Friday, May 14, 2010
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Police beating of university student John McKenna shocks the US
AU.News.AU 15/04/2010
Ckick here for VIDEO fotage: Sports fan bashed by cops
Ckick here for VIDEO fotage: Sports fan bashed by cops
FOOTAGE of police brutalising an innocent sports fan in Maryland and rendering him unconscious has shocked America today.
In scenes captured by CCTV cameras, University of Maryland student John McKenna is seen skipping down the street celebrating after watching his university basketball team defeat Duke.
Within seconds he is approached by police on horseback who stand over him before other cops in riot gear swoop and begin beating him with batons, The Sun reports.
Police reports allege it was Mr McKenna who had first been assaulting the cops and their horses causing "minor injuries" as they responded to reports of trouble after the game.
But he never strikes out on the footage - and even tries to back away when confronted.
The FBI are now investigating the incident which left the 21-year-old needing eight staples to repair a gaping wound in his head.
He was also allegedly told by officers in Maryland not to make a fuss about his injuries because they would have to fill out more paper work.
Microsoft accused of 52c-an-hour 'slaves'
MICROSOFT said it had opened an investigation following a report of harsh working conditions at a factory in China that makes products for the US software giant.
The Pittsburgh-based National Labor Committee, in a report released Tuesday, denounced conditions at a KYE Systems factory in the city of Dongguan in Guangdong province.
The NLC, a private group with a stated mission to "help defend the human rights of workers in the global economy," said KYE recruits hundreds of "work study students" aged 16 and 17 years old who work 15-hour shifts, six and seven days a week.
It showed photos released over the past three years purporting to have been smuggled out of the factory, showing "exhausted teenaged workers, toiling and slumping asleep on their assembly line during break time".
It said that in 2007 and 2008, before the recession, "workers were at the factory 97 hours a week while working 80-and-a-half hours".
"In 2009, workers report being at the factory 83 hours a week, while working 68 hours," the NLC said.
It said workers were paid 65c an hour, "which falls to a take-home wage of 52c after deductions for factory food."
Aussie dies after Thailand street attack
AU.Yahoo.Com 15/04/2010
An Australian tourist who died after being attacked in Thailand will be buried there on Friday, farewelled by his pregnant Thai wife and Adelaide family.
Andrew Oake, 28, had been holidaying in Prasat, near Surin in northeastern Thailand, for two months with his wife, Som, who is six months pregnant.
About four weeks ago the pair were travelling between villages when they were set upon by two men on motorbikes.
Som ran for help while Mr Oake was slashed in the arms and head with a machete in what might have been a failed robbery.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Thai Protesters Take to Streets to Express Wide-Ranging Grievances
VOA News 24/03/2010
Thailand is again gripped by political unrest. But unlike some previous demonstrations, which were mainly seen as part of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's struggle against those who deposed him, political analysts say the new rallies have become a forum for people who feel marginalized and want broad political change.
Thailand is again gripped by political unrest. But unlike some previous demonstrations, which were mainly seen as part of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's struggle against those who deposed him, political analysts say the new rallies have become a forum for people who feel marginalized and want broad political change.
The red-shirted protesters are usually associated with former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a coup in 2006.
But many do not care about Mr. Thaksin. They want elections because they think the government does not serve the poor.
PROTESTER: "If we have election, and I have the government be mine, be ours, it's good, better than now."
After court cases forced out an elected government in 2008, parliament selected Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, under rules set up by the military government that ousted Mr. Thaksin.
Pan, a maid, is one of the thousands of people who cheered as the demonstrators paraded in Bangkok. She wants a new election because she thinks Mr. Abhisit is insensitive to the needs of the poor.
'Tangible Progress' Reported in Control of TB in SE Asia
The World Health Organization has taken the occasion of World TB Day to document the progress and challenges in its fight against tuberculosis in its Southeast Asia region.
Picture: Tuberculosis patient Supachai Sengsum on his bed at Wat Prabat Nampu in Lopburi, Thailand (2009 File)
The United Nations health body warns it faces several challenges in its TB programs in the region. The World Health Organization says it main tasks are to sustain and expand services to countries struggling with poverty, rapid urbanization and large population displacements.
India accounts for 20 percent of all global tuberculosis cases. And while the overall death rate has been on the decline in the 11 countries in the WHO's Southeast Asia region, it is responsible for half a million deaths each year.
The region is composed of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Burma, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and East Timor.
