Christmas is a time of indulgence, but it can take its toll on teeth Sunday 9 January 2011
Sweet and sour
Christmas is a time of indulgence, but it can take its toll on teeth Christmas is a great time to enjoy sweet treats: cake, pudding and mince pies are all part of the festive fayre. But they can also take their toll on your teeth. In this week's "Scrubbing Up", dentistry expert Professor Jimmy Steele, says that patients who consume sugary diets and do not look after their teeth, should not get expensive dental treatments on the NHS.
One of the things that marks dentistry out as "different" in the NHS is the patient charge; the state puts in over £2bn a year in England to support NHS dentistry - but most adults have to pay some charges.
Dentistry is highly skilled, complex, individualised and is never cheap in any system, so patients, one way or the other, are used to paying a direct cost.
But do the presence of charges, whether NHS or private, distort the way we think about the service we receive, and does the way that dentists are paid affect how services are provided?
With Christmas shopping done and January sales approaching, we are all pretty familiar with the concept of getting something tangible for what we spend.
But when it comes to health, and particularly to oral health, there are a few problems with this basic relationship between money, value and goods.
Professor Jimmy Steele Newcastle University“ should the dental team be paid to stop disease before it starts even if that means less treatment?”
For a start, it does not make any real sense to want "more" fillings for less money; given the choice I think most of us would choose to have no fillings at all, if possible.
Teeth start healthy, it is neglect, poor hygiene, and the consequent disease and treatment that cost.
So, are we all prepared to pay to avoid treatment then? And should the dental team be paid to stop disease before it starts even if that means less treatment?
Last week the coalition government announced pilots for a new dental contract where the dentist will be paid for the number of patients they look after and the health outcomes they achieve rather than for the fillings, crowns or root treatments they provide.
A system like this should give clear incentives to the dental team to help the patient minimise the risk of disease up front, rather than wait for it to appear and then treat it.
Patients will still pay, so you may get less treatments, but better health for your money. This is surely right for a health service.
Professor Jimmy Steele Newcastle University“If taxpayers are contributing to the NHS to provide costly and difficult treatment, asking the patient to provide a healthy mouth first seems a reasonable deal, doesn't it?”
So in this preventive world, what if you and your dentist agree that something more complicated and more costly to deliver is required, as it will be for many millions of people at some stage?
This might be a root treatment to save a valued molar from extraction, or a bridge to fill a visible space.
Some people might advocate the removal of such time consuming and costly treatments from the NHS completely - and there is certainly a case for being clearer about NHS entitlements.
But many such treatments play an important role in good health and well being.
If we are serious about health outcomes, in these situations a healthy mouth should come before costly and complex treatment.
Your root treatment or expensive bridge is more likely to fail if disease risk is not managed first.
It simply does not make sense for the state to support costly treatments without the patient taking appropriate steps to look after their own oral health, to ensure clean teeth and a degree of dietary control.
On the face of it, this sounds like another discussion about rationing on health.
Perhaps it is, but it is not quite the same as restricting liver transplants to those on the wagon or by-passes to nicotine quitters.
Alcohol and tobacco are chemically addictive whilst other lifestyle changes are no easier to manage.
By contrast, cleaning your teeth usually requires little more than a few short and sensible conversations with a professional, a toothbrush and some toothpaste.
If taxpayers are contributing to the NHS to provide costly and difficult treatment, asking the patient to provide a healthy mouth first seems a reasonable deal, doesn't it?
This article is from the BBC News website. � British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/health-12042614
Google phone bug misdirects texts
A small number of phones using Google's Android system have been affected. Google says it will fix a mobile phone bug that mistakenly sends text messages to the wrong people.
The glitch, which has hit a small portion of the company's Android mobile phones, first emerged last year.
Those affected say some of their texts have ended up in the hands of random recipients.
After investigating the issue, Google said it had "developed a fix" and would be rolling it out soon.
It is nearly a year since the problem was first reported, although the number of incidents appeared to increase last summer.
Initial examinations confused the problem with another, similar bug - but the company admitted yesterday that some users have seen their messages delivered to the incorrect recipient.
"It took us some time to reproduce this issue, as it appears that it's only occurring very rarely," said Nik Kralevich, an engineer on the Android security team.
"Even so, we've now managed to both reproduce it and develop a fix that we will deploy."
It is not clear, however, when users will actually receive the fix - or how it would happen.
Some mobile bugs require a complete software update - which would require plugging affected handsets into a computer - while others can be fixed remotely.
Although the company was keen to stress that only a tiny fraction of users have reported problems, some users say it has proven embarrassing and potentially costly.
"Today I sent a text asking about a contract from a potential employer - and it went to my current boss," wrote one user on Google's bug forum.
