Greek debt talks fail to find solution

The International Monetary Fund annual meetings wrapped up in Washington on Sunday with widespread concern over the eurozone sovereign debt crisis but no immediate consensus on the solution.

Participants said they were waiting for the ratification of the action plan agreed on July 21 by the eurozone, particularly by the German Bundestag this week, before starting serious negotiations on increasing the rescue fund's firepower or asking for a bigger writedown in private sector holdings of Greek debt.

Meanwhile, Greece continued to insist it would not default, despite widespread private pessimism among attendees at the meetings.

Josef Ackermann, chief executive of Deutsche Bank, on Sunday criticised suggestions among some G20 officials about revisiting a planned rescheduling of private bondholdings -- a central part of a planned second eurozone-IMF rescue package for Greece agreed in principle on July 21. more

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Greek finance minister: 'Whatever it takes' (to rob the citizens blind?)

Speaking in Washington at an international banking conference, Evangelos Venizelos said Sunday that his country will do "whatever it takes" to meet its financial obligations.

"Greece wants to make it and will make it," Venizelos told members of the Institute of International Finance. "We are ready to take the necessary initiatives, at any political cost."

But the cost is "very expensive," he added, saying that Greece should not be a "scapegoat" for the broader sovereign debt problems in Europe.

Greece has been struggling to dig itself out a deep hole for well over a year, with limited success. The government in Athens came to the brink of default last year, and again in July, before being rescued by other European nations and the International Monetary Fund.

While then nation's debt load is nearly twice the size of its economic output, Venizelos said Greece makes up a tiny fraction of the overall debt burden of the overall euro-zone. more

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Gold dispensing ATMs arrive in China

China’s wealthy now can get up to 2.5 kilograms of gold via ATMs in the city’s upscale clubs and private banks, state media reported.

The machines made their debut in a Beijing shopping district on Sunday, according to AFP. Limit for maximum withdrawal is set at 1 million yuan, or about $157,000 worth of gold. Cash or credit card accepted.

The machines, manufactured by TG-Gold-Super-Markt.De in Germany, first debuted in Europe in 2009 and by late 2010 arrived in the U.S.

Since the credit crisis, the value of gold has skyrocketed as a safe haven investment choice, selling for just over $500 an ounce in 2007 to recently cresting near a record high of $1,900 per ounce in August.

However, the timing of the new ATMs for China’s nouveau riche could be better. In recent days gold prices have plummeted, dropping $100 on Friday alone – the steepest drop since 1980. more

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Dozens arrested in 8th day of 'Occupy Wall Street' protests

About 80 people were arrested on the eighth day of protests in New York on Saturday, the greatest number since demonstrations started near Wall Street.

Earlier arrests in the week totaled about 20 on previous days for similar charges, according to New York City Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne.

The latest arrests include disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration and assaulting a police officer, according to Browne.

The protests started September 17 in lower Manhattan and are aimed at drawing attention to the role powerful financial interests played in America's spiraling economy.

"We've got a whole bunch of people sitting in Washington that can't figure it out," said organizer Bill Csapo.

The mission is for " 20,000 people to flood into lower Manhattan, set up beds, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months," the official "Occupy Wall Street" website read.

By Saturday, the site had a series of updates on arrests, including the exact location of a police van holding arrestees. One was described as having a "very bad concussion, possibly life threatening" and urged participants to demand medicare care for those affected.

"It's just letting people know that it's going on," Csapo said on the website. "We need to call the police and tell them to let these people go." more

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Virtual monkeys write Shakespeare (not quite)

A few million virtual monkeys are close to re-creating the complete works of Shakespeare by randomly mashing keys on virtual typewriters.

A running total of how well they are doing shows that the re-creation is 99.990% complete.

The first single work to be completed was the poem A Lover's Complaint.

Set up by US programmer Jesse Anderson the project co-ordinates the virtual monkeys sitting on Amazon's EC2 cloud computing system via a home PC.

Mr Anderson said he started the project as a way to get to know the Hadoop programming tool better and to put Amazon's web services to the test.

