Tuesday 25 May 2010

Heinz blasted over outrageous claims in infant formula ads

NaturalNews: The H.J. Heinz company, most famous for producing Heinz brand ketchup, has been reprimanded by the United Kingdom's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) over an ad for its Nurture-brand infant formula.

According to the ASA, Heinz made "unsubstantiated" and "unacceptable" claims that its product could support the growth of infant brains, bodies and immune systems. More...

Europes CIA, the birth of?

fromFraser



Check out the other links and video at Fraser's blog!!

Red Cross gives first aid lessons to Taliban

Guardian: The Red Cross in Afghanistan has been teaching the Taliban basic first aid and giving insurgents medical equipment so that fighters wounded during battles with Nato and Afghan government forces can be treated in the field, it was revealed today.

More than 70 members of the "armed opposition" received training in April, the Red Cross said, in a move likely to anger the government of Hamid Karzai, which is losing large numbers of police and soldiers in insurgent attacks. More...

Polly Toynbee: How can she attack free schools when she educated her own children privately?

Telegraph Blogs: I must be doing something right. In her column in today’s Guardian, Polly Toynbee takes a swipe at me in the course of attacking the coalition’s educational reforms. “Forget the things the chattering classes never knew about,” she says, referring to George Osborne’s decision to axe the Every Chid a Reader and Every Child Counts schemes, “and focus on parents creating their own little schools to suit their foibles or their faiths or the Toby Young school of ethics or whatever.” More...

Uncovered BP Memo Shows How Company Placed A Pricetag On Human Lifet

Business Insider: A memo discovered by The Daily Beast shows that BP blithely chose cost over safety for workers.

The memo, which was sent in 2002, describes plant construction in terms of the Three Little Pigs fable. BP concluded that a brick home presented a better cost-value ratio than a blast resistant home.

A BP spokesperson said to The Daily Beast that the company has "fundamentally changed the culture of BP" since a rig explosion in 2005. More...

Former Labour minister becomes advisor to oil company

UK News Network: The former Africa Minister who has also held the role of deputy secretary-general of the UN, Lord Malloch-Brown, has taken up a role as advisor to an Ethiopian oil company.

He will be paid in shares for his latest role at the Ethiopian firm rather than a flat salary for his role at Southwest Energy.

More to come.

Police clothed in cameras

Big Brother Watch: As reported today by STV today, 18 police officers in Aberdeen are to wear small CCTV cameras mounted on their shoulders from next month:

Chief Inspector Nick Topping said potential offenders are more likely to behave if they know they are being filmed.

“Not only will they provide potentially crucial evidence, they will be a deterrent and make it less likely that offenders will deny their involvement in crime”, he said.

More CCTV and more surveillance. If someone is guilty they should be proven guilty by their actions, not by covert camera recording. More...

Fresh plea to resolve BA dispute

Union leaders have issued a fresh plea to resolve the bitter British Airways cabin crew dispute after claiming that a series of strikes had now cost the airline £63 million.

Tony Woodley, joint leader of Unite, also warned that BA will lose business when passengers "look elsewhere" for flights during the peak summer period.

Union members were on strike for the second day of a five-day walkout, claiming the action was being strongly supported, with shorthaul and longhaul flights being grounded.

BA countered that it had more crew than it needed to operate its contingency schedule and as a result was adding flights.

  More.....

Council cleared over caving death

A local authority has been found not guilty of breaching health and safety laws after a 14-year-old schoolboy died on a caving trip.

Joe Lister drowned when water swept through Manchester Hole Cave in the Yorkshire Dales during a school trip in November 2005.

North Yorkshire County Council, which owns and operates the outdoor education centre involved in the trip, has been cleared of two charges of failing to ensure the health and safety of its staff and others. A jury at Leeds Crown Court took around nine hours to reach the not guilty verdicts.

 

Common sense at last from the Judiciary.

Read the full article here

Hundreds of children sent home as travellers set up camp in a school's playing field

Daily Mail: A group of travellers has set up camp with 30 caravans in a school's playing field, forcing hundreds of children to stay at home.

Education bosses immediately set up an exclusion zone at Smithills School, Bolton, after the extraordinary convoy moved in on Sunday evening.

Around 300 Year 8 pupils have been told to work from home because their classrooms are next to the playing fields and it was feared the travellers' presence could cause disruption to classes. More...

Forces battle wanted leader's gang

dudas

 

Jamaican police say at least 26 civilians and four members of the security forces have died as police and soldiers battle defenders of a powerful Jamaican gang leader sought by the US.

Thousands of heavily armed forces are raiding the capital's most violent down town slums in a hunt for underworld boss Christopher Coke, known as "Dudus."

 

More.....

Domestic violence offenders warned

Hundreds of men suspected of beating their wives and girlfriends have been told their "card is marked" in the run up to the World Cup.

Senior police officers are bracing themselves for an increase in reports of domestic abuse during the month-long football tournament.

Research has shown major sporting events, mainly involving rugby and football, are linked to a rise in violence.

  More......

