angora oses: 2013

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Greek birth certificate probe in 'Maria' case

In this police handout photo taken on Thursday , Oct. 17, 2013, Greek Roma, Eleftheria Dimopoulou, 40, or Selini Sali —a woman who has two separate sets of identity papers. is seen in the Larisa regional police headquarters, Greece. Dimopoulou and her companion have been charged with abducting a little girl found living with them in a Gypsy settlement. Police in Greece on Monday, Oct. 21, 2013, have released the photographs of a couple alleged adductors of a girl known “Maria” after they were formally taken onto pre-trial custody and an international search for the girl’s parents intensified. (AP Photo/Greek Police)

In this police handout photo taken on Thursday , Oct. 17, 2013, Greek Roma, or Gypsy, man Christos Salis, 39, is seen in the Larisa regional police headquarters, Greece. Salis and his companion have been charged with abducting a little girl found living with them in a Gypsy settlement. Police in Greece on Monday, Oct. 21, 2013, have released the photographs of a couple alleged adductors of a girl known “Maria” after they were formally taken onto pre-trial custody and an international search for the girl’s parents intensified. (AP Photo/Greek Police)

Thorbjoern Jagland, the head of the Council of Europe, speaks to The Associated Press in an interview at the start of his two-day visit to Athens, on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013. Greek lawmakers are to vote late Tuesday on a proposal to suspend state funding for political parties accused of criminal activities, a measure targeting the Nazi-inspired Golden Dawn group. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

In this police handout photo taken on Thursday , Oct. 17, 2013, Christos Salis, 39, right, and his companion Eleftheria Dimopoulou, 40, or Selini Sali — as the woman has two separate sets of identity papers. pose with the little girl only known as "Maria" in the Larisa regional police headquarters, Greece. Police in Greece have released the photographs of a couple alleged adductors of a girl known “Maria” after they were formally taken onto pre-trial custody and an international search for the girl’s parents intensified. (AP Photo/Greek Police)

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A top Greek prosecutor has ordered an emergency nationwide investigation into birth certificates issued in the past six years after an unknown girl was discovered living with her alleged abductors at a Gypsy camp.

Supreme Court prosecutor Efterpi Koutzamani ordered the inquiry Tuesday for birth certificates issued after Jan. 1, 2008, amid media reports of benefit fraud by families who declared the same birth in multiple cities or who had produced false birth certificates for children that may or may not exist.

Critics say Greece's birth registration system is wide open to exploitation. Until just five months ago, there was no central national registry. Even now, births declared in different municipalities before May are not cross-checked on a national basis.

The birth registry investigation was sparked after a Gypsy, or Roma, couple was jailed on charges of abduction and document fraud in the case of the girl known only as "Maria." The blonde girl, believed to be 5 or 6, was found during a police raid on a Roma camp. She was taken into protective care last week after DNA tests established the Roma couple was not her biological parents.

Police said "Maria's" birth was falsely declared in Athens in 2009 but did not elaborate. The charity in charge of the girl's temporary care says a dental examination indicated she is five or six years old, not four as originally thought. It is not even certain the child was born in Greece.

The two suspects, aged 39 and 40, deny the abduction allegations, claiming they received "Maria" from a destitute woman to bring up as their own. They are now in pre-trial detention.

The girl's DNA has been entered into an Interpol database to check for matches.

Authorities allege that the female suspect claimed to have given birth to six children in less than 10 months, while 10 of the 14 children the couple had registered as their own are unaccounted for. Police say the two suspects received about 2,500 euros ($3,420) a month in subsidies from three different cities — a substantial amount in the midst of Greece's devastated economy.

On Monday, the mayor of Athens ordered the suspension of three officials in charge of record-keeping. It was not clear exactly why.

Earlier this month, the city of Athens had complained that "extremely problematic and antiquated" Greek laws allowed people to register babies as their own on the basis of one person's declaration backed by two witnesses. Prior to the new registry, parents could have delayed registering their children until they turned 18.

New parents now have three months to declare their newborns. Investigators in Athens, however, had found a large number of babies had been declared near the end of that deadline, and they suspected some were multiple declarations to claim benefits from different areas.

The mystery girl's case has triggered international interest in missing children. Irish police on Monday seized a young blonde girl from a Romanian Gypsy family in Dublin in a move spurred by the case in Greece.

The Irish government was seeking court approval Tuesday to take the girl into foster care while police investigate her origins. The couple in Dublin said the 7-year-old child was theirs, but a Dublin maternity hospital they identified had no record of the birth. Nobody has been arrested.

"Maria" was spotted during a police raid near the central Greek town of Farsala on Oct. 16. Greek police have carried out dozens of similar raids on Roma camps in the past few weeks in a crackdown on drug smuggling and burglary gangs.

Human rights groups are now worried that Europe's Roma community as a whole is being unfairly targeted by authorities and the media. Europe's top human rights official told The Associated Press he was worried about a possible backlash against Greece's Roma minority.

"Of course it is a danger," said Thorbjoern Jagland, Secretary General of Council of Europe, as he arrived in Athens for a two-day visit. "If a Roma family, a Roma people are involved in this, this should not lead to condemnation of the whole Roma society."

___

AP writers Costas Kantouris in Thessaloniki and Nicholas Paphitis in Athens contributed.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-10-22-Greece-Mystery%20Girl/id-0f37f84c069043a7ac26d78ebe012703
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Apple's Double iPad Party: Everything You May Have Missed

Today was a banner day for new Apple goodness. We got a thinner, lighter, iPad—the iPad Air—as well as a new retina display iPad mini, new Haswell chip-packed MacBook Pros, and a deeper look at the new Mac Pros. Do you feel like you need a cheat sheet to keep track? We've got just the thing:

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Coffee Coming Up, Nice And Hot ... And Prepared By A Robot

Briggo's Coffee Haus takes up about 50 square feet of space, has a nice exterior wood design, and accepts orders either on-site or via a website.

Courtesy Briggo

Briggo's Coffee Haus takes up about 50 square feet of space, has a nice exterior wood design, and accepts orders either on-site or via a website.

Courtesy Briggo

A new trend is brewing in the coffee world: coffee prepared by a robot, able to be preordered via cellphone and picked up at an unmanned kiosk, perfectly adjusted to your taste and ready to go.

To some, this might seem lamentable: the beginning of the end of coffee shops as we know them. No more huddling around warm cups of coffee with friends or sipping a refreshing iced latte while reading.

But to others, this might be just what they've waited for: no lines when you're in a rush, and coffee prepared by a machine that is programmed to make it perfectly time and time again.

The latest company to present such a coffee kiosk is Austin-based Briggo. As Quartz recently reported, Briggo opened its first kiosk on the University of Texas' Austin campus in July of this year. The kiosk — dubbed "The Coffee Haus" — takes up about 50 square feet of space, has a nice exterior wood design, and accepts orders either on-site or across campus via a website, informing the customer precisely when the drink will be ready.

