies of widows and orphans in the past is now trying to make a comeback in this country, and everybody should be aware of this."
The areas hit on Friday were all former Sunni insurgent strongholds that saw some of the fiercest fighting of the US-led war as sectarian rivalries nearly tore the country apart.
The deadliest blast struck worshippers as they were leaving the main Sunni mosque in Baqouba, 35 miles north-east of Baghdad. Another explosion went off shortly afterward as people gathered to help the wounded, leaving 41 dead and 56 wounded, according to police and hospital officials.
Grocery store owner Hassan Alwan was among the worshippers who attended Friday prayers in the al-Sariya mosque. He said he was getting ready to leave when he heard the explosion, followed by another a few minutes later.
"We rushed into the street and saw people who were killed and wounded, and other worshippers asking for help," he said. "I do not know where the country is headed amid these attacks against both Sunnis and Shias."
Baqouba was the site of some of the fiercest fighting between US forces and insurgents. Al-Qaida in Iraq essentially controlled the area for years, defying numerous US offensives aimed at restoring control. It also is the capital of Diyala province, a religiously mixed area that saw some of the worst atrocities as Shia militias battled Sunni insurgents for control.
A roadside bomb exploded later on Friday during a Sunni funeral procession in Madain, about 12 miles south of Baghdad, killing eight mourners and wounding 11, police said. Two medical officials confirmed the casualties.
Another blast struck a cafe in Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, killing two people and wounding nine, according to police and hospital officials.
Ahmed Jassim, a 26-year-old taxi driver, took a wounded friend to the Fallujah hospital after the attack.
"We used to meet every Friday to smoke shisha and we thought we would have a good time today, but things turned into explosions and victims," he said, waiting outside the hospital.
In Baghdad, a bomb exploded near a shopping centre during the evening rush hour in the mainly Sunni neighbourhood of Amariyah, killing 21 people and wounding 32. That was followed by another bomb in a commercial district in Dora, another Sunni neighbourhood, which killed four people and wounded 22, according to officials.
"It is not a coincidence that the attacks were concentrated in some areas of one sect and then moved the next day into areas of the other sect," said Jawad al-Hasnawi, a lawmaker with the bloc loyal to Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
"It is clear that terrorist groups such as al-Qaida and Baathists are trying hard to reignite the sectarian war in Iraq," he added. "But the government bears full responsibility for this security chaos and it has to take quick and serious measures in order to stop the bloodshed, instead of just blaming other political blocs."
Hasnawi added: "Today and yesterday, the Iraqi people paid for the failure of government security forces. Everybody should expect darker days full of even deadlier attacks."
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.

Ottawa earthquake felt widely because of old bedrock

By Becky OskinLiveScienceThe moderate magnitude-4.4 earthquake that rattled Canada and the Northeast Friday morning made a big impact thanks to old bedrock.Quakes on the East Coast are generally more widely felt than out West because of differences in the Earth's crust between the two regions, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). East of the Rockies, earthquakes of the same size are oft...

Nearly 50 hurt as two trains collide in Connecticut

(Reuters) - Nearly 50 people were injured on Friday when two commuter trains collided during evening rush hour near the Connecticut town of Fairfield, shutting down Amtrak service between New York and Boston indefinitely, police and transit officials said.

Exigen Ediles reelección...y se ausentan

Ediles de AN, PRI y PRD pidieron a EPN incluir en la reforma política la reelección de sus cargos, pero en cuanto él se fue abandonaron la plenaria.

Fracking Can Be Done Safely, but Will It Be?

Out of sight (and smell), natural gas slowly bubbled up into Norma Fiorentino’s private water well near the town of Dimock in northeastern Pennsylvania--in the heart of the new fracking boom in the U.S. Then, on New Year's Day 2009, when a mechanical pump flicked on and provided the spark, Fiorentino's backyard exploded. She and many others blame the blast on fracking --the colloquial name for the natural gas drilling process that combines horizontal drilling and the fracturing of shale deep underground with high-pressure water to create a path for gas to flow back up the well. [More]

Acidente de 'tram-train' provoca mais de 60 feridos

Um 'tram-train', um elétrico que também pode andar na linha de comboio, descarrilou em Hong Kong, causando ferimentos em mais de 60 pessoas, segundo a polícia local, citada pela agência AFP.

