Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/166903186?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Monday, November 28, 2011
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Boy, 14, jailed for buying drugs on resort island
BALI, Indonesia?? An Australian teen was sentenced to two months in detention Friday for buying drugs while vacationing with family on Indonesia's resort island of Bali.
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Presiding Judge Amzer Simanjuntak told the packed Denpasar district court that ? when taking into account time already served ? the 14-year-old would be freed in just over a week and immediately deported.
"It's better to give a jail sentence, but the shortest possible, which would enable him to be given back to his parents sooner," Simanjuntak said, according to a report in the Herald Sun newspaper.
The prosecutors had asked for a three-month sentence.
The boy, who cannot be identified by name because of his age, sat sobbing, his head bowed down, as his father patted him on the back consolingly while the judge spoke.
Remorse
Though he could have faced up to 12 years under Indonesia's tough narcotics laws, the panel of three judges said it decided to be lenient because he admitted to buying 0.13 ounces of marijuana from a man in front of a supermarket and repeatedly expressed remorse.
The teen, who has been in an immigration detention center since his Oct. 4 arrest, earlier promised to enter a drug rehabilitation program if he was allowed to return to his home in Morrisset Park, north of Sydney.
He said he had been struggling for some time with his addiction.
Australia ? which has seen dozens of its citizens jailed or placed on death row for drug possession in Indonesia ? had been closely watching the trial.
'Lessons to be learned'
Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd welcomed the court verdict that he said meant the boy and his family would probably be back home by Christmas.
"I'm sure there are lessons to be learned by this young man as well," he told the Sun Herald.
Many argued the boy was too young to be jailed.
But critics noted that dozens of Indonesian children tied up in people-smuggling cases have been languishing for years in Australian detention centers.
The Associated Press, Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45433766/ns/world_news-asia_pacific/
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France and Germany to propose changing EU treaties (AP)
STRASBOURG, France ? President Nicolas Sarkozy appeared to temper his calls for the European Central Bank to play a bigger role in solving Europe's debt crisis as he agreed to a German effort to unite the troubled 17-nation eurozone more closely.
Speaking after meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Premier Mario Monti on Thursday, Sarkozy said "propositions for the modification of treaties" would be presented in the coming days.
He wouldn't elaborate on what these changes may be but said they would be ready in time for the next EU leaders summit on December 9. Treaty changes are a notoriously laborious endeavor, requiring the agreement of all 27 EU nations, including non-euro countries such as Britain and Poland.
Merkel said the treaty changes would "make clear that we must take steps toward a fiscal union to express the conviction that we know policies must be more closely coordinated if you have a common, stable currency."
"It is political confidence in Europe that has been lost ? we can only win it back politically," Merkel said.
This was the first meeting of the three leaders since Monti took over last week following mounting market concerns over Italy's huge debt, which stand at euro1.9 trillion ($2.6 trillion), or a huge 120 percent of economic output. Europe's current anti-crisis measures are too not big enough to deal with Italy's debt mountain.
Sarkozy said the three leaders had agreed to meet again "very soon" in Rome at Monti's invitation to continue their three-way dialogue.
The meeting in Strasbourg, France comes amid signs that even Germany and France ? the eurozone's two biggest economies ? are not immune from the crisis that's already seen three relatively small countries bailed out.
All three leaders said they would do what it takes to stabilize the situation and save the euro.
"We want the euro, we want a strong, stable euro ... we will do everything to defend it," Merkel said.
France has been reluctant to resort to changes to EU treaties to improve the way the eurozone countries work together and set policies and prevent future crises. Germany had pushed for such changes, saying voluntary pledges by national governments are no longer enough to boost market confidence.
Merkel insisted that the proposed changes would "not deal with the European Central Bank," which she stressed was responsible for monetary, not fiscal, policy. Sarkozy did not push for a greater role at their closing press conference, while Merkel insisted on the bank's independence.
"In the treaty changes, we are dealing with the question of a fiscal union, a deeper political cooperation ... there will be proposals on this, but they have nothing to do with the ECB," Merkel said.
Many think the ECB is the only institution capable of calming frayed market nerves and Merkel's continued dismissal of a greater ECB role knocked market sentiment and stocks all round Europe were trading lower once again.
Potentially, the ECB has unlimited financial firepower through its ability to print money. However, Germany finds the idea of monetizing debts unappealing.
Merkel also maintained her opposition to the European Commission's new drive for eurobonds.
Germany has opposed the use of eurobonds and has long called on fiscally wayward member states to clean up their own houses with as little outside intervention as possible. A big worry for Germany is that its low borrowing costs would get diluted if eurobonds came into issue and it would then be forced to pay higher rates to tap bond markets.
"It would be completely the wrong signal to lose sight entirely now of these differing interest rates, because they are a pointer to where something still needs to be done and where we need to go further," she said.
Monti, meanwhile, reiterated his pledge to balance Italy's budget by 2013 though he sidestepped the question on whether achieving that aim would require more austerity measures, and if so, whether it risked triggering a recession in the eurozone's third largest economy.
___
Associated Press writers Geir Moulson in Berlin and Frances d'Emilio in Rome contributed to this article.
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Saturday, November 26, 2011
Congo: 2 killed in clashes days ahead of poll (AP)
KINSHASA, Congo ? Two people were killed in pre-vote clashes Saturday in Congo's capital and security officials fired into a crowd that included tens of thousands of opposition supporters, prompting officials to ban rallies before a critical poll that observers say could re-ignite violence in the vast central African nation.
Violence erupted Saturday among political supporters who had gathered to greet the top opposition presidential candidate, who had planned to come to the airport in a car convoy. Supporters of the president also gathered there to meet him, though he did not pass through the airport.
At the airport, security forces fired tear gas and live ammunition into the burgeoning crowd.
Scuffles erupted on the road to the airport. Two dead bodies were seen along that road. One of them, a young man, was badly bludgeoned and appeared to have been stoned to death. A second body, also a man, was seen being carried away by Red Cross medics on the same road. It was not immediately clear how he had been killed.
Police also fired tear gas to push the crowd away, but riot police manned the airport hours later to prevent opposition presidential candidate Etienne Tshisekedi and his entourage from leaving the scene.
It was not immediately possible to determine the total number of casualties from Saturday's clashes.
Saturday's violence prompted the governor to call off political rallies ahead of Monday's vote. Governor Andre Kimbuta made the announcement on state television Saturday.
"Because of the escalating violence seen in Kinshasa, all public demonstrations and other political meetings are canceled this Saturday," Kimbuta said. "This is for a better result of the electoral process. The urban authority calls on the population's patriotism."
Human rights groups had expressed fears about an atmosphere of spiraling violence and hate speech ahead of the vote in the large mineral-rich nation. The outcome of the vote is almost certain to keep President Joseph Kabila in power.
Earlier this month in Kinshasa, gunmen fired on Tshisekedi campaigners putting up posters, wounding two. In the southern mining city of Lubumbashi, another 16 were injured in violence pitting Tshisekedi's supporters against a rival opposition party. Young people in the eastern city of Goma took to the streets after popular folk musician Fabrice Mumpfiritsa was kidnapped after he refused to sing songs supporting Kabila. He was found three days later, legs and eyes bound and so badly beaten he had to be hospitalized.
