After Stroke Scans, Patients Face Serious Health Risks
When Alain Reyes’s hair suddenly fell out in a freakish band circling his head, he was not the only one worried about his health. His co-workers at a shipping company avoided him, and his boss sent him home, fearing he had a contagious disease.
PermalinkOcean Losing Its Green
Link: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52343
The oceans are the lifeblood of our planet and plankton its red blood cells. Those vital "red blood cells" have declined more than 40 percent since 1950 and the rate of decline is increasing due to climate change, scientists reported this week. "Phytoplankton are a critical part of our planetary life support system. They produce half of the oxygen we breathe, draw down surface CO2, and ultimately support all of our fisheries," said Boris Worm of Canada's Dalhousie University and one of the world's leading experts on the global oceans. "An ocean with less phytoplankton will function differently," said Worm, the co-author of a new study on plankton published this week in Nature.
The wage-cutter in chief visits Detroit
Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2010/jul2010/auto-j31.shtml
President Obama’s four-hour visit to Detroit Friday brought him to the center of the economic catastrophe created by the profit system. The “Motor City” was once a byword for decent-paying jobs in the world’s biggest industry. But Detroit is now synonymous with poverty, urban decay, mass unemployment and the virtual breakdown of a functioning society.
Europe’s class policy: A blank check for the banks, austerity for workers
Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2010/jul2010/pers-j31.shtml
The same week that European officials announced the results of bank stress tests designed to give bankers a green light to continue their speculative ways, European Central Bank (ECB) President Jean-Claude Trichet published a column in the Financial Times (July 22) arguing for an end to economic stimulus programs and the rigorous imposition of austerity measures across Europe.
As casualties in Afghanistan rise, Army suicides, drug use set new records
Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2010/jul2010/army-j31.shtml
As US military fatalities in Afghanistan hit a new high in July, the US Army issued a report exposing record suicides, drug use and other signs of deep demoralization among its ranks after a decade of colonial-style wars. Another six US troops were killed in a series of four separate attacks across southern Afghanistan on Thursday and Friday, bringing the total death toll for the month to at least 66. This follows the previous high set last month of 60. Both were at least double the average number of fatalities for the first five months of this year.
Deaths in the Desert
Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/07/31
There are places, like the medical examiners office in Tucson, Arizona, where the human cost of migration to the United States is counted. (Getty Images)Dr Bruce Parks, the chief medical examiner, is a tall, thin, quiet man. He put on rubber gloves and led me over to a zippered plastic bag sitting on a steel gurney
Where Are The Prosecutions? SEC Lets Citi Execs Go Free After $40 Billion Subprime Lie
Link: http://www.truth-out.org/sec-lets-citi-execs-go-free-after-40-billion-subprime-lie61895
The SEC just hit two Citigroup executives with fines for concealing $40 billion in subprime mortgage debt from investors back in 2007. The biggest fine is going to Citi CFO Gary Crittenden, who will pay $100,000 to settle allegations that he screwed over his own investors. The year of the alleged wrongdoing, Crittenden took home $19.4 million. That’s right. Crittenden will lose one-half of one percent of his income from the year he hid a quagmire of bailout-inducing insanity from his own investors. That’s it. No indictment. No prison time. Crittenden doesn’t even have to formally acknowledge any wrongdoing.
On Medicare anniversary, lawmakers tout inevitability of single payer
Link: http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0731/medicare-anniversary-lawmakers-tout-inevitability-single-payer/
A trio of progressives in Congress invoked the 45th birthday of Medicare's enactment Friday to call for a national single payer health insurance system, predicting it's "inevitable" if Americans want lower costs.
Robert Fisk: Israel has crept into the EU without anyone noticing
The death of five Israeli servicemen in a helicopter crash in Romania this week raised scarcely a headline. There was a Nato-Israeli exercise in progress. Well, that's OK then. Now imagine the death of five Hamas fighters in a helicopter crash in Romania this week. We'd still be investigating this extraordinary phenomenon. Now mark you, I'm not comparing Israel and Hamas. Israel is the country that justifiably slaughtered more than 1,300 Palestinians in Gaza 19 months ago – more than 300 of them children – while the vicious, blood-sucking and terrorist Hamas killed 13 Israelis (three of them soldiers who actually shot each other by mistake).
US-Jakarta ties 'threat to Papua' - Video
Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/video/asia-pacific/2010/07/201073124515884622.html
Around 200 people raised the Morning Star flag in Indonesia's Papua province in December 2001, in a symbolic move to mark the Papuan independence campaign that has been pursued since 1962. Filep Karma was arrested at that ceremony and jailed 15 years for flying the outlawed Papua flag.
Colombia: US Military Aid May Have Sparked Civilian Killings
Link: http://www.truth-out.org/colombia-us-military-aid-may-have-sparked-civilian-killings61904
When Colombian military units receive an increase in U.S. aid, they allegedly kill more civilians and frame the deaths as combat kills, according to a new report. The report, released Thursday by two American human rights organizations, raises serious questions about the implications of U.S. military aid to Colombia. The United States has provided more than $7 billion in mostly military aid to Colombia since 2000 for fighting drugs and counterinsurgency — making it the largest recipient of U.S. military aid after Israel.
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