Some Say Hawaii Farm Too Big To Fail After Farmers Convicted of Human Trafficking

AP

April 5, 2006: Mike Sou, who runs Alou Farms in Ewa, with his brother Alec, displays a pumpkin rotted by the heavy rains in Honolulu. Sou and his brother Alex will be sentenced in federal court on human trafficking charges. They pled guilty but two former state governors, community groups, fellow farmers and other supporters are trying to keep them out of prison.

HONOLULU Two prominent, popular brothers who operate the second-largest vegetable farm in Hawaii will be sentenced in federal court this week on human trafficking charges -- they pleaded guilty -- but two former state governors, community groups, fellow farmers and other supporters are trying to keep them out of prison.

The brothers were convicted of shipping 44 laborers from Thailand and forcing them to work on their farm, part of a pipeline to the United States that allegedly cornered foreign field hands into low-paying jobs with few rights.

Aloun Farms may be too important to fail in an island state that once relied on pineapples and sugar cane but grows less than 15 percent of the food it consumes, according to supporters of defendants Alec and Mike Sou.

"The incarceration of Alec and Mike Sou would threaten our food security and could endanger our future sustainability on Oahu," wrote Kioni Dudley, president of the community group Friends of Makakilo, in a letter asking U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway for leniency. "Find some method of punishment which allows them to stay in their positions at Aloun Farms."

The Sou brothers are asking for a light sentence with little or no jail time based in part on the idea that their farm is too valuable to the islands' food supply to let it go untended. The plea deal they agreed to in January called for up to five years imprisonment.

Prosecutors accuse them of manipulating the Thai workers by promising at least a year's employment at pay of $9.42 an hour, but instead delivering only a few months of work for little pay.

If the workers complained, Mike Sou threatened to send them home without any way to repay recruitment fees exceeding $30,000 that they borrowed from Thai money lenders to pay for their jobs, federal authorities claim.

The workers were trapped on the farm, forced to choose between long hours with low wages and an unpromising future in Thailand, said former farm worker Somporn Khanja, who arrived at the farm in 2004.

"I'd been lied to, but I couldn't do anything about it," the 45-year-old Khanja said through his wife, acting as an interpreter. "I hope justice is being done. I believe in American law. It takes so long, but it's good. In America, we have to wait."

In about 120 letters to the judge supporting the Sou brothers, community members praise their importance to Hawaii's agriculture industry, their ability to provide up to 200 jobs at a time and their character.

Former Democratic Gov. Ben Cayetano called the Sou family's immigration from Laos and creation of a farm a "remarkable success story." Former Democratic Gov. John Waihee commended the Sous' skill in transforming sugar fields into diversified farming.

Others who offered support to the brothers include the former head of the state Land Board, the state Department of Agriculture, the Hawaii Foodbank, competing farms, two banks who are owed money from the farms and former Aloun employees.

The Kapolei-based company grows a variety of foods including cantaloupe, lettuce, zucchini, apples, bananas, parsley, onions, watermelon, beans, eggplant, cabbage and pumpkin. Alec Sou is the farm's president and general manager, and Ms of Los Angeles-based labor recruiting company Global Horizons Manpower Inc., which the FBI says is the largest human trafficking case ever charged in U.S. history.

Global Horizons is accused of enticing 400 workers from Thailand to U.S. farms based on false promises of lucrative jobs. Instead, recruiters allegedly confiscated the workers' passports, disregarded employment contracts and threatened deportation -- claims similar to those in the Aloun Farms case.

Nationwide, between 14,500 and 17,500 people are trafficked to the United States annually, according to an estimate by HumanTrafficking.org, which is managed by the Washington-based Academy for Educational Development, which works to improve global education, health and social and economic development.

The brothers have steadily grown in prominence since their parents started the farm in 1977. After starting with a small 5-acre plot of land, the Sous have since extended their growing capacity and crops.

Today, the farm's 3,000 acres are the most productive in the islands. In Hawaii's mild climate, they grow crops year-round.

The Sou family also has made political contributions, and Alec Sou sits on boards for homeless advocates and for the University of Hawaii's College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources.

Some hospitals open ERs just for graying patients

WASHINGTON Moccia says people feel better when they can stay upright. Nonskid floors guard against falls. Forms are printed in larger type, to help patients read their care instructions when it's time to go home. Pharmacists automatically check if patients' routine medications could cause dangerous interactions. A geriatric social worker is on hand to arrange for Meals on Wheels or other resources.

"In the senior unit, they're just a lot more gentle," says Betty Barry, 87, of White Lake, Mich., who recently went to another of Trinity's senior ERs while suffering debilitating hip pain.

But Moccia says the real change comes because nurses and doctors undergo training to dig deeper into patients' lives. While they're awaiting test results or treatments, every senior gets checked for signs of depression, dementia or delirium.

An example: A diabetic was treated for low blood sugar in a regular ER. A few weeks later she was back, but the newly opened senior ER uncovered that dementia was making her mess up her insulin dose, repeatedly triggering the problem, says Dr. Bill Thomas, a geriatrician at the University of Maryland Baltimore County who is advising Trinity Health Novi's senior ER program.

It doesn't take opening a separate ER to improve older patients' care, says New Jersey's Rosenberg, who calls better overall geriatric awareness and training the real key. Still, he says his center saw a 15 percent rise in patients last year.

"Those hospitals that have the money and space and the luxury to do something like that are going to get a definite advantage down the road," predicts John at the American College of Emergency Physicians, who says his own Boston hospital didn't have the money to try it.

Boat made of 12,500 plastic bottles arrives in Sydney after 4-month journey across Pacific

SYDNEY A sailboat largely constructed from 12,500 recycled plastic bottles has completed a 4-month journey across the Pacific Ocean meant to raise awareness about the perils of plastic waste.