Customers are able to control every detail to their liking, including the flavor, the type of sweetener and milk, and the amount of each ingredient. A variety of choices are offered, from espressos and lattes to iced coffees and hot chocolate. If customers create an account online, the system will remember their favorite order (of course, your friendly neighborhood barista probably does the same thing).

While the convenience of such a machine is probably its biggest selling point, consumers who've sampled Briggo's brew tell The Salt that the quality of the coffee is nothing to sniff at, either.

Unlike baristas in training, who need to figure out the tricks of the trade, their robotic counterparts have been programmed to control every aspect of the process, with the goal of creating a consistently tasty product.

"The coffee tastes good and it always tastes the same," Yamit Lavi, a student at UT Austin, tells us. "I would say the consistency of the taste makes it better than a standard coffee shop."

The machine, after all, can measure humidity, temperature, water pressure, timing and other such factors to a T. And while institutions host the coffee kiosks, Briggo retains ownership of the machines so it can closely manage the entire process, from origin of its direct-trade beans to cup in hand.

Briggo isn't the only company to pursue a robotic coffee venture. There's also the Marley Coffee Machine, which croons Bob Marley tunes while the robot within the box prepares coffee from freshly ground beans. And Starbucks' satellite brand, Seattle's Best, is pairing with the company that owns Redbox to set up one-dollar coffee kiosks in hundreds of supermarkets across the country.

And yet, although students at UT Austin enjoy the Briggo "Coffee Haus," many of them still hold on to the value of a real coffee shop experience.

"At coffee shops you can build relationships with the people making your drink and have a more personal interaction," says Mina Ghobrial, another student at UT. "I believe that's very important in today's society, especially since electronics have taken over face-to-face interactions."

The coffee kiosks don't have to eliminate coffee shops altogether. Instead, they can be a nice addition: something there when we need it — and not bad-tasting to boot.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/10/22/239789038/coffee-coming-up-nice-and-hot-and-prepared-by-a-robot?ft=1&f=1019
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Iraq vet's family considering gravestone options

CINCINNATI (AP) — The family of a slain Iraqi war veteran wants her towering SpongeBob SquarePants headstone returned to her final resting place while the cemetery officials that removed it say that's the only thing they won't do, leaving both sides at an apparent impasse that may have to be decided in court.

Deborah Walker told The Associated Press after Tuesday's meeting with Spring Grove Cemetery officials that she'd consider their various proposals if they would think about hers — simply putting her daughter Kimberly's gravestone back.

But cemetery President Gary Freytag told the AP that isn't an option.

The headstone fashioned in the cartoon character's likeness was erected at Spring Grove Cemetery on Oct. 10, almost eight months after Kimberly Walker, 28, was found slain in a Colorado hotel room.

Despite getting the cemetery's prior approval of the headstone design — a smiling SpongeBob in an Army uniform, with Walker's name and rank — cemetery staff called her family the day after it was installed to say it would have to come down.

Cemetery officials said the employee who approved the design made a mistake. It was taken down along with a near-exact duplicate erected for Walker's living twin sister.

Deborah Walker said she's beyond frustrated with Spring Grove, saying her family had a contract, wants it to be honored as promised and is now considering their legal options.

"You can't keep blaming it on an employee," she said. "That employee represented that whole cemetery and when they do wrong, you've got to make it right. Put SpongeBob back up."

Freytag said he's "willing to do whatever the family thinks is best, other than installing the monuments back as they were."

Other possible solutions, Freytag said, include creating new, more traditional headstones bearing a smaller SpongeBob likeness, or laying the original headstones flat on the ground after redesigning the lot.

Spring Grove would cover all the costs, Freytag said.

Kimberly Walker's twin sister, Kara Walker, said her family went to great lengths for each of the $13,000 headstones, including obtaining copyright approval from Nickelodeon. The family believes the headstone was the only fitting tribute for her sister, a huge SpongeBob fan.

Kimberly Walker was an Army corporal assigned to the 2nd General Support Aviation Battalion and served two yearlong tours Iraq in 2006 and 2010 as a petroleum supply specialist, her family said.

She was found dead in a hotel room in Colorado Springs in February on Valentine's Day, strangled and beaten to death. Her boyfriend, an Army sergeant stationed nearby, was arrested and charged with her killing.

"My sister served our country and most people try to accommodate veterans and try to take care of them," Kara Walker said. "For them not to accommodate and respect what my sister sacrificed, not only for my family, but for everyone else in this country, really bothers me."

Freytag said Spring Grove admires and appreciates Kimberly Walker's military service but that the cemetery has to consider the wishes of other families whose loved ones are interred there and may not feel that gravestones modeled after cartoon characters are appropriate.

The dispute over the headstones has gained nationwide attention. Freytag said the cemetery has received so many calls, both in support of and against its decision, that they had to set up a special extension to field all the comments.

___

Follow Amanda Lee Myers on Twitter at https://twitter.com/AmandaLeeAP

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iraq-vets-family-considering-gravestone-options-200650071.html
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Teacher Who Died Trying To End Shooting Remembered As A Hero

A Sparks Middle School student cries with family members after a fellow student killed a math teacher and himself in Sparks, Nev., on Monday.

Kevin Clifford/AP

A Sparks Middle School student cries with family members after a fellow student killed a math teacher and himself in Sparks, Nev., on Monday.

Kevin Clifford/AP

Michael Landsberry, the 45-year-old middle school math teacher and Afghan War veteran who was killed trying to talk down a student shooter at a Nevada Middle School, is being remembered as a hero.

Witnesses at Sparks Middle School in the Reno suburb during Monday's shooting described how Landsberry approached the armed 13-year-old boy and tried to get him to surrender a semi-automatic pistol he had used to shoot two fellow students. The boy then turned the weapon on Landsberry, fatally shooting him, before using the pistol to take his own life.

"In my estimation he is a hero," Reno's Deputy Police Chief Tom Robinson said at a news conference Monday.

Washoe County School District Superintendent Pedro Martinez said: "We have a lot of heroes today, including our children ... and our fallen hero, an amazing teacher."

A Facebook page in honor of the fallen teacher "Rest Easy Mr. Landsberry" had more than 12,000 "likes." Other photos of Landsberry can be seen here.

"It's very unfortunate that [the life of] someone like that, who protected our country over there and came back alive ... had to be taken at his work, at a school," Sparks Mayor Geno Martini said, according to CNN.

Landsberry, a former U.S. Marine who later served in Afghanistan with the Nevada Air National Guard and held the rank of senior master sergeant, wrote on his classroom webpage: "One of my goals is to earn your respect while you earn mine. I believe that with mutual respect that the classroom environment will run smoothly."

Chanda Landsberry said her brother-in-law loved teaching.

