Gone are the days of secret Banking in Switzerland. Swis banking practice is all set to change with new law coming to effect soon. In the backdrop of increased international pressure on its banking secrecy practices, Switzerland said it will prevent the flow of undeclared funds from foreign countries into the Swiss banks.
India is among many nations seeking details of their respective citizens who are alleged to have stashed away billions of dollars in secret accounts in Switzerland.
The Swiss Federal Council in a statement said that it is against attracting “undeclared funds from overseas”.
The government would draw up various solutions to prevent new, undeclared funds from coming to Switzerland.
“With the objective of achieving clarity and legal security, the Federal Council therefore wants to push ahead with the regularisation of undeclared assets whilst at the same time ensuring that privacy is safeguarded,” it noted.
Explaining its financial market strategy, Switzerland said it would continue to implement the OECD standards in tax issues and continue to cooperate with other countries in combating tax fraud and tax evasion in the future.
The Council has called for regularising undeclared assets.
Going by Swiss laws, tax fraud is considered as a criminal offence while tax evasion is punished with severe administrative fines and does not attract jail sentence.
“The Federal Council continues to reject the automatic exchange of information in terms of laying bare every detail of citizens’ lives,” the statement noted.
Posted Under: Investing
This post was written by admin on February 25, 2010 Comments (2)
Seaworld whale trainer is killed by the killer whale. Incidently this is the third time, same whale was involved in human death one in 1991 and another 1999.
The veteran SeaWorld trainer was rubbing a killer whale from a poolside platform when the 12,000-pound creature reached up, grabbed her ponytail in its mouth and dragged her underwater. Despite workers rushing to help, the trainer was killed.
Horrified visitors who had stuck around after a noontime show watched the animal charge through the pool with the trainer in its jaws. Workers used nets as an alarm sounded, but it was too late. Dawn Brancheau had drowned. It marked the third time the animal had been involved in a human death.
The whale, named Tilikum, apparently grabbed Brancheau by her long ponytail, according to the head of animal training at all SeaWorld parks, Chuck Tompkins. He told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that her ponytail swung out in front of the whale.
“That’s when the trainer next to him (Tilikum) said that he grabbed the hair, pulled her under water. And of course, held her under water,” Tompkins said.
Dawn Brancheau with Whale
Its third location in San Antonio is not yet open for the season.
Brancheau’s interaction with the whale appeared leisurely and informal at first to audience member Eldon Skaggs. But then, the whale “pulled her under and started swimming around with her,” Skaggs told The Associated Press.
Some workers hustled the audience out of the stadium while the others tried to save Brancheau, 40.
A visitor, Victoria Biniak, told WKMG-TV the whale “took off really fast in the tank, and then he came back, shot up in the air, grabbed the trainer by the waist and started thrashing around, and one of her shoes flew off.”
Another Visitor Skaggs said he heard that during an earlier show the whale was not responding to directions. Others who attended the earlier show said the whale was behaving like an ornery child.
But Tompkins said the whale had performed well in the show and that Dawn was rubbing him down as a reward for doing a good job.
“There wasn’t anything to indicate to us that there was a problem,” Tompkins told the CBS “Early Show.”
Because of his size and the previous deaths, trainers were not supposed to get into the water with Tilikum, and only about a dozen of the park’s 29 trainers worked with him. Brancheau had more experience with the 30-year-old whale than most. She was one of the park’s most experienced trainers overall.
“We recognized he was different,” said Tompkins. He said no decision has been made yet about what will happen to Tilikum, such as transferring him to another facility. SeaWorld has also suspended the killer whale shows at all of its parks, which also include locations in San Diego and San Antonio, to review procedures.
A SeaWorld spokesman said Tilikum was one of three orcas blamed for killing a trainer in 1991 after the woman lost her balance and fell in the pool at Sealand of the Pacific near Victoria, British Columbia.
Steve Huxter, who was head of Sealand’s animal care and training department then, said Wednesday he’s surprised it happened again. He says Tilikum was a well-behaved, balanced animal.
Tilikum was also involved in a 1999 death, when the body of a man who had sneaked by SeaWorld security was found draped over him. The man either jumped, fell or was pulled into the frigid water and died of hypothermia, though he was also bruised and scratched by Tilikum.
