As a bitter election reaches its climax. Are the Milanese about to turn their backs on their former favourite son? Wearing an elegant silk jacket, carrying a white Dolce & Gabbana handbag and sporting her customary silver eye shadow, the beleaguered mayor of Milan, Letizia Moratti, cut an incongruous figure as she scrunched across the gravel at an old Gypsy campsite in Milan last week. The 1,500 Gypsies who once lived here have long gone, which is why Moratti had brought the TV crews with her. “When I first came here, I saw an undignified way of life. Now there are zero Gypsies,” she said, before listing the other Gypsy settlements around Milan that she plans to shut down if re-elected this weekend. Moratti’s tough talk matched her mayoral campaign, which has been the most vicious and xenophobic in living memory. This is Silvio Berlusconi’s city, the place where he made his fortune and established his power base. The left has not had a look-in here for two decades, but now Moratti, who represents Berlusconi’s Freedom People party, is in trouble – partly because of Berlusconi’s “bunga-bunga” party-related scandals – and the politics of Milan have turned extremely nasty. Insults flew and there was brawling on the city’s streets after Moratti’s opponent, Giuliano Pisapia, a lawyer and former communist MP, beat her by 40,000 votes in the first ballot two weeks ago. As the run-off vote takes place and there is a feeling that the unthinkable could happen: Berlusconi could lose control of Milan. “It is hard to beat the vulgarity and violence of Italian politics today, but this campaign has excelled,” said Gian Antonio Stella, a columnist at Corriere della Sera . Berlusconi has made the job of holding Milan a personal challenge as he confronts plummeting polls and whispers within his coalition that he has lost his populist appeal. Should Milan fall, fearful supporters whisper, Berlusconi may not be far behind. “If Pisapia wins, Milan will became a Muslim town, a Gypsyville of Roma camps, a city besieged by foreigners,” Berlusconi has warned in one of a series of increasingly irate video messages on his website. He told one TV interviewer that anyone voting for the centre-left had “left their brains at home”. Meanwhile, young activists brought in from throughout Italy fanned out across Milan telling locals Pisapia would open “injection rooms” for drug addicts. “If Pisapia wins, there will be a boom in rapes and prostitutes on the streets,” said Massimo Corsaro, a Freedom People MP. A hardworking city that generates 3.1% of Italy’s gross domestic product, Milan gave Berlusconi his first break as a property developer and he later built his TV empire, Mediaset, there. It was the prospect of a former communist taking Milan from him that drove Berlusconi to hijack Moratti’s campaign, showing up at her rallies to make wild promises about tripling financial assistance to the elderly. Currently facing four trials in Milan, including the Rubygate trial, where he is accused of paying a Moroccan teenager for sex, Berlusconi also sought to win votes by insulting the judges from the court steps, referring to them as “a cancer”. Last week a clearly embarrassed Barack Obama was lectured by Berlusconi on the persecution that he believes he faces when they met at the G8 summit in Deauville. “Berlusconi is locked in his bunker and has lost all contact with reality,” said Antonio di Pietro, leader of the opposition Italy of Values party. “He hoped to win votes by showing up for his trials, but few people showed up to cheer him and it turned off the moderate voters here,” said supermarket clerk Roberto Paternoster, 25. Moratti made her own mistakes, accusing Pisapia in a TV debate on the eve of the first round of voting of hiding an old conviction for car theft, when in fact he had been acquitted. Hours later, Pisapia had taken 48% of the Milan vote to Moratti’s 41.6%. “Berlusconi’s big mistake was to think Milan would be frightened by a middle-class leftwinger like Pisapia,” said Stella. Ignoring calls from his own party to lower the tone ahead of the run-off, Berlusconi gave speeches on five TV stations in one day, prompting Italy’s TV watchdog to dish out fines totalling €800,000 (£693,000) for violations of fair airtime rules before elections. Back in Milan, an incredulous Pisapia alleged that someone was placing fake Gypsies in street markets to hand out leaflets bearing his name, and fake workmen were knocking on doors to tell locals that a huge mosque was about to be built on their doorstep. Il Giornale , the Berlusconi family-owned newspaper, which has stoked the poisonous atmosphere by attacking bishops who dared to criticise