NEW DELHI (Reuters) ? India has urged social network companies including Facebook, Twitter and Google to remove offensive material, unleashing a storm of criticism from Internet users in the world's largest democracy complaining of censorship.
Telecoms and Information Technology Minister Kapil Sibal met executives from Facebook, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft on Monday to ask them to screen content, but no agreement with the companies was reached, he said.
Sibal denied he was promoting censorship and said some of the images and statements on social media sites risked fanning tensions in India, which has a long history of deadly religious violence.
A New York Times report on Monday that said Sibal called executives about six weeks ago and showed them a Facebook page that maligned ruling Congress Party chief Sonia Gandhi and told them it was "unacceptable".
The government is very sensitive to criticism of the Gandhi family. Last year there were moves to block the English translation of a Spanish novel about Sonia Gandhi's life.
"We have to take care of the sensibilities of our people, we have to protect their sensibilities. Our cultural ethos is very important to us," Sibal told reporters on Tuesday.
Sibal said his ministry was working on guidelines for action against companies who did not respond to the government's requests, but did not specify what action could be taken.
"We'll certainly evolve guidelines to ensure that such blasphemous material is not part of content on any platform."
India's largely unrestricted Internet access stands in contrast to tight controls in fellow Asian economic powerhouse China. But in line with many other government's around the world, India has become increasingly edgy about the power of social media.
India's bloggers and Twitter users scorned the minister's proposals, saying a prefiltering system would limit free expression and was impossible to implement. The phrase #IdiotKapilSibal was one of India's most tweeted on Tuesday.
"The idea of prescreening is impossible. How will they do it?...There is no technology currently that determines whether content is 'defamatory' or 'offensive'," India-based cyber security expert Vijay Mukhi told Reuters.
TAKEN ABACK
The New York Times report, which Sibal did not confirm or deny, was the focus of much of the online anger directed at the minister on Tuesday.
"I love Sonia Gandhi. She is awesome. She is God. And never wrong about anything, ever." (This msg is approved by Kapil Sibal's cyber cell)," posted twitter user Sorabh Pant.
Indian authorities were taken aback in the summer by an anti-corruption campaign that multiplied on Facebook and Twitter, drawing tens of thousands of people to street protests and forcing the government to agree to new anti-graft laws.
Last year, as part of a broader electronic security crackdown, Indian security agencies demanded access to communications sent through highly secure BlackBerry devices of Canadian smartphone maker Research In Motion.
RIM gave India access to its consumer services, including its Messenger services, but said it could not allow monitoring of its enterprise email.
Facebook said it recognized the government's wish to minimize the amount of offensive content on the web. The California-based company said it removes content that violates company rules on nudity and inciting violence and hatred.
"(We) will continue to engage the Indian authorities as they debate this important issue," Facebook said in a statement.
Yahoo India declined to comment and Google said it would comment later in the day.
India now has 100 million Internet users, less than a tenth of the country's population of 1.2 billion. It is the third-largest user base behind China and the United States. It is seen swelling to 300 million users in the next three years.
During last year's clampdown, officials also said Google and Skype would be sent notices to set up local servers to allow full monitoring of email and messenger communications.
Britain also faced criticism last month for considering curbs on social media after recent riots even as Foreign Secretary William Hague castigated countries that block the Internet to stifle protests.
(Additional reporting by Shilpa Jamkhandikar in MUMBAI and Annie Banerji in NEW DELHI; Writing by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Malini Menon and Nick Macfie)
WASHINGTON ? House Republicans intend to propose a gradual increase in Medicare premiums for wealthy seniors to help cover the cost of renewing Social Security payroll tax cuts and benefits for the long-term unemployed, officials said Wednesday.
The precise details remain to be worked out as the leadership consults with rank-and-file Republicans about the legislation, which has grown significantly in recent days and is expected on the House floor next week.
GOP officials described the plan on condition of anonymity because no final decision has been made.
In addition to the extension of payroll tax cuts and jobless benefits that are at the heart of President Barack Obama's jobs program, House Republicans plan to include a provision to avert a 27 percent cut in payments to doctors who treat Medicare patients. All three face a Dec. 31 deadline for action.
In addition, GOP leaders eager to attract votes for the measure are likely to include conservative-backed provisions to speed the construction of a controversial oil pipeline from Canada to Texas and block a proposed Environmental Protection Agency rule restricting toxic emissions from industrial boilers.
