Pike River mine CEO charged with 11 alleged offences over fatal mine disaster...

---

 

Pike River mine CEO, Peter Whittle, charged with 11 alleged offences concerning last year's mine disaster near Greymouth on New Zealand's West Coast, that killed 29 mine workers.

JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/The Press, Christchurch
CHARGED: Peter Whittall, Pike River's chief executive at the time of the explosions.
LATEST: Lawyers for former Pike River boss Peter Whittall have confirmed he is among those being charged by the Department of Labour in the wake of the tragic explosion at the West Coast mine a year ago.
Whittall was Pike River Coal chief executive, which is now in receivership, at the time of the explosion, which killed 29 men.
The Pike River receivers confirmed that a number of charges have been laid against the company by the department. The 25 charges, against Whittall, Pike River Coal and VLI Drilling, were served yesterday.
The receivers today asked the District Court to lift the existing suppression orders which had been previously sought by the department.
"The matter is now sub judice and the receivers will not be making any further comment at this time."
Whittall's lawyers said he had never sought suppression and denied the all charges against him. They alleged he failed to comply with the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992.
"Rather he has been actively seeking to have that order obtained by the Department of Labour lifted as soon as possible so that he could be identified publicly," they said.
"Mr Whittall is a coal miner. He comes from a coal mining town and has worked in underground mines all his life. He maintains that he would never do anything to put men who worked with him at risk. And Mr Whittall will fight being scape goated now."
The charges alleged Whittall failed to take all practicable steps to ensure the safety of workers at the mine, the lawyers said.
Charges related to operations at the mine at a time when Whittall was based in Wellington and handling corporate - not operational - matters, the lawyers said.
An Australian, Whittall had remained on in large part to assist with the department investigation, when he could have taken voluntary redundancy, or left the company and New Zealand.
"He is deeply saddened by the Department of Labour's actions and intends to vigorously defend all charges laid against him," the lawyers said of the man who was the public face of the tragedy, and whose actions in the weeks after the explosion elicited public sympathy.
"Mr Whittall took on this role because he believed it was the right thing to do, and he continued to front for Pike even though it greatly raised his profile at a time when criminal investigations were under way," the lawyers said.

He had been "fully co-operative" throughout the year-long investigation, and would like to comment further "but in the circumstances has been advised not to make any public statements, given that the matter comes within the jurisdiction of the district court".
The department confirmed all suppression orders had been lifted, following a teleconference between all parties late this afternoon convened by the Greymouth District Court.
It said Pike River Coal had been charged with four offences of failing to take all practicable steps to ensure employee safety; five of failing to take all practicable steps to ensure the safety of its contractors, subcontractors and their employees; and one of failing to take all practicable steps to ensure that no action or inaction of its employees harmed another person.
It said these charges related to, among other things, methane explosion and ventilation management, to lower the risk and impact of an explosion.
VLI Drilling Pty (Valley Longwall) has been charged with one offence of failing to take all practicable steps to ensure employee safety; one of failing to take all practicable steps to ensure the safety of contractors, subcontractors and their employees; and one of failing to take all practicable steps to ensure that no action or inaction of its employees harmed another person.
Those failures related to the maintenance and operation of machinery.
Whittall was charged with four offences of acquiescing or participating in the failures of Pike River Coal Limited as an employer; four of acquiescing or participating in the failures of Pike River Coal as a principal; and four offences of failing to take all practicable steps to ensure that no action or inaction of his as an employee harmed another person.
The department's investigation took 357 days to complete and was the most complex in its history, the department said.
At its peak, a team of 15 was directly involved in the investigation and more than 200 interviews were conducted.

http://anzacbloggersunite.blog.co.uk

Related articles

• NZ mine boss charged over tragedy (bbc.co.uk)
• 29 men killed at the Pike River mine - 25 charges laid against three parties... (peter-petterson.blogspot.com)
• Criminal charges filed over New Zealand mine disaster (guardian.co.uk)
• Charges filed in New Zealand 2010 mine explosion (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Charges Filed in New Zealand 2010 Mine Explosion (abcnews.go.com)
• Charges filed in New Zealand 2010 mine explosion (seattlepi.com)
• Charges filed in New Zealand 2010 mine explosion (sfgate.com)
• Charges laid over deadly New Zealand mine blast (telegraph.co.uk)
• Criminal charges filed in New Zealand mine explosion that killed 29 - Los Angeles Times (latimesblogs.latimes.com)

Time for change? GMT could be relegated to history...