It is also a practical test of the thought experiment that wonders whether an infinite number of monkeys pounding on an infinite number of typewriters would be able to produce Shakespeare's works by accident.

Mr Anderson's virtual monkeys are small computer programs uploaded to Amazon servers. These coded apes regularly pump out random sequences of text.

Each sequence is nine characters long and each is checked to see if that string of characters appears anywhere in the works of Shakespeare. If not, it is discarded. If it does match then progress has been made towards re-creating the works of the Bard.

To get a sense of the scale of the project, there are about 5.5 trillion different combinations of any nine characters from the English alphabet. more

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Putin once again seeks presidency, with possible negative outcomes says Gorbachev

Ex-USSR leader Mikhail Gorbachev has warned Russia risks wasting six years if PM Vladimir Putin returns to the presidency in March as expected.

Reacting to the news Mr Putin will run for office in 2012, Mr Gorbachev said Russia was at an "impasse" and that he doubted Mr Putin could bring change.

Mr Putin told a ruling United Russia party congress on Saturday he would stand again.

If he is elected, current President Dmitry Medvedev may replace him as PM.

Mr Putin served two terms as president before Mr Medvedev took over in 2008. He was barred by the constitution from running for a third consecutive term.

Mr Gorbachev said he hoped Mr Putin's move would provide an incentive for the leadership to get Russia out of the "impasse" it was in, but that this was unlikely as it was he who had created the current situation.

"We can assume that there will be no movement forward if there are not serious changes along the lines of a replacement of the entire system," he wrote in the opposition Novaya Gazeta newspaper, which he partly owns.

"Without this we could lose six years. I think that the future president needs to think about this very seriously." more

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Should all bullfighting be banned?

A sold-out crowd of nearly 20,000 recently gathered to see the last bullfight in Barcelona.

Though a bullfighting ban doesn't take effect until January 1, 2012, three of Spain's top matadors executed their final show for a Catalan audience on Sunday, September 25.

The Catalan government instituted the ban after a petition was circulated calling the sport barbaric.

The ban divided opinion in Catalan and the rest of Spain, as supporters of bullfighting likened it to the loss of a storied tradition.

"For a city like Barcelona to close this arena is like throwing a Picasso painting into the garbage," a fan at the final show told the AFP news agency.

Animal rights advocates would like to see the ban extend into the rest of mainland Spain, though they anticipate a tougher battle in areas like Madrid and Andalucia where a history of bullfighting permeates large parts of the culture. more

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'Tent city' still providing refuge for Whitehorse homeless: Canada

As workers suck up leaves covering the Yukon government building lawn and drain the sprinkler system before freeze-up, residents of Whitehorse's first 'tent city' are doing their best to fend off the bitter autumn winds.

The cluster of tents, some swaddled in tarps for extra protection, sprouted up right below the premier's office in June and slowly grew over the summer.

This week a travel trailer joined the collection.

Forty-seven-year-old Piroska Szucs and her boyfriend bought the trailer to park at tent city because they had nowhere else to go. Szucs works at a local restaurant while her boyfriend has a job at the remote Cantung mine, just across the Yukon border in the Northwest Territories.

Originally from Hungary, Szucs lived in London, Ont. before coming to the Yukon. She was shocked by the lack of affordable housing Whitehorse and the extent of homelessness.

She's not sure how long they'll camp beside the government building, but they bought a generator for the trailer so they'll have heat and power as the temperatures drop.

The encampment is a glaring example of the Yukon's housing crisis, an issue that's front and centre for all political parties during the territorial election campaign. more

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Oilsands pipeline protest on Parliament Hill: Canada

Hundreds of protesters flocked to Parliament Hill Monday to voice their displeasure with TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline project, a $7-billion plan to ship crude oil from Alberta to Texas.

Protest organizer and Greenpeace Canada spokesman Peter McHugh promoted the event as "a historic mass act of civil disobedience over the tarsands," which also included members from the Council of Canadians.

As of 10:10 a.m., there were approximately 300 people at the protest, according to the CBC's Kathleen Hunt.

The civil disobedience was inspired by action in Washington, D.C., in late August where Canadian actress Margot Kidder and dozens of others were arrested.

