Eastern and central Europe continue to shiver under a blanket of heavy snow Friday, with more deaths reported after bitter cold overnight temperatures.

Ukraine is probably the worst affected, with Poland, Romania, Serbia and Belarus also suffering much more severe winter conditions than usual. Thirty-eight people have died of hypothermia in Ukraine over the past 24 hours, according to the state-run news agency Ukrinform, citing government ministries. The latest deaths take the total number killed in Ukraine in the cold spell that started January 27 to 101, the news agency reported. Twenty-nine people had died in Poland as of Thursday, according to the publicly funded Polish Radio's news website. Other cold-related deaths have been reported in Serbia, Romania and elsewhere.

Joe Lowry, spokesman for the International Red Cross Europe Zone, said many people across the region are in urgent need of help. "If 163 people have frozen to death on the European streets, it is a disaster," he told CNN. The homeless and elderly are among the most vulnerable, Lowry said, as well as those who often find themselves on the margins of society, such as alcoholics or people with mental health issues. He said the Red Cross is helping people by providing warm clothing, boots, hot drinks and food, as well as shelter in heated tents and moral support. Local authorities must also react effectively to the crisis to save lives, he said. The sudden start to the bitter cold weather after what had been a mild winter for some parts of Eastern Europe caught many people unaware, Lowry said.

EuroNews: Europe’s homeless dying in arctic conditions
The Telegraph: Europe's cold spell: Death toll rises to 220 and no end in sight

Pfizer Inc. is recalling 1 million packets of birth control pills because of a packaging error that could leave women with an inadequate dose of the hormone-based drugs and raise the risk that they will get pregnant accidentally. - The problem affects 14 lots of Lo/Ovral-28 tablets and 14 lots of generic Norgestrel and Ethinyl Estradiol tablets. Both products are manufactured by Pfizer and marketed in the U.S. by Akrimax Rx Products under the Akrimax Pharmaceuticals brand. Pfizer found that some packets of the drugs had too many active tablets, while others had too few. Oral birth control products use a series of 21 drug tablets and 7 inactive sugar tablets to regulate the menstrual period while providing contraception. A company spokeswoman said the problem was caused by both mechanical and visual inspection failures on the packaging line. She said the problem has been corrected.

The United States has perpetually contaminated the world, particularly the Middle East, by using massive amounts of depleted uranium (DU) in its wars, an analyst tells Press TV. - Vietnamese-American writer and journalist Linh Dinh described the US use of depleted uranium as a “tremendous crime against humanity,” reiterating that it will affect innocent people and new-born infants “for generations to come and literally, for billions of years to come.” "Once depleted uranium gets into the environment, into the water, into the soil, into the air, it remains there for billions of years and it doesn't just stay in these (Middle Eastern) countries, although these populations are the ones who are most affected immediately, because once airborne it will spread all over across the globe," he said. The Philadelphia-based writer noted that the use of DU, the destructiveness of which the US denies, is 'frankly genocidal.'

PressTV: 'DU destroying Afghans' gene pool'
Abel Bult-Ito: Nothing depleted about 'depleted uranium'

This is fascinating, a nuclear explosion from the Tumbler-Snapper tests performed in Nevada during 1952. It looks different from all nuclear explosions you've seen because it's what it looks like one millisecond after detonation. It looks like a skull by Tim Burton.

The face of atomic death just one second away from unleashing its absolute destruction. Only one millisecond after the bomb explodes, this 65.6-foot (20 meters) ball of fire appears in midair, with spikes that look like rotten teeth or stalactites of fire (called the rope trick effect). The explosion was captured by a Rapid Action Electronic camera—a high speed device designed to photograph nuclear explosions just milliseconds after ignition.

What's a Rapid Action Electronic camera? - The rapatronic camera, as it is called, was created by Harold Edgerton in the 1940s using two polarizing filters and Kerr cell instead of a shutter, which is too slow for this job. A Kerr cell is a panel that changes its polarization depending on the voltage applied. This acts as a very high speed shutter, which allows the perfect exposition to capture this moment.

Too Much Radiation to Cover Up - As I’ve pointed out since day one, the Japanese government and Tepco have covered up the extent of the radiation released by Fukushima and its health effects on the Japanese and others. See this and this. The New York Times notes:

The government inspectors declared Onami’s rice safe for consumption after testing just two of its 154 rice farms. Then … more than a dozen [farmers] found unsafe levels of cesium. An ensuing panic forced the Japanese government to intervene, with promises to test more than 25,000 rice farms in eastern Fukushima Prefecture, where the plant is located. [...]

Montreal Gazette: Radioactive iodine in rainwater: Public was in the dark

The Ministry of Defence turned large parts of the country into a giant laboratory to conduct a series of secret germ warfare tests on the public. - A government report just released provides for the first time a comprehensive official history of Britain's biological weapons trials between 1940 and 1979. Many of these tests involved releasing potentially dangerous chemicals and micro-organisms over vast swaths of the population without the public being told. The report reveals that military personnel were briefed to tell any 'inquisitive inquirer' the trials were part of research projects into weather and air pollution. Asked whether such tests are still being carried out, she said: 'It is not our policy to discuss ongoing research.'