Image by Márcio Cabral de Moura via Flickr

---

• 
  

  
  

  

   

  Time for change? GMT could be relegated to history
  
  Leading scientists from around the world are meeting in Britain to consider a proposal that could eventually see Greenwich Mean Time relegated to a footnote in history.
• 
  For more than 120 years, GMT has been the international standard for timekeeping, but it is now under threat from a new definition of time itself based not on the rotation of the Earth, but on atomic clocks.
• 
  In January 2012, the International Telecommunication Union will meet in Geneva to vote on whether to adopt the new measure, despite protests from Britain.
• 
  The two-day meeting of about 50 experts at a country house northwest of London, under the aegis of the prestigious Royal Society, on Thursday and Friday will look at some of the issues involved.
• 
  Predictably the question has hurt Britain's national pride - particularly when British believe their old rivals France are leading the push to change away from GMT to the new time standard.
• 
  "We understand that in Britain they have a sense of loss for GMT," said Elisa Felicitas Arias, director of the time department at the France-based International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM), which pushed for the change.
• 
  GMT is based on the passage of the sun over the zero meridian line at the Greenwich Observatory in southeast London, and became the world standard for time at a conference in Washington in the United States in 1884.
• 
  France had lobbied for "Paris Mean Time" at the same conference.
• 
  In 1972 it was replaced in name by Universal Co-ordinated Time (UTC) but that essentially remained the same as GMT.
• 
  UTC is based on about 400 atomic clocks at laboratories around the world but then corrected with "leap seconds" to align itself with the Earth's rotational speed, which fluctuates.
• 
  But the tiny variations between Earth speed and atomic speed have become a problem for GPS, the global positioning systems and mobile phone networks on which the modern world relies.
• 
  "These networks need to be synchronised to the millisecond," Arias said.
• 
  "We are starting to have parallel definitions of time. Imagine a world where there were two or three definitions of a kilogram.
• "
  The meeting in London will look at the implications of abolishing the leap seconds and moving fully to atomic time.
• 
  That would see atomic time slowly diverge from GMT, by about one minute every 60 to 90 years, or by an hour every 600 years, and there would need to be "leap minutes" a couple of times a century to bring the two in line.
• 
  The proposal would then formally be voted on in Geneva.
• 
  The potential loss of GMT has prompted soul searching in the British press, particularly at a time when the country is itself considering switching to British Summer Time, one hour ahead of GMT, on a permanent basis.
• 
  The Sunday Times said GMT had "symbolised Britain's role as a Victorian superpower" but that "just as that role has inexorably diminished, so GMT itself could in effect disappear."
• 
  British science minister David Willetts has opposed the plan, saying it has become more than just a scientific row.
• 
  "This is primarily a finely balanced scientific argument but I do detect undercurrents of nationalism," he said.
• 
  "Britain's position is that we should stick to real time as experienced by humans, which is based on the Earth's rotation, not atomic clocks.
• 
  "Without leap seconds we will lose contact with the reality of Earth's rotation. Eventually our midnight would happen at noon."
• 
  China meanwhile is said to oppose the change on the grounds that its astronomers want to retain Earth-rotation based time.
• 
  -Acknowledgements: AAP
• 
  NZCity, NewsTalkZB
• http://huttriver.blog.co.uk
• http://www.phoneservice.org/blog/2011/10-great-reasons-to-consider-prepaid-cellular-service/#comment-2492

Related articles

• You: Scientists meet to discuss usefulness of GMT (france24.com)
• World scientists are meeting in Britain to consider replacing GMT with Atomic time (theinformativereport.com)
• Britain's GMT not accurate enough for timekeeping, claim French scientists (news.bioscholar.com)
• UN set to dump GMT for tech-friendly Atomic Time (go.theregister.com)
• Time to change the world's time? (bbc.co.uk)
• Replacing Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) with Mecca Time (frstephensmuts.wordpress.com)
• Greenwich Mean Time (virtuallinguist.typepad.com)
• Pass notes No 3,054: Greenwich Mean Time (guardian.co.uk)

Company warns workers to quit smoking, curb obesity, or pay more in healthcare...

Image via Wikipedia

 

Company warns workers to quit smoking, curb obesity, or pay more in healthcare...

Like a lot of companies, Veridian Credit Union wants its employees to be healthier. In January, the Waterloo, Iowa-company rolled out a wellness program and voluntary screenings.

It also gave workers a mandate - quit smoking, curb obesity, or you'll be paying higher healthcare costs in 2013. It doesn't yet know by how much, but one thing's for certain - the unhealthy will pay more.

