World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk |
- Best pictures of the day - live
- Blackfish, SeaWorld and the backlash against killer whale theme park shows
- Hey Twitter and Facebook, once upon a time newspapers were 'social media'
- Barack Obama and David Cameron pose for selfie with Danish PM
- US budget deal brings relief to markets; Lloyds fined over bonuses - business live
- Why Obama's memorial selfie was not a mark of disrespect
- SA and Victoria will be offered recovery package to ease shock of Holden loss
- #Barf – how Twitter can reduce the spread of norovirus
- Nelson Mandela's coffin arrives at Union Buildings, Pretoria - video
- Gay asylum seekers told they could be reported to PNG police, Amnesty says
- Now is the time to defeat dementia | Meera Syal
- Ukraine protests and police crackdown - in pictures
- India's supreme court upholds ban on gay sex
- Stolen radioactive material found in Mexico cornfield
- Fog causes delays and cancellations at Heathrow and London City airports
- Navy launches inquiry into culture following bastardisation claims
- Threat to 4200 more car jobs as Toyota warns it may close Victorian plant
- Ukraine: riot police's surprise attack on Kiev protest - video
- Antonio Banderas eyed for Pope Francis biopic
- Holden to depart Australia in 2017 - as it happened
- 'Dementia is not inevitable. It is a disease that needs tackling' | Jeremy Hughes
- Clive Palmer reveals assets: companies, collectibles, planes, boats, motorbikes
- Somali woman denied visa for surgery on face shattered by bullet
- Gifts for Tony Abbott roll in, but the lavish ones are strictly off-limits
- Catholic archbishop says senior clergy were 'like rabbits caught in a headlight'
| Best pictures of the day - live Posted: 11 Dec 2013 02:01 AM PST The Guardian's photo team brings you a daily round up from the world of photography       |
| Blackfish, SeaWorld and the backlash against killer whale theme park shows Posted: 11 Dec 2013 02:00 AM PST  Willie Nelson is just one of the artists rushing to cancel gigs at SeaWorld after seeing Blackfish, the documentary about killer whales who have attacked their trainers. Heart are an unlikely bunch of revolutionaries. But the American soft rockers' decision to cancel a concert at SeaWorld in Florida may mark a turning point in the relationship between humans and one of the most magnificent mammals of the ocean. The band this week joined Willie Nelson and Barenaked Ladies in cancelling shows at the Orlando theme park because they had watched Blackfish, a film about Tilikum, a five-tonne male orca that has been involved in the deaths of three people. This modest yet riveting documentary has made ever-bigger ripples across the pond since its premiere at Sundance earlier this year, with an audience of 20 million recently watching it on CNN. It is now on the Oscar longlist. Tilikum's plight – enduring violence from other captive whales and forced to entertain crowds in return for fish ever since he was captured in the wild in 1983 – is vividly depicted by former trainers. The film's conclusion is inescapable: we have no business keeping such large, intelligent mammals in such crippling confinement. We too might get a little psychotic, it suggests, if we were imprisoned in a bath for 30 years. Blackfish, a Native American term for the orca or killer whale (actually a member of the dolphin family), began with an innocuous premise: Gabriela Cowperthwaite, the director, wanted to examine how people relate to large predators. As Cowperthwaite, who lives in California, stresses, she is not an animal rights activist and did not intend to make a controversial film. "I couldn't have been more naive about the situation in SeaWorld," she says. She regularly took her twin boys there as a treat. "I'd see hundreds of children smiling and think, 'How can something that makes people so happy be such a bad thing?' All of us are complicit, starting with myself." SeaWorld is the slickest of what Cowperthwaite now views as aquatic circuses. The company owns 12 US theme parks and its shtick – orcas leaping to lights and music alongside their trainers – may make many adults cringe, particularly in Britain, where there are no dolphins in captivity. But in the US, more than 11 million people visit a SeaWorld each year. When Cowperthwaite read news stories about the death of Dawn Brancheau, an experienced trainer killed while performing with Tilikum in 2010, she was stunned by a barely reported fact: Tilikum had been involved in two earlier deaths. "This story was hiding in plain sight. Once you learn the truth, it becomes your mission to tell it. The facts are so indisputable. This is an industry that has operated untouched for 40 years and it governs itself. There's no true oversight of places like SeaWorld." Blackfish has belatedly provided a window into the aquarium. The story of Tilikum's life – and Brancheau's death – begins with traumatic footage of orcas being captured in the wild to establish parks such as SeaWorld Orlando, founded in 1965. Although wild capture