Scientists who created a potentially more deadly bird flu strain have temporarily stopped their research amid fears it could be used by terrorists.

In a letter published in Science and Nature, the teams call for an "international forum" to debate the risks and value of the studies. US authorities last month asked the authors of the research to redact key details in forthcoming publications. A government advisory panel suggested the data could be used by terrorists. Biosecurity experts fear an altered, more contagious form of the virus could spark a pandemic deadlier than the 1918-19 Spanish flu outbreak that killed up to 40 million people. The National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) recommended key details be omitted from publication of the research, which sparked international furore.

Russia Today: Bird flu mutation study stopped in fear of deadly global outbreak

“Betraying” Their Own People … “Akin to Murder”. The New York Times reported last August:

The day after a giant tsunami set off the continuing disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, thousands of residents at the nearby town of Namie gathered to evacuate. Given no guidance from Tokyo, town officials led the residents north [to] a district called Tsushima …. The winds, in fact, had been blowing directly toward Tsushima — and town officials would learn two months later that a government computer system designed to predict the spread of radioactive releases had been showing just that. But the forecasts were left unpublicized by bureaucrats in Tokyo, operating in a culture that sought to avoid responsibility and, above all, criticism. Japan’s political leaders at first did not know about the system and later played down the data, apparently fearful of having to significantly enlarge the evacuation zone — and acknowledge the accident’s severity. “From the 12th to the 15th we were in a location with one of the highest levels of radiation,” said Tamotsu Baba, the mayor of Namie, which is about five miles from the nuclear plant ….The withholding of information, he said, was akin to “murder.”

Twelve Americans have been reported infected with a mutating and now possibly human-to-human transmitted form of the H1N1 Swine Flu virus called H3N2v. - An investigation undertaken by the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention found that human infections of these viruses followed contact with swine as well as through 'limited human-to-human transmission.' 'While there is no evidence that sustained human-to-human transmission is occurring, all influenza viruses have the capacity to change and it's possible that this virus may become widespread,' the CDC explained through their website. According to the report presented by the CDC, the virus has been found in five states sprawled around the East Coast and Midwest since August of 2011, though in a late November report they listed the first as being in July.

The picture Israel paints of Gaza for the foreign media is quite different than the actual truth, it never speaks of what is actually happening there. The report that follows is just one example of what the siege is doing to the people, especially the children…The illegal Israeli siege on Gaza continues to take innocent lives daily. Adham Baroud was the latest casualty. A seven month old baby who died on December 26th in a slow and painful death from renal failure when he could be easily treated.

The illegal Israeli siege on Gaza continues to take innocent lives daily. Adham Baroud was the latest casualty. A seven month old baby who died on December 26th in a slow and painful death from renal failure when he could be easily treated. On December 1, Adham was referred to Israel for emergency treatment by his doctors in Gaza after his condition became terminal fallowing a catheter inserted four months earlier in a previous operation in Israel gets infected. Adham never made it.

Fallujah, Iraq - While the US military has formally withdrawn from Iraq, doctors and residents of Fallujah are blaming weapons like depleted uranium and white phosphorous used during two devastating US attacks on Fallujah in 2004 for what are being described as "catastrophic" levels of birth defects and abnormalities. - Dr Samira Alani, a paediatric specialist at Fallujah General Hospital, has taken a personal interest in investigating an explosion of congenital abnormalities that have mushroomed in the wake of the US sieges since 2005. "We have all kinds of defects now, ranging from congenital heart disease to severe physical abnormalities, both in numbers you cannot imagine," Alani told Al Jazeera at her office in the hospital, while showing countless photos of shocking birth defects. As of December 21, Alani, who has worked at the hospital since 1997, told Al Jazeera she had personally logged 677 cases of birth defects since October 2009. Just eight days later when Al Jazeera visited the city on December 29, that number had already risen to 699. "There are not even medical terms to describe some of these conditions because we've never seen them until now," she said. "So when I describe it all I can do is describe the physical defects, but I'm unable to provide a medical term."

AWIP: Huge Rise in Birth Defects in Falluja
Abel Bult-Ito: Nothing depleted about 'depleted uranium'
Gerry Georgatos: Victims of war - Iraqi children and families - Depleted uranium and trauma

Figure jumps to nearly 1,500, and likely to rise further, as many bodies remain buried in the debris in country's south. - The death toll from killer floods in the Philippines has risen by more than 200, more than a week after the disaster struck, with officials expecting more corpses to be found. The confirmed toll reached 1,453 on Tuesday, up sharply from 1,236 the previous day as navy and coastguard ships fished more bodies out of the waters off the southern island of Mindanao, the civil defence office said. The stench of death pervaded the region, a sign that many corpses still remained unrecovered on land, Ana Caneda, the regional civil defence chief, said. Tropical storm Washi brought heavy rains, overflowing rivers and flash floods to the southern Philippines from December 16 to 18, sweeping away whole villages built on sandbars and riverbanks.

