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U.S. News
Hate rising amongst McCain Supporters
Ed Henry and Ed Hornick
CNN
2008-10-10 19:39:00
With recent polls showing Sen. Barack Obama's lead increasing nationwide and in several GOP-leaning states, some Republicans attending McCain-Palin campaign rallies have taken on a new emotion: Rage.
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McCain's Chilling Dance With the Dark Side
Jonathan Capehart
Washington Post
2008-10-10 19:28:00
So the McCain camp is trying to raise doubts about Barack Obama -- even though the Illinois senator has been on the national stage for four years and has been under the presidential campaign microscope for the last 20 months. They seem to have no qualms appealing to the cultural fears of their agitated, and now energized, base by practically branding Obama as un-American or anti-American. And this is eliciting an ugliness at McCain-Palin events that is justifiably raising alarms that some nut job is going to act on the Republican ticket's cynical campaigning.
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Nuke worker used crib sheet during warhead assembly
Frank Munger
Knoxnews.com
2008-10-09 18:45:00
Oak Ridge - No cheating allowed.
Y-12 officials confirmed that warhead assembly operations were suspended earlier this year after it was learned that a worker used handwritten crib notes - a violation of procedures - to help recall the size of parts.
An error reportedly occurred during the assembly operation as a direct result of the operator using the cheat sheet. The worker had copied the part sizes from a specification sheet for a different nuclear weapons unit than the one actually being put together.
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Zionist fingerprint on anti-Obama 'fake poll' smear campaign
Ewen MacAskill
The Guardian (UK)
2008-10-10 17:05:00
Barack Obama's campaign for the White House is receiving increasing complaints about scam pollsters involved in dirty tricks operations to discredit the Democratic candidate.
Victims claim the fake pollsters work insinuations into their questions, designed to damage Obama. Those targeted in swing states such as Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania include Jews, Christian evangelicals, Catholics and Latinos.
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Flashback: John McCain Kicks Librarian Out of Town Hall Event
SOTT report
2008-10-10 05:02:00
On orders from Senator John McCain's security detail, Denver police escorted away a 61-year-old woman who was waiting in line to attend a town hall meeting with John McCain.
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Sheriff in Chicago halts foreclosure evictions
Reuters
2008-10-09 23:02:00
The sheriff of the third-most populous U.S. county halted evictions on foreclosed properties on Thursday, saying innocent tenants were being put on the street. But bankers said he was breaking the law.
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said he understood he was flouting the law in refusing to have deputies carry out the rising number of eviction requests, but mortgage holders must be accountable.
"These mortgage companies only see pieces of paper, not people, and don't care who's in the building," Dart said.
The eviction moratorium applied to any home, apartment building or condominium facing mortgage foreclosure. Other evictions due to such issues as failing to pay rent would continue, Dart said.
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UK & Euro-Asian News
UK: Gyrocopter pilot killed in crash
BBC News
2008-10-09 17:21:00
A 58-year-old pilot died when a gyrocopter crashed into a field in north Dorset, police have said.
An eyewitness said he saw a "fireball hurtling to the ground" shortly after watching another aircraft land safely.
Emergency services were called to the scene at Kington Magna near Gillingham at about 1900 BST. The victim is thought to be a man from Blandford.
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Russia Fleet to Venezuela Nuke Free
Pensa Latina
2008-10-09 18:36:00
The Russian navy squadron to hold joint naval drills with Venezuelan forces does not carry nuclear weapons, said Foreign Minister spokesman Andrei Nesterenko.
Nesterenko told RIA Novosti news agency that the Tlatelolco Treaty Bans Nuclear Weapons from Latin America but does not forbid atomic powered units like the "Peter the Great" cruiser.
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'Sovereignty threat' after European parliament adopts flag and anthem
The Daily Telegraph
2008-10-10 18:01:00
The European parliament has officially adopted an anthem and flag which were left out of the Lisbon treaty for fears they appeared federalist.
Beethoven's Ode to Joy, the final movement of his choral ninth symphony, will be used to open the parliament after each election and for formal sittings where heads of state are present.
