The reputation of the European Food Safety Authority has been sullied ahead of a key investigation into the food sweetener aspartame
The European body responsible for a new study on the health effects of artificial sweetener aspartame is under attack following the revelation it has hired scientists, who did not declare connections to the food industry. A transparency watchdog has called for two newly appointed members of the EFSA's additives panel to be suspended after uncovering their past relationship with a lobbying firm financed by aspartame producer Ajinomoto and food giants Coca-Cola, Kraft and Nestle.
The two scientists, Italian Riccardo Crebelli and German Ursula Gundert-Remy, are "in violation" of the agency's own rules because they "failed to disclose consulting activities for the International Life Sciences Institute, an international lobby group funded by the food industry", says watchdog Corporate Europe Observatory. New rules were needed to ensure scientists' credentials were impeccable, according to the observatory, which says its mission is to "expose the power of corporate lobbying in the European Union".
The Italy-based EFSA was asked in May to re-evaluate the safety of aspartame, due to high levels of public concern over possible side-effects. This followed two academic studies published last year, linking aspartame with cancer in mice and pre-term delivery. After reviewing the studies' findings, the agency decided its existing advice on the "acceptable daily intake" of aspartame - 40 mg per kilogramme of body weight - did not need altering. "Even though aspartame has been authorised for many years in many countries following thorough safety assessments, a degree of public concern about the safety of aspartame has continued," the agency said, adding that it was now "working to address this public concern".
Shortly after the new study was commissioned, five of the 19 members of the agency's panel on food additives and nutrient sources were replaced as their mandates had expired. Corporate Europe Observatory, together with a French watchdog, examined the backgrounds of the new members. Gundert-Remy was appointed as a scientific adviser to the Life Sciences Institute's research foundation in 2005, the watchdogs found. Crebelli on the other hand "was a member of the scientific committee of a three-day symposium on the safety of food packaging" organised by the institute in 2008. He was tasked with "the review of research abstracts submitted by applicants who wish to publicly present their work at the symposium".
The agency has defended its appointees. Criticism was based on "factual mistakes" that put a "negative light" on its independence, the agency's executive director Catherine Geslain-Lanéelle said in a letter earlier this week. The experts "were not required to declare those activities, as they are not related to their scientific panel's field of activities," Geslain-Lanéelle said. Gundert-Remy "advised (the institute) on general research topics such as obesity" whereas Crebelli "has not been a member" of the institute's scientific committee - but rather, "participated in the scientific committee of a conference".
Such activities, the executive director said "cannot result in potential conflicts of interest" and there had, therefore, been no "breach of trust". Corporate Europe Observatory insisted on the other hand that experts were obliged by the agency's rules to declare all interests "even if this advice or these services are not related to the field of activities of the scientific panel of a given expert". The Life Sciences Institute rejects claims that it is a lobby firm, preferring to refer to itself as a "foundation" - seeking a "balanced approach to solving problems of common concern for the wellbeing of the general public". Backers of its European branch include Monsanto, the genetically modified seed specialist, Mars and Unilever.
From: publicserviceeurope.com
Right now, more than 2000 people are dying every day in Somalia, in a famine that threatens to starve eleven million people to death. Drought has brought this region to its knees, but the food crisis is really fueled by a complete breakdown in governance and international diplomacy, and we can put an end to it.
The famine-hit area is governed by Al-Shabaab, an Islamist regime that is linked to terrorist groups. The isolation and conflict between Al-Shabaab, other local leaders, and the international community has kept out much of the aid and trade that could end the famine. But afew key countries, including the United Arab Emirates, still trade with Al-Shabaab -- they have an opportunity to broker a deal with the regime and break the stalemate that threatens the survival of millions.
We cannot let the politics of the war on terror claim any more innocent lives. It's time for the international community and Al-Shabaab to come to an agreement to immediately get food to the suffering Somali people. The UN Security Council is meeting in a few days -- let's demand that they take immediate action to support key Arab nations in an effort to open talks with Al-Shabaab on cooperating to end the famine and seize this chance for a long-term political solution.
Over 300.000 have signed a petition @UN to end the #famine in #Somalia. Join me now @Avaaz www.avaaz.org/en/somalia_stop_the_famine
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"lower taxes, free education and end to privatization".
Demands also include reform in health care system and government involvement mortgages and rent; scattered protests continue across the country with activists blocking roads.
After setting up joint protest headquarters on Tuesday, representatives of the 40 tent encampments scattered across Israel, students and youth groups released an agreement they had reached and guidelines for negotiating with the government.
The demands include lowering indirect taxes, canceling the national housing committees bill, free education starting at the age of three months and increasing the Housing Ministry's assistance budget to mortgages and rent.
The activists also demand steps be taken in the health care system, such as more positions for medical staff, more beds, medical equipment that upholds the standards for OECD countries, an end to the privatization of welfare institutions and mental health centers and a commitment to a gradual cancellation of contractual work in the public center.
