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Global Earthquake and Volcano Overview — Worldwide Increase in Activity
UN urges global action against tobacco
Wed, 01 Jun 2011 13:39:06 GMT
The United Nations urges governments to fight tobacco more seriously, stressing that the policy-makers already have the tools needed to fight the yearly killer of 6 million people.
Marking World No Tobacco Day, the UN on Tuesday called on all countries to sign up to the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which has accumulated 173 States Parties since opened in 2003.
The United States, Indonesia, Argentina and Ethiopia are among the few remaining countries which have not yet become States Parties to the treaty.
The convention spells out a series of measures for reducing the tobacco use, including the restrictions on sales to minors, the introduction of taxes on cigarettes, and the implementation of comprehensive bans on tobacco advertising.
Too many countries lag behind in their commitments to eliminate all forms of tobacco advertising or to ban smoking in workplaces and public spaces, warned Douglas Bettcher, Director of WHO’s Tobacco Free Initiative. “That means no designated smoking areas, no carve-out areas for people to smoke.”
While there are no formal international guidelines on the appropriate level of taxes on cigarette packets available, WHO has established a yardstick suggesting that such taxes should comprise at least 70 percent of the eventual retail price, he added.
In addition, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in his message to mark the Day noted the myriad health problems and costs associated with smoking.
“Tobacco use makes us poorer – in health and economic terms.” Tobacco is estimated to have killed about 100 million people last century and could kill as many as 1 billion more this century unless action is taken,” the UN chief warned nations.
The real scandal hidden by gags is what goes on in family courts
The walls of secrecy surrounding snatched children are creating a one-sided justice system, argues Christopher Booker.
In all the fuss about the secrecy of our courts – after MP John Hemming named a footballer in the Commons – the point where the issue began has been almost entirely lost. Mr Hemming’s concern stems from his longstanding campaign to expose the secrecy surrounding our family courts, where one of the most shocking scandals in Britain today is flourishing, out of public view. This is the increasing number of children who are seized by social workers from loving, responsible parents, thanks to a system which often defies basic principles of justice, humanity and common sense. For example, last week, a woman was warned by a judge that if she raised her case with John Hemming or with a local MP, she would be imprisoned – contrary to one of the most ancient rights of a citizen.
It is hard to convey just how one-sided this system has become, behind its wall of secrecy. Another case I have been following concerns a devoted mother who lost her daughter, some years back, after complaining to social workers that the father was abusing their child. Astonishingly, although the couple had parted, the courts gave the father custody of the girl.
Two weeks ago, when the mother yet again told social workers that the father was abusing their daughter, they did nothing – but, independently, the police were called and the father was arrested. Social workers asked the mother to sign a document giving her child into foster care. She refused, asking for the girl to be returned to her, and was told to attend court at three o’clock last Monday to hear the council’s application for an emergency care order.
She arrived to find the council officials had not turned up, and was told to return at 10 o’clock on Tuesday. Again the officials did not show. Then the mother was told that the order had been given over the telephone the previous evening, by a magistrate at home, which appeared to break all the rules laid down for the granting of an emergency care order. This was apparently confirmed by a judge on Thursday – who nevertheless granted an order according to the proper procedures (the mother not being allowed to speak) and called them all back on Friday to hear an application for an interim care order. Thanks to the complications of the case, he then ruled that the council’s application should be heard in the High Court next month.
The mother’s only wish is to be reunited with her child – who apparently says her only wish is to be with her mother. But the implacable system, having made its error, seems determined to stand between them. Thus, hidden from public view, another unhappy family drama unfolds.
Saudi Arabia: Mystery disease kills 300 sheep within an hour
Sat, 28 May 2011 11:47 CDT
The farm said he checked the sheep an hour earlier and they were all alive in their barn at his far in the western town of Qunfudha.
The unnamed farmer had owned the sheep for years and they were his sole source of living for his family of 16.
“Inspectors at the ministry of agriculture said they had taken samples from the dead sheep to determine the cause of their death,” the Arabic language daily Sabq said.
Russia Issues Warning Issued Over “Controlled” Comet Headed Towards Earth
Conscious Life News
Comet Elenin
Comet Elenin
Source: whatdoesitmean.com. A chilling report prepared for President Medvedev by Minister Serdyukov of the Russian Defense Ministry on the building of an additional 5,000 underground ‘bomb’ shelters in Moscow warns that even though progress is being made, the appearance of the new Comet Elenin [photo top left] in our Solar System means “additional resources” will have to be added “immediately” as the 2012 timeline for completion “may not be soon enough”.