was outlawed in the US in 1972, orcas continued to be seized in foreign waters: Tilikum was caught, aged two, off Iceland in 1983. His early life was spent in a cramped Canadian park. When part-time trainer Keltie Byrne slipped into the pool containing Tilikum and two female orcas in 1991, she was killed. The park was closed and "Tilly" was snapped up by SeaWorld, eager to buy a new male for breeding. Tilly's life performing (and providing sperm for the creation of 21 other captive orcas) is poignantly recalled by trainers who mostly started working at SeaWorld as idealistic, animal-loving teenagers in the 1990s. John Jett, who now teaches environmental science at university, spent four years there in the 1990s. "He has no life," he says of Tilly. "He gets beat up and he floats like a slob all day – attacked by mosquitoes by night and sunburnt by day." In the wild, orcas swim 100 miles in a day; here, they live in relatively tiny pools. Individuals from different social groups are thrown together and fight badly, raking each other with their teeth. In small pools, there is no escape from the fighting and, as a big male, Tilly was continually attacked by naturally dominant females. Blackfish is not a balanced film, and its ending, implying we should watch whales in the wild instead, is problematic, since too many whale-watching boats have a negative impact on cetacean welfare. But Blackfish is chiefly unbalanced by SeaWorld's decision to refuse Cowperthwaite's repeated interview requests. While big corporations' standard strategy is generally to lie low (McDonald's didn't aggressively confront Morgan Spurlock over Super Size Me, for instance), SeaWorld called Blackfish "shamefully dishonest, deliberately misleading, and scientifically inaccurate" after its release, and accused the film-makers of exploiting the "tragedy" of Brancheau's death. In a detailed rebuttal to film critics, SeaWorld argued that Blackfish wrongly asserted that captive orcas were "bullied", when fighting was natural in the wild; incorrectly portrayed SeaWorld "callously" breaking up orca families, when it tried to keep groups together; and inaccurately implied SeaWorld used punishment-based training when it only "reinforced" the "natural range of behaviours" of orcas. Most fundamentally, SeaWorld disputed the claim that Tilikum killed after being "driven crazy by his years in captivity" and argued that "all the evidence" suggested the orca was interested in Brancheau's ponytail, grabbing it and pulling her into the water where she drowned. There is, however, credible evidence contradicting claims that Brancheau was pulled into the water by her ponytail. Former trainers view SeaWorld's theory as an attempt to attribute her death to "trainer error". After a lengthy court battle, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined SeaWorld for a "serious" violation of employee safety and banned it from putting trainers in the water with orcas, a ruling SeaWorld is appealing. The marine park might be correct to say that Blackfish exaggerates the life expectancy of wild orcas versus those in captivity, but most of its rebuttals have been easily countered by the film-makers. It is indisputable that captive orcas have nowhere to escape aggression and that distressed calves are separated from their family groups. And how is it "natural" for an orca to leap out of the water to touch objects in the air, or let a human "surf" on its back? I have more luck than Cowperthwaite in getting a response from SeaWorld. Fred Jacobs, vice-president of communications, tells me the company is unshaken by the growing musical boycott. "This appears to be an orchestrated campaign by animal rights extremists and does not reflect the reality of SeaWorld as a zoological institution, or the true nature of public opinion of marine mammal display," he says. Why does SeaWorld keep orcas in captivity? "For the same reason any zoo or aquarium displays any animal," he says. "Because it serves an invaluable educational purpose, and provides experiences that build not only awareness and appreciation for animals, but a passion to conserve them." Nevertheless, it is still difficult to avoid the conclusion of most experts and many trainers: orcas are profoundly ill-suited to life in a tank. "Of all the places to keep killer whales in captivity," says Jett, "SeaWorld is the best – that's a pretty sad statement. Some animals can adapt to life in a captive environment, but killer whales are clearly not one of them. We can't come close to duplicating their life in the wild." For all the outrage over Blackfish, it is business as usual at SeaWorld. After some aggressive ticket discounting, its profits in the third quarter of 2013 soared to $120m. Jett and Cowperthwaite are convinced, however, that public opinion is shifting. "I never tell people not to go to SeaWorld," says the director. "I just hope if you get anything from the film, you understand what you are seeing when an animal performs for you. Just because it's magnificent and beautiful doesn't mean it's ours." Will Travers, of the charity Born Free, believes Blackfish will fundamentally "change public attitudes" towards orcas in the way that the 1966 film Born Free did with lions. Where musicians lead, advertisers – and the stock market – may follow. But Travers thinks it may take two decades to ban orcas in captivity: he campaigned against wild animals in circuses 19 years ago and only now is the British parliament legislating against the practice. Former SeaWorld employees don't believe it will ever voluntarily hand over its orcas. Does SeaWorld have any plans to stop keeping these creatures in captivity? "No," says Jacobs. "In fact, a baby whale was just born in our park in San Antonio." theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds       |
