US sailor gets life in Japan
02/06/2006 18:17 - (SA)
Japanese cops probe US sailor
Tokyo - A United States sailor was sentenced to life in prison by a Japanese court on Friday, for beating a local woman to death.
Seaman William Reese, 22, from the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk, kicked and beat Yoshie Sato, 56, to death on January 3.
The case has further strained feelings over the presence of the US military in Japan.
Reese is the first US serviceman handed over to Japanese police by the US military to face a murder indictment.
Judge Masazo Ogura from the Yokohoma district court said: "(Reese) beat the victim for 10 minutes until she was unable to move, in (a case of) serious brutality. It was an extremely vicious crime."
http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1944483,00.html
Iran 'rejects Western pressure'
The UN has agreed new plans to try to halt Iran's nuclear work
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said Tehran will not abandon its right to nuclear technology under Western pressure, local media say.
His statement comes a day after six world powers agreed proposals in Vienna to persuade Iran to halt its research.
But US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she still hoped to meet ministers from Iran if it suspended its nuclear programme and agreed to talks.
A senior US official said Iran seemed determined to develop a nuclear weapon.
Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte said Iran could have a bomb within 10 years.
Iran resumed enrichment of uranium this year but remains a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and maintains that its activities are aimed only at energy production.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5042592.stm
The 23-year-old was held on suspicion of the commission, preparation and instigation of acts of terrorism, Scotland Yard said.
He was shot once in the shoulder area during a raid by 250 officers, some in protective bio-chemical suits, at a terrace property in Lansdown Road, Forest Gate, east London, at 4am.
His injuries were not life threatening and he was arrested after being treated at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London.
A second suspect, aged 20, was arrested under the Terrorism Act during the huge raid in which police forced their way into the house by breaking a ground floor window. He is being held at Paddington Green high security police station.
The two men are believed to be brothers but police have yet to confirm categorically that they are related.
http://www.utvlive.com/newsroom/indepth.asp?id=73948&pt=n
Syria foils 'terror bid' in central Damascus
Security forces kill four militants, capture four others in clashes in buildings in heart of Damascus.
By Roueida Mabardi - DAMASCUS
Syria on Friday said it foiled a "terror operation" in Damascus after security forces killed four militants and captured four others holding out in buildings next to state radio and television.
The clashes, which took place close to Umayyad Square in the heart of the Syrian capital, were the first such next to a public building in Damascus since the standoff between the authorities and the banned Muslim Brotherhood in the 1980s.
"Special security forces thwarted early today a terrorist operation that targeted uninhabited buildings behind the building of the (state) radio and television," the Syrian state news agency SANA said.
"Four members of the terrorist group were killed in the clashes, two were wounded and four captured," the news agency said. "A security guard was killed in the exchanges and two others were wounded."
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=16624
Eight Oil Workers Abducted From Rig Off Nigeria
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By JAD MOUAWAD
Published: June 2, 2006
Armed rebels raided an oil drilling rig 40 miles off the Nigerian coast early today and kidnapped eight foreign oil workers, in the latest of a string of violent incidents meant to disrupt oil production in the country's oil-rich Niger Delta region.
The abducted workers — one American, six Britons and a Canadian — were part of a crew of 84 aboard the rig, the Bulford Dolphin, according to a statement by Fred Olsen Energy ASA, the Norwegian company that operates the rig.
"There has been contact from the group that is holding the eight personnel," said Sheena Wallace, a spokeswoman for Fred Olsen Energy, which is based in Oslo. She said the attackers sought negotiations, but gave no indication yet of who they were or what they were seeking.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/02/world/africa/02cnd-nigeria.html?hp&ex=1149307200&en=1c46768f873ac3a9&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Liberal policy leads to drop in new Swiss drug addicts
Fri Jun 2, 2006 4:17 PM BST
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[-] Text [+]
LONDON (Reuters) - Switzerland's liberal policy of offering drug addicts substitution treatments has results in a drop in the number of new heroin users, according to research published on Friday.
People taking up the habit dropped 82 percent from 850 in 1990 to 150 in 2002 in the canton of Zurich thanks to policies such as needle-exchange services and methadone programs.
Dr Carlos Nordt, of the Psychiatric University Hospital in Zurich, said the declining figures reflect similar trends throughout the Alpine nation.
"We have seen the number of new heroin users drop very impressively," he added.