The blue flag with 12 gold stars will be flown on all parliament buildings and displayed in parliament meeting rooms and official events.
While the symbols were agreed on in 1985 by EU heads of state, they have not been formally enshrined lest the union appear too like a sovereign state.
Timothy Kirkhope, a Conservative member of the European parliament, said he would refuse to stand for the anthem at sessions.
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I survived the Georgian war. Here's what I saw.
Lira Tskhovrebova
The Christian Science Monitor
2008-10-08 17:59:00
I blame Georgia's leaders.
Tskhinvali, South Ossetia - In a speech before the United Nations last month, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili implored world leaders to set up an international investigation to find out the truth about the war in South Ossetia.
I couldn't agree more. But I think the results of an honest investigation would reveal a very different "truth" than what President Saakashvili claims.
I know this because I was in Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, on Aug. 7 when Georgian troops marched into the city and killed my friends and neighbors. I huddled with my family in terror for three nights while Saakashvili's tanks and rockets destroyed hundreds of our homes, desecrated cemeteries, gutted schools and hospitals.
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Investigators unsure what caused Spanish crash
Paul Haven
Associated Press
2008-10-09 17:52:00
Madrid, Spain - The first official report into the crash of a SpanAir passenger jet said Thursday that investigators are still focusing on a problem with the plane's wing flaps and the failure of a cockpit alarm to sound, but that no conclusions have been reached as to why the plane went down.
The Civil Aviation report into the Aug. 20 accident was similar to a draft leaked to Spanish media three weeks ago. A total of 154 people died in the accident, Spain's worst air disaster in 25 years. Eighteen people survived.
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Woman kept prisoner at home by her own husband for 50 years
Lucy Cockcroft
The Daily Telegraph
2008-10-09 17:50:00
A woman in Italy was kept a prisoner in her own home by her husband for 50 years, police have revealed.The wife was only allowed out of the house when accompanied by him, and was not allowed to speak with anyone else.
She raised the alarm when she was admitted to a hospital at Trento, a few miles from her home in the nearby Val di Non in northern Italy, for heart trouble.
She told doctors that her jealous husband had kept her a prisoner in their home virtually since the day they married in 1958.
The couple, who were not identified, are both in their seventies and are believed to have two grown-up children.
He locked her inside the house when he went out, and would not even let her watch the television.
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Around the World
Canada: Xstrata Workers at Kidd Copper Plant Start Strike
Jesse Riseborough
Bloomberg
2008-10-01 21:11:00
Xstrata Plc, the world's fourth- largest producer of the metal, said workers started a strike at the Kidd Creek copper plant in Ontario after talks with a labor union over a new work contract broke down.
The Kidd facility, home to the world's deepest copper and zinc mine, produced 63,768 metric tons of copper cathode and 19,488 tons of copper in concentrate in the six months ended June 30, according to a report from Zug, Switzerland-based Xstrata. The company announced a C$121 million ($114 million) expansion of the Kidd mine on Aug. 6 to extend mining operations at the site.
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Suspected U.S. missile strikes in Pakistan kill 9
Associated Press
2008-10-09 20:57:00
A suspected U.S. missile strike targeted two areas in a Pakistani tribal region near the Afghanistan border on Thursday, killing at least nine people, Pakistani intelligence officials said.
Also Thursday, bombings targeting police killed 10 people and wounded 14 in Pakistan's volatile northwest and the capital - reminders of the challenge facing the country as its lawmakers pursue a national anti-terror consensus.
The alleged missile strikes appeared to be part of a surge in U.S. cross border assaults from Afghanistan on alleged militant targets in Pakistan, which have strained ties between the two anti-terror allies.
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Twin suicide attacks in Pakistan leave 16 dead, 10 injured
Rezaul H. Laskar
Press Trust of India
2008-10-09 20:50:00
Islamabad - Weeks after carrying out a bloody suicide bombing in the heart of Pakistan's capital, suspected militants struck again on a high security police complex here and also hit a jail van in NWFP, killing 16 and injuring ten.