A key chemical of one of the most horrifying elements of the Vietnam War -- Agent Orange -- may soon be unleashed on America's farmlands. Considered by world nations to be a "Weapon of Mass Destruction" (WMD), Agent Orange was dropped in the millions of gallons on civilian populations during the Vietnam War in order to destroy foliage and poison North Vietnamese soldiers. The former president of the Vietnamese Red Cross, Professor Nhan, described it as, "...a massive violation of human rights of the civilian population, and a weapon of mass destruction."

A key chemical in that weapon -- 2,4-D -- is just months away from being dropped on agricultural land across the United States. Dow AgroSciences, which along with DuPont and Monsanto is heavily invested in genetically engineered crops, has petitioned the U.S. government to deregulate a variety of GE corn that's resistant to 2,4-D, which comprises 50% of the recipe of Agent Orange.

Google Image Search for 'Agent Orange'

There is a legacy for the Iraqi people, a legacy left to them by the “Coalition of the Willing”, a legacy that will be handed down from generation to generation. It is a legacy that has stolen their future and shattered the dreams of generations yet to come. Depleted Uranium (DU) type weaponry, was widely used in Iraq with devastating effects. There are over 350 sites in Iraq contaminated with DU, though the explosions have long since gone silent, the after effects of the contamination will linger for generations. Birth deformities have increased more than ten fold in some areas, cancers are in epidemic proportions. The figure for 2007 was 140,000 cases of cancer and 7,000 to 8,000 new cases reported each year. On viewing photographs of some of the deformities in these children it is hard to believe that the perpetrators are still walking free. What was the cause that was worth this sort of hell on earth for so many. Mid-wives in Iraq are purported to have said they no longer look forward to births as.... "We don't know what's going to come out." Is this “liberation” Western style?

India's homeless are waiting out the biting cold winter, which has already killed over 100 people, mostly in Uttar Pradesh. - Kalyani, 15, refuses to come out her comforter as she snuggles even deeper when her mother, Saraswati Bai, crouching over a cooking fire, calls out loudly that it is time to eat. It is early morning; the diminutive girl has a flyover over head but no protection against the chilly wind. She is asleep on one of the many cold and hard walkways of the capital.

Top US scientists have defended their bid to stop details of a mutant bird flu virus from being published and called for global co-operation to ward off an uncontrollable pandemic. - Meanwhile, scientists involved in the experiments said they were co-operating with government officials and the editors of the journals Science and Nature to pare down their research for publication in the coming weeks. The controversy arose when two separate research teams — one in the Netherlands and the other in the United States — separately found ways to alter the H5N1 avian influenza so it could pass easily between mammals. Until now, bird flu has been rare in humans, but particularly fatal in those who do become ill. H5N1 first infected humans in 1997 and more than half of those infected died, for a total of 350 deaths. There is concern the virus could mutate and mimic past pandemic flu outbreaks such as the "Spanish flu" of 1918-1919, which killed 50 million people, and outbreaks in 1957 and 1968 that killed three million.

Russia Today: Man-made super-flu formula to be published?

The Independent: Too late to contain killer flu science, say experts - Attempts to censor details of controversial influenza experiments that created a highly infectious form of bird-flu virus are unlikely to stop the information from leaking out, according to scientists familiar with the research. The US Government has asked the editors of two scientific journals to refrain from publishing key parts of research on the H5N1 strain of bird-flu in order to prevent the information falling into the hands of terrorists intent on recreating the same flu strain for use as a bioweapon. However, scientists yesterday condemned the move.

A deadly strain of bird flu with the potential to infect and kill millions of people has been created in a laboratory by European scientists – who now want to publish full details of how they did it. - The discovery has prompted fears within the US Government that the knowledge will fall into the hands of terrorists wanting to use it as a bio-weapon of mass destruction. Some scientists are questioning whether the research should ever have been undertaken in a university laboratory, instead of at a military facility. The US Government is now taking advice on whether the information is too dangerous to be published.

[Video source] Hardly God's work is it! God's chosen would help and nurture life not destroy it! Years of deprivation, displacement, occupation, war and the violent loss of loved ones have left children and adults traumatised. MAP's working to provide workshops, training, activities and ongoing support, designed to help children and adults to manage stress and anxiety helping them feel more in control of their lives. MAP works for the health and dignity of Palestinians living under occupation and as refugees. Established in the aftermath of the massacre at Sabra and Shatila, today MAP delivers health and medical care to those worst affected by conflict, occupation and displacement. Working in partnership with local health providers and hospitals, MAP addresses a wide range of health issues and challenges faced by the Palestinian people. With offices located in Beirut, Ramallah and Gaza City, MAP responds rapidly in times of crisis, and works directly with communities in the longer term on health development.

