NutriDine Radiation ELF DNA Cellular Detox Protection

NutriTRALA ANTIOXIDANT RADIATION CHEMICAL and DNA Cellular Protection

SUPER SILVER Gel and Super Silver -- MOST POWERFUL Silver Natural Antimicrobial

Nanomasks Block Virus and Bacterial Particles

Hydro Pulse Nasal and Lung Mist Inhalation - Aug 1st 2007 Available NEW MACHINE --- Civil Defense from Viral Pathogens and Fungi

Allicin Super Antipathogen - AlliUltra Liquid for Inhalation and Irrigation - Allicin Caps and Cream - Better Than Greens with Allicin - AlliUltra Caps

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

HOUR ONE: N-KNASE NATTOKINASE - VASCULAR AND HEART PROTECTION - ABSORPZYME - SUPER DIGESTION WELLNESS DIGESTIVE ZYMES - VK2 VITAMIN K2 LONG CHAIN 7-MENIDIONE - DR RALPH HOLSWORTH DO -- LATEST VITAMIN K2 RESEARCH REPORTS

NZYMECEUTICLAS N-KINASE NATTOKINASE -- ABSORBZYME SUPER DIGESTION - VK2 VITAMIN K2 BONE OSTEOPOROSIS AND VASCULAR PROTECTION

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ASPARTAME UPDATE - ABBY CORMACK AND Dr Betty Martini from New Zealand

Things are going very well over here in NZ, we have had some good press since Betty's arrival.

3 articles lately

1st one in the Epoch Times

http://en.epochtimes.com/news/7-7-23/57897.html

This last week. http://www.captimes.co.nz/news.aspx

And.........today there is an article in the Dominion Post, on page A5!!! Not quite as good as the front page, but I can't be greedy. Haha. There is a picture as well.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominionpost/4145228a6479.html

Betty and I had an interview on the Good Living show on CTV for 10mins (in Christchurch) last Fri, which went extremely well. There are 150,000 viewers.

Today there is an article in the Dominion Post, on page A5!!! Not quite as good as the front page, but I can't be greedy. Haha.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominionpost/4145228a6479.html

We are getting alot of positive feedback from the public, we have even managed to swing the CEO of The Obesity Foundation to our side, she emailed the morning after one of our talks at the Wgton School of Med saying she used brown sugar on her cereal instead of artificial sweetener for the first time, said she came into the meeting a sceptic, but is now fully behind our cause.

Had a lady whose sister is a Diabetic call me, her sis is having seizures and is on huge amounts of Diet Coke. Going to meet her at some stage, she is in a bad way psychologically as well, very depressed and says she would rather die that come off Diet Coke!! Horrendous.

Betty has had many people approach her with encouragement and offers of support just whilst walking down the street!

She had a very successful radio interview last night with Keith Stewart on Radio live, there is info on the radio live website www.radiolive.co.nz This interview stirred up lots of interest and there were some outraged listeners who called up saying something must be done.

We have our public meeting tomorrow night in Wellington at 6pm. Wish you could all be there, but I do talk about you in my wee speech, saying how amazing the doctors and physicians have been in the States! THANKS!

I have an interview on the biggest news show in NZ this Fri morning at 8,10am, its called the 'Breakfast Show'...and they have allocated me just 3mins, just wondering what I can squeeze into that short amount of time!

Thanks for your all your support. Will keep you updated.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PROTECTION OF THE RIGHTS OF DOWNS CHILDREN AND THEIR FAMILIES - NEW SUPPORT PACKS AND INFO BY PETITION TO LEGISLATION -- SUPPORT TODAY!

One of the hardest moments in the life of an expectant mother is when she receives news that she is going to have a child with special needs?. Senator Kennedy said in a press release, following the re-introduction of the American Prenatal and Postnatal Diagnosed Condition Awareness Act on July 18th.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=s109-609

Besides setting up a national clearinghouse on information for parents relating to Down syndrome or other diagnosed conditions, this bill provides for the establishment of awareness and education programs for health care providers and peer-support programs. It also calls for the creation of a national registry of families willing to adopt children with prenatal or postnatal conditions.

Over 90% of children diagnosed with Down syndrome are aborted in North America today. That percentage is comparable for children that are diagnosed prenatal with other conditions such as spina bifida, cystic fibrosis and dwarfism. Technological advances and a recent expansion of the scope of prenatal screening are putting enormous stresses on prospective parents. Faced with a prenatal diagnosis they are forced to make a decision that ranges from giving life to denying life. Limited time, limited access to information and only the input of medical doctors to guide parents, often complicate this difficult process even further. In spite of tireless efforts from many support groups, their information pamphlets seldom reach the expecting parents. Old patterned behavior or personal biases from medical providers combined with fears of negative social evaluation or extra financial burden contribute to the majority of parents choosing to terminate, never knowing there is a whole world of hope, support and resources out there. A number of these parents sadly continue life regretting their choice.