The casualties were less in the police lines complex attack in Islamabad as the suicide bomber struck the Anti Terrorism Squad office when most of the security personnel were out on patrol in view of the joint session of the Parliament reviewing strategy to combat upsurge in violence.
Though initial reports had put the casualty figure at eight killed, the Islamabad Chief Commissioner Kamran Lashari later said ten people were injured.
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Suicide bomber kills at least 20 in Pakistan
Laura King
Los Angeles Times
2008-10-07 18:23:00
More than 60 others are injured during a holiday celebration. Police said the attack was aimed at lawmaker Rashid Akbar Khan Nawani, who was injured but survived.
A suicide bomber set off his explosives Monday while trying to force his way into an opposition politician's home in eastern Pakistan, killing at least 20 people and injuring more than 60 others during a holiday celebration.
The targeted lawmaker, Rashid Akbar Khan Nawani, who is a member of Pakistan's minority Shiite Muslim community, was injured but survived, police said. Hundreds of people were attending a party inside the compound to mark the end of the Islamic festival of Eid al-Fitr.
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Peru says 19 killed in bomb attack
The Standard
2008-10-10 18:54:00
Peru's military command says a bomb has killed 12 soldiers and seven civilians in the country's southeastern mountains, and that the Shining Path is likely responsible.
If proven, this would be the biggest loss of life caused by the Peruvian subversives in years.
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Attackers dressed as police kill 11 in Mexico bar
The Standard
2008-10-10 18:52:00
Attackers dressed as police officers opened fire in a bar in Mexico's northern Chihuahua state, killing 11 people, authorities said.
Police were searching for the trucks used in the attack, which were caught on the bar's security cameras.
At least 19 people died in separate attacks overnight in Chihuahua State, Mexico's most violent, including four police.
Suspected drug-related attacks have claimed almost 3,500 lives so far this year across Mexico.
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Big Brother
NSA Eavesdropping 'Outrageous' and 'Disturbing,' Critics Say
Justin Rood
ABC News
2008-10-10 19:05:00
A Senate panel is probing claims top secret government workers eavesdropped on communications from American service members, journalists and aid workers overseas.
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Spies speak out: Inside Account of U.S. Eavesdropping on Americans
Brian Ross, Vic Walter, and Anna Schecter
ABC News
2008-10-09 11:01:00
U.S. Officers' "Phone Sex" Intercepted; Senate Demanding Answers
Despite pledges by President George W. Bush and American intelligence officials to the contrary, hundreds of US citizens overseas have been eavesdropped on as they called friends and family back home, according to two former military intercept operators who worked at the giant National Security Agency (NSA) center in Fort Gordon, Georgia.
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Axis of Evil
McCain-Palin campaign's attacks on Obama: a whiff of fascism
Bill Van Auken, Socialist Equality Party candidate for vice president
World Socialist Web Site
2008-10-10 19:42:00
Faced with dwindling poll numbers and an increasingly hostile political environment created by the economy's dizzying downward spiral, the Republican campaign of John McCain and Sarah Palin has responded with a virulently right-wing appeal directed to the most politically backward layers in America.
Campaign rallies for the Republican presidential and vice-presidential candidates have taken on an increasingly angry and even violent tone.
Virulent denunciations of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama delivered by Palin at campaign rallies in Florida this week were met with shouts from the crowd of "treason" and, in one case, "kill him."
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US Report Declares Herat Strike "Legitimate Self-Defense"
Antiwar.com
2008-10-09 19:15:00
A late August US air strike in Herat Province which killed at least 90 civilians, most of them children, according to both the United Nations and the Afghan government has been a matter of continuing embarrassment for international forces and a source of tension between the troops and the Afghan populace. The United States long disputed the civilian toll, saying even after condemnations by Afghan President Hamid Karzai that they were "very confident" that only militants were killed, but finally has raised the number of civilians killed to 33.
Rather than admitting that their initial findings were in error however, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said simply that "sometimes the truth can change." They had previously accused Afghans who spoke of a higher death toll of spreading "outrageous Taliban propaganda."
