Federal report says Border Patrol"s drone program doesn"t fly

 ((Photo by Gary Williams/Getty Images))

For nearly a decade, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection has touted its drone program as an “effective technology to further enhance operational capabilities,” but according to the agency’s 2014 end of fiscal year report, the results are anything but impressive, fueling new calls for the program to be grounded.

The program has a fleet of 9 Predator drones and the Department of Homeland Security is planning to spend another $443 million for more aircraft to help secure the Mexican border. But a Jan. 6 report from the agency’s inspector general is advising against the expansion.

“Notwithstanding the significant investment, we see no evidence that the drones contribute to a more secure border, and there is no reason to invest additional taxpayer funds at this time,” said DHS Inspector General John Roth. “Securing our borders is a crucial mission for CBP and DHS. CBP’s drone program has so far fallen far short of being an asset to that effort.”

The IG report, the second audit of the program since 2012, found there is no reliable method of measuring the program’s performance and determined that its impact in stemming illegal
immigration has been minimal.

According to the CBP Fiscal Year Report, the drones flew about 10 percent fewer hours in 2014 than the previous year and 20 percent fewer than in 2013. The missions were credited with contributing to the seizure of just under 1,000 pounds of cocaine in 2014, compared to 2,645 in 2013 and 3,900 in 2012. But apprehensions of illegal immigrants between 2014 and 2013 fell despite the flood of more than 60,000 unaccompanied children coming across the border from Central America.

Combined with the decrease in productivity, the OIG report disclosed the staggering costs to run the program, more than $12,000 per hour when figuring fuel, salaries for operators, equipment and overhead.

Eugene Schied, assistant commissioner of the CBP’s office of administration for CBP, said the IG used flawed methods to draw its conclusions.

“The expectations the OIG focused on were based on the program receiving resources that were not obtained, performance measures that were never employed by CBP, or technological capabilities that have been surpassed,” Scheid said. “This context is critical for presenting an accurate assessment of the CBP UAS program’s current performance and achievements.”

Scheid went on to say in his memo that CBP has no plans to acquire additional UAS beyond the one replacement aircraft, nor does the Office of Air and Marine have a contract or funding in place to expand the program.

He said current funding is being used to expand the program’s infrastructure and increase the utilization of the fleet.

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) called for patience with the UAS program.

“It’s a lot cheaper to use drones than helicopters and they can stay in the air longer,” Hunter said. “It still comes down to having the manpower on the ground to support the drone missions.”

Hunter said CBP needs to figure out what the need and use of the UAS is but marry that strategy with human resources on the ground. He made the correlation to the limitations other forms of border security technology such as sensors has in that unless there are agents who can respond quickly to the location, they do little good.

“Right now, I’m not sure CBP has the manpower to support the drone missions,” Hunter said.

What he did express concern over, also given the rise in unaccompanied children crossing the border this year was that, “CBP isn’t doing themselves any favor by flying less hours.”

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Federal report says Border Patrol"s drone program doesn"t fly

Report: Obama adviser to join Clinton campaign - Report: Rand Paul hires campaign manager for possible 2016 bid - Romney phones party allies in prep for 2016 decision

Oct. 29, 2011: John Podesta, president and chief executive officer of the Center for American Progress, attends the National Italian American Foundation Gala in Washington. (Reuters)

Counselor to the President John Podesta will take on a senior role in Hillary Clinton’s as yet undeclared Presidential campaign when he departs the White House next month, according to a published report. 

The Wall Street Journal, citing three people with the matter, reported that Podesta has sat in on informal meetings of Clinton aides that have have discussed a potential presidential campaign in 2016. The former Secretary of State and Senator from New York has not yet formally announced her candidacy. However, the Journal reports that Podesta’s planned move is seen as the clearest sign yet that she will run. 

It remains unclear what role Podesta would play in a presumptive Clinton campaign, the Journal reported that he would likely become campaign chairman. 

Podesta served as White House chief of staff for the final 27 months of former President Bill Clinton’s second term in office. He became Counselor to President Barack Obama at the beginning of 2014, and has played a key role in advising the president on energy policy. 