"If this hurts my career, I will be looking into legal action."
Tracking down the bug has become increasingly important for Google since Android - its system to power smartphones - has grown massively in popularity over the past year.
It has rocketed from having a share of just 3% of the worldwide smart phone market in 2009 to more than 25% today.
Most users affected suggested it is an inconvenient, rather than crippling, problem - but those who have experienced the glitch say that it has been troubling.
"I don't know where the SMS messages are going," Christina Bunce, a university programme leader from Falmouth, told the BBC.
"But I can see they have been sent and never arrived."
This article is from the BBC News website. � British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/technology-12138790
Social Network wins Critics award
The Social Network moves a step closer to Oscar success after bagging four awards from the National Society of Film Critics in the US. 
This article is from the BBC News website. � British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/entertainment-arts-12145381
Fresh deadly unrest hits Tunisia
There has been sporadic unrest over economic hardship since last month in Tunisia At least one person has been killed in fresh unrest over unemployment in Tunisia, eyewitnesses say.
One hospital source told Reuters news agency that one person had been shot dead during a demonstration in the western town of Thala.
AFP news agency, quoting witnesses as saying police had fired on protesters, put the death toll at four.
There has been no comment from Tunisian officials. The protests erupted last month over a lack of freedom and jobs.
A hospital source Thala, about located about 200 km (125 miles) southwest of the capital Tunis, that several people had been admitted to the hospital after the latest clashes. "At least one was killed," he said.
On Friday, the US expressed concern over the government's handling of the demonstrations.
State department spokesman PJ Crowley said the Tunisian government was asked to respect people's right to assemble peacefully.
The demonstrations began after a man set fire to himself on 17 December in the central Sidi Bouzid region to protest against the police confiscating fruit and vegetables that he was selling without a permit.
He died on Tuesday, while another man is reported to have electrocuted himself as part of the protests.
Demonstrations are rare in Tunisia, where there are tight controls aimed at preventing dissent. The unrest has been linked to frustrations with the president and the ruling elite.
There have been similar protests in over jobs and food in neighbouring Algeria.
Two people have been killed and hundreds wounded during riots in several Algerian regions in recent days.
This article is from the BBC News website. � British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-africa-12144906
Numbers Brummet Jannie Deschamp Geraldo Vannaman Sunny Durniok
Saturday 8 January 2011
South Sudan in independence vote
Salva Kiir said he hoped a "Yes" vote would contribute to peace People in southern Sudan are due to start voting in a landmark referendum on independence.
The week-long vote is widely expected to result in Africa's largest country being split in two.
Ahead of the referendum, the region's leader Salva Kiir said there was no alternative to peaceful co-existence between the north and the south.
The poll was part of the terms of the 2005 peace agreement which ended the war between the two.
Speaking in the grounds of the presidential palace in Juba, Mr Kiir said the referendum was "not the end of the journey but rather the beginning of a new one".
"There is no substitute for peaceful coexistence," he added.
He was speaking alongside US Senator John Kerry, who has been in dialogue with both northern and southern leaders attempting to smooth the process ahead of the vote.
As the vote neared, six people died in an attack by rebels on southern Sudan's military in the oil-rich area of Unity state.
Harding on Africa
Read Andrew's thoughts in full“After so many years of conflict, there is no mistaking the sheer appetite for peace here in Juba -a hard factor to measure, but an all too easy one to overlook”
Col Philip Aguer, a military spokesman, told the Associated Press that his troops had retaliated and killed four of the rebels.
UN officials confirmed that they had received reports of an attack in the area, but did not say which side had suffered the fatalities.
On Friday, Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir warned the south would face instability if it voted to secede.
In an interview with the Arabic news channel al-Jazeera, he said he understood why many southerners wanted independence, but he expressed concern at how the new nation would cope.
"The south suffers from many problems," he said.
"It's been at war since 1959. The south does not have the ability to provide for its citizens or create a state or authority."
Sudan's Historic VoteVoting: 9-15 JanuaryTo pass, 60% of those registered need to vote plus majority of ballotsVote a condition of 2005 deal to end two-decade north-south conflictMost northerners are Arabic-speaking MuslimsMost southerners Christian or follow traditional religionsOil-rich Abyei area to hold separate vote on whether to join north or southReferendum could divide Africa's largest countryFinal result due 6 February or 14 February if there are appealsSouth would become continent's newest nation on 9 July 2011New national anthem chosen, but not name
Mr Bashir said southerners living in the north would not be allowed dual citizenship, and floated the idea of the two nations joining in an EU-style bloc.
He also raised the issue of Abyei, an oil-rich region with disputed borders.