Education and awareness are key, according to Alice Evans, parent, blogger and volunteer at the Nova Scotia Down Syndrome Society: I believe the way prenatal testing and ?counseling? is carried out, is partly to blame. I recently learned of a woman who had chosen to terminate her pregnancy because her baby was diagnosed with Down syndrome. She had only two days to make her decision and was only offered the input of medical doctors to guide her. The reason she gave for her decision was that having a child with Down syndrome would put her and her family under ?severe hardship?. That just isn?t my experience. I keep wondering: what if she had been offered a realistic picture of how life can be and was given information from parents who had actually brought up children with Down syndrome. Would she have made the same decision??

In February of this year, the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada expanded the scope of prenatal screening to include all pregnant woman be offered the choice to undergo screening for certain conditions. Down syndrome is often viewed as a ?burden? by the medical society and the statement of the executive vice-president of the Society of Obstetrician and Gynaecologists of Canada, Dr. Andre Lalonde*, underlines this. ?Yes, it?s going to lead to more termination, but it?s going to be fair to women who are 24 who say, ?How come I have to raise an infant with Down syndrome, whereas my cousin who was 35 didn?t have to?? ?We have to be fair to give woman a choice.? ?

Admittedly, parenting a child with special needs may not be everyone?s choice. But if women have the legal right to choose the progress of their pregnancy, information about both options should be balanced. Only then, there is a fair choice. No-one should feel forced into a life-denying situation, due to a lack of information or unrealistic fears of the unknown. In all fairness, if screening programs are extended, support, awareness and education programs should also be extended.

* National Post, January 6, 2007

Felecia and Michael Outhouse from Eastern Passage agree. As new parents of a baby boy living with Down syndrome they received prenatal screening under the new recommendations by the SOGC.

?The health care professionals volunteered little information about raising a child with Down syndrome, yet took great efforts to inform us that termination was not something to feel guilty about. We wanted to know the true facts and undertook our own research and met with families with children with Down syndrome. I shudder to think what our lives would be like had we relied on the information given to us by the professionals. Eric is such a wonderful baby, we love him so much.?

Alice Evans says she is glad, both as member of the NSDSS communications committee and a blogger advocate, to be able to work on getting the word out into the wider world. ?If we were given the chance to support prospective parents by providing them with a full picture of life with a child with Down syndrome, I believe we could make a real difference for parents trying to make a well-informed decision. Currently, we are not given the opportunity to provide a pregnant woman with information before she makes the choice to undergo testing or not. We can only offer information to parents once the baby with Down syndrome is born.

With prenatal testing becoming more accurate and more widely used, this has become a matter that affects our whole society. With current advances in mapping of (disease causing) genes and screening programs in which the inherited risk of developing certain conditions can be calculated, we should all be concerned.

The Nova Scotia Down Syndrome Society believes there is an urgent need for an outlined standard of procedure that concerned medical personnel adhere to when delivering a prenatal diagnosis as well as the establishment of awareness and education programs. By creating a law that manages the above, Canada will ensure that all differences are celebrated and valued equally.

You can help make a difference by signing our petition and by passing it on to everyone who might be interested, because every signature counts!

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/canada-needs-a-prenatal-diagnosed-condition-awareness-act.html

Waves of Change

Renate Lindeman

Nova Scotia Down Syndrome Society President

(902) 434-0234

Published by NS Policy journal in June 2007

DRAFT

Downhome

She kept staring at us from across the isle; pale blue eyes framed by old fashioned glasses. Abhorred and judgmental, her look seemed to accuse us of failure and shame. Of course we have seen ?the look? before, but this was different. We were trapped inside an airplane and had to endure her scorn for 6 long hours. We were on our way home from the World Down Syndrome Congress in Vancouver. Surrounded by people with Down syndrome and their families there had been no stares, only friendly faces and acceptance. When I met her eyes again, I knew we were no longer accepted as part of ?the crowd?. I look at the source of her scorn, my two beautiful daughters folded up in the seat between my husband and me, both peacefully asleep.

I knew I should speak up, it was just that I felt so damned tired sometimes.