"We all know that the country is not ready to hold this election," said Jacquemain Shabani, the secretary general of Tshisekedi's party, which was the first major opposition party to stand up to former dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in the 1980s. "It's inevitable that it will bring conflict if they go ahead with it."
How the elections unfold will be a likely indicator of whether Congo is consolidating its fledgling democracy or returning to a state of widespread instability after decades of dictatorship and civil war, according to the International Crisis Group.
The violence is just one of the numerous challenges that could derail Monday's vote and re-ignite conflict. Tension is running high, partly because many polling stations have not yet received the necessary voting materials.
On Friday, just days before the poll, at least 33 of the 80 planes carrying voting materials to the provinces were unable to take off because of bad weather.
Election experts say it is unlikely the ballots will be able to reach the remote interior in time in a country with so few paved roads, and where there are some 60,000 polling stations spread out over a territory the size of Western Europe.
"We have been trying to sound the alarm but to no avail," said Jerome Bonso, coordinator of the Coalition for Peaceful and Transparent Elections.
"The end result of a democratic election should be the resolution of conflict. Instead, we're heading into an election which is by its very nature bound to aggravate conflict ..." he said. "And the planes carrying the voting materials have not even taken off yet."
Voters will be choosing between 11 presidential candidates and more than 18,000 candidates for the 500-seat parliament.
In a nation where a third of adults cannot read, voters will be handed a ballot as thick as a book, due to the overwhelming number of parliamentary contenders. Politicians are using campaign rallies to explain to voters where to find their names on the ballot paper.
Jason Stearns, former coordinator of the United Nations Group of Experts on the Congo and the author of a book on the country's political history, said the number of candidates is bound to create confusion inside polling stations because the ballot is confusing even for those who know how to read. It will also create delays in an election that is supposed to take place in a single day, and may result in a large share of people not being able to cast their votes.
"There is an overwhelming number of candidates and voters will have a limited amount of time in voting stations," said Stearns, who pointed out that even the three best-known candidates, including Kabila, are informing voters at rallies of their place on the ballot paper.
"Even among the 11 presidential candidates, every one of their campaign advertisements stress their number on the ballot. Kabila is No. 33. Tshisekedi is No. 11," said Stearns.
It's the country's first election since the landmark 2006 vote which was considered the country's first democratic vote in 40 years, but was marred by weeks of street battles led by supporters of the losing candidate.
Congo's history of back-to-back wars also provides a backdrop. Kabila, a former rebel leader, first took control of the country a decade ago, after the 2001 assassination of his father, Laurent Kabila, who ruled Congo after overthrowing dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in 1997.
He was elected president in 2006, a vote which was overseen and organized by the U.N. The runner-up was former warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba, now on trial at the Hague. He refused to accept defeat, unleashing his private army on the capital, leading to weeks of street battles. There are no warlords in the race for president this time, and none of the candidates have personal militias at their disposal, Stearns said.
___
Associated Press writer Saleh Mwanamilongo in Kinshasa, Congo contributed to this report. Callimachi contributed from Dakar, Senegal.
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Friday, November 25, 2011
Demi Moore & Ashton Kutcher Break Twitter Silence Finally!
After weeks of no tweeting Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore each used the Thanksgiving holiday to break their Twitter silence. They were a couple that was once known for their love of each other and Tweeting. However as their relationship crumbled so did their time spent on the social networking site. Yesterday though both Demi and Ashton each sent out a tweet, the first one for each of them since November 17th, which is a very long time for these Twitter participants to be quiet. If you are expecting any juicy revelations forget it. Both of them were simply marking the holiday. Here is what Kutcher had to say. I?m thankful for family, friends, you, & time to reach my potential. What are you thankful for? #thanksgiving Like I said nothing to earth shattering. It was actually the below Tweet from Demi that I found to be quite moving, because well she is right. Why do we have only 1 day for giving thanks? Is that why so many people feel unappreciated? Make this 1 of 365 days of Thanksgiving! Twitter has not been the same since Moore and Kutcher each became silent on it. In fact as soon as [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RightCelebrity/~3/TvUgEL4sLgQ/
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PFT: Week 11 power rankings
APIt?s a nice, feel-good Thanksgiving week story.? Bears quarterback Jay Cutler breaks a thumb.? The Broncos have cut a former Bears quarterback who?d like to play in Chicago again.? And there?s nothing more natural than a homecoming on the fourth Thursday in November.
The only problem?? At least 22 teams can provide the flight delay and/or the traffic jam that prevents Kyle Orton from scarfing down sausage with the Superfans.
After the trading deadline, all players who are released must pass through waivers.? Priority is determined by record.? And so every team higher than the Bears in the pecking order will have dibs on Orton, if they choose to exercise it.
The Bears reportedly are No. 30 on the list.? Which means that every team except the 49ers and Packers will be able to grab him.
It doesn?t matter whether Orton ?wants? to play for the Bears.? If another team claims him, he has 2.5 million reasons to show up.
At the top of the stack, what better way to test whether the Colts are in full-blown ?Suck for Luck? mode than to see whether they?d bring in a quarterback who is significantly better than Curtis Painter or Dan Orlovsky?? They?d be crazy not to make a claim.? Unless they?re truly crazy for Andrew Luck.
The 4-6 Chiefs also need help, given the performance of Tyler Palko on Monday night.? (And with the Chiefs playing the Broncos again on January 1, there could be some strategic benefit to having him around.)? Ditto for the Redskins, whose head coach could be coaching for his job, with Rex Grossman and John Beck as the blanks in the bazooka.
And how about NFC teams that hope to pick off a wild-card berth if/when the Bears slide with Caleb Hanie or Nathan Enderle?? The 7-3 Lions, 6-4 Falcons, the 6-4 Cowboys (whose primary backup, Jon Kitna, is banged up), the 6-4 Giants, the 4-6 Bucs, and even the 4-6 Dream Team would have an incentive to block the Bears from getting their way.
Let?s also not forget about the Texans, who may not be completely sold on Matt Leinart, despite the decision to put all their eggs in a beer bong.
Finally, it would be foolish to overlook good, old-fashioned spite.? In 2002, Deion Sanders wanted to emerge from retirement and hop onto the silver-and-black bandwagon.? So the Redskins released his rights.? And former Redskins coach Marty Schottenheimer, the man whose presence in 2001 prompted Sanders to pick retirement over playing, put in a waivers claim on Sanders, short-circuiting his plan.? With three NFC North teams on track to make it to the playoffs, maybe the 2-8 Vikings would be tempted to keep the Bears from getting Orton, in the hopes that they?ll have company in the non-playoff party.
That?s highly unlikely.? But the point is that there are many possible motivations, and just because the Bears want Orton and Orton wants the Bears, it doesn?t mean he?ll end up there.? Indeed, the fact that the Bears and Orton are trying to rendezvous could be the tiebreaker for a team that is thinking about disrupting that plan.
UPDATE 10:35 p.m. ET:? As a reader pointed out on Twitter, claiming Orton has another benefit.? When he leaves as a free agent in March 2012, the team that employs him for six weeks would be in line of a compensatory draft pick.? So there?s one more good reason to consider doing it.
Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/11/22/power-rankings-posted-for-your-non-approval/related
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Thursday, November 24, 2011
Head and neck cancer: Study identifies factors associated with increased risk of death among two-year survivors
ScienceDaily (Nov. 22, 2011) ? Among patients with head and neck cancer, poor overall quality of life, pain, and continued tobacco use appear to be associated with poorer outcomes and higher mortality rate two years after diagnosis, according to a report in the November issue of the Archives of Otolaryngology -- Head & Neck Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
"A conditional survival rate is the probability of surviving after having already lived for a certain length of time," the authors write as background information in the study. "This concept is important in the care of patients with head and neck cancer because it underlies the intuition of head and neck oncologists that mortality and recurrence rates are lower for patients further out from diagnoses."
Trisha L. Thompson, B.S., and colleagues from the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics, Iowa City, conducted an observational study of 276 patients who survived two years after a diagnosis of upper aerodigestive carcinoma, and were diagnosed between September 2001 and September 2008. Data were collected using standard surveys and short-item queries. Of the 276 participants included in the analysis, 59.9 percent were previous users of tobacco, while 11.4 percent were current users, two years after diagnosis. Additionally, two years after diagnosis, 86 percent of survivors were eating a full diet and 80.5 percent reported having no pain.
The five-year traditional observed survival rate was 61.1 percent for all patients compared with the conditional rate of 90.8 percent for two-year survivors. The five-year traditional disease-specific rate was 69.8 percent for all patients, compared with the conditional rate of 94.8 percent for two-year survivors. Older age and advanced stage were associated with poorer survival, whether death was due to the cancer or from all causes. Patients with pain or poor overall quality of life were more likely to die from all causes, whereas those still smoking two years after diagnoses were more likely to die from their cancer.
The authors found that the likelihood of death was four times lower for patients reporting high overall quality of life than for those reporting low quality of life, and two times higher for those who reported the presence of pain, compared to participants who did not. Additionally, those who continued to use tobacco had a likelihood of death from cancer four times higher than those who had quit or had never used tobacco.
"In addition to older age and advanced stage, which are known to have a negative effect on survival, the presence of pain and continued tobacco use should flag patients who might need longer and more intense follow-up care to improve their observed and disease-specific survival rates," the authors conclude. "This information is useful for clinicians in the development of management plans for patients who are transitioning from treatment into survivorship."
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Journal Reference:
- T. L. Thompson, N. A. Pagedar, L. H. Karnell, G. F. Funk. Factors Associated With Mortality in 2-Year Survivors of Head and Neck Cancer. Archives of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, 2011; 137 (11): 1100 DOI: 10.1001/archoto.2011.179
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/ZixJHxHEYrQ/111122115522.htm
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Vote for the greatest Science Geek Gift
Bre Pettis
Uranium marbles glow under ultraviolet light in a picture taken by MakerBot Industries co-founder Bre Pettis.
By Alan Boyle
How about a dinosaur skull for the holidays? Or a handful of glow-in-the-dark uranium marbles? Cast your vote and help us crown the geekiest gift for the holiday season.
The gift suggestions for this year's Science Geek Guide are in line with a proud tradition here at msnbc.com. You can always find guides to Black Friday tech deals, or the top 20?toys of 2011, or the hottest holiday hostess gifts. But where else can get a line on a nuclear-powered?plaything, or a six-dimensional paperweight, or brains to fit your budget?
Live Poll
Vote for the top geek gift
169026
Uranium marbles
23%
169027
Dinosaur skulls
5%
169028
Elements Vault
4%
169029
Magnifying glasses
2%
169030
Mars lunchbox
6%
169031
USB microscope
8%
169032
Plush microbes
4%
169033
Wi-Fi T-shirt
18%
169034
Star Trek pizza cutter
25%
169035
Pi plate
5%
VoteTotal Votes: 2183
Even better, this is a geek gift guide created by geeks for geeks, with some geeky prizes thrown into the bargain. Last week I put out the call for?suggestions, and?it'll be up to you to select the?coolest,?most offbeat prize from the top 10. The geek who made the top-rated suggestion will be eligible to receive a pile of books, including "Science Ink," "The Cult of Lego," "The Physics Book" and "The Case for Pluto" (autographed by?yours truly).
Here are this year's 10 finalists:
Uranium marbles:?"Nothing says Merry Christmas like a little bit of radiation," says?Richard-1971294. He'd love to get his hands on some uranium marbles. Back in the old days,?pigments containing uranium oxide were used in?lots of items, including ceramic glazes, green-tinted glassware and, yes, children's marbles. Black Light World, which sells a three-pack of uranium-doped marbles for $9.95, says they're "totally safe" ? even though?radioactive caution?stickers are plastered all over the promotional images. You can also find 'em on eBay.
Dinosaur Corporation
A carnotaurus skull is flanked by a scale replica, available from the Dinosaur Corporation.
Dinosaur skulls: "Dino skull replicas are cool and geeky!" David Flowers tweeted in his response to the call for entries.?The Dinosaur Corporation offers a wide selection of skulls, molded?out of?polyurethane resin?to look like the real thing ...?only smaller. If you're looking for a real dinosaur skull, that'll cost you. A T. rex skull sold for $215,000 in March (and some?dino dung went for $1,200). Flowers also put a naked mole rat plushie on his geek-gift wish list.
The Elements?Vault: "Physics is hot these days, but for lovers of chemistry, this kit from Theodore Gray will be a real treat." says KGill. "His gorgeous book about the elements, 'The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe,' showcased the elegance of the periodic table, and the beauty of the elements. This collection incudes new text and photographs, reproductions of historic documents, a pop-up model of an atom, and samples of several elements."
Magnifying glasses and other optics: "Nothing beats a brand new magnifying glass," says?Jennifer Hancock, a Humanist author and speaker. "They get cruddy after a while, always nice to have a new one." Here's the set she has her eye on. Oh, and she wouldn't mind?getting a hand-held microscope and illuminator, plus a snazzy pair of binoculars. In her Twitter profile, Hancock calls herself a dork, but she sounds like?a bona fide geek to?me.?There is a difference.
NASA / JPL
Flaunt your Martian pride with a JPL lunchbox.
Mars rover lunchbox: Lights in the Dark blogger Jason Major says anything from ThinkGeek will do the trick, but he'd sure like to get a $20?Mars Exploration Rover lunchbox from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's online store. Space geeks of the female persuasion might consider some Red Planet earrings in honor of the about-to-be-launched Mars Science Laboratory mission.
USB microscope: "A USB microscope, with the ability to capture images digitally, is a great geek gift!" says Paliniasky. There's a mind-boggling selection, ranging from less than $20 to astronomical prices.
Plush microbes:?"GiantMicrobes are way awesome and super cute ? stuffed animal versions of microorganisms," says biology student?Kelsey Plesniak, a member of the Cosmic Log corps on Facebook. As we head into flu season, what better gift could you give a microbiology geek than ... a cuddly flu bug?
Wi-Fi detector shirt: This $14.99 ThinkGeek T-shirt has a?decal that glows to indicate the signal strength of wireless networks in the area. "My son the math teacher bought one of these earlier this year," George Buddy?Dow says on Facebook. "Inexpensive and practical." Just don't forget to remove the decal and the battery pack before you put it in the wash. Dow also puts in a plug for the "Ant Farm Revolution," which sounds like an entomological Occupy movement.
