Archive for July 12, 2010
Do sweeteners bring on early birth? How fizzy drinks can harm an unborn child
July 12, 2010 | 
Author By Sean Poulter, Consumer Affairs Editor
Concern: The study suggests pregnant women should think about how many fizzy drinks they consume (picture posed by model)
Mothers-to-be who down cans of fizzy drink containing artificial sweeteners could be at greater risk of having a premature baby.
Research funded by the EU found a correlation between the amount of diet drink consumed and an early birth among the 60,000 women studied.
Many had switched from sugary drinks to those with artificial sweeteners believing they were a healthier option.
But this study suggests that drinks using sweeteners, such as aspartame, carried dangers for the unborn child.
Some British public health experts are now advising expectant mothers to avoid food and drink containing the chemicals.
It is rare for a mother-to-be to give birth before 37 weeks of a normal pregnancy.
But the EU research suggests this low risk was increased by 38 per cent if the woman was drinking, on average, one can of diet drink a day.
Routinely drinking four or more cans a day could increase the risk by as much as 78 per cent.
However, the researchers said in a report in the journal of the American Society for Clinical Nutrition that there was no link associated with sugar-sweetened drinks.
They suggested that exposure to methanol, which is in some artificial sweeteners, may play a part in bringing forward the birth.
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Gulf Oil Disaster: Military Moving In, People Moving Out
http://vaticproject.blogspot.com/2010/07/gulf-oil-disaster-military-moving-in.html
Film maker Matt Smith, who has been in the Gulf for the last three weeks filming the Documentary “Project Gulf Impact”, shares reports from his contacts that the National Guard is moving in and setting up roadblocks, on the Phil Webber Show called The Land of Confusion . Matt also reports that people have started evacuating on their own.
http://vaticproject.blogspot.com/2010/07/gulf-oil-disaster-military-moving-in.html
Food Standards Agency to be abolished by health secretary
Victory for food manufacturers as health groups accuse Andrew Lansley of caving in to big business
Andrew Lansley, the health secretary, will ask Defra and the health department to take over the FSA’s responsibilities. Photograph: Dave Thompson/PA
The Food Standards Agency is to be abolished by Andrew Lansley, the health secretary, it emerged last night, after the watchdog fought a running battle with industry over the introduction of colour-coded “traffic light” warnings for groceries, TV dinners and snacks.
The move has sparked accusations that the government has “caved in to big business”.
As part of the changes Lansley will reassign the FSA’s regulatory aspects – including safety and hygiene – to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
Its responsibilities for nutrition, diet and public health will be incorporated into the Department of Health.
“The functions of the FSA will be subsumed into the Department of Health and Defra,” a source told Reuters.
Andrew Burnham, Labour’s health spokesman, said: “Getting rid of the FSA is the latest in a number of worrying steps that show Andrew Lansley caving in to the food industry. It does raise the question whether the health secretary wants to protect the public health or promote food companies.”
Tam Fry of the National Obesity Forum, said it was “crazy” to dismember the FSA. “It had a hugely important role in improving the quality of foodstuffs in Britain and it was vital to have at the centre of government a body that championed healthy food. This appears just the old Conservative party being the political wing of business,” Fry said.
No-name officers investigated
Critics fear individual police deliberately removed their required name tags to skirt accountability
Some police had no visible identification during G20 weekend.
CARLOS OSORIO/TORONTO STAR
Toronto Police are investigating whether numerous officers on G20 duty failed to wear proper identification.
At issue is whether officers violated a force requirement to wear epaulettes with their badge numbers and name tags on their uniforms, regardless of whether they’re wearing riot equipment or standard police outfits.
“It’s a professional standards issue and/or potentially an issue of misconduct. It’s rightly being looked at by (the) Professional Standards (unit),” police spokeswoman Meaghan Gray said.
Police flagged the issue for internal review after the Star showed police four photographs in which officers appear not to be wearing name tags. Officers have been required to wear name tags since the police services board demanded them in 2005 in a bid to make policing more transparent and accountable.