Across the Capitol, Democrats set the stage for a second politically charged vote in the Senate later in the week on their proposed surtax on million-dollar earners to help pay for the renewal of the tax cuts and unemployment benefits.
Senate Republicans blocked an earlier bill along the same lines, and the Democrats' decision to call for a second showdown comes as they seek to brand GOP lawmakers as protectors of the rich at the expense of the middle class.
The move is "nothing more than another bill that's been designed to fail, so Democrats can have another week of fun and games on the Senate floor while tens of millions of working Americans go another week wondering whether they're going to see a smaller paycheck at the end of the year," said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
Republicans oppose higher taxes, and GOP aides in the House pointed out that the proposed higher Medicare premiums for the wealthy would fall on some of the same individuals whom Democrats want to tax.
Senate Republicans included higher premiums in their own alternative measure last week. It would have required seniors earning more than $750,000 to pay more for Medicare Part B, which covers doctor visits and other costs apart from the expense of hospitalization.
According to Medicare's website, monthly Part B premiums will be $99.90 in 2012 for beneficiaries with individual income of $85,000 or less. The cost rises gradually, reaching $319.70 for anyone whose income exceeds $214,000.
The dispute over taxes is one of several that must be settled before legislation can reach Obama's desk, and Democrats sought to put the onus on Republicans.
Republicans have said in recent days that to cover the cost of doctor fees under Medicare, they intend to cut funds from the year-old health care bill that is the president's signature domestic achievement.
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., who is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, dismissed that approach during the day as "not a good idea. That's going to cause more problems than it solves," he said, and urged Republicans to concentrate on drafting legislation that can clear both houses.
Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and other GOP leaders must contend not only with Senate Democrats, but also with disgruntled lawmakers inside their own party who are reluctant to extend a payroll tax cut that they claim has failed to produce any jobs. The proposal to take a piece out of the president's health care bill is likely to be an attractive addition to these Republicans, as is the renewal of current reimbursement rates for doctors who treat Medicare patients.
Officials said the emerging House bill is also likely to extend several features of Medicare that would otherwise revert to lower payments for some hospitals as well as for ambulances in rural areas, some mental health services and therapy services from non-hospital providers.
This handout provided by Fairfax County, Va. Sheriff's Office shows FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt. Babbitt was placed on a leave of absence Monday and U.S. officials said his employment is under review following his arrest for drunken driving in suburban Northern Virginia. (AP Photo/Fairfax County, Va. Sheriff's Office)
This handout provided by Fairfax County, Va. Sheriff's Office shows FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt. Babbitt was placed on a leave of absence Monday and U.S. officials said his employment is under review following his arrest for drunken driving in suburban Northern Virginia. (AP Photo/Fairfax County, Va. Sheriff's Office)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Transportation Department officials are deciding how to handle Federal Aviation Administration chief Randy Babbitt's weekend arrest on charges of drunken driving in suburban northern Virginia.
Babbitt was placed on a leave of absence Monday, and Transportation officials are in "discussions with legal counsel" about his employment status, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood's office said in a statement Monday afternoon.
The Federal Aviation Administration is part of the Transportation Department. Babbitt is about halfway through a five-year term.
Babbitt, 65, was charged with driving while intoxicated after a patrol officer spotted him driving on the wrong side of the road and pulled him over around 10:30 p.m. Saturday in Fairfax City, Va., police in the Washington suburb said.
Babbitt, who lives in nearby Reston, Va., was the only occupant in the vehicle, police said. He cooperated and was released on his own recognizance.
Babbitt apparently delayed telling administration officials about the arrest. White House spokesman Jay Carney said President Barack Obama and Transportation Department officials learned of the arrest Monday afternoon, about an hour before a 1:30 p.m. statement was released saying Babbitt had been placed on leave at his request.
Separately, Fairfax City police issued a statement on the arrest to the media at about noon Monday, which their policies require in cases where a public official has been arrested. Police refused to disclose the results of Babbitt's blood alcohol test. The legal limit is .08.
LaHood has aggressively campaigned against drunken driving, and is working with police agencies and safety advocates on an annual holiday crackdown on drinking and driving later this month. Safety advocates credit LaHood with doing more to raise the visibility of human factors in highway safety ? including drunken driving, drivers distracted by cell phone use, and parents who fail to buckle in their children ? than any previous transportation secretary.
Deputy FAA Administrator Michael Huerta will serve as acting administrator, the Transportation Department statement said. In recent months Huerta has been leading the FAA's troubled NextGen effort to transition from an air traffic control system based on World War II-era radar technology to one based on satellite technology.