WHO officials are particularly concerned by data showing more than a third of patients getting repeat treatments in Thailand have multi-drug resistant TB. India has the highest such number of cases globally. Multi-drug resistant TB is much harder to treat successfully.
Australian scientists in TB drug breakthrough
Bangkok Post 24/03/2010
Australian scientists said Wednesday they had discovered a drug which could cure tuberculosis at its non-infectious stage and could be the first major breakthrough on the disease in 50 years.
Bacteriologist Nick West said researchers at Sydney's Centenary Institute had developed a drug which could essentially combat the disease before it takes hold, potentially saving millions of lives around the world.
"We have investigated a protein that is essential for TB to survive and we have had some success in developing a drug that will inhibit this protein," said West.
"Our goal over the coming months is to find out the full extent of this drug's potential."
West said it would be the first time in history that dormant or asymptomatic, non-infectious TB would be able to be treated, potentially stemming a deadly tide of infection which claimed two million lives every year.
"Unfortunately, the antibiotics we use to fight TB aren't effective against latent TB and can only be used when the disease becomes active," he explained.
"This is a major problem as one out of 10 people who have latent TB will develop the active disease, becoming sick and contagious."
"If we can figure out a way to treat TB when it's in a latent stage, then we could save millions of lives throughout the world," West added.
If successful the drug would be the the first new treatment for TB since 1962, according to the institute which is affiliated with the University of Sydney.
One third of the world's population, or two billion people, are estimated to be infected with TB, with the disease growing fastest in South East Asia.
Lethal multidrug-resistant strains of the disease were becoming a serious threat to global health, infecting almost half a million people in 2008, of whom one-third died, the World Health Organisation warned last week.
Almost half the drug resistant cases were estimated to have occurred in India and China, the WHO said, with an extensively drug-resistant form, found in 58 countries, "virtually untreatable".
Heading for a stalemate that could last till Songkran
Bangkok Post 25/03/2010
Picture: PM Abhisit Vejjajiva reacts during yesterday’s meeting in Parliament, which the opposition Puea Thai Party boycotted.
With both the red shirt protesters and government proclaiming they are going in the right direction, an extended stalemate that could last close to the Songkran holidays is becoming a likely scenario.
PM Abhisit Vejjajiva reacts during yesterday’s meeting in Parliament, which the opposition Puea Thai Party boycotted. With the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) keeping the protest peaceful and orderly, and the government holding its stance of not dissolving the House or cracking down forcefully on the demonstrators, the confrontation simply has to carry on.
Although the "Three Buddies" leaders of the red shirts may have wanted to wrap up the protest within a week as they initially declared, they had no choice but to keep the show going because the real commander of the red shirt movement, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, is still holding on to his dream. Thaksin remains as committed as ever to his aspiration of returning to power, claiming back all his interests and toppling the amataya who, as he tells the protesters every day, are the real liability of the country. For Thaksin, the bureaucratic elite are holding back Thailand from opening up to new things because that could affect its superior position which allows it to be above everyone and "suck everything" from ordinary citizens to enrich itself and its network.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
How to Survive a Heart Attack
When a heart attack occurs outside of a hospital, death is frequently the outcome, but a new study has shown that rapid intervention using two strategies can increase the chances for survival.
Emergency physician Arthur Kellermann, a senior principal researcher at the Rand Corporation, says the single most effective way to save a heart attack patient's life is for someone to do cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR.
"Bystander CPR is easy to learn, easy to remember and easy to perform. You can save lives with CPR by just pumping on the chest, you don't even have to do mouth-to-mouth breathing."
Electronic devices called Automated External Defibrillators, or AEDs, can also help save a heart attack victim's life.
"Automated External Defibrillators allow a citizen with little or no training to apply that counter shock to a patient and potentially restart their heart." Kellermann adds that the sooner the AED is used, the more likely the heart is to restart.
Lessons for successful emergency response
Although clinically AEDs have been shown to be effective, it was unclear whether having them publicly available in places like schools, workplaces and sports facilities would improve community survival rates following cardiac arrests.
Vitamin D May Protect Against Heart Attack
Vitamin D is an essential nutrient that we get through exposure to sunlight and through diet. Without enough Vitamin D, we are at risk for rickets, osteoporosis and bone fractures.
Now, researchers have found that Vitamin D deficiency is also associated with increased risk for cardiovascular disease.
