Bonjour Planet Earth

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Nestlé drops sponsorship of athletics body (IAAF) over scandal...

Swiss-based food giant Nestlé has terminated a sponsorship programme with world athletics' governing body (IAAF) over fears that the corruption and doping scandals surrounding the sport could damage the company's reputation, a spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

"I confirm that we have decided to end our partnership with the IAAF Kids Athletics programme with immediate effect," Nestlé spokeswoman Lydia Meziani told AFP in an email.

"This decision was taken in light of negative publicity associated with allegations of corruption and doping in sport made against the IAAF," she added.

Nestlé, the world's largest food company, became in 2012 the main sponsor of a programme aimed at promoting athletics for youths worldwide.

But Meziani said Nestle decided to "terminate (its) existing relationship with the IAAF" because a continued partnership "could negatively impact our reputation and image." Full story...

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Another sexual harassment complaint against Teri's RK Pachauri...

Trouble mounted for RK Pachauri, already embroiled a legal battle over allegations of sexual harassment, when another woman came out in public on Wednesday making similar allegations.

The woman, a former employee of The Energy and Resources Institute (Teri), made these allegations amid controversy over Pachauri's elevation to a higher post..
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The woman, who claimed Pachauri made sexual advances at her more than 10 years ago, slammed Teri for appointing Pachauri executive vice-chairman two days ago, thus elevating his status.

Giving details of the case, the woman's lawyer Vrinda Grover said that they had first reported the complaint in February last year with police but they did not do anything till date forcing her to come out in public with the charges..
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"Pachauri would use the excuse of work assignments to repeatedly call me to his office room, even though there was no real work that he needed to discuss. Full story...

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World's largest model railway...

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Train goes through a makeshift market in Bangkok!!

Pope unleashes 'super confessors' to tackle special sins...

Dubbed 'super confessors', for one year only they can absolve sins usually only pardoned by the pope himself.

And on Wednesday over 1,000 of these "missionaries of mercy", handpicked by Pope Francis, were sent forth to win back the hearts of those who have left the Catholic Church and open the door to repentant sinners across the world.

There are certain evils the Vatican ranks above other sins, from attempting to assassinate the pope to defiling the Eucharist -- the rite of consuming consecrated bread and wine in Church -- by spitting it out or using it in a Satanic ritual.

Since the 12th century, those guilty of these so-called "reserved sins" had their cases evaluated by a secret tribunal in the tiny Vatican city state before they were sent before the pope, who would determine an appropriate penance. Full story...

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Dutch cathedral has new angel ... with mobile phone!!!

Vatican invents new sins!!! Hilarious!

Beauty contest for nuns? The Church is not amused...

Outrage as Riyadh video shows religious police ‘abuse’

One of the two girls who had a bitter standoff with the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, the religious police, in Riyadh said they had been the victims of “blatant injustice.”

A video clip of a woman being beaten up in front of the Nakheel Mall in Riyadh sparked outrage in Saudi Arabia this week amid contrasting reports about what really took place.

The girl said that she was walking with her friend in front of the mall looking for a taxi when they were stopped by a Commission patrol.

One of the men asked the two to cover their faces, but the girls initially resisted the order. However, they acquiesced when they saw the man getting off the car and approaching them, she said, Al Hayat daily reported.

“The Commission member asked us if we were students or employees, and wanted to take us into the vehicle,” the girl said. “However, as we realised [there was a] large number of Commission members, we refused and insisted that they call our families. However, the Commission member did not listen and he and others tried to pull us inside the van by force,” she said. Full story...

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Saudi men removed for protesting against woman’s poem...

Saudi Arabia's religious police outlaw 'tempting eyes'

Saudis tweet anger at religious police following car chase death...

Saudi man dies after chase by religious police...

Saudi woman to religious police: it's none of your business if I wear nail polish...

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

UAE Minister of Happiness announced...

New federal ministers have been announced following one of the biggest shake-ups of the UAE government in years.

HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, announced the new cabinet through his Twitter account.

