By: Brady Dennis, 11/04/2013

Federal investigators accused a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary of promoting Risperdal for controlling anxiety and aggression in elderly dementia patients, as well as for treating behavioral problems in other “vulnerable” populations, such as children and the mentally disabled, even though the Food and Drug Administration initially approved the drug only for schizophrenia. Officials said the company also promoted off-label uses for Invega and “made false and misleading statements about its safety and efficacy.”

In addition, Justice officials said another Johnson & Johnson subsidiary undertook an “aggressive campaign” to market Natrecor for some patients with less severe heart disease than the drug was designed to treat.

Anonymous Philippines has called on the public to join the “revolution” today. “The government, in many ways, has failed its citizens,” the group said on its Facebook page. “Fairness, justice and freedom are more than just words.”

In Singapore, a website owned by the city’s biggest newspaper publisher was temporarily shut yesterday after being hacked on Nov. 1. A video uploaded on the YouTube website last week showed a person in a Guy Fawkes mask threatening to bring down Singapore’s infrastructure to protest Internet regulations.

Anonymous Indonesia said on its Twitter page that it had infiltrated more than 100 Australian sites in response to reports of spying by Australia.

More detailed on: Bloomberg.com

By: ANAHAD O’CONNOR, 11/03/2013

Americans spend an estimated $5 billion a year on unproven herbal supplements that promise everything from fighting off colds to curbing hot flashes and boosting memory. But now there is a new reason for supplement buyers to beware: DNA tests show that many pills labeled as healing herbs are little more than powdered rice and weeds.

Using a test called DNA barcoding, a kind of genetic fingerprinting that has also been used to help uncover labeling fraud in the commercial seafood industry, Canadian researchers tested 44 bottles of popular supplements sold by 12 companies. They found that many were not what they claimed to be, and that pills labeled as popular herbs were often diluted — or replaced entirely — by cheap fillers like soybean, wheat and rice.

Eastern Libya has declared an autonomous regional government with an official ceremony, challenging the country's weak central government that failed to assume unifying power over rebels and various tribes since the 2011 war toppled Muammar Gaddafi.Leaders of an autonomy movement met on Sunday in the small town of Ajdabiya to launch the government under the name of Barqa, or Cyrenaica as it is also known, supporters said.