Dubai deal shows commitment to state-linked firms – official

May 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Dubai’s restructuring proposal for Dubai World’s debt signals the emirate’s commitment to state-linked firms, the chairman of Dubai’s Supreme Fiscal Committee said on Sunday.

Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum also said that the fiscal committee would set up a programme to address vulnerabilities in Dubai’s financial system and that the government of the United Arab Emirates would issue a federal debt management law later this year, according to a speech prepared for delivery.

(Writing by Cynthia Johnston)

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Pacemaker reuse cost-effective alternative in Third World countries

May 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, May 20 (ANI): A new research has suggested that pacemaker reuse may be a safe, effective and ethical alternative to address the medical needs for people in Third World countries who couldn”t otherwise afford therapy.

Researchers examined pacemaker reuse compared with a control population of new device implantation in studies from Jan. 1, 1975 to July 1, 2009.

They assessed complication rates, risk of infection, physiological complications and device malfunction.

In four trials with 603 patients, they found new pacemaker implantation was associated with a 4 percent decrease in overall complications compared to reuse of previously implanted devices. However, the finding is not statistically significant.

The researchers also found no increased risk of infection, physiological complications or device malfunction. There were no device-related deaths among those who received new or reused pacemakers. (ANI)

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Thai minister says no talks until anti-govt rally ends

May 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Thailand’s government will only enter into talks brokered by the country’s Senate if anti-government protesters end their rally, a cabinet minister said on Tuesday.

“The situation has escalated and become violent with armed groups and terrorists attacking the government, officers in the field and civilians,” Satit Wongnongtoey said in a televised address.

“The government says we can only negotiate when the protest ends,” he said.

(Reporting by Ambika Ahuja; Writing by Nopporn Wong-Anan. Editing by Jason Szep)

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US forced American Muslim into ‘exile’: Rights group

May 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A Muslim civil rights group today accused the US government of forcing an American citizen into “exile” because he was an Islamic convert.

The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said Raymond Earl Knaeble IV, 29, had been placed on a no-fly list and had been unable to return home from Colombia since March.

The group’s claim could not be independently confirmed and the Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to CAIR, Knaeble this week flew to Mexico in hope of travelling to the Mexican-US border, but he instead faced lengthy interrogation by Mexican officials before being sent back to Colombia.

“He was stopped by Mexican authorities as he got off the plane and asked, ‘Are you Muslim?’ He was then detained for 15 hours and asked many questions relating to his faith,” according to CAIR.

“It is un-American and illegal for a citizen who has not been accused of, let alone charged with, any crime to be denied entry to his own country without adequate explanation,” said CAIR lawyer Nadhira Al-Khalili, who is representing Knaeble.

“We call on the Department of Justice to end Mr Knaeble’s forced exile and to address the disturbing issue of the other Americans who are similarly being denied re-entry to their own country,” she said.

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How to tackle emotional eating

May 5, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, May 5 (ANI): Many people treat themselves with their favourite chocolate bars, or ice cream after returning home from a hard day at work, completely ignoring the fact that they are on a diet. The long-term success of their efforts is therefore sabotaged by their own hand, and very few weight-loss programs address this problem.

A new study shows that the key issue is providing people who usually eat to calm their emotions with other means of calming themselves, and getting a grip on how they feel, other than food.

Given that most of those who are on a diet don”t even know they have this problem, coping with emotions is done automatically when the need arises, through indulging in foods that are forbidden during diet.

Researchers at the Temple University Center for Obesity Research are currently trying to find the answers to these problems. They believe that progress in this area could allow for more people to succeed in losing unwanted weight.

The new treatment incorporates skills that directly address the emotional eating, and essentially adds those skills to a state-of-the art behavioural weight loss treatment.

“The problem that we”re trying to address is that the success rates for long-term weight loss are not as good as we would like them to be,” said Edie Goldbacher, a postdoctoral fellow at CORE.

“Emotional eating may be one reason why people don”t do as well in behavioral weight loss groups, because these groups don”t address emotional eating or any of its contributing factors,” Goldbacher added. (ANI)

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Malay-Indian Congress Youth want funds for maintaining Indian cemeteries

May 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Kuala Lumpur, May 3 (ANI): The Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) Youth has asked the Malaysian government to release financial grants for maintenance and upkeep of Indian cemeteries.

