Scientists have made an important breakthrough in HIV research, and we have the stock market to thank. Researchers used random matrix theory, which is also used to analyze stock behavior, to identify a major target for HIV and AIDS drugs—what the Wall Street Journal calls its “Achilles heel.” The…
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Dave Prentis tells union that coalition war on public services will be met with sustained industrial action Dave Prentis, the head of the UK’s biggest public-sector union, has stepped up the strike rhetoric, promising the government a campaign of industrial action without precedent and telling his annual conference: “This is our call to arms.” The leader of Unison said there would be sustained strikes until the government backed down on its controversial proposals to overhaul public-sector pensions. The campaign to “break the pay freeze, stop the jobs cull and send this coalition packing” would be extended. Prentis accused David Cameron of defending the interests of “fat cat bankers” and sacrificing low-paid public-sector workers. But he also fiercely attacked the Labour party, threatening to withdraw support unless the party backed the union campaign. He said of the government’s action on public services: “They’re cutting further now than Thatcher dared. For them it’s unfinished business. They’ve declared war on our public services – with Tory donors, City firms, hedge funders back in the heart of government.” He pledged support for the four unions holding a one-day strike next week and said: “If the government fails to listen, to heed our warnings, to negotiate in good faith, I say, David Cameron, you ain’t seen nothing yet. We will strike to defend our pensions. A campaign of strike action without precedent. Yes, we hope for the best. Yes, we will negotiate. But we plan for the worst. Our preparations are well advanced, but there is more to do. “This is our union’s call to arms. When you get back to your branches, prepare for action. You have a massive job to do; deciding in regions what action to take, millions of leaflets to distribute, winning the argument with the public, recruiting new members to the cause. Strike action will need to be sustained. And the political and public campaigns intensified. “The fight of our lives may be an overused cliché, but conference, this is it. A fight we can win, a fight we must win, and together a fight we will win.” Last week talks on pension reforms between the unions and ministers, with Prentis chairing the union delegation, threatened to collapse after the chief secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, unilaterally announced a deal. Prentis then told the Guardian there would be the biggest strikes since 1926, with rolling action across Britain should the government refuse to back down. In his speech in Manchester, Prentis said: “To those who say name the day, I say a day won’t be enough. To those who say, negotiate, I say anytime, anywhere, for as long as it takes. To Danny Alexander. Boffin or buffoon? He may have done us a favour. The world now knows what they’re about. A 50% increase in pensions contributions – not a penny into the pensions funds. A 50% reduction in benefits. All workers to work longer, and if you happen to be privatised – well tough. You can’t take it with you. And to add insult to injury, 300,000 women finding out on the radio that their state pension age will go up, yet again, to 65, then to 67, and more. They will lose thousands. And it’s daylight robbery. “So Danny, I say if your intervention last week was designed to enrage our members and increase the chances of a strike – it worked”. And to Cameron, Osborne and Clegg I say, don’t underestimate the outrage and anger of our members, at the savagery of your gratuitous attack on our pensions – to pay more, get less, work longer. The anger and outrage.” He issued a message to the government on NHS reforms, saying: “We want the bill scrapped and we will fight you every step of the way, until [Andrew] Lansley tosses it back in the bin, where it belongs.” On Labour he said: “It’s about breaking a political consensus that says markets know best. In truth, Labour built the bridge over which the Tories now march. In future, [it's about] only supporting labour candidates who support our values, our union, our people.” Union officials said this would not mean withdrawing funding from the Labour party (they have donated more than £400,000 in the past year) but instead refusing to endorse constituency candidates who did not promise to back the campaign, including industrial action. Trade unions Public sector cuts Public sector pensions Public sector pay Dave Prentis Danny Alexander Polly Curtis guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Dave Prentis tells union that coalition war on public services will be met with sustained industrial action Dave Prentis, the head of the UK’s biggest public-sector union, has stepped up the strike rhetoric, promising the government a campaign of industrial action without precedent and telling his