Swiss acupuncturist charged in 16 HIV infections

GENEVA (AP) ? A self-styled healer has been indicted by a Swiss court on charges that he intentionally infected 16 people with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, in cases going back more than a decade, authorities said Thursday.

The unidentified man was indicted by a five-judge panel in Bern-Mitelland regional court on charges of intentionally spreading human disease and causing serious bodily harm, offenses that carry maximum penalties of five to 10 years respectively, said the regional prosecutor's office in Bern, the Swiss capital.

The office said in a statement that most of the victims attended a music school that the man operated.

A spokesman for the prosecutor, Christof Scheurer, said the man also practiced as an unlicensed, self-styled acupuncturist ? a trade which he is believed to have used between 2001 and 2005 as a pretext to prick and infect some of his victims with blood that was infected with AIDS.

HIV is transmitted through bodily fluids such as blood, semen or breast milk.

The police investigation concluded that the man had used various pretexts to prick his victims, but it remained unclear exactly what objects he had used. In other cases, the investigation found, the self-described healer ? who is not HIV-positive ? had served his victims drinks that made them pass out so he could infect them.

"The defendant denies everything that is alleged," the prosecutor's statement added.

The cases apparently came to light when Bern hospital Inselspital began to investigate similar complaints of infections in connection with a so-called healer.

Prosecutors say the probe, which was launched after one alleged victim filed a criminal complaint in early 2005, has finally been completed, but that it took years because of a number of difficulties ranging from the use of genetic testing to identifying victims while adhering to protections for patient privacy.

Proceedings against a second suspect in the case have been permanently closed, the statement said, because his involvement could not be confirmed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/swiss-acupuncturist-charged-16-hiv-infections-122341559.html

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Swedish-Kenyan Wins Prize For Kenyan Biofuel Business ...

VENTURES AFRICA ? A 32-year-old Swedish-Kenyan has won the European-African Entrepreneurship Award for a proposal to covert used cooking oils, widely used in the restaurant industry, into biodiesel.

The awards were held in The Hague in the Netherlands, with nine African-European entrepreneurs pitching their ideas for a business that could be adapted in the country of their origin.

Evans Kamau eventually emerged as the winner. A computer engineer who runs a lucrative taxi business in Stockholm, his sustainable concept would provide an alternative fuel source for the non-petroleum-producing Kenya, which currently relies heavily on imports. Cooking oils and other oil sources can be found in Kenya in large quantities , while research conducted by Kamau last year found that the transport industry yearns for cheaper and more efficient fuels. With diesel costs becoming uneconomical, the costs of running vehicles in most companies was quoted as between 30 percent and 50 percent of total company costs.

Kamau plans to invest the $3,800 prize money into his company, which he is calling Nairo-Bio Limited. ?This is so overwhelming?, he said in the immediate aftermath of his win. ?I?m sweating and trembling, because I didn?t expect anything like this. Biodiesel would provide a great alternative fuel source that would be both environmentally and economically friendly.?

Migrant organisations from countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Italy, Spain, France, Switzerland and Luxemburg all invited their members to come up with business ideas, with over 80 responding to the call. Nine were asked to attend the award ceremony, with Kamau eventually coming out on top. Already an established entrepreneur, he has been running his taxi business for the last five years. Last year it had a turnover of $1.2 million. He has also branched out into other sectors, and is now keen to launch an operation in the Kenyan market.

?I have also been importing fruits, vegetables and flowers from Kenya to Sweden, currently facing challenges in freight logistics, which have made it difficult to guarantee timely delivery to my clients,? he says. ?With a family background of business in coffee growing, animal production, hotel and restaurant industry, I have a diverse experience in the functionality of the Kenyan market.?

?It has come to the point in my current company where I can run it remotely with the help of a manager to oversee the operations. This is why I have decided to start a new business.?

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ventures-africa

Ventures Africa is a monthly Pan-African business magazine, which will champion African capitalism by celebrating African success, free enterprise, the entrepreneurial spirit, and the rewards of hard work.

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Source: http://www.ventures-africa.com/2012/08/swedish-kenyan-wins-prize-for-kenyan-biofuel-business/

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Special Education Law Blog: Great Gig - Part II

English: Looking down at Magens Bay from Mount... (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So far only one of you has guessed where I am.

I am doing a training here and it is very beautiful.? In addition to the photos on the recent blog post there are some more pix on our micro/Tumblr special education law blog which you can get to here.

