Small protests to be allowed but not in capital city. Restrictions imposed by 'state of emergency' were described as 'stifling'. No article yet, just headline as stated on Al Jazeera

The Florida AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) is facing a crisis: they are underfunded by the state, and the federal Ryan White Care Act money will not be available until April 1, 2011. Florida's ADAP is expected to shut down in early February, leaving HIV+ Floridians without access to HIV medication for 2 months. The cost of the medication, and the increased need for assistance by the HIV/AIDS community has resulted in Ryan White Care Act money funding 70% of states' ADAP to barely 50% of the states' ADAP budget. There is an ongoing effort to get drug companies to freeze or reduce drug prices for ADAP. Welvista is agreeing to provide "cap" medication access during this ADAP gap. This ADAP issue is not unique to Florida, and the question is to what extent other states will underfund (or continue to underfund) ADAP, leaving it to "Big Pharma" to make up the difference, or leave the HIV / AIDS community without life-saving medication.

More African protest against rising prices and high prices. Albeit not as pressing as Egypt.

In an effort to ramp up pressure for Peru to crack down on illegal loggers in its region of the Amazon, an indigenous rights organization has released what it says are photos of an uncontacted tribe in Brazil that is threatened by the logging across the border....An amazing photograph of the only people left who need no instruction on how to live. Sadly, there's an awful lot they could teach us. I didn't realize there were any indigenous peoples anywhere who had not been contacted by industrial civilization. -- MCR

SUGAR prices spiked to their highest level in more than 30 years as Cyclone Yasi slammed into the northern Queensland coast.

Can we use the Internet to press for action on what Secretary Clinton called “legitimate grievances,” such as banking malfeasance, corporate socialism, and the unwillingness of our elected officials to take seriously predicaments such as peak oil and climate change which are knocking at our door, threatening our very lives and livelihoods?

Cyclone Yasi, which is approaching the coast of northeast Australia, is forecast to be the most powerful cyclone to hit the country ever, Sky TV cited the country's weather bureau as saying. Yasi, which has been upgraded to a maximum-strength category five storm, is about 650 km (404 miles) off the coast of northeastern Australia and is expected to make landfall at 10 pm local time (1200 GMT) on the Queensland coast between Cairns and Innisfail. (Reporting by Ed Davies; Editing by Gyles Beckford)

A powerful cyclone bearing down on Australia was upgraded to a maximum-strength Category 5 storm, with the likelihood of serious damage and risk to life, officials said. "It's crazy in the shops. People are nearly killing themselves to get food and water before this thing hits," said Tracy Gibbons, standing in a line at a car rental desk.  

Google and Twitter are making it possible for protesters in Egypt to communicate via Twitter, now that Egypt's last working Internet service provider has gone down in the wake of ongoing protests, Al Arabiya reports. The special service created by Google, Twitter and the Google-acquired service SayNow allows people in Egypt to telephone one of three international telephone numbers and leave a voice mail message, according to The Daily Caller website. The voice mail then publishes the message to Twitter via the hashtag #egypt. You can find links to the dictated tweets at twitter.com/speak2tweet.

The Colorado River and the civilizations that it waters are in trouble.