Sparking the fears of Minister Serdyukov, he says in this report, is that based upon the new orbit calculations for Comet Elenin, it appears in “all likelihood” that this celestial object is under some type of “intelligent control” and will approach our Earth “much closer” than originally thought this coming fall season.
Comet Elenin was discovered by Doctor-Scientist Leonid Elenin on 10 December 2010 from his research facility in Lyubertsy utilizing images acquired from the 18-inch (45-cm) telescope at the ISON-NM Observatory near Mayhill, New Mexico and confirmed by Doctor-Scientists Aleksei Sergeyev and Artem Novichenko from the Maidanak Observatory in Uzbekistan.
Upon its discovery Comet Elenin was traveling very near the ecliptic plane at more than 4 Astronomical Units (375 million miles) from the Sun and headed inbound towards it. Its original perihelion [point in the orbit of a planet, asteroid or comet where it is nearest to the Sun] was calculated to occur well inside Earth’s orbit at about 0.45 Astronomical Units (42 million miles) from the Sun to occur on or about 5 September 2011 making it visible to the naked eye in the pre-dawn skies in the Constellation of Leo.
read more…. http://truthisscary.com/?p=12740
Dutch ‘drug tourism’ set to go up in smoke
A long-smoldering debate over the Netherlands’ tolerance toward public marijuana use is heating up, with the Dutch government announcing last week that it will start banning tourists from pot-selling “coffee shops” by the end of the year.
“In order to tackle the nuisance and criminality associated with coffee shops and drug trafficking, the open-door policy of coffee shops will end,” the Dutch health and justice ministers wrote in a letter to the country’s parliament on Friday.
While marijuana is technically illegal in the Netherlands, it has been sold for decades in designated cafés and police make no arrests for possession of small amounts.
RELATED: Will Mendocino County become the Napa Valley of pot?
Under the new anti-drug rules, cannabis shops will be restricted to Dutch residents who sign up for a one-year membership, or “dope pass,” London’s Daily Mail reports.
The policy will roll out in the southern provinces of Limburg, Noord Brabant and Zeeland by the end of the year and the rest of the country next year, Reuters adds.
Amsterdam, home to about 220 coffee shops, is already in the process of closing some in its red light district. And some Dutch border towns including Maastricht and Terneuzen have already restricted the sale of marijuana to foreigners.
The new policy must still be approved by the country’s supreme court, and “there will be many challenges in bringing the so-called pass system from a concept into a reality,” says Jon Foster, an American who has owned Amsterdam’s popular Grey Area coffee house since 1994.
But “drug tourism,” which by some estimates draws up to 40% of Amsterdam’s 16 million annual visitors, is already taking a hit.
“For the moment it’s just bad for business, because everybody seems to think the law is already in effect as of this weekend,” says Foster.
Most pot smokers “stay for three to ten days, eat at restaurants, go to museums and entertainment, and buy a little cannabis each day,” he adds. ” Many coffee shops will probably close because of the diminished tourism, but the effect will be much greater as the results of the ban trickle down to the hotel, restaurant, entertainment, and overall tourist industry.”
Fears Grow Over Greece Bank Run as Country Seeks Bail-out
Wednesday, 01 June 2011 09:46
‘Greece’s banks are being hammered by a run on their reserves, leaving the country’s main lenders increasingly reliant on the European Central Bank for funding.
The latest figures from the Bank of Greece paint a grim picture, with foreign lenders and individuals withdrawing funds from Greek banks at an alarming rate. Simon Ward, chief economist at fund manager Henderson, likened the situation to Britain’s Northern Rock, which was eventually nationalised to save it from collapse.’
Read more: Fears Grow Over Greece Bank Run as Country Seeks Bail-out
Goldman Sachs Traded $1.3 Billion in Libyan Funds
Wednesday, 01 June 2011 09:11
‘Goldman Sachs invested more than $1.3 billion (786.1 million pounds) from Libya’s sovereign-wealth fund in currency bets and other trades in 2008 and the investment lost more than 98 percent of its value, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing internal Goldman documents.
When the fund, controlled by Col. Muammar Gaddafi, made huge losses Goldman offered Libya the chance to become one of its biggest shareholders, the Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.’
Read more: Goldman Sachs Traded $1.3 Billion in Libyan Funds
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