The National Union of Israeli Students stressed that the list constitutes an agenda for the negotiations, therefore there is no mention of numbers and costs. However, during the meeting in Tel Aviv the organizers said that a final document is being drafted, one that will include "clauses and numbers."
Meanwhile, approximately 150 people gathered on Tuesday evening at Bilu Junction near Rehovot to protest the high costs of raising a family in Israel, occasionally blocking the junctions. In Hod Hasharon about a hundred fathers, mothers and children took part in a "stroller march," and in Jerusalem dozens of people protested in front of the Knesset and the Supreme Court.
Also on Tuesday, opposition leader Tzipi Livni slammed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an interview on Channel 2. "Netanyahu is acting in an arrogant and indifferent manner." She added that what is happening in the streets is a brave and unprecedented social process.
From: Haaretz.com/news
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July 11, 2011 Just days after the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) insisted that there is no medical value to marijuana, the White House appeared to contradict the position, saying in a report that there may actually be "some" medical value to "individual components of the cannabis plant" after all.
The statement was just a small part of the Office on National Drug Control Policy's yearly update on the progress of the drug war and its goals moving forward. Overall, the document only serves to affirm the federal prohibition of marijuana and what it calls "'medical' marijuana," which it still views as illegitimate.
But a single passage, under their "facts about marijuana," seems to loosen a bit from the generation-old line that there is no value to cannabis whatsoever.
"While there may be medical value for some of the individual components of the cannabis plant, the fact remains that smoking marijuana is an inefficient and harmful method for delivering the constituent elements that have or may have medicinal value," the report says.
Still, today's medical marijuana patients and proprietors don't have much to cheer in the report, as it goes on to insist that smoking the marijuana plant itself is harmful and dangerous, especially for teens, and perpetuates the largely discredited "gateway drug" theory.
Critics are likely to see the passage as offering a bit of wiggle room for major pharmesutical producers looking to grow marijuana to extract its psychoactive ingredient, THC, or other cannabinoid compounds that have been demonstrated to help abate symptoms of some chronic diseases, like wasting syndrome in AIDS patients or nausea in cancer patients.
In 2007, GW Pharmaceuticals announced that it partnered with Otsuka to bring "Sativex" -- or liquefied marijuana -- to the U.S. The companies recently completed Phase II efficacy and safety trials testing and began discussion with the FDA for Phase III testing. Phase III is generally thought to be the final step before the drug can be marketed in the U.S.
Sativex is the brand name for a drug derived from cannabis sativa. It's an extract from the whole plant cannabis, not a synthetic compound. Even GW defines the drug (.pdf) as marijuana.
Yet as the FDA is poised to approve the drug for Big Pharma, state-licensed medical marijuana dispensaries that provide relief for thousands of Americans are under attack by other federal agencies.
The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) has warned just as much, claiming that federal authorities may be looking to shift policy slightly, if only to legalize marijuana-based medicines for Big Pharma only, which could step in and potentially eradicate the medical marijuana market.
The Obama administration said in a recent memo that it fully intends to enforce the federal ban on marijuana, regardless of whether individual states have legalized its use for medical purposes.
It added that a 2009 memo, which seemed to take the pressure off state-authorized medical marijuana clinics and patients, was merely a guidance on the best uses of federal funds and not actually a change in policy.
An ABC News poll found last year that eight in 10 Americans favor legalizing medical marijuana.
From: www.rawstory.com
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July 29, 2011 (Reuters) - Alaska scientists have discovered the fossil of a rare, prehistoric marine reptile that is likely the most complete remnant of the creature ever found in North America.
The nearly complete fossilized skeleton is of a thalattosaur, a long-tailed sea creature that plied warm, shallow waters in the early days of dinosaurs and became extinct at the end of the Triassic period some 200 million years ago.
The discovery of the fossil, found during an extreme low tide along the shore of the Tongass National Forest, was announced this week by the Museum of the North at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
"We were just having our morning coffee out on the outcropping when somebody said, 'What's that?'" Jim Baichtal, the U.S. Forest Service's Tongass geologist and part of the discovery team, said on Thursday.
Geologists had been conducting field surveys at the site when the fossil was spotted.
Unlike most thalattosaur discoveries, which are fossilized remnants of individual bones and bone fragments, this specimen appeared to be a nearly full skeleton.
"In North America, this may be the most articulated specimen that we have right now," Baichtal said.
Scientists excavated the fossil in June and have been studying it to determine whether it represents a previously unknown species.
There are only about a dozen full thalattosaur specimens in the world, Baichtal said. "So the probability of this being something that wasn't seen before is probably pretty high," he said.
The find is likely the most northern discovery as well, Baichtal said. The fossil was found near the Tlingit Indian village of Kake in southeast Alaska.
