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September 01, 2004
Compilation Sept. 1 and Aug. 31, 04 -- Updates and Three New Posts from Bud
Update: Link to The Hell's Angels in Canada, Port Security, Interview with Sher, author of "Road to Hell", and More , a series of articles on those who ride motorcycles in groups, their criminal pursuits, fears of budding connections in Canada's military with implications, and more -- from Alpha Kitty on Angry_Lobo Sept. 1, 04.
* Hells Angels say they 'support' Armed Forces -- 'A patriotic organization': Gang's Web site links to DND 'Morale Message Board'
* Forces fear biker gang infiltration -- Military may be training ground, source of weapons for drug trade
* Boozefighters case just one biker link under investigation
* Gang member represents himself
* Hells Angels Not Confronted, Says Author -- Julian Sher, whose "Road to Hell" tracks the gang's Canadian rise, believes we all underestimated them. -- Don't miss the interview with the author.
An explosive article, Alpha_Lobo: Somali Refugee who became Dutch MP defies Islam with film about Koran, Denounces Multiculturalism or go here for the original article in the Telegraph, UK
List of Other Articles:
* Cops fear grow-op exposure -- toxic mould -- Update added later to this post
* Update: Posts from Bud
* The New 'principled' Liberals stumble out of the blocks
* So the lawyers want to sleep with their clients? So what?
* "Yes, we have more [refugee] process than the United States, but we have to be respectful of our values and the constitutional framework in place."--Anne McLellan
* OSC struggles under load -- Ranks stretched thin: Casework includes Nortel, Hollinger, Royal Group, Atlas
* Has anyone noticed how successful Bombardier appears to have been with rail in China? Was our former PM able to network with China's elites -- compliments of his travels on the taxpayers of Canada -- Would this have been advantageous to Power Corp, Bombardier and the family? Or am I entirely too cynical?
* Japanese consortium bid for railway project -- "when China wants to develop its high-speed railway, which is above 300 kilometres per hour, foreign advanced technology is crucial" -- This should be a wake-up call for those who happened to notice that China built a Canadian reactor after stealing the plans from Canada.
* Effort to nab Internet criminals nets 156 arrests, convictions
* Indulge in dark chocolate, open an artery -- Cardiovascular benefits -- but read to the end before you indulge
* B.C. halfway house pressured into closing
* Stacked Parliamentary Panel Acted as Expected: Top court judges backed by panel -- The Tories refused to endorse the nomination of activist justices
* France: Head scarf law to stay
* Canada goes to Vietnam's deadly roads to find truckers -- Doesn't this reassure you? Let's just hope they don't do double duty trucking and running grow-ops with some of their fellow Vienamese who are already in "business" here.
* Terror spies on airlines -- Sympathizers looking for weaknesses: pilots
* Cholesterol test misses culprit in cardio risk -- 30,000 participants: Study concludes 'there is no safe level of smoking'
Cops fear grow-op exposure -- toxic mould
Cops fear grow-op exposure Aug. 29, 04, Doug Beazley, Edmonton Sun
It's more than just smoking the stuff that's bad for your health. Canada's police chiefs are calling on the federal government to launch a study into the health effects for police officers who bust marijuana grow operations (MGO).
The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police is particularly worried about toxic mould often found in damp, poorly ventilated illegal grow-ops.
"Large amounts of moisture in MGO confined spaces create and encourage the growth of many micro-organisms and indoor species of mould," said the resolution, passed last week at the CACP's annual conference in Vancouver.
[. . . . ] Grow-ops also use large amounts of pesticides and fungicides to keep plants healthy. Between the mold and the poisons, said Capital Health's medical officer of health, it's not hard for someone exposed to a grow-op to get seriously sick. [. . . . ]
Update:
For sources of more information on criminal activity in Canada including grow-ops, see the following:
Tying the hands of Police Officers -- Canadian justice? -- Canada is a safe haven for crooks and terrorists. -- Ruling curbs police profiling -- Search of car containing 22 pounds of pot violated Charter -- Decision reveals high number of false-positives in practice
This article links to Ruling curbs police profiling -- Search of car containing 22 pounds of pot violated Charter -- Decision reveals high number of false-positives in practice Aug. 26, 2004, Tracy Tyler
Angry_Lobo, August 20, 2004 -- Pot: Legalization or Not? As it is, the whole pot "industry" is entangled with drug gangs and crime which includes the following articles:
* The Pot Patrol: How spotters untangle web of B.C. bud
* Fraser Institute: BC’s Marijuana Crop Worth Over $7 Billion Annually -- Legalize marijuana and tax it? -- Download the .pdf file.
