The Farther North You Live, The More Deficient You Are To Vitamin D
July 27, 2010
Natural News
By: David Gutierrez
A new study has once again shown that people living farther from the equator are significantly more likely to suffer from vitamin D deficiency.
“Results show clear differences in vitamin D status between the north and south and marked ethnic differences,” said researchers from Aberdeen University in Scotland.
The body produces vitamin D upon exposure to the UV-B radiation found in sunlight, with a light-skinned person able to synthesize all they need in as little as 15 minutes during the summer at a moderate latitude. Because the sun gets weaker the farther a person moves from the equator, however, it takes more and more sun exposure to get the same amount of the vitamin. This problem is only exacerbated in the winter.
The researchers compared both sun exposure and vitamin D levels in women under the age of 66 living in either Aberdeen, in the north of Scotland, or in Surrey, in England’s south. All the women wore UV-B sensitive bandages on their bodies, and their vitamin D blood levels were measured once every three months over a 15-month period.
The researchers found significantly lower sun exposure in Aberdeen than in Surrey at all times of the year. Mirroring these results, they found no vitamin D deficiency among any white Surrey residents. In contrast, between 25 and 27 percent of Aberdeen women were vitamin D deficient during the winter or spring, while 4.2 percent were deficient even in the summer.
Even in Surrey, as many as 60 percent of Asian women were still vitamin D deficient, and also showed lower sun exposure than their white counterparts. The researchers suggested that more traditional clothing (which covers more of the skin) and darker skin might account for part of this difference.
People with darker skin produce vitamin D more slowly than people with lighter skin.
“The recommendation of 10 minutes of sunlight exposure a day may need to be changed for those with darker skin or in higher latitudes,” researcher Helen Macdonald said.
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Olive Oil Directly Impacts Genes To Halt Inflammation
July 27, 2010
Natural News
By: S.L. Baker
Research has been steadily accumulating that olive oil, a main component of the Mediterranean diet, has extensive health-protective properties. For example, phytonutrient components of olive oil have been found to be effective against breast cancer cells (http://www.naturalnews.com/025633_c…) and studies suggest the abundance of olive oil in the Mediterranean style of eating may be the reason that diet helps prevent depression (http://www.naturalnews.com/027265_d…). Now scientists have discovered that phenolic compounds in olive oil directly repress genes linked to inflammation.
This could be especially important in halting the dangerous effects of metabolic syndrome. Characterized by excess abdominal fat, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and high blood glucose levels, metabolic syndrome is linked to type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and early death.
Research published in the journal BMC Genomics investigated changes in genes mediated by olive oil phenols (which are most abundant in the extra-virgin varieties of olive oil). The double-blind, randomized study, headed by Francisco Perez-Jimenez from the University of Cordoba, involved 20 research subjects, all with metabolic syndrome. For six weeks, the patients did not take any supplements or drugs and they were all placed on similar low-fat, carbohydrate-rich diets. Then, for breakfast, they ate either a breakfast containing virgin olive oil with a high content of phenolic compounds or a similar breakfast with low phenol content.
The research team took blood samples after the meals to check for the expression of over 15,000 human genes. The results? The high phenol olive oil clearly impacted the regulation of almost 100 genes — many of which have been linked to obesity, high blood fat levels, type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
“We identified 98 differentially expressed genes when comparing the intake of phenol-rich olive oil with low-phenol olive oil. Several of the repressed genes are known to be involved in pro-inflammatory processes, suggesting that the diet can switch the activity of immune system cells to a less deleterious inflammatory profile, as seen in metabolic syndrome,” Dr. Perez-Jimenez said in a statement to the press. “These findings strengthen the relationship between inflammation, obesity and diet and provide evidence at the most basic level of healthy effects derived from virgin olive oil consumption in humans.”
The ability of olive oil’s phenolic compounds to reduce or prevent inflammation also provides a molecular basis for the reduction of heart disease observed in Mediterranean countries, where virgin olive oil represents a main source of dietary fat.
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BP Claims $15 Billion In Loses
July 27, 2010 by Duffy
Filed under Government
July 27, 2010
The Sun
By: Steve Hawkes
BP made the announcement as it plunged into the red for the first time in 18 YEARS after racking up a huge clean-up bill of more than £20BILLION — the cost of TWO Olympic games — for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
Under-fire Mr Hayward will be handed a part-time role at the firm’s joint venture in Russia, whose oil and gas fields are nearly all on the vast, bleak Siberian plains.