“The new stage is to form a new future and youth and happiness… and the development of education and dealing with climate change, to protect our environment,” tweeted Sheikh Mohammed.

Ohood Al Roumi has been appointed as the Minister of Happiness. Full story...

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Switzerland is 'world's happiest' country in new poll...

Bhutan’s dark secret to happiness...

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The economics of happiness...

Bhutan recalculates Gross National Happiness...

A Map of Global Happiness and Well-Being?

Goat arrested in India for eating plants in judge's garden...

Don't kid around in a judge's garden.

That's the lesson learned by a man in central India after he - and his goat - were arrested for repeatedly damaging a senior bureaucrat's garden.

Police in Chhattisgarh state sprang into action, registering a case against the animal and its owner, Abdul Hassan, after it chewed up the district magistrate's flowers.

They were later released on bail but face initial charges of causing mischief and damage to property, said officer Ram Sewak Paikra from Janakpur town in Korea district.

"The goat and the owner were under police custody and are out, as both the sections 427 and 447 of the IPC (Indian Penal Code) are bailable offences," Mr Paikra said. Full story...

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Cat in Israel jailed for aiding Palestinian prisoners!!! Hilarious...

The 'Rosa Parks' of Saudi Arabia...

Nawal al-Hawsawi is outspoken, black, a qualified pilot and married to a white man - everything her critics say a Saudi woman shouldn't be.

But despite receiving waves of abuse on social media, she refuses to bow to convention and hits back at her detractors "with love".

Al-Hawsawi has become something of a star on social media. She has amassed almost 50,000 followers on Twitter, where she posts about the importance of racial diversity and marriage equality. But not everyone reading her feed is a fan.

The deluge of racist abuse that came at the end of December was just the latest flurry in a long campaign. The trolls have had al-Hawsawi in their sights for years. They send her pictures of gorillas, grotesquely photoshopped African tribespeople, and they call her the A word - a derogatory Arabic term for black people which means "slave", not dissimilar in meaning to the N word.

Growing up in Mecca, a fairly cosmopolitan part of Saudi Arabia, al-Hawsawi says until she travelled to the US she hadn't consciously thought of herself as "black". Full story...

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Saudi Arabia buys 'international silence' about its atrocities in Yemen...

Uganda bans housemaids from working in Saudi Arabia...

Saudi Arabia arrests Samar Badawi, human rights advocate...

#SueMeSaudi: Twitter users taunt Saudi Arabia...

Saudi actor arrested ‘for taking selfies with female fans in shopping mall’

Hiding in the bushes to watch porn in Pakistan...

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Facebook has 3 months to stop tracking Web users in France without consent...

France’s data protection authority has ordered Facebook to stop tracking Web users who aren’t members on the social network within the next three months or face fines.

In an order published on January 26 (PDF), the Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL) said that the company tracks browsing activity after people visit a publicly viewable page from the site even if they don’t have a Facebook account, and sets cookies that relay more information when these users visit other sites that use Facebook plugins like buttons for liking and sharing content.

CNIL also took issue with the social network storing details about users’ sexual orientation as well as religious and political views without their explicit consent. The agency also stated that Facebook violated users’ right to privacy by compiling information on their habits for targeted advertising without giving them a way to prevent data collection.

It also alleged that Facebook transfers personal data to the United States on the basis of the now-defunct Safe Harbor pact which allowed American firms to store data from users in Europe in the US until last October.

A new agreement between the EU and the US known as Privacy Shield was reached last week, but it is yet to come into force. Full story...

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Facebook accused of blackmail after Belgian court rules it can no longer track non-users...

Facebook 'tracks all visitors, breaching EU law'

Facebook's Messenger app is tracking a lot more of your data than you think...

Nowhere to hide: New Facebook app to track offline users...

How to stop Facebook from tracking you...

Why expat Americans are giving up their passports...

How does it feel to give up your nationality, to renounce the country you were born in, potentially forfeiting the chance to ever return?

"It's not going to be easy at all. It's the last thing I ever thought of doing," Jane tells me when I meet her in a Paris cafe.

