Committee for International Asperger's Year / Please Join Us as we Celebrate the Life of Hans Asperger, his legacy and the millions living with AS as children, parents, partners, spouses, family members and those "with." ...Read more.

"UNDERSTANDING THE DIFFERENCE MAKES THE DIFFERENCE" For Adults with Asperger's Syndrome, partners, parents, siblings, families, therapists, educators, employers, service providers and other interested people and groups.    ...Read more.

Autism 2005 Gives you free and direct access to over 30 autism experts from around the World. From 17th to 21st October 2005, these experts have agreed to come online to answer your questions.

RUN THE 2005 EDINBURGH MARATHON FOR THE NATIONAL AUTISTIC SOCIETY / The National Autistic Society (NAS), the UK’s leading charity for people with autism are looking for runners to take part in this year’s Edinburgh Marathon on 12th June. The NAS are looking for individuals or teams of five to represent the 50,000 people with autism in Scotland. - The 2005 Edinburgh Marathon promises to be a spectacular event with more runners than ever. The marathon route starts in Edinburgh’s Holyrood Park, at the base of Arthur’s Seat. The route will take in the historic streets of Edinburgh’s Old Town and the impressive architecture of the New Town. Highlights include Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood Palace, the Royal Yacht and Portobello beach. The NAS has places available to run as an individual, or as a team of 5 in the ‘Hairy Haggis’ Team Relay. Prizes are available for teams of five from the hospitality industry, health clubs, anyone on fancy dress and all-male or all-female teams.

Rita Jordan: More funding is needed for Asperger's support   / One of Britain's top autism experts called for more funding for support services for people with Asperger's syndrome (AS) at a conference in Norfolk on May 11. - Professor Rita Jordan joined other experts from around the country and members of the Asperger East Anglia group - including parents whose children have AS and adults with the condition - for the group's first conference at Hunters Hall in Swanton Morley, near Dereham.  Source: Eastern Daily Press

UK Government 'not happy' over autism provision - The provision for children with special educational needs (SEN) in schools "has got to get better", UK education minister Lord Filkin has said.  His comments follow an Ofsted report published last week revealing that while schools were increasingly committed to SEN there was still much to be done.  There are 90,000 to 120,000 children with autism in Britain, but the vast majority are integrated in mainstream schools.  Audit Commission figures put SEN spending in schools at around £3.5 billion, 15 per cent of the total school budget. But Lord Filkin said the Government is 'not happy about whether the system is as yet delivering good enough results," by Medical News Today

New supports for children with autism now in place across Ontario - The McGuinty Government has implemented a wider range of new supports for families of children with autism, from a child's first assessment, right through their school years, Minister of Children and Youth Services Dr. Marie Bountrogianni announced today.  "We are moving from a system that focused on the most severe cases to one that is more universal," said Bountrogianni. "These new preschool and school - based services are helping children and youth with autism gain skills and confidence that lead to greater independence."

Autism decision is turning point for autistic children in Northern Ireland - The decision to fund Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) in Northern Ireland marks a turning point in the services available to families with autistic children in Northern Ireland, according to a University of Ulster behaviour analyst.Dr Keenan, of the University's School of Psychology, has been a driving force behind the development of ABA in Northern Ireland, welcomed the Murray family's victory in gaining funding for ABA treatment for their autistic son Paul, aged seven by News.Medical.net

Autistic childrens' parents protest at Parliament - Parents of autistic children have converged on Parliament House in Canberra in a plea for better services for sufferers.
New data shows the number of people with autism has more than doubled in the last five years and services are not meeting the demand.  The photographs of 1,000 autism sufferers have been set up on white chairs on the lawns of Parliament House.  Bob Buckley from Autism Aspergers Advocacy Australia says they are hoping to give a clear message to politicians. "We can have significantly better outcomes by attending to this and that we don't really need to spend very much money at all to do that," he said. "If we use the resources that we're expending at the moment to provide an appropriate and autism specific service then we'd almost certainly get better outcomes."