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McCain and Sarah Palin: Till Death Do They Part? And If So, How Soon? Is McCain A Lot Sicker Than We Know?
Alexander Cockburn
Counterpunch
2008-10-10 19:13:00
In the crucial final weeks of the campaign John McCain is mostly doing only one event a day. This is the man of whom his primary care physician at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona, said to journalists in a conference call last May 23: "At the present time, Sen. McCain enjoys excellent health and displays extraordinary energy." He looked tired and sick in the second debate in Nashville. As Sarah Palin rabble-rouses the crowds with calls for Obama to be forthright, she may be wondering, "how forthright has John McCain been with me? If he wins on November 4, will I be president in six months or a year?"
But if McCain's battle with melanoma has suddenly turned critical, wouldn't his doctors feel compelled to divulge their knowledge about the candidate? The answer is No. The legal penalties under HIPAA (the medical privacy act) for disclosure of protected health information, without that patient's consent, are extremely serious.
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Vatican Flaunts Gross Hypocrisy, calls Democrats "A Party of Death"
Len Hart
The Existentialist Cowboy
2008-10-06 16:29:00
A 'religion' responsible for millions of deaths over hundreds of years labels 'democrats' a 'party of death'. Selective memory or deliberate lie?
The Vatican --of course --has a really 'great' record on 'death'!
I am being sarcastic.
The Prefect of the Vatican's Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature has accused the U.S. Democratic party of "transforming itself into a party of death". Raymond Burke, former Archbishop of St. Louis, lashed out at high profile Catholics - vice presidential candidate Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi - for misrepresenting Church teaching on abortion.
--Vatican labels U.S. Democrats 'party of death'
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Palins Repeatedly Pressed Case Against Trooper
Serge F. Kovaleski
The New York Times
2008-10-10 04:36:00
The 2007 state fair was days away when Alaska's public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, took another call about one of his troopers, Michael Wooten. This time, the director of Gov. Sarah Palin's Anchorage office was on the line.
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Palin pre-empts state report, clears self in probe
Matt Apuzzo
Associated Press
2008-10-10 04:25:00
Trying to head off a potentially embarrassing state ethics report on GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, campaign officials released their own report Thursday that clears her of any wrongdoing.
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Middle East Madness
US Congress shelves Iran draft war resolution
Jumana Al Tamimi
Gulf News
2008-10-10 17:57:00
Dubai: The US Congress has shelved recently a draft resolution calling for a naval blockade on Iran in a sign that shows it won't approve starting a war with Iran, Iranian-American activists said.
Many analysts in both Tehran and Washington, meanwhile, believe the global financial crisis, the upcoming US presidential elections and the "shift" in Israeli strategies in dealing with Iran, all eliminate the military option for the near future, at least.
"There were a group of organisations, who made an efficient effort in pointing out to the members of congress that the language of the draft was potentially very dangerous," said Tripta Parsi, founder and president of the National Iranian-American Council (NIAC).
"It could (have) opened the door for interpretation of a naval blockade on Iran, which, according to international law, is an act of war," Parsi added in an interview with Gulf News. NIAC played a vital role in defeating the draft resolution and shelving it ultimately before the end of the legislative session.
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Israeli forces prevent residents of Tell from harvesting their olives
oPt
2008-10-09 17:18:00
Israeli forces marked the beginning of the olive harvest season by forcing Palestinian farmers from their lands in Tell.
After the recent rain in Palestine, the 2008 Olive Harvest Campaign was launched today, ten days earlier than planned. For more information on the campaign please click here
On Sunday 5th October, approximately twenty farmers attempted to harvest olives from their lands adjacent to the notoriously violent Israeli settlement of Harvat Gilad. Whilst the Palestinian olive harvest does not officially begin until 10th October, farmers from Tell, a village near Nablus, felt compelled to start harvesting their olives early, due to the fact that settlers stole all olives from nearby lands the previous year.
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Jewish Extremist riots rampage through Israeli city on Yom Kippur
BBC
2008-10-09 16:54:00
Riots have broken out in the mixed city of Acre, reportedly triggered when an Israeli Arab man drove his car during the Yom Kippur religious holiday.
