The Army has opted to delay testing of new body armor designs that can stop powerful armor piercing bullets and vests that contain flexible plating much like the controversial Dragon Skin armor.
Citing industry requests, the Army's top gear buyer told Military.com the test firing on so-called "XSAPI" and "FSAPI" armor would be held off until March 2008.
"Some body armor manufacturers told us they needed a little more time to get long-lead materials and to test new designs before they could submit them to us," said Brig. Gen. Mark Brown, head of the Fort Belvoir, Va.-based Program Executive Office Soldier.
Brown said the new armor designs would likely be tested at Aberdeen Test Center, Md., beginning in March and finished up by June. Testing on the new designs was previously set to begin last fall.
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Army Postpones New Body Armor Tests
Friday, December 28, 2007
Thaksin faces arrest if he returns
BANGKOK (AFP) - Deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra would face arrest on corruption and fraud charges if he returned to Thailand, a senior official at the Attorney General’s office said Thursday.
“If they were in Thailand, police can arrest him and his wife because both are still wanted on Thai arrest warrants,” Samphan Sarathana, chief of international affairs for the Attorney General, told AFP.
Thaksin told reporters in Hong Kong on Tuesday that he planned to return home by April, after his allies in the People Power Party (PPP) claimed victory in elections on Sunday, the first since a coup in September 2006.
But the self-made billionaire, who has been living in exile, and his wife Pojaman are on an immigration blacklist, meaning that they can be immediately arrested if they try to enter Thailand.
Samphan’s agency has been pushing for the couple’s extradition from Britain, where Thaksin owns a home and purchased Manchester City football club.
The Supreme Court issued arrest warrants for Thaksin and Pojaman in August over separate graft charges linked to a real estate deal in 2003. In September a Thai criminal court issued another arrest warrant against the former first couple over charges tied to alleged fraudulent filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2003.
Thaksin and his wife deny any wrongdoing and say the charges are politically motivated.
PPP won 233 of the 480 seats in the Thai parliament in Sunday’s vote. It is trying to cobble together a coalition government.
Police deployed to stop Christian-Hindu violence in India
BHUBANESWAR (AFP) - Hundreds of police were deployed in eastern India on Thursday to stop fresh clashes between Hindus and Christians after churches were attacked and a man killed in Christmas Day attacks.
“Enough police both from the state and the central reserve police force have been deployed in the affected towns and villages... to maintain order. The situation is under control,” Orissa state chief minister Naveen Patnaik said.
Some 800 police were deployed and more were on their way to the violence-hit area in Kandhamal district, 300km southwest of the state capital Bhubaneswar, officials said.
A curfew was also imposed Wednesday after Hindus, backed by the hard-line Vishwa Hindu Parishad or World Hindu Council, torched six churches — mostly mud and thatch structures — and ransacked another four on Christmas night in violence that left one man dead and 30 injured.
Despite the curfew, more scuffles and stone-throwing broke out between Hindus and Christians late Wednesday and some fences surrounding churches and temples were torn down, police said, but no injuries were reported.
Christian missionaries have long found converts among India’s neglected tribal communities or “untouchable” Hindus — known as Dalits — who still face huge discrimination. Some missionaries talk of “liberating” low-caste Hindus.
In Kandhamal, the majority of Christian converts are Dalits.
Sectarian clashes erupt periodically in the billion-plus country of multiple faiths, where 2.3pc are practising Christians. Rising tensions have prompted several Indian state governments to enact anti-conversion laws.
A Hindu man is serving a life sentence for burning alive an Australian Christian missionary and his two sons as well as a Catholic priest in Orissa in 1999.
Some reports said the latest violence began after a Hindu leader who had campaigned against so-called “forced” conversions of low-caste Hindus to Christianity was attacked on Christmas Eve.
11 Shia fighters killed in Iraq by US army
BAGHDAD (AFP) - US forces on Thursday killed 11 Shia fighters allegedly backed by Iranian Republican Guard units and arrested two suspected militants involved in the abduction of three American soldiers.
The militants were killed in an early morning raid in the town of Kut south of Baghdad, the military told AFP.
“I can confirm that coalition forces killed an estimated 11 terrorists during operations targeting special groups criminal networks early Thursday in Al-Kut,” US military spokesman Lieutenant Patrick Evans said.
The US military refers to Shiite extremists who have broken away from the main Mahdi Army militia of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr as “special groups.”
It says the groups wage acts of “terrorism” in Iraq with the financial and military support of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards units, though Tehran denies backing them.
Iraqi security officials said the raid took place in Kut’s western neighbourhood of Al-Jihad, which is near Camp Delta, an American military base that is a regular target of militia attacks.
The Iraq officials said the dead included two civilians.
The US military said the raid targeted a militant reportedly responsible for attacking its troops.
It said that during the raid the troops were attacked by “direct enemy fire” from assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. The soldiers returned fire and called in air support, leaving around 11 militants dead.
“We commend all those who honour Al-Sayyid Moqtada al-Sadr’s ceasefire pledge,” US military spokesman Major Winfield Danielson said in a separate statement giving details of the operation. “Significant progress has been made in the fight for a secure and stable Iraq, but dangerous criminal elements still exist.”
In late August, Sadr ordered a six-month freeze on the activities of the Mahdi Army militia, which had fought against US forces since the March 2003 invasion of Iraq. The US military accuses “rogue” elements of breaking away from the militia to form special groups that continue attacking its troops despite Sadr’s call.
On Thursday the American military also said it had captured two Al-Qaeda militants suspected of involvement in the May kidnapping of three US soldiers.
Troops captured the pair in the city of Ramadi in the western Sunni province of Anbar on Monday and Tuesday after intelligence reports linked them to the abduction of the soldiers following an ambush, a military statement said.
The three-Private Byron Fouty, Specialist Alex Jiminez and Private First Class Joseph Anzack-were seized on May 12 south of Baghdad near the town of Mahmudiyah.
An Al-Qaeda front group later claimed in a video that it had killed them. Anzack’s body was found floating in the Euphrates River a few days later, but American forces are still searching the other two.
The three were snatched during an insurgent ambush on a US unit manning an observation post near Mahmudiyah. Four US soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter were killed in the attack.
One of the two suspects captured this week was believed to have used his home to hide the abducted soldiers, the statement said.
More than 130 feared dead after Indonesian rains
TAWANGMANGU (AFP) - Indonesian rescuers hunted Thursday for victims of landslides and floods on Java island that have left more than 130 people feared dead and tens of thousands displaced, officials said.
Landslides hit two districts in Central Java in the early hours of Wednesday morning, engulfing entire homes and blocking roads, while floods in East Java swept away a bridge, leaving an estimated 50 missing.
Health ministry official Rustam Pakaya said at least 28,000 people were displaced in Central Java, where figures were still being compiled, while the Red Cross said 45,000 people fled their homes in East Java.
Five tonnes of instant meals and biscuits, 10 tonnes of baby food and several boats were dispatched to the disaster zones from Jakarta, he said.
In Central Java, hundreds of troops, police, local officials and residents used their hands, hoes and shovels to search for bodies, with the arrival of earth-moving equipment delayed by slides and poor roads.
In worst-hit Karanganyar district, the head of the local disaster management centre Heru Aji Pratomo said 12 bodies were plucked from the muddy wreckage, bringing the number of bodies recovered to 48.