He will also have a huge pay-off to keep him warm, which BP is set to confirm today is worth up to £15MILLION.
Today Mr Hayward said: “I became the public face of BP, as a consequence of that I was demonised and vilified.
“BP cannot move on in the US with me as its leader.
“Its a practical matter, not a matter of whether life is fair or not. Life isn’t fair, but we all know that.”
The firm has also announced a shake-up of its portfolio including up to £19.3billion in asset sales over the next 18 months.
Meanwhile in London this morning Greenpeace protesters claimed they shut down around 50 service stations in a bid to urge the oil company to adopt greener energy policies.
Greenpeace boss John Sauven said: “Under Tony Hayward the company went backwards, squeezing the last drops of oil from places like the Gulf of Mexico, the tar sands of Canada and even the fragile Arctic wilderness.”
Brit Mr Hayward is carrying the can for the devastating Deepwater Horizon tragedy which has badly damaged BP’s reputation in the States.
He is being replaced by American BP’s director Bob Dudley, who will be the firm’s first non-British boss.
Mr Hayward will stand down on October 1. He is then set to take up his new job at BP’s joint-venture TNK-BP – which ironically was once headed by Mr Dudley. Its fields are mainly in Siberia and the Urals.
Mr Hayward refused to comment yesterday as he was whisked from BP’s London HQ in a car with darkened windows.
Meanwhile his pay-out, which could include a £583,000-a-year pension the moment he steps down, has caused outrage in the US.
Lawyer Brent Coon, who is acting for workers hit by the Gulf disaster, said: “I think you would find that everybody over here thinks he should cough up every dime he has.”
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Dept. Of Defense Can’t Account For $8.7 Billion
July 27, 2010 by Duffy
Filed under Government
July 27, 2010
Federal News Radio
By: Rachel Stevens
The Defense Department is unable to account for $8.7 billion of the $9.1 billion in Development Fund for Iraq monies in received for reconstruction in Iraq. This according to a study published today by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.
“This situation occurred because most DoD organizations receiving DFI (Development Fund for Iraq) funds did not establish the required Department of the Treasury accounts and no DoD organization was designated as the executive agent for managing the use of DFI funds,” the report states.
The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) finds that only one Defense organization actually set up the accounts required by the Treasury.
“The breakdown in controls left the funds vulnerable to inappropriate uses and undetected loss,” SIGIR says.
The study recommends that the Secretary of Defense create new accounting and reporting procedures to avoid such mistakes in the future. It also recommends designating an executive agent to oversee progress, establishing measurable milestones, and determining whether any DoD organizations are still holding DFI funds.
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Consumer Confidence Falls, Lowest Since January
July 27, 2010
CNBC
By: Reuters
U.S. consumer confidence sank in July to its lowest since February on job market worries, underscoring the slow path to economic recovery, and home prices rose in May but without signs of a sustained rebound, reports released Tuesday showed.
The Conference Board, an industry group, said consumer attitudes worsened this month as did their expectations about jobs being hard to get.
The group’s index of consumer attitudes fell to 50.4 in July from an upwardly revised 54.3 in June, below the median forecast of 51 in a Reuters poll.
“There have been quite a few headwinds — the fiscal stimulus is fading, the European situation certainly did have an impact on consumer confidence and inventories are being brought more into line,” said David Sloan, economist at 4Cast in New York. “But clearly the big problem for consumers is jobs.”
U.S. Treasuries trimmed losses and stocks pared gains after the dim consumer confidence reading as investors bought safe government assets.
“Concerns about business conditions and the labor market are casting a dark cloud over consumers that is not likely to lift until the job market improves,” said Lynn Franco, Director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center.
U.S. single-family home prices rose more than expected in May, still reflecting robust spring sales spurred by now-expired homebuyer tax credits, Standard & Poor’s/Case Shiller home price indexes showed on Tuesday.
May is a strong seasonal period for home sales, S&P said, and buyers who rushed to sign contracts by the April 30 deadline for up to $8,000 in tax credits have until Sept. 30 to close loans.
Home prices have essentially moved sideways over the past seven months, however, and are likely to bounce around the bottom for the foreseeable future, S&P said.
“For me, a double-dip is another recession before we’ve healed from this recession … The probability of that kind of double-dip is more than 50 percent,” Robert Shiller, professor of economics at Yale University and co-developer of the price index told Reuters Insider.