Hizballah advances 20,000 troops to Israeli border
DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu keeps on vowing that Iran will not be allowed to establish an outpost on Israel’s borders, but he has not lifted a finger to stop this menace ensconcing itself in the north. He cannot realistically expect feeble UN reprimands and the puny French contingent of UNIFIL to blow away the 20,000 Hizballah troops dug in in 160 new positions in South Lebanon, backed by a vast rocket arsenal – even though this is a gross violation of UN Security Council resolution 1701.
Iran’s proxy has therefore won the first round of its drive to recover the forward positions lost in the 2006 war and stands ready for the next. Israel has reinforced its border defenses against this massed Hizballah strength just a few hundreds meters away.
How could Jerusalem let this to happen?
The answer is by a misguided policy of misdirected reliance on international players and diplomacy, as though the military menace existed only in documentary form, instead of real armies led by single-minded terrorists with utter contempt for the rules of international diplomacy.
The guns Israel invoked for dealing with the Palestinian Hamas in Gaza – President Barack Obama and the European Union – were too big for their target and the Middle East Quartet’s envoy former British premier Tony Blair had to be roped in. The guns Israel relied on to deal with Hizballah – the UN and France – are too small and ineffective for the job.
Following a French complaint, the UN Security Council convened Friday, July 9 and passed a resolution “strongly deploring the recent incidents involving UNIFIL peacekeepers which took place in southern Lebanon on June 29, July 3 and July 4.” All parties in Lebanon were urged “to respect the safety of UNIFIL and United Nations personnel.”
The UN was not even asked to address Hizballah’s illegal redeployment in new positions in the South – only the harassment of peacekeepers – nor did it do so. In one instance last week, French troops on patrol were pulled out of their armed vehicles, their weapons snatched and they were beaten with sticks, rocks and eggs.
Flotilla attack seriously flawed: probe
Israeli commandos descend onto the Turkish-flagged aid vessel Mavi Marmara in the Mediterranean Sea, May 31, 2010.
Israel’s military probe into the May 31 attack on a Gaza aid convoy has found Israeli forces guilty of serious errors in preparing and carrying out the deadly takeover.
The army’s probe commission led by retired Maj. Gen. Giora Eiland presented its findings in a report to Chief of Staff Lieut. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi on Sunday, the daily Yediot Aharonot reported.
On May 31, Israeli navy commandos launched an offensive on the six-vessel Gaza Freedom Flotilla and killed nine Turkish activists, including a Turkish-American teenager, onboard the civilian aid fleet.
The 150-page report noted mistakes were committed at different levels of command, from top officers to commandos.
The investigators said the navy failed to appropriately consider the possibility that the troops could encounter strong resistance during the boarding operation.
The findings, to be formally published on Monday, said the clashes occurred partly because the navy had failed to deploy enough forces on the Turkish-flagged ship Mavi Marmara.
They also charged the military with poor coordination with intelligence agencies in preparing for the raid, and using faulty information.
The Eiland commission was to look into the performance of the Israeli armed forces during the attack on the Turkish-organized Flotilla which earned Israel worldwide condemnations and major strains its ties with Ankara, Tel Aviv’s only Muslim ally.
Parallel to the military probe, Israel acquiesced to examine the legality of the attack which occurred in the international waters, and of Israel’s years-long blockade of the Gaza Strip.
But the so-called Tirkel commission is largely deemed a ploy by Tel Aviv to escape escalating pressure for an international inquiry into the lethal attack.
Including only two foreign observers with limited powers, the committee is seen far short of meeting international calls for an impartial investigation.
GULF RESIDENTS “LAB RATS” GRAND ISLE NATIVE REVEALS BP’S COREXIT SECRETS
From ProjectGulfImpact’s Channel on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI-bYawDUeE
GULF RESIDENTS ASSAULTED BY MILITARY AND TOP TEN WANTED KILLERS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke88sczB3gU&feature=youtu.be&a
ProjectGulfImpact’s Channel on YouTube:
New Documentary Claims Obama Stole 2008 Election
A new documentary makes the outrageous claim that President Obama stole the 2008 presidential election — not just his victory over John McCain, but primary wins over Hillary Clinton. Fox News speaks with the filmmaker:
Doubt Thrown on Proof of Bin Laden’s Role as Terrorist Leader
by Alex
Gordon Duff
We’ve talked about it before, now the CIA is talking about it; no wonder there is no reference to 9/11 on Bin Laden’s FBI wanted poster.