Today, in Canada, it is not a heartening time to have Down syndrome. Sure people with Down syndrome are not put in institutions like they were three decades ago. They are included in their schools and communities. They get married, enjoy equal opportunity employment. It appears we have come a long way. But beneath all this outward appearance of progress a different message can be heard.

The special needs of individuals with Down syndrome have been ignored for years. Parents are told to ?accept? the many health challenges children with Down syndrome are facing. Even though scientists now understand how an extra copy of the 21st chromosome is changing body chemistry and how many differences can be corrected, discoveries are largely being ignored by the medical society. Is the medical community under the assumption that people with Down syndrome soon will be no longer with us?

As of February 1, 2007, the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC) recommends all pregnant woman undergo prenatal screening in early pregnancy. This will allow parents who opt for an abortion to do so when it is less traumatic. Unfortunately Down syndrome is viewed merely as ?undesirable? and ?a burden? by the medical community and the statement of the executive vice-president of the SOGC, Dr. Andre Lalonde, underlines this. ?Yes, it?s going to lead to more termination, but it?s going to be fair to women who are 24 who say, ?How come I have to raise an infant with Down syndrome, whereas my cousin who was 35 didn?t have to?? ?We have to be fair to give woman a choice.? ?

Most parents consider their child with Down syndrome an asset, not a burden. They feel their child is not disabled by their condition, but by society that perceives them negatively. As one mom says about her adopted 16 year old child: ?if my son had been aborted, the world would have had a tiny hole where he should have been?. I fear that if attitudes are not changed and screening programs extended, this will create a gaping hole in our society where people with Down syndrome should be.

Besides being targeted for their existence, people with Down syndrome have to deal with more injustices. While some families, with disabilities that cannot be determined prenatal, have been getting the attention and support from the government that they need and deserve; families with Down syndrome often saw waiting lists grow (upto 3 years in Nova Scotia) and services decline. Another consequence of our ?choice??

The Canadian government has rejected immigrant families if they have a child with Down syndrome because they are considered ?medically inadmissible?. And recent cuts into ?wasteful? social programs will create barriers for people with disabilities to lead inclusive and productive lives. I fail to see how all this adds up to ?a fair choice??

If we simply deny people with Down syndrome the right to be born, we deny ourselves our humanity. It is time policy makers truly start offering a fair choice. At least an equal amount of money that is spend on in utero testing should be invested in medical research aimed at improving lives of people with Down syndrome. Social programs that promote inclusion and encourage people with Down syndrome to lead productive lives need to be extended. And finally, information about Down syndrome provided to prospective parents needs to be accurate and balanced.

Two days after the flight, while helping my oldest daughter down the slide at our local play ground, a young mother comes up to me. She says ?I hope you don?t find me rude but I would like to ask you something.? ?I notice you?re children have Down syndrome? ?I?ve heard children with Down syndrome are a true blessing? she says. ?They sure are? I reply smiling. As we get into a pleasant conversation I realize that in a free country, policies do not dictate people, but people dictate policies. And, even though it is sometimes tiring, we need to continue to speak up and fight for true progress.

Renate Lindeman

Nova Scotia Down Syndrome Society President

Parent of two beautiful daughters living with Down Syndrome

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

HOUR TWO: Dr Mike Castle CHEMTRAILS HAARP MORGELLONS TERRAFORMING OF EARTH - GENOCIDE TREATY VIOLATIONS BY GLOBAL ELITE

Methodic Demise of Natural EARTH - Dr Mike Castle

TITLE 18 United States Code ? 1091. Genocide

(a) Basic Offense.? Whoever (without limitation), whether in time of peace or in time of war, in a circumstance described in subsection (d) and with the specific intent (intent is inferred by the willful act of a person of normal intelligence) to destroy, in whole or in substantial part, a national, ethnic (the tern ethnic is shown below), racial, or religious group (the term ?religion? may not be confined to a group organized to practice a specified doctrinal lifestyle) as such?

(1) kills members of that group (this would be applied by reference to ?depraved indifference?);

(2) causes serious bodily injury to members of that group (as in #1 above);

(3) causes the permanent impairment of the mental faculties of members of the group through drugs, torture, or similar techniques; (this speaks for itself)

(4) subjects the group to conditions of life that are intended to cause the physical destruction of the group in whole or in part; (this element is prima facie so we need to amply develop the concept of the motivation of the defendants i.e. corporate profit, eugenics, euthanasia [both active and passive], subjugation and control of political rivals, et c.)