"He loved his schoolkids. He loved the Guard," she said. "It defined him."

She said he leaves behind his wife, Sharon, and two stepdaughters.

Authorities tell ABCNews that one of the wounded boys had been through surgery and the second is said to be "doing well."

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/10/22/239681615/teacher-who-died-trying-to-end-shooting-remembered-as-a-hero?ft=1&f=1003
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Builders of Obama's health website saw red flags

WASHINGTON (AP) — Crammed into conference rooms with pizza for dinner, some programmers building the Obama administration's showcase health insurance website were growing increasingly stressed. Some worked past 10 p.m., energy drinks in hand. Others rewrote computer code over and over to meet what they considered last-minute requests for changes from the government or other contractors.

As questions mount over the website's failure, insider interviews and a review of technical specifications by The Associated Press found a mind-numbingly complex system put together by harried programmers who pushed out a final product that congressional investigators said was tested by the government and not private developers with more expertise.

Project developers who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity — because they feared they would otherwise be fired — said they raised doubts among themselves whether the website could be ready in time. They complained openly to each other about what they considered tight and unrealistic deadlines. One was nearly brought to tears over the stress of finishing on time, one developer said. Website builders saw red flags for months.

A review of internal architectural diagrams obtained by the AP revealed the system's complexity. Insurance applicants have a host of personal information verified, including income and immigration status. The system connects to other federal computer networks, including ones at the Social Security Administration, IRS, Veterans Administration, Office of Personnel Management and the Peace Corps.

President Barack Obama on Monday acknowledged technical problems that he described as "kinks in the system." He also promised a "tech surge" by leading technology talent to repair the painfully slow and often unresponsive website that has frustrated Americans trying to enroll online for insurance plans at the center of Obama's health care law.

But in remarks at a Rose Garden event, Obama offered no explanation for the failure except to note that high traffic to the website caused some of the slowdowns. He said it had been visited nearly 20 million times — fewer monthly visits so far than many commercial websites, such as PayPal, AOL, Wikipedia or Pinterest.

"The problem has been that the website that's supposed to make it easy to apply for and purchase the insurance is not working the way it should for everybody," Obama said. "There's no sugarcoating it. The website has been too slow. People have been getting stuck during the application process. And I think it's fair to say that nobody is more frustrated by that than I am."

The online system was envisioned as a simple way for people without health insurance to comparison-shop among competing plans offered in their state, pick their preferred level of coverage and cost and sign up. For many, it's not worked out that way so far.

Just weeks before the launch of HealthCare.gov on Oct. 1, one programmer said, colleagues huddled in conference rooms trying to patch "bugs," or deficiencies in computer code. Unresolved problems led to visitors experiencing cryptic error messages or enduring long waits trying to sign up.

Congressional investigators have concluded that the government's Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, not private software developers, tested the exchange's computer systems during the final weeks. That task, known as integration testing, is usually handled by software companies because it ferrets out problems before the public sees the final product.

The government spent at least $394 million in contracts to build the federal health care exchange and the data hub. Those contracts included major awards to Virginia-based CGI Federal Inc., Maryland-based Quality Software Services Inc. and Booz Allen Hamilton Inc.

CGI Federal said in a statement Monday it was working with the government and other contractors "around the clock" to improve the system, which it called "complex, ambitious and unprecedented."

The schematics from late 2012 show how officials designated a "data services hub" — a traffic cop for managing information — in lieu of a design that would have allowed state exchanges to connect directly to government servers when verifying an applicant's information. On Sunday, the Health and Human Services Department said the data hub was working but not meeting public expectations: "We are committed to doing better."

Administration officials so far have refused to say how many people actually have managed to enroll in insurance during the three weeks since the new marketplaces became available. Without enrollment numbers, it's impossible to know whether the program is on track to reach projections from the Congressional Budget Office that 7 million people would gain coverage during the first year the exchanges were available.

Instead, officials have selectively cited figures that put the insurance exchanges in a positive light. They say more than 19 million people have logged on to the federal website and nearly 500,000 have filled out applications for insurance through both the federal and state-run sites.

The flood of computer problems since the website went online has been deeply embarrassing for the White House. The snags have called into question whether the administration is capable of implementing the complex policy and why senior administration officials — including the president — appear to have been unaware of the scope of the problems when the exchange sites opened.

Even as the president spoke at the Rose Garden, more problems were coming to light. The administration acknowledged that a planned upgrade to the website had been postponed indefinitely and that online Spanish-language signups would remain unavailable, despite a promise to Hispanic groups that the capability would start this week. And the government tweaked the website's home page so visitors can now view phone numbers to apply the old-fashioned way or window-shop for insurance rates without registering first.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee was expected to conduct an oversight hearing Thursday, probably without Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testifying. She could testify on Capitol Hill on the subject as early as next week.

Uninsured Americans have until about mid-February to sign up for coverage if they are to meet the law's requirement that they be insured by the end of March. If they don't, they will face a penalty.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., plans to introduce legislation to delay that requirement because: "It's not fair to punish people for not buying something that's not available," Rubio told "CBS This Morning" on Tuesday.

On Monday, the White House advised people frustrated by the online tangle that they can enroll by calling 1-800-318-2596 in a process that should take 25 minutes for an individual or 45 minutes for a family. Assistance is also available in communities from helpers who can be found at LocalHelp.HealthCare.gov.

___

Associated Press writer Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar contributed to this report.

___

Follow Jack Gillum on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jackgillum or Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/builders-obamas-health-website-saw-red-flags-070429400.html
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Boxlight ProjectoWrite6 X32N

The Boxlight ProjectoWrite6 X32N is an XGA (1,024 by 768) interactive projector with a difference. Or lots of differences. Unlike most, it's built around an LCD, rather than DLP, engine; it uses a wireless connection rather than a USB cable to control interactivity; and it offers a standard throw, rather than a short or ultra-short throw. The combination makes it stand out from the crowd, mostly in a good way.

As with the Editors' Choice Epson BrightLink 436Wi Interactive WXGA 3LCD Projector, the LCD engine in the X32N gives it two advantages over DLP-based competition and one disadvantage.

The first advantage is that it's guaranteed not to show rainbow artifacts—in the form of red, green, and blue flashes—that DLP-based projectors can show. The second is that it has the same color brightness as white brightness, which is often not true for DLP projectors. A difference between the two can affect both the brightness and color quality of color images. (For more on color brightness, see Color Brightness: What It Is, and Why You Should Care.) The disadvantage is that it doesn't offer 3D support, which you'll find in most DLP projectors. Unless you need 3D, however, that's a non-issue.

Interactive Advantages and Disadvantages
The wireless connection for interactivity comes in the form of a dongle you plug into your PC's USB port. This isn't much of an advantage for a permanent installation using a single computer. If different people use different computers, however, it's a little more convenient than connecting a cable every time you switch computers. And if you plan to use the projector as a portable, the wireless connection means one less wire to worry about every time you set it up.

