Friday, July 30, 2010
CITIES ARE TO TAX CELL PHONES AND THE INTERNET
More and more cities are working while we are sleeping of ways to tax us.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
GENERAL MOTORS TO ACQUIRE AMERICREDIT
GM to buy auto lender in bid to stoke sales
Top US automaker General Motors said Thursday it would acquire automobile finance firm AmeriCredit for about 3.5 billion US dollars, as it tries to open credit to hard-up consumers.
GM said the acquisition could help boost sales and provide a captive financing arm as the firm emerges from a government-financed bankruptcy.
It "supports our efforts to design, build and sell the world's best vehicles by expanding the financing options we can offer to consumers who want to buy GM vehicles," GM chairman and chief executive officer Ed Whitacre said in a statement.
AmeriCredit, with 3,000 employees in the United States and Canada and 800,000 customers, has about nine billion US dollars in business transactions
.
Top US automaker General Motors said Thursday it would acquire automobile finance firm AmeriCredit for about 3.5 billion US dollars, as it tries to open credit to hard-up consumers.
GM said the acquisition could help boost sales and provide a captive financing arm as the firm emerges from a government-financed bankruptcy.
It "supports our efforts to design, build and sell the world's best vehicles by expanding the financing options we can offer to consumers who want to buy GM vehicles," GM chairman and chief executive officer Ed Whitacre said in a statement.
AmeriCredit, with 3,000 employees in the United States and Canada and 800,000 customers, has about nine billion US dollars in business transactions
.
ANTI-HIV VAGINAL GEL BEING TESTED IN SOUTH AFRICA
Major step seen in quest for anti-HIV vaginal gel
Scientists on Monday reported a major stride towards a vaginal gel that can thwart HIV, a goal that would be of huge benefit to African women bearing the brunt of the AIDS pandemic.
A prototype cream tested in South Africa curbed the risk of infection by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) by 39 percent overall, but by 54 percent among those women who used it most consistently, they said.
The study coincided with the six-day 18th International AIDS Conference in Vienna, where leading campaigners responded with cheers leavened with some caution.
A wider trial has to be completed to scrutinise the gel for safety and efficacy, and several important questions must be answered.
Even so, this is a bright ray of hope, the scientists said.
"Without this gel, we may see 10 women becoming infected in a year. With this gel, we would see only six women becoming infected," said Salim Abdool Karim, one of the two leading co-researchers, in a teleconference with reporters.
Leading figures in the fight against AIDS applauded loudly, but also sounded a note of prudence.
"We are giving hope to women. For the first time we have seen results for a woman-initiated and -controlled HIV prevention option," said Michel Sidibe, executive director of the UN agency UNAIDS.
"If confirmed, a microbicide will be a powerful option for the prevention revolution and help us to break the trajectory of the AIDS epidemic."
The World Health Organization (WHO) chief Margaret Chan vowed the UN agency would work hard to speed up access to the product, once it is proven to be safe and effective.
Twenty-five million people have been slain by AIDS today and more than 33 million others today are infected by HIV, which causes the disease.
More than two-thirds of these live in sub-Saharan Africa, where 60 percent of new infections occur among women and girls.
One of the big vectors of transmission is through coercive intercourse by an infected partner who is unwilling to wear a condom.
The gel that was tested contains a one-percent formulation of tenofovir. It is a frontline component in the "cocktail" of antiretroviral drugs that disrupt HIV reproduction in immune cells.
Previous microbicides that have been tested have not contained an antiretroviral, and have had either a very low level of protection or even boosted the risk of infection.
Over nearly three years, the gel was tested among 445 HIV-negative women, while 444 counterparts received a harmless lookalike called a placebo.
They were then tested for HIV at monthly follow-up visits, where they were also given counselling in safe sex, access to condoms and treatment for sexually-transmitted disease.
Each participant was asked to insert, using a vaginal applicator, a first dose of the gel within 12 hours before sex followed by a second dose as soon as possible but within 12 hours afterwards, said co-leader Quarraisha Abdool Karim, also of the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) in Durban.
Thirty-eight women in the gel group became infected with HIV, compared with 60 in the placebo group.
In statistical terms, the gel reduced the risk of HIV infection by 39 percent overall, but by 54 percent among women who adhered to the instructions most faithfully.