Protesters, who signed up at a website called Ottawa Action, arrived around 10 a.m. for a sit-in around the Centennial Flame.

Dozens of RCMP officers and security guards are also patrolling Parliament Hill to prevent protesters from entering the Centre Block. more

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WikiLeaks uncovers Canadian detainee mystery: Mentally disabled man held in detention for 18 months in US-run Afghani prison

U.S. diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks have exposed a troubling case of a mentally ill Canadian-Egyptian held in a U.S.-run Afghanistan prison for more than 18 months.

Khaled Samy Abdallah Ismail, an Egyptian-born engineer, was captured in April 2006 and held at the Bagram Theatre Internment Facility where he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, the cables say.

The American military held Ismail at Bagram — a prison dubbed the "other Guantanamo" — until at least October 2007 and often relegated him to segregation despite "largely circumstantial" evidence against him, while they debated whether to send him to Egypt or Canada. Ismail is the only known Canadian to be held in Bagram for that length of time.

Canadian consular officials paid their first visit to the dual citizen eight months after his capture, but another nine months passed before Canada suddenly refocused on the case and hatched a plan to bring him to Ontario, according to the cables from March and October of 2007.

Then the paper trail goes cold, shrouding his case in mystery and leaving unanswered questions about how he ended up in Afghanistan and what happened to him.

Through sources, court documents and the two leaked U.S. diplomatic cables, CBC News has pieced together a partial picture of Ismail's life in Canada and strange journey to war-torn Afghanistan. more

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Alternatives to antibiotics for farm animals sought

The federal government is funding a team of 16 scientists to try to figure out how farmers can use fewer antibiotics in the chickens, pigs and cows Canadians eat.

Antibiotics are used in animal feed to prevent disease and promote growth.

In one experiment, scientists are replacing antibiotics with mixtures of antioxidants and probiotic bacteria. Other experiments include giving animals cranberry extract to treat intestinal necrosis, and trying essential oils as immune boosters.

Gabriel Piette, a researcher with Agriculture Canada who is involved in the experiment exploring alternatives to antibiotic use, told CBC-TV's Marketplace that the Treasury Board is spending $4 million on various projects across the country.

The research will wrap up in 2013.

The experiments on alternative treatments are revealed in a letter signed by Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz, and sent to members of the public who wrote letters of concern to the federal government after viewing a Marketplace episode about the overuse of antibiotics in chickens.

In that episode, Marketplace tested 100 samples of chicken from major grocery stores across Canada and found widespread contamination with superbugs — bacteria resistant to antibiotics crucial to human health. more

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Greece faces more strikes as default looms

As the prospect of a disastrous debt default hung over Greece, the government faced more strikes and protests against its new austerity measures needed to appease the country's rescue creditors.

Athens commuters faced more misery as metro, tram and suburban rail workers were on a 24-hour strike, while buses and trolleys were to stop operating for several hours in the middle of the day. Airline passengers also faced delays as air traffic controllers implemented work-to-rule action, refusing to work overtime. A 48-hour strike by all transport workers is expected later this week.

Greek police held their own protest, with the force's Special Guards unit hanging a giant black banner from the top of Lycabettus Hill in the capital reading "Pay day, day of mourning." more

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India floods situation worsens in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Orissa

More than two million people have been affected by floods in India as torrential rains lash Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar states.

Heavy monsoon rains have been battering parts of India for the past fortnight.

More than 80 people have died in flood-related incidents, and some areas have been cut off by rising waters.

Heavy rains in Uttar Pradesh (UP) have killed more than 30 people across the state. A flood alert has been issued in eight districts in Bihar.

In Orissa, the worst affected state, vast parts of 10 districts have been inundated by flood waters, officials say.

Special Relief Commissioner PK Mohapatra said 55 people had died - some drowned, while others died from snakebites and in wall collapses.

More than 10 people who had gone missing after the boat in which they were travelling overturned in the Brahmani river in Dhenkanal district were rescued on Monday, officials say.