The standard throw, unfortunately, is far more of a minus than a plus. A standard throw lens helps keep the initial price down compared with a short throw or ultra-short throw lensing system. However, the closer a projector is to the screen, the easier it is to avoid shadows, which is why most interactive projectors offer either a short throw or ultra-short throw.

Using a 78-inch wide (roughly 98-inch diagonal) XGA image, for example, I measured the short throw Acer S5201M at only 49 inches from the screen. The X32N needed 107 inches for the same size image.

As you would expect from the X32N's throw distance, when you're standing next to the screen to interact with the image, it's easy to wind up with a shadow covering the part of the image you want to interact with. That also means you're blocking the projector from seeing what you're doing with the interactive pen.

The good news is that this isn't as much of a problem as you might expect it to be. After a little trial and error, I was able to adjust my position to reliably avoid shadows over the part of the screen I wanted to interact with. If you're in front of an audience, however, you may have to step out of the way when you're done to let everyone see the full image.

Setup and Basics
The X32N is small and light enough to carry with you. However, at 3.8 by 12.8 by 10.2 inches and 7 pounds 8 ounces, it is in a size and weight class that usually winds up permanently installed or on a cart for room-to-room portability. The 3,200-lumen rating puts it in the usual range for a projector aimed at a small- to mid-size conference room or classroom.

Aside from using a USB dongle instead of a USB cable for interactive control, setup is mostly standard fare for an interactive projector, with manual focus and manual zoom.

Choices for image input include the usual VGA, HDMI, and composite video ports, an S-Video port and a USB A port for reading files directly from a USB memory key, and a mini-USB B port for direct USB display. In addition, the projector offers a 1.5GB internal memory to let you show images without an external device and a LAN port to let you send images and audio, as well as control the projector, over a network. You can also get an optional Wi-Fi dongle ($99 list) that will let you send images from PCs, Macs, and both iOS and Android phones and tablets. Apps are available for recent OSs in each case.

As is common for interactive LCD projectors, the X32N uses infrared technology, which allows thinner pens than the ones that most DLP interactive projectors come with. This will be particularly welcome in a classroom with younger students with small hands.

One disadvantage of infrared technology is that the pens have to touch the screen, which means you need a screen with a hard backing. You also have to calibrate the pens to the projector. With only four points to touch on screen, however, the calibration step is quick and easy. Note too that the interactive feature lets you use two pens at once.

Image Quality and Other Issues
Data image quality for the ProjectoWrite6 X32N is solidly in the good to excellent range. The projector sailed through our standard suite of DisplayMate tests, with fully saturated vibrant color in all modes and good color balance. Grays were suitably neutral at all levels from black to white in all but the brightest mode, and showed just a hint of yellow tint in the brightest shades of the brightest mode.

More important for most data screens is that the projector held detail well, with both black on white and white on black text crisp and highly readable at sizes as small as 6.8 points. I saw some exceedingly minor dynamic moire with an analog (VGA) connection, but only on screens that are designed to bring out that problem. Unless you use patterned fills instead of solid blocks of colors in your images, you'll probably never see this issue.

Video is watchable, but not high quality. The projector did a good job with shadow detail (details based on shading in dark areas), and I didn't see any motion artifacts or posterization. However, the low contrast ratio showed as washed out color in every scene. The quality is good enough to let you watch a full-length movie comfortably, but don't expect colors to pop off the screen.

One last issue that demands mention is that, as with most projectors in this weight class, the built-in audio for the ProjectoWrite6 X32N is hardly worth having. The sound quality is acceptable, but the 10-watt mono speaker puts out barely enough volume for a small conference room. If you need higher volume or stereo, plan on plugging an external sound system into the projector's stereo audio output.

The standard throw on the ProjectoWrite6 X32N makes it a less than ideal choice if you need a projector for extensive interactive use. If you need only occasional interactive capability in an XGA projector, however, the combination of good to excellent data image quality, watchable video, and interactive extras like dual pen support can easily make the Boxlight ProjectoWrite6 X32N a good fit.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/wIgb53C_Wyc/0,2817,2425963,00.asp
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Tobacco Companies Still Target Youth Despite a Global Treaty

Twenty-two years ago a team of researchers traveled to some 200 U.S. preschools with a game board and a list. That now seminal study, in which 91 percent of the three- and six-year-olds they tested correctly paired mascot Joe Camel with his matching cigarettes, set off a cascade of antismoking legislation aimed at shielding American youth from aggressive tobacco ads. And in 2003 the World Heath Organization followed suit with an international treaty designed to limit the marketing power of tobacco companies in developing countries.

But new findings suggest that tobacco companies have succeeded in moving their campaign overseas regardless of international recommendations. This year a research team in Brazil, China, Russia, Nigeria, Pakistan and India conducted a very similar version of the original Joe Camel study. Among the 2,400 five- and six-year-olds they interviewed, 68 percent could identify at least one tobacco logo.

Experts say the finding is the latest in a series of recent studies to indicate that the same four tobacco companies that U.S. public health advocates kicked out in the 1990s are still targeting the most vulnerable members of society—namely, children, teens and those trying to quit, with a focus on less affluent nations.

Joaquin Barnoya, research assistant professor of public health at Washington University School of Medicine in Saint Louis, says tobacco companies have “learned their lesson from high-income countries” that have restricted their sales by imposing taxes and marketing limitations. Barnoya, who studies tobacco sales and antismoking efforts in Guatemala, says tobacco companies there secure customers by directly violating the law or by finding creative ways around it. For example, although they can’t market their products on television or in magazines, tobacco companies use “nontraditional” advertising, such as paying retailers to place their products in the most visible parts of the store (usually either directly behind or in front of the cash register). Companies also use promotional advertising, such as two-for-one product discounts, to hook smokers who may be trying to quit. These strategies send a message to the consumer that smoking is socially acceptable, Barnoya says: “It’s like a store placing the candy at the front where you’re most likely to see it and buy it.”

Children are highly receptive to marketing, says University of Maryland, College Park, public health research professor Dina Borzekowski, who led this year’s study of five- and six-year-olds. Borzekowski found that the children in Brazil, China, Russia, Pakistan, Nigeria and India who could best identify tobacco brands did not necessarily live with a smoker, further suggesting that kids are picking up knowledge about cigarettes in public rather than at home. “You would think this would only happen with children who lived with smokers or had a family member who smoked, but it didn’t,” Borzekowski says.

In 2005 the countries in which Barnoya and Borzekowski conducted their research joined 168 nations in signing onto an international treaty banning aggressive tobacco advertising—the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Despite having agreed to the law in principle, many countries are still failing to execute it. “If you go to these countries, you’ll see signs that say ‘no smoking,’ and right underneath them people are smoking,” Borzekowski says.

