WHO: Smoking kills 5 million every year, urges countries take drastic action

(AP)    Tobacco use kills at least 5 million people every year, a figure that could rise if countries don’t take stronger measures to combat smoking, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.

In a new report on tobacco use and control, the U.N. agency said nearly 95 percent of the global population is unprotected by laws banning smoking. WHO said secondhand smoking kills about 600,000 people every year.

The report describes countries’ various strategies to curb smoking, including protecting people from smoke, enforcing bans on tobacco advertising, and raising taxes on tobacco products. Those were included in a package of six strategies WHO unveiled last year, but less than 10 percent of the world’s population is covered by any single measure.

“People need more than to be told that tobacco is bad for human health,” said Douglas Bettcher, director of WHO’s Tobacco-Free Initiative. “They need their governments to implement the WHO Framework Convention.”

Most of WHO’s anti-tobacco efforts are centered on the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, an international treaty ratified by nearly 170 countries in 2003. The convention theoretically obliges countries to take action to reduce tobacco use, though it is unclear if they can be punished for not taking adequate measures, since they can simply withdraw from the treaty.

Other experts questioned how effective WHO’s strategies were.

“It’s like the well-intentioned blind leading the blind,” said Patrick Basham, director of the Democracy Institute, a London and Washington-based think tank. He said WHO’s policies were based more on hope than evidence.

Basham said measures like increasing taxes on tobacco products and banning advertising don’t address the root causes of why people smoke. Smoking levels naturally drop off — as they have in Western countries — when populations become richer and better-educated.

Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death and WHO estimates that, unless countries take drastic action, tobacco could kill about 8 million people every year by 2030, mostly in developing countries.

Basham said officials should focus on anti-poverty measures to stem the smoking problem, though that is beyond WHO’s mandate as a health agency.

“The cynical view is that the anti-tobacco lobby has itself now become an industry and we will never be able to do enough to stop smoking,” Basham said. “Tobacco use will change, but it has very little to do with the kinds of things WHO is promoting.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091209/ap_on_he_me/eu_med_smoking_report

British nuclear expert’s 17th floor UN death plunge ‘was not suicide’

(DAILY MAIL)   A British nuclear expert who fell from the 17th floor of a United Nations building did not commit suicide and may have been hurled to his death, says a doctor who carried out a second post-mortem examination.

Timothy Hampton, 47, a scientist involved in monitoring nuclear activity, was found dead last week at the bottom of a stairwell in Vienna.

An initial autopsy concluded that there were ‘no suspicious circumstances’. But it is understood that Mr Hampton’s widow Olena Gryshcuk and her family were deeply unhappy with that verdict.

Now a doctor who undertook a second post-mortem examination on behalf of the family believes she has found evidence that Mr Hampton did not die by his own hands.

Professor Kathrin Yen, of the Ludwig Institute in Graz, Austria, which specialises in traumatology research, said she had more tests to complete on Mr Hampton, who had a three-year-old son with Ms Gryshcuk.

But she said one possible theory was that Mr Hampton was carried to the 17th floor from his workplace on the sixth floor and thrown to his death.

Professor Yen used new forensic techniques to detect internal bruising caused by strangulation which would not be visible to the eye.

She said: ‘In my opinion, it does not look like suicide. My example is that somebody took him up to the top floor and took him down.

‘At the moment I don’t have the police reports. We did a CT scan. From the external exam, I saw injuries on the neck but these were not due to strangulation.’

It is expected to take three weeks for blood test results to come back. Austrian police said they believe Mr Hampton committed suicide.

He had been working for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO) at the UN building.

CTBTO staff monitor tremors in countries worldwide to uncover illegal nuclear tests. It has been suggested that Mr Hampton may have been involved in talks discussing nuclear testing in Iran.  The UN has strongly denied the claims.

His body was discovered last Tuesday at about 8pm. Friends said it was usual for him to work late into the night. His widow, a weapons inspector for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), was working in Japan when her husband died.