J. Brent Muhlestein, a cardiologist at the Intermountain Medical Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, looked at Vitamin D levels in 41,000 patients who visited the medical center for various health problems. He found that about two-thirds of them had low levels of Vitamin D.
"We found a significant association with future heart attacks and strokes and death in the patients who were low compared to ones who were not low in that blood test," says Muhlestein.
Over the next twelve months, one group took Vitamin D supplements to get up to normal levels. The other group did not. At the end of the year, Muhlestein tested both groups again.
Religious Leaders to Fight HIV Stigma
Spiritual leaders from around the world are meeting in The Netherlands to discuss their response to HIV/AIDS. Selah Hennessy spoke to African church leaders for VOA about how they can use their influence to fight the stigma surrounding the disease.
Reverend Patricia Sawo is a pastor at the Calvary Celebration Church in Kenya and the mother of 10 children.
Sawo found out she was HIV positive more than a decade ago. She says before then she had been misinformed about the disease.
"Before I was confronted with my own HIV status, I knew that HIV was a disease for the sinners, and that is how it was presented," she said.
When she learned she was HIV-positive she lost her position in the church. But she learned more about HIV/AIDS and has retaken charge of her church and says she aims to teach her congregation the facts.
"There were people already in the church who were actually having HIV and who were hopeless and did not have anywhere to turn to," she said. "So my coming back into the church with the good news in itself started an automatic support group within the church. That Sunday that I spoke in the Sunday service, in the evening there were eight people who came to confide in me and just to tell me that they were there and they were living with HIV and we needed to find more information," she explained.
Agreement to Provide Pneumonia Vaccine to Poor Children Expected to Save Millions of Lives
VOA News 23/03/2010
The GAVI Alliance and two leading pharmaceutical companies have signed an agreement to provide low-cost life-saving vaccines to millions of the world's poorest children. Each year, the World Health Organization reports an estimated two million children under age five die of pneumonia. This disease is responsible for about one-quarter of all child deaths.
GAVI Alliance CEO Julian Lob-Levyt says pneumonia kills more than AIDS, malaria and measles combined. "And more than 90 percent of those deaths occur in developing countries. So, today, I am very proud to announce that GAVI is signing a landmark agreement with GSK (GlaxoSmithKline) and Pfizer to provide long-term supplies of a revolutionary new vaccine against this major killer of children," she said.
The Geneva-based public-private alliance, and GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer say supplies of the new vaccine to Africa and other developing countries will start early this year at a fraction of the price charged in industrialized countries.
Lob-Levyt says cost is the major reason why the vaccine has been unavailable to children in the poorest countries.
Potent Jungle Vine Brew Has Potential to Treat Addiction
VOA News 23/03/2010
New research suggests ayahuasca, a jungle vine found in the Peruvian rainforest, can have a powerful effect on the human central nervous system when brewed with other plants. Researchers say one of ayahuasca's most promising uses could be in treating drug and alcohol addiction.
According to the World Health Organization, medicines derived from plants play a major role in the health care of 80 percent of the world's population. Western medicine has synthesized many of these natural drugs, from the painkillers in willow bark to the anti-cancer compounds in the neem tree, and is constantly searching for more pharmaceuticals in the biodiversity of the world's forests.
Ayahuasca is one traditional plant-based medicine that has drawn the attention of investigators. In the South American jungles, it is used in religious ceremonies to induce visions and also as a remedy to cure ills.
At the Onanyan Shobo spiritual retreat center in the rainforest near Iquitos, Peru, shaman Alfredo Kayruna Canayo shows off a section of the twisting, leafy vine. "What ayahuasca means is vine of the dead," he explains through an interpreter. "Some people call it soul vine."
Ayahuasca is known as a master plant, a very powerful remedy that treats the whole person: body, mind, and soul. "The ayahuasca [can] cure anything you have," the shaman says. "Start with simple things. For example, it's very simple to cure or repel the bad energies from your insides. What is the bad energy? One of them could be the fears, then some wound or injury you have."
Whether the plant is being used for religious or medicinal purposes, ayahuasca is taken only in a ceremonial setting under the direction of an experienced shaman. To turn it into a drink, also called ayahuasca, pieces of the vine are pounded into a pulp and combined with several other plants, then brewed down for eight or more hours into a thick orange liquid.
Grenades hit Health Ministry
Grenade blasts at the Public Health Ministry just half an hour after a cabinet meeting adjourned have sparked a war of words between the government and army on one side and the red shirts on the other.