Hillel Alpert, a researcher at the Harvard School of Public Health, says tobacco companies are still targeting youth in the U.S. as well. As recently as 2005 R. J. Reynolds was adding flavors—such as orange-mint, chocolate and vanilla—to its Camel cigarettes to increase their appeal to youth and first-time smokers. But after an outpouring of research linked the candy-flavored products with a rise in youth smoking rates, Reynolds was forced to stop selling them. Even so, Alpert says, U.S. tobacco companies continue to add flavors to small cigars, smokeless and other tobacco products. “The industry has found that marketing an addictive product to youth translates into customers who are addicted for life.”
Reynolds spokesperson Richard Smith says the company’s marketing strategy is directed at adults. “Nothing we do is targeting youth,” he says.

Borzekowski’s team is now studying children’s awareness and understanding of warning labels on cigarette packages. In some European countries, where governments have paired the labels with graphic images, consumer demand for the products has decreased, especially among young people. But tobacco companies are fighting efforts to use similar visuals internationally. "We've gotten rid of the giant billboards. We've gotten rid of Joe Camel. But we've sill got work to do, in the U.S. and globally," Borzekowski says.

See also:

>>Do Electronic Cigarettes Really Help Smokers Quit?

>>Smoking Is a Drag at the Box Office

>>Why Some Smokers Get Lung Cancer—and Others Are Spared

Follow Scientific American on Twitter @SciAm and @SciamBlogs.
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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tobacco-companies-still-target-youth-despite-global-treaty-103000965.html
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Toyota Recalls 800,000 Vehicles Because...Spiders?

Business

It's Back To The Future For E-Cigarette Ads, At Least For Now

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5 Questions Kathleen Sebelius Must Answer

Europe

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Economy

Volkswagen Union Opposed By Tennessee Republican Officials

Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=239269522&ft=1&f=1006
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Demi Lovato Creates A Snowstorm On 'Let It Go': Listen Now!

Winter's coming, but on the 'Frozen' soundtrack release, she's not scared at all.

By Emily Blake

Source:
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1715939/demi-lovato-let-it-go-frozen.jhtml

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Monday, October 21, 2013

Breast milk protein may be key to protecting babies from HIV infection

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

21-Oct-2013

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Contact: Sarah Avery
sarah.avery@duke.edu
919-660-1306
Duke University Medical Center

DURHAM, N.C. A substance in breast milk that neutralizes HIV and may protect babies from acquiring HIV from their infected mothers has been identified for the first time by researchers at Duke Medicine.

The protein, called Tenascin-C or TNC, had previously been recognized as playing a role in wound healing, but had not been known to have antimicrobial properties. The discovery could lead to potential new HIV-prevention strategies.

Reporting in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences during the week of Oct. 21, 2013, the researchers describe how the TNC protein in breast milk binds to and neutralizes the HIV virus, potentially protecting exposed infants who might otherwise become infected from repeated exposures to the virus.

"Even though we have antiretroviral drugs that can work to prevent mother-to-child transmission, not every pregnant woman is being tested for HIV, and less than 60 percent are receiving the prevention drugs, particularly in countries with few resources," said senior author Sallie Permar, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of pediatrics, immunology and molecular genetics and microbiology at Duke. "So there is still a need for alternative strategies to prevent mother-to-child transmission, which is why this work is important."

Worldwide in 2011, an estimated 330,000 children acquired HIV from their mothers during pregnancy or birth, or through breastfeeding according to UNICEF. As international health organizations have set a goal of eliminating mother-to-child infections, researchers have worked to develop safe and affordable alternatives to antiretroviral therapy that can be used to block HIV transmission to infants.

Permar and colleagues focused on breast milk, which has long been recognized as having some protective quality that inhibits mother-to-child transmission despite multiple daily exposures over months and even years of nursing. Earlier studies had identified some antiviral properties in breast milk, but the majority of the HIV-neutralizing activity of breast milk remained unexplained. More recent studies pointed to a large protein that had yet to be identified.

In their study, the Duke team screened mature milk samples from uninfected women for neutralizing activity against a panel of HIV strains, confirming that all of the detectable HIV-neutralization activity was contained in the high molecular weight portion. Using a multi-step protein separation process, the researchers narrowed the detectable HIV-neutralization activity to a single protein, and identified it as TNC.

"TNC is a component of the extracellular matrix that is integral to how tissues hold themselves together," Permar said, noting that co-author Harold Erickson, Ph.D., professor of cell biology at Duke, was among the first to identify and describe TNC in the 1980s. "This is a protein involved during wound healing, playing a role in tissue repair. It is also known to be important in fetal development, but its reason for being a component of breast milk or its antiviral properties had never been described."

Further analysis described how TNC works against HIV by blocking virus entry. The protein is uniquely effective in capturing virus particles and neutralizes the virus, specifically binding to the HIV envelope. These properties provide widespread protection against infection.

"It's likely that TNC is acting in concert with other anti-HIV factors in breast milk, and further research should explore this," Permar said. "But given TNC's broad-spectrum HIV-1-binding and neutralizing activity, it could be developed as an HIV-prevention therapy, given orally to infants prior to breastfeeding, similar to the way oral rehydration salts are routinely administered to infants in developing regions."

Permar said TNC would also appear to be inherently safe, since it is a naturally occurring component of breast milk, and it may avoid the problem of HIV resistance to antiretroviral regimens that complicate maternal/infant applications.

"The discovery of the HIV inhibiting effect of this common protein in breast milk provides a potential explanation for why nursing infants born to HIV-infected mothers do not become infected more often than they do," said Barton F. Haynes, M.D., director of the Duke Human Vaccine Institute. "It also provides support for inducing inhibitory factors in breast milk that might be even more protective, such as antibodies, that would completely protect babies from HIV infection in this setting."

###
In addition to Permar, co-senior author was S. Munir Alam. Other authors include Genevieve G. Fouda, Frederick H. Jaeger, Joshua D. Amos, Carrie Ho, Erika L. Kunz, Kara Anasti, Lisa W. Stamper, Brooke E. Liebl; Kimberly H. Barbas, Tomoo Ohashi, M. Arthur Moseley, Hua-Xin Liao and Harold P. Erickson.

The study was funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Clinical Scientist Development Award; Duke University School of Medicine; Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology; and the National Institute of Allergic and Immunologic Diseases (U19 AI067854) (K08AI087992) (CA047056).

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Breast milk protein may be key to protecting babies from HIV infection

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

21-Oct-2013

[

| E-mail

]

Share
Contact: Sarah Avery
sarah.avery@duke.edu
919-660-1306
Duke University Medical Center

DURHAM, N.C. A substance in breast milk that neutralizes HIV and may protect babies from acquiring HIV from their infected mothers has been identified for the first time by researchers at Duke Medicine.