Babbitt was a former airline captain and internationally recognized expert in aviation and labor relations when Obama tapped him in 2009 to head the FAA. He was a pilot for the now-defunct Eastern Airlines for 25 years, and had served as president of the Air Line Pilots Association. As head of ALPA, he championed the "one level of safety" initiative implemented in 1995 to improve safety standards across the airline industry.
Babbitt's nomination in 2009 was warmly received by both industry officials and airline unions. His easy manner and insider's knowledge of the airline industry generated respect in Congress, where he regularly testified on safety issues and in support of NextGen.
Babbitt took over at the FAA when the agency was still reeling from the exposure of widespread safety gaps in the regional airline industry. The problems were revealed by a National Transportation Safety Board investigation of the February 2009 crash of a regional airliner near Buffalo, N.Y., that killed 50 people.
Babbitt and LaHood promised to immediately implement a series of safety initiatives. At Babbitt's urging airlines adopted a series of voluntary safety measures, although safety advocates say voluntary measures aren't enough. The FAA under Babbitt has also initiated several efforts to craft major new safety regulations, ranging from preventing pilot fatigue to boosting experience levels and training of airline pilots.
But Babbitt has struggled to realize several of those safety proposals. Some proposals have stalled as industry opponents lobbied White House officials against the proposed regulations, saying they would cost too much or be too burdensome.
The biggest crisis of Babbitt's FAA tenure occurred last spring over a period of several weeks when nine air traffic controllers were allegedly caught sleeping on the job or were unresponsive to radio calls while on duty. The head of the FAA's Air Traffic Organization was forced to resign during the ensuing uproar.
As the FAA's top official, Babbitt has the final say in disciplinary proceedings involving controllers who violate the agency's drug and alcohol regulations.
During a trip to Istanbul, Vice President Joe Biden took part in something of a verbal sparring match with a Turkish politician.
It started at the U.S. Delegation to Global Entrepreneurship Summit, a yearly meeting of students and entrepreneurs, where Ali Babacan, a deputy prime minister of Turkey, addressed the crowd before Biden spoke.
As The New York Times reports, Babacan "delivered a confident address about Turkey?s future and its status as a model Muslim democracy," pinning Europe's problems on a crisis in leadership.
?If they had a strong government like we have in Turkey,? he remarked, ?they would be able to solve their problems.? He went on to predict that Turkey was on the brink of global power, saying, ?The fast fish, not the big fish, eats the small fish."
At the beginning of his speech, Biden responded pointedly to the implication that the U.S. is a dying empire. From The Wall Street Journal:
"I'm not going to spend any time talking to you about the U.S. economy, but I am going to suggest that we, all nations, are in this together," Mr. Biden began. "The fact that our economy is three times as large as the next-largest economy and larger than the next four combined does not make us immune to what's happening around the world."
The two were seen smiling and posing for photos after the event, so it appears an international incident was averted.
In a question-and-answer session with a senior administration official, journalists covering the Vice President got cautious confirmation that Biden had strayed from his prepared remarks and personally added the response to Babacan. From the Q & A transcript:
Q: Can you tell us -- the Vice President seemed to be very pointed in the opening part of his remarks today at the summit. Can you tell us about --
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: He did in what -- about what way?
Q: Well, he seemed to be almost responding to some of the things that the Foreign Minister had said in his remarks about Europe and the West in general?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: No, I -- I don't think --
Q: So that was all planned in his speech?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Yes, it was.
Q: He didn't add anything at the last minute?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: There was nothing --
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: She?s talking about the top of the speech where he said -- we are -- our economy is three times the size of any other --
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Oh, yes, the very beginning. Actually --
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I?m not here to talk about the American economy.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Right. No, I actually -- I didn't talk to him about that so I don't know what exactly he was thinking about because I think -- this is speculation -- that because other speakers had been talking about their economies, he wanted to make clear that that wasn?t the focus of his speech but he wanted to say -- get in a few words nonetheless -- but I don't know the --
While in Istanbul, Biden also urged Turkey to join the United States in imposing economic sanctions against Iran.
The Supreme Court rounds out its December sitting this week with a couple of cases rife with ex-bedfellows, strange bedfellows and riverbeds.