Podesta initially told Reuters last week that he would depart the White House “in early February,” a few weeks after Obama delivers the State of the Union address Jan. 20. When discussing a possible role in a Clinton campaign, he said, “If she decides to run, I told her I’d do anything I can to help her.”

Click for more from the Wall Street Journal. 

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Report: Obama adviser to join Clinton campaign - Report: Rand Paul hires campaign manager for possible 2016 bid - Romney phones party allies in prep for 2016 decision

NYC may yank terrorism report to appease mosque ‘spying’ critics - Qatari man, once held as enemy combatant by US, returns home

In top-secret talks to settle federal lawsuits against the NYPD for monitoring mosques, the city is weighing a demand that it scrub from its website a report on Islamic terrorists, The New York Post has learned.

The groundbreaking, 92-page report, titled “Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat,” angers critics who say it promotes “religious profiling” and discrimination against Muslims. But law-enforcement sources say removing the report now would come at the worst time — after mounting terror attacks by Islamic extremists in Paris, Boston, Sydney and Ottawa.

Here in New York, Zale Thompson, a man who heeded online calls by ISIS for jihad, attacked two NYPD officers with a hatchet in October.

“The harm is that it sends the message that the NYPD is going to back down on its counterterrorism effort in the name of political correctness,” said a former NYPD official. “Shame on the NYPD if they do.”

Click for the full story from the New York Post.

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NYC may yank terrorism report to appease mosque ‘spying’ critics - Qatari man, once held as enemy combatant by US, returns home

BlackBerry denies report of takeover talks with Samsung

Wednesday, January 14, 2015 | 6:56 PM    

(AP) — BlackBerry Ltd denied a report Wednesday that it has had talks with Samsung over a possible takeover of the Canadian company.

“BlackBerry has not engaged in discussions with Samsung with respect to any possible offer to purchase BlackBerry,” the company said in a statement Wednesday.

A Reuters report, citing a person that it didn’t identify, had said Wednesday that executives met last week to discuss a potential deal. South Korea-based Samsung reportedly offered to buy BlackBerry for $13.35 to $15.49 per share, valuing the company at as much as $7.5 billion.

BlackBerry shares slid 16 per cent after the company’s statement. The stock had jumped nearly 30 per cent, or $2.89 Wednesday to close at $12.60.

Samsung declined to comment.

Any foreign takeover would also require approval from the Canadian Government. Asked if the Canadian Government has been approached about the deal, Jessica Fletcher, a spokeswoman for Canadian Industry Minister James Moore, said: “We don’t comment on rumours and speculation.”

BlackBerry has not been able to compete with Apple Inc’s iPhone or Android smartphones made by Samsung and other companies. It now holds a small fraction of the US smartphone market. It had nearly half the market in 2009.

The company has been expanding its efforts to sell mobile-security software on its rivals’ smartphones and tablets to help counter the waning popularity of its own devices. It unveiled its latest phone, the Classic, in December. Aimed at the business user, the Classic has a traditional keyboard, unlike the touchscreens that are on the most popular smartphones. But whether BlackBerry will sell enough of them to stay relevant in the hardware business is unclear.

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BlackBerry denies report of takeover talks with Samsung

Seattle dog rides city bus, report says

Ask any city-dweller: ride the bus long enough and you’ll see everything.

In Seattle, that now includes a dog for a fellow passenger.

KomoNews.com reports that commuters in the city’s Belltown neighborhood have been joined in recent weeks by Eclipse, a black Labrador retriever who boards the bus by herself.

Where’s she going? To the local dog park to hang out with her friends, of course.

The trips began when her owner, Jeff Young, took too long to finish a cigarette while waiting at a bus stop. Trained to heel but apparently not to wait, the dog hopped on the D Line bus, and she’s since made several trips by herself.

“She’s been here the last two years, so she’s been urbanized, totally. She’s a bus-riding, sidewalk-walking dog,” Young told KomoNews.com. “Probably once a week I get a phone call. ‘Hi. I have your dog Eclipse here on 3rd and Bell,"” he said. “I have to tell them, ‘no. She’s fine.’ She knows what she’s doing.”