A source close to the family said life had not been easy for Mr Hampton, who was often away from his wife and son.

But the source added that he was ‘not the suicide type’. He said: ‘Tim was rather introverted. He changed his life many times.’

Trained in Britain as a bio-chemist, Mr Hampton worked in a bio-lab before moving into construction.

He then worked on nuclear test-ban projects before joining the UN in 1998, said the CTBTO.

The IAEA, an independent and separate organisation, inspects nuclear plants worldwide and is based in the building next to the CTBTO in Vienna.

Under a year ago, an American died at the IAEA in strikingly similar circumstances, his body being found at the bottom of a stairwell.

A UN spokeswoman said an investigation into that case continues, though Austrian police have concluded it was suicide.

She said: ‘This might have been a copycat thing in the CTBTO.’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1224377/British-nuclear-experts-17th-floor-UN-death-plunge-suicide.html

At the UN, the Obama administration backs limits on free speech

(WEEKLY STANDARD)   The Obama administration has marked its first foray into the UN human rights establishment by backing calls for limits on freedom of expression. The newly-minted American policy was rolled out at the latest session of the UN Human Rights Council, which ended in Geneva on Friday. American diplomats were there for the first time as full Council members and intent on making friends.

President Obama chose to join the Council despite the fact that the Organization of the Islamic Conference holds the balance of power and human rights abusers are among its lead actors, including China, Cuba, and Saudi Arabia. Islamic states quickly interpreted the president’s penchant for “engagement” as meaning fundamental rights were now up for grabs. Few would have predicted, however, that the shift would begin with America’s most treasured freedom.

For more than a decade, a UN resolution on the freedom of expression was shepherded through the Council, and the now defunct Commission on Human Rights which it replaced, by Canada. Over the years, Canada tried mightily to garner consensus on certain minimum standards, but the “reformed” Council changed the distribution of seats on the UN’s lead human rights body. In 2008, against the backdrop of the publication of images of Mohammed in a Danish newspaper, Cuba and various Islamic countries destroyed the consensus and rammed through an amendment which introduced a limit on any speech they claimed was an “abuse . . . [that] constitutes an act of racial or religious discrimination.”

The Obama administration decided that a revamped

freedom of expression resolution, extracted from Canadian hands, would be an ideal emblem for its new engagement policy. So it cosponsored a resolution on the subject with none other than Egypt–a country characterized by an absence of freedom of expression.

Privately, other Western governments were taken aback and watched the weeks of negotiations with dismay as it became clear that American negotiators wanted consensus at all costs. In introducing the resolution on Thursday, October 1–adopted by consensus the following day–the ranking U.S. diplomat, Chargé d’Affaires Douglas Griffiths, crowed:

“The United States is very pleased to present this joint project with Egypt. This initiative is a manifestation of the Obama administration’s commitment to multilateral engagement throughout the United Nations and of our genuine desire to seek and build cooperation based upon mutual interest and mutual respect in pursuit of our shared common principles of tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.”

His Egyptian counterpart, Ambassador Hisham Badr, was equally pleased–for all the wrong reasons. He praised the development by telling the Council that “freedom of expression . . . has been sometimes misused,” insisting on limits consistent with the “true nature of this right” and demanding that the “the media must . . . conduct . . . itself in a professional and ethical manner.”

The new resolution, championed by the Obama administration, has a number of disturbing elements. It emphasizes that “the exercise of the right to freedom of expression carries with it special duties and responsibilities . . .” which include taking action against anything meeting the description of “negative racial and religious stereotyping.” It also purports to “recognize . . . the moral and social responsibilities of the media” and supports “the media’s elaboration of voluntary codes of professional ethical conduct” in relation to “combating racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.”

http://weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/017/043ytrhc.asp?pg=1

UN: Threat of next world war may be in cyberspace

(AFP)   The next world war could take place in cyberspace, the UN telecommunications agency chief warned Tuesday as experts called for action to stamp out cyber attacks.