Dozens of cars and shops were damaged as hundreds of people took to the streets, Haaretz newspaper reported.
For Jews, Yom Kippur is a sombre day of fasting, during which it is considered offensive to drive in much of Israel.
The Arab man was reportedly attacked by youths who said he was making noise intentionally, Haaretz said.
The Arab man is reported to have said he was simply driving to a property he owned in the eastern part of the city.
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Bypassing Bethlehem's Eastern Reaches
Nate Wright
Middle East Report Online
2008-10-07 16:00:00
The town of Bayt Sahour spills down the hills to the east of Bethlehem, spreading out along ridges and valleys that mark the beginning of the long descent to the Dead Sea. Up the slopes the roads carve out twisting rivers of dirt and asphalt, wending their way through clusters of soft brown stone houses, but across the ridges they run straight and smooth.
At the end of one of these roads lies a hill called 'Ush Ghurab, known to Israelis as Shdema, the name of the military base that sat on the summit until 2006. Today there are only a few hollowed-out buildings, thick concrete blocks with gaping windows and doorways set low behind earthen walls, to remind visitors of the previous occupants. On the northern slope, small pillboxes stare out vacantly over Bayt Sahour and Bethlehem.
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Water crisis in Gaza
Missionary International Service News Agency
2008-10-09 04:25:00
"Israel violated international law by creating a water crisis in the Gaza Strip", accuses a report released by the Palestinian Union of Agricultural Committees, denouncing the "drastic reduction in water sources in Palestinian territory since Israel has built several small dams to block surface water that used to reach Gaza through river valleys". According to the study, groundwater has become the main water resource for 1.5 million people in Gaza, who consume 86 litres of water per person per day: "short of the 100 litres recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as the minimum quantity for basic consumption", says the researcher Alaa Matar, who carried out the study, underlining that "by contrast Israelis consume 330 liters per person per day".
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Syria confirms detaining of two U.S. citizen for illegal entry
Xinhua
2008-10-09 20:24:00
The Syrian foreign ministry confirmed on Thursday that the country's security authorities have detained two U.S. citizens who entered illegally into its lands without visas, the official SANA news agency reported.
The report said that Holli Chmela, 27, and Taylor Luck, 23 were arrested Thursday after they crossed into Syria with the help of smugglers.
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Grand Theft Economics
Uranium One Dominion Mineworkers Strike for Third Day
Carli Lourens
Bloomberg
2008-10-09 21:47:00
Uranium One Inc. said 80 percent of workers at its Dominion South Africa mine are on an illegal strike for a third day, halting production.
"We're doing everything in our power to get them back to work as soon as possible,'' Robert van Niekerk, executive vice president of technical services, said by phone today. Workers have ignored "several ultimatums,'' he said.
Former employees dismissed for misconduct "encouraged'' about 2,000 workers to strike on Oct. 7, Van Niekerk said. The disruption will hinder the company's efforts to regain investor confidence after missing production targets this year and last, and following an 85 percent slump in its shares so far in 2008.
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Boeing strike hits airlines and metal makers
Bill Rigby
Reuters
2008-10-09 21:20:00
The month-long strike by Boeing Co's aircraft workers is starting to spoil airlines' expansion plans and eat into the profits of parts suppliers and metals makers around the world.
The strike has been pushed out of the headlines by the global financial crisis, but its effects are slowly gathering force and may cause serious disruptions if no resolution is reached by the end of the year, which some analysts fear.
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U.S. Stocks end worst week mixed after wild session
Tim Paradis
Associated Press
2008-10-10 20:40:00
NEW YORK - Wall Street capped its worst week ever with a wild session Friday that left stocks with a widely mixed finish. Late-day buying helped curb steep losses and gave the market its best showing of the week as investors snapped up bargains among stocks devastated by seven days of massive losses.
The Nasdaq composite index finished with a modest gain, while the Dow Jones industrials lost 128 points, a relatively mild drop after the blue chips fell 2,271 during the previous eight trading days. Still, the Dow, which traded in a range of 1,019 points Friday, had its worst week ever, as did the Standard & Poor's 500 index.
