Every Wednesday you will find links and top-line summaries to current events around the globe.
Britain Bans Doctor Who Linked Autism to Vaccine [New York Times]
- The doctor whose research linking autism and the vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella influenced millions of parents to refuse the shot for their children was banned Monday from practicing medicine in his native Britain
- Dr. Andrew Wakefield’s 1998 study was discredited — but vaccination rates have never fully recovered and he continues to enjoy a vocal following, helped in the U.S. by endorsements from celebrities like Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy
- The council was acting on a finding in January that Wakefield and two other doctors showed a ”callous disregard” for the children in their study, published in 1998 in the medical journal Lancet. The medical body said Wakefield took blood samples from children at his son’s birthday party, paying them 5 pounds (about $7.20) each and later joked about the incident. The study has since been widely rejected. From 1998-2004, studies in journals including the Lancet, the New England Journal of Medicine, Pediatrics and BMJ published papers showing no link between autism and the measles vaccine
Overseas Madoff Investors Settle With Banks [New York Times]
- About 720,000 investors outside the United States who lost money to the convicted swindler Bernard L. Madoff have settled with their banks, receiving about $15.5 billion in all, according to law firms representing those victims of the fraud
- The settlements cover about 80% of the clients represented by the firms, but Mr. Madoff’s United States investors are unlikely to see similar compensation any time soon, partly because their investments were made directly with Mr. Madoff. Nine institutions have not offered any global settlements
- 60 law firms, in 25 countries and employing 5,000 lawyers, had received a combined $65 million in fees from settlements so far. The Madoff fraud totaled $64.8 billion in paper losses, and it is estimated that it affected a record three million investors, although there were slightly more than 4,900 active direct accounts shown in the Madoff records available to investigators. Madoff was sentenced last June to 150 years in prison
North Korea ‘severs all ties’ with Seoul [BBC]
- North Korea is to cut all relations with South Korea, Pyongyang’s official news agency reports. KCNA said the North was also expelling all South Korean workers from a jointly-run factory north of the border. The move comes after an international report blamed North Korea for sinking a South Korean warship. North and South Korea are technically still at war after the Korean conflict ended without an armistice in 1953. While there were hopes of a reconciliation a few years ago, relations have been deteriorating since then and now appear to be at their lowest point in a decade, correspondents say
- Amid the rising tensions, Seoul announced on Sunday it was ending trade relations with the North in response to the sinking of the Cheonan. South Korea has also said it will drop propaganda leaflets into the North to tell people about the sinking, as well as setting up giant electronic billboards to flash messages. It has resumed propaganda broadcasts to the North, playing radio programmes that will soon be broadcast via border loudspeakers
- The US, which has thousands of troops based in South Korea, has backed Seoul, condemning the incident and confirming late on Monday that it will hold joint anti-submarine naval exercises with South Korean forces. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said the US and China must work together to “fashion an effective response” to the sinking of the Cheonan. Speaking in Beijing, Mrs Clinton said maintaining peace on the Korean peninsula was “a shared responsibility” between the countries. China has called for all sides to show restraint, adding its voice to calls for international co-operation over the incident.
Drug-linked violence shakes Jamaica capital, 31 dead [Reuters]
- Jamaican soldiers and police skirmished on Tuesday with armed supporters of a fugitive alleged drug lord facing U.S. extradition in the third day of violence that has killed 31 people, mostly young civilians. The sound of intermittent gunfire echoed through parts of the Caribbean tourist island’s capital Kingston, as members of the security forces carried out door-to-door searches for Christopher “Dudus” Coke, 42. The United States is seeking his extradition on drugs and gun-running charges
- Police spokesman Karl Angell said 26 civilians were killed and 25 injured in the teeming Tivoli Gardens slum of West Kingston, Coke’s “garrison” stronghold, where U.S. prosecutors say he commands an army of young gunmen. U.S. prosecutors have described Coke as the leader of the “Shower Posse,” which murdered hundreds of people by showering them with bullets during the cocaine wars of the 1980s
- The violence erupted when suspected gangland supporters of Coke shot up or set fire to five police stations and staged carjackings and looting sprees in downtown Kingston on Sunday. The United States requested Coke’s extradition in August last year but Jamaica initially refused, alleging that evidence against him had been gathered through illegal wiretaps. An arrest warrant to begin extradition proceedings against Coke was finally issued last week
Thai court orders Thaksin arrested on terrorism charges [Reuters]