(5) imposes measures intended to prevent births within the group; or

(6) transfers by force children of the group to another group; (this was applied powerfully and in a major way by the Aboriginals of Australia) or attempts to do so, shall be punished as provided in subsection (b).

(b) Punishment for Basic Offense.? The punishment for an offense under subsection (a) is?

(1) in the case of an offense under subsection (a)(1), where death results, by death or imprisonment for life and a fine of not more than $1,000,000, or both; and

(2) a fine of not more than $1,000,000 or imprisonment for not more than twenty years, or both, in any other case.

(c) Incitement Offense.? Whoever in a circumstance described in subsection (d) directly and publicly incites another to violate subsection (a) shall be fined not more than $500,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

(d) Required Circumstance for Offenses.? The circumstance referred to in subsections (a) and (c) is that?

(1) the offense is committed within the United States; or

(2) the alleged offender is a national of the United States (as defined in section 101 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101)).

(e) Nonapplicability of Certain Limitations.?

Notwithstanding section 3282 of this title, in the case of an offense under subsection (a)(1), an indictment may be found, or information instituted, at any time without limitation.

The key to its use is in the amplifying the definitions of the words as we write up the suit. The original intent of the statute was to provide an instrument for homosexuals to use to afflict groups opposing their lifestyle. It was intended that the term ?ethnic group? be given broad significance. By using the instrument crafted by the Internationalists to protect a cadre they enlisted to foment dissidence and disorder in the general society, we can convert that same instrument to our purposes. The beauty of this approach is that, having formed the weapon, they were so confident of its destructive ability that they never formed a defense to it.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

MOST IMPORTANT STORIES FOR TODAY - FRIDAY AUGUST 3RD 2007 - SELECTED BY DR BILL

Chronic condition With an Enloe specialist's departure, long-term workers' comp patients have nowhere to turn for pain care

By Vince Abbate

More stories by this author...

THE AGONY OF SITTING STILL

An injury two years ago has left Patsy Harting with chronic back pain that makes it impossible for her to sit for longer than a half-hour. Nevertheless, she now must travel to a clinic in Sacramento to receive care because her former doctor, an Enloe specialist, has left town.

PHOTO BY ANDREW BOOST

Turning the tables:

Before passage of AB 899, the workers? comp reform bill, in 2004, insurance companies were required to accept physicians? word on the necessity for treatment. Now it?s the other way around: Doctors must be able to show that the treatment they recommend is included in the ACOEM guidelines. ?Cookbook medicine,? critics call it.

Two years ago, Patsy Harting suffered a serious back injury while working at Enloe Medical Center as a registered nurse. The chronic pain she now suffers has kept her from working and forced Enloe to let her go in 2005 after eight years of employment.

Now Enloe is letting her go once again.

The medical center notified the 66-year-old Magalia resident and 200 other patients like her that they no longer would be treated at Enloe for chronic pain suffered from injuries covered by workers compensation. In the letter, sent in June, officials cited the departure of the center's chief occupational-health specialist as the cause. Reforms in the state's workers compensation laws, the letter added, had led to a shortage of physicians willing to accept workers' comp patients.

"When I got the letter, they let me know they would no longer be treating patients like me," Harting said. "I think it was very wrong."

Enloe's Occupational Health Center, located in east Chico off Bruce Road, will still provide care for acute and sub-acute cases?broken arms, lacerations, that sort of thing. But those who suffer chronic pain?mostly neck and back patients?have been referred to clinics as far away as Sacramento and St. Helena.

"We are no longer able to provide that care because it is a specialty," said Nora Shippelhoute, manager at Enloe Occupational Health Center. "It's not typical for a health clinic to provide that care; we just had someone who could."

Enloe is looking to replace former specialist Dr. Mark Bohlander, but believes it will be difficult to do so. According to the letter, guidelines set by the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) have forced Enloe to shut its doors to current and future patients formerly under Bohlander's care for chronic pain.

The passage of workers' compensation reform (SB 899) in 2004 made ACOEM's guidelines a standard for doctors, attorneys and insurance providers in deciding treatment and compensation for work-related injuries.

This gets to the crux of the problem long-term workers-comp patients have. Even though legally the ACOEM guidelines are supposed to apply only to injuries treatable within 90 days, insurance companies find it easy to use them to deny longer-term care, and doctors either don't realize they can fight the insurance companies or they've given up trying.

Steve Foster, a Chico-based attorney, counsels Harting and others who find it next to impossible to get care because their doctors won't deal with insurance claims.