Critics of the liberal drugs policy have warned that providing medical treatment with methadone would attract new users. But Nordt said he found no evidence to support the argument.
"Heroin seems to have become a 'loser drug', with its attractiveness fading for young people," he said in a report in The Lancet medical journal.
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=healthNews&storyID=2006-06-02T151727Z_01_L01360059_RTRIDST_0_HEALTH-SWITZERLAND-DC.XML&archived=False
Kids filled with chemical soup, says study
OTTAWA -- Montrealer Viviane Maraghi has always considered herself pretty good when it comes to avoiding pollution.
She works with an environmental group and makes an effort to buy organic and biological food whenever possible. Her son Aladin Bonin, 10, has been raised on organic food ever since he was a baby.
So it came as even more of a shock for Maraghi to learn that not only did she and her son test positive for dozens of toxic chemicals in their blood but, in the case of several chemicals, Aladin's level was even higher than hers. In fact, Maraghi and her son's results were the highest among a half dozen families tested across in the country.
"I was staggered," said the Plateau Mont Royal resident.
The comments came after the group Environmental Defence released a new study Thursday revealing that children as young as 10 are showing signs of contamination by toxic chemicals. While some, like insecticides, are in the environment, others are found in such innocuous everyday items as non-stick pans, computers and mattresses or furniture treated with stain repellent chemicals.
Among the five families tested, on average parents tested positive for 32 of the 68 chemicals tested for while children showed an average of 23 chemicals.
While the levels in many cases were low, some of the chemicals found can cause reproductive disorders, harm the development of children or are suspected of causing cancer or neurological problems.
"In total, 38 carcinogens, 23 hormone disruptors, 12 respiratory toxins, 38 reproductive/developmental toxins and 19 neurotoxins were detected in the study volunteers," says the study.
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=9c0adfe8-1b38-4ccb-a3c5-618e8c33835b&k=26328
Genital mutilation 'torture'
2/06/2006 09:45 - (SA)
'Women die of this'
90% of Mali women 'mutilated'
Millions of girls mutilated
Bid to stamp out discrimination
FGM: No more excuses
Circumcision gran sparks fury
FGM going 'mainstream'
Female circumcision 'torture'
Bradley S. Klapper
Geneva - The World Health Organisation said on Friday that female genital mutilation is a form of "torture" that must be stamped out, even if it is performed by trained medical personnel.
The "medicalisation" of female genital mutilation - often called female circumcision and also known as FGM - fails to prevent innocent girls from being permanently scarred by the procedure, threatening them as adults when giving birth and endangering the lives of their newborn babies, WHO said in unveiling a report on genital mutilation's maternal health effects.
Performing genital mutilation "is the worst thing that a medical doctor could possibly do," said Joy Phumaphi, WHO assistant director-general and a former health minister from Botswana.
"It is even worse than turning a blind eye, because you are legitimising violation of a basic human right and violence against an innocent victim."
http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_1944024,00.html
NY survey seeks to solve Sept 11 health mysteries
Thu Jun 1, 2006 4:31pm ET
By Daniel Trotta
NEW YORK, June 1 (Reuters) - Health officials launched a broad medical survey on Thursday of 71,000 people affected by the Sept. 11 attacks in what doctors called their best hope of treating mysterious ailments stemming from that day.
The survey of firefighters, police, downtown Manhattan residents and office workers will determine future federal health policy and funding for those affected, U.S. and New York City officials said in announcing the survey.
Many emergency responders and downtown residents still suffer from what has been dubbed "World Trade Center cough," and a medical examiner has linked the recent death of a police detective to the attacks.
More than 71,000 people signed up for an initial survey in 2003 and 2004. The new survey is the first of several follow-ups planned for the 20-year life of the federally funded program.
People were exposed to smoke, dust, fumes and debris that were unique to the hijacked jetliner attacks on New York's World Trade Center.
"Today, we wish we had all of the answers. ... We don't know how long those symptoms are going to exist and what the best way to treat them and improve them is," New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden told a news conference, adding that high participation in the survey would be one of the best ways to get that information.
Eight percent of those from the first survey showed serious psychological distress, health officials said, compared with 5 percent in New York City as a whole and 14 percent for people who were in buildings that collapsed or were destroyed.
http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2006-06-01T203037Z_01_N01350851_RTRIDST_0_HEALTH-SEPT11.XML
02/06/2006 18:17 - (SA)
Japanese cops probe US sailor
Tokyo - A United States sailor was sentenced to life in prison by a Japanese court on Friday, for beating a local woman to death.