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Berlusconi Says Leaders May Close World's Markets (Update1)
Steve Scherer
Bloomberg
2008-10-10 17:29:00
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said political leaders are discussing the idea of closing the world's financial markets while they "rewrite the rules of international finance.''
"The idea of suspending the markets for the time it takes to rewrite the rules is being discussed,'' Berlusconi said today after a Cabinet meeting in Naples, Italy. A solution to the financial crisis "can't just be for one country, or even just for Europe, but global.''
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell as much 8.1 percent in early trading and pared most of those losses after Berlusconi's remarks. The Dow was down 0.5 percent to 8540.52 at 10:10 in New York.
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Nikkei dives, eyeing biggest fall since '87 crash
Reuters
2008-10-10 17:16:00
TOKYO - The Nikkei average tumbled more than 11 percent on Friday, leaving it facing its biggest one-day drop since the 1987 stock market crash on fears the financial crisis will lead to a global recession.
While the index later recovered a little, the early stock sell-off led the Osaka Stock Exchange to trigger a circuit-breaker and briefly halt trade in Nikkei futures.
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Financial Crisis: Gordon Brown demands £20 bn 'British money' from Iceland
The Daily Telegraph
2008-10-10 15:03:00
Gordon Brown has issued a public threat to Iceland, demanding the return of up to £20 billion belonging to British savers, companies and local councils.
The Prime Minister said Britain would seize the assets of Icelandic companies and take "further action against the authorities" over the collapse of the island's banks.
The diplomatic row, which has echoes of the Cod Wars of the 1970s, erupted after it emerged that more than 100 local authorities have deposits in Iceland. They stand to lose a total of more than £1 billion. British companies are said to have as much as £12 billion in the failed banks and individual savers more than £6 billion.
Unless the Icelandic government agrees to return the cash, British taxpayers will have to foot the bill to bail out local councils and other public bodies. This would come through increases in council tax or Treasury funds. It would mean the Government spending more public money because of the financial crisis after staking £500 billion in an attempt to rescue British banks.
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The Living Planet
Volcanic Eruptions More Complex And Harder To Predict
Science Daily
2008-10-10 18:06:00
New research by a team of US and UK scientists into volcanoes has found that they function in a far more complex way than previously thought, making future eruptions even harder to predict.
Although the Soufrière Hills volcano on the Caribbean island of Montserrat exhibits cycles of eruption and quiet, the international team of researchers found that magma is continuously supplied from deep in the crust but that a valve acts below a shallower magma chamber, releasing lava to the surface periodically.
"Continuous records of surface deformation are available for only a few volcanoes," says Derek Elsworth, professor of energy and geo-environmental engineering, Penn State. "The Soufrière Hills volcano has been erupting since 1995 and provides a peek into the processes occurring deep beneath this stratovolcano."
Stratovolcanoes are one of the most common forms of volcano on Earth. They are cone-shaped with steep sides created by episodic eruptions of magma that flow down from the cone a short way and create layer upon layer of volcanic material.
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Nature loss 'dwarfs bank crisis'
Richard.Black
BBC NEws
2008-10-10 04:44:00
Barcelona - The global economy is losing more money from the disappearance of forests than through the current banking crisis, according to an EU-commissioned study.
It puts the annual cost of forest loss at between $2 trillion and $5 trillion.
The figure comes from adding the value of the various services that forests perform, such as providing clean water and absorbing carbon dioxide.
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Canada: Mysterious green algae blankets Hamilton Harbour
Cathie Coward
Hamilton Spectator
2008-10-09 22:25:00
A green slime has hit Hamilton Harbour, coating wildlife and causing a stink.
The inlets near Macassa Bay Yacht Club and Bayfront Park have been blanketed with pungent-smelling algae, though neither the city's public health department nor local boaters know if it's dangerous.