Why The Euro Could Tank As The Eurozone Crisis Comes To An End

The Eurozone still faces a gigantic economic crisis, but the decline in Greek bond yields should serve as a clear indicator that the acute sovereign debt/financial crisis part of this is over.
Katie Martin at WSJ has a great post up about a new Deutsche Bank note, which argues that as the Eurozone crisis ends, the Euro could fall.
Wha?
From the post:

In the words of Bilal Hafeez and George Saravelos at Deutsche: “The big story over the last five years has not been a lack of inflows into the euro area, which have remained remarkably steady. It has been domestic risk aversion. This has seen large waves of repatriation and the building of more than EUR1 trillion worth of underweights in foreign assets. Lower tail risks and a gradually improving business cycle should see a return of these outflows.”

During the darkest days of the crisis, investors/banks/individuals/etc. hoarded up Euros, which is natural crisis behavior. This creates a bid under the price.
Now that the panic is fading, there's less reason to hoard Euros, and you can diversify into other things again.
The logic isn't that different then what we saw with the US dollar, just on a lesser scale.
Remember, the dollar spiked during the worst of the 2008-2009 financial crisis. Then it tanked immediately once the crisis was over.

Now it's a little different with the dollar, since it has a special "safe-haven" role for investors around the world, but the premise isn't that different.
When it all hits the fan, you reach for the currency you need to pay your bills in... your home currency. And when things ease up, you can diversify again into assets denominated in other currencies.
Another similarity is to the way the yen spiked in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake in March 2011.
In a crisis, people reach for their currency, because they need it. When the crisis fades, the bid dissipates