Seaman William Reese, 22, from the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk, kicked and beat Yoshie Sato, 56, to death on January 3.
The case has further strained feelings over the presence of the US military in Japan.
Reese is the first US serviceman handed over to Japanese police by the US military to face a murder indictment.
Judge Masazo Ogura from the Yokohoma district court said: "(Reese) beat the victim for 10 minutes until she was unable to move, in (a case of) serious brutality. It was an extremely vicious crime."
http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1944483,00.html
Iran 'rejects Western pressure'
The UN has agreed new plans to try to halt Iran's nuclear work
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said Tehran will not abandon its right to nuclear technology under Western pressure, local media say.
His statement comes a day after six world powers agreed proposals in Vienna to persuade Iran to halt its research.
But US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she still hoped to meet ministers from Iran if it suspended its nuclear programme and agreed to talks.
A senior US official said Iran seemed determined to develop a nuclear weapon.
Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte said Iran could have a bomb within 10 years.
Iran resumed enrichment of uranium this year but remains a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and maintains that its activities are aimed only at energy production.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5042592.stm
The 23-year-old was held on suspicion of the commission, preparation and instigation of acts of terrorism, Scotland Yard said.
He was shot once in the shoulder area during a raid by 250 officers, some in protective bio-chemical suits, at a terrace property in Lansdown Road, Forest Gate, east London, at 4am.
His injuries were not life threatening and he was arrested after being treated at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London.
A second suspect, aged 20, was arrested under the Terrorism Act during the huge raid in which police forced their way into the house by breaking a ground floor window. He is being held at Paddington Green high security police station.
The two men are believed to be brothers but police have yet to confirm categorically that they are related.
http://www.utvlive.com/newsroom/indepth.asp?id=73948&pt=n
Syria foils 'terror bid' in central Damascus
Security forces kill four militants, capture four others in clashes in buildings in heart of Damascus.
By Roueida Mabardi - DAMASCUS
Syria on Friday said it foiled a "terror operation" in Damascus after security forces killed four militants and captured four others holding out in buildings next to state radio and television.
The clashes, which took place close to Umayyad Square in the heart of the Syrian capital, were the first such next to a public building in Damascus since the standoff between the authorities and the banned Muslim Brotherhood in the 1980s.
"Special security forces thwarted early today a terrorist operation that targeted uninhabited buildings behind the building of the (state) radio and television," the Syrian state news agency SANA said.
"Four members of the terrorist group were killed in the clashes, two were wounded and four captured," the news agency said. "A security guard was killed in the exchanges and two others were wounded."
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=16624
Eight Oil Workers Abducted From Rig Off Nigeria
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Reprints
Save
By JAD MOUAWAD
Published: June 2, 2006
Armed rebels raided an oil drilling rig 40 miles off the Nigerian coast early today and kidnapped eight foreign oil workers, in the latest of a string of violent incidents meant to disrupt oil production in the country's oil-rich Niger Delta region.
The abducted workers — one American, six Britons and a Canadian — were part of a crew of 84 aboard the rig, the Bulford Dolphin, according to a statement by Fred Olsen Energy ASA, the Norwegian company that operates the rig.
"There has been contact from the group that is holding the eight personnel," said Sheena Wallace, a spokeswoman for Fred Olsen Energy, which is based in Oslo. She said the attackers sought negotiations, but gave no indication yet of who they were or what they were seeking.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/02/world/africa/02cnd-nigeria.html?hp&ex=1149307200&en=1c46768f873ac3a9&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Liberal policy leads to drop in new Swiss drug addicts
Fri Jun 2, 2006 4:17 PM BST
Email This Article | Print This Article | RSS
[-] Text [+]
LONDON (Reuters) - Switzerland's liberal policy of offering drug addicts substitution treatments has results in a drop in the number of new heroin users, according to research published on Friday.
People taking up the habit dropped 82 percent from 850 in 1990 to 150 in 2002 in the canton of Zurich thanks to policies such as needle-exchange services and methadone programs.
Dr Carlos Nordt, of the Psychiatric University Hospital in Zurich, said the declining figures reflect similar trends throughout the Alpine nation.
"We have seen the number of new heroin users drop very impressively," he added.