Monday: Messerschmidt v. Millender
Shoot a sawed-off shotgun at your ex-girlfriend and you might just bring together some strange bedfellows to help you at the Supreme Court. When Shelly Kelly reported her ex-boyfriend's behavior to the Los Angeles Police Department, they obtained a warrant to search his place of residence for all firearms and proof of ownership or possession, as well as anything that showed his membership with the Crips gang. The SWAT team busted in and cleared the house, which was owned by the trigger-happy boyfriend's foster mother, Augusta Millender. They did not find the weapon Kelly had described, however. Instead, they came up with Millender's personal shotgun. Only later did the detective on the case find the suspect hiding under a motel room bed.
Millender alleged violations of her Fourth Amendment rights, claiming that the police had no probable cause to search for anything more than the ex-boyfriend's sawed-off shotgun. The Supreme Court on Monday will hear argument over whether the detective's error was serious enough to allow Millender, supported by the NRA and the ACLU, to pass through usual legal safeguards and sue the detective in his personal capacity.
Tuesday: Williams v. Illinois
For the fourth time in four terms, the Supreme Court will have it out over the limits of the Sixth Amendment's confrontation clause. In 2009, the justices broke into an ideologically-scrambled 5-4 decision in which Justice Antonin Scalia led Justices Clarence Thomas, John Paul Stevens, David Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg to hold that lab reports entered into evidence must be accompanied by the lab tech who prepared it, no matter how reliable the report or understaffed the lab. Stevens and Souter have since retired, but when the Court revisited the issue in 2010 and again last term, both Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan followed in their predecessors' footsteps.
Justice Anthony Kennedy, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Stephen Breyer and Samuel Alito, have perpetually dissented on this issue, and they will likely be hoping to peel off one vote to stop what they see as an unjustified exaltation of constitutional principle over criminal procedure practicality.
Wednesday: PPL Montana v. Montana
On Wednesday, the Court will explore the record of Lewis and Clark's expedition to determine who owns the riverbeds upon which three Montana dams rest. Awesome for constitutional history buffs -- and I'll try to make it awesome for everyone else in my after-argument recap.
BEIJING ? Two giant pandas have flown from China to Scotland, where they will become the first pandas to live in Britain in nearly two decades.
The pandas, named Tian Tian and Yang Guang ? or Sweetie and Sunshine ? munched on bamboo at Chengdu airport ahead of their trip and arrived in Edinburgh later Sunday.
The pandas are to stay for 10 years at Edinburgh Zoo, where officials hope they will breed during their stay.
The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland will pay more than 600,000 pounds ($935,000) a year to China for the loan of Sweetie and Sunshine, not including the expense of imported bamboo.
Britain's last giant panda lived in London Zoo until 1994, when it was returned to China.
Toronto-based deal provider Dealfind, which recently became one of the first half-dozen or so partners to be featured within Google Offers, is now available as its own standalone mobile application. The new app works on both iPhone and Android, allowing deal hunters to locate, purchase and store offers on their mobile phone.
BEIJING (Reuters) ? China's factory sector shrank in November in the face of weakening demand both at home and abroad, two surveys showed on Thursday, underlining the central bank's move to cut bank reserve requirements to shore up the economy.
The official and HSBC purchasing managers' indexes are likely to feed worries that the global economy is on a slippery slope as the euro zone is marred by its debt crisis, reinforcing expectations that China will ease policy further.
The official PMI released by the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP) fell to 49 in November from October's 50.4, suggesting activity among big manufacturers shrank in November for the first time in nearly three years, or since the global financial crisis.
The reading was below the median forecast of 50 in a Reuters poll. That level demarcates expansion from contraction.
"The November PMI dropped further to below the boom-bust line of 50... indicates that the economic growth pace would continue to moderate in the future," Zhang Liqun, a researcher with the Development Research Centre of the State Council, wrote in the CFLP statement.
The CFLP said the sub-index for new orders fell to 47.8 in November from 50.5 in October, while the sub-index for new export orders dipped to 45.6 in November from October's 48.6. Both sets of figures suggest the domestic and overseas new order books are shrinking.
Meanwhile, the HSBC China PMI dropped to a 32-month low of 47.7 in November from October's 51. A sub-index for new orders skidded to a 32-month low of 45 from 52.6 in October.
"The November PMI final reading points to a sharp deterioration in business conditions across the Chinese manufacturing sector," said Qu Hongbin, China economist at HSBC.
In one bright sign though, new export orders in the HSBC survey, geared more to smaller and private-sector factories, was comfortably above 50, suggesting growth.
China's economic expansion has been slowing all this year as Europe and the United States -- China's top two export markets -- have struggled to recover from the global financial crisis in 2008-2009.
