Saturday, June 28, 2008
24 Million Americans Are Diabetic
CDC: About 8% of Americans Diabetic
The number of Americans with diabetes has grown to about 24 million people, or roughly 8 percent of the U.S. population, the government said Tuesday. A report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, based on data from 2007, said the number represents an increase of about 3 million over two years. The CDC estimates another 57 million people have blood sugar abnormalities called pre-diabetes, which puts people at increased risk for the disease.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Bolton: Israel 'Will Attack Iran'
Israel 'Will Attack Iran'John Bolton, the former American ambassador to the United Nations, has predicted that Israel could attack Iran after the November presidential election but before George W Bush's successor is sworn in. The Arab world would be "pleased" by Israeli strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities, he said in an interview with The Daily Telegraph. "It [the reaction] will be positive privately. I think there'll be public denunciations but no action," he said. Mr Bolton, an unflinching hawk who proposes military action to stop Iran developing nuclear weapons, bemoaned what he sees as a lack of will by the Bush administration to itself contemplate military strikes.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
China's Quest For Gold
Chinese Athletes Pushed To The Limit...
When China's champion 10-meter platform diver lost a retina while training, a year after winning a gold medal in the 2004 Athens Olympics, family members and fans speculated about the imminent end of a great career. The parents of the diver, Hu Jia, had surrendered him to trainers from the Chinese sports establishment at the age of 10, and had seen little of him since then. In an interview with a Chinese newspaper after the diver's injury, his father suggested that this was sacrifice enough. Had he known his son risked blindness, the father said, "I would never have sent him off to dive."
Israel Prepared For War With Iran
U.S. Says Exercise By Israel...
Israel carried out a major military exercise earlier this month that American officials say appeared to be a rehearsal for a potential bombing attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. Several American officials said the Israeli exercise appeared to be an effort to develop the military's capacity to carry out long-range strikes and to demonstrate the seriousness with which Israel views Iran's nuclear program. More than 100 Israeli F-16 and F-15 fighters participated in the maneuvers, which were carried out over the eastern Mediterranean and over Greece during the first week of June, American officials said.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Lining Up For Iraq's Oil
Four Western oil companies are in the final stages of negotiations this month on contracts that will return them to Iraq, 36 years after losing their oil concession to nationalization as Saddam Hussein rose to power. Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP — the original partners in the Iraq Petroleum Company — along with Chevron and a number of smaller oil companies, are in talks with Iraq's Oil Ministry for no-bid contracts to service Iraq's largest fields, according to ministry officials, oil company officials and an American diplomat. The deals, expected to be announced on June 30, will lay the foundation for the first commercial work for the major companies in Iraq since the American invasion, and open a new and potentially lucrative country for their operations
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
CIA Mistakenly Kidnaps German Citizen
German Sues For CIA Extradition
A German citizen has gone to court in an attempt to force his government to seek the extradition of 13 suspected CIA agents who allegedly kidnapped him. Khaled al-Masri says he was abducted in December 2003, flown to a US detention centre in Afghanistan and tortured. Mr Masri was released in May 2004 after his captors allegedly told him he had been mistaken for someone else. In September, the justice ministry decided not to pursue arrest warrants issued for the suspected CIA agents. A spokeswoman, Eva Schmierer, said the ministry had been told by Washington that any extradition would jeopardise "American national interests".
Canada's Fattest And Fittest
Ten years ago, smoking was the national epidemic that had the country talking. Across Canada, anti-smoking campaigns were being implemented. The bar and restaurant industry began to prohibit smoking indoors, and cigarette companies were dropped from sporting events as lead sponsors. Fast forward to 2008, there is a new national concern, - a more silent, yet equally as deadly epidemic - obesity. Although smoking remains the number one preventable cause of death among Canadians, obesity is a close second. By now, the majority of us are aware of the hazards which extra fat can cause, so why are more than half of Canadians either overweight or obese? According to Statistics Canada, a shocking 59 per cent of Canadians are currently overweight or obese – that’s almost 6 in 10 adults who carry around extra weight every day.
Iran Withdraws 75 Billion From Europe
Iran has withdrawn around $75 billion from Europe to prevent the assets from being blocked under threatened new sanctions over Tehran's disputed nuclear ambitions, an Iranian weekly said. Western powers are warning the Islamic Republic of more punitive measures if it rejects an incentives offer and presses on with sensitive nuclear work, but the world's fourth-largest oil exporter is showing no sign of backing down. "Part of Iran's assets in European banks have been converted to gold and shares and another part has been transferred to Asian banks," Mohsen Talaie, deputy foreign minister in charge of economic affairs, was quoted as saying.
Sexual Orientation May Be Set In The Womb
Scans See 'Gay Brain Differences'
The Swedish study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, compared the size of the brain's halves in 90 adults. Gay men and heterosexual women had halves of a similar size, while the right side was bigger in lesbian women and heterosexual men. A UK scientist said this was evidence sexual orientation was set in the womb.