Other thalattosaur discoveries have been made in British Columbia, Canada, as well as in Nevada and the Alps, though the best finds have been made in China, he said.
SITE WAS TROPICAL
At the time this particular animal was trapped in sediment, about 200 million to 220 million years ago, the site was close to the equator and tropical, Baichtal said.
"This was a warm, volcanic island with reefs surrounding it," similar to Hawaii, he said. Plate tectonics eventually sent the site drifting north to its present location in Alaska, he said.
The fossil from the Tongass beach is now at the Museum of the North, where scientists will do further work to separate the rock from the bone.
Thalattosaurs inhabited the seas for about 30 million years, a relatively brief time geologically, said Pat Druckenmiller, earth sciences curator for the Museum of the North. They measured about three to 10 feet long, with half to a third of that taken up by the tail, he said.
"The rest of its body would be kind of reminiscent of a big lizard," he said, with legs modified to work as paddles.
Some had no teeth, some had pointy teeth that might have been useful for spearing fish, and some had flat teeth that might have been used to crush shells, Druckenmiller said.
The Alaska fossil appears to include the outline of soft-body tissue that surrounded the bone.
"That's really rare," Druckenmiller said. "That might give us some idea of what the actual body shape was."
Scientists will return to the site later to try to excavate the rest of the fossil, still embedded in beach rock, Druckenmiller said.
"We don't know if the skull will be there or not, but I have high hopes that it will be there," he said.
From: www.reuters.com
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July 30, 2011 When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood before the US Congress and said Israel -- a regime setup by stealing land and which survives off charity -- is “what's right about Middle East” and received 29 standing ovations from American lawmakers, e neglected the fact that the uprising against autocratic regimes were never meant to be restricted to the Arab world.
Since July 14, people have been gathering across Israel to protest against the rising costs of housing, with "tent cities" being erected in Tel Aviv, al-Quds (Jerusalem), Beersheba, Haifa and Kiryat Shemona.
They are also calling on the regime to curb the high costs of fuel, food and healthcare. The protests have exposed a deep middle-class frustration over the economy, presenting Netanyahu with his biggest domestic challenge yet.
Certain media outlets have tried to downplay the protests arguing that unlike the Islamic Awakening in Arab states, Israelis are not calling for “democracy” or an end to “state oppression” but rather they are protesting against the “high price of housing, food and other goods.”
But let's take a look at some of the uprisings in Arab states:
In Tunisia, high unemployment, food inflation and dire living conditions as well as government corruption and lack of political freedom triggered the protests in mid-December 2010.
As the protesters gained public support and popularity, the government began to suppress the demonstration with force and brutality -- which stirred public anger and resulted in the desertion of law enforcement officials to the side of the protesters.
When the Egyptian revolution began in late 2010, around 40% of Egypt's 80-million-strong population was living on less than USD 2 per day and a majority of them were relying on subsidized goods.
At the time unemployment was hovering around 10 percent (9.7 percent to be exact) and despite a relatively good economic growth (4.5 percent of its gross domestic product) in 2009 the living condition did not improve.
In Yemen, Jordan and Oman unemployment and poverty are also cited as the main causes of uprisings.
So in a way, the economic situation or the “high price of housing, food and other goods” did play a part in the Islamic Awakening or the Arab uprisings and in that sense the Israeli protests are not that different.
Now, media reports claim that there is “democracy” in Israel. However, unlike all democracies, Israel does not have a written constitution, nor does it have a bill of rights.
In his book Israel, Let's Talk About It Belgian journalist and author, Michel Collon has raised the shortcoming, saying it defies the Western media's designation of Israel as the only "democracy" in the Middle East and the "government of law."
What is referred to as Israeli "laws," Collon has protested, describes Israel as a "country" for Jews, where non-Jew citizens are not considered human.
Israel does not even have freedom of speech. One example of violation of freedom of speech is the Israeli parliament (Knesset)'s passing a bill dubbed the "Boycott Ban," which outlaws boycotting, or calling for boycotts against, Israel and Israel's illegal settlements.
The bill was passed in mid-July despite quite ironically the parliament's legal adviser clearly stated that the bill "clashed directly with freedom of expression."
Another example is the Israeli military's crackdown on protests against the construction of the apartheid wall and settlements which take place on a weekly basis.
The recent waves of protests in Israel comes six month after Israeli foreign ministry employees went on a month-long strike and after the frequent closure of Israeli airports also due to walk-offs.
Israel's public debt equals 79 percent of its gross domestic product, and its imports 1.25 billion dollars more than it exports. More than 23 percent of Israelis live below poverty line. In other words -- words of the US congress -- Israeli is not “economically self-sufficient.”
