Artists Develop Tool To Guide Illegal Border Crossers To Water

Megan Burke, Maureen Cavanaugh KPBS January 11, 2010 A d v e r t i s e m e n t MAUREEN CAVANAUGH (Host): There’s no denying that illegally crossing into the United States from Mexico has gotten deadlier in recent years. US Border Security policies have changed the usual urban routes for migrants into harsh desert treks. Many immigrants have gotten stranded without water and died from thirst and exposure. A group of art and technology activists have decided to do something about that. They’re developing what they call the Transborder Immigrant Tool — a GPS cell phone app to help illegal border crossers travel safely into the US. As you might imagine, it’s caused a bit of a stir. Read entire article

The ‘false’ pandemic: Drug firms cashed in on scare over swine flu, claims Euro health chief

Fiona Macrae Mail Online January 11, 2010 A d v e r t i s e m e n t The swine flu outbreak was a ‘false pandemic’ driven by drug companies that stood to make billions of pounds from a worldwide scare, a leading health expert has claimed. Wolfgang Wodarg, head of health at the Council of Europe, accused the makers of flu drugs and vaccines of influencing the World Health Organisation’s decision to declare a pandemic. This led to the pharmaceutical firms ensuring ‘enormous gains’, while countries, including the UK, ’squandered’ their meagre health budgets, with millions being vaccinated against a relatively mild disease. Read entire article

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg says privacy is no longer a ’social norm’

Emma Barnett Daily Telegraph January 11, 2010 A d v e r t i s e m e n t Talking in San Francisco over the weekend at the Crunchie Awards, which recognise technological achievements, the 25 year-old web entrepreneur said: “People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people.” He went on to say that privacy was no longer a ‘social norm’ and had just evolved over time. “When I got started in my dorm room at Harvard, the question a lot of people asked was, ‘why would I want to put any information on the internet at all? Why would I want to have a website?’.” Read entire article

Iran demands UK accountability for Afghan drug problem

Press TV January 10, 2010 A d v e r t i s e m e n t Iran’s foreign minister says Britain must be held accountable for the way it has managed the drug problem in Afghanistan which has led to a tenfold growth in narcotics production. “Before anything else, the UK must answer to the international community about the kind of management it has employed in Afghanistan that has raised illicit drug production from a few hundred tons to around nine thousand (tons),” said Manouchehr Mottaki. The Iranian foreign minister made the comment in an interview with Farsnews while flying back to Tehran following a short visit to neighboring Iraq. Mottaki was referring to this month’s upcoming London summit on Afghanistan and chances of brining about any real change in the war-ravaged country. Read entire article

Iraq confiscates arms in private security crackdown

Reuters January 10, 2010 A d v e r t i s e m e n t Security forces confiscated hundreds of rifles, thousands of rounds of ammunition and other military gear in a crackdown on private security contractors in Iraq, officials said on Saturday. Police raided three locations in Baghdad on Friday, a week after Iraqi authorities were incensed by a U.S. judge’s decision to throw out charges against five Blackwater Worldwide security guards accused of killing over a dozen Iraqi civilians in 2007. Officials said they are targeting private security companies that are no longer legally licensed to operate in Iraq. Read entire article

Swine flu: Ministers ‘preparing to offload millions of unwanted vaccines’

Kate Devlin Daily Telegraph January 10, 2010 A d v e r t i s e m e n t Millions of pounds could be wasted if the Government is unable to get out of orders for the vaccine it has placed with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the pharmaceutical giant. Officials confirmed that they are considering a number of options, including attempting to sell or give away millions of the vaccines. They also considering whether to stand down the National Pandemic Flu Service, the network of call centres which diagnose swine flu and hand out antiviral medications. Fewer than 5,000 people in Britain are thought to have contracted swine flu in the last week, and the numbers in intensive care are falling, although there has been a rise in those aged over 65. Read entire article

Swine flu promises GlaxoSmithKline a £1bn revenue boost

Richard Wachman The Observer January 10, 2010 A d v e r t i s e m e n t Cash tills are ringing at GlaxoSmithKline thanks to soaring demand for its swine flu vaccine Pandemrix, and Relenza, which treats the symptoms of the illness that has led to hundreds of deaths around the world. Analysts predict a £1bn revenue windfall in 2010 as governments stockpile medicines designed to combat a possible pandemic. GSK has landed 22 government contracts since last summer, with 440m doses ordered. The company makes the vaccine in Dresden and Quebec, but demand is so great – about 60% higher than for usual seasonal vaccines – that it is outsourcing production to third-party manufacturers. In the UK, there are plans to vaccinate the entire population if necessary, and the government has given the go-ahead for vulnerable people, such as pregnant women, frontline health workers and young children, to be inoculated. Andrew Witty, GSK’s chief executive for the …

Obama State of the Union Defers to Popular TV Show

Sam Stein The Huffington Post January 8, 2010 A d v e r t i s e m e n t White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was coy on Friday when it came to offering a date for the president to deliver the upcoming State of the Union address. He deflected questions as to whether the speech before a bicameral gathering of Congress would take place in January or February and only smiled suggestively when asked whether President Obama was waiting until health care reform was passed first. But the press secretary did rule out one possible SOTU date — much to the delight of a major television network. The speech, Gibbs said, would not take place on the same night as the three-hour premiere of the final season of ABC’s “Lost”. “I don’t foresee a scenario in which millions people who hope to finally get some conclusion with ‘Lost’ are preempted by

Employers slash jobs in December

Reuters January 8, 2010 A d v e r t i s e m e n t U.S. employers cut 85,000 jobs in December, confounding expectations the labor market was finally stabilizing and piling pressure on President Barack Obama to spur job growth. Unemployment, which held steady at 10 percent, remains the Achilles heel of the economy’s recovery from its worst recession in 70 years. Creating jobs is critical to sustaining the recovery when government stimulus fades. November payrolls were revised to show the economy actually added 4,000 jobs rather than losing 11,000, as initially reported, breaking a streak of 22 consecutive monthly losses, the Labor Department’s report on Friday showed. Read entire article

Government Wants Retirees to Convert 401 (k) Into Annuities

Jeff Plungis Bloomberg January 8, 2010 A d v e r t i s e m e n t U.S. investors oppose federal initiatives that would force them to give up control over their 401(k) accounts, the Investment Company Institute said. Seven in 10 U.S. households object to the idea of the government requiring retirees to convert part of their savings into annuities guaranteeing a steady payment for life, according to an institute-funded report today. “Households’ views on policy changes revealed a preference to preserve retirement account features and flexibility,” the institute, which represents the mutual-fund industry, said in the report. The U.S. Treasury and Labor Departments will ask for public comment as soon as next week on ways to promote the conversion of 401(k) savings and Individual Retirement Accounts into annuities or other steady payment streams, according to Assistant Labor Secretary Phyllis C. Borzi and Deputy Assistant Treasury Secretary Mark Iwry, who are spearheading the effort. Read entire article

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