Her voice cracks and her eyes well up. She is in the process of relinquishing her American nationality. Soon she'll visit the US embassy formally to renounce her citizenship, she says, under duress.

"I'm very proud of being an American. It's what I am when I look in the mirror.

"If it weren't for Fatca [the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act] and the decision by the bank, I'd never be doing this. Never ever. It's just breaking me in half." Full story...

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Tuesday, February 09, 2016

I asked 8 researchers why the science of nutrition is so messy. Here’s what they said...

There was a time, in the distant past, when studying nutrition was a relatively simple science.

In 1747, a Scottish doctor named James Lind wanted to figure out why so many sailors got scurvy, a disease that leaves sufferers exhausted and anemic, with bloody gums and missing teeth. So Lind took 12 scurvy patients and ran the first modern clinical trial.

The sailors were divided into six groups, each given a different treatment. The men who ate oranges and lemons eventually recovered — a striking result that pointed to vitamin C deficiency as the culprit.

This sort of nutritional puzzle solving was common in the pre-industrial era. Many of troubling diseases of the day, such as scurvy, pellagra, anemia, and goiter, were due to some sort of deficiency in the diet. Doctors could develop hypotheses and run experiments until they figured out what was missing in people's foods. Puzzle solved.

Unfortunately, studying nutrition is no longer that simple. By the 20th century, medicine had mostly fixed scurvy and goiter and other diseases of deficiency. In developed countries, these scourges are no longer an issue for most people. Full story...

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100% of what I learned in medical school was wrong...

Restaurant food not much healthier than fast food...

Why butter and eggs won't kill us after all: Flawed science triggers U-turn...

You can't 'outrun' obesity: Study says exercise doesn't help weight loss...

The evidence for low-fat diets isn't really there...

Racism rears its head in Hong Kong...

Officially-sponsored racism in Hong Kong has taken another leap forward this month with the announcement that the government is considering abolishing visa-free access for visitors from India and Indonesia. Ethnic cleansing aims to reduce the attractions of the city to Asians not carrying the superior Han genes.

The visa news coincided with a visit to India by Chief Executive C.Y.Leung in company with a group of businessmen supposedly to foster links with the largest nation on the One Belt One Road route. Leung, not known for his interest in any Asian country other than his own, has been parroting Beijing’s OBOR mantra, mentioning it four times in a recent policy speech .But he seemed not to care that though he was accorded a meeting with Prime Minister Modi, Indians aware of Hong Kong’s latest announcement felt deeply insulted.The general Hong Kong disdain for India,in sharp contrast to Singapore’s efforts to build ties, was reflected by the South China Morning Post, which consigned the Leung-Modi meeting to an inside page of its City section.

Actual policies stand in sharp contrast to the fostering of ties which OBOR is supposed to promote. The threat to end visa-free access to the two largest brown-skin Asian nations is on the grounds that this is a route for asylum seekers. The lie is obvious: almost all the asylum seekers come from countries which do not have visa-free access – Pakistan, Bangladesh, and a slew of countries in the Middle East and Africa. An Asia Sentinel request to the Immigration Department for numbers of Indonesian asylum-seekers has been met with silence. It is believed that the few are mainly former domestic helpers who have had their contracts terminated by Hong Kong employers and used the asylum route in a desperate attempt not to be deported. Full story...

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Hong Kong woman jailed for six years for abusing Indonesian maid...

Hong Kong mother 'starved and tortured' her maid...

'Tortured' Indonesian maid in Hong Kong listed on Time's top 100...

Story Keeps Changing on Malaysian PM’s Embarrassing Accounts...

By now, the mysterious US$681 million (RMB2.83 billion at current exchange rates) that showed up in the personal AmBank account of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak in 2013 has been said to come from so many different sources and to be used for so many different purposes that the government can’t keep track.

The source of the money is just one of a series of questions dogging Najib, who has fought to stay in power by firing or neutralizing anybody who might get in his way, including Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and a long string of others.