Some areas have been cut off because of breaches to river banks and embankments. Helicopters are the only way to bring food and water to people stranded there.

Officials said that more than 130,000 in Orissa alone have been evacuated to safety as the relief and rescue operation moves into full swing. more

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Syria unrest: 'Tanks bombard central town of al-Rastan'

Syrian tanks have bombarded a strategic town in the restive central province of Homs overnight, injuring three people, activists and residents say.

Troops fired with machine guns mounted on tanks in the town of al-Rastan on the main road north to Turkey.

Homs province is a major flashpoint in the seven-month conflict, with army defectors backing protesters opposed to President Bashar al-Assad's rule.

More than 2,700 people have died in the crackdown, the UN says.

A resident of al-Rastan told Reuters news agency there were about 60 tanks and armoured vehicles to the east of the town.

Activists have reported an offensive on towns and villages in Homs province, where a large number of soldiers are said to have defected to the opposition.

Reports on Sunday said security forces killed 12 people in Qusseir, another town in the province. more

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China's richest man Liang Wengen may join ruling elite: So long, communsim, hello facism

China's richest man is set to join the ruling Communist Party's Central Committee, media reports say.

If Liang Wengen, 55, is chosen by the party's 2012 congress, he will be the first entrepreneur to join the body, which in effect rules the country.

The BBC's Martin Patience in Beijing says this would be a hugely symbolic shift in the party's view of business.

Construction magnate Mr Liang topped both the Forbes and Hurun rich lists with a wealth of more than $9bn (£6bn).

The media reports said he had completed a vetting procedure for the 300-strong body and was on track for approval by the congress in October next year.

Our correspondent says China's wealthy are increasingly being courted by the party, which only started allowing businessmen into its ranks a decade ago.

Mr Liang's company Sany, which manufactures cranes and excavators, has benefited in recent years from China's building boom. source

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Cancer cost 'crisis' warning from oncologists

The cost of treating cancer in the developed world is spiralling and is "heading towards a crisis", an international team of researchers says.

Their Lancet Oncology report says there is a "culture of excess" with insufficient evidence about the "value" of new treatments and technologies.

It says the number of cancer patients and the cost of treating each one is increasing.

It argues for reducing the use and analysing the cost of cancer services.

About 12 million people worldwide are diagnosed with cancer each year. That figure is expected to reach 27 million by 2030.

The cost of new cancer cases is already estimated to be about £185bn ($286bn) a year.
Rising costs

A group of 37 leading experts from around the world say the burden of cancer is growing and becoming a major financial issue.

Their report says most developed countries dedicate between 4% and 7% of their healthcare budgets to dealing with cancer.

"The issue that concerns economists and policymakers is not just the amount of money spent on healthcare, but also the rate of increase in healthcare spending or what has become known as the cost curve."

It says the UK's total spend on breast cancer has increased by about 10% in each of the past four years.

"In general, increases in the cost of healthcare are driven by innovation. We spend more because we can do more to help patients."

For example, the number of cancer drugs available in the UK has risen from 35 in the 1970s to nearly 100, but the report warns they can be "exceedingly expensive".

It adds: "Few treatments or tests are clear clinical winners, with many falling into the category of substantial cost for limited benefit."

The cost of drugs is not the only target for criticism.

Lead author Prof Richard Sullivan told the BBC: "It's not just pharmaceuticals. Biomarkers, imaging and surgery are all getting through with very low levels of evidence - the hurdles are set too low." more

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Christine Lagarde: IMF may need billions in extra funding -- Wait, so the IMF needs its own bailout now?

Christine Lagarde has signalled that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) may have to tap its members – including Britain – for billions of pounds of extra funding to stem the European debt crisis.

The head of the IMF has warned that its $384bn (£248bn) war chest designed as an emergency bail-out fund is inadequate to deliver the scale of the support required by troubled states.

In a document distributed to the IMF steering committee at the weekend, Ms Lagarde said: "The fund's credibility, and hence effectiveness, rests on its perceived capacity to cope with worst-casescenarios. Our lending capacity of almost $400bn looks comfortable today, but pales in comparison with the potential financing needs of vulnerable countries and crisis bystanders."