As the bus’s only canine passenger, Eclipse, who roams the aisles and hops onto seats next to strangers, generates a lot of attention from the human bus riders.

“All the bus drivers know her. She sits here just like a person does,” commuter Tiona Rainwater told the outlet on a downtown trip on Monday. “She makes everybody happy. How could you not love this thing?”

Jeff Switzer, a spokesman for Metro Transit, told FoxNews.com that he wasn’t aware of any complaints stemming from Eclipse’s rides, though he said the transit authority does urge owners to leash their dogs.

He does joke, however: “We think Eclipse would be much safer in the world if she kept her owner on a leash.”

All well and good. But does she know to pay exact fare when she boards the bus?

“I don’t know if she can read the fare policy,” Switzer said.

FoxNews.com’s Karl de Vries contributed to this report.

Click here to read more from KomoNews.com.

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Seattle dog rides city bus, report says

S.C. woman woman files missing person report for Deadhead son missing since 1995

A South Carolina mother’s belated decision to file a missing person report on her Deadhead son could help investigators in Virginia identify a car crash victim from 1995. 

The Sun News of Myrtle Beach reported that a report had been filed Tuesday by 63-year-old Margaretta Evans. She told police that her son, Jason Patrick Callahan, had not been seen or heard from since June 1995, when according to Mytle Beach Police Lt. Joey Crosby, “he left to follow the band Grateful Dead.”

Callahan, who would be 38 today, is described as standing between 5 feet, 10 inches and 6 feet in height, weighing approximately 160 pounds, and having wavy brown hair and brown eyes. 

Crosby told the Sun News that DNA samples had been collected and sent for evaluation to determine whether Callahan is the unidentified victim of a fatal car crash known as “Grateful Doe.” The case has been featured on the social media site Reddit in recent days. 

According to National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, “Grateful Doe” was a passenger in a Volkswagon van when it crashed in Emporia, Va. on June 26, 1995. The driver, who was also killed in the crash, was identified, but his family did not know the passenger. Investigators did not find any identification on the passenger’s body or in the van.

According to reports at the time, the victim was carrying two scalped tickets to Grateful Dead concerts in Washington D.C., and was wearing a Grateful Dead t-shirt from the band’s ongoing tour. “Grateful Doe” was also carrying a lighter and four quarters, while a note found at the crash site was addressed to “Jason” and signed by two girls named Caroline. 

In 2012, officials released a composite image of what “Grateful Doe” might look like. The release sparked fresh interest on social media. Virginia authorities have not commented publicly on the latest investigation into the case. 

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S.C. woman woman files missing person report for Deadhead son missing since 1995

Number of babies born with HIV decline 78% in Latin America, Caribbean --PAHO/WHO report

Monday, December 15, 2014 | 1:51 PM    

KINGSTON, Jamaica — The number of babies born with HIV in Latin America and the Caribbean declined by 78 per cent between 2001 and 2013, according to a new report from the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

The report: Elimination of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV and Congenital Syphilis in the Americas, takes stock of progress in the region’s countries toward the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis.

Using data from PAHO, UNICEF and UNAIDS, the report estimates that 10,700 babies were born with HIV in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2001.

By 2013, the number had declined 78 per cent to just over 2,300, representing around 5 per cent of all babies born in the region to mothers with HIV.

The countries and territories of Latin America and the Caribbean have set the collective goal of reducing that proportion to less than 2 per cent by 2015. So far, nine countries and territories have reached that goal: Anguilla, Barbados, Canada, Cuba, Jamaica, Montserrat, Puerto Rico, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and the United States.

“We need a final push to ensure that 100 per cent of pregnant women have access to sexual and reproductive health services, including HIV testing and antiretroviral treatment, which can save their lives and reduce the chances of transmitting the virus to their babies,” said Massimo Ghidinelli, chief of PAHO/WHO’s HIV/AIDS, Sexually Transmitted Infections, and Hepatitis Unit.