ThinkGeek
Cut a slice with the starship Enterprise.
Star Trek pizza cutter: Joel Davis casts his vote for a $29.99 ThinkGeek?kitchen accessory that promises to "boldly?cut pizza where no man has cut before." It's as if you're?holding a miniaturized starship Enterprise in the palm of your hand. Come to think of it, I've seen that episode.
Pi plate: "A pi plate is available. To make pies in," Jan Smith writes. "Has a large pi symbol in the center and the numbers 3.14159...?etc., all around the edge of the plate. I got one for my son." Here's an alternate design for the pi plate. Any way you slice it, this will be a good kitchen item to have around for March 14 ...?Pi Day.
Extra credit: You'll find all sorts of geeky (and not-so-geeky) gift ideas by following the links below,?and?you'll also want to check out our holiday book?roundup. You might also consider supporting The Illuminated Origin of Species, an effort by artist/naturalist Kelly Houle to create?an illuminated manuscript of Charles Darwin's masterwork in the spirit of the Book of?Kells. To support the effort, Houle is offering sets of Darwin-themed greeting cards, beetle prints and an adopt-a-beetle program.
Don't forget to cast a vote for your favorite gift among the top 10, and may the best geek win!
Previous Science Geek Gift Guides:
More science gifts:
You don't need to buy me a present. All I ask is that you connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.?
Source: http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/23/8960430-cast-your-vote-for-the-geekiest-gift
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Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Rick Perry-backed judge proposes Latino districts, infuriates GOP (Daily Caller)
A former Texas Supreme Court justice whose appointment by Gov. Rick Perry led to accusations of racial pandering was part of a Federal District Court decision Thursday to issue a new voting district map for Texas that will likely overturn the map proposed by the Texas Legislature and is designed to create ethnic voting districts for Latino?s.
U.S. District Court Judge Xavier Rodriguez joined with another Latino justice from the three-justice federal panel ? Clinton-appointee Judge Orlando Garcia ? to issue the racially-drawn map, which has not yet been given final approval. Lawyers for the Democrats and Republicans were given the opportunity to comment on the map Friday, and the parties now await the court?s final decision.
The Houston Chronicle reports that the new state House and Senate district lines could cost Republicans six seats in the Texas Legislature in 2012, and Fox News reports that the GOP does not believe it will hold its 101-49 supermajority in the Texas House if the map was formally adopted.
Rodriguez, once a casual Democrat, was plucked from obscurity by Gov. Perry to ascend to the Texas Supreme Court in 2001. Conservatives worked to successfully defeat him in a 2002 primary that the Weekly Standard reported was ?all about race.? To compensate for his defeat, Rodriguez was appointed to the Federal District Court for the Western District of Texas by then-Perry ally President George W. Bush. (RELATED: Conservative ire with Perry runs deep, reflects racial politics)
The third member of the three judge panel ? Judge Jerry E. Smith of New Orleans ? posted a map proposal different from that put forth by Garcia and Rodriguez. His proposal was much closer to that of the legislature?s.
The three judges prepared the maps because a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. ? which is ruling on whether the Texas Legislature?s original redistricting violated the U.S. Voting Rights Act ? is not likely to reach a decision in time for the 2012 elections.
The release of the Rodriguez-Garcia map was met with swift condemnation from Lone Star Republicans.
?Contrary to (a) basic principle of federalism,? Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott?s office said in a statement, ?the proposed interim redistricting plan consistently overturns the legislature?s will where no probability of a legal wrong has been identified.?
Meanwhile, Democrats cheered the decision. ?These maps are a step forward for Texas voters and underscore the importance of the Voting Rights Act,? Anthony Gutierrez, a spokesman for the Texas Democratic Party, said in a statement.
The U.S. Voting Rights Act of 1965 established federal oversight over elections in several southern states, including Texas, to prevent the disenfranchisement of blacks. The act necessitates that any changes those states make that affect voting must be federally approved. Latinos were added as a protected class in 1975, and former President George W. Bush renewed the act for another 25 years in 2006.
In the 1996 Supreme Court case Bush v. Vera, the court struck down the Texas legislature?s attempt to create racial districts, calling it racial gerrymandering.
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Tuesday, November 22, 2011
American Diabetes Association's preferred testing method fails to identify kids with diabetes
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_tKA-T5fgP2k06XsiMgiYlQpwjPBzRrIpX8oua01XHjMxBTVvXZ0kNDyaxt4NfuOxy8kGjI4Lq1KtJoW7eHLZW7G-nkujcBIZQQz54Oluk=s0-d){kind=small}
Public release date: 21-Nov-2011[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Lauren McLeod
lemcleod@med.umich.edu
734-764-2220
University of Michigan Health System
U-M study shows recommended test, Hemoglobin A1c, fails to identify children with diabetes or those at risk
In 2009, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) recommended that Hemoglobin A1c be exclusively used for the diagnosis of diabetes in children. The simple test measures longer-term blood sugar levels -- without requiring patients to fast overnight. However, a new U-M study has shown that these tests are not very accurate in children.
"We found that Hemoglobin A1c is not as reliable a test for identifying children with diabetes or children at high risk for diabetes compared with other tests in children," says Joyce M. Lee, M.D., M.P.H., lead author of the study and a pediatric endocrinologist at U-M's C.S. Mott Children's Hospital. "In fact, it failed to diagnose two out of three children participating in the study who truly did have diabetes."
Although tests that require patients to fast are the most accurate tests, they are difficult to obtain in clinical practice, highlighting the need for improved nonfasting testing strategies.
Due in part to high rates of childhood obesity, the Centers for Disease Control estimates that approximately 2.5 million children in the U.S. currently qualify for diabetes screening.
The study, published online ahead of print in the journal Diabetes Care, tested 254 overweight children using both fasting and non-fasting methods. Researchers found that the recommended test, Hemoglobin A1c, missed more cases of pre-diabetes or diabetes compared to other tests.
Participants in the study were defined as having prediabetes or diabetes based on a gold standard test. They were first tested using the Hemoglobin A1C test. After fasting for 12 hours, they returned on a separate day and were tested using a fasting method.
Based on the results, researchers urge that a nonfasting one-hour glucose challenge test, or a random glucose, may be promising methods for identifying children with prediabetes or diabetes.
"Other pediatric organizations, like the American Academy of Pediatrics, have not endorsed the use of HbA1c yet. However, there is concern that should they endorse it, more and more providers would use these testing methods, leading to an increase in missed diagnoses in the pediatric population," says Lee.
Researchers intend to use their data to drive future recommendations about screening for diabetes.
"We are currently studying whether the promising nonfasting tests, including the 1-hour glucose challenge test or the random glucose, could be used in combination with clinical characteristics to better identify which children have prediabetes or diabetes," says Lee.
###
Additional Authors: Achamyeleh Gebremariam, M.S, En-Ling Wu, B.A., Jennifer LaRose, B.S., James G. Gurney, Ph.D.
Citation: doi
Disclosures: None.
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Public release date: 21-Nov-2011[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Lauren McLeod
lemcleod@med.umich.edu
734-764-2220
University of Michigan Health System
U-M study shows recommended test, Hemoglobin A1c, fails to identify children with diabetes or those at risk
In 2009, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) recommended that Hemoglobin A1c be exclusively used for the diagnosis of diabetes in children. The simple test measures longer-term blood sugar levels -- without requiring patients to fast overnight. However, a new U-M study has shown that these tests are not very accurate in children.