There was no increase in side effects, nor -- among women who became infected with HIV -- any sign that they were more resistant to tenofovir as a result of the gel.
In addition, the microbicide halved the risk of herpes simplex virus type 2, or HSV-2, a lifelong and incurable infection, according to the results.
Despite this good news, the scientists said they still had to tackle several important issues.
One is why the gel seemed to be less effective against HIV after about 18 months.
This may be due to weakened adherence to the cream, they suggested. About 40 percent of the women in the trial used the microbicide less than one time out of two.
The study, published by the US journal, Science, was to be the focus of a seminar on Wednesday, the third day of the world AIDS forum.
If -- eventually -- the gel is approved for use, it will join a small but growing arsenal of preventative tools against HIV.
For a long time, the condom was the only method that had a confirmed high degree of protection from HIV in intercourse.
Four years ago, it was joined by male circumcision. Removal of the foreskin, which contains cells that are vulnerable to penetration by HIV, can reduce HIV risk by more than half, but only for men and not for women, field studies found.
Jean-François Delfraissy, executive director of France's National Agency for AIDS Research (ANRS), said the CAPRISA work was "one of the greatest (medical) trials in the history of HIV".
Even with this success, there remained no "magic bullet" on prevention, but a panoply of methods that had to work together, he told AFP.
Scientists on Monday reported a major stride towards a vaginal gel that can thwart HIV, a goal that would be of huge benefit to African women bearing the brunt of the AIDS pandemic.
A prototype cream tested in South Africa curbed the risk of infection by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) by 39 percent overall, but by 54 percent among those women who used it most consistently, they said.
The study coincided with the six-day 18th International AIDS Conference in Vienna, where leading campaigners responded with cheers leavened with some caution.
A wider trial has to be completed to scrutinise the gel for safety and efficacy, and several important questions must be answered.
Even so, this is a bright ray of hope, the scientists said.
"Without this gel, we may see 10 women becoming infected in a year. With this gel, we would see only six women becoming infected," said Salim Abdool Karim, one of the two leading co-researchers, in a teleconference with reporters.
Leading figures in the fight against AIDS applauded loudly, but also sounded a note of prudence.
"We are giving hope to women. For the first time we have seen results for a woman-initiated and -controlled HIV prevention option," said Michel Sidibe, executive director of the UN agency UNAIDS.
"If confirmed, a microbicide will be a powerful option for the prevention revolution and help us to break the trajectory of the AIDS epidemic."
The World Health Organization (WHO) chief Margaret Chan vowed the UN agency would work hard to speed up access to the product, once it is proven to be safe and effective.
Twenty-five million people have been slain by AIDS today and more than 33 million others today are infected by HIV, which causes the disease.
More than two-thirds of these live in sub-Saharan Africa, where 60 percent of new infections occur among women and girls.
One of the big vectors of transmission is through coercive intercourse by an infected partner who is unwilling to wear a condom.
The gel that was tested contains a one-percent formulation of tenofovir. It is a frontline component in the "cocktail" of antiretroviral drugs that disrupt HIV reproduction in immune cells.
Previous microbicides that have been tested have not contained an antiretroviral, and have had either a very low level of protection or even boosted the risk of infection.
Over nearly three years, the gel was tested among 445 HIV-negative women, while 444 counterparts received a harmless lookalike called a placebo.
They were then tested for HIV at monthly follow-up visits, where they were also given counselling in safe sex, access to condoms and treatment for sexually-transmitted disease.
Each participant was asked to insert, using a vaginal applicator, a first dose of the gel within 12 hours before sex followed by a second dose as soon as possible but within 12 hours afterwards, said co-leader Quarraisha Abdool Karim, also of the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) in Durban.
Thirty-eight women in the gel group became infected with HIV, compared with 60 in the placebo group.
In statistical terms, the gel reduced the risk of HIV infection by 39 percent overall, but by 54 percent among women who adhered to the instructions most faithfully.
There was no increase in side effects, nor -- among women who became infected with HIV -- any sign that they were more resistant to tenofovir as a result of the gel.
In addition, the microbicide halved the risk of herpes simplex virus type 2, or HSV-2, a lifelong and incurable infection, according to the results.
Despite this good news, the scientists said they still had to tackle several important issues.