Jason Ditz: Israel’s Deadly Drone War in Gaza

A virus with the potential to kill up to half the world’s population has been made in a lab. Now academics and bioterrorism experts are arguing over whether to publish the recipe, and whether the research should have been done in the first place. - The virus is an H5N1 bird flu strain which was genetically altered to become much more contagious. It was created by Ron Fouchier of the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, who first presented his work to the public at an influenza conference in Malta in September. Fouchier said the strain circulates in animals, particularly birds, but rarely affects humans.

A new study by USC Annenberg researchers Stacy Smith (pictured), Marc Choueiti and Stephanie Gall surveys the top 100 grossing movies of 2009 and shows Hollywood’s addiction to films that marginalize and sexualize women is as strong as ever. - The study, "Gender Inequality in Popular Films," can be found here (PDF). Perhaps most troubling were the findings about young teen characters. Professor Smith and her research team of undergraduate students found the same prevalence of sexually revealing clothing and partial nudity in female characters in all age groups from 13 to 39. In fact, 13- to 20-year-olds were just as likely as 21- to 29-year-olds to be depicted that way. The survey found 33.8 percent of female teen characters were seen in sexy clothing, and 28.2 percent were shown with exposed skin in the cleavage, midriff or upper thigh regions. For male teen characters, the numbers were drastically lower – 5.3 percent shown in sexy clothing and 11.2 percent showing skin. Sexualizing a significant portion of women this age may contribute to males viewing girls and women as “eye candy” at younger and younger ages, Smith said. “Viewing sexualized images of females in film may contribute to self-objectification in some girls or women, which – in turn – may increase body shame, appearance anxiety and have other negative effects,” she said.

Heads up! US pharma-terrorists and their vaccine pimps are busy little bees, synthesizing new pandemics: CDC confirms cases of new swine flu virus 24 Nov 2011 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed three cases of a new flu virus, which originated in pigs their labs but apparently spread from person to person, in three Iowa children. The CDC has counted a total of 18 cases of this new virus, an influenza A strain known as S-OtrH3N2, in two years. That suggests that it's not spreading quickly or easily [enough for CDCociopaths], says William Schaffner, a professor at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and spokesman for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. [We're not falling for Baxter's bullsh*t again.]

The liberal use of US-manufactured tear gas on protesters in recent days has raised questions about its public health effects - and who is actually ordering its use. - Egyptian security forces are digging deeper into their budget with each volley of increasingly fatal US-made tear gas they launch at demonstrators. The human cost of the violent crackdown in central Cairo is increasingly clear -- among the 39 fatalities reported to date, several are said to have died of asphyxiation caused by tear gas. But the financial background to the use of crowd control weapons raises questions about the extent of Washington's financial assistance to Egypt's military and how this might filter down to the ministry of interior. The USA is the biggest arms supplier to Egypt, providing an average of US$1.3 billion in military and law equipment every year since 2000. Records from the US Department of State show the US supplied $1.7 million of "toxicological agents" -- "including tear gases and riot control agents" -- to Egypt in 2010.

Video: Tahir: The Attack
Video: Tahrir: After the attack

Much of the attention concerning the dangers of getting vaccinated for human papillomavirus (HPV) and cervical cancer has been focused on Merck & Co.’s Gardasil. But a recent report in the UK’sDaily Mailexplains that GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) Cervarix, a competing HPV vaccine, recently left an otherwise healthy girl in a “waking coma” where she is now unable to talk or walk, and sleeps 23 hours a day because of a complete lack of energy. Lucy Hinks’ parents, Steve and Pauline, say their 13-year-old daughter used to be a straight-A student with an excellent school attendance record, and a penchant and adeptness for math. Everything changed, however, after Lucy received her third installment of the HPV vaccine Cervarix back in May, which has left her in a near-vegetative state and in need of 24-hour care and monitoring.

Yesterday, some House Republicans decided that, for the sake of school lunches, pizza ought to be considered a vegetable. More precisely, what is being declared a vegetable is the pizza sauce that’s used on top of a lump of carbohydrates and under a mass of grease-laden cheese full of saturated fats. - Based on the 2009 recommendations of the Institute of Medicine, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack recently released new guidelines for public school lunches. These guidelines initially faced resistance from potato industry lobbyists because of the limits his guidelines placed on the amount of potatoes that children could eat at school – specifically limiting the amount of potatoes served to one cup per student per week. Emerging from the lobbying efforts against these guidelines were plenty of misleading arguments about the nutritional value of potatoes and how they could be considered a “gateway vegetable” to other more nutritious vegetables like broccoli, carrots, or kale. In fact, The National Potato Council was so influential during these lobbying efforts that it prompted members of Congress to publicly question the research which suggests that dark green vegetables are healthier than potatoes.

