Free Internet Press Newsletter - Thursday November 22 2007 - (813)

Thursday November 22 2007 edition
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Health Care Industry Rife With Medical Errors 2007-11-22 02:46:07 At least 1.5 million Americans a year are injured after receiving the wrong medicine or the incorrect dose. The case of actor Dennis Quaid's newborn twins, who were reportedly given 1,000 times the intended dosage of a blood thinner at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, underscores one of the biggest problems facing the healthcare industry: medication errors. At least 1.5 million Americans a year are injured after receiving the wrong medication or the incorrect dose, according to the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academies of Science. Such incidents have more than doubled in the last decade. The errors are made when pharmacists stock the drugs improperly, nurses don't double-check to make sure they are dispensing the proper medication or doctors' bad handwriting results in the wrong drug being administered, among other causes. Read The Full Story DHS Delays On Citizenship Applications Could Keep Hundreds Of Thousands From Voting In 2008 2007-11-22 02:45:30 The Department of Homeland Security failed to prepare for a massive influx of applications for U.S. citizenship and other immigration benefits this summer, prompting complaints from Hispanic leaders and voter-mobilization groups that several hundred thousand people likely will not be granted citizenship in time to cast ballots in the 2008 presidential election. Bush administration officials said Wednesday that they had anticipated applicants would rush to file their paperwork to beat a widely publicized fee increase that took effect July 30, but did not expect the scale of the response. The backlog comes just months after U.S. officials failed to prepare for tougher border security requirements that triggered months-long delays for millions of Americans seeking passports. Before the fee hike, citizenship cases typically took about seven months to complete. Now, immigration officials can take five months or more just to acknowledge receipt of applications from parts of the country and will take 16 to 18 months on average to process applications filed after June 1, according to officials from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is part of DHS. Such a timeline would push many prospective citizens well past voter-registration deadlines for the 2008 primaries and the general elections. Read The Full Story Taliban 'Taking Afghanistan Back' 2007-11-21 22:23:09 Insurgents have a presence in 54% of the country and the frontline is getting closer to Kabul, says thinktank. The Taliban has a permanent presence in 54% of Afghanistan and the country is in serious danger of falling into Taliban hands, according to a report by an independent thinktank with long experience in the area. Despite tens of thousands of NATO-led troops and billions of dollars in aid poured into the country, the insurgents, driven out by the American invasion in 2001, now control "vast swaths of unchallenged territory, including rural areas, some district centers, and important road arteries", the Senlis Council says in a report released Wednesday. On the basis of what it calls exclusive research, it warns that the insurgency is also exercising a "significant amount of psychological control, gaining more and more political legitimacy in the minds of the Afghan people who have a long history of shifting alliances and regime change". It says the territory controlled by the Taliban has increased and the frontline is getting closer to Kabul - a warning echoed by the United Nations which says more and more of the country is becoming a "no go" area for western aid and development workers. Read The Full Story An Epidemic In Health Problems Could Kill 388 Million People In 10 Years 2007-11-21 22:22:34 Preventable diseases cause 60% of deaths globally. An "epidemic" of health problems such as heart disease, stroke and diabetes will kill about 388 million people worldwide over the next decade unless governments take concerted action, according to a report from public health experts in 55 countries. The group has formulated a list of 20 measures which, if implemented, would help to prevent deaths. The preventable diseases now account for about 60% of deaths worldwide, and 44% of premature deaths. Eight out of 10 of the deaths occur in middle or low income countries. "This is not 'affluenza' for the rich and the old," said Dr. Stig Pramming, executive director of the Oxford Health Alliance, which partly funded the report. "[These diseases] have been written off in many countries as an individual's problem." Read The Full Story Stocks Slump As Oil Prices Remain High 2007-11-21 15:03:19 Stocks retreated the day before the Thanksgiving holiday as oil prices flirted with the symbolic $100-a-barrel level. Markets in Asia and Europe dropped sharply as investors questioned whether the United States economy will slow more than expected. At 1:30 p.m., the Dow Jones industrials were off 117.70 points, to 12,892.44, a 0.9 percent decline that erased yesterday’s modest gains. