World-News

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/02/16-4



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Glenn+Greenwald

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/02/16-8



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Eric+Stoner

BBC News: "Anti-terror measures worldwide have seriously undermined international human rights law, a report by legal experts says. After a three-year global study, the International Commission of Jurists said many states used the public's fear of terrorism to introduce measures. These included detention without trial, illegal disappearance and torture. It also said that the UK and the US have 'actively undermined' international law by their actions."

http://www.truthout.org/021609C



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=human+rights+law
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=torture
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=detention

Dahr Jamail, Truthout: "It is not the threat of violence that weighs on the people of Iraq. It is the omnipresent occurrence of violence that has resulted in the desperate nation wide chant, 'We are tired. All we want is for normal life to return.'"

http://www.truthout.org/021609B



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Dahr+Jamail

Die Agrarpolitikerin der Linken, Kirsten Tackmann, forderte am Montag (16. Februar), die Bundesregierung müsse den Anbau von Genmais "komplett verbieten". Sie verwies auf sinkenden Flächenanmeldungen für gentechnisch veränderte Pflanzen (GVP) im bundesweiten Standortregister. "Der Genmais MON 810 wird zunehmend zum Ladenhüter. Keiner braucht ihn und fast niemand will ihn", so Tackmann. Immer weniger Landwirte entschieden sich für "die Risikotechnologie Agro-Gentechnik".

http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?H=N&Nr=19301



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Genmais
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=MON+810
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Gentechnik

Stuttgart - Vor vier Jahren hat Volker Stöckle der Deutschen Funkturm GmbH per Vertrag den Bau einer Mobilfunkantenne auf dem Dach seines Mietshauses im Stuttgarter Westen gestattet. Nun will er aus dem Vertrag aussteigen. So einfach ist das aber nicht - obwohl er mit der Stadt am gleichen Strang zieht.

Weiter unter...
http://tinyurl.com/bd4gt3

Jonathan S. Landay, McClatchy Newspapers: "Twenty years to the day after the last Soviet soldier left Afghanistan, Dastagir Arizad ticked off grievances against President Hamid Karzai and the United States that are disturbingly reminiscent of Moscow's humiliating defeat. 'Day by day, we see the Karzai government failing. The Americans are also failing,' said Arizad, 40, as he huddled against the cold in the stall where he sells ropes and plastic hoses. 'People are not feeling safe. Their lives are not secure. Their daughters are not safe. Their land is not secure. The Karzai government is corrupt.'"

http://www.truthout.org/021609O



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Karzai
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Jonathan+S.+Landay

Scott Horton, Harper's Magazine: "Army Private Brandon Neely served as a prison guard at Guantanamo in the first years the facility was in operation. With the Bush Administration, and thus the threat of retaliation against him, now gone, Neely decided to step forward and tell his story. 'The stuff I did and the stuff I saw was just wrong,' he told the Associated Press. Neely describes the arrival of detainees in full sensory-deprivation garb, he details their sexual abuse by medical personnel, torture by other medical personnel, brutal beatings out of frustration, fear, and retribution, the first hunger strike and its causes, torturous shackling, positional torture, interference with religious practices and beliefs, verbal abuse, restriction of recreation, the behavior of mentally ill detainees, an isolation regime that was put in place for child-detainees, and his conversations with prisoners David Hicks and Rhuhel Ahmed."

http://www.truthout.org/021609L



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Brandon+Neely
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Guantanamo
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=David+Hicks
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=detainee
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=torture
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Scott+Horton

William Astore, TomDispatch: "A leaner, meaner, higher tech force - that was what George W. Bush and his Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld promised to transform the American military into. Instead, they came close to turning it into a foreign legion. Foreign as in being constantly deployed overseas on imperial errands; foreign as in being ever more reliant on private military contractors; foreign as in being increasingly segregated from the elites that profit most from its actions, yet serve the least in its ranks. Now would be a good time for President Barack Obama and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to begin to reclaim that military for its proper purpose: to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Now would be a good time to ask exactly why, and for whom, our troops are currently fighting and dying in the urban jungles of Iraq and the hostile hills of Afghanistan."