Frango frito é contrabandeado do Egito à Gaza via túnel subterrâneo

GAZA — As batatas fritas chegam úmidas e o frango há muito tempo deixou de ser crocante. Um balde com 12 peças custa cerca de US$ 27 aqui - mais que o dobro dos US$ 11,50 logo após a fronteira com o Egito. E, apesar de ser entrega de fast-food, não tem nada de rápido: levou mais de quatro horas para as refeições do KFC chegarem aqui, da loja onde foram preparadas em El Arish, no Egito, uma viagem que envolveu dois táxis, uma fronteira, um túnel usado para contrabando e um jovem empreendedor que coordena tudo a partir de uma lojinha em Gaza chamada Yamama, a palavra em árabe para pombo.- É nosso direito desfrutar daquilo que todos no mundo consomem - disse Khalil Efrangi, de 31 anos, que abriu a Yamama há alguns anos com uma frota de motos transportando refeições dos restaurantes em Gaza, o primeiro serviço do tipo aqui.
Mas não há franquias de fast-food na faixa costeira de 360 metros quadrados que abriga 1,7 milhão de palestinos, onde a entrada e a saída de bens e pessoas continua restrita e o desemprego atinge 32%. A passagem para o Egito por meio da travessia de Rafah é limitada a cerca de 800 pessoas por dia, com homens de 16 a 40 anos necessitando de autorização especial. A passagem por Erez para Israel requer uma permissão, normalmente só concedida para doentes, homens de negócio e funcionários de organizações internacionais.
Os palestinos geralmente se referem a Gaza como estando sitiada ou bloqueada por Israel, e o isolamento do mundo é uma das queixas mais comuns. Isso pode criar um forte desejo por aquilo que as pessoas fora de Gaza veem como mundano, ou ordinário.
- As circunstâncias irregulares de Gaza geram uma maneira irregular de pensar - explicou Fadel Abu Heen, professor de Psicologia na Universidade Al Aqsa, na Cidade de Gaza.
- Eles desejam qualquer coisa que esteja além da fronteira, assim como um prisioneiro deseja qualquer coisa que está fora das grades.
Abu Heen lembrou que quando o Hamas, o grupo islâmico que controla a Faixa de Gaza, rompeu a fronteira com o Egito em 2008, no auge do sítio promovido por Israel, milhares de habitantes de Gaza inundaram El Arish para comprar não apenas remédios e alimentos, mas cigarros, guloseimas e coisas das quais não precisavam - apenas para mostrar que conseguiram trazer algo de fora. Eventuais rompimentos do bloqueio são vistos como parte da resistência ao inimigo israelense, o que dá uma sensação de poder e controle às pessoas, ainda que isso seja obtido por meio de frango frito.
Mesmo com Israel tendo relaxado as restrições a importações nos últimos anos, centenas de túneis ilegais surgiram em Rafah. Armas e pessoas passam por esses túneis, mas também carros de luxo, materiais de construção e itens como iPads e iPhones. E agora, KFC.
Originalmente chamada Kentucky Fried Chicken, uma franquia do KFC foi aberta em El Arish, na fronteira sul de Gaza, em 2011, e, no ano passado, em Ramallah, na Cisjordânia. Isso, somado a anúncios na TV do KFC e de outras redes de fast-food, provocou nos moradores de Gaza um desejo ardente pela receita secreta do Coronel Sanders.
Depois que Efrangi trouxe de El Arish alguns frangos do KFC para os amigos no mês passado, ele foi inundado com pedidos. Surgiu um novo negócio.
- Eu aceitei esse desafio para provar que os moradores de Gaza podem ser resilientes, apesar das restrições - disse Efrangi.
Nas últimas semanas, Efrangi coordenou quatro entregas, totalizando cerca de cem refeições, com um lucro em torno de US$ 6 em cada uma. Ele anuncia o serviço na página da Yamama no Facebook, e sempre que reúne uma quantidade significativa de pedidos - normalmente 30 - dá início a um complicado processo de telefonemas, transferências bancárias e contato com o Hamas para transportar o frango.
Outro dia, depois de Efrangi fazer 15 pedidos e transferir o dinheiro para o KFC em El Arish, um motorista de táxi egípcio pegou a comida. Do outro lado da fronteira, o taxista palestino Ramzi al-Nabih chegava ao posto de controle do Hamas em Rafah, onde foi reconhecido pelos guardas como “o cara do Kentucky”. Do posto, Nabih, de 26 anos, ligou para seu colega egípcio para informar qual dos túneis fora liberado pelo Hamas para a entrega. Depois de esperar perto da entrada do túnel, ele foi baixado em um elevador por cerca de 9 metros, andando depois até a metade do túnel de quase 200 metros para pegar, com dois meninos egípcios, os baldes de frango, trazidos em carrinhos de mão.
Nabih deu aos meninos US$ 16,50 e negociou uma gorjeta. Meia hora depois, a comida estava dentro de seu táxi, a caminho da Cidade de Gaza. Na Yamama, Efrangi separou os baldes para que seus motoqueiros fizessem as entregas em domicílio. Ele explica que limita os pedidos a frango, batatas, salada de repolho e torta de maçã, porque outros itens tornariam o processo muito complicado.
- Alguns clientes pediriam um sanduíche sem maionese, ou um mais apimentado, ou um sanduíche sem molho - disse ele.
- É por isso que não trago tudo, para não entregar o pedido errado.
Ibrahim el-Ajla, de 29 anos, que trabalha na concessionária de águas de Gaza e estava entre os clientes do KFC, reconhece que a comida seria melhor quente, mas conta que pediria de novo:
- Comi esse frango nos EUA e no Egito e sinto falta. Apesar do bloqueio, o KFC chegou à minha casa.
Em breve, Efrangi pode perder esse mercado de fast-food. Um negociante de Gaza que informou apenas seu apelido, Abu Ali, disse que já solicitou uma franquia ao grupo que controla o KFC no Oriente Médio. E Adeeb al-Bakri, que tem quatro franquias KFC e Pizza Hut na Cisjordânia, disse ter obtido autorização para abrir um restaurante em Gaza, faltando acertar os detalhes.
- Precisamos de aprovação para trazer frango das fazendas de Gaza com os padrões KFC. E temos de ter certeza de que as máquinas de fritura poderão entrar. Os especialistas do KFC terão de vir regularmente a Gaza para check-ups - explicou Bakri.
- Não tenho varinha mágica para abrir Gaza rapidamente.
Bakri desconhecia o serviço de entregas de Efrangi. Ao ouvir os detalhes, ficou horrorizado com a odisseia de quatro horas:
- Nós jogamos o frango fora depois de meia hora.

