The European Union Times |
- DOJ wants Bush, senior cabinet members exempt from Iraq War trial
- Expensive logo does not mean successful
- Drinking coffee, tea may reduce liver disease risk
- Human beings can live for 200 years in alien body
- TEPCO admits leakage of 300 tons of water with monstrous radiation level
Posted: 22 Aug 2013 09:08 AM PDT  The United States Department of Justice has requested that former President George W. Bush and the highest figures in his administration receive full exemption from being tried for the Iraq War, which the DoJ says was in line with international law. Apart from Bush, the names listed in the paper the DoJ filed on Tuesday are former Vice President Richard Cheney, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, retired four-star General Colin Powell, former Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice and former Deputy Secretary of Defense and President of the World Bank, Paul Wolfowitz. Sundus Saleh, an Iraqi single mother of three who became a refugee, filed a complaint in March in the San Francisco federal court, claiming that the war in her country can be judged as a ‘crime of aggression’, according to the same legal standards that the Nuremberg Tribunal used for convicting Nazi war criminals of World War II. Saleh is the lead plaintiff in this class action lawsuit. The reason for the decision is connected with the ‘Westfall Act’ certification. The 1988 law gives the Attorney General the power to personally decide whether the United States is actually a defendant in the case. This in turn allows the granting of absolute immunity to politicians for actions carried out while in the government’s employ. Inder Comar of Comar Law has agreed to take the case. The San-Francisco-based firm normally specializes in support to private companies, particularly those in the tech industry. Comar met with Saleh at her home in Jordan to discuss the case. Chief counsel Comar wrote on the War Is a Crime website explaining that, “The DoJ claims that in planning and waging the Iraq War, ex-President Bush and key members of his Administration were acting within the legitimate scope of their employment and are thus immune from suit.” The lawsuit filed by Saleh says that Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz orchestrated the Iraq War in 1998 as part of their involvement with the ‘Project for the New American Century’, a Washington DC-based non-profit organization that pushed for the overthrow of Iraq’s former leader, Saddam Hussein. Salleh then alleges that the tragedy of September 11, 2001, was pitched to other members of the Bush cabinet as the perfect excuse to scare the American public into supporting the war in Iraq. The lawsuit also claims that the United States failed to obtain United Nations approval for the invasion, making it an illegal and aggressive act of war. According to Corey Hill, who is a member and outreach coordinator for Global Exchange, an international human rights organization, Comar Law is invoking something called the Alien Tort Statute, which is a 1789 law that permits a foreign national to sue the US federal court for injuries “committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States.” Hill explained this in his article for YES! Magazine, for which he also writes. All the defendants in the case have been summoned to appear in accordance with the usual legal proceedings. The trial is expected to start in early 2014. There are, however, several problems that could arise with the allegations. As Paul Stephen, who teaches law at the University of Virginia and is former international law consultant for the Department of State told YES! Magazine, that it would be difficult to sue a government employee for acting “under the scope of employment” in this case, because of the modified nature of the Westfall Act, giving officials more scope for action. The second problem may arise from the fact that their actions did not take place on US soil, making it difficult to validate the accusation. And lastly, “courts aren’t open to ruling on matters of a political nature”, Hill said in reference to a doctrine in US Constitutional Law that separates clear-cut court cases with those better left to the legislative and executive branches of the government. This doctrine then means that the invasion of Iraq is a political case – not a legal one. “If the expectation is that a federal court will declare that the invasion, although duly authorized by Congress, violated international law and thus violates U.S. law, I would respond that we walked up and down that hill with respect to Vietnam… No federal court ever has recognized such a claim,” Hill explained. But Comar is optimistic in so far that in order for the Westfall Act to work in this case, the US government would have to prove that the act of preparing the invasion through a non-profit organization took place within office. But since that was not the case, the law cannot be invoked here. He further explained to Hill that separating a political matter from a purely legal one will also not be easy for the US government, as it may often be a very blurry line. Comar expanded on this position to the ‘War Is a Crime’ website. “The good news is that while we were disappointed with the certification, we were prepared for it,” he said. “We do not see how a Westfall Act certification is appropriate given that Ms. Saleh alleges that the conduct at issue began prior to these defendants even entering into office. I think the Nuremberg prosecutors, particularly American Chief Prosecutor Robert Jackson, would be surprised to learn that planning a war of aggression at a private non-profit, misleading a fearful public, and foregoing proper legal authorization somehow constitute lawful employment duties for the American president and his or her cabinet.” Source Related Posts: |