"They're being told they don't want to treat anybody in the workers' compensation system because it's too difficult," Foster said. "They're happy to treat you if you have health insurance, if you have cash, or if you are on Medicare or Medi-Cal?but if you're on workers comp, they don't want to talk to you."

Foster said the problem rests with doctors' insistence on using ACOEM's guidelines as the ultimate authority. He's often told by clients that their doctors recommend treatment options but know they will be refused, so they won't even ask.

"I don't blame the doctors." Foster said. "The ones that are still doing [occupational medicine] kinda got beaten down so much that they throw their hands up and give up."

Susan Gard, spokeswoman for the California Division of Workers Compensation, has a different take on the matter. "To say that [Enloe and other practitioners] can no longer provide long-term care because of the guidelines is incorrect. You can go beyond the ACOEM guidelines as long as [medical care is] based on sound medical guidelines."

Other CDWC officials emphasize that the guidelines are not a "bible" for diagnosis and treatment, but may have been interpreted that way.

"I think they were originally written as educational material for physicians," said Anne Searcy, executive medical director for the CDWC. "There certainly has been a learning curve on this."

Searcy is working with myriad professionals, from general practitioners to acupuncturists, to create supplemental guidelines for chronic pain treatment. The hope is to fix the flaws created by SB 899.

"My goal is to make sure injured workers get the proper treatment," Searcy said.

There's another problem, however: Long-term patients must be seen by specialists, and Shippelhoute says there are few in Chico who accept these cases.

"It's very unfortunate for these patients," Shippelhoute said of the lack of specialists in the workers' comp insurance network. "We don't have anywhere for patients to go when they need a specialist."

Meanwhile, former Enloe patients will need to explore their options. For Harting, it's hard enough dealing with the pain she experiences on a daily basis. To travel to a far-off clinic would be excruciating.

"I can [ride in a car] for about a half an hour, but then I have to walk around for a little bit," she said.

UPDATE: American Home Mortgage To Lay Off Over 6,000 Workers

August 03, 2007: 11:50 AM EST

LONDON (Dow Jones) -- Troubled lender American Home Mortgage Investment late Thursday said it's going to lay off over 6,000 workers and stop taking mortgage applications as it struggles to avoid bankruptcy.

American Home (AHM) , which was the country's tenth largest mortgage lender, said it's cutting its employee base from over 7,000 to approximately 750, but will maintain its thrift and servicing businesses.

"The employees affected should understand that this is not a reflection on their efforts or their productivity," CEO Michael Strauss in a statement.

"Unfortunately, the market conditions in both the secondary mortgage market as well as the national real estate market have deteriorated to the point that we have no realistic alternative."

American Home, and peer Accredited Home Lenders (LEND) , have faced huge selling pressure this week as the companies struggle to survive amid the turmoil in the subprime mortgage market, which caters to less-creditworthy home buyers.

Subprime delinquencies have jumped as house prices slide, pressuring lenders who offered the loans.

The originators of the loans are being forced to buy back loans they had sold in the second mortgage market, creating a negative cycle of events that has grown worse.

Forced repurchases increased the amount of distressed mortgage loans for sale in the market, which dented prices.

That, in turn, caused the big banks that provide crucial financing for mortgage originators to mark down the value of mortgages held as collateral to back their loans, Accredited said.

That triggered margin calls, or demands for more cash or collateral, on many subprime lenders including American Home.

Wi-Fi on high coming from American Airlines

By Associated Press

The airline it will test the service next year on some Boeing 767-200 jets that mostly fly transcontinental routes. <[P> American will charge a fee for the hookup but won't announce the charge until broadband-equipped flights are ready to go, according to AirCell LLC, the company providing the hookup.

American said it signed a memorandum of intent with AirCell to provide the service.

AirCell will build cellular towers throughout the continental United States to transmit the signals. Planes will has three antennas, two on the bottom and one on top.

The service will work with Wi-Fi-equipped notebook computers and PDAs, the airline said.

If the service is a success, it could be expanded throughout American's fleet.

Copyright ? 2007 The Seattle Times Company

Fears Over US Beef

America Must Take Bold Steps to Ensure Meat Safety

America Must Take Bold Steps to Ensure Meat Safety

South Korean consumers are increasingly worried about the safety of U.S. beef imports that have repeatedly contained banned parts. The latest jitters hit the country Thursday when the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry suspended quarantine inspections of all beef from America over mad-cow concerns. The ministry said it had discovered a box of vertebral columns, designated as ``specified risk material'' that could potentially cause mad cow disease, in an 18.7-ton shipment from the United States.

