US spending on emergency assistance in drought areas of east Africa this year tops £431m, but assurances sought before funding will be directed to rebel-held famine regions of Somalia The US has pledged an additional $28m in aid for people affected by the drought and food crisis in Somalia, but stressed the money would not be used to provide assistance in areas under the control of the rebel group al-Shabaab. The two regions declared to be in a state of famine in Somalia are Bakool and Lower Shabelle in the south of the country. Both are believed to be in the hands of al-Shabaab, which is affiliated to al-Qaida and is on the US list of terrorist organisations. Around 3.7 million people – almost half of the Somali population – are now facing severe food shortages , 2.8 million of whom are in the south. The UN says that up to 12 million people are now in need of emergency assistance as a result of failed harvests, drought, rising food prices and conflict in east Africa. The US has spent more than $431m in emergency assistance in the area this year. In a press briefing in London on Wednesday, Donald Steinberg, deputy administrator of USAid, the US agency for international development, made it clear that America would need assurances from the UN and the World Food Programme that al-Shabaab would not restrict the delivery of US-funded aid before authorising its delivery to rebel-held regions. “We are committed to saving lives in Somalia and we are already working in any area not controlled by al-Shabaab,” said Steinberg. “Unfortunately, about 60% of people affected are in al-Shabaab territories. We’ve instructed Unicef and WFP that they can use our assistance in any part not under al-Shabaab control. As soon as UN and WFP declare that al-Shabaab is not going to be taxing assistance or hindering assistance using the local population as hostages and can prove unfettered access we are prepared to go ahead with assistance through any agency.” Last week, al-Shabaab said it would now allow foreign aid agencies into territories it controlled . The move has been welcomed by aid agencies, but the UN wants further guarantees that the aid will get to the people most in need. Around $5m of the additonal $28m in US aid is expected to be spent on relief for Somali refugees arriving daily at Dadaab refugee complex in Kenya. The rest will be spent on food aid and other basic services. Steinberg said the US was pressing the president of Eritrea, Isaias Afewerki, to disclose information on the impact of the drought in his country. He said weather patterns and the affect of the drought on neighbouring states, such as Dijbouti, where 120,000 people are believed to be in need of assistance, would suggest Eritrea is experiencing similar problems, but there was too little information to offer anything other than a “scewed picture” of the situation. “We have called on the president to allow the international community, as well as humanitarian organisations, to fully monitor what is going on and open up to life saving assistance if necessary,” said Steinberg. Around 7.5 million people in Ethiopia were now able to ride the worst of the drought because of the agricultural cash for work programmes that had been introduced in the country to enable people to become more food secure, added Steinberg. However, he conceded that 4.5 million people were still in need of humanitarian assistance and the government would need to address long-term food security concerns brought about by changing weather patterns. “It’s not just every 10 years we are experiencing drought. We have a situation where rains fail every other year and so this is the climactic effect we are seeing. It’s going to have a dramatic affect on the way of life in Ethiopia. Pastoralist communities will be increasingly under pressure. The government and its people are going to have to respond effectively.” Last month, a third refugee camp was opened in Dolo Ado in Ethiopia to accommodate Somali refugees, which, as of 30 June, numbered more than 54,000. The total number of refugees in Ethiopia is believed to be more than 135,000. Famine Aid Somalia Refugees Africa Liz Ford guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …A nurse has been arrested on suspicion of murdering three patients who died after vials of intravenous saline solution were tampered with . The 27-year-old suspect worked in the two wards in a British hospital where a total of 14 patients fell ill after receiving solution contaminated with insulin, the Telegraph…
Continue reading …National Black Pro-Life Coalition Releases Startling New Abortion Awareness Video
July 21, 2011 No Comment
The National Black Pro-Life Coalition isn’t holding anything back. This week, the group released the second part of its three-part video series called, “Numbers Don’t Lie.” Below, read a recent blurb from the group’s web site: Abortion is the number one killer of African-Americans, as revealed by CDC statistics. In the latest reported year, there were over 363,705 abortions and 289,306 total deaths… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : The Blaze Discovery Date : 20/07/2011 05:51 Number of articles : 4
