EU agriculture commissioner says farmers could get back 30% of the cost of vegetables they have been unable to sell The European agriculture commissioner has proposed spending €150m (£135m) to compensate farmers affected by the E coli outbreak by paying them a proportion of the cost of unsold products. Dacian Ciolos, speaking ahead of emergency talks between EU agriculture ministers, said farmers could receive 30% of the cost of vegetables they have been unable to sell due to fears over the outbreak in Germany, which has killed 22 people and made more than 2,200 ill. The ministers are expected to reach an agreement in principle later on Tuesday. Farmers have suffered a huge drop in sales of salad vegetables after repeated and so far seemingly misleading speculation about the source of the newly identified and virulent strain of the bacterium. German consumers are being advised not to eat raw cucumbers, salad leaves or tomatoes, while Russia has banned the import of all vegetables from the EU. Spanish farmers have suffered in particular, in part because they grow a significant share of Europe’s salad produce, but mainly because cucumbers from the country were initially blamed for the outbreak. After fierce protests from Spain, which relies heavily on farm exports, German ministers eventually admitted they had got it wrong. The same sequence was repeated on Monday when tests on bean sprouts from an organic farm in Lower Saxony, identified by German officials as almost certainly the cause of the outbreak, came back negative. The EU’s health commissioner, John Dalli, has criticised Germany for rushing out “premature conclusions” about the source of an outbreak, saying such actions spread alarm among the public and damaged the agriculture sector. “I would like to stress it is crucial that national authorities do not rush to give information on the source of infection which is not proven by bacteriological analysis, as this spreads unjustified fears in the population all over Europe and creates problems for our food producers selling products in the EU and outside the EU,” Dalli said. “While such intensive investigations are ongoing, we must be careful not to make premature conclusions.”. He said the outbreak had been contained to a relatively small area. “I stress that the outbreak is limited geographically to the area surrounding the city of Hamburg, so there is no reason to take action on a European level. [EU-wide] measures against any product are disproportionate,” Dalli told the European parliament. Two weeks after news of the mass outbreak emerged, the source of the bacterium remains a mystery. German ministers had said there were “strong and clear indications” that bean sprouts from the Gärtenhof organic farm, 40 miles from Hamburg, spread the E coli . However, a first set of 23 results from 40 samples taken at the farm were negative, Lower Saxony’s agriculture ministry said. Scientists say the longer the wait for a definite source, the more likely it is that one will never be identified. “If we don’t know the likely culprit in a week’s time, we may never know the cause,” said Dr Guénaël Rodier, an infectious diseases expert at the UN’s World Health Organisation. German officials said the Gärtenhof farm could still be the source of the outbreak, even if all the tests come back negative. Bean sprouts had seemed a likely culprit, having previously been implicated in E coli outbreaks in the US and Japan. They are grown in water heated to 38C, ideal for bacteria to flourish. US scientists warn that young children, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems should not consume them raw, advice now taken up by the UK Food Standards Agency. Hugh Pennington, the professor who led inquiries into two UK outbreaks of E coli , said: “They’ve done experimental studies on contaminating bean sprouts and seeing what happens to the bacteria during sprouting, and you can get up to a million-fold increase in bacteria. It’s like incubating a culture of bacteria.” Spain has threatened legal action against German regional authorities for wrongly identifying Spanish cucumbers as the source, but the commission has stressed that the crisis affected all EU producers and a continent-wide solution is needed. E coli Germany Europe European Union Farming European commission Peter Walker Adam Gabbatt guardian.co.uk
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The government’s vision for the natural environment over the next 50 years could lead to conflict with planning authorities A dozen new large-scale conservation areas, protection for ancient woods and nature ambassadors are needed to protect England’s environment, the government said on Tuesday in the first natural environment white paper in nearly 20 years . But the government’s vision for the natural environment over the next 50 years provides only £7.5m extra over the next three years for the 12 large “nature improvement areas” and could lead to conflict with planning authorities with its clear aim to encourage business to take more advantage of England’s “natural assets”. The document states that England’s environment will be “better protected, restored and improved” after years of continual biodiversity loss and degradation. This, it proposes, will be reversed by giving local communities and volunteers a greater connection to nature and allowing business to forge partnerships with farmers, local authorities and conservation groups. The idea of a competition