the xenophobic mood, claimed that Pisapia’s accusations were unfounded. “Even his magistrate friends won’t believe this,” one editorial suggested. Various Berlusconi allies have joined the fray. “I live and breathe this city and Milan does not want to become a Gypsy town,” said Daniela Santanchè, the fiery minister who founded the Movement for Italy. She was backed by Giuseppe Cali, 23, one of the Freedom People activists in Milan’s Piazza Duomo on Thursday night for a Moratti rally and concert. “If I go into a park with my girlfriend, I just don’t feel safe if there are groups of foreigners there,” he said. “Many Milanese have moved out of town, and we now have half a million pensioners cheek by jowl with 200,000 immigrants,” said Ettore Albertoni, a former regional governor with the Northern League, the devolutionist party on which Berlusconi depends for support in parliament. But the League is tiring of Berlusconi’s numerous scandals and fears that the media magnate’s ranting at judges may be alienating voters. Umberto Bossi, the rough-spoken leader of the League, has failed to show up at several rallies where he was due to share the stage with Moratti. “Milan is so important for Berlusconi because it is where the alliance with the Northern League was forged,” said Tito Boeri, an economist at Milan’s Bocconi university. “If he loses Milan, the alliance may collapse.” There was further angst for the Moratti camp when, at the last minute, star act Gigi D’Alessio pulled out of a concert in support of the mayor, claiming that he had been insulted by Northern League representatives because he hails from Naples in the south of Italy. The job of entertaining Berlusconi’s flag-waving activists fell, bizarrely, to Bryan Ferry, who gamely performed a medley of hits. Hardly noticed by the press, Pisapia is out on the stump every day. Last week he spent a hot Thursday afternoon giving an off-the-cuff speech to 400 residents in a park in the working-class Quartiere 8 neighbourhood on the edge of Milan. As children milled around and a jazz band played, Pisapia showed little grasp of skilful oratory, but drew applause as he talked up plans to open new markets to bring communities back together. “You see, Milan the city is more tolerant than Letizia Moratti,” said Nino, a taxi driver and Pisapia supporter. An hour after the Democratic Party (PD) candidate left, the event was still going strong as free plates of fava beans and wine in plastic cups were handed out. “You don’t see a party atmosphere like this often in Milan,” said student Jacopo Ceccerelli, 23, who pointed out that in a primary held to find a candidate to represent the opposition, Pisapia had beaten the PD’s chosen man. “People here think he is their candidate, not someone handpicked by party officials in Rome.” If Pisapia does win, it will be one of the shock results of recent political history in Italy. Stella believes that, against the odds and after an extraordinarily vitriolic campaign, it could happen. “Everything tends to start in Milan, from the Risorgimento, to socialism, fascism and the ‘clean hands’ investigations into corruption,” he said. “Silvio Berlusconi was born here too, and it is possible his era will end here.” Silvio Berlusconi Italy Europe Tom Kington guardian.co.uk
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It was Milosevic’s fault, says the man charged with orchestrating the biggest massacre in Europe since the last world war Ratko Mladic delivered a tirade of abuse against officials involved in his capture when he was first brought to court, the Observer has learned. He accused them of “working for the CIA” and later remarked chillingly to one prominent official that he could have had him killed on two occasions. Mladic, who has refused to recognise the authority of the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, where he is expected to be extradited to this week on charges of genocide, also denied being a killer, adding that all Serbs bore a shared guilt for voting for President Slobodan Milosevic, architect of the Balkan wars. How Mladic has behaved since being brought to a Belgrade court was disclosed in the most detailed account yet of the state of mind of the man charged with orchestrating the Srebrenica massacre and the siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian war. It came as a source close to Serbia’s intelligence service, the BIA – or Security Information Agency – said Mladic had been living openly, although “not continuously”, in the village of Lazarevo, where he was found, for several years. A BIA team observing the house of Branko Mladic, where Ratko Mladic was found, in one of two addresses he had been using in the area, had watched him going about “everyday activities” including helping his cousin Branko on the farm and attending village celebrations. “Personally speaking,” said the source, “I think some officials knew where he was living. It was peculiar, too, that when the house was raided that there were no personal possessions there.” Mladic’s behaviour since capture was described by Bruno Vekaric, a deputy prosecutor at the War Crimes Prosecutor’s Office, who has met Mladic twice since his arrest in Lazarevo on Thursday. “He was really angry at first. He recognised me from television and said: ‘You’re in the CIA!’ He knew my name and asked me: ‘Are you a Serb?’ You know, because it is not a common Serbian name. I told him my father was from Dubrovnik [in Croatia]. He felt like a great Serb and was angry at the way he was being treated on that first day.” Vekaric added that examination of Mladic by court-appointed medical experts confirmed that he had suffered at least two minor strokes, perhaps more, but was coherent and fit to stand trial. That was confirmed by his wife, Bosiljka, speaking after visiting Mladic, who said he had suffered a stroke in 2008. “He was stubborn and resistant. He did not want to co-operate with the judge at all on the first day,” said Vekaric. “He spoke about his career. And what was interesting – on that first day – was that he said to me: ‘Bruno, I am not a killer. But the people who killed, they should be held responsible’.” Vekaric gave his account in his court office above the cells where Mladic is being held in a block on his own, watched 24 hours by two guards through an open door. He described a vivid psychological profile of the man who spent 16 years on the run. “He’s always observed,” said Vekaric, “but he’s told the guards: ‘You don’t have to worry. I’m not going to commit suicide’.” Mladic emerges from the account as a man who has a desperate need to explain himself. “He needs to speak. To communicate,” said Vekaric. “He was alone for so long he needs to speak.” Although they had never met before, Mladic made clear to Vekaric that he had followed his statements over the years on television. “The first day he was very tired. He was stressed and aggressive. The second time I saw him in court he apologised to me for his outburst.” What has been visible since then is a more familiar Mladic, arrogant and demanding, insisting not only on his own innocence but on the shared guilt of all of the Serbian people. “He said: ‘You elected [Slobodan] Milosevic, not me. You are all guilty, not me’.” During his time in court, speaking to officials on the margins of the proceedings to extradite him to The Hague for trial, some details have emerged of how Mladic has lived. He has had no mobile phone – not trusting it or the internet. The television channels that he watched were local Serbian ones, describing cable television as “fed by the CIA”. Mladic has delivered recriminations, too, over how his family has been treated during the long manhunt. “He asked for his pension [cut off in 2004] to be reinstated. He said: ‘You destroyed everything. Because of you my daughter-in-law lost her job. They destroyed the financial connections of my son Darko’,” Vekaric said. He added that as well as asking for strawberries and a television, which has been delivered to his cell, Mladic had asked to visit the grave of his daughter, Anna, who committed suicide in 1994, and had also asked if he could see his grandchildren. Vekaric added that Mladic had suffered increasingly straitened circumstances since 2006 – when he narrowly evaded arrest in the village of Ljuba. This was as a result of the targeting of those in his support network, including financiers, and increased supervision of family members, who had been followed closely by the BIA. “He only had relatives who could look after him,” said the source familiar with the BIA operation to capture him. “None of his close family visited him in Lazarevo while the house was being observed. They were being watched too closely.” “When you see him,” said Vekaric, “you see a man who was not looked after himself well in the last three to four years. He looks like someone who has not had proper medical attention in a long time.” Ratko Mladic War crimes Bosnia and Herzegovina Serbia Slobodan Milosevic trial Peter Beaumont guardian.co.uk
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Passengers were evacuated from a Delta Air Lines flight after it blew at least one tire while landing at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Saturday afternoon. Passengers were evacuated using the plane’s rear stair.