“The next world war could happen in cyberspace and that would be a catastrophe. We have to make sure that all countries understand that in that war, there is no such thing as a superpower,” Hamadoun Toure said.

“Loss of vital networks would quickly cripple any nation, and none is immune to cyberattack,” added the secretary-general of the International Telecommunications Union during the ITU’s Telecom World 2009 fair in Geneva.

Toure said countries have become “critically dependent” on technology for commerce, finance, health care, emergency services and food distribution.

“The best way to win a war is to avoid it in the first place,” he stressed.

As the Internet becomes more linked with daily lives, cyberattacks and crimes have also increased in frequency, experts said.

Such attacks include the use of “phishing” tools to get hold of passwords to commit fraud, or attempts by hackers to bring down secure networks.

Individual countries have started to respond by bolstering their defences.

US Secretary for Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said Thursday that she has received the green light to hire up to 1,000 cybersecurity experts to ramp up the United States’ defenses against cyber threats.

South Korea has also announced plans to train 3,000 “cyber sheriffs” by next year to protect businesses after a spate of attacks on state and private websites.

Warning of the magnitude of cybercrimes and attacks, Carlos Solari, Alcatel-Lucent’s vice-president on central quality, security and reliability, told a forum here that breaches in e-commerce are now already running to “hundreds of billions.”

But one of the most prominent victims in recent years has been the small Baltic state of Estonia, which has staked some of its post Cold War development on new technology.

In 2007 a spate of cyber attacks forced the closure of government websites and disrupted leading businesses.

Estonian Minister for Economic Affairs and Communications Juhan Parts said in Geneva that “adequate international cooperation” was essential.

“Because if something happens on cyberspace… it’s a border crossing issue. We have to have horizontal cooperation globally,” he added.

To this end, several countries have joined forces in the International Multilateral Partnership against Cyber Threats (IMPACT), set up this year to “proactively track and defend against cyberthreats.”

Some 37 ITU member states have signed up, while another 15 nations are holding advanced discussions, said the ITU.

Experts say that a major problem is that the current software and web infrastructurehas the same weaknesses as those produced two decades ago.

“The real problem is that we’re putting on the market software that is as vulnerable as it was 20 years ago,” said Cristine Hoepers, general manager at Brazilian National Computer Emergency Response Team.

“If you see the vulnerabilities that are being exploited today, they are still the same,” she underlined.

She suggested that professionals needed to be trained to “design something more resilient.”

“Universities are not teaching students to think about that. We need to change the workforce, we need to go to the universities…, we need to start educating our professionals,” she said.

Pointing out the infrastructure weakness, Carlos Moreira, who founded and runs the Swiss information security firm Wisekey, said legislation is needed to bring cybersecurity up to international standards.

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Threat_of_next_world_war_may_be_in_cyberspace_UN_999.html

Children as young as five to learn about masturbation and abortion under new UN guidelines

Editors Note: If you are completely disgusted by what the UN is trying to do to America’s children, get involved by:

1) Telling your senators and congressmen to cosponsor the Parental Rights Amendment and vote YES on it.

2) Telling your senators to vote NO on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child Treaty.

3) Get involved, go to www.parentalrights.org to learn more information on how to become a citizen co-sponsor of the Parental Rights Amendment.

(Mail Online 9/10/09) – By Kirsty Walker

Children as young as five should be taught about explicit sex acts, according to guidelines from the United Nations.

The advice also calls for youngsters to learn about abortion, same-sex relationships and sexually transmitted diseases.

The draft report on sex education has been compiled by UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.

The guidance is due to be issued to governments, local authorities and education bodies around the world by the end of next month.

But it has provoked an international outcry. Critics claim that addressing the issue of masturbation, which is contained in the plan, is too explicit for young children and removes the responsibility of parents to teach their own children about sex.

The guidelines break down suitable topics for discussion into four age groups. Among the most controversial recommendations are for teachers to begin discussing subjects such as masturbation with children from the age of five.

They recommend teachers should discuss the idea that ‘girls and boys have private body parts that can feel pleasurable when touched by oneself’.