to develop “ecological restoration zones” was recommended last year by Prof John Lawton as part of an independent review. Lawton put the cost of rebuilding nature in England between £0.6bn and £1.1bn, hundreds of times the amount proposed today for the nature improvement areas (NIAs) which it is hoped will provide bigger, connected sites for wildlife to live in and adapt to climate change. These would be based on partnerships between local authorities, the private sector and conservation groups. The white paper also supports the idea of a network of of local “improvement areas” to connect fragmented areas of land. In addition, the government will set up a natural capital committee – an independent panel to advise ministers on natural environment issues and report to the government’s economic affairs committee. The committee will produce a statement of green accounts showing where our economy has withdrawn from the value of nature’s bank balance, and where we have invested in it, in a bid to help measure green growth alongside GDP. The environment secretary, Caroline Spelman, said: “This will create a radical shift on how we view our natural assets by incorporating the natural environment into economic planning and ensuring there are opportunities for businesses that are good for nature and good for a strong green economy. In the past we have undervalued what our natural environment gives us.” The paper was broadly welcomed by Britain’s powerful conservation groups which have a combined membership of more than 5 million people. Martin Harper, RSPB conservation director, said: “The proposal for a series of nature improvement areas is based on a pioneering approach to conservation which brings together farmers, charities, communities and public bodies to make a real change across a whole landscape. It would see an end to the unconnected patchwork of environmental measures in our countryside which limits our potential to restore the natural environment. “But the government will need to be brave enough to intervene with the right mix of regulation and incentives whenever progress on wildlife and habitats is stalling.” It was unclear how some of the new policies intended to protect nature would clash with relaxation of the planning system. Under the new measures, developers will be encouraged to compensate for habitat destroyed in one area by improving it elsewhere in a scheme known as “biodiversity offsetting” and communities will be allowed to set up their own protection areas. “[It] sets out an exciting vision for the future of our natural environment: that we should be the first generation to leave the environment in better condition than we inherited it; and that we should turn a nature net loss into a nature net gain. But the jury is still out on how the changes to the planning system may hinder these laudable ambitions, said Fiona Reynolds, director general of the National Trust. Opposition politicians and some rural groups were critical of the paper. Mary Creagh, shadow secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs, said: . “It provides few clues about the government’s plans for nature. It fails to set out a clear plan for major challenges such as reforestation or biodiversity loss, or deal with concerns about planning policy.” The countryside alliance, said the government had missed a chance. “It has missed an opportunity to support the ‘big society’ that already exists in the countryside. Rural communities undertake hundreds of millions of pounds worth of unpaid conservation work each year for the benefit of all and the government should make it a priority to support them in this role. There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Rather than trying to create a new set of bodies to administer the natural environment, the government should be investing in the people who do so much to keep the countryside the special place it is.” A rearguard lobbying action by industry appeared to have successfully avoided plans to phase out the use of peat in gardening. Although government says in the white paper that it wants to end its use by 2030, the only restrictions will be on peat procured through new public contracts by 2015, with all other targets for professional and amateur gardeners being voluntary. Conservation Wildlife Green politics Forests Biodiversity John Vidal guardian.co.uk
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Paper offers ‘sincere apologies’ in high court for intercepting voicemail messages intended for actor The News of the World on Tuesday issued a detailed formal apology for phone hacking for the first time, to actor Sienna Miller. A lawyer for News Group Newspapers, the News International subsidiary that publishes the News of the World, read a statement in the high court expressing regret for intercepting voicemail messages intended for Miller. News Group’s QC, Michael Silverleaf, said his client offered its “sincere apologies” to Miller for “the distress caused to her by accessing of her voicemail messages, the publication of the private information in the articles and the related harassment she suffered as a consequence”. Silverleaf added that News Group Newspapers “acknowledges that the information should never have been obtained in the manner it was, the private information should never have been published and that the first defendant [News Group] has accepted responsibility for misuse of private information, breach of confidence and harassment”. Miller, who