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Thursday, May 5, 2011

US tobacco firms win Missouri hospitals case

Six major US tobacco companies have defeated a lawsuit by hospitals seeking compensation for treating patients with smoking-related illnesses.

Thirty-seven hospitals in the state of Missouri had claimed cigarette companies delivered an "unreasonably dangerous" product.

They sought more than $455m (£272m) reimbursement for treating uninsured smokers who had not paid for care.

The hospitals treat many destitute, non-paying patients.

They said medical ethics required them to treat people in need, regardless of their ability to pay.

In the case, the hospitals claimed that tobacco companies manipulated the nicotine content in cigarettes and misrepresented the health effects of smoking.

But a jury in St Louis rejected their claim.

"The jury agreed with Philip Morris USA that ordinary cigarettes are not negligently designed or defective," said Murray Garnick of Philip Morris.

An official from Lorillard, another company in the case, said: "Compelling evidence was presented to the jury, including testimony from hospital witnesses, that confirmed the hospitals were not financially damaged as they asserted."

FluPhone app 'helps track spread of infectious diseases'

A mobile phone application could help monitor the way infectious diseases such as flu are spread.

The FluPhone app was developed by researchers at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory.

Volunteers' phones fitted with the app "talk" to each other, recording how many people each "infected subject" meets during an imaginary epidemic.

The university is one of seven institutions working on the study to reduce the impact of epidemics.

The FluPhone app uses Bluetooth technology to anonymously record interaction between volunteers involved in the study.

When mobile phones come into close proximity, that fact is recorded and data is sent automatically to the research team.

'Valuable insight'

Professor Jon Crowcroft and Dr Eiko Yoneki, co-principal investigators of the study, said they believed the collected data could be used to simulate social interaction during a real epidemic or pandemic.

A three-month FluPhone pilot study, using a basic version of the app, was conducted in Cambridge in 2010.

Dr Yoneki said: "The data was a valuable insight into how human communities are formed, how much time people spend together, and how frequently they meet. [Read More]

Barack Obama to visit Ground Zero

US President Barack Obama is to visit Ground Zero, the site of the 9/11 attacks in New York, later on Thursday, four days after US forces killed al-Qaeda head Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan.

Bin Laden was believed to be the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks in 2001 and many others.

Mr Obama will lay a wreath in memory of the victims and speak to relatives.

The visit comes a day after the US leader said graphic photographs of Bin Laden's body would not be made public.

The al-Qaeda leader was killed by US special forces in northern Pakistan on Monday. His body was then buried at sea from a US aircraft carrier.

The Pakistani military on Thursday admitted "shortcomings" for failing to locate Bin Laden and has said it will launch an investigation.

But it also warned it would review co-operation with the US if there were any more unilateral raids such as the one that killed Bin Laden.

Moment of reflection

In New York Mr Obama will meet the families of those who died when the World Trade Center collapsed and those who tried to save them. [Read More]

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

World 'failed to track' Bin Laden

Pakistan's prime minister says spy agencies worldwide share the blame for his country's failure to capture Osama Bin Laden, who was killed by US forces.

"We have intelligence failure of the rest of the world including the United States," PM Yousuf Raza Gilani said.

Pakistan has been criticised for not locating Bin Laden, who was living near the country's main military academy.

The CIA head has said the US did not tell Islamabad of the raid in advance, for fear it would be jeopardised.

Meanwhile the US has revised its account of how the operation took place.

White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters on Tuesday that Bin Laden was not armed when his compound was stormed by US special forces in the early hours of Monday. [Read More]

Monday, May 2, 2011

Al-Qaeda's remaining leaders

After 11 September 2001, the US issued a list of suspected al-Qaeda leaders. Many have now been captured or killed, including Osama Bin Laden, while some new names have emerged.

Ayman al-Zawahiri

Ayman al-Zawahiri, an eye surgeon who helped found the Egyptian Islamic Jihad militant group, is expected to replace Osama Bin Laden as the leader of al-Qaeda.

He was already the group's chief ideologue and was believed by some experts to have been the "operational brains" behind the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US. [Read More]

Bin Laden raid was revealed on Twitter

The raid that killed Osama Bin Laden was revealed first on Twitter.

An IT consultant, living in Abbottabad, unknowingly tweeted details of the US-led operation as it happened.

Sohaib Athar wrote that a helicopter was hovering overhead shortly before the assault began and said that it might not be a Pakistani aircraft.

He only became aware of the significance of his tweets after President Obama announced details of Bin Laden's death.

Mr Athar's first posting on the subject came at around 1am local time (9pm BST).

He wrote: "Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1AM (is a rare event)."

Soon after, he reported the sound of an explosion, now known to have been US forces blowing-up their damaged helicopter.

"A huge window shaking bang here in Abbottabad Cantt. I hope its not the start of something nasty :-S"

Throughout the raid, Mr Athar was drawing on information from friends in the local area who were also online. [Read More]