Most of the bodies were recovered from mud as deep as three metres (10 feet) using heavy machinery, he told ElShinta radio.
He said another 20 bodies were believed missing, adding that due to heavy rains the search had been halted and would not resume again until Friday.
A witness in Karanganyar said that the landslide had felt like an earthquake.
“Suddenly I felt my house shaking, and I thought it was an earthquake. When I got outside, I saw that the houses next to mine were already covered by earth,” resident Siswo told AFP.
Twelve of his neighbours’ homes were hit, he added.
In an adjacent district, the head of the disaster management centre Sri Mubadi told AFP that two more bodies were recovered, bringing the toll to six, with 11 missing, he said.
Only manual equipment was also being used here, he added.
In East Java, operational unit chief of Madiun district police Alit Suyasa said that at least 100 rescuers were deployed to search for the estimated 50 people believed to have been on a bridge swept away by a swollen river.
“We found today three motorcycles stuck not far from the bridge,” he said, adding that no bodies were recovered.
“Floodwaters are still high and the current is very strong.”
The search was abandoned when heavy rains again began falling, he told AFP.
Meanwhile firebrand Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir toured a village in Karanganyar and said people had probably brought the disaster on themselves.
“This was likely caused by immoral acts going on here,” 69-year-old Bashir told reporters during his 10-minute visit, without elaborating.
“This could be a lesson to be learned,” he admonished.
Bashir served more than two years for his role in a “sinister conspiracy” that led to the 2002 Bali bombings, which left 202 people dead. The Supreme Court last December overturned his conviction.
Indonesia has been repeatedly afflicted by deadly floods and landslides in recent years, with activists warning that logging and a failure to reforest denuded land in the world’s fourth-most populous country are often to blame.
But in Central Java, officials insisted deforestation was not to blame.
“The hills are unstable and vulnerable to landslides anyway,” said district disaster management centre head Mubadi.
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Nuns in aging study leaving their brains behind-After major Alzheimer's findings, research will end with final sacrifice
WILTON, Conn. - When Sister Kathleen Treanor's soul ascends to heaven, her brain will go to a less ethereal realm: a medical lab in Kentucky.
Two decades ago, Sister Treanor and 677 other members of the School Sisters of Notre Dame granted a young researcher's request to test them each year in order to track the progression of Alzheimer's disease and other age-related brain disorders.
The 61 surviving nuns recently completed their last round of intellectual and physical tests for the Nun Study, one of the world's most comprehensive neurological research projects.
One final sacrifice remains: When they die, their brains will be taken for further study, joining a collection of hundreds of other brains donated by the the nuns who died before them.
Sister Treanor, a 93-year-old former school principal who is one of the last of the volunteers at a Wilton convent, looks at her participation as service, not sacrifice.
"I've tried to do good while I'm alive, and I liked the idea that I could do something good after death," she said.
With the modesty of their calling, the nuns attribute the study's success to researcher Dr. David Snowdon, downplaying their own countless hours of interviews and testing over the decades.
"I never minded having my brain checked out. It kept me out of trouble," said 96-year-old Sister Antoine Daniel.
Romney backpedals on statements - again-Explains Martin Luther King, Jr. comment, NRA endorsement statement
BOSTON - Mitt Romney, who earlier this year had to backpedal on his hunting exploits, is explaining himself again after claiming an endorsement he did not receive and saying he witnessed his father in civil rights marches he could not have seen.
"It's a figure of speech," Romney said Thursday after media inquiries into the Republican presidential contender's statement during his recent religion speech that he watched his father, the late Gov. George Romney of Michigan, march with Martin Luther King Jr.
Romney, who was in high school at the time, later said he only heard of his father marching, and some historians have questioned whether his father, in fact, did march with King. The Romney campaign provided books and news articles it said supported his statement.Romney said it was akin to him stating, "I saw my dad become president of American Motors." He told reporters in Iowa, "I wasn't there when he became president."
Romney similarly backtracked after telling a national television audience Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" that "I received the endorsement of the NRA" in 2002 while running for governor of Massachusetts.
The gun rights group did not endorse either candidate, and gave a higher issues rating to his Democratic opponent.
Romney said Monday, "It was, if you will, a support phone bank, which is not an official endorsement."
Battle for Iowa
The questions are especially sensitive for Romney, who is trying to rebound against rival Mike Huckabee in Iowa and maintain a lead in New Hampshire, the leadoff contests in the voting for presidential nominees.
Throughout his campaign, he has been dogged by allegations of flip-flopping on key issues, from abortion rights to gun control and gay rights.
"It's the fine-tuning that's created the problem. It's always that one extra step that causes him the trouble," said Tobe Berkovitz, a longtime Romney observer and the interim dean of Boston University's College of Communication. "You can't just say that African-Americans were accepted into the church and I was happy, you have to say you pulled over and you cried."
Nine nations join EU’s passport-free travel zone-German minister warns removal of border checks is happening too fast
ZITTAU, Germany - European leaders celebrated Friday as the borders of nine countries along a Cold War frontier melted away, allowing a huge expansion to the EU's passport-free travel zone.
In Zittau, on Germany's eastern fringe — where the country meets Poland and the Czech Republic — Chancellor Angela Merkel, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso raised a border gate as children set loose dozens of blue balloons covered by stars — symbolizing the EU flag.
"We are all quite happy to be able to celebrate this truly historic moment together," Merkel said as a crowd of onlookers cheered loudly.
Barroso held an old border crossing sign, calling it an archaeological relic.
Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Malta joined the EU in 2004, but could not be part of the Schengen frontier-free zone until now because their police and border guards were not considered in line with EU norms.
With funding from their richer neighbors, they have introduced tighter controls but a German minister warned that the loss of border checks from the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic was happening too fast.
"It would have been better to wait a year or two longer to abolish the border controls," said Joachim Herrmann, the interior minister of the German state of Bavaria, which borders the Czech Republic. "It's all a matter of how well-protected the border is from Belarus to Poland, from Ukraine to Slovakia."
Bulgaria's Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin said Friday his country will be ready to join the Schengen zone by 2011.
"The realistic date for entering the Schengen area is 2010 or 2011," Kalfin said. "It depends, of course, on how prepared Romania will be, since it would be strange for Bulgaria to join, but to have a Schengen border with Romania."
Bulgaria and Romania joined the European Union in January but Romania has set a later date for its entry.
Flight delays as holiday travel begins-More than 65 million travelers expected between Christmas, New Year's
Dense fog and a low cloud ceiling forced airlines to cancel more than 200 flights at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on Friday at the start of the busy holiday travel season. Travelers also encountered weather-related delays at airports in the New York City area.
Flights in and out of O'Hare, the nation's second-busiest airport, were delayed by up to two hours, airport spokesman Gregg Cunningham said. Chicago's Midway International Airport reported delays of up to 45 minutes, but did not report any cancelations.
AAA says more than 65 million people will travel for Christmas and New Year's Eve celebrations, slightly more than last year, even though airfares and gasoline are significantly more expensive. Fifty-three million will drive, while 9 million will fly.
An average plane ticket costs 16 percent more than last Christmas, according to AAA. Its latest fuel gauge report shows gas is back below $3 a gallon, with regular averaging $2.98 nationwide. But that’s 65 cents higher than last year.