The credit union, which has more than 500 employees, is not alone.
In recent years, a growing number of companies have been encouraging workers to voluntarily improve their health to control escalating insurance costs. And while workers mostly like to see an employer offer smoking cessation classes and weight loss programs, too few are signing up or showing signs of improvement.

So now more employers are trying a different strategy - they're replacing the carrot with a stick and raising costs for workers who can't seem to lower their cholesterol or tackle obesity. They're also coming down hard on smokers. For example, discount store giant Wal-Mart says that starting in 2012 it will charge tobacco users higher premiums but also offer free smoking cessation programs.

Tobacco users consume about 25 percent more healthcare services than non-tobacco users, says Greg Rossiter, a spokesman for Wal-Mart, which insures more than 1 million people, including family members. "The decisions aren't easy, but we need to balance costs and provide quality coverage."

For decades, workers - especially with large employers - have taken many health benefits for granted and until the past few years hardly noticed the price increases.

But the new policies could not only badly dent their take home pay and benefits but also reduce their freedom to behave as they want outside of work and make them resentful toward their employers. There are also fears the trend will hurt the lower-paid hardest as health costs can eat up a bigger slice of their disposable income and because they may not have much access to gyms and fresh food in their neighborhoods.

"It's not inherently wrong to hold people responsible," says Lewis Maltby, president of the National Workrights Institute, a research and advocacy organization on employment issues based in Princeton, New Jersey. "But it's a dangerous precedent," he says. "Everything you do in your personal private life affects your health."

Overall, the use of penalties is expected to climb in 2012 to almost 40 percent of large and mid-sized companies, up from 19 percent this year and only 8 percent in 2009, according to an October survey by consulting firm Towers Watson and the National Business Group on Health. The penalties include higher premiums and deductibles for individuals who failed to participate in health management activities as well as those who engaged in risky health behaviors such as smoking.

"Nothing else has worked to control health trends," says LuAnn Heinen, vice president of the National Business Group on Health, which represents large employers on health and benefits issues. "A financial incentive reduces that procrastination."

LACK OF JOBS
The weak economy is contributing to the change. Employers face higher health care costs - in part - because they're hiring fewer younger healthy workers and losing fewer more sickly senior employees.

The poor job market also means employers don't have to be as generous with these benefits to compete. They now expect workers to contribute to the solution just as they would to a 401(k) retirement plan, says Jim Winkler, a managing principal at consulting firm Aon Hewitt's health and benefits practice. "You're going to face consequences based on whether you've achieved or not," he says.

And those that don't are more likely to be punished. An Aon Hewitt survey released in June found that almost half of employers expect by 2016 to have programs that penalize workers "for not achieving specific health outcomes" such as lowering their weight, up from 10 percent in 2011

The programs have until now met little resistance in the courts. The 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) prevents workers from being discriminated against on the basis of health if they're in a group health insurance plan. But HIPAA also allows employers to offer wellness programs and to offer incentives of up to 20 percent of the cost for participation.

President Barack Obama's big health care reform, the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, will enable employers beginning in 2014 to bump that difference in premiums to 30 percent and potentially up to 50 percent.

Employers do, however, also need to provide an alternative for workers who can't meet the goals. That could include producing a doctor's note to say it is medically very difficult, or even impossible, to achieve certain goals, says Timothy Jost, a professor at the Washington and Lee School of Law. For example, a worker with asthma may not be able to participate in a company exercise program.
These wellness programs typically include a health risk assessment completed online, and on-site free medical screenings for things such as blood pressure, body mass index, and cholesterol.

The programs, while voluntary, often typically offer financial benefits - including lower insurance premiums, gift cards and employer contributions to health savings accounts. For example, workers at the railroad company Union Pacific get $100 in their health savings account for completing the health assessment, $100 if they don't use tobacco and $100 if they get an annual physical (tobacco users also can get the $100 if they participate in a tobacco cessation program).
INCENTIVE TO EXERCISE

Like Wal-Mart, more employers are coming down harder on individuals who have voluntarily identified themselves as tobacco users, often during their health risk assessment. As yet, very few employers identify smokers through on-site medical screenings.

Veridian, which until now has not charged its employees for healthcare premiums, says increases to its health care costs have been unsustainable, climbing 9 percent annually for the past three years. Earlier this year, it rolled out a wellness program and free screenings, which 90 percent of workers have now completed.