http://www.truthout.org/021609K

--------

An American Foreign Legion
http://www.lewrockwell.com/engelhardt/engelhardt374.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=imperial
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Constitution
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=William+Astore
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/engelhardt

Konferenz am 14. März 2009 in Köln: Arbeit und Arbeitslosigkeit in der Krise des Neoliberalismus

„Die Verletzung von Arbeits- und Sozialrechten ist zu einer systemischen Erscheinung geworden. Dabei geht es nicht nur um die Verletzung bestehender Rest-Rechte, sondern auch um verrechtlichtes Unrecht und um den Bruch von Menschenrechten durch Privateigentümer und Staat. In der Krise des Neoliberalismus nehmen Corporate Crime und State Crime eher noch zu. Eine nationale und internationale Gegenbewegung steht auf der Tagesordnung. Wir laden Experten, Aktivisten und Betroffene zu Vorträgen, Workshops, Diskussionen und Gesprächen ein.“ Siehe dazu:

Alle Informationen zur Konferenz auf der Seite von Buisinesscrime http://businesscrime.de/?p=1


Arbeits-Unrecht - ein Aufruf von Werner Rügemer

Rechtsbrüche, Unrechts-Gesetze, rechtliche Grauzonen, öffentliche Diskriminierung, Erpressung: Beschäftigte wie Arbeitslose werden ausgequetscht und erniedrigt. Bestandsaufnahme und Widerstand sind nötig. Werner Rügemer beschreibt die Brisanz der Entwicklung und weist auf eine Konferenz zum Thema. Konferenzaufruf bei den Nachdenkseiten vom 9. Februar 2009 http://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=3755

Siehe dazu auch:

Versuche von Unternehmen, die Gewerkschaften mit Hilfe „gelber“ Organisationen zu schwächen, haben eine lange Tradition. Doch die Dreistigkeit nimmt zu.

Ein Beitrag von Daniel Behruzi in BIG Business Crime 01/2009 für die Konferenz „Arbeits-Unrecht in Deutschland“ am 14.März 09 in Köln, erschienen bei linksnet http://www.linksnet.de/de/artikel/24185


Aus: LabourNet, 16. Februar 2009



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Neoliberalismus

Freedom's Phoenix
by Stephen Lendman

02/12/09

The language is softened and deceptive. The strategy and tactics are not. The ‘war on terror’ continues. Promised change is talk, not policy. Just look at Obama’s ‘war cabinet,’ discussed in an earlier article. It assures: — the ’strongest military on the planet’ by outspending all other countries combined; — continued foreign wars; — possible new ones in prospect; on February 7, vice-president Joe Biden outlined continuity of the Bush administration’s policy toward Iran, including ‘preventive’ wars under the National Security Strategy; demands also that Iran abandon its legal nuclear program meaning nothing going forward will change …

http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Feature-Article.htm?InfoNo=045473


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Joe+Biden
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=preventive+war
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Stephen+Lendman

National Review
by Mark Steyn

02/14/09

Few pieces of political ‘wisdom’ are more tediously recycled than a well-retailed bon mot of British prime minister Harold Macmillan. Asked what he feared most in the months ahead, he gave an amused Edwardian response: ‘Events, dear boy, events.’ In other words, you can plan all you want but next month, next year, some guy off the radar screen will launch a war, or there’ll be an earthquake, or something. Governments get thrown off course by ‘events.’ It suggests a perverse kind of genius that the 44th president did not wait for a single ‘event’ to throw him off course. Instead he threw himself off …

http://adjix.com/t45m


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=+Mark+Steyn

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig9/fein-b3.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=empire
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bruce+Fein

http://www.lewrockwell.com/buchanan/buchanan103.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=buchanan

http://www.lewrockwell.com/raimondo/raimondo32.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=raimondo

http://www.lewrockwell.com/shaffer/shaffer188.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/shaffer

http://targetfreedom.typepad.com/targetfreedom/2009/02/gulag-archipelago-excerpt.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=gulag
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=tyranny

Michael Isikoff, Newsweek: "An internal Justice Department report on the conduct of senior lawyers who approved waterboarding and other harsh interrogation tactics is causing anxiety among former Bush administration officials."

http://www.truthout.org/021509Z



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bush+lawyer
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bush+legacy
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=torture
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=waterboarding
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=interrogation
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Michael+Isikoff

Auch die neue Regierung unterdrückt alle Versuche, die Praxis der "außerordentlichen Überstellungen" juristisch aufzuarbeiten.

http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/29/29737/1.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Folter

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Islamabad

Using cellular phones near hospital beds and critical care medical equipment can lead to electromagnetic interference.