The Plastiki, a 60-foot (18-meter) catamaran, and its six crew weathered fierce ocean storms during its 8,000 nautical miles at sea. It left San Francisco on March 20, stopping along the way at various South Pacific island nations including Kiribati and Samoa. It docked Monday in Sydney Harbour.

"This is the hardest part of the journey so far getting it in!" expedition leader David de Rothschild yelled from the boat as the crew struggled to maneuver the notoriously tough-to-steer vessel into port outside the Australian National Maritime Museum.

A crowd of about 100 erupted into cheers after the Plastiki finally docked. De Rothschild a descendant of the well-known British banking family exchanged high fives and hugs with his crew, pumping his fists into the air in victory.

"It has been an extraordinary adventure," he said.

De Rothschild, 31, said the idea for the journey came to him after he read a United Nations report in 2006 that said pollution and particularly plastic waste was seriously threatening the world's oceans.

He figured a good way to prove that trash can be effectively reused was to use some of it to build a boat. The Plastiki named after the 1947 Kon-Tiki raft sailed across the Pacific by explorer Thor Heyerdahl is fully recyclable and gets its power from solar panels and windmills.

The boat is almost entirely made up of bottles, which are held together with an organic glue made of sugar cane and cashews, but includes other materials too. The mast, for instance, is recycled aluminum irrigation pipe.

"The journey of the Plastiki is a journey from trash to triumph," said Jeffrey Bleich, the U.S. ambassador to Australia, who greeted the team after they docked.

During their 128-day journey, the six crew lived in a cabin of just 20 feet by 15 feet (6 meters by 4.5 meters), took saltwater showers, and survived on a diet of dehydrated and canned food, supplemented with the occasional vegetable from their small on-board garden.

Along the way, they fought giant ocean swells, 62-knot (70 mile-an-hour) winds, temperatures up to 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) and torn sails. The crew briefly stopped in Queensland state last week, after battling a brutal storm off the Australian coast.

Skipper Jo Royle also had the particular challenge of being the only woman on board.

"I'm definitely looking forward to a glass of wine and a giggle with my girlfriends," she said.

Vern Moen, the Plastiki's filmmaker, missed the birth of his first child though he managed to watch the delivery on a grainy Skype connection. He met his son for the first time after docking in Sydney.

"It was very, very surreal to show up on a dock and it's like, 'here's your kid," he said with a laugh.

Although the team had originally hoped to recycle the Plastiki, de Rothschild said they are now thinking of keeping it intact, and using it as a way of enlightening people to the power of recycling.

"There were many times when people looked at us and said, 'you're crazy,'" de Rothschild said. "I think it drove us on to say, 'Anything's possible.'"

___

Online:

http://www.theplastiki.com

Helicopters used to save Fla. crop from rare chill

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. Dozens of helicopters are whirring above Florida's valuable and sensitive veggie crops, an unusual approach by farmers worried that an uncommon freeze could wipe out their harvests.

The choppers hover low over green bean and sweet corn fields, moving back and forth in the early morning hours to push warmer air closer to the plants and, the farmers hope, save the plants from a deadly frost.

Farmers are especially nervous because an 11-day freeze in January wiped out many crops, from corn to kumquats. Florida is the largest winter producer of sweet corn in the U.S. the kind people eat.

John Hundley, a corn, bean and sugar cane farmer in Palm Beach County, said that if winds are too high as they were expected to be early Tuesday he won't be able to hire the helicopters. When asked what he will do to protect his crops, Hundley sighed.

"I can get on my knees and pray right now," he said. "It looks like it's pretty much out of our hands."

The stakes are high: in 2009, the value of production of sweet corn from Florida was $227 million.

"They have hundreds of thousands, millions of dollars in crops," said Paul Allen, president of the Florida Sweet Corn Exchange.

The helicopters may be the last line of defense if temperatures dip below freezing as expected Tuesday night, though it's an expensive technique. It costs about $2,500 an hour to fly one helicopter over the crops, and the length of flights depends on a mix of temperatures and wind conditions.

Here's how it works: The air 50 feet above the crops is warmer than the air near the plants. The helicopter blades push the warm air down and the temperature goes up, said David Sui, a University of Florida expert on vegetables and tropical fruits. The warmer air prevents cold and frost from settling on the plants.

"Even if it raises the temperature a couple of degrees it may save the crops," he said.

The technique isn't a new one, as farmers have long hired helicopters to keep their crops from freezing. And growers in California also have used helicopters. But it's still dangerous.

Last week, three helicopters crashed within a matter of hours in South Florida during missions to protect crops from the cold. All three pilots survived.

One helicopter went down shortly after midnight last Wednesday near a rural airport in Palm Beach County. A second helicopter crashed before dawn when the pilot made an emergency landing after a tail rotor broke. He suffered minor injuries. A third pilot was seriously hurt when his helicopter crashed in a field a few hours later.

Green beans and sweet corn are cultivated in the nutrient-rich muck soil located near the Florida Everglades, though farmers in other parts of the state are also scrambling to protect their fruits and vegetables, many of which are near harvest.

Strawberry farmers are spraying water on the plants, so the heat lost from the crop to the surrounding air is replaced with the heat released as water changes to ice. Citrus farmers are using ground-level heaters to warm the air near tree trunks. And tropical fish farmers are moving their fish or covering the outdoor tanks.

January's cold snap damaged large swaths of Florida's crops, including strawberries and tomatoes. Nearly all of the kumquat crop died.

When Florida's crops die, shoppers pay more at the grocery store because replacement produce is usually imported from outside the U.S.

Already this year, several hundred acres of green beans have been lost.

Gov. Charlie Crist on Sunday declared a state of emergency because of the threat of severe crop damage. That news prompted orange juice futures to rise over concerns the weather would damage this year's crop.