Militar americano que matou colegas no Iraque pega prisão perpétua

TACOMA - O sargento americano John Russell, que confessou ter matado cinco colegas em 2009 no Iraque, foi sentenciado na quinta-feira à pena de prisão perpétua sem direito a sursis.A confissão foi parte de um acordo que o livrou da pena de morte pelo assassinato de três militares e dois profissionais médicos no quartel Camp Liberty, perto do aeroporto de Bagdá.
Os militares dizem que o incidente de 2009, um dos piores ataques de um soldado dos EUA contra colegas no Iraque, pode ter sido desencadeado pelo estresse de combate.
Na audiência matinal que definiu a pena, o coronel David Conn, juiz da corte marcial instalada numa base militar do noroeste dos EUA, disse que Russell estava mentalmente doente na época do crime, mas mesmo assim deveria responder por suas ações.
- Você não é um monstro. Mas você conscientemente e deliberadamente fez coisas monstruosas - disse ele.

Islam could be dominant UK religion in 10 years – census analysis

A new analysis of the 2011 census by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that the number of Christians was falling 50 per cent faster than had previously been thought. Earlier analysis of the statistics showed only a 15 per cent decline, but the ONS found that this figure had been beefed up by 1.2 million foreign-born Christians.

Furthermore, the re-analysis showed that the majority of Christians were over the age of 60 and for the first time less than half of young people describe themselves as Christian. As a result the ONS has calculated that in a decade only a minority will classify themselves as Christians in England. Christianity is still the dominant religion in the UK with over 50 per cent of the population regarding themselves as believers.

However, this may be set to change as the British Muslim population has surged dramatically over the past 15 years, increasing by 75 per cent in England and Wales. The 2011 census puts the Muslim population of the UK at around 5 per cent, a total that has been boosted by around 600,000 Muslim immigrants who have arrived in the UK over the past decade.
Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society, said to UK daily the Telegraph that the decline of Christianity is
“inevitable.” “In another 20 years there are going to be more active Muslims than there are churchgoers,” he said.
Moreover the number of people identifying themselves as atheists has increased by 10 per cent, rising from 15 per cent to 25 per cent. The change has been dubbed as a “significant cultural shift” by the British Humanist Association, while the Church of England has shrugged off the statistics, maintaining they still retain a strong base of believers.
"While this is a challenge, the fact that six out of 10 people in England and Wales self-identify as Christians is not discouraging. Christianity is no longer a religion of culture but a religion of decision and commitment. People are making a positive choice in self-identifying as Christians," said a spokesperson for the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales told press in December.
In addition the census registered an increase in followers of Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism and Judaism.

‘Sleepwalking into segregation’
The rising number of immigrants and different ethnicities in the UK has given rise to increasing levels of segregation. Think tank ‘Demos’ has labeled the phenomenon ‘white flight’, citing the falling number of ethnic whites in areas where they are minorities.

Demos’ investigation revealed that new ethnic minorities like Somalis where moving into areas where older most established ethnic populations like Afro-Caribbeans had previously been dominant.
The population of London is indicative of the change in the British demographic with 600,000 white Londoners moving out of the capital in the past decade. In spite of the fact that the British capital’s population has grown by more than a million, the number of white British residents has decreased from 4.3 million to 3.7 million.
“We do have an integration problem,” said Demos director David Goodhart to RT. The
“changing ethnic composition” of the British capital is causing a large exodus of ethnic white out of the city, he added.
Goodhart went on to say that the problem of integration was not confined to Great Britain and is prevalent all around the EU despite attempts to eradicate segregation.
“Part of the point of the euro was to disperse German power and prevent the rise of nationalism in Europe, but it has done precisely the opposite on both fronts. We now have serious national resentments in countries like Greece,” he stressed.
Trevor Phillips, the former chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission warned that the statistics did not spell good news for integration in the UK and warned the country was