Apologies

Apologies to regular readers for lack of posts. This is due to circumstances beyond my control as I'm having severe personal difficulties and ongoing disasters that for the moment require my full attention. Is there anybody else out there that will be willing to share the burden of searching and posting news? please email if you can help. Hopefully I will have resolved these problems by early next week and can resume posting, but there is a possiblity that I may be soon be enjoying a 3 month respite from posting at her majesties pleasure. That's life. If I'm not posting it's not because I don't want to it's because I'm unable. Best Wishes
ukws

Some Things Money Can't Buy

Subrosa: Today was the State Opening of Parliament which all elected MPs should attend. Yet there was one very obvious absentee.

Gordon Brown is the MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath yet he was nowhere to be seen. I'm informed he's been out and about in Fife so why couldn't he not represent the people who elected him at this traditional ceremony? More...

Piracy trial starts in the Netherlands

Guardian: Five Somali men are due to go on trial in the Netherlands today for robbery on the high seas, in what will be the first modern piracy trial in a Dutch court.

The men were held in January 2009 after allegedly trying to capture a cargo ship registered in the Dutch Antilles.

The ship's crew held off the attack off the Horn of Africa with flares until a Danish navy frigate intervened and sank the pirates' boat. More...

'We must live more sustainably' says Jeremy 'Seven Homes' Irons

Telegraph Blogs: The voice of Scar in the Lion King has spoken:

“We must live more sustainably,” he growls from Pride Rock – as he probably doesn’t call a single one of his seven homes, not even the pink castle in Co Cork, because in real life he’s not a lion at all but a Sherborne-educated luvvie who takes himself very, very seriously called Jeremy Irons. (Hat tip: Brown Bess)

Irons has just announced his plans to become an eco-campaigner. He wants to be a bit like Michael Moore, he says, only not “as silly”. Sounds fun, Jezza. Tell us more. More...

The Tories' free condom plan won't just offend Catholics

Telegraph Blogs: There’s no let-up on bad spending ideas coming from the Tory-run Department for International Development (DFID). It is going to spend £2.95 million to give Uganda 45 million condoms, along with some implantable and oral contraceptives. “Who could be against that?”, the sandal-wearing do-gooders at DFID might be wondering. Well me, for a start – and no, I’m not a Catholic.

No one wants HIV/AIDS to spread, but free distribution will never work. As Professor William Easterly, the eminent development economist, has argued, there’s no shortage of Coca-Cola in Africa, and condoms should be treated in the same, for-profit way. More...

2 passengers in cockpit before Kaczynski crash

Businessweek: At least two passengers visited the cockpit of Polish President Lech Kaczynski's plane before it crashed last month, and others may have chatted on cell phones, possibly affecting navigation as the crew battled heavy fog over challenging terrain.

Those were among the details revealed Wednesday by Russian and Polish officials investigating the April 10 crash that killed Kaczynski, his wife and 94 others outside the western Russian city of Smolensk. The preliminary report drew no conclusions about what caused the crash. More...

Army decides to detonate rather than dismantle Taliban bombs

Independent: In an attempt to take the pressure off bomb disposal officers in Afghanistan, combat engineers will now be tasked with blowing up many of the improvised devices rather than having to dismantle every one of them.

The revelation came as the most senior bomb disposal officer in the country, Colonel Bob Seddon, resigned after suggesting he needed more operatives on the ground and was concerned about the pressures being placed on his men in Afghanistan, as well as the "psychological price" they may pay, long term. More...

Jurors in tears as they clear student of rape - then discover another man falsely accused by same 'victim' had killed himself

Daily Mail: A woman drove a man to suicide by crying rape and forced a second innocent man to consider taking his life after falsely accusing him of a similar sex attack.

Despite being exposed in court as a serial liar, legal restrictions mean the 21-year-old woman can never be identified.

A jury took only 45 minutes to clear medical student Olumide Fadayomi, 27, of rape. More...

The Emperor’s New Clothes: How to Pay off the National Debt & Give a 28.5% Tax Cut

The Cobden Centre: I offer a £1,000 reward for anyone who can tell me why this logically won’t work, practical politics, for now, being another matter.

What follows is an attempt to show you that this can be done. More...

Do We Really Need More Of This Crap?

Witterings from Witney: The 'Green Scammers' are getting worried about how their 'scam' is to be funded and more importantly, their jobs, especially bearing in mind the economic cutbacks and failing economies in Europe.

Richard North, EU Referendum, posts on the falling markets and links to an article detailing the cash black hole affecting Scotland's attempt to transform itself to a low carbon economy. Lady Susan Rice, Lloyds Banking Group - also non-exec director of Scottish & Southern Electricity, so no conflict of interests there then - complains that banks should not be expected to shoulder the burden and neither should major utilities firms be expected to get into much more debt in order to fund new renewables schemes. More...

FTSE Plunges Nearly 3% In Opening Seconds

Sky News: The FTSE 100 has remained heavily in the red after losing nearly 3% of its value within seconds of opening due to further eurozone fears and concern over tensions in Korea.

