Does Your Lipstick Contain Lead?

Studies have been finding lead in lipstick for years. The first major examination was in 2007 when the nonprofit Campaign for Safe Cosmetics tested a range of products and found lead in 61 percent of them, including Burt’s Bees tinted chapstick. Burt’s, which is owned by Clorox, trades on selling “truly natural products that have a positive effect on both you and the world you live in.”   Article

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Grassroots Efforts to Bring a Poisoning to Justice in China

This story about the failure of justice in China may be extreme, but the techniques being used to force a trial for the poisoning of the superior college student can be used by whistleblowers everywhere.  “Everyone is playing Sherlock Holmes now,” commented a blogger. “Despite their motivations, we should know these people might be innocent.”  The online discussions took a turn when a blogger found that the husband of one roommate works for a fund management company in Guangzhou. The blogger promptly declared war against the company, urging people to withdraw their investments in a bid to pressure the firm into firing the husband, who was branded as an “accomplice”.    Many online users questioned such tactics, but millions of others, at home and abroad, have applauded and embraced the actions, calling them a “necessary evil”.
“The grass-roots-style trial will never stop until the official trial begins,” said a blogger.  Article  justice

Anti Graft Operations in China

In China’s uphill battle against rampant corruption, no other Communist Party agency evokes more fear among officials than the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), the country’s top anti-graft watchdog.

The commission’s name may sound innocuous, and so does its most potent weapon, known as shuanggui – a two-word abbreviation from a clause in the party’s regulations that requires members to explain their so-called disciplinary violations at a specific time and venue.  Article

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‘Safe to Speak’ against organized crime and corruption – World Press Freedom Day

3 May 2013 – Each week a journalist loses his or her life for bringing news and information to the public’s attention and securing the safety of those individuals working in the media is an urgent matter. The theme of this year’s World Press Freedom Day, “Safe to Speak: Securing Freedom of Expression in All Media”, highlights the need for action to uphold the right of journalists to carry out their vital work….article 4 -cartoon-buergerrechte

Banks That Take Deposits Should Not be Investment Banks?

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Vice Chairman Charles Munger, whose firm owns stakes in some of the biggest U.S. lenders, said Wall Street trading risks should be curbed at deposit-taking institutions.

“I do not see why massive derivative books should be mixed up with” government-insured deposits, Munger, 89, said yesterday during Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire’s annual meeting. “The more bankers want to be like investment bankers, instead of like bankers, the worse I like it.”  Article

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