Brancheau’s older sister, Diane Gross, said the trainer wouldn’t want anything done to the whale because she loved the animals like children. The trainer was married and didn’t have children.
“She loved the whales like her children, she loved all of them,” said Gross, of Schererville, Ind. “They all had personalities, good days and bad days.”
Gross said the family viewed her sister’s death as an unfortunate accident, adding: “It just hasn’t sunk in yet.”
Dawn was the youngest of six children who grew up near Cedar Lake, Indiana. Her passion for marine life began at the age of nine, Gross said, on a family trip to Sea World.
According to a profile of Brancheau in the Sentinel in 2006, she was one of SeaWorld Orlando’s leading trainers. Brancheau worked her way into a leadership role at Shamu Stadium during her career with SeaWorld, starting at the Sea Lion & Otter Stadium before spending 10 years working with killer whales, the newspaper said.
She also addressed the dangers of the job.
“You can’t put yourself in the water unless you trust them and they trust you,” Brancheau said.
Billy Hurley, chief animal officer at the Georgia Aquarium_ the world’s largest — said there are inherent dangers to working with orcas, just as there are with driving race cars or piloting jets.
“In the case of a killer whale, if they want your attention or if they’re frustrated by something or if they’re confused by something, there’s only a few ways of handling that,” he said. “If you’re right near pool’s edge and they decide they want a closer interaction during this, certainly they can grab you.”
And, he added: “At 12,000 pounds there’s not a lot of resisting you’re going to do.”
Mike Wald, a spokesman for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration office in Atlanta, said his agency had dispatched an investigator from Tampa.
Wednesday’s death was not the first attack on whale trainers at SeaWorld parks.
In November 2006, a trainer was bitten and held underwater several times by a killer whale during a show at SeaWorld’s San Diego park.
The trainer, Kenneth Peters, escaped with a broken foot. The 17-foot orca that attacked him was the dominant female of SeaWorld San Diego’s seven killer whales. She had attacked Peters two other times, in 1993 and 1999.
In 2004, another whale at the company’s San Antonio park tried to hit one of the trainers and attempted to bite him. He also escaped.
Wednesday’s attack was the second time in two months that an orca trainer was killed at a marine park. On Dec. 24, 29-year-old Alexis Martinez Hernandez fell from a whale and crushed his ribcage at Loro Parque on the Spanish island of Tenerife. Park communications director Patricia Delponti said the whale, a 14-year-old named Keto, came from SeaWorld but is not a son of Tilikum.
Jillian Michaels, one of the celebrity trainers from NBC’s Biggest Loser, is being sued by a woman named Christie Christensen for what she claims is false advertising. “The Biggest Loser” has been a hit for NBC, often appearing in Nielsen Co.’s Top 20 rankings for prime-time TV programs.
Ms. Christensen claims that she bought a diet supplement with Jillian’s picture on it called Calorie Control, but the product failed to lose her any weight or to lessen her appetite.
Michaels’ picture and endorsement appear on the packaging, touting her as “America’s Toughest Trainer.” The product and a Web site advertising include the claim, “Two Capsules Before Main Meals and You Lose Weight … That’s It!”
“Ms. Michaels knows better – taking two pills before eating does not miraculously cause weight loss,” the lawsuit states.
The Web site and packaging however note that the statements haven’t been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Ms. Christensen is also suing Basic Research, the company who makes Calorie Control, but she’s seeking a class-action suit against Michaels including untrue and misleading advertising. What she did not say was if she followed the instructions as directed.
Recently 29-year-old looked stunning in a colourful, geometric-print, strappy dress as she dined with family and her New Orleans Saints footballer boyfriend Reggie Bush, 24, at Miami’s Prime 112 Restaurant.
Kim Kardashian recently said ‘relaxing’ prior to the Super Bowl was the best way to help boyfriend Reggie prepare for the big game against the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday.
She told Eonline.com: ‘We have just been completely relaxing. Now we’re just going to dinners with our family and with our friends.
Indian composer A R Rahman scored a double triumph at the Grammy Awards here, scooping two early honours for his music from Oscar-winning film “Slumdog Millionaire.
Rahman won the first Grammy of the pre-show at the Staples Center in the best compilation soundtrack for a motion picture category before his “Jai Ho” won in the best motion picture song category moments later.
“This is insane, god is great again,” Rahman said as he accepted his second award before a VIP audience.