It's unusual for temperatures to be this cold this early in the season, said Lisa Lochridge, a spokeswoman for the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association.

Temperatures are expected to dip into the teens in north Florida, and in the high 20s in central and South Florida though temperatures between 60 to 78 degrees are more common this time of year.

"When you're talking about temperatures as cold as those predicted, virtually everything is in peril," she said.

Google pays $14,000 for high-risk Chrome security holes

Google has shelled out more than $14,000 in rewards for critical and high-risk vulnerabilities affecting its flagship Chrome web browser.

The latest Google Chrome 8.0.552.237, available for all platforms, patches a total of 16 documented vulnerabilties, including one critical bug for which Google paid the first elite $3133.7 award to researcher Sergey Glazunov.

“Critical bugs are harder to come by in Chrome, but Sergey has done it,” says Google’s Jerome Kersey. “Sergey also collects a $1337 reward and several other rewards at the same time, so congratulations Sergey!,” he added.

Here are the details on the latest Chrome patch batch.

• [58053] Medium Risk: Browser crash in extensions notification handling. Credit to Eric Roman of the Chromium development community.
• [$1337] [65764] High Risk: Bad pointer handling in node iteration. Credit to Sergey Glazunov.
• [66334] High Crashes when printing multi-page PDFs. Credit to Google Chrome Security Team (Chris Evans).
• [$1000] [66560] High Risk: Stale pointer with CSS + canvas. Credit to Sergey Glazunov.
• [$500] [66748] High Risk: Stale pointer with CSS + cursors. Credit to Jan ToÅ¡ovský.
• [67100] High Risk: Use after free in PDF page handling. Credit to Google Chrome Security Team (Chris Evans).
• [$1000] [67208] High Risk: Stack corruption after PDF out-of-memory condition. Credit to Jared Allar of CERT.
• [$1000] [67303] High Bad memory access with mismatched video frame sizes. Credit to Aki Helin of OUSPG; plus independent discovery by Google Chrome Security Team (SkyLined) and David Warren of CERT.
• [$500] [67363] High Risk: Stale pointer with SVG use element. Credited anonymously; plus indepdent discovery by miaubiz.
• [$1000] [67393] Medium Risk: Uninitialized pointer in the browser triggered by rogue extension. Credit to kuzzcc.
• [$1000] [68115] High Risk: Vorbis decoder buffer overflows. Credit to David Warren of CERT.
• [$1000] [68170] High Risk: Buffer overflow in PDF shading. Credit to Aki Helin of OUSPG.
• [$1000] [68178] High Risk: Bad cast in anchor handling. Credit to Sergey Glazunov.
• [$1000] [68181] High Risk: Bad cast in video handling. Credit to Sergey Glazunov.
• [$1000] [68439] High Risk: Stale rendering node after DOM node removal. Credit to Martin Barbella; plus independent discovery by Google Chrome Security Team (SkyLined).
• [$3133.7] [68666] Critical: Stale pointer in speech handling. Credit to Sergey Glazunov.

Google is withholding technical details on the vulnerabilities until the patches are released to its users.  Google ships updates via the browser’s silent/automatic update mechanism.

Researchers use LCD projector for mind control

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have announced that, using inexpensive components from a liquid crystal display (LCD) projector, they’re able to control the brain circuits in tiny laboratory animals, including freely moving worms.

This is a first in the field of optogenetics, a mix of optical and genetic techniques that has allowed researchers to probe and control genetically targeted neural circuits in laboratory animals.

Until now, the technique could be used only with larger animals by placement of an optical fiber into an animal’s brain, or illumination of an animal’s entire body.

But the experiments from Georgia Tech demonstrate that it is possible to control brain activity by the red, green and blue lights from a projector.  The lights activate light-sensitive microbial proteins that are genetically engineered into the worms, allowing the researchers to switch neurons and muscles on and off.

“This illumination instrument significantly enhances our ability to control, alter, observe and investigate how neurons, muscles and circuits ultimately produce behavior in animals,” said Hang Lu, an associate professor in the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

The illumination system is described in a recent edition of the journal Nature Methods. The prototype system includes a modified off-the-shelf LCD projector, which is used to cast a multi-color pattern of light onto an animal. The independent red, green and blue channels allow researchers to activate excitable cells sensitive to specific colors, while simultaneously silencing others.

“Because the central component of the illumination system is a commercially available projector, the system’s cost and complexity are dramatically reduced, which we hope will enable wider adoption of this tool by the research community,” explained Lu.

The researchers connected the illumination system to a microscope and combined it with video tracking, enabling them to track and record the behavior of freely moving animals, while maintaining the lighting in the intended anatomical position. When the animal moves, changes to the light’s location, intensity and color can be updated in less than 40 milliseconds, according to a news release.

For their first experiment, the researchers illuminated the head of a worm (Caenorhabditis elegans) at regular intervals while the animal moved forward. This produced a coiling effect in the head and caused the worm to crawl in a triangular pattern as illustrated in the image above. To see a video of the worm’s motion click here.

In another experiment, the team scanned light along the bodies of worms from head to tail, which resulted in backward movement when neurons near the head were stimulated and forward movement when neurons near the tail were stimulated.

Additional experiments showed that the intensity of the light affected a worm’s behavior and that several optogenetic reagents excited at different wavelengths could be combined to control a variety of functions.

“This instrument allowed us to control defined events in defined locations at defined times in an intact biological system, allowing us to dissect animal functional circuits with greater precision and nuance,” said Lu.

Netflix: We're still a tech company

The thing to remember about Netflix is that, despite looking like a distribution company for a Hollywood-centric industry, the company is all Silicon Valley.

The company is poised for growth, especially now that it’s restructured itself to put more emphasis on streaming movies, TV shows and other video content and pull back on the traditional DVD rental side of the operation.

