Nigeria Business News

Tuesday, 28 February 2012

Metal scare over hip replacement joints

Metal scare over hip replacement joints:

Tens of thousands of people with all-metal hip replacements to be called in for annual blood checks

Nearly 50,000 people with all-metal hip replacements are to be called in for annual blood checks because of fears that metal particles shearing off the joint could cause them harm.

The Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Authority (MHRA) issued new guidance hours before the British Medical Journal (BMJ) was due to publish an investigation into the implants, linked to a Newsnight programme in the evening.

The BMJ and Newsnight allege that hundreds of thousands of people around the world have been exposed to dangerously high levels of toxic metals in their bodies as a result of the introduction of metal-on-metal implants. One type, the DePuy ASR, was banned by the MHRA after it became clear that it caused problems and needed replacing much sooner than others.

But critics argue that the regulators have been slow to act against other metal-on-metal implants which shed metal particles into surrounding tissue. There have been a small number of cases where, it is claimed, toxic chromium and cobalt ions have leaked into the lymph nodes, liver and kidneys before leaving the body as urine.

Concerns about some of the metal-on-metal hip implants were first voiced in 2008 by surgeons who saw patients with swellings in the hip area, said the MHRA. From 2010 it advised that all patients with metal-on-metal implants should have annual tests to establish the level of metal ions in their blood.

On Tuesday the MHRA said that some types of metal-on-metal hip replacements – those with a metal ball and socket under 36mm diameter – did not appear to cause problems. Patients with those implants, about a third of the 65,000 total since 2003, did not need blood checks unless they had symptoms.

However those with implants with larger metal balls – over 36mm diameter – should have blood tests every year for the life of the implant, not just every five years as previously recommended, and an MRI scan if their ion levels are seen to be rising, which could indicate a need to replace the joint.

Patients who did not know whether they had a metal-on-metal joint should see their GP, said the MHRA.

Sarah Boseley

Met failed to tell MP of extent of phone hacking commissioning, inquiry hears

Met failed to tell MP of extent of phone hacking commissioning, inquiry hears:

Simon Hughes says police had evidence seeming to indicate 'at least three' NoW staff asked Mulcaire to access his voicemail

Scotland Yard failed to tell a senior Liberal Democrat MP for five years that police had evidence in their possession that appeared to indicate that "at least three" News of the World journalists were involved in commissioning the hacking of his phones by a private investigator.

Notes seized by the Metropolitan police from the home of Glenn Mulcaire in 2006 contained detailed information about Simon Hughes's telephone numbers and the names of three journalists in the margins of the notes, referring to reporters who are thought to have commissioned the investigator's hacking work.

However, giving evidence to the Leveson inquiry, Hughes said he was never shown any of Mulcaire's notes about him when he was told by police his phone messages had been intercepted in October 2006. He was only shown the notes by police at a meeting on May 25 2011, and was "shocked" at the level of personal detail they contained.

Back in 2006, the police were preparing a case against the News of the World's royal editor Clive Goodman and Mulcaire, both of whom were sentenced to jail for phone hacking-related offences in January 2007.

"I find it impossible to find a good explanation for why that happened," said Hughes who said there had been "significant failure" on the part of the police. When Hughes asked detectives in 2006 whether other journalists were involved in phone hacking, he was told that the investigation was not proceeding against anybody else.

The MP added in his written statement: "I suspect that the police had shut down this investigation, much to the delight of News Group (publishers of the News of the World), and ignored evidence of long-standing and widespread criminality. I do not know of any good or persuasive reason why this should be, and it makes me extremely suspicious."

Hughes was one of a group of five non-royal phone-hacking victims to be selected to support the police case in the Mulcaire and Goodman trial but said it wasn't until he was approached by police last year that he discovered the extent of evidence against the News of the World. Others included PR man Max Clifford and Gordon Taylor, chief of the Professional Footballers' Association.