| Hey Twitter and Facebook, once upon a time newspapers were 'social media' Posted: 11 Dec 2013 01:48 AM PST  Centuries before Twitter, Facebook and the enthusiasm for hyperlocal journalism, social media was enjoying popularity in a British colony across the Atlantic. And the bearers of this media revolution were, of course, newspapers. Tom Standage, digital editor of The Economist, points out in a Medium post that one of the United States' founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, played a part in social media's history. He tells of Franklin's media beginnings, aged 16, in a series of letters - written under the pseudonym of a widow named Silence Dogood - and published in a Boston paper edited by his brother, the New England Courant. Standage comments:
In 1729, Franklin launched his own paper in Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Gazette, and later became Philadelphia's postmaster. Twenty-four years on, he was made deputy postmaster general for the American colonies. In this role, writes Standage, Franklin allowed free exchange by post of newspapers both within and between colonies, contributing "to the dynamism, vitality and unity of the American colonies' emerging information ecosystem. "It allowed noteworthy letters and pamphlets to reach a wide audience as they were printed in one newspaper and then copied and reprinted by others. "By the 1760s the colonial newspaper network had developed into a powerful, open and social platform for rehearsing arguments, propagating ideas and exchanging opinions." Standage concludes: "Sorry, Facebook and Twitter — but Benjamin Franklin got there first." Standage goes much further back in time here on his blog and in his book, Writing on the wall: social media — the first 2,000 Years (reviewed here by The Guardian's David Shariatmadari). Source: Medium theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds  |
| Barack Obama and David Cameron pose for selfie with Danish PM Posted: 11 Dec 2013 01:48 AM PST  Helle Thorning-Schmidt poses with UK PM and US president for 'selfie' at the Johannesburg memorial service for Nelson Mandela No matter how famous you are, it appears, few can resist the appeal of the selfie. As Barack Obama and David Cameron joined tens of thousands of South Africans paying their respects to Nelson Mandela at a memorial service in Johannesburg, they took advantage of the unusual number of dignitaries gathered in one place to pose for a self-portrait with Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the Danish prime minister (and daughter-in-law of Neil Kinnock). Ignoring the etiquette tips that have proliferated online since 'selfie' was declared Oxford Dictionaries' word of the year, the three world leaders appeared to momentarily forget the solemnity of the occasion, adopting the mandatory cheesy grins. Michelle Obama maintained her dignity and refused to join in the antics. The US president and the Danish leader were photographed laughing and chatting during the ceremony, while the US first lady looked on apparently unimpressed. "While I will always fall short of Madiba's example, he makes me want to be a better man. He speaks to what is best inside us," Obama said when he addressed the gathering – and at times his wife appeared to agree. But Michelle was also caught in conversation with Thorning-Schmidt herself, confounding those always eager to comment on the first marriage. The Cameron-Obama-Thorning-Schmidt selfie soon went viral online, leading to a backlash from some who felt it was inappropriate behaviour for a funeral. But many remarked that the world leaders were simply joining in the South African spirit of celebrating, rather than mourning, Mandela. "Lighten up people, it was a celebration of life," tweeted @s_phire. "From everything I've read about Mandela this week, sounds like he'd have found the Obama selfie / Michelle Twitter gags pretty funny," tweeted Sam Parker. theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds  |
| US budget deal brings relief to markets; Lloyds fined over bonuses - business live Posted: 11 Dec 2013 01:46 AM PST Breakthrough in Washington between Democrats and Republicans could end the damaging cycle of "crisis-driven decision making" and avoid another shutdown next year       |