But when it comes to growth, the executives are interested in global markets where broadband penetration is high and diversifying the catalog to include more foreign language content. They’re eyeing different devices for streaming and how families - versus individuals - use the service. They’re well aware that the next wave of competitors could include heavy-hitters such as Google, Amazon or Apple.

But, no, they have no interest in getting into the Hollywood side of the business, possibly creating content of their own or taking an equity interest in a studio. In a Q&A session to discuss fourth-quarter results yesterday, CEO Reed Hastings responded to a question suggesting such a move:

When we start taking creative risks, that is reading a script and guessing if it was going to be a big hit and who might be good to cast in it, it’s not something that as fundamentally a tech company or a company run by at tech CEO like myself is likely to build distinctive organizational confidence in. And so we think that we’re better off on letting other people take creative risks, get the rewards for when they do that well. And then what we do is focus on matching the different products that are made with the right consumers the sort of very technological aspect of matching it and streaming it. So I would say, that the scenario that you outlined would be quite a change in direction and quite unlikely.

It’s a smart approach for a company that seems to have nothing but an open road of growth opportunities in front of it. ֲ Because Netflix has shifted into the world of streaming, it’s riding out some of the turbulent waves that are crashing in other parts of the industry.

Consider DVD rentals: Redbox, for example, works on a different model of video distribution because it’s more new-release centric. With reports of home video content - DVD, VOD, etc - slipping, Netflix’s model doesn’t feel as much of the impact. The streaming model adds value for the customers because they tend to consume more content. Because the plans are designed for all-you-can-eat consumption for a flat monthly rate, the company doesn’t feel the pinch that comes a price-per-movie model found at video stores and Redbox-like kiosks.

At the same time, Netflix is also ripe for some competition with its model. The company is just starting to dip its toes into International markets - and it’s got a jump start on the front because it already licenses foreign-language content for the U.S. market. Still, asked about whether Google, Amazon or Apple could be a competitive thorn in its side this year, Hastings replied:

Definitely, there’s a lot of firms, including the ones you mentioned that could be more direct competitor with us. The Internet’s creating a ton of opportunity for a lot of firms and there’s all different models between the pay-per-view models for new releases, the ad-supported model. So there’s a lot of different companies with different strengths. But as you know, we’ve been through a lot of competition in the past. We view that as a natural part of the process and we’re just focused on building our business as best as we can.

Certainly those companies are already interested in being part of the video viewing experiences. The upside for Netflix, unlike the other guys, is that it is focused on expanding its video distribution network from a technological point of view, whereas the others have their fingers in a lot of different technology sauces, making it harder for them to devote the kind of detailed attention to the market the way Netflix can.

And, of course, there’s the whole head-start thing. Netflix has done a good job of shifting the focus of the company quickly and has made great strides at getting apps into set-top boxes, mobile devices and gaming consoles.

It’s that sort of technology that Netflix sees as a driver for its next wave of growth.

New LED bulbs for indoor, outdoor use

Two companies I’ve been watching in the LED technology space have come out with new products this week: one, a street lamp for roadway and outdoor area lighting, like you would see in your local community. The second is a prototype of a bulb intended to act as a replacement for the 60-watt incandescent products that we all think of when someone says the word, “lightbulb.” Both of the bulbs are based on technology from LED leader Cree, which is based in Durham, N.C.

Here is the rundown on each of these options.

The new Dialight StreetSense Series LED Street Light (pictured to the right) contains new performance optimization and thermal management technologies. The luminaire acts as a replacement for the HID fixtures that probably line the streets of your neighborhood. They can output up to 75 lumens per watt, while maintaining 70 percent of those lumens over the 60,000 hour anticipated lifespan of the bulb. Because I know this is a big deal to most of us, the fixtures can be dimmed and they contain a photocontroller, which means they can respond from dusk to dawn according to the lighting conditions.

The other LED bulb that is being talked about this week is one that has a much larger potential impact. It uses Cree’s TrueWhite technology, which is a big deal because that has been one of the biggest complaints about 60-watt incandescent replacements, that they don’t cast the sort of light that we have become used to expecting. The Energy Star-rated prototype that Cree is showing off right now is being described as a “no-compromise” replacement that is dimmable (we all love our mood lighting dimmers, don’t we?) The photo at the left demonstrates the difference, or lack thereof. Can you tell the difference?

As far as specs go, Cree says the prototype delivers more than 800 lumens while consuming less than 10 watts. Says the company’s vice president of technology, Rob Glass:

“This is the first standard LED A-lamp that combines high output with a very high efficiency, in a small form factor, without the additional cost and complexity of active cooling or other design compromises.”

You will notice that I used the word “prototype,” so I don’t actually have information about when this bulb will be available. Right now, it has been submitted to third-party testing facility to confirm the claims Cree is making about light distribution, lumen maintenance (how bright the bulb stays over time) and performance. I’ll be sure to update you when this product hits the market more broadly.

Skype for iPhone update permits video calling to Skype for TV

Skype’s iPhone app got a big update today, including support for making video calls to “a wider selection of Skype clients and devices.”

Specifically, iOS devices can connect to Skype for TV-enabled screens now. Of course, the Internet-connected TV will need to have a compatible app, so that should go at least for Samsung, LG and Panasonic Viera Cast/Connect displays. It will also depend on how much you want to see someone’s face blasted across a screen so large, but at least you have the option now.

If any of you decide to try this new feature out, please let us know how it went in the TalkBack section.

The Skype for iPhone app, which is also supported by the iPod touch and iPad (although you can’t get video calling with that last one just yet), is available for free in the iTunes App Store now.