"We found that Hemoglobin A1c is not as reliable a test for identifying children with diabetes or children at high risk for diabetes compared with other tests in children," says Joyce M. Lee, M.D., M.P.H., lead author of the study and a pediatric endocrinologist at U-M's C.S. Mott Children's Hospital. "In fact, it failed to diagnose two out of three children participating in the study who truly did have diabetes."
Although tests that require patients to fast are the most accurate tests, they are difficult to obtain in clinical practice, highlighting the need for improved nonfasting testing strategies.
Due in part to high rates of childhood obesity, the Centers for Disease Control estimates that approximately 2.5 million children in the U.S. currently qualify for diabetes screening.
The study, published online ahead of print in the journal Diabetes Care, tested 254 overweight children using both fasting and non-fasting methods. Researchers found that the recommended test, Hemoglobin A1c, missed more cases of pre-diabetes or diabetes compared to other tests.
Participants in the study were defined as having prediabetes or diabetes based on a gold standard test. They were first tested using the Hemoglobin A1C test. After fasting for 12 hours, they returned on a separate day and were tested using a fasting method.
Based on the results, researchers urge that a nonfasting one-hour glucose challenge test, or a random glucose, may be promising methods for identifying children with prediabetes or diabetes.
"Other pediatric organizations, like the American Academy of Pediatrics, have not endorsed the use of HbA1c yet. However, there is concern that should they endorse it, more and more providers would use these testing methods, leading to an increase in missed diagnoses in the pediatric population," says Lee.
Researchers intend to use their data to drive future recommendations about screening for diabetes.
"We are currently studying whether the promising nonfasting tests, including the 1-hour glucose challenge test or the random glucose, could be used in combination with clinical characteristics to better identify which children have prediabetes or diabetes," says Lee.
###
Additional Authors: Achamyeleh Gebremariam, M.S, En-Ling Wu, B.A., Jennifer LaRose, B.S., James G. Gurney, Ph.D.
Citation: doi
Disclosures: None.
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-11/uomh-ada112111.php
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Monday, November 21, 2011
Chemical plant blast in China kills 14 workers (AP)
BEIJING ? An explosion at a chemical plant in eastern China has killed 14 workers and injured five others.
Chinese state media and an official said the explosion happened Saturday at a plant in Xintai city in Shandong province.
Xinhua News Agency says workers were maintaining and repairing a condenser at a melamine production facility when the explosion occurred.
It says no poisonous or harmful substances were released. Melamine is a nitrogen-rich chemical used in making plastics and many other products.
An official surnamed Xu at the Xintai city government says the cause of the blast is under investigation.
He says the plant's owner, Shandong Liaherd Chemical Industry Co., used to be state-run but is now a shareholding company.
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Sunday, November 20, 2011
NEWSMAKER - Pakistan's Imran Khan: playboy cricketer to PM? (Reuters)
BANI GALA, Pakistan (Reuters) ? The road to Imran Khan's palatial spread in the hills above Pakistan's capital is a perfect metaphor for his vision of his political career: twisty and pot-holed, but ending in a grand estate.
Alone in the beginning but now surrounded by smaller buildings, the house itself is cool and pleasant, with Mughal-era swords arrayed on a coffee table and two playful dogs -- one a German shepherd named Sheru -- romping about the carefully manicured lawn.
"I built this house," Khan said as he sat on the shaded verandah eyeing the sweeping vista overlooking the city. "There was nothing here. It was scrub jungle all around. There was only a dirt track here."
For Khan, creating something from nothing could be the slogan for a much-chequered life.
A graduate from Oxford and very much a man-about-town in London in the late 1970s, he became one of the world's most admired cricketers. He was captain of Pakistan's team of talented but wayward stars and, with many whispers of autocracy, led them to win cricket's World Cup for the first and only time in 1992.
After years of fund-raising, Khan opened a cancer hospital in the memory of his mother in his native Lahore in 1994.
He is a conservative Muslim but was married to a Jewish heiress and then divorced, joined politics and for years been somewhat of a joke in Pakistan's unruly democracy.
But in the past 15 years, through sheer force of will and a reputation for personal integrity, he has gone from political punch line to a superstar now attracting heavy-hitting politicians to his party, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (Pakistan's Movement for Justice).
He -- and a lot of other people -- believe he could very well be Pakistan's next prime minister.
Khan's confidence stems from what he sees is a tsunami of support for the PTI in Pakistan as traditional parties falter amid charges and counter-charges of corruption and petty jealousies. On Oct 30, he staged a gigantic rally in Lahore that observers said pulled between 100,000 and 200,000 people, one of the largest political rallies ever in Pakistan.
But Khan remains relatively untested. In the last 15 years, his party has only briefly held one seat in parliament -- his. He has had tumultuous relationships with the established political parties as well as the military, the real decision maker in the nuclear-armed nation of 180 million people.
He does not openly criticise the military but in a book on Pakistani politics published in September, he walks the line, saying: "Only a credible government can save and strengthen the Pakistan army by making sure it stays within its constitutional role. We have no other choice: in order to survive, we have to make Pakistan a genuine democracy."
Khan also has a touchy relationship with the United States, Pakistan's ally in the war on militancy and its biggest aid donor. He says that if he's elected prime minister, he would end Pakistan's cooperation in the fight against militants based in its tribal areas, end the American drone campaign and refuse all U.S. aid, which totals some $20 billion since 2001.
REVOLUTIONARY
It may be all pie-in-the-sky, but Khan, 58, is nothing if not charismatic. Still athletic and craggily handsome with darting eyes and an intense demeanour, he can rarely sit still for long. He fidgets and twists, almost as if he were about to leap to his feet and launch into his fearsome pace bowling.
"For a lot of people who don't have hope in their political system, in a democratic system, he's the one person they seem to have hope in," said a senior Western diplomat, who requested anonymity to speak about internal Pakistani politics.
"I think he's an important phenomenon because he articulates the very real frustration of the country at a time when they need articulation."
And articulate he does. In an interview, Khan quickly lists Pakistan's very serious economic problems: electricity shortages, crumbling railways, a crisis in education, massive unemployment and endemic corruption.
"We've hit rock bottom," he said. "It doesn't get worse than this, where to qualify for any position of important public office, you have to have committed a crime."
For Khan, the current government headed by Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of Khan's old Oxford classmate Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in 2007 after returning to Pakistan from self-imposed exile, is the most corrupt government Pakistan has ever seen. Transparency International, which listed Pakistan as the 143rd most corrupt country in its 2010 corruption index, might agree.
As such, Khan believes in a fresh start for Pakistan, a country that, like his home above Islamabad, is a jungle ready to be cleared out and made anew. He believes Pakistan should wipe out the past and rebuild from a clean slate, with he as architect-in-chief.
"You only get out of this by a complete U-turn and what we call a New Pakistan."
He is calling not only for a new government, but a new political order, one based on what he says are the real ideals of Pakistan's founding father, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who worked to forge a homeland for South Asia's Muslims before the bloody partition in 1947 that created India and Pakistan.