annual conference: “This is our call to arms.” The leader of Unison said there would be sustained strikes until the government backed down on its controversial proposals to overhaul public-sector pensions. The campaign to “break the pay freeze, stop the jobs cull and send this coalition packing” would be extended. Prentis accused David Cameron of defending the interests of “fat cat bankers” and sacrificing low-paid public-sector workers. But he also fiercely attacked the Labour party, threatening to withdraw support unless the party backed the union campaign. He said of the government’s action on public services: “They’re cutting further now than Thatcher dared. For them it’s unfinished business. They’ve declared war on our public services – with Tory donors, City firms, hedge funders back in the heart of government.” He pledged support for the four unions holding a one-day strike next week and said: “If the government fails to listen, to heed our warnings, to negotiate in good faith, I say, David Cameron, you ain’t seen nothing yet. We will strike to defend our pensions. A campaign of strike action without precedent. Yes, we hope for the best. Yes, we will negotiate. But we plan for the worst. Our preparations are well advanced, but there is more to do. “This is our union’s call to arms. When you get back to your branches, prepare for action. You have a massive job to do; deciding in regions what action to take, millions of leaflets to distribute, winning the argument with the public, recruiting new members to the cause. Strike action will need to be sustained. And the political and public campaigns intensified. “The fight of our lives may be an overused cliché, but conference, this is it. A fight we can win, a fight we must win, and together a fight we will win.” Last week talks on pension reforms between the unions and ministers, with Prentis chairing the union delegation, threatened to collapse after the chief secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, unilaterally announced a deal. Prentis then told the Guardian there would be the biggest strikes since 1926, with rolling action across Britain should the government refuse to back down. In his speech in Manchester, Prentis said: “To those who say name the day, I say a day won’t be enough. To those who say, negotiate, I say anytime, anywhere, for as long as it takes. To Danny Alexander. Boffin or buffoon? He may have done us a favour. The world now knows what they’re about. A 50% increase in pensions contributions – not a penny into the pensions funds. A 50% reduction in benefits. All workers to work longer, and if you happen to be privatised – well tough. You can’t take it with you. And to add insult to injury, 300,000 women finding out on the radio that their state pension age will go up, yet again, to 65, then to 67, and more. They will lose thousands. And it’s daylight robbery. “So Danny, I say if your intervention last week was designed to enrage our members and increase the chances of a strike – it worked”. And to Cameron, Osborne and Clegg I say, don’t underestimate the outrage and anger of our members, at the savagery of your gratuitous attack on our pensions – to pay more, get less, work longer. The anger and outrage.” He issued a message to the government on NHS reforms, saying: “We want the bill scrapped and we will fight you every step of the way, until [Andrew] Lansley tosses it back in the bin, where it belongs.” On Labour he said: “It’s about breaking a political consensus that says markets know best. In truth, Labour built the bridge over which the Tories now march. In future, [it's about] only supporting labour candidates who support our values, our union, our people.” Union officials said this would not mean withdrawing funding from the Labour party (they have donated more than £400,000 in the past year) but instead refusing to endorse constituency candidates who did not promise to back the campaign, including industrial action. Trade unions Public sector cuts Public sector pensions Public sector pay Dave Prentis Danny Alexander Polly Curtis guardian.co.uk
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The Greek prime minister faces a vote of confidence as ratings agencies issue damning judgments on the country’s finances The multi-layered effort to stave off a Greek sovereign default that could plunge Europe into one of its worst ever crises moved towards a climax last night with the Greek prime minister pleading in Athens for a vote of confidence and Europe’s leaders staring into the abyss before a Brussels summit on Thursday. Leaders in Brussels spoke of the worst crisis in Europe since the second world war as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) set ultimatums before the 17 countries of the euro single currency and international ratings agencies classified the bailout terms for Greece as a likely default. George Papandreou, the embattled Greek prime minister, needed to win a midnight vote of confidence in his reshuffled socialist government before attempting an even bigger challenge – getting the parliament