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index fell 14.01 points, or 1 percent, to 1,425.69, putting it barely even for the year. Crude oil futures briefly rose above $99 in overnight trading and an Energy Department report showed that inventories fell slightly last week, leaving investors wondering how soon oil will be nudged above its inflation-adjusted record of $102. The price in early afternoon in New York trading was $97.34, down 69 cents from Tuesday’s close. The recent run-up in oil prices, which threaten to curb consumer spending, dovetails with a shaky economic outlook released by the Federal Reserve yesterday, which predicted a slowdown in growth and rising unemployment. Read The Full Story Tax, Financial, Personal Data On 25 Million Britons Missing 2007-11-21 15:02:46 British Prime Minister Gordon Brown apologized Wednesday for a security breach that resulted in the loss of disks containing copies of millions of Britons’ bank account details and other personal data and that has raised the specter of financial fraud on an enormous scale. Security experts described it as the largest incident of its kind in Europe, though there have been larger data leaks in the United States. The British data went astray when two computer disks from the tax authorities were lost last month. The disks contained information on 25 million people - nearly half the British population - from families that receive a government financial benefit for children. The information included details like names, addresses and national insurance numbers - the British equivalent of social security numbers - as well as similar information on almost every child under 16 in Britain. The disks were sent using a private parcel delivery firm, and were apparently protected by a password but were not encrypted. Read The Full Story Bush Says Musharraf 'Truly Is Somebody Who Believes In Democracy' 2007-11-21 02:18:35 President Bush Tuesday offered his strongest support of embattled Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, saying the general "hasn't crossed the line" and "truly is somebody who believes in democracy." Bush spoke nearly three weeks after Musharraf declared emergency rule, sacked members of the Supreme Court and began a roundup of journalists, lawyers and human rights activists. Musharraf's government Tuesday released about 3,000 political prisoners, although 2,000 remain in custody, according to the Interior Ministry. The comments, delivered in an interview with ABC News anchor Charles Gibson, contrasted with previous administration statements - including by Bush himself - expressing grave concern over Musharraf's actions. In his first public comments on the crisis two weeks ago, Bush said his aides bluntly warned Musharraf that his emergency measures "would undermine democracy." The shift yesterday appeared part of a broader strategy to ease the crisis in Pakistan. Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte carried a terse message to Musharraf during talks last weekend, urging the general to step down as chief of the army. Now, after this strong personal show of support from the president, the Bush administration expects the general to shed his military uniform before the end of the month, said an administration official. Read The Full Story Suppose They Held A Peace Conference And Nobody Came? 2007-11-21 02:17:42 The Bush administration finally acknowledged publicly on Tuesday that it had issued formal invitations to 40 countries and organizations that it hopes will attend a heavily anticipated Middle East peace conference scheduled for next week in Annapolis, Maryland; but the long, drawn-out route that State Department officials followed before making the acknowledgment reflected the high-stakes gamble that the administration is taking, as well as the unsettled nature of the outcome. Even late Tuesday afternoon, administration officials were still in negotiations with their Arab counterparts over whether Saudi Arabia and Syria would send their foreign ministers to the conference, or make do with lower-level envoys. President Bush telephoned King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to enlist his support for the conference, and in particular to try to get an agreement from him that the Saud family would be represented at the conference by Prince Saud al-Faisal, the foreign minister, said administration officials. The presence of Prince Saud is seen as critical to assure a certain level of Arab commitment to the peace process, but the Saudi royal family has been unwilling to give the Annapolis conference a high-level endorsement without assurances that the negotiations will be substantive, with real concessions from Israel, including a freeze on settlements that would lead to Israeli withdrawal from land that it seized in 1967. Read The Full Story Huckabee Moves Toward Head Of Republican Pack In Iowa 2007-11-21 02:17:07 Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, buoyed by strong support from Christian conservatives, has surged past three of his better-known presidential rivals and is now challenging former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney for the lead in the Iowa Republican caucuses, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.  