To reports that he is being investigated in Singapore, New York, Switzerland and France, Najib has blamed unnamed dark forces or political enemies. He has hinted that the Chinese are involved in a plot to take over the country from ethnic Malays. He has paid vast amounts of money, created make-work jobs or allowed rent-seeking from top UMNO cadres through dodgy contracts to keep himself in power. In his latest move, last week he ousted Mukhriz Mahathir, the son of the onetime prime minister, from power in Kedah after a bruising fight that sources in the northern part of the country said was won by payments to turn around the votes of state assembly members backing Mukhriz.

When the US$681 million was first made public in July 2015, Najib said it came from an unnamed Middle Eastern source whom he declined to identify and denied that it was for his personal use. He refused to go beyond that.

Then officials said the money had come from a Saudi source and that it was to be spent in the 2013 election to ward off Islamic fundamentalists, although there were none – a violation of Malaysian constitutional law, which bars donations from foreign sources from being used for political purposes – and that US$620 million had been returned to the donor. Full story...

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Simon's cat in Tough love...

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Syria 'exterminating detainees'

The Syrian government has carried out a state policy of extermination against thousands of detainees, UN human rights investigators say.

They accuse President Bashar al-Assad's regime of crimes against humanity, in a report for the UN Human Rights Council.

The study says both loyalist and anti-government forces have committed possible war crimes.

Many detainees were tortured, some were beaten to death, and others died from lack of food, water, or medical care.

The findings come from interviews with hundreds of witnesses and cover the period since the start of anti-government protests in March 2011.

The report says thousands of detainees have been killed while in the custody of warring parties during that time. Full story...

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Gaddafi warned Blair his ousting would 'open door' to jihadis...

Daesh: the ‘enemy’ the US created, armed, and funded

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ISIS sex atrocities: Child rape, forced virginity surgeries exposed in UN report...

Your emotions could be making you sick...

We often hear about public health crises related to poor diet, lack of exercise, and smoking. But what about chronic stress?

Canadian physician Gabor Maté studies the mind-body connection. He argues that chronic stress plays a big role in the development of disease.

It should come as no surprise that that emotions can impact physical health. When we’re sad, we cry. When we’re embarrassed, we blush. When we’re nervous, we might have lumps in our throats or butterflies in our stomachs.

Clearly, our feelings aren’t just experienced in our heads.

When we’re stressed, our bodies release cortisol and adrenaline. These two hormones impact our entire bodies. They stop digestion, suppress our immune systems, and mobilize energy to gear up for fight or flight. Full story...

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HSBC fined $470 million for 2008 financial crisis, no one jailed...

Multinational bank HSBC has agreed to a $470 million settlement with the U.S. government for mortgage lending and foreclosure abuses that worsened the 2008 financial crisis, but is it enough?

The Justice Department’s Acting Associate Attorney General Stuart F. Delery said the agreement was “the result of a coordinated effort between federal and state partners to hold HSBC accountable for abusive mortgage practices. This agreement provides for $370 million in creditable consumer relief to benefit homeowners across the country and requires HSBC to reform their servicing standards.”

Under the agreement HSBC must reduce mortgage interest rates as well as the principal on mortgages for homeowners who are at risk of default. HSBC must also improve their standards for handling service loans and foreclosures. The hope is that new practices will discourage the actions that lead to the financial crisis that started in 2007 due to banks like HSBC knowingly giving out bad loans.

The U.S. government and the individual states involved will received $100 million in an escrow fund that will make payments to people who lost their homes due to foreclosure between 2008 and 2012. Full story...

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Death threats sent to Geneva bank managers...

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Iceland jails former bank bosses...

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India chooses net neutrality, Facebook's Free Basics is nixed...

India has today elected for net neutrality, banning immediately any differential pricing for data - that means no content can be offered at discounted rates. The decision means that India will not allow Facebook's free internet scheme, fronted by founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Violators will be penalized at Rs. 50,000 per day, said regulator TRAI, stressing that "content
agnostic" access to the internet is the operating principle; however, data charges can be dropped during public emergencies like flooding.