In addition to global headwinds, China's once red-hot real estate sector is slowing down as home prices and sales fall.
China's central bank cut the reserve requirement ratio for its commercial lenders on Wednesday for the first time in nearly three years to ease credit strains and shore up an economy running at its weakest pace since 2009.
The reserve cut, effective Dec 5, reduces the ratio for the biggest banks to 21 percent from a record high 21.5 percent, freeing up funds that could be used for lending to cash-strapped small firms. Analysts said they expect further cuts in bank reserves.
FALLING INFLATION
The positive side of the surveys was that inflationary pressures in China could ease further, creating more room for the central bank to relax policy to support growth.
"We can see that the central bank is actually increasing the magnitude of policy easing, although it is still early to call it a comprehensive loosening," said Zhang Zhiwei, chief China economist at Nomura.
The prices sub-index of the official PMI fell to 44.4 from October's 46.2.
China's annual consumer inflation dipped to 5.5 percent in October from September's 6.1 percent, pulling back further from July's three-year peak of 6.5 percent.
The National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic planning agency, forecast that inflation will fall below 5 percent before the end of this year as food price pressures ease, the Economic Daily reported on Nov 14.
The HSBC PMI for November came in lower than its flash number released late in November and based on 90 percent of responses.
Then flash reading of 48 implied annual industrial output growth of 11-12 percent, HSBC said, a pace not seen since 2009 when China was pulling out of the global crisis.
Factory output, which accounts for 40 percent of gross domestic product, hit its weakest pace in a year in October, even though expansion in the first 10 months of 2011 averaged 14.1 percent.
(Reporting by Aileen Wang and Kevin Yao; Editing by Ken Wills and Neil Fullick)
Los Angeles, CA (December 2nd, 2011) Most of us would agree that prevention is better than cure. But new results out in the journal Clinical Rehabilitation, published by SAGE, indicate that a costly intervention programme designed to reduce early retirement on health grounds in Finland had no measurable effect.
The research was a large scale evaluative study of vocational rehabilitation, which followed 872 participants and their 2440 matched controls for up to nine years. The participants went through a four-week prevention programme incorporating physical and psychological health education and support. It aimed to help participants adopt a healthier lifestyle, and to achieve greater aerobic capacity, muscle strength and endurance, and to better manage their own stress.
This research was part of the Finnish Public Sector Study, an ongoing prospective study among employees working in 10 towns and 21 hospitals in Finland. Among other data, researchers gathered information on psychosocial factors at work, individual factors, health, and health behaviors. All of the participants were linked to employers' records and national health registers.
When the researchers compared how frequently participants and controls complained suboptimal health, psychological distress, and anxiety, there was no significant difference. After the intervention there was also no significant difference between scores for the groups, either in the short term (on average after 1.7 years) or in the longer term (on average followed up after almost six years or in some cases for up to nine years).
The four week programme is widely used in Finland in a bid to reduce early retirement on health grounds. But this study suggests that the programme had little effect, either in the short or long term, on how those who took part perceived their health. The intervention would typically involve a physician, a physiotherapist, a psychologist, a social worker, and a vocational rehabilitation specialist. Sometimes a nurse, an occupational therapist, an occupational physiotherapist, and a nutritionist would also join the team.
Of the 872 participants who received the intervention, 90 percent were women. The perceived work-related health effects were not limited to particular groups of workers: 36 percent held the highest occupational positions, and 35 percent were in service work or manual jobs.
Although the authors stress that their findings may not hold true beyond Finland, the study will shine a spotlight on similar, work-related interventions. These tend to be either individual-based, offering tools in areas such as healthy lifestyle or stress management; or they are work-directed, and might include changes in working environment or organization. To date, solid evidence for the effectiveness of either type of intervention is limited.
Perceived health is a strong predictor and marker of morbidity, work disability, and mortality. Almost one in three workers complains of psychological distress, tiredness, or anxiety, estimated to cause an annual loss of at least EUR 20 billion in the European states.
This most widely used multidisciplinary inpatient rehabilitation programme in Finland primarily aims to prevent work capacity deteriorating in physically, mentally, or socially stressful occupations at an early stage, before illnesses causing work disability develop. It may be that the programme simply isn't reaching those who need it most - the study authors note that those put forward for the intervention were often highly educated, satisfied employees who are not exposed to severe stress or do not perceive stress-related symptoms.