"There was no prosecution against anybody other than Clive Goodman, and Clive Goodman only because of his work with the royal family, whereas there was a whole range of people clearly acting in concert, either directly or indirectly, illegally, and they were not touched," he said.

Hughes told Leveson he was "surprised and disappointed" that only two people were taken to court not just because there were three people allegedly involved in ordering phone hacking apart from Clive Goodman, but that there was also evidence from Mulcaire's notes that there were hundreds of victims outside the handful the police were using in the trial in 2006.

"Clearly employees were engaged, and therefore the whole panoply of other people, who it now appears had their voicemails hacked on the instructions of people in News of the World, were not in any way used as evidence against the employees," he added.

Hughes also told Leveson that Goodman and Mulcaire were tried on the basis that the private investigator had received £12,300 for his services. But it now appears the police had evidence that Mulcaire could have received up to £1m. This figure emerged at the Leveson inquiry on Monday and is far higher than previous information on Mulcaire's earnings from his alleged phone hacking and blagging activities.

It emerged last week from evidence disclosed after an application from the Guardian that Mulcaire earned about £100,000 a year between 2001 and 2006.

Today Hughes disclosed a new table of alleged payments to Mulcaire which show he may have earned anything from £775,786 to £849,470 from News International between 1999 and 2007 – far more than was disclosed to the court at the time of Mulcaire's trial.

"The court sentenced Goodman and Mulcaire on the basis that £12,300 was the known transaction payment. It is clear from here and clear, as counsel knows, from other evidence, that there was at least £500,000 of certain payment by News of the World to Mulcaire," Hughes told Leveson.

The Lib Dem MP said Mulcaire's notebooks showed that the News of the World had tried to stand up stories about a man and a woman linked to him "based on a salacious assumption".

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Lisa O'Carroll

Russian elections 2012: the view from Segezha - video

Russian elections 2012: the view from Segezha - video:

In the far reaches of north-west Russia, the town of Segezha prepares for the presidential elections

Miriam Elder

Alex Healey

Mustafa Khalili

China riots leave 12 people dead

China riots leave 12 people dead:

Violence breaks out in north-western region of Xinjiang, where Uighurs took part in anti-government riots last year

At least 12 people have been killed in riots near the Chinese city of Kashgar in the restive north-western region of Xinjiang, state media reported.

No details were given about what might have set off the violence, although Xinjiang sees periodic outbreaks of anti-government violence by members of the region's native Turkish Muslim Uighur ethnic group.

The Xinhua news agency said rioters armed with knives had attacked victims in Yecheng county outside the city starting at about 6pm. They killed 10 people and police shot dead two assailants, the report said.

The Xinhua report could not be independently confirmed. Chinese authorities maintain tight control over information and the circumstances surrounding such incidents are often murky.

Xinhua said police were chasing others involved in the attacks but did not say how many suspects there were.

The periodic attacks in the region occur despite a smothering security presence imposed following 2009 riots in the regional capital of Urumqi that pitted Uighurs against migrants from China's majority Han in which almost 200 people died.

Xinjiang saw more deadly violence last summer, when a group of Uighurs stormed a police station in the city of Hotan on 18 July and took hostages, killing four. Then, just days later on 30 and 31 July, Uighurs in Kashgar hijacked a truck, set a restaurant on fire and stabbed people in the street.

Authorities said 14 of the attackers were shot by police in Hotan, and five assailants were killed in the violence in Kashgar.

China says those events were organised terror attacks, but an overseas Uighur rights group says they were anti-government riots carried out by angry citizens. Uighur activists and security analysts blame the violence on economic marginalisation and restrictions on Uighur culture and the Muslim religion that are breeding frustration and anger among young Uighurs.

Chinese authorities have offered little evidence to back up their claims of outside involvement and rarely provide details on arrests or punishment of the suspects.