Mekaal Hasan is the hottest producer around right now
He just wrapped up production on Jal's new album, Boondh and these days, it is Ali Azmat's Klashnifolk that is consuming most of Mekaal's time.
To his credit, Mekaal has made sure that Boondh sounds crisp and it is just that.
Undoubtedly Mekaal Hasan is the most in-demand music producer in Pakistan these days. Rohail Hyatt and Shahi Hasan are the only other music producers who can really match Mekaal's production wizardry. But strangely enough, most artists opt to go to Mekaal.
Among other records that Mekaal is producing includes Zeb and Haniya's debut album. According to the girls' website, "Recording began in the first week of February 2007 at Mekaal Hasan's Digital Fidelity Studio in Lahore. The tracking completed, the album moved into the editing and mixing phase in August 2007, and the band is currently waiting for Mekaal to complete the album so they can get it to listeners as soon as possible."
The only thing is what takes priority? With so many albums to produce, it usually means that some albums will be given more priority. And Mekaal's own songs with his band, Mekaal Hasan Band, are also being produced at the same studio. So it seems that release dates of Klashnifolk as well as the highly anticipated debut of Zeb and Haniya will depend on Mekaal Hasan and how soon he can finish the records.
Abhishek and Aishwarya break the ice with Shah Rukh KhanRiteish Deshmukh's birthday bash saw most of his Bollywood friends turn up. The seniors were not invited so it was basically a gathering of the young and restless. "The oldest in the group, I think, was Shah Rukh Khan. Riteish's dad was also missing," one source said.
However, the highlight of the party was the fact that Shah Rukh and wife Gauri were seen bonding with Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai. So much so, that the two couples almost spent the whole evening chatting with each other. Just why this comes as a surprise is that SRK and Ash have not really been on great terms and moreover, the entire Bachchan family seemed miffed with King Khan. However, this was a night when all the animosity seemed to have melted away. It had to happen sooner or later; after all, Aishwarya did end up with Abhishek and not Salman whose behaviour on the sets of Chalte Chalte created the violence with Ash in the first place.
Later the same night, Abhishek and Ash burned the dance floor when Jhoom Barabar Jhoom songs were played and then SRK joined wife Gauri on the dance floor when Om Shanti Om songs were being played. It seems that Indian stars dance to their own tunes. Gauri, however, did not restrict herself to one or two songs - she danced through the night along with designer Sabina Khan, Kunal Kapoor, Arshad Warsi, Neelam Kothari, Bobby Deol and his wife, Tanya. DJ Suketu was spinning at the party. The only couple who stayed away from the dance floor and seemed entirely caught up with each other were Arjun Rampal and Meher Jessia.
But ultimately it is the Shah Rukh-Aishwarya-Abhishek triangle that is sorted at long last and of that we are glad!
Matt Damon and Eddie Veddar to teach 'people's history
Actor Matt Damon, whose been riding high on the success of his film, Bourne Ultimatum along with Eddie Veddar, front man of Pearl Jam, will both contribute their talents to a documentary miniseries based on historian-author Howard Zinn's 1980 book, A People's History of the United States.
Titled The People Speak, the project will feature music and readings based on America's struggles with war, class, race and the rights of women.
Eddie Veddar has always been outspoken and his association with films dates back to 1995's Dead Man Walking. And since then he has been involved with soundtracks including Sean Penn's recent film, Into The Wild.
Matt isn't far behind. Along with buddies George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Don Cheadle, Matt has been raising funds for Darfur.
Other than Matt and Eddie, Viggo Mortensen, Josh Brolin, Danny Glover and Kerry Washington will provide performances for the project, which will interweave archival footage, photographs and interviews. Eddie Vedder and R&B singer John Legend will handle the music.
And this really is the way to make documentaries have a mass appeal. When such high profile names team up together, it leads to curiosity and is bound to get noticed. So here's to Matt and Eddie, these guys just know how to use their star power to the hilt! We really wish our musicians and actors would learn to do the same!
Japan to accept 1,000 nurses, care workers from Indonesia
TOKYO: Japan will accept 1,000 nurses and health care workers from Indonesia from as early as next year under a free trade pact to help ease the country's shortage of such staff, a report said Saturday.
The move will mark the first time Japan has brought in foreign nurses and care workers on a full-time basis, a local daily publication said.
For two years from April, Japan will annually accept 200 licensed nurses and 300 certified care workers, the newspaper said.
If the programme is well received, the figures may be increased for the third year, the newspaper said.
Nurses will be limited to staying for three years and care workers for four years on their Indonesian certificates and licences. But they can extend their stay by passing Japanese nursing exams or receiving Japanese caregivers certificates.
The workers will work as assistants at hospitals and nursing care facilities after receiving language training.
The economic pact, signed in August, has already been approved in Indonesia, while Japan's government submitted the measure to the legislature earlier this month with an eye to approval in the current Diet session or early next year.
A similar effort is underway to employ workers from the Philippines, but the economic partnership agreement with that country has yet to take effect, the paper added.
The Japanese health ministry estimates the nation needs 40,000 more nurses, while the shortage is estimated to reach 450,000 to 550,000 by 2014, the daily said.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Transgender student asked for proof
A transgender student at Southern Utah University is being told he must prove he is a male before housing officials will accommodate him. The school's policy requires that Kourt Osborn, 22, who two years ago initiated transgender treatment and has been living as a man, must either provide school officials proof he's undergone medical interventions or that he's been diagnosed with gender identity disorder, the Salt Lake Tribune reported Wednesday. "That they would require someone to have surgery to live in the dorm is just wrong. It's absolutely irrelevant. They don't ask anyone else for proof of gender. They shouldn't be checking his genitals," said Mara Keisling, executive director for the National Center for Transgender Equality. Osborn, a sociology major, has filed a formal grievance with SUU, the newspaper reported. "I never was a woman. I was a boy trapped in this foreign girl's body," Osborn said. "Transgendering allowed me to take off the costume and make-up and allowed me to be who I am."
