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Tuesday 28 June 6pm Protest: Stop Bombing Libya.
Old Palace Yard SW1, opposite visitors' entrance to Parliament.
Note location change.
Jeremy Corbyn MP, poet Sanasino, Sami Ramadani among those joining us.
Called by Stop the War Coalition and CND
1. Vaccine family to sue CSL over flu shots
AFTERMATH: Mick and Kirsten Button, with Saba
A Perth family whose 11-month-old daughter was severely disabled after being vaccinated with CSL's influenza vaccine is about to launch legal action against the Australian pharmaceutical giant. PerthNow understands that Kirsten and Mick Button will shortly launch a lawsuit against CSL. The suit will allege the vaccine supplied by Australian pharmaceutical giant CSL, and distributed for free to parents by the WA government, was defective. Mick and Kirsten Button's daughter, Saba, suffered brain injury and liver, kidney and bone marrow failure after she went into convulsive seizures following her flu shot. Saba may never walk or talk. Lawyers for the family confirmed today that CSL will shortly be named as the first defendant in a lawsuit that will also target the state government. The legal action will be taken under the Trade Practices Act.
Nick Evans, PerthNow
Related Links:
* CSL influenza vaccine investigation 'inadequate' - US Food and Drug Administration
Nick Evans, news.com.au
* State sued over measles vaccination
RTE News/Ireland
2. Pharma drugs could prove fatal to hundreds of thousands of seniors
Hundreds of thousands of older people who take common drugs could be at increased risk of mental decline and death, research suggests. A study of 13,000 people found risks from over-the-counter and prescription drugs, including some antihistamines, painkillers, blood thinners and eye drops for glaucoma. Researchers say well-known side-effects of the drugs could have an impact on the brain, increasing the risk of decline and death. Some of the most dangerous drugs are commonly available, including the antihistamines chlorphenamine (used in the brand Piriton) and promethazine (used in Phenergan), anti-depressants amitriptyline (used in several brands) and paroxetine (used in Seroxat) and the incontinence drug oxybutynin (used in Ditropan).
Jane Kirby, The Independent
Related Links:
* Drug danger – which drugs pose a risk and what are they used for?
The Telegraph
* Bad pharma drug reactions have reached epidemic levels
Daily Mail Reporter, Daily Mail
* Drug regulators accused of risking patient safety by not publishing clinical trial data
Independent.ie
* Adverse reactions lead US patients to ask just how safe are antibiotics?
Carey Purcell, Ecologist
3. Texas Rule Will Prescribe Fewer Potent Drugs to Kids
Children on Medicaid under the age of three would not be prescribed powerful anti-psychotic drugs without a special authorization, under new rules the state Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) implemented last week. In response to widespread concerns about the number of impoverished Texas kids being prescribed drugs like Seroquel and Risperdal — medications that can have serious side effects in children — prescribing doctors would have to get a prior authorization from the state. In an interview last year, state Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston and an opponent of the use of such drugs among kids on Medicaid, said they’d been prescribed to children “under the age of two, and in some cases under the age of one.”
Emily Ramshaw, The Texas Tribune
4. Wireless Phones and Brain Cancer
Lennart Hardell’s group at University hospital, Orebro, Sweden, have been investigating the brain cancer risks of mobile phones since the late 1990s, and conducted several case-control studies in which cancer cases were compared with matched controls in terms of exposure to microwaves from mobile phones and more recently, also cordless phones. The group has consistently found that wireless phones increase the risks of brain tumours, both malignant and benign, especially on the side of the head where the mobile phone is used. The most persuasive results came from two large case-control studies on brain tumours assessing the use of mobile phones and cordless phones. The highest risk for both malignant and benign brain tumours was found for the same side of the head of those who have used wireless phones for more than 10 years. Significantly, the risks are several times greater for the youngest group: people who started to use mobile phones when they are less than 20 years old.