Doubts surround Sarkozy claim of Edith Bouvier rescue

Doubts surround Sarkozy claim of Edith Bouvier rescue:

French ministry unable to back president's suggestion that injured reporter has been evacuated from Syria

The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, appeared to confirm on Tuesday that the injured French journalist Edith Bouvier had been evacuated from Syria to Lebanon, following news that Paul Conroy, the British Sunday Times photographer, had been rescued.

But a spokesman for the French foreign ministry said it had no confirmation of the evacuation.

Sarkozy had told BFM TV in Montpellier, where he was campaigning ahead of the French elections: "I am glad this nightmare is ending. The negotiations [for her release] were not terribly easy, they really weren't." It was unclear whether he had independent confirmation of her rescue.

"I've been informed that it's been carried out," he said, when asked about the rescue.

Conroy, who was wounded in the besieged city of Homs, was earlier smuggled out of Syria to Lebanon in a dramatic rescue.

According to those familiar with his escape, a number of Syrian opposition activists died during the rescue effort after they came under artillery fire while leaving the city.

The evacuation party came under fire twice. Three activists were killed on the first occasion while more were reportedly killed when they came under fire again.

A spokesman for the paper said: "The Sunday Times can confirm that the photographer Paul Conroy is safe and in Lebanon. He is in good shape and good spirits."

According to the Times, the sister paper of the Sunday Times, Conroy's rescue took 26 hours from the moment he was carried out of his hiding place in Homs on a stretcher."I have heard that he is out," Conroy's wife, Kate, said. "All I can say is that we are delighted and overjoyed at the news, but I am not going to say any more than that at this point."

A Foreign Office spokesperson said: "We can now confirm that the injured British journalist Paul Conroy is safely in Lebanon, where he is receiving full consular assistance from our embassy."

Conroy's father, Les, said his wife had spoken to their son and described him as being in "very good spirits", though he had not personally spoken to him.

"We're all very relieved and happy that Paul's out," he said.

Despite the apparent rescue of Bouvier and the successful rescue of Conroy – whose colleague Marie Colvin was killed last week in Homs along with French photographer Remi Ochlik during an attack on the makeshift media centre in the suburb of Baba Amr – two other journalists remain trapped in the city. They are French photographer William Daniels and the Middle East correspondent of el Mundo, Javier Espinosa.

The dramatic nature of Conroy's evacuation underlines the high level of risk being faced by those who have been trying to run medical, food and other supplies into the besieged suburbs of Homs and evacuate the injured, including foreign journalists.

The regime of President Bashar al-Assad, which has recently moved the elite 4th Division commanded by his brother Maher into the battle for Homs, has been using a foreign-supplied drone to target its artillery and mortar fire into the city.

Conroy had twice refused to leave Baba Amr without the body of Colvin, who was killed during a rocket attack last Wednesday. The group of reporters remained holed up in Baba Amr after the attack and protracted negotiations to evacuate them failed.

The global advocacy network Avaaz said it had been working with 35 Syrian activists in Homs who volunteered to help free the reporters.

"Paul Conroy's rescue today is a huge relief but this must be tempered with the news that three remain unaccounted for, and with our respects for the incredibly courageous activists who died during the evacuation attempts," said Ricken Patel, executive director of Avaaz.

"The rescue is ongoing and we are deeply disappointed that sections of the media broke this story before all the journalists are safe."

According to activists, Bouvier and Daniels had refused to leave Baba Amr without an embassy escort to guarantee their safe passage.

In recent days the attacks on Homs have intensified, targeting up to six neighbourhoods of the city.

News of Conroy's rescue came as the UN's human rights chief called for an immediate ceasefire in Syria, saying the situation had deteriorated rapidly in recent weeks as authorities reinforced their onslaught against the opposition.

Navi Pillay, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, said the international community must take action to prevent Syrian security forces from continuing their attacks against civilians, which had resulted in "countless atrocities".

"There must be an immediate humanitarian ceasefire to end the fighting and bombardments," Pillay told an urgent meeting of the UN human rights council.