Rahman Accepts the Grammy Awards
Rahman’s rivals in the soundtrack category included Steve Jordan for “Cadillac Records,” Quentin Tarantino for “Inglourious Basterds”, and the producers of “Twilight” and “True Blood.”
In the best song category Rahman’s beaten rivals included Bruce Springsteen for his song “The Wrestler”, from the Oscar-nominated movie of the same name.
The Grammy success comes after Rahman earned two Oscars for his music in “Slumdog Millionaire” at last year’s Academy Awards.
The talented music maestro picked up the best original score statuette before scooping the best song Oscar.
Scientists and Doctors are tapping new ways to use Cord Blood in the fight against disease. There are two new ways doctors are using umbilical cord blood to treat incurable diseases.
HealthFirst reporter Leslie Toldo takes us inside the clinical trials using cord blood to give kids better lives.
Cord blood is already helping cancer patients and those suffering from blood disorders.
Researchers now have discovered how to use it to treat diabetes and some forms of brain damage.
Ellen Seidman snaps a quick picture of a bag of cells. Cells she hopes will change her son’s future. “It was just kind of miraculous. You just watched these stem cells dripping into him.”
A stroke at birth caused 6-year-old Max’s cerebral palsy. He’s one of about 150 kids getting infusions of his own cord blood at Duke University. The hope is the stem cells in Max’s cord blood will improve his brain function.
“Cells go to the brain after we infuse them in the blood,” explained Dr. Joanne Kurtzberg. “They can help repair damage in the brain, and we’re hoping in children with cerebral palsy that will happen as well.”
Doctors have reported the cord blood stem cells have the potential to reduce Max’s muscle tightness, improve his mobility and help his speech over the next year.
On another cord blood front, researchers are using infusions to fight type-one diabetes.
After diabetic Barrett Ross received a cord blood infusion, he cut his insulin use by two-thirds. He’s had diabetes for three years, and his body is still producing insulin. Researchers believe stem cells in the blood slow the immune attack of diabetes so the pancreas destroys fewer insulin-producing cells.
“The results that we have experienced as a result of this study, in my mind, are staggering,” said Barrett’s father, Brian Ross.
“It is very exciting. I take care of children with diabetes all the time. I know what is that they go through,” explained Dr. Desmond Schatz.
Cord blood is not a cure-all.
“It’s still an experimental procedure, and we know there are no guarantees. Our philosophy has always been if it couldn’t hurt and it might help, we’re gonna try it,” said Seidman.
But it’s a wager parents are placing as they hope for a healthier future for their kids.
Under two percent of parents bank their child’s cord blood at birth. All parents have the option, but it can cost up to $2,000 up front.
After the initial outlay, it costs about $100 a year to store cord blood.
Posted Under: Health
This post was written by admin on January 20, 2010 Comments (0)
Google has finally launched the Android-powered Nexus One and it’s directly selling to customer through its google.com/phone. It’s available for a few countries (Hong Kong, Singapore, US, Britain). Nexus One (designed by phone maker HTC under Google’s strict supervision) is available for purchase right now on Google’s new Web store rather than through a carrier—a twist that some observers see as a paradigm shift in the wireless market, where the balance of power is usually tipped in the carrier’s favor.
Google Nexus One
If you want it unlocked for use with any SIM card and without a contract, the phone will set you back a cool $530. Here in the U.S., you’ll be able to use the Nexus One with either an AT&T or T-Mobile SIM card; that said, AT&T users will only be able to tap into the carrier’s EDGE data network, while T-Mobile customers can use both EDGE and 3G.
You can buy Nexus One with T-Mobile service for $179. The handset is unlocked, but you’ll have to sign a T-Mobile contract.
Nexus One is slim and trim, alright, measuring about 0.45 inches thick and weighing in at a relatively light 4.6 ounces, and as predicted, it’ll come with a speedy 1GHz “Snapdragon” processor under the hood, a five-megapixel camera with an LED flash, Wi-Fi, stereo Bluetooth, a slot for microSD memory expansion, and a standard 3.5mm jack for headsets. Missing in action: a slide-out keypad and “multitouch” for the Web browser (for “pinching” or “zooming” Web pages).