The protein, called Tenascin-C or TNC, had previously been recognized as playing a role in wound healing, but had not been known to have antimicrobial properties. The discovery could lead to potential new HIV-prevention strategies.

Reporting in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences during the week of Oct. 21, 2013, the researchers describe how the TNC protein in breast milk binds to and neutralizes the HIV virus, potentially protecting exposed infants who might otherwise become infected from repeated exposures to the virus.

"Even though we have antiretroviral drugs that can work to prevent mother-to-child transmission, not every pregnant woman is being tested for HIV, and less than 60 percent are receiving the prevention drugs, particularly in countries with few resources," said senior author Sallie Permar, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of pediatrics, immunology and molecular genetics and microbiology at Duke. "So there is still a need for alternative strategies to prevent mother-to-child transmission, which is why this work is important."

Worldwide in 2011, an estimated 330,000 children acquired HIV from their mothers during pregnancy or birth, or through breastfeeding according to UNICEF. As international health organizations have set a goal of eliminating mother-to-child infections, researchers have worked to develop safe and affordable alternatives to antiretroviral therapy that can be used to block HIV transmission to infants.

Permar and colleagues focused on breast milk, which has long been recognized as having some protective quality that inhibits mother-to-child transmission despite multiple daily exposures over months and even years of nursing. Earlier studies had identified some antiviral properties in breast milk, but the majority of the HIV-neutralizing activity of breast milk remained unexplained. More recent studies pointed to a large protein that had yet to be identified.

In their study, the Duke team screened mature milk samples from uninfected women for neutralizing activity against a panel of HIV strains, confirming that all of the detectable HIV-neutralization activity was contained in the high molecular weight portion. Using a multi-step protein separation process, the researchers narrowed the detectable HIV-neutralization activity to a single protein, and identified it as TNC.

"TNC is a component of the extracellular matrix that is integral to how tissues hold themselves together," Permar said, noting that co-author Harold Erickson, Ph.D., professor of cell biology at Duke, was among the first to identify and describe TNC in the 1980s. "This is a protein involved during wound healing, playing a role in tissue repair. It is also known to be important in fetal development, but its reason for being a component of breast milk or its antiviral properties had never been described."

Further analysis described how TNC works against HIV by blocking virus entry. The protein is uniquely effective in capturing virus particles and neutralizes the virus, specifically binding to the HIV envelope. These properties provide widespread protection against infection.

"It's likely that TNC is acting in concert with other anti-HIV factors in breast milk, and further research should explore this," Permar said. "But given TNC's broad-spectrum HIV-1-binding and neutralizing activity, it could be developed as an HIV-prevention therapy, given orally to infants prior to breastfeeding, similar to the way oral rehydration salts are routinely administered to infants in developing regions."

Permar said TNC would also appear to be inherently safe, since it is a naturally occurring component of breast milk, and it may avoid the problem of HIV resistance to antiretroviral regimens that complicate maternal/infant applications.

"The discovery of the HIV inhibiting effect of this common protein in breast milk provides a potential explanation for why nursing infants born to HIV-infected mothers do not become infected more often than they do," said Barton F. Haynes, M.D., director of the Duke Human Vaccine Institute. "It also provides support for inducing inhibitory factors in breast milk that might be even more protective, such as antibodies, that would completely protect babies from HIV infection in this setting."

###
In addition to Permar, co-senior author was S. Munir Alam. Other authors include Genevieve G. Fouda, Frederick H. Jaeger, Joshua D. Amos, Carrie Ho, Erika L. Kunz, Kara Anasti, Lisa W. Stamper, Brooke E. Liebl; Kimberly H. Barbas, Tomoo Ohashi, M. Arthur Moseley, Hua-Xin Liao and Harold P. Erickson.

The study was funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Clinical Scientist Development Award; Duke University School of Medicine; Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology; and the National Institute of Allergic and Immunologic Diseases (U19 AI067854) (K08AI087992) (CA047056).

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Share

]

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/dumc-bmp101613.php
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Microsoft, the sleeping giant of the cloud

Credit: iStockphoto

We're accustomed to thinking of Microsoft as a lumbering giant encumbered by its PC legacy. But think about it: What other company in the world has such a massive collection of software and services to offer through the cloud, not to mention the cloud infrastructure to deliver it?

Microsoft has the resources to crush it. The question, as usual, is how well it can execute.

[ Stay on top of the cloud with the "Cloud Computing Deep Dive" special report. Download it today! | From Amazon to Windows Azure, see how the elite 8 public clouds compare in InfoWorld's review. | For a quick, smart take on the news you'll be talking about, check out InfoWorld TechBrief -- subscribe today. ]

Brad Anderson, corporate vice president of the Cloud and Enterprise division at Microsoft, helps oversee a big chunk of the private and public cloud portfolio: Windows Server, System Center, SQL Server, Windows Azure, and Visual Studio. InfoWorld Executive Editor Doug Dineley and I spoke with him for over an hour last week. In particular, our conversation focused on the connection between Windows Server and Azure, although we began by addressing the commitment Microsoft has made to its public cloud.

Gearing up for dominance
The Microsoft reorg changed the name of Microsoft's Server and Tools division to the Cloud and Enterprise division. But according to Anderson, little changed in terms of responsibility, except that Global Foundation Services became part of his group. These are the guys who are responsible for Microsoft's entire data center infrastructure, including Azure data centers.

I had heard Microsoft was investing heavily, but still, I was surprised by the scale. "We think that we were the No. 1 purchaser of servers in the world last year," says Anderson. "Every six months we're having to double our compute and our storage capacity. To give you a frame, in the last three years we've spent over $15 billion on cap ex."

That's one heck of a cloud launching pad. Plus, although Office 365 is outside Anderson's purview, he couldn't resist noting it reached a $1 billion annual run rate faster than any product in Microsoft history (although some have questioned that claim). In addition, back in June, Azure general manager Steven Martin claimed that the number of Azure customers had risen to 250,000 and was increasing at the rate of 1,000 per day.

No doubt many of those Azure customers were drawn by Microsoft's decision in mid-2012 to offer plain old IaaS (as opposed to PaaS), which InfoWorld's Peter Wayner characterized as having "great price-performance, Windows toolchain integration, and plenty of open source options." You can bet a bunch of customers will also discover Azure by crossing the bridge Microsoft is building between Windows Server and System Center on the one hand, and Azure services on the other.

The boundaryless data center
The overarching message is that Windows Server customers can now use Azure as an extension to their local server infrastructure. "We're the only organization in the world delivering consistency across privately hosted and public clouds," Anderson says. "You're not going to be locked into a private or to a public cloud. You can dev and test in Azure, deploy on private. You can move your virtual machine up into Azure without changing a line of code, without changing your IT processes."