Posted: 22 Aug 2013 08:37 AM PDT  Few would argue that a logo is the “face” of the company and has a certain impact on the popularity of various brands. Incidentally, logos of popular brands are not always created by ‘cool’ designers and are expensive. Here is the history of some of them. The first Citroen logo was designed personally by the founder Andre Citroen, and was free for the company. The exact amount paid for the last “redesign”, when the famous “double chevron” acquired a more contemporary look, is not known. Chevrolet logo story is very similar to the story of Citroen. It was originally developed by the company founder William Durant. The general concept of a cross-shaped logo subsequently remained unchanged, but the cost of rare updates is a mystery. Coca-Cola Logo did not cost the owners a cent. As legend has it, the author is an accountant and partner of the company founder Frank M. Robinson. He also came up with the name of the company. The first logo at the Coca-Cola appeared in 1886, and the recognizable label – in 1890. Since then, the logo remained nearly unchanged. The logo of the main competitor of Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, has been repeatedly changed over the years. There was even a joke that the company was unable to become a market leader because its leadership was more concerned with the external component than increasing sales. One of the world’s most famous manufacturers of soda forked out a million dollars for the latest version of its logo. Nike logo was designed in 1971 by a student Carolyn Davidson. She was hired by the company owner Phil Knight to work with graphic materials. One day, Carolyn was tasked with drawing a company logo. She was paid $35 for her work. Microsoft logo was developed by the company employees, as the thrifty owners did not want to involve external designers. While this logo is hardly a masterpiece of the design idea, it still played its role brilliantly. Rumor has it that the Apple logo in its current form was designed completely free of charge. Its creator is designer Rob Janoff of Regis McKenna’s office. McKenna and Janoff agreed to help the young company for free only to get rid of the annoying Steve Jobs as soon as they could. As we know, the “apple” has become famous all over the world. Jobs had to pay $100,000 for the logo of his second company NeXT to a renowned designer Paul Rand, who is also the designer of logos for IBM, UPS and ABC. Google Logo was developed by one of the founders Sergey Brin, who used a free image editor GIMP. Changes to the logo were made several times and always only by the company staff. The famous bird on Twitter logo was purchased for six dollars in a stock photo bank. In the end, its author Simon Oxley did not get rich, but managed to become famous. The logo was subject to several minor changes made by the company employees. Enron logo was one of many created in the mid-1990′s by designer Paul Rand who was paid $33,000 for his work. Unfortunately, the rebranding effort did not help it to stay afloat. In 2001, Enron went bankrupt due to falsification of financial reports. The logo of Accenture consulting company was developed in 2001, when Andersen Consulting that broke away from Arthur Andersen had to urgently re-brand, including changing of the name and logo. The company paid an astronomical sum of $100 million for the logo, while the author of the new name is a humble Oslo unit employee Kim Paterson. The logo of the Norwegian postal service Posten Norge, oddly enough, was among the most expensive in the world. The postal company paid $55 million dollars for its development. Source Related Posts: |
Posted: 22 Aug 2013 08:26 AM PDT  A new research carried out by an international team suggests that regular consumption of coffee and tea can reduce fatty liver in people with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Headed by Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School and the Duke University of Medicine, the study demonstrates that daily consumption of four cups of coffee or tea shares a health benefit due to the caffeine present in both beverages. The animal models of the research that was taken on mice proved the effects of caffeine on the fatty livers. The researchers found that caffeine was able to trigger the stored lipids in the liver cells to metabolize, which then helped lower the amount of fat in the liver. They say “consuming the equivalent caffeine intake of four cups of coffee or tea a day may be beneficial in preventing and protecting against the progression of NAFLD in humans,” according to the findings that will be published in the September issue of the journal Hepatology. “This is the first detailed study of the mechanism for caffeine action on lipids in liver and the results are very interesting,” said the study leader Paul Yen, M.D. associate professor of the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore. “Coffee and tea are so commonly consumed and the notion that they may be therapeutic, especially since they have a reputation for being “bad” for health, is especially enlightening,” he also stated. While nearly 70 percent of people with diabetes and obesity experienced non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, there are no effective treatments for it. The patients suffering from this dangerous disease are usually recommended to control it through strict diet and exercise. The recent study could lead to the development of caffeine-like medicines that do not have the usual side effects related to caffeine, but retain its therapeutic effects on the liver, the research team claims. Source Related Posts: |
