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New Scientist – …illegal drugs are not generally associated with the lab bench. Now, for the first time in decades, that is starting to change. For almost 40 years, mainstream research has shied away from investigating the therapeutic benefits of drugs whose recreational use is prohibited by law. But a better understanding of how these drugs work in animal studies, and the advancement of brain-imaging techniques, has sparked a swathe of new research. What’s more, clinical trials of MDMA (ecstasy), LSD and other psychoactive drugs are starting to yield some positive results. Read article
AP — The number of illegal immigrants living in the U.S. has dropped for the first time in two decades – decreasing by 8 percent since 2007, a new study finds. The reasons range from the sour economy to Mexican violence and increased U.S. enforcement that has made it harder to sneak across the border. Much of the decline comes from a sharp drop-off in illegal immigrants from the Caribbean, Central America and South America attempting to cross the southern border of the U.S., according to the Pew Hispanic Center, which based its report on an analysis of 2009 census data. Read article
Related article: Obama signs $600 million border security bill
ABC – The Australian Institute of Directors says the number of women in power at the country’s top companies has reached a “landmark” level. The proportion of women on boards at the ASX 200 companies hit 10 per cent yesterday with the appointment of Sam Mostyn to the board of Virgin Blue. So far this year, more than one in four new directors have been women, compared to one in 20 last year. John Colvin, from the Australian Institute of Company Directors, says the number of women appointed to ASX 200 boards has risen rapidly this year. Read article
ABC – Indigenous academic Mick Dodson has delivered a warning to the WA Premier, describing compulsory acquisition of land for the Kimberley gas hub as theft and an invasion. The Premier Colin Barnett is expected to start proceedings to acquire the land at James Price Point through the courts this week. He says negotiations between traditional owners and Woodside have dragged on too long, cost too much, and he has run out of patience. Professor Dodson, who’s a Yawuru man from Broome, says it is an appalling path to take. Read article
ABC – Every police patrol in the Northern Territory will be armed with at least one Taser by the end of the year. Police Commissioner John McRoberts says the stun guns are a useful tool for police and he wants every patrol to be armed with at least one of them. “This is not something the community should be concerned about,” he said. Read article
ABC – Attorney-General Delia Lawrie has introduced legislation to stop Northern Territory courts asking people to swear to God. Ms Lawrie says the change is needed because the current oath is too complicated to translate accurately into Indigenous languages. Read article
Daily Mail – TV should be banned for toddlers and severely rationed for other youngsters to protect their health and family life, a leading psychologist will tell MEPs today. Dr Aric Sigman claims that millions of children spending hours slumped in front of TVs and computers is ‘the greatest unacknowledged health scandal of our time’. He says it is linked to ills ranging from obesity and heart disease to poor grades and lack of empathy. Read article
NY Times — The front pages of South Africa’s newspapers are regularly splashed with articles about politicians living it up at public expense in a country blighted by poverty. Reporters recently pounced on news that a black empowerment deal meant to benefit “previously disadvantaged” South Africans under government guidelines was enriching a company led by President Jacob Zuma’s 28-year-old son, Duduzane, among others, giving them a lucrative stake in the South African arm of a steel giant, ArcelorMittal. Read article
The Guardian – Following a firestorm of criticism from civil society groups in Italy and abroad, and a slap on the wrist by the UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression, the Italian government’s draft “gag law” has been amended. The original bill restricted the use of wiretaps as an investigative tool and imposed an outright ban on publishing transcripts of telephone conversations and other evidence obtained covertly without permission from a judge. The new bill removes the publishers’ liability, but leaves journalists liable if they publish transcripts leaked to them by investigators – something that happens frequently in Italy. Read article
Daily Telegraph – Research published today has discovered that a third of television viewers now watch their favourite programmes online, on computers and mobile phones.
The joint study by the Radio Times and SeeSaw.com has highlighted changes in the way people now view programmes. Read article
BBC – There are stark geographical divisions in the toll alcohol takes on health in England, with men in the North West more likely to die prematurely than those in the South East, figures show. Data collected by the North West Public Health Observatory shows almost 16,000 people died in England last year as a result of alcohol-related harm. Two-thirds of the areas with the highest harm levels were in the North. Read article
Sydney Morning Herald – An Afghani woman whose schools for girls were forced “underground” during the height of the Taliban government has spoken of the positive signs emerging in her troubled country. Sakena Yacoobi founded the Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL) in 1995, a non-governmental organisation that provides education, health and medical services. Dr Yacoobi says she believes “education is the key infrastructure that Afghanistan needs” although the security situation continues to get in the way of delivering it.