Any more guesses?

Source: http://specialeducationlawblog.blogspot.com/2012/08/great-gig-part-ii.html

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How to Find Legitimate online Genuine Paid Surveys

Paid online surveys are one of the easiest and most convenient ways to earn extra money online from the comfort of your home. All you need is a computer and a reliable Internet connection. There is a lot of earning potential when it comes to online surveys. Once you have a good footing and know well enough about the opportunity, you can even quit your full-time job and earn a decent income.

ligitimate-paid-surveys

There are various websites offering paid online surveys that offer genuine money, but there are some others that are just scams. It is important that you establish the legitimacy of a survey before getting involved. Many of these so-called surveys exist just to push offers on users while some others trick users into paying them for supposedly better paying surveys.

Here?s how you can determine if a paid online survey is legitimate and genuine:

1) Genuine surveys are always free

- Any paid online survey site that asks you to invest money before you can take a survey and make money is definitely not legitimate. Genuine survey panels will let you participate for free as long as you meet certain requirements, like age limit.

2) Legitimate survey sites will have good business history

- Once you have determined that the survey site that you have picked will not ask for any money, it is now important that you research the history of the panel. A little research and homework will go a long way and save you lots of time and effort.

3) Look for positive user reviews

- If a site is genuine, needless to say, it will have positive user reviews and testimonials. This goes beyond the realm of the site so you will have people saying good things on other blogs, forums and other reliable sources. Keep an eye on the dates of the reviews though, the newer, the better.

4 Signs that an Online Paid Survey Site is Genuine

- There will always be a clear privacy policy that states exactly what the site will do with the personal information that is collected.

- There will be proper contact information and a comprehensive ?About? page that will describe what the company does really well.

- There will be no guarantees as to how much money you can earn. In fact, there will be an income disclaimer to ensure that users understand that the amount of money they earn depends on a lot of factors.

- Legitimate sites will never ask for sensitive personal information like credit card number, address, social security number, etc.

If you?re not careful when looking for, and taking, online paid surveys, you could end up giving out sensitive information that will be sold by webmasters to third parties or used to generate sales contact lists for all types of services and products. When a survey company is legitimate, it will never divulge your identity or personal information unless you specifically give your permission. Before you sign up, make it a point to ensure that the company is not selling something at the end of the day, to you or to anyone else.

In recent years, there has been a considerable boom in the number of people taking surveys online to make some extra money. You can definitely earn cash through paid online surveys and research polls. Just ensure that the site is genuine and legitimate and you can go ahead and make some money in a quick and easy way whenever you feel you?re short.

Source: http://www.surveyspaysu.com/how-to-find-legitimate-paid-surveys/

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Prioritizing your Home Improvement To-Do List - Weekly Planet ...

If you are like many homeowners, you have a seemingly endless list of home improvement projects ' remodel the kitchen, paint the house, replace the roof' where to start? For most people, tackling all of the projects on the list at once would be infeasible, so some prioritizing is in order. We have compiled some tips to help you prioritize your home improvement to-do list in a way that makes sense for your situation:

First address repairs that will incur additional costs if neglected. Any issues with the home that will worsen and cost more money with time should be high priority. Water damage is a good example, as are foundation and roof problems. A water leak left unfixed could mean massive costs down the line, such as replacing water damaged walls and mold remediation. Unfortunately these types of repairs are less exciting than for instance remodeling the kitchen or installing new hardwood floors, but they are necessary for the longevity and value of the home.

Consider any necessary electrical, HVAC and plumbing repairs or upgrades. Ensuring that the mechanical aspects of the home are in working order is another phase of home improvement that may seem less than exciting, but in most cases function takes priority over aesthetics. It would be difficult to enjoy a newly remodeled bathroom without a functional water heater, or to enjoy anything about your home with a broken heater in freezing temperatures. Use your best judgment to determine what mechanical repairs are necessary.

Budget should be considered in planning your home improvement timeline. Your home improvement list probably has a mix of costly and less expensive projects. The financial magnitude of different projects should be considered as you prioritize. Expensive projects may be spaced out according to your financial means, with smaller projects filling the spaces between.

Separate fantasy from reality. There may be one or more items on your list that are more of "I wish I could.." than "I plan to'" There is nothing wrong with aiming high, but distinguishing which projects get the green light and which stay in the wish list category is a part of prioritizing. This does not mean you have to remove your fantasy projects from the list, but rather that it helps to be realistic about them when setting up your project timeline.

