The sub-prime write-down represents more than a monetary loss for UBS - it's a serious blow to a valuable brand
Malaysia leprosy settlement fights on
BBC News, Kuala Lumpur
Developers were given permission to build on the site where leprosy has been treated for almost 80 years.
The 39 people fear that the rest of the site will be built over unless the government agrees to protect it.
Spread over 600 acres, most of the buildings on the settlement are now dilapidated.
But the community has not vanished.This place must be kept for heritage so the next generation will understand
Lee Chor Seng
There are more than 300 residents. There used to be many more - about 2,000 at the peak.
When Lee Chor Seng first arrived in the 1950s, the inhabitants were all patients, seeking treatment for an incurable disease.
There was a time before that when they were inmates, locked away from the rest of society.
Now they are simply residents, and Mr Lee is their leader. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7130635.stm>
Digital activists expose abuse
BBC News, United Nations, New York
The graphic footage became public in November last yearShaky digital camera footage posted online shows one man beating up another - but this is not an amateur fight sequence loaded on YouTube by film students.
It was filmed by Egyptian police, documenting the beating of a prisoner, and circulated within Egypt to intimidate dissenters.
The footage also made its way to international bloggers and caused a worldwide scandal. It eventually resulted in the arrest and conviction of two police officers.
Such is the power of online video to document human rights abuse and raise international awareness. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7139218.stm>
7-year-old girl first to catch bird flu in Myanmar
12/15/2007 | 02:54 PM
YANGON - Myanmar has confirmed the country's first case of a human being infected by bird flu a 7-year-old girl who has since fully recovered, state media reported Saturday.The New Light of Myanmar newspaper said the World Health Organization had confirmed that the girl from Keng Tung in northeastern Myanmar had been infected with the deadly H5N1 virus.
She was hospitalized on Nov. 27 and released on Dec. 12 in good condition after being treated with the antiviral drug Tamiflu, it reported.
According to WHO, there have been 340 cases of bird flu in humans worldwide since 2003, 208 of them fatal.
Experts believe most human victims of the virus were infected through direct contact with sick birds. Although bird flu is difficult for humans to catch, experts fear it could mutate into a form that spreads easily among people and spark a flu pandemic.
The New Light of Myanmar said the young victim, Nan Kham Than, was among four people suspected of being infected with the virus during a bird flu outbreak in poultry in mid-November. Laboratory tests confirmed that only the girl had H5N1.
The Health Ministry for 10 days closely monitored 689 persons who were involved in culling chickens or lived near the affected farms, and found that no other people were infected, the newspaper said.
Myanmar reported its first bird flu outbreak in March 2006 in the central part of the country, but until now had reported no human infections.
H5N1 began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in late 2003, leading to the death or slaughter of millions of birds.
Bird flu has recently resurfaced in parts of Asia, with human deaths reported in Indonesia and China and fresh poultry outbreaks plaguing other countries during the winter months when the virus typically flares. - AP <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/73001/7-year-old-girl-first-to-catch-bird-flu-in-Myanmar>
Pinoy on Saipan acquitted of theft a day after guilty verdict
HAIDEE V. EUGENIO, GMANews.TV12/15/2007 | 01:47 PM
SUSUPE, Saipan – Guilty, then, not guilty. A Filipino accountant who was found guilty on Thursday by a jury for stealing over $120,000 from the company he worked for was acquitted a day later by a judge, citing lack of sufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he committed all 13 counts of theft by deception.Edgardo Macabalo, from Caloocan, was in tears as he and his wife hugged family members who were in the CNMI Superior Court Friday when the judge said he was discharged the case.
“Right now I just want to be with my family," Macabalo said as he emerged from the courtroom with his family.
He said justice has been served and thanked the Public Defender’s Office for its help in his case.
CNMI Superior Court Associate Judge Ramona Villagomez Manglona reversed the jury’s guilty verdict after completely reviewing all the records in the case. She said she would issue a written order.
On Thursday afternoon, a jury found Macabalo, a former accountant at Marpac Inc., guilty of all 13 counts of theft by deception for stealing over $120,000 from his employer’s beer delivery collections in 2005.
Police arrested Macabalo in May 2006 for theft.
Macabalo allegedly collected $4,000, $4,000, $10,000, $20,000, $6,400, $16,000, $16,000, $10,000, $4,000, $4,200, $354.75, $12,000 and $14,000, for a total of $120,954.75, but he never turned over the money to the company, according to an investigator.
But on Friday morning, the judge granted the renewed motion for judgment of acquittal filed by Assistant Public Defender Richard Miller, counsel for Macabalo.
Miller told local media that the judge's decision is a wonderful thing for the justice system of the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), and the growth of justice in the islands.
He said the prosecution did not meet the burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Macabalo is guilty.
The CNMI is home to about 20,000 foreign workers mostly from the Philippines and China. - Haidee V. Eugenio, GMANews.TV <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/72998/Pinoy-on-Saipan-acquitted-of-theft-a-day-after-guilty-verdict>
Has Mbeki been good for South Africa?
As South Africa's governing African National Congress prepares to decide whether President Thabo Mbeki should continue to lead the party, former ANC MP Andrew Feinstein says Mr Mbeki has badly damaged the party.
President Thabo Mbeki has presided over a serious moral decline in South Africa's African National Congress (ANC) - facing its worst crisis since its founding in 1912.
Just 13 years ago, at liberation in 1994, the ANC had defeated apartheid and was at its zenith.
And on his assumption of the party presidency in 1998 from Nelson Mandela, Mr Mbeki began the necessary transformation of a liberation movement into a more disciplined and effective governing party, centralising power in his office.
But when he became the country's president after the 1999 elections, the programme of change accelerated beyond what was required for effective government.
As an ANC member of parliament at the time, my experience of these cold winds was primarily through the replacement of our convivial chief whip by the arrogant chairperson of parliament's defence committee, Tony Yengeni, who established himself as the centre of Mr Mbeki's political control.
It soon became clear that the primary political currency had transformed from a commitment to the common values of the organisation to uncritical loyalty to the leader.
This manifested on all of the main issues of the day: HIV/Aids, Zimbabwe and corruption. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7127751.stm>
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Yet more about the Other HalfGlobalisation Index
News Index
Index Nation States
Index Cultural Systems
Some personal Reflections on the News
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