Data packs that currently offer discounted rates for some content will not be yanked and customers can use them till they expire, said the regulator, adding that it is the "convenience of users" that is the over-riding concern.

"While disappointed with the outcome, we will continue our efforts to eliminate barriers and give the unconnected an easier path to the internet," said Facebook in a statement. Free Basics has been described by Mr Zuckerberg as a way of bringing the internet to millions of Indians in rural India. In partnership with Reliance Telecom, the scheme, which piloted in a few states, allowed users to access - at no charge- to Facebook's own social network and messaging services, along with the content of its partners. Full story...

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The world’s best-dressed Sikh was kicked off a flight for his turban...

Waris Ahluwalia—the actor and jewelry designer whose face will look familiar to fans of Wes Anderson films and anyone who has ever clicked through a slideshow of a fashion party—reported this morning via Instagram that he was forbidden from boarding his Aeromexico flight from Mexico City to New York because of his turban.

Ahluwalia is known for his dapper style, which usually includes a slim suit, custom-made pink suede George Esquivel desert boots, and a simple black turban—which he wears in accordance with his Sikh faith. Speaking from the airport in Mexico City, Ahluwalia told Quartz that he had already gone through two security screenings when an Aeromexico employee told him to remove his turban.

“I just said ‘that’s not going to happen,'” said Ahluwalia. The employee informed Ahluwalia he would not be allowed to board the flight, or any other with Aeromexico.

(...)

Ahluwalia said he would not board a flight until Aeromexico agreed to make a public apology, engage in training employees about the Sikh religion and how to work respectfully with Sikh passengers, and to address other religion’s traditions as well. He said Aeromexico appears to be engaging with the Sikh Coalition. (Aeromexico has not yet responded to a request for comment.) Full story...

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Monday, February 08, 2016

Black Sabbath ~ War Pigs...

Sunday, February 07, 2016

Seduction of smart technologies and the creeping paralysis of virtual reality...

(...)

The madness of geoengineering our climate and smart phone engineering our brains is linked. Put superficially, the more you look down at your flickering gizmo, the less likely you are to look up and witness the engineered cloud formations grid-lining our once blue skies. Or for that matter, the beauty and subtlety of nature or the grace and dignity of fine architecture.

In fact, a disposition towards ‘not seeing’ has been on the rise for at least two or three decades now. It applies to vaccinations, GMOs, food additives, radiation, electro smog, and so many more creeping weapons of the ‘silent wars’ assailing our planet and our physiological and mental capacities.

One might try to dismiss these devitalizing agents as necessary evils of the convenience age in a society dependent upon instant fixes, instant communications, instant satisfactions and instant just about everything. One might…until one realises that they are impregnating and polluting our blood stream, subtly altering our DNA, and changing our very nature from the inside out … and from the outside in.

What kind of insanity is this? Full story...

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Zika: Update from Brazil: Towering non-evidence...

I can now provide the latest update on what researchers in Brazil are discovering, as they dig into their original findings about the Zika virus and cases of microcephaly (babies born with small heads and brain impairment).

A correspondent has offered a translation of an article that appeared in one of the major Sao Paulo newspapers, O Estado de São Paulo, on February 2nd, “País tem 404 casos confirmados de microcefalia”:

It is obvious that no significant connection between microcephaly and the Zika virus has been found. It’s not even close. So far, therefore, there is absolutely no reason to trumpet an epidemic of Zika. Doing so is quite insane, by any reasonable standard.

Here are the principal facts in the article (after which I’ll comment): Full story...

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Arundhati Roy caught in the crossfire of Indian judicial power struggle...

Her fictional tale of bitter rivalries between castes, religions and Communist zealots in the tropical south of 1960s India won her a Booker Prize.

But novelist Arundhati Roy could soon be jailed for contempt after getting caught up in a real-life “sectarian” rivalry between two Indian courthouses.

The author of The God of Small Things stands formally accused of making “scandalous and scurrilous allegations” against the Indian judiciary over an article she wrote in May 2015 calling for the release on bail of an alleged Maoist professor.

