Some young HIV patients are giving up their medicine after being told by Pentecostal Church pastors to rely on faith in God instead, doctors warn.
Medical staff told the BBC a minority of pastors in England were endangering young church members by putting them under pressure to stop medication.
Healing is central to Pentecostalism, a radical belief in the power of prayer and miracles.
But one pastor denied people would ever be told to stop taking their medicine.
The Children’s HIV Association surveyed 19 doctors and health professionals working with babies and children in England; its members had reported hearing anecdotal evidence of HIV patients deciding to stop taking their anti-retroviral drugs because their pastors had told them to do so.
Among 10 doctors who said they had encountered the problem in the last five years, 29 of their patients had reported being put under pressure to stop taking medicine and at least 11 had done so — via redwolf.newsvine.com
The US National Security Agency (NSA) broke privacy rules thousands of times in the past two years, according to an internal audit leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The internal documents, cited in the Washington Post, cast fresh doubts on pledges from US president Barack Obama to prevent abuses and protect Americans’ civil rights.
The documents were leaked by Snowden, a former NSA contractor who has exposed the massive scale of America’s surveillance of phone records and internet traffic in recent leaks to the media.
Snowden, who describes himself as a whistleblower for civil liberties, has obtained asylum in Russia, despite appeals from Washington for extradition on espionage charges — via redwolf.newsvine.com
The Northern Territory Government is repealing old legislation which makes tarot card reading and witchcraft illegal.
A recent review of the Territory’s Summary Offences Act found a centuries-old law citing anyone caught conjuring spells or predicting the future could face one year in prison.
The Witchcraft Act of 1735 has been inherited from Britain and has since been repealed in most other parts of the Western world.
But Northern Territory Attorney-General John Elferink says a legal quirk meant it stayed on the Territory’s statute books.
He says a year in prison is a pretty stiff punishment for a tarot card reader and has promised to finally repeal the legislation — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Caretakers at Artis Zoo in Amsterdam are keeping an eye out for kits in their Fennec Fox exhibit. The mother has quietly given birth to at least two male kits since July 2nd, but it still isn’t clear exactly how many have been born. Every now and then, caretakers have caught a glimpse of some kits and heard little squeaks coming from behind stumps and other hiding places — via ZooBorns
— via reddit
Two energetic Northern Cheetah cubs turned 2 months recently at Chester Zoo in England. The pair, born 4 June, are a male and a female. The zoo says that the two cubs are starting to develop their own personalities, as they climb tree stumps and bounce after one another — via ZooBorns
Privacy? What privacy? That attitude by Google in a recent court filing is causing a storm of controversy that shows at least some users have not yet given up on their right to privacy.
In a motion to dismiss a class-action suit in which Google was accused of violating federal and state wiretap laws because its ad service automatically scans e-mails to determine targeting, the technology giant seemed to have put its foot into it.
Google said that just as a sender of a letter to a business colleague cannot be surprised that the recipient’s assistant opens the letter, people who use Web-based e-mail today cannot be surprised if their communications are processed by the recipient’s ECS provider in the course of delivery
. ECS stands for electronic communications service — via redwolf.newsvine.com
In Germany, Zoo Krefeld’s Black Rhino couple, Nane and Usoni, gave birth to their fourth baby on 13 July. The baby, whose gender is unknown, weighs almost 30 kg. Zoo Krefeld is one of only five zoos in Germany that successfully breed the rare species — via ZooBorns
The odorless and tasteless nature of date rape drugs
can make them impossible for victims to detect before it’s too late. But soon your drinking glass may able to warn you if dangerous chemicals have been slipped into your cocktail. Next month, DrinkSavvy will begin shipping plastic cups and straws that change colour if a drink contains GHB, Rohypnol or Ketamine, three drugs commonly used for spiking purposes. The effort began with a successful $50,000 Indiegogo campaign led by company founder Michael Abramson — who himself was once unknowingly “roofied” during a night out with friend — via redwolf.newsvine.com
There’s a small contingent of House Greyjoy fans who’ve been asking me to make a design for their favourite house this past year, and I am happy to finally oblige their requests! I present the Iron Island Krakens (or Greyoy Krakens) — via Dave’s Geeky Hockey
Scootaloo, while not being able to fly as fast or as high as other pegasi manages to get around town just as quickly using earth pony ingenuity. Although sometimes her still being a filly easily becomes an excuse for recklessness, but at least she has the sense to wear a helmet. Now if only the other ponies she might come crashing through would be wearing one too — via Youtube
PostHuman from Colliculi Productions on Vimeo.