Instead of fighting the Taliban militants, Khan said, Pakistan should enter into dialogue with them. He says if he were in power, he could end militancy in 90 days.
A senior Taliban commander and spokesman contacted by Reuters laughed off this idea and said they would continue the fight. "He is, in fact, living in a fool's paradise," the commander said.
And yet, Khan is no fundamentalist. The idealized Islamic state he says he would build in Pakistan would focus on justice, fairness and equality for all its citizens before the law. It would, above all, be "humane."
Khan often veers between shrewd political calculations -- "as a political party, you can't rule out alliances" -- and what seems to be naive idealism.
His plan to raise revenue for Pakistan is to "inspire" people to pay their taxes through his personal example and somehow rooting out all corruption, boosting the country's pitiful tax-to-GDP ratio of about 10 percent, one of the lowest in the world.
Some of the parties he has associated himself with in the past are notably lacking in democratic and liberal bona fides, such as the conservative Jamaat-e-Islami, which has cheered the murder of blasphemers and campaigned against laws that would grant women and religious minorities equal status to Muslims.
POLL?
But how might Khan do in the election? Given the current flux in Pakistani politics, few analysts would hazard a guess. Many think he could split the right-leaning, nationalist vote currently dominated by the former Prime Minister Nawaz Shari's Pakistan Muslim League and keep Zardari's Pakistan People's Party in power.
"He seems to have inspired more people to join the political process," said Brian Katulis, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress in Washington. "But to date, his political organization has seemed weak and not well managed, particularly in contrast to his charity."
Khan himself believes his time has come.
"I have this very clear vision, as I say in the book," he said. "This has been a 15-year struggle which no one has conducted in Pakistan before. And now I feel I'm closer to my destiny."
But all that's really clear right now is that Khan reflects the yearnings of a deeply disillusioned and frustrated country that has seen 63 years of military and civilian governments repeatedly fail it -- all in the service of a national ideology looking for a nation.
It is this ideology -- a home for South Asia's Muslims and a shining beacon of Islamic democracy -- voiced by Allama Iqbal, considered the spiritual founder of Pakistan and the man who coined the name of the country, that motivates Khan.
"He says your vision or your destiny for your dream, it should be so great, it should be so noble and selfless that rather than you asking God that God grant you this destiny, that God would be so impressed by your dream, that he asks you: What do you want?"
He paused to consider this. "In other words, our destiny is in our hands. We have to dream; the bigger the dream, the bigger the man."
(Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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2 arrests made in Ohio in suspected murder plot
CALDWELL, Ohio (AP) ? When a South Carolina man answered a Craigslist ad seeking a farmhand in Ohio, there was no job waiting for him. There was a freshly dug grave.
The man was shot and wounded in what investigators say was a murderous robbery scheme that used bogus help-wanted ads to lure victims. He escaped, but another job-seeker was later found dead in a shallow grave nearby. And two suspects ? a man and a 16-year-old boy ? are under arrest.
Neighbors living near the property where the graves were dug were shocked by the bloodshed. Some figured the arrests had closed the case, while others, like Angie Noll, put credence in rumors of more bodies to be found.
"We're a rural community, maybe there's 15 houses up here, and right in our backyard this stuff is going on," said Noll, a 28-year-old maintenance production clerk who lives just a few houses away from the neighbor whose door the South Carolina man knocked on after escaping. "I feel kind of dumbfounded about it."
The sheriff said it is unclear how long the ad had been online or whether there are other victims.
The wooded piece of land sits on the former site of a strip mine and is owned by a coal company and rented out to hunters. It is isolated, with no lights and only one-lane gravel roads running in and out.
"It's an ideal place to get rid of a body," said Don Warner, a rancher who lives nearby.
A judge issued a gag order in the case Friday, and the names of the two victims and the adult suspect were not released.
Before the order was imposed, Sheriff Stephen Hannum said that the South Carolina victim was taken Nov. 6 to the desolate area, where he managed to deflect a gun cocked at the back of his head and ran. Wounded in the arm, he hid in the woods for hours, then showed up covered in blood at the first well-lighted place he could see, a farmhouse outside Caldwell, about 80 miles east of Columbus.
This week, cadaver dogs were brought in, and authorities found one hand-dug grave they believe was intended for the South Carolina man and a second grave that held the body of a Florida man.
The Akron Beacon Journal identified the suspects as a 52-year-old man from Akron, about 90 miles away, and a high school student from the Akron area. The teenager was charged Friday with attempted murder. While his name appears in court documents, The Associated Press generally does not report the names of minors charged with crimes.
No charges were immediately brought against the man.
The South Carolina man who escaped to a neighbor's house told the homeowner, Rose Schockling, that he had answered an ad on Craigslist for a job and was told he would be erecting fences for a cattle farm.
But Schockling said there is no farm of the size the man described nearby, with most of the surrounding countryside either woods or strip mines.
The man had been told to bring his belongings with him to Ohio because he would be living at the farm, the sheriff said. Investigators believe robbery was the motive.
A few days after the man went to the police, authorities received a call from the Florida man's sister, concerned that her brother had not been heard from for weeks. The sister said her brother had responded to what she believed was the same Craigslist ad, for a caretaker for cattle on a 688-acre farm.
"We brought in cadaver dogs thinking that a possibility that the person that was advertising on Craigslist and lured this guy down here may very well have lured someone else to the same area," the sheriff said. "Our hunch was correct."
Investigators have not disclosed the cause of the Florida man's death.
___
Associated Press writers Thomas J. Sheeran in Cleveland, Kantele Franko in Columbus and Associated Press researcher Monika Mathur in New York contributed to this report.
Associated PressSaturday, November 19, 2011
'X Factor': Josh Krajcik Rocks Out On A Rocky Night
Astro and Rachel Crow also earn high marks, but Stacy Francis and Lakoda Rayne draw Simon Cowell's ire.
By Adam Graham
Josh Krajcik performs on "The X Factor"
Photo: FOX
"The X Factor" took on rock music Wednesday, with decidedly rocky results.
The debate of what really constitutes rock overshadowed the proceedings, with the increasingly catty judges sniping at one another over their song choices and whether they fit the evening's theme. In the end, only one performer, Josh Krajcik, turned in what could truly be considered a rockin' performance, plugging in and kicking out the jams with the Foo Fighters' "Pretender."
Krajcik was the evening's big winner — inspiring mentor Nicole Scherzinger to head-bang her way through his performance — along with teen rapper Astro, who is quickly becoming a favorite in the competition. Astro's original song, a dedication to hip-hop rapped to Puff Daddy's "I'll Be Missing You," caused L.A. Reid to gush that he not only has what it takes to win the competition, but also to become a "major international star," while Simon Cowell told him he has more maturity and intelligence than the older contestants he's up against. Astro's consistency, meanwhile, irked Paula Abdul. "Can you just suck for once?" she pleaded. "I don't think you can!"
Here's how the remainder of the contestants fared:
The Boys
Chris Rene, sporting one of Jay-Z's controversial Occupy All Streets T-shirts, did Bob Marley's "No Woman No Cry," which Cowell argued wasn't nearly rockin' enough. "Loved the performance. Would have been great if the theme was reggae," Cowell quipped. Marcus Canty's take on Janis Joplin's "Piece of My Heart" earned high marks from everyone but Cowell, who said it felt like he was pretending to be someone he's not. L.A. Reid shot back with a simple, "You rocked!"