Autism services to be boosted - The province is about to boost services for autistic children in schools, says a London advocate for children with the disorder. Patricia Gallin, president of the London and District chapter of the Autism Society of Ontario, said the province will soon announce the hiring of consultants on autism spectrum disorders who will work with school boards.  Nineteen consultants have been hired for Southwestern Ontario, Gallin said. "They will work with teachers who support the kids and we can only build from that," she said yesterday at the chapter's Cycle for Autism event by Hank Daniszewski

Study analyzes mental health around the world - Thousands of interviewers in 28 countries are compiling information on the prevalence, severity and treatment of mental health disorders around the world. Researchers are calling it the most complex  psychiatric epidemiological study ever attempted by Catherine Robertson Souter

Ireland to invest €5m for autism research - "The Minister for Health and Children Mr. Micheal Martin, T.D. has announced that €5m is being made available for research in Ireland in the area of autism over the next five years. The National Alliance for Autism Research (NAAR) Autism Genome Project is a large-scale, international collaborative genetics research project designed to map the human genome in the search for autism susceptibility genes - the genes responsible for the inherited risk of autism. This unprecedented endeavour is the largest research collaboration ever to focus on the genetics of autism by NewsMedical.net - Press Release

Asperger's abuse inquiry pledge - It is estimated around 48,000 children in Britain could have Asperger's, a condition under which patients can have high IQs, but lack social skills.  Experts fear some local authorities misrepresent outwardly odd behaviour and suspect parents of abuse. Those holding that view include Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, of Cambridge University. He says some councils have "turned the clock back 50 years" in their investigations of children with the syndrome. The government is to investigate claims that increasing numbers of parents of children with Asperger's Syndrome are being falsely accused of abuse by Matthew Chapman

Mental health groups urges boycott of pizza chain - A peak mental health group is calling on people to boycott a popular pizza chain during the AFL grand final because they have received complaints that their recent advertisements are insulting. Executive Director of SANE Australia Barbara Hocking says SANE runs a Stigmawatch program and it has received a lot of calls from people across Australia upset and offended by Domino Pizza's advertising campaign that brands their new pizza range as maniac pizzas. She says there are also visuals and characterisations of people on the ad acting eccentrically and this combined with the name of the pizza provides a drip down effect on the way people perceive mental illness. "So that's why we've then been calling upon those same people, plus many others who haven't maybe seen the ad, to boycott Dominos pizzas to send a very strong message to them that people with mental illness are absolutely fed up with having their illness and their character demeaned and trivialised in this way," she said. Dominos has apologised for the advertisement and says the company will be more careful in future.

The Association for Behavior Analysis International (ABA) is delighted to announce its 3rd international conference at the Kerry Centre Hotel in Beijing, China, from November 25 - 27, 2005. This landmark event will be held with the support of representatives from around the world.  We would like to invite you to submit a proposal for what could be the most significant international collaboration toward the development of behavior analysis in Southeast Asia. Submissions are now being accepted on-line only at http://www.abainternational.org/beijing/submissions.aspx. You may also download the Beijing Call for Papers as a Word (.doc) or PDF file. The deadline for all submissions is January 19, 2005. We also welcome you to visit the Beijing 2005 web site: http://www.abainternational.org/beijing/ where registration, hotel, and regional and travel information can all be viewed.  Any questions relating to this event may be directed to convention@abainternational

Research and Markets: Vaccines in the 21st Century /  Approaches and Achievements in Prophylactic and Therapeutic Vaccine Research and Development - Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com) has announced the addition of Vaccines in the 21st Century to their offering. A new era in vaccine development has arrived: the era of rational design. The earliest vaccines were fairly crude, empirical formulations. Today, the technology to produce DNA-based vaccines and an intimate knowledge of the immune system enables the identification of the epitopes needed to target the development of highly targeted vaccines - DUBLIN, Ireland--(BUSINESS WIRE)

Clinical Trial Registration: A Statement from the International Committee of
Medical Journal Editors - "Congratulations to the editors of the medical journals which signed this statement calling on drug companies to release all research data on clincial trials of new pharmaceuticals, including negative as well as positive results."  ...Read their statement.

AUTISM AGONY OF 3400 SCOTS KIDS  - MORE than 3400 kids in Scotland have autism, a report has revealed. But there are shocking regional variations in the rates of the developmental disorder. First ever study into disorder. Exclusive by Judith Duffy

EDITORIAL:Helping the disabled - Bill offers needed support to the learning disabled.
A nonpartisan group of lawmakers is preparing to submit a bill supporting people with a range of developmental disorders to the upcoming extraordinary Diet session.
The legislation covers learning disabilities which can affect one's ability to learn in specific areas like reading, writing and arithmetic; attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which is marked by inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity; and such social disabilities as autism and Asperger Syndrome, the sufferers of which have a difficult time communicating and relating to others. - Tokyo,Japan

Increase in autism 'due to problems with births' - "A LANDMARK study has found evidence linking the growing number of autism cases among Irish children to problems at birth. The research, conducted by Dr Alvaro Ramirez, a Nicaraguan doctor based in Ireland, claims that the rising rate of autism is linked to a susceptibility to infection among children who experience birth traumas either through difficult deliveries or induced births," by The Irish Independent