| Why Obama's memorial selfie was not a mark of disrespect Posted: 11 Dec 2013 01:39 AM PST  Outrage over the US president having a laugh with Cameron and the Danish PM at Mandela service misses the point David Cameron, Barack Obama and the Danish prime minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, might have been caught out being less than graceless at Nelson Mandela's memorial service by taking selfies, but at least they got one bit of etiquette right. They didn't arrive at the service after the deceased. At the funeral of a friend of mine, I turned round to watch the coffin being brought into the church only to spot my therapist scuttling in behind it. My psychological wellbeing has been greatly improved ever since. You could argue that world leaders have a duty to be statesmanlike at memorials and that hatchet-faced solemnity is the order of the day. You might even wonder how much any of them really cared that Mandela had died. Most of them would probably only have met him a couple of times at most and in the ordinary run of events you don't go to memorials of people you've only met twice. But world leaders have to do what world leaders have to do. And if it means jetting halfway across the world, both to represent your country and to show you are important enough to be invited, then needs must. Getting censorious about Obama, Cameron and Thorning-Schmidt having a laugh is to miss the point. If they had laughed the whole way through the service, then it would have been a misjudgment. But they didn't. They were serious when required, which is the way it should be. A memorial is a sad time, but it's also a time to remember the fun bits of the dead person's life. Irreverence is not the same as disrespect. I'm not sure that Mandela would have taken a selfie at Obama's memorial if the positions had been reversed, but I'm fairly sure he would have seen the funny side of Obama posing at his. A memorial should celebrate and reflect the life of the deceased. Remember Margaret Thatcher's funeral earlier this year? Everyone at St Paul's Cathedral behaved with the utmost solemnity. But was there ever a more joyless, souless service? Thatcher left this world into a public emotional void. Compared with that, Obama's selfiecould almost be construed as an act of love. theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds  |
| SA and Victoria will be offered recovery package to ease shock of Holden loss Posted: 11 Dec 2013 01:33 AM PST Tony Abbott says measures will be announced in coming days, while Labor accuses Coalition of 'sabotaging' car industry  |
| #Barf – how Twitter can reduce the spread of norovirus Posted: 11 Dec 2013 01:30 AM PST  The Food Standards Agency is using social media to predict outbreaks of winter vomiting bug earlier than lab reports can
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has embarked on a social media listening project that, it hopes, has the potential to predict outbreaks of the winter vomiting bug, norovirus, earlier than ever before. FSA's social media team sifted through Twitter data from the last norovirus outbreak during the winter of 2012-13, hunting for spikes in certain related key words and phrases being used in tweets. They then compared the frequency of the key words to the number of lab reports of confirmed norovirus cases in the same period. They found significant correlations between spikes in the number of lab reports and spikes in conversations on Twitter using words and hashtags such as #winterbug, #norovirus, sickness bug, winter virus and vomiting. What's more, they discovered a set of symptom keywords, such as #barf, #flu, chuck up, puke, retch and upset stomach, which strongly correlated to future lab cases. "We found that the changes in the number of tweets using symptom keywords predicted the increase in lab reports at the start of the annual peak in human cases," said James Baker, FSA social media manager. In some cases, spikes in the key words were being shared up to four weeks earlier than Public Health England released confirmed lab reports. The FSA is currently testing how Twitter monitoring can provide early alerts to norovirus. The agency will also be looking into other areas where social media can help public bodies in similar ways. "There's the potential for us to idenitfy outbreaks of norovirus much earlier than before, giving us the opportunity to proactively share our advice and guidance with those who might be affected, alert other government departments and industry, and perhaps even help to reduce its spread," said Baker. Tweets describing the colour and consistency of your #barf may be gross, but they helped inform the FSA project which, once it has refined its monitoring model, could prevent tweets like this one: Of course, there are caveats on how trustworthy the data can be, said Baker. People self-diagnose. Symptom keywords and search terms are broad so "there's always going to be a bit of noise". And early warnings of an outbreak will increase chatter around the subject and might skew the data. "But what we'd hope is that as this online chatter