"Our results suggest that the vocationally oriented, individual-based multidisciplinary prevention programme focused on in this study may not be effective in improving perceived health," said the leading author Mikhail Saltychev, Department of Rehabilitation, Turku University Hospital, Finland. "Future research is needed to examine the reasons for the ineffectiveness of this costly early intervention and to identify more effective preventive measures to improve subjective health in working populations."
###
Effect of a Multidisciplinary Rehabilitation Programme on Perceived Health among Employees at Increased Risk of Incapacity for Work: a Controlled Study by Mikhail Saltychev, Katri Laimi, Tuula Oksanen, Jaana Pentti, Marianna Virtanen, Mika Kivimaki and Jussi Vahtera will be published today, December 2nd, 2011 in Clinical Rehabilitation.
The article will be free to access for a limited time here: http://cre.sagepub.com/content/early/2011/11/18/0269215511425963.full.pdf+html
SAGE is a leading international publisher of journals, books, and electronic media for academic, educational, and professional markets. Since 1965, SAGE has helped inform and educate a global community of scholars, practitioners, researchers, and students spanning a wide range of subject areas including business, humanities, social sciences, and science, technology, and medicine. An independent company, SAGE has principal offices in Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC. www.sagepublications.com
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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.
Costly intervention program has no measurable effect on early retirementPublic release date: 2-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Los Angeles, CA (December 2nd, 2011) Most of us would agree that prevention is better than cure. But new results out in the journal Clinical Rehabilitation, published by SAGE, indicate that a costly intervention programme designed to reduce early retirement on health grounds in Finland had no measurable effect.
The research was a large scale evaluative study of vocational rehabilitation, which followed 872 participants and their 2440 matched controls for up to nine years. The participants went through a four-week prevention programme incorporating physical and psychological health education and support. It aimed to help participants adopt a healthier lifestyle, and to achieve greater aerobic capacity, muscle strength and endurance, and to better manage their own stress.
This research was part of the Finnish Public Sector Study, an ongoing prospective study among employees working in 10 towns and 21 hospitals in Finland. Among other data, researchers gathered information on psychosocial factors at work, individual factors, health, and health behaviors. All of the participants were linked to employers' records and national health registers.
When the researchers compared how frequently participants and controls complained suboptimal health, psychological distress, and anxiety, there was no significant difference. After the intervention there was also no significant difference between scores for the groups, either in the short term (on average after 1.7 years) or in the longer term (on average followed up after almost six years or in some cases for up to nine years).
The four week programme is widely used in Finland in a bid to reduce early retirement on health grounds. But this study suggests that the programme had little effect, either in the short or long term, on how those who took part perceived their health. The intervention would typically involve a physician, a physiotherapist, a psychologist, a social worker, and a vocational rehabilitation specialist. Sometimes a nurse, an occupational therapist, an occupational physiotherapist, and a nutritionist would also join the team.
Of the 872 participants who received the intervention, 90 percent were women. The perceived work-related health effects were not limited to particular groups of workers: 36 percent held the highest occupational positions, and 35 percent were in service work or manual jobs.
Although the authors stress that their findings may not hold true beyond Finland, the study will shine a spotlight on similar, work-related interventions. These tend to be either individual-based, offering tools in areas such as healthy lifestyle or stress management; or they are work-directed, and might include changes in working environment or organization. To date, solid evidence for the effectiveness of either type of intervention is limited.
Perceived health is a strong predictor and marker of morbidity, work disability, and mortality. Almost one in three workers complains of psychological distress, tiredness, or anxiety, estimated to cause an annual loss of at least EUR 20 billion in the European states.
This most widely used multidisciplinary inpatient rehabilitation programme in Finland primarily aims to prevent work capacity deteriorating in physically, mentally, or socially stressful occupations at an early stage, before illnesses causing work disability develop. It may be that the programme simply isn't reaching those who need it most - the study authors note that those put forward for the intervention were often highly educated, satisfied employees who are not exposed to severe stress or do not perceive stress-related symptoms.
"Our results suggest that the vocationally oriented, individual-based multidisciplinary prevention programme focused on in this study may not be effective in improving perceived health," said the leading author Mikhail Saltychev, Department of Rehabilitation, Turku University Hospital, Finland. "Future research is needed to examine the reasons for the ineffectiveness of this costly early intervention and to identify more effective preventive measures to improve subjective health in working populations."