The 20-city composite price index rose 0.5 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis in May after an upwardly revised 0.6 percent gain in April, topping the 0.2 percent rise forecast in a Reuters poll.
Prices on an unadjusted basis jumped 1.3 percent in May, after a 0.9 percent April gain and falls in the six prior months. The index was 4.6 percent lower than last May, S&P said.
With the recent upturn, prices still are 29.1 percent lower than the peak four years ago. A record inventory of foreclosed properties is widely seen preventing much of a price upturn in the near term.
“While May’s report on its own looks somewhat positive, a broader look at home price levels over the past year still does not indicate that the housing market is in any form of sustained recovery,” David M. Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at Standard & Poor’s, said in a statement.
Seven of the 20 largest metro areas still reported lower prices than a year earlier.
Payback from the federal tax incentives went beyond most expectations and some reports have started to show some stabilization from historic lows.
Sales of new homes in June, reported on Monday, surged 23.6 percent but remained at the second-lowest level since the Commerce Department started keeping records in 1963.
High unemployment and wage cuts are keeping many potential buyers at bay.
The government is expected to report on Friday that gross domestic product growth slowed to a 2.5 percent annual rate in the second quarter from a 2.7 percent pace in the first.
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Wal-Mart’s ‘Smart Tags’ Raises Privacy Concerns
July 27, 2010
USA Today
By: Anne D’Innocenzio
Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) is putting electronic identification tags on men’s clothing like jeans starting Aug. 1 as the world’s largest retailer tries to gain more control of its inventory. But the move is raising eyebrows among privacy experts.
The individual garments, which also includes underwear and socks, will have removable smart tags that can be read from a distance by Wal-Mart workers with scanners. In seconds, the worker will be able to know what sizes are missing and will also be able tell what it has on hand in the stock room. Such instant knowledge will allow store clerks to have the right sizes on hand when shoppers need them.
The tags work by reflecting a weak radio signal to identify the product. They have long spurred privacy fears as well as visions of stores being able to scan an entire shopping cart of items at one time.
Wal-Mart’s goal is to eventually expand the tags to other types of merchandise but company officials say it’s too early to give estimates on how long that will take.
“There are so many significant benefits in knowing how to better manage inventory and better serve customers,” said Lorenzo Lopez, a Wal-Mart spokesman. “This will enhance the shopping experience and help us grow our business.”
Before the rollout, Wal-Mart and other stores were using the tags, called radio frequency identification tags, only to track pallets or cases of merchandise in their warehouses. But now the tags are jumping onto individual items, a move that some privacy experts describe as frightening.
Wal-Mart, which generated annual revenue of a little more than $400 billion in its latest fiscal year and operates almost 4,000 stores, has huge influence with suppliers. That makes other merchants tend to follow its lead.
“This is a first piece of a very large and very frightening tracking system,” said Katherine Albrecht, director of a group called Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering.
Albrecht worries that Wal-Mart and others would be able to track movements of customers who in some border states like Michigan and Washington are carrying new driver’s licenses that contain RFID tags to make it easier for them to cross borders.
Albrecht fears that retailers could scan data from such licenses and their purchases and combine that data with other personal information. She also says that even though the smart tags can be removed from clothing, they can’t be turned off and can be tracked even after you throw them in the garbage, for example.
Wal-Mart officials said they are aware of privacy concerns but insist they are taking a “thoughtful and methodical approach.”
Dan Fogelman, a Wal-Mart spokesman said that the smart label doesn’t collect customer information.
“Wal-Mart is using it strictly to manage inventory. The customer is in complete control,” he said. Fogelman added that Wal-Mart’s readers identify only inventory it has in the store.
To placate privacy concerns, Wal-Mart, which is financing some of the suppliers’ costs, is asking vendors to embed the smart tags in removable labels and not embed them in clothing.
Wal-Mart plans to educate customers with the new program through in-store videos and through signs posted in the stores that educate customers about the program.
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Bin Laden Spotted With Taliban Chief In 2006, CIA Was Clueless
July 27, 2010
Mail Online
By: Mail Foreign Service
Secret files leaked about the war in Afghanistan have revealed tantalising glimpses of Osama Bin Laden despite public CIA claims that they are clueless as to the whereabouts of the Al Qaeda boss.
The claims are among 91,000 U.S. military records obtained by whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.