In the article Ms Roy, who has become a bête noire of the Indian establishment in recent years, contended that there was “much to suggest” that authorities do not want the severely disabled Professor GN Saibaba to “come out of the Nagpur central jail alive”.

As a result, a court in Nagpur - where Prof Saibaba remains incarcerated - issued contempt proceedings against her in December. Full story...

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Lawyers forum demands action against Arundhati...

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Saturday, February 06, 2016

200 million women and girls live with female genital mutilation...

They covered her face and laid her down.

What happened next, Agnes wishes no girl would ever experience.

"They grabbed my legs and arms," she said. "They excised me. Blood was coming out."

Her genitals had been mutilated.

Agnes, now 14, underwent the procedure in Cote D'Ivoire. But the practice is by no means limited to that one country, or even to just a few.

At least 200 million women and girls in 30 countries now live with female genital mutilation, according to a new UNICEF report published in time for Saturday's International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM, as the practice is often abbreviated.

The report says 70 million more victims than previously thought have undergone the "violent practice."

The exact number remains unknown. Full story...

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School lunch in Japan: it's not just about eating...

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French law forbids food waste by supermarkets...

France has become the first country in the world to ban supermarkets from throwing away or destroying unsold food, forcing them instead to donate it to charities and food banks.

Under a law passed unanimously by the French senate, as of Wednesday large shops will no longer bin good quality food approaching its best-before date. Charities will be able to give out millions more free meals each year to people struggling to afford to eat.

The law follows a grassroots campaign in France by shoppers, anti-poverty campaigners and those opposed to food waste. The campaign, which led to a petition, was started by the councillor Arash Derambarsh. In December a bill on the issue passed through the national assembly, having been introduced by the former food industry minister Guillaume Garot.

Campaigners now hope to persuade the EU to adopt similar legislation across member states.

The law has been welcomed by food banks, which will now begin the task of finding the extra volunteers, lorries, warehouse anFulld fridge space to deal with an increase in donations from shops and food companies. Full story...

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Denmark confirms US sent rendition flight for Snowden...

Denmark’s justice minister admitted on Friday that the US sent a rendition flight to Copenhagen Airport that was meant to capture whistleblower Edward Snowden and return him to the United States.

The revelation that the US landed a private aircraft in Copenhagen intended to capture Snowden in June 2013 was first reported last month by the Danish online media Denfri, but Danish officials initially denied the report.

On Friday however it was reported that Justice Minister Søren Pind told parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee that the Danish government did allow the Americans to use both Danish airspace and the airport knowing full well that the aircraft was intended to take a captured Snowden back to the US.

“The purpose of the plane’s presence at Copenhagen Airport was apparently to have the ability to transport Edward Snowden to the USA in case he was delivered from Russia or another country,” Pind said in a written statement.

As recently as Wednesday, Pind said that he “wasn’t aware of the purpose of the aircraft in question”. Full story...

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Snowden granted 3-year residence permit in Russia...

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Germany blocks Edward Snowden from testifying in person in NSA inquiry...

Friday, February 05, 2016

Wife facing jail for not doing enough housework!!!

A woman is facing the prospect of a six-year prison sentence because she doesn’t do enough housework.

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to 21st century Italy.

Her husband is accusing her of ‘mistreatment of the family’ over her failure to do the cooking and cleaning.

He accused her of ‘poor management of the household chores’ according to Il Fatto Quotidiano, which added that a lot of food ended up being wasted because it hand’t been eaten.

The poor, neglected husband has also claimed that she kicked him out of the bedroom and that he had been insulted by two years of negligence and being ‘forced to live in conditions with poor hygiene’.

She will go on trial on October 12. Source...

‘You created ISIS!’ Press conference scandal mars Kerry’s visit to Italy...

US Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to Italy was disrupted by a cry of protest at his joint press conference with Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni, when a woman in the audience shouted, “it’s you who created Daesh!”

The press conference was coming to an end, when the woman stood up from the public, her head covered up by a black veil.

“It’s you who created Daesh!” she shouted at the two ministers, using another name for the terror group Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), reported the Italian state-owned television channel RAI.