###
Effect of a Multidisciplinary Rehabilitation Programme on Perceived Health among Employees at Increased Risk of Incapacity for Work: a Controlled Study by Mikhail Saltychev, Katri Laimi, Tuula Oksanen, Jaana Pentti, Marianna Virtanen, Mika Kivimaki and Jussi Vahtera will be published today, December 2nd, 2011 in Clinical Rehabilitation.
The article will be free to access for a limited time here: http://cre.sagepub.com/content/early/2011/11/18/0269215511425963.full.pdf+html
SAGE is a leading international publisher of journals, books, and electronic media for academic, educational, and professional markets. Since 1965, SAGE has helped inform and educate a global community of scholars, practitioners, researchers, and students spanning a wide range of subject areas including business, humanities, social sciences, and science, technology, and medicine. An independent company, SAGE has principal offices in Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC. www.sagepublications.com
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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.
Hillary Clinton will be visiting Shwedagon Pagoda which at 2,500 years old is said to be the world's oldest pagoda.
By Ian Williams, NBC News correspondent
YANGON, Myanmar ? U Nine Nine has spent 17 of the past 21 years behind bars as a political prisoner, and on the face of it, he would seem to have little reason to be upbeat about Myanmar's recent reforms.
"Time will tell," he told me. "But I'm cautiously optimistic. It is difficult for them to turn back now [from the recent changes]. The next few weeks will be crucial."
After 49 years of totalitarian rule, Myanmar?s military junta is beginning to loosen up.
Just last November, in what was widely condemned as a rigged election, Myanmar's ruling generals exchanged their uniforms for civilian suits. There was little hope for change.???
Yet beginning in October of this year, the government has introduced a series of dizzying changes: The new government led by a former general, Thein Sein, has eased censorship, released political prisoners, introduced a limited right to strike and protest, and started a dialogue with the pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi that has convinced her not only of their good intensions, but also to run for what she had dismissed as a rubber-stamp parliament.?
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is flying in here Wednesday to judge the "Burma Spring" for herself ? she is the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit the country in more than 50 years.
Political party back in action The recent developments are cause for excitement at Nine Nine?s office. He runs an assistance program for political prisoners and is also in charge of the Yangon division of the National League for Democracy (NLD), the party of pro-democracy leader Suu Kyi, which has just decided to contest elections again.
Suu Kyi, who spent 15 years under house arrest, is now planning to stand in an election before the end of the year.
I met Nine Nine at the bustling office of the NLD, which is close to Yangon's famous Shwedagon Pagoda. He told me that by his calculations around 290 political prisoners have so far been released, but close to 500 remain in jail.
Ian Williams / NBC News
Cleanin up at the Shwedagon pagoda ahead of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to Myanmar.
There's a real buzz at the NLD office, but they are quick to remind you that they won the last freely contested election, in 1990, by a landslide, only to have the result annulled by the generals. That heralded the beginning of Nine Nine's first stint in prison.
Yet something is stirring in Myanmar, the country formerly known as Burma.
?Hillary repairs? Myanmar authorities have thrown the door open to international journalists to cover Clinton?s trip. It's the first time that I have been issued an official visa in 10 years, and while they didn't quite roll out the red carpet, our welcome has been warm.
My guide pointed to the hasty road repairs on the drive in from the airport. "Hillary repairs," he called them. And later, on a visit to the Shwedagon Pagoda, I came across a group of giggling young women scrubbing the floor. "Hillary Clinton is coming," they said.
Along one of the city's many dilapidated streets, I came across a stall heaving with photographs of Suu Kyi and her father, the independence hero Aung San. That would have been a dangerous act of defiance and almost unheard of just a few weeks ago, but no longer. It was clearly still a novelty, though, and I watched as passersby stopped and pointed out the signs to friends.?
An elderly monk stopped me in the street and handed me an old currency note, no longer in circulation, but sporting a picture of Aung San. "For you. A real hero," he told me, before moving off into the crowd. A monk-led uprising four years ago was crushed by the generals.
Local newspapers, which have been carrying prominent stories about Suu Kyi ? again unheard of until very recently ? were carrying upbeat features Tuesday about the desire for closer relations with the U.S. (and by implication, a little loosening of their dependence on China, which goes down well in Washington these days).??
Real change? There certainly does seem to be hope here, but many remain wary. Can one of the world's most thuggish regimes really change its stripes so quickly?
Clinton will meet with President Thein Sein on Thursday and will likely push for faster democratic change. She'll meet Suu Kyi on Friday to gauge more fully how Myanmar's pro-democracy leader judges the reforms, and whether an easing of international sanctions might be merited.