She urged Syria to end all fighting, allow international monitors to enter the country and give unhindered access for aid agencies to Homs and other embattled cities.

The appeal prompted a bitter riposte from Syria's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, who accused the 47-nation council of promoting terrorism in his country.

Before walking out of the room, Fayssal al-Hamwi said Tuesday's meeting would only prolong the crisis in his country, where the UN estimates at least 5,400 people have been killed since March. Anti-government activists say the real figure is much higher.

Pillay cited the report of a UN expert panel last week, which concluded that Syrian government officials were responsible for crimes against humanity committed by security forces against opposition members. The crimes included shelling civilians, executing deserters and torturing detainees. Some opposition groups had also committed gross abuses, it said.

The panel has compiled a confidential list of top-level Syrian officials who could face prosecution over the atrocities.

Pillay reiterated her call for Syria to be referred to the international criminal court "in the face of the unspeakable violations that take place every moment".

"More than at any other time, those committing atrocities in Syria have to understand that the international community will not stand by and watch this carnage and that their decisions and the actions they take today ultimately will not go unpunished," she said.

Members of the council are expected to pass a resolution on Tuesday condemning "widespread and systematic violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms by the Syrian authorities".

A draft resolution supported by many Arab and western nations says the regime's use of heavy artillery and tanks to attack civilian areas has contributed to the deaths of thousands of people since March.

Martin Chulov

Peter Beaumont

Milan fashion week learns the art of darkness

Milan fashion week learns the art of darkness:

Blink and you'll miss the spring pastels. Designers are moving on to a darker narrative for autumn/winter 2012. It's getting hard to keep up

In fashion, as in comedy and poaching eggs, timing is everything. And right now, fashion's timing is off. Over the past week, two things happened in fashion. All over the world, in fast-fashion megastores and ritzy boutiques, the new collections for spring went on sale. The last marked-down racks were cleared, and the assistants got ready to sell the new pastel shades, princessy silhouettes, pretty 1950s skirts and duster coats. At the very same time, the Milan catwalks were showcasing the clothes that designers are selling for autumn, and that are pretty much the polar opposite of what is going on sale now. Instead of pastel colours, Milan's autumn is shaded in black and purple. The princess-muse is banished in favour of a soldier. The comforting nostalgia of the 1950s is ditched for futurism and science-fiction influences.

Fashion is in danger of cannibalising itself, throwing out trends before we have had a chance to buy them. The system is a victim of its own success, or, at least, of its new visibility: the fashion shows for autumn have always coincided with the arrival in store of clothes for spring, but until recently if you weren't actually at the shows you didn't see the clothes until they started turning up on magazine covers months later. This week, Gucci, Versace and Dolce & Gabbana all live-streamed their catwalk shows. Retailers always say that what sells fashion is newness, but when consumers are being offered two contradictory versions of newness, the effect is more likely to be a zero-sum game.

Fashion is most beguiling when it offers up some kind of narrative. Plot twists are essential for holding interest, but when the story stops making sense, viewers are likely to switch off. And what's more, aren't consumers supposed to have a say in whether we like a certain trend or not, rather than the rug being pulled from under our feet before we have even stepped on it? Whatever happened to "the customer is always right"?

The Prada boutique was this week besieged with customers trying to bag summer's cute car-printed silks; but the Prada catwalk, laid with the kind of sickly purple carpet you find in pool halls, was peopled by models in dark, sombre tailoring. Dolce & Gabbana, which last season paid homage to cheery, lighthearted motifs of Sicilian life – sundresses were printed with tomatoes, earrings strung with farfalle pasta – focused on the religious undercurrents to that culture. Donatella Versace, having made a summer collection about mermaids, covered her autumn catwalk in religious crosses.