Train crash kills 50 near Sukkur-Pakistan
SUKKUR - At least 50 passengers were killed and more than 200 injured as 13 coaches of Lahore-bound 15-Up Karachi Express derailed on Tuesday night at Goth Chaudhry Muhammad Din Arain between Mehrabpur and Sialabad Railway Stations after its departure from Padidan Railway Station.The condition of more than two dozen passengers is said to be critical. After the information of the incident, the high officials of Railways, police, Rangers and Army rushed to the spot and started rescue and relief work.The injured were shifted to different hospitals of Nawabshah, Mehrabpur, Khairpur and Sukkur. The up and down railway traffic was suspended.Scores of people on 25 passenger and goods trains were stranded as several of them were halted at Kotri, Hyderabad, Nawabshah, Rohri,Khairpur and Khanpur Railway stations.According to Railway officials, 30 to 48 hours time would be needed to repair and make the railway track workable. Caretaker Federal Railways Minister has announced compensation of Rs 2 lakh each for those killed and Rs 50,000 each for those injured in the train accident.The relief work was started immediately but due to dark and cold weather difficulties was faced by the rescue teams.The first relief train was sent from Rohri to the spot of incident early in the morning.Abdul Sattar Edhi alongwith two helicopters and 35 ambulances also reached the spot and started removing bodies and injured from the train coaches.Those killed in the accident include Muhammad Aslam, Muhammad Yousuf, Muhammad Arshad, Muhammad Hussain, Islamuddin, Rasheed, Hameed, Nasreen Abro, her son Abdul Rehman 5, Shan Muhammad, Imran Khan, Muzaffar, Shamoo Masih, Muhammad Nawaz, Fayaz Hussain, Shahid Khan, Fauzia Begum, Asif Raza, Tanveer Ahmed, Fayaz Ahmed, Muhammad Ramzan and others.The injured includeMuhammad Idris, Muneer, Muhammad Amin, Shahbaz, Syed Islam, Muhammad Shoaib, Tayyab, Faisal, Saeed, Imran, Ghulam Mustafa, MuhammadAnwar, Muhammad Sarwar, Asghar, Muhammad Imran, Umer Farooq, Sufia, Umeed Ali, Waseem, Muhammad Saleem, Afzal, Bilawal, Karam Hussain and others who were shifted to Kandiaro, Halani, Naushero Feroze, Ranipur and Hingorja hospitals while 15 injured who were in critical condition were shifted to Pano Aqil Cantt,Ghotki and Karachi hospitals.The driver of the train Asif Javed in his initial statement said that the accident was the result of terrorism as fish-plates and nuts of the track were missing.He further said that at the time of accident the train was running at the speed of 105km per hour, which was normal speed of a non-stop train.Efforts were still under way to restore railway traffic on down track after repairing the track.Agencies add: Pakistan Railways ruled out sabotage and said a piece of track appeared to have broken in the extreme cold, sending the 17-carriage train hurtling over an embankment outside Mehrabpur near Sukkur. Several carriages were crushed or torn to shreds. “We hope there are no bodies left inside,” said Brigadier Mazhar Jamil, who led the army rescue team that worked through the night and morning, treating the wounded and picking through the mangled wreckage for the dead. The Karachi Express was en route to Lahore, filled with hundreds of people getting ready to celebrate Eidul Azha, when the train derailed outside Mehrabpur, 200 kilometres northeast of Karachi. The carriages then slid down an embankment four metres high. Some simply tipped over while others were ripped open, as terrified survivors scrambled through the pitch dark and freezing cold to safety. The operations manager of the state-run rail company, Asad Saeed, said that 45 bodies had been counted and that more than 100 people had been injured. But he later acknowledged that there had been differing tolls throughout the course of the day - from between 28 to 56 dead. Rescue teams found a badly injured four-year-old girl, weeping in pain amid the debris. Her parents were missing and presumed dead, said Abdul Hameed of the Edhi Welfare Trust, a major national aid group. “We have tried to find her relatives,” Hameed said. “But nobody has come forward.” Several carriages were destroyed, and wheels from the train were found a half-kilometre from the site of the wreck. Rescue workers gathered the scattered belongings of passengers that littered the site - shoes and quilts, schoolbooks, broken furniture - in a separate tent, waiting for those owners who were still alive to come and claim them. “We were almost asleep when we heard something - a big bang. Then I felt I was flying through the air and the carriage was tumbling to the ground,” said Shahid Khan, a 24-year-old salesman. “We were grappling in the darkness. Somehow we managed to make it out,” a shaken Khan said. “People were screaming and scrambling to get out,” said Mohammad Jamil, who fractured his arm. “It was the middle of the night and we couldn’t see anything.” Jamil said the military found no signs of foul play in the train wreck. Meanwhile, General Manager Pakistan Railways Asad Saeed said broken track joint caused the derailment of Lahore bound Karachi Express.Talking to PTV, he ruled out possibility of terrorism. “A welded track joint broke. Tracks shrink in winter. There are many forces on the track and sometimes this joint breaks,” he said giving probable reasons behind the tragic accident. Meanwhile, President Pervez Musharraf Wednesday directed immediate inquiry into the causes leading to the derailment of the Karachi Express and the heavy loss of life.The President directed the Pakistan Railways to investigate into the matter and fix responsibility so that the culprits may be punished and measures taken to ensure such incidents do not recur.President Musharraf also expressed deep sorrow over the loss of life in the accident 5 km north of Mehrabpur, near Sukkur.He directed the concerned authorities to provide best possible medical treatment to those injured and to facilitate the passengers of the train.Staff Reporter from Lahore adds: “The train jolted violently as if a bike was passing over a bumpy road, before it seemed that we are being crushed under the weight,” Mohammad Yousaf of Daroghawala narrated his experience to TheNation after reaching Lahore onboard Jinnah Express here Wednesday night. He was accompanied by his foster grandson who was also injuried. When asked if the train was moving at a fast speed, he said that the velocity of the train was considerable at that time. He also claimed that about 200 people were hospitalised. He also pointed out that the adjoining area villagers also took part in the relief work. He also spoke of his belongings being taken away by people.Among the passengers in bogey 3 were three cadets Hasan, Faisal and Tauseef who were lucky enough to come out of the accident unscratched. They said that they were fast asleep when the accident occurred. Saleem, a resident of Karachi, currently on the visit to Lahore was visibly disturbed as he still needed support. He was asleep when the jolts derailed the ill-fated Karachi Express.
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Mourners light candles for Omaha mall victims
The ceremony was held at St. John’s Church on Creighton University’s campus, where The Rev. Roc O’Connor read the names of the victims aloud, KETV-TV reported.
"We can see the light in the midst of darkness. We can encounter hope in the midst of despair," the Rev. Andy Alexander said.
At least three of those killed and injured were Creighton alumni and had developed deep roots in the area.
"This is something that is going to hit home for everyone who lives here," mourner Robyn Eden told KETV-TV. "Small community — regardless of how many people live here. This is a small town."
President Bush offered sympathy Thursday to the families of the victims.
“I was in Omaha just before the shooting took place, and I know what a difficult day it is for that fine community,” said Bush, who had traveled to the area to attend a Republican fundraiser and was on his way back to Washington when the shootings took place.
“The victims and their loved ones are in the prayers of Americans,” Bush said. “The federal government stands ready to help in any way we can, and the whole nation grieves for the people of Omaha.”
Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey also expressed shock and sadness at the Westroads Mall shooting at a news conference Thursday.
“Today, we are still reeling form the events that few have ever imagined would take place in Omaha,” he said. “We will not accept this evil act to occur in our community.”
Victims rememberedPolice identified the eight murder victims Thursday morning after notifying families. The victims ranged in age from 24 to 66, and were both employees and customers.
The customers killed were Gary Scharf, 48 of Lincoln and John McDonald, 65, of Council Bluffs, Iowa. The employees killed were Angie Schuster, 36, of Omaha; Maggie Webb, 24; Janet Jorgensen, 66 of Omaha; Diane Trent, 53 of Omaha; Gary Joy, 56 of Omaha; and Beverly Flynn, 47, of Omaha, police said.
Scharf’s ex-wife described him as loyal and honorable.
Omaha mall reopens with increased security
A makeshift memorial of flowers, notes and poems covered about two-thirds of the bottom steps of the entrance gunman Robert Hawkins used to enter the Von Maur department store. On display were eight foam snowflakes, each with a picture of a victim.