The Girls
Coming off a strong performance last week, Rachel Crow took on the Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," which more than satisfied the judges. "The question is, can you sell records? Can you sell tickets? And the answer is yes," Reid beamed. Melanie Amaro's piano-and-vocals version of R.E.M.'s "Everybody Hurts" was dismissed as "so not rock" by Reid, and Scherzinger questioned why she wasn't moved to tears by the song (she explained that, normally, she is a weeping mess by the song's close). Cowell, however, boasted that the performance reminded him of Adele and Alicia Keys — performers who are not the least bit rock, mind you, but who happen to sell a lot of records.
Fourteen-year-old Drew, meanwhile, took on U2's "With or Without You" — which was similar to her version of Coldplay's "Fix You" last week — and Reid, Scherzinger and Abdul all stressed they'd like to hear her do something outside her comfort zone. But Cowell dismissed their comments and praised her, saying he's confident she'll be in the competition "until the end."
The Over 30's
LeRoy Bell's straightforward reading of Bob Seger's "We've Got Tonight" was smacked down by the judges. "You're good, man, but I need more. This is the big time," Reid scolded him. Stacy Francis dedicated her performance of Meat Loaf's "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" to her "Franatics," but Cowell trashed her performance with his most stinging critique of the season to date. "It was the sort of thing I would expect someone to sing at the Hilton hotel with people turning their backs eating peanuts," he said. (It's safe to say he is not a Franatic.)
The Group
Lakoda Rayne, Paula Abdul's sole remaining group, got hammered for what Cowell called their "stupid" and "gimmicky" choreography, and he called the group's performance of the Outfield's "Your Love" mashed up with Fleetwood Mac's "Go Your Own Way" "a complete mess." When Reid called Cowell's critique harsh, Cowell barked, "Watch your back" at Reid. Me-ow, you two!
One finalist is due to be sent home on Thursday's (November 17) show, which is also set to feature a live performance by Rihanna.
What did you think of rock night on "The X Factor"? Let us know in the comments!
Related VideosSource: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1674534/x-factor-recap-josh-krajcik.jhtml
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Eminem, Yelawolf Tackle Race, Drugs In New Interview
'As I was listening to his music, I am not even thinking about any of that,' Eminem tells Vibe about working with Yelawolf.
By Rob Markman
Eminem and Yelawolf on the December 2011 cover of <i>Vibe</i> magazine
Photo: VIBE
Eminem wasn't the first-ever white rapper, but when Slim Shady kicked in hip-hop's doors in 1999, he was still an anomaly. In 2011, Yelawolf doesn't have quite the same difficulty, as the white rapper stigma, for the most part, has subsided. It's a topic that Em and Yela discuss in the December/January issue of Vibe magazine.
In the magazine's cover story, Eminem tells veteran writer Erik Parker that he and Wolf, who Em signed to Shady Records earlier this year, hardly consider race while in the studio. "We make jokes about it, but I don't think we talk about it in depth," he said. "As I was listening to his music, I am not even thinking about any of that sh--. It's just the music. That's one of the things that's great about it. I'm not even thinking about it when I hear the music."
They did make light of it in the studio, however. "We do poke fun of it because it's funny. Like, he calls me White Dog," Yela said.
"Yeah, or Beige Sheep," Em joked.
Growing up in Alabama, Yela learned a lot about race relations, especially as it pertains to hip-hop culture. And while a rapper like Kreayshawn affiliate V-Nasty may feel comfortable dropping the N-word, Wolf insists that that is a no-no. "[In Alabama] we have a dark history concerning the relationship between black and white people. I'm not a role model by any means, but if I said it around the house, I got popped in the mouth," he said.
Eminem insists that race is secondary to music. "We deal with it enough as it is. So now, let's make music," Eminem said.
"Let's make great records. At the end of the day, that's all there is to do," Yela, whose debut album, Radioactive, hits shelves November 21, added.
When the topic of drugs came up, a clean and sober Em joked that he recently shot heroin, making light of a situation that he had previously taken so seriously. That opened the door for Yela to talk about his own experience with narcotics.
"I started smoking weed at 11. By 12, I was smoking dust. Thirteen, acid, Freon, Special K, mushrooms; 16 years old, I was selling X pills at school. Not even because I was a good dope boy, but because I was a scumbag," the tatted-up rapper revealed. "It was called chocolate chip, and it had heroin in it. I used to take that sh-- and go to class. I went so heavy into drugs that I had a bad trip one time that lasted for months."
The December/January issue of Vibe magazine hits newsstands nationwide on December 6.
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1674621/eminem-yelawolf-vibe-cover.jhtml
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Friday, November 18, 2011
AP Impact: Right-to-know laws often ignored (AP)
Satbir Sharma's wife is dead. His family lives in fear in rural India. His father's left leg is shattered, leaving him on crutches for life.
Sharma's only consolation lies in a new law that gives him the right to know what will happen to the local mayor charged with his wife's murder.
He talks quietly, under his breath, because his two young sons still think their mother is sick in the hospital and will come home. He pats a tidy stack of government documents, under the watchful gaze of Hindu gods from pictures on the wall.
"At least," he says sadly, "we have the truth."
___
EDITOR'S NOTE ? More than 100 countries have legislation that ? on paper ? gives citizens the right to know what is happening in their governments. The Associated Press has tested these laws worldwide for the first time. Readers are invited to submit suggestions for future freedom of information requests in any country at http://apne.ws/vgMTQ6.
___
The promise is magnificent: More than 5.3 billion people in more than 100 countries now have the right ? on paper ? to know the truth about what their government is doing behind closed doors. Such laws have spread rapidly over the past decade, and when they work, they present a powerful way to engage citizens and expose corruption.
However, more than half the countries with such laws do not follow them, The Associated Press found in the first worldwide test of this promised freedom of information.
In a single week in January, AP reporters submitted questions about terrorism arrests and convictions, vetted by experts, to the European Union and the 105 countries with right-to-know laws or constitutional provisions. AP also interviewed more than 100 experts worldwide and reviewed hundreds of studies.
Among its findings:
? Only 14 countries answered in full within their legal deadline. Another 38 countries eventually answered most questions.
? Newer democracies were in general more responsive than some developed ones. Guatemala sent all documents in 10 days, and Turkey in seven. By comparison, Canada asked for a 200-day extension, and the FBI in the United States responded six months late with a single sheet with four dates, two words and a large blanked section.
? More than half the countries did not release anything, and three out of 10 did not even acknowledge the request.
? Dozens of countries adopted their laws at least in part because of financial incentives, and so are more likely to ignore or limit them. China changed its laws to join the World Trade Organization in 2001, and later expanded them beyond trade. Pakistan adopted its 2002 ordinance in return for $1.4 billion from the International Monetary Fund. Neither country responded to the AP's test.
"Having a law that's not being obeyed is almost worse than not having a law at all," says Daniel Metcalf, the leading U.S. Freedom of Information authority at the Justice Department for the past 25 years, now a law professor at American University. "The entire credibility of a government is at stake."
___
India is the best example in the world of both the promise and the peril of right-to-know laws. India was one of just 14 countries to respond to the AP in full, within a month, and even gave more than was asked: A state-by-state breakdown.
