The tale of The Tortoise and the Hare didn’t factor in this turtle’s newest innovation. Vets from Washington State University have helped a 12-year-old African tortoise named Gamera get back on its feet (all three of them) by providing it with an unusual new appendage — a swiveling wheel. Gamera’s owner brought it to the
Continue reading …Now that’s harsh. Gossip Girl star Leighton Meester is suing her own mom. Meester, who plays snarky Blair, says she gave her mom money for medicine and treatments for little brother Lex, who suffers from major medical issues, reports TMZ . But her mother used it instead for plastic surgery, Botox,…
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Officials say Darioush Rezaeinejad was post-graduate electrical engineering student in Tehran Iran has denied claims that an academic shot dead during the weekend was involved in the country’s nuclear programme. Iranian media initially described Darioush Rezaeinejad, who was fired on by gunmen riding on motorcycles in east Tehran on Saturday, as a “nuclear scientist” and an academic associated with Iran’s atomic activities, but officials have since said he was a postgraduate electrical engineering student. Speaking to reporters after a cabinet meeting on Monday, Iran’s intelligence minister, Heydar Moslehi, was quoted by the semi-official Isna news agency as saying: “The assassinated student was not involved in nuclear projects and [his murder] was not linked to [Iran's] nuclear programme.” Rezaeinejad, 35, was a masters student at Tehran’s Khaje Nasir Toosi University of Technology and was waiting to defend his thesis, officials said. In the aftermath of his death, Iranian news agencies reported different and often contradictory accounts about Rezaeinejad’s background. Isna said he had links with Iran’s nuclear agency and Fars, an agency under the control of the Revolutionary Guards, said he was associated with the country’s defence ministry. The similarity between Rezaeinejad’s assassination and that of other Iranian academics during the past two years also led news agencies to associate him with the country’s nuclear activities. Last November, Majid Shahriari, a nuclear scientist, was killed and Fereidoon Abbasi Davani, Iran’s current nuclear chief, survived assassination in co-ordinated attacks carried out by killers who rode up on motorcycles and stuck bombs to their car windows as they left their homes in Tehran. In January 2010, another academic, Masoud Ali Mohammadi was killed in a similar attack in what is now being seen by some analysts as a covert war against Iran’s nuclear activities. Despite several officials who saw a foreign hand in the assassination of Rezaeinejad, Moslehi said on Monday that no evidence was available to link the killing with foreign services. “We have not seen any sign which could demonstrate that the attack had been carried out by foreign services,” the intelligence minister said, according to Isna. “We are investigating what has happened, we haven’t found anything and there are yet some dark and vague issues surrounding the assassination.” According to Iranian media, no arrests have taken place in connection with the shooting. The speaker of the Iranian parliament, Ali Larijani, had accused the US and Israel of being behind the assassination. “[Saturday's] US-Zionist terrorist act that targeted one of the elites of Iran is another example which shows the hostility of US towards Iran,” the state news agency quoted Larijani as saying. Other officials including the Tehran governor, Morteza Tamaddon, have also blamed the US and Israel for the attack. “Undoubtedly, this was an American-Israeli project against our intellectuals and thinkers with the aim of discouraging the Iranian nation from continuing the path it has taken,” he was quoted as saying by Abna news agency at Rezaeinejad’s funeral. A month ago, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Ali Jafari, said his organisation had received information that “the enemies of the Islamic regime” were plotting more assassinations. Apart from the assassination of its scientists, Iran’s nuclear programme has also suffered from a computer worm, Stuxnet, which was designed to sabotage the country’s nuclear facilities. Iran Nuclear power Nuclear weapons Saeed Kamali Dehghan guardian.co.uk
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Doctor who accidentally killed David Gray on only UK shift as locum GP fails to stop attempts to get him banned in Germany A German doctor who accidentally killed a patient on his only UK shift as a locum GP on out-of-hours duty has failed in the latest round of his legal battle to silence the patient’s sons. A Munich appeal court has dismissed continuing attempts by Daniel Ubani to stop Rory and Stuart Gray trying to get him banned in his own country and questioning EU judicial and medical rules. Ubani killed their father, David Gray, at his Cambridgeshire home with a tenfold overdose of the painkiller diamorphine in February 2008, an act that a coroner ruled unlawful killing and led to him being barred by the General Medical Council from working in Britain. Ubani, whose main work is as a cosmetic surgeon, wanted to stop the brothers continuing to demand the changes to extradition arrangements and to EU rules over the checking of medical qualifications and competence. The doctor was given a suspended prison sentence in Germany and ordered to pay €5,000 in legal costs for killing Gray by negligence just as British authorities were seeking to pursue a possible manslaughter charge. He claimed the brothers were making false statements about him. Last summer the Grays interrupted Ubani’s appearance at a medical conference in Germany to publicise the case. He retaliated by trying to stop them criticising him anywhere in the EU or approaching within 550 metres of him. A court in Kempten, southern Germany, ruled against him and said the brothers could call him a charlatan or killer, but not an animal. Ubani’s appeal on the finding was dismissed this month. The judge said the appeal had “no chance of success” and rejected it because “the matter is of no fundamental importance”. He faces court costs of €15,000 for the initial case and €14,000 for the appeal, in addition to the brothers’ legal costs and expenses. Ubani was recently fined €7,000 by medical authorities over Gray’s death for breaking his country’s code of conduct for doctors, although he is still free to practise there. Rory Gray, a satellite engineer in Germany, said: “Considering he had flown to the UK at the age of 65 to do a weekend shift for £45 pounds an hour, out of which he had to pay his own flights, travel and accommodation, I would imagine this would be quite a significant financial burden.” Doctors Health Germany Europe James Meikle guardian.co.uk