(CINCINNATI, Ohio) – Two weeks ago, CIA Director Leon Panetta told the press the CIA had not been able to positively confirm any specific information on Osama bin Laden since “late 2000.”
Interviews with high ranking military and intelligence officials, some at the highest levels, have confirmed that all evidence lends toward Osama bin Laden’s death in December 2001.
Yet transcripts of translated audio and video tapes, albeit widely disputed, are continually released by a news agency tied to Israeli intelligence services.
Israel navy on alert over Libyan ship
A file photo shows four small boats carrying Israeli navy commandos as they speed into the military port of Ashdod in southern Israel.
Israeli navy is on high alert as a Libyan aid ship heads for the Gaza Strip to break Israel’s naval blockade on the impoverished coastal sliver.
The navy is tracking the ship and has put forces on standby in case it needs to board the vessel, The Jerusalem Post cited Israeli defense ministry sources as saying.
The navy will make contact with the ship while it is still far from Gaza, likely in international waters, and ask it to follow naval vessels into Israeli port of Ashdod, the sources said.
They also noted that Israel has prepared plans to attack the vessel if it refuses or does not agree to sail to Egypt.
Tel Aviv says allowing the ship to go ahead with its mission will have serious consequences for “Israel’s security,” vowing to prevent any seaborne aid fleet from breaking its siege of Gaza.
The Moldovan-flagged cargo ship, the Amalthea, organized by the Tripoli-based Gaddafi International Charity and Development Association, has already set sail from the Greek port of Lavrio and plans to sail directly for Gaza with some 2,000 tons of rice, sugar and corn oil.
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BP to cut payments on 40,000 claims of individuals affected by oil spill, cites paperwork problems
BY Meena Hartenstein
BP‘s latest move isn’t going to win the beleagured oil giant any popularity points.
As oil continues to spew into the Gulf, BP has said it will significantly cut payments on claims to those impacted by the disaster because of problems with their paperwork, the Associated Press reported.
Kristy Nichols, the secretary of Louisiana’s Department of Children and Family Services, sent an open letter to federal BP claims administrator Kenneth Feinberg on Friday, saying the company had confirmed to her that they would decrease payments “to individuals whose claims files were incomplete.”
Nichols cites a BP representative who told her that more than 40,000 of the 99,508 people who have filed claims may get lower checks.
That “will be devastating to individuals surviving financially month-to-month,” she said. “This action is irresponsible and in complete contrast to BP’s repeated promise that they will ‘make things right.’”
IDF officer indicted on charges of sexually harassing thousands of underage girls
Eyal Nahum, 25, allegedly posed as a 15-year-old on chat rooms, suspected of blackmailing girls into turning on webcams and touching themselves intimately.
By Ofra Edelman
Eyal Nahum, an Israel Defense Forces soldier who was recently arrested for sexual harassment, was indicted on Sunday on charges that he harassed thousands of underage girls over the internet, giving them sexual education lessons.
Eyal Nahum, suspected of molesting thousands of underage girls
Photo by: Motti Kimche
“If you don’t want to see these images with your name and mobile phone number online then video chat with me,” the suspect had written to some of the girls. He had sexual intercourse with four of them, according to the indictment.
The indictment suggests that Nahum, 25, maintained online relationships with underage girls on the “Shox” chat site, posing as a 15-year-old, over the course of four years. His chats were heavily laden with sexual messages. He asked some of the girls to turn on a webcam and instructed them on how to touch their bodies while he watched. In two cases, Nahum is suspected of blackmailing 12-year-old girls with threats that he would post nude photos of them online if they didn’t comply with his demands – turn on a camera and do as instructed.