- A Thai court issued orders on Tuesday to arrest former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on terrorism charges in connection with riots over the past two months that were the worst in the country’s modern history. Armed with the arrest warrant, Thai prosecutors and the Foreign Ministry will launch a global hunt for the fugitive telecoms tycoon, a top government official said
- Government officials say Thaksin funded the 10-week, anti-government protests to the tune of about $1.5 million a day and is believed to have organized the smuggling of arms and fighters from Cambodia. If found guilty, he can be sentenced to death
- At least 85 people were killed in Bangkok and more than 1,400 wounded in violence that began in April. The violence peaked last week when almost 40 buildings were set on fire as the army dispersed thousands of anti-government protesters who had taken over the commercial heart of the city. There have been no reports of violence in Bangkok since Thursday, when the red shirt protesters started to withdraw. But some have threatened to resume their campaign next month
India plane crash in Mangalore leaves nearly 160 dead [BBC]
- Nearly 160 people are feared dead after an airliner crashed while landing near the southern Indian city of Mangalore. Indian officials said there were eight survivors among 160 passengers and six crew on board the Air India Express flight from Dubai
- The Boeing 737 overshot the hilltop runway as it tried to land and burst into flames in a valley beyond. All the passengers on the flight were Indian nationals, with many returning from jobs in the Gulf to visit their families, says the BBC’s Sanjoy Majumder in Delhi. There were up to 20 children on board
- Mangalore airport lies on top of a hill with steep drops at the end of each of its two runways. One of the runways was extended in 2006 to accommodate larger planes like the Boeing 737. Local media named the pilot as Serbian Zlatko Glusica. He was said to have 10,000 hours of flying time, including experience of Mangalore’s airport
Senate approves sweeping Wall Street reform bill [Reuters]
- The Senate approved a sweeping Wall Street reform bill on Thursday night, capping months of wrangling over the biggest overhaul of financial regulation since the 1930s. By a vote of 59-39, the Senate awarded a victory to President Barack Obama, a champion of tighter rules for banks and capital markets after a 2007-2009 financial crisis that slammed the economy and led to massive taxpayer bailouts
- The Senate bill must now be merged with a measure approved in December by the House of Representatives. Only then could a final package go to Obama to be signed into law, something that analysts said may happen next month. Changes proposed in both bills — driven by lawmakers eager to look tough on Wall Street before congressional elections in November — threaten to constrain the banking industry and reduce its profits for years to come
- Flashpoints in the House-Senate negotiations will likely include a controversial proposal to curb bank swap-trading. Obama said the final version of the bill would hold financial firms accountable but not stifle the free market. “Over the last year, the financial industry has repeatedly tried to end this reform with hordes of lobbyists and millions of dollars in ads, and when they couldn’t kill it they tried to water it down. … Today, I think it’s fair to say these efforts have failed,” Obama said
Panama’s Darien teems with FARC drug runners [Reuters]
- Drug-running Colombian rebels are using the dense, lawless jungle joining North and South America to smuggle cocaine past sea patrols, creating a new troublespot in the continent’s drug war. Squeezed in the Caribbean and the Pacific by Panamanian and U.S. patrols that regularly seize loads of the drug, traffickers now zigzag through Panama’s Darien province, which joins the isthmus nation with Colombia, Panama’s government says
- Without a standing army since a U.S. invasion overthrew dictator Manuel Noriega in 1989, Panama has little control over its porous border with Colombia. U.S. anti-drug officials say the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which has been smuggling cocaine to the United States for two decades, has turned to coastal overland routes as increased sea and air interdiction cuts off traditional routes northward
- Forcing local indigenous people to act as guides and mules, they haul packs of the white powder along Darien’s rivers and hike through swampy, mountainous rainforest to the Panamanian end of the Pan-American highway, whose path through the Americas is broken only by the 50-mile (80-km) Darien gap
- Jets Owner Instrumental in Luring Super Bowl [New York Times]
- Baghdad thieves kill 14 in jewellery shop raids [BBC]
- Next phase of financial crisis may be the hardest [Reuters]
- Oil Hits Home, Spreading Arc of Frustration [New York Times]
- String of Suicides Continues at Electronics Supplier in China [New York Times]
- Study Finds Supplements Contain Contaminants [New York Times]
- Profile: Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke [BBC]
- 13-Year-Old Is Youngest to Top Everest [New York Times]
Photograph by John Moore/Getty Images
The sun rises over an oil-soaked beach on May 23, 2010 on Grand Isle, Louisiana. (John Moore/Getty Images)
via The Big Picture: Oil Reaches Louisiana Shoes
PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR ALL PREVIOUS HUMP DAY HEADLINES