increases, the subsequent number of cases would plateau or decrease because of an earlier intervention," Baker said. The FSA also found strong correlation between search terms on Google with lab reports – but during and after an increase in norovirus outbreaks had been reported rather than beforehand. Google trends were not as good as Twitter as an early alert system, said Baker. Perhaps because people tweet out their feelings, but use search engines to find out more about something already being experienced by friends and family and reported by the media. So, give thanks to the public-spirited souls who feel the need to spew out details about their spewing on social media – such sharing may serve the greater good. • Want your say? Email us at public.leaders@theguardian.com. To get our articles on policy and leadership direct to your inbox, sign up to the Guardian Public Leaders Network now. Looking for your next role? See our Guardian jobs site for senior executive jobs in government and politics. • For the latest on public services leadership, follow us: @Guardianpublic theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds  |
| Nelson Mandela's coffin arrives at Union Buildings, Pretoria - video Posted: 11 Dec 2013 01:25 AM PST Nelson Mandela's body goes on procession through Pretoria, South Africa, on Wednesday morning  |
| Gay asylum seekers told they could be reported to PNG police, Amnesty says Posted: 11 Dec 2013 01:18 AM PST Immigration official on Manus reportedly said police would automatically be informed of any gay sexual relations  |
| Now is the time to defeat dementia | Meera Syal Posted: 11 Dec 2013 01:08 AM PST  My own family was affected by dementia. Let the G8 summit on the condition mark a turning point in tackling a global crisis Every worthy cause has a statistic that is designed to shock you into action. For dementia, it is that one in three people over 65 will develop it. Of course, we tend to brush aside such things and hope that we will be part of the unaffected majority. For me, that changed when one of my close family members was diagnosed with the condition. Once that happens, you don't need the statistics any more. It takes over your life. For those who live with the condition and for those who will develop it in the coming years, today has the potential to be life-changing. In London, Jeremy Hunt and seven other health ministers from the G8 will gather to discuss a global response to the growing crisis of dementia. It will be the first time that a prime minister has used the presidency of the G8 to take action on a single condition. We know the impact that a global commitment to tackling a major health challenge can make – we need only look at the progress made towards tackling cancer and HIV and Aids. Now is dementia's time. Research will be top of the agenda thanks to a huge lack of large-scale clinical trials – not just in the UK but around the world. Today, hayfever is being more intensely researched than some of dementia's most common forms. There have been no new treatments for dementia in the past 10 years and those that are available do little to slow the progression for most people. Some things have certainly improved for people with the condition. No longer are people condemned as "mad" or "senile". But in many communities, people are still afraid to speak out about dementia because of the stigma associated with the condition. There is still so much to be done. England will soon need a renewed National Dementia Strategy, so that plans to tackle dementia can continue to move forward. More research into how we can help people to live in their own homes for longer and how we can improve life in care homes is needed. We need to make high streets, hospitals and public transport more dementia friendly. We need to discover new ways of helping people to share experiences and to communicate – such as the singing groups and "dementia cafes" run by a charity I support – Alzheimer's Society. We need to destroy the stigma that surrounds dementia in some Asian communities. We need to find better ways of managing difficult behaviour that don't involve antipsychotic drugs. We need a cure. After the talking at the G8, the UK government needs to come up with a long-term plan for dementia. The G8 summit is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to advance a global commitment to defeating dementia. World leaders must commit to meaningful, shared steps to drive forward dementia research. There is no place for political posturing and empty rhetoric. A global action plan, underpinned by a significant increase in funding for research must be the tangible outcome of this summit. You'll agree when it affects someone you love. theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds  |
| Ukraine protests and police crackdown - in pictures Posted: 11 Dec 2013 01:06 AM PST Thousands of riot police carried out a co-ordinated attack on barricades in Kiev during the night  |