He warned that if southerners seized the region for themselves, it could lead to war.
Analysts say Mr Bashir is under intense pressure from northern politicians, who fear that secession of the south may lead to a further splintering of the country.
North and south Sudan have suffered decades of infighting in conflicts driven by religious and ethnic divides.
Southern Sudan is one of the least developed areas in the world and many of its people have have long complained of mistreatment at the hands of the Khartoum government.
Turnout in the referendum will be important, as the 2005 peace agreement stipulates a quorum of 60% of the 3.8 million registered voters.
Sudan: A country divided
Geography Ethnic groups Infant mortality Water & sanitation Education Food insecurity Oil fields
Show regions
The great divide across Sudan is visible even from space, as this Nasa satellite image shows. The northern states are a blanket of desert, broken only by the fertile Nile corridor. Southern Sudan is covered by green swathes of grassland, swamps and tropical forest.
Sudan's arid northern regions are home mainly to Arabic-speaking Muslims. But in Southern Sudan there is no dominant culture. The Dinkas and the Nuers are the largest of more than 200 ethnic groups, each with its own traditional beliefs and languages.
The health inequalities in Sudan are illustrated by infant mortality rates. In Southern Sudan, one in 10 children die before their first birthday. Whereas in the more developed northern states, such as Gezira and White Nile, half of those children would be expected to survive.
The gulf in water resources between north and south is stark. In Khartoum, River Nile, and Gezira states, two-thirds of people have access to piped drinking water and pit latrines. In the south, boreholes and unprotected wells are the main drinking sources. More than 80% of southerners have no toilet facilities whatsoever.
Throughout Sudan, access to primary school education is strongly linked to household earnings. In the poorest parts of the south, less than 1% of children finish primary school. Whereas in the wealthier north, up to 50% of children complete primary level education.
Conflict and poverty are the main causes of food insecurity in Sudan. The residents of war-affected Darfur and Southern Sudan are still greatly dependent on food aid. Far more than in northern states, which tend to be wealthier, more urbanised and less reliant on agriculture.
Sudan exports billions of dollars of oil per year. Southern states produce more than 80% of it, but receive only 50% of the revenue, exacerbating tensions with the north. The oil-rich border region of Abyei is to hold a separate vote on whether to join the north or the south.
This article is from the BBC News website. � British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-africa-12144675
Roosevelt Simmelink Alycia Mcgraw Luciano Lisitano Mika Nemer
Headless bodies found in Acapulco
The decapitated bodies of 15 young men have been found in the Mexican beach resort of Acapulco.
Police said they were discovered near a shopping centre, and were all aged between 15 and 25.
Thousands of people have died in recent years as drug-related violence has gripped the country.
President Felipe Calderon has deployed thousands of troops to battle the drug cartels, and claims to be making progress in reducing their influence.
But critics of Mr Calderon's policies say they have increased the level of violence without reducing the flow of cocaine and other drugs into the US.
Human rights groups have also raised concerns that using the military has exposed civilians to possible abuse.
In this latest violent incident, police responding to a report of a fire at the Plaza Senderos shopping centre shortly after midnight found five abandoned vehicles and the decapitated bodies.
Two messages were left with the bodies.
This article is from the BBC News website. � British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-latin-america-12143227
Iran claims nuclear breakthrough
Tehran insists its nuclear programme is for peaceful civilian purposes Iran's nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi says his country is now capable of making the fuel plates and rods used inside nuclear reactors.
Western analysts have previously said the Islamic republic did not possess such technology.
The US and other Western nations suspect that Iran is attempting to build nuclear weapons.
Tehran strongly denies the accusation, saying its nuclear programme is for peaceful civilian purposes.
Mr Salehi told Fars news agency that Iran had completed construction of a facility in the city of Isfahan to produce the plates and rods.
"We have built an advanced manufacturing unit in the Isfahan site for the fuel plates," Mr Salehi, who is also acting foreign minister, told Fars news agency.
"A grand transformation has taken place in the production of plates and rods. With the completion of the unit in Isfahan, we are one of the few countries which can produce fuel rods and fuel plates."
Fuel rods are designed to contain enriched uranium and are housed inside the nuclear reactor.
Mr Salehi's comments come ahead of the next round of talks in Istanbul between Iran and six world powers - the US, UK, China, Russia, France and Germany - over Tehran's nuclear programme.
Mr Salehi said that Western policies had motivated Iran to reach its current level of nuclear technology, including the production of nuclear plates and rods.
"What we say is based on reality and truth. There is no exaggeration or deception in our work. It is them who do not want to believe that Iran has no intention but to obtain nuclear technology for peaceful purposes."
