News

"Tim Hortons blames Roll up the Rim"

By Rob Winters - Published on Thursday, 12 May 2011 20:33

"That free coffee or muffin you won at Tim Hortons isn’t going down well with the company’s shareholders.

For a quarter-century, the doughnut chain’s annual Roll up the Rim to Win contest has been a hit with consumers, helping to drive customer traffic and spawning copy-cat promotions at competing chains.

But all those freebies finally caught up with the company in the first quarter, causing results to miss expectations and sending the stock to its biggest loss in more than two years."

Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/tim-hortons-blames-roll-up-the-rim/article2019372/

"Breakthrough in the Global AIDS Battle"

By Rob Winters - Published on Thursday, 12 May 2011 20:30

"In a landmark finding that scientists say could help stem the global AIDS pandemic, researchers announced Thursday that treating HIV patients with AIDS drugs makes them strikingly less infectious.

The results were so overwhelming that an independent panel monitoring the research recommended they be released four years before the large, multicountry study had been scheduled to end.

"I was bowled over," said Salim Abdool Karim, an AIDS researcher and professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa who wasn't involved in the study but was briefed on its results. "If we can implement this," he said, "we have a real chance to turn the tide on the HIV epidemic."

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703730804576319043572865406.html

"WikiLeaks: U.S. dismisses Harper's Arctic talk"

By Rob Winters - Published on Thursday, 12 May 2011 20:22

"A new WikiLeaks cable suggests the U.S. government views Stephen Harper's talk about Canadian Arctic sovereignty as little more than empty chest-thumping designed to win votes.

In a diplomatic cable posted this week by the online whistleblower, the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa says the Tories have made successful political use of promises to beef up Canada's presence in the Arctic.

But it says the Harper government has done only scant implementation on pledges like increasing surveillance over the Northwest Passage.

"Conservatives make concern for 'The North' part of their political brand …and it works," says the note, titled Canada's Conservative Government and its Arctic Focus."

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2011/05/12/wikileaks-cable-arctic-harper.html

"Bedbugs linked to deadly bacteria"

By Rob Winters - Published on Thursday, 12 May 2011 04:54

"Bedbugs laden with antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can lead to flesh-eating disease have been found in the Downtown Eastside.

Dr. Marc Romney found three DTES patients had three bedbugs full of MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, which in its most virulent form can cause flesh-eating disease) superbug and two bedbugs that carried the VRE (Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium, which can be dangerous to immunocompromised individuals)."

Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/health/Bedbugs+linked+deadly+bacteria/4769361/story.html#ixzz1M89SjJUU

 

"Spanish officials put earthquake death toll at 8"

By Rob Winters - Published on Thursday, 12 May 2011 04:51

"LORCA, Spain — Thousands of people spent the night outdoors in a southeastern Spanish city in fear of further tremors after Spain's worst earthquakes in 50 years killed eight people and injured dozens.

People draped in blankets to protect them from the morning cold queued up Thursday for hot drinks handed out by voluntary workers at five makeshift camps in parks and a trade show center set up in the small city of Lorca. that was hit by the two quakes -- with magnitudes of 4.4 and 5.2 -- a day earlier."

Read more: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/World/20110512/lorca-spain-earthquake-toll-110512/

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