Society's Child

Canadian Woman Found in Nevada, Search for Her Husband Continues

Scott Sonner
The Associated Press
Sat, 07 May 2011 03:48 UTC

© The Associated Press
Penticton British Columbia, couple Albert Chretien and wife Rita are shown in this undated Royal Canadian Mounted Police handout photo. The couple went missing en route to Las Vegas more than a month ago. Rita Chretien has been found alive Friday May 6, 2011 in a remote part of northeastern Nevada police say. Hunters in Elko Country, Nevada, found Rita alive on Friday, RCMP Cpl. Dan Moskaluk announced in a tweet. There is no word yet about the whereabouts of her husband.

Sheriff's deputies searching for the husband of a Canadian woman who survived for seven weeks on water and trail mix in their stranded van in remote mountains near the Nevada-Idaho line were holding out hope against all odds on Saturday that he too somehow could still be alive.

Rita Chretien, 56, told investigators the last she saw of Albert Chretien, 59, was on March 22 when he set off for help on foot with a GPS unit just a few days after they got stuck in the mud on a national forest road in extreme northern Elko County, Elko County Sheriff Jim Pitts said.

While it seemed unlikely he could have survived all this time, sheriff's Detective James Carpenter said crews weren't ready to turn the rescue mission into a recovery operation.

"I want to wait to see what they come up with," Carpenter told the Associated Press. "It's pretty nasty up there and there's no communication."

Deputies from Nevada and Idaho's Owyhee County continued searching the rugged river canyons and snowy mountain sides about 10 miles northeast of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest's Jarbidge Wilderness Area.

"I don't know how much snow is up there, but it's really wet and heavy," Carpenter said from the northeast Nevada town of Elko, which sits on U.S. Interstate 80, roughly 80 miles south of where hunters spotted the Chretien's van on Friday.

US: Kansas boy mauled by leopard after climbing over zoo railing

Michael Winter
USA Today
Fri, 06 May 2011 04:21 UTC

A 7-year-old Wichita, Kan., boy on a zoo outing was mauled on the head and neck by a leopard after the first-grader climbed a railing separating the cage from the public, according to local news reports. The boy was hospitalized in fair condition.

The unidentified boy climbed over a four- to five-foot railing at the Sedgwick County Zoo and approached the Amur leopard, which then grabbed him with a paw or paws and tried to bite the boy, assistant zoo director Jim Marlett told The Wichita Eagle.

KSN-TV reports that witnesses said the leopard grabbed the boy with both paws and that a woman ran to the boy's rescue. Several school groups were at the zoo today.

US: Man Sues Funeral Home Over Mother's 'Humiliating' Burial

CBS News
Fri, 06 May 2011 10:35 UTC

A man has sued a Chicago funeral home and a cemetery over what he claims was the botched body preparation of his mother, and a humiliating burial experience.

As WBBM Newsradio 780's Bernie Tafoya reports, Byron Morrow has sued Taylor Funeral Home, 63 E. 79th St., and Mount Hope Cemetery, 11500 S. Fairfield Ave.

Morrow claims that after his mother died on April 5, the funeral home improperly embalmed her, leaving brown liquid leaking from her skull.

Jail For Man in Charge of Egypt's Security Police

David Kirkpatrick
The Sydney Morning Herald
Sat, 07 May 2011 00:00 UTC

© The Associated Press
The jailing of Habib al-Adly, left, Egypt's former Interior Minister is the first conviction against any cabinet member of the former leader Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted in February.

Egyptians are celebrating the sentencing of the once-feared former Interior Minister, Habib el-Adly, to 12 years in prison, a decision which sets the scene for a series of high-profile corruption trials of senior figures from the government of the ousted president, Hosni Mubarak.

Seen as a triumph for the rule of law and a vindication of the revolution that defined the so-called Arab spring, the trials could include Mr Mubarak.

''This marks a new beginning,'' said Salama Ahmed Salama, the head of the editorial board of the independent newspaper El Shorouk. ''For the first time someone who represented such a brutal force is questioned, interrogated and held accountable. This is something new for Egyptian politics, and it is new for Egyptian justice.''

El-Adly's lawyer could not be reached for comment. But Gameel Said, a lawyer representing about six other former government officials, called the trial fair. ''There was no animosity between the judge and the defendants,'' he said. ''The requirements of justice were considered in this case like any other case.''

Arguably the most powerful cabinet minister under Mubarak, el-Adly, 73, personified the government's repressive tactics. He presided for 14 years over a central security force of nearly 400,000. The security police focused exclusively on suppressing domestic dissent and unrest, specialising in torture and detention without trial. Among the force's most common targets were Egyptians who sought to apply the teachings of Islam to political life, whether through violence or the ballot box.

U.S. Adds 244,000 Jobs in April, but Unemployment Rises

Clifford Marks
National Journal
Fri, 06 May 2011 05:29 UTC

Pace of employment growth accelerates; unemployment up to 9 percent.

U.S. employment growth accelerated last month as the economy added 244,000 jobs, but the unemployment rate rose to 9 percent, the Labor Department reported on Friday.

The report easily bested analysts' expectations for a decidedly mediocre jobs report and marked the fastest rate of employment growth since last year when census hiring inflated numbers. Private-sector growth clocked in at 268,000, the highest level since 2006. The public sector continued to lose ground, shedding 24,000 jobs in April.

Hiring in the service sector drove the gains, with sizable jumps in retail trade (up 57,000), professional and business services (up 51,000), leisure and hospitality (up 46,000), and health care (up 37,000). Goods-producing sectors showed less of a bump, and construction job levels didn't budge, a reflection of how depressed the housing market continues to be.