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Yousuf Raza Gilani says Hillary Clinton has assured him there will be no more unilateral raids, contradicting US officials’ claims Pakistan’s prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, says he has received US assurances there will be no repeat of the unilateral raid that killed Osama Bin Laden in May. Gilani’s remarks, in an interview with the Guardian, contradict assertions by the US president, Barack Obama, and other American officials that US forces would take similar action against other al-Qaida leaders if necessary. Gilani was speaking in London at a time when Pakistani relations with the west, particularly the US, are at a low in the wake of the raid on Bin Laden’s hideout in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad on 2 May. After the special forces operation, US officials voiced suspicions that Bin Laden must have had a network of local supporters, possibly inside the Pakistani state, while Pakistani leaders were outraged not to have been consulted over the raid inside their territory. “Since we were sharing information with US and there was a tremendous relationship with the CIA and ISI [Inter-Services Intelligence], therefore we could have done a joint operation in Abbottabad, but it didn’t happen. Therefore we had a lot of reservations,” Gilani said. He added: “They have assured us in future there will be no unilateral actions in Pakistan, and there would be co-operation between both agencies.” The Pakistani prime minister said he had received the assurance personally from the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton. In her public statements, however, Clinton has declared the US would strike unilaterally against other top militants if others did not. She said in May : “We’ve made it clear to people around the world that if we locate someone who has been part of the al-Qaida leadership, then you get him or we will get him.” Speaking to the BBC just before his visit to Britain the same month, Obama was equally blunt on the issue. He said: “We are very respectful of the sovereignty of Pakistan. But we cannot allow someone who is planning to kill our people or our allies’ people – we can’t allow those kind of active plans to come to fruition without us taking some action.” On Thursday, however, Gilani said any repeat of the Abbottabad raid would be “totally unacceptable”. “Public opinion would further aggravate against the United States and you cannot fight a war without the support of the masses. You need the masses to support military actions against militants,” he said. He said another raid would damage “not only our relationship, but also our common objective, to fight against militants. We are fighting a war and if we fail that means that it’s not good for the world. We can’t afford losing.” After the raid against Bin Laden, the Pakistani government said it had stopped the US launching drones from its territory in pursuit of militants in tribal areas. Nevertheless, drone strikes on the Pakistani side of the border with Afghanistan have continued. “We don’t allow our bases to be used. They have other bases they use,” Gilani said. Asked where those bases were, he replied: “I don’t know. You ask the Americans. This is a question to put to them.” The prime minister added: “Drone attacks are against our strategy too, because we have been isolating the militants from the local population and when there are drone attacks they get united again.” Pakistan United States Osama bin Laden Hillary Clinton Julian Borger guardian.co.uk
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Insulin poisoning at hospital in Stockport claims fourth and fifth victims Two more patients have died of suspected insulin overdoses at a hospital as a 27-year-old nurse continues to be interviewed by police on murder charges. The patients fell ill at Stepping Hill hospital in Hazel Grove, Stockport, where three other patients have died. Tests are continuing to determine if saline that had been injected with insulin was directly responsible for the deaths of Tracey Arden, 44, 84-year-old George Keep, and Arnold Lancaster, 71. Detectives are questioning Rebecca Leighton, who works as a nurse at the hospital. She was arrested at her flat in the Heaviley district of Stockport at 6am on Wednesday. Sixty detectives from Greater Manchester police are working on the case. The treatment of 14 patients since 7 July on two acute medical wards – A1 and A3 – is being examined by police. Thirty-six bags of saline in a storeroom were found to have been sabotaged with insulin. On Tuesday police said the person responsible could still be at the hospital. Detectives can apply for an extension to continue questioning Rebecca Leighton if they need more time. Officers were first called nine days ago after an experienced nurse noticed unexpected drops in blood sugar levels in a large number of patients on the ward. Staff have now been told to work in pairs when checking and administering drugs. A single keyholder has to be asked for access to locked drugs cabinets. Police have said a product containing saline found damaged in the maternity ward at Stepping Hill was not contaminated, according to preliminary tests. Inquests into the deaths of three patients have been opened and adjourned at the request of the police. Tracey Arden had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis 12 years ago. She had been admitted to the hospital on 7 July suffering from associated illnesses. Her parents, who live nearby, said she had been in good spirits when they left but within two hours began to deteriorate. Hospital staff called and told them to return urgently but she died before they arrived. Retired businessman George Keep was admitted to the hospital with a fractured hip after a fall on 27 June and had seemed to be recovering initially. He ran his own house maintenance firm and was described by relatives as a keen gardener and very strong for his age. His health suddenly deteriorated at the hospital and for six days doctors struggled to keep him alive. He was given blood and put on a saline drip for hydration but died last Thursday. Retired photographer Arnold Lancaster, of Romiley, had worked for the Stockport Express. He died on 11 July. The hospital has said it is not concerned about the health of nine other patients who were affected by the saline. Dr Chris Burke, chief executive of Stockport NHS Foundation Trust, said the trust was unable to comment further or provide any more details because of the police investigation. The Nursing and Midwifery Council confirmed that Rebecca Leighton had been arrested. Friends expressed their shock. It is understood her mother, Lynda, is a senior manager at the hospital responsible for training nurses. Other hospitals across the north-west had been warned to be vigilant. Crime NHS Health Helen Carter guardian.co.uk