No doubt food safety is emerging as one of the important global issues. We remember that the U.S. has strongly condemned China for exporting food products containing harmful materials. The Chinese authorities executed Zheng Xiaoyu, former head of the food and drug safety agency, last month after being convicted of taking bribes from pharmaceutical firms. The execution was seen as Beijing's strong will to ensure food and drug safety at home and abroad.

The U.S. has failed to meet export standards 15 times since last October when Korea partially reopened its market after it banned American beef imports in December 2003 over the outbreak of mad cow disease. How could the U.S. continue to violate the bilateral standards in which it agreed to ship only boneless meat from cattle under 30 months old? It is quite regrettable that the U.S. has not made any sincere efforts to prevent the repetition of such violations.

Korean quarantine officials sent back U.S. beef imports four times between October and December last year because they contained bone fragments and the excessive dioxin levels. This year, American meatpackers shipped beef with short ribs to Korea seven times. They also exported mislabeled beef for U.S. domestic consumption three times. The U.S. side seemed to have only tried to find excuses for the violations without taking bold steps to correct its loose inspection system. Every time Washington officials attributed the violations to meatpackers' simple mistakes.

The U.S. inaction proves that America is applying double standards to its foreign trade. It is very strict on goods imported into the country, while overlooking safety standards for products to be shipped to other countries. What's more annoying is the remarks by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns. In response to the latest case, he said only six out of about 600,000 boxes of beef to Korea have problems. ``So you could see, this has really worked remarkably well. I would just be very bold in saying that kind of number whether you're dealing with Kias or Toyotas or beef is a very, very strong number,'' he said.

His saying indicates that the U.S. has no intention of rectifying its mistakes. Johanns said the real solution to the problem is to go to standards of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). ``This would not even be an issue if we were at OIE standards,'' he said. He claimed the vertebral column from an animal under 30 months of age is within OIE standards. His stance shows that the U.S. is only interested in opening the Korean market wider to its beef, while not respecting the bilateral agreement on beef trade.

American lawmakers have already threatened to reject a free trade agreement (FTA) signed by the both countries in June, if South Korea does not comply with a U.S. demand for a full market opening to American beef. Korean farmers and anti-FTA activists criticized Seoul government for taking the lukewarm step of halting the inspection of U.S. beef imports over the spinal bone case in a bid to avoid the threat. They said the Roh Moo-hyun administration should have imposed a total ban on American beef until the U.S. takes scrupulous measures to ensure beef safety.

Washington officials should realize that they might succeed in forcing Seoul to completely open its beef market, but that they cannot win back Korean consumers' confidence in U.S. beef. And Korean policymakers must make efforts to protect sovereign consumer rights to safe beef without yielding to mounting trade pressure from the U.S.

China emissions proposal gives hope

Tim Colebatch August 4, 2007

IN WHAT could be a crucial step towards getting global agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, China's Finance Minister, Jin Renqing, has proposed setting up an emissions trading scheme within China, linked to those in other countries.

Speaking after APEC finance ministers met on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, Mr Jin said China has set ambitious targets to reduce the energy intensity of its output, and would need to rely mainly on "a market-based mechanism" to achieve them.

If China were to set up an emissions trading scheme it would open the way for the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitters to work together to cut emissions under a post-Kyoto agreement, as envisaged by the United Nations.

Treasurer Peter Costello hailed Mr Jin's statement as a breakthrough saying, "To hear a Chinese minister talk about a market mechanism for dealing with carbon emissions ? was a real breakthrough."

But APEC's closing press conference also revealed sharp divisions between China and the US ? which between them produce half the world's greenhouse gas emissions ? on the responsibility for reducing them.

US deputy trade secretary Robert Kimmitt said President Bush wanted to see a global framework for reducing emissions after 2012 completed by the end of next year. But Mr Jin repeated China's insistence that it was for developed countries alone to commit to reduce their emissions, since it was primarily their emissions over their industrial development that had produced global warming.

Mr Costello ruled out any prospect of APEC's 21 members negotiating their own deal on global warming, saying the UN negotiations beginning in Bali in December are the only road to a post-Kyoto agreement.

Israel ready to discuss creation of Palestinian state, says Rice

James Hider in Jerusalem Israel is willing to discuss ?fundamental issues? with the Palestinians about the creation of their future state, Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, said yesterday.

With the Palestinian leadership demanding that fresh talks focus on vital issues such as borders, the status of millions of refugees and the status of Jerusalem, Dr Rice held out new hope that talks could go beyond the modest trust-building measures that the Jewish state has so far put on the table.

Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, was ready to discuss key matters pertaining to a future Palestinian state, she told a joint press conference with Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, after talks in the West Bank city of Ramallah. ?He said to me that he will support new discussions with you and that he is ready to discuss the fundamental issues that will lead to negotiations soon for the creation of a Palestinian state,? Dr Rice reported.

However, she refused to be drawn on whether the issues she discussed with Mr Olmert included refugees, borders or Jerusalem. She would say only that ?the word fundamental speaks for itself?, adding: ?I think the desire to move towards a two-state solution seems to be there on both sides.?

Dr Rice and Salam Fayyad, the moderate West Bank Prime Minister, also signed an $80 million (?40 million) framework agreement to assist Palestinian security forces after Fatah fighters in Gaza were routed by Hamas in June.

Insurers win key Katrina flood ruling

Allstate, others not liable in levee breaks

By Becky Yerak | Tribune staff reporter

August 3, 2007

Allstate Corp. and other insurers won their latest battle over Hurricane Katrina damages as a U.S. appeals court in Louisiana on Thursday ruled against policyholders seeking to recover disaster-related flood damages.

The court ruled that homeowners' insurance policies weren't entitled to damages caused by levee breaches that flooded New Orleans during the 2005 disaster. Significant damage occurred when levees along three major canals ruptured. At one point, about 80 percent of the city was underwater.

Typically, most insurance policies exclude damage caused by floods.

But plaintiffs, in what has become known as "Katrina Canal Breaches Litigation," had contended that the water damage was the result of negligent design, construction and maintenance of the levees and that the policies' flood exclusions are therefore ambiguous because they don't exclude coverage for water caused by negligence. Because the policies are ambiguous, the plaintiffs argued, their losses should be covered.

But on Thursday, the appeals court overturned a November decision by a U.S. district judge in Louisiana who had sided with the policyholders. The district judge had sided with policyholders arguing that the plaintiffs' policies insured them against loss from water damage resulting from levee breaches where the breaches were caused by negligence. That court had determined that the policies' flood exclusions were ambiguous.

But the appeals court begged to differ.

"Even if the plaintiffs can prove that the levees were negligently designed, constructed or maintained and that the breaches were due to this negligence, the flood exclusions in the plaintiffs' policies unambiguously preclude their recovery," the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a 57-page ruling Thursday.

"Regardless of what caused the failure of the flood-control structures that were put in place to prevent such a catastrophe, their failure resulted in a widespread flood that damaged the plaintiffs' property," the court said. "This event was excluded from coverage under the plaintiffs' insurance policies, and under Louisiana law, we are bound to enforce the unambiguous terms of their insurance contracts as written.

"Accordingly, we conclude that the plaintiffs are not entitled to recover under their policies."

The insurance industry celebrated the ruling.

"Allstate is pleased that the 5th Circuit concluded that the policy exclusions for flood damage are unambiguous and enforceable and apply to damage resulting from the flooding of New Orleans," said Mike Siemienas, spokesman for the Northbrook-based insurer.

Robert Hartwig, chief economist for the Insurance Information Institute, called it "an extremely important decision."

"If this had gone against insurers, it would have cost insurers at least an additional $1 billion," he said. "What they ruled is flood losses -- whether it's a levee breach caused by man or an act of God -- are flood losses and have been and will continue to be excluded from homeowners' insurance policies."

Hartwig had consistently called the plaintiffs' arguments "one of the most dubious legal theories to be filed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina."

"The ruling is very important because it sets a precedent and shuts down a line of litigation," he said.

In turn, it will also benefit homeowners, he maintains.

"It removes a cloud of uncertainly hanging over the market and in the long run will provide better stability for insurers to operate," he said. "That will benefit people trying to rebuild."

The industry has reason to celebrate.

Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, reviewed the ruling and called it a "significant victory" for Allstate.

"The panel was unanimous, and plaintiffs will have difficulty convincing the 5th Circuit to rehear the case ... and the Supreme Court to hear the appeal," he said.

Allstate stock closed up 25 cents, at $53.78.

----------

byerak@tribune.com

RFID Ensures Surgeons Have No Bones to Pick with Supplier

Thursday August 2nd, 2007 Incredible as it may seem, when surgeons perform joint replacements there are often parts left over. No, not because they don't know that the leg bone is connected to the knee bone. It's because the kits containing sterile orthopedic implants include all the components the surgeon might possibly need to complete the operation. Many of the 100 to 150 components typically packed in a kit go unused and can be returned. Zimmer, a leading designer and producer of orthopedic surgical products, now uses RFID to track its returns with surgical precision. Zimmer also uses the system to verify that the correct components are packed for each shipment.