As it starts charging, it will provide discounts to those making progress as it "wants to reward those who have healthy lifestyles," says Renee Christoffer, senior vice president of administration for the credit union.

Mark Koppedryer, vice president of branches at Veridian, was one of the workers who participated in the screenings. The 37-year-old father of three initially participated to show his support but was shocked to find out that he had elevated blood pressure and cholesterol scores.

His colleague, Stacy Phillips, says she used the new wellness programs to exercise more. "I knew there needed to be a change in my life," says the 35-year-old, who has lost 40 pounds since January. "This made me more aware that at some time there would be a cost."

These changes come at a time when health insurance premiums are soaring. In 2011, the average-cost of an employer-provided family plan was more than $15,000, according to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust. That's 31 percent higher than five years ago. And the number is expected to climb another 5-8 percent next year, according to various estimates.

In contrast, the giant medical and research center Cleveland Clinic, which employs about 40,000 people, has seen these costs grow by only 2 percent this year because it has implemented a comprehensive wellness program that has dramatically improved the health of many workers.

The effort began several years when it banned smoking at the medical center and then refused to hire smokers. It later recognized that having a gym and weight loss classes wasn't enough to get people to participate. It made these facilities and programs free and provided lower premiums to workers who maintained their health or improved it, typically with their doctor's help.

"You don't do this overnight," says Paul Terpeluk, Medical Director of Occupational Health at the Cleveland Clinic. You have to develop a program and change the culture, he said.

INTRUSIVE
But not all programs are as well constructed and effective, says Mark A. Rothstein, a lawyer and professor at the University of Louisville School of Medicine. The wellness programs may be well-intentioned, he says, but there's not strong empirical evidence that they work and getting a weekly call about your weight or smoking habits, which is offered by some programs, could be humiliating for participants.

"What might be seen as a question to one person may be an intrusion to another," he says. That's one reason that lower-paid janitors at his school participate but, "the professors on campus consider it a privacy tax so we don't get some stranger calling us about how much we weigh."

And there are also those that no matter how much they exercise or how healthy they eat can't lose weight or lower their blood pressure or body mass index. "There are thousands and thousands of people whose paycheck is being cut because of factors beyond their control," says Maltby from the National Workrights Institute.

The programs could be especially burdensome for low-income workers, who are more likely to fail health assessment tests and less likely to have access to gyms and healthier fresh produce, says Harald Schmidt - a research associate at the Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics at the University of Pennsylvania.

"We want to use provisions to help people and not penalize people for factors beyond their control," Schmidt says. "Poorer people are often less healthy and this constitutes a potential double whammy. They are likely to face a higher burden in insurance premiums."

That's the case for Barbara Collins, a 35-year-old Wal-Mart employee - who lives in Placerville , California. She says she'll have to pay $127 every two weeks for health insurance next year, including a penalty of almost $25 because she's a smoker.

"I'll cut back on cigarettes and hopefully eventually quit," says Collins, who earned $19,000 pretax, or about $730 every two weeks, last year. "Christmas will definitely be tight this year and for years to come if this lasts," she says. "Family vacations, there's no way I can afford.

The Riverman says: "Really, is it all the workers fault, or society's? Is it the manufacturers of food and tobacco products who should share the blame for cigarette addiction and obesity? What do you think?"

http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111030/ts_nm/us_penalties

http://www.phoneservice.org/blog/2011/10-great-reasons-to-consider-prepaid-cellular-service/#comment-2492

Acknowledgements: Reuters, Yahoo News

Related articles

• Companies Require Smokers, Obese Pay Higher Healthcare Premiums (usnews.com)
• Companies focus on worker health to curb costs (sfgate.com)
• More Employers Using Insurance Incentives, Penalties For Employees' Health. (bewellinsurance.wordpress.com)
• Companies focus on worker health to curb costs (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Companies To Charge Smokers And The Obese More For Healthcare (alan.com)
• A Resource Guide to Stop-Smoking Programs (everydayhealth.com)
• Wal-Mart Slices Health Benefits (lawprofessors.typepad.com)
• Wal-Mart cuts some health-care coverage (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Wal-Mart cuts some health care coverage (cbsnews.com)

Complex Organic matter discovered throughout the Universe...

