Category: z-Exclude

All of the RSC’s open access journals will benefit from an increased presence on the popular academic social networking site ResearchGate, under an agreement announced on 20 April. The new collaboration follows the RSC’s commitment last year to transition to a wholly open access (OA) publishing model within five years.

The approximately 1.5 million chemical scientists who use ResearchGate globally will now be able to access these publications. Through the arrangement, all version-of-record content from the RSC’s eight newly launched OA journals will be syndicated directly to ResearchGate. In addition, dedicated journal profiles will be created and made accessible on the network, and each journal will be prominently represented on all of its associated article pages on ResearchGate.

LOS ANGELES – A former doctor has been sentenced to 84 months in federal prison for scheming to defraud private insurance companies and the Tricare health care program for U.S. military service members by fraudulently submitting nearly $120 million in claims related to the 1-800-GET-THIN Lap-Band surgery business, the Justice Department announced today.

Julian Omidi, 54, of West Hollywood, was sentenced Monday evening by United States District Judge Dolly M. Gee.

Judge Gee also sentenced Surgery Center Management LLC (SCM), an Omidi-controlled Beverly Hills-based company, to five years’ probation. A separate hearing on restitution and forfeiture in this case, along with SCM’s fine, is expected in the coming weeks. 

  LONDON (AP) — A diamond and art dealer was sanctioned Tuesday by the U.K. and U.S. governments for allegedly funding Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group. The U.K. Treasury said it froze Nazem Ahmad’s assets in the U.K. because he financed the Iranian-backed Shiite militant organization that has been designated an international terrorist group. Under the sanctions, no one in the U.K. or U.S. will be able to do business with Ahmad or his businesses. “The firm action we have taken…

  After years of watching U.S. President Donald Trump flout democratic norms and the rule of law, it is easy to feel a sense of vindication from his indictment in early April by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for falsifying business records. Few objective observers doubt that the facts support this indictment or one of the many other potential indictments confronting Trump today—including those for mishandling classified documents, pressuring election officials in Georgia, and inciting the January 6 attack on…

  Ah, remember Parler? They were the first of the “alternative” social media companies targeting the Trumpist crowd, in which I pointed out that their whole “we don’t moderate” schtick wasn’t going to work. The company speed ran the content moderation learning curve faster than most. But even from the beginning, the Trumpists who joined admitted it was just no fun when they couldn’t whine about how victimized they were. Anyway, the site is dead now. You may recall there…

It doesn’t look like Fox News is going to get away with badmouthing Dominion Voting Systems for weeks following Donald Trump’s unsurprising loss in the 2020 election. Evidence already handed over to Dominion in its libel lawsuit shows many Fox News executives — as well as anchors and commentators — were aware the claims were false but chose to give them airtime anyway.   That led to the recent decision in a Delaware state court where the judge made two…

On Thursday, April 13 at 19:30 GMT: Colombia topped the list for human rights defenders killed in 2022, according to the latest report from the rights group Front Line Defenders.

There’s growing evidence that passing a comprehensive privacy law at the state level is a multiyear endeavor. There are anomalies among existing laws on the books, but most legislatures take two years or more to pass a bill.

Indiana is the latest example of how the process plays out, as it’s on the verge of adding to the pile of comprehensive state privacy laws. The Indiana House took a unanimous 98-0 vote to grant final passage to Senate Bill 5 on consumer data protection a year after the bill stalled in the same chamber.

The Indiana Senate, which already voted 49-0 to approve SB 5 on 9 Feb., will vote on concurrence, a perceived formality before the bill heads to Gov. Eric Holcomb, R-Ind., for a final signature. Holcomb has seven days upon transmission to act on the bill, with a definitive veto the only way it will not become a law.

E-commerce giant Amazon has recently banned the sale of the Flipper Zero portable multi-tool for pen-testers, citing its potential use as a card-skimming device. The move has prompted Flipper Devices’ CEO Pavel Zhovner to ask Amazon to reconsider its decision, insisting that the device is incapable of such illegal activity.

The Flipper Zero is a compact, portable, and programmable pen-testing tool that enables users to experiment with and debug various digital and hardware devices using multiple protocols, including RFID, radio, NFC, infrared, Bluetooth, and more. Since its launch, users have showcased its capabilities, including activating doorbells, conducting replay attacks to unlock cars and open garage doors, and cloning a wide range of digital keys.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday officially declared Evan Gershkovich to be “wrongfully detained” by Russia. The Wall Street Journal reporter was arrested in Yekaterinburg last month and charged with espionage. “Journalism is not a crime. We condemn the Kremlin’s continued repression of independent voices in Russia, and its ongoing war against the truth,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said in a statement. Blinken’s designation means that the State Department will now involve its office that negotiates the release of “wrongfully detained” Americans abroad, and provide “all appropriate support” for Gershkovich.

Thousands of Israelis, including ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government, marched to an evacuated Jewish outpost in the West Bank on Monday in support of settlements viewed as illegal under international law. As tensions mounted between Israelis and Palestinians, Israelis from across the country travelled to the outpost of Evyatar while waving Israeli flags and chanting religious songs and slogans during the holiday week of Passover. Israeli troops fired rubber bullets and tear gas at stone-throwing Palestinian protesters…

A video published by the Defense Ministry showed dozens of soldiers being driven home in buses and provided with food and fresh clothes. Some of them are visibly overwhelmed with emotion, while others appear exhausted. According to the Russian ministry, the soldiers included in the latest swap were in “mortal danger” while in Ukrainian captivity. The ministry did not provide any further details but said that they would be transported to Moscow for treatment and rehabilitation. All of them were…

Russian airline Aeroflot [Russian Airlines] has sent its aircraft to Iran for repairs for the first time in its history amid Western sanctions.

Source: Kremlin-aligned news outlet RBC, citing two sources close to the airline

“An Airbus A330-300 wide-body airliner with registration number RA-73700 flew to Tehran on 5 April, where the aircraft will be serviced by technicians from Mahan Air, i.e., Iran’s largest airline,” the statement said.

The mayor of Baltimore called for a summer curfew after two teenagers were shot while police were attempting to break up a large crowd of minors.

Gov’t orders Gordon Kricke to leave country within 48 hours for ‘non-respect of diplomatic customs’, ministry says. Chad’s government has ordered the German ambassador to leave the country within 48 hours, it said in a statement. “This decision of the government is motivated by the discourteous attitude and the non-respect of diplomatic customs,” the country’s communication ministry said on Twitter late on Friday. Government spokesman Aziz Mahamat Saleh urged the ambassador to “leave Chadian territory within 48 hours”. Two Chadian…

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Attorney General’s Office has paused its practice of paying for emergency contraception — and in rare cases, abortions — for victims of sexual assault, a move that drew criticism from some victim advocates. Federal regulations and state law require Iowa to pay many of the expenses for sexual assault victims who seek medical help, such as the costs of forensic exams and treatment for sexually transmitted infections. Under the previous attorney general, Democrat…