was not present to hear the statement, accepted an out-of court-payment of £100,000 in damages last month plus her legal costs. Her solicitor Mark Thomson, a partner at Atkins Thomson, said she would not be making a statement. David Sherborne QC, for Miller, reminded the high court that she had changed her mobile phone number three times in as many months in a bid to avoid being successfully targeted by the News of the World and Glenn Mulcaire, a private detective who formerly worked for the paper. Sherborne added that the News of the World had published “numerous articles” in 2005 and 2006 that used private information. By admitting to this, the paper has conceded that it used information obtained by intercepting messages about Miller’s former partner Jude Law and ex-boyfriend Daniel Craig, as the basis for stories. In her statement of claim, the actor cited 11 articles that drew on private information, including details of her relationship with Law and with Craig, and Miller’s discussions with the former about the possibility of them having children. Miller is the first celebrity to settle a claim since the tabloid, part of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, in April admitted hacking the phones of several public figures and offered to pay compensation . •
Continue reading …Hartmann Debates One of the ‘Tea Party’s Favorite Doctors’ on Her Article ‘Who’s Pushing Granny Over the Cliff?’
June 7, 2011 No CommentThom Hartmann loves to bring these conservatives and libertarians on his show to debate different topics with them and one of the things he doesn’t always do that well is set up for the audience just who some of them are that he’s debating. I’ll get to that shortly, but the guest here is Jane M. Orient, M.D., director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons who’s recent article is Who’s Pushing Granny over the Cliff? I would have expected the debate here to focus more on the Paul Ryan ad showing him literally throwing grandma off of a cliff that the title of her article addresses, but Hartmann spent almost all of the time during the segment debating her about another assertion she made in the article, that the Social Security trust fund is a Ponzi scheme filled with worthless I.O.U.’s. Apparently the doctor doesn’t think that Treasury bills are worth anything and that there is not currently a surplus in the trust fund because those I.O.U.’s are going to have to be paid back by retirees children and grandchildren in her words. Never mind that raising taxes on the wealthy right now would take care of that problem instead of assuming it would have to be taken care of by the working class. And as Hartmann pointed out, if we raise the income cap on taxes for SSI that would take care of any of the program’s long term solvency problems. What Hartmann didn’t fill the viewers or listeners in on before he brought her on the air is her group’s background. Here’s some info from Sourcewatch on the AAPS : The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) is a group of conservative activist doctors who oppose the 2010 health care reform law, the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.” [1] Members of the group also believe that President Obama may have hypnotized voters and that climate legislation is a threat to human health. Some of the group’s former leaders were members of the John Birch Society . Mother Jones wrote of the group, “Yet despite the lab coats and the official-sounding name, the docs of the AAPS are hardly part of mainstream medical society. Think Glenn Beck with an MD.” [2] The group describes itself as “a non-partisan professional association of physicians in all types of practices and specialties across the country. Since 1943, AAPS has been dedicated to the highest ethical standards of the Oath of Hippocrates and to preserving the sanctity of the patient-physician relationship and the practice of private medicine.” [3] False leprosy claim The Spring 2005 edition of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons contained an article [4] by Madeleine Cosman, headlined “Illegal Aliens and American Medicine,” claiming, “Suddenly, in the past three years America has more than 7,000 cases of leprosy,” citing a 2003 article in the New York Times as a reference. Among news outlets repeating this claim were WorldNetDaily [5] and CNN anchor Lou Dobbs . In fact, the 7,000 number in the Times article was an apparent reference to all then-current cases of leprosy in the U.S.; according to the National Hansen’s Disease Program of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, there have been just 431 reported cases of Hansen’s disease (leprosy) over the “past three years.” [6] And as they noted there, here’s an article from Mother Jones on Orient and her ilk — The Tea Party’s Favorite Doctors : Most tea party protests against health care reform feature a standard cast of characters. Revolution-era patriots in greatcoats and tricorne hats; LaRouchies handing out pictures of Obama with a Hitler mustache; the people with the giant fetus signs; and some guy dressed as an actual tea bag. Then, there are the doctors. Real doctors. They wear white coats and they look respectable. And many of them come from a group with a respectable-sounding name—the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons . As tea partiers have become the leading opposition to health care reform, AAPS has lent credibility to their criticism of the emerging