By now, I think everyone knows that HIV/AIDS is a major problem, especially in Africa. Poor medical care and lack of knowledge on the disease (even here in the U.S.) have caused fear, misconceptions, dread, and depression for those who contract it. For years, becoming pregnant after contracting HIV was a death sentence for the resulting child.
A few years ago, scientists discovered a “miracle” treatment for pregnant women with HIV–a way for her to deliver the baby without the child contracting HIV. Doctors and humanitarians alike cheered this wonderful treatment. Finally, a solution to the problem of mother-to-baby transmission.
I’m kicking myself at the moment for not being able to find the interview I heard on the radio, on NPR I believe, in which a doctor discussed this procedure. However, I did find a study done in Africa on the treatment.
The woman is given a shot of nevirapine, one drug of a three drug “cocktail” used to help the immune system in AIDS treatment, during labor. The child is then given a shot of it after birth. The majority of the time, this treatment is effective in preventing the transmission, and the child is spared from the terrible life of an HIV patient.
However, what other scientists have just discovered is that the use of nevirapine during labor is actually detrimental to the mother’s treatment later. There is a chance that the mother will become resistant to nevirapine, which renders useless the three drug “cocktail” used for HIV/AIDS treatment for her later. She will die sooner because of this. Her child will be without a mother.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
HIV and Pregnancy: A Death Sentence?
Monday, June 21, 2010
COURT DATE AND GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION FOR TROY DAVIS TOMORROW & WEDNESDAY
Court date set for Troy Davis, an innocent man on Death Row
By: Eugene Puryear
Still fighting for justice after 19 years behind bars
After 19 years on death row, two scheduled executions, innumerable court hearings, rallies and teach-ins, Troy Davis will finally get
his day in court on June 23. In line with the most recent Supreme Court
ruling, the U.S. Federal District Court in Savannah, Ga., will hear evidence as
to Davis’s innocence. Davis was convicted in 1991 of the 1989 murder of
police officer Mark Allen MacPhail. While no gun was found and no physical
evidence linked Davis to the crime, the prosecution produced nine witnesses who
testified to Davis’s guilt.
Troy Davis
Since that time, however, seven of the original nine prosecution witnesses have recanted their testimony.
Nine new witnesses have come forward to support claims of Davis’s innocence. Despite this, courts from Georgia to the U.S. Supreme Court have passed the buck,
either denying Davis a hearing on the new evidence or handing off responsibility to another jurisdiction. Further hampering Davis’s efforts to
have his case heard with new evidence is the fact that Georgia does not guarantee counsel for the appeals of death row inmates, leaving him until recently without effective counsel.
Davis’s case has become a rallying cry for those who oppose the racist death penalty. Tens of thousands of
people around the world have recognized that the conviction of Davis fits the pattern
perfectly for the racist application of the death penalty in the United States.In Georgia, specifically, the American Bar Association found a person is 4.5
times more likely to be sentenced to death for killing a white person than for
killing a Black person. It is obvious that Georgia’s legal
authorities want to continue to muzzle Troy Davis to avoid exposing the reality of their sense of “justice.” With seven witnesses recanting and nine new witnesses, further investigation in the case of Davis will undoubtedly
reveal police misconduct, coercion and lack of due diligence. Further, the
sentence of death and prosecutors’ zeal to ignore potential exonerating evidence
will go even further to show that the entire death penalty process is more about
playing on racist prejudices for political reasons than finding the truth or
“crime prevention.”
After 19 years on death row, more than enough potentially exonerating testimony has come to light for Troy
Davis to, at the very least, receive a new hearing. To his many supporters, it is enough evidence to support his freedom.
19 years too many!
Abolish the racist death penalty!
Free Troy Davis!
Troy Davis Campaign: June 22 Global Day of Solidarity
Troy Davis has a hearing date (June 23, 2010) – Please Take Action!
Who:
Everyone who is
concerned about the human rights case of Troy Davis.
What:
A day of
solidarity activities in communities around the world.
When:
Tuesday, June
22, 2010 (anytime). (This is the day before the hearing).
Where:
A visible
location in your community.
Why:
To keep a light
on the Troy Davis case and to demonstrate a global community
standing together and remain vigilant as the court reviews the new
evidence.
How:
Please organize an activity, such as:
a. a vigil
b. tabling
c. a teach-in
This kit provides some "how to" guides on organizing activities. Also, please use the tools—the event sign-in sheet to keep in touch
with folks who come out, the fact sheet to educate them about the
case, the petition and the handbill about the photo mosaic action.
At all events, please take part in the photo mosaic action ("Lend
Your Face for Justice").
Important:
We want to be
able to report how many events will be taking place to demonstrate
the tremendous support. Please email
dpac@aiusa.org
to let us know if you will
organize an activity. Please include the name of your community,
the type of event and how others can join you (i.e. a contact name,
email address, time and location of the activity).