World's tallest dam approved by Chinese environmental officials

Authorities push forward plans for 314 metre-high dam on Dadu river which would affect rare plants and fish
Chinese environmental authorities have approved construction plans for what could become the world's tallest dam, while acknowledging that the project would affect endangered plants and rare fish species.
The 314 metre-high dam (1,030ft) will serve the Shuangjiangkou hydropower project along the Dadu river in south-western Sichuan province, according to China's state news agency, Xinhua. A subsidiary of Guodian Group, one of China's five major state-owned power companies, will complete the project over a decade at an estimated cost of £2.9bn.
The dam will be far taller than the 185 metre-high Three Gorges dam along the Yangtze river – the world's most powerful hydroelectric project – and slightly edge out the current record holder, the 300 metre-high Nurek dam in Tajikistan. The world's second-tallest dam, the 292 metre-high Xiaowan dam on the Lancang (Mekong) river, is also in China.
China's environment ministry acknowledged that the dam would have an impact on the area's highly biodiverse flora and fauna.
"The project will affect the spawning and movement of rare fish species, as well as the growth of endangered plants, including the Chinese yew, which is under first-class state protection," the ministry said, according to Xinhua.
The ministry proposed counter-measures to mitigate the environmental impact, such as "protecting fish habitats in tributaries, building fish ladders and increasing fish breeding and releasing", Xinhua reported. The project is still awaiting a final go-ahead from China's state council.
The Dadu river is a tributary of the 450 mile-long Min river, which cuts through the centre of Sichuan province before joining the Yangtze further south.
Upon completion, the plant will have a total installed capacity of 2GW and produce nearly 8bn KW-hours of energy a year, about twice as much as the Hoover dam in the US.
China's hydropower development has surged in recent years as the country moves to increase non-fossil energy sources to 15% of its total energy use by 2020. Central authorities approved a controversial cascade of 13 dams on the pristine upper reaches of the Nu (Salween) river in January. The plans had stalled nearly a decade ago under pressure from environmental groups.
Scientists and environmental activists have raised concerns that a profusion of dams in south-west China could increase the area's risk of natural disasters, such as earthquakes and landslides.
Another hydroelectric project on the Dadu river prompted social unrest in 2004, as tens of thousands of farmers along its banks rioted against plans to relocate them. Authorities responded by halting the Pubugou dam's construction for a year.
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.

Ryanair accused of 'exploiting' staff

Ryanair accused of "ruthless exploitation" after a former flight attendant contacted her MP to complain about working conditions

ECB to become chief euro bank supervisor

The European Banking Authority was set up in 2011 to integrate rules across the EU and has secured a new supervisory function.

“We want to know what kinds of banks we supervise,” Joerg Asmussen, an ECB executive board member said.

Draft legislation says the ECB must conduct a “comprehensive assessment, including a balance-sheet assessment,” of any banks it will directly supervise.

By gaining a new supervisory role, it consolidates more influence in lending decisions, which could make loans more subjective than objective. Chief economist of the IMF, Oliver Blanchard, has long warned against the danger of central banks becoming too powerful. Blanchard, and others, warn the more power the central banks wield, the more difficult it will be to separated from politics.

"Being supervisor allows the ECB to discriminate between zombie banks and those that are sound and make sure that its lending targets those banks that lend to the economy - not to the zombies," said Daniel Gros, from the Center for European Policy Studies, Reuters reported.

Since the recession, the roles of major central banks, including the ECB, the US Federal Reserve, and the Bank of England, have greatly increased in providing banking supervision and oversight and been an anchor of recovery.

The ECB foots the bill for a large portion of the European financial system, last year it provided 1 trillion euros of cheap three-year loans to struggling banks.

Stress test delays

The new supervisory role will delay planned banking regulation stress tests, which evaluate and diagnosed the capabilities of lenders.