Anderson also claims technology development on Azure is being ported to Windows Server. "The ability to take direct-attached storage, have all of the content replicated, tiering ... all those kinds of pieces come from Azure," he said, referring to Windows Server 2012's Storage Spaces and the new storage functionality in Windows Server 2012 R2.

Source: http://podcasts.infoworld.com/t/cloud-computing/microsoft-the-sleeping-giant-of-the-cloud-229125?source=rss_infoworld_top_stories_
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France summons US ambassador over spying

U.S Ambassador to France Charles H. Rivkin, right, leaves the Foreign Ministry in Paris, after he was summoned Monday, Oct. 21, 2013. The French government had summoned the ambassador to explain why the Americans spied on one of their closest allies. Le Monde newspaper said Monday, Oct. 21, 2013 that documents leaked by Edward Snowden show that the U.S. National Security Agency swept up 70.3 million French phone records in a 30-day period. (AP Photo/Claude Paris)

FILE - In this March 8, 2013 file photo, U.S Ambassador to France Charles H. Rivkin, stands as the US national anthem is played aboard US aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, in Marseille, southern France. Le Monde newspaper says Monday, Oct.21, 2013 that documents leaked by Edward Snowden show that the U.S. National Security Agency swept up 70.3 million French phone records in a 30-day period. The French government has summoned the Rivkin to explain why the Americans spied on one of their closest allies.(AP Photo/Claude Paris, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The French government summoned U.S. Ambassador Charles Rivkin on Monday to explain a French newspaper report that the National Security Agency swept up 70.3 million French phone records in a 30-day period.

The French government called the practice "totally unacceptable" and wanted to know why the U.S. spied on one of its closest allies.

Spying among allied countries is common, but the scope of the NSA surveillance, as revealed by leaker Edward Snowden, was larger than expected.

Similar U.S. spying programs have been revealed in Britain, Brazil, Mexico and Germany.

"The ambassador expressed his appreciation of the importance of the exchange, and promised to convey the points made back to Washington," a statement released by the U.S. Embassy in Paris said.

Rivkin assured Alexandre Ziegler, chief of staff to Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius that "our ongoing bilateral consultations on allegations of information gathering by U.S. government agencies would continue," the embassy statement said.

The report in Le Monde, co-written by Glenn Greenwald, who originally revealed the surveillance program based on leaks from former National Security Agency contractor Snowden, found that when certain numbers were used, the conversations were automatically recorded. The surveillance operation also swept up text messages based on key words, Le Monde reported, based on records from Dec. 10 to Jan 7.

The French government, which wants the surveillance to cease, also renewed demands for talks on protection of personal data.

"This sort of practice between partners that invades privacy is totally unacceptable and we have to make sure, very quickly, that this no longer happens," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said during a meeting in Luxembourg with his European counterparts. Fabius said the U.S. ambassador had been summoned to the Foreign Ministry.

The most recent documents cited by Le Monde, dated to April 2013, also indicated the NSA's interest in email addresses linked to Wanadoo — once part of France Telecom — and Alcatel-Lucent, the French-American telecom company. One of the documents instructed analysts to draw not only from the electronic surveillance program, but also from another initiative dubbed Upstream, which allowed surveillance on undersea communications cables.

The U.S "gathers foreign intelligence of the type gathered by all nations," said Caitlin Hayden, spokeswoman for the National Security Council at the White House. "We've begun to review the way that we gather intelligence, so that we properly balance the legitimate security concerns of our citizens and allies with the privacy concerns that all people share."

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-10-21-US-NSA-Surveillance/id-abafa29af1954958954031b16d9f306d
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Clean up your Mac's hard drive with Washing Machine 2014

Intego has announced Washing Machine 2014, a utility for cleaning up your Mac's hard drive. Washing Machine analyses your hard drive and finds files that haven't been used in a long time and deletes them, freeing up space. It also finds duplicate files and asks the user which one it should keep.

Washing Machine also helps you organize your Mac. The app can create smart folders to better organize files and apps. It cleans up your desktop as well, moving files to an appropriate Folder or the trash, depending on your settings. Washing Machine can organize your dock, showing you which apps you actually use the most, so you can move those apps to the dock, and remove the ones you use the least away.

A free trial of Washing Machine can be downloaded from Intego's website. The trial will scan your hard drive and tell you how much space can be reclaimed and how many duplicate files you have. The full version will give you access to Washing Machine's cleaning features. A single license, good for one Mac, will cost $29.99, while a license for two Macs costs $49.99, and a 5-Mac license costs $79.99. Washing Machine is Mavericks-ready.

$29.99 - Download Now

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/XKHOlnQ9rVE/story01.htm
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American Express' 3rd-qtr profit rises 9 percent

LOS ANGELES (AP) — American Express says its net income rose 9 percent in the third quarter, as cardholders spent more in the U.S. and elsewhere. The results trumped Wall Street estimates.

The New York-based company said Wednesday that spending on its global network jumped 7 percent in the June-September period. It also benefited from growth in income from interest charges, as well as card loans.

American Express cardholders tend to be more affluent than other credit card users, which is one reason the company has done well as the nation's economy has gradually improved despite a sluggish global economy.

Unlike Visa and MasterCard, which only process transactions, American Express issues its own cards. When cardholders charge more on their AmEx cards, the company earns even more in interest income and a variety of fees.

For the three months ended Sept. 30, American Express reported net income of $1.36 billion, or $1.25 per share. That compares with net income of $1.25 billion, or $1.09 per share, in the same period last year.

Revenue increased about 6 percent to $8.3 billion, from about $7.86 billion.

Analysts polled by FactSet were expecting, on average, earnings of $1.22 per share on revenue of $8.23 billion.

Shares in American Express ended regular trading up $1.07 at $76.32. The stock added 23 cents to $76.55 in extended trading.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/american-express-3rd-qtr-profit-rises-9-percent-202203109--finance.html
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Chinese Mayor Fired for Corruption (Voice Of America)

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Desperation Outweighs Dangers For Europe-Bound Migrants

Migrants arrive in Valletta, the Maltese capital, aboard a patrol boat on Oct. 12, a day after their boat sank, killing more than 30 people, mostly women and children, in the latest deadly migrant tragedy to hit the Mediterranean. Despite Europe's financial crisis illegal immigrants continue to attempt to enter Europe through its southern coastal countries as they seek a better life.

AFP/Getty Images

Thugs with machetes killed Muhammed's two younger brothers. They were coming for him next.

Lingering violence from an 11-year civil war sent Muhammed fleeing his village in Sierra Leone. He escaped to the coast and paid smugglers to sneak him into the cargo hold of a ship at port. He had no idea where he was going.

"There was no light, no food — nothing for 10 days," he recalls. "I was very hopeless. I'd been in the darkness for 10 days."