Critical care equipment is vulnerable to electromagnetic interference posed by new age cellular phones. It can disrupt pacemakers, switch off ventilators and cause a lot of problems, Health news reported.

Read More...
http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=162791

--------

This news item from Islamabad
http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=162791

Relates to an old study from 2007

http://ccforum.com/content/11/5/R98
Interference by new-generation mobile phones on critical care medical equipment

Erik Jan van Lieshout1,2 email, Sabine N van der Veer3 email, Reinout Hensbroek4 email, Johanna C Korevaar5 email, Margreeth B Vroom1 email and Marcus J Schultz1,6 email Critical Care 2007, 11:R98

Conclusion

The '1 meter rule', specifying the minimum distance to keep a mobile phone from medical equipment or the bedside as proposed in the past, seems safe, although the rule does not exclude EMI by new-generation mobile phones entirely. Restrictive policies should be facilitated by offering numerous areas that are easily accessed throughout the healthcare facility where the use of mobile phones is clearly permitted.

Key messages

* Incidents of EMI caused by second-generation and third-generation mobile phones occurred in 43% of 61 critical care medical devices, of which 33% were classified as hazardous.

* The hazardous incidents varied from a total switch-off and restart of a mechanical ventilator, through complete stops without alarms in syringe pumps, to incorrect pulsing by an external pacemaker.

* The median distance of all incidents was 3 cm, with a considerable range up to 500 cm.

*The policy to keep mobile phones '1 meter' from the critical care bedside in combination with easily accessed areas of unrestricted use still seems warranted.


Of course the UK's Adam Burgess seems not to have seen any studies!

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/333/7572/767
BMJ 2006;333:767-768 (14 October), doi:10.1136/bmj.38995.599769.80 Editorial Use of mobile phones in hospitals

New guidelines are less restrictive but still overcautious

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Mobile phones are widely used, but their use is still restricted in certain places including petrol stations, some areas in hospitals, and aircraft. Restrictions have been justified on the grounds of public safety, but the reasons behind these restrictions are often unclear. In hospitals, patients, visitors, and staff routinely breeze through wards with their mobile phones switched on. As yet we have no evidence that this behaviour has serious consequences for patients. The lack of such evidence has encouraged the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to advise more selective restrictions on the use of mobile phones in hospitals (box).1 While welcoming this relaxation, we wonder why it has taken so long to happen and why it has the feeling of extracting a generous concession. The liberalisation sits alongside proposed new restrictions, such as a ban on the use of camera phones in patient areas. The regulations also . . . [Full text of this article]

Stuart W G Derbyshire, senior lecturer in psychology

University of Birmingham, School of Psychology, Birmingham BI5 2TT
(s.w.derbyshire@bham.ac.uk)

Adam Burgess, senior lecturer in sociology

University of Kent, School of Social Policy, Sociology, and Social Research, Canterbury CT2 7NF


http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/328/7434/292
Cellular Phones, Public Fears, and a Culture of Precaution
By Adam Burges
2004


http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2003/12/09/invasion-of-the-entryists/
Invasion of the Entryists
Monbiot


From Mast Sanity/Mast Network

"Pötter beschreibt den Klimawandel nicht vom Schreibtisch aus. Er besichtigt ihn. Das zeichnet sein Buch aus." Fritz Vorholz, DIE ZEIT

http://sonnenseite.kjm4.de/ref.php?id=d8741685368ms141,Tatort+Klimawandel,34,a11809.html