"Israel is not economically self-sufficient, and relies on foreign assistance and borrowing to maintain its economy. In addition to US assistance, it is estimated that Israel receives about $1 billion annually through philanthropy, an equal amount through short- and long- term commercial loans, and around $1 billion in Israel Bonds proceeds. Since 1985, the United States has provided $3 billion in grants annually to Israel. Since 1976, Israel has been the largest annual recipient of U.S. foreign assistance, and is the largest cumulative recipient since World War II,” The Congressional Research Service (CRS) said in a 2003 report titled "Israel: US Foreign Assistance."
Now with the global economic meltdown and weak a post-recession recovery in the US and Israel's other allies, the amount of financial aid and other assistance that Israel can receive is sure to be affected adding fuel to the problems the Israeli regime is already facing.
On Friday, July 29, 2011 hundreds of Israelis held a demonstration in Tel Aviv, warning that they would block roads all over Israel on August 1 if the Netanyahu cabinet fails to meet their demands.
After weeks of widespread protests against high housing prices -- which are evaluated as the largest social protests in Israel since the 1970s -- the Israeli premier announced a series of measures to address the housing crisis last week. MJ/HGH/MMN
Read more: Presstv.ir/detail/191558.html
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Dutch Band Attacked By IDF For Bringing Happiness To Oppressed Palestinian Children:
July 30, 2011 A 25-piece Dutch street band has been traveling through the embattled West Bank for two weeks now, enlivening and engaging the downtrodden Palestinian people.
What do they get in return? Lungs full of tear gas.
Today the Palestine News Network reported that tens of Israeli Army thugs fired tear gas canisters at the Amsterdman-based Dutch street orchestra called Fanfare van de Eerste Liefdesnacht, which means “the First Night of Love Brass Band” during their performance.
When they were attacked, the band was playing in the northern West Bank villiage of Kufr Qadum, near Nablus.
This village is mostly Palestinian but has suffered recent attacks from radical Jewish colonists.
The people of Kufr Qadum have been victims of arson, physical violence, and destruction of property. There are also Israeli military checkpoints regularly erected around the roads leading in and out of the village.
The brave Dutch musicians have been travelling around the West Bank, visiting various villages, towns, and refugee camps. Their shows are interactive and engaging, and involve working with Palestinian children from a refugee camp east of Bethlehem.
The performers play along with the children and dance in the streets together, bringing joy to the lives of children who live in constant poverty with the fear of death at the hands of Israeli extremists.
Kufr Qadum is just one of the many villages that are being actively targeted by illegal Israeli settlers who, in direct opposition to international law, steal the land of the Palestinian people.
Traditionally, the corporate-controlled special interest media in the West portrays the Palestinians as brutal, freedom-hating terrorists seeking to destroy Israel and the entire concept of Western civilization and democracy.
This could not be further from the truth and this case shows this to be true, yet again.
The town council of Kufr Qadum invited the 25 Dutch musicians to their town to perform and entertain the Palestinians who are victimized daily by the Zionist invading forces. How does this fit with the propagandized picture of rabid Islamic radical terrorists who hate the West and all who reside there?
If this is the case, we would not see a large group of white Dutch people traveling around the West Bank for an entire two week period without being targeted by the so-called terrorists of Palestine. It would be quite easy for anyone to attack a bunch of unarmed middle-aged musicians standing in a group, but it does not happen. Why?
It is quite simple: the people of Palestine do not hate people who realize that the Israeli government and their allies like the United States have created a completely false picture of the Arab holocaust that is currently being carried out.
The people of Palestine realize that the Israelis loathe anyone who supports the right of Palestine to exist as a sovereign state just as much as they loathe the Palestinians.
An Israeli soldier would just as happily kill an Israeli Jew who was defending the Palestinians as they would a Palestinian attempting to fend off tanks by throwing rocks.
Simply put: if you question the terrorist actions of Israel and the radical Zionist cause, you are against Israel and are therefore an enemy.
This was made quite clear by the Israeli Army today with their attack on the peaceful band who was entertaining crowds and giving them a moment’s respite from the hellish environment of the West Bank.
I look forward to seeing how the media spins this one. Maybe the Dutch band members were secretly terrorists and inside of their tubas and trombones were AK-47s and rockets they were smuggling to Hamas?
It never ceased to amaze me the lengths that the Israeli media and their Zionist allies across the world will go to in order to justify their crimes.
I might have a little bit more respect for the state of Israel if they would just come out and admit that they intend to massacre Palestinians, even women and children, for the foreseeable future, or at least until every Palestinian leaves their ancestors’ home.
At least then they would have a tiny bit of integrity, enough to admit that they are engaging in ethnic cleansing no different than any of the genocides carried out by maniacal tyrants throughout the ages.
From: theintelhub.com
Join the worldwide call to support #Palestine as an independent state. Sign the @Avaaz petition now #StateOfPalestine http://t.co/y18JHzc
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