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Two people familiar with the negotiations tell The Associated Press that the NFL and players have reached a deal to end the lockout. (July 25)
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The man who has confessed to carrying out a bombing and shooting spree that left 93 people dead in Norway will be held for at least eight weeks, half of that in complete isolation, after a closed hearing in which he said his terror network had two other cells. Anders Behring Breivik pleaded not guilty to one of the deadliest modern mass killings in peacetime, saying he wanted to save Norway and Europe from a Muslim takeover and send a strong signal, but was not trying to kill as many as possible, Judge Kim Heger said after a closed court hearing. Breivik could tamper with evidence if released, and will be held for at least another two months without access to visitors, mail or media, the…
Continue reading …NYT Sees Danger After ‘Christian Extremist’ Attack in Norway, But ‘Understanding’ for 2005 Muslim Bombers of London
July 25, 2011 No Comment
Sunday’s front-page, over-the-fold New York Times headline on the massacre in Norway (over a story by Scott Shane and Steven Erlanger) was blunt: “ As Horrors Emerge, Norway Charges Christian Extremist – Manifesto Shows Plan of Attack, Fear of Islam .” But while the Times showed no reluctance to identify Anders Behring Breivik, the lone gunman in the Norway attacks, as a “ Christian extremist ” in a front-page headline and hinted at more danger from “right-wing extremists” in Europe (photo credit Jon-Are Berg-Jacobsen/Agence France-Presse) the paper previously showed a clear reluctance to identify Islam after the last major terrorist attack on Europe, the deadly July 7, 2005 attacks by Muslim terrorists on subways and buses in London that killed 52. Instead the Times treated the attacks as British Prime Minister Tony Blair's ” bitter harvest ” for following President George W. Bush into Iraq. As more information about the London attacks came, a July 9, 2005 story focused on a theory “that the plot was carried out by a sleeper cell of homegrown extremists rather than highly trained terrorists exported to Britain.” But what kind of extremists? The Times left out the words “Islam” and “Muslim.” (“Muslim” showed up only in a quote, and without context.) Erlanger and Shane reached back to the Oklahoma City bombings of 1995, calling killer Timothy McVeigh “the right-wing American.”
Continue reading …Baltimore cops are seeking 16-year-old babysitter and a baby boy in her charge who have been missing for three days. “Put my baby somewhere safe and call somebody. He’s probably hungry,” the baby’s tearful mom pleaded at a support rally yesterday. “It’s a 7-month-old baby—you got to have some…
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People to be asked how content they feel in attempt to measure impact of policies on nation’s wellbeing Datablog: how do you measure happiness? The government will ask people how happy they are in order to measure the nation’s wellbeing for the first time, the chief statistician has revealed. Jill Mathieson, head of the Office for National Statistics, said that since April the Integrated Household Survey (IHS) had asked respondents to rank between one and 10 “how satisfied are you with your life nowadays, how happy did you feel yesterday, how anxious did you feel yesterday and to what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile?”. The results of the survey of 200,000 people will be published next July. Using these and a set of “objective” measurements, such as life expectancy and wealth, the government will devise a scheme to allow civil servants to assess the impact future policies will have on the wellbeing of the population. Mathieson said it was clear that how well-off people feel depends on things, such as their health or whether they have a job, that GDP does not capture. After 10 months of public consultation, she said, the ONS had “highlighted that the things that matter the most are our health, relationships, work and the environment. These are also themes that the majority of respondents agree should be reflected in a measure of national wellbeing, with the addition of education and training.” She argued that it was time to concentrate on household incomes, consumption and wealth rather than just total production. Launching the findings of the wellbeing debate, Sir Gus O’Donnell, the cabinet secretary, said he would be publishing a discussion paper on how to revise the civil service “green book”, which issues guidance to mandarins on how ministerial proposals should be appraised before public funds are committed. He wanted a “social cost/benefit analysis” to be offered by civil servants in the future. “[It's] to give people an idea on how to submit to ministers … how can they frame it in the right way.” The question is how to measure well-being. One important facet is how to assess people’s “quality of life”. O’Donnell said he had been surprised by the beneficial effect of “altruism” on people giving their time to volunteer and was looking at releasing