Continue reading …Pornographer Larry Flynt Calls Palin’s Down Syndrome Son ‘Brain Dead Vegetable’
May 28, 2011 No Comment
Following in the footsteps of the liberal website Wonkette, pornographer Larry Flynt called Sarah Palin's Down Syndrome son Trig “brain dead – a virtual vegetable.” Such was reported by Britain's Independent Friday: It's hard to keep him focused on this subject, or any subject. His conversation skids about. He doubts Barack Obama would cheat on his wife because: “You ever looked at her? If he ever cheated on her she'd kick his ass. You know they may be black but they've got a very stable family.” Then he says, apropos of nothing: “Sarah Palin is the dumbest thing. But I made a fortune off of her. [He made a porn film called Nailin' Palin, based on her]… She did a disservice to every woman in America. She knew from the first month of pregnancy that kid was going to be Down's Syndrome. It's brain dead. A virtual vegetable. She carries it to all these different political events against abortion, she did it just because she didn't want to say she'd had an abortion. How long is it going to live? Another 12, 15 years? Doesn't even know it's in this world. So what kind of compassionate conservative is she? I don't think anybody will want her near the White House.” I am so thrown by the unpleasantness of all this I don't even interject. What an idiot. Due to advances in medical technology, Down Syndrome offspring lead very full lives in America today. As reported by About Down Syndrome: In l929 the Down Syndrome lifespan was only 9 years. It has greatly increased over the past 80 or so years. Today, people with Down Syndrome are living well into their 50’s and 60’s. Not only do they live longer, but they live happier, fuller and healthier lives. Up until the 70’s or so, the majority of people with Down syndrome were still institutionalized. In these institutions they were left to themselves. They did not have the opportunities many people with Down syndrome have today. The health care of these institutionalized people was not anywhere near what it is today. Twenty five years ago a person with Down syndrome was only expected to live about 25 years. Today, due to drastic advances in medicine, they are living well into their 50’s and 60’s. Ultimately though the lifespan of a person with Down syndrome depends on any medical conditions he or she may be living with…Generally, many adults with Down Syndrome live happy and full lives. They hold jobs, get married and with the help of family and caretakers they are often able to live fairly independently. It appears given the facts the person who's brain dead is Flynt. Wouldn't it be nice if the ignorant weren't given such a platform to speak their nonsense from? Of course, magazines, newspapers, radio stations, and television networks would have a hard time creating product if that were the case. (H/T Weasel Zippers )
Continue reading …This can’t be good: Hackers breached the security networks of top US defense contractors, reports Reuters . The story has no details on what, if anything, the hackers got, and points out that any highly classified work would likely be out of reach on a closed government network. But it’s possible…
Continue reading …Fresh off her epic spat with Donald Trump, Gail Collins today turns her pen on “the latest Republican Party crush,” Rick Perry. The Texas governor is, “in his own words,” writes Collins in the New York Times , “’the kind of guy who goes jogging packing a Ruger .380 with laser…
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picturebugs says: PICTURE BUGS: Kevin McHale offered head coaching job http://t.co/srCL1Hp
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ST. LOUIS — Powerful storms roared through middle America again on Wednesday, with weak tornadoes touching down in isolated spots and severe thunderstorms threatening such strikes in several states. The National Weather Service issued tornado watches and a series of warnings in a dozen states, stretching northwest from Texas though the Mississippi River valley to Ohio. “Everybody’s working as fast and furious as possible,” said Beverly Poole, the chief meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s office in Paducah, Ky., which covers southeastern Missouri and southern Illinois. “This is just a wild ride.” There were no immediate reports of deaths from the new round of storms, though authorities reported dozens of minor injuries following brief tornado touchdowns in Missouri and Indiana. Wednesday’s storms followed a deadly outbreak Tuesday in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kansas that killed at least 15 people. The nation’s deadliest single tornado since 1950 killed 125 on Sunday in the southwest Missouri city of Joplin. Heavy rain, hail and lightning