The two grenade explosions yesterday afternoon prompted the army to add another 13,000 troops to the force securing the capital, with another 17,000 more put on standby.
Acting government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said the explosions in the parking lot of the ministry's Emergency Medical Institute were an attempt to expose lapses in the state's security measures.
The parking lot is 700 metres from a building where Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and his cabinet were holding talks up until about 30 minutes before the explosions.
The army and police have deployed more than 34,500 officers to maintain law and order in Bangkok since March 12, when the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship launched its rally in support of calls for the government to dissolve the lower house and call new elections.
Sansern Kaewkamnerd, the spokesman for the army and the peace-keeping command, the Centre for the Administration of Peace and Order (CAPO), said the grenade attack was aimed at discrediting the government.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Sexual images now an inescapable part of children's lives, says psychiatrist
THE professional body for Australia's psychiatrists says the self-regulation of advertising and other media industries has failed to protect children from an onslaught of sexualised content.
Today's generation of kids faced the "widespread use of sexual images to sell anything from margarine to fashion", Professor Newman, the president of The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, said.
She said risque images were now an "inescapable" part of a child's environment and pointed to billboard and TV advertising, magazines and music videos and even the posters in department stores.
Prof Newman is calling for a new regime of restrictions to protect children from both targeted and inadvertent exposure to sexualised media content.
She said more Australian research was needed to gauge its effect, though the anecdotal evidence was troubling.
The exposure appeared to push typically teenage and adult concerns about body image, "sexiness" and of being a "worthwhile individual" well into a child's first years of life.
"I've seen four-year-olds and pre-schoolers who want to diet ... going on intermittent food refusal," she said.
Live Kidney Donation Safe For Donor
VOA News 11/03/2010
Most of the studies on kidney donation focus on the recipients and how well they adjust to their new kidneys. A new study documents how well donors fare after the surgery.
Kidneys are the most sought after donor organs around the world, according to the World Health Organization. To address the shortage, some hospitals have created programs that pair prospective donors with recipients.
In 2006, the Johns Hopkins University Hospital held a news conference to announce a successful operation involving 10 people: five donors and five recipients.
Dr. Dorry Segev was one of the surgeons. He outlined the problem in an interview with VOA. "Every year we list more and more people for a kidney transplant and that's because more and more people are developing kidney failure, more people are becoming candidates for a transplant," he stated.
People often become donors because a loved one needs a kidney. Some do it for altruistic reasons. That was Judy Payne's motive. "It didn't seem to be that hard of a decision. I like to give to others. I like to share what I can of my blessings," she said.
Dr. Segev studied more than 80,000 live kidney donors from the time of surgery until three months afterwards. "What we found is that live donation is very safe, the risk of dying from donating a kidney is 3 in 10,000 which is much lower than the risk of almost any other operation that you can undergo."
Fruit Flies Could Unlock Mystery of Alzheimer's
At Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Florida, scientists are working to find clues about how the human brain processes memories. Their laboratory test animal is not a chimp or a dog or a rat — animals that we know can remember things — it is the common fruit fly.
"They're relatively simple," Ron Davis says, explaining why the fruit fly's brain has some ideal properties for human brain research. "The brain of the fruit fly has about 100,000 neurons. The brain of a human has about 100 billion neurons, and that's an enormous network of interconnected neurons in the human brain, if one thinks about it. We literally can't wrap our brains around the human brain yet."
Fruit fly training regimen
Davis chairs the Department of Neuroscience at Scripps Florida. He's designed an experiment in which fruit flies are trained to remember an odor associated with an unpleasant electrical shock.
Dr. Ron Davis says fruit flies have essentially the same genes as humans do, just fewer of them.
It involves a series of Plexiglas tubes which have an electrifiable copper grid on their surfaces. "One puts the fly in these tubes first, passes an odor through the tube," Davis says. "Odor A shocks the animal, mild electric shock." After fresh air has been blown through the tubes to remove any trace of the first odor, a second scent is pumped in.
"Odor B passes through the tube and the animals are not shocked. That's the training where we're hoping the animals will develop an association. They'll learn that one odor is bad because it's been punished in the presence of that odor. And the other odor is okay."
Then, the flies are tested to see how well they remember which odor is which. Davis says about 90 percent do, and avoid the electric shock. The ones that don't are isolated, so their genes can be studied.
Suthep: We'll talk, if Thaksin okays it
The government is ready for talks with the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship, particularly its core leader Veera Musikhapong, on the condition that he must first get the green light from former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban said on Wednesday.