* Tips For Landlords: How to Prevent Marijuana Grow Operations
* The rot/pot spreads: Grow Ops in Canada's Centre
* Cadman Questions Surrey Liberal “Promises”
* Surrey MP Not Surprised by Ontario Grow-Op Findings -- Old News in BC - But Will Liberals Now Act as Green Tide Washes into Ontario
* Grow-ops ‘No Joke” – Cadman To Prime Minister Jean Chretien -- Our ex PM, JC has said,
“I don’t know what is marijuana. Perhaps I will try it when it will no longer be criminal. I will have my money for my fine and a joint in the other hand.”
Then download the .pdf file from the Government of Canada which includes quite comprehensive information on the extent of all kinds of organized crime in Canada Criminal Intelligence Service Canada -- 2004 Annual Report on Organized Crime in Canada
For a quick overview of that report, check the Check the Table of Contents or look here.
Update: New Posts from Bud
The New 'principled' Liberals stumble out of the blocks
Paul Martin assured Canadians that he was going to be more inclusive, less dictatorial than his predecessor, "da liddle guy from Shenanigan" (as Diane Francis called him). Well, even before he hit the floor of the Commons, he reneged on various promises. His more 'diplomatic', sensitive approach to the United States has been harpooned by loud-mouthed Carolyn Parrish and he hasn't even given her a rap on the knuckles. But far more egreious than that was his promise to open up the nomination process for picking the two new Supremes. First, he put a strict deadline on questioning; then he didn't even allow the nominees to be questioned directly. The opposition could talk to the Justice Minister, Irwin Cotler, who gave them vague platitudes and evasive answers--a complete mockery, in short.
Martin also said he would carry out Chretien's promise to aid Africa in its attempts to develop economically and to establish peace. So what concrete steps has the Foreign Minister, Pettigrew, proposed to end the barbaric slaughter of black Sudanese? Answers: A. None, or B. a 'soft diplomacy' that is so soft that it can't be heard or felt.
Finally, we come to his promise not to squander the taxpayers' money. But we see that he has done just that by holding a huge thank you party for Liberal contributors. The fact that Martin used The Laurier Club, a government property, to host this glad-handing affair, is only made worse by a bunch of Manitoba chiefs flying in for the shindig on taxpayers' money. The Liberal playbook seems to go like this: we give to you natives taxpayers' money; you contribute some of that back to us; we invite you to the party, and you use more tax money to fly in to Ottawa; then when it comes wampum payout time, we will fund you even more handsomely. In a very restricted way it is a win-win situation. Not for Joe Sucker, the taxpayer, of course.
© Bud--It will be interesting to see how long it takes Martin to break the rest of his promises, such as speeding up the Gomery criminal investigation committee work into the government's Sponsorship / Adscam / slush fund to get to the bottom of the kickbacks to the Liberals. It is due to begin soon.
So the lawyers want to sleep with their clients? So what?
Now, here is the law profession that has created a lucrative cottage industry from litigation against doctors, teachers, and every other profession that might use their undue influence to seduce a client. Usually, this is the wicked white male, who puts his enormous psychic powers to lascivious ends. However, when it came time to create legislation that would bar lawyers from seducing, or being seduced by clients, they would have none of it. You would think that surely they could see this decision as demonstrating a glaring double standard.
While on the subject of lawyers, Diane Francis in Saturday's Financial Post tells us the unbelievable story of how a Canadian got royally screwed in the U.S. Ray Loewen onced owned the largest funeral business in North America. He became embroiled in a lawsuit with a power Mississippi Democrat who thought that he deserved $10 million more for his funeral business than the Loewen Group was paying. By getting a jury composed of Mississippi hicks to rule in his favour and then award the politician $625 million in damages, Loewen was effectively forced into bankruptcy and the company stock, from giving annual 30% dividends, tumbled to a zero value. As well 15,000 employees lost their jobs.