Related coverage on ZDNet:

• Skype sees record number of users following video chat releases
• CES: Skype officially launches group video calling packages
• Is Skype’s new paid model an opportunity for FaceTime?
• Skype add-on for Firefox caused 33K crashes in one week
• Skype buys Qik in wireless video play

A VPN to call your own

With Firesheep potentially looking over your Web-browsing shoulder and password management becoming essential, wouldn’t be nice if you could easily keep all your Internet traffic really secure? As it happens, there’s long been a way to keep your online wandering secret: Virtual Private Networks (VPN).

If you’re lucky, your company, school, or some other organization provides you with a VPN service. Most of the time you may have used this just to work on office matters from the road or home. You can, and should, also use it anytime you’re on the Internet. Far more so than many Wi-Fi security measures, application proxies, or the Web-based security measures such as Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) or TLS/SSL over HTTP (HTTPS), a VPN can keep your information safe all the way from your laptop to servers and back again.

Even if your company doesn’t provide a VPN though you can also use VPN firmware on your home router, such as DD-WRT, or on a computer working as a VPN server with a program like OpenVPN. All these require at least some technical expertise to set up. But, what if you’re all thumbs when it comes to technology? Well you still have an answer: a VPN provider.

These are businesses, such as Banana VPN; Black Logic, and StrongVPN, which will set you up with a VPN. Generally speaking, although the companies tend to talk in terms of ‘buying” the service, what you end up doing is paying a monthly service fee of $15 to $20 a month.

Is it worth for security alone? Me? I have my own VPN setups, but yes, if I were often working on sensitive subjects and I wasn’t technically adept, I’d seriously consider these services.

These VPN services can offer other advantages as well. For example, if you’re in Canada, but you want to watch a U.S. show on Hulu, you’re usually out of luck. But, if you use a VPN to obtain a U.S. Internet Protocol (IP) address you’ll be able to watch Glee, 30 Rock, or Family Guy. Or, in my case, as a serious British TV fan, with a UK IP address, I could get access to the BBC’s iPlayer Internet-cast of BBC television shows.

Another plus that some VPN providers offer is anonymous Web browsing. With this, you can roam the Internet without being tracked. In addition, if your ISP blocks some programs, such as VOIP (Voice over the Internet Protocol) Applications like Skype, you can use a VPN to get around such restrictions.

Even so, these are pricey services. There are also several potential problems. The most important of these is that a given service may already have too many users for your area. If a service doesn’t have enough VPN concentrators for its customers you may see poor Internet speeds or even be unable to make a connection at all. So, before subscribing to a VPN service, check out what their customers have to say about their service, before sending them your credit-card number.

If they offer a free trial, take it. After all, you’re paying real money for a VPN service. It’s unlikely you’ll get as much bandwidth from any of these services if you already have 10Mbps (Megabit per second) or higher bandwidth from your ISP. But, if they only deliver 1990s’ 128Kbps (Kilobits per second) speeds for your VPN, they’re not worth using even if they were free. That said, the right VPN service may just be right for you at these prices.

PlayStation Move controller support coming to PCs via Sony's Move Server project

Microsoft has floated the idea of officially supporting its Kinect gesture-based game controller in the PC realm after hackers have used it for various experiments, but Sony may beat it to the punch with support for its own PlayStation Move motion controllers.

According to our sister site CNET, Sony exec John McCutchan will discuss a project called Move Server at the upcoming Game Developers Conference. The description of McCutchan’s talk is summarized thusly:

We will discuss the new Move Server project that will make it possible for academics and hobbyists to develop software using the PlayStation Move controller on their own PCs.

You might notice that “game developers” isn’t listed, which would cast some doubt on whether there would be any Move-compatible PC games given Sony’s official blessing. With its continuing championing of computer gaming, Microsoft would seem more likely to try to adapt the Kinect as a gaming device for the PC.

Of course, Microsoft hasn’t confirmed when it will provide any official support for the Kinect and PCs, so if the Move Server initiative is close to launch, hackers may have a new device to play around with.

Twitter and more multi-tasking coming to Windows Phone in 2011

Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer spoke this morning at Mobile World Congress in Spain and announced several upcoming improvements for the Windows Phone platform. He also confirmed that the first free update will be coming in the first two weeks of March that includes copy & paste and faster application performance.

Other news regarding updates and new features includes:

• Availability on CDMA Networks - With added support for CDMA networks, Windows Phone will be available to even more customers on mobile operators such as Verizon and Sprint in the first half of 2011.
• Twitter in the People Hub - The popular social networking service Twitter will be integrated into the People Hub in the second half of 2011.
• Office Document Storage in the Cloud - Document sharing and storage in the cloud via Windows Live SkyDrive will be added to Windows Phone in the second half of 2011.
• Next Generation Browsing with Internet Explorer Mobile - A dramatically enhanced Internet Explorer Mobile web browser will be added to Windows Phone in the second half of 2011. It will feature the same standards support (HTML5, etc.) and hardware accelerated graphics as the PC version.
• Additional Multi-tasking Capabilities - We will add the ability to switch quickly between applications, run applications in the background (such as listening to music), along with a number of other capabilities in the second half of 2011. Developers will learn much more about this during April’s MIX conference.

The Twitter integration is not that important to me as there are some great 3rd party Twitter apps, but it is still good to see them acknowledge Twitter as an important social network to include. I like the Office document storage feature and hope that the additional multi-tasking works with the BringCast podcast app. Even better would be to see the Zune software improved with better podcast support.

I am also hoping that this first update includes some manufacturer specific fixes, such as improved camera software on both the HTC HD7 and Dell Venue Pro.

Indian cabinet approves caste-based census for 2011

Officials are spending a year classifying India's population of around 1.2 billion people

India's first caste-based census since 1931 will take place next year, the cabinet has announced.

It said the controversial count would last from June-September 2011, after a full census had been held. Answering questions on caste will be optional.