The woman was dragged away from the conference by the Carabinieri. Full story...

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Invasion of Iraq led to current instability, the worst foreign policy blunder...

Thursday, February 04, 2016

India mob strips Tanzanian student in Bangalore...

A Tanzanian student was assaulted and partially stripped by a mob in the southern Indian city of Bangalore after a Sudanese student's car ran over and killed a local woman.

The mob attacked the 21-year-old woman and her three friends - all Tanzanians - as they were passing by the accident site a little later.

The crowd chased the young woman and "removed her top", police said.

Tanzanian embassy officials have sought a report into the incident.

The incident took place on Sunday night, but was first reported only on Tuesday.

Police told BBC Hindi's Imran Qureshi in Bangalore that a mob gathered in Hessarghatta area after an allegedly drunk student from Sudan ran his car over a woman sleeping on the roadside.

The mob beat up the man and set fire to his car, but he managed to escape. Full story...

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A history of Japan...

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Ambitious TPP trade deal signed...

The ambitious Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) has been formally signed in Auckland even as the US struggles to get the pact ratified in Congress.

The trade deal looks to facilitate investment between 12 countries across the Pacific Rim, which together account for about 40% of the global economy.

This includes Singapore, Australia, Canada, Japan, Malaysia and Mexico.

The TPP was agreed in October after years of negotiations and multiple missed deadlines.

The US-led initiative is a key part of President Barack Obama's so-called pivot to Asia but has proved to be a controversial issue ahead of the US elections in November. Full story...

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806 people died by falling off trains in 2015 in Mumbai...

A heart wrenching video of a 55-year-old woman, Kiran Kothari, falling to death from a train at Borivli station on January 15 recently got viral. However, Kothari is not the only one to have succumbed this way.

According to the statistics provided by the government railway police, as many as 2,500 persons had died after falling from trains in the past 3 years. In 2015, there were 806 such casualties, while 479 people had died natural death, reveals statistics.

According to the GRP statistics, in 2015 as many as 3349 people (including 588 women) have died in railway premises. Of them, 806 persons (including 66 women) had died by falling off trains, while 479 persons died naturally.

Last year, Dombivli resident Bhavesh Nakate had died by falling off train and his last minute video wherein he was seen trying desperately to get into a crowded compartment had gone viral. This incident prompted the authorities to take action on those commuters who travel on foot-boards. Full story...

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Dumping the State, Indian villagers build their own railway station!!!

TPP 'fundamentally flawed,' should be resisted - UN human rights expert...

The top United Nations expert on human rights has called on the 12 nations considering the Trans-Pacific Partnership to reject the massive trade agreement since in its current form it "is out of step with today’s international human rights regime.”

Acknowledging global opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) because of the agreement's "undemocratic pedigree,"Alfred de Zayas, the UN's independent expert on the promotion of democratic and equitable international order, said the largest trade agreement in decades "is fundamentally flawed and should not be signed or ratified unless provision is made to guarantee the regulatory space of States."

"I am concerned that notwithstanding enormous opposition by civil society worldwide, twelve countries are about to sign an agreement, which is the product of secret negotiations without multi-stakeholder democratic consultation," de Zayas said in a statement ahead of a February 4 gathering in New Zealand of trade representatives for the 12 Pacific Rim nations involved in the secretive TPP talks.

“Trade agreements are not ‘stand-alone’ legal regimes, but must conform with fundamental principles of international law, including transparency and accountability," de Zayas said. [Trade agreements] must not delay, circumvent, undermine or make impossible the fulfillment of human rights treaty obligations." Full story...

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Wednesday, February 03, 2016

Worried about your liver? Drink COFFEE: Two cups a day 'can halve the risk of damage caused by alcohol'

Two cups of coffee a day can help stave off liver disease caused by drinking too much alcohol, scientists claimed today.

In fact, regular consumption of the drink slashed the risk of the risk of liver cirrhosis by 44 per cent.

Researchers from the University of Southampton reviewed nine long-term studies involving almost half a million men and women from six countries.