Also on board the Nexus One: the latest version of Android (version 2.1, to be precise), which adds a series of interface enhancements, more home screens (five, up from three), live news and weather widgets, “live” wallpaper (which, as demonstrated during Google’s press conference, might feature a forest scene with falling leaves and water that ripples at your touch), and even built-in voice recognition for any text field on the phone (meaning you can simply speak rather than type out a text message).
Apple Inc is set to launch a new tablet device later this month. It will be exiting to see the company’s biggest product launch since the iPhone.
Apple plans to ship a multimedia tablet with a 10- to 11-inch touchscreen in March, the report said, citing people briefed by the company.
Although analysts and media reports have been speculating for months that Apple planned to unveil a tablet in the first half of 2010, Apple has never confirmed it was working on such a device.
The Wall Street Journal-affiliated blog All Things Digital reported earlier Monday, citing unnamed sources, that Apple is planning to make a major product announcement on Jan. 27 at an event in San Francisco.
An Apple spokesman declined to comment. Excitement about the tablet in recent weeks has helped propel Apple’s shares to record levels, analysts say.
Today, Congressman Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) introduced the “Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity (CIR ASAP) Act of 2009.” Congressman Gutierrez has been joined by members of the faith community, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Black Caucus, Asian Pacific American Caucus, and Progressive Caucus. This legislation marks a path for the nation to tackle the nation’s broken immigration system.
We commend Congressman Gutierrez for his leadership, for advancing immigration solutions, and for being the first to provide a platform that will allow the American government and the American people to begin this critical conversation. Fixing the immigration system will not only help end the exploitation and demonization of immigrant families and anyone perceived to be immigrant, but it will also level the playing field for American workers, lift wages and increase tax revenues.
The immigration system is broken, and this has led to tragedy throughout the U.S. in the form of hate crimes culminating in murders in New York and Pennsylvania, the separation of families, and the restriction of access to education for young people commonly known as “DREAM youth.” We are thankful that a champion like Congressman Gutierrez has shown the leadership, common sense, and courage of his convictions to do something about our broken immigration system. We hope other members of Congress will rally behind him. This bill is only the beginning. Advocates from all over the country will be responding to its specifics in the coming days and months.
Numerous academic and government reports have documented that a program requiring undocumented immigrants to register, become legal, and pay taxes would have a positive impact on our economy. By a margin of two to one, the American people believe that comprehensive immigration reform is better for America’s economy than requiring twelve million potential workers to leave the United States. Poll after poll demonstrates that the vast majority of Americans support a comprehensive overhaul of the immigration system that restores the rule of law by including legalization and smart enforcement.
Past election cycles have shown that voters reject candidates who simply demagogue this issue or adopt extreme enforcement-only approaches. For far too long, those who support the harmful status quo have been allowed to lead on this issue, even though they do not represent the can-do will of the American public. And it is clear that the immigration debate has rallied Latinos, the fastest-growing segment of the electorate, who participated in record numbers in the 2008 election, in large part in response to the promise of change. Latinos are watching. The American people are watching. And we have the public support to arrive at a solution.
We have a moral imperative to address immigration effectively and humanely. We must fix the broken system that tramples on our values, fosters exploitation, and weakens our economy. NCLR joins members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Black Caucus, Asian Pacific American Caucus, and Progressive Caucus in applauding Congressman Gutierrez and urging presidential and congressional leadership to usher in a new kind of debate on this issue, move us forward together, and deliver workable solutions.
Individuals who drank three to four cups of coffe or tea per day had an approximately 25 percent lower risk of diabetes than those who drank between zero and two cups per day. Additionally, in the studies that assessed decaffeinated coffee consumption, those who drank more than three to four cups per day had about a one-third lower risk of diabetes than those who drank none. Those who drank more than three to four cups of tea had a one-fifth lower risk than those who drank no tea.
The finding is based on the analysis of previous studies reported in the December 14/28 issues of Archives of Internal Medicine, JAMA.
To reach the conclusion, Rachel Huxley, D.Phil, of The George Institute for International Health, University of Sydney, Australia, and colleagues identified 18 studies involving 457,922 participants and assessing the association between coffee consumption and diabetes risk published between 1966 and 2009.
Six studies involving 225,516 individuals also included information about decaffeinated coffee, whereas seven studies with 286,701 participants reported on tea consumption.
When the authors combined and analyzed the data, they found that each additional cup of coffee consumed in a day was associated with a 7 percent reduction in the excess risk of diabetes.