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Health & Wellness
New Light On Link Between Snoring And Cognitive Deficits In Children
Science Daily
2008-10-10 18:38:00
About two-thirds of children with sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) - snoring or obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) - have some degree of cognitive deficit, but the severity of the cognitive deficit has been notoriously difficult to correlate to the severity of the SDB, suggesting that other important issues may be at play, or that the right factors were simply not being measured.
A new study that will be published in the first issue for November of the American Thoracic Society's American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine opens the door to understanding the complex relationship between sleep, breathing and brain function in a whole new way.
"A history of snoring is a predictor for cognitive deficit in children with SDB," said principle investigator Raouf Amin, M.D., professor of pediatrics and the director of the Division of Pulmonary Medicine at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. "However, the frequency of apnea events during sleep does not predict cognitive deficit and does not correlate with the degree of cognitive deficit. Such a paradox raised the question of whether there are some variables that we do not traditionally measure in the sleep laboratory that might modify the effect of SDB on cognition."
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Probiotics And Effectiveness In Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Science Daily
2008-10-10 18:33:00
Several studies presented at the American College of Gastroenterology's 73rd Annual Scientific Meeting in Orlando highlight the safety and efficacy of probiotics in improving symptoms and normalizing bowel movement frequency in patients suffering from constipation or diarrhea related to Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).
A systematic review of the efficacy of probiotics in IBS that included 19 randomized controlled trials in 1,628 IBS patients found that "probiotics are effective in IBS, but we do not have enough information to be sure whether there is one probiotic that is particularly effective or whether combinations of probiotics are required," according to Dr. Paul Moayyedi, the study's lead researcher. Moayyedi and co-investigators at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, FL and Rochester, MN; McMaster University in Ontario, Canada; University College in Cork, Ireland and Montefiore Medical Center in New York City, conducted this meta-analysis presented at the ACG Annual Scientific Meeting in Orlando.
Multi-Strain Probiotic for IBS Patients with Diarrhea
Dr. Gerald Friedman of The Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and co-investigator Greg Biancone conducted a multi-center analysis to determine if a multi-strain probiotic was effective in reducing the frequency of diarrhea in 84 IBS patients (IBS-D). In this small study, a multi-strain probiotic administered daily for 28 days normalized bowel habits in IBS patients compared to those who received the placebo. The average number of daily diarrheal episodes in the probiotic group significantly decreased from day 1 to day 28 compared to slight decreases in the placebo group during the same period.
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Zambia: Mysterious Disease Dangerous
The Times of Zambia
2008-10-09 18:28:00
IT is by now very clear that there is a serious problem with the mysterious disease reported and emergency measures must quickly be put in place to avoid a catastrophe.
The situation also serves as a wake up call for health authorities to take matters of regulation of stock pet and human immigration at our frontiers very seriously.
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Science & Technology
A star is born in a back garden
Jason O'Brien
Independent.ie
2008-10-10 18:56:00
The first asteroid discovered from Ireland for 160 years was confirmed in the early hours yesterday after first being spotted on Tuesday by an enthusiastic stargazer from his back garden.
"I've been doing asteroid work for a good few years but I can't think of anything better than discovering one, particularly as an amateur," said a delighted Dave McDonald yesterday.
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Astronomers Get Best View Yet Of Infant Stars At Feeding Time
Science Daily
2008-10-10 18:20:00
Astronomers have used ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer to conduct the first high resolution survey that combines spectroscopy and interferometry on intermediate-mass infant stars. They obtained a very precise view of the processes acting in the discs that feed stars as they form. These mechanisms include material infalling onto the star as well as gas being ejected, probably as a wind from the disc.
Infant stars form from a disc of gas and dust that surrounds the new star and, later, may also provide the material for a planetary system. Because the closest star-forming regions to us are about 500 light-years away, these discs appear very small on the sky, and their study requires special techniques to be able to probe the finer details.
This is best done with interferometry, a technique that combines the light of two or more telescopes so that the level of detail revealed corresponds to that which would be seen by a telescope with a diameter equal to the separation between the interferometer elements, typically 40 to 200 metres. ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) has allowed astronomers to reach a resolution of about a milli-arcsecond, an angle equivalent to the size of the full stop at the end of this sentence seen from a distance of about 50 kilometres.