A spectrum from the Infrared Space Observatory superimposed on an image of the Orion Nebula where the complex organics are found
Image Gallery (3 images)

Researchers at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) claim to have solved the mystery of "Unidentified Infrared Emission features" that have been detected in stars, interstellar space, and galaxies. For over two decades, the most commonly accepted theory regarding this phenomenon was that these signatures come from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) molecules - simple organic molecules made of carbon and hydrogen atoms. Now HKU researchers say the substances generating these signatures are actually complex organic compounds that are made naturally by stars and ejected into interstellar space.
The team of Prof. Sun Kwok and Dr. Yong Zhang used observations taken by the Infrared Space Observatory and the Spitzer Space Telescope of stardust formed in exploding stars called novae to show that the astronomical spectra contain a mixture of aromatic (ring-like) and aliphatic (chain-like) components that cannot be explained by PAH molecules.

The researchers say the substances generating these infrared emissions actually have chemical structures that are so complex that their structure resembles those of coal and petroleum. Since coal and petroleum are remnants of ancient life and this type of organic matter was only thought to arise from living organisms, the researchers say this suggests that complex organic compounds can be synthesized in space even when no life forms are present.
Supporting an earlier idea by Kwok that old stars are molecular factories capable of manufacturing organic compounds, they say that not only are stars producing this complex matter on extremely short time scales of weeks, but they are also ejecting it into the general interstellar space in between stars.
"Our work has shown that stars have no problem making complex organic compounds under near-vacuum conditions," says Kwok. "Theoretically, this is impossible, but observationally we can see it happening."

As the organic stardust is similar in structure to complex organic compounds found in meteorites, the findings raise the possibility that stars enriched the early solar system with organic compounds. With the Earth being bombarded by comets and meteorites early in its life that could potentially have carried the organic stardust, there is a possibility that the seeds of life on Earth were sown by organic compounds created naturally by stars. If that turns out to be the case, it has obvious implications for the chances of life outside our solar system as the complex organic compounds exist throughout the Universe.
Kwok and Zhang's Paper, Mixed aromatic-aliphatic organic nanoparticles as carriers of unidentified infrared emission features is published this month in the journal Nature.

Related articles

• Astronomers discover complex organic matter in the universe (eurekalert.org)
• New clues to the origin of creation (cbsnews.com)
• Discovery: Cosmic Dust Contains Organic Matter from Stars (livescience.com)
• Discovery: Cosmic Dust Contains Organic Matter from Stars (space.com)
• Stars Found To Produce Complex Organic Compounds (science.slashdot.org)
• World's Biggest Gold Coin Minted In Australia (idle.slashdot.org)
• Call for Papers: International Conference on Pain, Suffering and Health (medhumanities.org)
• Container Discrimination at the HKU Main Library (wootang01.wordpress.com)
• Returning Trays at HKU Ebeneezer's (wootang01.wordpress.com)
• Herschel Telescope Discovers Oxygen Molecules In Space (digitallyimpulsed.wordpress.com)

Worst food additive ever - its in half of all food...