More awareness needs to be generated about the floods in Thailand. 4 million acres are under water, 400 people have died, and $17 billion of economic output has been lost. Levels are increasing and now threatening Bangkok.

THE capital is now under siege from the waters slithering down from the north towards the Gulf of Thailand. Shops, businesses and government offices in Bangkok cower behind makeshift concrete parapets and piles of sandbags. Bridges and elevated expressways are filling up with fleets of parked cars, to spare them from the deluge below. And all the time people speculate about just how bad it might get in a city the Europeans once called the Venice of Asia.

Despite the defences, there is likely to be some flooding. The government desperately wants to divert water around the capital, to east and west, but the volume is too great. The desire to save densely populated Bangkok is understandable. But the strategy is angering those in the northern suburbs, where neighbourhoods are filling up with water as the sluice gates remain closed. An admirable steadfastness among Thai people is wearing thin.

Major Jewish groups expect donations to drop, and Israel may have to take a back seat to American woes. - Major Jewish organizations that rely on funds contributed by American Jews are gearing up for cuts in donations as the financial crisis takes its toll, raising the possibility that U.S.-based groups will be moving Israeli causes to the back burner as they struggle to cope with an increasingly dire situation at home. The Jewish Agency recently announced it is slashing $45 million from its 2009 budget, cutting grants to other institutions in Israel and cutting its staff. And the UJA-Federation of New York has said it will dip into its emergency reserves to serve the ballooning needs of its own community − a move it last made in 2006, to help residents of the north during the Second Lebanon War.

Stephen Lendman:
Institutionalized Arab Inequality in Israel
Social and Economic Inequality in Israel
Israel: Rogue State & Land of Inequality
Social Inequality in Israel

Some of Britain's leading drug experts demand today that the government's classification regime be scrapped and replaced by one that more honestly reflects the harm caused by alcohol and tobacco. They say the current ABC system is "arbitrary" and not based on evidence. - The scientists, including members of the government's top advisory committee on drug classification, have produced a rigorous assessment of the social and individual harm caused by 20 substances, and believe this should form the basis of any future ranking. By their analysis, alcohol and tobacco are rated as more dangerous than cannabis, LSD and ecstasy. They say that if the current ABC system is retained, alcohol would be rated a class A drug and tobacco class B.

These mosquitoes are genetically engineered to kill — their own children. - Researchers on Sunday reported initial signs of success from the first release into the environment of mosquitoes engineered to pass a lethal gene to their offspring, killing them before they reach adulthood. The results, and other work elsewhere, could herald an age in which genetically modified insects will be used to help control agricultural pests and insect-borne diseases like dengue fever and malaria. But the research is arousing concern about possible unintended effects on public health and the environment, because once genetically modified insects are released, they cannot be recalled.

It's official. The country has seen over a quarter of a million farmers’ suicides between 1995 and 2010. The National Crime Records Bureau’s latest report on ‘Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India’ places the number for 2010 at 15,964. That brings the cumulative 16-year total from 1995 — when the NCRB started recording farm suicide data — to 2,56,913, the worst-ever recorded wave of suicides of this kind in human history. Maharashtra posts a dismal picture with over 50,000 farmers killing themselves in the country's richest State in that period. It also remains the worst State for such deaths for a decade now. Close to two-thirds of all farm suicides have occurred in five States: Maharashtra, Karnataka, A.P., Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

Concern is mounting that new legal nutrition requirements for French school canteens effectively impose meat consumption on six million schoolchildren. - A law was passed on 3 October which obliges school canteens feeding more than 80 children to adhere to minimum nutritional requirements, setting in stone how much protein, iron, calcium and fresh fruit schoolchildren should be given. Vegetarian groups in France argue the decree could mean schools offering vegetarian meals are breaking the law, while they effectively make veganism at school impossible. In a statement protesting against the decree, L214 says: "The government has brought the law into school catering, imposing a model based on a high consumption of animal products and banning vegetarianism."

U.S. girls dropping dead from Gardasil vaccine. - Gardasil, the controversial drug that took the early Republican presidential debates by storm, is back in the news as newly unearthed documents reveal 26 additional deaths associated with the shot designed to help prevent young women from getting a sexually transmitted disease that can lead to cervical cancer. The public-interest group Judicial Watch has obtained the documents through the Freedom of Information Act from the Food and Drug Administration detailing reports of harmful reactions to the vaccination for human papillomavirus, also known as HPV. "The adverse-reaction reports detail 26 new deaths reported between Sept. 1, 2010, and Sept. 15, 2011, as well as incidents of seizures, paralysis, blindness, pancreatitis, speech problems, short-term memory loss and Guillain-Barré Syndrome," Judicial Watch said.

Sirte - Dr Abdel Latif Milad was showing his visitors around a war-battered hospital in Muammar Gaddafi's hometown Sirte when a window let in the stench of nine bodies decomposing in the sun outside.

