Merry Christmas

A Very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to All!

HIV vaccine to be tested on humans in Spain

The trial will start on thirty healthy individuals in the New Year.
Spanish scientists are to start testing a preventative vaccine against HIV. 30 healthy volunteers will be given the jab when the trial starts in January 2009, and they will see their blood tested over the following year.

It’s the first trial of a Phase One vaccine in the country and has been developed by Doctor Mariano Esteban and patented by the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, CSIC. They will be given a dose of MVA-B which uses the smallpox virus from which 31,000 pieces of nuclear DNA including four HIV proteins have been taken to guarantee safety.

The theory is that with the proteins lacking should the patient later become infected with HIV the infection will develop, but only a latent illness.

This Phase One comes after two years of laboratory tests and two more of tests in rats and primates. In these, none of the animals which were later infected with HIV developed the illness.

Currently there are more than 33 million people infected with HIV in the world, and since its appearance in 1981, AIDS has caused the death of more than 25 million.

Gambian immigrants to be released in Spain

The 101 immigrants were on the tarmac in Gambia for seven hours before the Spanish Ministry for the Interior ordered the plane to return to Spain.
Most of the 101 irregular immigrants from the Gambia which Spain was trying to repatriate on Friday were not allowed admission by the Gambia authorities. The group spent seven hours on the tarmac in Banjul without permission to disembark, after which time the Spanish Ministry for the Interior ordered the plane to return to Las Palmas.

Most of the immigrants will be released there, given that they have exceeded the maximum time they can legally be held in detention here. A statement from the Ministry for the Interior said that they will opening an investigation as to why the Gambian authorities refused to accept the returning immigrants. Good Luck To ALL!

22 immigrants thought to have drowned

A search is underway for some 22 immigrants who are thought to have drowned while trying to reach Spain. The search is concentrated between Málaga and Melilla, with the survivors reporting that they had been adrift in the area between Melilla and Almería for three days.

Some of those rescued by the coastguard ship ‘Isla de los Volcanes’ showed signs of hyperthermia, and one of the women travellers has lost her husband and her three children to the waves.

The 25 people, 20 men and five women, rescued from the boat arrived in Málaga Port last night, and told the authorities that there had been a total of 57 people on their boat.

Meanwhile in another separate incident a boat carrying 40 immigrants has been intercepted by the authorities close to Almería. It was first spotted when 20 miles to the SE of Punta Sabinal. There were two pregnant women and six babies among those on board.

• Five immigrants intercepted mile off Málaga - Sep 9, 2008 - 7:12 AM
• 306 immigrants reach Spanish shores - Sep 8, 2008 - 8:23 AM
• Legless immigrant left abandoned- Sep 5, 2008 - 8:07 AM
• 14 immigrants die Canary Islands - Sep 4, 2008 - 8:25 AM
• Three immigrants found in container - Sep 3, 2008 - 8:08 AM
• 45 immigrants come ashore Barbate - Sep 3, 2008 - 6:47 AM
• 62 immigrants arrive on Tenerife - Sep 2, 2008 - 8:46 AM

Photo Credit: Refugees International
03/06/2008

While Somalia has been without a working government for the past 18 years, the humanitarian situation has significantly deteriorated since December 2006 when Ethiopian troops defeated the Union of Islamic Courts who controlled parts of South Central Somalia. In the conflict that ensued, hundreds of thousands of Somalis fled their homes, including 700,000 from the capital Mogadiscio according to the UN Refugee Agency. The number of internally displaced is now estimated to be as high as 1 million, with hundreds of thousands more seeking refuge in neighboring countries.

On November 10th over 10,000 bloggers from around the world will unite to raise our voices on behalf of more than 40 million voiceless refugees.If you are a blogger or just someone with a interest. Please join us.If this planet is to survive we all have to work together.Bloggers Unite is an opportunity for bloggers to say it as it is.We can't rely on income ordinated governments or politicians. We have to put the word forward ourselves.We can make a difference.