health care legislation. Before the big 9/12 rally in Washington, AAPS cosponsored a protest on Capitol Hill with the Tea Party Patriots that AAPS says attracted 1,000 physicians. The organization’s president, Mark Kellen, appeared with Georgia representatives Tom Price and Phil Gingrey—GOP members of the congressional doctors’ caucus—to slam the bill. AAPS docs hopped Tea Party Express buses to protest the American Medical Association’s annual meeting in Houston (the AMA endorsed the House bill), and staged a live reading of the legislation to highlight objectionable passages. When Minnesota Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann called for tea partiers to come to the Capitol on November 5 to “kill the bill,” AAPS doctors organized a national “tele-town hall” to prep attendees. On Fox News and talk radio, AAPS docs often appear to offer an expert medical opinion against reform. Read on… Oh and surprise, surprise, she’s also been a contributor over at Breitbart’s Big Government site .
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Yao Jiaxin stabbed woman to death to prevent her from demanding compensation after he drove into her Chinese authorities have executed a piano student who accidentally drove into a young mother and then stabbed her to death so she would not demand compensation. The high-profile case has become a focus of massive public resentment towards a privileged elite, as well as a source of concern that lethal justice is being handed down to placate internet mobs. Yao Jiaxin, a 21-year-old student of the Xian Conservatory of Music, was killed – probably by lethal injection – shortly after losing an appeal at the supreme people’s court. He was sentenced in April for the murder of 26-year-old Zhang Miao in Xian, the capital of Shaanxi province. Yao knocked his victim off her bike and then flew into a fury when he saw her noting down his licence plate – apparently to seek compensation for her minor injuries. “Yao stabbed the victim’s chest, stomach and back several times until she died. The motive was extremely despicable, the measures extremely cruel and the consequences extremely serious,” the court said in a statement released through the state-run Xinhua news agency. The road-rage incident gained nationwide notoriety among China’s online community, who are inclined to suspect that the so-called “rich second generation” – young people with power and money – can avoid justice by using their connections. The case was widely – although in many ways inappropriately – connected to a separate drink-driving fatality in which the son of a senior police officer reportedly shouted to bystanders that he could avoid prosecution because ” My father is Li Gang “. Yao was not from a particularly wealthy or powerful family, but his piano education and the fact that his parents are employment by the defence industry appear to have added to the hatred generated by his crime. Suspicions were raised further when the propaganda department insisted media outlets could only use Xinhua reports about the issue rather than making their own investigations. There were tens of thousands of comments on internet chatrooms, the vast majority of which demanded his death. Many feared this put undue pressure on judges, particularly after a lower court acknowledged that public opinion would be taken into account when delivering a verdict. However, the lawyer Mo Shaoping – who is not connected to the case and opposes the death penalty – said the execution was in line with Chinese law. “This was a very flagrant crime that would normally be punishable by death. With or without the media exposure, he would be executed,” said Mo. China Capital punishment Jonathan Watts guardian.co.uk
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Paul Wilson, 20, pleads guilty to two counts of rape and 45 charges linked to online grooming of other girls A nursery worker has pleaded guilty to raping a toddler in his care and to a string of offences linked to the online grooming of more than 20 other young girls. At Birmingham crown court, Paul Wilson admitted two counts of raping a girl aged two or three years old and a further 45 charges of making and distributing indecent images and inciting youngsters to engage in sexual activity on the internet. He was warned that he should expect an indeterminate jail term when he is sentenced next month. Wilson, 20, of Nechells, Birmingham, was charged with rape in January after his arrest on suspicion of child abuse prompted an investigation into his employment at Little Stars Nursery, which was temporarily closed after the arrest but later reopened. The investigation by West Midlands police revealed Wilson’s online grooming of young girls whom he threatened if they did not comply with his wishes. One of Wilson’s internet victims said she was left feeling shocked, violated and ashamed. The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said she now felt “pure hatred” for Wilson, with whom she communicated via MSN instant messaging and on the youth community site Netlog . The teenager initially engaged in normal conversations but was eventually pressured into exposing herself to Wilson via a webcam, and was then told that the images would be distributed if she refused to follow his orders. The girl, now 17, believes she broke off her contact with the offender up to a year before his crimes were uncovered by police, and said she had not realised he had any hidden agenda. Asked