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NPR – New research about a steep drop in circumcisions made headlines this past week. According to one federal researcher, circumcision rates in U.S. hospitals slid from 56 percent in 2006 to fewer than a third of boys born last year. Doctors caution that those numbers aren’t definitive — for instance, they don’t include circumcisions not covered by insurance policies or circumcisions performed in religious settings. Read article
Epoch Times – The Falun Dafa Information Center released a statement on Aug. 27 reporting that the Chinese police abducted a woman who died eight days later while in police custody. Yan Pingjun of Heibei, China is a 45-year-old Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa) practitioner. According to the center, “Falun Gong is a traditional-style Buddhist “qigong” practice, with roots in the Chinese heritage of cultivating the mind/body for health and spiritual growth.” It is now practiced in over 100 countries. Read Article
The Guardian – Mark Thompson, the BBC director general, has launched a scathing attack on Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, warning that BSkyB is too powerful and threatens to “dwarf” the BBC and its competitors. He said that News Corp, in effect controlled by the Murdoch family, now enjoys unprecedented industry power in the UK. News Corp owns 39% of Sky and is in the process of buying the part of the broadcaster it does not already own. Read article
On Saturday 28 August, the editor of www.OpenYourEyesNews.com, James Fairbairn, made a guest appearance on ABC720 Radio in Perth, Western Australia to discuss with host, James Lush, some of the key news events of recent days.
Check out our latest interview on our new Podcast channel and please subscribe to keep up to date with future episodes of OpenYourEyesNews
Alaska Star – A new partnership between the Anchorage School District and the U.S. Army Alaska will add a military presence to local schools. But rather than keeping the peace, these warriors will be serving as math or reading tutors, helping out in the computer lab or maybe firing a few dodge balls. Read Article
The Guardian – When the order came to evacuate the Totia high school, hundreds of girls ran from their desks clutching handkerchiefs and their headscarves over their mouths. School bags were abandoned as some leapt out of the ground floor windows of their dilapidated two-storey school block rather than trying to push their way through a melee of teenage girls all rushing to get out to fresh air. Teachers tried to organise an orderly departure but their efforts were in vain amid rising panic that the school had become the latest in Afghanistan to be hit by an apparent poison gas attack. Read article
ABC – An official police investigation has found the British government and the Catholic Church colluded to cover up a Catholic priest’s suspected involvement in an Irish Republican Army (IRA) bombing that killed nine people in 1972. A report published overnight says the police had a wealth of intelligence linking Father James Chesney to numerous crimes, including the deadly bombings that killed nine people and injured 30 others at Claudy in County Londonderry on July 31, 1972. Read article
Daily Telegraph – Vice-chancellors have been warned that funding may be slashed by 35 per cent over the next five years, it has emerged. The warning – delivered in a series of meetings between Sir Gus O’Donnell, the Cabinet Secretary, and university bosses – would represent the biggest cut in resources since the 1930s, it is claimed. It would be equivalent to the current £5,441 annual Government subsidy for each student being reduced to just £3,537. Read article
The Guardian – A record number of women are running in Afghanistan’s critical parliamentary elections next month despite many being inundated with threatening phone calls, including death threats from insurgents. Amid ever-rising violence, which some people fear could foster a repeat of last year’s catastrophic presidential election, women are struggling to campaign at all outside a few areas, poll monitors say. Even in Kabul, the capital, where the Guardian has interviewed a number of female candidates, women say they are facing daily obstruction from conservative hardliners. Read Article
The Independent – Teenagers across the country celebrated record GCSE grades today as national results showed that around one in 10 are now sitting English and maths exams early. The GCSE pass rate has risen for the 23rd year in a row, and almost one in four entries was awarded at least an A grade. The results also show that girls are pulling further ahead of boys, and that while more pupils are choosing to take science GCSEs there has been a massive slump in the numbers taking foreign languages. Read article
The Guardian – Iranian newspapers have been banned from publishing the names or photos of the leaders of Iran’s green movement, according to a confidential governmental ruling revealed by an opposition website. The move is part of a new round of censorship, which follows the recent closure of a newspaper and the suspension of two magazines. The ruling, issued by Iran’s ministry of culture and Islamic guidance on 18 August, was stamped “top secret” and “urgent”. Read article
Daily Telegraph – Armed and extremely… patriotic. Why a growing number of Americans are preparing for a war against their government. In heavy camouflage gear, Johnny Cochran squats down and shuffles noiselessly along the ground. His target is a large man who, like Cochran, is in military fatigues. Seconds later, Cochran leaps up and stabs the man once, hard, in the neck. The movement is swift, and would almost certainly be lethal, were it not for the fact that the ‘weapon’ Cochran is wielding is a pen.
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BBC – Three weeks after Pakistan’s worst natural disaster began, many people are living in camps all around the country. Shmyalla Jawad, who is the gender advisor for the Plan International organisation in Pakistan, visited some of these camps in the Layyah district in Southern Punjab. She found out that apart from the dire conditions in the camp, women and girls are also facing a cultural challenge. Read article