The move is intended to help target affirmative action benefits.

Discrimination relating to caste in Hinduism - the complex social hierarchy originally based on people's occupations - is banned in India but still goes on.

Critics of the caste survey say it is open to fraud.

Campaigners say the caste system is a highly regressive feature of Indian society and that it reinforces hierarchy and breeds inequity.

Separate survey

The cabinet's decision is the final ratification needed after a group of ministers gave the go-ahead for the caste census last month.

"A separate house-to-house enumeration of caste will be done during the period June 2011 to September 2011," Home Minister P Chidambaram told reporters in Delhi.

"This satisfies all the various requirements that have been projected and discussed and debated extensively."

Mr Chidambaram did not say how much the separate caste survey would cost. The Press Trust of India put the price tag at $650-$850m.

The BBC's Sanjoy Majumder in Delhi says that the move is aimed at improving affirmative action among the country's most socially disadvantaged groups.

Our correspondent says that independent India has always tried to present a unified face for its diverse ethnic, religious and social groups and outlaws discrimination on the basis of caste.

But the caste system still pervades many facets of Indian life, especially marriage.

The only time caste has been included in India's census was in 1931 when the country was ruled by Britain.

India's main population census was launched in April.

Some 2.5 million census officials will spend a year classifying India's population of around 1.2 billion people according to gender, religion, occupation and education.

It will include photographs and fingerprints of everyone aged over 15 to create a biometric national database to enable the government to issue national identity cards.

Full results are due in mid-2011.

Former bandit spearheads Indian state's anti-Maoist war

Mr Yadav has formed his own militia to fight the Maoists (Photos: Prashant Ravi)

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Maoist rebels in the Indian state of Bihar are up against a formidable enemy which does not come in the shape of the army or the security forces.

A former "most wanted" bandit is now at the forefront of the campaign against them.

And it seems that the rebels - who say they are fighting an armed insurrection on behalf of rural landless labourers and the poor in more than a third of India's 600-odd districts - are not sure how to respond to him.

The Maoist insurgency has been described by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as the country's biggest internal security threat.

Lawlessness

In the Maoist-controlled hills of the Kaimur-Rohtas plateau in the south-west part of the state Ram Bachchan Yadav - alias Pehalwanji - is a name which spells terror among the guerrillas.

Sexagenarian Mr Yadav lives and moves around in the hilly forest tracts where even the most elite forces of Indian police dare not to visit.

Last month Mr Yadav and his men had an 18-hour long firefight with the Maoists at Rehal village.

Mr Yadav and his militia of 30-35 members not only forced the Maoists to flee from the area but also captured four of them, including a zonal commander.

Later, they trekked 18.6 miles (30km) to reach the nearest police station and hand over the captured Maoists and their cache of arms and ammunition.

So far, Mr Yadav and his men say that they have foiled more than six major Maoist attacks in the Kaimur-Rohtas hills, which were once infamous for lawlessness.

The father of four - he has two young sons and two married daughters - says his declared purpose in life is to remove Maoists from the Kaimur-Rohtas hills for good.

'Maoist hit-list'

"I appeal to all to arise and awake against the Maoist menace... and participate in country's freedom struggle.

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“Start Quote

I'll keep fighting them [the Maoists] till my last breath”

End Quote
Ram Bachchan Yadav

"We've to fight for our freedom again from the red rebels," Mr Yadav told the BBC.

He says that the militia he has formed - the Kaimur Shanti Sena (KSS, or Kaimur Peace Keeping Force) - was established to achieve this.

"With about 20 rifles, 15 double-barrel guns and these young volunteers, I fight the Maoists and have been successfully chasing them away," he says.

"I believe in myself and the cause I'm fighting for."

Kaimur district police chief Pradeep Kumar Shrivastva says that Mr Yadav and his team have reduced "insurgency incidents" in the Kaimur hills.

"He is on top of the Maoist hit-list," says Mr Shrivastva, who says that Mr Yadav is not doing anything illegal.

"If the KSS operates solely to defend themselves, the law doesn't come in their way."

There are about 168 villages on the hilly terrain of the Kaimur-Rohtas plateau and the bordering area of the state of Uttar Pradesh. Up until now it has been a safe hideout for the Maoists.

The police say that the rebels have heavily mined the area so that they are unable to combat them without full preparations.

"They have often blown up police vehicles, schools and government buildings in the area," Mr Shrivastva said.

But Mr Yadav has not always been fighting the Maoists.

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INDIA'S MAOIST INSURGENCY

• Violent rebellion began in 1967 in West Bengal village of Naxalbari and spread over rural areas of central and eastern India
• Led by elusive military commander Kishenji, supported by between 10,000 and 20,000 fighters
• More than 6,000 killed since rebellion began
• Worst attacks include 76 killed in April 2010 ambushes in Dantewada; 55 killed in attack on police outpost in 2007

• Profile: India's Maoist rebels

He was released from six years in jail in 1993 and was living a "peaceful life" until the Maoists banned the collection of wood in forests and the grazing of cows for milking purposes.

He said that this move created "serious livelihood problems" for milkmen of the Yadav caste of Bihar. Yadavs are traditionally farmers who graze cattle.

Mr Yadav strongly opposed this Maoist diktat and also their abduction in July of 17 Yadav caste villagers.

They were released only after their guns and other weapons were confiscated.

Soon afterwards he formed the KSS.

"I'll keep fighting them till my last breath," he says.

"Give me more licensed weapons and I'll make Kaimur-Rohtas hills free from the Maoists in a month."

Brigand

To hear the story of Mr Yadav's "personal turnaround" first hand - as I did while travelling through the dense forestry that surrounds his village - it's tempting to compare it with any Bollywood movie of the late 1960s and 70s.