When children are 12, teachers should be covering issues such as ‘access to safe abortion and post-abortion care’ and the ‘use and misuse of emergency contraception’.

The guidelines also recommend young people should learn about the ‘right to and access to safe abortion’. The report is intended to help countries improve sex education and sexual health, especially in the developing world.

UNESCO officials said it was up to governments and educational bodies to decide whether to implement the guidance.

But Tory MP Ann Widdecombe said: ‘This is wholly inappropriate and is destroying parental responsibility. It is parents who should determine the pace of revelation, not the authorities.

‘What one child may be ready to learn about at the age of ten, another child may not be ready for until 13. It should be up to parents to make these decisions.

‘When it comes to innocent children at the tender age of five years old, it is absolutely appalling these guidelines suggest that they should be taught about subjects such as masturbation.’

Fellow Tory MP Nadine Dorries said: ‘Educating children and young people to believe that access to legal abortion is a right delivers a message which suggests that abortion is a lifestyle choice – a method of contraception as opposed to the incredibly traumatic and distressing experience it is for most young women.’

UNESCO officials last night insisted that the guidelines will help to reduce the risk of infections from sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies among the young.

They added that the guidelines had been compiled for two years by a team of experts, who have drawn on more than 80 international studies of sex education.

The report, which is estimated to have cost over £200,000, is currently under discussion. But its content is unlikely to change substantially before it is officially released.

Mark Richmond, UNESCO’s global co-ordinator for HIV and AIDS, said: ‘It doesn’t mean that teaching about masturbation must take place at five years old. It may be mentioned, but it is up to parents and teachers about whether this is done. The guidelines are forms of advice.’

A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said the Government was already conducting a review of sex education.

The spokesman added that sex education is ‘essential’ if young people are to make responsible decisions.

Original Story: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1212274/Children-young-learn-masturbation-abortion-new-UN-guidelines.html

Obama To Be First President To Chair UN Security Council

Robert Gibbs the Whitehouse press secratary briefs that the president will be the first US president to chair the UN in history and will willfully and knowingly violate the US Constitution. The video date confirming his visit and chairmanship is here and taped on 9-10-09 and the link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5UqGHRYuV0

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U.N. ‘Climate Change’ Plan Would Likely Shift Trillions to Form New World Economy

(Fox – News 3/27/09) – A United Nations document on “climate change” that will be distributed to a major environmental conclave next week envisions a huge reordering of the world economy, likely involving trillions of dollars in wealth transfer, millions of job losses and gains, new taxes, industrial relocations, new tariffs and subsidies, and complicated payments for greenhouse gas abatement schemes and carbon taxes — all under the supervision of the world body.

Those and other results are blandly discussed in a discretely worded United Nations “information note” on potential consequences of the measures that industrialized countries will likely have to take to implement the Copenhagen Accord, the successor to the Kyoto Treaty, after it is negotiated and signed by December 2009. The Obama administration has said it supports the treaty process if, in the words of a U.S. State Department spokesman, it can come up with an “effective framework” for dealing with global warming.

The 16-page note, obtained by FOX News, will be distributed to participants at a mammoth negotiating session that starts on March 29 in Bonn, Germany, the first of three sessions intended to hammer out the actual commitments involved in the new deal.

In the stultifying language that is normal for important U.N. conclaves, the negotiators are known as the “Ad Hoc Working Group On Further Commitments For Annex I Parties Under the Kyoto Protocol.” Yet the consequences of their negotiations, if enacted, would be nothing short of world-changing.

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G-20 Makes Six Pledges Toward New World Order

(HULIQ NEWS)   In a press conference after the plenary session the British PM Gordon Brown read the communique of the G-20 leaders where the heads of the states have agreed to make six pledges to improve the world economy and emerge a “new world order.”

FOXNEWS AGREES WITH “CONSPIRACY THEORISTS”

Bill Hicks Tribute – Millitary & New World Order Takeover

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