| India's supreme court upholds ban on gay sex Posted: 11 Dec 2013 12:48 AM PST  Rights campaigners say decision to overturn 2009 ruling on colonial-era law takes country back to the dark ages India's supreme court has thrown out a 2009 ruling by a lower court that had decriminalised gay sex in a huge setback for gay rights in the world's largest democracy. The top court stated that only India's parliament could change the law, by deleting a section of the penal code dating back to the 19th century, thus ruling that the Delhi high court had overstepped its powers with its decision four years ago. The move shocked gay rights activists, who had expected the court to rubber-stamp the earlier ruling. In recent years, India's supreme court has made progressive rulings on several rights issues. "We see this as a betrayal of the very people the court is meant to defend and protect," said Arvind Narayan, one of the lawyers representing the consortium of gay rights groups that was defending the 2009 judgment. "In our understanding, the supreme court has always sided with those who have no rights." Section 377 of India's penal code bans "sex against the order of nature", which is widely interpreted to mean homosexual sex, and can be punished with up to 10 years in jail. The rule dates back to the days of British colonial rule in India. "One would never expect the supreme court of India to make such a retrograde order, that is so against the trend internationally," said rights lawyer Colin Gonsalves. "This takes us back to the dark ages. This is a day of mourning for us in India." India's law minister, Kapil Sibal, said he could not comment on the judgment and did not say if the government planned to seek an amendment to the law. But it seems unlikely the government will risk taking a stand on the issue in the short term. General elections are coming up in May in largely socially conservative India, and the Hindu nationalist opposition is already gathering momentum. The 2009 ruling to exempt gay sex between consenting adults from the ban was the result of a case brought by the Naz Foundation, an Indian sexual rights organisation, which fought a legal battle for almost a decade. After the Delhi high court ruling in its favour, a collective of mostly faith-based groups took an appeal to the supreme court. "All the major communities of the country – the Hindus, the Christians and the Muslims – had appealed against the ruling of the Delhi high court," a lawyer for a Muslim charity told reporters. "They had said that this unnatural sex is not permissible in all the religions of the world." There could be an appeal against Thursday's decision through a "curative petition", which would be heard by a panel of five judges. "The supreme court's ruling is a disappointing setback to human dignity and the basic rights to privacy and non-discrimination. But now the government should do what it should have done in the first place and seek to repeal section 377," Meenakshi Ganguly, the South Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said. "Now it should join countries like Australia and New Zealand that have already abolished this colonial law that they too inherited and take the lead in ending such discrimination." In an apparent protest against the ruling, suspected hackers posted the phrase "supremecourt is so gay" on Pepsi India's Twitter account on Wednesday. The post was deleted and Pepsi India said its account had been "compromised". theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds  |
| Stolen radioactive material found in Mexico cornfield Posted: 11 Dec 2013 12:47 AM PST  Farmer treated for radiation exposure after handling cobalt-60 from obsolete medical equipment dumped by truck thieves A shipment of highly radioactive cobalt-60 has been safely recovered after sitting in the cornfield where it was found a week ago dumped by thieves in central Mexico, according to the country's nuclear safety director. Juan Eibenschutz, the director general of the National Commission of Nuclear Safety and Safeguards, said a robot was used to scoop up the dangerous material and deposit it in a safe container for transporting to a nuclear waste treatment facility. "It's been recovered, and it's on its way to the waste site," he said. Earlier on Tuesday, Eibenschutz had said the cobalt-60 was still in the field because emergency workers had not been able to get the robot close enough due to bales of corn stalks in the field. "Things turned out well," he said a few hours later. "The operators of the robot prepared everything and were able to secure the material." A federal police force statement added that 100 federal police, marines and local officers were still guarding the area. Eibenschutz said a farmer was being checked at a hospital after showing signs of radiation exposure. The man, who lives in the nearby farming town of Hueypoxtla, told authorities he handled the material after finding it in the field and started feeling sick soon afterwards. The cobalt-60, which came from obsolete medical equipment used in radiation therapy, was being transported to a waste facility by a truck that was stolen at gunpoint on 2 December when the driver stopped to rest at a petrol station in Hidalgo state. Two days later, authorities found the truck abandoned in neighbouring Mexico state. The thieves had removed the cobalt-60 from its protective container and left it in the field about half a mile (1km) from Hueypoxtla, a town of about 4,000 people. On Monday, a federal judge ordered five people to be held for 40 days under house arrest pending possible charges. theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds  |