Iran is subject to United Nations Security Council sanctions over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment. Enriched uranium can be used for civilian nuclear purposes, but also to build atomic bombs.
This article is from the BBC News website. � British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-middle-east-12143171
No 'aflockalypse'
This blackbird was one of at least 3,000 found dead in the US state of Arkansas Some commentators have dubbed it "the aflockalypse" - instances of mass bird deaths that have perplexed observers over the past week. So why have birds quite literally been falling out the sky?
It all started when residents of Beebe, in the US state of Arkansas, woke to find thousands of dead blackbirds strewn across roads on 1 January. Then, in Louisiana, about 500 birds - including starlings, cowbirds and redwing blackbirds - rained down from the skies.
Only days later, news outlets once again became excited by the discovery of dozens of unfortunate jackdaws who had met their fate over Falkoeping, in Sweden.
Other bird and fish die-offs - as these mass deaths are called - were also reported as far away as Japan, Thailand, Brazil.
Conspiracy theorists have rushed to conclude that the apocalypse is nigh, while other people have mooted the idea of collisions with UFOs, or government testing of satellite-powered energy weapons.
But experts insist that what is going on is not that unusual and that the incidents are unconnected.
750,000 dead birds 
On 13-14 March 1904, an article in the Quarterly Journal of Ornithology reported at least 750,000 migrating Lapland Longspurs were found dead in Worthington, Minnesota. Some were said to have flown against buildings, electric lights and wires, and others to have dashed themselves on frozen ground and ice. The dead birds were sprawled over 1,500 square miles.
A Lapland Longspurs Tragedy (Thomas S Roberts)Such events are usually blamed on bad weather, disease and poisonings.
On Friday, Italian scientists were investigating the deaths of the 400 turtle doves, whose bodies appeared in the days after New Year. The initial focus of the investigation was on known diseases, epidemics and viruses.
In the case of the Arkansas blackbirds, it was initially thought that the deaths were caused by a weather phenomenon - such as a microburst, or strong downdraft of wind.
But the die-off, which took place on New Year's Eve, was most likely caused by fireworks, local experts say.
Scientists from the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said the red-winged blackbirds probably flew low to avoid the turn-of-the-year fireworks and collided with objects.
An investigation in continuing.
But Grahame Madge, conservation spokesman for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Birds (RSPB), describes the Arkansas case as "bizarre and mysterious", and says that it would be "almost unique" in the UK.
He suggests that the birds may have in fact been poisoned, arguing that it was a strange coincidence that the mass deaths involved the red-wing blackbird, which is considered an "agricultural pest".
"It is intriguing that the bird at the epicentre of this particular incident is also the most hated," he says.
He says they are commonly killed by pest control experts with a poison that affects the bird's water repellency. As a result, they get wet and cold and develop pneumonia.
"If they took flight and were experiencing extreme cold or suffering the effects of the poison, it is possible that that brought them down," he adds.
Arkansas officials said preliminary testing showed no sign of disease in the dead birds and that they died of "acute physical trauma".
But Mr Madge says this could have occurred when they came into contact with buildings or the ground.
Investigations are being undertaken to work out the cause of the deaths in Arkansas Martin Fowlie from Birdlife International says the firework explanation is a plausible one.
"If they were roosting at dark, one could imagine large-scale fireworks could put them up in the air and they become disorientated and they fly into something or into the ground," he says.
"But I also heard some reports that some birds were acting drunkenly - which would imply poisoning."
Mr Fowlie said because die-offs usually occurred in smaller numbers, many of them go unreported.
It could be that the size of Arkansas incident, combined with the fact that it took place at the turn of a new year and was followed shortly after by another die-off, prompted wider reporting of the subsequent incidents, as people tried to join up the dots.
Kristen Schuler, a scientist at the US Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center, told the Associated Press that the incidents of the past week were "not that unusual".
"There is nothing apocalyptic or anything that is necessarily out of the ordinary for what we would see in any given week," she says.
The USGS tracks mass deaths among birds, fish and other creatures. It says they range in number from the dozens to the thousands.
The UN Environment Program (UNEP), however, has called for more research into animal deaths in general.
"Science is struggling to explain these things. These are examples of the surprises that nature can still bring," said Nick Nuttall, a spokesperson for UNEP.
"More research is needed."
The RSPB's Grahame Madge says there has been some degree of hysteria after this week's bird incidents.
"I think there are people trying to join the dots. There is a great deal of speculation about whether it is a global phenomenon.
"What we are dealing with is separate incidents, which have different reasons. We are not undergoing a mass wipe-out of birds."
This article is from the BBC News website. � British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-us-canada-12135380
Johnie Schenk Sirena Camareno Roosevelt Simmelink Alycia Mcgraw
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