Prison Ships
US Accused of Holding Terror Suspects
The United States is operating "floating prisons" to house those arrested in its war on terror, according to human rights lawyers, who claim there has been an attempt to conceal the numbers and whereabouts of detainees. Details of ships where detainees have been held and sites allegedly being used in countries across the world have been compiled as the debate over detention without trial intensifies on both sides of the Atlantic. The US government was yesterday urged to list the names and whereabouts of all those detained. Information about the operation of prison ships has emerged through a number of sources, including statements from the US military, the Council of Europe and related parliamentary bodies, and the testimonies of prisoners.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Foreclosure Filings Continue to Rise
Foreclosure Filings Continue to Rise
Soaring foreclosures continue to raise questions about the mortgage industry's claims that lenders are making a dent in the housing crisis. Foreclosure filings last month were up nearly 50 percent compared with a year earlier, according to one company's count released yesterday. Nationwide, 261,255 homeowners received at least one foreclosure-related filing in May, up 48 percent from the same month last year, and up 7 percent from April, foreclosure listing service RealtyTrac said. Those numbers come as criticism mounts that efforts by government and lenders to stem the tide of foreclosures aren't keeping up with the rising number of troubled homeowners. Critics say a Bush administration-backed mortgage industry coalition, called Hope Now, is falling short.
Attacking Iran Would Spark Oil Crisis
If wasn't clear before it should be now: the Bush Administration can't afford to attack Iran. With gas already at $4 a gallon and rising almost every day, Iran figuratively and literally has the United States over a barrel. As much as the Administration is tempted, it is not about to test Iran's promise to "explode" the Middle East if it is attacked. The Iranians haven't been shy about making clear what's at stake. If the U.S. or Israel so much as drops a bomb on one of its reactors or its military training camps, Iran will shut down Gulf oil exports by launching a barrage of Chinese Silkworm missiles on tankers in the Strait of Hormuz and Arab oil facilities. In the worst case scenario, seventeen million barrels of oil would come off world markets.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Clinton Endorses Obama
Sen. Hillary Clinton formally ended her presidential campaign Saturday, saying to a packed house of thousands of supporters, "I will continue to stand strong with you every time, every place and every way that I can." She urged the cheering crowd to support Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, in his bid for the White House, saying she and supporters should "take our energy, our passion and our strength and do all we can to help elect Barack Obama ... I ask all of you to join me in working as hard for Barack Obama as you have for me." Her endorsement was met with a scattering of boos and thumbs downs from the crowd at the National Building Museum in Washington.
Attack Iran To Stop Its Nuclear Plans
Israel Threatens To Strike
The warning, from Israeli transport minister Shaul Mofaz, is the bluntest threat yet against Tehran from any member of prime minister Ehud Olmert's administration. In an interview with the mass-circulation Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper on Friday, Mr Mofaz said that Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - who has called for Israel to be wiped off the map - "would disappear before Israel does". "If Iran continues with its programme for developing nuclear weapons, we will attack it. The sanctions are ineffective," said Mr Mofaz, referring to pressure by the United Nations security council to end Iran's disputed programme of uranium enrichment. "Attacking Iran, in order to stop its nuclear plans, will be unavoidable."
Oil Hits New Record
Oil's Biggest Day Yet
Oil prices made their biggest single-day leap ever Friday—clearing $139, dragging the Dow Jones industrials down nearly 400 points and raising the once-unthinkable prospect of $150 oil and even higher gas prices by the Fourth of July. The meteoric rise of nearly $11 for the day piled atop an increase of almost $5.50 the day before, taking oil futures more than 13 percent higher in just two days, easily a record on the New York Mercantile Exchange. And those weren't the only stunning numbers of the day: The government also reported the nation's unemployment rate zoomed to 5.5 percent in May, a monthly rise of half a percentage point, the biggest in 22 years.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Washington’s Culture of Deception
Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan writes in a surprisingly scathing memoir to be published next week that President Bush “veered terribly off course,” was not “open and forthright on Iraq,” and took a “permanent campaign approach” to governing at the expense of candor and competence.
Monkey Thoughts Control Robot
Monkeys Control A Robot Arm
Two monkeys with tiny sensors in their brains have learned to control a mechanical arm with just their thoughts, using it to reach for and grab food and even to adjust for the size and stickiness of morsels when necessary, scientists reported on Wednesday. The report, released online by the journal Nature, is the most striking demonstration to date of brain-machine interface technology. Scientists expect that technology will eventually allow people with spinal cord injuries and other paralyzing conditions to gain more control over their lives. The findings suggest that brain-controlled prosthetics, while not practical, are at least technically within reach.
Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
Copyright Deal
The federal government is secretly negotiating an agreement to revamp international copyright laws which could make the information on Canadian iPods, laptop computers or other personal electronic devices illegal and greatly increase the difficulty of travelling with such devices. The deal could also impose strict regulations on Internet service providers, forcing those companies to hand over customer information without a court order. Called the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), the new plan would see Canada join other countries, including the United States and members of the European Union, to form an international coalition against copyright infringement.
Ray Gun
The Pentagon has been developing a raygun which can harmlessly repel enemies by causing a burning sensation in the top layer of the skin. However, according to CBS's 60 Minutes, the military is unwilling to actually trust this weapon enough to deploy it in Iraq.
CEO Salary Over The Years
In 1970, the average CEO earned 28times more than the average worker. Since then the gap has widened drastically.
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