This follows a slew of initiatives by the MIC to address Malay-Indian issues.

Malaysia Nanban quoted Youth chief T. Mohan as saying that temple committees and non-governmental organisations were facing a shortage of funds for the upkeep of the cemeteries.

Mohan, who took part in a clean-up campaign at the Puchong Indian cemetery on Labour Day, said all the state Youth sub-committees had also organised a similar exercise in 24 Indian cemeteries reports The Star.

The MIC Youth would undertake the cleaning up of the cemeteries in all states on every Labour Day, he added.

MIC Youth has asked the Government for financial grants to help maintain Indian cemeteries.

The Government, he claimed, had previously announced that it would allocate 300,000 ringgits for the maintenance of the cemeteries but no funds had been disbursed to date. (ANI)

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Christina Ricci rushing to settle her outstanding tax bills

April 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, April 24 (ANI): Actress Christina Ricci is gearing up to settle her debts after she was accused of a massive outstanding tax bill.

The Addams Family star, 30, received a lien from the US Internal Revenue Service, filed earlier this month, according to which she still has to pay 119,712pounds in taxes from 2008.

Ricci”s rep told TMZ.com that the actress came to know of the lien earlier this week and is taking “immediate action to address it in a responsible manner,” reports the Daily Express. (ANI)

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Summit to focus on fresh food in remote areas

April 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A summit will be held next month aimed at closing the gap in Indigenous health by improving access to fresh food in remote communities.

The chief executive of the Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance, John Patterson, says the primary health care sector has largely been ignored in previous government attempts to address nutrition.

He is hoping the summit in Tennant Creek will attract Aboriginal health organisations, store managers and remote community residents from the region.

“This opportunity at our summit will provide our members a forum to discuss some local community strategies which they can go about and implement rather than having some other entity or external adviser coming in and telling them what ought to be done.”

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Commission on Centre-State Relations submits report to P. Chidambaram

April 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment

New Delhi, April 19 (ANI): The Commission on Centre-State Relations submitted its report to the Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram here on Monday.

The Chairman of the Commission, Justice (Retd.) Madan Mohan Punchhi presented the report to Mr. Chidambaram.

Members of the Commission– Dhirendra Singh, V. K. Duggal, Dr. N. R. Madhava Menon, and Vijay Shankar were present on this occasion.

The Report contains seven volumes.

After receiving the report, Mr. Chidambaram said that it would be processed expeditiously.

The Commission was set up in April, 2007 to take a fresh look at the relative roles and responsibilities of the various levels of government and their inter-relations.

It was asked to make recommendations to help address the emerging challenges.

A comprehensive review of the Centre-State relations was undertaken by the Sarkaria Commission in the mid-eighties.

Both polity and economy of the country have since undergone profound changes posing new challenges. (ANI)

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WA school teachers to boycott tests

April 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The State School Teachers’ Union of WA says members will join a national boycott of next month’s NAPLAN tests for numeracy and literacy.

The Union President Anne Gisborne says the Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard has refused to address Australian teachers concerns about the publication of school league tables.

Ms Gisborne says the only way the tests will go ahead is if the Education Minister agrees to not publish the data collected from the tests.

“There is still opportunity for the Minister Julia Gillard to come to the table and have a discussion with respect to our concerns.”

Ms Gillard has condemned the Australian Education Union’s decision.

She says it is a selfish move and is appealing to public school teachers to ignore the order.

“I’ll be saying to teachers stay the course, stay with the national testing.

“I’m saying to the Australian Education Union it’s made the wrong decision. As Minister for Education I’m in the process of canvassing all options to ensure that the national testing rolls out as scheduled.”

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State school teachers to boycott tests

April 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The State School Teachers’ Union of WA says members will join a national boycott of next month’s NAPLAN tests for numeracy and literacy.

The Union President Anne Gisborne says the Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard has refused to address Australian teachers concerns about the publication of school league tables.

Ms Gisborne says the only way the tests will go ahead is if the Education Minister agrees to not publish the data collected from the tests.

“There is still opportunity for the Minister Julia Gillard to come to the table and have a discussion with respect to our concerns.”