Available resources: For links and downloadable items, visit
www.justicefortroy.org
Netanyahu: Security blockade on Gaza will only get stronger
Senior cabinet ministers on Sunday approved steps toward easing Israel's land blockade of the Gaza Strip, days after Jerusalem had issued a non-binding declaration supporting such a move.
"There will be no civilian closure of Gaza but there will be a security closure," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after the meeting. "That security closure will be tightened from now on."
He added: "We have deprived Hamas of the ability to blame Israel for hurting the civilian population [of Gaza] and our friends around the world are getting behind our decision and giving international legitimacy to the security blockade on Hamas."
Sources inside the prime minister's office expressed satisfaction with the move. "In the wake of this decision, the world's focus will be on the Qassam rockets Hamas is firing out of Gaza and not the coriander that Israel isn't allowing in," one senior aide told Haaretz.
Another official said the policy reversal would have been the right move, even without Israel's raid on Gaza-bound aid flotilla three weeks ago, which left nine activists dead and stepped up pressure on Israel to lift the siege.
"The new policy will prevent absurdities like blocking shipments of pasta to Gaza and will strengthen Israel's international position in enforcing a security closure. It will also strengthenl Israel's moral standing in its demand to free [captured Israeli soldier] Gilad Shalit.
The decision drew praise from the White House and criticism from the Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip, who called it "deception" and said that the blockade must be lifted entirely.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Happy Daddy's Day
Any man than can ejaculate can be a father but not just any man can be a daddy.
Read more: http://aareports.com/2010/06/happy-daddys-day.html
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Disaster capitalists: Halliburton to make money off oil spill
Disaster capitalists: Halliburton to make money off oil spill | Raw StoryDoes a company that both builds oil rigs and cleans up oil spills have any motivation to prevent oil rig disasters?
That's the question some people in business and politics are asking themselves after Halliburton's purchase of an oil clean-up company 10 days before the Deepwater Horizon explosion that killed 11 workers and launched the worst oil spill in US history.
Some observers see a conspiracy in the actions of the company once headed by Dick Cheney. Halliburton, which built the cement casing for the Deepwater Horizon's drill, announced its purchase of Houston-based oilfield services company Boots and Coots for $240 million on April 9, just 11 days before the Deepwater Horizon explosion.
According to a report at the Christian Science Monitor Friday, Boots and Coots is now under contract with BP to help with the oil spill. The company "focuses on oil spill prevention and blowout response," CSM reports. Halliburton's purchase is not yet a done deal -- it's still awaiting regulatory approval, though few observers think the purchase won't pass muster.
"[Mergers and acquisitions] in the industrial and oil services sectors is totally normal," writes David Anderson at The Inspired Economist, "but the timing in this case, is not. Boots & Coots sure seems like the perfect company to own if it would soon become necessary to get more involved with some oil disaster.
Story continues below...
"Does this strike readers as a coincidence? If so, it’s a pretty lucky one for Halliburton."
Stephen Lemons: Neo-Nazis Patrol the Vekol Valley; J.T. Ready Calls "Border Ops" for Saturday
Neo-Nazis Patrol the Vekol Valley; J.T. Ready Calls "Border Ops" for Saturday - Phoenix News - Feathered BastardPinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu recently announced that "drug
cartels" control the area in his county where deputy Louie
Puroll was allegedly shot at, and where two men were recently
gunned down.
Now Babeu may be getting some assistance from an unwelcome and
unsavory source: Vigilantes led by National Socialist Movement member
J.T. Ready.
As
I blogged back in May, Ready and fellow neo-Nazi Harry Hughes have
been going on illegal alien "patrols" in Pinal County's Vekol Valley,
dressed in camouflage and armed with assault rifles.
Now Ready has announced a "Border Ops" alert for this Saturday via
his profile on the white supremacist New Saxon site, inviting
participants to "bring plenty of firearms and ammo."
"Camouflage or earth tone clothing [is] preferred," according to the
announcement. "Bandanas, balaclavas, or other identity concealing items
are permissible and encouraged."
Ready's statement promises that, "This is the Minuteman Project on
steroids! THE INVASION STOPS HERE!"
I called Ready to ask him if he had informed law enforcement about
his operation, which he says will involve other NSM members and include
an "incursion" into Mexico. He said his group has a law enforcement
liaison flying in, but it didn't sound like he'd run any of this
stunt past the local gendarmes.
"Our statement to law enforcement is to support us," said Ready.
"With choppers...with SWAT teams and so forth. We're telling them to
come down."
But Ready seemed to think it was time for he and his folks to take
matters into their own hands.
Friday, June 18, 2010
3 Weeks After Arrest, Still No Charges in Wikileaks Probe
3 Weeks After Arrest, Still No Charges in Wikileaks Probe :: www.uruknet.info :: informazione dal medio oriente :: information from middle east :: [reg.de]An Army intelligence analyst suspected of leaking classified information to Wikileaks has still not been charged with any crime, three weeks after being arrested and put in pre-trial confinement.