"I don't know where they came from or who left them there," said the doctor, adding that they had been dumped in mysterious circumstances in the hospital grounds. "Sorry but my priority is the living, not the dead," said Milad, spinning off to do his rounds.

The gruesome discovery only adds to the sense of unease prevailing in Ibn Sina hospital in the south of Sirte, the besieged bastion of forces loyal to fugitive leader Gaddafi. More than 100 patients, suspected to be pro-Gaddafi fighters, were discovered at the shell-struck hospital when new regime forces seized the establishment last week.

Since then, a reinforcement team has battled to get the hospital up and running again. Most of the patients were evacuated at the insistence of international humanitarian groups. The International Committee of the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has inspected the hospital to ensure patients were being well treated despite having been branded "enemies" by Libya's new regime forces.

Reuters/Africa: In Gaddafi's hometown, residents accuse NTC fighters of revenge
PressTV: NTC fighters 'liberate' Bani Walid
Mathaba: The Humanitarian War in Libya: there is no evidence - More than 70 non-governmental organizations are responsible for the war on Libya and must along with the United Nations, and NATO, be held accountable and officials of those entities punished for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Plague germs teased from mediaeval cadavers in a London cemetery have shed light on why the bacterium that unleashed the Black Death was so lethal and spawned later waves of epidemics. - The DNA of Yersinia pestis shows, in evolutionary terms, a highly successful germ to which the population of 14th-century Europe had no immune defences, according to a study published Wednesday in the British journal Nature. It also lays bare a pathogen that has undergone no major genetic change over six centuries.

KABUL, Afghanistan—Insecurity and rising opium prices drove Afghan farmers to increase cultivation of the illicit opium poppy by 7 percent in 2011 despite a major push by the Afghan government and international allies to wean the country off of the lucrative crop, according to a U.N. report released Tuesday. - Afghanistan’s is the world’s largest producer of opium — the raw ingredient used to make heroin — providing about 80 percent of the world’s crop. Revenue from the drug has helped fund insurgents and the number of people invested in the underground opium economy has made it difficult for the Afghan government to establish its presence in opium-heavy regions. Tuesday’s report also shows that opium cultivation is spreading to new parts of the country, a troubling trend as international troops are trying to stabilize Afghanistan so that they can hand over security responsibilities to the government.

In Finland, 79 children between the ages of four and 19 developed narcolepsy after receiving the Pandemrix, swine flu vaccine in 2009 and 2010; Finnish govt and insurance companies will pay for their lifetime medical care. - The Finnish government and major insurance companies announced Wednesday they will pay for lifetime medical care for children diagnosed with narcolepsy after receiving the swine flu vaccine. "The compensation will provide much-needed financial assistance for the families, although it cannot take away the emotional distress caused by this condition," Social Services and Health Minister Paula Risikko said in a statement. Finnish and international researchers recently found a conclusive link between the Pandemrix swine flu vaccine and new cases of narcolepsy, a chronic nervous system disorder which causes people to often uncontrollably fall asleep. The Finnish Pharmaceutical Insurance Pool (LVP), which represents insurance companies, said Wednesday it would honour all insurance claims in this category. LVP said it would review each claim individually to calculate the scope of the payout.

Bahraini women hold protests in the country's capital against the detention of anti-regime protesters and the harsh sentences handed down to them as well as those, who helped them. - The demonstration was held in Miqsha just outside Manama on Thursday after Bahrain sentenced 20 doctors to between five and 15 years in jail for their treating anti-regime protesters, Reuters reported. The doctors, who denied the charges, were among dozens of medical staff arrested during protests, which have been raging on since February 14. Ahlam Al-Khezaei, the head of Women's Affairs for Al Wefaq, the biggest opposition party in Bahrain, called for the release of female prisoners. "We ask for all women prisoners to be freed and for all charges against them to be dropped. These cruel sentences of our doctors, nurses and teachers, Rola al-Safar, Jalila al-Salman and Dr. Nadi Dhaif, and everyone else," she said, referring to some of the detainees. Bahrainis have been holding the peaceful rallies since mid-February, demanding an end to the Al Khalifa's over-40-year-long rule over the Persian Gulf island. Scores of people have been killed and hundreds more arrested in a brutal Manama-ordered and Riyadh-backed crackdown in the country, which hosts a huge American military installation for the US Navy's Fifth Fleet in the Persian Gulf.

BBC: Bahrain sentences medics who treated protesters (Video)
PressTV: Bahrain doctor shares Manama abuse (Video) - A female Bahraini doctor, who has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for treating injured anti-regime protesters, recounts her mistreatment at the hands of government's forces.