The cost of these insanely high awards doesn't destroy just foreign companies, but American ones also. Legal shenanigans (mainly in the south) have bankrupted 70 U.S. companies and cost 70,000 workers their jobs just in the last year. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimates that a whopping $250 billion is sucked out of the economy and business community. There are 3,000 lawyers who now handle only class action suits. These suits are so costly for a business to defend that usually they settle out of court, even if the case is weak or frivolous. Personal injury cases are another drain on the economy--remember the multi-million dollar award for the spilled McDonald's hot coffee case? The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is so furious at these awards they are going to target John Edwards, the Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate, because he made his millions as a personal injury litigator. This might make Kerry sorry he picked him. Like Canadians, the American public is fed up with skyrocketing insurance costs, mainly due to absurd jury awards.
© Bud--Still fuming over the doubling of my own car insurance, even though I haven't had an accident in years, or even a speeding ticket, for that matter. My company claims it has to do this mainly because of large personal injury settlements.
"Yes, we have more [refugee] process than the United States, but we have to be respectful of our values and the constitutional framework in place."--Anne McLellan
To extend the use of weasel words like "process", she acknowledges that the refugee system might have to "recalibrate". It is now finally obvious even to Sgro, Cotler, and McLellan that our refugee system is horrendously expensive and ultimately dangerous. The plea that we are the world's most compassionate people won't mean a thing to the Americans if yet another terrorist attacker can be linked to our porous policy. Known terrorists have been inhabiting Canada for years, i.e. Mahmoud Jaballah, a terrorist with links to al-Queda has successfully been fighting deportation to Eygpt for years. The poor dear might be tortured back home. So what? We Canadians would be safer, which is the first and fundamental principle of any government. Ah, but as a report in The National Post (Aug 28, 04, RB3) points out, it is the cost of these bogus refugees that has the Liberals scared. It is ballooning out of control with a cost of $650 million a year (critics say this is a classic Liberal underestimate, and the real cost is closer to $3 billion). In traditional Liberal fashion this issue is being addressed in the dog days of summer in hopes that most Canadians will miss it.
The Americans, who previous to Sept.11 were as stupid as we are, have set up a streamlined refugee determination system. If there is any doubt at all about your claim or who you really are, you are deported. Until you are judged, you sit in detention. There are no endless appeals and social assistence as we have here. Tomorrow and the next few weeks are going to be crucial. There is every indication that al-Queda is planning a major terrorist attack on the U.S. and, God forbid, that any involved came from Canada. The Americans would probably close the border and choke off our trade with them. That would cripple Canada's economy and send the dollar into a tailspin. The Liberals have known this for years now, but those refugees and bogus immigrants do vote Liberal, so the system allows them to keep pouring in. The Liberals will be defeated soundly in the next election and the refugees won't be able to save them. They will be left with little rump sections in the ghettoes. Plus this economic catastrophe could be the catalyst for Quebec separation. However, the one ray of sunshine will be that there will be no more of Cotler's "outreach to the unwanted of the world".
© Bud
OSC struggles under load -- Ranks stretched thin: Casework includes Nortel, Hollinger, Royal Group, Atlas
It appears that there are those who prefer to use top investigators as cannon fodder rather than going after the crooks. For an example, note what happened to these police officers: RCMP Cpl. Robert Read and Staff Sgt. Stenhouse and now. . . RCMP investigator Gaetan St. Onge and veteran Montreal police Cmdr. Andre Bouchard -- "Cops rapped for aid to biker book" -- Why? To whose benefit? CP, Aug. 28, 04
Keeping the public in the dark is standard operating procedure here. Must always give the perception that all is well even if it means punishing top investigators. No whistle blower legislation to protect guys just doing their jobs yet either. Once protecting the government is perfected in the proposed legislation, I suppose it will come.
Who's protecting investors? Governments don't want a national securities regulator; otherwise, investigators wouldn't be so swamped. The feds could have used Oullette's expense account $$$ or the gun registry $$$ or the fraud $$$ wasted at the DND to pay for it. There was lots available for the usual . . . Is it possible the governments don't want to protect investors because they have an inherent conflict of interest with those they "regulate". Where does the funding come from? A Spitzer could have swept through here years ago. Basically, there is no incentive to give suckers an even break -- or the necessary changes would have been undertaken long ago. More talk, no action. How long does it take from the beginning of investigation in the U.S. to conviction as compared to here? Think of Bre-X, Livent etc. etc. etc. -- and Canada is still going through the motions.