Posted: 22 Aug 2013 07:50 AM PDT  American scientists believe that the human brain can live for 200 years if it is regularly “fed” with nutrients. According to researchers, human beings may well live for two hundred years, but it requires a technology to replace old organs with artificial ones. In addition, one needs to watch closely not to let the body suffer from the lack of nutrients. It is worth saying that scientists around the world already develop bionic prosthetic limbs that can be controlled by the power of thought. A special medical fluid that will be used instead of blood will also help increase human lifespan. Source Related Posts: |
Posted: 22 Aug 2013 07:31 AM PDT  Another tank with highly radioactive water at the devastated Fukushima nuclear power plant has leaked, reported operator TEPCO. The contaminated water contains an unprecedented 80 million Becquerels of radiation per liter. The norm is a mere 150 Bq A spokesman for the Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said on Tuesday that 300 tons of highly radioactive water has leaked from a stainless steel tank on the territory of the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority has classified the leak as a Level One incident, the second lowest on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES) for radiological releases, a spokesman informed Reuters. The incident is the first Level One since the actual catastrophe at Fukushima in March 2011 when Japanese authorities issued an INES rating. Level One means that the incident is classified as anomalous situation that exceeds limits of safe functioning of an installation. The most dangerous, Level Seven, has only been applied twice: for the Chernobyl catastrophe in 1986 and the meltdown of three reactors at Fukushima plant itself. Release of radioactive energy is measured in Becquerels, i.e. radioactive decay collision events per second happening in a certain volume of material. The internationally accepted normal radioactivity level is 150 Becquerels. According to TEPCO’s own measurements the puddle that formed around the damaged tank is emitting radiation of 100 Millisieverts per hour, as a probe has been taken about half a meter from the water, reported Kyodo News. A dose rate measured in Sieverts indicates how much radiation a person would receive standing near the source of radiation. A typical release of radiation is generally taken for 1 Millisievert per year, but exposure limits for the nuclear industry personnel are much higher. Still, an hour near that puddle of radioactive water is equivalent to five years of total radiation exposure – even for TEPCO staff deployed at the Fukushima site. TEPCO has to keep the melted uranium fuel rods of three destroyed reactors awash with water using a jerry-rigged system only to keep the melted debris cool and relatively stable. To establish a closed cycle of the process, the operator stores huge amounts of radioactive water at Fukushima nuclear facility. It is believed that overall there are more than 350,000 tons of radioactive water stored at the Fukushima plant in special tanks and the drainage system, and without special protection in the basements of the devastated facility. At the beginning of 2013, TEPCO drained most of the basement galleries, pumping radioactive water into newly delivered tanks. TEPCO insists that since the tanks are located on elevated ground some 500 meters from the seashore, the puddle from the damaged tank has not escaped into the Pacific Ocean. Still, the level of contaminated water in the tank continues to lower, the company stated. At the same time the ruined reactors of the Fukushima nuclear facility are located practically on the coast. And while the melted cores of the three destroyed reactors have burnt through the concrete basement of the reactor zone, radioactive water is soaking down into soil, eventually getting into the Pacific Ocean – a fact confirmed by radiation samples. Leakage of radiation-contaminated water has been the major threat to Japan’s population and environment from the very beginning of the Fukushima disaster. But until recently TEPCO has been flatly denying that radioactive waste is escaping into the Pacific. Only in late July the company acknowledged the fact that contaminated water is escaping from basements and trenches of the Fukushima plant into the ocean. Japanese authorities have demanded that TEPCO take immediate measures to stop radioactive leakage into the ocean. After Fukushima disaster practically all Japanese nuclear power plants were taken out of service for safety checks. So far only two out of total 50 Japanese nuclear power plants have returned to service. Source Related Posts: |