Leon Panetta, director of the CIA, said last month that there have been no firm leads on Bin Laden’s whereabouts since the ‘early 2000s’.
But a ‘threat report’ from the International Security Assistance Force regional command (north) on suicide bombers in August 2006 suggested Bin Laden had been attending regular meetings in villages on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
It said: ‘Reportedly a high-level meeting was held where six suicide bombers were given orders for an operation in northern Afghanistan. These meetings take place once every month.’
According to the Guardian, which has received the documents, the report went on: ‘The top four people in these meetings are Mullah Omar [the Taliban leader], Osama Bin Laden, Mullah Dadullah and Mullah [Baradar].’
If true, it could mean forces came close to having the opportunity to wipe out the senior leadership of the Afghan insurgency that has so far claimed the lives of 320 British soldiers.
The war logs also show that Bin Laden had a hand in a plot to poison coalition forces by adding a powder to food and drink consumed by troops as they passed through villages.
These documents also suggest coalition forces have killed hundreds of civilians in so-called ‘blue on white’ incidents which were never reported.
They include claims that 16 children were among those shot or bombed in error by British troops.
The leaked military logs also reveal how a secret ‘black’ unit of crack special forces hunt down Taliban leaders for ‘kill or capture’ without trial - and voice concerns that Pakistani intelligence and Iran are supporting the insurgents.
Downing Street said it ‘would lament all unauthorised releases of classified material’ and the White House condemned the ‘ irresponsible’ leak of the files.
And military and intelligence experts warned yesterday that the leaks could imperil the lives of British forces in Afghanistan.
Colonel Stuart Tootal, who in 2006 commanded 3rd Battalion Parachute Regiment in Helmand Province - where more than 320 UK soldiers have been killed - said the information ‘could impact on the security of our soldiers’.
He insisted Nato forces now put a ‘huge emphasis’ on avoiding civilian casualties.
Tory MP Patrick Mercer, a former Army captain, said: ‘Although much of this information is in the public domain, the details are particularly damaging to the credibility of the coalition.
‘Our enemies will be quick to exploit the propaganda element of it.
‘If there are details of operational matters - locations, equipment, troops movements, resources - then soldiers’ lives could be placed at risk.’
Details of the secret files, detailing military operations between 2004 and 2009, were published yesterday by the Guardian, New York times and Germany’s Der Spiegel while more than 75,000 records were made available on the WikiLeaks website.
The files list 144 incidents involving Afghan civilian casualties, in which 195 died and 174 were injured.
They detail coalition forces - fearful of suicide bombers - shooting unarmed drivers and civilian motorcyclists, and record an incident when French troops opened fire at a bus full of children because it came too close to a military convoy.
Other leaked documents record a U.S. patrol machine-gunning a bus, killing or wounding 15 passengers, and Polish troops mortaring a village, killing a wedding party including a pregnant woman.
They reveal details of undercover operations by a U.S. special forces unit named task Force 373, formed to hunt down and kill or capture taliban and Al Qaeda commanders.
According to Julian Assange, the founder of the website, the files contain details of ‘thousands’ of potential war crimes.
At a press conference in London, he defended his decision to publish the files and claimed the high level of civilian casualties reported was in fact lower than the true figure because military personnel ‘downplayed’ the number or reported them as insurgent deaths. Mr Assange said: ‘We have tried hard to make sure that this material does not put innocents at harm.
‘All the material is over seven months old so it is of no current operational consequence, even though it may be of very significant investigative consequence.
‘The revelation of abuse by the U.S. and coalition forces may cause Afghans to be upset, and rightly so.
‘If governments don’t like populations being upset, they should treat them better, not conceal abuses.’
Professor Malcolm Chalmers, a defence expert at the Royal United Services Institute think tank, said that the leaks could undermine already faltering public support for the war. ‘This will reinforce the perception that things are very complicated and that it is a difficult war to get through and that perhaps it is best to bring our troops home.’
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Pentagon Accuses Analyst Over WikiLeaks Data
July 27, 2010
The Wall Street Journal
By: Julian E. Barnes
Military investigators are checking computers used by Bradley Manning, a U.S. Army intelligence analyst charged this month with leaking classified information, to see if he is the source of thousands of military documents published Sunday by WikiLeaks.
The material released by WikiLeaks relates entirely to the war in Afghanistan, while Pfc. Manning was stationed in Iraq. But investigators are trying to determine what material he was able to get access to and what material he transferred.