The last stress test was performed in 2011, and were highly criticized for not properly identifying non-robust lenders.

Eight banks failed the examination in 2011 with a combined deficit of 2.5 billion euros ($3.2 billion) according to Bloomberg.

Working with Chinese contractors

There are many generalisations about 'the Chinese' in Africa, but what's it really like to work with them? Les Roopanarine speaks with those who study China's impact on African development
In 1965, archaeologists unearthed an exquisite bronze sword from a tomb in north China's Hebei province. An inscription on the twin-bladed weapon suggested it had once been the property of King Goujian of Yue, famed for avenging defeat and imprisonment by the neighbouring state of Wu after a decade spent in ascetic contemplation of his ignominy. A symbol of resurgent state power, the sword featured prominently in an exhibition of military relics staged during the Beijing Olympics. Yet its authenticity has been questioned by experts and enthusiasts, sparking lively debate.
The sword of Goujian is not the only double-edged embodiment of revitalised Chinese power at the centre of modern controversy. As post-Mao China has risen inexorably to become the world's second largest economy, so Chinese contractors have become increasingly ubiquitous on the international stage. Often the beneficiaries of generous state support, they have brought their expertise to bear in a variety of areas – most notably infrastructure, but also in fields such as education, healthcare and agriculture – across Africa and beyond. In the process, however, they have become a microcosm of Chinese intervention more broadly, polarising opinion and drawing both praise and criticism.
For every observer who tells you Chinese companies offer greater efficiency and value for money, another will claim they flood developing countries with imported labour, undermining the potential for local procurement, skills transfer and capacity building. But just how useful are these sweeping generalisations?
Sven Grimm, director of the Centre for Chinese studies at Stellenbosch University, points out that, though the means by which Chinese firms win contracts are varied – some are state appointed, others win open government or international agency tenders, while many prevail simply through market-driven competition – the response when things go wrong is almost always the same.
"The discussion on Chinese contractors puts various aspects into one box," says Grimm. "Whenever work is delivered sub-standard, complaints are about 'the Chinese', when we would actually have to look at the contracting agency's policy and supervision too. We often lump together various cases where the only commonality is that Chinese contractors carry out the work. We have to look and see which companies are most often not delivering."
Deborah Bräutigam, a professor of international development and comparative politics at John Hopkins University in Baltimore, likewise cautions against oversimplifying the debate.
"It's a myth to think that everything the Chinese do happens quickly," says Bräutigam. "I've seen negotiations drag on for a long time, especially for bigger initiatives like hydropower dams or mining projects, which would not normally be financed through the aid programme. If you look at any of the big deals that have been announced, they don't happen quickly. However, it's also a myth that Chinese firms don't hire local people."
Bräutigam illustrates the latter point by recounting the dismissive reaction of Ghanaian officials to a warning from rival bidders that Chinese firms would insist on bringing in their own workers. "Don't tell us specious rumours," was the gist of the Ghanaian response. Not all countries are in a position to be so strident, however.
"Whether an African government insists on seeing the top three project bids, for instance, or just allows the Chinese government to decide, depends on bargaining power and interests," says Grimm. "A lot depends on the size of the project and the respective interest and leverage of the beneficiary government."
Much rests on reputation, too. Bräutigam recalls the striking impression made by a Chinese project bid shown to her by an African Development Bank representative in Abuja. "It listed 25 projects the company had done in Nigeria previously," she says. "If you have that kind of track record, it's easy for people to make a few phone calls and find out how you did and what the quality was like."
Nonetheless, Chinese contractors can be less than circumspect in their approach to competing for overseas work. International rivals have complained of being undercut by aggressive bids that Chinese firms then find impossible to fulfil. A high-profile example occurred in the prelude to the 2012 European Football Championships, when Poland cancelled a $447m (£290m) contract to build a motorway from Warsaw to Berlin after the China Overseas Engineering Group ran into financial difficulties. "A modest highway through Polish potato fields proved to be too much for one of China's biggest builders," reported the Wall Street Journal.
More recently, Ian Khama, the president of Botswana, rounded on Chinese firms contracted to carry out infrastructure projects. "We have had some bad experiences with Chinese companies in this country," Khama told Business Day Live. "You say things like, do you really want to upset such a huge power? But there's no point having a huge power investing in a country if those investments at the end of the day don't do you any good."
From a Chinese perspective, criticism of this kind benefits neither company nor country. State support effectively casts many Chinese firms as scything embodiments of a resurgent republic – commercial swords of Goujion – so why risk undermining that image?
"Chinese enterprises initially entered the market in Africa in an aggressive economic strategy," says Grimm. "They simply could not afford to be picky when it came to contracts or their setting. Some companies might also have been too optimistic about market opportunities. But we should not forget that [it's not unusual], once you have won a tender, to renegotiate later on, when costs are increasing. This is also the case with some European projects – look at the new concert house in Hamburg, for instance."
Given that trade flows with China are estimated to have broken the $200bn mark last year – a rise of more than 20% on 2011 – it would seem many African governments have reached a similar conclusion. For Bräutigam, it's a clear case of the benefits outweighing the drawbacks.
"African governments like that the Chinese are very businesslike," she says. "I don't hear complaints that they're not transparent, or that they're trying to hide anything. And they don't have economic or political conditions. There's concern sometimes about whether the quality is as good as they would get from a western company, but then the price is so much lower, and they weigh that. It's a cost-benefit ratio, really."
This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. To get more articles like this direct to your inbox, sign up free to become a member of the Global Development Professionals Network
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.