Makeup is always significant at catwalk shows. Notice the ultra-dark lips at Bottega Veneta and Gucci? There is something definitively unkissable about a dark, densely painted mouth. Red and pink lipstick is a pro-kissing signal, nude lipstick is an innocent, up-to-you-to-make-a-move neutral, and very dark lipstick is anti-kissing, a bit like that anti-climb paint they put on railings to deter hooligans. The blacked-out eyes at Prada and Versace had the same effect, closer to stripes of warpaint than a seductive smokey eye.

Where summer's Milan collections were all about likability – car prints, pasta earrings, ice-cream-parlour shades – the new look verges on hostility, or at least a sense of a woman keeping the world at bay. Bottega Veneta, the heritage-steeped stealth-luxe house that is Milan's answer to Hermes, not only did the look better than anyone – think dense, cross-hatched patterns on thick Japanese velvets, and black mixed with shades of burnt orange, mauve and teal – but did the best job of illuminating the thought-process. "The look is covered up and the materials are virtually impenetrable, yet the effect is physically powerful," designer Tomas Maier said. Presaging Angelina Jolie's scene-stealing turn at the Oscars, designers put dark velvet front and centre of the new collections. Gucci's draped velvet gowns in tourmaline blue and emerald referenced the theatrical swagger of the stage before curtain-up; Giorgio Armani's famous trouser suits came in black velvet, teamed with a hat at a dramatic tilt.

Miuccia Prada said, after a show featuring no dresses and abundant jackets, that retail intelligence suggests women are buying dresses, not jackets. Her catwalk may have been at odds with commercial sense, but it was in keeping with the sombre, armoured view of dressing that prevailed. "Day is more interesting than evening," she said after the show. "I'm not interested in power. I don't want to talk about power dressing. Women need to make themselves relevant, that is all."

There was power dressing this week, but not the shoulder-padded kind. There was religious iconography at Dolce & Gabbana and at Versace, where Donatella "faced her demons", as she put it, revisiting the Byzantine crosses that her brother Gianni used in his last collection. Moschino did shiny toy-soldier chic, while MaxMara did a classy take on the military theme, with felted cashmere greatcoats that had all the more quiet authority for being spared the gold-buttoned-bling for which Milan has such a soft spot.

The strongest show of the week was Jil Sander, by the departing designer Raf Simons. This was a Technicolor-minimalism display of virtuosity, and of silhouettes so perfectly conceived and cut that the impression was of clothes without a seam. It was set off-kilter, though, by the clumsy timing of announcements that led up to it: first, that Simons was about to leave, and then with indecorous speed, that Sander herself would be returning. It was a shame, but typical of the week. Nice clothes; shame about the timing.

Jess Cartner-Morley

Romney attacks 'desperate' Santorum as Michigan voters head to the polls

Romney attacks 'desperate' Santorum as Michigan voters head to the polls:

Mitt Romney describes Santorum's robo-calls as 'dirty tricks' and says he anticipates being the GOP nominee after long race

Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney described his main rival Rick Santorum as "desperate" for resorting to what he called dirty tricks in the Michigan primary, on the day voters flooded to the polls.

Romney, in his first press conference for three weeks, was unusually coy about predicting the result and instead opted to say he would win the race in the long run. "In the final analysis, I anticipate being the nominee," Romney said.

He predicted a protracted struggle. "This is not going to be over in a day or two," he said.

Polls suggest the outcome is to too close to call in a state that is crucial to the prospects of both men.

The Republican race would be thrown into chaos if Santorum, the dark horse at the start of the caucus and primary season, was to win.

It is a must-win state for Romney in the same way that he needed to win the Florida primary in January to block off a challenge from Newt Gingrich, who has since faded from the race.

Romney needs the victory in Michigan to stall Santorum but also to avoid the indignity of losing in the state where he was born and raised.

Romney had the initial advantage of having a good campaign organisation that has managed to get a lot of his support out in early voting. But Santorum is enjoying a late surge and attracting large crowds to his rallies.

Santorum, in an effort to bridge the gap with Romney, has resorted to robo-calls, pleading with Democrats to come out to vote against Romney because he had opposed Barack Obama's 2008 bailout of the car industry upon which Michigan depends.