In 2013, 87 per cent of the 11 million women who gave birth in Latin America and the Caribbean attended at least four prenatal visits, a benchmark for adequate prenatal care. An estimated 74 per cent had access to HIV testing and counselling—up from 62 per cent in 2010—and 93 per cent of HIV-positive mothers-to-be received antiretroviral treatment, a significant increase over the 59 per cent who received treatment in 2010 and only two percentage points short of the target for 2015.

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Number of babies born with HIV decline 78% in Latin America, Caribbean --PAHO/WHO report

VIDEO: How to report Ebola crisis safely

More than 4,000 people have died of Ebola, nearly all of them in West Africa.

BBC Global Health correspondent Tulip Mazumdar has been reporting on the crisis in Sierra Leone.

Here she explains the measures journalists and medics are taking to prevent themselves becoming ill, and from and spreading the virus.

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VIDEO: How to report Ebola crisis safely

Report: Bynes arrested again

Downhill Spiral?

The young actress appeared in court on May 24 denying the most recent charges of possessing marijuana and tossing a bong out of the window of her 36th-floor Manhattan apartment on May 23.

Check out Amanda’s rise to the top and sad fall.

(Reuters)

It seems Amanda Bynes may be struggling once again.

The actress, who had a very public breakdown and has since been doing better with the help of her parents, was arrested on Sunday after police determined she was driving under the influence, authorities said.

Bynes, 28, was stopped by a California Highway Patrol officer after she stopped in the middle of an intersection in the Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles around 4 a.m. on Sunday. The former child star was determined to be under the influence of an unidentified drug after being evaluated at a nearby police station, the CHP said in a statement.

The release states that Bynes, who has had a series of driving-related arrests, was cooperative but appeared disheveled when she was taken into custody.

Bynes was released hours later after posting $15,000 bail. A phone message left by The Associated Press for her criminal defense attorney, Richard Hutton, was not immediately returned.

The California Highway Patrol did not immediately return FOX411’s request for comment.

Bynes publicly struggled with health issues in 2013, and she was hospitalized for a mental evaluation last spring. She later entered a rehab facility and was released after a lengthy stay. Her parents have since been caring for her and she has been spotted taking fashion design courses at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising.

Once out of rehab, Bynes deleted her controversial tweets from last year, which included some vulgar messages she wrote about rapper Drake and nearly nude pictures.

Bynes remains on probation for a 2012 case filed after she clipped a Los Angeles County sheriff’s patrol car and was arrested for driving under the influence. Bynes pleaded no contest to alcohol-related reckless driving in February.

She received psychiatric treatment last year after authorities said she set a small fire in the driveway of a home in Thousand Oaks, California.

In April 2013, the former actress revealed she had shaved her head, but her recent photos show her blonde locks looking long once again.

Bynes first began acting in commercials at the age of 7 and was thrust into the limelight when she later became one of the stars of Nickelodeon’s comedy show “All That.” She then starred in Nickelodeon’s “The Amanda Show” from 1999-2002. Since then, her acting career has waned, and her last major role was in 2010’s “Easy A.” Before that she appeared in films like “What a Girl Wants” and “Hairspray.”

She has publicly stated that she has retired from acting. Her last film credit was 2010’s “Easy A,” which starred Emma Stone.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Report: Bynes arrested again

British minister resigns over explicit photos report

Saturday, September 27, 2014 | 2:04 PM    

LONDON, England – (AFP) – A British minister announced his unexpected resignation on Saturday as a newspaper reported he sent an explicit photo of himself online, in the latest setback to David Cameron’s Conservative-led government.

“I have decided to resign as Minister for Civil Society having been notified of a story to be published in a Sunday newspaper,” said Brooks Newmark, a Conservative member of parliament since 2005.

“I would like to appeal for the privacy of my family to be respected at this time. I remain a loyal supporter of this government as its long-term economic plan continues to deliver for the British people,” Newmark said.

The Sunday Mirror reported that Newmark exchanged a series of sexually explicit photos online with a freelance reporter who was posing as a young female activist.