pounded Memphis on Wednesday night as a tornado warning sounded. Menacing clouds showed some rotation, but there were no confirmed reports of tornadoes touching down. Southern Indiana authorities said at least 12 people were treated for non-life-threatening injuries after a tornado touched down along U.S. 50 east of Bedford, flattening homes, barns and other structures in its path. “The guys on the ground there say it’s a predominantly rural area, which is fortunate for the masses but of course not for the people nearby,” said Sgt. Brian Olehy of Indiana State Police. There were also injuries reported when a storm struck a mobile home park west of Bloomington, state police said. Authorities were on their way to the scene but had to clear downed tree limbs and power lines from the roads first. Earlier in the day, as many as 25 people suffered minor injuries when a tornado damaged several homes and businesses in the central Missouri city of Sedalia. Officials said most were able to get themselves the hospital for treatment. “Considering the destruction that occurred in Joplin – being that we’re in tornado alley and Sedalia has historically been hit by tornadoes in the past – I think people heeded that warning,” Pettis County Sheriff Kevin Bond said. “And so, I think that helped tremendously.” Officials in Sedalia ended the school year several days early because of damage to buses. In one hard-hit neighborhood, law officers stood on corners and electrical crews worked on power lines as people cleaned debris and sifted through belongings. One of the heavily damaged homes was the house of Priscilla McCabe, 61, and her 30-year-old son Sean McCabe, who was home when the tornado struck. Sean McCabe was headed to the basement and says the storm shoved him down the final flight of steps. He had scraps and cuts on his hands, wrists, back and feet. Blood was visible on the carpeted steps heading to the basement and glass crunched underfoot. Much of the roof of the house was gone. “I saw little debris and then I saw big debris, and I’m like OK, let’s go,” said Sean McCabe, who has a service dog for epilepsy. “All I could think about was the dogs.” Law enforcement agencies reported one home destroyed late Wednesday afternoon in the rural Carter County town of Ellsinore, about 150 miles south of St. Louis. In Illinois, high winds, rain and at least four possible tornadoes knocked down power lines and damaged at least one home and a number of farm buildings across the central and eastern parts of the state. “Mostly it was shingles off roofs and garages,” said Illinois Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Patti Thompson.
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‘Tis a sad day in the world of Google … at least for developers who use any of a handful of ill-fated APIs. As the search giant’s API list has grown in recent months, it’s making the decision to cull a few in the effort of “spring cleaning.” In fact, a grand total of seven new APIs were launched during Google I/O alone, but it looks as if the end is nigh for the Blog Search API, Books Data API, Image Search API, News Search API, Patent Search API, Safe Browsing API (v1 only), Translate API, Transliterate API, Video Search API and Virtual Keyboard API. Of those, Wave is most unsurprising , but Translate likely hurts the most — particularly for jetsetters who relied on those baked-in services to wrap their heads around various tongues. According to Goog, the Translate API has been officially deprecated “due to the substantial economic burden caused by extensive abuse.” A pretty ominous phrase, to be sure, and further proof that a few rotten apples can ruin things for the whole of us. Hit the links below to get a glimpse of the full damage — we’re warning you, it ain’t pretty. Google pinpoints shutdown dates for Wave, Translate APIs (amongst others) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 May 2011 17:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Cancer patients denied last wish to die at home because of shortage of nurses
May 28, 2011 No Comment