Mr Yadav has built up a rapport with the local community

Accused in 104 cases with a huge reward on his head from the central government, Mr Yadav was literally a brigand throughout the 1980s.

At that time he was the most wanted man not only in the Kaimur-Rohtas area but also in Uttar Pradesh.

He argues that he took up arms to counter other bandits of the area.

Whatever the truth, the bloody war between them claimed the lives of dozens of people.

With all his rivals eliminated, Mr Yadav surrendered in September 1987 and was only released from jail in January 1993.

He says that he has now been acquitted in 101 of the 104 cases against him - and the remainder are "false".

But the strong likelihood is that no-one dares to give evidence against him in a court of law.

"I'm forced to take up guns to fight against the Maoists and those who are with Maoists are my enemy," he says.

It seems as if the authorities could do with all the help they can get.

The state police record says that out of a total of 38 districts in Bihar, 31 are Maoist-affected - and 20 of them, including the Kaimur-Rohtas area, come under the "most sensitive" category.

In the last five years, Bihar has had 56 Maoists attacks in which 125 policemen were killed.

Only last month the rebels killed seven policemen, injured 10 and abducted four of them in an incident which saw the state government effectively held to ransom for a week.

India toilet cleaners stage protest over conditions

Manual scavenging is supposed to have been banned

Hundreds of Indian workers employed to manually clean non-flush toilets have protested in Delhi against their working conditions.

They say that the authorities have failed to act despite declaring such work illegal, and should issue an apology for decades of discrimination.

Government figures suggest that about 300,000 low-caste Dalits are still employed in such work.

They are estimated on average to earn less than $4 (£2.50) a month.

The demonstrators began their protests a month ago by criss-crossing the country to highlight their demands.

Manual "scavenging" - removing human excreta from dry or non-flush toilets - is a centuries-old practice in India.

It is mainly carried out by the Dalits, formerly known as the untouchables, who are at the lowest rung of the Hindu caste system.

They go from house to house every morning to collect night soil, a euphemism for human faeces.

Although manual scavenging is prohibited by law, some government departments still have such workers. These include the railways ministry, which employs people to clean railway tracks as most trains have open-discharge toilets.

Government figures show there are more than 300,000 manual scavengers in India, but unofficial estimates put the number at more than one million.

The organisers of the protest say they want the government to completely eradicate the practice and rehabilitate those engaged in it.

They say that there will be a countrywide protest from November if the government fails to meet their demands.

Corporal punishment 'widespread' in Indian schools

Punishments included hitting pupils with sticks and tying them to chairs

Corporal punishment is still widespread in India's schools, despite the fact it is illegal, according to a report.

More than 65% of children on average said they had received corporal punishment, according to children's organisation Plan International.

Its report found that the majority of these children attended state schools.

Out of the 13 countries which were the subjects of the research, India was ranked third in terms of the estimated economic cost of corporal punishment.

Stick beatings

The study, Prevention Pays, found discrimination by caste and gender was the major cause of violence against children in India.

Plan said many children abandoned school because of the punishments, which included hitting pupils with hands or sticks, making them stand in various positions for long periods and tying them to chairs.

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Corporal punishment in India
Reports by children
State	Yes (%)	No (%)
Source: Plan/Ministry of Children and Child Development
Andhra Pradesh	50.03	46.97
Assam	99.56	0.44
Bihar	47.45	52.55
Delhi	69.11	30.89
Goa	34.25	65.75
Gujarat	48.97	51.03
Kerala	57.58	42.42
Madhya Pradesh	48.73	51.27
Maharashtra	75.9	24.1
Mizoram	90.86	9.14
Rajasthan	17.87	82.13
Uttar Pradesh	81.59	18.41
West Bengal	55.56	44.44
Total	65.01	34.99

Plan's report is taken from research carried out by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), a UK think tank.

The ODI based its research on several sources, including Indian government data about child abuse in the country.

Delhi's Ministry of Women and Child Development interviewed more than 3,000 school children in 2007 to find out the extent of corporal punishment.

In total, nearly 12,500 children aged between five and 18 years old, including many who did not attend school, from 13 states took part in the research; more than half of them said they had faced sexual abuse.

The study found that more boy students (54%) suffered corporal punishment than girls (45%).

Students in the states of Assam, Mizoram and Uttar Pradesh reported the highest rates of corporal punishment, while Rajasthan and Goa had the lowest.

Plan said the main causes of violence against young Indians, including in schools, was discrimination on the basis of caste and gender; "societal acceptance of violence as a form of discipline"; and a general lack of awareness about children's rights.

The study found there were on average at least five beatings of students per day in the schools included in the survey.

Teachers tended to justify their actions by saying they were overburdened with too many pupils.

The study found that even many students believed corporal punishment was sometimes necessary.

Plan reckons anything between $1.4bn and $7.4bn was being lost every year in India in social benefits because of school violence.

The cost is based on estimates of how the larger economy is affected by the impact of corporal punishment on pupils' attendance and academic performance.

Only the US and Brazil suffered a greater economic cost because of corporal punishment, according to the research.

Plan said it had introduced a campaign to raise awareness about the impact of violence on children, Learn Without Fear, in seven Indian states.

The other 10 countries involved in Plan's study were Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Jordan and Egypt.

Caste discrimination in the UK could be outlawed

Theresa May is expected to make a decision on legislation in the new year

Discrimination on the grounds of caste exists in the UK, research suggests.

The study, by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, found evidence of harassment in the workplace, in the provision of services and in education.

The government will now consider the evidence to determine whether there is a serious enough problem to impose a legal ban on caste discrimination.

The prejudice affects members of the mainly Hindu and Sikh communities.

A person's caste is their historic social standing and often refers to their forefathers' occupation.

Bullying

Someone who works with animal products or in domestic services is often regarded as being of a lower caste than someone who is a landowner or priest.

