The National Housing Federation, which represents England's housing associations, says that a 'work or lose your home' policy for social housing tenants would be unfair and impossible to enforce. Chief executive of the National Housing Federation David Orr said: "Efforts to help social housing tenants into work are very welcome. But threatening tenants with the loss of their home is absolutely the wrong way to go about it. "Such a policy would be unfair and impossible to enforce. Many of the jobs open to people, especially at the lower skills end, are insecure or temporary. Also, people with health problems, such as mental health issues may find there are periods when they cannot keep up their job. "Instead of taking a punitive approach, the Government should build upon the successful employment schemes already being run by housing associations around the country.

Third of malpractice suits are related to surgery: foundation

Nearly one in three medical malpractice disputes that the Taiwan Health Reform Foundation dealt with last year involved harm done during surgery, a spokesman said yesterday.

The spokesman said that the foundation had received 471 pleas over medical disputes last year.

In 12 key dispute points, the most common occurrences include surgery-caused deaths, injury and wound infections, as well as malpractice, such as misplacing a surgical tool in the patient's body.

Other dispute points related to malpractice include bad communications between patients and doctors, diagnosis mistakes, prescription mistakes, case history forgery and other administrative mistakes, the spokesman said.

Meanwhile, statistics from the Department of Health's (DOH) Bureau of Medical Affairs shows that its medical affairs review committee had completed probes into 5,381 medical disputes between the 1987 when the Medical Services Act (k) went into effect and the end of last year.

14th Annual Hedge Fund Institutional Investment Conference

Henry Swieca is Co-Founder and has served as the Chief Investment Officer of Highbridge since its inception in 1992. In 1984, Mr. Swieca, along with his partner, Glenn Dubin, founded HCM's predecessor firm, Dubin & Swieca, an asset management company specializing in alternative investment strategies. HCM, along with its predecessor firm, is widely recognized as being one of the pioneers in advocating and employing multi-manager portfolio structures guided by the principles of Modern Portfolio Theory. Mr. Swieca began his career in 1979 at Merrill Lynch & Co. as a registered representative. In 1982, Mr. Swieca was one of the original floor traders on the New York Futures Exchange where he traded equity index options and futures. Mr. Swieca then joined Dillon Read & Co. as an advisor to institutional investors.

Obama vs. the N.E.A.?

Most victims of poisonous trailers are probably a) not Katrina victims and b) actually paying good money for their carcinogenic trailers. 2) Is FEMA using the formaldehyde issue as a prod to move people out of the trailers--something it's apparently been trying to do for a while, perhaps to avoid creating a permanent class of free-trailer dwellers? In other words, maybe FEMA wants this scandal (and the press is obligingly giving it to them). ... 11:56 P.M.

If a Hispanic who has performed as poorly and prominently as Patti Solis Doyle can't be fired without her employer getting grief from Hispanic leaders, isn't that a pretty big disincentive to hiring a Hispanic in the first place? Message: Stick to white males--if they screw up, you can sack them and nobody will whine.

Swarovski and Superdrug fastest growing Christmas etailers

Swarovski and Superdrug were the two fastest growing UK etailers over the Christmas period, according to Nielsen Online research released today. The crystal specialist and health and beauty giant saw a 201% growth to 355,000 unique users and a 177% increase to 338,000 users respectively throughout November and December, compared to the same period the year before. They were followed by Matalan (126%), Morrisons (120%) and Ernest Jones (111%). Overall, Ebay... .

International Diabetes Experts Call for Stepped-Up Action and Shared ...

NEW YORK, Nov. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- The Global Partnership for Effective Diabetes Management today called for an overhaul in the world's attitude and approach toward diabetes treatment and prevention in order to reverse the rising diabetes epidemic recently recognised by the first United Nations (UN) World Diabetes Day. In a new publication titled UN Resolution on Diabetes: "Time to Put Fine Words into Action," the Global Partnership urges national governments, the general population and the global diabetes community to take action and share responsibility in the global fight against diabetes. The new publication appears in the December issue of the International Journal of Clinical Practice and is currently available online at the journal's Web site (http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/toc/ijcp/61/s157).

Europe's Disintegration and Decline

Dr. Bruce S. Thornton is a professor of Classics and humanities at California State University in Fresno. He is also a well-known conservative commentator and the author of the recently released Decline and Fall: Europe's Slow-Motion Suicide. His essays and articles have appeared at numerous venues over the years including Frontpagemag.com, Intercollegiate Review, National Review Online, The San Francisco Examiner, California Republic, Religious Studies Review, The Washington Times, Los Angeles Times, and the American Journal of Philology. Dr. Thornton published several works before Decline and Fall such as Plagues of the Mind: The New Epidemic of False Knowledge, Greek Ways: How the Greeks Created Western Civilization, Searching for Joaquin: Myth and History in California, and A Student's Guide to Classics.

Chris Matthews: Defeat Means Troops Still in Iraq--What About WWII?

Did you know that the US is still at war with Korea, Germany, Japan, Bosnia and Kosovo? Based on “Hardball" host Chris Matthews' recent claims, we are still at war with those countries and will be until our troops leave their soil. (h/t Weasel Zippers)

On his November 28 show (transcript here), MSNBC's Matthews discussed Iraq with Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, wondering when “will we be able to come home." In the process, the former Carter speechwriter said, “If we can't ever come home, we can't ever say we won."

New Finding May Help Explain Development Of Preeclampsia

ScienceDaily (Feb. 11, 2008) — In a study of pregnant women, those with pregnancy-induced high blood pressure were found to have higher levels of a peptide that raises blood pressure in the pieces of tissue linking mother and fetus, according to researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. The finding, reported online in the journal Hypertension, may help explain how the disorder develops.