causing irreversible lung damage in food workers: WashPo
She was once in constant motion; her co-workers compared her to a roadrunner because of the way she darted around the workplace. But now Irma Ortiz sits at the edge of her couch, too winded to sweep her patio or walk her son to school without resting. She is slowly suffocating.
Ortiz, 44, is among a group of California food-flavoring workers recently diagnosed with bronchiolitis obliterans, a rare and life-threatening form of fixed obstructive lung disease. Also known as popcorn workers lung, because it has turned up in workers at microwave-popcorn factories, the disease destroys the lungs. A transplant is the only cure.
Since 2001, academic studies have shown links between the disease and a chemical used in artificial butter flavor called diacetyl. Flavoring manufacturers have paid out more than $100 million as a result of lawsuits by people sick with popcorn workers lung over the past five years. One death from the disease has been confirmed.
But no federal laws regulate the chemical’s use.
The article goes on to describe OSHA’s ‘regulatory paralysis’ on the issue. Just another mission accomplished for tema Bush, I guess.
Palestinians detained by Israeli security forces are routinely tortured and ill-treated, according to a new report published by Israeli human rights groups yesterday. The ill-treatment, which includes beatings, sensory deprivation, back-bending, back-stretching and other forms of physical abuse, contravenes international law and Israeli law, the report says.
The Centre for the Defence of the Individual and B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, compiled the report after interviewing 73 Palestinians who had been arrested in 2005 and 2006.
The report found that almost 50% of detainees who were arrested in raids or at random were beaten by the army or police before they were handed over to the Shin Bet security agency for interrogation. The prisoners were interrogated for an average of 35 days and spent most of their time in tiny cells in solitary confinement. They were interrogated from five to 10 hours a day. More than half did not see a lawyer or representative of the Red Cross for the whole period of interrogation.
Muslim leaders are trying to strengthen Sunni-Shiite ties in the United States, hoping to head off conflicts between the faith’s two major sects and get American Muslims to focus on common problems.
Even more startling than these machines’ capabilities, however, are the effects they have on their friendly keepers who, for example, award their bots “battlefield promotions” and “purple hearts.” “Ours was called Sgt. Talon,” says Sgt. Michael Maxson of the 737th Ordnance Company (EOD). “We always wanted him as our main robot. Every time he was working, nothing bad ever happened. He always got the job done. He took a couple of detonations in front of his face and didn’t stop working. One time, he actually did break down in a mission, and we sent another robot in and it got blown to pieces. It’s like he shut down because he knew something bad would happen.” The troops promoted the robot to staff sergeant — a high honor, since that usually means a squad leader. They also awarded it three “purple hearts.”
AFTER a seven-year search for the best drug that can cure malaria, the Medicines for Malaria Venture, (MMV), a non-profit making organisation has finally developed four new highly effective anti malarial drugs.
The NGO with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland is dedicated to reducing the burden of malaria in disease-endemic countries by discovering, developing and delivering new affordable antimalarials through effective public-private partnerships.
MMV’s Vice President Public Affairs Anna Wang told journalists in Kampala on Saturday that the four drugs are in the pipeline and would be ready within the next two years.
“Clinical trials started three years ago and we are now in the last stage of developing the new and affordable drugs to ensure universal access. Almost half of people who suffer from malaria don’t have access to drugs because they are expensive,” Ms Wang said.
(snip)
Globally, malaria kills between one and two million people annually.
According to Unicef, malaria infects 350 to 500 million people each year, kills a child somewhere in the world every 30 seconds, accounts for about one in five of all childhood deaths, and is most prevalent in Africa.
Hundreds of people were arrested in France overnight in clashes between police and protesters angry over conservative Nicolas Sarkozy’s victory in Sunday’s presidential election, police said.
Official figures released on Monday said demonstrators set fire to 730 cars and injured 78 policemen across France, with 592 people arrested in the violent protests against the tough-talking former interior minister.
The tally was revised sharply upwards after an initial report appeared to downplay the clashes and was at odds with local police figures and eyewitness reports, which suggested widespread troubles in numerous French cities.
Sarkozy made his name as a law-and-order hardliner who also tightened France’s immigration laws, making him a hate figure for the left. Slogans spray-painted on the streets of Paris overnight included “Sarkozy fascist”.
Leftist sympathizers clashed with police in and around Paris’s Place de la Bastille after Sarkozy’s victory against Socialist Segolene Royal and security forces fired tear gas and at least one burst of water cannon to disperse the crowd.
[…]
Similar attacks were reported in the southeastern city of Lyon and the southern city of Toulouse. Bus shelters were smashed in the northern city of Lille and a school was set on fire in the Paris suburb of Evry.
Ken Herman blogs for Cox News: “The official White House transcript shows otherwise, but a recording shows that President Bush today introduced embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in a way that indicates Gonzales will have the job in perpetuity.
“‘I’m honored to be here with the eternal general of the United States, mi amigo, Alberto Gonzales,’ Bush said in recognizing his longtime friend at a Rose Garden celebration of Cinco de Mayo.”
You can here it at the one-minute mark in this video.
“WASHINGTON, May 7 — A committee of World Bank directors has formally notified Paul D. Wolfowitz that they found him to be guilty of a conflict of interest in arranging for a pay raise and promotion for Shaha Ali Riza, his companion, in 2005. The findings stepped up the pressure on Mr. Wolfowitz to resign.