to describe her emotions when she discovered what the nursery worker had done to other victims, she replied: “I felt violated – it just betrayed all my trust. I felt quite stupid and ashamed that I had succumbed to what he had asked me to do. To know that it was the same person who I was talking to and felt that I trusted and had a relationship with – it just made me feel I had been violated.” She said Wilson had threatened to send images of her to her friends. “It was the choice of carrying on doing this – which I just did not want to do – or going through a few months of total humiliation from these images.” Eventually, the teenager got to a point where she “just didn’t care” whether he distributed the images, and she deleted him from her MSN account. “It has really affected me in the way that I go on the internet now,” she added. “I am really careful – I will stick to Facebook and only speak to people who I genuinely know in the real world.” Crime Child protection Children Young people Helen Carter guardian.co.uk
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Labour leader says financial turmoil at Southern Cross raises ‘important questions’ about care system’s future The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, has offered to hold cross-party talks with the government on the future provision of adult social care and called for a full and independent inquiry into alleged abuse at one home. Miliband also highlighted the financial turmoil at the Southern Cross care homes group – which he said had seen financiers “cream off millions” while the care of tens of thousands of elderly people was put at risk – as another issue that raised “important questions” about the care system’s future. With the government’s Dilnot commission on adult social care due to report next month, the Labour leader said he was making a “serious offer” to David Cameron to engage in talks about its recommendations. He conceded that “every serious attempt” to solve the pressing challenge of social care provision had foundered on a failure to find a political consensus, but said he would come to a new round of talks with an “open mind” to ensure British people got “the serious debate they deserve, so they can get the care system they deserve”. Speaking at a press conference in London, Miliband cited a previous attempt to reach an agreement on the future of social care which collapsed in early 2010 after the Conservatives accused Gordon Brown of planning to levy a £20,000 “death tax” on estates to fund a national care service. “We will come to those talks with an open mind about the best way forward, not simply advocating what we have proposed in the past,” he said. “But the principles are clear – high quality care for those that need it, funded in a fair way, with proper accountability for those who deliver the care. “Let’s get round the table … work in the national interest towards real change which addresses one of the big long-term problems in our country.” Highlighting some of the problems that have surfaced over recent weeks, Miliband said that he had been “shocked” by scenes filmed at the Winterbourne View care home, near Bristol, by an undercover reporter from the BBC’s Panorama programme. He said reviews by the Care Quality Commission and South Gloucestershire council were not enough, adding that both bodies were involved in the failure. “There must be an independent investigation into what happened and what lessons need to be learned, and the government should announce it straight away,” he said. Miliband also drew on the problems at Southern Cross, where he said residents appeared to have been treated “merely as commodities”, by financiers. The government should now examine whether the regulation of the private sector should “look not just at the quality of care provided but also cover the financial stability of organisations which provide these vital services for hundreds of thousands of elderly people”, he said. He warned that the collapse of a major provider, responsible for the care of hundreds of thousands of elderly people, could have serious consequences for the taxpayer. “As we have seen previously with the banks, there are industries – and health and social care services are one such example – where corporate failure can have consequences far beyond the loss to shareholders and investors,” he said. “Just as with the banks, in the end the government would have to step in and pick up the tab.” Ed Miliband Labour David Cameron Liberal-Conservative coalition Southern Cross Healthcare Healthcare industry Private equity Social care Older people Hélène Mulholland guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Since whatever they’ve told us about the Fukushima plant has only been part of the story, I wonder if this means No. 4 (the one that’s leaning — remember, the cat’s on the roof!) is melting down as we speak : Tokyo (CNN) — Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant experienced full meltdowns at three reactors in the wake of an earthquake and tsunami in March, the country’s Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters said Monday. The nuclear group’s new evaluation, released Monday, goes further than previous statements in describing the extent of the damage caused by an earthquake and tsunami on March 11. The announcement will not change plans for how to stabilize the Fukushima Daiichi plant, the agency said. Reactors 1, 2 and 3 experienced a full meltdown, it said .