Why are all the enforcement functions always short of funding from the RCMP to CSIS to Customs and Immigration to the stock markets? Seems to be a pattern of leaving the public unprotected. Who benefits?
OSC struggles under load -- Ranks stretched thin: Casework includes Nortel, Hollinger, Royal Group, Atlas Wojtek Dabrowski, Financial Post, August 28, 2004
A heavy load of new investigations at the Ontario Securities Commission in recent months has left the ranks of its enforcement staff stretched thin with no easy way to relieve the pressure.
From scrutiny of such companies as Nortel Networks Corp., Hollinger Inc. and Royal Group Technologies Ltd. to quasi-criminal court proceedings against former executives of Atlas Cold Storage Income Trust and the OSC's probe of trading abuses in the mutual fund industry, the past year has been a hectic one for the enforcement staff at the country's largest regulator.
Even though the department has doubled in size from 40 to 80 people over the past five years, its employees find themselves working hard to manage the caseload, which began to grow rapidly after Atlas revealed accounting irregularities late last summer.
"Right now, there's no doubt people are very busy," Michael Watson, the OSC's enforcement chief, said in an interview. "We have an unusual number of investigations on the go."
[. . . . ] The OSC enforcement department is broken up into four areas: case assessment, which handles initial complaints; surveillance, which watches for trading abuses; investigation, which handles major case work; and litigation, which brings court or disciplinary proceedings against offenders.
[. . . . ] Philip Anisman, a veteran Toronto securities lawyer, said the OSC's enforcement department could bulk up by establishing a dedicated group of lawyers to seek civil redress for harmed investors. [Delightful idea -- after the fact, investors may pay for lawyers to seek civil remedies -- work for more lawyers.]
[. . . . ] Meanwhile, the mounting caseload over the past 12 months is expected to persist. The Atlas case, as well as quasi-criminal charges against Discovery Biotech Inc., promise to keep enforcement litigators busy. Also, the OSC said last month the probe of market timing and late trading in the mutual fund industry will result in the commencement of proceedings within weeks. That probe, which began with 105 fund companies and has since narrowed to a handful, has kept the regulator busier than the majority of its other investigations, Mr. Watson said. [. . . . ]
In a separate investigation, the OSC is also probing about 350 special-warrant financings for evidence of illegal insider trading ahead of the deals becoming public. [. . . . ]
Link for more information.
Has anyone noticed how successful Bombardier appears to have been with rail in China? Was our former PM able to network with China's elites -- compliments of his travels on the taxpayers of Canada -- Would this have been advantageous to Power Corp, Bombardier and the family? Or am I entirely too cynical?
Bombardier is involved as
"part of an estimated US $900 million project to upgrade China's railway network to meet the demands of the country's rapidly growing economy. . . .Bombardier has teamed up with Bombardier Sifang Power Transportation Ltd. in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao"
Has Bombardier become a partner under the aegis of Nanche Sifang Locomotive Co.? Do I not recall Canadian expertise and/or nuclear reactor plans being stolen--er, spirited away? borrowed?--by the Chinese in the past? Apparently there is also something afloat with Aeroflot which plans to buy 50 aircraft. Embraer, Airbus and Bombardier are bidding.
Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. and Alstom SA of France also won deals. To learn more, check Aug. 30, 04 National Post for an article entitled "Bombardier in Chinese rail deal" by Wojtek Dabrowski, Financial Post, FP3. It was not online Aug. 30, 04 am but may be online now, though, occasionally, articles are not posted.
Japanese consortium bid for railway project -- "when China wants to develop its high-speed railway, which is above 300 kilometres per hour, foreign advanced technology is crucial" -- This should be a wake-up call for those who happened to notice that China built a Canadian reactor after 'acquiring' the plans from Canada.
I did a search for Nanche Sifang Locomotive Co. and found this bit of information.
Japanese consortium bid for railway project Jiang Jingjing (China Business Weekly), Updated: 2004-05-24
Six Japanese companies plan to form a consortium to bid for a Chinese railway upgrade project with a modified version of the Shinkansen bullet train, but analysts predict Chinese railway authorities would only introduce part of the technology, rather than importing the whole train at the initial stage.