PFC Bradley Manning, 22, is being held at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait, and has been assigned a military defense attorney. The Army and State Department are investigating claims Manning made to an ex-hacker in online chats that he disclosed classified information.
An Army legal advisor in Washington, D.C., says the delay in filing charges is unusual but is not a violation of regulations.
"I think if you were able to make a timeline of all the cases, [three weeks] would be at the high end," said Lt. Col. Chris Carrier, chief of the policy branch of the criminal law division in the Judge Advocate General’s office (JAG) in Washington, D.C.
Carrier, who has no direct knowledge of the Manning case, said the military is required to produce a charge sheet "in a timely fashion," but the complexity of this case may be causing the delay.
"It strikes me that this [case] may be relatively complicated in terms of obtaining, handling, managing the evidence and explaining things," he said. "They have to figure out what they’re dealing with."
Friday, June 11, 2010
Activists dare Congressman to arrest them
Washington (CNN) -- Activists with several free Gaza groups will symbolically surrender Thursday at a Congressman's office, after the lawmaker called for the prosecution of Americans who were aboard a flotilla raided last week by Israeli authorities.
On a conference call organized by the non-profit Israel Project last week, Rep. Brad Sherman, D-California, said that the Justice Department should prosecute any U.S. citizen aboard the well-publicized flotilla that was stopped by the Israeli military on its way to Gaza last week. Nine people were killed in the May 31 incident.
"So what is illegal is helping Hamas," Sherman said. "I will be asking the attorney general to prosecute all Americans involved in what was a clear effort to give items of value to a terrorist organization."
The U.S. State Department considers Hamas a foreign terrorist organization.
Sherman said the activists could be prosecuted under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, which makes it illegal to give supplies to terror groups
Members of Gaza Freedom March said its group and others would offer themselves up for arrest Thursday at 2 p.m. ET.
"Should Rep. Sherman seek to arrest us, we have faith that no jury in America would possibly convict us for our humanitarian and human rights work in Palestine," the organizers said in a statement.
If Sherman does not have them arrested, the group said it will hold a memorial service for people who died in the raid.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Israel’s atomic lies and apartheid
SASHA POLAKOW-Suransky, a senior editor at Foreign Affairs magazine (produced by the very mainstream Council on Foreign Relations), has issued a new book in which he reveals that in March of 1975, Shimon Peres, Nobel Peace Prize winner and current president of Israel, offered to sell the apartheid government of South Africa nuclear bombs.
He did this in his capacity as defense minister of Israel. The UK daily, the Guardian, recently published the documents in a group of articles.
The deal didn't go through, because South Africa found the price too high. It is not clear if Peres had approval of then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to make the deal. The Israeli president's office denies the accusation, saying Polakow-Suransky's charges are based on "interpretation" and not on "facts." The New York Times report on the denial does not mention it was the South African regime that was interpreting the offer as one of nuclear arms!
There are many serious implications here: 1) Israel has nuclear weapons and thus may be ineligible for U.S. foreign aid; 2) Shimon Peres is a monster who was willing to sell nuclear bombs to a regime that practiced the international crime of apartheid; and 3) The notion that "mad mullahs" in Iran can't be trusted with nuclear weapons while the freedom-loving Israeli government can be trusted is total nonsense.
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Wednesday, June 09, 2010
Papua New Guinea: Indigenous People stripped of land rights
Indigenous Landowners have been stripped of their Constitutionally-protected land rights by the government of Papua New Guinea (PNG).
Without any warning or consultation, on 27 May 2010, the government of PNG introduced emergency legislation that dissolves the Constitutional rights of all landowners in PNG, including the right of Indigenous People to own land, challenge resource projects in court and receive any form compensation for environmental damage.
"The legislation was passed by Parliament without anybody being allowed to see the Bill before it was presented", comments ACT NOW!, an independent organization based in PNG. "Nobody was allowed to read or comment on the text. There was no scrutiny by a Select Committee and not even a Parliamentary debate."
Despite the armed attacks on two separate aid caravans on April 27th and May 31st, the international community is determined to bring desperately needed supplies to Palestinians in Gaza city and a Triqui village, on the other side of the world, in Oaxaca, Mexico.
On April 27, the international community was stunned to learn that a paramilitary group known as UBISORT had attacked a peaceful humanitarian aid caravan en route to the indigenous Triqui village of San Juan Copala in Oaxaca.
The government of Oaxaca has since blamed the attack, which resulted in the deaths of two human rights observers, on the actual organizers of the caravan. An absurd claim to say the least.
The caravan was attempting to cross an illegal blockade that UBSIORT (an organization founded by members of Oaxaca's ruling party, the Institutional Revolution Party, or PRI) has imposed on the the Triqui village since January 2010. The blockade has made it impossible for the villagers to leave or gain access to food, water or other basic necessities.
Monday, June 07, 2010
Sunday, June 06, 2010
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