Eeyores news and view

WHO declares first flu pandemic in 41 years
The World Health Organization scaled up its flu warning to its highest level Thursday, declaring the first global influenza epidemic in 41 years as cases of H1N1 continued to mount in the USA, Europe, Latin America and Australia.
The WHO informed member nations of its decision after holding an emergency meeting in Geneva. Although the agency describes the pandemic as "moderate in severity," the ruling will spur governments to step up preventive efforts and vaccine makers to develop a vaccine in time to stave off an expected glut of cases in the fall flu season in the Northern Hemisphere.
"At this early stage, the pandemic can be characterized globally as being moderate in severity," the WHO said in a statement to member nations, urging them not to take radical steps like closing their borders or restricting trade or travel.
On Wednesday, the WHO said 74 countries had reported nearly 27,737 cases of H1N1 flu, including 141 deaths.
H1N1, better know as swine flu, is also continuing to spread during the start of summer in the Northern Hemisphere. Normally, flu viruses disappear with warm weather, but swine flu is proving to be resilient.
The agency has detailed information on 201 of the 1,027 hospitalized patients, showing that 41% suffered from pneumonia, 16% required mechanical assistance with breathing and 8% died.
About half of the people who have died from the new H1N1 flu were young and healthy, which is more typical of H1N1 flu varieties than of other strains, says CDC spokesman Thomas Skinner.
Th statitics are dramatic: Of 27 deaths in the USA, 17 occurred in people from 24 to 65 years old. Only 9 occurred in people younger than 24 and one in a patient older than 65.
The last pandemic — the Hong Kong flu of 1968 — killed about 1 million people worldwide. Ordinary flu kills about 250,000 to 500,000 people each year.
Many health experts say WHO's pandemic declaration could have come weeks earlier but the agency became bogged down by politics. In May, several countries urged WHO not to declare a pandemic, fearing it would cause social and economic turmoil.
"This is WHO finally catching up with the facts," said Michael Osterholm, a flu expert at the University of Minnesota who has advised the U.S. government on pandemic preparations.
Fear has already gripped Argentina, where thousands of people worried about swine flu flooded into hospitals this week, bringing emergency health services in the capital of Buenos Aires to the brink of collapse. Last month, a bus arriving in Argentina from Chile was stoned by people who thought a passenger on it had swine flu. Chile has the most swine flu cases in South America.
In Hong Kong on Thursday, the government ordered all kindergartens and primary schools closed for two weeks after a dozen students tested positive for swine flu — a move that some flu experts would consider an overreaction.
The U.S. government recently set aside $1 billion for the development of a new vaccine against the novel virus. On Tuesday, the White House asked Congress for approval to spend up to $9 billion more for a vaccine and other preventive measures.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-06-11-swine-flu-pandemic_N.htm

Here are two articles that are a sign of the near future for us here.
Top French court rips heart out of Sarkozy internet law
France's highest court has inflicted an embarrassing blow to President Sarkozy by cutting the heart out of a law that was supposed to put France in the forefront of the fight against piracy on the internet.
The Constitutional Council declared access to the internet to be a basic human right, directly opposing the key points of Mr Sarkozy's law, passed in April, which created the first internet police agency in the democratic world.
The strongly-worded decision means that Mr Sarkozy's scheme has backfired and inadvertently boosted those who defend the free-for-all culture of the web.
Mr Sarkozy and Christine Albanel, his Culture Minister, forced the law through parliament despite misgivings from many of the President's centre-right MPs. It was rejected in its first passage through Parliament.
COMMENT: the law is now effectively dead
The law innovated by creating an agency, known by its initials HADOPI, which would track abusers and cut off net access automatically to those who continued to download illicitly after two warnings.
The law was supported by the industry and many artists. They saw it as a model for the USA and Europe in the fight to keep earning a living from their music and film. Net libertarians saw it as the creation of a sinister Big Brother. Many called it technically unworkable. Some artists saw it as hostile to the young consumers who are their main customers.
The Socialist opposition appealed to the council on the grounds that the constitution was breached by the creation of an extra-judicial agency with powers to punish internet offenders.
The council, which includes two former presidents and is usually seen as elderly and out-of-touch, gave the Left more than it was hoping for.
Les sages – the wise men – as the council is known, took the teeth out of the law. They ruled that "free access to public communication services online" is a right laid down in the Declaration of Human Rights, which is in the preamble to the French constitution. It also said the law breached privacy by enabling the HADOPI agency to track people's internet activity.
It agreed that the law reached the separation of powers because if gave an administrative authority power to impose justice. And to boot, it violated the presumption of innocence because alleged pirates would be cut off without being able to defend themselves, the council said.
The Government insisted today that the HADOPI law would still be put into force, without its censured sections. Ms Albanel, whose job is now on the line, said that the agency would still send warnings to abusers although it was not clear how it would track them. It would then be up to prosecutors and the courts to take action, she said.
That situation already exists and does not work in France and most other countries. Courts do not have time to haul in the millions of ordinary users who pilfer copyright material online.
While bloggers and internet users cheered the council decision, announced last night, the affair has left a bad taste in the entertainment world. Young musicians opposed the law as a weapon designed to protect the big recording companies.
Old-school leftists like Juliette Greco, the grande dame of Left Bank song in the 1950s, strongly supported the crackdown and reproached the Socialists for betraying artists with their opposition to the law.
Patrick Bruel, a middle-aged popular singer with leftwing views, railed against the council decision this morning. Downloading a song free is like walking out of the bakers' with a baguette and refusing to pay for it, he said.
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article6478542.ece