India passed its right-to-know law in 2005, and last year fielded more than a million requests. Yet dozens of people have been attacked for using the law, and at least 12 killed.
The Sharma family lives in Chandrawal, a quiet farming village. Villagers say the corrupt mayor, Dharamvir Malik, has diverted their drinking water into his own fields, and has adulterated fuel at his gas stations with cheap kerosene.
The Sharmas registered a case with the police saying the mayor was stealing money, using evidence they got through India's right-to-know law. The mayor, livid with rage, filed a case saying they robbed him of $10,000 at gunpoint.
On Feb. 10, the mayor and some supporters drove to the Sharmas' house, the family says. The local officials were drunk and began screaming: "Come out. We'll give you your pensions."
Sharma's wife, Sonu, and his father Jagdish asked them to leave, the family says. The men grabbed Sonu, hit her on the head with an iron bar and ran over her with their minivan, Jagdish says. They also ran over his left leg.
Malik is now in jail, and police did not allow an interview. The family has kept up with the case through right-to-know requests. That was how they found out police were pushing for lesser charges, later overruled by the court.
Now Jagdish lives under 24-hour police guard. He absentmindedly rubs his aching left leg, which has three rods in it.
But his son still says that without the information law, the family would have little hope of justice.
"It's good for getting information so we can fight for our rights," says Satbir Sharma. "It has been a curse for us because of what happened to us personally, but it is a good thing for the common man."
___
Right-to-know laws seem to work better in some new democracies than older ones, the AP test showed, because their governments can adopt what has worked elsewhere.
In Mexico, the AP filed a query through a website and got all the information requested within two months. But in the U.S., the AP had to mail requests to six branches of the Justice and Homeland Security departments. After 10 months, 18 phone calls and 40 letters from the government, the AP ended up with two spreadsheets and a piece of paper with all names blanked out.
Mexico's freedom of information law, passed in 2003, calls for all responses to be public. A record 3,012 requests are filed a week, with 2,460 responses.
With the U.S. law, passed in 1966, each agency has its own in-house freedom of information branch, and responses rarely meet the 20-day deadline. The AP is still waiting on a 10-year-old request to the U.S. State Department for information about a now-defunct Greek terror organization, which a staffer said was pending.
In 2010, U.S. agencies fully released about 55 percent of the information requested, compared with about 85 percent for Mexico. One reason: The U.S. law is older and more awkward.
"It was conceived in an era of paper-based records," says the Justice Department's Melanie Ann Pustay, the nation's highest-ranked FOIA official. "Mexico had the advantage of creating their law when we do have the Internet."
She points out that the U.S. gets more requests, close to 600,000 last year, and has recently reduced backlogs and increased the number of records made public.
In Mexico, the law is giving a voice to ordinary people.
When the tractors first came to La Parota in 2003, the engineers told Marco Antonio Suastegui, a village leader, that they were building a dam. Suastegui did not know what a dam was.
The Mexican government wanted to flood three dozen villages, including Suastegui's, to build a $1 billion dam to generate electricity. But dam opponents, with evidence gathered under the information law, sued the government for not gaining the consent of residents who owned the communal land.
In 2007, a judge stopped the construction.
___
Despite the examples of success, more than half of countries with right-to-know laws ignore them.
Of the 105 countries the AP tested, 54 have yet to provide answers, 35 of those never even acknowledged receiving the request, and six refused to disclose information, citing national security.
African governments led the world for ignoring requests, with no response from 11 out of 15 countries, including Uganda.
Journalist Angelo Izama was the first person to test Uganda's law, passed in 2005. He asked for documents showing who is getting multibillion-dollar contracts to explore the massive oil reserves recently found in his country.
In response to Izama's push, Parliament demanded and got copies of contracts between oil companies and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, but they were confidential. Museveni denied accusations of bribes from oil companies.
"Absolute rubbish," Museveni responded at a news conference. "I have never been given any money by anybody."
Since the case started three years ago, Izama has been arrested three times on increasingly serious charges, including defamation of an inspector general, and sedition and libel for comparing the president to former Filipino strongman Ferdinand Marcos. His request is still pending.
Izama says his phones are tapped, and his email is opened. He constantly looks over his shoulder.
"My aunties and my mother particularly thinks I should let this drop," he says. "It really is dangerous. But I believe freedom of information is the key to unclogging our broken system."
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Dozens of countries passed their right-to-know laws to meet conditions for agreements or funding from donors. But in practice, laws adopted for financial gain do not work as well as those passed through public pressure.
China became a full member of the WTO after promising to establish a system where people could request some public records. The government got about 100,000 requests last year, according to Weibing Xiao, a law professor who blogs about freedom of information in China. Response rates vary widely by office, from zero to 100 percent disclosure.
"I would say the Chinese government currently, while there are some problems, has become more transparent, more open," Xiao says.
However, more than half of city and provincial governments fail open-information requirements, one survey found. Chinese officials told the AP to fax a freedom of information request to find out how to use the freedom of information law. The number, dialed dozens of times, was never answered.
Even when information is available in China, it may not change anything, especially if it gets in the way of economic growth.
Professor Zhao Fengping grew up with six brothers and sisters in the rust-belt northern city of Zhengzhou, in a warren of warehouses converted into homes. But in recent years, Zhengzhou, like many other Chinese cities, has grown at a dizzying pace.
Zhao's mother, a widow in her 80s, lives both in the family home and with her children. Only by chance, on a visit back to the home last year, did Zhao and her mother learn that it was slated for demolition, to make way for an apartment complex.
In records obtained under China's open-government laws, Zhao found lapses and glaring mistakes that should have stopped the project. The approval for the project was two years old and had effectively expired. And the documents had the wrong address, listing an intersection of two streets that don't meet.
Zhao confronted officials at the Demolition and Relocation Office.
"I brought out the map and said, 'Locate this place for me.' They couldn't. I said, 'What can be done?'" recounts Zhao, who teaches public administration at Zhengzhou University. "He said it's not their problem."
She hit the same stonewall at other offices. The wrecking crews came in last November. Zhao's mother lost her home and lives with each of her children in turn.
Zhao says right-to-know laws mean nothing unless people can use the information to change policies and fight for their rights.
"I felt very sad, very hopeless," she says. "I was angry, I was furious, I was exhausted. I ran around in a big circle but didn't accomplish anything."
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The push toward freedom of information continues. This year, seven countries passed right to information laws, and 18 more have such laws under consideration.
Yet there remains a significant gap between what the laws say and what really happens.
"You pass the law, but you have 150 years of bad government practice to turn around, and you can't expect that to happen in a short period," says David Banisar, a lawyer for London-based Article 19, a nonprofit that advocates for freedom of information. "It's about moving the ball more than hitting the home run."
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What government records ? from anywhere in the world ? do you think AP reporters should request? Share your ideas with us on Facebook. We'll see if we can file a FOIA request, and your idea might even point us to a future news story. The same AP Facebook post also offers links to part 1 of AP's Freedom of Information project, exploring the number and nature of terrorism arrests and convictions. You can find it all here: http://apne.ws/vgMTQ6.
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AP staff writers who contributed to this report include: Ravi Nessman from India, Charles Hutzler from China and Adriana Gomez Licon from Mexico.
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