CANBERRA, Australia ? Prime Minister Julia Gillard said Thursday that she remains committed to her thwarted policy for deterring asylum attempts by boat after at least eight people drowned in Indonesian waters while attempting to reach Australia.
Eight asylum seekers drowned in the boat capsizing Tuesday, and rescuers are searching for about 30 missing people. Police chief Capt. Sugiarto said 48 were rescued from the boat, mostly carrying people from Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan.
Gillard told reporters that the tragedy "tears at your heart."
She said such asylum seekers would be deterred if the Parliament would pass legislation that would enable Australia to send 800 new boat arrivals to Malaysia in return for Australia resettling 4,000 registered refugees from Kuala Lumpur.
Gillard shelved the legislation last month when it became clear that it did not have the support of a majority of lawmakers.
"The position of the government is that we want to implement the arrangement with Malaysia," Gillard told reporters in Cannes, France, where she is attending a summit of leaders of the world's 20 largest economies.
Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor the number of boat arrivals had increased the with collapse of the Malaysia swap deal.
"There's an absolute need now for an agreement to be reached by the parliament to ensure we have the most effective offshore approach to deter people getting on these dangerous vessels," O'Connor told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.
A boat carrying 49 asylum seekers and two crew intercepted by an Australian patrol boat off the west coast on Wednesday became the seventh to reach Australian waters since the so-called Malaysian solution was shelved.
The opposition refuses to allow asylum seekers to be sent to Malaysia ? the country where most asylum seekers begin their voyages to Australia ? because of Malaysia's poor human rights record.
The opposition maintains that future arrivals would be deterred if asylum seekers were sent to the Pacific island nation of Nauru, where Gillard's government closed an Australian-funded immigration detention center when it first came to power in 2007.
Gillard argues that Nauru would prove to be an expensive failure as a deterrent.
O'Connor said Australia's embassy in Jakarta had reported all the dead were women and children.
Sugiarto said all those confirmed dead from the capsized boat were Iranian. Three were children.
Dr Rowan Williams has made his first substantial response to the protest at St Paul?s Cathedral
The Archbishop of Canterbury has backed calls for a new tax on financial trading ? dubbed a ?Robin Hood? tax.
Dr Williams told the BBC the St Paul?s protests had raised awareness of the ?unfinished business? of financial sector reform.
He said the public had the feeling that changes to financial institutions were not coming fast enough.
David Cameron says there is widespread support for the principles of such a tax but it had to be adopted globally.
In an interview with BBC religious affairs correspondent Robert Pigott, Dr Williams said the protests outside St Paul?s Cathedral by groups opposed to corporate
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TOKYO (Reuters) ? Japanese electronics maker Panasonic Corp (6752.T) forecast an annual net loss of 420 billion yen ($5.5 billion), its biggest in a decade, as it cut unprofitable businesses deeper and faster than first planned, while battling a soaring yen and weak demand in the United States and Europe.
Panasonic accelerated the pace of restructuring as it races to shake off losses at its TV unit -- a problem it shares with rival Sony (6758.T) -- and strips out overlapping businesses after its buyout of subsidiary Sanyo.
In April, Panasonic said it would cut 17,000 jobs by March 2013, but the maker of Viera televisions and Lumix cameras announced on Monday it now expects to reach its goal of slimming its work force to 350,000 or fewer a year ahead of schedule.
Panasonic said it will stop liquid-crystal panel production at its Mobara plant near Tokyo and is canceling its plans to ship plasma-panel manufacturing equipment from another mothballed plant to Shanghai to start production there, as it aims to turn a profit on TVs in its next fiscal year.
One analyst said the dramatic slide in profits might not lead to a sell-off of Panasonic's stock.
"The net loss of 420 billion yen includes an increase in the cost of restructuring. It has lowered the assumed exchange rates to 76 yen, which gives the company some buffer even if the dollar slips from the current level after today's intervention," said Hiroyuki Fukunaga, CEO of Investrust.
"So even though it is reporting a loss, the market may think all the negative factors have been priced in, especially given that its share price has fallen about a third from around 1,200 yen at the beginning of this year."
Panasonic said it would incur 514 billion yen in restructuring costs, about half of it in the TV business, for the year to March, compared with an earlier forecast of 110 billion yen.
The Japanese government intervened in the currency market for the second time in less than three months after the yen hit another record high against the dollar on Monday, selling yen to counter speculative trading that officials say is hurting the world's No.3 economy.