Globales Gletscherschmelzen geht weiter

Weltweit schmelzen die Gletscher in hohem Tempo weiter. In den Alpen haben einzelne Gletscher bis 2.5 Meter w.e. an Dicke verloren.

http://sonnenseite.kjm4.de/ref.php?id=d8741685389ms141,Globales+Gletscherschmelzen+geht+weiter,6,a12085.html



Klimaschutzwünsche der Konsumenten

Klimafreundliches Verbraucherverhalten kann zu einer weiteren Säule des Klimaschutzes werden und bietet Unternehmen erhebliche Marktchancen.

http://sonnenseite.kjm4.de/ref.php?id=d8741685375ms141,Klimaschutzwuensche+der+Konsumenten,6,a12132.html



Klimafreundliche, sichere und preisgünstige Energieversorgung ohne Atomstrom

"Die Roadmap ist eine seriös durchgerechnete Handlungsanweisung, mit der wir die vor uns liegenden Herausforderungen meistern können..."

http://sonnenseite.kjm4.de/ref.php?id=d8741685382ms141,Klimafreundliche-+sichere+und+preisguenstige+Energieversorgung+ohne+Atomstrom+,6,a12124.html



Bundesregierung: Lage der Natur alarmierend

Ungeachtet kleiner Erfolge hält die Bundesregierung den Zustand der Natur und die Entwicklung der Vielfalt an Tier- und Pflanzenarten weiterhin für alarmierend.

http://sonnenseite.kjm4.de/ref.php?id=d8741685394ms141,Bundesregierung-+Lage+der+Natur+alarmierend+,6,a12092.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Klimawandel
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Gletscher
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Klimaschutz
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Atomstrom
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Artensterben

Jetzt reicht´s aber endgültig. Nicht nur in den USA, sondern auch in Deutschland werden die Gierigen immer gieriger. Zuerst verlangen die Großbanker Milliarden Euro oder Dollar vom Staat, also vom Steuerzahler, und zahlen dann Millionen an Boni für ihre Investment-Banker.

http://sonnenseite.kjm4.de/ref.php?id=d8741685361ms141,Die+Kapital-Verbrecher,95,a12133.html



Wie viel Profit ist gerecht?

Es ist eine spannende Frage, darüber nachzudenken, wie viel Profit gerecht ist. Josef Ackermann hält eine Rendite von 25 Prozent auf das Eigenkapital der Deutschen Bank für eine wichtige Zielmarke – also doch sicher für gerecht? Ein Pladoyer von Thomas Begrich, Leiter der Finanzabteilung im Kirchenamt der EKD.

http://www.sonnenseite.com/index.php?pageID=19&article:oid=a12121



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Josef+Ackermann
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Deutsche+Bank

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7890988.stm

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Global glacier melt continues

Glaciers around the globe continue to melt at high rates. Some glaciers in the European Alps lost up to 2.5 m w.e..

http://sonnenseite.kjm4.de/ref.php?id=d8741685399ms141,Global+glacier+melt+continues,80,a12086.html



Sea level rise could be worse than anticipated

If global warming some day causes the West Antarctic Ice Sheet to collapse, as many experts believe it could, the resulting sea level rise in much of the United States and other parts of the world would be significantly higher than is currently projected, a new study concludes.

http://sonnenseite.kjm4.de/ref.php?id=d8741685400ms141,Sea+level+rise+could+be+worse+than+anticipated,80,a12105.html

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The Tropics on Fire: Scientist's Grim Vision of Global Warming

Ian Sample, The Guardian UK: "Tropical forests may dry out and become vulnerable to devastating wildfires as global warming accelerates over the coming decades, a senior scientist has warned. Soaring greenhouse gas emissions, driven by a surge in coal use in countries such as China and India, are threatening temperature rises that will turn damp and humid forests into parched tinderboxes, said Dr. Chris Field, co-chair of the UN's Nobel prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)."

http://www.truthout.org/021609EA



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=glacier+melt
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=sea+level+rise
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=ice+sheet
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=greenhouse+gas
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ian+Sample

The world's richest nations called Saturday for urgent reform of global finance to save the world from the economic devastation that is dragging more and more countries into recession.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090214/bs_afp/financeeconomyg7_20090214164005