---

• 
  

  
• 
  On August 10, police and security for the massive palm oil corporation Wilmar International (of which Archer Daniels Midland is the second largest shareholder) stormed a small, indigenous village on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. They came with bulldozers and guns, destroying up to 70 homes, evicting 82 families, and arresting 18 people. Then they blockaded the village, keeping the villagers in -- and journalists out. (Wilmar claims it has done no wrong.)
• 
  The village, Suku Anak Dalam, was home to an indigenous group that observes their own traditional system of land rights on their ancestral land and, thus, lacks official legal titles to the land. This is common among indigenous peoples around the world -- so common, in fact, that it is protected by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
• 
  Indonesia, for the record, voted in favor of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007. Yet the government routinely sells indigenous peoples' ancestral land to corporations. Often the land sold is Indonesia's lowland rainforest, a biologically rich area home to endangered species like the orangutan, Asian elephant, Sumatran rhinoceros, Sumatran tiger, and the plant Rafflesia arnoldii, which produces the world's largest flower.
• 
  So why all this destruction? Chances are you'll find the answer in your pantry. Or your refrigerator, your bathroom, or even under your sink. The palm oil industry is one of the largest drivers of deforestation in Indonesia. Palm oil and palm kernel oil, almost unheard of a decade or two ago, are now unbelievably found in half of all packaged foods in the grocery store (as well as body care and cleaning supplies). These oils, traditional in West Africa, now come overwhelmingly from Indonesia and Malaysia. They cause jawdropping amounts of deforestation (and with it, carbon emissions) and human rights abuses.
• 
  "The recipe for palm oil expansion is cheap land, cheap labor, and a corrupt government, and unfortunately Indonesia fits that bill," says Ashley Schaeffer of Rainforest Action Network.
  The African oil palm provides two different oils with different properties: palm oil and palm kernel oil. Palm oil is made from the fruit of the tree, and palm kernel oil comes from the seed, or "nut," inside the fruit. You can find it on ingredient lists under a number of names, including palmitate, palmate, sodium laureth sulphate, sodium lauryl sulphate, glyceryl stearate, or stearic acid. Palm oil even turns up in so-called "natural," "healthy," or even "cruelty-free" products, like Earth Balance (vegan margarine) or Newman-O's organic Oreo-like cookies. Palm oil is also used in "renewable" biofuels.
• 
  A hectare of land (2.47 acres) produces, on average, 3.7 metric tons of palm oil, 0.4 metric tons of palm kernel oil, and 0.6 tons of palm kernel cake. (Palm kernel cake is used as animal feed.) In 2009, Indonesia produced over 20.5 million metric tons, and Malaysia produced over 17.5 million metric tons. As of 2009, the U.S. was only the seventh largest importer of palm oil in the world, but as the second largest importer of palm kernel oil, it ranks third in the world as a driver of deforestation for palm oil plantations.
• 
  Indonesia has lost 46 percent of its forests since 1950, and the forests have recently disappeared at a rate of about 1.5 million hectares (an area larger than the state of Connecticut) per year. Of the 103.3 million hectares of remaining forests in 2000, only 88.2 million remained in 2009. At that time, an estimated 7.3 million hectares of oil palm plantations were already established, mostly on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo. Indonesia plans to continue the palm oil expansion, hoping to produce an additional 8.3 million metric tons by 2015 -- this means a 71 percent expansion in area devoted to palm oil in the coming years.
• 
  http://ecospree.com
  http://planetgreen.com
  http://worldofcae.blogspot.com THE GREEN PLANET

Related articles

• Worst Food Additive Ever? It's in Half of All Foods We Eat and Its Production Destroys Rainforests and Enslaves Children (alternet.org)
• United Nations Approves Indigenous Declaration (indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com)
• Next Step: Implementation (indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com)
• U.N. Permanent Forum Generates First Global Partnership Promoting Indigenous Rights (indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com)
• Palm Oil Pushes Indigenous off Land (indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com)
• Indonesia - Sumatra & Nias - Sumatra, Indonesia (travelpod.com)
• Biomass Resources in Indonesia (wteconsult.wordpress.com)
• Indonesia Plane Crashes in North Sumatra. (planenews.com)
• Why does palm oil gel (wiki.answers.com)
• Indonesia aircraft goes missing (bbc.co.uk)

Ahmadinejad - the last president of Iran?

Image via Wikipedia

The message from Iran’s most powerful man was clear: the post of president could be removed sometime in the future. If this happened, the parliamentary system could instead be used to elect officials holding executive power. ‘There would be no problem in altering the current structure,’ stated Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in a speech in the city of Kermanshah on Sunday.

What we have here is a tussle between Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over their respective legacies. And Khamenei is taking this matter so seriously that he’s threatening to remove the very position of the presidency altogether. For now, this is only a threat. But it’s one that can’t be ignored, especially by Ahmadinejad.

Ahmadinejad isn’t eligible to run for president again when his term expires in June 2013, as Iran’s Constitution is clear a president can run for only two consecutive terms. To ensure his legacy, then, Ahmadinejad seems to be backing his right hand man Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei as a presidential candidate. Ahmadinejad likely hopes that with Mashaei as president, he will be able to retain a powerful cabinet position – think an Iranian twist on what Vladimir Putin has done in Dmitry Medvedev’s government. When Mashaei finishes his four year term, Ahmadinejad would then be able to use his likely high profile in Meshai’s government as a platform to develop a renewed bid for the presidency.
 
This concerns Khamenei, and rightly so.

Mashaei is an extremely divisive figure. Many conservatives despise him. For some, it is because of reports that he married a former member of the opposition Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK), which he was interrogating in the early 1980s, as well as reports that his brother was also member of the same organization. Others, though, are furious that he said publicly that the people of Iran have no problem with the people of Israel.

Jealousy is another factor. Soon after Meshai’s daughter married Ahmadinejad's son, his political career started to take off. From once being a virtually unknown politician, these days Mashaei is seen as Ahmadinejad’s right hand man (some even speculate that it’s Mashaei that holds the real power in the Ahmadinejad government).