"We use a box tag which, when read in conjunction with the implant package tags, enables us to get a box content report," Michael Schaffler of Zimmer told RFID Update. "An order, or kit, may extend across multiple boxes and shippers. The box tag allows the contents of each box to be recorded."

Zimmer is using high frequency (HF) RFID technology from Magellan Technology to identify returns, and to verify the accuracy of orthopedic components when they are picked, kitted, and shipped. Picking, kitting, and shipping must be error free to ensure patients get exactly the items they need. Zimmer turned to RFID for these operations because it was extremely time consuming to scan bar codes on the dozens of items that make up each kit.

"Magellan's technology has significantly improved the reliability, accuracy, and speed of our processes," Schaffler said in Magellan's announcement. "After a fast rollout and a few months of operations we are already experiencing more than four percent savings in inventory due to faster inventory turns."

The system has been installed in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and Thailand. All systems use Magellan's fixed-position tunnel readers and StackTag tags, which are applied to packaging and are never embedded into patients. Zimmer has used more than 1.5 million tags already.

Magellan Technology develops RFID technology that is fundamentally different than most HF products on the market. Magellan's systems use the phase jitter modulation (PJM) technique to alter radio waves for communication, rather than the much more common amplitude shift key (ASK) method. PJM is standardized (ISO 18000-3.2, or "Mode 2") but is not interoperable with standardized ASK-based HF technology (ISO 18000-3.1, or "Mode 1").

PJM produces faster read rates than ASK-based high frequency systems. Magellan says PJM provides more accuracy when tags are stacked or densely grouped, which is the case for Zimmer's orthopedic kits that include multiple tagged components.

Schaffler said the speed and accuracy set Magellan's products apart from others that Zimmer evaluated. "This was important, as our return goods are often not well packed, and the reader had to cope with tags in multiple orientations."

RFID smart label printer/encoder manufacturer and label supplier Zebra Technologies licensed Magellan's PJM technology about a year ago (see Zebra Buys $10m in RFID Intellectual Property) but has not yet released any PJM products.

,A HREF="http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/78745.php">Woo Suk Hwang, Who Faked Research, Made Spectacular Breakthrough

Main Category: Stem Cell Research News

Article Date: 03 Aug 2007 - 10:00 PDT

It has emerged that Woo Suk Hwang, the South Korean scientist who was named and shamed for faking his research, made an amazing breakthrough. According to Cell Stem Cell, he may have managed to create stem cells solely from human eggs, without fertilization with sperm. This breakthrough is possibly much more valuable than his original false claims about his work.

Hwang's work at Seoul National University was famous worldwide - he became a national hero and possibly the most esteemed stem cell scientist in the world. In 2005, his status came crumbling down when it was revealed he had faked much of his claims. He had said that he and his team created cloned human embryos by putting a cell's nucleus into an empty human egg, and then used the stem cells for those embryos. It was later found that the embryos had originated from the eggs of female members of his laboratory team - in other words, not from cloned embryos. He was fired and then charged with fraud and misappropriation of funds (embezzlement).

Recently, researchers from Harvard Stem Cell Institute, led by Dr George Daley, examined his research again and determined that the cells came from a another type of embryo. The scientists say it is well possible that Hwang and team had managed to pull off the world's first human case of parthenogenesis, or 'virgin birth'.

(Parthenogenesis = When an egg is stimulated into becoming an embryo without sperm fertilization taking place.)

Parthenogenesis has been done with animals, but never with humans where the embryo survived long enough to get viable stem cells from it.

Dr George Daley told the BBC "Unfortunately at the time they published their work they did not know what they had done so they had mistakenly isolated these parthenogenic embryonic stem cells, and yet misrepresented them as true clones. In fact they had produced the world's first patient-specific embryonic stem cell, and that is very valuable. Scientists interested in modelling complex diseases would like to be able to move a patient's own cells into a petri dish in their embryonic form."

Discredited Korean embryonic stem cells' true origins revealed

Harvard News Office

Click here to view article online

http://www.cellstemcell.com

Written by: Christian Nordqvist

UPLOAD 42 PAGES OF GOOGLE TOP LINKS - SELECTED AND BOLDED IN YELLOW FOR MOST IMPORTANT BY DR BILL FOR FRIDAY AUGUST 3RD 2007 -- READ YOURSELF - LET IT SINK IN -- FEEL THE RAGE -- AND REACT NOW BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!