Panasonic's annual loss, which will be its second biggest ever, compares with the company's previous forecast for a net profit of 30 billion yen in the year to March 2012 and last year's net profit of 74 billion yen.
Shares of the company closed 2.1 percent lower before the results. They have fallen 31 percent so far this year, compared with a 13 percent decline in the broader market (.N225).
'BIRTH PANGS OF NEW STRATEGY'
"What we need to tackle is the television and related semiconductor businesses," Chief Financial Officer Makoto Uenoyama told reporters.
"If we downsize these, our profits will be completely different," he added, calling the forecast losses "the birth pangs of switching to a new strategy." Panasonic is trying to switch emphasis from consumer technology to energy and environmental technology, such as rechargeable batteries.
The company cut its full-year operating profit forecast to 130 billion yen from 270 billion yen.
That is far below market expectations of a 225 billion yen profit, based on the average estimate of 21 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
It also slashed its estimate for annual TV sales to 19 million sets from 25 million.
Sony said on Monday it will split its television business into three divisions to make operations more accountable as part of efforts to turn around the loss-making business.
For July-September, Panasonic reported an operating profit of 42 billion yen, beating its own forecast of 4.4 billion yen profit, but falling short of analysts' average estimate of 50 billion yen. It had reported an operating profit of 85.2 billion yen a year earlier.
For the remainder of the business year, Panasonic estimates a dollar-yen rate of 76 yen and a rate of 105 yen against the euro.
($1 = 75.760 Japanese yen)
(Additional reporting by Hideyuki Sano; Writing by James Topham; Editing by Vinu Pilakkott and Jon Loades-Carter)
Bisexual men: When sexual health requires stealthPublic release date: 1-Nov-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Brian Dodge bmdodge@indiana.edu 812-856-0792 Indiana University
Bisexual men have unique health needs compared to exclusively homosexual and heterosexual men, but the stigma they face makes learning of their needs -- and even reaching these men in their "hidden communities" -- difficult for public health professionals, say Indiana University researchers.
The reported need for privacy, because of the perceived stigma and lack of acceptance in both homosexual and heterosexual communities, is so pervasive that bisexual men often do not feel comfortable accessing sexual health-related services, even those targeted toward "gay and bisexual men," because of a concern over what others would think of their bisexuality. A more general approach to providing services, framed as "men's health" or "men's sexual health," will most likely be more effective, researchers learned.
"In terms of designing a specific program for behaviorally bisexual men, we've learned it will not be effective to openly advertise about it or put it on billboards; we have to be more discreet," said Brian Dodge, associate director of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion at IU. Dodge's research for nearly 10 years has involved bisexual behavior and associated health needs, yet these findings from his recent study were "surprising."
"The fear of disclosure, desire for privacy, and anticipation of stigma are even more problematic than we anticipated," he said. "The reasons for these issues eventually need to be addressed not only with bisexual men but also at the societal level if we are to increase participation in effective health services without operating in stealth."
This and three other studies discussed at the American Public Health Association's annual meeting are part of a larger study by Dodge and his collaborators, who are looking at health issues specific to bisexual men. This research approach is unique because most studies have combined bisexual men with gay men in previous behavioral science research.
The IU research involved 75 men in the Indianapolis area who had sex with at least one man and one woman within the previous six months. The participants each underwent in-depth interviews, 15 of which were conducted in Spanish. Of the participants, 25 were black, 25 were white and 25 were Latino.
Dodge's study "Administering Sexual Health-Related Services to Bisexual Men: Privacy, Trust and Appropriate Messaging" was the recipient of the annual Excellence in Abstract Submission award from the HIV/AIDS Section of the APHA. Dodge is delivering oral presentations about this, as well as "Community Based Research in 'Hidden' Communities: Understanding Individual and Social Health Concerns among Bisexual Men" and a poster presentation, "Sexual Behaviors and Experiences among Bisexual Men in the Midwestern United States." Co-investigator Omar Martinez is also presenting on issues specific to Latino participants in his talk "Sexual Health and Access to Care: Voices from Bisexual Latino Men in the Midwestern United States."
Dodge, an associate professor in the Department of Applied Health Science in IU's School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, will discuss "Administering Sexual Health-Related Services" Tuesday, Nov. 1, at 10:30 a.m. in the Washington Convention Center. Co-authors are Phillip Schnarrs, Gabriel Goncalves, Michael Reece and Omar Martinez, all with the IU School of HPER; David Malebranche of Emory University School of Medicine; Ryan Nix of Step Up Inc. in Indianapolis; Barbara Van Der Pol of IU School of HPER; and J. Dennis Fortenberry of the IU School of Medicine.