Ukip donor brands women 'hostile' for wearing trousers

Demetri Marchessini aired controversial thoughts after publishing his book Women in Trousers: a Rear View
Nigel Farage is facing fresh embarrassment over a Ukip supporter after it emerged that one of the party's most generous donors believes that women are guilty of "hostile behaviour" by "deliberately" wearing trousers to make themselves unattractive to men.
Demetri Marchessini, a Greek-born shipping tycoon who gave Ukip £10,000 this year, made the comments in a coffee table book that features photographs of women from behind.
The millionaire teamed up with a photographer a decade ago to find "unattractive backsides", in the words of the Observer writer Liz Hoggard, on the streets of London and New York.
Marchessini wrote in Women in Trousers: A Rear View: "I adore women and want to see them looking beautiful. Everyone has the obligation to look as attractive as possible. It pains me to see women looking terrible.
"Walk along any street and you see women using trousers like a uniform every single day. This is hostile behaviour. They are deliberately dressing in a way that is opposite to what men would like. It is behaviour that flies against common sense, and also flies against the normal human desire to please."
In an interview with the Observer in 2003, the tycoon complained to Hoggard of the "vulgarity" of modern celebrities. He said: "Vulgarity is the name of the game today. Film stars today make no effort to look nice at all. [Jennifer] Lopez looks like a Mexican tart. I don't know how that can be a fashion leader."
He defended his book: "We were trying to get reality. Real women walking up and down the street. Normal life."
Marchessini said women should not wear trousers because they are meant for men's bodies. He said: "The interesting thing about this phenomenon is that, because women cannot see themselves from the rear, the vast majority of women are unaware that trousers are very unflattering to them. Trousers are made for men's bodies, which are mostly straight up and down.
"Women's bodies on the other hand consists of curves. Women have big bottoms – they are meant to have big bottoms. Countless women who would look lovely in dresses or skirts are embarrassingly unattractive in trousers."
Marchessini warned that women are undermining their chances of finding a partner by wearing trousers. "The more women dress like men, the less they are attractive to men. If a man finds a woman attractive, he will find her legs sexy even if they are not perfect, simply because they are her legs. Women know that men don't like trousers, yet they deliberately wear them."
Marchessini donated £5,000 to Ukip in February and a further £5,000 the following month – about 10% of the cash donations to the party.
Ukip has faced embarrassment before over sexism. Godfrey Bloom, one of the party's most prominent MEPs, complained in 2004 that women failed to clean properly behind fridges.
He said: "I want to deal with women's issues, because I just don't think they clean behind the fridge enough. I am going to promote men's rights."
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.