Col. Dave Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman, said investigators are looking broadly to determine where the material was taken from, but acknowledged that Pfc. Manning was a person of interest in the investigation. “He is someone we are looking at closely,” Col. Lapan said.
WikiLeaks Sunday published thousands of secret U.S. military documents spanning more than five years. The information is in part humdrum and also dramatic, showing in raw detail the intelligence reports sent from personnel in the field. Among other things, the documents discuss civilian casualties, Pakistan’s role in aiding the Taliban and the weapons capabilities of the Afghan insurgency.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, at a news conference in London Monday, declined to comment on the identity of the source who leaked the documents, or on how the source managed to copy and leak them. Asked about Mr. Manning, Mr. Assange said: “There is no allegation as far as we can determine” that the documents posted on WikiLeaks Sunday are “connected to Bradley Manning.”
He said WikiLeaks has nonetheless “committed funds” to Pfc. Manning’s legal defense, offering his military-appointed legal team money in case it wants to hire civilian counsel.
Mr. Manning’s military defense team didn’t respond to requests seeking comment.
In early July, the U.S. military announced it would press criminal charges against 22-year-old Pfc. Manning for allegedly transferring classified military information to his computer and “delivering national defense information to an unauthorized source.”
These charges appear to be connected to the leak of a classified video that WikiLeaks released to the public. The video, which depicts the July 2007 killing of two Reuters journalists and other individuals in Iraq by Apache helicopter gunships, provoked an international media sensation. In early April, Wikileaks released “Collateral Murder,” a package of documents and videos related to the attack.
The organization said an anonymous leaker, credited only as “our courageous source,” had furnished the materials, which included dramatic gunsight video.
According to a U.S. military charge sheet, Pfc. Manning improperly obtained secret information, including classified State Department cables and video footage of a July 2007 military operation, while stationed at a base east of Baghdad.
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Ahmadinejad Expects US To Attack 2 Middle East Countries
July 27, 2010
Yahoo News
By: Robin Pomeroy
Iran expects the United States to launch a military strike on “at least two countries” in the Middle East in the next three months, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told state-run Press TV.
In an interview recorded on Monday, Ahmadinejad did not specify whether he thought Iran itself would be attacked nor did he say what intelligence led him to expect such a move.
The United States and Israel have refused to rule out military action against Iran’s nuclear program which they fear could lead to it making a bomb, something Iran denies.
“They have decided to attack at least two countries in the region in the next three months,” Ahmadinejad said in excerpts broadcast on the rolling news channel on Tuesday.
Israel, which refuses to confirm or deny the existence of its own nuclear arsenal, has a history of pre-emptive strikes against suspected nuclear targets. In 1981 it destroyed Iraq’s only nuclear reactor and in 2007 bombed a suspect site in Syria.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called the prospect of a nuclear armed Iran “the ultimate terrorist threat.” His deputy, Moshe Yaalon, has said Israel had improved military capability which could be used against foes in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria or Iran.
Ahmadinejad said Iran had “very precise information that the Americans have hatched a plot, according to which they to wage a psychological war against Iran.”
He also criticized the U.S.-led drive for international sanctions to pressure Tehran over the nuclear issue.
The European Union agreed a new round of economic sanctions on Monday, including a block on oil and gas investment [ID:nLDE66P10R], following a similar move by Washington and a fourth round of U.N. sanctions.
“The logic that they can persuade us to negotiate through sanctions is just a failure,” Ahmadinejad said.
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Another Bush May Take Office In The Near Future
July 26, 2010 by Duffy
Filed under Government
July 26, 2010
ABC News
By: Z. Byron Wolf
Political dynasties don’t just die off, especially when they control the presidency for 12 of 22 years and have in their depth chart the extremely popular former governor of a key swing state.
Some political observers say by all rights, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush should be running for president. He has strong conservative credentials, an impeccable political pedigree, can appeal to the all-important Hispanic population, and could do well in his home state, which is populous, up for grabs, and often decides general elections.
But if you go to his website, jeb.org, there is a blank page. Is it waiting to be filled with a platform? Or is it left over from older ambitions?
No doubt the Bush brand is damaged. When Jeb’s brother George W. left office in 2009, fewer than three in ten Americans approved of his presidency.
But there is hope among Republicans that stigma is beginning to fade.