A person's surname identifies what caste they come from which can then lead to bullying.

Hindu campaigners have long argued that members of the lower caste - referred to as Dalits or "untouchables" - suffer unfair treatment at the hands of higher caste members, even in second generation UK Asian communities.

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“Start Quote

I have a customer, who is from a higher caste than me and she refuses to make any physical contact with me”

End Quote
Reena Jaisiah

Reena Jaisiah, 30, from Coventry, said she had been the victim of harassment throughout her whole life because she was of a lower caste.

"It started when I was at school, I experienced bullying and name calling," she said.

''It really affected my self-esteem and made me feel low and inferior."

Reena runs a family newsagents in Coventry and said the harassment continues now.

''I have a customer, who is from a higher caste than me and she refuses to make any physical contact with me.

"She will never taken any change from me because she doesn't want to touch me. This is a shocking practice of caste prejudice in this country,'' she said.

Caste discrimination has not been explicitly covered by British legislation before and ministers have previously said they did not think it was a problem in the workplace.

The report, which is due to be published this week, was commissioned by the Government Equalities Office after an amendment to the Equality Act 2010.

The findings of the report now pave the way to outlaw discrimination on grounds of caste and Home Secretary Teresa May will make the final decision which is expected early next year.

Murdered by her father for becoming a Western woman

Hina's family helped her father bury her in his back garden

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Related Stories

• Investigating 'honour killing'

Hina Saleem paid the ultimate price.

A 20-year old Pakistani woman who lived in northern Italy, she was murdered by her father who claimed he was "saving the family's honour".

Mohammed Saleem said he didn't like the way Hina was living her life and told the authorities she brought shame on his family.

So he slit her throat. Twenty-eight times.

"I didn't want to kill her," he pleads, "I wanted her to come back home".

Mohammed Saleem has spoken from his prison cell, where he's serving 30 years for the murder.

The BBC has been given access to that interview which gives a rare insight into the mind of a perpetrator of "honour killing".

Treason

"I'm a good father," insists Saleem. "My daughter was good before. She was very, very good. Then, all of a sudden, she changed."

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“Start Quote

We continue to underestimate the problem, because these ethnic groups live their own lives with little integration, especially for women”

End Quote
Souad Sbai
Association of Moroccan Women in Italy

For Mohammed Saleem, the thing that changed, "all of a sudden", was Hina's lifestyle. She had come to Italy as an Asian girl, but had grown into a Western woman.

She refused an arranged marriage, she smoked and she lived with an Italian boyfriend. For Hina, this was normal. For her father, this was treason.

To him, she represented a threat to his pride, dignity and standing in the Pakistani community.

To have a "wayward" daughter like Hina was, in his view of the world, an unacceptable challenge to his position.

For "wayward", read Western. Hina, he was saying, was effectively betraying her roots, traditions, culture and religion by embracing the more liberal life of a European teenager.

"I didn't want my daughter to be too free," Saleem says from prison.

This was murder, but it was a calculated, slow-burn murder.

'Double conflict'

Saleem said he did not want his daughter to be free

Hina's transition from the apple of her father's eye, to the victim of his murderous rage, is now the subject of a new book called Hina: This is my life.

One of the authors, Marco Ventura, says father and daughter were on a complicated collision course from the moment they arrived in Italy.

"In this story there is a double conflict," says Marco. "There is a conflict between cultures and a conflict between generations, between father and daughter."

Although the murder itself was Saleem's sole enterprise, the project was not. He garnered support from other members of the extended family to bury her in his own back garden.

He rationalises the act of burial like this: "When she died, the only thing I wanted, was to bring her back home."

The co-author of the new book, Giommaria Monti, has given this much thought.

"The parents no longer spoke the same language as their daughter," he says. "Burying her in the garden of the family home brought her back to where she belonged. Hina was their possession."

Global problem

Hina Saleem's murder, of course, is not unique.

The United Nations Population Fund believes that, globally, as many as 5,000 women and girls are killed each year by members of their own family in the name of "honour".

Hina's father felt his daughter's lifestyle had changed "all of a sudden"

Men, too, are targeted if, for example, they marry outside their caste or religion. But these cases are much rarer than those involving women.

The physical task of "restoring honour", of exacting a price, mostly falls to men.

The legal task of bringing the killers to justice falls to the authorities, but many countries have, what might be called, an accommodating attitude toward such honour-motivated killings.

In the penal codes of countries like Argentina, Ecuador and Syria, there is even a partial, or complete defence, for such killings.

In other words, some societies take an almost tolerant view towards "honour killings", regarding them as a kind of sub-species on the murder spectrum, especially if their purpose is to uphold widely supported virtues and standards.

In Italy itself, there was a legal defence to this form of murder until 1981. That has now been repealed.

Activists working to draw attention to the problem say Western societies must share the blame for their collective inaction.

Souad Sbai, an Italian member of Parliament, founded the Association of Moroccan Women in Italy, a group that speaks out about such cases.

"Cases of 'honour killings' represent a failure of the system of multiculturalism," she says. "We continue to underestimate the problem, because these ethnic groups live their own lives with little integration, especially for women."

"They have very little control in communities where men try to perpetuate the lives and customs they lived in their home country," says Souad.

Mohammed Saleem still feels Hina shamed him, but he now claims he regrets killing her. Not because he lost his daughter, but because of the effect of his murder on the rest of his family.

"It's not only Hina who died," he says "My whole family died. Without my son, without my wife, this is not a life," he says, with a hefty measure of self-pity.

The purpose of talking to a convicted murderer was not to evoke sympathy, but to try to understand.

Did her violent death restore his family's "honour"?

Well, as the family has now been split apart, it's a tainted, diluted kind of restoration, if it did.

Hina's appalling, avoidable, fate shows a very expensive price has been paid.

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