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Kim Kardashian sues Old Navy over lookalike in ads; Katy Perry notches 9 MTV VMA Award nominations; Beatles’ 1st US concert photos fetch $360K in NYC. (July 21)
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Shuttle Atlantis commander Chris Ferguson and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden spoke to reporters after the safe landing of Shuttle Atlantis for the final time. (July 21)
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Click here to view this media CBN aired for the first time Wednesday clips of an earlier interview where former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin explained that she just wants to help the mainstream media. “Much of the mainstream media is already becoming so irrelevant because there is not balance, there is, in many cases, David, there is not truth,” she told CBN’s David Brody. “I know that firsthand. I lived it every day.” “And what would give me great joy is if what would become irrelevant is just the untruthful, the misreporting out there. I want the mainstream media — and I’ve said this for a couple of years now — I want to help ‘em. I have a journalism degree. That is what I studied. I understand that this cornerstone of our democracy is a free press, is sound journalism. I want to help them build back their reputation and allow Americans to be able to trust what it is that they are reporting. We are so far from being able to trust what so many of the mainstream media personalities, characters feed the American public that it scares me for our country. What would give me great joy is what would become irrelevant is the misreporting that comes out of the mainstream media.” Palin also shared her thoughts about Twitter. “I’m so thankful for the 140 characters, I’m going to use every single one of them. If you go back and you look at my tweets for the most part, it’s 140 characters on the nose. I want that space,” she said. “We’ve been griping about it for years in the world of media, that a politician, any person cannot get a real idea across in a ten-second soundbite. Why do you think we can get anything across in 140 characters? A lot of times, our tweets just create more confusion and more problems than they provide solutions.” Dave N.: Palin has trotted out this line previously, and I commented on it back then : A word about Sarah Palin’s journalism degree: She and I graduated from the same school, the University of Idaho. (She arrived at the school a year after I graduated.) The difference is that when I attended there, I was highly active in the communications community, and was editor of the school paper for a year. Sarah Palin, in contrast, never even wrote a story for the Argonaut, let alone for the J school’s other chief outlet, the UI News Bureau; no one at the school’s TV station remembers her or has any record of her doing work there. Indeed, the professor who signed her degree barely remembers her, as she was one of those students who simply showed up for class, got a grade, and went home. Given that kind of background, Palin was lucky to even get a shot at sports reporting for a small Alaska TV station, which was the extent of her actual experience as a journalist. So it hasn’t been surprising to watch Palin attack the “lamestream media”, because she is obviously someone whose understanding of modern communications is eggshell-thin, and whose insights are about as deep as Bristol Bay at a minus-5 tide. The idea that this woman considers herself capable of reforming the media is enough to give any professional journalist the shudders.
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Guatemala: Deep sinkhole opens under woman’s bed Headlines on Acidhedz July 20 2011 SCARY! Woman finds giant sinkhole under her bed. alexiaisngot says: That sinking feeling: Woman finds giant sinkhole under her bed | The Upshot – Yahoo! News http://t.co/7sYIJK6 via @YahooNews
Continue reading …Canon EOS Rebel T2i 18 MP CMOS APS-C Digital SLR Camera with 3.0-Inch LCD and EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens
July 21, 2011 No Comment
Type: Photography Title: Canon EOS Rebel T2i 18 MP CMOS APS-C Digital SLR Camera with 3.0-Inch LCD and EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens See all customer reviews Product Description: Canon EOS Rebel T2i Digital SLR Camera – 18 Megapixel – 3″ Active Matrix TFT Color LCD 4462B003 31 Features: 18.0-megapixel CMOS (APS-C) sensor; DIGIC 4 image processor for high image quality and speed Kit includes 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens ISO 100-6400 (expandable to 12800) for shooting from bright to dim light; enhanced 63-zone, Dual-layer metering system Improved EOS Movie mode with manual exposure control and expanded recording 1920 x 1080 (Full HD) Wide 3.0-inch Clear View LCD monitor; dedicated Live View/Movie shooting button New compatibility with SDXC memory cards, plus new menu status indicator for Eye-Fi support See the details
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