Among the former political prisoners released so far is Zarganar, Myanmar's most famous comedian, who got into hot water for poking fun at the generals. He was jailed for criticizing their response to Cyclone Nargis, a 2008 disaster that left 135,000 people dead or missing.?
On his release from prison he reportedly cracked another joke at the expense of the president. This time he got away with it, and is expected to be among those briefing Clinton on Friday about the intensions of the former generals, not known for humor or compassion, but who just might have decided that change and dialogue is the only way forward for impoverished Myanmar.
NEW DELHI (Reuters) ? Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's move to open India's protected retail sector to global supermarket giants last week surprised critics who had written him off as a policy ditherer, but he was probably motivated by expedience rather than any reformist zeal.
India's stellar economic growth is slowing, the rupee has skidded to record lows and inflation is stuck close to a double-digit clip. Faced with this predicament, Singh may have simply weighed the benefits of opening a $450 billion market to foreign investment against the political risk, and taken his chance.
Just as he did back in 1991, when the central bank was forced to airlift 47 tonnes of gold to Europe as collateral for a loan to avert a sovereign default, Singh has opted for liberalization to deal with urgent economic problems.
"In India, we've always achieved economic reform at gunpoint," said political commentator Swapan Dasgupta.
Many seized on Singh's retail sector decision, taken in the face of dissent within his own cabinet, as a sign that the reform process he had helped father was finally back on track. The frontpage headline of the Economic Times on Friday crowed: "Hello Walmart, Goodbye Inertia".
Unpopular, saddled with petulant coalition allies, up against a combative opposition and facing elections in five states next year, Singh's Congress party is likely to shy away from far-reaching economic reforms that could cost it votes.
Nevertheless, the move to allow multinationals into the retail market could be the first of several liberalization initiatives aimed at silencing complaints from business leaders and even its own supporters that this is a government adrift.
"They are not reformers," said Surjit Bhalla, chairman of Oxus Investments. "But, given its huge unpopularity, Congress is now looking to do what it can. There's more than an even chance that reforms will continue."
Next up may be a decision to open India's airline sector, which is struggling with cost pressures and a fierce price war, to foreign investors.
RISK AND REWARD
Singh, who will be 80 next year, earned his reformist stripes as finance minister back in 1991 when he prised open India's state-stifled economy, opening the way for a long run of dazzling growth.
However, as prime minister since 2004, he has presided over less spectacular reforms such as opening the country's nuclear power market and freeing petrol and fertilizer pricing. And his government, beleaguered by corruption scandals, has slipped into a policy paralysis since it won a second term two years ago, taking the gloss off the "India Shining" story.
Asia's third-largest economy is nowhere near the crisis it was facing 20 years ago. However, growth has sagged since it topped 9 percent for three years in a row before the global financial crisis, and a monetary tightening cycle to stamp out inflation that began in March 2010 is exacerbating the slowdown.
The move to allow multinationals into India's vast retail market will eventually help unclog some of the supply bottlenecks that stoke inflation.
It will also generate sorely needed foreign capital, not least for infrastructure investment, which the government's latest five-year plan targets at an ambitious $1 trillion.
The government has taken other steps recently to attract funds from abroad. It has raised the limit on foreign investment in government and corporate bonds, and the cabinet has approved a law that - once it has parliamentary approval - will allow limited foreign direct investment in pensions firms.
While none of this will address the country's economic ills in the short term, it may bring an immediate political gain.
Welcoming in the world's big supermarket brands was risky. It will fuel fury with Congress among the millions of neighborhood store owners, who could make the party pay in next year's state elections.
But the promise of world-class shopping will be welcomed by India's growing ranks of urban middle classes, and Singh's uncharacteristic boldness could shore up public faith in his government as it gears up for a general election in 2014.
If there is a new phase of reforms underway, it is likely to be tentative rather than sweeping.
Some reforms, such as removing subsidies on diesel, are politically untouchable because of the backlash the party would face from the poor. Even the decision to open up the retail sector was hedged with provisos that will protect shopkeepers in small towns and rural areas.
The government's plans to pass a food security bill, which would widen subsidies for the poor, are an example of how there has been little change in the populist stance of the Congress party. Critics say the bill will only add to the fiscal deficit.
Nevertheless, with its back to the wall, the government appears to have snapped out of its inertia.
"Reforms have been thrust upon it," said Bhalla. "As long as the pressure is on this government it will continue to act."
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Public release date: 2-Dec-2011
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