Critics of the liberal drugs policy have warned that providing medical treatment with methadone would attract new users. But Nordt said he found no evidence to support the argument.
"Heroin seems to have become a 'loser drug', with its attractiveness fading for young people," he said in a report in The Lancet medical journal.
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=healthNews&storyID=2006-06-02T151727Z_01_L01360059_RTRIDST_0_HEALTH-SWITZERLAND-DC.XML&archived=False
Kids filled with chemical soup, says study
OTTAWA -- Montrealer Viviane Maraghi has always considered herself pretty good when it comes to avoiding pollution.
She works with an environmental group and makes an effort to buy organic and biological food whenever possible. Her son Aladin Bonin, 10, has been raised on organic food ever since he was a baby.
So it came as even more of a shock for Maraghi to learn that not only did she and her son test positive for dozens of toxic chemicals in their blood but, in the case of several chemicals, Aladin's level was even higher than hers. In fact, Maraghi and her son's results were the highest among a half dozen families tested across in the country.
"I was staggered," said the Plateau Mont Royal resident.
The comments came after the group Environmental Defence released a new study Thursday revealing that children as young as 10 are showing signs of contamination by toxic chemicals. While some, like insecticides, are in the environment, others are found in such innocuous everyday items as non-stick pans, computers and mattresses or furniture treated with stain repellent chemicals.
Among the five families tested, on average parents tested positive for 32 of the 68 chemicals tested for while children showed an average of 23 chemicals.
While the levels in many cases were low, some of the chemicals found can cause reproductive disorders, harm the development of children or are suspected of causing cancer or neurological problems.
"In total, 38 carcinogens, 23 hormone disruptors, 12 respiratory toxins, 38 reproductive/developmental toxins and 19 neurotoxins were detected in the study volunteers," says the study.
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=9c0adfe8-1b38-4ccb-a3c5-618e8c33835b&k=26328
Genital mutilation 'torture'
2/06/2006 09:45 - (SA)
'Women die of this'
90% of Mali women 'mutilated'
Millions of girls mutilated
Bid to stamp out discrimination
FGM: No more excuses
Circumcision gran sparks fury
FGM going 'mainstream'
Female circumcision 'torture'
Bradley S. Klapper
Geneva - The World Health Organisation said on Friday that female genital mutilation is a form of "torture" that must be stamped out, even if it is performed by trained medical personnel.
The "medicalisation" of female genital mutilation - often called female circumcision and also known as FGM - fails to prevent innocent girls from being permanently scarred by the procedure, threatening them as adults when giving birth and endangering the lives of their newborn babies, WHO said in unveiling a report on genital mutilation's maternal health effects.
Performing genital mutilation "is the worst thing that a medical doctor could possibly do," said Joy Phumaphi, WHO assistant director-general and a former health minister from Botswana.
"It is even worse than turning a blind eye, because you are legitimising violation of a basic human right and violence against an innocent victim."
http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_1944024,00.html
NY survey seeks to solve Sept 11 health mysteries
Thu Jun 1, 2006 4:31pm ET
By Daniel Trotta
NEW YORK, June 1 (Reuters) - Health officials launched a broad medical survey on Thursday of 71,000 people affected by the Sept. 11 attacks in what doctors called their best hope of treating mysterious ailments stemming from that day.
The survey of firefighters, police, downtown Manhattan residents and office workers will determine future federal health policy and funding for those affected, U.S. and New York City officials said in announcing the survey.
Many emergency responders and downtown residents still suffer from what has been dubbed "World Trade Center cough," and a medical examiner has linked the recent death of a police detective to the attacks.
More than 71,000 people signed up for an initial survey in 2003 and 2004. The new survey is the first of several follow-ups planned for the 20-year life of the federally funded program.
People were exposed to smoke, dust, fumes and debris that were unique to the hijacked jetliner attacks on New York's World Trade Center.
"Today, we wish we had all of the answers. ... We don't know how long those symptoms are going to exist and what the best way to treat them and improve them is," New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden told a news conference, adding that high participation in the survey would be one of the best ways to get that information.
Eight percent of those from the first survey showed serious psychological distress, health officials said, compared with 5 percent in New York City as a whole and 14 percent for people who were in buildings that collapsed or were destroyed.
http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2006-06-01T203037Z_01_N01350851_RTRIDST_0_HEALTH-SEPT11.XML
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