Climate laws add to police workload
FRONTLINE police will be forced to become "carbon cops" under the Government's blueprint to cut greenhouse emissions.
The Herald Sun can reveal Australian Federal Police agents will have to prosecute a new range of climate offences.
But they are yet to be offered extra resources, stretching the thin blue line to breaking point.
"The Government is effectively saying to us, 'Ignore other crime types'," Australian Federal Police Association chief Jim Torr said.
The group had been trying for months, without success, to discuss the issue with Climate Change Minister Penny Wong, he said.
Interpol has warned the carbon market will be irresistible to criminal gangs because of the vast amounts of cash to be made. Possible rorts include under-reporting of carbon emissions by firms and bogus carbon offset schemes.
"If someone is rorting it by even 1 per cent a year, we're talking about many, many millions of dollars," Mr Torr said.
Ms Wong's office said AFP agents would be expected to enter premises and request paperwork to monitor firms' emissions reductions. They would act on the 30-strong Australian Climate Change Regulatory Authority's orders.
It said the authority could appoint staff members or police as inspectors.
She said the Department of Climate Change had spoken to the AFPA and the parties would talk again. Carbon trading involves carbon emissions rights buying and selling. Businesses can offset emissions by investing in climate-friendly projects, or carbon credits.
Ms Wong's office said provisions had been made to ensure compliance. "Inspectors may enter premises and exercise other monitoring powers," she said. "The inspectors may ask questions and seek the production of documents. There is provision for the issue of monitoring warrants by magistrates."
The AFP's 2855 sworn agents are involved in law enforcement in Australia and overseas, investigating terrorist threats, drug syndicates, people trafficking, fraud and threats against children.
Mr Torr said breaking carbon trading laws would be like breaking other laws. "These offences will constitute another federal crime type, along with narcotics importing, people smuggling and all the rest of it, that the AFP will be expected to police," he said. "I can see very complex, covert investigations . . . a lot of scientific expertise required."
The Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme is facing Senate defeat unless it can secure the support of key cross-benchers or the Opposition.
Opposition climate change spokesman Andrew Robb said the scheme was problematic
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25623185-661,00.html

It is not enough that he wants to micromange the car makers and the banks now he wants to get into telling them what they can pay?
US government seeks to rein in executive pay
Democrats want to push administration on US corporate pay strategies
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration is taking a half-step toward taming U.S. executive pay. Some lawmakers prefer a fuller stride.
Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee said Thursday the administration's efforts to hector the private sector into reining in executive pay might not go far enough.
The administration contends that excessive compensation contributed to the U.S. financial crisis, but rejects direct intervention in corporate pay decisions.
Instead, the administration plans to seek legislation that would try to rein in compensation at publicly traded companies through nonbinding shareholder votes and less management influence on pay decisions.
"I do differ with the administration in that hope springs eternal and their position seems to be that if we strengthen the compensation committees we will do better," said the committee chairman, Rep. Barney Frank, a Democrat.
Rep. Brad Sherman, a Democrat, said that instead of giving shareholders a nonbinding voice on pay, their votes should be binding on boards of directors.
Democrats and administration officials agreed that companies across the private sector need to adjust compensation practices to avoid damaging the economy.
Gene Sperling, a counselor to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, said administration guidelines call on all publicly held companies to link compensation to long-term performance, not short-term gains.
"We believe that compensation practices must be better aligned with long-term value and prudent risk management at all firms, and not just for the financial services industry," Sperling said.
The committee also heard from officials from the Federal Reserve and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
While the administration has approached the issue with caution, a top Republican said the plans amounted to "incessant government intervention."
"The president cannot continue his heavy-handed meddling in the private sector and expect it to function, much less flourish," said Rep. Tom Price, chairman of the Republican Study Committee.
Alabama Rep. Spencer Bachus, the top Republican on the committee, added: "We need to get government out of businesses."
The administration has drawn a sharp line between the overall corporate world and those institutions that have tapped the government's $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program.
On Wednesday, it set pay limits on companies that receive TARP assistance, with the toughest restrictions aimed at seven recipients of "exceptional assistance." They are Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp., General Motors Corp., Chrysler LLC, American International Group Inc., GMAC LLC and Chrysler Financial.
The regulations limit top executives of companies that receive TARP funds to bonuses of no more than one-third of their annual salaries.
The administration named Kenneth Feinberg, a lawyer who oversaw payments to families of Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack victims, as a "special master" with power to reject pay plans he deems excessive at the seven companies with the biggest injections of public money. Feinberg also would have authority to review compensation for the top 100 salaried employees at those companies.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Administration-Rein-in-pay-apf-15500519.html?.v=6