| Fog causes delays and cancellations at Heathrow and London City airports Posted: 11 Dec 2013 12:42 AM PST  Dozens of Flights disrupted as visibility is expected to drop below 50 metres in places Fog has swept over the south-east of England, causing delays and cancellations at Heathrow and London City airports. A spokeswoman for Heathrow said 40 incoming and outgoing flights had been cancelled on Wednesday morning, and others had been delayed. The Met Office warned the public of travel disruption, with visibility expected to drop to lower than 50 metres in places. BA urged customers to check its website for updates throughout the morning. At London City airport nearly every early-morning service was either delayed or cancelled. Among the services that were axed were BA flights to Zurich, Glasgow and Dusseldorf. A spokesperson for London City said: "Due to low visibility this morning flights to/from the airport are experiencing disruptions. Passengers are advised to call their airlines for more information." Wightlink Ferries, which operates routes between Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, has also reported delays. Lara Gunn, a forecaster at MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association, said: "A dense fog is hanging over the south-east and up towards the Midlands and is expected to linger throughout the morning. "Visibility will be quite poor in some areas and so travellers should take caution." According to the Met Office, the forecast for London and the south-east once the fog lifts is, "largely dry with broken cloud and sunny spells developing. Light or moderate southerly winds. Feeling chilly where fog lingers. Maximum temperature 11C". Wednesday's flight problems follow last Saturday's major disruption at all airports after difficulties at the Hampshire headquarters of air traffic control company Nats. On Tuesday, an accident involving a landing aircraft at Stansted meant no planes were able to land at the Essex airport for about three hours. theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds  |
| Navy launches inquiry into culture following bastardisation claims Posted: 11 Dec 2013 12:39 AM PST Reports claim sailors on board HMAS Ballarat were anally penetrated with objects as part of an initiation ritual  |
| Threat to 4200 more car jobs as Toyota warns it may close Victorian plant Posted: 11 Dec 2013 12:21 AM PST Japanese car giant says there is 'unprecedented pressure on the local supplier network and our ability to build cars in Australia'       |
| Ukraine: riot police's surprise attack on Kiev protest - video Posted: 11 Dec 2013 12:05 AM PST Hundreds of riot police wielding shields descend on the centre of Kiev on Wednesday morning, where protesters have been camped out for days       |
| Antonio Banderas eyed for Pope Francis biopic Posted: 11 Dec 2013 12:03 AM PST  Wildly successful Italian producer Pietro Valsecchi says he's eager for Antonio Banderas to star in biopic about the pontiff's younger years Antonio Banderas is being tapped by one of Italy's most successful film producers to star as a young Pope Francis in a new biopic. Pietro Valsecchi, the man behind popular comedies Sun in Buckets (Sole a catinelle) from this year and What a Beautiful Day (Che bella giornata) from 2011, broke the news in a television interview. The proposed film would most likely debut on the small screen in Italy. Valsecchi's popular films, which star musician and standup comic Checco Zalone and are often directed by Gennaro Nunziante, are lowbrow comedies. But the producer certainly has the financial clout to get the biopic made, with his last two movies currently standing as the highest grossing films of all time in Italy, ahead of Roberto Benigni's 1997 Oscar winner Life is Beautiful. There were no further details about the proposed biopic and Banderas has not yet make any public comment on the film, which is one of a number of Pope-themed movies in the pipeline. Ridley Scott's The Vatican will reportedly star Bruno Ganz as an unspecified pontiff, while Argentina's Alejandro Agresti plans to cast Rodrigo de la Serna, best known for his award-winning role as Che Guevara's travelling companion Alberto Granado in The Motorcycle Diaries, as the world's first Argentine pope. The film, titled Historia de un cura (A Priest's Tale) will tell the story of the man born Jorge Mario Bergoglio from his youth to his election as head of the Roman Catholic Church. Born in 1936 as the grandson of Italian immigrant parents in Buenos Aires, Francis became the first pontiff from the southern hemisphere and the first of Jesuit origin earlier this year, as well as the first from any Latin American nation. theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds       |