The number of long-term unemployed--defined as those individuals being out of work for more than 26 weeks--fell 283,000 to 5.8 million, and their share of unemployment fell to 43.4 percent.

US: North Carolina School District to Give Away iPod, Laptop to Children Who Participate in Vaccination Contest

Ethan A
Natural News
Mon, 09 May 2011 00:00 UTC

Carrboro City School (CHCCS) district in North Carolina has launched a shocking new vaccination contest that offers prize incentives to students who get vaccinated. According to the CHCCS district website, for each vaccine a student receives, he or she will also receive an entry into a drawing to win an Apple iPod or a laptop computer -- and students that get the entire recommended vaccine schedule, which includes the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine for both boys and girls, will be allowed extra entries into the contest and more chances to win than other students.

According to the CHCCS website, the three vaccines being promoted are the Meningococcal vaccine, the Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis) combination vaccine, and the HPV vaccine. Between April 1, 2011, and May 31, 2011, students are encouraged to get one or all of these vaccines, and present proof to their school nurse before June 1. Those that do will receive individual entries for each vaccine, and four entries total if they get all three.

The stunt is taking place under the leadership of superintendent Neil Pedersen, and is being promoted by both school nurses and the Orange County Health Department. The CHCCS information page explains that the contest was made possible by a donation from a family whose daughter allegedly died from meningococcal disease, but it does not explain why the Tdap and HPV vaccines are also included in the vaccine drive.

Ship with hundreds sinks off Libya, witnesses say

Colleen Barry & Frank Jordans
Associated Press
Mon, 09 May 2011 13:58 UTC

Milan - An overcrowded ship carrying up to 600 people trying to flee Libya sank just outside the port of Tripoli, the U.N. refugee agency said Monday, citing witness accounts.

Aid officials were still trying to confirm the fate of those people after the vessel broke apart Friday in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Libya, UNHCR spokeswoman Laura Boldrini said.

Witnesses who left the Libyan capital on another boat shortly afterward reported seeing remnants of the sunken ship and the bodies of some passengers floating in the sea, she told The Associated Press.

Other witnesses saw passengers swimming to shore but it was unclear how many survived, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Its staff on the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa interviewed a Somali woman who said she lost her four-month-old baby in the sinking. The woman swam to shore and managed to board another boat heading to Italy, the IOM said in a statement Monday.

China anticipates 'explosion' over anything

Frank Ching
The Japan Times
Tue, 10 May 2011 09:52 UTC

Hong Kong - "They feel they are sitting on a volcano," said a prominent Chinese academic when explaining the government's crackdown on its critics.

"Even though China is very different from Egypt or Tunisia," the Chinese government realizes that "there are so many people who are unhappy over so many different issues, including seizure of land by officials, corruption and housing, that they are fearful that any one issue may provide the fuse that sets off a huge explosion in the country."

The latest Gallup global well-being survey, compiled between 2005 and 2009, provides a glimpse into the mood of the Chinese people. It found that despite robust economic growth, only 12 percent of Chinese people thought of themselves as "thriving," while 71 percent said they were struggling and 17 percent said they were suffering. This is clearly linked to a poor or nonexistent social safety net.

With 56% of American Internet connections now capped, advocates ask FCC for probe

Stephen C. Webster
RawStory
Mon, 09 May 2011 18:25 UTC

The practice of capping Internet bandwidth and selling it as a metered commodity has fully taken hold, to the point where 56 percent of U.S. internet connections are now on plans that restrict how much information users can access before triggering additional fees.

For an Internet landscape that's been accustomed to unlimited access to information the world over, this represents a sea-change for many broadband subscribers. And to at least two prominent Washington, D.C. advocacy groups, it's cause for immense concern.

That's why the directors of Public Knowledge and New America's Open Technology Initiative -- two Washington tech policy groups -- have written to the Federal Communications Commission to request they investigate the potential for these practices encouraging anti-competitive activities.

Epidemics Breed Public Disorder and the Breakdown of Trust

Richard Evans
The Guardian
Mon, 09 May 2011 15:41 UTC

© Getty
Haitians plead with riot police in Port-au-Prince after tear gas was fired into a refugee camp amid growing tensions as a result of the cholera epidemic

In the wake of major outbreaks of diseases like cholera and Aids comes violent mistrust of scientists and politicians. Historian Richard Evans looks at possible lessons for the future.

* * *

One of the most devastating cholera epidemics of modern times is still in progress in Haiti and likely to get worse. It follows on the heels of a major earthquake early in 2010 and a hurricane, which combined to leave one and a half million people homeless by the end of the year.

The spread of the disease was accelerated by poor sanitation in the camps set up for earthquake victims. Water supplies were inadequate or unhygienic and the resources and organisation to provide proper waste removal facilities were lacking, with the result that the epidemic is continuing, with the total number of people affected expected to exceed 800,000 by the end of this year and more than 11,000 fatalities.

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Society's Child

Canadian Woman Found in Nevada, Search for Her Husband Continues

US: Kansas boy mauled by leopard after climbing over zoo railing

US: Man Sues Funeral Home Over Mother's 'Humiliating' Burial

Jail For Man in Charge of Egypt's Security Police

U.S. Adds 244,000 Jobs in April, but Unemployment Rises

US: North Carolina School District to Give Away iPod, Laptop to Children Who Participate in Vaccination Contest

Ship with hundreds sinks off Libya, witnesses say

China anticipates 'explosion' over anything

With 56% of American Internet connections now capped, advocates ask FCC for probe

Epidemics Breed Public Disorder and the Breakdown of Trust

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