"Human Rights Watch believes the right to asylum is a matter of life and death and cannot be compromised. In our work to stop human rights abuses in countries around the world, we seek to address the root causes that force people to flee. We also advocate for greater protection for refugees and IDPs and for an end to the abuses they suffer when they reach supposed safety. Human Rights Watch calls on the United Nations and on governments everywhere to uphold their obligations to protect refugees and to respect their rights - regardless of where they are from or where they seek refuge."

EU border moves south

For the fifth year running, figures concerning verified deaths of migrants attempting the crossing from Africa to Spain have increased substantially, to 1,167 (up from 369 in 2005), although the Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos de Andalucía (APDHA) estimates in its annual report that the real figure for 2006 may be closer to 7,000. The number of arrests also increased almost four-fold, bearing witness to the failure of EU policies to stem the flow of people seeking to migrate, from 11,781 to 47,102. The APDHA report views this as inevitable due to the proximity of southern Europe and Spain to northern Africa and the huge gap in wealth and opportunities between Europe and Africa. It highlights economic conditions, human rights violations and situations of conflict and repression that lead people to try their luck by attempting to emigrate from Africa to Europe. In spite of a growing expenditure on border control infrastructure and the deployment of personnel and equipment, and consecutive plans that set out to neutralise migration, the numbers arriving (and dying) are rising as EU border policy moves south down the west coast of Africa.

While more arrests had been carried out in 2005 year on the southern border including Ceuta and Melilla than in the Canary islands (7,066 compared with 4,715), in 2006 the number of arrests in the archipelago rose to 33,126 and that in the Strait of Gibraltar region fell marginally to 6,976, with around 7,000 arrested on the African continent, either in FRONTEX operations or by the law enforcement agencies or navies of Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal and Cape Verde. 10,635 migrants were repatriated up to 30 October, almost half of whom were deported to Morocco (4,909, of whom 3,891 through the land border in Melilla), with Senegalese nationals representing the second largest group with similar figures (4,863).

The cost of expulsions for the Spanish state from April 2004 to October 2006 amounted to over 45m Euros, with steadily rising allocations allocated in successive public administration budgets. The APDHA report details some side-effects of this policy of large-scale expulsions, including: a) the building of a detention centre financed by the EU in Nouadhibou (Mauritania) in April 2006 with a capacity for up to 250 people, in which overcrowding is frequent and unhygienic conditions prevail, according to Red Crescent staff; b) large-scale expulsions carried out without guaranteeing due process and guarantees, violating the fourth protocol of the European Convention of Human Rights that forbids the mass expulsion of migrants, and without guarantees that migrants will be expelled to their real country of origin or will not suffer torture or ill-treatment on arrival, including abandonment, as notoriously happened in Morocco; c) the conditions under which expulsions take place, that have drawn criticism from both police unions and migrants, and led Senegalese authorities to demand that expulsions be carried out while respecting human rights after the first group of 99 deportees arrived in Dakar, handcuffed for hours and without knowing where they were going.

The report outlines developments in immigration policy, by both the Spanish authorities and the EU through operations managed by FRONTEX, the EU agency for the management of operative cooperation at its external borders, and through diplomatic missions seeking to secure repatriation agreements and cooperation in fighting immigration from countries of origin or transit. The response to the "cayuco" (larger wooden boats than was previously the case in the Strait of Gibraltar, where dinghies were prevalent) crisis has been to press forward with the same plan, namely the deployment of human, technological and mobile resources (patrol boats and helicopters) and equipment, including the navy, to monitor the sea border, intense diplomatic activities at both a national (new readmission agreements with Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Gambia, Cape Verde, Guinea Conakry) and international level (with EU-African conferences in Rabat and Tripoli), an increased Spanish presence in the region through the creation of consulates, increased staffing of existing ones, the deployment of secret service staff and involvement in border control activities, an effort to ensure the EU becomes more active in countering these migration flows and an increase in "development" aid, subject to assistance in combating emigration from their countries.