The store, however, remained closed. Yellow holiday lights brightened the exterior, but black tarps draped the inside of the doors. Wreaths sat on tripods just outside, and a note from management said the stOutside the mall, two Red Cross vans and a Salvation Army unit were set up near the food court entrance.
Early shoppers faced wind chill temperatures of only two degrees above zero before trickling into the food court or the mall proper, as retailers started raising their security gates at 8 a.m.
Marge Andrews, 49, said there was a very different feeling in the mall Saturday compared to her regular walks there with a friend. She and her husband John, 51, had come to buy sporting goods for their son and clothes for their daughter.
“I come out here almost every morning, and (today) it was kind of just an eerie feeling of, I don’t know, quiet,” said Andrews.
“It doesn’t feel like a Christmas feeling,” her husband said.
Also Saturday, Hawkins' family released a statement in which they said they hope the community can heal.
"The Hawkins family extends its sincerest condolences to all those impacted by this senseless and horrible event," the statement read. "While no words can ease the pain and grief, our family prays that at some time, in some way, our community can be healed in the aftermath of this terrible tragedy." ore will reopen soon. No date was given.
Police alarmed at candy in cocaine-like packs
“Anything like this ... is going to give an advantage to the criminals, narcotics users, narcotics dealers," Austin, Texas, police Sgt. Richard Stresing said of Ice Breakers Pacs — tiny, blue, dissolvable packets of white mint powder that look startlingly like heat-sealed dime bags of cocaine.
The new product — which was introduced by Hershey Co. in September at the annual All Candy Expo in Chicago — is bound to make officers’ jobs harder out on the streets, said Sioux City, Iowa, police Lt. Marti Reilly.“Obviously, it’s going to require law enforcement to do a lot of field-testing on candy,” Reilly said. “When you see it in the street, you wouldn’t know it from a controlled substance because it’s packaged an awful lot like that.”
Hershey rejected the police claims.
“The product is clearly labeled with product identification, ingredients and nutritional information and is clearly branded as an Ice Breakers item,” the company said in a statement. It did not respond to questions about whether Hershey planned to change the packaging.
‘They’ve all been full of cocaine’The candy does come in a standard plastic package, with an Ice Breakers label, but that’s not the problem, officers said. The problem is with what’s inside.
“You are kidding me,” said Senior Cpl. Kevin Janse of the Dallas police. “I’ve been on the streets 15 years, and I’ve seen a lot of these, and they’ve all been full of cocaine, and you’re telling me this one’s full of candy? Wow.”
Janse said the packets looked so much like cocaine bags that drug dealers would be able to use them “to hide their drugs from us now, I’d be willing to bet.”
Brett Kaiser of Dallas, the parent of two youngsters, said he was worried that the candy could confuse children, too, leading to serious consequences.
Tropical nations hope Bali meeting can lead to incentives for retaining trees
But the deforestation issue is also Exhibit A for the disputes that have made climate negotiations lengthy and divisive despite widening agreement that global warming is real and largely man-made. While scientific dispute over what causes global warming has ended, the debate over how to address it has just begun.
Deforestation is one of the biggest drivers of the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Each year, tropical forests covering an area at least equal to the size of New York state are destroyed; the carbon dioxide that those trees would have absorbed amounts to 20 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, aboSplit between developing, wealthy nationsThe bargain is being championed by a dozen of the world's developing countries at the conference, whose ultimate goal is to map out a two-year path aimed at forging a global system for imposing and enforcing reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
But the hoped-for compromise -- which would give financial rewards to poor nations that slow or halt the destruction of their forests -- could still founder amid divisions over who bears how much responsibility for slowing climate change -- and who should pay for it.
Developing countries that profit from logging or expanded farming and construction are seeking incentives and assistance for preserving their forests or slowing the rate of destruction. But many developed countries do not want to pay other nations for actions that are not taken, and they worry that it would be hard to measure the amount of avoided deforestation.
"The problems tend to start when you get down to the small print," said Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, the treaty organization that oversees international climate negotiations.
Deforestation aside, much of the focus on the Indonesian island will be on the large print. "If things go wrong in Bali, I think we are in deep trouble," said de Boer.
Planning beyond KyotoThe goal is to come up with climate accords that would take effect after the expiration in 2012 of the Kyoto Protocol, which was negotiated a decade ago. Under that treaty, a cap-and-trade system for limiting and creating a market for emissions is in effect in Europe and has become a multibillion-dollar-a-year business.
"It will be a process to get to a mandate to get a protocol," said Dirk Forrister, a managing director of Natsource LLC, a firm that invests in projects that produce marketable credits for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
But government officials are also trying to leave Bali with some concrete achievements, and preserving the world's forests ranks as one of the most likely prospects.
"It's the area of climate-change negotiations that offers the most promise of cooperation between developing and developed countries, which is why it's so attractive to people on both sides," said Duncan Marsh, director of international climate policy for the Natureut the same as total U.S. emissions.
The Golden Compass
Lyra Belacqua (Dakota Blue Richards) lives in a parallel world in which human souls take the form of lifelong animal companions called daemons. Dark forces are at work in the girl's world, and many children have been kidnapped by beings known as Gobblers. Lyra vows to save her best friend, Roger, after he disappears too. She sets out with her daemon, a tribe of seafarers, a witch, an ice bear and a Texas airman on an epic quest to rescue Roger and save her world.
Lyra Belacqua (Dakota Blue Richards) lives in a parallel world in which human souls take the form of lifelong animal companions called daemons. Dark forces are at work in the girl's world, and many children have been kidnapped by beings known as Gobblers. Lyra vows to save her best friend, Roger, after he disappears too. She sets out with her daemon, a tribe of seafarers, a witch, an ice bear and a Texas airman on an epic quest to rescue Roger and save her world.
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Movie review: 'Golden Compass' a thoughtful fantasy world
It's a place fraught with parallel worlds and Animal Planet fashion accessories. Where else are you going to find Sam Elliott - in full cowboy hat and twang - speaking to an up-armored white bear who sounds like (and is) Ian McKellen?
If you are Lyra Belacqua (Dakota Blue Richards), the 12-year-old orphan who is the story's heroine - not to mention the movie's heart and soul - how you find all these remarkable things, and navigate the movie's tricky terrain is with an Alethiometer. That's the official name for the golden compass that guides Lyra through Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy, first published in England in 1995, two years before J.K. Rowling's "Potter" series began.
An Alethiometer is the global-positioning equivalent of a watch that tells you it's two freckles past a hair Eastern elbow time. Not terribly useful. Unless, of course, you are able to discern from a compass heading that appears to include a picture of a bear and a picture of a lightning bolt that you should set out immediately for the Arctic Circle.
This is the sort of thing that Lyra does with comparative ease, closing her eyes and becoming engulfed in a cloud of golden dust. Deciphering the compass's clues remains infernally difficult for the rest of us, which is why Lyra is soon being spoken of as some sort of "chosen one." Among other story elements, that term has set off a backlash against the film by church groups who believe Pullman's books to be anti-religion.
Lyra is the whip-smart-but-rebellious ward of Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig), who is apparently some sort of Indiana Jones of a dimension visible only to him. He wants Jordan College to fund his exploration of these parallel worlds, and before decamping for parts unknown to await the movie's inevitable sequel, Asriel introduces us to the Kingdom of the Ice Bears. He even shows some faculty geezers a picture of dust coming from the sky. Obviously, the grant application process works a little differently in England.