The weekend rescue of Spain's CajaSur bank set European bank stocks falling, with Germany's DAX down 2.6% and the French CAC recording a drop of over 3%. More...

Private Sector experience of recession could help public sector navigate spending cuts

Retail News: Employers believe that good communication and engagement with staff has been the key to making the workforce changes needed to safeguard jobs during the recession, according to a new report by the CBI and recruitment experts Harvey Nash.

Picking up the Pace: the CBI/Harvey Nash employment trends survey 2010 offers an insight into how employers and staff worked together during the depths of the recession to keep job losses to a minimum. More...

Laws puts brakes on gov IT spending

The Register: David Laws, chief secretary to the treasury, and Francis Maude will jointly chair the "Efficiency Group" in order to help government departments renegotiate contracts with suppliers.

The group will also put a freeze on what they call "unnecessary" IT, advertising and consultancy spending over £1m. Presumably someone else will look at unnecessary spending of less than £1m. More...

Osborne's axe hits outsourcing firms

Thisismoney: Britain's profitable outsourcing industry was in focus yesterday as Chancellor George Osborne and his Liberal Democrat deputy David Laws outlined plans to strip £6.2bn in spending from the public purse.

In its first major financial announcement since taking office the coalition government pledged to scrap the £320m Child Trust Fund and save £1.7bn by cancelling contracts. More...

Those British Airways strikes

Banditry (John Band): While there’s been a lot of commentary on the British Airways strikes, the analysis (whether pro-company or pro-union) tends to miss two major points.

The business model is unsustainable – but that’s the management’s fault, not the unions’

BA’s model before the global financial crisis was to charge a fortune for excellent service in Club World and First, while matching its competitors’ prices and service levels in World Traveller. Together with BA’s massive global coverage and its excellent connections between the financial boom centres of London, New York and Singapore, this business model allowed BA to attract a lot of passengers and make a lot of money. More...

Gulf oil spill: White House orders BP to cut use of dispersant by half

Guardian: The White House directed BP to cut its use of chemical dispersants to break up the Louisiana oil slick by as much as 50% yesterday, reflecting concerns that the clean-up of the spill could be worsening the economic disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

Lisa Jackson, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, said the Obama administration wanted the oil company to scale back its use of chemicals on the water surface. The order came amid increasing tension between the administration and the oil company about how to manage the oil on the ocean floor, more than a month after the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. More...

Jamaica in state of emergency as police battle drug ‘don’

Metro: Gunfire rang out on the streets of West Kingston and a police station was set alight by Molotov cocktails as scores of supporters of ‘don’ Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke arrived from across the island.

They sealed off Coke’s slum neighbourhood with wrecked cars and barbed wire amid moves to extradite him to the US on arms and drug- trafficking charges. More...

Labour 'in denial' on migration

Daily Express: Labour leadership candidate Andy Burnham has admitted his party paved the way for election defeat by ignoring voters’ concerns about immigration.

The former health secretary said the party had been “in denial” about the issue. More...

Sarah Ferguson: I'm so skint I can't pay my 12 servants

Daily Star: Sarah Ferguson still has a staff of 12 to see to her every need despite claiming she is broke, it was revealed yesterday.

The Duchess of York has blamed money problems on her decision to sell business meetings with her ex-husband Prince Andrew for £500,000. More...

Robin Hood, taxes, and communism

Adam Smith Institute: Last week I saw Robin Hood at the cinema. It is a truly, extraordinarily bad film: long, boring and yet, at times, preposterously silly. The low point came towards the end, when a bloodied, chainmailed Robin lept out of the English Channel, and gave a dramatic, slow motion roar. The whole audience burst out laughing. But it’s a real shame the film is so terrible, because it actually has quite a libertarian message. This is the not the Robin Hood conjured up by those Tobin tax advocates, who think confiscating bank profits will solve all the world’s problems. This Robin makes speeches about liberty, battles King John’s tax collectors, and even tries to force the King to sign an early version of Magna Carta. If the film hadn’t been so utterly charmless, I’d have been cheering him on. More...

Disclaimer - The posting of stories, commentaries, reports, documents and links (embedded or otherwise) on this site does not in any way, shape or form, implied or otherwise, necessarily express or suggest endorsement or support of any of such posted material or parts therein.

The myriad of facts, conjecture, perspectives, viewpoints, opinions, analyses, and information in the articles, stories and commentaries posted on this site range from cutting edge hard news and comment to extreme and unusual perspectives. We choose not to sweep uncomfortable material under the rug - where it can grow and fester. We choose not to censor skewed logic and uncomfortable rhetoric. These things reflect the world as it now is - for better and worse. We present multiple facts, perspectives, viewpoints, opinions, analyses, and information.

Journalism is (or used to be) the profession of gathering and presenting a broad panorama of news about the events of our times and presenting it to readers for their own consideration. We believe in the intelligence, judgment and wisdom of our readers to discern for themselves among the data which appears on this site that which is valid and worthy...or otherwise.

  © Blogger template 'Perfection' by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008

Back to TOP