The suggestion came after European officials revealed they were working on a radical plan to boost their own bail-out fund, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), from €440bn (£384bn) to around €3 trillion.

The plan to increase the EFSF firepower is the crucial part of a three-pronged strategy being designed by German and French authorities to stop the eurozone's debt crisis spiralling out of control. It also includes a large-scale recapitalisation of European banks and a plan for an "orderly" Greek default.

Although Britain is not involved in the large-scale eurozone bail-out projects, it is liable for 4.5pc of IMF funding. more

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Massive Shark Kill near South Padre Island - 26th Sept 2011

The largest seizure of sharks ever confiscated by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department game wardens was recently unloaded at South Padre Island after wardens pulled in approximately three miles of illegal gill net just offshore from South Padre Island.

Entangled in the deadly net set in state waters by Mexican fishermen were between two and three thousand juvenile sharks.

It will take several hours to dispose of the net and rotting sharks.

TPWD Sgt. James Dunks spoke to the Nature Report about the incident.

"This is by far the most sharks I have ever gotten in one load. Myself and my deck hand have been working on this boat for 15 years and have never seen this many sharks in one net," Sgt. Dunks said.

Worldwide, at least a third of all sharks are threatened by overfishing. Sharks are being increasingly targeted to supply a demand for shark meat and fins for shark fin soup. Read More

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Tanks block access to western Syrian city, activist says - 26th Sept 2011

The sound of heavy weapons and machine gun fire echoed through the night in the restive city of Al-Rastan after a large number of tanks moved in to block key roads and areas of town, an opposition activist said Monday.

"Several tanks have been in place since May at each of the entrances of the city, but Sunday a great number of tanks began blocking the agriculture parts of the town and the surrounding villages and even took positions inside Rastan," said the activist, a member of the opposition Local Coordinating Committees who could not be identified because of security concerns.

Elsewhere in Syria, security forces captured and killed two activists in Qosair, a town in Homs province, according to the Local Coordinating Committees, the activist group that has been organizing anti-government protests.

Students also continued their protests against the rule of Syrian President Bashar al Assad, chanting, "No teaching, no learning until the fall of the regime" in Homs, Daraa and Damascus provinces.

In Al-Rastan, more than 50 tanks were in and around the city in the northwestern part of Homs province, said the activist, whose claims could not be independently verified. Read More

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A mysterious explosion left one woman dead and several injured - Witnesses claim it came from the sky, Argentina - 26th Sept 2011

The incident occurred in a neighbourhood in Buenos Aires district a mysterious explosion caused damage upto two blocks away, the origin of the explosion could not be determined.

The explosion occurred around 2 and resulted in the Death of One woman with an additional Six being injured. The victim was 40 year old Silvia Infante Espinosa according to local reports.

The explosion which destroyed 2 houses and 15 cars is being investigated, Silvia was trapped under the rubble and did not survive, the additional 6 injured were taken to hospital for treatment.

According to eyewitness reports, the explosion was caused by an item that fell from the sky, the explosion happened on impact of this mysterious item.

"I saw something fall from the sky light," said one woman when asked. "It's a great question," shot another neighbor. Later, a young man said: "It was like a bomb."

Meanwhile, the owner of one of the affected houses he is dismayed by the TV cameras stationed at the site. "I do not know what happened. Just know that there was an explosion," simply noted.

Two blocks from the explosion, piles of rubble, wood, glass, twisted sheets of what were cars or roofs of houses. Two houses collapsed whole and there is mountains of material.

This is a quiet neighborhood, all the neighbors are baffled by what's happened, it will take hundreds of workers to remove the debris. Estigation is still ongoing as fire crews and police science are present.

Also present is the Minister of Justice and Security, Ricardo Casal, the Buenos Aires police chief Juan Carlos Paggi and the Peruvian Consul in Argentina Hugo Pereira.

So far, we do not know the cause "I do not want to assume anything. Let's wait for the forensic skills," said the chief of the volunteer fire department of Esteban Echeverría, Guillermo Perez. ORIGINAL ARTICLE HERE >>

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