in Athens to back a radical programme of spending cuts, tax increases, and a mass assets sell-off by the end of the month. As Athens’s 300-seat parliament prepared for the vote, tens of thousands of protesters converged on Syntagma Square in a mass show of “no confidence” for politicians widely perceived to have triggered the financial mess in which the nation now finds itself. “As long as there are squares to protest in we will be there,” said Giorgos Papastathopoulos, an unemployed civil engineer gesticulating angrily towards the parliament building. “These people are thieves, they are crooks; if they were really honourable they would lead by example and take a wage cut just like everyone else before talking about austerity.” If Greece fails to agree the austerity measures, the IMF will pull the plug on the latest €12bn tranche of its €110bn bailout and Greece would be insolvent, with immense implications for European banks and the fate of the single currency. However, the strong expectation that Papandreou would win the vote lifted stock markets all over the world. The FTSE 100 in London closed 81.92 points higher at 5775.31 and the FTSEurofirst 300 index of leading shares rose 1.5%, its biggest increase for two months. The Dow Jones industrial average was up more than 100 points at lunchtime in New York. At a summit in Brussels on Thursday evening, EU governments will be under intense pressure to seal a new three-year Greek bailout worth as much as the current rescue fund. The expectation was that leaders would agree to guarantee the new bailout, leaving the details to be hammered out by 3 July. “We’re at a critical point in the most serious crisis since the second world war,” warned Olli Rehn, the European commissioner for monetary affairs. A group of 15 leading public figures, including six former EU prime ministers, warned that the EU faced a future on the international sidelines. “Europe isn’t in a good place these days,” said the group, all allied with the Brussels Friends of Europe thinktank. “The drive towards closer integration is losing momentum and appears in great danger of slipping backwards … European leaders risk the EU becoming a marginal player in a globalised world whose rapid change is clearly not to Europe’s advantage.” Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, a central figure in the crisis, voiced confidence that Europe would rise to the challenge, while reiterating German demands that Greece’s private creditors should volunteer to roll over the debt as part of the rescue. “We believe some burdens can be put not only on taxpayers but that banks must also participate,” Merkel said while visiting Warsaw. “We will achieve positive results because it is in the interests of banks and of countries for the euro currency to be stable … These three components – Greece’s tasks, EU solidarity and the voluntary participation of banks – are the solution.” But Fitch, one of the three big international ratings agencies, cast doubt on Merkel’s optimism, warning that it would view a voluntary rollover of Greek debt as a default. “Fitch would regard such a debt exchange or voluntary debt rollover as a default event and would lead to the assignment of a default rating to Greece,” said Andrew Colquhoun, head of Asia-Pacific sovereign ratings with Fitch. The jury still seems to be out on this, however, with detailed arguments raging across the EU over how, when, and whether Greece would be deemed to be in default. The process of persuading the banks, insurance companies and pension funds holding Greek debt to remain exposed after redeeming their loans is also an exacting task which could take weeks without any certainty of success. The markets and the European business elite believe that in the end Greece will need to restructure its unmanageable debt with major writedowns for its creditors. A poll of German executives showed very few of them believed Greece could avoid a debt restructuring. Almost nine out of 10 of the 519 business people questioned in the poll for the business magazine, Capital, predicted a restructuring, while two-thirds were worried about the stability of the euro. EU leaders appeared to be playing for time to try to avoid colossal collateral damage across the eurozone, while the IMF was urging the EU to get its act together and guarantee a copper-bottomed bailout for Greece before the fund would commit to contributing. The IMF has taken a harder line on the European debt crisis in recent weeks since the resignation of its French chief, Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Some European officials are also complaining that the temporary leadership of the IMF is inhibiting its capacity to act. Greece Europe IMF Economics Global economy European commission European Union Euro Euro Ian Traynor Helena Smith guardian.co.uk
