Testing times lead to ads on exams
A TEACHER is selling ads on exam papers because he was told his school didn't have enough money to pay for the paper.
San Diego maths teacher Tom Farber lets parents and businesses buy space at the bottom of pages to pay the cost of photocopying.
"My intention is, (selling ads) is a stopgap measure," Mr Farber told CNN.com.
"I don't want to be doing this year after year."
He said budget cuts at Rancho Bernardo High School had limited his allowance to $US316 ($488) for the year - but the cost of printing quizzes and tests for his 167 students would have bee more than $US500 ($772).
Rather than cut back on the number of tests he gives he put forward the plan to allow ads or inspirational quotes on test papers and it was accepted by the school and parents."It raises money for the teachers and it's amusing for the kids, so it seems like a win-win," 18-year-old student Luke Shaw said
His fee structure is $US10 for an ad on a quiz, $US20 for a test or $US30 for a final exam.
"Brace yourself for a great semester! Braces by Henry, Stephen P. Henry D.M.D.," read one of the ads.
-CNN
Former guerrilla wins Uruguay vote
A former guerrilla fighter who has pledged to take a moderate path has won Uruguay's presidential run-off election.
Jose Mujica, 74, who waged an armed revolt against a democratically elected government in the 1960s and 1970s and was jailed for 14 years, was ahead with 51.2 per cent of the vote, according to a number of exit polls.
His rival, rightist former president Luis Lacalle, has conceded defeat, Mr Lacalle's running mate Jorge Larranaga said.
A Mujica victory will keep in power the ruling Broad Front coalition, credited by many Uruguayans with lifting the country out of an economic slump earlier this decade and stoking growth in the face of the global slowdown.
Mr Mujica, a farmer and former agriculture minister and senator, vows to continue investor-friendly policies that have helped the economy in one of Latin America's most stable countries to expand for six straight years.
He campaigned praising Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Latin America's leading moderate leftist, and signalled he does not intend to bring Uruguay closer to more hardline leaders like Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
The new president of Uruguay will take office on March 1 and serve a five-year term.
Mr Lacalle had raised questions about Mr Mujica's militant past, suggesting he would be more radical than he seemed on the campaign trail.
But Mr Mujica said he would stay the course set by outgoing President Tabare Vazquez, Uruguay's first socialist leader. Mr Vazquez is barred from seeking a second consecutive term.
"It's going to be the same dog, but with a different collar," Mr Mujica said.
- Reuters
The minaret ban.
CAIRO — Egypt's Mufti Ali Gomaa denounced a vote to ban new minarets in Switzerland on Sunday as an "insult" to Muslims across the world, while calling on Muslims not to be provoked by the move.
A solid majority of Swiss voters chose in a referendum to ban the construction of new minarets, the towers attached to mosques from which the call to prayers is announced.
"This proposal...is not considered just an attack on freedom of beliefs, but also an attempt to insult the feelings of the Muslim community in and outside Switzerland," Gomaa, the Egyptian government's official interpreter of Islamic law, told the state-run news agency MENA.
He encouraged Switzerland's 400,000-strong Muslim community to use "dialogue" and legal means to contest the ban, which he described as "provocative behaviour."
The rightist Swiss People's Party (SVP) -- Switzerland's biggest party -- had forced the referendum after collecting a mandatory 100,000 signatures from eligible voters within 18 months.
Gomaa also called on Muslims not to be affected "by this provocation," adding that Islam "considers humanity a single family."
Egypt is the most populous Arab country and was at the forefront of a backlash against Denmark in 2006 after a Danish newspaper printed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed.
AFP
IHN Show-Episode 38
I Have Nothing Episode 38
This weeks episode we have Ru486, Suave (Major), BSV, Stephane, Mephyt, Loreandlaw, Morpse, Yugosaki, Daemonkin, Morpse, Haevy, Legion, BigBrother, Nox, Analog, and AnthonyL.
The Disclaimers Disclaimer - Mephyt
Disclaimer - BigBrother
Opening Song - Autonation by Patient Zero
Ending Song - Red Light Freak Out by Patient Zero
Virus mutation spreads
SWINE flu virus mutations are spreading in Europe, French health officials say as the World Health Organisation reported a leap in deaths from the disease by more than 1,000 in a week.
Two patients who were infected by a mutation that was also recently detected in Norway have died in France, the government's Health Surveillance Institute (InVS) said in a statement.
"This mutation could increase the ability of the virus to affect the respiratory tracts and, in particular, the lung tissue," it said.
"For one of these patients, this mutation was accompanied by another mutation known to confer resistance to oseltamivir," it added, referring to the main drug being used to treat swine flu, under the brand name Tamiflu.
The case was the first drug-resistant strain found in France among the 1,200 strains experts have analysed here, the InVS said, adding: "The effectiveness of vaccines currently available is not being questioned."
The two patients were not related and had been hospitalised in different cities in France, it said.
The WHO said the death toll had reached at least 7,826 worldwide since the A(H1N1) flu virus was first uncovered in April. The number of deaths reported to the UN health agency showed the biggest rise in the Americas, where 5,360 deaths have now been recorded compared to 4,806 a week ago.