One is why the gel seemed to be less effective against HIV after about 18 months.
This may be due to weakened adherence to the cream, they suggested. About 40 percent of the women in the trial used the microbicide less than one time out of two.
The study, published by the US journal, Science, was to be the focus of a seminar on Wednesday, the third day of the world AIDS forum.
If -- eventually -- the gel is approved for use, it will join a small but growing arsenal of preventative tools against HIV.
For a long time, the condom was the only method that had a confirmed high degree of protection from HIV in intercourse.
Four years ago, it was joined by male circumcision. Removal of the foreskin, which contains cells that are vulnerable to penetration by HIV, can reduce HIV risk by more than half, but only for men and not for women, field studies found.
Jean-François Delfraissy, executive director of France's National Agency for AIDS Research (ANRS), said the CAPRISA work was "one of the greatest (medical) trials in the history of HIV".
Even with this success, there remained no "magic bullet" on prevention, but a panoply of methods that had to work together, he told AFP.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
LOUISIANA : IF FISH SMELLS GOOD, I GUESS YOU CAN SELL IT !!!
Joe Shepard, administrator of Louisiana’s fisheries division, said state officials acted after analysis of approximately 500 samples of fish, crabs, oysters and shrimp from near shore indicated that they posed no health threat.
State officials are nonetheless urging fishermen to use common sense and to “smell and examine catch closely to ensure that there are no obvious oil or chemical residues.”
State officials are nonetheless urging fishermen to use common sense and to “smell and examine catch closely to ensure that there are no obvious oil or chemical residues.”
TWO US SPIES STOLE SECRETS TO GIVE TO CUBA.
Kendall and Gwendolyn Myers were the kind of spies any intelligence service would want. They did it for love of country, not for money.
According to United States prosecutors, the two stole US secrets and gave them to Cuba for nearly 30 years because of a shared communist ideology and an adoration of the Cuban revolution.
Now, Kendall Myers, a retired State Department worker, faces life in prison and his wife faces at least six years behind bars, the outcome of a plea deal driven by the government's need to find out all of the secrets the two stole.
Pursuing the same criminal charges through a contested trial risked further significant harm to the national security, prosecutors said. The government has not revealed the secrets the two took.
Myers was contacted by the Cuban intelligence service to be a covert agent, and he recruited Gwendolyn in 1979, prosecutors said. The couple married three years later. He was Agent 202, his wife Agent E-634.
In 1978, Myers began teaching at the Foreign Service Institute within the State Department and eventually served as director of European studies. He retired in 2007.
An FBI sting snagged the couple.
A bureau operative approached Myers on the street on the defendant's birthday, April 15, gave him a cigar, said he knew his Cuban handler and asked that they meet later, according to court papers. The couple met three times with the operative at Washington hotels, caught on videotape making incriminating statements.
Prosecutors want Myers, 73, to be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole and Gwendolyn Myers, 72, to seven-and-a-half years.
The couple have six children and seven grandchildren and they requested prisons that are near each other to make it possible for family visits.
Kendall Myers has taught English to non-English-speaking prisoners and has helped illiterate inmates learn to read, according to court papers.
As for telling the FBI what they did, the government says the picture is mixed but not enough to shelve the plea deal.
There were times when Kendall Myers, in particular, gave inconsistent or uncooperative responses or was intentionally withholding information, the government said in court papers. Prosecutors are "certainly troubled" by that assessment, but the government has received all of the value it believes it is going to derive from the debriefing process, the court papers concluded.
The couple agreed to forfeit $US1.7 million to the government, the amount Kendall Myers defrauded the government out of by receiving a federal salary when he actually was working for the Cuban government.
According to United States prosecutors, the two stole US secrets and gave them to Cuba for nearly 30 years because of a shared communist ideology and an adoration of the Cuban revolution.
Now, Kendall Myers, a retired State Department worker, faces life in prison and his wife faces at least six years behind bars, the outcome of a plea deal driven by the government's need to find out all of the secrets the two stole.
Pursuing the same criminal charges through a contested trial risked further significant harm to the national security, prosecutors said. The government has not revealed the secrets the two took.
Myers was contacted by the Cuban intelligence service to be a covert agent, and he recruited Gwendolyn in 1979, prosecutors said. The couple married three years later. He was Agent 202, his wife Agent E-634.