The report details initiatives to tackle immigration from the western coast of Africa to the Canary islands, including the entry into operation of FRONTEX:

FRONTEX deployment - coordinated by the Guardia Civil in Las Palmas (Canary islands), from 10 August 2006 to 15 December 2006, the Hera I and Hera II operations to monitor the flows of emigrants off the coasts of Mauritania, Senegal and Cape Verde with the participation of Spain, Portugal, Italy and Finland, and the deployment of six Guardia Civil patrol boats, one boat from the customs service, Italy and Portugal, two helicopters and four mixed patrol with Senegalese crew members. The Frontex activities are also coordinated with the military operation Noble Sentinel, whereby the Spanish navy deployed three ships and aeroplanes to control the maritime airspace between the Canary islands and Africa, to dissuade the mafia organisations trafficking illegal immigrants and to obtain early information about the possible arrival of migrants.

Atlantis project - joint patrols between the Spanish Guardia Civil and customs service and Mauritanian gendarmerie, involving a patrol boat, a helicopter, a customs police boat and the donation of four patrol boats to Mauritania.

Sea Horse project & network - led by Spain with the participation of Portugal, Germany, Italy, Belgium and France, and with €2m EU funding through the AENEAS programme, to prevent illegal immigration to the Canary islands using sea routes, by "supporting" and "involving" Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal and Cape Verde. The Sea Horse network envisages the setting up of a secure information exchange network between Spain, Portugal and the four participating African countries.

The authors view this externalisation of EU migration policies, and the direct deployment of European police forces at the borders of African countries, as "insulting", noting that it contravenes article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, "every person has a right to leave their country or return to it", drawing a parallel between the condemnation by EU countries of practices forbidding illegal emigration in former Soviet Bloc countries during the Cold War with the imposition of such measures today, and questioning the legality of operations in international waters, arguing that international law allows rescue activities to be carried out, but not arrests.

With regards to the "Plan Africa" that the Spanish government is presenting as an attempt to tackle the underlying causes of migration, a report by Intermón Oxfam is cited that states:

"analysing Plan Africa one wonders whether it is a matter outlining a plan of Spain for Africa or a plan for Spain in Africa"

adding that

"The use of development aid as a currency exchange to get African governments to raise fences, toughen their immigration controls or accept the repatriation of emigrants is a perversion of cooperation for development and is unacceptable".

Derechos Humanos en la Frontera Sur 2006, Asociación pro Derechos Humanos de Andalucía, January 2007-2008. Available at http://www.apdha.org
It realy is incredible just how many people are dying and how very few know about it.I live in Tarifa,Spain which is on the front line being the shortest crossing.Boats are caught weekly loaded with imigrants but even here you here very little of the deaths.
The EU and the Spanish goverment spend millions trying to keep these people out.
Half of what they spend would be more than enough to help these people.Imigration is a natural phenomenon.If it wasn't for imigration we would all still be living in Africa.
Esteve

Web Vs Offline

One of the most critical aspects of running a business is marketing. It encompasses every customer related task from creating awareness to customer satisfaction and retention. One may go as far as to say that a business cannot survive or even start up without it. In the current scenario, marketing has become a complex and sophisticated function, especially now that an increasing number of businesses choose to start up online. Now, along with the traditional offline marketing tools, there are a number of web marketing tools and methods available. These web marketing methods must be mastered for any level of success in online business.

The differences that separate web marketing from offline marketing are as below:

• Snail mail vs. email – Email marketing is low cost, efficient, instant and effective means of generating customers. Snail mail is slow, generally more expensive and is losing some of its efficacy with the influx of TV and Internet.
• Limited radius of impact vs. unlimited – The target audience is global in the case of web marketing with the Internet shrinking the world. The radius of offline marketing is limited by physical, political and time barriers.
• Web customers are looking for a product or service similar to yours – The beauty of being an online business is that people log on to look for a service or product that you can offer. Whereas, offline businesses have to rely more on push marketing than the pull effect.
• Long, complex process of making a sale vs. instant conversion – A few clicks of a mouse and the product is sold, in the case of web marketing. Offline marketing process is time and manpower heavy, from generating leads to making a sale.
• Fixed office hours vs. 24 hour store – An online business can sell its products 24 hours a day while an offline business will open and shut at particular hours.
• Advertising in print, TV and radio is expensive – While you can easily offer content, audio and video clips on the Internet for a very low cost.
• Pay for time spots vs. unlimited time and space – Ads in offline marketing mediums are for a limited time only and you pay for time slots and space. In an online marketing scenario, you would keep your ads up for a longer time and pay much less.
• Cost per incremental customer – This cost is very low for web marketing based concerns, whereas this cost is appreciable in case of offline marketing efforts.
• Targeted approach vs. blanket approach – The above reason leads offline marketing businesses to target and select carefully, eliminating a lot of potential customers, who may buy in the future if not the present. However, low incremental costs result in online businesses covering a broad spectrum of the market.
• Segmentation – Preferences are much easier to track for an online business and this means that segmentation is simpler. The web marketing effort has the information it needs to customize its pitch at once.
• Customer contact – Access to customer information is automatic in the case of online businesses and the web marketing process is simplified and made efficient. Databases and mailing lists are created in an instant. On the contrary, offline marketing efforts for the same require time, employees and money.

There are many benefits to both web marketing and offline marketing, and it is best to use a judicious mix of the two.

Simple Article Writing For Internet Business Promotion

Article marketing is the process of writing your own articles or having articles written for you. The articles are to be published on your blog as well as other peoples blogs. Web articles are also published on other websites and email newsletters. I'm sure you can imagine what is possible after having tons of your own articles containing a link back to your website on thousands of other websites all over the world wide web. The best part about article marketing is that it is 100% FREE advertising.

Write Your Own Article

The benefits of writing your own articles:

Article writing is %100 percent free. The only cost is a little of your time. the sense of accomplishment you get when you see your articles show up in Google and other search engines all over the internet. you may already like to write and share your ideas with others. And if you've never done it before, you might find out that you enjoy it also.

Simple Article Writing

Your Article doesn't need to be any longer than 500 words. Focus on writing articles on the things you are currently learning about your internet business, or what you are learning about the products you wish to promote. Take some time to brainstorm and write down ideas. Write down 3 or 4 points on the subject you wish to write about. Fill in those points with you point of view or any newly learned ideas on the subject.

Get Your Articles Written For You

The choice is yours. If you feel that you don't have enough experience, or that you are too much of a novice to write your own articles then you can always have articles ghostwritten for you. You can put your name as the author of these articles and submit them all over the internet for people to read.

NOTE: For article marketing on the Internet, I suggest having articles written that are somewhere between 250-600 words. The purpose of your articles is to promote your website or affiliate web pages so the topic of your articles should be related to those areas. Therefore, when choosing to write your own articles or hiring someone to write articles for you, you will want to have this in mind.

Constructing Your Resource Box/About The Author

Some article directories or other websites you submit your articles to will have different rules as it pertains to your author area. Some will allow you to use HTML to make your link clickable and some won't. That's why I recommend that for every promotional ad you use in your resource box should have a plain text and an HTML version. This benefits you so that you don't break any rules of the website where you submit to. You simply switch between resource boxes as needed.

If you're serious about your business then an article marketing strategy is something you have to develop. How many articles do you want to submit a week? It's the same as asking "how much traffic and profits would I like to see this week?". Routinely submitting articles to your blog and other websites is the best way to grow any internet business, period. All the information you need is at your fingertips. Now all you have to do is act and watch your links, traffic, and profits grow with every passing week.

About the author:
Michael Laleye lives in Toronto, Canada and works full time from home on the internet. Visit his website to discover Resources For Internet Marketing Businesses and learn more about how to start working from home online.

http://www.myaffiliatestarter.com/internet-marketing.html

Article Source: http://www.Free-Articles-Zone.com