Continue reading …NYT’s Middle East Morality: Israel Border Defense Makes Front Page, Mass Syrian Massacres on A-12
June 7, 2011 No Comment
More double standards for Middle East morality. Monday’s New York Times's off-lead story featured 30 paragraphs from Jerusalem by Isabel Kershner on Palestinians in refugee camps in Syria goaded to cross over into Israel, who were then
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Donaldson plans to promote music and drama and champion libraries during her tenure Julia Donaldson, the author of the bestselling picture book The Gruffalo, has been appointed the new children’s laureate, taking over from illustrator Anthony Browne for a two-year term. Donaldson, who lives near Glasgow and is the first Scottish-based laureate, has been writing children’s books for more than 20 years, from picture books and reading schemes for schools to a novel for teens. She is best known for her rhyming texts for picture books, particularly the collaborations with Axel Scheffler which produced The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo’s Child, Zog and The Snail and The Whale. The Gruffalo has become a million-selling partnership with merchandise filling the shelves, a stage show in London’s West End and a 30-minute animation first screened on BBC1 at Christmas in 2009, featuring the voices of Helena Bonham Carter and Tom Wilkinson. Donaldson started her career writing songs for children’s television and intends to put music and drama at the heart of her laureateship. “The laureateship is an honour but it’s not the kind of honour you can just bask in, so I’m planning to have quite an active two years. I’m hoping to bring some drama and music to the job. I always act out my own stories with lots of audience participation so I’m planning to do lots more of that. I hope to encourage and inspire children to act stories out, though it’s too early to say whether there will be one major theatrical event,” she said. Following comments from her predecessor, Anthony Browne, in an open letter to his successor , that “we’ll all pay the price in the long term” if libraries are forced to close, she has also pledged to work to protect libraries. “I’d love to do a libraries tour from Lands End to John O’Groats,” she said. “The children who would come to events in libraries would have been briefed beforehand so that they would come to perform something to me so the first 10 minutes of each session they might perform a class poem they had written or act out a favourite picture book. “Maybe I’ll be able to talk to the minister of culture and persuade the government to have some kind of overall plan because at the moment I feel all the library cuts and closures are very piecemeal, so I’ll do what I can,” she added. The appointment was welcomed by former children’s laureate Michael Rosen. “It’s a wonderful choice. She has written such accessible and brilliant books and she’s so clever and funny. She believes in taking her stuff out to kids, and sharing it,” he said. Donaldson is the seventh children’s laureate, taking on a role that was dreamed up by Ted Hughes, then poet laureate, and his friend Michael Morpurgo to mark a lifetime’s contribution to children’s literature and highlight the importance of children’s books. The first laureateship was awarded to illustrator Quentin Blake in 1999 and Morpurgo himself took on the role in 2003. Previous children’s laureates include the creator of Tracy Beaker Jacqueline Wilson, poet Michael Rosen and novelist Anne Fine. The winner is presented with a medal and a bursary of £15,000. The former children’s television presenter Floella Benjamin chaired the panel of judges, which included children’s book reviewers, lecturers and buyers, and the judges considered nominations from children, who could vote online, and organisations representing libraries, critics and writers. Children’s laureate Julia Donaldson Children and teenagers Children’s books: 7 and under Children’s books: 8-12 years Teen books Michelle Pauli guardian.co.uk
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