But the animosity felt toward Mashaei isn’t confined to Iranian politicians – even Ahmadinejad’s brother Davood has been attacking him publicly. Ahmadinejad’s son-in-law, Mehdi Khorshidi, meanwhile, has joined in on the attacks against Meshai. Some believe that Davood left his post as chief of the presidential inspection unit because of Meshai.

It’s clear, then, that if Mashaei runs for president, it will create ferocious pitched political battles inside Iranian politics, conflicts that could even spark violence. This is the last thing Khamenei needs for a regime that already faces sanctions and a host of economic problems, as well as opposition from the Green movement. Khamenei therefore won’t want serious conflict among conservatives, who in the political world of the Islamic Republic are his biggest supporters.

Read more:

Acknowledgements: The Diplomat

http://the-diplomat.com/2011/10/21/ahmadinejad-iran%E2%80%99s-last-president/?utm_source=The+Diplomat+List&utm_campaign=9c1c9da37a-Diplomat_Brief_2011_vol31&utm_medium=email

Related articles

• Did Ahmadinejad Steal Billions? (thedailybeast.com)
• Iran's Supreme Leader Ups Fight with Ahmadinejad (time.com)
• Iran's supreme leader ups fight with Ahmadinejad (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Could Ayatollah Make Ahmadinejad Obsolete? (foxnews.com)
• Iran's supreme leader ups fight with Ahmadinejad (ctv.ca)
• Iran's supreme leader ups fight with Ahmadinejad (sfgate.com)
• Ahmadinejad v. Khamenei in Iran? (showdownmideast.com)
• Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran Supreme Leader, Warns Ahmadinejad (huffingtonpost.com)
• Iran newspaper closed down amid row over Mahmoud Ahmadinejad satire (guardian.co.uk)
• Khamenei Warns US: Don't Mess With Iran (newser.com)

The iconic Big Ben clock tower in London is developing a tilt

Image via Wikipedia

The iconic Big Ben clock tower in London is developing a tilt.

Monitoring instruments show that the tilt has been increasing by one centimetre a year since 2003.

The problem has been blamed on decades of building work that have gone on around the foot of the structure.

Big Ben now joins this motley crew of precarious buildings.

Images: AAP  http://travel.msn.co.nz/glance/195787/londons-leaning-tower.glance

Related articles

• London gets its own leaning tower (travelnews.britishairways.com)
• Report: Big Ben Could Become Leaning Tower of London (newsfeed.time.com)
• Big Ben is becoming the leaning tower of London (newslite.tv)
• Leaning tower of London? Big Ben is tilting (msnbc.msn.com)
• Big Ben is listing (boingboing.net)
• London's Big Ben slowly leaning a bit northwest (sfgate.com)
• Big Ben-d: Landmark Tower Is Leaning (news.sky.com)
• The Leaning Tower of London: Time's up for tilting Big Ben (punjapit.wordpress.com)
• Big Ben, the leaning tower of London (cbsnews.com)

Facing Autism in New Brunswick

Autism News and Opinion

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Autism Woe Canada: From Coast to Coast, No One Stands On Guard for Canadians with Autism Disorders

Two news reports show all too clearly that no one stands on guard for autistic children, youth and adults in Canada:

EDMONTON — A 51-year-old Edmonton man has been sentenced to seven years in prison for abuse and neglect of his teenage autistic son that left him looking like a "concentration camp victim." Vancouver Sun, Postmedia News, October 18, 2011 

Leave the Wild Rose province of Alberta and head to Canada's Ocean Playground in Nova Scotia and things don't get much better for Canadians with autism disorders.

"The provincial government has suspended Braemore's licence and replaced its executive director. The Cape Breton District Health Authority's board of directors is now acting as the interim board for the home.

The review was ordered by the province's Department of Community Services in February after officials found that an autistic resident of Braemore was locked inside a constantly lit room for 15 days last fall.

Minister says she feels 'absolutely terrible'

At the time, Community Services Minister Denise Peterson-Rafuse said the review was needed after her department concluded the 20-year-old man, who was allowed out occasionally for exercise and meals, sometimes urinated in the room when he couldn't leave to use a bathroom. The home's executive director, Debra MacPherson, later apologized.

Peterson-Rafuse, who was in Sydney on Tuesday to meet with the interim board, said she was taken aback by the report's findings.

"I accept the responsibility as minister to say that we could have done better too," she said in an interview."  CBC News, October 28, 2011"

A father in Alberta doesn't see what the fuss is all about over his failure to provide a humane level of care for his autistic son.  In Nova Scotia a government Minister is "taken aback" and, golly gee whiz,  she is just all shocked and surprised to see that a group home which is supposed to care for its residents didn't care at all and put adult squabbles and interests ahead of the dignity and well being of an autistic resident. 