But Europe also posted a substantial increase percentage-wise with at least 650 fatalities now reported, representing a surge of 300 deaths or 85 per cent from data posted a week ago.
The WHO said it was investigating reports of mutations in the virus, after half a dozen countries recorded such cases.
Japan launches new spy satellite
JAPAN has launched a next-generation spy satellite as part of efforts to beef up its surveillance system against the threat of North Korea's missiles.
An H-2A rocket carrying the nation's No. 3 Information Gathering Satellite was launched from Tanegashima Space Centre on Tanegashima island, south-western Japan.
"We successfully separated the satellite from the rocket and put it into orbit," Toshimitsu Ozeki, an official of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which built the rocket, said.
The government-run satellite will replace the first model, with an advanced optical device to distinguish objects on the ground with a resolution of about 60 centimetres (24 inches).
The new satellite will undergo a performance trial for about three months before starting full operations, Kyodo News reported.
The launch is the nation's latest effort to build an intelligence-gathering system following North Korea's missile launch in 1998 over the Japanese archipelago.
In defiance of international pressure, North Korea launched again what was believed to be a three-stage Taepodong-2 missile in April, with an estimated range of 6,700 kilometresJapan currently operates two optical satellites and a radar satellite and is planning to add another radar satellite by March 2013 to complete the system so that it will be able to monitor designated places on the Earth once a day.
Secret video reveals Burma’s crackdown on monks
A hidden camera has provided a rare glimpse inside Burma's mental health system which is used to incarcerate opposition figures and politically active monks.
At one hospital where activities were filmed by a Burmese video journalist, there are hundreds of patients and not enough supplies to go around.
The head nurse says more clothes and shoes are needed.
She also acknowledges criminals are held there, confined because of their mental condition.
It appears from the footage that some of the "criminals" in the hospital are monks.
The film shows they are allowed to keep their heads shaven but are forced to give up their robes, although some defy that rule.
Many observers have long suspected that Burma's junta has confined political monks to mental institutions to treat what the regime claims is a sickness.
Dubai default fears scare world markets
Concerns about Dubai's ability to repay some of its debts have sent share markets around the world reeling.
Dubai is seeking to delay the repayment of billions of dollars in debt held by the partly government-run company Dubai World.
Dubai World is a conglomerate which owns one of the United Arab Emirates' biggest property developers.
The company is thought to have debts worth about $US60 billion and wants a six-month suspension on the repayments until May next year.
A market analyst with CommSec, Juliana Roadley, says 40 per cent of the money owed is funded by banks in the euro zone.
"That's why we saw such a big sell off on European markets on this story," she said.
The DAX in Germany lost 189 points, or 3.25 per cent, to close at 5,614.
France's CAC shed 130 points, or 3.4 per cent, to 3,679.
In Britain, London's FTSE 100 slumped 171 points, or 3.18 per cent, to close at 5,194.
Markets throughout central and South America also lost value overnight.
There was no market trading in the United States because of the Thanksgiving holiday.
Irish church obsessively hid child abuse – report
ROMAN Catholic archbishops in Dublin obsessively covered up widespread sexual abuse of children by priests until the mid-1990s, a report commissioned by the Irish government said today.
One priest admitted abusing more than 100 children. Another said he had abused every two weeks for over 25 years, it said.
All archbishops in charge over the 1975-2004 period covered by the inquiry were aware of some complaints and the archdiocese was pre-occupied with protecting the reputation of the Church over and above protecting children's welfare, the report said.
It said the Church was "obsessively" concerned with secrecy and operated a policy of "don't ask, don't tell" about abuse.
"Unfortunately, it may be that the very prominent role which the Church has played in Irish life is the very reason why abuses by a minority of its members were allowed to go unchecked," it said.
The report, designed to show how the Church and state responded to charges of abusing children, said a representative sample of 46 priests against whom complaints were levelled at made it "abundantly clear" that abuse was widespread.The inquiry, which came six months after a similarly damning report about Church-run industrial and reform schools, also accused state officials of abetting the cover-up.
The government acknowledged the errors of state agencies mentioned in the report, and Justice Minister Dermot Ahern told a news conference of his revulsion at the findings.
Don’t turn churches into nightclubs – Vatican
THE Vatican overnight warned Italy's bishops against letting deserted churches be transformed into nightclubs if the decision was taken to sell the places of worship.
Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, the Vatican's new culture commissar, urged "the greatest caution" after announcing that Roman Catholic churches with few worshippers could be sold off.
He gave the example of a church in Hungary which was "transformed into a nightclub and where striptease took place on the altar".
The archbishop, who is president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, said dwindling numbers of worshippers at some churches meant it now made sense to sell, or even destroy, the buildings.
"Faced with falling number of worshippers, a phenomenon which we are also unfortunately witnessing in the centre of Rome, churches without any artistic value and which need significant work can be sold or destroyed," he said.
Italian bishops' groups would be responsible for deciding whether the sites should be sold, said Ravasi, adding each case would be separately assessed.