The school's master is the one who gives the world's last Alethiometer to Lyra, and he does so with apparent confidence that she will figure out how to use it. "It tells the truth," he says, handing the contraption over to her easy as you please, as if it were made of Fruit Roll-ups instead of solid gold. "This lets you glimpse things as they are."
He's pretty sure she'll need some kind of lie detector, and for good reason. He has just agreed to allow Mrs. Coulter (Nicole Kidman), the gold-plated moll of the Magisterium - a mysterious, power-hungry order that seems to have a grudge against all children - to take Lyra with her to Norway. Shimmering across a long dining hall in gold lamé and platinum blond hair, Kidman looks as if she just stepped out of a remake of "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," a wicked virago vision of Marilyn Monroe with plumped lips.
The adaptation of Pullman's book is by Chris Weitz ("About a Boy"), who is parsimonious about revealing the secrets of the Magisterium. When Lyra asks Mrs. Coulter what the Magisterium is, as the two of them soar across London in a red and gold zeppelin, Mrs. C replies that the evil order tells people what to do, but "in a kindly way."
It doesn't take a golden compass to know that's a whopper, but the movie quickly removes all doubt about the group's villainy by installing inter-galactic bad guy Christopher Lee as its First High Councilor. The only conceivable casting clue less subtle than that would be if they'd hired Darth Vader for the part.
In its own way, "The Golden Compass" is a sequel of sorts, coming from the same studio that produced "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Some of the action set pieces at the Arctic Circle may remind you of the "Rings" movies, and while Weitz lacks Peter Jackson's obvious operatic flair for fantasy, the big action scenes work on their own terms.
Kidman probably isn't the ideal choice for Mrs. Coulter; she seems to have trouble conveying some of the character's ambiguity. Craig is a marquee name with very little to do, and as a result, many of the best performances are vocal: McKellen brings the great bear Iorek roaring to life, and Freddie Highmore is sweet as Lyra's daemon, one of the animal companions every human has.
The movie's strongest selling point is Lyra herself, not just a welcome change from all the boy seekers of knowledge and truth in the "Harry Potter" and "Rings" pictures. She gets plenty of help from Elliott's cowboy aviator Lee Scoresby, the friendly witch Serafina (Eva Green) and an unforgettable bear.
Lyra has more pre-pubescent girl power than any screen heroine since "Whale Rider," and there is enough fire in Dakota Blue Richards' first film performance to make you eager for the next installment in the series
Santa Clara County public school leaders don't mirror ethnicity
But Mount Pleasant is hardly alone.
A Mercury News analysis of the ethnic makeup of Santa Clara County's public school administrators found that most of the county's 32 school districts with a large majority of Latino, Asian and African-American students are mostly led by white principals and vice principals.
In five large selected districts where white students make up 50 percent or less of the student population, more than 80 percent of principals and vice principals are white, the analysis shows. In one of those school districts where minorities make up almost two-thirds of all students, Campbell Union Elementary, all but three of 17 administrators are white.
The analysis paints a picture familiar to school districts across the state. It is one that resonates in particular with Latinos, who have become California's largest single group of students but are poorly represented among administrators.
While the number of Latino administrators in California has grown over the years, the increase has not kept pace with the burgeoning number of Latino students in public schools.
State figures on all administrators - the pool includes superintendents, principals, vice principals, administrative assistants, driver education coordinators and various kinds of employees - showthat more than two-thirds, or 69 percent of public school administrators statewide, are white; 17 percent are Latino, 8 percent African-American and 4 percent Asian. To get a truer picture of the top administrators who interact regularly with students, the Mercury News analyzed only the numbers and ethnic makeup of principals and vice principals in Santa Clara County.
Latino leaders and advocates for diversity argue that having more Latino principals and vice principals will be important to help bridge the lagging achievement of Latino students, who now make up 48 percent of California's 6.2 million public school students. Demographers say they will become the majority in 2010.
"When you look at who's sitting in our classrooms, we should be reaching out to folks who can be those role models," said Fernando Elizondo, a former principal and retired Salinas school superintendent who is now executive director of the California Association of Latino Superintendents and Administrators, or CALSA. The state program pairs emerging Latino administrators with school principals.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Angela Kinsey on Pregnancy Cravings and Maternity Clothes - Babies, Angela Kinsey : People.com
"As Angela Kinsey settles into her pregnancy, she's getting much more experimental with the snack food than she is with the baby names. 'I've been really craving Snickers, so I have a bag,' the actress, who plays Angela on The Office, tells PEOPLE. 'I keep them in my fridge. I like them really cold. So, Snickers has really been making me happy.' She's also thinking about baby names, but will go a more traditional route there. 'I have a feeling my husband would want us to keep that to ourselves,' she says. 'Nothing funky, I can say that. Nothing crazy.' Kinsey, 36, who is expecting her first child with TV writer Warren Lieberstein, also says prenatal yoga has been 'hilarious,' and that she's exploring maternity clothes and pregnancy books. 'As you flip later in the book, it's all scary, so I just try to stay in the front of the book,' she says. Best of all, she reports no morning sickness whatsoever. For the prenatal yoga, Kinsey, who spoke to PEOPLE at The Hollywood Reporter's Women in Entertainment Power 100 Breakfast, will soon have an unlikely companion – castmate Jenna Fischer, who plays Pam on the NBC sitcom. Fischer isn't pregnant, but says yoga is good for her back, which she injured in a fall in M"
Kevin Connolly Denies Romance with Julianne Hough - Fall TV Watch
"A few dinner dates aside, Entourage star Kevin Connolly would like put to rest rumors of romance with Julianne Hough. “I don’t want to bore you, but really, we are just friends,” Connolly told PEOPLE recently of Hough. “We’ve gone out to dinner a few times, we’ve gone to a Halloween party, but I don’t even know her.” He explains, “You meet people, you like them, you go out to dinner…People see you at dinner, they take pictures, and things get misconstrued.” Connolly was seen buying an 18-karat white gold ring with diamonds for Hough recently, and told Howard Stern’s radio show in early November that he was “actively pursuing” Hough. But Hough’s rep said the two “are just friends. They are not dating.” When asked of Hough’s win on Dancing with the Stars with Helio Castroneves, Connolly says, “She deserves it. … I say good for her.”
Bush Calls for Continued Pressure on Iran
Bush says there will be no change in U.S. policy on Iran following the release of a new U.S. intelligence assessment of Tehran's nuclear capabilities and ambitions. VOA's Paula Wolfson reports from the White House, Mr. Bush says the world must continue to keep the pressure on Tehran."
The president called a press conference at the White House to specifically address the new intelligence report on
According to the report, the
President Bush told reporters the new National Intelligence Estimate does nothing to shake his belief that the international community must be vigilant when it comes to
"
"And so I view this report as a warning signal," said President Bush. "They had the program, they halted the program. And the reason why it is a warning signal is they can restart it and the thing that would make a restarted program effective and dangerous is the ability to enrich uranium, the knowledge of which can be passed on to a hidden program."
The president stressed that
Mr. Bush said the fact that
"This report is not [saying], okay, everybody needs to relax and quit," he said. "This is a report that says what has happened in the past can be repeated, that the policies used to get the regime to halt are effective policies, let's keep them up, let's continue to work together."