Blinded by the sunlight when he finally emerged, Muhammed found himself in Spain — one of the tens of thousands of African migrants who risk their lives to make the dangerous journey to Europe by boat each year. Others come hidden in the wheel hubs of tractor-trailers transported by ferry. Some even swim part of the way. Scores die en route.

In Italy, men carry the coffins of victims of the Lampedusa tragedy in Porto Empedocle near Agrigento in Sicily on Oct. 15.

Marcello Paternostro/AFP/Getty Images

In Italy, men carry the coffins of victims of the Lampedusa tragedy in Porto Empedocle near Agrigento in Sicily on Oct. 15.

Marcello Paternostro/AFP/Getty Images

When more than 300 African migrants drowned off the Italian island of Lampedusa earlier this month, it jolted the world into awareness of a crisis that's gone on for decades. Tens of thousands of refugees from the wars in Syria, Somalia and beyond arrive on Europe's shores illegally each year. They are the lucky ones, the ones who survive.

"The boats sink because of bad weather. I have a lot of friends who lost their lives on the sea," says Muhammed, who didn't want to give his last name or be photographed, out of fear that his brothers' killers might track him down. "You can see sharks. Sometimes you can see dead bodies floating on the sea."

I met Muhammed, now 20, in a refugee shelter in the Spanish coastal city of Malaga, a block from the tourists' flamenco shows and souvenir shops. He lived on the streets, eating from dumpsters, before an aid group helped him apply for asylum.

But his application was rejected last week.

"It's very bad for me, because I expected a better life — to get a good education. If I land a job, maybe when I go back to my country, I can help poor people," he says, rubbing a thick scar on his forehead, which he says is from a machete wound. "But it's very difficult. I'm jobless and I have no documents."

Spain has no limit on the number of people to whom it can grant asylum. But an average of about 7 percent of applicants get it each year, says Muhammed's caseworker, Francisco Cansino, who directs the Malaga chapter of the Spanish Commission for Refugee Help.

Bathers enjoying the beach while Africa is seen in the distance on Aug. 30, in Tarifa, Spain. Thousands of African migrants have landed in Tarifa, on flimsy boats that make the dangerous journey across the Straits of Gibraltar, from Morocco.

Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images

"They all have these dramatic stories, escaping from mortal danger. But the problem is, they can't document their stories," Cansino said. "Keep in mind, when you're fleeing for your life, you don't always have time to collect all your documents."

In fact, some migrants intentionally leave their identification cards behind, or toss them in the sea, before they arrive in Europe. In Spain, police have 60 days to determine a migrant's country of origin. Otherwise they must be released. Authorities can't deport someone if they don't know where they're from. So some migrants, under questioning by port authorities or police, refuse to speak at all — fearing their accents will give them away.

Cemeteries along the coasts of Spain, Greece and Italy — so-called front-line countries where most migrants to Europe initially land — are dotted with anonymous graves of those who drowned and couldn't be identified.

Some migrants land in Spain with only a slip of drenched paper with the name and phone number of a stranger: "Padre Patera."

"They leave sub-Saharan Africa and cross the whole desert, where they face so many calamities — lack of sleep, hunger, everything," says Isidoro Macías Martín, a 67-year-old Franciscan monk popularly known as "Padre Patera." (Patera is the Spanish word for a type of small boat.)

"A small number of them even prostitute themselves to guards, to cross borders. Finally they reach Morocco, where they have to pay the mafia for a boat ride," he adds.

After all that, many find their way to his doorstep.

Isidoro Macías Martín, aka "Padre Patera," stands in front of his monastery office across the street from the port of Algeciras, in southern Spain. Martín is a Franciscan brother who for 40 years has been the first point of contact in Spain for thousands of Africans arriving illegally by boat.

Lauren Frayer/NPR

For more than 40 years, Padre Patera has been the first point of contact in Spain for thousands of Africans crossing the Mediterranean illegally by boat. He runs his charity out of a tiny monastery across the street from the industrial port of Algeciras, at Spain's southern tip.

"In Morocco, they call me the pope," he jokes, while wearing his monk's habit.

Around the corner from his monastery, there's a house Padre Patera has provided for several Nigerian migrants and their children. He lugs two huge pots of pasta he's made for them, for dinner. Children abandon their homework and run to the door, tugging on his robes, as he enters.

"We came to Spain on boats!" the children squeal, listing their names, ages and how many languages they speak (English, Spanish and two Nigerian languages). "I vomited! I cried! I was hungry and cold," one little girl says about her journey.

Their mother, Isoken Philips, was just 17 when she left her village in Nigeria in 2003. She describes a harrowing four-year journey through Niger, Mali, Algeria, Morocco — and finally to Spain. She crossed the Mediterranean on an inflatable boat with nine pregnant women, herself and her toddler, who'd been born in Algeria.

"It took about 14 hours. We weren't frightened, just praying and praying," Philips says. "I came here for a better life. I was lucky."

She has been in Spain illegally for five years, living off church handouts and extra cash she earns from braiding the hair of fellow African migrants. But Philips says she's achieved her dream already.

"I'm very, very happy. There are so many people that today, they are no more. What about me? I'm alive and healthy," she exclaims.

Isoken Philips, 27, is a Nigerian migrant living in Algeciras. Philips arrived in the country five years ago, after a four-year journey north from Nigeria through Niger, Mali, Algeria and Morocco.

Lauren Frayer/NPR

Isoken Philips, 27, is a Nigerian migrant living in Algeciras. Philips arrived in the country five years ago, after a four-year journey north from Nigeria through Niger, Mali, Algeria and Morocco.

Lauren Frayer/NPR

When the Costa Concordia cruise ship ran aground off Italy's coast last year, more than 30 tourists lost their lives. The tragedy captivated TV viewers for weeks. But similar numbers of Africans die in the Mediterranean every week, with far less attention.

Tens of thousands survive and land in Greece, Italy and Spain — where the reaction by cash-strapped governments has been to try to stop them. So bigger fences are built, and coast guard patrols are quadrupled.

"Too often, the European Union member states turn away people who need and have the right to international asylum," says Anders Larson, with the Brussels-based European Network Against Racism.

Increased security might actually lead to more deaths, as desperate migrants try to swim around fences; cross the Mediterranean in smaller boats to avoid detection; and become more deeply indebted to smugglers. Rather than focus on security, Europe must face the role it has played in creating the economic inequality that spurs migration in the first place, says Larson.

"The agricultural policies and farm subsidies are really making domestic production collapse in a lot of countries in Africa," he says. "You have such cheap food from the EU flooding the African market, and causing people to lose their jobs — hundreds of thousands of people."

There are also the wars in Syria and Somalia, military conscription in Eritrea — and extreme poverty across much of the African continent. Until that abates, the wild waters of the Mediterranean will continue to look inviting to many who are in desperate situations.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2013/10/18/237120156/desperation-outweighs-dangers-for-europe-bound-migrants?ft=1&f=1004
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