Ms Gillard has condemned the Australian Education Union’s decision.

She says it is a selfish move and is appealing to public school teachers to ignore the order.

“I’ll be saying to teachers stay the course, stay with the national testing.

“I’m saying to the Australian Education Union it’s made the wrong decision. As Minister for Education I’m in the process of canvassing all options to ensure that the national testing rolls out as scheduled.”

The President of the Primary Principals Association of WA Stephen Breen says the tests are essential.

“We believe that NAPLAN tests are very valuable, however, we are totally against a league table concept.”

Ms Gillard has suggested that parents may be used to administer the tests if teachers undertake a boycott.

MS Gisborne says the Minister’s proposition is ‘silly’.

“That’s totally unrealistic and unreasonable.”

Ms Gillard’s proposal has angered some parents groups but the Minister says she expects parents would support the idea.

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NSW Govt urged to back health shake-up

April 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A New South Wales mid-north coast federal MP is urging the State Government to support the national heath and hospitals reform plan.

The appeal was made to NSW Health Minister Carmel Tebutt in Port Macquarie yesterday.

The Minister was opening an expansion of the base hospital’s emergency department.

Independent Lyne MP Rob Oakeshott met Ms Tebbutt and told her that the proposed structural and financial reforms were good for the mid-north coast.

“For a growing regional area this structural and financial reform on the table to date works for us and will address many of the issues that confront us,” he said.

“We do have a bed shortage and we’re not going anywhere fast until we address that.

“So in the short-term if we can get more beds we’ll maximise what is being proposed at a federal level.”

Mr Oakeshott asked for the state to make short-term capital investments in extra hospital beds.

“The slight expansion of the emergency department it is yet another step along the way to getting significant increases in bed numbers,” he said.

“But we all want the structural and financial reform that’s happening at the moment in the Commonweath/state debate to really be maximised on the ground.”

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Coal mine to work with community on plan

April 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The proponent of a coal mine at Colton, north of Maryborough, says it wants to work with the community on a proposal submitted to the Queensland Government.

Northern Energy Corporation is seeking State Government approval to mine more than 500,000 tonnes of coking coal per year at the Colton mine.

Managing director Keith Barker says the company will address the social and environmental issues of the project at community meeting’s today and tomorrow.

He says he is keen to listen to community input.

“We’re certainly looking to work with the community on this project. We’ll be intending to recruit locally to utilise local services as much as we can to build a relationship with people in the area,” he said.

“[The meetings] will allow us to provide more details to the community as to what we’re proposing and for us as a team to understand any issues that the community might have. We’ll be looking to answer questions they might have and also to take on any feedback that people provide us with.”

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Summit to give voice to Indigenous youth

April 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Indigenous youths will gather in Queensland’s far north tomorrow for the region’s first Cairns Indigenous Youth Summit.

About 200 people aged 14 to 24 will take part in the two-day forum and will be able to talk to local leaders and politicians about issues concerning them.

Gurry Watson from the Nintiringanyi Cultural Training Centre says the forum will discuss issues including education, employment and crime.

“The aim of it is to have Indigenous youth have their opinion of what the issues that we face [are] and elaborate on why they think that’s the problem in the community and have these [opinions] told to the policymakers,” he said.

Mr Watson says the summit will identify key issues Indigenous people face.

“There’s a lot of positive young Indigenous people out there and that’s the thing that isn’t promoted,” he said.

“That’s something else we want to address too – having more positive comeback from Indigenous youth.”

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Residents’ group looks to boost meeting attendance

April 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A residents’ group on Fraser Island, off south-east Queensland, says it has been unable to operate effectively because members are not turning up to general meetings.

The Fraser Island Association’s January meeting was forced to close when only 12 out of a possible 250 members attended.

President David Anderson says the group is now trying to work with members to boost attendance numbers.

“It means we’ve got our hands tied. Our priority now is to get our numbers up – enough to get a quorum and now that we’ve got the issues, we think we know what those issues are, we can address that,” he said.

Mr Anderson says the group is making changes to meeting times to encourage attendance.

“It means we can’t do anything if we don’t have [a] quorum but as I said there are ways around that and we’re currently trying to address that and it may well be through change of timing with our meetings,” he said.