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The Greek prime minister faces a vote of confidence as ratings agencies issue damning judgments on the country’s finances The multi-layered effort to stave off a Greek sovereign default that could plunge Europe into one of its worst ever crises moved towards a climax last night with the Greek prime minister pleading in Athens for a vote of confidence and Europe’s leaders staring into the abyss before a Brussels summit on Thursday. Leaders in Brussels spoke of the worst crisis in Europe since the second world war as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) set ultimatums before the 17 countries of the euro single currency and international ratings agencies classified the bailout terms for Greece as a likely default. George Papandreou, the embattled Greek prime minister, needed to win a midnight vote of confidence in his reshuffled socialist government before attempting an even bigger challenge – getting the parliament in Athens to back a radical programme of spending cuts, tax increases, and a mass assets sell-off by the end of the month. As Athens’s 300-seat parliament prepared for the vote, tens of thousands of protesters converged on Syntagma Square in a mass show of “no confidence” for politicians widely perceived to have triggered the financial mess in which the nation now finds itself. “As long as there are squares to protest in we will be there,” said Giorgos Papastathopoulos, an unemployed civil engineer gesticulating angrily towards the parliament building. “These people are thieves, they are crooks; if they were really honourable they would lead by example and take a wage cut just like everyone else before talking about austerity.” If Greece fails to agree the austerity measures, the IMF will pull the plug on the latest €12bn tranche of its €110bn bailout and Greece would be insolvent, with immense implications for European banks and the fate of the single currency. However, the strong expectation that Papandreou would win the vote lifted stock markets all over the world. The FTSE 100 in London closed 81.92 points higher at 5775.31 and the FTSEurofirst 300 index of leading shares rose 1.5%, its biggest increase for two months. The Dow Jones industrial average was up more than 100 points at lunchtime in New York. At a summit in Brussels on Thursday evening, EU governments will be under intense pressure to seal a new three-year Greek bailout worth as much as the current rescue fund. The expectation was that leaders would agree to guarantee the new bailout, leaving the details to be hammered out by 3 July. “We’re at a critical point in the most serious crisis since the second world war,” warned Olli Rehn, the European commissioner for monetary affairs. A group of 15 leading public figures, including six former EU prime ministers, warned that the EU faced a future on the international sidelines. “Europe isn’t in a good place these days,” said the group, all allied with the Brussels Friends of Europe thinktank. “The drive towards closer integration is losing momentum and appears in great danger of slipping backwards … European leaders risk the EU becoming a marginal player in a globalised world whose rapid change is clearly not to Europe’s advantage.” Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, a central figure in the crisis, voiced confidence that Europe would rise to the challenge, while reiterating German demands that Greece’s private creditors should volunteer to roll over the debt as part of the rescue. “We believe some burdens can be put not only on taxpayers but that banks must also participate,” Merkel said while visiting Warsaw. “We will achieve positive results because it is in the interests of banks and of countries for the euro currency to be stable … These three components – Greece’s tasks, EU solidarity and the voluntary participation of banks – are the solution.” But Fitch, one of the three big international ratings agencies, cast doubt on Merkel’s optimism, warning that it would view a voluntary rollover of Greek debt as a default. “Fitch would regard such a debt exchange or voluntary debt rollover as a default event and would lead to the assignment of a default rating to Greece,” said Andrew Colquhoun, head of Asia-Pacific sovereign ratings with Fitch. The jury still seems to be out on this, however, with detailed arguments raging across the EU over how, when, and whether Greece would be deemed to be in default. The process of persuading the banks, insurance companies and pension funds holding Greek debt to remain exposed after redeeming their loans is also an exacting task which could take weeks without any certainty of success. The markets and the European business elite believe that in the end Greece will need to restructure its unmanageable debt with major writedowns for its creditors. A poll of German executives showed very few of them believed Greece could avoid a debt restructuring. Almost nine out of 10 of the 519 business people questioned in the poll for the business magazine, Capital, predicted a restructuring, while two-thirds were worried about the stability of the euro. EU leaders appeared to be playing for time to try to avoid colossal collateral damage across the eurozone, while the IMF was urging the EU to get its act together and guarantee