AFP reported last week in Tokyo that Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd, Hitachi Ltd, Mitsubishi Electric Corp, Itochu Corp, Mitsubishi Corp and Marubeni Corp announced their plan to bid for trains which can double the current train speed in China on five major existing railway lines to 200 kilometres per hour.
The five train lines includes between Beijing and Shenyang, Northeast China's Liaoning Province, and another to connect Qingdao and Jinan in East China's Shandong Province.
[. . . . ] China actually has enough technological capability to increase the current train speed to 160 kilometres per hour, which is the target of speed upgrades in China's 60,000-kilometre-railway network, according to Sa.
The current speed for most lines is below 100 kilometres per hour.
He said the key demand for China is not the hardware, but rather the software, or in other words, the management system.
"Unlike other countries, China has a vast land and complex railway network. A single technology cannot solve the problem (speed upgrade).
"The management of the network needs to improve before the realization of the speed improvement."
But when China wants to develop its high-speed railway, which is above 300 kilometres per hour, foreign advanced technology is crucial, he said.
With that in mind, I would suggest Western companies be very wary -- or they may find that their technology has been transported to those who produce products cheaply enough on low wages that they contribute to even more outsourcing from North America.
US: Effort to nab Internet criminals nets 156 arrests, convictions -- Canada? Guess
This major investigation took 2 1/2 months. Why does it take forever to get anything done in Canada? Could it be a shortage of officers, money and prosecutors, as well as a lack of willingness on the part of the government -- and that they've never met a criminal they felt they couldn't rehabilitate? Victims mean nothing. Why has it taken 15 years and there is still no national securities regulator? Meanwhile small investors get fleeced. The Criminal Intelligence Service of Canada Annual Report is just much ado about nothing -- all the criminals are carrying on their schemes despite the fact the government undoubtedly knows who they are and what they are doing; yet, action taken against them is negligible compared to the activity going on.
Effort to nab Internet criminals nets 156 arrests, convictions Associated Press, Arizona Republic, Aug. 26, 2004
WASHINGTON - A summerlong effort targeting Internet crime has resulted in dozens of arrests and convictions on charges including use of "spam" e-mail to steal credit card numbers, computer hacking and online fraud, Justice Department officials said Thursday.
The suspects were identified during more than 160 federal investigations into a variety of Internet crimes that victimized about 150,000 people and caused $215 million in estimated losses, Attorney General John Ashcroft said. The initiative began June 1 and ended Thursday.
Although the arrests make only a tiny dent in overall online crime, Ashcroft said it was important that law enforcement officials demonstrate they take the problem seriously. Identity theft alone, he said, costs the U.S. economy an estimated $50 billion a year.
[. . . . ] Among the cases:
-The June arrests of two men on charges of conspiring to steal a copy of the entire list of 92 million America Online members, with the goal of selling it to e-mail "spammers" who would then be able to send members unwanted messages. [. . . . ]
Link for other examples.
Indulge in dark chocolate, open an artery -- Cardiovascular benefits -- but read to the end before you indulge
Indulge in dark chocolate, open an artery -- Cardiovascular benefits -- but read to the end before you indulge Heather Sokoloff, National Post, with files from wire services, August 30, 2004
Eating dark chocolate helps blood vessels work better, a small study in Greece has found, increasing the evidence that foods containing cocoa may protect against heart disease.
Scientists said they have demonstrated for the first time how chocolate improved the function of blood vessels, allowing them to dilate, thus preventing the formation of potentially damaging clots.
[. . . . ] Khosrow Adeli, a nutrition expert at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, says sweetened chocolates contain dangerously high levels of refined sugar and fructose and should be eaten in moderation. He says sweetened chocolate bars contain white sugar -- the kind usually found on tables and added to coffee -- and an artificial fructose syrup.
''We are finding it's the sugar and the fructose in these sweets that's the real health hazard,'' said Dr. Adeli, an obesity and diabetes researcher. ''The sugar content tends to be lower in dark chocolate.''