In 1978, Myers began teaching at the Foreign Service Institute within the State Department and eventually served as director of European studies. He retired in 2007.
An FBI sting snagged the couple.
A bureau operative approached Myers on the street on the defendant's birthday, April 15, gave him a cigar, said he knew his Cuban handler and asked that they meet later, according to court papers. The couple met three times with the operative at Washington hotels, caught on videotape making incriminating statements.
Prosecutors want Myers, 73, to be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole and Gwendolyn Myers, 72, to seven-and-a-half years.
The couple have six children and seven grandchildren and they requested prisons that are near each other to make it possible for family visits.
Kendall Myers has taught English to non-English-speaking prisoners and has helped illiterate inmates learn to read, according to court papers.
As for telling the FBI what they did, the government says the picture is mixed but not enough to shelve the plea deal.
There were times when Kendall Myers, in particular, gave inconsistent or uncooperative responses or was intentionally withholding information, the government said in court papers. Prosecutors are "certainly troubled" by that assessment, but the government has received all of the value it believes it is going to derive from the debriefing process, the court papers concluded.
The couple agreed to forfeit $US1.7 million to the government, the amount Kendall Myers defrauded the government out of by receiving a federal salary when he actually was working for the Cuban government.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
WHO CREATES A CHILD MEDICINE DATABASE
The World Health Organisation has issued its first-ever guidance on how to use more than 240 essential medicines for children under 13.
The data provides information on use, dosage and side effects of medicines as well as warnings about which children should not take them, the UN health agency said. The 528-page document also tells users about common drug interactions.
"To be effective, medicines must be carefully chosen and the dose adjusted to suit the age, weight and needs of children," said WHO's Hans Hogerzeil.
"Without a global guide, many health care professionals have had to prescribe medicines based on very limited evidence," he said in a statement.
Some countries have developed their own instructions for giving medicines to children, but there are no universal standards.
The WHO document exists only in English. But the agency recommends that governments use it as a model and translate it into their national language, spokeswoman Fadela Chaib said.
About 8.8 million children under five die every year, many from diseases such as diarrhea and pneumonia that could be avoided with the correct use of medicines, according to WHO.
The data provides information on use, dosage and side effects of medicines as well as warnings about which children should not take them, the UN health agency said. The 528-page document also tells users about common drug interactions.
"To be effective, medicines must be carefully chosen and the dose adjusted to suit the age, weight and needs of children," said WHO's Hans Hogerzeil.
"Without a global guide, many health care professionals have had to prescribe medicines based on very limited evidence," he said in a statement.
Some countries have developed their own instructions for giving medicines to children, but there are no universal standards.
The WHO document exists only in English. But the agency recommends that governments use it as a model and translate it into their national language, spokeswoman Fadela Chaib said.
About 8.8 million children under five die every year, many from diseases such as diarrhea and pneumonia that could be avoided with the correct use of medicines, according to WHO.
TURTLE EGGS ARE TO BE MOVED IN AN EFFORT TO ESCAPE OIL.
MIAMI:
In an unprecedented plan to save wildlife, volunteers will move tens of thousands of turtle eggs from oil-soaked beaches along the Gulf of Mexico to safety on Florida's Atlantic coast.
The eggs, which could number about 70,000, will be collected by hand, placed in special containers and driven in temperature-controlled trucks from mid-July.
''A plan like this is absolutely unprecedented and it would not be the choice of our scientists,'' said Patricia Behnke, of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
In New Orleans, the Coast Guard and BP reached a settlement with environmental groups over protecting endangered sea turtles against the dangers of controlled burns.
Three environmental groups - the Centre for Biological Diversity, the Turtle Island Restoration Network and the Animal Defence League - had sued in federal court, charging that oil spill responders had taken inadequate precautions.
Under the settlement, the Coast Guard will convene a group of scientists to determine how best to ensure that no endangered sea turtles die during controlled burns.
''Sea turtles are already suffering catastrophically from the oil spill and it would be outrageous to add insult to injury by burning them alive in the spill clean-up effort,'' said Kieran Suckling of the Centre for Biological Diversity. ''It's a no-brainer to put sea turtle observers on the clean-up boats and whisk the turtles out of the oil pools before they're set on fire.''