In a private message conversation on a social networking site, Newmark “sent a graphic picture exposing himself while wearing a pair of paisley pyjamas” the tabloid newspaper reported.

The then-minister also invited the reporter to meet with him during the Conservative party conference that begins on Sunday, when the party will set out its case for re-election in the May 2015 election.

It was the second blow to the prime minister on the eve of the conference, following the defection of a Conservative lawmaker to eurosceptic party UKIP earlier on Saturday.

“The prime minister has accepted Brooks Newmark’s resignation from his role as Minister for Civil Society. His replacement will be announced shortly,” Cameron’s office said in a statement.

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British minister resigns over explicit photos report

Utilities can now report on customers to credit bureaus

Utility service providers in Jamaica will now supply information on their customers to credit bureaus.   News has come that Finance Minister Dr Peter Phillips exercised his power under the Credit Reporting Act and signed an order to this effect on August 7.   The Jamaica Public Service Company, National Water Commission, licensees under the Telecommunications Act as well as entities in the credit business were designated as credit information providers.   According to the notice, broadening the slate of  providers will expand the database of  credit information available to licensees under the Credit Reporting Act.   It says this also has positive implications for the quality of  credit reports which inform risk assessments and credit decision making.  

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Utilities can now report on customers to credit bureaus

PANCAP report - still a work in progress says PM Denzil Douglas

CARICOM governments have deferred full consideration of  a report by the Pan-Caribbean Partnership against HIV and AIDS, (PANCAP) which critics say is designed to encourage a re-order of  the Caribbean society in a negative way.

St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister, Dr. Denzil Douglas said during deliberations on the document it was said that leaders were not yet in a position to support the declaration going forward in the form it was presented.

Douglas was speaking to the Caribbean Media Corporation during the just concluded 35th Heads of  Government meeting in Antigua and Barbuda.

He said as a result, the report continues to be work in progress and at a later stage heads of  governments will revisit it.

Two weeks ago, 140 Caribbean organisations including some from Jamaica issued a joint statement expressing concern about regional leaders preparing to endorse several actionable recommendations on eliminating HIV-related stigma and discrimination.

The recommendations included repealing laws criminalising consensual sexual acts between adults and making sexual orientation a protected category for non-discrimination.

In a subsequent protest in Jamaica, some of  the groups called for transparency and accountability in the discussions leading up to the formulation of  the recommendations.

But Douglas, who has lead responsibility for health matters within the quasi-CARICOM Cabinet, said he does not think that PANCAP was making any recommendation on issues such as same sex marriages.

He added that the declaration was taken out of  context and issues such as same sex marriage have never come up.

He said the aim of  the PANCAP report is to reduce stigma and discrimination against persons who are associated with HIV/AIDS.                                                             

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PANCAP report - still a work in progress says PM Denzil Douglas

AG wants probe into leak of report by Police Complaints Authority in T&T

Anand Ramlogan, Trinidad & Tobago’s Attorney General, is reportedly asking acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams to conduct an investigation into the leak of reports by the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) on the New Flying Squad Investigative Unit.

According to a report in the Trinidad & Guardian newspaper, Ramlogan made the request in a letter to Williams on Tuesday, hours after PCA director Gillian Lucky told a parliamentary Joint Select Committee hearing  that the report was not a confidential document, as claimed by Ramlogan.

It was Opposition Senator Faris Al-Rawi, the newspaper reports,  who first told the Senate about the report two weeks ago. He reportedly said then that he had two reports – one from the PCA and the other T&T Police Service – which recommended that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) pursue criminal investigations into police officers for their role in the squad. The squad was re-established in 2012.

In a release on Tuesday, confirming that he had sent the letter to Williams, Ramlogan said the “belated admission by Ms Lucky that the report is not confidential is troubling.”

He insisted that section 21 (4) of the PCA Act states that all information and evidence obtained by the PCA in the performance of its duties is confidential and it is a criminal offence for anyone to disclose such information, an act which is punishable with five years imprisonment.