Dr Mae-Wan Ho, Institute of Science in Society
Related Links:
* Another study says mobile usage ups cancer risk
Anil Satapathy, The Mobile Indian
* Supreme Court Ponders Cell Phone-Cancer Lawsuits
Kenra Srivastava, Mobiledia
* Mobile phones carcinogenic say World Health Organisation experts
Martin Beckford, Daily Telegraph
5. 285-Million Dollar Step Toward Freedom From The FDA
The NHF follows Congressional legislation closely and lobbies for and against bills on an ongoing basis. On Thursday, June 16th, the House passed H.R.2112 (the “Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act”) for fiscal year 2012, by a vote of 217 For and 203 Against. The NHF supported passage of this bill. The FDA part of the USDA/FDA spending bill included a spending reduction of $285 million (12 percent) from this year's level of spending for the Agency. With regard to implementation of last year's Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), there is a reduction of $87 million dollars in spending for the FDA's food “safety” activities from this year's level. The NHF predicted this type of outcome when the FSMA passed last December, and it has now come to pass. This seems like peanuts compared to the one billion dollars authorized for the FSMA over ten year s in last year's law, but eight percent less real money is a good step toward stifling the Agency's ability to implement the mandated requirements of the FSMA. In testimony to the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee, FDA Commissioner Hamburg said that these cuts would delay such efforts from moving forward. At a minimum, we will have less taxpayer money wasted on useless FDA bureaucrats replacing good common sense, and usurping our rights to exercise health freedom of choice.
News Release: Lee Bechtel, NHF Lobbyist, National Health Federation
6. LulzSec Strikes At Arizona Police On Immigration Law
Welcome aboard shipmates
(caption & pic courtesy of One Click)
Computer hackers who previously broke into a U.S. Senate server and brought down the CIA web site struck an Arizona police web site on Thursday, releasing dozens of internal documents over the Internet. Lulz Security, saying it opposed a tough anti-immigration law in Arizona, said it was releasing documents that related to border control and other law enforcement activities. Its headline was "Chinga La Migra," Spanish for a more profane way of saying "Screw the Immigration Service." The group's name is a combination of lulz, which is slang for laughs, and sec, which stands for security.
Diane Bartz and Jim Finkle, Reuters
* LulzSec denies detested UK census hack
Charles Arthur, The Guardian
* LulzSec Declares War
Heather Marsh, WL Central
* Tango down – cia.gov – for lulz
David Batty, The Guardian
7. UK ConDem government threatens to cut free legal aid for suspects
Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke
(pic courtesy of One Click)
Kenneth Clarke faced anger last night after threatening to scrap the automatic right of arrested suspects to receive free advice from a solicitor. As part of a drive to save £2bn from his department's budget, the Justice Secretary has announced moves to means-test suspects who want access to a lawyer provided by the state. Critics say the plan would undermine the right to equal treatment under the law regardless of background and create a new layer of bureaucracy that would hinder the criminal justice system. The move is in addition to cuts of £350m on legal aid, withdrawing it from most family disputes, as well as from medical negligence, employment, immigration, housing and debt cases. The Law Society said the practical problems of the move, and the implications for equal access to justice, were "horrendous". Richard Miller, its head of legal aid, said: "Having free legal advice as soon as possible is a cornerstone of the c riminal justice system."
Nigel Morris, The Independent
Related Links:
* Ignore the warnings about legal aid changes and risk meltdown in courts
Lucy Reed, The Guardian
* This attack on UK legal aid is an attack on justice
Jack Dromey, The Guardian
* Outrage over legal aid cuts
Phil Scullion, politics.co.uk
* Legal aid cuts: who will be hit hardest?
Lisa Evans, The Guardian
8. Climbdown as MEPs' abuse of expenses is finally revealed
(pic courtesy of One Click)
The European Parliament yesterday bowed to three years of pressure and released a secret report that exposed the widespread abuse of expenses by MEPs. A meeting of the Parliament's governing bureau on Wednesday agreed not to contest a court ruling that instructed it to release a 2008 internal audit which it had spent hundreds of thousands of pounds trying to keep secret. According to the audit, which looked at a sample of anonymous MEP claims, members had channelled their £125,000-a-year allowances for secretaries and research assistants into family-owned businesses, foreign bank accounts and "front" companies. The Galvin Report analysed 167 allowance payments dating back to 2004 and 2005. It found systematic abuses of parliamentary allowances, including payments made to assistants of MEPs who were not even accredited to work in the Parliament, and end-of-year bonuses worth nearly 20 times the monthly salary paid to assistants, which allow ed members to use up their full annual allowance. It found that one payment, supposedly for secretarial work, was made to a crèche whose manager was a local politician from the MEP's party.
Oliver Wright, The Independent
Related Links:
* Lawyer forces U-turn on MEP expenses
Dearbhail McDonald, Independent.ie
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