Romney, at the press conference at his campaign headquarters in Livonia on Tuesday morning, denounced Santorum for his appeal to Democrats and said he had failed to mention that he too had opposed the bailout. Romney described it as the act of "a desperate candidate".

He added: "Republicans have to recognise there's a real effort to kidnap our primary process."

If Romney was to lose Michigan, the robo-calls offer him an opportunity to claim he won among Republicans but lost because of mischief by Democrats, encouraged by Santorum.

Romney rarely gives press conferences and this was the first for three weeks, finally giving in to appeals from a frustrated media pack.

It makes sense to give it on polling day, when it is just about too late for any gaffes to have an impact on the outcome of the primary.

Asked about the damage the in-fighting is doing to Republican chances in the November general election, a major concern in Republican ranks, Romney played it down, predicting it would be forgotten by then and people would be focused on other issues, such as the economy and maybe foreign policy.

On his inability to excite the Republican base, Romney made it clear he did not intend pandering to the party right any more than he has already. "It is very easy to excite the base with incendiary comments," he said, a remark that might not play well with right-wingers, suggesting they are easily led.

He went on to deliver the most memorable line from the press conference, aimed at Santorum and Gingrich. "We've seen throughout the campaign if you're willing to say really outrageous things that are accusative, attacking of president Obama, that you're going to jump up in the polls," he said.

"I'm not willing to light my hair on fire to try and get support. I am who I am."

He said there had been mistakes in his campaign, but blamed himself rather than his organisation. Asked what these mistakes had been, he declined to say, though he admitted that his comment on Friday about his wife owning two Cadillacs had been one.

The candidates are looking beyond Michigan to the 10 Super Tuesday states next week. Santorum is to visit Tennessee on Wednesday where he is ahead in a state that Gingrich covets. He is also ahead in Ohio, the big prize of Super Tuesday.

Gingrich is ahead in his home state Georgia.

Loss of these three states would be another setback for Romney, not compensated by his expected victories in Massachusetts, Vermont and Virginia, with neither Santorum or Gingrich on the ballot. He needs to be seen to be beating Santorum in head-to-head contests and that means Ohio.

The following week is not promising for Romney either, with contests in Mississippi and Alabama.

Ron Paul, the fourth candidate in the race, is competing in Virginia but polls show him trailing two-to-one to Romney.

Ewen MacAskill

WSJ Pulls Back On What Google Searchers Can Read For Free

WSJ Pulls Back On What Google Searchers Can Read For Free: Are you used to using Google as a way around the Wall Street Journal’s paywall? Think again. The WSJ has been holding back stories available through Google’s “First Click Free” program, a move that I suspect other newspapers might soon emulate. Over the past few weeks,...

Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

SearchCap: The Day In Search, February 27, 2012

SearchCap: The Day In Search, February 27, 2012: Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Confirms Panda 3.3 Update, Plus Changes To How It Evaluates Links, Local Search Rankings & Much More Google has confirmed a new Panda update at the...

Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

Google Confirms Panda 3.3 Update, Plus Changes To How It Evaluates Links, Local Search Rankings & Much More

Google Confirms Panda 3.3 Update, Plus Changes To How It Evaluates Links, Local Search Rankings & Much More: Google has confirmed a new Panda update at the same time that it’s announcing 40 search updates that happened in February (or are in progress right now). It would be all but impossible to fully sum up the full slate of changes here, but there are a few that seem especially noteworthy and will...

Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

Google, Yahoo Both Fail At Moneyballing Oscar Predictions

Google, Yahoo Both Fail At Moneyballing Oscar Predictions: Both Google and Yahoo used search data to create their own Oscar ballots. Turns out, their predictions were terribly wrong. At best, Google may have correctly predicted Meryl Streep winning, depending on how you read things. But overall, neither of them really got the winners right. Google’s...

Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.