###
Dodge can be reached at bmdodge@indiana.edu and 812-856-0792. For additional assistance, contact Tracy James, IU University Communications, at 812-855-0084 and traljame@iu.edu.
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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.
Bisexual men: When sexual health requires stealthPublic release date: 1-Nov-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Brian Dodge bmdodge@indiana.edu 812-856-0792 Indiana University
Bisexual men have unique health needs compared to exclusively homosexual and heterosexual men, but the stigma they face makes learning of their needs -- and even reaching these men in their "hidden communities" -- difficult for public health professionals, say Indiana University researchers.
The reported need for privacy, because of the perceived stigma and lack of acceptance in both homosexual and heterosexual communities, is so pervasive that bisexual men often do not feel comfortable accessing sexual health-related services, even those targeted toward "gay and bisexual men," because of a concern over what others would think of their bisexuality. A more general approach to providing services, framed as "men's health" or "men's sexual health," will most likely be more effective, researchers learned.
"In terms of designing a specific program for behaviorally bisexual men, we've learned it will not be effective to openly advertise about it or put it on billboards; we have to be more discreet," said Brian Dodge, associate director of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion at IU. Dodge's research for nearly 10 years has involved bisexual behavior and associated health needs, yet these findings from his recent study were "surprising."
"The fear of disclosure, desire for privacy, and anticipation of stigma are even more problematic than we anticipated," he said. "The reasons for these issues eventually need to be addressed not only with bisexual men but also at the societal level if we are to increase participation in effective health services without operating in stealth."
This and three other studies discussed at the American Public Health Association's annual meeting are part of a larger study by Dodge and his collaborators, who are looking at health issues specific to bisexual men. This research approach is unique because most studies have combined bisexual men with gay men in previous behavioral science research.
The IU research involved 75 men in the Indianapolis area who had sex with at least one man and one woman within the previous six months. The participants each underwent in-depth interviews, 15 of which were conducted in Spanish. Of the participants, 25 were black, 25 were white and 25 were Latino.
Dodge's study "Administering Sexual Health-Related Services to Bisexual Men: Privacy, Trust and Appropriate Messaging" was the recipient of the annual Excellence in Abstract Submission award from the HIV/AIDS Section of the APHA. Dodge is delivering oral presentations about this, as well as "Community Based Research in 'Hidden' Communities: Understanding Individual and Social Health Concerns among Bisexual Men" and a poster presentation, "Sexual Behaviors and Experiences among Bisexual Men in the Midwestern United States." Co-investigator Omar Martinez is also presenting on issues specific to Latino participants in his talk "Sexual Health and Access to Care: Voices from Bisexual Latino Men in the Midwestern United States."
Dodge, an associate professor in the Department of Applied Health Science in IU's School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, will discuss "Administering Sexual Health-Related Services" Tuesday, Nov. 1, at 10:30 a.m. in the Washington Convention Center. Co-authors are Phillip Schnarrs, Gabriel Goncalves, Michael Reece and Omar Martinez, all with the IU School of HPER; David Malebranche of Emory University School of Medicine; Ryan Nix of Step Up Inc. in Indianapolis; Barbara Van Der Pol of IU School of HPER; and J. Dennis Fortenberry of the IU School of Medicine.
###
Dodge can be reached at bmdodge@indiana.edu and 812-856-0792. For additional assistance, contact Tracy James, IU University Communications, at 812-855-0084 and traljame@iu.edu.
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?
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.
Singer Adele has been forced to cancel her remaining concerts this year and will undergo throat surgery due to a vocal chord hemorrhage.
The 23 year old singer has become a global phenomenon with a best selling album and several hits under her belt. Her voice, however, has not managed to sustain the relentless pressure of constant performing, and Adele will have to rest before she is expected to make a full recovery.
Rumours have begun spreading on twitter that she has an early stage of throat cancer. It is unclear at this time whether this is true or just a hoax started on the network. We can confirm that no official statement has been made regarding her current state of health.
This bad news for Adele is a difficult moment for the young star, but unfortunately, often rumours begin to circulate with speculation over the true cause. Let?s hope Adele makes a swift recovery and gets back on to the stage.
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Public release date: 1-Nov-2011
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