Yet David Lawrence Yeung, a nutrition expert at the University of Toronto, was hesitant about suggesting how often people concerned about their health should eat either dark or sweetened chocolate. ''If you consider 2,000 calories a day as a guideline, and you can make it part of those 2,000 calories, then it's probably OK,'' he said.
The chocolate consumed in the study contained 74% cocoa.
The results showed that functioning of the endothelium, a thin layer covering the innermost surface of blood vessels, was improved in a group of 17 volunteers who ate dark chocolate during the study, but not in the group that ate no chocolate.
The diameter of the arm artery at rest was 0.15 millimetres wider an hour later for those who ate dark chocolate compared with those who did not. A separate measurement showed that the chocolate eaters had fewer signs of stiffening arteries.
B.C. halfway house pressured into closing
B.C. halfway house pressured into closing Steve Mertl
VANCOUVER (CP) - Operators of the controversial Vernon, B.C. halfway house whose residents were linked to three killings were stampeded into closing it even though there's no evidence of negligence, The Canadian Press has learned.
The John Howard Society's north Okanagan chapter was threatened with lawsuits by Vernon's mayor and effectively had its funding cut off by the Corrections Service of Canada.
Faced with that, the locally run non-profit society agreed to close Howard House by Feb. 1.
After meeting with society directors and Brian Lang, the service's regional director of community corrections, Mayor Sean Harvey said consultations would take place that could lead to replacement of the 27-bed Howard House with a smaller facility.
Harvey said the city would need more direct involvement in screening parolees for any new halfway house after claiming Howard House took in too many high-risk offenders.
A source familiar with Howard House told The Canadian Press the closure was a fait accompli even before the Aug. 20 meeting.
It was worked out between Lang and Harvey, the source said.
For two weeks, Harvey had been channelling his city's outrage over the arrest of a Howard House resident in the latest killing.
"We really were not a part of the negotiations between CSC and the city," the source said. "We really didn't know what was going on."
Harvey confirmed he met with Lang, who oversees the federal parole service in British Columbia, before sitting down with the society's board members and senior staff.
Harvey insisted Howard House be closed. He said Lang told him Corrections would stop referring parolees to Howard House, removing its main source of revenue.
[. . . . ]
Stacked Parliamentary Panel Acted as Expected: Top court judges backed by panel -- The Tories refused to endorse the nomination of activist justices
Top court judges backed by panel Alexander Panetta
OTTAWA (CP) - The first-ever parliamentary panel to review Supreme Court nominations declared Friday it was pleased with the two justices chosen by Prime Minister Paul Martin -but not without a partisan political dispute.
One Conservative complained that the judges elevated to the top court -Rosalie Abella and Louise Charron -were handpicked by the Liberals to implement their political agenda.
The Tories refused to endorse the nomination of the two Ontario judges while protesting what they dismissed as "a rubber-stamp process."
The new parliamentary panel had no veto power over the appointments, nor did Charron or Abella appear before the panel.
The approval came as no surprise.
With the exception of two Conservative MPs, the rest of the committee -which included three Liberals, one member each from the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois and two outside legal experts -recommended Friday that Martin proceed with the appointments. [. . . . ]
France: Head scarf law to stay
France: Head scarf law to stay
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- France's foreign minister appealed Monday for the release of two French journalists abducted in Baghdad, saying the French respect all religions. He did not rule out traveling to Baghdad.
Michel Barnier's arrival in Cairo came shortly after a French government spokesman rejected a demand by the kidnappers to revoke a law banning Muslim head scarves in public schools by late Monday in order to free the men.
"The law will be applied," spokesman Jean-Francois Cope told Canal Plus television Monday, saying that France would not compromise its national values in the pursuit of winning the hostages' release. [. . . . ]
Canada goes to Vietnam's deadly roads to find truckers -- Doesn't this reassure you? Let's just hope they don't do double duty trucking and running grow-ops here.
Truckers would come in very handy in the grow-op business, would they not? Indeed!
Canada goes to Vietnam's deadly roads to find truckers Aug 18, 2004
About 200 truckers from Vietnam, reputed to have some of the world‘s deadliest drivers, will be behind big rigs on Canadian roads soon, The Asian Pacific Post has learned.
Ranked by the World Health Organization and the World Bank as having one of the highest road fatality rates in the world, Vietnam‘s road carnage is referred to an “epidemic“ of death and disability.