“If the report is not a confidential one that could be leaked to the PNM (the opposition People’s National Movement)why not simply give the parliament, the government and the media a copy,” Ramlogan said, while maintaining that it was “shocking and confusing” for Lucky to say the document was not confidential.

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AG wants probe into leak of report by Police Complaints Authority in T&T

Report released on controversial sex education at Jamaican private homes

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Friday June 27, 2014, CMC – The human rights group Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ) had made a monetary contribution to six privately operated homes where a sex education programme had been implemented, according to an interim report released here.

Youth and Culture Minister Lisa Hanna released the report by the Child Development Agency (CDA) that had been asked to probe the matter.

The controversy over the sex education programme has already led to the resignation of former JFJ executive director Dr Carolyn Gomes from the board of directors. Gomes was executive director when the programme was implemented.

Hanna had instructed the CDA, which has responsibility for the regulation of children’s homes and places of safety, to explain the circumstances which led to the programme being implemented for eight or nine months without the agency’s knowledge as well as the suitability of the material for the children.

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Hanna said she was “concerned about the breaches, particularly since the homes acknowledged that they did not advise the CDA about the programme although visited by monitoring officers of the CDA.”

The minister said she would take appropriate action after receiving the responses from the administrators of the homes.

In its interim report, the CDA found that the programme, titled “Realising Sexual and Reproductive Health Responsibly: JFJ’s Pilot Intervention in Children’s Homes” had been implemented in both boys and girls homes and that the six facilities had indicated that they were contacted directly by representatives of Jamaicans for Justice via telephone and later by email and letter.

“The administrators of facilities gave approval to the JFJ for the implementation of the sexual education programme through MOUs,” the report said, noting that “it was confirmed that the six homes each received a monetary contribution from the JFJ for use of their premises for the training.

The report noted that a review of the content of the material “found that parts of the training material were inappropriate for the age cohort and a departure from that approved by the Ministry of Education for use in public schools and legal advice will have to be sought to determine if its presentation contravened any existing laws.”

The report noted that the children received training in the areas relating to homosexuality and anal sex and that the “training schedule was not noticeably displayed at the home in contravention of the regulations.”

Earlier this month, the JFJ defended the programme saying it got the go ahead from administrators of the homes.

JFJ executive director Kay Osbourne said the administrators did not indicate there was a requirement involving the CDA.

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Report released on controversial sex education at Jamaican private homes

Lance Armstrong, UK paper agree to settlement over dope report

LONDON (AP) — British newspaper The Sunday Times has reached a settlement with Lance Armstrong after suing the disgraced cyclist to recover damages from a libel settlement.

The paper paid Armstrong 300,000 pounds (now about US$470,000) in 2006 to settle a case after printing claims that he took performance-enhancing drugs.But confirmation that Armstrong led a massive doping programme on his teams came last year from a US Anti-Doping Agency report, prompting a confession by the American, who was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles.The Sunday Times announced it was suing Armstrong for around $1.6 million to reclaim the 2006 settlement payment plus interest and legal costs.In Sunday’s editions, the paper said it and the article’s authors had reached a “mutually acceptable final resolution” with Armstrong, but said the terms are confidential.It was The Sunday Times chief sports writer David Walsh’s co-authored book, “LA Confidential,” that detailed Armstrong’s role in cycling’s doping culture and was serialised by his paper in 2004.Like our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/jamaicaobserverFollow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamaicaObserver

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Lance Armstrong, UK paper agree to settlement over dope report

Lance Armstrong, UK paper agree to settlement over dope report

Sport

Sunday, August 25, 2013 | 3:55 PM

LONDON (AP) — British newspaper The Sunday Times has reached a settlement with Lance Armstrong after suing the disgraced cyclist to recover damages from a libel settlement.The paper paid Armstrong 300,000 pounds (now about US$470,000) in 2006 to settle a case after printing claims that he took performance-enhancing drugs.But confirmation that Armstrong led a massive doping programme on his teams came last year from a US Anti-Doping Agency report, prompting a confession by the American, who was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles.The Sunday Times announced it was suing Armstrong for around $1.6 million to reclaim the 2006 settlement payment plus interest and legal costs.In Sunday’s editions, the paper said it and the article’s authors had reached a “mutually acceptable final resolution” with Armstrong, but said the terms are confidential.It was The Sunday Times chief sports writer David Walsh’s co-authored book, “LA Confidential,” that detailed Armstrong’s role in cycling’s doping culture and was serialised by his paper in 2004.