Deltone House Light, Deltone House Column, Decor Candle, Decor Feather and Decor Feather originally uploaded by Red Wolf
Hermit crabs carry crystal-clear cityscapes on their backs, thanks to a series of 3D-printed shells by Aki Inomata. The artist scans the insides of hermit crab shells to ensure a perfect fit, and then prints skylines of cities like New York, Thailand and Greece in plastic using a high-accuracy 3D printer — via WebUrbanist
How do lacklustre candidates like Jaymes Diaz so consistently get pre-selected by the NSW branch of the Liberal Party? Former Party insider Father Kevin Lee answers this question by showing us the seedy underbelly of the NSW Libs, including the parts played by Bill Heffernan, Tony Abbott, the faceless men and women and the influential Catholic cult — Opus Dei — via redwolf.newsvine.com
On 17 May, this little Jaguar cub came into the world, born to Krefeld Zoo‘s breeding pair Bess and Porgy. This is the second offspring for the parents in their time at the zoo. It was a difficult birth, but mother and cub got to do the necessary bonding for the first week of his life. At that juncture, Bess suffered from an inflammation of the uterus, and had to be treated under general anaesthesia for the condition. Fortunately, she made a full recovery, reunited with her cub, and has been doing a great job of caring for her baby ever since — via ZooBorns
A man driving a truck with police lights on top made a mistake Wednesday when he decided to make a fake police stop.
The two men he pulled over and accused of speeding on NM 104 in San Miguel County were actually State Police agents travelling in an unmarked truck.
When questioned by the State Police agents, John Shelton, 26, of Logan, who had a pistol on his hip, claimed to be a member of the New Mexico State Police Search and Rescue, an emergency medical tech and a fire fighter, and said he was being trained as a law enforcement officer — none of which would authorise him to make a traffic stop.
The real officers had police business to attend to and initially gave Shelton a warning and let him to. But they quickly determined they should try to find Shelton again and charge him impersonating an officer, according to a State Police spokesman.
When Shelton drove back by the officers, they flagged him down and he was arrested. The agents also determined that none of what Shelton had said about his connections to law enforcement was true.
The State Police are now asking for help in finding anyone else who may have been pulled over by Shelton — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Prices are kept low through a variety of strategies, the main one being that it often cuts out distributors and other middle men and buys many goods directly from farms and factories. WinCo also trims costs by not accepting credit cards and by asking customers to bag their own groceries. Similarly to warehouse membership stores like Sam’s Club and Costco, and also to successful discount grocers with small stores like Trader Joe’s and Aldi, WinCo stores are organized and minimalist, without many frills, and without the tremendous variety of merchandise that’s become standard at most supermarkets. “Everything is neat and clean, but basic,” Hauptman told Supermarket News. “Though the stores are very large, with a lot of categories, they lack depth or breadth of variety.”
While all of these factors help WinCo compete with Walmart on price, what really might scare the world’s largest retailer is how WinCo treats its employees. In sharp contrast to Walmart, which regularly comes under fire for practices like understaffing stores to keep costs down and hiring tons of temporary workers as a means to avoid paying full-time worker benefits, WinCo has a reputation for doing right by employees. It provides health benefits to all staffers who work at least 24 hours per week. The company also has a pension, with employees getting an amount equal to 20% of their annual salary put in a plan that’s paid for by WinCo; a company spokesperson told the Idaho Statesman that more than 400 nonexecutive workers (cashiers, produce clerks, and such) currently have pensions worth over $1 million apiece.
Generally speaking, shoppers tolerate Walmart’s empty shelves and subpar customer service because the prices are so good. The fact that another retailer—even a small regional one—is able to compete and sometimes beat Walmart on prices, while also operating well-organized stores staffed by workers who enjoy their jobs, like their employer, and genuinely want the company to be successful? Well, that’s got to alarm the world’s biggest retailer, if not keep executives up at night — via redwolf.newsvine.com
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