“I don‘t think this is a good idea,“ said Diep Trinh, president of the Vietnamese-Canadian Federation, the umbrella body which represents 14 provincial Vietnamese-Canadian associations with thousands of members.
“The rate of car and truck accidents in Vietnam is very high…most of the accidents involve motorcycles,“ Trinh told The Asian Pacific Post in a telephone interview.
“I am not saying all Vietnamese truck drivers are bad…but there is a culture of driving in Vietnam and many… many have bad habits…they have not learned how to drive properly,“ said Diep Trinh, realizing his comments will likely cause a stir in the Vietnamese community.
[. . . . ] Last month alone 874 people were killed on Vietnamese roads bringing the death toll for the first seven months of the year to 7,200. Close to 10,000 others were injured in the same time period.
In 2003, more than 11,800 people were killed in traffic accidents in Vietnam. [. . . . ]
Terror spies on airlines -- Sympathizers looking for weaknesses: pilots
Terror spies on airlines -- Sympathizers looking for weaknesses: pilots Tom Godfrey, Toronto Sun, Aug. 30, 04
SYMPATHIZERS OF terrorist groups are travelling the U.S. testing airline security measures in a bid to detect weaknesses, says the head of the world's largest pilots union. "We know of instances of passengers feigning illness," said Cpt. Duane Woerth, head of the 64,000-member Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA). "(It's) an attempt to determine how cabin crew and law enforcement on the airplane will react."
Woerth, whose members include 2,500 Canadian pilots, said passengers have raced toward the cockpit door to draw out air marshals on flights.
[. . . . ] He said 14 Syrian musicians on a recent flight from Detroit to Los Angeles deliberately baited air marshals by taking bags into the bathroom and refusing to take their seats.
Other passengers have spent an excessive amount of time in aircraft bathrooms and have refused to come out, he said.
Woerth said the union has asked U.S. officials to ban airline passengers who violate cabin crews' directions or try to test airline security or the response of air marshals.
[. . . . ] Woerth said airline staff and passengers can file real-time reports when a suspicious incident occurs on a flight so police can be called to question the suspect as they leave the aircraft.
[. . . . ]
Cholesterol test misses culprit in cardio risk -- 30,000 participants: Study concludes 'there is no safe level of smoking'
Cholesterol test misses culprit in cardio risk -- 30,000 participants: Study concludes 'there is no safe level of smoking' Sharon Kirkey, CanWest, August 30, 2004
OTTAWA - A groundbreaking global study led by Canadian doctors shows routine cholesterol tests are missing the true culprits in heart-attack risk, a finding that could have immediate implications for the prevention of the majority of the world's heart attacks.
The study, to be fast-tracked for release next week by the prestigious journal The Lancet, also found smoking as few as five cigarettes a day increases the risk of a heart attack, suggesting "there is no safe level of smoking." As well, depression, feeling stressed at work or home and worrying evenly moderately about money problems are greater threats to heart health than doctors thought, increasing risk of heart attack 2.5 fold.
But the prognosis from the massive INTERHEART study is not all bleak: Eating fruits and vegetables daily, exercising three times a week and consuming three to five drinks of alcohol a week all lower the risk of heart attack.
The study, nearly 10 years and $10-million in the making, concludes that nine easily identified risk factors account for more than 90% of all heart attacks globally, regardless of whether you live in British Columbia or Bangkok. The finding flouts medical dogma that about half of heart attacks occur without warning and no known risk factors.
Smoking, abnormal lipids (fats in the blood), diabetes, abdominal obesity (the so-called "apple shape"), diet and exercise are all "significantly related" to heart-attack risk, the researchers report.
[. . . . ] Routine cholesterol tests calculate low-density lipoproteins, or LDL, the so-called "bad" cholesterol, and high density lipoproteins, or HDL, the "good" cholesterol.
The problem is current tests detect LDL that comes in big particles, while missing the smaller ones, and it's the smaller particles that lead to more hardening of the arteries, Dr. Yusuf said.
The researchers believe measuring two kinds of apolipoproteins that play a key role in the production and transport of cholesterol around the body makes more sense. That could lead to new cholesterol tests that would identify more people at risk of heart attack. [. . . . ]
# posted by News Junkie Canada at 6:54 AM
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