Mr Suthep made the offer as the UDD continued to mount pressure on the government for an early general election. The UDD's latest action was an attack on Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's house with what the leaders claimed was blood drawn from red-shirt donors.
"We are ready for talks, but, most important of all, Mr Thaksin must first show a clear stance. If Mr Thaksin orders it, we can talk with his men.
"We want to see peace and order in the country. With Mr Veera, for one, we would not need an interpreter. Whenever he is ready, he can call me on the phone.. or send a signal. I'm easy going," said Mr Suthep.
Mr Abhisit also mentioned earlier that he would be be happy to talk with Mr Veera.
He said Pracharaj Party leader Sanoh Thienthong's suggestion that a national government be set up would be difficult to implement. Thaksin's real objectives in his fight were to take back his assets and be exempted from legal action.
Moreover, a national government could not include UDD core leaders.
The deputy prime minister said one possible way of resolving the ongoing political conflict was for all parties to come to see one another, and joint;y agree on how to amend the constitution.
If the constitution was not acceptable to all concerned, then problems would again emerge when an election was held.
In addition to this, all parties must firmly agree they would no longer organise protests. They should enter a social contract that while an election is being held they must not obstruct or harm one another in any way, Mr Suthep said.
Mr Suthep, who is in charge of security affairs, said the government was concerned about reports of possible sabotage.
He could not say whether the saboteurs would take orders from Thaksin. All he could say was that there were still some people who wanted to stir up unrest and hurt the country.
Mr Suthep said the government would continue to take stringent measures until it was sure that there would not be any violence. The government would definitely not allow the seizure of important installations, including Suvarnabhumi airport, he added.
The deputy prime minister admitted he was unhappy with Thaksin. The former prime minister had continued to phone-in and further widen the division between the Thai people. He said this tactic of Thaksin was used by the communists 20 or 30 years ago and should be no longer used.
He felt pity seeing the red-shirts resort to their blood-spilling tactic, because this would only cause the world to believe that some Thai people were still superstitious and followers of black magic.
The blood ritual the red-shirts performed at the Democrat Party head office had hurt the feelings of the Democrats and Government House officials, Mr Suthep said.
He warned UDD leaders to adhere to peaceful means, because violence was not acceptable to the majority of the people.
On his reported remark during a press interview that intelligence units of foreign countries had warned the government of possible sabotage, after bugging Thaksin's telephone conversations, Mr Suthep said he had not named any countries.
He rejected Thaksin's call that he produce proof of the allegation, saying it would be unethical to reveal the sources.
PM's house splattered with blood
Red-shirts of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship poured blood in front of the gate of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's residence in Sukhumvit Soi 31 and threw bags of blood and other objects over the fence into the grounds on Wednesday.
The protesters managed to get to the house and perform their ritual in steady rain about noon, despite police efforts to keep them at least 5 metres from the fence.
Red-shirts gather around the prime minister's house before pouring blood. (Photo by Kitja Apichornrojarek)
After completing their mission, the red-shirts withdrew and their leaders said they would head for the United States embassy on Witthayu road.
They wanted clarification from the embassy of Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban's remark that the US and some other countries had warned the Thai government of possible sabotage after they tapped the telephone conversations of convicted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
The red-shirts started moving from Phan Fa bridge shortly after 9am past Siam Paragon, Central World and Ratchaprasong intersection, causing heavy traffic congestion on the outbound lanes of Sukhumvit road.
On arriving at the mouth of Sukhumvit Soi 31, they were barred from entering the soi, where police lined up in cordons to prevent them from getting close to the fence of the prime minister's house.
Police officers are deployed around the prime minister's house. (Photo by Kitja Apichornrojarek)
Following negotations with Pol Maj-Gen Wichai Sangprapai, the Metropolitan Police Division 1 chief, UDD leaders Jatuporn Prompan and Arisman Pongruangrong and a number of red-shirts were allowed to get closer to the fence with bottles of blood.
They spilled the blood in front of the gate and splashed it into the house grounds. Some red shirts threw bags of blood and other objects across the fence onto the roof of the house, despite being warned not to do so by UDD leader Natthawut Saikua.
While the red-shirts were gathering near his house, Mr Abhisit was in Songkhla's Hat Yai district to attend the funeral of Pol Col Sompien Eksomya, the Bannang Sata district police chief who was killed in an ambush by separatist insurgents last week
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