[.]It was not clear whether the committee, consisting of 7 of the bank’s 24 board members, would remove Mr. Wolfowitz from his post or, more likely, express a loss of confidence in his leadership in a manner that might persuade him to resign. Bank officials say that a majority of the bank board has concluded that he should go.
In another sign of Mr. Wolfowitz’s difficulties, his top communications aide, Kevin Kellems, resigned today, saying that “the current environment surrounding the leadership” at the bank made it “very difficult to be effective in helping to advance the mission of the institution.”
Mr. Kellems said in a written statement that he had “tremendous respect and admiration” for the bank’s staff. He made no mention of Mr. Wolfowitz, with whom he had a close association when the bank president was deputy secretary of defense.”
The disclosure regarding Robin Cleveland came as the panel investigating Mr Wolfowitz’s role in awarding pay and promotion benefits to Ms Riza, his girlfriend, sent a copy of its findings to the bank president, and a second top aide, Kevin Kellems, resigned from the bank. The bank’s board meets on Tuesday to discuss the panel’s report.”
Yep, the same tool kit and skillsets at work. Stick a fork, this trio is done.
The 1970 killings by National Guardsmen of four students during a peaceful anti-war demonstration at Kent State University have now been shown to be cold-blooded, premeditated official murder. But the definitive proof of this monumental historic reality is not, apparently, worthy of significant analysis or comment in today’s mainstream media.
After 37 years of official denial and cover-up, tape-recorded evidence, that has existed for decades and has been in the possession of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), has finally been made public.
It proves what “conspiracy theorists” have argued since 1970—that there was a direct military order leading to the unprovoked assassination of unarmed students. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) documents show collusion between Ohio Governor James A. Rhodes and the FBI that aimed to terrorize anti-war demonstrators and their protests that were raging throughout the nation.
GOING, GOING, GONE: April’s Arctic ice cap was smallest in recorded history.
By GEORGE BRYSON
Anchorage Daily News
Published: May 7, 2007
Last Modified: May 7, 2007 at 02:09 AM
Imagine three-fourths of the land mass of Alaska disappearing in a decade. That’s roughly the amount of sea ice that has vanished from the Arctic ice cap in recent years — and now it’s melting faster.
These guys weren’t exactly Snap, Crackle and Pop. What began as a faint popping in a 9-year-old boy’s ear — “like Rice Krispies” — ended up as an earache, and the doctor’s diagnosis was that a pair of spiders made a home in the ear.
“They were walking on my eardrums,” Jesse Courtney said.
One of the spiders was still alive after the doctor flushed the fourth-grader’s left ear canal. His mother, Diane Courtney, said her son insisted he kept hearing a faint popping in his ear — “like Rice Krispies.”
On Saturday afternoon at 3:30 p.m., a Border Patrol agent patrolling trails south of Sierra Vista found the body of a suspected male border crosser between Hunter Canyon and Miller Canyon, said Gustavo Soto, Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman. Cochise County Sheriff’s deputies recovered the body, he said.
It is the seventh known illegal border crosser death in Cochise County in 2007 and 13th since Oct. 1, the start of the government’s fiscal 2007, according to the Cochise County Medical Examiner’s Office. The Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector, which covers all of Arizona except the western corner near Yuma, reported 60 border deaths — a 21-percent decrease from fiscal year 2006 — from Oct. 1 through April, the latest figures made available.
And surprise of all surprises, the majority of the article was spent detailing the marijuana that was found 100 miles away. No wonder the human rights crisis is ignored.
causing irreversible lung damage in food workers: WashPo
The article goes on to describe OSHA’s ‘regulatory paralysis’ on the issue. Just another mission accomplished for tema Bush, I guess.
Palestinians ‘routinely tortured’ in Israeli jails
By ERIC GORSKI AP Religion Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press
Muslim leaders are trying to strengthen Sunni-Shiite ties in the United States, hoping to head off conflicts between the faith’s two major sects and get American Muslims to focus on common problems.
more
Bots on the Ground
Like I always say – we’re all nuts.
Forgot to say thanks to Buzzflash.com
This could be huge.
Uganda: Four New Malaria Drugs Invented
it seems Royal was right…..er, correct…
but chimpy’s pleased.
ITMF’sA
From White House Watch:
From the New York Times online lead story:
World Bank Panel Finds Wolfowitz at Fault; Aide Resigns
LATE BREAKING
Wolfowitz’s 2nd aide implicated in controversy, FT reporting
Yep, the same tool kit and skillsets at work. Stick a fork, this trio is done.
I love watching these guys go down!
Media Silence on Kent State Revelations
GOING, GOING, GONE: April’s Arctic ice cap was smallest in recorded history.
By GEORGE BRYSON
Anchorage Daily News
Published: May 7, 2007
Last Modified: May 7, 2007 at 02:09 AM
Imagine three-fourths of the land mass of Alaska disappearing in a decade. That’s roughly the amount of sea ice that has vanished from the Arctic ice cap in recent years — and now it’s melting faster.
http://www.adn.com/news/environment/story/8863003p-8763612c.html
I will NEVER EVER EVER sleep again!
!
And surprise of all surprises, the majority of the article was spent detailing the marijuana that was found 100 miles away. No wonder the human rights crisis is ignored.