Prioritizing the order in which projects should be done and planning a realistic timeline based on your financial situation and the condition of your home can alleviate the anxiety of a seemingly never ending to-do list.


About the Author:

Maria Polidoro is the owner of Ace Tool, a leading dealer and service center for hand and power tools. Please visit Ace Tool to find the right carbide tipped hole saw, reciprocating saw, router and more from 70+ power tool brands.

Author: Maria Polidoro

Date August 29th, 2012 Filed in Home Improvement

Source: http://weeklyplanetpersonals.com/295915-Prioritizing-your-Home-Improvement-To-Do-List.html

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or whatever the crisis may be ? has a life of its own. Men and women keep dying, and U.S. policies keep accelerating the centrifugal forces that are driving the country toward civil conflict, which may have profound implications for future regional and international security." ? Sarah Chaynes, a senior associate with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in commentary published Sunday as analysts say that the a public worn down by a war that began just a month after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, no longer cares about Afghanistan, and that the war has slipped off the radar screens and is now considered by many to be over.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/iggy-pop-bobblehead-200053051.html

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AP source: '14 MLB All-Star game goes to Minnesota

(AP) ? The Minnesota Twins will host the 2014 All-Star game at Target Field.

A person with knowledge of the decision, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because neither the Twins nor Major League Baseball had announced it, confirmed the news on Tuesday. The decision was first reported by the Star Tribune.

The Twins scheduled a news conference for Wednesday afternoon to make an unspecified "major announcement regarding an upcoming event to be hosted at Target Field," which opened in 2010. The award of MLB's 2014 midsummer showcase to Minnesota has been widely expected for years. Commissioner Bud Selig has all but declared it several times previously.

The 2013 All-Star game is set for Citi Field, home of the New York Mets. The Kansas City Royals hosted this year's game at Kauffman Stadium.

Minnesota last hosted the All-Star game in 1985 at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, where the Twins played for 28 seasons before moving into their open-air, limestone-and-glass ballpark on the other side of downtown Minneapolis. They've sold an average of 35,202 tickets per game this year despite the worst record in the American League. The Twins lost 99 games last season, too, but drew more than 3.1 million fans.

Tampa Bay, an expansion team in 1998, is the only AL team that hasn't hosted an All-Star game. Other than the Rays, the Twins had the longest current wait in the AL for the game. The Oakland Athletics are next, having hosted the game in 1987.

Miami and Washington, D.C., are the leading contenders for the 2015 game. Because home-field advantage for the World Series goes to the All-Star winner, Selig has said he's reluctant to interrupt alternating All-Star sites between the leagues.

The Minnesota Wild hosted the NHL All-Star game at Xcel Energy Center in 2004, and the Minnesota Timberwolves were the home team for the NBA All-Star game at Target Center in 1994.

___

Follow Dave Campbell on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/DaveCampbellAP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-08-28-All-Star%20Game/id-cb67cfc747dd40fda88b55445f6163ac

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Reddit is getting a fundraising button

33 min.

Being ?the front page of the Internet? comes with power, and Redditors have often, if not a bit spontaneously, channeled that power for fundraising.

Among their good deeds: giving a bullied senior citizen bus monitor a $700,000 vacation budget, scrounging up $31,000 overnight to help a three-year-old who needed a bone marrow transplant, and contributing more than $180,000 to Haiti earthquake relief efforts.

Now, for the first time, Reddit users will be able to execute some of these fundraisers within Reddit-branded pages.

Starting today, managers of the site's topic pages, or Subreddits, can opt to accept donations to specific nonprofits by installing new "Donate" buttons on their Subreddit pages. The TwoXChromosomes Subreddit, for instance, will add a button to support She's the First, an organization that supports girls' education in the developing world.

The buttons and the donation system they're attached to, Reddit Donate, were developed by payment startup Dwolla in partnership with another payment startup called Stripe. It will launch with 12 nonprofit partners, including Kiva, Charity: Water, and DonorsChoose.?

Many Subreddits are already active fundraisers. The atheism Subreddit, for instance, helped raise more than $200,000 for Doctors Without Boarders by directing traffic to a third-party fundraising page.

Without a Reddit tool for accepting donations, most fundraising Redditors have, like the athiest group, pointed each other to crowd funding sites such as Indiegogo, independent funding sites, and custom landing pages on charities' websites to contribute.