The president said the most effective diplomacy is one in which all options are on the table, implying he would not rule out the military option.
Congressional critics of the administration's
Illinois Congressman Rahm Emmanuel spoke for Democrats in the House of Representatives.
"We now have the NIE report on
In a written statement, the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee - Democrat Tom Lantos of
Jessica Simpson and Tony Romo's Late-Night PDA
The Dallas Cowboys had the weekend off – but quarterback Tony Romo still made plenty of passes.
Jessica Simpson and the NFL star flirted up a storm Saturday at Hollywood nightclub Teddy's, as the two helped Simpson's BFF, Cacee Cobb, celebrate her 30th birthday.
At first, the singer – wearing a form-fitting black dress and spike heels – and her new beau kept things low-key in a secluded booth. But as the night wore on, the two were spotted with their arms around each other. Then, after a few seconds of conversation, they leaned in for a kiss – right in the middle of the crowded club.
Also on hand for the bash were Cobb's Scrubs-star boyfriend, Donald Faison, and Simpson's mane man, Ken Paves.
Last month, Simpson and Romo, both 27, shared Thanksgiving dinner in Dallas. The Cowboys star has previously dated Carrie Underwood, Britney Spears and Sophia Bush.
Dennis & Kimberly Quaid Sue Drug Company
Dennis Quaid and his wife Kimberly have sued the manufacturer of the drug Heparin, according to court documents filed in Cook County, Ill.
The lawsuit, which seeks more than $50,000 in damages, claims the Baxter Healthcare Corporation, makers of the anti-coagulant Heparin, failed to properly label vials of its product and that the 10-units-per-milliliter vial and the 10,000-units-per-milliliter are virtually identical.
The Quaids assert that the company knew of previous dosage mix-ups, yet failed to recall shipments of the drug or properly warn hospitals of the dangers.
The couple's children, Thomas Boone and Zoe Grace, were born Nov. 8. They were hospitalized Nov. 20 at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after accidentally being given 1,000 times the recommended dose of Heparin on Nov. 18.
The twins "suffered and will continue to suffer injuries" from the accident, the suit alleges.
"On a negligence scale of one to 10, Baxter Corporation gets a 10," the Quaids' lawyer, Susan E. Loggans, tells PEOPLE. "They knew medication errors due to product labeling resulted in death but failed to recall the drug. Each year there's 1.5 million medication errors in America – it is a national epidemic."
A spokeswoman for Baxter, Erin Gardiner, tells PEOPLE: "We have not been served with a lawsuit related to this incident, so we cannot comment on the lawsuit itself.
Gardiner added: "This is not a product issue, the issue here is improper use of a product. Heparin is one of the most commonly used generic drugs in a hospital setting manufactured by seven companies in standard vials. It plays a vital role in the treatment of thousands of patients everyday when administered and used properly."
In terms of the labeling, "Baxter strives to clearly differentiate products and dosages, but no amount of differentiation will replace the value of clinicians carefully reading and reviewing a drug name and dose."
Sunday, December 2, 2007
JUI not to honour APDM decision
ISLAMABAD: Maulana Fazlur Rehman of the JUI has refused to accept the APDM’s decision to boycott the polls, lodging a strong protest with the MMA and APDM leadership and threatening to quit both the alliances.
“All the JUI-F members have been asked to go ahead and file their nomination papers without paying any attention to the boycott call given by MMA President Qazi Hussain Ahmed,” sources told media.
JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman told the APDM leadership, including MMA President Qazi Hussain Ahmed, that he would not accept the decision as his party was not taken into confidence. He also described it as “a decision taken in haste”.
The JUI-F, despite being a component party, boycotted the APDM meeting held here on Saturday wherein it was collectively announced that the component parties would not take part in the elections if the government did not lift the state of emergency in the next four days.
Amongst the opposition parties, the JUI-F and Benazir Bhutto’s PPP are two parties that have announced to participate in the general elections, saying they could not leave the field open for those enjoying the backing of General Pervez Musharraf.
The JUI-F leaders say they would not boycott the elections till the PPP also joins the opposition.
In his contacts with Qazi Hussian Ahmed and the APDM leadership, Fazlur Rehman not only strongly protested over the boycott announcement but also told them that he would come up with a decision shortly whether or not to remain a part of the alliance since his party was being ignored in collective decisions.
“The APDM decision of boycott is not binding on our party though we have not closed this option,” JUI-F General Secretary Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri said when contacted. Maulana Fazlur Rehman was not available for comment.
Haideri recalled that just two days back, the MMA Supreme Council, with Qazi Hussain Ahmed in the chair, had decided unanimously to file the nomination papers and go ahead till a collective decision on the part of the entire opposition was taken.
“We are unable to understand as to why Qazi Sahib and the APDM leaders are in such a hurry to boycott the elections.”
Haideri added: “We have conveyed our reservations to the APDM that we will not participate in its programmes till our demands, including an unconditional apology from Imran Khan, are met.”
“You may have high blood pressure
High blood pressure, or hypertension, is called the silent killer because many people don't even know they have this condition. That's why it's important to have your doctor check your blood pressure.
Learn your numbers
Blood pressure is measured by two sets of numbers: the systolic (or top number) and the diastolic (or bottom number). Chances are that your doctor will want you to have a systolic measurement under 130 and a diastolic measurement under 80. Depending on your health, your doctor may have lower numbers in mind. If your doctor feels that your blood pressure is too high, you might get a prescription for a blood pressure-lowering medication. Remember, lowering your blood pressure helps reduce your risk of heart attack or stroke.
Take your medication
There's a wide variety of medications that effectively lower blood pressure. They are generally divided into five classes: diuretics or water pills, ACE inhibitors, calcium channel blockers, angiotensin-receptor blockers or ARBs, and beta-blockers. Each class of medication works in a different way, and each has different side effects. Your doctor will determine which medication—or combination of medications—you should take. In addition, your doctor should recheck your blood pressure to make sure your medication is working.
Do you also have high cholesterol?
Many patients with hypertension also have high cholesterol, which may also increase your risk of heart attack or stroke. So have your doctor perform a blood test to check your cholesterol levels. And keep in mind that some blood pressure and cholesterol medications can cause problems when taken together. If Medco manages your prescription program benefit and we notice a safety issue with your medications, we can check the other drugs that have been dispensed to you and consult with your doctor, if necessary. And remember: See your doctor, learn your numbers, and take your medication.
“I'll help you reach your lower cholesterol goal.”
Everybody being treated for high cholesterol should know the number for his or her LDL, or “bad” cholesterol. You can get your LDL cholesterol number from a simple blood test. Just ask your doctor.
Set an LDL goal.
Everybody being treated for high cholesterol should have a goal for LDL cholesterol. Try to set the number below your actual goal. Your doctor will determine what your goal should be. Generally, your LDL goal should be under 130. However, if you have heart disease, diabetes, or are otherwise at high risk for a heart attack or stroke, your doctor will probably want you to have an LDL level below 100.
Develop a plan.
Not reaching your goal? Then it’s time to go on the offensive. The plan that you and your doctor develop may include improving your diet, increasing your exercise, increasing the dose of your medication, adding a medication, changing to another medication, or some combination of these.