Huckabee has tripled his support in Iowa since late July, eclipsing former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani,  former senator Fred D. Thompson (Tennessee) and Sen. John McCain (Arizona). Huckabee now runs nearly evenly with Romney, the longtime Iowa front-runner. Huckabee's rise from dark horse to contender in Iowa is one more unexpected twist in a race that has remained fluid throughout the year and adds another unpredictable element to the competition for the GOP nomination. His support in Iowa appears stronger and more enthusiastic than that of his rivals. Still, there are other signs in the poll suggesting that Romney remains the candidate to beat in the state and that gains for Huckabee may be harder to achieve in the next 43 days than they were over the past four months. Read The Full Story	Stocks Plummet As Dow Jones Industrial Average Hits Lowest Level Since April 2007-11-22 02:45:49 A late sell-off sent stock markets down sharply yesterday, with the Dow Jones industrial average closing at its lowest level since April. The plunge came as investors remain frightened and uncertain about a credit crisis that does not show any signs of easing. “Sentiment just keeps getting more and more bleak,” said James W. Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management. “This week it’s been all about fear overtaking greed.” Widespread worries about expensive oil, a sagging dollar and a gloomy outlook for economic growth took a toll on investors, who fled to the safety of relatively stable government bonds. Oil prices flirted with the symbolic number of $100 a barrel, and markets in Asia and Europe dropped as investors wondered if the United States economy would slow more than expected. And the dollar fell to yet another record low against the euro. Read The Full Story Japan Ignores Appeals From U.S., Other Countries, And Plans To Kill 950 Whales 2007-11-22 02:44:59 The Japanese whaling fleet is sailing south this week to kill about 950 whales in Antarctic waters, despite appeals from the United States, the European Union, Australia and New Zealand to call off the hunt. What has particularly alarmed anti-whaling countries and environmental groups is Japan's plan, in the name of "research," to kill as many as 50 humpback whales. It would be the first such hunt since 1966, when a worldwide moratorium was imposed to protect humpbacks, slow swimmers whose numbers were reduced by about 90 percent by over hunting. Humpbacks have since bounced back to about a third of their pre-whaling population, although they remain listed as endangered under U.S. law and are considered vulnerable by the World Conservation Union. Read The Full Story Britain's Data Fiasco Forces Government To Reviewing Plan For National I.D. Cards 2007-11-21 22:22:56 Prime Minister Brown apologizes for data blunders as his own party's Parliament members call for I.D. cards plan to be put on hold. Britain's government ministers are to look at scaling back plans for identity cards in response to the catastrophic loss of the personal information of 25 million British citizens, including their bank records and addresses. The information commissioner, Richard Thomas, urged ministers Wednesday to review the amount of data they intend to amass on the national identity register, and Labor Party members in Parliament previously supportive of I.D. cards backed his view. Prime Minister Gordon Brown will come under further pressure from the thinktank Demos, which will shortly publish a report on privacy. It is expected to urge the government to reopen the debate on I.D. cards before pressing ahead. Read The Full Story Former Aide Blames Bush, Cheney For Misleading Public On CIA Leak 2007-11-21 15:03:47 Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan blames President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for efforts to mislead the public about the role of White House aides in leaking the identity of a CIA operative. In an excerpt from his forthcoming book, McClellan recounts the 2003 news conference in which he told reporters that aides Karl Rove and I. Lewis ''Scooter'' Libby were ''not involved'' in the leak involving operative Valerie Plame.  ''There was one problem. It was not true,'' McClellan writes, according to a brief excerpt released Tuesday. ''I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest-ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice president, the president's chief of staff and the president himself.'' Bush's chief of staff at the time was Andrew Card. Read The Full Story Travelers' Odds Decline On Arriving With Their Baggage 2007-11-21 15:03:05 Why do so many passengers get off the plane only to discover that their baggage did not make the trip with them? American Airlines started asking that question with greater urgency a year ago, and its search for answers led to, among other problems, dirty printer heads. Yet the baggage problem is getting worse. One in every 138 checked bags was lost during the first nine months of this year, compared with one in 155 bags a year earlier. The Thanksgiving holiday, with storms moving across the country from the Northwest, is already shaping up as a difficult travel time. By the end of the year, close to five million travelers will have been stuck scratching their heads at the luggage carousel. Read The Full Story U.S. Justice Dept.: Apellate Court Ruling Will Cripple Corruption Probes Of Lawmakers 2007-11-21 02:18:50 A little-noticed aspect of an appellate court decision could sharply limit investigations of members of Congress and hamper ongoing corruption probes, the Justice Department said this week in a motion seeking an emergency stay of the ruling. The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit was handed down in August in the case of U.S. Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-Louisiana), but its effects complicate other investigations, including those stemming from the Jack Abramhoff lobbying scandal. Justice Department lawyers said in their motion that the appellate ruling represents an "unprecedented expansion" of the "speech or debate" clause of the Constitution, which was intended to protect legislators from intimidation under civil or criminal law. They said the decision calls into question the legality of investigative tools such as wiretapping, searches of home offices and voluntary interviews of congressional staffers. Read The Full Story Ouch! Oil Prices Hit New High Of $99 A Barrel In Asia Trading 2007-11-21 02:18:01 Crude oil prices rose to a record above $99 a barrel in Asian trading Wednesday, lifted by worries about inadequate supplies as the Northern Hemisphere enters winter and on news of refinery problems. The declining U.S. dollar and speculation that the U.S. Federal Reserve will again cut interest rates also boosted prices. Some investors put their money into oil contracts, betting that gains in their price will offset dollar weakness. ''The market is now really looking at $100 a barrel as the next target to hit,'' said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with Purvin & Gertz in Singapore. ''The fact that we are having this surge in pricing in this short trading week underscores the strength of this bull run for oil.'' Light, sweet crude for January delivery rose as high as $99.29 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange,breaking the previous intraday record of $98.62 set last week. Midday in Singapore, oil was trading at $99.04 a barrel. Read The Full Story Pentagon Plays Budget Brinksmanship With Congress 2007-11-21 02:17:23 The Defense Department warned Tuesday that as many as 200,000 contractors and civilian employees will begin receiving layoff warnings by Christmas unless Congress acts on President Bush's $196 billion war request, but senior Democrats said no war funds will be approved until Bush accepts a shift in his Iraq policy. Skirmishing over war funding has continued for nearly a year, but the White House and Congress appear ready to push toward a showdown in the coming weeks. Democratic leaders are convinced that Congress's abysmal approval ratings stem in large part from its inability to force Bush to change his approach in Iraq. But with violence declining in Iraq, Republicans believe they are in an even stronger position to stay the course. White House and Pentagon officials stress that further delays are already slowing the development of countermeasures for roadside bombs and raising the imminent prospect of idle military maintenance depots, canceled training exercises and shuttered facilities at military bases. Read The Full Story 390 Million Year Old Sea Scorpion Was 8-Feet Long 2007-11-21 02:16:43 Claws were a foot-and-a-half long. It is enough to give people with arachnophobia a large dose of the heebie-jeebies. Scientists have discovered the fossilized claw of a sea scorpion that suggests the giant scorpions, spiders and crabs that once crawled around the world were even bigger than previously thought. Found in a German quarry, the claw is 46 centimeters (18 inches) long, suggesting the sea scorpion was 2.5 meters (8 feet) long - almost two feet longer that previously thought. Because land-based scorpions and spiders are believed to have descended from the sea scorpion, scientist believe the discovery means that they also may have been even bigger than had been believed. Dr. Simon Braddy from the department of earth sciences at the University of Bristol, co-author of an article about the find, said: "This is an amazing discovery. We have known for some time that the fossil record yields monster millipedes, super-sized scorpions, colossal cockroaches, and jumbo dragonflies, but we never realized, until now, just how big some of these ancient creepy-crawlies were. I think the claws on this creature would have been powerful enough to rip someone to shreds." Fortunately for mankind, humans were not on the scene until millions of years later. Read The Full Story
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