They found that those who drank two cups of coffee every day were less likely to suffer from liver cirrhosis or die from it. Full story...

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No wonder French losing faith in Hollande's war on terror...

Since being elected Hollande has hardly enjoyed the backing of the French public.

They lost trust in his ability to solve record unemployment and a floundering economy a long time ago, but when it came to terror and "war", Hollande seemed to have the confidence of the people.

Amid the shock and the grief of two terror attacks, Hollande for once gave the impression of being in control of the country as he vowed not to give in to terror and insisted France’s principles of liberté and laicité would win through.

But it appears his convincing impersonation of a wartime leader has worn off with a poll this week showing that six out of ten respondents do not trust him to lead the fight on terror, a rise since a similar poll was taken last in November. Full story...

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Monday, February 01, 2016

Now Austria wants to PAY migrants hundreds to LEAVE in desperate bid to ease crisis...

AUSTRIA plans to pay migrants £380 each to go back to their homeland in a desperate bid to ease the deepening crisis.

The country’s government hopes the last-ditch tactic will help encourage a staggering 50,000 migrants to leave the country by 2019.

According to officials in Vienna, the full sum will only be paid if the migrant decides to leave quickly before the government rules on their asylum case.

The drastic plans have been drawn up by the country’s foreign ministry, interior ministry and defence ministry – which will be flying thousands of migrants home.

Austrian interior minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner said the country has one of the highest deportation levels in Europe. Full story...

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Worried about Zika? Here's some other bugs you're more likely to catch...

Zika virus is "spreading explosively" across Latin America and the Caribbean, according to the World Health Organization. As many as 4 million people could be infected over the next year, and scientists are racing to determine whether the virus is causing an increase in microcephaly, a birth defect that can kill babies or cause lifelong disability.

But U.S. government health officials say Zika's unlikely to spread much in the U.S., although they say small, occasional outbreaks are possible as travelers bring the virus back and get bitten by mosquitoes. And that risk is mostly confined to the far south, because the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that spread Zika don't live in colder climates.

Even then, the risk might only be for women who are currently pregnant, because 80 percent of people infected by Zika don't even feel sick at all. But there are some other mosquito-borne illnesses that are worth watching out for. They're endemic in the U.S., meaning they are here year-round. Here are a few of them: Full story...

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Swede becomes first person to board a plane with just a wave of his hand...

As throngs of weary travellers streamed through one of Europe’s busiest travel hubs, the female security guard at Stockholm Arlanda Airport looked up at Andreas Sjostrom, confused.

Somehow, without a boarding pass or even a smartphone, Sjostrom had managed to activate her scanner, and the system was telling her to let him in.

Sjostrom is not a robot or a Jason Bourne-style secret assassin; he’s simply a curious Swede who decided to have a microchip implanted in his hand with his frequent flyer identification number on it.

He’s the first person in the world to get on a plane this way, sailing through security, then into the Scandinavian Airlines lounge and onto his flight to Paris in late December.

“It was a fluent experience,” Sjostrom, the vice-president of digital for a tech consulting company, told the Star by phone from Stockholm. Full story...

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Yazidi ex-slave girls subjected to traumatic ‘virginity tests’ to prove ISIS abuse...

Having escaped abuse at the hands of Islamic State militants, Yazidi girls and women have been forced to undergo painful “virginity tests” to prove to Iraqi courts that they had been raped, Human Rights Watch has discovered.

A report looking into the post-ISIS fate of Yazidi women in Iraq was posted on the human rights organization’s website by Rothna Begum, a WRD researcher, on Wednesday.

One of them, a girl named Luna, says she was kidnapped by Islamic State (formerly ISIS/ISIL) militants, sold four times, and raped by all of her “owners.”

“Survivors my colleague and I interviewed, described organized rape, sexual slavery, and forced marriage by ISIS,” the report reads.

The victims described in the report were in need of psychological help, health care, and other services. While officials in Iraqi Kurdistan took their plight seriously, they still forced the girls and women to undergo “virginity tests” to confirm that they had been abused. Full story...

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