Britain's bankers plumb new depths

Jon Moulton, the private equity chief, warned a City lunch this week that he feared serious civil unrest. There was, he said, a 25 per cent chance of one of the 15 member countries of the eurozone pulling out of the currency club. That, he said, would be a catastrophic shock leading to a "far greater financial crisis" than the current one.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article5729034.ece



Bank Failures May Reach 1,000 on Bad Loans, RBC Says

As many as 1,000 U.S. banks may fail in the next three to five years, almost double the one-year tally at the height of the saving-and-loan collapse, as losses mount on commercial real-estate loans, RBC Capital Markets analysts said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=afK.wvOmLMpU&refer=home



European banks' toxic debts risk overwhelming EU governments

The toxic debts of European banks risk overwhelming a number of EU governments and may pose a "systemic" danger to the broader EU banking system, according a confidential memo prepared by the European Commission.

http://tinyurl.com/bkx3ku



US foreclosure image is 2008 World Press Photo

A picture of an armed sheriff moving through an American home after an eviction due to a mortgage foreclosure was named World Press Photo of 2008 on Friday.

http://tinyurl.com/dlc9qr


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=financial+crisis
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=banking+system
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=recession
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=civil+unrest
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=real+estate
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=mortgage
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=foreclosure

The United States distanced itself from Ethiopia's military involvement in Somalia but helped to provide intelligence to Ethiopian government during its military operation in Somalia, Ethiopia's Premier Meles Zenawi has revealed.

http://en.afrik.com/article15302.html


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ethiopia
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Somalia

The death toll is likely to rise as there are still bodies buried under the debris at the site of the attack, reports said.

http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/14503/


From Information Clearing House

--------

Suspected US Missile Strike Kills 26 in Pakistan

Reuters: "A suspected US missile strike killed at least 26 people, many of them Taliban militants, in Pakistan's Kurram tribal region on the Afghan border on Monday, intelligence officials said. The missiles, believed to have been fired by a pilotless drone aircraft, hit a school that was once used by Afghan refugees' children, before militants moved in around two years ago, according to villagers."

http://www.truthout.org/021609S

--------

US Kills Thirty People In Pakistan

Many bodies were trapped under the rubble and 30 bodies have been recovered so far. Several people sustained injuries in the attack.

http://paktribune.com/news/index.shtml?211423


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Pakistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=missile+strike

You know what they say -- half a million dollars just doesn't go as far as it used to

By Michael Winship

"These guys won't be happy until the government agrees to relieve them of every last one of their lousy loans and investments at inflated prices, recapitalize every major bank and brokerage and insurance company on sweetheart terms and restore them to the glory days, so they can once again earn inflated profits and obscene pay packages by screwing over their customers and their shareholders."

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article21993.htm



Looting Social Security

By William Greider

To understand the mechanics of this attempted swindle, you have to roll back twenty-five years, to the time the game of bait and switch began, under Ronald Reagan.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article21991.htm



It's Going to Take a Civic Jolt

By Ralph Nader

Some staffers in Congress privately assert that the Democrats are not acting like a majority party. It is worse than that. They are not acting-period.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article21994.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=bailout
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=oligarchy
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=social+security
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Michael+Winship
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=William+Greider
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ralph+Nader

Written by Thomas R. Eddlem

A Gallup Poll released February 12 revealed that 62 percent of Americans want to investigate or criminally prosecute Bush administration officials who authorized torture in the so-called "war on terror." But even though President Obama has said numerous times that "nobody's above the law," on February 10 he used the Bush administration's "state secrets" gambit to quash a lawsuit attempting to penalize some of those involved in renditioning torture subjects.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article21988.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=torture
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bush+legacy
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=state+secrets
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Thomas+R.+Eddlem

By Greg Miller

The Predator planes that launch missile strikes against militants are based in Pakistan, the senator says. That suggests a much deeper relationship with the U.S. than Islamabad would like to admit.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article21986.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=U.S.+drones
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Predator
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Pakistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Feinstein
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=missile+strikes
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Greg+Miller