Other Canadian provinces are no better.  Here in New Brunswick we have twiddled our thumbs and stuck stubbornly with an adult care system that does not provide safety, security and a dignified life for its autistic residents.  Adults who   suffer from severe autism disorders are sentenced to spend their lives in a psychiatric hospital. No one, including an Ombudsman's Office that has done little to help autistic children and adults in New Brunswick, will do anything to provide a decent life for the autistic adults in the care of the government once their parents succumb to old age and death. 

Our Supreme Court of Canada reversed decisions by a British Columbia trial judge and three BC Court of Appeal justices and put deference to government decision makers ahead of the best interests of autistic children in the Auton Case. Our federal governments under both Liberal and Conservative Prime Ministers have done nothing to provide Canadians with a Real National Autism Strategy.  

A Real National Autism Strategy is needed to ensure that regardless of where autistic Canadians live in this country they will be able to live in decent, humane conditions.  If we can't we should stop parading around the world, with a holier than thou attitude,  lecturing others about the way they treat autistic people.

 

Acknowledgements to the author.

Violent occupiers worldwide while NZ peaceful - but for how long...

Image via Wikipedia

Occupiers watch look on and listen to movement organisation

 

 
It has been a day of sometimes violent, protest across the globe, with 950 co-ordinated demonstrations against corporate greed and austerity measures in more than 80 countries.

What began with a handful of people in the Occupy Wall Street movement has swelled to a global movement, with protests in more than 80 cities on six continents, including in New Zealand.

The biggest and bloodiest demonstration was in Rome. Up to 200,000 people took to the streets to protest against corporate greed and the state of the Italian economy.

The march ended in a riot as protesters set fire to police vans, and tried to smash their way into banks and shops.
Police responded with tear gas and water cannon.
Italians have been hit hard by austerity measures. They are angry about their government’s handling of the country's financial crisis.

In London protesters gathered at St Pauls Cathedral and hundreds attempted to occupy Paternoster Square, home to the city's stock exchange; their attempts were thwarted by police.

By nightfall, numbers had grown and tensions were fraying.

The movement continued across Europe, from Portugal and Spain to Berlin, Athens and the financial hub of Brussels.

Protests in Asia were peaceful but the message was the same.

In Aotea Square in Auckland around 100 protesters set up camp last night and say they are here for the long haul.

“Whatever it takes because at the moment the economy has a death grip on the planet and it's not letting go,” said one occupier, Dan Clark.

Another, Alex Port, says this is about the process itself of finding out how we can make our society, “one that's based on kindness and compassion rather than greed and cynicism”.

It is a family atmosphere at Aotea square but in other parts of the world expressing that message has turned streets into battlefields.

The re-election of the rightwing Key-led government could change all that. National's plans for a second term are causing alarm in some quarters in New Zealand. Protests have been planned in both Auckland and Wellington. Australian protests could commence in Sydney.


Acknowledgements: 3 News
http://kiwiriverman.blogspot.com
http://huttriver.blog.co.uk

Related articles

• Anti-Greed Demos Go On Amid Global Protests (news.sky.com)
• Occupy London protest in the City (bbc.co.uk)
• Violence In Rome As Wall St Protests Spread (news.sky.com)
• Occupy Wall Street Protests Across The World (huffingtonpost.com)
• Stock exchange occupation blocked (mirror.co.uk)
• Corporate protest goes into night (bbc.co.uk)
• Rome Protest Against Corporate Greed Turns Violent (abcnews.go.com)
• Rome protest against corporate greed turns violent (boston.com)
• Occupy Wall Street Protests Go Global (huffingtonpost.com)
• Violence erupts in Rome as 'Occupy' protests go global (ctv.ca)
• Occupy the London Stock Exchange (LSX) aims to bring protest spirit to Britain (100gf.wordpress.com)
• Occupy the London Stock Exchange - live coverage (guardian.co.uk)
• Protesters vow to continue demo (mirror.co.uk)
• Assange Addresses Occupy London Protesters (thedailybeast.com)
• Flapjackstate's Diary of a London Occupier - Day 1 (flapjacksnotstates.wordpress.com)
• Shockingly Violent Pictures Of Today's Occupy Rome Protests (businessinsider.com)
• Occupy where? Kasumigaseki? (search.japantimes.co.jp)