''We've agreed to meet to work out the terms to make sure the turtles are protected,'' Jason Burge, a lawyer for the environmental groups said.
GANG LEADER SAYS US CONSULAR WORKERS DEATH A DRUG HIT
MEXICO CITY:
The murder of a US consulate worker in March was ordered by a drug cartel enforcer who believed the woman was dealing visas to a rival gang, say Mexican police, who have arrested a suspect for the killing.
Jesus Ernesto Chavez, a leader of a gang that supplies contract killers to the Juarez drug cartel, was arrested on charges that he masterminded the daylight ambush and murder of Lesley Ann Enriquez and her husband, Arthur Redelfs, an El Paso sheriff's deputy.
Ms Enriquez, who was four months pregnant, and Mr Redelfs were killed by a squad of commandos as they left a birthday party. The couple's uninjured seven-month-old daughter was found crying in the back seat of their car.
Mr Chavez told police that Ms Enriquez was targeted because she was providing visas to members of the rival Sinaloa drug cartel, the chief of the federal police anti-drug unit, Ramon Pequeno, told a news conference on Friday.
US officials confirmed Mr Chavez is a suspected leader of Barrio Azteca, a violent gang born in Texas prisons with members on both sides of the border.
''He is the real deal, and we are glad they got him,'' a federal anti-drug agent said.
US officials were uncertain whether Mr Chavez was telling the truth about Ms Enriquez dealing in visas. She worked in the American Citizens Services department, which helps US citizens renew passports, register foreign births and get help after running out of money or being robbed.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
BP SUED FOR BURNING TURTLES ALIVE IN THE GULF.
Animal welfare groups are suing BP for burning endangered sea turtles and are asking a US court to stop the oil giant's "controlled burns" on the Gulf of Mexico spill.
The lawsuit filed on Wednesday says BP is violating the Endangered Species Act and other laws with their "controlled burns" in the Gulf of Mexico.
The complainants, Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), Centre for Biological Diversity, Turtle Island Restoration Network and Animal Legal Defence Fund, have asked the federal court for a temporary restraining order to stop all burning activities "until ... mechanisms are implemented that will prevent any additional sea turtles from being burned alive."
"It is horrifying that these innocent creatures whose habitat has already been devastated by the oil spill are now being burned alive," AWI president Cathy Liss told the court in Louisiana.
Containment efforts put in place since a BP-leased offshore oil rig exploded April 20 unleashing the worst oil spill in US history include "controlled burns", in which oil is gathered by ship-towed floating booms and set on fire.
"Endangered sea turtles, including the Kemp's ridley, one of the rarest sea turtles on Earth, are caught in the gathered oil and unable to escape when the oil is set ablaze," the animal welfare groups said.
They said some 430 sea turtles from endangered species have perished so far in the oil spill.
"While cleaning up the catastrophic oil spill is critically important, so too is doing it in a way which doesn't destroy wildlife in a flagrantly unlawful manner," said Liss.
The groups said BP should remove all turtles from the oil gathered for a controlled burn before it is set on fire.
The lawsuit filed on Wednesday says BP is violating the Endangered Species Act and other laws with their "controlled burns" in the Gulf of Mexico.
The complainants, Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), Centre for Biological Diversity, Turtle Island Restoration Network and Animal Legal Defence Fund, have asked the federal court for a temporary restraining order to stop all burning activities "until ... mechanisms are implemented that will prevent any additional sea turtles from being burned alive."
"It is horrifying that these innocent creatures whose habitat has already been devastated by the oil spill are now being burned alive," AWI president Cathy Liss told the court in Louisiana.
Containment efforts put in place since a BP-leased offshore oil rig exploded April 20 unleashing the worst oil spill in US history include "controlled burns", in which oil is gathered by ship-towed floating booms and set on fire.
"Endangered sea turtles, including the Kemp's ridley, one of the rarest sea turtles on Earth, are caught in the gathered oil and unable to escape when the oil is set ablaze," the animal welfare groups said.
They said some 430 sea turtles from endangered species have perished so far in the oil spill.
"While cleaning up the catastrophic oil spill is critically important, so too is doing it in a way which doesn't destroy wildlife in a flagrantly unlawful manner," said Liss.
The groups said BP should remove all turtles from the oil gathered for a controlled burn before it is set on fire.
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