At times it can be unclear, however, where the money is actually going. Money raised for the bullied bus monitor's vacation, for instance, was collected on an Indiegogo page that was not set up in her name, but a Redditor's name. If a less scrupulous person had created the page, the story may have lost its happy ending.

?We want to protect our community, and for it to know that if it donates $100, that it's going to the right person and not to various fees,? Erik Martin, the general manager of Reddit, tells Fast Company.

Dwolla removes credit card numbers from transactions--and with them a handful of third-party financial-service providers?-and thus is able to charge an impressively low fee of $.25 for transactions more than $10 (transactions involving less than that are free). Money travels directly from donors' bank accounts to nonprofits' bank accounts. Stripe keeps the credit card in the process and charges 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction.?

Reddit has taken other steps to support charitable efforts initiated in its site, but none so significant.

Earlier this month, the site named Crowdtilt its official fundraising partner. A newly-launched startup, Crowdtilt enables anyone to raise money for any kind of project, and it promised Reddit to wave fees and verify that donated money ends up where it is intended.

It's difficult to verify how organizations that aren't registered nonprofits are spending their money, so the Dwolla and Stripe button only applies to nonprofit partners for now. That leaves out the individual-specific causes Reddit is famous for supporting.

Ben Milne, the CEO of Dwolla, tells Fast Company that if Redditors embrace it, there's likely room for the project to evolve. For now, the new feature formalizes a giving habit that has already become part of Reddit's reputation.

?It?s just like anyone could always raise money for their project," says Milne, "but it got way easier when Kickstarter launched.??

More from Fast Company:?

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/reddit-getting-fundraising-button-967956

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Deportations leave record number of children with no parents Mutiny ...

Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images / AFP

As the US government deports tens of thousands of immigrants, children are increasingly watching their parents handcuffed and dragged away as they get handed to social workers and denied contact with their broken up families.

Nearly 45,000 parents who were illegally in the US were deported in the first six months of this year, leaving behind parentless American children, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Even though President Obama promised to focus on removing criminals and keeping families together, regardless of immigration status, the number of deportations this year is breaking records.

?How can my country not allow a mother to be with her children, especially when they are so young and they need her, and especially when they are Americans???Rony Molinda said to AP.

?Gone were the egg-and-sausage tortillas that greeted him when he came home from school, the walks in the park, the hugs at night when she tucked him into bed,??AP writes, telling the story of a 10-year-old boy whose mother was torn unexpectedly from his life.??Today the sweet-faced boy of 11 spends his time worrying about why his father cries so much, and why his mom can?t come home.?

While the boy and his father had US citizenship, the boy?s mother, who was from Guatemala, was in the US illegally.

More than 5,100 children in 22 states live in foster care, some of which are being put up for adoption against the wishes of their deported parents. If a US judge decides that a child is better off in the US, parents may not have their child back and families are permanently broken up.

During his 2008 campaign, President Obama told a Texas audience that deportations should target violent offenders and criminals, not families.

?When nursing mothers are torn from their babies, when children come home from school to find their parents missing ? when all this is happening, the system just isn?t working and we need to change it,??Obama said in 2008.

But four years later, it has not been changed. A 2010 analysis by the Pew Hispanic Center found that one in every ten American children faces the threat of deportation of a parent. The study also found that children of immigrants, living in a state of constant worry, showed an increase in crying, loss of appetite, sleeplessness, clingy behavior, fear and anxiety and fears of law enforcement officials.

When 16-year-old Janna Hakim of Brooklyn had her mother taken away from her and locked up for three months awaiting deportation, her family fell apart.

?It was horrible, horrible,??the girl said, describing how she felt when she saw her mother behind a glass panel in a detention center, wearing a prison uniform. After Hakim?s mother was deported, the girl?s 13-year-old brother began wetting the bed and her 15-year-old brother started to get involved with gangs and drugs.

?I am not a criminal. I am the mother of American children and they need me, especially the younger ones,??the mother told AP over the phone.??How can a country break up families like this??

?As crying babies are ripped from mothers? arms, parents are taken away in handcuffs and illegal immigrants disappear into faraway detention centers, thousands of anxiety-stricken American kids continue to fill up foster homes ? and will most likely be placed for adoption.

Source: http://pcrcollective.org/?p=2663

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