70,000 cancer patients in England and Wales die in a hospital bed every year, despite wanting to be at home Tens of thousands of cancer patients are dying in hospital, despite wishing to end their lives at home, because of a “shameful” lack of NHS nurses, campaigners say. Only 56% of primary care trusts (PCTs) in England offer around-the-clock community nursing care, which helps those approaching the end of their lives remain among family and friends. Macmillan Cancer Support has found that 73% of the 157,000 cancer patients who die every year in England and Wales would prefer to spend their last days at home. But data from the Office of National Statistics shows that 51% of these patients (80,070) die in hospital and another 17% (26,690) in a hospice, with only 27% (42,390) dying in their own surroundings. Care homes account for the remaining 5%. The mismatch between patients’ wishes and their eventual place of death affects 72,220 people. Some of those who die in hospital do so because their illness means that they cannot remain at home, but campaigners say that many or most of them could have ended their days there with loved ones if there was sufficient nursing support. “It is a tragedy that, each year, tens of thousands of cancer patients are not able to get their dying wish – to die in their own home, surrounded by their loved ones – because they do not have the support they need. We know that with the right support, 73% of cancer patients would prefer to die at home, but only 27% actually do,” said Mike Hobday, Macmillan’s head of policy. “It also costs the NHS more money to have them in hospital, where they don’t want to be, showing how badly needed around-the-clock community nursing is. Twenty-four/seven nursing care can significantly reduce emergency admissions and allow patients the end-of-life care that they want, yet it is only available in just over half of England’s PCTs.” Conservative MP John Baron, the chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on cancer, said: “It is shameful that so many people with cancer cannot die where they wish – in their own homes – because of a lack of community nursing provision. Those areas that currently do not provide out-of-hours community nursing should make plans to address this issue.” Their calls for action came as research revealed how much time many cancer patients spend in hospital as they near the end of their life. The study, in the European Journal of Cancer , found that in 2006 in England, 58% of 147,000 people with the disease in the last year of their lives had been admitted to hospital during that time, and 25% had spent more than 10% of their time as an inpatient. “This research shows that a considerable number of cancer patients are spending significant amounts of time in hospital in the last year of life, despite many patients telling us that they want to die at home” said Ciarán Devane, the chief executive of Macmillan. “It is wrong to deny people the choice about where they die.” Health minister Paul Burstow accepted that existing provision was inadequate. “People deserve care at the end of life that is compassionate and gives them the choice over where they die and how they are cared for. Progress is being made in improving end-of-life care, but I know more needs to be done. We want to make sure everyone gets the highest quality of care, in the place of their choice,” he said. More is being done to improve training, promote best practice and ensure that proper end-of-life care exists across NHS and social care services, he added. “The government believes that people should be given a choice about where they receive end-of-life care. I am determined to increase the pace of change to make this choice a reality,” he said. Joe Levenson of the National Council for Palliative Care said: “Every minute someone dies in the UK, but many people each year, including tens of thousands with cancer, are still not receiving the type of end-of-life care they want and need. Much more needs to be done to improve access to 24/7 palliative care, including in people’s own homes, where so many people would prefer to die.” Sue Brooks, a retired health and safety officer in Berkshire, lost her husband, David, to cancer. She has called for better round-the-clock NHS nursing care so that terminally ill people can die at home: “David was diagnosed with lung cancer in July 2005 and by that December he was very, very ill. We agreed with the doctor that he would spend some time in a hospice to give me a break and let me get out and buy Christmas presents for our three children. But by the time he was ready to come home, he was too sick to be moved. “The hospice was wonderful, and I was with him when he died. But we weren’t at home, and he strongly wanted to die at home. He had even drawn a sketch of how he wanted the room at home to look when he died. “If we’d been able to get 24/7 nursing cover, maybe he wouldn’t have had to go into the hospice at all. Sadly, it’s a postcode lottery as to who gets that. But that’s actually costing the NHS more money, as it’s cheaper to nurse someone at home than keep them in hospital. “Most terminally ill people want to die at home, but the majority don’t get the chance. Do you not deserve some respect at that time of your life, when you have given everything? It’s a tragedy that people who are sick and know they are dying can’t have their very last wish.” Cancer NHS Nursing Health Denis Campbell guardian.co.uk
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