Check your performance.
Has your doctor prescribed a cholesterol-lowering medication? If so, your doctor will be testing your liver and muscle enzymes for rare side effects. And your doctor will also retest your cholesterol level from time to time to make sure that you’re taking the right medication at the right dosage to reach your goal.
Remember ...
To lower your risk of heart attack or stroke: Set your goal. Develop a plan. Check your performance. And If Medco manages your prescription program and we see a medication safety issue, a Cardiovascular Pharmacist will work with your doctor to help make sure that you’re getting the most effective treatment.
“Do you know the ABCs of diabetes management?”
A (A1c test)
Want to know how effective your diabetes treatment has been over the past few months? There's a test that can tell you. The A1c test shows your doctor how well your blood glucose has been controlled for the past 3 months. Because the test looks back over a large span of time, your doctor is able to determine whether your treatment is working for you as planned.
If your A1c test results aren't satisfactory, your doctor may make changes in your treatment. These can include changes in your diet, exercise program, and medication.
B (Blood Pressure) and C (Cholesterol)
If you have diabetes, you may also have high blood pressure and high cholesterol. There are many effective treatments for those conditions, as well as diabetes. Getting treatment for all of those conditions can help lower your risk of heart attack or stroke—which are more likely to happen in people who have diabetes. However, someone who has all three conditions can easily end up taking many medications. So be alert to the possible interactions that those medications can have.
Specialized care from specialist pharmacists
Medco Diabetes Pharmacists (like me) have expertise in the use of the medications that people with this condition need. And if we detect that the medications you've been prescribed might have harmful interactions, we'll alert you and your doctor. We may also suggest ways to make your medications more affordable. So if you have diabetes, rest assured that we're looking out for you.
Bush asks for $30 billion more to fight AIDS
“We dedicate ourselves to a great purpose: We will turn the tide against HIV/AIDS — once and for all,” Bush said. “I look forward to seeing the results of America’s generosity.”
Bush chose the gymnasium at the Calvary United Methodist Church in this tiny western Maryland town to make his remarks. The church supports a Christian group home and school in Namibia for children orphaned by the disease. Before speaking, he met with representatives from churches and other religious groups that have been fighting AIDS, part of his attempt to highlight his belief that faith-based organizations are the beEvangelical Christians, who make up a large and influential portion of Bush’s political support, have been key to his policies increasing U.S. involvement in the fight against AIDS, particularly in Africa. Bush has been said to believe that the United States, and his administration, do not get enough credit for the work being done on the issue.
“Every year American taxpayers send billions of their hard-earned dollars overseas to save the lives of people they have never met,” he said.
But “in return for this extra generosity, Americans expect results,” the president said, adding that his program demands measurable progress, accountability and the involvement of local partners. The result: The number of people in sub-Saharan Africa receiving treatment for AIDS has gone from 50,000 five years ago to nearly 1.4 million now.
“We have pioneered a new model for public health,” Bush said. “So far, the results have been striking.”st vehicles for such work.
How To Break Up Online
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comedy is against worry
How would you characterize the Russian voters' mood ahead of the presidential and parliamentary elections?
Lev Gudkov: I'd point out that people have become increasingly content with their lives over the past year and a half. We're noticing for the first time that the general mood is positive: people are more satisfied than dissatisfied with their lives. For 15 years -- after 1991 -- the mood was decidedly negative: people believed that the country was not developing in the right direction, that their opinions and interests were not considered, that their income was falling.
All that, of course, is not equally distributed among different groups. Only 15 to 20 percent of people have actually benefited from all the changes, but the bulk of the people feel that they're living like before. For the first time after the crisis of 1998, however, people have calmed down and they are not expecting any commotion in the near future. This leads not so much to confidence and optimism as to the weakening of their feeling that something negative could happen. We're dealing here not so much with the formula: "Look how well off we are," but rather with the principle: "Thank God, nothing bad is going on."
PPP not to boycott polls: Bhutto
RAWALPINDI: Former prime minister and Pakistan People's Party Chairperson Benazir Bhutto has reiterated that her party would not boycott the upcoming general election and would contest it as protest to stop poll rigging. She expressed these views while speaking at a gathering of party workers here at the residence of PPP candidates for the forthcoming election Zamrud Khan and Aamir Fida Piracha. PPP other local leaders were also present on the occasion. All Parties Democratic Alliance which includes PML(N) on Thursday announced
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Emotion for those infected with HIV/AIDS
"The medical advancements the Foundation has funded and supported throughout the years have created an irrepressible new emotion for those infected with HIV/AIDS: Hope. All over the United States and around the world, adults and children are learning to live with the mental and physical effects of this life-shattering disease, and they're doing so with strength and grace. Learn about the various ways HIV/AIDS influences daily life from firsthand accounts written by friends of the Foundation. We wouldn't be surprised if their stories inspire you to join in the fight against pediatric HIV/AIDS and illness."
December 1 is World AIDS Day
a day to show support for the millions of people who are living with HIV/AIDS, and to renew our commitment to prevent the spread of HIV and find a cure.
The Foundation is involved in a variety of World AIDS Day activities, seeking to raise awareness and advance the fight against pediatric AIDS. But we can't do it alone. Fourteen-year-old Rose Mbiriire lives with her aunt and uncle in Lwanda, a village in central Uganda. Rose is a strong student at Jinja Secondary School with aspirations to become a doctor. But life has not always been easy for Rose.
Rose’s birth mother learned she was HIV-positive when Rose was a baby, and Rose’s father left the family. Her mother died when Rose was one year old. After her mother’s death, Rose’s 16-year-old maternal aunt, Milly, took Rose to the family home in a nearby village, where they still live. Rose grew up believing Milly was her mother.
While Milly was away studying at university, she got word from her brother that Rose was extremely sick with malaria. Milly rushed to Rose’s side, and although Rose survived the bout of malaria, she continued to get sicker. After repeatedly being turned away from local organizations for HIV testing, Milly took Rose to Mulago Hospital in Kampala, Uganda’s capital, for testing. Rose was indeed HIV-positive and she was immediately put on treatment.
For the first time in months, Rose was able to sleep through the night without crying in pain. Milly felt a wave of relief, but she still had a large hurdle to jump — disclosing to Rose that not only was Rose HIV-positive, but also that Milly was not her real mother.
Milly registered Rose in the Ariel Children’s Club, a club for HIV-positive children formed by the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, but Rose had to know her HIV status in order to attend the club meetings. Milly was still hesitant to tell Rose the truth, even though Rose and her classmates at school already suspected. Rose suffered daily tormenting by her classmates, who called her “slim” — the local word for AIDS.
The turning point came when Rose was invited to be a participant in the Foundation’s first Ariel Children’s Camp — a three-day camp for HIV-positive children — in December 2006. Knowing that Rose could not participate in the camp unless she was aware of her HIV status, Milly finally found the courage to tell Rose the truth. Rose accepted the news very well and was a camper at the Ariel Children’s Camp three weeks later.
After meeting other children at the camp who were HIV-positive, Rose felt relieved that she was not the only child with the disease. She was able to laugh and make friends again. She came home from the camp a much happier child.
The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation pays for Rose’s secondary school fees with funds from the Lloyd Foundation. Rose looks forward to a career as the Ariel Children’s Camp doctor.