civil servants to help in charities on a pro bono basis. David Cameron – who first floated the idea of a “happiness index” in 2005 when he was running for the leadership of the Conservative party – last November asked the ONS how best to capture information that would help Britain re-evaluate its priorities. Since then government policies have tried to focus on wellbeing as a desirable outcome, said O’Donnell. He cited how improving the mental health of the long-term unemployed could help them find work; how protecting parks and green spaces raised people’s wellbeing; and how reducing pressure on families would help increase children’s happiness. In 2007 Unicef placed UK at the bottom of a league table looking at subjective indicators of children’s wellbeing, resulting in a big push by the government to improve the happiness of the young. Although the country’s standing improved by 2010 it remained below those of other wealthy nations. The ONS regularly produces measures of income inequality but said it had only just begun “to look at inequality between generations though its developmental work on the generational accounting approach to public finances in the UK”. Andrew Oswald, professor of economics at the University of Warwick, said recent research from Californian academics had confirmed that when people found out they were being paid “below average” for their work, they “instantly registered a lower job satisfaction and look for jobs elsewhere. There’s nothing intrinsically left or rightwing about wellbeing. But it is important for the government to measure it,” said Oswald. Health Civil service Children Poverty Social trends Unemployment Volunteering Randeep Ramesh guardian.co.uk
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Norway gunman pleads not guilty to mass killing and tells Oslo hearing he acted to ‘save Europe’ from Islam The man who confessed to killing more than 70 people in a bomb and gun massacre on Friday has claimed he belonged to an organisation with two more cells who remain at large. At a closed hearing in Oslo, Anders Behring Breivik admitted carrying out the attacks but pleaded not guilty to one of the worst mass killings in peacetime Europe, and told the court he had acted to “save Europe” from Islam. Breivik, 32, will be detained in complete isolation for four weeks, with no incoming letters or visitors except for his lawyer, while police investigate his claims to have accomplices. Breivik has previously said he acted alone in the attacks. “The accused has made statements today that require further investigation, including that ‘there are two more cells in our organisation’,” said the judge, Kim Heger, who warned that Breivik could tamper with vital evidence if released. He will be held for at least another month after the court-ordered solitary confinement. Breivik arrived at court on Monday morning to jeering from a crowd of around 400 people. As a police convoy approached the rear of Oslo’s central court, someone shouted then the crowd surged forward. Bystanders screamed “traitor” and banged on the windows of a police car after one man said he’d spotted Breivik in the back seat. A local book editor, Marius Wulfsberg, 54, described one bystander pointing at a man in the crowd as Breivik’s vehicle passed. “That man lost three friends on Nyota Island, what do you have to say now? But the man he was pointing at was just standing there, impassive. “People were angry, shouting, some were hitting the door of the car.” Just after 1.40pm local time, Breivik was hustled into an underground tunnel that led into the basement and then taken up to courtroom 828, on the 8th floor. The hearing was ordered to be held behind closed doors after the judge was informed of last-minute police concerns. Outside the sealed courtroom, reporters waited in vain for a glimpse of Breivik, who had initially requested to appear in court in uniform, and asked for time to explain his actions. Normally such a hearing would be held in open court, but many in Norway had argued that Breivik should not be given a platform to justify the killings. Breivik’s lawyer, Geir Lippestad, said his client had admitted to the attacks but denied any criminal guilt. The court acknowledged the need for transparency in the case, but after a 35-minute hearing, Judge Heger said an open hearing would not be possible “for practical reasons.” “It is clear that there is concrete information that a public hearing with the suspect present could quickly lead to an extraordinary and very difficult situation in terms of the investigation and security,” he said. Police had earlier put the death toll at more than 90 but on Monday they revised the figure for the youth camp massacre down to 68, with at least seven killed in the bombing. Earlier, a minute’s silence brought Oslo to a standstill as thousands flocked to pay tribute outside the cathedral. More than 10 minutes later, thousands were still standing while others converged upon the vast field of flowers that has steadily grown in the heart of Oslo since Breivik struck. The flag on the courthouse remained at half mast. Meanwhile, the search for victims continued. Police have not released the names of the dead, but Norway’s royal court said on Monday that those killed at the island retreat included Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s stepbrother, an off-duty police officer, who was working there as a security guard. In an interview with the Swedish tabloid Expressen, Breivik’s father said he was disgusted by his son’s acts and wished he had committed suicide. “I don’t feel like his father,” said the former diplomat Jens David Breivik. “How could he just stand there and kill so many innocent people and just seem to think that what he did was OK? He should have taken his own life too. That’s what he should have done.” Norway Europe Global terrorism The far right Race issues Gun crime Mark Townsend guardian.co.uk
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