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Neuroscientist Finds Transplanted Hand-to-brain Mapping 35 Years After Loss Of Limb
ScienceDaily
2008-10-09 18:11:00
Four months after a successful hand transplant -- 35 years after amputation in an industrial accident at age 19 -- a 54-year-old man's emerging sense of touch is registered in the former "hand area" of the his brain, says a University of Oregon neuroscientist.
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Can Genetic Information Be Controlled By Light?
Science Daily
2008-10-10 18:10:00
DNA, the molecule that acts as the carrier of genetic information in all forms of life, is highly resistant against alteration by ultraviolet light, but understanding the mechanism for its photostability presents some puzzling problems. A key aspect is the interaction between the four chemical bases that make up the DNA molecule. Researchers at Kiel University have succeeded in showing that DNA strands differ in their light sensitivity depending on their base sequences.
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Clue To Genetic Cause Of Fatal Birth Defect
ScienceDaily
2008-10-10 18:06:00
A novel enzyme may play a major role in anencephaly, offering hope for a genetic test or even therapy for the rare fatal birth defect in which the brain fails to develop, according to a study from researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine.
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Flashback: Astronomers decide on three new planets
ITN
2008-08-16 16:44:00
An influential group of Astronomers meeting in Prague are deciding whether our solar system has 12 planets, not nine.
They have agreed on a draft proposal for redefining what constitutes a planet.
A new kind of planet, the pluton, differs from classical planets in that they have orbits round the Sun that take longer than 200 years to complete, and their orbits are highly tilted and non-circular.
All these characteristics suggest that they have an origin different from that of classical planets.
If plutons are approved at the meeting in the Czech capital, it would mean there are 12, not nine planets, and more could be added to the list in the future.
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Our Haunted Planet
Welsh daily plots online map of UFO sightings
HoldTheFrontPage.co.uk
2008-10-10 18:21:00
An evening paper in North Wales has used the latest technology to help UFO spotters follow a series of sightings in the region.
The Evening Leader has used a third-party website to create a record of the sightings on a timeline and map which are now embedded in its own site.
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Don't Panic! Lighten Up!
Cambodian couple split house in half to avoid divorce court
Agence France-Presse
2008-10-10 19:04:00
A Cambodian couple hoping to avoid the country's convoluted divorce process have separated by sawing their house in half, local authorities said Thursday.
Husband Moeun Rim and wife Nhanh divided their house, some 90 kilometers (56 miles) northeast of the capital Phnom Penh, into two parts last month after deciding to separate, Cheach commune chief Vorng Morn told AFP by telephone.
"They agreed to split the house into two parts. The part that belongs to the husband has been removed, but the one that belongs to the wife is standing upright there. She stays there during the daytime," Vorng Morn said.
He said the couple, who are both around 40, decided to split after the husband accused the wife of not taking care of him when he was ill.
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Of Dragons and Ogres: a 'fairy tale'
David Spangenburg
OpEdNews.com
2008-10-09 11:37:00
There once was a beautiful village that lay far away across the big water. The people in the village were a unique and proud sort, and had overcome much adversity and tyranny at the hands of their previous ruler. They wanted a village that protected their uniqueness and that would grow to be the largest and richest anywhere, so they hatched a Dragon's egg for its protection. They knew that once it had grown, this Dragon would in turn protect the village from ogres and help it to prosper and grow strong.
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Google Offers 'Mail Goggles' for Drunk E-Mailers
Associated Press
2008-10-08 03:32:00
SEATTLE - Here's the scenario: It's Friday night, and what began as an innocent happy-hour margarita morphed into a few pitchers. After all, those tacos were salty.
Bidding friends adieu, you jump in a cab, head home and decide a quick e-mail check is in order. And there it is: a message from your ex. Or your boss. Or that friend you're secretly mad at.
If you're the kind of person who types tipsy and regrets it in the morning, Google's "Mail Goggles," a new test-phase feature in the free Gmail service, might save you some angst.
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