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Lance Armstrong, UK paper agree to settlement over dope report

Report: West Germany systematically doped athletes

BERLIN, Germany (AP) — Researchers at Berlin’s Humboldt University claim West Germany’s athletes were systematically doped with government backing from the 1970s at the latest.

The Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper publicised details from the unpublished 800-page report titled “Doping in Germany from 1950 to today” yesterday, revealing the extent to which West German politicians were allegedly willing to promote drug use among athletes to ensure international success.One interior minister is alleged to have said at the time, “Our athletes should have the same conditions and services as the Eastern bloc athletes.”The report claims that for decades the state financed experiments with performance-enhancing substances such as anabolic steroids, testosterone, estrogen or the blood-doping agent EPO.It also states that an unspecified number of footballers in the 1954 World Cup-winning team received injections of the methamphetamine Pervitin, commonly known today as speed, according to the newspaper.Publication of the report, which was completed in April, has been delayed due to privacy concerns and legal issues because athletes, doctors and politicians are named.The authors say West German doping did not evolve as a response to East Germany’s systematic doping under the Communist government, but rather that it operated parallel to it.The conditions for “systemic doping” were laid in 1970 when the Federal Institute of Sport Science (BISp) was founded under jurisdiction of the Interior Ministry, which is still responsible for sports.The BISp provided funding for research into doping substances for years, with sports medicine facilities in Freiburg, Cologne and Saarbruecken among the main recipients, the report says.“There’s a systemic connection between research and forbidden substances and in using them for athletes,” project leader Giselher Spitzer of Humboldt University told The Associated Press in a telephone interview last year. “That’s why we call it systemic doping.”Doping existed in Germany long before the establishment of the BISp.Amphetamines were used by German soldiers during World War II and their continued use in German football from the end of the 1940s became “normal”, according to the study.The historians uncovered a letter dated November 29, 1966, in which the FIFA medical committee chairman Mihailo Andrejevic wrote of “very fine traces” of the banned stimulant ephedrine found in three unnamed German players at the 1966 World Cup.England beat West Germany 4-2 in the final, with Geoff Hurst scoring England’s disputed third goal.Sueddeutsche Zeitung reports that the study alleges that Borussia Dortmund coach Max Merkel instructed his players to take the methamphetamine Pervitin in 1961. Dortmund lost the German championship final to Nuremberg that year. Merkel died in 2006.The report states that minors were also doped. Women and children were not supposed to be given anabolic steroids due to uncertainty over the long-term effects, but researchers say the advice made little difference.Doctor Joseph Keul of Freiburg allegedly tested the effects of anabolic steroids on boys as young as 11. Keul died in 2000.Sueddeutsche Zeitung also said that German athletes received around 1,200 injections of Berolase and thioctacid at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. They weren’t banned at the time and were supposed to improve performance, but their effects had been untested.It became known as the Kolbe syringe after rower Peter-Michael Kolbe, who looked to be heading for gold only to slump toward the end of his race with Pertti Karppinen to allow the Finn to overtake.The study was commissioned by the BISp on behalf of the German Olympic Sports Confederation in 2008.The Interior Ministry said in an email response that the data protection concerns delaying its publication had been addressed “so that in this respect there is no longer anything standing in the way of publication”.It did not say when the study might be published, however.The ministry stressed that it has a “great interest in completely clearing up and evaluating the doping past in both parts of Germany”.German Athletics president Clemens Prokop called for names to be revealed, “especially of those who are still involved in sport”.