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Council focuses on coastal erosion

April 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The Fraser Coast Regional Council in south-east Queensland says a plan to tackle erosion on the region’s beaches is “overdue”.

Council has commissioned a team of engineers and scientists to assess the current and future extent of coastal erosion as part of the Shoreline Erosion Management Plan.

Councillor Sue Brooks says it is hoped the plan can be implemented before December this year.

“I think it’s overdue and I think it’s something we were working towards independently before amalgamation,” she said.

“Through the amalgamation process I’ve been very pleased that council has supported and prioritised the need for us to address erosion. It is a big community concern.”

Cr Brooks says erosion may restrict future access to the region’s beaches.

“I would like to see the plan adopted prior to next summer because most of our erosion does happen in the warmer months of the year. So I would like to be prepared with some opportunities to hopefully start trialling some mitigation strategies prior to next summer,” she said.

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Malaysian Govt urged to appoint an Indian as deputy education minister

April 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Kuala Lumpur, Apr. 1 (ANI): The Malaysian Government has been urged to appoint an Indian as the deputy education minister of the country in order to address the needs of Malaysian-Indian students.

The call was issued in the form of a resolution passed by Seremban Jaya Hindu Sangam at its recent annual general meeting, The Star Online reports.

The branch of Hindu Sangam pointed out that the Malaysian-Indian Deputy Education Minister would be able to look after the interests and educational needs of Indian students and Tamil schools in the country, the paper added.

Meanwhile, Malaysia’s Higher Education Minister Khaled Nordin has urged the Indian community to put forward its requests with united voice.

He said that people would lose respect for the community if there were too many factions.

He pointed out that the Government has always recognised the Malaysian Indian Congress as the voice of the Indian community. (ANI)

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Malay Indian chambers discuss foreign workers’ shortage with Malaysian PM

March 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Putrajaya, Mar. 27 (ANI): Malaysian Association Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MAICCI) President K.K. Eswaran has asked Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to allow the chambers to be agents for the recruitment of foreign workers to address the acute shortage of manpower being faced by the Malaysian Indian business community.

Under the proposal, a member of Indian business community would not apply directly for foreign workers and only associations affiliated to the MAICCI could do so.

“Our promise to the Prime Minister is that if our proposal is accepted, we guarantee that businesses run by members of Indian trade associations will not hire a single illegal foreign worker,” The Star Online quoted Eswaran, as saying.

Eswaran added that Razak has given a positive feedback to the proposal, saying that the matter would be raised in the Cabinet.

Apart from preventing Indian traders and businessmen from hiring workers illegally, he said the proposal would also help protect foreign workers from being exploited and cheated.

Eswaran said he had also discussed licensing, contracts and representation on the boards of government-linked companies with the Prime Minister. (ANI)

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Police delay introduction of new database

March 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Victoria Police has delayed the installation of a new system to replace the troubled LEAP information database.

The LEAP system stores crime reports and people’s criminal histories.

The new system, called LINK, was due to be rolled out this year, following numerous revelations of inappropriate use of the LEAP system.

Victoria Police says there is no problem with the LINK system, but they have found that integrating it with over 20 other police systems is more costly and technically challenging than originally envisaged.

integrating the 20-plus systems that need to be joined with LINK will be a more technically challenging and costly process than was envisioned in the original business case

The replacement program has been suspended for six months.

Michael Vanderheide, the executive director of infrastructure and IT, says it is important to get this technology right.

“It is far better that we identify these issues now, and address them, before we introduce the system and train our members in its use,” he said.

“The current LEAP system remains adequate and we will work to address these issues as quickly as possible. We are committed to finding a solution that allows us to move forward without needing to invest significant funds.”

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Back-up dam project revealed

March 25, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A community dam project to address water shortages faced by farming communities in Western Australia’s great southern will be unveiled today.

The federally funded Varley Dam Project will provide a back-up water supply to the Varley, Mount Sheridan and Lake King communities.

The Parliamentary Secretary for Western and Northern Australia, Gary Gray, says the dam will help ensure farming families are safeguarded against water deficiencies.

He says local contractors and shire staff have contributed to the project.

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