a copper-bottomed bailout for Greece before the fund would commit to contributing. The IMF has taken a harder line on the European debt crisis in recent weeks since the resignation of its French chief, Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Some European officials are also complaining that the temporary leadership of the IMF is inhibiting its capacity to act. Greece Europe IMF Economics Global economy European commission European Union Euro Euro Ian Traynor Helena Smith guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Jon Stewart appeared on Fox News for the third time on Sunday, and he kicked off last night’s show by giving Comedy Central viewers the inside scoop. “One: I suggest you look at the unedited version online, where my emotional states don’t seem to change so arbitrarily. The arguments are…
Continue reading …A group of Syrian men wants to overthrow more than just the regime in their country—they also want to change the brutal practice of killing women who have been raped or, at the very least, not allowing them to marry. Upon hearing about the recent rapes of four sisters…
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Huddersfield man, 21, to be questioned over death of Owen Wightman of Wakefield left by roadside after collision Police have arrested a man on suspicion of causing the death by dangerous driving of a six-year-old schoolboy who was left at the roadside after being knocked down. Detectives in West Yorkshire said that a 21-year-old man from Huddersfield would be questioned about the events, which happened in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, on Saturday. The driver is said to have stopped out of sight of the accident and inspected the front of his car for damage. The child, Owen Wightman, was playing in the street close to his home. The boy was crossing a busy road with a seven-year-old friend when he was struck by a light blue or grey hatchback driven by a single man who appeared to be in his 20s. Detectives have had a good response to appeals for witnesses after it emerged that the car pulled in for the damage check, in a side road about 100 yards further on. CCTV footage from a passing bus with details of the car has also been analysed. Wightman’s parents, Joanne, 33, and Neil, 31, appealed before the arrest for someone to come forward. They said: “Owen was a perfect little man who was taken from us – just perfect in every way. He walked into a room and lit it up. He was our bundle of joy and our little ray of sunshine.” Passers-by continued to add to a pile of flowers and teddy bears at the scene, in memory of Owen, who had two brothers, Jack, 12, and one-year-old Thomas. Jack’s tribute alongside a green cuddly monkey, read: “You were the best bro’ ever. Even when we used to fight and argue I still loved you anyway.” Another message said: “To mummy and daddy’s little soldier, forever in our hearts, love u always.” Rewards for information resulting in a conviction total £15,000 – two-thirds from the Sun newspaper and the balance from the charity Crimestoppers. Crime Martin Wainwright guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …A North Carolina man with a bad back, a growth on his chest, and no job or money decided to swap his freedom for prison health care by robbing a bank. Richard James Verone, 59, walked into a bank, handed the teller a note demanding just $1—then sat down…
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Unemployed and without health insurance, man in North Carolina has himself arrested in order to receive treatment It was not perhaps the most obvious way of getting a bad back, arthritis and a dodgy foot seen to. But if you’re unemployed in North Carolina with no health insurance, there is no obvious way. So on 9 June James Verone left his Gastonia home, took a ride to a bank and carried out a robbery. Well, sort of. What he did was hand the clerk a note that said: “This is a bank robbery, please only give me one dollar.” Then, as he later told the local NBC news station , he calmly sat in the corner of the bank having told the clerk: “I’ll be sitting right over there in the chair waiting for the police.” Before his peculiarly modest robbery, Verone, 59, sent a letter to the Gaston Gazette . “When you receive this a bank robbery will have been committed by me for one dollar. I am of sound mind but not so much sound body.” He invited the paper to send a reporter to interview him in Gaston county jail, where he is now in custody facing charges of stealing from a person (for just $1 the prosecutors didn’t think they could hold up a bank robbery charge). He told the paper he had lost his job after 17 years as a Coca-Cola delivery man, and with it his health insurance. He was in increasing pain from slipped discs, arthritic joints, a gammy foot and a growth on his chest. Since being in the jail he has attained his goal: he has been seen by nurses and an appointment with a doctor is booked. US healthcare North Carolina United States Ed Pilkington guardian.co.uk
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