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Report: West Germany systematically doped athletes

Trinis most obese in region, says report

News

Friday, July 12, 2013

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) — Trinidad and Tobago has emerged as the top Caribbean country whose adult population is obese, according to a report released by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).The report found that Trinidad and Tobago is ranked sixth among all countries worldwide with 30 per cent of its adult population obese. Mexico with 32.8 per cent of its adult population obese topped the chart, knocking off the United States as the World’s Fattest Developed Nation.The United States has a rate of 31.8 per cent.Antigua and Barbuda at number 18 worldwide, is the second Caribbean island featured on the chart with 25. 8 per cent of its adult population obese, followed by St Vincent and the Grenadines ranked 21 (25.1 per cent) and Dominica 22nd (25 per cent).Trinidad’s Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan said the report underscores the need for the country to place “a lot of emphasis on fighting obesity, fight the fat, fight the MSG (monosodium glutamate), and fight the sugar”.The four Caribbean countries were among the top 25 countries worldwide ranked by the FAO.

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Trinis most obese in region, says report

Report: Delays, cost hikes hit new Haiti housing

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – THE US government had ambitious plans to help earthquake-ravaged Haiti where more than three-fourths of the population lives on less than US$2 a day — construction of 15,000 homes in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

Disputes over land rights, inaccurate estimates and higher costs have forced the US Agency for International Development to drastically scale back those plans and left members of Congress questioning whether American tax dollars are delivering the help first promised after the January 12, 2010 earthquake.The Government Accountability Office, in a report released on Tuesday, found that as of March 2013 the agency had disbursed only 31 per cent of US$651 million despite the government’s insistence that it was committed to Haiti’s reconstruction. The GAO also found that “a substantial amount of progress on project activities remains to be completed.”Instead of 15,000 homes for 75,000 to 90,000 beneficiaries, the agency plans to build 2,649 homes for some 13,200 to 15,900 beneficiaries. In fact, the agency is expected to build 906 houses and non-government agencies and other partners are on tap to construct 1,743 homes.Among the problems causing delays and cost increases was acquiring the land titles to build as well as the Haitian government’s demand that the homes have flush toilets. One difficulty was that before the January 2010 earthquake, Haiti had no wastewater treatment plants.Since then, a temporary facility has been constructed at one location and a permanent plant built near the capital city of Port-au-Prince though it’s unclear whether the facilities can serve the homes.The earthquake displaced some two million people, killed about 230,000 and injured 300,000. Congress voted to provide US$1.14 billion in reconstruction funds, including US$651 million for the agency which provides US economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide.One of the major projects are a power plant and port to support the new Caracol Industrial Park, which is projected to create thousands of jobs more than 100 miles from Port-au-Prince. Last October, former President Bill Clinton and then Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton inaugurated the industrial park and urged foreigners to invest to help Haiti rebuild.The GAO report found the work on the first phase of the power plant was done with less money and in time to provide power to the first tenant at the industrial park. However, construction of the port will be delayed two years because of the agency’s lack of expertise in port planning. The position of the port engineer remains unfilled.“This uncertainty puts at risk USAID’s investments in port planning and design, as well as the sustainability of the CIP and power plant due to the three projects’ interdependence,” the report said.Beth Hogan, USAID’s senior deputy assistant administrator to the Latin America and Caribbean Bureau, said the agency welcomed the report, noting that the Haiti mission finished the first part of a power plant with less funding than allocated.“Mid-point reviews such as this one are helpful to us to see how we can be more effective,” she wrote in an email. “It is important to bear in mind that the report is a snapshot of progress to date, and that work in housing, energy, port construction and other areas is ongoing.”Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican who requested the report when she led the House Foreign Affairs Committee last year, said the findings were “alarming and showcase the need to further investigate and ensure that US taxpayer dollars are not being wasted or abused in Haiti.”The committee plans to send a bipartisan delegation of staff members to Haiti, said the current chairman, Representative Ed Royce, a Republican.Representative Eliot Engel, the panel’s top Democrat, said the GAO found a “significant and sobering disconnect between what was originally promised for the Haitian people, and what it appears USAID is now prepared to deliver.”The leaders of the committee released the report.The January 12, 2010 earthquake displaced some two million people in Haiti. (PHOTO: AP)

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Report: Delays, cost hikes hit new Haiti housing