| Holden to depart Australia in 2017 - as it happened Posted: 11 Dec 2013 12:01 AM PST MPs enter the final stretch of the parliamentary sitting for 2013       |
| 'Dementia is not inevitable. It is a disease that needs tackling' | Jeremy Hughes Posted: 11 Dec 2013 12:00 AM PST  G8 leaders should seize this opportunity to forge a global action plan and fund research to transform dementia care now We've heard it heralded as a "time bomb", "epidemic", and "our greatest health challenge yet". The truth is that dementia will soon touch every family in the land. Around 800,000 people in the UK are facing a condition that slowly robs them of their ability to remember, speak and connect with their loved ones. One in three people over 65 will develop dementia in their lifetime. But I write this not with the aim to frighten with alarmist statistics – but instead to convey the scale of the opportunity in front of us, as leaders from the G8 nations gather together today in London to tackle dementia on a global scale. Never before has a prime minister used the presidency of the G8 to take action on a single disease. The G8 nations led the "war on cancer" and the co-ordinated response to HIV and AIDs, both of which resulted in pioneering new treatments and a better understanding of the diseases. With no cure for dementia and the few treatments that do exist having limited value, sustained investment in research is badly needed. By the end of today, it is my hope that world leaders will have committed to meaningful, shared steps to drive forward dementia research. A global action plan, underpinned by a significant increase in funding for research, must be the tangible outcome of this summit. Years of underfunding have led to a relatively small workforce of researchers, clinicians and care professionals with expertise in dementia. Governments need to ensure we have the right infrastructure and attractive career paths to draw, and retain, talented individuals to the field. This will be vital to increasing the number, and quality, of clinical trials. There are currently more trials ongoing into hay fever than into some of the most common forms of dementia including Alzheimer's disease. For the people with dementia, there is inadequate research into care interventions. With 80% of people living in care homes having either dementia or severe memory problems, we need to be able to provide care homes with research-based guidance on the best forms of support for their vulnerable residents. We want to see all researchers follow the lead set by the Alzheimer's Society of involving people with dementia, and their carers, in selecting research priorities. They, after all, know what it is like to live with dementia 24/7. I'm often asked: "Do you think you'll see a cure for dementia in your lifetime?" This is impossible to answer with any certainty. But if dementia research isn't made a priority now, one million people in the UK will develop this condition in the next 10 years. It is not an inevitable part of the ageing process. It is a disease that needs tackling as much as cancer. I've heard it said before that one of the hardest things about getting a diagnosis of dementia is that there are so few treatments for the condition. I long to see a day when people can say "I defeated dementia" in the same way that hundreds of thousands of people battle and overcome cancer every year. So, if I could say one thing to the leaders of the G8 nations it would be this: now is the time for concerted and sustained action on dementia. A strategic, global approach is vital if we are to find a means of prevention and effective treatment to improve the lives of those living with dementia today and in the years to come. theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds  |
| Clive Palmer reveals assets: companies, collectibles, planes, boats, motorbikes Posted: 10 Dec 2013 11:57 PM PST Prosperous politician lists shares in 33 private companies and possible conflicts of interest in his role as a 'national treasure'  |
| Somali woman denied visa for surgery on face shattered by bullet Posted: 10 Dec 2013 11:39 PM PST Brisbane's Wesley hospital offered Ayaan Mohamed, 25, treatment for face shattered by bullet, but she was refused a visa       |
| Gifts for Tony Abbott roll in, but the lavish ones are strictly off-limits Posted: 10 Dec 2013 11:27 PM PST The pecuniary interests register is there to keep the bastards honest, as Don Chipp might have said  |
| Catholic archbishop says senior clergy were 'like rabbits caught in a headlight' Posted: 10 Dec 2013 11:22 PM PST Towards Healing, rolled out in 1996, placed too much trust in lawyers and insurers, Mark Coleridge tells inquiry  |
| You are subscribed to email updates from World news and comment from the Guardian | theguardian.com To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
Posting Komentar