Just 60 babies a year adopted in England - Thousands of children are being held in limbo in care homes, secure units & temporary fostering. - The number of adoptions of babies under the age of one has fallen from 150 in 2007 – and around 4,000 in 1976. Prospects for adopted babies are considered strong, as they have fewer difficulties bonding with new parents. The slowing of the adoption system is causing many vulnerable children to spend much longer in government or foster care. There are currently 65,520 under-16s in care – the highest number since 1987, and 10 per cent up on 2008 – with 3,660 of them less than a year old. Children are waiting two years and seven months before being adopted, on average, with the process taking longer than three years in a quarter of cases, according to the Department of Education statistics. The average age at adoption now stands at three years and 10 months. The total number of adoptions has fallen significantly since 2007, down 8.4 per cent to 3,050.

A new study by Consumer Reports has documented a dramatic increase in the number of Americans forgoing needed medications and health care for financial reasons. - The Consumer Reports National Research Center found that over the last year nearly half of all Americans (49 percent) who were prescribed medication and other health procedures reported holding back for financial reasons, up from 39 percent a year earlier. Coming on the heels of census data showing a sharp increase in the ranks of the uninsured to 49.9 million, the Consumer Reports survey is yet another exposure of the right-wing character of the Obama administration’s health care “reform,” which will do nothing to rein in health care costs. More than one-and-one-half years after its passage, access to health care has become more financially onerous.

Back in 1980, just as America was making its political turn to the right, Milton Friedman lent his voice to the change with the famous TV series “Free to Choose.” In episode after episode, the genial economist identified laissez-faire economics with personal choice and empowerment, an upbeat vision that would be echoed and amplified by Ronald Reagan. But that was then. Today, “free to choose” has become “free to die.” I’m referring, as you might guess, to what happened during Monday’s G.O.P. presidential debate. CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked Representative Ron Paul what we should do if a 30-year-old man who chose not to purchase health insurance suddenly found himself in need of six months of intensive care. Mr. Paul replied, “That’s what freedom is all about — taking your own risks.” Mr. Blitzer pressed him again, asking whether “society should just let him die.”And the crowd erupted with cheers and shouts of “Yeah!”

AWIP: 30,000 children face destitution from welfare cut in Michigan

On September 6, Republican Governor Rick Snyder signed into law a new lifetime limit of 48 months for receiving cash welfare benefits in the state of Michigan. - It is estimated that 12,600 families, including 11,188 adults and 29,707 children, will be affected immediately. These families will lose an average of $515 a month beginning October 1.

“Since cash assistance is the source of income for some families and is how they pay for rent, they will have to find a different place to live,” Judy Putnam, communications director for the Michigan League for Human Services, told the media. “We’re very fearful that many families will be left homeless.”

John Thorpe: Why Are Some Americans So Shockingly Cruel? - Every other civilized country in the world provides universal health care for its citizens. This will surely get taken out of context in my future political career, but I will say it now anyway: I am embarrassed, saddened, and yes, disgusted, by the behavior and beliefs of the majority of Americans. A new report came out Tuesday, showing that the poverty rate in America rose to a whopping 15.1% in 2010. That means that nearly one in six Americans gets by on less than $11,139 a year, or $22,314 for a family of four. At the same time, the average CEO rakes in $11.3 million EACH. In other words, you can grab any six people off the street, and the odds are that the average CEO makes 1,000 times as much money as one of them. He only makes 400 or 500 times as much as the other five. That is obscene. And the sick part? The entire Republican Party and portions of the Democratic Party are completely OK with this arrangement. One sixth of our citizens live below poverty and the calls are for more tax cuts for the wealthy, more benefits for the wealthy, and less for the poor. It’s disgusting and people should be ashamed.

A Democrat-affiliated group has turned the "let him die" incident during the CNN/Tea Party debate into an online ad campaign targeting eight Republican presidential candidates. During the debate on Monday night, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) if society should just let a man die if he was in a coma and also did not have health care insurance. The audience responded with shouts of "Yes!" and clapped in support of the idea.

Kranti Kumara: Atlanta dialysis patients left to die

Sept. 14 (Bloomberg) - U.S. household income fell to its lowest level in more than a decade in 2010 and poverty rose to a 17-year high, setting the stage for the debate over jobs and the economy that will dominate the 2012 presidential race. - Median household income declined 2.3 percent, and the proportion of people living in poverty last year climbed to 15.1 percent, or almost one in six Americans, from 14.3 percent in 2009, a U.S. Census Bureau report yesterday showed. Income and poverty issues are at the heart of the political discussion in Washington, with President Barack Obama pushing a $447 billion jobs proposal and a special congressional committee deliberating over $1.5 trillion in deficit cuts. Policy makers are wrestling with the question of whether to extend initiatives designed to address hardship stemming from the recession, the nation’s worst economic slump in seven decades.

Joseph Kishore: Record number of Americans in poverty
Washington Post: Nearly one in six in poverty in the U.S.; children hit hard, Census says

The United Nations has called the ongoing drought and famine in Somalia the "worst humanitarian disaster" in the world. It's going to get worse in the coming months.

Yet a new Pew Research Center study released on Thursday shows that news outlets have barely noticed: "In July and August the food crisis has accounted for just 0.7 percent of the newshole. Year-to-date the crisis registers at just 0.2 percent."

Aid workers say the current famine, which has affected Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Djibouti, "is worse" than the one that hit Somalia in 1992—making it perhaps the most serious food crisis since the famine that devastated Ethiopia in 1985.

The statistics are shocking: In Somalia, at least 29,000 children died of starvation in 90 days. Some 2 million children are malnourished, and another 500,000 children are at great risk of starving to death. Some 12 million people in the region need emergency assistance. The crisis has been exacerbated by the al-Shabaab Islamist insurgent group, which has played a hand in causing the famine by forcing out aid groups and preventing starving Somalis from fleeing the country.

As you read this, you might be thinking, "Huh? There's a famine in Somalia right now?" If you haven't heard about the crisis before, it's because US news coverage has been focusing on other topics—a tabloid scandal, Congress' budget deficit battle, the economy, Middle East revolutions, and, most recently, Hurricane Irene. Some of these are important, attention-worthy stories, but they've drowned out almost any coverage of the famine. That matters: Relief organizations say their fundraising efforts have stalled because the media isn't talking about the famine. The United Nations recently announced that it needs $1.1 billion to adequately respond to the crisis.

WASHINGTON — At least 83 people died as human guinea pigs in macabre US research on sexually transmitted diseases in Guatemala in the 1940s, a commission ordered by President Barack Obama concluded Monday. - Nearly 5,500 people were subjected to diagnostic testing and more than 1,300 were exposed to venereal diseases by human contact or inoculations in research meant to test the drug penicillin, the presidential commission found. Within that group, "we believe that there were 83 deaths," said Stephen Hauser a member of the commission, which has pored over 125,000 documents linked to the shocking episode since being set up by Obama last November. Among the 1,300 people exposed to STDs during research between 1946 and 1948, "under 700 received some form of treatment as best as could be documented," Hauser said.

Robert Parry: Guatemala: A Test Tube of Repression

Somalia's hunger crisis could become as bad as the famine of the early 1990s, in which more than 200,000 people died, unless relief efforts are stepped up, Britain's international development minister said on Wednesday during a visit to the Somali capital Mogadishu.

Andrew Mitchell warned that up to 400,000 children are at risk of death through starvation without immediate action by donors and aid agencies.

"Evidence of malnutrition is not just in the camps and feeding centres but on every street corner," he said in a statement. "The stark fact is that in southern Somalia the situation is deteriorating by the day. We could face deaths on a similar scale to those seen in 1991-2 if we do not act urgently now. This is a race against time."

Several areas in the south and the capital have been classified as in a famine situation, and the United Nations said in early August famine would likely spread across the whole of the south within six weeks, lasting until December at least. Tens of thousands of deaths have already occurred. Overall, at least 3.7 million Somalis - around half the population - are judged to be suffering an acute food and livelihood crisis, including some 3.2 million who are in extreme need of immediate, lifesaving assistance.

MOGADISHU, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Britain said on Wednesday that hundreds of thousands of children could starve to death in Somalia if the international community did not ramp up its response to the famine there.

Britain has already pledged more than 80 million pounds ($130 million) to help tackle what aid agencies are calling the worst drought in decades to hit Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia. The British government is expected to announce additional funding specifically to deal with the unravelling humanitarian crisis later on Wednesday, a diplomatic source said.

"We call today on other countries to put their shoulders to the wheel and ensure this dreadful famine ... does not claim up to 400,000 children," Andrew Mitchell, Britain's International Development Secretary, told a news conference in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

Japan has also pledged about $600,000 worth of aid to the U.N. refugee agency to help famine victims at the Dadaab refugee camp in northern Kenya, home to 440,000 Somali refugees. Mitchell's visit to Somalia, which is grappling to quash an Islamist rebellion that has hampered the delivery of food aid across swathes of its southern and central regions, was the first by a senior British minister since 1992.

AlertNet: World Bank says famine in Horn of Africa is manmade

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has warned of an alarming rise in attacks on medical facilities and personnel in conflict zones. - The ICRC report, Healthcare in Danger, lists 600 attacks worldwide on doctors, nurses, ambulances and hospitals from mid-2008 to the end of 2010. It covers 16 nations, including Libya, Afghanistan, Somalia and Colombia. The report notes that while some attacks are accidental, many deliberately target healthcare workers. The right of those wounded in war to receive medical treatment - and the right of medical workers to move freely - are enshrined in the first Geneva Convention. But, almost 150 years after the convention was adopted, it is being violated on a regular basis, says the ICRC's director-general Yves Daccord. "Clearly there is a trend in terms of no respect of healthcare… and more importantly for us, nobody seems to care about it," he told the BBC. "A few years ago, when an ambulance was shelled, or a hospital was taken by armed people, or doctors were arrested, there was an outcry. But now nobody - people, governments, armed groups - seems to be interested anymore."

Reuters: At least 10 killed in Somali refugee camp firefight